measured impact MBDA’s warhead that spares the neighbourhood technology P25
packing them in
Airbus offers lower-MTOW version of A330-300 for high-density hops in growing Asian markets 11
farewell vc10
Final Vickers tankers bow out as RAF readies for new-generation refuelling capability 22
FLIGHT INTERNATIONAL
flightglobal.com 1-7 October 2013
commercial engines
marathon faN Why IAE’s veteran V2500 is in it for the long haul
ISSN 0 0 1 5 - 3 7 1 0
£3.30
4 0
9
770015 371259
Sweet Have you heard the buzz? Our industrious engineers have cross-pollinated the fuel efficiency of wide-body engines with more than 630 million hours of high-cycle experience to produce the LEAP engine family. CFM’s legendary reliability and low maintenance costs. Longer time on wing. The result is simply irresistible. Go to cfmaeroengines.com CFM International is a 50/50 joint company between Snecma (Safran) and GE.
Superior performance | Lower cost of ownership | Greater reliability
MORE TO BELIEVE IN
FLIGHT INTERNATIONAL
volume 184 number 5409
measured impact packing them in mBda’s warhead Airbus offers lower-MTOW version of A330-300 for that spares the high-density hops in neighBourhood growing Asian markets 11 technology p25
1-7 October 2013
farewell vc10
Final Vickers tankers bow out as RAF readies for new-generation refuelling capability 22
PIC OF THE WEEK
FLIGHT
your photograph here
INTERNATIONAL
flightglobal.com
AirSpace regular sunshine band gives us this sunset view of Second World War star Hurricane LF363 from the Battle of Britain Memorial Flight at RAF Coningsby. Open a gallery in flightglobal.com’s AirSpace community for a chance to feature here
1-7 OctOber 2013
commercial engines
marathon fan Why IAE’s veteran V2500 is in it for the long haul
ISSN 0 0 1 5 - 3 7 1 0
£3.30
IAE
770015 371259
26/09/2013 10:21
flightglobal.com/imageoftheday
news this week 10 ARJ21 ‘will enter service next year’ 11 Airbus offers short-haul A330 variant. Upset training set for shake-up 12 Boeing fury over backtrack on F-X III 13 North Sea safety facing CAA probe Air Transport 14 Snags with 787 test Qatar’s patience. Boeing coy on ‘enhancement’ to 787-9 gear doors 15 Airbus defiant over A380’s prospects. Emirates sees room for 180 superjumbos if hub congestion lifts 16 Capacity nudges Lufthansa to 777-9X. Cautious Emirates edges towards order for new twinjet 17 Anti-missile pods near certification helitech show report 18 Operators launch own safety review 19 New S-92 for UK Long SAR comes together at Sikorsky. Certification nears for AW189 as backlog grows 20 Overcrowded market could leave lessors high and dry. Milestone strikes massive multi-year AgustaWestland deal
Sikorsky completes assembly of the first ‘baseline’ S-92 to be delivered to Bristow Helicopters P19 Concerns over new direction for US Navy’s UCLASS programme P23
Defence 21 Updated Fire Scout heads for take-off. First Hawk swoops in for Indian navy training role. Jakarta receives four G120TPs 22 VC10 retirement signals start of RAF transition. Drone alone: unmanned debut for QF-16 target NEWS ANALYSIS 23 Bidders to pass on UCLASS? Business Aviation 24 CHC boosts S-92 stock as it prepares for share flotation. Basel base set to give 787s the VIP treatment
Cover story
38 Happily divorced Pratt & Whitney has led International Aero Engines to ever-greater success since the departure of Rolls-Royce
features
28 Commercial engines Extraordinary expectations The buzz keeps growing as CFM International’s Leap family of engines moves through testing 32 commercial engines Powering the dream The orders battle between rival 787 engine suppliers Rolls-Royce and GE is entering a new phase
TECHNOLOGY 25 A big blast isn’t always best Business 26 Sales – or sting – in the tail?
REgulars 9 Comment 41 Straight & Level 44 Classified 47 Jobs 51 Working Week
Craig Hoyle/Flightglobal
FIN_011013_301.indd 1
Cover image International Aero Engines provided this up-close-andpersonal look at the low-pressure fan from one of its V2500 powerplants, to head up our commmercial engines special report P38
Bristow Group/US Navy
sunshine band gallery on flightglobal.com/AirSpace
4 0
9
next week vc10 retirement The UK Royal Air Force’s last two Vickers VC10 tankers blazed their final trail in late September. Read our farewell report, from onboard “The Queen of the skies”.
It’s easy to be green when it’s in your nature. 29535-2_PP_Nature_FlightInt Strip.indd 1
9/19/13 10:42 | 5AM 1-7 October 2013 | Flight International
flightglobal.com
Client: Pratt & Whitney Commercial Engines
contents
AC Aviation Charter.......................................24 Aéro Montréal...............................................10 AgustaWestland......................................19, 20 Airbus.................................. 14, 15, 16, 17, 27 Airbus Military...............................................22 AirTanker.......................................................22 AJW..............................................................27 Arkia.............................................................17 Atech Negócios em Tecnologia......................27 Avincis Group.........................................18, 19 Avingtrans....................................................27 BAE Systems................................................21 Beechcraft..............................................21, 24 Bell Helicopter........................................21, 24 Boeing... 10, 12, 14, 15, 16, 17, 22, 23, 24, 26 Bombardier..................................................24 Bond Offshore Helicopters......................18, 19 Bristow Group.........................................18, 19 CHC Group.......................................18, 20, 24 Comac..........................................................10 Dassault Group.......................................10, 24 Delta Air Lines...............................................27 Diamond Aircraft...........................................10 EasyJet.........................................................27 El Al..............................................................17 Elbit Systems................................................17 Embraer..................................................17, 27 Emirates...........................................15, 16, 27 Etihad Airways...............................................14 Eurocopter..................................13, 18, 19, 20 ExecuJet Africa..............................................24 Exolus Group................................................10 General Atomics Aeronautical Systems...23, 26 General Dynamics........................................24 General Electric......................................15, 16 GKN Aerospace.............................................26 Grob Aircraft.................................................21 Heli-One.......................................................20 Hindustan Aeronautics............................10, 21 Human Recognition Systems........................27 Insitu............................................................26 International Jet Management.......................24 Israir.............................................................17 Jet Aviation...................................................24 Jet Transfer....................................................24 Korea Aerospace Industries...........................21 L-3 Wescam..................................................10 Lease Corp International.........................20, 27 Lockheed Martin.................. 10, 12, 22, 23, 26 Lufthansa...............................................16, 27 Macquarie Helicopter Leasing.......................20 MBDA...........................................................27 Milestone Aviation........................................20 Mubadala Aerospace....................................14 Northrop Grumman.....................12, 21, 23, 26 Panavia Aircraft.............................................25 Pilatus Aircraft...............................................21 Pratt & Whitney.............................................24 Qatar Airways................................................14 Quest Aircraft................................................24 Raytheon......................................................27 Rockwell Collins............................................27 Rolls-Royce.......................................16, 21, 22 Rosaviaconsortium.......................................10 Rostec State Corporation..............................27 Russian Helicopters......................................27 Saab............................................................10 Sigma Components......................................27 Sikorsky......................................19, 20, 25, 26 Sunstate Aviation..........................................24 TDW..............................................................25 Textron AirLand..............................................26 Volvo Aero.....................................................26 Waypoint Leasing..........................................20 Wheels Up....................................................24
behind the headlines
The week on the web
flightglobal.com
Max Kingsley-Jones (top left) flew to Abu Dhabi for a briefing from Etihad boss James Hogan on his long-term fleet plans, and also heard about Qatar Airways’ 787 woes, in Doha (P14). Dom Perry, Kate Sarsfield and Dan Thisdell covered rotorcraft jamboree Helitech at London’s Excel exhibition centre (P18).
At The DEW Line, get this look – and video – of the first Boeing QF-16 pilotless drone flying... well... without a pilot. Up next, live fire trials at Holloman AFB, New Mexico – where probably some F-22s or possibly even some operational F-16s will have a field day blowing them out of the sky. Plus, check out the video interview with Lockheed Martin F-35B crews following the second set of sea trials on the USS Wasp. Meanwhile, Arie “Ariel View” Egozi reports that what first seemed a whim of aeronautical engineers is now a very solid trend. Developers of unmanned air systems (UAS) want to extend their endurance dramatically, but that cannot be achieved with fuel saving engines – only with aerial refuelling. Needless to say, the Israeli aerospace industry is pushing hard to be the master of this new era of UAS technology.
US Air Force
Companies listed
Find all these items at flightglobal.com/wotw
Question of the week BillyPix
in this issue
Last week, we asked: CSeries first flight: You said: Will usher in a wave of new orders
Will capture a few smaller campaigns
33 33 34 %
For a full list of reader services, editorial and advertising contacts see P43 Editorial
+44 20 8652 3842 flight.international@flightglobal.com Display Advertising
+44 20 8652 3315 gillian.cumming@rbi.co.uk
Classified Advertising
+44 20 8652 4897 flight.classified@flightglobal.com Recruitment Advertising
+44 20 8652 4900 recruitment.services@rbi.co.uk webmaster
webmaster@flightglobal.com Subscriptions
+44 1444 475 682 flightinternational.subs@qss-uk.com Reprints
+44 20 8652 8612 reprints@rbi.co.uk Flight Daily News
+44 20 8652 3096 flightdailynews@flightglobal.com
Still has much to prove
%
%
Total votes: 1,905 This week, we ask: Is Tim Clark right to think the A380 a sleeping giant? ❑ Yes, it will be ubiquitous by the 2020s ❑ Yes, but only for global carriers like Emirates ❑ No, it will remain a niche product Vote at flightglobal.com/poll
high fliers
The top five stories for the week just gone: 1 Emirates begins parting out its A340-500s 2 Waypoint data entry error led to 777’s rapid descent 3 Emirates working to finalise commercial terms for 777X order 4 RAF VC10s to make last operational flight 5 Split Lufthansa widebody order includes firm 777X Flightglobal reaches up to 1.3 million visitors from 220 countries viewing 7.1 million pages each month
Download the new Commercial Engines Report
Download The Engine Directory.
now with enhanced data and in-depth market analysis
flightglobal.com/ComEngDirectory flightglobal.com/commengines13 Untitled-2.indd 1
6 | Flight International | 1-7 October 2013 Flight_CFM_25x180.indd 1
19/09/2013 10:06
flightglobal.com
19/07/2012 17:51
THINGS ARE LOOKING UP
Introducing IntelliCabin – the next generation cabin system designed to provide the ultimate flying experience. ™
www.baesystems.com/intellicabin
GE Aviation
GE9X The world’s next great engine.
Building on the leadership and technology of our fuel-efďŹ cient twin-aisle engine family. geaviation.com/newengine
comment
Upsetting convention Differences remain over how the industry should tackle one of the biggest killers in aviation. But recognising the need for programmes to reduce the risk of loss of control in flight is a start
oss of control in flight (LOC-I) is the biggest killer in an industry that is getting safer, and it has been growing as a problem in its own right. Its rise as an issue has accompanied the gradual automation of flightdecks, and the decline of direct pilot mental and physical involvement in directing the aircraft. One of the factors behind the delay in the industry’s reaction to LOC-I was that the connection between it and automation was not obvious, and although it is recognised as a factor now, it is only one of many changes that have happened in the industry over the same time. But now the beginnings of a reaction are about to become visible. The US Federal Aviation Administration is about to make upset prevention and recovery training (UPRT) mandatory for airlines, and EASA will do the same. The FAA also proposes to demand that simulator manufacturers make their devices represent flight close to and just outside the aircraft’s
There are still many ideas on the best path to take on UPRT, but views are converging flight envelope more accurately, so that stalling and UPRT can be more realistically practised in flight simulation training devices. This is the first move on UPRT by the regulators, but it is the result of years of agonising over what the root cause of the LOC-I problem is, and what could feasibly be done about it. One of the big worries was the possibility of introducing training measures that can have a negative effect. For example, an FSTD cannot reproduce gforces, and its reaction near the edges of the flight
Rex Features
L
Treat the disease
envelope might confuse. On the other hand, exposure to g-forces and extreme attitudes in an aerobatic light aircraft that responds rapidly to throttle and rudder and has a fast roll rate might lead to a dangerously enthusiastic response to an upset in a widebody airliner. The Royal Aeronautical Society’s conference on UPRT last week showed there are still many views on the best path to take, but knowledge is accumulating and views are converging. It does not actually matter if differences remain over what the best UPRT methods are because if the goal is to reduce the risk of LOC-I, there is more than one way of using the accumulated UPRT knowledge to achieve that. What matters is that each airline forms a view, develops a programme, and gets approval for it from its aviation authority. And that is not the end of the story. The fact that LOC-I has developed as a phenomenon proves the industry has a fundamental training problem. UPRT is only the sticking plaster. The industry needs to treat the disease. ■ See This Week P11
From Stone Age to CAD Age O
Operations and safety editor David Learmount writes on aviation safety matters on his blog flightglobal.com/learmount
flightglobal.com
f the distinctions between human and other animals, none is so profound as our ability to make and use tools. From the first shovel to multi-ton earthmovers and from chisels to 3D printers, our tools have long been an extension of our hands and minds. Better tools have enabled better, bigger and more capable buildings, infrastructure and machines. Our tools define us. As tools have improved, we have progressed through the Stone, Bronze and Iron Ages. That most recent of powerful tools, the computer, has arguably taken us into the Information Age. While our tools may define us, we certainly regard ourselves as their masters. Above all, it takes a human mind to decide just what to do with a tool; no number
of monkeys banging away at computer terminals would ever really end up with an aircraft – at least not one you’d want to fly in. The latest computer-aided design software is breathtakingly sophisticated, providing the most transparent bridge yet between our imaginations and our work. CAD and the internet have also opened a new world of global collaboration, which is a beautiful thing. But while collaboration magnifies the creative power of each engineer, it also changes notions of ownership of intellectual property. Some companies will master this tricky environment. Others may start to wonder if we are losing control of our tools. ■ This Week P10 1-7 October 2013 | Flight International | 9
This week
For a round-up of our latest online news, feature and multimedia content visit flightglobal.com/wotw
briefing DESIGN Engineers are being promised new standards of processing speed, convenience and collaboration in computer-aided design with the introduction of the 2014 version of Dassault Systèmes’s SolidWorks package. New features that may prove attractive in the aircraft industry include 2D and 3D electrical circuit design and a cable routing visualisation tool that renders in seconds views of paths through fixed structures that would have taken hours of work in earlier versions of the software. In addition, says product introduction manager Justin Burton, a social networking function – my.solidworks.com – should open new paths to direct sharing of designs.
israel lifts fighter operating restrictions safety Israel’s air force has resumed full flight operations with its Boeing F-15I and Lockheed Martin F-16I combat aircraft, after lifting a grounding order imposed on 7 July. An investigation into what led an F-16I crew to eject over the Mediterranean Sea during a training flight has yet to conclude, but the service believes that the Pratt & Whitney F100 engine that powers both fleets was not at fault.
ECOJET DEVELOPERS EYE FINAL ASSEMBLY SITE development Rosaviaconsortium and Exolus Group, the partners behind the Frigate Ecojet bid to develop a next-generation wide-body airliner for short/medium haul routes using a flat three-aisle elliptical fuselage, are to begin defining their needs for placement of a final assembly line. The partners forecast production of 250 aircraft by 2030 and a total programme budget of $3.5 billion, of which 30% would come from the Russian government.
USA BACKS niger air force to polish diamonds enhancements The US Navy intends to fund an upgrade to the Niger air force’s two surveillance-roled Diamond Aircraft DA42s. The work will add an L-3 Wescam MX-15 electro-optical/infrared sensor, data transmission and encryption capabilities and new operator display screens, as well as satellite communications equipment.
dhruv to get self-protection boost helicopters Saab has received orders worth SKr216 million ($34 million) to supply countermeasures equipment to protect Hindustan Aeronautics Dhruv helicopters used by the Indian air force and army. South Africa-based Saab Grintek Defence will deliver the integrated defensive aids suite units from 2014, in a deal that follows initial serial production orders placed from 2008.
CANADIAN mentoring SCHEME LOOKS to grow INDUSTRY A regional scheme in Quebec to pair smaller aerospace suppliers with large-company mentors to improve their competitiveness hopes to win funding from Canada’s federal government. Suzanne Benoît, president of the Aéro Montréal think tank behind the five-year, C$15 million ($14.5 million) MACH initiative, says manufacturers in the Seattle area have expressed interest in joining.
Egypt unrest puts chill into winter AIRLINES Tour operators TUI and Thomas Cook have warned that the Syrian civil war and continuing unrest in Egypt are having a negative impact on their winter bookings. TUI says it is reducing its Egypt programme “significantly” for the winter 2013/2014 season, while Thomas Cook says slow winter trading was “not unexpected, given geopolitical events and warm weather across Europe”.
10 | Flight International | 1-7 October 2013
Rex Features
SOLIDWORKS GOES SOCIAL WITH 2014 REVISION
Comac aims to deliver the first regional jet to Chengdu in 2014 APPROVAL Mavis Toh Beijing
ARJ21 ‘will enter service next year’ Manufacturer targets 2014 certification in China after finally completing trials of niggling emergency landing gear release
A
fter years of setbacks, Comac is aiming to get its ARJ21 regional jet certificated in 2014, and to deliver the aircraft to launch customer Chengdu Airlines by the end of that year. The Chinese airframer says the jet’s certification process has been moving forward as planned and that it has completed a series of major tests. These include highrisk and critical modules such as minimum unstick speed tests, stall tests and larger crosswind flight tests. At last week’s Aviation Expo in Beijing, Comac also disclosed that the programme has finally completed tests for the emergency release of the aircraft’s landing gear – an area that has haunted the project for three years because of the technical problems encountered. Earlier this year, Flight International reported that supplier Liebherr-Aerospace was still modifying the landing gear as a necessary consequence of “improvements” made to the aircraft after years of flight tests. In total, the four ARJ21 flight test aircraft have completed more than 2,000 flights totalling some 4,000h, and covered about 70% of the necessary test programme. Sources say that there are no “major issues” with the development of the jet and that represent-
atives from the US Federal Aviation Administration, which is conducting a shadow certification process alongside the Civil Aviation Administration of China, will in the coming months fly on the ARJ21 during tests. This will be a show of confidence that the aircraft is safe, they add. At Aviation Expo, Comac vice-president Luo Ronghuai said upcoming tests the regional jet has to undergo include natural icing tests, as well as some additional work for high-humidity flight tests. After receiving certification from the CAAC, it could take another two years before the aircraft is validated by the FAA. Progress on the ARJ21, a project which started some 11 years ago, has been slow as engineers encountered problems in the development as well as certification processes. As a result, delivery of the aircraft, initially set for 2007, has been pushed back several times. One factor for the delays is that the inexperienced airframer is working with the CAAC, which is certifying a commercial jet for the first time and is therefore unfamiliar with the process. ■ Catch up on all the news from the ARJ21’s development at flightglobal.com/arj21
flightglobal.com
This week
Boeing fury over backtrack on F-X III THIS WEEK P12 OPTIONS Mavis Toh Beijing david kaminski-morrow london
Airbus offers short-haul A330 variant Lower-weight twinjet retains structure but gets modified cabin and engines as Toulouse targets Asian shuttle operations
A
irbus is formally offering a lower-weight A330-300 tailored for high-intensity, high-capacity shuttle operations, particularly within the Asian market. The twinjet will be structurally identical to its baseline model, but with its maximum take-off weight reduced to 205t – limiting its range to around 3,000nm (5,560km). “We don’t intend to change the airframe. But we optimise it by
changing the cabin to set up more seats, [fewer] galleys, de-rate the engines – optimise it for a 200t aircraft,” said Airbus chief executive Fabrice Brégier, unveiling the aircraft at the Aviation Expo in Beijing. “But in 10 years’ time, if the airline wants to move [the aircraft] to long range, this is also possible. Flexibility is essential.” Airbus’s decision is reminiscent of Boeing’s adaptation of the
747-100 for the short-haul Japanese market. But while Boeing had to reinforce the 747 to create the short-range 747SR, Airbus head of twin-aisle marketing Crawford Hamilton points out that early A330s were operating sectors such as Hong Kong-Taipei and Toulouse-Paris. “[The A330] was really, at the start, designed around this kind of requirement,” he says. “That
ORDERS
Vietnamese low-cost operator VietJet Air has tentatively signed to acquire 62 A320-family aircraft and take purchase rights on 30 more, heading a regional A320 surge at Beijing’s Aviation Expo, where nearly 150 orders for the type were placed in total. No engine selection or delivery dates have been given. But with a further eight A320s it intends to lease from third parties, VietJet’s potential commitment to the Airbus single-aisle aircraft stands at 100 aircraft. The private carrier, which started flying in late 2011, recently
Airbus
Beijing’s Aviation Expo proves happy hunting ground for A320
VietJet signed a deal to add up to 100 A320s to its nine-strong fleet acquired its ninth leased A320. Also at Aviation Expo, start-up Chinese carrier Qingdao Airlines placed an order for 23 A320-family
TECHNOLOGY Stephen Trimble Washington DC
aircraft, while start-up carrier Zhejiang Loong Airlines signed a memorandum of understanding for another 20. ■
robustness has always remained in the background.” As a result the aircraft will not need structural changes but will be operationally configured for the regional sector. Cockpit avionics will be modified, in particular to assist with the higher numbers of landings generated by short-haul services. Airbus will fit head-up displays, increase precision navigation capabilities to aid flight in dense airspace, and provide runway overrun protection systems. Airbus believes the type will appeal to the Chinese market, in particular, and provide economic advantages through a higher-density cabin and lower airport and air navigation charges. Airbus has developed 21 weight variants of the A330-300, including 205t versions and even a 184t option. But Hamilton says the new regional variant aims to take advantage of the latest production standard, and capabilities including the higher zero-fuel weight. The aircraft’s development will be undertaken in parallel to the 242t version, and enter service in early 2015 – slightly ahead of the higher-weight jet. ■
SAFETY David Learmount London
Water injection ‘still an Upset training set for shake-up option’ for GE9X engine R G
eneral Electric is still studying the “right technologies” for the GE9X it is developing to power the Boeing 777X, but has clarified that a water injection system may still feature to ensure the turbofan is able to operate in very hot environments. A water injection system would be an unusual feature for a modern turbofan, but the idea was broached in September by Tim Clark, chief executive of Emirates – the largest single customer of the 777 family. Clark, speaking in an interview with Flight International, said he unflightglobal.com
derstood that the GE9X may not be able to operate in hot environments such as Emirates’ home base of Dubai without water injection for extra cooling. GE denies that the proposed GE9X will require a special water injection system to power the Boeing 777X in hot environments. GE originally said it had no plans to introduce water cooling, but later softened its stance to say it is premature to discuss specific technology, adding: “It is too early to comment on the findings from the trade studies, which are continuing.” ■
egulators on both sides of the Atlantic are preparing to issue rules requiring airlines to provide upset prevention and recovery training (UPRT) for pilots, according to US Federal Aviation Administration and European Aviation Safety Agency speakers at the Royal Aeronautical Society’s UPRT conference in London. The FAA will issue a final rule in October requiring airlines to develop an approved UPRT programme that will be operational within five years. Subsequently, in February 2015 it will issue a notice of proposed rulemaking requiring simulator manufacturers to extend
the performance of their machines to represent – more accurately than they currently do – aircraft performance and behaviour close to the edges of the flight envelope. If the NPRM is approved it will become a rule the following year. One of the problems in reaching decisions on how simulation can be used for safe upset recovery training has been the fact that, carried out badly, it can have a negative effect on pilot ability to deal with upsets correctly. EASA says it will issue a notice of proposed amendment (NPA) defining a proposed UPRT requirement for airlines In the fourth quarter of 2014. ■
1-7 October 2013 | Flight International | 11
This week
For a round-up of our latest online news, feature and multimedia content visit flightglobal.com/wotw
competition greg waldron singapore
Boeing fury over backtrack on F-X III South Korea’s move to re-tender fighter competition opens door for F-35 to take on previous favourite Silent Eagle
‘deeply disappointed’ Boeing was quick to register its dismay at Seoul’s surprise announcement, saying it was “deeply disappointed” by the decision. “Boeing has rigorously followed the Defense Acquisition Program Administration’s instructions throughout the entire process,” it says, adding: “We await details from DAPA on its basis for the delay while evaluating our next options.” Several factors appear to be behind Seoul’s move, with the foremost being the air force’s cornerstone requirement for an aircraft optimised for stealth, as contained within its original required operational capabilities framework. DAPA, however, chose to reduce the emphasis on stealth during the contest, creating an opportunity for the manufacturers of the less stealthy F-15 and Typhoon, in addition to the fifth-generation F-35.
Boeing touted the benefits of the F-15SE, as Seoul already operates 60 F-15K “Slam Eagles” With the F-15SE, Boeing sought to bridge the gap between stealthy and non-stealthy aircraft, by incorporating low observable features including conformal weapons bays, canted tails and radar absorbent materials. The company argued that stealth only plays a role in the early days of a conflict, and that after suppressing enemy air defences, the type could be employed as a hard-hitting “bomb truck”. It also touted the commonality benefits of acquiring the variant, as Seoul already operates 60 F-15K “Slam Eagles”, acquired via the F-X I and II programmes. As recently as early August, the F-15SE’s position looked strong. “We’re getting a really good feeling about [South] Korea,” said a Boeing official at the time. Nonetheless, trouble was brewing. By the middle of the same month, DAPA had approached Lockheed and the US
government for more information on pricing for the F-35. The Joint Strike Fighter offer made for F-X III was based on pricing for Lot 5 of low-rate initial production (LRIP). By contrast, for a re-tendered competition, Lockheed will be able to use updated pricing from its seventh or eighth LRIP contract, through which the F-35’s unit cost is expected to fall by 10-12%.
US Air Force
outh Korea’s decision to retender its F-X III competition for 60 fighters has raised questions about the viability of its revised selection process, and greatly enhanced the chances of Lockheed Martin’s F-35 securing the deal. After announcing its decision to not move forward with an expected acquisition of the Boeing F-15 Silent Eagle on 24 September, Seoul’s Defense Acquisition Program Administration (DAPA) has yet to clarify how it plans to replace the South Korean air force’s McDonnell Douglas F-4 Phantoms and Northrop F-5s. The F-15SE had been widely tipped as the likely winner of the F-X III competition from July, when it was announced as the only candidate aircraft to have come in below a planned maximum budget of W8.3 trillion ($7.7 billion). This effectively eliminated the F-35 and Eurofighter Typhoon from contention.
Boeing
S
F-35: eliminated early on
12 | Flight International | 1-7 October 2013
Fierce opposition South Korean media outlets also published numerous stories critical of a Silent Eagle decision, while in early September 15 former senior air force officers issued a letter opposing the aircraft’s selection. Several of these had played a role in devising the air force’s stealth-favouring required operational capabilities document. “Some of these guys were involved in Seoul’s original decision to buy the F-15K,” says one Seoul-based industry source. “It’s not as if they are completely against the F-15.” Although the rejected companies are doubtless exploring their options, some sense of their future intentions will be apparent through their presence at the 22-27 October Seoul International Aerospace & Defence Exhibition. Boeing, the Eurofighter consortium and Lockheed all boasted a significant presence at the same event two years ago,
each with large stands and cockpit simulators. DAPA says it will review the F-X III campaign thoroughly before issuing a new request for proposals, with the goal of choosing a winner within a year. The big question is whether Eurofighter and especially Boeing will be inclined to participate in a revised competition. The air force could also step in and change the nature of the requirement, possibly by reducing the number of aircraft sought, increasing the budget, or even opting to buy two different aircraft types. South Korean officials say the decision to re-tender F-X III was based on the threat posed by neighbouring North Korea, and also driven by the imminent arrival of stealth aircraft in regional countries including China – which is developing the Chengdu J-20 and Shenyang J-31 – and Japan, which in 2011 opted to buy 42 F-35s. The first excuse appears dubious, given the ramshackle state of Pyongyang’s air force, but the latter justification holds water, in a region where status counts for a great deal. Irrespective of Seoul’s reasons to step away from an F-15SE acquisition, it will have a hard time in making a fresh competition look genuine and fair. ■ Get the latest in US defence news and industry analysis: flightglobal.com/dewline
flightglobal.com
Peter Hutchinson/Shet News
Four people died in the Eurocopter AS332L2 crash study Dominic Perry London
North Sea safety facing CAA probe UK aviation authority wades into investigation of offshore helicopter transport sector after fatal Sumburgh incident
N
orth Sea helicopter operators are facing yet another safety review, following an announcement by the UK Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) that it is to conduct a probe into the sector, to report in 2014. To be carried out in conjunction with its counterparts in the Norwegian CAA and EASA, the latest study will add to those already planned by the Helicopter Safety Steering Group (HSSG) and the UK’s parliamentary transport select committee. All the inquiries come on the back of a late August accident off Sumburgh in Shetland Isles, in which four people died when a Eurocopter AS332L2 crashed into the sea, and two ditching incidents in the North Sea involving EC225s. The CAA says it will study “current operations, previous incidents and accidents and offshore helicopter flying in other countries”, with the aim of improving safety. “Although there has been considerable effort by regulators, operators and the offshore industry to minimise the risk of North Sea helicopter operations, there have been five accidents in the past four years, two of which tragically resulted in fatalities,” it says. The review will be led by the CAA’s head of flight operations, Capt Bob Jones, who will work closely with Geir Hamre, head of flightglobal.com
helicopter safety for the Norwegian CAA. The final review will also be subject to scrutiny by independent specialists. Areas for review include operator decision making and internal management, protection of pilots and crew, pilot training and helicopter airworthiness. It will include a comparison study of UK operations with those in Norway. Mark Swan, director of the CAA’s safety and airspace regulation group, says: “The recent accidents have understandably given rise to concerns, particularly with offshore workers who rely so heavily on these helicopter flights. “We are absolutely committed to ensuring that operations are as safe as possible. The review we are announcing today will thoroughly examine the risks and hazards of operating in the North Sea, and how these can be managed most effectively.” The HSSG, which represents the workforce, operators and the oil majors, welcomes the CAA’s plans. It says: “All stakeholders will of course play their part to get the very best possible outcome from the perspective of the continuous improvement of safety.” ■ See Show Report P18 Read about all the latest news concerning aviation safety at flightglobal.com/safety
1-7 October 2013 | Flight International | 13
AIR TRANSPORT
Check out our collection of online dynamic aircraft profiles for the latest news, images and information on civil and military programmes at flightglobal.com/profiles
airframes David Kaminski-Morrow London
Boeing coy on ‘enhancement’ to 787-9 gear doors oeing is giving away little about a curious aspect of the new 787-9 observed as the aircraft departed on its maiden flight. The aircraft’s main landinggear doors opened as the aircraft rotated from runway 34L at Paine Field and were clearly deployed as the aircraft climbed away. This was despite the gear being left extended, as is normal for a first flight, following the take-off
on 17 September. Boeing says the landing-gear doors “functioned as designed”. “That’s part of an enhancement we’ve made on the 787-9,” says the airframer, but adds that it is not discussing the reasoning behind the feature. Boeing has secured orders for 388 of the -9 twinjets, the first of which is to be delivered to Air New Zealand in mid-2014. ■
Boeing
B
As the aircraft rotated, the doors opened, apparently as designed
operations Max Kingsley Jones Doha
Snags with 787 test Qatar’s patience Gulf carrier still assessing whether to take stretched -9 as chief Al Baker bemoans effect of hitches on dispatch reliability atar Airways is growing frustrated with the ongoing teething problems being suffered by its 787 fleet, warning Boeing that future orders could be in doubt unless remedies are quickly found. The Doha-based airline has firm orders for 30 787s, of which six have been delivered, and holds 30 additional purchase rights. It aims to take all its 30 firm orders as 787-8s, and is considering firming up the purchase rights as the larger -9 variant. But chief executive Akbar Al Baker says this will depend on how quickly Boeing can address frustrations with its in-service fleet. The outspoken CEO, who has previously been critical of problems with the airline’s 787s, says there are “still issues and Boeing is aware of that”. “They need to resolve these is-
sues very quickly because Qatar Airways is getting very frustrated with them,” he adds. “There are so many teething problems...although it is not anything major that would require us to ground our aircraft, it is enough to give us grief on our dispatch reliability.” Qatar Airways is considering whether to take up its 30 purchase rights as the stretched 7879, but the -8 issues are playing into its -9 evaluation, which also includes the A350. Qatar has 80 A350s on order: 42 -900s and 38 -1000s. The airline is due to receive its first A350-900 by the end of 2014. “We will either make a decision to take the -9, or take additional A350-1000s. And we have to decide soon,” Al Baker says. “They are different sizes, but we think the seat-mile cost efficiency of the
Six of the type have been delivered to the Doha-based airline 14 | Flight International | 1-7 October 2013
A350-1000 will do a better job.” The decision about which aircraft to order will be driven by the way the problems are fixed, he says, and “how we are convinced that we have confidence that the problems will be fixed”. “With the amount of problems they’re having with the 787-8, we don’t know if this will be translated into the -9,” he adds. Al Baker says the airline still plans to take its 30 firm orders as
787-8s, but warns that “it all depends on how much pain we are prepared to sustain”. Although an earlier proposal to place an order for interim A330s has cooled as A350-900 deliveries are “now so close”, Al Baker says that he might revisit that possibility if the 787 problems are not resolved. “If we have to move away from the -8 due to the issues we have, then we may look at interim A330s,” he says. ■
STRATEGY Max Kingsley-Jones Abu Dhabi
New Etihad order could cover partners
Boeing
Q
Etihad Airways is negotiating wideranging orders with Airbus and Boeing to cover its fleet growth beyond the end of the decade. The deal is set to include singleaisle and widebody types. “We’re working through the evaluation process at the moment for a fleet deal from 2020 out to 2040,” says Etihad chief executive James Hogan. “We’re still in negotiation, and probably expect the order to be split between Airbus and Boeing.” Etihad signed its last major fleet deal in 2008, for 55 Airbuses and 45 Boeings, along with 105 options. A significant number remain on backlog, including orders for 10 A380s, plus the A350 and 787-9. “Like last time, we’re doing it as an Abu Dhabi transaction, so there is
Mubadala Aerospace and there is Etihad Airways, and we’re looking at where there can be benefit to both companies,” Hogan says. “[Talks are] a pretty good way down the road.” Hogan confirms that the re-engined narrowbodies – the A320neo and 737 Max – are included in the evaluation, as well as the 787-10 and 777X family. Although he declines to disclose how big the order will be, it is likely to be sizable, as it could include not just Etihad’s own requirements but also the needs of some of its partner airlines. “We’ve currently got 80 aircraft, and between now and 2020 there’s another 70-80 aircraft coming,” says Hogan. “The 2020 deal takes into account the retirement programme [of existing aircraft].” ■ flightglobal.com
AIR TRANSPORT
Capacity nudges Lufthansa to 777-9X AIR TRANSPORT P16 outlook David Kaminski-Morrow London
Airbus defiant over A380’s prospects Latest 20-year forecast maintains expectations for robust high-capacity sector despite absence of recent sales for type irbus is defiantly maintaining its optimistic 20-year outlook for high-capacity passenger jets, despite not having recorded a firm sale of its A380 this year. Its latest global market forecast sees demand for 1,334 aircraft in the 400-seat category – a marginal increase on its figure last year. Asia-Pacific customers will take 47% of these. “Asia-Pacific’s requirement for the A380 is demonstrated by the region’s growth in middle classes,” says the airframer. Just over a quarter of the high-capacity demand will come from the Middle East, and 16% from Europe, it adds. Airbus predicts an overall requirement for 29,220 new aircraft for the two decades to 2032, up by 3.6% on its previous outlook. This
total comprises 28,350 passenger aircraft and, in a glimmer of optimism for the hard-hit cargo sector, a slight increase to 870 freighters.
“Asia-Pacific’s requirement for the A380 is demonstrated by the region’s growth in middle classes” AIRBUS
While he admits Airbus will have to “cede... to Boeing” the need for over 450 new-build large freighters, chief operating officer for customers John Leahy is upbeat over prospects for the A380 in the passenger sector. “It’s very obvious we’re going to
Airbus
A
Over 8,100 deliveries will be twin-aisle and larger passenger jets get the lion’s share of that,” he says. Some 10,400 aircraft will be used for replacement. The remaining 18,820 would go to-
fleet Max Kingsley-Jones Dubai
Emirates sees room for 180 giants if hub congestion lifts Emirates could potentially double its Airbus A380 fleet to 180 if Dubai’s future airport infrastructure constraints can be eased, while the airline’s chief is urging integration of new powerplant technology on the type. Deliveries of the airline’s 90 A380s are due to end in November 2017 and, growth requirements aside, Emirates will need replacements from 2020 for early aircraft, as they reach its stipulated retirement age of 12 years. “There’s an automatic replacement of 90 aircraft, in my view,” says president Tim Clark. “And if I could find ways and means to get more space [at Dubai], we’d like some more.” Emirates holds orders for 70 Airbus A350s – a mix of -900s and
-1000s – but Clark hints that he might review this order as he evaluates future A380 requirements: “Quite honestly, I’m more interested in more A380s than the A350, because of the way our route network is growing.” If Dubai’s airport capacity growth achieves the desired rate, says Clark, Emirates could double its A380 fleet. “Without constraints, we would be able to take many more – I’m assuming that Airbus doesn’t bottle out on the A380,” he says. Clark attributes sluggish A380 sales to timing, as the aircraft entered service just as the global financial crisis hit. “I firmly believe the A380 is the future for long-haul mass transit, and there’ll be a lot of
that coming up as the global economy picks up, and demand for it will increase,” he says. “Airbus has just got to tough it out, because I’m sure others will buy it.” He wants Engine Alliance partner GE to integrate new technology, currently in development, into the A380’s GP7200s. “I’d like to see some propulsion [technology] crossover into the A380, in terms of what they’re doing on the 777X, the A320neo and the 737 Max,” says Clark. “If I’m looking at 2020 [deliveries], and for the next 20 years to 2040, we’ve still got GP7200s when one of the Engine Alliance partners is busy producing wonders in propulsion technology – why can’t we have a bit of that on the A380?” ■
wards expansion, more than doubling the current global fleet to 36,560 aircraft by 2032. About 70% of deliveries will be single-aisle types, with a third bound for Asia-Pacific customers. Asia-Pacific will also lead deliveries in the twin-aisle sector, accounting for nearly half of the demand for 6,779 passenger jets. Freight traffic has “stagnated” for the last three years, the airframer states, with recent growth largely driven by emerging economies rather than mature markets. “These issues have caused many to question whether or not there has been a significant longterm shift away from air freight to other modes,” says Airbus, but it adds there are “positive signs” for a 2014 recovery. Along with demand for 870 new freighters – all mid- and largesize – Airbus forecasts that 1,859 passenger aircraft will be converted for the cargo market, and 1,395 current freighters retired. ■
Download the Military Simulator Census online now. www.flightglobal.com/milisim High-fidelity maritime patrol aircraft simulators and training systems.
Flightglobal_Media_Banner_Nov2012_AM193.indd 4
flightglobal.com
12-11-02 1:40 PM
1-7 October 2013 | Flight International | 15
AIR TRANSPORT
Check out our collection of online dynamic aircraft profiles for the latest news, images and information on civil and military programmes at flightglobal.com/profiles
FLEET Michael Gubisch London
Capacity nudges Lufthansa to 777-9X Size of enhanced Boeing convinces German giant but range secures A350 a slot in carrier’s long-haul renewal programme reater range led Lufthansa to select the Airbus A350-900 over the Boeing 787-10, but higher capacity enabled Boeing’s 777-9X to win out over the A350-1000. Lufthansa also insists that rejection of the 787 had nothing to do with the technical issues which led to the type’s grounding earlier this year. Chief executive Christoph Franz describes these as teething problems. The order – which comprises 34 777-9Xs and 25 A350-900s – is Lufthansa’s largest ever by listprice value, totalling €14 billion ($19 billion). However, Franz says the “effective price” for the aircraft will be “significantly lower”. The agreements with Airbus and Boeing comprise 59 firm orders, but options and purchase rights bring the total to 119 aircraft. In addition to the 34 firm
777-9X orders, Lufthansa took seven options plus purchase rights for another 23 of the nextgeneration 777 variant. Delivery of Lufthansa’s first 777-9X is scheduled for 2020. While the carrier expects to be the type’s first operator, Franz says it is feasible that early delivery slots could be given to other airlines to iron out potential teething issues. Boeing has yet to officially launch the 777X programme, but the airframer has said this will happen by year-end. Lufthansa’s A350 deal, meanwhile, includes 25 firm and 15 optional orders, plus purchase rights for another 15 A350-900s. However, the agreement allows conversion of some orders to the larger A350-1000 variant. The airline’s first A350 is to join its fleet in 2016, while deliv-
Lufthansa
G
Launch of the General Electric-powered -9X is yet to be confirmed eries for all firmly ordered aircraft – including the 777-9X – are to be completed in 2025. Structuring the fleet plan in the way it has allows Lufthansa to grow capacity by between 1% and 5% depending on market developments. The 59 firm orders are to replace 54 ageing A340s and 747s, says Lufthansa passenger division chief Carsten Spohr. Spohr confirms the decision
airframes Max Kingsley-Jones Dubai
Cautious Emirates edges towards order for new twinjet Clark. “We will now look at the pricing and commercial aspects. So far so good, but there’s still a lot of work to do.” Clark says Emirates has only recently been given definitive pricing information on the twinjet, and that the timing of any contract with Boeing will be “when it suits us”.
Flyer1 gallery on flightglobal.com/AirSpace
Emirates is closing in on a deal to be a launch customer for Boeing’s 777X, but still has plenty of work ahead before it can finalise any commercial negotiations. “We spent the summer working through the technical side of the aeroplane and from what I can see it looks very good,” says president Tim
Clark is demanding even better performance than the 777-300ER 16 | Flight International | 1-7 October 2013
“It may be the Dubai air show [in November], but if we’re not ready we won’t be doing it,” he says. Clark says that the 777X’s General Electric GE9X powerplant is fundamental to the new programme achieving Boeing’s performance and economic claims. “The engine is key to all of this. I’ve told GE that if they don’t deliver the [ceramic matrix composite] engines there will be issues,” he says. To meet Emirates’ performance needs, the 777X’s GE9X will need a water-injection system to ensure that the aircraft can operate comfortably year-round from Dubai on all its required missions. “Unlike earlier demineralised water-injection systems such as on the BAC One-Eleven, this one is all about coolant – very high temperatures at high work rates,” says Clark. “It makes a very material difference to our operating capabilities in the hot months in Dubai. Without that, the 777-9X doesn’t do that much better in those conditions than the -300ER does today.” ■
was driven by the range of the A350-900 and the capacity of the proposed 777-9X. The A350-900s will be primarily used as an A340-300 replacement, while the 777-9X is earmarked as a successor to the 747. Both new types will be configured in two- and three-class passenger cabin layout. Flightglobal’s Ascend Online database lists within Lufthansa’s fleet 22 747-400s and 48 A340s, split evenly between the A340300 and -600 variants. However, while the A340-300s will be replaced straight away, the larger -600s are to continue operating “for a long time” as the aircraft will not have reached retirement age when the new types arrive, says Spohr. Repair and overhaul of the A350’s Rolls-Royce Trent XWB engines and the 777-9X’s General Electric GE9X powerplants will be carried out by the airline’s MRO subsidiary. Each engine is the sole powerplant offered on its respective aircraft. Lufthansa Technik will service the engines not only for the inhouse fleet, but also for third-party maintenance customers, says Franz. This is a minimum requirement for any aircraft deal by the carrier, he adds. LHT already has a 50:50 jointventure powerplant shop with Rolls-Royce – N3 Engine Overhaul Services – where it supports Trent 500s, 700s and 900s. A partnership with GE is intended. However, the maintenance provider has no repair capability for the GE9X’s predecessor, the GE90. ■ flightglobal.com
AIR TRANSPORT
New S-92 for UK Long SAR comes together at Sikorsky show report P18 modification David Kaminski-Morrow London
Israeli government presentation
Anti-missile pods near certification Eight types in line for Israeli C-Music infrared defence system, with entry into service expected in mid-2014
I
sraeli carriers will begin flying international and domestic routes with aircraft equipped for anti-missile defence by mid2014, pending completion of supplemental type certification. The schedule is contained in an Israeli presentation due to be put to the upcoming ICAO Assembly in Montreal. It states that there are eight certification applications for the installation of infrared missile-defence systems on various commercial aircraft types. These comprise the Boeing 747-400, 777-200 and 767-200
long-haul jets, plus the 757-300, 737-800 and -900ER, as well as the Airbus A320 and Embraer 195. The 737-800 is the first aircraft to undergo the certification process, according to the presentation, the first flight having taken place in June. Israel’s Elbit Systems is developing the system, known as C-Music, which is fitted to a pod on the lower aft fuselage. This pod can be replaced within an hour, and aircraft can be dispatched without it by installing a fairing. “The project is at an advanced stage of certification,” the presenta-
First flight of a C-Music-equipped 737-800 took place in June tion states. El Al, Israir and Arkia are expected to start flying with the system from the second quarter of next year, it adds, as part of the government’s Sky Shield transport defence initiative. Israel’s government adopted the policy of equipping civil transport aircraft with anti-missile systems in view of the proliferation of man-portable surface-to-air missile equipment and, in particular, the attack on an Arkia 757-200 at
Mombasa in November 2002. C-Music will be certified as a “not-required” system, on a “non-interference” basis, says the presentation, so Israel’s defence ministry will be responsible for evaluating its performance. It adds that the Civil Aviation Authority of Israel has determined that laser safety is “central” to certification, and safety features include mechanisms to avoid laser energy release on the ground. ■
INNOVATION comes from collaboration In a world that moves at light speed, RTI partners with you to create the most advanced vertically integrated aerospace, defense, energy, and medical solutions.
www.RTIintl.com
A D V A N C I N G
T I T A N I U M
SHOW REPORT
For a round-up of our latest online news, feature and multi-media content visit flightglobal.com/wotw
helitech 2013
REPORT
BillyPix
Helitech made its first appearance at London’s Excel exhibition centre this year, having left the more pastoral surrounds of Duxford airfield for the big city. The change was not popular with everyone, but with the show organisers clearly pressing to create a European version of the US Heli-Expo show, there was a sharper feel to proceedings. All four of the big Western manufacturers were out in force, as were a raft of supporting companies. One new aspect, however, was the presence of two global lessors out of the clutch that has cropped up over recent years. And to judge by the size of the stands, theirs is a growth industry. Dominic Perry, Kate Sarsfield and Dan Thisdell report. Pictures by BillyPix
DEAL
Operators launch Avincis sticks with EC225 own safety review E Offshore’s big three to investigate best practices and insist their inquiry will complement others in pipeline
A
lready the subject of three separate inquiries, the three big offshore helicopter operators have now launched their own safety review. Avincis Group – which owns Bond Offshore Helicopters in the UK – Bristow Group and CHC Helicopter say the review of safety “will deepen their commitment to share best practices”. Although it is initially confined to the companies above, they hope that other operators will be persuaded to join them. The joint safety review “will identify best practices on the ground and in the air, combining the operators’ collective experience”, they say. The group will first focus on European operations, but later extend this to best practices from around the globe. Areas to be examined include automation, training, manufacturing quality and human factors, among others. They will also look at the findings of previous accident reports to aid their work. The operators hope to carry out the study under the auspices of European Helicopter Operators Committee. No timeframe has been given for the report, however.
Although the announcement of the operator-led probe came barely 24h after the UK Civil Aviation Authority unveiled its own study into helicopter safety – adding to a UK parliamentary review and a similar inquiry from the Helicopter Safety Steering Group – the operators say their collaboration “complements” the other initiatives. CHC president and chief executive Bill Amelio says: “There are and will continue to be plenty of bases for healthy competition between our companies, but safety must never be one of them.” All four inquiries have been sparked by a spate of recent accidents in the North Sea. Eurocopter executive vice-president global business and services Dominique Maudet, speaking at Helitech before the announcement of the UK CAA and operator inquiry, said the airframer is supportive of any safety initiative. However, he appeared wary that Eurocopter would be singled out. “Our view is that they should contribute to increasing the safety of all kinds [of helicopters] in the fleet; not just Eurocopters, but any OEM helicopter,” he said. ■
18 | Flight International | 1-7 October 2013
urocopter’s under-pressure EC225 has received a welcome vote of confidence from operator Avincis, which has placed an order for three of the heavy twins for its Australian operation. Deliveries to Avincis, for use in Australia, will commence in December, with the final example to
Avincis’ Whittaker (left) and Eurocopter EVP Maudet
be handed over in the second half of 2014. Avincis already has three of the type based at subsidiary Bond Offshore Helicopters in Aberdeen. However, these have still to return to service following the widespread grounding of the EC225 in October 2012. The restriction on overwater flights came on the back of two ditchings in the North Sea last year, the first of which involved a Bond aircraft. Martin Whittaker, group fleet director for Avincis, says it is confident in the EC225’s safety record. Its Aberdeen-based helicopters are ready to return to service, he says, but it is still “going through the hearts and minds work” with its customers to convince them of its safety case. ■
DELIVERY
Support is ‘key to EC175 service entry’ Eurocopter has warned that the support network for its new super medium EC175 must be ready to cope with service entry of the type or it will push back the initial deliveries to operators. Although it is confident of achieving certification in the first quarter of 2014, with deliveries to begin shortly after, it is meeting customers to discuss the programme’s broader readiness. These could commence as soon as the week of 30 September.
Engineering and customer support resources at Eurocopter are already stretched as the airframer attempts to ensure the return to service of the EC225 – which had been grounded due to a gearbox issue – goes as smoothly as possible. Dominique Maudet, executive vicepresident global business and services, says: “We are discussing with all our customers to ensure we are successful with the entry into service of the EC175 in a similar period.” ■ flightglobal.com
Milestone strikes massive multi-year AgustaWestland deal
HELITECH 2013 show report
SHOW REPORT P20 SEARCH AND RESCUE
PRODUCTION
Assembly completed of first of seven models to boost Bristow’s interim four-helicopter fleet
F
New S-92 for UK Long SAR comes together at Sikorsky
Lakota losses prompt Squirrel move to USA
ikorsky has finished assembly of the first “baseline” S-92 to be delivered to Bristow Helicopters for the UK’s Long SAR requirement. It will be handed over to the operator in July next year following fit-out with search and rescue mission equipment at the airframer’s facility in Coatsville, Pensylvania, says Dan Hunter, director of programmes. In all, Bristow will receive seven brand-new examples of the 11t type in the period to July 2015. Four additional airframes, based in Sumburgh and Stornoway, are already in use under the UK’s Gap SAR contract and will transfer across when the new regime begins in 2015. Bristow won the 10-year SAR deal in March this year. It will see the company take over search and rescue operations from Royal Navy and Royal Air Force units, replacing aged Westland Sea Kings with the S-92s and AgustaWestland AW189s. The helicopters will be equipped with FLIR Systems Star Safire 380-HD imaging equipment, the sensor manufacturer confirmed at Helitech.
Bristow Group
S
The S-92s will carry FLIR’s Star Safire 380-HD imaging equipment Meanwhile the manufacturer continues to evaluate the potential launch of a new helicopter in the super-medium segment. “We are not ready to announce anything right now,” says Hunter, “but we are looking at it – we’d be foolish not to.” All three of Sikorsky’s Western rivals have super-medium models due to enter service over the next two years. That, says Hunter, means that if the company opts to join the fray it will have to come up with a “discriminator” for the new aircraft. “We are looking at some really interesting technologies for that size class,” he says. “We have got
an eye on anything that will help [operators] keep their costs where they need to be.” Advances could include improved aerodynamics, more efficient – although not necessarily brand-new – engines and other performance gains. The company will also continue to develop incremental improvements to the S-92, says Hunter, along the lines of the increase in payload and an avionics upgrade revealed earlier this year. “Then we are working on a number of big improvements and then we will have to decide if the sum of those parts is a whole new helicopter,” he says. ■
rom 2014 Eurocopter will carry out final assembly of its bestselling AS350 Ecureuil light single-engined helicopter at a US facility, as it looks to offset the impact of reduced production of the UH-72A Lakota for the US Army. The Lakota has fallen victim to reduced US defence spending, resulting in lower than expected orders. But rather than cut staff at its Columbus plant in Mississippi, it will instead become the second-largest assembly line for the AS350 outside France. Justifying the move, which will face strong opposition from French trade unions, Dominique Maudet, Eurocopter executive vice-president business and global services, points out that the USA is the largest market for the E cureuil –or Squirrel– family. “This will get us closer to the US market and strengthen our position there. It also makes the Ecureuil more US-built,” he says. “Nobody else in the world buys as many Ecureuils as the USA.” Production will be 40 helicopters in 2014, rising to 50 in 2015 and 60 in 2016. The basic airframe and major components will still be made in France and shipped to the USA for assembly. About 50% of work on the helicopter will be carried out in Columbus. ■
PAPERWORK
Certification nears for AW189 as backlog grows A
gustaWestland is closing in on certification for its 8t AW189 as it eyes first delivery of the super-medium type by year-end. Roberto Garavaglia, senior vice-president strategy and business development at the airframer, says test flights have now ended and “just paperwork” remains to be finalised. Although AgustaWestland is “not 100% sure” that the initial handover will happen by the end of the year, that remains its target, says Garavaglia. flightglobal.com
Final assembly of the first three serial aircraft has commenced at its Vergiate site in Italy, he adds. A commitment from Bond Offshore Helicopters’ parent Avincis Group for two offshore transportation-roled examples added to the airframer’s backlog for the AW189 at Helitech. This was alongside a single AW139 and a pair of AW169s for emergency medical service missions in Italy, as part of a broader framework agreement.
The smaller 4.5t AW169 is also heading towards certification. Four flight test examples have so far been built, with approval targeted in “a little less than one year”. Meanwhile, preliminary discussions have taken place with EASA over civil certification of its three-engined AW101, a VVIP variant of which was displayed at the outdoor static park. AgustaWestland sees an opportunity for the type to perform civil VVIP transportation, search and rescue and long-range oil and gas missions. ■
VVIP transportation is one potential role for the AW101
1-7 October 2013 | Flight International | 19
helitech 2013 show report
For a round-up of our latest online news, feature and multi-media content visit flightglobal.com/wotw
expansion
Leasing
M
Ireland’s Waypoint issues stark warning for increasingly cramped segment
aintenance, repair and overhaul company Heli One is looking to make a move into the crowded and competitive market for the sustainment of light helicopters. Delta, British Columbia-headquartered Heli-One is a subsidiary of Canadian operator CHC Helicopter, for which it supports a fleet of over 200 medium and heavy aircraft. “The top end of the helicopter spectrum will remain our focus,” says Helge Grosfjell, regional sales director for Heli-One, which also has bases in Stavanger, Norway and Fort Collins, Colorado.
It will base the maintenance activity at its facility in Rzeszow, Poland, where labour costs are lower Heli-One is no stranger to the light sector, however. In 2011, the company clinched a contract to upgrade a pair of Eurocopter EC135s for the Lithuanian State Border Guard. “This contract has given us the opportunity to show [light helicopter operators] what we can do,” says Grosfjell. “Heli-One is exploring a few possibilities. For example, we currently support the 20 plus Super Pumas for the German [federal] police, but we would like to look after their entire helicopter fleet, which includes EC155s and EC135s.” Heli-One admits the light helicopter MRO sector is “fiercely competitive”; therefore it will base the maintenance activity at its facility in Rzeszow, Poland, where labour costs are lower than its other European site. A new hangar is under construction in Poland, scheduled for completion next year, Grosfjell says. ■
Overcrowded market could leave lessors high and dry I
reland-based Waypoint Leasing has warned of the limited size of the helicopter lease market, given the rising number of companies operating in the segment. Waypoint launched at Heli-Expo in February this year, joining incumbents Milestone Aviation and Lease Corp International. A fourth company, Macquarie Helicopter Leasing, then arrived in July. However, the space is becoming increasingly crowded, says Ed Washecka, chief executive officer of Waypoint. “There’s not room for all those players if they all think they are going to have the same number of aircraft,” says Washecka. “Some of the other guys have said they want to be a certain size, but you
have to ask: do they have the equity capital and how much has been invested? “Air shows are littered with press releases saying this company is going to take 20 of this or that. But the fact is that the world is not big enough for all the people who want to be in [helicopter] leasing.” Fellow lessor Milestone Aviation is the segment leader with around $1.5 billion of assets under management. Although publicly it is relatively sanguine about the competition in the segment, privately it is thought to share a number of Waypoint’s concerns. Meanwhile, Waypoint marked its presence at Helitech with the signature of a support deal with
Eurocopter to provide power-bythe-hour services for future customers using the European manufacturer’s helicopters. Although it has no Eurocopter types on its books – so far it has acquired just two Sikorsky S76C++s, and a pair of S-92s via sale and leaseback deals – Eurocopter’s market share means a fleet presence will be inevitable, says Washecka. The lessor also has tentative orders placed with AgustaWestland for a total of 41 helicopters, comprising four types ranging from the AW109 Grand New light twin, up to the super-medium AW189. ■ See our full report, including video interviews, at flightglobal.com/helicopters
acquisitons
Milestone strikes massive multi-year AgustaWestland deal AgustaWestland has signed a multiyear framework agreement with lessor Milestone Aviation covering the acquisition of a “significant number” of AW169, AW139 and AW189 helicopters. The aircraft will be destined for Milestone’s customers across a broad range of missions including offshore transportation, emergency medical services and search and rescue operations. When the deal is fully complete it will be “the largest civilian helicopter sale in AgustaWestland history”, says the Anglo-Italian airframer. Deliveries from the order will begin in November this year says Milestone managing director Robert Dranitzke, with the first aircraft an offshore transportation-configured AW139 intermediate twin. No further details on the breakdown or size of the deal are available. However, chief operating officer Matt Harris stresses that the value of the firm orders runs into hundreds of millions of dollars.
20 | Flight International | 1-7 October 2013
AgustaWestland
Heli-One to push low-cost MRO option
Deliveries from the order will begin in November this year Milestone already has 18 AgustaWestland aircraft in its fleet, with a further eight aircraft covered by a letter of intent which should be delivered over the next 12 months,
says AgustaWestland. The deal with AgustaWestland adds to previous multi-million dollar commitments signed with Eurocopter and Sikorsky for medium and heavy rotorcraft. ■ flightglobal.com
DEFENCE
VC10 retirement signals start of RAF transition DEFENCE P22 PROGRAMME Zach Rosenberg Washington DC
Updated Fire Scout heads for take-off Unmanned rotorcraft set to fly in early to mid-October following ground tests, as US Navy targets deployment in early 2014 orthrop Grumman’s Bell 407based MQ-8C Fire Scout vertical take-off and landing unmanned air vehicle has undergone its first engine ground runs, as the system nears flighttesting with the US Navy. Performed at the service’s Point Mugu site in California, the activity started with an initial 10min engine run on 20 September. “They’ll be doing that a couple more times, and then we’ll send all the information to the navy in preparation for first flight,” the company says. An exact date for the debut flight event has yet to be confirmed, but it has been tentatively scheduled to take place in early to mid-October. “The ground turns are basically the last thing
Northrop Grumman
N
The MQ-8C began the test activity with a 10min engine run you do before you go up,” Northrop says. Following the completion of its first flight, the aircraft will enter a six-month test programme before being delivered to the USN, which intends to deploy
DELIVERY Craig Hoyle London
the unmanned rotorcraft at sea beginning in 2014. A second test example was also scheduled to join the programme from around 30 September. The MQ-8C platform uses software derived from the USN’s pre-
vious MQ-8B Fire Scout, which has been deployed both at sea and in Afghanistan several times. While the existing system is based on the Schweizer 333 airframe, range and payload concerns led Northrop to select the Bell 407 airframe for its C-model. The larger type’s adoption will result in a 30% range increase, an expected maximum flight endurance of 14h and an increased payload capacity. The MQ-8C will be capable of carrying an internal payload of up to 454kg (1,000lb), or underslung cargo totalling 1,200kg for use during vertical replenishment tasks, says Northrop. ■ Follow the progress of UAV programmes across the globe: flightglobal.com/uav
TRAINERS
First Hawk swoops in for Jakarta receives four G120TPs Indian navy training role G he Indian navy has taken delivery of its first of 17 BAE Systems Hawk advanced jet trainers, with its remaining examples to follow over a three-year period. Assembled in Bengaluru by Hindustan Aeronautics (HAL), the naval trainers are contained within a wider Hawk order signed in 2010, which also contains 40 examples for the Indian air force. The latter service had previously acquired 66 in the same Mk 132 configuration. “HAL plans to deliver five aircraft in the current fiscal year and the balance in the next three years to the Indian navy,” the company says. The remaining four due for acceptance this year “will be delivered soon”, says chairman R K Tyagi. BAE, meanwhile, says it is optimistic of finalising a deal to sell a third batch of Hawks to New Delhi, with these intended to reequip the air force’s Surya Kiran aerobatic display team, which flightglobal.com
previously operated the HALbuilt HJT-16 Kiran trainer. “We have submitted our response to HAL’s request for proposal for a potential order to supply products and services for the manufacture of 20 additional Hawk aircraft,” says Guy Griffiths, BAE’s group managing director, international. Meanwhile, Swiss manufacturer Pilatus says Indian air force activities using its PC-7 Mk II basic trainer had “logged 3,000 flight hours with almost 5,600 landings” by the end of August. More than 80 students are currently involved in an inaugural training course using the type, which was inducted at the air force academy in Dundigal, Hyderabad in mid-July. Eighteen PC-7s from a 75-unit order have been delivered so far, with Pilatus saying “a steady stream of additional aircraft is being added on a monthly basis”. The entire order will be completed by mid-2015, it adds. ■
ry and basic training, replacing its air force’s aged fleets of Beechcraft T-34s and FFA AS-202s. Jakarta also recently received its first pair of Korea Aerospace Industries T-50i advanced jet trainers, with 14 more scheduled for delivery by February 2014. Production of the Rolls-Royce 250-B17F-engined G120TP is also proceeding at Grob Aircraft’s Tussenhausen-Mattsies site for the Argentinian air force. The service earlier this year received its first four of the trainers, under a 10-aircraft acquisition. ■
Grob Aircraft
T
rob Aircraft has delivered its first batch of four G120TP trainers to the Indonesian air force, with an additional six examples due to follow before the end of 2013. The first tandem-seat aircraft are part of an 18-unit deal signed in September 2011, which the Indonesian air force has valued as being worth $72 million. The service expects its remaining eight German-built examples to be delivered during 2014. Indonesia will use the turboprop-powered type for elementa-
The Indonesian air force is set to receive 18 G120TPs in total 1-7 October 2013 | Flight International | 21
DEFENCE
For free access to Flightglobal’s Defence e-newsletter visit flightglobal.com/ defencenewsletter
RENEWAL Craig Hoyle RAF Brize Norton
VC10 retirement signals start of RAF transition T
he UK Royal Air Force kicked off a trio of air transport type retirements on 20 September, when its last two Vickers VC10 tankers completed their final operational sorties. K3-model tankers ZA147 and ZA150 performed a roughly 4h 15min flight from RAF Brize Norton in Oxfordshire, during which 101 Sqn crews provided air-to-air refuelling support for Eurofighter Typhoons and Panavia Tornado GR4s training over the North Sea. Final repositioning flights made the following week saw ZA150 flown to Dunsfold in Surrey, from where it will later be transported to the Brooklands Museum, and ZA150 transferred to Bruntingthorpe in Leicestershire for storage. Both had originally been operated as commercial airliners by East African Airways. The VC10’s removal from use brings to an end a 47-year RAF history of operating the RollsRoyce Conway-engined type, for a long period as the world’s only user. The milestone will be swiftly followed by the retirement of the service’s remaining four Lockheed Martin C-130K tactical
US Air Force
Service advances long-needed refresh of air transport and tanker fleet, as end also nears for C-130K, TriStar fleets transports, also based at Brize Norton, by 30 October. A short-term gap to be caused by the C-130K’s retirement will be filled once the UK starts taking delivery of 22 A400Ms from Airbus Military. The company is on schedule to hand over its first example to the RAF in September 2014, says Air Mobility Force commander Air Cdre David Lee. Another 24 Hercules are already in use, in the C-130J configuration. March 2014 should also see the withdrawal of the RAF’s Lockheed TriStar tanker/transports, although Lee says the service could consider extending this by up to six months. This would provide a contingency as the air force and industry partner AirTanker work towards achieving full operational capability with replacement Airbus A330based Voyagers, by next May. Six Voyagers are currently in use, including one air transport example which will remain on the UK civil aircraft register. The RAF’s 10 and 101 squadrons, plus AirTanker crews, will fly a core fleet of nine of the aircraft. ■ See next week’s issue of Flight International for a special report about the VC10’s retirement
The adapted fighter was controlled by two USAF test pilots conversion DAVE Majumdar Washington DC
Drone alone: unmanned debut for QF-16 target B
oeing and the US Air Force flew a QF-16 target drone without a pilot onboard for the first time from Tyndall AFB, Florida, on 19 September, the company says. “It was a little different to see it without anyone in it, but it was a great flight all the way around,” says Lt Col Ryan Inman, commander of the USAF’s 82nd Aerial Targets Squadron. “It’s a replication of current, real world situations and aircraft platforms they can shoot as a target. Now we have a 9g-capable, highly sustainable aerial target.” During the first unmanned flight, the adapted fighter – which had previously spent 15 years in storage at Davis-Monthan AFB, TRANSPORTS
India nears new C-130J order
Groundhogbhx gallery on flightglobal.com/AirSpace
N
The tanker/transport was in UK military service for 47 years 22 | Flight International | 1-7 October 2013
Arizona – reached an altitude of 40,000ft (12,200m), a top speed of Mach 1.47 and performed manoeuvres of up to 7g. The aircraft was controlled from the ground by two USAF test pilots. Boeing has so far modified six Lockheed Martin-built F-16s into the QF-16 configuration, as part of a multi-year contract awarded in March 2010. Current plans call for the preparation of a total of 126 aerial targets, which will replace a dwindling inventory of BAE Systems-adapted QF-4 Phantom drones. The next phase of flight testing will take place from Holloman AFB, New Mexico, where QF-16s will be subjected to live fire trials. ■
ew Delhi has moved closer to finalising an order for six additional Lockheed Martin C-130J tactical transports for the Indian air force, following approval by the nation’s Defence Acquisition Council, which is headed by defence minister A K Antony. The decision to approve the purchase now requires final ratification from the government’s Cabinet Committee on Security. India submitted a letter of request to the USA for the purchase of additional C-130Js in Septem-
ber 2012, and the sale received clearance from the US administration in April. If acquired, the extra C-130Js will be purchased via Washington’s Foreign Military Sales mechanism, as was the case for India’s first batch of six aircraft. Ordered in 2008, these are now in operation with the air force’s 77 Sqn from Hindon air base. The proposed additional examples would be assigned to a unit at Panagarh in the nation’s eastern state of West Bengal. ■ flightglobal.com
NEWS ANALYSIS
Kodiak centenarian goes to Sunstate business aviation p24 PROGRAMME Dave Majumdar Washington DC
Bidders to pass on UCLASS? oncerns are being raised within industry about the new direction mandated for the US Navy’s unmanned carrier-launched surveillance and strike (UCLASS) aircraft programme, with the more limited goals set by the Pentagon’s Joint Requirements Oversight Council having diluted the process from seeking a long-range, penetrating attack platform to a modestly stealthy, deck-based asset. “Where it leaves us is developing an alternative that meets the requirements that the navy has outlined,” says one industry source. That means spending even more company money, after already having funded nearly three years of internal research and development work to design an aircraft without any guidance from the service. “This looks like a giant runaway for General Atomics [Aeronautical Systems] and Predator; I would not be surprised if the other companies ‘no-bid’,” says Dan Goure, an analyst at the Lexington Institute. Rivals Boeing, Lockheed Martin and Northrop Grumman have spent a large sum of their own money in pursuit of the UCLASS opportunity, and may not want to invest even more against what amounts to a “stacked deck”, he claims. The potential implications are significant, he argues, noting: “It does damage to an industrial base that is already fragile.”
CONGRESS CONCERNS Congress is also concerned about the direction of the USN’s acquisition strategy, which has been described as “atypical”. In a letter to navy secretary Ray Mabus, congressmen Randy Forbes and Mike McIntyre – chairman and ranking member of the House Armed Services Committee’s sea power subcommittee, respectively – question the service’s plan to field up to four carrier air wings-worth of UCLASS aircraft before the completion of operational testing, or flightglobal.com
even a formal “Milestone B” decision to enter engineering and manufacturing development. Their unease is shared by some in industry. “I have had similar concerns regarding the navy trying to procure one- to four-carriers-worth of UCLASS aircraft for early operational capability as part of a technology demonstration phase that is pre-Milestone B,” says another source. “The only type of technology development programme which results in ‘residual operational assets or capabilities’ used to be called a JCTD [Joint Capabilities Technology Demonstration] – which the UCLASS programme is not.” Both industry sources concur that the USN has deviated significantly from the normal process for developing a new aircraft. Typically, companies would have been developing solutions over the past two years based on an initial set of navy-issued requirements, with specifications refined and updated as needed, based on industry-informed trade studies. Such a procedure is likely to have yielded more relevant investment, more affordable requirements and a better overall competition, they contend. The navy, however, issued no aircraft performance specifications or draft requirements until early 2013, after having left industry teams to self-fund the development of potential candidates based on their own assumptions. With the U CLASS requirement having been set at a less ambitious level than expected, each competitor is
Northrop’s X-47B performed carrier-based sea trials earlier this year now trying to “force-fit” their aircraft for a preliminary design review phase. Superficially, the shift to an aircraft designed for long-duration orbits over permissive airspace would appear to favour General Atomics, which has touted the jetpowered Predator C Avenger. But the latest requirements are not as simple to satisfy as they might appear, one source notes. “They want to span the deck-cycle; that means the endurance has to be greater than 12h. That’s pretty significant, because you have limitations on wing-span just because of the carrier environment.”
WEIGHT REDUCTION With available deck space likely to restrict maximum wingspan to around 70ft (21m), the UCLASS airframe will have to be roughly the same length as Northrop’s X-47B unmanned combat air system demonstrator, which performed trial take-offs from and landings aboard the USS George H W Bush earlier this year. As a result, sources say weight reduc-
General Atomics Aeronautical Systems
C
US Navy
Diluted requirements and knock-on development costs linked to US Navy surveillance and strike asset could deter competition
General Atomics’ Predator C Avenger could have gained an edge
tion will be the key to meeting the requirements. “The overwhelming design driver now is endurance without [in-flight] refuelling,” says one source, while another argues: “If you were allowed to refuel in the air then you might have a much broader performance spectrum.” A carrier would be expected to deploy sufficient UCLASS aircraft to maintain two orbits about 600nm (1,110km) from the ship, or one orbit at double this range. For a light strike mission, the type could attack lightly defended targets at a distance of up to 2,000nm, with its total payload of 1,360kg (3,000lb) to include 454kg of air-tosurface weapons. To allow the aircraft to operate in “permissive and low-end contested environments”, the navy’s previous need for lowobservable performance has not been completely removed. Either a flying-wing or wingbody-tail configuration aircraft could meet such requirements, one source says, but the endurance requirement means that a turbofan engine may not be a “viable option”. Boeing and General Atomics appear to have selected wingbody-tail designs, while Lockheed is promoting a flying-wing concept. Northrop’s candidate is expected to resemble its X-47B demonstrator. ■ For more analysis of defence stories, visit The DEW Line blog: flightglobal.com/dewline
1-7 October 2013 | Flight International | 23
BUSINESS AVIATION
FLEET EXPANSION Austria’s International Jet Management has added a Dassault Falcon 900 and Bombardier Learjet 40XR to its charter fleet. The large cabin and superlight business jets will be promoted through IJM’s Swiss partner, AC Aviation Charter. Other business aircraft are being lined up to join ICM’s 20 plus strong fleet before the end of the year.
EXECUJET CUSTOMs ExecuJet Africa is launching customs and immigration services at its fixed-based operation (FBO) in Lagos, Nigeria, following customer demand. Officials from the country’s federal airport and customs and immigration authorities will now process all international business aircraft arrivals and departures at the FBO.
Happy wheels US start-up operator Wheels Up has appointed Happy Design Studios to design the exterior of its Beechcraft King Air 350is. The private membership company placed a record order in August for 105 of the twin-engined turboprops. The French company – which has designed liveries for the Bombardier Learjet 75 and Global 7000 – says the Wheels Up design will feature a blue and white motif.
ROTORCRAFT Dominic Perry London
CHC boosts S-92 stock as it prepares for share flotation Helicopter group highlights growth potential of offshore transportation sector in prospectus
T
he parent company of offshore transportation specialist CHC Helicopter, CHC Group, is planning a US stock market flotation, the proceeds from which are earmarked for “debt repayments and general corporate purposes”. No timeline for the initial public offering has yet been revealed; nor have the price range or number of shares likely to be made available. However, the group’s owner, US investment fund First Reserve, says following any sale it will “continue to own a majority of the voting power of ordinary shares”. For the three months ended 31 July 2013, net debt rose to $1.55 billion from $1.32 billion for the same period a year earlier. Its debt to EBITDA ratio sits at 5.4:1, a slight improvement on the 5.6:1 recorded in the previous year. Nonetheless, the company is confident its position in the mar-
INDIAN AGENT Beechcraft has appointed Delhi-based Arrow Aircraft Sales and Charters as its sole distributor for India, which is home to around 70 King Air twin-engined turboprops.
COMPLETIONS
Basel base set to give 787s the VIP treatment
J
BELL ORDERS Bell Helicopter’s Moscowbased independent sales representative, Jet Transfer, has signed an agreement for five 429 and two 407GXs helicopters. Three of the 429s will be used for VIP and corporate transport for Jet Transfer customers. The remaining orders are undisclosed.
offshore work and “perhaps search and rescue flights as well”. Delivery of the first five helicopters will take place in 2015, with the remainder due the following year. The options cover the period between 2015-2018. The latest commitment follows a deal last year for 10 AgustaWestland AW139s and an order in 2011 for 20 Eurocopter EC255s, with an additional four options. It is likely CHC has exercised these options, too. In the IPO prospectus it notes the S-92 order and then refers to a recent “commitment to purchase $100 million of heavy helicopters from Eurocopter”. With the list price of an EC225 at around $25-$30 million, this would point towards the deal having been concluded. No-one from CHC or Eurocopter was immediately available to comment, however. ■
ket as one of the two biggest helicopter operators involved in the offshore transportation segment and the potential for growth in that sector make it an attractive investment proposition. “We believe that the adoption of more complex services on ultra-deepwater and deepwater installations, increased regulatory oversight of these installations and more frequent rotation of increasingly larger crews at regular intervals will further drive customer demand for heavy and medium helicopters, which comprise all our fleet,” says its IPO prospectus. It has also moved to further bolster its fleet, signing for nine Sikorsky S-92s with options for a further 15 aircraft. Chief executive William Amelio told analysts on its first-quarter earnings call that the new rotorcraft will be for
Quest Aircraft
in brief
Keep up to date with all the latest business and general aviation news at flightglobal.com/bizav
MILESTONE
Kodiak centenarian goes to Sunstate Quest Aircraft has handed over the 100th Kodiak single-engined turboprop to US operator Sunstate Aviation. The milestone comes less than six years after the 10-seater entered service. The high-wing, fixed gear, short take-off and landing aircraft was designed with and for mission and humanitarian aviation organisations to perform under extremely rigorous conditions in the most remote regions of the world, says Quest. Today, the Pratt & Whitney Canada PT6A-powered, Garmin G1000-equipped all-metal aircraft is in operation around the globe in a variety of missions, including charter, corporate, owner flyer and government/VIP transportation.
24 | Flight International | 1-7 October 2013
et Aviation is preparing its Basel, Switzerland completions centre for the first Boeing 787 for a private customer. Although the General Dynamics-owned company has not disclosed when the first of the allcomposite airliners will arrive, Boeing says the first of 12 VIP 787s on order is on schedule for delivery at the end of the year. In preparation for the aircraft’s arrival, Jet Aviation has sent a team of Part 145 licensed engineers to receive European Part 66 B1/B2 type training at Boeing’s facilities in Seattle. Jet Aviation engineers have already completed an advanced 787 structural repairs training course provided by Boeing. ■ flightglobal.com
technology
Sales – or sting – in the tail? business p26 MUNITIONS Dan Thisdell London
A big blast isn’t always best German explosives experts believe they have found the key to ‘dial-a-yield’ weapons that may minimise collateral damage
ngineers at European missiles joint venture MBDA are claiming a breakthrough in the quest for a warhead that can destroy a target while minimising damage to nearby buildings or vehicles. By detonating just a preselectable proportion of the explosive, this “scalable warhead” concept may help reduce collateral damage in missions aimed at targets in asymmetrical combat, such as in urban areas. Using 100kg of explosive in a Mk82 shell, MBDA Deutschland’s TDW warhead systems subsidiary has been able to detonate just 10kg of the explosive, significantly reducing the shell’s effective radius. The technique could allow a pilot, in the cockpit, to “dial a yield” before firing a weapon. TDW managing director Helmut Hederer described the system as “highly mature” after “some years” of work, and says the successful testing at Bundeswehr Technical Centre 91 in Meppen points to the possibility that it could be integrated into existing weapons – including the Paveway guided bombs as carried by Eurofighter Typhoons and Panavia Tornados in service with the German and other air forces. And, he adds, this scalable warhead technology could in principle also be employed in army and navy missiles. Apart from minimising unintentional damage, the attraction of a scalable warhead would be its ability to increase the flexibility of an operational sortie without having to load an aircraft with several different weapon types.
detonation stages TDW is not detailing its technique, but senior sales representative Klaus Wölki says the key lies in mastering control of the six stages of detonation: no reaction, burning, deflagration, explosion, partial detonation and full detonation. TDW, he says, has flightglobal.com
Crown Copyright
E
All tooled up – but does he really want to pack that big a punch? “learned to control deflagration”, which is characterised by a fast burning of the high explosive, with some outward pressure. That is no mean feat, as deflagration is unstable and can easily go to detonation. But, says Wölki, the warhead scaling result is dramatic. Whereas full detonation spits out shrapnel at 8,000m/s, that exit speed is only 2,500m/s from deflagration.
“A bigger bang is nice, cheaper is nice, but what the military really wants is safer” And, he adds, while detonation breaks the shell into tiny fragments that are lethal at a great distance, deflagration results in large pieces of shell, “like banana skins”, which are aerodynamically unstable and do not travel far. The result is a significant reduction in the Mk82’s 90m (295ft) shrapnel radius at full detonation. Work on scalable warheads dates back at least as far as the late 1990s, when the German
government provided some research funding. A US-German team has also looked at the problem, but while the American side has done some testing, it has yet to publish results, says Wölki.
shaped charges While deflagration is TDW’s choice route to destruction of “unwanted” high explosive, use of shaped charges has also been tried, and it may be feasible to destroy explosives with chemicals. In any case, TDW stresses, to minimise collateral damage a scalable warhead must not only restrict its damage radius to a pre-determined size – it must also not leave behind unexploded, hazardous material. This last requirement is particularly important. All explosives used by NATO forces must meet insensitive munitions (IM) guidelines, to ensure they are chemically stable enough to explode only when intended. As one research chemist working on explosives put it a decade ago, “a bigger bang is nice, cheaper is nice, but what the military really wants is safer”. The notion of minimising collateral damage may be more recent, but is no less desireable. At
the resent DSEi defence systems exhibition in London, Raytheon Missile Systems business director John Michel told Flight International that the Paveway IV modular guided bomb being developed by Raytheon for the UK Royal Air Force addresses this issue by attempting to control the blast and fragmentation pattern, by tailoring the angle of attack and distance of detonation to the target. Adding selectable yield would, he says, be a “very attractive” extra variable. However, notes Michel, the big question is whether yield selection can be achieved in free flight without disturbing the weapon’s guidance – accuracy, after all, being the most fundamental approach to minimising collateral damage. TDW may well have broken the back of this particular problem. But while Wölki describes the company’s scalable warhead as being at technology readiness level six, or about two years away from deployability in the case of a “classic” warhead, money is now the major hurdle. TDW’s recent work, he says, has been self-funded; to go further will need input from more than just MBDA. ■
1-7 October 2013 | Flight International | 25
business
Aircraft finance is among the sectors c overed by our premium news and data service Flightglobal Pro: flightglobal.com/pro
MILITARY SPENDING dave majumdar washington dc
Sales – or sting – in the tail?
Good week
Textron’s self-funded Scorpion attack jet proposal flags up a high-risk trend in US defence
engineers GKN
GKN Aerospace Rex Features
astronauts Multiple
planned missions to alien worlds sounds like good news for aspiring space travellers, but the trends don’t look good for career prospects. First, Dutch not-for-profit group Mars One called for volunteers to found a Red Planet colony in 2023 as part of a (not for profit?) reality TV exercise. Now, Object Europa has hatched a scheme to send astronauts to Jupiter’s icy moon to search for life. The hitch? Both are oneway trips.
Bad week
extron AirLand’s recent introduction of its Scorpion light attack jet may be part of a larger trend within the US defence industry to develop new capabilities independently in the hope of capturing additional business despite government spending cuts. Over the past three years alone, industry-funded projects have included Scorpion (pictured); Sikorsky’s X-2 and S-97 Raider high-speed compound helicopters; Boeing’s F-15SE Silent Eagle and F/A-18 Super Hornet conformal fuel tanks and enclosed weapons bay; and General Atomics’ Predator-C. “We have seen this happen cyclically in the past. For example, Northrop did the F-5 on spec, hoping the air force would want a low-cost, low-end fighter or one that could be sold overseas,” says Dan Goure, an analyst at the Lexington Institute. “That didn’t work out all that well.” The cycle has happened before, Goure says, particularly when budget woes have stopped the Department of Defence from specifying new requirements that the industry could expect would lead to development and procurement contracts. “Given the current constellation of pressures it wouldn’t be surprising to see it again,” Goure says. There have been previous instances where private developments have delivered new capabilities that have been widely adopted. The most prominent recent examples are the General Atomics MQ-1 Predator and Insitu ScanEagle. “It was just lucky that there also happened to be sort of a demand that came right on the tail end of its development cycle,” Goure says. Teal Group analyst Richard Aboulafia agrees this is a cyclical trend, but warns that most such endeavours have ended in failure. One of the most infamous examples of a private defence venture failing is the Northrop F-20 Tigershark of the 1980s. Generally,
26 | Flight International | 1-7 October 2013
Textron AirLand
T
Aerospace formally opened a new advanced engineering centre on the old Airport Road in Bengaluru, transferring 70 design and development staff from Volvo Aero’s local facility, which it acquired as part of its October 2012 buyout of the engine components manufacturer. Another 30 or so engineers will be recruited locally over the next 18 months. The centre will ultimately support GKN’s work in engines, aerostructures and transparencies.
How are the guys in sales getting on? says Aboulafia, company-funded initiatives tend to work better for upgrade programmes or derivatives such as the Lockheed Martin C-5M, F-16E/F Block 60 or the Boeing EA-18G Growler. “If you get away from the new platforms, and you focus on upgrades, it becomes a happier story,” he says.
novel concepts One of the big reasons that these projects fail is that the company has to convince the Pentagon to accept novel concepts. “It’s very tough to get the military and the department to buy into a capability that they didn’t invent,” Goure says. Rebecca Grant, president of IRIS Independent Research, agrees. “Like Predator, sometimes it takes years of persistence plus a dash of luck to generate big sales,” she says. “Chances are not all projects will find customers, but a few will. Winners will be those like Predator and EA-18G that fill a distinct need where there are zero competitors.” A big advantage of developing new products in-house, outside of a government-sponsored programme, is that it keeps engineering design teams running and helps to retain talent that might otherwise drift off to other industries, Goure says. “Potentially they might do something that might be a breakthrough.” Mark Gunzinger, an airpower analyst at the Center for Strategic
and Budgetary Assessments, agrees that these self-funded industry projects are a trend – but he says it may not last. “I am a strong supporter of industrysponsored experimentation, research and development that could lead to these kinds of innovations, even though some of them do not pan out,” he says. However, Gunzinger worries that Congressionally-mandated sequestration budget cuts will lead companies to cut their internal R&D funding. “If there is a trend, I think it’s related to the very real possibility that a budget sequester will lead to a significant reduction in independent research and development,” he says. “That would be a real loss.” The US military has drawn down before, but companies previously had the option of becoming more efficient or merging. Those options may no longer be viable. “Today, it’s a different dynamic. We are down to three aerospace lead systems integrators, and they have cut about as much as they can,” Gunzinger says. “Frankly, I would not be surprised if at least one decided to get out of the military aerospace business in the event of another procurement holiday, much less fund interesting science projects that could lead to a new generation of capabilities.” ■ What’s on the horizon for the defence aerospace sector? flightglobal.com/dewline
flightglobal.com
business
Extraordinary expectations FEATURE p28
business briefs
PEOPLE moves
Mikheev: Russian Helicopters At biometrics specialist Human Recognition Systems, former BAA security risk manager Jim Slevin has been promoted to aviation managing director, and Stuart Wilkinson, a former Raytheon Eurofighter IFF programme manager, has joined as aviation head of operations. Royal Canadian Air Force Lt Gen (ret.) Charles Bouchard is now Canada country lead for Lockheed Martin. Bouchard retired after 37 years in the RCAF in April 2012, after commanding the joint task force that led NATO operations in Libya. Former Rosoboronexport deputy chief Alexander Mikheev is now chief
Quote of the week
flightglobal.com
ELECTRONICS Rockwell Collins has reaffirmed its guidance for its fiscal year to end-September at revenue of $4.65 billion, on a par with the $4.63 billion recorded in 2010 but down on the $4.73 billion sales of 2012 and $4.81 billion in 2011. For fiscal year 2014, the company is forecasting sales of between $4.5 billion and $4.6 billion. Collins will report its results for the year to 30 September 2013 on 25 October. Said chief executive Kelly Ortberg: “For fiscal year 2014, we expect market conditions to be similar to what we experienced this year. Our assumption is that sequestration is here to stay and 2014 represents the bottom for this defence cycle,” with overall revenue growth resuming in 2015. Collins, he added, expects “strong revenue growth” in air transport, from the Airbus A350 and Boeing 787 programmes, while the “pending acquisition of ARINC creates a whole new growth platform”.
Embraer Defense TAKEs FULL HOLD OF ATECH DEFENCE Embraer Defense & Security is to acquire the remaining 50% of Atech Negócios em Tecnologia, of which it bought 50% in April 2011. Embraer describes the deal as “an important step in consolidating Embraer Defense & Security as a strategic defense company and a provider of genuinely Brazilian integrated solutions”. Atech develops strategic command, control and intelligence solutions, and provides consulting services and technical and logistical support.
Delta CALLs FOR FAIR PLAY
Kelly: helicopter leasing
“These expansion plans will take us to more than a million passengers annually for the first time” EasyJet chief executive carolyn mccall trumpets plans to station three Airbus A319s at a new base in Hamburg next year and expand the low-cost carrier’s presence in Berlin
DEFENCE WILL ‘BOTTOM OUT IN 2014’ – COLLINS
executive of Kamov and Mil manufacturer Russian Helicopters. He replaces Dmitry Petrov, who will continue to work within parent company Rostec State Corporation. Industry veteran Mark Kelly has joined Lease Corporation International in Dublin as VP marketing for helicopters. At AJW, aviation division technical director Deepak Sharma has been promoted to overall company technical director, and former Lufthansa Technik central Asia general manager Ruslan Nurislamov has joined in Moscow as Russia-CIS VP business development.
Lease Corporation International
Russian Helicopters
AJW, Lease Corp, Lockheed Martin, Russian Helicopters
AIRLINES Delta Air Lines has called for the US government to ensure it and its peers are competing on a “level playing field” against foreign rivals that receive state support. Speaking at an Airlines for America (A4A) event in Washington DC on 24 September, Delta executive vice-president and chief legal officer Ben Hirst said “national champions” from Asia and the Middle East, such as Dubai’s Emirates, “are emerging to become serious global competitors” as a result of the US government’s push for open skies agreements, allowing them unlimited access to US markets. US carriers, he added, “have become very efficient and able to compete with anybody anywhere in the world on a level playing field, [but] these airlines are state-owned, state-supported and have economic objectives instead of private objectives driving them”.
Lufthansa must restructure or shrink – Franz AIRLINES Outgoing Lufthansa chief executive Christoph Franz says the board and his successor will have “no alternative” but to continue with the controversial Score restructuring programme; otherwise the airline will be forced to shrink or risk losing its coveted investment grade status. Despite recently posting operating profits, the Lufthansa Group must persevere with its deep cost-cutting if it is to afford to update its fleet, he says. “The order of magnitude of our profits will not be enough to basically replace older aircraft with new aircraft in a way that we can keep the current size of the Lufthansa Group. If we continue like this, we will have to shrink,” warned Franz, who will leave in 2014 to chair pharmaceutical company Roche.
SIGMA PIPES A GROWTH TUNE MANUFACTURING At aerospace pipes maker Sigma Components, the aerospace division of Avingtrans, sales were up by 71% to £29.1m ($46.8m) in the year to 31 March, owing to acquisitions and 25% organic growth. Recent acquisitions include Aerotech Tubes, Derby and PFW Farnborough. Sigma’s orderbook “remains at record levels”, the company says.
1-7 October 2013 | Flight International | 27
COMMERCIAL ENGINES
extraordinary EXPECTATIONS
The buzz keeps growing as CFM International’s Leap family of engines moves through testing – but has the manufacturer done enough to ensure it can meet strong demand? stephen trimble washington dc
W
hen CFM International formally launched the Leap-X engine family in July 2008, the FrancoAmerican joint venture had high expectations. This was, after all, the chosen successor of the CFM56, the most popular turbofan engine in the history of commercial aviation. However, five years later it is hard to imagine that CFM realised how those expectations would be raised as the first Leap-1A engine for the Airbus A320neo family was delivered to test in early September. The three variants of the Leap engine – including the Leap-1B for the Boeing 737 Max and the Leap-1C for the Comac C919 – have amassed a total backlog of 5,358 orders on 2,679 twin-engined aircraft, according to Flightglobal’s Ascend Online database. Each of these orders was placed before the engine entered Part 33 certification tests. Around 5,000 more CFM56 engines are on firm backlog to power current-generation 737s and A320s that will be delivered over the next five years. “When you combine everything – the fact that the outlook for the next 20 years is good, the trend in terms of the narrowbody segment is good, the fact that we have all this customer base already flying and the fact that our backlog is full – I think this is a pretty decent position for CFM to be in,” says the company’s president, Jean-Paul Ebanga. With a bulging backlog to 2020 already firm, any question about the market appeal of the Leap engine family has already been answered. All depends now on CFM’s execution through the remainder of the development and certification phase, and then onto a historically rapid production ramp-up. Leap-1a orders Total
737 Max family A320neo family C919
1,498 801 380
Source: Flightglobal Ascend
28 | Flight International | 1-7 October 2013
“What is really a big deal are these big numbers,” Ebanga says. “Because if we are not delivering these numbers, it’s the whole air transport industry which will collapse, and this will impact significantly the growth of the world. This is the big story.” The joint venture currently produces 1,400 CFM56 engines per year, and it has already delivered around 25,000 of the type. Now CFM is faced with the challenge of introducing an all-new engine into service in October 2015 with the A320neo, deliver two new variants by 2017 and increase production to 1,700 per year by 2020.
“We are reviewing on a regular basis all the risk we can identify” CéDRIC GOUBET Executive vice-president, CFM
Cédric Goubet, executive vice-president for CFM, describes the challenge as “unprecedented in our industry”. “That requires a very serious production readiness plan with all our suppliers, beginning with our own in-house capacities,” he says. “We are reviewing on a regular basis all the risk we can identify.”
cation testing and then follow-on airworthiness testing. CFM will induct 28 engines into the certification programme for all three variants. Another 32 will be delivered to the three manufacturers to support flight testing scheduled to begin next year on the A320neo and conclude in 2017, as the 737 Max and C919 are planned to enter service. To usher the Leap engines through the certification gauntlet, CFM partners General Electric and Snecma can summon their collective experience of decades in the jet engine business and four decades working together in the narrowbody aircraft sector. But there are few technologies that cross over from the CFM56 series into the Leap. As the Leap engine was being designed, CFM was aware that it was facing a powerful new competitor. Pratt & Whitney developed the PurePower PW1100G-JM engine to replace the International Aero Engines V2500. To lure Airbus and Boeing reluctantly into re-engining programmes, P&W dangled the fuel-saving efficiency provided by an advanced new core and a fan drive gear system. As a result, the competition was forced to completely rethink the CFM56 and its onestage high-pressure turbine architecture.
MEETING THE CHALLENGE So far, CFM has invested $750 million in new capital projects, including the building of four new factories adding 1.5 million ft2 of production capacity. Chaker Chahrour, another CFM executive vice-president, notes that “this is not the end of the investment”. The production challenge is greater than CFM confronted even in the last decade, as CFM56 production zoomed from about 500 engines annually to about 1,500 within five years. In that example, CFM relied on moving production from a fixed to a pulsed assembly time, saving time and increasing capacity without dramatically increasing factory footprint. As production planning continues, the immediate focus is on completing Part 33 certififlightglobal.com
CFM
LEAP
CFM has added 1.5 million ft2 of production capacity as part of an investment in new capital projects that so far totals $750 million
CFM aims to surpass the efficiency of the PurePower PW1100G-JM engine flightglobal.com
CFM
The Leap engine series was designed to compete and – CFM hopes – surpass the fuel efficiency and reliability of the P&W rival engine on the A320neo family, which is the only application for which CFM does not own a monopoly position. The Leap is packed with several new technologies either borrowed from GE’s two latest widebody engines – the GE90 and its evolution as the GEnx – or introduced for the first time in a turbofan engine. As the Leap engine lacks P&W’s gearing mechanism, CFM had to focus on technologies that could fully optimise a conventional high-bypass ratio turbofan engine.
The upcoming certification tests will examine the airworthiness of each of these new advances, starting with the Leap’s new fan case and fan blades.
BLADE ADVANCEd GE introduced carbonfibre fan blades on the GE90 in 1995. They were used again on the GEnx engine, along with a composite fan case. The spacer that goes between the widechord blade and the disc is also made of carbonfibre. The only non-carbonfibre material in the system is a strip of titanium applied to the leading edge of all 18 blades. “Taken together at the airplane level these technologies save 1,000lb of weight over what would be an equivalent weight of a metal design,” says Gareth Richards, GE’s Leap programme manager. Embedded within the design of the fan inlet and fan blade is a system that is crucial to CFM’s claims of a competitive advantage to the PW1100-JM on fuel-burn savings. All turbofan engines degrade in fuel efficiency as their parts get older and worn. GE, however, introduced a debris rejection system in the GE90 to slow the rate of degradation. Over time, GE believes the system translates into a 1% improvement in fuel efficiency compared to a similar engine without the debris rejection system. CFM makes the same claim for the Leap engine. The debris rejection system in the Leap starts with the widechord fan blade, which is designed partly to separate the biggest parti-
NEO engine orders Leap-1A PW1100-JM Unannounced
A319neo A320neo A321neo Total
29 738 34 801
6 662 104 772
Total
0 35 448 1,848 320 458 768 2,341
Source: Flightglobal Ascend
cles from entering the airflow streaming into the core of the engine. As the airflow passes through the low-pressure compressor and reaches the entrance of the critical – and expensive – high-pressure compressor, there is another system that diverts from particles away from the core. All turbofan engines use a device called variable bleed valves (VBVs). The VBVs are used at low-power settings to prevent stalls in the booster, which can become overloaded by the highly pressurised air downstream. Normally, the VBVs work by using doors that open outwards, dumping some of the air into the flow that bypasses the core. Starting with the GE90, however, GE invented a new way to make the VBVs function as both stall margin protectors and as part of the debris rejection system. Instead of opening the doors outward, the VBVs in the Leap engine open inward to scoop up any particles that otherwise would have entered the core. The system is primarily used while the aircraft is taxiing on the ground, when the risk of flying particles entering the core is the greatest. ❯❯ 1-7 October 2013 | Flight International | 29
COMMERCIAL ENGINES
❯❯ It is no surprise that CFM wants to protect the high-pressure compressor. This section features several key improvements inserted into the Leap engine. The Leap engine’s compressor pressure ratio is 22:1, or twice the efficiency achieved by the CFM56 it replaces. This is attained by designing the airfoils on each of the 10 stages with three-dimensional aerodynamics.
BLENDING REMIX Combustors work by mixing fuel and air and then igniting them. This mixture, however, produces certain unwanted emissions. Where there are strong concentrations of fuel in the mixture, these “hot spots” inside the combustor produce nitrous oxides. To address the problem, GE invented the TAPS system. It blends the fuel and air together before the mixture enters the combustor. That significantly reduces the fuel-rich zones that produce the harmful emissions. “So, at a stroke, by that design you get enormous emissions benefit,” Richards says. “So the Leap emissions will be 50% below CAEP/6 levels and also below CAEP/8.” The Leap combustor’s most advanced and influential feature across the industry, however, may actually be the fuel nozzle. GE is making the fuel nozzle using an additive manufacturing technique, one of the first known metallic parts created in this way to enter production in an 30 | Flight International | 1-7 October 2013
CFM
AERODYNAMIC INNOVATION “If you look at the blade you can see a very heavy bow [and] the tip is contoured in another direction,” Richards says. “It almost looks like it’s turned over and bent. But it’s actually by design. This is fourth-generation 3D aerodynamics, and this is beyond anything that’s flying anywhere in the industry.” The aerodynamics extend even to the platform where the base of each blade meets the disc. Where the CFM56 platform was flat, the platform on the Leap has a detectable bulge at the base of each airfoil. It is these aerodynamic improvements that allow the Leap engine to use fewer blades in the compressor section, yet increase the compressor pressure ratio. The second innovation that CFM is introducing in the Leap engine is the blisk, or integrated blade and disc. There are many reasons why using a blisk is preferable. Firstly, a blisk is slightly narrower than non-integrated blades and discs. Secondly, the tightly integrated components reduce aerodynamic leakage at the base of each blade. The certification programme must also evaluate the readiness of GE’s new combustor technology for the Leap application. The Leap engine features GE’s latest combustor design, featuring the twin-annular, preswirl (TAPS) II device. It is called twin-annular because it integrates two fuel circuits.
Fourth-generation 3d aerodynamics are behind the blade design on the Leap engines
aircraft. The additive process builds the fuel nozzle in a machine sometimes called a 3D printer. The machine builds parts in increments less than ten-thousandths of an inch high. Such a process is most helpful to build a part as intricate as a fuel nozzle. The tiny component may seem simple from the outside, but internally there are as many as 30 passages that are needed to allow the fuel and air to mix thoroughly. In the absence of an additive manufacturing process, the fuel nozzle would have to built in 20 small, intricate components, with the complexity of the production process limiting the options of the design engineer.
“This [blade design] is beyond anything that’s flying anywhere in the industry” Gareth Richards Leap programme manager, General Electric
“But with additive [manufacturing] we can make many parts simultaneously because you just trace them all out on a sheet,” Richards says. Aft of the combustor, the Leap engine reveals its most striking architectural and material differences from the CFM56. Whereas the CFM56 was designed with a single-stage high-pressure turbine, the Leap engine is operated with two stages. Like all engine design choices, the twostage lay-out presented a trade-off. A one-stage high-pressure turbine is less fuel-efficient, but costs less to maintain over time. Since airlines have expressed a clear preference for a smaller fuel bill, CFM obliged them with two stages in the Leap engine’s high-pressure turbine. But the innovations in the Leap turbine section did not step at the architectural level. The Leap engine was also designed to burn the fuel
at hotter temperatures – so hot they would melt the metal in the high-pressure turbine. So CFM designed an intricate cooling system. It extracts air from the cooler chamber of the compressor and funnels it through internal passages of the turbine blades. Although the airflow around the metal is significantly hotter, the metal itself is designed to remain at the same temperatures as on the CFM56 turbine section. The metal shroud around the first stage of the high-pressure turbine, however, was replaced with a completely new material called ceramic matrix composite (CMC), which is sure to figure large in the certification process. The CMC material is lighter than metal and has a higher melting threshold, so it does not require a cooling system that extracts relatively cooled air from the compressor in order to survive immediately aft of the combustor. Finally, the rear of the engine also contains a new and important feature. The low-pressure turbine contains five blades in the 737 application and seven blades in the larger A320 and C919 engines. The low-pressure turbine stages are normally made of titanium, but CFM’s partners have found a way to use a titanium-aluminide alloy. Altogether, this package of innovations is aimed at delivering an at least 2% fuel burn advantage over the rival PW1100G-JM on the A320neo, and as much as 3% on the A321neo, Chahrour says. The A320neo family’s customers, however, still seem open-minded about which engine will win the competition. So far, CFM’s market share in the orders race is 34%, compared to 32% for the PW1100G-JM. Another 34% of A320neo customers have yet to decide. ■ Download our new Commercial Engines Report from our Insight team flightglobal.com/commercialengines
flightglobal.com
It’s quiet, it’s clean, it’s MTU.
ow ai Airsh 3 b u D t a 1 See us r 17 – 21, 20 e b m tral Nove rld Cen o W i a Dub 1006 Booth
15 % less fuel, 15 % less CO2 emissions and noise levels cut in half – the Geared TurbofanTM engine is the technology of the future. And of course it features MTU’s unique high-speed low-pressure turbine. Just some of the reasons why the PurePower ® PW1000G is the engine of choice also for the A320neo. www.mtu.de
787 engines
Powering the dream
The orders battle between rival 787 engine suppliers Rolls-Royce and GE is entering a new phase stephen trimble washington dc
B
oeing 787s have been in service already for two years, but the internal orders race between rival engine suppliers Rolls-Royce and General Electric is in the midst a competitive reset. The launch in June of the 787-10, coupled with the arrival later this year or early next year of product updates from both engine suppliers, promises to reshape the competition in ways that could not have been anticipated even five years ago. It has been a decade since Boeing launched the 787, and eight years since All Nippon Airways selected the Trent 1000 over the GEnx1B to inaugurate commercial service. Both engine configurations have evolved greatly over the 787’s history. Weight growth on the 787-8 airframe forced Boeing to in-
32 | Flight International | 1-7 October 2013
crease the baseline thrust rating to 70,000lbthrust (311kN) from 67,000lb-thrust. Meanwhile, the top end of the engine thrust scale jumped to 78,000lb-thrust from 70,000lbthrust, as Boeing finalised the double-stretch 787-10’s performance requirements. In the first year of service both manufacturers discovered critical flaws with engine materials and coatings that led to unexpected levels of corrosion and engine failures. Those early teething issues were resolved within the first year, however. Any technical concerns about the 787’s engines over the past year have been overshadowed by even more serious electrical and battery system problems. The Trent and the GEnx are rapidly gaining maturity in service. GE has delivered 92 engines to nine operators, which have accumulated 125,000h in service. There are 70 Trent
Rolls-Royce
There are 70 Trent 1000s flying with five R-R customers
1000s flying with five R-R customers, which have accumulated 96,000h of flight time. Both engine companies claim to have achieved dispatch reliability ratings above 99.9% since entry into service. In terms of unit volume, so far the orders race has not yielded a decisive leader. Not all airlines have disclosed their engine selections publicly, and there are still enough undecided customers in the current backlog to shift the advantage to either supplier.
Market share So far, GE’s strongest showing is among North American and Middle East carriers, including Air Canada, American Airlines, United Airlines and Qatar Airways. These announcements have helped the company claim 43% of the overall 787 order backlog, according to Boeing’s online database. The R-R share of the backlog stands at 25% in the Boeing database, including the launch order by ANA and key orders from British Airways, LAN Airlines, Singapore Airlines and Virgin Atlantic Airways. However, R-R’s internal numbers present a more optimistic story, and includes several customers still not included in the Boeing database. These buyers include most of the major lessors, including ALC, ACG, CIT and ILFC. Oman Air and Singaporean Airlines have also selected or re-selected the Trent 1000 in recent orders, R-R says. Combining these orders with the Boeing database results in a 42% market share for the Trent 1000, or roughly in ❯❯ flightglobal.com
A STRONG ALLIANCE GAVE AVIATION A GREAT START. OURS IS GIVING IT A GREAT FUTURE.
The alliance formed between the Wright brothers has become an aviation landmark. The alliance formed between GE and Pratt & Whitney is becoming another. Sixteen years of combined expertise, advanced technology and global resources have produced the ultimate engine for the A380. An engine proven to be superior in efficiency and reliability. It burns less fuel than its competitor, saving an estimated $11,000,000 over the life of a single A380. It achieves departure reliability greater than 99.9% with outstanding in-flight reliability. It is an engine designed for ease of maintenance and transportation, all backed by the largest global support network. See more about the engine that is forging a strong alliance between us and our customers. Visit www.enginealliance.com Engine Alliance, LLC, a joint company of General Electric Co. and Pratt & Whitney
THE STRONGEST TEAM FOR THE A380
787 engines
boeing 787 order backlog Customers
❯❯ parity with the GEnx-1B. By fielding the performance improvement package (PIP)-2 later this year, GE stakes an early advantage. GE claims the PIP-II configuration – the third major iteration of GEnx design, after the Block 4 for the flight test fleet and the PIP-1 for early production aircraft – now meets Boeing’s original specification for fuel efficiency and power. By comparison, R-R does not expect to meet the original specification until the Trent 1000-TEN enters production in 2016.
GE
ONe step ahead The PIP-2 is rated to deliver up to 78,000lbthrust at sea level, which is enough to support the thrust requirement of the 787-10 as it arrives in 2018. In the meantime, GE will apply the new design in production and as a retrofit. Boeing currently has no plans to use the full power rating of the GEnx-1B PIP-2 at 78,000lbthrust, but it is available in case there is ever a need to increase the gross weight of the 787-10. “We like to stay a step ahead in terms of thrust capability,” says John How, GE’s lead on the GEnx-1B. Internally, the 78,000lb-thrust-rated PIP-2 configuration differs in significantly from the original design rated at 70,000lb-thrust. The PIP-1 configuration delivered a 1% reduction in specific fuel consumption. It required revising the low-pressure turbine, after GE’s attempt to save weight by reducing the number of blades, vanes and nozzles backfired. The PIP-2, meanwhile, delivered another 1% reduction in SFC, but required more dramatic changes. GE increased the fan diameter slightly, without changing the outer-mould line of the nacelle. R-R, by contrast, is continuing to make steady progress on the Trent 1000. The Package A engines that entered service with ANA two years ago have been replaced by Package B. Now, the Package C variant has entered flight test on the 787-9, offering a 1% improvement in SFC and rated at 74,000lb-
Trent was first to fly on the 787 34 | Flight International | 1-7 October
thrust. One more upgrade is still necessary, however, for R-R to catch up with the power rating of the GEnx-1B PIP-2 configuration. The Trent 1000-TEN, which integrates several technologies developed later for the Trent XWB programme, is the next step in the evolution of R-R’s 787 propulsion system. This future variant retains the familiar three-spool architecture and basic lay-out of the Trent 1000 engine, including the forged titanium, rigid fan case and wide-chord, swept hollow-titanium fan blades. The Trent 1000-TEN will add a new suite of technologies in the intermediate pressure compressor, high-pressure compressor and the high-pressure turbine. The inner wall rising line of the IP compressor increases flow capacity to generate the extra thrust demanded by the 787-10. In the HP compressor, R-R is transferring the “new aerodynamic compressor” (NEWAC) technology from the Trent XWB programme. At the same time, R-R is converting the front half of the six-stage HP compressor into integrated blade and discs, or blisks. Finally, the new, single-stage HP turbine is upgraded with an advanced cooling system, also leveraging the Trent XWB programme. At a more fundamental level, R-R is also revising the turbine disc architecture to allow the combined HP system in the compressor and turbine to modulate the air flow.
tried and tested This modulated air system has completed 1,000h of durability testing in the first Trent 1000-TEN demonstrator engine in Derby, says John Griffiths, R-R Trent 1000 programme director. The first full demonstrator engine incorporating all of the new technologies will begin testing later this year or early next year, he adds. “We’ve been telling the market for some time what we intend to achieve with the -TEN,” Griffiths says. “Clearly, actually having the engine available and demonstrated makes it a more powerful proposition – or an easier proposition to get over from our point of view.” The Trent 1000 has the distinction of being the first engine to enter test and operational service with the 787-8 – a legacy it continued with the first flight of the 787-9. The GEnx-1B will surpass the Trent 1000 in power rating when the PIP-2 configuration arrives shortly, but R-R’s next move could extend the compettiiveparity envisioned when Boeing launched the 787’s two engine options. “Our proposition has always been we’ve got an engine that delivers on thrust capability for the aircraft, best on noise, best on through-life fuel burn and an engine that will serve across all the aircrft types,” Griffiths says. “That’s our proposition and our proposition hasn’t changed. The –TEN is the way to deliver it, if you like.” ■
Aeroflot Aeromexico Air Astana Air Berlin Air Canada Air China Air Europa Air France-KLM Air India Air New Zealand Air Niugini ALAFCO Air Lease All Nippon Airways American Airlines Arik Air Avianca Aviation Capital Azerbaijan Airlines Biman Bangladesh British Airways Business Jet/VIP China Southern CIT Leasing Delta Air Lines Ethiopian Airlines Etihad Airways GECAS Gulf Air Hainan Airlines Icelandair ILFC Japan Airlines Jet Airways Kenya Airways Korean Air LAN Airlines Lion Air LOT Polish Airlines Nakash Norwegian Oman Air PrivatAir Qantas Qatar Airways Republic of Iraq Royal Air Maroc Royal Brunei Royal Jordanian Saudi Arabian Airlines Singaporean Airlines Transaero Airlines TUI Travel Unidentified United Airlines Uzbekistan Airways Vietnam Airlines Virgin Atlantic Airways Xiamen Airlines Totals
GEnx1B
Trent Unannounced 1000
2
22 6 3
15 37 15 8 25 27 10 1 8 55
45 11
42 7 15 5 2 4 24 5 10 4
1 6 18
10 41 10 16 10 12 45
1 19
43 10
9 10 26 5 8 2 3 6 2 14 30 10 4 5 7 20 4 13 1 30 2 8
8 30
15 35
16 6 421 43%
243 25%
315 32%
flightglobal.com
There’s something NEW about Flight International You can now read Flight International wherever you are – on your tablet, via your desktop or in print
Subscribe to Tablet for all the great content you enjoy in print, and: Download your weekly copy on Saturday Enjoy In-app videos More photos Links to related content on flightglobal.com Subscribe to Tablet, Digital or Print today at www.flightsubs.com /1607
(Overseas) +44 1444 445454 (UK) 0845 077 7733 flightinternational.subs@quadrantsubs.com
www.rolls-royce.com
Advanced cameras and millions of data points measure each fan blade to within a fraction of a hair’s width. Because reliability is at the heart of everything we do, it’s quite understandable why, during manufacture, we use millions of data points from advanced cameras to measure the dimensions of each blade to within an accuracy of 40 microns. That’s less than half the width of a human hair. It’s this attention to detail which maximises operational efficiency for our customers. Making the extraordinary, ordinary.
Trusted to deliver excellence
COMMERCIAL ENGINES
Airbus chose the PW1100G engine for re-engined A320neos
HAPPILY DIVORCED
Pratt and Whitney
restructuring plan that are now dropped completely or still unfulfilled, including a pivotal agreement between the original members of the IAE ownership group to form a joint venture to pursue the next generation of engines to power commercial airliners sized between 120 and 230 seats. Internal restructurings are generally supposed to appear seamless to customers, but in the case of IAE in 2011 the point of the ownership change was to make a visible break with the past. No longer would V2500 operators be faced with having to talk separately with both P&W and R-R in sales discussions.
Pratt & Whitney has led International Aero Engines to ever-greater success since the departure of Rolls-Royce, which continues to benefit from its V2500 involvement stephen trimble washington DC
T
wo years after International Aero Engines (IAE) announced the withdrawal of Rolls-Royce, the consortium – now led by Pratt & Whitney – building V2500 engines for the last three decades has never looked stronger. Since that 12 October 2011 announcement, the consortium has made significant commercial progress. Deliveries of the V2500 engine to Airbus A320 aircraft family customers reached a new 38 | Flight International | 1-7 October 2013
record and continue to grow. The historically commercial programme was selected for its first military application, which will extend production perhaps as far as 2025. Even R-R – after being self-demoted to supplier from coowner – appears happy, having reported an unexpected profit windfall in its first full year under the new arrangement. “The skies are starting to part a little. We like where we are,” says Jon Beatty, chief executive of IAE, in a recent interview with Flightglobal. The successes over the last 24 months seem to overshadow even the aspects of the original
SMOOTH OPERATIONS Last November, IAE consolidated all sales, marketing support and campaign analysis within P&W. This means that the restructured IAE can finally match the single interface with the customer long offered by rival CFM International. “Our goal all along was to be very smooth, the way CFM does it,” Beatty says. “Since November, we’ve already been doing the single face to the customers, … and it’s been very successful and very well-received by both airlines and by Airbus.” Such a harmonious approach to customer relationships seemed impossible only two years ago, as internal disputes between P&W and R-R on a wide range of commercial and legal issues spilled into the public domain. First, there was the obvious strategic split between the two IAE owners, as P&W pushed to replace the V2500 with the PurePower series of geared turbofans and R-R lobbied aggressively for Airbus and Boeing to skip reengining programmes for the A320 and 737 and commit to a clean-sheet design with an even more advanced engine. P&W won the argument, and Airbus selected the PW1100G and the CFM Leap-1A to power the re-engined A320neo family. Behind the scenes, meanwhile, these oncestalwart commercial partners suffered a serious breakdown in trust. R-R and P&W filed lawsuits against each other over patent infringement claims that embroiled the V2500 among other engine programmes. The legal dispute was anything but trivial. Before agreeing to settle the claims in July 2011, P&W threatened to seek an injunction that would block R-R from delivering Trent 1000 engines to support Boeing 787 aircraft deliveries. “The whole thing from a very good marriage seemed to develop into a very bad marriage when it came to the next generation of the V2500,” recalls William Storey, president of the Teal Group consultancy. The saga’s denouement came with the restructuring agreement announced in October 2011, only three months after the patent dispute was settled. Despite the long-running inflightglobal.com
Cover story
ternal feud, the restructuring agreement shocked the industry. The partnership, after all, had run a long and profitable course for both companies. For the first time in more than 30 years, however, R-R would relinquish a leadership role in the narrowbody engine market. The British manufacturer had also agreed to drop out of the consortium at precisely the moment when demand for the V2500 was higher than ever. Under the terms of the agreement, which closed on 29 June 2012, R-R sold its 33.5% ownership stake in IAE to P&W for $1.5 billion. R-R also agreed to license its intellectual property in the V2500 to P&W, in exchange for fees based on each flight hour flown by V2500powered aircraft over the next 30 years. Meanwhile, P&W doubled its ownership stake in IAE to 66%, including 32.5% held by United Technologies and 33.5% held by a newly formed, Switzerland-based company called P&W Aero Engines (P&WAEI).
R-R chief financial officer Mark Morris, speaking to analysts after reporting the firsthalf results, also noted that the company’s financial position in IAE has strengthened since the agreement was signed. R-R is required to transfer production of some components to other suppliers in the IAE network as part the restructuring agreement, but the process of transferring the work has been slowed in some cases, Morris says. That means R-R will continue to generate income from the IAE joint venture for longer than expected when the agreement was signed. In the long term, however, R-R must find some way back into the narrowbody engine market. It is already working on both twospool and three-spool next-generation engine concepts, as well as open rotor technology. Neither Airbus nor Boeing expect the reengined A320neo or 737 Max will have the production longevity of their predecessors. A
WITHDRAWAL PAYS OFF Many questions remain about the strategic impact of R-R’s decision to quit its ownership role in the joint venture. But, so far, the decision appears to have only lifted the company’s financial results. Although no longer an owner, R-R still supplies and supports the high-pressure compressor for the V2500. The company originally forecast that this part of the business would generate a profit of £92 million ($146 million) in the first half of this year and £140 million for the full year. But actual performance has far exceeded expectations. After reporting a profit from the IAE business of £112 million in the first half, R-R now expects a contribution of more than £200 million from the V2500 programme to the bottom line in 2013, the first full year after the restructuring deal closed.
“I really like the way the venture is structured now. … All the shareholders are very pleased with [its] success” Jon Beatty Chief executive, International Aero Engines
IAE
replacement will be necessary sometime in the next decade, and all of the engine manufacturers must be ready. The original restructuring agreement among the IAE partners took account of that replacement need. As R-R agreed to sell its ownership agreement, P&W, MTU and JAEC agreed to form a new joint venture with R-R to develop new engines in what they described as the “next generation of 120- to 230-passenger mid-size aircraft”.
Rolls-Royce continues to supply and support the high-pressure compressor for the V2500 engine flightglobal.com
After spending two years in negotiations, R-R and P&W separately notified the US Securities and Exchange Commission that the discussion had failed and no new joint venture would be created.
UNEXPECTED DEVELOPMENTS The restructured IAE partnership has evolved in other ways. There was a time, for example, when Airbus chief operating officer John Leahy said he would not even consider allowing P&W to offer airlines the PW1100G engine outside of the IAE organisation. Instead, P&W consolidated sales and marketing support for the V2500 and the PW1100G-JM under the same organisation. More recently, the IAE board had met to consider expanding the joint venture to other variants in the PW1000G family, including the PW1500G for the Bombardier CSeries, PW1700G/1900G for the Embraer E-Jet E2, PW1400G for the Irkut MC-21 and the PW1200G for the Mitsubishi regional jet (MRJ). “There are obvious synergies because we share the same partners on most of the PW1100G family programmes,” Beatty told Flightglobal in June. “So, the Japanese and MTU are both partners in most of those applications – slightly different ownership shares than in the [current A320) and [A320]neo. It’s one of the things that are also being discussed, but there’s no definitive decision yet.” At some point, however, the IAE leadership decided to keep the joint venture focused on selling and supporting only the V2500, while P&W remains the lead on the PW1100G-JM for the A320neo. The other variants in the PW1000G engine series are no longer being considered to become part of the IAE joint venture. “P&W has offered all of its PurePower engines to customers through P&W and will continue to evaluate the best value to the aircraft manufacturer and airline customers,” the company says. The V2500 has served IAE well through the decades, with more than 5,800 engines delivered so far and about 1,500 still in the backlog. IAE’s supply chain delivered 470 engines in 2012, a new record. It will deliver well over 500 engines this year, and the same next year. At that point, it will begin a ramp-down of production of the V2500 as Airbus ramps up production of the A320neo. “I really like the way the venture is structured now. We like the way it’s run. I have to say all the shareholders are very pleased with the success of the joint venture,” Beatty says. “Now, this year we celebrate our 30th anniversary. Our collaboration agreement extends to 2045, which makes you think we’ll easily be able to celebrate our 50th and 60th anniversaries.” ■ Download our new Commercial Engines Report from our Insight team flightglobal.com/commercialengines
1-7 October 2013 | Flight International | 39
Features multimedia
DAy
1
With distribution supported by
ISSUE 1 MONDAY 29 OCTOBER 2012
BATTLING BEEChCRAfT COMES OUT fIGhTING h
awker Beechcraft hit back this morning at NBAA with a plan to survive the emergence from bankruptcy with the proposed launch of three new turboprops and a piston. The company, which is re-branding simply as Beechcraft early next year, said it will launch a turboprop version of the Premier 1 airframe in the segment between the King Air 90 and the King Air 250, as well as two new turboprops, includingitsfirstsingle-engine-poweredturboprop to compete with the Pilatus PC12. Finally, a new piston will be launched and priced between the twin-engine Baron G58 and Bonanza G36. The company gave no indication as to whether this is a single or twin. Indeed details were thin on the ground and Beechcraft released specifications only for a concept turboprop based on the Premier 1 with between eight and 11 seats and a range with four passengers of 1,750nm and a high-speed cruise of 302ktas. The new products are possible because Beechcraft can emerge from the bankruptcy process having shed a $2.5 billion debt burden, which it traded for equity with the previous lenders of the company. Chief executive Bill Boisture says a restructured, leaner company will emerge from Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in the first quarter of 2013 and seek a buyer to continue production of Hawker-series business jets. The Wichita-based airframer announced on 18 October that exclusive acquisition talks with Superior Aviation Beijing had collapsed, forcing the company to refocus its strategy around continued production of Beechcraft products, as well as support for both Beechcraft turboprops and pistons and Hawker jets. Although the “complex” transaction with Superior was unsuccessful, Chinese buyers are among the companies that could come forward to buy Hawker production lines, Boisture says. Meanwhile, Hawker Beechcraft will “renew discussions with former bidders and other interested parties that have approached us about Hawker”. Boisture also says certain products, such as the Hawker 4000, will not become orphaned jets as the company spins off the production line, but saysitisprematuretolayoutspecificplansabout whether the post-bankruptcy Beechcraft or another company will support the Hawker 4000.
BillyPix
PUNCHING BACK: HBC’s Bill Boisture throws new models into the ring
Innovative Cockpit and Avionics Solutions MONTREAL • OTTAWA • CHICAGO www.cmcelectronics.ca
Booth 5031
NSD_291012_001 1
safe bet in las vegas If you want to follow NBAA, the only place to turn is Flightglobal. From next week’s show preview issue of Flight International to a phalanx of multimedia products at the event itself, we will have every angle covered. As well as three issues of our unique Flight Evening News NBAA newspaper and three editions of our interactive Flight Daily News, you will find breaking news, images, video, tweets and blogs on our NBAA landing page. So, whether you are going to Las Vegas or not, make Flightglobal your one-stop shop window for the show.
SHOW SHOW REPORT REPORT
NetJets stamps stamps its its NetJets Signature on on first first Signature Global 6000s 6000s Global
Foraaround-up round-upof ofour ourlatest latestonline onlinenews, news, For featureand andmulti-media multi-mediacontent contentvisit visit feature flightglobal.com/wotw flightglobal.com/wotw
Show report p30
NBAA NBAA 2012 2012
29/10/12 19:01:38
FLIGHT EVENING NEWS We pioneered the same-day show newspaper concept at NBAA in 2004 and we have been providing attendees with “today’s news today” at the two big annual business aviation conventions ever since. Our first issue – out late afternoon on Monday, 21 October with all the breaking news from the press events – provides a scene-setter for the first day of business. Subsequent editions will reflect the first two days of the show. If you are at the show, feel free to come and meet the team in our media room.
INTERACTIVE MAGAZINE
KING LEAR TAKES BOW
Sleek 75 bids for superlight crown
were shut shut down down temporarily temporarily to to accommodate accommodate aa surprise surprise were campaign stop stop to to Orlando Orlando by by US US President President Barack Barack Obama, Obama, campaign the business-jet-basher-in-chief, business-jet-basher-in-chief,itit was was not not surprising surprising that that the first-day attendance attendance at at this this year’s year’s NBAA NBAA convention convention was was first-day slightly off. off. The The mood mood was was not not helped helped when when Hawker Hawker slightly Beechcraft kicked kicked off off the the press press day, day,announcing announcing grim grim news news Beechcraft for Hawker Hawker jet jet owners. owners. But But there there were were new new stirrings stirrings of of life life for in even even the the most most beleaguered beleaguered sector sector –– light light jets jets –– and and in fresh evidence evidence that that aa new new market market recovery recovery may may not not be be far far fresh way,ifif not not exactly exactly around around the the corner. corner. way, Andrew Doyle, Doyle,Kristin Kristin Majcher, Majcher,Murdo Murdo Morrison, Morrison,Kate Kate Andrew Sarsfield and and Stephen Stephen Trimble Trimble report report Sarsfield
Business plans plans to to emerge emerge from from bankruptcy bankruptcy protection protection with with aggressive aggressive launch launch strategy strategy for for turboprops turboprops and and piston piston aircraft aircraft Business
H
COMPETITION COMPETITION
Game-changing light jets on agenda Cessna studying studying aa family family of of wide-cabin wide-cabin small small aircraft, aircraft, while while Honda Honda confirms confirms itit will will launch launch follow-on follow-on to to debut debut HA-420 HA-420 Cessna
BillyPix BillyPix BillyPix
C
ompetition in in the the light light jet jet ompetition segment is is hotting hotting up up as as airairsegment framersvie vieto tocreate creategame-changgame-changframers ingproducts productsto torevolutionise revolutionisethis this ing alreadyheavily heavilypopulated populatedspace. space. already Market leader leader Cessna Cessna announced announced Market atNBAA NBAAititis isstudying studyingaafamily familyof of at “widecabin” cabin”light lightbusiness businessjets jetsto to “wide addresswhat whatititcalls calls“a “alack lackof ofdifdifaddress ferentiationbetween betweenproducts” products”in in ferentiation thismarket marketsector. sector. this The Wichita-based Wichita-based airframer airframer The has not not disclosed disclosed aa launch launch timetimehas frame but but says says itit is is focusing focusing on on frame “getting the the concept concept right right from from “getting thebeginning”, beginning”,says saysBrad BradThress, Thress, the Cessna’s senior senior vice vice-president, Cessna’s president, senior vice president, businessjets. jets.“We “Wedon’t don’tyet yetknow know business whatthat thatmeans meansin interms termsof ofrange range what and cost cost but but our our aim aim is is to to distindistinand guishour ourproducts productsfrom fromthe thecomcomguish petition,”he headds. adds. petition,” Cessna debuted debuted at at the the show show aa Cessna light-jetcabin cabinconcept conceptwith withwhich which light-jet washoping hopingto togather gather“invaluable “invaluable ititwas feedback”from fromexisting existingcustomers customers feedback” duringthe thethree-day three-dayevent. event. during After the the show, show, the the “stimuli” “stimuli” After will be be displayed displayed at at Cessna’s Cessna’s WiWiwill chita service service centre centre –– the the largest largest chita in its its network network –– from from where where the the in manufacturerwill willcontinue continueto toenenmanufacturer couragecustomer customerinput. input. courage “While our light jets “While “Whileour ourlight lightjets jets––the theCJ2+, CJ2+, CJ3 and CJ4––are we CJ3 CJ3and andCJ4 arevery verypopular popularwe need morespread spread between each of need needmore spreadbetween betweeneach eachof the models,” “There is the Thress adds. “There themodels,” models,”Thress Thressadds. adds. “There only a 400nm (740Km) beis aa 400nm range between is only only 400nm range range between
Honda Aircraft Aircraft says says Phenom Phenom may may be be aa model model for for future future strategy strategy Honda tween each aircraft anddifferential price differeach and eachaircraft aircraft andprice price differential ential between the CJ2+ between the and the CJ4 is between the CJ2+ CJ2+ andand thethe CJ4CJ4 is is around million,”he heexplains. explains. around $2 million,” around $2$2 million,” he explains. The key key drivers drivers of of Cessna’s Cessna’s fufuThe ture light-jet light-jet family family are are aa larger larger ture cabin, modern and imimcabin, modern avionics, modernavionics avionics, proved efficiency efficiency and and direct direct opopproved erating costs. costs. “We “We will will have have an an erating organised replacement replacement strategy,” strategy,” organised Thresscontinues. continues.“We “Wewill willeither either Thress shrinkor orstretch stretchthe the[new] [new]aircraft aircraft shrink depending on on which which end end of of the the depending linewe westart.” start.” line Honda Aircraft Aircraft intends intends to to Honda launch aa follow-on follow-on aircraft aircraft launch evelopment programme programme soon soon ddevelopment aftercompleting completingcertification certificationof ofthe the after HA-420HondaJet HondaJetlate latenext nextyear yearto to HA-420 keep its its design design staff staff intact, intact, chief chief keep executiveMichimasa MichimasaFujino Fujinosays. says. executive Hedeclines declines to release more deHe declinesto torelease releasemost mostde-
28|||Flight FlightInternational International|||6-12 6-12November November2012 2012 28
FIN_061112_028-029.indd FIN_061112_028-029 FIN_061112_028-029 28 28 28
show report
Hawker halted but Beechcraft bullish
As storms storms devastated devastated the the US US northeast, northeast,and and local local airports airports As
FLIGHT INTERNATIONAL In addition to the preview package in the 15 October issue, our 29 October edition will have a full report and analysis of the big stories from the show.
NBAA 2012 show report
corporate restructure restructure corporate
sign details, details, but but agrees agrees the the EmEmsign braerlight lightjet jetseries serieswith withthe thefivefivebraer seat Phenom Phenom 100 100 and and the the seat seven-seat Phenom Phenom 300 300 is is aa useuseseven-seat ful model. model. The The five-seat five-seat HA-420 HA-420 ful most closely closely resembles resembles the the size size most andspeed speedof ofthe thePPhenom henom100. 100. and Honda Aircraft’s Aircraft’s design design phiphiHonda losophy is is based based on on aa careful careful losophy compromise.Fujino Fujinosays sayshe hedoes does compromise. not wish wish to to sacrifice sacrifice the the not erformanceof ofthe thefollow-on follow-onairairpperformance craft by by adhering adhering too too closely closely to to craft thedesign designof ofthe theHA-420. HA-420. the
Honda Aircraft’s Aircraft’s Honda design philosophy philosophy is is design based on on aa careful careful based compromise compromise
Atthe thesame sametime, time,he hecompares compares At Honda Aircraft’s Aircraft’s strategy strategy to to the the Honda visual branding branding techniques techniques used used visual by auto auto manufacturers. manufacturers. “When “When by you see see an an Acura, Acura, an an Audi Audi or or aa you BMW, you you know know what what car car itit is,” is,” BMW, he says. says. Similarly, Similarly, the the next next he Honda jet jet will will likely likely retain retain the the Honda distinctive over-the-wing over-the-wing engine engine distinctive configuration of of the the HA-420, HA-420, as as configuration well as as the the bulbous bulbous shape shape of of the the well cockpitw windows, indows,Fujino Fujinosays. says. cockpit The HA-420 HA-420 has been waiting The HA-420 has has been been waiting waiting for GE GE Honda Aero Engines to for GE Honda Honda Aero Aero Engines Engines to complete certification certification the complete certification of of the the HF120before powerplant before launchHF120 launching airworthibefore launching airworthiing testing. ness testing. nessairworthiness testing. The HF120 HF120 is is not not scheduled scheduled to to The complete certification certification until until May, May, complete but Honda Honda Aircraft Aircraft could could launch launch but flight testing testing before before the the engine engine is is flight formally certified, certified, Fujino Fujino says. says. formally Honda Aircraft Aircraft eestimates stimates five five Honda HA-420s must complete about HA-420s must complete about 1,500hof offlight flighttesting. testing. 1,500h GEHonda HondaAero AeroEngines Enginesis isprepreGE paring to to offer offer aa larger larger variant variant of of paring theHF120 HF120engine enginecore corefor forHonda Honda the Aircraft’s follow-on follow-on aircraft aircraft Aircraft’s project,but butititis isnot notclear clearififititwill will project, be accepted. accepted. Asked Asked whether whether be Honda Aircraft Aircraft may may seek seek bids bids Honda fromother otherengine enginemakers, makers,Fujino Fujino from declinedto tocomment. comment. declined Meanwhile, Embraer Embraer ExecuExecuMeanwhile, tivejets jetspresident presidentErnest ErnestEdwards Edwards tive says he he expects expects the the Phenom Phenom sesesays riesto toevolve evolveover overtime. time.■ ■ ries flightglobal.com flightglobal.com
1/11/12 21:02:07 12:27:48 31/10/12 31/10/12 21:02:07
awker Beechcraft Beechcraft will will seek seek to to awker cease all all business business jet jet producproduccease tion, cancel cancel airframe airframe warranties warranties tion, on two two models models and and re-focus re-focus on on aa on five-year development development plan plan that that five-year proposes to to launch launch three three new new turturproposes boprop models models and and one one new new pispisboprop ton-powered aircraft. aircraft. ton-powered The announcements announcements at at NBAA NBAA The provide the the most most details details yet yet of of the the provide Kansas-based company’s company’s strategy strategy Kansas-based to emerge emerge from from bankruptcy bankruptcy proproto tection early next year, but still leave many many questions questions about about the the leave future production production and and support support of of future the entire entire product product line-up. line-up. the The lingering lingering uncertainty uncertainty was was The acknowledged by by Hawker Hawker BeechBeechacknowledged craft chairman chairman Bill Bill Boisture, Boisture, as as he he craft addressed aa mixed mixed crowd crowd of of more more addressed than 200 200 journalists journalists and and NBAA NBAA than members on on 29 29 October. October. members “There’s aalot lotofofdecision decisions “There’s yetyet to to be made thisprocess processwe we are are be made ininthis in,” Boisture Boisture says. says. in,” Among the the most most critical critical quesquesAmong tions is is what what happens happens to to the the comcomtions pany’s mid-size mid-size products, products, includincludpany’s ing the the Hawker Hawker 950XP, 950XP, the the direct direct ing descendant of of the the original original HawkHawkdescendant er Siddeley HS.125 that celebrated the the 50th 50th anniversary anniversary of of its its first first ed flight two two months months ago. ago. flight Hawker Beechcraft Beechcraft intends intends to to Hawker wind down down production production on on the the wind 950XP, 850XP, 850XP, 750 750 and and 450XPR 450XPR 950XP, and transition transition support support to to an an and out-of-production” contract. contract. At At ““out-of-production” the same same time, time, Hawker Hawker the Beechcraft is is in in discussions discussions with with Beechcraft several potential potential buyers buyers to to several acquire all all or or portions portions of of the the acquire
Hawker business, business, Boisture Boisture says. says. Hawker Acquisition models models in in discusdiscusAcquisition sion span span aa wide wide range range of of alternaalternasion tives. They They include include an an option option for for tives. buyer assuming assuming all all aspects aspects of of aa buyer
“there’s a lot of decisionsyet yettotobe be decision made in this process we are in” BIll BoIsture BoIsture BIll HawkerBeechcraft Beechcraftchairman chairman Hawker Beechcraft chairman Hawker
production and and support, support, which which is is production similar to to aa failed failed bid bid worth worth $1.79 $1.79 similar billion by by Superior Superior Aviation Aviation BeiBeibillion jing. Alternatively, Alternatively, aa buyer buyer could could jing. acquire only only the the support support busibusiacquire nesses, allowing allowing the the production production nesses, lines to to shut shut down. down. lines Chinese buyers buyers for for the the midsize midsize Chinese
and super-light super-light jet jet elements elements are are and still aa possibility, possibility, Boisture Boisture said said in in still an interview interview with with Flight Flight InternaInternaan tional. A A consortium consortium of of aircraft aircraft tional. owners also also could could acquire acquire the the owners portfolio, he he adds. adds. portfolio, However, there there is is no no certainty certainty However, that aa “satisfactory” “satisfactory” buyer buyer will will that step forward. forward. That That would would result result step in the the closure closure of of the the jet jet business, business, in possibility that that “nobody “nobody wants wants aa possibility to see see happen”, happen”, Boisture Boisture says. says. to Hawker Beechcraft’s recovery strategy also also includes includes aa proposal proposal strategy to cancel cancel all all airframe airframe warranties warranties to for the the super super mid size Hawker Hawker for mid-size 4000 and and Beechcraft Beechcraft Premier Premier 1A 1A 4000 light jet. jet. The The proposal proposal must must be be apaplight proved by by the the bankruptcy bankruptcy court. court. proved Warrantiesfor forthe theengines enginesand andaviaviWarranties onics on on both both aircraft aircraft will will contincontinonics ueto tobe besupported, supported,Boisture Boisturesays. says. ue Meanwhile, the the BeechcraftBeechcraftMeanwhile,
only company company that that will will emerge emerge only from bankruptcy bankruptcy protection protection will will from re-activate with with aa clean clean balance balance re-activate sheet, having having shed shed $2.5 $2.5 billion billion in in sheet, debt by by trading trading it it for for equity equity with with debt the company’s company’s primary primary creditors. creditors. the The company company will will continue continue The building and and supporting supporting the the King King building Air, T-6, T-6, Baron Baron and and Bonanza Bonanza Air, fleets, while while also also pursuing pursuing aa fleets, newly revealed revealed growth growth strategy strategy newly that includes includes concepts concepts for for four four that new aircraft types. Hawker Beechcraft released released details details of of Beechcraft only one one concept concept –– aa single-ensingle-enonly gine turboprop turboprop based based on on the the fusefusegine lage of of the the Premier Premier 1A 1A and and aimed aimed lage at the the market market occupied occupied by by the the PiPiat latus PC-12, PC-12, Cessna Cessna Caravan Caravan and and latus Piper Meridian. Meridian. ■ ■ Piper For news, news,pictures pictures and and For videos from from the the show show go go to to videos flightglobal.com/nbaa flightglobal.com/nbaa
BillyPix BillyPix BillyPix
COMPLETE COVERAGE IN PRINT AND WEB
The new new Beechcraft Beechcraft will will continue continue to to build build the the venerable venerable and and ubiquitous ubiquitous King King Air Air The
eNGINes eNGINes
GE sets date for launching production of Passport G
E Aviation is launching production of of the the Passport Passport 20, 20, duction six months months ahead ahead of of the the first first enensix gine to test milestone. gine test milestone. The16,500lb-thrust 16,500lb-thrust(161,800kN) (161,800kN) The engineselected selectedto topower powerthe theBomBomengine bardier Global Global 7000 7000 and and Global Global bardier 8000 business business jets jets completed completed dede8000 signfreeze freezeearlier earlierthis thisyear. year. sign “We are are in in the the process process of of propro“We flightglobal.com flightglobal.com
FIN_061112_028-029.indd FIN_061112_028-029 29 29 FIN_061112_028-029 29
ducing all the parts and building the first first engine,” engine,” says says Brad Brad MottiMottithe er, vice vice-president and general general er, president and managerof ofGE GEAviation’s Aviation’sbusiness business manager andgeneral generalaviation aviationdivision. division. and The Passport Passport 20 20 must must be be ready ready The for Bombardier’s Bombardier’s flight flight tests tests for for for the Global Global 7000, 7000, scheduled scheduled to to the begin in in 2014. 2014. “This “This is is moving moving begin along very very well,” well,” he he says. says. along
GE Aviation designed the Passport 20 20 with with the the same same core core but but aa port smaller-diameter fan fan than than the the smaller-diameter NG34, which which is is targeted targeted at at rereNG34, gional jets jets and and small small narrowbodnarrowbodgional
ies. The The smaller smaller fan fan allows allows the the ies. Passport 20 20 to to compete compete for for busibusiPassport ness jet jet applications, applications, which which often often ness require higher higher cruise cruise speeds. speeds. require The Passport Passport 20 20 also also includes includes aa The
fan cowling designed by Nexcelle. The The combination combination of of the the celle. cowling and and the the improved improved engine engine cowling performance allows allows the the engine engine to to performance have 8% 8% lower lower specific specific fuel fuel comcomhave petition than than what what GE GE Aviation Aviation petition describes as as the the existing existing “best-in“best-indescribes class” competitor, competitor, which which is is genergenerclass” ally understood understood to to mean mean the the ally Rolls-Royce BR725 BR725 turbofan. turbofan. ■ ■ Rolls-Royce
6-12 November November 2012 2012 ||| Flight Flight International International ||| 29 29 6-12
1/11/12 21:03:29 12:27:51 31/10/12 21:03:29 31/10/12
INTERACTIVE MAGAZINE If you are not at NBAA, you can catch up with the goings-on in our iFlight Daily News, published on the Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. Packed with stories, stunning panoramic photography of the static display and video interviews from the show, it is the best way to keep abreast of events in Las Vegas from afar. You can now also view the i-magazine on an iPad. LANDING PAGE Our landing page – flightglobal.com/nbaa – brings together all our assets from the show in one place. Access our i-FDNs, social media coverage and the latest news, pictures and videos.
DAY 2 40 | Flight International | 1-7 October 2011
SOCIAL MEDIA Follow breaking news and opinion from NBAA in as close as possible to real time as it gets via Twitter. Several of our team, including Kate Sarsfield and Stephen Trimble, will be tweeting on #NBAA13. You can also follow Murdo Morrison on the Flight International Editor’s Blog. flightglobal.com
STRAIGHT&LEVEL From yuckspeak to tales of yore, send your offcuts to murdo.morrison@flightglobal.com
Dutch of the new for old Dakota
Ships of the sky The flying boats of the 1930s and post-war period were the first long-haul airliners, spiriting passengers in style in a series of hops across the oceans. Many of them were built on the south coast of England – flightglobal.com
The report of flight made by Louis Noel, with four passengers, at Hendon, on September 9th, 1913, was considered, and it was decided to accept the flight of 10 mins. 7 secs., as a British duration record for pilot and four passengers.
Royal visit: Saunders-Roe Princess at 1952 Farnborough show home to Saunders-Roe and Supermarine – and Mike Phipp celebrates their legacy in Flying Boats of the Solent and Poole (Amberley Publishing, £14.99). Phipp charts the evolution of amphibious airliners from the 1920s, through their 1930s heyday and war service to the ill-fated giants of the 1950s such as the Princess (above). It’s great on detail and pictures, though the story-telling suffers from a relentless flurry of facts. An index would help, too. Superb, though, for all fans of the glory days of those air ships.
It’s Essex, man! “Flying to the show couldn’t be easier,” gushed the website of Helitech International, held last week at London’s Docklands ExCeL exhibition centre, with a picture of a helicopter against a high-rise waterfront backdrop, looking not unlike the capital’s glitzy business district. Great, so just plonk your chopper onto a helipad on the roof of ExCeL, or possibly nearby London City airport or Canary Wharf? Not quite. Those flying helicopters to the helicopter show had to route to
Padding out the truth a bit
an aerodrome in nearby… er… Upminster, Essex, a 22km, 25min shuttle bus journey away. We left the helo at home and took the Docklands Light Railway instead.
London calling Still at Helitech, Oxford airport’s marketing man was amused that PremiAir is renaming its Blackbushe facility the West London Heliport, given that Blackbushe is in Surrey’s leafy stockbroker belt, 63km southwest of the West End. Oxford’s sister business – Battersea heliport on the banks of the Thames – is much more convenient for the capital. The irony wasn’t lost on our Oxford chap, however. Some years back his airport, 100km up the A40 from Marble Arch, was renamed London Oxford to lure private aviation users doing business in the Old Smoke.
Out of shape Engrossing progress report in the latest Rolls-Royce customer magazine about the UK’s upcoming twin 65,000t Queen Elizabeth-class aircraft carriers. Sadly, the graphic along the bottom of each spread looks nothing like said flat-top. Not only that, but the vessel seems to be populated with silhouetted F-18s, F-14s and S3 Vikings – not types the Senior Service flies when we checked.
Rex Features
Old Dakotas don’t die. They go on flying… in virtual reality. This, at least, is the fate of one Douglas DC-3 which is being broken up and being turned into a simulator – almost 70 years after coming off the production line in 1944. After post-war service with Air France, the aircraft spent time in museums in Belgium and the Netherlands since being decommissioned in the 1980s. The aircraft was due to have been a prop (so to speak) in a live musical version of the film Soldier of Orange, but was damaged beyond repair en route to the theatre, a converted hangar at the Valkenburg naval air base in the Netherlands. It so happened that Dick Verburg, owner of a Dutch training company, Multi Pilot Simulations, had been looking for a Dakota cockpit for some time to turn into a static training device. He bought the wreck but is under no illusion about the scale of the task of converting the cockpit into a simulator, which will have to be squeezed around existing programmes. “Construction will take time as it will be done between our regular work and as cost effectively as possible,” he says. He expects it to take about 12 months, compared with five for one of its regular devices. The machine will be used by the Dutch Dakota Association, although MPS also hopes to get some business from the handful of carriers that are still flying the old Douglas transport around the world. Thanks to Bob Fischer.
Record-breakers
Joined-up numbers Last week, the fourteenth week of the R.A.F. recruiting campaign for 31,000 pilots, observers, airmen and boys, 482 men were enlisted, making a total of 7,730 since the campaign began. During the week there were 2,220 applications.
Herculean tasks
Lockheed-Georgia Co announce that a new version of the C-130 Hercules, the HC130H, is being developed for the US Air Force Air Rescue Service. The HC-130H will not only handle all normal rescue and mercy missions, but will also be equipped for the simultaneous pick-up of two astronauts “from virtually any landing surface either by day or night.”
Good neighbours
Qantas is going to be a major shareholder in Air New Zealand, possibly holding 25 per cent or more, following a NZ Government decision which rejected British Airways, one of the two final approved bidders for the shareholding.
100-year archive Every issue of Flight from 1909 onwards can be viewed online at flightglobal.com/archive
1-7 October 2013 | Flight International | 41
ORGANISED BY Book on or before 4th October 2013 and save up to $100. Quote promo code FI0110
D E V E L O P I N G
AIRLINE
AIRPORT
COMMERCIAL SYNERGIES 26th – 27th November 2013, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
KEY TOPICS INCLUDE: Evaluating the current relationship and dialogue between airlines and airports to encourage improvement Developing rates and revenue: How can we make partnerships crucial to collective success?
Exploring new and innovative ways to attract airlines and build successful campaigns Discussing where airlines will focus their efforts in 2014 and the different forms of partnership they might be considering
Maintaining a continuous and honest relationship to mitigate problems between airlines and airports Making the right investments to support successful development
WHO IS CONFIRMED ON THE PROGRAMME: Tamur Goudarzi-Pour Director Network Planning Lufthansa Pieter Groeneveld VP Network Planning, KLM Shihaj Abdullakutty SVP, Network and Revenue Management Malaysia Airlines Wojciech Jagiello, Alliances & International Relations Manager Network, Fleet and Alliances, LOT
Neil Pakey CEO, Shannon Airport Kjartan Jonsson Director Network Planning, Icelandair Pieter Cornelisse Head of Mainport Strategy, KLM Patrick Bohl, Head of Airline Business Development, Budapest Airport Javier Suarez Casado Director Network Planning, Scheduling Slots and Corporate Affairs, Vueling
If you are interested in becoming a commercial partner of this event please contact Edward MacNaughton at: edward.macnaughton@flightglobal.com
Omid Aazami Manager of Commercial Planning Arkefly Declan Collier CEO, London City Airport Jochen Schnadt Senior Aviation Executive Latitude Aviation Jenifer Musiime Commercial Manager, Air Uganda Chris Tarry Aviation Finance Analyst, CTAIRA
SPONSORED BY:
+44 (0) 20 8652 3829
Register today: www.flightglobalevents.com/airlinesynergies2013 quoting promo code FI0110
reader services EVENTS
editorial, advertising, production & reader contacts Editorial +44 20 8652 3842
Quadrant House, The Quadrant, Sutton, Surrey, SM2 5AS, UK flight.international@flightglobal.com Editor Murdo Morrison FRAeS +44 20 8652 4395 murdo.morrison@flightglobal.com Head of Strategic Content/ Flight Daily News Editor Andrew Doyle +44 20 8652 3096 andrew.doyle@flightglobal.com Managing Editor Dominic Perry +44 20 8652 3206 dominic.perry@flightglobal.com Air Transport Editor David Kaminski-Morrow +44 20 8652 3909 david.kaminski-morrow@flightglobal.com Business Editor Dan Thisdell +44 20 8652 4491 dan.thisdell@flightglobal.com Defence Editor Craig Hoyle +44 20 8652 3834 craig.hoyle@flightglobal.com Operations/Safety Editor David Learmount +44 20 8652 3845 david.learmount@flightglobal.com Business & General Aviation Editor Kate Sarsfield +44 20 8652 3885 kate.sarsfield@flightglobal.com Magazine Enquiries Dawn Hartwell +44 20 8652 3315 dawn.hartwell@flightglobal.com
10-11 October Production Assistant Lizabeth Davis Global Digital Producer Jerome Joyce +44 20 8652 8849 jerome.joyce@rbi.co.uk Deputy Digital Producer Damion Diplock Digital Production Editor Colin Miller Web Production Editor Andrew Costerton Designer Lauren Mills Senior Editorial Artist Tim Bicheno-Brown Consulting Technical Artist Tim Hall
Display Advertisement Sales Quadrant House, The Quadrant, Sutton, Surrey, SM2 5AS, UK.
Group Display Sales Manager Stuart Burgess stuart.burgess@flightglobal.com Sales Support Gillian Cumming +44 20 8652 8837 gillian.cumming@rbi.co.uk eUROPE Sales Manager Shawn Buck +44 20 8652 4998 shawn.buck@flightglobal.com Sales Manager Mark Hillier +44 20 8652 8022 mark.hillier@flightglobal.com Display Account Manager Grace Hewitt +44 20 8652 3469 grace.hewitt@flightglobal.com
FLIGHTGLOBAL PRO Editor Airline Business Max Kingsley-Jones +44 20 8652 3825 max.kingsley.jones@flightglobal.com Editor Flightglobal Pro Graham Dunn +44 20 8652 4995 graham.dunn@flightglobal.com Managing Editor Niall O’Keeffe +44 20 8652 4007 niall.okeeffe@flightglobal.com Content Editor Alex Thomas +44 20 8652 3184 alex.thomas@flightglobal.com Air Transport/MRO Reporter Michael Gubisch +44 20 8652 8747 michael.gubisch@flightglobal.com Senior Reporter Oliver Clark +44 20 8652 8534 oliver.clark@flightglobal.com
North & South America Vice-President, North & South America Rob Hancock +1 703 836 7444 robert.hancock@flightglobal.com Regional Sales Director Warren McEwan +1 703 836 3719 warren.mcewan@flightglobal.com Sales Executive Kaye Woody +1 703 836 7445 kaye.woody@flightglobal.com Reed Business Information, 333 N.Fairfax Street, Suite 301, Alexandria, VA 22314, USA
Americas Americas Managing Editor Stephen Trimble +1 703 836 8052 stephen.trimble@flightglobal.com Deputy Americas Air Transport Editor Ghim-Lay Yeo +1 703 836 9474 ghimlay.yeo@flightglobal.com Americas Air Transport Reporter Edward Russell +1 703 836 1897 edward.russell@flightglobal.com UAV & Spaceflight Editor Zach Rosenberg +1 703 836 7442 zach.rosenberg@flightglobal.com Military Reporter Dave Majumdar +1 703 836 4706 dave.majumdar@flightglobal.com MRO and Air Transport Reporter Kristin Majcher +1 703 836 8053 kristin.majcher@flightglobal.com Air Transport Reporter Jon Hemmerdinger +1 703 836 3084 jon.hemmerdinger@flightglobal.com
Israel Sales Executive Asa Talbar +972 77 562 1900 Fax: +972 77 562 1903 talbar@talbar.co.il Talbar Media, 41 HaGiva’a St, PO Box 3184, Givat Ada 37808, Israel
Asia/Pacific Asia Editor Greg Waldron +65 6780 4314 greg.waldron@flightglobal.com Reporter Mavis Toh +65 6780 4309 mavis.toh@flightglobal.com Reporter Ellis Taylor +65 6780 4307 ellis.taylor@flightglobal.com Australia Correspondent Emma Kelly Europe/Middle East Israel Correspondent Arie Egozi Russia Correspondent Vladimir Karnozov FLIGHTGLOBAL.COM Editor Stuart Clarke +44 20 8652 3835 stuart.clarke@flightglobal.com Editorial Production Head of Design & Production Alexis Rendell +44 20 8652 8127 alexis.rendell@rbi.co.uk Global Chief Copy Editor Lewis Harper +44 20 8652 4958 lewis.harper@icis.com Chief Copy Editor, Flightglobal Asia Sophia Huang +65 6780 4320 sophia.huang@flightglobal.com Chief Copy Editor, Europe Dan Bloch +44 20 8652 8146 dan.bloch@rbi.co.uk Layout Copy Editor George Norton Global Production Editor Louise Murrell +44 20 8652 8139 louise.murrell@rbi.co.uk Deputy Global Production Editor Rachel Kemp
flightglobal.com
Italy Sales Manager Riccardo Laureri +39 (02) 236 2500 media@laureriassociates.it Laureri Associates SRL, Via Vallazze 43, 20131 Milano, Italy
Asia/Australasia Sales Manager Michael Tang +65 6780 4301 michael.tang@flightglobal.com Fax: +65 6789 7575 1 Changi Business Park Crescent, #06-01 Plaza 8 @ CBP, Singapore 486025 Russia & CIS Director Arkady Komarov komarov@worldbusinessmedia.ru Tel/Fax: +7 (495) 987 3800 World Business Media, Leningradsky Prospekt, 80, Korpus G, Office 807, Moscow 125190, Russia
Classified & Recruitment
+44 20 8652 4900; +44 20 8652 4897 Group Sales Manager Lucinda Quigley +44 20 8652 8507 lucinda.quigley@rbi.co.uk Key Account Manager Edward Longmate +44 20 8652 4900 recruitment.services@rbi.co.uk Key Account Manager – Asia Michael Tang +65 6780 4301 Sales Executives Daniel Brooker, Katie Mann
Advertisement Production
Production Manager Sean Behan +44 20 8652 8232 sean.behan@rbi.co.uk Production Manager Classified Alan Blagrove +44 20 8652 4406 alan.blagrove@rbi.co.uk
Marketing
Senior Marketing Manager Ben Colclough +44 20 8564 6722 ben.colclough@rbi.co.uk Head of Marketing Georgina Rushworth +44 20 8652 8138 georgina.rushworth@rbi.co.uk
Data Team
Head of Data Pete Webber +44 20 8564 6715 peter.webber@flightglobal.com
European Business Aviation Association Regional Forum Istanbul, Turkey ebaa.org/en
Commercial Aviation Steven Phipps +44 20 8564 6797 steven.phipps@flightglobal.com Defence & GA John Maloney +44 20 8564 6704 john.maloney@flightglobal.com
22-24 October
Publishing Director Melanie Robson Publisher Mark Pilling
NBAA Business Aviation Convention & Exhibition Las Vegas, Nevada nbaa.org
Reader Services
29 October to 3 November
Publishing Management
Subscriptions Jenny Smith Flight International Subscriptions, Reed Business Information, PO Box 302, Haywards Heath, West Sussex, RH16 3DH, UK Subscription Enquiries +44 1444 475682 Fax +44 1444 445301 flightinternational.subs@quadrantsubs.com Subscription Rates 1 Year 2 Years 3 Years £137/$219/ £232/$372/ £328/$525/ €169 €287 €405 Only paid subscriptions available. Cheques payable to Flight International Flight International welcomes unsolicited contributions from readers but cannot guarantee to return photographs, transparencies, etc safely. © and Database Rights 2013 Reed Business Information Ltd. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission in writing of the publishers. Ascend, a Flightglobal advisory service, is a leading provider of expert advisory and valuations services to the global aviation industry. Its specialist, independent services inform and shape the strategies of aviation businesses worldwide. Ascend offers an unrivalled breadth and depth of aviation expertise and experience, backed by unique access to robust industry data.
Flightglobal Pro is a paid-for news and data service for professionals who need to find new opportunities or track competition within the air transport industry. The service puts a wealth of global intelligence at your fingertips, covering everything from airline fleets, routes and traffic, through to aircraft finance, industry regulation and more. www.flightglobal.com/pro
Flightglobal Insight provides a range of tailored research reports and analysis, with access to information and industry expertise from the unrivalled Flightglobal Premium services portfolio. Tel: +44 20 8652 3914 email: insight@ flightglobal.com www.flightglobal.com/insight Registered at the Post Office as a newspaper. Published by Reed Business Information Ltd, Quadrant House, The Quadrant, Sutton, Surrey SM2 5AS, UK. Tel: +44 20 8652 3500. Newstrade distributed by Marketforce (UK) Ltd, Blue Fin Building, 110 Southwark Street, London SE1 0SU, UK. Tel: +44 20 3148 3300. Classified advertising prepress by CCM. Printed in Great Britain by Polestar (Colchester) Ltd. Flight International published weekly 49 issues per year. Periodicals postage paid at Rahway, NJ. Postmaster send changes to Reed Business Information, c/o Mercury International Ltd, 365 Blair Road, Avenel, NJ 07001 This periodical is sold subject to the following conditions: namely that it is not, without the written consent of the publishers first given, lent, re-sold, hired out or in any unauthorised cover by way of trade, or affixed to, or as part of, any publication of advertising, literary or pictorial matter whatsoever. No part of the content may be stored electronically, or reproduced or transmitted in any form without the written permission of the Publisher. ISSN 0015-3710
Seoul Air Show Seoul, South Korea seoulairshow.com
6-8 November
SppedNews 18th Regional & Business Aviation Industry Suppliers Conference Scottsdale, Arizona speednews.com
16 November
Historic Aircraft Association Symposium Hendon, London, UK haa-uk.aero
17-21 November Dubai Airshow Dubai World Central dubaiairshow.aero
19-20 November
Safety in Aviation – North America Montreal, Canada www.flightglobalevents.com/ safetyna2013
25-26 November
The Future of Air Transport conference London, UK conferences@marketforce.eu.com marketforce.eu.com
16-18 January
Bahrain International Air Show Bahrain bahraininternationalairshow.com
11-16 February Singapore Airshow Changi, Singapore singaporeairshow.com
25-30 March
Feria Internacional del Aire y del Espacio (FIDAE) Santiago, Chile fidae.cl
15-17 April
Asian Business Aviation Conference and Exhibition (ABACE) Shanghai, China abace.aero
20-22 May
European Business Aviation Convention and Exhibition (EBACE) Geneva, Switzerland ebace.aero
20-25 May ILA Berlin, Germany ila-berlin.com
14-20 July
Farnborough air show Farnborough, UK farnborough.com
For a full list of events see flightglobal.com/events
1-7 October 2013 | Flight International | 43
CLASSIFIED
TEL +44 (0) 20 8652 4897 FAX +44 (0) 20 8652 3779 EMAIL classified.services@rbi.co.uk
N Calls may be monitored for training purposes
New and used aircraft
Independent Authorised Sales Representative for the United Kingdom
+44 (0) 1258 818181 tim@timleacockaircraft.com jonathan@timleacockaircraft.com
UNIQUE SAAB340B
timleacockaircraft.com
Aircraft spares
Business services
D a u p h i n Parts Specialists
AOG? THINK ACS
Available for Sale or Lease With 18 pax VIP interior with 31000 service ceiling or 34 pax Commuter Configura on. Fresh from heavy check, including Interior refurbishment And External repaint. Contact: Pär Gulle Tel: +46 706 855855 Email; par@tam.se
www.alpine.aero
Helitech 2013
Booth E51 September 24-26, Excel, London
T: +44(0)208 335 1097 E: acmi@aircharter.co.uk W: www.aircharterservice.com UÊ UÊ UÊ UÊ
Wet lease Damp lease Cargo charters Crew movements
Courses and tuition Consultancy
Hangarage 88 e 19 nc ed rie ish pe bl Ex ta l Es loba G
TEL +44 (0) 20 8652 4897 FAX +44 (0) 20 8652 3779 EMAIL classified.services@rbi.co.uk
CLASSIFIED
atlanticbridgeaviation.com s Airline start-ups and development s Feasibility studies, business plans s Aircraft acquisition & management s Airport development & masterplan s Regulatory compliance & manuals s Worldwide aircraft delivery all types Tel +44(1)1797 322 655 email: enquiries@atlanticbridgeaviation.com
HANGARAGE AND OFFICES AVAILABLE IN LONDON TODAY For long and short term competitively priced office space and hangarage contact: Katy Woolcott +44(0)1959 578500 estates@bigginhillairport.com www.bigginhillairport.com
LONDON BIGGIN HILL CLOSE TO THE HEART OF LONDON
44 | Flight International | 1-7 October 2013
flightglobal.com
CLASSIFIED
Courses and tuition
Online Aviation Training From an EASA Part 147 Approved Training Organisation
EASA Part-66 Module 1 EWIS (all Target Groups) Human Factors Fuel Tank Safety Part 145 & M
www.lrtt.co.uk T: +44 (0) 1285 772669 E: info@lrtt.co.uk
World leaders in ATPL / CPL / IR / PPL (A+H) Theoretical Knowledge
www.catsaviation.com
CTC WINGS MAKE YOUR CAREER FLY
TRAINING TOMORROW’S AIRLINE PILOTS TODAY
So you want to be an airline pilot? The right training will ensure you are best placed to achieve that dream. CTC Wings is one of the world’s leading airline training programmes. Our airline focused approach fully prepares you for operating one of today’s next generation aircraft and our pilots are highly sought after by leading airlines worldwide. Apply to CTC Wings - where the best pilots train - and make your career fly today. Next CTC Wings Careers Event - 02 November 2013. Register now!
visit ctcwings.com to learn more committed to excellence
flightglobal.com
TEL +44 (0) 20 8652 4897 FAX +44 (0) 20 8652 3779 EMAIL classified.services@rbi.co.uk
1-7 October 2013 | Flight International | 45
Build your career
Try Flightglobal Training’s new site for the fastest route to building your aerospace and aviation career
Training courses to take you there Scan with your smart phone to search the latest aerospace and aviation training
ZZZ ÀLJKWJOREDO FRP WUDLQLQJ
RECRUITMENT
Getting careers off the ground
flightglobal.com/jobs
EMAIL recruitment.services@rbi.co.uk CALL +44 (20) 8652 4900 FAX +44 (20) 8652 4877
EASA Instructors for Sikorsky S-92
SENIOR AIR TRAFFIC CONTROL OFFICER Birmingham Airport, the UK’s 7th busiest Airport, is located 5.5 nm ESE of the City of Birmingham and alongside the National Exhibition Centre.
FlightSafety International, Farnborough, UK seeks Ground and Simulator Instructors for the Sikorsky S-92 program to instruct Initial, Recurrent and Enrichment Pilot Training courses. Successful applicants will receive full training and a competitive benefits package. Requirements s Hold or have held JAA/EASA ATPL(H) with IR(H) or CPL(H) with IR(H) s Have at least 1,000 hours flying experience as a helicopter pilot s Have at least 350 hours flying experience as a pilot of multipilot helicopters
Preferences s Previous Instructional Experience s S-92 or similar ratings s Search and Rescue s Offshore Operations Competitive Salary and Benefits For information or to apply, visit Careers at flightsafety.com, or call +44 (0) 1252 554 500. Equal opportunity employer/M/F/D/V
Birmingham Airport has recently invested heavily in its air traffic infrastructure with both a new control tower and primary radar having been introduced within the last 12 months. In parallel, the airport has evaluated its Air Traffic Service provision for the future and as a result taken the decision to take the Air Traffic Control Service in house. Birmingham Airport would therefore like to invite applications for the post of Senior Air Traffic Control Officer within its Air Traffic Control Department: The successful candidate will, as part of the air traffic management team, help to deliver a safe and smooth transition from the current air traffic service provider to an in house provision. Following transition the successful candidate will be responsible for the provision of a safe and expeditious ATC and Met service at Birmingham Airport. Ratings in ADI and APS, OJTI and EXM Endorsements, comprehensive SMS training/experience and good regulatory knowledge are essential. A Met Observers Certificate is desirable.
flightsafety.com
A Berkshire Hathaway company
Suitably qualified candidates should submit a CV to recruitment@birminghamairport.co.uk. Candidates who had previously expressed an interest in working at Birmingham Airport will be considered and do not need to reapply. Any queries about these roles should also be directed to the above email address. Closing date: Friday 11th October 2013 Interviews for this role are provisionally scheduled for Monday 28th October and Tuesday 29th October 2013.
It’s time to think big. It’s time to join us. Technical, planning and operational roles in aircraft engineering %ULWLVK $LUZD\V úLHV RQH RI WKH ZRUOG¶V ODUJHVW úHHWV WR GHVWLQDWLRQV DOO DURXQG WKH JOREH :H NQRZ KRZ WR JHW \RXU HQJLQHHULQJ FDUHHU JRLQJ Visit www.britishairways.com/careers WR ùQG RXW PRUH flightglobal.com
HUNDREDS OF JOBS @ flightglobal.com/jobs
A competitive remuneration & relocation package is on offer.
1-7 October 2013 | Flight International | 47
RECRUITMENT
HUNDREDS OF JOBS @ flightglobal.com/jobs
Emerging Markets special publication Appear as an employer of choice in front of Flightglobal’s 1.2 million users.
Deadline: 9th October
Tel: +44
208 652 4900 or email: Recruitment.services@rbi.co.uk 48 | Flight International | 1-7 October 2013
flightglobal.com
Recruitment Support to the Aviation Industry GCT Group Worldwide specialist for Aerospace Engineering, Certification & Management Services e: yourcv@garner.de t: +49 (0) 8153 93130 w: www.garner.de
aviation recruitment
T: +44(0)1483 332000 recruitment@zenon.aero
CTC FlexiCrew High flyers, on demand
Seeks Type Rated Pilots Locations UK & Worldwide Flexible & Permanent Positions
www.ctcaviation.com/ctcflexicrew
Flight International To advertise in this Employment Services Index
call +44 (0) 20 8652 4900 fax +44 (0) 20 8261 8434 email recruitment.services@rbi.co.uk Please note that calls may be monitored for training purposes
Flight International To advertise in this Employment Services Index Tel: +353 1 669 8224 Fax: +353 1 669 8201 Email:recruitment@sigmaaviationservices.com recruitment@sigmaaviationservices.com Email: www.sigmaaviationservices.com www.sigmaaviationservices.com
call +44 (0) 20 8652 4900 fax +44 (0) 20 8261 8434 email recruitment.services@rbi.co.uk Please note that calls may be monitored for training purposes
The preferred company for Stress (Fatigue & DT), GFEM, Composites), Aeronautical Research. Business units: Contract staff, Workpackages, Innovation and New Concepts, Aeronautical Research. www.bishop-gmbh.com Contact bishop.peter@bishop-gmbh.com Tel 0049-(0)40-866-258-10 Fax 0049-(0)40-866-258-20
Recruitment headache? Get express relief with THE industry job site at Jobs.Flightglobal.com
Online
Mobile
One industry, one job site 50 | Flight International | 1-7 October 2013
flightglobal.com
working week
WORK EXPERIENCE MARK ROGERS
Adjusting to a new marketplace
Mark Rogers is a business development manager with aviation loss adjuster and risk assessor Airclaims, where his role is to develop new contacts and secure contracts from across the aviation spectrum
“One of the biggest challenges is getting … organisations to look at longer-term savings”
Airclaims
What does Airclaims do? Airclaims, part of McLarens, is the leading provider of aviation claims, risk and asset management services to the global aviation industry. Our core business is aviation loss adjusting. However, building on nearly 50 years of experience has led us to diversify and develop a technical advisory, risk and asset management division. Airclaims is an innovative people business and meeting our customer’s objectives quickly, efficiently – and with high levels of quality and integrity – is important to us. Our clients include aviation insurers, brokers, aircraft lessors, airlines, business jet operators and petroleum and mining companies. With more than 70 highly qualified Airclaims specialists working in 20 countries, our surveyors and project managers carry out a wide range of risk and asset management services, including independent aircraft inspections and valuations, operational/technical audits of airlines, airports and MROs. Airclaims is also an EASA Part M Continuing Airworthiness Management Organisation, with Sub Part G and I privileges and approvals to manage over 30 different aircraft types and variants. Coupled with our experience of managing deliveries/redeliveries/repossessions on behalf of both lessors and lessees we are
Rogers’ 30 years of experience in aviation includes 12 with the RAF able to offer our clients a truly professional turnkey solution. What is your role? It’s my responsibility to develop new and existing business and build on a large global contact database of clients. I’ll meet with senior management teams and chief executives from across the globe to find solutions that meet their immediate and perhaps future needs. As part of a small business development team, we also exhibit at a number of key industry events and speak on matters of aviation risk and safety, airworthiness and asset management. What is your career background? Nearly 30 years in aviation, 12 with the Royal Air Force, which offered world-class aircraft technical training and operational experience. Moving into civil aviation, as a fully qualified EASA licensed
aircraft engineer, I’ve held technical management posts with Cobham, Flybe and British Midland. My certification responsibilities and experience are quite diverse and include rotary wing, business jet and commercial aircraft types – including the Airbus A380. What are the biggest challenges? The current economic climate is affecting many organisations, with most looking to make cost savings where possible. What we have been finding is that the focus is understandably short term; however, our experience has identified that greater savings can actually be achieved through longer-term planning. Given this short-term focus, one of the biggest challenges we currently face is getting the buy-in from organisations to look at longer-term savings and understand the benefits of independent technical oversight, from managing leased aircraft returns to investing in independent technical and operational risk and safety audits. People outside of the business usually comment on the challenges we must face having to react quickly to global demands and
changing priorities; however, that is the nature of aviation and a challenge which we actually thrive on. What is your favourite part of the job? It’s a great feeling knowing you are adding enhanced commercial value to people and organisations that require our expertise and industry knowledge. I enjoy the people side of our business. The diversity and opportunities within the industry continue to inspire and I look forward to progressing past what has been a rewarding and accomplished first 30 years in aviation. What do you do to relax when not at work? I’m currently studying with the Institute of Sales and Marketing Management, but when time and weather allows, I try and build on my 200h as a private pilot. I recently completed the London to Brighton “British Heart Foundation” sponsored bike ride, which has inspired me to get fitter and cycle more. Travel of course is a big part of my life, which my wife and I still enjoy. n For more employee work experiences, pay a visit to flightglobal.com/workingweek
If you would like to feature in Working Week, or you know someone who does, email your pitch to kate.sarsfield@ flightglobal.com
CHALLENGING PERSPECTIVES
Opportunities for Quality Engineering Technicians www.jobs.eads.com
flightglobal.com
1-7 October 2013 | Flight International | 51
It’s easy to be green when it’s in your nature. PurePower® engines are by far the greenest in aviation and that’s no accident of nature, but purely by design. Our Geared Turbofan™ engine is designed to be quieter and more efficient with fewer emissions. Not just old technology repackaged in a new skin, but a better engine at its core. Learn more about the PurePower PW1000G engine family at PurePowerEngines.com. Power People Depend On.™