Kirby Harrison is a freelance writer for The Weekly of Business Aviation, Business & Commercial Aviation and others in the Informa publishing chain. Harrison joined the Navy in 1962 and spent 20 years in the service, virtually all of it as a photojournalist, traveling from small islands in the South Pacific to Vietnam to the bombing of the Marine barracks in Lebanon. When Harrison retired from the Navy, he went back to college and graduated in 1971 from Syracuse University with a Bachelor's Degree in Photojournalism. Along the way, he spent two years as a news photographer at the Daily Press & Times Herald in Newport News, Virginia, and three years working for Studio Sebe in Nice, France as a photographer. More recently, before retiring, he worked nearly 20 years for Naval Aviation News.
The new kid on the business aviation block was unveiled Dec. 17 with the rollout of Dassault Aviation’s new Falcon 8X ultra long-range business jet. It will replace the Falcon 7X as the French OEM’s flagship business jet. First flight is expected in the first quarter of 2015. The big tri-jet was announced last May at the European Business Aviation Convention & Exhibition and promises to push the performance boundaries.
Civil aviation leaders will work to build a consensus and develop recommendations for improving the safety of business and commercial aircraft operating near conflict zones at the Internaitonal Civil Aviation Organization’s (ICAO) High-Level Safety Conference. The meeting will take place in Montreal Feb. 2-5 at ICAO headquarters.
