... And Keeps ANN Staff On Its Toes!

by Aero-News Special Correspondent Dave Higdon

Anyone who questions the Theory of Evolution could have had their doubts erased Monday thanks to a tradition for the day-before action at the National Business Aviation Association Convention: a marathon day of press conferences and briefings that focused on the evolution of products, systems and services.

From the Airbus Corporate Jet to the Spectrum line of products, the planemakers and vendors spoke almost entirely of programs in progress, of sales successes and sustaining growth -- rather than the sexier pronouncements of all-new products and programs.

For example, the dueling world of Airbus Corporate Jets and Boeing Business Jets, both companies concentrated their briefings on the strength of sales of their ultra-large-and-ultra-long-range wings.

From the BBJ folks, the focus was on the record 30 sales logged since NBAA's 59th meeting last met in October in Orlando. At last year's convention, Boeing Business Jets celebrated the sales of 121 BBJs since the company launched in 1996. Those 30 include 21 737-based BBJs, BBJ2s and BBJ3s, plus seven 787 VIP versions and two 747-8 VIP models. The three 737-based BBJ models are sold out through 2012, the company noted.

From the Airbus folks, the news was focused on their own record: 100 sales of the ACJ in 120 months thanks to a record year with 28 sales of the ACJ line, which is based on the A320 family of airliners. Airbus is showing an ACJ Elite, the smallest of the ACJ trio, for the first time at NBAA. The company also noted the sale of the first A380s, the massive double-decker airliner, as a corporate aircraft.

From another French-based company came word of the first appearance of the new Falcon 7X from Dassault since its certification earlier this year. Business aviation's first fly-by-wire jet is moving into the hands of customers even as the 40 7Xth starts final assembly in France. Work on an upgrade to the Falcon 900EX triple could be in the works and the company acknowledged that a 900LX would sport new winglets that help extend the range and fuel efficiency of its 2000LX twin.

In the same category of medium-to-large jets, Gulfstream announced continued growth in its support, design and production operations at its home base in Savannah, GA -- as well as the 40th anniversary of its tenure in the southeast Georgia city. Gulfstream, company executives confirmed, continues its groundbreaking work on technologies that will reduce or eliminate sonic booms and allow a new generation of supersonic business jets to break the Mach barrier over the Continental United States.

From Adam Aircraft, the new management team delivered an upbeat report on their tighter focus on completing certification of the A700 VLJ and ramping up serial production of the A500 centerline twin -- now that it's approved for altitudes up to FL250 -- and, after certificated in 2008, the A700. The company also announced a training partnership with SAFERjett that will provide full-motion-sim training for the A700 and advanced training devices and panel trainers for the A700 and A500. Finally, Adam plans to unveil the redesigned interior for the A700 (shown below) that includes a belted lavatory seat and an innovative stowable privacy partition. The company has a target of delivering more than 1,000 of its two designs in the next seven to 10 years.

Spectrum Aviation founder Linden Blue talked about the competitive advantages of his company's developmental S-40 Freedom and S-33 Independence, which should result in certification of the $6.2 million Freedom in 2010 -- with the Independence to follow. According to Blue, the mid-size-cabin Freedom should turn in direct operating costs that are about half those of a popular, smaller twin turboprop. The GE-Honda HF-120 that will power the Freedom should be in the hands of Spectrum in late 2008, if R & D efforts continue on schedule. Interestingly, Blue noted that the D.O.C.s of the Williams FJ33-powered Independence VLJ should be almost exactly the same as those for the Freedom.

From the business-jet folks in Canada came the announced of a new integrated aviations system for the Bombardier Global Express XRS and Global 5000 ultra-long-range business jets employing Rockwell Collins Pro Line Fusion, an evolution of the company's standout Pro Line 21 system. Dubbed Global Vision, this "flight environment" panel created for the planemaker by the design consultant firm Design Q. The company unveiled a mock-up of the new panel during a press event Monday evening at its static display at Fulton County Airport.

Rockwell Collins new Pro Line Fusion system is a substantial upgrade of the Pro Line 21 that fuses, if you will, a real-world infrared-based vision system with a synthetic vision system based on a database of the world's terrain, plus a new weather-radar system -- all on the primary flight display. Using a new generation of high-resolution active-matrix LCD displays, the Pro Line Fusion system employs four 15-inch screens. Fusion also supports a heads-up-display that allows the pilot to maintain situational awareness while continuing to look out the windshield.

Brazilian manufacturer Embraer provided updates on its Lineage 1000 business jet - a variant of the EMB-190 100-seat airliner -- as well as its two Phenom projects, the 100 and 300. With these programs in track and progressing on-schedule, the company is also expected to launch two new jets between the Phenom 300 and Legacy 600, with rumors abounding that these two new jets will carry the Phenom 400 and Phenom 500 names.

At its annual business-jet forecast event Sunday evening, Honeywell predicted deliveries of 14,000 business jets between 2007 and 2017, continuing a growth trend that will result in deliveries of more than 1,000 business jets this year - the first time the industry has cleared that high bar. Making up the 14,000 in the forecast, the company predicted, will be: more than 2,000 long- and ultra-long-range aircraft; 1,300 large- and medium-large cabin jets; 2,600 medium- and medium-large cabin jets; 3,850 light and light-medium jets; and more than 3,800 very light jets. Another 6,000 to 7,000 personal jets are also forecast to be sold in the 10-year period. The tab for all this business-aircraft hardware - a whopping $250 billion-plus.

And this was only a small sampling of the news on the day before the 60th annual NBAA convention. With opening day Tuesday you can expect a planeload more.

FMI: www.nbaa.org