Piper Aircraft confirmed last week it is cutting 150 jobs in Florida as orders for new planes have slowed to a trickle. The cuts complicate an economic incentive deal Piper struck with local governments last year to keep the company in Vero Beach, the South Florida Sun-Sentinal reported. Under the terms of the deal, Piper would get up to $32 million over several years as long as it expanded its production facilities and hired more workers. While Piper has gotten the first $10 million and would have been eligible for more money at the start of the year, it said in announcing the layoffs that it would not try to secure any more of the incentive funds in the near term. Piper CEO Jim Bass said the worst may not be over and that more layoffs could come this year if the economy continues to slide. In a worst-case scenario, Piper could be forced to repay part of the incentive money it has already gotten if it fails to meet certain hiring targets. The company can seek two-year extensions on those deadlines, though, giving it some breathing room.

Cessna, Hawker Beechcraft and other aviation companies in Wichita, Kan., have laid off hundreds of workers in recent months, with at least 2,000 more job cuts looming. But some of those workers may be able to get back on the job relatively quickly if they’re willing to move elsewhere and go to work for one of dozens of defense contractors and aviation parts suppliers, Wichita’s NBC affiliate reported. Those companies are doing well because federal government contracts don’t slow down much during a recession, and because government orders placed before the recent sharp downturn still need to be filled. But Wichita’s aviation companies could find themselves in a bind a few years from now when the economy recovers and they start hiring again, only to find that their old workers, many with specialized manufacturing skills, have gone elsewhere for work.

Following a weeklong delay, a federal judge on Tuesday OK’d the sale of bankrupt Eclipse Aviation to one of its shareholders, even though the buyer has not said whether it will support planes that have already been ordered and delivered. A subsidiary of ETIRC Aviation will buy Eclipse for $28 million and keep its Albuquerque, N.M. manufacturing facility open, the Associated Press reported. A new factory to be completed in Russia next year would build planes for European buyers. But it’s unclear what will happen to customers who have put down deposits and are waiting for their airplanes. Many suppliers and customers owed refunds and payments from Eclipse objected to the sale, worried they would see little of the money they are owed. ETIRC has said it would pay 15 cents on the dollar for secured creditors, though that may leave smaller suppliers and many customers out in the cold. The alternative, ETIRC said, would have been worse, since Eclipse would have been forced to liquidate its facilities and lay off several hundred employees.

Garmin is rolling out a new “building-block” panel system for experimental and light-sport planes based on the GPSMap 696, which was released earlier this year. The GDU 370 and GDU 375, which have the same large screen and button layout as the GPSMap 696, will eventually be able to connect to a variety of other cockpit instruments and act as primary flight displays and multifunction displays, Garmin said in a news release. The displays alone will start at $3,300 without satellite weather; that option adds $700 to the price. A kit that includes attitude and heading sensors, a temperature probe and other sensors would cost an extra $10,000. Garmin is calling the complete package the G3X, and while it won’t be certified, pilots will be able to use it in lieu of standard cockpit instruments for both visual and instrument flight rules operations.

Amid the talk of “next generation” air traffic control technologies, Boston Center is finding ways to accomplish many of the same ends using existing radar installations. By using approach radars that rotate faster and are more accurate than en route radars, Boston Center controllers would be able to pack planes closer together than they can today, the FAA’s Air Traffic Organization reported. While the technology works in the skies, the FAA hasn’t addressed how it would tweak staffing to keep up with more congested airways under the plan. Usually, the computers at en route centers merge data from multiple radar sites onto a controller’s screen; if more than one radar picks up the same plane, the computer decides which one to use. Because of the resulting margin of error, controllers typically have to provide five miles of horizontal separation. But by using the more precise radar sites, large swaths of Boston Center’s airspace can be covered with just one radar site each. That means planes would be able to fly within three miles of each other, as they can in approach environments. The upshot is that controllers could pack more planes into their airspace. Of course, that also means facilities would need more controllers to keep workload in check.

One of the few remaining Ford Tri-Motors that’s still airworthy sold for $1.21 million at an auction in Arizona on Jan. 17 to a man who plans to put in the plane in a museum. The plane sold at the annual Barrett-Jackson Collector Car Auction; the name of the buyer wasn’t immediately known, the Raleigh-Durham News & Observer reported. The plane’s previous owner, Korean War veteran Dolph Overton, lives in North Carolina. The auctioned Tri-Motor was damaged by gunfire during the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941 and later served as a firefighting plane in Montana. Overton bought the plane in 1969 and recently paid to have the plane restored to its original condition, with seating for nine passengers. True to the original, the plane’s basic electrical system provides enough power for navigation and landing lights, but not for a transponder or radios. There are believed to be only six Tri-Motors in the world that are still airworthy.

The pilots of a Continental Boeing 737 that veered off a runway at Denver International Airport last month didn’t engage the plane’s thrust reversers until after the plane left the runway. <a href=”http://ntsb.gov/Pressrel/2009/090107.html”>According to new information released by the National Transportation Safety Board</a>, the plane swerved to the left unexpectedly during the takeoff roll, and neither the rudder nor the nose wheel steering tiller would bring the plane back onto the runway centerline. The plane’s top speed during the accident sequence was 119 knots. In its review so far, the NTSB has found no mechanical problems with the plane; its engines, landing gear, brakes, rudder and hydraulic systems all appeared to be functioned normally. Thirty-eight passengers were injured in the crash, which ended with the right engine bursting into flames as the 737 came to a rest in a ditch. The NTSB said it is reviewing detailed wind data from the airport’s wind shear alert system so it can calculate the exact crosswind component the 737 experienced during takeoff. Winds were blowing at about 27 knots, coming from a heading 70 degrees to the left of the runway at the time of the accident.

A Tuscon, Ariz., school district renewed its contract with a local flight school that gives lessons to high school students, even after the district found out the flight school had paid nearly $45,000 in fines to the FAA. The flight school made faulty repairs on several Cessnas used in flight training and performed maintenance on a helicopter that it wasn’t qualified to do, <a href=”http://www.azstarnet.com/metro/275394″>the Arizona Star reported</a>. The school’s owner made several repairs using tape, the FAA said. The flight school’s owner downplayed the problems, calling them mistakes in paperwork. But the FAA said the problems were serious enough to warrant suspending the owner’s maintenance certificate for four months. The school district said it doesn’t require contractors, such as the flight school, to report past problems and said it had heard few complaints about the flight school. But staffers said they had concerns with how the flight school handled billing and repair issues in the past. The $115,000 contract pays for just 10 high school seniors each year to receive their flight training at no charge to students or parents; few of those students go on to become professional pilots.

Though Cirrus Design recalled 500 production line employees just last week, the company is now slashing 50 positions in other departments.  And another 100 production employees who were furloughed in December may not return to their jobs until mid-April, <a href=”http://www.duluthnewstribune.com/event/article/id/109152/”>the Duluth News Tribune reported</a>. The 50 jobs cut last week were support-related positions in engineering, shipping and receiving. The company said it expects to stay healthy in 2009, as some of its cost-cutting in recent months allowed it to pay off $20 million in debt.  With orders remaining slow, its production lines will produce eight planes per week, half of the company’s typical rate in 2008. And Boeing said last week it would cut 4,500 jobs in its commercial airplane division, <a href=”http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=aNF8U_Y4P5Yc&refer=home”>Bloomberg reported</a>. Boeing’s order book remains strong, with more than 3,700 planes to be delivered, but the company received fewer new aircraft orders last year and it is looking for ways to cut cost. Few of the job cuts will affect production line employees; Boeing said it would fire some contractors and eliminate other positions through attrition.

More often than not, the news in recent months from small airports across the nation has been of carriers slashing flights and sometimes pulling out completely. But word that two carriers want to launch flights at Paine Field, in Snohomish County north of Seattle, has residents clamoring in opposition, <a href=”http://www.heraldnet.com/article/20090110/NEWS01/701109920/0/BIZ”>the Everett Herald reported</a>. Paine, which is home to a large Boeing assembly facility and several flight schools, currently does not have any commercial service, though it still logs more than 350 takeoffs and landings each day. Horizon Airlines, a regional carrier, plans to launch daily flights to Spokane, Wash., and Portland by April, while Allegiant Airlines said it wants to start flying to Las Vegas. The city would first have to put up money to build a passenger terminal, and residents are angered at having to spend tax money to fund the facility. But if the city stands in the way of new commercial service, it could have to forfeit federal airport funding grants.