Model Airplanes

It was only a matter of time before Donald Trump’s attention would turn to Boeing, the U.S.’s largest exporter and its second-largest defense contractor. One of Boeing’s biggest customers happens to be China, the country the president-elect seems most intent on antagonizing.

On Tuesday morning, Trump tweeted that the Pentagon should cancel an order with Boeing Co. for a modernized 747 Air Force One, the plane that ferries the president around the world, because of what he said were ridiculous cost overruns. His tweet pegged the plane’s cost at “more than $4 billion.”

There is so much to unpack in this brief episode that it’s hard to know where to begin. For starters, Boeing doesn’t have an actual order to build the plane. It has a $170 million contract to begin development work to add communications and anti-missile equipment and mid-air refueling capabilities on 747-200 replacement planes that probably won’t go into service until 2023. 

So why did the president-elect choose this moment to fly off the handle? It may have been to capitalize on a Washington Post expose about a Pentagon cover-up of a report on wasteful administrative spending. What better way to show some populist outrage at the outgoing administration than by canceling new presidential planes, even if he’s exaggerating the problem?

The Pentagon is budgeting $3.2 billion for research, development, construction and acquisition of new 747-8 planes through 2021, says Kevin Brancato, a Bloomberg Government contracts analyst. After those initial expenses, the new jets will cost taxpayers

Article source: https://www.bloomberg.com/view/articles/2016-12-06/trump-s-boeing-provocation-could-backfire

ALBANY – The state’s chief fiscal watchdog has rejected the no-bid purchase of a $12.5 million helicopter intended for the State Police but also to ferry Gov. Andrew Cuomo around the state.

Cuomo administration officials, however, insisted that the purchase effort for the Sikorsky S76-D is still underway and that they are in the process of answering Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli’s questions.

The situation, though, can be expected to further heighten tensions between Cuomo and DiNapoli, whose office last week turned down the plan to use a non-competitive bidding process to purchase a new state helicopter. Cuomo and DiNapoli have had chilly relations for years, and the comptroller has issued several scathing audits and reports pertaining to Cuomo administration agencies.

The contract requested for a Sikorsky S76-D helicopter came from the State Police, which said it was needed to provide state-of-the-art emergency response and law enforcement missions, as well as to transport Cuomo. State Police described it as the only helicopter on the market today that meets various mission needs.

Cuomo administration officials said the state will save nearly $4 million by purchasing a used model of the S76-D over a new model or used-though-not-flown model.

“This helicopter is the first to be purchased by State Police in nearly 15 years, will be done so at a significant savings to taxpayers, and be able to fulfill a ‎greater range of missions, as well as have a greater capacity than the aircraft it’s replacing. We met with the Comptroller’s Office last week (to) … address

Article source: http://buffalonews.com/2016/12/06/comptroller-rejects-cuomo-request-used-12-5-million-helicopter/

Many business jets have recently been depreciating faster than ever before. Some models whose value historically declined an average of 4 percent per year experienced losses in excess of 20 percent in 2015. Aircraft Value Reference Guide (Vref), for example, reported that during a three-month period toward the end of last year, the value of the average Falcon 7X sank between $1.8 and $2.7 million, with other models such as the Gulfstream G550 experiencing similar declines. Sellers of such jets face pressure to complete a transaction sooner rather than later, which further accelerates depreciation rates.

No matter how old they are, though, jets never seem to run out of value altogether. Instead, they often hit a floor, a kind of depreciation-free zone, where loss in value slows or stops for a time. Vref, for example, reports that in the same three-month period, Gulfstream GIIs, Dassault Falcon 10s, Citation Bravos, and Learjet 55s did not decline in value at all.

In part, this apparent stabilization may simply reflect a lack of sales. Buyers aren’t plentiful for a 32-year-old business jet that needs an eight-year inspection, major avionics upgrades, and engine overhauls. A potential purchaser might conclude that the cost to render the aircraft serviceable exceeds its ostensible value. The owner who wants to get rid of an airplane that’s hard to sell, then, has limited options. A business jet, after all, isn’t like a car that you can push out to rust in a field by the barn or have hauled away by

Article source: http://www.bjtonline.com/business-jet-news/donating-your-aircraft

Doomed flight: Police personnel carry a body bag containing debris and belongings recovered from an aircraft carrying 13 police personnel that went missing on Saturday in Batam, Riau Islands.(Antara/Reuters/MN Kanwa)

While the National Police have claimed they are still investigating the recent crash of a Skytruck M28 plane, which was carrying 13 people, initial evidence has indicated that engine failure could have causedthe explosion of the police-owned aircraft.

The aircraft, which was flying from Pondok Cabe air base in South Tangerang to Hang Nadim Airport in Batam, reportedly crashed in waters near Lingga regency, Riau, on Saturday, after making a stop at Pangkal Pinang Airport in Bangka.

“Before the airplane went down, local people heard a loud explosion in the air. They found debris like airplane parts and several human body parts in the area,” Tanjungpinang Navy commander in Riau, First Adm. S. Irawan, told The Jakarta Post on Sunday.

Riau Police chief Sr. Comr. Sambudi Gusdian said four local fishermen saw the airplane flying low and circling the area several minutes before it crashed into the water.

“The sound of the plane’s engine was heard going on and off before it crashed and exploded in the sea,” Sambudi said, adding the four fishermen approached the site of the crash and found human body parts, clothes and plane seats.

National Police spokesman Sr. Comr. Rikwanto said the police had yet to reach a final conclusion on the cause of the crash, but aviation expert Arista Atmadjati from Gadjah Mada University in Yogyakarta said

Article source: http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2016/12/05/engine-failure-may-have-caused-riau-airplane-crash.html