Clear For Takeoff

Gulfstream Receives Approval for Cockpit Upgrade

For those CEOs and corporate execs traveling in true C-suite style, your flight aboard Gulfstream just got a little more, well, stylish. The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) recently approved Gulfstream Aerospace Corp. to retrofit some of its aircrafts with a cockpit upgrade it’s calling PlaneDeck.

“PlaneDeck’s advanced technology offers many safety benefits and improves an aircraft’s efficiency and reliability,” says Mark Burns, president, Gulfstream Product Support. What advanced technology? It converts the primary flight display from a cathode ray tube—a vacuum tube containing an electron gun and a fluorescent screen used to view images (thanks Wikipedia!)—to a liquid crystal display. The upgrade, Gulfstream says, will enhance the quality of the displays and improve safety, as well as reliability with integration of XM graphical weather and electronic charts and maps.

Installation time spans 10 to 12 business days, and the new product requires minimal pilot training.

Holland Boats

DB Schenker Logistics Extends Secure Terminal Network In the Netherlands

Manufacturers shipping goods destined for the Netherlands can sleep a little easier—provided their carrier is DB Schenker. The company’s transport terminal and logistics center in Tilburg recently received the Transported Asset Protection Association (TAPA) Freight Security Requirements (FSR) A certification.

The certification incorporates the Tilburg branch into an extensive international network of European DB Schenker terminals—720 branches in 36 countries—equipped and certified to FSR A-level, the highest given by the TAPA-EMEA (Europe, Middle East and Africa). In the Netherlands, Tilburg joins DB Schenker sites in Breda, Ede and Schiphol.

“The DB Schenker security policy anticipates proactively to the increasing number of criminal incidents in the logistics chain,” reads the release by NDL/HIDL (Holland International Distribution Council), “especially in the high-tech sector and transportation of valuable goods.” With about 1,900 employees and 19 offices at 15 strategic locations, says NDL/HIDC, DB Schenker Logistics is one of the leaders in the logistics market in the Netherlands.

Bigger, Better, More Productive

Global Container Terminals to Open Terminal at the Port of New York & New Jersey

North American marine terminal operator Global Container Terminals has unveiled plans for a multi-million dollar expansion project: a 70-acre technologically advanced container terminal on the Bayonne, NJ, waterfront. When the expanded facility opens in 2014, it will be the most advanced marine terminal at the Port of New York and New Jersey.

The new world-class terminal will be designed to handle the largest container vessels at greater throughput density per acre. “The new Global development project… clearly demonstrates a long-term commitment from the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey to protect the port’s preeminent position as a critical U.S. gateway for global commerce,” says James Devine, Global Container Terminals USA president and CEO.

New technology will allow port workers to seamlessly transfer shipping containers from the largest vessels in the world to grounded stacks arranged on the diagonal for maximum capacity. Massive rail-mounted gantry cranes (RMGs) will sort the container stacks to optimize productivity linking quayside crane operations with land-side connections to truck and rail transportation. Ten container stacks will be serviced by 20 new RMGs. Each container stack is capable of storing 1,665 TEU (twenty-foot equivalent unit), including plugs for refrigerated equipment.