paris airshow news 06-16-15

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Tuesday 6.16.15

Airbus A330-300 Regional springs to life with Saudi deal by Charles Alcock

Saudi Arabian Airlines has signed up to be the launch customer for Airbus’s A330-300 Regional twinjet. In a deal announced at the Paris Air Show on Monday, the car-rier ordered 30 of the new model, plus

30 examples of the A320ceo narrow-body. The new business is worth approx-imately $8 billion based on list prices, and represented the lion’s share of orders

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Manufacturers New Aircraft People Electric Flight Systems Testing

Boeing’s New PAL Boosts OutputIn Renton, Washington, Boeing’s new Panel Assembly Line (PAL) is reaping huge benefits in productivity. By 2018, production should expand to 52 aircraft per month. 8

Russia, China Co-op on New WidebodyRussia’s United Aircraft Corp. and China’s Comac and Avic are responding to influence from their corresponding countries’ leaders to ensure the co-development of a next-generation widebody jetliner. Page 26

Paraplegic Pilot Makes Paris DebutDorine Bourneton lost the use of her legs in a 1991 airplane accident. She has nevertheless pressed on to not only learn to fly, but to perfect an aerobatic routine. She will perform here at Le Bourget on Friday. Page 46

Airbus Projects E-Fan First DeliveryThe year is 2017. That’s when Airbus expects to begin deliveries of its E-Fan 1.0 electric airplane. Production of the two-seat trainer will be at a new factory in Pau, southwest France. Page 60

‘Fighting Fokker’ Mimics a RafaleHow does a retired airliner live the life of a jet fighter? The French ministry of defense chose a Fokker 100 as its combat systems testbed. Add-ons include the extended nose radome of a Rafale fighter. Page 66

Continued on page 4 u

Lockheed Martin encourages ‘block buy’ option for F-35by Bill Carey

The U.S. government is pressing F-35 international partners to make a firmer commitment to the $391 billion program by signing on to a “block buy” of some 450 fighters over three years, Lockheed

Martin said Monday at the Paris Air Show. That would lend certainty to a program that has thus far delivered only a handful of fighters to its eight partners. Continued on page 4 u

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RAMP CANDYThere’s nothing tastier than Paris in June. And when the biennial Paris Air Show comes to town, Le Bourget Airport is at its sweetest.

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Al Baker roasts critics, toasts Boeing with orderby Gregory Polek

A $4.8 billion firm order for 10 Boeing 777-8Xs and four 777 Freighters gave Qatar Airways CEO Akbar Al Baker yet an-other chance to take a swipe at American critics who say that it, along with other Middle East carriers, benefits unfairly from government subsidies.

And, during a Paris Air Show press conference, he re-peated his threat to leave the Oneworld Alliance in protest at the role of fellow member American Airlines in demand-ing that Gulf carriers are ex-cluded from the Open Skies route access policy.

Singling out Delta Airlines, Al Baker inferred that Qatar is doing more for the American aero-space sector than its own carriers. “Of course, no announcement is without controversy with Qatar Airways, so I would like to make a statement,” he told reporters. “I hope that the gentleman at Delta knows that we are creating even more jobs in the United States by ordering more airplanes.”

In fact, just last week Delta announced plans to buy 40 Boeing 737-900ERs. However, in its previous most significant fleet renewal move, back in November 2014, the U.S. carrier dealt a blow to the airframer by choosing Airbus A350-900 and A330-900 aircraft in preference to the 787-9.

On his recent comments about the apparently precarious nature of his airline’s membership in the Oneworld alliance, the outspoken Al Baker again made his inten-tions clear.

“We are only committed to Oneworld provided the spirit in which we joined Oneworld exists,” he said. “If we are being cornered by an airline that invited us to be part of the alliance [American Airlines] and is now acting against our interests…blocking inventory, blocking gates at JFK [Airport], of course we have no [reason] to be in the alliance…If we find that we can-not have a settlement to this very contentious issue, then we will exit from Oneworld.”

According to Al Baker, the new 777Xs will be deployed on “ultra-long-haul” routes after deliveries start in 2022. For Boeing, yester-day’s order from Qatar means its 777X orderbook now shows orders and commitments for 320 airplanes, the first of which it plans to deliver in 2020.

Separately, Taiwan’s EVA Airways announced its intention to purchase five 777 Freighters. The commitment is valued at $1.5 billion and covers what will be the first of the aircraft type to join the Asian carrier’s fleet.

Meanwhile, Air Lease Cor-poration announced new long-term lease agreements with Viet-nam Airlines under which eight 787-9 widebodies previously un-der order will be upgauged to the larger -10 models. o

4 Paris Airshow News • June 16, 2015 • www.ainonline.com

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PRESIDENTIAL PARADEFrench President François Hollande toured the Paris Air Show yester-day, here accompanied by Airbus CEO Tom Enders. During his address, Hollande said aerospace created 10,000 new jobs in the past year, and “we expect as much” through 2017. He also cited the recent success of Dassault’s Rafale, saying, “I have great hopes that the Rafale will know fur-ther success. We will have a very good announcement during the airshow.”

announced so far at Paris by the European airframer, which have a combined value of around $15.2 billion.

Later the same day, GE Capital Aviation Services placed an order for 60 A320neos. The contract, worth approximately $6.4 billion, will include some of the larger A321neo versions of the new narrow-body. GE has chosen CFM International’s Leap 1A engine as the powerplant for the aircraft. The leasing group’s portfolio of A320 family aircraft is set to top 465, with 120 of these being A320neos.

Airbus also now has a launch customer for its ACJ319neo. Saudi operator Alpha Star will operate the VIP-configured aircraft for charter operations, with delivery to its Riyadh headquarters anticipated in the sec-ond quarter of 2019. It placed the order on Monday, but will confirm engine selection and the precise cabin configuration later.

Meanwhile, Air Lease Corp. placed a firm order worth around $706 million cov-ering an A350-900, an A321ceo and three A320ceos. The deal will take the U.S.-based group’s Airbus fleet to a total of 262 airliners.

Airbus launched the A330-300 Regional in September 2013 as a lower-weight ver-sion of the twinjet that would be optimized to carry up to around 400 passengers on regional and domestic routes. The origi-nal A330-300 was developed for long-haul routes of up to 6,100 nm.

“The A330-300 Regional’s unique flex-ibility, high capacity and operational capabilities will enable us to expand our domestic and regional network and better absorb growing passenger traffic,” said Saudi Arabian Airlines director general Saleh bin Nasser. “Introducing the A330-300 Regional in our current fleet is an ideal choice and fol-lows our previous commitment to a family of aircraft, which already successfully helped us to achieve our ambitions.” o

Airbus A330 RegionaluContinued from page 1

Airbus’s A320 series, represented by this Qatar aircraft, received a boost when GE Capital Aviation Services placed an order for $6.4 billion worth of A320neos and A321neos.

“Each of the countries associated with the program is being asked right now if they’d like to participate in that, and this would be to make a commitment for the aircraft purchase,” said Lorraine Martin, Lockheed Martin’s F-35 program execu-tive vice president and general manager. “A block buy enables us…to lock down three years of the program,” she added.

According to Martin, a multinational commitment could comprise 460 to 500 U.S. and partner nation orders from 2018 to 2020–somewhat more fighters than ear-lier indicated. In a separate briefing on Monday, Mark Buongiorno, vice presi-dent of Pratt & Whitney’s F135 engine program, said the engine supplier is pro-viding information to the U.S. Department of Defense (DOD) for an estimated buy of 150 fighters per year over that period.

“Right now, we’re supporting the DOD with studies to estimate what type of cost reduction will come from this higher production rate procurement,” Buongiorno said. “We’re looking at a three-year procurement [in the] roughly 150-range of aircraft, and engines and spares to go along with that.”

Frank Kendall, DOD undersecre-tary of defense for acquisition, technol-ogy and logistics, announced the “block buy” approach last month while attend-ing the F-35 CEO Conference in Oslo, Norway. This is an annual meeting of partner nations and industry participants

to discuss the status of the F-35 program. Lockheed Martin expects the concept will “play into [the] decision making” of part-ner nations as they go through their var-ious procurement processes, Martin said.

Thus far, Lockheed Martin has delivered two F-35s to the UK, two to Australia, and one to the Netherlands, though all remain temporarily based in the U.S. The company expects to deliver a third F-35 for the UK later this year.

If all partner nations keep to their original procurement plans, the man-ufacturer expects that by 2020 half of production at its Forth Worth, Texas, facility will be for international F-35s.

Following Martin’s briefing, Lockheed Martin offered an indication of the pres-sure that is being applied as the F-35 pro-gram emerges from its system develop-ment and demonstration phase, which is expected to be completed in 2017. The manufacturer and Terma, of Denmark, signed a memorandum of understanding that would secure Terma as a supplier for the F-35 over the life of the program–but only if Denmark selects the F-35 for its fighter replacement program.

Lockheed Martin is offering Danish industry $5.5 billion in industrial partic-ipation over a production run of some 3,000 F-35s, said executive vice president Orlando Carvalho. If the Danish govern-ment does not select the F-35 “we would respect that decision,” he said. But the long-term participation of Danish indus-try on the program “would be something that we would have to revisit.” o

F-35 ‘block buy’ urgeduContinued from page 1

Qatar Airways CEO Akbar Al Baker reminded his opponents that his orders for Boeing airliners support American jobs.

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Honeywell is here to show off its Boeing 757 flying tech labby Bill Carey

Taking advantage of the aircraft’s presence in Europe, Honeywell hosted reporters on a rare public flight aboard its Boeing 757-225 test aircraft on Saturday here at Le Bourget Airport, before the Paris Air Show. The avionics manufac-turer demonstrated technologies such as its “SmartRunway” and “SmartLanding” (SR/SL) situational awareness aids dur-ing the hour-long flight from Le Bourget.

Honeywell (Chalet 106) uses the aircraft, the fifth 757 that Boeing produced, primar-ily as an engine testbed for its HTF7000 and TFE731 business aviation engines. The starboard side of the jet’s forward fuse-lage sports a distinctive pylon on which an engine undergoing testing attaches.

Inside, the cabin is configured with several seats in the forward section and several test stations aft. Like Honeywell’s five other aircraft in its flight-test fleet,

the 757 is based at Deer Valley Airport north of Phoenix.

The aircraft also serves as a “flying technology lab” for the variety of flight deck avionics, weather radar and cabin connectivity systems Honeywell pro-duces. The manufacturer recently used it to correlate readings of the RDR-4000 IntuVue weather radar system in ice crystal detection trials sponsored by the 16-nation High Altitude Ice Crystals Consortium in Cayenne, French Guiana.

Before arriving in Paris on June 13, the 757 conducted testing in Birmingham, UK, of the satcom hardware Honeywell is supplying for Inmarsat’s Global Xpress Ka-band service, which promises data speeds of up to 50 Mb/s. “It was in the neighborhood, so we stopped by,” said Carl Esposito, Honeywell vice president of marketing and product management.

With Honeywell lead test pilot Scott Nyberg in the left seat, the 757 departed Le Bourget for Châlons Vatry, an airport 100 miles to the east. Before takeoff, the SR/SL system, a software upgrade of Honeywell’s enhanced ground proximity warning system, called out the approach-ing Runway 25 and issued an “excessive runway time” alert when Nyberg deliber-ately held back at the threshold.

In high and low passes over Châlons Vatry Airport, Nyberg and copilot Brian Williams prompted the system to issue aural alerts warning that the aircraft was too high, too low or in danger of landing long, all to prevent against the danger of runway excursions. o

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Honeywell lead test pilot Scott Nyberg, in the left seat, was assisted by pilot Brian Williams during a demonstration here at Le Bourget of the company’s Boeing 757 testbed aircraft.

Grand Caravan EX serving as new special mission demonstratorby Thierry Dubois

Cessna is here in Paris exhibiting a newly configured Grand Caravan EX demonstrator that aims at promot-ing the aircraft’s special mission appli-cations. These include aerial survey, air ambulance, paratrooper, amphibious

operations, surveillance and training.Cessna even suggests customers might

choose a weaponized variant, as the tur-boprop single can be manufactured with structural provisions for up to four hard points under the wings. Orbital ATK,

for example, offers the AC-208 Combat Caravan with Hellfire missiles.

“Having a fully equipped special mis-sions Grand Caravan EX demonstrator in the market allows our customers to experi-ence firsthand the extensive range of capa-bilities available on this aircraft,” said Dan Keady, vice president of special missions. The aircraft on display thus features a sur-veillance console, a medical stretcher, new lightweight seats and a stowable utility seat.

Powered by the 867-shp Pratt & Whitney Canada PT6A-140 engine, the Grand Caravan EX boasts a 38-percent improvement over the rate of climb of the Grand Caravan, a 350-foot reduc-tion in takeoff roll and a 10 to 12-knot cruise speed improvement on average. It can therefore takeoff in 1,400 feet and climb at 1,275 feet per minute, reaching cruise speeds of 185 knots and traveling distances of up to 904 nm.

The Caravan sports a Garmin G1000 avionics suite with optional synthetic vision technology. It is based on two pri-mary flight displays and a center multi-function display. Pilots have the ability to upload IFR flight plans on the G1000 to exactly match the intended route. Magenta rectangular pathways provide a visual window to help pilots follow the intended flight route. oM

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Benefitting from the special mission expertise of its Textron stablemate Beechcraft, Cessna has developed

this fully equipped Caravan EX as a demonstrator.

Spreading the Thunder, JF-17 goes internationalby David Donald

Exhibiting at the Paris Air Show for the first time, the PAC/Chengdu JF-17 Thunder has secured a first export customer, according to the program office. Details of the customer, or the number of aircraft involved, remain undisclosed, but the first delivery is due in 2017. Furthermore, Air Commodore Khalid Mahmood, chief exec-utive for JF-17 sales and mar-keting, told AIN that there were “12 interested countries at dif-ferent stages.”

Located at Kamra, Pakistan Aeronautical Complex (PAC) has completed the Block 1 pro-duction of 50 aircraft for the Pakistan Air Force, the first eight of which were built as a pre-pro-duction batch but which have subsequently been raised to full operational capability. Another 50 aircraft in Block 2 are now in production, of which the air force has taken delivery of four.

The build rate is currently run-ning at 25 aircraft per year, but PAC is investigating increases that might be required in the future. The Block 2 aircraft fea-ture inflight refueling capability and improvements to avionics, electronic warfare equipment and other areas.

Now PAC and Chengdu are working on two major developments for the JF-17. Pakistan’s planned Block 3 air-craft is still to be defined, but a key area under study is a new radar, of Chinese origin,

which could be a passive or electronically scanned antenna type. Another likely feature of Block 3 is the addition of a chin-station to allow the car-riage of a targeting pod with-out having to give up a weapon station under the wing.

Pakistan has formal plans to acquire 50 Block 3 JF-17s, although that figure could rise. Aircraft from earlier blocks are likely to be upgraded to the later standard.

Two-seat Version Forthcoming

Another line of development for PAC and Chengdu is that of the two-seat JF-17B, driven partly by the needs of the export market. A model was displayed at the 2013 Paris show and again this year, while the formal go-ahead for the project was given around six months ago.

The two-seater is scheduled to fly at Chengdu’s plant in China in December 2016. The JF-17B retains full combat capability, and as much of the existing air-frame is being kept as possible. The design features a humped dorsal spine to restore the fuel capacity displaced by the second seat, in turn requiring a dorsal fin to restore keel area.

In terms of JF-17 powerplant, Air Commodore Mahmood told AIN that, “We’re satisfied with the [Russian Klimov] RD-93, but some customers may want another engine. We have done

preliminary studies on the [Eurojet] EJ200 and [Snecma] M88. They are doable.”

One area in which the JF-17 team is expanding options is that of ordnance. Currently, the aircraft is integrated with three Chinese weapons–the PL-5 and SD-10 air-to-air mis-siles and the C-802AK long-range anti-ship missile. Other ordnance used by the aircraft is produced in Pakistan by the Air Weapons Complex.

Recognizing that potential

customers may wish to use older weapons in their inventories or those from other sources, a ded-icated air force flight-test group has been established at Kamra to conduct weapons integra-tion and other trials. The unit is currently involved in testing a GPS-guided kit of Pakistani ori-gin that converts Mk 80-series bombs into precision weapons.

The air force has also imple-mented an integrated logistics support system for the JF-17, and full support is part of the

export offering being made by Chengdu and PAC. The two companies are both market-ing the JF-17 (also known as FC-1), either jointly or inde-pendently, focusing particularly on the low cost of acquisition compared with other fight-ers, as well as the low operat-ing costs that accompany a new aircraft as opposed to the pur-chase of second-hand fight-ers. Regardless of which nation secures a sale, the work share for any export deal is similar. o

www.ainonline.com • June 16, 2015 • Paris Airshow News 7

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The JF-17s being displayed at Paris come from No. 26 Squadron “Black Spiders” of the Pakistan Air Force.

MYSTERY SOLVED

The A400M performing here at Le Bourget is one of the three development aircraft that are still flying. Production A400Ms already delivered are only just returning to active status after the fatal crash at Seville, Spain, on May 9. That accident was caused by incorrect installation of the engine control software, according to Airbus Defense & Security. No similar faults have been found on other production aircraft, the company added. –C.P.

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A model of the two-seat JF-17B is on show at the CATIC stand.

‘Cultural change’ brings Piaggio back on trackby Charles Alcock

Piaggio Aerospace (Static A6) is back at the Paris Air Show with new management de-termined to get its new Avanti Evo business aircraft back on track and stepping up efforts for its P.1HH Hammerhead me-dium-altitude long-endurance (MALE) unmanned air system to enter service.

CEO Carlo Logli, appoint-ed last year when Abu Dhabi’s Mubadala Aerospace took over as main shareholder of what had been a family-owned business, freely admitted in an interview with AIN last week that he has been pushing hard for a cultural change needed to make the Ital-ian company more innovative and accountable to customers.

The airframer has invested

around $153 million to consol-idate its previously scattered production facilities at a new factory in Villanova d’Albenga. According to Logli, parts that previously had to move multi-ple times between Piaggio’s sites in Genoa and Finale Ligure are now moving through assembly much more efficiently on the consolidated assembly line.

This year, Piaggio aims to deliver six Avanti Evo twin pusherprops, and by 2017 aims to ramp up to at least two per month as it approaches an even-tual production peak of between 30 and 35 units. A big sticking point, Logli explained, was that even after the Evo achieved ini-tial European certification in December 2014, Piaggio was

forced to make a late change to its landing gear supplier. It immi-nently expects to complete final approval for the main and nose gear, which now features new steering and anti-skid systems.

“One problem last year was that we had plenty of programs, but no production,” said Logli. “Our challenge is to achieve a cultural change in the way the company is run with more accountability and a clear shar-ing of mission and objectives now that we are part of a big interna-tional group,” he said. “Before, the [relationship] between the man-agement and shareholders was quite confused. Piaggio was close to collapse a few years ago, but now we are healthy and I hope to have the new culture implemented by the end of this year.”

The upgraded Avanti also features new Hartzell propellers that have reduced noise levels both externally and inside the cabin. “The Evo flies at more than 400 knots and at 40,000 feet, so it is comparable to a

jet,” said Logli. “Our target cus-tomer is someone who wants a very comfortable cabin, not the usual cigar shape, and our cross section is definitely more com-fortable [than rival aircraft in the same price range].”

A year ago at Farnborough International Air Show, Hong Kong-based Bravia Capital placed firm orders for 10 Avantis and options for up to 40 more. The first of these air-craft was due to be delivered in the first quarter of 2015.

Customer support has been another area requiring improve-ment at Piaggio. “We’ve put a lot of effort into this, for example by implementing a power-by-the-hour support plan and increas-ing our spare parts supplies and appointing new repair stations,” explained Logli. “We now have an on-call 24/7 support center

and an improved online portal.”Meanwhile, flight testing

of the Hammerhead UAS is in progress with the Italian air force. The aircraft, which is based on the Avanti, can con-duct missions of up to 16 hours in duration at up to 45,000 feet.

“No other aircraft in serial production can achieve this and it is the only one [in its MALE category] to have two engines and be able to operate in any weather conditions,” claimed Logli. “This is a big advantage for both civil and military applications.”

Last month, Piaggio an-nounced further changes to its management structure led by chief financial officer Giulio Di Negro, chief technical officer Giovanni Bertolone, chief op-erating officer Eligio Trombet-ta and chief commercial officer Francescomaria Tuccillo. o


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Turkish stand-off missile targets JSF roleby David Donald

Turkish missile house Roket-san expects to conduct the pre-liminary design review (PDR) of its SOM-J weapon this Septem-ber, with subsystem design and test activities to commence in November. SOM-J is a version of the company’s SOM (stand-off missile) adapted for internal carriage in the Lockheed Martin F-35, but also available for exter-nal carriage by other aircraft.

Roketsan (Hall 2a Stand B272) received the first produc-tion contract for the original SOM version in mid-2013, hav-ing developed the weapon in con-junction with Tubitak-SAGE. The 155-mile-range stealthy cruise missile is already in ser-vice with the Turkish air force’s F-4E-2020 upgraded Phantoms and F-16C Block 40 aircraft, while Roketsan has a cooperation agreement with Airbus Defence

and Space to study integration with the Eurofighter Typhoon.

In 2014, the company signed a deal with Lockheed Martin Missiles and Fire Control to col-laborate on the development and marketing of the SOM-J deriv-ative. Compared with the origi-nal SOM, the F-35 weapon has kinked rear fins, an additional set of small rear fins, revised main wings of shorter span, repro-filed nose section and the engine intake moved from underneath the missile body to the side.

Many of these changes were driven by the necessity to fit the missile into the F-35’s weap-ons bay. It sports a combination of guidance systems, including GPS, inertial, terrain reference and imaging infrared seeker.

Phases I (feasibility) and IIA (risk reduction) have been com-pleted, and the Phase IIB studies have begun this month, building up to PDR. The first flight tests are due to begin in the second quarter of 2017, initially con-ducted from the F-16 Block 40.

Development and integration with the F-35 are due to be com-pleted in 2018.

In addition to showcasing SOM-J, Roketsan is displaying a range of its capabilities here at Le Bourget. Among them is the new Teber laser-guided bomb kit, which was publicly unveiled at last month’s IDEF show in Istanbul.

This kit modifies 250-pound Mk 81 and 500-pound Mk 82 bombs into guided weapons that can be aimed with an accu-racy of less than 10-foot/3-m circular error probable (CEP), and with capability against tar-gets traveling at up to 60 mph/90 kmh. The Teber kit adds a body strake section, laser seeker on the nose and a tail guidance kit with inertial navigation and GPS/GNSS receivers.

Roketsan has developed the UMTAS weapon that is intend-ed primarily for anti-armour du-ties, with lock-on before and after launch capabilities over a range of up to five miles. The initial version has a laser seeker (L-UMTAS),

but an imaging infrared version is also being developed.

The missile can be fired from a variety of air, sea and land plat-forms but the initial applica-tion of L-UMTAS is the Turkish army’s new TAI T-129 Atak heli-copter. Successful firing tests from the T-129 against land targets have been undertaken, followed recently by firings from SH-60 Seahawk helicopters against mar-itime targets. Deliveries to the Turkish armed forces are expected to start later this year.

Also forming part of the T-129’s armoury is the Cirit laser-guided rocket, which has also been selected by the UAE for use on its Iomax Archangel border patrol aircraft. Currently in use with the Turkish army’s Bell AH-1W Cobras and on Airbus Helicopters EC635s, Cirit is a contender for the German army’s laser rocket requirement to equip the EC665 Tiger attack helicopter. Roketsan has teamed with MBDA Deutschland to bid for this requirement. o

Long recognized as one of the most versatile, efficient business aircraft, Piaggio’s Avanti Evo appears poised for a market comeback.

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French aerospace is thriving, but the work force is dwindlingby Thierry Dubois

The French aerospace indus-try is expecting 2015 to be another very good year, but it is still struggling with finding young production workers. That was the message from officials of Gifas, the industry’s lobbying group, during the association’s annual press conference in Paris in April.

Last year was a record one, as combined revenues amounted to €50.7 billion ($54 billion)–a 2.9 percent increase. The proportion of civil sales has grown to 77 per-cent and the industry received orders for €73 billion ($78 bil-lion), on a par with the previous record. Gifas president Marwan Lahoud emphasized that aero-space has been the top contribu-tor to France’s net exports.

There were 180,000 peo-ple employed in aerospace in France at the end of 2014. “We hired 10,000 people, a net 2,000 of which were new positions,” Lahoud said. The forecast for 2015 is 8,000, but Lahoud warned that these new hires will mainly be replacing retiring workers.

The need for design engineers is on a downward curve. This contrasts with the ever-stronger

need for production workers–sheet-metal workers and weld-ers, for example. This is where human resource managers will have the most headaches.

“We need these workers to help us ramp up,” said Lahoud, who emphasized how tricky such recruitment can be. For instance, a major equipment manufac-turer, he said, had to hire Tuni-sian and Polish machinists for its factory in France because “French youngsters have little appetite for these jobs, although numerically controlled machine tools now look like video games,” he went on.

In another striking example, a supplier of forgings was offering 50 jobs in an area where the rate of unemployment is relatively high. The local employment cen-ter contacted 3,000 people and received answers from 300 peo-ple, only 100 of whom actually showed up for interviews. Fifty were selected and were trained for three months. This translated into 47 fixed-term contracts. After one year, 37 were converted into permanent contracts–well below the initial expectation, Lahoud lamented.

This is why Gifas is again bet-ting on its “L’avion des métiers” (literal translation “Find your profession in this aircraft”) demonstrator here at the show. Visitors can see real, skilled pro-fessionals demonstrating their jobs in manufacturing, logis-tics, design and other areas. This year, the focus on production has been strengthened.

Splitting TimeGifas members have been sat-

isfied with a program of alter-nating training–when a young trainee splits time between the company and a specialized school every other week. The number of young employees in such schemes has increased by 50 percent since 2010. However, small enterprises often cannot afford to join. Therefore, Gifas has created a “shared appren-ticeship program,” where a large company pays for the time an apprentice spends with one of its smaller suppliers. The num-ber of participants in the pro-gram is expected to double this year, from 100 to 200.

Gifas also would like to have its members creating more

partnerships with professional high schools, as Airbus has done in Toulouse and Stelia in Méaulte.

To further help small and medium enterprises (SMEs) im-prove their performance, Gifas last year launched a program called “Industrial performance.” Spread over three years, it is about enhancing on-time deliv-ery and quality. Some 400 SMEs are being provided with external consultants, essentially paid for by large corporations and the French state. The consultants come from an association called Space (Supply chain Progress towards Aeronautical Com-munity Excellence, in French), which itself gathers a number of France-based aerospace groups. The €22.9 million ($24.5 mil-lion) program has so far provid-ed 6,600 days of consultancy.

“Twelve months in, we can already see improvements,” Em-manuel Viellard, head of Gifas’s equipment manufacturer divi-sion, told AIN. The automotive sector is a distant leader and is expected to remain so, notably because it produces less com-plex parts. However, Viellard found it worth noting the scrap rate in automotive is one or two per million, while it is around 100 per million in aerospace. Vi-ellard is the CEO of Lisi Group, a supplier of fasteners in both sectors. “Poor on-time delivery is the disease of our industry…we are lagging behind other sec-tors,” Lahoud added.

Lahoud also expressed worry about France’s military spend-ing planning law. For the 2014-2019 period, he believes it is at a strict minimum. As of April 9, Gifas estimated that the prom-ised €2.4 billion ($2.6 billion) was late already. Should the situ-ation drag on, the very existence of 100 or so SMEs is at stake, Lahoud asserted. “If you are a large firm, you know how to shift work from military to civil, but if you are a small company this is only theory,” he said.

Lahoud anticipated this year’s order value to be greater than in 2014. Answering skepticism that the industry might not meet Air-bus’s goal of 50 A320-family nar-rowbodies per month, he pointed out that increasing the produc-tion rate to 30 had been accom-plished in an even less favorable environment. “Some were saying we would never be able to do it,” he said.

Rotorcraft IndustrySpeaking specifically about

helicopters, Lahoud (who is also chief strategy and mar-keting officer for the Airbus Group) expressed hope that 2015 will be better for sales. Since late 2014, the rotorcraft industry has seen improved prospects for military helicop-ter sales and some recovery in civil activity, he said. Lahoud acknowledged that for the past three years the European rotorcraft maker has faced dif-ficult market conditions. He highlighted declining demand for private/corporate helicop-ters, adding that even as this sector began to recover, the industry was faced with the fall-out from reduced activ-ity from the energy industry, a condition sparked by depressed oil prices.

As a consequence, the book-to-bill ratio for Airbus Helicop-ters, which is based in France and Germany, has been small-er than 1:1, said Lahoud. The result for suppliers working for Airbus and other manufacturers was a 20-percent cut in output for 2014, compared with 2013, according to Viellard. Earlier this year, Airbus reported that in 2014 it delivered 471 aircraft and received 402 orders–both representing 5 percent drops compared with 2013. o

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French aerospace plants, such as Snecma’s CFM56 factory, are ramping up. But finding young workers in sufficient numbers is a growing challenge.

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Boeing programs benefit from corporate revampby Gregory Polek

The stark difference between Boeing’s difficult experience with the 787-8 and the smooth progress it has experienced with its three new airplane programs would seem to be no accident. It comes after a fundamen-tal reorganization that saw air-plane development segregated from production.

In fact, Scott Fancher, Boeing Commercial Airplanes head of airplane development, conceded during a pre-Paris Air Show briefing in Seattle that the company had underestimated the “power” of the decision two and a half years ago. The subse-quent application of design and development processes under a

single model reaped more of a dividend than expected.

“It created an environment where we could flow resources seamlessly from development program to development pro-gram and engineers wouldn’t have to re-learn a slightly dif-ferent way of doing things,” explained Fancher. “The other thing it facilitated for us is learning…so when we learn a lesson on the Max, literally within a week, all of our other development programs know about that lesson.”

At the same time Boeing has sharpened the focus on a design philosophy that better accommodates what Fancher called “produceability, main-tainability, supportability and performance.” The resulting simplicity allows for re-use and a greater degree of multi-model commonality. For example, the 737 Max, the 787, the 777 and the 767 Tanker all use the same cockpit displays. “That might sound like a small thing, but now I don’t have design teams all re-thinking what kind of display I’m going to get and how I’m going to architect it into the system,” he said. “And think about the ability for

Boeing to truly speak with one voice to one display supplier, and for that supplier to know that they’ve got a very stable environment with Boeing to work with.”

Engine Exceeds ExpectationSuch stability has already

manifested itself in the 787-9, which entered service on time last August after mini-mal development and produc-tion disruption. Meanwhile, the 737 Max 8 team has just passed 90 percent of its design tasks, ahead of schedule. The Max 8’s CFM Leap-1B engines, the first of which flew for the first time April 29 on GE’s 747-8 test bed, have per-formed as advertised, Fancher

insisted (in a rebuke of reports to the contrary).

“The airplane is actually per-forming better than the expecta-tions we set for it, on the engine side and on the airplane side,” he said. Boeing has set an effi-ciency improvement target for the Max 8 of 14 percent over the 737-800NG, and 8 percent over the A320neo. Schedules call for factory roll out in the fourth quarter, first flight in the first quarter of next year and deliv-ery in mid-2017.

Fancher added that the pro-gram retains a three-month schedule buffer, following its announcement at the last Paris Air Show that development had moved ahead of schedule. “We still have three months of float against our customer commit-ments and we’ll decide whether we’ll release that to the market-place or not,” he said.

New FactoryOn the 777X, schedule and

performance remain “dead on,” according to the Boeing aircraft development boss. So-called watch items include the airplane’s GE9X engines and the composite wing, for which Boeing is building a new 1.3 million sq-ft factory at Everett, Washington.

Despite its extreme length and folding wing tips, the 777X wing traces its design directly from the 787’s composite span, which, according to Fancher, means minimal risk. Since Boeing started designing the airplane it has “refined” certain elements such as the wing fold, with engineers having reduced the parts-count by some 40 per-cent over the past 18 months.

“The key here is that the design of the airplane has been very stable,” said Fancher. “We haven’t been chasing range, we haven’t been chasing weight,

we haven’t been chasing SFC or aero. So since we’ve had such a stable design, our engineers have had the opportunity to refine their thinking about the design to make it more produceable, more maintainable.”

Fancher said the 777X pro-gram team will reach firm con-figuration, or the point at which it starts detailed design, “later this year.” The company plans to deliver the first production airplane in 2020. By then Boeing expects to have seen the 787-10–the stretched, shorter-range variant of the 787-9–in service for some two years.

Carrying some 15 per-cent more seats than the 787-9 at the same maximum take-off weight, the -10 will fly up to about 7,000 nm, meaning it will cover 90 percent of all current widebody route struc-tures around the world, by Boeing’s reckoning.

The company’s decision to maintain the 787-9’s maximum takeoff weight in the 787-10 aided its effort to apply com-monality traits endemic to the 737 family to a widebody air-plane. The resulting 95-percent parts commonality between the two largest Dreamliners means minimal differences in the pro-duction of the airplanes, easing the burden on suppliers and “unlocking” productivity and quality in the manufacturing system, explained Fancher.

Now conducting detailed design, the program team will reach 90 percent comple-tion “later this year,” which will be ahead of schedule, said Fancher. “From a per-formance standpoint, the air-plane’s weight, aerodynamics [and] engine performance are all exactly where we need them to be,” he concluded. “We’re seeing no pressure on any of those dimensions either.” o

Scott Fancher, Boeing Commercial Airplanes head of airplane development

Boeing’s 777X series is “dead on” schedule, with “watch items” including its developmental GE9X engines and the new composite wing design. Still, the 777X wing draws much of its technology from the 787 Dreamliner, so unplowed ground is minimized.

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With help of a new PAL, Boeing boosts productionby Gregory Polek

Boeing’s 737NG production line in Renton, Washington, now benefits from a new automated panel-assembly process, as the company continues its efforts to prepare for a throughput increase from 42 to 47 aircraft a month by 2017, then to 52 by 2018. The increase will start next year at roughly the same time as Boeing transitions from current-genera-tion 737s to the new 737 Max.

The so-called Panel Assembly Line, or PAL, fastens stringers to wing-skin panels at twice the rate Boeing could manage using traditional processes. Mukilteo, Washington-based Electroim-pact designed a machine that “normalizes” the panel with an array of lasers that “see” the sur-face without touching it, allowing it to follow the panel curvature or

contour. The process improves accuracy, consistency and “re-peatability,” said Boeing.

Speaking in Renton just before the start of the Paris Air Show, Boeing’s director of Renton factory operations, Marty Chamberlin, noted that the PAL represents yet another major advance in automation as the company prepares to begin running the new 737 Max through the production line by the end of the year.

Chamberlin also stressed the importance of ensuring the introduction of the Max into production does not disrupt what he called the very efficient system Boeing has developed for the NG. “It is going through, I’ll say, validation on NG,” said Chamberlin of the PAL. “But we

will be using it to produce Max.” Plans call for the Max line–

the central line of the three final assembly lines in Renton–to incorporate three positions, where Boeing would build the initial examples as well as per-form flight-test installations and other miscellaneous items.

The PAL replaces a “legacy” system for skin-to-stringer fas-tening in which mechanics in-stall some 40,000 fasteners a day, about half of which are done manually. Boeing estimates the PAL will cut flow time by 33 per-cent, defects by 66 percent, fac-tory “footprint” by 50 percent and injuries by 50 percent.

In Renton, Boeing has also begun the process of building a new “systems installation tool,” which will help to insert blan-kets, wiring and other systems into fuselage sections before they go to the wing-to-body join area, adjacent to the west line.

Since last year Boeing has restructured the factory floor in Renton yet again and installed the wing-to-body join tool that the two current production lines use, ensuring its production readiness for the Max.

Meanwhile, the company has consolidated fuselage systems installation (SI) from two parts, each serving one assembly line, into a single, new three-level moving design tool, allowing the company to more efficiently use the available volume at Renton.

“You can put the fuselage in one section of the tool and it will

move in a pulsing fashion, much like our moving lines do, but they will pulse, so that the work moves to the mechanic rather than the mechanic continuing to move to the product in our old [process],” said Chamberlin, who described Renton as the most ef-ficient aircraft production plant in the world.

Boeing has commissioned two thirds of the SI tool, where fuselages occupy six of what will become nine positions, and three sets of three airplanes feeding three production lines. Chamberlin said it takes rough-ly four days for a fuselage to run through the systems instal-lation tool, immediately before it proceeds to wing-to-body join, gets its landing gear and then down the assembly line. He said the company expects to fully commission the tool by the end of this quarter. o

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With the new Panel Assembly Line (PAL), Boeing calls its Renton, Washington facility the most efficient aircraft production plant in the world.

Boeing’s new panel assembly line (PAL) cuts flow time by 33 percent.

WHERE ARE YOUR NEXT PILOTS COMING FROM?Trust CAE to elevate your airline’s training experience.

UAE’s ISR fleet gets CMC avionicsby Charles Alcock

This summer, Iomax USA will start taking deliveries of the Cockpit 4000 avionics suite developed by Esterline CMC Electronics for the Archangel intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) aircraft it is supplying for the United Arab Emirates Air Force and Air Defence. The airframer is already using CMC’s integrated avionics package on the Thrush S2R-660 agricultural aircraft, on which the Archangel is based.

“CMC’s Cockpit 4000 pro-vides a powerful, yet flexible avionics suite that is perfectly suited for the Archangel’s requirements,” said Iomax pres-ident and CEO Ron Howard. “The CMC solution was devel-oped rapidly and cost-effec-tively, enabling us to offer a premium, tailored capability to our customer, while meeting an aggressive schedule.”

The Cockpit 4000 package for the Archangel supports the two-crew, dual-control aircraft’s front and rear cockpits. The front cockpit consists of three 5- by 7-inch multi-function dis-plays (MFDs), the Sparrow-Hawk head-up display and an Up Front Control Panel (UF-CP). The rear cockpit is also equipped with a pair of MFDs and a UFCP.

Mature ProgramThe system runs off a pair

of mission computers, which drive the MFDs and UFCPs, providing control and display functions for the high-resolu-tion graphics associated with the navigation and mission data. The mission computers have been integrated with a tac-tical system computer devel-oped by Iomax that controls the aircraft’s weapons, con-nects with the electro-optical/infrared sensor and provides additional functionality.

According to CMC, Cockpit 4000 features a mature and proven operational flight pro-gram that integrates an air-craft’s dynamic sensors, and its navigation and communica-tions radios. The Canada-based company maintains that using standardized avionics solutions reduces the amount of integra-tion effort for installation on aircraft, and allows for flexible applications between civil and military roles.

“The selection is a testa-ment to the flexible nature of our Cockpit 4000 architecture as

well as our reputation as a pre-mier cockpit integrator,” com-mented CMC president Greg Yeldon. “Cockpit 4000 is already flying on numerous military trainers and light attack aircraft.

Expanding our expertise to ISR is extremely rewarding.”

The Iomax Archangel devel-oped for the UAE is being exhibited on the Paris Air Show static display. o


Esterline CMC Electronics is providing its Cockpit 4000 avionics suite for the Iomax USA Archangel multi-role aircraft selected by the United Arab Emirates.

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U.S. okays foreign sales of missile defense radarby Chris Pocock

The U.S. government has cleared Raytheon’s AN/TPY-2 ballistic missile defense radar for sale to several allies in its for-ward-based mode. The large but mobile and air-transportable X-band radar is already cleared for export as part of the Lockheed Martin Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) missile system. But when it can be posi-tioned near to hostile territory, the TPY-2 can acquire ballis-tic missiles in the boost (ascent) phase of flight. That gives more time for air defense command and control systems to react. Additionally, it allows the radar to cue three-stage SM-3 mis-siles–another Raytheon prod-uct–that can perform an early or mid-course intercept of ballistic

missiles. Only software changes are required to convert the radar for forward-basing.

Aegis Ashore Is In PlayThe U.S. Missile Defense

Agency has already forward-deployed five of the 10 TPY-2 radars that it has acquired–to Guam, Israel, Japan, Turkey and “a country in the US CENTCOM region,” which is reported to be Qatar. Four more of the radars are under contract, two for the U.S. and two for the international customers of the THAAD sys-tem–Qatar and the UAE.

Meanwhile, SM-3 Block IB missiles will be deployed on European soil for the first time by the end of this year. They form part of the Aegis Ashore

system that is being installed in Romania, part of the second phase of the European Phased Adaptive Approach (EPAA) to ballistic missile defense. Phase one comprised the basing of U.S. Navy warships equipped with the Aegis air defense sys-tem (including SM-3 Block 1A missiles) in the Mediterranean theatre. Lockheed Martin is the prime contractor for Aegis.

“SM-3 is the only upper-tier missile, and it can inter-cept ballistic missiles at long range,” noted Dean Gehr, Raytheon’s director for the land-based SM-3 program. Such exo-atmospheric inter-ceptions can defend an entire region. Gehr told AIN last month that the first test flight of the upgraded Block IIA version was “imminent.” This new version has been codevel-oped with Japan, and has a larger rocket motor that pro-vides even more range. It is the version that will be deployed to Poland, as well as on Aegis warships starting in 2018.

Back in 2011, Raytheon cam-paigned to sell SM-3 missiles to Denmark, Germany and the Netherlands for integration with 10 warships. That initiative failed, but Gehr noted that the U.S. is still seeking more input from European countries to the EPAA. Those countries have deployed homegrown or American missile systems such as the Patriot that provide terminal defense.

But Raytheon believes that

they should develop longer-range defenses. For instance, the use of a TPY-2 radar to cue the Patriot system would provide a “signif-icant” increase in range, Tom Laliberty, the U.S. company’s vice president missile defense, told AIN. The TPY-2 has dem-onstrated high availability and

the “ability to discriminate,” he added, meaning distinguish-ing decoys from actual missiles. Raytheon is still optimistic about selling SM-3 missiles abroad.

Best of all, says Raytheon, teaming the TPY-2 radar and SM-3 missiles would offer allied customers a “game-changer.” o

Honeywell weather app taps Internet feedbackby Matt Thurber

To provide improved strategic weather information to pilots, Honeywell is tapping into the data stream that is available now that most aircraft are connected to the Internet. The new Weather Information Service is accessed via a tablet mobile app, which is continuously updated with the latest weather, with a strong focus on hazardous conditions.

“The idea is to provide something for airline pilots,” said Honeywell Aerospace chief test pilot Joe Duval, who helped develop and test the new Weather Information Service app. The current method of sending weather information to airliners uses the bandwidth-limited ACARS communication network, in a less user-friendly manner. “People expect an eas-ier interface,” he said, and thus

Honeywell opted for the mobile device app approach.

While pilots can use the Weather Information app to view hazardous weather conditions on a map display, another function is to help optimize the flight path. In addition to updated weather information, the app also offers a 3-D winds-aloft display so pilots can choose the most efficient alti-tude for their route. Dispatchers can also use the app so that they are looking at the same weather information as the pilots they are working with.

The graphically displayed weather products available on the app are shown in relation to the flight path, although the app doesn’t display own-ship posi-tion of the aircraft. The radar and observed precipitation views aid strategic planning, enabling

pilots to view thunderstorms anywhere in the world and be-gin planning how they might af-fect the flight. The app also dis-plays cumulonimbus clouds with forecasted vertical convection and cloud tops, satellite-derived cloud heights and forecasted clear-air turbulence. These features are de-signed to work in concert with Honeywell’s IntuVue 3-D weather radar, which can help pilots with tactical decision-making closer to an area of thunderstorms. “This is complementary to onboard ra-dar,” said Duval.

The turbulence forecast shows both potential areas of turbulence overlaid on the flight path as well as a vertical profile with altitudes where the turbu-lence may exist. The user can adjust these views with an alti-tude selector and a time slider to see how the forecast changes.

Other weather products are available on the app, such as Sigmets, METARS, TAFs, icing forecasts and ATIS broadcasts. METARS are color-coded on the map and show a sky-cover depic-tion so pilots can quickly see

conditions at airports. Or the user can search for any airport to pull up its weather conditions.

The Weather Information Service app works with any avail-able airborne connectivity ser-vice. Because data charges can be expensive, the user can set the auto update time for downloading fresh weather data to a longer interval,

or shorten that interval when more frequent updates are warranted.

Honeywell tested the app on its Boeing 757 with Inmarsat SwiftBroadband satcom and is now flight-testing the app with its JetWave satcom, to run on the new high-speed GX Ka-band service that Inmarsat begins offering this year. o

Honeywell’s Internet-based app shows both potential areas of turbulence overlaid on the flight path and a vertical profile with altitudes where the turbulence may exist.

The fiery launch of a Raytheon SM-3 Block 1B missile, of the type that will soon be installed in Poland as part of the Aegis Ashore system.

The TPY-2 is a large and powerful X-band radar that can still be moved to forward areas for early detection of ballistic missile launches.

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Mitsubishi plays catch up with MRJ program by Gregory Polek

Despite the announcement in April that Mitsubishi would delay the first flight of its MRJ regional jet from this spring to September or October, the com-pany continues to cite a second-quarter 2017 first delivery target. The first two flight-test airplanes. are fully assembled. Plans call for the first flying prototype to perform envelope expansion and systems tests; the second to carry out performance and func-tion tests; the third to evaluate detailed flight characteristics and avionics tests; the fourth to per-form interior, community noise and icing tests; and the fifth to assess autopilot function.

Pratt & Whitney has so far built 13 PW1200G “geared tur-bofans” for the flight-test fleet, including spares, in Mirabel, Canada, where it plans serial production of the PW1500G for the Bombardier CSeries. For the MRJ, however, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries will assume

responsibility for assembling all PW1200G production examples in Japan.

Mitsubishi Aircraft vice presi-dent of sales and marketing Yugo Fukuhara expressed general sat-isfaction with the performance of the MRJ’s supply chain, but he noted that some second-tier sup-pliers will likely change. “Also, in the future, we will select sec-ond or third options,” he added. “For example, for seats or other interior systems we need multiple suppliers.”

Speaking with AIN just prior to the Paris show, Fukuhara explained that “feedback on the airplane and subsequent ground testing” prompted the latest delay to first flight. Specifically, he noted a need to review the structural strength of the ram air turbine (RAT) and address certain software bugs.

“According to the progress of the ground test, we found several areas that needed improvement,”

Fukuhara told AIN. He added that Mitsubishi could have flown the airplane in March as previ-ously planned and ground tested the software and RAT improve-ments afterward. However, the company decided it would rather wait to fly the airplane until after it implements the fixes, in the interest of efficiency.

The company plans to carry out much of its flight-testing at Grant County Airport in Moses Lake, Washington, in the U.S., to take advantage of its long run-ways and lack of regular sched-uled airline service. Other testing sites in the U.S. include Gun-nison-Crested Butte Regional Airport in Colorado, where the company plans to conduct high-altitude takeoff and land-ing tests. Meanwhile, it has cho-sen Roswell International Air Center in New Mexico for spe-cial runway tests and McKinley Climatic Laboratory in Florida for extreme environment testing.

It also plans to employ 150 engineers at a new engineering center in Seattle to support all the testing activity in the U.S.

U.S. Airline OrdersMitsubishi sees North Amer-

ica as the biggest and most important market for the MRJ, even though pilot union scope clauses at mainline U.S. airlines continue to restrict regional partners from flying airplanes that hold more than 76 seats and carry a maximum take-off weight of more than 86,000 pounds. Holding firm orders for 170 airplanes from three airlines in the U.S., Mitsubishi traces well over three quarters of its order intake from the country’s regional airlines.

While one might consider such an imbalance risky, Fukuhara expressed confidence that, in fact, scope clauses would loosen to allow for the larger of the two

MRJs, the MRJ90, to fly with the likes of St. George, Utah-based Skywest and St. Louis-based Trans States Airlines. If the major partners don’t manage to negotiate scope clause revi-sions, said Fukuhara, Mitsubishi fully expects to deliver MRJ70s instead, likely in a dual-class, 70-seat configuration.

“We understood scope clauses at the beginning of the pro-gram,” he explained. “This is why we offered the MRJ70 and MRJ90…a maximum weight of 86,000 pounds will not limit the range of the MRJ70. So it will be a marketable airplane under the current scope clause. Without any relaxation of scope clauses, no regional carrier in the U.S. can enjoy next generation air-craft, including the [Embraer] E-Jet E2… so we are very confi-dent in the future [scope clause relief] will come.”

Fukuhara said SkyWest’s schedules call for first deliv-eries in 2018, by which time Mitsubishi expects to gain cer-tification of the MRJ70, one year after the MRJ90. For Trans States, which plans to take its first airplanes soon after the MRJ90 gains certification in 2017, a delivery delay would seem likely if no scope clause movement happens by then. “If they need MRJ70s because the scope clause is not relaxed, we will discuss with them [the possi-bility of] an adjustment,” he said.

Apart from SkyWest and Trans States, U.S. startup car-rier Eastern Airways, Myanmar’s Air Mandalay, Japan’s All Nip-pon Airways and Japan Airlines account for the rest of Mitsubi-shi’s MRJ firm order total of 223 airplanes. Launch customer ANA, which holds a firm order for 15 and options on another 10, now expects to launch ser-vice with single-class, 88-seat MRJ90s in mid-2017. The airline plans to use the MRJs to replace at least some of the Bombardier Q400s and Boeing 737-500s now flown by subsidiary ANA Wings.

JAL, meanwhile, has decided to wait until 2021 to concentrate its resources on first introducing Airbus A350s into its network, said Fukuhara. JAL’s plans call for replacing all the Bombardier CRJ200s flown by regional sub-sidiary J-Air first with Embraer E-Jets, then replacing the E-Jets with MRJs starting in 2021. The regional network will likely center on a hub at Osaka Itami Airport, from where the airline plans to connect various second-ary Japanese destinations. o

Mitsubishi Aircraft vice president of sales and marketing Yugo Fukuhara

The fourth MRJ flight-test airplane undergoes wing mating inside MHI’s Komaki South Plant in Aichi Prefecture.

Crews position the first MRJ flight-test article on an apron at Nagoya Airfield, adjacent to MHI’s Komaki South Plant.


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Nearing a milestone, GE9X engine is on track by Gregory Polek

Development of the GE9X turbofan for Boeing’s new 777X widebody has shown no sign of slowing, as engineers at GE Aviation (Chalet 142) prepare the all-new 100,000-pound-thrust-class behemoth for what the company calls Toll Gate 6.

Speaking with AIN recently, GE Aviation’s general manager of the GE9X and GE90 pro-grams, Bill Millhaem, described the milestone as the point at which the company defines the configuration it will use in the certification program. Scheduled for certifi-cation by the end of the third quarter of 2018, the engine has shown “no issues” that might threaten to derail its progress, said Millhaem, thanks in large part to the long lead times GE has given itself for refin-ing the various tech-nologies and design elements needed to deliver its promised 10-percent fuel-burn advantage over the Boeing 777-300ER’s GE90-115B.

Part of the fuel-burn improve-ment will come from what GE advertises as the highest pres-sure ratios among any commer-cial engine in production; the 9X design calls for a 60:1 over-all pressure ratio and a 27:1 pressure ratio in the high-pres-sure compressor. Of course, higher pressure ratio means a higher operating temperature in the back of the compres-sor and high-pressure turbine, necessitating the development of new nickel-based disc alloys and ceramic matrix composites (CMCs) for the inner and outer combustion liner, the Stage 1 high-pressure turbine shroud and the Stage 1 and 2 high-pres-sure turbine nozzles.

“[The CMCs] are in an engine running right now–a GEnx engine–sized for a GEnx but in a configuration designed for the GE9X,” said Millhaem. The design of the 9X calls for the most extensive use of CMCs ever by GE Aviation, which also uses the material in the high-pres-sure turbine shroud on the Leap engines under development with its CFM partner, Snecma.

“CMCs are now ready for prime time,” said Millhaem.

“I would say we are working on scale now.” A new plant GE opened last October in Asheville, North Carolina, for mass production of the CMCs in the Leap engine will also serve as the supplier for 9X CMCs.

Big 16-Blade FanIn the fan, GE has reduced the

number of blades from 22 in the GE90-115B to 16 in the 9X while increasing the fan diameter from 128 inches to 134 inches, thereby improving bypass ratio and the

overall propulsive effi-ciency of the engine. To allow for fewer fan blades, GE developed a next-generation composite material and a stainless steel, rather than titanium, leading edge. Both changes increase blade strength, allowing GE to make them wider, longer and thinner to improve airfoil effi-ciency. GE plans to run its first fan blade-

out test in the first half of 2016.“This is really our fourth-gen-

eration composite fan blade,” said Millhaem. “We just passed 50 million hours of operat-ing experience on the GE90, so we’re well over 50 million hours when you throw in the GEnx blades as well.”

Over the past year GE com-pleted trials on a one-fifth-scale fan at Boeing’s universal pro-pulsion simulator (UPS) cell in Seattle, where the engine com-pany tested performance, acous-tics and crosswind operation. “That’s part of our whole strat-egy on the engine, which was to really mature the technologies well in advance of the certifica-tion program,” noted Millhaem. “Basically, every one of the technologies that we’ve either improved on or are introduc-ing on the GE9X will have gone through a maturation and dem-onstration program…they basi-cally have to win their way onto the final design.”

One of the other key character-istics of that design centers on the high-pressure compressor (HPC), a 90-percent-scale test version of which ran at GE’s Avio Aero subsidiary in Massa, Italy, where engineers completely mapped the operating envelope and iden-tified stage-to-stage loading, for

example. It has since taken apart the compressor for inspection, put it back together with “some enhancements” in the front end and returned it to Italy for more testing. The HPC has now accu-mulated more than 350 hours of testing, said Millhaem. “So far the data has exceeded our expecta-tions and we’re well on our way to finalizing the design,” he reported.

Changes in the compres-sor from the GE90 include an increase in the number of stages from nine to 11, leading to the boost in pressure ratio. “I think the big advance is we have improved tools to develop the high-pressure compressor air-foils; [and] we’ve introduced the concept of super-polishing the airfoils, which improves the sur-face finish and gives us better per-formance at the individual airfoil level,” explained Millhaem. The increase in pressure ratio from 19:1 to 27:1 has raised the HPC’s operating tempera-ture by around 100 degrees C, requiring a new powdered metal disc alloy to be used both on the back of the HPC rotor and on the front of the high- pressure turbine.

The 9X’s higher tempera-tures, pressures and flow rates have also led to new advances in GE’s TAPS combustor, on which the company has run single-cup tests with the new higher oper-ating parameters in a new $100 million facility in Cincinnati. Having now almost finished commissioning the facility, GE plans to perform similar testing on what Millhaem described as a one-quarter or 90-degree sector of the GE9X combustor. “[This will] allow us not only to under-stand how the individual burner operates, but also to look at the dynamics and the transience as you change fuel flow and power requirements, and how the cups interact with each other,” he explained.

GE is not expecting to run the CMC trials on its GEnx test article until some time in early summer, and plans to run a core engine that is currently under assembly in the second half of this year, before running its first full turbofan engine in the first half of 2016. Testing of that engine will represent the final phase of GE’s technology matu-ration program, said Millhaem, allowing the company to final-ize certification configuration before flying the first testbed- mounted engine in the middle of 2017. o

Promising a 10-percent improvement in fuel burn for its GE9X turbofan, right, GE is currently testing its ceramic matrix composites (CMC) technology in GEnx-size engine, above. The test engine’s configuration is set up like that of the 100,000-pound-thrust GE9X.

GE Aviation’s general manager of the GE9X and

GE90 programs, Bill Millhaem

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Russia and China co-op on next-gen widebodyby Vladimir Karnozov

China and Russia are pressing ahead with plans to jointly develop a next-gen-eration widebody jetliner. The project is led by Russia’s United Aircraft Corp. (UAC), along with Chinese airframers Comac and Avic.

The plans calls for development of a family of three models. The baseline ver-sion of the proposed twinjet would be able to transport 250 to 280 passengers up to 6,476 nm. This would be followed by smaller and stretched versions of the same airframe.

Under the terms of a recently con-cluded agreement, first flight would be achieved around the middle of 2021, followed by certification in 2024 and initial deliveries. The basis for the agreement forged between UAC, Comac and Avic was an accord reached between Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Chinese coun-terpart, Xi Jinping, at their summit meeting in Shanghai last year.

The business plan for the as-yet-unnamed program was agreed to last fall. The initial design phase is sup-posed to be concluded in July, with tasks accomplished by working groups established by the three airframers. These include groups focusing on tech-nical issues, supply chain, marketing and aftersales support. “Our colleagues from Comac have been enthusiastic about this project, and applying every effort to its development,” commented UAC president Yuri Slyusar, who said that China is “a powerful, reliable and resourceful partner with its own

competencies, growing market and a vision of the way ahead.”

The partners will be splitting develop-ment costs estimated at around $13 bil-lion. “This is going to be an international project with a big industrial cooperation,” said Slyusar. “Russia will contribute a substantial number of components.”

UAC’s engineering team is respon-sible for design of the new aircraft’s wing, empennage and aerodynamic surfaces, which will be made of com-posite materials. The wingspan is expected to be some 360 feet, with the first example due to be ready some-time around 2019-2020. Overall, the airframe is expected to be composed around 50 percent of composite mate-rials and 15 percent titanium.

An as-yet-unspecified turbofan for the airliner is expected to have thrust in the 77,000- to 88,000-pound range. The engine supplier is yet to be selected, but Russia’s Aviadvigatel is viewed as a likely candidate that could offer a more power-ful version of the PD-14 turbofan now being developed for UAC’s Irkut narrow-body MC-21.

According to Aviadvigatel general designer Alexander Inozemtsev, the PD-14’s core would be scaled up by 50 percent. The design house says it can complete the documentation package in three years, beginning after PD-14 certi-fication in 2017.

That said, as has been the case with recent new Russian airliners, early pro-totypes and production examples of the proposed Russian-Chinese widebody

may rely on a Western powerplant. But UAC and its partners apparently view this as a stopgap solution until they can develop their own next-genera-tion high-bypass-ratio engines. “Our colleagues from Comac and Avic have expressed support of that vision,” insisted Slyusar.

Dreamliner Look-a-likeIn a computer-generated image

AIN received from UAC, the new air-craft looks similar to the Boeing 787 Dreamliner. But this may not be the final version of the design, with Russian engi-neers reportedly exploring other aerody-namic options.

For instance, Russian scientific institu-tions have been studying a configuration based on a highly blended wing-fuse-lage, with an oval cross section designed for higher lift. This work is being devel-oped by former Tupolev designers under a project called Frigate Ecojet.

Before receiving the command from the top political leaders, Comac and UAC had been working on their own visions of a next-gen widebody. Chinese designers had been working on a project called C929 that would follow on after the C919 narrowbody, using experience achieved on this and the earlier initiated ARJ-21 regional jet. For reference, they considered the Boeing 787.

UAC’s current view of the design is based on extensive research initiated by its Tupolev subsidiary under a project called ShFS (the Russian acronym for widebody airplane). This involves the mating of an Airbus A300-style fuselage to the wing of a Tu-214. It has been conceived to carry up to 300 passengers on flights of up to 2,700 nm.

During initial negotiations with its prospective Chinese partners, UAC offered Ilyushin’s Il-86 and Il-96 as the starting point for the new design. A small number of the four-engine Il-86s flew with Chinese airlines in the late 1980s-early 1990s and earned a repu-tation for being able to operate out of airports with limited infrastructure, in places such as Urumqi. But, along with other Russian aircraft of the same era, they were also noted for being ineffi-cient in terms of fuel consumption, and this prompted Ilyushin to develop the twin-engine Il-96, powered by a pair of Kuztetsov NK-93 propfans with an extremely high bypass ratio of 16:6.

Negotiations with the Chinese com-panies appeared to be going nowhere until Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping took a personal interest. For the Russian industry, the alliance with China pro-vides an alternative to partnerships with Western companies that may increas-ingly be compromised by economic sanc-tions and concerns over the stability of Russia’s economy. o

Spurred by their respective national leaders, officials from China’s Comac and Avic and Russia’s UAC reached and signed an agreement to pursue a common program to design a family of jetliners. The partners will split development costs and expect the first baseline model to be certified around 2024.

TAGBIN RFID SYSTEMS NOW INCLUDES LIVE DATA FEED

Supply chain specialist Spectech France has modernized its TagBin radio frequency identification (RFID) tag/Kanban inventory control system to include a live data feed. The new TagBin Live product is being unveiled here at the Paris Air Show (Hall 2b G140) five years after the original prod-uct was launched back in 2010.

Kanban is a scheduling system devel-oped in Japan to support lean or “just-in-time” production processes. According to the Stag Group subsidiary, adding TagBin Live’s real-time data feed removes the need for manufacturers to have supplier personnel located on customer sites and allows them to operate the updated Kanban system themselves.

The system can be com-bined with Spectech’s advanced supply forecasting tool and Kanban data man-agement software to achieve real-time production tracking and maximize the efficiency of component storage. This approach also does away with the man-ual processes normally associated with

Kanban systems that are run by company purchasing departments.

The combination of real-time informa-tion from RFID tags on production line component bins, and the improved Kanban software, allows companies to forecast demand for up to around 100,000 compo-nents. This improves their ability to gen-erate accurate purchasing schedules on a daily or weekly basis.

The Stag Group, with annual revenues of around $38 million and sites in the UK, France and the U.S., has two divisions. Spectech Supply Chain Services helps aerospace and defense firms manage parts supplies, while Aircraft Interiors focuses on design solutions for the aerospace interiors market. –C.A.

Initial computer renderings of the proposed Russian-Chinese airliner family appear similar to Boeing’s 787, but the final product could incorporate a more innovative configuration, such as a blended wing-fuselage.

Come ‘fly’ Pro Line Fusion at the Rockwell Collins standby Matt Thurber

For a bit of fun between chalet meet-ings or a break during a rainstorm, con-sider a visit to the Rockwell Collins stand (Hall 2b D108) to fly the Pro Line Fusion flight deck in a helicopter simulator. Rockwell Collins brought the helicopter demonstrator to the Paris Air Show for the first time to highlight the advanced flight deck’s graphical interfaces, intui-tive icons and reconfigurable multifunc-tion display windows, including the large displays’ touchscreen technology.

Pro Line Fusion touchscreens are already in operation on Beechcraft King Air turboprops and are the default avion-ics package for new versions of the King Air 350, 250 and C90GTx. Retrofit ver-sions for the King Airs are also available.

In the helicopter market, Rockwell Collins is offering Pro Line Fusion pri-marily for civil applications for both light and heavier twin-engine helicopters, with features designed for two-pilot cockpits. The demonstrator is equipped with nor-mal helicopter collective and cyclic con-trols, and the copilot position is designed to fulfill a mission-assistant-type role.

This would include manipulating the touchscreens, modifying flight plans, pulling up charts, checking system synoptics and other functions while the pilot maintains both hands on the con-trols and focuses on flying the helicopter.

Avionics Interface DesignThe demonstrator, first unveiled ear-

lier this year at the Heli-Expo show, illustrates Rockwell Collins’s approach to avionics interface design. Pilots can choose either to manipulate the touch-screen displays or use buttons and knobs to make the same changes.

The touchscreen philosophy is simple: touch what you want to change, and the screen shows exactly what can be done to the touched item. Touching a waypoint, for example, shows as one option the ability to select a hold at that waypoint. The hold can either be a published hold, if one exists, or customizable. “Since Heli-Expo, we’ve had interest from every major helicopter OEM in learning more about the Pro Line Fusion system and what it brings to a helicopter,” said

Andrew Jetton, Rockwell Collins man-ager of global strategic marketing for civil rotary wing.

A distinct difference between tradi-tional flight decks and Pro Line Fusion with touchscreens is that the flight man-agement system (FMS) control-display unit (CDU) can be eliminated. All of the FMS functions are hosted in the touch-screen displays, making the interface far more intuitive for pilots. The Pro Line Fusion FMS for helicopter applications also contains helicopter weight-and-bal-ance, performance, transition-to-hover and other rotorcraft-specific functions.

To further accommodate pilots’ needs, especially in helicopters, a cursor control device can be added. For helicopters, this could be mounted on the cyclic or collec-tive so the pilot always has full access to all of the avionics functionality, without having to reach forward to touch a dis-play or down between the seats to press buttons or turn knobs. This also has the

added benefit of allowing the pilot to fly heads-up and not having to look down to manipulate the avionics.

There are other functions that can easily be added to Pro Line Fusion, such as search-and-rescue missions and air-borne radar approaches, which are ideal for oil-rig operations. “We’ve continued our strategy of engaging with pilots and operators to make sure we get the design of the Pro Line Fusion [human-machine interface] right for the helicopter oper-ator,” he said, “optimizing for the mis-sion needs of the helicopter and not just adapting a fixed-wing system.”

While Rockwell Collins is working with helicopter manufacturers on for-ward-fit applications for Pro Line Fusion and touchscreens, AgustaWestland’s AW609 tiltrotor is already equipped with a Pro Line Fusion flight deck with touchscreen features. AgustaWestland’s AW169 also has a touchscreen control, which replaces the FMS CDU. o


In the helicopter simulator at Rockwell Collins’s stand, you can sample its Pro Line Fusion synthetic-vision feature. Fusion has attracted interest from “every major helicopter OEM,” according to the company.


Airbus Helicopters gears up for flight testing its H160by Thierry Dubois

Airbus Helicopters is here exhib-iting a full-scale mockup of its H160 medium twin, a long-awaited successor to the Dauphin family designed to com-pete with the AgustaWestland AW139 on the 12-passenger market. Previously codenamed X4, the clean-sheet design features Blue Edge main rotor blades for quieter operation, a canted Fenestron tail rotor for increased payload and the Helionix avionics suite, developed in-house, that can also be found on the EC145 T2 (now renamed H145) and the EC175 (now H175). Other innova-tions include a fully composite airframe, a biplane stabilizer–for improved main rotor efficiency–and an electrically actu-ated retractable landing gear.

The first flight of a prototype is planned for this year with entry into ser-vice in 2018. The H160 was unveiled at the

U.S. Heli-Expo show in Orlando, Florida, in March.

For an offshore oil-and-gas mission, the H160 will offer Class 1 takeoff per-formance for 12 passengers and a 120-nm radius of action. In search-and-rescue, hover out of ground effect can be main-tained at up to 5,000 feet, and range reaches 450 nm with a 20-minute reserve. The “smooth cruise speed” will be 160 knots, without a counter-vibration system.

Same Payload At One Ton LessAirbus Helicopters’ marketing people

see this as equivalent to the AW139’s per-formance, “for one metric ton less.” The H160 is said to be in the 5.5- to 6-ton cat-egory (12,000 to 13,000 pounds), while the AW139’s optional mtow has been raised to seven tons (15,400 pounds). Airbus estimates the H160 will have a

fuel-burn advantage of 15 to 20 percent over the AW139.

The five Blue Edge blades, already seen on an EC155 demonstrator, will bring a 3-dB improvement over the noise level of a production EC155. The shape also helps lift–the enhancement is expected to yield an increase in maximum gross weight of up to 220 pounds. The 12-degree-canted tail rotor is the first such design with a shrouded Fenestron. It combines its anti-torque role with a vertical-lift component, which is said to increase payload by some 90 pounds.

The third major aerodynamic feature is the biplane stabilizer. It keeps its func-tion in forward flight and increases stabil-ity in approach, according to its designers. It also reduces the masking effect such a surface has on main rotor thrust–the bottom line is another 110 pounds of payload improvement.

In systems, the electric landing gear is seen as lighter and safer than its hydraulic equivalent. For safety, the key is to elim-inate high-pressure hydraulic fluid lines below the cabin floor.

The Helionix suite is very close to that of the EC175, based on four 6-inch by 8-inch displays. A major difference is the return of the overhead panel for engine controls. Cursor-control devices and a touchscreen will be optional.

The airframe is all-composite, most materials on the H160 being similar to those found on the military NH90. Airbus expects a reduction in mainte-nance needs and “maximized occupant safety.” An innovation on the bearing-less Spheriflex rotor hub is the use of thermoplastics for lower-cost manufac-turing, reduced weight and, above all, damage tolerance–any cracks would propagate very slowly.

Due to an increased need for power, the

1,100- to 1,300-shp Turbomeca Arrano 1A is now the sole-source engine for the H160. However, the Pratt & Whitney Can-ada PW210E, which was previously an option, will still be installed on the first H160 prototype.

A Matter of StyleThe design of the H160 has not been

about only technical details, as the designers have also paid close attention to styling. One strong motivator in the design was the history of the company, but even stronger was the style bureau’s desire to show that this is a brand-new aircraft and to give it a strong identity, “which could make it as recognizable as a Dauphin.”

Three prototypes–PT1, PT2 and PT3–are to participate in the flight-test program. They will be joined by a pre-production aircraft (PS01) in flight tests. An EC155 demonstrator has been used in helping refine the Blue Edge blades, the stabilizer and the canted tail rotor and it will continue to support the H160’s development.

Airbus plans to begin taking orders next year. o

REVOLUTIONARY X4 HAS EVOLVED SINCE 2011

In its definitive form, the Airbus Helicopters (née Eurocopter) X4 is far from the early design unveiled in June 2011. At the time, a radically new man-machine interface was envisioned, including touchscreens, other advanced displays and fly-by-wire (FBW) con-trols. Former Eurocopter CEO Lutz Bertling used to stress that pilots would benefit from a more harmonious flight experience. In 2011, he was quoted as saying that someone sit-ting in one of the front seats would miss something: the cockpit.

According to Airbus Helicopters officials, the company is now focusing on innovations that “bring real value to the customer.” FBW controls, for instance, were eventually deemed unsuitable for a medium civil helicopter, and more suited to heavy civil models or military versions. The weight saving achieved by adopting FBW would have been marginal, and the cost very expensive, the officials said. “The autopilot already does a lot of things FBW con-trols would do,” H160 designers told AIN. –T.D.

AIRBUS HELICOPTERS INTRODUCES A

NEW NAMING PROTOCOL

All in-production Airbus Helicopters are being renamed with an H as the pre-fix, replacing Eurocopter’s EC acronym. However, models bearing Aerospatiale’s legacy AS initials will keep them. (One exception is the AS350 B3e Ecureuil/AStar, renamed H125.)

In the future, single- and twin-engine models will no longer be distinguished by a 0 or 5 at the end of their name. Also, an M at the end of the name, such as H225M (instead of EC725), denotes a military version. –T.D.

The new Airbus Helicopters H160 will be easily recognizable by its Blue Edge blades (for quieter operations), canted Fenestron and biplane stabilizer.

Old Name New

EC120 Colibri H120

AS350 B3e Ecureuil/AStar H125

AS355 Ecureuil/TwinStar AS355

EC130 H130

EC135 H135

EC145 EC145

EC145 T2 H145

AS365 N3+ Dauphin AS365

EC155 Dauphin H155

X4 H160

EC175 H175

AS332 C1e/L1e Super Puma AS332 C1e/L1e

EC225 Super Puma H225

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Embraer’s sales strategy supports residual valuesby Gregory Polek

Embraer’s incremental and considered approach to all its product placement endeavors appears to have served it well, not only in the number of orders its E-Jet line of narrowbody jets has collected over the years, but in the company’s ability to sup-port the residual values of the airplanes already in service. Now as it prepares its new E2 line for entry into service starting in the first half of 2018, Embraer (Chalet 393) thinks it has posi-tioned itself for a long produc-tion run without satiating the market’s appetite for the current line of E-Jets.

Embraer Commercial Avi-ation chief commercial offi-cer John Slattery attributes the strong start to the E2 program to Embraer’s strategy of avoiding direct competition with Boeing and Airbus and its decision to adapt the E-Jet airframe rather than introducing a “clean sheet” design. In contrast, Embraer’s main competitor, Canada’s Bom-bardier, promotes its CSeries jet as just the kind of clean-sheet exercise it believes the mar-ket needs. While the question of which approach ultimately proves the more prudent remains open for now, the range and ready availability of financing instruments to customers could

offer a clue to at least the level of confidence shown by the finan-cial community in the products and the companies that stand behind them.

While appearing at the Inter-national Society of Transport Aircraft Traders (ISTAT) confer-ence in Phoenix in March, Bom-bardier Commercial Aircraft vice president of business acqui-sition Ross Mitchell insisted that “a lot of people are interested in financing the CSeries,” notwith-standing criticism from analysts over the company’s historically heavy reliance on export credit agency backing. Of course, Embraer turns to its own credit agency as well for a bit less than 20 percent of its sales, but Slat-tery warned of overreliance on ECA financing.

“They play a very important role, and I would also say that Embraer is grateful for the sup-port that we get from the Bra-zilian government, specifically through BNDES in their sup-port of our program,” Slattery told AIN at the conference. “I do believe that...there is a positive correlation...of poor residual values when you have programs that have an overreliance on ECA financing.”

The reason, said Slattery, lies in the benefits inherent in the

financial community’s familiar-ity and commitment with the asset. If an export credit agency accounts for the asset’s primary source of financing, a crisis in confidence develops. “The inves-tor community gets nervous if the only form of debt financing is the sovereign ECA, [and] that probably doesn’t bode well for long-term residual values, and that becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy,” noted Slattery.

Still, for Embraer, the most important driver of residual val-ues lies with a broad operator base and, according to Slattery, the company has set a “hard-wired plan” to increase the num-ber of E-Jet operators from 68 today to at least 100 by the fourth quarter of 2017. Already, cus-tomer diversity does not appear to present a problem. “We have airlines operating in 48 countries, operating as LCCs [low-cost car-riers], operating as network car-riers or legacy carriers, operating as regional airlines...so there’s a diversity of business plans...air-lines with a diversity of business plans operating in all five conti-nents,” said Slattery.

Targeting Asia-PacificBut while E-Jets account for

80 percent of the in-service jets carrying fewer than 130 seats in China, for example, Embraer’s penetration of the Asia-Pacific market remains relatively shal-low, prompting management to recently commit substantial attention and resources toward that region. “I’m very confident of our ability to open up new customers in Asia-Pacific over the course of the next 24 months outside of the Chinese market,” said Slattery. “We have signif-icantly beefed up our human resources in our Singapore office to address that market, and I’m very excited about what’s in the works out there.”

Embraer recently secured its first sale in Indonesia, a market Slattery calls “custom-built” for E-Jets due to the country’s geog-raphy and demographics. The new customer, Kalstar Aviation, also launched the ATR turbo-prop in the Indonesian market, where airlines such as Garuda and Lion Air have given the Franco-Italian airframer some of its biggest sales to date.

Of course, ATR can trace the success of its ATR 72-600 largely to operators’ familiarity and pos-itive experience with the not dis-similar ATR 72-500, and systems commonality between the E1s and E2s accounts for yet another important factor in ensuring residual values of Embraer’s installed base, added Slattery. In the cockpit, similar Honeywell Primus Epic avionics systems promise a relatively seamless pilot transition from one model to the other. Pilots moving from the E1 to the E2 will not need extra simulator training, for example. “That’s actually got a positive impact on residual val-ues of the E1s, because airlines can continue to operate the E1s with great confidence, knowing that even as they introduce the E2, they can [deploy] their pilots comfortably, moving between the E1 and E2, in the exact same way Airbus will experience with the

[A320] Ceo and the Neo and Boeing with the [737] NG and the Max,” explained Slattery.

Finally, by the time the Pratt & Whitney PW1000G “geared tur-bofan” finds its way into service with the first E190-E2 in the first half of 2018, variants of it will already have flown many hours on the Bombardier CSeries and Air-bus A320. Although not a GTF pioneer, Embraer can reasonably claim that the experience of ear-lier operators will help alleviate “teething pains,” instilling still more confidence in the airplanes’ reliability within the airline mar-ket and on the part of financiers.

“By the time Pratt & Whit-ney’s geared turbofan gets to us, it will have roughly two and a half million hours on other platforms,” said Slattery. “That engine is well tested by the time we get to it.”

On the question of on-time certification of the E190-E2 in the first half of 2018, Slattery compared Embraer’s prospects with that of Boeing and Airbus, both of whose re-engined nar-rowbodies appear firmly on or ahead of their original sched-ules. “We’re very confident that Embraer will enjoy the same discipline with our entry into service,” he said. “And our cus-tomers are voting with their checkbooks.” o

Embraer Commercial Aviation chief commercial officer John Slattery addresses delegates at the ISTAT Americas conference in Phoenix.

EUROPE APPROVES ARCHANGEL’S LOW-COST ADAHRS SOLUTIONS

The European Aviation Safety Agency recently issued a technical standard order covering C4c, C5e, C6e, C88a and C106-A1 approv-als for the AHR150A and AHR300A air data attitude heading reference systems (ADAHRS) developed by Archangel Systems. This means the equipment is now cleared for installation on aircraft operating under Part 23, 25, 27 and 29 rules, and it is already approved in the U.S. by the Federal Aviation Administration.

Scandinavian Avionics recently secured the first supplemental type certificate for the systems. This covers installation on Textron’s Beechcraft King Air family of twin turboprops.

According to Bill Dillard, Archangel’s director of emerging technol-ogy, the two systems are suitable for retrofit on a wide variety of fixed- wing aircraft and helicopters that do not yet have ADAHRS. “The price point is moving down for this equipment,” he told AIN, adding that both ADAHRS units can be exported worldwide without any restric-tions under U.S. ITARS rules.

The AHR150A and AHR300A units use micro-electromechanical sensors and sophisticated blending algorithms to give performance normally associated with fiberoptic gyro systems, but with less costly equipment that is significantly smaller and lighter, as well as requir-ing less power. The software for both ADAHRS systems is qualified to DO-178A mission-critical standards. The AHR150A unit is already in use on both fixed-wing aircraft and helicopters operated by the UK military’s special forces and by Airbus Military.

U.S.-based Archangel Systems is exhibiting at the Paris Air Show as part of the state of Alabama delegation (Hall 3 Stand E128). –C.A.

Embraer E175s fly in the colors of all three U.S. legacy carriers, including United Airlines.

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More maintenance business is Chateauroux Airport’s goalby Thierry Dubois

Châteauroux Marcel Dassault Airport (Hall 4, G106), in central France, is striving to expand maintenance, repair and overhaul activities, in addition to boosting cargo flights and training. The construction of a new 100,000sqft maintenance hangar was to begin this spring, which involves replacing the existing air traffic control tower. The goal is to create a onestop shop for aircraft maintenance and modification–“Châteauroux Air Center.” As for freight operations, Châteauroux airport executives hope to eventually double the current throughput of 4,500 metric tons per year.

Dismantling and recycling aircraft and parts, once touted as a major activity there, are still offered, but airport managing director Mark Bottemine no longer wants to emphasize it. “This used to be fashionable, but now we don’t like the image of a graveyard,” he said. Bottemine would rather focus on expanding the cabin modification business. A total of 98 acres is available south of the runway.

Châteauroux already has a strong player in aircraft painting. Specialist ATE (part of Air Works group) operates four paint shops that can accommodate aircraft ranging in size from a light business jet to a widebody airliner. ATE has capacity to paint 100 aircraft per year–either from “green” condition or repainting jobs, including stripping and prep.

This year, ATE is planning on painting 90 aircraft in Châteauroux. The average lead time is 12 days for an entire new livery. This depends less on the size of the aircraft and more on the complexity of the paint scheme, ATE CEO Christian Lalane explained.

For pilot training, Châteauroux airport offers a friendly operating environment. The runway is more than 11,000 feet long, with no significant obstacles or terrain in the vicinity, and there is little traffic. A number of airlines use the runway, and Airbus has found it suitable for some flighttest operations, Bottemine said.

A training center for airport firemen, C2FPA, can be found on site, too. It is equipped with two fullsize mockups–one Airbus A320 and one Boeing 747–to simulate airframe and engine fires, for example. The technical content of the courses is constantly updated based on close contact with manufacturers. “We’d better know the diameter of the engine’s compressor if we don’t want to waste water by only hosing the fan,” C2FPA CEO JeanMichel Azémar said. The training programs are also ecologically friendly, he said. “We use rain water only.”

Also, C2FPA maintains complete training records of firefighting personnel, an important consideration. Sometimes accident investigators ask for documents that substantiate the proficiency of firemen at an airport where a crash took place, Azémar added. C2FPA, which trains some 1,200 firemen every year, also offers training in wildlife hazards on airports. In April, it received “full member” status in ICAO’s Trainair Plus program–a network of training organizations and industry partners. o


Yanking and Banking

The FAI World Aerobatics Championships 2015 will take place at Châteauroux from August 20 to 29 this year. It will see the world’s best 60 aerobatic pilots compet-ing. FFA, the association for light aviation in France, is the organizer and intends to attract a large audience. � n

Specialist ATE has four paint shops at Chateauroux Airport, each capable of accommodating up to a widebody airliner.

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Britain’s Hybrid Air Vehicles buoyed by crowdfunding siteby Chris Pocock

A return to flight in the UK for a huge hybrid airship now seems assured, follow-ing a fundraising exercise by its maker. Hybrid Air Vehicles (HAV) is receiving more than $3 million from nearly 900 investors via CrowdCube, a crowdfund-ing website. The company had hoped to fly the Airlander 10 this year, but now says that won’t happen until the end of the first quarter of next year. The 300-foot long airship flew just once in the U.S. in 2012 as the long endurance multipurpose vehi-cle (LEMV), a project sponsored by the U.S. Army and subsequently cancelled after nearly $300 million had been spent.

Fundraising documents reveal that HAV received $90 million from the U.S. for providing the LEMV platform. The British company was a subcontractor to Northrop Grumman, which briefed the ambitious project here at Paris back in 2011.

Historic SiteHAV, which retained the intellectual

property of the hybrid design, paid the U.S. government $301,000 for the LEMV hard-ware, minus the surveillance sensor payloads that Northrop Grumman was integrat-ing. The Airlander 10 currently rests within one of two giant hangars at Cardington near Bedford. It was built in 1915, helping launch the golden age of airships.

Until the latest fundraising, HAV had been financed by $14 million worth of private investment, supplemented by recent technology and regional growth grants worth $7.5 million from the British government. The development

of airships in the UK and elsewhere has been littered with failures, so the recent public and private investment is a vote of confidence in HAV’s ability to bring an innovative technology to market.

Hybrid airships combine aerostatic lift from inert helium gas with aero-dynamic lift and vectored thrust. On the prototype Airlander 10, the thrust comes from four Thielert 325-hp turbo-charged V8 diesel engines mounted fore and aft each side of the 1.34 million-cubic-feet envelope. They drive three-bladed ducted propellers and were run again for the first time last February.

The envelope of the Airlander 10 is made from a multi-layered weave of modern materials inflated to just above atmospheric pressure. The 150-foot long flight deck and payload module is car-ried beneath the envelope and made from composite materials.

HAV said that the market for this inno-vative technology over the next 20 years has been independently valued at more than $50 billion, of which two-thirds is commercial rather than military.

After the return to flight, including a 200-hour test program, the company plans to demonstrate the Airlander 10’s utility in two key roles: point-to-point heavy lift into remote areas; and persis-tent and low-cost flight for search, survey and surveillance. Communications relay is another possible application.

Potential civilian, military and para-public agency customers would fund the demonstration flights, according to

HAV, allowing production to start in late 2016. The company formally sub-mitted a type certification application to EASA two months ago.

Last year, Selex ES agreed to partner with HAV to provide sensors for a pro-posed demonstration to the UK Ministry of Defence. HAV also expects to run a trial with Ocean Sky, a Swedish company with some government backing that is investigating how awkward loads such as wind turbine blades could be delivered to remote locations.

In the unmanned surveillance role, the Airlander 10 could fly for up to 21 days

carrying a one-metric-ton payload. In the cargo-carrying role, it could carry a pay-load of 10 metric tons at a cruise speed of up to 80 knots. A passenger module could be substituted, with seats for 48.

HAV is quoting a price of $40- to $50 million for the bi-hulled Airlander 10, depending on role fit. But one of the great benefits of the hybrid airship con-cept is scaleability. HAV is designing a tri-hulled and turboprop-powered ver-sion designated Airlander 50 that is 2.7 times larger by envelope volume that could carry up to 60 metric tons at a cruise speed of 105 knots. o

Lockheed Martin To Launch Hybrid Sales Drive Here

The Lockheed Martin Skunk Works has been working on hybrid airship designs since the early 1990s. In 2006, it flew a one-third-scale demonstrator designated the P791 at Palmdale, California. LM competed for the U.S. Army’s LEMV requirement, but lost to Northrop Grumman.

Since then, behind the scenes the Skunk Works has kept a small team working on refinements to the design, including the flight control system; the air cushion landing system; vectored thrust control; and manufacturing technology for the envelope materials. The team has also prompted the FAA to develop hybrid certification criteria (HCC).

Like HAV, Lockheed Martin believes there is a big potential for hybrid airships to serve the remote transport market. At a briefing here this morning, entitled “The Road Not Needed,” the company will introduce Hybrid Enterprises, the company it has created to drive commercial sales and advise future operators. It may also confirm the first sale to Global Hybrid, a California-based startup. –C.P.

DELIGHTFUL DOGWHISTLE

A member of the four-ship Pattrouille Trenchant aerobatic jet team taxis in here at Le Bourget. Their Fouga Magister jets, veterans of the French air force training command, are known for their distinctive V-tail configuration, and also for the high-pitch whine of their Turbomeca Marboré engines. Note the canopy-top periscope for the rear seat occupant.�

The Airlander 50 would be a scaled-up version of the hybrid airship, capable of carrying up to 60 metric tons.

The Airlander 10 was previously the Long-Endurance Multipurpose Vehicle (LEMV), seen here emerging from its

hangar at NAS Lakehurst prior to its one and only flight in 2012.

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The massive Royal Airship Works sheds at Cardington, UK, where HAV is based, date back to the early days of lighter-than-air flight. HAV’s Airlander is stored in the structure to the left, which once housed the R101.

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Aerospace is leading the charge in leveraging 3-D printing techby Charles Alcock

Aerospace and defense firms are at the forefront in the adoption of 3-D print-ing processes that promise significant improvements in production flexibility and reductions in overall manufacturing costs. According to John Schmidt, man-aging director for the North American arm of consulting group Accenture, the technology, also known as additive man-ufacturing, will be a major theme of this year’s Paris Air Show, with companies gaining a clearer understanding of what it will take to reap the full benefits.

“3-D printing enables airplane parts to be made in various locations, and this sim-plifies supply chains and creates more eco-nomical warehousing of parts,” Schmidt told AIN. “Using this customizable tech-nology, manufacturers can be more inno-vative in designing products. If you currently have a supply chain measured in 14 to 18 months, this can go down to weeks and that gives you real benefits in terms of saving working capital. And manufacturers can produce a part where they need it, when they need it.”

Companies are having to make signif-icant investments in 3-D printing equip-ment and processes, resulting in higher direct costs than many traditional man-ufacturing techniques, countered by the promise of eventually reducing total costs resulting from the increased flexibility they are already delivering. For instance, supply chains stand to be rationalized significantly through the ability to produce parts in mul-tiple locations closer to customers. In some cases, parts can be made lighter, contribut-ing to aircraft fuel savings, while not being compromised in terms of strength.

At the same time, the potential appli-cations for additive manufacturing are set to increase as technology improvements allow more materials to be “printable.” In addition to the plastics and photosen-sitive resins that have been used to date, ceramics, glass, metals and metal alloys are now being introduced to the mix, as

are thermoplastic composites infused with carbon nanotubes and filters.

GE Aviation has made a strong com-mitment to additive manufacturing and the progress it has made was highlighted by the recent first flight of a GE90 engine fitted with additive manufactured hous-ing for the T25 temperature/pressure sensor (located in the inlet to the high pressure compressor, it is being retrofitted into more than 400 GE90-94B engines). However, the U.S.-based group is imple-menting the technology one step at a time and takes the view that the full benefits might take some time to materialize.

According to Greg Morris, GE Aviation’s general manager for additive technologies, additive manufacturing is reducing the weight, number of parts and overall complexity of assemblies, as well as delivering improvements in their dura-bility. “As we move forward, we continue to explore where additive manufacturing makes sense and cost plays a central role,” he told AIN. “We trying not to look at this purely in terms of want we can achieve today, but what we might be able to lever-age in five, 10 or 20 years from now.”

Engineers Must Think DifferentlyA lot of work is going into improving

the 3-D printing machines so that they can deliver increased output rates. But Morris explained that companies have to retrain engineers to more effectively design products using additives. “It can be very difficult for engineers to think in terms of the layered additive approach [to producing parts], rather the tradi-tional subtractive technologies [involving materials being removed from an existing block of material], and the best guide is to look at how nature does it,” he explained.

“It’s a moving target, but for now it mainly makes sense to use additives for fairly small components,” he said. “The limiting factors are the size of the part that we can make in our powder-bed sys-tem, and also the complexity of develop-ing the right materials to use. We’ve had to develop a detailed database of mate-rials and how they can be used to design components, taking account of factors such as their tensile strength.”

This year, GE began operations at its new high-volume additive manufacturing facility in Auburn, Alabama, and eventu-ally this facility will be filled with banks of machines “printing” parts around the clock. For now, the engine maker intends to keep additive manufacturing in-house, but eventually it expects to help its ven-dors to produce parts remotely.

Additive manufacturing is by no means a flawless process and human interven-tion and monitoring is still essential for quality control. “For some time to come, we will have to have a very strict inspec-tion regime,” said Morris. “Additives are

great in terms of the geometric freedom they give, but their surface finish can be a drawback and we’ve had to come up with techniques to deal with rough surfaces.”

Relatively slow production rates are another limitation. “With the limited throughput of today’s machines, we have to focus on components that have fairly high value propositions, but the rate of production could be five to 10 times faster in the future,” said Morris.

Eventually, GE expects to be able to use 3-D printing to produce around 45,000 examples of the same part annu-ally. Ultimately, it estimates that this may reduce the cost of producing an item such as a fuel nozzle by as much as three-quarters, partly because it will be made in one piece, rather than by having to assemble as many as two dozen pieces.

UTC Aerospace Systems recently opened a new materials research labora-tory in Windsor Locks, Connecticut, and this is a focal point for the aerostructures and systems manufacturer’s efforts to advance additive manufacturing. “There is a lot of hype around this and there are some significant limitations,” cautioned Dave Carter, the company’s senior vice president for engineering and quality.

The U.S-based group has defined a list of around 100 part numbers that it could produce with 3-D printing, includ-ing items such as brackets, impellers, rotors, fuel injectors and heat exchang-ers. In its view, advanced metals, such as nickel and titanium, offer greater poten-tial with the manufacturing process than plastics. For instance, some parts can be built up from titanium wire, rather than having to machine it out from a larger block of titanium.

Size Matters“As we look at the capability of the

machines, the main limiting factor is their size [typically around one cubic foot],” said Carter. “The production rate still seems pretty slow and what we really need are multiple laser and opti-cal systems in a single machine. We need second- or third-generation equipment. The long-term benefit will be in taking a design-for-additive approach, using tai-lor-made materials and we could be start-ing this later this year or in early 2016.”

According to Accenture’s Schmidt, 3-D printing should bring significant ben-efits to spares and service provision by optimizing supply chain. But for now this might have limited impact in that most of the existing fleet of aircraft do not have parts made from additive manufacturing. He also flagged up the challenges posed by

having to ensure that exactly the right 3-D model is used for additive manufacturing, meeting airworthiness requirements and protecting intellectual property.

“Where the industry is making progress today is in the materials technology and the fact that the cost [of additive manufac-turing has come to the point that leverag-ing it finally makes sense, and there is now the ability to print somewhat larger parts,” said Schmidt. “We expect 3-D printing to take the same route [in aerospace manu-facturing] that robotics did, and with that the first concerns were safety issues.”

In his view, for Western manufactur-ers the technology “will change the equa-tion in terms of whether to build or buy [a part] because there won’t be a labor rate issue and so it changes the calculus in terms of time and money.” Accenture has extensive experience of helping com-panies to manage many aspects of digital design, production and support of prod-ucts through their full life cycle.

Lockheed Martin is now working with the U.S. defense department, Cincinnati Tool Steel and Oak Ridge National Laboratory on plans to 3-D print the endo- and exto-skeletons for F-35 fight-ers, including bodies, wings, internal structural panels, embedded wiring and antennas. Making larger parts like these will involve big gantries with computer-ized controls to move the printers.

As of last month, additive manufactur-ing specialist Stratasys had produced more than 1,000 3-D printed parts for the Airbus A350XWB. The airframer started working with Stratasys back in 2013 as part of a strategy to maximize flexibility in the pro-gram’s supply chain and avoid delays. o


3-D Printing To Be Highlighted at Dubai 2015

The Dubai Airshow plans to showcase 3-D printing technology this year with the addition of the 3-D Printshow exhibit. Sched-uled to take place in a dedicated pavilion at the Dubai Airshow from November 8 to 12, 3-D Printshow Dubai will feature exhibitors such as Stratasys, Ultimaker, BigRep and D2M demonstrating their technologies in the hall alongside a total of some 1,100 exhibi-tors expected by organizer F&E Aerospace.

Also known as additive manufacturing, 3-D printing has emerged as an increasingly prev-alent tool for companies such as Airbus, Rolls-Royce and Boeing, all of whom have cited its importance within their supply chains and for final manufacturing of components. –G.P.

A fuel injector made by UTC Aerospace Systems, right, and a housing for the T25 sensor in the GE90 engine are prime examples of additive manufactured parts.

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Trent 1000 track record makes R-R ‘very proud’by Ian Goold

Orders, follow-on business and service entry with two more opera-tors have provided the “best start” in 2015 for the Rolls-Royce Trent 1000 (T1000) engine, according to project director Gary Moore.

The powerplant has been chosen to power more than 470 Boeing 787 twin-aisle twinjets–covered by orders and options from 20 operators, 11 lessors and two private or government own-ers. Moore said that when cus-tomers have a choice, there is “no greater testament” than that they buy engines, live with them in ser-vice and then come back for more.

He hopes the powerplant’s latest Trent 1000-TEN vari-ant (TEN standing for Thrust, Efficiency and New technol-ogy), which is said to be on tar-get for scheduled certification by year-end, will be the first engine to power the 787-10, thus main-taining the design’s record as first choice on the aircraft.

After powering the 787’s maiden flight in December 2009 and first commercial service in October 2011, it was the initial engine certified on the 787-8 and -9, first 787 powerplant to receive 330-minute extended-range twin-engine operational performance standards (ETOPS) clearance, and the first engine in service for the 787 family.

The Rolls-Royce official is “very proud” of the T1000’s continued operational reliabili-ty, which is subject to no perfor-mance constraints. Basic statistics

for the powerplant’s in-service experience, which is growing month-by-month under “an in-creased delivery schedule,” cov-er 88 aircraft flying with 11 oper-ators. As of May 2015, the data shows an impeccable record for in-flight shutdowns (IFSDs) and high-speed aborted takeoffs (stan - dard measures of engine reliabil-ity) during 224,000 engine cycles, 112,000 flights and 872,000 hours of operation (forecast to reach one million, long before August).

Moore reports an engine dis-patch reliability of 99.9 percent, explaining that after “full forensic investigation” of a single IFSD all parties agreed that the event had been a consequence of a bird strike four months previously and that the manufacturer was not account-able for any resulting damage.

The T1000 fleet leaders have logged more than 10,850 flight-hours and over 4,000 power cycles; Rolls-Royce has removed the first sampling engine after accumulation of 1.5 million rev-enue-earning miles.

3 Percent SFC AdvantageMoore said that on sectors of

up to 3,000 miles the T1000-TEN variant is expected to offer a spe-cific fuel consumption advantage of some 3 percent. The differen-tial is confirmed by results of a Boeing technical audit of the variant early last year, according to Moore, who expects more fuel saving to become available “as development continues across

the whole [T1000] range.”For flights in excess of aver-

age 787 range, the T1000 delivers a fuel-burn advantage well ahead of the competing powerplant at shorter ranges, according to Moore. Claimed superior perfor-mance retention through the life of the engine is said to be worth “an additional 1 percent.”

With test engine assembly being completed in nonnumer-ical order, engine serial num-ber (ESN) 11006–the fourth powerplant in the T1000-TEN development program–is mid-way through 150 hours of type test, according to Moore. With 67 hours’ work completed before the end of May, he expects com-pletion “in the near future.”

ESN 11007 is scheduled to be used for in-flight testing aboard Rolls-Royce’s Boeing 747 flying

testbed at Tucson, Arizona. This unit will take part in an operabil-ity survey and also be used for 787 integration work at Boeing.

Test EnginesAssembly of test powerplants

ESNs 11004 and 11005 will be completed later for use in the T1000 maturity program; ESN 11005 is understood to be ear-marked for 2,000 engine runs in connection with ETOPS approval and both units will be built to full production status with standard part numbers.

The manufacturer was expect-ing to complete icing tests with ESN 11003 by mid-June; that unit is also being used for altitude-per-formance and other operability work. Altitude performance has been “slightly better than pre-test predictions,” said Moore.

The T1000 is now finding wide global favor with “signifi-cant” operators after an prepon-derance of European and North American buyers among initial customers, said Moore, who also said he is encouraged by recent market momentum.

The greatest encouragement has come from Rolls-Royce’s victory in 12 of the past 19 sales campaigns: “This is testa-ment to [airlines’ service experi-ence] with more data available to inform [market] choices.” He pointed to a 42-percent share of 787 firm orders and 47-percent share of 787 operators.

This year Air China selected the T1000 for its 15 Boeing 787-9s, while Japan’s All Nippon Airways placed a fourth order for the engine, which will power 87 ANA 787s. Another follow-on customer is Spanish carrier Air Europa, which has selected it for the 14 787-9s that will comple-ment eight T1000-powered 787-8s scheduled to enter service in 2016.

New customers beginning T1000 commercial service this year are Latin American airline group Avianca and Singapore Air-lines’ low-cost subsidiary Scoot, which will use 787s to expand its long-haul fleet. (In early 2015, the first Singapore-assembled Trent 1000 was unveiled at the manufacturer’s Seletar facility.)

Finally, Moore confirmed that, to stay ahead of the in-service fleet, Rolls-Royce is still running Trent 1000 “maturity engines” to confirm behavior of Pack B and Pack C performance improvement measures. o

With a half century of history, Twin Otter prospering worldwideby Bill Carey

Fifty years after the DHC-6 Twin Otter turboprop made its first flight, Canada’s Viking Air (Static B6) is displaying the modernized Twin Otter Series 400 here at the Paris Air Show, where it is also announcing new sales representatives.

Viking said UK-based aviation sales and marketing firm Liftec will serve as the Twin Otter Series 400 sales rep-resentative for eastern Europe, the Commonwealth of Independent States excluding Russia, and the Baltic states. It has assigned Hanbaek Aerospace of Seoul, South Korea, as sales representa-tive for that country.

Founded in 2012, Hanbaek Aerospace is focused on improving South Korea’s military capabilities. The consulting com-pany “is perfectly positioned to assist

Viking with bidding the Twin Otter Guardian 400 military variant for force improvement projects,” Viking said. It will also support sales of the aircraft to the regional commuter segment.

“With the help of Hanbaek, we are excited to be tapping into the Series 400 Twin Otter’s market potential in Korea,” said Peter Walker, Viking regional sales director for the Asia Pacific. “We feel the Twin Otter Guardian 400 in particular will be an asset for the Korean military for spe-cial missions and maritime surveillance.”

Viking also announced that it will con-duct a two-plane tour of 11 communities in Canada’s north, as well as the Canadian Forces bases at Eureka and Alert, to mark the 50th anniversary of the first flight of the DHC-6 Twin Otter on May 20, 1965. It

will also recognize the first time Canada’s official flag was raised over the Houses of Parliament in 1965.

The tour begins on July 1 as part of the city of Victoria’s Canada Day fes-tivities and extends through July 17. Residents of communities on the tour will have an opportunity to sign a wing rib for the 100th Viking production air-craft, which will be built in 2016.

“The 50th Anniversary Celebration

Tour is a way for us to pay tribute to the Canadian north and thank the val-ued pilots, passengers, owners, operators, mechanics and engineers who have con-tributed to the Twin Otter’s success,” said Sherry Brydson, chairman of the board of Westerkirk Capital, which owns Viking. “We hope to hear and document some of the unique and historic stories of residents who have been served by the Twin Otter since its first flight in 1965.” o

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With operational reliability numbers of 99.9 percent, Rolls-Royce is pursuing further advances in efficiency for the Trent 1000 series of turbofans.

Operated by Loganair of the UK, this Twin Otter Series 400 will serve as Viking Air’s display aircraft here at Le Bourget. Celebrating the 50th anniversary of the type’s first flight, Viking is expanding its worldwide sales and marketing effort.


The Martin-Baker legacy: saving lives, and loved onesby Chris Pocock

A custom-made window blind in Andrew Martin’s office displays testi-monies from 12 pilots who owe their lives to Martin-Baker ejection seats. Significantly, their photos include fam-ily members, whose grateful comments are also included.

It’s a good motivator for the compa-ny’s director of business development and marketing, although he hardly needs it. Martin-Baker has been in the business of saving lives for 68 years, and 7,477 air-crew have safely ejected on one of their seats. Today, there are 16,836 Martin-Baker seats installed in 53 different air-craft operated by 88 countries.

Andrew Martin is a grandson of com-pany founder Sir James Martin. His cousin Robert is the engineering director. They are two of 12 directors or heads of department who report to the joint managing directors of the company, in what Andrew describes as a very flat management structure, designed to be responsive. Those joint man-aging directors are his father James and his uncle John, 72-year old twin brothers who are still actively leading the company.

Martin-Baker Aircraft (MBA, Hall 2b E158) is indeed a family firm, still privately held and with no plans to

change that status, according to Andrew Martin. The company has been operat-ing from the same rural site at Higher Denham, just outside London, since 1929, originally as Martin’s Aircraft Works building prototype fighters.

When his friend and test pilot Capt. Valentine Baker was killed flying one of the company’s aircraft in 1942, Sir James renamed the company Martin-Baker and resolved to develop an aircrew survival system. The Mk1 ejection seat was tested in 1946. Here at Paris, MBA is showing its latest seat, the Mk17.

The company employs 650 people in the UK, and another 140 in a U.S. subsidiary at Johnstown, Pennsylvania. There are also joint ventures in France and Italy.

Retaining Intellectual Property“We are a very conservative manage-

ment team,” Andrew Martin told AIN. “We reinvest in R&D to make sure that we retain control and ownership of all our intellectual property.” If some other companies making ejection seats had done the same, rather than rely on gov-ernment-funded investment, they might have prospered more, he believes.

As things stand, Martin-Baker has a 53-percent share of the worldwide ejection seat market. UTC Aerospace Systems (formerly Goodrich) has 15 per-cent, and Russia’s Zvezda has 14 percent, according to the British company’s cal-culations. No other company has more than 5-percent market share.

Martin-Baker is providing the ejection seat for all three variants of the Lockheed Martin F-35 Lightning II. The US16E seat for the stealth fighter is a development of the Mk16 that MBA provides for the Dassault Rafale, Eurofighter Typhoon, Beechcraft T-6 Texan II and other aircraft.

In its US16T guise, the Mk16 was also retrofitted to the U.S. Air Force Northrop T-38C Talon fleet when it was upgraded, another American major contract for the British company. In India, the Mk16 has displaced the Zvezda K-36 ejection seat that was fitted to the prototypes of the HAL Tejas Light Combat Aircraft (LCA) and HAL Sitara Intermediate Jet Trainer (IJT).

A unique feature of the US16E is the trio of airbags that inflate in a two-stage process to protect the head and neck of the F-35 pilot, wearing the large helmet-mounted display, upon ejection. Also of note, the F-35B version of the Lightning II has an auto-eject mode. This is designed to function in the specific instance where the STOVL aircraft is in the hover, and the shaft-driven lift fan fails.

In that case, the jet is likely to pitch down sharply, quicker than the pilot can react to fire the seat manually. It will therefore fire automatically while the possibility of escape remains.

Earlier this month, the US16E achieved a significant milestone, when it received the Release Authorization Notice (RAN) Level VI flight clearance from Lockheed Martin. Thus, the F-35 seat is now fully qualified for unrestricted flight operations.

“We have been testing this seat and all its components progressively from 2004, with more than 100 ejection tests to demonstrate the exacting F-35

At the Langkawi airshow in Malaysia last March, Martin Baker ejection seats saved the lives of four Indonesian air force aircrew from the Jupiters formation display team, when two of their KT-1 turboprop trainers collided during an opposition pass.

Bang! Another successful canopy-smashing test of a Martin-Baker ejection seat. This one will be installed on the Textron AirLand Scorpion fighter-trainer.

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Martin-Baker’s US16E seat for the F-35 stealth fighter has just been fully qualified, after more

than 100 ejection tests.

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Continued on next page u

physiological, accommodation, mass, environmental, integration, schedule and cost requirements,” Steve Roberts, the F-35 Lead for MBA, told AIN.

For the moment, US16E seats are still assembled at Higher Denham, but the work will eventually move across the Atlantic to Johnstown. The US16T seats for the T-38 retrofit were assembled at MBA’s 38,000-sq-ft American facility.

Dogfighting with UTCMartin-Baker is currently in a dogfight

with UTC Aerospace Systems over a pos-sible very large retrofit program for USAF A-10s, B-1s, F-15s and F-16s. The ACES II seat produced by the American company is currently fitted to all of these aircraft. It is also fitted to the B-2, where it causes a big problem for maintainers because, unlike the MBA US16E, the seats are not mod-ular, requiring the stealth bomber’s entire upper cockpit to be removed for servicing.

Meanwhile, the U.S. Congress added funding to last year’s defense budget for sustainment and safety improvements to the ACES II. At issue is whether these

improvements effectively create a new ejection seat–at U.S. taxpayers’ expense.

UTC Aerospace Systems has desig-nated the improved seat the ACES 5, but says that it is 70-percent common with the ACES II. If the improvements make the ACES seat modular, and also enable the American product to challenge the US16E’s status as the only current seat that fully protects a pilot who ejects while wearing a helmet-mounted dis-play, then Martin-Baker contends that a competition should be held.

“It would be a retrofit, rather than an upgrade,” Martin believes. The Air Force is committed to changing the B-2’s seats, but if it extends the program to the other fleets, that’s a lot of business.

“We’re used to competing and winning,” Andrew Martin told AIN. This is not mere bravado. Whereas there was no competi-tion for those large USAF fleets when they were being built, the U.S. Navy did com-pete the Navy Aircrew Common Ejection Seat (NACES) for the F-14D Tomcat, F/A-18 Hornet and T-45 Goshawk in 1985.

MBA won with a version of the Mk14, and is still building the NACES for new Super Hornets. The British company also beat its American rival in a compe-tition to provide the ejection seat for the Korean T-50 supersonic jet trainer.

Recently, both teams competing for the secret U.S. Long-Range Strike Bomber (LRS-B) requirement have proposed Martin-Baker seats. And, adds Martin, “All the primes who will bid for the U.S. T-X requirement have selected us.”

In fact, Martin-Baker’s own design phi-losophy is “evolutionary, not revolution-ary,” according to Martin. “An ejection seat is a highly-tuned piece of equipment. To change one part might require a requal-ification,” he added. That limits the poten-tial for local suppliers. For instance, even when F-35 seat production moves to the

U.S., the parachute will still be provided by Airborne Systems of the UK.

The F-35 notwithstanding, the growth market for MBA over the past 15 years has been primary trainers. The Mk10 and Mk 11 seats can be found in more than 50 countries on such aircraft as the Pilatus PC-7/PC-9/PC-21, the Korean KT-1 and newcomers such as the HAL HTT-40 and TAI Hurkus.

Then there is a new generation of counter-insurgency (COIN) aircraft being developed that need ejection seats. The Textron AirLand Scorpion on display here at Paris has an MBA seat, and so too does South Africa’s new ARLAC venture. Andrew Martin

is also tracking the progress of Aero Vodochody’s L-39NG trainer/sport jet. “Previous L-39s had a Czech seat, but now they want the Mk16,” he said.

Martin is keen to get his company involved with these smaller, geographi-cally diverse OEMs at an early stage of their developments. “That way, they can design-in an off-the-shelf seat solution to achieve the lowest cost,” he explained.

The Mk17 seat on display here in Paris is aimed squarely at such manufac-turers. It is compact, weighs 38 kg (only half that of a Mk16) and costs in the region of $150,000. It can cater for pilots weighing from 56 kg to 123 kg, flying at between 60 and 300 knots.

Possible applications include the Grob G120TP basic trainer; the Air Tractor, another COIN aircraft; and the Blackshape series of Italian primary trainers. Then there are the fighters being designed by new entrants: the ATD-X in Japan; the KF-X in Korea; and the TFX I Turkey. They are all prospects for the Mk16, according to Martin.

And what of the future? Martin-Baker is keeping abreast of develop-ments in wearable health-monitoring technology. Having already participated in development of a seat that can auto-eject, the company is mindful of the pos-sibilities for saving the lives of pilots who have fallen unconscious.

In the shorter-term, however, it is looking forward to the next milestone: the 7,500th life saved. Martin hopes to mark that occasion with a ceremony that will bring together the latest escapee with the very first.

Remarkably, Jo Lancaster is still alive. He made the first-ever live ejection with an MBA seat in 1949, from the long-forgot-ten Armstrong Whitworth AW52 flying wing research aircraft. In those days, the elapsed time from pulling the seat handle to the parachute deploying was 30 seconds. Today, it’s less than one second. o


uContinued from preceding page

Crashworthy Seats

Making crashworthy aircraft seats is a little-known sideline for Martin-Baker that accounts for about 10 percent of the turn-over. The company has designed about 40 different seats that attenuate and/or absorb high-energy impacts. They cater for air-crew, rear crew and troops and include armored versions.

The current product line includes seven designs for helicopters, and two for fixed-wing aircraft. Applications include the CH-53E, UH-60M, S-92, and EC145 heli-copters, and the CN-235, C-295 and P-8 fixed-wing aircraft. –C.P.

pThe Mk17 is a lightweight, low-cost design for small trainers and utility airplanes, where the operator may specify an ejection seat.

tCrashworthy seats are the less glamorous side of the business. This is a troop and gunner seat for a helicopter.

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For new UAC president, civil game is the best betby Charles Alcock

Russia’s United Aircraft Corporation (UAC) is back at the Paris Air Show, primarily in pursuit of its goal of doubling annual revenues largely through increased deliveries on the civil side of its business. In this respect, the group is highlighting the appearance of the Sukhoi Superjet 100 here at Le Bourget, but it will also be seeking to con-vince the market that Irkut’s in-development MC-21 twinjet will soon be a viable challenger to rivals such as the Boeing 737 Max, the Airbus A320neo, the Bombardier CSeries and China’s Comac C919 (see story on page 44).

UAC also comes to Paris with a new president, Yuri Slyusar, who replaced long-serving Mikhail Pogosyan in January. Address-ing the Council of Russia’s Air-craft Manufacturers in Ulianovsk on April 16, Slyusar said the state-backed group, which now encom-passes just about all the country’s aerospace interests, is determined to become more efficient and competitive over the next decade. He indicated that further financial support from the Russian govern-ment is assured now that UAC’s new long-term development pro-gram has been approved by the company’s main shareholder.

However, in a pre-Paris show interview with AIN, Slyusar insisted that the change of lead-ership at UAC has not marked any radical change in strategic direction and that he is deter-mined to continue an on-going process of modernization and growth for the group.

“Our strategic goals have not been changed much as we are planning for faster civil avi-ation growth and development as our first priority, and further development of the military and transport aviation segments,” said Slyusar. He indicated that the domestic markets of Russia and the Commonwealth of Independent States are the main sales priority for the Superjet SSJ100 and the MC-21, with the Asia-Pacific region, Middle East and Latin America viewed as the best export prospects.

According to Slyusar, even in the face of budgetary pres-sure, the Russian government still views development of the coun-try’s aviation industry as a top priority. Pointing out that gov-ernment representatives are in

the majority on UAC’s board of directors, he said no strategic changes have been demanded of the company’s senior manage-ment. He added that the state’s aviation development plan, run-ning from 2013 through the end of 2015, will continue beyond the end of this year, while acknowl-edging that “the existing program should and can be adjusted once economic circumstances change.”

Slyusar explained that the air-craft industry is one of just a few in Russia to be assured a mini-mum level of government finan-cial support, which he indicated protects it from the potential impact of reduced public spend-ing. “On the contrary, a number

of decisions have been made on extra funding to further stabilize the industry,” he said. “Moreover, the government decided to sup-port financial leasing and create a mechanism for residual value guarantees. All these measures allow us to propose a competitive financial package that we have been testing on the SSJ100 and will later offer with the MC-21.”

This year, UAC has begun the formation of a new trans-port aviation division, follow-ing on from the 2014 move to

merge its Tupolev subsidiary with the Kazan Aviation Plant (KAPO). “The production facili-ties’ restructuring, or I would say modernization, is also well under way,” Slyusar said. “We are even more focused on our plants and design bureaus’ re-equipment, which should go hand-in-hand with restructuring to meet the demands of modern technology. For example, we are going to invest around $2 billion in mod-ern technologies and equipment in just three years, starting with this one.”

Slyusar played down the im-pact of economic sanctions im-posed by Western powers in re-sponse to the military conflict in Ukraine. “We can’t say the sanc-tions have affected our sales strongly,” he stated. “This state-ment should be applied for both military and commercial aircraft.”

Earlier this year, UAC signed a memorandum of understand-ing with China’s New Century International Leasing and Xixian New Area Administrative Committee to establish a leasing group to market the Superjet to carriers in China. It believes this could generate as many as 100 more aircraft over the next three years. Slyusar implied that this initiative is, in part, a reaction to obstacles to SSJ100 sales in the

West, concluding that there may have been “some change in the direction of our work, but not a decline in its speed and results.”

Superjet StatusAccording to UAC, the

Superjet orders total stands at 190 aircraft, some of which have already been delivered. During the course of 2015, the com-pany expects to deliver around another 30 of the twinjets, including those expected to go to Gazprom Avia, Aeroflot and Interjet, as well as several VIP versions of the aircraft set to enter government service. This is fewer than the 36-unit pro-duction rate that Slyusar set as a revised annual output rate (down from the previous level of 44 or 45).

Pressed as to the status of air-craft delivered, or due to be deliv-ered, to lease customers PT Sky Aviation in Indonesia and LAO Central in Laos, the UAC presi-dent said these may end up being transferred to other operators. Meanwhile, the Thai govern-ment has ordered two extended-range versions to be used for VIP transportation, with deliveries expected in 2016.

UAC subsidiary Sukhoi Commercial Aircraft is now working to amend the Superjet’s

type certificate for approval to operate in temperatures of up to 50-deg C (122-deg F). Other planned improvements include the possibility of extending the operational envelope to airfields as high as 3,300 meters (10,827 feet) above sea level and the com-pany is also seeking approval from the European Aviation Safety Agency to certify the extended-range version of the basic SSJ100 model.

Slyusar explained that engi-neering work is still in progress to reduce the overall weight of the Superjet. Also planned are new winglets that could result in another 3- to 4-perceznt reduc-tion in fuel consumption. The manufacturer is evaluating the case for a larger 130-seat version of the aircraft, as well as a busi-ness jet configuration that would offer maximum range of more than 7,000 km (3,780 nm).

Next-Gen FighterOn the military side of its busi-

ness, UAC expects to add three more prototypes of its fifth-gener-ation T-50 fighter to the test fleet this year, joining four aircraft al-ready being used for development work, in addition to a ground test rig. Slyusar reported that during government trials conducted last year, “We succeeded in obtain-ing reliable results at sub- and su-personic speeds, low and high al-titudes, and at critical angles of attack.” He added that in-flight refueling tests and a variety of air-craft performance evaluations al-so have been completed. The de-velopment team is now engaged in avionics testing and combat-mode performance tests, includ-ing weaponry integration and use.

“In comparison with the pre-vious generation fighters, the PAK FA [the T-50] enjoys a num-ber of unique features to com-bine functions of both a fighter and a strike aircraft,” comment-ed Slyusar. o

UAC president Yuri Slyusar says the Russian government remains firmly committed to the group’s role in driving progress in the country’s aviation industry.

Sukhoi’s Superjet SSJ100 airliner is at the forefront of UAC’s efforts to boost civil aviation sales

Sukhoi T-50 fighter jet

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MC-21 is shaping up; 2016 first flight plannedby Vladimir Karnozov

Russia’s United Aircraft Corporation (UAC) believes that the MC-21airliner being developed by its Irkut subsid-iary will prove to be a worthy challenger to other new-gener-ation narrowbodies, such as the Airbus A320neo, the Boeing 737 Max, Bombardier’s CSeries and Comac’s C919. According to Irkut, the first example of the twinjet will roll out at the end of this year, with a first flight now anticipated in June 2016.

The MC-21-300 model, which can seat between 160 and 212 passengers depending on cabin configuration, is due to be the first member of the planned family to complete certification in 2017. This variant will be powered by Pratt & Whitney’s PW1400G Geared Turbofan.

Customers also will be able to opt for Russian-made Aviadvigatel PD-14 turbofans. That version, which would include Russian avionics from Kret and other locally made systems, is expected to com-plete the certification process a year later.

According to Pratt & Whitney, its first two PW1400G turbofans are now in production. These engines are due to be delivered to Irkut this summer in order to be ready for the start of flight tests in 2016, and with a view to completing powerplant certifica-tion later this year.

Later this summer, flight test-ing of the PD-14 engines is due to begin on an Ilyushin Il-76 fly-ing test bed at the Ramenskoye airfield near Moscow. With a thrust rating of 30,864 pounds, the PD-14 is billed as offering comparable performance to Pratt & Whitney’s PurePower family of engines (of which the PW1400G is a member) and to the rival CFM International Leap family. Aviadvigatel is leading a program that also includes Russian aero-engine companies Perm, UMPO, NPO Saturn and Salyut.

In development terms, the PW1400G is further advanced, since the PurePower family has already logged 33,000 cycles and 18,000 hours of testing (includ-ing 4,600 hours of flight test-ing). Aviadvigatel is expecting to provide as many as 22 engines for its test program, and has already assembled six of these, with more now being made by

Perm. PD-14 certification is slated for 2017.

New UAC president Yuri Slyusar visited the MC-21 assem-bly line at the Irkutsk Aviation Plant (IAZ) within days of his appointment back in January. IAZ makes the aircraft’s fuse-lage and performs final assembly using modern laser equipment.

“The MC-21 promises to be competitive,” said Slyusar. “From a technological point of view, this airplane compares well with rivals such as the Airbus A320neo and Boeing 737Max with their new engines. I hope that the airlines will show inter-est in our new jetliner.”

Composite PartsAbout half the MC-21’s

structure will consist of com-posite materials, mainly used for the wings and empen-nage. AeroComposite supplies most of the composite parts, including wing spars and the central wing section. In the middle of April, the first cen-tral wing section arrived at IAZ. It was manufactured by AeroComposite’s Ulyanovsk

facility using polymeric com-posites, among other advanced materials. Earlier, the same supplier manufactured rear and front spars for the MC-21 wing consoles. Another branch of AeroComposite, based in Kazan, supplies IAZ with wing trailing edges made of compos-ite materials.

Some of the metal fuse-lage parts are supplied by Aviastar-SP in Ulyanovsk, which also makes the aircraft’s doors. It also supplies the empennage,

complete with rudder and eleva-tor. Another big factory in UAC’s corporate structure is VASO in Voronezh, which makes engine pylons, various fairings (includ-ing those for wing-to-fuselage attachment points), hatches and panels. Many of these parts, such as flaps, are made of composites.

As of last month, various ele-ments for the first four MC-21s were being manufactured. Mating the fuselage sections of the first complete aircraft is planned for August, and UAC intends to

broadcast this event live during Moscow’s MAKS 2015 airshow.

So far UAC has logged 175 orders and commitments for the MC-21. Rostec, through its leasing branch AviaCapital-Service, has ordered 50 aircraft, which it hopes to place with Aeroflot. Three leasing com-panies–Ilyushin Finance (IFC), VEB-Leasing and Sberbank-Leasing–have signed for 50, 30 and 20 aircraft, respectively. Transaero, UTair, S7 and Red Wings are potential users of these aircraft. Various govern-ment bodies have committed to taking 35 aircraft among them.

At the last MAKS show in 2013, IrAero, a small air-line operating out of Irkutsk, signed a direct contract with the manufacturer for 10 MC-21s. It has never previously oper-ated an aircraft of this size, having built its fleet previously around the Antonov An-24 and Bombardier’s CRJ200.

So far, all orders have been for the MC-21-300 model. If the planned family of aircraft mate-rializes, it might also include the MC-21-200 with a shorter fuse-lage and the MC-21-400 with a longer fuselage and an enlarged wing. A decision on these other two models is expected after the baseline version obtains type certification.

The MC-21 assembly line is planned for a comparatively small capacity of only 70 air-craft annually. By comparison, Airbus and Boeing together made around 975 deliveries of narrowbody jetliners in 2014. o

The airframe, engines and systems for United Aircraft Corporation’s MC-21 airliner are coming together in preparation for first flight in 2016.

Irkut brought a nonmotion MC-21 simulator to the MAKS airshow in 2013, and it is being used as a research tool in the ongoing development program. A version of the airliner is planned with avionics from Russia’s Kret and other in-country suppliers.

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M-345 HET The new M-345 HET (High Efficiency Trainer) represents the most recent solution proposed by Alenia Aermacchi for the basic-advanced phase of training syllabus for military pilots. M-345 HET provides Air Forces with an economically affordable and effective solution, thanks to a significant reduction in acquisition and life-cycle costs, compared to those of powerful turboprop trainer aircrafts, which offer lower performance and lower training effectiveness, despite being in the same weight class and in some case equipped with similar top of the line on-board systems. M-345 provides, in fact, a value for money solution that benefits from the jet performance and from the expanded flight envelope, both in terms of speed and altitude, which ensure more training per flight hour and higher training download capability from the subsequent Advanced/LIFT phase, providing important cost saving in producing a fast jet pilot.

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Paraplegic pilot a first for Paris flying display by Thierry Dubois

The wheelchair will stay on the ground. Dorine Bourneton, a long-time champion of the rights of disabled people and a paraple-gic herself, expects to be at the controls of a modified Mudry CAP 10 light aerobatic aircraft as part of the flying display here from Friday to Sunday–at the time of writing the performance was subject to the usual show display approval, but if she gets the green light, it will be a first for the Paris Air Show. After hav-ing successfully pushed for per-sons with lower limb disabilities to be able to become commer-cial pilots, Bourneton’s dream has been to fly at Le Bourget.

In 1991, when Bourneton was a teenager and a member of a flying club, she was a passen-ger in a light single airplane that crashed in a mountainous area. She survived in dramatic cir-cumstances and was seriously injured; the other three occu-pants died. She had to wait for hours, in cold weather, until res-cuers found her. She had lost the use of her legs.

When she was at the hospi-tal, visitors often came with gifts, including books about aviation pioneers. “I found new strength in reading them,” she told AIN. All these aviators–including

women–had accidents, but flew again. Bourneton decided she would live for aviation, too. “My pilot life began with a crash, so I wanted to make progress dur-ing the rest of my life,” she said.

Like her heroes, she broke new ground. The latest advance-ment was expected to happen last week, with airshow flight direc-tor Stéphane Pichené approv-ing her aerobatics routine after having grilled her about aircraft performance, watched her fly-ing and checking her flightpath against the authorized airspace, also known as the “box.”

“I know the box because I flew here in 2011, but not performing aerobatics,” she said. She believes a critical factor will be any cross-wind. “The CAP 10 is tricky in a crosswind landing and my con-dition makes it even more dif-ficult,” she said. The stronger the crosswind, the greater the force required to keep the air-craft in the right attitude and on the centerline. Despite dedi-cated practice, Bourneton does not expect to be able to counter crosswind greater than 12 knots.

Her left hand will operate the control stick, while her right hand will be very busy with the throt-tle and flaps–and an extra control replacing the rudder pedals. Other

special arrangements include fas-tening her legs with Velcro and attaching her waist to the back of the seat with a lumbar belt. “I find it difficult to maintain a bal-ance because I can’t exert pres-sure at the seat-cushion level,” she explained. Finally, she has to wear support socks.

Bourneton obtained a six-month medical exemption on April 9. It relates not only to motionless legs, but physiol-ogy. “A paraplegic has a lower blood pressure,” she explained; therefore, the test involved flying upside-down, quickly followed by a positive-g pull-out.

Training was mainly at Mont-luçon-Guéret airport in cen-tral France, with the Amicale de Voltige Aérienne club. Her instructor is Romain Vienne, world champion glider aerobatic pilot. “He is very demanding but also admits he had irratio-nal fears when he was a student aerobatic pilot. Hearing this was comforting,” she said.

A major step in Bourneton’s fight for the paraplegics’ rights occurred in 2003, when the French minister of transport signed a decree allowing them to become commercial pilots on single-engine aircraft. This victory came after years of lobbying efforts. The tasks the disabled pilots may perform are limited, though, to surveillance, freight transport, instruction, aer-obatics and mountain flying.

Since 2003, seven disabled pilots have obtained commer-cial licenses; two were pilots who had kept flying after an accident. But Bourneton has not become a commercial pilot herself, yet. After 2003, she found herself at a crossroad in life, her interest for aviation “collapsed”–in her own words–and she pursued other interests. But she stayed away only temporarily, and first soloed in her modified CAP 10 on April 11, 20 years after having obtained her first pilot license.

Despite obstacles and hard work, Bourneton loves the sensa-tion of aerobatics, “I feel like I’m dancing,” she said. o

RECOVERED AIRCRAFT PARTS

COULD SOLVE EARHART MYSTERY

The disappearance of famed aviatrix Amelia Earhart has been one of aviation’s most enduring mysteries for more than three quarters of a cen-tury, and several expeditions by various groups to locate the remains of her aircraft have failed so far to provide concrete evidence of its resting place. In January, one such expedition, sponsored by aerospace motion and control system specialist Parker Hannifin, to tiny Endriken Island, part of the central Pacific’s Marshall Islands, turned up some tantalizing clues in the form of aircraft parts. The aluminum parts (one of which still carried remnants of red paint similar to that worn by Earhart’s Lockheed Electra 10E) are currently undergoing examination in one of the U.S. company’s labs to determine if they are consistent with those on the airplane.

According to Jon Jeffery, director of technology and business development for Parker Aerospace (Hall 5 C210), and a member of the expedition, those tests should be completed in late summer. “Obviously, this was an exhilarating expedition and the analysis that we’re doing now is proving to be just as enlightening,” he said. “It’s exciting and important work that underscores Parker’s passion for tackling engineering challenges and solving them.” Back in the 1930s, Parker provided some components for the Lockheed Electra, which further explains its connection with the project.

Once the results are released, officials of the non-profit Amelia Research Inc. and others will better determine whether they have indeed found Earhart’s final landing spot. –C.E.

Parker Aerospace is sponsoring a team seeking to solve the mystery of what happened to Amelia Earhart’s aircraft. They have been testing aluminum parts to ascertain whether they could have come from the famous U.S. aviator’s Lockheed Electra.

Fulfilling a dream, pilot Dorine Bourneton is slated to fly her aerobatic routine in a modified Mudry CAP 10 here at Le Bourget.

U.S. aerospace industry tops PwC study’s index by Gregory Polek

Size and high productivity help make the U.S. the country with the most favorable environment

for aerospace manufacturing in the world, according to a new research paper published by

accountancy group Pricewater-houseCoopers (PwC). The U.S. aerospace industry (U.S. Pavil-ion, Hall 3) has seven times the number of suppliers as the num-ber-two ranked country in the report, the UK. This helps it over-come what PwC called moderate rankings in the categories of cost, infrastructure, stability and talent, where it placed 21st in the world.

In the overall cost category, the U.S. stood at 51st, the low-est among the top 10 countries in the report. Meanwhile, the report characterized the U.S. as “com-petitive” in terms of pay and productivity, ranking it tenth in that category. However, the U.S. remains one of the costliest coun-tries in terms of tax cost, ranking 101st in the world. Finally, the U.S. ranked number 47 in STEM education (science, technology, engineering and math), making it the second weakest among the top 10 countries on the list.

The other countries and ter-ritories in the top 10 in PwC’s aerospace manufacturing attractiveness index include, in order of rank, Singapore, Hong Kong, Switzerland (Hall 4), the UK, Canada (Hall 3), Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, Luxembourg (Hall 2b) and Ire-land. Changes from PwC’s pre-vious analysis saw the addition of Hong Kong, Switzerland, Qatar, the United Arab Emir-ates, Luxembourg (Hall 2) and Ireland to the top-10 list, while the Netherlands (Hall 2b), Ger-many (Hall 2), Spain (Hall 1), Poland and Belgium (Hall 2b) all fell out of the top 10 due largely to higher-than-average costs. The report highlighted the addition of the UAE and Qatar, both of which recently have placed more emphasis on their aerospace industries and boast “very low” operat-ing costs and taxes as well as solid infrastructure and educa-tional systems.

Switzerland placed second in the infrastructure, stability and talent category, including a number-one ranking in STEM education. Singapore ranked third in infrastructure, stability and workforce. o


Boeing does most of its manufacturing in the U.S., with this factory in Everett, Washington, being one of its key sites.

Experience the Progress.

Liebherr-Aerospace is a leading supplier of systems for the aviation industry and has more than five decades of experience in this field. The range of aviation equipment produced by Liebherr for the civil and military sectors includes flight control/actuation systems, landing gear and air management systems as well as gearboxes. These systems are deployed in wide-bodied aircraft, single aisle and regional aircraft, business jets, combat aircraft, military transporters, military training aircraft, civil helicopters and combat helicopters. Liebherr’s aerospace

and transportation systems division employs around 4,900 people. It has four aviation equipment production plants at Lindenberg (Germany), Toulouse (France), Guaratinguetá (Brazil) and Nizhny Novgorod (Russia). These production sites offer a worldwide service with additional customer service centers in Saline (Michigan/USA), Seattle (Washington/USA), Montreal (Canada), São José dos Campos (Brazil), Hamburg (Germany), Moscow (Russia), Dubai (UAE), Singapore and Shanghai (People’s Republic of China).

Liebherr-Aerospace & Transportation SAS408 avenue des Etats-Unis31016 Toulouse Cedex 2, FranceTel.: +33 5 61 35 28 28E-Mail: [email protected]

The Group

Visit us at

Paris Air Show 2015

June 15 – 21

Booth 276, Hall 2A

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Just off the coast in Massa, Italy, we put the GE9X compressorthrough extensive tests in a custom-built rig to ensure it can deliveron its promises. It’s an unprecedented level of testing, but then again,so is the compressor’s 27:1 pressure ratio – the highest ever producedin the history of commercial aviation.

See how GE is maturing the technologies that willmake tomorrow fl y at geaviation.com/GE9X.

Tested for years. Confi dence from day one.

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F-35 software upgrades target bogus fault reportsby Bill Carey

Lockheed Martin has intro-duced the second of three major software releases it will deliver for the maintenance support system of the F-35 Lightning II fighter. The false reporting codes maintainers experienced using the Autonomic Logistics Information System (ALIS) on earlier blocks of the F-35 should be resolved as the air vehicle matures, the manufacturer said. But the system will be fielded without a radio frequency down-link that would enable the F-35 to send reports while in flight, a feature that has been deferred for later development.

Lockheed Martin (Cha-let 316) describes ALIS as the “operations management back-bone” of the F-35, an informa-tion technology infrastructure that captures and analyzes health and maintenance data for indi-vidual airframes as well as for the larger fleet. The system is designed to support F-35 opera-tions, maintenance, fault-predic-tion and parts deliveries over the lifecycle of the fighter, providing maintainers with timely informa-tion over a distributed network.

As of this spring, ALIS Ver-sion 2.0, the second of three planned releases, was installed at nine military bases in the con-tinental U.S. and at the F-35 Final Assembly and Check-Out facility Lockheed Martin oper-ates with Alenia Aermacchi at Cameri Air Base in Italy. A ver-sion of the system was installed on the amphibious assault ship USS Wasp, where testers vali-dated the system’s performance

for F-35 shipboard operations.“ALIS is progressing per its

development plan,” said Jeff Streznetcky, ALIS program director with Lockheed Martin Mission Systems and Training in Orlando. “In terms of major releases, I’d say we’re two thirds of the way there to getting ALIS fully developed and fielded to our customers.” The third release is planned in 2017 with the conclu-sion of the F-35 system develop-ment and demonstration phase.

Testing OngoingLockheed Martin was test-

ing ALIS version 2.0.1 before releasing it into the field. This version supports a deployable version of ALIS contained in ruggedized transport cases that can be moved on and off aircraft carriers or amphibious ships and deployed to remote operating locations. Before it declares ini-tial operational capability (IOC) of the F-35B short takeoff and landing variant as expected this summer, the U.S. Marine Corps will have verified the function-ality of ALIS software as well as the “deployability” of system hardware, Streznetcky said.

An ALIS version 2.0.2 sys-tem is in development. This will support the Air Force’s planned IOC declaration for the F-35A in mid-2016. The final release–ALIS 3.X–is in an earlier phase of development, and will sup-port IOC of the F-35C by the U.S. Navy as well as interna-tional partner operations.

The Marine Corps F-35B will begin operations with air vehicle

Block 2B software. Fighters that Lockheed Martin deliv-ered to Eglin Air Force Base in Florida, which is home to an integrated training center for F-35 pilots and maintain-ers, came with earlier versions of the aircraft software, desig-nated Blocks 1B and 2A.

An ALIS predictive, or “prognostic,” health monitor-ing application that resides with the aircraft software has gener-ated a high percentage of false-positive health reporting codes (HRCs) in F-35s with earlier versions of that software. In a report accompanying the Fis-cal Year 2016 defense authori-zation act this spring, the U.S. House Armed Services Commit-tee said that it received “numer-ous complaints and concerns by F-35 maintenance and opera-tional personnel regarding the limitations, poor performance, poor design and overall unsuit-ability of the ALIS software in its current form.” Department of Defense (DOD) officials who testified before the committee’s subcommittee on tactical air and land forces in mid-April con-firmed those reports.

Unnecessary WorkloadWith the health monitoring

application, the F-35 generates HRCs that are recorded on a data storage device. The data is later downloaded into the ALIS, which generates work orders for maintenance actions and admin-istrative tasks for pilots and maintainers to close. Lockheed Martin acknowledged that main-tainers at Eglin AFB experienced a high degree of false-positive HRCs on F-35s with Block 1B and 2A software–reports that did not require any corrective action. The false reports served to induce unnecessary workload into the system.

The manufacturer described the problem of false-positive reports as a developmental issue that will be resolved as the F-35 air vehicle software matures. Fighters delivered to Luke AFB and Marine Corps Air Station Yuma–F-35 bases in Arizona that were activated after Eglin AFB–came with Block 2B soft-ware. Block 2B software “shows a 50-percent diagnostic improve-ment of false positives” versus the earlier software versions, Lockheed Martin said.

“As the air vehicle system has matured and the software that runs on the air vehicle has matured, the system has been able to fine-tune its diagnostic capabilities,” Streznetcky said. “We’ve seen that from Block 1B to Block 2A and from Block 2A to 2B a continuing reduction in the number of false health reporting codes have been gen-erated by the aircraft. I’m cer-tain that what is being observed at Eglin is due in part to the fact that the jets they are oper-ating with are of the 1B and 2A variety, and therefore an earlier product that came out of the development lifecycle. We do have objective data that indicates there’s a continual maturation of the prognostics capability on the aircraft.”

The problem should be resolved with later versions of F-35 air vehicle software, Lockheed Martin claimed. “We expect to reach negligible false HRCs with the delivery of Block

3i/3F and new ALIS software currently in development,” the manufacturer said.

Downlink DeferredOne of the more compelling

features system designers envi-sioned for ALIS–an RF down-link that would enable the F-35 to send health-monitoring data to the ground while the fighter is airborne–has been deferred for later development in order to better secure the data stream. In the meantime, such data will be extracted from a stor-age device when the jet lands. While the deferral was “a joint decision” of Lockheed Martin and the DOD’s F-35 Joint Pro-gram Office (JPO), Streznetcky referred questions on that issue to the JPO.

Responding to an inquiry from AIN, the JPO issued the following statement: “The Prog-nostics and Health Management data downlink provides F-35 maintainers with an advanced look into aircraft diagnostics, consumables and weapons status prior to landing. Testing of the downlink revealed the need to upgrade it with enhanced secu-rity measures.

“Those improvements will be completed in follow-on develop-ment; specific timelines for all Block 4 capabilities are under pro-gram review. The downlink has no bearing on the aircraft’s diag-nostics performance. The same information can be obtained once the F-35 lands.” o

Servicemen view a system display of the F-35 Autonomic Logistics Information System, designed to make maintenance easier.

Criticism spurs Pratt to drive down F135 costby Bill Carey

While the F-35 fighter’s prime contractor Lockheed Martin touts the “blueprint for afford-ability” that since last year has helped it shave costs from its manufacturing processes, engine supplier Pratt & Whitney has waged its own “war on cost” since 2009. From the time it built the sixth flight-test powerplant to those it is producing today, the engine manufacturer claims to have reduced the cost of the F135 turbofan by 55 percent.

In April, the F135 incurred strong criticism from two U.S. government entities over qual-ity control and reliability issues. A “quality assurance inspection” released by the Department of Defense (DOD) Inspector Gen-eral (IG) on April 27 identi-fied 61 “nonconformities,” or

violations, of quality manage-ment regulations and require-ments. Two week earlier, on April 14, the Government Account-ability Office (GAO) released a report on F-35 “affordability challenges” that described F135 reliability as “very poor” and dragging against the fighter’s overall reliability progress. Both Pratt & Whitney and the Penta-gon’s F-35 Joint Program Office (JPO) challenged some of the findings and defended the pro-gram (see page 52).

The manufacturer tracks its progress on a cost curve that starts with the sixth flight-test engine, or FTE-6, as the base-line. “We have a curve that defines how our price will change unit by unit up through Continues on page 52 u


Follow-on An-178 fulfills airlifter roleby Vladimir Karnozov

Ukraine’s Antonov comes to the Paris Air Show just over a month after achieving the first flight of its new An-178 airlifter in May. A second example of the aircraft is now under construc-tion and is set to join the flight test program.

The An-178 is the third mem-ber of Antonov’s new family of twinjets, following on from the original 75-seat An-148 and 99-seat An-158 regional air-liners. The airlifter version has a redesigned fuselage with a

wider cross section and a large rear ramp, plus a structurally beefed-up wing. It retains the D-436 high-bypass three-shaft turbofan engines developed by Ukraine’s Ivchenko-Progress and built by Motor-Sich. How-ever, the thrust settings for the An-178 have been increased to handle higher maximum takeoff weights.

Previously known as the An-148T, the An-178 is said by Antonov to share 90 percent commonality with the baseline

An-148 on the powerplant; 80 percent on core avionics and systems (whose functional-ity, nonetheless, is expanded through software, various add-ons and enhancements); 85 per-cent on wing and empennage; 75 percent on forward fuselage section (the middle and tail sec-tions are new); and 90 percent on nose gear (the main gear are new).

The An-178’s advertised per-formance includes a payload of 39,682 pounds carrying cargo,

or up to 70 paratroopers; a com-pletely pressurized cabin; cruise speed of 445 knots and cruise altitude of 39,600 feet. Range is given as about 3,000 nm, and fuel-burn in long-haul cruise flight is roughly 4,410 lb/hr.

Antonov sees the An-178 as a potential civilian freighter as well as a military airlifter. It claims that “the airplane had been shaped with airline partners from 15 countries around the world,” most of them probably current operators of the popular An-12 four-turboprop freighter.

The manufacturer claims to have collected soft orders and letters of intent for 100 aircraft, including from “Persian Gulf

countries, among them Saudi Arabia.” Taqnia Aeronau-tics has been named Antonov’s partner in Saudi Arabia. Accord-ing to a recent agreement, Antonov will perform develop-ment work to cater to specific Saudi requirements.

Following the first flight, Antonov announced that Silk Way Airlines, a cargo airline from Azerbaijan, and a cus-tomer in China “signed con-tracts” for ten and two An-178 aircraft, respectively. The man-ufacturer said it is in agreement with China on coproduction, although final assembly will take place at Antonov’s factory in Kiev. A list price of $40 mil-lion is quoted.

The Antonov design bureau and its associated series pro-duction plants were one of the largest prizes left to Ukraine, when that nation became inde-pendent in 1991 with the fall of the Soviet Union. The An-178 could be critical to the future of a company that produced on two aircraft in 2014, three in 2013 and eight in 2012. Net rev-enues in 203 were around $130 million and profits stood at $1.5 million. o

the 300th unit. It’s a prescribed cost reduction,” said Mark Buongiorno, Pratt & Whitney F135 program vice president, during a recent press briefing. “We identify specific tasks, we work those tasks to closure and validate the changes to make sure they meet the engineering intent of the product.”

As of March 31, Pratt & Whitney had delivered 217 F135 engines to Lockheed Martin in Fort Worth and to the Cam-eri Final Assembly and Check-Out facility west of Milan, Italy, which is assembling F-35s for that country and the Nether-lands. While it has committed to the JPO to deliver the F135 based on the cost curve, the manufacturer is not currently tracking exactly to the curve in building the engine, acknowl-edged Buongiorno, who was appointed program vice presi-dent in February.

Pratt & Whitney’s goal by the 300th engine is to match the price of the F119-PW-100 turbofan that powers the F-22 Raptor, from which the F135 engine is derived. It notes that the F135 is 20 percent larger than the F119. Around Octo-ber, the company hopes to sign

a contract covering the LRIP 9 batch of 60 engines and the LRIP 10 batch of 100 engines.

The F-35 program selected acquisition report (SAR) the DOD released in March esti-mates the overall cost of the F135 engine subprogram will decline by $1.6 billion–or 2.3 percent–to $67 billion. The Pen-tagon attributed this to revised inflation estimates, reductions in initial spares requirements due to the maturation of the engine and revised estimates based on actual costs of early LRIP lots.

Correction ActionThe IG in April recom-

mended that the JPO coordi-nate with the Defense Contract Management Agency to imple-ment corrective actions for those violations, and called for tighter program management overall. According to the IG report, the JPO did not ensure that Pratt & Whitney “proactively identified, elevated, tracked and managed” F135 program risks; did not ensure that its supplier selection and management of underper-forming suppliers were suffi-cient; and did not ensure that its software quality manage-ment practices were adequate, the IG found.

In a statement, the JPO acknowledged that the IG’s report was “factually accurate.”

But it disagreed with three of six findings relating to the need for additional F135 program man-agement oversight, risk man-agement practices and software quality management practices. “In these three cases, the JPO believes the DOD IG findings and recommendations for correc-tive action are unnecessary, and, if implemented, would add cost and schedule growth to the pro-gram for items that are already well understood and carefully managed,” the JPO said.

Pratt & Whitney said that it has worked aggressively to implement corrective actions since the IG’s audit. As of early

April, it had implemented 60 percent of identified corrective actions, with the balance sched-uled for completion by July.

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

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

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

Pratt & Whitney contested the GAO’s conclusions relating to reliability. “The report incor-rectly assessed engine reliabil-ity, as it did not account for new designs that have been validated and are being incorporated into production and fleet engines,” the manufacturer said. The F135 CTOL engine exceeds its specifi-cation at 147 percent of require-ments; the STOVL engine meets 119 percent of current require-ments, it said. o

Criticism spurs lower F135 costsuContinued from page 50

Pratt & Whitney is under pressure to reduce the cost of the F-35 fighter’s F135 engine.

Fresh from celebrating the first flight of its first prototype An-178 airlifter, Antonov has a second under construction in Ukraine.

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Techspace is advancing the art of low-pressure compressorsby Thierry Dubois

Techspace Aero (Hall 2a Stand A228/A252, Hall 2b Stand G32) is here exhibiting the low-pressure compres-sor (booster) of a GEnx engine. The Milmort, Belgium-based Safran subsid-iary specializes in these modules of tur-bofans and is preparing technologies for lighter, speedier boosters. It is simultane-ously gearing up for a massive produc-tion ramp-up.

For those engines that may enter into service in 2020-2022, or possibly for a CFM Leap mid-life update, Techspace Aero is working on a booster featuring a carbon-fiber case and a bladed drum. The latter, so-called “blum,” integrates three stages of disks and blades into one part. Combined with the composite mate-rial of the case, this will yield a 15-percent weight saving, said Jacques Smal, senior v-p for strategy, commerce and programs.

The composite case, whose manufac-ture uses resin-transfer moulding, is seen at technology readiness level 6–meaning having completed research and ready to enter full product development. Recent, successful blade-out testing took place on a CF34 at a GE facility, Smal said.

Techspace Aero design engineers are also anticipating radically new engine

architectures starting in 2025. Open rotors and ultra-high-bypass-ratio turbo-fans will require higher rotation speeds for the booster, Smal said. This means doubling today’s speeds, to between 8,000 and 10,000 rpm. A faster booster will also use the aforementioned tech-nologies for lighter weight. However, composites should be carefully looked at and possibly adapted to ensure they can withstand the higher temperatures.

Looking further into the future, Smal suggested blades and vanes could be made of composites. He mentioned additive-layer manufacturing as a lead for pro-duction but warned these parts should demonstrate that they meet vibration and fatigue requirements.

Techspace Aero’s annual booster out-put, now numbering 500, is planned to jump to 2,300 by 2020. New programs, such as the CFM Leap, are to be in pro-duction as early as 2017 and the com-pany is investing €110 million ($123 million) in machine tools, workshop expansion and more.

The company, which counts 1,400 employees, is a risk- and revenue-shar-ing partner for boosters in a number of programs, the most recent being the in-development CFM Leap, Snecma Silvercrest, GE 9X and GE Passport. A booster accounts for 5 to 10 percent of the development cost of an engine, which ranges between $1 billion and $2 billion, according to Smal. On a current-technol-ogy engine that weighs 6,000 pounds, it represents 300 pounds–mainly composed of titanium.

The company’s turnover last year was €599 million ($671 million). Snecma, the main shareholder (with 67 percent) is also the main customer, with an almost equivalent share in sales. By 2025, this is expected to evolve to a balance between Snecma and GE, each of which will account for about 45 percent of sales. GE’s share is expected to grow as a result of the GE9X and Passport programs. o


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research and development work, Techspace Aero is busy ramping up annual production from 500 to 2,300 boosters.

Techspace’s bladed drum, dubbed a “blum,” integrates disks and blades into a single part. One goal is saving weight.

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Venyo set to announce FTD launch customersby Thierry Dubois

Venyo, the Belgium-based designer of flight simulation training devices (FTD) and ser-vices, is developing a highly immersive FTD for the Boeing 737NG and is hoping to obtain EASA FTD level 2 certifica-tion this year. A prototype was exhibited here at the 2013 Paris Air Show, when certifi-cation was expected in 2014. The development schedule has slipped, but Jean-Claude Streel, business development manager, is confident that cer-tification will happen this year. Streel is at the show (Hall 2B Stand G61) to announce two launch customers–one airline and one flight training school–who will help secure the green light from EASA.

Streel believes his company’s fixed-base FTD is very close to a full-motion simulator because of an innovative feature. It tricks the brain, providing the illusion of motion. Usually, in such an FTD, the brain has a hard time discerning between inputs from sight and the inner ear (the latter helps with per-ceiving motion, or the absence of it). This often causes sickness until the body gets used to the conflicting feelings.

Venyo’s FTD format favors sight. “To do this, we meet two criteria–the projected image has to be wider than the human field of vision and the refresh rate should be at least 60 Hz,” Streel said. In Venyo’s case, the image is 220 degrees wide. Fast com-puters need only nine seconds to reposition the virtual aircraft and yield a resolution of 1.4 feet for details on the ground.

Another feature, Streel said, is mobility. The FTD weighs just two metric tons, can travel by road and can be installed in one day. This opens the door to a “pay-per-use” business model, he said. The direct operating cost is estimated at €150 ($165) per hour, which halves today’s typical costs, he said.

Production of the first two FTDs has started at Venyo’s Charleroi Airport headquar-ters near Brussels, using for-ward fuselage sections from dismantled 737s. The company

has plans to deliver 50 FTDs in the half decade between 2015 and 2020, said Streel. o


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Qatar’s five-strong fleet a spectacle on static displayby Gregory Polek

Qatar Airways is a domi-nant presence on the Paris Air Show static display this week. The Gulf carrier is displaying a Boeing 787 along with four of its Airbus types, namely an A320, A319, A380 and an A350 XWB.

In January, Qatar became the first airline in the world to fly the A350 in scheduled ser-vice, launching so-called double daily service to Frankfurt. In late May, the airline announced plans to extend A350 service in the German market in Octo-ber, when it begins flying the mainly composite-body Airbus widebody to Munich alongside a Boeing 787. On May 11, it launched service to Singapore with its third A350, and plans to roll out three-times-daily service to the island nation by August 1 with its fourth and fifth A350s.

The cabin of Qatar’s A350 has 283 seats, including 36 seats in business class in a 1-2-1

configuration, featuring 80-inch fully flat horizontal beds The 247 seats in economy are in a 3-3-3 layout. Qatar’s 517-seat A380 superjumbo carries first-, business- and economy-class seats over two decks. It currently flies to Bangkok, Paris and London from Doha. The new first-class A380 seat features a 90-inch pitch, transforms into a fully flat bed and offers up to 2,000 entertain-ment options displayed on indi-vidual 26-inch television screens.

The A320 on display carries 12 business-class seats, 120 economy-class seats and on-demand audio-video at every seat. Qatar Airways has launched a major investment program to upgrade its A320s to include 180-degree lie-flat beds, new 15.4-inch smart monitors and touch-screen remote control handsets as well as power, USB ports and connectivity for smart devices in business class.

The Airbus A319 Qatar has on display now flies from Doha to

London Heathrow in an all-busi-ness-class cabin configuration. The aircraft features single-aisle, 2-by-2 seating, including 40 pre-mium business-class seats that recline into fully flat beds.

The airline’s Boeing 787 fea-tures a two-cabin configuration, carrying 22 seats in business class

and 232 in economy. All econ-omy seats include 10.6-inch television screens.

Now in its 18th year of oper-ation, Qatar Airways flies a fleet of 157 aircraft to 146 destinations across Europe, the Middle East, Africa, Asia Pacific, North Amer-ica and South America. Along

with other Middle East carriers, it is engaged in a lobbying battle with U.S. rivals who are arguing that they should not enjoy unre-stricted access to U.S. routes on the grounds that they allegedly receive anti-competitive govern-ment subsidies–a charge the Gulf carriers fiercely deny. o

Honeywell equips Boeing 737 Max with a bountiful menu of high tech

Honeywell’s new Integrated Multi-Mode Receiver (IMMR) has found its first application as part of a full suite of cockpit tech-nologies chosen by Southwest Air-lines for its current fleet of Boeing 737s and future fleet of 737 Max narrowbodies. Along with the IMMR, the suite includes the IntuVue RDR-4000 3-D weather radar, Aspire satellite communi-cations systems, Quantum Line communication and navigation sensors, SmartTraffic traffic col-lision avoidance system and flight data and voice recorders.

The all-digital IMMR, which features satellite- and ground-based augmentation landing systems, integrates responses to multiple regulatory requirements in a single receiver while cutting size and weight.

The contract, the value of which Honeywell declined to specify, involves a firm order for 200 of the 737 Max airplanes and options on another 190, the first of which Boeing expects to deliver to Southwest in the third quarter of 2017. The contract also calls for retrofit onto Southwest’s

current-generation 737NGs after first Max deliveries.

The new IMMR integrates ILS, GPS, GLS and VOR func-tionality, explained Honeywell Aerospace vice president for air-lines Dave Luken. “So it’s inte-grating more of these radios

into one integrated multi-mode radio, and so, specifically, bring-ing in the GLS approaches in the IMMR as well as integrat-ing a VOR, which was its own separate component in today’s NG aircraft.”

Honeywell Aerospace vice

president for airlines in the Ameri-cas John Ashton added that the system brings significant weight savings–as much as 20 pounds–by reducing the number of LRUs (line replaceable units) they need. “That’s good for a number of rea-sons for the airline,” noted Ashton.

Now only available for the 737, the IMMR will eventually find its way onto other aircraft types. The Honeywell executives would not identify which these could be, but Luken said efforts now center on narrowbodies.

Another new Honeywell prod-uct destined for Southwest’s 737s under the terms of the contract, the Aspire Iridium-based sat-ellite communications system, offers benefits such as a much smaller size than conventional units, making it better suited to narrowbody cockpit appli-cations, said Luken. Again, Honeywell designed the unit to provide “significant” weight sav-ings and potentially to replace high-frequency radio communi-cations in the future.

IntuVue’s Weather EyeMeanwhile, Southwest Air-

lines has already begun field-ing another element in the suite destined for the Max–Honey-well’s IntuVue RDR-4000 3-D weather radar–on its present fleet of 737NGs, said Luken. Honeywell promotes the system as the first and only automatic commercial radar to accurately depict weather in the flight path of an aircraft, while also provid-ing turbulence detection up to 60 nm ahead. This is 50 percent farther than any other product.

It also has hail and light-ning prediction capabilities and can differentiate on-path and off-path weather on the display. “Safety, passenger comfort and cost–it hits all of them,” said Ashton. –G.P.

The Airbus A380 is one of five aircraft being shown on the Paris Air Show static display this week by Qatar Airways.

The front-window office of Boeing’s developmental 737 Max features Honeywell’s Integrated Multi-Mode Receiver, IntuVue RDR-4000 3-D weather radar, Aspire satellite communications system and several other 21st-century-tech elements.

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Robotic automation is key to 777X production transitionby Gregory Polek

A new set of drilling and riveting machines recently transferred to Boeing’s massive plant in Everett, Washington, from a high-bay space the company rented in nearby Anacortes marked the latest milestone in its continuing effort to auto-mate 777 production. Called the FAUB (fuselage automated upright build), the machinery employs automated guided robots designed by Kuka Robotics. It drills and fills some 60,000 fasteners that attach the panels that comprise the 777’s forward and aft body sections. Today, Boeing mechanics positioned on both sides of the fuselage perform the task by hand, a repetitive and tiring job that places a lot of stress on their shoulders and hands.

The new process will use automated guided vehicles (AGVs) to move the compo-nents of FAUB into position, including work stands, fuse-lages and the robotic arms that will drill and insert fasteners. The robots, positioned inside and outside the fuselage, not only drill the holes, but also act as a buck-ing bar and perform dynamic riveting.

A 325,000-sq-ft factory extension in Everett houses the FAUB. Boeing expects to start using the system by the end of the year.

The FAUB serves as something of a centerpiece for Boeing’s continuing evolution toward automotive-industry style automation. For example, it will allow the company to remove all of the

body-structures tools in favor of a pro-cess using cradles and AGVs that “pulse” throughout the production system. At the same time, the company plans to remove all the tooling associated with the wing-to-body join, also in favor of a cra-dle-AGV-based production system.

“We will really be transforming the production system in the next two to three years to a monument-free envi-ronment,” said 777 program vice pres-ident and general manager Elizabeth Lund. “That means it’s flexible; it’s easy

to reconfigure; you can take advantage of design changes.”

Correspondingly, as Boeing designs the new 777X–due to enter service around the turn of the decade–it does so with automation in mind, resulting in a transformation of the way it delivers parts and develops production standards for the airplane, added Lund.

Once the 777X enters pro-duction, its composite wing will travel through the same main final assembly line as the

metal wing now used on the current gen-eration airplanes, thanks largely to the flexibility the new monument-free system affords. Boeing expects to continue build-ing metal wings for the 777 freighter for roughly another 10 years, said Lund, or until the company decides to develop a 777X cargo variant with a composite wing.

“We’re also looking at where you put the technology, that it isn’t just putting auto-mation in for automation’s sake,” added

Boeing Commercial Airplanes vice pres-ident of 777 manufacturing Jason Clark. “We’re putting the automation in areas where there is high-volume, repetitive type work–drilling, filling, sealant application–those type of applications that are hard on the human body, that we tend to have a lot of quality constraints on.”

While the FAUB underwent testing over the last year in Anacortes, in Everett the company built a new facility to run in parallel with the current production line, allowing for a slow transition from today’s processes to the new technol-ogy. To ensure that it works as expected, Boeing has also implemented a fatigue program for which it built a test bar-rel with the automation. Situated on the north side of the Everett campus, the barrel neared completion late last month, in time for the planned conclusion of testing in August. “[It] allows us to start onboarding later this year the new tech-nology and the parallel production I was mentioning,” said Clark.

For the empennage, Boeing has estab-lished yet another automated assembly process, using many of the same tech-nologies introduced with the FAUB. The new system will perform roughly 80 per-cent of the drilling and light fastening, eliminating roughly 58,000 manual drills.

Now building 777s at a rate of 8.3 airplanes per month, Boeing continues to express confidence that it will man-age a smooth production transition to the 777X as long as it collects orders for between 50 and 60 current-genera-tion airplanes a month through 2018. Continuous product improvement, said 777 integration leader Doug Ackerman, will ensure a steady flow of orders for the current airplane, plans for which call for capacity addition of some 14 extra seats along with engine, cabin and aerody-namic changes designed to improve fuel efficiency per seat by 5 percent.

Changes include a reduction in empty weight of some 1,200 pounds, elevator trim bias modifications, window drag reduction, flap fairing “optimization” and the removal of the tailskid device through improvements in the software that controls tail strike correction.

Boeing expects to gain the 14 extra seats by shrinking the exterior dimen-sions of the lavatories and switching from a canted seat track pattern in the rear of the cabin to a straight, staggered config-uration, allowing for better use of now wasted space where the fuselage narrows in the rear of the airplane. So far, two cus-tomers have agreed to take the option and Boeing expects to begin delivering that modification in the first half of 2016.

Other improvements coming in the second quarter of 2016 include engine mods by GE expected to result in a half-percent improvement in fuel burn. Other fuel burn enhancements come from a software modification that will allow for a so-called flaps 25 auto-land setting, resulting in more efficient approach speeds. o

One important element in the upcoming transition to 777X production is Boeing’s ability to plan using the same assembly area for the new airliner’s composite wing as it does for the current aluminum wing. And metal wings for current-design 777 freighters could remain in production for another decade.

Jason Clark is Boeing’s v-p of 777 manufacturing.

Designed and built by Kuka Robotics, the FAUB automated machinery on Boeing’s 777 assembly line drills and fills some 60,000 fasteners per aircraft.


Airbus projecting 2017 for first E-Fan deliveryby Thierry Dubois

Participating in the flying dis-play here at the Paris Air Show is Airbus’s E-Fan 1.0 electric air-craft, which has benefited from a number of improvements since it was on the static display here in 2013. Production of the two-seat trainer type is planned to begin in a new factory to be built in Pau, southwest France, starting in 2016. Airbus Group, through its Voltair subsidiary, is thus the first major manufacturer to join the growing number of companies that aspire to create a new, more environmen-tally friendly way of flying.

Extensive Test Program Is Well Under Way

Since March 2014, the E-Fan 1.0 demonstrator has performed 78 test flights, logging 38 flight hours.

Leading up to this year’s show, the aircraft has been heavily modified. “We have reduced the structural weight and made the front landing gear retractable,” Detlef Müller-Wiesner, who is responsible for Airbus Group’s E-Aircraft program directorate, told AIN. He said battery capac-ity has been increased by 30 per-cent, but would not identify a percentage on resulting increase in endurance. As of mid-May, developers were evaluating

possible ways to counter poten-tial thrust asymmetries (in case of a motor failure, for instance), Müller-Wiesner explained.

The production version, the E-Fan 2.0, will offer two seats in a side-by-side configuration (the demonstrator had an aft seat but the space was filled with data transmission equipment). The E-Fan 2.0 will weigh less than 600 kg (1,323 pounds), as Airbus is planning to certify it in the light sport airplane cate-gory and that is the upper weight limit. It will be powered by two 30- 40-kW motors, up from 30 kW on each of the demonstra-tor’s motors. The current official estimate on endurance is 75 min-utes (including reserve).

Neither the demonstrator nor the E-Fan 2.0 will be able to charge batteries during descent. “It would complicate the design of the control unit and the cost-benefit ratio would be unfavor-able,” Müller-Wiesner explained. Another Airbus Group source told AIN that the issue is with the heat such charging activity would generate in a confined space. [Czech Republic-based Pipistrel has a competing program–the WattsUp–in which the propeller would act as a ram-air turbine to recharge the battery. Thirteen

percent of the battery charge would be recouped on every approach, according to Pipistrel.]

An Hour to Top Off a ChargeOn the E-Fan 2.0, a full

charge takes one hour on the ground. This is good news for flying clubs or schools, as the aircraft should be able to fly five hours per day. Another positive part of the equation is the much lower noise level (thanks to the electric motor and ducted fans), which should expand operating

hours at noise-sensitive airports. “The direct operating cost will be 30 percent lower than that of existing, comparable aircraft,” Müller-Wiesner added.

Total development cost is on the order of €50 million, shared between Airbus (€20 million) and partners, including Safran, Zodiac and Siemens. Part of the cost is covered by launch aid from state and local authorities.

Daher is a subcontractor and is in charge of “operating the design office” in Tarbes, Müller-Wiesner

said. The location of Daher’s design and manufacturing facility in Tarbes was a factor in choos-ing Pau (a 40-minute drive) for the E-Fan’s final-assembly site. Con-struction on the factory is planned to begin in the middle of next year. The first delivery of an E-Fan 2.0 is scheduled for the end of 2017, according to Müller-Wiesner.

Airbus Group sees the E-Fan program as a first step toward larger electric or hybrid aircraft; the company has already run a 700-kW motor on a test rig. o

Hexcel invests in Europe with new French factoryby Caroline Bruneau

U.S. composite-parts supplier Hexcel has announced that it is building a new facility in Roussil-lon, near Lyon, in the southeast of France–an important com-mitment to its European custom-ers. When Hexcel (Chalet 113, Hall 2B F80) began looking for a new location in Europe, it had plenty of choices but very strict specifications. “We want to have reliable production lines on both sides of the Atlantic,” vice presi-dent and European general man-ager Thierry Merlot explained to AIN. “We want to get closer to our customers,” he said.

Now based in Lyon, the French engineer has been employed by Hexcel in France since 1988. He saw the composite market take off in Europe, due

to big changes in aircraft design and production over the past 10 years. Hexcel took three and half years to find the perfect location for its new plant.

Despite high labor costs in Europe, especially in France, the choice at the end was logical. Because the EU Seveso Directive regulates the safety of hazardous substances, Merlot said, “We were looking for a location clas-sified as a ‘Seveso high thresh-old site’ able to deal with the chemical installation and water treatment, and one that offers low energy costs. We got offers from all over Europe, about 60 applicants.”

Before the final decision, Hexcel had limited the choices to two sites in France and one

in the UK. “We chose the site at Roussillon in Rhônes-Alpes, 80 km away from our own instal-lation near Lyon,” said Merlot. “The energy price is lower in France than in the UK and it’s also closer to our customers Air-bus and Safran.”

Municipal leaders in Rous-sillon have pledged to help recruiting and training the new employees. No infrastructure will have to be built at the site, because other chemical compa-nies already operate there.

The new facility represents a $250 million investment and will generate 130 direct jobs, plus 130 indirect positions, said Merlot. Hexcel, which already employs some 1,000 people in France, will start the recruitment pro-cess at the end of 2015. The new employees–mostly operators for the production line–will then be trained in the U.S. and Spain in order to start operations at the beginning of 2018. If it works properly, “We could then dou-ble production by 2018/2019,”

Merlot explained. Hexcel is building two factories at the new site. The first will produce poly-acrylonitrile (PAN), the basic material used in many composite materials. The second will manu-facture carbon fiber.

Hexcel products can also be found in cars, skis and wind tur-bines, but by far, its largest mar-ket in Europe is aerospace, at around 90 percent. The company produces carbon-based material for all types of aircraft: helicop-ters, the Ariane rocket launcher and for Dassault’s Falcon and Rafale military aircraft.

Another big customer is Safran, which is starting produc-tion of its new Leap engine, part of the CFM joint-venture with GE. More than 7,500 engines with carbon-fiber blades have already been ordered and it is important for Safran to have a reliable supplier that can help ramp up the program.

Hexcel is also able to invest because of excellent busi-ness forecasts. The company is

looking to boost revenues by more than 66 percent over the next decade, growing from the $1.8 billion it achieved in 2014 (10 percent growth from 2013) to $3 billion in 2020.

At the JEC trade show in Paris back in March, the U.S. group’s president and CEO, Nick Stanage, told reporters that growth will be driven by acquisitions as well as the expanded use of new aero-structures manufacturing tech-nology. Merlot confirmed, “Our revenues will grow by 10 percent a year as we are able to invest capital in our development.” More and more aircraft are using compos-ites, with the Airbus A350XWB consisting of up to 53 percent car-bon-fiber material. The composite components are worth about $5 million per plane.

Here at the Paris Air Show Hexcel is unveiling new materials to help reduce engine noise and offer better heat-resistance, pre-paring the way for the A320neo, Boeing 777X and a possible A380neo. o

The Airbus E-Fan electric aircraft will be built in a new factory located in Pau, southwest France.

SAS357-15_Training&Simulation_TradeAd_AIN_352x275mm (June2015)_r2_FAP.pdf 1 5/6/15 11:37 am

Europe takes some giant steps in RPAS airspace integrationby Bill Carey

Last November, a consor-tium representing French indus-try, government and academia completed a series of 20 flight tests that demonstrated the abil-ity of the one-metric-ton Patrol-ler remotely piloted air system (RPAS) to perform approaches to a mid-sized commercial air-field, Toulouse-Blagnac Airport.

The Patroller flight tests capped the Operational Demon-stration of RPAS in European Airspace (ODREA) project, one of nine projects the Single European Sky ATM Research

(SESAR) Joint Undertaking, or SJU, selected in 2013 to study the feasibility of introducing RPAS into nonsegregated air-space alongside manned air-craft. Those projects, supported by the SJU with €4 million ($4.48 million) in cofinancing, conclude this year.

ODREA’s objectives were to define and validate RPAS pro-cedures for standard instrument departure and standard arrival routes (SIDs and STARs), dem-onstrate the capability to inte-grate an unmanned aircraft

into managed air traffic, and refine its capability to con-duct missions in the event of a lost communications link or detect-and-avoid aware-ness. Through simulations and actual flight tests of the Patrol-ler with a safety pilot aboard and “intruder” aircraft from Muret-Lherm Airport in south-ern France, and involving traffic patterns there and at Toulouse-Blagnac Airport, testers proved the feasibility of manned and unmanned aircraft operating together.

Rockwell Collins France coordinated the ODREA proj-ect. Sagem (Hall 2a A228/A252), which developed the optionally piloted Patroller from the Ger-man Stemme S15 motor glider, provided the RPAS. Sagem said it demonstrated “a complete anti-collision function” on the Patroller using a combination of sensors, including an infrared optronic device, automatic dependent sur-veillance-broadcast receiver, “and an automatic risk collision estima-tion and avoidance flightpath gen-eration” algorithm running in an onboard computer.

Also participating in ODREA were France’s DGAC civil avia-tion authority, air navigation service provider DSNA and the National Civil Aviation School (ENAC). The group conducted

a final workshop in Toulouse on March 31.

Other SJU-sponsored RPAS demonstration projects involved industry and government part-ners from Czech Republic, Germany, Italy, Malta, the Netherlands, Spain and the UK. The DSNA coordinated a second project in France–Test-ing Emergency Procedures in Approach and En Route Inte-gration Simulation (TEM-PAERIS)–which also involved Airbus Defense and Space, Air-bus ProSky (Hall Concorde 17), Cassidian, Sopra Steria (Static B2) and ENAC (Hall Concorde 02). That effort evaluated the use of an Airbus-developed DynAero MCR4S lightplane, serving as an RPAS surrogate, with air traffic to and from Bor-deaux-Mérignac Airport. The consortium announced on Feb-ruary 15 that it had successfully completed its flight program.

Confidence BuildersProminent among the accom-

plishments of the projects was to “demystify” the use of RPAS, according to organizers. “These demo projects are very useful and key to increasing awareness and stakeholder familiariza-tion, and (they) give confidence to aviation authorities,” to con-duct more complex trials, Célia Alves Rodrigues, the SESAR JU’s environment officer, stated in a presentation to the ODREA final workshop.

RPAS will be further incor-porated in the Single European Sky vision under the SESAR 2020 research effort, which is due to begin this year and extend through 2024. The SJU published the first call for pro-posals for 11 air traffic manage-ment (ATM) projects in March, for which €20.6 million in co-financing is available. While the effort focuses more broadly on ATM, unmanned aircraft figure to play a significant role.

“Research may address any part of the ATM system from strategic planning through airport operations to tactical air traffic control and colli-sion avoidance,” reads the call for tenders. “Research is also needed to support the integra-tion of new and diverse air-craft types, including remotely piloted vehicles. The inte-gration of RPAS or highly autonomous aerial vehicles provides a number of automa-tion challenges requiring new supervision and control para-digms, which could extend to such developments as multi-ple simultaneous control and swarm dynamics.” o


The Sagem Patroller executes an approach to Toulouse-Blagnac Airport under the European-supported ODREA project.

SIKORSKY MATRIX AUTONOMY PROGRAM LOOKS AHEAD

Sikorsky is proceeding with flight-test-ing more unmanned “autonomous” helicop-ters, and is planning to add a Black Hawk to its Autonomy Program next year.

The U.S. rotorcraft manufacturer’s Matrix Technology program launched in mid-2013, giv-ing helicopters various degrees of automation. To

date, the only Sikorsky Autonomy Research Aircraft (SARA) to fly is a modified S-76. It features fly-by-wire controls and a number of sensors and has completed autonomous takeoffs and landings. It has also performed flights where it avoided obsta-cles and autonomously selected a landing zone.

“SARA has, to date, flown more than 75

hours of engaged, unmanned time with Matrix technology, and we have a robust sched-ule to continue to expand the flight-test enve-lope,” said Igor Cherepinsky, chief engineer for Sikorsky’s Autonomy Program, in mid-May.

In 2014, Sikorsky acquired a Black Hawk mil-itary helicopter, which it is now inducting into the program. The idea is to “further our efforts to demonstrate the optionally piloted capabil-ities in a military platform,” Cherepinsky went on. Reconfiguration of the aircraft is in process, and the Black Hawk is scheduled to fly “some-time in late 2016.”

Sikorsky has been involved in related pro-grams with the U.S. Army and Darpa (Defence Advanced Research Projects Agency). The former effort involves UAV-UGV (unmanned air vehicle-unmanned ground vehicle) collab-oration. Darpa, meanwhile, awarded Sikorsky a contract in the Aircrew Labor In-Cockpit Automation System (Alias) program, which envisions a “tailorable, drop-in, removable kit” that would incorporate high levels of automation in existing aircraft, enabling a smaller crew. –T.D.

Sikorsky’s autonomy program, which so far has involved a modified S-76, is about to also have a Black Hawk participating.


After record ramp-up, Boeing fine-tunes 787 by Gregory Polek

Despite all their well-publi-cized problems, the two assembly plants that churn out Boeing’s 787 Dreamliner have managed to accelerate production faster than any other widebody program in history. Now building ten 787s per month, Boeing has already put in place all the factory equip-ment it needs to increase rates to 12 per month next year, reported 787 vice president and general manager Larry Loftis. Plans call for an increase in rate at the plant in Charleston, South Carolina,

from three to five, while, in Everett, Washington, the com-pany consolidates the produc-tion of seven airplanes into a single line.

Just last month, Boeing announced it would close the so-called surge line in Everett, established in 2011 to “de-risk” production rate increases and introduction of the 787-9, said Loftis. By October the com-pany expects to start assem-bly of the last 787 scheduled to roll down the surge line, deliver the airplane by the end of the year and begin to convert the space into a production line for early copies of the 777X. In the meantime, Boeing will need to transfer three 787s from the surge line, resulting in a rate of seven per month at the main line in Everett by the end of the year.

“I think it’s a strong testa-ment to the production health and maturity, both at Everett and at Charleston, and it allows Charleston to accelerate the rate increase to get to 12 a little bit earlier,” said Loftis. “So the tim-ing is really good for us because it allows us to take the person-nel off the temporary surge line, move a number of them over to

the main line, get the training in place, get them used to the jobs they’re going to be working to really de-risk the ramp-up on the main line.”

Charleston Goes It AloneMeanwhile, program leaders

have begun to prepare to intro-duce into production exclusively at Charleston the 787-10–the largest of the three Dreamliners destined to enter service–by the end of next year. By then pro-duction of the 787-9, some 20 of which Boeing had delivered by mid-May, should predomi-nate, said Loftis. By the end of this year Boeing expects the -9 to account for half of all the Dreamliners it builds.

Ultimately, by the turn of the decade, Boeing plans to split pro-duction evenly between Everett and Charleston, each of which build seven airplanes a month.

“Believe it or not, some of the preparatory work is already in place for that as well,” said Loftis. “[There’s] not a whole lot required to go from 12 to 14 because we’ll gain most of that capacity through produc-tivity gains. But we are making sure that there’s enough capital as far as building facilities; those things are being put in place to make sure when we go to those rates we’ll be ready for it.”

As Boeing raises produc-tion rates, it goes through what Loftis called a rate readiness review with its suppliers, where the company conducts audits to ensure that they have secured the needed capital equipment, tool-ing, staffing, training processes and plans in place to order long-lead-time items such as forg-ings. “In areas that have bit us in the past we’ve learned a lot over the number of rate breaks we’ve done, explained Loftis, who named insufficient raw materials such as aluminum and titanium as common “failure modes.”

“You can think of all the things we’ve stumbled over in the past,” he said. “I’m kind of excited about a new process. Instead of letting each one of our major suppliers go out and say, ‘Here’s how many fasteners I need,’ we started to aggregate at the airplane level.”

The method allows much more clarity to the process houses, explained Loftis. “So they know what’s coming, versus getting a

big order from one supplier and a big order from another and they aren’t timed right.”

The importance of tim-ing, and perhaps more pre-cisely, sequence, also applies to Boeing’s own assembly lines. For example, the company now installs many of the 787’s inte-rior components, such as gal-leys and lavatories, on the line’s last two positions, which tends to place a heavy work burden at the end of the build process. Recently, Loftis and company decided to rebalance its work statement to move those items to positions earlier in the build, allowing technicians to install a fully assembled galley before they join the body sections. The change will avoid the need to take apart the galley to move the parts through the passenger doors and reassemble it inside the airplane.

Boeing institutes such changes in the interest of

flowtime, reduction of which must accompany any rate in-creases, explained Loftis. “That’s a real enabler,” he said. “The crews get to cycle faster, so they get more repetitive on the jobs. For example, if you’re going to spend five days, at a position, a crew has to know five days’ worth of work. If you’re going to do it in three days, they have to know only three days worth of work and they can get better at it. So you tend to come down a pro-ductivity curve a lot faster.”

Of course, the amount of so-called rework in the factory also affects productivity. Loftis said the company has effected signif-icant reductions in such “non-value-added” activity and that the pace of those reductions has accelerated in the second quarter. “The airplane did not perform in service from a reliability stand-point to our expectations,” he conceded. “So we put a lot of time and effort into fixing components

that were malfunctioning or breaking.” Consequently, Boeing aggressively addressed the issues “mainly because we had to,” said Loftis, improving reliabil-ity rates from roughly between 96.5 and 97 percent in the spring of 2013, following the grounding of the worldwide fleet due to bat-tery overheating, to close to 99 percent today.

“The number of fixes that we’ve put in place over the past two and a half years have [resulted in] a lot of improvement,” he stressed. “It’s really showing itself here, as well, in [less need for pre-delivery test flying] to make sure it’s meeting all of our standards and our customers’ standards. So that’s also really helping to drive more predictability into our delivery schedules and plans.” o

Above: Boeing has delivered more than twenty 787-9s since Air New Zealand took its first copy last July. Below: Boeing expects the main 787 assembly line in Everett, Washington, to produce seven airplanes a month after it closes the surge line later this year.

Boeing 787 vice president and general manager Larry Loftis

Airbus sees 20-year demand for 32,600 modern-build jetsby Gregory Polek

Global passenger traffic will grow at an average 4.6 percent a year, driving a need for some 32,600 new mainline air-craft worth $4.9 trillion, according to Airbus’s latest global market forecast, issued at the Paris Air Show on Monday.

By 2034, passenger and freighter fleets will more than double from today’s 19,000 aircraft to 38,500. More fuel effi-cient types will replace some 13,100 pas-senger and freighter aircraft, Airbus said.

Emerging economies will account

for the fastest growth, expanding at some 5.8 percent a year compared with more advanced economies, like those in Western Europe or North America, which forecasts indicate will grow collectively at 3.8 percent. Now accounting for 31 per-cent of worldwide private consumption, emerging economies will represent 43 per-cent of consumption by 2034.

According to the Airbus data, in today’s emerging economies, 25 percent of the pop-ulation take one trip per year. Airbus proj-ects that number will increase to 74 percent by 2034. In advanced economies, such as

North America, the tendency to travel will exceed two trips per year, it added.

“Asia Pacific will lead in world traffic by 2034 and China will be the world’s big-gest aviation market within 10 years, and clearly Asia and emerging markets are the catalyst for strong air traffic growth,” said Airbus COO for customers John Leahy. “Today, we are ramping up production of the A350 XWB and we are studying further production rate increases beyond rate 50 for single aisle aircraft to meet the increasing demand for air transportation.”

In the widebody market, Airbus fore-casts a trend towards higher-capacity aircraft on long haul, and an increas-ingly wide range of regional and domes-tic sectors. As a result, Airbus forecasts a requirement for some 9,600 widebody passenger and freighter aircraft over the next 20 years, valued at some $2.7 tril-lion and representing 30 percent of all new aircraft deliveries.

In the single-aisle market, the latest Airbus forecast sees a requirement for nearly 23,000 new aircraft worth $2.2 trillion over the next 20 years, an increase of nearly 1,000 aircraft compared with the estimate in the previous forecast. o


Airbus’s market survey calls for a trend toward high-capacity aircraft, such as this A350 and A380 tag team, for long-haul operations. Over the next 20 years, the airframer sees a need for some 9,600 passenger and freighter versions of this class.

M346 now taking on a new, aggressive roleby David Donald

Over the past few weeks, the Italian air force has been test-ing the Alenia Aermacchi M346 advanced trainer in a new role, mimicking a threat target as a “Red Air” aggressor in dissimilar air combat training (DACT) with front-line Eurofighter Typhoon fighters. Aermacchi has received considerable interest from a num-ber of customers regarding this new capability, which highlights the versatility of the M346 and its ability to provide cost-effective, high-quality training that reduces the burden on the front line.

During the trials, the M346 flew as an aggressor against the Typhoons of the 4° Stormo (4th wing) at Grosseto, which parents both a front-line squadron and the Typhoon operational con-version unit (OCU). The data-link capability of both aircraft types allowed them to be fully interoperable, with no changes required. Trials were highly suc-cessful, and currently the Italian air force is writing the standard operating procedures necessary to introduce the aggressor capa-bility into service.

Alenia Aermacchi claims that the M346 has much to offer in this role, notably its ability to fly for extended periods at sus-tained G-forces. For instance, the aircraft can sustain a 5g turn for 20 minutes. Current aggres-sor types in use are either older trainers and fighters that do not represent a modern threat, or front-line fighters that are very expensive to operate and do not have the endurance when maneuvering hard because of the need to use afterburner.

In addition to the aggres-sor role, Alenia Aermacchi is highlighting the related func-tion of companion trainer. The company is seeing an increas-ing need for post-OCU training to maintain proficiency and to bring pilots up to higher states of combat readiness.

With its high maneuvering and climb performance–as well as embedded virtual training sys-tems that allow the replication of threats, weapons and radar in the cockpit–the M346 could find a place alongside front-line air-craft to offset flying hours from the operational fleet, in addition to its more traditional Phase 3/4 advanced/tactical training duties. In a companion trainer concept, front-line pilots could accomplish some of their train-ing requirements in the M346, especially those who are newly qualified in the operational type.

Italy’s air force was the first customer for the M346 (desig-nated T-346A in air force ser-vice), with a stated aim of acquiring 15. Nine have been ordered so far, serving with the 61° Stormo (61st wing) at Lecce-Galatina. Last month it was announced that some Dutch pilots will train with the Italian unit, particularly those

destined to fly the F-35 JSF.Alenia Aermacchi has also

delivered M346s to Singapore and Israel (the type is known as the Lavi in Israel) and has begun construction of eight aircraft for Poland, with the first set due for delivery in November. The type is also in the running for the U.S. Air Force’s T-X advanced trainer requirement. o

With its fighter-like performance, the M346 is being touted as an aggressor aircraft and companion trainer.

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WHEELS FOR WINGS

It takes a lot of punishment getting an extra-widebody back to terra firma. Messier-Bugatti-Dowty’s main landing gear for the Airbus A350-800/900 consists of an impressive four-wheel bogie. �

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New airshow to be launched in Chinaby David Donald

Officials from the Sichuan province in China will announce plans today for a new international airshow, to be held every two years from September 2017 at Deyang-Guanghan Airport near Cheng-du, one of the major hubs of China’s aerospace industry and home to one of China’s fastest-growing economic regions.

Working with Sichuan province to make the show a reality are the European Union Project Innovation Centre and Farnborough Airshow organizer Farn- borough International Ltd.

Under current plans the show will comprise three trade days, targeting 30,000 visitors, and two public days dur-ing which a crowd of 100,000 is target-ed. Between 300 and 400 exhibitors are expected, with around 60 static display aircraft and a similar number in the fly-ing display. The former military airfield at Guanghan is now home to the Chi-nese civil aviation flight university, and more than 90 percent of China’s airline aircrew train there.

The Sichuan show will focus on civil and commercial aerospace, including MRO and support services. Chinese

conglomerates AVIC, CATIC and Comac will be represented in force, and the show is being promoted as a forum where overseas companies can explore means of getting involved in the growing Chinese market.

China’s aviation base is expanding apace, with 56 new airports being planned and 91 others slated for significant reno-vation and expansion.

Chinese airlines are expected to need around 4,000 new aircraft over the next 20 years, according to Airbus, while Boeing’s outlook suggests nearly 6,000 might be required.

Establishing an airshow in the Chengdu region represents an impor-tant departure for China, where existing events are all located in the eastern part of the country. Chengdu is the nation’s western-most major city, with excel-lent transport links, including a newly opened rail freight hub that provides direct access into China from Europe. The city boasts more than 30 aerospace enterprises and research centers, with more than 50,000 employees working in the aerospace sector. o

VARIETY SHOW

The Paris Air Show has a unique mix of aircraft types and missions. Standing on the ramp, you might see Textron Beechcraft's fully armed AT-6 attack turboprop being towed by, foreground. Or perhaps Honeywell's Boeing 757 testbed (with an extra engine pylon and lots of added antennas), left, and a Citation business jet. It's all here at Le Bourget.�

‘Fighting’ Fokker goes on showby David Donald

One of the more eye-catching exhibits in the Paris Air Show static park is the DGA-EV’s new Fokker 100 ABE-NG test-bed, equipped with a range of combat systems that are more normally seen on the Dassault Rafale multi-role warplane. The retired airliner–on dis-play at the French Ministère de la Défense’s static area (B3)–

has undergone a series of mod-ifications to make it an ideal platform for testing advanced systems for the Dassault fighter.

For many years the DGA-EV (Direction Générale de l’Armement-Essais en Vol) and its immediate predecessor, Cen-tre d’Essais en Vol (CEV), has used a fleet of aircraft to perform systems trials duties, notably the

Dassault Falcon 20. Although the Falcon performed well in the role, the increasing difficulty in keep-ing the aircraft airworthy and the limitations of the aircraft’s cabin and power supply was leading to it being less useful in the test role.

Accordingly, in 2009 the CEV began a search for a new platform. Aircraft such as the A320 with digital flight control were ruled

out, while the Boeing 737 did not offer sufficient ground clearance and the Falcon 2000 business jet was considered too small. In 2010 the answer was found in the form of the Fokker 100, and an airliner recently retired by Régional (Air France) was purchased.

Sabena Technics at Dinard-Pleurtuit was contracted to per-form the modification work, as well as to provide 20 years of in-service support. Changes to the airframe involved a new nose section that mounted the RBE2 radar and front-sector optronics

of the Rafale, as well as structural changes to allow the carriage of sensor pods. Hardpoints were added under the wings to allow the carriage of MICA air-to-air missiles and under the fuse-lage to carry systems such as the Reco NG reconnaissance pod.

Internally, the flight deck was left largely unchanged, apart from the addition of a sidestick and screen console on the copilot’s side. The main cabin was stripped of seats and replaced by four oper-ator consoles and modular elec-tronic racks for test equipment. The former hold now accommo-dates a sensor system interface with the test instruments, as well as also cooling systems.

Known as the ABE-NG (Avion Banc d’Essais-Nouvelle Génération), DGA-EV’s new tes-tbed took to the air again after modification in December 2013, before engaging on a test cam-paign to gain EASA certification. In testing and developing new systems for the Rafale and other tactical air systems, DGA-EV hopes to fly around 150 times annually, operating mainly from the DGA-EV’s test centers in Istres and Cazaux. o

DGA-EV’s new Rafale testbed is a Fokker 100 airliner that can carry missiles and sensor pods, as well as combat radar.

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Textron awaiting key UAV decisionsby David Donald

Textron Systems subsidiary Unmanned Systems is show-ing off its range of UAVs at the Paris Air Show as the company awaits decisions on two major contracts expected later this year. In November, the French DGA is expected to down-select a contractor to meet its tactical unmanned air system (TUAS) requirement, although the deci-sion process may be accelerated. Before then, Textron expects to find out if its bid for a U.S. Special Operations Command (SOCOM) service provision con-tract is successful.

For the French requirement, Textron Systems (Static A4)

is teamed with prime contrac-tor Airbus Defence & Space to offer the Shadow M2, a second-generation TUAS. The vehicle was developed with a range of improvements over the existing RQ-7 Shadow 200, including bet-ter performance and reliability.

Trials This WeekIt has dual-payload capabil-

ity in its basic form, but can also carry wing-mounted payload pods to enhance multi-sensor capability. The M2 also intro-duces a satellite communications link that “provides more of a strategic capability in a Group 3 platform,” according to Textron

Unmanned Systems senior vice president and general manager Bill Irby. Some further modifi-cations have been incorporated to accommodate French needs. This week the Shadow M2 is being demonstrated in the U.S. to DGA officials.

Textron’s current Shadow 200 isn’t being ignored either–it was recently given full digital datalink capability. In addition, the air vehi-cle is now weaponized with a num-ber of munitions options, including Textron’s own Fury laser/GPS-guided precision weapon.

Aerosonde is the third of Tex-tron’s UAS offerings, a smaller Group 2 (SUAS) vehicle that has been employed, as the MQ-19, by U.S. Naval Air Systems Com-mand and SOCOM under ser-vice provision contracts. Special Operations Command is cur-rently evaluating a third iteration of its mid-endurance UAS con-tract (MEUAS III) and is expect-ed to make a decision in the late summer/early fall.

Also the object of interest from the Netherlands, the Aero-sonde is a catapult-launched air vehicle that is recovered by net. A typical system comprises four air vehicles and two ground control stations that are usually accom-modated in tents, although it can

be tailored to fit in most vehicles. In the latest configuration, the system also includes remote vid-eo terminals that allow individu-al users to uplink new navigation waypoints and sensor commands to the vehicle from a ruggedized tablet-sized device, as well as re-ceive sensor imagery and video.

Aerosonde was selected for the current MEUAS II contract, but it suffered from engine-reli-ability issues. Textron Unmanned Systems has worked hard with its Lycoming engine division to successfully rectify the issues. “We’ve earned our way back into SOCOM,” remarked Irby. “We’re now a model for reliability.”

Key features of the Aerosonde are its long-endurance capability, and its proven multi-mission capa-bility to undertake up to five tasks simultaneously, including com-munications relay. Sensors are housed in a nose-mounted turret that is retractable to avoid dam-age during recovery, and in a fuse-lage payload bay. A quick-change payload pod can be carried con-formally under the fuselage.

Besides military applications, Aerosonde is being promoted for commercial uses, and Textron already has one customer for the system in the oil/gas sec-tor. According to Irby, this area of unmanned applications is expected to provide rapidly expanding opportunities as reli-ability of the systems increases yet further. o

UTC confirms its plan to divest Sikorsky unitby Thierry Dubois

UTC on Monday announced that it will pursue the separa-tion of its Sikorsky helicopter business, subject to final board approval. “Our strategic review has confirmed that exiting the helicopter business is the best path forward for United Technologies,” said UTC president and CEO Gregory Hayes.

According to the U.S.-based group, removing Sikorsky from the portfolio will “better position UTC to focus on providing high-tech-nology systems and services to the aerospace and building industries.” However, the parent company still has to decide whether the move will be in the shape of a sale or a spi-noff and that choice will be prob-ably announced by the end of July, according to Hayes.

Excluding Sikorsky, UTC con-tinues to expect organic sales growth of 3 to 5 percent annually. In March, the company released a

comparative chart where Sikorsky appeared to be lagging rival heli-copter manufacturers, with a margin slightly greater than 10 percent in 2014 and a projected annual growth of about 3 percent through 2023.

More recently, a decline in Sikorsky’s operational expecta-tions for the year–due to weakness in the oil-and-gas market–nega-tively impacted earnings per share by $0.10. A plan for 1,400 job cuts was announced earlier in June.

Commercial sales have been much slower than hoped and total Sikorsky sales in 2015 will there-fore be down by a single-digit per-centage, according to a revised outlook. For the longer term the outlook remains positive as the tar-get revenue is $10 billion by 2015, compared to $7.5 billion in 2014. Speaking at an investor meeting on Monday, Hayes said Sikorsky is “still a great company.” o


Textron is showing a wide array of unmanned aerial vehicles here at the Paris Air Show. Meanwhile, some vital decisions on its products are in the works.

SILVERCREST SHININGSnecma's developmental Silvercrest turbofan is slated to power Dassault's Falcon 5X, due for certification in 2017. Thanks, in part, to the Silvercrest’s fuel efficiency, Falcon 5X range is projected to be 5,200 nautical miles.

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BOMBARDIER SEES A $650B FUTURE

Bombardier released a market forecast on Sunday that predicts 12,700 aircraft in the 60- to 150-seat seg-ment worth $650 billion will be delivered between 2015 and 2034. Bombardier vice president for business acqui-sition Ross Mitchell talked about “robust growth” over the next 20 years due to fac-tors such as changes in air-line pilot scope clauses and technology improvements.

North America will lead, with 3,600 predicted new aircraft deliveries, followed by greater China (2,450) and Europe (2,100). China’s share will grow in the 100- to 150-seat sub-segment, but North America will still be first here, at 1,900 aircraft, followed by China at 1,500.

“The Chinese market con-tinues to develop–regional airports are being added and, as GDP increases, traf fic is increasing,” said Bombardier senior vice president of sales and asset management Colin Bole.

According to the forecast, the 100- to 150-seat seg-ment will total 7,000 aircraft in the 2015 to 2034 period. The Bombardier CSeries’ maximum capacity is 160 seats. –T.D.

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Pilatus’ long awaited jet gets off to a flying startby David Donald

Pilatus has brought both its PC-12 turboprop single busi-ness/utility aircraft and PC-21 trainer to the Paris Air Show, but the prototype of the com-pany’s latest product, the PC-24 business jet, is not here–being now fully engaged in its flight test campaign, which began last month.

Prototype P01 undertook its maiden flight from Buochs in Switzerland on May 11, tak-ing off for a 55-minute flight, during which the landing gear was left extended. Pilot in com-mand Paul Mulcahy and test pilot Reto Aeschlimann report-ed “beautiful handling.” Reg-istered HB-VXA, the proto-type had flown six times as of this week, and had chalked up 14 hours in the air as part of what is planned as a 2,300-hour trials campaign.

Pilatus initiated the PC-24 program in 2007. “After eight years’ wait it was very exciting to see it fly,” Pilatus chairman Oscar Schwenk told AIN. The com-pany is building two further pro-totypes to complete the test and certification process. While P01 is undertaking initial envelope expansion tests, P02 is being pre-pared for a first flight around the end of October. This machine is expected to spend much of the campaign with Honeywell in the U.S., trialling the avionics and autopilot systems.

P03 is the third test airframe, and will be completed to pro-duction-representative stan-dards, with a full cabin. It will be the compliance item for cer-tification, and will also be used for customer demonstrations, which are scheduled to start at the end of 2016.

Under current planning Pilatus expects to fly P03 in the middle of next year, although Schwenk noted that its comple-tion may be delayed to incor-porate improvements that may arise from the tests with P01 and P02.

Hot and ColdPart of the campaign involves

hot- and cold-weather trials, the former likely to be undertaken in southern Spain. Icing trials are perhaps the most difficult to plan. Tests can be performed using molded foam to simulate icing, but certification requires demonstration in real heavy icing conditions.

The test crew cannot pre-dict where and when this will occur, so it inevitably involves some waiting around and rapid deployments to find the right conditions.

Rough-field testing will start in early 2017 as one of the last elements to be cleared. Certification is planned for mid-2017, with initial deliveries com-mencing a month after.

Serial production will com-mence at least 10 months prior to that, initially with a 10-air-craft pre-production batch. Production will ramp up with increasing batch sizes, and Pilatus has a maximum capaci-ty planned for producing 50 air-craft per year.

Pilatus opened the order book for its PC-24 “super versatile jet” at the 2014 EBACE show in Geneva, and in just 36 hours had notched up 84 orders. Pilatus is expecting to deliver those aircraft by the end of 2019. For now the order book is temporarily closed so that Pilatus can concentrate on the flight tests and finalizing pro-duction details to fulfil the initial batch of orders. Schwenk expects Pilatus to be in a position to begin accepting new orders in mid-2016.

The Swiss company has de-signed the baseline PC-24 to a high specification, but also is ex-amining a range of options, in-cluding special missions. “We see this aircraft as being excellent for government use,” said Schwenk.

One mission fit that will be available from the start is a full medevac configuration. The Royal Flying Doctor Service of Australia–a major operator of the Pilatus PC-12 single-engine turboprop–is one of the launch customers for the

PC-24, having ordered six aircraft. Pilatus will work closely with the RFDS to in-troduce the aircraft, especial-ly as it will be used regularly for rough-field operations. “It’s good to have customers who fly a lot under extreme condi-tions,” said Schwenk. “We can learn a lot about operating the aircraft from them.” o

PILATUS PC-24 BUSINESS JETPrice $8.9M (2017 $)

Powerplant

Williams FJ44-4A 2 @ 3,400 lbf

External Dimensions

Wingspan 55.75 ft/17 m

Length 55.17 ft/16.82 m

Height 17.33 ft/5.3 m

Cabin

Max passengers 6

Volume 501 cubic feet/14.2 cubic m

Length 23 ft/7 m

Width 5.58 ft/1.69 m

Height 5.08 ft/1.55 m

Performance

Max cruise speed @FL300 425 ktas

NBAA IFR range w/4 Pax 1,950 nm/3,610 km

Ceiling 45,000 ft/13,716 m

Takeoff balanced field length 2,690 ft/820 m

Landing distance 2,525 ft/770 m

Stall speed (MLW, ISA, sea level) 81 kias

Weights

Max takeoff 17,650 lb/8,005 kg

Max landing 16,250 lb/7,370 kg

Max zero fuel 13,450 lb/6,100 kg

Usable fuel 5,965 lb/2,705 kg

Max payload 2,500 lb/1,135 kg

Max payload with full fuel 915 lb /415 kgSource: Pilatus Aircraft

FLIR WINS AIRBUS DEAL

FLIR Systems (Chalet 373) and Airbus Helicopters Deutschland announced the selection of FLIR’s Star Safire 380-HD as the preferred electro-optical system for the H145 T2 medium helicopter and the compact 380-HDc system for the H135 P3/T3 Meghas.

The Star Safire 380-HD will be the stan-dard mission system available from Airbus Helicopters for H145 T2 operators until at least Dec. 31, 2017, the companies said. The 380-HDc system will be available for H135 P3/T3 light helicopters for the same period.

“The selection of the Star Safire 380-HDc provides a major technical advance-ment to the global airborne law enforcement market,” said Kevin Tucker, FLIR surveil-lance vice president and general manager. “Traditionally, it has been split between large-turreted systems and much less-capa-ble lightweight systems. Airbus Helicopters has recognized that the Star Safire 380-HDc provides large-system capability, but at little more than half the weight and cost.” –B.C.

The Pilatus PC-24 first flew from the company’s Buochs plant on May 11.

THE LONG GRAY LINE

Qatar Airways brought five aircraft to the Paris Air Show (see story on page 56). Now in its 18th year of operation, the Gulf carrier flies 157 aircraft to destinations around the world, including Europe, the Middle East, Africa, Asia-Pacific and North and South America.


NEWS CLIPS z Embraer Predicts 6,350 Narrowbody Deliveries

A new 20-year forecast released by Embraer for the 70- to 130-seat airliner segment projects deliveries of 6,350 jets worth $300 billion. The company sees a demand for 2,250 units in the 70- to 90-seat segment and 4,100 in the 90- to 130-seat category.

The forecast’s regional breakdown shows North America accounting for a 32-percent share of demand, followed by Europe at 18 percent, China at 16 percent and Latin America at 11 percent. Embraer attributes the growth in the U.S. to a capacity discipline that has proven “very effective” in generating higher profits. As airlines become more attractive to investors, a shift in the main business goals from unit cost and market share to unit profit and return on investment will result, it concluded.

“Right-sized aircraft can regularly generate higher profit per seat since they have fewer available seats allocated for low-fare passengers,” explained Embraer Commercial Aviation CEO Paulo Cesar Silva. “High efficiency of assets is essential to sound financial performance. Those attributes–combined with hub-and-spoke efficiency, narrowbody aircraft complement and new market development–will generate significant demand for new aircraft in the segment.”

z GATE To Focus On Human FactorsHeld during the Dubai Airshow, this year’s Gulf Aviation

Training Event (GATE) will take place on November 10 and 11. Bringing together industry players and with an accent on Middle East training issues, GATE will cover several timely topics such as the issue of human factors versus automation. This will address the issue of whether airlines should revise their training standards and operating procedures in the light of recent accidents such as Air France 447, Asiana OZ214 and Germanwings 4U9525.

Flight-tracking systems will also come under scrutiny, another current topic following the Malaysia Airlines MH370 and MH17 tragedies, with discussion regarding how crews might require additional training in their use. Other sessions include topics such as multi-crew pilot licence ab initio training, and how the Middle East/North Africa can meet the challenges posed by the increasing numbers of experienced airline pilots that are retiring.

z Starburst Provides Startup AccelerationStarburst Accelerator (Static B4) is at the Paris Air Show this

week to highlight its ability to provide assistance to innovative startup companies in the aerospace sector. Twenty of the 30 startups that have benefited from the Paris office’s business acceleration services are represented at the show, and a further 12 successful applicants have been selected this week.

Impulse Partners created Starburst Accelerator last year to provide a full set of services to startups as they strive to achieve growth status. Assistance includes establishing contacts with major aerospace companies, liaison with investors, city-center accommodation and themed workshops. The remit of the accelerator is to promote innovation within all areas of the aerospace sector.

Following on from the success of the Paris-based operation, a new accelerator has been established in Los Angeles and third is planned to launch in Germany this fall.

z Crane’s Transformers Win New Contracts Crane Aerospace & Electronics (Hall 4 A178) transformer

rectifier units (TRUs) have been selected for the Comac C919 narrowbody and for Gulfstream’s new G500 and G600.

For the C919’s horizontal stabilizer motor control electronics, Parker has chosen the Eldec auto TRU.

Gulfstream has picked Crane’s Eldec TRU, five of which will provide DC bus power throughout the G500/G600. The 250 Amp TRU offers a 115-volt AC three-phase current at 400-Hz input, with 28-volt DC output power. The airframer uses the same TRU on the G650.

ATR expects to log $1.98B in new business at Le Bourgetby Caroline Bruneau

ATR this week expects to announce another 46 orders for its family to twin turboprop regional airliners, plus options for another 35. Collectively, the announcements to be made here at the Paris Air Show will be valued at $1.98 billion.

On Monday morning, Japan Air Commuter signed an order for eight ATR 42-600s, plus options for 1 more and pur-chase rights for another 14, in a deal worth $496 million.

This is the first business ATR has won in Japan, and the aircraft are due to enter ser-vice in 2017. It also means that ATR has passed the 1,500 mark for total orders.

“We are proud to be able to introduce the ATR air-craft to the skies of Japan,” Japan Air Commuter president Arata Yasujima told reporters. “The ATR 42-600 is a perfect match for the regional routes of the JAL Group [due to its]

economical, environmental and operational specifications. Also we believe that the high level of ATR’s reliability and our quality of operation will sat-isfy our passengers’ needs. The brand-new aircraft will take our passengers to many beau-tiful destinations, especially the islands of Kagoshima, in the southern part of Japan.”

Also on Monday at the airshow, it was announced that Spain’s Binter Canarias had agreed to buy another six of the larger ATR 72-600 model. Deliveries of these aircraft will start later this year and be com-pleted by 2017, joining the 16 ATRs already operated by the Canary Islands-based carrier. o

PATRIOTIC PRECISION

The French military jet team Patrouille de France overflew the grounds of the Paris Air Show during President Hollande’s visit yesterday. Flying their classic Alphajets, the team left its signature banner of red, white and blue smoke in the skies of Le Bourget. Look for them to fly again on the show's public days this weekend.

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ELBIT LAUNCHES AIR KEEPER SIGINT/EW FOR CIVIL AIRCRAFT

Elbit Systems (Chalet 200 and Static A8) has chosen the 2015 Paris Air Show to launch its “Air Keeper” airborne Sigint/EW (signals intelligence and electronic warfare) offering which enables civil aircraft to assist in dealing more efficiently with targets of opportunity when encountered in a hostile environment.

Already operational, Air Keeper has been designed for quick and easy integration on cargo, transport and passenger aircraft. In addition to its ability to be installed without interfering with the aircraft’s platform func-tionality and mission, the main advantage of Air Keeper is that it combines soft-kill EW with traditional Sigint capabilities in one system.

Air Keeper comprises seven subsystems, mostly from Elbit’s Elisra subsidiary, that can be tailored to meet individual customer requirements. An electronic support measures/intelligence subsystem provides full-spec-trum coverage, from 0.5 to 40 GHz, enabling the interception of all radar signals across air, sea and land domains.

In addition, Air Keeper has electronic countermeasures functions to jam hostile emissions. Similar capabil-ities, for both direction-finding/interception and jamming are provided for communications in the spectrum from high frequency (HF) to 6 GHz.

A fifth subsystem for command and control provides the means by which operators can manage the system and exploit the intelligence gathered by the Comint/direction-finding and ESM/Elint subsystems. A self-protection sub-system can interface Air Keeper with the platform’s defensive systems, while a satellite communications subsystem is provided for a two-way link with ground stations for both communication and the relay of intelligence data. –D.D.


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Swiss boosts Bombardier with CSeries order upgradeby Charles Alcock & Chris Pocock

CSeries launch operator Swiss gave Bombardier a further boost on Monday when it upgraded 10 of its 30 firm orders for the CS100 model to the larger CS300. The change adds about $90 million to the value of the deal, as the CS300 is priced at around $72 million, compared to $63 million for the CS100.

“With its size and its low operating costs, the CS300 ideally complements the CS100 and the rest of our European fleet,” said Swiss CEO Harry Hohmeister. “With both versions of the new CSeries family of aircraft in our ranks, we can be highly flexible in tailoring capacity to demand on our European routes.”

The first of the CS100 aircraft set to be delivered to Swiss, after certification is achieved at the end of this year, is on display here in Paris. At the end of the show, it will be flown to Zurich to be shown off at the airline’s base airport. Swiss is due to get 10 CS100s in 2016, followed by 10 CS300s in 2017 and then 10 of either type in 2018 (with a decision

on the final batch still to be determined). At a Paris press conference on

Monday, Bombardier (Chalet 284) also gave more details about the CSeries cer-tification program, reporting that this is now around 70-percent complete. “All flight test risks are now behind us,” said CSeries vice president and general man-ager Rob Dewar. As of June 15, the Canadian airframer had logged 1,881 flight test hours and more than 30,000 cycles in structural testing.

Bombardier claims that the CSeries jets will be 20-percent more fuel efficient than current in-production narrowbodies and deliver a 10 percent advantage over its re-engined rivals –the Boeing 737 Max and the Airbus A320neo.

Meanwhile, Canada’s WestJet an-nounced its has signed a firm order for five Bombardier Q400 twin turboprops. These are converted options and deliv-eries will be made in 2016 and 2017. The carrier previously placed one firm Q400 order in March 2015. o

AT-6 BECOMES WOLVERINE

Eager to differentiate the armed AT-6 from the T-6 Texan II trainer, Textron Beechcraft has named the light attack/ISR platform as the Wolverine. To some the name may con-jure up the Marvel Comics character, whereas to others it may apply to the muscu-lar animal that is the largest land-based member of the weasel family. Either way, the Wolverine is renowned for resilience and strength, which has seen the animal take on much larger wolves and bears in the wild. –D.D.

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Embraer stacks up Paris ordersby Ian Sheppard

Yesterday, Embraer underlined why it believes there is a rosy future for its regional jets when it notched orders from several customers for its E-Jet family.

Having earlier this week announced that it has started to assemble the first E190-E2 jet, the Brazilian manufactur-er revealed orders from SkyWest Airlines (eight E175s to fly with Alaska Airlines), Colorful Guizhou Airlines (up to 17 E190s), United Airlines (10 E175s for United Express) and lessor Aircastle (up to 50 E2s).

The SkyWest aircraft will be flown by Alaska Airlines under a Capacity Purchase Agreement (CPA) with Alaska Airlines. The contract is worth an esti-mated $355 million, said Embraer. It follows a similar order under a CPA for seven aircraft last November, with the first of those aircraft being due to enter service with Alaska Airlines next month. Both represent the firming of orders from an initial SkyWest order consisting of 40 firm and 60 “reconfirmable” orders placed in May 2013.

Colorful Guizhou Airlines is the

first locally-owned airline in Guizhou Province, China. Its order consists of seven firm plus options for a further 10 aircraft, with estimated potential value of $834 million. The first aircraft is sched-uled for delivery this year. Guizhou is Embraer’s fifth E-Jet customer in China.

The United Airlines order is a firm order for 10 aircraft worth around $444 million. Embraer said that United’s lat-est acquisition was on top of a 2013 order for 30 E175s.

The order from Aircastle Holding Corporation consists of 15 E190-E2s and 10 E195-E2s plus an additional 25 pur-chase rights, for a total potential order of 50 aircraft. Deliveries to the lessor are due to start in 2018 with it receiving “roughly seven” aircraft a year through to 2021.

Embraer said that the new orders brought the E-Jets E2 order backlog to 267 firm plus 373 options and purchase rights.

The E2 jets represent the new genera-tion of E-Jets, being powered by Pratt & Whitney Geared Turbofan engines, which have replaced the General Electric CF34 used on the existing line of E-Jets. o

Representing Embraer’s regional jet family at the Paris Air Show is this ERJ135 in the static display area. The Brazilian manufacturer has announced a string of new business deals for its E-Jet family here at Le Bourget.

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SELEX ES UNVEILS SMALLEST EVER THERMAL PIXELS

Selex ES has taken the wraps off its latest infrared technology with a new detector named Superhawk. At the heart of this system are thermal pixels measuring just eight microns in size, less than one-twelfth the thickness of a human hair. The Superhawk detec-tor employs more than a million of them to create a detector that can produce a 1280 x 1024-resolution, blur-free image in total darkness.

Development of the eight-micron pixel is the outcome of Selex ES’s three-decade program of refining the metal organic vapour phase epitaxial (MOVPE) process by which infrared-detecting crystals are grown. Each pixel has the capability to discriminate heat differences of down to one-fiftieth of a degree. The advantages of small pixels is that more can be packed into a given detector field, resulting in improved performance with no penalty in size, weight or price.

However, systems packing in ever more pixels can actually decrease image sharpness. As the pixels get smaller, the tendency for signals to “leak” into the neighbouring pixels increases, with the result that imagery can become blurred. Selex ES’s detector employs a unique solution in which the individual pixels are physically separated from each other, with no signal leakages between them.

The Superhawk detector is now ready for use in a variety of infrared thermal imaging camera systems, including those produced by Selex ES itself. The ability to produce ever-sharper images further aids the decision-making process, particularly when subject to the strict rules of engagement under which many forces operate in policing and peace-keep-ing missions. A blurred image may show a suspect holding a long object, for instance, but a sharp image can reveal whether it is a weapon or an innocent everyday object. –D.D.

Good news continues to roll in for the CSeries program. Swiss upgraded its order for 10 CS100s to the larger CS300 model here at the show.


An-178 arrives here at Paris, Antonov discusses new projects by Caroline Bruneau & Chris Pocock

Ukrainian airframer Antonov brought the new twinjet An-178 airlifter to Le Bourget, and yesterday provided details on its proposed four-engine An-188 air-lifter at a press conference here. Dmytro Kiva, president and general designer, also talked of the company’s problematic rela-tionship with Russian partners.

“We do no work with Russian com-panies on military programs, but we continue to work with them on commer-cial support,” Kiva said. “But the direc-tion given by Ukrainian President Petro Porochenko is to reduce our dependence on the Russian Federation.”

Porochenko has also challenged Antonov to increase production from the current target of 50 aircraft per year to 200. Left unsaid was exactly how the state-owned company can fund new developments, given Ukraine’s precari-ous financial position.

The An-178 is in the same family as the An-148 and An-158 passenger twinjets. However, it has a redesigned fuselage with a wider cross-section with an overhead crane, and a rear-loading ramp, plus a stronger wing. The home-made Ivchenko Progress D-436 turbofans are modified to cater for higher maximum takeoff weights. The An-178 only flew for the first time on May 7, and is aimed squarely at the An-12 replacement market.

Presenting the An-188 for the first time outside Ukraine, Antonov officials said that this jet-powered An-70 look-alike is designed to fill the gap between the C-130J and the C-17 (neglecting to mention the A400M). Maximum take-off weight would be 140 metric tons and the payload 40 metric tons.

Antonov also presented details of the An-132, a proposed replacement for the An-26/An-32 tactical airlifters. The

An-132 would be powered by two Pratt & Whitney Canada turboprops, and would also be “Westernized” with content from General Electric, Honeywell, Liebherr and Hamilton Sundstrand.

Antonov claims that the An-132 engine-out performance beats that of the compet-ing Airbus C-295 and Alenia C-27J, and that the world market for such an aircraft

exceeds 900. Antonov is working in part-nership with the King Abdulaziz City for Science and Technology (KCAST) to develop the An-132.

Antonov recently held discussions with various aviation companies in neighboring Poland about substituting Western content on the An-148/158/178 series as well. o

Ukraine-based Antonov spoke here about its complicated relationship with Russian partners. There is no cooperation on military projects, such as the An-178 on display here. Civil projects are acceptable, for now.

Modularity is the key to tomorrow’s weaponsby David Donald

European missile house MBDA (Chalet 173, Static A10) unveiled the latest of its annual Concept Visions that explore technologies and concepts for future weapons programs. Known as CVW102 Flexis, this year’s concept is for a com-pletely modular approach to the delivery and sustainability of airpower that could be available in the 2035 timeframe.

Flexis takes a building-block approach that assembles weapons to match operational requirements just before the point of mission launch. A series of interchangeable modules provide for different guidance methods, warheads/effectors

and propulsion systems. An automated assembly system draws the various modules from stock and puts them together to form a missile that is ide-ally suited to the operational requirement of the day.

To enable this connectivity, MBDA envisions a common bus and contactless interfaces between the modules them-selves and the carrier plat-form. A common chassis made of composites has the bus and interfaces embedded. The com-mon airframe approach sig-nificantly reduces integration requirements, while the weap-ons would include a mass-man-agement system that moved

ballast around to maintain a common center of gravity.

A weapon configuration and control unit would inter-face with the platform’s mis-sion computer to allow the platform to instantly recog-nize the configuration of a particular weapon, allowing it to adjust its acquisition/launch software accordingly.

Another feature of Flexis is the ability of multiple mis-siles to collaborate and share resources after launch to enhance mission effect.

Three principal drivers lie behind the Flexis concept: address sustainability issues over prolonged conflicts; pro-vide the flexibility required by increasingly uncertain types of threats; and provide a means of inserting emerging technol-ogy at much greater speed than is possible today.

Among the technologies being studied to enhance sustainability and reduce cost is the use of health and usage monitoring sys-tems within each module. This would allow the life management of individual modules, rather than of a whole missile as is cur-rently the case.

As part of the Flexis concept vision, MBDA has identified three separate body diameters as being able to cover all cur-rent and forecast requirements. For its initial detailed concept, the company has concentrated on the smallest diameter, which is envisioned as offering two body lengths to satisfy per-ceived mission demands. o

Garuda splits its big orders between Boeing and Airbusby Gregory Polek

Garuda Indonesia opened this year’s Paris Air Show by signing contracts worth up to around $20 billion with both Boeing and Airbus.

In a purchase agreement with Boeing worth up to $10.9 billion, the Asian carrier com-mitted to 30 787-9s and 30 737 Max 8s. Projected delivery for the 787s is between 2020 and 2024, and for the 737s between 2022 and 2025.

Later on Monday morn-ing, Garuda signed a letter of intent (LOI) with Airbus for 30 A350XWB widebodies. The carrier has yet to specify which of the A350 variants it will take. At a $304.8 million list price for the -900 version, the deal would be worth $9.1 billion.

Appearing with Boeing Com-mercial Airplanes CEO Ray Conner and BCA senior vice president of sales for Asia Pa-cific and India, Dinesh Keskar, Garuda Indonesia president and CEO Arif Wibowo talked of us-ing the Dreamliners to open new services to Europe and even pos-sibly to the U.S., where it cur-rently cannot fly due to its Fed-eral Aviation Administration Category 2 status.

Last serving the U.S. some 17 years ago, when it flew between Jakarta and Los Angeles, Garuda plans to work

with Boeing to regain its FAA Category 1 status in the near future, said Wibowo. Conner added that helping to secure its rights to fly into the U.S. as a “top priority” for Boeing.

Along with the new Boeing LOI, the Indonesian flag car-rier also reconfirmed its intent to buy another fifty 737 Max 8s, a deal originally announced in October. It plans to use the Max narrowbodies to replace aging 737NGs now serving its domestic market.

According to Wibowo, Garu-da had selected the A350XWB on the basis of its reduced fu-el consumption, range capabil-ity and extra wide cabin. “The A350XWB will be one of the options for us to reposition our-selves as a leading premium car-rier in the competitive long haul market out of Asia,” he said.

The airline now flies more than 90 Boeing airplanes, includ-ing 737NGs, 777-300ERs and 747-400s. Its fleet also includes A330-200s. o

QATAR ORDERS FOUR MORE C-17s FROM BOEING

Boeing confirmed here yesterday that the Qatar Armed Forces (QAF) has signed for four more C-17 Globemaster IIIs. The big airlift-ers will join an existing fleet of four, and reduce Boeing’s backlog of unsold aircraft to just one.

When the U.S. Air Force decided to end production a few years ago, after buying 223, Boeing opted to build 10 more before closing the line at Long Beach, California, in the expectation of further export orders. The Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) took two of them; the Royal Canadian Air Force, one; and one has been sold to an undisclosed customer.

“The additional C-17s will significantly increase the QAF’s ability to [perform] transport, airdrop and humanitarian missions,” said Tommy Dunehew, Boeing Military Aircraft vice president of international cus-tomer service and sales. Boeing said that Qatar would also benefit from the company’s “world-class” sustainment package for the C-17. –C.P.

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