Newsmakers 2010
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INSIDE NEWSMAKERS 2010 response to the Haiti crisis represents the • Newsmaker of the year: best in all of us,” said NBAA president and The future of Wichita pg 22 Business aviation lends CEO Ed Bolen at the association’s annual convention in October, where respond- • Volcanic eruption in Iceland spells ers from the business aviation commu- chaos in the skies above Europe pg 22 VOLCANIC ERUPTION IN ICELAND SPELLS a helping hand in Haiti nity were honored for their work. “As the • Business aviation lends a helping NEWSMAKERS CHAOS IN THE SKIES ABOVE EUROPE world began to understand the magnitude hand in Haiti pg 23 The magnitude-7.0 earthquake that In the days and weeks after the earth- of the tragedy, our industry mobilized. Many travelers have tales to tell their children about the day • SMS is coming to a ramp check in the spring of 2010 when a volcano in Iceland erupted, closing hit Haiti last January 12 affected the lives quake, an all-volunteer private air force Almost immediately, airplanes and avia- of millions, most of them poor and flew more than 800 sorties, carrying 3,800 tion expertise were volunteered, supplies near you pg 23 much of northern Europe’s airspace for the best part of a week. all of them suddenly cut off from the rest passengers and more than 1.4 million were donated, ramp and hangar space was • NTSB blames pilots for I won’t have to tell my children: they were with my wife and me Gulfstream made the big leap of the world after the country’s worst pounds of supplies, including doctors made available, fuel discounts were offered, Colgan Q400 crash pg 24 when we landed at London Heathrow, for my mother’s funeral, a away from the GI cabin cross sec- natural disaster in more than 200 years. and other first responders, food, water and charts were provided. As a result of • Learjet 60 accident sheds light on tion after 50 years with the unveil- scant three hours before the door closed on the airspace at noon Though damaged, Port-au-Prince’s and medical equipment. The main airport this remarkable outpouring of time, exper- Newsmaker of Year: under-inflated tires pg 24 ing of its new flagship, the G650, local time on April 15. Toussaint L’ouverture International in Port-au-Prince, as well as a number of tise and resources, countless lives were not in early 2008. It’s time for simi- When Eyjafjallajökull spewed millions of tons of volcanic ash Airport was still able to accept arriving temporary landing strips created around only touched but in many cases saved.” • Re-registration roll call pg 24 into the sky on April 14, the upper-level winds carried it south and The future of Wichita larly bold moves in Wichita, in the flights. Almost immediately, business the country, became a literal lifeline for A great deal of the credit for helping • John & Martha King mistakenly east, spreading chaos across a region accustomed to thick wet opinion of some observers. aircraft operators started mobilizing to survivors, while the worst of the sick and coordinate flights by business aircraft to arrested pg 26 As the center of its universe, the form of Embraer (with Honda Former Senator (R-Kan.) and clouds, storms and ice but unprepared to deal with a problem that bring desperately needed supplies and injured were evacuated to mainland U.S. Haiti goes to Care, standing for Corpo- Wichita is to the general aviation out of the starting gate and deter- now Kansas governor-elect Sam seemed to happen only in faraway places such as Indonesia. About medical workers to the heart of the dev- hospitals on many of the return flights. rate Aircraft Responding in Emergencies, • iPads take bizav cockpits airplane business what Detroit has mined to finish). Benefiting from Brownback has been Wichita’s the only thing the authorities in Europe appeared to know for sure astation in the ruined Haitian capital. “The business aviation community’s a relief group that was formed in the after- by storm pg 26 been to the car business, and in a clean-sheet start, the Brazilian voice in Washington, and last year was that volcanic ash and aero engines don’t mix, so they took the math of Hurricane Katrina in 2005 to • They feel the need for speed pg 28 today’s lexicon that’s not necessar- dynamo quietly embarked early he demanded an inquiry into pos- safe route by grounding all airways traffic. Initially this was accept- airlift supplies and medical aid to New • Qantas A380 near-disaster raises ily a good thing. Everyone has their this decade on creating its own full sible illegal government subsidies ed as the prudent course of action but it soon met with growing Orleans. Because of the federal govern- serious questions pg 28 own opinions on what “Detroit” range of turbine personal and busi- of Embraer–a sure sign that the old howls of protest as the airlines absorbed the reality of lost reve- ment’s poor response to Katrina, Care means, but some of the words that ness aircraft, from VLJ to bizliner. guard in the GA airplane manu- nue and the citizenry turned restive about being stranded far and pilots were able to complete only about • Final Flights pg 30 have been leveled at the Motor City Murkier would-be rivalry from facturing business feels threatened. wide. Business aviation was powerless to provide an alternative. 100 flights in spite of offers by corpo- • Hand-offs pg 30 (mismanagement, arrogance, wrong China and its ilk is out there some- However, the enduring war between The UK authorities gave operators a few hours’ notice that they rate flight departments and private indi- products, inferior products) do not, where; the question is not if but Boeing and Airbus over the same intended to close their airspace at noon, so some were able to take viduals to do much more. when it will materialize. issue for the last 30 years suggests off and reposition their aircraft to regions farther south, away from But Care’s experience during and At the bare essentials, that this argument is interminable, the predicted path of the ash. Some managed to scoot into and out after Katrina meant the organization and disregarding the many insoluble and ineffective against the of the UK VFR at low level after the closure, until French officialdom was far better prepared to meet the advances in powerplant and tide of competition. shut off that avenue of avoidance. challenge of arranging relief flights to avionics technology… It’ll be a painful regimen for par- Haiti, which benefitted from its loca- The irony for those stuck in certain regions was how clear the TIMELINE Cessna’s jets soldier on ent-company coffers, but Wichita tion just a few hours off the U.S. East- skies appeared. They looked perhaps a shade paler than cobalt, with a couple of cabin cross would do better to focus its ener- ern Seaboard. The relief flights also Jan. 5 A Royal Air Freight Learjet 35 but nothing you wouldn’t see in a summer haze. However, the crashes on approach to Chicago sections that date back to gies on innovating, refreshing its helped to repair the image of “lux- Executive Airport in Wheel- the original Citation of 1970 product lines and relying on good atmosphere was suspending tiny particles of ash that, when they urious” private jets, which had been encountered the hottest parts of a jet engine, would melt into a ing, Ill., killing the pilot and the and the Citation III of 1983; old American ingenuity and perse- so damaged during the financial cri- copilot; Mesa Air Group files for glassy substance and coat intricately shaped turbine components, its newest piston program, verance, which have always served STEPHEN POPE sis. Even better, business aircraft oper- Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. disrupting their ability to drive the cooler thrust-generating parts. the Skycatcher two-seat better than cries of “no fair.” At a time when they were being pilloried by the U.S. government and media for symbolizing the corporate excess ators will be ready to respond at a In time, ATC and airworthiness authorities and engine manufac- trainer, is made in China. While it may appear to outsiders that had taken the economy to the brink of collapse, business aircraft were among the first on scene to help when moment’s notice the next time they are Jan. 12 Massive earthquake hits Haiti, It was a different world when Walter and Olive Ann Beech Hawker Beechcraft’s tra- that Wichita is languishing, the turers identified methods to track and measure the density of the the earth shook in Haiti, turning countless lives upside down. This is the Honeywell G450 that AIN rode to Haiti. called into action. –S.P. causing widespread damage and and the other Great Plains pioneers put Wichita, Kan. on ash and decide what was acceptable and what was not, but it was killing more than 200,000 people. the map as Air Capital of The World. Now the rest of the ditional Hawker line is built leaders of the OEMs assure us that a process that, from the perspective of airspace users, was slow to Business aviation provided an world wants to seize a bigger piece of the action. on the de Havilland DH125 they are not sitting still but are pour- cross section introduced in ing money into researching innova- take effect. A Dornier Do-228 was flown into the ash deliberately so important element of the relief effort, flying in doctors, aid I firmly believe, apply to Wichita.