Paris Airshow News 06-15-15

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Monday 6.15.15

Airshow News

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Show has lots of star quality, but some significant absentees

DAVID McINTOSH

by Charles Alcock

Improved aerodynamics are credited for much of the performance uptick discovered in the Bombardier CSeries CS300 flight test program.

CSeries goes the distance with 350-nm-range boost

Visitors streaming into the 51st Paris Air Show this morning will find plenty of novelty and variety from the morethan 2,200 exhibitors who have flocked to the French capital from around 45 difference countries.

In addition to the eagerly-anticipated world premier of Bombardier’s CSeries airliners, other Le Bourget debutantes this week include the Dassault Falcon 8X business jet, Textron AirLand Scorpion jet trainer, Cessna Grand Caravan EX special missions demonstrator and new version of Airbus’s E-Fan electric aircraft.

In fact, at an even 100, the total aircraft count for the 2015 show is markedly down compared to the 2013 event, when there were no fewer than 150 present. However, based on the aerial performances seen during validation flying in the past few days, quality will more than make up for reduced quantity.

That said, there are some notable and surprising absentees from this year’s show. Sweden’s Saab is not exhibiting. Nor is UK-based BAE Systems, apparently following the lead of the U.S. Northrop Grumman group, which deserted the Le Bourget show in 2011. o

The high-performance hometown hero, Dassault’s Falcon 8X business jet is making its debut in the aerial displays here at the Paris Air Show.

by Gregory Polek & Thierry Dubois remains at 160. Compared to the Airbus A320neo and Boeing 737 Max, the CSeries will have a 10-percent advantage in fuel consumption, according to Bombardier.

“We had good surprises on the airframe side, notably on aerodynamics,” Colin Bole, Bombardier’s senior vice president for sales and asset management, told reporters at the show site on Sunday. He would not elaborate on the performance of the Pratt & Whitney PW1500G engines, beyond saying that they are “at least as good” as expected.

Bole still anticipates the CS100 will be certified by year-end. The CS300 will follow by six months. The CSeries

DAVID McINTOSH

Bombardier yesterday confirmed significant performance improvements for its CSeries airliners, which are making their long-awaited debut at the Paris Air Show this week. At a press conference here at Le Bourget this morning, the Canadian airframer is expected to give details of how the aircraft are exceeding promised performance during flight testing, which is now around 65-percent complete.

For the larger CS300, the enhanced efficiency translates into an additional 350 nm of range, pushing it to 3,300 nm.

An airline might also want to convert this into an extra 15 passengers for a given range, but the maximum seating capacity

Continued on page 4 u

Engines

UAS

Defense Spending

Flight Tracking

Leap Engine Taking Giant Steps

Unmanned Aircraft Systems Report

F-35 Program Addresses Cost Control Providers Say Current Gear Will Do

Sukhoi Has Big Plans for Superjet

CFM has the happy problem of trying to expand production capacity of its Leap engine to meet the needs of airframe OEMs. Output records have fallen the past two years. Page 18

No other segment of the aviation industry has seen the growth experienced in this field.

AIN experts have compiled a comprehensive review of not only the major suppliers but also the primary users. Page 24

Confronted with a congressional challenge, Lockheed Martin devised a “blueprint” to pare costs on its Lightning II. The goal is to reduce the flyaway price to one comparable with fourth-generation fighters. Page 40

Faced with challenges in providing financing options for its Superjet, Sukhoi and its parent company got creative in developing packages and strategies to spur the market. Page 85

In the persistent wake of the MH370 disaster, ICAO has moved to initiate aircraft tracking procedures. Avionics providers have asserted that no new technology is needed to comply. Page 54

Finance

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Dassault boss reviews an eventful 12 months

by Chris Pocock It’s been quite a year for Dassault Aviation, with major milestones for the Falcon business jet line, breakthrough export orders for the Rafale combat aircraft from Egypt and Qatar and the 100th flight of the stealthy Neuron UCAS demonstrator. So there was an air of quiet satisfaction about Eric Trappier’s preshow media briefing on Friday.

Moreover, the company chairman and CEO was “cautiously optimistic” that India will proceed with the full Medium Multi-Role Combat Aircraft (MMRCA) requirement for 126 Rafale combat aircraft, not just the 36 that the country intends to buy from the French production line.

Trappier expressed hope that the contract for the first 36 jets could be signed in September.

Dassault is awaiting that event before committing to an early increase in the Rafale production

rate. Right now, the company is still planning to maintain the rate at 11 aircraft this year and the same for next year. But six from this year’s production will go to Egypt instead of France, three of them “in the next few weeks,” Trappier confirmed.

Finding Local Partners

Amplifying on the negotiations with India on further Rafale production there, Trappier said it was now agreed that Dassault would “take the lead and find local partners.” The MMRCA negotiations previously foundered on whether stateowned Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd (HAL) could take the responsibility of prime contractor.

Trappier suggested that discussions to revive the MMRCA deal could conclude by the end of this year. Among the other export prospects for Team

IFC says it’s ready to compromise on CSeries

by Vladimir Karnozov Russian leasing group I­ l­yu­shin Finance Company (IFC) appears willing to lift its threat to cancel orders for Bombardier’s delayed CSeries airliner. Following a trip to visit Bombardier in Canada early this month, IFC general manager Alexander Roubtsov told AIN that he hopes to salvage the deal for 39 CS300s with further meetings to be held this week at the Paris Air Show.

Roubtsov indicated that newly appointed Bombardier Commercial Aircraft CEO Fred Cromer could be the right person to get CSeries on track after a string of technical problems that has shaken the market’s confidence in the program. He said Cromer’s background with leasing group ILFC and Continental Airlines means he is more in tune with the customer’s perspective.

“Our hope is that his team will manage to get Bombardier’s passenger aircraft business through current difficulties to success,” he commented.

But the question of financing IFC’s CSeries purchase continues to be a thorny

issue, with the leasing company now barred from export credit support through Export De­ velopment Canada after the Canadian government imposed sanctions in retaliation for Russia’s annexation of Crimea and alleged military support for separatists who have seized parts of eastern Ukraine.

Chinese Bank Funding

As a result, IFC, which is also having to contend with a devalued ruble, has turned to Chinese banks as an alternative source of funding, albeit at higher rates of interest than have been available to it in the West. “I cannot say their offers delighted us,” said Roubtsov. “But at least we have the chance to use Chinese funding for this and other procurements.”

Meanwhile, despite the mounting hostility between their respective countries, IFC and Ukrainian airframer An­ tonov are cooperating over plans to support deliveries of the An-158 regional jet to Cubana, which at the 2011 Paris Air Show placed a $300 million

4 Paris Airshow News • June 15, 2015 • www.ainonline.com

Rafale, which also includes Thales and Snecma, are Belgium, Canada, Kuwait and the UAE. Dassault is the lead company on the six-nation Neuron program. The 100th flight took place at Istres airbase in southern France this past February and was the most recent from French soil. The sole test vehicle has since completed some dozen flights from Decimomannu airbase in Sardinia in Italy and is en route for Sweden where the last few flights are scheduled. They include the release of a GPS-guided bomb on the Vidsel test range.

Trappier said that Dassault was talking to the French government about a possible extension to the program. Meanwhile, he will have a meeting with British officials here next week on the follow-on Future Combat Air System (FCAS), which does not involve the other Neuron partners. Dassault and BAE Systems are working on a twoyear FCAS study that was signed in November.

Last month, the defense ministers of France, Germany and Italy declared their intent to fund project definition of a European contract for 10 of the 99-seaters, the sixth of which is to be delivered later this month.

The two companies have worked together to maintain production of the An-148 and An-158, despite severe difficulties such as landing gear supplier YuzhMash, based in Dnepropetrovsk close to the ongoing conflict, being unable to complete deliveries. Arrangements were made for Russia’s Gydromash to quickly step in to supply the equipment.

IFC has also expressed an interest in investing in China’s Avic MA-700 twin turboprop.

The leasing group has also paid close attention to the joint plans by United Aircraft Corp. and Comac to develop a new generation widebody. It also has been a prominent backer of UAC’s MC-21 airliner.

Anticipating a possible lifting of international sanctions against Iran, IFC plans to resume active work with that country’s carriers. “Our contracts with Iranian colleagues never got stopped or halted,” said Roubtsov.

“Unfortunately, there have been no deliveries to this country because of the sanctions. Once they are gone, we will offer the Iranians all we can give them, including the Superjet, MC-21, Tupolev and Ilyushin airplanes.” o

In the presence of French defense minister Yves le Drain and Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, Dassault chairman and CEO Eric Trappier signs the contract for 24 Rafales last February. The breakthrough was one of many for the company this year.

medium-altitude long-endurance (MALE) UAV. Trappier told AIN that he did not expect the countries to ink the pact this week, because they have not yet decided how exactly to manage the project. Show-goers can view a model of a potential configuration on the Dassault stand (Hall 2a A251).

The Falcons and the Rafales are the glamorous side of the business, but there’s also the evergreen Dassault Atlantique maritime patrol aircraft (MPA).

The company is upgrading 15 of

these for the French Navy as the ATL2 version.

Trappier took a dig at the UK for “giving up on maritime patrol” via the controversial grounding of the Nimrods in 2010. In theory, Dassault could offer the UK some ATL2s if the country decides to reintroduce an MPA after its current defense review. But Trappier isn’t wasting time on that possibility–“they’ll buy American” he confidently predicted, referring to the Boeing P-8A Poseidon. o

PRATT TO RESUME GROUND TEST OF A320NEO ENGINE Pratt & Whitney expects its PW1100G engines to resume certification ground testing this week after a manufacturing defect in a 10-inch-diameter retaining ring in the combustor section resulted in the grounding of the Prattpowered A320neo flight-test article.

Speaking Sunday at a Paris press briefing, Pratt & Whitney commercial engines president Greg Gernhardt explained that the company missed a step in the manufacturing of the part, and when the engine reaches operating temperatures the ring falls out of its retaining groove. Because the part resides in the combustor section, the fix requires that engineers “tear into the core,” said Gernhardt, a process that “does take some time.”

Pratt & Whitney has transported the two engines back to Connecticut to retro­fit new retaining rings. “We have new parts available [and] we have changed the design slightly,” said Gernhardt. “We didn’t need to; we just had to go in there to make sure it was properly heat-treated, but we decided that since we had to go in there we’d put some positive retention to basically hold it in place.”

Ground testing will start with two engines unaffected by the problem and without the retrofit in place. Plans call for the retrofitted engines to arrive in Toulouse by the end of the month. “It actually works out about right,” said Gernhardt. “We do about two weeks of ground testing and by the time we finish that the retrofitted engines will be available.”

–G.P.

CSeries range boosted by 350 nm uContinued from page 1

program has suffered from a twoyear delay due to various complications, including problems with the engines.

At the start of Paris 2015, the CSeries has an order backlog of 243 airplanes and Bombardier is aiming to hit its sales target of 300 orders by the time the CS100 achieves certification. Bombardier Commercial Aircraft’s new president, Fred Cromer, played down

expectations that this week’s show will bring new orders. “It’s just five days like any other five days of the year,” he reflected.

Swiss International Airlines, which this spring committed to becoming the airplane’s first operator, is expected to take delivery some time in the first half of next year. The European carrier holds the key to proving the operating capabilities of the CSeries in revenue service, and perhaps to unlocking the sales potential it carries.

The CS300 will open the flying display at 1:30 p.m. every day. o

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E-JETS

1,100+ E-JETS. 70 AIRLINES. 50 COUNTRIES.

Our vision is taking shape.

The E-Jets E2 program has moved from concept to reality. We’re far beyond the milestone of first-metal being cut, and are now busy assembling the first E2 prototype for first flight next year. The entire E2 family is on schedule, on target, and on the way to affirming its position as the world’s most preferred family of jets up to 130 seats. Our vision remains clear. And it is taking shape today.

DAVID McINTOSH

Boeing’s forecast envisions large aircraft, such as its 787-9, as relatively slow sellers.

In Boeing’s crystal ball single-aisles lead pack

by Ian Goold Single-aisle airliners represent an ever-growing proportion of new deliveries, while shipments of regional jets and large twin-aisle aircraft remain the smallest sectors, according to a new industry forecast. Boeing Commercial Airplanes predicts 20-year market requirements for just over 38,000 new commercial aircraft, up about 3.5 percent on its equivalent annual survey 12 months ago. The U.S. manufacturer’s new current market outlook, published

last week, values all these machines at $5.6 trillion.

“The market continues to be strong and resilient,” according to marketing vice president Randy Tinseth.

“We expect [it] to continue to grow,” he added.

The global airline fleet is seen as doubling from last year’s 21,600 machines to 43,560 by 2034, when traveler numbers are expected to have reached more than seven billion a year. Boeing suggests that almost six in 10

new aircraft will be needed to accommodate growth as traffic grows at a predicted 4.9 percent annual rate, close to 5-percent annual historic trends. The balance of new deliveries, just over 40 percent, will replace “a large and growing number of aging aircraft” that will represent “about 2 to 3 percent of the installed fleet each year.”

Single-aisle, or narrowbody, designs continue to account for the bulk of deliveries, having increased from less than 60 percent of shipments forecast between 2005 and 2024 to more than 70 percent, or a total of 26,730 units, from 2015 to 2034.

“Carrying up to 75 percent of passengers on more

Boeing Airplane Delivery Forecast Trend By Size Airplane type

Seats

2005-24

%

2010-29

%

2015-34

%

2015-34 $ value

Regional jets

90 and below

3,891

15.1

1,920

6.2

2,490

6.5

$100 billion

Single-aisle

90-230

15,276

59.5

21,160

68.5

26,730

70.2

$2.77 trillion

Small twin-aisle

200-300

3,183

12.4

12.5

$1.25 trillion

300-400

2,437

9.5

23.0

4,770

Medium twin-aisle

7,100

3,520

9.3

$1.22 trillion

907

3.5

720

2.3

540

1.4

$230 billion

Large twin-aisle Total

400 and above

25,694

30,900

38,050

$5.6 trillion

Source: Boeing Commercial Airplanes current market outlooks: 2005, 2010, and 2015

Above: Boeing’s latest 20-year commercial airplane market forecast predicts that regional-jet deliveries will continue to account for a small 6.5-percent market share, much lower than the 15+ percent pertaining 10 years ago. Single-aisle designs constitute the vast majority of forecast deliveries, up from less than 60 percent of shipments in the 2005-2024 forecast to more than 70 percent during the 2015-2034 forecast. The proportion of new deliveries comprising small and medium-size twin-aisle aircraft remains between 20 and 25 percent, while the U.S. manufacturer maintains its pessimistic view of prospects for very large aircraft.

Right: Asia will provide the largest 20-year market for new commercial aircraft, according to Boeing, with about three out of eight such machines destined for customers in the region. North America and Europe each account for around 20 percent of new deliveries.

Boeing Airplane Delivery Forecast

By Region 2015-2034 Region Asia North America

Deliveries 14,330 7,890

Europe (excluding CIS)

7,310

Middle East

3,180

Latin America

3,020

Africa

1,170

Russia & the CiS Total

8 Paris Airshow News • June 15, 2015 • www.ainonline.com

1,150 38,050

than 70 percent of airline routes, this sector is fueled by growth in low-cost carriers (LCCs) and airlines in developing and emerging markets,” Boeing said. According to Tinseth, “LCCs will account for around 35 percent of the single-aisle market. They will require airplanes that combine the best economics with the most revenue potential.”

Small and medium-size twin-aisle, or widebody, aircraft will continue to comprise 20 to 25 percent of new deliveries, while the U.S. manufacturer maintains its pessimistic view of prospects for very large aircraft.

Boeing sees requirements for 8,830 new twin-aisle designs, “led by small widebody airplanes in the 200- to 300-seat range, a [continuing] shift in demand [away] from very large airplanes.”

Boeing predicts a small market share for regional jets, which has been stabilized at 6-percent market share since 2010, but well short of the 15-percent share commanded 10 years ago.

Finally, air freight traffic is forecast to increase at 4.7 percent annually as the market strengthens, according to Boeing. Some 920 newly dedicated freighters will be needed between 2015 and 2034, it predicts.

“We’ve seen two years of solid growth and we expect that to continue,” Tinseth ­concluded. o ELBIT’S KOLLSMAN ENHANCED VISION Elbit Systems has been selected by the Shanghai Avionics Corp. (SAVIC) to provide an enhanced vision system (EVS) for the single-aisle Comac C919.

The optional equipment will be a Kollsman Enhanced Vision System-Superior Performance (EVS-SP), which offers “the latest proven commercial tech­ nology in cooled EVS,” according to its promoters. It will provide C919 operators the ability to see through some of the worst visibility conditions confronting pilots in the Asia Pacific region.

The Civil Aviation Au­ thority of China (CAAC) has adopted current FAA rules, allowing pilots to go below the traditional decision height down to 100 feet, even if they do not see the runway with natural vision.

–T.D.

Paris

Airshow News

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India’s Rafale buy spurs offset biz

by Neelam Mathews

OIS-AT and Rafaut are joining up to fill Dassault’s offset requirements in India.

Rolls steps up XWB-97 for Airbus’s A350-1000

by Ian Sheppard With the Airbus A350-900 now in service, engine producer Rolls-Royce (R-R, Chalet 93) is turning its attention to the A350-1000 and the Trent XWB97 engine, which is based on the -900’s Trent XWB-84. There also still is a significant “industrialization” effort going on for the -84, as production ramps up and more airlines take delivery.

The A350-1000 is due to enter service in 2017.

Simon Burr, who was promoted to be R-R’s chief operating officer for civil large engines in May, spoke to reporters three weeks ago referring to his experience running the Trent XWB program until recently. He said the XWB-97 would make its first flight next year on Airbus’s A380 flying testbed (MSN001), and has “the largest fan RollsRoyce has ever produced” –118 inches in diameter.

For now, the first test engine (one of four that have run to date) completed 150 hours of ground testing since its first run in July 2014. “It’s already gone to 99,000 pounds force,” said Burr. He added that engine (Serial No. 20021) is now being rebuilt to be ready for bird-ingestion and rail/hail tests this summer.

The key engine, however, is the flying testbed (Serial No. 26000), which will be close to the production standard and will be the first engine to fly. “The engine is coming together and will run [in June] and will be delivered to Toulouse in July so Airbus can pod it. This is a big milestone because in creating the FTB [flying testbed] you

The clearance for the acquisition of 36 Dassault Rafales as part of India’s medium multi-role combat aircraft bid, following Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to France in April, is attracting small and medium companies to enter into partnerships to provide offsets for the $4.24 billion deal. The latest to enter the fray is India’s OIS-AT (Hall 5 D210), which has signed a joint venture with French company Rafaut (Hall 2B C157), a specialist in weapons for aircraft interface devices.

OIS-AT (Offset India Solutions-Advanced Technology) will “leverage Rafaut’s know-how on the manufacture of pylons and allied interface equipment that carry munitions and stores on aircraft and helicopters, at a new facility planned in Bengaluru [formerly Bangalore],” said the Indian company.

Universal or specific pylon design, development and production are parts of Rafaut’s core business. For instance, its universal PU708 pylon can carry 30-inch standard armaments such as the SCALP cruise missile, GBU24 bombs, Rafaut 730

have to create all the tests associated with the production engine.”

With respect to a target certification date Burr would say only that, “It will be done when it’s ready, but way in advance of the aircraft flying…and that’s due to be in the second half of next year.”

Early Adjustments

After the first 150 hours of engine runs the company made “some adjustments mainly to the combustor thermal profile,” said Burr. Of the other test engines, 20022 will be used for endurance, 20023 for performance and fan testing, 20026

for icing and maturity, 20024 for the turbine and air system, and 20025 for telemetry testing.

Compared with the -84 the -97 engine is, obviously, larger with more thrust. It will “turn faster and run hotter to get the additional thrust,” said Burr, who was quick to say that “the engine is still very comfortable.” In addition, he said, the fan has been “tweaked” aerodynamically.

The result has been to obtain another 13,000 pounds of thrust with the same fuel efficiency, with the fan turning 6 percent faster than with the -84 to get a higher volume throughput. The

Rolls-Royce’s is ramping up Trent XWB-series production as the Airbus airliners it will power roll out from the factories.

12 Paris Airshow News • June 15, 2015 • www.ainonline.com

triple store rack and Rafale additional fuel tanks.

The joint venture will be an exclusive collaboration for R&D, transfer of technology, manufacturing and marketing, as well as sales and services for a range of weaponto-aircraft interface devices and flight control equipment and subsystems, according to OIS. “Rafaut has much to offer by way of technology and innovative design with state-of-theart composite manufacturing techniques,” said Sanjay Bhandari, founding chairman and managing director of the OIS Group.

The partnership will “present our product range and foster collaborative relationships with India…Rafaut has had some of its systems in use on the Indian Mirage 2000 for more than 30 years,” added Jacques Rafaut, chairman of Rafaut.

Meanwhile, OIS had participated in the military bid for 45 bird-detection and monitoring radars for India, for which Axis Aerospace was declared the lowest bidder.

However, AIN has learned that the request for proposals was recently cancelled. o core of the engine is scaled up by 5 percent over the -84 and has unshrouded HPT (high-pressure turbine) blades. Overall, however, the company has come down on the side of commonality wherever possible, with 80 percent of line replaceable units being common on the XWB engines.

With the first A350-900s having entered service with Qatar Airways, R-R is now working on an XWB-84 “maturity program,” alongside the industrialization. “Vietnam is shortly to get their first aircraft; the engines have been delivered already.

And we’ve built the first engine for Finnair…and TAM will be toward the end of the year. We’re 100 percent on time on delivery for our engines,” said Burr.

The industrialization is “very important because of the order book.” (Overall, the 780 A350s have been ordered by around 40 customers). “Rolls-Royce has invested huge amounts in its facilities, such as UK Discs.”

This plant in Washington, UK, is designed to produce 2,500 fan and turbine discs a year.

Meanwhile, R-R has “put in a pulse line [for engine assembly] in Derby, which Burr described as “a big step forward in how we build our engines.” This was matured first in the Trent 1000 facility in Singapore; that engine powers the Boeing 787. o

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PARIS AIR SHOW 2015 Chalet A210 & Outdoor Display

World’s most sophisticated bomb now ready for low-rate production

by Chris Pocock After a six-month delay caused by a couple of test failures, the world’s most sophisticated air-launched bomb is back on track. The Raytheon GBU-53/B Small Diameter Bomb II passed the Pentagon’s Milestone C review last month, and will soon enter low-rate initial production. The SDB II has a “tri-mode” seeker that allows simultaneous attacks in adverse weather and against moving targets at up to 40 nm range, from a subsonic launch at about 35,000 feet.

“We tripped a bit last fall,” admitted Jim Sweetman, Raytheon’s program director.

He told AIN that the bomb failed a qualification test of its ability to withstand the type corrosive atmosphere to which it might be exposed on the [U.S.] Navy’s aircraft carriers–salt-water spray and fumes. “That cost time, but we’ve solved it,” he said. Then there was an internal cable failure on the second live fire test that caused the bomb to miss its target. “We found the root cause, and the repeat test was successful,” he added.

Sweetman noted that some half-dozen guided test flights last year without a warhead were all successful.

The tri-mode seeker includes a semi-active laser, a millimeter-wave radar and an uncooled imaging infrared

seeker. Some other “smart” bombs have dual-mode guidance, but Raytheon officials are not aware of a competing weapon with three guidance options. The predecessor SDB I offered only GPS guidance to fixed targets and did not contain the dual-band two-way data link of the SDB II. The first version was also heavier, with a necessarily larger warhead that did not feature the multi-effects shaped-charge/ blast-fragmentation warhead of the SDB II. The second version is also smart enough to sort, categorize and prioritize targets.

Despite the sophistication, the SDB II is “affordable,” according to Sweetman.

U.S. Air Force assistant acquisition secretary Dr. William LaPlante said recently that the cost per round will be about $115,000, some $65,000 below the goal set when the SDB II entered development five years ago. Raytheon has managed its workforce well and controlled costs, he said.

The new weapon will be fielded first on U.S. Air Force F-15E Strike Eagles, where the maximum load will be 28 bombs, although 16 will be the normal loadout, all on fuselage stations. Then the U.S. Navy will add it to the F/A18E/F Super Hornet. The SDB II is also slated for the F-35B and F-35C versions of the Joint

Strike Fighter. The smaller internal weapons bays of the F-35B can each still carry four SDB IIs, plus an AMRAAM missile.

But in any case, the Lightning II will not receive the Block 4 software required to drop the SDB II until 2022.

Jeff White, Raytheon’s SDB II business development manager, told AIN that export prospects for the weapon include operators of the F-15E, and all 13 of the F-35 international countries, because it will come ready-integrated with the stealth fighter. Raytheon’s British subsidiary is pitching the SDB II as a “low-cost, lowrisk” alternative to MBDA’s proposal to meet the UK’s SPEAR (Selectable Precision Effects At Range) Capability 3 requirement. There is potential for work on the SDB II worth some $500 million to be placed in the UK, including electronic subassemblies, fuses and integration onto the Eurofighter Typhoon, according to TJ Marsden, chief weapons system engineer with Raytheon UK. Meanwhile, White told AIN that Raytheon is working on “translation software” for lowcost integration onto the F-16.

That would allow European countries now flying the Fighting Falcon to start training and using the SDB II before their F-35s arrive. o

New technologies promoted by Airbus and Rolls-Royce, such as this open-rotor UltraFan, are expected to yield significant increases in fuel efficiency.

Rolls-Royce and Airbus join to boost efficiency

by Caroline Bruneau When it comes to fuel efficiency, Rolls-Royce has proven a solid and trustworthy partner of Airbus. First, the enginemaker designed the Trent 900 for the super-jumbo A380 and now the Trent XWB for the new composite A350-900. New evolutions are yet to come with the Trent XWB-97 for the stretched A3501000 and the Trent Ten 7000 for the A330neo. This latest version should double the bypass ratio, halve the noise and offer 10 percent better SFC (specific fuel consumption). Testing should start at the end of 2015 for entry into service in 2017. Despite the focus on efficiency, Caroline Day, head of marketing and strategy at Rolls-Royce, insists that safety issues are at the center of research and growth for the engine manufacturer.

But Rolls-Royce is now targeting new evolution to increase efficiency and reach the ACARE (Advisory Council for Aviation Research and innovation in Europe) goals. In 2050, according to ACARE, CO2 emissions should be reduced by 75 percent, and Rolls-Royce wants to contribute 30 percent on each aircraft to this objective. Similar

reductions are anticipated for NOx emissions. Rolls-Royce’s aspirations on noise reduction appears equally ambitious, expecting a 65-percent reduction in the next 35 years.

To achieve this, RollsRoyce is focusing on research and design. The open rotor, or UltraFan (Geared big fan), could be ready to fly around 2025, offering 25 percent more efficiency compared to the latest Trent XWB. Increasing the bypass ratio by 15, with bigger blades and smaller core should help reduce both noise and CO2 emissions. New materials and manufacturing will be involved in the future development. Additive layer manufacturing, know as 3-D printing, will possibly be used for these engines. Rolls-Royce is also working on CastBond, a technology combining cooling and manufacturing. The blades will be composed of a new mix called Cti (composite and titanium) and other advanced materials such as ceramic mix composites, aluminum titanium nitride (AlTiN) and nickel alloys. The UltraFan is forecast to fly before 2030, in less than

CARGO CARRIER INVESTS IN CNS/ATM UPGRADE A300S

A brace of Raytheon small-diameter bombs hang from a U.S. Air Force F-15E. The Strike Eagle will be the first operational platform for the second-edition SDB II.

14 Paris Airshow News • June 15, 2015 • www.ainonline.com

An undisclosed European cargo airline has contracted Esterline CMC Electronics to upgrade its Airbus A300 fleet to ICAO’s standards for CNS/ATM (communications, navigation, surveillance and air traffic management). The avionics company will replace the existing flight management systems on the 21 A300s with its latest CMA-9000 FMS, including vertical navigation capability. Deliveries are due to begin in early 2016.

The upgrade will be installed under the existing Airbus A310 FMS supplemental type certificate, which covers up to around 400 other A300s and A310s. It consists of dual CMA-9000 units, providing the aircraft with multisensory-based navigational and operational capability.

–C.A.

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CFM’s Leap engine is taking giant steps

CFM International’s Leap 1A engine made a first flight on an Airbus A320neo in May. CFM International’s Leap 1B engine began flight testing on GE’s Boeing 747 flying test bed in late April, below.

by Charles Alcock For CFM International, 2015 is a critical year in terms of program execution as the Leap engine family advances towards service entry on three new-generation narrowbody airliners. On May 19, the first example of the Airbus A320neo powered by the Leap 1A made its maiden flight.

Both the Leap 1B for Boeing’s 737 Max aircraft and the Leap 1C for Comac’s C919 are being evaluated on a 747 flying test bed operated by GE Aviation, which is partnered with Snecma in the 40-year-old CFM joint venture.

“This year is all about our ability to deliver on the promises we have made, both in terms of engine development and production,” CFM International president and CEO Jean-Paul Ebanga told AIN in an interview ahead of the Paris Air Show. “We’re convinced that this will be truly disruptive technology.”

CFM is preparing to deliver a total of 11 Leap 1A engines to Airbus for testing on its A320, 321 and 319neo aircraft. Airbus expects to complete certification of the Leap-powered aircraft in mid-2016, with the version powered by the rival Pratt &

CFM International president and CEO Jean-Paul Ebanga

Whitney PW1100G turbofan due to be approved around the end of 2015.

Next year should also see certification of the Leap 1B engine for Boeing’s three 737 Max twinjets (the -9, -8 and -7 variants), which are due to enter service in 2017.

Later this year, CFM expects to deliver the first Leap 1Cs to China’s Comac for the C919. For this program, CFM, with its sibling Nexcelle, is providing a complete integrated powerplant, that also includes a full nacelle, inlet, cowl and thrust reversers.

To date, CFM has logged almost 9,000 Leap engine orders

and the company is acutely focused on the need to deliver these on time and according to specification. According to Ebanga, some 28,000 examples of the existing CFM56 turbofans have been delivered to airframers and not one of these has delayed the delivery of an airliner.

According to Ebanga, CFM’s transition to production of the Leap family marks the first time in industry history that a manufacturer will have switched to a new product when the existing product is at its peak rate of production. “The CFM56 production rate has increased yearon-year for the past 10 years,” he pointed out.

The company expects to continue producing CFM56 parts for at least another 30 years, until 2045. It cannot be sure when the transition to an all-Leap production line will be complete since this will effectively be determined by the rate at which Boeing and Airbus continue to produce their respective 737 and A320 families with their original powerplants.

The foundation on which CFM is establishing Leap production is a multi-national supply

chain that Ebanga claimed is the most global in the aero-engine industry, and which is currently producing around 1,000 turbofans per year. Most of the existing CFM56 partners are also involved in the Leap program.

The main difference is in the new technology parts, such as resintransfer molder composite fan blades, for which the CFM partners GE and Snecma are setting up new factories, respectively in New Hampshire and France.

“No-one is better equipped than us to deal with this ramp up,” said Ebanga. “Getting to production readiness for Leap has been a five or six year journey.” Running in tandem with the Leap program’s technology

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‘tollgates,’ which signify whether the engineering work is progressing in a satisfactory way, CFM also has conducted sequential manufacturing readiness reviews to ensure that production planning is keeping up with development tasks. The Leap manufacturing team based at GE’s Cincinnati, Ohio, headquarters is co-located with the program development team.

According to Ebanga, GE and Snecma have invested more than $800 million to build new factories for Leap, as well as to upgrade existing facilities. “We have already stess-tested the production system to deal with surges [in output] to the highest possible rates and this process

Leap Testing Set to Climax This Year The majority of Leap engine certification testing will be complete by the end of 2015, which CFM Leap program manager Gareth Richards described as “our most intense year of testing, ever.” As of last month, there were 33 Leap engines involved in various tests at GE Aviation’s Boeing 747 flying testbed site in Victorville, California, as well as in Peebles, Ohio, and at two Snecma sites in France. By comparison, Richards pointed out that the larger GE90 turbofan development program involved only seven engines.

Richards explained that all three Leap engines have been optimized for their respective aircraft but share a common design philosophy. “So we do apply the lessons learned from all tests when they

apply universally,” he told AIN. “For instance, we can use software to tune the way an engine operates through factors such as controlling clearances [between the case and the fans].” Other changes include improvements to the coating systems for the inside of the cases.

Even before the Leap engines take to the air on their respective new airliners, CFM has tested their full flight envelopes on its own flying testbed and completed bird-strike and blade-out tests.

CFM uses the flying test bed to validate engine performance, and this process continues while flight-testing the new aircraft themselves. Other important tests include those needed to ensure that the engines will correctly interface with all related systems, such as fuel tanks. Other tests

include assessing the engines’s acoustical and emissions performance.

“We’re very confident that we will reach the promised specifications [for factors such as fuel burn], and we’ve made big financial guarantees to back up this commitment,” said Richards. “We could have chosen to go further [in terms of fuel efficiency] by running the engine hotter or at higher pressure, but we chose not to do that, because Leap engines will be used for shorter flights of around one or two hours and so durability and maintenance costs are bigger considerations. We’ve reserved further advances in fuel efficiency for future developments, because Leap is going to be around for 30 years or so.” –C.A.

has been applied to our internal supply chain as well as to our external suppliers,” he told AIN. Technology Leadership

“When I joined CFM four years ago, some people in the market were still trying to understand the path we chose with Leap,” said Ebanga. “Four years down the road, the industry got it, finally, not only because we have demonstrated that Leap has met the expectations we had for it but also because there is generally a greater awareness of the new technologies we have used. These include genuine industry-firsts that others have now embraced, such as additive manufacturing, which we were the first to talk about, and carbon fiber composite fan blades, for which we will have the first in commercial service.”

According to Ebanga, GE was two generations ahead of the rest of the engine industry with carbon composite technology. It first introduced laminate technology to the GE90 engine and views the three-dimensional woven materials employed for Leap as representing the second generation of composite technology.

“With additive manufacturing, the question isn’t whether or not we can use it for Leap parts, but how are we going to optimize the technology to produce a high volume of parts,” said Ebanga. “Each Leap engine has 18 or 19 fuel nozzles, and by 2020 we will be building at least 1,900 Leap engines. So at that point no-one else will be producing nozzles on that scale, around 36,000 per year.”

According to Ebanga, Leap customer-support initiatives are being prepared “with the same level of intensity” as the development and manufacturing process.

“We have prepared a learning experience for the [airline] customers so that they have the right level of organization and process to deal with the engine after entry into service,” he explained.

So far, there are almost 60 Leap customers, compared with the 550 CFM56 operators worldwide. “Most [Leap] operators will do about eight-to-10 flights per day and our goal is to help them to have a flawless entry into service,” he said. o

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www.ainonline.com • June 15, 2015 • Paris Airshow News 19

Lisi benefits from recent acquisitions

by Guillaume Lecompte-Boinet Since acquiring two businesses–Creuzet in 2011 and Manoir Aerospace one year ago–Lisi Aerospace (Chalet 155, Hall 2b C172) has expanded its products for OEMs, from

major structural components for engines and airframes, to simple fasteners. “We can now offer a full assembly process to our customers,” said Emmanuel Viellard, CEO of Lisi Aerospace,

and one of the stakeholders of France-based Lisi Group.

The structural components division operates under the brand name Lisi Aerospace Creuzet, while the core business

of Lisi Aerospace (Lisi Group, Belfort) is metal deformation, complemented by heat treatment, machining, coating and assembly. Overall, aerospace represents more than 60 percent of total business at Lisi Group, which last year amounted to €1.3 billion ($1.45 billion). The group employs almost 7,000 people at 19 manufacturing sites in

eight countries. Moreover, Lisi Aerospace is the most profitable and fastest growing subsidiary of the group, which also has automotive and medical subsidiaries.

The core business represents 96 percent of the group’s 2014 free cash flow and has grown 33 percent, from €592 million in 2012 to the €788 million achieved in 2014 (respectively, $657 million to $874 million). Viellard forecasts even more growth in 2015, even if it’s at a slightly lower rate from the previous year.

Lisi Aerospace is one of the main fastener suppliers to Airbus, Dassault Aviation, Bombardier and Boeing, thanks, in part, to the acquisitions, but also to the strong market in aviation.

Fasteners account for two thirds of Lisi Aerospace’s revenues.

Increased Production Rates

The French company has enjoyed increases in production rates of components for the Boeing 737 and the Airbus A320 families over the past three years. Combined, the OEMs recently announced planned monthly rates of 52 narrowbodies a month (possibly as many as 60) for the 737 and A320 programs. That’s good news for suppliers such as Lisi. “We will be ready to address this challenge,” commented Viellard. The Dreamliner also represents solid activity, and Lisi Aerospace will have further growth opportunities with the A350 ramp-up.

Since the integration of Creuzet and Manoir Aerospace, Lisi Aerospace has added a new business line incorporating airframe components and subassembly, notably for engines and nacelles. For example, Lisi Aerospace provides blades, leading edges and air-intake components for airliner engine programs such as the CFM56 and the Leap powerplants.

“Leap’s ramp-up is the big challenge for us because a swing [in production] will occur between the CFM56 and the Leap in the next 24 months,” said Viellard.

In order to prepare, the company has started building two new factories, one in Parthenay (in the west of France) to produce the guide vanes for the Leap engines, and the other at Villefranche-de-Rouergue (southwest France) for Leap fasteners. During the past four years, Lisi Aerospace has invested more than €50 million annually in new factories, not only in France but also in Morocco and Turkey. “We still have some difficulty recruiting workers in France with good skills,” said Viellard. o

20 Paris Airshow News • June 15, 2015 • www.ainonline.com

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Special Report Israeli Defence Forces’ YouTube channel. Dr. Libel also noted that data collected by UAVs is increasingly used to provide legal justification for military actions. However, he said, there is not much public discussion on the morality of using UAVs for attack missions, with the accompanying risk of civilian casualties. Indeed, Israel has never officially confirmed that its UAVs are armed. Nevertheless, Dr. Libel added, the persistent and real-time intelligence gathering that is possible with UAVs does decrease the collateral damage in the dense urban terrains of the Gaza Strip and West Bank.

Hermes 450

Israel’s UAVs find new roles as hunters and data gatherers

by Chris Pocock Thereafter, the IAF adapted its UAV operations to the lowintensity conflict in the occupied territories and Lebanon. In the latter, Hezbollah was proving adept at camouflaging its forces, and Israel required surveillance capabilities that only UAVs could provide. By 1992, the IAF’s UAVs were equipped with laser designators to mark Hezbollah targets, including those on the move, for strikes by fighters and attack helicopters.

By the time of the Second Intifada on the West Bank in 2000-07, which coincided with a suicide-bombing campaign in Israeli cities, UAVs were integral to the Israeli state’s response.

Nevertheless, Dr. Libel said, the IAF leadership remained “somewhat skeptical” about the contribution that UAVs could make, and was reluctant to assign core missions to them, or develop doctrine that fully embraced their potential. In the field, however,

IAI

IAI’s first UAV, the Scout, debuted in 1977. It was succeeded in Israeli service in the 1990s by the Searcher.

IAI

ELBIT SYSTEMS

Outside of the U.S., Israel is the country that has the most experience in developing and deploying UAVs. As European industrials and operators play catch-up, they can learn from Israeli practice that has been forged on the anvil of war with neighbors as well as internal conflict. In a recent presentation in London, Dr. Tamir Libel described the evolution of UAVs in the Israeli Air Force (IAF).

It was during the largely forgotten “War of Attrition” with Egypt along the Suez Canal in 1969-70, that one intelligence officer tired of the lengthy 24-hour cycle of tasking, processing and dissemination associated with the IAF’s RF-4 Phantom reconnaissance missions. Besides, those flights were increasingly hazardous, as Egypt deployed more and more SA-2/3 surface-to-air missiles. So he fitted a camera to a radio-controlled drone and flew it over the Egyptian side of the canal.

By the end of this conflict, Israel decided to acquire Firebee and Chukar UAVs from the U.S. Using these, the first IAF UAV squadron performed well in the 1973 Yom Kippur War. The loss of many IAF combat aircraft to lethal SA-6 SAM batteries in that war spurred the development of Israel’s first indigenous reconnaissance UAVs–the IAI Scout and the Tadiran Mastiff.

By the time of the First Lebanon War in 1982, they provided feedback in real-time, and proved valuable in the IAF’s efforts to counter Syrian-operated air defenses in Lebanon.

Helicopter Stand-ins

lower echelons were steadily gaining expertise in coordination between UAV, fixed-wing aircraft and helicopter operations. And the domestic security service Shin Bet certainly recognized the potential for UAVs in the counter-terrorism role.

Since 2006, the main focus of Israel’s UAV operations has been the Gaza Strip, during Operations Cast Lead (2008-09); Pillar of Defense (2012); and Protective Edge (2014). During these campaigns, joint planning and training between the Army, the IAF and other Israeli intelligence and security agencies has accelerated. So has the government’s use of UAV imagery to boost public morale, for instance through postings to the

Hermes 450, developed by Elbit Systems, came out in 1998. Like its rival Heron, it has been widely exported. Right, The IAI Heron first flew in 1994 and has since been widely exported, as well as serving the Israeli air force.

24 Paris Airshow News • June 15, 2015 • www.ainonline.com

Today, UAVs often replace attack helicopters on close-airsupport missions, according to Dr. Libel. The IAF’s AH-1 Cobra squadron was deactivated last year at Palmachim airbase– the same one that houses three of the four UAV squadrons, and the UAV School. One of these squadrons operates IAI Heron 1s, another has IAI Heron 2s and the larger Heron TP, and two have the Elbit Hermes 450. Dr. Libel cannot confirm whether Elbit’s latest Hermes 900 product has entered IAF service. The School–established in 2002–has helped develop a UAV concept and doctrine that was previously missing in the IAF. It also ensures that the IAF’s UAV operators are fully conversant with the army’s equipment and procedures.

Israel has avoided the interservice arguments about “roles and missions” that has dogged the deployment of UAVs in the American and some other armed forces. In 2000, the Chief of the General Staff in Israel decided that the IAF would operate all UAVs. Since then, mini-UAVs have been developed, and these can be deployed by Army battalions. But according to Dr. Libel, Israel has not yet developed a new “theory of war” that fully embraces the potential of UAVs, and military robotics in general. The prospects for moving unmanned platforms from a supporting to a leading role “seem bleak,” he said. o Dr. Tamir Libel is a visiting scholar in the Department of Political Science at the University of Trier and nonresident fellow at the Centre for War Studies, University College Dublin. Additional material used above is taken by AIN from an article that Dr. Libel wrote for the RUSI Journal, April 2015, with co-author Emily Boulter.

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The U.S. Army ordered 152 copies of an upgraded MQ-1 Predator that is known as the Gray Eagle.

The revolutionary but thorny U.S. Predator-Reaper program

by Chris Pocock Controversy is never absent from the U.S. Predator/Reaper program. Perhaps that is inevitable, with such a revolutionary capability. But 20 years after the first Predator went into service, the issues remain numerous and persistent. Some of them have now been given the Hollywood treatment, in the newly released film Good Kill.

For a mass audience, that film explores the moral and ethical issues of remotely controlled warfare. But it also features the ongoing jurisdictional debate over CIA versus U.S. military operational control, and the motivation and training problems that beset the MQ-1/9

program. Other issues that occupy program officials and observers include the data deluge from persistent UAV operations that overwhelms the analysts, procurement procedures, exportability, airworthiness and the vulnerability of the platform in anything other than a benign air defense environment.

Summing up the way this program has evolved, Lt. Gen. Bob Otto, U.S. Air Force deputy chief of staff for intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR), said recently: “Crisis has become the steady state.” Speaking at an AFA breakfast meeting in Washington, Otto noted that “the unconstrained demand

for ISR” can never be met. He recalled that when there were 11 full-motion video (FMV) combat air patrols (CAPs) over Iraq in 2005-07, Centcom commanders complained they were meeting only a third of their requirement. “Now we have 65 CAPs, yet Centcom says they are still meeting only 21 percent of the requirement,” he pointed out.

The shortage of UAV pilots has been much discussed by the U.S. military leadership in recent months. In January, U.S. Air Force chief of staff Gen. Mark Welsh described the problem in stark terms: “We can train only about 180 people a year and we need 300-a-year trained, and

we’re losing about 240 from the community each year.” His MQ-1/9 pilots currently fly six days in a row and work 13- to 14-hour days on average. The service has doubled their incentive pay. Instructors are also in short supply: the training squadrons at Holloman AFB are onethird short of their assigned manpower levels. The U.S. Army has similar problems, although somewhat mitigated by the use of enlisted personnel as pilots.

General Atomics Aeronautical Systems Inc. (GA-ASI) reported last March that its family of UAVs logged one million flight hours between 1994 and 2010.

In the next four years, they amassed a further two million hours. The family now includes the U.S. Army’s MQ-1C Gray Eagle (152 on order) as well as the MQ-1 Predators and MQ-9 Reapers flown by the CIA; the Department of Homeland Security (DHS); NASA; the U.S.

Air Force; and the air forces of France, Italy and the UK. GA-ASI produced 248 Predators for the U.S. Air Force between 1994 and 2011. About 140 of them are still in service; the other 100 have been written off in landing and other accidents, and a few shoot-downs.

Their service life has been extended to at least 20,000 hours, based on nondestructive inspection of high-time aircraft.

Introduced in 2001, the larger Reaper has a much better safety record. The U.S. Air Force fleet of MQ-9s is now nearing 200, and GA-ASI continues to produce three per month, with the capacity to double that rate if required. The Air Force wants to phase out the Predators and buy a total of 346 Reapers by 2019.

That plan has been criticized by the Pentagon’s own inspector general. Recent budget documents quote a planned total spend of over $6.6 billion on Reaper procurement, of which $4.5 billion will have been disbursed by the end of Fiscal Year (FY) 2015.

The total includes sensors, communications equipment, weapon kits, ground control stations, simulators and other training devices, as well as spares and contractor support. Most of this is supplied by GA-ASI, including the Lynx surveillance radar, although Raytheon supplies the primary Multispectral Targeting System MTS-B EO/IR sensor and laser designator (improved DAS-2 version on the Army’s Gray Eagles). Raytheon also offered an alternative ground station, without success. L-3 Com supplies the data links.

Continued on page 28 u

After much criticism, GA-ASI has been improving the ground control station (GCS) for the MQ-1/9. The original version (above) is being replaced by better versions, including the advanced GCS (left).

26 Paris Airshow News • June 15, 2015 • www.ainonline.com

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The jet-powered and stealthy Predator-C has been deployed by the U.S. on a classified program, and is also proposed

by GA-ASI for the U.S. Navy UCLASS requirement.

Predator-Reaper program uContinued from page 26

The Pentagon has spent a further $966 million on RDT&E to upgrade the MQ-9 alone, with another $616 million planned.

It will cost an additional $2 billion to modify in-service aircraft.

The long list of desired improvements to the Reaper, some of which are under way or already implemented in the Block 5 version, includes: » Extended-range kits to boost endurance without weapons from 27 to some 33 to 35 hours, through external fuel tanks. The mtow is increased from 10,500 pounds to 11,700 pounds. Alcohol water injection is used to shorten takeoff length, especially from hotand-high airfields. Seventy-two kits have been funded through FY2015. GA-ASI is additionally offering a 13-foot wing extension to further increase the fuel capacity. » Anti-icing provision on the wings, tails and engine inlet. » Automatic takeoff and landing system (ATLS)–already a standard feature of the Army’s Gray Eagles. » Redundant avionics and a redesigned forward avionics bay. » H igh-definition camera upgrade to the MTS-B sensor, and addition of the “stepstare” function that converts FMV to still-frame imagery. » Lynx radar improvements to both SAR and GMTI modes, including the ability to identify dismounted (e.g., small) targets, which has proved difficult with the current version from higher altitudes. » Data link upgrades, including compliance with the common

data link (CDL), encryption, secure voice communication and IP networking. The status of a plan to migrate from commercial Ku-band satcom to military Ka-band satcom is unclear. » Navigation and electrical systems upgrades. » Improvements to the sensor/ stores management computer. » MIL-STD-1760 weapons data bus. » Integration of new weapons such as new AGM-114 Hellfire variants, GBU-12/38/49/54 guided bombs and Small Diameter Bomb (SDB) variants.

» H ardware and software upgrades to the ground control station, including multiaircraft control in transit, new LINUX processors, high-definition monitors, open-systems architecture and ergonomic improvements, resulting in new Block 30 and 50 standards (the latter is called the “Advanced Cockpit” by GA-ASI). » Airworthiness certification.

This last item is currently a major activity for GA-ASI. It is redesigning the Reaper structure for protection against icing and lightning strikes, and for a

In the newly released film Good Kill, Ethan Hawke plays a U.S. Air Force Reaper pilot who is confronted by the moral dilemmas and day-to-day frustrations of remotely controlled warfare.

defined fatigue life. The flightand ground-control software is being requalified to certification standards. The first flight of the “certifiable Reaper” is scheduled for late next year.

Meanwhile, the company has been flying its own Due Regard Radar (DRR) together with a TCAS II collision avoidance system on an Ikhana (the NASA version of the Reaper, which, it should be noted, GA-ASI continues to call the Predator-B).

A preproduction DRR flew in February, when GA-ASI said that it was “the first fully

The Predator XP, seen here on its first flight in June 2014, is an unarmed but upgraded version of the MQ-1, licensed for export to countries around the world.

functional air-to-air radar” on a UAV that meets the requirements for “due regard” operations in international airspace. The company added that its sense-andavoid system was “ready for a customer to conduct an operational test and evaluation.”

In February the U.S. government issued a new policy on the exportability of various unmanned systems. These were previously constrained by the U.S. desire to adhere to the Missile Technology Control Regime (MTCR), a diplomatic agreement among 34 countries, as well as Washington’s perennial concerns about the export of sensitive and advanced technology.

Meanwhile, GA-ASI has been flying an unarmed export version of the MQ-1 for almost a year.

The Predator XP has now been licensed for sale to countries in the Middle East, North Africa, South America and Asia. It includes a FLIR Systems Star Safire FMV camera, Lynx multimode radar, satcom, the automatic identification system (AIS) for maritime patrol, the automatic takeoff and landing system, and triple-redundant avionics. The first production aircraft is due for delivery next year–probably to the UAE.

European Accord

The larger and more capable Reaper has been exported only to France, Italy and the UK. European angst at the lack of a homegrown competitor to the American product (and its Israeli analog, the IAI Heron) finally resulted last month in a tri-nation agreement to fund a project definition study for a Euro-MALE (mediumaltitude long-endurance) UAS. But GA-ASI continues to press the merits of the Reaper to Germany, the Netherlands and The GA-ASI Due Regard Radar (DRR) has been added to the nose of this MQ-9 Reaper for upgraded surveillance capability.

28 Paris Airshow News • June 15, 2015 • www.ainonline.com

Continued on page 32 u

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UNMANNED AIRCRAFT & SYSTEMS

World’s largest UAS conference ushers in a new commercial focus

by Bill Carey The Unmanned Systems conference in the U.S., traditionally the largest event of the unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) industry, is no longer your father’s military-focused trade gathering. As of next year, it will also have a new name.

The sponsoring Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International (AUVSI) has rebranded the annual trade show as “Xponential.”

The new name reflects the robotic aircraft industry’s “tremendous growth and innovation…as well as the broad societal benefits of the technology,”

explained AUVSI. Indeed, UAS– more popularly called drones– have evolved relatively recently from military and model-aircraft roots into a promising new commercial industry.

AUVSI has also evolved. The association traces its start to 1972 as the U.S. disengaged from the Vietnam War, a conflict that saw drones used extensively as decoys and for jamming radars and reconnaissance. This year, AUVSI elected a new slate of directors that includes representatives from Amazon and Google, Internetage companies that aspire to use drones for package deliveries

and telecommunications. The association’s chairmanship still reflects the old order; it changed hands from John Lademan of Northrop Grumman to John Burke of Airbus. In January, Brian Wynne, who previously led the Electric Drive Transportation Association, succeeded longtime former U.S. Department of Defense executive Michael Toscano as AUVSI’s president and CEO. This year’s Unmanned Systems conference, held May 4-7 in Atlanta, Georgia, drew nearly 600 exhibitors and 8,000 attendees, roughly the same numbers as

3DR Solo quadcopter

Special Report in recent years. But the opening general session spoke to the new face of AUVSI. Moderated by Colin Guinn, chief revenue officer of small drone manufacturer 3D Robotics (3DR), it featured a “visionary commercial UAS panel” consisting of David Vos, the leader of Google’s Project Wing effort; CyPhy Works CEO Helen Greiner, an MIT-trained roboticist who co-invented the “Roomba” robotic vacuum cleaner; and David Vigilante, chief editorial counsel for cable network CNN. CNN later figured in the conference’s highest profile announcement, which saw Federal Aviation Administration administrator Michael Huerta traveling to Atlanta to announce that CNN, BNSF Railway and dronemaker PrecisionHawk will participate with the agency in a “pathfinder project” to explore beyond-lineof-sight and other operations of small fixed-wing and multi-rotor drones. Expanded flight envelopes are considered critical for the package delivery plans of Amazon and Google, as well as for other types of operations.

Legacy UAS manufacturers such as AeroVironment, Boeing Insitu, Northrop Grumman, General Atomics, Lockheed Martin, Textron Systems and L-3 Communications remained prominent in the exhibit hall.

Sikorsky displayed the event’s largest aircraft: a Black Hawk helicopter the manufacturer used for its UH-60M upgrade effort, with markings from its “Matrix” program to develop an autonomous helicopter.

Sikorsky hopes to interest the U.S. Army in an optionally piloted Black Hawk. In the age of small multi-rotor drones, the manufacturer wanted to demonstrate the scale of what is possible, an executive said.

But the American public will sooner see a small unmanned helicopter that has already flown for two decades in Japan as well as in Australia and South Korea.

On May 1, the FAA granted Yamaha Motor Corp. USA an exemption to fly its 200-pound Rmax agricultural helicopter over private or controlledaccess properties to treat crops.

The Rmax, which Yamaha displayed in Atlanta, at the time was the largest unmanned platform the FAA had authorized to operate in the U.S., and the first approved for crop spraying.

Different Market Approaches

Other companies that exhibited at the conference are taking different approaches to the burgeoning commercial market for unmanned aircraft. Drone designer Jordi Munoz and former Wired magazine editor Chris Anderson co-founded 3DR in 2009. Guinn joined the company last year after heading the North America branch of Dajiang Innovation Technology Co. (DJI), the Shenzhen, Chinabased company that is on track to become the first billion-dollar manufacturer of consumer drones. In an interview with AIN, Guinn recalled drawing attention at the Unmanned Systems 2012 conference in Las Vegas with DJI’s Zenmuse Z15 three-axis stabilized camera gimbal, an industry first, mounted under a Spreading Wings S800 hexacopter.

“We made a big splash because we had a system that you could get for $6,500, that shot perfectly stable imagery, that you didn’t see anywhere else at the show,” Guinn said. Next came DJI’s popular Phantom quadcopter, which, among other feats, made news in January when one crash-landed on the White House lawn. “With the Phantom being the success that it was, AUVSI realizes that it needs to bring in companies like that,” he added. “I don’t know for a fact, but I would venture to say that the numberone commercial drone being used today is the Phantom. That’s the drone that people have.”

Few Paris show attendees took much notice in 2009 when Austrian manufacturer Schiebel first flew its S-100 "Camcopter" during the flying display. Back again in 2011 with a high-visibility paint job, right, the pioneer unmanned aerial system had to pass stringent safety standards and secure an EASA flight permit to leave the ground. The Camcopter had a three-meter main rotor span, a maximum takeoff weight of 200 kilograms (440 pounds) and could fly for more than six hours. According to a company statement, "The drone meets all preconditions for its participation in the Paris Air Show." n

PHOTOS: MARK WAGNER

First of the Many

30 Paris Airshow News • June 15, 2015 • www.ainonline.com

Continued on page 32 u

all clear

Connected flight crews can save airlines time and money with Weather Information Service, Honeywell’s new Electronic Flight Bag (EFB) application for constantly updated in-flight weather information.

Storms can be bypassed, and alternate routings planned earlier, avoiding potentially costly delays and even damage. Since the dawn of civilization, mankind has been finding ways to avoid the elements, from prehistoric shelter building to the invention of the umbrella and advanced meteorological instrumentation. Now Honeywell is doing the same for pilots with Weather Information Service. An EFB application for connected aircraft, giving a constantly updated weather display, Weather Information Service allows flight crews to react to changing conditions more quickly — saving fuel, as well as minimizing delays and adverse weather-related incidents. This provides a more comfortable flight for passengers.

Clear skies ahead with Weather Information Service.

To learn more about Honeywell’s Weather Information Service visit aerospace.Honeywell.com. © 2015 Honeywell International Inc. All Rights Reserved.

The “show host” of this year’s Unmanned Systems conference was Colin Guinn, 3D Robotics’ chief revenue officer.

UAS conference ushers in new focus uContinued from page 30

3DR displayed what Guinn described as its first mass-market offering–the Solo quadcopter–at Unmanned Systems 2015.

Positioned to compete against DJI’s Phantom 3, the Solo weighs less than five pounds, runs on open-source software to allow for customized functions, and retails at $995 for the drone itself–more for a gimbal and GoPro camera.

Solo is designed to accommodate both recreational uses and commercial drone applications, such as for aerial inspections of cellular towers, wind turbines and powerlines as well as real estate photography.

“My vision is [to combine] 3DR’s historic open innovation

model, and the ability for the entire community and thirdparty developers to add value to our platform, with the convenience of being ready to fly out of the box,” Guinn said. “So somebody who just wants to get really nice aerial video doesn’t have to become a pro or build their own system…Solo is a commercial product that consumers will buy and use all day long.”

AeroVironment, founded by aeronautical engineer Paul MacCready in 1971, sees things differently. The publicly traded company based in Monrovia, California, already supplies more than 80 percent of the small drones the U.S. military services use in the form of hand-launched Raven, Puma and Wasp airplanes. In 2013, AeroVironment secured one of the first two restricted-category

type certifications the U.S. FAA issued for a commercial unmanned aircraft, enabling it to fly the Puma for oil company BP on Alaska’s North Slope. It has also won customers for its Qube quadcopter among police agencies, including the sheriffs’ departments in Grand Forks, North Dakota, and Ventura County, California.

“When we think of the commercial market, we’re defining that as the nonmilitary market, and there are different segments within that commercial market,” said Steven Gitlin, AeroVironment vice president for marketing strategy and communications. “We’re not defining it as the consumer market–the hobbyist or RC types of devices. We’re looking at it more as an enterprise or institutional capability for major businesses or government agencies.”

For now, AeroVironment isn’t focused on “systems that you can use to take pretty pictures, because there are plenty of systems out there that you can use to do that cheaply,” Gitlin said.

But he didn’t rule out the legacy manufacturer eventually targeting the consumer market.

“It’s hard to be everything to everybody,” Gitlin said. “You need to focus on those opportunities that are going to create the greatest value for customers and the greatest value for shareholders. There may come a point in the future where we’re convinced that there’s a compelling argument to be made for another segment of the market. If we can justify that, than I wouldn’t preclude us going after different segments.” o

On the eve of the conference, the FAA granted Yamaha Motor Corp. USA an exemption to fly the Rmax helicopter in the U.S.

32 Paris Airshow News • June 15, 2015 • www.ainonline.com

Special Report

UK MoD Crown ©

PHOTOS: BILL CAREY

UNMANNED AIRCRAFT & SYSTEMS

Equipped with the Raytheon MTS-B full-motion video sensor and laser designator, and armed with Hellfire missiles, an MQ-9 Reaper flies from Kandahar, Afghanistan.

Two screen grabs from surveillance video show the moment before...

...and just after a remotely controlled ordnance strike in a combat situation.

Predator-Reaper program

and elsewhere, the Predators and Reapers have roamed with relative impunity. But if they fly too low, they become vulnerable to anti-aircraft guns, and they would be sitting ducks if flown against a comprehensive air defense system that includes airborne interceptors. In General Otto’s opinion, “We’re overinvested in permissive ISR versus contested environments.”

The response from GA-ASI was to privately fund development of the jet-powered and semi-stealthy Predator-C. It first flew in April 2009, with a larger version following in January 2012. A small but unknown number have since been deployed by the U.S. in a program that remains classified. The U.S. Congress has added funding for GA-ASI to demonstrate integration of the UTA Aerospace Systems MS-177 multispectral sensor on the Predator-C. Meanwhile, GA-ASI has proposed the jet-powered drone for the U.S. Navy’s unmanned carrier-launched airborne surveillance and strike system (UCLASS), which is having a troubled gestation. o

uContinued from page 28

Spain, all of which have nearterm requirements that may not wait for the Euro-MALE in the early 2020s.

Predators and Reapers have been the platforms for the development and fielding of various additional sensors, some of them exotic. They include the BAE/ Exelis/SNC Gorgon Stare widearea motion imagery (WAMI) sensor pod that was first fielded on the MQ-9 in 2011, and two Raytheon ACES-HY hyperspectral sensor pods that are being tested on the MQ-1. A plan to equip many of the UAVs with the Northrop Grumman Advanced Signals Intelligence Payload (ASIP) was scaled back.

The ASIP-1C version was fielded on some MQ-1s. The COMINTonly ASIP-2C version was slated for the MQ-9, but has not been approved for fielding. A Raytheon electronic attack payload has been tested on the Gray Eagle.

Over Iraq and Afghanistan, and then Yemen, Somalia, Syria

UNMANNED AIRCRAFT & SYSTEMS

Special Report

Seasoned by UK pact, Thales widens its view

After seven years of operating an interim Hermes 450 system in Afghanistan, the British Army finally deployed the Watchkeeper UAS to Camp Bastion in 2014.

Thales is stressing its end-toend capability in unmanned aerial systems, as well as seven years of operational experience, in its bid to supply the Watchkeeper UAS to the French Army. The company said it is close to achieving 35-percent French content for the bid, including a new high-definition EO/IR sensor. Poland is another nearterm prospect, and there are “lots more in the Middle East and Asia-Pacific,” said Pierrick Lerey, strategy and marketing director for UAS and ISR. The operational e­ xperience stems from the contract that Thales UK signed with the British Army. This involved Thales supplying the Hermes 450 for interim service in Afghanistan, and helping to operate it there, until the more sophisticated Watchkeeper based on the same Elbit Systems airframe was ready. This took much longer than anticipated because of additional certification requirements, according to Thales.

However, the full-up system was deployed to the theater in mid-2014 and flew successfully for 100 hours before the British troop withdrawal at the end of the year, according to Lt. Col. Craig Palmer, the British Army lead officer for implementing the Watchkeeper system.

Thales (Chalet 263, Static B1 and Hall Concorde 39) is keen to stress that Watchkeeper is now a fully “European” system, with no further recourse to Israel needed for support or export permission. Thales UK provides 80 percent of the content of

the British Army Watchkeepers and manufactures the UAV (the British Army has ordered 13 systems, which includes 54 airframes). Another 15 percent of the content comes from France.

Key enhancements compared with the Hermes 450 include the Thales I-Master multi-channel SAR/GMTI radar, and the Thales Magic automatic takeoff and landing system (ATOLS).

The company also provides the secure communications and the ground control stations, including the imagery exploitation system. “We master the imagery chain and are the only company that masters the whole frequency spectrum,” claimed Lerey.

“It’s all about the exploitation–not the platform, that’s just a taxi,” said Lt. Col. Palmer as he briefed journalists in Paris earlier this month on operations by 32 Regiment, Royal Artillery.

100,000 Hours...and Counting

The regiment logged 100,000 hours on the Hermes 450 before the Watchkeeper arrived in Afghanistan, but the latter’s radar “has given us new ideas about how to operate,” he said. He described GMTI surveillance by the UAV that replaced “many man-hours on ground patrols,” and showed SAR imagery that enables analysts to easily detect changes– “Blue is new, Red is fled.”

In Afghanistan, the Hermes 450 and Watchkeeper sometimes operated in conjunction with UK Royal Air Force and U.S. Air Force Reapers, cross-cueing these much larger UAVs, which

CROWN COPYRIGHT 2014

by Chris Pocock

are armed. “But we think 500 kilograms is where it’s at,” said Palmer, a reference to the takeoff weight of the Watchkeeper.

He stressed the importance to the Army of having organic control of a tactical UAV. Personnel from the French Army have been deployed to 32 Regiment to observe the British operations. Lerey said the French requirement is similar to the UK’s. Neither country has plans to arm its tactical UAV–yet.

However, Poland might specify weaponization from the outset. At the Farnborough Air Show last year, Thales displayed a Watchkeeper full-scale model carrying the company’s own lightweight modular missile (LMM).

The Watchkeeper proposal to the French Army includes a new full-high-definition (1,920 by 1,080 4K) video camera from L’Heritier, which previously supplied a 720p version for the UK platform. L’Heritier is one of 35 French small and medium

THALES

After a long process, Thales finally satisfied the airworthiness certification requirements of the British authorities. But the UAV can still only fly over two specified areas of the UK, including the West Wales coast seen here.

enterprises that Thales has gathered to support its bid.

Thales’ French Army proposal also includes a sovereign datalink, connectivity with the French C4ISR system, and a remote video terminal that is fully compatible with the Rover 4 and 5 terminals used by French ground forces.

Lerey claimed that the Watchkeeper is the only UAV platform that is civil-certified to STANAG 4671 and CS23.

However, it des not yet have a sense-and-avoid system and in the UK is limited to flying over a UAV test range in West Wales,

and the Army’s training grounds on Salisbury Plain, Wiltshire.

Looking forward to new customers, Thales proposes a “Customer Club” to share concepts of operation, lessons learned, attrition stocks, changes and repairs. The UK plans to operate the UAS through 2042 so “future buyers will benefit from the UK investment, and the UK will benefit from their through-life plans,” Lerey said.

Apart from arming the UAV, other possible options are a deicing system and an electronic warfare payload. o

Israel’s UVision munitions introduces family of Heros

by David Donald UVision (Static A8) is unveiling its Hero family of smart loitering munitions this week here in Paris. To meet a variety of operational requirements, the Israeli company has evolved a range of highly maneuverable weapons, from the 6.6-pound man-packable Hero 30 with a warhead of 1.1 pounds and an endurance of 30 minutes to the 214-pound Hero 900 that can carry a 44-pound warhead for an endurance of up to seven hours.

The munitions are applicable to a variety of tactical and strategic missions, offering the pinpoint accuracy required for urban warfare and the ability to attack moving targets. Able to be launched from land, sea and air, the Hero family uses stabilized optics for surveillance and target acquisition, as well as low-noise pusher propellers that are driven by either electric or gasoline-fueled engines.

The short-range members of

the family–the Hero 30, 70 and 120–employ cruciform wings that fold out on launch. They all have electric engines and are canister-launched. The longrange systems–the Hero 250, 400 and 900–use gasoline engines and have fixed wings for rail launch or folding wings for canister launch. The Hero 900 has a range of 155 miles.

Each system is designed for a high dash speed to the target area, followed by low-speed loitering as the munition searches for the assigned target or waits for one to pop up. They can also attack preprogrammed GPS coordinates.

An advanced datalink allows operators to select targets that are spotted by the munition’s electro-optics and also permits the changing of targets mid-mission and the transmission of recall/ abort commands. Low noise and thermal signatures are significant features of the Hero family. o

www.ainonline.com • June 15, 2015 • Paris Airshow News 33

A wing subassembly for the E190 E2 rests in its tooling at Embraer’s “center of excellence” in Evora, Portugal, before shipment to Brazil.

used in the E1s to the Pratt geared turbofans in the E2s, what Affonso termed important supplier changes included the switch from UTAS to Liebherr for the engine bleed air system. Others involved the award for pilot seats to England’s Ipeco in place of Zodiac. Affonso also said that Embraer decided to “verticalize” its structural supply base, taking responsibility for the forward fuselage section 1 and center fuselage 3 from Latecoere, for example.

Extensive Design Changes

Embraer rides ‘next wave’ of E2 development

by Gregory Polek Now that the Embraer E2 program has entered its systems integration phase in earnest, program managers can start to turn their attention toward final assembly of the first of three family members–the Pratt & Whitney PW1900G-powered E190 E2– at the company’s main plant in São José dos Campos, Brazil, “in a few months.”

Speaking with AIN just ahead of the start of the Paris Air Show, Embraer Commercial Aviation COO Luis Carlos Affonso reported that the 106seat airplane’s first wing spars had just arrived in Brazil from the company’s metallics “center of excellence” in Evora, Portugal, and that the upper and lower skins would follow in a matter of days. The deliveries marked an important milestone for a program whose promise of 16-percent fuel-burn

Embraer Commercial Aviation COO Luis Carlos Affonso

improvement depends largely on newly designed wings, notwithstanding common references to the E2 as a re-engining exercise.

“Very soon we’ll be assembling the wings here in São José dos Campos,” said Affonso, who noted that one important change in the production process will involve the location of wing assembly. Now building what it now calls the E1’s wings at its plant in Gaviao Peixoto, Brazil, Embraer has decided to move the function for all three E2 models to its main plant in São José dos Campos to help streamline the production system and reduce logistics and inventory costs. Originally a site occupied by former E-Jet wing producer Kawasaki, the Gaviao Peixoto plant has belonged to Embraer ever since it assumed responsibility for wing assembly in 2006.

Other subassemblies now in São José dos Campos include the forward fuselage and the lower center fuselage section 2.

In France, Latecoere’s work on the passenger and emergency exit doors has progressed well, said Affonso, while, in Spain, Aernnova has nearly finished building the first empennage.

Responsible not only for systems integration and final assembly but also for fabrication of a high proportion of

34 Paris Airshow News • June 15, 2015 • www.ainonline.com

the airplane’s structural components, Embraer builds the E2’s wings, some 75-percent of the fuselage and the landing gear.

Fuselage subassembly suppliers include Triumph, which builds the sections just aft of the wings and ahead of the empennage. Other suppliers and partners include Liebherr, control systems for flaps and slats; Rockwell Collins, horizontal stabilizer control system; UTC

Aerospace Systems, wheels, brakes, APU, electrical system; Intertechnique, engine and APU fuel feed, pressure refueling, fuel transfer, fuel tank inerting and ventilation, and fuel gauging and control; and Crane Aerospace & Electronics, electronic control module for landing gear, brake control systems and proximity sensors.

Apart from the switch in engines from the GE CF34s

New tooling in São José dos Campos stands ready to accept the first E190 E2 wing.

Although Embraer (Chalet 393) promotes the principle of cockpit and systems architecture commonality between the current E-Jets and the E2s for an easy transition from an operational standpoint, the company will enjoy little production commonality due to the fairly extensive design changes.

Consequently, the company has had to install all-new rigs, and face a challenging three- to four-year period during which production of the current E-Jet and E2 variants will overlap.

Test rig construction and operation has advanced as planned, said Affonso, both in São José dos Campos and, perhaps most notably, 12 miles away in Eugenio de Melo, where Embraer performs ground testing such as static, fatigue, iron bird and environmental control analysis. “All of those rigs are well advanced, some of them fully operational and others

two programs, we consider this a low-risk development.”

In fact, Embraer has now passed the point in development at which any particular aspect of design represents a socalled watch item, said Affonso.

Although a few assembly drawings remain unreleased, it has virtually completed detailed design. Completion of fabrication, systems test and integration and preparation for flight test lay ahead, but Affonso expressed satisfaction with the company’s progress in all areas as it looks toward scheduled delivery of the first E190 E2 in the first half of 2018.

“There really are no areas of concern,” he said. “I would say we are past the big challenges in the physical airplane. But the next phase we are entering right now really is the systems integration phase, so that’s the key phase now that the components are getting ready and our rigs are up and running. This is the next wave, let’s put it that way.” o

DAVID McINTOSH

still, let’s say in a progressive way, they are getting more and more complete,” said Affonso.

Now programming the E2’s flight control laws, Embraer has started the process of integrating software code into fly-by-wire hardware made by Moog, which carries responsibility for the primary controls and spoilers. Other contributors to the fly-by-wire system include Belgium’s Sonaca (flaps and slats) and Germany’s Liebherr (flight control system).

Full fly-by-wire constitutes one of the program’s most conspicuous advances over the current generation of E-Jets, which uses traditional controls for its ailerons. As a result, engineers could reduce the sizes of the family’s empennages, helping to cut drag.

Affonso stressed that although E2 development marks Embraer’s first application of full fly-by-wire in an airliner, it has gained valuable experience integrating such systems in the Legacy 500 business jet and the KC-390 tanker. “In both cases we developed the control laws,” he said. “So even though fly-by-wire systems are always are often challenging… in this case, given those other

HONORING OLD WARBIRDS, GREAT AND SMALL Here at Le Bourget, military history is served with the participation of historic warplanes. In the background, from France’s Warbirds, a World War II P-51 Mustang painted in the colors of 357th Fighter Group Major Leonard "Kit" Carson, whose memoir, “Pursue and Destroy,” is one of the best. In the foreground is a 1951 Piper PA-18 Super Cub, but painted to honor the WWII L-4s that served as artillery spotters, air ambulances and “flying jeeps.” For their ability to land and take off from tiny clearings, they were nicknamed "grasshoppers."

www.ainonline.com • June 15, 2015 • Paris Airshow News 35

Russian Helicopters Mi-26s perform a ceremonial fly-over at this 2015 Moscow parade. The aircraft is manufactured by the group’s Rostvertol subsidiary, which is marking its 75th anniversary.

New Russian Helicopters designs expected to boost sales performance

by Vladimir Karnozov At HeliRussia 2015, held May 21 to 23 in Moscow, Russian Helicopters announced its backlog of firm orders was 585 rotorcraft valued at 490 billion rubles ($9.8 billion at the then-current exchange rate). In 2014 the number of shipments stood at 271, compared to 275 in 2013; they were distributed almost equally to local and foreign customers in 11 countries. By number of deliveries, Russian Helicopters is second only to Airbus Helicopters (471 in 2014). It is set to deliver 244 helicopters this year.

Alexander Mikheyev, Russian Helicopters’ general manager, said he expects annual shipments to range from 230 to 280 helicopters through 2030. If accurate, this prediction would secure jobs for most of Russian Helicopters’ workforce of 46,500 who are employed on 26 projects under the umbrella of the holding company.

“The trend to a reduction in the number of our shipments year-on-year [during the 2013 to 2015 time frame] can be offset through the introduction of new designs and an increase in both quality and volume of services offered to our customers,” Mikheyev told AIN. “In the past several years we have delivered a lot of helicopters, and thus fulfilled a great deal of market demand for our products. This applies both to domestic and overseas markets. A new challenge we are facing now is to provide better after-sales support and maintenance for the global fleet of Mil and Kamov helicopters, which has grown recently. In order to keep our market share at some 20 pecent, we need to improve after-sales support, and we also need to add new helicopter models. These changes can help relieve the recent trend of a decline in shipments.”

Last year the manufacturer’s income amounted to nearly 170 billion rubles with a profit of 20.7 billion rubles. Helicopter sales accounted for 83 percent, the rest coming from services and after-sales support. The share of R&D in the company’s expenses stood at 5 percent of income.

“Broadly speaking, our economic model remains more or less predictable even in the current conditions,” Mikheyev stated. “The problems we are facing or are going to face are also predictable. This gives us opportunity and time to address them and find some cures.” Among problems experienced by Russian manufacturers, he mentioned “high costs of hired capital, inflation and residual effects from escalation of global tensions.” He stressed that none of Russian Helicopters problems are specific, but rather shared Having accepted a half dozen Kazan Ansat medium helicopters last year, the Russian air force is contemplating ordering the Ansat-U, a modified, fly-by-wire-equipped variant.

36 Paris Airshow News • June 15, 2015 • www.ainonline.com

throughout the whole of the national economy. “And yet we have a rather large portfolio of export contracts. This brings us income in hard currencies, and enables us to partly offset the difficulties arising from the national economy problems.”

The constantly evolving Mi-8/17 family of helicopters accounted for more than half of all shipments in the past several years. Last year, two of the factories– Kazan Helicopters and Ulan-Ude Aviation Plant (UUAZ)–assembled more than 150 units. The main export customers are China, India and the U.S. (which bought a total of 63 Mi-17V5s for the Afghan Army in 2011-2014).

Composite Content

Mikheyev does not see a need to develop a replacement: “This helicopter remains very popular in the global marketplace,” he said. Continuous efforts have been made to improve the current factory standard by replacing some metallic parts with those made of composite materials; for example, metallic armor is being replaced by Kevlar. Since

its introduction into service the Mi-8 has been constantly improved through numerous modernization programs. “The platform itself is well proven and its production streamlined. We continue working on extending its lifetime resources, avionics and weapons systems.” A new evolution of the highly successful design comes in the form of Mi-171A2, which is equipped with KBO-17 avionics from the Ulianovsk instrument-making design house (UIMDB). It is now under trials with two prototypes and will become production standard starting next year.

The Mi-38, which originally was intended to be a replacement for the Mi-8/17, is now being marketed as a new, improved design. “The Mi-38 is to fill another market niche; it is a unique machine in the class of its own,” according to Mikheyev. The fourth operable prototype (OP-4), powered by Klimov TV7117V turboshaft engines, began flying last October. Two earlier prototypes, powered by Pratt & Whitney PW127Hs, have been reequipped with Klimov engines.

Mil design house hopes to win Russian airworthiness certification by year-end.

The OP-4 sets the production standard for Kazan Helicopters, which has already begun assembly of first production example, with delivery planned for next year.

At HeliRussia 2015, Russian Helicopters accepted airworthiness certificates for commercial versions of the Kamov Ka-226T and Ansat-GMSU medium helicopters. At the show, the manufacturer signed contracts for five AnsatGMSUs with Tulpar Helicopters and Vector. They will be first commercial users of the type. Meantime, the Russian air force, which took six last year, is deciding whether to place additional orders for the Ansat-U, its customized version with the KSU-A fly-by-wire controls from Moscow-based MNPK Avionika (the commercial version has an hydraulic mechanical flight control system). A total of 30 Ansat-Us are operational with the Syzran flying school in the role of training helicopters.

The Ka-226T’s future was secured in December 2014, when Russian president Vladimir Putin paid a visit to New Delhi.

India has selected this type for local production under license at Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd. On May 13, the Indian MoD’s Defense Acquisition Council (DAC) approved the deal. “We expect that an initial order would be up to 200 helicopters,” Mikheyev said. Eventually, the number may grow to 400 to 500, he suggested. The Russian partner is expecting an official confirmation of the deal shortly, he added. o

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Modernization and Upgrade Programs

According to Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu, the Tu-160 design represents the best supersonic bomber ever built.

Russian defense leader hints at Blackjack redeal

by Vladimir Karnozov

CHRIS SORENSEN

“Right now, we need to address not only keeping our long-range aviation assets intact through repair and upgrade, but also resuming production of the Tu-160,” said Russian defense minister Gen. Sergei Shoigu.

He spoke to the factory management and their superiors from the United Aircraft Corporation (UAC), who accompanied him on an inspection of Kazan’s Aircraft Production Organization (KAPO) on April

29. Shoigu was referring to the Tupolev Tu-160 swing-wing supersonic bomber–the world’s largest combat jet ever, NATO codename Blackjack. “The Tu-160 is a unique machine, which when it first appeared was decades ahead of its time. Even now, the capabilities embedded in her design are not yet fully exploited. Nobody else has invented a better supersonic bomber design,” he said.

In Shoigu’s view, production

restart–even though “a major challenge” for UAC–looks feasible, provided the corporation manages “to consolidate [its resources] on reconstruction and renovation of manufacturing facilities.” The minister believes this is manageable for KAPO, which since his last inspection a year ago “has demonstrated positive dynamics in materialization of [earlier fielded defense ministry] ­contracts on repair and modernization” of the Russian

This image of the Tupolev Tu-160 from the 1995 Paris Air Show could represent déjà vu for Russia if the country opts to resume production of the supersonic bomber.

38 Paris Airshow News • June 15, 2015 • www.ainonline.com

air force’s strategic bombers.

Under earlier defense ministry contracts, KAPO is tasked with completing repair and upgrade work on 12 Tu-22M3s and two Tu-160s. According to the UAC’s press service, “the minister has drawn up a list of immediate tasks to be solved first,” including an increase in the volume of work on the bombers’ repair and upgrade, an improvement in the quality of services being rendered to the military and a reduction in time the long-range aviation assets spend at KAPO. The maiden flight of the Tu-160 prototype occurred in December 1981, followed by first deliveries in April 1987.

The type remained in production at KAPO from 1984 until the early 1990s, when funds dried up following the collapse of the Soviet Union. Since 2000, using parts manufactured earlier, the factory has been able to complete two new aircraft. Both were accorded honorary names memorializing distinguished pilots: The aircraft named for Alexander Molodchiy entered service in 2000; the Vitaly Kopylov followed in 2008. At the latter’s hand-over ceremony, then-UAC-president Alexei Fedorov said, “From now on, KAPO will perform only repair and modernization on Tu-160s and Tu-22M3s built earlier”

Out of 36 Tu-160s built, 16 remain active with the Russian air force. Others were lost in crashes, cannibalized for parts or cut up under disarmament treaties witthe U.S., including a number of aircraft that were based in Ukraine when the USSR collapsed. The Russian air force has been running various modernization and upgrade programs for quite some time, with the most recently reworked bombers often referred to as Tu-160Ms. Among freshly added features is the ability to launch, from Raduga, improved cruise missiles (the Kh-101 and Kh-102) with interchangeable conventional/nuclear warheads rather than nuclear-only weapons on the earlier Kh-55 series.

Reportedly, the maximum range to target increased to 5,500 km (2,970 nm), and ordnance delivery accuracy improved to within 10 meters. The Tu-160 can carry up to 12 cruise missiles.

The call for Tu-160 production restart may well be a mandated decision based on funding shortages hampering plans to complete development of the Perspective Complex of a new long-range aircraft [Russian acronym PAKDA] in 2020. Russia is struggling with the combination of economic decline and U.S./ EU sanctions imposed last year over the events in Ukraine. The PAKDA is, reportedly, a subsonic aircraft intended to replace the aging Tu-95MS, currently the most numerous type in that role.

The design was once also considered as a suitable replacement for the supersonic Tu-22M3 and Tu-160, but Shoigu’s recent comments may suggest that a change in plans is in the offing.

The decision to revitalize the Tu-160 may also have been prompted by the recent success with tests on a reworked version of its Kuznetsov NK-32.

Improvements include a much better gas-generator (core engine). Kuznetsov and its industrial partners in the Samara region signaled their readiness to start making improved NK-32s a couple of years ago, following completion of bench trials. o

France has received two of the four E-3F AWACS aircraft undergoing a midlife update to Block 40/45 mission system standard.

Boeing helping AWACS users to remain ‘relevant

by Bill Carey NATO and user nations are modernizing their Boeing 707based airborne warning and control system (AWACS) aircraft with their distinctive, top-mounted radar domes, keeping them “relevant and ready” for contemporary missions, Boeing says. The manufacturer is currently performing four major AWACS modernization programs under its ASC2, or airborne surveillance command and control, portfolio.

The U.S. Air Force (USAF) is in the middle of upgrading its 31-aircraft E-3 Sentry fleet to Block 40/45 standard, which replaces the aircraft’s mission computer systems, some of which date to the 1970s. The new configuration includes a networkbased architecture and increased processing power.

Boeing (Chalet 321/324) provides shipset hardware, spare parts and delivery and logistics support for the upgrade, which Air Force technicians install at Tinker Air Force Base, Okla­ homa. E-3s are based at Tinker, at Kadena Air Base, Japan, and at Elmendorf AFB, Alaska.

The service declared initial operational capability of the upgraded E-3G last July. It plans to upgrade the entire fleet by 2020.

On December 31, Boeing

completed the first flight of a NATO E-3A AWACS aircraft with a modernized flight deck under the so-called Dragon upgrade (Diminishing manufacturing sources Replacement of Avionics for Global Operations and Navigation). Fourteen NATO E-3s will receive the upgrade, which replaces analog instruments with the Rockwell Collins (Chalet 21 Hall 2b D108) Flight2 integrated avionics system, including large format displays, flight management system and new communications and navigation equipment.

The Dragon cockpit meets future communications, navigation and surveillance/air traffic management (CNS/ATM) mandates, allowing the E-3 broader access to world airspace. The U.S. Air Force also plans to install the upgrade, with a first flight planned next year.

The French air force is halfway through modernizing its four-aircraft E-3F AWACS fleet. The mid-life update (MLU) to Block 40/45 standard is the largest single upgrade of the fleet it has undertaken, and represents a $380 million foreign military sale through the USAF, said Mark Ellis, Boeing’s ASC2 program director. The MLU increases the

number of operator workstations in the aft cabin from 10 to 14 and incorporates a modernized IFF (identification friend or foe) system with new AN/ UPX-40 interrogator, improving the aircraft’s surveillance capability.

France’s AWACS Upgraded

On May 20, Boeing announced that initial operational capability of the modernized French AWACS fleet was achieved with the delivery of the second of four upgraded aircraft and the completion of operational tests. The manufacturer delivered the first updated aircraft last July and the second this March. Under subcontract to Boeing, Air France Industries KLM Engineering and Maintenance installs the MLU modification kits at its

Paris Roissy facility at Charles de Gaulle Airport.

Ellis said the third aircraft should be delivered in October; the manufacturer expects to deliver the fourth in June 2016.

Last August, the U.S. State Department approved a foreign military sale to Saudi Arabia consisting of the Block 40/45 mission computer system upgrade, AN/ UPX-40 IFF interrogator subsystem, parts, training and logistical support for five Royal Saudi Air Force E-3s. Ellis said Boeing is on contract to provide the initial development of the Saudi radar system upgrade.

Within its ASC2 portfolio, Boeing also supports six British Royal Air Force E-3Ds and four Boeing 767-based AWACS aircraft operated by Japan’s Air Self Defense Force. In February, the USAF awarded Boeing a $402

million contract modification to complete a mission computing upgrade of the Japanese fleet by June 2020.

The manufacturer provides ongoing support of what will soon be 14 Boeing 737-based airborne early warning and control (AEW&C) aircraft: six Australian Wedgetail; three Turkish Peace Eagles, with a fourth being delivered this year; and four South Korean Peace Eye aircraft.

At the Doha International Maritime Defense Exhibition and Conference in March 2014, Qatar announced $23 billion in new arms orders, including three Boeing 737 AEW&C aircraft. Qatar would be the fourth customer for the AEW&C platform, which features Northrop Grumman’s MultiRole Electronically Scanned Array surveillance radar above its fuselage. o

Lockheed Martin follows ‘blueprint’ to pare down its F-35’s flyaway cost

by Bill Carey was 3.6 percent lower than the LRIP 7 price. The company reports that the LRIP 8 cost of an F-35A for the U.S. Air Force without its F135-PW-100 engine was $94.7 million. The price of an A robotic arm applies coatings to the diverterless supersonic inlet “bump” in the F-35’s engine intakes.

Program Under Scrutiny

Not ‘Chump Change’

Earlier this year, Lorraine Martin, Lockheed Martin’s F-35 program executive vice president and general manager, reported on the company’s progress toward meeting the blueprint’s goals. Initially, the manufacturer expected that it would see the first cost savings during F-35 lowrate initial production (LRIP) lot 9, which Lockheed Martin and the DOD were negotiating at the time of Martin’s presentation in mid-February. But it realized early benefits while producing LRIP 8 airframes, cutting about $260,000 from the cost of each of 43 fighters that it will begin delivering in 2016.

“So that’s not chump change,” Martin declared. “I rolled that cost savings into the offer I made to the government when I negotiated the contract,” which the parties signed last November.

The contract did not include the cost of the fighter’s F135 turbofan, which the DOD and engine manufacturer Pratt & Whitney negotiated separately.

At the time of the LRIP 8 contract award, Lockheed Martin said the average unit price of airframes for the three F-35 variants

F-35A with its engine was $108 million, which was $4 million lower than Lot 7 prices, according to the Pentagon’s F-35 Joint Program Office (JPO).

Martin said the manufacturing

LOCKHEED MARTIN

Lockheed Martin (Chalet 316) is taking steps to improve its manufacturing processes for the F-35 Lightning II. The company contends that more efficient manufacturing methods will help it drive down the flyaway cost of the fifth-generation fighter by $10 million by 2019, and by more if the U.S. government invests.

Last July, the U.S. Department of Defense (DOD), Lockheed Martin and its industry partners Northrop Grumman and BAE Systems announced the “blueprint for affordability” accord to reduce the unit recurring flyaway cost of the F-35 to a price that compares with current fourth-generation fighters.

The agreement required the contractors to invest $170 million over two years on new materials and processes, with Lockheed Martin spending the majority of that amount. If they succeed in significantly reducing the fighter’s unit cost, the U.S. government has the option of investing another $300 million over three years, which it would recoup by paying less for the F-35.

improvements her company is implementing could knock another $780,000 from the price of LRIP 9 jets. Ultimately, the blueprint’s goal is to deliver an F-35 with an engine for $80 million in then-year dollars, accounting for inflation. Martin has generated news by saying the price could be even less. “If this works, and we have confidence that it will, [the government is] potentially willing to invest on the tail end $300 million. With

The F135 engine program of the F-35 Lightning II has come under sharp criticism from two U.S. government entities over quality control and reliability issues. Engine manufacturer Pratt & Whitney and the Pentagon’s F-35 Joint Program Office (JPO) challenged some of the findings and defended the program.

A “Quality Assurance Inspection” the Department of Defense Inspector General released on April 27 identified 61 “nonconformities,” or violations, of quality management regulations and requirements. It recommended that the JPO coordinate with the Defense Contract Management Agency to implement corrective actions for those violations, and called for tighter program management overall. The JPO did not ensure that Pratt & Whitney “proactively identified, elevated, tracked and managed” F135 program risks; did not ensure that its supplier selection and management of underperforming suppliers were sufficient; and did not ensure that its software quality management practices were adequate, the IG found.

In a statement, the JPO acknowledged that the IG’s report is “factually accurate.” But it disagreed with three of six findings relating to the need for additional F135 program management oversight, risk management practices and software quality management practices. “In these three cases, the JPO believes the DOD IG findings and recommendations for corrective action are unnecessary, and, if implemented, would add cost and schedule growth to the program for items that are already well understood and carefully managed,” the JPO said.

Pratt & Whitney said that it has worked aggressively to implement corrective actions since the IG’s audit, which was conducted over two weeks in November at the manufacturer’s Hartford and Middletown, Connecticut, facilities.

40 Paris Airshow News • June 15, 2015 • www.ainonline.com

As of earlier this month, it had implemented 60 percent of identified corrective actions, with the balance scheduled for completion by July.

“This was an audit of P&W’s quality system and F135 contractual adherence, not an audit of F135 product quality,” the manufacturer stated. “None of these findings had any impact on the product performance. None of the findings has, or would have, affected the operational fleet, safety or mission capability of the aircraft or the F135 engine.”

On April 14, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) released a report on F-35 “affordability challenges” that described F135 engine reliability as “very poor” and dragging against the fighter’s overall reliability progress.

Data Pratt & Whitney provided the agency indicated that the mean flight hours between failure of the engine used in the F-35A conventional takeoff and landing (CTOL) variant was at 21 percent of where it was expected to be at this point in the program; the engine for F-35B short takeoff and landing (STOVL) variant was at 52 percent.

“While overall reliability has increased, engine reliability over the last year has remained well below expected levels.

Improving the F-35 engine reliability to achieve established goals will likely require more time and resources than originally planned,” the GAO stated.

Pratt & Whitney contested the GAO’s conclusions relating to reliability. “The report incorrectly assessed engine reliability, as it did not account for new designs that have been validated and are being incorporated into production and fleet engines,” the manufacturer said. The F135 CTOL engine exceeds its specification at 147 percent of requirements; the STOVL engine meets 119 percent of current requirements, it said. –B.C.

these two sets of investments, that’s what gets us down to under an $80 million aircraft,” she said.

Since launching the blueprint effort, Lockheed Martin and F-35 partner companies as of late April had formally submitted 156 candidate projects to the JPO, of which 68 had been approved to change manufacturing processes. The 68 approved projects required the three companies to invest $59 million.

Another $56 million in projects was being considered.

Martin outlined several manufacturing process changes and resulting cost savings. Previously, Lockheed Martin applied stealth coatings to the diverterless supersonic inlet “bump” in the F-35’s engine intakes as a separate process in its paint shop; going forward it will perform “mold-in-place” coatings using a robotic arm to inject the coatings through a precise mold around the jet. The new approach allows work to continue on other parts of the aircraft. It required an investment of $742,000 and saves $6,000 per jet, or potentially $27 million over the life of the program, says the manufacturer.

Materials applied to the F-35’s wingtip leading edges and horizontal tail trailing edges are placed in a vacuum bag and cured in autoclaves. A new “closed-volume composite molding” process uses matched metal tools for each surface part, reducing the labor and time required to treat the different pieces. The new approach required an investment of $493,000 and saves $10,000 per jet.

Lockheed Martin will employ cryogenic machining in its manufacturing process, using compressed liquid nitrogen in place of oil-based chemicals to cool drill bits. The new approach, which involves an investment of $119,000, rids chemical residue and extends tool life and production speed, saving an expected $4,000 per jet.

A relatively low-tech change will save $65,000 per shipset on the F-35 conventional takeoff and landing (CTOL) variant, Martin said. The manufacturer now uses “right-sized” aluminum forgings for the CTOL bulkhead.

In the past, it acquired 13,000pound aluminum sections and forged them in a steel die; now,

it uses 8,300-pound pieces that more closely approximate the size of the actual bulkhead.

“This is a maturity improvement, but we had to change the engineering drawings. We had to get it approved, and it bought its way onto blueprint,” Martin said.

Lockheed Martin was also collaborating with engine manufacturer Pratt & Whitney and F-35B lift fan supplier RollsRoyce to drive down engine costs, Martin said. Separately, Pratt & Whitney reports that it has waged a “war on cost” to reduce the price of the F135 turbofan since 2009. From the time it built the sixth flighttest engine to those it is producing today, the engine manufacturer claims to have reduced the cost of the F135 by 55 percent.

As of March 31, Pratt & Whitney had delivered 217 F135 engines to Lockheed Martin in Fort Worth and the Cameri Final Assembly and Check-Out facility west of Milan, Italy, that is assembling F-35s for that country and the Netherlands. It was negotiating with the JPO for its own blueprint for affordability that will start after the 300th engine, said Mark Buongiorno, Pratt & Whitney F135 program vice president.

“In raw terms, the blueprint for affordability is incentivizing us to continue to make investments in cost reduction

with a defined mechanism to recoup that investment,” he explained.

Despite early progress and optimistic assumptions, the jury remained out on the ultimate success of F-35 costcutting exercises. In an April report, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) said Lockheed Martin had improved efficiency, reduced major engineering design changes and lowered the number of hours required to build each jet. But the congressional watchdog agency also noted that both Lockheed Martin and Pratt & Whitney were experiencing late deliveries and quality defects from their suppliers, which could challenge planned F-35 production increases. With the DOD planning to ramp up spending over the next five years, it recommended that the Pentagon conduct an “affordability analysis” of that plan.

“While the F-35 program office and contractors have initiatives under way to improve affordability, those initiatives have a specific focus on reducing procurement and sustainment costs but do not assess the affordability of the program’s overall procurement plan within budget constraints,” the GAO said.

“The initiatives are still ongoing and the total cost savings related to these initiatives is yet to be determined.” o

The NH90 TTH flying here at Le Bourget is operated by an Alat crew fresh from duty in Mali, West Africa.

NHIndustries on display featuring France’s Alat

by Thierry Dubois NHIndustries (NHI, Static C2) is here highlighting its local customer, the French army’s light aviation division (Alat). An Alat NH90 TTH is part of the daily flying display and a flight crew that is just back from operations in Mali is ready to talk to visitors.

As of June 15, NHI had delivered more than 245 examples of its multi-mission helicopter to 13 customers. Another 250 or so aircraft are in the backlog–about five years of production at the current rate. The fleet has logged a total of 80,000 flight hours.

Discussions with Qatar are in the final phase, for a combination of 22 copies of the TTH (tactical transport) and NFH (naval) versions. Germany is about to

ink a contract for an additional 18 NH90 NFHs. Discussions are at preliminary stages with several other countries. NHI is hoping to sell another six NH90 TTHs to the Alat, to replace old Pumas and fulfill special-operations needs.

Mali (operation Serval) is the Alat’s first operational use of the NH90 TTH. As of late May, four Alat NH90s were planned to be flying there this week. The Alat’s 15th NH90 TTH is to be delivered here during the show.

Meanwhile, the French Navy is using an NH90 NFH from the Chevalier Paul frigate that is part of the Charles de Gaulle aircraft carrier’s battle group.

Its MU90 torpedo was declared

operational in March, giving the aircraft full capability in antisubmarine warfare. The French Navy’s NH90 can therefore detect and locate a submarine and send the information to a frigate via data link, leading to the firing of a torpedo.

In another use, the French Navy is operating the type for search and rescue from its Lanvéoc-Poulmic base in Brittany, having saved 150 since 2011, according to the manufacturer.

Last December, the Italian Navy involved one SH90 (the country’s designation of the NH90 NFH) in a major rescue effort for the Norman Atlantic ferry, which was burning in the Adriatic Sea. An Australian MRH90 (the country’s designation of the NH90) joined the relief effort in Vanuatu in March to repair damage in the wake of the devastating tropical cyclone Pam. In the works at NHI are external fuel tanks, new optronics and fast-rope equipment. o

‘Make in India’ push means more open offsets

by Neelam Mathews Defense manufacturing in India is undergoing a transition from a traditional buyersupplier relationship to a more open and transparent one.

Easing of licensing policy, an increase in foreign direct investment from 26 to 49 percent and a forecast that envisions a tenfold increase in exports (presently at a minuscule 0.3 percent) are drivers propelling a defense sector currently riding high on the “Make in India” program.

The initiative was launched and promoted widely by new Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

An attempt to boost GDP, Make in India sees aerospace and defense (among other industries) as its focus to enhance skill development and build an efficient manufacturing infrastructure. Transparent policies and speedy implementation are also vital ingredients.

‘Make in India’

Since India’s defense requirements are based largely on imports, Make in India encourages private-sector participation and alliances with OEMs for internal use and to bolster exports. As India’s procurement gets a kick-start with mega projects such as the 36 Dassault Rafales, M777 ultralight howitzers, medium transporters and light utility helicopters, among others, opportunities are increasingly opening up for aviation- and defense-product manufacturing and supply-chain sourcing.

Defense offsets are expected to generate $4 billion over the next eight years. The policy (which stipulates the mandatory offset requirement of a minimum 30 percent for procurement of defense equipment), once introduced in capital purchase agreements with foreign defense players, should ensure that an ecosystem of domestic suppliers grows rapidly.

“The Make in India policy has thrown open a new arena of opportunities for businesses… the imperative to innovate, driven largely by global opportunities,” said Samir Yajnik, president of sales, Asia-Pacific, and COO Asia-Pacific at Tata Technologies (Hall 4 B84, Hall 3 B80). “Intense competition and technological advances are leading to a need to tap global knowledge resources. This will

better assist in shortening production cycles and reducing development costs, while allowing products to be developed for local markets with differing customer preferences, geographic conditions or regulatory requirements,” he said.

Tata Technologies has a joint venture with governmentowned Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd. (HAL, Chalet 128). Tata HAL Technologies addresses the entire virtual value chain for aerostructures and related aero systems. Based in Bangalore, the partnership delivers engineering, design, optimization and manufacturing solutions for major aerospace OEMs and Tier 1 suppliers in North America and Europe.

Under the twin pressures of financial austerity and environmental constraints, frugal innovation will become critical over the next few years, said Yajnik.

“For example, the Indian aviation industry is expected to show significant growth, which will usher in opportunities in maintenance, repair and overhaul [MRO],” he added.

“Indian aerospace is leapfrogging into a new era of strategic autonomy,” added Air Vice Marshal S.J. Nanodkar, assistant chief of air staff, operations.

However, glitches remain in the policy. In an effort to streamline defense procurements, the Ministry of Defense is set to make changes in the soon-to-beannounced Defense Procurement Procedure (DPP) 2015. A major change expected is the option to migrate from offset obligations to a “Buy and Make” category, where products being manufactured in India will be considered as meeting offset obligations, providing a boost to “Make in India.”

“I want our offset policy not as a means to export low-end products, but to acquire stateof-the-art technology and skills,” said Modi. The new policy draft, which AIN has reviewed, says that transfer of technology (TOT) will be made to the Defense Research & Development Organization (DRDO) so it can assess the demands on the industry. “This is a bit far-fetched. The role of the OEM ends once TOT is done, and why should DRDO decide which Indian production agency should receive the technology?” a private sector official told AIN.

42 Paris Airshow News • June 15, 2015 • www.ainonline.com

As part of the “Make in India” initiative, Tata Advanced Systems links up with Airbus to produce C-295 transports in-country. Airbus said everyone of its programs includes parts from India.

“There is also the question of liability. We need the OEM to share liability for the product that comes under TOT,” said Puneet Kaura, chairman and managing director, Samtel Group, which recently signed a cooperation agreement with General Dynamics to coproduce digital displays in India for a range of military and nonmilitary vehicles worldwide. Samtel has a lot at stake. It has supplied display shipsets for 500 civilian aircraft, via Honeywell, and hopes to export about 1,000 shipsets by next year.

More than 100 Indian Air Force Sukhoi Su-30 fighters are fitted with Samtel displays. “We have also gotten into the electronic warfare area which we have started to develop with a foreign partner,” said Kaura. Moving forward, Samtel is looking at multiple line replaceable units (LRUs).

A request by the industry to include services in the policy has not been acted upon yet. “This puts MRO off the list,” said the official.

On reforms in the offset policy, Modi has said candidly: “I am acutely aware that it still needs a lot of improvements. We will pursue them in consultation with domestic industry and our foreign partners.”

“Unfortunately, some official in the MoD has just done a ‘cut and paste’ on Modi’s announcements without seeing the practical aspects,” said an industry official.

C-295s in India

During Modi’s visit to Toulouse in April, Airbus Group (Hall 17 C4) CEO Tom Enders said, “India already takes a center-stage role in our international activities and we want to increase its contribution to our products. We support Prime

Minister Modi’s ‘Make in India’ call and are ready to manufacture in India, for India and the world.”

“Land, labor and capital are essential for the Make in India campaign,” said Arijit Ghosh, president of Honeywell Aerospace in India (Chalet 100). A focus on developing an entire learning ecosystem around aeronautics and training would “boost capabilities of domestic employees and suppliers,” he added. In partnership with Tata (Hall 4 B84), Ghosh said the first phase this year of the licensing agreement with Tata Power’s strategic engineering division to produce Honeywell’s tactical advanced inertial navigator (TALIN) in India will include production kits, training and expertise to assemble the system. “By 2016, we plan to move into the second phase where Tata Power manufactures these build kits under license from Honeywell,” said Ghosh.

Airbus Defense & Security, which has emerged as a single vendor for India’s medium-transport bid, has linked up with Tata Advanced Systems Ltd. to produce C-295s in India. It is also active in aerospace manufacturing, having 35 suppliers working across the Airbus supply chain, contributing $400 million to turnover in 2014. “Every Airbus program is now partly made in India,” said Dwarakanath Srinivasan, managing director of Airbus India.

Airbus has 196 commercial passenger aircraft flying in India, a fleet that creates further opportunities. “Airbus has been a major driver for commercial aerospace manufacturing in India in the past decade,” said Aravind Melligeri, CEO of Aequs, which

manufactures landing gear components and ships them to Airbus for final assembly.

Another agreement in India is with Dynamatic Technologies, and Airbus has made the Bangalore-based company the single-source supplier of flaptrack beams for the widebody A330 family. Others, such as IT giant Infosys, help manufacturers worldwide to take advantage of the talent pool in India. “So when you are doing some part of manufacturing or real ‘Make in India,’ you need integration, IT and intelligence to be integrated together, and that is how we are facilitating…[by] bringing to manufacturers the quality and knowledge horsepower of India to bind the things together,” said Nits Bansal, vice president of manufacturing for Infosys.

Level Playing Field

To enable OEMs to commit long-term capital to India and to establish/expand their presence in the country, “It is imperative that the emerging policy framework provides for integration of their manufacturing footprint in India into their global supply-chain network. The larger objective of making it easy to do business in India will be achieved when the government is able…[to] alleviate concerns around foreign direct investment, investor protection, land acquisition, licensing issues [and] taxation regime,” said a report by law firm Khaitan & Co. “We have to create a level playing field to drive the private sector…Exports need to liberalize…[and] certificates for exports take too long…,” acknowledged Amitabh Kant, Secretary, DIPP (the Department of Industrial Policy & Promotion). o

Under new leadership, India adds defense work India’s thrust in the past year to get a greater slice of the international defense equipment pie has resulted in a host of agreements being signed in the first five months of 2015, under the new Narendra Modi government.

The country is aggressively tapping the world for high-tech equipment. Underscoring India’s aerospace technology plans, Minister of State for Defense Rao Inderjit Singh said the focus is to “open opportunities for innovative minds to exploit the globally evolving spirit of teaming up and pooling resources.”

Modi has not been shy about talking openly about relations

with Israel, which is a top-three exporter of arms, following India’s establishing of diplomatic relations with the country in the early 1990s (which it kept under wraps due to sensitivities). He will become the first prime minister to visit Israel, the dates of which are to be announced soon.

During the Aero India air show in Bangalore in February this year, Israel’s Defense Minister Lt. Gen. (ret) Moshe Ya’alon became the first Israeli defense minister to visit India.

In a briefing to reporters, he said the relationship between Israel and India is “finally out of the closet.” In late May, India and Israel agreed to jointly develop

During his visit to India in January, U.S. President Barack Obama promised Prime Minister Narendra Modi that U.S. industry would increase military-sector participation.

Prime Minister Modi and Israeli Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon, left, have taken the relationship between his nation and India “out of the closet.”

a medium-range surface-to-air missile (MRSAM) system for the Indian Army to replace Russianmade air defense systems.

In late January, when U.S. President Barack Obama visited as chief guest for India’s Republic Day, he pledged an increased degree of military-sector cooperation.

Then the Defense Technology Trade Initiative (DTTI), something that had not seen the light of day for many years, got a boost when it was renewed for another decade. The agreement defines steps to boost the bilateral defense partnership, and incorporates for the first time a provision to coproduce weapons in India, along with transfer of technology through the DTTI. However, challenges remain as three unsigned agreements need to be signed before the four projects announced under the DTTI can move forward.

The major agreement is the administrative framework for sharing communications, the

Communication Interoperability and Security Memorandum Agreement (CISMOA). Frank Kendall, U.S. Under Secretary of Defense for acquisition, technology and logistics, told AIN: “We would like to get that, in time.” India has yet to sign it, based on “sovereignty issues.”

The other two include the Logistics Support Agreement (LSA), a cross-servicing agreement designed to enable the two militaries a quid pro quo on cooperation in logistics support, refueling and berthing facilities for warships and aircraft; and the Basic Exchange and Cooperation Agreement for Geo-Spatial Cooperation (BECA).

Four “pathfinder projects” announced under the DTTI include AeroVironment developing the next-generation Cheel UAV along with Dynamatic Technologies; roll-on roll-off cargo modules for disaster-relief operations for the C-130J tactical transport aircraft (in cooperation with Lockheed Martin);

The General Atomics ElectroMagnetic Aircraft Launch System for India’s second indigenous aircraft carrier; and hotsection jet engine technology by GE, for other unspecified military projects.

The visit in March of the Spanish Minister of Defense, Pedro Morenés, led to the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding for Mutual Protection of Classified Information. This sets out the practices and procedures for the application of industrial security principles for administration of contracts and precontractual arrangements that involve the exchange of classified information.

Morenés had also committed to a government-to-government deal for the Avro replacement project for which the (now Airbus) C-295 was the sole bidder. Recently, the $2.4 billion project was cleared for the C-295 to be produced in India–the first private project for production of a military aircraft.

While Modi visited Toulouse recently, German defense minister Ursula von der Leyen visited India not long ago for exploratory talks on the manufacture of six diesel-electric submarines, as well as upgrading Dornier aircraft used by the Navy and Coast Guard. –N.M.

Airbus is busy hatching a nestful of derivatives

by Thierry Dubois He has set a target of finding room for another 20 seats in the -1000, by 2020. The program’s engineers are thus working on shrinking the footprint of the cabin-crew rest compartment, the lavatories and the galley.

Three A350-900 XWBs are in service today. As of May 28, they had logged 485 flight cycles and 2,100 flight hours. “Qatar handles the aircraft in full autonomy,” said Didier Evrard, Airbus executive v-p and head of programs. Daily utilization is said to be greater than 11 flight hours.

Fifteen deliveries will be made to three additional operators in 2015–Vietnam Airlines, Finnair and Latam.

“Twenty-one A350s are in final assembly in Toulouse and we are on the way to rate 10,” Evrard went on. He emphasized the supply chain has improved a lot, especially for A350-1000 aerostructures. “We need to reduce lead times, we have buffers and we will progressively remove them,” Evrard added.

A320neo and A330neo Progress

On the single-aisle A320neo, 130 flights and more than 420 hours had been performed

by May 28 with the two Pratt & Whitney-powered aircraft.

However, flight-testing was on hold due to a maturity issue on the PW1100G-JM engine, according to Evrard. “A snap ring retaining a seal has to be replaced; it is a matter of days,” he said.

He expressed confidence that certification will take place by year-end. The lead-time between certification and entry into service is hoped to be shorter than it was for the A350 because the A320neo is not a brand-new product.

Already validated are highspeed and low-speed performance, approach and takeoff noise, aircraft handling in “normal” and “degraded” control laws, flutter and engine development testing. The next steps are autopilot certification, handlingqualities certification flights and functional and reliability testing.

Hot-weather and high-altitude campaigns are planned, too.

The A320neo powered by the other engine option, the CFM Leap-1A, first flew on May 19 and had performed six flights as of May 28.

46 Paris Airshow News • June 15, 2015 • www.ainonline.com

High on Airbus’s pecking order is the P&W-powered A320neo, with more than 420 test hours flown. It should be cerfified by year-end.

The A330 program is preparing for neo transition, too. The latest version of the A330ceo, at 242 metric tons mtow, was delivered on May 28 to Delta Airlines.

It features shortened flap-track fairings and a reshaping of slat one. Fuel burn is reduced by one percent, according to Airbus.

Another version may be produced before the neo–the shorterrange A330 Regional. Although no order has been received yet, CEO Fabrice Brégier was adamant that it is the right product for some markets. “Growth in Asia, especially in China, cannot be accommodated with only single-aisle, so there is a good case for an A330 Regional,” he said.

The A330-900neo is planned to be certified in 2017 and enter into service the same year, about a year before the A330-800neo. They will seat, respectively, 310 and 252 passengers. Airbus is targeting the same type rating as that of the A330ceo (but the airframer makes it clear it will be subject to regulatory approval) and common type rating with the A350 XWB.

Will Airbus offer an A380neo?

Emirates has been pushing for it but Airbus has made no decision yet. “Our biggest customer wants a long-term commitment; this is good news,” Brégier said.

However, as COO customer John Leahy noted, “it would be a hard sale to our board to do something for one customer, even though a big one.”

While the A380neo’s business case is still under study, continuous improvement is going on with the current version. In development is a combined crew rest space for cabin and flight crews, with separate entrances but in a single compartment.

This will free up space for 6 premium economy seats.

New Beluga

Sometimes manufacturers develop aircraft they don’t offer to customers. For Airbus, this is the case with the aging A300based Beluga, to be replaced with the in-the-works Beluga XL. The latter will be a derivative of the A330 and will be

3.3 feet wider. “It will be able to transport two A350 wings,” Evrard said. Its payload will be 12 percent greater than that of the Beluga.

Flight testing is slated to start in 2017. Starting in 2019, five Beluga XLs will progressively replace today’s five Belugas. For this development, Airbus engineers are testing new methods that may one day be reused on commercial programs.

Trying to think out of the box, Airbus has created “bizlabs,” one use of which is to provide a framework for small companies to come and offer innovative products. One of these enterprises is in the process of being brought in to supply an ultra-narrowband system that remotely seals doors, inspection panels and hatches.

As many as 32 doors and such can be found on an Airbus and are usually checked physically, Brégier said. Without the bizlab scheme, that small, innovative company may well have been received a polite, “No, thanks,” he acknowledged. o

C’était Le Bourget

TEDDY NEGRIN

Airbus has no clean-sheet aircraft design under way but is busy with several “incremental” developments or derivatives–the A350-1000 XWB, the A320neo, the A330neo, new A330ceo versions and the Beluga XL. The business case for an A380neo does not appear compelling yet.

Subcomponent assembly of the first A350-1000 XWB widebody has begun. Final assembly is scheduled to begin early next year, with a first flight planned for the middle of 2016.

Type certification and entry into service are seen as occurring in mid-2107.

Those subcomponents that are undergoing assembly include the center wing box, lateral junction panels, pylons, surrounds made of carbon-fiber reinforced plastic (CFRP) for passenger doors and a fixed trailing edge for the wing.

The Trent XWB turbofan is to be flight-tested on an A380.

“Some certification tests will thus be done in advance,” said Bruno Hernandez, senior v-p and head of A350 program developments.

The plan calls for 120 flight hours, starting in October.

The A350-1000 is a significant evolution, in systems and structures, from the in-service A350900, partly due to its greater size.

Eleven frames are added to the fuselage, six in the forward section and five in the aft section. The larger Trent XWB-97 provides more thrust, at 97,000 pounds.

The main landing gear features six-wheel bogies and its bay is one frame longer. It is supplied by UTC Aerospace Systems, while the -900’s main landing gear is produced by Messier-Bugatti-Dowty.

The -1000 also has some specific design features, such as the aforementioned CFRP door-surround structure. A greater proportion of the fuselage frames–half of them–are now CFRP. The bilge has a new arrangement. An electric opening system has been designed for landing gear doors, for maintenance purposes. A new aft galley arrangement also is available as an option. Finally, fitting the underfloor electric network has been simplified.

“The -1000 benefits from the -900 experience–for example, we have improved some system installation,” Hernandez said.

Chirac Walked the Walk in ’95

France’s President Jacques Chirac strolled the flight line at the 41st Paris Air Show accompanied

by Dassault Aviation chairman and managing director Serge Dassault. Chirac gave unequivocal backing to French aerospace manufacturers at that time in his first major speech on the industry since his election. However, he had just weeks earlier struck a blow against executive aviation by guillotining the special air force squad of jets and helicopters used to transport the head-of-state and senior members of the government.

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Ukrainian design bureau Antonov has a proud heritage of producing aircraft such as the An-225 transport, left, but lacks the capability to produce the combat aircraft that the country needs to defend itself in its conflict with Russia-backed militia.

Underfunding cripples Ukraine air force

by Reuben Johnson Ukraine’s air force has struggled to find its role in the military conflict sparked by Russia’s annexation of the Crimean peninsula and alleged support for pro-Russian militia occupying eastern Ukraine. The reasons for the inability of Ukraine’s armed forces to make wide-scale use of air power are largely related to the fact that it has suffered from more than two decades of what has been described as “anemic” defense spending since the country gained independence from the former Soviet Union.

In addition to this long-term funding problem, the administration of the military under the previous, pro-Russian President of Ukraine Viktor Yanukovych took several decisions that amount to what both NATO member states and current Ukrainian military officials characterize as a “dismantling” of a good portion of the remaining effective units of Ukraine’s defense establishment.

A U.S. military official charged with assessing the needs of Ukraine’s military and those areas where military assistance from Washington could be most effective stated that “all of the available evidence points to the people in the defense ministry [appointed by Yanukovych] sabotaging the country’s armed forces for the purpose of rendering them incapable of conducting an effective resistance against these invasions in Crimea and the Donbas.”

precision-guided munitions and surgical strike capability in order to minimize collateral damage, but virtually none of Ukraine’s combat aircraft are equipped with these types of modernized capabilities.

The other factor is that Ukraine lacks some of the industrial facilities that it would need to conduct a prolonged campaign against the Russian military. Some of the most experienced and capable aircraft overhaul plants in all of the former Soviet Union for the refurbishment of Sukhoi Su-27 and Mikoyan MiG-29 fighters are located in Ukraine.

However, there are no facilities for the production of the aircraft engines–the Su-27’s Lyulka AL-31F and the MiG-29’s Isotov RD-33 models–in all of Ukraine.

Again, there are overhaul facilities, but in the long term they would need to source components from Russia, which would not be possible. Additionally, a sizeable portion

Ukraine’s Antonov has subsisted, in part, on charter revenue generated by its company-owned fleet of seven An-124 Ruslan heavy lifters.

Technology and Industrial Constraints

Two other difficulties facing the air force are that Ukraine’s air assets have failed to keep pace with the many innovations in the effective employment of air power since the 1990s. Combat operations in the regions of Eastern Ukraine currently occupied by Russian-backed separatist formations dictate the use of

48 Paris Airshow News • June 15, 2015 • www.ainonline.com

of the air-launched weaponry that Ukraine would need to maintain a bombing campaign is not produced in the country.

Challenges For Antonov

Ukraine is one of the poorest nations in Eastern Europe and cannot afford to purchase much in the way of military hardware from abroad. It does have a fairly impressive defense industrial capability, but there are no firms in Ukraine that are capable of designing and building combat aircraft. Just about all the companies that previously supplied Ukraine’s military needs, such as Mikoyan, Sukhoi and Tupolev, are located in Russia.

The one former Soviet aircraft design bureau that is located in Ukraine is the Antonov aircraft conglomerate in Kiev.

However, Antonov produces only transport and passenger aircraft and has not produced a combat model in decades.

A plan proposed more than a decade

ago would have seen the Antonov plant converted to a facility to modernize and license-assemble MiG-29s, but this initiative never went beyond an on-paper plan due to lack of funding and the unwillingness of the OEM in Russia, RSK-MiG, to grant full license authority to the Ukrainian firm to modify the aircraft.

In the last two decades Antonov has largely survived on the revenue generated by a fleet of aircraft it still owns–including seven An-124 Ruslan heavy cargo lifters and one six-engine An-225. These aircraft are leased out for charter flights that usually involve specialized cargo shipments that only these out-sized aeroplanes can handle.

One of Antonov’s few customers for its commercial aircraft designs is the isolated dictatorship of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea. The North Korean state airline, Air Koryo, has been trying to modernize its fleet by replacing its old Tupolev Tu-154Ms and Ilyushin Il-62Ms with Russian-made Antonov Tu-204s and An-148s. The second An-148 was delivered earlier this year.

These sales, plus the deliveries of a derivative model, the An-158, to Cubana de Aviación, were all financed though the Russian leasing company, Ilyushin Finance Co. This arrangement will probably no longer be permitted due to the increased tension with Moscow and more recent embargoes instituted by the government in Kiev, which will end even this small revenue stream.

Strategic Dilemma

Ukraine’s military finds itself in a precarious situation in that if it bases its military units close enough to the front they could be overrun and encircled. However, if positioned further back from the front lines, UAVs and other assets needed to be able determine from which direction an anticipated attack from Russia might come are not available. These kinds of airborne platforms, plus the intelligence fusion centers needed to process the information that they would provide, are on the Ukrainian military’s wish list, but without foreign assistance and funding they are not likely to become available anytime soon. Both the U.S. and Europe, however, have been reluctant to provide anything beyond “nonlethal” aid despite mounting evidence that the latest in Russian weaponry continues to pour across the border into the Donbas region.

In the meantime, Ukraine’s air forces are struggling against a much more wellarmed adversary that has shot down some 20 of their fixed-wing aircraft and helicopters using a combination of MANPADS; larger, mobile air defense systems; and air-to-air weaponry.

“This is what happens,” said a Ukrainian defense industry executive, “when you do not spend anything on your air force for some 20 years. You cannot expect to suddenly shout, ‘Please save us now.’

These are the consequences of more than two decades of neglect.” o

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India’s Ka-226 choice is a ‘win-lose’ for France

by Vladimir Karnozov French aerospace simultaneously lost one contract, but won another last month. India’s decision in favor of the Kamov Ka226T for its reconnaissance and surveillance helicopter (RSH) requirement was a blow to Airbus Helicopters, but a boon to Turbomeca. The former’s AS550 Fennec was the losing finalist in the long-running RSH contest. But the latter’s Arrius 2G1 turboshafts will power the

Ka-226–replacing the RollsRoyce Allison 250-C20R/2s that powered the baseline Ka-226A. In early May, India’s Defense Acquisition Council (DAC) approved the Ka-226T deal that was reached “in principle” during Russian President Vladimir Putin official visit to New Delhi in December 2014. “We expect that an initial order would be up to 200 helicopters, [which] will set a record for us and will

Kamov’s Ka-226 won the contract for India’s RSH rotorcraft, in part due to the efficiency and resulting hot-and-high performance of its contrarotating main rotor configuration.

Though somewhat slower than the competing Airbus Fennec, Kamov’s Ka-226T entry in the Indian reconnaissance and surveillance helicopter competition, after re-engining with Turbomeca Arrius 2G1s, has an increased payload of 3.6 metric tons.

50 Paris Airshow News • June 15, 2015 • www.ainonline.com

require closer partnership with the local industry.” said Alexander Mikheyev, general manager of Russian Helicopters. The Ka-226T will be produced under license at Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL), in accordance with the “Make in India” principle. The Russian side is expecting an official confirmation of the deal to come shortly, he added.

Rosoboronexport will be the contract holder.

Speaking to AIN at the HeliRussia 2015 show in Moscow last month, Olivier Andries, chairman and chief executive officer at Turbomeca, said: “Our partnership with Russian Helicopters, and with India, is crucial.” He noted that Turbomeca has been in India for 50 years and is currently the supplier of engines for most Indian military helicopters. “Through the Ka226T project we can develop our

The good news for French aerospace is that India has opted for Turbomeca power for its Ka-226T models. Arrius 2G1s will replace the Rolls-Royce Allison 250s.

presence in this marketplace,” Andries added. He said that although manufacturing details are yet to be agreed, “We will probably follow the guidance of Russian Helicopters, but we have to be compliant with the ‘Make in India’ requirement. So, it may well be that these engines will be assembled in India and partly manufactured there.”

More Power Where It Counts

Certified in November 2011, the Arrius 2G develops 804 shp at emergency setting, 730 shp at takeoff and 622 shp at maximum continuous mode, compared to the Rolls-Royce Allison’s 450 shp at takeoff and 380 shp at max continuous settings. Due to the French engine’s higher power, the rotorcraft’s maximum takeoff weight has been increased from 3.4 to 3.6 metric tons. The configuration of the Ka-226T may have been the crucial factor in its selection: it is noticeably slower than the Fennec, but hot-andhigh performance in mountain areas was a key criteria for India, and the coaxial main-rotor layout takes maximum advantage of engine power. The Ka-226T also features a beefed-up VR-226 gearbox and improved avionics, compared with the original Ka-226. The certification trials of the Arrius 2G were performed on two Ka-226T prototypes.

Indian ambassador in Moscow Pundi Srinivasan Raghavan told the Russian media that India will sign an initial a contract for 197 Ka-226Ts. “Details are being sorted out. It will be a joint IndoRussian project,” he added. The Indian press reported that the DAC has allocated $470 million for the project. Eventually, the number of Ka-226Ts to be manufactured in India may reach 400 to 500. Initially, India may take a small number of Ka-226Ts built

by Russian Helicopters’ factory KumAPP in Kumertau.

In the wake of the Indian selection, the Russian air force is forming a demonstration-andutility squadron of these multirole helicopters at Chkalovskaya airbase near Moscow. So far, the service has received 36 Ka226Vs, placing them all with the pilot training school at Syzran as a tool to prepare students to flying heavier Ka-50/52 strike helicopters. “The new squadron will have 12 Ka-226Vs; 10 have already been delivered,” Russian Helicopters announced at HeliRussia. Addressing the media, Mikheyev said the Ka-226T has successfully passed trials in Russia and India, and it represents “an optimal choice for the Indian armed forces.” o

Textron’s AirLand Scorpion ISR/strike jet appeared at last year’s Farnborough Air Show, and most recently completed a South American demonstration trip. It also completed 12 evaluation flights for U.S. Air Force Test Pilot School candidates.

Textron on the prowl for buyers of AT-6 and Scorpion ISR jet

by Kerry Lynch Textron recently participated in U.S. Air Force student joint evaluations of its Beechcraft AT-6 light attack single turboprop and Textron AirLand Scorpion ISR/ strike jet. The company has both models here at the Paris Air Show as part of a full display of its special-mission and utility aircraft.

The display marks the first appearance at the Paris Air Show of the now yearold Textron Aviation, formed out of the merger of Beechcraft and Cessna. But it is not the first appearance at a major international airshow for the company’s newly combined defense business. That occurred last year at the Farnborough International Airshow, just months after Textron completed its acquisition of Beechcraft.

The company since has been integrating the operations of what had been cross-town rivals. David Rosenberg, vice president of integration and strategy, said one of the first tasks was to assess and build on the strengths of Beechcraft turboprop and Cessna Citation jet families. This included leveraging the Beechcraft’s well-established defense

and special-mission business to expand Cessna’s reach into those markets, Rosenberg said.

Textron hopes to continue that effort as it looks to secure launch customers for both the Scorpion and the AT-6.

Based on the T-6 trainer, the attack version was developed with an eye on the U.S. Air Force Light Air Support competition, only to lose out to the Sierra Nevada/Embraer team that offered the Super Tucano. The Scorpion was developed without a specific competition, but designed to fill what Textron believes is a need for a lower-cost, commercially developed platform for battlefield and/ or homeland security missions.

The company was able to showcase both during trials conducted at Textron Aviation’s Wichita, Kansas facility for U.S. Air Force Test Pilot School students.

The evaluations involved both classroom and cockpit ground training, along with preparatory and evaluation flights. The trials involved 19 flights (12 involving the Scorpion, seven on the AT-6) over a fourday period.

“The demonstrations not only allowed us to showcase the capabilities of the aircraft, but it also allowed us to gather feedback, which has already proven beneficial as we continue to prepare these aircraft for entry into the market,” said Russ Bartlett, president, Beechcraft Defense Co. Before coming to Paris, the Scorpion headed to South America for demo flights requested by a foreign air force and also participated in static display events in Florida. As for the AT-6, a spokeswoman noted the company is “actively engaged

in multiple international pursuits” for a launch customer.

Aside from the AT-6, Textron Aviation also is showcasing other specialmission and utility aircraft, including the Beechcraft King Air 350ER twin-turboprop and Beechcraft Baron G58 ISR piston model.

Beechcraft unveiled the extended-range variant of the 350 at the Paris Air Show a decade ago and since has sold the model for numerous missions, ranging from traditional passenger and cargo transport to surveillance, air ambulance, airway calibration, photographic mapping and training.

The aircraft has more than 12 hours of endurance for a 2,500-nm range.

The company began testing the market in 2012 for an ISR variant of its venerable Baron piston twin. At the 2013 Paris Air Show, it would formally offer the aircraft, which is equipped with a package that includes a FLIR 230-HD electro-optical/infrared (EO/IR) camera system, an operator’s console housing a mapping/mission management computer, a recorder and a multi-band communications radio system and data link for special-mission operators.

Joining the traditional propellerdriven Beechcraft models on display is Cessna’s Grand Caravan EX turboprop utility aircraft. The big fixed-gear single received a new Pratt & Whitney Canada PT6A-140 engine in 2012, boosting power output to 867 shaft horsepower. Most recently, Cessna obtained approval from the European Aviation Safety Agency for a 14-place variant of the Grand Caravan. o

C’était Le Bourget

Mid 1990s Renaissance For Tornado

From the Beechcraft side of the newly merged Textron Aviation defense family, the AT-6 attack turboprop is here at Le Bourget, hoping to sink its teeth into some solid sales prospects.

52 Paris Airshow News • June 15, 2015 • www.ainonline.com

The multi-role Panavia Tornado was conceived in the mid-1960s and became operational in 1983, but the program waned in the next decade. However, Saudi Arabia purchased both fighter and fighter/bomber versions of the two-seat swivelwing strike aircraft around the time of the 1995 Paris Air Show, reinvigorating the program. The Royal Saudi Air Force was the only export operator of the Tornado in addition to the three original partner nations: the UK, Germany and Italy.

BOEING WOWS AT LE BOURGET

DAVID McINTOSH

Having just completed one of its validation flights, Boeing’s 787-9 Dreamliner settles onto short final here at Le Bourget, with the Eiffel Tower and Sacre Coeur visible in the background.

Soon to be delivered to Vietnam Airlines, the 787-9 on display here in Paris features a 20-foot stretch compared with the -8 version.

Meanwhile, the Pakistani JF17 prepares to validate as a Paris debutant.

Semi-compound S-97 Raider enters its flight-testing phase

by Thierry Dubois Sikorsky’s S-97 Raider semi-compound helicopter made its first flight on May 22. A follow-on to the X2 demonstrator, the S-97 combines two rigid coaxial, contra-rotating rotors and a pusher propeller to achieve speeds unattainable with a conventional rotorcraft.

The maiden sortie took place at the manufacturer’s development flight center in West Palm Beach, Florida. It lasted approximately one hour, during which pilot Bill Fell and copilot Kevin Bredenbeck took the aircraft through a series of maneuvers designed to test hover and low speeds.

With first flight achieved, the Raider is now moving onto “demonstrating key performance parameters critical to future combat operations including armed reconnaissance, light assault, light attack and special operations,” Sikorsky said, referring to the needs of the U.S. Army.

Based on the X2 demonstrator, the S-97 can be developed into a multi-mission configuration to carry six troops and external weapons. Cruise speeds are predicted to reach 240 knots.

“With the Raider aircraft’s unmatched combination of speed, maneuverability

and acoustic signature, Sikorsky Aircraft is ideally positioned to provide the military with essential mission-specific capabilities. With this flight, we have started the demonstration of solutions to not only near-term capability gaps, but also solutions for future vertical-lift needs,” Samir Mehta, president of Sikorsky Defense Systems & Services, said.

In addition to military missions, Sikorsky is exploring commercial applications for the S-97. “In a commercial role, applications could include VIP transport, offshore oil support, search and rescue and medevac. The speed of the S-97 Raider makes it an interesting option,” Chris Van Buiten, vice president of Sikorsky Innovations, told AIN. Another feature for both kinds of operations is that the S-97 is relatively quiet. The rotor has a lower blade tip speed, there is no tail rotor and the pusher propeller can be shut off during hover and operations at normal helicopter flight speeds.

The program is 100-percent funded

by Sikorsky and its 53 industry partners. For the single-engine rotorcraft, GE Aviation provided an YT706-GE-700R turboshaft, part the T700/CT7 family.

The 2,500- to 3,000-shp, Fadec-controlled engine is currently used in the Sikorsky MH-60M for the U.S. Army Special Forces. United Technologies Aerospace Systems provided the flight control computers, air data system and prop drive.

Triumph provided the gearbox.

“The S-97 is much more production representative than the X2. While the X2 was a single-seater, the S-97 has two flight crew and room for six passengers in a flexible, open cabin,” Van Buiten said.

The X2 was designed to prove the physics of the X2 configuration, but the Raider is rather designed to demonstrate the operational value to customers. According to Van Buiten, significant improvements have been made in several areas of the design, including the fuselage, flight controls, drive train and rotor system.

The final assembly of a second prototype is to be completed this year. A demonstration tour of the Raider is planned for 2016. o

The Sikorsky S-97 Raider made its first flight in May and has now advanced to detailed flight testing.

www.ainonline.com • June 15, 2015 • Paris Airshow News 53

SPECIAL DELIVERY

DAVID McINTOSH

It can practically stand on its head. Following an impressive performance in the aerial displays here at Le Bourget, NHIndustries will deliver its 15th NH90 TTH to the French army. The medium transport rotorcraft also serves with the Italian and Finnish armies and the Australian Defence Force.

Current systems will do for ICAO tracking need

by Bill Carey Avionics and communications service providers say existing systems will readily support the 15-minute tracking standard the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) called for after Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 disappeared.

However, future requirements will require further development and cost.

MH370, a Boeing 777-200 with 239 people on board, disappeared from radar on March 8, 2014, while flying from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing. An onboard Inmarsat satellite communications terminal continued to operate after the aircraft left radar coverage, indicating through a “handshake” response to a ground station interrogation that its last known position was over the southern Indian Ocean.

Despite a multinational search effort, the aircraft still had not been found one year later.

At the ICAO High Level Safety Conference in February, member states recommended the adoption of a tracking standard for aircraft that requires them to report their positions at 15-minute intervals. The recommended tracking standard is “performance-based and not prescriptive,” ICAO said, meaning that airlines would be able to comply with it using existing and planned technologies and procedures.

Service and equipment providers said the standard can be met with existing technology, which includes the aircraft communications, addressing and reporting system (Acars), a datalink most airline operations centers already use to communicate with their aircraft; automatic dependent ­surveillance-contract (ADS-C), a primarily satellite-based means by which an aircraft periodically reports its GPS-derived position to ground stations; automatic dependent surveillance-broadcast (ADS-B), in which an aircraft automatically broadcasts its position to controllers at rapid intervals; and radar data.

“Fifteen-minute tracking is a pretty simple thing to go do; I think the expense is very low,” said Chris Benich, vice president of government relations with avionics manufacturer Honeywell (Chalet 106). “Most airplanes today that are flying in non-radar airspace are equipped with an Acars system, likely supported by a satcom-type communications system, which is perfectly capable of reporting position information on a 15-minute interval.”

Available Systems

Honeywell was among vendors that briefed regulators, air navigation services providers (ANSPs), aircraft manufacturers and airlines on existing capabilities in advance of ICAO’s

54 Paris Airshow News • June 15, 2015 • www.ainonline.com

high-level safety conference, Benich said. “We have been briefing the International Air Transport Association, ICAO and our customers on what’s available today to address that initial capability of a 15-minute update,” he said. “That’s Acars, which is already on the airplane, [and] ADS-C, which basically works through Acars as an additional functionality.”

In March, Rockwell Collins (Chalet 21, Hall 2b D108) announced a new flight-tracking service that i­ncorporates those systems and its own high-frequency datalink enhancement of its Acars s­ystem. The “Arinc MultiLink” service uses a proprietary algorithm to merge and standardize data from the

not have enough coverage to satisfy even the 15-minute recommendation by ICAO. With the aggregate of them all together, you certainly do.”

Airline communications provider SITA OnAir announced in April that Malaysia Airlines will be the first carrier to begin flight tracking this summer using its Aircom FlightTracker, which draws position information from existing equipment and “repurposes” ATC data.

Using multiple data sources, including the ADS-C application of the Future Air Navigation System airlines use for oceanic ATC communications, the system “guarantees” tracking intervals of at least every 15 minutes for every flight, and airlines can configure it for intervals of less than 15 minutes. SITA describes the tracker system as “simply an extra software layer” on top of its ground-based Aircom server Acars message handling system.

In January, Inmarsat and ANSP Airservices Australia, in conjunction with airlines Qantas and Virgin Australia, began testing a system using ADS-C to regularly track aircraft over Australia’s oceanic regions. The trial aligned with ICAO’s 15-minute tracking requirement, the parties said.

Over the longer term, satellite surveillance system developer Aireon has pledged to provide a free emergency tracking service using ADS-B receivers contained as hosted payloads on new Iridium Next satellites. The service will provide search-andrescue organizations with the location and last flight track of any 1090MHz ADS-B trans­ ponder-equipped

Honeywell’s Sky Connect Tracker III is a satcom-driven system incorporating an integrated GPS unit that transmits over the Iridium satellite network.

various inputs, yielding “higher fidelity” position reporting, the company said.

“Multiple data feeds…can allow us to provide positional data more frequently than any one could by itself,” said Tim Ryan, Rockwell Collins director of Globalink programs and services management. “If you focus on just one [feed] you may

aircraft flying in airspace without other surveillance. Iridium plans to place its second-generation satellite constellation in orbit by 2017.

Avionics suppliers offer their own onboard position reporting systems. Honeywell’s Aspire 200 satcom system, a new generation satcom radio, supports a position reporting function of Inmarsat’s SwiftBroadband service. Its Sky

Connect Tracker III is a satcom system with an integrated GPS unit that transmits over the Iridium satellite network. While the product is focused on tracking offshore oil and emergency medical services helicopters and small, fixed-wing turboprops, Honeywell and operators have supplemental type certificates for larger aircraft, including widebody airliners.

Canadian supplier Flyht Aerospace Solutions was also among vendors that informed ICAO’s deliberations leading to the tracking recommendations. It said the 15-minute standard and other requirements “can easily be met” by its existing Iridium-based Automated Flight Information Reporting System (Afirs), which is designed for flight-following applications. Afirs continues transmitting as long as an aircraft has electrical power, and its associated antenna remains intact.

Installing Afirs would cost “less than $100,000,” depending on the aircraft type, the company said.

“We are pleased that AFIRS fits the recommendations revealed at the ICAO meetings,” stated Bill Tempany, Flyht Aerospace Solutions CEO. “AFIRS is the only safety services certified product able to immediately meet published recommendations.”

Distress System Envisioned

The 15-minute tracking requirement, however, is considered a near-term step toward a more comprehensive Global Aeronautical Distress and Safety System (GADSS), a three-tiered approach to tracking covering normal, abnormal and distress conditions.

A working group ICAO established after the disappearance of MH370 developed the GADSS concept of operations, which envisions 15-minute tracking for normal flight operations by 2016 and one-minute tracking for abnormal and distress conditions by 2021.

The evolving ICAO requirements will be more demanding, requiring an aircraft to not just report its position on a more frequent basis, but also produce more sets of information with a higher level of integration with other onboard systems. That is expected to add cost to the eventual tracking solution. In addition, vexing questions such as whether tracking systems should be tamper-proof, preventing flight crews from deactivating them, still have to be resolved.

“I fully expect that we will offer whatever our customers need to align with ICAO requirements or regional requirements for tracking and we will evolve our systems accordingly,” said Honeywell’s Benich. o

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U.S. ARMY’S TRAINER OF THE FUTURE

DAVID McINTOSH

In March, Airbus delivered the U.S. Army’s first UH-72A Lakota configured from the Columbus, Mississippi factory for its dedicated training mission.

Seven Lakotas had already been modified for the entry-level training configuration, and a fleet of 187 Lakotas is envisioned as the ultimate complement.

The twin-engine UH-72A takes over the Army training role from Bell's stalwart single-engine trainer. In all, the service has 400 UH-72s on order, of which close to 350 have been delivered.

Nexcelle’s nacelle shipsets prepping for first deliveries

by Chad Trautvetter GE Aviation and Safran joint-venture company Nexcelle plans to deliver initial nacelle shipsets for the Bombardier Global 7000 and Comac C919 flighttest aircraft this month, president Michel Abella told AIN. The company’s integrated propulsion system programs include the GE Aviation Passport engine that will power the Global 7000 business jet and the CFM International LEAP-1C for the C919 airliner.

With these upcoming parallel landmark deliveries, Abella said seven-yearold Nexcelle has “come of age” and is delivering on its promise of bringing to market a new generation of integrated propulsion systems that offer “enhanced operational efficiency and improved ease of maintenance.”

Nexcelle’s nacelle components are produced by GE Aviation’s Middle River Air-craft Systems (MRAS) segment in Baltimore, Maryland and the Safran group’s Le Havre, Francebased Aircelle division. The shipset for the C919 includes an inlet with antiice system, fan cowl, O-Duct, inner fixed structure (IFS), electrical thrust reverser actuation system (ETRAS), exhaust and engine mounts. For the Global 7000, it consists of the inlet, fan cowl and thrust reverser with its associated hydraulic actuation system.

The LEAP-1C nacelle, which Nexcelle bills as “the world’s first truly integrated propulsion system,” features an electrically-operated O-Duct thrust reverser, “advanced” inlet configuration

The electrically-operated O-Duct is a key innovation on Nexcelle’s nacelle system for the CFM International LEAP-1C integrated propulsion system (IPS) on COMAC’s C919 twin-engine jetliner.

This O-Duct is ready for shipment.

56 Paris Airshow News • June 15, 2015 • www.ainonline.com

and extensive use of composites and acoustic “treatment.”

Nexcelle’s integrated system for the GE Passport engine features a one-piece extended aluminum inlet-lip outer barrel that reduces aerodynamic drag; an antiice system that uses a directed-flow nozzle concept; a single-piece extended composite inner barrel incorporating acoustic protection; a simplified clamshell composite fan cowl that is lighter and easier to maintain; and a target-type thrust reverser with a fixed nozzle to provide lower weight and reverse-thrust efficiency.

Nexcelle–which has a presence here this week at Paris Le Bourget in both the GE and Safran exhibits (Chalet 142 and Hall 2a A252, respectively)–plans to develop, produce and support integrated propulsion systems for jet engine applications on single-aisle airliners and business aircraft. The cooperative is patterned after the GE Aviation/Safran-Snecma CFM International joint venture, which has delivered more than 20,000 CFM56 engines to date. o

S.S. White Provides Flexi Reverser Shafts S.S. White Technologies (Hall 6 C3) is here at Paris 2015 highlighting the flexible shafts it is providing for the CFM Leap1C’s thrust reversers. The flexible rotary shafts transmit power to activate the Nexcelle O-Duct thrust reverser actuation system that will equip the single-aisle Comac C919. For each nacelle, S.S. White supplies a set of three shafts that synchronize the O-Duct actuators. They also prevent inadvertent deployment, according to the company.

The one-piece composite O-Duct replaces a conventional thrust reverser’s two-piece D-doors and is deployed with new kinematics that transition the entire O-Duct aft to the reverse thrust position. The actuation system is electric, which was pioneered by the Airbus A380. The benefits of the O-Duct architecture are reduced weight and an elimination of the D-door’s bifurcation in the flow path, thus increasing efficiency. –T.D.

Aircelle is delivering thrust reversers for the Passport engine shipset to equip the first Bombardier Global 7000 business jet to fly. Aircelle builds the reversers as part of its role in Nexcelle–the joint venture with GE Aviation’s Middle River Aircraft Systems.

Airbus rallying forces for A350 service effort

by Ian Goold With Vietnam Airlines preparing to join Qatar Airways as an Airbus A350 operator and Finnair scheduled to follow with its first delivery next month, the manufacturer has confirmed plans to become a major player in maintenance provision for the twin-aisle twinjet.

Airbus said in April that it was “close” to setting up its first A350 customer-support contract with an unidentified operator that accounts for more than 20 of the almost 800 examples ordered by the world’s airlines. Support for the Qatari fleet began earlier this year and Airbus Customer Services has begun to issue initial A350 service bulletins (SBs).

Publication of such documents is but a small part of an enterprise that serves a fleet of 8,000 Airbus aircraft, including some of the original A300s now nearly 40 years old. On average, more than seven SBs are issued

by Airbus each day, beginning when a new model enters service. Early SBs for the A350 included, for example, procedure to activate passenger-cabin connectivity services.

The broad range of Airbus Customer Services covers six main “platforms” of activity, according to senior vice president Didier: upgrade services, flight hours and line-replaceable units (LRUs); material, logistics and supplies; training; flight operations; and engineering and maintenance. Lux oversees some 5,000 customer-service employees, including almost 300 representatives working at more than 150 locations comprising a network of international support centers (Toulouse, France; Washington, D.C.; and Beijing) and training centers (Toulouse, Beijing) and Miami, Hamburg and Bangalore), plus spares facilities worldwide.

The manufacturer acknowledges the opportunity for increased customer support, both as airframes mature–through what services-solutions vice president Pierre Revile calls “end-of-life management”–and as the global fleet grows, led by Asia-Pacific operators. Since 1990, the 10 largest Airbus airline fleets worldwide have collectively grown by some 775 percent, from 256 units to 2,240, said Lux.

Among these, the largest Asia-Pacific fleets have increased by almost 1,100 percent, growing from the 59 flown

by Korean Air (19), Japan Air System (15) and Thai Airways International (25) a quarter-century ago to the 707 aircraft that in early 2015 made up Airbus fleets operating with Air China (167), China Eastern (272) and China Southern (268).

Fleet Support Required

International airworthiness regulations–specifically, type certification requirements–mandate that manufacturers offer fleet

of managing their operations.

One size doesn’t fit all.”

Having recognized the increasing diversity of its fleet (“the center of gravity is expanding from Europe to the whole world”), Airbus has been “regionalizing” customer-support activity. Outside North and South America, Asia-Pacific is now one of two world regions offering two customer-support centers: in Beijing and Singapore.

The latter region’s predominance as demonstrated by customers’ fleet growth is reflected in the number of established (or planned) Airbus training centers in Beijing, Hong Kong, Jakarta, Seoul and Singapore– more than in any other area, including Europe. The manufacturer has also set up (or plans to set up) maintenance and engineering (M&E) centers in Bangkok, Beijing and

consulting services. The complete TSP package combines the FHS components plan with a combination of airframe maintenance, engineering and additional services, and guarantees aircraft ontime performance, emphasizing logistics, maintenance and technical delays.

The FHS/TSP service covers all current single-aisle and twin-aisle Airbus models that the manufacturer outsources to maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO) centers, a change from procedures through the former Airbus MRO network, which shared data and information but did not place customers’ contracted business with members.

Airbus deliveries in 2015 will be the equivalent to around 8 percent of the current operational fleet, according to vice president of upgrade services

With more than 8,000 Airbuses in service worldwide, some nearly four decades old, fleet support services is a critical component of running the OEM. Service support for the A350 is in its early stages, and the first service bulletins have already been distributed.

support for all aircraft types that have more than four examples in service. During the next 10 years, the global Airbus fleet will grow some two thirds, from about 8,000 last year to around 13,500 in 2024, according to Lux. (Three months ago, the first of seven A321s for Asian carrier VietJetAir was the 9,000th Airbus to be delivered.)

Airbus is working to understand its customers’ evolving requirements. Lux said appreciation of the “spectrum of airline values worldwide, and [provision of] the right approach for those values [is] absolutely key” to anticipating and supporting the changing needs of a wide diversity of customers, including more than 100 lease companies. “There’s a lot of evolution in airlines’ way

58 Paris Airshow News • June 15, 2015 • www.ainonline.com

Kuala Lumpur, with materials and logistics points in Beijing and Singapore.

Airbus Customer Services reports growing interest in the manufacturer’s flight-hour services (FHS) and line-replaceable unit (LRU) solutions product and the related tailored-support package (TSP). These are being provided to more than ten customers together flying almost 200 A320, A330 and A380 aircraft. The FHS offer covers on-demand exchange, loan, maintenance and sales of components and integrated materials packages, as well as access to a components pool and onsite stock repair, modification and component engineering.

Expanded from this, the TSP also includes engineering, maintenance and other technical and

Valerie Manning. In the coming ten years, this share is expected to fall to less than 6 percent as the net in-service fleet grows to about 13,000 units. Manning values the upgrade market at up to $2 billion per year.

Expansion in Passenger Capacity

As the operational Airbus population grows, that increase in aircraft numbers is being outstripped by overall expansion in passenger capacity.

Manning pointed out that growth in average size–a notion frequently questioned in the recent past by Boeing (and in contrast sometimes to the U.S. manufacturer’s internal market forecasts)–is illustrated by the growing numbers of, for example, A320-series customers

selecting the largest sub-variants available.

Over the past 15 or so years, numbers of single-aisle operators almost quintupled from less than 10 percent to nearly 50 percent.

Manning said the period was marked by particularly steep growth in the middle of the past decade, a phenomena she attributes to a high incidence of deliveries to low-cost carriers during 2004-06. Such airlines typically follow business models that require high-density cabin configurations to minimize seat-mile costs. (The European manufacturer also reports a trend in this mid-decade–especially among single-aisle operators flying in the U.S. coastto-coast market–to providing a luxury cabin service.)

Airbus Customer Services material and supply-chain solutions are offered through the wholly owned (but independent) Airbus logistics and parts subsidiary, Satair, which also supports Boeing products. Acquired in 2012 and having operated for more than 12 months as Satair Group, it aims to expand and provide “consumables and expendables” for all aircraft, according to chief executive Mikkel Bardram. “We integrate the entire aerospace value chain, connecting all our OEM business partners to the global aftermarket,” said the official, who reports 2014 Satair material sales revenue of $1.3 billion.

Satair offers used and standard parts and has started to increase its three-dimensional (3-D) printing activity. Having produced an initial plastic item for a twin-aisle design in 2014, the company expects to produce the first metallic parts in the near future.

Airbus Customer Services training includes some facilities planned for maintenance instruction as well as flight training, said Fabrice Hamel, vice president of training services.

Of Airbus training centers at 12 locations around the world, only two do not offer maintenance training, which is otherwise available in China, France, Germany, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Mexico, Singapore, South Korea and the U.S. Acknowledging the incomplete network, Hamel said that “one or two more dots” will appear on the training-services network map as new plans are revealed in the near future. o

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Russian defense spending faces many new realities

by Reuben Johnson Several years ago when then-Russian President Dmitry Medvedev announced the beginning of a modernization program for the Russian armed forces, many analysts voiced skepticism that it could be carried out successfully. At the time, there were two main reservations voiced by critics, including Russia’s then-finance minister Aleksei Kudrin.

One perceived problem was that total proposed spending of around $700 billion over a decade would simply be too much for Russian industry to absorb effectively over that period of time. This is largely due to the contraction of Russian industry over the previous two decades, and particularly through the

disappearance of numerous second- and third-level component suppliers.

Officials from Russia’s Ministry of Trade and Industry, which has oversight for the defense industrial sector, stated more than once that if industrial enterprises were too overwhelmed by trying to manufacture too many weapons systems too fast, “the result will be an increase in prices and a drop in quality.”

Another issue was the steady decline of Russia’s world market share in defense exports, a revenue stream that has traditionally been relied upon to finance new weapon systems. As far back as 2009, Anatoliy Isaikin, the current director of Rosoboronexport,

With prospects looking bleak for T-50 exports, the Russian military aircraft industry might be better served by getting as much as possible out of the more mature Su-35 program.

the state-run weapons export agency, told the Rossiyskaya Gazeta newspaper that a drop in research-and-development funding meant that Russia may soon “trade only in tank, ship and aircraft hulls,”

Russia has hopes to export its new T-50 fighter to various countries, such as China and India.

Russia Says Defense Export Growth Is Defying Sanctions Russia claims to be the world’s number-two defense Putin told the meeting that politically motivated equipment exporter, according to data released by Presi- attempts to block Russian defense exports constitute dent Vladimir Putin at the May 25 meeting of the country’s unfair competition, without being specific about particuCommission on Military Technical Cooperation lar cases of alleged interference. He claimed with Foreign States. According to the Russian that Ukraine had been forced to break its longgovernment, the value of exports achieved by established ties with the Russian industry in a the country’s state-backed arms sales agency way that had brought its own domestic indusRosoboronexport (Hall 2c Stand C198) in 2014 try to the point of bankruptcy. was more than $15.5 billion. Putin stated that In April, Rosoboronexport CEO Anatoly this gives Russia 27 percent of the global marIsaykin told the Kommersant newspaper that, ket, behind the U.S. at 31 percent. despite economic sanctions, Russia increased During 2014, Russian defense companies the value of its defense orders in 2014 by $22 signed around $14 billion worth of new conmillion, reporting the breakdown of exports tracts, taking their total backlog to $50 billion. Rosoboronexport CEO last year as being 41 percent for air forces, 27 Anatoly Isaykin Among the country’s top export customers are percent for armies, 15 percent for air defense India (28 percent), Iraq (11 percent), China (9 percent), Viet- systems and 13 percent for navies. He, too, condemned nam (7 percent) and Venezuela (6 percent). Russia delivered Western sanctions against Russia as amounting to “unfair military equipment to 62 countries last year and has military competition” and “petty tricks” that he said have become technical cooperation ties with a total of 91 states. “more concentrated and cynical now.” –C.A.

60 Paris Airshow News • June 15, 2015 • www.ainonline.com

with the consequence that the market for high-technology systems will be conceded to nations that are becoming more competitive with Russia in the world arms market.

“The share of Russian research-intensive products in global exports was 6 percent in 1990, 1 percent in 2000 and 0.2 percent in 2008,” said Isaikin to illustrate his point. “The country spends on research and development four times less than Japan, three times less than Germany and two times less than the Czech Republic.”

More recently, pressures on the Russian defense industry have been compounded by factors such as declining oil revenues, the collapse in the value of Russia’s ruble currency and the impact of economic sanctions imposed in response to the military conflict in Ukraine. Last July, Medvedev, now Russia’s Prime Minister, insisted that these unforeseen events would not result in a reduction in the state defense orders that are the central element in Russia’s modernization of the nation’s armed forces.

Two Key Programs

But more recent developments suggest that “engaging in the Soviet-style method of trying to repeal the laws of economic reality by decree and declaring that there will be no cuts in weapons procurement has not produced magical results,” said a Russia-based defense analyst, speaking to AIN on condition of anonymity.

Two key Russian defense programs central to Russia’s military modernization plans are the Sukhoi T-50 and Su-35 fighters. And it remains to be seen whether the Russian

government will stand by its earlier spending commitments to these programs.

On March 23, deputy defense armaments minister Yuri Borisov visited the Komsomolskna-Amure Aviation Production Association (Knaapo) plant that manufactures both aircraft, declaring that the facility is fully prepared to start series production in 2016.

However, he went on to point out that the defense ministry reserves the right to “reevaluate” the number of units it intends to purchase and under what timeline. “Due to the newly emerged economic conditions, our plans can be adjusted accordingly,” he said. “A better approach now might be to hold the T-50 in reserve and move forward on this later while in the meantime getting as much as possible out of our fourplus generation [Su-30MK and Su-35] fighters.”

Yuri Slyusar, who had only recently been appointed as the CEO of the United Aircraft Corporation (UAC), which owns Knaapo, said that the company agreed with the defense ministry’s position.

The military modernization plan was supposed to include the purchase of 52 T-50s, now being referred in the Russian military by the acronym of PFI (Perspective Frontline Fighter).

Originally, the Russian air force was due to receive eight aircraft per year in the 2016-2018 time frame and then 14 more from 2019-2020.

According to a source close to the program and with direct knowledge of the current budget constraints, this schedule would have been feasible if Russia’s economic Continued on page 62 u

Russian defense spending uContinued from page 60

difficulties had not arisen.

“The idea now is that as a first step we will sign a contract for a squadron of T-50s [12 aircraft],” he said. “After this, we will take a decision as

to how effective they are and how many more aircraft we can afford to take on.”

The six T-50 prototype aircraft that have been produced so far are being used for flight testing. Borisov said that the Russian air force would receive four more fighters to finish the flight tests. Aside from these aircraft, the Knaapo plant will build

14 multirole Su-35s and five Su-30MK2s by the end of 2015.

Chinese and Indian Prospects

Traditionally, China and India have been important export customers for Russian fighters, but it is unclear whether this trend will continue with the new products.

China has embarked on two fighter programs of its own that are at least fifth-generation in external appearance: the Chengdu J-20 and the Shenyang FC-31. The Chinese defense industry is still heavily dependent on Russian and Ukrainian aircraft engines and the FC-31 may provide a source of financial support

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for an increased-thrust version of the Isotov/NPO Klimov RD-33 engine that powers the MiG-29 fighters.

Two versions of that engine are installed on the FC-31 that debuted last November at Air Show China in Zhuhai, prompting comments from independent observers that the jet is underpowered.

Chinese officials are now in discussions with the Russian engine makers to secure a 10percent increase in thrust.

China’s commitment to the FC-31 and J-20 programs raises doubts as to whether it will be a T-50 customer, but the country has expressed an interest in buying the Su-35. However, proposals made by Beijing so far indicate that any purchase would involve relatively small numbers of aircraft that would be below those required to trigger the usual offset involvement of Chinese industry in the program.

India has made some initial commitments to the T-50 program and had wanted to develop a unique version of the aircraft for its own requirements. This would follow the cooperation pattern established almost 20 years ago when India agreed to support a Su-30MKI version of the Su-30MK fighter.

However, this scenario has all been called into question by India’s recent decision to purchase 36 of Dassault’s Rafale fighters. The Indian government has yet to indicate whether its budget would also allow for an investment in the T-50.

Meanwhile, Russia is now exploring ways to make its defense modernization budget go further by considering cost-cutting measures such as a reduction in the number of armed forces personnel to 800,000. Similar plans have been put forward by the finance ministry, which include an attempt at balancing the federal budget by also cutting back on the number of new recruits by 10 percent.

The idea is that, with re­duced armed forces, the goal of modernizing and re-equipping units with all-new hardware would become a more manageable task for Russia’s defense industry. o

Rockwell Collins is showing a trio of new cockpit avionics technologies

by Matt Thurber On display at the Rockwell Collins stand this year are three products making their debut at the Paris Air Show: combined vision, MultiScan ThreatTrack weather radar and Pro Line Fusion for helicopters. These products are interactive so visitors can see them in action at the Rockwell Collins stand (Hall 2b D108).

For aircraft with Rockwell Collins avionics and its head-up guidance system head-up display (HUD), the company now offers an added capability called combined vision system (CVS). With CVS, pilots can view not only enhanced-vision system (EVS) infrared imagery on the HUD combiner glass but also syntheticvision system (SVS) imagery. With CVS, both types of images–the “real” view provided by EVS and the synthetic view provided by SVS–are combined so the images are conformal with each other and with the outside world as seen through the windshield. This eliminates the need for a pilot to switch between the two types of images and helps pilots “maintain optimum awareness,” according to Rockwell Collins, “especially in low-visibility conditions.”

The MultiScan ThreatTrack weather radar has been selected by airlines for installation on more than 2,500 airplanes, according to Rockwell Collins.

Key features of the weather radar system include display of hail and lightning predictions

adjacent to or above thunderstorm cells as well as “two levels of turbulence detection–severe and ride-quality–which more accurately informs flight crews of the type of turbulence in their path,” the company explained.

Imagery in All Types of Weather

Rockwell Collins also plans to take advantage of additional MultiScan capabilities, by using the radar as a sensor for EVS and SVS. Although EVS cameras can help pilots “see” through darkness, haze and light fog, according to the company, “[infrared], however, does not effectively penetrate high-moisture weather phenomena, like dense marine fog or heavy snow.” The MultiScan radar’s ground imaging can provide imagery in all types of weather because it operates at a

The pilot’s view through the head-up display combiner glass looks like this, with the flight data display overlaid on synthetic-vision system imagery, enhancing awareness.

Airbus CEO considers A320 production boost

by Guillaume Lecompte-Boinet “Airbus is doing well globally,” said Fabrice Brégier, CEO of Airbus, told a recent gathering of French journalists. He said the market is still well oriented, and a book-to-bill of 1 remains a goal for this year. Brégier presented the update about the main challenges facing the European airframer to members of the Association des Journalistes Professionnels Aéronautiques et de l’Espace (AJPAE) in April.

The main problem, he said is deliveries. Airbus is about to increase the rate of monthly production for the A320 from the

much lower-wave frequency than infrared. The weather radar picture can also be supplemented with air-to-air and air-to-ground networks to provide additional weather information to pilots.

As Boeing prepares for the entry into service of the nextgeneration of its twin-engine widebody 777 series–the 777X–in 2020, Rockwell Collins is likewise developing products for the new airplane. Boeing expects to deliver the larger version, the 777-9X, in 2020 followed by the shorter 7778X in 2022. The new jets will be equipped with Rockwell Collins flight displays, surveillance avionics and flight control electronics.

The contract award for the 777X, which was announced late last year, represents a significant increase in the content supplied

by Rockwell Collins compared to existing members of the 777

current 42 to 50 by 2017. A rate of 60 per month by 2020 is being considered, “if it becomes necessary,” said Brégier. Contributing to reaching that goal of 50 per month will be the new A320 final assembly line (FAL) in Mobile, Alabama, set to begin production this summer, with an official opening scheduled for September 14. It is expected to produce four aircraft per month by 2017, as is the final assembly line in Hamburg, Germany. Questioned about the possibility of an eventual new A320 FAL, Brégier said, “Four FALs are sufficient.”

64 Paris Airshow News • June 15, 2015 • www.ainonline.com

The other two are in Toulouse and Tianjin.

The new Pratt & Whitney PurePower 1100G-powered A320neo, of which almost 3,800 units have been sold, will be part of this increase in production. “A customer who wants to buy an A320 has to wait until 2020 to get a production slot,” said Brégier.

The A320neo is still in flight tests; Brégier said certification of the P&W-powered A320neo is still scheduled before autumn, with an entry to service at year-end.

A350XWB Production

Ramp-up for production of the new A350XWB, 15 of which are to be delivered this year, has started, and is expected to reach a monthly rate of 10 to 12 by 2017, according to Brégier.

“A350’s ramp-up is key to beating Boeing in tems of deliveries,”

Pilots can view a conformal combination of infrared enhanced-vision and syntheticvision system imagery on the Rockwell Collins head-up display.

family, but also similar to the products the company supplies for Boeing’s 787 family.

The Rockwell Collins Integrated Surveillance System avionics include compliance with the 2020 ADS-B out mandate and also ADS-B in features, which help pilots see improved displays of airborne and airport surface-based traffic. ADS-B in also can allow the operator to take advantage of upcoming NextGen capabilities that will improve flight efficiency and allow reduced separation on some over-ocean routes.

Pilots of the 777X will fly with five 15.1-inch cockpit displays arranged in landscape format, with two mounted in the instrument panel in front of each pilot seat and one in the control stand.

This is similar to the setup in the 787 and 737 Max models, and will help Boeing and its customers realize savings in purchasing, maintenance and training costs.

The displays are manufactured at the Rockwell Collins LCD center of excellence in Manchester, Iowa, and the company expects the production rate to climb to 305 displays per month in 2018,

as the production rate for all three airplanes ramps up.

For the first time in a 777, Boeing has selected the Rockwell Collins head-up guidance system HUD. The Rockwell Collins HUD is standard on the 787 and optional on the 737 Max. The HUD’s projection of essential flight information on a combiner glass in front of the pilots’ eyes allows the pilot to keep looking outside the cockpit while flying an approach or during other critical flight phases.

HUD-equipped airplanes can be certified to fly to lower landing minima, which can help airlines reduce the number of weatherrelated diversions.

Rockwell Collins is also supplying the control stand, digital audio system, mode control panel and primary control damper for the 777X, in addition to the flight control module. The entire fly-bywire system is being developed in partnership with BAE Systems, which designed the software for the flight control module. The module “delivers high-integrity fly-by-wire computing functionality that supports the 777X’s new wing with load alleviation, and its high-lift and folding wing tips,” according to Rockwell Collins. o

said the Airbus CEO. He added that, in 2017, a reengined version of the A330neo, powered by the Rolls-Royce’s Trent 7000, which offers10 percent better fuel consumption, will steadily replace the A330 classic. At that time, the monthly production rate of the A330 will decrease from nine to six aircraft.

Another major challenge facing Airbus is related to its supply chain. “Cabin equipment suppliers should have the same level of industrial standards as airframe suppliers, but generally they haven’t,” said Brégier. He said that serious delivery delays to both Airbus and Boeing by seat supplier Zodiac Aerospace, for example, has signaled a warning.

In his opinion, Zodiac isn’t an isolated case.

Brégier also addressed the lack of orders in the A380 program,

but said he doesn’t consider it a “trauma” for Airbus. He stressed that Airbus has done everything possible to improve the program.

“Perhaps this aircraft came too early but I’m sure it will address the market needs.” Around 30 A380s are to be delivered this year–the breakeven point at which the program is profitable.

Brégier further said an A380neo is off the table until a business case can be found to cover the $2 billion investment that would be necessary.

The recent $9.2 billion order won by Rolls-Royce to power 50 Emirates A380s with its Trent 900 could have been considered a sign that the British OEM will develop a new version of the Trent 900 (possibly a Trent 9000), as Rolls did with the Trent 7000, but Brégier has not expressed interest. o

Production Ramps Up

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Recovering airline confidence is priority for new CSeries boss

by Gregory Polek Since assuming the post of president of Bombardier Commercial Aircraft in April, Fred Cromer has spent much of his early tenure assessing the strengths and weaknesses of an organization that has drawn its share of criticism over the CSeries’ slow industrial and commercial progress. But now that the program appears to have found some momentum in terms of its certification effort (now projected for the end of 2015), Cromer can set his sights on ensuring the company’s readiness to support the airplane in the field, and ultimately establish a foundation on which Bombardier can cultivate confidence among potential customers and financiers.

Recently appointed Bombardier Commercial Aircraft president Fred Cromer has a wealth of experience.

Finally registering orders for 300 airplanes by the time the CSeries gains certification–a target set by Bombardier hierarchy well before Cromer joined the company–certainly would aid the cause, as would helping to secure financing for one of the program’s largest customers, Russia’s Ilyushin Finance ­Company (IFC).

In an interview with AIN in early April, IFC general director and co-owner Alexander Roubtsov said he had begun reconsidering his company’s commercial commitments to the CSeries due not only to Canadian sanctions placed on Russia for its annexation of Crimea and alleged support of separatists in eastern Ukraine, but because of his concerns over Bombardier’s readiness for high-quantity production, the availability of delivery slots and airline acceptance of the product.

Bombardier wants to dispel skepticism over its ability to maintain the pace of industrial progress and Cromer told AIN in an interview just before the Paris show that the manufacturer intends to behave “proactively” to ensure that the CSeries finds a position in the Russian market.

“Rather than sit around and be hopeful that sanctions will be lifted, we’re going to be a little more proactive and figure out with our Russian customers and our potential Russian customers a way to help them secure financing,” said Cromer. “I can’t go into specifics, but I can tell you those

P&W Develops eFast for CSeries Health Data Bombardier and Pratt & Whitney (Chalet 338) are collaborating on a data management service as part of the Aircraft Health Management System (AHMS) for the CSeries narrowbody.

Using real-time and recorded data from the aircraft, the AHMS will allow for remote troubleshooting and diagnostics for maintenance and flight crews, explained Bombardier vice president for customer service Todd Young.

“Traditionally, when aircraft arrive at the gates, maintenance technicians download parameters with a laptop, which takes a lot of time,” said Young. “With the HMS system, we can instantaneously transmit that information through a cell or Wi-Fi network, and do it on multiple airplanes at the same time.”

Under the agreement, Pratt’s eFAST system will serve as the infrastructure unit used to perform data transmissions from the CSeries’ onboard health management unit (HMU) to the ground. The system encompasses the data

are conversations we’re having with our Russian customers right now.”

In the meantime, Bombardier and its newly announced launch operator–Lufthansa Group subsidiary Swiss International Airlines–continues preparations for entry into service in the first half of next year. Cromer characterized the decision by Lufthansa not only to become the launch customer but to commit to making Swiss the first operator as “natural,” given the long relationship Bombardier has cultivated with the European airline, starting with service entry of the first 50-seat CRJ in 1992.

“The lines of communication are open… they know us, we know them, and this sort

Bombardier’s C100 regional jet made its first flight back in 2013, but service entry has been delayed until the first half of 2016.

acquisition structure that automatically downloads, processes and stores data for upload to respective customer portals.

Separately, Bombardier (Chalet 284 Hall 2b G172) revealed in recent video recording featuring CSeries vice president Rob Dewar that the airplane’s various flight test articles have now flown more than 1,600 hours, including more than 100 hours by the CS300, which flew for the first time this past February and is participating in the Paris Air Show’s flying displays.

Dewar reported that the first flight-test vehicle, FTV1, just completed testing with artificial ice shapes, and FTV2 completed testing in natural icing conditions during high-altitude operations in Colorado. Meanwhile, FTV3 continues avionics trials, including tests on the autopilot and FMS. FTV4 has finished cruise performance testing and now is in the midst of runway performance trials. Finally, FTV5–the airplane fitted with a cabin interior–has finished handling and electromagnetic interference tests. –G.P. ­­

of feedback loop as the airplane goes into service is going to be extremely important to us,” said Cromer. “I’ve been through this before, and to have that level of communication with the OEM is going to be key. They’re obviously pretty sophisticated with Lufthansa behind them, [and with] Lufthansa Technik as part of that family as well. I think that we’re well positioned to be extremely successful with entry into service.”

Strong Industry Background

Cromer should know, given his experience with fleet planning and acquisition at Northwest Airlines and Continental Airlines, then as CFO of Continental Express and, finally, CFO and president of International Lease Finance Co. (ILFC). While working on the airline side of the business gave Cromer a broad exposure to North America, his experience at ILFC, half of whose business resides in Europe and 25 percent in Asia, lends him a global perspective that Bombardier felt it needed for the CSeries program.

“So developing the network with all the international carriers on top of what I already had in North America is something that I bring now to Bombardier in terms of customer connections,” explained Cromer, who also referred to his finance background. “So I can get a little creative when we think about how to finance airplanes into a new customer, as well as understand what an airline goes through in making a fleet decision,” he said.

On criticism from competitors and some analysts about the level of export credit agency financing on which Bombardier historically has relied, Cromer noted that although “at times” customers will certainly avail themselves of such support, no CSeries customer has yet received ECA financing.

“We’re actually seeing a lot of interest

66 Paris Airshow News • June 15, 2015 • www.ainonline.com

Continued on page 68 u

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Bombardier’s CS300 regional jet made its first flight in February. It’s the 135-seat member of the CSeries.

Bombardier boss discusses CSeries uContinued from page 66

from the leasing community,” said Cromer. “Over the last year we signed on with five lessors and they are certainly helping our customers source solutions to the financing challenges facing the

industry. As for ECA use, we are no different from any other OEM in that regard.”

Although Bombardier fully intends to gain certification by the end of this year, it has given itself a substantial time buffer to ensure on-time EIS. The cautious approach would seem warranted; as potential customers exhibit what Cromer called a “wait-and-see attitude” until certification authorities issue their approvals.

“The general sentiment is that everyone wants us to get it right up front,” said Cromer. “We are now proving that to be the case, considering what we’re now seeing with the impressive performance–we’re building that market confidence.”

Having finished more than 60 percent of the flight-test hours required and 70 percent of the certification requirements, the program has performed as expected, judging by the accounts of Bombardier executives.

“Coming from an aircraft fleet-planning background, I’ve helped bring new aircraft programs to market [before], and I can tell you that I’ve never seen an aircraft program that got it right up front–until now, that is,” said Cromer. “The CSeries is performing beautifully, [and I’m] very impressed with the data we are seeing.” o

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68 Paris Airshow News • June 15, 2015 • www.ainonline.com

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GKN has its imprint on six big programs

by Ian Goold GKN Aerospace (Chalet 73 Hall 2b Stand H174) has innovative technology on all new transport aircraft entering service, according to engineering and technology senior vice president Russ Dunn, a former Airbus head of A350 wing engineering. “It’s not just about developing technology, but getting onto aircraft,” Dunn told AIN. “GKN Aerospace is a company that everyone wants to partner with.”

Here at Le Bourget, six major aircraft and equipment programs are providing the manufacturer with debut platforms for its latest technological developments.

On board the Airbus A350 twinaisle twinjet are GKN spars, automated trailing-edge assemblies and CrystalVue II passenger windows, the latter similarly adorning Bombardier’s C Series jetliner, which also is fitted with the UK company’s co-cured ailerons and winglets. All are made from composites.

The Rolls-Royce Trent XWB engine, which powers the A350, has engine case structures that include GKN additive-manufactured features, while Pratt & Whitney’s PW1000 geared turbofan (GTF) sports intermediate engine and turbine-exit cases.

For the Lockheed Martin F-35 joint strike fighter, GKN provides the cockpit canopy, plus various composites and metallic assemblies, and the F135 engine case and ice protection. Finally, the supplier has produced the composite airframe and cockpit windows for the Japanese HondaJet executive aircraft.

Such myriad products represent the wide range of GKN Aerospace’s expertise in aerospace technology; indeed, chief executive Kevin Cummings argues that the company offers “the widest range of capabilities” of any Tier 1 supplier of airframe and enginesupport structures (a claimed Number 3 in the world), engine static and rotating structures, including maintenance (Number 2), and cockpit and cabin transparencies and ice-protection systems (respectively, Numbers 1 and 2). It employs 12,300 people at nearly 40 locations in nine countries on three continents.

“Five years ago, there was a lot of pressure on original equipment manufacturers [OEMs] to improve performance for new platforms–programs that are now entering service,” said Dunn.

“Today, much more emphasis is being put on cost reductions, with OEMs having become very

GKN Aerospace has ordered two Arcam Q20 EBM machines for its Bristol additive manufacturing center in the UK, where it produces space, military and commercial aircraft components.

interested if we can see opportunities to save.”

Collaboration permits GKN to exploit “differentiating” technologies and to influence industry strategies. Its partners include government and academic research agencies and centers, along with world-famous airframe, engine and system manufacturers with which the

company has established “active technology programs.”

Working with research centers has provided GKN with access to funding for both parties through government agencies, said Dunn. Such partnerships have permitted the company to harness knowledge during early research, while de-risking new technical developments through

so-called “catapult” centers (organizations set up by the UK Technology Strategy Board to promote research-and-development collaboration among businesses, engineers, and scientists).

Pointing out that increased competition demands world-class technology development, Dunn claims that GKN Aerospace leads the world with the widest range

Additive Technology Has Big Potential for Increasing Efficiency GKN Aerospace has established a “strong strategy and plan” to lead in the exploitation of additive manufacturing (AM) in aerospace, according to the UK company’s engineering and technology senior vice president, Russ Dunn.

Additive processes have huge potential for application in aerospace, where there is “a growing demand for more, and more efficient, aircraft,” said Dunn. “In coming years the industry will need to manufacture at greater speeds and with total consistency, producing lighter and more cost-effective [components] that generate less waste during manufacture and lower emissions in operation.”

With Swedish AM specialist Arcam, GKN Aerospace has set up a joint technology development (JTD) partnership to develop and industrialize electron beam melting (EBM), a “most promising” process in which three-dimensional metal components are built up layer-by-layer.

A conductive metal powder–titanium for example–is melted by a powerful electron beam to produce “very precise, small- to medium-sized components” that require very little finishing.

Under the JTD agreement, GKN Aerospace has ordered two Arcam Q20 EBM machines for its Bristol, UK AM center, where it produces military and commercial aircraft components. Arcam says the Q20 system permits “industrial volume” production, including increased productivity, higher resolution and a camera monitoring system for part quality verification.

The partners will collaborate to develop EBM equipment to manufacture complex titanium structures at the high volumes required to

meet future demand. Alongside the Arcam partnership, GKN Aerospace is working with its parent group’s powder metallurgy division.

“Our aim has been to fully understand how EBM can be applied to our future aerostructures and aero engines portfolio,” said Dunn.

“We believe [additive] processes will revolutionize manufacturing, particularly in aerospace, where cost, weight and performance are critical. [This will] unlock innovations in low-drag, high-performance wing designs and lighter, even more-efficient engine systems

70 Paris Airshow News • June 15, 2015 • www.ainonline.com

GKN Aerospace is moving into additive manufacture production this year with the electron-beam melting powder-bed process,

that will dramatically improve airframe performance and reduce noxious emissions and noise.”

In April, GKN Aerospace revealed it was to lead a three-year, $4.8 million collaborative research program to develop titanium powder specifically for aerospace-component AM. Dubbed “titanium powder for net-shape component manufacture” (or TiPOW), it aims also to develop techniques and equipment to produce the powder consistently, in quantity, and less expensively.

TiPOW will investigate development of titanium alloys and powders more specifically suited to AM than initial materials that were not optimized for such processes. Backed by the UK’s Aerospace Technology Institute (ATI) and Technology Strategy Board “innovation agency,” this research will be followed by definition of production methods aimed at minimizing AM material costs while meeting aerospace quality, quantity and consistency standards.

Previous AM research focused largely on evolving processes required to enter full-scale production, but Dunn said that to make a significant breakthrough, the “quality, repeatability and cost of material will be critical.” The program also will explore effective re-use and recycling of titanium material and study potential applications for recycled material.

The TiPOW research will run alongside Horizon (AM), another GKN Aerospace-led, ATI-supported, program to “take promising AM techniques through to viable production processes,” said the company. GKN has set up five development centers in North America and Europe to focus on AM processes and technology. –I.G.

of strategic technologies to offer unique products. “The whole industry is innovating at a greater level than seen before,” he said.

He says that real opportunities arise “when you combine technologies to [introduce] your own expertise that is not available to competitors.” Dunn cites a wide range of GKN Aerospace technologies, each with several elements: » Chemistry and materials–erosion, anti-ice and damagedetection coatings, and Haynes 282 high-temperature material development; » Processes–near net-shape joining, additive manufacture, forming and welding, composites automation and automated polishing; » Major components–co-cured wing covers (skin panels), cockpit canopies, composite fan cases, and laser-welded and space-propulsion structures; and » Major assemblies–composite fuselages, trailing-edge assemblies and engine certification.

GKN sees “real value” in five strategic technologies that are being developed, each aimed variously at reducing cost, drag, fuel burn, noise or weight, while increasing efficiency. Dunn listed the following:

» Integrated composites structures– GKN’s microwave curing technology is claimed to offer 90-percent reduction in build power consumption, enabling it to offer 15 percent cost reduction on “something as simple as a panel”; » Advanced metallic structures–the company’s advanced welding, analysis and material capability, including “a lot of work in how to integrate different metals, such as welding to obtain complicated structures,” is said to have enabled a 10-percent weight reduction on Pratt & Whitney GTF engine cases and permitted the program to deliver a stepchange in specific fuel consumption; » Transparencies and coatings–GKN’s CrystalVue II coating “doubles the life” of aircraft cabin windows, offering “three to seven years” of extra operation; » Ice protection and detection–a patented closed-loop system offers “up to 50-percent reduction” in deicing power consumption providing “[up to] $50,000” savings per single-aisle aircraft per year; and » Additive manufacture–the company is moving into production this year with an electron-beam melting (EBM) powder-bed process, enabling “a 25-percent” cost reduction on titanium components. o

Innovative technology products from GKN can be found on six major aircraft/equipment programs on show here at Le Bourget. They include the Airbus A350 (spars, automated trailing-edge assemblies, passenger windows), below; Bombardier C Series (windows, composite ailerons and winglets), above; Rolls-Royce Trent XWB engine case structures; Pratt & Whitney’s PW1000 geared turbofan engine and turbine-exit cases; the cockpit canopy, various composites and metallic assemblies for the Lockheed Martin F-35 joint strike fighter (left), and the F135 engine case and ice protection; and the composite airframe and cockpit windows for the HondaJet.

www.ainonline.com • June 15, 2015 • Paris Airshow News 71

Gulfstream sees “solid interest” in its flagship G650/650ER models, and shorter backlogs are helping stimulate sales.

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While deliveries dipped slightly in the first quarter, Gulfstream Aerospace executives maintain they are still seeing solid interest in its flagship G650 and newest midcabin G280. “Some deals are taking a little longer to get done,” said Mark Burns, who is set to succeed Larry Flynn as president of the aircraft manufacturer on July 1, “but it was still a very good quarter.”

Scott Neal, senior v-p of sales and marketing, added that the G650/650ER is now benefiting from shorter wait times. Once stretching back seven years, the backlog for the model has shrunk to about three years. Last year’s addition of the “ER” option, which extends the range to 7,500 nm, also has sparked interest in the model.

The G280, meanwhile, has provided a bounce in Gulfstream’s mid-cabin lineup, which previously struggled to recover from the prolonged downturn in that market segment. With the G280, Gulfstream mid-cabin deliveries were up by about 10 units last year. Gulfstream, which returned to the Paris Air Show two years ago, has brought both the G280 and the 650ER this year, with an eye on business and special mission markets.

While the 650 marked one of its most successful commercial product launches, Gulfstream sees a potential special missions demand for the long-range capabilities of the 650ER. Burns noted that during the search for Malaysian Airlines Flight 370, a customer (believed to be movie director Peter Jackson) loaned his G650 to the effort. Burns added that the 650 was able to remain aloft longer than other search aircraft involved in the mission.

Gulfstream (Chalet 500, Static C1) is no stranger to the special missions market. It has successfully placed its GV/550 long-range aircraft in multiple roles, including personal transport, open patrol search, ISR, airborne early warning and high-atmospheric research for the U.S., German, Israel and Singapore services.

In addition, Gulfstream for years has collaborated with U.S. government agencies, including NASA and the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, on supersonic research. Burns acknowledged that Gulfstream has a “consistent investment” in that research, but believes a commercially viable product is still some way off.

With his tenure in Gulfstream’s wheelhouse reaching its final few days, president Larry Flynn, above, prepares to step down. His successor at the helm will be Mark Burns,

New Models

Gulfstream’s parent General Dynamics, meanwhile, has made the decision to invest heavily in research and development for new products, Neal said, leading to significant expansion of the company’s test capabilities and development of the new G500 and 600 aircraft that will continue to broaden the company’s product line. The 500 and 600 fit below the 650 with rival speed capabilities of Mach 0.925 and new technologies.

The 500, which will have a 5,000nm range at Mach 0.85, first flew last month and is targeted for certification in 2017. The 600, meanwhile, with a 6,200-nm range at Mach 0.85, is expected to follow between 12 and 18 months later.

Gulfstream has already logged more than 34,000 hours of lab tests and already has a full-flight simulator in place; it is a first for the manufacturer to bring a simulator online so early in the program, Burns said. The company plans to incorporate the simulator

into the test program, in the hope that it will keep down the necessary certification flight trials, added Burns.

While the Savannah, Georgia-based manufacturer remains busy with a number of research programs ongoing, it is in transition with the retirement of Larry Flynn in the next few weeks. Like Flynn, Burns has served as president of product support before stepping into the role of president of the company. His appointment underscores the emphasis that the company places on product support. “We have long believed that service sells airplanes,” said Burns, a 32-year company veteran. “Of our 16,000 workers, almost 5,000 are involved in product support.

It is part of our core business.” o

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EGNOS still struggling to bring users on board

by Thierry Dubois In an effort to raise the profile of EGNOS, Europe’s satellitebased GPS augmentation system, the European Commission and the European GNSS Agency (GSA) held an event at Toulouse Blagnac Airport last month to demonstrate the benefits of a service that has been available for four years but has seen little acceptance in the industry.

The counterpart of the U.S. WAAS is enabling 142 airports in the region, so far, to have localizer performance with vertical guidance (LPV) approaches.

These are precision approaches that are equivalent to ILS Cat 1 but without the need for ground equipment at the airport. But the number of aircraft actually using EGNOS is just a few dozen, according to Carlo des Dorides, executive director of GSA. In the long term, it is sensible to use EGNOS, said Simon McNamara, director general of the European Regions Airlines Association (ERA). However, selling the idea to regional airlines is difficult. “Why would you equip [for EGNOS] when

you have ILS on most airports?” he asked.

A solution to this chickenand-egg situation may come from air navigation service providers, like France’s DSNA, which is withdrawing ILS support at 50 airports in the country, leaving it to the airports themselves to decide whether they want to pay for their ILSs or to decommission them.

No Charge for LPV Design

According to DSNA’s director of satellite-based navigation, Benoît Roturier, DSNA is offering to pay for the design of LPV procedures. The annual maintenance cost of an ILS is estimated at €50,000 to €70,000 ($56,000 to $78,000), which is also the one-time-only amount needed to establish an equivalent LPV approach.

To accelerate adoption, the GSA has recently started offering grants for operators to equip their aircraft with receivers and airports to establish LPV approaches. An annual amount of €6 million ($6.7 million), for three years, has been allocated to the project. For example Air France’s regional airline subsidiary HOP! is fitting 13 of its ATR 42-500s with EGNOS receivers.

Airbus is offering optional EGNOS equipment (which is

also compatible with WAAS) on the A350 XWB. The manufacturer has seen 90 percent of customers choosing it, according to test pilot Jean-Christophe Lair.

Some 15 percent of the runways that A350 operators may want to use currently have only nonprecision approaches, explained Raphaël Sheffield, aircraft ATM system strategy director for Airbus. “It is small but significant. A diversion costs over $40,000, and even if you use your EGNOS/WAAS receiver only once a year, it makes sense to have it on board,” Sheffield told AIN. Airbus claims the A350 is the first widebody aircraft with EGNOS (and WAAS) capability. Cockpit guidance is via an ILS lookalike display, so it is seamless for pilots.

In fact, the first EGNOS LPV approach was published at Pau Pyrénées Airport, in southwest France, to serve Airbus Training International’s (ATI) training purposes. It was first flown in 2011 by a Dassault Falcon 900LX business jet but is destined to be used regularly

by Airbus A300-600ST Belugas.

“We operate to airports with light infrastructure,” Stéphane Gosselin, head of ATI, said by way of explanation and in support of wider EGNOS use.

Since 2011, France has been at the forefront of the expansion of LPV use in Europe. “As of early May, there were 90 [GNSS approaches] and we publish about 30 per year, targeting [a total of] 200 in 2017–virtually all of France’s IFR approaches [are now LPV],” DSNA’s Roturier said.

Expansion beyond Europe is on the horizon, as Asecna–a joint ATM organization with 17 member states in Africa–is negotiating with the European Commission. An agreement is expected to be reached next year.

EGNOS promoters say accuracy is in the 1- to 3-meter range (3 to 10 feet), far better than the usual 5 to 10 meters (16 to 32 feet) with GPS alone.

Availability is calculated at more than 99.9 percent across the European Union region.

EGNOS alerts pilots within six seconds if something goes wrong. This is where integrity comes into play. It is a key quality and safety parameter, measuring the confidence the user may put into the received signal. The integrity risk is the probability of providing a signal that is out of tolerance without warning the user within the six seconds. The EGNOS integrity risk is estimated at one in 10 million. o

C’était Le Bourget EGNOS ranging and integrity monitoring stations (Berlin’s station shown at right) have made Europe’s GPS augmentation system available to aviation since 2011, but few operators have equipped their aircraft to take advantage of the advanced technology.

Beginning in 2023, a second civil frequency should be available from the GPS satellite constellation such that a dual-frequency receiver will be able to make on board ionospheric corrections, said Jean-Marc Piéplu, GSA’s head of EGNOS development. Therefore, the network of ground stations will be maintained for legacy single-frequency users but will progressively be phased out in the long term.

However, starting in 2025, EGNOS will augment Europe’s future GPS counterpart, Galileo, which will be available with two frequencies. A dual-frequency receiver equipped for GPS and Galileo will ensure more robust guidance (thanks to a greater number of usable satellites) and will improve the performance of LPV approaches, Piéplu said. –T.D.

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T. SHIA

Second GPS Frequency, Galileo Supports an EGNOS Future

Rocket Shipper

The Airbus A300-600ST (Super Transporter), or Beluga, is a version of the standard A300-600 widebody airliner modified to carry aircraft parts and oversized cargo–even an entire Ariane 5 rocket first stage. At Paris ’95, one show-goer remarked, “It looks as though they fill it with hydrogen and that’s how it flies.” The voluminous hold measures 49,440 cu ft and can hoist a maximum of 45.5 tons of payload at speeds up to 400 kt. It also is capable of carrying entire sections of fuselages of Airbus aircraft–with the exception of the A380.

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Rolls is future-proofing new engine technology

by Ian Goold Having signaled last year that its strategic foresight involved looking well beyond the next hedge, Rolls-Royce (Chalet 93) sees an exciting future with plans to confirm technological expertise through a range of hardware and systems demonstrations in the next 15 or more years.

During this decade, the UK engine manufacturer aims to advance its current capability portfolio to U.S. Department of Defense technology readiness level 6 (TRL6–system model or prototype demonstration stage) and to its own internally defined manufacturing capability readiness level 4 (MCRL4–technology conception and assessment), according to aerospace future programs and technology chief engineer Alan Newby.

The company is “well along with the task of delivering technology” as it navigates a roadmap taking it through the previously announced Advance and UltraFan service readiness periods up to 2020 and 2025, respectively, into a perceived era of new concepts stretching beyond 2030. Newby sees RollsRoyce as well established on a journey toward greater integration between powerplant and airframe technologies.

Evolution having taken developments from basic engines through engine/nacelle combinations and on toward integrated aircraft/engine systems, Newby predicts continued progress into embedded propulsion. This latter technology could “perhaps take air from the aircraft boundary layer” and enable designers to “put the engines where you want to,” with hybrid sources of power.

front-bearing housings on multiple 97,000-pound-thrust Trent XWB engines.

The five-foot-diameter, 20inch-ong “significant load-bearing engine structure” involves 48 titanium airfoils produced on what Rolls-Royce claims are the world’s largest electronbeam melting (EBM) printing machines. Newby says the EBM-produced parts have demonstrated a 30-percent like-forlike reduction in manufacturing lead time.

Among other continuing technological milestone developments, Rolls-Royce has be­ gun rig and engine testing of its advanced lightweight lowpressure system (ALPS) carbon titanium (CTi) fan, with plans to “deliver readiness” by year-end, followed by “technical readiness” during the first six months of 2016. Indoor and outdoor functional and noise testing have been completed in the UK and U.S. and the manufacturer plans more bird-strike tests in addition to the nearly 100 already completed, according to Newby.

The major research and testing program is being run to support Advance and UltraFan architecture development and is now using new

Rolls-Royce’s Advance engine-development program is making “really good progress,” according to the company. Its composite highand intermediate-pressure compressor spools represent a big step forward in efficiency.

fourth-generation fan blades and fan case. Newby said Rolls-Royce is continuing to refine blade geometry, adding that this year will see significant blade-off tests. A campaign of “about eight” flight tests of the CTi fan system, which began with the company’s 747 flying testbed aircraft in Tucson, Arizona, last October, is now complete.

Advance3 Core Demonstrator

Development of the RollsRoyce Advance3 core demonstrator continues, with Newby reporting “really good progress” as long lead-time components are delivered and machining

ALM Engines

What will this future challenge look like? The Rolls-Royce executive foresees air vehicles having a single advanced gas turbine engine to provide thrust and to drive electrically powered fans, with excess power being stored as energy for use when a boost is required.

This vision of the future is revealed as the company prepares later this year to fly “the largest additive layer manufacturing (ALM) aero-engine structure produced to date.”

Newby reports successful ground testing of ALM engine

has begun. Parts for the all-new core, which represents a “big change” from the architecture used on earlier Trent and RB211 engines, are due to arrive by the end of this year, he said.

The engine is expected to “pass to test” by mid-2016, about six months later than that predicted almost 12 months ago when Rolls-Royce expected functional testing to begin in 2015, ahead of endurance running in 2016. Newby said the new core will be equipped with sufficient test instrumentation to enable the manufacturer to “really understand [what’s happening] as we run it.”

The Advance3 demonstrator will use a “slave” 84,000-poundthrust Trent XWB engine as part of the new core architecture development. The high- and intermediate-pressure compressor spools have been replaced by a new composite design.

Rolls-Royce also is continuing testing and validation of an advanced, low-emissions combustion system (ALECSYS) using a Trent 1000 donor engine for full-system level verification, according to Newby. The design has been finalized, with components being manufactured in preparation for testing that is expected to start in Derby by year-end. Flight-testing is slated to begin aboard the 747 testbed in Arizona next year.

EFE and E3E Core Progress

One example of Rolls-Royce’s advanced manufacturing technology is the use of electron-beam melting (EBM) printers to improve the efficiency of manufacturing components such as the front bearing housing of the Trent XWB-97, above.

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Newby said that ALECSYS combustor subsystem verification has been completed on the company’s environmentally friendly engine (EFE) and E3E core demonstrators, the latter aiming to incorporate “major advances with regard to

environmental friendliness, efficiency and economy.”

Rolls-Royce has launched a follow-on high-temperature turbine technology (HT3) demonstrator, based on a 97,000-poundthrust Trent XWB and expected to yield an advanced turbine for the Advance and UltraFan programs. This will continue development of both ceramic matrix composites (CMC) and advanced material and manufacturing technologies for hightemperature metallic blades.

Another program (apparently running later than scheduled 12 months ago) is testing the power gearbox destined for the UltraFan engine. Testing had been predicted to start this year, but Newby said that first test of the gearbox test facility and rig is now planned to take place in 2016.

The UltraFan demonstrator includes power gearbox, highspeed turbine, low-speed fan, and integrated nacelle technology. Related flight testing will use a donor engine from the Advance program.

Major advances in data and analytics technology have enabled the “significant” activity now under way on a virtual engine, according to Newby. The technology permits Rolls-Royce to build “quite complex models” with greater engine, subsystem and component accuracy with claimed attendant reduced risk, cost and development lead times, said the R-R official.

Earlier availability of such engines permits the manufacturer to discover problems earlier. The virtual technology also is expected to be used by RollsRoyce to build its future engine factories, concluded Newby. o

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An 11-abreast main economy seating configuration recently revealed by Airbus is designed to add revenue in A380 operations. The shallow arc of the mammoth fuselage enables placing window seats as close as a half inch from the side walls.

Airbus details A380 ‘Max-Abreast’ option

by Chris Kjelgaard The A380 main deck economy seat row recently unveiled by Airbus (Hall Concorde 17) is one of four new cabin interior options it is offering, all aimed at reducing unit costs or enhancing revenue.

Chris Emerson, Airbus senior v-p marketing, said the 11-abreast “Max Abreast” row is for A380 customers wanting to reduce economy-seating unit costs to levels like those of competing low-cost carriers while offering better comfort. He said the 11-abreast main deck economy row would use a “unique advantage” of the A380–its main-deck sidewalls curve outwards from floor level at and above every seat–to position window seats outward to a half-inch distance from the walls.

This positioning would retain existing personal space levels at all heights and “in some cases” would even offer increased head and shoulder space, Emerson said.

“We just got rid of wasted space,” he added. Together with reducing average armrest width from 2 to 1.5 inches, the outward positioning would create a 3-5-3 configuration in which all economy seats remain 18 inches wide, wider than those of any LCC operating non-Airbus aircraft, according to Emerson. He said the center seats in the between-aisle, five-abreast rows would be filled only if the A380 was at least 90-percent booked, and would often be booked by families traveling together.

Airbus sees its new A380 configurations as best suited to short-haul markets, regional Asian sectors and longer-haul leisure markets in which LCCs or charter carriers also compete. “We have customers who are asking for this,

in certain marketplaces with predominantly low-yield traffic,” said Emerson.

“We have demonstrated that with the A380 we can do this and still have an 18-inch level of comfort.”

More Rows, More Revenue

One A380 revenue-enhancement option is a nine-abreast main-deck premium economy cabin with 19-inch-wide seats and 2-to-3-inch-wide armrests.

Another is a new upper-deck businessclass configuration with under-window sidewall storage bins removed and halfcontour window seats (with 3-inch armrests) installed with a foot bench and angled more perpendicularly to the windows. This would allow the seats to be reclined into fully flat beds but would reduce seat pitch, allowing another seat row to be added.

A third revenue-enhancement option is an integrated flight-crew and cabincrew rest area under the main deck, with a partition separating pilots from flight attendants. This would create extra passenger-cabin space for revenue seats.

A senior cabin-interiors expert for an A380 operator said Airbus’ new optional configurations wouldn’t suit all carriers flying A380s. Airbus is offering the 11-abreast economy row with a new sidewall shell designed to add two inches to the cabin width, said the expert. This would be “very, very costly” to retrofit: the expert suggested that it is “really available only for line-fit customers” for new A380s.

Accessing overhead stowage from the center of the five-abreast center row

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would be difficult and probably would require passengers stepping on a seat to reach the bin, the expert thought. The cabin-interiors executive also noted armrests serve not only as places for passengers to rest their arms but also as their primary means of preserving personal space, by physically separating the shoulders of passengers in adjacent seats.

Seat and armrest width is “no problem on two-hour flights. But at for three to three-and-a-half-hours, people start

feeling the pain of narrow [seats and armrests],” the expert said. “If they’re too narrow, at some point–eight, 10, 12 hours–it’s not acceptable anymore.”

Today most A380 operators offer eight-abreast premium economy seating and this offers “very good comfort to passengers,” said the expert. “If you’re offering a no-frills tariff, who would want [reduced space] in Business or Premium Economy when you’re paying the extra for comfort?”

Additionally, business-class passengers in window seats might not be able to see out their windows easily when their seats are steeply angled toward the aisle. o

DONCASTERS NAMED LEAP ENGINE SUPPLIER UK-based component and assembly manufacturer Doncasters Group has been named as the 100th supplier in Snecma’s Leap Supplier Rate Readiness (LS2R) Program.

The engine maker is beginning to gear up for the rapid acceleration in production rates for the CFM International Leap engine, which it is producing in a joint venture with GE Aviation. Doncaster’s Chard facility in the southwest of England–one of the company’s more than 30 operating facilities–will be providing critical-use investment castings for the Leap engine. It will continue to supply castings for other engine programs, alongside its LS2R commitment.

CFM already has a four-year production backlog on the powerplant, which will replace the widely used CFM56 turbobfan, with production rates pegged at more than 1,700 Leap engines a year by 2019. As part of the LS2R program, Snecma will work alongside its key suppliers in an effort to ensure a smooth ramp-up in production.

“In its LS2R program, Snecma is essentially creating a truly balanced partnership with us as well as other integral suppliers that will yield the high levels of performance and innovation that their Leap program demands,” said Jeremy Halford, president of Doncasters’ aerospace division. “We will work together to increase our production capabilities and support the future success of both businesses.”

In addition, the company (Hall 4 Stand E178) announced that its Blaenavon Precision Castings facility has received Nadcap accreditation for heat treatment and hot isostatic pressing processes, along with AS9100 certification for the provision of heat treatment, hot isostatic pressing and digital X-ray services, providing its aerospace clients with thermal processing capabilities.

–C.E.

New build process for P&W expected to bolster efficiency

by Gregory Polek pump. We have told all the suppliers you must invest, you must hire your people early, you must build buffer inventory at your expense, [and] put it on the shelf.

You know I would love for a supplier to just give me what they have on the shelf every day...then they can replenish. If it all works, that’s the concept.”

Out of some 340 suppliers on the GTF program, only about 30 are new, said Di Perna. Most, therefore, know Pratt well, and vice-versa. Many might also recognize a shift in approach

Pratt & Whitney senior vice president for engineering and operations Danny Di Perna

AIRBUS

A rejuvenated Pratt & Whitney expects to see a 30- to 40-percent improvement in the time it takes to assemble a PW1100G geared turbofan for the Airbus A320neo compared with its “legacy” engines, thanks to a new so-called horizontal build process. Instituted in March at its plant in Middletown, Connecticut, it uses a system designed and installed by Germany’s Durr Group, and Pratt thinks it could see a 50-percent efficiency gain as the process matures. The system has been in place at the Pratt & Whitney Canada facility in Mirabel, Canada, for some five years and at the “big” Pratt’s plant in West Palm Beach, Florida, since last summer. Pratt’s moving production line process is the centerpiece of the company’s plan to accelerate rates from zero to 500 PW1100Gs per year–and at least 800 GTFs overall–within two and half to three years.

Now building 500 V2500 turbofans for the A320ceo (current engine option) as the lead manufacturer in the IAE consortium, Pratt & Whitney expects A320neo production to accelerate at roughly the same pace as the ceo declines,

that target cost, I’ll go along with you.’

And I can tell you this has worked for us. Suppliers more and more are getting closer and closer to our targets because we need, financially, to get to our targets, even though it’s challenging and difficult.

And in those cases we go long.”

Pratt also practices what Di Perna termed “no-single-point-of-failure, dual sourcing.” Instituted in 2011, the program endeavors to ensure suppliers maintain at least two sources of parts supply. For example, a supplier might make the same parts in two different factories with two sets of duplicate tooling, explained Di Perna. The approach mitigates risk associated with natural disasters or tool breakage on one of the production lines. In return, Pratt might offer to enter into an exclusive supply deal for the life of the program.

PRATT & WHITNEY

A Pratt & Whitney PW1100G hangs on the new horizontal assembly line in Middletown, Connecticut (left).

PW1100Gs are the engines of choice to power the first two Airbus A320neos (above).

meaning the Middletown facility will need to execute virtually a full transition to PW1100Gs by some time in 2018.

The job won’t come without its challenges, but, according to Pratt & Whitney senior vice president for engineering and operations Danny Di Perna, a concentrated commitment to supply chain management will give the company its best chance for a smooth transition.

“We’ve secured $18 billion in longterm contracts over the last couple of years for the next 10 to 12 years,” Di Perna told AIN during the company’s recent “Media Day” event in the Hartford area. “So we’ve primed the

and attitude from the OEM, which, explained Di Perna, had gained a reputation for negotiating three-year agreements and a penchant for severing ties if the supplier in question fell short of expectations.

“My brand is, we put the ‘L’ back in LTA [long-term agreement],” said Di Perna. “And the reason is, for years, we were a bit criticized that we’ll threaten to take our parts elsewhere as soon as we can.

“So we have a different approach,” he added. “We said [to suppliers] ‘listen; there’s our target cost...if you can get me there in two years and you sign up to

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“Now, it doesn’t [apply] everywhere,” said Di Perna. “But at least what we’re doing is identifying and paying attention to where it’s not possible. Some of our things are specialized coatings we do internally...and if, unfortunately, something were to go wrong we’d have an issue. But we’ve been in the business for 90 years, we know what we’re doing, we know how to protect ourselves, and there’s nothing we couldn’t re-create, there’s nothing we can’t do. It’s just [a matter of] a little bit of time and a little bit of money.”

Of course, dual sourcing can present challenges of its own for suppliers, which rely on economies of scale to maximize margin and offer competitive pricing. As Di Perna explained, when a company maintains two sources, it must split the volume, meaning the economies of scale get split. If Pratt requires dual sourcing from all its suppliers, it might find itself paying more for the product.

“So then what you do is by exception.

We say ok, we’re going to have a single point of failure here...what’s the risk mitigation? What if ? OK, I feel confident, I sign, we go...that’s the way we’ve been playing it.”

Di Perna works closely on improving production processes with Pratt

& Whitney commercial engines president Greg Gernhardt, who spoke with AIN about how the company’s approach to deploying engineering resources has helped ensure maximum parts “produceability.”

Historically, Pratt engineers involved in design and certification of an engine would move on to the next engine project once their work with a certified engine begins to wind down. Gernhardt said that Di Perna’s decision to instead move a large portion of the certification engineers to operations and manufacturing has worked “brilliantly.”

“If the producer is having issues with a part [one must ask] ‘What features are they having problems with?’” explained Gernhardt. “So now you have an engineer who’s just designed the part, who’s done all the structural analysis, understands all the critical features, is now on the site of manufacturing to make sure that the part can get made. Velocity of decisions is our friend, right? We’ve got to make quick decisions.

“So I’m really excited about the fact that Danny moved those engineers over because there’s pure continuity,” he added.

“What I like about it is the engineers are excited to do it, because they feel ownership for that part, so they just go along with that part, so it’s nice to see.” o

Barak-8 able to provide point and area defense

by David Donald

Israel Aircraft Industries president and CEO Joseph Weiss spoke with AIN just before the Paris Air Show.

Playing to its strengths, IAI adapts its approach

by Charles Alcock Despite continued uncertainty over levels of military spending by governments worldwide, Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI) is betting big on achieving further growth in the defense sector. In an interview ahead of this week’s Paris Air Show, the group’s president and CEO Joseph Weiss told AIN that IAI has a technological edge in an era of changing defense technology needs, and it intends to exploit that edge.

“There is almost no conventional war these days and the different nature of confrontations around the world requires a new approach. We see opportunities from this changing environment, especially in areas such as cyber warfare and homeland security,” said Weiss. “Today there is growing demand for low-cost national level defense programs and that means new opportunities for technology such as more sophisticated radars and other cuttingedge technology that could allow us to strengthen our market share at a time of shrinking budgets. So we are investing heavily in defense research and development.”

Much of the defense R&D investment at IAI (Chalet 210 Static A9) is going into further developments of conformal airborne early warning and control (CAEW), air-to-ground surveillance and signals intelligence platforms. Other areas of focus include air defense systems, the Barak missile and robotics.

In the cyber warfare domain, IAI is developing new early warning sensors that will alert armed forces about intrusion threats. This work is being done in technology centers in both Israel and Singapore. “We’re competing for requirements both inside Israel and outside,

so doing this work purely as IAI would be a limitation,” said Weiss. Lockheed Martin is also a key partner in this sector.

Over and above IAI’s traditionally strong export markets in southeast Asia, the group is seeing growing potential in South America and Africa. In Brazil, it is providing, for the first time in that country, overthe-horizon radars that can give detection up to around 200 km.

Reinvigorating Civil Business

At the same time, IAI is determined to reinvigorate its civil aircraft business by consolidating all these activities into one group that it hopes will be more flexible and profitable.

The new division includes IAI’s Bedek Aviation freighter conversion specialist, which Weiss acknowledged has been struggling, as well as the commercial aviation group that is partnered with Gulfstream in building the G150 and G280 business jets, and a large part of its aeronautical engineering group.

Still to be absorbed into the new civil group is IAI’s Taxibot aircraft tractor, which has now started commercial operations with Lufthansa at Frankfurt Airport following approval earlier this year by the European Aviation Safety Agency. The hybrid electric vehicle, which moves aircraft to and from airport gates without using a towbar, was developed by IAI in partnership with Lufthansa LEOS. Weiss also confirmed that IAI is looking to be involved in the development of a new business jet. “We’re still looking at business jets to see whether there are niches we could penetrate to get us back to the Tier 1 supplier position,” he told AIN. o

Following successful trials late last year, IAI’s Barak-8 mediumrange surface-to-air missile is being delivered to customers, and is also now fielded with the IDF (Israel Defense Forces). The company does not discuss its customers, but acknowledges that the missile has been procured

by Israel and India, plus others.

Non-Israeli sources state that the Barak-8 has been adopted by the Indian Navy, which already employs the Barak-1, for service aboard its latest frigates, destroyers and aircraft carriers.

Following on from the Barak-1 naval point defense missile, Barak-8 is an all-new weapon.

“We started from scratch,” Eili Behar, IAI’s director of groundbased air and missile defense, told AIN. “We needed the most advanced missile to tackle the latest challenges.” As a result, the Barak-8 incorporates a range of advanced features. The missile is guided by an active RF seeker that is equally capable at short and long ranges, and also allows very low-level engagements. It is intended to provide both point and area defense capabilities, and to perform simultaneous multitarget engagements in a saturated threat environment.

The Barak-8 has a two-way datalink that uplinks target information and also downlinks missile status. This allows operators to know if it is functioning properly and if it has received uplinked commands. In an air defense scenario this is vital information because if a missile is not behaving correctly it allows a second interceptor to be launched immediately, rather than after the initial launch has been observed to fail. The downlink function also aids post-mission debriefing.

Instead of working through the guidance radar, the datalink is separate. As well as releasing resources from the radar, the separate link allows the Barak-8 to be used with many different types of radar. IAI’s Elta division produces a number of radars that could be used for Barak-8 guidance, from fastspinning ground-based radars to larger ship-based systems.

IAI has developed Barak-8 to fulfill both land- and ship-based functions with the same missile and launcher hardware, and the same command and control functions and data links. In

a land-based scenario the system can be used to defend a large footprint with low manpower requirements by deploying several launchers that can be networked either by wired or wireless connections.

The eight-round launcher can be deployed on a truck or trailer, elevating to the vertical for missile launch. These same launchers can also be accommodated on a wide range of naval vessels.

The missile itself comes in two versions. The medium-range weapon is the baseline missile, ­offering a range capability from less than two miles to at least

43 miles. Engagement upper ceiling has not been disclosed, but the missile has been proven against very low-flying targets such as sea-skimming anti-ship missiles.

IAI has also developed an extended-range version that employs the same hardware, but adds a booster rocket to xextend maximum range to around 93 miles.

A number of successful firing trials were conducted in November 2014, resulting in some body-to-body kills to illustrate the engagement accuracy of the missile. The Barak-8 is fitted with a 44-pound warhead to ensure damage or destruction in near-miss engagements.

IAI has not commented on whether the Barak-8 has yet been tested at sea, although other sources have reported that it was due for trials from an Indian Navy vessel. o

Barak-8 eight-round launchers can be rapidly deployed on land to provide point defense for critical locations, and in networked groups for area defense.

The Barak-8 has undergone a series of tests and is now deployed by Israel.

www.ainonline.com • June 15, 2015 • Paris Airshow News 81

THUNDER COMES TO PARIS WITH EXPORT ORDER

DAVID McINTOSH

Making its Le Bourget debut, the PAC/Chengdu JF-17 Thunder has come to Paris looking for more business, having already secured its first export order.

However, the identity of the customer is not being disclosed just yet. Developed jointly by Chengdu of China and the Pakistan Aeronautical Complex, the JF-17 is being promoted as a light combat fighter offering considerable capability at an affordable price. The two companies are now working on the two-seat JF-17B version, which is due to fly in December next year. A more detailed review of the JF-17 will appear in tomorrow’s edition of Paris Airshow News.

–D.D.

CAE to provide Predator trainer for Italy’s air force

by Bill Carey trainer specifically for Italian Air Force Predator As and MQ-9 Predator Bs. CAE will conduct flight-test data gathering on actual Predators to develop flight system and sensor payload simulations.

CAE plans to deliver the UAS mission trainer to Amendola Air Base in southeast Italy in 2017. The zero-flight-time training capability is expected to

ALEXANDRE DUBATH

Italy’s Directorate for Air Armaments and Airworthiness has contracted Canadian training system provider CAE to develop a Predator unmanned aircraft system (UAS) mission trainer for the Italian Air Force.

CAE (Chalet 56) and UAS manufacturer General Atomics Aeronautical Systems (Hall 3, B132) are developing the high-fidelity mission

improve operational readiness and flight safety compared to conventional approaches to live training, the company said. The Italian Air Force also plans to develop an unmanned systems center of excellence for training.

“We are pleased to be supporting the Italian Air Force with its Predator training requirements, as well as leveraging our growing international partnership with General Atomics to provide comprehensive training solutions for the Predator family of remotely piloted aircraft,” said Gene Colabatistto, CAE group president for defense and security. o

AIRBUS HELICOPTERS H160 MAKES FIRST FLIGHT The Airbus Helicopters H160 made its first flight on Saturday at Marignane Airport, France, where the manufacturer has its headquarters. The maiden sortie took place around 9:30 a.m. and lasted almost 20 minutes. Airbus Helicopters is exhibiting here at Le Bourget a full-scale mockup of the medium twin (Static C4), a long-awaited successor for the Dauphin family designed to lock horns with the AgustaWestland AW139 in the 12-passenger market.

–T.D.

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Safran’s new-hire CEO faces production challenge

by Caroline Bruneau Innovation will be the keyword for French giant Safran this week at the Paris Air show. Its new CEO, Philippe Petitcolin, appointed in May, announced some of the latest steps taken by the company during a press conference on the Thursday before the show.

As of late last week, the Leap-1A engine, one of two powerplant options for the Airbus A320neo, had already flown 19 times in three weeks, on average of five hours each time.

Safran indicated that it’s engine is benefitting from the problems of the competing A320neo engine from Pratt & Whitney, the PurePower PW1100G-JM, which has not been able to fly in two weeks due to undisclosed issues. As a result, “Airbus has more time to give to our aircraft that sometimes can fly twice a day,” Petitcolin said at Safran’s headquarters here in Paris.

Safran has carefully prepared the ramp-up of Leap production, with all the specific parts doubled-sourced to avoid a break in the supply chain. Half of the production will take place in France and, with 9,000 engines already ordered, the company is very confident. “But we are at the maximum capacity of our engagement right now,” Petitcolin said. “It is a true production challenge; some very emotional years are ahead of us.”

Jean-Luc Bérard, executive vice president in charge of human resources, confirmed that Safran will be expanding its

workforce to cope with the challenges posed by the exceptionally high demand for the Leap engines. “We are looking for some specific profiles, people who can work on production, and there is tension in these jobs,” he said. The Leap program could create up to 10,000 jobs in France, estimates Safran.

In 2014, the Safran-GE CFM joint venture delivered 1,560 of the existing CFM56 engines, and about 4,100 are still expected to be produced. These power the existing A320 and Boeing 737 narrowbodies.

Meanwhile, the M88 turbofan produced for the Dassault Rafale fighter by Safran subsidiary Snecma has benefitted from two export deals, with Egypt and Qatar. Petitcolon indicated that the company would consider increasing production rates to support three aircraft per month when a third deal with India is eventually finalized, and if what he described as “possible contracts that are about 50-percent sure” are achieved.

Safran is investing 12 percent of its revenues in innovation, and continue to hire en masse.

About 30,000 people arrived in the company over the last five years, mostly young professionals, who can now be trained in the new Safran campus of Vilgenis, near Paris. o

FOKKER APPEARS IN RAFALE DISGUISE

MARK WAGNER

Hosted by France’s ministry of defense, this Fokker 100 serves as a multi-system flying testbed. Among other embellishments, it wears the nose-cone radar assembly of a Dassault Rafale.

When production cannot keep up with sales, that’s a good problem to have. ATR has seen a rebound from a little over a decade ago, when a scant half-dozen airframes rolled out of the factory in Toulouse, France. A new Smart galley will further boost sales.

ATR tops 1,500 ordered, unveils a combi version

MARK WAGNER

by Charles Alcock

Raytheon Block IIA starts tests

by David Donald Last week Raytheon undertook the first flight test of the latest version of the Standard Missile-3 ballistic missile defense weapon. Developed in conjunction with Japan, the Block IIA will introduce significant new capability when it is fielded in 2018.

It features an improved kinetic energy (“body to body”) kill vehicle and larger rocket motors, enabling ballistic missile threats to be engaged sooner than is capable with the current versions of the weapon system, in addition to providing expanded area coverage.

Raytheon’s Block IIA ballistic missile is expected to enter service in 2018.

The June 7 test involved Control Test Vehicle 01, which was fired from a standard Mk 41 vertical launch system located on San Nicolas Island within the Point Mugu Sea Range off the Californian coast. The trial tested the performance of the missile’s nose cone, functions of the steering control section and separation of the booster. It also tested the separation of the second and third rocket stages.

For this initial test, the system followed a pre-programmed trajectory, with no target involved.

As well as being slated for naval deployment, the SM-3 Block IIA is due to be landbased in Poland as part of the European missile defense initiative. Later this year the current Block IB interceptor is due for deployment in Romania as the first land-based element in the European shield, augmenting Block IBs already deployed on U.S. Navy vessels. o

ATR is set to announce new customers this week that would take the order tally for its family of twin turboprop regional airliners past the 1,500 mark.

Here at the Paris Air Show, the Toulouse-based airframer will unveil new options, including a passenger/freight combi version of the ATR72-600 and a new Smart galley as part of its latest Armonia cabin design.

By year-end, Papua New Guinea-based Airlines PNG is due to take delivery of the first of the new ATR72-600 Combi models, featuring four freight containers towards the front of the aircraft and 44 passenger seats in the rear. The design also will be offered for retrofit on existing aircraft.

“It has been developed to compete with other new turboprops’ combined configurations,” explained ATR vice president Thierry Casale at a press briefing in Toulouse last week. In his view, the new option is ideal for intra-island operations since “it doubles the available cargo space with the need to modify the aircraft’s baseline configuration.”

The new Smart galley will be offered as standard on ATRs, and deliveries of aircraft equipped with it should start in 2016, following certification. According to Casale, the new unit will be more flexible for operators.

With rising orders, ATR’s main challenge continues to be ramping up production rates.

This is positive problem to have a decade on from 2004, when the joint venture between Airbus and Finmeccanica produced a meager six aircraft. It believes that rising fuel costs over this period significantly changed the appeal of turboprop aircraft, although this trend has been

markedly reversed this year due to falling crude oil prices.

The manufacturer, which makes the 50-seat ATR42-600 and 70-seat ATR72-600, now has a backlog of 300 aircraft and is preparing to deliver 90 this year and 100 in 2016. In 2014, it achieved revenues of around $1.8 billion, having delivered 83 aircraft.

Increased demand prompt­ ed ATR to make changes to in­ crease the size of its final assembly line in Toulouse to 30,000 square meters, compared with just 8,000 square meters eight years ago. In Toulouse, ATR wings made in Bordeaux are attached to the fuselages made in Pomigliano d’Arco, Italy by Alenia Aermacchi, before the cabin interiors and cockpit avionics are fitted.

The ATR turboprops are then painted by a local Airbus contractor or, in some cases, are flown to another paint shop at Châteauroux in central France.

In total, each ATR takes 10 months to make, with the last 10 weeks or so being spent in Toulouse. The company has also improved its delivery facilities.

Conservative Forecasts

According to Tom Anderson, ATR’s new vice president for commercial and support, the next decade will bring continued success. “I think we have been conservative with the forecast as there is a large replacement market in the U.S. and a new market for us in China and India,” he told reporters on June 5.

ATR’s more recent forecast sees 2,500 new regional airliner sales over the next 20 years.

The manufacturer wants to ramp up production to a rate of 120 aircraft per year and has

the option to expand its facilities on space currently controlled by Airbus.

Meanwhile, ATR is preparing for the first flight of a new ATR72-600 demonstrator featuring a weight-saving carbon fiber roof developed by Alenia Aermacchi. This work is being done under the auspices of the European Commission’s Clean­ Sky program to reduce the environmental impact of air transport. Structural testing is expected to take three to four weeks, with the new roof being monitored inflight through fiber optic sensors.

Later this year, ATR will conduct a second series of tests to evaluate a new electrically powered air conditioning system that it hopes will be 10 percent more fuel-efficient.

ATR has invested around $12 million in CleanSky development work since 2008. The program also has European Commission funding and its overall goal is to halve carbon dioxide emissions from aircraft by 2020. o

GERMANY SELECTS MEADS AIR DEFENSE Last week the German Federal Ministry of Defense announced that it had selected the medium extended air defense system (MEADS) to form the basis of its Taktisches Luftverteidigungssystem (TLVS) tactical air defense system that will replace the current Patriotbased defenses by 2025.

MEADS is being developed by Lockheed Martin and MBDA, the latter’s German division being the lead system developer for the TLVS requirement. MBDA Italia is also involved in the MEADS program, which in 2013 demonstrated its 360-degree ability by simultaneously engaging two targets approaching from opposite directions.

–D.D.

www.ainonline.com • June 15, 2015 • Paris Airshow News 83 00

High-level dignitaries underscore U.S. presence

by Gregory Polek

TEXAN TANGO Textron Aviation’s Beechcraft Defense division recently delivered four T-6D Texan II turboprop trainers to the U.S. Army. Accepting are Col. Steve Clark, left, Army fixed-wing project manager and Col. Patrick Mason, right, Commander of the Redstone Arsenal, Huntsville, Alabama. Representing Beechcraft Defense is Dan Grace, center, v-p of business development. The T-6D is part of the Joint Primary Aircraft Training Program (JPATS).

Honeywell and Boeing land via Cat III GPS

by Charles Alcock to Moses Lake, seven public airports are GBAS equipped: Houston, Newark, Malaga, Frankfurt, Bremen, Zurich and Sydney.

According to Louwagi, the majority of current Boeing production aircraft, and all Airbus models, already have GBAS capability. Older aircraft can be upgraded by adding multimode receivers and making changes to the flight management system and displays.

“Honeywell has the first and, so far, only FAA-certified GBAS and we have broken barriers in terms of advancing the technology,” Louwagi told AIN. “One of the ways we are differentiated is that we provide both ground and air systems, and so we are well placed to understand how everything works.”

commercial aviation, reflecting supply chain demand.”

Hot 100 Features

The Pavilion’s website, www. parisairshow.com, allows show visitors to quickly search for U.S. companies, and they can do this readily on mobile devices. It also has developed a so-called “Hot 100” list to highlight leading events and profiled exhibitors.

“Small companies can cast a disproportionately large shadow here,” said Kallman. “But exhibiting can be daunting and we can help them to show off their best.

We like to say to them that we’re their insurance policy against a bad experience.”

The Paris show’s public days, June 20 and 21, will feature a special Aerogare USA event at the U.S. Pavilion, which will feature presentations by former Apollo 15 astronaut Al Warden.

This will have a strong emphasis on attracting families and young people to get a flavor for America’s aerospace community. o

A NEW FACET FOR DIAMOND Diamond Aircraft is here with its turboprop DA-50-JP7. Powered by an Ivchenkodesigned 465-shp engine, the composite single flew for the first time in January. Based on the DA-40 airframe, it is expected to be offered with oversize tires for utility missions.

GPS Cat III Benefits

During the 787 tests, the Boeing/Honeywell team flew 12 Category III approaches and demonstrated the use of steeper, 3.2-degree glideslopes and displaced thresholds 1,000 feet down the runway. “We also showed how GBAS can result in noise and emission reductions [around airports] and shorter track miles to get on short final approach,” said Louwagi.

The test aircraft was fitted with Honeywell’s Integrated Navigation Receiver, which is its Category III prototype

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DAVID McINTOSH

Honeywell Aerospace and Boeing last week reported that they have successfully demonstrated GPS-based Category III precision landing on a 787 airliner. Flights were conducted back in December 2014, using Honeywell’s SmartPath groundbased augmentation system (GBAS) and upgraded reference receivers at the airframer’s Moses Lake Airport in Washington state. The tests established that aircraft can safely land in weather conditions that allow for no decision height and a minimum visual range as low as 150 feet.

According to Jared Louwagi, Honeywell’s senior manager for navigation and sensors, GBAS is set to be a key enabling technology for the U.S. NextGen and European Sesar modernization of air traffic management. The digital system is set to replace instrument landing systems and promises to be more flexible and less expensive for airports to maintain. It will increase airport capacity by giving the option for aircraft to land further down the runway and so exit to the taxiway sooner.

Airports need to be equipped with GPS reference receivers (usually four) that receive signals from satellites. These are connected to a central ground station that calculates any necessary correction to ensure the integrity of data that is then relayed to aircraft via VHF. In addition

multi-mode receiver. It installed its SmartPath GBAS ground station at the Moses Lake.

Next month, Honeywell expects to complete certification of the Block 2 software for SmartPath. This will bring several benefits, including improved availability and being adaptable to low latitude environments. It also means that operators can exercise optional upgrades such as incorporating a satellite-based augmentation system that covers a wider area rather than just a specific airport so that users don’t have to overcompensate for possible poor weather conditions. o

U.S. Pavilion organizer Kallman Worldwide is urging Paris Air Show visitors to “Ask America First” in its new marketing campaign launched here at Le Bourget this week.

Show visitors will certainly have ample opportunity to view the full array of U.S. aerospace and defense capabilities at the Pavilion in Hall 3, since more than two-thirds of American companies at this year’s show–230 out of the 320 total– are represented there.

This morning at 10 a.m., a veritable A-list of top U.S. government officials is expected to participate in the official opening of the Pavilion, including transportation secretary Anthony Foxx and air force secretary Deborah Lee James. The roster will also include as many as 20 elected officials, including the governors of seven states and development agencies from 19 states. On Tuesday at 11:30 a.m., James will discuss U.S. Air Force requirements.

Kallman Worldwide president Tom Kallman told AIN that 2015 participation in the U.S. Pavilion is the strongest since 2001. “We were able to obtain eight percent more space from the Paris organizers and we’ve sold all of this,” he said. “I’d say the profile of exhibitors this year is tipped somewhat towards

Superjet financing plans aim to bolster new sales

by Vladimir Karnozov

55 Superjets Currently Flying Aeroflot

19

Interjet

15

GazpromAvia

8

Center-South

3*

PT Sky Aviation

3

Red Wings

3

Yakutia

2

LAO Central

1

Russian interior ministry

1

SCAC lists a smaller number, 51, because LAO Central and PT Sky Aviation have taken delivery, but do not currently fly their aircraft. *one with VIP interior, operated on behalf of its owner, Rostec Corp.

25 to 30 “white tail” aircraft that have already been produced at UAC’s factory at Komsomolskupon-Amur, but which don’t yet have customers. Annual production rates were recently reduced to 36 from 45, and the plant is now working on its 100th airframe.

The 55 Superjets delivered to date have gone to the following operators: Aeroflot (19), Interjet (15), GazpromAvia (8), CenterSouth (3), PT Sky Aviation (3), Red Wings (3), Yakutia (2), LAO Central (1) and the Russian interior ministry (1). LAO and PT Sky are currently not flying their aircraft and Superjet is looking into options for leasing these airframes to other carriers.

DAVID McINTOSH

Visitors to Sukhoi’s Superjet SSJ100 regional airliner on display here at the Paris Air Show can get an expert guided tour using a new application that uses beacons to transmit information to their smart phones or tablets. As they move around the aircraft, the app presents them with descriptions of what they are seeing.

This innovative approach vividly illustrates the lengths to which Sukhoi and its Superjet International joint venture with Alenia are going to in their efforts to reinvigorate sales of the narrowbody. At the same time, the Superjet team is stepping up efforts to provide new sources of financing for customers.

Superjet International has put together a finance package through a multilateral export credit guaranteed by the COFACE (France), SACE (Italy) and EXIAR (Russia).

This just won the Export Credit Deal of the Year Award from Air Finance Journal.

Earlier this year, Sukhoi parent company United Aircraft Corp. agreed to set up a new leasing group to encourage Superjet sales in China. The Russian group is partnering with China’s New Century International Leasing and Xixian New Area Administrative Committee.

Another marketing initiative aimed mainly at the domestic Russian market involves an injection of around $60 million in government funds to the Russian State Transport Leasing Co., which will arrange operating leases for local airlines serving “socially important routes,” such as Crimea and Kaliningrad.

It is hoped that this will help firm up customers for around

For the 15th anniversary of project launch, Sukhoi announced its Superjet 100, above, has topped 100,000 flight hours. And engine-maker NPO Saturn, manufacturer of the Superjet’s SaM.146 turbofan, left, jumped in to crow about its milestone 200,000 flight hours and dispatch-reliability record.

Interjet Leads the Way

Mexico’s Interjet, which is Superjet’s Western launch customer, was set to get its 16th aircraft on the eve of this week’s Paris show, and the aircraft on display here at Le Bourget is its 17th. According to Superjet International CEO Nazario Caucegli, the manufacturer expects to have delivered all 20 of Interjet’s firm orders by the end of this year, as well as the first of 10 options that it holds.

The remaining nine aircraft are set to follow next year.

Some SSJ100 operators have complained that the aircraft is still not matching promised operating costs. One airline spokesman, speaking to AIN on condition of anonymity, said that its actual costs are more than three times as expensive per hour. The SSJ100 typically seats 83 to 87 passengers in a two-class configuration, with a maximum cabin configuration of 103 seats.

Caucegli told AIN that the SSJ100’s fuel consumption is around 10-percent lower than that of its competitors, but he acknowledged that prices for spare parts have not yet stabilized. “More than 60 percent of the aircraft has been supplied by Western companies, so eventually there is no reason to think that parts will cost more than those on Western aircraft,” he said. “Some of the airline concerns come from the fact that they don’t know us very well yet.”

Another problem is a small number of maintenance, repair and overhaul centers, with the Sukhoi’s base at Zhukovsky, near Moscow, being the only one

available in the whole of Russia.

Compared to the network of routes flown by the SSJ100, which now comprises more than 130 destinations in 30 countries, this is somewhat lacking.

SuperCare Does the Job

Interjet’s airplanes are main­tained under an exclusive SuperCare technical support scheme from Superjet International, which has proved helpful as it ensures a high degree of fleet readiness. Figures available for 2014 indicate that SuperCare helped the Mexican airline surpass Aeroflot on daily utilization of operable airframes, with 5.77 flight hours against 4.25, and on-time performance of 98.9 percent against 95.4 percent. At the design stage, Sukhoi promised airlines that its airplane would be able to log 3,000 to 3,300 hours annually with dispatch reliability exceeding 99.2 percent.

Red Wings complained about what it views as high costs for training flight crew, which it says have been as high as $134,000 per pilot. Caucegli said that training costs will be

reduced as the SSJ100 fleet and the number of available training providers increases. Currently, training is available in Moscow and in Venice, Italy, where Superjet International is based.

“We are conscious that it will not be easy to penetrate a challenging market where competition is fair but fierce,” said Caucegli. “But we are convinced

that we have many unique features and advantages, such as a huge cross-section that is comparable to a narrowbody airliner. We have a very competitive offer not only for the quality of the product, but also a very competitive price and also attractive financing conditions.”

Meanwhile, UAC and Alenia’s parent company, Finmeccanica, have acknowledged that they are holding talks to discuss a possible restructuring of the Superjet International joint venture. UAC continues to enjoy strong support from the Russian government for a program whose slow sales last year contributed to another year of financial losses– around $72.5 million on revenues of $567.8 million. o

EUROSTARS PROGRAM FUNDS ELBIT, NICARNICA ASH DETECTOR Elbit Systems of Israel (Chalet 200) and Norway’s Nicarnica Aviation have won approval under the Eurostar program to fund their collaborative volcanic ash-detection technology. The sensing solution combines Elbit’s ClearVision enhanced vision system (EVS) with Nicarnica’s volcanic imaging detector.

The Eurostars program provides funding for innovative research projects that have partners from two or more participating countries.

It has a budget of €1.14 billion ($1.28 billion), and is supported by the European Union and the 34 member nations of the Eureka organization for pan-European research and development.

Elbit Systems and Nicarnica Aviation signed a memorandum of understanding in July 2014 to cooperate on incorporating Nicarnica’s Airborne Volcanic Object Imaging Detector (Avoid) with Elbit’s ClearVision EVS. The Avoid detector senses volcanic ash in the atmosphere up to 100 km ahead of an aircraft, providing pilots sufficient time to take evasive action.

–B.C.

www.ainonline.com • June 15, 2015 • Paris Airshow News 85

NEWS CLIPS z EDAC Technologies Inks Deal with Snecma

DAVID McINTOSH

Cheshire, Connecticut-bIased EDAC Technologies has entered into two long-term manufacturing contracts with Snecma, the U.S. company announced earlier this month.

The companies structured the long-term agreements to support the development and production of outer guide vanes and bleed valve ducts for CFM International’s Leap 1-A and Leap 1-B turbofans. EDAC places the value of the deals at $150 million.

One of two engine choices for customers of the Airbus A320neo, the Leap 1-A flew aboard the first flight test vehicle on May 19. The Leap 1-B, the sole-source powerplant for the Boeing 737 Max, began flight testing aboard CFM partner GE’s Boeing 747 testbed on April 29.

z Airbus Picks Zodiac’s High-bandwidth BFE Zodiac Aerospace (Hall 2a A253) has been selected

by Airbus for the supply of high-bandwidth connectivity as buyer-furnished equipment. Zodiac will provide the antenna and other terminal equipment and will “facilitate the Inmarsat Global Xpress service.” The program covers the Ka-band system for the A320, A330 and A380. “The system provides high-speed internet to passengers and many opportunities for airline ancillary revenue, and airlines will be able to improve their operations via realtime aircraft monitoring,” said Matt Smith, CEO of Zodiac Inflight Innovations.

z L-3 Link to Supply 787 Training for Virgin L-3 Link Simulation & Training has landed the contract to provide the UK’s Virgin Atlantic Airways with Boeing 787 training. The company’s Crawley, UK-based division is providing a range of training tools and services under a 12-year deal.

This will support a 787 conversion syllabus, in addition to instructor and command-training courses. The equipment will also be used for continuation and refresher training to maintain aircrew proficiency. Under the deal, L-3 Link is installing a full-motion simulator in the British Airways Flight Training Centre at London Heathrow, while a flat-panel trainer is being installed at Virgin Atlantic’s flight training center in Crawley, close to London Gatwick Airport. Both tools are based on L-3 Link’s RealitySeven simulation technology.

z Kuwait Selects Avant IFE for Airbus A330s Kuwait Airways has chosen Thales’s Avant in-flight entertainment system for five recently ordered Airbus A330-200s. The Android-based Avant system delivers a wide variety of on-board entertainment and applications such as the Thales 3-D Maps. Kuwait has chosen the 15.4-inch video monitor and Touch PMU handsets for premium class, while economy class passengers get 10.6-inch video monitors.

Nineteen airlines have now ordered the Avant system, accounting for more than 500 airplanes. More than 130 airplanes now fly with the system. Thales offers the system on all new-generation Boeing and Airbus platforms.

‘WARTHOG’ COMES BACK TO EUROPE With retirement hanging over it, the Fairchild A-10 still has a part to play in today’s U.S. Air Force operations, as evidenced by the deployment of “Warthogs” back to Europe earlier this year in response to increased tensions over Ukraine. The six-month detachment is operating from an air base in Spangdahlem, Germany.

Pivotal change at the top for Daher

by Caroline Bruneau Since surprising the industry by dropping the Socata name, Daher has embarked on a restructuring aimed at expanding the French group’s aviation business. For the first time in Daher’s history, the company will not be led by a member of the Daher family, which will continue to control 80 percent of its equity.

Current executive vice president David Kayat is in the process of taking over from CEO Patrick Daher during the next two years.

Daher’s aerospace growth goals are very specific. From revenues of €970 million ($1.1 billion) in 2014, it expects to grow by ramping up its main programs to reach €1.3 billion ($1.42 billion) in 2017 and €2 billion ($2.2 billion) beyond that.

In addition to making TBM turboprop singles, including the latest TBM 900 on display here at the Paris Air Show, Daher is one

of the main aerostructures suppliers for aircraft such as the Airbus A350XWB and Dassault Falcon 5X. It also provides wing-to-body fairings and landing gear doors for the new Gulfstream G500 and G600.

But now the group craves a more international profile, particularly in North America.

“We are looking to the U.S., which is a very important market for us,” Daher marketing director Vincent Chanron told AIN. “We have signed new contracts with Gulfstream to produce carbon-fiber parts for the G500 and G600, but we would love to work more for Boeing, and to do so we need to be present in the U.S.” Daher, which is already present in neighboring Mexico, is now studying the possibility of building or buying its own U.S. factory. The U.S. alone accounted for about three-quarters of the

98 orders Daher now holds for the TBM 900.

In addition to the TBM 900, Daher’s exhibit here at Le Bourget also includes examples of its aerostructures work, including a tailboom produced for the new Airbus Helicopters H160. The company is also demonstrating a virtual reality tool that will let visitors experience the TBM 900 production line at Tarbes in ­ southern France.

Daher also is involved in the Airbus-led E-Fan project to develop an electrically powered training aircraft. It is expected to be responsible for taking the aircraft into production. “We have expertise in lightweight aircraft that is a huge advantage,” said Chanron. “But we won’t abandon the production of aircraft– it is a guarantee of credibility for our big customers.” o

Esterline CMC Electronics (Hall 5 D250) has received certification from Saudi Arabia’s general authority of civil aviation (GACA) for augmented-GPS approaches on the Lockheed Martin L-100, the civil version of the C-130 transport. The GACA delivered a supplemental type certificate approval for activation of the Cat 1-equivalent localizer performance with vertical guidance (LPV) capability on CMC’s Cockpit 9000 “glass cockpit upgrade.” LPV capability, which uses a satellite-based GPS augmentation system, has thus been deployed on two L-100s and 18 C-130s, Esterline said.

86 Paris Airshow News • June 15, 2015 • www.ainonline.com

Daher brings its TBM 900 turboprop single to Paris for its show debut. It replaced the TBM 850 last year.

DAVID McINTOSH

z CMC’s Cockpit 9000 LPV Option Approved

Leap production-rate potential faces increased OEM demand

by Gregory Polek Now preparing to build more than 1,800 engines a year by 2020, CFM will place no “theoretical limits” on the number of Leap engines it could ultimately build to meet the demands of Airbus and Boeing, CFM executive vice president François Bastin told a gathering of reporters at his company’s airshow chalet on Saturday.

Boeing and Airbus have each talked of the possibility of increasing rates on their respective narrowbodies to as many as 60 airplanes a month by the turn of the decade, but a successful transition will largely depend on the ability of its suppliers to keep pace.

“Everything is possible with the right amount of time,” said Bastin. “So it’s a matter of getting the timing and the number...it’s not necessarily the number

that is important, it is the slope [at which production accelerates.]”

Appearing alongside Bastin and CFM chief executive Jean-Paul Ebanga, executive vice president Allen Paxson stressed the need for stability in a high-volume production line. “I don’t know if we’ve made an assessment of how high it could ultimately go,” said Paxson. “There are restrictions on how fast we can ramp up.

We can’t go from zero to 1,800 engines in a day, or in a year. There has to be some stability in the process.”

Paxson added that CFM has already stretched itself to reach its current rate of production. Last year it delivered a record 1,560 engines, after another record 2013 campaign, during which it shipped 1,502.

Ebanga noted that CFM56 production

UTC to provide 12 systems for new Boeing 777X airliner

by Gregory Polek & Charles Alcock UTC Aerospace Systems (Chalet 338 Static C2) has won contracts covering 12 systems on the Boeing 777X, including the big twin’s electric power generating system. Designed to provide 25-percent more power than the UTC system now on the current generation 777, the system consists of two 150-kVA integrated drive generators, an auxiliary generator, three generator control units and a bus power control unit.

The U.S.-based group also announced that it will supply the new Boeing twinjet’s cabin air conditioning and temperature control system, airfoil and cowl ice protection system and the

entire ventilation system’s suite of fans.

According to UTC, the three systems increase performance, enhance reliability and improve passenger comfort.

Other UTC Systems on the 777X include the fire/overheat protection system, power door opening system actuation and a new, lighter-weight cargo loading system with enhanced power drive units and controls.

UTC also won the contracts for cabin attendant seating, brakes, main wheels and nose wheels. The 777X brakes use UTC’s Duracarb carbon material, which it claims provides 35-percent more brake

According to officials, the sky is the only limit on production rates for CFM’s Leap engine. The company churned out a record 1,560 turbofans last year, topping the record number of 1,502 set the year before.

has increased every year for the past 10 years, and that the transition to production of the Leap family marks the first time in industry history that a manufacturer will have introduced a new product while peak production rates of its existing product persist.

“Our constraint is going to be how fast we can bring the new-build materials up a life than competing models. Finally, UTC will supply a suite of sensors for various 777X functions, including specialty heating, waste and water management and various air data systems.

Here in Paris, UTC is highlighting its proficiency in integrating so-called “more electric” technologies across a variety of platforms, including the Boeing 787’s electric system, electrically driven environmental controls, high-power motor controls and auxiliary power and electric braking system. Aircraft that use UTC electric system aircraft on display here include those from Airbus, Boeing, Bombardier, Dassault, Embraer, Gulfstream and Mitsubishi.

According to Dave Carter, UTC’s senior vice president for engineering and quality, reducing weight, heat and cost in electric motors and their controllers has been a major focus of research and development effort, as has been the pushed

DAVID McINTOSH

100 UP FOR THE FRENCH TEST UNIT The French military test establishment celebrates 100 years of operation this year and has marked the occasion with a special scheme on one of its Mirage 2000D testbeds on display in the French MoD’s corral in static area A3. Now known as DGA-EV (Direction Générale d’Armements-Essais en Vol), the unit operates a mixed fleet of aircraft, including the new Fokker 100 ABE-NG. Mirage 2000s are the backbone of the fighter trials fleet, with four Mirage 2000Ds, two 2000Cs and two 2000Ns on strength, plus a 2000B two-seater equipped with Rafale radar and other systems. The Mirage 2000 test fleet has been instrumental in the development of systems such as the SCALP cruise missile, Areos reconnaissance pod, Damoclès targeting pod and MdCN naval cruise missile.

–D.D.

rate curve,” explained Paxson, who conceded that CFM has held discussion with Boeing and Airbus over rate increases.

“They have had conversations with us about higher rates. We’re still working on that...but we don’t feel we should comment on that now because I think we still have some work to do to understand what they really need from us.” o

UTC To Establish Regional Distribution Centers UTC Aerospace Systems has announced plans to establish regional material distribution sites around the world this year. Plans call for the sites to provide operators with critical aircraft on ground (AOG) and reliability hardware for programs including the Boeing 787, Airbus A350 and A320neo. The regional distribution centers will serve customers in Europe, Asia, the Americas and the Middle East with material to supplement inventories of operators that have fully provisioned their fleets. UTC plans to open the first site this summer in the Netherlands. –G.P.

for more integrated aircraft systems. At its newly opened electrical systems development center in the UK, engineers are working on new high power motor controllers with around twice the power density of today’s units. “We’re looking at architecture with which we can run multiple devices off ganged motor controllers at the same time,” he explained.

The company is also exploring possibilities for high-voltage DC and AC systems to power peripheral devices around the aircraft, while reducing weight, cost and the amount of wiring and bracketing required.

Its sensors group is working on wireless and self-powered sensors that could collect the data needed for more effective health monitoring of aircraft systems.

UTC is also highlighting its use of data from systems onboard aircraft to monitor operating conditions and track aircraft position while en route. The company’s aircraft data management (ADM) system uses “big data” that new aircraft generate for crew awareness in flight and allows ground-based teams maintained by the operator to share it. Combining aircraft health information with positioning information allows operators to maintain a clear view of the entire fleet that’s in flight at any given time, according to UTC. o

www.ainonline.com • June 15, 2015 • Paris Airshow News 87

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