Flight International Nov 11-17, 2014

8/10/2019 Flight International Nov 11-17, 2014

1/52

FLIGHTINTERNATIONAL

OCEAN LINER

American Airlines looksat longer-range version ofA321neo as transatlanticreplacement for 757 13

HOOKING UP

Milestone for US navalaviation as two F-35Csmake the rst arrestedlandings on carrier 8

A NEW COURSE

GETTING A HANDLE

ON THE SCANDALS

AND MOVING ON

ITALY SPECIAL P22

11-17 NOVEMBER 2014

VIRGIN GALACTIC

END OF THEADVENTUREAfter SpaceShipTwo crash, what wayback for Bransons broken dream?

9 7 7 0 0 1 5 3 7 1 2 6 6

4 6

3.40

WITHTHISISSUECUTAWAYPOSTERBELL525RELENTLESS


2/52

The FASTEST

The EASIEST

The MOST COST-EFFECTIVE

way to meet the

Link 2000+ Mandate.

EASA STCs:

Airbus

A319

A320

A321

Boeing737 Classic

737NG

757

767

All in a single LRU

Easy to install

CPDLC and ACARS

Meet the Mandate with Dlink+ w/CPDLC

www.spectralux.com/meetthemandate


3/52

11-17 November 2014 |Flight International|3ightglobal.com

FLIGHTINTERNATIONAL

FLIGHTINTERNATIONAL

OCEANLINERAmericanAirlineslooksatlonger-rangeversionofA321neoastransatlanticreplacementfor757 13

HOOKINGUPMilestoneforUSnavalaviationastwo F-35Csmaketherst arrestedlandingsoncarrier8

ANEWCOURSE

GETTINGAHANDLEONTHESCANDALS

ANDMOVINGON

ITALYSPECIALP22

11-17NOVEMBER2014

VIRGINGALACTIC

END OF THEADVENTUREAfterSpaceShipTwocrash,whatwaybackforBransonsbrokendream?

9 7 7 0 0 1 5 3 7 1 2 6 6

4 6

3.40

WITHTHISISSUE

CUTAWAYPOSTERBELL525RELENTLESS

11-17 NOVEMBER 2014VOLUME 186 NUMBER 5464

Bombardier sets aside Russian Q400 deal P12

Sweden approves remote air traffic control technology P15. USNs F-35C makes first shipboard landingP8

Saab,

USNavy

AirTeamImages

NEWS

THIS WEEK

6 OSCE Camcopter targeted by rebels

7 South Korea terminates F-16 upgrade.Superjet heads for fresh fatigue trials

8 F-35C makes rst shipboard landings

9 EASA to tighten rules on relief crews

AIR TRANSPORT

12 Russian Q400 deal shelved.Aerospace to take brunt of R-R jobs cull.Restructured Monarch rms Max buy

13 Can long-range A321neo go the distance forAmerican?Austrias FACC bags exclusive Neo cowl deal

14 New standard for operating in icing conditionsfrom FAA.Comac receives rst C919 fuselage.Airprox after Ryanair pilots confuse callsign

15 Sweden clears remote ATC system for distant

airports.Belarus eyes Superjet for new carrier.TaxiBot tug gets approval for 737 operational trial

DEFENCE

16 Alenia Aermacchi abandons Avro replacementcontest.Bidders swoop for Warsaws Project Raven

17 F-35B could miss July target.Gaza war costs could scupper Israeli Osprey deal.USN launches fresh search for Triton radar

18 Surplus Seasprites to boost Peru maritimesurveillance.Black Hawk bid for Poland could be withdrawn.Kabul receives last US-funded Mi-17s

NEWS FOCUS19

FCAS programme takes off

BUSINESS AVIATION

20 Deliveries spike propelled by jet and piston types.Marshall Aviation Services eyes move intowidebody refurbishment

COVER STORY

10 Crash findings key to futureThe NTSBinvestigation into SpaceShipTwos failure willdetermine the next move for Virgin Galactic

FEATURES

22 ITALY COUNTRY SPECIALItalian renaissance

Our annual survey of Italian aerospace nds anindustry in recovery from a series of scandals,programme setbacks and nancial shocks, butdetermined to put its products, technology andinnovation to the forefront. We visit Finmeccanicasubsidiaries AgustaWestland, Alenia Aermacchiand Selex, and give a healthcheck to the parentcompany itself. We also prole new GE unit Avio asit focuses on additive manufacturing andaerostructures specialist Dema, as it achieves itsgoal of tier one status through contracts withBoeing and Bombardier.

38 CUTAWAY/TECHNICAL DESCRIPTIONWorthits waitBell Helicopter wants to outclass its rivalswith its super-medium 525 Relentless

REGULARS

5 Comment

44 Classified

47 Jobs

51 Working Week

NEXT WEEK 787 REPORTFor our exclusive in-servicereport, airlines tell us whattheir experience has been sofar of the Boeing Dreamliner

BEHIND THE HEADLINESOur Washington DC-basedAviation Reporter DanParsons had a birds eye view

when the US Navy made ahistoric rst deployment ofF-35CJoint Strike Fightersonto the deck of the aircraftcarrier USS Nimitzoff theCalifornia coast (P8)

COVER IMAGE

The first flight of Virgin

Galactics SpaceShipTwo

marked a milestone in

personal spaceflight but

with flight four, expectationhas turned to doubt P10

RexFeatures

Boeing

Download The Engine Directory.

flightglobal.com/ComEngDirectory

Download the new Commercial Engines Reportnow updated for 2014 with enhanced data and in-depth market analysis


4/52

ightglobal.com4 |Flight International|11-17 November 2014

QUESTION OF THE WEEKTHE WEEK IN NUMBERS

flightglobal.com/flight-international

Vote at flightglobal.com/poll

Flightglobals premium news and data service delivers breaking air transport stories with

proles, schedules, and eet, nancial and trafc information flightglobal.com/dashboard

CONTENTS

ContinuedindifferencefromWesterncarriers

This week, we ask:Will Virgin Galactic recover to take paying passengers into space?

Yes, within next two years Yes, but it will take much longer No, programme will be scrapped

Modestuplift indemand

23%

Last week, we asked: Following its acquisition by Belgian airlineVLM, is Superjet 100 set for?You said:

73%

TOTALVOTES:

1,398

Rolls-Royce

Flightglobal

Flightglobal dashboard

The number of jobs going by end-2015 at Rolls-Royce,

mostly in aerospace, as part of a cost and efciency drive

2,600

The cost to the Dutch navy as corrosion delays delivery of

NH90 helicopters, on top of 1.2bn to buy 20 of them

100m

The Indonesian market share target that could trigger a

2015 IPO for fast-growing low-cost carrier Lion Air

60-65%

Ge

orgeEmpson

IMAGE OFTHE WEEKThis GAF Nomad is operatedby Air Safaris from LakeTekapo airport in the centreof the south island of NewZealand. The company fliessightseers over the SouthernAlps, including the countryshighest mountain Aoraki/Mount Cook also using theGippsAero GA8 Airvan andCessna Caravan and 180

View more great aviation shotsonline and in our weekly tabletedition:

4%Flurry oforders


5/52

COMMENT


Watch Virgin Galactic test pilot

Dave MacKay describe what it is

like to y SpaceShipTwo, at the2012 Farnborough air show at

flightglobal.com/virgingalactic See This Week P6, Italy Special Report P27

As the saying goes, when youre in a hole, stopdigging. Thats wise enough, but it doesnt get you

out of the hole, which is the challenge now facingItalian aerospace champion Finmeccanica.

Third-quarter financials make mixed reading.Orders are healthy, but sales and profit are going thewrong way, so filling in the hole of debt looks as distantas it did two, three, four, five quarters ago.

Finmeccanica has two big problems. Its 2008 grandstrategic ploy to catapult itself into the lucrative US de-fence market with a $5.2 billion acquisition of electron-ics specialist DRS has been little short of a disaster. The

financial crisis struck just weeks after the deal wasdone, and US spending has since been slashed.

A sensible plan to shed loss-making energy and railbusinesses is sound and being well-executed. But thenew core of helicopters, aeronautics, space and elec-tronics isnt making anything like enough money.Divestments have shovelled a few bundles of cash intothe debt hole, but it needs to be a lot more profitable.

Now is a good time for Finmeccanica and its peers todo what they should have done when analysts and ex-perts were urging European aerospace firms to get intothe US defence market at all costs: figure out some wayof overcoming daunting barriers and make high-tech,high-cost defence businesses profitable in Europes

fragmented defence marketplace.

Stop digging but then what?

RexFeatures

See News Focus P10

Keep dreaming

The NTSB will probe deeply into

the competency and culture

of the design and test team

Tragedy has struck space tourism a most cruel blow.First, the 31 October crash of SpaceShipTwo took

the life of test pilot Mike Alsbury. Then, images of thein-flight break-up cast a calamitous cloud over theindustrys biggest and most important player theVirgin Galactic/Scaled Composites team.

Since 2004, the teaming of Richard Bransons finan-cial prowess and branding swagger with Burt Rutanslegendary aerospace design and engineering house hasdominated the embryonic space tourism industry.Although it was harder and more expensive than either

originally conceived, SpaceShipTwo still seemed thefavourite in the race to private suborbital spaceflight.

The full impact of the accident on the future of spacetourism is impossible to predict. The US NationalTransportation Safety Board investigation will last sev-eral months, and probe deeply into the competencyand culture of the SpaceShipTwo design and test team.

Meanwhile, the future of the Virgin Galactic ventureis also difficult to foresee. Branson faces a structuralproblem and a still-unproven rocket motor, and now hehas lost his only flight test vehicle. Rival space tourismoutfits may have less access to financial and technicalresources, but they do not lack for worthy ideas. XCORAerospace, for example, seems poised to launch flighttests of the Lynx spaceplane next year. More recent en-trants, such as Tucson-based World View Experience,are aiming lower, promising balloon rides to 100,000ft.

Space tourism is a fickle market by nature. Unlikeair transport, it does not yet service commerce. Thereis a good reason why only seven private citizens havebecome astronauts since 2001. That is because theyhave large sums of money, paying more than acombined $200 million for eight voyages to the Inter-national Space Station.

Yet, here lies the industrys best hope. The humanyearning to escape the grip of Earths gravity runs deep,even if only for a suborbital hop over a somewhat arbi-

trary line dividing atmosphere from space.Rutan, the designer of SpaceShipTwo and many

other remarkable aircraft, had a mantra for his employ-ees: a job was only worth doing as long as it was fun.That spirit guided Scaled Composites to circumnavi-gate the Earth with Voyager in the 1980s and reach thefringe of space with SpaceShipOne in 2004.

The loss of SpaceShipTwo poses the ultimate risk tospace tourism. It might be a long time before the idea isfun again.

Virgin Galactics fatal crash reminds us that spaceight is difcult and dangerous and shows

that it will take more than clever engineering for private ventures to slip Earths surly bonds

Dreams, risk and cash


6/52

THIS WEEK


For up-to-the-minute air transport news,

network and eet information sign up at:

flightglobal.com/dashboard

PROFITS SLUMP AT FINMECCANICA

RESULTSFinmeccanicas aerospace business has turned in a weak

performance for the rst nine months of 2014, with sales at at8.4 billion ($10.5 billion) but with EBITA having slumped by a fth to

539 million, as the bottom line slipped in every sector. The only

exception was AgustaWestland, where prot was down but would

have increased had the impact of a 2013 net benet from the

VH-71 programmes closure been disregarded. Sales gained 1.3% to

3.04 billion and new orders were up by 37% to 3.08 billion.

See Feature P22

POLISH JASSM BUY STAYS ON TARGET

MUNITIONSThe Polish government has concluded negotiations for

a $250 million purchase of 40 Lockheed Martin AGM-158 Joint

Air-to-Surface Standoff Missiles. Warsaw hopes to nalise the deal

by mid-December, with the munition to enter operational service with

its air forces Lockheed F-16 ghters in 2017. The NATO nation isalso contemplating an additional buy of extended-range JASSM-ERs.

CALC COMMITS TO 100 A320 FAMILY AIRLINERS

LEASINGChinese lessor CALC has tentatively signed for 100 Airbus

A320-family jets, including 74 of the re-engined A320neo. The other

26 aircraft comprise 10 baseline A321s and 16 A320s. Airbus has

conrmed the memorandum of understanding, but no engine

selection has been given. CALC chief Mike Poon says the A320

family is a perfect t for the lessors air transport supply strategy.

INDONESIA ORDERS MARITIME PANTHERS

PROCUREMENTIndonesias navy is to acquire 11 Airbus

Helicopters AS565 Panthers equipped for anti-submarine warfare

duties. The rotorcraft will be delivered within the next three years toPT Dirgantara Indonesia, which will perform the installation of

mission system equipment, a dipping active sonar array and

torpedoes. Meanwhile, Jakarta has taken delivery of the rst of 12

Fennec light attack helicopters for its army and the initial example of

six combat search and rescue-roled EC725s for its air force.

AER LINGUS TEMPTED BY A330NEO

ORDERSAer Lingus is to continue studying the Airbus A330neo

before nalising delivery plans for the nine A350s that it has long

been committed to taking from the European airframer. The Irish

airline initially ordered six A350-900s, as well as six A330-300s, in

2007. It later deferred and ultimately switched three of the A330s to

A350s, leaving it with nine A350s initially due for delivery between

2015 and 2018.

ETIHAD TO ABSORB ALITALIA PILOTS

RECRUITMENTEtihad Airways is to recruit 40 pilots from Alitalia as

part of a wider drive to hire between 500 to 600 captains and rst

ofcers over the next three years. The pilots will initially transfer to

Etihad on a three-year contract and 38 are expected to begin working

at the Gulf carrier before the end of this year. The remaining two will

join the airline during the rst two months of 2015.

AMAC COMPLETES FIRST IN-HOUSE INTERIOR DESIGN

REFURBISHMENTSwiss business aircraft completions specialist

AMAC Aerospace has completed the rst interior refurbishment

project wholly designed by its in-house team. It refurbished the cabin

of a Bombardier Global Express at its Basel facility.

BRIEFING

ASchiebel Camcopter un-manned air vehicle deployed

in support of a Special Monitor-ing Mission (SMM) to Ukrainehas been targeted by anti-aircraftgunfire, the Organization forSecurity and Cooperation in Eu-rope (OSCE) has revealed.

The rotary-wing UAV wasflying at about 5,000ft on 2

November when it observed anarmoured personnel carrier andtwo trucks at a checkpoint 1.3nm(2.5km) north-east of Shyrokyne.A man standing next to a civiliantruck aimed a man-portableair-defence system at theCamcopter, before stowing it andinstead firing a vehicle-mountedanti-aircraft gun believed tohave been a Russian-made ZU-23system at it.

No rounds hit the UAV and itlanded about 45min after leaving

the area, which falls under thecontrol of the self-proclaimedDonetsk Peoples Republic.

The SMM subsequentlyrevealed via Twitter that theCamcopter had also beensubjected to a GPS jamming at-tempt on 29 October, 3km west ofSartana. The UAV left the areasafely, it adds.

Schiebel is currently providing12h of surveillance coverage perday using the Camcopter, but willdouble this once a second systemis deployed.

Meanwhile, Swiss foreignminister and OSCE chairperson-in-office Didier Burkhalter saysFrance, Germany, Italy, Russiaand Ukraine have all offered toput at the OSCEs disposalUAVs and related personnel toenhance its monitoring capaci-ties in Ukraine.

SURVEILLANCE BETH STEVENSON LONDON

OSCE Camcoptertargeted by rebelsRotary-wing UAV on Special Monitoring Mission in easternUkraine is red upon by vehicle-mounted anti-aircraft gun

PROGRAMME

Heavyweight A330 enters assemblyAirbus has started nal assembly of the rst A330 featuring a higher

maximum take-off weight capability of 242t. The aircraft will be used

for certication ights, while a second example for Delta Air Lines

is being assembled in parallel. The US carrier has ordered 10 of

the enhanced A330-300s, for delivery from the second quarter of

2015, with General Electric CF6 engines. The additional weight ca-

pability will extend the A330s range by up to 500nm (925km), while

improvements to the aircrafts aerodynamics and engines will re-

duce fuel burn by up to 2%, the airframer claims. Airbus will also use

the higher-weight airframe as the base for its re-engined A330neo.

Airbus


7/52

THIS WEEK


F-35C makes rstshipboard landingsTHIS WEEK P8

BAE Systems ambition ofestablishing itself in the

lucrative upgrade market for theLockheed Martin F-16 has takena serious blow after South Koreacancelled a programme to modify134 of its fighters.

On 5 November, at the requestof the government of the Republicof Korea, the US government noti-fied BAE Systems TechnologySolutions & Service that it wouldterminate a contract for initialdevelopment and long-lead pro-

duction in support of the Republicof Korea KF-16 fighter aircraft up-grade, the US Defense SecurityCooperation Agency says. It willnow work with the contractor toterminate the contract.

The development follows hag-gling between BAE and the USand South Korean governments

Russias Sukhoi has trans-ferred a long-range Superjet100LR airframe to Moscow to un-dergo fatigue testing.

To be conducted at the CentralAerohydrodynamics Institute,the tests aim to confirm the com-panys intended 70,000h servicelife for the aircraft.

Sukhoi says the 100LR is de-signed for a workload of 54,000cycles. It features a higher take-off weight of 49.45t and PowerJet

SaM146-1S18 engines, deliveringgreater thrust than those on the

standard variant. The airframe,serial number 95075, has beentransported in sections to theMoscow Zhukovsky test centreon an Antonov An-124 freighter.

Its fuselage will be reassem-bled and mated with the empen-nage and wings on a loading jig,with sensors analysing structuralperformance during simulatedflight and turbulence.

Sukhoi Civil Aircraft chief de-signer Vladimir Lavrov says: The

test results will confirm both thestated aircraft service life and the

programme of maintenancechecks for this aircraft type.

Russian operator Gazproma-via put the first 100LR into ser-vice earlier this year, followingcertification of the type by thecountrys Interstate AviationCommittee in 2013.

Belgian carrier VLM Airlineshas also selected the 100LR for itsfleet, but the aircraft has yet to se-cure clearance from the EuropeanAviation Safety Agency. Sukhoi

says it is undergoing work toachieve EASA certification.

On 6 November, Bombardiersfirst CSeries prototype flewfor the first time in more thanfive months.

Aircraft FTV-1 had beengrounded since 29 May, when anengine oil lubrication systemmalfunction caused an uncon-tained failure of one of its Pratt &Whitney PW1500G geared turbo-

fan engines during ground test-ing. The incident damagedFTV-1s fuselage and led to a 100-day hiatus for the flight test fleet.

The repaired test assets returnto the air follows that of FTV-2and FTV-4, both of which re-sumed flights in September andhave since amassed more than acombined 130h.

Bombardier is installing pro-duction-representative systemson CS100 test aircraft FTV-3 tosupport certification activities,

and plans to fly FTV-5 with a fullinterior by the end of this year.

REPAIRS

CSeries FTV-1

rejoins ighttest campaign

Superjet heads for fresh fatigue trials

DEVELOPMENTDAVID KAMINSKI-MORROW LONDON

Sukhoi

Sukhoi used an An-124 freighter to transport the airframe to the Zhukovsky centre for analysis

BUDGET GREG WALDRONSINGAPORE

South Korea terminates F-16 upgradeSeoul cancels contract with BAE Systems to equip 134 ghters with new avionics and radar systems after cost concerns

USA

irForce

The project had been estimated as

worth an eventual $1.6 billion

over costs. Seouls official news

agency Yonhap quoted a spokes-man at the nations Defense Ac-quisition Program Administrationas saying that Washington wantedan additional W500 billion ($473million) and prime contractorBAE W300 billion for the project,which was previously pegged asworth a total of W1.75 trillion.

BAE was awarded almost $140

million in May to commencework under the project, whichwas to have equipped the aircraftwith new avionics and an activeelectronically scanned arrayradar produced by Raytheon,under a selection made in 2012.

One single-seat F-16C and atwin-seat D-model trainer had al-

ready received the enhancementsat BAEs Fort Worth site in Texas.

We are disappointed to learnthat the Republic of Korea has re-quested to terminate the US AirForces contract with BAE Sys-tems, the company says.

We remain confident that wecould have performed theremaining work on the pro-gramme in an efficient and cost-effective manner. Unfortunately,the programme was impacted byKoreas strict budget limitations

and the US Air Forces conserva-tive approach to the overallprogramme cost.

Lockheed is under contract tomodify 144 F-16s for Taiwan,with other international upgradeopportunities existing with oper-ators including Chile, Greece,Singapore and Turkey.


8/52

THIS WEEK


Follow more defence topics and keep up

with the latest news from the sector at

flightglobal.com/defence

USN

avy

MILESTONEDAN PARSONS USS NIMITZ

F-35C makes first shipboard landingsUS Navys carrier-variant Joint Strike Fighter takes critical step, with test pair beginning two weeks of embarked trials

The commander of the naval air forces praised the

aircrafts steady approach and pinpoint touchdown

USNavy

A planned touch-and-go preceded use of the tailhook and wire

Just after noon on 3 November,a Lockheed Martin F-35C

Lightning II shot into view overthe stern of the US Navy aircraftcarrier USSNimitzfor a low pass;the first of three before its pilotmade a picture-perfect landingusing the third arresting wire.

Flight-test aircraft CF-3 hookedthe wire at 12:58, while the vesselwas about 40nm (74km) south-west of San Diego, California.

One hour later, aircraft CF-5 alsoperformed a first fly-by, then atouch-and-go, and finally anarrested landing.

Thirteen years after the USDepartment of Defense andLockheed signed the Joint StrikeFighter programmes systemdevelopment and demonstrationphase contract, landing a firstpair of F-35Cs on an aircraft car-rier marked a major milestone fora project that has been beset bydevelopmental delays and cost

overruns.

No one aboard the Nimitzwasthinking of such setbacks. Themost common phrase used byofficers and enlisted sailors wasmaking history.

Vice Adm Dave Buss, com-mander of naval air forces, said itwas a great and historic day thatwould be used as a springboardinto the future of naval aviation.

The F-35Cs had made 1h flightsto theNimitzfrom Yuma, Arizona,

where they had undergonepreliminary maintenance for theirtwo-week deployment. Planscalled for both to land and for atleast one to be launched using theships steam-powered catapultsystem, but the latter was deferreduntil the following day because oftelemetry issues.

The first embarked arrestedlandings were notable becausethe F-35Cs tailhook had requireda redesign after the original wasfound to be inadequate to stop

the aircraft within the short dis-

tance available on the carrierdeck. The redesigned hookworked as planned.

The F-35C is designated toreplace the USNs current BoeingF/A-18C/Ds, but not the newerE/F-model Super Hornet andE/A-18G Growler electronicattack aircraft.

STABILITY

Buss says he was impressed by the

stability of the F-35 as it neared theNimitz, with both CF-3 and CF-5having made ideal arrested land-ings on the third deck wire.

The most remarkable thingwas how steady and stable it wason approach. I didnt see a lot ofcontrol-surface movement, hesays. Both aircraft landed exactlywhere we wanted them to.

The F-35C is augmented with anew delta control law toimprove stability on a fixedglideslope to the deck a first for

a manned aircraft landing on acarrier. The USN variant has alarger wing than the conventionaltake-off and landing F-35A andshort take-off and vertical landing(STOVL) F-35B, to create the liftrequired to take off from a carrierand reduce approach speedswhen recovering to the vessel.

Both F-35Cs are scheduled toremain on the Nimitz for twoweeks, during which time the en-velope for flight operations willcontinue to be opened. Changes

will be made in the attitude usedfor landings, as well as to direc-

tions and speeds, Buss says. Theembarked test pilots are to per-form landings with a crosswindover the deck, and also while theship is at different pitch angles.Night landings are also due tooccur from 13 to 15 November.

Phase two of the developmentaltesting activity is scheduled tobegin in 10 months aboard anundesignated carrier. A third andfinal phase is scheduled for 2016,

when the USN will decidewhether it wants to operate astealth fighter from its 11 carriers.

The US Marine Corps F-35Bwill also be capable of operatingfrom the navys ships, althoughthese would be damaged by theheat of the engine downwash ifoperating in STOVL mode. USMCamphibious assault ship decks willbe resurfaced to withstand this.

Flightglobals MiliCAS data-base records the USN as operatingfive F-35Cs for testing and training

with 17 more on firm order. Theservice has a programme of recordrequirement to eventually acquire260 of the type.

The USN is so far the onlybuyer for the carrier variant F-35,but believes that the first success-ful landings could send a mes-sage to other nations about theworthiness of the C-model.

For them to see us land thisaircraft aboard a ship at sea in avery controlled manner, this is agood message for our partners,

says Buss.See Defence P17


9/52

THIS WEEKCrash ndingskey to futureNEWS FOCUS P10

COCKPIT REGULATIONS DAVID KAMINSKI-MORROW LONDON

EASA to tighten rules on relief crewsLoss of AF447 prompts safety authority to establish procedures for transfer of authority from captain to stand-in pilot

FLIGHT AUTHORISATIONS

Errant operators face European freeze

Third-country operators are being

urged to respond to a revised opera-

tional authorisation scheme being

introduced by EASA, or risk facing a

possible interruption to European

operations at the end of a two-yeartransition period.

External carriers must apply for

the new Part-TCO authorisation be-

fore 26 November in order to con-

tinue serving 32 EASA member

states, as well as a number of as-

sociated territories. The majority of

large scheduled operators have

applied, says EASA, which had re-

ceived 500 applications by the end

of October.

However, a high number of

small non-scheduled and business

aviation operators have not yetdone so, the agency adds, noting

that it is still missing out on sev-

eral hundreds.

The agency is centralising its ap-

proval process for third-party carri-

ers, rather than forcing airlines to

apply separately to operate to each

member state.

Europes aviation safety au-thority is proposing a revi-

sion to requirements for cruiserelief pilots, partly in responseto the fatal loss of Air Franceflight AF447.

The Airbus A330 stalled andcrashed into the South Atlanticin June 2009, shortly after its cap-tain had handed the aircraft to arelief crew. French investigatorssubsequently recommended thatEASA define additional criteriafor the role of relief captain, to

improve task-sharing.The agency has detailed a no-

tice of proposed amendment that,it says, addresses safety issuesand regulatory gaps relating torelief pilots.

Around 3.7% of all flights byEuropean commercial carriersinvolve durations longer than

8h, and typically require aug-mented crews.

The EASA rulemaking pro-posal aims to ensure that reliefcrews are adequately trained tooperate an aircraft during cruise,and establish suitable proce-dures for transferring authorityfrom the regular captain to therelief pilot.

EASA sought informationfrom long-haul operators andpilot union representatives aspart of the process to examine

risks and draw up the changes.The proposal includes a re-

quirement for procedures to ad-dress among other issues thechain of command in the cockpitin the absence of the captain.

It also defines a need for de-tailed briefings to ensure continu-ity of flight.

Operators should include ade-quate training to enhance the de-cision-making skills of the reliefcaptain, including consideration

of such exercises to handle emer-gency descent initiation, upsetrecovery and unreliable airspeedindications, EASA says.

Avionics Integration Challenges?See how our LOGIC Component Technology can solve them

on the VIVISUN Application Note Browser - NOW ONLINE!

Technical Application Support

(888) 848-4786

For decades, avionics designers have trusted VIVISUN lighted pushbutton switches for best-in-class

performance. Internal LOGIC Component Technology now offers ruggedized system integration

solutions not available in any other switch on the market.

We created the VIVISUN Application Note Browser to show the growing

number of solutions achieved by using our line of integrated

components, such as electronic flip-flops, electronic

rotaries, solid state relays, one-shot timers,

4-bit decoders, voltage sensors, diodes

and terminal blocks. LOGIC ComponentTechnology is available inside VIVISUN

switches and behind-the-panel LOGIC Modules.

Whats your challenge? Point your web browser

to logic.vivisun.com, or call us and let our

team help you discover how VIVISUN and

LOGIC Component Technology can provide

your system integration solutions.

2014 Aerospace Optics, Inc. All rights reserved.

VIVISUN Application Note Browser

logic.vivisun.com


10/52

ightglobal.comightglobal.com

COVER STORYFor more in-depth coverage from the

cutting edge of human space exploration:

flightglobal.com/spaceflight

Results to determine next move for Virgin Galactic even as NTSBs preliminary assessment points to structural issues

INVESTIGATION STEPHEN TRIMBLE WASHINGTON DC

Crash findings key to future

Structural failure not a faultyrocket motor has quickly

emerged as a key focus of the in-vestigation into the 31 Octobercrash of the Scaled CompositesSpaceShipTwo that killed a testpilot and launched a new crisis forVirgin Galactic and the nascentsuborbital space tourism industry.

SpaceShipTwos fourth pow-ered flight only lasted 11s, but as

a heavily-instrumented test air-craft it deluged investigators withmore than 1,000 test parametersupdated multiple times everysecond. There was also streamingvideo from the ground, nearbyaircraft and inside the cockpit.

With so much information avail-able, one telemetry point stood outalmost immediately, says Christo-pher Hart, acting chairman of theUS National Transportation Safety

Count the Ansari X-Prize-winning

test pilot of SpaceShipOne, Brian

Binnie, among the critics of

SpaceShipTwo.

Six days before SpaceShipTwo

broke-up in-ight and crashed,

killing Scaled Composites test

pilot Mike Alsbury, Binnie ad-

dressed a public meeting of the

Explorers Club in New York City. In

remarks recorded by US ca-

ble channel C-SPAN and

posted online on 3

November, Binnie explained why he

decided to leave the Virgin Galactic/

Scaled Composites SpaceShipTwo

programme earlier this year and

join a competitor, XCOR Aerospace.

In nature, Binnie says, the size of

the heart organ scales along a pre-

cise curve from a rabbit to a lion to

an elephant. But the design of the

SpaceShipTwo rocket motor was not

on the curve.

A team of US National

Transportation Safety Board investi-

gators has reported that all three

tanks aboard SpaceShipTwo were

found intact in the wreckage, sug-

gesting the

fuel was not

the reason

that the vehicle

crashed. The

NTSB discovered

that the tail feathers of

SpaceShipTwo deployed

too soon, even though the

pilots had not completed a two-

step command sequence. The

aircraft broke apart 2s after the un-

commanded tail feather deploy-

ment at a speed over Mach 1.0.

Although not implicated in the

Board. The lever controllingSpaceShipTwos distinctive tailfeathers moved to the unlock posi-tion as it passed through Mach 1.0.Cockpit video confirmed that co-pilot Mike Alsbury prematurelyswitched the tail feathers to the un-lock position.

Neither Alsbury nor test pilotPete Siebold, however, activateda second lever, which wouldhave commanded the tail feath-ers to rotate 90 into the descentposition, Hart says. But telemetryand video shows the unlockedtail feathers somehow deployed

anyway. At around 55,000ft andwithin about 3s, SpaceShipTwowas ripped apart.

Siebold managed to escapefrom the fragmented vehicle and though severely injured de-ploy his parachute. Alsbury,however, was found on theground by local police, stillstrapped into his seat. The wreck-age of SpaceShipTwo was scat-

tered over an 8km arc of theMojave desert in California.

OBSERVATIONS

Hart cautions that the investiga-tion is not over, as the NTSB in-vestigation has reviewed only asmall fraction of the huge volumeof data collected. But it was clearfrom the wreckage that the SierraNevada-designed hybrid rocketmotor did not explode before the

PROGRAMME

Former SpaceShipOne test pilot voiced concerns on design days before accidentThat has been the hold-up for

SpaceShipTwo, Binnie adds.

XCOR announced that Binnie had

joined the company last April. One

month later, Virgin Galactic an-

nounced that it was changing the

fuel formulation of SpaceShipTwos

rocket motor from a rubber-

based solid fuel to a

plastic-based

fuel.

Critics had questioned the switch to plastic fuel for the motor

Virgin

Ga

lactic

10|Flight International |11-17 November 2014


11/52

11-17 November 2014 |Flight International|11ightglobal.comightglobal.com

NEWS FOCUSRussian Q400

deal shelved

AIR TRANSPORT P12

vehicle broke apart. The threefuel and gas tanks carried bySpaceShipTwo carrying nitrousoxide, methane and a plasticsolid fuel were found intact onthe ground, Hart says.

Early speculation had focusedon whether a decision by VirginGalactic to switch from a rubberto a plastic fuel for the hybridmotor had caused the accident,but the propulsion system ap-

crash, there are still questions

whether SpaceShipTwos rocket mo-

tor was viable. The fourth powered

test ight was intended to answer

some of those questions.

On 4 October 2004, Binnie piloted

SpaceShipOne on the second of two

suborbital space ights within 10

days, allowing the vehicle nanced

by Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen

and designed by Burt Rutan to claim

the $10 million X-Prize.A decade later, Binnie is critical of

the design philosophy that led to the

hybrid motor selection and feathered

control conguration of

SpaceShipTwo, preferring instead

the horizontal take-off and liquid-

fuel-powered XCOR Lynx design

(pictured left) pursued by his new

employer.

That runway-to-runway ap-

proach is also being taken by

Airbus Defence & Space, which

earlier this year drop-tested a

quarter-scale model of its space-

pears to have functioned as de-signed. Whether the plastic fuelwas energetic enough to propelSpaceShipTwo above the VonKarman Line at an altitude of100km the widely acceptedborder of space is another ques-tion left unanswered.

How the tail feathers de-ployed prematurely will be amore relevant question for thecrash investigation. SpaceShipT-

wos tail feathers are meant tobend upward at the apogee of asuborbital parabolic flight path,to automatically configure theaircraft in a safe descent attitude.As the aircraft re-enters the at-mosphere and control surfacesregain aerodynamic authority,the tail feathers are lowered toguide the aircraft on a 15minglide back to the airport.

SAFETY MEASURE

Burt Rutan, the designer of

SpaceShipOne, included the tailfeathers in the design as a safetymeasure. In his early career, Rutanwas a flight test engineer at Ed-wards AFB, California, and he re-membered the day when X-15 testpilot Michael Adams died afterlosing control of the aircraft uponre-entry. The tail feather design onSpaceShipOne and SpaceShipT-wo was intended to make the re-entry carefree for the pilot.

The NTSB investigation of thecrash will be broad. Hart says the

investigation team will considera wide array of factors, includingthe safety culture at Scaled Com-posites and Virgin Galactic.

It promises to be the toughestinquiry yet faced by a space tour-ism industry that has so far sentonly a handful of tourists intospace using Russias Soyuz launchsystem. Virgin Galactic at onepoint planned to begin regularspace launches by 2007, but hasstruggled to overcome a string ofsetbacks, including a nitrous

oxide explosion seven years agothat killed three Scaled Compos-

ites workers. Despite the delays,Virgin Galactics backlog of depos-it holders for the $250,000 ticketto space has swelled to over 700.

For Virgin Galactic founderRichard Branson, results of the in-vestigation will determine thenext move for his 10-year-oldspace tourism venture. Once wefind out what went wrong, if wecan overcome it, well make abso-lutely certain the dream lives on,Branson told reporters on 2 No-vember before meeting privately

with 400 employees in Mojave.Branson pledged to invest

$100 million to launch Virgin Ga-lactic in 2004, just as Space-ShipOne claimed the Ansari X-Prize by completing two flights tospace within 10 days. In 2009,Branson secured a $280 millioninvestment by Aabar, an AbuDhabi-based investment firm.Aabar committed to invest an-other $110 million two yearslater, raising the overall financingcommitment to $490 million.

Meanwhile, Aabar also commit-ted to invest $100 million for Vir-gin Galactic to develop a smallsatellite launch capability basedin Abu Dhabi. The taxpayers ofNew Mexico also committed$200 million to build SpaceportAmerica near Truth or Conse-quences, New Mexico.

Aabar Investments is aware ofthe test flight accident, the in-vestment firm says in a statementon its website. Our thoughts andprayers are with the pilots fami-

lies, and everybody at Virgin Ga-lactic and Scaled Composites.

plane, with active ight control

surfaces, from 3,000ft. An ear-

ly-2015 test from a stratospheric

balloon at 30km (19 miles) will

test supersonic ight.

The Airbus spaceplane will take

off with normal turbofan engines

and switch to rockets at 10km

above the Earth. On the way back

down, the craft will glide from its

100km peak to 20km, when the

turbofans will be restarted for anormal, powered landing.

If you think about the world of

aeronautics [and] airplanes, when

you go to build a new airplane you

rst dene the powerplant thats

going to make this thing work and

then you build the airplane around

it, Binnie says.

You dont rst build an airplane

and then go, Wheres my engine?

Thats kind of the difference, if you

will, between what was going on

between SpaceShipOne and

SpaceShipTwo and XCOR.

RexFeatures

XCOR

The NTSB has determined

that SpaceShipTwos tail

feathers were unlocked


12/52

AIR TRANSPORT


For up-to-the-minute air transport news,



REDUNDANCIES

DAVID KAMINSKI-MORROW LONDON

Aerospace totake brunt of

R-R jobs cull

AVIONICS

Upgrade addsADS-B capabilityto Dornier 328s

Dornier 328 and 328Jet aircraftare to receive a cockpitavionics upgrade which willenable the types to comply withautomatic dependent surveillance

broadcast (ADS-B) requirements.The modernisation will also

include new liquid-crystalHoneywell Primus Elite displays,as well as the option of a secondflight management system on the328 turboprop.

Type certificate holder 328Support Services says it expectsto secure European and US certi-fication for the programme bylate 2016. The company says theupgrade will give the aircraft con-troller-pilot datalink communica-

tion capabilities and a Class 3electronic flightbag.

Rolls-Royce is planning to cut2,600 positions over the next18 months, mainly within itsaerospace division.

The restructuring is intended tosave 80 million ($128 million)per year, although the move willresult in 120 million of incre-mental costs over the next twoyears. R-R warned last month thatit was expecting a weaker revenueperformance across the group.

Although the aerospace divi-

sion was among its stronger busi-nesses, R-R says its engineeringrequirement has lessened as a re-sult of ending primary develop-ment of the Trent 1000 and TrentXWB engines, both of whichhave entered production. Simpli-fication of R-Rs operations intotwo sectors aerospace and landand sea will enable the companyto reduce management layers, itadds, while efficiency has beenimproved through investment innew facilities and technology.

Bombardier chief executive

Pierre Beaudoin says a po-tential deal with IlyushinFinance to transfer and buildhundreds of Dash 8 Q400s inRussia has been set aside, asthe manufacturer considers otherroutes to penetrating the Russianturboprop market.

We are setting this projectaside for the time being and wellsee what happens over the nextnumber of months, Beaudoinsaid during a third-quarter earn-ings call with analysts and jour-

nalists on 30 October.In August 2013, Ilyushin com-

mitted to buy up to 100 Q400s ifBombardier would establish anassembly line managed by Rus-sian industry in Ulyanovsk.

Talks stalled as unrest inUkraine earlier this year led to

Russia annexing the Crimean

peninsula in March. Ilyushin of-ficials said earlier this year that adispute over pricing and technol-ogy transfer not political ten-sions caused the delay in nego-tiations with Bombardier.

Beaudoin does not offer a clearreason for setting aside the pro-posal. Right now, the conditionsare not right for us to move aheadwith this project, he says.

Bombardier plans to continuetrying to sell the Q400 in the Rus-sian market, even as Russian gov-

ernment officials openly discusstransferring the Ilyushin Il-114from a plant in Uzbekistan andmodernising the types enginesand avionics to make it morecompetitive.

We are looking at other waysto penetrate that market, Beau-

doin says. Bombardier has target-

ed Russia as an attractive marketfor the Q400 for several years; thetypes high speed and relativelylow seat count could make it at-tractive for Russias often longand thin domestic routes.

Aeroflot is set to consider anorder for three Q400s.

Meanwhile, Bombardier willcontinue seeking out newcustomers for the 13-year-old tur-boprop. Demand remains rela-tively healthy, with 17 Q400s de-livered so far this year and 43

aircraft in a production backlogstretching for 19 months.

Three months ago, Beaudoinsaid the Canadian airframer wasin talks with Chinese companiesrelating to the possibility ofbuilding Q400s in China, to servelocal airlines.

UK leisure carrier MonarchAirlines has finalised itsorder for 30 Boeing 737 Max 8twinjets, following an investmentagreement which brought newshareholders to the company.

Deliveries will begin in thesecond quarter of 2018. Thelow-cost airline has options foranother 15 aircraft.

The carrier aims to operate asingle-type fleet of Max 8s by2020, it states.

All 737 Max twinjets will be

powered by CFM InternationalLeap-1B engines.

Boeing

The airlines 30 jets will be delivered from second-quarter 2018

Monarch chief executiveAndrew Swaffield says the order

is part of a new strategic direc-tion for the airline.

Investor Greybull Capital istaking a 90% shareholding of the

business, following a restructur-ing programme.

Restructured Monarch rms Max buyFLEET

AirTeamImages

Flag carrier Aeroflot is to consider

an order for three of the turboprop

MANUFACTURINGSTEPHEN TRIMBLE WASHINGTON DC

Russian Q400 deal shelvedDomestic assembly plan set aside as Bombardier seeks other ways to penetrate market


13/52

AIR TRANSPORT


American Airlines is evaluat-ing Airbuss proposed long-range A321neo.

We will be evaluating theeconomics and the range andperformance capabilities of thelong-range version of theA321neo, says vice-president offleet planning Peter Warlick in anemployee newsletter.

The Fort Worth, Texas-based

carrier would likely use a long-range A321neo, which is beingdesigned specifically with trans-atlantic routes in mind, to replaceBoeing 757-200s in its fleet.

The aircraft will have a maxi-mum take-off weight of 97t andfly about 4,100nm (7,600km) in astandard two-class configurationof 164 seats, Airbus said in Octo-ber. This compares to maximumtake-off weights of 89-93.5t and arange of about 3,500nm for thefour existing sub-variants of the

A321neo.While Airbus has not officially

launched the potential 757 re-placement, with executives say-ing they are actively discussingthe possibility with operators, anorder from American could bethe impetus the airframer needsto launch the programme.

The airline is the largest opera-tor of the Airbus A320 family inthe world, with 313 aircraft in-cluding 133 A321s across theAmerican and US Airways fleets,

according to Flightglobals As-

CORPORATE IDENTITY

LATAM carriers look to single brandThe carriers of LATAM Airlines Group are to transition to a single

brand. LATAM chief executive Enrique Cueto is quoted in Brazilian

and Chilean media saying that the group will make a decision on a

single brand by the end of the year. TAM and LAN closed a merger in

June 2012 to form LATAM, but the carriers are still operating under

different brands. LANs brand features on its afliates in Chile, Peru,

Argentina, Ecuador and Colombia. Brazils TAM still operates under

that brand, while its Paraguayan subsidiary is called TAM Paraguay.

New standard foroperating in icingconditions from FAAAIR TRANSPORT P14

EVALUATION EDWARD RUSSELL WASHINGTON DC

Can long-range A321neo gothe distance for American?Potential order could be required impetus for Airbus to launch transatlantic twinjet variant Fan cowls for the AirbusA330neo will be sourced

from Austria-based FACC, undera contract from Safrans Aircelledivision.

FACC will be exclusive suppli-er of cowls for the aircraft, whichwill be powered by Rolls-RoyceTrent 7000 engines. The companywill deliver the first parts in thethird quarter of 2016.

Over the life of the A330neoprogramme, FACC expects the

agreement to generate $100 mil-lion in revenues.

Airbus is yet to firm orders forthe A330neo, but has obtainedcommitments from several cus-tomers covering more than 120aircraft. The airframer had al-ready agreed a partnership withAircelle covering development ofthe nacelle for the type.

FACC says it expects Airbussorderbook to expand significant-ly over the next few yearsfollowing the launch of the

A330neo. Given the design matu-rity of the A330, it adds, this willgenerate a positive impact forFACCs finances.

The A330neo cowls will beproduced at FACCs plant inReichersberg, Austria, usingcarbonfibre construction.

FACC, which has close tieswith Chinese state aviation firmAVIC, is intending to strengthenits connections to the A330 pro-gramme through a strategic part-nership linked to a planned Chi-

nese A330 completion centre.

RexFeatures

cend Fleets database. In addition,the carrier has firm orders for 100A321neos and options for anadditional 30.

American also operates 102757-200 twinjets. Of these, a sig-nificant number operate on trans-atlantic routes.

Executives at the carrier, aswell as their counterparts at Delta

Air Lines and United Airlines,

have repeatedly lamented thelack of a replacement for transat-lantic 757s. Boeing ended pro-duction of the 757 in 2004, andthe airframer has yet to offer a di-rect replacement aircraft.

The Boeing 737 Max 9 is theclosest candidate, but it cannot

match the maximum take-offweight or range of the 757.

Meanwhile, the first 787-8bound for American has beenrolled out from the paint shop atthe airframers Everett, Washing-ton facility. The aircraft, which isregistered N800AN and MSN40618, is scheduled for deliveryin November and expected toenter service on domestic routesin the first quarter of 2015.

American has yet to disclosewhat routes the 787 will fly or

where it will be based.

AirTeamImages

The airline would likely use the type to replace its 757-200s

MANUFACTURING

DAVID KAMINSKI-MORROWLONDON

Austrias FACCbags exclusive

Neo cowl deal

We will be evaluating

the economics, range

and performancecapabilities of the

long-range A321neoPETER WARLICKVP of fleet planning, American Airlines


14/52


AIR TRANSPORTFor up-to-the-minute air transport news,



Smaller commercial aircraftwill be required to meetmore stringent standards for op-erating in icing conditions undera new Federal Aviation Admin-istration rule.

The rule will require aircraftwith a gross take-off weight ofless than 60,000lb (27,200kg) tobe able to operate safely in freez-ing drizzle and freezing rain weather the FAA calls super-cooled large drop conditions.

The rule also requires aircraft

to have systems that can detectfreezing drizzle and freezing rain.

In addition, the FAA willrequire that aircraft engines andsome components, such as angleof attack and airspeed indicators,be able to operate properly infreezing rain and icing conditions.

The rule will be published inthe federal register on 4 Octoberand will take effect 60 days later.

The changes, which apply tothe FAAs Part 25 airworthinessstandards for transport aircraft,are rooted in the icing-inducedcrash of an ATR 72 turboprop in

Roselawn, Indiana, almost exact-ly 20 years ago.

On 31 October 1994, thataircraft, operated by SimmonsAirlines under the AmericanEagle brand, was in a holdingpattern and descending to8,000ft when it rolled over andcrashed, killing 64 passengersand four crew, according to theUS National TransportationSafety Board.

The agency said the aircraftrolled because freezing drizzlecreated an ice ridge on thewings upper surface, behind the

deicing boots but ahead of theailerons.

Omission of a callsigntriggered a serious airproxincident over Switzerland after aRyanair crew responded to aclimb approval intended for adifferent Ryanair flight.

Swiss investigation authoritySUST states that the pilots of aRyanair Boeing 737-800, boundfor Lubeck and operating at36,000ft, had requested a climb to38,000ft to avoid turbulence.

But the crew did not identify

the flight by its callsign, Ryanair3595, and the air traffic control-ler instead addressed the clear-ance to 38,000ft to another flight,Ryanair 6DW.

Flight 3595 acknowledged theclearance, without noticing theincorrect callsign, and beganclimbing. The crew of flight 6DWdid not respond to the controllersclearance. Within a minute theclimb brought the Ryanair flightinto conflict with a TAP PortugalAirbus A319 cruising at 37,000ft.

Collision-avoidance systemson the aircraft activated andtheir flightpaths also generated ashort-term conflict alert to airtraffic controllers. The jets con-verged to 0.8nm horizontallyand 650ft vertically.

SUST points out that, in the12min preceding the incident,four other Ryanair aircraft among 19 flights had been incontact with the radar executivecontroller. It says that the accept-ance of the clearance incorrectly

directed at flight 6DW could beattributed to the expectationsof the crew of flight 3595. The in-quiry says flight 6DWs crewshould have intervened whenthe other Ryanair flight read backthe misdirected clearance.

The reason why they did notdo so must be left unanswered,it states, although it suggests thateither the pilots of 6DW had notbeen expecting any climb in-struction or doubted that theclearance was meant for them

particularly given the immediateacceptance from flight 3595.

INQUIRYDAVID KAMINSKI-MORROW LONDON

Airprox afterRyanair pilots

confuse callsignComac has taken delivery ofthe aft fuselage section for itsfirst C919 prototype. The 3.2mlong structure is manufactured byJiangxi Hongdu Aviation Industry,and Comac says this is the firsttime composites are being used ona major Chinese aircraft structure.

The tail cone of the aircraftand its horizontal stabilisers are

yet to be delivered, but this is thefifth major C919 structure to ar-

rive at Comacs final assemblycentre near Shanghai Pudong In-ternational airport in recentmonths.

Comac has so far taken deliv-ery of the first C919 nose, forwardfuselage, mid fuselage and centrewing box.

The airframer started final as-sembly work in late September,

with the joining of the aircraftsforward and mid fuselage sec-tions. It is working towards anend-2015 first flight target for theC919. Comac has so far receivedcommitments for 400 of the nar-rowbodies, mostly from Chineseairlines and leasing companies.

Comac receives rst C919 fuselagePROGRAMMEMAVIS TOH SINGAPORE

AIRWORTHINESS JON HEMMERDINGER WASHINGTON DC

New standard for operatingin icing conditions from FAAUS regulator tightens safety rules for smaller commercial aircraft ying in freezing weather

The rule will apply to aircraft

with a gross take-off weight

of under 60,000lb

RexFeatures


15/52

AIR TRANSPORT


F-35B could

miss July target

DEFENCE P17

Saab, partnered with theSwedish air navigation ser-

vice provider, LFV, has receivedfinal operational approval fromthe Swedish Transport Agencyfor the remote operation ofrnskldsvik airport fromSundsvall, Sweden.

This official certificationmeans that other suitably-equipped remote aerodromes, as

well as rnskldsvik, may becontrolled from the remote towercentre (RTC) at Sundsvall.

The remote aerodrome enablesthe technology by installing amast bearing video cameras pro-viding a 360 view, directionalmicrophones and meteorologicalsensors that feed their data in realtime to the Sundsvall RTC.

Controllers see the airfieldsurface environment and sky onwrap-around high-definitionscreens, backed up by directional

sound and all the real-timeweather data they would expectin a normal tower.

The advantage, for remotecommunities connected by infre-quent but essential air move-ments, is that their aerodromecan afford high-quality air trafficservices 24h a day if necessary,

because they share the fully-equipped control room and high-ly trained duty controllers withother airfields.

European regulators have ap-proved Israel AerospaceIndustries pilot-controlled towtractor TaxiBot for deploymenton departing Boeing 737s.

The semi-robotic tug devel-oped by IAI and produced byFrench ground equipment manu-facturer TLD is designed to towaircraft on the ground to avoid useof the main engines for taxiing.While the hybrid-powered tug hasa driver who conducts the at-

tachment procedure with the air-craft, pilots control the drive oper-ations from the cockpit as if theywere taxiing under own power.

Israels civil aviation authorityand the European Aviation SafetyAgency have issued supplemen-tal type certificates covering taxioperations for departing 737flights from the aircraft stands toa detachment point near the run-way. But IAI says the operation issoon to be expanded to AirbusA320s through a no-technical-

objection (NTO) approval by theEuropean manufacturer.

IAI has trialled the TaxiBot onboth Airbuss and Boeings nar-rowbody families. The certifica-tion tests were conducted with adecommissioned 737-500 owned

by programme partner Lufthansaat Frankfurt airport over the pastyear. Lufthansa is planning toevaluate the tractor in a six-month operational trial withscheduled 737 flights from itsmain hub from December.

IAI says it is in advanced ne-gotiations with several potentialcustomers, and working groupsare preparing the introduction ofthe tractor at hubs in Europe,Asia and North America.

The manufacturer is building aTaxiBot version for widebodies,which is to be certificated by theend of 2015. Earlier this year, AirFrance signed a tentative deal toevaluate use of that tractor atParis Charles de Gaulle airport.

IAI says deployment of the tug

will generate a return on invest-ment within two years.

ENVIRONMENT

MICHAEL GUBISCH LONDON

TaxiBot tug getsapproval for 737

operational trial

Belaruss government hassignalled an interest in ac-

quiring Sukhoi Superjet 100 re-gional jets for a proposed secondnational scheduled airline.

Flag carrier Belavia has beenthe countrys only airline for sev-eral years since the liquidation ofGrodnoavia to which the civil

aviation agency is now consider-ing setting up a successor.

Agency chief Vladimir Kostinsays the new entity might beformed in the first quarter of2016 as its business plan isalready in place. He says thatpart of the plan is to equip thecarrier with four Superjetsinitially and grow the fleet to 20aircraft by 2020.

We are in intensive talksabout co-operation with Sukhoi,

he says. Sukhoi is also interest-ed in developing our airline

business and would like to see itsaircraft in our skies.

Acquisition of Superjetswould contribute to bilateraleconomic relations, Kostin notes,adding: In particular, we wantsome parts and components for

the Superjet to be produced byour enterprises.

Belarus eyes Superjet for new carrierAIRLINE START-UP TOM ZAITZEVMOSCOW

REGULATIONS DAVID LEARMOUNT LONDON

Sweden clears remote ATCsystem for distant airportsSaab and partner LFV can control operations around country from central site in Sundsvall

Saab

Controllers can see the airfield and sky with wrap-around screens

This achievement means wehave a system in place that meetsall applicable safety regulations,

says Niclas Gustavsson, directorof international affairs and busi-ness development at LFV.

With this final regulatoryapproval, LFV is now making thelast preparations to enable re-mote tower services from Sunds-vall, ultimately reducing operat-ing costs and increasing theefficiency of operations.

Anders Carp, head of Saabstraffic management business unit,says that Saab and LFV have

adopted a strategy that uses newequipment but still employs theexisting approved procedures.

Air navigation service provid-ers and aviation authoritiesacross the globe now have a suc-cessful model in place for theregulatory approval process forremotely controlled air traffic ser-vices, he says.

Saab has now entered into apartnership with VirginiaSATSLab and the US states Lees-

burg Executive Airport to demon-strate and evaluate Saab remotetower technologies there.


16/52


DEFENCETo get more defence sector coverage,

subscribe to our fortnightly newsletter:

flightglobal.com/defencenewsletter

PROGRAMME ATUL CHANDRA BENGALURU

Alenia Aermacchi abandonsAvro replacement contestItalian airframer will not bid C-27J for $2.2 billion Indian air force modernisation deal

Italys Alenia Aermacchi willnot submit a bid for an Indian

air force contract to replace theservices Hindustan Aeronautics(HAL)-built HS 748 Avro trans-ports with 56 new aircraft, andhas removed its C-27J Spartanfrom contention for the estimated$2.2 billion deal.

The Indian air force Avro re-placement programme calls main-

ly for a basic medium transportaircraft and therefore Alenia Aer-macchi decided to not participatein the tender, the company says.

Its decision to not respond to arequest for proposals, coupledwith a lack of interest from otherairframers, leaves Airbus Defence& Space as the sole remaining bid-der, offering its C295 twin-turbo-prop along with Indian partnerTata Advanced Systems.

Alenia Aermacchi also hasquestioned the viability of the

programme. It says the replace-ment may be an opportunity to

Indian

airforce

The service still operates 59 aged HS 748 medium transports

Airb

us

Helicopters

Airbuss AS550 C3 Fennec had previously been in the running

develop a long-term industrialcollaboration, [but] the foreseenfleet size may not allow a satisfac-tory industrial return oriented toa serious technology transfer.

New Delhi has set stringent re-quirements that will test the capa-bilities of the programmes desig-nated Indian production partner.A minimum 30% value of localcontent will be required duringthe first phase of licensed produc-tion, covering 16 aircraft. This fig-

ure should increase to 60% for thefinal 24 aircraft, however.

Airbus says Tata AdvancedSystems would perform structuraland final aircraft assembly, sys-tems integration and testing if theC295 is selected, and manage theindigenous supply chain in India.

Indias Defence AcquisitionCouncil decided earlier this yearthat HAL would have no part inthe Avro replacement process. InAugust 2013 HAL had issued a re-quest for information for a modernengine to replace the Rolls-Royce

Dart engines on the air forces 59operational HS 748s.

COMPETITIONBARTOSZ GLOWACKIWARSAW

Bidders swoopfor Warsaws

Project RavenAhandful of competitors haveemerged to try and fulfil

Polands Project Raven require-ment to replace its armys ageingMil Mi-24s with 30 new attackhelicopters.

Speaking on 4 November, dep-uty minister of national defenceCzeslaw Mroczek said AirbusHelicopters in partnership withlocal firm Heli Invest Services will offer the Tiger.

Turkish Aerospace Industries is

proposing its T129 ATAKdevelopment of AgustaWestlandsAW129, while Bell Helicopter isoffering its AH-1Z Viper. Polishsecurity electronics provider BIThas also indicated its intention toparticipate in the programme, al-though its role is unknown.

Boeing has also previouslyshown interest in offering itsAH-64E Apache to Warsaw, andMroczek points out that the list ofpotential bidders is not yet final-ised. The US company could es-

tablish a local assembly line forthe Apache if required under thetender. Boeing officials visitedPoland in October and were in-volved in talks with around 30potential partners.

Project Raven is presently inits technical evaluation stage.More in-depth requirements aredue to be published in mid-2015,to be followed soon after by therelease of a request for proposals.

Flightglobals Ascend Fleetsdatabase records the Polish army

as currently operating 29Mi-24/35 rotorcraft.

Warsaw is also currentlyrunning a competition to acquire70 multirole helicopters to equipall three branches of its armedforces. AgustaWestland, AirbusHelicopters and Sikorsky haveall been pursuing the opportuni-ty, although the latter haswarned that it could withdrawfrom the process.See Defence P18

To learn more about ourrotorcraft data service go toflightglobal.com/ascend

REQUIREMENT

New Delhi revives helicopter battle with domestic vision

India has released a fresh request

for information (RFI) for a eet of

reconnaissance and surveillance

helicopters to be acquired for its

army and air force.

The defence ministry says the

new request has the intention of

identifying probable Indian vendors

who can provide the helicopters,

followed by licensed production/

indigenous manufacture in the

country.

Responses are sought by 23

December from Indian vendors, in-

cluding companies that have estab-

lished a production arrangement with

original equipment manufacturers.

Indias Defence Acquisition

Council in August cancelled a con-

test that had been under way since

2008 to equip the army and air force

with a respective 133 and 64 light

rotorcraft, opting to restart the

process under the buy and make(Indian) procurement category.

The remaining candidates for the

previous requirement were Airbus

Helicopters AS550 C3 Fennec

and Russian Helicopters Kamov

Ka-226T.

An as-yet unspecied number of

the rotorcraft are to be delivered in

yaway condition, ahead of licensed

production and indigenous manufac-

turing. The RFI says the latter pro-

cess should begin within three to

four years of a contract, with a mini-

mum of 50% indigenous contentincluded.


17/52


DEFENCESeasprites to boostPeru maritime

surveillance

DEFENCE P18

The US Marine Corps stillplans on having 10 war-readyLockheed Martin F-35Bs by 1July 2015, but the loss of 45 flighttesting days earlier this year maymean that its initial operatingcapability (IOC) target will bemissed.

From an overall programmeperspective, missing a date bydays and weeks compared to thetragic past this programme hashad where weve missed thingsby years Id say were getting

better, says F-35 programme ex-ecutive officer Lt Gen Christo-pher Bogdan. Referring to thelong-established target as atough date to hit, he adds:Theres no way in the worldwere missing that by months.My commitment is 1 July, and if Imiss that date, Im going to apolo-gise to the US Marine Corps.

The service, which will be thefirst to receive operational F-35s,already has taken concessions inorder to bring its short take-off

and vertical landing (STOVL)version online in 2015. Its earlyexamples will be flown initiallywith a less-capable software ver-sion, and will subsequently beretrofitted to bring them to fulloperational standard.

Meeting the IOC goal began tolook untenable after a third-stagetitanium rotor in the Pratt &

Israels government will soon becalled on to make a final deci-

sion on the air forces plannedpurchase of Bell Boeing V-22Osprey tiltrotors, with defenceminister Moshe Yaalon in favourof cancelling the proposed deal.

Additional pressure has beenplaced on Israels defence budgetdue to the cost of its ProtectiveEdge operation in Gaza earlierthis year, while the need to ac-

quire ground systems such asnew armoured personnel carriers

has moved to the top of the de-fence ministrys acquisition list.

Speaking on 4 November, anIsraeli source said the budgetpressure has created a situationthat will lead to the cancellationor postponement of the V-22deal. A deadline contained with-in an existing letter of agreementfor six of the aircraft can bechanged to give the Israeli cabi-nets defence committee more

time to re-evaluate the issue, thesource adds.

Gaza war costs could scupper Israeli Osprey deal

DECISIONARIE EGOZI TEL AVIV

PROGRAMMESDAN PARSONS WASHINGTON DC

F-35B could miss July targetMilitarys programme chief hints at delay of days and weeks for operational milestone

More time is needed to consider the proposed six-aircraft buy

USMarineCorps

COMPETITION

STEPHEN TRIMBLE WASHINGTON DC

USN launchesfresh search

for Triton radarA

new competition has beenlaunched to provide the US

Navys Northrop GrummanMQ-4C Tritons with an air-to-airradar which will help the un-manned air system to detect otheraircraft and avoid collisions. TheNaval Air Systems Commands 3November solicitation comes ayear after the service cancelled de-velopment of an Exelis-designedsense and avoid system.

The process includes less ambi-

tious performance requirements.For example, the USN expectsthat the MQ-4C will receive datafrom ground radar as it approachesan airport, since air-to-air radarscan be confused by ground clutterat lower altitudes. The radar designshould also be modular and scala-ble, to enable improvements to bemade as future operational and airtraffic management needs evolve.It should provide an initial senseand avoid function in the form of adue regard capability, it adds.

Seventy Tritons, including fiveprototypes, should be acquiredunder an $11 billion programme.

The radar will help the

unmanned air system

to detect aircraft

and avoid collisions

Whitney F135 engine of a US AirForce F-35A shattered prior to atest flight in June. This puncturedan aft fuel tank and sparked a fire,which led to the entire 100-plusfleet of test and training aircraftbeing temporarily grounded andnow continuing to be flownunder performance restrictions.

The incident cost the pro-

gramme 45 days of critical testingneeded to confidently meet the 1July IOC date, and Bogdan saysthe programme will go on asurge war footing in an attemptto make up that time.

To get the test fleet back to fly-ing a full profile, engines must beburned in during two roughly1h flights, which will follow de-

fined profiles to pre-trench thestator surrounding the rotors. Fourtest aircraft have already under-gone the process.

New engines also will be pre-trenched to prevent their rotorblades from rubbing during com-plex flight manoeuvres. This re-quires the fabrication of a new sta-tor, of which P&W produces only

about one per week.All 19 test aircraft should receive

one of these fixes within the nexttwo months, Bogdan says, and ifUSAF and US Navy airworthinessauthorities approve either processit will also be applied to fieldedF-35s. However, it is unclear whena permanent fix will be cut into theengine production line.

The STOVL aircraft will be the

first to enter frontline serviceLockheedMartin


18/52

DEFENCE


For more in-depth coverage of the

global rotorcraft sector, go online to

flightglobal.com/helicopters

Sikorsky and its subsidiaryPZL Mielec say they will not

submit a bid for Polands 70-air-craft utility helicopter tender ifthe terms of the acquisition arenot amended.

As drawn up by Warsaw, theterms for the estimated $3 billioncontest will prevent the Sikorskyteam from bidding with its Polish-built S-70 Black Hawk, the compa-nies say. Sikorsky president MickMaurer sent a letter to the Polish

government on 27 October, in-forming its defence ministry thatno bid would be submitted if theconditions remain unchanged.

Responding on its website, theministry countered: The require-ments concerning the multirolehelicopter have been known sinceMay 2014, and Sikorsky has suchhelicopters within the productrange they offer. We hope that itwill place a bid in the set term,and that the letters it sent are onlyan element of negotiation tactics.

PZL Mielec published a replyon 30 October, stating: The deci-sion of the consortium is not anegotiation tactic, and is notmeant to exert any pressure onthe Ministry of National Defence.It is simply meant to inform.

It is impossible to submit aneconomically viable offer thatwould be 100% compliant witheach and every requirement.

The defence ministry says itdoes not plan to cancel the pro-cedure at the request of one of thebidders, or to change its terms ina way that could be detrimentalfor Poland.

Responses are due by 28 No-vember, with AgustaWestlands

AW149 and Airbus HelicoptersEC725 also being promoted.

The Peruvian navy is to acquirefive Kaman SH-2G Super

Seasprites through the Canadiangovernment.

Four of the helicopters will beupgraded with a new integratedmission system, while the fifthwill receive an overhaul.

General Dynamics Canada on27 October announced its receipt

Russian Helicopters has deliv-ered the last of 63 Mil

Mi-17V-5 transport helicopterspurchased by the US Departmentof Defense on behalf of the Af-ghan armed forces, under a 2011contract with Moscows Rosobo-ronexport arms agency.

The deliveries were completedduring a volatile period in US-Russian relations, with the Mi-17purchase having been first as-sailed in the US Congress be-cause of Moscows support forthe Bashar al-Assad regime dur-ing the Syrian civil war, and then

for the Russian annexation ofCrimea following political unrestin Ukraine.

With the acquisition phase ofthe Afghan deal now complete,the Russian Federal Service of

New

ZealandDefenceForce

General Dynamics Canada will enhance and overhaul the fleet

RussianHelicopters

Afghanistan now operates

98 Mi-8/17-series aircraft

Military-Technical Co-operationsays it is willing to assist withfuture helicopter deliveries to thenation, and also to perform main-tenance on those examples al-

ready in service. Afghanistansmilitary now has an active fleet of98 Mi-8/17-series helicopters, ac-cording to Flightglobals AscendFleets database.

of a multimillion-dollar contractfacilitated by the Canadian Com-mercial Corporation the coun-trys intergovernmental contract-ing organisation.

The rotorcraft involved in thedeal are believed to be currentlyoperated by the Royal New Zea-land Navy, which is in the pro-cess of acquiring 10 SH-2G(I)s no

longer wanted by Australia. Peruwill gain the ability to conductmaritime and littoral surveillanceusing the Super Seasprites,which General Dynamics Canadasays will include mission equip-ment selections drawing on itsexperience with OttawasSikorsky CH-148 Cyclone mari-time helicopter project.

The Peruvian maritime re-

quirement shares many similari-ties with Canada, says GeneralDynamics Canada vice-presidentair and naval division Brian Fava.The company will also provide itssonobuoy acoustic system, and isin negotiations with Kaman forthe provision of services includ-ing systems upgrades.

Flightglobals Ascend Fleetsdatabase records Peru as operat-ing a current naval aviation in-ventory which includes two BellHelicopter 212s and one Sikorsky

S-61-based ASH-3D for use in theanti-surface warfare role.

Kabul receives last US-funded Mi-17sDELIVERIES

ACQUISITIONSBETH STEVENSON LONDON

Surplus Seasprites to boost

Peru maritime surveillanceCanadian government expedites sale of ve upgraded Kaman SH-2G helicopters to Lima

TENDERBETH STEVENSON LONDON

Black Hawk bidfor Poland could

be withdrawn

It is impossible

to submit an

economically

viable offer

PZL MIELEC


19/52

NEWS FOCUS


Guardian supports

Elite Citation

BUSINESS AVIATION P20

Fanfare as Anglo-French UCAV project ofcially launched and $191 million in contracts handed out to industry partners

UNMANNED SYSTEMS BETH STEVENSON PARIS

FCAS programme takes off

The UK and French govern-ments have started to makegood on their joint pledge to in-vest in future unmanned tech-nologies, following the officialstart of a two-year feasibilitystudy for the Future Combat AirSystem (FCAS).

At a ceremony at DassaultsSaint-Cloud facility in Paris on 5November, the two governments

awarded 120 million ($191 mil-lion) in contracts to six industrypartners three from each nation as part of a wider 200 millioneffort to invest in the develop-ment of future unmanned combatair vehicle (UCAV) technology.

BAE Systems and Dassaultwill concentrate on the air vehi-cle design, Rolls-Royce andSafran/Snecma on engine devel-opment and Selex ES and Thaleson electronics including sensors,electronic warfare and communi-

cations. All these efforts will becombined to develop a systemdefinition for the concept aircraft,expected by the end of 2016.

COLLABORATION

Following the Lancaster Housetreaty signed by UK Prime Minis-ter David Cameron and then-French President NicolasSarkozy in 2010, Cameron andPresident Francois Hollande of-fered the combined 120 millionduring a summit at the Royal Air

Forces Brize Norton base in

January this year. The arrange-ments for the feasibility studywere then agreed in July duringthe Farnborough air show, lead-ing to the six contract awards.

The FCAS funding is beingprovided in addition to an 80million investment split be-

tween the two countries tocontinue the development ofsovereign systems, primarily theBAE-led Taranis and Dassault-led Neuron UCAV technologydemonstrators.

A model of the UCAV on dis-play at the launch reveals a simi-lar stealth wing design to theNeuron and Taranis.

Since the signing of theLancaster House treaty in 2010,our two countries have wanted tobuild a stronger defence, said

Laurent Collet-Billon, chief

executive of Frances DGA de-fence procurement agency, at the5 November event. Today wesee the concrete result of thisthrough our mock-up.

The FCAS project will benefitfrom technologies developed forthe existing two UCAV demon-strators, which are currently un-dergoing flight test campaigns.However, the separate funding isexpected to keep the FCAS and

Taranis/Neuron projects apart.Rhetoric from all parties

centred around the robust engi-neering capabilities that each na-tion possesses and the strong re-lationship between the two, aswell as how joint efforts can bestprepare both countries for futureconflicts.

This is a very important timefor France and the UK... FCAS isan important lynchpin of that[Lancaster House] collaboration,Bernard Gray, chief of defence

materiel at the UK Ministry ofDefence, adds.

Although the feasibility studycentres on a UCAV, Collet-Billonand Gray say FCAS allows for theeventuality that the technologycould also be integrated into amanned platform. They also saythat while it is an Anglo-Frenchprogramme at present, they have

not ruled out the possibility thatother nations could join the effortafter the feasibility phase.

Once the study is submitted atthe end of 2016 a development ef-fort leading to a demonstratorbuild and flight-test campaign isexpected, although this is not aguaranteed commitment.

If the programme continues asexpected, FCAS should come tofruition with a new capability byaround 2030, the procurementagency chiefs say.

Dassault chief executive EricTrappier says the air campaign inLibya demonstrated the air powerof both the UK and France, notingthat modern warfare places avia-tion at the heart of combat.

It is important that over thenext two years we start to work to-wards this to provide the armedforces with what they need, headds. So tomorrow we have tostart preparing for the next phase a demonstration phase.

Dassault

Das

sault

A system definition for the aircraft is expected by the end of 2016

Read more coverage of theunmanned air system sector:flightglobal.com/UAV

FCAS is an important

lynchpin of that[Lancaster House]

collaborationBERNARD GRAYChief of defence materiel, UK MoD

Concept models reveal a

design with similarities to

the Neuron and Taranis


20/52

BUSINESS AVIATION


For more coverage about the business

aviation sector go online at:

flightglobal.com/bizav

Marshall Aviation Services the business and commer-

cial aviation arm of Marshall

Aerospace and Defence Group is planning to offer widebody VIPcompletions next year from itsCambridge airport base.

The move is part of the compa-nys plan to double the annualturnover from its business avia-tion activities from around 50million ($80 million) in 2013 to100 million by 2020.

Maintenance, repair and over-haul is at the core of what we do,says James Dillon-Godfray, vicepresident, business development

for Marshall Aviation Services.Marshall Aerospace and De-

fence Group is a long-establishedprovider of military aircraft MRO notably on the UK Royal AirForces Lockheed L-1011 TriStarand Lockheed Martin C-130K/Jfleets. However, as this work hasslowed down, the company hasincreased its focus on the morestable business aviation sector.

In September 2013 Marshallacquired Beechcrafts 50-year-oldflagship European service centre

in Broughton, from where it pro-vides engineering support ser-

vices across a range of Hawkerand Beechcraft products. Mar-shall also supports the Cessna

Citation business jet and Bom-bardiers Global Express familyfrom its Cambridge base and iskeen to expand the aircraft typesin its MRO portfolio.

We are now looking at the VIPairliner market, says Dillon-Godfray. We have both the ca-pacity and the experience.

The facility will be housed inHangar 17, which is being up-graded to accommodate a dedi-cated paint facility for a Boeing747-size aircraft and an interior

completions area. We will startby offering refurbishments. Thereshould be plenty of business many BBJs have been in servicefor years [and] are ready for a re-rag, says Dillon-Godfray.

Marshall has also signed anagreement with UK air taxi com-pany Blink to provide multi-yearMRO and technical support for itssix Cessna Citation Mustang busi-ness jets from its Cambridge base.This contract follows a similarcontract with Spanish operator

Sur Aviation to support its entry-level Mustang fleet.

AIRCRAFT SHIPMENTS FOR JANUARY TO SEPTEMBER

Type 2013 2014 Change (%)

Pistons 738 806 9.2

Turboprops 428 412 -3.7

Business jets 421 460 9.3

Total shipments 1,587 1,678 5.7

Total billings $15.4bn $16bn 3.4

SOURCE: General Aviation Manufacturers Association *Figures are for 1 January to 30 September2013 and 2014

Business and general aviationaircraft deliveries continued

their resurgence during the firstnine months of 2014 thanks to ris-ing demand for jets and piston-en-gined types, statistics from the Gen-eral Aviation Manufacturers

Association (GAMA) reveal.Worldwide shipments between

January and September rose by5.7% to 1,678 aircraft valued at$16 billion compared with 1,587shipments valued at $15.4 billionfor the same period in 2013, ac-cording to the US-based associa-tions report.

Business jets saw the strongestgrowth, with manufacturers hand-ing over 460 aircraft during the firstthree quarters of 2014 9.3% morethan in the same period the previ-

ous year.Bombardier led the field, with

increases at both ends of its range.This included 15 light/superlightLearjet 70/75s which replaced thepoorly-performing 40/45 a year ago and 55 large-cabin, long-rangeGlobal 5000/6000s.

Cessnas latest Citation arrivals,the Citation M2, Sovereign+ andX+, boosted the airframers ship-ment tally to 104 for the first ninemonths of this year, from 79 in thesame period a year earlier.

Gulfstream handed over eightmore midsize G150s and super-midsize G280s during the period.

Piston-engined aircraft alsoperformed well, thanks largely to a

surge in demand for these typesfrom the global flight training in-dustry.

Deliveries climbed by 9.2% to806 units in the first nine months of2014, GAMA reports, with Aus-trias Diamond and US market lead-

er Cirrus making up almost half thistally.

The optimism about the generalaviation market on display at lastmonths NBAA convention is re-flected in the continued recovery ofthe business jet and piston-enginedsegments, GAMA president andchief executive Pete Bunce says inthe third-quarter report.

New products are helping tofuel our industrys continuedgrowth as we continue to emergefrom the recession, he adds.

In contrast, turboprop shipmentsfell by 3.7% to 412 units between

January and September, due main-ly to a fall in demand for unpressur-ised types such as the Thrush Air-craft SR2R and Air TractorAT-series. Deliveries of pressurisedmodels such as the single-enginedPilatus PC-12NG, and Daher-SocataTBM 900 which entered serviceearlier this year climbed by fiveaircraft each compared with lastyear.

The introduction in coming

weeks of Piaggio Aerospaces new-generation P180 Avanti EVOshould help to boost the overallturboprop shipment tally in thefourth quarter.

AGREEMENT

Guardian supports Elite CitationCessna has signed an exclusive agreement with US consultancy

Guardian Jet to market its refurbished Citation X, called the Elite.

The upgrade programme was launched last year using Citation Xs

that were formerly in service with fractional ownership company

NetJets. Cessna has sold more than 60 of the high-speed, midsize

types to the US operator. The Citation X Elite features a Honeywell

Primus Elite avionics suite, a new interior and cabin management

system and a fresh exterior paint scheme. Cessna is also offering

an on-demand retrot programme for $6.5 million that will take fourmonths to complete.

Cessna

SHIPMENTS KATE SARSFIELD LONDON

Deliveries spikepropelled by jetand piston typesGAMA statistics show 5.7% increase in worldwide deliveriesthrough third quarter, despite fall in demand for turboprops

COMPLETIONS KATE SARSFIELD LONDON

Marshall eyes move intowidebody refurbishme

Documents

Flight International Nov 11-17, 2014