Search Results for: Citation X

The Piaggio P.180 Avanti II is one of the most unusual, even exotic, looking airplanes in production today. When you look at the airplane and wonder “why did they do that,” the answer is always the same — to fly the biggest cabin the fastest for the least fuel. Efficiency drove every decision Piaggio engineers […]

Alan Klapmeier says clearly that he will continue to be involved day-to-day, and to “guide the direction” of Cirrus Design, the company he and his brother Dale founded. In a management shift scheduled to become effective on February 1, current chief operating officer Brent Wouters (formerly chief financial officer) will become CEO, and Klapmeier will […]

I realized I was taking a risk when I put out the request for feedback from pilots on what they want controllers to know. This would be a good opportunity to “rant” about controllers, and I was afraid I might get quite a few pilots who only wanted to complain. I didn’t need to worry. […]

This time, you did all your homework. You got a good night’s sleep. And maybe all your biorhythms were synched up just right. For whatever combination of reasons, you just cleaned your plate — completed your entire training syllabus with half an hour left on your simulator punch card. What would you do? This question […]

To an industry thirsting for relief from the current world financial crisis, the Middle East is a bubbling oasis of sales activity. At the recent Middle East Business Aviation (MEBA) show in Dubai, Wall Street’s woes seemed foreign, indeed. Business jet manufacturers were finding cash buyers for their wares with no sign of a credit […]

Listed in order of their impact on the respective companies, Mooney, Hawker Beechcraft and Cessna all announced this week that they will either scale back production, cut staff or both. A spokesman for Mooney said yesterday that employees had been notified the company was “scaling production to market demand.” He said the Mooney factory in […]

When the economy slips, it sometimes pays off to address customers’ needs to downsize. That could be part of the thinking behind JetDirect Aviation (formerly TAG) moving more aggressively into the turboprop and light-jet charter segment. Last year, JetDirect acquired California-based Sunset Aviation, which focuses on the lighter side of corporate charter. Sunset operates a […]

I have always thought it was extremely unfortunate when a professional pilot or crew carefully plans a flight, expertly follows the flight plan, and then suddenly makes a snap decision that undoes all their careful planning and execution. An accident at the Ellen Church Field Airport (CJJ) in Cresco, Iowa, in July 2006 illustrates how […]

Last year when Bend, Oregon, company Columbia Aircraft exhausted its last gasp efforts at getting enough cash to stay in business and declared bankruptcy, there was immediate speculation that Cessna would buy the company’s assets at auction. As it turned out, Cessna had been looking at that possibility for some time already. And by the […]

Actor and pilot Harrison Ford agreed during the NBAA show to serve as honorary chairman of the next Cessna Citation Special Olympics Airlift. The goal is to enlist more than 300 Citation owners with hopes of transporting 2,000 Special Olympics athletes to the national games in Lincoln, Nebraska. Incoming day will be July 17 and […]