B/CA Show News - NBAA 2007 - September 27, 2007 - (Page 6)

N BA A 2007 Souping-Up the Super King Air When They Get Too Big Backlogs Can Be a Liability: Out-Year Clients Can Cancel Today’s huge backlogs in business aircraft— many models are sold out for the next two to five years—are creating new dilemmas for aircraft manufacturers, says Rob Wilson, president of business and general aviation at Honeywell Aerospace. “The backlogs are actually becoming a risk,” he says, “as many customers don’t want to wait five years.” And an airplane on order that far out is at far Rob Wilson. greater risk of cancellation than an immediate sale should the economy turn down. So far, economic ripples haven’t had an impact, but that could change if confidence in the future subsides. A customer who cannot take early delivery might choose another manufacturer instead—or go to the used market for an interim solution. The latter, says Wilson, has prompted Honeywell to hone its upgrade products in engines and avionics to bring aircraft up to almost-new standards. The backlogs pose another dilemma for manufacturers: when to introduce new models? In some respects there is no better time than at the peak of a cycle when the money is flowing in, but on the other hand they don’t want to risk alienating customers by making aircraft on backlog obsolete. This is no easy challenge, says Wilson. These considerations, however, don’t seem to have stopped technological process. There are now more new models under consideration than at any time in memory, Wilson says. —John Morris Available next month, Blackhawk Modifications’ (Booth 7650) B200 Super XPR version of the Beechcraft King Air combines factory-new Pratt & Whitney PT6A-61 engines with the Raisbeck EPIC Performance Package to boost cruise speeds to 305 kts and enhance climb performance. By trading in their old PT6A-42 engines, owners can get a revitalized B200 for $870,000, less an allowance for any remaining TBO. Blackhawk has capacity for six Super XPRs this year and 18 more in 2008, and the work can be done at over 25 distributors worldwide. Petters Aviation a Force Multiplier for Airbus Petters Aviation has launched a North American corporate jet center, for the Airbus ACJ family, offering customers help with sales and acquisitions, charter needs, interim solutions and aircraft management, and to act as a service center. It will offer turnkey solutions to clients without their own flight departments, and provide extra services to those that do. Petters Aviation has ordered six A318 Elites, making it the largest ACJ customer in North America. The company says it will use these aircraft to provide all of its initial services from a newly established facility at Minneapolis-St. Paul International airport, Minn. LCDs Debut at Honeywell Liquid Crystal Display screens for Honeywell’s (Booth 2201) Primus and SPZ families of avionics will bring unmatched reliability and improved graphics for charts, maps and weather in retrofit upgrades and forward fit. The DU-875/885 have been developed by Barco for Honeywell and are the displays for the future generations of avionics. Replacement of glass CRTs with the new LCDs reduces cooling requirements and downtime costs while increasing reliability manyfold. P&WC’s PT6A-67P Gets Its TC TC The Pilatus PC-12’s engine has garnered type certification from Transport Canada. Pratt & Whitney Canada’s PT6A-67P turboprop engine is now certified for the Next Generation PC-12. The new variant of the PT6 family has been rated to 1,200 shp with some modifications to boost heat tolerance. With the increased heat threshold, the next generation PC-12 will be able to maintain 1,200 shp through takeoff and climb. Another bonus is seeing an increase of about 13 kts in cruise speed. Pilatus’ Next Generation PC-12 officially debuted here on Tuesday. East Meets West Near Prague in April The organizers of Wycombe Air Park near London are starting a new general aviation show in Prague. The new show will take place April 25-27, 2008. The show is being held in Prague not only because 70% of European general aviation happens within a 500-mile radius, but also because organizers see Prague as a bridge between the West and the developing Eastern Europe. Pribram Airfield (LKPM) will be the site as it has substantial exhibition space, with a large apron and static-display area. Passur Pushes Its Portal for Pricing Petrol Connecticut's Megadata is promoting an add-on to its Passur FBO software for tracking—and indeed predicting—fuel sales. The Passur Fuel Portal takes into account customer aircraft characteristics and flight plans, and determines how much fuel is needed. "Our focus is on helping FBO customers thrill their customers while providing fuel at the right price," said Megadata president and CEO Jim Barry. The Passur Fuel Portal includes data on customers' fleet purchases for pricing determinations, and of course saves the data for preparing reports and determining profitability later. Megadata-Passur is at Booth 3017. Learjet 60XR, first shown at NBAA 2007. 6 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.