Cessna hopes to book 70 orders for its stand-up cabin intercontinental jet by the end of this year. The company announced the jet concept about 18 months ago but said last week that it would bring the jet to market, the Wichita Eagle reported. The company will release more details about the plane early next month. For now, even the price is up in the air, though Cessna said it will try to get customers to convert their refundable $100,000 deposits to $1 million nonrefundable ones. Cessna sees the jet as a way to hold on to customers that need a larger plane with greater ranger who would otherwise look to Cessna’s competitors like Gulfstream and Bombardier. Full-size mockups of the plane’s potential cabin last year featured nine passenger seats, a full galley and lavatory.

The first big step of the FAA’s transition to digital Notices to Airmen starts today when all new local NOTAMs will be classified as widely distributed D NOTAMs instead. The change means that pilots won’t have to call up local flight service stations to get information on hazards or issues at specific airports, the FAA’s Air Traffic Organization reported. Over the next four months, the FAA will convert all local NOTAMs created prior to today to the new format. To help make sense of the increased number of notices, all NOTAMs will get at least one of 12 keywords at the top to denote things like runway, navigation or obstruction alerts. While the changes are meant in part to bring the U.S. system in line with International Civil Aviation Organization rules, the new D NOTAMs will also include unverified aviation hazards.

A string of news releases in recent weeks declaring “staffing emergencies” at airports and air traffic control centers across the nation are simply a scare tactic, the FAA has said. The National Air Traffic Controllers Association has been sending out the notices, citing numbers of fully trained controllers far below what the union believes each facility should have, the Los Angeles Times reported. The staffing shortages, combined with mandatory six-day work weeks and overtime at some facilities, are putting safety on the line, the union is claiming. Even independent aviation experts said the union’s tactics of sending out the messages may do little more than rile tensions between controllers and the FAA that started in 2006 when the agency imposed work rules on the union. In one of the latest salvos, union officials in Chicago last week said the ground warning system ASDE-X, meant to prevent runway incursions, is a liability because it does not function well in heavy snowfall, the Associated Press reported. The FAA conceded that the system did not register lines of snowplows clearing runways and said it might add transponders to ground vehicles. Similar problems emerged when the system was first installed in St. Louis and Milwaukee, though the system can be adjusted to make it more accurate, the FAA said.

Aerion, a Reno, Nev., aircraft company, plans to have a prototype supersonic business jet flying by 2012. The plane would likely cost around $80 million and Aerion says it already has letters of intent and $250,000 each from 20 potential customers, The Economist reported. The plane would have a range of about 4,600 miles and cruise at over 1,000 mph, or Mach 1.6. In areas like over the United States, where supersonic flight is prohibited because of sonic booms, the company says its plane could still cruise at Mach 1.15, thanks to a laminar flow wing that would reduce drag and cut down on sonic booms. The company has many challenges ahead, notably finding another company to partner with for actually building the airframe. With first flight in 2012, Aerion plans to start deliveries in 2014.

Armed with online flight tracking programs, a number of states are sending hefty tax bills to aircraft owners who bought their planes in one state but took them to another. The rules that trigger the taxes vary from state to state, with Florida only requiring one visit within six months of the plane’s purchase elsewhere to trigger it, the Associated Press reported. Other states levy the use taxes, which can range from 5 to 9 percent and often top $20,000, if planes are there for 90 days in a year. Owners are outraged, with many hiring attorneys to fight the tax bills and claiming they’re being double-taxed. Most states charge a sales tax on new plane purchases, so owners say they’re being penalized just for traveling. Tax officials, meanwhile, say they’re just enforcing usage taxes that have been on the books for years. And with many states looking for ways to fill gaps in their budgets, the relative ease of showing that a plane was in a state long enough to trigger the hefty taxes makes them appealing.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration will send unmanned aerial vehicles into Atlantic and Caribbean hurricanes this summer as it looks for ways to improve forecasts. The flights are part of a $3 million program, NOAA said in a news release. The UAVs will fly lower through hurricane eyes than is safe for human crews, collecting data on winds, atmospheric pressure and storm intensity. This coming winter, NOAA will also send a UAV to the Arctic to survey sea ice, clouds and particulates in the atmosphere. That information will be used to help gauge the effects of global warming. Next spring, the flights will canvas the Pacific Ocean to study the jet stream and moisture levels, information that could improve long-range forecasts and help water managers in Western states prepare for droughts or wetter-than-normal winters.

Faced with continuing delays in getting its A700 very light jet certified by the FAA, Adam Aircraft laid off 300 workers last week. The company is looking to raise as much as $100 million by this summer, when it plans to start up production again at its plants in Utah and Colorado, the Salt Lake Tribune reported. The layoffs put virtually all production on hold, though company officials asserted they will pick up again later this year once they get more money. The lost jobs include 80 in Pueblo, Colo., and 50 in Ogden, Utah. Meanwhile, the company failed to meet employment guarantees at its plant in Pueblo, meaning it could owe the city as much as $600,000 because it hasn’t grown as much as it promised, the Pueblo Chieftain reported. And in Ogden, the plane maker was given millions of dollars of tax incentives, but those will only kick in once the company ramps up its production schedule. Adam certified its A500 centerline thrust twin-engine plane several years ago but has yet to get the twin-engine A700 jet, a variant of the A500, certified.

While the weather beat back some attendees on the first day, the annual Sebring U.S. Sport Aviation Expo wrapped up Sunday with more than 150 vendors from 28 states and six countries, Highlands Today reported. The expo gives smaller companies specializing in light sport planes and ultralights nearly as much prominence as big players like Cirrus and Cessna. Flight Design, the biggest light sport producer in the United States right now, rolled out the CTLS, a longer and wider version of its existing models. Tecnam Aircraft debuted its P92 Eaglet, a high-wing light sport plane with a trailing-link nosewheel and options for either traditional instruments or a glass panel. It’s priced at about $115,000. Gobosh showed off its 800XP, a low-wing plane priced starting at $124,000 that includes capabilities for instrument flight. Cirrus announced it would start taking orders for its SRS online, with only a $5,000 deposit required on the $120,000 plane. Under the program, buyers pick equipment options and pay the
balance of the plane’s cost a few months before delivery. Cirrus expects to start delivering the SRS in 2009.

The Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association has a wish list of changes it would like to see the FAA make to the Federal Aviation Regulations. Topping the list is driver’s license medicals for recreational pilots, since sport pilots can now fly with only a driver’s license, without having to get a separate medical certificate. AOPA also wants the FAA to change its rules when it comes to GPS receivers used in instrument flight. Currently, pilots must have a secondary form of navigation, like a VOR receiver, for backup. But AOPA says GPS signals are so reliable that a backup shouldn’t be mandatory. And in a related vein, the pilot group would like to see the FAA add another way for pilots to meet the requirements of 30-day VOR checks: by comparing the VOR signal with information from the GPS. With that change, pilots are more likely to do the check more often, the group claims.

There were less than 20 injuries among the 152 passengers and crew aboard a British Airways Boeing 777 that crashed short of the runway at London Heathrow as it arrived from Beijing Thursday. The plane lost all engine power at about 600 feet above ground level and two milesfrom the end of the runway, the first time that a 777 has crashed in 13 years of service, the London Sunday Times reported. The plane’s crew disabled the autopilot after it called for more thrust but the engines failed to spool up. The plane skidded through mud, coming to rest at the approach end of Runway 27L. Its left landing gear punctured through the wing and the right gear assembly sheered off completely. Investigators are focusing on the plane’s computerized engine controls as one possible cause of the problem. Serious problems with the 777 are rare but not unheard of. In 2005, the flight crew of a Malaysia Airlines flight were confronted with simultaneous conflicting flight displays, one showing an overspeed situation and the other showing an impending stall. The plane leveled off after several thousand feet of pitching up and down. A preliminary report into last week’s crash by British investigators is expected within a month.