QTA Raises Alert to Stage 3 Deadline | Aviation International News

NBAA-BACE 2015

QTA Raises Alert to Stage 3 Deadline

Noise regulations will affect many older noisier jets unless they are retired or modified with hush kits.

U.S.-based Rolls-Royce Spey-powered Gulfstream GIIs and GIIIs will have to have hushkits installed, or stay on the ground after the ball drops in Times Square at the end of 2015. QTA is here to offer solutions.

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By Harry Weisberger • Contributor

November 12, 2015

Quiet Technology Aerospace (QTA) is advising operators of older business jets that the Jan. 1, 2016 FAA deadline for all aircraft to comply with Stage 3 noise regulations is rapidly approaching.

Hollywood, Fla.-based QTA (Booth N6104) is running a “Rush to Hush” campaign to fill the remaining fourth-quarter slots for its turbine engine hushkits for Rolls-Royce Spey-powered Gulfstream GII, GIIB and GIII jets. QTA President Ben Brown said the company plans to extend production into 2016 to ensure that all operators who want to keep their Gulfstreams in operation can do so. QTA has upgraded more than 130 aircraft with its Stage 3 hush kits since installations began in February 2003. In those 12 years, aircraft equipped with QTA’s kits have accumulated more than 200,000 flight hours and 90,000 cycles.

Under the FAA Reauthorization and Modernization Act of 2013, the phase-out of Stage 2 business jets was set for midnight Dec. 31, 2015. The FAA has since amended Part 91 regulations that mandate compliance. QTA cautions that operators of these Gulfstreams have only two options: either hushkit or retire their aircraft.

QTA, founded in 1986 as Quiet Nacelle Corp. (QNC), first developed a Stage 2 hush kit for the Douglas DC-8, using carbon graphite for the acoustic inlet barrel and fan ducts. The same technology was later applied to the Boeing 707 Stage 2 and Stage 3 hushkits, also installed on U.S. Air Force C-135s and the Spey-powered BAC 1-11.

The company applied the same technology to the Stage 3 hushkit for the Gulfstream family to meet objectives of minimum weight, no lost performance or range and unrestricted worldwide access. The kits weigh 240 pounds installed and provide up to seven-decibel reduction in internal cabin noise, according to QTA. The QTA hushkit also meets all worldwide noise regulations, including the European/Swiss/Australian Marginal Compliance requirement for meeting Stage 3 noise limits by five decibels or more. Installation takes 10 days, and the QTA hushkit includes a 48-month structural/corrosion guarantee.