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Aviation History
1997
1997 - 2464.PDF
GENERAL AVIATION NEWS IN BRIEF • UPRATED SJ-30-2 FLIES Sino Swearingen Aircraft has begun flight testing its proto type SJ30-2 light business jet re-engined with uprated Williams-Rolls FJ44-2A turbofans. The first flight with the lOkN (2,3001b)- thrust engines was complet ed on 4 September. The prototype SJ30-2 will be at the US National Business Aviation Association show at Dallas, Texas, on 22-25 September. The more-pow erful FJ44-2As will enable the six/seven-seat SJ30-2 to achieve a 4,600km (2,500nm) range, with speeds exceeding Mach 0.8 and altitudes up to 49,000ft (15,000m). • CESSNA EXPANDS Cessna has appointed 19 ser vice stations throughout North America to sell and support its 172 Skyhawk, 182 Skylane and 206 Stationair piston-singles in Canada and the USA. • TILT-ROTOR LICENCES The first civil powered-lift pilot ratings have been awar ded by the US Federal Aviation Administration to test pilots flying the Bell Boeing V-22 Osprey military tilt-rotor. • CIRRUS BREAKS GROUND Cirrus Design has begun construction of a manufac turing plant in Duluth, Minnesota, for the SR20 light aircraft. Cirrus has orders for 115 SR50s, with certification scheduled for early 1998. • JET AVIATION AWARD Jet Aviation has added three hangars to its fixed-base operation at Las Vegas Mc- Carran International Air port, bringing the total hangar capacity to more than 4,700m-' (52,000ft2). The Swiss business-aviation ser vice company has received two awards in recognition of its contribution to the Las Vegas economy. Fourth Global Express is ready to enter testing programme BOMBARDIER HAS FLOWN the fourth Global Express long-range busi ness jet, the first to be fitted with an inte rior. Aircraft 9004 will by displayed at the US National Business Aviation As sociation show in Dallas, Texas, on 23-25 September. It will then join the certi fication programme at the company's Wichita, Kansas, flight-test centre. Over 700 of the planned l,800h flight testing have been accumulated on the first three aircraft. Aircraft 9004 will be used for I50h of function and reliability testing. Operators restart Puma flying DAVID LEARMOUNT/LONDON THE HIGH-SPEED gear-shaft has become an early focus of investigators' attention into the crash of a Helikopter Service Eurocopter AS332L1 Super Puma on 8 September, says the Norwegian civil-aviation authority. The CAA emphasises, however, that this is a starting point following recovery of most of die wreckage from the sea, rather than a pre-judgement of the cause of the fatal accident (Flight International, 17-23 September, P2 7). Meanwhile, Norwegian North Sea oil-support operators of the AS332L1 continued their volun tary grounding of the type last week, while their UKcounterparts resumed flying on 16 September with UK CAA approval. Bristow Helicopters confirms that the high-speed gear-shaft, which connects the engines to the main-rotor head gearbox, had been included in extensive checks car ried out before restarting service on the UK-based AS332L1 fleet. All 12 people on board die Super Puma were killed in the accident on 8 September when it crashed into the sea en route to a floating oil-plat form. In the initial search, a main- rotor blade was found floating and it was examined as a possible crash cause, but the Norwegian CAA says that separation of that particular blade appears to have been a sec ondary effect of the impact. The Norwegian CAA expected to issue clearance to restart flying by about 20 September, unless fur ther evidence from inspection of the wreckage changed the course of action. All that was awaited, said the Authority, was for the operators to deliver a proposal for an aircraft- inspection plan which was approved by the CAA, the manu facturer and the lead certificating authority (the French DGAC). J Late design change delays HUD project for small business jets ADEVELOPMENT pro gramme being undertaken by GEC-Marconi Avionics and Honeywell to produce a head-up- display (HUD) for small and medi um-sized business jets, based on its recently certificated HUD 2020, has been delayed following a last- minute revision to the design. The HUD 2022 effort began in January with delivery of prototype hardware originally due in Nov ember. "The prototype will proba bly be available in early 1998 now," says Honeywell HUD manager Dan Stockfisch. The initial design was aimed at producing a smaller derivative of the 2020, which received US Fed eral Aviation Administration certi fication on the Gulfstream IV in April 1997. "GEC redesigned die overhead box to take the electron ics out and put it in a remote line replaceable unit. Now they're thinking of doing some redesign on one box and making it smaller instead," he adds. The 202 2 will "not take the place of the 2020" stresses Stockfisch, who adds that certification of the latter HUD to Category II stan dards on the Gulfstream V is expected in November 1997. Some 15 units have been deliv ered to date, with demand expected to be sustained at around 50 a year through 1998. "We are also exploring addi tional opportunities and talking with other manufacturers," Stockfisch adds. • AOPA demands free databases for GPS FREE OR low-cost updates of navigation databases may be provided by the US Federal Avia tion Administration in a bid to pro mote general-aviation use of the global-positioning system (GPS). The US Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association (AOPA) says that update costs of up to S700 a year associated with databases pro vided by private vendors, are stop ping many pilots from installing GPS receivers approved for instru ment approaches. The AOPA argues that database cost"... is a major deterrent to vol untary transition to GPS as the pri mary-navigation system". The association wants the FAA to make a navigation database publicly available electronically in a stan dardised format. • 24 FLIGHT INTERNATIONAL 24 - 30 September 1997
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