EBACE Show News - May 20, 2008 - (Page 24) EBACE 2008 Falcon 2000DX Enters Service Lewis Loves Learjets, and Even for Formula 1 Star They Boost Productivity Lewis Hamilton, Britain’s blazing star of Formula 1 racing, has been scooped up by Bombardier (Booth 7521) to be a Learjet Ambassador. When he’s not driving for the Vodafone McClaren Mercedes team, Hamilton spends a lot of time in the air, most of it in Learjets. Earlier this year Show News flew with Lewis on a Learjet 40XR to the Bombardier Belfast factory. His visit—which brought work at the site to a complete standstill— launched the Northern Ireland’s firm’s 100th anniversary celebrations and gave him the chance to see where Learjet 40s and 45s are born. Lewis Hamilton. Hamilton came within a whisker of winning the 2007 Formula 1 championship in his very first year of racing— an achievement utterly without precedent. He was unshaken by his overnight global stardom, and, sitting back in the Learjet’s spacious cabin, he laughed, “You know, this time last year I was flying in and out from testing on EasyJet. I am still amazed at how lucky I am to be flying in something like this.” “Being able to use the Learjet makes a huge difference,” Hamilton said. “There’s no two-hour commute to the airport followed by a two-hour wait at the airport. Pre-season there is a heavy testing load, three or four flights a week, as you go from London to Spain and back to London then back to Spain.” Hamilton now lives in Switzerland, and he added that “the cycle is train-fly-testtrain-fly, and being able to fly straight home and sleep in your own bed is fantastic.” Now that the season has kicked off, Hamilton has a different race somewhere in the world every two weeks. “I’ve never thought about flying myself, and I certainly don’t have time to take lessons. Right now I’m happy being a passenger—and I don’t say that often.” —Robert Hewson Dassault’s Falcon 2000DX entered service in March when the first aircraft was delivered to a customer in the Western United States. Replacing the Falcon 2000 in Dassault’s lineup, the 3,250-nmi range 2000DX first flew in June 2007 and achieved EASA and FAA certifications last fall. “The Falcon 2000DX was designed for customers that need the wide cabin comfort and excellent airport performance of the Falcon 2000EX but not the same list of extensive city pairs,” said Dassault Falcon president and CEO John Rosanvallon. The 2000DX has excellent airport performance, offering a low approach speed of 112 kts and the ability to land with the fuel tanks nearly full, allowing it to make short city-to-city hops to upload passengers then continue on long missions without refueling. Long Queue for the Gulfstream G650 Gulfstream plans to manufacture 83 of its top-of-the-range G650 business jets in the first twoand-a-half years of production, and says that total is already oversubscribed by a factor of six to seven. Gulfstream began accepting $500,000 refundable deposits on the new $58.5 million widebody ultra-long-range jet on April 15, signing time-stamped letters of intent with customers that it is now working through in sequence to convert to orders. Parent company General Dynamics’ CEO, Nicholas Chabraja, says Gulfstream and its suppliers are revising the initial production plan. The G650 is scheduled to enter service in 2012. Gulfstream is at Booth 7478 and in the static display. Pro Line 21 King Air C90GTi Gets Certificate At last year’s EBACE, Hawker Beechcraft introduced the King Air C90GTi. At EBACE 2008, the 90GTi appears with FAA certification. International certifications are being pursued in Europe, Mexico, Canada, Venezuela and Guatemala. The upgraded King Air features an advanced, fully integrated Collins Pro Line 21 avionics suite, as found in the King Air B200GT, King Air 350, Premier IA, Hawker 750 and Hawker 900XP. Typically equipped price of the aircraft is $3,198,600. Hawker Beechcraft is at Booth 7462. Greenpoint Wins ‘Spirit of Quality’ Award Greenpoint Technologies, Inc. (Booth 1075) was presented with a joint ”Spirit of Quality” award, teaming with Boeing’s Derivative Airplane Programs group on the Self Defense System certification project. The team worked together to identify improvements to support the challenging redelivery schedule for the Boeing C-40B modification program. As a result, the team projected an estimated 24 flow day savings. RUAG for Authorized Bombardier Service Bombardier has named RUAG Aerospace’s Oberpfaffenhofen site as an authorized service center for Challenger and Global Express aircraft. RUAG’s Aircraft Services unit offers a comprehensive range of maintenance, modernization and special outfitting services for business jets at Zurich, Geneva, Berne, Lugano, Oberpfaffenhofen and Stuttgart. The company runs a Dassault-approved Major Service Center for Falcon business jets here in Geneva and the biggest service center for Cessna Citations outside the U.S. at Oberpfaffenhofen, near Munich. RUAG is at Booth 1313. ‘Intelligent’ Water Treatment Unit to Falcon Canadian water treatment specialist International Water-Guard Industries Inc. has made the first delivery of its new IWG-A4 “intelligent” water treatment unit to Dassault Falcon Jet in T eterboro, New Jersey. Lighter in weight than its predecessor, the IWG-A4 is electronically and physically more robust and features a new modular design. The unit is also equipped with enhanced self-monitoring capability that ensures adequate ultraviolet light is produced to disinfect the aircraft’s water supplies, while scanning for a range of faults that can be reported to a cabin management system. 24 May 20, 2008 www.aviationweek.com/shownews http://www.aviationweek.com/shownews
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