Bombardier Aerospace is flying high with the news that Delta Connection has placed a firm order for 32 50-seat Bombardier CRJ200(i) regional jets. Deliveries are scheduled to commence in the first quarter of 2005. The contract value is estimated at $780 million US and represents the conversion to firm orders of 32 of the 169 options on the Bombardier CRJ200 held by Delta Connection carriers. Delta Connection, through its wholly-owned subsidiaries, ASA and Comair, already operates the world's largest Bombardier CRJ fleet with 279 Bombardier CRJ200 and 70-passenger Bombardier CRJ700(i) aircraft.

It's going to be wall-to-wall Feds in Duluth for the next few months... Cirrus and the FAA have announced the launch of a joint program designed to provide 250 FAA Inspectors with familiarization of the next generation of personal aircraft. Advanced design composite aircraft and all-glass cockpits are becoming more common as personal aviation evolves into the 21st Century. As a leader in composite aircraft design and manufacture, Cirrus will provide a thorough familiarization program to the FAA. The familiarization program has two tracks for the two different types of inspectors who will attend. 125 Flight Operations Inspectors will receive ground and flight familiarization in the SR22 as their primary means of gaining a more in depth understanding of the flight characterist

Starry-Eyed Scientists Enthusiastic With Findings

The Opportunity rover has found evidene on Mars that's got scientists buzzing back on Earth. On Tuesday, NASA held a press conference to announce the out-of-this-world news: Mars had water. The Mars exploration team claims they have found evidence suggesting Mars was once a water-rich world, thanks to some data collected by the Opportunity rover within a small crater at near an area called Meridiani Planum. Evidence the rover found in a rock outcrop led scientists to the conclusion. Clues from the rocks' composition, such as the presence of sulfates, and the rocks' physical appearance, such as niches where crystals grew, helped make the case for a watery history.

Book Scheduled For Release At 15th Annual Conference

Women in Aviation, International will unveil its first published biography at this year’s 15th Annual Women in Aviation, International Conference, to be held at the Reno Hilton March 11-13. The book, Nothing Stood in Her Way, by Capt. Julie Clark with noted biographer Ann Lewis Cooper, tracks Clark’s 35-year career in the U.S. skies from Flight Attendant to Airline Captain and air show celebrity. Clark, and other aviators like her have opened doors to coveted careers previously closed to women. She’s flown in and with a number of airlines and aircraft, through a series of mergers and acquisitions, and endured. Simultaneously, Clark was flying aerobatics in her personally restored T-34 Mentor and i

Airspace Switcheroo Bad For GA

AOPA says proposed changes to two military operations areas (MOAs) near Lyons, Kansas, would create unsafe flying conditions and have a severe negative impact on a general aviation airport that underlies the MOAs. Ellsworth Municipal Airport (9K7) is currently under Bison MOA, whose floor is 200 feet above Ellsworth's traffic pattern. The Air Force request would shift the boundary between Bison and the adjoining Smoky MOA so that half of Ellsworth would remain under Bison and half under Smoky, whose floor is only 500 feet above ground level. In a letter to the FAA, the association said the proposal needs to be changed.

Held On March 10 In West Palm Beach

NBAA will host its next Business Aviation Regional Forum on March 10 in West Palm Beach (FL) at Jet Aviation on Palm Beach International Airport (KPBI). NBAA says its forum is a daylong learning and networking experience designed to meet the needs of the regional business aviation community and to provide an introduction to local business leaders interested in learning more about business aviation. The West Palm Beach event will feature approximately 30 aircraft on static display, 50 indoor Exhibitors and hundreds of attendees. In addition, this forum will feature a number of briefings for the business aviation community in Southeast Florida.

Aviator Spent Two Days In Woods

A pilot is out of the woods, literally, after being rescued by the Alaska Air National Guard’s 210th Rescue Squadron on March 1. Ted Greene, an Anchorage resident in his mid-70s, called in a mayday report after his plane crashed and was hung up in a clump of trees in the Skwenta area, about 60 miles northwest of Anchorage on Feb. 29. The plane, a Piper PA-15, went down shortly after Mr. Greene dropped off snow machines at Toehead Lake.

New Designs Dwarfs Existing Facility

The FAA will build a new $25 million air traffic control tower at Memphis International Airport, and a new road network will be established at the airport to complement the tower's construction. The Memphis-Shelby County Airport Authority already has plans in place to restructure the roads and the FAA's new tower will be coordinated along with that effort, says airport director of development Robert Beesley. "We have to move the roads for our good reasons," Beesley says. The new 307-foot tower will dwarf the existing 185-foot tower. The tower's base building will also be significantly larger than the existing building, expanding from about 20,000-square-feet to a two-story, 30,000-square-foot structure.

SPEEA Expresses Concern

Citing figures that show morale near all-time lows and experienced workers leaving, technical and professional employees at the Boeing Company are increasingly concerned about the direction the current leadership is taking the company, according to The Society of Professional Engineering Employees in Aerospace (SPEEA), IFPTE Local 2001, AFL-CIO. Coupled with Boeing losing market share to its European rival, Airbus Industrie, the company needs to alter course, according to the union representing more than 20,000 Boeing employees in seven states. SPEEA e-mailed analysts a letter from Executive Director Charles Bofferding and a package of charts that illustrate changes in morale and eroding aerospace experience in the Boeing workforce.

Post 9/11 Treatment of Passengers Addressed

The Aviation Enforcement Office of the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) has reached a settlement with American Airlines regarding its post-Sept. 11, 2001, treatment of certain air travelers who were or were perceived to be of Arab, Middle Eastern or South Asian descent and/or Muslim. The settlement was approved by DOT Administrative Law Judge (ALJ) Burton S. Kolko on Feb. 27.  The settlement will become final March 29 unless a petition for review is filed or DOT takes review on its own initiative. The settlement order finds that American acted in a manner inconsistent with federal laws that prohibit discrimination and requires American to provide civil rights training to its employees over the next three years at a total

Mechanical failure caused the pilot of an A-10 Thunderbolt II to crash in a military training range near Las Vegas on Nov. 18, according to a report Air Force officials released March 2. The pilot ejected safely in the Nevada Test and Training Range about 45 miles northwest of Nellis Air Force Base, Nev. He did not sustain any injuries. The pilot was flying a training mission as part of the A-10 Weapons Instructor Course curriculum, and he was assigned to the 66th Weapons Squadron at Nellis.

Little Rock Facility Wins Diamond Award

Hawker Aircraft Services at Little Rock’s Adams Field has received the FAA Diamond Award – the agency’s highest honor for employee training. A facility must have at least 25 percent of its employees participating in the FAA’s Maintenance Technician Program to receive the Diamond Award. In Little Rock, 35 percent of employees participated in the training. Hawker Aircraft Services is one of two exclusive factory-owned Hawker Service Centers, specializing in Hawker 400XP, 800XP, 1000 and the soon-to-be certified Hawker Horizon. The second facility is in Chester, U.K.

Battle-damaged C-5 Repaired, Ready For Duty  

The C-5 Galaxy that was hit by a missile shortly after takeoff in Iraq on Jan. 8 receives permanent repairs here. The aircraft was returned to Air Mobility Command on Feb. 23. Workers in the C-5 Galaxy production branch feel closer to the warfighter now that they have completed battle-damage repair on the C-5 hit by a missile shortly after takeoff in Iraq on Jan. 8. The aircraft left the Warner Robins Air Logistics Center on Feb. 23 -- two days ahead of schedule.

VIP Visit

NOTAM:  4/1650  Issued:  03/02/2004 13:05  Effective:  03/04/2004 16:40 - 03/04/2004 19:20  State:  CA  Facility:  ZLA - LOS ANGELES (ARTCC) PALMDALE, CA.  Type:  VIP  Description:  BAKERSFIELD, CALIFORNIA, MARCH 4, 2004 LOCAL.   

VIP Visit

NOTAM:  4/1649  Issued:  03/02/2004 13:03  Effective:  03/04/2004 19:20 - 03/04/2004 22:25  State:  CA  Facility:  ZOA - OAKLAND (ARTCC),CA.  Type:  VIP  Description:  SANTA CLARA, CALIFORNIA, MARCH 4, 2004 LOCAL.   

Back On The Ranch

NOTAM:  4/1652  Issued:  03/02/2004 13:48  Effective:  03/04/2004 18:00 - 03/08/2004 16:35  State:  TX  Facility:  ZFW - FORT WORTH (ARTCC),TX.  Type:  VIP  Description:  CRAWFORD, TEXAS, MARCH 4-8, 2004 LOCAL. 

Yep, The Prez Again

TFR: NOTAM:  4/1648  Issued:  03/02/2004 12:54  Effective:  03/03/2004 20:25 - 03/04/2004 17:00  State:  CA  Facility:  ZLA - LOS ANGELES (ARTCC)PALMDALE, CA.  Type:  VIP  Description:  LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA, MARCH 3-4, 2004 LOCAL.   

Aero-News: Quote of the Day

"NASA launched the Mars Exploration Rover mission specifically to check whether at least one part of Mars ever had a persistently wet environment that could possibly have been hospitable to life. Today we have strong evidence for an exciting answer: Yes." Source: Dr. Steve Squyres of Cornell University speaking at NASA's historic press conference on Tuesday, Squyres, the principal investigator for the science instruments on the Opportunity and Spirit Mars rovers, told anounced that Oportunity found evidence that water once flowed on Mars. The Mars exploration team claims they have found evidence suggesting Mars was once a water-rich world, thanks to some data collected by Opportunit

Appointed New F-A-18 Program Vice President

Boeing has named Christopher Chadwick, 43, as vice president for the F/A-18 program. Chadwick is responsible for the technical, cost and schedule performance of the entire Boeing F/A-18 family of strike fighters, including the F/A-18A/B/C/D/E/F and the EA-18G Airborne Electronic Attack Aircraft. Chadwick succeeds Tony Parasida, who led the F/A-18 program from July 2000 until his recent appointment as Boeing Integrated Defense Systems vice president of Program Management and Independent Review. Chadwick most recently served as F/A-18 deputy program manager.