Professional Pilot, March 2016

L Nearly 25 of all Falcon 900 aircraft are now equipped with Aviation Partners High Mach blended winglets This upgrade boosts range by 5 to 7 R APIs new Split Scimitar Winglets SSW are featured on all new Boeing BBJs The SSWs increase the BBJs range by 2 over blended winglets models of Boeing Falcon Hawker and Gulfstream bizjets In addition to the fuel savings the business aircraft community benefits from increased range a more modern aesthetic and in many cases enhanced resale value Blended Winglets have been standard equipment on BBJ BBJ 2 and BBJ 3 models since the early days of the Boeing Business Jet program While API started out with Blended Winglets for the Gulfstream II ultimately retrofitting over 70 of the fleet other successful Blended Winglet programs include the Dassault Falcon 50 900 and 2000 series and Hawker 800 series bizjets According to API more than 45 of all Falcon 2000 and 25 of all Falcon 900 aircraft in service are equipped with the High Mach Blended Winglet systems This upgrade increases range by over 7 at LRC and 5 at M 80 while also improving climb rate and initial cruise altitude Similar performance improvements are realized for Hawker 800 operators who benefit from a 7 range increase equating to an extra 180 nm or more APIs new Split Scimitar Winglets SSWs announced at EBACE 2015 are now offered as a retrofit for BBJ owners The SSW will be standard equipment on all new 737 NG based BBJs To date several BBJs have been retrofitted with SSWs which increase the range by 2 or more over the existing Blended Winglets This upgrade gives the 7 aux tank BBJ a similar range to an 8 aux tank aircraft At NBAA 2015 API announced an exciting joint venture with FlexSys of Ann Arbor MI The new company Aviation Partners FlexSys APF is being formed to commercialize the patented FlexSys wing morphing technology Professional Pilot April 2015 p 94 FlexSys recently completed the phase 1 of its FlexFoil variable geometry control surface flight test program on a NASA owned Gulfstream 80 PROFESSIONAL PILOT March 2016 business jet APF is currently studying a number of commercial opportunities for this revolutionary technology to include flight controls leading and trailing edge devices anti icing and active winglets for both retrofit and new production applications Honeywell For over 100 years Honeywell Aerospace has been providing innovative products to the aviation community In addition to supporting OEMs with new aircraft programs Honeywell offers several modification and upgrade programs to existing customers According to Honeywell Aerospace Sr Dir of Sales Business and GA Mike Bevans These retrofit modification and upgrade programs are typically cited in the Blue Book and increase the resale value of the aircraft Many of these programs offer the advantage of new warranty coverage and reduced rates for our maintenance service plan MSP In the last 40 years Honeywell has provided operators with a multitude of performance enhancement and cost of ownership reduction programs where thousands of engines have been upgraded to higher standards not available when their aircraft were originally produced Honeywell currently offers several engine modification and upgrade programs for business aviation aircraft Honeywells most successful business jet engine is the TFE731 To date the company has delivered over 13000 examples and the fleet has amassed over 100 million hours The TFE731 5B upgrade program for the Falcon 900A and Falcon 20 is very popular This upgrade provides the improved performance of the TFE731 5B engine from the Falcon 900B and Falcon 20 5B to the Falcon 900A and Falcon 20 fleets The mod provides 5 more thrust for takeoff and 6 more for cruise Over 95 of Falcon 900As and 50 of Falcon 20 5 aircraft have been upgraded to this standard This program is offered by Honeywell Aerospace Another popular upgrade program for Falcon 50 operators is the TFE731 4 which offers the benefit of the TFE731 4 engine modifying the production 3 on Falcon 50s The 4 upgrade is offered by West Star Aviation and increases aircraft performance by providing higher Honeywells TFE731 20BR is a must have for Learjet 40 45 operators This mod vastly improves hot and high performance Falcon 50s improve greatly when equipped with the Dash 4 engine upgrade offered by West Star Aviation This mod improves hot and high performance and boosts the tri jets cruise speed