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AirSpace regular sunshine band posted this up-close-and-personal shot of Royal Air Force Shorts Tucano (ZF239) running in to display through brilliant sunshine at RAF Scampton in Lincolnshire. Open a gallery in flightglobal.com’s AirSpace community for a chance to feature here.

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NEWS

Marshall Aerospace and Defence Group buys Beechcraft’s largest European MRO business P21 First flight of Japan’s Epsilon launch vehicle cancelled P23

18 Israeli air force pushes for 12-aircraft KC-135R deal

THIS WEEK Early Hawk T2 use aids RAF students FAA finalising ‘critical’ 787 review.

Delta weighs in with A330 deal 10 Human factors loom in crash report 11 Dirty fuel blamed for Cathay A330’s engine emergency

BUSINESS AVIATION 20 Russian Helicopters speeds progress of next generation.

Modified Twin Otter helps G-Sky grow 21 Ambitious Marshall snaps up Beechcraft MRO centre.

Rostec reveals 19-seater price tag

AIR TRANSPORT 12 Crew failed to adapt to poor visibility.

Kazakhstan safety drive targets EU blacklisting 13 Court raises questions over Austrian’s Tyrolean transfer.

IAE faces court challenge from Kingfisher owner 14 Virgin Australia eyes new widebodies.

Comac matures fledgling C919 iron bird test rig 15 MRJ delay pinned on FAA paperwork.

Ecojet project on approach to production phase

GENERAL AVIATION 22 Atlant Arctic airship bouyed by answer to weighty issue.

Ansat clinches civil certification.

Kit-built Zodiac CH 640 set for Russian role

8 9

DEFENCE 16 UK reveals AEW programme costs.

F-35 engine production agreement a ‘fair deal’ 17 Auditor slams Indian AW101 contract.

Embraer delivers AMX upgrade

COVER STORY

26 Clearing the air How best to tackle airline industry emissions

FEATURES

28 ENVIRONMENT Electric avenues Airlines are weighing up high-tech taxi systems as they look to reduce fuel use and cut turnaround times 30 Alternative medicine Carriers are looking to substitute sources of energy 32 SAFETY Fire alarmed Onboard blazes are still a considerable risk, despite a recent fall in the number of fatalities

SPACEFLIGHT 23 Bad timing delays Epsilon first flight.

Zenit makes safe return BUSINESS 24 Boeing faces export storm

7 36 37 40 43 47

REGULARS Comment Straight & Level Letters Classified Jobs Working Week

NEXT WEEK HELI-TECH PREVIEW On the eve of the annual rotorcraft industry exhibition in its new venue at London’s ExCel, we look at helicopter safety, performance and prospects

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JAXA, Beechcraft

IINTERNATIONAL IN TERNATIONAL

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10-16 SEPTEMBER 2013

CONTENTS

IN THIS ISSUE Companies listed

AeroVironment .............................................25 AgustaWestland ...........7, 8, 10, 17, 20, 22, 23 Air Astana ....................................................12 Airbus ....................8, 9, 11, 12, 14, 28, 35, 37 Air France ..............................................28, 29 Air New Zealand.............................................8 All Nippon Airways ...........................25, 33, 35 ANA Holdings...............................................25 Antonov .......................................................23 Asiana ...................................................32, 34 Austrian Airlines ...........................................13 Austro Engines .............................................25 Aviat ............................................................30 Aviation Alliance ..........................................20 BAE Systems .................................................8 Beechcraft ...................................................21 Boeing .........7, 8, 9, 12, 14, 15, 16, 18, 24, 29 Bell Boeing ..................................................18 Bombardier .......................................9, 15, 37 Cathay Pacific ..............................................11 Cessna ........................................................23 CHC Scotia ..................................................10 Comac .........................................................14 ConnectJets .................................................23 Diamond Aircraft ....................................23, 25 EasyJet ..................................................28, 37 Elta Systems ................................................16 Emirates ......................................................24 Ethiopian Airlines ...................................32, 33 Embraer.......................................................17 Eurocopter .......................................10, 20, 22 Eva Air .........................................................12 G-Sky Aviation .............................................20 Gulfstream .............................................20, 25 Hawaiian Airlines .........................................24 Honeywell Aerospace .......................25, 28, 29 Ikhana Aircraft Services................................20 Ilyushin Finance ...........................................15 International Aero Engines ...........................13 Israel Aerospace Industries ..........................28 Jet Aviation ..................................................20 JetBlue Airways ............................................12 Kamov .........................................................20 Kingfisher Airlines ........................................13 KLM .............................................................29 LiveTV ..........................................................12 Lockheed Martin ..............................16, 18, 31 Lufthansa ..............................................13, 29 Marshall Aerospace .....................................23 Meggitt ........................................................25 Mitsubishi Aircraft ........................................15 Northrop Grumman......................................16 Pratt & Whitney ............. 15, 16, 18, 20, 22, 30 Qantas...................................................14, 25 Rafael ............................................................ 8 Red Wings ...................................................15 Rolls-Royce............................8, 11, 14, 25, 47 RosAeroSystems ..........................................22 Rosaviaconsortium ......................................15 Rostec .........................................................23 Russian Helicopters .........................20, 22, 23 Safran .............................................25, 28, 29 Sikorsky .................................................10, 20 Spirit Aerosystems .......................................24 Swissair .................................7, 32, 33, 34, 35 Transaero Airlines .........................................47 TUI ...............................................................28 Turbomeca ...................................................25 Turkish Aerospace Industries ........................18 United Airlines .............................................12 UPS ...................................................7, 32, 34 UTAir ............................................................22 VIM-Avia ......................................................15 Virgin Australia .............................................14 WheelTug ...............................................28, 29

BEHIND THE HEADLINES Defence editor Craig Hoyle got some hands-on practice using a flight training device for the UK’s new Hawk T2 trainer during a visit to the Royal Air Force’s base at Valley, Anglesey. The UK is looking to ramp up its use of the 28-strong T2 fleet, and cites strong international interest in the capability (P8).

THE WEEK ON THE WEB

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With allies and foes feeling the Syrian heat in the eastern Mediterranean, Israel and the USA should perhaps have let the Russians know they were planning to air-launch a couple of targets designed to simulate the trajectory of a Scud ballistic missile. As The DEW Line found, Russia’s defence ministry was spooked to detect unidentified “ballistic objects” that were, actually, Sparrow-series targets released from an Israeli air force Boeing F-15 (pictured).

And, Hyperbola finds the Syria crisis, which is unravelling UK-US relations with Russia, is raising questions about whether Moscow would disrupt plans for manned launches to the Space Station in the event of an attack on Damascus. After the fatal Super Puma crash off the UK, David Learmount looked at offshore helicopter safety and asks, why does Norway get it right?

Find all these items at flightglobal.com/wotw

QUESTION OF THE WEEK

Last week, we asked: Safety record of North Sea helicopters: You said: Excellent given challenging environment

Some areas of concern

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Simply not good enough

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The P-8 is the world’s most capable maritime patrol aircraft. It brings together a networked state-of-the-art mission system with next-generation sensors, and a reliable airframe with high-efďŹ ciency turbofan engines.

The result is an affordable multi-mission aircraft with superior speed and unmatched capability. The P-8 is now ready to secure sea and shore around the globe.

COMMENT

The smoking gun

Fire risk on modern airliners is worse than it has been since aircraft were made of wood, but because there has not been a recent passenger aircraft loss, complacency has set in

here has always been a chance of fire on commercial transport aircraft, but the risk profile in today’s fleet is definitely changing, and probably increasing – yet nothing is being done to tackle this.

The reasons behind the change are many. Leading the list is the proliferation of lithium-chemistry batteries – a definable fire risk – in the personal electronic equipment of both passengers and crew. Their highly flammable nature has been blamed for the loss of at least one freighter aircraft, a UPS Boeing 747, which carried the lithium-ion cells among its cargo. And larger versions of those same lithium batteries have recently been deployed by aircraft manufacturers to power standby onboard equipment. In the case of the Boeing 787 they provide the ultimate back-up electrical supply.

The very latest airliners are also “more-electric” – electricity replaces hydraulic, pneumatic or mechanical power – resulting in an increase in the amount of

Estimates put the number of onboard smoke events today at one in every 15,000 flights electrical cabling. The proliferation of in-flight entertainment systems adds both batteries and yet more cabling. And the rapidly increasing use of composite materials for aircraft primary structures is changing the risk profile because composites have a different reaction to heat.

In the last three years, two freighters have been lost to onboard fires, but because they were not passenger flights public concern has remained dormant. The last catastrophic blaze that brought down a passenger air-

Rex Features

T

Just in case

craft was Swissair 111 in 1998. That is a long time ago, and it involved a Boeing MD-11, but nothing fundamental in terms of aircraft and cabin systems design has been changed as a result. Meanwhile estimates put the number of onboard smoke events today at one in every 15,000 flights. And cliché as it may be, where there is smoke, there is fire, be it real or potential.

One of the most remarkable facts about aircraft design for safety is that the only fire detection equipment on board commercial transport aircraft are in the engines, the freight bay and the lavatories. There are no detection systems in cockpits or cabins, so a fire that starts behind the panels because of an electrical shortcircuit – like Swissair 111 – has a chance to take hold before its presence is noticed. And when smoke or fumes have betrayed its existence, there is no way of locating the heat source or directing extinguishant at it.

This is simply unacceptable.

The Royal Aeronautical Society is leading a study into these risks. Action must follow it. O See Feature P32

Official discomfort T

Operations and safety editor David Learmount writes on aviation safety matters on his eponymous blog flightglobal.com/learmount

flightglobal.com

he worrying thing about India’s AgustaWestland AW101 scandal is how unsurprising it is. Big defence purchases anywhere are rarely smooth, but in India they seem to be particularly accident-prone.

At its heart are allegations – denied, of course – that AgustaWestland bosses bribed Indian air force leaders to modify the requirements for the purchase of 12 VVIP helicopters. Early this year investigations in Italy prompted a further probe in India. Two AgustaWestland executives are now standing trial over the matter.

But the steady drip-drip of bad news continues. This week India’s government auditor issued a damning report on the acquisition process.

But this fiasco – unlike other defence procurement

travesties in India – will directly affect New Delhi’s senior leadership.

Having received just three AW101s, India has suspended the deal, and could well cancel it altogether.

The grounding of the new fleet will oblige worthies including the president and prime minister to resume the use of ageing Mil Mi-8s.

At stake in the AW101 crisis are not key issues like operational readiness and deterrence, but the comfort of senior government leaders. Perhaps riding in obsolescent, deafeningly loud helicopters will provide the spur they need to bring greater transparency and accountability to India’s defence acquisition process. O See Defence P17 10-16 September 2013 | Flight International | 7

THIS WEEK

For a round-up of our latest online news, feature and multimedia content visit flightglobal.com/wotw

BRIEFING HIGHER-THRUST TRENT RUNS ON FIRST 787-9

CHINESE A330 AMONG AUGUST AIRBUS ORDERS

AIRFRAMES China Eastern Airlines was behind the only long-haul order for Airbus during a quiet August, but the deal for the single A330 marks the first firm Chinese order recorded by the airframer this year. Long-haul orders from China, particularly for the A330, had been held up by a dispute over the European emissions trading system. However, the airframer’s latest backlog data, covering the first eight months of 2013, includes a single China Eastern A330-200 order on 5 August. Airbus added nine other aircraft – all A320-family jets – to its backlog during the month, bringing its gross total to 942 and taking its net figure just above 900. Airbus delivered 394 aircraft over the first eight months, including 11 A380s and 70 A330s.

AGUSTAWESTLAND SEALS CHINESE SALES PACT

ROTORCRAFT AgustaWestland has signed a distribution agreement with Sino-US Intercontinental Helicopter Investment, with the pact also including a contract for 20 aircraft. Finmeccanica says the sale values €170 million ($223 million), and covers AW119Ke, AW139, AW169, AW189 and GrandNew aircraft, for roles including VIP transport. AgustaWestland says the agreement makes it “well-positioned” to grow further from the previous sale of 40 helicopters in China.

ISRAELI TARGET LAUNCH SPARKS BALLISTIC ALERT

INCIDENT Russia’s defence ministry was put on heightened alert on 3 September, after early warning radars detected two unidentified “ballistic objects” over the Mediterranean sea. The scare was later confirmed as having been prompted by the launch of two Rafael Sparrow-series target missiles from an Israeli air force Boeing F-15.

The activity was performed as a joint Israeli/US test in support of the development of Israel’s Arrow 3 ballistic missile interceptor.

DENMARK ORDERS MX-15 SENSOR FOR AW101

EQUIPMENT Denmark has ordered a minimum of eight L-3 Wescam MX-15 electro-optical/infrared sensors for its AgustaWestland AW101 tactical transport helicopters. The equipment will be fitted by the nation’s Defence Acquisition and Logistics Organisation by 2014. The Royal Danish Air Force operates 14 AW101s, with part of the fleet tasked with providing search and rescue services.

FRANCE STEPS IN WITH ARIANE 5 UPGRADE BUDGET

SPACEFLIGHT With a €25 million ($33 million) allocation, the French government has agreed to meet the lion’s share of the approximately €35 million cost of upgrading the European Space Agency’s Ariane 5 rocket to accommodate a new generation of largervolume telecommunications satellites. The programme, to fly from 2015, will add 2m (6ft) to the available height inside the launcher’s payload fairing, without altering its profile. The added volume is likely to be demanded by satellite customers opting for all- or more-electric designs, which eliminate propellant tanks but add solar panel area.

8 | Flight International | 10-16 September 2013

Craig Hoyle/Flightglobal

PROPULSION Initial test runs have been conducted on the RollsRoyce Trent 1000 engines powering Boeing’s first 787-9. The maiden flight of the stretched twinjet is on track for “late summer”, says the airframer. Trent 1000 programme director John Griffiths adds that Rolls-Royce is “delighted at the successful first run” of the engines. Its Package C version of the powerplant, developed for the 787-9, provides 74,000lb (329kN) of thrust. Air New Zealand is the launch customer, with 10 of the type due for delivery from 2014.

The BAE Systems type is operated by the service’s 4 Sqn TRAINING CRAIG HOYLE LONDON

Early Hawk T2 use aids RAF students Programme officials highlight quality of instruction provided to trainees, better preparing them to fly more advanced jets

E

arly use of the Royal Air Force’s BAE Systems Hawk T2 advanced jet trainer has dramatically boosted the quality of instruction being provided to UK students, programme officials say.

A first course of four ab initio pilots completed their training on the T2 with 4 Sqn at RAF Valley in June 2013, before progressing to its 29 Sqn operational conversion unit (OCU) for the Eurofighter Typhoon at Coningsby in Lincolnshire.

“I think we’ve doubled the standard of the students,” says Alasdair Shinner, station manager at the Anglesey base for Lockheed Martin/Babcock joint venture Ascent, the Ministry of Defence’s training system partner for the Military Flying Training System (MFTS) programme. The T2 has the potential to deliver a “multirole, combat-ready pilot” to the OCU, he adds, whereas the RAF’s analogue cockpit Hawk T1s were not preparing students for the aircraft they would later fly.

Several additional courses are now under way, with these including RAF and Royal Navy students and 11 more UK qualified flying instructors (QFI). With only 50% of system capacity being used on a 28-aircraft fleet, potential options to increase the volume of training delivered include

preparing additional RAF QFIs, increasing the number of instructors sourced from other air forces or approving Ascent-employed instructors to command some flights, officials say.

“Spare capacity is something that is being looked at, but there is no simple answer,” says Grp Capt Simon Blake, from the RAF’s 22 Group training organisation. “Lots of other air forces are coming here and seeing that we are filling the [training capability] gap,” he notes.

Meanwhile, activities involving the RAF’s Hawk T1-equipped 208 Sqn have been extended at Valley, with the service currently providing Phase IV lead-in fighter training for Royal Saudi Air Force pilots. Riyadh will take delivery of its first of 22 T2-equivalent Hawks from BAE in 2015.

The remainder of the MFTS programme’s fixed-wing equipment package should be determined by 2015, with one type to deliver elementary training and a turboprop-powered basic trainer offering “jet-like performance” to replace the RAF’s current Shorts Tucano T1s. Operations should commence from around 2018, says Ascent’s Simon Falla. O Follow the latest global defence aviation news and views at flightglobal.com/dewline

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THIS WEEK

Human factors loom in Super Puma crash report THIS WEEK P10 SAFETY STEPHEN TRIMBLE WASHINGTON DC

FAA finalises 787 electrical review Safety regulator has completed detailed technical work for investigation into Dreamliner’s problematic power systems

T

he US Federal Aviation Administration confirms the agency is close to finalising a comprehensive safety review of the Boeing 787’s problematic electrical system.

The agency has completed the detailed technical work for what the FAA now calls the “critical systems review” of the 787. “At this time the report is being finalised,” the agency says.

As the US National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) continues its search for the root cause of the overheating lithium ion batteries, the public release of the report by the FAA on the

overall electrical system could provide new context about the incidents that caused the 787 to be grounded for four months earlier this year.

However, is still unclear if the FAA will call for any design changes or operational restrictions on the 787 as a result of the report’s findings.

“Boeing continues to work cooperatively with the FAA as the report on the 787 critical systems review is finalised,” the airframer says. “Until the report has been published, it would be inappropriate for us to comment further.”

The report was commissioned

by then-Secretary of Transportation Ray LaHood on 11 January, coming in between the two battery incidents that prompted the FAA to order the 787 grounded for four months.

While the lithium-ion battery became the focus of safety probes by the FAA and NTSB, the review initiated by LaHood was designed to consider safety concerns affecting the 787’s entire electrical architecture.

The 787 had experienced several electrical problems before the two battery malfunctions in January. In December, Qatar Airways and United Airlines grounded

certain 787s due to a faulty batch of circuit boards.

One United 787 made a precautionary landing in Houston on 4 December after one of the aircraft’s six electrical generators failed due to the circuit board problem.

The 787 is the first and still the only commercial airliner that uses electrical power to pressurise the passenger cabin rather than a pneumatic system driven by bleed-air from the engine’s compressor stages. O Follow a timeline detailing the 787’s troubled operations: flightglobal.com/787woes

ORDER EDWARD RUSSELL WASHINGTON DC

Delta weighs in with A330 deal

Taxi trials are under way at Bombardier’s Mirabel facility DEVELOPMENT EDWARD RUSSELL WASHINGTON DC

CSeries speeds towards maiden-sortie milestone B

ombardier is readying its CSeries twinjet for its maiden sortie, with the final pre-flight tests beginning at the airframer’s Mirabel facility.

Airport watchers spotted on 1 September the initial flight-test vehicle, FTV-1, performing what appeared to be high-speed taxi trials, although Bombardier later played these down, describing them as “high-speed low-speed tests”.

Bombardier says these were slightly below its 70kt (130km/h) threshold for high-speed tests.

Quicker taxi runs and rejected take-off trials – some of the last ground tests required before flight – were due to be performed in the flightglobal.com

following days, but were scrubbed due to weather concerns, Bombardier says.

Landing gear and other further testing has yet to take place, the airframer says.

The flightcrew reports that FTV-1 is “handling beautifully” in testing, it adds. The crew includes chief pilot Chuck Ellis, first officer Andy Litavniks and flight test engineer Andreas Hartono.

Bombardier received a flight test permit for the CSeries from regulator Transport Canada on 30 August. The permit allows Bombardier to conduct the high-speed trials as well as first flight once all ground testing is complete. O

irbus has secured a launch customer for the higher gross weight variant of its A330, after US carrier Delta Air Lines ordered 10 of the enhanced type.

The first A330s will be delivered to the Atlanta-based carrier in the second quarter of 2015, and will be powered by General Electric CF6-80E1 engines.

Announced in November 2012, the 242t A330 benefits from 500nm (925km) of additional range, taking it to 6,100nm, and 5t of extra payload, compared with the current 235t A330, according to Airbus. Delta plans to use the aircraft on both trans-Atlantic and trans-Pacific routes.

Delta additionally ordered 30

sharklet-equipped A321 narrowbodies, with deliveries from the first quarter of 2016. The aircraft are to be powered by CFM International CFM56 engines.

The carrier puts the total value of the deal at about $5.6 billion at list prices.

“This Airbus agreement is another opportunistic fleet transaction for Delta in which we acquire economically efficient, proven-technology aircraft,” says Richard Anderson, chief executive of Delta.

Many of Delta’s new A321s will come from Airbus’s new final assembly line in Mobile, Alabama, says the airframer, which will deliver its first aircraft in 2016. O

Airbus

Patrick Cardinal

A

The carrier will take the higher gross weight variant of the twinjet 10-16 September 2013 | Flight International | 9

THIS WEEK

For a round-up of our latest online news, feature and multimedia content visit flightglobal.com/wotw

INCIDENT DAVID LEARMOUNT LONDON

Human factors loom in crash report Air Accidents Investigation Branch suggests technical issues with helicopter were not to blame for Super Puma accident

A

“To date, no evidence of a causal technical failure has been identified” AAIB STATEMENT

PA

terse statement by the UK Air Accidents Investigation Branch has provided basic facts downloaded from the cockpit voice and flight data recorder of the CHC Scotia AS332L2 Super Puma helicopter (G-WSNB) involved in a fatal crash on approach to Sumburgh, in the Shetland Isles, on 23 August.

Crucially, no technical failure has been detected, the statement says, noting that both engines continued to deliver power until the helicopter impacted the sea.

Four passengers were killed during the accident.

It adds: “To date, no evidence of a causal technical failure has been identified; however, detailed examination of the [combined cockpit voice and flight data recorder] and the helicopter wreckage is continuing.”

During the localiser/DME nonprecision approach to Sumburgh’s runway 09, the aircraft was on the correct vertical descent profile at three nautical

Four passengers were killed in the 23 August incident miles, but was descending faster than appropriate at a time when the crew would still not have been able to see the runway through the thin mist present.

When air traffic control at Sumburgh provided the CHC crew with radar vectors to join the localiser/DME approach to 09, visibility was 1.5nm (2.8km),

and the wind was 17kt from the southeast. On such an approach lateral guidance is provided, but the crew must set and monitor their own vertical profile by plotting DME distance from the runway against the height they should be passing at that point.

The statement says that at three miles from the threshold the

STUDY DOMINIC PERRY LONDON

Passenger capacity could be cut by wide-ranging review North Sea operators could face fundamental changes – including red;ucing the number of passengers carried in each aircraft – depending on the outcome of a root-and-branch review of offshore helicopter transportation safety.

Launched in the wake of the 23 August fatal accident of a CHC Scotia-operated Eurocopter AS332L2, the study has been commissioned by pan-industry body the Helicopter Safety Steering Group.

Although it is still framing the terms of reference for the inquiry and considering who should chair it, the HSSG promises that it will act on any recommendations produced.

“Ignoring them is not an acceptable outcome for any of us, that’s just not how we do things around here,” says Les Linklater, team lead at Step Change in Safety, the organisation behind the HSSG. “If there

are things we can do to make helicopter operations safer then we have to do them.”

Linklater says the report, which will take around six months to complete, will have to look beyond any issues around airworthiness and also examine other areas of concern, such as the relative safety records of the UK and Norway, plus the internal configuration of all the offshore transportation helicopters.

Both the EC225 and the rival Sikorsky S-92 can accommodate 19 passengers, but concerns have been raised – notably via social media – that the cabin of the Eurocopter type is too cramped to comfortably seat that many people.

“The sense from [passengers] is that they feel there are too many people in the back. But it’s something that we are not going to consider via Facebook, but through

10 | Flight International | 10-16 September 2013

interviews,” says Linklater.

Eurocopter says it will participate in the study as part of its efforts to mend relations with the offshore workforce. Dominique Maudet, executive vice-president global business and services at Eurocopter, says: “You can’t avoid the emotion, but at some point you have to look at the facts and figures.

“We will look at whatever modifications we can make in the short and medium term to better address passenger comfort, especially compared with other aircraft.”

HSSG includes representatives from offshore workforce trade unions, as well as the three Aberdeen operators. However, Linklater hopes to broaden this to include regular participation from the three main helicopter manufacturers: AgustaWestland, Eurocopter and Sikorsky. O

helicopter was “on the published horizontal and vertical profile of the approach to runway 09, with airspeed decreasing steadily”.

However, a mile later it had descended some 240ft (73m) below the vertical approach profile, and its rate of descent had hit 500ft/ min, with an airspeed of 68kt (126km/h). The statement adds: “The airspeed continued to reduce to below 30kt, and as it did so the helicopter pitched increasingly nose-up.

“The rate of descent remained constant for a period before increasing rapidly.

“Shortly thereafter the helicopter, which was intact, struck the sea in a near level pitch attitude with a slight right bank. Both engines were delivering power until impact.”

Suspicions that the crash was not due to an issue with the airframe or engines began to surface shortly after the Aberdeen-based Helicopter Safety Steering Group lifted its voluntary flight ban covering all Super Puma variants on 29 August.

A statement was released the following day by the UK Civil Aviation Authority which backed the HSSG’s position, stressing that it did not believe “the accident was caused by an airworthiness or technical problem, and consider that the decision by the operators to resume Super Puma flights is appropriate”.

“We would not allow a return to service unless we were satisfied that it was safe to do so. We will review the position if any new evidence comes to light,” it said. O David Learmount offers his views on aviation safety: flightglobal.com/learmount

flightglobal.com

THIS WEEK

SAFETY MAVIS TOH SINGAPORE

Dirty fuel blamed for Cathay A330’s engine emergency Investigators pin twinjet’s double powerplant malfunction on contaminated Jet-A1 uplifted at Indonesia’s Juanda airport

F

contamination of the fuel with super-absorbent polymer material.

It was this substance that caused the malfunction of the fuel metering units.

The report notes that airport personnel uploading the fuel failed to react to abnormal vibrations of the equipment, caused by the reaction between the polymer material and salt water to form a gel-like substance. Operatives failed to stop the procedure and investigate the cause of the vibration, it says.

The affected aircraft (B-HLL) was operating flight CX780 when both its Rolls-Royce Trent 700 engines malfunctioned. The crew had to issued a Mayday call and eventually landed at a high ground speed of 231kt (427km/h), causing the lower cowling of one engine to contact the runway and overheated brakes that left five tyres deflated. Passengers evacuated using escape slides.

PT Pertamina, which carried out the refuelling at Surabaya, has since changed its procedures and equipment to prevent a repeat of the incident. O Keep up to date with the latest global airline news online at flightglobal.com/airlines

flyphanUK gallery on flightglobal.com/AirSpace

uel contamination has been confirmed as the cause of a double engine malfunction on a Cathay Pacific Airbus A330-300 on approach to Hong Kong International airport, which led to a high-speed emergency landing of the twinjet.

In a final report into the 13 April 2010 incident, Hong Kong’s Civil Aviation Department (CAD) says that 24.4t of contaminated fuel was uplifted into the A330 at Surabaya’s Juanda International airport in Indonesia. This caused stiction in the fuel metering units of both engines, leading to the total seizure of the components and the loss of thrust controls during approach.

Contaminants entered the fuel system via a hydrant refuelling circuit serving 10 stands at Surabaya. This had undergone extension work as part of an apron expansion project at the airport.

However, CAD found that salt water had apparently entered the system during the construction works. The recommissioning process of the reworked hydrant was also not properly coordinated, which led to the premature resumption of refuelling operations, says CAD – leading to

The Cathay widebody landed with a ground speed of 231kt flightglobal.com

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

INVESTIGATION MAVIS TOH SINGAPORE

Crew failed to adapt to poor visibility Changing conditions on approach to Taipei airport led to A330’s right main wheels leaving the runway following landing nvestigators have determined that the crew of an Eva Air Airbus A330-300 (B-16331) failed to adapt to changing weather and visibility, during an incident where the aircraft veered off the runway after landing at Taipei’s Songshan airport last year.

The incident took place on 13 September, and involved flight BR189, from Tokyo’s Haneda airport. Taiwan’s Aviation Safety Council (ASC) says that during the flight the crew received information that visibility at Songshan airport was 5,000m (16,400ft) with haze, and that at 5nm (9km) from the runway threshold, visibility was 7,000m, with wet runway conditions and heavy rain.

Interviews with the crew revealed that while they could see the runway at 3-4nm from the threshold during their approach, they could not see the end of the runway clearly.

About 9s before landing the aircraft started to drift to the right of the runway centreline. Upon landing, the aircraft’s right main wheels veered off the tarmac, only regaining the runway ap-

AirTeamImages

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The Eva Air pilots were censured for failing to adequately control the aircraft’s direction proximately 305m (1,000ft) later.

Although the aircraft was not damaged in the incident, two runway edge lights were rendered inoperative.

“The aircraft touched down at the right side of the runway centreline. After landing, the aircraft veered off the runway [as] the flightcrew did not adequately control the aircraft direction,” says the ASC.

IFE JON HEMMERDINGER WASHINGTON DC

FAA green lights JetBlue ‘Fly-Fi’

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etBlue Airways’s subsidiary LiveTV has received supplemental type certification from the US Federal Aviation Administration for its Ka-band in-flight internet on Airbus A320s, paving the way for the airline to offer broadband on revenue flights.

Testing of the satellite-based wi-fi system has been completed on an A320, and trials are also under way on a Boeing 737-900ER operated by United Airlines, says LiveTV. “This is game-changing technology,” says JetBlue chief commercial officer Robin Hayes.

“We expect to have a number of JetBlue aircraft installed with wi-fi by the end of this year, and will aggressively roll it out across

our Airbus fleet over the next 18 months, followed by our Embraer fleet.”

Hayes claims JetBlue’s wi-fi, dubbed “Fly-Fi” by the airline, will be “the fastest in-flight wi-fi in the industry”.

JetBlue has previously indicated it plans to operate three A320s with the system for 90 days for longer-term testing. Next year the airline intends to install the system on further A320s, before fitting it on its fleet of E-190s.

JetBlue has 129 Airbus narrowbodies and 59 E-190s in its fleet, according to Flightglobal’s Ascend Online Fleets database.

LiveTv says it is also seeking Ka-band certification from EASA on Aer Lingus A320s. O

12 | Flight International | 10-16 September 2013

Although the crew had adequate situational awareness and had acknowledged the rainy conditions, they failed to make “appropriate judgement and action according to the weather change and abrupt visibility variation at landing phase”, it says. The pilot monitoring the decent also did not perform standard call-outs when the speed range met the criteria for doing so.

Eva also lacked any standard call-out procedures in its manuals to deal with a runway excursion post-touchdown. The ASC has since recommended that Eva reinforce its flightcrew’s manoeuvring and handling training in instances where visual references are insufficient. O Keep up with safety issues in aviation online by logging on to flightglobal.com/safety

REGULATIONS DAVID KAMINSKI-MORROW LONDON

Kazakhstan safety drive targets EU blacklisting

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azakhstan’s government has introduced dozens of amended regulations aimed at improving the central Asian state’s air safety oversight.

Transport minister Askar Zhumagaliyev discussed progress in the area with ICAO’s European regional director Luis Fonseca de Almeida, during a meeting in early September.

Kazakhstan has brought in 80 amendments to civil aviation regulations, the transport ministry says, of which 70 relate to safety, in an effort to harmonise with international standards. On 3 September a new aviation

security training centre opened in Almaty, which the ministry says will complement other centres in Moscow and Kiev.

Kazakhstan remains subject to a blacklisting by the European Commission, which the government is keen to have lifted. Safety revision efforts have included recertification of the country’s operators.

Air Astana is exempt from the blanket European ban. The Commission, in its most recent blacklist revision, confirmed that ramp checks had revealed “no specific concern” with the carrier’s operations. O flightglobal.com

AIR TRANSPORT

Virgin Australia eyes new widebodies AIR TRANSPORT P14 EMPLOYMENT GRAHAM DUNN LONDON

Court raises questions over Austrian’s Tyrolean transfer

POWERPLANTS GREG WALDRON SINGAPORE

Chief executive vows to appeal ruling as carrier seeks to safeguard restructuring plans

he parent company of defunct Indian carrier Kingfisher Airlines has filed a $234 million lawsuit against International Aero Engines (IAE) over its V2500-A5 powerplants.

The suit was filed by United Breweries in Bengaluru, and alleges that the engines “were inherently defective, both in design and manufacture”. The suit was revealed in the carrier’s annual report for the financial year ended 31 March. The suit seeks damages of $210 million in addition to Rs1.6 billion ($24 million).

An airline spokesman contacted about the suit declined to provide further details. Kingfisher has been grounded since September 2012, and in its annual report states it has defaulted on “payments to several creditors”.

IAE faces court challenge from Kingfisher owner

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Vienna court has called into question the legality of a move last year by Austrian Airlines to transfer flights to regional subsidiary Tyrolean Airways as part of its restructuring plans, despite ruling it strictly complies with the country’s labour laws.

The Lufthansa-owned carrier moved all flight operations to Tyrolean in July 2012 to cut staff costs for pilots and cabin crew after failing to negotiate a new deal with unions. While employee salary levels were not reduced, the move was aimed at slowing the rate of pay increases.

In the ruling, the Vienna Labour and Social Affairs Court says that an “ostensible violation” of law has not taken place, but it has called into question the transfer of operations within a corporate group.

“We acknowledge the first instance judgment,” says Austrian Airlines chief executive Jaan Albrecht. “It is surprising for us that [the judge] casts doubt upon the common practice of transferring operations as part of group restructuring programmes.

“We will pursue every legal av-

Boeing764 gallery on flightglobal.com/AirSpace

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The Lufthansa Group carrier is looking to trim staff costs enue at our disposal in the appeals process in order to legally safeguard our restructuring path.

In the meantime, we hope that the talks initiated with the works council on the collective wage agreement will result in a viable solution independent of the decision handed down by the court,” he adds.

The labour court ruling deals with the specific legal repercussions on the transfer of flight operations to Tyrolean from an employment law basis.

However, it will have no bearing on a separate judicial probe into the move being undertaken

by Austria’s supreme court to clarify the effects on former Austrian Airlines flight personnel caused by the termination of their collective wage agreement.

In June that court sought a clarification from the European Court of Justice on several legal issues about the operational transfer. O

The carrier said it had ‘technical issues’ with stages three to eight of the 10-stage compressor

For more business stories, see the September edition of sister publication airlinebusiness.com

DIVESTMENT DAVID KAMINSKI-MORROW LONDON

Q400 deal cements Widerøe sell-off

AS Group has sold seven Bombardier Q400 turboprops to Norwegian operation Widerøe, following its divestment of a majority shareholding in the airline.

It says the loans on these aircraft have also been transferred to the carrier.

Three Q400s were also sold to Widerøe and then sold on to a leasing company.

Investors led by the Torghatten firm are taking an 80% share in Widerøe and SAS will hand over full ownership of the airline in 2016. SAS Group says it will reflightglobal.com

AirTeamImages

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SAS Group has sold the turboprops to its former regional carrier ceive Swedish krona (SKr)2 billion ($300 million) through the sale of the initial Widerøe share-

holding and the aircraft, from which the group’s liquidity will benefit by SKr1 billion. O

It attributed its problems to a “difficult operating environment as well as the engine problems”.

Kingfisher was formerly a major operator of Airbus A320family aircraft powered by IAE V2500 engines.

In August 2010 the carrier had problems with the V2500 that caused it to ground nine A320s.

The carrier said it had experienced “technical issues” with stages three to eight of the 10-stage high-pressure compressor in the engine, among other problems.

Subsequently, on 19 August 2010, IAE said it would replace parts on some of its V2500 engines on in-operation aircraft after discovering problems with the engine’s high-pressure compressor drum in 2009.

No-one from IAE was available to comment. O

10-16 September 2013 | Flight International | 13

AIR TRANSPORT

The airline’s five 777s have an average age of four years

AirTeamImages

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

STRATEGY ELLIS TAYLOR SINGAPORE

Virgin Australia eyes new widebodies Carrier evaluates rival long-haul twinjets as it looks for potential replacements for its Airbus A330 and Boeing 777 fleets irgin Australia is evaluating new long-haul twinjets from both the big airframers as potential replacements for its Airbus A330-300s and Boeing 777-300ERs. Chief executive John Borghetti says the airline is in the process of running the rule over both widebody types, and that it “could be making a decision in the next six to 12 months”.

He notes, however, that as the carrier’s widebody fleet is relatively young, there is no great urgency to place an order.

“We want to make a considered decision – the right decision for our route network,” says Borghetti, adding that “they are both good aircraft”.

Flightglobal’s Ascend Online Fleets database shows that Virgin’s six A330s have an average age of five years, while the five 777s are slightly younger, at an average of four years. The A330s are all leased, while the airline owns four of the five 777s.

Virgin uses its A330s on domestic services, primarily on transcontinental flights, while the 777s are operated on longhaul route to Los Angeles and Abu Dhabi.

Rival carrier Qantas is yet to

decide on when it may firm up options for the 50 787-9s that are available for delivery from 2016 onwards. The airline has previously said it intends to use the 787s to expand its network in Asia, subject to its interna-

tional business becoming profitable in 2015.

Last year, Virgin ordered 23 Boeing 737 Max 8s and deferred delivery of some of its existing 737-800 orders. The first Max aircraft are due to arrive in 2019. O

PROGRAMME DAVID KAMINSKI-MORROW LONDON

Brégier heaps praise on ‘maturity’ of A350 prototype Airbus has completed over 150h of flight testing with its A350 prototype, having resumed the campaign in August following a short break.

The first test aircraft, MSN1, reemerged in mid-August after undergoing modifications to its flight-test installation in July. These included the fitting of a device beneath the aft fuselage which appears to be linked to high-attitude take-off testing, although Airbus says these minimumunstick tests have not yet been conducted and are not scheduled for the “immediate future”.

Airbus chief executive Fabrice Brégier has completed his first flight

on board the aircraft, joining a routine 3h sortie over southwest France.

“I was particularly impressed by the maturity of the aircraft at such an early stage in its life,” he says.

“The new cockpit layout with the large screens and head-up display are amazing and I am confident that pilots are going to love being behind the controls of this machine.”

Airbus is nearly three months into A350 flight testing, following the type’s maiden flight on 14 June. O Get the latest news on the development of the Airbus A350: flightglobal.com/A350

Airbus

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The Airbus CEO aboard the jet

TRIALS MAVIS TOH SINGAPORE

Comac matures fledgling C919 iron bird test rig

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omac has started installing components on its C919 iron bird ground-test rig, and is aiming to have the aircraft’s landing gear fitted by late September.

The Chinese airframer says assembly of the test rig is a key task for the firm.

In the first half of the year, several components necessary for iron bird tests were delivered, the manufacturer adds.

Suppliers have also started tooling design and manufacturing of parts, it says, without providing further details. So far, over

14 | Flight International | 10-16 September 2013

200 tubes for the iron bird have been made.

Last month, Eaton and Shanghai Aircraft Manufacturing’s joint venture delivered the first batch of conveyance tubes to Comac, becoming the first supplier to deliver parts for the C919.

First flight for the new narrowbody is now set for end-2015 – a delay from the original 2014 schedule.

To date, Comac has received 380 commitments for its C919, mostly from Chinese airlines and leasing companies. O flightglobal.com

AIR TRANSPORT

UK reveals AEW programme costs DEFENCE P16 TWINJET MAVIS TOH SINGAPORE

MRJ delay pinned on FAA paperwork Efforts by Mitsubishi to adopt administration’s new certification and approval regulations have delayed new jet, it says

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significant time and resources to develop the required processes, it says. “With this new system, all design and manufacturing internal processes must be documented in advance and approved by the authorities. We need to build new processes to validate

AGREEMENT

DEVELOPMENT TOM ZAITSEV MOSCOW

Mitsubishi Aircraft

he Mitsubishi Regional Jet is taking longer than anticipated to develop because of the challenges it has encountered in adopting the US Federal Aviation Administration’s new certification and approval process.

Yugo Fukuhara, Mitsubishi Aircraft head of sales, says the new regional type is the first aircraft to fully apply the FAA’s organisational delegation authorisation (ODA) system, which came into effect in 2009. Although the new system had been partly used before, this was in relation to Boeing’s 787, where the airframer delegated some responsibilities for performing tests to demonstrate that the Dreamliner’s lithium-ion batteries complied with airworthiness requirements.

Mitsubishi says under ODA it has been granted the authority to design, test and analyse procedures and trial results to prove airworthiness requirements. This means that it has had to invest

First flight is now expected in the second quarter of 2015 compliance not only for ourselves, but also for all our component partners,” says Fukuhara.

“Our partners are aware of this new system, but we have to integrate their old system into our new processes,” he adds. “Of course, this new ODA system

came in 2009, we knew this system conceptually, but it has taken a longer time than expected [to implement].”

The nature of the system means that every component on the regional jet was affected by the process. With a clear process in place, however, maintaining the MRJ’s revised first flight schedule should be “very straightforward”, says Fukuhara.

His comments come a week after the Japanese airframer announced a third delay to its programme schedule, pushing first flight of the MRJ90 from end-2013 to the second quarter of 2015, with deliveries to follow in the first half of 2017. “We hope this should be the last delay we announce,” says Fukuhara.

Mitsubishi is now assembling its first flight- and ground-test aircraft. The first Pratt & Whitney PW1200G engines for the jet should be delivered to Mitsubishi in the spring of 2014. O

S

tate-run Russian transport leasing company GTLK is to co-operate with lessor Ilyushin Finance on the supply of Tupolev Tu-204SM aircraft.

GTLK has signed a memorandum with the lessor confirming its interest in participating in leasing projects to carriers Red Wings and VIM-Avia.

The two sides reached the agreement during August’s MAKS air show in Moscow.

Red Wings has agreed to take 10 Tu-204SMs from Ilyushin Finance, as well as 10 Irkut MC-21s and 10 Bombardier Q400s.

VIM-Avia is also taking a batch of Bombardier CSeries twinjets from the lessor, which has 32 on order. O flightglobal.com

towards the production phase of the programme.

Based on the aircraft’s dimensions and technical characteristics, ThyssenKrupp System Engineering has developed a masterplan for the Ecojet’s final assembly. During a joint presentation at August’s MAKS air show, the partners released details of a new facility designed to accommodate a 245m (800ft)long, 75m-wide assembly line.

Andreas Bekker, project manager at ThyssenKrupp, says the whole assembly process will be completed at four workstations, connected to logistics and inventory areas. “It would begin with the joining of parts of the [elliptical] fuselage,” says Bekker. “After

Rosaviaconsortium

Lessors sign up Ecojet project on approach to production phase Rosaviaconsortium, for joint Tupolev Russia’s which is developing a tripleaisle medium-haul aircraft desigTu-204 supply nated the Frigate Ecojet, is edging

A mock-up of the aircraft has completed windtunnel testing the wings, empennage and undercarriage have been assembled, engine mounting and interior outfitting would follow. System inspections and testing will be done at the final station.”

“Flow line production should allow us to raise annual output from 16 to 45 aircraft within five years,” says Ecojet programme director Alexander Klimov.

Rosaviaconsortium has completed windtunnel trials of the Ecojet

mock-up at the TsAGI Central Aerohydrodynamic Institute, and plans to release working design drawings by August 2014.

“With the masterplan in place, our task now is to select a site for the assembly line,” says Klimov.

“To this end, we’ll issue requests for proposals to prospective bidders in Russia and abroad.” O Missed MAKS? Read all the analysis from the show floor: flightglobal.com/MAKS

10-16 September 2013 | Flight International | 15

DEFENCE

For free access to Flightglobal’s Defence e-newsletter visit flightglobal.com/ defencenewsletter

POWERPLANTS

F-35 engine production agreement a ‘fair deal’ ratt & Whitney and the US Department of Defense have reached an agreement in principle for the production of a sixth lot of 38 F135 engines for the Lockheed Martin F-35 Joint Strike Fighter.

“This agreement represents a fair deal for [the] government and Pratt & Whitney,” says Lt Gen Chris Bogdan, F-35 programme executive officer. “Driving down cost is critical to the success of this programme, and we are working together to lower costs for the propulsion system.”

“Cost details will be released when the LRIP [low-rate initial production] 6 contract is finalised,” the F-35 Joint Program Office (JPO) says.

Unit prices for the conventional version of the F135 are expected to drop by 2.5% compared with the previous production lot, the JPO says, but the price for six short take-off and vertical landing F135 engines to be contained within the deal should fall by roughly 9.6%.

Deliveries will begin in the fourth quarter of this year. O

Crown Copyright

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Operations with the aged Sea King 7 will end by March 2016 CONTEST CRAIG HOYLE LONDON

UK reveals AEW programme costs

DEVELOPMENT DAVE MAJUMDAR WASHINGTON DC

KC-46 CDR accomplished early

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ufacturing and development test phases,” it adds. Manufacture of the first tanker is already under way, with Boeing having begun wing assembly work on 26 June.

Flight testing of the basic Boeing 767-2C airframe, which will later be reconfigured into the KC-46, is scheduled to begin in mid-2014.

The first fully-equipped KC-46 tanker is projected to fly in early 2015, according to the air force.

Boeing is contracted to build four test aircraft and deliver 18 combat-ready tankers by August 2017, as part of a process to replace a portion of the USAF’s aged Boeing KC-135 fleet. If the service exercises all of its options, it will receive a total of 179 of the aircraft by 2028. O

F

Boeing

he US Air Force and Boeing completed a critical design review (CDR) process for the KC-46 tanker on 21 August, more than one month ahead of a contractual milestone previously set for 24 September.

“I’m pleased to report that the design of the KC-46A tanker has been locked down,” says Maj Gen John Thompson, the USAF’s programme executive officer for tankers.

Boeing and the USAF had been working on component and subsystem design reviews for 10 months to complete the process, the service says. “Closure of CDR formally establishes the KC-46 design and now allows the programme to progress into its man-

Next-generation Crowsnest system to be readied for initial use in 2020, as MoD sets potential value at £500 million

The first fully-equipped aircraft is projected to fly in early 2015 16 | Flight International | 10-16 September 2013

urther details of the UK Royal Navy’s Crowsnest next-generation airborne early warning programme have been disclosed by the nation’s Ministry of Defence, with the effort expected to have a maximum cost of around £500 million ($782 million).

To provide replacements for the Fleet Air Arm’s current Westland Sea King 7 airborne surveillance and control system helicopters, Crowsnest recently entered a second assessment phase. This is concerned with candidate radars and mission systems which could be installed aboard eight upgraded AgustaWestland AW101 Merlin HM2 rotorcraft for the navy from later this decade.

Merlin HM2 programme prime contractor Lockheed Martin is offering its Vigilance mission suite, combined with a Northrop Grumman radar for Crowsnest, while Thales is promoting an update of its Cerberus system and Searchwater 2000 sensor already used with the Sea King 7. Elta Systems and Selex ES are also offering radars for the requirement, according to evidence given to the UK Public Accounts Committee by MoD officials earlier this year.

In a report about the UK’s future carrier strike capability

published on 3 September, the committee voiced concern that the Crowsnest system is not scheduled to achieve full capability until 2022 – two years after the expected initial use of the RN’s first Queen Elizabeth-class aircraft carrier with deployed Lockheed F-35B combat aircraft.

Service trials with the selected system would commence in 2020, the MoD says, with initial operational capability to be declared late the same year. “By the time we get to 2020 we will own four Crowsnest helicopters, of which two would be available to deploy in extremis,” deputy chief of defence staff (military capability) Air Marshal Stephen Hillier told the committee.

Prior to achieving a full carrier strike capability, the UK “would be working alongside allies and would be able to share capabilities”, he notes.

The MoD expects to launch a third assessment phase activity next year, and to make a main gate investment decision for the Crowsnest system in 2017; one year after its last Sea Kings have been retired. The programme is expected to have a total cost ranging between £230 million and around £500 million, it says. O flightglobal.com

DEFENCE

Israeli air force pushes 12-aircraft KC-135R deal DEFENCE P18 INVESTIGATION

Auditor slams Indian AW101 contract Report into halted VVIP helicopter programme questions transparency and accountability of European type’s selection ndia’s comptroller and auditor general (CAG) has slammed the acquisition of 12 AgustaWestland AW101 VVIP transport helicopters for the Indian air force in its probe into the deal.

According to the report, “the entire process of acquisition of VVIP helicopters right from framing of [the] services qualitative requirements to the conclusion of contract deviated from laid down procedures.” This, it adds, “poses serious questions on accountability and lack of transparency in the finalisation of the contract, which need to be addressed.”

India’s Central Bureau of Investigation has already registered a case against 13 people and six firms with regard to the AW101 contract, which has been put on hold. New Delhi has already paid about 30% of the €560 million ($737 million) total, and received three aircraft.

AgustaWestland refutes the auditor’s allegations, saying that changed air force requirements, including stipulating a cabin height of 5.9ft (1.8m), was met by other helicopters and did not lead to the “ejection of any competing aircraft”. This counters the

AgustaWestland

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AgustaWestland took a repainted transport to the MAKS show report’s claim that the decision to raise the height from an original 4.8ft led to a single vendor situation, and “resulted in an operational disadvantage” for the air force.

The CAG also highlighted a reduction in the VVIP aircraft’s required service ceiling, which dropped to 14,800ft from the 19,700ft cited in an earlier request

for proposals. AgustaWestland says it sent letters to the Indian air force in 2005 stating that the AW101 could be modified to operate at the higher altitude.

Alleged violations with respect to offset obligations are also mentioned in the report.

India has ordered eight AW101s in a VVIP configuration, and four for use as tactical trans-

ports. Its air force is already believed to be having trouble in keeping its received three examples – delivered between November 2012 and February 2013 – airworthy.

The ongoing controversy means that the air force will have to continue flying its eight ageing VVIP-roled Mil Mi-8s, which were acquired from 1988. The CAG report also questions the size of the AW101 order, noting that the current inventory saw a utilisation rate of approximately 29% between 1999 and 2010.

Uncertainty over the contract has led to AgustaWestland slowing down work on the order at its Yeovil production site in Somerset, the UK. Three more Indian aircraft are ready for delivery, with the remainder in an advanced state of completion.

The company remains hopeful that the transports will eventually be handed over, but exhibited one of the completed examples at the MAKS air show in Russia in late August, repainted in a new corporate livery. O To learn more about our rotorcraft data service go to flightglobal.com/ascend

Boeing

ENHANCEMENTS DAVE MAJUMDAR WASHINGTON DC

Embraer delivers AMX upgrade

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mbraer has delivered the first modernised A-1M AMX subsonic strike aircraft to the Brazilian air force at its Gavião Peixoto site.

“The A-1 fighter jets are fundamental elements for the defence of Brazil, including its territorial coastal waters,” says Gen Juniti Saito, the service’s commander.

“We have been very successful in using this aircraft on such highly complex operations as the Cruzex and Red Flag exercises. Its modernisation presents a big gain in capability.”

The A-1M programme provides for the upgrade of 43 AMX jets, which were originally develflightglobal.com

oped under a joint venture with Italy’s then-Aermacchi. So far, 16 of Brazil’s aircraft have been inducted into Embraer’s facilities for refurbishment.

The modernisation package adds new weapons, radar and navigation equipment, plus electronic countermeasures.

Embraer is also performing structural refurbishments that will extend the type’s service life until 2025.

Brazil’s current operational AMX inventory also comprises 46 A-1/1A single-seat strike aircraft and 10 B-model trainers, says Flightglobal’s MiliCAS database. O

CEREMONY

C-17 inducted by Hindan ‘Skylords’ The Indian air force’s newly-raised 81 Sqn ‘Skylords’ unit has formally inducted the Boeing C-17 strategic transport into use, following a ceremony at Hindan air base.

Three of New Delhi’s currently-contracted 10 C-17s were received between June and August 2013, with the air force to field two more before the end of this year, and the remaining five to be delivered during 2014.

10-16 September 2013 | Flight International | 17

DEFENCE

For free access to Flightglobal’s Defence e-newsletter visit flightglobal.com/ defencenewsletter

EQUIPMENT ARIE EGOZI TEL AVIV

Israeli air force pushes for 12-aircraft KC-135R deal Boeing bankrolls Osprey in-flight refuelling kit test

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oeing and the US Marine Corps are testing a prototype roll-on/roll-off aerial refuelling system for the Bell Boeing MV-22 Osprey tiltrotor, a senior service official says.

The system, which consists of a high-speed aerial refuelling drogue and hose and reel mechanism, is being tested on an aircraft from the Marines’ VMX-22 operational test and evaluation unit, says the squadron’s commander, Col Michael Orr. Boeing is paying for the demonstration, he notes.

While flight-testing will involve the installation of a nonfunctional aerodynamic demonstrator for the refuelling system, Orr says he does not expect the process to encounter any issues, as it concerns the use of “off the shelf” equipment.

Orr says the USMC is very interested in the MV-22 air-to-air refuelling system for use in support of its short take-off and vertical landing Lockheed Martin F-35Bs. However, because test examples of the new type are scarce, the service is using a Boeing F/A-18 as a substitute for the current trials.

Earlier in the year, the USMC’s deputy commandant for aviation Lt Gen Robert Schmidle laid out a number of operating concepts for the F-35B, including one where a full squadron of 16 of the new combat aircraft could be deployed onboard an amphibious assault ship, along with six MV-22s carrying roll-on/roll-off aerial refuelling kits. O

he Israeli air force will only evaluate a US offer to supply it with surplus Boeing KC-135 tankers if the aircraft are R-model examples, service sources say.

Washington has so far only proposed the sale of three KC-135Es, worth around $200 million. These would be transferred under its excess defence articles programme, through which it can equip its allies with secondhand hardware for free, or at a greatly reduced price. Israel’s air force is looking for a new tanker capability, and surplus KC-135s were several months ago included in a US offer of equipment, which also included an export sale of the Bell Boeing V-22 tiltrotor.

According to Israeli sources, an agreement from Washington to supply ex-US Air Force CFM International CFM56-powered R-model aircraft could see the nation receive 12 examples, which would be transferred after undergoing depot maintenance in the USA. The air force intends to use two of the aircraft for VIP transport duties.

The Israeli government has for some years evaluated options for acquiring an “Air Force One”-type

Israel currently operates an aged fleet of 10 707s

Israeli air force

The MV-22 will trial tanker role ASSESSMENT DAVE MAJUMDAR WASHINGTON DC

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capability to fly officials including the nation’s prime minister on overseas visits, but an earlier programme was shelved on cost grounds following the release of a request for information. No official response has been given to the status of the negotiations between Israel and the USA. Flightglobal’s Ascend Online Fleets database records the Israeli air force as having a current active

fleet of 10 Pratt & Whitney JT3D-engined Boeing 707s, built between 1960 and 1979.

This total includes seven boomequipped tankers, two transports and one airborne early warning example equipped with Israel Aerospace Industries’ Phalcon surveillance radar, it says. O Keep up to date with all the defence news from Israel at flightglobal.com/arielview

DEVELOPMENT TOLGA OZBEK ISTANBUL

Hurkus turboprop trainer makes debut flight

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urkish Aerospace Industries performed a 33min maiden sortie with its single-engined Hurkus turboprop trainer from Ankara Akinci air base on 29 August, the company says.

Aircraft TC-VCH was flown with its landing gear extended and flaps set in a landing position for the duration of the debut.

Take-off speed of the Pratt & Whitney Canada PT6-powered

TAI

US Navy

Service to evaluate surplus tanker proposal if Washington offers CFM56-powered variant

The single-engined type was flown from Ankara Akinci air base

18 | Flight International | 10-16 September 2013

type was 100kt (185km/h), slightly higher than initially envisaged, and the Hurkus was flown to an altitude of 9,500ft (2,900m).

A maximum speed of 140kt was achieved, due to the configuration flown, says test pilot Murat Ozpala. “We did not exceed 150kt, because the flaps were in the landing position.” he adds.

The programme was launched in 2007, and the lead aircraft was rolled out in June 2012. TAI expects to receive certification for the aircraft by the end of 2014, and to produce three variants. O flightglobal.com

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BUSINESS AVIATION

IN BRIEF FANSTREAM FINANCING US engineering company Aviation Alliance has secured funding to develop and market its Gulfstream III conversion and modernisation programme – FanStream. According to the Paso Robles, California-based company, the modified Gulfstream III “will be a like-new, [US FAA noise level] Stage 3-compliant aircraft with a range approaching or exceeding 5,000nm [9,260km]”. The FanStream will feature new engines and a glass flightdeck, as well as a new interior, electrical system updates and new paint.

Aviation Alliance plans to disclose the FanStream’s availability, performance and pricing before the end of the year.

TEGEL BOOST Jet Aviation has extended its facilities at Tegel International airport in Berlin to satisfy customer demand for full groundhandling services, it says. The fixed-base operation now includes a customer lounge and crew briefing offices. “Tegel International is proving to be a very attractive destination for business, charter, VIP and [head of] state flights,” says Jet Aviation.

Keep up to date with all the latest business and general aviation news at flightglobal.com/bizav

DEVELOPMENT DAN THISDELL MOSCOW

Russian Helicopters speeds progress of next generation Prototype of faster rotorcraft, dubbed RACHEL, set for maiden flight by end of the decade

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ussian Helicopters plans to perform the maiden flight of its new developmental highspeed rotorcraft towards the end of the decade as it eyes the fledgling market for advanced verticallift aircraft.

Development of the airframer’s Russian Advanced Commercial Helicopter – or RACHEL – was first revealed at Farnborough air show in 2012. The company is now targeting first flight in 2018, says chief executive Dmitry Petrov. A flying testbed is being built around a Mil Mi-35 to validate systems that Petrov believes will translate into a 10t-class machine capable of carrying 21-24 people at a cruise speed of 195205kt (360-380km/h). Comparatively, AgustaWestland’s 30-passenger AW101 boasts a cruise speed of 150kt.

Critically, says, Petrov, the aircraft must go into large-volume serial production, rather than exist as an expensive niche product. In addition to the basic passenger transport model with

convertible cabin suitable for offshore operations, Russian Helicopters envisions special variants for search and rescue, patrol and medevac missions.

At this point the company is giving away no clues as to the configuration of RACHEL, although its Mil and Kamov design bureaux in 2011 both fielded concepts for a high-speed helicopter.

In addition, when it outlined the RACHEL programme in 2012 Russian Helicopters said it had decided to follow a “twin track” development approach.

Kamov’s Ka-92 concept echoes Sikorsky’s X2, with coaxial main rotors and a single rear-mounted pusher prop. Mil’s Mi-X1 takes a different tack, with a single main rotor and pusher prop with steering vane.

The latter design offers an interesting blend of the X2 or Ka-92 with Eurocopter’s X3 hybrid concept, which features a single main rotor and twin pusher props mounted laterally on short wings that provide some lift in forward

flight. The speed parameters Petrov outlined at an August briefing at his Moscow offices fall well below the speeds in excess of 240kt achieved by the Eurocopter and Sikorsky demonstration programmes.

But Petrov believes that while technologies such as those being evaluated at Eurocopter or Sikorsky “will eventually be used”, he does not see any market breakthrough for at least five to seven years, during which time conventional rotorcraft will dominate.

RACHEL is being designed to replace the long-standing Mi-8/17 family, and sit alongside the heavier Mi-38.

Meanwhile, a flying testbed has been evaluating the upgraded avionics, rotors and engines that will go into serial production with the Mi-171A2.

According to Petrov, this aircraft will “bridge the gap” to RACHEL, and should have a mark∑et up to 2025. Talks are ongoing with prospective launch customers, he adds. O

TOCUMEN FBO

MRO EXPANSION Dallas Aeronautical Services (DAS) Brazil is building a new maintenance, repair and overhaul base in aerospace centre São José dos Campos.

The 70,000ft2 (6,500m2) facility, which will specialise in the production, repair and overhaul of composites, structures and assemblies for business aircraft, is scheduled to open next year.

TURBOPROPS KATE SARSFIELD LONDON

Modified Twin Otter helps G-Sky grow U

S engineering company Ikhana Aircraft Services has delivered a modified de Havilland Canada DHC-6-200HG Twin Otter to Canadian charter start-up G-Sky Aviation.

The modification, originally developed by Ikhana predecessor RW Martin, boosts the gross weight of the Pratt & Whitney Canada PT6A-27-powered aircraft by 410kg to 5,680kg (12,500lb).

Bill Houghton, general manager of operations for Fort McMurray, Alberta-based G-Sky, says: “This is the first Twin Otter to be put into service by G-Sky, and we are planning to use it as the cornerstone of our operation.” O

20 | Flight International | 10-16 September 2013

Ikhana

Aviation services provider ASIG Panamá has broken ground on a new Signature Flight Support-branded fixed-base operation and private jet terminal at Tocumen International airport, which serves the Panamanian capital.

Ikhana’s changes have upped the turboprop’s gross weight flightglobal.com

BUSINESS AVIATION

Ansat clinches civil certification

GENERAL AVIATION P22

IN BRIEF

The firm can now sell and support the ubiqitous King Air family

LIGHT LAUNCH

ACQUISITION KATE SARSFIELD LONDON

Ambitious Marshall snaps up Beechcraft MRO centre Aerospace group strengthens business portfolio with Broughton, UK services unit buy

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arshall Aerospace and Defence Group (Marshall ADG) has acquired Beechcraft’s largest European maintenance, repair and overhaul business as it sets its sights on strengthening its portfolio of business aviation companies.

The acquisition of Hawker Beechcraft Services Chester, based at Broughton in the UK, takes the proportion of Marshall ADG’s annual turnover from its commercial business, Marshall Aviation Services, from 15 to 25%. However, the Cambridgebased company, which specialises in military aircraft modifications, is seeking to increase this to around 40%.

“Marshall’s defence business will account for the bulk of its

turnover, but we are keen to grow the business aviation offering and will look at opportunities – particularly in the Middle East – in charter, management and MRO,” says Steve Jones, managing director of Marshall Aviation Services.

Marshall’s business and commercial aviation’s offering includes Cambridge airport and the Cessna Citation authorised service centre based there, as well as a line maintenance base at London Luton airport and business aircraft charter and management company Flairjet. “These units [have] a combined annual turnover of £20 million [$31.2 million], while the Broughton facility turns over £30 million,” says Jones.

“The Broughton acquisition gives us critical mass by allowing

us to capture a much bigger slice of the market,” he adds. “We are already a Citation [500-series] authorised service centre but we have been looking to extend our maintenance offering.”

The 50-year-old Broughton facility will be rebranded Marshall Aviation Services and will widen its scope beyond Beechcraft, Jones says. “We can offer a breadth of services, including aircraft completions – something we have been unable to do until now,” he adds. “The skilled workforce can now be unleashed to work on other models. The demand is there.”

Marshall has also been appointed as Beechcraft’s distributor for the UK, Ireland and Scandinavia. O

DEVELOPMENT STEPHEN TRIMBLE MOSCOW

Rostec reveals 19-seater price tag R

ussian industrial conglomerate Rostec has revealed the pricing for two new commuter and utility aircraft it has agreed to develop with Austrian manufacturer Diamond Aircraft.

At June’s Paris air show the companies signed a memorandum of understanding to develop a majority-composite 19-seater.

Rostec has now priced the aircraft – targeted as a replacement for Russia’s fleet of Antonov flightglobal.com

An-2s and Let L-410s – at Rb120 million ($3.62 million).

The conglomerate has also revealed that plans with Diamond include developing a second aircraft type in the family – a nineseater with a list price of around $2.41 million.

Scale models of both aircraft were displayed for the first time at the MAKS air show outside Moscow, late last month. The display depicted plans to begin the

collaboration with Diamond building the entire first 19-seater in Austria. That will be followed by shifting the manufacture of some components to Ekaterinburg-based Ural Works of Civil Aviation, as a prelude to migrating full assembly of the aircraft and diesel turboprop engines to Russia, Rostec says.

Both companies intend to complete airworthiness certification of the 19-seater in 2016. O

Russian Helicopters and AgustaWestland have formally kicked off their joint bid to produce an all-new 2.5t-class single-engined rotorcraft, with the signing of a heads of agreement at the MAKS air show in Moscow last month. Details of design and project management for the 50:50 project, along with a market assessment, will be revealed by yearend. According to Russian Helicopters chief executive Dmitry Petrov, European certification is targeted for the final quarter of 2016.

PIAGGIO CONNECTS Piaggio has appointed UK business aircraft sales, charter and management company ConnectJets as its dealership for the Avanti II twin-engined turboprop in the UK, Ireland, the Channel Islands and the Isle of Man.

COMLUX MOVE Business aviation services group Comlux completed the relocation of its main holding company from Switzerland to Malta on 5 September.

The majority of the group’s 18-strong business jet fleet is registered in Malta, although two aircraft will remain on the Kazakhstan register and three on the Aruban.

FLIGHTSAFETY EXPANDS FlightSafety International has announced a “significant” expansion of the training the company offers for Cessna Citation business jets and Caravan turboprop singles at its learning centres in Orlando, Florida, San Antonio, Texas and Wichita, Kansas. Training on the full Citation Excel/XLS series will now be offered in Orlando, which houses a new level-D XLS+ simulator. A CJ2+ simulator will be added to the San Antonio facility, while a Caravan simulator equipped with a Garmin G600 cockpit has been delivered to Wichita.

10-16 September 2013 | Flight International | 21

GENERAL AVIATION

IN BRIEF ALMATY ORDER Russian Helicopters has sold a Mil Mi-8AMT helicopter to Almaty Rescue Service. The medium twin-engined aircraft will be used for search and rescue and medevac missions when it enters service with the Kazakhastan-based operator next year.

MAINTENANCE TIE-UP Russian operator UTAir and Anglo-Italian airframer AgustaWestland have signed an agreement to establish a maintenance and support unit for AW139 helicopters in Russia. UTAir is the first commercial operator of the medium twin-engined type in the region with over ten AW139s operating from bases in Moscow, Saint Petersburg, Sochi and Siberia.

Explore 100 years of aviation history as it appeared in the original pages of Flight: flightglobal.com/archive

DIRIGIBLES STEPHEN TRIMBLE MOSCOW

Atlant Arctic airship bouyed by answer to weighty issue RosAeroSystems sets four-year goal to develop hybrid to fly in Russia’s remote regions

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Russian company is seeking to develop and fly a hybrid airship within about four years to carry passengers and cargo, especially in remote Arctic regions.

RosAeroSystems, which displayed a model of the Atlant airship at the MAKS air show, is seeking to overcome the ground handling and buoyancy issues that have limited the application of commercial airships.

Like the US military-funded Aeroscraft, the Atlant is designed to rapidly reduce buoyancy by pressurising the lifting gas, says Michael Talesnikov, vice-presi-

dent at the company. Conventional airships must take on ballast while unloading cargo, or risk floating away as buoyancy rises.

But the source of the ballast – either tonnes of water or dirt – requires heavy infrastructure at the airship’s landing zone.

RosAeroSystems instead pressurises the air to control the vehicle’s buoyancy, Talesnikov says.

RosAeroSystems, founded by a former associate of Aeroscraft chief executive Igor Pasternak, has already built ground test rigs of the air pressurisation system and the Atlant’s thrust-vectoring

systems. But company officials are aware they are attempting to introduce a new kind of aviation vehicle that is not quite an airship, helicopter or fixed-wing transport, but combines elements of all three.

“It’s quite challenging,” Talesnikov says. “We are realistic people. We understand we will face some difficulties.”

In a country where 70% of the land mass lacks access by groundbased transportation systems, RosAeroSystems is targeting companies that need access to Russia’s remote Arctic regions. O

TURKISH EMS

PRODUCTION HOWARD GETHIN MOSCOW

Turkey’s THK Gökçen Aviation has taken delivery of the first five of a 17-strong Eurocopter EC135 order. The light twinengined aircraft will provide emergency medical services.

The remaining EC135s will be delivered early next year.

Eurocopter says more than 1,100 EC135s have been delivered worldwide to date, of which, more than 500 are configured for medevac missions.

FLYING CLUB BOOST The US Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association’s (AOPA) campaign to grow the number of flying clubs in the US to reverse the declining pilot population, has reached a new milestone with over 400 clubs added to the network since the initiative began less than a year ago. “Flying clubs are an underrecognised part of aviation that deserve [our] support and encouragement,” says the association. Meanwhile, the International Council of AOPAs (IAOPA) has approved Jordan as its 72nd affiliate, making it the seventh IAOPA Middle Eastern affiliate.

Kit-built Zodiac CH 640 set for Russian role Russian Helicopters

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Use of hydromechanical controls helped to speed up the process APPROVAL DOMINIC PERRY LONDON

Ansat clinches civil certification

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ussian Helicopters has finally achieved civil certification of the Kazan Ansat light twin, albeit with hydromechanical controls rather than the fly-by-wire system initially proposed.

Kazan started work on the current iteration of the Ansat in 2011 after encountering difficulty in the certification process for the fly-by-wire controls. The first prototypes of the helicopter appeared in the late 1990s.

To speed up the civil approval process, it dropped the more advanced technology in favour of a

22 | Flight International | 10-16 September 2013

traditional control system. Russia’s a military will eventually take delivery of the fly-by-wire-equipped Ansat-U trainer for its flight-training schools. Additional examples will be handed over to the Russian air force in November.

The civil Ansat is powered by a pair of Pratt & Whitney Canada PW207K turboshafts and boasts a maximum take-off weight of 3,600kg (7,930lb).

Separately, Russian Helicopters has received approval for the VIP transport variant of its Mil Mi-171 medium twin. O

MD Aviagroup is to start production of the four-seat Canadian-designed Zenair Zodiac CH 640 light aircraft at its Perm facility from this month, the Russian company’s head Vladimir Bolshakov says.

“The first of our planes, I hope, will be a four-seater,” he says. “It is a development of the Canadian Zodiac 640. Our company will make up to 20 aircraft a year. The plane will, for now, use the Canadian name, Zodiac 640.”

Bolshakov quotes a price of Rb 4 million ($120,000) for the aircraft, which will be powered by a modified car engine. VMD Aviagroup sees hobby flyers as the main potential customer, as well as Russian government agencies.

The single-engined Zodiac CH 640 is produced by Zenair as a kit-build design. The $29,000 four-seater features a tricycle undercarriage and gull-wing doors and is built from aluminium. O flightglobal.com

SPACEFLIGHT

Boeing faces export storm

BUSINESS P24 LAUNCHERS ZACH ROSENBERG WASHINGTON DC

Bad timing delays Epsilon first flight Japanese space programme suffers setback after computer glitch postpones maiden launch of new medium rocket apan saw a last-minute launch abort on 27 August as first flight of its Epsilon launch vehicle was cancelled only seconds before ignition of the first stage solid-fuel rocket due to an attitude abnormality alert.

The alert has been traced to a .07s timing mismatch between the rocket’s internal computer and the ground controller’s computer. The disparity between timing signals led the ground computer to automatically abort the launch sequence, according to Japanese space agency JAXA. A second attempt is expected later in September, although the date is yet to be announced.

Epsilon is a three-stage, solidfuel rocket, making the short notice of the launch abort particularly compelling: once solid fuel is ignited it cannot be shut off, unlike liquid-fuelled engines.

Epsilon is meant to replace the now-defunct M-V, using updated technology from the significantly larger H-II-series rockets. The revised September launch plans to orbit SPRINT-A, an ultravioletrange telescope for observing

JAXA

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Updated technology is derived from the larger H-II launcher planets within the solar system.

One additional launch of Epsilon is planned in 2014 with Asnaro 2, a civilian X-band radar satellite.

Japan has long had an intense interest in space, one that is expanding because of politico-economic tensions in the region. The nation uses its own launch vehicles, often carrying highly advanced satellites for military or research purposes.

As rival China expands its already large space programme and neighbouring North Korea and South Korea gain experience with space launches, Japan has come

under increasing pressure to maintain its advanced missions.

Meanwhile, India’s fledgling space programme received a knock on 18 August when the return-to-flight launch of its Geostationary Launch Vehicle (GSLV) was scrubbed due to a leak in the second stage’s fuel system.

This was the second launch attempt for the updated GSLV II, having endured a failure in 2010.

GSLV, which has undergone launch attempts six times, is itself an enlarged version of the less-powerful Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle.

The leak seems to have originated from the system that supplies unsymmetrical dimethylhydrazine fuel to the second stage’s single Vikas engine, discovered as the tanks were being pressurised only two hours before scheduled launch.

The Vikas engine has been removed and shipped to a facility for detailed inspection, says the Indian Space Research Organisation. A standby Vikas engine will be integrated in the meantime, although another launch is likely to wait for the findings of the inspection on the previous engine. A new flight date has not been announced.

The flight was meant to launch GSAT 14, a satellite built to test and operate indigenously built Ku- and C-band communications antennas. India’s space programme has been expanding as the nation grows wealthier and its military becomes more powerful. At least four GSLV II launches are scheduled before 2017. O Keep up with advances in spaceflight on our blog: flightglobal.com/hyperbola

RELIABILITY

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ussia’s troubled Zenit launch vehicle made a successful return to flight on 31 August, following a January incident that destroyed both the rocket and its satellite payload.

The latest launch, from Baikonur Cosmodrome, Kazakhstan, placed into orbit an Israeli civilian communications satellite called Amos 4. Land Launch, the sister company of Sea Launch, which undertakes operations from the Kazakhstan site, says the operation proceeded normally.

At least five additional Zenit launches are scheduled, both on land and at sea. The 31 August mission was the 81st launch using the Zenit vehicle. Of those flightglobal.com

81 attempts, 12 have failed at various stages in the flight. Despite the incidents, the Soviet-era design is generally considered a reliable rocket, mostly used to launch civilian communications satellites.

Zenit’s most recent ill-fated mission took place in January.

The launch from a converted oil platform in the Pacific Ocean, under the Sea Launch operation, went awry when a hydraulic pump failed to fully pressurize the RD-171 first-stage engine gimbal actuators. As a consequence the rocket could not control its flight path and fell into the ocean.

The problem was traced to manufacturing errors. O

TsENKI

Zenit makes safe return

The Russian rocket has undergone 81 launches 10-16 September 2013 | Flight International | 23

BUSINESS

Aircraft finance is among the sectors covered by our premium news and data service Flightglobal Pro: flightglobal.com/pro

POLITICS EDWARD RUSSELL WASHINGTON DC

Boeing faces export storm

Good week

US lawmakers are no longer rubber-stamping government lending for overseas sales

STEVE UDVAR-HAZY The

Spirit Aerosystems

SPIRIT AEROSYSTEMS

The troubled aerostructures maker announced an unspecified number of job cuts in Wichita to start next month, on top of the 360 detailed in July. Voluntary departure of management and salaried employees could be followed by forced lay-offs. Spirit posted a $239 million operating loss for its second quarter and announced in August that it would divest two manufacturing sites responsible for potentially more than $1 billion in forward losses.

Bad week

s justifications go, the following seems a compelling one.

“The Export-Import Bank of the United States enables US companies to turn export opportunities into real sales that help to maintain and create US jobs and contribute to a stronger national economy.” So says the Ex-Im, which in its 78-year history has made direct loans and loan guarantees to support, typically at below-market interest rates, more than $550 billion of US exports.

Jobs and a strong America; what is there not to like?

As it happens, quite a few lawmakers in Washington DC want the bank abolished. The biennial reauthorisation of its charter is due in a year, and the process – historically painless until a contentious 2012 vote – looks set to be another political storm.

The curtain-opener was a heated US Senate debate in July over the reconfirmation of bank chairman Fred Hochberg. Unsurprisingly, Maria Cantwell of Washington state – home of the USA’s biggest exporter, Boeing, and recipient of $443 billion in Ex-Im authorisations between 2007 and 2013 – is pro-bank: “Ninety-five percent of the world’s consumers live outside our borders. Are we going to make sure US products get into the hands of the growing middle class around the globe?”

On the nay side is Michael Lee of Utah, where businesses saw just a hundreth of the Ex-Im largesse of their Washington counterparts.

Lee, who sponsored unsuccessful abolition legislation in 2012 but has re-introduced the Export-Import Bank Termination Act, says: “The Export-Import Bank is an example of everything that is wrong with Washington today.

“It is big government serving the interests of big corporations at the expense of individuals, families, and small businesses.”

Some rather big businesses agree at least partly with Lee. Delta Air Lines, Hawaiian Airlines and industry groups Air-

24 | Flight International | 10-16 September 2013

Boeing

A

operating lease pioneer, who built ILFC into one of world’s biggest aircraft lessors before retiring to start again from scratch in 2010 as Air Lease Corporation, was celebrating a BBB- investment grade rating from Standard and Poor’s. The rating is the lowest of the investment grade tier, but is comparable to those held by rivals including AerCap and ILFC. Said Hazy: “This rating is a further testament to ALC’s rapid rise as an industry leader.”

Thank you, America lines for America (A4A) and the Air Line Pilots Association, have filed lawsuits objecting to loan guarantees for widebody aircraft that help foreign rivals compete with US long-haul carriers.

Among the recipients of Ex-Im support for Boeing aircraft purchases are Gulf powerhouses Emirates and Etihad Airways.

WITH FRIENDS LIKE THESE...

“It’s really investment grade companies that are owned by the government where the president of the country, the chairman of the board and the president of the airline are one in the same,” said Delta chief executive Richard Anderson. “It seems unreasonable to me that my government has got to finance my competitors.”

Boeing naturally disagrees.

“We struggle to fully understand the real reasons why they are so passionate in this conversation,” says Kostya Zolotusky of Boeing Capital. He adds that support for “better credit airlines” – understood to be ones like Emirates – usually kicks in only after they have maxed out other sources of liquidity and need financial support in order to maintain their aircraft delivery schedule.

That rationale probably cuts no ice with Delta et al; US-based airlines cannot, by any twists of overseas money handling, qualify for Ex-Im support.

It may also matter little that export credit financing has got more

expensive under the terms of the multinational Aircraft Sector Understanding of 2011, which were designed to push some better credit airlines to the commercial funds market. John Morabito, senior vice-president of transportation at financier CIT, says export credit is still a competitive alternative to commercial financing, though it is “more favourable to lower-tier borrowers”.

Boeing expects export credit will account for only 23% of the $104 billion needed to finance its deliveries this year, down from 30% in 2012. Ultimately, however, the political debate over Ex-Im should probably be viewed through the Boeing prism. Ex-Im provided $11.5 billion in support for aircraft and avionics during fiscal 2012, roughly a third of its entire programme. Boeing was the single largest beneficiary.

Senator Lee and the airline industry can lean on job figures to support their anti-bank stance.

Total US aerospace industry employment in 2011 was less than 625,000 jobs according to the AIA trade group. Airlines in the US, meanwhile, directly employed 661,000 people in 2010 says Oxford Economics.

Meanwhile, Boeing’s Zolotusky says the uncertainty over Ex-Im’s future makes its customers nervous. As a result, Boeing Capital has increased the number of backstop financing commitments it provides for orders. O flightglobal.com

BUSINESS Clearing the air FEATURE P26

BUSINESS BRIEFS

PEOPLE MOVES

Gibson: Gulfstream support Bell Helicopter has reshuffled its senior management team.

Gunnar Kleveland assumes the role of senior VP integrated operations, Dr Cathy Ferrie becomes senior VP engineering, and Matt Hasik is now senior VP commercial programs. At Cardiff Aviation, the Bruce Dickinsonfronted MRO business, Andrew Braley has been appointed commercial director, joining from AJ Walter Aviation. William Gibson has joined Gulfstream in the newly created position of director, product support global distribution. He joins from Honeywell where he held the post of senior manager

RAVEN FLIES IN TOO LATE FOR AEROVIRONMENT Q1

UNMANNED SYSTEMS In AeroVironment’s first quarter to 27 July, unmanned systems segment sales were down by 28% at $35.2 million and profit down by a third to $10.6 million – a result described as “in-line with expectations [but] adversely impacted by several one-time effects, as well as continued government contracting delays”. This includes a US government fiscal 2012 Raven UAV order, which arrived early in the second quarter.

customer operations for its space and defence segment. Plymouth, UK-based Fine Tubes has appointed John Rooney as director of engineering and technology. Safran Group has named Peter Campbell as director of financial communication, replacing Pascal Bantegnie who takes on other duties with the French aerospace and defence group. Jürgen Heinrich is now CEO at Austro Engines after the resignation of predecessor Thomas Mueller in late July. Heinrich was formerly sales and marketing director at Austro, the powerplant division of Wiener Neustadt-based Diamond Aircraft.

ALL NIPPON BUYS LAST LINK TO PAN AM

TRAINING Pan Am International Flight Academy has been sold by private equity owner American Capital to All Nippon Airways’ parent ANA Holdings for $94 million. Pan Am, with more than 60 flight simulators and programmes for pilots, cabin crew, mechanics and dispatchers, will bolster ANA’s Tokyo-based Panda Flight Academy.

SAFRAN SELLS MOTOR UNIT TO ALLIED MOTION

DIVESTMENT Safran is to sell its $106 million revenue electric motors subsidiary Globe Motors to Allied Motion for $90 million.

Pending regulatory approval, the deal could close by year-end.

HELLENIC AEROSPACE UNDER ETHICS SCRUTINY

FRAUD Greece’s government-owned aerospace manufacturer Hellenic Aerospace Industry must shore up its sagging financial situation if it is to remain in operation, warns auditor Grant Thornton. The company, which saw 2012 revenue of barely €91 million ($120 million), down from €164 million in 2011, has had its entire board of directors suspended pending an investigation into the hiring – and contract renewal – of a high-ranking and highly paid officer whose post-doctoral education certificates have been revealed as forgeries.

Fine Tubes

Gulfstream

Austro Engines, Bell, Cardiff Aviation, Gulfstream, Safran

Rooney: Fine Tubes engineer

QUOTE OF THE WEEK

“We have made considerable progress with our turnaround plan”

flightglobal.com

FINANCE Global aircraft asset and aviation finance company TPG Credit Management has been renamed Castlelake, “to reflect its growth and evolution over the past eight years”. Chief executive Rory O’Neill says: “We are grateful for TPG Capital’s support in our earlier years.” Castlelake has $2.4 billion of assets under its management, from offices in Minneapolis and London.

TURBOMECA TAKES CHARGE OF RTM322 PROGRAMME

PROPULSION Safran has completed its €293 million ($387 million) cash acquisition of Rolls-Royce’s 50% share in their joint RTM322 helicopter engine programme. Safran’s Turbomeca unit will assume global responsibility for design, production, product support and service for the engine, which powers certain Boeing AH-64 Apache, AgustaWestland AW101 and NH industries NH90 helicopters.

NORTHROP GRUMMAN TO ACQUIRE QANTAS DEFENCE

MAINTENANCE Northrop Grumman Australian is to buy Qantas Airways’ Defence Services business, which supports the Royal Australian Air Force’s A330 multi-role tanker transport fleet and overhauls engines for its Lockheed Martin Orion P-3 and BAE Systems Hawk lead-in fighter trainer. The deal is expected to close in 2014.

MEGGITT BUYS EXTREME TEMPERATURE CAPABILITY

Rex Features

Qantas Group boss ALAN JOYCE was pleased to announce an A$6 million ($5.4 million) net profit for the 2013 financial year, turning around a 2012 loss of A$244 million.

Revenue held nearly steady at A$15.9 billion, but capacity cutting helped Qantas International halve its full-year EBIT loss to A$246 million

TPG CREDIT MANAGEMENT REBRANDS

TECHNOLOGY Meggitt is to acquire for $41.2 million Piezotech, a specialists in piezo-ceramic technology for extreme temperature gas turbine sensors. US-focused Piezo will operate as a standalone operation within Meggitt’s sensing systems division, and retain existing management operating from its Indiana and Colorado sites.

10-16 September 2013 | Flight International | 25

ENVIRONMENT

Rex Features

The controversial EU ETS proved extremely unpopular with carriers

CLEARING THE AIR

As the debate rages on how to tackle airline industry emissions, experts at ICAO are endeavouring to come up with a global solution – but the clock is ticking KERRY REALS LONDON

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ressure is mounting on UN specialised agency ICAO to achieve global consensus on a single market-based measure (MBM) to address airline industry emissions at its triennial assembly in September.

Although it appears unlikely that a global agreement will be signed and sealed this year, hopes are pinned on the next best outcome from Montreal this autumn: a fully developed

26 | Flight International | 10-16 September 2013

proposal which can be presented and ratified at the next assembly in 2016 and would take effect from 2020. For the last 18 months, a group of experts at ICAO have been looking at two different approaches to tackling global aviation emissions: a framework approach, which would essentially involve a rulebook for individual countries to follow as they established their own individual MBMs; and a global approach.

Given the international outcry that ensued when the EU attempted to impose its own emissions trading system (ETS) on the rest of the world, it is generally agreed that a global solution is preferable.

There are three options on the table to use as the basis for a global MBM to regulate aviation emissions. The first, which is favoured by IATA, is a simple carbon-offsetting scheme, whereby airlines would have to buy credits on the open market to compensate for growth in their emissions. The second is a revenuegenerating carbon-offsetting scheme, which

would see a mark-up on credits to enable additional capital to be ploughed into funds to help developing countries tackle climate change-related issues.

The third option is an emissions trading system along the lines of the controversial EU ETS, which has been put on hold in the hope that a global agreement can be reached.

ANOTHER OPTION At its annual general meeting in Cape Town earlier this year, IATA put forward its own resolution, which will be presented for consideration at ICAO. The resolution calls for a mandatory carbon-offsetting scheme to be applied to emissions growth post-2020.

IATA wants to use as the baseline for its scheme the industry’s average annual emissions between 2018 and 2020. Its resolution includes provisions to recognise early movers, accommodate new market entrants while they get their operations off the ground, and take account of fast-growing carriers. flightglobal.com

ETS

However, the fact that IATA is backing the simplest of the three options with an implementation date seven years into the future has drawn criticism from some quarters.

Jean Leston, transport policy manager at the World Wide Fund for Nature’s UK branch, describes the IATA resolution as “a huge step forward that will create momentum for progress”, but expresses disappointment that the industry body has opted for a non-revenue-generating offset scheme over a cap and trade-style system.

“If each state does its own thing, this would be extremely problematic for us” PAUL STEELE IATA senior vice-president, member/external relations

KEEPING IT SIMPLE However, IATA senior vice-president member and external relations Paul Steele counters that the simplicity of a straight carbon offsetting system means it is more likely to be approved and much quicker to implement.

“You don’t need to create allowances or auctions like you would for an ETS so it’s much simpler for states to implement in the short term. But that’s not to say in the longer term we couldn’t introduce ETS,” he says.

On the lack of revenue generation in IATA’s proposal, Steele says: “It would make it more difficult to agree if monies were involved.”

Questions over responsibility for raising the extra funds and deciding how the money could be used would mean that “we’d still be sitting here in 2040 trying to decide on this”, he adds.

Both Leston and Steele agree on a major point: trying to persuade governments from 191 different states to agree on a single MBM that aims to regulate airline emissions on a global scale is going to be an uphill battle, to say the least.

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“It’s a shame the aviation industry is taking the approach that mitigation has got to happen somewhere else,” says Leston, adding that an emissions trading system “would have been preferable to offsetting”. Leston also takes issue with the proposed 2020 start date.

“I don’t want to see seven years of inactivity,” he says.

“Offsetting is a simpler solution without the governance issues surrounding cap and trade, but it can very easily lack environmental integrity. It depends on the kind of offsets purchased, and there are lots of bad ones,”

says Leston. “I’m also disappointed that IATA is not thinking of any revenue generation, even though this has been recommended by a UN high-level advisory group. This is a missed opportunity not only to show climate leadership, by helping developing countries address climate change, but it could also have been used to fund biofuels.”

Governments are muscling in on the discussion – and demanding a resolution flightglobal.com

“In an ideal world, I would like to see the assembly agree on a global offsetting scheme, but I think this is a step too far for this meeting,” concedes Steele. “But ICAO should develop a full-blown proposal to be brought to the 2016 [UN] assembly for adoption.”

He adds that ICAO “should start working now on the building blocks”, including the development of a global standard for the monitoring and verification of offsets, a point on which Leston agrees: “If we must go for offsetting, it’s critical that [ICAO] establishes some quality restrictions on what offsets the industry purchases; otherwise it’s a race to the bottom with airlines looking for the cheapest offsets, which tend to be the lowquality ones.”

Leston believes it is “essential to agree that MBMs are needed in principle and to detail what that could look like”, adding: “The worst-case scenario is that there will just be a very weak text in the final round-up. This could restart the [EU] ETS clock ticking.”

STOP THE CLOCK The EU dramatically announced in late 2012 that it was “stopping the clock” on its controversial decision to include inter-continental flights in its ETS, in order to demonstrate Europe’s commitment to seeing “a meaningful outcome at the 2013 ICAO Assembly”. In a consultation document seeking input from stakeholders on the policy options for MBMs, the EU says it “remains committed to seeking multilateral progress”.

Pressure on ICAO to come up with a solution is building from all corners of the globe, not just Europe. At the 2013 G8 Summit earlier this year, the leaders of the world’s eight most powerful countries had the following message for ICAO: “We call for the agreement at the assembly in September 2013 on an ambitious package related to both market-based and non-market-based measures to address rising aviation emissions.”

The consequences for the industry if ICAO fails to come up with a solution could be dire.

“If ICAO can’t agree and each state just does its own thing, this would be extremely problematic for us,” says IATA’s Steele, pointing out that carriers would have to comply with “well over 100” separate MBMs. Any agreement that can be reached during the assembly, which runs from 24 September to 4 October, is likely to come down to the wire, according to Steele: “Sideline discussions have gone on up until the last minute in the past, and I fully anticipate something like this happening here.

“From an industry perspective, I believe agreement in ICAO is absolutely crucial. We need it now because we need to know what to plan for and how best we can contribute to reducing our emissions,” he adds. O 10-16 September 2013 | Flight International | 27

ENVIRONMENT

WheelTug, which is fitted to the nose wheel, is being offered as an affordable and flexible choice, with minimal installation costs

ELECTRIC AVENUES

With an attractive estimated 4% fuel saving per flight on offer, cost-conscious airlines are weighing up the three main competing options for high-tech taxi systems

T

hree very different electric or automated taxi systems are battling it out to attract airline customers keen to avoid wasting fuel while their aircraft are on the ground. Estimated fuel savings of up to 4% per flight offer an attractive incentive to airlines seeking new ways to slash fuel costs and improve carbon footprints, but they will first have to weigh up the pros and cons of the varying products under development.

Following the departure from the market of a planned joint venture project between L-3 Communications and UK-based Crane Aerospace, the three remaining players are Gibraltar-headquartered WheelTug, Safran and Honeywell Aerospace’s joint electric green taxiing system (EGTS), and Israel Aerospace Industries’ TaxiBot. The WheelTug and Safran/Honeywell systems are both built into the aircraft, the key difference being that the former is installed in the nose wheel while the latter is designed for the main landing gear. Taking a different approach altogether, TaxiBot is a separate, pilotcontrolled tractor which physically tows the aircraft from the gate to the runway.

Safran/Honeywell unveiled their EGTS project at this year’s Paris air show. The system uses an aircraft’s auxiliary power unit (APU) generator to power motors in the main 28 | Flight International | 10-16 September 2013

Air France’s involvement in the project will be to examine “all operational aspects” of using the EGTS system, says Air France senior vice-president new aircraft and corporate fleet planning Bruno Delile. “The challenge is to have an aircraft going at the same speed in traffic as all the other aircraft,” says Delile, adding that the way in which the system will be applied to the retrofit market is of particular interest to the French carrier. Air France is also keen to find out when the engines would need to be started up, given that they “have to run for 5min at least” before take-off.

Delile believes the 4% fuel saving estimate to be optimistic, pointing out that “a couple of

landing gear, enabling it to taxi without running its engines. It is being tested and developed on an Airbus A320, with entry-intoservice (EIS) as a line-fit option targeted for late 2016/early 2017 and as a retrofit “very shortly after”, says Honeywell vice-president EGTS programme Brian Wenig.

REDUCED EMISSIONS The two companies estimate that the system will save between 2% and 4% of total fuel consumption per flight, with a typical EGTS cycle reducing nitrous oxide and carbon dioxide emissions by 47% and 62% respectively, compared with a standard dual-engine taxi cycle. “We conservatively estimate financial savings of approximately $200,000 per aircraft per year on fuel alone, before you add on savings in groundhandling, maintenance and unscheduled repairs from foreign object damage,” says Honeywell.

As yet, no launch customer has signed up for EGTS, but Safran/Honeywell has signed memoranda of understanding with Air France, EasyJet and TUI, which will act as “testing partners” to help develop the product. Wenig believes that one of these airlines “very well could” eventually become a launch customer, but adds: “Our primary focus is on achieving our maturity goals – we’re partnering with airlines, but we’re not out in the market booking orders.”

Safran

KERRY REALS LONDON

Safran and Honeywell have partnered to develop EGTS flightglobal.com

GREEN TAXIING

WheelTug

The system’s creators Xxxxx claim WheelTug can be installed overnight

percent” is more realistic, although he notes that “whatever the savings, it makes sense”.

Air France has made no commitment to sign up as a customer for EGTS and Delile says the carrier is also assessing the WheelTug offering. However, he adds that he is “a bit more comfortable with EGTS” because “it may be more robust to be fitted in the main landing gear”.

Safran/Honeywell made the decision to design their system for the main landing gear, as opposed to installing it in the nose wheel, because this is where the majority of an aircraft’s weight is borne and they believe this will ensure consistency of operation in inclement weather and on sloping taxiways.

“The primary reason for installing it in the main landing gear, from a technical standpoint, is that you have north of 90% of the aircraft’s weight and the centre of gravity here.

To give customers the required level of performance needed, it has got to be installed here,” says Wenig.

GAINING TRACTION However, Isaiah Cox, chief executive and founder of competing electric taxi system provider WheelTug, disagrees. The WheelTug system is being developed for installation in the nose wheel, which Cox argues makes it a more affordable and flexible option. WheelTug points out that the system has demonstrated its traction abilities “in rain, on oil and in snow”.

Cox describes WheelTug as a “much less ambitious programme than EGTS”, but stressflightglobal.com

es that because it can be installed quickly and at “zero cost”, it appeals to airlines seeking to significantly reduce turnaround times without having to make any large commitments of time or money.

“We’re not trying to do a permanent change to an aircraft. A key part of our value proposition is that the system can be installed overnight, but it can also be uninstalled…so you can try it but, if you don’t like it, you can change your mind,” says Cox.

“Time is valuable, so turnaround time benefits could dwarf fuel savings” ISAIAH COX Chief executive and founder, WheelTug

WheelTug claims that a main landing gear system “will be hard to integrate into the production line and even harder to retrofit on existing aircraft”. However, Honeywell’s Wenig envisages that retrofitting the EGTS system could be “managed over a series of overnights” and that “integration does not require changes to the aircraft structure”.

In terms of fuel and emissions reductions, Cox says the WheelTug system is on a par with EGTS, but he believes its key advantage lies in the amount of time it can shave off aircraft turnaround times. The company boasts that its system can reduce taxi times by up to 20min because of its location in the nose wheel well. “Time is valuable – much more

than fuel – so turnaround time benefits could easily dwarf the fuel savings,” says Cox. “Being in the nose wheel makes it much easier to capture that opportunity, since we don’t have any heat interaction with the brakes.”

WheelTug has signed up 11 airline customers, including KLM, Alitalia, Air Berlin and Icelandair, covering 573 aircraft. The company has not decided which aircraft type to launch the system on, a decision that will be “driven by airline demand”. The WheelTug system’s EIS is scheduled for late 2014/early 2015 “as of right now”, says Cox. Both the Safran/Honeywell and WheelTug systems are solely being designed for narrowbody aircraft at this stage, although Cox says there is “considerable interest” in a widebody version. WheelTug could launch a widebody system as early as 2016.

Safran and Honeywell, however, are staying firmly in the narrowbody camp, with Wenig noting that “at this point we don’t have any intention” of launching a widebody version. Wenig believes the off-board TaxiBot system, which is currently being tested by Lufthansa on its Boeing 737 fleet at Frankfurt, is more suited to the widebody market.

One point on which all of the manufacturers agree is that demand for electric taxi systems will be robust, as airlines take advantage of anything that could cut rising fuel bills. Europe is being billed as a strong market due to an abundance of longer taxi times and shorter flights, but China and India are also listed by Honeywell’s Wenig as being key markets. O 10-16 September 2013 | Flight International | 29

ENVIRONMENT

ALTERNATIVE MEDICINE

With fuel costs climbing, carriers are looking to substitute sources of energy – but the technology to power tomorrow’s airliners still has a long way to go ZACH ROSENBERG WASHINGTON DC

E

“If chemical engineers can make anything into anything, tell them to make jet fuel” ALAN EPSTEIN Vice-president of technology, Pratt & Whitney

carbon standpoint, using biomass feedstock is essentially the only way to guarantee net carbon neutrality – the carbon from the fuel, when burned and injected into the atmosphere, is the same carbon once absorbed by those plants.

“Chemical engineers can now make almost anything from anything,” says Epstein. “Here was the real conceptual breakthrough I think, which is genius because it’s so simple: if chemical engineers can make anything into anything, tell them to make jet fuel.” Two major obstacles to producing such drop-in fuels are the limited supply and high cost of

Boeing

very oil-based fuel – from avgas to Jet-A1 – has undergone a dramatic rise in price, to the point where the once virtually inconsequential cost of fuel has become by far the largest expense of operating an airliner.

These days, 50-60% of an aircraft’s direct operating costs is represented by fuel. “Since the dawn of the jet age we’ve gone from 10% efficient to 40% efficient,” says Alan Epstein, vice-president of technology at engine manufacturer Pratt & Whitney. “Because the hated word ‘thermodynamics’ is involved here you can’t actually get to 100% theoretically. You can theoretically get to something like 70-ish[%].”

Therefore, the race is on for alternative sources of energy – both to reduce costs and emissions. It is not yet clear that any one energy source will replace conventional jet fuel, and researchers are scrambling to prove their technologies. Part of the problem is simply that hydrocarbons are an amazing fuel – energy-dense, easy to find, extract and process, and until recently, very inexpensive. “Right now the gas turbine is about about 55% thermal efficient. It is the most efficient device on planet Earth for converting chemical energy into shaft power,” says Epstein.

The most plausible alternative – one already in the mix – is to derive jet fuel from

non-conventional sources by means of chemical wizardry. Biofuels can be produced from organic waste – plants like halophyte or corn – either by a series of chemical reactions or feeding it to a special breed of bacteria. The Fischer-Tropsch (F-T) method can convert anything with carbon monoxide into fuel, and while carbon-rich coal is the traditional feedstock, fuel has been created from wood chips, methane and many other materials. From a

Boeing’s Blended Wing Body concept has plenty of room for CNG or LNG tanks 30 | Flight International | 10-16 September 2013

producing them. At the moment biofuels and F-T-produced fuels are only economical if made on a very large scale, which requires giant infusions of capital to build and supply the processing plants.

Natural gas is a hydrocarbon made by similar processes to those that produce oil – and consequently it has similar properties.

Recent discoveries of massive reserves and new technological developments has made natural gas very cheap when compared to oil.

It can be processed into conventional fuel using the F-T method, but a simpler option is simply to burn the gas itself.

The advantage is that natural gas, sans processing, is only one-third the price of oil on a per unit of energy basis. Light aircraft builder Aviat made the first public showing of its second compressed natural gas (CNG) burning Husky test bed at the Oshkosh air show in July. The Husky is powered by a small piston engine, but the modified version can run on either CNG or conventional avgas.

“We did what we would call substantial modifications, but the operative word is ‘really’ in front of substantial,” says Stuart Horn, president of Aviat. “The parameters, specifications, manufacturing, materials process, it’d all be different for a purpose-built CNG engine. I don’t think that’s beyond anyone’s manufacturing or engineering capability.”

Although the Husky testbed is a proof-ofconcept aircraft, with “nonspecific” plans to produce the CNG-powered aircraft commercially, Horn sees flight schools as a likely market, given the high number of flight hours per aircraft and short distances they travel.

Jet engines have an easier time. “We could easily burn natural gas, you’d have a slight change in the fuel injectors, you’d probably get somewhat lower emissions, and that’s it.

But the airplanes have to be totally different,” says P&W’s Epstein. “The engines aren’t the problem. The natural gas has a much lower energy density – it’s a gas, so how do you hold it? If you liquefy it [which has higher density]

flightglobal.com

FUEL

Lockheed Martin has tested using a ground-based laser beam to power its Stalker UAV you need cryogenic tanks, and airplanes now store their fuel mostly in the wings, so you have to integrate cryogenic tanks and have very little fuel capacity.”

Moving away from the traditional tubeand-wing configuration to maximise internal volume – thus permitting a spherical LNG tank – is an idea Boeing is exploring with its Blended Wing Body (BWB) concept.

“What we found is if you go into the future and you have improvements all over the airplane – engines, aerodynamics and structures – then the amount of energy or fuel required to fly the airplane is reduced, and that reduces the size of the tanks you have to add for LNG,” says Martin Bradley, a Boeing technical fellow. Because of the relative lack of energy density compared to Jet-A1, Boeing’s en-

Boeing, Lockheed Martin

gineers speak of building a hybrid, capable running on either conventional fuel or LNG, switching seamlessly between the two as best suits the situation. No LNG aircraft exist as yet, but Boeing’s Phantom Eye demonstrator runs on cryogenic liquid hydrogen.

Plants like halophyte could be an option

flightglobal.com

ELECTRIC SLIDE Of course, one way to handle a problem is to make it irrelevant, and that is the great potential of electric power – allowing the fan to turn without burning any fuel or emitting any carbon at all. Several aircraft have been built to fly with batteries alone, and others with hybrid battery/piston power.

The most obvious problem with batteries is that they possess nowhere near the energy density of hydrocarbons.

“We’re at 240 watt-hours per kilogram for lithium-based cells. That is one-fiftieth of what hydrocarbon solutions have in terms of energy density,” says Mark Moore, NASA aerodynamic scientist and engineer.

Despite this, several testbed aircraft have flown, and at least two companies – Pipistrel from Slovenia and Yunnec from China – are actively marketing hybrid and all-electric aircraft. Several unmanned aircraft concepts, dubbed “atmospheric satellites”, are being designed to stay airborne for years at a time, powered only by batteries recharged by solar panels. Experiments are ongoing to recharge in other ways – Lockheed Martin, in particular, is experimenting with beamed power using a

ground-based laser to ‘fuel’ its Stalker unmanned air vehicle. Upscaling to larger aircraft is impractical, but the future holds great promise. Battery energy density improves in discrete jumps, with an average improvement of about 8% per year. Greater improvements are being researched but are not yet available, and thus cannot be relied upon. Still, the time is approaching when small electric aircraft will be a much more common sight – both unmanned and manned. Scaling up to airliner size, however, is another story.

“I don’t think we can answer how electric propulsion is going to be on large aircraft, because we’re just learning. This is the Wright Brothers doing their first experiments in terms of an equivalent,” says Moore. Boeing has been exploring an electric thrust system for future aircraft, but any inclusion is at least two design generations away – potentially 40 years from now. “We found that [the] first application is probably going to be a hybridelectric airplane, using electrical power at just certain phases of the flight, using it at take-off or cruising under electric power,” says Boeing’s Bradley. “But you want to have a conventional engine as well because there are plenty of times when you need to combine power, and a conventional gas-burning turbine is very advantageous.”

“An all-electric airliner, we don’t see that coming anytime soon. It would require major breakthroughs in energy storage we don’t see happening for a while,” he adds.

Boeing’s BWB studies found that 600-700 watt-hours per kilogram are required before electric propulsion starts making any sense – but the results are encouraging to NASA’s Moore. “That’s a really exciting result coming from Boeing, because we’re going to be at those battery levels certainly before 2030. So we’re already within a 20-year timeframe of Boeing saying, ‘it makes sense to be doing hybrid-electric solutions with pretty substantial battery packs very soon,’” he says.

Potentially the most disruptive effect of battery power is optimising aircraft design to take maximum advantage.

Moore is a noted proponent of distributed thrust – essentially decentralising thrust from two large engines to many small ones with a battery attached to each. “Now you’re going to see configurations come up that would not have made sense with the prior propulsion technologies, but now suddenly make all the sense in the world,” he says. O Read more about new technologies with the potential to change the face of aviation today: flightglobal.com/technology

10-16 September 2013 | Flight International | 31

SAFETY

FIRE ALARMED

The proliferation of lithium batteries and composite materials in modern airliners has increased the risk of onboard blazes, despite a recent fall in the number of fatalities DAVID LEARMOUNT LONDON

F

LIMITED EXPERIENCE In this question, he is not only acknowledging the kind of risk that the Ethiopian 787 fire demonstrated, but also expressing concern about the fact that the industry has little experience of the behaviour of composite materials in the presence of heat and fire. Aluminium, for all its limitations, is a known quantity.

One of the reasons for the fewer fatalities in recent years is that the fire-related accidents in the last decade have mostly involved freighters. Since 2011, two Boeing 747Fs – one operated by South Korean carrier Asiana, one by US package shipper UPS – have been

brought down by fire with the loss of the entire crew. In both cases, the fire was believed to have started in pallets of lithium batteries carried as cargo.

In the UPS case, said the investigators in their official report, the time between the fire warning being triggered and the first failures in a cascading loss of aircraft systems was 2min.

The flightdeck filled with smoke and the captain left his seat when the supply of oxygen to his mask unaccountably failed. The co-pilot soon could not see his instruments, neither could he see out of the windscreen. He could not see even to change the radio frequency, and so was totally incapacitated. The report and its conclusions are a nightmare to read.

There is no indication, according to the RAeS, that passenger aircraft are safe from similar events and, if a single event like the loss of Swissair Flight 111 were to take place now, it would reverse the interpretation of mediumterm statistics. Swissair 111 was a McDonnell Douglas MD-11 that crashed into the sea near Halifax, Canada, in 1998 when a short-circuit in a damaged wiring bundle generated a fierce fire in the ceiling just aft of the cockpit. The spreading fire caused a sequence of cascading system faults, which eventually wiped out the primary flight instruments. Finally, smoke blinded the pilots so they could not fly.

The SAFITA report contains this general conclusion with a number of individual ones:

PA

ire on board aircraft has caused fewer fatalities in recent years than it once did, but the risk of fire-caused incidents and accidents is increasing.

That is the conclusion of international experts assembled by the Royal Aeronautical Society, who recently published the first part of a study called “Smoke, fire and fumes in transport aircraft” (SAFITA).

Capt John Cox – president of US-based safety consultancy Safe Operating Systems (SOS), and one of the experts on the SAFITA team – says that as aircraft technology and construction materials change, so does the fire risk profile – and almost certainly not for the better. Meanwhile, the US Federal Aviation Administration and the UK Civil Aviation Authority have just jointly launched a fire safety awareness campaign, which includes an instructional video. In a particularly chilling statement at the campaign launch, the CAA said: “Of particular concern is the threat of fires breaking out in hidden areas of the aircraft, which cabin crew are unable to access and bring under control in-flight.”

The CAA statement continues: “The importance of reducing fire risks was highlighted with the recent significant fire on the Ethiopian Airlines Boeing 787 on the ground at

London Heathrow [12 July 2013]. As the film points out, an in-flight fire that is out of control will, on average, lead to flight crew losing control of the aircraft within 15 minutes.” The vulnerability of aircraft to fire is on the CAA’s “Significant Seven” list of the greatest threats to aviation safety.

Cox observes that two of the principal reasons for the change in the fire risk profile is the proliferation of lithium batteries on aircraft – both the batteries installed in the aircraft and those carried by crew and passengers in personal electrical/electronic devices. This is in addition to the increasing use of composite materials in aircraft hulls. “Composites in the vicinity of lithium batteries – how is this going to play out?” he asks.

A conflagration on an Ethiopian Airlines 787 highlighted the danger of a blaze in a hidden part of the aircraft 32 | Flight International | 10-16 September 2013

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“While the number of fatalities caused by aviation accidents has decreased, the risk of future fire-related incidents or accidents has increased due to the proliferation of lithium batteries and other risks. The importance of continued research, improved regulation, improved manufacturing standards, adoption of technology to mitigate in-flight smoke and fire, and oversight by safety professionals is proven in this document.”

CARGO CONCERNS Both the recent 747F losses have been attributed to fires that began in cargoes of lithiumion batteries. The Ethiopian Airlines 787 fire at Heathrow, according to initial examination by the UK Air Accident Investigation Branch (AAIB), involved an emergency locator transmitter powered by lithium-ion batteries, and an extensive area of the composite fuselage crown just ahead of the fin suffered heat damage. When fire crews attended, halon extinguishant directed to that area from within the cabin failed to bring the fire under control, flightglobal.com

says the AAIB’s initial factual report. But eventually, water was effective in dissipating the heat and stopping the fire’s progress.

There has always been a concern that cabin crews are poorly equipped and trained to handle cabin fires that start behind the wall and ceiling panels, and the Ethiopian event highlights just this. Barring the lavatories, there are no heat or smoke detectors anywhere in the cabin area to provide early warning or indicate the location of a fire. There are also no means existing to direct extinguishant into the space behind the panels.

Cox notes that if there were a lithium battery fire in a passenger’s laptop computer, the crews are issued with containment boxes and gloves to handle hot objects, but no protection for the arms, body or face. There is also no well-rehearsed drill for handling lithium battery fires, which can generate huge heat through selfsustaining chemical reactions. Cox observes that ideally, there needs to be a system for intervening in the chemical process – the principle on which the halon extinguishant works –

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A battery malfunction on board this All Nippon Airways 787 led to a global grounding of the type followed by the application of a coolant, like water. However, at present, the crew training, the drills, and the equipment are all either nonexistent or inadequate.

Fatal fires on passenger aircraft may indeed be rare, but IATA calculated in 2002 that inflight smoke events occur once in 5,000 flights, and diversions resulting from these

“Composites in the vicinity of lithium batteries – how is this going to play out?”

CAPT JOHN COX President, Safe Operating Systems

about once every 15,000 flights. More recently, the FAA said there are 900 reported smoke events per year in the USA alone, and these “frequently lead to diversion”. One of the effects of the lessons learned from Swissair 111 is that pilots are much quicker than they used to be to make a diversion decision when gg 10-16 September 2013 | Flight International | 33

SAFETY

RAPID DIVERSION Indeed, the SAFITA report concludes that rapid diversion is one of the primary mitigation techniques for reducing the risk of harm from onboard fire. The Swissair 111 report concluded that the crew should have diverted without any delay, although it cannot be asserted with any confidence that the aircraft could definitely have landed safely even if the pilots had acted with all possible speed. Lessons from both the recent Asiana and UPS freighter accidents reinforce this advice.

The FAA, having recently reworked its predictive model for freighter fire accidents, now forecasts the average number of US-registered freighter fire-related accidents likely to occur during the 2012-21 decade – if no mitigation action is taken – to be between two and 12, with six as the median probability. The agency explains: “Approximately four of those are likely to be initiated by primary or secondary lithium batteries on the aircraft.” The definition of “primary”, in this case, is batteries as airfreight; “secondary” is airfreighted equipment fitted with lithium-ion batteries, or lithium-powered equipment brought on board by crew and passengers. Almost all personal

Rex Features

gg smoke is detected. Obviously with Swissair 111 in mind, the FAA said that in the event of an in-flight fire, “delaying the aircraft’s descent by only two minutes is likely to make the difference between a successful landing and evacuation, and a complete loss of the aircraft and its occupants”.

A lithium-ion battery overheated on a Japan Airlines 787 in Boston on 7 January electronic devices are powered by lithium-ion rechargeable batteries.

Between March 1991 and October 2012, the FAA Office of Security and Hazardous Materials Safety recorded 132 cases of aviation incidents involving smoke, fire, extreme heat or explosion involving batteries or battery-powered devices. It found that lithium batteries were involved in the majority of the batterycaused incidents.

The SAFITA report describes the extent of the problem posed by personal equipment carried by crew and passengers: “On a typical flight, a single aisle jet carrying 100 passengers

could have over 500 lithium batteries on board.

These devices are not tested or certificated nor are they necessarily maintained to manufacture’s recommendations.”

In April 2012, a passenger’s personal electronic device burst into flames on a Pinnacle Airlines flight from Toronto to Minneapolis-St Paul. The SAFITA says: “During the in-flight service, the flight attendant noted that the device was on fire on the floor; its battery was burning several feet from the device. Using water from the service cart, the flight attendant put out the fire using wet paper towels. She then submerged the battery in a cup of water

REGULATIONS

RECOMMENDATIONS AND MITIGATIONS FOR FIRE RISK Recommendations and mitigations from the RAeS SAFITA Part 1 report: O Train all crew in handling hazardous materials and specifically in firefighting techniques for lithium battery fires.

O Identify and provide extinguishing agents suitable for fighting lithium battery fires.

O Standards for shipping lithium batteries as cargo must be raised. All cargoes of lithium batteries should be classified as hazardous cargo.

O National aviation authorities should monitor the effect of fires on composite materials and review the special conditions that already apply.

O Use more and better predictive technology to detect potential smoke or fire generating events, eg alerts for the impending failure of fan or pump bearings.

O The procedure for pilots to open direct vision windows on the

flightdeck during smoke events should be abandoned (it does not have a beneficial effect).

O Adopt the Flight Safety Foundation’s template for smoke/ fire/fume checklists.

O Pilots should be provided with full-face oxygen masks and be required to don them at the first sign of smoke or fumes.

O Pilots and cabin crew should be aware of the importance of maintaining the flightdeck door closed as a smoke barrier between the cabin and cockpit.

O Requirements for crew firefighting training should be thorough and complete, and all crews should be trained how to use the appropriate type of fire suppression and emergency equipment for the circumstances.

O Aircraft, particularly those certificated before 2007, should be evaluated for single-point wiring

34 | Flight International | 10-16 September 2013

failures which may cause cascading system failures in the event of short-circuit arcing. Arc-fault circuit interrupter technology should also replace conventional circuit breakers.

O Aircraft manufacturers should be required to carry out more realistic certification testing assuming continuous smoke generation on the flightdeck.

O “Vision assurance technology should be implemented to improve pilot visibility during continuous smoke on the flight deck.”

(Technology, such as VisionSafe’s emergency vision assurance system [EVAS], exist as options, but the SAFITA report avoids mentioning them by name.)

O Conditions for smoke evacuation tests must be made more realistic.

O In the absence of automatic fire detection and suppression sys-

tems in inaccessible areas, flight and cabin crew should be provided with means to detect smoke and fire where it cannot be seen, and ports for the insertion of fire extinguishant should be provided.

O The number of smoke and fire detectors should be increased, and a mitigation against false alarms can be provided by using different sensor types (thermal/optical).

O Halon or equivalent chemical fire extinguishers provided to the crew must be increased in capacity to 2.5kg (5.5lb).

O Thermal/acoustic fuselage-lining blankets should be checked for cleanliness and be free from flammable contaminants. Maintenance procedures should also mitigate against such contamination.

O Improve wiring inspection maintenance programmes by using new inspection technology. O

flightglobal.com

because it was still smouldering.” The captain smelled the fire and diverted the aircraft.

Meanwhile, those crews who carry electronic flightbags in the flightdeck should be aware that they are all powered by lithiumion batteries. Concern about lithium-ion batteries in aviation was considerably heightened by two high-profile battery overheat incidents on 787s within a week of each other in January. The first involved a Japan Airlines aircraft on the ground in Boston, Massachusetts, where the auxiliary power unit starter battery caught fire, and the other an airborne All Nippon Airways 787 where the main battery overheated. The two events grounded the type for more than three months while Boeing and its suppliers, watched by the FAA, redesigned the multi-cell batteries and their containment units. The intention was to reduce the likelihood of a thermal runaway, and to contain it effectively if one occurred. The 787 is the first

“A single aisle jet carrying 100 passengers could have 500 lithium batteries on board”

aircraft to incorporate lithium-ion main batteries as part of its originally certificated design, although they had been used to power ancillary units in other aircraft types, such as the emergency lighting in the Airbus A380.

Therefore, assessment of present and future onboard risks has to take account of recent technology developments, and also those in the pipeline. The widespread use of lithium-ion batteries is the obvious factor, but there are other changes too, including the growing use of carbonfibre reinforced plastic (CFRP) materials in aircraft primary structures such as wings and fuselages. This is not to say that carbonfibre is reckoned to be a particular fire risk, but its behaviour when exposed to heat is different from that of aluminium, and while the behaviour of the latter is a known quantity, there is general agreement that the industry has more to learn about the results of CFRP’s exposure to fire.

Meanwhile, a more insidious fire-risk multiplier is the ever-increasing length of electrical cabling in wiring bundles in modern aircraft – an estimated 150km of insulated wire per aircraft. As aircraft and their systems become increasingly digitally controlled, as hydraulics are increasingly replaced by electrics, as systems redundancy is reinforced to boost dispatch reliability figures, and as a result of the exploding demand for in-flight entertainment (IFE) systems, the length of cabling carrying electric energy in fat wiring bundles is growing fast.

The SAFITA report says: “The increasing complexity of electrical installations will result in further issues. Each system installed in flightglobal.com

Reuters

SAFITA REPORT

A short-circuit in a wiring bundle and subsequent blaze brought down Swissair flight 111 an operator’s aeroplane can require unique procedures to deal with a failure or a problem that might result in an in-flight fire. Another issue is the addition of new systems to aeroplanes using existing circuit-breakers to power the new equipment.” On top of this concern is the industry’s acceptance, not formalised until early this century, that electrical wiring insulation has a shorter safe life than most airframes.

WIRING WORRIES Bigger wiring bundles all add to aircraft weight, so naturally, manufacturers look for ways of making the cable core and its insulating layer lighter. The FAA has been worried by this side effect of progress, and in 2008 observed: “Wire specifications should be revised to incorporate resistance to cut-through, abrasion, hydrolysis, and longer-term heat ageing.” It was factors like these that led to the Swissair 111 tragedy. The fire began with short-circuiting in a wiring bundle, and then the insulating material itself began to smoulder. The fire subsequently moved into the fibrous thermal-acoustic hull lining blanket,

which was contaminated with dust and the products of maintenance activity, like metal shavings, grease and even hydraulic fluid.

The CAA’s synopsis of the just-launched FAA/CAA fire-risk awareness campaign particularly addresses the serious risk of wiringbundle damage combined with contamination like dust and moisture.

The purpose of SAFITA Part 1 was to identify the sources of fire risk, prioritise them and highlight mitigation strategies. The verdict was this: “The aviation industry and its regulators acknowledge that there will be ignition sources and fuel sources for fires within aeroplanes. Only through multiple layers of mitigation can the risk be kept to an acceptable level. To be effective these multiple layers will need to be re-evaluated regularly.”

Meanwhile, studies for SAFITA Part 2 are continuing, seeking approaches to better design, materials, and tools for fire detection and suppression. It is a tacit admission that the situation right now is simply unacceptable. O David Learmount keeps abreast of the latest development in aviation safety, and offers his succinct views: flightglobal.com/learmount

10-16 September 2013 | Flight International | 35

STRAIGHT&LEVEL From yuckspeak to tales of yore, send your offcuts to murdo.morrison@flightglobal.com

One is better than none

Strike the colours The British Army manoeuvres have just commenced, and thus it is impossible for us to do more than review the happenings of the initial operations in the war between Greenland and Brownland on the one side, and Whiteland, as the opposing forces have been designated.

The obviously strapped-forcash Kuwaiti government is sticking one of its Amiri Flight Airbus A300s on the market.

Before you all figure that it’ll be a dinner-party talking point and look nice on the driveway parked next to the Ford Mondeo, we’ll draw your attention to the fine print.

Some way down a list of ‘special conditions’ attached to the sale is the minor point that the aircraft “has only one engine”.

It then goes on to state that the aircraft will not be sold “partially”, shamelessly sidestepping the fact that a single-engined twinjet is partial in anyone’s dictionary. Caveat emptor and all that.

Owning up

NX611: no Lincs to Lancs whatsoever

Tweet from Heathrow airport: “Here’s a fun fact to kick off your Friday! @heathrowairport is twice the size in area of Gibraltar.” The other difference between the two places? The Brits still own Gibraltar.

obligatory quote, although it’s probably the only time Michael O’Leary will describe himself as a “leftie”.

Lax on Lancs

Left winger

Slapped wrists for us, demands Andy Burrows. “Always nice to see a picture of the Panton Brothers’ Lancaster,” he says.

Unfortunately, the airfield where the famed Second World War bomber is on display is East Kirby, Lincolnshire, not “appropriately, Lancashire” as we noted in our Pic of the Week caption in 6-12 August.

The flightcrew responsible for NX611 operate her on taxi runs, he says, “but they definitely haven’t flown her across to Lancashire. Yet.”

Ryanair marked World Left Handers Day on 12 August with a 100,000-seat sale, which could be booked on the company’s website by left-hand only.

Ryanair’s left-handed chief executive provides the

andyxh558 gallery on flightglobal.com/AirSpace

Landing lights-out

‘At home’ with RAF

Aberdeen to fly to Shetland the next,” he recalls. “I was woken by all the helicopter traffic. The reason was apparent when I switched on the TV. Instead of proceeding to Shetland, I was used to fly an Sikorsky S-61N to the standby platform alongside what was Piper Alpha.

“The sight was dramatic, even traumatic – the sea on fire and molten metal dripping into the sea. How those who jumped overboard survived is amazing.”

“I later flew out Red Adair. He arrived in his private jet, no customs or immigration. He got on board my S-61N and I flew him out to the standby platform.

Piper Alpha was still burning.”

Nearly one million people visited the 15 RAF stations which were “at home” to the public last Saturday, September 14, to see flying displays commemorating the Battle of Britain.

Antheus drops in An Aeroflot Antonov An-22 Antheus was a surprise visitor to Farnborough after the display ended on September 7. The aircraft was bringing in a spare engine for the An-124 Ruslan, to replace the unit damaged when the air bleed unit failed on the opening day.

The Ruslan made its public display for the first time on September 8.

You’ve got to hand it to him

36 | Flight International | 10-16 September 2013

100-YEAR ARCHIVE

Rex Features

Ryanair

Flying Red Adair Our 25 Years Ago reference to the Piper Alpha disaster prompts our helicopter test pilot Peter Gray to send in his memories of that fateful day.

“I was with Bristow Helicopters, overnighting in

When a R.A.F.V.R. machine struck an overhead power cable in making a forced landing near Cadmore End, High Wycombe, Bucks, last week, the electricity supply over a large area was cut off.

Fortunately the machine did not catch fire and the pilot was unhurt.

Memories of Piper Alpha

Every issue of Flight from 1909 onwards can be viewed online at flightglobal.com/archive

flightglobal.com

LETTERS

flight.international@flightglobal.com

FLIGHT

INVESTIGATION

We welcome your letters on any aspect of the aerospace industry.

Please write to: The Editor, Flight International, Quadrant House, The Quadrant, Sutton, Surrey SM2 5AS, UK. Or email ight.international@ ightglobal.com

Your editorial (Flight International, 23-29 July), conSticks and stones demning the Air Line Pilots I Association for their outrage at the premature statements by the National Transportation Safety Board on the Asiana crash at San Francisco, was speciously biased. To argue that ALPA was inconsistent because it did not complain A shortcut to nowhere G when the NTSB released postaccident statements in other cases that were favourable to the flightcrew’s actions, shows that you have perhaps only a Our 23-29 July Comment section nodding acquaintance with legalities surrounding air accident investigations.

Fatalities – of which in this case there were two – may lead, in common law countries, to an action for manslaughter against those responsible for the deaths and the flightcrew are high on the list for such a charge. Should the investigators release – before their enquiry is completed – damning statements about the flightcrew, it may jeopardise their defence in any subsequent action.

The popular option of “pilot error� can be set in motion very early on after an accident by unsubstantiated reckless opinions and untutored assumptions. One senior leading investigator caused political outcry when he stood at the crash site surrounded by twisted metal and debris, declaring that there was nothing wrong with one of the engines! On the other hand, where statements are made by the investigators that may be beneficial to the crew, then no such legal impediment is created.

The objective of the pilots’ union is to protect its members during the arduous legal aftermath of an air accident or incident. It is noteworthy that there have been instances where the pilot unions have failed miserably in this role.

The investigation is a process and those involved should not deviate from the established protocols and procedures simply to feed the sensationalism of the media and general public.

Dr David McClelland Via email

INTERNATIONAL

The opinions on this page do not necessarily represent those of the editor.

Flight International Letters without a full cannot postalpublish address letters supwithout plied may name not be andpublished. address. Letters must may be nobemore also published than 250 on flightglobal.com words in length.and must be no longer than 250 words.

Nodding acquaintance with law

The largest pilots union in the USA has started a war of words with the country’s accident investigation agency, accusing the body of “sensationalising� the crash of the Asiana 777

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First ďŹ&#x201A;ight disappointment I was surprised that the ďŹ rst ďŹ&#x201A;ight of the Airbus A350 did not get extensive coverage in Flight, or indeed anywhere in the UK. It is a ďŹ ne plane and will be a commercial success. It appears to have been well managed as a project (as opposed to the Boeing 787).

I remember watching the ďŹ rst ďŹ&#x201A;ight of the British Concorde at Filton which received huge media coverage. Will Flight be on hand to cover the ďŹ rst ďŹ&#x201A;ight of the Bombardier CS100 due â&#x20AC;&#x153;in the coming weeksâ&#x20AC;? (Flight International, 6-12 August, p9)?

A350: tablet coverage

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ALPAâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s criticism would have more credibitility if the union was more consistent

Read our analysis of what the Asiana crash investigation will look into at ďŹ&#x201A;ightglobal.com/asiana

Are we not interested in ďŹ rst ďŹ&#x201A;ights anymore? Are projects so well run now that a ďŹ rst ďŹ&#x201A;ight carries little risk and therefore is hardly worthy of comment?

John Adkins Via email

Nothing to see here

23-29 July 2013 | Flight International | 5

Editorâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s note: The A350â&#x20AC;&#x2122;s first flight was on Friday, 14 June, one day after Flight International went to press, so we were not able to include it in our 18 June print edition (although it did feature extensively in our tablet

edition, which goes to press a day later). The first flight was overtaken by events by the time our next, Paris airshow report issue came out on 25 June, where we did cover the flight test programme to date.

A320 cowl check rule needed

Flight International, 20-26 August, prompts concerns regarding the recent EasyJet A320 cowl loss at Milan Malpensa. During the incident the rudder and rear fuselage suffered domestic object damage that compromised the safety of ďŹ&#x201A;ight.

It is time that the regulatory authorities issue a mandatory airworthiness directive to physically check that the A320-series engine cowl latches are secured prior to every ďŹ&#x201A;ight.

This could simply be done by the dispatch personnel using a low trolley to scoot under the cowls for a quick visual check.

Accomplishing latch checks only when the cowls were opened for maintenance could lead to accountability errors leading to future unlatched cowl detachments.

Chris Barnes KentďŹ eld, California

Xenophobic ban on approaches?

â&#x20AC;&#x153;The FAA is assigning alternate instrument approaches to all foreign carriers.â&#x20AC;? (Flight International, 6-12 August, p8) What!? Apart from the frankly astounding xenophobic implication that only Americans can ďŹ&#x201A;y properly, is that discrimination even legal under international conventions?

Bob Owen Sherborne, Dorset, UK

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10-16 September 2013 | Flight International | 37

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29 October to 3 November Seoul Air Show Seoul, South Korea seoulairshow.com

6-8 November

SppedNews 18th Regional & Business Aviation Industry Suppliers Conference Scottsdale, Arizona speednews.com

17-21 November Dubai Airshow Dubai World Central dubaiairshow.aero

19-20 November

Safety in Aviation – North America Montreal, Canada www.flightglobalevents.com/ safetyna2013

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

10-16 September 2013 | Flight International | 39

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Speedy delivery service Competitive prices Quality assurance :H RSHUDWH D 4XDOLW\ 0DQDJHPHQW 6\VWHP ZKLFK FRPSOLHV ZLWK WKH UHTXLUHPHQWV RI %6 (1 ,62 LQ WKH 3URFXUHPHQW ,PSRUWDWLRQ 6WRUDJH DQG 'LVWULEXWLRQ RI $YLDWLRQ )XHOV :H DUH '&/ UHJLVWHUHG 'HIHQFH &RQWUDFWRUV /LVW DQG ZH KDYH UHFHQWO\ EHHQ DZDUGHG ZLWK D IXUWKHU WZR \HDU FRQWUDFW WR VXSSO\ WKH 0LQLVWU\ RI 'HIHQFH ZLWK $YLDWLRQ )XHOV For more information call Damian on 020 8440 0505 or E Mail: sales@cymapetroleum.co.uk

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SALE AND LEASEBACK Biman Bangladesh Airlines is looking for reputable Lessors, Banks and other financial institutions to take over the purchase of its firm orders for 2 (two) new Boeing737-800 aircraft due for delivery in November and December 2015, and leaseback to Biman for a period of ten (10) years from said date, with options to extend. Pre-delivery payments are due in October 2013.

Details are available on Biman website www.biman-airlines.com 42 | Flight International | 10-16 September 2013

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flightglobal.com/jobs EMAIL recruitment.services@rbi.co.uk CALL +44 (20) 8652 4900 FAX +44 (20) 8652 4877

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Design Project Engineer – Avionics / Mechanical We are inviting applications from Design Project Engineers to join our EASA Part 21J, approved Design Organisation in Redhill, Surrey. As part of Bristow Technical Services, the Design Organisation provides technical and design expertise in support of the Bristow Group and to our External Customers.

Responsible to the Head of Design, your duties will include but not limited to: • • • • • • • • • • •

Researching and designing aircraft modifications that meet future operational or mandatory requirements; Compiling and/or approving design documentation under the Organisation’s EASA Part 21, Subpart J Approval; Ensuring design work meets compliance with appropriate approvals and airworthiness requirements; Delivering Project Management of modification programmes; Working closely with Bristow’s EASA Part 21G Approved Production Organisation on manufacturing issues and modification kit production; Providing technical support and rectification action in response to operational problems, incidents and AOG situations, ensuring safety and airworthiness whilst minimising operational disruption and costs; Liaising with internal Departments, Aircraft Manufacturers, Equipment Vendors and Regulatory Bodies; Collaborating with Technical Specialists, as required, in relation to the interdisciplinary aspects of design projects; Reviewing technical documents issued by Aircraft Manufacturers, Equipment Vendors and Regulatory Bodies, assessing the implications and implementing the appropriate actions to ensure continued compliance with regulatory requirements; Negotiating, as necessary, with regulatory authorities to obtain approval for major modifications; Representing the company, on a technical basis, at industry working groups, meetings and conferences.

• Aviation related, Engineering Degree, HND or other Professional Qualifications and knowledge equivalent to an EASA B1.3/B2 License Holder; • Previous experience in an aviation related engineering design / development role. Preference will be given to candidates who can demonstrate suitability to hold CVE status within an EASA Part 21J Design Organisation; • Must be thorough, detailed and analytical in approach to work with an ability to provide innovative solutions to problems; • Strong, demonstrable negotiation and interpersonal skills; • Excellent verbal and written communication skills; • Ability to work on own initiative or/and as part of a team; • Flexible with the ability to adapt to changing demands; • Able to make clear-cut decisions and communicate these effectively; • Ability to meet strict deadlines and work under pressure; • Proficient in the use of Microsoft Office and Web Based Software; • A working knowledge of AUTO-CAD would be desirable.

To apply please submit an online application together with a covering letter and CV at: www.bristowgroup.com/careers

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10-16 September 2013 | Flight International | 43

HUNDREDS OF JOBS @ flightglobal.com/jobs

Skills / Experience

RECRUITMENT HUNDREDS OF JOBS @ flightglobal.com/jobs

A proposed dynamic airline in the Republic of Serbia is seeking an expression of interest from candidates interested in the following roles Licensed Aircraft Engineer

Licensed Aircraft Technician

The right candidate will need

The right candidate will need

● Valid aircraft maintenance license (ICAOII, EASA66) ● Post holder must have a minimum of 5 years’ experience within line maintenance, of which 3 years in a similar role. ● Formal technical training on (A319/A320 – B737CL – ATR72) aircraft type ● Excellent knowledge of line maintenance operations ● Excellent knowledge of aviation regulations (e.g.

JAA, EASA, FAA) ● High standard of English language ● High standard of computer literacy (MS Office applications)

● ● ● ●

High School Diploma or equivalent Formal aircraft apprenticeship or equivalent Minimum 2 years line maintenance experience Excellent knowledge of aviation regulations

Applications from citizens of the Republic Of Serbia are strongly encouraged.

Please send all applications to

enggrecruitment.serbia@gmail.com Deadline for applications is the 30th September

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Your industry, your job site 44 | Flight International | 10-16 September 2013

flightglobal.com

RECRUITMENT

A place for learning, an opportunity for development.

School of Engineering Department of Aerospace Engineering

Senior Lecturer/Reader £48,064 to £52,138 per annum Communications, Navigation and Surveillance (CNS) and Air Traffic Management (ATM) As a senior member of staff in the Aircraft Design Group, you will work closely with colleagues specialising in avionics design and avionics software systems and will be expected to develop and lead the CNS/ATM research activity in the group. An active researcher, you will have a strong background in modern avionic/CNS/ATM system design (e.g. RPN, 4D Trajectory based operations and PBN) a proven research track record and also a proven ability in winning funding from UK and EU initiatives in the field.

The Department has a Large Aircraft Flight Simulator (LAFS), an Avionics Rig and various other Flight Simulators. Additionally, we are planning an innovative CNS/ATM Laboratory, which will include also the networking of the simulators available in the School of Engineering and possibly other resources in Cranfield University. You will lead the establishment of the CNS/ATM Laboratory and in the day-to-day activities required for running and maintaining the LAFS. In addition to high quality research, you will be expected to design and deliver aeronautical communications systems and ATM lectures and tutorials as part of the taught MSc programme in Aerospace Vehicle Design (Avionics option), with the aim of growing the CNS/ATM content leading to possibly a separate option including short and long courses.

You will provide support to the Design Project element of the MSc programme and will supervise research theses.

HEAD OF FLYING OPERATIONS (HFO) - PERTH BASED Responsible for the safe, efficient and cost-effective deployment of the company’s flight operations assets.

Key Duties and responsibilities include: t Act as the principal flight operations adviser to the General Manager, Regional Services t Ensure compliance under the civil aviation law of all flying conducted by the company as the holder of a High Capacity AOC t Represents the Company with the regulatory authorities, Government agencies, clients, service providers and the public t Plan, organise, lead and control the daily operation of the Flight Operations Department t Ensure Operational Budget Performance and Cost Control measures Essential Qualifications and Experience: t Background/qualifications acceptable to CASA HFO requirements of a High Capacity AOC t Demonstrable high level understanding of all of the essential operational and infrastructure requirements to conduct the company’s operations t Demonstrable leadership and interpersonal skills commensurate with the position t Australian Air Transport Pilot’s Licence (ATPL) t Current Command Multi Engine Instrument Rating To apply: Please email your resume to the HR Assistant, Monica Van De Laak before close of business 3 October 2013 at regionalserviceshr@cobham.com.au

You must have a PhD in aeronautical/aerospace or electronic engineering and research experience in the field of CNS/ATM. Industrial and direct experience of practical CNS/ATM Integration also would be expected.

Closing date for receipt of applications: 4 October 2013.

www.cranfield.ac.uk

EASA Instructors for Sikorsky S-92 FlightSafety International, Farnborough, UK seeks Ground and Simulator Instructors for the Sikorsky S-92 program to instruct Initial, Recurrent and Enrichment Pilot Training courses.

Gulf Helicopters Company, a Commercial Helicopter operator based in Qatar, seeks to fill the positions of Licensed Aircraft Engineer and Technicians.

Adv. Ref. No. LAE/TECH-01/2013 Possess Aircraft Maintenance Engineer’s License issued under the provision of ICAO Annex II in Airframe and Power plant or Avionics with all categories, or EASA Part 66 B1 or B2. Applicants should have appropriate experience on type and manufacturer’s airframe & engine course certificates. Candidates holding type ratings on AW 139 and/ or Bell 412 will only be considered.

We offer a TAX FREE, attractive and competitive remuneration package.

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

flightsafety.com

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

A Berkshire Hathaway company

Please apply online by visiting our website: www.gulfhelicopters.com specifying the job ref # as LAE/TECH-01/2013 in the Engineers application form and forward CV & scanned copies of licenses and training certificates to email address: careers@gulfhelicopters.com with full name and position in the subject line.

flightglobal.com

10-16 September 2013 | Flight International | 45

HUNDREDS OF JOBS @ flightglobal.com/jobs

Apply online now at www.cranfield.ac.uk/hr or contact us for further details on E: hr@cranfield.ac.uk or T: +44 (0)1234 750111 ext 2347.

Please quote reference number 1427.

CTC FlexiCrew High flyers, on demand

Seeks Type Rated Pilots Locations UK & Worldwide Flexible & Permanent Positions

Contract and Permanent recruitment for the Aviation industry David Rowe, Alastair Millar, Jodie Green, Ian Chapman

www.ctcaviation.com/ctcflexicrew

Tel: +44 (0)1737 821011 Email: aero@cbsbutler.com www.cbsbutler.com

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

Tel: +353 1 669 8224 Fax: +353 1 669 8201 Email:recruitment@sigmaaviationservices.com recruitment@sigmaaviationservices.com Email: www.sigmaaviationservices.com www.sigmaaviationservices.com

Recruitment Support to the Aviation Industry

aviation recruitment

T: +44(0)1483 332000 recruitment@zenon.aero

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

GCT Group Worldwide specialist for Aerospace Engineering, Certification & Management Services e: yourcv@garner.de t: +49 (0) 8153 93130 w: www.garner.de

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One industry, one job site 46 | Flight International | 10-16 September 2013

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WORKING WEEK WORK EXPERIENCE JOSEPH KELLY

Ireland’s MRO golden boy You recently won the gold medal in aircraft maintenance at the 2013 WorldSkills competition. Briefly describe what the competition entailed?

The competition was carried out over a four-day period (22h) with six modules to be completed.

The six modules were: 1) Aircraft structural sheet metal repair 2) Daily inspection on a Gazelle helicopter 3) Hot section inspection on a Rolls-Royce C250 turboshaft engine, using a borescope and a detailed visual inspection following removal of various components. This module also consisted of blending a compressor rotor blade in accordance with the maintenance manual 4) Rigging of an aileron flight control system 5) Aircraft component removal, inspection and installation 6) Fabrication of a typical aircraft electrical wiring circuit that included fault finding What is your role at Transaero Engineering and what would a typical week be like?

I work as an aircraft mechanic at Transaero Engineering Ireland.

We are a maintenance, repair and overhaul facility located in Shannon, Ireland. We carry out maintenance for Transaero Airlines and for many third party airlines, including passenger/cargo and VIP aircraft. Presently, we main-

Team Ireland Skills

Joseph Kelly is an aircraft mechanic with Transaero Engineering. In recognition of his dexterity in aircraft maintenance, he was awarded a gold medal at the 2013 WorldSkills competition in Leipzig, Germany

Kelly: developed his mechanical aptitude from an early age tain Boeing 737 series, 757, 767 and 777 aircraft. I work as part of a “flexi-crew team”. Every day is different in that I can be sent to any zone around the aircraft, including wings/flight controls, engines, landing gear, air conditioning, cabin interior, avionics or composites, depending on where there is a manpower requirement for that particular day. It is an excellent way to gain experience all around the aircraft.

What is your career background so far?

I started my apprenticeship in 2008. The apprenticeship is run by the Irish National Training Authority (FÁS) in conjunction with private industry and includes seven phases of training.

Three of these phases are “off the job” training, carried out in facilities at FÁS Training Centre Shannon and Dublin Institute of Technology. The four other phases are “on the job” training carried out at Transaero Engineering. I qualified in September 2012.

I was selected over three years to compete in three Irish National Skills competitions, winning on two occasions. Having gone through a rigorous selection process, I was selected to represent Ireland in the skill of aircraft maintenance. I recently completed a B1 Type training course on the Boeing 767 aircraft.

Why did you decide to pursue a career in engineering?

From a young age, I had a huge

interest in how machinery worked, and I showed a good mechanical aptitude when on work experience as part of our school curriculum. Having an interest in aviation, I decided to pursue a career in aircraft maintenance engineering.

Where do you see yourself in ten years?

I really enjoy working as an aircraft mechanic and I hope to gain more responsibilities and duties in my trade, and become experienced and knowledgeable in all zones around the aircraft. I see myself as having lots of Group1Aircraft Type ratings on my EASA B1 licence and progressing to a managerial role within Transaero Engineering Ireland.

What do you do to relax outside the job?

In my spare time, I enjoy playing hurling with my local GAA club, and following the All-Ireland Hurling and Football leagues and championships. I also like to play golf and attend social events with my family and friends. ■ 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 Avionics Engineers www.jobs.eads.com

flightglobal.com

10-16 September 2013 | Flight International | 47

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