EBACE Convention News 5-23-13 Issue

PUBLICATIONS

Product Support Charter Manufacturers Business Jets Avionics

Ontic Revives Orphan AircraftOut-of-production aircraft and components find new life at BBA Aviation’s Ontic division, which manufactures and distributes parts under license to OEMs. Ontic serves commercial, military and bizav aviation markets. 2

AirClub Signs Up LEAThe AirClub alliance of charter operators gained a new member at EBACE, London Executive Aviation, the first member in the UK and ninth overall. AirClub hopes to grow to 50 operators with 1,000 jets. Page 17

Lineage 1000 Finds New HomeEmbraer logged a Lineage 1000 sale, finding a new home for the airplane that the company brought to the EBACE static display. The Lineage will be managed by FlyingGroup for an undisclosed buyer. Page 20

Pilatus PC-24’s Unusual NicheEBACE attendees are wondering if the PC-24 is a light or midsize jet, and evidence suggests that it is neither–it sits in a special class, with a larger cabin than the Citation XLS+ and similar weight to the Phenom 300. Page 22

Challenger 350 Avionics ExplainedBombardier’s new Challenger 350 features an upgraded flight deck anchored by a Rockwell Collins Pro Line 21 Advanced avionics suite. Key features include synthetic vision and FANS/CPDLC. Page 22

Thursday 5.23.13GENEVAEBACE

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EBACE ’13: A success by any measureby James Wynbrandt

EBACE 2013 is not yet over, but as of yesterday afternoon organizers were already able to proclaim the event a suc-cess. The 460 exhibitors showing their wares and services rank as the third high-est exhibitor count ever, and as of yester-day morning attendance had surpassed

the 12,000 mark. Additionally, the 52 air-craft on exhibition comprises the largest static display in EBACE history by square footage. (Yes, as many as 60 aircraft have been displayed here before, but with the move toward large-cabin aircraft, there isn’t room for as many, and several air-craft were left on the waiting list.)

Meanwhile, there’s another full day ahead. Today is Student Day here at EBACE, and a delegation of 40 univer-sity students from Spain, Belgium and Switzerland will spend the day at the convention. Student Day is now a com-ponent of all NBAA-sponsored or co-sponsored conventions, as the gatherings represent ideal venues to showcase the

breaking throughThough skies stayed gloomy, spirits found a patch of blue as EBACE called business aviation professionals together again to celebrate our common enthusiasm.

Russia tries to define its role in bizavby Amy Laboda

An interesting question was asked here at EBACE 2013 yesterday, in one of the main conference sessions: “Can Rus-sia represent the next engine of growth?” The answers provided by both the knowl-edgeable panel experts and the inter-active audience were not simple. The

bottom line, though, was this: The stakes are high for manufacturers, aircraft own-ers and charter operators striving to make inroads in the tough but potentially lucrative and rapidly changing Russian aviation environment.

The panel discussion opened on an optimistic note, with Nikolai Kondra-tiev of Open Sky reviewing the positive changes to onerous laws that once made it nearly impossible for business aviation to operate in Russia. Key to the business jet owner is the 2009 Russian federal law that ensures the property rights of aircraft owners, as well as exemptions that have been in effect since 2011 that lower to zero customs fees on aircraft weighing from

Continued on page 29 u Continued on page 29 u

Avinode market presentation gets off to a gloomy startby James Wynbrandt

European business aviation flights of all types declined almost 4 percent in the first four months of 2013 over the same period in 2012, according to data released at EBACE by Avinode, the online air charter market maker based in Gothen-burg, Sweden. The figures provided a sobering introduction to Avinode’s Busi-ness Intelligence presentation and panel discussion, which brought charter oper-ators and brokers to the dais for a frank discussion of air charter in Europe.

“We know times are tough,” said mod-erator Brian Humphries, president of EBAA, encouraging audience members to participate in the discussion. “We’re all experts in our fields, so please don’t hold back. Nothing is too off the wall.”

Panelists included Andreas Becker, founder and CEO, GAS (German Avi-ation Service); Mark Briffa, CEO, Air Partner; Christophe Gibert, director of charter sales, ExecuJet Europe; Diego Moser, co-owner and managing direc-tor, Sur Aviation; and Avinode managing director Oliver King, who presented the data that framed the conversation.

Decline ContinuesAvinode’s data indicates that business

jet departures from January to April of this year were 3.8 percent lower than the same period in 2012, continuing a decline observed last year. Analysis of Eurocon-trol data shows a 4.3-percent decline in intra-Europe traffic (which comprises 74 percent of the continent’s business jet movements), though flights from Europe to other regions of the world showed a year-over-year increase of 3.8 percent.

Through the panelists’ comments and interchanges with audience mem-bers, four key problem areas confronting European charter emerged:

The economy: Europe’s economic dol-drums have dampened both the means and the reasons for chartering among those who use private aviation for business.

Image: Whether due to negative por-trayals in the media or providers’ own advertising campaigns, or the reticence of charterers to speak publicly about its real utility, many potential clients regard charter as a wasteful mode of transporta-tion and a luxury suitable only for celeb-rities and the independently wealthy.

Pricing: The cost of charter, ever an issue among potential charter custom-ers worldwide, faces additional pressures in Europe. Taxes, high fees and other charges make charter here more expen-sive than in the U.S., for example, where charter activity is slowly but steadily ris-ing. Relatively low availability of charter aircraft (exacerbated by the number of owners who withhold their aircraft from the market) and unrealistic expectations about potential revenue from owners add to upward pressure on pricing.

Airline competition: Airlines have upped their first-class and business-class prod-ucts, and high-value passengers are often accommodated in boarding commercial

flights without appearing at the airport well in advance of departure time, lowering the advantages of the cosseting and get-to-the-airport-and-go pitch of air charter.

Humphries said today the EBAA is hosting 30 CEOs who have never used business aviation to give them a first-hand look at its realities and benefits. That may give the organization new insights into why people who could benefit from busi-ness aviation don’t use it, as well as ways to break through such barriers, he said. o

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Public and political perception remains a major issue for bizavby David Donald

“People do not understand what we do,” stated Marc Bailey from the Brit-ish Business and General Aviation Asso-ciation, speaking at yesterday’s Business Aviation Around the World conference, which brought together speakers from associations in numerous regions and nations. It was a message that was reit-erated by other speakers: “The biggest challenge we face is the public acceptance of business aviation,” remarked NBAA COO Steve Brown. “It is not seen as a business tool, it’s seen as being excessive or unjustified.”

Such misconceptions have hindered the development of business aviation, particularly when they influence the deci-sions of governments. Punitive taxes con-tinue to be applied to the sector, despite the best efforts of business aviation asso-ciations to present a reasoned case. Fabio Gamba from EBAA put it bluntly: “Are we helped by policy-makers? The straight answer is no! We’re being seen as a lux-ury, not a business tool. It is our mission to try to convince them that business avi-ation is a vital part of growth.”

Bailey also warned of the need to oppose punitive measures in one coun-try before they spread to another. For instance, the UK is contemplating intro-ducing new fees for providing customs and immigration services for business aviation. “Once one country does this,” he asserted, “others will follow. It is contagion.”

Speakers also outlined the disparate rates of growth in their regions. North America and Europe, for instance, have seen a dramatic slow-down since 2008, but suggest that the trend has turned a corner. Gamba noted that forecasts suggest that business aviation will not recover to the levels of the 2007-08 peak until 2017. “That’s ten years lost,” he added, although he admitted that the dramatic growth of the early 2000s had been unsustainable.

On a brighter note, speakers from Asia, India and Brazil reported consider-able growth, but that itself has brought its own problems in the provision of infrastructure. David Best from the Asian Business Aircraft Association reported 15- to 20-percent growth, most of which was large aircraft used on long sectors. By 2020-22 Asian business traffic is forecast to have reached the level of where Europe is now. Such growth needs to be matched with an increase in maintenance and training facilities, as well as by education of authorities about the need for efficient business handling at a greater number of destinations. Rui Aquino, from Brazilian business aviation association ABAG, also reported growth, and again reiterated the need for improved facilities. The coun-try, he noted, faces a particular challenge next year to meet the increased require-ments for executive transport during the FIFA World Cup soccer tournament. o

Representatives of business aviation organizations from around the world gathered for a forum at the EBACE show yesterday.

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Time Air opts for second Nextant 400XT twinjet

Yesterday Nextant an-nounced the sale of a sec-ond 400XT (an XTi model) to Czech operator Time Air, which is based at Prague-Ruzyne. Time Air was the first Europe-an customer for the Nextant-remanufactured Hawker 400. According to Martin Pražský, managing director of Time Air, “The Nextant 400XT has been an incredibly popular addition to our charter service offering due to its low operating cost and outstanding dispatch reli-ability. We’ve flown 600 hours in the first nine months, and

demand for the aircraft increas-es month over month.”

In taking a second aircraft Time Air also becomes the first European fleet operator of the Nextant. “We had very high expectations and the aircraft has met them,” remarked Pražský. “It’s the perfect jet for the char-ter market. In addition, the Nextant customer support has been superb.”

Nextant also announced that Jet Aviation at Geneva has been selected to provide maintenance and servicing support for the 400XT and XTi. –D.D.

L to r: Nextant’s Peter Walker and Jay Hueblein; Time Air managing director Martin Pražský; Nextant’s Sean McGeough; and Time Air ground operations manager Vladislav Prokop meet in front of Nextant’s 400XTi to celebrate the sale of a second aircraft to Time Air.

ACJ honors Completion network

Airbus Corporate Jets named Lufthansa Technik “best cabin out-fitter” for 2012 and its own Airbus Corporate Jet Center in Toulouse “most improved cabin outfitter” among the eight companies in its network of approved completion centers. Lufthansa Technik took top honors–issued for overall quality of workmanship, customer responsive-ness, time, cost and technical planning–for the second year in a row. Hanz Schmitz, senior v-p of VIP and executive jet solutions at Lufthansa Technik (far left); Walter Heerdt, Lufthansa Technik’s head of sales and marketing (center left); and Philippe Nicolas, Lufthansa Technik’s head of procurement (far right), accept the best outfitter award on behalf of their company from Arnaud Martin, head of programs for Airbus Corpo-rate Jets (center right). –G.P.

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First produCtion BBJ3 hAs interior By

Jet AviAtion

This week at EBACE the BBJ3 in the static park has been open to visitors keen to see the inte-rior craftsmanship of Jet Aviation Basel. The company (Booth 519) is a completions veteran having installed VIP interiors in 24 Boeing aircraft since 1978. The aircraft seats 38 and has a bedroom suite, bathroom and shower, and large meeting/living area. The aircraft is for sale and is without exterior paint scheme; that will be for the new owner to choose.

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www.ainonline.com • May 23, 2013 • EBACE Convention News 3

Cyber risk a real threat for bizav operators by Ian Sheppard

Rockwell Collins is warning that there are considerable risks that operators run when hook-ing up various web-based sys-tems, Wi-Fi, satcoms–in fact, anything that could also pro-vide pathways for would-be cyber-attackers.

According to Steve Timm, v-p and general manager of Flight Information Solutions at the U.S. company (Booth 423), the main risk arises not when the aircraft is en route, but when it is on the ground. He added that since acquiring Air Rout-ing in 2010 and CTA FOS in 2011, Rockwell Collins has paid a great deal of attention to secu-rity in integrating the products into what are now marketed as Ascend and FOS, respectively.

Timm said that opera-tors using online services are “essentially outsourcing to sys-tems located outside their fire-wall.” He added, “With our Ascend system you are logging in to one supplier rather than two or three.” Meanwhile, the amount of data going to and from aircraft systems is increas-ing exponentially, and the num-ber of servers and routers is also increasing with interfaces to avi-onics, IFE and comms boxes.

Beware HackersTimm believes that press

reports of things “as serious as flight management systems being hacked into” are not just scare stories, and that the threat is real. In fact, he recognizes that many customers already require Rockwell Collins to demon-strate security capabilities, but the company has turned that around by creating a check-list for potential clients, which can then be used by auditors if necessary. “We have customers that require independent audits of our security methodologies, such as with mobile tethering,” he said. “We’ve even had some that have tried to hack into our system…sometimes they don’t even tell us they are doing it. We didn’t see [that sort of thing] five years ago.” He added that nobody has yet successfully breached Rockwell Collins’s cyber-defenses.

Rockwell Collins can also draw on experience in air trans-port having developed the core network for aircraft such as the Boeing 787 and Airbus A350.

“These are cutting edge in terms of security,” Timm told AIN. “We scaled this for business air-craft to create ‘confident secu-rity,’ and we extended it into ground systems for flight plan-ning, maintenance, weather, and so forth.” Of course, as Timm pointed out, business avi-ation clientele are particularly sensitive to their privacy–as the aircraft-registration-number-blocking issue in the U.S. has demonstrated. “There is a lot of concern about aircraft and passport information,” he said. “You’re only as strong as your weakest link and people need to ensure that once they plug in there is intrusion protection, a firewall, and also data protec-tion, backups and a disaster recovery plan.” Timm said that Rockwell Collins can give abso-lute assurances only about its own Ascend system. For other connections, it advises that cli-ents take these steps in the rest of their operation.

“We will see security become a discriminator [between ser-vices] as people realize the vul-nerabilities. It’s the moat around the castle,” concluded Timm. o


Mechtronix building Meridian simulatorCanada’s Mechtronix has

been selected to build a full flight trainer (FFT) for the Piper Meridian at its Montreal facil-ity. The FFT is being acquired by OK Business Aircraft, which acts as the Piper dealer for cen-tral-eastern Europe. The con-tract was signed on the wing of

the Meridian in the static park at EBACE 2013.

The simulator will be certi-fied to EASA CS-FSTD stan-dards as FTD Level 2, and will be installed at OK Business Aircraft’s training facilities at Pribram in the Czech Repub-lic. The company has been

providing type-rating train-ing for European operators of the Meridian since 2006, so the addition of an FFT is a logical step to enhancing the efficiency and safety of the training opera-tions. The simulator is expected to be installed in the second quarter of next year. –D.D.

Philippe Delfour, EMEA business development director of Mechtronix (left) with Lubomir Cormak, president of OK Business Aircraft.

MEBAA plans meetings to stay abreast of issues

As its membership continues to grow beyond 200, the Middle East Business Aviation Asso-ciation (MEBAA, Booth 827) plans to hold frequent regional conferences to stay attuned to its members and to keep on top of local business aviation issues. According to MEBAA found-ing chairman Ali Al Naqbi, these Middle East Business Avi-ation Conferences (MEBAC) will be held about four times a year in different countries throughout the Middle East and North Africa region.

While there won’t be any exhibitors or static displays at these events like those at the biennial MEBA show, they will feature prominent lead-ers and workshops hosting dis-cussions of issues affecting the business aviation community at these locations. Topping the list of these hurdles is convinc-ing countries in the region to craft regulations specifically

tailored for business avia-tion operations, which in most cases now are conducted under more stringent rules written

for the airlines in the region. MEBAA has also tapped the Washington, D.C.-based Gen-eral Aviation Manufacturers

Association to help in this effort, which is currently being directed at changing rules in the UAE and Saudi Arabia.

The inaugural MEBAC will be held on June 4 at the Hilton Hotel in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. Conference speakers, to include Saudi Arabia General Author-ity of Civil Aviation president H.H. Prince Fahd bin Abdulla bin Muhammad, will address issues affecting the King-dom’s business aviation market. MEBAA chose Saudi Ara-bia as the launch location of these conferences because busi-ness aviation is growing quickly there and it is one of the seg-ment’s biggest markets among the six states in the Gulf Coop-eration Council.

Follow-on regional confer-ences will be held in Morocco on October 8; Dubai on November 17, during the Dubai Airshow; and Bahrain on Jan-uary 15, during the Bahrain Airshow. The Dubai conference will have two workshops: one on MEBAA’s aviation insurance program and another on emer-gency response planning, Naqbi told AIN. –C.T.

Middle East Business Aviation Association founding chairman Ali Al Naqbi plans regional conferences.

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ConCierge ServiCe iS now AvAilAble

For ACJ operAtorS

Airbus (Booth 7040) announced here at EBACE 2013 that it has created a concierge support team called C4you for its ACJ cus-tomers worldwide.

The C4you corpo-rate jet customer care team is located at the Air-bus Technical AOG center in Toulouse, France, and is comprised of experi-enced Airbus professionals ready to accommodate the company’s more than 500 corporate jet owners needing assistance with a maintenance or service item.

The C4you team will dispatch the required equip-ment for servicing, or the equipment and factory-trained engineers if that is necessary, to supervise or even perform the necessary maintenance. –A.L.

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St. Petersburg boasts two new FBOsby Vladimir Karnozov

Russia’s second largest city, St. Petersburg, has a new FBO and by year-end it should have a second. The Pulkovo-3 FBO at Pulkovo International Airport officially opened for business on March 6, initially handling only domestic flights. According to the purpose-built facility’s operator, JetPort SPb, it should be ready to handle international flights as soon as customs and immigra-tion facilities are fully in place.

The new private terminal occupies a 24-acre site between the Pulkovo-1 domestic airline passenger complex and the main cargo warehouse. The main part of the FBO is a 43,000-sq-ft, two-floor business aviation facility immediately adjacent to Pulkovo’s apron area num-ber six, with space for parking approximately 28 aircraft.

The next phase of JetPort SPb’s privately funded $65 mil-lion development should be completed in late 2013 or early

2014. This will include hangars large enough to accommodate three Boeing Business Jets or as many as 18 midsized jets. It will also include a covered and heated area for the FBO’s com-prehensive array of ground-sup-port equipment and vehicles.

According to JetPort SPb general manager Sergei Pugin, the major investment will take several years to recoup, sending a signal that its backers are in the FBO business for the long haul. JetPort SPb is a partner company to the RusAero group (Booth 763), which also includes Mos-cow’s Vnukovo-3 business avia-tion center and Vipport FBO.

All 150 JetPort SPb employ-ees are from the St. Petersburg area and many of them are graduates of the city’s presti-gious Civil Aviation Academy. Their motto is “comfort in the skies and on the ground.”

JetPort SPb holds all neces-sary certificates from the local

aviation authorities for ground handling and passenger services. The company was founded in May 2009 and began operations in October 2009 using rented space in the Pulkovo-2 interna-tional-flights terminal.

The new FBO offers a full array of handling and flight-planning services, in addition to arranging ground transportation and common concierge services such as hotel and entertainment

bookings. According to Pugin, the JetPort SPb’s handling costs are somewhat below those of the Moscow FBOs.

The Pulkovo-3 terminal has been designed from lessons learned from earlier private ter-minals in the Moscow area. With a nominal capacity of 1,500 pas-sengers per day, it looks fairly similar to Moscow’s Vnukovo-3, but with two, rather than three floors, and a main entrance in the center of the building.

The main difference between FBOs in Russia and most Euro-pean countries is that the Rus-sian facilities allocate a lot more space for passengers rather than flight crew and other person-nel. There is a reason for this in that Russian law requires both international and domes-tic passengers (whether traveling by scheduled airlines or busi-ness jets) to pass formalities on departure and arrival.

Combines All SectorsUnlike the main Vnukovo-3

building, which is an interna-tional terminal (there is a sepa-rate terminal for domestic flights nearby), Pulkovo-3 combines the following sectors: interna-tional passengers–arriving and departing; domestic passengers–also arriving and departing; crews flying international flights and crews operating domes-tic services. Because by Rus-sian law these groups have to be completely isolated, this accom-modation was incorporated into the design of Pulkovo-3.

Immediately after enter-ing the building, travelers pass through a metal detector and their baggage is scanned. Then they proceed to a reception desk in the middle of the hall

where they can check the status of their flight. The ample-sized facility is outfitted with com-fortable sofas, a large number of chairs and a smart-looking bar on the right of the entrance.

Those who need to proceed immediately take either the left lane (international flights sector with passport control and cus-toms) or the right lane (domes-tic). After passing all checks and formalities, the international passengers can enjoy a com-fortable departure zone, includ-ing a bar and a duty-free shop; domestic passengers have access to the same accouterments except duty-free.

All travelers can access Wi-Fi, Russian and foreign magazines and newspapers, and digital TV. There are separate arrival zones for incoming flights.

Meeting rooms are also avail-able in the terminal. The sec-ond floor is home for JetPort SPb staff, and representatives of partner companies, includ-ing business jet operators. Flight crews enter the building at a sep-arate entrance in the right hand corner and can enjoy a comfort-able crew rest area.

Except for Moscow with its modern FBOs at Vnukovo, Domodedovo and Shereme-tyevo airports, the rest of Russia is nearly void of dedicated busi-ness aviation infrastructure. But the country’s second largest city certainly deserves a first-class FBO of its own. In addition to its reputation as a cultural gem, St. Petersburg has a thriving industrial sector. This includes no fewer than eight automotive factories, vibrant shipyards and a number of other industrial plants recently reopened after a downturn in the 1990s. o


Pulkovo-2 Remodeled

The AviaGroup Nord announced plans for a major redevelopment of the Pulkovo-2 terminal in St. Petersburg. The project will transform a 1950s-era airline terminal into a modern business aviation complex and should be complete by November.

Since the building has protected historical status, AviaGroup Nord is able to make only limited changes to its façade, but the interior is undergoing radical changes, while some striking Soviet-era aviation-themed artwork is being retained.

The reconstructed facility has a nominal passenger capacity of 75,000 annually. It has a departure and arrival halls, private meeting rooms, confer-ence halls and a duty-free shop. Currently, it serves only domestic flights, but flights abroad will be possible in the future with the addition of an interna-tional sector (see main story).

In 2011 St. Petersburg’s Pulkovo airport administration sold the old build-ing to AviaGroup Nord and its partner Air Gates of the Northern Capital for almost $6.5 million. The restoration effort saw $22 million spent by Decem-ber 2012 and the total investment is set to reach $32 million when the work is complete. Additionally, the investors have spent $11.3 million to acquire and rebuild nearby hangars. According to Russian press reports, the Pulkovo-2 project has been coordinated, structured, funded and executed by local entre-preneur Gennady Timchenko. –V.K.

The new Pulkovo-3 FBO in the Russian city of St. Petersburg represents a significant improvement in handling infrastructure for business aircraft, according to its developer, JetPort SPb.

JetPort SPb general manager Sergei Pugin said the company is making a long-term investment in St. Petersburg.

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Embraer Executive Jets firmly planted in Floridaby Chad Trautvetter

Embraer Executive Jets (Booth 7041) continues to expand at its headquarters in

Melbourne, Florida. The busi-ness jet division of the Brazil-ian aircraft manufacturer has

been assembling and deliver-ing Phenoms since 2011 at the southeast U.S. complex and its customer center there has been open for about a year and a half. In addition, it is building a new engineering center, and there is ample room for fur-ther growth.

The Phenom assembly facil-ity opened there in February

2011, with Phenom 100s roll-ing down the line four months later and Phenom 300s in Sep-tember 2012. Embraer’s light jets are now being assembled in Florida at a rate of three air-craft per month, less than half of the full capacity of eight a month. Currently, two Phenom 300s are coming off the line for every Phenom 100, reflecting the popularity of the compa-ny’s larger light jet.

The company is also com-pleting these U.S.-made Phe-noms at the facility, finishing the interiors in the assembly han-gar after initial production test flights. Embraer has the flexibil-ity to paint aircraft either before or after flight test, using a mod-ern downdraft paint booth that can accommodate aircraft as large as a Legacy 500.

After the aircraft are com-pleted, Phenom deliveries for customers outside of Brazil are also taking place at the customer center in Melbourne–since November 2011 for Phenom 100s and since this March for Phenom 300s. Customers from around the world also visit the center to select interior ele-ments for all Embraer business jet models: the Phenom, Legacy and Lineage.

Meanwhile, earlier this year Embraer began construction on a 67,000-sq-ft engineering and technology center at the site. The engineering center is expected to generate 200 jobs over the next five years, and a handful of engineers are cur-rently working from a tem-porary facility in Melbourne, initially focusing on execu-tive jet interiors. The center will be charged with conduct-ing research and development for product and technology and will include a materials testing lab. o


A Phenom 300 earlier this year at Embraer’s assembly facility in Melbourne, Florida.

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Dassault looking ahead to the next half centuryby Charles Alcock

With Dassault Aviation’s ubiquitous Falcon jet family celebrating its 50th anniversary this year, it is understandable that the company should take time to reflect on the achieve-ments of the past half-century. But, in reality, Dassault spends far more time making plans for the next 50 years.

In fact the future is coming up fast, with Dassault’s (Booth 7090) long-awaited launch of its new SMS jet now consid-

ered to be part of its short-term planning. “This is a huge investment and you will learn all about this at the NBAA show [in October],” said Oliv-ier Villa, Dassault’s senior vice president for civil aircraft, at a press briefing ahead of this week’s EBACE event.

Dassault has been resolutely tight-lipped about what the SMS will bring to the market. But one point it has stressed is that it should not be viewed as a replacement for the existing Fal-con 900. The company’s attitude

is that it leaves it to the market to decide when an aircraft has outlived its position in the cur-rent production line.

‘King of Airfield Performance’Certified in 2010, the 900LX’s

winglets reduce fuel burn to allow for a 5- to 7-percent increase in range. The trijet has the same cabin volume as the latest Falcon 2000S. According to Dassault sales engineering manager Fré-déric Recher, the 900LX is the

“king of airfield performance” and is well suited to operating from key restricted airports like Cannes in the south of France. “Its maximum takeoff weight is 70 percent higher [than compet-ing aircraft] but the fuel burn of competitors is 50 percent more for the same performance and range,” Recher explained. He said that this is particularly sig-nificant in situations where a mission involves making a short hop to collect passengers for a longer onward flight.

Despite the major engineering

effort it is now embarking on to bring the SMS to market, Dassault also has set itself chal-lenging long-term technology goals. Three key elements of this, explained the manufactur-er’s vice president for research and technology Bruno Stouf-flet, are making the Falcon fam-ily greener, more electric and more digital. The group’s engi-neers also have a strong focus on improving safety, making cabins more comfortable, improving the competitiveness of its prod-ucts, reducing program risks, allowing its jets to operate from more airports and improving the availability of aircraft through more effective maintenance.

The main focus of the Greener Falcon project is noise

reduction. Dassault has the ambitious objective that by 2025 its aircraft will be 20 dB quieter than they were in 2000. Stouf-flet said the company is taking advantage of new aero-acous-tic computation techniques that were not available a decade ago.

Further reducing fuel burn and carbon dioxide emissions are other important objectives. Here Dassault’s focus is on promising technologies such as more aerodynamically effi-cient extended laminar flow wings. “The challenge is to

enlarge the laminar portion of the wing as much as possible to reduce drag,” said Stoufflet. “We’ve done flights with the 7X to measure where the [aero-dynamic] transition occurs between laminar and non-laminar flow. We also need to master the manufacturing tolerances involved, but we think we can achieve a seven- to nine-percent saving [in fuel burn and emissions].”

Dassault’s efforts to reduce the environmental impact of its products extend to the design and manufacturing processes. It is also assessing how Falcons could be made greener through-out their lifecycle.

The More Electric Falcon project is seeking to achieve a more efficient ratio between an aircraft’s installed power supply and its average use. In a typical power supply architecture today, average power use is seven times less than the total power supply capacity. By contrast, explained Stoufflet, in an all-electric air-craft the ratio drops to two-to-one. This saves on power consumption and weight as well as improving aircraft dispatch reliability. Dassault plans to start introducing more electric technologies on a step-by-step basis with most of the achiev-able improvements being in ser-vice by 2025.

Dassault’s Digital Falcon concept focuses on cockpit inno-vation driven by the need to capitalize on the operational flexibility available through the Sesar and NextGen air traf-fic management modernization programs. Stoufflet added that cockpit advances will also reduce

pilot workload and potentially reduce operating costs.

Dassault engineers are look-ing at how they can adapt the flush multifunction antenna developed for its Neuron UAV for use on the Falcon. This could improve connectivity while also reducing drag.

Engineers are working on further weight reductions to Falcon airframes. One tech-nique being explored is to make better use of automatic flight controls to control load and vibration in the aircraft. Stouf-flet said this could result in a 2- to 4-percent fuel burn reduc-tion by reducing the structural mass of the Falcons. Dassault has produced a demonstrator of the new composite wingbox it is developing. o


FAI pIcks Al BAteen As Its MIddle eAst

stopover poInt

German air ambulance specialist Flight Ambulance International (Booth 1047) has named Abu Dhabi Airports Company’s Al Bateen Exec-utive Airport as its preferred stopover airport in the Middle East region. Under the agree-ment, Al Bateen will host two Learjet 60s dedicated to air ambulance service and served by German medical teams. A Learjet 60 air ambulance can accommodate a medi-cal team, one patient and two patient escorts and can carry critically ill patients between Abu Dhabi and anywhere in the world. � n

Dassault believes the secret of the Falcon 900LX’s popularity lies mainly in its combination of long-range capability and superior airfield performance. It can efficiently make a short hop to a small airfield today and fly a transcontinental journey tomorrow.

Dassault’s engineers are working on a variety of long-term technology projects aimed at making the Falcons more competitive and efficient around the 2025 timeframe. These include improved aerodynamic performance.

From Paris, the Falcon 900LX can fly non-stop to most of Africa, North America, anywhere in the Middle East and a large part of Asia too. The range chart takes into account prevailing winds and includes fuel reserves for IFR operations.

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1. the interior shots will not belong to us, so we still have to getapprovals for the ad layouts. We only have two customers that have said wecould use the interiors, Comlux and JetTech. The approvals are contingentupon their mood at the time. Also, while it sends the message, a lot ofwhat we do will not be in any one shot. In the sample ad, it is all aboutthe liner. The galleys Cabin did on that airplane can’t be seen. We alsohave to be careful that the ad doesn’t imply that we are responsible for thewhole interior. Maybe that could be mitigated by a credit in the samplephoto that says “Comlux A320 liner system provided by Jormac”. I like whatthe ad does, but I would like to have actual or rendered shots that show ourstuff. It will be hardest for Cabin, since most glamor shots don’t show thegalley. But, I can commission renderings.

2. The ads pre-suppose that we are changing our branding strategy to a YPAbrand rather than highlighting the individual divisions. That is contraryto our approach. While ultimately we will get to YPA as the single brand,we are not there yet. The use of the Jormac and the Cabin identities arestill important with the customer. We could consider an institutional“engineered for aviation” ad that begins the transition however, byincluding all divisions in a wordy only “YPA” ad, especially since we haveset up a third division in Tulsa again that has nothing to do withinteriors.

3. There are products that are important to Jormac to list that are notlisted in the sample, ex: showers, bin systems, secondary structure.

4. As much as I hate to suggest it, do we revert to the original ad tacticsof separate ads for each division? We use the concept you sent, but focusone ad on Jormac and the other ad on Cabin, with the shot being clearlyrelated to what each division does. In the absence of an actual photo, Iwould have a design house render a “photo”. This would most likely be in thecase of Cabin, since we won’t have photos of any of the fabulous andenormous galleys we have done for A340’s, 747’s and 777’s. We would have torun the ad alternatively to stay in budget on the media buy. Maybe thesmall institutional ad plus this approach would tie things together. Wemight have to drop a book or run the institutional ad only in some books andrun both the nice ads in BJII, as an example.

5. As cool as it is, the ad runs the risk of looking like all the other adsin the book - an interior shot and a message. Our 2-in-1 ad is good inthat respect. It differentiates us and is effective in presenting bothdivisions. It offers up a little more practical info and is related to thecomponents we provide. It just doesn’t show off the work as well as I wouldlike, given the ad design.

Look, I’m just free thinking here. We have a budget and that drives all thedecisions.

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Ontic revitalizing older componentsby Matt Thurber

Ontic has signed new license agreements and is here at EBACE 2013 highlighting its support for out-of-produc-tion second- and third-gener-ation avionics and electronics.

The company is also able to fully support Hawker 125 series business jets from its Houston, Texas facility.

A BBA subsidiary, Ontic (Booth 364) specializes in

manufacturing aerospace com-ponents under license to OEMs and acquiring component lines that it can manufacture and sup-port directly. In all cases, the com-pany’s manufacturing activities

are fully sanctioned by the OEM that originally designed and/or made the component.

Ontic’s avionics and electron-ics activities take place at two locations: Cheltenham, UK, and Chatsworth, California. This year it plans to open a new location in Singapore.

A key product line is new production, spares, MRO and product support for fuel measurement systems on the Hawker 4000, Hawker 125-800 series, Airbus A318, A319 and A320, Boeing 777 and a vari-ety of military aircraft. Much of the fuel measurement sys-tem work is accomplished at the Cheltenham facility.

For Hawker 125 series sup-port, Ontic’s Houston facility stocks more than 44,000 parts such as landing gear, ailerons, elevators, rudders, tabs, oxygen bottles, leading edges and doors.

Good Support Pays OffDuring the past three years,

the manufacturer’s P&L revenue from electronics and avionics products has climbed to more than 30 percent from 3 per-cent. “Ontic understands that the need for lifetime support of mature electronics and avion-ics is growing,” said president Gareth Hall, “and we continue our key role in that support for the OEMs we serve through licensing and acquisition.” One third of the company’s business is electronics-based products, and Hall expects that segment to grow to 50 percent.

At EBACE, Ontic announced that it signed an agreement with Curtiss-Wright Controls Inte-grated Sensing to support the former’s pilot controls and trans-mitter/indicator product lines. These products include land-ing gear levers that have integral light plates and electronics, tiller modules, pilot LED checklists, flight control surface indicators, rudder trim switches and push-to-talk switches, all found on a variety of aircraft. The company will incorporate these products into its Chatsworth and Chelten-ham facilities using its adoption process, moving them from Cur-tiss-Wright facilities where they are currently manufactured. o


Avionics and electronics are a specialty of Chatsworth, California-based Ontic.

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news clips

z Hubstart Paris Promotes Roissy AreaThe Hubstart Paris alliance (Booth 1565) is here at EBACE

2013 promoting the Greater Roissy region, with opportunities for business aviation players to get established in this area north of Paris, near Charles de Gaulle airport. Anchored by the Paris Le Bourget platform, the region also comprises Pontoise Cormeilles-en-Vexin and Melun Villaroche airports. The Seine-et-Marne Development Agency, the Seine-Saint-Denis General Council, the Val d’Oise Economic Expansion Committee and the Paris Region Economic Development Agency are jointly touting the advantages of what they claim to be Europe’s leading business aviation hub.

z Associated Partners with Innovative AdvantageInnovative Advantage (Booth 1655) has designated

Associated Air Center of Dallas, Texas, as a preferred completion center for the installation and certification of its audio/video distribution systems (AVDS) on Boeing BBJ and Airbus ACJ platforms. The partnership follows the installation of Redmond, Washington-based Innovative Advantage’s AVDS as part of a high-definition (HD) upgrade for the refurbishment of a BBJ for a West African head of state at Associated Air Center (Booth 2047) earlier this year.

“The AVDS was a great way to upgrade the existing CMS [cabin management system] and provide the customer with HD while minimizing the changes to the aircraft,” said Innovative Advantage v-p of business development Dave Garing. “No cabinetry or upholstery modifications were necessary as the existing bulkhead and seat-mounted switches and cabin management system still work as before.”

z JetSupport Adds Hangar Space At Schiphol Finding an indoor parking spot for your business jet

at the notoriously congested general aviation section of Amsterdam’s Schiphol Airport just got easier. Aviation technical services provider JetSupport (Booth 1937, with KLM Jet Center) announced here at EBACE that it has gained access to 8,000 sq m (86,000 sq ft) of hangar space it plans to use exclusively for indoor aircraft parking.

Known as Hangar 32, the former Martinair maintenance facility can accommodate aircraft up to the size of a Boeing 747 and is located adjacent to JetSupport’s 4,500-sq-m (48,500-sq-ft) maintenance hangar. The added space will allow JetSupport to use its current facility more efficiently.

z Satcom Direct To Offer Inmarsat GXSatcom Direct (Booth 455) has signed an agreement with

Honeywell to be a distributor for the Inmarsat GX Aviation Ka-band service, for which Honeywell is a value-added reseller. The Florida-based communications specialist will also be a distributor of GX avionics equipment. The service is scheduled to be commercially available early in 2015 and is designed to offer “consistent, high-capacity broadband coverage around the world.” For example, users should be able to stream Internet content live or hold uninterrupted video calls from 30,000 feet.

Separately, Satcom Direct has signed an agreement with OnAir to be a value-added reseller for its GSM mobile phone service–Mobile OnAir–on business aircraft. OnAir’s service is based on Inmarsat SwiftBroadband and roaming agreements for passengers and crew to use their mobile phones in flight “in a similar manner as they do on the ground.” This is limited, however, to those “global regions that authorize mobile use during flight operations.”

z Aeropole Lands Its First TenantAeropole of Payerne (Booth 650) has signed its first

contract for a company to settle on its Swiss airport site. Boshung, a Swiss specialist in airport cleaning and maintenance equipment, has bought 10 acres of land to build its headquarters and a technology center. It will employ 150 in Payerne. Aeropole is also talking to other potential customers, one of them being executive charter operator Speedwings, which might build three hangars.

Learjet 75 shows Happy Design schemeBombardier Business Air-

craft (Booth 7011) chose Stras-bourg, France-based Happy Design to render the paint scheme on its Learjet 75 dem-onstrator here at the EBACE static park. Happy Design’s Didier Wolff has also been commissioned to create designs for the entire Bom-bardier line of demonstrators,

including Learjet, Challenger and Global models.

Wolff noted that designing schemes for business jets is dif-ferent than for much larger air-liners. He collaborated with Bombardier’s design and mar-keting teams to come up with themes that would simulta-neously create a single brand across the Bombardier product

line, but also differentiate each of the three separate seg-ments. “We rose to the chal-lenge,” Wolff said, “and what you can see on the static display at EBACE is just the introduc-tion as we worked to create a scheme that would work across the different size of business jets in the Bombardier business aircraft family.” –M.P.

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Stratajet includes Europe in its online charter portalby James Wynbrandt

Online charter portal Strata-jet (Booth 673) announced at EBACE that it’s ready to add European charter operators to its platform and will begin offer-ing its Stratafleet online booking services to charter customers in the third quarter.

Stratajet has been beta test-ing its platform with six London-based operators for three years and has proved the service is “use-ful to them,” said managing direc-tor Jonathan Nicol. “We have benefited enormously through the work we have done with our existing charter partners. We have

demonstrated that Stratafleet is a robust technology platform that, with greater capacity, will deliver even greater efficiency to business aviation.”

The Stratafleet portal will offer charter customers guar-anteed price quotes and simple, real-time booking from affili-ated operators. For operators, there’s no fee for basic service, which puts their aircraft into the pool of those available for charter. The basic service also provides operators with use-ful tools developed by Stratajet, such as a cost calculator that can

estimate the cost and profit from any flight. The company also has add-on modules available for a small fee that can provide additional actionable data. One module, for example, automati-cally alerts the charter operator when forecasts indicate weather could interfere with a sched-uled charter flight and cause a diversion to an alternate air-port. Another module lists all airport fees in real time, while a third displays all aircraft in the sky within selectable areas, using hardware and software designed in-house, allowing charter oper-ators to track their aircraft.

Here at EBACE, Stratajet is eager to hear from European charter operators interested in learning more about or signing up for Stratafleet services in anticipa-tion of the platform going live for charter customers in June. o

AvioVision has a new EFBAvioVision (Booth 933)

and Web Manuals have jointly developed an electronic flight bag (EFB) app called Avio-book. Designed as a cross-plat-form solution, Aviobook runs on Microsoft Windows-based and Apple iPad devices. Web Manuals of Sweden brings its expertise in developing cloud-based tools for writing, review-ing and publishing manuals to the joint EFB solution. Avio-Vision, a Belgian company,

developed the EFB func-tionality, which includes dis-play of charts and documents, flight logging and performance calculations.

Web Manuals also announced that it has formed a strategic partnership with Great Circle Services, a Swiss company that specializes in auditing, con-sulting, interim management, technical documentation and training. Under the partnership, the two partners are offering

“EFB-compatible documenta-tion solutions to aviation orga-nizations worldwide,” according to the companies. The services provided include authoring, editing, revision control and electronic distribution.

“Our customers rely on us to provide complete, correct and compliant manuals in an increasingly complex world,” said Great Circle Services managing director Michael Grüninger. “In partnership with Web Manuals, we can extend that service right through to the point of distribution.” –M.T.

Happy Design’s paint scheme graces the lines of Learjet’s new Model 75 demonstrator on display here at EBACE.

Flight Display’s Jet Jukebox stores tunes, flicks and moreby Kirby J. Harrison

In 1890, Louis Glass and William Arnold invented the nickel-in-the-slot phonograph, or as those who grew up in the 1960s might remember it, the juke-box. Cabin electronics supplier Flight Display Systems (Booth 1925) has rein-troduced that icon of music history by the same name–the Jet Jukebox–but with a lot of new bells and whistles, not to mention a monster server with 500 giga-bytes of storage.

At EBACE, Flight Display is intro-ducing to a European audience the Jet Jukebox in its modern form as a wireless media streamer for the aircraft cabin. The system doubles as both an IFE movie/music streamer and a wireless file server capable of sharing Powerpoint presen-tations, photos, spreadsheets, Word doc-uments and more. It can hold up to 100 DVD-quality movies, allows streaming of up to eight movies simultaneously and accommodates iOS or Android devices. The Jukebox measures 6.3-in by 1.95-in by 9.75 in and weighs just three pounds.

The Jet Jukebox is priced at $12,000 and includes the company’s worldwide

moving-map database with satellite-generated imagery used to replicate the earth’s surface.

When the Jet Jukebox was first intro-duced, said sales manager Jay Healey, Flight Display expected the video enter-tainment to be the most popular fea-ture, “but we’ve discovered that by far the feature they use the most is the Pow-erpoint streaming capability. They see it as a tool, not a toy.” In fact, he added, one major OEM is considering storing its maintenance manuals in the Jet Juke-box for easy access.

Also high on the list of products at EBACE, Flight Display is showing its new ground-based solution for syncing, charging and securing iPads. The unit will charge and sync up to 10 iPads simul-taneously, will sync the iTunes account of all iPads and keep the iPads locked in slots for secure storage. For additional security, the unit itself will lock to the floor to prevent theft. It allows iPads to be synced and kept updated and ready to be taken by the crew or passengers for use during a flight.

Other products on display or being pro-moted include Flight Display’s dual USB personal device charger, wireless cabin router, high-definition Blu-ray player and custom cabin management system.

For a company that was launched in CEO David Gray’s garage 10 years ago, Flight Display Systems has come a long way. With revenues currently growing in the 50-percent range, the company recently moved into new 50,000-sq-ft facilities in Alpharetta, Georgia, just three miles from the old garage, but a world away in terms of technology. o


The upgraded Jet Jukebox, with 500 gb of storage, is introduced to European customers here at EBACE.

XJet brings ‘seven-star service,’ private-club concept to Dubai

Since 2007 XJet has been operating its award-winning XJet Club and FBO at Denver’s Centennial Airport, opening up the facility to transient customers in 2009. The facility offers “seven-star” ser-vice that has ranked the FBO top for two years running in AIN’s U.S. FBO Survey service provider category. Now, that ser-vice is to be extended to a new base at Dubai’s Al Maktoum International Air-port, part of the huge Dubai World Cen-tral (DWC) development.

On May 15 XJet founder and CEO Josh Stewart signed a 10-year lease

agreement with H.H. Sheikh Ahmed bin Saeed Al Maktoum, chairman of DWC and president of Dubai’s Department of Civil Aviation. DWC is building a world-class terminal at Dubai Aviation City, and under the agreement XJet will estab-lish an exclusive club and FBO service to capitalize on the expected doubling of private jet movements through the air-port within the next five years.

XJet has committed to ultimately moving its headquarters to the United Arab Emirates as it grows the company’s footprint in the Middle East. –D.D.

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EBAA highlights Europe’s safest operatorsby David Donald

The European Business Aviation Associ-ation has recognized four European compa-nies for their safety achievements, presenting awards here at EBACE 2013. Both Robert Bosch Corporate Aviation and Tyrol Air Ambulance were honored with EBAA’s Platinum Safety of Flight award for com-pleting more than 50 years or 100,000 hours of safe flying, while a gold award for 40 years or 80,000 hours without an acci-dent was bestowed on VistaJet. FAI rent-a-jet received a bronze award for achieving 20

years or 40,000 hours of safe operation.The presentations were made this week

in conjunction with the European Busi-ness Aviation Safety Workshop, a regular EBACE event. Reflecting on the work-shop and the awards, EBAA president Brian Humphries noted, “I believe that during each year’s EBACE we not only work to enhance our approach to business aviation safety, but also take a moment to recognize companies with a long-stand-ing commitment to safety, as shown in

their decades-long records for safe flight. That’s why EBAA created these awards, and we’re delighted to recognize these out-standing companies with awards today.”

NBAA president and CEO Ed Bolen added, “We know that the business avi-ation community has an outstanding safety record, in the U.S. and around the world. But it’s a record we’re always looking for ways to build upon. Today’s [workshop] session was one meaningful way to do so.” o

GlobeAir unruffled by fiscal climateby Gregory Polek

The economic slump in Europe hasn’t slowed the growth of Austria’s GlobeAir, the air taxi operator that launched operations in 2008 with a pair of Citation Mustangs.

During an EBACE briefing, Globe- Air CEO Bernhard Fragner reported a profit of €200,000 ($260,000) last year and projected further positive results for 2013.

In the five years since its establish-ment the company has added another

nine Mustangs, creating the world’s largest homogeneous fleet of the four-passenger jets. “From the onset we knew there had to be a more efficient way of running a private jet business successfully,” said Fragner. “The shift in the charter market and the resulting downgrading has actually been very beneficial to us. Not only has the VLJ [very light jet] sector in general gained strength, GlobeAir has flourished and I expect that we will continue to grow in the coming three years.”

This year alone, reported Fragner, the company expects to increase reve-nue flights to 5,500 from 4,600 in 2002. In the first quarter it performed some 1,000 movements, representing a 12-per-cent improvement over the same period a year earlier.

The company’s financial projec-tions for this year call for a profit of €1 million.

Fragner repeatedly alluded to the merits of so-called downsizing in a down market. “The charter market is still declining year-over-year,” he said. “Europe is not recovering, and person-ally I don’t see it recovering soon.”

Nevertheless, GlobeAir expects to decide by the fourth quarter on a plan to add another five Mustangs to its fleet, improving the economies of scale Frag-ner cited as so important to the com-pany’s ability to turn a profit after four years of losses. Along those same lines, he said, the company has managed to cut deadhead flying by 30 percent. o

GlobeAir CEO Bernhard Fragner says bigger fleet equals fewer “dead legs” equals more attractive pricing–a virtuous circle.

GE receives game-changer accolades

GE Aviation won the Game-Chang-ing Technology Implementation award last week at the 2013 Manufacturing Lead-ership Summit for its Integrated Vehicle Health Management (IVHM) technology. Designed to reduce delays, cancellations and unscheduled maintenance as initially implemented on the G650 business jet, IVHM continuously manages and analyzes data throughout the flight, creating a set of health information for the engines, avion-ics, power, cabin and other aircraft systems.

“This technology fundamentally changes how aircraft fleets are managed,” said pro-gram manager Mark Thomson. “The sys-tem connects an aircraft to its support via a series of real-time links, provides insight and fleet context on difficult-to-solve issues and provides a single version of the events used between the aircraft manufacturer, the oper-ator and even the aircraft’s supply base.”

Wireless connectivity links every aircraft to a ground services network, providing a web-based service that delivers a real-time picture of aircraft health accessible at any time from anywhere in the world. The sys-tem integrates with customers’ product sup-port and maintenance systems. –G.P.

Cirrus promotes its piston single as the perfect ‘second airplane’

Cirrus Aircraft is here exhibiting its SR22 piston single on the static display in a bid to persuade business aircraft owners that “there is always a good rea-son to have another plane,” as Jan-Peter Fisher, a Cirrus representative in Ger-many, put it. For example, the SR22 can land at small airfields that can-not accommodate a business jet. The five-seater is “about the fun of flying,” Fisher went on, not forgetting to men-tion the high cruise speed for the cate-gory: 200 knots.

The SR22 may not be very far from the business aviation segment, as light-weight satellite communications are avail-able for the Cirrus models. In addition, the Garmin avionics suite is similar to those found in jets such as the Embraer Phenom 100. Safety features include a ballistic recovery system–a parachute–and flight-into-known-icing approval, as well as the safety pilot the manufacturer can provide under its Cirrus-on-Demand program.

Depending on options, SR22 prices range from $370,000 to $850,000. –T.D.

EBAA president Brian Humphries, left in both photos, presents a Platinum Safety of Flight Award to Tyrol Air Ambulance (left photo); and Gold Award to VistaJet.

Cirrus Aircraft has advanced the single-engine piston aircraft state of the art with jet-style instrumentation, an interior comparable to a luxury sedan’s and the safety and security of a whole-aircraft parachute system.

LEA becomes first in the UK to join the AirClub allianceby James Wynbrandt

AirClub, the alliance of operators that aims to establish a global air charter net-work, announced at EBACE another step toward that goal, signing London Execu-tive Aviation (LEA) as its first member in the UK and ninth overall.

“From the outset, it was clear that Air-Club needed a partner in the UK, so we are more than happy to announce that our colleagues and friends at LEA are joining the alliance today,” said Christian Hatje, AirClub chairman and senior v-p of busi-ness aviation at PrivatAir. “As a premium player in the industry and a well-respected operator in the UK, LEA not only shares the AirClub values, but its great fleet is the perfect supplement for AirClub.”

“LEA is honored to have been invited to become the first member of AirClub from the UK,” said Patrick Margetson-Rushmore, LEA’s chief exec-utive. “Through the sharing of principles and processes, we look forward to play-ing an important role in further improv-ing standards and enhancing the overall customer experience.”

As part of AirClub’s growth plans,

Hatje wants to make chartering a jet online as quick and simple as renting a car, and at its press conference he demon-strated the alliance’s proprietary online booking tool, which allows charterers to select the amenities and see available air-craft and exact pricing.

LEA joins current AirClub affiliates ACM Air Charter, Air Alsie, Air Ham-burg, FlyingGroup, GlobeAir, Master-jet and PrivatAir. “Soon we will welcome business jet operators from the Mid-dle East, Asia and the Americas,” said Hatje. “Our vision is clear; to be the most advanced, leading global alliance of cor-porate jet operators.”

Founded here in Geneva in October 2012, AirClub has grown quickly, and with LEA onboard now has 127 aircraft in its network fleet, ranging from a King Air 200 turboprop to Boeing 757 VIP and Airbus ACJ320 executive airliners. “Our long-term aim is to have 50 operators and 1,000 jets,” said Hatje. He believes the synergies of the network and shared standards will make AirClub “stronger than any other player in the industry.” o

Elit’Avia’s first EBACE a big hitLjubljana, Slovenia-based charter and

management firm Elit’Avia (Booth 1047) is exhibiting at EBACE for the first time. In addition, one each of the company’s super-midsize Challenger 300s and large-cabin Challenger 605s are on display at Bombardier’s static area.

Elit’Avia specializes in business aircraft management and operation services to cli-ents in Europe, Russia, West Africa and the Middle East. It has about a dozen aircraft in its fleet, including Bombardier Challeng-ers and Global XRS/6000s, as well as three Dassault Falcons. The company recently

opened a sales office in Atlanta, which has facilitated the provision of charter and other services in the U.S. and has further advanced aircraft sales.

“This has been a good year for Elit’Avia and we are pleased to be attend-ing EBACE for the first time,” said Elit’Avia president Michel Coulomb. “We now operate one of the world’s larg-est Bombardier Global 6000 fleets. Being based in the heart of Europe provides a unique perspective and facilitates access to markets from Western Europe, to Rus-sia, to Africa.” –C.T.


AirClub has signed London Executive Aviation (LEA) as its first member in the UK. Left to right: LEA’s Patrick Margetson-Rushmore; AirClub’s Christian Hatje; LEA’s George Galanopoulos, and Mauro de Rosa, deputy chairman of AirClub.

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Yasava’s cabin designs add ‘socio-cultural’ flairby Kirby J. Harrison

In a joint venture with MCM DesignStudio, Lausanne-based Yasava Solutions (Booth 971) is taking business jet cabin design in a new direction based on “intelligent ergonomics and socio-cultural design.” The cabin design and engineering firm is initially introducing its

Astral Design Series interior proposals for large-cabin busi-ness jets. According to CEO Christopher Mbanefo, the com-pany is currently in talks with major OEMs and focused on Dassault’s Falcon 7X, Bombar-dier’s Global 6000 and Gulf-stream’s G650 as platforms.

A key component of the Astral cabin is the 16-g, fully articulating and rotating Aïana seat, a product designed and engineered by Yasava and MCM DesignStudio. When fully reclined it becomes a full-flat individual bed, six feet six inches long and 25 inches wide. With four Aïana seats in a VVIP cabin four people can sleep at once, and no one has to put their head

in a place where another might have sat (an abhorrent practice in many cultures). Certification of the Aïana seat is expected in early 2014.

“Most of today’s large-cabin business jet cabins have been developed for the tradi-tional North American and

European markets,” explained Mbanefo, who is a professional pilot and graduate of Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University and Ohio State University with a degree in aerospace engineer-ing. “With the Astral Design Series, we’ve gone back to basics with what we believe will be the growth markets of the future, Brazil, China, India and Russia. Yasava Solutions has developed aircraft interiors that finally meet the ergonomic require-ments of the 21st century user, while consciously addressing the cultural sensitivities of the indi-vidual markets.”

Just as important, said Yasava creative director Milena Cvijan-ovich of MCM DesignStudio,

“Clients now expect their space to conform to their lifestyle, and not the other way around.”

The Astral concept has dis-tinct cabin zones. Aft of the gal-ley is a staff cabin with standard seating for four, followed by the main cabin with four of Yasava’s electrically articulated Aïana seats with the Aïzen “wireless remote jewel” seat control unit. Aft of the main cabin is a lounge for the owner with a double Aïana pat-ent-pending seat that converts from a sofa to a double-size full-flat bed. Between each cabin sec-tion are louvers that can be closed to create privacy barriers. Further aft is a redesigned lavatory, which in a Global 6000 or Gulfstream G650 permits installation of a stand-up shower and includes in-flight access to the main baggage storage area.

A full chef’s galley with induction cooking capability is included. Forward of the gal-ley, the crew rest area has also been redesigned in a modu-lar style so that it can accom-modate storage of passenger luggage and hanging items on shorter trips, when an extra pilot is unnecessary.

Yasava is negotiating at EBACE with selected comple-tion and refurbishment cen-ters and MROs that will be responsible for obtaining the Astral Design Series cabin STCs. “We are also talking with potential clients for the interior,” said Mbanefo.

The company does have a track record. Founded in 1988 by Mbanefo, Yasava was appointed an exclusive repre-sentative for Bombardier Busi-ness Aircraft in 1999. MCM DesignStudio, whose primary expertise is as an international boutique architecture and design firm, is also located in Lausanne. The company was founded in 1994 by Cvijanov-ich and Denis Muller.

Staff writer Amy Laboda also contributed to this article. o


news clipsz KingAirNation Expands into Europe

KingAirNation (KAN), the year-old website devoted to Beechcraft King Air series turboprops and those who love them, launched a section on its site for European members of KAN seeking Euro-centric King Air news. Labeled “KAN Europe,” it is now live on the KingAirNation site.

“We have been planning this for a while, and it is still going to be somewhat of a work in progress while we aggregate more European King Air news,” said KAN founder Danny Carpenter, “but we could not be happier for being able to roll out a new feature our members have been asking for.”

KAN is at various partner booths throughout the show, including Rockwell Collins (Booth 423), Blackhawk Modifications (Booth 1947), GlobalParts.aero (Booth 829) and Garmin International (Booth 959).

z Amstat Demos New Fleet Info ToolAmstat (Booth 931) is demonstrating the latest version of its

online resource tools for business aviation fleet and operator information. For its Premier Online product, the U.S. company says it has designed a “simple and elegant solution” via two menu options. Users also can now share notes and edits with their colleagues, customize result lists, save and schedule reports, add their own data fields (for territory assignment, for example) and customize printouts–even adding their company logos.

Meanwhile, Amstat’s Premier Mobile tool takes a “streamlined approach” to delivering information, according to the company, which targets customers such as brokers/dealers, finance companies, fractional providers and suppliers of spare parts and services.

z SECA and Vector Showcase Engine SupportEBACE co-exhibitors SECA and Vector Aerospace (Booth

1647) are looking to talk to business and regional jet operators and OEMs about their global engine management service (Gems) program. Gems combines the expertise and capabilities of SECA, based at Le Bourget in Paris, and Vector Aerospace’s Engine Services Atlantic (Canada) and UK divisions. Both SECA and Vector are EADS subsidiaries.

Under Gems the companies can provide a range of engine services, from basic off-wing maintenance to global fleet management. The combined portfolio covers engines from General Electric, Honeywell, Pratt & Whitney Canada and Rolls-Royce. The companies also offer a range of other capabilities in the avionics and rotary-wing sectors.

z Avinode Offers New Tool for BrokersAir charter marketplace specialist Avinode (Booth 1047) has

launched Avinode Trip Manager, a new “sales management system” designed for air charter brokers. “It gives members the ability to manage all sales-related tasks–not only flight sourcing–in a completely integrated online environment,” said Oliver King, managing director of the Gothenburg, Sweden-based company.

The new tool can help manage customer relationships, sales and trips. Users can create professionally branded custom quotes and invoices, schedule trips or other business activities, manage their trip services online and upload all associated trip documents. A colleague can easily track the progress of another broker’s quote in Trip Manager. Users can also source flights by transferring their trip information automatically from Trip Manager to Avinode’s Marketplace.

z Odyssey Shows VIP Cabinetry Denton, Texas-based Odyssey Aerospace Components

(Booth 1027) has brought samples of its VVIP 747-8 interior cabinetry to EBACE 2013. “Back in Texas we are in the middle of many design reviews [on the 747-8] and the results are positive,” said Trey Bryson, president of Odyssey Aerospace Components. “Seeing the cabinets and sidewalls laid out room by room takes up a good portion of our finish floor.”

Odyssey Aerospace is partly owned by Greenpoint Technologies, a BBJ completion center located in Kirkland, Washington. It has extensive experience with finish cabinetry for a wide range of BBJ, Airbus, Gulfstream and Bombardier aircraft.

Above: Yasava describes its Astral executive seat as “a dramatic departure from conventional design.”

Right: The Aïzen “wireless remote jewel” is a highly personalized Astral seat control device.

Inaugural bizav conference kicks off in Jeddah June 4

The Middle East Business Aviation Association is host-ing the inaugural Middle East Business Aviation Conference (MEBAC) in Jeddah, Saudi Ara-bia, on June 4. The conference, which is officially sanctioned by Saudi Arabia General Author-ity of Civil Aviation (GACA) president H.H. Prince Fahd bin Abdulla bin Muhammad, will gather prominent leaders from the region’s aviation sector to

discuss the issues affecting the Kingdom’s business aviation market. Keynote speakers will include Prince Fahd, GACA vice president Dr. Faisal Bin Hamad Al Sughair, and Wajdi Alidrissi, managing director of MEBAC sponsor Saudi Private Aviation. In the afternoon, the conference will move into panel discussions where industry and regulatory leaders will debate topics such as the grey-charter market and

regulatory frameworks.Meanwhile, business avia-

tion in Saudi Arabia is growing quickly and is one of the seg-ment’s biggest markets among the six states in the Gulf Coop-eration Council, commanding about a 35-percent market share there. “We anticipate that the Saudi Arabian market will wit-ness growth of at least 10 per-cent through to 2014, due to the government’s bold plans for economic cities throughout the Kingdom and other major infrastructure projects currently under way and in the pipeline,” said Alidrissi. –C.T.

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Cobham Aviator satcom is now certified for Cessna Citation II

Cobham Satcom (formerly Thrane & Thrane, Booth 2107) has announced that its Aviator 300 SwiftBroadband solu-tion has been approved by EASA under a supplemental type certificate (STC) for installation in the Cessna 550, 550 Bravo and S550.

The STC was developed in part-nership with Danish company Scan-dinavian Avionics (Booth 373). The companies are also looking at certify-ing the system for additional aircraft in the Citation family, such as the 500 and 560. SwiftBroadband is already approved for the Citation X, Embraer Legacy 600/650 and Bombardier

Challenger 300.Aviator 300 is one of a range of

Inmarsat SwiftBroadband satcom sys-tems offered by Cobham Satcom and employs an intermediate-gain antenna in a low-profile fuselage installation, offering a data rate of up to 332 kbps. As part of the STC, Wi-Fi functionality in the cabin is approved, as is a hand-set for voice communications with the ground. Cobham Satcom also produces the lightweight Aviator 200 with a low-gain antenna and the larger and higher-data rate Aviator 350 and 700/700D systems, which uses a Cobham high-gain antenna. –D.D.


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‘Good times are coming,’ says...

Steve Varsano, founder of London-based business jet sales brokerage The Jet Business. He’s optimistic about the indus-try these days because, he said, keeping things in perspective, there are now 35 percent more business jets in the fleet since the recession took hold in 2007. “That’s 5,000 more jets flying today than just six years ago, which is pretty good when you think about it,” he pointed out.

Over the past two months Varsano has seen an uptick in pre-owned busi-ness jet sales activity at his firm, “with lots of clients making offers.” And with two weeks until the close of the first half of the year, he said The Jet Business has already met its revenue projections for all of 2013. Because of this, he is nearly dou-bling his revenue goal for the entire year.

Varsano is seeing growing sales activ-ity from emerging markets, which he said were the industry’s savior during the eco-nomic downturn. He is especially bullish on the business jet market in Africa, not-ing that he sees at least one walk-in cli-ent from Nigeria about every two weeks in his aircraft retail outlet in London’s exclusive Hyde Park Corner area.

According to Varsano, Africa has the potential to be the fastest growing market for business jets in the near-term, given that the continent is rich in energy sources and other natural resources. He also said that Africa–unlike other emerging markets such as China and India–has good aviation infrastructure already in place, as well as no airspace restrictions. –C.T.

Lineage 1000 sold to FlyingGroupThe Embraer Lineage 1000 on the

static line at EBACE 2013 has been sold to a customer of Belgium’s FlyingGroup. Ernest Edwards, president of Embraer Executive Jets, and FlyingGroup CEO Bernard van Milders, climbed aboard to celebarate the sale of the first ultra-large cabin Embraer Lineage 1000 deliv-ered in Belgium. The aircraft, which will be operated both privately and for char-ter by FlyingGroup, will be based in Ant-werp and operated to points as far away as Kazakhstan, and even beyond, accord-ing to van Milders.

The Lineage has a published range of 4,400 nm with eight passengers and NBAA IFR fuel reserves. The aircraft pur-chased by FlyingGroup will be capable of carrying up to 19 passengers in three sep-arate cabin areas divided into VVIP, VIP and staff seating areas. The aircraft fea-tures a spacious aft lavatory and divans that open to comfortable sleeping berths.

“This is the first for FlyingGroup–to have

a large category business jet in our fleet,” said van Milders. “It gives us long-range capabili-ties and, for the owner, who has a family that travels with him, it gives the ability to travel in a spacious cabin very comfortably and arrive after a long flight rested and ready for whatever comes his way.”

The FlyingGroup expects to take delivery of the Lineage 1000 in Sep-tember. –A.L.

Cobham Satcom is adding STCs for new Inmarsat SwiftBroadband satellite communications system installations. The latest covers Cessna’s Citation 550, 550 Bravo and S550 models.

FlyingGroup CEO Bernard van Milders, left, and Embraer Executive Jets president Ernest Edwards onboard the Lineage 1000 at EBACE 2013. Milders signed for the first Lineage 1000 delivered in Belgium. The aircraft will be operated by FlyingGroup for an undisclosed European customer.

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A BAron joins the sAxonAir fleet

During EBACE Beechcraft delivered a G58 Baron to SaxonAir, a Norwich, UK-based char-ter company that also has bases at Biggin Hill and Cannes, France. The Baron will be used for company transportation and will also be available for charter. SaxonAir’s fleet includes the Hawker 900XP and 400XP, a King Air 350, two Citation Mustangs and Eurocopter EC120 and EC135 helicopters. Celebrating the handover here at EBACE are (from left): Scott Plumb, Beechcraft v-p sales for EMEA; Christopher Mace, group commercial director for SaxonAir parent Klyne Aviation; Alex Durand, SaxonAir charter CEO; and Richard Emery, Beechcraft president EMEA and Asia-Pacific. –D.D.


328 Support delivers on timeCompletions and refurbishment pro-

vider 328 Support (Booth 388) has deliv-ered three aircraft to Nigeria this spring. The company provided SkyBird Air with a total of three Dornier 328DBJs, the last one being delivered in April.

The 328DBJ has long-range tanks for a range, with four passengers, of just under 2,000 nm. The cabin, done by Robin Dunlop of CTM design, is in neutral tones complemented by red seat belts, which is consistent with the Sky-Bird Air brand. Decorative veneers, a full HD entertainment system, and a satcom Wi-Fi system complete the retrofit.

In June, 328 Support expects to deliver a unique Dornier 328 conversion to

SpringChild, a Lagos-based company. “We are pleased to deliver these 328 con-versions to the rapidly growing business aviation sector in Nigeria. It has become an important area for us and we are con-tinually seeking opportunities to expand in the region,” said Dave Jackson, man-aging director, 328 Group.

The company is well-equipped for expansion, having recently acquired a new maintenance facility at Big-gin Hill Airport near London (now branded under its “Jets” division). It is also broadening its offerings and now offers maintenance support away from the company’s home base of Oberpfaffenhofen in Germany. –A.L.

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Heli-Alps picks Blue Eye EFBs

Heli-Alps, the Sion-based helicopter operator, has signed a deal with Luxem-bourg’s MRX Systems (Booth 1935) for its Blue Eye eTechLog application and to manage its fleet’s continuous airworthi-ness activities. Blue Eye is an electronic flight bag system that allows pilots to

fill out flight information and to report squawks and discrepancies. For ground technicians, the system can be used to sign off certificates of release to service.

Blue Eye takes advantage of technology such as the iPad’s speech-recognition feature so that crews are freed from typing detailed descriptions of issues. Moreover, Blue Eye provides a means of real-time communica-tion between crews and technicians and it provides an up-to-date aircraft status after each technical logging event. –D.D.

Pilatus PC-24 targets unique new nicheby Chad Trautvetter

Is the new Pilatus PC-24 a light or midsize jet? That’s the question that has been baffling EBACE attendees ever since the twinjet was revealed on Tues-day. On one hand, the aircraft’s 17,650-pound mtow, nearly identical to that of the Embraer Phenom 300, places it firmly in the light-jet category, but its 501-cu-ft cabin volume suggests it is midsize, since it is well above the 325 cu ft in the Phenom.

In fact, the PC-24’s cabin is larger than the best-selling mid-size jet–the Cessna Citation

XLS+–in almost every respect. It is wider (67 inches versus 66 inches), longer (23 feet versus 18.5 feet) and more voluminous (501 cu ft versus 461 cu ft). How-ever, the PC-24 does not have as much cabin height: 61 inches ver-sus the XLS+’s 68 inches. The PC-24 has a flat floor, while the Citation has a drop-down floor, so seated passengers in the XLS+ won’t have appreciably more headroom than in the PC-24.

Dubbed “Crystal Class,” the Pilatus jet’s interior, according to the aircraft manufacturer,

evokes the qualities of Swiss crystal: beauty, uniqueness and versatility. The six-passen-ger cabin mockup on display here at EBACE certainly dem-onstrates the first two qualities, while its versatility comes from no fewer than seven interior options, including three exec-utive versions (six, eight and six-/eight-seat quick change configurations), 10-passenger commuter layout, combi (for-ward club-seat cluster and aft cargo), cargo and medevac. In the three executive versions, the externally serviced lavatory can be located in either the fore or aft cabin, and there is a gal-ley option as well. No matter which configuration is chosen, operators are sure to appreciate the jet’s large 4.1- by 4.25-foot rear cargo door.

Pilatus has not yet selected a cabin management system (CMS) for the PC-24, saying that technology advances in these electronics are occurring so rapidly that it is still too soon to commit to a CMS for a jet that won’t be certified until 2017. But it has chosen Boulder, Col-orado-based Air Comm to pro-vide the PC-24’s environmental cooling and heating system.

In the jet’s front end, the Swiss aircraft manufacturer has selected the Honeywell Primus Apex flight deck, which is branded as the

Pilatus Advanced Cockpit Envi-ronment. The most basic version includes four 12-inch displays, Honeywell SmartView synthetic vision, Tcas II, inertial reference system, Waas LPV approaches and graphical flight planning on

the moving map.According to Pilatus, the

PC-24 mockup here at EBACE will also be appearing at the Paris Air Show next month, as well as at the NBAA Convention in Las Vegas this October. o


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Pilots will be treated to an impressive cockpit, featuring avionics based on Honeywell’s Primus Apex flight deck, but branded as the Pilatus Advanced Cockpit Environment.

The PC-24’s “Crystal Glass” interior is designed for beauty, uniqueness and versatility. With its flat floor, the new jet’s cabin is sized at 501 cubic feet of volume.

Operators of PC-12 turboprops from Pilatus will instantly recognize the mammoth cargo door at the rear of the PC-24. Missions will no-doubt include plenty of heavy hauling.

Challenger 350 will have Pro Line 21 ‘Advanced’by Matt Thurber

Bombardier’s new Challenger 350 will feature an upgraded flight deck based on the Rockwell Collins Pro Line 21 suite, but marketed by Bombardier as the Pro Line 21 Advanced. The Advanced version brings new capabilities to Pro Line 21 and will also be available as a retrofit

on Challenger 300s. New capabilities that Pro

Line 21 Advanced brings to the Challenger 300/350 include syn-thetic vision, FANS 1/A, ADS-B OUT, CPDLC, RNP basic and authorization required and LPV guidance. The Rockwell Col-lins MultiScan Threat Detection

System radar will also be avail-able for both the Challenger 300 and 350. MultiScan reduces pilot workload by automatically iden-tifying weather and turbulence.

Another Pro Line 21 Advanced feature is the latest version of the Rockwell Collins integrated flight information system (IFIS) with XM satel-lite weather (available in North America), global weather via datalink and paperless display of charts, maps and documents. The IFIS also is integrated with Rockwell Collins’s Ascend

Flight Information Manager system, which allows opera-tors to update maintenance and flight operations data, including avionics databases, wirelessly anywhere in the world.

On Tuesday Rockwell Col-lins and Piaggio announced an upgrade program for the Piaggio Avanti P180 twin tur-boprop. The program, avail-able from Ruag Aviation, allows operators to upgrade their Pro Line 4 avionics to Pro Line 21.

The Pro Line 21 P180 cock-pit will be equipped with three

or four 10- by 8-inch LCDs and Rockwell Collins’s IFIS, plus a new FMS and GPS-4000 that enables Waas LPV and space-based augmentation system with vertical guidance approaches.

“This upgrade provides enabling flight deck technolo-gies that allow P180 operators to take operational advantage of current and future commu-nication, navigation and surveil-lance capabilities,” said Claude Alber, Rockwell Collins v-p and managing director for Europe, Middle East and Africa. o

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Lightning-proof HD cameras now available from Otonomy

Bordeaux-based Otonomy Aviation (Booth 1826) is displaying its CamHD 1080 line of high-definition digital air-borne cameras at EBACE. The com-pany’s HD cameras, which can be tail or belly mounted, recently completed DO160 lightning-strike certification, including direct strikes.

Otonomy’s cameras, which are com-patible with all in-flight entertainment systems and cockpit displays, can pro-vide up to eight simultaneous video out-puts, such as 1080i HD, Ethernet H264 streaming in 720P and NTSC. All of

Otonomy’s CamHD units can be pow-ered directly from an aircraft’s 28 VDC electrical system and each camera can be used as a standalone unit or incorporated into an array of on-ship cameras.

The company’s CamHD 1080 line encompasses four main products: VCCU-E, a video convertor unit; CamHD-1, a tail or belly-mount color high-definition cam-era unit; CamHD-4, a quad pod of four integrated color cameras that provides a 360-degree view with angle overlap; and CamD-Z, an up to 120x zoom camera with picture-freeze capability. –C.T.

Charter Guide freshens up its familiar face

Users of the Air Charter Guide will notice a complete redesign of the publi-cation, starting with the June edition. The worldwide guide to charter operators now appears alphabetically by country, rather than regionally. Maps within each section have undergone a redesign and a complete worldwide index of operators will make the information much easier for subscrib-ers to navigate. The two-column format throughout, once reserved for Metro sec-tions, makes the directory more readable.

“The new design makes it much more user friendly,” said Francine Brasseur, asso-ciate publisher of the Air Charter Guide (Booth 631). “We have simplified the ad sizes as well, giving it a fresh, bold look.”

Along with the redesign of the Air Charter Guide, Brasseur announced the planned reintroduction in December of the Air Cargo Supplement, a free user guide to air cargo carriers, brokers and handlers. “We stopped publishing the air cargo supplement a year ago, and we are still getting requests for it,” said Brasseur. “As a result, we decided to bring it back at the end of this year.”

Detailed listings of air cargo carri-ers in the supplement include maximum weight and floor bearing, cubic meters or feet, hazmat (hazardous material) and livestock capabilities and cabin pressurization. –G.P.

FlightSafety will train for PC-24Under a new master training ser-

vices agreement signed by Pilatus Air-craft, pilots and mechanics will obtain factory-authorized training for the new Pilatus PC-24 twinjet from FlightSafety International.

The agreement calls for a FlightSafety PC-24 simulator to be installed at the training provider’s learning center in Dallas and, if necessary, at other loca-tions. In addition to a full-motion sim-ulator, FlightSafety will also build graphical flight deck simulators, desk-top simulators for classrooms and Sim Vu simulator flight debriefing systems. FlightSafety courseware developers and simulation engineers and Pilatus per-sonnel are working together on PC-24 training programs and equipment.

The Dallas learning center currently offers Pilatus PC-12 NG training and will add training for the PC-12-47 series in early 2014.

“FlightSafety’s experience, high qual-ity training programs and reputation for outstanding customer service made it the ideal choice to serve as the exclusive

authorized training provider for the new Pilatus PC-24,” said Pilatus chairman Oscar Schwenk.

The PC-24 is expected to be certified and enter service in early 2017. –M.T.

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fast moving floor plan

You can get one step closer to supersonic travel by visiting the Aerion booth (No. 7030) here at EBACE. Take a walk down the corridor of the proposed supersonic jet’s cabin and try the seating layout on for size. A fuselage cross-section is available for checking headroom.

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Pilatus Aircraft chairman Oscar Schwenk calls FlightSafety International “the ideal choice” for Pilatus PC-24 training.

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Otonomy Aviation CEO Guillaume Daudon displays his latest offering, a lightning proof HD videocam.

Hamburg awards provide glimpse of future cabins

The Crystal Cabin Awards for innovative products and con-cepts in cabin interiors yielded seven winners from a field of 21 this year, a number of which may easily find a market in busi-ness aviation as well as in the commercial airline industry.

The winners were announced at a gala dinner in April in Ham-burg, Germany, and were publi-cally recognized on the following day at the annual Aircraft Inte-riors Expo. Four of the winning entries had obvious applications in the business and private avia-tion markets.

Perhaps the most eye-opening winner (pun intended) was in the Passenger Comfort Systems cate-gory, with the Irvine, California-based IFE unit of Thales being recognized for its system con-trolled exclusively by a combina-tion of hand and eye movements. The combination of eye-track-ing and hand-gesture technolo-gies represents what the company believes is the next generation of cabin entertainment interface. Thales further believes that pri-vate and business jet owners will embrace it quickly.

The TravelChair created after extensive development by MERU in the UK won the Pas-senger Comfort Hardware cat-egory. The chair was created specifically for severely dis-abled children between the ages of three and eleven. It weighs 13.2 pounds, fits most aircraft passenger seats and has been approved for use by EASA. Vir-gin Atlantic has already pur-chased 25 of the chairs for use by its disabled child passengers.

Designers of larger busi-ness jets interiors may find the Zodiac Aerospace winner in the Innovative Space Interior System worth considering. The com-pany’s new ISIS overhead bin

system is the result of decon-structing and reimagining the A320 interior. The retrofit piv-oting bin results in a 60-percent gain in bag capacity, improves

headroom and 100-percent recyclable ECOform sidewalls contribute to a greener cabin. A single unit can accommodate four full-size roll-on bags.

Also suited to large bizliners with cabin-class compartments is an insulated galley cart designed by Boeing (Booth 107) and win-ner of the Greener Cabin, Health, Safety & Environment category. It

allows the management of cold food within required parame-ters for as long as 17 hours. Best of all, as a retrofit item it enables the carrier to get rid of heavy

refrigeration units. Additional equipment needed for exhaust elimination for those units can be disposed of during a regular required inspection. –K.J.H.


Crystal Cabin Awards winners accepted kudos at the Aircraft Interiors Exposition in April.

A special chair created by UK-based MERU for severely disabled children won a Crystal Cabin Award in the Passenger Comfort Hardware category.

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Renowned for Swiss Excellence in Business Aviation, AMAC Aerospace is now the largest privately owned facility in the world. Our third hangar, completed in May 2012, significantly expands our capabilities in corporate and private aircraft maintenance, refurbishment and completion.

With the new 8,400m2 wide-body hangar our total floor space extends over21,000m2. In each of the two wide-body hangars AMAC is able to service a Boeing B747-8i wide-body jet, a Boeing B787 or Airbus A340/A330 and an AirbusA320 or Boeing BBJ/A320 simultaneously. The new hangar is also extendable to accommodate an Airbus A380.

In terms of modern technology, our hangars meet all of the European andinternational standards and also respect environmental concerns. You will findAMAC Aerospace in the heart of Europe, at EuroAirport Basel-Mulhouse.

Visit us at EBACE, May 21–23, 2013, Hall 6, Stand 258.

AMAC Aerospace’s Wide-Body Hangars

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AMAC Aerospace Switzerland AGHenric Petri-Strasse 354051 Basel, Switzerland

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Phenom 300 Prodigy Touch upgrade approved The new Garmin G3000-based Prod-

igy Touch avionics suite for the Embraer Phenom 300 was certified early this

month by Brazil’s Agência Nacional de Aviação Civil and the U.S. FAA; EASA approval is expected in April 2014.

The Prodigy Touch suite is an optional upgrade from the standard G1000-based Prodigy flight deck. Although it will be generally available as an option starting in the fourth quarter of this year, a NetJets “Signature Series” Phenom 300 has already been delivered (on May 1) with Prodigy Touch fitted, and the fractional owner-ship provider’s 17 other Embraer light jets, which it is scheduled to receive this year, will also feature the Touch avionics.

Embraer Executive Jets (Booth 7041) said the new avionics “revolutionize” the man-machine interface and give pilots the first touch-screen-controlled glass flight deck designed for light tur-bine aircraft. “The Prodigy Touch ben-efits from all the existing Prodigy flight deck features, but enhances the expe-rience with touch-screen technology,” said Embraer Executive Jets president Ernest Edwards. “It is part of Embraer

Executive Jets’ ongoing efforts to contin-ually offer improvements that enhance situational awareness and safety, and reduce pilot workload for a better over-all flight experience.”

Prodigy Touch incorporates the lat-est technologies in a highly integrated and automated architecture. The sys-tem features three 14.1-inch displays–two primary flight displays (PFDs) and a multifunction display (MFD). All are capable of split-screen functionality to show additional information, such as dis-playing maps, charts, electronic docu-ments, system synoptics and flight plan information, alongside the core informa-tion of each display.

The system also features two 5.7-inch touch-screen controllers that consoli-date several interfaces. These control-lers, which serve as primary data-entry points, feature an icon-driven inter-face built on an easy-to-navigate menu structure, enabling access to systems and sensors with fewer keystrokes or page sequences. –C.T.


Geneva airpark expands FBO services

Geneva Airpark (Booth 1721) has introduced an array of new services and facilities. The expansion of the four-year-old FBO follows a 10-percent increase in traffic handled during 2012, to 4,500 movements.

The new service portfolio includes oxygen system servicing, oil-level and tire-pressure checks, as well as fuel-pump draining. The company also offers aircraft cleaning and permanent video surveillance.

The 215,000-sq-ft complex, situated close to Terminal C3 at Geneva Interna-tional Airport, consists of 108,000 sq ft of hangar space, 75,000 sq ft of ramp, 51,000 sq ft of offices. The hangar has a 72-foot-high door and can accommo-date up to 18 business jets, or a pair of 747s simultaneously.

The FBO already provides full ramp services, crew workrooms and WiFi across the ramp and hangar. A 3-D video of the facility can be viewed at www.geneva-airpark.ch. –C.A.

Garmin G3000-based Prodigy Touch avionics suite is said to give pilots the first touch-screen-controlled glass flight deck designed for light turbine aircraft.

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Eurocopter expands Oxford MRO hubby David Donald

Eurocopter UK at Oxford Airport is branding itself as “Britain’s civil helicopter hub,” and with good reason. Of the 700 or so civilian tur-bine-engine helicopters that fly in Britain (the largest fleet

in Europe), around 45 percent are made by Eurocopter, mak-ing it far and away the biggest OEM in the sector. To meet the demands of the opera-tors of the 300-plus civilian Eurocopter helicopters, the

company has put in place a comprehensive modification and maintenance program.

Headquartered at Oxford and with service centers at Aber-deen, Scotland, and Hawar-den in north Wales, Eurocopter UK is part of the Eurocopter Group that also owns Vector Aerospace, which handles non-Eurocopter MRO work at its facilities at Almondbank and Fleetlands. Eurocopter UK, on the other hand, supports the OEM’s own products, including those used by the military.

The UK’s civilian fleet per-forms myriad tasks that span private/business use, oil and gas support, air ambulance, law enforcement, powerline moni-toring and many others. From its Oxford base, Eurocopter UK oversees type conversion, maintenance and servicing support across the wide prod-uct portfolio. As well as its ser-vicing centers, the company has 20 mobile vans that allow engineers to be dispatched rap-idly to perform on-site inspec-tions and minor work.

Modification is a key part of the business, and Eurocopter UK is one of the company’s

six main design centers, spe-cializing in external stores such as surveillance systems. Eurocopter UK (Booth 7050) handles about 50 modification projects every year. Many of them involve bespoke engineer-ing solutions that are designed in-house and then installed in the Hangar 7 facility. The com-pany is approved to certificate minor modifications in-house, and oversees the certification

of more major work. The mod-ification center has its own flight-test personnel.

Although it is the police and air ambulance modifications that are the most visible, the center also performs numer-ous cabin conversions, with VIP interiors for both private and business customers being commonplace. The company is also experienced in re-purpos-ing aircraft. o


Oxford Airport’s Hangar 7 is where the majority of Eurocopter UK’s modification work takes place, covering work as diverse as fitting out police helicopters with state-of-the-art surveillance systems to installing bespoke VIP cabin interiors.

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Signature OpenS SecOnd Berlin FBO at tegel airpOrt

Signature Flight Support (Booth 364) has opened a satellite base at Berlin Tegel Airport. The new facility gives operators an alternative to the company’s existing FBO at Berlin Schoenefeld Airport and closer access to the center of the German capital.

“We are very pleased to be able to extend to Signature customers the option of choosing another Signature FBO when visiting the city of Berlin,” said Peter Bouwer, Signature’s director of operations for Europe, the Middle East and Africa. “The business clients at Tegel are primarily involved with the larger international manufacturing compa-nies in the area, but we believe the leisure traveler will also follow suit, using the Signature facilities at this convenient airport.”

Tegel is located on the northwest side of Berlin, while Schoene-feld is on the southeast side of the city. Schoenefeld is to be merged with the new Berlin Brandenburg Airport, which is due to open, after a significant delay, in 2014. At that point, Tegel Airport is to close. Sig-nature also has FBOs in Frankfurt and Munich. –C.A.


two to 20 tons and carrying up to 19 seats. The 2011 exemption allows non-im-

ported privately owned jets of up to 19 seats (no mtow limit) to spend as many as 30 consecutive days in Russia each year (180 days total). There are significant penalties for aircraft that overstay.

Just this month Russian civil aviation authorities started on another set of rule revisions that concern over-flight and landing permissions; if these rules go in-to effect next week, it could significant-ly reduce both the time it takes to receive permissions, and their costs.

Despite these rules changes, more than 400 Russian-owned aircraft are reg-istered and managed outside the coun-try, while an estimated 29 are registered and managed inside Russia. Explain-ing the dichotomy, Derek Bloom, prin-cipal at Capital Legal Services, who has experience making arrangements for clients interested in owning a Russian registered aircraft, said, “The problem starts with VAT and duty being charged for any aircraft imported and registered as Russian. It is so discouraging that 90 percent of all business and private jets operating in Russia today are regis-tered elsewhere.”

Financiers BearishBloom further explained that 18-per-

cent VAT and 20-percent customs duties are levied on the value of the imported and registered aircraft. He also suggested that many of his clients are skeptical about the new rules regarding their rights to property. “Financiers also are not very interested in financing an airplane operat-ing in Russia,” he added.

Finally, Bloom said Russia’s infra-structure is not adequate to support the kind of business aviation operations common in Europe.

“We don’t have the airports, nor the FBOs and maintenance facilities to sup-port the aircraft, but that’s a chicken-or-egg sort of problem. If we could sort through the other discouraging factors and fix those, I believe the support would come,” concluded Bloom.

On the Plus SideSo with all the drawbacks to import-

ing an aircraft to Russia, why bother? The benefits are significant, according to Rus-sian operator Evgeny Bakhtin of Avcom. “Landing fees virtually disappear if you are Russian registered and operating in Russia. Air traffic control fees are much, much lower; even fuel costs can be lower,” he explained.

“We agree it would be great to have a

VAT exemption on business jets. But in my opinion, that is not an insurmountable obstacle to operating Russian-registered jets,” said Viktoria Goreva of Rusjet. “The charter revenue from these aircraft more than compensates for the VAT and cus-toms costs,” she said.

Bloom argued that the costs were, in fact, jeopardizing aviation safety in Russia by encouraging the importa-tion of old, cheap, less safe aircraft. It is also discriminatory, he said. “Those owners and operators in Moscow and St. Petersburg can easily operate a non-Russian-registered aircraft into and out of Russia because of their proximity to Europe,” he explained. “But Siberians and eastern Russians have no such con-venience. Because of the restrictions on foreign aircraft operating domestically in Russia, operators are forced to have Russian-registered aircraft. The result is that you hardly see any business aircraft

east of Moscow.” Kondratiev responded to Bloom’s chal-

lenges, pointing out that much has changed in Russian aviation regulations in a short time. “We have come so far, but you need to know that it can’t all happen in a day or a week,” he said. “We do anticipate more Russian private aircraft registrations in the near future, as people understand the new rules better,” he said. o

many exciting career opportunities avail-able in business aviation.

Additionally, a delegation of around 30 CEOs from local-area companies with no experience using business aviation will be hosted by EBAA and NBAA. The CEOs will receive a briefing on busi-ness aviation and how it operates, and will tour the exhibit floor and static dis-play. The delegation’s visit was arranged in cooperation with the French/Swiss Chamber of Commerce.

“Just like last year, EBACE has proven to be of great value to the busi-ness aviation community,” said Ed Bolen, president and CEO of NBAA, co-spon-sor with EBAA of EBACE. “It has been a place where the industry has rallied together, made new announcements and set a positive tone, all of which has the business aviation community looking for-ward to the future.”

Those sentiments were echoed by EBAA CEO Fabio Gamba: “What I saw at EBACE 2013 was an industry that is not only addressing the economic situa-tion in this region, but one that is taking the necessary steps to ensure that business aviation remains essential in Europe.” o

EBACE 13uContinued from page 1

Russia’s roleuContinued from page 1

Left to right: moderator Cathy Buyck, Aviation Week; Anna Serejkina, RUBAA; Derek Bloom, Capital Legal Services; Martin Lener, Tyrolean Jet Services; Viktoria Goreva, Rusjet; Nikolai Kondratiev, Open Sky and Evgeny Bakhtin, Avcom, formed a panel of experts to discuss and debate the state and future of business aviation, both private and commercial, in Russia.

Solar Impulse now traversing United States

Swiss pilot Bertrand Piccard flew the Solar Impulse from Moffett Field, Cal-ifornia, to Phoenix, Arizona, on May 3 on the first leg of a historic across-Amer-ica journey. The Solar Impulse uses only solar power, storing energy in lithium-ion batteries by day to keep the four 10-hp engines turning through the night. As these words were written yesterday, Solar Impulse was airborne again, heading for Dallas with Andre Borschberg at the controls for what could be a record-set-ting solar-powered distance of more than 830 miles. It was due to land around 0800 Switzerland time. In subsequent legs, the Solar Impulse is scheduled to fly to St. Louis and Washington, before arriving at New York’s JFK airport. –D.D.

Virgin chairman Richard Branson poses with the Swiss pioneers Bertrand Piccard (left) and André

Borschberg in front of the Solar Impulse at Moffett Field, California, earlier this month.

Eye-catching planner appRocketRoute (Booth 1257)

announced at EBACE that Salzburg, Austria-based char-ter, management and sales firm Private Airlines is its first Gulfstream customer for the RocketRoute flight-planning app. Private Airlines’s fleet includes the Gulfstream G150, G280 and G650, as well as Boeing and Airbus bizliners.

The web-based RocketRoute app for PCs and mobile devices allows Private Airlines’ crew and

operations staff to log on from anywhere and prepare, dispatch and manage flights. Accord-ing to the UK-based software developer, its app empowers and re-integrates crews into the flight-planning process, result-ing in “significant cost savings and increases in productivity.”

RocketRoute currently has more than 25,000 registered users, handling some 500,000 routings since the company was founded just three years ago. –C.T.


Time-to-climb overachiever, Challenger 350 leads pack

The Challenger 350 will become the time-to-climb leader of the entire Bombardier business jet line once it enters service next year, Bombardier Challenger v-p and general manager Stephane Lablanc told a gathering of reporters dur-ing a technical briefing here on Tuesday. Bombardier expects the super midsize jet to reach 41,000 feet in 18 minutes, sur-passing the current leader, the Learjet 60.

Now 30 percent through the flight test program, the Chal-lenger 350 has flown some 200 hours validating performance specifications related to a new set of winglets that effectively extend the wingspan of its Chal-lenger 300 cousin by nine feet. The longer and stronger wing allows for an increase in mtow of 1,750 pounds over the Chal-lenger 300 and about 750 more

pounds of fuel. Other performance improve-

ments come from the airplane’s new Honeywell HTF7350 engines, which produce 500 pounds more thrust than the HTF7000 on the Challenger 300 while burning no more fuel.

Following the firm launch order by NetJets for 75 Chal-lenger 350s announced here Monday, Bombardier began sales efforts involving other potential customers. On Tuesday, however, Leblanc declined to comment on any further orders, citing com-pany policy. –G.P.

Jepp/Honeywell iPad appJeppesen (Booth 1351) has

teamed up with Honeywell to develop what it claims is the first integrated navigation data service (INDS) data manager applica-tion for the iPad. It will be avail-able later in the summer, initially for operators of the Pilatus PC-12 NG with the Honeywell Primus Apex integrated flight deck and Aspen Avionics CG100P con-nected panel. The INDS solu-tion greatly simplifies the update

process by wirelessly uploading or downloading critical Jeppesen and Honeywell flight data to the onboard avionics.

Another new offering in which Jeppesen is involved is the Fal-con Perf tool from Dassault, which runs in a 32-bit Windows XP environment as part of the EASy avionics suite, or with the 64-bit Windows 7 operating sys-tem as part of the EASy II suite. Falcon Perf uses Jeppesen airport

and navigation data, along with aircraft flight manual data, to facilitate takeoff and landing per-formance calculations.

Jeppesen is introducing new features for its FlitePlan Online service, extending the ability of European operators to access Jeppesen’s route optimization engine. Etops capabilities are now provided through the tool, as is a Notam management func-tion to organize critical flight data. FlitePlan Online now also provides Eurocontrol central flow management unit validation for flights in Europe. –D.D.

winning tickets

Charlot Cassar, senior manager of business develop-ment for CAD Transport Malta holds the lucky tickets that he drew from a raffle for air-craft type rating courses with Aeronautical Professionals Malta. The fortunate winners were Terry Tudor of Han-gar8 and Peter Vasko of U.S. Steel Košice. The value of the courses is estimated at a total of $23,000.� n

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Abelag: 50 years of quiet growth

After almost 50 years of quiet growth, Belgium-based charter operator Abelag is ready to speak up. “Abelag is a discreet com-pany,” CEO Herve Laitat said at EBACE. “Maybe it’s the philos-ophy of the company to be low profile, like our clients.” Even Abe-lag’s compact stand (Booth 1158) is low-key, belying the scale of its operations. The privately owned company operates a fleet of 25 air-craft ranging from a Beechcraft King Air 200 to a pair of Falcon 7Xs, based at five airports. Abelag also operates an FBO and a Part 145 repair station at its home base at Brussels International Airport.

The FBO recently underwent total refurbishment and its han-gar space was doubled with the opening of a new 4,000-sq-m (43,000-sq-ft) hangar that can house aircraft up to a Gulfstream G650. Abelag provides line and base maintenance on most of the aircraft types it operates, and also has a shared owner-ship program with a Citation CJ2 in which the company itself is a share owner, not simply manager. Additionally, Abelag serves as an aircraft broker when owners of its managed aircraft look to upgrade or downgrade.

With its 50th anniversary com-ing in 2014, Laitat is looking ahead to Abelag’s next half cen-tury and sees opportunities for growth in consolidation, possibly via merger or acquisition. Laitat is interested in operators within a one-hour flight radius from Ben-elux that use the aircraft types he operates, but has not begun search-ing for prospects, he said. “Hon-estly, we can be very proud that we’re almost back to the figures from before the crisis in terms of hours, but it’s not like 2005.” –J.W.

Ewe Nitsche and Kurt Lyall from RocketRoute have secured a deal with Austrian charter operator Private Airlines.

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Fifty Years of Passion

The best is yet to come.

Generations of Falcons have one thing in common. Each one advances the state of the art. Becoming more effi cient. More capable. More comfortable.

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Find out why. Scan the code or visit falconjet.com/50-years

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EBACE Convention News 5-23-13 Issue

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