B/CA Show News - NBAA 2007 - September 27, 2007 - (Page 32)

N B A A 2 0 07 NAA and FAI Honor SJ30 Design Team The National Aeronautic Association and the Fédération Aéronautique Inter nationale have awarded the Sino Swearingen SJ30 design team an Honorary Group Diploma for Aeronautics. The annual award recognizes the “unparalleled performance” of the new aircraft, which goes beyond anything planned or existing in the category, according to NAA and FAI officials. John Gaffney, president of NAA and Art Greenfield, the contest and records director of NAA, presented the award to Sino Swearingen officials near the mockup of the SJ30 at the company’s Booth 3159. The first two SJ30s produced are on static display here. Accepting for Sino Swearingen were vp of marketing and sales Mark A. Fairchild and vp, engineering Mario Asselin. Asselin led the team that designed the aircraft; working with Ed Swearingen as an advisor. Asselin is a former Royal Canadian Air Force officer who was educated at the service’s military college. The citation for the award says the aircraft provides 12 pounds per sq in differential pressure in the cabin and from sea level up to 41,000 ft with no penalty on speed or fuel efficiency. In each SJ30 is an “environmentally friendly” light jet, according to the award. —David Hughes NAA president Jonathan Gaffney, Sino Swearingen engineering vp Mario Asselin, and NAA contest and records director Art Greenfield. Cheaper By the Inch, Far Cheaper Large displays in aircraft are ex- can get shipped even same day instead pensive. They run no less than of having to wait four-to-eight weeks. They are also close to releasing a $1,000 per sq in. Now a company is offering a high definition LCD dis- direct TV antenna. The quoted price play for $17,000—which works out to at the moment is $99,000. The company began work on the system three about $22 per sq in. Flight Display Systems takes what years ago and is submitting the last it thinks is the standard line of the industry— “We’ve gone along and done things this way, so why change?”—and thrown it out the window. The company has received FAA PMA on the 32in and 42-in displays. “We have actually put some of the 32-in displays in Challenger aircraft,” company president David Gray said. Nick Gray and David Gray (right) at Booth 3047. The system also uses CAT5 cables (Ethernet cables) in- three engineering reports at the end stead of the normal video cords in of this week. A flight test for the antenna is the system. Why use CAT5? Because it means scheduled for Oct. 29. “It looks a little like an AWACs the system can use eight wires to transmit a cleaner signal than just one. antenna,” Gray said. “The hardest part The displays will begin shipping has been the structural engineering.” The smallest aircraft it will be rated early next year. “Because we’re in the retrofit busi- for is Cessna’s Citation 501, accordness, we can ship faster,” Gray said. ing to Gray. The reasoning is that this He explained because they don’t have is the aircraft they did the bird-strike to go through an OEM, the displays testing on. —Evan Sweetman Piper Jet design refinements are evident on the new mockup. What’s Been Did and What’s Been Hid at Piper Spot the difference. Since the PiperJet single-engine VLJ was unveiled at Orlando at the last convention, its design has benefited from the usual refinement process. Observant visitors will note that the full-size mockup displayed on Booth 1156 now has the 30-degree swept back, and slightly larger tailplanes adopted a few months ago. Due to fly in the second quarter of next year, the PiperJet prototype is expected to appear “in the flesh” at the next convention in Orlando. There are, however, two absences from the Piper lineup here. The company is saying nothing about the PA-46R-350T version of Malibu (N-number 350MX), which it began test-flying in secret during August, but there are strong indications that visitors to next week’s AOPA Expo at Hartford, Conn., will leave much wiser than they arrived. Secondly, Piper has quietly dropped the turbocharged XT version of its fixed-gear 6X from promotional literature. The 6X, similarly based on the Saratoga family, remains in production. —Paul Jackson 32 September 27, 2007 www.aviationweek.com/shownews http://www.aviationweek.com/shownews

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of B/CA Show News - NBAA 2007 - September 27, 2007

Why Buy Columbia? Too Much of a Good Thing? The User Fee Fracas Big Toys for Big Boys Honeywell for RNP High Miles Air Taxi Bombardier at Your Service NARA Names Officers Learjet’s Racier Image ILA 2008 in Berlin Gulfstream Hangar Opens Anti-Runway Incursions Like ReallyLarge Cabins? Sentient-Jet Direct

B/CA Show News - NBAA 2007 - September 27, 2007

For optimal viewing of this digital publication, please enable JavaScript and then refresh the page. If you would like to try to load the digital publication without using Flash Player detection, please click here.