Farnborough Airshow News 07-12-16

Farnborough Airshow News

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Tuesday, 7.12.16

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TUESDAY

DAVID McINTOSH

AIRBUS LANDS VIRGIN ORDERS On Farnborough 2016’s opening day, Virgin Atlantic made a splash with a $3.9 billion order for 12 Airbus A350-1000. See page 2.

UK inks new orders worth $6 billion to Boeing

RAINY DAYS AND MONDAYS Torrential rain brought the first day of the 2016 Farnborough International Airshow to a premature close on Monday afternoon, with organizers

by Chris Pocock

forced to evacuate exhibit halls and

As expected, the UK Ministry of Defence (MoD) yesterday handed Boeing $6 billion-worth of orders, for nine P-8A Poseidon maritime patrol aircraft and 50 AH-64E Apache attack helicopters.

The message was that it was more cost-effective to buy from American production lines, but the UK aerospace industry would benefit from support business. To that end, the government signed “strategic partnerships” with Boeing and Leonardo Helicopters (formerly AgustaWestland).

“The P-8A is tried, tested and can be delivered

cancel the flying display. A thin but relentless band of rain drenched the show site, sending fast-moving streams into the halls and turning pathways between chalets into canals. Due to safety concerns, to much of the site and many visitors and exhibitors abandoned ship.

UAVs

DAVID McINTOSH

organizers shut down electrical power

Continued on page 3 u

New Aircraft

Military Aviation

Avionics

Manufacturing

NASA Works On UAV Detect-And-Avoid Gulfstream’s G500 Debuts At FIA

Can The UK Afford Its New F-35s?

Boeing Plans Touchscreens For 777X

Triumph Group Realigns Itself

Ongoing NASA research is designed to develop minimum standards leading to overcoming one of the last and largest barriers to integrating unmanned aircraft into the airspace: detecting and avoiding other aircraft. Page 10

The UK military’s ongoing plans to acquire the F-35B suddenly face upheavals to the British economy, with more likely to come. Will the program survive intact, or will it be scaled back to something smaller? Page 18

Despite touchscreens being a common part of everyday life, they’re not yet widely accepted in aircraft instrument panels.

Ongoing Boeing research aims to resolve what sometimes seem to be mutually exclusive requirements. Page 29

U.S.-based Triumph Group, a supplier of aerospace structures to Boeing and Bombardier among others, is undergoing a restructuring process begun when current head Dan Crowley was brought aboard to turn things around. Page 54

Gulfstream’s next bizjet, the G500, is making its first appearance at Farnborough after a non-stop flight from the company’s Savannah, Georgia, headquarters. It features an all-glass, touchscreen panel from Honeywell and sidesticks, not yokes.

Page 17

WHERE ARE YOUR NEXT PILOTS COMING FROM? Right here.

Virgin’s $2.9 billion order only a half-day’s work for Airbus

by Charles Alcock Virgin Atlantic Airways was the main driver of a $5.8 billion order tally for Airbus on the first day of the 2016 Farnborough International Airshow. The UK-based group is buying eight A3501000s for delivery starting in 2019 at an estimated price of $2.9 billion, and it also signed a deal with Air Lease Corp (ALC) to lease four more of the new widebodies starting 2010 (with an option for a fifth).

Earlier on Monday, ALC signed a contract valued at just under $1 billion for three A350-1000s and an A321. The A350-1000s will be powered by RollsRoyce Trent XWB engines in a deal worth $900 million. In addition Airbus notched

up some narrowbody orders on the opening day, with Jetstar Pacific of Vietnam signing a $980 million memorandum for 10 A320 Ceos and Arkia Israeli Airlines placed an $863 million order for up to four A330-900neos. Finally, Air Côte D’Ivoire signed a firm order for an additional A320neo.

Initially, Virgin will base the A350s at London Heathrow Airport for its transatlantic services and later some of the longhaul jets will also be based at London Gatwick for services to the Caribbean.

Meanwhile, Airbus also released a new 20-year Global Market Forecast indicating demand for more than 33,000

new aircraft worth $5.2 billion. The report, covering the period 2016 to 2035, specifies demand for 32,425 passenger jets and 645 freighters.

According to Airbus, the world’s airliner fleet will have doubled from 19,500 today to almost 40,000 by 2035. Over the course of the next two decades, it projects the replacement of some 13,000 aircraft.

“While established European and North American markets continue to grow, AsiaPacific is the engine powering growth in the next 20 years,” commented John Leahy, Airbus chief operating officer for customers. “China will soon be the world’s biggest aviation market and together with emerging economies, further population concentration, and wealth creation, these will help to fuel strong air traffic growth. We are ramping up production to meet market demand for our leading aircraft products and we will also ramp up our customer service offerings to meet the increasing demands of air transportation.” o

Embraer piles up orders; knocks C Series aid

by James Wynbrandt on specifics of this transaction in order to build a case.”

Silva, who became CEO on July 1 after heading Embraer’s Commercial Aviation division, said his company is “talking to the Brazilian government,” which is also concerned. “It’s still too early to say what will be the next steps regarding this issue,” Silva said.

Nonetheless, the company reported impressive orders here for E2 family aircraft.

Kalstar Aviation, an Indo-

nesian regional operator, signed a firm order five E190-E2s and purchase rights for an additional five, with an estimated value of $582 million at current list price if all 10 are bought. Deliveries are expected to begin in the first quarter of 2020.

Arkia Israeli Aviation signed a Letter of Intent (LoI) for six firm orders and four purchase rights for E195-E2s, representing $650 million in revenue with all orders executed. The first flight of the Bombardier’s next-generation regional jet, the E2 series, modernizes the company’s popular products and will help it compete against Bombardier’s C Series.

2 Farnborough Airshow News • July 12, 2016 • www.ainonline.com

MARK WAGNER

While touting the smooth progress of its in-development E2 family of 70- to 130-plusseat single-aisle airliners, here at Farnborough Embraer continued to voice concern about the government financial assistance Canada’s Bombardier received earlier this year for its thenstalled C Series single-aisle program. Meanwhile, the Brazilian manufacturer announced new orders and letters of intent (LoIs) for its E2 airliner program from several customers, worth well over $1 billion if all options are exercised.

“We are against subsidies that will bring distortion to the market,” said Paulo Cesar Silva, CEO of the Brazilian aerospace manufacturer, adding that the government assistance “goes in this direction.”

Pointing to Bombardier’s recent C Series sales to Delta Airlines and Air Canada, Silva said it appeared Bombardier was “taking money from Canadian taxpayers in order to provide aircraft below cost” to the airlines, and added, “We are very disappointed and very worried about that strategy.”

Silva said manufacturers need healthy profits to maintain quality and invest in future programs, and that selling aircraft below cost endangers the entire industry. As for any action Embraer may take, Silva said, “We are looking into that; there is a mechanism, the WTO [World Trade Organization], but we need more information, more details

E195-E2 is expected in the second half of next year.

Nordic Aviation Capital (NAC) placed a firm order for four E190s with an estimated value of $199 million. The new aircraft are destined to join a fleet that includes 69 E-Jets at present, which are leased to airlines around the world.

Meanwhile, Japan Airlines has converted an option for an E170 into a firm order for an E190, joining the eight E190s the carrier currently has on order. That brings total E-Jet orders to more than 1,700, with more than 1,200 delivered, according to the company.

Embraer (Outdoor Exhibit 6) also released its 2016-2035 Market Outlook here, which projects market demand for 6,400 new jets in the 70- to 130-seat category over the next 20 years, with the global fleet growing from 2,670 of the aircraft at the end of last year to 6,690 by 2035. That makes this segment the fastest growing among all aircraft seat categories, according to the outlook, and Embraer intends to remain the dominant player in the market. “We want to maintain 60 percent of [market] share over the next 20 years,” said Luis Carlos Affonso, the commercial division’s COO. In total, E2 jets now have 272 firm orders and 398 LoIs, options and purchase rights, said John Slattery, who has succeeded Silva as Embraer’s president and CEO of commercial aviation. o

Farnborough Airshow News

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Boeing’s China connection helps boost order book

Boeing’s 787 Dreamliner is part of a new order from Shenzhen-based Donhai Airlines, which also includes 25 737 Max 8 airframes.

Boeing’s orders uContinued from page 1

in the timeline we need,” said Tony Douglas, CEO of the MoD’s Defence Equipment and Support Organisation.

Defence Procurement Minister Philip Dunne told reporters here that they would all be delivered over a 24-month period starting in 2019.

Having sent a number of crews to fly P-8s in the U.S. Navy, the Royal Air Force (RAF) is well-placed to accept them quickly. As well as maritime surveillance and anti-submarine missions, the P-8s would do search-and-rescue and overland surveillance, the MoD said.

When asked by AIN whether their cost would force retirement of the RAF’s five Sentinel overland surveillance aircraft, Dunne said that would be decided by the next defense review in 2020.

Dunne admitted that the only UK content on the P-8 was auxiliary fuel tanks (from Marshall Aerospace); weapons pylons (from General Electric) and crew seats (from Martin Baker). The weapons would be bought from the U.S., including the sonobuoys, he added. Boeing said it would work with the government to build a new £100 million operational support and training base at RAF Lossiemouth, that

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Now operating an all-Boeing fleet of more than 140 airplanes, including six 787 Dreamliners, 130 Next Generation 737s and four 757s, Xiamen plans to expand its fleet to 200 airplanes by the end of the decade.

Already a customer for the 737 Max, Xiamen sees the Max 200 as a good fit for its low-cost subsidiaries, including Jiangxi Airlines and Hebei Airlines.

Boeing said it will work closely with its Chinese partners to close would create 100 new jobs.

British Defence Secretary Michael Fallon described the $2.3 billion Apache deal as “good value for money.” Key avionics from the current British Army AH-64A fleet will be refurbished and recycled into the new machines, including the Longbow fire control radars and the Modernized Target Acquisition and Detection Sights (M-TADS).

The first deliveries will be in early 2020, with initial operating capability to follow in 2022.

final agreements, which require the approval of Xiamen’s and China Southern’s boards of directors and the Chinese government.

Finally, on Monday, Boeing revealed the identity of 737800NG customer Standard Chartered Bank, which has placed a firm order for 10 of the narrowbodies worth $960 million at list prices.

Carrying a portfolio consisting of more than 110 aircraft on operating lease, Standard Chartered expects to take delivery of the 10 new Boeings through 2018, helping it meet near-term demand in Northeast Asia in particular. o creating another 2,000 jobs in the UK, therefore doubling its headcount in the country.

It would be making new capital investments here, including a cooperation with QinetiQ to enhance the latter’s five-meter

3D-PRINTED UAV AT FARNBOROUGH The University of Southampton helped develop this twin-engine unmanned aerial vehicle known as the Spotter. It’s designed to perform long-endurance, all-weather patrol missions in coastal and maritime environments. Much of its structure is made by a 3D printer.

wind tunnel, and unspecified joint projects with Rolls-Royce on propulsion systems. Boeing also said it would provide opportunities for UK companies to double the value of their subcontracts on Boeing

MARK WAGNER

as the transportation hub in southern China.”

Another major Chinese Boeing operator—China Southern subsidiary Xiamen Airlines— further fortified Boeing’s Asian product base with a memorandum of understanding covering up to thirty 737 Max 200s valued at up to $3.39 billion at current list prices.

aircraft programs.

Boeing added that it would also be making the UK its European base for training, maintenance, repair and overhaul of all its defense aircraft and helicopters. o

More UK Jobs

“In the longer term, I want these new Apaches to be maintained in the UK and for UK companies to do most of the work,” Fallon added. Boeing said it wªs in “advanced discussions” with Leonardo Helicopters on the AH-64E contract. Leonardo would continue to support the current Apache fleet (which were built by the company in the UK) for their remaining eight years. The MoD admitted that the new strategic partnership agreement with the Yeovil-based company “is not a contract and does not have financial value.”

But it would spend about £3 billion with Leonardo over the next decade to upgrade and support other UK military helicopters, such as Merlins and Wildcats.

Boeing said it would be

DAVID McINTOSH

Chinese airlines gave Boeing a running start in the race for orders at this year’s Farnborough show, where the U.S. aerospace giant announced more than $8 billion in business from three customers on Monday. The most lucrative deal came from Shenzhen-based Donhai Airlines, which signed a letter of intent to buy twenty-five 737 Max 8s and five 787-9 Dreamliners in a bid to fulfill a plan to convert its business model from cargo to passenger services.

“Donghai Airlines has undergone steady development over the past 10 years since the beginning of our freighter operation in 2006,” said Donghai chairman Wong Cho-Bau. “Under China’s ‘One Belt, One Road’ initiative, we will accelerate our fleet expansion plan to satisfy the rapidly growing air travel market and help build our home base Shenzhen

DAVID McINTOSH

by Gregory Polek

British Prime Minister David Cameron opened the show here yesterday with a speech that discussed the country’s problems and prospects following the Brexit vote. He described the UK aerospace industry as a model for other businesses to follow, with a high growth rate, good productivity and 90 percent of revenue earned from exports. The PM said he would not retreat from his prereferendum ‘Remain’ stance, but “we must accept the new reality.” There will be problems ahead, he added, “but we’ll deal with them from a position of strength.” The outgoing leader concluded by declaring that “it is in our fundamental interest to remain very close to Europe.” Before the speech, Cameron toured selected exhibitors. Afterward, he headed for the Boeing P-8 in the static park to review Britain’s latest defense buy.

www.ainonline.com • July 12, 2016 • Farnborough Airshow News 3

FLIR Systems (Chalet B26) has released the new Star Safire 380-HLDc high-definition compact airborne electro-optical infrared targeting system. The system combines the latest FLIR sensor technology with precision laser designation for helicopters and other platforms.

Developed under FLIR’s Commercially Developed, Military Qualified (CDMQ) model, the Star Safire 380-HLDc provides significantly longer range positive ID than previous systems of comparable size and weight.

Weighing only 65 pounds, the system incorporates an internally developed long-range laser designator for precision engagements and advanced laser

spot-tracking and decoding.

Applications of the Star Safire 380-HLDc include close air support, air interdiction, armed reconnaissance, combat SAR, light attack and force protection.

The system can also be mounted on remotely piloted aircraft.

“As governments look to expand the mission portfolio of their rotary- and fixed-wing platforms, the Star Safire 380-HLDc delivers extraordinary performance in a uniquely compact product,” declared Andy Teich, FLIR president and CEO. “Our unique CDMQ model allows us to bring products like the Star Safire 380-HLDc to our military customers quickly and cost effectively.” —B.C.

MITSUBISHI GETS FIRST EUROPEAN MRJ ORDER Mitsubishi Aircraft attracted its first European customer for the MRJ Monday, when it signed a letter of intent with Swedish leasing company Rockton covering a firm order for ten MRJ90 jets and options on another 10. Once complete, the contract will call for deliveries to start in 2020, according to Mitsubishi.

Appearing at a Farnborough press briefing with Mitsubishi Aircraft president Hiromichi Morimoto and vice president of sales and marketing Yugo Fukuhara, Rockton president Niklas Lund explained that he began negotiating late last fall with the Japanese manufacturer. He hasn’t yet begun detailed talks with any potential operators, however.

Now with a portfolio of 28 turboprop aircraft including Saab 2000s, Saab 340s and Bombardier Q400s, Rockton leases mainly to European customers and projects a limited presence in North America, said Lund.

Having drawn most of the volume of its MRJ orders from U.S. regional airlines, Mitsubishi has long coveted a customer in Europe, a market that it thinks could prove particularly strong for the still gestating MRJ100X. “This European lessor order from Rockton will give the MRJ program the burst of momentum to expand a customer base in Europe,” said Morimoto. Lund added: “The MRJ fits well into the European market, where noise and emission requirements are very stringent.

Furthermore, the long range capability of the aircraft allows regional airlines to open new routes from local airports.”

—G.P.

DAVID McINTOSH

FLIR’s new Star Safire is lighter, and better

VINTAGE BUCKING BRONCO Introduced in 1969, the North America Rockwell OV-10 Bronco light attack aircraft featured a pair of turboprops and a distinctive twin-boom configuration. The U.S. Army retired the Bronco in 1995.

V-22 looking for international buyers

by Bill Carey The U.S. military’s V-22 Joint Program Office is floating an “international acquisition concept” that would bring other potential V-22 operators into a third, multi-year procurement of the tiltrotor aircraft.

“It’s in the early stages, just for awareness purposes,” said Marine Corps Colonel Daniel Robinson, V-22 program manager at the Naval Air Systems Command in Patuxent River, Maryland. Participating in the program would be “an opportunity to share those costs” of the aircraft, he added.

Speaking at the Farnborough Airshow on Monday, Robinson

said the program office hopes to secure commitments for a baseline buy of the third multi-year procurement by mid-2017. Thus far, that procurement would combine the balance of MV-22s remaining in the Marine Corps program of record—84 aircraft—plus 44 CMV-22B variants the Navy seeks and 17 aircraft Japan plans to order.

There are “four or five” unidentified other countries interested in acquiring the V-22. Reportedly, Israel and the UK are among potential buyers. Participation in the international acquisition concept would distribute the cost of the

procurement; it also carries with it the possibility of industrial participation, he said.

There are 305 of the tiltrotors now in service, including those acquired through multi-year and earlier procurements. These include 257 Marine Corps’ MV-22s and 48 Air Force Special Operations Command CV-22s. The Navy plans to acquire the CMV22B to replace the Northrop Grumman C-2 Greyhound in the carrier on-board delivery role. Plans call for deliveries of the Navy’s variant to begin in 2020, with initial operational capability following in 2021. o

Orders for airliners announced here at the Farnborough International Airshow are also adding to demand for CFM International’s turbofans, according to the engine manufacturer (Outdoor Exhibit 22, Hall 3 Stand 100). The 30 Boeing 737 MAX 200s Xiamen Airlines ordered here will be powered by 60 of CFM’s LEAP-IB engines, a contract valued at $980 million, CFM said. (The airliner order requires approval from the Chinese government before consummation.)

Additionally, Standard Chartered Bank said it has chosen CFM56-7BE engines to power the 10 Boeing 737800s it announced purchasing here. “The CFM engines in our portfolio have always been solid performers for us,” said Kieran Corr, head of aviation finance at Standard Chartered, whose current portfolio includes 49 Airbus aircraft powered by CFM56 engines. Meanwhile, CFM and TAP Portugal announced here the selection of LEAP-1A

engines to power the fleet of new Airbus A320neo/ A321neo jets the airline contracted last November, adding 83 of the highly efficient turbofans to CFM’s order book.

TAP Portugal has been operating CFM-powered aircraft for more than 25 years, noted Fernando Pinto, the airlines’ CEO. “We look forward to introducing the LEAP engine into our fleet,” Pinto said.

CFM is a joint partnership between GE and Safran Aircraft Engines. —J.W.

4 Farnborough Airshow News • July 12, 2016 • www.ainonline.com

DAVID McINTOSH

CFM feasts on airliner order buffet

While Boeing has basked in the glow of orders for its 737 Max, engine maker CFM is also beaming with the promise of supplying those aircraft with its LEAP turbofans.

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EASA approves Rolls’ Trent 1000-TEN engine

DAVID McINTOSH

by Gregory Polek

AEROMACCHI M-346FT DEBUTS aircraft capable of combining the operational and training requirements of air forces all over the world, assuring top performances and remarkably lower costs,” said Mauro Moretti, Leonardo’s CEO and general manager.

The transonic M-346 trainer is the world’s only high-performance, purpose-built training platform for the latest generation military aircraft, according to Leonardo. Since the trainer’s introduction, 68 units have been ordered by the air forces of Italy (18), Singapore (12), Israel (30) and Poland (8), and it has also been selected by the United Arab Emirates.

—J.W.

MBDA’s Meteor missile set for initial operations

by David Donald “As I stand here today, I’m a very happy air force chief of staff!” Those were the words of Major General Mats Helgesson, chief of the Swedish air force, at an event held yesterday to formally welcome the MBDA Meteor long-range air-to-air missile into air force service with the Saab Gripen. “Together with the Iris-T heat-seeking missile we have the best air-to-air weaponry you can find anywhere in the world.”

MBDA leads a six-nation (France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Sweden, UK) industrial partnership that has developed the Meteor to arm the Dassault Rafale, Eurofighter Typhoon and Saab Gripen, with integration planned for the Lockheed Martin F-35. While Rafale and Typhoon

wait to receive the “game-changing” weapon, Sweden’s air force has become the first to introduce it to service. The latest MS20 software version for the Gripen, released in late April and now implemented across the fleet, provides for a full integration of the missile, allowing initial operating capability to be declared.

Sweden joined the Meteor program in 2001, and it was a Gripen platform that performed the first test firing on May 9, 2006. Since then the type performed six more firings as part of the contractor tests, before Sweden began an operational evaluation test campaign in 2010 that ultimately led to service entry.

With IOC achieved, the Swedish air force is now

training with the Meteor and learning its potential. “The organization needs to understand the missile and how to use it,” explained Helgesson. Operational test and evaluation is focusing on methods to employ the weapon as its considerably extended range and much larger NEZ (no-escape zone)— when compared with the AMRAAM—have significantly altered the parameters of aerial engagements.

Made possible by the Meteor’s throttleable ramjet propulsion, combined with its advanced seeker and two-way datalink, this engagement envelope expansion requires a new set of tactics.

While the current MS20 upgrade incorporates some enhancements for the mechanically scanned radar of the Gripen C/D, the “e-scan” radar of the yet-to-fly Gripen E will permit even greater exploitation of the Meteor’s capabilities. o

DAVID DONALD

Italy’s Leonardo-Finmeccanica unveiled here at Farnborough its new Aeromacchi M-346FT, a multi-role version of its M-346 jet trainer. The FT (Fighter Trainer) variant integrates a range of systems and sensors for tactical support and air defense, a tactical datalink, self-defense system, recognition and targeting sensors, and can carry a variety of weapons, including rockets, bombs, laser-guided munitions, air-to-air missiles and gun systems. Like its trainer predecessor, the twinengine FT incorporates fly-by-wire flight controls.

“Today we are ready to offer our customers an

Rolls-Royce announced here yesterday that it had received certification approval for the Trent 1000-TEN engine that powers the Boeing 787. The engine is an advanced version of the powerplant that the 787 has used since entry into service in 2011.

The engine draws on technology from the Trent XWB for the Airbus A350 and the UK engine maker’s Advance engine program. Tests of the Trent 1000TEN on R-R’s flying testbed aircraft, a Boeing 747, in Tucson, Arizona started in March. Tests with the engine fitted to a 787 will start later this year.

Also announced at the show here yesterday was a new collaboration agreement between RollsRoyce and Microsoft aimed at incorporating advanced analytics and the so-called Internet of Things (IoT) into its TotalCare services package for lead partner Singapore Airlines. The new digital capability is built on the Microsoft Azure cloud platform and uses the company’s Azure IoT Suite to collect and aggregate data from disparate, geographically distributed sources—and Cortana Intelligence Suite–to uncover data insights. It also manages and integrates much broader quantities of engine operational data.

Celebrating Meteor’s service entry is major general Mats Helgesson, Sweden’s air force chief, flanked by the MBDA CEO Antoine Bouvier (left) and Saab CEO Håkan Buskhe (right).

6 Farnborough Airshow News • July 12, 2016 • www.ainonline.com

According to Rolls (Hall 4 Stand B18), the results will help airlines reduce fuel consumption, fly routes more efficiently and ensure the right teams and equipment are in place to service engines more quickly, all meant to increase airplane availability.

“We have done much over the last 20 years to reduce costs and improve efficiency, but we want more,” said Rolls-Royce senior vice president of services Tom Palmer. “We must now exploit digital capability and Big Data technologies to proactively drive an even higher level of operational performance. Teams will take signals and information from many sources and turn it into an individual aircraft strategy that uses the least fuel, avoids disruption and is served with minimum downtime.”

Singapore Airlines has agreed to serve as the lead development partner in the project. “Our flight operations and efficiency teams are working closely with RollsRoyce to drive performance to the highest possible level in our business,” said Singapore Airlines vice president of flight operations control KK Goh. “We can see real savings when data and robust analytics are applied to support decision making in our processes and actions.”

Separately, Rolls-Royce announced Monday that it will buy the outstanding 53.1 percent shareholding in Industria de Turbo Propulsores (ITP) owned by Sener Grupo de Ingenieria. Under the terms of the deal, Rolls will pay Sener a total of €720 million ($950 million) for the outstanding shares in ITP. Under the existing shareholder agreement, Rolls will pay eight, equally spaced installments over a two-year period. Rolls-Royce will determine whether it will settle final consideration in the form of cash, or cash and Rolls-Royce shares, over the payment period.

The companies expect to conclude the deal early next year.

According to Rolls, the acquisition strengthens its position on its civil aerospace large-engine growth programs by capturing “additional value” from its long-term aftermarket revenues, including those associated with the Trent 1000 and Trent XWB, where ITP has played a key role as a risk and revenue sharing partner. o

AEROSPACE

Transformation is in the Air

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Textron updates Caravan and King Air models

by Charles Alcock aircraft more payload, and they are also machined in a way that makes them stronger,” explained Whitfield. “We’ve listened to our customer base about what they need for their missions, and so with the Caravan, they can now move seats around and have configurations such as club seating.”

With the more powerful 867shp Pratt & Whitney Canada PT6A-140 engine, the Grand Caravan EX offers greater range (964 nautical miles) than the earlier model. With a useful load of 3,692 pounds, it is being touted for roles such as emergency medical flights, passenger transportation, intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance missions, and aerial survey work.

The King Air 350ER now features the Fusion cockpit, with its touchscreen flight displays, which completed certification by the European Aviation Safety Agency in March (following on from FAA approval in December 2015). With a range of 2,678 nm, the aircraft is an attractive utility transport, with much to offer in the realm of air ambulance operations, flight survey work, and surveillance. o

feel confident we can bring the technologies in the engine to meet the requirements of a middle of the market airplane.”

Jean Lydon-Rodgers, GE Aviation vice president for military engines, said the manufacturer has a “priced option” to supply a new engine for the F-35 under the U.S. Air Force’s Adaptive Engine Transition Program (AETP). On June 30, the service awarded both GE

Aviation and Pratt & Whitney contracts of nearly $1 billion each to advance 45,000-poundthrust, adaptive-cycle engines for a future sixth-generation fighter.

Under AETP, the manufacturers will advance their engines to the detailed design review phase, and GE Aviation expects to run several full engine tests between now and 2021. The engine it is developing “is specifically sized for the F-35, so it could be a ‘plug

and play’ if the Air Force and the DOD decide to put this engine into the F-35 in a block upgrade fashion, as they’ve done on combat aircraft in the past,” LydonRodgers said.

Pratt & Whitney builds the current F135 engine of the F-35.

GE Aviation pursued building an F136 second-engine option, but cancelled the effort in 2011 when the DOD stopped supporting the program. o

MARK WAGNER

renewal with Asiana Airlines for A350 training. Contracts for technical support include a fiveyear renewal with Jet Airways of India and a new three-year contract with an undisclosed U.S. carrier.

Nick Leontidis, CAE’s group president, civil aviation training solutions, called the agreements “a testament to our enduring commitment to serving the global pilot training market with the most innovative training solutions. —J.W.

Here at the Farnborough International Airshow, Textron Aviation is pressing its credentials in the special missions market by displaying a Cessna Grand Caravan EX turboprop single featuring recently-certified hard points and new seats. The U.S. group’s static display also features a Beechcraft King Air 350ER twin turboprop updated with new Rockwell Collins ProLine Fusion avionics; and a T-6C trainer.

Textron special missions director TJ Whitfield told AIN that the Grand Caravan’s new hard points open up possibilities for adding features such as auxiliary fuel tanks, crop-spraying equipment, cargo pods and weapons—all of which make the aircraft far more versatile.

Textron claims that the factorysupplied hard points are less invasive to the airframe than aftermarket modifications.

The new standard-fit Caravan cabin interior was certified last year and features seats weighing about five pounds less each than the original equipment, which can be installed in either aft- or forward-facing configurations. “The lighter seats give the

Textron’s Cessna Grand Caravan EX turboprop single now features lightweight, more-flexible seating and available underwing hardpoints, while the company’s Beechcraft King Air 350ER turbine twin boasts a new Rockwell Collins Fusion avionics suite.

CAE adds $138 million in new sales while undisclosed customers in the U.S. have placed orders for five FFSs: A Boeing 737NG, A320, A330/340, Bombardier Global 7000, and a Cessna Citation M2 light jet. These nine FFS orders, made at list price, represent the Canadian company’s first sales of these devices for fiscal 2017.

The pilot training agreements include a 10-year contract with Vietnam Airlines for A320, A350, and B787 training, and a seven-year contract

GE Aviation poised for engines on NMA, F-35

by Bill Carey GE Aviation is advancing technologies that could underpin the engine of Boeing’s notional New Midsize Airplane (NMA) if the companies decide a business case exists. It would build the engine through the CFM International joint venture, CEO David Joyce said.

GE Aviation (Outdoor Exhibit P1) may also have another chance to build a powerplant for the F-35 Lightning II if the U.S. Department of Defense (DOD) decides to upgrade the fighter in the future.

During a briefing on Monday at the Farnborough Airshow, Joyce said the technologies GE is advancing on the GE9X engine program for the new Boeing 777X as well as within its military engine division, including the use of ceramic matrix composite materials and additive manufacturing processes (aka, 3D

printing), would help it meet the efficiency targets of a proposed 40,000-pound-thrust engine for an NMA. That solution would be a two-spool configuration GE would build with France’s under the CFM International brand.

Estimates of the market for an NMA vary from 1,500 to 4,000 airplanes, Joyce said, but he declined to reveal his own opinion of the demand.

“You always have to evaluate the business case; these are not trivial decisions,” Joyce instructed. “You’re going to enter into a billion-dollar-plus program if you’re in the engine business. We would do it with CFM; it would be a CFM engine. But together we have to make sure we’re comfortable with the business case, make sure there’s a family of airplanes out there that has a big enough volume. That’s it—we

FAST FRIENDS A Boeing 747-8F freighter operated by Cargo Logic Air displays its ability to accept an outsized payload in the form of the Bloodhound supersonic car.

8 Farnborough Airshow News • July 12, 2016 • www.ainonline.com

MARK WAGNER

Training provider CAE (Chalet B38) announced here a series of new contracts for both Full-Flight Simulators (FFS) and pilot training, with a total value of more than $138 million. Contracts for simulators include FFSs for an Airbus A320, A350 and Boeing 787, ordered by the Asian Aviation Centre of Excellence, a joint venture between CAE and Air Asia. Additionally, China’s ChongQing Yu Xiang Aviation has ordered an A320 FFS,

NASA

The NASA Ikhana research aircraft is a variant of the General Atomics Aeronautical Systems Predator B.

NASA-led effort advances future of unmanned aircraft

by Bill Carey After completing a fourth series of test flights last month, a NASA-led team that is designing a “detect-and-avoid” (DAA) avionics and radar suite is expected to report back soon. DAA is meant to prevent an unmanned aircraft system (UAS) from colliding with other aircraft. The flights of NASA’s Ikhana UAS and other testing and simulations have contributed to the development of minimum standards for a working DAA system.

Scheduled from late April through June, the twice-per-week test flights at NASA Armstrong Flight Research Center in Edwards, California, pitted the Ikhana against manned “intruder” aircraft. Data sent from sensors on the Ikhana, a General Atomics Predator B derivative, was used to assess conflict detection and alerting algorithms in software that provide maneuver guidance to a ground operator. The Ikhana was fitted with a representative DAA system consisting of a General Atomics “Due Regard” air-to-air radar, Honeywell advanced TCAS II processor and BAE Systems ADS-B transponder.

The manned-unmanned encounters have been flown under the umbrella of NASA’s UAS Integration in the NAS (National Airspace System) project, initially a five-year effort through

September 2016 that has been approved for another three and a half years. NASA is sharing the findings of the research with RTCA Special Committee 228 (SC-228), which is developing minimum operational performance standards (MOPS) for both the DAA and command and control (C2) aspects of unmanned aircraft on behalf of the Federal Aviation Administration. The MOPS will inform technical standard orders (TSOs) the FAA issues, which specify requirements for manufacturers to build equipment.

NASA engineers summarized other research activities of the project during the Xponential conference hosted by the Association of Unmanned Vehicle Systems International (Auvsi) in New Orleans in May. In addition to the Ikhana flights, NASA and Rockwell Collins (Chalet B14, Hall 4/A70) have developed prototype line-of-sight datalink radios operating in the L- and Cbands, providing CNPC, or control and non-payload communications, between a UAS and its ground station.

The space agency performed “channel characterization” flights for the datalink radio with its S-3B Viking twin-engine jet. It installed two CNPC ground stations in Cleveland and Albany, Ohio, and flew more than 60

mission flights with 200 hours of data collecting. “NASA had a lot of impact on the C2 MOPS. We were the only prototype system for that,” said Jim Griner, NASA Glenn project engineer for communications.

Simulating Ops

A modeling and simulation environment called the Airspace Concept Evaluation System hosted a NAS-wide simulation, incorporating three months of historical radar data provided by the U.S. Air Force’s 84th Radar Evaluation Squadron. The simulation included 19 UAS mission profiles and 17 UAS types, said Confesor Santiago, a NASA Ames project engineer.

“In doing all of these activities, this foundational research, we’ve been able to significantly contribute to those two [MOPS] documents,” said Debra Randall, NASA Armstrong chief systems engineer. “Right now, I think both of those documents are 750 pages. They’re full of requirements. There have been numerous simulations, flight tests, data analysis—just a whole lot of work that has contributed to that.”

RTCA may formally release the C2 MOPS document by this fall; minimum standards for DAA were on track for completion this year, said General­Atomics pro­ ject engineer Brandon Suarez,

10 Farnborough Airshow News • July 12, 2016 • www.ainonline.com

who serves as co-chairman of the DAA working group of SC-228.

The DAA research has involved testing three different software algorithms to warn UAS pilots of midair threats: the General Atomics’ Conflict Prediction and Display System; NASA Langley’s Daidalus (somehow an acronym for Detect and Avoid Alerting Logic for Unmanned Systems); and the NASA Ames Java Architecture for DAA Modeling and Extensibility, running on the Air Force Research Laboratory’s Vigilant Spirit Control Station.

During the Ikhana flight trials, testers were able to compare the three systems, which simultaneously received flight test data, Suarez said. NASA can also push live flight-test data to various centers and displays through its Live Virtual ConstructiveDistributed Environment simulation architecture. The fourth flight series, which called for 15 flights and 270 encounters with NASA, Honeywell and Air Force intruder aircraft, “really focused on trying to provide the final verification and validation flight tests” for the DAA MOPS being developed by SC-228, he said.

General Atomics is participating in the NASA-led research through a formal Space Act agreement. The manufacturer is also advancing its Due Regard radar as a product and capability to enable UAS to fly in unrestricted, civilian airspace.

This spring, General Atomics tested a DAA system including the Due Regard radar aboard a U.S. Customs and Border Protection Guardian UAS—the first such integration and evaluation of the radar on an operational UAS. The tests demonstrated the radar’s “functionality in the

national and international airspace operational environment.”

Overland testing with the Guardian, a Predator B maritime variant, began at the General Atomics Gray Butte flight operations facility near Palmdale, California, on March 10 and concluded on April 25 over the eastern Pacific Ocean.

“We think it’s a mature subsystem, and we’ve been working with several customers to figure out how to get it on operational platforms,” Suarez said.

The radar also figures in General Atomics’ development of the “Certifiable Predator B,” a new version of the MQ-9 Reaper built to NATO airworthiness standards and equipped to detect and avoid other aircraft. This version will serve as the basis of the UK Royal Air Force’s new Protector platform.

“The Certifiable Predator B has been designed with size, weight and power provisions to install an air-to-air radar, specifically the Due Regard radar,” Suarez said. “It’s also being designed with TCAS II. We’re certainly provisioning for the future detect-and-avoid capabilities that are out there.”

Meanwhile, the next phase of NASA’s UAS Integration in the NAS project will explore new capabilities for unmanned aircraft, including a TCAS II evolution the FAA is advancing called the Airborne Collision Avoidance System X, incorporating new threat logic to prevent midair collisions. An ACAS Xu version is designed specifically for unmanned aircraft. NASA will also look at using alternative sensors, different midsize UAS and ground-based sense and avoid capability, engineers said. o

FUTURE’S DAY AIMS TO MOTIVATE YOUNG PEOPLE This year’s Farnborough Airshow Future’s Day will take place on Friday July 15. Organized by the Aerospace, Defence, Security and Space sector (ADS), the event features interactive programs designed to motivate young people to study STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) subjects. Participants will be able to meet with career advisors and universities as well as network with industry ambassadors and employers.

Future’s Day programs were crafted with specific age groups in mind.

Participants from ages 11 to 15 can attend programs such as the Cargo presented by Inspiring Futures, an organization that focuses on offering career advice and guidance to young people. In this simulation, a group must design a solution for delivering a food package to a remote village using the Airbus A400M transport.

Meanwhile participants from ages 16 to 21 can attend programs such as the Wingsuit Challenge presented by Southampton University.

Besides meeting the Icarus Wingsuit Team, participants get to build and flight-test their own wingsuit in a portable wind tunnel.

Some of the organizations involved in Future’s Day programs include The Engineering Development Trust, STEMNET, the Royal Aeronautical Society and MBDA. Universities such as Southampton University and University of Nottingham also have developed programs for the event.

—S.C.

BOEING

Transition training from the P-3C Orion to the P-8A Poseidon will expand this year to NAS Whidbey Island in Washington state.

Poseidon service entry going well

by Bill Carey U.S. Navy crewmembers have given Boeing’s P-8A Poseidon positive reviews as the 737-derivative maritime patrol aircraft starts to enter service more widely in the U.S., as well as internationally. The first P-8A delivery (of up to 15) to the Royal Australian Air Force is scheduled for November, when the country will join India on the growing list of international operators. The UK also plans to buy nine P-8As. Ultimately, the U.S. Navy plans to acquire 117 of the jets.

So far, six East Coast patrol

squadrons have completed the transition from the venerable Lockheed P-3C Orion to the Poseidon after training by Patrol Squadron Thirty (VP-30), the Navy’s fleet replacement training unit at Naval Air Station Jacksonville, Florida. VP-16, known as the “War Eagles,” achieved safe-for-flight status to fly the P-8A in January 2013 and became the first operational squadron that December when it deployed with six Poseidons to Kadena Air Base in Japan.

The focus now shifts from the East Coast base to NAS Whidbey

Island, located in Puget Sound off Washington state. VP-30 will oversee transition training there of six West Coast squadrons, beginning in October with VP-4, the “Skinny Dragons,” the first of three Hawaii-based squadrons to relocate temporarily to Whidbey Island for transition to the P-8A. Last month, Boeing (Chalet B6, Outdoor Exhibit E G4) hosted media representatives at NAS Jacksonville, home to the original P-8A integrated training center. The “ITC” is a 165,000-square-foot facility that

contains 30 classrooms, 10 CAEbuilt Level D full-motion simulators—called operational flight trainers—and seven weapon systems trainers.

The Navy’s third largest base, NAS Jacksonville also hosts a P-8 maintenance training facility with seven virtual maintenance trainers and command-and-control and training buildings for the Northrop Grumman MQ-4C Triton unmanned aircraft, which will eventually join the Poseidon on maritime patrols. These will be operated by Unmanned Patrol Squadron 19 (VUP-19), which was established in October 2013.

At the time of the media visit, there were about a dozen British RAF personnel training on the P-8A under the UK’s maritime surveillance skills-retention program, “Project Seedcorn,” and 38 Australians.

Navy personnel were enthusiastic when describing the P-8A, a Boeing 737-800 military derivative with reinforced 737-900 wings. It costs an estimated $180 million per copy.

“Antisubmarine warfare is our bread-and-butter and our primary focus in training,” said Lt. Cmdr. Eric Andrews, a VP-30

Leonardo means more customer-focus Finmeccanica’s renaming as Leonardo is the obvious difference to its presence here, compared with two years ago. But according to senior marketeers at the Italian company, a reorganization to accompany the name change has greater significance. They say it will help the different divisions work better together, especially in understanding customer requirements.

Four of the seven divisions are primarily focused on the aerospace business. They are Aerostructures; Aircraft (the former Alenia and Aermacchi); Helicopters (the former AgustaWestland) and Airborne and Space Systems (including the former Selex ES). The other three divisions specialize in land and naval defense systems, and IT/communications.

“We’ve got very flexible, modular products,” noted Giovanni Soccodato, Leonardo executive vice president strategies and markets at a press briefing last month. Here at the Farnborough International Airshow (Chalet L1), that is illustrated by the display of a dual-role version of the M346 jet trainer, now doubling as a ground attack machine.

The adaptability of the C-27J airlifter is another example. A U.S. Coast Guard example is on display, as well as various roll-onroll-off packages. The type has sold slowly but steadily, with 82 now under contract for 14 customers. There are at least 10 more prospects, according to Massimo Ghioni, marketing chief for the Aircraft division.

The dual uses of the helicopter range are also apparent. There’s an emergency medical version of the AW169 helicopter and a search and rescue version of the A189 on display at the show. The latter is in the colors of the UK’s new HM Coastguard service that is provided under contract

by Bristow Helicopters.

The AW139 remains the company’s best-selling helicopter, with more than 800 now delivered, according to Stefano Bortoli, chief marketeer. It is a potential replacement for over 70 U.S. Air Force UH-1Ns used to serve missile sites. Leonardo’s U.S. production line in Philadelphia is also offering the AW119 for a large U.S. Navy training requirement. The company recently sold 25 A119s to China as that country’s first emergency medical helicopter.

At the heavy end of the scale, an Italian air force AW101 for combat search and rescue is on display. Leonardo Helicopters will also be showing progress on unmanned or optionally piloted machines including the SW-4 Solo from Polish subsidiary PZLSwidnik, and the very light (150kg/330 pounds) SD-150 Hero. The pair are controlled by a common ground station.

Leonardo has also majored in fixed-wing UAVs, with the Sky-X and Sky-Y demonstrators, and the tactical Falco system that has gained several customers. The company provides this UAV to the United Nations’ mission in the Congo under a service

12 Farnborough Airshow News • July 12, 2016 • www.ainonline.com

MARK WAGNER

by Chris Pocock

The M346 jet trainer is part of Leonardo’s product portfolio.

contract. It is a partner in the Neuron UCAV. Autonomous control is a key to future labor savings required by operators, according to Soccodato.

The Airborne and Space Systems Division is showing its diverse product lines such as airborne radars, electro-optics, electronic warfare and lasers. The avionics portfolio includes flight controls, autopilots, displays and comms/navigation systems. Fabrizio Boggiani is the chief marketer for this division, which has 7,000 employees in the UK. He noted two key potential developments for the British Ministry of Defence: a contract to retrofit 30 platforms with a new IFF system, and an extension of an availabilitybased Eurofighter avionics support contract from Italy to the UK. The division will be highlighting the new MiySys directed infrared countermeasures system, and the new Osprey lightweight surveillance radar. The U.S. Navy recently selected this for the Fire Scout rotary-wing UAS. o

training commander and former P-3 instructor pilot. “We can go a lot farther a lot faster and stay on station a lot longer than we can with the P-3.”

The P-8A operates from a ceiling of 41,000 feet down to 200 feet above the water’s surface. Leading a tour of the aircraft’s flight deck, Lt. John Falzetta, a 29-year-old instructor pilot, attested: “This aircraft performs as well as the P-3 at low level.”

A standard nine-person Poseidon crew consists of three pilots, five mission system operators and one crewmember assigned to load sonobuoys. In the cabin, five mission crew stations with top and bottom screens line the port side of the fuselage; these are manned by electronic warfare and acoustic specialists.

Lt. Nikee Giampietro, a tactical coordinator or “TACCO” with VP-30, said the P-8 mission consoles provide moving map displays with own-ship position, whereas the P-3C display is a black screen that does not indicate the aircraft’s relative position.

With storage capacity for 129 sonobuoys—50 percent more than the P-3 can carry—and with three rotary- and one single-shot launcher in its aft section, the Poseidon offers more mission flexibility, Giampietro said. The performance of the pneumatic launchers has been good, although not without some bugs, she reported. “It really helps our training evolution when you’ve flown the plane—to be able to teach things,” she added.

There were, however, a few criticisms of the new aircraft.

With a stated range of 1,200 nautical miles and four hours on station, the P-8A can be refueled in flight; but even without aerial refueling dapability, the four-engine P-3C turboprop can stay in the air longer, at 13 to 14 hours. And “the visibility in the flight station” is better on the Orion, Andrews observed.

“A couple more windows, especially aft of the wing, would have been nice,” added Cmdr.

Andrew Miller.

Boeing was on contract to supply 80 P-8As to the U.S. Navy, and during the media tour it announced the delivery of the 40th Poseidon. The manufacturer has delivered another eight P-8Is to the Indian Navy.

In January, Boeing was awarded a $2.5 billion contract modification from the Naval Air Systems Command to supply 20 Lot 3 full-rate production P-8s, including four for Australia. o

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Airbus mulls an uprated A330neo Airbus is considering a 245-metric-ton (or heavier) development of the A330-900neo (new engine option) in a move aimed at making it more competitive against the Boeing 787. The higher-weight option of the reengined twin-aisle jet would permit airlines to carry additional fuel or more cargo. Meanwhile, Airbus is hoping to avoid major changes such as a new landing gear for the heavier aircraft.

Chief operating officer (customers) John Leahy said that the initial 287-seat A330-900neo’s range is almost 1,300 nautical miles shy of the 7,830 nm offered by the 787-9, which carries a slightly smaller 283-passenger load. The current 242-metricton maximum operating weight was introduced on the A330ceo (current engine option) with Delta Air Lines a year ago.

The Airbus executive also said that the European manufacturer is considering an operating weight of 245 metric tons “or perhaps beyond” for the prospective

sub-variant, which would retain the A330’s Category B airport rating. The latter compares with the Category F standard applied to the Boeing 777 (or Category E for 777X variants equipped with folding wingtips to reduce their ramp footprint).

A330-900neo structural subassemblies and equipment are “on track” to enter final assembly during the third quarter, ahead of scheduled first flight, testing and certification and in time for entry into service in “late 2017,” according to Airbus programs executive v-p Didier Evrard.

Since announcing the A330800neo and -900neo here at Farnborough two years ago, Airbus has seen increased orders for the earlier Ceo model sufficient to justify raising production rates (from previously reduced levels) to six per month this year and then to seven, until manufacture gives way to the new variants entering service at the end of next year. Evrard reported that the

A330ceo secured more than 100 new orders during 2015, “filling the production line ahead of the A330neo in late 2017.”

Initial sub-assemblies being gathered in the Toulouse factory’s final-assembly area for the first A330neo, which is scheduled to go to Portuguese carrier TAP, include the center wingbox and air intake (coming from Nantes), wing (Broughton), Pylon (St Eloi) and nacelle (France, Morocco and UK).

Evrard describes the 42-month A330neo gestation period as a “very short” development time.

10 Seats Added

Introducing the Airspace cabin interior (from the A350) will continue the A330’s “nonstop innovation” aimed at enhancing airline profitability, said Evrard. This development includes a new entrance area, larger overhead bins and 18-inchwide seats, with the Airbus “Space Flex/Smart Lav” rearcabin furnishing arrangement

H. GOUSSÉ

by Ian Goold

Later this year the first A330neo will enter the final assembly area.

providing room for an additional 10 seats.

Leahy said that passengers will find that the A330neo and A350 cabins “look very similar.” Evolution is set to continue, since strategy and marketing executive v-p Kiran Rao said Airbus is looking “to make a lot of further changes to stay ahead of the competition.”

Rao lamented that the “only thing that let the [single-aisle] A320 down was the cabin, so [for the A330neo] we looked at the A350.” He added the A330neo cabin will be 3dB quieter than that of the 787.

Leahy claims that Boeing 787-8 per-seat fuel and cash-operating

costs will be 2-to-5 percent higher than those of the A330-800 Neo, while the margin for the larger 787-9 over the A330-900 will be 2 percent for each measure.

Meanwhile, Rolls-Royce, whose Trent 7000 is the A330neo’s sole engine choice, has conducted initial ground runs on the first example. Last month, the company was getting ready to assemble the first Trent 7000s for flight-test.

The engine was developed from the Trent 1000 TEN, the latest variant of the design that competes against General Electric’s GEnx to power the 787, and is expected to be able to handle the planned aircraft weight increase to 245 metric tons. o

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16 Farnborough Airshow News • July 12, 2016 • www.ainonline.com

28/06/16 16:50

Gulfstream’s new G500 bizjet makes its Farnborough debut Gulfstream’s new G500 business jet is making its European debut here at the Farnborough International Airshow this week. The long-range aircraft arrived on Friday after a 3,732-nautical-mile non-stop flight from the U.S. company’s Savannah, Georgia, headquarters in 6 hours, 55 minutes.

Meanwhile, Gulfstream is steadily moving toward FAA certification for the G500 next year, and much of the work done on this jet will help smooth certification of the longer G600. The G500 is set to enter service in 2018, followed by the G600 in 2019. Gulfstream has brought three other aircraft to Farnborough: a G280 midsize jet, G450 large-cabin jet and G650ER ultra-long range jet.

Four G500s are now flying in the test program, and the first G600 is nearing handover to the flight test team.

Although the G600’s first flight is officially scheduled for early 2017, it could fly as early as late this year.

To date, the G500 fleet has flown more than 300 flights and 1,280 hours. Some significant milestones include maximum speed reached of Mach 0.995 (maximum operating speed is Mach 0.925), flight to 53,000 feet (2,000 feet higher than the planned certified maximum altitude) and the longest flight at seven hours, 35 minutes, with zero discrepancies.

The G500 and G600 are an entirely new family of jets, although they share many systems features and the fly-bywire flight control technology of the G650. What sets the new models apart, however, is their cabins, larger than the G450/G550 and smaller than the G650.

The new jets’ cabins measure 7 feet 11 inches (2.41 meters) wide and 6 feet 4 in (1.93 m) tall. The G650’s cabin is 8 feet 6 in (2.59 m) wide, and the G450/G550’s 7 feet 4 in (2.24 m) wide and 6 feet 2 in (1.88 m) high.

The Dart Jet modularity allows a common cockpit throughout a multi-role fleet.

Cabin volume of the new jets is also larger, with the G500 at 1,715 cubic feet (48.6 cubic meters) and the G600 at 1,884 cubic feet (53.3 cubic meters), compared to 1,669 cubic feet (47.3 cubic meters) in the G550. Like the G650, the new jets pressurize the cabin to a low 4,850 feet at the 51,000-foot maximum altitude to provide maximum passenger comfort and fatigue reduction.

The G600’s interior cabin length is nearly four feet longer than the G500’s, and the two jets also differ in their range capability. The G600 can fly 6,200 nm at Mach 0.85 carrying eight passengers and four crew with NBAA IFR reserves.

The G500’s range under the same conditions is 5,000 nm, although with one fewer crew member. Both offer highspeed cruise of Mach 0.90.

The engines on the G600 are Pratt & Whitney Canada PW815GAs with 15,680 pounds’ thrust. The G500’s engines are PW814GAs at 15,144 pounds thrust.

The flight deck is where much has changed in the G500/G600 compared to previous models. While the G650 features fly-by-wire flight controls, its cockpit is equipped with what some might consider old-style yoke controls, which take up a lot of space and block part of the instrument panel. The new jets do away with all that clutter and incorporate sidestick controls mounted on the side ledges. Combined with the touchscreen-control displays—there are 10 total, plus one for security controls—the result is a clean-looking flight deck.

Avionics are based on Honeywell’s Primus Epic suite and are branded as Gulfstream Symmetry. Because there is no yoke, there is room for a retractable work table in front of each pilot. And the pilots’ seats no longer need a cutout at the front to accommodate yoke movement and are thus more comfortable.

Gulfstream’s G500 retains the manufacturer’s signature nose and cockpit window profile.

MARK WAGNER

by Matt Thurber

The Gulfstream G500/G600 feature Honeywell’s Primus Epic avionics suite, branded as Gulfstream Symmetry, and forego traditional control yokes in favor of sidesticks and touchscreen displays.

The sidesticks are an implementation of BAE’s active control sidesticks (ACS). Each sidestick is electronically connected to the other, so when one moves, the other moves precisely in concert, and both pilots can see instant feedback of control movement. If both pilots try to move their ACS, it is just like trying to move mechanically interconnected yokes at the same time; only one can actuate the controls, and there is no summing of movement or prioritization as in other fly-by-wire systems. More information on the ACS is available at the BAE Systems display building here at Farnborough (near Gate E).

Recently, Gulfstream engineers completed a significant milestone, the 150-percent ultimate load test on the new jets. In this test, a ground-test airframe is subjected to stresses far greater than the airplane

should ever encounter. Meanwhile a static ground test airframe is undergoing fatigue testing, which will eventually replicate three airframe lifetimes.

Gulfstream pilots already have been “flying” the new jets in laboratory simulators and fine-tuning the pilot-machine interface, but a more realistic simulator is also now in place at FlightSafety International’s Savannah, Georgia, learning center next to Gulfstream’s headquarters. The FlightSafety simulator will be certified in time for pilot training in preparation for entry into service, but in the meantime it is being used for human factors and development of flight crew procedures and other work.

Gulfstream hasn’t published any backlog numbers for the G500/G600 yet, but there are two launch customers, Qatar Executive and Flexjet. o

A modular approach to training UK company Dart Jet is proposing a revolutionary approach to fast-jet training. Based on a common mission management system and modular aircraft design it provides a system to take students from ab initio through to lead-in fighter training (LIFT). The company suggests training costs would be reduced while operator and student needs would be more easily met.

Dart Jet (Hall 1 Stand B90) has schemed an aircraft with a common fuselage and central wing section, to which a unit with straight wings and a tail can be fitted for basic training, or swept surfaces for advanced/LIFT duties. Although the surfaces would not be interchangeable, the employment of a common fuselage

significantly decreases the costs of development and production. The design also includes a self-contained engine and intake pod that allows customers to specify from a range of engine types without entailing major internal redesign efforts.

To match fighter-training requirements, the Dart Jet trainer would have a single-piece, full glass cockpit that can be reconfigured to mimic the displays of a range of advanced fighter aircraft.

Using the cockpit from the first day of training allows the student to transition seamlessly through the various stages of training to the front line without having to “re-learn” the cockpits of different aircraft under the prevailing mixed-fleet training concept. —D.D.

www.ainonline.com • July 12, 2016 • Farnborough Airshow News 17

by Chris Pocock

CHRIS POCOCK

Britain has big plans for its F-35s, but whether they are affordable remains a big question. Minister for defense procurement Philip Dunne claimed last week that, apart from the U.S., the UK “will be the only other nation that can project power.” But to meet that ambition, the defense budget must by the early 2020s cover the cost of buying and operating two new 70,000-ton aircraft carriers, and at least two squadrons of F-35Bs—the most expensive version of the stealth jet to buy and fly.

Moreover, those F-35s are priced in dollars, against which the British pound has just sunk to a new low. Asked about that during a media briefing at RIAT (the Royal International Air Tattoo show, last week), Dunne said that “we’re well-hedged against the dollar in the short term, and who knows what will happen in the long term.”

He said that the UK would be accelerating its buy, to have 24 aircraft in service with two squadrons by 2023. So far, the UK has bought five aircraft for test and development, all now delivered, and 14 production aircraft to come over the next four years. Last year’s Strategic Defence and Security Review

theoretically reconfirmed a UK commitment to eventually acquire 138 F-35s.

The justification for the UK’s primary role in the F-35 program—the only “Tier One” partner—remains industrial as well military. “Skills and jobs are being sustained across the nation,” Dunne said.

Cliff Robson, the senior v-p for F-35 at BAE Systems, said that 1,700 company employees were now working on the program, with several thousand more in the supply chain. “At its peak, about 25,000 people will be employed, and £1 billion of revenue will be earned,” he said. Another 10-12,000 people are directly employed

by BAE Systems, Babcock and Thales in building the two aircraft carriers.

Dunne was also joined at the briefing by three senior British military officers who described that timetable for achieving ‘carrier strike’ capability. Air Cdre Linc Taylor, the “senior responsible owner” for the F-35 at RAF Air Command, said that by the end of this year the UK will have five F-35Bs based in the U.S. at Marine Corps Air Station Beaufort, South Carolina, where the first operational unit—No. 617 Squadron—is being formed. Although this has a Royal Air Force “number plate,” it includes Royal Navy personnel.

Three more British F-35s are now at Edwards AFB, California, where No. 17 Squadron works in the test and evaluation role as part of a Joint Operational Test Team (JOTT). In both locations, British activities are tightly integrated with those of the U.S. services. In particular, there is a particularly close relationship with the U.S. Marine Corps (USMC), which declared its own initial operational capability (IOC) on the F-35B on July 31 last year. British and American pilots fly each other’s aircraft at Beaufort, where 617 Squadron is “nested’” within VMFAT501, the USMC training squadron.

One of the three F-35Bs that crossed the Atlantic last week was the UK’s third development and test aircraft. Sqn. Ldr. Hugh Nichols flew it, and was greeted upon arrival at RAF Fairford by Chief of the Air Staff ACM Sir Andrew Pulford. Nichols is taking turns to fly the F-35B display here with U.S. Marine Corps pilot Lt. Col. Richard Rusnok.

The UK has bought five F-35Bs for test and development (this is one of them) and 14 more to create its first operational squadron.

It will be mid-2018 before 617 Squadron flies its aircraft from the U.S. to the UK F-35 base at RAF Marham. Construction of dedicated logistics and training centers, plus a new secondary runway and three hardened concrete pads for STOVL training, is already underway there. “In order to train pilots in the highest levels of the F-35’s capability, and because of the lack of airspace in the UK, 50 percent of our pilot training will be synthetic,” said Air Cdre Harvey Smyth, the RAF Lightning II Force Commander. IOC for 617 Squadron in a land-based strike role is set for the end of 2018—the RAF is retiring the last of its four Marham-based Tornado strike squadrons during the following year.

Carriers Get Ready

by Bill Carey the new E190-E2, which accomplished its first flight on May 23 at São José dos Campos, Brazil. This was also the first E2 flight for the IDG, which UTC Aerospace (Outdoor Exhibit 3 & 4) is providing under contract to Embraer.

The company was challenged to design a constant frequency

system that fit within a package originally developed for a variable frequency system to provide continuous power independent of engine speed, said Tim White, UTC Aerospace president for electric systems.

Engineers from UTC Aerospace and Pratt & Whitney collaborated during the design

18 Farnborough Airshow News • July 12, 2016 • www.ainonline.com

squadrons. The second will have a Royal Navy number plate—No. 809.

Air Cdre Taylor noted that learning how to fly and maintain a fifth-generation low-observable fighter is a key challenge.

But so is adapting to the “incredible” sensor fusion that the F-35 offers. There is much work to be done to operationally integrate the stealth jets with the RAF’s fourth-generation force of Eurofighter Typhoons, he added. “They can offset each others’ strengths and weaknesses,” said Air Cdre Smyth. o

Meanwhile, the first new carrier HMS Queen Elizabeth will leave its construction base at Rosyth dockyard and head to sea for the first time in March 2017. The 700 sailors that operate her have already joined, said the ship’s commanding officer, Cdr Jerry Kyd. Following contractor trials, the ship will enter its permanent home at Portsmouth Dockyard in June 2017. It will embark its helicopter force to achieve an IOC by autumn 2017. In the third quarter of 2018 it will embark F-35s for the first time. The second carrier, HMS Prince of Wales, is following 18 months behind the QEII, and will be in service in 2019, Kyd said.

An Operational Conversion Unit (OCU) for the F-35 will form at Marham in mid-2019. Carrier trials will continue that year, but it won’t be until late 2020 before 617 Squadron is operationally qualified to go to sea. Kyd said that HMS Queen Elizabeth will make its first long-range deployment in 2021. But it won’t be until mid-late 2023 that British F-35s achieve full operating capability (FOC), said Smyth. By that time, No. 617 will have split into two

UTC’s new IDG aboard Embraer E2 UTC Aerospace Systems is supplying the first all-new integrated drive generator (IDG) design in more than a decade, an investment of millions of dollars that has been 15 years in development, the company said.

The IDG will supply constant frequency AC electrical power for Embraer E2 jets, including

UK CROWN COPYRIGHT 2016

As its new F-35 fighters arrive, can Great Britain afford them?

phase of the E2 to integrate the new IDG with an existing Pratt & Whitney engine gearbox. The companies are working on the E2 program under an integrated product development agreement.

The UTC team developed a new patented axial sun differential technology to reduce IDG volume by 33 percent and weight by 5 percent, while eliminating changes to the engine gearbox and increasing input speed range.

The Pratt & Whitney PurePower PW1900G engine began

testing in 2015 and flew with the E190-E2 for the first time in May. The aircraft is scheduled to enter service in 2018. The E175E2, powered by the PW1700G geared turbofan, is scheduled to enter service in 2020.

UTC Aerospace has also been chosen by Pratt & Whitney to provide nacelles for both engine models. Embraer has chosen UTC to supply wheels and carbon brakes as well as fire protection, evacuation, and air data systems of the E2 series. o

Designed for ultimate versatility.

more available seat kilometres True versatility takes wing in the Q400 aircraft. Its combination of nimbleness and speed lets you maintain a jet schedule with turboprop profitability, meaning more flights and better yields.

Add to that its class-leading capabilities at hot and high-altitude airports and you’ve got to give the Q400 aircraft its props for flexibility, performance and supreme versatility.

Bombardier, Q Series and The Evolution of Mobility are trademarks of Bombardier Inc. or its subsidiaries. This document does not constitute an offer, commitment, representation, guarantee or warranty of any kind.

The performance of the aircraft may differ from the images shown and, together with any related commitment, representations, guarantee or warranty, shall be determined in a final purchase agreement. All rights reserved Š 2016 Bombardier Inc.

ANTONOV ARRIVING

MARK WAGNER

Antonov’s An-178 is a medium-lift military transport from the Ukraine-based airframe manufacturer, with its roots in the An-148 and An-158 regional jets.

Powered by two high-bypass turbofan engines made by Ukrainian company Ivchenko-Progress, it first flew in 2015. To date, the Royal Saudi Air Force and Silk Way Airlines have signaled their intent to acquire some 40 examples.

Parker, Phyre develop fuel tank inerting

by Curt Epstein customizable cooling pumps featuring a common core of basic motor and pump components.

Compatible with a variety of dielectric and heat transfer fluids, the pumps are available in both AC and DC configurations with fixed or variable speed versions to accommodate a variety of flow rates. Additionally, the pump package incorporates a wetmotor design that allows the fluid to extract heat from the electronics or the sensor suite, while simultaneously removing heat from the pump motor itself, useful according to the manufacturer, in situations that require low convective or conductive heat dissipation within enclosed areas.

Parker’s Overseas Markets

On the eve of the Farnborough show, the company announced that it has been selected by Rolls-Royce to support development of the Trent 7000 engine for the Airbus A330neo. Parker will supply the main engine-oil pumps and tanks, the fuel nozzles and manifolds as well as pneumatic control devices.

In anticipation of this year’s possible first flight of China’s Comac C919 jetliner, Parker was the first supplier on the project to have completed full endurance spectrum testing on the more than 60 types of components it will be supplying for the delayed program. The tests demonstrate the components can deliver operational performance as specified for the life of the airplane. The Parker Hannifin subsidiary is providing all three independent hydraulic systems, primary flight control systems (including the horizontal

tail trim system); fuel gauging and management system; fuel-tank inerting system; and landing gear.

To support the Comac affiliation, the Parker has established two Chinese joint-ventures. The first is with the AVIC Jincheng Nanjing Engineering Institute of Aircraft Systems (NEIAS), known as NEIAS Parker Aero Systems Equipment (NPASE), it was founded to provide engineering, manufacturing, assembly and testing for fuel supply and management, fuel tank inerting, hydraulic power products and service as well as final assembly and tests for the C919 and other Chinese domestic aircraft projects such as the MA700.

Parker recently announced that the other joint venture has begun operations after achieving Part 145 certifications from Chinese and U.S. authorities. The partnership is with Avic Flight Automatic Control Research Institute (FACRI), and is called Parker FACRI Actuation Systems. It will also provide engineering support, final assembly and testing for the project as well as support for flight control, hydraulic, fuel and inerting equipment produced by Parker and other manufacturers, from its location at Xi’an, China.

This week, the company is announcing the launch of its new customer care initiative, consisting of a centralized global customer response center (CRC) in Irvine, California, which will support all commercial and airline customers, and five warehouse and parts distribution centers strategically located around world. o

20 Farnborough Airshow News • July 12, 2016 • www.ainonline.com

A VIEW OF THE FUTURE: WORLD’S FIRST GRAPHENE UAV The world’s first UAV incorporating graphene in its construction is flying here in the airshow. Developed via a collaborative effort between the University of Central Lancashire’s Engineering Innovation Centre and the University of Manchester’s National Graphene Institute, the UAV has a graphenecoated wing. The thinnest material on Earth, graphene is lightweight yet 200 times stronger than steel, and could find many aerospace applications. The test flight, performed in Preston, Lancashire, is the project’s first step in investigating the material’s potential for drag reduction, thermal management and lightning strike protection.

—J.W.

LOCKHEED MARTIN TESTS ‘INFIRNO’ SENSOR ON BLACK HAWK Lockheed Martin (Chalet D10) recently completed the first flight of its Infirno sensor turret on an UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter. The sensor met test objectives to verify line-of-sight stability and image quality, the manufacturer said.

“This is the latest in a series of successful Infirno demonstrations,” said Paul Lemmo, Lockheed Martin Missiles and Fire Control vice president. “The flight test proved Infirno’s high-definition sensor performance and stability in a demanding rotarywing environment.”

The 15-inch Infirno turret, integrated in the nose of the UH-60, contains high-definition, mid-wave infrared and color sensors, multi-mode tracker and laser designator/rangefinder with geolocation capability and advanced image processing.

The system enables users to deploy laser-guided munitions and conduct long-range intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance missions. Its modular components can be maintained or upgraded without removing the turret from the aircraft.

Infirno can also be integrated on ground and maritime ­platforms.

—B.C.

MARK WAGNER

Parker Aerospace has signed an agreement with Phyre Technologies to further develop a catalytic inerting system for improved aircraft fuel tank safety. The concept looks to take the technology beyond current applications in which inert nitrogen is generated by pressurizing air separation modules with engine-generated bleed air.

Using Phyre’s patented processes for catalytic inerting, ullage air and fuel vapors are pulled from the tank and passed through a catalyst, producing inert oxygen-depleted air (ODA).

The inert ODA is then cooled and dried before being reintroduced to the fuel tank to inert the unoccupied space.

“Bleeding engines to supply a conventional ASM-based inerting system can be particularly burdensome for aircraft powered by engines that have little or no bleed air available, such as turboshafts (helicopters), small turbofans (business jets and UAVs) and turboprops,” said Bryan Jenson, Parker’s principle engineer for fuel tank inerting. “Catalytic inerting holds the promise of generating inert gas on board the aircraft with a system that does not require a source of high-pressure air.”

This new process, which is considered “green” because the system minimizes unburned hydrocarbons vented into the atmosphere, follows on Phyre’s research, which has resulted in successful demonstrations of the company’s on-board inert gas generation system (Green OBIGGS) on military applications.

Parker (Hall 4 Stand E50) has also unveiled a new family of

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A DIFFERENT SCALE ALTOGETHER.

Engine Alliance, LLC, a joint company of General Electric Co. and Pratt & Whitney

New F135 deal to show reduced engine costs

Pratt & Whitney makes the F135 engine for the F-35 fighter at factories in Connecticut and Florida.

by Charles Alcock Pratt & Whitney says it is “cleaning up loose ends” with the U.S. Joint Program Office (JPO) for a Low Rate of Initial Production (LRIP) Lot 10 production contract to supply F135 engines for the F-35 fighter and expects the agreement to be sealed “relatively soon.” According to Mark Buongiorno, the U.S. manufacturer’s F135 program vice president, the latest contract will reflect progress it claims to have made in reducing expenses.

“The latest contracts are not radically different, but they do take account of the war on cost,” Buongiorno told AIN in an interview last month. “We have continued to drive down costs, reducing them by around half so far. [The price] for Lot 10 will be 3.4 percent lower than it was for Lot 8.” From the time it built the sixth flight-test powerplant to now, the company claims to have reduced the cost of building the F135 turbofan by 55 percent.

The engine maker (Outdoor Exhibit 3 & 4) is leveraging the

JPO’s incentive program to put in place its own incentivebased cost reduction strategy to induce suppliers to drive down their own costs. Buongiorno explained that there are several aspects to the cost reduction efforts, including new materials and manufacturing processes to reduce scrap and reworking. For example, a previously hollow rotor blade has been redesigned to a simpler solid configuration.

“We’re now taking advantage of greater volume and automation,” said Buongiorno. “The vast majority of parts are competitively bid and we’ve reached long-term agreements with 65 percent of the supply base. We will have more multiple sources for most critical components and more international sources too.”

For instance, it is pushing for more competitive pricing from suppliers by bundling work volumes for both military and commercial engine programs.

The latest Selected Acquisition Report from the U.S. Department of Defense published

in December 2015 confirmed the downward trend for engine prices in LRIP Lots 9 and 10 and said that the F135 is now meeting the Pratt & Whitney’s War on Cost commitments.

“However, recurring manufacturing quality issues continue to hamper consistent engine deliveries,” said the report.

“Recent quality escapes on turbine blades and electronic control systems resulted in maintenance activity to remove suspect hardware from the operational fleet. Pratt & Whitney has taken

ROGERSON KRATOS SHOWS OFF NEW UH-60 BLACK HAWK COCKPIT Avionics group Rogerson Kratos (Hall 2, Stand A59) is unveiling its modernized Sikorsky UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter cockpit solution here at the Farnborough International Airshow in the form of an interactive cockpit demonstrator. According to the Californiabased company, its digital avionics package for the A and L model Black Hawks replaces the analog gauges with the most affordable avionics upgrade currently available, giving operators a low risk solution based on an OEM-proven hardware baseline.

The new cockpit upgrade, which features four multifunction displays, is intended for military aircraft in the U.S. and is also available to foreign operators without the need to bring the helicopter back to the U.S. for installation. The main case for the upgrade, according to Rogerson Kratos, is to give operators the option to affordably upgrade their Black Hawks, while also being able to have improved situational awareness and safety in dust brownout conditions and other degraded visibility environments.

Situational awareness options include degraded visibility environment mitigation (DVEM) and distributed aperture systems (DAS).

Starting this fall, the system will be validated in an extensive test program involving three upgraded UH-60A model helicopters, aimed at securing both type certification of the upgraded aircraft and supplemental type certification covering the avionics equipment. With its open avionics architecture

that takes account of requirements such as Future Airborne Capability Environment, DO-178C certifiable software and Arinc-653 partitioned software design, the Black Hawk modernization solution allows operators the flexibility to buy the basic modernization first and add additional mission roles with field software upgrades as the operator’s priorities change.

The new system includes compatibility with the General Electric 700, 701C and 701D engines and meets global air traffic management standards for the year 2020 and beyond. Rogerson Kratos was a pioneer in flat panel primary flight displays, with the first FAA certification of electronic flight instrument system (EFIS), the first helicopter certified flat panel EFIS and the first certified helicopter integrated EFIS and EICAS. –C.E.

22 Farnborough Airshow News • July 12, 2016 • www.ainonline.com

action to improve quality surveillance within their manufacturing processes and program office manufacturing quality experts have engaged to ensure quality improvements are in place to meet production ramp requirements.”

Meanwhile, a U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) report issued on March 23 indicated that the reliability of the F135 engines on around 180 F35s in service improved significantly in 2015, but, “was still not performing at expected levels.”

Officials gave Pratt & Whitney credit for various design changes that improved reliability but concluded that for the powerplant of the F-35A and F-35B aircraft, “are still at about 55 percent and 63 percent, respectively, of where the program expected them to be at this point.”

According to Pratt & Whitney, the GAO’s conclusions represented a snapshot of engine reliability that focused mainly on line-replaceable units rather than the core engine.

It also argued that the report did not take account of the improved performance of more recently delivered engines.

“We have made some great strides since the early days of the program and some of the early problems are under control today,” said Buongiorno.

“Fleet availability today is fantastic at better than 95 percent.

We’re on track to meet mature specification requirements.”

Buongiorno pointed to sea trials conducted by both the U.S. Marines and Navy, which he said had been completely free of unscheduled maintenance.

“They are very positive about [engine] power and responsiveness,” he commented. “From a maintenance standpoint, it is still a small program with

around 180 aircraft, and for the reliability rate to be in the mid 90s [percent] is very good.”

The F35 program’s next major milestone is the anticipated initial operating capability (IOC) in December 2016 for the U.S. Air Force’s F-35A fighters. Also on the agenda is production activity for several F-35 international partners, including Israel, which is due to get its first aircraft in December.

Meanwhile, production of engines for Italy’s F-35s has been in progress since the end of 2015.

In April, Pratt & Whitney signed a 10-year long-term agreement with four Italian partners— Aeria, APR, Mepit and NCM— to make F135 components. By 2020, more than 650 F-35s are due to be in service with 10 partner nations. Pratt & Whitney’s main F135 assembly lines are in Middletown, Connecticut, and West Palm Beach, Florida. o

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F-35 pilots must process and collate large volumes of data and information while operating “in a non-permissive environment,” which is military-speak for “under heavy Gs and lots of stress.”

F-35 training faces challenges

by Andrew Drwiega “We have the largest training gap in tactical aviation history in front of us,” said Lieutenant Colonel Kevin O’Rourke, 1 Group F-35B Lightning II Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) Training, U.S. Marine Corp (USMC). “We don’t have a lot of the things we need to train the force commander’s pilots to go to war—yet: simulators don’t have it; and the jet doesn’t have it. We have good

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things coming, but they are a few years down the road.”

O’Rourke was speaking at a session on Fifth Generation Training in a Contemporary Environment that ran on May 19th, alongside the ITEC Exhibition at London’s Excel Centre.

He works with UK Royal Air Force (RAF) Squadron Leader Guy Lockwood, 1 Group Lightning Training SO2, to oversee pilot training development and assurance for the F-35.

The discussion was aimed at highlighting the huge step forward in capability that the F-35 potentially brings, while illustrating how difficult it currently is to train an increasing number of pilots to manage the threat and capability. “We said that waiting for a perfect solution to arrive would take decades and that the federated solution between users that is currently being driven forward is good for everyone.

“We see that there is tremendous opportunity for growth in F-35 training, both in the live and simulated environments,” suggested O’Rourke. An F-35 pilot is required “to manage a large display in the cockpit when under G and under stress.” This information needs to be collated in the right way and the information processed,

all while probably in a non-permissive environment.”

Sq. Ldr. Lockwood, a qualified F-22 instructor pilot and flight examiner who was on exchange with the USAF’s 94th Fighter Squadron, said that they had tried to define the qualities necessary for an “Information Age” pilot. “We think it is someone who has the skills of his predecessors—with a few more added. The key skills will be in balancing priorities [provided by the sensors] and rebalancing them consistently and constantly throughout the mission to get the best from the aircraft.”

Information dominance is only good if it leads to the best decisions being made, he added.

Relying on simulation to cover a training gap in the preparation of F-35 pilots could not be blindly accepted, argued Lockwood, who stated that they had examined the issue more objectively and had tried to “critically assess the training delta between what we need the Information Age pilot to execute [over time] and that we can execute right now.”

He said that core skills were required in a non-permissive environment: “The key between a good and great F-35 pilot will be prioritization. It is

24 Farnborough Airshow News • July 12, 2016 • www.ainonline.com

knowing when to look out of the window, fly the aircraft by feel and negate collision avoidance,” while continually processing, exploiting and sharing the information coming into the cockpit. “That will be the subject of weapon school papers for years to come,” he added.

Fifth Generation pilots will require broader skills in information management than those of the 4th Generation and that training with inherent extreme maneuvers cannot all be replicated in the simulator. “Working under G forces reduces your visual acuity and decision making capacity, which in turns affects your work rate.

Simulation versus Live

“When you get out of a simulator, you aren’t sweating through your flight suit like you do when you get out of a jet,” said O’Rourke. While there is broad agreement that training will be split 50/50 between live flying and simulation to provide the greatest capacity for learning, the challenges of flying and fighting in non-permissive environments has got to be the focus, given much of the flying in the last decade has been in permissive environments.

Lockwood gave his vision of the ideal pilot: “I want a 300hour guy who has had a year of seasoning on a squadron and has the decision-making capability of a 1,000-hour guy of yesteryear.”

By this he means that the pilot needs to be the right blend of youth with the appreciation of what the sensor technology can deliver, balanced against what someone with significant experience can deliver.

The challenge, he said, was to instill that experience in much less time than it would take to earn through live flying alone: “We need a pilot who can look at a battlespace and know what to do instinctively because they have done it so many times. The challenge is training that into younger people.”

O’Rourke explained that in their analysis of the training requirements to produce a basis between simulator and live flying, they came to the conclusion that while the total balance for an F-35 pilot might be around 50/50, during times of training for lower operational requirements that may go to a 40/60 split in favor of simulation, but would be reversed when on operations to a 60/40 split in favor of live flying.

Returning to the need to manage information while flying in a non-permissive battlefield, O’Rourke said, “The F-35 will operate in the extended decision space afforded by the sanctuary offered by its stealth and sensor fusion. The pilots will share and prioritize information, then act. The pilot has a lot to do in the cockpit and has to be able to do this live with all the pressures.”

He keenly stressed that the newness of the aircraft meant that tactics were still under development and would continue to remain that way for some time: “tactics are very fluid; you may have to move from one to another very quickly.”

However, he said that the question remained about how the gap in training requirements

could be measured and the current difficulty in training to all potential mission sets. Between operational and mission tasks, there were also hundreds of subtasks to be taught. “We have identified over 900 tasks and sub tasks that the pilot needs to train to. We have 85 mission tasks linked to central tasks; 300 emergency tasks and roughly 100 currency tasks.”

The volume of training tasks might be manageable initially, said O’Rourke, with pilots able to log around 1.5 hours during a sortie and a squadron logging around 3,000 hours of training per year. By 2025 there will be four or five squadrons in the UK with up to 250 F-35s, all competing for four simulators that aren’t linked, he said. They will also be competing to train in the same airspace and will need to be tested with Red Air. The question will arise about the lack of airspace in which to conduct such a volume of training that will meet and test the capabilities of the F-35s.

There is also the question of technical compatibility. “If I put a synthetic mission in

The split between live and simulated training will vary from 50/50 to 40/60 or 60/40 depending on circumstances.

a live-synthetic environment, will the synthetic unit react properly with the aircraft when they conduct training? Are the interactions there? We have to get this right. So we see training as a growth area and we need solutions.” He questioned whether the bar should be lower in terms of goals because all of the requirements could not be met.

Lockwood questioned whether today’s simulation, good ­ as it is, could be immersive enough to replicate the JSF: “It

is difficult to give simulation that is representative enough for the F-35 or even the F-22.

It is tempting to look at video games and think that the technology exists to accurately

replicate the sensors to provide that level of training. But truly immersive training for time and cost is exponential. There is a huge amount of complexity involved in both simulating the aircraft and the threat.”

The level of realism and accuracy of the feedback from any simulator becomes more complex when trying to replicate the F-35. “What if there is ambiguity where the threat reaction gives me false confidence or is too aggressive?

We need to understand what level of realism is required,” said Lockwood, while also acknowledging that a “huge amount” could still be achieved in the simulator, such as training tactics. He said that simulators can deliver on defined training objectives over a precise number of days as they are

not subject to the vagaries of the live environment.

His analysis was not intended to detract from the simulation system currently in place and he emphasized that, “the full motion simulator for the F-35 is awesome.” it was simply that the limitations of what it could and couldn’t do in terms of the overall potential of the F-35 had to be understood.

Both O’Rourke and Lockwood confirmed that there was a need for the F-35 community to share experiences and learn from each other. There were issues including creating Red Air and electronic warfare challenges to fully test not one but several aircraft together. “We can focus on federated solutions to bring things together, as all of the solutions aren’t developed yet,” concluded O’Rourke. o

FOOTNOTE: Lt. Col. Kevin O’Rourke is a former Commanding Officer of a USMC F/A-18 Squadron. He has over 2,900 flight hours and is a graduate of the Navy Fighter Weapons School (TOPGUN) and the Marine Corps Weapons and Tactics Instructor Course (WTI).

Squadron Leader Lockwood undertook two tours on the Typhoon FGR4 and completed the inaugural Typhoon Qualified Weapons Instructor (QWI) course. Posted to the United States as an Exchange Officer, he qualified as an F22 Instructor Pilot and Flight Examiner with the 94th Fighter Squadron. Upon his return he joined the UK’s Lightning Force headquarters to work on F-35 pilot training syllabi and assurance.

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www.ainonline.com • July 12, 2016 • Farnborough Airshow News 25

Boeing now has four 737 Max 8 test aircraft engaged in the new narrowbody’s certification campaign.

Tests include work on handling, flutter, fuel consumption, flight loads, propulsion and systems.

Flight testing of 737 Max 8 is on track for certification

by Gregory Polek Having now flown close to 300 test flights with four flight-test airplanes, Boeing says its 737 Max 8 program remains firmly on schedule as company engineers work to close testing on the first airplane by the end of September.

That airplane is scheduled for certification and entry into service during the third quarter of 2017, and Boeing executives say that as well as living up to its “Right at First Flight” mantra, the program has executed a virtually flawless flight-test campaign.

Speaking to reporters at Boeing’s Seattle Flight Test Center last month, 737 Max chief project engineer Michael Teal explained that Boeing has performed most of the program’s stability and control work, including handling characteristics and flutter testing with the first fligh-test article.

The second airplane, described by Teal as one of the program’s propulsion airplanes, started life performing nautical air fuel mileage tests and since has finished its flight loads survey. It also performed high-altitude testing in La Paz, Bolivia. “There’s been no drama around here,” said Teal. “The testing has been going very well. It’s been hitting the expectations so we’re very happy with how it’s going.”

At the time of his briefing, mechanics had just removed engine instrumentation for thrust-versus-drag calculations and schedules called for it to go to Montana next for community noise testing.

Boeing uses the third airplane, said Teal, mainly for propulsion and systems work such as autoland and headup display testing, as well as engine drainage tests.

Here at the Farnborough International Airshow, the fourth test airplane participates in the show’s flying displays. That

was very successful,” he said. “We did find a couple of, I’ll call them squawks, but that’s what you want to find and it turned out that the two that we found we already had on our list of things we had to fix.”

Taking a Leap

airplane, equipped with much of the new interior for Southwest Airlines, performs the program’s environmental testing, including smoke and Halon detection.

After the show, Boeing plans to take it to Russia for cold weather testing.

“It’s also an airplane we’re doing customer work on,” said Teal. “In our Right at First Flight initiative, we’re working on what we call ‘fly like the airlines.’ In two days, we did eight simulated flights. We’d fly for an hour and a half, we’d land, and then we’d pretend we taxied in and then we would do all the ground checks, we’d turn the engines off, we’d fuel it, we’d do any maintenance an airline would typically do on the ground during a thirty minute turn, then we’d start the engines and take back off.”

Boeing intended to effectively de-bug the airplane with the exercise, explained Teal, thereby ensuring its customerreadiness upon delivery. “That testing

Now flying with CFM Leap-1B compliance engines, airplanes two, three and four will eventually get fitted with final delivery engines equipped with new low-pressure compressors (LPC). Those engines, which Teal said would start arriving around August, will require what he characterized as some minor additional testing.

Last year CFM discovered the need to modify the LPC to improve stall margin. With the original engines, Boeing has to use suboptimum bleed schedules, leaving the bleeds open more than desired for the best possible fuel efficiency. “We want the bleeds closed for better fuel mileage,” explained Teal.

“We could have certified and delivered these engines, but we wanted the best engines. So in the ones we’re flying now the bleeds are opened a little bit more than we desire, but when the final Block 2s come in and we get the final

As it prepares for anticipated service entry for the 737 Max 8 in the third quarter of 2017, Boeing is now building the narrowbody airliner at a rate of one per month at its factory in Renton, Washington.

26 Farnborough Airshow News • July 12, 2016 • www.ainonline.com

Boeing’s 737 Max chief project engineer Michael Teal said flight testing is going well.

bleed schedules, that will determine the final configuration.”

Once the team returns to Seattle from Farnborough, plans call for the function and reliability testing to start with the final delivery engines installed on the third and fourth airplanes and finish in the fourth quarter, likely in October or November.

Meanwhile, Boeing continues building production Max 8s at a rate of one per month, and will continue to do so until first delivery to Southwest Airlines. By the end of last month, two production airplanes sat outside the Renton factory painted in Southwest colors and another two underwent final assembly inside. While those airplanes also await installation of the Block 2 engines, Teal expects them to require minimal change incorporation. “We’ve put a plan together of how much we forecast the change incorporation,” said Teal. “Right now we are considerably under our forecast, so I’m very happy with that,” he concluded.

Separately, Boeing during the third week of June released 90 percent of the drawings for the next variant, the 737 Max 9. The company has already started building stringers for the first Spirit Aerosystems-supplied fuselage and plans to start the first wing build in September.

Schedules call for rollout and first flight by the end March 2017. o

Wearable HUD gives bigger field-of-view

by Thierry Dubois ATR (Chalet B25) and Elbit (Hall 1 Stand A100) are collaborating to develop new optional equipment for improved safety in poor visibility, using a wearable display. The system combines infrared-based enhanced vision with flight parameters.

Compared to a conventional head-up display (HUD), a bene­ fit of the ski goggle-shaped device is the greater field of view.

Certification is expected in the summer of 2017.

The ClearVision system uses Elbit’s SkyLens head-mounted display and an infrared camera (seeing at night and through fog) located on top of the aircraft’s nose.

The symbology includes a number of parameters—altitude, height, speed, autopilot mode, ILS information and attitude. “We gather these from the avionics buses,” said Eric Delesalle, flight test director of ATR. What is displayed depends on the flight phase. In approach,

the symbology is decluttered for the pilot to focus on the runway, speed and height. Only the pilot in the left seat will be equipped with the wearable device—for cost reasons, Delesalle said. On a head-down display, the pilot in the right seat will be able to see a copy of what appears in the SkyLens.

Stylish Headwear

The equipment, which is to be donned just before the approach phase, is similar to wearing glasses and an audio headset. It weighs about 0.7 pounds (just over 300 grams), according to Delesalle. A stick-mounted push button enables the pilot to deactivate the infrared image.

He or she can thus return to naked eye vision (augmented with symbology) quickly.

ATR has been more interested in a wearable display than a conventional HUD. The latter would have been more expensive and trickier to integrate in a relatively small cockpit, Delesalle said,

Regional airliner maker ATR and Elbit are working together to introduce a new wearable head-up display that combines infrared enhanced vision with flight parameters. The equipment could be certified by the summer of 2017.

while the former has an unlimited field of vision, he added.

The European airframer chose Israel’s Elbit because it was the only provider of such a system when the airframer began to consider it. The first prototype was installed on an ATR aircraft “four or five years ago,” Delesalle said.

At the time, it was not very comfortable and the symbology was very simple. “But it was very promising and we conducted a landing where the equipped pilot could see the runway only on the SkyLens display,” Delesalle said.

The left half of the windshield

had been blackened and a straightforward camera had been installed in the cockpit, on the right side.

Government Involvement

This summer, ATR and Elbit are resuming the development of the system, now in its final configuration. EASA and the FAA have been involved very early in the process, as the system will be the first of its kind in civil aviation. Both authorities participated in demonstration flights and have jointly prepared a certification review item, with the aim of updating

the existing AMC2511 standard for HUD approval.

The future option has already generated interest from some ATR customers.

Canary Islands carrier Binter Canarias, for example, believes it would be helpful to cope with mist that forms close to the sea.

In a second phase, synthetic vision will be added. Fusion of the two images (infrared and synthetic) will be possible— or the pilot may choose just one of these, depending on the flight phase. The SkyLens will thus become a combined vision system. o

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Trent 7000 technology means less fuel, noise for A330neo

by Ian Goold Eight months after reaching the “first engine to test” stage last November and with two of four planned Rolls-Royce Trent 7000 (T7000) development units having run, the new exclusive powerplant for the re-engined Airbus A330 Neo represents “a pretty active program,” according to customer marketing head Peter Johnston.

Relative to its parent Trent 700 design, the 68,000 to 72,000-pounds-thrust T7000 has double the bypass ratio and 10-percent better specific fuel consumption, while creating 10 dB less noise. It does this partly by drawing on Trent 1000-TEN architecture as well as technology from the Trent XWB. Rolls-Royce (Hall 4 Stand B18) is incorporating a new electronic engine control unit, accessory-drive train/gearbox, air-start capability and related external changes, and is adapting the design to work with the new engine bleed-air system (EBAS). It will also have a new Aircelle nacelle.

Trent 7000 engine

For anti-icing, the T7000 ducts intermediate-pressure compressor bleed air through the core-engine stator blades to protect the core and prevent “nick and ding” damage from detached ice particles, thus retaining performance and reducing maintenance requirements, according to Rolls-Royce.

The company claims that the T7000 will have unequaled high-temperature and high-altitude takeoff and payload capability, significant margins over all current and future environmental rules, and similar pilot and operational practices to the T700. Common characteristics shared between the two models are designed to support operators with mixed fleets of A330s and re-engined A330neos, according to Johnston.

It is now about a year since the first T7000 parts, including combustion outer and inner cases and the intermediate casing, reached the manufacturer’s finished parts stores. Assembly took place during July-September last year as the complete 05 module was brought together with the compressor assembly and other major elements in the vertical module stack, which comprises the final stage, said Johnston.

Trent 1000-TEN

Testing, including altitude, icing and operability checks, has already been completed on the first Trent 7000, dubbed L71/1 in its first iteration (but identified as engine serial number [ESN] 7001 when fully mounted in test beds).

With engines not completed in numerical order, second development unit L73/1 also has completed its first runs and is being used for functional as well as operability tests.

Testing Under Way

In build last month (June) was the third example, L72/1, which is destined for systems performance work and will be the formal type test unit, while the final development engine L74/1 is earmarked for cyclic and extended-range operations testing that simulates typical airline service. T7000 certification work is taking place throughout this year.

Simulated altitude testing, with particular attention to running in icing conditions, has been conducted with L71/1 in the U.S. at the Arnold Engineering Development Center C-2 test cell at Arnold Air Force Base in Tennessee. There, the engine completed four “air-on” days for icing, operability, performance and start/relight testing.

With European Aviation Safety Agency airworthiness approval for the Boeing 777X’s Trent 1000-TEN “very close” (in June), some certification reports from that engine will contribute to T7000 type approval, according to Johnston.

Rolls-Royce expects the new engine to be approved in the early part of 2017, as T7000 flight-testing gets under way.

Delivery of the first production engine is expected in a little over 12 months’ time, ahead of entry into service that is scheduled for late 2017.

The T7000 incorporates as many T1000-TEN parts as possible, with necessary changes including the different EBAS requirement compared to the A330’s more conventional cabin systems.

For this, the new engine will feature two new bleed outlets to supplement the inherited intermediate- and high-pressure compressor bleed ports, that help with surge margin control.

Johnston said that the T1000-TEN’s combustion-chamber outer casing and intermediate casing have been modified and the engine’s core externals re-dressed to accommodate the EBAS above the engine. Fan case and liner changes essentially relate to accommodating different Airbus design styles, compared with previous Boeing-oriented requirements.

The full-authority digital-engine control unit involves different software to interface with the A330’s systems, and the T7000 oil/air seal system is modified to suit the different operating conditions.

28 Farnborough Airshow News • July 12, 2016 • www.ainonline.com

Rolls-Royce has incorporated a new electronic engine control unit, accessory-drive train, air-start capability, and related external changes in the Trent 7000 engine developed as exclusive powerplant for the Airbus A330 Neo and has completed altitude, icing, and operability checks on the first example seen here.

The engine manufacturer noted the industry trend toward larger fans and smaller engine cores, which by default has created capacity to mount line-replaceable units (LRUs) on the fan case. This not only positions the LRUs in a cooler environment but also makes them more accessible for maintenance.

The accessory gearbox, which constituted a major element of early T7000 development work, will be one of the first products from Aero Gearbox International, the Rolls-Royce joint venture set up with Safran subsidiary Hispano-Suiza less than two years ago to design, develop, produce and support accessory gearboxes for all future RollsRoyce civil engines.

T7000 industrial ramp-up will benefit from the manufacturer’s investment in risk- and revenue-sharing partnerships and in additional production, test and overhaul capacity. While the first engines will be built at the company’s Derby headquarters in the UK, others will be assembled at its Seletar facility in Singapore.

A new testbed, suitable for this size of engine, has been built at Dahlewitz in

Germany, where Rolls-Royce has set up a centre to conduct research and technology development for power gearboxes and related components. “The test stand for gearbox development in Dahlewitz will be able to measure dozens of performance parameters per second,” said the company.

According to Airbus statistics at the beginning of June, Airbus has orders for 186 A330neos from Air Asia X, Delta Airlines, Garuda Indonesia, Hawaiian Airlines, TAP Portugal (which will be the launch operator), and TransAsia Airways, along with lessors Air Lease, Avolon, and CIT. There are also memoranda of understanding between Airbus and operators Arkia of Israel and Iran Air. o

Touchscreens planned for Boeing 777X cockpit Test results from Boeing’s EcoDemonstrator program have convinced the company to feature touchscreen displays in the cockpit of the new 777X airliner, vice president of product development Mike Sinnett revealed during a pre-Farnborough briefing on developing technologies at the company’s Seattle-area offices.

The 777X’s cockpit ­display provider, Rockwell Collins, worked with Boeing on the technology on the EcoDemonstrator. However, Boeing continues to “define requirements” and expects to sign a contract with a supplier of the touchscreens later this summer.

Sinnett called touchscreens “a really great example of trying to understand what the [customer] requirements are and convey those requirements in a flight deck design.” But despite the seeming ubiquity of the technology in everyday computing

devices, aerospace engineers still must consider technological hurdles specific to airplane design. Sinnett explained that although no requirements exist that “drive” the use of the touchscreen, the challenge for engineers centers on simultaneously maintaining standards associated with image quality, chromaticity and off-axis viewing angles.

“The requirements that drive the viewability of the display and the requirements that allow for good touch in some cases are mutually exclusive,” said Sinnett.

“For example, the best touchscreens are the ones where if you get a fingerprint on them you can wipe it off really easily. One of the problems with devices that clean so easily is that there’s a lot of reflectivity in those devices.”

Manufacturers must ad­here to strict anti-reflectivity standards.

The technology continues to improve, however, said Sinnett, who

COURTESY OF BOEING

by Gregory Polek

Boeing production pilots Ruth Morlas and Nikhil Patel demonstrate 777X touchscreen multi-touch capability in a Boeing test environment. The hardware supports multiple touch points.

cited Boeing’s introduction of the technology in the electronic flight bag on the 787.

“But in that case you’ve got touch on the outboard displays and you don’t have touch on the inboard displays,” said Sinnett.

“So we did enough work on the EcoDemonstrator that we felt

comfortable enough with where the technology has gone that we’re going to be introducing it on the 777X.” Sinnett explained that using the EcoDemonstrator as a vehicle “to work through the requirements” will eventually allow for the use of touchscreens with

other operationally approved applications not necessarily certified as part of the airplane’s basic type certification. o

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www.ainonline.com • July 12, 2016 • Farnborough Airshow News 29

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Record simulator sales driven by pilot demand

by Rick Adams The unabated growth in aircraft deliveries and resulting demand for pilots is fueling record sales of flight simulators and training devices. But the niche remains a buyer’s market for airlines, as aggressive competitors seek to slice into the near-monopolistic share, which has long been enjoyed by the giants of the industry, such as CAE. Montréal, Canada-based CAE (Chalet B28) closed on 53 full-flight simulator (FFS) sales for its fiscal year, which ended in March (compared with 41 in FY15 and 48 in FY14). The company booked C$1.683 billion (about U.S.$1.3 billion) of simulator and training services sales for the year and enjoys long-term training contracts with about 40 airlines and aircraft operators.

CAE is also its own best customer, now operating more than 260 FFSs, including business jet and civil helicopter sims, in its training centers and joint ventures around the world.

CAE also pre-empted a potentially strong competitor last May by the assets of Lockheed Martin Commercial Flight Training (LMCFT), the former Sim-Industries in The Netherlands. CAE President and CEO Marc Parent termed it a “relatively small bolt-on acquisition…to pick up certain useful assets.” LMCFT had made inroads mostly with Tier 2 and 3 aircraft operators, but had also won a Boeing 777 FFS contract in Lufthansa’s rigorous selection process, signed a “frame contract” with Airbus, and established training centers in Brazil and Korea.

Several companies have the technological capability to manufacture a high-end Level D FFS, tipping it toward commodity class, making price the primary driver in a sim acquisition decision. “The competition’s become quite fierce,” said Andrew Morris, market strategy, commercial simulation products for FlightSafety International, which is CAE’s longest-standing rival. (Morris spent 24 years with CAE, including as v-p marketing.)

“There are some new entrants with ambition and some existing players with an entrenched market share. There’s been some undisciplined pricing out there in recent times from a couple of players. There are people who want to be market-disruptive, so I think it’s always going to be a competitive space. But there’s more to selling a simulator than price and competing on the last possible penny in the contract,” said Morris.

The purchase price of a new FFS can range from about $6-10 million for narrowbody aircraft models upwards to more than $20 million for widebody units with a high degree of customization. A primary factor is the cost of the OEM’s aircraft-specific data, which can now account for more than half the cost of the training device.

One of the ambitious new entrants to the simulator market is TRU Simulation + Training, owned by Textron (Outdoor Exhibit L2). TRU was created two years ago following the purchase of Opinicus and Mechtronix, and has a built-in aircraft customer base of Beechcraft, Cessna and Bell Helicopter, all sister Textron

FlightSafety International’s A350XWB FS1000 Level D simulator conducts pilot training operations at Airbus’s training center located in Miami, Florida.

companies. But TRU’s simulator engineering expertise has impressed Boeing Flight Services, which earlier this year ordered the first training suite for the new 777X aircraft (777-8 and 7779) slated for 2020 delivery. Two years ago, Boeing tapped TRU for its 737MAX flight simulators.

Ian Walsh, TRU’s president and CEO since last summer, said, “There’s a lot of market out there. We just want our fair share. There are customers who have simulators from competitors; depending on the situation, they may be looking for a new supplier. There’s a lot of regional Tier 2 and Tier 3 players who are very open and interested and aggressive and thinking about sourcing simulators. Those are the kind of folks who are very interested in talking with us.”

“To be brutally honest, on the procurement piece it’s nasty right

CAE 7000XR A320 simulator for Vueling Airlines during launch ceremonies in Barcelona.

(Chalet B14) EP-8100 image generators on a commercial FFS. A new potential disruptor is Venyo Europe (Hall 1, Stand B10), a Belgian company developing its first FFS, a Boeing 737NG model. Venyo has ambitiously ordered seven SupraVue collimated visual display systems

that used to be a challenge are now taken for granted, so we’re expanding the horizons of what you can do with simulation.”

One current focus at FlightSafety (which has a training center at Farnborough) is new algorithms for ground reaction aspects of a simulation scenario involving the nose wheel, tail wheel, even skids on helicopters. Ground reaction cues are important to pilots during rotation and landing, especially cross-wind landings. In the past, simulator ground handling fidelity has been a typical source of pilot complaints.

Is the Pipeline Expanding Fast Enough?

CAE’s current flagship full-flight simulator, the 7000XR, incorporating Flightscape flight data analysis and Sentinel remote diagnostics.

now,” Walsh confided. “On the defense side, at least there’s a level of due diligence that is required and audited in terms of a company’s ability to design, build and support product. In today’s commercial environment, it’s really about price, quite frankly.

I think the differentiator happens after the sale.”

Another major player is L-3 (Chalet A15) Link Flight Simulation & Training, which inherited the legacies of industry granddaddy Singer-Link and Rediffusion via the acquisition of Thales Training & Simulation’s RealitySeven civil simulation business in 2012. Link’s forte of late has been Boeing 787 devices, most recently for KLM Royal Dutch Airlines at their Schiphol Airport training facility near Amsterdam and for Virgin Atlantic Airways at London’s Heathrow and Gatwick in a 12-year agreement. The Virgin project will feature the first implementation of Rockwell Collins’

34 Farnborough Airshow News • July 12, 2016 • www.ainonline.com

from Florida’s Q4 Services and will offer their devices on a payby-the-hour basis. They installed their first commercial trainer, a fixed-based version, in June.

Frasca International, whose traditional strength is in the university and flight school market, is the first to receive CASA Level Dah (equivalent to FAA Level 6 / EASA Level 2) approval in Korea for a Cessna 172S flight training device (FTD) which will be used by KAL for initial pilot training. Frasca is also partnered with Germany’s Grob (Hall 4, Stand H121) for multipurpose FTDs for the new G120TP trainer aircraft.

Simulating Pavement

John Van Maren, v-p, simulation, said FlightSafety is “investing heavily to make sure we stay competitive. The overall level of expectation for a Level D simulator is quite high, and the bar keeps getting raised. The things

According to Boeing’s most recent forecast, an average of 28,000 new pilots will be needed each year through 2034 to fly the estimated 38,000 aircraft to be added to global fleets. It’s questionable whether the pilot pipeline is expanding rapidly enough.

There are already shortages in Asia, the fastest-growing region for commercial aviation, and among U.S. regionals, attributable to another Colgan after­ effect, the FAA’s 1,500-hours rule to become a first officer.

CAE’s Leontidis said his company’s Oxford Aviation Academy is graduating more than 1,000 new ab initio pilots a year at locations in Australia, Belgium, India, The Netherlands, the UK, and the U.S. He said, “Globally, we need hundreds of thousands in the next 10 years. I wish I were a pilot; it’s a job in demand.”

Apparently interest in the profession remains high. When JetBlue and CAE announced the airline’s Gateway Select program earlier this year, seeking 24 candidates willing to spend $125,000 of their own funds for 42 months of competency-based training (leading to a conditional job offer with either JetBlue or CAE), there were 80,000 hits to the website on Day 1 and more than 3,000 applicants who paid a $200 upfront fee. o

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Flexible maintenance plans enhance GE’s MRO toolkits

by Charles Alcock Factors such as lower fuel prices and continued traffic growth are prompting airlines to keep aircraft in service longer. As a result, airframes and engines are changing hands more often during their working lives, driving demand for maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO) services and ramping up operators’ expectations for greater flexibility in aftermarket support.

Broadly speaking, these were the circumstances that inspired GE Aviation to launch its TrueChoice engine maintenance packages back in April. The

engine maker now offers operators four sets of options for supporting their powerplants, with variations in pricing and service levels to reflect the more complex lifecycle of products in today’s air transport market.

According to Kevin McAllister, president and CEO of GE Aviation Services, the company expects around 35 to 40 percent of its customers to opt for the TrueChoice Flight Hour option, providing a way to spread the cost of ownership over an engine’s lifecycle with flexible risk

transfer and payment options based on fixed rates per flight hour or cycle. The new TrueChoice Overhaul option is well suited to mid-life to mature engines, covering time and materials costs for engine overhauls with specified workscope rates to suit an operator’s particular situation, as well as scrap rate guarantees.

TrueChoice Material covers new and used parts for advanced repairs and upgrades that could extend engine life and residual values. TrueChoice Transitions is intended for engines that are subject to changing ownership, such as those under green time leases or exchanges.

The Need to be Nimble

McAllister told AIN that GE is committed to giving operators maximum freedom of choice when it comes to choosing MRO providers or, in cases where they have their own MRO capability, maximum opportunity to generate income supporting the engines of third parties. GE believes this is a key differentiator with the aftermarket business models of rival engine manufacturers Rolls-Royce and Pratt & Whitney, which it says are mainly seeking to keep operators in their own OEM programs. “People need to be nimble these days, and as an OEM, we have to stay focused on providing the lowest life cycle costs for our engines,” he said. “We

can’t just assume oil prices will stay where they are now forever.”

With that in mind, GE (Outdoor Exhibit P2) continues to invest heavily in technology that will improve both time-on-wing (since service entry) and fuel efficiency.

The manufacturer has been making technology upgrades available to its installed base of turbofans, including improved aerodynamic efficiency, and more durability in materials, cooling and coatings.

These are available through upgrade kits for existing models such as the Boeing 777 family’s GE90-115B and the GE9094B engines, improving time-on-wing by around 15 percent and reducing fuel burn by between 1.3 and 1.6 percent.

Another aspect of GE’s focus on reducing engine lifecycle costs is harnessing so-called Big Data—an exercise that it says involves a marriage of analytics and physics. GE Aviation is working with sister company GE Digital to more thoroughly analyze and share the large quantities of performance data now being gathered from its engines. The main aim is to improve the ability of operators and MRO providers to predict performance trends that could result in greater reliability and a more cost effective approach to product support. o

U.S. composite maker Hexcel steps up its expansion plans

by Mark Phelps Look for U.S.-based Hexcel Corp (Chalet B15) to raise its profile in the international aerospace industry. Late last month, U.S.-based composite manufacturing specialist officially opened its newly renovated facility in Duxford, UK. This follows the April groundbreaking of a new Hexcel manufacturing plant in Casablanca, Morocco. Cost of the Duxford renovation was pegged at $10 million, while the new MidParc Free Trade Zone “engineered core facility” in Morocco represents a $20 million investment.

As far as financing for the new projects and further growth, on June 10, Citizens Bank revealed it is leading a $700 million senior credit facility for the Stamford, Connecticut-based company.

Wide Range of Products

GE Aviation launched its TrueChoice engine maintenance packages in April, offering operators four options for the care-and-feeding of their engines.

36 Farnborough Airshow News • July 12, 2016 • www.ainonline.com

Hexcel was founded in 1948 and now specializes in developing, manufacturing and marketing lightweight, high-performance carbon fibers, reinforcements, prepregs, honeycomb, matrix systems, adhesives and composite structures.

Customers include those with interests in commercial aerospace, space and defense and other industrial applications.

Specific applications include materials for commercial and military aircraft, space launch vehicles, satellites—and in non-aerospace venues, wind turbine blades and automotive structures. The

company supplies all the carbon fiber prepregs for the Airbus A350 XWB primary structural components.

On hand at the Duxford opening celebration was Hexcel chairman, president and CEO Nick Stanage. The newly expanded and renovated building serves as the company’s chemistry and product development center, with formulation and analytical laboratories, mixer rooms and microscopy/SEM labs. At the ceremony, UK-based senior v-p and chief technology officer Paul Mackenzie said, “We had outgrown the [existing] Technical Centre and welcome this new building and the facilities provided for the 21st century. Our scientists…have now moved into the Innovation Centre and the building is already resonating with activity.”

Back in April, Hexcel launched its $20 million new-build engineered-core facility in Casablanca. Planned to be fully operational next year, the plant will convert the company’s proprietary HexWeb honeycomb material for structural reinforcement and weight-reduction involving aircraft structural components, engine nacelles and helicopter rotor blades.

Beginning in the fourth quarter of this year, Hexcel will occupy a temporary facility at Casablanca’s MidParc Free Trade Zone Industrial Park, and the finished plant is expected to employ more than 200 people by 2020. o

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Consultant adds more software to help airlines stay profitable

by Charles Alcock

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While traffic growth continues to be strong, the profitability of the world’s airlines—with

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the possible exception of those in North America—remains somewhat patchy and far from

assured. Factors such as reducing costs and boosting revenues from ancillary services are keys to

improving profitability, according to John Luth, CEO of aviation consulting and finance group Seabury, which is looking to support airlines in optimizing their business models.

In a presentation at the IATA/ Wings Club Aviation Day in New York City on February 25, Luth demonstrated that currently more than 75 percent of airliner Seabury CEO John Luth aims to help airlines improve the efficiency of their operations across the board.

profits are being earned by carriers in North America and the Asia Pacific region. According to his analysis of IATA data, the outlook for Asia/Pacific is “troubling,” while the performance of operators in Europe, the Middle East and Latin America is “sub-par.”

In its bid to help airlines improve their performance, Seabury (Hall 4 Stand H108) is investing to increase its portfolio of proprietary analysis software. The most recent addition came with the acquisition in May of a minority stake in Rainmaker Business Technologies, which works with carriers to better understand and manage operating performance and related costs, such as crew pay and fuel expenses. Seabury’s Human Capital division has an option to take a majority stake in the Irish company.

Seabury Aviation Consulting also has a portfolio of software tools that include SAPGnet, which forecasts route and network revenues and profitability.

It has sold the tool to various carriers including IAG, Star Alliance, JetBlue and South African Airlines.

The division also offers its SAPGfam fleet allocation and optimization system and SAPGalliance, which analyzes airliner partnerships. The group also offers software for tasks such as project management, maintenance, repair and overhaul, and performance analysis.

This month, Seabury is starting a consultancy project for Kazakhstan’s Air Astana, which wants to revise its business plan to take account of shifting market conditions. The company will be advising on plans to expand international operations and the implications this will have for fleet renewal.

New York-based Seabury also includes the Seabury Capital division, which owns a number of specialist finance companies that can provide services such as mergers and acquisitions support and raising capital. The company can also assist with asset management issues for aircraft fleets. o

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00 Farnborough Airshow News • July 12, 2016 • www.ainonline.com 38

15/06/16 10:26

BOEING

This year, Boeing Aircraft is celebrating its 100th anniversary. First incorporated in 1916 by budding pilot and aviation enthusiast William Boeing, the company has become synonymous with the U.S. airline manufacturing industry, and also relies heavily on its military successes, present and past, for its corporate identity. In the first three issues of AIN’s Farnborough Airshow News, Pete Combs delves into the company history. Look out for parts one and three in our July 11 and 13 editions, or find the entire text online at our website, AINonline.com. Below is the second of three installments.

Model 299

Saved By A Fortress

In spite of Boeing’s initial success with the Model 247, the company’s failure to serve customers beyond its own airline (later United) forced the rest of the air transport industry to look to the Douglas DC-2 and DC-3. Broken up by the Air Mail Act of 1934, Boeing fortunes lagged. Its military business faded away to almost nothing. The company was again forced to lay off employees. The specter of financial ruin was just over the horizon.

But in August 1934, the U.S. Army Air Corps realized it needed a new multi-engine bomber, capable of flying long distances at altitudes of more than 10,000 feet. Chairman Clair Egtvedt decided to go all in, committing the company’s dwindling resources to design and construction of the Model 299. When the prototype rolled off the factory floor, bristling with machine guns and capable of delivering 4,800 pounds of explosives, Seattle Times reporter Richard Williams dubbed it the Flying Fortress, a nickname that stuck forever.

Lethal looking though it was, the Model 299 still had to prove itself. It was the only four-engine bomber to compete in a fly-off with the Douglas DB-1 and the Martin Model 146 at Wright Field in Dayton, Ohio, in the fall of 1935.

Boeing historian Mike Lombardi motioned to a model of the B-17 in a glass case that covers part of one wall in his archive. “It was bigger and much more streamlined than the competitors. It could fly

Flying Fortress

Clipper

B-29

B-47

faster and farther than the Martin and Douglas twins entered in the fly-off. It was a shoo-in,” he said. Then, fate intervened.

When Army test pilot Major Ployer Peter Hill insisted on taking the Fortress prototype up for a second evaluation, October 30, 1935, the crew forgot to remove the gust-locks from the controls. The aircraft crashed, killing Hill and Boeing test pilot Les Tower. Unable to finish the fly-off, Boeing lost the competition. The Army instead ordered 133 Douglas B-18 Bolos.

Still, the Army’s aviation leadership knew a winner when they saw one. They were able to order 13 Flying Fortresses, designated YB-17 for “further evaluation,” according to Lombardi.

In August 1937, a dozen YB-17s went into service with the 2nd Bombardment Group at Langley Field, Virginia. Although the dark clouds of World War II were gathering over Europe and Asia, the YB-17 still had its opponents both in the military and on Capitol Hill. So the 2nd embarked on a public relations mission.

Ten of the new bombers were tasked with intercepting an Italian passenger ship in the Atlantic Ocean, the equivalent of finding a needle in a haystack. But with pinpoint accuracy, the squadron found the cruise liner, B-52

exactly as the Army had predicted. Their success went a long way toward establishing the reputation of the Flying Fortress. Two years after the disastrous fly-off at Wright Field, the Army began to order them in significant numbers.

By the time the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor, Hawaii on December 7, 1941, there were fewer than 200 B-17s in service. But then, “Boeing and its partners built almost 16,000 bombers in the four years the world was at war,” said Lombardi. “That in itself was an incredible feat.”

“The aircraft were revolutionary, but the processes by which they were built were also amazing. I argue that’s pretty much the way we do things today.” At the beginning of the war, he said, it took Boeing months to build a single B-17; but by the end of the war the company was churning out 364 aircraft a month at its factory in Renton, Washington. That amounted to approximately a dozen every day.

The B-17 Flying Fortress was followed up with Boeing’s B-29 Superfortress, a larger, faster, much more capable airplane, the first bomber to feature a pressurized cabin for high-altitude flying. The B-29 Enola Gay dropped the first atomic bomb on Hiroshima, Japan in August 1945.

The Jet Age

Work on jet-powered aircraft began just a couple of years before WWII broke out, with the most significant progress being made in Germany, which developed a number of jet fighters and even a jet-powered bomber.

Determined to overtake the war-weary Europeans on jet research after the cessation of hostilities, Boeing engineers redoubled their efforts on an Army specification for a jet-powered reconnaissance bomber, and the specification was issued informally in 1943.

Initially, Boeing based its design on the B-29, replacing the Superfortress’s four radial engines with four jet

40 Farnborough Airshow News • July 12, 2016 • www.ainonline.com

Continued on page 42

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BOEING Boeing-Designed Aircraft Model 73 Stearman Kaydet (PT/NS, Wichita Model 75)

converted to B-29 production, the Sea Ranger was never built.

First flight: Nov. 26, 1934

engines. But wind tunnel tests showed the new jet engine mounts on the Model 424 induced far too much drag.

Another variant, the Model 432, mounted the engines inside the fuselage forward of the wings.

“These new engines had so much potential for speed,” said Lombardi. “But for some reason, [Boeing engineers] couldn’t get it. Something about the way we designed airplanes had to change.”

The “Aha!” moment came in May 1945. Boeing’s top aerodynamicist, George Shairer, was in Germany at the end of the war, as part of General Hap Arnold’s Scientific Advisory Group tasked with evaluating Nazi technology and bringing back anything useful

First flight: Sept. 21, 1951

The Kaydet—usually just referred to as the

Model 345 (B-29)

Still a staple in the War on Terror, the dual-

“Stearman,” was almost considered obsolete by

First flight: Sept. 21, 1942

rotor Chinook family combines the ability to

the time WWII started, but it found new life as

At the time of its debut, the Superfortress was

lift remarkably heavy loads to and from

a trainer. The NS-1 became the Wichita Boeing

the most complex airplane ever designed. Best

remote locations.

plant’s first military contract. Boeing built 8,584

known as the aircraft that dropped atomic

Stearmans in all.

bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, effectively

Model 464-467 (B-52)

ending WWII, almost 4,000 B-29s were built in

First flight: April 15, 1952

Washington, Kansas and Georgia.

Still in service today, the B52 Stratofortress

Model 299 (B-17) First flight: July 28, 1935

remains an important element of the U.S.

Financed by Boeing itself in one of the company’s

Model 367 (C-97) Stratofreighter

bomber fleet. Designed as a high-altitude inter-

most fiscally challenging periods, the Model 299

First flight: Nov. 9, 1944

continental nuclear bomber, the B-52 has been

became the aerial backbone of the Second World

Evolved from the B-29, this high-flying freighter

modified to fly all types of nuclear- and conven-

War in Europe. More than 12,000 were built by the

featured a fuselage that looked like one tube

tionally armed missions.

war’s end.

stacked atop another. Also used as an aerial refueler, Boeing built 888 C-97s.

Model 294 (XB-15)

to the U.S. At a secret German aeronautics laboratory in Braunschweig, Shairer saw wind tunnel models for supersonic jet designs and recalled a pre-war aviation conference where an Italian engineer presented a swept-wing aircraft design concept. “Stop the bomber design!” he wrote the Boeing office in Seattle.

But while Boeing’s engineers had discovered they had a breakthrough with the swept-wing concept, they were still plagued by the question of how to mount the engines. Their initial idea of mounting them inside the fuselage was rejected because of the possibility of fire. Further, in order for the sweptwing design to work, the leading edges of the wings had to be clean and unbroken.

Boeing chief engineer Ed Wells puzzled over the idea as he commuted back and forth between his offices in Seattle and Wright Field in Dayton, Ohio. Then, on a train back to Seattle, he came up with the solution: mount the engines in pods beneath, and slightly forward of, the swept wings.

Wind tunnel tests soon confirmed the idea was good. Based on Wells’ discovery and Shairer’s “Aha!” moment, the first B-47 rolled off the line at Boeing Plant 2 on September 12, 1947.

Lombardi pointed to a model of the B-47 in his archive, then to the B-52, the KC-135 and the 707. “To this day, our airplanes still look like the B-47,” he said.

Yet even with that innovation, Boeing did not build the first commercial passenger jet. Britain’s de Havilland flew the first prototype of its DH-106 Comet on July 27, 1949. The Comet entered service in 1952 and, at first, was a commercial success.

However, the DH-106 had a tremendous weakness no one had foreseen—metal fatigue. This led to Comet crashes in 1953 and 1954 and the entire Comet fleet was grounded in the fourth quarter of 1954, while de Havilland frantically searched for solutions.

Convinced they could out-design the Comet, Boeing’s design team went to work on the Model 367-80—the “Dash 80.” It incorporated the lessons learned in production of the B-47 and the B-52 bombers. The wings were swept. The engines were encased in

Model 367-80 (Dash 80) First flight: July 15, 1954

First flight: Oct. 15, 1937

Model 400 (XF8B-1)

The Dash 80 changed passenger aviation for-

Although it debuted two years later than the

First flight: Nov. 27, 1944

ever, the first in a line of Boeing jetliners that

Flying Fortress, the Model 294 was not as

This fighter-bomber, which could also have been

continues to evolve even today. The old-style

advanced. It rested on fixed landing gear. It was

designated a torpedo plane, featured two contra-

designation hid from competitors the fact that

much slower than its predecessor. It saw brief

rotating three-blade propellers. It was never pro-

the Dash 80 was a completely different air-

service as a transport known as “Grandpappy”

duced. The Model 400 was the first Boeing fighter

craft, incorporating jet engines and the les-

during WWII. It was scrapped in Panama after

design since the Peashooter and the last before

sons in jet travel learned in construction of the

the conflict and disappeared in a swamp there

the company’s 1990 entry in the F-22 competition.

B-47. The Dash 80 so impressed the U.S. Air

years later.

Stearman

Vertol Model 114 (HC-1B/CH-47 Chinook)

Force brass that it was pressed into service as

Model 345-2-1

the KC-135 tanker. The Smithsonian Institution

First flight: June 25, 1947

calls the Dash 80 one of the 12 most signifi-

First flight: June 7, 1938

A derivative of the B-29, the B-50 was such a

cant aircraft of all time.

A luxurious legend, the Clipper was big to be

significant improvement that it earned a des-

fast and comfortable—the Concorde of its

ignation of its own. It was more powerful, car-

Model 707

day—as it carried passengers on long-haul

ried a heavier payload and could travel much

First flight: Dec. 20, 1957

flights all over the world. Only a dozen were

faster than its WWII predecessor. Boeing built 371

The first in a long line of jet-powered civil air-

built, many winding up as VIP transports for

B-50s between 1947 and 1953. The most famous,

craft built by Boeing, the 707 brought about

the military during WWII.

Lucky Lady II, was the first aircraft to fly nonstop

many improvements over its close cousin, the

around the world. They represented the end of an

Dash 80. It made commercial jet travel both

Model 307 Stratoliner (C-75)

era, being among the last piston-powered heavy

practical and acceptable to an industry and

First flight: Dec. 31, 1938

bombers constructed at the dawn of the jet age.

public made wary of jet flight after the spec-

Model 314 Clipper

Based on the B-17, the Stratoliner was the world’s

tacular and mysterious crashes of several de

first pressurized airliner, as well as the first four-

Model 377 Stratocruiser

Havilland DH-106 Comets just a few years ear-

engine aircraft to enter commercial service. Ten

First flight: July 8, 1947

lier. Boeing built 855 of its 707s before produc-

were built before the war stopped their produc-

The Model 377 marked Boeing’s re-entry into the

tion ended in 1978.

tion. After WWII, they re-entered production as

civilian air transport market and was capable of

unpressurized military transports.

carrying up to 100 people. It was the civilian coun-

Model 720

terpart of the C-97 transport and was flown by six

First flight: Nov. 23, 1959

Stearman Model X-100 (XA-21)

airlines over mostly trans-oceanic routes. Boeing

A modified 707, this variant was able to carry

First flight: Jan. 25, 1939

built 56 Stratocruisers between 1947 and 1950.

more payload and operate from shorter run-

Stearman’s first twin-engine aircraft, it was

ways. Boeing built 154 between 1959 and 1967.

the Boeing’ subsidiary’s first all-metal plane.

Model 451 (L-15 Scout)

Intended as a bomber, the X-100 never made it

First flight: July 13, 1947

Model 727

into production.

An all-metal, light aircraft, the Scout typified

First flight: Feb. 9, 1963

Boeing’s effort to diversify after the war. Capable

Designed for smaller airports and shorter

Model X-90/X-91 (XBT-17)

of landing on wheels or floats, the L-15 never did

routes than the 707, the Boeing 727 was the last

First flight: Nov. 1, 1940

catch on and was the company’s last foray into

airplane built by the company to have a three-

Designed of steel-tube and fabric, this trainer lost

the single-engine, light-aircraft market.

member cockpit crew (pilot, copilot and flight

favor with the military after aluminum became more available. Only one was built.

engineer). With an onboard auxiliary power unit

Model 450 (B-47 Stratojet)

and self-contained stairs, the 727 could be

First flight Dec. 17, 1947

operated without ground support.

Model X-120 Crewmaker

Revolutionary in everything from its jet engine pods

First flight: April 9, 1942

to its swept-wing design, the B-47 is considered

Model 737

This aircraft was intended to allow bomber crews

the prototype of modern jet aircraft. A total of 2,032

First flight: April 9, 1967

to train together. But although the Army ordered

were built before the model was retired in 1956.

As if the 727 wasn’t small enough, Boeing decided the market could bear an even

more than 1,000 of them, only two were built.

Model 345 (KB-29M/KB-29P)

shorter-range jetliner. Little did the company

First Flight: March 28, 1948

realize that almost a half-century later, the 737

First flight: July 9, 1942

Just when you thought it was safe to head back

would be by far its best-selling commercial air-

At the time, the Sea Ranger was the biggest

to the boneyard…The tanker variant of the B-29

craft with more than 4,000 in the air. The ini-

twin ever built. The Navy initially ordered 57

breathed new life into the airframes of dozens

tial version of the 737 has been succeeded by

of them, but because the Renton, Washington

of Superfortresses and gave birth to the use of

the 737 NG (Next Generation) and is now being

plant where it was to be constructed was

a boom as a fuel conveyor.

supplanted by the 737 MAX.

Model 344 (XPBB-1) Sea Ranger

42 Farnborough Airshow News • July 12, 2016 • www.ainonline.com

Continued on page 44

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BOEING

underwing pods. What it lacked, however, was buyers.

“There was no interest from any of the customers in building this jet,” said Lombardi, as he rummaged through stacks of documents in his archive. Building it was going to cost around $15 million, “So CEO Bill Allen realized that it was time once again to roll the dice. The company went ahead and funded the Dash 80 project on its own.”

It was a difficult decision for Allen. But pushed by designer Ed Wells and others, he was convinced that jetliners were the future of civilian air transport. “They told Allen ‘if we build it, they will come,’” quipped Lombardi. So, in April 1952, Boeing began building the Dash 80—soon dubbed the Model 707.

MODEL 247

707

Lombardi stopped rummaging through his mounds of notebooks, having found what he was looking for. It was a notebook of magazine advertisements. “They’re ads with moms with their children, husbands with wives.

They convey safety and luxury and speed. What a wonderful manipulation of the public,” he laughed. “After all, before this, the advertisement in the commercial airplane market was all business-to-business. But it worked.

Suddenly, everybody said, ‘I want to fly that.’”

707 Barrel Roll

But perhaps the icing on the cake came when test pilot Alvin “Tex” Johnston flew a demonstration flight over Lake Washington in a Dash 80 on August 7, 1955.

Although tasked to fly straight and level, Johnston took the Dash 80 into a barrel roll. Asked later by Boeing president Bill Allen just what he thought he was doing, Johnston said simply, “I was selling airplanes.”

The test pilot kept his job and the marketing efforts

worked. Later that year, Pan American Airways ordered 20 Boeing 707s and 25 Douglas DC-8s. Other airlines rushed to get their orders on the books, including American, Braniff and Continental. Foreign carriers were also quick to get their orders in, among them Lufthansa, KLM and Air France.

Boeing pulled away from the competition as it focused on commercial jet development. In 1960, the manufacturer began work on its first three-engine aircraft since the Model 80 four decades earlier. The midrange 727 became a workhorse, even more popular than the 707. The 727 made its first flight February 9, 1963, entering service with Eastern Airlines just a year later.

In all, Boeing built 1,832 of them.

In 1967, the Boeing 737 flew for the first time.

Designed as a short- to mid-range airliner, there are now so many 737s that an average of 1,250 are airborne at any given moment of the day, with two taking off or landing every five seconds. o

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MECAER.COM 7/7/16 4:39 PM

The Conformal Airborne Early Warning (CAEW) system on a Gulfstream G550 was sold to Singapore.

Elta reveals new insight on its ISTAR offerings Elta’s proposed conversion for ISTAR of the G280 mid-size business jet

ELTA

smaller antenna. The IFF (identification friend or foe) system for both bands is also in a phased-array configuration. The layout provides full 360-degree coverage with no obstruction from the airframe.

Inside the cabin, the operators are presented with what Elta calls the air situation picture (ASP). This includes ballistic as well as air-breathing threats, detected across a wide range of velocities. According to Elta, the operational requirements for the ASP are constantly growing, because of low-signature aircraft and missiles; electronic and cyber warfare; and other developments. Better identification, classification, coordination and interoperability are the aim.

Elta has also converted three Indian air force Ilyushin Il-76 airlifters into AEW/AWACS (airborne early warning/airborne warning and control system) aircraft. Operational since

and the lowest operating cost in its class, according to Elta. There have been no takers yet, but Elta says that the C-295 AEW is “still being marketed intensively.”

All of Elta’s conversions for the AEW/AWACS role also include ELINT (electronic intelligence) and COMINT (communications intelligence) sensors.

The synergy between the ‘active’ radar and ‘passive’ SIGINT sensors is too valuable to forgo.

Passive sensors offer better classification, discrimination and identification of targets and

System (MARS). But this concept has now evolved into MARS2, hosted on the larger G550, and including an advanced active-array SAR/GMTI radar that includes maritime modes; an EO/IR (electro-optical/infrared) imaging sensor; and SIGINT sensors. Elta officials say that their GMTI sensor capability now extends to wide areas and slow movers, and their SAR sensor resolution is well below one meter in spot mode. MARS2 is still under development; company officials have described it

ELTA

Elta Systems is offering a remarkable number of intelligence, surveillance, target acquisition and reconnaissance (ISTAR) platforms. The subsidiary of Israel Aircraft Industries (IAI, Chalet A29) is a systems integrator, as well as a radar, SIGINT (signals intelligence) and electronic warfare house. The product line extends to ground-based ISTAR exploitation and dissemination systems. But traditional Israeli secrecy about customers makes it difficult to assess just how successful Elta has been in the market for supplying special mission aircraft.

However, a presentation by Elta at the Airborne ISR & C2 Battle Management conference in London last February, organized by Defence IQ, provided some insights. From other sources, AIN has learned more about the company’s progress in offering a wide variety of tailored ISTAR solutions.

CHRIS POCOCK

by Chris Pocock

ELTA

Left, a typical Air Situation Picture (ASP) displayed to an operator inside Elta’s CAEW aircraft. In this scenario, two friendly fighter formations are being tracked (in blue) against approaching threat aircraft (in red). Meanwhile, transiting airliners (in green) and some ground threats (red circled digits) are complicating the picture. Helicopters and UAVs are also present. Above, a Bombardier Global 5000 that was converted by IAI and Elta for service with the Indian government as a multi-imaging aircraft.

Elta’s signature ISTAR product is the Conformal Airborne Early Warning (CAEW) system based on the Gulfstream 550 business jet. It has been operational with the Israeli air force since 2008, with Singapore quickly following (four aircraft).

The Italian air force is due to receive two CAEWs, as an offset for Israel’s purchase of the M346 jet trainer.

Where others have failed, Elta has managed to integrate foreand-aft S-band AESA (active electronically scanned array) antennas, with L-band antennas mounted on the sides of the G550 CAEW fuselage. The radar operates in both bands simultaneously, with S-band offering a higher gain from a

2009, these aircraft have triangular, L-band antennas contained in a fixed upper radome.

A proposed sale by Israel of a similar system to China was prevented by the U.S. In 2010, Elta began working with Airbus Defence and Space to offer an AEW version of the C-295 turboprop airlifter. Unlike the Indian Il-76 conversions, the antenna dome atop the aircraft for the AESA radar antenna rotates. A belly-mounted SAR/ GMTI (synthetic aperture radar/ ground moving target indicator) radar is an optional extra. The C-295 AEW offers up to eight hours on station at a 200 nautical mile radius without refueling, although that is also an option. It has the largest cabin

(through COMINT) some indication of intention. ADS-B signals are part of the integration.

(Incidentally, Elta provides the SIGINT subsystem for Boeing’s Wedgetail AWACS aircraft).

But the company has also produced dedicated airborne SIGINT platforms. The Airborne Integrated Signal Intelligence System (AISIS) on a Gulfstream V business jet has been in operation with the Israeli air force since 2006. The ELINT antenna arrays are within a large radome beneath the forward fuselage, with the COMINT blades beneath the mid-fuselage.

The Gulfstream V was also slated as the platform for Elta’s Multi-mission Airborne Reconnaissance and Surveillance

as a low-risk equivalent to the JSTARS (joint surveillance and target attack radar system) recapitalization platform being pursued in the U.S. It is an open architecture system. Between four and six onboard operators are envisioned.

Elta is offering a smaller version of the same system, without the EO/IR sensor, on the G280 mid-size business jet. This aircraft was originally a co-development between Gulfstream and IAI. The cabin is large enough to house four operators.

Though the program launched in March last year, no customer has yet been announced for the G280 conversion.

In February last year, IAI announced a new partnership

with Bombardier to offer a maritime patrol aircraft—with mostly Elta sensors—using the Global 5000 business jet. In fact, the partnership had already started.

The Indian government asked Elta to convert two of these aircraft for an ISTAR role. They entered service last year, carrying a SAR/GMTI radar and a long-range oblique photography (LOROP) sensor—which is the DB-110 from UTA Aerospace Systems, rather than the rival sensor from Israeli company El-Op. Elta has also designed special mission conversions of the Beechcraft King Air, and the Bombardier Q400 twin-turboprop airliner. The Israeli air force operates some King Air 200s for ISTAR, and Elta has sold this conversion to a South American country. But the Q400 has not yet gained a customer. The company says it is always ready to install sensors on aircraft that a customer supplies, or suggests. Nevertheless, company officials make no secret of their preference for business jets, because of their longer range, greater speed and higher operating altitude. The Challenger 605 is another such candidate.

Who is responsible for designing and certifying the airframe modifications for a special mission aircraft? This often involves providing additional generator power, as well as modifying the outer mold line. Gulfstream performed this task for Elta’s CAEW and AISIS conversions, and insists on retaining this responsibility. But Bombardier allowed Elta’s parent IAI to design these ‘Group A’ modifications for the Global 5000 multi-imaging conversion sold to India.

In addition to conversions, Elta offers ‘bolt-on’ ISTAR capability to fixed-wing aircraft and helicopters with podded systems, including a unique radar (SAR and GMTI) targeting system that made its debut on Israeli F-16s some years ago, and was subsequently added to some U.S. Air National Guard F-16s.

Elta also supplies ground radars from UHF up to C-band. And, of course, the company’s various imaging and SIGINT sensors have been adapted to UAVs– especially the IAI Heron and ­Heron TP. o

www.ainonline.com • July 12, 2016 • Farnborough Airshow News 45

Growing Singapore show adds rotor, UAV event The biennial Singapore Airshow, Asia’s largest aerospace and defense exhibition, is touting here at Farnborough the event-filled program for its 2018 event, even as the afterglow of the success of this year’s Singapore gathering lingers. The event this past February at the island nation’s Changi Exhibition Centre featured more than 1,000 participating exhibitors, including 65 of the world’s 100 largest aerospace companies. Almost 300 VIP delegations from 90 countries attended, as did more than 48,000 trade attendees from 143 countries. B-to-B meetings increased 8 percent over the 2014 mark and the more than 50 announced deals represented an increase of 16 percent. The 20 country pavilions included the

debuts for Indonesia and The Philippines as pavilion hosts.

The static aircraft display featured more than 55 military, commercial and general aviation aircraft, and the airshow performances included the Black Eagles Aerobatic Team from the Republic of South Korea, an integrated display of an F-15SG fighter and AH-64D Apache attack helicopter by the Republic of Singapore Air Force, and a flight demonstration of an A350 XWB airliner from Airbus.

Leck Chet Lam, managing director of show organizer Experia Events, said, “97 percent of exhibitors surveyed affirmed that they had met their objectives in participating” in the gathering, and voted it “one of the most important events in the global aerospace and defense calendar.”

DAVID McINTOSH

by James Wynbrandt

The static display ramp at the Singapore Airshow 2016 featured a wide range of aircraft of all sizes, designed for almost every conceivable purpose. Pictured here are just the business aircraft offerings from Gulfstream, Embraer, Dassault, Cessna and Beechcraft, among others.

The planned 2018 Singapore Airshow appears on track to best these high points. Under its banner of Emerging Technologies and Innovation, industry leaders including Airbus, Bell Helicopter, Boeing, Israel Aerospace Industries, Lockheed Martin, Pratt & Whitney and Rolls-Royce have already signed up. The show will also debut the Start-Up and Innovation Showcase, which Leck called “A launchpad for

pioneering aerospace and defense technologies.” More seminars and supplier conferences are also scheduled.

Meanwhile, with helicopters playing an expanding role in the region, organizers are also planning to debut next year a new biennial show, Rotorcraft Asia. “We’re currently seeing a shift in demand for civil helicopters from North America and Europe to the Asia Pacific region,” said Leck, citing

projections indicating that over the next decade the region’s fleet expansion will be double the global growth forecast (54 percent vs. 27 percent). A co-located event, Unmanned Systems Asia, will be staged simultaneously with Rotorcraft Asia.

It’s not too early to start planning. The Rotorcraft/Unmanned Systems Asia event will be held April 18-20, 2017, and the Singapore Airshow is set for February 6-11, 2018. o

Satair Group CEO Mikkel Bardram has good reason to be smiling after signing up Cathay Pacific as his company’s first customer for Airbus A350XWB fleet support. Satair’s Integrated Material Services includes managing consumable and expendable components.

Satair, Cathay Pacific in A350XWB support deal

MARK WAGNER

by Ian Sheppard

MILITARY MARKETS MATTER While lots of attention at the Farnborough International Airshow 2016 is on the latest and greatest products aimed at the civilian airline and business markets, an abundance of companies from all over the world are here to market their military hardware.

Cathay Pacific Airways has become the first customer for Satair Group’s Integrated Material Services for the Airbus A350XWB. The Hong Kongbased airline became the sixth operator of the aircraft at the end of May; it ordered a total of 48, including 22 -900s and 26 of the larger -1000s.

Satair Group (Hall 1 Stand B48) is a global aftermarket specialist with more than 1,000 employees, 10 locations worldwide and $1.3 billion in revenue.

Its corporate vision is to become “the global market leader in the civil aircraft parts management business in 2017.” Although it is now a wholly-owned subsidiary of Airbus Group it is in other

46 Farnborough Airshow News • July 12, 2016 • www.ainonline.com

respects a “100 percent standalone company”—and so has ambitions to bring Boeing types also into the IMS program, although it will focus on Airbus types initially.

Speaking with AIN on the eve of the airshow, Satair Group CEO Mikkel Bardram said, “Airbus Flight Hour Services takes care of the components and we do the consumables and expendables.” He said the industry has maintained for a long time that it would be more efficient for many airlines to trust such services to large specialists, “outsourcing from the beginning” when a new aircraft type joins their fleet. To that end, taking on Boeing aircraft would

allow the company to do that with many airlines, even those with mixed fleets, in a “whole fleet solution.” Satair already supplies parts for other manufacturers, not just Airbus.

Bardram said that while the A380 and A320 might be next, for now he has “a long list” of customers interested in the A350 IMS program. “We’re already working on the concept for the A380 and A320, but the focus for now is on the first customer and making sure we don’t over-promise.”

Satair Group also signed an agreement earlier this month with Sitec Aerospace, extending its relationship with the German company. The extended worldwide spares distribution and repair pooling agreement includes the Airbus product range as well as providing repair and warranty administration services in the Asia Pacific region including China. There will be a repair exchange pool in Singapore. o

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Lord diversifies with European push

by Ian Goold The June 30 acquisition of Fly-by-Wire Systems France (FbW) from SKF is the latest evidence that U.S. equipment ­ manufacturer Lord Corporation is expanding its operations in Europe. Over the past three years, it has enjoyed 40 percent growth in the region. The company specializes in motion-, noise-, and ­vibration-control devices and ­develops adhesives and coatings. “[Our] European growth strategy, with an emphasis on acquisition and fixed-wing commercial [aircraft programs], is in full swing and showing ­success,” said Lord Aerospace and Defense (A&D) president Bill Cerami.

FbW has worked with Airbus since the early 1980s and has flyby-wire technology on all current production Airbus models.

Its expertise in actuation, electronics, and sensing is expected to contribute $35-to-$40 million of annual revenues, while offering the U.S. company a substantial capability to “deliver” advanced systems for fixed-wing aircraft and helicopters.

Just ahead of this week’s Farnborough International Air­show, Lord signed a contract to design and build the mount system for the Pratt & Whitney PW1400G engine that is to

power the new MC-21 narrowbody airliner being developed

by Russia’s United Aircraft Corp. The contract was awarded by Bombardier, which is responsible for the program’s engine nacelle system.

Lord’s European businessgrowth strategy, announced just before Farnborough International two years ago, includes plans for significant investments in support of commercial-aircraft manufacture and focuses on acquisitions, technological innovation and further development of the ­after­market base. It also wants to ­reduce dependence on helicopter programs, said Cerami.

Global business development, marketing, and strategy director Rachid Bendali noted that about 25 percent of its rotorcraft business is in the “super-medium” category that supports the oil and gas industries, which are in a “down” cycle. Consequently, helicopter orders have dropped dramatically and will not recover for several years (until oil prices rise again), said Bendali.

Last month, Lord delivered the first set of elastomeric rotor bearings for Bell’s new V-280 tiltrotor.

The bearings contribute to the aircraft’s enhanced hover agility.

Lord is working on a new engine attachment as part of the European Clean Sky 1 program for an open-rotor powerplant (below) and also on China’s new MA700 (above).

Separately, Lord is now offering main driveshaft transmission boot repair services for Bell 412HP and 412EP/EPi helicopters. Priced at approximately two-thirds the cost of a new boot, the repair used improved materials that promised exceptional coupling lubricant resistance. “[Our] product range for fixed-wing platforms includes engine-attachment systems, passive- and active-motion and -vibration control, noise-mitigation solutions and specialty chemicals, such as lightningstrike protection for composite aircraft,” said the company.

“For European fixed-wing airframe [manufacturers] and their tiers, Lord offers system and subsystem capability, and innovative solutions, while managing development, program and cost risks.”

Last year, the company reported a “long-term vision [to] actively pursue targets” among small- and medium-size businesses involved in complementary technology that would permit Lord to accelerate its growth in the region. “We are aggressively targeting European entities that enable Lord to differentiate our legacy capabilities and work with customers in our traditional markets and new market adjacencies.”

A prime driver for the strategy has been industry demand in the region, said Lord. “We wouldn’t do it without customer requests,” noted Bendali.

Aftermarket Partner

Under a 2015 non-exclusive agreement, Copenhagen-based Satair Group performs aftermarket sales, distribution and support of many Lord isolation mounts and other Lord products fitted to Airbus, Boeing, and Bombardier aircraft in Europe, Middle East, and Africa. The wholly owned (but independent) Airbus subsidiary also provides sales, services and warehousing to customers and suppliers through centers in the Asia

48 Farnborough Airshow News • July 12, 2016 • www.ainonline.com

Lord Aerospace and Defense president Bill Cerami is seeking to broaden the aircraft systems group’s portfolio so that it is less dependent on a struggling helicopter sector.

It is expanding into areas such as fly-by-wire controls.

Pacific, Europe, the Middle East and North America.

Other European activities see Lord working on an active vibration-control system for Leonardo-Finmeccanica, and it has collaborated with major manufacturers such as Airbus Group, Dassault, Pilatus, Saab and Safran Group.

The company also has European engineering, manufacturing, and research and development interests, with regional headquarters and a European Technology Centre in Geneva (Switzerland) and other facilities in Germany and Italy. It is involved in pan-European environmental-research programs such as Clean Sky and Horizon 2020.

An engine-attachment system developed by Lord under Clean Sky 1 is being tested before ground trials for application on an open-rotor powerplant.

The 2015-21 Clean Sky 2 program provides the company with contracts worth around €5 million (around $5.625 million) and Lord reports having created a European partner consortium to develop a “next stage” system for an ultra-high propulsive-efficiency engine.

Partners include Germany’s Heggemann, the Politecnic di Milano and Italian engineering consultancy Vicoter.

Outside Europe, Lord has invested in the Aviation Industry Corporation of China’s (AVIC) Xi’an Aircraft MA700 twinturboprop. The company has received a “signed letter of intent” for design and production of the engine and auxiliarypower unit vibration-isolation systems for the aircraft, its first program with Chinese partners, a deal that Lord describes as “a big win.” The company will design, develop, test, qualify and manufacture the components and provide in-service support.

Elsewhere in Asia, late last year Lord won a Korea Aerospace Industries (KAI)

active vibration-control system (AVCS) development contract for the manufacturer’s Light Civilian Helicopter (LCH) and its variants. It will provide technical support for AVCS development and will manufacture and supply components.

The AVCS technology uses accelerometers to measure airframe-vibration levels that are countered by “force generators” that create anti-vibration forces to damp progression of mainrotor vibration. “Our equipment is qualified and ready for use on this new KAI platform,” said Cerami. In 2014, KAI had selected Lord to provide AVCS for medevac variants of the KUH Surion utility helicopter expected to enter service in 2018. o SAFRAN TO SUPPLY LEGACY 450/500 HARNESSES Safran Electrical & Power has announced it will supply electrical harnesses for Embraer’s Legacy 450 and 500 business jets. The French component manufacturer will also provide on-site support for Embraer’s facilities. Safran’s Chihuahua, Mexico facility will manufacture all of the equipment and deliveries are expected to begin at the end of this month.

Alain Sauret, president of Safran Electrical & Power, said, “We are thrilled to have been chosen by Embraer for these two new business jet programs.

The added value that we are currently contributing to the Phenom 100 and 300 business jets proved instrumental to our win of the Legacy 450 and 500 aircraft contract. Our selection reinforces the partnership that we have long held with Embraer on cabling activity, for which we have twice been awarded the Embraer Supplier of the Year.”

—S.C.

Find out more at SSJ100RIGHTNOW.COM

Industry spotlight shines on Quebec aerospace cluster

by Gregory Polek Headquartered in Montreal, CAE employs a workforce of 8,000 people, roughly 3,000 of which work in Canada. It operates 67 training locations and counts customers in 190 countries.

CAE Banks on Training Growth

CAE expects to see the growth in the airline industry result in a demand for 27,000 pilots a year for the next 20 years. But, as Gagnon explained, most of the resulting revenue potential centers on training itself, rather than simulatorequipment sales. “Based on the magnitude of the [products] market, there’s still not a lot of room to grow,” she said.

“That’s why we’re looking at the training market, which is a much bigger market; it’s actually six times bigger.” Although CAE already holds 25 percent of the overall training segment, making it the leader by market share, Gagnon characterized the market as “fragmented.”

A Heroux-Devtek engineer inspects a landing gear piston assembly in Longueuil, Quebec.

Bell Helicopter Textron flight tests its new Bell 505 entry-level helicopter in Mirabel, Quebec.

three of which perform flight testing at the company’s Mirabel facility ahead of planned certification and first delivery by the end of the year. All told, three Bell helicopter programs remain in development, including the 525 Relentless and V280 third-generation tiltrotor.

While the company aspires to “redefine what is going to be the rotorcraft market for the next 80 years,” in the words of Bell Helicopter Textron Canada president Cynthia Garneau, the market downturn hasn’t discriminated between suppliers, and Bell has felt the effects acutely. “With this challenging market, our customers are more and more asking for one aircraft that can do two, three, or four different types of missions,” explained Garneau during a briefing in Mirabel this past spring. “It really puts pressure on us to make sure we have products that can satisfy their various needs.” It has also put pressure on sales, industry totals of which have fallen from 1,106 in 2013 to 859 in 2014 to 600 last year.

HEROUX-DEVTEK

Bell Mirabel ‘Here to Stay’

CAE, for example, not only stands as the commercial aviation industry’s biggest ­ simulator supplier, its efforts over the past five to 10 years to develop into a training provider have seen its offerings also extend into the health care sector.

“We’re really a different company than we were 10 years ago or even five years ago,” said CAE v-p global communications, Helene Gagnon. “We’ve completely evolved into being a training company and focusing on more new areas like defense, security and now health care.”

CAE now holds a 70-percent share of the civil simulator market and ranks as the largest commercial aviation training provider in the world, as well as first in helicopter training, civil ab initio pilot training, military aviation “virtual” training and health care simulation.

“There’s really not a big player in training, and we believe there is a lot of room for us to grow,” said Gagnon. “Of course, we’ll continue to build the flight simulators and we’ll still probably be the largest customer of our own products.”

While CAE reaps the rewards of the airline business’s strong growth, another aerospace company with major operations in the Montreal area has had to adjust to the lull in offshore oil exploration. Bell Helicopter Textron Canada, which builds the Bell 206L, 417GPX, 429, 412EPI in Mirabel, has seen its employment rolls fall from some 2,000 at the site in 2013 to roughly 950 this year.

During that time, however, the company as a whole has gained market share, collecting some 350 letters of intent for its new entry-level Bell 505 Jet Ranger,

50 Farnborough Airshow News • July 12, 2016 • www.ainonline.com

While the lull has affected Mirabel as acutely as any of Bell’s divisions, Garneau insisted that CEO Mitch Snyder regularly issues assurances that the Canadian facility “is here to stay,” and will continue to serve as Bell’s center for light- and medium helicopter production. In fact, after deciding three years ago to build the 505 in Lafayette, Louisiana, this spring it reversed course and announced it would move production to Mirabel to cut the time lag between type and production certification, both of which it must now coordinate with Transport Canada.

“Our Lafayette facility was a new operation and therefore required a more extensive review by the FAA to receive its production certification,” a company spokeswoman told AIN just after the May announcement. “We anticipate that adding the 505 to our existing production certification in Mirabel will be less complex.

Once we have completed the certification process, we can begin production and deliveries from Mirabel. The decision to move the 505 assembly and delivery center from Lafayette was driven by market conditions and the imperative to maintain our expertise and skills in Mirabel.”

Notwithstanding the original plan to produce the aircraft in Lafayette due to what Bell expected to result in lower production costs, Mirabel enjoys its own financial advantages, such as in the support it receives from both the federal and provincial governments, both in the form of research and development and direct orders.

The Quebec government helped with the development of the Bell 429, and in March the Canadian Coast Guard took delivery of the last of 15 it had ordered.

Next, Mirabel expects to deliver four of seven 412EPIs on order this year and the final three in 2017.

“This is the greatest example of how we must collaborate with our government partners, because the government is actually a partner in the development of the 429 program,” said Garneau. “And every time we deliver an aircraft we are repaying the royalties to both governments, reimbursing their investment in this program.

So when you end up having the government buying your product, that’s a great testimony of how they support us.”

Given Quebec’s $1 billion investment in the C Series, Bombardier would have to agree. By extension, so would Pratt & Whitney Canada, maker of the PW150 turboprop that powers the Bombardier Q400 and parts for the engine Pratt & Whitney makes for the C Series, the PW1500G geared turbofan (GTF).

For the business jet market, P&WC’s new PW800, destined to power the Gulfstream G500 and G600, uses essentially the same core design as the PW1500G. Built and tested at the fiveyear-old P&WC Mirabel Aerospace Center along with the GTF, the PW800 ranks as the Canadian company’s biggest turbofan, producing between 15,000 and 16,000 pounds of thrust.

Pratt & Whitney Canada claims a leadership position in research and development investment in the Canadian Aerospace sector, spending close to $500 million per year. It employs some 8,800 people worldwide, including some 6,200 in Canada and 5,000 in Quebec.

Early this year, the company reached new terms with the governments of Canada and Quebec to repay some $1

Continued on page 52 u

GREGORY POLEK

Quebec’s $1 billion investment in the Bombardier C Series has drawn its share of critics in Quebec, Canada, but as home to the third largest aerospace cluster in the world, the province had much to lose if the largest and most prominent company in the sector somehow failed. Bombardier represents more than a source of thousands of direct jobs; it serves as sort of a hub for hundreds of companies, research institutions and universities that drive billions of dollars each year into the economies of Quebec and Canada as a whole. Here at the Farnborough show, the Aero Montreal group (Hall 4 Stand E110) represents the province’s main firms.

Of course, it also represents a source of prestige for a relatively small region where Tier 1 suppliers such as Bell Helicopter Textron, Pratt & Whitney Canada, Sonaca, Heroux Devtek and CAE all play important roles in maintaining the health of both the provincial and federal ­economies.

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Quebec aerospace

first qualification landing gear on June 1 and is set to formally assume production responsibility from January 2017. It reserves an option to extend the contract to 2028.

uContinued from page 50

billion in interest free loans by 2020, some 10 years earlier than originally stipulated.

Boeing’s ‘Poster Child’

While Pratt & Whitney Canada and Bombardier enjoy some of the most generous government R&D funding among the companies in the Quebec aerospace cluster, so-called build-to-print operations such as Sonaca Montreal benefit less directly from the support through supply contracts with Canada’s prime OEMs. Based in Mirabel, the Belgian company’s Canadian operations provide aluminum wing panels, spars, ribs and stringers for business and regional aircraft, including all Bombardier models. Other customers include Triumph Aerostructures, Embraer, GKN, Precision Castparts, Mitsubishi, IAI and Mecachrome. Sonaca produces its biggest wing panels—measuring 57 feet long and six feet wide—for Triumph, designer and supplier of the wings for the new Bombardier Global 7000 and 8000.

Unfortunately for Sonaca, not just the Mirabel operation, but the company as a group has suffered from Bombardier’s loss of share in the business jet market, prompting it to look toward more contracts in the air transport sector to compensate.

“We’re looking very strongly

ANDRE BERNIER

Sonaca’s ‘Build to Print’ Model

A lower wing skin for a business jet undergoes milling operations from a large plate of aluminum at Sonaca Montreal.

both at Airbus and Boeing to get into the commercial market to compensate for some of the downturns,” said Sonaca Montreal v-p of strategies and business development Paul Stafiej, who said that Sonaca’s new stringer fabrication business also stands to help.

“We got into that business because we were getting [indications] from our customers that it would be a good thing to do...But adding that capability hasn’t [yet] added a lot of business. We’ve won contracts, but some of that is on the [Embraer] 175-E2 program, so you won’t see big sales for another couple of years.”

Although Sonaca has built all the wing panels on the E195-E1 program, it didn’t win the contract for the E195-E2 because, according to Stafeij,

the Brazilian company “carbon copied” its Montreal operation to build its own wing panels in Evora, Portugal.

Known for its ability to build large structures, Sonaca Montreal can machine parts as long as 120 feet long and 60 feet wide because of the large size of its processing tanks and paint booths, explained Stafeij.

Consequently, it carries the capacity to build wing panels big enough for the Boeing 737 and Airbus A320.

Sonaca hopes a potential acquisition of a U.S. supplier will help it win some Boeing work.

“We’re actively looking for a U.S. presence,” said Stefeij. “We made a couple of offers last year. They didn’t work out. So we’re still looking for operations in the U.S. “Obviously for us the priority would be to have a company that’s

already Boeing-approved and has Boeing as a customer because it’s very, very hard to get into Boeing.

One milestone we’ve achieved in the last few months was we were able to get on the bid list, so at least we’re getting RFPs.” One major company from the Quebec aerospace cluster that has managed to join the Boeing supply chain in a big way, Longueuil, Quebec-based landing gear supplier HerouxDevtek, won the contract for the 777 and 777X in December 2013, effectively usurping current 777 supplier UTC Aerospace Systems (UTAS). Under terms of the contract, Heroux-Devtek subsidiary HDI Landing Gear USA will complete landing gear systems, including the main and nose landing gear, as well as the nose landing gear drag strut.

It completed assembly of the

Quebec Aerospace Cluster Seeks More Tier 1 Integrators Tasked with “mobilizing” and building consensus among companies in the Quebec, Canada Aerospace cluster, trade group Aero Montreal now sees a gap in the supply chain base of the province, largely in the aerostructures realm. Aero Montreal president Suzanne Benoit told AIN that although her group’s interest in drawing foreign companies to Quebec involves “indirect” efforts in conjunction with government agency Investissement Quebec and the publicprivate economic development partnership Montreal International, it plays a key role in identifying where in the supply chain the most pressing needs exist.

“We don’t want to bring companies that will present more competition to our existing ones, so we want to optimize the attraction of the companies,” said Benoit. “[Investissement Quebec and Montreal International] have to be aware, because they’re not sector specialists. So really our role is to make sure these people are well aligned with the needs of our industry,” she said.

The Quebec aerospace cluster has attracted such aerostructures specialists as Airbus subsidiary Stelia Aerospace, which builds part of the Bombardier Global 7000 and 8000 fuselage, and Belgium’s Sonaca, which makes wing panels and stringers. But the province needs more, said Benoit, particularly to

supply tails, floors and doors. Other product categories in which Quebec needs expertise include flight control systems, power and distribution electric systems, hydraulic systems, fuel systems and air management systems.

“We have many SMEs [small and medium-size enterprises] but we need more integrators,” said Benoit.

In fact, one of the strengths of Quebec, which is the world’s third-largest aerospace cluster, lies in its base of some 185 SMEs, and Aero Montreal has played a key role in developing the ability of those companies to effectively serve the world’s OEMs. Since 2011, the group has enrolled 47 SMEs in its MACH Initiative program, developed specifically to help SMEs better identify the needs and requirements of prime contractors and integrators, as well as to understand their industrial strategies.

Under the MACH Initiative, which Benoit described as a supplier development program, Aero Montreal developed an audit of 800 questions that measure approximately 15 processes related to both operations and strategy. About a month later, the MACH committee receives a report and presents it to the participating SME along with an OEM client who volunteers as one of the program’s 28 project mentors. The report essentially grades the supplier on a scale of one to five.

52 Farnborough Airshow News • July 12, 2016 • www.ainonline.com

Once the committee ranks the SME, it gets a year to participate in projects designed to help it improve any processes where it might have shown deficiencies, with the help of its mentor.

“So during that year they’ll do two or three projects, and those projects will be financed by the government,” said Benoit. “We did about 465 projects up to now in the last four years.”

Aero Montreal recently awarded its first MACH 5— the highest level—to Alcoa Titanium and Engineered Products. That company has, in effect, graduated from the program and now serves as a mentor itself.

In the next generation of MACH, called MACH FAB 4.0, Aero Montreal invites the strongest companies in the program, rated from MACH 3 and up, to participate in a new program to improve manufacturing capability.

“They will get the financial support to really digitalize their shops,” both from the public and private sectors, said Benoit. The Quebec Ministry of Finance has allocated another C$70 million in its 2016/17 fiscal budget for a five-year aerospace strategy fund that now totals C$250 million. Benoit said she would know how much of that funding will go toward MACH FAB 4.0 when the government published its aerospace strategy. —G.P.

Company CFO Stephane Arsenault called HerouxDevtek “the poster child” for Boeing’s so-called Partnering for Success strategy, which many critics consider code for squeezing cost concessions from suppliers. “Before winning the 777, we developed a lot of things with Boeing,” he said. “This was what they chose us for, basically. But we worked very open-book, [and said] ‘this is what we’re going to do, this is our cost, this is the margin, this is our structure, and if you like that price, we’ll do that.’”

A $105 million capital investment plan related to the 777 work included expanding the existing facility network, spending on new equipment and machinery and leasing a new 21,000-square-foot landing gear assembly facility in Everett, Washington, near Boeing’s widebody final assembly complex. Construction of the Everett plant finished ahead of schedule and crews are now finishing the installation of equipment.

With the help of the 777, Heroux-Devtek aims to increase annual sales from C$365 million in 2015 to C$500 million by 2019, even without any further acquisitions.

Now ranked as the world’s third-largest landing gear maker, Heroux-Devtek counts 1,400 employees in Canada, the U.S. and the UK. It operates 14 facilities covering some 900,000 square feet of floor space in 13 cities. o

NEWS NOTE The Space Conference here at the Farnborough airshow was created to bring together members of the aerospace industry and government officials. It features keynote speakers and briefings, and participants will be able to network, create business engagement and attend open forums that highlight the importance of the Space sector. This year’s Space Conference is expected to grow by 25 percent compared to the 2014 airshow. Two years ago, 30 exhibitors participated in 10 seminars hosted by the UK space Agency. Farnborough officials project that the space sector could be worth £400 billion ($567 billion) by 2030, which, they said, is why the Space Conference continues to grow. n

747-8 cuts close Triumph facility but its F-35 work is increasing

by Charles Alcock Aerostructures and aircraft systems specialist Triumph Group last week announced plans to close its factory in Everett, Washington, in response to declining production rates for the Boeing 747-8 airliner, for which it is a supplier. Triumph will close the facility in March 2017 with the loss of around 200 jobs.

In early 2016, Boeing cut production rates for the 747-8 for the third time in two years.

From this autumn, it is halving output to just one aircraft every two months.

On a more positive note, Lockheed Martin last week signed a long-term agreement for Triumph to supply various engine and structures components for the F-35 Lightning II fighter. The contract covers manufacturing of engine mounts, bulkheads, longerons and wing ribs through 2021.

Triumph is now several months into a restructuring process that has seen its management team realign no fewer than 47 separate subsidiaries into 22 firms organized around four At left, a Triumph engineer performs an electrical check on a hydraulic power pack in the company engineering and test laboratory in Clemmons, North Carolina.

Below, Gulfstream G450 wing manufacturing line at the Triumph facility in Nashville, Tennessee, is part of Triumph’s aerostructures portfolio. The company also does work for multiple leading OEMs, including Lockheed Martin , which just awarded a long-term contract covering F-35 components.

divisions: aerospace structures, precision components, integrated systems and product support.

In late December 2015, former Raytheon and Lockheed Martin executive Dan Crowley was appointed president and CEO with a mandate to turn around a company that has been struggling, largely due to problems associated with its contracts for the 747-8 and Bombardier’s delayed Global 7000 and 8000 business jet programs.

Over the next 18 months, Triumph is looking to sell several subsidiaries that no longer fit its business model, freeing up cash for growth and to pay down debt. The Pennsylvaniabased group was founded in 1993, and after acquiring numerous smaller companies, it took a big leap into the Tier Two category of suppliers when it bought aerostructures group Vought in 2010. In an interview with AIN last month, Crowley said he intends to rationalize Triumph around a larger, stronger portfolio of capabilities.

Triumph was forced to take a charge of $161 million against fourth quarter results announced on May 4 as part of an overall $1.3 billion pre-tax charge that also took account of $399.8 million in development costs for the Global 7000/8000 and an estimated $645.1 million in goodwill impairment. Crowley explained that Triumph’s role on the Global 7000/8000 had been bid back in 2010 and that it had since spent more than anticipated, dealing with problems in reaching the required weight target for the new wing.

The company also contributes to the Boeing 787 and 737, as well as to the new KC-46 military transport, the V-22 tiltrotor and the C-17.

It also makes components for the Airbus A320 and A330, and recently won a contract to make parts for the landing gear of the new Neo version of the European narrowbody.

Crowley said that Triumph hopes to expand its capability in specialist products such as large aluminum stringers.

The Triumph facilities in Oklahoma and Texas make wing structures for Gulfstream’s G450 and G650 business jets. In January 2015,

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Spirit AeroSystems paid Triumph $160 million to take over the contract for wing assemblies on the G650 and G280. The company also is making some composite components for the new G500 and G600 models. It is a supplier to both Bell Helicopter and Sikorsky, and also builds fuselage sections for Embraer’s new E190-E2 airliner.

According to Crowley, the main focus of research and development work is on developing new manufacturing processes such as additive manufacturing and new designs for fuel controllers and Fadecs, as well as electrically controlled alternatives to mechanical actuators. “We want to free up money to do more of this,” he told AIN. “We’re doing some additive manufacturing, we’re building up expertise in titanium, and we’re bringing in expertise to do things like laser centering and we’re doing a lot of tooling build-up.”

Crowley’s first order of business is to work with existing customers looking for improved pricing and performance for current work. “Restarting business development is the next priority

Triumph Group president and CEO Dan Crowley

and then organic growth, plus we need to be predictably profitable,” he said. “At Farnborough we’ll be emphasizing partnerships with Tier One OEMs and talking about new opportunities in integrated systems.”

After full-year fiscal 2016 results were buffetted by the high exceptional charges incurred in the fourth quarter, Triumph (Hall 4 Stand A88) restructured its existing $1 billion revolving credit facility and extended a $337.5 million loan to April 2021. o

GKN, SPIRIT INK LONG-TERM WINDOW DEAL Aircraft structures and window specialist GKN Aerospace announced today at the Farnborough International Airshow that it has signed a major longterm agreement with Boeing subcontractor Spirit Aerosystems to supply cabin windows for the 737NG and 737 Max narrowbody airliners GKN’s passenger cabin window for the 737 family features the company’s CrystalVue II abrasion-resistant coating, which the manufacturer claims offers the best optical clarity and longest operational life of any cabin window currently available. There are more than two million of its windows in service on aircraft from manufacturers around the world.

Located at Garden Grove in California, GKN’s transparencies facility has been Spirit’s sole-source supplier for the NextGen 737’s passenger cabin windows for the past 10 years, and this new multimillion-dollar deal will continue that relationship through the end of 2025.

“This agreement reflects the strength of both our relationship with Spirit and our position as the global market-leading supplier of passenger cabin windows,” said

GKN’s passenger cabin window for the 737 family features the company’s CrystalVue II abrasionresistant coating.

Gavin Wesson, vice president of GKN Aerospace’s special products group. “Over its 10-year duration, the agreement will provide Spirit with an extremely flexible and costcompetitive service as this longer time frame gives our transparencies business the stability to plan ahead and invest, ready to support Spirit as they respond to changes in their customer requirements in the future.”

GKN (Chalet G1) makes a variety of passenger cabin and cockpit windows for a mix of civil and military aircraft.

—C.E.

NOT JUST READY FOR THE FUTURE,

BUILT TO GET YOU THERE. AT LOCKHEED MARTIN, WE’RE ENGINEERING A BETTER TOMORROW.

© 20 2016 166 L OOCCKH K EED EEED MART M A RT MA RTIN INN COR ORPO ORPO P RA R TI TION ION

The Version 6 upgrades for the Apache attack helicopter will largely be made through software.

U.S. Army’s Version 6 Apache will be smarter from 2018 The U.S. Army is developing a Version 6 update of the Boeing AH-64E Apache that by 2018 will enhance its fire-control radar, expand its ability to communicate with unmanned aircraft and soldiers on the ground, and increase onboard processing speeds. The work was under way as the service sought approval for its first multi-year procurement of the fearsome attack helicopter.

The “heavily software dependent” Version 6 capabilities will be implemented on the latest-model Apache by April 2018 at a cost of $298.5 million, according to a “Justification and Approval” document signed in April 2015 by Heidi Shyu, the Army’s senior procurement executive.

The technology insertions can be retrofitted at Apache unit locations, said Apache project manager Col. Jeffrey Hager, who briefed reporters on the project last month at the Boeing Defense manufacturing facility in Mesa, Arizona.

“We want to capture the best that technology has at that time; rather than build the airframe all at once, we’re going to make these incremental updates,” said Hager.

“We did such a good job on putting the mission processors in the airplane that we can upgrade the software as we go along.”

Enhancements to the Apache’s AN/ APG-78 Longbow fire-control radar will

extend its range, improve its ability to recognize threats and enable over-water maritime targeting. “Current and potential future conflicts mandate the need for the Apache to counter enemy anti-access/ area denial [threats] such as unmanned aircraft, amphibious assault vehicles and hovercraft, at extended ranges and under adverse weather conditions,” according to the project justification document.

Version 6 also calls for integrating soldier waveform radio voice and data capability “using the second channel” within the Apache’s Link 16 airborne terminal.

This will “better support the warfighter while meeting the net-centric requirement to provide direct voice communications with supported soldiers and exchange individual position information to increase situational awareness and prevent fratricide within the joint fight.”

New Processors

New multi-core mission processors will provide more memory and faster processing speeds. A cognitive decision aiding system will be integrated, helping to decrease pilot workload and improve decision making efficiency. Also integrated will be a modernized rocket launcher, and the capability to deploy the advanced AGM-114R “Hellfire Romeo” air-to-surface missile.

BILL CAREY

by Bill Carey

The update will also introduce the next-generation capability of MannedUnmanned Teaming-Extended, or “MUMT-X” enabling Apaches to interoperate with a wider range of unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) and other platforms.

Already, the crew of an AH-64E equipped with a tactical common data link (TCDL) can control the General Atomics MQ-1C Gray Eagle and the Textron Systems Shadow V2 in flight— so-called Level 4 capability. (Level 1 is the receipt and transmission of secondary imagery; Level 2 is receipt of imagery directly from the UAS; and Level 3 is control of the UAS payload.) MUMT-X calls for TCDL capability to be expanded to include C, L and S-band communications, Hager said.

Last September, L-3 Communications was awarded a subcontract from Science and Engineering Services for the

NEW BOEING SITE IS THE LATEST IN OKLAHOMA’S AVIATION CONSTELLATION This Friday, Boeing will conduct a ribboncutting ceremony at its newest facility located in Oklahoma City. The 290,000-square-foot (26,942-square-meter) engineering, research and development laboratory building will be the new headquarters for the airframer’s Global Services & Support Aircraft Modernization and Sustainment (AM&S) division, and workplace to approximately 800 employees. Boeing has been investing in Oklahoma for some years,

having been attracted, according to the state’s Department of Commerce by a positive business climate, relatively low cost of utilities, and job-growth programs.

The announcement highlights the U.S. state’s message here at Farnborough (Hall 2, Booth B38) describing its status as one of the world’s fastest growing aerospace clusters over the past seven years, with companies such as Mitsubishi, which currently has an MRO center

American Airlines’ MRO center in Tulsa.

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for supporting its MU-2 twin turboprop, and is considering Oklahoma as a possible location for a service center to maintain its new MRJ narrowbody airliner. Also in place in Oklahoma are Asco Industries, Rolls-Royce Engines, Lufthansa Technik and Ferra Engineering, establishing facilities there during that period.

Around 120,000 people in Oklahoma work in the aerospace and defense sectors with around 500 companies including NorthropGrumman, Pratt & Whitney, Nordam and Spirit Aerosystems. The state has a strong emphasis on MRO activity, with American Airlines’ Tulsa center serving as the largest such facility in the world. Unmanned air systems and components manufacturing are also well represented.

The value of the industry output from the state increased from $12 billion (€10.7 billion) in 2012 to $27 billion (€24.1 billion) in 2014, and Oklahoma-based companies are now exporting to more than 170 countries.

The state has actively worked to improve its industry climate by offering several tax-based incentives for attracting aerospace companies and talent. An aerospace engineering tax credit provides a $5,000 (€4,462) per year tax rebate to engineers hired into the Oklahoma aerospace industry as well as a 10 percent tax credit to companies for hiring in-state graduates, a 5 percent credit for those from other states, and a 50 percent tax credit for reimbursement of tuition costs.

—C.E.

MUMT-X upgrade, which it described as a wideband, high-speed video and data communications suite.

In addition to operating in multiple bands, the system was to include a Rover 6 modem for the remotely operated video enhanced receivers used by soldiers and forward air controllers, and an “innovative directional antenna capable of relaying multiple video streams back to the command center,” the company said at the time.

“When that comes out in the latter part of fiscal 2018, the [Apache] Echo model will be able to talk with any system that’s out there on the battlefield,” Hager said. “Right now, the requirement that was written for us was to talk to tactical common data link systems, which is the Gray Eagle and the Shadow V2. We can talk to those systems today; in a few short years, we’ll be the first airframe to talk to any systems out there on the battlefield, and that includes naval security assets, the Marines—anything that’s flying out in the airspace, they’ll be able to capture that data.”

During the press trip to the Mesa facility, the Army and Boeing (Chalet B6, Outdoor Exhibit G4) were negotiating a multi-year procurement for 275 AH-64Es—which are remanufactured from earlier versions—with options for up to 450 total helicopters, to include foreign military sales and additional U.S. Apaches.

According to Hager and Kim Smith, Boeing vice president of attack helicopter programs, the multi-year buy was approved by congressional oversight committees and the undersecretary of defense for acquisition, technology and logistics, Frank Kendall.

The contract would extend from Fiscal Years 2017 to 2021, providing “the capability to come back quickly to Boeing and ask for more airframes,” said Hager.

“That’s really what it comes down to: we want speed and agility in how we do contracting operations. We’ve procured anywhere from 35 to 56 aircraft [annually].

It’s been very volatile over these last several years. That’s why we want to take on the stability of a multi-year contract.”

The parties expected to conclude the multi-year contract no later than the second quarter of FY2017, or between January and March next year. Boeing wanted to do it sooner. “We’ve been working very hard to see how we can pull that schedule to the left,” said Smith. o

Esterline CMC inks new avionics contracts

Pilatus’ presence at Farnborough 2016 includes the PC-12 (rear) and the PC-21 advanced military trainer.

sensor has RNP-RNAV and LPV GPS approach capability and meets requirements for an IFR civil certified global navigation satellite system.

In another deal, following its 2010 glass Cockpit 4000 upgrade of 18 Hawk Mk66 jet trainers for the Finnish Air Force, CMC has been tapped once again by Patria Aviation to upgrade an additional seven of the BAE Systems trainers, currently with analog cockpits, to the Cockpit 4000 suite. “We are delighted to be adding to the Finnish Air Force Advanced Jet Training fleet,” said Jim Palmer, Esterline CMC Electronics’ vice president of navigation system products. “CMC’s integrated glass Cockpit 4000 avionics suite is designed specifically to lower training costs while offering superior training capabilities, and if required, to provide an operational weapons delivery role.”

On the commercial side, the company’s CMA-9000 FMS received EASA certification on the Airbus A300-600 last month. In 2015, Esterline CMC was awarded a contract by a European cargo airline to upgrade the legacy flight management system on its A300 fleet.

Through the upgrade, which includes vertical navigation functionality, the aircraft will now benefit from a much larger navigation database, improved performance optimization and possibility for increased datalink capability. o

Extant expands legacy OEM product support

by Charles Alcock Adding three new product licenses in the first half of 2016, Melbourne, Floridabased Extant Aerospace has further expanded the portfolio of legacy avionics, electronics and electro-mechanical products that it manufactures and supports under license from leading OEMs. Under the agreements, the Floridabased company has acquired all inventory, special tooling and test equipment, as well as exclusive IP rights, to continue

producing, repairing and supporting the products, which are installed in a wide range of military, commercial and general aviation aircraft. These include the B-1 and B-2 bombers, as well as the Beechcraft 1900, the Boeing 747 and 757 airliners, the C-5, C-17, C-130 transports, F-15, F-16, F-18 fighters, T-6A trainer and Falcon 50 and 900 business jets.

The newly licensed products encompass 300 parts and assemblies span communications,

Milestones for Pilatus Swiss airframer Pilatus has recently delivered its 1,400th PC-12 single-turboprop business/private aircraft. Since certification in 1994, the fleet has flown more than 5.6 million hours. The latest major version, the PC-12 NG that was introduced in 2008, has just passed the million-hour mark.

First revealed at the NBAA show in Las Vegas last year, the

2016 edition of the PC-12 NG continues the development of the pressurized aircraft. New features include a five-blade composite propeller and aerodynamic drag-reduction refinements that combine to give a 285-knot cruising speed. The avionics include some upgrades, while new design choices are available for both interior and exterior.

While development of the

PC-12 continues, Pilatus (Chalet A23) is also concentrating on bringing its PC-24 business jet to certification. The type made its first public appearance in May at the EBACE show in Geneva, although it was only at the show for a day, as the type continues on an intensive flight test program. Pilatus now has two prototypes flying, which had flown over 500 hours at the time of EBACE. A third prototype is to join the team towards the end of this year, and certification is scheduled for late 2017. —D.D.

COMPOSITE CAPABILITIES The Grob G 520NG is an all-composite turboprop single capable of piloted or unmanned operation. It’s optimized for high-altitude, long-endurance surveillance and reconnaissance operations, and is FAR 23-certified to 50,000 feet.

MARK WAGNER

Esterline CMC Electronics announced several new contracts for military trainer cockpits yesterday, here at Farnborough International Airshow. The U.S. company will partner with Pilatus Aircraft to supply avionics suites for PC-21 turboprop trainers for the Royal Australian Air Force and the Royal Jordanian Air Force. The Australian order consists of 49 of the single engine aircraft, while eight are earmarked for Jordan.

In both cases, Esterline CMC will supply the six six-inch by eight-inch cockpit displays, consisting of four head-down displays and two smart multifunction displays split between the front and rear cockpits. The displays use Arinc-653 compliant, open and modular software, which allows the airframer and its customers to integrate their own applications or humanmachine interface definition.

The cockpit suite also includes a variant of the latest generation of the CMA-9000 dual flight management system FMS, which has a unique combination of civil certification and advanced tactical functions; radio management and night-vision-goggle capability; and a head-up display (HUD) sub-system, based on CMC’s SparrowHawk HUD. The system has a set of front and rear cockpit up-front control panels, a HUD camera and symbol generator, and a video display unit for the rear-seat instructor.

Lastly, the GPS landing system

DAVID McINTOSH

by Curt Epstein

control, display, sensing, power and navigation technologies, with products including power supplies, battery chargers, communications terminals, temperature sensors, mission and flight data recorders, navcom panels, and primary flight displays.

These licenses bring Extant’s portfolio to more than 2,500 distinct aerospace electronics and avionics part numbers.

“Our business model provides immediate cash and frees resources for OEMs to redirect to other initiatives, and… enabled us to successfully manage obsolescence, and support and sustain the products for years to come,” said Extant CEO Jim Gerwien.

For two or three major OEMs, Gerwien maintained,

Extant is now an established part of their product management process. This means that it shoulders full responsibility for supporting their customers to the extent that, “We’re effectively stepping in to be that OEM.” Having to support so many varied products, and with fluctuating rates of production, means that Extant has to be extremely flexible and efficient.

This requires a highly skilled workforce, said Gerwien. It has to maintain detailed processes, with full supporting documentation, for rates of manufacturing that can be spasmodic. But having such a diversified product range also insulates the company from fluctuating marketing conditions.

To accommodate the anticipated additional orders the new licenses will spark, Extant has added more than 2,000 square feet to its manufacturing and test facilities. The company ­also announced it has won a fiveyear Indefinite Delivery/Indefinite Quantity contact, valued at up to $62 million, from the U.S. Air Force Life Cycle Management Center for parts for the AN/ALE-47 Counter Measures Dispenser System. o

www.ainonline.com • July 12, 2016 • Farnborough Airshow News 57

Thailand’s relatively low wages make it a logical choice for MRO.

Thailand’s advantages allow it to attract new aerospace businesses

by Jennifer Meszaros big part of the reason why we bought this facility. The country also has strong regulations and policies along with great logistics. It is very easy to get product in and out.”

Speaking to AIN last month, Segsarn Trai-Ukos, country director for Michelin, said the country’s geographical advantage prompted the company to switch its base of operations. “We recently moved our headquarters from Singapore to Thailand. We wanted to be closer to our customers and closer to our factories,” he said. “For us, this was a strategic decision.”

Despite uncertainties over Thai politics, the World Bank’s Ease of Doing Business 2016 report places Thailand as the second-ranked emerging economy in Southeast Asia in which to do business and the 49th in the world. Aerospace companies say they have no complaints when it comes to serving overseas customers.

Chromalloy

Gerton van den Oetelaar, engineering director of Chromalloy Thailand, said, “95 percent of our work is engine component maintenance. On average, we have 82 to 100 customers worldwide. Having agreements with BOI makes us very competitive.”

The agreements that van den Oetelaar allude to are laid out in well-defined investment policies that include a string of fiscal and non-fiscal incentives that range from corporate tax exemptions to assistance with customs, work permits and product sourcing.

Available incentives include an exemption of import duties on machinery, no export requirements, an eight-year corporate income tax exemption and permission to own land.

“Airlines often want their parts in a very short time,” van den Oetelaar told AIN. “We ship anywhere in the world in two, three days, max. This is because we have priority clearance from BOI to import and export.”

Thailand’s generous investment packages do not end there. Recognizing the importance of infrastructure and the need for greater integration between core industries, Ajarin Pattanapanchai, deputy security general of BOI, told AIN that a policy launched early last year

aims to ramp up further investment in aerospace activities.

Super Cluster

Dubbed the Super-Cluster initiative, the program allows future companies to be eligible for eight-year corporate tax exemptions and an additional five-year reduction of 50 percent, provided they are in the designated cluster areas.

For industries with significant importance, Pattanapanchai said that the Ministry of Finance will consider granting 10 to 15 years’ corporate income tax exemption, personal income tax exemption for renowned specialists and matching grants to support investors in high-value-added activities such as training and research and development (R&D).

In order to be eligible, companies must collaborate with academic or research institutes to improve the level of human resources and technology. “In order to accelerate investment, projects need to apply this year and generate revenue in 2017. But for big projects, the BOI may consider a time frame on a case by case basis,” Pattanapanchai said.

Having a broad-based game plan that includes cooperation between institutions, the government and the private sector have long been a part of Thailand’s DNA in building up competitive manufacturing industries. Today, aerospace companies benefit from the country’s advanced auto manufacturing and electronics industries.

“Many of our Thai employees came from the automotive industry,” said Vuz. “While we provide training, the automotive industry has paved the way for people to enter aerospace.”

Arnd Balzereit-Kelter, managing director of Leistritz, agrees.

“Thailand has experienced a slowdown in the automotive industry. So we are leveraging off this and hiring people from the sector.” Leistritz’s Thai division is a global supplier of components for the forging of compressor blades for aero engines such as the International Aero Engines V2500, Pratt & Whitney PW1000G (with P&W partner MTU), and Rolls-Royce Trent 700, 900 and 1000.

Compared to neighboring countries like Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos, Thailand has

58 Farnborough Airshow News • July 12, 2016 • www.ainonline.com

The country has location, logistical and trade agreement advantages.

A skilled workforce and tax incentives are attracting new industries.

more skilled labor that companies can tap into. According to Gille, the country has civil engineering schools and two main universities that offer aerospace programs “I am very impressed with the level of education,” Gille told AIN, “Fifty percent of our staff have bachelor or master degrees, and two employees have PhDs. They know what they are doing.”

Saying this, TASA and other aerospace companies recognize the need to invest in new capabilities, as manufacturers deliver next generation aircraft and engines with new technology. To remain competitive, companies across the sector offer employees in-house and overseas training.

“We have Thai people training Thais, and English-speakers training Thais to train other Thai people,” Vuz said. “Thais can do the work. They just need more experience and a chance to broaden their capabilities.”

Making sure there is a sufficient knowledge-based workforce to accommodate MRO growth, van den Oetelaar said Chromalloy offers roughly 200 training courses per year in areas such as machining and welding.

The company currently employs more than 500 people and serves all the major airlines in the world.

“Quality is not an argument, it’s a standard,” he said. “You

PHOTOS: JENNIFER MESZAROS

In an attempt to duplicate the success of its automotive industry—the 12th largest in the world—Thailand is ramping up its push to become a full-service aerospace hub, and a major player in the region’s multi-billion-dollar aircraft maintenance and manufacturing industries.

The country’s presence here at the Farnborough International Airshow falls under the remit of its Board of Investment (Hall 4 Stand A110).

Thailand may seem overly ambitious to some, but Peter Gille, director of operations and engineering at Triumph Aviation Services—Asia (TASA) remains bullish on the country’s growth prospects. TASA’s capabilities include repairing and overhauling auxiliary power units (APU), thrust reversers, composite structures, and engine and airframe accessories.

“I am personally convinced that Thailand can become a full-service aerospace hub,” Gille told AIN. “This is, in fact, what I am personally trying to contribute to.”

Dozens of industry leaders agree. Over the past two decades, Thailand has attracted significant investment from several U.S. companies such as Triumph, Honeywell, General Electric and Chromalloy, along with French tire manufacturer Michelin and German manufacturer Leistritz.

According to Thailand’s Board of Investment (BOI), 24 companies are actively involved in aircraft part manufacturing while 12 companies perform maintenance and repair on aircraft and parts.

Thailand’s not-so-secret weapon lies in its strategic location, low labor costs, expanding network of free trade agreements and generous incentive packages. Situated in the heart of Southeast Asia, the country offers convenient trade with China, India and socalled Asean countries (Those in the Association of South East Asian Nations). Moreover, Thailand’s two international deep-sea ports on the eastern seaboard enable suppliers to tap into global markets.

“Thailand is centrally located and very pro-business,” said Ronald Vuz, president of Triumph Structures Thailand— a manufacturer of aerospace composite structures. “We are in a free trade zone. This is a

have to comply with regulatory requirements in this field.”

Aerospace companies are not only leveraging Thailand’s burgeoning talent base, they are also taking advantage of low labor costs. With aerospace work becoming more intensive and more costly, van den Oetelaar said it makes sense to be based in a country with relatively low wages.

“Asia is a growth region.

There is going to be more maintenance required,” he said. “We focus on doing everything in house, which makes us very efficient and low-cost.”

While Thai employees may earn a lower salary compared to their Western peers, the cost of living and doing business in Thailand is substantially less.

“People go to India because the market is growing but it’s expensive with poor infrastructure. The cost of borrowing capital is very high compared to Thailand,” said Ketan Pole, chief executive officer of C.C.S. Advance Tech—a manufacturer of piece parts for Tier 1 and Tier 2 customers of Boeing, Airbus, Rolls-Royce and UTAS. Pole told AIN that another benefit to Thailand is a competitive corporate income tax rate at 20 percent.

“In Southeast Asia, Thailand has advantages, “he said. “It makes sense to be here.” o

THE DESTINATION FOR AEROSPACE

12 - 1 6 NOVEMB ER 2017 DWC, D UBAI A IRSHOW SIT E WWW.DUBAI AIRS H O W. AE RO

Solar-powered Zephyr can replace satellites

by Chris Pocock The unique Zephyr “high-altitude pseudo satellite” (HAPS) has such a large wingspan, that plans to display it in the ceiling of the Airbus building here were dropped. The European multinational bought the program in 2013 from UK research group Qinetiq, which developed it right here at Farnborough over the previous 12 years. Sadly, the man behind the concept and its slow but steady progression towards technical maturity won’t be available to explain. Local resident Chris Kelleher died unexpectedly last August, aged 58.

Kelleher also worked on the UK’s Skynet military communications satellites, so he understood the potential for a loitering stratospheric vehicle that could be a low-cost complement or alternative. But while other companies tried to develop high-altitude airships or aircraft powered by other novel means to address this requirement, the 20-strong Zephyr team placed its faith in a very lightweight solar and battery-powered UAV. They may have chosen the correct path, since the payloads they are targeting are reducing in size year-by-year.

Airship designers have struggled to find strong but lightweight envelope materials that

can withstand the harsh stratospheric environment, with its very low temperatures, high ozone content and intense ultraviolet radiation. With help from the U.S. government, Aerovironment developed the Global Observer and Boeing the Phantom Eye, both powered by hydrogen fuel cells.

But neither has found a customer. Meanwhile, by placing flexible silicon solar arrays on a carbon fiber airframe, and adding the latest lithium-sulfur batteries, the Zephyr team has achieved unprecedented endurance and control.

Expanding The Envelope

The program has steadily progressed through a series of increasingly ambitious demonstrations, helped by some funding from the U.S. and UK militaries. Wingspans have doubled from the initial 12 meters (39.4 feet) in 2003, while weights have quadrupled. In July 2008, the Zephyr 6 reached over 60,000 feet and flew for 82 hours from the Yuma Proving Grounds in Arizona, controlled from a line-of-sight ground station and carrying a 2-kg (4.4-pound) communications payload. Two years later, the team was back in Arizona with the larger Zephyr 7, to

The twin-motored Zephyr can accommodate payloads up to 20kg with continuous power requirements in excess of 300W and has proven its ability to stay aloft for 14 days.

make a record-breaking 14-day flight that was validated by observers from the Fédération Aéronautique Internationale.

But the most significant demonstrations took place in 2014. An 11-day flight was launched from Britishcontrolled Ascension Island in the South Atlantic during the low-sunlight conditions of the southern hemisphere winter.

This explored the ability of the Licerian battery packs provided

by Sion Power to store enough solar energy to power the Zephyr through the long hours of darkness, without significant loss of altitude. This was also the first flight controlled by a satcom datalink.

There was also a flight in 2014 from Dubai that explored the Zephyr’s integration into

BOEING BOOSTS COMMERCIAL MARKET FORECAST Boeing’s estimate of a 20-year demand for 39,620 new airplanes valued at $5.9 trillion reflects a 4.1 percent increase over last year’s forecast and the company’s increasing bullishness over the prospects for longterm economic prosperity. The projection, part of the company’s current market outlook (CMO) released on the opening day of the Farnborough Airshow yesterday, underscores a particularly sanguine projection for single-aisle jets, where low-fare and emerging market growth will result in a need for 28,140 airplanes, up 5 percent from Boeing’s forecast last year.

“Despite recent events that have impacted the financial markets, the aviation sector will continue to see long-term growth, with the commercial fleet doubling in size,” said Boeing Commercial Airplanes vice president of marketing Randy Tinseth. “We expect to see passenger traffic grow 4.8 percent a year over the next two decades.”

Tinseth added “there’s no question” that the heart of the single-aisle market centers around the new Boeing Max 8 and the current 737-800, a size of airplane that accounts for 76 percent of the global single-aisle backlog, according to Boeing’s calculations.

“The single-aisle market is a market that continues to be undersupplied…there’s more demand in that market than there is capacity,” said Tinseth. “Single-aisle markets continue to be in high demand. You can see that in terms of our production, and we’re now completely sold out in terms of [737] NGs. And you’re not seeing availability until the next decade in terms of the Max.” Among widebodies, Boeing forecasts a demand for 9,100 airplanes over the period, reflecting a large wave of replacement demand between 2021 and 2028. Boeing projects a continued shift from very large airplanes to small and medium-size widebodies.

“We have a marketplace that, probably—after a decade of undersupply because of the challenges we had in terms of our development programs, as well as [those of] Airbus—now, we’re starting to see supply and demand in balance.”

In the still stagnating cargo market, Boeing projects a 4.2 percent traffic increase over the next 20 years, resulting a need for 930 new freighters and 1,440 converted freighters.

—G.P.

60 Farnborough Airshow News • July 12, 2016 • www.ainonline.com

civilian airspace. The UAV was equipped with Mode S ADS-B so that it could report ascending through a “bubble” of airspace that other traffic could avoid. The Zephyr takes up to 12 hours to reach its operating altitude above the jetstream. It has almost no ground speed when flying into wind. When on station at 65,000 feet or above, it loiters by GPS control. It is hand-launched by a five-man ground crew, and recovered by belly-landing.

UK MOD Support

The UK Ministry of Defence has kept faith with the Zephyr, despite a crash during the 2014 deployment to the southern hemisphere. It has given Airbus D&S a $14 million (£10.6 million) contract to provide two larger UAVs for an operational concept demonstration next year. Designated Zephyr 8, they will have 50 percent more battery power than the Zephyr 7 on display here— which has now been retired.

They will have a wingspan of 25 meters (82 feet), weigh 55 kg (121 pounds) and offer a payload of 5 kg (11 pounds).

“These British-designed unmanned aircraft will fly at the edge of the Earth’s atmosphere and allow us to observe our adversaries for weeks, providing critical intelligence for our forces,” said a British defense minister. The UK is believed to be most interested in using the Zephyr for supporting its special forces, with payloads such small video cameras, SIGINT (signals intelligence) sensors, and covert communications.

According to Airbus D&S head of unmanned system Jana Rosenmann, the Zephyr

has “enormous commercial potential, especially for internet connectivity.” Facebook and Google think the same, and have both bought small start-up companies working on larger, solar-powered HAPS. But the European aerospace giant believes it is on the best development path. The various Zephyr demonstrations to date have logged more than 900 hours.

Airbus D&S has also suggested environmental monitoring, direct broadcast TV and radio, and narrowband mobile communications as other applications.

It is, of course, a very “green machine.” Before buying the program, Airbus D&S did five years of research on how a HAPS could complement the company’s own satellite offerings through what was then the Astrium subsidiary of EADS. One of the biggest advantages is the ability to bring a HAPS back to earth to change out or update payloads.

The Zephyr 7 on display here has achieved a type certification from the UK Military Aviation Authority (MAA).

But Rosenmann acknowledged that civilian certification is still a challenge. So is “the market price point, which is strongly linked to battery development,” she continued. The company is aiming for an endurance of several months aloft.

Airbus D&S is now developing a larger version that would weigh up to 140 kg (309 pounds) and carry a payload of 20 kg (44 pounds) on a 33-meter (108-foot) wingspan. It is designated Zephyr T because it has twin tails to support the additional weight. The Zephyr 8 for next year’s UK-funded demonstration has been redesignated Zephyr S (for single tail). o

L-3 updates its Spydr airborne sensor suite

by David Donald A product of L-3 MID’s “Spiderworks” strategic development team, the initial Spydr King Air was first revealed as a low-risk, cost-effective tactical processing, exploitation and dissemination system at the Royal International Air Tattoo at RAF Fairford in July 2011. It has subsequently been deployed by at least one undisclosed operator.

The new-generation Spydr II builds on the multi-int capabilities of the original, differing primarily in its RAPDS (rapid aircraft payload deployment system). The Spydr II is visually distinguished from the initial version by a lengthened

DAVID McINTOSH

L-3 Communications has unveiled its King Air 350-based Spydr II multi-int ISR (intelligence, surveillance, reconnais­ sance) platform here at the Farnborough Airshow, the program having been first announced at the show two years ago. Spydr II is a product of the company’s Mission Integration Division, located in Greenville, Texas, which has more than 65 years of integrating and missionizing complex systems into many types of aircraft. L-3 MID has delivered more than 70 ISR versions of the Beech King Air, including the MC-12W Liberty aircraft of the U.S. Air Force.

L-3 Communications’ airborne intelligence suite is based on a Beechcraft King Air Model 350.

nose section that permits the carriage of a semi-retractable electro-optical sensor turret, in addition to other belly- and wing-mounted sensors.

RAPDS represents a shift away from a mission-specific configuration to a rapidly reconfigurable system. Plug-and-play technology allows networked multi-sensor payloads to be tailored to meet operational demands, and to be altered as those requirements change. The

modular payload approach also facilitates the upgrade of sensor equipment as new technologies emerge.

Equipped with satellite and line-of-sight communications links, the aircraft can be configured for various ISR missions, including maritime patrol. A wide range of sensors can be carried, including those for wide-area motion imagery, synthetic aperture radar imagery, ground moving target

CRANE SWITCHES, MONITORS ABOARD AIRBUS Crane Aerospace & Electronics has won a pair of contracts associated with Airbus airliners, the company announced here this week.

The first, awarded by Woodward Inc., involves proximity switches for use on the thrust reverser actuator system on the A330neo. The other contract, awarded directly by Airbus, gives Crane responsibility for the tire pressure indication system for the Airbus A320 and A330 families, including the A320neo and A330neo.

The Rolls-Royce Trent 7000 on the A330neo use eight proximity sensors on each engine, designed to detect the position of mechanisms within the Woodward-supplied thrust reverser actuators. Crane provides proximity sensing on all Airbus programs. In 2013 Woodward chose Crane to supply the proximity switches for the thrust reverser actuators on the CFM Leap-1A for the Airbus A320neo.

Separately, the tire pressure indication system made by Crane uses the company’s SmartStem technology to produce wireless tire pressure monitoring. According to Crane, the system improves safety, increases tire life and reduces the chance of operating with underinflated tires. Once certified, the system will come standard on new production A330s and as an option on new A320s. Crane (Hall 4 Stand E70) also designed the system for retrofit on existing aircraft. ­­­­—G.P.

MARK WAGNER

GKN, MHI SIGN TRENT CASINGS DEAL

MILITARY MEDIUM-LIFT Derived from its slightly smaller AW139 civilian sibling, AgustaWestland, now merged into Leonardo-Finmeccanica, began developing its W149 medium-lift helicopter for military customers more than 10 years ago.

A follow-on model, the AW189, is intended for civilian markets. Some 150 orders have been placed for the AW189.

GKN Aerospace and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries (Hall 2 Stand A88) have signed a long-term agreement to manufacture engine casings for the Rolls-Royce Trent 7000 engines that power the Airbus A330neo and Boeing 787. Under the terms of the deal, GKN will collaborate with MHI’s commercial engine business unit, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Aero Engines.

According to GKN (Chalet G1), production will require complex machining and high quality levels, due to the critical nature of the casings, which must sustain the higher overall pressure ratios produced by the engines. The schedule calls for first deliveries to take place early next year.

Meanwhile GKN Aerospace also announced here at Farnborough that its Fokker Technologies division had been awarded an extension to its contract to supply wiring for Boeing’s 777 and 737 aircraft. The three-year contract extension also covers the production of junction boxes and will keep teams engaged in the Netherlands, Turkey, China and India, said GKN. —G.P.

62 Farnborough Airshow News • July 12, 2016 • www.ainonline.com

indication, sea search, foliage penetration, light detection and ranging (Lidar), and signals intelligence. The sensor systems can be rapidly demounted so that the aircraft platform can be used for routine transport missions. Although the Spydr II system has been initially certified for the King Air through FAA STCs (supplemental type certificates), it could also be applied to other types of platforms. o

AIRSTART TAKES UAVS BEYOND VISUAL RANGE The Airstart Consortium will present technologies for facilitating beyond visual lineof-sight (BVLOS) flights of unmanned aerial vehicles at this year’s Farnborough Airshow. BVLOS capability will be essential for planned applications of remotely piloted aircraft, including search and rescue and electrical powerline inspection.

Airstart (Hall 3 Stand 3/ D125) is an Airbus Group-led consortium of eight companies, universities, the ARPAS-UK trade association and technology end users.

Core technologies the consortium are developing “will be integrated in a series of flight trials addressing real scenarios in maritime search-and-rescue and terrestrial power distribution network inspection,” the group said. “The end-to-end approach of the consortium ensures the technologies developed are robust and exploitable in realworld situations, driving growth at every level, from SME [smallto-medium enterprises] to multinational, creating economic impact and societal benefit,” added Yoann Thueux, Airstart lead with the Airbus Group.

On Thursday here at Farnborough, Airstart will conduct a free seminar, “Operating UAVs Beyond Visual Line of Sight,” in the Media Center’s Hendon Room, on the upper floor of Hall 1A. —B.C.

THE SKY IS YO U R DOMAIN Scale new heights at the show that attracts aviation’s top flight.

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