farnborough airshow news 07-15-14

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Air Transport Innovation Industry UAVs Future Flight

CSeries on Track for Service EntryBombardier officials insist the CSeries program is on schedule for first deliveries in the second half of 2015. Several new orders were also announced, including one from Petra Airlines in Jordan. Page 8

Green Aircraft Take Off, for a PriceResearch into biofuels accounts for roughly half the budget of the Advisory Council for Aviation Research and Innovation in Europe. Work continues on greener engines as well. Page 20

UAC Consolidates Russian AerospaceFormed in 2006, the United Aircraft Corporation has succeeded in bringing key elements of Russia’s aerospace industry into a single fold. The company includes civil and military products. Page 54

How the British Fly the Armed ReaperFacing scrutiny over unmanned armed aircraft use, the UK Ministry of Defence invited the press to its RAF Reaper ground control station. Farnborough Airshow News was there. Page 58

Supersonic Designs Cost BillionsSir Richard Branson is one of several with plans to bring super/hypersonic technology to flight. But the cost of development runs high. One idea is a digital “view” of the outside. Page 64

Airbus brass ‘unanimous’ on A330neoby Bill Carey

Airbus’s board of directors has made an “uncon-ditional and unanimous” decision to launch the re-engined, extended-wing A330neo widebody family that will be lower to buy and operate than the Boeing 787, Airbus executives declared on Monday at the Farnborough International Airshow. The manufacturer also announced a memorandum of understanding with Air Lease Corporation (ALC) for 25 A330-900neos and promised further orders will follow this week.

The 252-seat A330-800neo and the 310-seat A330-900neo will feature new Rolls-Royce Trent Airbus COO John Leahy confirmed the launch of the A330neo,

and punctuated the news by announcing an MoU for 25.

Cameron drops in, and drops a bundle on defense by David Donald

On a flying visit to the Farnborough Airshow yesterday, UK Prime Minister David Cam-eron announced a major boost to the UK’s defense budget by pledging £1.1 billion to a pack-age that both extends current capabilities and introduces new ones. Cameron specifically men-tioned Raytheon/Bombardier Sentinel and the Beechcraft King

Air-based Shadow airplanes, which were due to be withdrawn next year following the UK with-drawal from Afghanistan, but which have proved of such use that they are to be retained for at least three more years.

“National security is the very foundation of national prosper-ity, especially if you’re an open

Continued on page 4 u Continued on page 4 u

LOCAL HEROES LOCAL HEROES Gushing colored smoke, the UK Royal Air Force’s Red Arrows jet demonstration team transformed the sunny sky above Farnborough into one huge patriotic banner.

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7000 engines and engine pylons, a 3.7-meter wingspan extension to 64 meters, Sharklet wing-tips styled after the wingtips on the A350 XWB, and 95 per-cent spares commonality with the current A330. The man-ufacturer claims the updated A330neos will reduce fuel con-sumption by 14 percent per seat compared to current A330s. It aims to freeze the design of the A330neo by the end of next year and make the first delivery in December 2017.

Airbus pegged the average list price of the A330-800neo at $241.7 million compared to $221.7 million for the current A330-200. It expects the A330-900neo to retail at $275.6 million compared to $245.6 million for the A330-300. “Because we’ve already got a

fully amortized airplane, we can offer it at very, very attrac-tive pricing,” said Leahy.

On Sunday here in Farn-borough, before the air show, Boeing’s marketing vice pres-ident Randy Tinseth told reporters that the re-engined A330 is an acknowledgement by Airbus that it has only a “one-trick pony” with the A350-900. Airbus president and CEO Fabrice Bregier has admitted that he expects most of the manufacturer’s backlog of A350-800s will be converted to A350-900s.

Airbus is investing between €1 billion and €2 billion ($1.36 billion to $2.73 bil-lion) on the updated A330 and expects eventually to sell 1,000 A330neos, Bregier said.

Leahy said the range of the A330-800neo will exceed that of the 787-8, while the A330-900neo will have shorter range but more seats than the 787-9. o

Airbus brass backs A330neouContinued from page 1

trading nation like the United Kingdom, and especially if you’re living in such a dan-gerous and uncertain world,” asserted Cameron. “You can’t have a long-term eco-nomic plan unless you also got a long-term defense plan.”

Although the next UK Strate-gic Defence and Security Review is not due to be unveiled until next year, the govern-ment has been able to initiate a number of mea-sures in advance. “We didn’t come into government in 2010 and ignore the widen-ing black hole in the defense budget,” said Cameron. “We got a grip, we made a realistic assessment, and I can announce today that we’re now able to put £1.1 billion of investment back into our defense capabilities.”

The bulk of the new money is aimed at improving and extending ISR (intelligence, reconnaissance, surveillance) assets, accounting for £800 million. Specifically men-tioned is new equipment for the special forces, and the extension of the Sentinel air-borne radar platform and the Shadow multi-sensor air-craft. Both were due to be

withdrawn next year, but will now fly until at least 2018.

Cameron also broadly outlined what the other £300 million is to be spent on. Cyber warfare will benefit, as will the Eurofighter Typhoon. Part of the budget is to be spent on fund-

ing an e-scan radar upgrade for the aircraft.

The latest announce-ment comes a few days after the ceremony to name the new aircraft carrier, HMS Queen Elizabeth, was held in Rosyth, Scotland. o

Cameron drops in, drops a bundleuContinued from page 1

F-35: Another VirtuAl AppeArAnce

Sitting in front of a “virtual” F-35 backdrop, Lockheed Martin CEO Marillyn Hewson (left) and Pentagon acquisition chief Frank Kend-all (right) were two of nine senior F-35 officials who showed up in Farnborough yesterday to explain why the F-35 was a good value–and why it isn’t here. Kendall said she was still “hopeful” the jets will be able to show by the end of the week. A full explanation of the engine fire was provided for the first time. “We understand what happened, now we’re trying to figure out why,” said Lt. Gen. Chris Bogdan, the F-35 program head. See tomorrow’s edition of Farnborough Airshow News for a full report. –C.P.

DAy one orDers top $50 billion At F’boro

Day one of the 2014 Farnborough International Airshow proved to be a lucrative one for just about all manufacturers of airliners and the engines that power them. An approximate estimate of business announced here yesterday quickly topped $50 billion.

Air Lease Corporation kicked off proceedings with a $6.9 bil-lion launch order for Airbus’s Rolls-Royce Trent 7000-powered A330neo (see separate story on page one) and added a $6.6 billion contract for 60 A321s. Rival leasing group AerCap firmed up a $5.1 billion order for 50 additional A320neos, followed by International Airlines Group, which converted $1.9 billion worth of A320neo options into firm orders.

Monday was also payday for Boeing, which was especially thrilled to win back the UK’s Monarch Airlines as a customer. Subject to further detailed negotiation, the two sides have pro-visionally agreed to a $3.1 billion deal for 30 of the new 737 Max 8s. Leasing group Avolon signed a $2 billion commitment for six of the new 787-9 Dreamliners and five more 737 Max 9s. China’s Okay Airways ordered six of the same narrowbody, as well as four 737-800s, and agreed to convert five existing orders for the same type in favor of the larger -900ER as part of a $980 million contract.

Regional aircraft makers Mitsubishi (LoI with Eastern Air Lines of the U.S.), Embraer (order for 50 E2s from Trans States Holdings), ATR (order for 75 ATR 42-500s from Nordic Aviation Capital) and Bombardier (see page 8) all announced new business yesterday. Taking account of options and provisional commitments, this could be worth around another $6.5 billion collectively.

Mexican low-cost carrier VivaAerobus selected Pratt & Whit-ney’s PurePower PW1100G-JM engines to power the 40 A320neos it has on order, plus options for 40 more.

A day after landing a 200-engine, $2.6 billion order from Amer-ican Airlines for Leap-1A turbofans to power 100 A320neos, CFM International announced a $3.3 billion deal with easyJet. This cov-ers 200 Leap-1As for its A320neo family and 70 CFM56-5Bs for additional A320ceos. China’s Spring Airlines ordered CFM56-5B engines to power 30 A320ceos in a $620 million contract. CFM fol-lowed this with a series of other order announcements.

CFM partner GE Aviation won a $1.4 billion order from Air Lease Corporation for GEnx-1B engines to power 30 Boeing 787s. In a business that underlines the value of the aftermarket, Emirates gave GE a 12-year OnPoint contract for maintenance on GE9X engines powering its Boeing 777X at a price of $13 billion. SriLankan Airlines signed a five-year OnPoint deal covering the CFM56-5B. –C.A.

UK Prime Minister David Cameron visited yesterday.

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Pratt confirms oil leak caused PW1500G fireby Gregory Polek

Pratt & Whitney officials on Sunday afternoon identi-fied the source of the failure of one of the PW1500Gs on the first Bombardier CSeries flight test aircraft as a “seal issue” in the oil system, not the low-pressure turbine, as was previously indicated by Bom-bardier. However, the officials refused to specify precisely where the oil leak originated or offer detailed information about the expected timing of its so-called fix.

While attending a Sunday “roundtable” discussion with re-porters in London prior to the opening of the 2014 Farnborough Airshow, PW1000G programs vice president Graham Webb in-sisted that Pratt engineers have gained a good understanding of what caused the uncontained fail-ure on May 29 in Mirabel, Cana-da, and that they’ve already put in place adjustments and “mi-nor modifications,” validation of which continues at Pratt facilities in Connecticut.

“Once ourselves and Bom-bardier...are fully satisfied that we have a robust fix in place, we’ll start flying again with the

agreement of the regulators,” Webb said. “We look at this as kind of bad timing...right before an air show to have an event like this. Nonetheless, this is part of the process.”

Characterizing the event as “a minor speed bump” on the PW1500’s path toward entry into service, “a plumbing issue,” and part of the normal development process, Webb suggested that every engine manufacturer experi-ences comparable problems before it introduces a new product.

Still, Pratt & Whitney exec-utives resisted any tempta-tion to identify precisely what engineers believe caused the uncontained failure. “The area that was impacted was in the area in the back end of the engine, but that’s all we say,” said Pratt & Whitney Com-mercial Engines president David Brantner. “I don’t want to speculate about anything else...the issue is a seal prob-lem in the oil system.”

Notwithstanding his insis-tence that Pratt fully under-stands the so-called issue, Webb explained that Pratt resists offer-ing further details because it

hasn’t fully validated the fix, and that it doesn’t want to do is risk releasing erroneous information.

Both Webb and Brant-ner said Bombardier mistak-enly identified the low-pressure

turbine as the source of the problem, because it dissemi-nated information that proved premature. “Bombardier is talk - ing about what they think it is, there was early information and

somebody said, ‘Gee, it could be in the LPT’,” said Brant-ner. “We’re telling you right now: rear compartment, oil seal issue, plumbing. That’s what we’re fixing.” o


According to officials from Pratt & Whitney, it was an issue with one of the oil seals that caused the fire in its PW1500G (above), which powers Bombardier’s developmental CSeries airliner (mockup, right).

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Bombardier: CSeries service entry is on trackby James Wynbrandt

Bombardier Aerospace an-nounced orders and letters of in-tent (LOIs) valued in excess of $1.65 billion at the Farnborough Airshow yesterday, as well as the selection of an authorized training provider and details of its service and support program

during its update on the in-de-velopment CSeries twinjet.

Meanwhile, with the issues regarding the recent engine fire reportedly identified and being addressed (see story above), the Montreal-based company sees no further impediments to the

CSeries entry into service in the second half of 2015.

Ray Jones, senior v-p sales, marketing and asset manage-ment, Bombardier Commer-cial Aircraft, provided details about the company’s orders and LOIs.

Falcon Aviation Services of Abu Dhabi converted a letter of intent (LOI) for two CS300 jet-liners announced at the Singa-pore Airshow to a firm order, a contract valued at approxi-mately $153.6 million based on list price of the aircraft.

Zhejiang Loong Airlines Co. of Hangzhou, China, has signed an LOI for 20 CS100 airliners, representing a sale of $1.2 billion, if all are converted to firm orders.

Petra Airlines of Amman, Jordan has signed a LOI for up to four CS100 and CS300 airlin-ers. Should the LOI be exercised, it will comprise two firm-ordered CS100s (valued at approximately $136.5 million at list price) and two options for CS300s. If the CS300 options are exercised, the entire contract would be valued at $298.4 million.

Jones also identified Latvia- based Air Baltic Corporation as the undisclosed customer that converted options for three CS300s to firm orders at the Sin-gapore Airshow last February, a contract valued at some $220 million. Air Baltic’s original firm order for 10 CS300s with options for an additional 10 was signed in December 2012.

Smart PartsTodd Young, Bombardier

v-p, customer services and sup-port, introduced the company’s new Smart Parts programs and announced the recent approval by Transport Canada, EASA and the FAA of its maintenance program for CSeries aircraft operators. The maintenance pro-gram allows CSeries operators to extend intervals between line maintenance checks (A checks) to 850 hours and base mainte-nance checks (C checks) to inter-vals of 8,500 hours.

The Smart Parts program, building on the company’s busi-ness aviation and Q400 Smart Parts programs, offers a tai-lored support solution covering

more than 400 components in more than 20 major systems, and includes a component repair management solution and com-ponents exchange pool program.

Michel Ouellette, presi-dent, customer services and specialized and amphibious aircraft, Bombardier Aero-space, announced Flight Train-ing Alliance, a newly formed joint venture between CAE and Lufthansa Flight Training, has been appointed as exclu-sive authorized training pro-vider for CSeries aircraft pilot and cabin crew training world-wide. Ouellette also announced that Lufthansa Technical Train-ing has been named exclusive authorized training provider for maintenance training for CSeries aircraft.

Meanwhile, fuel burn, stall performance, noise, emissions and other performance param-eters projected for the aircraft have been confirmed in flight tests, and construction of new facilities for CSeries produc-tion are on track for occupancy later this summer, according to the company. o

Mike Arcamone, left, Bombardier president of commercial aircraft, congratulates Riad Khashman, CEO of Jordan-based Petra Airlines on a new letter of intent for up to four CSeries airliners. The deal is valued at $298.4 million.

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Army called to retire Kiowa Warriors by Bill Carey

DRS Technologies, a Fin-meccanica-owned U.S. defense contractor, has supported the distinctive sensor ball that sits atop the U.S. Army’s OH-58D Kiowa Warrior since 1998.

Technology updates the com-pany has developed will make the electro-optical targeting system known as the mast-mounted sight (MMS) more lethal and better protect Kiowa

Warrior crews–if only the Army continues investing in the long-serving scout helicopter.

Budget cuts and reduced spending levels have forced the Army to reevaluate its future

aviation strategy. Earlier this year, as part of its Fiscal Year 2015 budget submission, the service announced an “aviation restruc-turing initiative” that among other steps will retire the entire fleet of 312 Kiowa Warriors. With its recent plan to acquire a new-build armed aerial scout shelved, the Army will rely on Boeing AH-64E Apache attack helicopters and unmanned air-craft to perform the armed scout mission in the near term.

Whether or not the Army retires its Kiowa Warrior fleet, the helicopters will remain in ser-vice and potentially in harm’s way for another five to eight years, argues DRS (Outside Exhibit 1). The company contends that the Army earlier committed to implementing three engineering change proposals (ECPs) to both update and improve the MMS. It wants the service to “responsi-bly retire” the helicopters in part by approving the ECPs, which would replace the sight’s laser rangefinder/designator (LRF/D) with an improved LRF/D, add a laser pointer and deliver sec-ond-generation forward-looking infrared (FLIR) capability with a new processor.

“We are requesting the Army to continue to procure those engineering change propos-als for the mast-mounted sight because the dollar costs are rel-atively small and because they enhance dramatically the lethal-ity, survivability and safety of the crew,” said Wayne Sauer, DRS Technologies vice pres-ident. “We’re not talking mil-lions here. With the three ECPs together, it’s maybe $150,000 to $200,000 per aircraft.” Another plus: the modifications can be done at the unit level, and require little new pilot training, Sauer said.

In May, the U.S. House of Representatives endorsed upgrading the MMS in its ver-sion of the Fiscal Year 2015 National Defense Authoriza-tion Act, which was advanced to the Senate.

Northrop Grumman and DRS designed the new diode-pumped LRF/D as a drop-in replacement for the legacy laser designator. o


DRS Technologies, which has supported the mast-mounted sight on the OH-58D Kiowa Warrior since 1998, has developed new technology to upgrade the device.

Automated panel assembly line speeds up Boeing 737 productionby Gregory Polek

The production system that promises to support a reduction in final assembly times for the Boeing 737 from 10 to 9 days this year should become still more efficient with the introduction of a new automated panel assembly line (PAL) by early 2015.

Built by Mukilteo, Wash-ington-based Electroimpact, the PAL fastens stringers to wing skin panels at twice the rate Boeing now can manage using the current process at the 737 plant in Renton, Washing-ton. Electroimpact designed the machine to “normalize” to the panel with an array of lasers that “see” the surface without touching it, allowing it to follow the panel curvature or contour. The process improves accuracy,

consistency and “repeatability,” according to Boeing.

The OEM’s existing machines in Renton install about 4,000 fasteners and mechanics install roughly 2,000, often requir-ing them to contort their bod-ies into unnatural positions. The automated system not only eliminates the need to perform fatigue-inducing acrobatics, it promises to reduce repetitive-motion injuries.

In Renton, Boeing has already installed the major foundations to support some 70 machine beds per line. Once installed on the factory floor, the PAL will use a monorail system to load parts rather than over-head cranes, eliminating wait time between positions.

The first PAL machine arrived in Renton in late June. According to Boeing Com-mercial Airplanes director of 737 business operations Beth Schryer, the new line will “ramp up” over time starting next year, initially operating simultane-ously with the existing line.

“We’re bringing machines in starting later this year as we start the prove-out and qualifi-cation of those. This new panel-assembly process reduces flow, it reduces defects...the footprint. It gives us [further] capacity,” said Schryer. “It also is a great enabler for our employees to have a better build process, from an injury prevention and quality output perspective.”

Boeing estimates the PAL

will cut flow time by 33 percent, defects by 66 percent, factory “footprint” by 50 percent and injuries by 50 percent.

The PAL promises to account for a big part of Boeing’s effort to raise its production rate from 42 to 47 a month by 2017, at roughly the same time it starts its transi-tion from building current-gener-ation 737s to the new 737 Max.

Dedicated Final Assembly Line

To make room for the Max, Boeing has begun clear-ing space in the final assembly building that now houses the east line. “A key foundation of our overall strategy, plan and approach on the Max is to ded-icate a final assembly line to the Max as we bring it into our sys-tem,” said Schryer. “It has lon-ger flows at the beginning than the NG and [as] we ramp it up, we will do that on a dedicated line, keeping our NG lines running as they are run-ning today.” Even-tually, the Max line will run at the same pace as those ded-icated to the NG, she added.

Plans call for the Max line–the central line of the three final assembly lines in Renton–to incor-porate three positions, where Boeing would build the ini-tial examples as well as per-form flight test installations and other miscellaneous items. Boeing has also begun the pro-cess of building a new systems-installation tool, where it loads and stuffs the fuselage sections with systems before they go to wing-to-body join, adjacent to the west line. In the process, Boeing plans to convert to a pulse system, creating what Schryer called an even more lean build. The process will involve three pulses on three separate lines, meaning it will hold nine fuselages.

Having reached firm con-figuration, the 737 Max design teams have begun the process of performing detailed designs, and Boeing plans to build the first airplane next year, fly it in 2016 and deliver the first pro-duction example in 2017.

During briefings in April at Boeing’s widebody facilities in Everett, Washington, Boeing

737 Max vice president and gen-eral manager Keith Leverkuhn reported that engineers expected to release 25 percent of the design by the middle of the year, right around the time the first full CFM Leap-1B engine goes to test. [The first CFM Leap-1B began ground testing on June 13.–Ed.] Expressing “comfort” in the airplanes’ roughly 3,600-nm range, Leverkuhn said he foresees no further changes in weight or payload specifications.

Meanwhile, Boeing has com-pleted 150,000 hours of labora-tory development in support of all the integration of the new systems, new flight deck and new fly-by-wire spoilers. “We’re also doing a lot of mockup work along with the detailed design in our Catia 3-D system because we know we’ve got to be able to produce this airplane at a high rates,” said Leverkuhn. “We want to make sure that as we’re going through the designs that we’ve got the ability to truly build flawlessly at rates.”

One design element on which flow time management undoubt-

edly will prove criti-cal involves the engine inlet. In a departure from Boeing’s previous practice, the company has decided to perform both the detailed design and the build itself at Boeing Propulsion in Charleston, South Car-olina, site of a new assembly facility due for completion by the end of the year.

“As the engine tech-nology continues to develop, the desire will be for larger fans, smaller cores, and I think that the people who’ve got the abil-ity to artfully incorporate those engines that are going to look very different from the engines today…are going to have a competitive advantage,” said Leverkuhn. “So I think us bring-ing some of that capability back in, starting on the Max, is going to be important for our longer play, our longer [term] future.”

Meanwhile, Boeing also plans to invest further in its 737 delivery center, revamping the existing facility and erecting a new building adjacent to it. Designed primarily to improve the customer experience, the expanded center will feature upgraded offices and confer-ence rooms, a new departure lounge, space for celebrations of milestone deliveries and jet-ways to the airplanes. Boeing expects to finish the new center, located at Boeing Field in Seat-tle, sometime next year. o


Plans call for the Boeing 737 assembly lines in Renton to produce 47 airplanes a month by 2017.

The PAL fastens stringers to wing skin panels at twice the rate Boeing now can manage using the current process at its 737 plant in Renton, Washington.

Beth Schryer, Boeing Commercial Airplanes

director of 737 business operation

At Rockwell Collins, we’re always looking forward – and so are our solutions. Like the predictive features of our new MultiScan ThreatTrack™ weather radar, helping you anticipate threats of turbulence, lightning and hail, before they happen. Or our head-up guidance systems (HGS™) that combine synthetic and wide-spectrum infrared vision to make whiteout conditions appear clear as day. And even the head-worn technologies that provide unprecedented situational awareness to military aircraft pilots via fused sensor imagery. All to help you see the right information at the right time, every time.

Visit us at Hall 4, Stand F-9.

rockwellcollins.com/maximizingvision

Maximizingyour visionis our vision.

© 2014 Rockwell Collins. All rights reserved.

RC-CorpThreatTrack_3_11x14.indd 1 7/7/14 4:36 PM

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Green aircraft poised for takeoff at a priceby Guillaume Lecompte-Boinet

Even as aircraft engine makers continue their focused efforts to reduce fuel consump-tion and emissions, the use of biofuel alter-natives to Jet-A is an increasingly important facet of the campaign to make air transport more environmentally sustainable.

Plans for making biofuels a more mainstream option for operators now account for around half of all the objec-tives set by the Advisory Council for Avi-ation Research and Innovation in Europe (Acare). The group, which is backed by the European Commission (EC) and industry players, is working toward the ambitious goals of reducing both carbon dioxide (CO2) and nitrogen oxide (NOx) by 75 percent, and noise by 90 percent.

In 2011, the EC launched its Avia-tion Biofuel Path 2020 program, which has the main objective of getting avia-tion biofuel production up to two mil-lion metric tons per year. This represents slightly less than 4 percent of current European consumption of Jet-A.

Total is among the oil companies that has made a commitment to advancing this cause. “Biofuels, provided that they are produced in a sustainable way, are very relevant to improving the energy efficiency of air transport,” said the French group’s head of biotechnology Phlippe Marchand.

Two methods for producing syn-thetic fuels, Fisher-Tropsch and HEFA, are already certified. But in the case

of Fisher-Tropsch heavy investment is required with over $1.3 billion required to build a plant with the capacity to produce 80,000 metric tons of fuel annually.

The HEFA process is compromised on the question of sustainability since it relies on the availability of ingredients such as palm oil. In an attempt to get around this, Total has looked a fermenting sugars as an alternative, partnering with California-based Amyris to develop different sources of sugar, such as beets (see related story below, right). Total’s first extraction plant for processing sugar-based fuel is now operational in Brazil and the company is considering the possibility of establish-ing one in France.

In June 2013, an Airbus A320 powered by CFM International CFM56 engines made an experimental flight with a fuel mix comprised 10 percent of a new fuel called farnesane. According to March-and, the engines emitted around 80 per-cent less CO2 than if they had been run purely on Jet-A. Another important plus is that these new fuels emit very little soot compared with the damaging particles that come from Jet-A.

In May, an A330-200 operated by KLM Royal Dutch Airlines made a 10-hour flight from Amsterdam to Aruba with tanks filled with a 20 percent blend of fuel made from used cooking oil. In the same month, a two-year study commissioned by Airbus and partners, including Virgin Australia, reported that Australia’s mallee tree could be another sustainable raw material for biofuels.

Before widespread adoption of alter-native fuels can be accepted, aircraft and engine manufacturers will have to be sat-isfied on certain key technical require-ments, namely the density, viscosity and compatibility of the new fuels with all the internal parts of the engines. “These are the topics we are working on as man-ufacturers,” said Frédéric Eychenne with Airbus’s new energy project office.

Both Airbus and Boeing have

conducted numerous flight tests in recent years with several types of biofuels. As part of this process, Boeing has increased tests on military aircraft using various combinations of Jet-A and synthetic fuels made through the Fisher-Tropsch method. In January 2014, it tested a fuel produced from Jetropha, a plant that can be grown in arid climates and which emits about half the CO2 emissions of an equivalent volume of Jet-A. Boeing also has biofuel alliances with Etihad Airways, Abu Dhabi’s Masdar Institute and Total.

Nonetheless, there appears to be con-sensus among the leading stakeholders that the widespread acceptance of these new fuels will take some time. “For the next 30

to 40 years, kerosene [Jet-A] will remain the main aviation fuel,” predicted Eychenne.

Over and above the complex technical requirements, the new fuels will need to be available worldwide at reasonable prices if they are to be accepted by aircraft oper-ators. Contrary to perception, the price of Jet-A has remained relatively stable over the past three or four years. By con-trast, the ingredients used for biofuels are subject to significant volatility in pricing, partly because they are also in demand by the food industry. Some alternative sources of fuel, such as those produced from microalgae, are not yet mature pro-cesses. Eventually, Total believes that this pricing imbalance between oil and fuel sources such as sugars will be corrected.

Part of the solution may come from the sea. The U.S. Navy has managed to produce a synthetic jet fuel from seawa-ter from which CO2 and hydrogen are captured through a process of electroly-sis. Initial estimates suggest that the fuel produced might be priced somewhere between $3 and $6 per gallon, compared with less than $3 for Jet-A. o


Ph

oto

: AD

No

C

Jet Fuel’s Environmental Impact by the Numbers

Air transport:• Currently consumes around 200 million metric

tons of fuel per year.• Represents about 3 percent of global CO2

emissions.• If nothing is done, given the projected growth

in global air traffic, total emissions from air transport could be six times higher by 2050.

Source: European Commission, “Aviation Biofuel Path 2020”

Three AlTernATive Fuel Processes

• The Fisher-Tropsch method was certified for aviation in 2009 and involves liquefying bio-mass, gas or coal. Invented as far back as 1923, the process is capital intensive.

• HEFA was certified for aviation in 2011. It involves fuel being made from substances such as palm oil and microalgae. Disadvan-tages include the fact that it competes with food for available land and is also subject to low yield rates.

• A process of fermenting enzymes is used to convert sugar cane or beet pulp into the new fuel called farnesane. o

Two Boeing partners get OK to market new alternative biofuelby Gregory Polek

Industrial bioscience company Amy-ris and energy giant Total have begun to market a so-called drop in jet fuel con-taining a 10-percent mix of renewable farnesane under a newly revised ASTM standard, the companies announced in June. Amyris and Total have worked closely on approval of the new fuel with Boeing, which, according to the airfram-er’s managing director of environmen-tal strategy and integration, Julie Felgar, wants to see biofuel account for a 1-per-cent share of the total jet fuel supply within 10 years.

The ASTM standard involved an “end-to-end” evaluation program to verify and ensure the compatibility of the renewable jet fuel product with aircraft and engine components and systems. According to the companies, the fuel’s favorable prop-erties include a low freezing point, high thermostability and high net heat of com-bustion. The Brazilian fuels regulator,

ANP, has indicated it will include the fuel as an option among the other alterna-tive aviation fuels already allowed in the national specification.

“Aviation needs regional as well as global biofuel solutions depending on what feedstocks and processing methods are available,” said Felgar. “The Amyris/Total fuel pathway will be important in the near term in Brazil, where Gol Air-lines, Amyris and Boeing are part of the Brazilian Biojetfuel Platform, a stake-holder-led plan to create a sustainable avi-ation biofuel industry in Brazil.”

The process developed by Amyris involves the manufacture of yeasts that extract sugars from lignin, a substance that together with cellulose forms the woody cell walls of plants, in this case, sugar cane. The processing method–namely, the direct fermentation of sugar–allows for a 10- to 15-percent blend rate, said Felgar.

In May, an A330-200 operated by KLM Royal Dutch Airlines made a 10-hour flight from Amsterdam to Aruba with tanks filled with a 20-percent blend of fuel made from used cooking oil.

Continued on page 24 u

PUB_SSJ100_3_PAGES_AVIATION_INTERN_NEWS_275x352.indd 3 13/06/14 08:59

The Su-34 (for which the Su-32 is an export version) is the main at-tack option for Russian air power. The jet is a direct successor to the Su-24M all-weather day/night frontline bomber. The State Joint Accep-tance Tests of the Su-34 were completed in No-vember 2010. The com-mander of the Russian Air Force signed the Su-34 State Tests report in April 2011 recommend-ing its deployment with the Air Force. The Su-34 frontline bombers en-tered service with the Russian Air Force follow-ing the RF President De-cree of March 18, 2014.

Series production of the Su-34 is organized at the

Sukhoi Company plant in Novosibirsk. The first state five-year contract with the Russian Defense Minis-try for Su-34s was signed in 2008 and fulfilled last year. In March 2012, the Sukhoi Company signed another state contract to supply a large batch of Su-34s to the Russian Defense Ministry.

In terms of operational capabilities the Su-34 is a 4th+ generation aircraft. It can effectively engage ground, sea and air targets with high-precision weap-ons while under enemy fire and can also conduct electronic warfare around the clock in all weather conditions. Its active pro-tection system, together with the latest computers,

better supports the pilot and navigator in carrying out precision bombing and maneuvers under enemy fire. The superior aerody-namics, large internal fuel tanks, highly efficient digi-tally-controlled bypass tur-bojet engines, air refueling system, add-on tank sus-pension and a comfortable crew cockpit all enable long-range missions of up to 10 hours. The onboard digital open architecture makes it easier to replace or update aircraft systems.

The aircraft enjoys ex-cellent flight performance and agility. It also features a long-range aiming sys-tem, as well as modern communications and dat-alink capability to keep the aircraft connected

with flight control cen-ters, ground troops, other aircraft and ships. The Su-34 employs highly ef-ficient long range guided air-to-surface and air-to-air weapons with multiple channel capability. It is equipped with a smart ra-dar countermeasure and defense system, plus a sophisticated survivabil-ity suite, including an ar-mored cockpit. Presently the operational capability of the aircraft is being in-creased with new airborne weapons.

According to pilots and navigators, the Su-34 of-fers excellent ergonomics and extensive automation from takeoff to target ap-proach, operational use, and landing. The aircraft is easy to handle.

The Su-34 bomber has set seven world records, including one for horizon-tal flight altitude with a 5,000 kg load.

Another top prior-ity program for Sukhoi is the Su-35 (Su-35S for the Russian Air Force), which is a 4++ genera-tion super-maneuverable multirole fighter.

The State Joint Accep-tance Tests are now under-way and these have already fully proved the main pro-jected specifications of the aircraft and its suite of onboard equipment. They also demonstrated its super-maneuverability, checked the stability and controllability, and con-firmed the power plant parameters and navigation system operability. The maximum close-to-ground speed is 1,400 km/h, rising to 2,400 km/h at altitude. The operational ceiling is 18,000 meters. The radar target detection range is over 400 km in the air-to-air mode, which consider-ably exceeds that of cur-rently in-service aircraft.

Sukhoi’s combat aircraft form the backbone of today’s Russian Air Force. All of the aircraft have been developed by the Sukhoi Design Bureau, which this summer cel-ebrates its 75th anniversary. They are produced by the Sukhoi Company at various serial plants that are subsidiaries of the United Aircraft Corporation. Some of the lat-est Sukhoi combat aircraft are described below.

SUKHOI FIGHTERS CONQUER THE SKY

SU-32/34 FRONTLINE BOMBER

SU-35 MULTIROLE FIGHTER

ADVERTORIALADVERTORIAL

The phased array antenna radar detects targets at a long range. It can simulta-neously track, monitor and engage multiple targets both in the air and on the ground. Up to 8 aerial tar-gets and 2 ground targets can be engaged at once. The onboard optic radar detects and tracks several targets at a range of more than 80 km.

All work associated with the State Acceptance Tests are proceeding ac-cording to the plan. Op-erational suitability tests, including guided and un-guided munitions firing, also have proved to be a success.

The flight test results have established that the performance of the Su-35/Su-35S is much superior to that of similar in-ser-vice counterparts. The air-craft’s onboard equipment performs a wide range of missions and tactical tasks. The Su-35’s design specifications are higher than those of the 4 and 4+ generation tactical fighters like Rafale and EF 2000, and upgraded F-15, F-16 and F-18, F-35 aircraft. Thus it is a potent rival to the F-22A aircraft.

The Su-35/Su-35S em-ploys many advanced tech-nologies widely used in the Russian military’s ad-vanced airborne complex (PAK FA). In a way, it is a test platform for fifth-gen-eration aircraft advanced technologies. The latest avionics suite has been in-tegrated on the basis of the information control system (ICS) with stand-by mul-tiple-processor computers and high-speed informa-tion exchange channels. The ICS allows efficient

data usage from surveil-lance and aiming systems, so providing support to the pilot through various com-bat missions. The Su-35/Su-35S makes extensive use of real-time situation awareness technologies ap-plied in the spherical infor-mation field by resorting to the capabilities of the com-munication system, radar, optronic surveillance and reconnaissance systems, as well as land control sys-tems of various levels. In addition, the aircraft is fit-ted with new engines (sim-ilar to those on the PAK FA) featuring an increased vectored thrust, built-in auxiliary power plant (BI-APP), and a new radar. The Su-35/Su-35S has a wide range of airborne guided munitions for target en-gagement at short, medium and long distances plus un-guided weapons. The air-craft can carry an 8,000 kg combat load.

The Su-35S is now in serial production at the Sukhoi plant in Komsomolsk-on-Amur (KnAAZ) under the terms of the state contract with the Russian Defense Min-istry signed in 2009 for the supply of a large batch of aircraft till 2015.

The program to cre-ate the 5th generation advanced airborne com-plex (PAK FA) for the Russian Air Force is a primary task for Suk-hoi. This will strengthen the Force’s fighting ca-pability, as well as radi-cally update the capabil-ity of Russian industry, and give fresh impetus to scientific research. It

will also provide a steady load for defense enter-prises involved in design-ing and manufacturing weapons.

The PAK FA’s maiden flight took place on Janu-ary 29, 2010 at Komso-molsk-on-Amur. Since April 2010 the prototype in-flight and ground tests have been conducted at the Flight Research Insti-tute at Zhukovsky. So far, five flying prototype have been built at KnAAZ for the ground and flight tests.

All tests proved the air-craft’s solid stability and controllability character-istics for subsonic and su-personic speeds at low and high altitudes and at super-critical angles of attack.

The onboard equipment is now being tested. In-flight refueling was carried out successfully. The aircraft’s performance in a variety of configurations was also tested successfully.

The main objectives of the current flight tests are to work out combat modes for the aircraft systems, as well as resolve how weapons can be docked and used.

Compared to previ-ous generation fighters, the PAK FA combines the functions of a strike aircraft and a fighter, thus offering a number of unique capabilities. As a 5th generation aircraft, it has a completely new and thoroughly integrated avionics package provid-ing superior automatic control and intellectual support of the crew. This considerably reduces the workload on the pilot, en-abling him to better con-centrate on the tactical functions. The onboard equipment of the new air-craft makes it possible to exchange information in a real time mode with on-land control systems and

airborne teams as well as to act on its own.

The export version of the 5th generation fighter – a perspective multi-func-tional fighter (PMF-FGFA) – is being created in asso-ciation with the Republic of India. The Russian and Indian governments have generally agreed on the workshare of each party. The parties have approved

the PMF-FGFA specifica-tions, defined their contri-butions and singled out the systems and subsystems to be developed by India.

At present the contract to develop a preliminary design project of the per-spective multi-functional fighter (PMF-FGFA) has been completed. The fight-er design has been fully developed. The Russian side has trained the Indian specialists, supplying them with the basic data and software to create a single working environment.

India and Russia work in a team. The Indian working group of experts worked in Russia from January – October 2012, and a group of Russian specialists has also worked in India. The required in-formation exchange has been established.

Both parties have agreed on the amount and division of work during the research and devel-opment (R&D) stage. A contract for the R&D has been prepared for signing this year.

The PMF/FGFA fighter will vary from the Russian prototype due to the Indian Air Force requirements.

FIFTH GENERATION AIRBORNE COMPLEX

For more information please contact www.sukhoi.org

The Su-34 (for which the Su-32 is an export version) is the main at-tack option for Russian air power. The jet is a direct successor to the Su-24M all-weather day/night frontline bomber. The State Joint Accep-tance Tests of the Su-34 were completed in No-vember 2010. The com-mander of the Russian Air Force signed the Su-34 State Tests report in April 2011 recommend-ing its deployment with the Air Force. The Su-34 frontline bombers en-tered service with the Russian Air Force follow-ing the RF President De-cree of March 18, 2014.

Series production of the Su-34 is organized at the

Sukhoi Company plant in Novosibirsk. The first state five-year contract with the Russian Defense Minis-try for Su-34s was signed in 2008 and fulfilled last year. In March 2012, the Sukhoi Company signed another state contract to supply a large batch of Su-34s to the Russian Defense Ministry.

In terms of operational capabilities the Su-34 is a 4th+ generation aircraft. It can effectively engage ground, sea and air targets with high-precision weap-ons while under enemy fire and can also conduct electronic warfare around the clock in all weather conditions. Its active pro-tection system, together with the latest computers,

better supports the pilot and navigator in carrying out precision bombing and maneuvers under enemy fire. The superior aerody-namics, large internal fuel tanks, highly efficient digi-tally-controlled bypass tur-bojet engines, air refueling system, add-on tank sus-pension and a comfortable crew cockpit all enable long-range missions of up to 10 hours. The onboard digital open architecture makes it easier to replace or update aircraft systems.

The aircraft enjoys ex-cellent flight performance and agility. It also features a long-range aiming sys-tem, as well as modern communications and dat-alink capability to keep the aircraft connected

with flight control cen-ters, ground troops, other aircraft and ships. The Su-34 employs highly ef-ficient long range guided air-to-surface and air-to-air weapons with multiple channel capability. It is equipped with a smart ra-dar countermeasure and defense system, plus a sophisticated survivabil-ity suite, including an ar-mored cockpit. Presently the operational capability of the aircraft is being in-creased with new airborne weapons.

According to pilots and navigators, the Su-34 of-fers excellent ergonomics and extensive automation from takeoff to target ap-proach, operational use, and landing. The aircraft is easy to handle.

The Su-34 bomber has set seven world records, including one for horizon-tal flight altitude with a 5,000 kg load.

Another top prior-ity program for Sukhoi is the Su-35 (Su-35S for the Russian Air Force), which is a 4++ genera-tion super-maneuverable multirole fighter.

The State Joint Accep-tance Tests are now under-way and these have already fully proved the main pro-jected specifications of the aircraft and its suite of onboard equipment. They also demonstrated its super-maneuverability, checked the stability and controllability, and con-firmed the power plant parameters and navigation system operability. The maximum close-to-ground speed is 1,400 km/h, rising to 2,400 km/h at altitude. The operational ceiling is 18,000 meters. The radar target detection range is over 400 km in the air-to-air mode, which consider-ably exceeds that of cur-rently in-service aircraft.

Sukhoi’s combat aircraft form the backbone of today’s Russian Air Force. All of the aircraft have been developed by the Sukhoi Design Bureau, which this summer cel-ebrates its 75th anniversary. They are produced by the Sukhoi Company at various serial plants that are subsidiaries of the United Aircraft Corporation. Some of the lat-est Sukhoi combat aircraft are described below.

SUKHOI FIGHTERS CONQUER THE SKY

SU-32/34 FRONTLINE BOMBER

SU-35 MULTIROLE FIGHTER

ADVERTORIAL ADVERTORIAL

The phased array antenna radar detects targets at a long range. It can simulta-neously track, monitor and engage multiple targets both in the air and on the ground. Up to 8 aerial tar-gets and 2 ground targets can be engaged at once. The onboard optic radar detects and tracks several targets at a range of more than 80 km.

All work associated with the State Acceptance Tests are proceeding ac-cording to the plan. Op-erational suitability tests, including guided and un-guided munitions firing, also have proved to be a success.

The flight test results have established that the performance of the Su-35/Su-35S is much superior to that of similar in-ser-vice counterparts. The air-craft’s onboard equipment performs a wide range of missions and tactical tasks. The Su-35’s design specifications are higher than those of the 4 and 4+ generation tactical fighters like Rafale and EF 2000, and upgraded F-15, F-16 and F-18, F-35 aircraft. Thus it is a potent rival to the F-22A aircraft.

The Su-35/Su-35S em-ploys many advanced tech-nologies widely used in the Russian military’s ad-vanced airborne complex (PAK FA). In a way, it is a test platform for fifth-gen-eration aircraft advanced technologies. The latest avionics suite has been in-tegrated on the basis of the information control system (ICS) with stand-by mul-tiple-processor computers and high-speed informa-tion exchange channels. The ICS allows efficient

data usage from surveil-lance and aiming systems, so providing support to the pilot through various com-bat missions. The Su-35/Su-35S makes extensive use of real-time situation awareness technologies ap-plied in the spherical infor-mation field by resorting to the capabilities of the com-munication system, radar, optronic surveillance and reconnaissance systems, as well as land control sys-tems of various levels. In addition, the aircraft is fit-ted with new engines (sim-ilar to those on the PAK FA) featuring an increased vectored thrust, built-in auxiliary power plant (BI-APP), and a new radar. The Su-35/Su-35S has a wide range of airborne guided munitions for target en-gagement at short, medium and long distances plus un-guided weapons. The air-craft can carry an 8,000 kg combat load.

The Su-35S is now in serial production at the Sukhoi plant in Komsomolsk-on-Amur (KnAAZ) under the terms of the state contract with the Russian Defense Min-istry signed in 2009 for the supply of a large batch of aircraft till 2015.

The program to cre-ate the 5th generation advanced airborne com-plex (PAK FA) for the Russian Air Force is a primary task for Suk-hoi. This will strengthen the Force’s fighting ca-pability, as well as radi-cally update the capabil-ity of Russian industry, and give fresh impetus to scientific research. It

will also provide a steady load for defense enter-prises involved in design-ing and manufacturing weapons.

The PAK FA’s maiden flight took place on Janu-ary 29, 2010 at Komso-molsk-on-Amur. Since April 2010 the prototype in-flight and ground tests have been conducted at the Flight Research Insti-tute at Zhukovsky. So far, five flying prototype have been built at KnAAZ for the ground and flight tests.

All tests proved the air-craft’s solid stability and controllability character-istics for subsonic and su-personic speeds at low and high altitudes and at super-critical angles of attack.

The onboard equipment is now being tested. In-flight refueling was carried out successfully. The aircraft’s performance in a variety of configurations was also tested successfully.

The main objectives of the current flight tests are to work out combat modes for the aircraft systems, as well as resolve how weapons can be docked and used.

Compared to previ-ous generation fighters, the PAK FA combines the functions of a strike aircraft and a fighter, thus offering a number of unique capabilities. As a 5th generation aircraft, it has a completely new and thoroughly integrated avionics package provid-ing superior automatic control and intellectual support of the crew. This considerably reduces the workload on the pilot, en-abling him to better con-centrate on the tactical functions. The onboard equipment of the new air-craft makes it possible to exchange information in a real time mode with on-land control systems and

airborne teams as well as to act on its own.

The export version of the 5th generation fighter – a perspective multi-func-tional fighter (PMF-FGFA) – is being created in asso-ciation with the Republic of India. The Russian and Indian governments have generally agreed on the workshare of each party. The parties have approved

the PMF-FGFA specifica-tions, defined their contri-butions and singled out the systems and subsystems to be developed by India.

At present the contract to develop a preliminary design project of the per-spective multi-functional fighter (PMF-FGFA) has been completed. The fight-er design has been fully developed. The Russian side has trained the Indian specialists, supplying them with the basic data and software to create a single working environment.

India and Russia work in a team. The Indian working group of experts worked in Russia from January – October 2012, and a group of Russian specialists has also worked in India. The required in-formation exchange has been established.

Both parties have agreed on the amount and division of work during the research and devel-opment (R&D) stage. A contract for the R&D has been prepared for signing this year.

The PMF/FGFA fighter will vary from the Russian prototype due to the Indian Air Force requirements.

FIFTH GENERATION AIRBORNE COMPLEX

For more information please contact www.sukhoi.org


In the United Arab Emirates, Etihad Airways, Total and Boeing collaborate on a similar stakeholder effort to develop a biofuel supply chain called BioJET Abu Dhabi. Etihad and Boeing also work with Abu Dhabi’s Masdar Institute on research into halophyte-based biofuel.

Etihad flew a demonstration flight in a Boeing 777 in January using the Amyris/Total fuel, which at the time still hadn’t

gained approval for commercial use. That test proved highly valuable because the Abu Dhabi partners would use the same processing method with halophytes.

“Plants called halophytes show even more promise than we expected as a source of renewable fuel for jets and other vehicles,” said Dr. Alejandro Rios, direc-tor of the Masdar Institute-affiliated Sus-tainable Bioenergy Research Consortium (SBRC). “The UAE has become a leader in researching [the use of] desert land and seawater to grow sustainable biofuel

feedstocks, which has potential applica-tions in other parts of the world.”

Felgar said the use of biofuels could reduce net carbon emissions by 50 per-cent per flight, due partly to the ability of the plants used to absorb carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. “These plants rely on the CO2 in the atmosphere to grow, so they’re also pulling it out, so the lifecycle assessment on halophytes in particular are very good,” she noted.

Challenges associated with plant-based biofuels, of course, include cost and a limited sustainable feedstock. Last year the U.S. government qualified

sustainable aviation biofuel for tax cred-its, a move Felgar said helped cut prices substantially and increased the economic viability of a product called green diesel, approval for which could come within a year. Green diesel comes from such mate-rials as recycled animal fat, used cooking oil and inedible corn oil and can blend directly with traditional jet fuel at a ratio of as much as 50 percent.

Without government incentives, green diesel costs roughly $5 a gallon, while with the incentives, the cost falls to about $3 per gallon–virtually on par with tradi-tional jet-A. o

Boeing partners get OKuContinued from page 20

Etihad Airways conducted a 45-minute demonstration flight on January 18 with a Boeing 777-300ER using biofuel developed by Amyris and Total and refined by Takreer, a wholly owned subsidiary of Abu Dhabi National Oil Co.

U.S. MUSeUM HonorS AgUStAWeStlAnd

AgustaWestland last month received the 2014 American Helicopter Museum and Educa-tion Center’s achievement award for “advancements in rotary-wing technologies,” based on the Project Zero tiltrotor demonstrator pro-gram. Dr. James Wang, the manufacturer’s research-and-development vice president, accepted the award. Led by Wang, the Project Zero team designed, built and flew a 2,200-pound, all-electric vertical lift air-craft in six months. A few flights took place in 2011-2012.

“Project Zero’s stunning design, dis-ruptive innovation and accelerated development represent a significant accomplishment and is an inspiration to all,” said Marc Sheffler, chairman of the museum’s board. The American Helicopter Museum and Education Center is located in West Chester, Pennsylvania. –T.D.

The Project Zero all-electric vertical-lift aircraft.

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Hybrid Air Vehicles aims for a buoyant futureby Chris Pocock

The two huge hangars at Card-ington airfield, 50 miles north of London, stand as witness to the golden age of airships in the 1930s. Inside one of the han-gars, a successor to those giants of the sky is being prepared for flight. British company Hybrid Air Vehicles (HAV) is pursuing the goal held by so many propo-nents of lighter-than-air (LTA) and related technology for so many years. The goal is to revolu-tionize the air cargo market–and maybe also the persistent surveil-lance market–with buoyant lift.

In fact, this successor has already flown–just once. It is the former long-endurance multi-intelligence vehicle (LEMV) that Northrop Grumman (NG) was developing for the U.S. Army. HAV was the main subcontrac-tor to NG on the LEMV, pro-viding the non-rigid air vehicle design and structure.

The LEMV flew in August 2012 at Lakehurst, New Jersey, ten months later than promised and seven months after it was sup-posed to deploy to Afghanistan for an operational trial. These delays, and U.S. defense budget cuts, led to cancellation of the LEMV in February 2013. The Army had spent $297 million on the project.

HAV was able to purchase the deflated air vehicle for $301,000, gain an export license and ship it to the UK. Early this

year, the company re-inflated the 300-foot-long, 80-foot-high envelope with pressurized air.

The company’s aim is to com-plete the full reassembly, infla-tion with helium and first flight in the UK in the first quarter of next year. HAV now calls this vehicle the Airlander 10, indi-cating a payload of 10 metric tons. It will serve as the proof-of-concept for the Airlander 50, which will be 2.7 times larger by envelope volume. HAV says this vehicle “will revolutionize the air cargo transportation market enabling–for the first time ever–a truly point-to-point 50-[metric ton] cargo-carrying capability that can operate with limited infrastructure and support.”

HAV claims a team that has more than 1,000 years of com-bined experience in building and certifying LTA aircraft (see box, “Roger Munk, R.I.P”). Since Munk’s death, new directors and executives have been appointed. They include chief executive offi-cer Stephen McGlennan, who was formerly HAV’s legal advi-sor; technical director Mike Dur-ham, who has worked on LTA projects for HAV and its prede-cessor companies for 25 years; and non-executive director Sam Macleod, a former RAF officer who led Goodrich’s UK-based surveillance and reconnaissance business for some years.

In a hybrid air vehicle, about 60 percent of the lift is aerostatic (from helium buoyancy) and 40 percent is aerodynamic (from the vehicle’s shape). During takeoff and landing, powered lift is also employed by vectoring the thrust from four ducted propulsors. In the case of the Airlander 10, these are four 350-hp turbocharged die-sel engines.

The vehicle lands and rests on two pneumatic tubes-cum-skids on the underside of the two outer hulls that retract by suc-tion during flight for a cleaner aerodynamic shape. The scaled-up Airlander 50 will be powered by four 2,350-shp turboshaft engines, and have a different, air-cushioned landing system

(ACLS). It is essentially similar to that found on a hovercraft.

Better than an Airship?The cost-per-ton mile of a

hybrid lies somewhere between that of a cargo ship and that of a conventional aircraft. But the key attractions of the design are its scalability; its endurance; and its ability to serve austere and remote locations. Unlike an airship, the Airlander has lit-tle need of a network of large mooring masts, or winch-and-cable devices.

The endurance characteris-tic of the hybrid led to the U.S. Army’s interest in the design as an ISR platform. The LEMV was supposed to stay airborne for 21 days in its unmanned configuration, at altitudes up to 22,000 feet. The payload was to be a mix of sensors, including radar, SIGINT and full-motion video.

Not everyone in the LTA world buys into the hybrid’s potential. A technical paper for the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronau-tics (AIAA) in 2010 concluded that conventional ellipsoidal

airships were better-suited to long-endurance missions than lifting-body hybrids. The author claimed that most previous liter-ature supported his conclusion. The paper was used in support of an alternative to the LEMV that was sponsored by the U.S. Air Force. This project, called Blue Devil 2, would have pro-duced the biggest conventional airship since the 1960s. But like the LEMV, Blue Devil 2 also fell behind schedule and never made it to Afghanistan. It was cancelled by the USAF in May 2012 before it could fly.

The U.S. Army referred to “technical and performance challenges” in the LEMV proj-ect. The U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) reported that the vehicle was 12,000 pounds overweight, reducing its endurance to only four to five days (although 16 days could still be achieved if the LEMV flew at 16,000 feet instead of 20,000 feet). In its defense, HAV points to what was–in retrospect–an unreal-istic schedule. There was not enough time to correct the

Roger Munk, R.I.P.

Roger Munk’s sudden and untimely death in February 2010 at the age of 62 robbed the airship industry of a true pioneer. He had led a series of British companies specializ-ing in lighter-than-air technology (LTA) for nearly 40 years. Hybrid Air Vehicles (HAV) was his latest company, founded in 2007 to take forward the hybrid concepts that, he eventually concluded, offered more promise for the future than conventional airships. Before that, his life had been starred with technical suc-cess and marred with financial failure.

Success included the first airship to incorpo-rate modern polyester materials and full-author-ity vectored thrust–the Skyship 500 in 1980; jet-powered bow thrusters and fly-by-light con-trols on a large airship–the Sentinel 1000 for the U.S. Navy in 1990; and the first hybrid air vehicle with a hovercraft-style air cushion landing gear–the Sky Kitten subscale demonstrator in 2000.

Failure included the liquidation of Munk’s first com-pany (Aerospace Developments) and the bringing down of the second (Airship Industries) when the major shareholders’ business empire collapsed. Successor companies ATG and SkyCat also failed.

Then there was the cooling of interest in airships by defense authorities on both sides of the Atlantic in the 1990s. Ironically, the Pentagon warmed again to LTA concepts a decade later. But Munk did not live to see his hybrid air vehicle design concept finally take

to the air in full-scale form–the flight of the LEMV in 2012.

According to the Royal Aeronautical Soci-ety, Munk was “the inspiration and technical genius that kept HAV and its predecessors at the forefront of the global airship indus-try for decades.” The Airship Association said that Munk’s “single-minded approach to his adopted trade that made him stand out.”

Tributes from those who worked with him over the years were heartfelt. One wrote: “Two of the most creative years I experi-enced in life, with extraordinary intellectual

exchanges in the technical field of LTA, occurred when I was working closely with Roger.” Another spoke of “the enormous importance, respect and love in which Roger will always be held, by those of us who looked up to him as the leader in our chosen field.” –C.P.

SCALING UP THE HYBRID AIR VEHICLEAIRLANDER 10 AIRLANDER 50

Envelope volume 1,340,000 cu ft 3,640,000 cu ft

Length 302 ft 90 ft

Width 143 ft 196 ft

Height 85 ft 115 ft

Total weight 44,000 lb 128,000 lb

Payload up to 22,000 lb up to 132,300 lb

Endurance five days manned up to 4 days manned

Altitude up to 20,000 ft up to 10,000 ft

Cruise speed 80 kt 105 kt

Loiter speed 20 kt 40 kt

After being packed and shipped to the UK, the Airlander 10, formerly known as the LEMV was air-inflated at Cardington in February of this year. One of the engine ducts can just been seen at left. The engines and tailfins were not yet attached.

The flight deck of the Airlander 10 attaches to the center lobe of the hull. HAV has designed single and dual pilot versions for the Airlander. The LEMV would have eventually flown unmanned using Northrop Grumman’s autonomous control technology.

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www.ainonline.com • July 15, 2014 • Farnborough Airshow News 25

SCALING UP THE HYBRID AIR VEHICLEAIRLANDER 10 AIRLANDER 50

Envelope volume 1,340,000 cu ft 3,640,000 cu ft

Length 302 ft 90 ft

Width 143 ft 196 ft

Height 85 ft 115 ft

Total weight 44,000 lb 128,000 lb

Payload up to 22,000 lb up to 132,300 lb

Endurance five days manned up to 4 days manned

Altitude up to 20,000 ft up to 10,000 ft

Cruise speed 80 kt 105 kt

Loiter speed 20 kt 40 kt

weight growth on the first vehi-cle; the planned second and third LEMVs would have met the program’s goal for endur-ance, HAV’s Durham told AIN.

According to Durham, the LEMV reached 3,000 feet and flew for 90 minutes on that first flight at Lakehurst. It was flown by HAV’s own test pilot, David Burns, a British airship vet-eran with 9,000 LTA hours. The LEMV would have flown again three or four weeks later, but the U.S. Army reduced the num-ber of inspectors overseeing the program from 30 to six, which slowed progress, Durham added.

“Even in modern times, there is no real software or CAD pro-gram to predict the response and aerodynamic coefficients of a lifting body,” one experienced airship pilot and consultant, who favors hybrids, told AIN. “Wind tunnels do not produce sensible results, even for nor-mal airships. The only method that produces reliable results is the one used by the late Roger Munk and his team,” he added.

HAV has made a “modest” profit in some of its six years’

existence. AIN understands that the British company was paid about $90 million for its contri-bution to the LEMV–less than a third of the total expensed by the U.S. government. HAV claims to be well-funded, with a strong and stable shareholder base. Investors include Bruce Dickinson, co-owner of Car-diff Aviation, an MRO and training company. He is better known as the lead singer of Iron Maiden, a rock group. “I put in £250,000 via the Enterprise Investment Scheme,” Dickin-son revealed earlier this year. “It’s a leap of faith–but this thing seizes the imagination!”

British SupportThe British government has

given HAV a vote of confidence. The Technology Strategy Board granted the company £2.5 mil-lion to develop specific engineer-ing aspects of the hybrid. “Here is a British SME that has the poten-tial to lead the world in its field,” commented the government’s Business Secretary, Vince Cable. The grant is conditional on HAV raising £1.5 million in match-ing funds. No easy task, perhaps,

when the past has been littered with airship company failures, both in the UK and abroad.

At the height of the LEMV subcontract, HAV employed some 100 people, but that has now dropped to the current 20 full-time employees, plus con-sultants and contractors.

The government money is going toward development of the Airlander 50. HAV hopes to fly it in early 2017 and deliver it a year later. But with no cur-rent revenue stream, HAV must proceed cautiously. The com-pany can’t afford to build the Airlander 50 without a launch customer. And it must first fly, prove and certify the smaller–but still very big–Airlander 10.

Certification ChallengeHow do you certify a hybrid

air vehicle? McGlennan told AIN that the Airlander 10 will meet British Civil Airworthi-ness Requirements Section B. HAV envisions a five-month flight test program before dem-onstration flights can take place. The company will then seek an EASA type certificate for both the Airlander 10 and the

Airlander 50. It has already sub-mitted documentation in sup-port of the latter.

Although the company’s focus has shifted toward civil operators, HAV directors told AIN that they still believe a customer in the surveillance market will emerge–perhaps a para-public operator. The Air-lander 10 (ex-LEMV) is sized for this. HAV told AIN it might build a second one of these before embarking on the Air-lander 50. The UK Ministry of Defence is showing consid-erable interest, the company claims. Two weeks ago, [on July 3] HAV hosted defense procure-ment minister Philip Dunne for lunch at Cardington.

The larger Airlander 50 will be more attractive for remote cargo transport. In August 2011 HAV announced that Cana-dian aviation operator Dis-covery Air was its commercial launch customer. “We believe this capability will enable eco-nomic development of remote, stranded resources with a low environmental impact,” Discov-ery Air said. But McGlennan now says that HAV has iden-tified a different potential lead customer for the cargo-carrying version. [Rival hybrid airship builder Lockheed Martin also announced a Canadian tie-up that seems to have lapsed (see box “The Road Not Needed–By The Skunk Works”).] o


The long-endurance multi-intelligence vehicle (LEMV) during its one-and-only flight on Aug. 7, 2012. Northrop Grumman was the prime contractor on a program that was supposed to fly 21-day surveillance missions.

HAV

The Road Not Needed–by the Skunk Works

In recent years, major aerospace companies such as BAE Systems, Boeing and EADS have all expressed interest in lighter-than-air and hybrid air vehicles, for ISR and remote heavy airlift applications. But apart from HAV, only Lockheed Martin (LM) has progressed beyond the drawing board.

In the 1990s, prompted by Fred Smith of Federal Express, the renowned Skunk Works in Palmdale, Cal-ifornia, studied concepts for a huge cargo-carrying hybrid named the Aerocraft.

After a design review, the Skunk Works team led by Bruce Wright sought outside expertise. A system design and engineering contract was awarded to Airship Tech-nologies Ltd., led by Roger Munk. But Smith lost inter-est in the Aerocraft when he realized that it could not meet his cost targets. Wright retired–and later came to the UK to work as a consultant to Munk.

Meanwhile, LM briefed the Aerocraft to the Pen-tagon. It had obvious military potential. At Palmdale, the team now led by Dr. Robert Boyd continued work on hybrids, in typical Skunk Works secrecy. The U.S. Defense Advanced Projects Research Agency (DARPA) eventually launched the Walrus project to develop a hybrid airship capable of transporting up to 1,000 tons over intercontinental distances. The vision was to carry an entire Army brigade “from the fort to the fight.”

On Jan. 31, 2006, the Skunk Works flew a demon-strator designated P791 at Palmdale (pictured). The P791 was about 125 feet long–much larger than the SkyKitten hybrid demonstrator that Munk’s next com-pany, ATG, had flown six years earlier.

The first flight of the P791 was unannounced but was observed by outsiders. No further flights were acknowledged by the Skunk Works. Earlier this year, however, Boyd told Airship magazine that the P791 flew six times. The flights were not without incident,

although LM claimed that all the flight test objectives were successfully completed. DARPA’s Walrus project was subsequently canceled.

There were some differences, but also some similar-ities, between the P791 and the SkyCat hybrid designs that ATG was developing. In 2007, LM took legal action against Munk, ATG and SkyCat Ltd. for infringement of patents. The claims against ATG and SkyCat were dis-missed and the claim against Munk was settled in 2008 before trial, with each side ordered to pay its own costs.

LM competed against Northrop Grumman for the U.S. Army’s LEMV contract–and lost. At Palmdale, Boyd’s team refocused on commercial applications. Details of the P791 were eventually made public in 2010. In March 2011, Aviation Capital Enterprises (ACE) of Canada announced an exclusive agreement with LM to develop a large hybrid airship to help the develop-ers of natural resources to reach remote areas. Noth-ing more has been said since (by either party) about this relationship.

Earlier this year, Boyd made a presentation entitled “The Road Not Needed” to the Solve For X forum spon-sored by Google. He said: “This technology is ready to go...the issue is ‘growing’ the world of transportation to expect such a big change.” –C.P.

The Airlander 50 would be nearly 400 feet long and capable of delivering a payload of up to 132,200 pounds to remote locations. The pneumatic tubes on the underside of the two outer hulls provide a hovercraft-style ability to maneuver over all types of ground and water. They can be retracted in flight to reduce drag.

HAV

The former LEMV can be seen, bottom left, arriving by road at Cardington in December 2012. It is now being resurrected as the Airlander 10 in Shed 1, the left of the two giant airship hangars at Cardington that were built to house the airships of a bygone age.

HAV

Lockheed Martin Skunk Works P791

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Aerostar places Romania among aerospace leadersby Ian Sheppard

The builder of 1900 Yak-52s in the Soviet era and now a growing MRO spe-cialist and aerospace parts manufacturer, Aerostar (Hall 3 Stand B31) has put Romania on the industry map. Despite its home base in Bacau being situated at the outer reaches of the European Union, and with Romania becoming a member of the EU only in 2007, the company has wasted no time in getting fully involved in European aerospace and modernizing its facilities, as AIN discovered on a visit just before the Farnborough Airshow.

Alexandru Filip, director of business development, said Aerostar celebrated its 60th anniversary last year although it became a private company, listed on the Bucharest stock exchange, only in 1998. Since 1953, he said, it has overhauled 3,500 aircraft and 6,000 engines, more recently gaining approvals for Western types to become a narrowbody MRO specialist.

At one time its MRO activities were mainly defense-related and it still main-tains expertise in MiG-21s–having upgraded 110 Romanian aircraft to MiG-21 Lancers in the 1990s–and Let L-39s, and of course Yak-52s. The company has just completed the re-life and upgrade of eight MiG-21s for the Mozambique air force (these aircraft had not been used for almost 20 years), and is looking for other opportunities, while it also overhauls the Romania’s Lancers one by one.

Civil MROFilip told AIN that, “With the market

shrinking for older platforms, a strate-gic decision was made to use the knowl-edge for other markets. We got Part 145 [EASA] maintenance approval and have been maintaining Boeing 737s for ten years, and now also do [Airbus] A320s, BAe 146/Avro RJ and the Rolls-Royce 250 engine, and we can also do BAe146 cargo conversions.” The latter is some-thing pioneered with BAE Systems, although, to date, only two aircraft have been converted.

“The hangar where the MiG-21 upgrade [to Lancers] was carried out was allocated to commercial MRO, but air-craft [fin] heights meant that we invested in a new hangar, which was commis-sioned two years ago,” said Filip, an aerospace engineer who joined the com-pany–which is run by his father, president and general director Grigore Filip–four years ago to help modernize the business.

The company has been particularly successful in securing civil MRO cus-tomers from Africa, including airlines

Starbow, Royal Air Maroc and, more recently, FastJet. Looking around the vast plant in Bacau, however, it is the aerostructures business that shows Aero-star is really leveraging and modernizing its previous expertise. Some 49 percent of its sales now come from civil aircraft production work, 18 percent from civil

MRO–although the company is looking to establish overseas bases, through part-nership or acquisition.

“More than ten years ago, we started small, with fabrications and machin-ing. Now our biggest customer is Airbus and we are well integrated into its sup-ply chain. We started with Airbus UK at Filton [now GKN], manufacturing A320 inner flap shroud boxes, which we still do with GKN. We manufacture all the parts, assembly, do special processes and deliver ready for installment,” said Filip. “It is very important to us because of the volume”–a set of two for each nar-rowbody aircraft, of which 42 a year are now being built by Airbus. “We produce 25 shipsets a month,” said Filip.

He said that the company had “diver-sified to build assemblies for other plat-forms,” such as the Dassault 7X airbrakes and spoilers, and landing gear doors for the Gulfstream G450/550, which are delivered to Fokker Aero. “But our main goal is to grow our footprint in the Air-bus supply chain,” he stated, “and differ-ent assembly work from other customers that could be from the States”–alluding to a wish to get similar work packages from Boeing. “We have also started the process of qualification for Bombardier,” said Filip.

Aerostar still “has the capability” to produce Yak-52s, said Filip, a cou-ple of examples of which were on the production floor (in for maintenance),


Grigore Filip at one time ran Aerostar’s MiG-21 Lancer upgrade program. Now president and general director, he has overseen a rapid expansion in subassembly manufacturing for modern commercial aircraft, and the growth of its MRO business.

Continued on next page u

Developing in Civil MRO

Aerostar has had considerable success building its civil MRO business having gained engineering expertise in defense work over several decades–most recently is its contract with the Mozambique air force to “bring back to life” eight MiG-21s, a contract that included training and support.

Ovidiu Buhai, director of aviation maintenance and upgrades, told AIN that Starbow of Ghana “came for a second aircraft this year and has another BAe 146 its wants a C-check on,” while “FastJet intends to come with another aircraft in November.

“We are looking also to other operators in Africa, within the range

circle–5,000 km or maybe 6,000 km,” said Buhai. “FastJet came because of good price and positive feedback from other airlines,” and he hinted at other customers from Africa already signed up and said it has its first [undis-closed] customer from the East coming later this year.

Almost all Royal Air Maroc’s Boeing 737NGs come to Aerostar for heavy maintenance. “We’d like to have more customers like RAM,” said Buhai, who described late-2013/early-2014 as “a very good season.” He described Aerostar as a “center of excellence for 737 maintenance” though it has con-siderable experience with A320-family aircraft, too. It has carried out heavy checks on six and has contracted for another four, said Buhai. “So we aim to do another six this year,” he said during AIN’s visit last month. Opera-tors in Turkey, such as Pegasus, are particularly in the company’s sights for follow-on business.

Buhai’s final comments were about a possible third hangar, if it develops a 737 freighter conversion program, or A320. “We’ll need a separate place for this and we have space to put in another hangar,” he said, admitting that the company is also “considering extending our capabilities to Embraer E-170 and E-190 [families].”

Remus Vlad, MRO/upgrades business development manager, listed some of the other work Aerostar had enjoyed, including heavy C-check on a 737-300F for Mena Aerospace Cargo (this aircraft was in the hangar), while a Starbow BAe 146-200 had just left the hangar when AIN visited–with another due in February 2015 if it does not get sold. Vlad said Aerostar carried out “54 heavy checks last year.” –I.S.

Aerostar’s biggest MRO client from Africa is Royal Air Maroc (see above, a RAM Boeing 737 has a ‘C’ check). With a new second hangar opened in 2012, Aerostar’s civil MRO business has grown while military work has enjoyed limited success, such as upgrading 8 MiG-21s for Mozambique (below).

Aerostar has secured several customers in Africa, including Ghana’s Starbow, the West-African partner of Fastjet, which has itself started to send 737s to Bacau for overhaul.

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along with the little general aviation aircraft that Aerostar designed and built (along with doing some replica aircraft) when it was looking to keep its workforce busy in the early 1990s. The “Festival” ultra-light has never sold in large numbers, however, because it came just before the compos-ite era and was overtaken by lighter machines that fit the U.S. LSA spec. Nevertheless, as “a transition between the Yak-52 and the global sup-ply chain,” as Filip described it, the project was vital. “It helped us as it was civil, but it was designed before the LSA regulations in the U.S.”

Beyond that, after 2000, Filip credits Fokker with getting Aerostar into the mainstream by awarding it work packages, allowing it to secure funds to invest in modern CNC machines and develop new processes.

The company has updated its expertise in landing gear and hydraulic systems, gain-ing contracts from the likes of Airbus and Socata for landing gear assemblies. While it pro-duces significant assemblies for Airbus A320 family and A330 aircraft, for Airbus subcontrac-tor Messier-Dowty-Bugatti, it builds the entire landing gear assemblies for Daher-Socata TBM 850/900 single-engine tur-boprops. “We’ve also started on a new project to do undercar-riage actuators for the Boeing 787,” said Filip (again, this is for MDB).

Yet another area of aero-structures investment and suc-cess has been the aircraft components and spare parts unit, which manufacturers Air-bus A380 flap-track raceways (for Fokker), “and we’re also doing S-76 helicopter parts for Sikorsky,” said Filip. “We started last year with the qualifi-cation process and now we’re in the industrialization phase.”

The company has also been diligently expanding its capa-bilities in special processes, including surface coating, heat treatment, shot-peening, paint-ing and nondestructive testing, said Filip. “We are growing our NADCAP accreditations,” he said. Along with all this it has been building up its workforce, adding 300 employees in the past year to take the total to around 1,850. “In engineering, they’re mainly from Bacau as there is a technical university here, but we

also employ aero engineers from Bucharest, and occasionally we get applications from the rest of Europe. We are the biggest employer in Bacau,” he added.

AmbitionsGrigore Filip, Aerostar pres-

ident and general director, said the company’s ambition is “to continue with the success” of conversion from military to civil business and “continue the growth both in the maintenance market and subcontracting…but in parallel we will not aban-don our defense-related activi-ties…and we estimate this will in the long-term account for one third of sales.”

Asked about the company’s business plan, Filip told AIN, “We have a strategy that we have been updating every five years–so the horizon is five years and we are in year two. This year we plan to change the concept to have a permanent five-year roll-ing horizon in front of us.” He added, “We have a growth target to reach 100 million Euros [$120 million] a year.”

The company is “convinced we have the capability to grow the footprint in production–but our intention is not to grow in Bacau to more than 2,500 employees. Growth beyond that has to be in association with other sites–and not necessarily in Romania.

“We are on the stock market and the stockholders are very happy now–each who already got shares got another three for free.” He said that some 14 percent is owned by S.F. Moldova, an investment fund; another 16 percent is owned by various small sharehold-ers; and 70 percent is owned by Iarom, a closed company that has a smaller number of shareholders, including Gri-gore Filip. “Iarom has con-trol but at the same time does not sell shares,” said Filip, who added that it was the only aerospace company in Romania to privatize suc-cessfully in the 1990s. Even Romaero in Bucharest failed, and remained state-owned, and has failed to expand so that now Aerostar represents a growing proportion of the country’s aerospace sector–currently about 50 percent. o


Aerostar boosts Romania’s status uContinued from preceding page

Installing Split Scimitar winglets from Aviation Partners of the U.S., involves strengthening the wing spars. Sweden’s TUIFly tasked Romania’s Aerostar with installing the winglets on two of its Boeing 737s, each involving six days of downtime.

Aerostar fits TUIFly’s Split Scimitar wingletsby Ian Sheppard

Aerostar (Hall 3 Stand B31) has become one of the first independent European MRO organizations to install Split Scimitar winglets on Boeing 737-800s. The work was carried out for Sweden’s TUIFly Nor-dic at Aerostar’s Bacau facil-ity in Romania, which is also the location of its headquar-ters. The winglets were fitted to two 737 aircraft, one arriv-ing in early May and having the work done during a main-tenance check, while the other

followed shortly afterwards for a maintenance check, wing strengthening and installation of winglets.

Each installation took six days and “had no impact on the main-tenance check downtime,” said Aerostar. Ovidiu Buhai, director aviation MRO and upgrades for Aerostar, said, “We are very proud that Aerostar was chosen by an airline within [the] TUI Travel [group]…to install these revolu-tionary winglets.

TUI Travel is the European

launch customer for the Split Scimitar winglets. It placed an order with Aviation Partners Boeing in July 2013 for the fuel- and emissions-saving winglet.

TUI Travel was also the first customer to fly Blended Winglets on its Boeing 737 Next Generation fleet. The Split Scimitar winglet was the cul-mination of a five-year design effort by Aviation Partners Boeing, which used the latest computational fluid dynamic technology to redefine the aerodynamics of the Blended Winglet into an all-new “Split Scimitar” winglet.

The new winglet uses the existing Blended Winglet struc-ture but adds new strengthened spars, aerodynamic scimitar tips and a large ventral fin. o

historic harrier

This Spanish navy AV8B Harrier returns to the country where its legacy was forged. The vertical-takeoff attack air-craft will perform in some of the flying displays during its visit to Farnborough.

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FARNBOROUGHAIR SHOW 2014

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P&W advances GTF through five programsby Gregory Polek

While calling extending its geared turbofan engine family’s thrust rating by another 2,000 pounds “a big deal,” Pratt & Whitney next-generation prod-uct family vice president Bob Saia sees still bigger things in the company’s future, includ-ing what he called an Advanced GTF that could rival an open-rotor design in fuel efficiency by the middle of the next decade. For now, though, Saia finds him-self “busy as a bee” with the five core programs already under way at the U.S. company.

Having received certification for the engine that now pow-ers the Bombardier CSeries flight-test vehicles, Pratt & Whitney (Outdoor Exhibits 3 and 4) expects its second GTF–the PW1100G–to win approval

during the fourth quarter to power the Airbus A320neo.

While meeting with AIN during a recent press event at Pratt & Whitney’s headquar-ters in East Hartford, Connect-icut, Saia described the extent to which the PW1100G has bene-fited from “learnings” gleaned from the CSeries powerplant.

“I’d say the CSeries engine did the heavy lifting because it did the initial testing to vali-date the design,” said Saia, who noted that the first engine to be tested operated at roughly a 1.5-percent performance deficit, compared to 2 to 3 percent in a typical program.

The first Neo engine, he explained, ran well within 1 per-cent of performance guarantees. “The quality of the first 1100G that went to test was proba-bly more like the fifth or sixth engine from the CSeries because it already had all that learning,” said Saia.

Even the CSeries engine required no major redesigns ascribed to technology fail-ings, meaning by the time Pratt had delivered the first two Neo engines to Airbus it had used virtually none of the perfor-mance “margin” it allowed itself at the start of the program. As a result, it could increase thrust in the Airbus A321neo’s standard PW1133G by 2,000 pounds without the need for any hard-ware or design changes.

“We’ve been able to hit all our technical metrics and we’ve been

able to use some of the additional development margin to add cus-tomer value where needed,” explained Pratt & Whitney vice president of engineering Tom Prete. “The engine will be certi-fied with all the existing redlines, all the existing parameters at the higher thrust level.”

By late May, having built 35 of what it now calls the Pure-Power engine family, Pratt paid particularly close atten-tion to the concepts of scale and reuse–meaning, for exam-ple, the engines designed for the Mitsubishi MRJ closely resemble those destined for the Embraer E175-E2. Simi-larly, apart from differences in installation elements such as air conditioning and electrical and hydraulic power supply, the CSeries engine virtually replicates the engine under development for the E190-E2 and E195-E2.

Meanwhile, with the engine used for the Bombardier CSeries, explained Prete, the company did “a large amount of scaling” to arrive at the design for the A320neo. In turn, the engine in development for the Irkut MC-21 represents a “reuse” of the PW1100 designed for the Neo.

Maintaining commonality in design between the various engine types mitigates risk on several levels. For example, if the MC-21 program stumbles, Pratt could divert hardware making its way through the supply chain to the Neo program.

Scheduled to start building the first engine for the MC-21 later this year and take it to test-ing by early next year, Pratt also expects to use much of the data collected from tests on the Neo engine to help certify the engine for the Russian airplane.

One big difference in the MC-21 powerplant involves the

nacelle system, which will come from Short Brothers in North-ern Ireland, rather than UTC Aerospace Systems (UTAS). Participating in the other four GTF applications, UTAS opted out of the MC-21 program due to manufacturing capacity con-straints, said Saia.

MRJ Program DelaysConstrained for wholly dif-

ferent reasons, the engine for the Mitsubishi MRJ program became the second GTF fam-ily member to fly, in April 2012. More than two years later, how-ever, the PW1200G has pro-ceeded just beyond the halfway point of its certification program because of three separate delays suffered by the MRJ.

“We like to have the engine program run in cadence with the aircraft program,” said Saia. “There are a couple of reasons for that. One is how the engine provides air to the air-condi-tioning system, [and another is] how the engine talks to the cock-pit from an electronics perspec-tive…[both] can change as the aircraft is being developed. So if we go too far, we create a system architecture that may have to be redesigned when you have to put it on the aircraft.”

Saia described Pratt’s running of the first four engines as “really heavy,” through critical testing for stress, structural measure-ments, temperatures and speeds. Then, from late 2012 into 2013, the company put the program on what Saia described as a sabbati-cal, slowing it up to align it with the airframe’s progress.

In the meantime, the A320neo program progressed on sched-ule, leaving little time for Pratt to dwell on any disappointment about the MRJ delay. o

P&WC moves ahead with next-gen regional t-prop

While ATR and Bombardier continue to vacillate over plans to introduce a new 90-seat tur-boprop, Pratt & Whitney Can-ada keeps moving forward with a powerplant it believes will deliver a 20-percent fuel burn improvement over existing engines in the 5,000- to 7,000-shp range by the turn of the decade. Dubbed the Next Gen-eration Regional Turboprop (NGRT), the engine would fea-ture an all-new compressor, a miniaturized version of Pratt & Whitney’s patented Talon combustor and (probably) an

eight-blade propeller.Hoping to finish design work

involving the high-pressure compressor that would form the primary basis for the improve-ments this year, the engine com-pany continues to guard the design details closely of that fundamental component.

Speaking with AIN dur-ing a recent media event at the headquarters of parent com-pany Pratt & Whitney in East Hartford, Connecticut, Pratt & Whitney Canada vice president of marketing Richard Dussault took care not to reveal anything

not already made public by the company in terms of the num-ber of stages in the compressor, its pressure ratio or any unique design elements.

He did confirm that the over-all engine design incorporated

an impeller, or centrifugal compressor, rather than an axial compressor. Testing on the impeller “at the compo-nent level” has taken place at program partner MTU in


Pratt & Whitney expects to gain certification of the first version of the PW1100G for the Airbus A320neo during this year’s fourth quarter.

Continued on page 32 u

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Bob Saia, Pratt & Whitney next-generation product family vice president.

Pratt’s envisioned NGRT engine would feature an all-new

compressor, a miniaturized version of P&W’s Talon combustor and

possibly an eight-blade propeller.

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Germany, said Dussault, as has testing on the first stage of the compressor near the engine inlet to verify what he called the entry condition to the compressor.

Now embarking on Phase 2 of testing, the company expects to have completed design work on the compressor at MTU by year-end, said Dussault. “By the end

of the year we’ll be fully ready, proven,” he said.

“Today, all the signals are extremely good; we want to com-plete the design work and the testing work to make sure that we further optimize…and maybe, in the end when we make a guaran-tee to an OEM customer, we’ll be able to have very solid data on which to base ourselves and make the commitment to a full engine program.”

This year, not only is Pratt Canada working on optimizing

the compressor, noted Dussault, but the company has spent more time with the airframers in an effort to define system archi-tecture and execute noise and weight trades.

“The propeller is a great example,” he said. “Obviously the bigger the propeller, the more…you need to bring the engine outboard a little bit. So there is some design on the air-craft that they need to take into account in terms of wing design, empennage design.”

The company also continues its studies into bleed-air require-ments for air conditioning and pressurization, and the more demanding electrical needs inher-ent in modern aircraft designs.

“When we combine all that, we can work trades,” said Dussault. “Once we have the core of the engine well under-stood [we can start] packaging and optimizing the packaging to make the engine as small as we can–and the nacelle small–because that reduces drag.”

Such trades need to result in an engine that can power an airplane between 300 and 325 knots over an optimal range of between 200 and 400 nauti-cal miles, said Dussault, whose speed “sweet spot” for a 90-seat turboprop virtually splits the dif-ference between today’s Bombar-dier Q400 and the ATR 72-600.

Although the Q400 seats about 10 more passengers, it also flies as fast as 360 knots–almost 100 knots faster than the top cruise speed of the more fuel-efficient ATR 72-600.

According to Dussault, the airlines have already spoken loudly in favor of a 90-seat tur-boprop; whether or not the NGRT materializes as a produc-tion engine hinges totally on the

willingness of the airframers to commit the needed investment.

Although confident in the technology, Pratt Canada won’t execute a full launch of the program and start building prototypes until an airframer commits, said Dussault. “We need to have the right winning conditions for launch, for mak-ing [such] a huge investment,” he concluded. –G.P.

P&WC advances GTF programsuContinued from page 30

Richard Dussault, Pratt & Whitney Canada vice president of marketing.

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French aerospace industry predicts another good yearby Thierry Dubois

French aerospace industry lobbying association Gifas (Hall 1 Stand A15) is foreseeing another excellent year in terms of revenue and orders. In an economy bombarded with bad news, France’s aero-space sector is often cited as an exam-ple. A thorn in its side, however, has been the euro/dollar currency exchange rate. Recruitment remains a tricky issue, too.

“There are good dynamics in 2014. Maybe orders won’t meet last year’s record, but the turnover will stay on the same curve,” said Gifas president Marwan Lahoud, who is also Airbus Group’s chief strategy and marketing officer. In 2013 orders reached an all-time-high of €73.1 billion ($100 billion), while reve-nues totaled €47.9 billion ($65 billion), the trend having risen since 2009.

The shift to more civil and less defense activity is continuing virtually every year. In 2013, the civil business accounted for 75 percent of total revenues and 83 percent of orders, by value. Overall, French OEMs have a five- to six-year backlog, Lahoud said. These numbers reflect the quality of the products, an effective supply chain and market confidence, he added.

In France, the aerospace industry’s performance is highlighted as an example for the rest of French industry, and not only because its export balance ranked first, at €22 billion ($30 billion) in 2013, before wines and spirits. “We are seen as strong, dynamic and united,” Lahoud said. Nevertheless, he expressed an inten-tion not to rest on his laurels.

Currency and Employment Issues

A couple of ongoing problems in par-ticular mean the industry has to avoid complacency–one being exchange rates, and the other being skills. The dol-lar has been consistently and signifi-cantly weaker than what Gifas considers an ideal exchange rate: €1=$1.20. As a result, reaching competitive prices is even more difficult. A 2-percent gain in operat-ing margin can be swept away by a €0.10 decrease in the exchange rate. Dassault Aviation, for example, makes it clear that part of its investment in robotization is due to the strong euro, which makes qualified workers even more expen-sive to employ. “We have been talking to

the ministry of finance about long-term hedging,” Lahoud said.

Employment can be seen as a strong point of France’s aerospace industry. In 2014, around 10,000 people will be hired. Last year, this number was close to 13,000, translating into 6,000 jobs created, and at year-end, Gifas mem-ber companies counted 177,000 people on their combined payrolls.

But the downside is companies find it difficult to find and hire workers. “Industrial” jobs have a surprisingly poor image in France, being seen as gruelling, requiring low skill levels and yielding small rewards.

To address this, Gifas presents regular com-munications intiatives. One such initiative was “L’avion des métiers” (“Find your profession in this aircraft”) at the Paris Air Show in June 2013. Visitors could see real, skilled professionals demonstrat-ing their jobs in manufacturing, logistics, design and so forth in an aircraft mockup.

Another cause of hiring difficulty is the high level of qualification the indus-try needs. “These people are hard to find and training an engineer takes a matter of years,” Lahoud pointed out. There is

also competition among aerospace firms. In those areas where aerospace is a major employer, a young graduate will often choose the largest company, making it even trickier for a small business to recruit.

One Gifas action has been “shared apprenticeships.” Some 300 apprentices

this year will thus learn in both a large group and a small business. “This was our idea and shows how united the sector is,” Lahoud said, stressing that a smaller company may be the right choice for a recruit.

Geographically speak-ing, France’s aerospace industry is concentrated in a relatively small area. The Ile-de-France (Paris) and Midi-Pyrénées (Toulouse) regions each account for 28 percent of the work-force. The third and fourth regions are Aquitaine (Bordeaux) and Provence-Alpes Côte d’Azur (Mar-

seille), which, respectively, house several Dassault factories and Airbus Helicop-ters’ headquarters, among others. Overall, these four regions are home to three quar-ters of aerospace employees in France.

Equipment manufacturers employ 44 percent of the aforementioned 177,000, while OEMs employ 42 percent and engine makers 14 percent. o

Gifas president Marwan Lahoud is happy with the French industry’s performance but wants to avoid complacency.

Ukraine Bolsters air Defenses

with moDernizeD soviet raDars

Ukrainian defense electronics group Aerotechnica (Hall 2 Stand C28b) has been at the forefront of the urgent effort to modernize the country’s air defenses in response to the military standoff with Russian-backed separatists. It specializes in replacing dated radar hardware, such as vacuum-tube modules and traveling wave-guide tubes with solid-state components. The company has successfully performed this upgrade with numerous radar sets, most notably the P-18. The firm has also performed upgrades on older-model S-75 Vega (SA-5), S-125 Pechora (SA-3) and the 2K12 Kub (SA-6) air defense systems for both domestic and export customers.

“By the time we finish with an upgrade of one of these Soviet-era radar stations, about the only piece of equipment that remains is the antenna itself,” an Aerotechnica marketing executive told AIN. “Almost all of the rest of the entire system is of both our design and manufacture.” The workstations that the radar operators use are also upgraded with new multicolor, multifunctional displays that tie together radar feeds from multiple sources of input.

In fact, the radars proved their worth in the 2008 conflict in the former Soviet republic of Georgia. The systems helped Georgian air defense units to shoot down several Russian warplanes during that campaign and the Ukrainians are now tapping similar equip-ment to guard against aerial attacks. � n

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Winds of reform blow life into China’s aviation marketby Jennifer Meszaros

Recognizing its potential to become a major industry player, China is finally moving toward greater liberalization of its aviation sector. The announcement followed on the heels of the Third Ple-nary Session held in November 2013.

It was during this time that China’s new leaders, alongside the Civil Avia-tion Administration of China (CAAC), committed to a series of reforms geared to loosen the regulatory grip that has significantly hindered industry growth.

Now, eight months later, signs of change are on the horizon.

Perhaps the most notable develop-ment to date has been the lifting of the six-year moratorium that previously restricted private carriers from entering the market.

In an effort to bolster the economy, China is turning toward reevaluating private investment as a critical com-ponent of aviation growth. As such, the existing regulatory framework has been extended to allow new airlines to establish themselves once again–a major shift for China, which has tradi-tionally been dominated by the state-owned Big Three–where Air China, China Southern and China Eastern have monopolized both airspace and airport slots since 1988 and currently account for about three quarters of the aviation market.

Making good on its promise, the CAAC recently approved several new airlines funded with private capital. China’s newest airline, Qingdao Air-lines, launched services on April 27 from its base at Qingdao Airport, while Ruili Airlines is set to launch later this year from Kunming Changshui Inter-national Airport. In total, 12 new entrants are poised to launch service by year-end, increasing the number of pas-senger airlines to 40.

While most of the new entrants fol-low a full-service model, the CAAC has signaled greater support for low-cost carriers. LCCs are aligned with China’s plans to develop a network of special economic zones throughout the region. The movement of goods and people are of strategic importance to China, which boasts the strongest performing domestic market in 2013.

The Cost of GrowthDespite a decline in GDP growth,

air travel increased by 11.7 percent last year and IATA forecasts that by 2017 China will see an additional 227.4

million passengers. Some 195 million will be domestic, while 32.4 million will be international. Meanwhile, Air-bus predicts that China will overtake the world’s largest domestic market, the U.S., by 2031.

But growth comes at a cost. China is notorious for airport congestion and limited time slots, which is by no means exclusive to first-tier airports. Accord-ing to CAPA, Chinese airports han-dled 753.4 million passengers in 2013. While the new entrants will operate out of second-tier cities, they too will face constraints.

Understanding that a lack of infra-structure has historically hampered growth, the CAAC has plans to add an additional 80 new airports by 2020, including a $14.5 billion second airport in Beijing. Upgrades to existing facili-ties are also in the works.

For Kunming in the southwest, this has meant a brand-new $3.6 million air-port capable of accommodating 38 mil-lion passengers. Launched in June 2012, the airport is the fourth largest in China, after Beijing, Shanghai and Guang-zhou. Kunming is also China’s fastest growing airport, posting a 23.9-percent growth in 2013.

In the West, Diwopu International Airport in Urumqi re-opened its Termi-nal One on April 1 to ease capacity con-gestion. Urumqi serves as a continental hub for China Southern and is vying to establish itself as a global financial cen-ter comparable to Dubai.

Two of China’s newest carriers–Donghai Airlines and Loong Air-lines–operate out of Shenzhen Bao’an International Airport and Hang-zhou Xiaoshan International Airport respectively. Situated just north of Hong Kong in Guangdong Province, Shenzhen’s newest terminal, which launched in November 2013, was con-structed by the Italian group, Studio Fukas, at an estimated $1.4 billion. On May 21, a high-speed rail connecting


China Eastern, one of three state-owned airlines that have dominated China’s skies, now stands to have competition from new airlines, some of which are funded with private capital.

Dragonair operates an all-Airbus fleet of 41 aircraft, consisting of A320s, A321s and A330s from its main hub at Hong Kong International Airport to 44 destinations in 13 countries and territories across Asia.

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the airport to the city’s north station was launched.

Meanwhile expansion is under way at Hangzhou in Zhejian Province. The coun-try’s 10th largest airport is cur-rently conducting flight tests in preparation for opening up its second runway.

While 70 percent of passen-ger volume occurs in the north, northeast and eastern parts, China hopes that LCCs will encourage traffic in the west. The CAAC has reformed the previous pricing mechanism to allow start-ups to set the new minimum fare as low as 16 cents (one yuan) to stimulate growth.

Hurdles to OvercomeHowever, despite this new-

found respect for low-cost mod-els, challenges do remain. “The military, which controls Chi-na’s airspace, has been rather inflexible toward civil aviation [CA] operations. As the indus-try has grown, so has conges-tion,” said Andrew Herdman, director general of the Associ-ation of Asia Pacific Airlines.

“This has created a cascade effect on major trunk routes resulting in a chronic problem and impacting growth. While this is not a unique challenge to China, airspace manage-ment needs to be shared to lib-eralize market access.”

Another critical area is the government-imposed restric-tions on aircraft importa-tion. Unlike other countries where airlines have the power to decide the time and volume when purchasing aircraft, a central procurement process is in place with the government calling the shots.

A one-airline/one-route pol-icy also exists that restricts one carrier to one long-haul service. The exception is Air China, which operates from both Bei-jing and Shanghai. Finally, high airport charges, taxes and tar-iffs have also impeded growth.

With the launch of new entrants China will be forced to examine these issues. For now, aircraft and OEM manufactures have seen a continuing boom in new orders. Boeing predicts that China alone will need nearly 6,500 aircraft by 2032.

While China lacks the exper-tise and technology to compete with the Airbus/Boeing duopoly that dominates aircraft manu-facturing, several homegrown industries manufacture OEM parts. Under the conglomerate Aviation Industry Corporation of China (Avic), Xi’an Air-craft Industry was the first to obtain international orders and

has manufactured both fuselage sections and wingboxes for Air-bus and Boeing. Avic Shenyang Aircraft Industry satisfies OEM orders for Airbus, Boeing, Bombardier and Cessna, while Avic Hongdu Aviation Industry Corp. has completed OEM ser-vices for Bombardier, Goodrich and Vought.

Finally, private company

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Technology comes first in GKN’s portfolio

Rich Oldfield, GKN Aero-space technical director, told AIN that technology remains at the heart of the company’s abil-ity to succeed in the market and it invests heavily, especially in composites, metal-lics and developing a “niche portfolio in transparencies, protection systems and coatings, which many of our com-petitors don’t have.” Alongside this are “important tech-nologies in inspec-tion, assembly and automation.”

He reflected on industry achievements over the past 12 months such as the A350 first flight and certification of P&W’s geared turbofan. In that time GKN has “launched four additive manufacturing cen-ters, opened a GKN office in Bangalore, expanded U.S. tech-nology activities and [achieved] key business wins [such as] the 737 Max winglet.

“Technology insertion is a key part of our strategy…under-pinning it is support we get from local regions,” he said. He also added that the UK’s Aerospace Growth Partnership, in which GKN CEO Marcus Bryson is heavily involved, is a “key part.”

Oldfield sits on the AGP’s technology working group which was involved in launching the

UK Aerospace Technology Insti-tute (ATI), established as part of the “lifting off” strategy for UK aerospace using a commitment of $1 billion from the UK gov-ernment and an equal amount

from the industry. Meanwhile, Old-field said, “We are also developing a training academy within GKN.”

Bryson, who was present at the pre-Farnborough brief-ing in London, praised the current UK government for being so proactive in supporting the

industry, support that was a long time coming in this way.

Oldfield said there are four main drivers for GKN:• To deliver on existing contracts;• The technology insertion cam -

paign;• To secure positions on strategic

platforms (such as the 777X); • To develop long-term produc-

tion positions.

Additive ManufacturingOldfield said additive man-

ufacturing had been a particu-lar focus for GKN over the past few years, and it is now “fly-ing on the [A350] XWB in the shape of intermediate compres-sor case parts.” He continued, “Underpinning all that is materi-als know-how–how they behave

and the manufacturing pro-cesses. The advantages are weight reduction of parts and structures, cost-reduction and lowering of aerodynamic drag.” Oldfield sees opportunities on a range of pro-grams such as the A320neo, 737 Max and A350-1000.

He added that GKN is “in the process of manufacturing a laminar-flow wing that will be tested as part of the Clean Sky program.” The company is also working on the open-rotor engine program, “machining compo-nents that will go on to the open-rotor test bed.”

It’s not all about composites, however, with advanced metal-lic also getting a lot of atten-tion, plus techniques such as laser-wire deposition, already certified for use on the A350’s landing gear doors “for adding features.” Oldfield said the com-pany is “looking to expand this to other parts.”

Growing Parts from PowderTechniques to grow compo-

nents, such as wing ribs from powder, are also being devel-oped. “The technology is in the early stages but you can see the potential it has,” he said. Tita-nium alloy is a particular focus as well, such as titanium alumi-nide for engine parts, he added.

“The industry behind it is maturing–the two big risk items are the stability of the supply of the powders to the quality you need, and if the equipment is stable and mature enough to be a steady-state production solution.”

He said, “For us the starting point is to look at our core bill

of materials to see if anything can be improved using additive manufacturing…for example, on a bracket you might have an opportunity to save 20 to 30 per-cent of the cost, just as a direct substitution. The second wave will be truly optimizing how you manufacture, with the key being how you combine processes, and knowing when to use them.”

Overall, he said, additives are “fueling a comeback for metallics,” which also means

a focus on “taking the weight out of carbon [structures].”

Having acquired Volvo Aero, GKN now has significant rela-tionships with all the three major engine manufacturers; it already works closely with Rolls-Royce but now it has “big tech-nology programs” with Pratt & Whitney, such as the geared tur-bofans, and some with GE. On the military side, it has gained a significant role on the Saab Gripen fighter, as well. –I.S.

A GKN technician at an electron beam melting (EBM) machine, which permits toolless additive manufacturing that can create solid titanium objects–such as wing ribs from powder–rapidly and cost-effectively. Below, a GKN technician works on a composite spar assembly of a rear trailing edge.

GKN rises in global marketby Ian Sheppard

GKN Aerospace (Chalet G1) comes to Farnborough content in having achieved “a good set of results” in 2013 as it increased sales by 10 percent to £7.6 billion (around $10 billion). “It was a good year at GKN pretty much across the board–bar land systems,” said Kevin Cummings, CEO of GKN aerospace during a pre-airshow briefing.

“For us in 2013 the big thing was the Volvo integration,” said Cummings. “That’s gone very well…it’s an acquisi-tion we’re very pleased with.” Aerospace now accounts for around 30 percent of GKN’s turnover ($3.5 billion) and rep-resents the largest profit now out of the UK company’s four divisions, reflected Cummings. “It’s gone from last to first.”

Bringing in Volvo Aero has meant GKN is “now number two in engine products outside the primes…we oper-ate in nearly 39 countries so it’s truly a global business.” The GKN aerospace

division now has 35 sites in nine countries with 11,700 workers in what is a $3.5 bil-lion annual turnover business–up from around $1 billion 10 years ago, thanks to the acquisition of the Bristol Filton site from Airbus and then Volvo Aero. More recently the company has opened up a new facility in Orangeburg, South Carolina, to work on the HondaJet and expanded its plant in Mexico with new composites and blade machining shops.

However the mainstay of the compa-ny’s business is riding on the back of the “supercycle” in narrowbody airliner manu-facturing, said Cummings. This, he added, saw Airbus and Boeing deliver 1,274 air-craft in 2013 with up to 35,000 additional aircraft expected to be delivered by 2032–some 40 percent being replacements for older airframes.

GKN also has significant content on the Airbus A350, said Cummings. “We’re looking forward to them ramping up their

production rate,” he said, while pointing out that the biggest content per aircraft the company has is the A380, thanks to the Filton acquisition.

Meanwhile in the defense busi-ness, Cummings said, “It’s about the

platforms you’re on…JSF is becom-ing the dominant platform.” GKN has around $2.5 million per aircraft so it’s a key program for the company. Cum-mings is also optimistic about the ramp-up in A400M production. o

Defense applications are now key programs for GKN. Here, a technician conducts an optical inspection of a canopy for the CTOL (conventional takeoff and landing) version of the Lockheed Martin F-35.

Rich Oldfield, GKN Aerospace

technical director

Bloodhound is nosing around FIA’14by David Oliver

It is ironic that a Scottish entrepreneur who failed to make a success of two innovative avi-ation projects has had more success in what many would consider the much riskier world of land-speed record breaking.

A qualified pilot, Richard Noble created ARV Aviation in 1983 to design and build an all-British light aircraft: the Super2, which was powered by a Hew-land AE75 three-cylinder two-stroke engine, but only 35 were made before production ceased.

Noble’s next project was to develop the Farnborough F1, a six-passenger single-engine tur-boprop aircraft designed in 1998 as an air taxi, but it failed to attract investors (although it is now the Kestrel, which is strug-gling to gain traction under a new venture of Cirrus co-founder Alan Klapmeier).

During this period, Noble pursued a quest to retrieve the World Land Speed record for Britain. His first attempt, called the Thrust 1, was little more than a Rolls-Royce Derwent 8 turbojet bolted to a GKN lad-der chassis, which he crashed in

March 1977 at RAF Fairford. Unhurt and undaunted,

Noble began work on his next project, and after numerous setbacks he reached 633 mph (1,019 kph) driving the Thrust 2 (which was powered by a Rolls-Royce Avon) across the Nevada desert in 1983–regaining the World Land Speed record that Donald Campbell originally won for Britain in July 1964 with his Bluebird car.

In 1997, Noble headed the project to build the Thrust SSC powered by a Rolls-Royce Spey 205, driven by RAF Phantom and Tornado F.3 pilot, Squad-ron Leader Andy Green, at 763 mph (1,228 kph), to became the first man ever to exceed the speed of sound at ground level.

Sound BarrierIn 2008 Noble announced a

plan to smash the World Land Speed Record again and, at the same time, inspire the next gen-eration of scientists and engi-neers with a project christened “Bloodhound SSC.”

His team includes experi-enced specialists from both the

aerospace and automotive indus-tries led by chief engineer Mark Chapman and chief of aerody-namics Ron Ayers. Chapman worked for Boeing’s Propulsion Systems Division, and at Rolls-Royce in Bristol on the STOVL system for the F-35 Lightning II.

Ayers began his career as an engineering apprentice at Hand-ley Page working on Britain’s Victor V-bomber. After gain-ing a degree in aeronautical engineering, he worked at Brit-ish Aircraft Corp. (BAC) as an aerodynamicist on the Rapier and Bloodhound surface-to-air missiles. He was also part of the Thrust SSC design team.

The Bloodhound SSC is a jet- and rocket-powered car designed to reach 1,000 mph (1,600 kph). Its 14-meter-long body has two front wheels within the body

and two rear wheels mounted externally within wheel fairings. Weighing more than seven tons, its engines will produce more than 135,000 horsepower.

The hybrid vehicle is a mix of Formula 1 racing car and air-craft technology. The front half is a carbon fiber monocoque and the rear a metallic frame-work and panels like an aircraft. Advanced Composites Group (ACG), one of the Blood-hound’s many sponsors, is pro-viding composite materials, tooling, design and component manufacturing capability for the project. Lockheed Martin UK is providing research and development toward designing the Bloodhound’s wheels.

Approximately half the thrust of the Bloodhound SSC is provided by a Eurojet EJ200 bypass turbofan engine, which also powers the Euro-fighter Typhoon. The Cosworth CA2010 auxiliary power unit, a Formula One engine, provides hydraulic services to the car, and drives the rocket oxidizer pump that will supply 800 liters of high-test peroxide (HTP) to the rocket in just 20 seconds.

The Bloodhound SSC will carry 963 kg (2,100 pounds) of HTP that will be supplied to the chamber by a high-speed pump based on the design of the Sten-tor rocket engine, which pow-ered the Blue Steel cruise missile of the 1960s.

A Nammo hybrid rocket, which is likely to have a clus-ter of four or five motors rather than a single large combustion chamber, will provide a thrust

of 123.75 kN (27,500 pounds) which, combined with EJ200, will generate a total thrust of some 212 kN (47,700 pounds).

Surge RiskThe design of the cockpit

was recently revealed at the Bloodhound Technical Cen-tre at Bristol. The roof of the cockpit has been designed to create a series of shockwaves that will channel the air into the EJ200 engine. If super-sonic air reaches the jet engine fan blades, the airflow will break down and the engine will “surge.” This can gener-ate huge changes in pressure that could damage both the engine and car, and hence the car will use the shockwaves over the canopy to slow the airflow from more than 1,000 mph (1,609 kph) to just 600 mph (643 kph) in a distance of around one meter.

In addition to bespoke Rolex analog instruments, Cam Lock will provide the ADOM 9G aircrew oxygen mask that the driver, Wing Commander Andy Green MBE MA RAF, will be wearing. With a mask seal performance under sustained accelerations of up to +9G, it combines the best driver protec-tion features from both motors-port and aerospace.

Farnborough may be the last time that the public has a chance to see the Bloodhound SSC before it is completed and pre-pared to be transported to the Hakskeen Pan in South Africa were the record attempt will be made in 2016. o


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Artist’s impression of Bloodhound SSC during a record run. The actual record attempts are planned to take place in South Africa in 2016. The car is appearing at Farnborough before heading for South Africa.

AerospAce tApping benefits of product lifecycle mAnAgement

Most aerospace and defense executives think their companies would improve their ability to collabo-rate with suppliers in engineering and manufacturing design by making more use of product lifecycle man-agement (PLM) processes, but few of them believe their companies are making significant progress in this regard. This was the main conclusion of a new survey on product engineering and manufacturing published ahead of the Farnborough International Airshow by Accenture (Chalet J/1). The survey found that 79 percent of executives accepted the case for improving performance through the application of PLM but only 21 percent rated their own compa-nies as “good” at design collaboration with suppliers using these processes.

“The survey results are unsurprising,” said John Schmidt, managing director of Accenture’s North Ameri-can Aerospace and Defense business. “The need for the industry to move data through the supply chain quickly is increasing and it will continue to increase. There is still much to do and it’s all about getting data into the hands of the assembly and support people.”

The management consulting, systems integration and outsourcing group assists companies in imple-menting PLM, which helps them to handle more cost effectively all the processes in developing a product from

its original concept to its retirement, including engineer-ing, supply chain management, manufacturing, services and marketing. The Accenture survey found that the PLM-related challenges most commonly reported for engineering and design functions were the absence of a single system of record keeping (45 percent of respon-dents) and the lack of integration between different engineering functions (39 percent).

The survey of aerospace and defense executives from companies that generate more than half of all industry revenues concluded that 84 percent could improve their business performance by boosting collaboration between their services and design engi-neering divisions. Respondents also indicated that while more than four fifths of their manufacturing func-tions have access to PLM data, 90 percent want more or better information than they have today.

Accenture also assists companies with activities such as engineering documentation and electronic shop-floor work instructions, as well as managing sup-ply chain sourcing, components outsourcing, customer support functions and human resources management. “We help them with strategy on establishing where they are in the market and how they can improve their operations through people and technology changes,” Schmidt told AIN. –C.A.Richard Noble attempted to retrieve the World Land Speed record for Britain in his

Roll-Royce Derwent-powered Thrust 1. It crashed in March 1977 at RAF Fairford.

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India’s latent defense sector aims to get back on trackby Neelam Mathews

A slowdown in reforms in India over the past five years–and a virtual pause in procurement–may be about to change following renewed optimism and confi-dence as the new government shows, for the moment at least, that it is serious. As hectic activity takes place in the minis-tries of commerce, finance and defense, increasing manufacturing, exports and foreign direct investment (FDI) are focus areas of the new regime.

A proposal to increase FDI levels from the present 26 percent to 49 percent, and 74 percent for transfer of produc-tion (build to print) and 100 percent in the case of a single-source-hub transfer, including transfer of technology, is being viewed with interest.

While India has moved steadily in automobile and au-tomotive components man-ufacturing, with auto gi-ants leveraging the country’s strengths in IT, high-tech en-gineering and research-and-design capabilities, its perfor-mance in the defense sector has been abysmal. A meager $4.8 million FDI came in since the initiative started in 2002, under the 26-percent limit set when the sector was opened up to pri-vate participation. It is now being recog-nized that FDI should be linked with ex-ports as no business can be sustained in the long-term based on domestic orders.

Export Business GrowingExports from India are expanding in

some areas where there are natural cost advantages (engineering design) and also in areas of rapidly deepening capability (aerostructures and avionics, for exam-ple). Also, export of defense equipment is a validation of Indian capability for the government even if it was created in the first place vis-à-vis a need to address local capability gaps, explained Rahul Gangal, a principal at Roland Berger Strategy Consultants. “With the aid of a progres-sive regulatory regime, India could look at an annual export potential of aero-space, defense and security of more than $25 billion per annum in the next five to eight years,” said Gangal.

Recently, Tata Advanced Systems Ltd. (TASL) announced a partnership with Germany’s Ruag Aviation to manufac-ture fuselages and wings for the Dornier 228 aircraft, its fourth in the aerospace sector. Meanwhile, TASL’s joint venture with Sikorsky has already delivered more than 70 Sikorsky S-92 cabins, having produced the entire cabin locally. And, its joint venture with Lockheed Martin manufactures the empennage and cen-ter wing box for the C-130J transport. “TASL has better program manage-ment skills, and in the immediate future,

private industry will continue to tap resources from [the] government defense manufacturer Hindustan Aeronautics,” said an industry official.

There is caution in India about the increase in FDI in the defense sector, with divergent chains of thought. “It will be a better solution to implement this change in a phased, step-by-step manner–that is, from 26 percent to 49 percent,” said Puneet Kaura, executive director of Sam-tel Avionics, whose locally made displays by Samtel-HAL joint venture are installed on some 100 Sukhoi Su-30 MKI fighters. “The Indian manufacturing industry is at a very nascent stage…As the industry matures to absorb more influx of tech-nology, a decision to increase beyond

49 percent may be taken, but 49 percent is good enough for now,” he said.

A joint venture involv-ing Thales manufacturing hel-met-mounted sight and display systems and modern avion-ics systems, with a local part-ner, for the Indian and export defense markets will likely con-tribute to offsets for the 126 medium multi-role combat air-craft (MMRCA) contract.

The Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI) echoes similar thoughts that defense production should be restricted in foreign investment. “Given the stra-tegic nature of the defense sector…100 percent FDI should be allowed in cases such as aircraft engines, advanced missile guidance systems, seekers, production of smart materials and high-strength carbon fiber, for which investments can be justi-fied only by volumes available through integration with the global supply chain of the OEMs,” stated the FICCI.

On the other hand, rival industry association the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), the largest in India, has made it clear that to attract investment a higher FDI cap, with the foreign investor permitted to have majority equity, would act as a catalyst. “Higher FDI will defi-nitely help in creating a vibrant domes-tic defense industrial base in the country,” said CII president Ajay Shriram.

According to the CII, FDI is directly related to increasing manufacturing growth to 25 percent of GDP and bring-ing high-end technology into the country. “The associated benefits are the spin offs for the civilian market. The CII is keen to see high-tech and highly complex system integration work being done in India, and Indian industry is ready to take this challenge,” it said.

Despite roadblocks, delayed deals are on their way to being cleared and will require offsets. The MMRCA could be announced very soon, possibly here

at the Farnborough Airshow, once two major issues–one on offsets and the other on responsibility of liability by Dassault Aviation vis à vis HAL–are decided, an industry official said.

As the government looks at a focus on exports, it has marked out areas of immediate interest, including an aircraft program, shipbuilding, sustainment of munitions, revival of archaic ordnance factories and divestment of HAL.

Missile Exports ExploredExport of missiles to friendly foreign

countries is being explored, according to Avinash Chander, chief of the Defense Research and Development Organiza-tion (DRDO). “We are discussing the methodology for developing export potential as well as a policy mechanism for export of weapon systems,” he said. There is a clear interest in the region in the BrahMos supersonic cruise missile, an India-Russian joint venture. Export of sonars to Myanmar is said to be in process. “Our advantage is lower cost of production,” he said.

Aerospace-related exports were around $5 billion last year and, apart from Sikorsky and Lockheed Martin, include primarily low value items such as fasteners.

Issues in defense procurement policy remain. The exclusion of software and design and engineering services in the Defense Procurement Procedure (DPP) are a big problem. “If you transfer a simulator but cannot transfer software that is part of the package, it renders the hardware use-less,” said an OEM. “We understand soft-ware was pulled out of the DPP following misuse [but] why not allow embedded

software?” asked the official. Also, with design and engineering, an intrinsic part of the manufacturing and lifecycle process of a product, the exclusion in the policy is seen as a misplaced decision.

Further enhancement in the DPP on offsets has also been called for. “DPP 2013 lays emphasis on indigenization. However, force multipliers and some other provisions that support the Indian industry need to be looked into,” said Kaura.

Concerns about ownership and intel-lectual property remain. There is a con-tradiction, in part, as there is an apparent reluctance by large companies to give up ownership unless there is a brand value attached, a reason the 74-percent FDI might initially be restricted to specific proj-ects. “We see more FDI happening in small and medium industries that will be more willing to give up stake. However, how much foreign companies will be interested in releasing transfer of technology to them is another issue,” said a consultant.

“It is strategically prudent to allow a 74-percent FDI in defense, provided OEMs transfer the ownership of 74 per-cent intellectual property rights and tech-nology portfolios to Indian defense joint ventures and the industrial ecosystem. This would spur the much-needed demand for industrial growth in manufacturing of complex aviation and defense technolo-gies in the country,” said New Delhi-based Ajay Batra, CEO of the World Intellec-tual Property Rights Bank. However, lack of government readiness to measure trans-fer of technology, as well as the lack of an implementation agency, funding and sup-port and export control regulations, have proved to be impediments. o


Under a joint venture with Sikorsky, India’s Tata Advanced Systems, has produced, entirely locally, more than 70 S-92 cabins, one of which is flying for a customer in Brazil (above).

Puneet Kaura, executive director of

Samtel Avionics

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Spanish ‘unmanned’ test centers take advantage of sunny skiesby David Donald

Spain is forging ahead with plans to become one of Europe’s leading nations in the unmanned arena through the launch of two connected initiatives that will place the country, and the region of Andalucía in particular, at the forefront of unmanned air vehicle research and test.

This year the Atlas (air traffic lab-oratory for advanced systems) center was formally opened to provide a loca-tion for small UAV testing, while larger vehicles can be tested at CEUS (center of excellence for unmanned systems), an extension of an existing test center to cater for medium UAVs. Both locations offer ideal locations for unmanned air vehicle testing, with weather patterns providing an average of 300 sunny days each year.

CEUS is located alongside the INTA (Instituto Nacional de Técnica Aerosespa-cial) El Arenosillo test center at Moguer, near Huelva. Construction is about to start of new facilities for the testing of UAVs with an mtow of more than 650 kg, and to allow long-endurance flying.

Its proximity to the large INTA missile/

weapons range at Mazagon provides a large area of restricted, instrumented airspace for test flying, mostly over water. The seg-mented airspace has been created to pro-vide the necessary range area, but without impact on the operations of Sevilla and Jerez de la Frontera civilian airports.

Funded to the tune of around $55 mil-lion (€40 million–€21 million from the European Regional Development Fund, €9 million from the Andalucian regional government and €10 million from INTA/Spanish ministry of defense), CEUS will have a runway close to the shore, control tower, apron, hangarage and administrative buildings. The El Arenosillo range already hosts some UAV and aerial target trials, but until the runway is completed they can be undertaken only by air-dropped or ramp-launched vehicles.

Atlas OperationalMeanwhile, the partner to CEUS is

already operational. Located near the town of Villacarillo in Jaén province, Atlas has the distinction of being Europe’s first pur-pose-built UAV test center, constructed at

a green-field site that was carefully cho-sen to provide the best test conditions and the lowest environmental impact. Whereas CEUS is intended to handle UAVs above 650 kg mtow, Atlas is designed for test of vehicles below that weight (with a maxi-mum wing span of 12 meters).

Formally opened by the president of Andalucía on March 21 this year, Atlas is also funded via ERDF and government channels, with a combined investment of €4.5 million. However, its design has also been undertaken in close coopera-tion with potential customers, including Boeing Research and Technology Europe, which is the first to use the center. Airbus Defence and Space is another “major” that has significant interest in the new test centers, having identified CEUS as a key location for testing its Atalante and new Barracuda vehicles.

Atlas offers segregated airspace up to 5,000 feet over an area of more than 1,000 square kilometers of sparsely populated farmland, mostly given over to olive pro-duction. The center has a control tower equipped with a Harrier surveillance radar that provides a number of services, such as vehicle tracking, range safety to moni-tor any aircraft that might stray into the air-space and warning of large-bird activity that may hinder UAV tests.

Operations are conducted from a 600-meter runway constructed at Herrera, which has the option of being extended

to 800 meters. There is also a 400-meter auxiliary grass strip. Hangarage is pro-vided, and the control tower doubles as office space, with mission-planning rooms. The site provides ample space for expansion, if required.

Atlas began operations in October 2013, ahead of its formal opening, and now hosts a variety of UAV types, from small rotary-wing systems up to more sizeable fixed-wing aircraft such as the USol K150. A key partner is the Sevilla-based CATEC research center, which can provide a number of services, including its own air vehicles, experienced pilots for remotely controlled aircraft, and mobile telemetry/control/datalink services. n


An E500 taxies out for a late evening sortie at Atlas. The air vehicle is a product of the Sevilla-based Elimco company and is operated by the CATEC research center from the same city.

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UAVs continue to expand rolesby David Donald

Call it a UAV (unmanned air vehicle) or an RPA (remotely piloted aircraft), the unmanned aircraft has become an integral part of the operations of many air forces, navies and armies around the world. Despite the issues associated with integrating UAV operations into non-segregated airspace, the unmanned aircraft has become a vital tool for performing “dull, dirty and danger-ous” missions such as persistent ISR (intelli-gence, surveillance, reconnaissance).

While UAV programs and projects are under way in many countries, the vast majority are concerned with small vehi-cles that can only be used at a local level. For the larger vehicles that can operate over vast ranges and long endurances, the cur-rent programs that are in widespread service originate from the United States and Israel, the two countries that largely pioneered UAV use, and which remain powerhouses of the industry today.

U.S. ProgramsU.S. services have integrated the UAV

into their operations across the board, from hand-launched vehicles to the mighty Northrop Grumman RQ-4 Global Hawk. In the “white world” the Global Hawk rep-resents the high end of the U.S. programs, a vehicle with a wingspan of more than 130 feet and a service ceiling of 60,000 feet.

In U.S. Air Force service the type is locked in a battle for funding with the manned Lockheed Martin U-2, although the battle may be something of a moot point given the hints of what other programs are under way. Having proved the value of long-endurance, high-altitude unmanned aircraft, the U.S. Air Force has been under-taking development of stealthy craft side-by-side with the overt non-stealthy types such as the RQ-4. Northrop Grumman is developing a flying wing design known as the RQ-180 that is of a similar size to the Global Hawk, yet is designed to operate in defended airspace.

That such a program, or programs, exists comes as no surprise following the revela-tion of the Lockheed Martin RQ-170 Sen-tinel, a smaller stealthy flying-wing design.

Seen operating in Afghanistan as early as 2007, the RQ-170 was brought into the open when one came down on Iranian ter-ritory in December 2011.

For the Global Hawk its future suc-cess may lie away from the U.S. Air Force, including exports to Korea and Japan. A version known as the MQ-4C Triton has been developed for the U.S. Navy’s mari-time patrol mission, and has already been selected by Australia. Other export pros-pects for the naval version include Canada, India and the UK.

The U.S. Navy is also behind the U.S.’s principal “grey-world” UCAV (unmanned combat air vehicle) program, the UCLASS carrier-borne ISR/attack vehicle. A request for proposals was issued this April to four companies. Lockheed Martin is proposing a vehicle that draws on technology from the RQ-170 and manned F-35, while Northrop Grumman is basing its bid on the X-47B demonstrator. Boeing is offering a UCLASS design based on its Phantom Ray demon-strator, while General Atomics is proposing the Sea Avenger, a carrier-capable version of the land-based Predator-C Avenger.

Meanwhile, the “bread-and-butter” U.S. UAV programs have continued to prosper. Textron’s Shadow is in widespread U.S. service and has achieved notable exports. The General Atomics MQ-1 has been the backbone of the U.S. Air Force fleet for many years, and has also scored a number of export sales, including to the UAE. An improved version, the MQ-1C Gray Eagle, is being procured in large numbers by the U.S. Army. However, the U.S. Air Force fleet is to be phased out in favor of the larger MQ-9 Reaper.

For General Atomics the Reaper has been a great success. The hunter-killer UAV carries powerful ISR sensors and an array of weapons up to the size of 500-pound guided bombs. In operations the Reaper has proven its worth countless times, and this success has led to important export sales to several European countries, includ-ing those with UAV programs of their own.

IsraelAnother nation that has scored in the

European market is Israel, with the two main UAV companies Elbit and IAI com-peting to equip the forces of several major European air arms. In one form or another Israeli UAVs have been acquired or leased by France, Germany, Switzerland and the UK. Australia, Brazil and India have also been good customers for Israeli products.

Both Elbit and IAI have given nothing away about what might be under develop-ment behind closed doors. In the mean-time, IAI offers a range of conventional

UAVs but with the Heron 1 as the cen-terpiece. This twin-boom vehicle serves with more than 20 operators and has flown for more than 1.1 million hours. It pro-vides the platform for a wide range of ISR missions, including Sigint and maritime patrol. Earlier this year IAI introduced the Super Heron HF, an improved version with a heavy-fuel engine. The company also offers a much larger turboprop Heron TP design (also known as Eitan) that is in Israeli service.

Elbit’s Hermes family has also proved popular with several UAV operators. The Hermes 450 has been used extensively in Afghanistan by the British Army, which has also based its Watchkeeper UAV on the type. Watchkeeper was cleared for restricted military flying earlier this year.

Using the same systems as the H450, Elbit has recently introduced the larger Hermes 900 to the family, and has recorded a number of export sales in Latin America. Recently Switzerland selected the type to fulfill its UAV requirements.

EuropeU.S. and Israeli UAV manufacturers have

readily exploited the situation in Europe, where there have been many research pro-grams and collaboration projects going back many years, but little in the way of concrete results for an operational UAV of European origin. That might change through two new initiatives currently under way.

Provision of a medium-altitude long-endurance (MALE) UAV for Europe has been identified as a key program for the con-tinent’s industry. In recent times there has been a number of proposals for such a proj-ect, but most have foundered due to a lack of budgetary commitment and political will. To accelerate the decision-making required to get such a project off the ground, three aero-space giants (Airbus Defence and Space, Ale-nia Aermacchi and Dassault Aviation) are jointly proposing a two-year definition phase that could lead to a European MALE that is ready for service in 2020.

Another program that has political back-ing is a stealthy Anglo-French UCAV. Major partners BAE Systems and Dassault have already both flown technology dem-onstrators in the form of the Taranis and Neuron, and are now engaged in a two-year feasibility study.

In the meantime, two European man-ufacturers have been making their own strides in the UAV marketplace. Selex ES is currently the only company to have sold a tactical UAV of European origin in the form of the Falco. A number of export sales have been achieved, including to Pakistan, and the Falco is being used operationally by the UN mission in the Democratic Repub-lic of Congo. Another European success story is the Austrian Schiebel company, whose Camcopter rotary-wing tactical UAV has been sold to several countries for both land- and ship-based duties. n

IAI has continuously introduced improvements to the Heron during its career, but this year undertook a significant overhaul to produce the Super Heron HF, with winglets and heavy-fuel engine.

To date, Selex ES is the only European company to have sold a tactical fixed-wing UAV. This Falco is seen operating from Goma in the DR Congo with the UN peacekeeping mission.

Northrop Grumman has sold its MQ-4C Triton to the U.S. Navy and Australia, and is hopeful of gaining other export orders for the maritime patroller.

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New players in large-UAV gameby David Donald

For years UAVs from the United States and Israel have dominated the larger end of the unmanned market, but now a number of new players have begun to emerge. While they have yet to threaten the dominance of the “big two,” newcomers from other coun-tries are increasingly chipping away at the marketplace and threatening to take sales away from the established suppliers.

For many nations the development of a UAV is an obvious step to drive for-ward technological expertise, but at much reduced cost compared to a manned pro-gram. For the most part such projects have resulted in small UAVs that require little in the way of development investment, and which can be undertaken by universities. However, the large UAV market is another matter, requiring extensive investment and expertise in the development of sophisti-cated systems.

Chinese AmbitionsIn recent years a number of nations have

instigated large UAV programs as technol-ogy matures and political ambition grows. In terms of both system complexity and the number of types being developed, China is by far and away the most important of these emerging UAV developers. In just a few years China has developed and flown a range of UAVs that are broadly similar in capabil-ity to their Western counterparts, including high-altitude, long-endurance ISR platforms and a technology demonstrator for a UCAV (unmanned combat air vehicle).

When it made its first flight in Novem-ber 2013 the Lijian (“sharp sword”) UCAV demonstrator underlined just how far the Chinese had progressed in their unmanned technology. The stealthy UAV is being developed by the 601st Design Institute (Shenyang), Shenyang University and Hongdu. Preceded by scale models, the Lijian first flew with a standard afterburn-ing RD-93 engine that protruded aft of the main body. Further developments are most likely to feature a shorter engine so that rear-aspect signature is much reduced.

Little detail is known of the Lijian, or indeed many of the Chinese UAV proj-ects. The rumored existence of a stealthy flying-wing design, perhaps similar to the U.S. RQ-180, has been reported. One project that has resulted in hardware is a requirement for a high-altitude UAV in the mold of the Global Hawk. Chengdu built

a prototype of a V-tailed UAV with slen-der wings and a prominent nose bulge, but it appears this design has been super-seded by the Xiang Long (soaring dragon). Designed by the 601st Institute (Chengdu) and built by Guizhou, the Xiang Long has an unusual box-wing design. A technology demonstrator was followed by a prototype of a revised design, first seen in 2012.

A bewildering array of more pro-saic UAVs has been developed in China, although only a handful have reached oper-ational status. The Predator-like Chengdu/Guizhou Wing Loong (pterosaur) appears to be in Chinese service, and was publicly displayed at the Zhuhai Airshow. Guizhou has developed a jet-powered twin-boom vehicle known as the WZ-2000, although its status is unclear. Another type in ser-vice, probably with the navy, is the Harbin/BUAA BZK-005, a large twin-boom vehicle

with under-nose sensor turret. One of these air vehicles was recently intercepted by Jap-anese fighters over the East China Sea.

Russia For a country that embraced unmanned

reconnaissance aircraft in the 1970s in the form of the Tupolev Tu-141/143/243 series, Russia has surprisingly lagged behind the West in unmanned vehicle development and has turned to Israeli and other suppli-ers to satisfy its needs. However, at least two projects are under way for sophisticated indigenous designs.

One is for a stealthy UCAV, based on the MiG Skat demonstrator that was unveiled in 2007. The current project involves both Sukhoi and MiG and will draw on the technology developed for the

earlier MiG design. Meanwhile, the Sokol plant in Kazan is completing the prototype of the Altius, a large twin-turboprop high-altitude vehicle that could also undertake weapons delivery.

TurkeyAs part of a government initiative Tur-

key has invested heavily in its aerospace industry, and one of the results is the Anka UAV project. Developed to answer a Turk-ish armed forces requirement for a tacti-cal UAV, the Anka first flew in December 2010. It has a high degree of indigenous equipment, including sensors from Asel-san. The Anka-A vehicle is the foundation for what could be a major UAV family, with a hunter-killer derivative being developed and a larger strategic UAV under study.

IndiaIndia is another country that has been

investing heavily in its aerospace sector, and has consequently initiated a num-ber of unmanned air vehicle programs, including the Rustom family of ISR and armed ISR vehicles, and the Aura technol-ogy demonstrator project for the stealthy IUSAV UCAV. The Rustom series began with an unmanned vehicle based on the Rutan Long-EZ light aircraft that could be armed. Rustom-2 is a twin-engined, T-tailed MALE vehicle that will be capa-ble of releasing weapons, as well as carry-ing out its primary ISR role.

PakistanPakistan has developed a range of UAVs,

as well as employing those from other coun-tries, such as the Italian Falco. Global Indus-trial Defence Solutions produces a range of air vehicles for Pakistan’s armed forces, the largest of which is the Shahpar. This exhib-its a Rutan-inspired canard layout, and may be based on the similar Chinese CH-3 UAV that has also been acquired by Pakistan. GIDS claims that all of the aircraft and its systems are of Pakistani origin, apart from the Rotax 912 engine (produced by Bombardier Recreational Products of Canada).

South AfricaDenel’s Seeker tactical UAV was first

developed to answer a South African ISR need during the 1980s. It entered ser-vice in 1986 and saw considerable opera-tional action before being retired. However, Denel continued development for the export market, and has sold Seeker IIs to at least three countries, including the UAE. Subsequently a further improved vehicle, the Seeker 400, has been introduced and is being offered for export, including armed options. Denel also developed a larger UAV, the Bateleur, but that project appears to have been shelved while the company focused on Seeker 400 development.

UAEIn the Gulf region Adcom Systems from

the UAE has created a large HALE-type UAV in the form of the Yabhon United 40. This unusual design has slender fore and aft wings, and can carry a variety of weaponry, including Adcom’s own Namrod missile. The serpentine fuselage provides ample space for sensor carriage, and an internal bay that could carry sonobuoys in the mari-time patrol role. Among the countries inter-ested in the vehicle is Russia.

IranLittle is known about Iranian UAV devel-

opments, although a number of designs have been seen. Of note at the larger end of the scale is the Shahed 129, which appears to be very similar to the Elbit Hermes 450. n

The Lijian is a proof-of-concept vehicle for a Chinese UCAV. It first flew in late 2013.

The Xiang Long box-wing UAV is based on an earlier design that had only a single fin.

Turkish Aerospace Industries developed the Anka to fulfill a Turkish armed forces requirement for a tactical UAV. The Anka first flew in December 2010.

Pakistan’s Global Industrial Defence Solutions produces UAVs for the country’s armed forces. Shown here is the Shahpar, the largest of Pakistan’s UAVs.


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UAS test consortium gains impetus by Gregory Polek

The International Consor-tium of Aeronautical Test Sites (ICATS) welcomed CATUAV Tech Center (CTC) in Barce-lona as its fifth member here at the Farnborough Interna-tional Airshow yesterday, add-ing Spain to the list of countries involved in the partnership. The other countries represented in the group include Canada, the U.S., the UK and France.

In April, representatives of the UAV test and service center (CESA), Bordeaux, France, the Oklahoma State University–University Multispectral Lab-oratories, U.S., the National Aeronautical Centre, Wales, signed the MOU. This agree-ment consolidates the various MOUs signed between the cen-ters over the past two years.

“ICATS represents the first such collaboration between nations to share data on unmanned aerial systems,” said Oklahoma Secretary of Science

and Technology, Dr. Stephen McKeever. “We think this is a great step forward for the UAS community, and we hope it is a vehicle by which we will be able to unify regulations across

international boundaries.”The mission of ICATS is to

develop international centers of expertise focused on the devel-opment, applications and oper-ations of Unmanned Aerial

Systems (UAS)/Remotely Piloted Aircraft Systems (RPAS).

By sharing information on operational safety, flight regu-lations and actual operational experience, the consortium aims to develop, test and ultimately gain certification of UAS and RPAS to allow for their use in non-segregated airspace.

Since the formal an nounce-

ment, ICATS has received ex-pressions of interest from sever-al UAS/RPAS test sites in mul-tiple countries. The consortium welcomes interest from all UAS test sites and encourages contact with the ICATS Director of In-ternational Relations, Dr. Ste-phen McKeever, Secretary of Science and Technology, State of Oklahoma. o


IAI FlIes FlAgshIp

IAI’s Tamam division has begun flight trials of its M-19HD ISR payload, the company’s latest advanced electro-optical multi-sensor turret. The M-19HD took to the skies for the first time fit-ted to a Piper Aztec light twin for trials, but is primar-ily intended for application to large UAVs such as the IAI Heron and Heron TP for stra-tegic surveillance missions, as well as on other platforms such as aerostats, vessels and manned aircraft.

Weighing from 165 and 187 pounds, depending on config-uration, the M-19HD measures 22.6 inches wide and 27.3 inches deep. It can accom-modate up to seven sensors to provide a multi-spectral high-definition capability by day and night. –D.D.

The IAI Tamam M19-HD can accommodate seven sensors.



A small airport’s renaissance centers on UAS flight testingby Bill Carey

If you build it, they will come. The UK National Aeronautical Centre (Hall 1 Stand C9) has answered the first part of that challenge by making available the facilities to fly large unmanned aircraft sys-tems (UAS) beyond a pilot’s visual line of sight, in an environment that also accom-modates manned aviation. The center now awaits a response from what is expected to be a boom market for commercial UAS.

The UK Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) restricts UAS operations to segre-gated airspace, including airspace identi-fied as a “danger area” because of military testing activities. Until unmanned aircraft have an approved means to “detect and avoid” other flying objects, their use is con-fined to these designated areas. “It’s really about the airspace; it’s about the abil-ity to operate,” said Ray Mann, who first announced the National Aeronautical Center at the 2012 Farnborough Airshow.

Mann, an entrepreneur and the owner of an electronics recycling business, acquired West Wales Airport in Aberporth, an inac-tive, World War II airfield, in 2001 to fly back and forth from his cottage in Wales. The air-port lies within the “D201” danger area, cov-ering some 2,000 square miles of Cardigan Bay to the west. The Ministry of Defence’s Aberporth Range manages the airspace, which it uses to test air-launched weapons and UAS. When he bought it, West Wales Airport was open to other aircraft operators, but traffic was light so Mann sought other ways to make it a going concern.

The airport has served as a site for test-ing UAS since 2004. There in Septem-ber 2005, contractor Thales conducted the first flight in the UK of a tactical UAS–the Elbit Hermes 450, which serves as the basis of the British Army’s Watchkeeper UAS. Mann said he applied for and received CAA authority to host ongoing UAS oper-ations in 2006. In 2011, at the request of the

airport and the Welsh government, which owns the adjoining Parc Aberporth tech-nology park, the CAA authorized another 500 square miles of segregated airspace over land to the east, specifically for the pur-pose of testing and developing UAS.

West Wales Airport manages some 1,500 aircraft movements a year, of which 80 percent are by unmanned aircraft. “We have a specialty and it’s open to all,” Mann said. “It’s not focused necessarily on military, it’s not focused on civilian, it’s focused on unmanned systems–on an ability to be able to operate them within a regulated aviation environment.”

Last September, the aeronautical center announced a partnership with Newquay Cornwall Airport in southwest England, another facility with aspirations, but not the same expertise, for hosting UAS oper-ations. Whereas West Wales Airport has a 1,200-meter runway, Newquay Corn-wall, the former RAF St. Mawgan, boasts a 3,000-meter runway and access to 3,088 square miles of segregated airspace.

Keeping Watch

West Wales Airport remains important to the Watchkeeper. The UK Ministry of Defence awarded a formal release to service the British Army in March. In April, the air-port announced the award of a two-year, £2.5 million ($4.3 million) contract from the MOD to continue supplying its airfield and services for Watchkeeper test and evaluation.

“We are open for business on a perma-nent basis to fly unmanned systems. That isn’t to say that the skies around here are black with unmanned [aircraft],” Mann said.

While the market for smaller UAS weigh-ing up to 20 kilograms (44 pounds) appears to be taking off, there is little activity on larger, commercial systems that will need to be equivalent in performance to manned air-craft, he explained. o


Watchkeeper number 33 makes its first test fight on July 8 from West Wales Airport in Aberporth.

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IAI graces Farnborough show with its wide array of UASby David Donald

With its unmanned air vehicles hav-ing achieved more than 1.2 million operational flight hours and serving with more than 50 operators, IAI is one of the leading companies involved in this sector. Here at Farnborough Inter-national 2014 it is promoting a wide range of its UAVs, from the 10,230-pound Heron TP to the nine-pound vertical takeoff Ghost, along with related technologies such as advanced electro-optical, sigint (signals intelli-gence) and maritime patrol payloads.

Much of the operational flight hours have been amassed by the Searcher and Heron vehicles. Earlier this year IAI (Chalet A29) unveiled the Super Heron as a major upgrade of the original design. Super Heron was “developed to provide an answer to the growing need in the market for a heavy fuel MALE UAV,” said Shaul Shahar, vice-presi-dent and general manager of IAI’s mil-itary aircraft group. “It presents some unique capabilities: high speed [maxi-mum of 150 knots], a high rate of climb and flexibility in carrying a variety of payloads. The test phase has been com-pleted successfully, its performance was validated and we are very pleased with the results.”

Meanwhile, the Heron’s “big brother,” the Heron TP, is fully operational with the Israeli air force as the Eitan and is the sub-ject of export interest. “We have received a very positive feedback from the user regarding the Heron TP’s operational capabilities and performance,” Shahar told AIN, adding that, “There are serious talks with several customers.” The Heron TP is NATO-interoperable and fully compliant with STANAG 4671.

Traditionally associated with larger unmanned platforms, IAI is significantly expanding its offer in the smaller UAV marketplace. “We see more demand for tactical and mini-tactical UASs in the market,” Shahar reported, “and we are prepared to answer these needs with state-of-the-art technologies. IAI is interested in this market and continues to invest resources in the development of innova-tive mini UASs.”

Examples of this direction being promoted at Farnborough include the man-portable Bird Eye ramp-launched flying-wing vehicle and the twin-rotor Ghost that has been developed specifi-cally for special forces use, mainly in the urban environment. Also being show-cased are the Panther and Mini Panther tilt-rotor vehicles that offer fixed-wing endurance performance but with the abil-ity to take off and land vertically.

In May, IAI North America unveiled the ArrowLite hand-held UAV, which has been designed by the company’s sub-sidiary Stark Aerospace. ArrowLite was designed with support from the U.S. Combatting Terrorism Technical Sup-port Office to provide an ISR capability to small special operations and counter-terrorism teams. Operated by one per-son and weighing just over six pounds, ArrowLite can be erected and launched in 60 to 90 seconds and fly for up to 150 minutes. The stabilized payload com-prises a two-axis-gimbaled thermal imager and laser illuminator, with an encrypted datalink. IAI had delivered 13 systems by May this year, each system comprising three vehicles in waterproof carriers plus a ruggedized ground con-trol system. o

Designed to absorb the harsh environment encountered in the special forces world, the ArrowLite offers an effective range of nearly 10 miles and a dash speed of 55 knots.

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Airbus Helicopters gears up for smooth EC175 entry into serviceby Thierry Dubois

Certification in hand, Air-bus Helicopters is endeavoring to ensure a faultless entry into service of its EC175 medium twin, a criti-cal product for the company in the highly competitive offshore oil-and-gas market. The first deliv-ery, to Belgium-based operator NHV, is planned for the second half of this year, almost five years after the first flight. Thanks to the unprecedented preparation at the company’s headquarters in Mari-gnane, France, and at a customer base, program officials believe an EC175 will be able to operate immediately after delivery.

“We want the delivered air-craft to be as close as possible to perfection–our oil-and-gas

customers have high expecta-tions for reliability and support,” EC175 program director Lau-rent Vautherin told AIN. Airbus is under even greater pressure than usual, as a series of inci-dents and accidents has put its helicopters in a not-so-desirable spotlight, especially in the UK, since 2012.

As a way to polish the EC175 design and anticipate problems, the company flew a prototype in various environments during test campaigns and demo tours. These included cold weather in Canada, a dry atmosphere in the U.S., humid conditions in Asia and finally the harsh North Sea environment, where poor

weather and salt water prevail.Airbus Helicopters, for the

first time, has planned an “oper-ational maturity campaign” before the entry into service of a new type, EC175 program sup-port officer Véronique Cardin said. Over the last 18 months, the company dedicated two months to testing support and services. Then, an EC175 spent two weeks during May and June at NHV’s base in Ostend, with visits to a site in Den Helder.

Simulated EISIt was a simulated entry into

service. Airbus tested maintain-ability, including tools and job cards. The aircraft was an Air-bus-owned prototype, operated by Airbus maintenance tech-nicians and crew. “Five NHV pilots flew various mission pro-files with Airbus pilots,” NHV fleet manager Mark Boumans told AIN. These included tak-ing off at mtow from an elevated helipad, which represented stan-dard oil-and-gas operations. The helicopter flew five hours per day.

At NHV’s base, Airbus main-tenance technicians performed a

simulated 50-hour check and a 100-hour check. They showed 10 of their NHV counterparts how to perform these tasks and receive feedback from them. The latter ensured that the com-pany’s tooling and Airbus’s pro-cedures are adequate, Boumans said. Airbus aims to meet its tar-get dispatch reliability within two years, Cardin said.

The three launch opera-tors–NHV, Russia’s UTAir and France’s Héli-Union–will bene-fit from additional support. For each customer, two technical rep-resentatives–one mechanic and one avionics specialist–instead of the usual one, will be avail-able on-site for a minimum of six months. For each of the three operators, one pilot instructor also will be made available.

On-site SparesAirbus will provide each

launch customer with extra on-site spare parts inventory. “We are choosing the parts based upon our experience with other types, the maintenance record of EC175 prototypes and simulated reliability,” Cardin explained. The two prototypes and the first production aircraft have logged a combined 1,100 flight hours, which has helped solved a lot of teething troubles, she added.

When AIN visited the Air-bus Helicopters Training Ser-vices (AHTS) subsidiary in Marignane, the company was training its own EC175 main-tenance technicians. Fifteen of them are to be qualified before the entry into service. AHTS is also in charge of pilot training and has already qualified five instructor pilots. EASA certi-fication of a level-D full flight simulator was expected in June. A level III flight and navigation procedures trainer (FNPT), valid for multi-crew coordi-nation, was used for the flight instructors’ qualification.

In the factory in mid-May, AIN saw 14 EC175s at various

stages of construction. Vau-therin said three deliveries are planned this year and 18 in 2015. Eventually, the production rate should increase to more than 30 per year. Airbus Helicopters, as of early June, held 64 firm orders for the type.

Not content with the initial version, Airbus Helicopters is increasing the mtow of the EC175 medium twin by 660 pounds (to 17,196 pounds) thus offering an equivalent growth in payload or an extra 40 nm of range. Certi-fication is expected in 2016, fol-lowing a flight-test campaign scheduled for next year. “Oper-ators will have more flexibility in payload versus range,” Mickael Melaye, senior manager, oil-and-gas sales promotion, told AIN.

In the cockpit, the “rig ’n’ fly” option will be available in 2016 for automated approaches. The system is designed to signifi-cantly cut pilot workload, as it will conduct the entire approach down to the helideck’s height at a single push of a button. The crew will still have to perform the landing. “We bring stan-dardization; an approach in Angola will be the same as in the North Sea,” Melaye said.

A cursor-control device also will be offered in 2016. “For search-and-rescue, when the crew often interacts with the map and the infrared camera, it will be a better interface than two rotating knobs,” said Yves Royannez, program director of the Helionix avionics suite.

Also planned for 2016 is integration of a synthetic-vision system. Royannez said Helionix has a very open archi-tecture, which makes additional applications easier.

The new avionics suite was developed with Israel-based electronics firm Elbit, which supplied the hardware and developed mission capabili-ties–HTAWS, digital map and so forth–under Airbus’s specifi-cations. The main drivers were system redundancy, crew work-load reduction, mission effi-ciency, centralized maintenance and cockpit standardization, Royannez said. Helionix was certified under the latest inter-national avionics standards, which were more demanding and complex than expected. o


Airbus Helicopters has trained five EC175 instructor pilots.

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Airbus Helicopters’ planned production rate is now more than 30 EC175s a year.

EC175 Main Gearbox Features New Run-dry DesignUnlike its sister ship the EC225, the EC175’s main gearbox has no backup

lubrication system, which could present a problem should it experience a total loss of oil. To compensate for this, its components have been designed to withstand the absence of lubricant for a limited period of time.

Airbus Helicopters so far has certified a 15-minute dry-run capability (which involved a 30-minute demonstration). Further tests are scheduled for 2015 in a bid to increase the certified duration to at least 30 minutes. –T.D.

The EC175 by the NumbersMtow 16,535 pounds

Recommended cruise speed 150 knots

Max range(5,000 ft, no reserve) 680 nm

Seats 12 to 18

Price $19 million (€13.6 million)

An Airbus Helicopters EC175, C/N 5001, wears the livery of Bristow Helicopters which will use it in support of its offshore oil-and-gas activities.

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Lord stretches wings into Europe’s airliner sector by Ian Sheppard

Lord Corp. (Chalet A33) is here at the Farnborough show as it starts a major expansion push into Europe. At a pre-show briefing at the Royal Aeronau-tical Society in London the company unveiled a new “aerospace business growth strategy for Europe”–the main focus being the booming fixed-wing air-liner sector, as Lord is already active in the helicopter industry in Europe, spe-cializing in noise, vibration and motion-control technologies.

The company told reporters that its “goal is $2 billion, doubling sales again by 2022,” after it recorded a doubling over the past 10 years, “now approaching $1 billion,” with aerospace playing “a sig-nificant role in that.”

A diversified company, Cary, North Carolina-based Lord Corp.’s aerospace division accounts for around 35 percent of total sales. Within aero-space, it has “four strategic markets–rotary wing, civil fixed wing, business aviation and defense.” It already has a Euro-pean base in Geneva, Switzerland, while its Asia Pacific headquar-ters is in Hong Kong. Bill Cerami, the president of Lord’s aerospace and defense global indus-try group, said, “We are a stable, 90-year-old company with a strong balance sheet that shares in the development risk with our partners.” Such partners already include Airbus, Saab, Safran, Finmecca-nica, Dassault and Pilatus.

Lord Aerospace director, EMEA, Rachid Bendali, said “Our value-added is to innovate and share risk to produce the best aircraft possible.” The process of taking its core skillset developed in the helicopter world into the fixed-wing world has already started, said Bendali. For helicopters, an example of its sys-tems is on the AW139 helicopter, where it developed an active-noise-control sys-tem for the cabin; meanwhile, on the Boeing 787 it helped to develop systems “to stop noise getting to the cabin.” With the helicopter, Bendali said “the ride is almost jet smooth now.” The aircraft flies 11 to 15 knots faster (which allows the operator, an oil-industry company, “to make more missions a day”) and there is an “unintended consequence” in that “equipment lasts longer as there is less vibration in the cabin.”

Boasting rich aerospace heritage–Lord provided the engine mounts for the Ford Trimotor–makes the company confident that it can find wider applications in the industry, and it sees the Farnborough show as the ideal place to meet potential partners.

Lord has also been on the acquisition trail, for example, acquiring Microstrain

in 2012. That company offered “sensors that could make our parts smarter; for example, predicting early failure,” said Bendali. It had “breakthrough technol-ogy we couldn’t develop [fast enough] ourselves…The sensors can be placed anywhere and work wirelessly and have their own energy-harvesting systems.” One specific use is “weight on wheel sys-tems,” he added. This year the company also acquired New York-based Stellar Technologies (STI), a specialist in trans-ducers and sensors, which has clients in the oil and gas industry as well as com-panies such as SpaceX.

Target ListsDr. Guy Billoud, Lord’s global direc-

tor for strategic alliances, mergers and acquisitions, told AIN that the com-pany has “several [acquisition] target

lists” with the aim being three-fold: “to complement

our offering; to increase our phys-ical presence in Europe, which is not sufficient; and to help

reduce risk in the sup-ply chain.” He said that the industry is gradually seeing more significant

tier “one-and-a-half and two” suppliers becoming risk-sharing partners. Lord, Billoud said, is well positioned for this because “we’ve always been involved in designing, certification and production–the full spectrum, and even the aftermar-ket…” Lord also has an MRO business.

Billoud stressed that Lord is focused on “inorganic growth” as well as organic, and that it is heavily focused on innova-tion–to the extent that it even seeds those with specific new technologies to offer, “a bit like a VC [venture capitalist].”

In 2009 Lord opened a European tech-nology center in Geneva, which now has 15 engineers. This is backed up by 120 engineers in the U.S. and has led to “a significant improvement in communica-tions” on projects on which Lord is work-ing in Europe. One project it is working on is the attachment system for an open-rotor engine, as part of Europe’s Clean Sky program. “We’re now looking for opportunities to take part in Clean Sky 2,” said Bendali.

Lord provided the engine mounts for the Boeing 737 Classic airliner and for the P&W engines on the Boeing 757 and 767, but had not won a competition for airliner engine mounts since the 1970s (it has several contracts with business jet manufacturers, however).

At the show this week the company is revealing the platform that changed its long wait: a commercial platform contract won in 2012 for a hard-mount system. o

52 Aviation International News • July 15, 2014 • www.ainonline.com

Microstrain’s wireless sensor data aggregator. The sensors could potentially predict parts failures.


Europe makes aerospace a priority by Nick Klenske

With an annual turnover of €186.8 billion (around $200 billion), which rep-resents one percent of the European Union’s GDP, and employing more than 752,000 people, the European aerospace and defense indus-tries play a key role in securing Europe’s future.

“Aeronautics, space, defense and security are all crucial for Europe’s key socioeconomic goals as they ensure sustainable mobility, provide highly skilled jobs and foster Europe’s knowl-edge through massive R&D investments,” said Jan Pie, sec-retary general of the Aero-space and Defence Industries Association of Europe (ASD). “In a nutshell, these industries help Europe achieve and maintain technologi-cal leadership.”

ASD is the industry association rep-resenting these four key sectors. Based in Brussels, the association voices the industry’s concerns and interests to the European institutions and international organizations. Its main objective is to enhance the competitive development of these industries by securing funds from the EU, influencing legislation, voicing the industry’s objective in global policy and regulatory matters, and representing Europe in the global arena.

“As a member-driven organization, ASD takes a stance on issues that have an impact across all companies,” Pie told AIN. “Our goal is to provide a common, holistic industry perspective to decision makers in order to maintain and enhance Europe’s leadership position.”

Policy Driven The association’s membership is

comprised of 27 national associations and 16 major companies from the aero-nautics, space, defense and security sectors. ASD statutory bodies are the General Assembly and the Board, with the General Assembly deciding on the general policy of the association and the Board being responsible for the association’s management.

ASD works closely with its members

via four sector-focused business units (civil aviation, space, security and defense) and six cross-functional “com-missions” (economic, legal and trade,

research and technology, envi-ronment, services, supply chain and external affairs). Further-more, all ASD working bodies regularly gather industry repre-sentatives to pool their exper-tise in order to devise common solutions for the industry and to provide advice to officials and authorities dealing with the industry.

The objective of the ASD business units and commis-sions is to identify policy issues to be pursued at the European

and EU Member State level and to pro-pose strategies to maximize the benefits for industry. The association’s top prior-ities include:• Implementation of the Horizon 2020

funding period, Clean Sky and Single Sky policies.

• Contribute to ICAO’s agenda through ICCAIA (the International Coordinat-ing Council of Aerospace Industries Associations).

• Define and develop a strategic research agenda for the security sector.

• Contribute to the EU Preparatory Action for the Common Security & Defence Policy.

• Reshape ASD to best answer member’s needs and requirements.To accomplish this ambitious agenda,

each business unit and commission is sup-ported by several permanent and ad-hoc committees and working groups. Their work involves discussing the detailed top-ics, drafting position papers and issuing recommendations to the industry and other stakeholders. The sectoral groups deal with the more focused sector inter-est and their work is also used as a basis for the work in all commissions and busi-ness units.

Mutual RecognitionOne of ASD’s key objectives is to

ensure market access and competitiveness for European industries. Thus, ensuring

smooth certification of aircraft and aero-space products is of central importance.

One common concern from the U.S. aerospace sector is that EASA makes it difficult to get FAA-certified prod-ucts certified in Europe. Although ASD represents companies whose products are certified by EASA, they still see the importance of creating open markets on both sides of the Atlantic.

Today, validation of certified products in either direction, from the U.S. to the EU or vice versa, is governed by the Bilat-eral Aviation Safety Agreement (BASA) and its technical implementation process. This agreement provides a formal frame-work for cooperation and mutual recog-nition between EASA and the FAA.

“ASD, along with its industry counter-part in the U.S.–the Aerospace Industries Association of America (AIA)–is continu-ing to work with EASA and the FAA for further improvements to this agreement to increase the level of mutual recognition,” said Pie. “Our basic position is that both EASA and the FAA, when they are in the position of validating authority, should further rely on the activities performed by the primary authority to reduce their direct involvement in certification valida-tion. As both are competent authorities, such direct involvement is simply duplica-tion of effort for no safety benefit.”

In this sense, ASD is seeking some specific improvements to the EU-U.S. BASA. For example, European industry has heavily invested in becoming a cer-tified design organization (DOA). ASD believes that this means the level of inves-tigation and oversight by both EASA and the FAA should be commensurate with the maturity of that certified orga-nization. Further, ASD advocates that EASA’s resources be focused on areas where safety improvements are most needed, as identified by the European Aviation Safety plan (EASp).

Another issue is that while EASA rec-ognizes FAA production approvals from the whole of the U.S., the FAA still does not recognize the release of parts manu-factured in all EU Member States under a Production Organization Approval as per Part 21.A subpart G. “The FAA cur-rently recognizes only POAs issued by EASA for 14 out of 28 Member States,” noted Pie. “This is unacceptable as all EU Member States are complying with the same European regulations and are under the oversight of EASA, which ensures consistent and standard appli-cation of the European requirements throughout Europe.”

Another topic of great importance is the emissions trading scheme (ETS), where ASD strongly advocates in favor of the development and implementa-tion of global regulations via ICAO. “I strongly believe that we should always favor global solutions to global chal-lenges, not European solutions to global challenges,” said Pie. “Aircraft emis-sions and their effect on the environment is clearly a global challenge and thus is more properly addressed by a UN-man-dated body like ICAO as opposed to a regional Institution like the EU.”

Ensuring a Competitive Europe

All of ASD’s work is aimed at ensur-ing Europe remains competitive in an increasingly competitive and global aero-space and defense sector. “Europe tends to focus on the European processes, often at the expense of Europe’s position in the global marketplace,” said Pie. “Many of today’s emerging markets are huge single markets, and although Europe talks a lot

Jan Pie, ASD secretary general

One of ASD’s main objectives is to contribute to the EU Preparatory Actionm for the Common Security & Defence Policy

Europe’s Aerospace and Defence Industries Association (ASD) is comprised of 27 national associations and 16 major companies.

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about the single market, in reality we are far from being one.”

As a result, while Europe continues to look at the process of becoming a single market, it will face even harder competi-tion as it becomes easier to do business in these other countries. “Our advan-tage in the aerospace and defense sec-tor is about to be lost if we don’t work to make sure Europe’s rules and regu-lations benefit European industry, not hinder it,” Pie said.

To accomplish this, much of ASD’s work goes into advocacy aimed at ensur-ing the support of the political and civil service levels in Brussels, making them aware of the industry’s priorities and con-cerns. This is of particular importance now as Europe transitions to a new Par-liament this summer and, soon thereafter, a new Commission.

“ASD will continue to work closely with the European Parliament as in the past, ensuring that newly elected EU rep-resentatives appreciate the competitive-ness of the aerospace industry and its contribution to the European industrial and economic prosperity by its creation of high-level and high-value skilled jobs,” said Pie.

One example where the European pro-cess can and should be developed for increased industrial competitiveness is in the area of EU-funded research and devel-opment. The EU recently launched its Horizon 2020 funding period, a program aimed at promoting and funding Euro-pean innovation and development–includ-ing in the aerospace sector. Although the intentions are good, in reality too often the process gets in the way.

Horizon 2020 has allocated over €70

billion toward European research and development, but Pie worries that, to some extent, instead of boosting the EU’s competitiveness, it will instead boost only the EU administrative process. “The feed-back we get from members is that 25 per-cent of the effort to participate in these funding programs goes into administra-tion,” he said. “Too often we see com-plexity prevail over simplification, and in many cases companies simply find it more effective to ‘go it alone’.”

In comparison, Pie noted that in the U.S. the period between funding and results is much faster, giving companies there a distinct competitive advantage. “The reality is that in the EU the success rate for small budget proposals is only 10 percent–and this simply needs to change.”

Pie also noted that this transi-tion period happening at the Euro-pean level also provides an opportune time for ASD to build a more effective organization. To do this, Pie aims to increase the competency level within the organization’s staff in order to bet-ter support the member representa-tives. For example on the aviation side, as of November 1 Vincent De Vroey (formerly of the Association of Euro-pean Airlines) will be joining ASD as its new director of civil aviation.

“The goal is that with greater com-petencies internally, with the new Com-mission and Parliament we will be better positioned to do more proactive forecasting on the issues most pertinent to our member companies,” concluded Pie. “As we transition from a reactive to a proactive association, I believe ASD will begin to drive the European aero-space, defense and security agenda.” o


BCuBe to expand aerospaCe logistiCs

Making its first appearance at the Farnborough Airshow, BCube (Hall 1 Stand C15) is presenting its wide range of ser-vices, spanning distribution of parts to managing warehouses and handling the distribution of spare parts from national and international suppliers.

Founded in 1952 by the Bonzano fam-ily, BCube employs 4,200 people, operates from 70 sites around the globe (including Italy, France, Germany, Poland, Serbia, Bul-garia, Turkey, Egypt, Argentina, Venezuela, the U.S., Canada, Mexico, China and India) and in 2013 reported total sales of €470 million (50 percent domestic, 50 percent international). The company is now opening a site in Dubai, where a warehouse is to be constructed to support the activities of the local defense industry.

BCube has acquired UNI-EN ISO 9120:2010 quality certification, which enables it to partici-pate in NATO bids. Its Aerospace and Defense division manages the warehouses and han-dles the spare parts for the Italian Air Force at its air bases at Cameri (for the Tornado and Eurofighter), Pisa (the C130 and C27J) and Trev-iso (the AMX), and for the Brazilian Air Force (AMX), also at Treviso. With 150 employees it manages 110,000 codes and 620,000 lines per year. It is now also offering its services to aircraft

and equipment manufacturers. Gen. Claudio Debertolis, head of

Aerospace and Defense, said BCube is committed to the expansion of its activ-ities in the international market focusing on East Africa, the Middle East, Asia and the U.S., following the recent acquisition of Eagle Support Services. “The company has been engaged in production logistics for the automotive sector for more than 40 years and has developed its exper-tise in aerospace by managing the supply chain for Boeing 787 production at the Alenia plant in Grottaglie [in cooperation with Fata Logistics, a Finmeccanica com-pany],” he said. “We transport the parts from the supplier to the plant, we store them, we prepare the kits for the pro-duction line of major assemblies of the airplane, which then are shipped to the prime contractor.

“We are doing the same for General Elec-tric: for the powerplant constructions we have dedicated an area of 285,000 square meters to the logistic activities…[and] a joint venture of BCube and Fata Logistics is finalizing an agreement with the Polish helicopter manufacturer PZL Swidnik [a com-pany owned by AgustaWestland] to manage their production logistics.” –I.S.

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747-8’s continued weight loss boosts performanceby Gregory Polek

Boeing’s slow-selling 747-8 hasn’t struggled to gain mar-ket penetration for a lack of effort on the part of the com-pany’s sales team, or, as pro-gram head Eric Lindblad would attest, a lack of ongoing perfor-mance improvements or tech-nological innovation. In fact, today’s 747-8 weighs some 9,000 pounds less than the first exam-ple Boeing placed into service in 2011 and 2,000 pounds less than airplanes it delivered around a year ago. With further work, the company expects the weight to eventually drop by more than 10,000 pounds.

“We continue to make solid progress there,” said Lindblad. “As you take weight out you improve gas mileage, and that’s one of the ways that we influ-ence the overall economics of the aircraft.”

Some of the weight savings comes from a performance im-provement package (PIP) on the airplane’s GEnx-2B en-gines, introduced last Decem-ber. The PIP, which includes a new low-pressure turbine de-sign, redesigned high-pressure compressor airfoils, as well as

an “upgraded” combustor and improved high-pressure tur-bine aerodynamics, improved engine efficiency by 1.8 per-cent, meaning today’s 747-8 operates some 3.5 percent more efficiently than the first to roll off the assembly line.

Further advances took the form of upgrades last December to the 747-8’s flight management computer (FMC) that improved navigational performance and step-climb efficiency, while reac-tivating the tail fuel tanks in the 747-8’s passenger version, the Intercontinental, extended its range to about 7,700 miles at a 467-passenger count.

Future ProjectsFuture projects center

around what Lindblad char-acterized as an array of items that increase overall efficiency and would allow for routes between the Middle East and the West Coast of the U.S. or Hong Kong to U.S. East Coast routes. A route between Honk Kong and New York would require some 8,200 nm of range with reserves.

“We’re in the process of really taking pieces of the items that were on the list and incorporating those and if we end up with a campaign that needs that route structure we’ll move forward and do the full menu,” he said.

Some of those items would include aerodynamic changes that involve some of the fair-ings adjacent to the horizontal tail and an aerodynamic thin-ning of some of the scalloped areas of the thrust reverser. A decision to increase max-imum takeoff weight would

come at around the same time Boeing decides to change the aerodynamics on the wing-to-body fairing, which Lindblad described as a “fairly large-scale job.”

“So we’ll probably wait to see if we actually need that to get to the full 8,200-mile range,” he said.

Now some 31 months into service, the 747-8 fleet operates at a 98.9 dispatch reliability rate. Some of the “issues” custom-ers still encounter include what Lindblad called interrupts from ground power to APU power

and APU power to generator power, requiring crews to per-form a restart sequence that could delay dispatch by “a few extra minutes.”

“We intended to exceed 99 percent [dispatch reliabil-ity] before the year’s out, and we pretty much know exactly which improvements we have to make to the aircraft that drive that reliability up and we’re working closely with our customers not only to receive the service bulletins and parts but to incorporate them into their fleets,” said Lindblad.

Of course, future fleets will benefit as well, and as the world cargo market shows signs of life after years in the doldrums, Lindblad sees the timing of the airplane’s maturation aligning nicely with Boeing’s expecta-tions of a sales resurgence.

Sees Sales Resurgence“We still expect the mar-

ket to rebound as we’re start-ing to see some of the signs, and we’re really expecting air-craft sales to start to come into parity sometime in the 2016 time frame, [when] we’ll see the freighter sales pick back up…We’ve shoved capacity into the marketplace and they’re happy

to take them, but they don’t necessarily put them all into service right away”

The cargo market grew by an annualized rate of some 4 per-cent in the first quarter of this year, just shy of the 5 percent annual rate Boeing projects for over the next 20 years.

Now building 747s at a rate of 1.5 per month, Boeing sold a total of 17 of the four-engine jets last year, represent-ing nearly a 1:1 book-to-build ratio. Its backlog as of mid-June stood at 51 airplanes, accounting for roughly three years of production.

On the subject of production system stability, Lindblad drew attention to the fact that the line now runs roughly a day-and-a-half behind schedule, com-pared with four days a year ago. Boeing expects more efficiency to come from the planned use of a Flex Track automated drill-ing and riveting machine, now in place on the 777 line, for lap joints and circumferential joints on the 747-8 fuselage. “We’re not done investing not only in the product itself, but the produc-tion system, which is important to me to validate that there’s a lot of time left on this aircraft,” concluded Lindblad. o


Boeing 747-8 program vice president and general manager Eric Lindblad expects the four-engine jet’s dispatch reliability to exceed 99 percent by year-end.

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Lufthansa took delivery of its 75th Boeing 747 and its 13th 747-8I on May 2.

Apprentices Answer the cAll for increAsed skills bAse

The trend among tier-two aerospace suppliers to shoulder a higher level of engineering respon-sibility for the components and subsystems they supply to larger OEMs is just one factor driving the need to ensure the availability of an adequate skills base. For UK precision engineering com-pany Nasmyth, this has led to a concerted effort to recruit and train apprentices in tandem with its efforts to launch new joint ventures in places such as India and South Carolina. On June 26, it opened the office of its new Indian subsid-iary in the country’s aerospace hub Bangalore.

In recent years, the company has been taking on around 10 to 15 apprentices annually but manag-ing director Peter Smith told AIN he would like this number to increase so that at any given time roughly 35 of its 680 employees are apprentices–about twice the national average for UK manufacturing firms.

Nasmyth, which is marking its 10th anniversary this year, makes items such as intermediate casings to connect the front and rear sec-tions of engines. It is also a specialist in applying customized treatments to aerospace components.

“We aim to provide a total solution to the OEMs,” said Smith. “It might involve machining components, treating surfaces or even making significant subsys-tems. It is now more common for us to have significant design input so that, for instance, we might be given only the diameter and axis of pipes and then have to design the right connections for them.”

Smith acknowledged that it can be challenging to attract young people to pursue careers in aerospace manufacturing and also to find those with a desirable level of basic skills. He pointed to this Friday’s Futures Day at the Farnborough International Airshow as a prime opportunity to recruit new talent. Nasmyth also sponsors continuing education opportunities for exist-ing employees.

“OEMs have a finite amount of engineering capac-ity and so they are encouraging companies down the

supply chain to take more responsibility,” said Smith. “We are competing against the world’s best and we have to be selective about the contracts we bid for in terms of how they match our skills base and invest-ment capability.”

In terms of rewards for making these investments, Smith acknowledged that build rates are high in the civil aerospace sector but in his view they have proba-bly plateaued for now. –C.A.

The UK’s Nasmyth is increasing its apprenticeship program in a bid to expand its skills base.

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Remote control: how the British fly the armed Reaperby Chris Pocock

In response to increased scru-tiny of armed UAV operations by human rights groups, Brit-ish legislators and the United Nations, the British Ministry of Defence (UK MoD) has stepped up efforts to reassure the public. Late last year, it allowed media (including AIN) access to the Royal Air Force Reaper ground control station (GCS) at RAF Waddington for the first time. New documents describing UK operational procedures, includ-ing targeting, have been released. The UK is one of only three countries to have fired weapons from UAVs in combat, the oth-ers being Israel and the U.S.

“We recognize that safety, legal and ethical concerns have been raised over ‘unmanned’ aircraft. That’s why we pre-fer the term ‘remotely piloted’; fully trained pilots are in com-plete control,” Air Vice Marshall Phil Osborn, director of capabil-ity, UK Joint Forces command, said during the briefing at Wad-dington. He said that the RAF’s Reaper fleet had flown more than 54,000 hours, and released 460 precision-guided munitions. The UAV can carry up to four Hell-fire missiles and two GBU-12 laser-guided 500-pound bombs. But the figures show that the pre-ponderance of effort is devoted to the ISR mission, rather than attack, Osborn noted.

Waddington is home to No. 13 Squadron, one of two in the RAF that operate the GA-ASI Reaper over Afghanistan. It was re-formed in 2012 after the UK finally gained permission from the U.S. to relocate two GCS from Creech AFB, Nevada, to the UK. The second squadron, No. 39, remains at the Nevada base with the third British-owned GCS. The RAF began operating its own Reapers over Afghanistan from there in 2008. The service previously contributed aircrews to U.S. Air Force MQ-1/9 Pred-ator/Reaper squadrons in a co-manning agreement, which continues. British aircrews flew American Predators and Reapers over Iraq, and more recently over Libya during NATO Operation Unified Protector.

Rules of EngagementThis close cooperation has led

to accusations that the UK lends support to the controversial

U.S. Predator and Reaper oper-ations over the tribal areas of Pakistan, and over Somalia and Yemen. The British government will not comment on whether it shares intelligence with the U.S. that might aid the latter’s UAV attacks on alleged terrorists in those countries. But it insists that the UK has operated its own Reapers solely over Afghanistan, and that all such British opera-tions are conducted in strict

compliance with International Humanitarian Law (also known as The Law of Armed Conflict).

In deference to their Ameri-can friends and partners, MoD and RAF officials will not com-ment in detail on the difference between British and U.S. proce-dures for offensive operations by UAVs. But British Defence Sec-retary Philip Hammond told the UK Parliament in Octo-ber 2012 that “the U.S. operates in Afghanistan under a differ-ent basis of law from the one under which we operate.” More recently, Ben Emmerson, the British lawyer who is United Nations Special Rapporteur on Counter-Terrorism and Human Rights, told British legisla-tors that “there is a very signif-icant difference in the casualty hit rate.” Emmerson is produc-ing reports for the UN on armed UAV operations.

On the wider issue of whether the U.S. is breaking interna-tional law by conducting UAV strikes outside recognized com-bat zones, Emmerson said, “The reality here is that the world is facing a new technological development which is not easily

accommodated within the exist-ing legal frameworks.”

At the Waddington brief-ing, AVM Osborn noted that the rules of engagement (RoE) followed by the RAF’s Reaper aircrew are “exactly the same as for our manned aircraft.” Those rules stipulate that weap-ons should not be discharged from any aerial platform unless there is zero expectation of civilian casualties, and that any

individual or location should be presumed to be civilian in nature unless there is clear evidence to the contrary. The MoD says that when RAF aircrew operate U.S. Air Force Reapers or Predators under the co-manning agree-ment, the British RoEs must be applied in any attack.

Reaper VideoWing Cmdr. Damien Killeen,

commander of No. 13 Squad-ron, showed video from a Reaper strike that was aborted by redirecting a laser-guided Hellfire missile that had already

been launched, into an open area. This was because the tar-geted insurgent had mean-while moved into an adjacent compound, whose purpose and potential occupants were unknown to the Reaper crew.

Killeen said that thanks to constant operations over Afghanistan, his aircrew had gained “unrivaled familiarity with the territory, including what is normal or not on the ground.” A 13 Squadron sensor opera-tor told AIN that he had learned to discern on his video feed the vital difference between an insur-gent digging a hole to plant an IED, and a farmer digging a water channel. He ascribed this skill to “experience, immersion and ‘campaign continuity.’”

An MoD briefing document suggests that despite being located thousands of miles from the action, the “situational awareness” of the Reaper air-crews is greater than that enjoyed by aircrew that are actually over-flying. “[Reaper] aircrews usu-ally observe a target area for a significant period prior to, and following, an engagement. This allows them to assess target validity, the likelihood of col-lateral damage and to observe the consequences of an attack in detail,” the document states. The UN’s Emmerson agrees

that remotely piloted aircraft can reduce the risk of civilian casualties because of this effect.

The MoD says that it knows of only one RAF Reaper strike that resulted in the death of civil-ians. It said: “On 25 March 2011, an attack on two pickup trucks resulted in the destruction of a significant quantity of explosives and the death of two insurgents. Sadly, four Afghanistan civil-ians were also killed. An ISAF investigation concluded that the Reaper crew acted in accordance with established procedures and rules of engagement.”

The RAF deploys the crews of Tornado strike aircraft to Afghanistan for six months at a time, whereas the Reaper crews are doing the mission throughout

their tour on the squadron, which typically lasts two-and-a-half to three years. They work eight-and-a-half-hour shifts on a six-days-on/three-days off pattern. Within each shift, they spend two periods of two hours each within the GCS actually operat-ing the aircraft and its sensors. Each crew consists of a pilot, sensor operator and mission intelligence coordinator (MIC). The UAVs are typically in the air for 16 hours; the maximum is 24 hours if no weapons are carried. “We try to get airborne every day, but weather is sometimes a


The UK Royal Air Force has bought 10 Reaper UAVs, plus associated ground stations. To

date, they have flown only over Afghanistan.

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The Reaper can be armed with four Hellfire missiles and two GBU-12 laser-guided 250-pound bombs. The RAF usually flies with all four missiles, but only one bomb. The UAV’s Raytheon MTS-B sensor ball and laser rangefinder/designator is beneath the nose, with the satcom antenna above.


constraint,” said one pilot. The Reaper has no anti-icing provision, or protection against lightning strikes.

Most of 13 Squadron’s pilots and sen-sor operators have previous operational flying experience on fast jets, multi-engine or rotary-wing RAF aircraft, said Killeen. But the unit has recently taken two pilots directly from flying training, and also has four who have come via the RAF’s new RPAS (remotely piloted air-craft system) training course. Some of the sensor operators are NCOs. The MICs have an intelligence and/or imagery anal-ysis background, and come from the Brit-ish Army and Navy, as well as the RAF.

At Waddington, the two 40-foot con-tainer-sized GCS are located side-by-side on a hangar floor that has been fenced to ensure secure access. But the aircrews that sit inside them are supported by a supervisor and other airmen, located in an operations room in the squadron’s accommodation above the hangar floor. In there, multiple feeds of collateral intel-ligence are received and assimilated, and voice contact can be established with var-ious interested parties. These can range from commanders on the ground in Afghanistan to legal advisors at RAF Air Command headquarters.

GCS DetailsDesigned by General Atomics Aero-

nautical Systems Inc. (GA-ASI, Hall 2 Stand A9), the layout and controls of the GCS have been subject to criticism in some reports, and by rival providers of GCS. But improvements have been made over the years. The pilot and sen-sor operator sit side-by-side at one end, faced by no fewer than 14 screens dis-playing aircraft and engine parameters, the sensor feed, digital maps, satellite imagery for a wider “view,” and other intelligence feeds. A bank of five pro-cessors along one side separates them from the MIC at the other end of the cabin–who has another seven screens at his disposal. All three crew can com-municate directly with “boots on the ground” in Afghanistan.

In addition to the EO/IR and low-light television full-motion video (FMV), the Reaper also carries a synthetic-aperture

radar (SAR) including a ground moving target indicator. The SAR/GMTI offers one- to four-inch resolution and a far wider view than the FMV.

The GCS at Waddington do not con-trol the takeoffs and landings. The one-second time lag on the sensor feed from Afghanistan is sufficient to affect pilotage in what has proved to be a critical phase for safety-of-flight, especially in cross-winds. Only the more experienced pilots are deployed to the launch-and-recov-ery (LRE) ground stations at Kandahar, where they operate alongside U.S. air-crew. They are aided during airfield oper-ations by the separate color/IR camera in the Reaper’s nose. But although Reapers have been damaged in landings, the RAF has written off only one of the five UAVs that it originally acquired. This incident in 2008 was blamed on a mechanical fail-ure that led to a forced landing.

Reaper-XThe RAF has taken delivery of

another five Reapers. Together with the ground stations, they were bought using funds earmarked for urgent operational requirements (UORs). Last January, the MoD confirmed that the Reaper UAS will be kept in service after the coun-try withdraws from Afghanistan at the end of this year. The UK’s total invest-ment in this UAS is nearing £500 million, “and we’re not going to throw that away,” a senior RAF officer told AIN recently.

Last January, joint firing trials on the UAV of the Brimstone missile that is already carried by RAF Tornados, were successfully completed in the U.S.

However, even if airspace rules are changed to allow UAVs to operate in non-segregated airspace, the Reapers cannot be operated in the UK because the design cannot be certified to the MoD’s new and rigorous military airworthiness require-ments. One of the arguments made by European aerospace industry leaders to justify development of a new medium-altitude long-endurance (MALE) UAV is that it will meet such criteria. Another is that MALE UAVs really need self-pro-tection technology, if they are to operate

in anything other than the most benign air defense environments. The MoD is still reviewing future basing options for the RAF Reapers.

But with Italy and France also now operating Reapers, and the Nether-lands and even Germany likely to fol-low, it seems that this particular train has already left the station. In theory, the UK has a requirement for a new MALE UAV as part of the Scavenger program. But no one is taking bets on it ever hap-pening. Instead, AIN expects that the UK and other European customers will put pressure on GA-ASI to deliver on its promise to develop an improved and

certifiable “Reaper-X.” o

Inside a Reaper ground control station at RAF Waddington, the pilot occupies the left seat, with the sensor operator on the right faced by no fewer than 14 screens displaying aircraft and engine parameters and more.

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These stills from a Reaper video show an attack on a car that is known to be carrying insurgents. The RAF crew place the crosshairs of the laser targeting system onto the vehicle. While still traveling across open ground, and before it approaches some buildings, it is destroyed by a Hellfire missile.

Frame 1 Frame 2 Frame 3 Frame 4

The UK MoD released this 35-second Reaper infrared video from which these frames are captured in order to illustrate how careful RAF aircrews strive to avoid civilian casualties. In frame 1, an insur-gent can be seen outlined against the wall of a compound, just above the crosshairs. He is using the wall for shelter in between firing a

weapon from the corner across open ground. He is a legitimate tar-get, and using the Reaper’s laser rangefinder/designator, the aircrew fires a Hellfire missile, causing the screen to temporarily go blank (frame 2). But while the missile is in flight, the insurgent (circled) runs along the wall of the compound and through a door into

another compound (frame 3). The nature of this second compound is unknown to the Reaper aircrew or those supporting them from the squadron operations center. Therefore, the aircrew “pulls” the laser designator off the fleeing insurgent and guides the missile to the right onto open ground, where it explodes harmlessly (frame 4).


Rolls advances toward evolutionary UltraFanby Ian Goold

New engines planned by Rolls-Royce (R-R) reflect recent powerplant trends, including steadily increasing propul-sive efficiency obtained with larger-diameter fans, higher bypass ratios and smaller engine cores. The engines could power updated contemporary widebody platforms, with R-R civil large engines president Eric Schulz confirming “very live” discussions with Airbus. “If it decides to re-engine the A330 or A380, we will be here to pro-vide support,” he said during a pre-Farnborough Airshow briefing.

R-R (Hall 3 Stand 4 and Chalet D3) plans to focus on a two-step development of the RB211/Trent three-shaft architec-ture. Because the technology can be scaled, evolution could launch new medium-thrust engines for the narrowbody market–which Schulz aspires to re-enter and where Boeing needs engines for any medium-size, longer-range 757 replacement–or yield engines for large business jets.

According to R-R future programs and technology chief engineer Alan Newby, the new engines represent “the next two major steps in the evolution of the [Trent] family.” The first, he said, dubbed “Advance,” covers a col-lection of new technologies intended to improve thermodynamic efficiency, while the later UltraFan development will introduce a gearbox to reduce fan speed and raise propulsion efficiency.

The Advance engine will build on the Trent’s “unique” direct-drive tur-bine architecture and the results of sev-eral years of new-technology research, said Newby. He added that the design, which is expected to sport a bypass ratio of more than 11:1 and an overall pressure ratio of more than 60, could enter service soon after 2020.

Expected to follow about five years later, the UltraFan is aimed at offering at least a 15:1 bypass ratio and an overall pressure ratio of more than 70:1. The company sug-gests that, relative to the Trent 700 pow-ering the Airbus A330, the engines will provide “significant efficiency improve-ments” of more than 20 percent and 25 per-cent, respectively. R-R plans to run its first powered gearbox next year and a demon-strator of the engine could fly before 2020.

A big change with the Advance is the core, which “redistributes the work-load” between the intermediate- and high-pressure compressors and turbines (IPCs/HPCs and IPTs/HPTs). Newby said that this “good aerodynamic solu-tion” would provide the foundation for future engine generations.

The UltraFan, which could be a step-ping stone to an open-rotor design, has a similar “work split,” said Newby, but with an enhanced IP turbine driving the slower fan through a reduction gearbox,

which permits deletion of the low-pres-sure turbine (LPT).

With deliberate product evolution, R-R has taken the Trent XWB engine’s integrated propulsion system and light-weight LTP and married them to a car-bon-titanium (CTi) fan and the new core to create the Advance. In turn, the UltraFan retains the Advance core while introducing the geared multi-stage IPT to drive the fan and compressor.

Fan ReverserNewby said that ever-bigger engines

will require greater integration with nacelles and airframes. The variable-pitch CTi fan (derived from a variable-pitch-geared turbofan variant of the 1970s R-R/Snecma M45H that powered the VFW-Fokker 614) and an integrated “slim-line” nacelle allows the fan also to replace the thrust reverser.

Both engines represent an orchestration of innovation. The Advance features light-weight, high-efficiency compressors, tur-bines and CTi fan; advanced high-overall pressure ratio cycle, turbine cooling and materials; “smart” adaptive systems and adaptive cooling; hybrid ceramic bearings; low nitrous-oxide (NOx) combustor; and high torque-density shafts.

Newby said the combustor could pro-vide “a significant reduction in NOx” with a margin that anticipates future legislation. Dynamic blade sealing is employed to push “as much air as possible through the centre of the engine, especially for cooling at takeoff.”

Building on these characteristics, the main change on the UltraFan is the power-reduction gearbox to drive the low-speed fan. The engine’s attributes include an advanced CTi fan, hybrid ceramic bearings, cooling air (whose tempera-ture is reduced further to permit “rea-sonable” cooling when the engine runs

at high temperatures); integrated “slim-line” nacelle; bladed disc (“blisk”) and ring (“bling”) compressors; broader appli-cation of ceramic-matrix composites (CMCs), including titanium-aluminide (Ti-Al)/CMC IP turbine high-aspect-ratio aerofoils; and a multi-stage IPT.

Genesis in RB3025The UltraFan’s Ti-Al LPT blades

and proposed cooling may owe much to the RB3025. For example, the RB3025 sported a “vortex amplifier” to simplify turbine-blade cooling with HPC air. That engine, with an overall pressure ratio of 62:1 and a 12:1 bypass ratio, was offered to power the Boeing 777X. For that appli-cation, Boeing extended 777-200LR and -300ER monopoly supply arrangements with General Electric to include new long-range variants.

(The RB3025 was superseded by the RB3039, revealed last year as the genesis for a “radically different” new-generation R-R engine that “probably” would not carry the Trent name.)

In a search for “mature reliability from day one,” R-R will apply a “hier-archy of verification,” beginning with component and capability technologies used in core-integration vehicles to dem-onstrate “elemental” advances. Tech-nologies will be consolidated, with the manufacturer expecting to run a “signif-icant number” of demonstrator engines for potential use on as-yet-undefined platforms, according to Newby.

Trent 1000 for EFE WorkR-R is using a Trent 1000 donor

powerplant for environmentally friendly engine (EFE) work exploring a high-effi-ciency core on a dedicated test facility at Bristol in the UK. The unit comprises the T1000 “minus fan, plus booster com-pressor” to test low NOx and high-tem-perature-combustor HPT technology, according to Newby.

Four series of testing over two years were completed recently, and the program continues through 2015 to test high-tem-perature capability and core technolo-gies. The EFE program “targets” three areas of environmental concern: “reduc-ing CO2, NOx and noise.”

A T1000 is also the basis for R-R’s advanced low-pressure system program, which will soon begin a third testing session at NASA Stennis in the U.S.,

following two rounds at the UK Derby factory. This will coincide with U.S. testing of a newly built flight engine. The demonstrator engine will be used to verify LP-system, “externals” and com-posite-fan technologies.

A third T1000 donor engine pro-vides the vehicle for R-R’s advanced low-emission combustion system work for engines offering 30,000 to more than 100,000 pounds thrust. Detailed design had been finalized in early June, and components were being manufac-tured. Next year R-R plans to ground-test the first engine and flight-test a second on a Boeing 747 testbed. Newby said “lean-burn combustor subsystem verification” has been completed on the EFE and the efficiency, economy and environment core demonstrators, which “validated emissions predictions.”

The Trent XWB program, which exclu-sively powers the Airbus A350XWB, will yield a further donor engine to develop high-efficiency core architecture for the Advance project. R-R will use it to dem-onstrate a new core configuration, espe-cially regarding the work split between IPCs/HPCs and IPTs/HPTs.

Design FinalizedNewby reported in June that the con-

ceptual Advance design was finalized and that the company was starting to detail externals. An initial gate review has been completed and components with a long lead times have been manufactured; R-R was also obtaining disc forgings.

Functional testing is planned next year, with endurance testing of a second engine slated for 2016. Once the architec-ture has been validated, R-R will look for additional technologies to insert into the basic design, according to Newby.

Finally, an Advance engine will be donated to UltraFan enabling-technol-ogies work that will be supported by an extensive rig program for key systems alongside technologies development. Construction of a power-gearbox test facility and associated technology devel-opment has begun in Germany. Gearbox testing will take place later next year, with full ground- and flight-test demonstra-tions scheduled in the latter part of this decade, concluded Newby. o

The CTi fan system on the Advanced Low Pressure System engine demonstrator.

Titanium-aluminide low-pressure turbine blades and proposed cooling arrangements on Rolls-Royce’s proposed future UltraFan engine may owe much to the RB3025 powerplant unsuccessfully offered to power the Boeing 777X. For example, the RB3025 featured a “vortex amplifier” to simplify turbine-blade cooling with HPC air.

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Saab masters low-cost weapons integrationby Chris Pocock

The integration of new weap-ons on some combat aircraft has become so expensive that Euro-pean Defence Agency (EDA) held a workshop to discuss the problem. But Saab (Hall 4 Stand E5 and Chalet C35) has some helpful suggestions, based on its experience with the Gripen. The Swedish fighter served as the development platform for the Iris-T and Meteor air-to-air missiles, and other weapons were success-fully added on time and budget.

“We think it’s important to define the operational require-ments, and the levels of system integration that are desired,” said Gideon Singer, the tech-nical director for the Gripen at Saab Aeronautics. Integration can de done over several phases, he told the last Fighter Con-ference in London, organized by Defence IQ. “Don’t bite off more than you can chew,” he advised.

Singer listed the consid-erations that should be fully explored before starting. Is the weapon mature? How many configurations are required? What are the essentials, as opposed to the “nice-to-haves?” For instance, is it really neces-sary to prove the weapon plus three fuel tanks in supersonic flight? “Ask for what you really need–the extra 10 percent will cost a lot more,” he said.

The limits to simulation must be fully understood, he continued. Integrators should make a clear distinction between the aerody-namic limitations of the weapon and the platform. The integration design should take into account the platform’s existing HMI and HOTAS philosophy. Data-link interoperability is another factor. “That’s often a nasty surprise at the end,” Singer said.

Lisa Abom, head of the weap-ons integration office at Saab Aeronautics, said that complex weapons had been integrated on the jet within four years, at costs ranging from $85- to $170 mil-lion. Yet the EDA workshop was told of integrations costing up to $270 million for certain other fourth-generation combat air-craft. Why was it cheaper in Swe-den? The country has a smaller defense budget, which sets the environment, she claimed.

Also contributing to the pic-ture, she added, is the modular avionics design of the Gripen,

and the systematic planning of software upgrades, with new releases only every two or three years. Moreover, she added, “we have high confidence in our sim-ulation; for instance, in the mod-eling of weapons separation.”

The MBDA Meteor BVRAAM was a good example of cooperation, Abom said. The Gripen conducted the first eight developmental test firings of the ramjet-boosted missile, and also the first live firing of a produc-tion missile in June last year. “We worked in an open atmo-sphere, where mistakes could be admitted, then fixed. We kept the test pilots in the loop. There was no blame-gaming,” she told the Fighter Conference.

Abom also described integra-tion of the Thales Digital Joint Reconnaissance Pod (DJRP) on

the Gripen, which was required by the South African, but not the Swedish air force. This was done in only eight months, with flight tests in South Africa. When asked whether Saab would be prepared to do integration work on a fixed-price basis, she said: “It depends; we’ll consider on a case-by-case basis.” o


New-gen nacelles to fly on Leap and Passport

GE Aviation is preparing to begin flight tests of its new Leap-1C and Passport engines featur-ing nacelles developed for them by the group’s Nexcelle joint venture with Safran subsidiary Aircelle. Last month, Nexcelle delivered the first full new-gener-ation nacelles for both programs. They are due to fly soon on the engine maker’s Boeing 787 testbed. The Leap-1C is to power Comac’s C919 narrowbody air-liner, while the Passport has been selected for Bombardier’s Global 7000 and 8000 business jets.

According to Nexcelle presi-dent Michel Abella, the primary goal for the integrated approach to designing the nacelles is to lower operators’ direct oper-ating costs by contributing to improved performance of the engines and delivering improved reliability. For instance, over-all installed weight has been reduced through using new pylon designs. He told AIN that significant improvements have been achieved by designing the nacelles under the concept of the integrated propulsion sys-tem (IPS) in closer engineering cooperation with those working on the rest of the powerplant, including the pylons and mounts.

Nexcelle’s Panache thrust reverser for the Leap-1C IPS

features the company’s new O-Duct design, which replaces two D-shaped doors in a tra-ditional reverser. The O-Duct design is more efficient due to the removal of the links that cut the reverser’s flow path in two with the D-shaped doors.

In the Panache unit, the

thrust-blocking doors are located around the full inner circumfer-ence of the composite O-Duct structure. They are deployed by new mechanisms attached to the forward frame and are fully con-tained inside the O-Duct struc-ture when stowed, avoiding any interference with fan flow.

The Panache system is on dis-play here at Farnborough this week on the Safran exhibit (Hall 4 Stand B12). It also features a new castellated ring interface between the thrust reverser and

the engine, which are connected via the A2 flange. When the ring is rotated, the entire O-Duct moves on pylon-mounted tracks and sliders, opening up access to the reverser’s inner fixed struc-ture for maintenance. The IPS for the Passport engine has a similar design philosophy but it does not feature the Panache thrust reverser.

“One of the good things about the O-Duct is that it is all one piece, which reduces the number of seals inside it and also cuts the aerodynamic losses that you get with a normal thrust reverser,” said Abella.

Under the joint venture, GE’s Middle River Aircraft Sys-tems subsidiary is responsible for the inlet and fan cowl for both the Leap-1C and the Pass-port. It also makes the engine mounts and inner fixed struc-tures for the Leap engine. Air-celle has developed the thrust reversers for both turbofans, as well as the inner fixed structure for the Leap. The Leap IPS fea-tures an electrical thrust reverser actuation system, which is a new approach introduced by Aircelle for the A380.

With flight-testing about to get under way to enable the two new nacelles to enter ser-vice around 2017 and 2018, Nex-celle is putting plans in place for product support. The com-pany is also getting ready for the anticipated production ramp up in support of the C919 and Global programs. –C.A.

The Saab Gripen (below) did the first eight development firings of the MBDA Meteor BVRAAM. The European missile house chose the Swedish fighter in preference to the Rafale or the Eurofighter, but the Meteor has since been integrated on all three aircraft. The GBU-49 “smart” bomb was integrated on the Gripen (above) from 2006-09, on time and on budget, Saab said.

The O-Duct design for Nexcelle’s Panache thrust reverser is more aerodynamically efficient than the D-door configuration, which cut the flow path in two.

THE CENTRE OF THEAEROSPACE INDUSTRY

08-12 NOVEMBER 2015DUBAI WORLD CENTRAL, UAE

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Paper airplanes: billions needed for new super/hypersonic designsby Rick Adams

After Sir Richard Bran-son launches the first passen-ger flight of his Virgin Galactic space venture, possibly later this year, he’s indicated that he will turn his attention to developing a supersonic commercial aircraft that can transit from New York to Tokyo (10,800 km; 5,800 nm) in “less than an hour.” He envi-sions an orbital aircraft, which could reach speeds up to 30,000 kph (16,200 knots).

Branson is not the only bil-lionaire entrepreneur who would like a means of getting to the other side of the world far more quickly. Texas tycoon Robert Bass continues to make substan-tial investments in support of Aerion’s plans to bring a super-sonic business jet to market.

Governments have provided research expertise and funding support in the hundreds of mil-lions of dollars range as well through NASA and DARPA in the U.S., and the UK’s more than $600 million budget for Reaction Engines’ hypersonic dreams.

Then there is Spike Aero-space, whose 12- to 18-passenger,

Mach 1.6 S-512 design is still on paper and not yet taking orders–but it created some buzz earlier this year when Spike announced a “windowless” fuselage. At $100 million or more per air-craft, the company expects to recoup its investment from sales of an estimated 400 to 500 super-sonic planes in the next decade, according to Vic Kachoria, pres-ident of Spike Aerospace, based in Boston, Massachusetts.

Digital CabinKachoria said due to the lack

of windows, it now refers to the “digital cabin.” “You’re going to be able to see outside, but you’re going to get a more enhanced view. The entire length of the fuselage can be one continuous panoramic image,” he explained.

The “outside” that passen-gers see will not be a direct view. Rather, several small cam-eras mounted on the exterior of the aircraft will be able to relay images of the day or night sky, projecting them onto a cabin wall that is, in effect, one long, high-resolution display screen.

If you prefer, or whoever has control of the display controls prefers, you can also project a Powerpoint presentation, an Excel spreadsheet, a videocon-ference, a movie–or nothing, if you’d rather sleep.

Kachoria, who describes himself as a “serial entrepre-neur,” said that despite the “Oh, my god, it doesn’t have win-dows” reaction of some and concerns about claustrophobia, windowless aircraft will be the norm within 20 years. Replacing windows, spurs and supports with a streamlined fuselage is simply one element of increas-ing the speed envelope.

Spike is “at a very early stage; we have a lot of engineering and design work to do,” Kachoria acknowledged. Spike is currently evaluating the preliminary design it announced last October, per-forming simulation analysis.

Quiet Enough?The most challenging part

of the process, he thinks, will be securing FAA certification–in part because of new noise regulations. ICAO’s new Annex 16, Chapter 14 noise standards are expected to be in effect for bizjet category air-craft by 2020, and the company is in discussions about potentially unique requirements for super-sonic aircraft as well.

The new noise regulations are also uppermost in mind for Aerion, which announced in May a three-engine concept rather than its original twin-jet design. “The new noise regu-lations absolutely mandated a new engine,” Aerion CEO Doug Nichols told AIN. “Noise drives the design; noise drives the

engines. The noise regulations were the cause of moving beyond the [Pratt & Whitney] JT8D tur-bofan, which Aerion had been planning to use in its original two-engine configuration.

“With three engines, and each engine at two thirds of overall thrust,” Nichols said, “the jet velocity out of each engine is lower, so the overall noise signa-ture is lower.”

The tri-jet design will also be a benefit for long routes over water or uninhabited land areas where unrestricted supersonic speeds are permitted. It also enables a larger cabin compartment, which appeals to some potential cus-tomers. But Nichols said the third engine does not fundamen-tally affect the aircraft’s design. “We have not discarded all of the work we have done. We have built upon this work.

“We are well along into the conceptual design phase,” Nich-ols said. “We have spent an inor-dinate amount of time over the past decade working with NASA in phased approaches to testing our technology in terms of our design tools that allow engineers to know, based upon the wind geometry, when lami-nar flow can become turbulent, and then optimize the wing so

we get the largest possible extent of laminar flow and minimize turbulent flow. And we have tested the robustness of our technology given state-of-the-art manufacturing capability.”

Aerion, now 12 years into the project, has resumed searching for an engine manufacturer “in order to converge on the opti-mum engine propulsion system for the airplane.” Once the new engine is selected, Nichols indi-cated that Aerion can focus on the aircraft’s performance capa-bility and then proceed into the detailed design phases. Aerion also has not given up looking for an aircraft-manufacturing partner to help it build what is now dubbed the AS2. “We’re driving hard to put all the pieces in place to certify this airplane in late 2021,” he said.

Spokesman Jeff Miller said Bass’s decision to fund the air-craft development means Aerion “is not dependent on the OEM

or other resources, and that’s changing the nature of the dis-cussion.” He said the company hopes to assemble the consor-tium of key partners “perhaps by NBAA [the business avia-tion event in Orlando, Florida, in mid-October].”

Boom or BustGulfstream Aerospace (Cha-

let J3) continues low-key efforts to research supersonic options, but, said spokesperson Steve Cass, it’s interested only in an air-craft that can be used overland and receive U.S. FAA authoriza-tion, that is, one that does not cre-ate a discernible sonic boom.

Robert Pearce, NASA’s direc-tor for strategy, architecture and analysis in the Aeronautics Research Mission Directorate, told an American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics conference in June, “If we can overcome the challenges of the boom, I think it will become a very important part of the avia-tion system.”

Further downstream are the hypersonic concepts in the Mach 3+ range. Hypermach Europe Aeronautics announced its Son-icStar airframe design in 2011, though it has been low on the radar recently. The company has

reportedly conducted some wind-tunnel tests. Originating as a U.S. company focused on electromag-netic drag-reduction engine tech-nology, SonicBlue Aerospace, Hypermach claims to be “sup-ported by the UK government,” though it has yet to receive any financial support from it.

Oxford-based firm Reaction Engines (run by Alan Bond, of Hotol fame) has secured initial funding of $100 million from the UK government for devel-opment of a lightweight engine called Sabre, intended to power Europe’s proposed reusable Mach 5 Skylon spaceplane.

Skylon would operate like an airplane, taking off from and landing on standard runways. The Sabre engines would func-tion like jet engines at low alti-tudes and slow speeds, but kick into rocket mode at high alti-tudes. The European Space Agency thinks Skylon could be flying as early as the 2020s. o


Supersonic business aircraft such as this concept from Spike Aerospace could be carrying passengers on transoceanic routes within six to eight years.

The Spike S-512’s “digital” cabin allows passengers to control displays on a cabin-long window: movies, video conferences, Powerpoint presentations, or nothing at all.

Mindful of new noise regulations expected to be effective as of 2020, Aerion is revamping its current SST design as a three-engine concept.

Boeing forecast affirms single-aisle dominanceby Ian Goold

Established trends in pre-dicted long-term jetliner re-quirements will likely contin-ue with little change to the market breakdown by aircraft size, according to latest Boeing 20-year forecast statistics, which were unveiled in London on the eve of the 2014 Farnborough Airshow. Overall, the U.S. man-ufacturer foresees global de-mand during the 2014 to 2033 timeframe for some 36,770 new machines, a 4.2-percent increase over last year’s Current Mar-ket Outlook (CMO) said Ran-dy Tinseth, Boeing Commercial Airplanes marketing vice-presi-dent, who estimates the market is worth $5.2 trillion (at nominal catalogue prices).

Of the required aircraft, 21,270 (about 58 percent) will service fleet growth with the bal-ance of 15,500 being used to replace current units; retirements will provide “a strong base” for demand. Some 5,410 of the pres-ent fleet are expected to remain in service beyond 2033.

Single-aisle (or “narrow-body”) aircraft, accommodating 90 to 230 passengers, will con-tinue to dominate the world’s air-transport landscape, sus-taining the trend of the past five years by accounting for almost 70 percent of forecast new com-mercial-aircraft deliveries (see table). Likewise, small and me-dium twin-aisle (or “widebody”) designs, with capacities for 200 to 400 travelers, will represent a little more than 20 percent of aircraft expected to enter service in the period.

Among bottom- and top-end contenders in the 20-year market, regional jets with up to 90 seats and very-large air-craft (VLAs, dubbed “large twin-aisles” by Boeing) holding 400-plus occupants are seen as representing just 6.8-percent and 1.7-percent shares, respectively.

The single-aisle market is projected to need 25,680 new airplanes, driven by the “con-tinued emergence” of low-cost carriers. Based on “overwhelm-ing orders and [predicted] deliv-eries,” Boeing sees the heart of the single-aisle market as being around 160 seats, the size of the Boeing 737-800 and competing Airbus A320. “There’s no ques-tion the market is converging to this size, where network flexi-bility and cost efficiency meet,” said Tinseth.

Single-aisle DominanceHaving been steady in Boeing

predictions for the past half-decade, the single-aisle market’s 69.8-percent share of 2014-2033 deliveries represents a strong increase for the sector, which had accounted for 59.1 percent of forecast 20-year demand in 2004. Tinseth said that “about 36-37 percent” of the projected single-aisle demand is already covered by manufacturers’ order backlogs.

The growth has come very much at the expense of the industry’s regional jet ele-ment, which declined from a 17.1-percent share of projected deliveries 10 years ago to sin-gle digits with the onset of the global financial crisis in 2008. Indeed, the regional jet share of Boeing’s forecast fell to less than 6 percent in 2011-2013 editions, before showing a slight recovery this year to a 6.8 percent share of expected deliveries between now and 2033.

Nevertheless, Tinseth sees the regional jet market as hav-ing “truly stabilized” and he expects it to grow. “That’s where our next competition is com-ing from,” he said. Single-aisle and regional jet designs have represented a consistent com-bined share of between 73 per-cent and 76 percent throughout the past 10 editions of the

market forecast document.The world’s airlines will

require almost 8,000 new air-planes in the combined small and medium-sized twin-aisle market segments that, like the combined smaller sectors, have been very consistent over the past 10 years, according to the CMO (which this year makes its 50th appearance in the pub-lic domain). At 7,980 units, the 21.6 percent share is one per-centage point higher now than ten years ago and has hovered between that level and 23.3 per-cent throughout 2004-2014.

Very-large AircraftFinally, AIN analysis shows

Boeing’s forecast statistics for very-large aircraft (VLA) very much yo-yoing from year to year since 2003. While the 2012 prediction of 20-year demand for 790 such machines dupli-cated the requirement foreseen back in 2004, the U.S. manufac-turer’s perception of the 20-year market was as high as 960-990 during 2006-2008, the first three years following its launch of the 747-8 in late 2005.

After falling to 720 in 2010, the VLA market forecast rose to 820 in 2011 before declining once more through 760 last year to the latest prediction of just 620 units. Proportionally, the sector has accounted for between 2 and 3 percent of the global market dur-ing 2004-2013, with projections falling below the lower value only in the 2014 edition of the CMO, the first since Boeing launched its

777X variants late last year. The Asia-Pacific airline

market (including China) will continue to lead the way in deliveries, according to Tins-eth. Some 13,460, 37 percent of global requirements, will be needed in the region, with North America and Europe each accounting for about another 20 percent, or around 7,500 machines. Likewise, Latin America and the Middle East

will each take about 2,950 air-planes, or 8 percent.

Airline traffic is seen as growing by 5 percent a year, with passenger numbers esca-lating by a slightly smaller 4.2 percent annually as average stage lengths increase steadily. Annual air cargo traffic is pre-dicted to go up by 4.7 per-cent, ahead of world economic growth put by Boeing at 3.2 percent per year. o


First oF 30 M346 AdvAnced trAiners delivered to isrAel

Alenia Aermacchi (Outdoor Exhibit 1) delivered the first two M-346 advanced trainers to the Israel Air and Space Force (IASF) last week. The two aircraft were ferried from Alenia Aermacchi’s factory at Varese-Venegono, northwest of Milan, to their new home at the Hatzerim air base near Be’er Sheva in the Negev desert. Upon receipt of the aircraft, Israel became the third nation to operate the M-346, after Italy and Singapore.

Israel selected the M-346 in February 2012 to replace its elderly McDonnell Douglas A-4N, TA-4H and TA-4J Skyhawks of the 102 “The Flying Tigers” Squadron, which are operated in the advanced training and fighter lead-in roles. Contract signature for 30 aircraft was finalized on July 19 of that year, by which time Israel had announced that it would name the aircraft “Lavi” in IASF service.

The first M-346 Lavi rolled out at Venegono in March. In addition to the two delivered, a further six Lavis are in the final assembly process and component assembly has started on another five aircraft. All 30 are due for delivery to Hatzerim by the end of 2016. As well as the aircraft, the IAF is receiving related ground-based training systems.

When deliveries of all the M-346s have been made, the IASF will have completed a major overhaul of its train-ing fleet. Primary training is undertaken on the Grob G-120A-I Snunit, of which 17 were procured, while basic training is handled by the Textron Beechcraft T-6A Efroni (Texan II). Twenty T-6As were delivered from July 2009 to allow the retirement of the IAI Tzukit, an upgraded version of the Fouga Magister. � –D.D.

dunlop Wins tire deAl With chinese Airline

China’s first privately owned regional airline has awarded Birming-ham, England’s Dunlop Aircraft Tyres (Hall 4 Stand D10) a three-year deal to supply tires for its expanding fleet of regional airliners. Under the agreement, Dunlop will support China Express Airlines’ Bombardier CRJ900 NextGen regional jets.

The Guiyang-based airline operates nine of the 75-seat jets and expects to expand the fleet to 12 by the end of this year and to 30 by 2016. The aircraft operate services to cities including Chongqing, Gan-zhou and Guiyang,

Each aircraft uses six tires–two on the nose wheel and four on the main wheels.

“We will provide China Express Airlines with new tires that have been made at our factory in the UK. They will be then distributed from and retreaded at our joint venture facility in Jinjiang, China,” said Ian Edmondson, chairman of Dunlop Aircraft Tyres.

“By making use of our operation in Jinjiang, the airline will be able to return tires for retreading at a facility that is efficient and that is ide-ally located for quick and easy shipping to and from its hub airports.”

Dunlop exports more than 80 percent of its UK-made products, largely to operators of Embraer E-Jets. Dunlop has supported E170 and E175 operators for 10 years, starting with LOT Polish Airlines in March 2004. In fact, the majority of E170s and E175s in service use Dunlop tires.

Other notable operators flying with Dunlop tires include Republic Airways, Air Canada, Compass Airlines, EgyptAir Express, Flybe, LOT Polish Airlines, Saudi Arabian Airlines and Trip. –G.P.

Boeing’s Commercial-aircraft Market Forecast (2014-33)

Airplane type Seats Deliveries Value Regional jets 90 and below 2,490 $ 100 billionSingle-aisle 90 – 230 25,680 $2,560 billionSmall twin-aisle 200 – 300 4,520 $1,140 billionMedium twin-aisle 300 – 400 3,460 $1,160 billion Large widebody 400 and above 620 $ 240 billionTotal 36,770 $5,200 billion

Source: Boeing Commercial Market Outlook

Israel selected the Alenia M-346 for advanced training, joining Italy and Singapore as operators of the type.

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Waypoint Leasing starts sophomore year in styleby James Wynbrandt

AgustaWestland, a division of Finmeccanica (Outdoor Exhibit 1), congratulated Waypoint Leas-ing here at the Farnborough Airshow 2014 on the rotor leas-ing firm’s first year of operation, which kicked off in March 2013 with an order for GrandNew, AW169, AW139 and AW189s from the OEM.

“Our relationship has strength-ened and expanded since then, and we are continuing to deliver Waypoint the most modern range of high performance helicopters available in the market today,” an AgustaWestland spokesman said. “Finmeccanica-AgustaWestland congratulates Waypoint on its success over the past year and looks forward to building on our successful partnership in the future.”

Waypoint CEO Ed Washecka purchased the helicopters on behalf of clients before founding his leasing company, and that rela-tionship formed the foundation for their relationship today. “The AgustaWestland deal is the first one Waypoint signed, Washecka said. “They entered into this con-tract before I had closed on my

funding, so they took a risk with me, and it’s worked out.”

U.S.-based Waypoint now has on lease a fleet of 44 aircraft from AgustaWestland, Airbus Helicop-ters, Bell Helicopter and Sikorsky Aircraft Corp. worth some $500 million, and orders for an addi-tional 80 helicopters valued at more than $1 billion, including expected deliveries of AW109s, AW169s and AW189s in 2014 and 2015. The fleet is leased to a broad range of helicopter operators in 14 countries, supporting oil and gas missions, emergency medical services, search and rescue, fire-fighting, governmental support and other operations.

“We’re making the aircraft more accessible for operators and ultimately end users, and lower-ing their costs,” Washecka said of Waypoint and other helicopter-leasing firms established in recent years. “Now customers don’t need to make down payments or put down a deposit for a delivery posi-tion years in advance.”

By this time next year, Washecka expects Waypoint to have “well north of a billion” dollars in assets. o

UAV sector provides new biz for Lycomingby Matt Thurber

Textron’s Lycoming Engines division has found new markets for its man-rated piston engines in the unmanned aerial systems (UAS) segment. For Lycoming, which is celebrating its 85th year manufacturing aircraft engines, its participation in current UAS developments isn’t the compa-ny’s first foray into providing engines for unmanned aircraft.

During World War II in the Pacific theater, the Lycoming 435 series, a geared piston engine, flew in a twin-engine Interstate TDR-1 drone that was controlled by a pilot flying nearby in a TBF Avenger. “Our products are multi-use,” said Lycoming senior v-p and general manager Michael Kraft. “An aviation engine is an aviation engine whether the pilot is in the aircraft or on the ground.”

Although the UAS market is relatively small for Lycom-ing, representing about 10 per-cent of its business, recent events make piston engines an attrac-tive option for UAS power, Kraft explained. “It is an interesting part of our business. The fact is these are specialty aircraft, not in high volume like general aviation, but it’s an important business.”

Lycoming currently supplies three types of engines for the UAS market, a diesel cycle engine that runs on jet fuel, a spark-ignited multi-fuel burning engine and a gasoline-burning engine.

Aerosonde, which is a busi-ness unit of Textron operating unit AAI, manufactures the Aerosonde Mk4.7G, powered by the Lycom-ing EL-005 multi-fuel engine. The engine has a single-cylinder and displaces five cubic inches and is air-cooled, direct-injected and spark-ignited and thus can run on easily obtainable jet fuel. The Aerosonde small UAS is on display here at the Textron stand (Outdoor Exhibit L2). It was the first unmanned air-craft to make an Atlantic cross-ing, in 1998, a flight that took 26 hours, 45 minutes.

The Northrop Grumman Fire-bird is also Lycoming-powered. A medium-altitude long-endurance UAS, the Firebird’s engine is a gas-powered Lycoming TEO-540, similar to the Lycoming found in

many general aviation aircraft, but with Fadec digital controls. The Firebird, which is optionally manned, is ideal for launching from areas where more infrastruc-ture is available and for flying at higher altitudes, according to Kraft. “We’re seeing that every aircraft is a specialty vehicle.” And the appropriate propulsion is criti-cal to the vehicle’s success.

Another critical factor for successful UAS operation is reliability of the powerplant, he explained. “There’s a much larger picture here; the reason for Lycoming’s involvement in the UAS segment gets to operation of UAVs in the national airspace system.” While protocols for sharing airspace with manned aircraft have not yet come into play, it is an important factor for future UAS operations.

“To move to the next stage of UAS operation in the national airspace, you have to move reli-ability of those vehicles to a much higher level,” he said. “Lycoming has brought to the game a company very focused in aviation for a long time. We know what the elements are to ensure propulsion reliability and thus make this a reliable element of the manned-unmanned team-ing situation. We can’t have the weak link be the unmanned [air-

craft] part. Reliability is going to approach that of manned air-craft, and that’s going to push the requirements and expecta-tions of UAVs and operation in the national airspace. It’s a great way to onramp some of our advanced technology.”

Lycoming’s own global service and support infrastructure makes it easier to support Textron’s UAS clients from technical pub-lications to fast AOG response. “It’s a big part of being able to support aviation propulsion,” Kraft said. “UAVs have suffered from companies that don’t have the infrastructure and financial stability that Lycoming and Tex-tron have. This is our business, and we have the wherewithal to make it happen from design to technology development to logistics and support.” o

Textron’s Aerosonde Mk4.7G is powered by the Lycoming EL-005 multi-fuel engine.

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little buddy

A Farnborough veteran, Airbus’s massive A400M transport takes the company’s E-Fan electric two-seater under its wing for its first-ever visit.

Waypoint Leasing bought its first helicopters from AgustaWestland on behalf of clients but before closing on funding. The AW169 shown here is at Farnborough on AgustaWestland’s static display.

IAI gets helicopter safety into the mixby Gregory Polek and Charles Alcock

Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI) is introducing new heli-copter safety technology that allows flight in degraded visual environments. The program is an example of how the group is diversifying its activities to achieve a more balanced port-folio between civil and defense markets. Another example is its new TaxiBot system for more fuel-efficient airliner taxiing, which has just completed cer-tification testing at Germany’s Frankfurt International Airport.

The helicopter safety sys-tem, which is being unveiled at the Farnborough International Airshow this week, features star-ing radar, advanced processing algorithms and cockpit multi-functional display integration. The technology allows for low-altitude flight under all weather conditions, light levels and visi-bilities, as well as for safe landing in brown-out conditions by alert-ing the pilot of electrical power lines and other ground obstacles.

The system generates a syn-thetic image of terrain, highlight-ing flight obstacles such as power lines and their supporting towers or poles. Offering a 95-percent

detection probability for power lines, it comprises two 30- by 40-centimeter (11.8 inch by 15.7 inch) antennas, requires just 250 watts of power and weighs 30 kilograms (66 pounds). The sys-tem has successfully undergone flight tests and can perform real-time demonstration flights.

Smarter TaxiingTaxiBot is a semi-robotic,

pilot-controlled vehicle designed to move airplanes between air-port gates and runways. The company conducted tests on a Lufthansa Boeing 737 with the support of Boeing and the Euro-pean Aviation Safety Agency. IAI plans to conduct an in-ser-vice evaluation on commercial flights departing Frankfurt fol-lowing certification approval.

Meanwhile, IAI has completed assembly of a TaxiBot model designed for widebody airplanes, and has started dynamic driv-ing tests at the factory of ground support equipment group TLD near Tours in France. The sys-tem allows aircraft to taxi with-out running their main engines, resulting in significant fuel savings and reduced pollution.

The TaxiBot program repre-sents a new opportunity for IAI in an air transport market that has otherwise been somewhat disappointing for the group due to softening demand for the passenger-to-freighter conver-sions offered by its Bedek Avi-ation division.

IAI president and CEO Joseph Weiss told AIN that the group benefits from having a good balance between civil and defense markets to com-pensate for fluctuating levels of demand. “There are fields [in civil aerospace] that are in better shape, such as subas-semblies and assemblies for

commercial aircraft, which pushes us towards activities involving advanced technolo-gies and automation,” he said.

Efforts to achieve a balanced business portfolio have seen IAI pursuing further diversifica-tion to be active beyond avia-tion. “The company maintains a diversified defense-related port-folio covering aviation, space, maritime, land systems as well as cyber,” said Weiss. “We aim that in about five to six years our land-related activities may well represent more than 20 per-cent of the company’s total sales and maritime-related activities will also increase significantly.”

The group is continuing to invest heavily in medium- to long-term research and develop-ment, with a strong emphasis on unmanned aerial systems, mis-sile defense systems and intelli-gence systems.

Geographical diversification is another important aspect of IAI’s strategy and the group has shown a willingness to commit capital for mergers and acqui-sitions. For instance, it has just set up a new cyber develop-ment business called Custodio in Singapore. “We continue to look for suitable companies for acquisition and joint ventures,” said Weiss. o


Even under extreme conditions,above, helicopters can operate safely. IAI’s innovative avionics generates a synthetic vision view of the terrain and obstacles, such as power lines.

IAI president and CEO Joseph Weiss, right, is leading the group’s efforts to achieve a balanced portfolio of civil and defense products with new initiatives such as the TaxiBot airliner taxiing system.

MRJ mockup features traditional artworkby James Wynbrandt

Japan’s Mitsubishi Aircraft Corp. has brought a new touch to the interior of its Mitsubishi Regional Jet (MRJ) mockup on display here at the Farnborough

Airshow: a flanking pair of cabin dividers decorated with the traditional Japanese “Urushi-nuri Maki-e” lacquer art, cre-ated in collaboration with Wajima, a well

known Urushi producer. One panel is fronted by an image of Mt. Fuji, the other by a Mejiro bird, and both are backed by ivy vines common in Japan.

“This is just a concept, to feel [the spirit of] Japan,” said Noriyoshi Saito, MRJ product marketing manager. “We don’t know if the dividers can be certified, [but] we wanted to show Japanese hospi-tality along with the hardware.”

The company also wants to make the point that the MRJ represents the finest in Japanese craftsmanship, just as Urushi-nuri does. The 26-foot long mockup contains two rows of business class and three rows of slim-line econ-omy class seats, all made by Zodiac, separated by the lacquered cabin divid-ers. The distance between the rows of seats in economy varies from 29 to 32 inches, so potential customers can see and compare the difference in possible cabin configurations.

Featuring the tallest and widest cabin in class, the MRJ (Outdoor Exhibit E7) also boasts the largest overhead bins in class, accommodating two IATA maximum-size roller suitcases each. “The bigger the bin, the less frustration for passengers and the lower the boarding time,” Saito said. An onboard wheelchair makes the lavatory wheelchair accessible. “For this size air-craft, that’s not very usual, but we want to be kind and open [the aircraft] for those disabled people, as well,” said Saito.

Rockwell Collins will provide the avi-onics for the aircraft, developed from its Pro Line avionics suite for business jets, which Saito notes are often better equipped than commercial airliners. “Of course the operator [of a regional jet] is cost conscious, so we’re not bringing everything” from a high-end business jet avionics suite into the MRJ.

After three major delays, the company feels the MRJ’s developmental problems are behind it, with first flight scheduled for next year and deliveries to launch customer All Nippon Airways set to begin in 2017.

For skeptics in attendance at the airshow, the mockup “is one of the approaches [we’re using] to convince peo-ple there will actually be an aircraft,” said Saito. And one that will feature the high-est level of Japanese craftsmanship, he might have added. o

Mitsubishi’s MRJ cabin mockup here at Farnborough shows dividers decorated in traditional Japanese “Urushi-nuri Maki-e” lacquer art. Mitsubishi’s Noriyo “No No” Ueda helps visitors explore the cabin.D

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New E-model Apache deploys in Afghanistanby Bill Carey

The U.S. Army’s 1-229th Attack Reconnaissance Battal-ion (ARB), based at Joint Base Lewis-McChord in Washing-ton state, has fielded the latest model Boeing AH-64E Apache Guardian attack helicopter in Afghanistan with impres-sive results, Army and Boeing officials said. The deployment has also afforded the “Tiger- sharks” an opportunity to direct unmanned aircraft sys-tems (UAS) using the AH-64E’s UAS tactical datalink.

The 1-229th ARB, the Army’s first unit equipped with AH-64Es, achieved initial operational capability of the helicopter in November and deployed to Afghanistan with 24 Guardians in March. “The Echo model is more fuel effi-cient, more powerful and just as lethal as the Delta model, but it’s more lethal because of the situational awareness we can give to the pilot,” said Col. Jef-frey Hager, the Army’s Apache program manager.

Col. John Lynch, the Army’s Training and Doctrine Command capability manager for reconnaissance and attack, said AH-64Es had accumu-lated 1,700 hours in Afghan-istan between March and late June. Pilots were able to man-age unmanned aircraft using E models equipped with the mast-mounted UAS tacti-cal common datalink assem-bly (UTA) supplied by the Longbow LLC partnership

of Lockheed Martin and Northrop Grumman. With the UTA fitted above the main rotor, AH-64E pilots can con-trol MQ-1C Gray Eagle and RQ-7 Shadow UAS to Level 4–full flight except takeoff and landing. In this manned-unmanned teaming role, Apaches will fulfill the armed aerial scout mission long served by OH-58D Kiowa Warriors, which the Army is retiring. “They’re actually working with Gray Eagles in theater as much as they can to practice and take advantage of situational awareness,” Lynch said of the 1-229th ARB.

Link 16 a ‘Game Changer’In August, the Army will test

AH-64E capability lot 4, which among other updates adds the Link 16 tactical datalink, enabling Apache pilots to communicate and disseminate information in near real-time with other aircraft, ships and ground forces. Link 16 will be a “game changer” for the Apache, Lynch said.

Hager and Lynch spoke with reporters during a press trip Boeing (Chalet B6) sponsored to its Apache assembly plant in Mesa, Arizona, last month. In a separate briefing, Mike Burke, a former U.S. Army brigadier general who recently retired as Boeing’s director of business development for attack helicop-ters, said the Guardian’s com-posite main rotor blades, new transmission and improved

General Electric T700-GE-701D engines have produced a more powerful Apache.

“The aircraft has performed very, very well. It’s flying more time than its D-model coun-terpart today because of the sustainability of the aircraft,” Burke declared. “The aircraft can now get to the fight quicker than they used to with a full load of ammunition.”

E-Models Built in MesaLast year, Boeing stopped

production of D-model Apaches in Mesa, where only AH-64Es are assembled now for the Army and foreign military sales cus-tomers. The E-models are built with new fuselages supplied by Korea Aerospace Industries from Sacheon, South Korea, and components disassembled and repaired from older Apaches by Science Engineering Services (SES) in Huntsville, Alabama. Jeff Riedel, Boeing director of Apache production, estimated that 12 percent of AH-64E com-ponents are remanufactured.

Boeing said it delivered 82 AH-64D/E-models to U.S. and foreign militaries last year. It had delivered 117 E-model Apaches, including 48 to inter-national customers, from Octo-ber 2011 through May 2014. The U.S. Army plans to buy a total of 690 E models.

Burke said other Apaches are operating from Navy ships in the Arabian Gulf, defending naval formations from swarms of small boats. “The U.S. Navy has concluded the Apache does that better than anything else,” he said. In the Pacific, AH-64Es are conducting interoperabil-ity-training exercises from Navy ships. The UK Royal Navy oper-ates Apache AH Mk1s from the

HMS Ocean, a helicopter car-rier and assault ship.

Boeing also briefed report-ers on its AH-6i light-attack/reconnaissance helicopter, for which the Saudi Arabia National Guard is the planned launch cus-tomer. The manufacturer esti-mates a worldwide market for 700 to 715 of the single-turbine helicopters based on the Hughes OH-6A Cayuse. It is also upgrad-ing the AH-6M variant U.S. spe-cial operations forces use to a Block 3 configuration.

The manufacturer is also working with the Korea Air Aerospace Division on a pro-gram to convert a Repub-lic of Korea Army MD-500D to an optionally piloted heli-copter, known as the H-6U Unmanned Little Bird (ULB). Boeing has logged more than 1,700 hours flying the ULB as an unmanned platform. “We’ve been demonstrating quite a bit on this aircraft,” said Dino Cerchie, Boeing ULB program manager. o


Voss IndustrIes PursuIng russIa, ChIna relatIonshIPs

Voss Industries is displaying examples of its high-performance cou-pling devices, bulge-formed ducting components and fabricated subassemblies at its Farnborough Airshow exhibit (Hall 4 Stand C11). The company, headquartered in Cleveland, Ohio, specializes in the aerospace and industrial markets and is the parent company of Voss Aerospace.

Voss Industries was founded by William Voss, a mechanical engineer who designed and manufactured clamps in his spare time, eventu-ally forming Voss Engineering with his wife, Marianne, in 1957. The aerospace side of the business was launched when Voss “solved an emergency problem on the Boeing 747,” according to the company. Now Boeing is one of the company’s largest customers, which include BAE Systems, General Electric Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman and Raytheon.

Voss Industries’ exhibit at the Farnborough Airshow “allows us to better understand our current customers as well as develop new part-nerships,” said president Daniel Sedor. “It is a great opportunity to gain insight into emerging technologies that will impact our global custom-ers in coming years, especially as we embark on new paths with Russian and Chinese clients.” � –M.T.

A Boeing AH-64E Apache Guardian skirts the Arizona desert during a demonstration the OEM conducted for reporters last month.

Boeing flew an AH-64E Apache and an AH-6i light attack/reconnaissance helicopter in close proximity over the desert near its production facility in Mesa, Arizona.

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Boeing CEO announces plan for high-capacity 737 Max 8by Gregory Polek

Boeing plans to offer a “minor model” of the 737 Max 8 that would increase seating capacity from 189 to 200 seats and cut seat-mile costs by 5 percent.

Revealing the plans during a “round-table” discussion on Sunday in London, Boeing Commercial Airplanes CEO Ray Conner told reporters that Ryanair “would be a candidate” for the new ver-sion and that the Max 8 would follow to market the second Max model, the 737-9, now scheduled for certification in the third quarter of 2018.

Conner said the gross weight of the airplane would increase “a little bit,” making trip mile costs less than 1 per-cent higher. Boeing (Chalet B1-6) would not stretch the fuselage to make room for the 11 extra seats, but rather simply add an extra exit door in the mid fuselage to meet emergency egress requirements and squeeze seat pitch from the usual stan-dard of 31 inches to roughly 29 inches.

“When you look at where we think we are with the engine, where we know we are with the airframe, that airplane will be 20 percent better on a per-seat basis in terms of fuel efficiency than the [737-800NG],” said Conner. “It’s pretty amaz-ing that we’ve gotten that far on the Max in such a short period of time. With the new exit door we’re just taking advantage of the 88 inches of extra space in com-parison to an A320.”

Asked to explain the seeming switch from Boeing’s earlier insistence that it would not do anything to distract it from its focus on getting the three main models to market on time, Con-ner stressed the company’s growing confidence in the schedules it has set for the Max. “We got a lot more com-fortable with where we were and where we are,” he said. “The airplane perfor-mance has continued to improve over the course of the year. So I just think it was a matter of comfort, and a matter of whether or not the customer base really showed a lot of interest in that airplane and we’ve certainly had inter-est in the airplane.”

The move counters Airbus’s recent deci-sion to increase the seating capacity of the A320 from 180 to 189 seats. But accord-ing to Boeing sales chief John Wojick, Air-bus will need to shrink seat pitch in the A320 to less than 28 inches to arrive at its target of 189 seats.

On the prospect of a new single-aisle airplane to fill a market niche covering a seating capacity above that of the 737 Max 9, Conner remained noncommit-tal. “We haven’t got anything defined at this point in time,” he said. “We have the 737 Max, the whole family, that will carry us into the mid-2020s. We’re constantly thinking about it. It’s a spot that’s not filled today, so you would think about it.” o


Putin praises Rosoboronexport for its worldwide market shareby Vladimir Karnozov

Rosoboronexport, Russia’s defense export agency, continues to benefit from backing by President Vladimir Putin. Speaking at a late April meeting of the Commission for Military Technical Coop-eration with Foreign Countries, Putin claimed that Russia is second only to the U.S. in terms of volume of military ship-ments, with a 27-percent market share.

“Last year [2013], the export of Rus-sian wares and services relating to the military technical cooperation rose by 3 percent, and exceeded $15.7 billion,” reported Putin. Rosobo-ronexport (Chalet A2) and its partner compa-nies take part in some two dozen international trade shows in pursuit of export opportunities. Beyond the Commonwealth of Inde-pendent States, sales suc-cess has also come from India, Venezuela, Alge-ria, China, Indonesia and Vietnam. Latin America is also now viewed as a key growth market for Rus-sian technology.

To further promote Russian prod-ucts worldwide, Putin has urged Rosobo-ronexport to assist Russian defense firms in providing more modern and flexible financial instruments to support military sales. He also is encouraging the industry to improve the performance of its after-sales support, as well as to forge more international joint ventures and alliances.

Dialing for RublesPutin also called for the Russian

industry to boost its share of the grow-ing world market for air defense systems. More than 70 countries operate Russian-made air defense systems and the country claims to be responsible for one-third of all shipments of such systems.

“By technical and combat parame-ters, reliability and ease of operation, the S-300, S-400 and Pantsyr-S1 [air defense systems] are definite market leaders,” Putin claimed. He called on the Russian

industry to boost its capabilities in the area of air-launched weapons.

Rosoboronexport is responsible for some 80 percent of Russian defense exports, working with more than 700 mil-itary equipment enterprises and selling products to 70 countries. According to director general Anatoly Isaikin, last year his organization set another record, by delivering weapons worth $13.2 billion.

This figure increased four-fold between 2001 and 2013, and at the end of last year the combined backlog stood at $38 billion.

Rosoboronexport is increasing the availability of export-credit funding, espe-cially for Asian and African states. Gov-ernment-to-government deals involving loans will continue to be used, but Isaikin believes commercial credits are more flex-ible and easier to arrange, since the larg-est Russian financial institutions, such as Savings Bank, VEB and VTB, “trust us more today then they used to.” For exam-ple, Angola bought 18 Su-30K ex-Indian air force fighters in a deal made possible through a commercial credit line opened by Russian banks.

Barter deals continue to be attractive, when a foreign customer takes Russian weaponry in return for rights to explore oil fields or other natural resources. Natu-ral resources are in high demand, because they can readily be converted into cash. Rosoboronexport and a group of Rus-sian investors are close to clinching sev-eral barter deals along these lines. o

ribbon falls at u.s. pavilion

Wielding “scissors of honor” at the opening of the U.S. pavilion are, left to right: Gerri Gozic, director of aerospace and defense programs, Kallman Worldwide; Marion Blakey, president and CEO Aerospace Industries Association; Richard Shelby, U.S Senator (R-Al); Deborah Lee James, Secretary U.S. Air Force; Tom Kallman, president and CEO, Kallman Worldwide; Matthew Barzun, U.S. ambassador to the Court of St. James’s; and Ken Hyatt, U.S. Deputy Under Secretary for International Trade.�

Russian defense export agency Rosoboronexport exhibits at around two dozen trade shows each year.

Adding an exit door and compressing seat pitch will yield a 200-passenger version of the 737, the Max 8.

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