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Aviation History
2004
2004-09 - 1564.PDF
BUSINESS AVIATION SALES GRAHAM WARWICK / WASHINGTON DC Business jet orders recover as market bounces back Turboprop sales are slower to respond, but supply of used aircraft starting to dry up Business jet manufacturers are be ginning to rebuild depleted order backlogs as the market shows strong signs of recovery. General Dyna mics, Raytheon and Textron all report increasing order activity as they head into the second half of the year. Cessna booked 72 net Citation orders in the second quarter, - twice the number of aircraft deliv ered - and production is now sold out for the year. Parent company Textron has increased its forecast for Citation deliveries to 180 for this year and 225 in 2005. By 31 July, Cessna had 180 Citations on order for delivery next year - up from 83 at the same time last year. Demand is picking up at Gulfstream and order intake in the third quarter could be "a bit super heated", says parent company GD. The build-to-book ratio - the ratio of aircraft delivered to orders taken - has been running at around 1:1, but is expected to increase in the second half of the year. Gulfstream delivered 20 green and 18 com pleted aircraft in the second quarter. Raytheon Aircraft says its build- to-book ratio is "the healthiest in three years". The company deliv ered 28 business jets in the third quarter and booked orders for 72 - more than three times the intake of a year earlier. Turboprop recovery is slower, with 22 King Air deliveries and 31 orders in the quarter. The supply of good used aircraft is drying up, one reason for the increase in new aircraft orders. Textron says the used Citation inventory has returned to its histor ical level of 13% of the fleet. Ray theon says most newer jets have been sold, leaving older aircraft too expensive to upgrade. Good used turboprops are available, but inven tories are down, the company says. New and used aircraft prices are also recovering. Textron says prices were up 2% on the 36 new Citations delivered in the second quarter. GD says Gulfstream's expo sure to the used aircraft market has been drastically reduced, with four traded-in aircraft sold at break-even in the second quarter compared with earlier losses. SCHEDULE Adam expects A500 approval by year-end Adam Aircraft is now expecting US certification of its A500 all-composite piston twin "by year-end". The Englewood, Colorado-based company says it has more than 60 orders for the centreline-thrust A500, which was originally scheduled for certification in mid-2003. NETJETS SATCOM Fractional ownership operator NetJets has ordered 50 AirCell Iridium satellite-communications systems for its Raytheon Hawker 400XP light business jets. IFIS CERTIFICATED Rockwell Collins has received certification for a dual IFIS inte grated flight information system in the Dassault Falcon 50 upgraded with the company's Pro Line 21 avionics. Dual IFIS provides electronic charting and graphical weather and Level 3 electronic flight bag capability. MORE SIMULATION FlightSafety's Long Beach, California centre has received approval for head-up display (HUD) and enhanced-vision sys tem (EVS) training on its Gulfstream IV simulator. COCKPIT APPROVAL Universal Avionics has received certification for its EFI-890R 225mm (8.9in)-diagonal liquid- crystal cockpit display for forward fit and retrofit applications. RAYTHEON RVSM Raytheon Aircraft has teamed with D&D Aviation Service to provide a reduced vertical sepa ration minima (RVSM) compliance service for operators of Beechcraft and Hawker air craft. The two companies will develop and submit the RVSM data package for approval. FBO EXPANDS Fixed-based operator (FBO) Business Jet Center has com pleted a $5 million expansion at Dallas Love Field, Texas. NOISE Gulfstream hushkit supplier widens its stage Aero-Propulsion Management Services (APMS) of the UK has been named sales agent in Europe and the Middle East for the Gulfstream II/III hushkit under development by Stage III Technologies. La Joya, California-based Stage III expects final certification of its hushkit in October, with the first pre-produc tion unit to be available in January. Director of sales and marketing Chris Hicks says the company has had approval on the acoustic por tion of the hushkit, which uses a new exhaust mixer and fixed ejec tor nozzle, since December 2003 on the winglet-upgraded GIISP. Since then, he says, Stage III has been completing the new cascade- type thrust reverser and amending its supplemental type certification to include the Gil and III. US Federal Aviation Admini stration flight testing of the thrust reverser is expected shortly. The hushkit reduces noise generated by Rolls-Royce Spey-powered Gulf- streams to an aggregate 5dB below Stage 3, Hicks says, and adds less than 45kg (1001b) per shipset. There is no change in take-off perfor mance and the range penalty from extra drag is less than 5%, he says. Stage III is competing against Quiet Technologies Aerospace (QTA), which has hushkitted more than 20 Gulfstreams, for a market to retrofit around 410 aircraft, says Hicks. Pre-production price for the Stage III hushkit is just under $1.8 million, rising to $2 million once production begins, he says. QTA cut its hushkit price from $1.65 million to $1.35 million in October 2003. www.flightinternational.com FLIGHT INTERNATIONAL 24-30 AUGUST 2004 21
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