Back in 2019, we made a pilgrimage to the beaches of Normandy to join aviation enthusiasts and family in the commemoration of the 75th anniversary of the D-Day invasion. Part of my remit then was to cover the events both in France and England for Flying magazine.
But more importantly, I had the privilege of interviewing and flying with members of the D-Day Squadron, the collective of which had just flown a coterie of Douglas DC-3 and C-47 variants across the North Atlantic to be part of the memorial displays. Back then, the group formed in coordination and with the support of the Tunison Foundation, which at that time operated Placid Lassie, a restored C-47. The foundation made it logistically possible for Placid Lassie to make not only the crossing but also keep to a busy schedule of events and airshows throughout that year and beyond.
Point of view between the pilots of “That’s All Brother” near Duxford, UK, in 2019. [Credit: Julie Boatman]Looking across the English countryside from “That’s All Brother” in 2019. [Credit: Julie Boatman]
Following that incredible year, the DC-3 Society was born, with a mission to create a true stewardship for the DC-3 type, with a charge to educate, support, and maintain the flying Douglas DC-3s and their extensive model series into the future. With an estimated 150 DC-3s and variants still flying, that’s an important pursuit.
Now, on the 89th anniversary of the DC-3’s first flight in 1935 in Santa Monica, the D-Day Squadron is poised to make a solo flight of its own. With a nod of thanks to the foundation, as of January 2025, the Squadron will stand separately, ready to carry on the mission.
Eric Zipkin, board president of the Tunison Foundation, served as chief pilot for the 2019 and 2024 D-Day Squadron missions to Normandy. “We’re excited for the future of the DC-3 Society, especially continuing to operate this type of aircraft in our current climate,” Zipkin said in a release. “It’s imperative we have a structured member organization looking out for our best interests and needs.”
Point of view between the pilots of “Placid Lassie” during formation practice at Oshkosh 2022. [Credit: Julie Boatman]Looking out over Lake Butte des Morts near Oshkosh aboard “Placid Lassie” in July 2022. [Credit: Julie Boatman]
The DC-3 Society will continue to be led by executive director Lyndse Costabile, and its standalone 501(c)3 status will soon be official. The Society will focus on the Squadron’s programming and platforms, while the Squadron will focus on flying displays commemorating the DC-3. “We know the D-Day Squadron is globally recognized, that’s no secret,” said Costabile. “It’s become a symbol to many in celebrating the Grand Dame, the legendary DC-3 and all those who crewed and maintained her.”
“That is why we must highlight the DC-3 Society to ensure longevity of our programs, membership resources and continuing to celebrate all that the DC-3 has accomplished in war and in peace,” Costabile added. Those programs include a favorite of mine, the Young Historians, which encourages the next generation to study and understand the airplane and the extensive role it has played in global history, from its airline days, to World War II, to the Vietnam War, and to the present day in cargo and transport operations.
“We know with the DC-3 Society there is a place for our younger generation to help tell the stories of the Greatest Generation, our heroes too humble to even consider themselves heroes, ” said Henry Simpson, pilot and founding member of the Young Historian’s Program based in the UK. “I am looking forward to our role to help lead the society’s education and outreach programming, continuing our mission to serve, honor and pay tribute to veterans.”
We’re here to fully support the next mission, which includes a string of 90th anniversary events across the U.S. and Europe in 2025. Want to join in? Follow the DC-3 Society website and social channels.
Django Studios designed the logo for the 90th anniversary campaign in 2025 for the Douglas DC-3. [Courtesy of the DC-3 Society]
With the report from Daher, Safran, and Airbus on the Eco-Pulse hybrid-electric TBM-inflected tech demonstrator, the collective teams have the opportunity to stay future-forward—and incorporate lessons learned. In the interest of meeting the industry’s sustainable aviation objectives, we all have a vested interest in these outcomes.
A media briefing preceded the LinkedIn liverstream on December 10, from Tarbes, France. Leaders from each company—including Pascal Laguerre, CTO of Daher; Éric Dalbiès, SEVP of strategy/CTO of Safran; and Jean-Baptiste Manchette, head of propulsion of tomorrow from Airbus—joined project lead and head of aircraft design Christophe Robin from Daher. Over the past five years since the project debuted at Paris Air Show in 2019, I’ve stayed in touch with Robin on its progress, which will inform the way forward for all three companies.
The panel of leaders from Daher, Safran, and AirbusChristophe Robin shows the flight deck of the Eco-Pulse along with its side stick unified flight control.
What Is Eco-Pulse?
The Eco-Pulse project is critical for these leaders among aerospace OEMs because hybrid-electric propulsion forms a bridge between current jet-A (sustainable aviation fuel) burning turbine engines and full-scale electric propulsion. The aircraft at its heart is a technology demonstrator, in which a standard Pratt & Whitney PT6 turboprop engine remains in place on a tried-and-tested Daher TBM 900-series airframe. It’s joined by six Safran ePropellers on the wings integrated with a Safran-built turbogenerator and Airbus’ high-voltage battery pack (at 800 volts DC and up to 350 kW of power). A power distribution and rectification unit (PDRU) protects the high voltage network and distributes power via high-voltage supply harnesses.
The Eco-Pulse flew for the last time, perhaps, in July 2024. [Credit: Daher/Jean-Marie Urlacher]Distributed lift exploration formed a key takeaway from Eco-Pulse.
The pilot can use the six motors propelling distributed lift over the wing via a unified joystick-style flight control, via the integrated flight deck. It’s a unique marriage of tech dreams and true life—the Eco-Pulse project allowed for demonstration of these technologies within the envelope of safety required by the simple fact it was taking flight in the real world, not a simulation.
Flying it remains key to showing the operational safety necessary to move forward.
The flight testing took place mostly with the PT6 in “transparent” mode.Christophe Robin with the Daher flight test team on Eco-Pulse.
Flight Testing the Eco-Pulse
In the livestream, the flight test team described the progressive activation of the ePropellers and the eventually complete electrical actuation of the airframe and powertrain. During flight test, most of the hours of electric flight were conducted with the PT6 in “transparent” mode—not producing power, but not completely shut down.
Each step provided data to the respective companies, building on successive knowledge. For example, much was learned by flying the aircraft under its fly-by-wire (FBW) system, and under speed constraints. Stalls as well as the top speed of the demonstrator (190 kts) were explored. Slower airspeeds—as opposed to high-speed flight—provided some of the richest data, as the effect of the distributed lift caused by the ePropellers showed up most with lower in-flight airflow.
Wind Tunnel Test 2021Installation of ePropellers 2023
“You can imagine when when you have this propeller on the wing,” said Robin in the briefing. “The behavior is really different—you ‘blow’ the wing so the efficiency of the wing is completely different, thanks to the blowing effect of these six propellers. You increase the performance at takeoff, [and] during some maneuvers, and you can play with the flight controls, playing with the different[ial] power of these six engines. By doing that, you can play with the trajectory of the aircraft.”
Since the first hybrid-electric test flight on November 29, 2023, the Eco-Pulse has logged more than 100 hours in 50 flights, during which the team also noted other performance improvements, as well as the ability to reduce cabin noise with synchronization of the six propellers.
Two key learnings included a big challenge—managing the 800 VDC battery and the harness that distributes the power—as well as understanding how it will be maintained and serviced in real-world conditions. Things are just different in the air: A battery fire, for one, is more complicated than in ground-based vehicles, and because of the presence of the traditional turboprop engine, that fire may occur in close proximity to the fuel system.
The team learned from these issues: “Each unexpected issue on the aircraft has been ‘good news’,” said Robin. “There’s been…bad things, but also good news, because when on a subject…we didn’t think about, and Safran didn’t think about, that means that there was something real [to test and discover], That’s the point of making a demonstrator, to be in real life and not making only Powerpoints.
“We had some integration issues about the harness,” he continued. “It seems easy to install [an electrical distribution] harness with 800 volts in real life. [But] when you get more knowledge, [it’s] not that easy, especially when you have fuel, which is not too far away. You have to take care of all the dysfunctional cases. And we learned that some of them were probably not taken at the right level. We learned a lot on the integration of the harness.”
“We learned a lot also about the operation of high voltage aircraft,” he added, “because we are thinking design as an engineer [during] certification, but at the end of the day, well, you have an aircraft, and if you have 800-volt batteries, how you do you operate? How do the maintenance people take care of it?”
Ground Testing of High-Voltage Systems 2023Aircraft Modeling Optimization 2024
Daher + Safran + Airbus
Collaboration between the three giants was also a key takeaway: They essentially learned how to transform the relationship between airframe and powerplant OEMs as well as how to leverage the agility of start-ups that were brought into the development of the Eco-Pulse. The marketable aircraft program will depend on this coordination.
“So for the time being, we can enjoy something like 10-year periods, starting 2020 till the end of the decade, where we can focus our engineering teams on the preparation of the most disruptive technologies for the future,” said Pascal Laguerre in the media briefing. “That’s really an opportunity to make this happen. So we see this opportunity between our companies to align our goals at the same moment in time with the same mindset, the same intent, and saying, ‘Well, none of us individually can do it, can make it happen.’”
Sourcing of raw materials, including the rare earth metals needed for the batteries, from places on the globe that are not secure, is another takeaway from the program. Recycling those materials in a circular economy is vital to meeting several objectives, including those overall to support sustainable aviation. Finding other ways of approaching component construction and reuse is also critical.
Thrust Performance & Flight Controls 2024The three OEMs gained much more than expected from the collaboration.
What Comes Next for Daher?
The follow-on aircraft program from Daher and CORAC will be explored with a project beginning in 2025 with the goal of meeting the OEM’s objective of a go-to-market aircraft plan by 2027. With the real flight testing of Eco-Pulse, the goals are transformed beyond “the paper” according to Robin: “We have now a better idea of what the maturity is of the technological bricks [that] we can put inside an aircraft. We will launch next year a new CORAC project with Safran, in order to work on these hybridization and electrical technologies.
“The idea is to have this assessment of the [technologies’] maturity and to be able to meet the objectives given by my CEO [Didier Kayat],” he concluded. “That’s to propose a design and manufacture aircraft by the end of this strategic plan—so by the end of 2027, we [will be] working on this more electrical aircraft.” Also, Daher’s team will determine what the benefits were of the distributed propulsion system.
We’re certainly excited to see the next project leave the hangar…
For my friends catching up, Electra Aero is a very cool aviation start-up that proposes a niche vehicle in the short- to medium-haul regional transport scheme. It ain’t eVTOL… it’s eSTOL, and it uses current airplane and pilot certification bases to achieve a new meaning for short-field takeoffs and landings.
On Wednesday, November 13, Electra Aero in Manassas revealed the EL9 Ultra Short model at its development hangar at KHEF. I was last here for the unveiling of the two-seat technology demonstrator a year and a half ago, and I would not have missed being here for the unveiling we heard announced at NBAA-BACE 24 in Las Vegas last month.
One of the early test models for the Electra series of eSTOL aircraft took a place of honor at the EL9 unveiling. [Credit: Julie Boatman]Formerly from Boeing, Electra CEO Marc Allen shows distinct energy for the hybrid-electric future. [Credit: Julie Boatman]Several customers for the Electra EL9 were on hand, including India’s JetSetGo CEO Kanika Tekriwal. [Credit: Julie Boatman]
The EL-2 technology demonstrator shown alongside the coming 9-seat prototype has been making aviation over Virginia skies (and elsewhere) proving the concept—and resulting in takeoffs and landings of less than 150 feet. That’s critical for launch customers like AFWERX and other military and civilian regional transportation applications.
With a nod to aviation visionary and Electra founder John Langford, CEO B. Marc Allen and SVP JP Stewart talked the audience through the technologies within the future EL9 that leverage the advantages of hybrid-electric motors over purely jet-A driven ones. The EL-2 Goldfinch has been demonstrating these elements for the past year since its first flight in November 2023.
John Langford, founder of Electra, kicks off the reveal of the cabin mockup with Marc Allen. [Credit: Julie Boatman]
Buddy Sessoms, chief engineer from Electra, walked through the flight test program thus far, and the three enabling technologies at its core:
Blown lift
Distributed hybrid-electric power (DEP)
Fly-by-wire (FBW)
The trio come together in a way not possible before—and are anticipated to enter service on the EL9 in 2029, making possible direct travel beyond helicopters, jets, and turboprops. For example, the blown lift enables flight at such low airspeeds to reduce the takeoff and landing distance to that of a typical runway centerline stripe.
Distributed hybrid-electric power, or DEP, has been made possible by the lightweight Safran turbogenerators, designed such that 8 can be placed across the leading edge of the wing. By using a combination of currently available sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) and battery power, the EL9 is projected to leverage the torque of the electric power with the long range and speed made possible by low-to-no-emission SAF.
The Safran TG 600 turbogenerator is under development for the Electra EL9 Ultra Short hybrid-electric airplane. [Credit: Julie Boatman]The “Woodstock” (my nickname) Electra EL-2 technology demonstrator has flown for a year now, proving many elements of the EL9 design. [Credit: Julie Boatman]From a video presentation at the unveiling, the outlines of the Electra EL9 were revealed. [Credit: Julie Boatman]
And FBW? It orchestrates the blown lift and distributed power into action. “One motor fails, and automatically we shut down the opposing motor,” said Sessoms. “This leaves six remaining motors for safe flight. This is an unprecedented level of automation that is safety focused.” On a typical takeoff, the automated systems currently detect faults with minimal pilot workload. Plus, the pilot actuates this through a single throttle lever to control eight motors in concert, at all times.
“It couldn’t be safer nor simpler,” Sessoms concluded.
The unveiling revealed a full size mockup of the cabin and cargo area… it can be configured either way. Planning for a 34-inch seat pitch and the cabin 60 inches across and 58 inches high.
The full size cabin mockup of the Electra EL9 sat behind the curtain until it was revealed at the end—then opened for the audience to explore. [Credit: Julie Boatman]
We have to wait to see the actual airplane, which will go into production shortly.
So, what are the hurdles? Similar to those of other similar-sized (9-seat single-engine turboprops and light jets come to mind), even the relatively modest amount of electric power needed to make a hybrid system work at this equivalent horsepower still requires management that is quite different from the shielding and distribution currently in use in traditionally powered airplanes.
In any event, the team appears energized to the challenge—and the target niche now occupied by the Cessna Caravan or Daher Kodiak gives plenty of use cases for a real product. We’re looking forward to seeing the EL9 fly into the future with much of technology—and infrastructure—available today.
My third day at NBAA BACE this year kicked off with a visit to our friends at Garmin, who have been basking in the post-release afterglow following the launch of the G3000 Prime flight deck. The avionics giant had an AATD-style sim set up in a conference room at their exhibit in the main hall, and they were gracious enough to give me a thorough demo on their latest product, which combines functionality and style from the G1000 Nxi, G3000, and G3X Touch set-ups.
The launch platform for the G3000 Prime is the Cessna Citation CJ4 Gen3 announced on Monday, but the sim had been set up to be a fairly generic jet—though it bears more than passing resemblance to a 525 series.
New features on the G3000 Prime include the ability to “test out” new routings, diversions, or destinations without loading them into an active flight plan, as well as visualization of arrival sectors. [Credit: Julie Boatman]
In this initial application, the flight deck consists of a three-screen set of large 14-inch primary flight displays (PDUs), and two smaller (7-inch) portrait-oriented secondary displays (or SDUs). But rather than having data entry only available on the SDUs (they are positioned similarly to the touchscreen controllers in the G3000), the pilot can enter data there or directly on the PDU. Fields available for data entry are highlighted, and the pilot can swipe down menus from the top bar to edit those fields directly—I almost applauded when I saw that, thinking back on how frustrating it can be when you get in an airplane and those aren’t to your liking.
The new displays all feature improved touchscreen technology that allows the pilot to brace on the screen itself for input without activating unwanted fields. [Credit: Julie Boatman]
The “touch” itself has improved too, with fingerprint resistant displays and a unique multi-touch tech allowing you to brace your hand directly on the screen for stability while you enter or select the field you want to change or activate. Certain menu buttons (like the Flight Plan) remain available along the bottom of the main displays regardless of what is active on the screen, and the SDUs double as standby electronic flight instruments, with their ability to display PFD and map data in the event of a main screen failure.
A close-up of the Arrival Preview feature in a pop-up window overlaying the main flight plan map, which gives the pilot the ability to use the larger display’s screen real estate without clicking away from the primary map. [Credit: Julie Boatman]
One very cool feature: The pilot can try out a new routing or alternate on the SDU, and generate a visual depiction of it without loading it as an active flight plan. While it has clear safety and situational awareness implications, I also see it as a way to stave off boredom on long legs—you can check out new places to your heart’s delight.
Safety updates abound in the system, beyond emergency Autoland—which has itself seen an upgrade to take NOTAMs into account. One timely feature added is the Runway Occupancy Awareness technology, which analyzes GPS and ADS-B data to determine if the runway ahead has another airplane, or if one is about to land on top of you. I honestly had the heebie-jeebies watching the simulation of it—these are those moments that strike fear in the hearts of pilots.
The Runway Occupancy Awareness feature highlights an active runway in red if the airplane crosses the hold-short line while another airplane occupies it. [Credit: Julie Boatman]
Smart checklists also link to CAS messages, streamlining access to abnormal and emergency procedures with contextual flows. Smart Glide and Smart Rudder Bias come too, along with the Emergency Stability Protection that rounds out Garmin’s Autonomi suite. The Emergency Return function allows you to select a departure alternate close by and set up the runway and landing information ahead of time, so that in the event of a problem that precludes returning to the runway you just left, you already have that locked and loaded.
While it’s still under development in its first application, the G3000 Prime feels fully baked, and I look forward to flying with the system once it’s past certification.
The machinations of rulemaking crank through on often mysterious schedules…and we’ve collectively as an industry both suffered and been rewarded as of late with the timeliness of FAA process.
But the stars aligned for NBAA’s team in particular on Tuesday at BACE in Las Vegas, as the FAA released the SFAR (special federal aviation regulation) governing the new powered lift category just in time for administrator Mike Whitaker to sign it into action after his appearance with NBAA president and CEO Ed Bolen at the morning keynote. You could practically hear them popping corks in the D.C. offices all the way to Vegas.
This was the big news I’d alluded to in yesterday’s post. Yes, we have witnessed a milestone in the aviation story.
Mike Whitaker, FAA Administrator, delivers the great news on the SFAR on VTOL aircraft to Ed Bolen, president and CEO of NBAA at BACE 2024 Tuesday morning. [Credit: Julie Boatman]
The SFAR on Powered Lift
The ruling and its amendments outline the parameters for pilot certification, operating rules for powered-lift ops, and give guidance on how those aircraft will integrate into the national airspace system (NAS) with fixed- and rotor-wing aircraft. The rules are performance-based, for the most part, which means they generally tell OEMs and operators the metrics they need to achieve rather than prescribing strictly how they will achieve them.
That’s fantastic news for contenders in the market such as Joby, Archer, Lilium, and others who are well on their way into flight testing conforming (or near-conforming) initial production models, standing up the lines to make them, and building out training and support infrastructure.
JP Stewart and B.Marc Allen deliver the latest updates on the E9 hybrid electric STOL aircraft program at NBAA BACE 2024. [Credit: Julie Boatman]
Electra Aero and eSTOL
But wait… there was more in store yesterday in terms of truly new aircraft program updates. Though their big reveal of the E9 “G0” test article won’t take place til November 13, Electra Aero’s J.P. Stewart and B. Marc Allen walked the media through the progress of the two-seat demonstrator and its test campaign underway in northern Virginia.
As a fan of short takeoff and landing (STOL) airplanes, I love this concept, which uses blown and distributed lift to enable super-slow takeoff and landing speeds, bringing those distances reliably under 150 feet. Stewart reported that they had the airplane down to 22 knots in flight—and they haven’t found the stall speed yet.
Think about that for a second. I can’t wait to witness the 9-seat version flying, likely next year.
Bombardier founder Laurent Beaudoin and chairman Pierre Beaudoin of Bombardier with Lisa Stark receiving the Meritorious Service Award at NBAA BACE. [Credit: Julie Boatman]In a conversation with Joby Aviation’s Bonny Simi, Neil de Grasse Tyson shows a letter from Orville Wright in highlighting the exponential nature of progress in the aerospace industry. [Credit: Julie Boatman]
Inspiration… in Great Leaders
The other keynotes also touched the SRO audience at the morning session. First, Laurent and Pierre Beaudoin, the father-and-son leaders of Bombardier, received the Meritorious Service Award from NBAA for their dedication to building a benchmark airframe OEM out of a company that manufactured snowmobiles in Quebec in the 1960s.
And Joby’s Bonny Simi—riding a serious high with the SFAR now enabling her to press forward in defining ops and training for the eVTOL OEM—delighted in her conversation with astrophysicist/personality Neil deGrasse Tyson. We all did. Tyson managed to paint with words the picture of his 9-year-old self first seeing the stars inside a planetarium, and feeling so moved that he would make astrophysics his life’s work. I’m putting his book, Astrophysics for People in a Hurry, on my reading list. It’s one of Bonny’s faves, she says. Good enough for me.
The Bombardier Challenger 3500 at NBAA BACE 2024. [Credit: Julie Boatman]Wiglets form one key part of the wing design on the Challenger 3500 that enable its legendary smooth ride. [Credit: Julie Boatman]The Nuage seating highlights the updated interior on the Bombardier Challenger 3500. [Credit: Julie Boatman]
Inspiration… in Great Airplanes
In the afternoon, I made it out to the static display at Henderson airport (KHND), to meet up with Bombardier’s comms team for an introduction to the Challenger 3500. With this update to the legendary CL-30 type, Bombardier has made a workhorse of the corporate fleet into a thoroughbred. I don’t usually turn right upon entering a business jet, but I needed to try out the Nuage seats that line the bright, well-windowed cabin.
But I didn’t get too comfortable, because demo pilot Mark Ohlau had a tour ready for me of the Collins Pro Line 21 Advanced integrated flight deck. I nestled into the left seat behind the significant and traditional leather-covered yoke, and he walked me through the pilot-centered “dark cockpit,” so well organized that it doesn’t need an overhead panel. Ohlau especially likes the MultiScan weather radar, which has enabled his trips all around the globe in the airplane—including a recent bucket-list approach into Paro, Bhutan.
Stay tuned for a full pilot report to come…
The Arrivée Cirrus SF50 Vision Jet on the static display at NBAA BACE 2024. [Credit: Julie Boatman]The Multi-Mission Daher Kodiak 900 Apex on the static display at NBAA BACE 2024. [Credit: Julie Boatman]
I visited other favorite airplanes on the display, in particular the latest Cirrus SR G7 launch edition, and the SF50 Vision Jet Microsoft Flight Sim edition, in honor of its inclusion in the latest release of that software. I also took some time to admire the latest Daher Kodiak 900, the multi-mission APEX version, with a digital camo paint scheme to suit its Swiss-Army-knife capabilities in the field.
Looking forward to my Day Three at the show…prepping for the Climbing.Fast panel with business aviation leaders who champion the sustainability cause. That facet of BACE kicked off Tuesday morning (early…yawn!) with a panel update co-hosted by GAMA.
I get up that early just to see what stylish (and sustainable?) ensemble Embraer’s Michael Amalfitano has pulled together… always check the socks.
The media breakfast on Tuesday championed the Climbing.Fast. program and progress made on various pillars of the push to net-zero emissions by 2025. [Credit: Julie Boatman]
In times of uncertainty, what do people tend to do? Nothing.
Or perhaps more appropriately, they wait and see. They make incremental changes at most, staying a conservative course until some trigger releases them from this holding pattern.
Though the week will tell if this bears out, that sense of anticipation pervaded on the Monday before opening day of the National Business Aviation Association’s Business Aviation Convention and Exhibition 2024.
“‘I’d say uncertainty is the word right now,” said Rollie Vincent, founder of JetNet, in its annual state of the market briefing on October 21. “Whether it’s geopolitical, whether it’s political, election oriented, whether it’s ‘are we still going to like each other after a certain date on the calendar’…all these sorts of silly things, which aren’t so silly, because they create policy impacts that can drive our industry down, sideways, or in directions we don’t know.”
JetNet hosts the launch of WingX’s Global Insight Professional driving data into a concrete snapshot of business jet activity. [Credit: Julie Boatman]Blackhawk Group’s Chad Cundiff introduces a series of new programs that the Blackhawk/Avex/Finnoff association will bring to the market. [Credit: Julie Boatman]Nicolas Chabbert, CEO of Daher Aircraft, describes the customer service approach that has led to top scores in the segment in Professional Pilot surveys for 4 years running. [Credit: Julie Boatman]
Textron Aviation Puts Garmin G3000 Prime in CJ4 Gen3
Under the umbrella of that uncertainty, we still have innovation quietly laboring along, with tried-and-true platforms gaining from those evolutionary efforts. The news from Media Day—when the reporting pool and other associates move from press conference to luncheon to reception in hopes of gleaning stories from that access—bore out that observation.
Lannie O’Bannion, SVP of Sales and Flight Ops for TextAV, presents the CJ4 Gen3 model to owner Ryan Samples. [Credit: Julie Boatman]Textron Aviation introduced the Citation CJ4 Gen3 as the launch platform for the new Garmin G3000 Prime flight deck, including Emergency Autoland, a first into the Citation line. [Credit: Julie Boatman]Bombardier’s Éric Martel (center left) and flight test team receive NAA speed records from NAA CEO Amy Spowart at NBAA-BACE. [Credit: Julie Boatman]
Textron Aviation announced the latest upgrades to its 2,600-unit fleet of Citation CJs (the 525 series), with the CJ4 Gen3 as launch platform for Garmin’s G3000 Prime all-touch flight deck, complete with emergency Autoland.
Blackhawk Aerospace Group walked through its turboprop-forward portfolio, including enticing ways to improve the very proven King Air 350, Pilatus PC-12, and TBM 700 series, each with a higher-horsepower flavor of the also-proven Pratt & Whitney PT6A.
Bombardier celebrated its NAA speed-record-setting Global 7500, and the progress on the evolution to the “faster, further, smoother” Global 8000, which has topped Mach 1 in flight test. When certified, the 8000 upgrades can be applied to 7500s in the field—keeping that order book solid for sure.
Daher noted the EASA approval of the 5-blade Hartzell prop on the Kodiak 100, as well as its implementation on float-equipped aircraft. The lower rpm (2,000) of the new prop reduces the noise footprint enough (~6.6dBa) to meet European flyover standards.
In the Newsmakers luncheon, NBAA president and CEO Ed Bolen brings together partners from across the aisle, Sam Graves and Rick Larsen to celebrate the passage of the FAA Reauthorization Bill. [Credit: Julie Boatman]
FAA Reauthorization Celebrated Too
At the Newsmakers Lunch, NBAA president and CEO Ed Bolen hosted congressmen Sam Graves (R-Mo.) and Rick Larsen (D-Wash.), partners on the Transportation and Infrastructure Subcommittee as chair and ranking member, in a recap of the FAA Authorization Bill and all of the wins tucked inside of it. There should be no uncertainty here… the bill passed with very little opposition. “I feel strong that we have the basis, regardless of which administration is the place, to say we’re very clear about what we want to get done,” said Larsen. “And so, it’s a matter of implementation. It’s not a matter of ‘do you want to do it or not do it?’ You do it—we made that clear.”
And while we’re waiting for the door to crack open on bigger news this week at the show, at least we have that message in place regardless of the election’s outcome next month. And maybe there is more to each of these nuggets of progress to discover—we’ll be diving into each one more deeply in the coming weeks.
A quiet space can be found in Vegas. [Credit: Julie Boatman]
The opportunity to finish what we started—and witness the power of nature’s hand in forest renewal—compelled me to return to 1U1.
Stories have led me to enchanting places, but few resonate deep within me like the Idaho backcountry.
Our commitment to the Recreational Aviation Foundation and its mission to preserve access to wild, wonderful airstrips we treasure led us to return to Moose Creek USFS (1U1) in the Selway Bitterroot Wilderness in early October by Daher Kodiak 100. This time around, having the freedom to share my personal connection to the mission is a gift—pure gold like the aspens turning and shivering in the breeze. We flew in on a Friday, with plans to work through the weekend, rebuilding fence and joining fellow pilots and enthusiasts in the camaraderie such effort engenders.
Moose Creek Airstrip approaching from the northeast. [Credit: Julie Boatman]The flight deck of Daher Kodiak N504KQ. [Credit: Julie Boatman]Volunteer pilots Bob Miller and Bob Wells dropped us off, along with RAF staff Carmine and Kodi. [Credit: Stephen Yeates]
My 7-year-old self carried a little backpack on our family trip to Glacier National Park in the late 70s, just a short flight north of where we’re bunking down for the night. So it feels like returning home, snuggling into a sleeping bag in the loaner tent we put up hours before—at little or no risk to our marriage. It was perfectly chilly on Friday night, just below freezing but enough to keep my beanie on through ’til morning. From a tent at Oshkosh this year to this place… two of the happiest places on earth to me. But in honesty, the more perfect one is this, miles and miles from any road. The silence of the pillaring pines covers us like a blanket until the wind filters through them. So many snapped off at the shoulders from a violent yet brief windstorm, a microburst that hit on July 25 after the Moose Creek Complex fires of ’24 raged through, led by the Wye Fire in late July.
The Moose we knew last October—when we put up the first tranche of fence—has been left shaken by the impact but repairable by both human and invisible hands. Power tools had been called in to assist: The special dispensation to use chainsaws to break down the massive trunks left akimbo after the storms speaks to the size of that task. To do so with the hand saws normally allowed by the Wilderness Act would take years.
The forest will regenerate on its own terms and timeline. It always does. It needs the fire and the wind and the deep snows to renew itself.
We flew in Daher’s serial number one Kodiak last year—the same one that made the model’s first flight 20 years ago—on October 16, 2004, and not far from this place. That was N490KQ, which continues to fly under experimental status. It’s in flight test on Aerocet floats at the time of this writing, in fact. This year we met Bob Miller at KMSO in N504KQ, another Daher-donated critical airlift provider. The short flight over bumped us around a fair bit at 8,500…but as promised after we descended below the ridgelines it smoothed out completely. The winds aloft hadn’t made it down yet, thankfully. However, a front would power through later that evening, raining on us briefly with a twist of wind swirling around the treetops. Fred the cook accelerated our dinner plans so we didn’t get caught out.
Telling tales around a campfire is one of the top reasons why we gather in these places. [Credit: Julie Boatman]The firemaster at the Solo stove enjoys his job. [Credit: Julie Boatman]Kodiak pointing down Runway 22 at Moose Creek. [Credit: Julie Boatman]
The campfire around Bill’s Solo stove waited ’til Saturday night, which stayed calm and cool with a billion stars above us streaking across the Milky Way. By that time, we’d completed the rest of the fence surrounding the pasture—courtesy of another load brought in by Kodiak in the clutch. We were short 36 cross-bucks in the original materials flown and hauled in earlier, so the turboprop-that-could was dispatched to Missoula Saturday morning to pick up more.
After delivering the needed cross-bucks, the Kodiak is unloaded by RAF volunteers. [Credit: Julie Boatman]Unloading a cross-buck is easily done out of the Kodiak’s ample rear door. It’s like it was made for this… [Credit: Julie Boatman]
The infusion of lumber meant the world to us on the work crew—to leave the fence just a dozen yards short would have triggered compulsive feelings of incompletion for an agonizingly long time. And it meant a lot to the agencies participating in this particular project—the U.S. Forest Service, certainly, but also the Montana Conservation Corps and the Selway Bitterroot Frank Church Foundation (SBFC).
Two outhouses also burned in the August blaze… so the materials brought in included a pair of IKEA-style latrine kits—and Craig, who was the expert on putting them together. Within a day, we had two fully functional outhouses painted in Oxford Brown down at the southern end of the runways, in the “triangle.”
Two new outhouses replaced the ones burned in the fires at Moose Creek in 2024. [Credit: Julie Boatman]The damage from the fires over the summer of 2024 was extensive around the airstrip at Moose Creek. [Credit: Julie Boatman]The Recreational Aviation Foundation work parties take on many casts, but this one was all about building fence. [Credit: Julie Boatman]
Our meals shared around the picnic tables in front of the cookhouse expanded to fit the ~60 folks who showed up in more than 40 airplanes. Mealtime also gave us two special canine companions, Roux and Tate, who followed the enticing aromas of barbecue over from an outfitter’s campsite on the north edge of the complex.
No one could know how my heart clenched in a fist as Tate cautiously came up under my hand for a scratch behind his ears and a bid for food—he looked so much like Eddy, the pup we lost tragically to an accident in May, who possessed similarly soulful eyes. Every nibble of pulled pork, every flipped potato chip—he caught them along with the spirit of the crazy sweet dog we miss every day. Throughout this past sorrowful summer, hikes on the Appalachian Trail and marathon training runs had worked to heal my heart somewhat…but I really needed the mountains to swallow up the gaping hollowness inside me. I got my mountains twice this season—Colorado at the end of August, and the October week in Montana and Idaho. The honest work, lifting logs to my shoulders to portage like a canoe, back and forth, powered by Trish McKenna’s cookies, begun healing me in other places as well. Grief isn’t linear; it comes in waves. Tears mix well with sweat; they have a similar saline composition.
Stephen gives a treat to Tate, one of the camp canines of the trip, and dear to us. [Credit: Julie Boatman]A sign singed by fire stands sentinel along the trail to the confluence of the Selway and Moose Creek. [Credit: Julie Boatman]We gathered for meals in front of the cook house three times a day. [Credit: Julie Boatman]
Speaking of flowing water, Stephen and I hiked down to the confluence of the Selway and Moose Creek on Sunday morning, to witness more of the fire’s effect and record in photos this passing of time and memory. Any time we can scramble around rocks, we’re content, and the rounded river pebbles we felt under our feet will outlast us all.
The RAF crew finished this project ahead of schedule—many hands making light work indeed—and so we flew out a day earlier than planned. Bob Wells came to fetch us, again in N504KQ, and though we didn’t have the Missoula Tower making mother-in-law jokes on that segment, the flight was seasoned with the smoke from the Sheridan Fire blowing up from Wyoming.
As the last of the leaves fall, I know someday we’ll return to 1U1, though other projects and other places beckon. But there’s a bond I feel with “Moose” that will go on as long as I do.
Driving back from the Santa Monica Airport to my friend’s house in Agoura Hills, I have the option of going the coastal route, skipping the 101 and its traffic vagaries and headaches.
The Pacific Coast Highway up to Malibu, with a turnoff right at Pepperdine (Waves!!) snuggles me in like a old pair of yoga pants as I join the parade past the beaches to the left and the Palisades rising to the right.
Just past the turnoff to the Bay Inn, a motion above the water ahead catches my eye. I think it’s a helicopter—those fly by regularly on this stretch of SoCal—but I register with a start that it could have been the Joby demonstrator, “N54LAX,” that had been on display all day at KSMO, in honor of Donald Douglas Day.
Screenshot
Had I just witnessed a milestone in history? Not quite. But I saw our future.
In a conversation with Joby founder JoeBen Bevirt last year, his tone and his passion as he related his desire to innovate point-to-point transport into a whisper-quiet, zero-emissions occurrence touched me. It came back in waves—yes—as I slowed and stopped at the next light, considering my trip up the coast versus the joyful flight those members of the Joby team would have enjoyed on their sightseeing cruise. While the 228-nm flight back home to Marina wasn’t in the cards—but could it be, at this moment in time, completed directly by airplane or helicopter—or eVTOL? In near silence, at dollars per hour instead of thousands?
Well, here we are. That future is imminent.
What a fitting close to Donald Douglas Day, celebrating a man who brought commercial air transport to the masses with the Douglas DC-3, nearly 90 years ago.
He would have *loved* the Joby, Archer, Pivotal, Pipistrel, and Airhart displays at Santa Monica on “his” day.
On that Tuesday 23 years ago we will never forget, I sat in my office at the Aircraft Owners & Pilots Association, getting started on the morning’s editing or writing or… I don’t recall anymore.
Because around 9 am, Miriam, our executive admin, popped into the doorway and said that an airplane had just struck the World Trade Center.
What unfolded thereafter, I have shared in several pieces over the years, but the memory never loses its power. It was perhaps my first experience with the world completely turning on a dime. There was before… and after. And only that moment in between.
We will always remember the attacks of September 11, when we lost airline crews and passengers, Pentagon workers, first responders, and people just going about their day in downtown Manhattan.
For the first time I’m collecting those stories in one place, so that others can share them. And never forget.
While a record number of folks flew in to Oshkosh, the forum wasn’t quite full for the EAGLE (Eliminate Aviation Gas Lead Emissions) briefing at 10 am on Monday, July 22. But a couple hundred interested parties (pilots) did show up—and they were in for quite a review, punctuated by events unfolding throughout the week at EAA AirVenture. To review, EAGLE’s goal is to eliminate the use of leaded fuels in piston-powered aircraft in the U.S. by the end of 2030.
In the briefing, the FAA and industry consortium put representatives up on the forum stage, including co-chairs Curt Castagna, of the National Air Transportation Association (NATA), and Wes Mooty, acting administrator on certification for the FAA. Walter Desrosier, GAMA’s technical lead on fuels, presented as well.
Walter Desrosier of GAMA presents on the long list of required materials testing in the path to approval for a fuel. [Credit: Julie Boatman]
Desrosier gave an in-depth look at where each of the candidate fuels are on the path to the marketplace. But even the “big picture” simplified version of that path appeared more complex than has been perhaps sold to constituents.
Three candidate fuels remain in the mix:
* GAMI’s G100UL, which has an STC but no ASTM specification acceptance
* Swift’s 100R, which is undergoing concurrent STC and ASTM compliance testing
* LyondellBasell Industries’ UL100E, going through the Piston Engine Aviation Fuels Initiative (PAFI) program, which progresses towards ASTM acceptance and fleet authorization
After compliance is unlocked, the stakeholders in the supply chain must accept it along the way: aircraft and engine OEMs, fuel distributors, FBOs, aircraft owners/operators, and pilots.
Dan Pourreau, of LyondellBasell Industries, maker of UL100E currently going through the PAFI process, led a separate presentation later in the week. In it, he noted that a true drop-in replacement for 100LL was quickly passing from reality. One reason? The MON (mean octane number) of 100LL with which many high-compression engines were certificated is roughly 104, and may be as high as 106.
The best that unleaded fuel can do with non-lead boosters has been around 100 MON. That means that if an engine cannot accept the 100 MON, it may need mods to its operating conditions, such as cylinder head temperature limitations (“paper mods”), or further mechanical or technical mods.
Materials Testing?
There’s another concern raising a specter over the viability of GAMI’s fuel in particular. And that has to do with the materials testing that earlier candidate fuels in the PAFI program failed to pass. When you put fuel into the wing of an airplane, you pump it into a tank and start its journey through a system that includes elastomers (O-rings, hoses), metals, rubbers and other bladder materials, plastics, sealants, and paint. You have the certified fleet to consider when walking through the potential interactions—and then there’s the experimental fleet.
During Desrosier’s presentation, he popped up a Materials Compatibility Testing Matrix slide listing an outline of the materials that EAA has put forward through the EAGLE consortium for consideration in the process of ensuring a candidate fuel won’t negatively interact with anything it comes into regular contact with. While the OEM holds responsibility for testing certified aircraft (including its legacy models), the individual builder must test their own.
So, one of the 2,846 showplanes on EAA’s display last week drew my interest as a result of this question: the Beechcraft Baron that the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association (AOPA) is using to demonstrate to its members the high-octane unleaded fuels vying to replace 100LL. I’d have reason to take a close look at it as the week wore on—Oshkosh often serves as a proving ground for new designs and technologies, in that they must sit out in the sun, wind, and storms for more than a week in many cases. That’ll test anyone’s material makeup.
AOPA flew the Baron to the show with GAMI’s fuel powering the left engine. As the week wore on, two things raised questions in the area of materials compatibility—though nothing is conclusive yet. The first one feels perhaps cosmetic: the stain growing on and around the fuel cap on the left main tank where white paint had been previously.
The fuel cap on the left main tank of the Baron flown by AOPA for unleaded fuels testing. [Credit: Julie Boatman]Sludge weeping from seams under the wing of the Baron at the AOPA exhibit. [Credit: Julie Boatman]Reaching a low point in the wing, perhaps, the substance had the appearance of oil but smelled more of sealant. [Credit: Julie Boatman]
The second one feels more onerous, though we don’t yet know what the cause is. A line of oil-colored sludge reeking vaguely of sealant seeped from the seams underneath the wing, at low points near where the tank sits inside the wing. I crawled under to take a look myself, and it was there for all to see. Until the source of the sludge is inspected, however, its origin is inconclusive. Stay tuned for more as other results of long-term testing/demonstrations come to light.
We Have a Mixing Problem
The FAA recently published data that indicates GAMI’s fuel uses m-toluidine, an aromatic amine, as an octane booster. Not only does this set of chemicals potentially pose materials compatibility problems, but it also raise the problem of intermixing in the field—or within a tank. For its part, Swift Fuels has stated that any fuels containing aromatic amines cannot be intermixed with any Swift Fuel, including the 100R.
LyondellBasell reported that its fuel will be fully miscible with 100LL, since it runs very close to the leaded fuel in its chemical and physical properties. But it too is not likely to be mixable with either GAMI’s or Swift’s fuels.
And that prompted me to ask the question at the forum, is there a point at which the FAA and industry will need to get behind one fuel to move forward with—especially since FBOs are unlikely to have multiple tanks to dedicate to unleaded fuels? The market is so small as it is, and the risk of bifurcating it into two or three high octane unleaded fuels doesn’t sit well.
With these clouds on the horizon, the race to field a workable unleaded fuel solution for the GA fleet by 2030 has only intensified. The next EAGLE report will be virtual, in October. I plan to be there—will you?
