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Bell Textron; Wheels UP Announce Partnership
Earlier in the month Wheels UP and Bell Textron announced a strategic partnership. This involved a continuation of the client-based offerings that Wheels UP have for their customers but in the press release it outlined specific information regarding the use of Bell Textron's Vertical Take Off and Landing (VTOL) aircraft by Wheels UP. The partnership will see Wheels UP utilize Bell 429 luxury helicopters but later on as the VTOL from Bell Textron comes on stream and into service the company will then use those for customer transport...
Daher At Sun 'N Fun 2021
Daher is currently at the 2021 edition of Sun ’n Fun Aerospace Expo at the Lakeland Linder International Airport. The show is ongoing after starting on the 13th and is expected to run through to the 17th. of April. You will find Daher at booth #MD22...
Pilatus PC-24 First Jet To Land On Venice-Lido Grass Runway
With certifications for landing on unproven strips such as grass, gravel, wet earth, dry sand and even snow the Pilatus PC-24 was in a good position to attempt a landing at the grass-strip at Venice-Lido airport. It successfully did it becoming the first business jet to do so. The Venice-Lido city airport is located about three kilometers east of the city center on the Lido di Venezia...
1000th Milestone Citation 560XL Series Delivered
The latest Cessna Citation 560XL series jet has been delivered to a customer by Textron Aviation. The milestone aircraft -a Citation XLS+- went to Custom Jet Charters a part 135 operator out of Florida (Palm Beach) and New York (Westchester County). This 560XL series is divided between three aircraft models, the Excel, XLS, and XLS+ and together since 1998 have accumulated 1,000 deliveries...
Gulfstream Dispells Rumours About G280 Future Existence
There has been a swirling of rumors concerning the Gulfstream G280 Supermidsize jet. As a result Gulfstream is reiterating its full commitment and resources to the G280. Rumors have been going around for a while now regarding the future of the super midsize jet. Whether it concerned pulling the plug on the program or replacing it with an entirely new program. The G280 in fact is split between Gulfstream and Israel Aircraft Industries (IAI). Gulfstream suggests that many of those rumors are being pushed by their competitors...
Series III Kodiak 100 Unveiled By Kodiak
The latest iteration (Series III) of the Kodiak 100 has been unveiled by Daher. The first aircraft too has already been handed over to the customer. The launch customer of the Series III is Rick and Adam Ross in Sandpoint, Idaho. The second example will be delivered to another customer later this week. The Kodiak 100 is a very versatile aircraft being equally at home on finished runways as it is on unimproved surfaces like grass, gravel and even in the water once equipped with floats...
Gulfstream Marks 100th Delivery of G500/600 Family
The Gulfstream G500 and G600 were both announced by Gulfstream at the same time and pretty much were developed at the same time as well. This meant that the programs entered service one after the other without significant overlap time (G500 in September 2018 and G600 in August 2019)...
Pro Line Fusion Upgrade For CJ2+ Approved By FAA
With a recent Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) Supplemental Type Certificate (STC) in hand the Collins Pro Line Fusion flight deck is now available for installation on the Cessna Citation CJ2+. This is nothing new per se for the CJ3 as Collins received their STC for the same flight deck for the CJ3 back in 2017. It is only now being filtered down to older Citation models. Regardless it is a great upgrade from the factory-installed Pro Line 21 flight deck on the CJ2+...
More King Air 350/360CERs From U.S Customs & Border Protection
Today Textron Aviation announced that the U.S Customs & Border Protection has ordered more King Air 350/360CERs to bolster their Border Patrols as well as air and maritime operations. "These two Multi-role Enforcement Aircraft (MEA) will complete the current acquisition program of record and join a fleet of King Air 350 turboprops safeguarding the United States border," said Bob Gibbs, vice president, Special Mission Sales...
Phenom 300 Best Selling Light Jet For 9 Consecutive Years
According to numbers from the General Aviation Manufacturers Association (GAMA), the Embraer Phenom 300 is still the best selling light jet and has now had this distinction for the ninth consecutive year. 50 Phenom 300s were shipped to customers around the world in 2020. This is staggering considering that Embraer manufactures a myriad of other business jets. The Phenom 300 is operational in over 30 countries around the world since being introduced to service in 2005...
Boeing Sells Last VIP 747 To Customer
With Boeing winding down the production of the commercial Boeing 747 aircraft and even airlines dropping them from their fleets and sending them to the scrapyard, this too affects the BBJ section of Boeing. In fact just last month Boeing sold the last available new 747 BBJ to a customer. This takes the form of a 747-8i that will be fitted with a VVIP interior to the specifications of the owner. It then marks the end of an era for this jet even on the business aviation end of the spectrum...at least for brand new off the production-line specimens...
Piaggio Aerospace Receives Positive Offers To Purchase
Piaggio Aerospace has been looking for a buyer for a while now but during the wait the airframer has received several Italian government-related contracts that have been keeping the company afloat. The latest news in the saga is that the airframer has received four (4) positive bids to purchase the business complexes of Piaggio Aero Industries and Piaggio Aviation by entities...
FAA Type Certification Granted To King Air 260
The United States-based Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has formally given the King Air 260 its type certification. This comes after certification to the larger flagship King Air 360 model. The first 260C which is the cargo door variant of the regular 260 is being worked on and the certification will allow deliveries like these to go forward. The King Air 260 will see many of the upgrades that the 360 sister received...
Gulfstream Awarded 700 million In Air Force Support Contracts
Various branches of the United States armed forces utilize special mission derivatives of Gulfstream large cabin jets. The G550 (C-37B), GIV (C-20G) and GV (C-37A) are all used of course have different designations under their operations but this leaves those jets to need support from the OEM, in this case Gulfstream. To this end, Gulfstream was awarded nearly 700 million dollars (696 million) in support contracts. $612 million is earmarked for engineering services contract (ESC) and is a 10-year renewal of a previous ESC. The remainder $84 million is for contractor logistics support (CLS)...
First Dassault Falcon 6X First Flight
The first flight of the first Dassault Falcon 6X test article has taken place. It comes after the roll out of the first aircraft back in early December 2020. Today, Bruno Ferry and Fabrice Vallette were the test pilots in the cockpit of S/N 1 for the landmark flight. "Today’s flight is another milestone in Dassault history, made all the more satisfying by the remarkable efforts of the entire Dassault organization and its partners over the challenging past year," said Dassault Aviation Chairman/CEO Eric Trappier. "We dedicate today’s achievement to Olivier Dassault, who died tragically on Sunday," continued Trappier...
Gulfstream G280 Has Long Met Stringent Noise Emission Standards
Gulfstream Aerospace Corp. recently announced that the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has confirmed that the super-midsize Gulfstream G280™ meets the certifying organization’s recently intensified noise standards. The FAA lowered the noise standards which essentially makes it tougher on jets to comply with the highest form of noise emissions. Gulfstream says that the G280 was already below the requirement standard from the inception of the aircraft. Known as Stage 5, the standard lowers the noise limit for subsonic aircraft...
NetJets; FlightSafety International Sign MoU With Aerion
Aerion has been thrust back into the news once again with the signing of a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with NetJets as well as Flight Safety International. As a result of the signing, the potential value of the backlog for the AS2 has now grown to 10 billion. Under the MoU NetJets would have purchase rights of up to 20 AS2 Mach 1.4 aircraft. FlightSafety International would also work with Aerion to create a supersonic flight training academy for civil, commercial, and military supersonic aircraft and of course it would be Aerion branded...
Bye Aerospace Starts Assembly On eFlyer 2 Serial #001
The latest progress update for the production on the eFlyer 2 all-electric two-seater is underway. The airframer has updated on the assembly on eFlyer 2 Serial #001. Below we can see the fuselage sections for the eFlyer 2 at Composites Universal Group (CUG). The backlog for these electric aircraft from Bye Aerospace is growing. At present they have 717 aircraft with commitments for between the eFlyer 2 and the eFlyer 4 and other Bye Aerospace aircraft...
Test Flights Of EHang 216 AAV In Beijing
If you follow our coverage of eVTOL aircraft and their strides towards development and certification, at some point you would have heard the name EHang before. The aircraft they are developing is called the EHang 216 AAV and is -at this stage- a self-flying aircraft. Once certified it is envisioned that these aircraft will service in the Air Taxi sector. The aircraft has done a number of tests around the world in different jurisdictions but it is the first time they have conducted tests in Beijing. This month alone they have flown at least five test flights over the frozen Yanqi Lake in Beijing where the air temperature has been -14c...
Italian Govt To Have Avantis Upgraded By Piaggio Aerospace
The current Piaggio P180 Avanti aircraft operated by the Italian armed forces are in for upgrades to further bring them up to scratch. The upgrades will facilitate changes to the landing gear system, avionics, communications etc to in-service Avanti and Avanti II aircraft throughout the Italian Armed Forces. These aircraft will then be known as the P180 Avanti II Plus after the upgrade. Secondly, there is the Piaggio EVO Plus program that will happen. This has to do with facilitating the Armed Forces with new Avanti EVOs geared towards special mission applications...
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