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.
A $1.1 trillion government spending bill signed by President Barack Obama contains good news for the business aviation industry. Called a “cromnibus” bill, referring to the combination of a continuing resolution and an omnibus spending bill covering dozens of federal agencies, the legislation provides $15.72 billion for the FAA through fiscal year 2015, ending Sept. 30, 2015. The Obama administration request was $15.4 billion.
Daher-Socata delivered the milestone 700th aircraft of its TBM single-engine turboprop series on Dec. 15. The aircraft, a TBM 900 model, was delivered to a private customer in Illinois through a sale organized by TBM distributor Muncie Aviation of Muncie, Indiana. The TBM 900 is the flagship of Daher’s aerospace activities and demonstrates the full acceptance of the single-engine turboprop concept, said Stephane Mayer, president and CEO of Daher-Socata. “We are now setting our sights on the next milestones,” she added.
Proposed tax rule changes recently issued by the Texas state comptroller go beyond the plain meaning of the tax code in Texas, and seek to impose significant new burdens on aircraft owners and operators, the National Business Aviation Association (NBAA) says. The rules would “significantly change the standards for creating aircraft ownership and operating structures [and] under the proposal, a new rule might determine when operators could qualify for the ‘sale or resale’ exemption through aircraft leasing,” according to the association.
