The first Gulfstream G650, S/N 6001, yesterday reached its top operating speed of Mach 0.925 during a test flight from the company’s headquarters in Savannah, Ga. When certified, the G650 will become the fastest transport-category aircraft in service, a spot currently held by the Mach 0.92 Cessna Citation X.
Aircraft
May 3, 2010 - 8:33am
Rockwell Collins will be offering the Venue HD cabin management system as an aftermarket upgrade for business aircraft. It has now been certified on the new Hawker Beechcraft King Air 350i turboprop twin and Cessna Citation CJ4.
May 3, 2010 - 8:31am
Airbus is here displaying an ACJ business jet (tail number G-NOAH) that recently started commercial operations with Farnborough, UK-based Acropolis Aviation. The bizliner’s luxurious 19-passenger cabin features lounges, a bedroom and a bathroom with a substantial shower. Acropolis Aviation is chartering G-NOAH for $15,000 to $18,000 per hour, depending on the length of the trip.
May 3, 2010 - 6:13am
China is expected to modify its low-altitude airspace restrictions over the
next few years, a move that could trigger demand for more than 1,000 new civil helicopters there over the next two decades. Part of its strategy for meeting that demand appears to be leveraging current and future relations with established Western helicopter manufacturers to build its own helicopter industry.
May 3, 2010 - 4:54am
Barely two years ago prospective business aircraft buyers in Europe were among the most sought-after clients for a banking industry attracted both to the high rates of growth in this market sector and to the exceptional strength of asset values, driven largely by soaring demand and long delivery backlogs.
April 30, 2010 - 11:24am
The Aircraft Electronics Association’s annual convention doesn’t rank as the biggest or most heavily attended trade show on the aviation event calendar, but for those who work in the avionics industry the time spent at AEA often proves more valuable than what can be gained from traveling to larger shows like the NBAA Convention and Ebace.
April 30, 2010 - 11:08am
Dassault Falcon has delivered a Falcon 7X with Honeywell’s MCS 7120 SwiftBroadband satcom system as part of an installation that brings cabin Wi-Fi and VoIP (voice over Internet protocol) capabilities to the French trijet. Dassault said the installation is the first in a business jet capable of providing “fully managed” VoIP phone services in flight.
April 30, 2010 - 11:04am
Cessna Aircraft last month announced the introduction of wide-area augmentation system (Waas) avionics upgrades for the Citation CJ1+, CJ2+, CJ3 and Encore+ as well as certain Citation Excel and XLS airplanes. Cessna has obtained a service bulletin for the installations in the CJ models and Encore+. Waas can be added to Excel and XLS models equipped with the Universal Avionics UNS-1Espw flight management system.
April 30, 2010 - 11:01am
The second super-midsize G250 took flight on March 24 from Israel Aerospace Industries’ facilities at Ben Gurion Airport in Tel Aviv, Israel. Piloted by IAI chief test pilot Ronen Shapira, the G250 flew for one hour 57 minutes during its first flight and to 20,000 feet. G250 S/N 2002 joins the first test article in a test program that is expected to take more than 1,300 flight hours.
April 30, 2010 - 10:58am
The largest airplane in Cessna’s CitationJet line, the CJ4, received FAA certification on March 12. Cessna delivered the first copy on April 15. The $9 million (2010 $) CJ4 has an mtow of 10,400 pounds. That should grow to 10,600 pounds after S/N 360 and 10,700 pounds after S/N 600, according to the CJ4’s FAA type certificate data sheet. Fuel capacity is 3,220 pounds in two wing tanks.
