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Aviation History
2002
2002 - 2240.PDF
BUSINESS & GENERAL AVIATION FLIGHT TESTING Adam's A500 is on schedule Adam Aircraft Industries began flight testing its A500 all- composite piston twin on 11 July, although progress was delayed when the nose gear folded dur ing a landing roll. Damage was minor and the aircraft is still due to make its public debut at this week's AirVenture 2002 show in Oshkosh, Wisconsin, says presi dent John Knudsen. The aircraft is the first of four built on production tooling at the company's Englewood, Colorado, plant. Three are due to be flying by year-end and US certification is scheduled for the first quarter of 2003. Knudsen says Adam has orders "in the mid-40s" for the $895,000 air craft, with production of 24 planned in the first year. The A500 is a centreline- thrust twin, with Teledyne Continental engines mounted fore and aft in the fuselage and a twin-boom tail. The first aircraft will be retrofitted later with full- authority digital engine controls. FINANCING GUY NORRIS / ALBUQUERQUE Eclipse adds extra money to fund production surge Manufacturer says personal jet is on track for certification in December 2003 Eclipse Aviation hopes to make the first flight of the Eclipse 500 per sonal jet as early as this week as it continues to try restore investor confidence in the wake of the recent Nimbus Group order loss by growing private equity funding to $238 million. Although still seeking just over $100 million to take the pro gramme through certification and into production, Eclipse chief exec utive Vern Raburn believes further investment will become available when flight tests begin. Some of this will come from order deposits held in escrow bank accounts which will convert when first flight is completed. With the latest round of $18 mil lion funding secured, Raburn says the aircraft is "on track for certifica tion in December 2003, and we are very comfortable with both our current financial situation and future funding prospects. We are under budget and not spending [all] the money we told the investors we'd spend." Much of the investment is going into new production jigs and manufacturing processes at its Albuquerque site in New Mexico. Assembly of the first production aircraft is due to begin in the third quarter of next year, following the manufacture of eight test and certi fication airframes. This includes the first "T-l" aircraft, which is due to begin aerodynamic, structural and load tests in October. The final two test articles, aircraft 106 and 107, are due to join the test programme in March. Initial production rates will climb to around 2.5 aircraft per week, with "less than 1,000 air craft" to be produced over the first "couple of years", says Raburn. However, he adds that if the fleet plans now under discussion are firmed up, Eclipse plans to rapidly ramp-up production to around 1,500 aircraft per year by the fourth full manufacturing year. Eclipse has also revealed details of the Avio intelligent flight system in development for the aircraft with partners Avidyne, BAE Systems and General Dynamics. Designed as a lightweight, low-cost avionics sys tem, Avio will provide control of the flight management system, autopilot, auto-throttle, flaps, trim, landing gear, environmental sys tems, communications and the air craft's twin Williams EJ22 engines. Avio will also provide fault moni toring and multiple redundancy. ACCIDENTS IN BRIEF HELICOPTER ORDER MD Helicopters has clinched a repeat order from the Mesa Arizona Police Department and the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department for two MD500 helicopters. Both aircraft are scheduled for delivery in the fourth quarter. AIRCRANE BLOW CargoLifter's only CL75 AirCrane prototype was destroyed earlier this month when strong winds struck the Berlin area, where the German company is based. This is the latest blow for the airship manufacturer which filed for insolvency earlier this year after it failed to raise sufficient funds for its 75t cargo lifting balloon. The company is discussing a rescue bid with investors. CargoLifter says the forecast weather was within the design limits of the airship. Bristow loses two aircraft in a week UK-based international helicopter operator Bristow lost two of its heli copters last week, one of them in a fatal accident during a North Sea oil support operation and the other in a non-fatal incident on search and rescue duties. The fatal accident occurred in good weather and in daylight on 16 July when a Sikorsky S-76 went out of control near the North Sea Santa Fe Monarch gas platform off the English east coast. There was no emergency call from the two pilots, who, along with the nine passen gers on board, were feared dead by 18 July. Bristow confirms the helicopter The cause of the crash is unclear, but Bristow has not grounded its S-76s was fitted with a health and usage monitoring system, a pro-active diagnostic system intended to pre dict trouble before it happens, and says it is looking at making some of the exceedance tolerances finer on its S-76 fleet to see if it yields any clues on the other airframes. Bristow says it has not grounded its S-76s, but Shell Oil, whose employees were on board the helicopter, says it does not want its workers to travel on the type "until more is known" about this accident. The last oil-support helicopter disaster was in bad weather in March 1992, when 11 men died on a shuttle between two platforms. The 15 July non-fatal Sikorsky S-61N Mk II accident was caused by a serious engine mechanical failure and fire, but the pilot was able to land the aircraft safely and evacu ate the crew. The helicopter was destroyed by fire. 40 23-29 JULY 2002 FLIGHT INTERNATIONAL www.flightinternational.com
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