Aviation Observer

Gulfstream Has New Long-Range Business Jet

Airwise (March 13, 2008) reports that "Gulfstream Aerospace has launched the new G650 business jet, its biggest, fastest, longest-range plane to date, as it looks to take advantage of the continuing boom in private plane sales and the trend toward larger aircraft."

There was also a recent full page advertisement in the WSJ.com that urged those interested in learning more to call: Raynor Reavis, Senior Vice President, Marketing and Sales at 1-912-965-3233.

UK's Silverjet Targetting Business Travelers

If you fly London to/from New York on a frequent basis and want to stick to the traditional airline model, then you'll probably want to check out the UK's Silverjet low-fare business services that are suppose to start in January 2007. [airwise]

Very Good Summary On Current Very Light Jet Marketplace

Jay Boehmer at Business Traveler Online News has a very good summary article of the state of the current business jet marketplace in the U.S., and near-term directions for the market in an article entitled "Very Light Jets Preparing For Takeoff In The U.S."

Avantair Orders 20 Embraer Phenom 100 Jets

Ardent Acquisition Corp's Avantair (a fractional aircraft shares provider) has reportedly placed a $57 million order with Embraer for  20 Phenom 100 executive jets that should begin to see service in June 2009.

Avantair "currently manages a fleet of 25 planes with another 58 on order in five states and with approximately 250 employees."

Source: bizjournal

NBAA Podcasts

National Business Aviation Association (NBAA) is publishing podcasts on a variety of topics from their 2006 convention.

NBAA 2007 Has Strong Business Jet Focus

The National Business Aviation Association (NBAA) Convention 2006 was held recently.  Here is a summary of new articles related to the convention that may be of interest: jobwerx, bizjournal, orlandosentinel, and Honeywell search at flightglobal.

Airframe Parachute System

CIRRUS offers a unique safety feature as a standard for all their aircraft models -- an airframe parachute recovery system.

Their site has more detailed information and a FLASH movie you can watch of the parachute being actually deployed on an aircraft in-flight.

Flight Global Starts Podcast - Orbis Flying Eye Hospital

Flight Global has announced their first podcast by Andrew Costerton that examines the mobile flying teaching hospital called Orbis Flying Eye Hospital.

Eclipse Hit With A Lawsuit

Areo-News Network is reporting that Eclipse Aviation is being sued in U.S. Federal Court related to some of their earliest aircraft purchase deals with a company from Europe called Aviace Limited.

Business Jet and 737 Collision

Joe Shareky @ NY Times tells his story of "Colliding With Death at 37,000 Feet, And Living".

Joe was on a free lance assignment for  Business Jet Traveler magazine, and in the Embraer Legacy 600 that had a collision with a Boeing 737 over Brazil were 155 people on the 737 died.

There was a total of 7 people on the 13-passenger $25 million jet flying at 37,000 feet when the event happened.  The jet was piloted by Joe Lepore & Jan Paladino, and included passengers from Embraer and the new owner of the jet from charter company ExcelAire.