Nosing ahead Kestrels rise Robo co-pilot

Beluga XL gets Leonardo puts US research

moving after in Cormorant into futuristic
Stelia delivers bid to resurrect flightdeck gives
cockpit section stored VH-71 helping hand
of first Airbus rotorcraft for to single-crew
transporter 11 Canadians 16 operations 26

6-12 June 2017  flightglobal.com

DEBUT

The Russians
are coming
Irkut flies MC-21 – but can
it match Western rivals?

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2 3

9 770015 371297
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 CONTENTS
Volume 191 Number 5590
6-12 JUNE 2017

NEWS
THIS WEEK
Nosing ahead Kestrels rise Robo co-pilot
Beluga XL gets Leonardo puts US research
moving after in Cormorant into futuristic
Stelia delivers bid to resurrect flightdeck gives
cockpit section stored VH-71 helping hand

6 UltraFan offer will grind P&W’s gears

of first Airbus rotorcraft for to single-crew
transporter 11 Canadians 16 operations 26

8 Delta sees further potential to upgauge fleet.

6-12 June 2017 flightglobal.com

Air New Zealand delays its Neo arrival schedule.

DEBUT

The Russians Checks ordered for Superjet 100 rudder

are coming
Irkut flies MC-21 – but can
damage
9 HH-60W passes critical design review.
it match Western rivals?

US Navy
Beijing asks Berlin for C919 certification support
Super Hornet boosted by US budget proposal P17
AIR TRANSPORT
10 IATA calls for end to accident secrecy. COVER STORY
Fleet additions will give Ryanair more
7 Russian ambitions take off with MC-21
ISSN 0 0 1 5 - 3 7 1 0
£3.70

firepower as it ‘targets opportunities’

2 3
Irkut

Officials forecast more than 1,000 orders over

9 770015 371297

FIN_060617_301.indd 1

COVER IMAGE
01/06/2017 10:02

11 Cobham Aviation alarmed by landing incident

20 years
involving BAe Avro RJ85.
Irkut supplied this shot of Lockheed delivers with LM-100J’s flight debut
its first MC-21 getting 13 Trump budget proposes privatisation of air FEATURES
airborne from Irkutsk on traffic control. 22 ORDERS AND DELIVERIES Keeping up
28 May. Russia’s twinjet Feasibility work starts on joint China-Russia with demand We analyse commercial
completed a 30min flight, widebody project manufacturers’ recent order and delivery figures,
reaching a maximum to reveal emerging trends
altitude of 3,280ft P7 NEWS FOCUS 24 CIVIL SIMULATORS Virtual demand The net
14 Bombardier’s CSeries ‘could spell the end of global airliner fleet – and a related need for
737 Max 7’ trained pilots – is expanding, but ground-based
equipment for instruction is not keeping up
DEFENCE
16 Team Cormorant would rescue VH-71s. 26 COCKPIT AUTOMATION I robot, you pilot
USAF targets versatile successor for AMRAAM With aircraft commanders being costly and in
shortening supply, there is no doubting the
17 Navy welcomes budget plan as Super Hornet
commercial appeal of a robotic assistant
gets boost.
HAL seeks to advance Indian multirole 28 SMALL LAUNCHERS Downsized rides for
helicopter work new space age Operators hope a new
generation of small launchers will help address
19 USAF sticks with Compass Call strategy
the economic barriers to reaching orbit
despite complaints from Boeing
BEHIND THE HEADLINES
Dan Thisdell (above) asks BUSINESS AVIATION REGULARS
whether new, affordable 20 Finnish exemption gives head start to PC-12
launchers could challenge 5 Comment
joint venture.
systems like Vega (P28). 33 Straight & Level
Honda expands dealership network.
And in West Palm Beach, GainJet selects Stansted as UK medevac base 35 Letters
Stephen Trimble got a 37 Classified
21 Global 7000 discord ends in Triumph.
geared turbofan update 39 Jobs
Flexjet readies for European growth.
from Pratt & Whitney (P6)
Jetex expands footprint at 15 French airports 43 Working Week
SIAE

NEXT WEEK PARIS

Fly7, Lockheed Martin

Be sure to catch our taster

issue ahead of the aviation
event of the year, as we set
the scene for Le Bourget
Hendell, Fly7 launch into UK charter market with PC-12 P21 HH-60W passes critical design review P9

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Census online now.
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CAE offers training centres, training services, and simulation products for maritime patrol aircraft.

flightglobal.com 6-12 June 2017 | Flight International | 3

 CONTENTS

Image of
the week
A formidable array of US
Air Force firepower made
an “elephant walk” at the
service’s Moody AFB in
Georgia last month. The
massed formation included
a lone HH-60G Pave Hawk,
30 A-10C Thunderbolt IIs
and a pair of HC-130J
Combat King II personnel
recovery aircraft

View more great aviation

shots online and in our
weekly tablet edition:
flightglobal.com/

US Air Force
flight-international

The week in numbers Question of the week

23%
Last week, we asked: President Trump’s defence budget?
You said:

Flight Dashboard
Total votes: 531
Reduction in Q1 pre-tax losses for Russia’s Ural Airlines, to
Rb1.26bn ($22m); revenue grew 16%, outpacing expenditure

$5.6m
More of the same
259 votes

49% 37% Shot down by Congress

Flight Dashboard 199 votes

Expected profit for the year to end-June for Australian carrier

Tremendous increase!
Regional Express; stronger trading doubled last year’s result 73 votes
14%

98
Honeywell will supply nearly 100 APUs for VietJet’s next
Honeywell This week, we ask: MC-21 sales prospects?
❑ Airbus, Boeing beware ❑ Russia and friends only
❑ No hoper
batch of A320s; the $100m deal also covers 12 years’ service Vote at flightglobal.com

FlightGlobal’s premium news and data service delivers breaking air transport stories with
profiles, schedules, and fleet, financial and traffic information flightglobal.com/dashboard

Download the latest Commercial Engines Report

now with further enhanced data and in-depth market analysis

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4 | Flight International | 6-12 June 2017 flightglobal.com

Flight_CFM_25x180.indd 1 19/07/2012 17:51


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commercial aviation sector:
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flightglobal.com
A quiet revolution
The first flight of a nation’s most advanced commercial aircraft is cause for celebration, but
Russia let its MC-21 debut with little fanfare. Only time will tell if it is worth shouting about
E ven as the MC-21’s wheels lifted from the runway
at Irkut’s aviation plant, hardly anyone outside
­Siberia knew that Russia’s most advanced passenger
aircraft had been scheduled to fly.
Irkut had tentatively pointed to the end of May to
kick off its certification programme, but had not pub-
licly committed to a precise date, so as the twinjet pow-
ered up, the channels of social media suddenly became
the frontline of communication.
The publicity engine was fired up once the jet had
safely touched down, but the lack of pre-flight fanfare
carried an echo of Soviet-era opacity and secrecy.
That is characteristic of Russia’s increasingly insular
geopolitical standpoint. The government is pursuing
an aggressive resurrection of its commercial aviation
industry to counter an influx of Western types that has
pervaded the country’s fleets, against a backdrop of de-
teriorating diplomatic ties after the conflict in Ukraine,
Crimea’s annexation and international sanctions.
A projected annual production
of 20 aircraft is hardly ambitious
for a claimed rival to the A320neo
“Build it, and they will come” is a failed philosophy
in post-Soviet days. The Tu-204SM and An-140 have
almost vanished into obscurity, while the An-148 and
An-158 have struggled to find favour among domestic
airlines and have only limited international take-up,
with dubious regimes. Optimism over Sukhoi’s Super-
jet, developed largely with Western technology, has
faded, its joint-venture manufacturer re-absorbed by
Russia’s military-industrial complex.
Power struggle
A nother engine patent war is brewing on the hori-
zon. Rolls-Royce has plans to offer its UltraFan to
Boeing for the proposed New Midsized Aircraft
(NMA). But the UltraFan contains a power gearbox: a
technology that Pratt & Whitney asserts is protected
under a generic patent for a geared turbofan engine.
If Boeing selects the UltraFan for a future NMA,
P&W president Bob Leduc says he could move to de-
fend his company’s intellectual property.
That would not be the first time P&W has accused
R-R of cheating. The company in 2010 appealed to the
US International Trade Commission to block Boeing
from importing Trent 1000s for the 787-8 over a patent
claim, but the issue was settled a year later.
COMMENT
Irkut
Where is everybody?
There has never been a question over Russia’s ability
to produce capable passenger aircraft. But competitive-
ness is a complex balance of efficiency and risk, and an
aircraft that meets all the criteria of form and function
on paper will not necessarily convince customers oper-
ating in the harsh light of real-world economics.
First flight, and upcoming air shows, might stir a
stagnant orderbook dominated by Russian lessors. But
projections of an early annual production rate of 20 air-
craft – barely two weeks’ work for Airbus – are hardly
ambitious for a claimed rival to the A320neo.
Bombardier has found its entry to the single-aisle
market hard enough, despite having a global support
network and the luxury of a warmer political climate.
The MC-21 is playing against a stacked deck.
Russia once struggled to turn out aircraft that bore
comparison with Western counterparts – now the gap
is closing. But its greatest challenge in selling the
MC-21 is not the engines, cabin or cockpit. Russia’s
greatest challenge is, frankly, Russia. ■
See This Week P7
One year on from that, GE Aviation made an ulti-
mately unsuccessful attempt to overturn P&W’s broad
claim over geared turbofan technology, arguing that it,
too, had shown prior art, by experimenting with a
NASA-funded geared fan in the late 1970s.
R-R may have an even better legal rebuttal to P&W. In
addition to experimenting in the late 1960s with the
geared M45SD turbofan, the UK manufacturer and
P&W worked together for several years on the geared
SuperFan engine.
It is a pity that such collaborations seem like ancient
history. If P&W and R-R want to wrest GE’s grip from
Boeing aircraft, maybe they should work together. ■
See This Week P6
6-12 June 2017 | Flight International | 5
THIS WEEK
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network and fleet information sign up at:
flightglobal.com/dashboard

BRIEFING
SWISS INTRODUCES ITS FIRST CS300
DELIVERY Swiss launched services with its first Bombardier
CS300 from Geneva on 1 June, having taken delivery of the
CSeries jet on 26 May. The 128-seat aircraft is the first of the
type to enter use with the Lufthansa Group subsidiary, which
has previously received eight 108-seat CS100s. The carrier has
orders for a total of 10 CS100s and 20 CS300s.

Pratt & Whitney

NEW CFM56 DEAL PROPELS VIETJET AIR
ENGINES VietJet Air has signed for 20 CFM International
CFM56-5B engines to power 10 of its incoming Airbus A321s. Development of the GTF family has been a $10 billion investment
Valued at $580 million, a wider deal also includes two spare en-
gines and long-term support. The contract was signed during DISPUTE STEPHEN TRIMBLE WEST PALM BEACH

UltraFan offer will

Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc’s visit to the
USA. Flight Fleets Analyzer shows that VietJet has 27 A320s
and 14 A321s in service, plus 93 A320-family jets on order.

SEOUL PICKS ELTA FOR KF-X RADAR DEAL

CONTRACT Elta Systems will develop an active electronically
scanned array radar for South Korea’s KF-X fighter, under an
grind P&W’s gears
approximately $35 million contract signed with the state-run Chief executive threatens intellectual property action over
Agency for Defense Development. The Israel Aerospace Rolls-Royce’s proposed power gearbox for future engine
Industries subsidiary will co-operate with a local partner in the
country. Seoul launched its KF-X programme in 2015, and plans
to acquire more than 120 of the new fighter. R olls-Royce could face a patent
fight if its future UltraFan
­engine is chosen to power a po-
UNITED FACING FINE OVER 787 LAPSE tential new Boeing aircraft, Pratt
PENALTY United Airlines could be fined $435,000, after the & Whitney president Bob Leduc
US Federal Aviation Administration claimed it operated a tells FlightGlobal.
Boeing 787 that was not in an airworthy condition. The carrier After investing decades and
failed to perform required inspections after mechanics replaced more than $10 billion to develop
a fuel pump pressure switch on the aircraft on 9 June 2014, and and field the geared turbofan
operated 23 flights before conducting required checks almost (GTF) engine for several narrow-
three weeks later, the FAA says. United says it “immediately body aircraft types, P&W now
took action after identifying the issue”. faces a new competitive threat, as
R-R develops the UltraFan with a
START-UP RAINBOW FADES IN ZIMBABWE fuel-saving power gearbox.
SUSPENSION Zimbabwe’s Rainbow Airlines has temporarily R-R plans to have the UltraFan
suspended all flights. The start-up carrier – which began flights ready for service by 2025, match-
in March – confirms that it has halted both its domestic services ing Boeing’s plans for a New Mid-
and flights to South Africa, while it seeks to renew its foreign sized Aircraft (NMA) to fill a per-
operating licence with South African authorities. The carrier is ceived gap between its 737 Max
expecting to resume flights by mid-June. and 787 families. But a common
technology between the engine
FOUR TO CONTEST STINGRAY PROGRAMME makers’ offerings for the concept
COMPETITION A US Navy request for proposals seeking an – a reduction gear in the power
unmanned, carrier-based airborne refuelling system, will only system – sets up a potential clash
be issued to Boeing, General Atomics Aeronautical Systems, over intellectual property rights.
Lockheed Martin and Northrop Grumman. The US Naval Air “If they do try to sell a geared
Systems Command – which will release a request soon for the architecture to Boeing we proba-
MQ-25 Stingray’s engineering, manufacturing and develop- bly will enforce our rights as we
ment phase – says that broadening the activity would cause should – and I’m sure they’d do
“significant schedule delays and duplication of costs”. the same,” Leduc said on 31 May.
The R-R UltraFan features a
FRENCH WIRING SPECIALIST BOARDS MRJ power gearbox that decouples the
PROGRAMME Mitsubishi Aircraft has picked Latecoere rotation speed of the fan and the
Interconnection Systems as its partner for resolving the MRJ low-pressure turbine, allowing
regional jet’s electrical wiring problems. Latecoere staff have each module to spin at the most
already started work at its head office in Nagoya, Japan. efficient speed. P&W uses the
same architecture in its GTF en-
gine, which is offered today on
the Airbus A320neo, Bombardier
CSeries, Embraer E-Jet E2, Irkut
MC-21 and Mitsubishi Aircraft
MRJ families.
Although similar, there could
be major differences between the
propulsion systems. R-R has de-
clined to describe whether the Ul-
traFan’s power gearbox employs a
star or planetary gear architecture.
However, the company and Lieb-
herr announced a joint venture in
2015 to develop the power gear-
box partly at Biberach an der Riss,
which is a Liebherr site specialis-
ing in planetary gears. By contrast,
P&W uses a star gear design in its
PW1000G-series engines.
But even if the UltraFan uses a
different type of gearbox, P&W
could still launch a patent dis-
pute. “I think it’s kind of irrele-
vant whether it’s planetary or
star,” Leduc says.
Meanwhile, two more
­versions of the company’s GTF
have achieved engine-level air-
worthiness certification by the
US ­Federal Aviation Administra-
tion, with the PW1200G for the
MRJ and PW1900G for the
Embraer E190-E2 and E195-E2
­
clearing airworthiness standards.
Only the PW1700G for the
­E175-E2 ­remains in engine-level
certification testing. ■

6 | Flight International | 6-12 June 2017 flightglobal.com


PROGRAMME DAVID KAMINSKI-MORROW LONDON
Russian ambitions take off with MC-21
Officials forecast more than 1,000 orders over 20 years from customers attracted by claimed high efficiency of Irkut type
R ussia’s government is estimat-
ing demand for the Irkut
MC-21 will reach four figures
over the next 20 years, following
the type’s maiden flight on 28
May. The twinjet was airborne for
30min, reaching a maximum alti-
tude of 3,280ft and a speed of
162kt (300km/h).
Irkut says the debut sortie
checked in-flight stability and the
controllability of the aircraft’s
Pratt & Whitney PW1400G geared
turbofan engines, and all systems
“operated without glitches”.
Trade and industry minister
Denis Manturov believes Irkut
could supply more than 1,000
MC-21s in the period to 2037.
“The programme incorporates
the best technologies, industrial
practices and design solutions,”
he says, referring to the aircraft’s
“unique” composite wing. He
claims the type will cut airlines’
operating costs by 12-15% com-
pared with contemporaries.
“We will continue to support
the MC-21, helping to establish ef-
fective mechanisms to promote
our new aircraft – in both domes-
tic and foreign markets,” he says.
Yuri Slyusar, president of Irkut
parent United Aircraft, estimates
“global demand in the MC-21
segment” at 15,000 new aircraft
over the next 20 years. “We be-
lieve the reliability, increased
comfort of the aircraft, and its
other features will be appreciated
by airlines,” he says.
Twinjet enters test and certification programme, with EASA involved
flightglobal.com
Delta sees further
potential to upgauge
domestic fleet
This Week P8
Narrowbody was airborne for 30min during 28 May debut from Irkutsk, and “operated without gliches”
The MC-21 now enters a flight-
test and certification regime that
will meet Russian and interna-
tional standards. Irkut has al-
ready started the process of seek-
ing European Aviation Safety
Agency certification, with repre-
sentatives of the company and
the Russian federal air transport
certification authority attending a
preliminary meeting with EASA
counterparts in Cologne from
19-21 April.
More in-depth data will be
supplied during a follow-up
meeting due to take place in Mos-
cow later this month.
Meanwhile, Irkut has yet to
discover whether the first flight
event will lead to a resumption of
orders, which have stayed largely
static for around three years. The
airframer could potentially un-
veil new agreements at the Paris
air show later this month, or at
Russia’s MAKS air show in
­Moscow in July.
Irkut
In its first-quarter financial
statement, Irkut confirms its firm
order total for the MC-21 stands at
175, and that “advances have
been received” against these com-
mitments. Another 137 aircraft are
listed as “soft optional” orders.
FIRM CUSTOMERS
Four firm customers are named as
leasing company Aviakapital-
Servis – a division of state corpo-
ration Rostec, plus Ilyushin
­Finance, Vnesheconombank-
affiliated VEB-Leasing, and
­regional operator IrAero. Aviakap-
ital-Servis signed for up to 85
­MC-21s in 2011 and, two years
later, VEB-Leasing signed for 30
and IrAero for 10. Ilyushin Fi-
nance has agreed to take 50.
Irkut’s website for the type in-
dicates that recipients of the air-
craft will include Aeroflot, Red
Wings and UTair, plus Kyr-
gyzstan Air Company and Kyrgyz
operator Avia Traffic.
There is little clarity on the en-
gine selections for these aircraft,
with customers having a choice
of either PW1400Gs or Aviadvi-
gatel PD-14s. Speaking during a
post-flight update, deputy prime
minister Dmitry Rogozin said the
twinjet would fly with PD-14
­engines in “spring 2019”.
VEB-Leasing says it is support-
ing the financing and aftersales
effort for the aircraft, with its in-
vestment so far worth $90 mil-
lion. It expects Irkut to produce
20 MC-21s annually from 2020,
with this rate to potentially in-
6-12 June 2017 | Flight International | 7
THIS WEEK
Irkut
crease to 70 in 2023 if demand
justifies it.
Irkut says it has held “a num-
ber of meetings” with potential
customers in Europe, Latin
America and Southeast Asia. The
company has carried out route
analysis for 25 airlines, and says
four carriers have requested “in-
depth study” of the aircraft.
Over the course of the MC-21’s
development the airframer has
disclosed several tentative agree-
ments for the aircraft. In 2010, it
stated that it had received orders
for 190 units – including 39 op-
tions – and announced a contract
with a Malaysian entity, identified
as Crecom Burj, for 50. This deal
evaporated two years later, at
which time the airframer was
planning to commence MC-21 se-
rial deliveries in 2016.
Irkut subsequently disclosed
letters of intent with companies
including now-defunct Ukrainian
operator AeroSvit, Russian carrier
Nordwind Airlines, Sberbank
Leasing, and a customer it identi-
fied as AirExcellence. It also
signed a preliminary agreement in
2015 under which Egypt’s KATO
Investment subsidiary Cairo Avia-
tion would take six aircraft, with
options on another four.
Irkut also entered into a co-op-
eration pact with Lufthansa Con-
sulting to support its drive to pro-
mote the MC-21 to international
markets. But its figure of 175 firm
orders has remained at a plateau
since around 2013-2014. ■
See Air Transport P13
THIS WEEK
MAINTENANCE
DAVID KAMINSKI-MORROW
LONDON
Rudder damage
checks ordered
for Superjet 100
R ussian authorities have or-
dered checks on the rudder
hinge and actuator fittings on
Sukhoi Superjet 100s.
The directive, from federal air
transport agency Rosaviatsia, in-
structs operators of the twinjet to
conduct the checks before the
next flight. “If damage to the
hinges is found, the operation of
the aircraft shall be suspended,”
it states.
The inspections must be car-
ried out by 5 June.
The directive was issued after
damage was detected on an Aero-
flot Superjet 100, identified as
RA-89051. This aircraft was de-
livered two years ago.
Rosaviatsia has referenced a
Sukhoi Civil Aircraft inspection
procedure designed to detect
cracks in the surface of the rudder
actuator attach fittings, as well as
a task to check for mechanical
damage to the rudder hinge.
Operators were ordered late
last year to inspect the lugs of the
stabiliser upper and lower brack-
et attachment bands, after cracks
were detected in one aircraft. ■
PRODUCTION ELLIS TAYLOR PERTH
Air New Zealand delays its Neo arrival schedule
Re-engined A321s will get a redesigned interior with five more seats
8 | Flight International | 6-12 June 2017
STRATEGY EDWARD RUSSELL NEW YORK
Delta sees further potential
to upgauge domestic fleet
More types including 50-seat regional jets could be replaced over “five to seven years”
D elta Air Lines could continue
its shift to larger domestic air-
craft up to 2024, according to
chief executive Ed Bastian.
“We easily have five to seven
years of additional [room] to
grow,” he says of the Atlanta-
based carrier’s long-standing up-
gauging programme. Further op-
portunities include a plan to
replace Boeing MD-88s with
­737-900ERs and Airbus A321s,
and large regional jets with Bom-
bardier CS100s, he told a Wings
Club gathering in New York.
The airline plans to retire its
116 MD-88s – which have 149
seats, compared with 192 on the
A321 and 180 on the 737 –
by 2020.
Delta is unlikely to remove its
70- and 76-seat regional jets as it
takes delivery of 110-seat CS100s
from 2018, Bastian says. Instead,
his comment is likely to refer to
an ongoing programme to replace
50-seat regional aircraft with larg-
er regional models, while shifting
flights served by the latter to
mainline aircraft.
Airbus
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AirTeamImages
Carrier has 116 MD-88s which will be replaced with larger aircraft
At the end of 2016 the carrier company says volatility in inter-
had 149 50-seat Bombardier national markets is driving this
­CRJ200s and 320 large regional “downgauging”, and also con-
jets in its feeder fleet, its end-of- tributed to a May decision to
year fleet plan shows. defer 10 of its eventual 25 A350
The upgauging programme deliveries from 2019 and 2020
does not extend to Delta’s wide- until at least 2022.
body fleet, where it plans to re- It should receive a first -900 in
place its remaining 376-seat July, and launch revenue services
747-400s with 306-seat A350-
­ in October, with Airbus having
900s from the fourth quarter. The flown the jet in late May. ■
A ir New Zealand has pushed cluding four on operating leases.
back the delivery of its first It will receive two more in 2020,
re-engined Airbus A320neo-­ one of which will be leased.
family aircraft until the second Meanwhile, the delay will
half of 2018. allow the airline’s A321neos to be
The Star Alliance carrier dis- fitted with a redesigned interior
closed the delay during an inves- with 214 seats: five more than
tor day presentation. Its first originally planned.
A320neo will now enter the fleet The re-engined A320s and
in July 2018, followed two A321s will replace Air New Zea-
months later by a lead A321neo. land’s 12 A320ceos, which are
To cover the changes it has ex- used on routes across the Tas-
tended leases on five A320ceos man. Flight Fleets Analyzer
already in its fleet. shows that these jets are between
The carrier will now take six 11 and 14 years old, while exam-
A320neo-family aircraft in the ples used on domestic routes are
fiscal year ending June 2019, in- aged at six years or younger. ■
flightglobal.com

PROGRAMME LEIGH GIANGRECO WASHINGTON DC
HH-60W passes critical design review
Assembly, test and evaluation of combat search and rescue helicopter to begin as USAF’s Pave Hawk replacement nears
S ikorsky’s HH-60W has under-
gone its air vehicle critical de-
sign review, giving the US Air
Force’s combat rescue helicopter
programme a green light for as-
sembly, test and evaluation.
Sikorsky, which reached the
milestone ahead of a projected
July date, will replace the USAF’s
ageing HH-60G Pave Hawks with
112 new helicopters at a cost of
$35.2 million per unit. The entire
programme, including research
and development, procurement
and flyaway costs is estimated at
$9.8 billion, according to the De-
partment of Defense.
In 2014, the air force awarded
Sikorsky a $1.28 billion engineer-
ing, manufacturing and develop-
ment-phase contract, including
mission systems integration and
the delivery of four research, de-
velopment, test and evaluation
(RDT&E) articles.
APPROVALS MAVIS TOH SINGAPORE
Beijing asks Berlin for C919 certification support
C hinese premier Li Keqiang
has called on Germany to
help with China’s push towards
securing type certification for its
in-development C919 narrow-
body from the European Aviation
Safety Agency, according to the
Xinhua news agency. Its report
coincided with Li’s official visit
to Berlin, where he met with
chancellor Angela Merkel.
Comac applied for type certifi-
cation of the new twinjet with
EASA last year via the Civil Avia-
tion Administration of China
DISCOVER THE 3DEXPERIENCE
AT T H E PA R I S A I R S H O W
w w w. f l i g h t g l o b a l . c o m / 3 D e x p e r i e n c e
FIN_060617_Dassault Strip.indd 1
flightglobal.com
IATA calls for end
to accident secrecy
Air Transport P10
Developmental type will have 85% commonality with army’s UH-60M
In January, the service added
another five aircraft through a
$203 million contract option.
Although the HH-60W will
have 85% commonality with the
US Army’s UH-60M Black Hawk,
its increased combat capability re-
sembles the MH-60M used to sup-
port special operations.
(CAAC). In April, the manufac-
turer disclosed that the European
agency had started work on the
approval process, having visited
its Shanghai facility to examine
the manufacturing process.
The C919 made its first flight
on 5 May, seven years after the
programme was launched.
Comac has so far secured com-
mitments for 570 of the type;
largely from Chinese customers.
The manufacturer’s approach
to EASA shows its ambition for
the jet and confirms a shift from
Lockheed Martin
The new combat search and
rescue helicopter required a
­75-month development and certi-
fication effort and separate assem-
bly line. Equipped with GE Avia-
tion T700-701D engines, the
HH-60W’s increased fuel capacity
allows greater range, while its
composite, wide-chord main rotor
seeking the co-operation of the
US Federal Aviation Administra-
tion – which has yet to certificate
its ARJ21 regional jet, despite
EASA began working towards approval of the narrowbody in April
6-12 June 2017 | Flight International | 9
THIS WEEK
blades will sustain manoeuvera-
bility at high density altitudes.
The armed type also will fea-
ture a tactical mission kit, which
the Lockheed Martin-owned
company says integrates “multi-
ple sensors, data links, defensive
systems, and other sources of in-
telligence information”.
US President Donald Trump’s
fiscal year 2018 budget proposal
requested $354 million for the
ongoing RDT&E effort. Sikorsky
and the USAF plan to continue
developmental testing and initi-
ate equipment design for an elec-
tronic warfare integrated repro-
gramming capability in FY2018,
according to budget documents.
A low-rate production deci-
sion is slated for September 2019,
with first flight expected the same
year. Operational testing will
begin in 2020, with initial opera-
tional capability due in 2021. ■
years spent shadowing the
CAAC. Comac is aiming for the
C919 to achieve certification and
enter service in 2020-2021. ■
Imaginechina/REX/Shutterstock
IN ASSOCIATION WITH
30/05/2017 15:28
AIR TRANSPORT
TRANSPARENCY DAVID KAMINSKI-MORROW LONDON
IATA calls for end to accident secrecy
Reports are available in less than one-third of cases, association says, making safety assessments of some regions difficult
IATA has underlined its concern
over a lack of adequate access to
aircraft accident inquiries, sug-
gesting that more than two-thirds
of investigation reports might
be unavailable.
The association’s accident
classification task force has con-
ducted a study into the situa-
tion, and claims that of some
1,000 accidents that occurred in
the past decade, only 300 reports
are available.
“Of those, many had room for
improvement,” IATA director-
general Alexandre de Juniac told
an industry event in Seoul in late
April. While the number of acci-
dents has been falling, the num-
ber of investigations “may be de-
clining at a faster rate”, he adds.
De Juniac credits the task force
for its efforts to “elevate this con-
cern”, without singling out any
particular region or specific acci-
dent. Nor has he given an opin-
ion on the reasons behind the ab-
sence of so many inquiry
documents, or whether there is a
correlation between this and the
STRATEGY OLIVER CLARK LONDON
Fleet additions will give
Ryanair more firepower
R yanair is currently seeking
two to three additional aircraft
to give it “more firepower” as it
targets “various opportunities in
the market” in Europe, says chief
financial officer Neil Sorahan.
Speaking in London on
30 May, Sorahan said the budget
carrier is in talks with Boeing to
potentially order more aircraft “at
the right price”, and is also seek-
ing to extend the leases on three
aircraft in 2018 and 10 in 2019.
The moves are intended to
“make sure we have got the ca-
pacity” for a number of initia-
tives, he says, including estab-
lishing a new charter airline,
10 | Flight International | 6-12 June 2017
Shared findings should reduce risk of recurrence, association says
air safety statistics of the re-
gion responsible.
But task force chairman Dieter
Reisinger says the situation af-
fects “too much of the world”,
and the lack of “timely and thor-
ough” reporting is “frustrating”.
IATA uses analysis by national
investigation authorities to com-
pile its own assessment of the
state of air transport safety.
Over the course of 2016 the ac-
“Ryanair Sun”, in Poland. They
will also provide “flexibility as
we see more growth opportuni-
ties around Europe on the back of
the restructuring that’s going on
in places like Germany, Italy,
Portugal, Poland and elsewhere”.
Ryanair will receive 50 new
Boeing 737-800s this year, but So-
rahan says there will then be a
“slowdown in deliveries” ahead
of the arrival of its first 737 Max
in the autumn of 2019. With this
in mind, the Dublin-headquar-
tered airline is deferring the sale
of some older aircraft. As the first
Max aircraft arrive, sales of older
units will accelerate, he adds.
For up-to-the-minute air transport news,
network and fleet information sign up at:
flightglobal.com/dashboard
simple, IATA aims to analyse the
trends in circumstances and con-
tributory elements, and this as-
pect becomes increasingly diffi-
cult without access to in-depth
inquiry data.
“Not only are accident investi-
gations not conducted, but were
it not for the manufacturers and
public sources, [we] would not
have enough factual information
to derive meaningful safety statis-
Xinhua/REX/Shutterstock
tics,” says Reisinger.
Information obtained through
such inquiries is “essential”, he
stresses. “The travelling public
has a right to know and the in-
dustry can only learn and im-
cident rate per million flights in prove if such information is made
sub-Saharan Africa – historically publicly available,” he says.
a poor performer – significantly The task force has previously
improved, to 2.3, compared with recommended that ICAO main-
2.8 in Latin America and 3.85 in tain close ties with countries
the former Soviet states. North which are unable to conduct ade-
America and Europe achieved quate investigations.
rates of 0.94 and 1.25, respective- Reisinger adds that ICAO
ly, while IATA recorded a figure should consider “taking the lead”
of 2.05 for the Asia-Pacific region. to identify specific regions which
While recording the absolute could benefit from support in
number of accidents is relatively this area. ■
Boris Roessler/EPA/REX/Shutterstock
Budget carrier has already boosted its presence in German market
Sorahan says Ryanair has little good price from Boeing.”
appetite to acquire aircraft from Flight Fleets Analyzer shows
restructuring airlines such as Air Ryanair has 401 operational 737s.
Berlin or Alitalia, unless there is The carrier has orders for 65 more
a “fire sale” of their assets, noting: -800s and 100 Max 8 200s. ■
“We buy our aircraft for such a See Data View P22
flightglobal.com
 Feasibility work
starts on China-
AIR TRANSPORT
Russia widebody
Air Transport P13

LOGISTICS
Beluga XL noses towards assembly
Airbus has taken delivery of the nose and cockpit section for its first
A330-700 Beluga XL transport. Built by Stelia Aerospace in
Meaulte, France, the structure was flown to the final assembly line in
Toulouse by an Airbus A300-600ST freighter: the type which the XL
model will eventually replace. Stelia says the completed nose sec-
tion is 12m (39.4ft) long, 4m high and weighs 8.2t. Several of its pro-
duction sites, including in Tunisia, contributed to the manufacturing
effort. The company’s Rochefort plant also is producing the upper
fuselage cargo door assembly, which will be delivered “this sum-
mer”. Airbus will produce five Rolls-Royce Trent 700-engined
Stelia Aerospace

Beluga XL twinjets to modernise its logistics fleet.

REGULATION ELLIS TAYLOR PERTH

Cobham alarmed by landing incident

Australian fly-in, fly-out operator calls for standardised marker placement after RJ85 touches down on edge of remote strip

C obham Aviation Services

Australia has called on the
nation’s regulator to standardise
markings on unpaved runways,
following an incident involving
one of its BAe Avro RJ85s.
The incident – during which
the aircraft (VH-NJW) landed to
the left of the runway – occurred
at the Darlot airstrip in Western
Australia on 20 January. There
were four crew members and 58
passengers on board.
The Australian Transport Safe-
ty Bureau (ATSB) says that as the
RJ85 was attempting to land at
Darlot, the pilot flying (PF) no-
ticed dust in the vicinity, and
commented that it could be com-
ing from a vehicle on the runway.
As the aircraft came closer, the
crew determined from 2.5nm
(4.6km) that it was instead being
caused by a strong breeze, and
continued their approach.
In the last phase of the ap-
proach, the captain transitioned
from relying on distance-alti-
tude cues to the aiming point
markers on the left side of the
runway strip.
After the aircraft had landed,
the pilot flying did not observe
lights on the right side of the air-
craft, and noticed that dust had
obscured the runway markers
and runway strip on that side.
“They had landed the aircraft
on the graded area of the runway
strip to the left of the runway.
The PF manoeuvred the aircraft
back on to the runway, taxied to
the apron and shut down without
further incident,” the ATSB says.
Its investigation found that the
aiming point markers were “em-
ployed in a non-standard manner
at the unsealed runways used by
the operator, which may have
contributed to the PF landing the
aircraft left of the runway.”
The aircraft was not damaged
in the landing, but Cobham sub-
sequently sent a discussion paper
to the Civil Aviation Safety Au-
thority which proposed stand-
ardising aiming point markers in
accordance with previous tests
by the US Federal Aviation Ad-
ministration.
Cobham operates nine BAe
146s and Avro RJs on fly-in, fly-
out services in Western Australia,
largely supporting mining opera-
tions. Flight Fleets Analyzer re-
cords the 95-seat aircraft in-
volved in the incident as having
been built in 1998. ■

DEVELOPMENT CRAIG HOYLE LONDON

Lockheed delivers with

LM-100J’s flight debut
L ockheed Martin’s LM-100J
completed its debut flight from
Marietta, Georgia on 25 May, just
Shultz, the company’s vice-presi-
dent and general manager for air
mobility and maritime missions,
Lockheed Martin

over three months after the com-
mercial freighter was rolled out at
the site.
Flight tracking services record
the aircraft – registered N5103D
– as having made a 2h 47min
flight, at altitudes up to 11,000ft.
“It performed flawlessly,” says
Wayne Roberts, Lockheed’s chief
test pilot for the LM-100J. George
adds that the new freighter “is ex-
ceeding all expectations in terms
of performance and capabilities”.
Lockheed says the LM-100J
will complete initial production
flight tests and then begin type
certificate update flight tests.
Derived from the C-130J Her-
cules tactical transport, the new
commercial model is Lockheed’s
Commercial Hercules variant got airborne from Marietta on 25 May
intended replacement for the a Brazilian-based start-up – Bravo
L-100 freighters produced be- Cargas – intends to acquire the
tween 1964 and 1992. same number.
Flight Fleets Analyzer records Lockheed has previously out-
South Africa’s Safair as expecting lined a goal of achieving civil cer-
to introduce 10 LM-100Js, while tification during 2018. ■

flightglobal.com 6-12 June 2017 | Flight International | 11

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REGULATION JON HEMMERDINGER BOSTON
Trump budget calls for privatising ATC
“Transformative” move echoes carriers’ lobbying and would take service out of Federal Aviation Administration control
U S President Donald Trump’s
fiscal year 2018 budget pro-
posal would privatise US air traf-
fic control from 2021, a move ad-
vocated by the bulk of the US
commercial aviation industry.
The proposal, released by the
White House on 23 May, would
separate ATC from the Federal
Aviation Administration’s con-
trol, placing it under a “non-prof-
it, non-governmental entity”.
This would better “accommo-
date growing air traffic volume
and meet the demands of avia-
tion users,” the proposal says.
“This transformative undertak-
ing will create an innovative cor-
poration that can more nimbly
respond to the demand for air
traffic services, all while reducing
taxes and government spending.”
That language, particularly the
word “transformative”, harkens
DEVELOPMENT MAVIS TOH SINGAPORE
Feasibility work starts on
China-Russia widebody
C hinese airframer Comac says
feasibility studies have start-
ed for the widebody aircraft it is
to jointly develop with Russia’s
United Aircraft (UAC), with ser-
vice entry envisioned for about
10 years’ time.
On 22 May the two companies
established a joint venture, Chi-
na-Russia Commercial Aircraft
PROPULSION TOM ZAITSEV MOSCOW
PD-14 flight-test campaign to empower Irkut programme
Russia’s United Engine (UEC) has
completed a second round of
flight testing with the Aviadvigatel
PD-14 powerplant which will
equip the Irkut MC-21 twinjet.
For these trials, which started in
December 2016, the high-bypass
turbo­fan was mounted on a four-
engined Ilyushin Il-76 testbed
flightglobal.com
CSeries ‘could spell
end of 737 Max 7’
News Focus P14
Airlines say the change would ultimately reduce passenger taxes
directly to the wishes of commer-
cial aviation executives, who for
several years have advocated ex-
actly this type of change.
They have argued that inde-
pendence would free ATC from
reliance on uncertain and short-
Corporation (CRAIC), to manage
the development effort.
CRAIC’s general manager, Guo
Bozhi, says that although it will
look similar to and deliver com-
parable performance to the Boe-
ing 787 and Airbus A350, the tar-
get is for the twin-aisle to have
operating costs about 10% lower
than its Western rivals.
from the Gromov flight-test insti-
tute. UEC says the tests were in-
tended to verify engine
performance characteristics at
altitudes and speeds closely
matching those for which the
­MC-21 is conditioned.
“The other goal was to deter-
mine such an important factor
AIR TRANSPORT
the size of the federal government
and reduce taxes for passengers,”
the trade group’s chief executive,
Nicholas Calio, says.
Delta Air Lines opposes priva-
tisation, a stance that contributed
to its exit from Airlines for Amer-
ica in 2015. It says the approach
would not address underlying
factors that cause congestion,
such as the geographic proximity
Cultura/REX/Shutterstock
of US airports, and it has advo-
cated collaboration with the FAA.
Opposition has also come from
some Democratic lawmakers, in-
cluding Peter DeFazio, a ranking
member of the House transporta-
term funding, enabling it to im- tion committee.
plement improvements. He says privatisation would
Airlines for America was quick increase the federal deficit, slow
to commend the proposals. “The modernisation, restrict air access
president’s leadership on air traf- at small communities and nega-
fic control reform will ultimately tively affect general aviation
reduce federal spending, shrink users and air cargo companies. ■
Xinhua/REX/Shutterstock
The partners are aiming for 10% efficiency gains over Western rivals
This will come from its ad- comments and recommendations
vanced aerodynamic design and from airlines, and will target the
next-generation engines, he says. mainstream market with a differ-
CRAIC has taken into account entiated and competitive aircraft,
says Guo.
He cites Russia’s long history
of aircraft development as a key
component of the programme.
The pair plan an aircraft with
from prospective customers’ 280 seats and a range of 6,480nm
standpoint as its technical service- (12,000km), compared with 242
ability,” it adds. seats in a two-class layout for the
Completion of the second 787-8, with a 7,350nm range; and
phase allows the development the A350-800’s 280 passengers
team to begin a flight certification over 8,200nm.
campaign for the PD-14, which The CRAIC joint venture will
will involve both the Il-76 and an cover development, production
MC-21 prototype. ■ and after-sales support. ■
6-12 June 2017 | Flight International | 13
NEWS FOCUS
DISPUTE JON HEMMERDINGER BOSTON
CSeries ‘could spell end of 737 Max 7’
Aggressive pricing threatens entire programme, Boeing tells inquiry, while Bombardier and Delta stick to their guns
B ombardier’s CSeries and the
Canadian company’s aggres-
sive sales tactics threaten the very
existence of the 737 Max 7, Boe-
ing’s vice-chairman Ray Conner
has told US trade officials.
“The 100-150-seat market mat-
ters greatly to Boeing, and Bom-
bardier is very close to forcing us
out of this altogether,” Conner
said during a hearing held by the
US International Trade Commis-
sion (ITC) on 18 May.
“It will only take one or two
lost sales involving US customers
before commercial viability of the
Max 7, and therefore the US in-
dustry’s very future, becomes
very doubtful,” Conner added,
according to a transcript of the
hearing obtained by FlightGlobal.
DUMPING CLAIM
Conner and other representatives
of Boeing, Bombardier and Delta
Air Lines spoke at the hearing:
part of a probe examining wheth-
er the Canadian airframer has vi-
olated trade rules.
14 | Flight International | 6-12 June 2017
The US government launched
the investigation after Boeing
filed a petition on 27 April claim-
ing financial harm from alleged
state subsidies to Bombardier
leading to low sale prices for its
CSeries jets.
Boeing alleges that Delta,
which ordered 75 CS100s in
2016, paid about $20 million each
for aircraft which will cost Bom-
bardier $33.2 million to produce.
Bombardier was able to clinch
the deal at that price because it
received $2.5 billion in govern-
ment equity infusions and bil-
lions more in other subsidies, the
US manufacturer claims.
The Canadian airframer’s tac-
tics have depressed rates for com-
peting small narrowbody aircraft
such as the 737-700 and 737
Max  7, Boeing says. Pressure
from Bombardier forced it to cut
the price of 737-700s for United
Airlines, Boeing claims.
“The way they’re pricing it is
dumped beyond any reasonable
imagination,” Boeing lawyer Rob-
For up-to-the-minute air transport news,
network and fleet information sign up at:
flightglobal.com/dashboard
ert Novick told the commission.
“If Boeing cannot secure addi-
tional orders for the 737 Max 7, or
is forced to sell at depressed pric-
es, the programme will not suc-
ceed and Boeing will be eliminat-
ed from the 100-150-seat market.”
“Boeing could not
offer us a new airplane
in the 100- to 110-seat
space in the timeframe
that we needed”
Gregory May
Senior vice-president of supply chain
management and fleet, Delta Air Lines
Parallel investigations by the
ITC and the US Department of
Commerce are scheduled to wrap
up by November and could result
in import duties, the Department
of Commerce says.
Representatives from Bombar-
dier and Delta dismissed Boeing’s
claims, insisting the CSeries, par-
Smallest version of the
re-engined twinjet has
orders for only 63 units
Boeing
ticularly the 108-seat CS100, did
not compete with the 737-700 or
the Max 7.
Bombardier developed the
CSeries to fill a need that arose a
decade ago after Boeing aban-
doned the roughly 100-seat mar-
ket when it stopped making 717s,
they claim.
“Boeing doesn’t even make a
product that competes with the
aircraft Bombardier offered,” said
Peter Lichtenbaum, a lawyer rep-
resenting Bombardier. “Aircraft
are not like shampoo, where get-
ting 30% more for a comparable
price is a bonus.”
Indeed, Conner confirms that
because of Delta’s price require-
ments, Boeing had initially dis-
cussed selling it used 717s or
traded-in Embraer 190s.
“Boeing could not offer us a
new airplane in the 100- to 110-
seat space that met our needs in
the timeframe that we needed to
execute,” said Gregory May,
Delta senior vice-president of
supply chain management and
flightglobal.com
 Team Cormorant
would rescue
NEWS FOCUS
VH-71s
Defence P16

fleet. “It would be wrong to sug- ANALYSIS DOMINIC PERRY LONDON

gest that Boeing lost sales to Delta
because we purchased the
CS100. Boeing simply was not in
the mix.”
May also addressed pricing,
saying airlines commonly get dis-
counts in exchange for risks asso-
ciated with being an initial cus-
tomer of a new aircraft. “Everyone
in the industry understands that
the first marquee customer is
being rewarded for being the first
for fully evaluating the aircraft,”
he says.
Although Bombardier has not
disclosed the unit cost of Delta’s
aircraft, the airframer’s vice-presi-
Backlog data suggests smallest variant was already in trouble
Does Boeing have a compelling
Industry upgauging has
argument against the CSeries? To
reduced demand in the
some extent, only the airframer
CS100’s segment
really knows how much the pric-
ing of Bombardier’s new aircraft
pair is hurting sales of the 737-
700 and Max 7 and threatening
its continued survival.
However, examination of the
airframer’s historic order data for
the 737NG clearly shows the
popularity of the smallest remain-
ing variant is waning.
Over the course of the pro-
gramme, Boeing has taken 1,128

dent of commercial operations,
Ross Mitchell, dismissed the sug-
gested $20 million figure.
“The price that has been quot-
ed is way off, and we’ll leave it at
that,” he said.
SEAT SEGMENTS
Much of the hearing focused on
seat count, with Boeing insisting
the CS100 competes in the 100-
150-seat segment, and Bombar-
dier and Delta saying the CSeries
actually occupies a smaller,
unique niche.
“A 100-seat plane and [a] 150-
seat plane are not interchangea-
ble for Delta’s purpose,” said Joe
Esposito, the carrier’s vice-presi-
dent of network planning in
the Americas.
Still, Conner and other Boeing
representatives painted Bombar-
dier’s price cuts as threatening
the “commercial momentum” of
the 737 Max 7.
“The Boeing 737 Max 7 ap-
pears to be perilously close to, or
maybe even already… locked
into such a negative commercial
momentum cycle,” said Jerry
Nickelsburg, a University of Cali-
fornia Los Angeles economist
who spoke on Boeing’s behalf.
Boeing has received orders for
just 63 737 Max 7s from five cus-
tomers, and has not received a
significant order since 2013, Con-
ner noted.
“Bombardier has said it wants
50% of this market, which it will
probably win at the prices it is of-
fering,” he said. “If Bombardier
does that, we’re looking at losing
gross orders for the -700, repre-
senting about 16.8% of all 737NG
sales since launch in 1993 (this falls
to 16.7% if the 69 orders for the
discontinued -600 are included).
But over the past 10 years, the
-700 has averaged only 2.17% of
total 737 sales, varying from a high
of 6% (45 orders) in 2007 to zero in
2012, 2015 and 2016.
The Max 7 has fared little bet-
ter: of the total orders for 3,714
Max-family aircraft, just 63 are for
the smallest variant, or 1.69%.
Bombardier launched its
CSeries family in 2008, with ser-
vice entry initially expected in
2013. Development delays
pushed that milestone back to
July last year, when launch cus-
tomer Swiss put the first CS100
into revenue service.
Orders have hardly flooded in,
with the twinjets scraping over the
airframer’s self-imposed 300-or-
der mark by service entry, thanks
to late commitments from Air
Canada and Delta Air Lines.
And if the CS100 is truly a wor-
Boeing 737NG gross orders
Orders
700
600
500
400
300
200
100
0
1993 19941995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016
ry for Boeing – its price lies at the
heart of the complaint against the
Delta deal – it is difficult to see
much evidence for concern from
the 123 orders for the variant, or
the 360 for the CSeries pro-
gramme as a whole.
Assuming that without the
CSeries, Boeing would have split
those orders with Airbus and
Embraer on a roughly equal basis,
the Seattle airframer could have
added 120 orders to its backlog.
Boeing’s argument also ap-
pears to ignore a general trend in
the airline industry for upgauging,
which has seen the market for
small regional jets collapse, with a
knock-on effect up the size range.
That is likely to be the reason
why the manufacturer achieved
no orders for the -700 in 2016: an
early commitment that year from
United Airlines for 65 aircraft had,
by November, been shifted to
four -800s and 61 Max aircraft,
Bombardier
with the exact variant still to
be determined.
The trend to upsizing can also
be seen in Boeing’s own decision
to lift the capacity of the Max 7
over its NG equivalent: in a two-
class layout the re-engined vari-
ant holds 138 passengers: 12
more than the -700.
While Bombardier is clearly
engaged in some steep discount-
ing for its early customers – some-
thing the whole industry is guilty
of – its CSeries jets, which are op-
timised for the 100-150-seat seg-
ment, also should offer better
efficiency than the shrunk -700
and Max 7, or Airbus’s A319neo.
Aside from fuel, the other big
cost concern for the US majors is
labour. Pay scales allow a lower
rate for a different aircraft type
like the CSeries – while all
737-family pilots are on the same
rate, whether they are flying a
-700 or -800. ■
Source: Flight Fleets Analyzer

$330 million in revenue every 737-700 737-800 737-900/ER

year.” ■

flightglobal.com 6-12 June 2017 | Flight International | 15

DEFENCE
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flightglobal.com/defencenewsletter

UPGRADE LEIGH GIANGRECO WASHINGTON DC

Team Cormorant would rescue VH-71s

Canada’s AW101 modernisation need prompts Leonardo and IMP to propose reactivating ex-presidential examples

L eonardo Helicopters and IMP

Aerospace & Defence are team-
ing up to convert AgustaWestland
avionics and sensors, enhanced
icing protection and improved
corrosion management.
AW101s to support the Royal In a recent report entitled Rein-
Canadian Air Force’s CH-149
­ vesting in the Canadian Armed
Cormorant search and rescue
­ Forces, a senate committee on de-
modernisation programme, the fence recommended re-activating
Italian company has announced. the stored fleet of ex-VH-71s, to

Royal Canadian Air Force

The “Team Cormorant” joint
venture is bidding for the Cormo-
rant mid-life upgrade (CMLU)
and conversion programme,
which will extend the service
lives of Ottawa’s current CH-149s
until 2040.
The planned activity could cost
between $500 million and $1.5
billion, according to estimates
from the Canadian government.
Team Cormorant’s proposal
would modify Canada’s current
fleet of 14 search and rescue ro-
torcraft, plus nine stored AW101s
Current fleet would be modified to extend service life until 2040
that were acquired from the USA
following the cancellation of its
presidential helicopter replace-
ment contract for the Lockheed
Martin/AgustaWestland VH-71
Kestrel in 2009.
The common fleet would
­receive new avionics, advanced
radars and sensors, plus vision
boost the nation’s search and res-
cue helicopter capabilities.
“The fleet of VH-71s should be
modified to match the current ca-
pacity of the search and rescue
Cormorants, and temporarily
enhancement and tracking sys- moved to the east and west coasts,
tems, Leonardo says. to provide additional support for
Ottawa is currently undertak- search and rescue while the
ing an “options analysis phase” ­CH-149s are upgraded,” the com-
for the CMLU programme, with a mittee says. Its recommendations
contract award expected later also include the longer-term reten-
this year. All updated rotorcraft tion of the ex-US assets, for opera-
should be delivered by 2024, tion from the Canadian military’s
with the air force requiring new Trenton base in Ontario. ■

ORDNANCE LEIGH GIANGRECO WASHINGTON DC

Saab

USAF targets a versatile

successor for AMRAAM
T he US Air Force is developing
a new air-to-air weapon,
dubbed the small advanced
have hyper-agility, due to a com-
bination of aerodynamics, atti-
tude control and thrust vectoring.
capabilities missile (SACM),
­ The design also would incorpo-
which could become operational rate energy-optimising guidance,
during the 2030s. navigation and control, it adds.
The US Air Force Research Based on descriptions from the
Laboratory (AFRL) is looking to AFRL, and comments made earli-
develop and demonstrate various er this year by the USAF’s then-Air
CONTRACT
system- and subsystem-level Combat Command chief Gen Her-
critical technologies to support
­ bert Carlisle, SACM could have
Pakistan seeks extra Erieye systems the next-generation air domi- shades of the service’s and US De-
Pakistan is to obtain another three Erieye radar-equipped Saab nance missile, according to slides fense Advanced Research Projects
2000s for airborne early warning and control (AEW&C) duties, released in April. These describe Agency’s defunct joint dual-role
according to sources familiar with the deal. On 15 May, Saab a lighter and longer-range weap- air dominance missile concept.
announced that it had signed a deal worth SKr1.35 billion ($155 on offering “dramatically im- That envisioned a combined air-to-
million) with an undisclosed customer, covering AEW&C proved high off-boresight [capa- air and air-to-surface weapon opti-
­system deliveries to occur between this year and 2020. The bility] for rear hemisphere kills”, mised for carriage by the Lockheed
­order should be formally booked within the next six months, and a “lower cost per kill”. Martin F-22 and F-35.
the company added, noting: “The effectiveness of the contract The USAF has long mulled the Carlisle believes a “sixth-gener-
is subject to the fulfillment of certain conditions – among oth- concept of a replacement for its ation” missile could also arm
ers, financial”. Flight Fleets Analyzer records the Pakistan air Raytheon AIM-120 AMRAAM, older fighters, the USAF’s future
force as having four Erieye-equipped Saab 2000s in service, and the AFRL indicates that a penetrating counter-air platform
with the first (pictured) handed over in December 2009. new weapon would use an im- and other types, such as Northrop
proved solid rocket motor and Grumman’s B-21 bomber. ■

16 | Flight International | 6-12 June 2017 flightglobal.com


PROCUREMENT LEIGH GIANGRECO WASHINGTON DC
Navy welcomes budget plan
as Super Hornet gets boost
Five-year proposal supports funding additional 60 examples of Boeing fighter by 2022
U S President Donald Trump’s
long-term budget plans would
add funding to buy up to 80
­Boeing F/A-18E/F Super Hornets
through 2022, or 60 more than
planned in previous forecasts.
The US Navy is seeking 14
Super Hornets in its fiscal year
2018 budget request – submitted
on 23 May – to mitigate a strike
fighter shortfall, service officials
say. But Trump’s proposal
­inserts plans to procure another
23 in FY2019, followed by 14
each for the next two years and
15 in FY2022. It also would pro-
vide funds to introduce ad-
flightglobal.com
USAF sticks with
Compass Call
strategy
Defence P19
vanced capabilities to the carri-
er-based strike asset.
While the proposed acquisi-
tions are good news for Boeing,
the status of Trump’s five-year
funding plan is not settled. Dur-
ing a budget roll-out briefing in
late May, Department of Defense
officials warned that procure-
ment numbers beyond FY2018
would be subject to change, fol-
lowing the outcome of a defence
strategy review which is due to
occur in August.
“We have focused on getting a
budget ready for FY2017, and
then we pivoted to get ’18 done to
New capabilities
could be added
to F/A-18E/F
US Navy
meet this date as well,” notes
John Roth, the Pentagon’s deputy
comptroller. “The [defense] sec-
retary has not spent any time
looking beyond ’18,” he adds.
Trump’s FY2018 request con-
tinues a steady procurement for
the USN. The service initially
asked for no Super Hornets in its
equipment request for FY2017,
but Congress added 14 examples.
Flight Fleets Analyzer shows
the USN as having a current ac-
tive inventory of 544 F/A-18E/Fs,
including those dedicated to
training, plus 131 of the electron-
ic-attack-derivative EA-18G. ■
6-12 June 2017 | Flight International | 17
DEFENCE
ROTORCRAFT
MIKE RAJKUMAR BENGALURU
HAL advancing
Indian multi-role
helicopter work
H industan Aeronautics (HAL)
has issued requests for infor-
mation related to the Indian mul-
ti-role helicopter (IMRH) design
unveiled at the Aero India show
in Bengaluru in February.
The requests concern twin-tur-
boshaft engines, assistance with
the development of a blade fold-
ing system, and external reviews
of the 12t rotorcraft’s retractable
landing gear, and transmission.
The type will initially be
equipped with imported power-
plants featuring full authority dig-
ital engine control. The selected
design should have a maximum
take-off rating of 2,610shp
(1,950kW) at sea level.
A design review period has
been outlined as lasting six years,
but since the IMRH represents
HAL’s largest helicopter yet, its
development timeframe can be
more realistically estimated at be-
tween eight and 10 years.
New Delhi currently has no for-
mal requirement for an indige-
nously-developed rotorcraft in the
10-12t class, but FlightGlobal un-
derstands that the IMRH is aimed
at replacing its older Mil Mi-17
transports after 2025. HAL also
plans anti-submarine warfare and
VIP transport variants, and to pur-
sue civil certification. ■
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 Honda expands
DEFENCE
dealership network
Business Aviation P20

RECAPITALISATION LEIGH GIANGRECO WASHINGTON DC

USAF sticks with Compass Call strategy

Second protest lodged by Boeing over role of L3 Technologies in selecting new aircraft for electronic warfare update

B oeing has become the second

competitor to file a protest
against the acquisition strategy
for the US Air Force’s Compass
Call recapitalisation programme,
alleging that L3 Technologies’
lead on the so-called “cross-
deck” effort will hand the award
to Gulfstream’s G550.
The programme will transfer
existing mission equipment from
the USAF’s aged Lockheed Mar-
tin EC-130H airframes to a new
platform. Earlier this year, the
service announced that systems
integrator L3 would select and in-

corporate the package.
Boeing filed its protest with the
US Government Accountability
Office (GAO) on 19 May, and the
agency will make a decision by
28 August.
“The air force’s approach is in-
consistent with Congress’s direc-
tion in the 2017 National Defense
Authorization Act, and seems to
ignore inherent and obvious con-
flicts of interest,” Boeing says.
“We believe that the US Air Force
and taxpayer would be best
served by a fair and open compe-
tition, and that the air force can
still meet its stated timeline of re-
placing the ageing fleet of
­EC-130Hs within 10 years.”
The suggested “conflict of in-
terest” alludes to L3’s previous
Programme will “cross-deck” equipment from service’s EC-130H fleet to an as-yet-unnamed successor
partnerships with Gulfstream on
intelligence-gathering and com-
mand-and-control aircraft, in-
cluding its recent teaming for a
contest to replace the USAF’s
Northrop Grumman E-8C
JSTARS surveillance fleet.
But air force leaders remain
committed to the planned
“cross-deck” approach to updat-
ing the Compass Call capability.
During a 25 May hearing, Lt Gen
Arnold Bunch, military deputy
for the assistant secretary of the
air force for acquisition, told
members of Congress that using
L3 to choose the replacement
aircraft represented the quickest
way to replace the EC-130H. The
company was also selected be-
cause it has modernised the cur-
rent system for the past 15 years,
and is familiar with its classified
electronic warfare equipment,
he says.
“They have all the tooling, all
the existing knowledge and mod-
elling to do that work, and the
preponderance of this is a non-
developmental effort,” he says.
Although L3 will choose the
replacement aircraft, Bunch says
the air force will not play a by-
stander role in the competition,
US Air Force
and will review its contractor’s
selection to ensure it remains
compliant with regulations.
“We’re not stepping out of this
and just watching the process
play out,” he notes.
Bombardier also filed a protest
over the proposed acquisition
strategy in March, which the
GAO dismissed as premature,
since the USAF had yet to issue a
solicitation for the deal. Stéphane
Villeneuve, vice-president for
Bombardier specialised aircraft,
declines to comment on Boeing’s
protest, and says his company is
still evaluating its options. ■

flightglobal.com 6-12 June 2017 | Flight International | 19

BUSINESS AVIATION
CHARTER STEPHEN TRIMBLE GENEVA
Finnish exemption
gives head start to
PC-12 joint venture
Hendell and Fly7 access UK market after regulation change
H endell Aviation and joint ven-
ture partner Fly7 of Switzer-
land have expanded into the
newly opened UK market for com-
mercial flights with single-en-
gined, turbine-powered aircraft,
with the completion on 27 May of
the first charter flight in the coun-
try using a Pilatus PC-12.
The flight from Blackbushe to
Lausanne came less than three
months after the European Avia-
tion Safety Agency approved sin-
gle-engined turbine aircraft to
carry fee-paying passengers at
night and in instrument meteoro-
logical conditions.
Shortly after this SET-IMC vali-
dation, the UK Civil Aviation Au-
SALES KATE SARSFIELD LONDON
Honda expands dealership network
H onda Aircraft is ramping up
its global sales drive for the
HondaJet, with the appointment
of Thai Aerospace Services (TAS)
as the dealership for the light
business jet in Southeast Asia.
The Bangkok-headquartered
business aviation services provid-
er will cover Cambodia, Laos, Ma-
laysia, Myanmar, Singapore, Thai-
land and Vietnam.
Expansion to Southeast Asia
adds to existing dealership agree-
ments in North America, Europe
and parts of South America,
where Honda Aircraft has part-
nered with Buenos Aires-based
Hangar Uno to sell and support
the aircraft in Argentina, Paraguay
and Uruguay.
In Europe, the company says it
has received “multiple orders”
for a new hybrid fractional own-
ership programme. FlyHonda
joins two other European Honda-
20 | Flight International | 6-12 June 2017
thority approved a request to rec-
ognise Hendell’s Finnish air
operator’s certificate (AOC) for
such operations, says Hendell
chairman Matti Auterinen.
As European regulators come
to grips with the change in regu-
lation, Finnish charter operators
enter the expanded market with a
clear advantage, Auterinen adds.
That is because Finland’s Civil
Aviation Authority received an
exemption from the ban on
­SET-IMC operations in 2013, al-
lowing it to launch commercial
services throughout Europe ex-
cept for the UK, using two PC-12s.
Since 1 January, Hendell and
Fly7 have expanded their man-
Pact with Thai Aerospace Services covers most of Southeast Asia
Jet operators – Germany-based
Privateairways, which began a
charter service in April, and
France-based European Aero
Training Institute Strasbourg,
which will launch a public trans-
port service with the six-seat twin
in the third quarter.
Keep up to date with business
aviation news and analysis at:
flightglobal.com/bizav
Partners have been operating across Europe with five-strong fleet
aged fleet to five of the Swiss-
built seven-seaters within the
continental European market.
Two more PC-12s are expected to
join the operation this year.
For a European operator, Hen-
dell has unusually long experi-
ence with flying single-engined
turboprops on operational mis-
sions. Auterinen, a Finnair Air-
bus A330 and A350 pilot, started
flying PC-12s in 2004 in Kenya
on humanitarian relief opera-
tions. In 2010, he began working
on a plan to apply PC-12s to the
European charter market.
Honda Aircraft
The Greensboro, North Caroli-
na-based company delivered 15
HondaJets in the first quarter of
2017 and is targeting production
of between 55 and 60 aircraft in
the fiscal year ending March
2018. As of May it had produced
57 aircraft, Honda says. ■
Fly7
Hendell was launched as Fin-
land’s exemption made such op-
erations possible. To receive an
AOC, Hendell showed how it
mitigated the safety risk of a sin-
gle-engined aircraft by applying
Finnair-style cockpit resource
management philosophies.
Hendell and Fly7 grew their
managed fleet by avoiding high
acquisition costs. Instead of buy-
ing new or used PC-12s, they in-
stead partner with fleet owners or
owner-operators, paying them to
access their aircraft for up to 500
flight hours per year. ■
EXPANSION
MURDO MORRISON LONDON
GainJet selects
Stansted as UK
medevac base
G reek VIP charter operator and
management company Gain-
Jet is basing a new medical evac-
uation operation at London Stan-
sted airport, using a Bombardier
Challenger 604.
The large-cabin business jet is
configured as an air ambulance
and can accommodate up to six
passengers, as well as medical
staff. It will be based, with crew,
at the Inflite Jet Centre fixed-base
operation.
“Our mission is to provide a
reliable medevac service based in
London that is readily available
to serve the European market,”
says GainJet. The company has a
medevac operation in Kuwait
using another Challenger 604,
and plans to open a third base, in
Kigali, Rwanda, to serve Africa. ■
flightglobal.com

SETTLEMENT KATE SARSFIELD LONDON
Global 7000 discord ends in Triumph
Airframer and wing supplier resolve dispute over redesign and commit to entry-into-service of flagship twin in 2018
B ombardier and Triumph Aero-
structures (TAS) have reached
a settlement that resolves all out-
standing commercial disputes
and pending litigation related to
the design, manufacture and sup-
ply of wing components for the
in-development Global 7000.
In a statement issued on
24  May, TAS parent company
Triumph says the agreement “re-
sets” the commercial relationship
between the two companies,
“and allows each of them to bet-
ter achieve their business objec-
tives going forward”. Terms of the
settlement were not disclosed.
Bombardier launched a costly
redesign of the Global 7000 wing
in 2015 – about four years after
the programme’s launch – to re-
duce the structural weight of the
ultra-long-range twin without al-
tering its aerodynamic profile.
The company blamed the wing
CHARTER KATE SARSFIELD LONDON
Flexjet readies for European growth
F lexjet Europe is accelerating
its fleet growth and widening
its service offering, in response to
stronger-than-expected demand
for bespoke charter services.
The London-headquartered
company plans to add the first of
several super-midsize business
jets to its light-jet line-up before
the end of the year, and is prepar-
ing to introduce a range of mem-
Three Nextant 400XTis have flown 50% more hours than forecast
flightglobal.com
Keeping up with
demand
Data View P22
Changes were initiated to reduce weight, bringing a two-year delay
redesign for a two-year delay to
its flagship aircraft’s entry into
service, which is now pegged for
the second half of 2018.
The design change eventually
triggered a legal dispute with
TAS, which filed a lawsuit in
bership-style programmes for its
European and US customers.
The service was launched in
March to provide onward travel
to Flexjet’s North American cus-
tomers wishing to travel within
Europe, the Middle East and Afri-
ca. The fleet consists of three Nex-
tant 400XTis, which have flown
50% more hours than originally
forecast, according to chief execu-
Flexjet
BUSINESS AVIATION
Bombardier
early January claiming that Bom-
bardier owed it money for the
extra work and tooling costs.
Bombardier dismissed the
claims as “without merit”, but
despite their disagreements, the
companies have continued to
tive Ray Jones. “It’s been over-
whelming,” he says. “To satisfy
the demand, we plan to add up to
five more 400XTis by year-end.”
Larger and longer-range types
are being introduced to address
demand. “We will start with su-
per-midsize types such as the
[Embraer] Legacy 600,” says
Jones. “This aircraft can seat eight
passengers and fly distances of
more than 3,000nm [5,550km] –
reaching cities like Moscow with
ease.”
He says: “The next piece of the
jigsaw is to widen our offering
with the introduction of a collec-
tion of membership-style pro-
grammes.” Although remaining
tight-lipped on these offerings, he
says at the top end they will pro-
vide “a whole aircraft ownership
experience”, reflecting the Red
Label programme offered by
Flexjet’s US sibling. ■
6-12 June 2017 | Flight International | 21
work closely on the programme.
A prototype with the lighter wing
is scheduled to join the flight test
campaign in the third quarter.
Daniel Crowley, Triumph’s
president and chief executive,
describes the settlement as “mu-
tually beneficial”. He says TAS
“remains committed to the Glob-
al 7000’s continued success as
the aircraft transitions from flight
testing to entry into service”.
To date, three test articles have
flown a combined 250h from
Bombardier’s US flight-test centre
in Wichita, Kansas.
With a reach of 7,400nm
(13,700km), the Global 7000 will
be the largest and longest-range
business jet in the airframer’s sev-
en-strong line-up. It is designed
to challenge Gulfstream’s domi-
nance, fitting neatly between the
7,000nm range of the G650 and
the G650ER’s 7,500nm. ■
SERVICES
MURDO MORRISON GENEVA
Jetex expands
footprint at 15
French airports
T rip planning services provid-
er and fixed-base operator
(FBO) Jetex is increasing its
French presence through a 15-
city tie-up with airport manage-
ment company Edeis. The Dubai-
headquartered company is to
operate services at a range of sec-
ondary airports including Dijon,
Rouen and Tours.
“This outsourcing arrange-
ment adds value to our network
in Europe,” says Adel Mardini,
Jetex founder and chief execu-
tive. Jetex already runs FBOs at
Marseilles and Paris Le Bourget,
its European flagship, which it
opened in 2009.
Jetex operates facilities in Bar-
celona, Madrid and Malaga, and
will shortly open in Rome. Its
biggest operation is in Dubai. ■
DATA VIEW

Keeping up
with demand
In the first of our new monthly reports, we analyse the commercial manufacturers’ recent
order and delivery figures, to reveal emerging trends and weigh the competitive balance

GRAHAM DUNN & ANTOINE FAFARD

LONDON

O
nce a month, we will dig deep
into the Flight Fleets Analyzer
database to examine the order
and delivery situation for the
commercial airliner industry’s main
manufacturers, and highlight emerging
trends and fluctuating demand.
Using preliminary figures for April, our
data shows that orders for 62 new aircraft
were offset by five cancellations, while there
were also eight swaps. Airbus finalised orders
for 25 units, while ATR and Boeing secured
deals for 20 and 14, respectively.
April’s net figure of 57 aircraft was about a
quarter of the comparable total in the same
month of 2016, when the net figure was 237.

AirTeamImages
European low-cost carrier Ryanair
MODEST DEALS is taking seven 737NGs per month
Malaysian low-cost carrier AirAsia and China
Aircraft Leasing each ordered three addition-
al Airbus A320s during the month, while 11 New orders, April 2017 units. There were 14 regional jet shipments,
Boeing 737 Max variants were added by the and four turboprops were transferred.
Iran Air ATR 72 20
US manufacturer from as-yet-unannounced Boeing handed over 37 examples of its
American Airlines Embraer 175 4
commercial customers. 737NG, while Airbus delivered 36 A320-fam-
AirAsia A320 3
Turboprop manufacturer ATR booked a ily aircraft, including 10 Neo variants.
firm order for 20 ATR 72-600s from Iran Air, China Aircraft Leasing A320 3 Ryanair, which received seven 737-800s,
which confirmed a commitment initially dis- Iberia A330 1 was the airline to receive the most aircraft in
closed more than a year earlier. The flag carri- Ilyushin Finance Q400 1 April. The low-cost carrier has taken seven of
er – which subsequently received its first four SMBC Aviation Capital 737-800 1 the twinjets per month since the beginning of
of the aircraft in May – has also taken options Source: Flight Fleets Analyzer this year.
Note: information for known customers only
on 20 more of the type.
At the end of April, the overall commercial 15,000 MILESTONE

aircraft order backlog stood at 14,463 units: a
reduction of 54 from the previous month.
DELIVERIES DIP
Fleets Analyzer shows that 115 commercial
aircraft were delivered in April; down 9% on
the same month in 2016.
Customers in the Asia-Pacific region and
Europe received 40 and 34 aircraft, respec-
tively, while mainline operators accounted
for nearly half of all shipments. Narrowbody
and widebody deliveries totalled 73 and 24
9%
April’s commercial aircraft delivery
total of 115 units represented a 9%
reduction from the same month a year
earlier, for which Flight Fleets Analyzer
shows shipments of a combined 126
jets and turboprops to customers
Our information shows that the in-service
commercial fleet consists of close to 25,500
passenger aircraft, plus over 2,300 units used
for freight operations.
Notably, the in-service narrowbody fleet
passed the 15,000-unit mark in May, with
Fleets Analyzer showing this milestone as
having been exceeded by 76 aircraft.
Our data shows that the in-service fleet is
increasing in most regions, apart from North
America, which still accounts for the largest
share of the operational total, at 30%. ■

22 | Flight International | 6-12 June 2017 flightglobal.com

 ORDERS & DELIVERIES

Commercial monthly net orders, April 2016-2017 Commercial in-service fleet

Units by region
550

450
30% 29%
350
27,944
250 Total
5%
150 5% 24%
7%
50
Source: Flight Fleets Analyzer

-50 North America Asia-Pacific Europe

Apr-16 May-16 Jun-16 Jul-16 Aug-16 Sep-16 Oct-16 Nov-16 Dec-16 Jan-17 Feb-17 Mar-17 Apr-17 8,339 8,095 6,758
Source: Flight Fleets Analyzer

Narrowbody Regional Turboprop Widebody Latin America Middle East Africa

2,028 1,427 1,287

Commercial monthly deliveries, April 2016-2017 Commercial in-service fleet

Units by market group
250

19%
200

150 27,944
Total 14%
100 54%
12%
1%
50
Source: Flight Fleets Analyzer
0
Narrowbody Widebody Turboprop
Apr-16 May-16 Jun-16 Jul-16 Aug-16 Sep-16 Oct-16 Nov-16 Dec-16 Jan-17 Feb-17 Mar-17 Apr-17 15,076 5,212 3,832
Source: Flight Fleets Analyzer
Regional Other
Narrowbody Regional Turboprop Widebody
3,373 451

In focus: Airbus and Boeing big twins

Looking at the evolution of the Airbus A330
and A340 compared with the Boeing 767
A330/A340 versus 767/777: total fleet and stored aircraft
and 777, the global fleet of Airbus widebod-
In-service fleet Stored ratio ies has increased from just over 860 in May
2500 10% 2008 to more than 1,500 today: a 75% in-
crease. Meanwhile, the number of the
2000 8% Boeing types in use has grown from slightly
above 1,600 to over 2,250, a 40% rise.
1500 6%
Both manufacturers have delivered
these types at a steady and similar pace,
but their storage ratios have moved in vari-
1000 4%
ous directions.
During our study period, the parked ratio
500 2%
was at its lowest for both the Airbus and
Boeing widebodies in 2008. The percentage
0 0%
for the A330/A340 peaked at 10% in 2015
2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017
Source: Flight Fleets Analyzer
and is currently at 9.3%, while for the Boeing
models an almost 8% figure was seen last
A330/A340 767/777 Stored A330/A340 aircraft Stored 767/777 aircraft
year, and now is around the 6.5% level. ■

flightglobal.com 6-12 June 2017 | Flight International | 23

TRAINING

Virtual demand

The A350’s popularity in Asia will

require more devices for the region

The net global airliner fleet – and a related need for trained pilots – is steadily expanding,
but the inventory of ground-based equipment which provides instruction is not keeping up

ANTOINE FAFARD LONDON Full flight simulators (FFS) represent 85% Simulation & Training UK, and FlightSafety In-
of the total figure – slightly more than 1,000 ternational, which account for 20% and 11% of

A
s the global commercial airliner devices. the market, respectively.
fleet steadily expands – at a rate of Our data shows that just over 20 new de- North America, the Asia-Pacific region and
about 1,000 additional aircraft per vices have come into service since January Europe account for 37%, 26% and 25% of the
year – the simulator market 2016, including four FFS units for the new- global presence, respectively.
evolves at a much slower pace. generation Boeing 737 Max. These devices, CAE also leads the field in operations, with
In fact, FlightGlobal data shows the num- provided by Tru Simulation and Training and
ber of commercial simulators operating operated by Boeing Flight Services, are locat- Market share by operator
worldwide as holding fairly steady in the ed in Boeing’s Gatwick, Miami, Shanghai and
1,200-unit range over the past four years, with Singapore training centres.
retirements roughly equalling new units com- Nine of the simulators delivered in the past
ing into service. 16 months were built by CAE, while Flight­
70%
Safety International provided five.
Four CAE simulators are currently available
for the Bombardier CSeries, which began com-
Total
mercial operations in 2016 with launch carrier 1,213 14%
Swiss. Two of these devices (one FFS and a
6%
flight training device) are located at Bombardier 5%
Aerospace in Montreal. Another FFS is located 5%
in Frankfurt and operated by the Lufthansa-
Source: FlightGlobal
CAE joint venture Flight Training Alliance,
while the fourth device is located in Zurich and Other CAE FlightSafety
Thomas Hanser/Boeing

851 166 International

operated by Swiss Aviation Training.
72
CAE has manufactured more than half of the
devices operating in the airliner simulation Boeing Flight American Airlines
Services Flight Academy
market today. The second and third most im- 66 58
Boeing accounts for 45% of types simulated portant manufacturers by volume are L3 Link

24 | Flight International | 6-12 June 2017 flightglobal.com

 CIVIL SIMULATORS

Market share by aircraft manufacturer Market share by region

6% 25%
6% 7%
3% 4%
Total 5% Total 1%
35% 26%
1,213 1,213
37%
45%

Source: FlightGlobal Source: FlightGlobal

Boeing Airbus Embraer North America Asia-Pacific Europe

550 421 79 444 319 302

Bombardier ATR Other Middle East Latin America Africa

74 32 57 89 44 15

ary AAI Corp with three new acquisitions: Market share by simulator
Mechtronix, Opinicus and ProFlight. The manufacturer
company quickly won Boeing’s order to devel-
op the full flight simulator for its 737 Max pilot
training centres. 13%
This order on a previous sale by Mechtronix 20%
11%
of a FFS device for the 737NG family for Boe- Total
Airbus

ing’s flight training system. The delivery of the

just over 45 training centres in 26 countries, and
14% of all simulation operations. FlightSafety
International operates 6% of the world’s devices
across 15 locations in Canada, France, Japan,
the UK and the USA. Boeing Flight Services
and American Airlines Flight Academy follow,
with a share of 5% each.
Boeing types represent 45% of simulated
aircraft, while 35% are dedicated to Airbus
aircraft. Embraer, Bombardier and ATR ac-
count for 6%, 6% and 3% of simulated airlin-
ers, respectively.
NARROWBODY FOCUS
When it comes to aircraft types, the Airbus
A320 and Boeing 737 families dominate, with
a combined count of nearly 40% of the simu-
lators in service. Another 9% of simulators are
for other narrowbody types, while 32% of
global simulators are for widebody variants.
The remaining 19% of the devices are for re-
gional jet and ­turboprop types.
US-based Tru Simulation and Training was
formed in 2014 after Textron merged subsidi-
first 737 Max FFS came in early 2017, as sched-
uled at the time of contract award.
In 2016 Boeing selected Tru as its prime sup-
plier of 777X simulation training equipment,
and ordered an initial unit. In the first quarter of
2017 the airframer purchased a second 777X
FFS from Tru, with the units expected to be de-
livered and operational by the second half of
2019. The simulators will be installed at Boe-
ing’s training sites in Singapore and the UK.
A350 DEMAND IN ASIA
The Airbus A350 was introduced in 2015.
Just under 90 aircraft are currently in ser-
vice, while the orderbook stands at close to
750 units.
Operators in Asia account for 35% of the
customers, and a total of 14 A350 simulators
are currently in operation, including five
based in Asia.
Airbus is expecting more demand for A350
training at its facility in Singapore, as carriers
in the Asia-Pacific region gear up to take more
deliveries. In anticipation of growth in train-
ing demand, the facility will add an A350 and
1,213
56%
Source: FlightGlobal
Boeing Airbus Bombardier Embraer
679 241 162 131
an A320 simulator in 2019. The Singapore
Seletar Aerospace Park facility has two addi-
tional bays available for expansion.
When fully operational, the Singapore fa-
cility will have the capacity to offer courses to
more than 10,000 trainees and deliver up to
35,000h of simulator training annually.
The Airbus Asia Training Centre is a 55:45
joint venture between Airbus and Singapore
Airlines, and represents Airbus’s fourth train-
ing centre, with the other facilities in Beijing,
Miami and Toulouse. ■
To download your free copy of our new
Civil Simulator Census, go online at
flightglobal.com/CivilSim

CIVIL SIMULATOR CENSUS

NOW AVAILABLE ONLINE
www.flightglobal.com/civilsim

flightglobal.com 6-12 June 2017 | Flight International | 25

OPERATIONS

Aurora Flight Sciences

Seen here in a 737 simulator, ALIAS is a bolt-in replacement for the co-pilot, able to manipulate controls and monitor instruments

I robot, you pilot

With aircraft commanders being costly and in shortening supply, there is no doubting the
commercial appeal of a robotic assistant – a promising prospect at the prototype stage

DAVID LEARMOUNT LONDON ideal partner for extending robotics into avia- types, from digital to “clockwork”. The DA42
tion operations, including commercial air trial was the most recent, and in it ALIAS was

P
ilots are expensive to train and em-
ploy, and a long-forecast shortage is
actually materialising in many parts of
the world, including the USA. Logic
suggests, therefore, that if robotic systems
could replace one of the pilots in a two-crew
aircraft – or even carry out just some of the co-
pilot functions so as to make single-pilot op-
eration feasible – they would definitely have a
commercial future.
Viginia, USA-based Aurora Flight Sciences
is working with the US Defense Advanced Re-
search Projects Agency (DARPA) to develop
robotics that can be applied to aircraft opera-
tion. DARPA itself is a world leader in robotics
for the military and emergency services, but
Aurora’s expertise in unmanned air vehicle
development and manufacture make it an
transport and general aviation as well as the
military, and for both fixed- and rotary-wing
applications.
The company has already made demonstra-
tion flights with its robotic system in charge of
a Boeing 737-800NG simulator and an airborne
Cessna 208 Caravan. The 737 trial was carried
out at the John A. Volpe National Transporta-
tion Systems Center in Cambridge, Massachu-
setts, and showed how the Aircrew Labor In-
cockpit Automation System (ALIAS) can
manage the existing 737 autopilot and auto-
landing system to carry out a safe landing.
Aurora has also tested ALIAS components
successfully on an airborne Diamond Aircraft
DA42 light twin, a Bell Helicopter UH-1 and
de Havilland Canada DHC-2 Beaver, which –
with the 737 – pretty much covers all cockpit
used, according to Aurora, without interven-
tion by the safety pilot, to demonstrate a fully
automated landing – except this was simulated
on a “virtual runway” set at 3,000ft.
If the idea of a humanoid robot strapped into
the cockpit right-hand seat sounds like a psy-
chological challenge for today’s aircraft com-
manders, they can take at least a little comfort
from the fact that the visible mechanical de-
vices have nothing humanoid about them.
They consist of smart, multi-jointed manipula-
tor arms, and their motor unit is not strapped
into the co-pilot’s seat, which is entirely re-
moved. The flight controls are manipulated by
a rod system directly connected to the yoke
and rudders, and the manipulator arm, mount-
ed close to the centre console, operates switch-
es, knobs, pushbuttons, and levers like those

26 | Flight International | 6-12 June 2017 flightglobal.com


for the throttles, flaps, gear or spoilers. The ma-
nipulator arm, says Aurora, is a commercial-
off-the-shelf system with a multi-functional
“hand” that can perform precise actions.
The question is, since autopilot systems al-
ready involve invisible robotics and have
worked well for decades, why develop a robot
to control the aircraft from the cockpit when
the autopilot can perform that function?
Depending on the ALIAS capability a cus-
tomer chooses, the system can fly the aircraft
by directly manipulating its flight controls as a
pilot does, or it can physically manipulate the
knobs, pushbuttons and switches on the auto-
pilot flight control panel – also just as a pilot
does – to direct the autopilot.
The advantage to the aircraft operator is that
the robotics that Aurora is developing can be
applied to existing aircraft without the need for
modification to their avionics, software or con-
trol systems. Thus the operator will – poten-
tially – be able to reduce crew numbers by
50% quite quickly.
As ALIAS programme manager Jessica
Duda points out, in the same way that a pilot
needs to take some days or weeks to gain a type
rating on a new aircraft, an ALIAS robotic sys-
tem can be re-programmed and modified in
about 30 days to fly any aircraft. The company
explains: “Custom-developed software in-
cludes a reconfigurable set of plug-ins for the
wide variety of instruments and effectors that
are found in cockpits, and these plug-ins can
be rapidly tailored to the specific layout, num-
ber, and type of instruments and effectors in a
new cockpit.” Also built in to the system is “a
knowledge-acquisition process that facilitates
transition of the automation system to another
aircraft within a 30-day period.”
PILOTLESS AIRCRAFT
Aurora emphasises that ALIAS is designed as
an assistant for the aircraft commander, and is
not the thin end of a wedge directly leading to
a completely pilotless commercial aircraft.
ALIAS does not have any mission planning
or management capability, nor sophisticated
cognition, as a human pilot does. Like an au-
topilot, it needs to be told the details of the
task it is required to perform, then told to en-
gage before it can begin the task.
However, there are still many parallels be-
tween ALIAS and tasks that a co-pilot would
normally perform in a two-pilot cockpit.
ALIAS, like pilots, gets its flight and systems
data input “visually” from the flight instru-
ments, and from the engine and systems in-
struments. Its visual input comes from “ma-
chine-vision” cameras that scan the
instrument panel, like a very advanced version
of numberplate recognition. The system also
has a GPS and inertial unit for reference, and
Duda explains that, depending on customer
specification and purpose, ALIAS can be fed
flightglobal.com
data from the aircraft databus as well as – or
instead of – the visual input. Since it can be
programmed to recognise regular flight proce-
dures associated with particular phases of
flight, it can perform a useful monitoring func-
tion, like recognising that the gear has not been
selected down when it should have been.
The commander-to-robot interface is not so-
cially intuitive, like a tap on the shoulder or a
pointed finger. Interface with ALIAS is via an
in-cockpit tablet used by the aircraft com-
mander to process and monitor or order check-
list actions and other functions. The tablet ac-
cepts speech commands – for example
“ALIAS, gear down” – feeds back synthetic
voice responses, and enables the pilot to man-
age the distribution of tasks between the
human and the robotic systems. ALIAS can, of
course, be disengaged at any time.
After about two years in development,
ALIAS is still in its prototype stage despite
successful early trials, and Aurora is reluctant
to forecast how long it will take before it is
“We have developed a system
that enables significant
reduction of crew workload”
John Wissler
Vice-president research and development,
Aurora Flight Sciences
near a production version. The system has
not yet proven the ability to cope with all
phases of flight from take-off to landing. John
Wissler, Aurora’s vice-president of research
and development, explains: “As we move to-
wards fully automated flight from take-off to
landing, we can reliably say that we have de-
veloped an automation system that enables
significant reduction of crew workload.”
To balance Wissler’s remark, Duda com-
ments that ALIAS was not conceived as a take-
off-to-landing piloting system, which might be
taken to imply that co-pilots are not necessary
all of the time. But her message is that ALIAS
ALIAS components have been tested
successfully in-flight with a DA42
COCKPIT AUTOMATION
should be capable of being a pilot’s assistant
throughout all phases of flight.
Co-pilots, however, are traditionally ac-
cepted as having a monitoring role as well as
a “doing” function, although Aurora points
out the oft-quoted mantra that humans are no-
toriously bad at monitoring for any length of
time. Acknowledging this, the company says
it is also “working on a version of the system
without robotic actuation that, instead, aims
to support the pilot by tracking aircraft physi-
cal, procedural, and mission states, increasing
safety by actively updating pilot situational
awareness.” The issue here is, if there is to be
no robotic actuation to enable physical inter-
vention by ALIAS, that cuts out one of the
layers of safety that a real co-pilot can supply.
FLIGHT MONITORING
According to studies by Toulouse-based
French aerospace research agency ISAE-­
Supaero, a pilot flying who is already over-
loaded can block out warnings, whether deliv-
ered by audio alert, voice or written advice on
the warnings display. So the alert is going to
have to be intuitive enough to cut through
overload-generated pilot freeze.
Aurora says the pilot can choose ALIAS’s
role according to their needs, using the tablet
interface: “ALIAS can operate as a flight moni-
tor by monitoring the state of the aircraft and
comparing it with known flight phases, as well
as retrieve procedures and record flight data.”
ALIAS can fly on a limited instrument
panel, helped by its GPS/INS input. And if it
sees an instrument fail, or even a large section
of an electronic flight instrument display go
blank, it will present the appropriate check-
list to the pilot.
Looking at its specification, ALIAS would
be a formidable competitor to human co-pi-
lots. This raises a question about one of the
secondary effects of replacing humans in the
right-hand seat: how are pilots going to get the
experience they need to become aircraft com-
manders if they do not serve an apprentice-
ship as co-pilots? ■
Diamond Aircraft
6-12 June 2017 Flight International | 27
SPACEFLIGHT
Downsized rides
for new space age
Modern electronics have shrunk the size and price of satellites; now, operators hope a new
generation of small launchers will help to address the economic barriers for reaching orbit
DAN THISDELL ROME
T
hink of Earth observation from space
and what comes to mind is probably
spy satellites: big and exotic space-
craft, national security, vast and bare-
ly accountable sums of government money. Or
maybe weather satellites: big, also very expen-
sive, public service, government money.
But as anyone who has looked at Google
Earth knows well, it is hugely interesting,
even transformative, to see pictures of your
house or factory, say, from space. It is not
much of a leap to imagine the practical and
commercial value of seeing images that are
more recent or in higher resolution than those
available free on Google. Not surprisingly,
there is a growing band of public service agen-
cies and private enterprises beginning to offer
Rocket Lab’s 17m
Electron launcher at
Mahia in New Zealand
28 | Flight International | 6-12 June 2017
services and products based on Earth imaging
data. Monitoring crop health, mapping the
urban sprawl and searching for oil and gas are
just a few nascent applications.
Also not surprisingly, two great technology
trends are enabling this civil Earth observa-
tion industry. One is the increasing capability
and ever-lower cost of modern electronics
and data storage. The other is the rise of artifi-
cial intelligence and machine learning; a
growing number of satellites providing data
in multiple spectra make Earth observation
(EO) a big data exercise.
But unlike many other realms where com-
puting power is transforming our 21st century
lives, satellite Earth observation is ultimately
tied to what feels like a very 20th century con-
sideration. The optical, infrared and radar
sensors that provide all of the data have to be
in orbit. To be in orbit is to have been
launched. And, to quote Robbie Schingler of
the San Francisco-headquartered Earth infor-
mation provider Planet, “Launch sucks – it
doesn’t work very well.”
LAUNCH BOTTLENECK
Schingler, speaking in May at a conference ex-
amining the “new paradigm” in Earth observa-
tion organised by the European Space Agency
(ESA) at its ESRIN EO centre in Frascati, near
Rome, was talking about cost when he added:
“Launch is the biggest barrier to innovation.”
As for spacecraft, that innovation has been
dramatic. The breakthrough concept dates to
the late 1970s, when researchers at the Uni-
versity of Surrey, led by Martin Sweeting,
thought they could slash the cost and time-
scale of building a satellite by eschewing cus-
Rocket Lab
flightglobal.com
 SMALL LAUNCHERS

tom-made electronics for commercial off-the-

shelf components. Launched in 1981, their
experimental UoSat-1 weighed 54kg (119lb)
and survived in low-Earth orbit for eight
years. Sweeting – now Sir Martin – went on to
found Surrey Satellite Technology (SSTL),
which was bought by Airbus in 2009. SSTL
spacecraft about the size of a home washing
machine and weighing less than 300kg have
brought affordable civil EO benefits to such
unlikely clients as the government of Nigeria.
In Frascati, Schingler praised SSTL and
others for bringing satellites down to a size
and mass that makes it possible to fly them as
secondary payloads on big rockets. Planet,
which he co-founded in 2010, is taking that
principle to an extreme. Its business is to sell
EO data which it gathers itself, and on its
website the company claims to be “designing,
building and launching satellites faster than
any company or government in history”. That
claim is reasonable; when the Indian space
agency’s PSLV launcher orbited a record 104
satellites – one Earth imaging primary pay-
load and 103 secondary cubesats – from a sin-
gle launch in February, 88 of those cubesats
were a “flock” of Planet’s 5kg Dove spacecraft.
Doves, says the website, act together “like a
line-scanner for the planet”.

European Space Agency

“Reaching space in our first
test puts us in an incredibly
strong position”
Peter Beck
Founder, Rocket Lab
However, he told the Frascati gathering, it
was not clear that this secondary payloads trend
would be truly transformative. We were not, he
said, doing enough with “nanolaunchers”.
Perhaps not. But however we want to de-
fine “nano”, there are some projects in small
launchers which hold out the promise of
being at least partly transformative – if not in
cost then at least in giving small satellite mak-
ers the control over their timetables that
comes with being a primary payload.
SUCCESS FROM SCRATCH
Last month, indeed, one of them flew for the
first time. Rocket Lab, a Los Angeles-New
Zealand venture that has been working on its
Electron vertical launcher since 2014,
chalked up a partial success. Details remain to
be revealed as flight data is still being ana-
lysed, but the 17m tall, two-stage rocket
launched successfully from its Mahia, New
Zealand launch complex and “reached
space” but failed to reach orbit, implying a
maximum altitude of 100km or more. There
was no payload on this test flight, but the
company bills Electron as designed for a nom-
inal payload of 150kg, maximum 225kg, to a
500km Sun-synchronous orbit – designed, es-
sentially, for small EO or scientific missions.
Rocket Lab founder and chief executive
Peter Beck says: “We’re one of a few compa-
nies to ever develop a rocket from scratch and
we did it in under four years. We’ve worked
tirelessly to get to this point. We’ve developed
everything in house, built the world’s first pri-
vate orbital launch range and we’ve done it
with a small team.
“It was a great flight. We had a great first-
stage burn, stage separation, second-stage igni-
tion and fairing separation. We didn’t quite
reach orbit and we’ll be investigating why.
However, reaching space in our first test puts
us in an incredibly strong position to acceler-
ate the commercial phase of our programme,
deliver our customers to orbit and make space
open for business.”
A second launcher is in the factory and
could launch “in the coming months”; a
third test is also scheduled for this year.
Rocket Lab is nothing if not technically
bold. Its Rutherford engine is a “state-of-the-
art oxygen and kerosene pump-fed engine
specifically designed from scratch in New
Zealand for Electron, using an entirely new
propulsion cycle. Its unique high-perfor-
For Earth observation
missions, ESA’s Vega is a
gold standard launcher
mance electric propellant pumps reduce
mass and replace hardware with software.”
Rutherford is “the first engine of its kind to
use 3D printing for all primary components”.
Critically, “the production-focused design al-
lows Electron launch vehicles to be built and
satellites launched at an unprecedented fre-
quency”. Unprecedented, indeed; Rocket Lab
expects “at full production… to launch more
than 50 times a year”. It adds that it is regulated
to launch up to 120 times a year, compared
with “22 launches last year from the United
States, and 82 internationally”.
Electron has already signed customers, too
– including NASA and Planet.
ALL UP IN THE AIR
Taking a different approach but also bearing
down on a first flight towards the end of this
year or in early 2018 is Virgin Galactic, through
its new Virgin Orbit subsidiary. Work continues
at its Long Beach, California facility on its Laun-
cherOne air-launched rocket, to be carried aloft
by a modified Boeing 747. LauncherOne – with
its in-house-designed liquid oxygen-kerosene
engine called Newton – is being designed to put
satellites of up 300kg into Sun-synchronous
polar orbits, or of up to 400-450kg into equatori-
al orbits, and to do it for $10 million per flight. ❯❯

flightglobal.com 6-12 June 2017 | Flight International | 29

TAKE YOUR SEATS…
...for the Airline Strategy Awards 2017. This
exclusive invitation-only event is attended by a
select group of airline executives, industry
professionals and international media.

It continues to be an excellent opportunity for

senior air transport executives to exchange views
in a relaxed setting as they gather to celebrate
management excellence.

To find out more about the awards or availability of places, please contact Carly
McGowan on +44(0) 208 652 8845 or email carly.mcgowan@flightglobal.com

❯❯ Virgin Galactic is contracted to 39 flights –
and 100 options – for UK-based OneWeb,
which plans to orbit 900 Airbus Defence &
Space-built microsatellites of less than 150kg
each, to provide affordable broadband inter-
net to rural areas around the world from 2019.
The bulk of OneWeb’s lifting will be done by
heavy Soyuz rockets from ESA’s spaceport in
Kourou, French Guiana; Virgin’s appeal to the
project is its proposed ability to make quick,
tactical launches to fill gaps in the constella-
tion left by, say, an in-orbit failure. The same
sort of on-demand service could well appeal
to a company like Planet.
Virgin’s setting of a $10 million price tag
looks significant. Rocket Lab is not yet indi-
cating its target price, but to match that cost
per kilogram of about $25,000 it would have
to price a flight at about $5 million.
Working to a similar cost matrix is a UK
start-up called Orbital Access. Based at Prest-
wick airport near Glasgow, Orbital is entering
the design phase of a programme that hopes
to air-launch, from a McDonnell Douglas
DC-10 or MD-11, a reusable rocket capable of
putting up to 500kg into a 600km Sun-syn-
Virgin Orbit’s LauncherOne takes shape at company’s Long Beach engineering facility
flightglobal.com
chronous orbit. As founder Stuart McIntyre
describes it, the “sweet spot” mission would
be to fly three 150kg/1m3 satellites – units in
the OneWeb category. By going a bit larger
than Virgin Galactic (and also the venerable
Pegasus air-launched system from Orbital
ATK in the USA), McIntyre plans to be capa-
ble of a wider range of missions.
ECONOMIES OF SCALE
As a commercial venture that can recover its
costs and return a profit, McIntyre stresses the
need for a high flight rate and economies of
scale. So far, about £500,000 ($643,000) has
been spent developing the concept, half from
private investors and half in matching funds
from the UK Space Agency. Now, McIntyre is
raising funds for a €2.5 million ($2.8 million)
preliminary design phase, after which he
reckons he will need €50 million for design;
ultimately the project could cost “an easy
$500 million”.
Commercially, then, the concept is built
around reusability and a business that could
be deployed to any suitable runway take-off
spaceport. Prestwick airport is an ideal start-
Virgin Galactic
SMALL LAUNCHERS
ing point, he says, because 80 years of local
aerospace manufacture has created a skills
base; the UK government is also keen to en-
courage development of a spaceport for air
launches, and Prestwick is but a short flight
from open skies above the Atlantic.
The rocket is to be built from off-the-shelf
motors and, rather than being stacked with
the payload at the top, will feature a central
payload “cartridge”, with avionics and other
systems in the nose cone. After release from
the carrier aircraft, the rocket will fly to
90,000ft and Mach 8 or 9, when the cartridge
will open to release the payload with orbital
motor. Then, the cartridge closes and the ve-
hicle is recovered following fly-back.
The business plan also calls for offering in-
atmosphere microgravity services via para-
bolic flight paths. McIntyre hopes to start
those services as early as late 2017 in turbo-
prop aircraft and, maybe in late 2019 or 2020,
in either a Dornier 328Jet or Avro RJ (with
some connection to BAE Systems via the
Prestwick location).
McIntyre’s launch cost target is $30,000/kg,
implying a per-flight ticket of $15 million.
BIG AND RELIABLE
None of these projects, of course, has demon-
strated anything approaching the reliability of
established, big, agency rockets. Take ESA’s
Vega small launcher, for example. In March, it
orbited the European Commission’s Sentinel-
2B EO mission – 1,130kg to 786km – and it put
it in a near-perfect circular orbit, continuing a
perfect reliability record over nine flights. The
cost was €35 million, which works out to
about $35,000/kg; roughly the same as its main
rival for these EO or scientific missions, India’s
PSLV. With a smaller main payload, either
launcher has plenty of room for secondary
rides, as PSLV demonstrated in February.
Moreover, it is not clear yet that any of the
new generation of “nanolaunchers” will
match a vehicle like Vega in being able to de-
ploy, accurately, the multiple spacecraft that
keep prices down by flying with a full load. In
short, while the new small launchers may be
useful for some missions, none of them prom-
ises to revolutionise access to space, because
their cost per kilogram is essentially the same
as the big launchers.
In Frascati, SSTL’s director of EO and sci-
ence, Luis Gomes, gave FlightGlobal the ex-
ample of the in-development Carbonite satel-
lite platform. SSTL’s goal is 50kg in orbit for
less than $5 million; such a satellite is not as
capable as a big “agency” spacecraft, but will
do much of the job for a fraction of the cost.
Unfortunately, he says, at current costs per
kilogram, the implied $1.5 million launch bill
still threatens to undermine the economics
for many customers, who would otherwise
benefit from a mission. ■
6-12 June 2017 | Flight International | 31
Announcing the Schools
Aerospace Challenge 2017
Schools Aerospace Challenge is a competition
for 16-18 year olds, challenged to submit
design solutions to a fictitious, but realistic,
RAF Operational Requirement.
Each year, teams from schools, Air Training So, what are you waiting for?
Corps or other youth organisations, answer a Have you got what it takes? Get started on
realistic aerospace design challenge set together the Schools Aerospace Challenge 2017.
with the Royal Air Force. Shortlisted teams get
For registration and competition details
to experience lots of what the aerospace world
go to
has to offer in a five-day Summer School at
www.schools-aerospace-challenge.com
Cranfield University.
or email
Winners are announced at a prestigious info@schools-aerospace-challenge.com
reception in London, with a prize of £3,000
for first place, and £1,000 to two runners up.

From yuckspeak to tales of yore, send your offcuts to murdo.morrison@flightglobal.com
Not counting on
a financial Wizz
Forget rapid gate turnarounds,
doing away with check-in desks
and outsourcing maintenance. If
you are a low-cost airline, one of
the best ways of cutting costs
might be to dispense with
paying the salary of your bean-
counter-in-chief.
At Hungary’s Wizz air, chief
executive Jozsef Varadi doesn’t
appear to be in a hurry to fill a
job vacancy for a head of
finance. At the airline’s recent
results announcement, during
which it unveiled record profits,
Varadi admitted: “The chief
financial officer position has
become a great cost-saving
opportunity for the company.”
Varadi has been holding the
fiscal reins in the interim and
says the absence of a finance
head is not affecting the
performance of the business.
But he laments: “I’m not
getting double-paid for that, I
can tell you.”
Magnificent 707
John Travolta has donated his
private Boeing 707 to an
aviation restoration charity in
Australia. The actor’s quadjet,
which was originally delivered
to Qantas in 1964 as VH-EBM,
has been in storage in the state
of Georgia since 2013, according
to Flight Fleets Analyzer.
However, the Hollywood star,
who restored the 707 to its
former colours after he bought it
in 1998 and became an
ambassador for the airline, says
You’re the one that I Qantas
flightglobal.com
STRAIGHT&LEVEL
Purcell
Military surplus
Quite an interesting
collection of aeroplanes is
available for
acquisition from
the Ministry of
Munitions. In all
there are 116 machines on
offer through our
advertisement columns,
twelve of them being
complete with engines.
Cologne raid
Aerospace Bristol, the new aviation museum at Filton and More than 1,000 bombers
home to Concorde 216 – the last pocket rocket to be built – two and four-engined
and the last to fly, on 26 November 2003 – is set to open aircraft of at least
to the public. As well as G-BOAF – protected in giant a dozen different
bubble wrap during the building works – the refurbished types – took part
museum contains a refurbished First World War hangar in this terrific
and the Bristol Aerospace Company collection. undertaking, while other
machines made diversion
attacks on enemy airfields;
that he hopes the former private in all it is estimated that
jet can be brought back to flying some 1,250 aircraft took part
condition and he wants to be in one gigantic operation in
part of the crew that flies it back which 3,000 tons of bombs
Down Under. were dropped.
Travolta says the Historical
Aircraft Restoration Society British display
(HARS), based in Albion Park, The “heavy boys”
140km (87 miles) south of designated to open the
Sydney and made up of many afternoon
former Qantas engineers, has proceedings [at
“an impressive track record of the Paris air
restoring historical aircraft”, Tech-ing the… show] were
noting that he has flown a Super Royal Naval Buccaneers
Constellation that HARS being refuelled from Sea
“restored to flying condition Where IT hurts Vixens. Then came the
from almost nothing”. Ryanair inevitably had great fun really heavy boys, the Blue-
He adds: “I am truly excited by at the expense of the World’s Steel-carrying Victor and
this project and am so pleased Favourite Airline’s recent IT Vulcan, followed by the
that this beautiful aircraft, for meltdown, tweeting this image military Super VC10.
which I obviously have very from the sketch comedy show
fond memories, will continue to Little Britain. Indian success
fly well into the future.” For those not familiar with In its third flight, India’s
the programme, Carol, the Augmented Satellite
character pictured, is a Launch Vehicle
spectacularly un-customer- has successfully
friendly employee in variously a placed a 106kg
bank, doctor’s reception or Stretched Rohini
travel agency, whose deadpan satellite into a 450km orbit
response to any enquiry, after on 20 May. Two earlier
tapping her computer keyboard, launches ended in failure.
James D. Morgan/REX/Shutterstock
is: “Computer says no.”
Having a dig at a rival on 100-YEAR ARCHIVE
social media, of course, can be Every issue of Flight
asking for trouble. One Twitter from 1909 onwards
user responded: “After the can be viewed online at
horrors of Ryanair, BA feels like flightglobal.com/archive
a private jet.”
6-12 June 2017 | Flight International | 33
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flight.international@flightglobal.com
We welcome your letters on any
aspect of the aerospace industry.
Please write to:
The Editor, Flight International,
Quadrant House, The Quadrant,
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Or email:
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Letters without a full postal address sup-
plied may not be published. Letters may
also be published on flightglobal.com
and must be no longer than 250 words.
Moving towards
true navigation
I refer to Miles Stapleton’s letter
regarding the adoption, in avia-
tion, of headings related to true
North rather than magnetic North
(Flight International, 9-15 May).
His letter is most timely. In ad-
dition to the organisations he
cites, the International Associa-
tion of Institutes of Navigation
(IAIN) has been advocating such
a change for several years and is
aware of a developing ground-
swell of opinion in support.
It seems perverse that, in the
21st century, aviation clings to
magnetic headings (with all the
costs involved in the updating of
charts, conversion tables and soft-
ware, and the risks to flight safety
inherent in operators using differ-
ent sources, or out-of-date data).
There are numerous naviga-
tion systems for aircraft capable
of operating in true, and are in-
deed designed to (not to mention
the ubiquitous smart phones and
tablets), and mariners and land
navigators have long since adopt-
ed true for most usages.
Such a change would be, to
say the least, a non-trivial under-
taking, and take some time for
Download the 2017
Wo r l d A i r Fo r c e s R e p o r t
w w w. f l i g h t g l o b a l . c o m / w a f
flightglobal.com
LETTERS
Airbus A400Ms, and wait in line
SECURITY for Lockheed ­Martin F-35s.
Two-crew cockpits aren’t safer The piece “Erieye in the sky”
was very interesting, now that
In her letter “Duty of Care the Swedes are looking for a re-
being abandoned” (Flight placement platform. May I sug-
International, 23-29 May), gest building the Pilatus PC-24
Henrietta-Sophie describes ­business jet under licence? With
REX/Shutterstock
as “corporate arrogance” its rough field ability, it would
the decision by German suit Sweden’s policy of
carriers to discontinue the ­dispersed forces.
rule requiring two crew in Crash was a “black swan” event Finally, in the feature “Ready
the cockpit at all times. for reaction”, the Gripen shown
However, we should examine whether the two-in-the-cockpit is not a C variant but the new E.
rule really enhances security and safety. The Germanwings crash Note the main gear layout.
was a “black swan” event. If an additional crew member – pre- Edward Philpott
sumably one of the cabin crew – had been in the cockpit, would South Wirral, Cheshire, UK
they have recognised that Andreas Lubitz’s actions were not in
response to an instruction by air traffic control? Editor’s reply: The PC-24 seems
Could that crew member wrest control from a “Lubitz” if he rather small for the Erieye’s
decided to fly the aircraft into the ground, perhaps making mission. And the pictured Gripen
­violent manoeuvres rather than the controlled descent in the was not an E: that model adopts
Germanwings crash? Could the cabin crew member overpower a single nose-wheel design.
the pilot for control of the door lock? In all of these situations,
the presence of an additional crew member adds nothing to
the security and safety of the flight. The price of lift
Finally, what is to say that the additional crew member is not Twice now, you have detailed
the one intent on taking the aircraft down? The two in the the Aurora Flight Sciences
cockpit rule, in reality, was nothing more than a sop to the ­XV-24A LightningStrike verti-
popular press. cal-lift fixed-wing aircraft – most
Phil Pratt ­recently in your article Electric
Copthorne, West Sussex, UK ­X-planation (Flight Internation-
al, 2-8 May).
On both occasions, I have
worldwide implementation – but erating with over 350 employees. thought: “Lift produced as a
the benefit to flight safety in our Please support our efforts by ­by-product of noise, and proba-
increasingly crowded skies signing our petition at www.­ bly expense, too.”
would surely justify it. ipetitions.com/petition/no-fair- It uses the least efficient
Simon Gaskin oaks-new-town. Our target is for ­option: the ducted fan. Surely a
International Association of 3,500 signatures by 24 June. better option would be large
Institutes of Navigation Nigel Readings blades turning slowly, in an
Woking, Surrey, UK “X-8” layout, or “Y-6” – co-axial
motors, counter-rotating, in an X-
Saving Fairoaks or Y- layout. Ask any drone pilot.
The “Say no to Fairoaks New A growing force But hey – I don’t have the
Town” campaign aims to stop I read with interest your three ar- DARPA contract, even if, as the
Fairoaks airport in Surrey from ticles on Sweden’s defence pos- article says, there was “no
being swallowed by more than ture (Flight International, 23-29 ­mission set… to dictate the
1,550 new houses. May). For such a small country, ­requirements for the aircraft’s
Fairoaks has a history of profit- its ability to manufacture its own ­performance”.
able aviation operations that save aircraft is amazing when com- We’ll probably see these as
lives, with over 150 Class A pared with the UK, which has to ­flying cars soon.
­medical flights annually, and is wait for Italian, German and Allen Reynolds
home to 68 local businesses, op- Spanish parts for its ­Typhoons, Auckland, New Zealand
IN ASSOCIATION WITH
6-12 June 2017 | Flight International | 35
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flightglobal.com 6-12 June 2017 | Flight International | 39

RECRUITMENT

Ref: DACGO/Recruitment/2017/1355 Date: 25 May 2017

Vacancy Announcement
for
Director Customer Services
Biman Bangladesh Airlines Ltd., the national flag carrier of Bangladesh, is looking for a
dynamic, experienced and result-oriented candidate for the position of Director Customer
Services on contractual basis. The incumbent will be responsible for overall activities of Airport
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Biman Bangladesh Airlines Ltd. reserves the right to accept and reject any application without
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Manager Employment
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Biman Bangladesh Airlines Limited
Head Office ‘Balaka’,
Kurmitola, Dhaka-1229
Tel: (+880 2) 8901600 Extn 2154, 2157
www.biman-airlines.com
flightglobal.com/jobs

40 | Flight International | 6-12 June 2017 flightglobal.com

 RECRUITMENT
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flightglobal.com 6-12 June 2017 | Flight International | 41

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10:57
42 | Flight International | 6-12 June 2017 flightglobal.com

WORK EXPERIENCE LORI BROWN
From the cockpit into a classroom
Island-hopping in the South Pacific was not enough for Lori Brown, who moved into pilot training and
then the world of academic research, including on advancing augmented and virtual reality in aviation
How did you start out?
I started in aviation as an opera-
tional supervisor for Continental
Airlines in the 1980s when a col-
league invited me to take a dis-
covery flight lesson. I knew im-
mediately that I had found my
passion and started flight train-
ing the next day. I was based in
Honolulu, Hawaii, which was a
beautiful place to learn to fly,
with island-to-island cross-coun-
try flights with occasional silhou-
ettes of whales below, volcanoes,
and beautiful waterfalls.
Who hired you?
I began my first flying job at Mi-
cronesian Air on the island of
Guam. I worked on Guam for a
few years before getting based in
Saipan, and continued to fly
throughout the Micronesian is-
land chain for several years be-
fore returning to the continental
US to continue my career as an
airline pilot. I also worked for
Flight Safety International and
trained international pilots, as
well as pilots from several US
government agencies, Wal-Mart,
and the Mexican government,
before joining Western Michigan
University as a Joint Aviation
Authority instructor for their In-
ternational Pilot Training Center,
instructing cadets from British
Airways, the United Arab Emir-
ates and KLM, in the classroom
and the 737-400 simulator.
From trainer to professor?
I started teaching 16 years ago
when I started my family, and I
am currently an associate profes-
sor at Western Michigan Univer-
sity, College of Aviation, where I
PlaneCutaway.indd 1
flightglobal.com
Brown says teaching methods must evolve to keep students engaged
teach courses such as advanced
aircraft systems, airline flight op-
erations and aviation meteorolo-
gy. In addition to teaching, I am a
researcher for the US Federal
Aviation Administration
PEGASAS Center of Excellence,
the outreach chair for the ICAO
Next Generation of Aviation Pro-
fessionals Program, and a mem-
ber of the International Pilot
Training Association council and
outreach group. I am also a facul-
ty evaluator for the American
Council on Education for all the
military services, reviewing mili-
tary aviation curricula for college
credit recommendations.
What are you researching?
I am working on several major
Check out Flight International’s Image Store
Browse or customise a gift or memento from our CUTAWAY ARCHIVE
of more than 1000 aircraft drawings
www.flightglobalimages.com
WORKING WEEK
working at a military base. My
job takes me outside of the uni-
versity environment and allows
me to work closely with industry
and present my research findings
at aviation conferences all over
the world. Recently I have been
working with China and Africa
on aviation outreach projects.
What’s the most challenging part?
The most challenging part of my
job is keeping students engaged.
No one enjoys sitting in a lecture
hall watching a boring Power-
Point. I have used this challenge
Western Michigan University, College of Aviation
to motivate me to explore new
and engaging ways to teach and
immerse my students. Later this
year my classroom will be
equipped with virtual reality
headsets and Epson Moverio
smart glasses. We must all look at
how we will recruit, train, retain
and engage the next generation to
ensure that enough qualified and
projects, including research for competent aviation professionals
the FAA NextGen Weather Tech- are available to operate, manage
nology in the Cockpit, and devel- and maintain the future interna-
oping augmented and virtual re- tional air transport system. We
ality for technically driven can all play a part in the future of
training subjects. The augmented aviation by sharing our story and
and virtual reality projects in- mentoring youth. One of the
clude a turbofan engine and a greatest parts of aviation is that
complete interactive Bombardier there are so many paths you can
CRJ200 flightdeck application for take in your career. n
Microsoft HoloLens. I am also Looking for a job in aerospace?
developing the first augmented Check out our listings online at
reality textbook for aviation edu- flightglobal.com/jobs
cation.
What’s the best part of your job? If you would like to feature in
One of the greatest parts of my Working Week, or you know
profession is that every day is someone who does, email
different. I could be teaching in a your pitch to kate.sarsfield@
classroom, researching virtual re- flightglobal.com
ality for aviation training or
09/02/2017 11:46
6-12 June 2017 | Flight International | 43
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surveillance and reconnaissance systems in the industry. L3 offers exactly that and more with
our complete range of imaging and targeting systems for fixed- and rotary-wing, UAV and
aerostat platforms. No matter what the mission requirements are, or will be, L3 is there.

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