Jeppesen has assembled a team of engineers to look into complaints by users that the company’s latest electronic charting software, JeppView FlightDeck 3.0, can cause electronic flight bag (EFB) computers to crash without warning.
Technology
October 5, 2006 - 6:12am
In a cost-cutting move, the FAA last month decommissioned 216 NDB approaches across the U.S. Although the agency has yet to actually switch the NDB beacons off the air, the decommissioned stations will no longer be flight-checked, maintained, approved for use or shown on updated charts, according to AOPA.
October 5, 2006 - 6:09am
The European Union (EU) has approved a joint bid from two groups that previously had competed against each other for the contract to run the $4 billion Galileo satellite navigation system.
October 4, 2006 - 8:08am
On July 8 Keystone Helicopter broke ground on a 173,000-sq-ft “Heliplex” at its Coatesville Airport, Pa. headquarters. According to the company, the new complex will be the “largest independent maintenance, repair, modification and technology development center dedicated exclusively to rotorcraft” in the U.S.
October 4, 2006 - 5:29am
CIT Group has sold most of its corporate aircraft financial business to GE Commercial Finance. The transaction includes approximately $700 million in loans and $200 million in leases on 380 business jets, turboprops and helicopters. CIT said it will continue to finance fractional aircraft shares and “select corporate aircraft.”
October 4, 2006 - 5:12am
Smartsoft recently released Flight WTK 2.1, a new version of weight-and-balance software for cellphones that support Java scripts. The software performs both helicopter and airplane weight-and-balance calculations, and users can either download data for their aircraft model or manually input aircraft data. In addition, the $59.95 Smartsoft software can calculate runway crosswind and headwind components.
October 4, 2006 - 5:02am
Diamond Aircraft in late June selected the Garmin G1000 integrated avionics system for its D-Jet, a very light jet powered by a single Williams FJ33-4 engine. The D-Jet’s flight deck will feature a three-panel G1000 system with two primary flight displays and a multifunction display.
October 4, 2006 - 4:13am
Pilatus has flown a PC-12 with a CMC Electronics infrared enhanced-vision system (EVS) sensor mounted in the nose and looking through the propeller. After engineers determined that the installation could indeed be certified, Pilatus gave the green light to start certification flights next month with the goal of adding the EVS package to the production line early next year.
October 2, 2006 - 3:12pm
Philip Klass, a former avionics/technical writer for Aviation Week & Space Technology, died August 9. He was 85.
October 2, 2006 - 2:44pm
Even as a half-dozen companies are rushing to get FAA approval for systems that will allow the in-flight use of personal cellphones on business aircraft, other government entities have questioned cellphone use on airliners, citing security concerns. In December last year the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) proposed allowing the use of cellphones on airliners and offered the usual comment period.
