Downloaded 12 times
![THIS WEEK
flightglobal.com8 | Flight International | 10-16 September 2013
For a round-up of our latest online news,
feature and multimedia content visit
flightglobal.com/wotw
Early use of the Royal Air
Force’sBAESystemsHawkT2
advanced jet trainer has dramati-
cally boosted the quality of in-
struction being provided to UK
students, programme officials say.
A first course of four ab initio
pilots completed their training on
the T2 with 4 Sqn at RAF Valley
in June 2013, before progressing
to its 29 Sqn operational conver-
sion unit (OCU) for the Eurofight-
er Typhoon at Coningsby in
Lincolnshire.
“I think we’ve doubled the
standard of the students,” says
Alasdair Shinner, station manager
at the Anglesey base for Lockheed
Martin/Babcock joint venture As-
cent, the Ministry of Defence’s
training system partner for the
Military Flying Training System
(MFTS) programme. The T2 has
the potential to deliver a “multi-
role, combat-ready pilot” to the
OCU, he adds, whereas the RAF’s
analogue cockpit Hawk T1s were
not preparing students for the
aircraft they would later fly.
Several additional courses are
now under way, with these in-
cluding RAF and Royal Navy stu-
dents and 11 more UK qualified
flying instructors (QFI). With only
50% of system capacity being
used on a 28-aircraft fleet, poten-
tial options to increase the vol-
ume of training delivered include
TRAINING CRAIG HOYLE LONDON
Early Hawk T2 use
aids RAF students
Programme officials highlight quality of instruction provided
to trainees, better preparing them to fly more advanced jets
CraigHoyle/Flightglobal
The BAE Systems type is operated by the service’s 4 Sqn
HIGHER-THRUST TRENT RUNS ON FIRST 787-9
PROPULSION Initial test runs have been conducted on the Rolls-
Royce Trent 1000 engines powering Boeing’s first 787-9. The maid-
en flight of the stretched twinjet is on track for “late summer”,says
the airframer. Trent 1000 programme director John Griffiths adds
that Rolls-Royce is “delighted at the successful first run” of the en-
gines. Its Package C version of the powerplant,developed for the
787-9,provides 74,000lb (329kN) of thrust. Air New Zealand is the
launch customer,with 10 of the type due for delivery from 2014.
CHINESE A330 AMONG AUGUST AIRBUS ORDERS
AIRFRAMES China Eastern Airlines was behind the only long-haul
order for Airbus during a quiet August,but the deal for the single
A330 marks the first firm Chinese order recorded by the airframer
this year. Long-haul orders from China,particularly for the A330,had
been held up by a dispute over the European emissions trading sys-
tem. However,the airframer’s latest backlog data,covering the first
eight months of 2013,includes a single China Eastern A330-200
order on 5 August. Airbus added nine other aircraft – all A320-family
jets – to its backlog during the month,bringing its gross total to 942
and taking its net figure just above 900. Airbus delivered 394 aircraft
over the first eight months,including 11 A380s and 70 A330s.
AGUSTAWESTLAND SEALS CHINESE SALES PACT
ROTORCRAFT AgustaWestland has signed a distribution agreement
with Sino-US Intercontinental Helicopter Investment,with the pact
also including a contract for 20 aircraft. Finmeccanica says the sale
values €170 million ($223 million),and covers AW119Ke,AW139,
AW169,AW189 and GrandNew aircraft,for roles including VIP trans-
port. AgustaWestland says the agreement makes it “well-positioned”
to grow further from the previous sale of 40 helicopters in China.
ISRAELI TARGET LAUNCH SPARKS BALLISTIC ALERT
INCIDENT Russia’s defence ministry was put on heightened alert on
3 September,after early warning radars detected two unidentified
“ballistic objects” over the Mediterranean sea. The scare was later
confirmed as having been prompted by the launch of two Rafael
Sparrow-series target missiles from an Israeli air force Boeing F-15.
The activity was performed as a joint Israeli/US test in support of the
development of Israel’s Arrow 3 ballistic missile interceptor.
DENMARK ORDERS MX-15 SENSOR FOR AW101
EQUIPMENT Denmark has ordered a minimum of eight L-3 Wescam
MX-15 electro-optical/infrared sensors for its AgustaWestland
AW101 tactical transport helicopters. The equipment will be fitted by
the nation’s Defence Acquisition and Logistics Organisation by
2014. The Royal Danish Air Force operates 14 AW101s,with part of
the fleet tasked with providing search and rescue services.
FRANCE STEPS IN WITH ARIANE 5 UPGRADE BUDGET
SPACEFLIGHT With a €25 million ($33 million) allocation,the
French government has agreed to meet the lion’s share of the ap-
proximately €35 million cost of upgrading the European Space
Agency’s Ariane 5 rocket to accommodate a new generation of larger-
volume telecommunications satellites. The programme,to fly from
2015,will add 2m (6ft) to the available height inside the launcher’s
payload fairing,without altering its profile. The added volume is likely
to be demanded by satellite customers opting for all- or more-electric
designs,which eliminate propellant tanks but add solar panel area.
BRIEFING
preparing additional RAF QFIs,
increasing the number of instruc-
tors sourced from other air forces
or approving Ascent-employed
instructors to command some
flights, officials say.
“Spare capacity is something
that is being looked at, but there
is no simple answer,” says Grp
Capt Simon Blake, from the
RAF’s 22 Group training organi-
sation. “Lots of other air forces are
coming here and seeing that we
are filling the [training capability]
gap,” he notes.
Meanwhile, activities involv-
ing the RAF’s Hawk T1-equipped
208 Sqn have been extended at
Valley, with the service currently
providing Phase IV lead-in fighter
training for Royal Saudi Air Force
pilots. Riyadh will take delivery
of its first of 22 T2-equivalent
Hawks from BAE in 2015.
The remainder of the MFTS
programme’s fixed-wing equip-
ment package should be deter-
mined by 2015, with one type to
deliver elementary training and a
turboprop-powered basic trainer
offering “jet-like performance” to
replace the RAF’s current Shorts
Tucano T1s. Operations should
commence from around 2018,
says Ascent’s Simon Falla.
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![THIS WEEK
flightglobal.com10 | Flight International | 10-16 September 2013
For a round-up of our latest online news,
feature and multimedia content visit
flightglobal.com/wotw
helicopter was “on the published
horizontal and vertical profile of
the approach to runway 09, with
airspeed decreasing steadily”.
However, a mile later it had de-
scended some 240ft (73m) below
the vertical approach profile, and
its rate of descent had hit 500ft/
min, with an airspeed of 68kt
(126km/h). The statement adds:
“The airspeed continued to re-
duce to below 30kt, and as it did
so the helicopter pitched increas-
ingly nose-up.
“The rate of descent remained
constant for a period before in-
creasing rapidly.
“Shortly thereafter the helicop-
ter, which was intact, struck the
sea in a near level pitch attitude
with a slight right bank. Both
engines were delivering power
until impact.”
Suspicions that the crash was
not due to an issue with the air-
frame or engines began to surface
shortly after the Aberdeen-based
Helicopter Safety Steering Group
lifted its voluntary flight ban cov-
ering all Super Puma variants on
29 August.
A statement was released the
following day by the UK Civil
Aviation Authority which backed
the HSSG’s position, stressing
that it did not believe “the acci-
dent was caused by an airworthi-
ness or technical problem, and
consider that the decision by the
operators to resume Super Puma
flights is appropriate”.
“We would not allow a return
to service unless we were satisfied
that it was safe to do so. We will
reviewthepositionifanynewevi-
dence comes to light,” it said.
miles, but was descending faster
than appropriate at a time when
the crew would still not have
been able to see the runway
through the thin mist present.
When air traffic control at
Sumburgh provided the CHC
crew with radar vectors to join
the localiser/DME approach to
09, visibility was 1.5nm (2.8km),
and the wind was 17kt from the
southeast. On such an approach
lateral guidance is provided, but
the crew must set and monitor
their own vertical profile by plot-
ting DME distance from the run-
way against the height they
should be passing at that point.
The statement says that at three
miles from the threshold the
Aterse statement by the UK Air
Accidents Investigation
Branch has provided basic facts
downloaded from the cockpit
voice and flight data recorder of
the CHC Scotia AS332L2 Super
Puma helicopter (G-WSNB) in-
volved in a fatal crash on ap-
proach to Sumburgh, in the
Shetland Isles, on 23 August.
Crucially, no technical failure
has been detected, the statement
says, noting that both engines
continued to deliver power until
the helicopter impacted the sea.
Four passengers were killed
during the accident.
It adds: “To date, no evidence
of a causal technical failure has
been identified; however, de-
tailed examination of the [com-
bined cockpit voice and flight
data recorder] and the helicopter
wreckage is continuing.”
During the localiser/DME non-
precision approach to Sum-
burgh’s runway 09, the aircraft
was on the correct vertical de-
scent profile at three nautical
INCIDENT DAVID LEARMOUNT LONDON
Human factors loom in crash report
Air Accidents Investigation Branch suggests technical issues with helicopter were not to blame for Super Puma accident
STUDY DOMINIC PERRY LONDON
Passenger capacity could be cut by wide-ranging review
North Sea operators could face fun-
damental changes – including
red;ucing the number of passengers
carried in each aircraft – depending
on the outcome of a root-and-branch
review of offshore helicopter trans-
portation safety.
Launched in the wake of the 23
August fatal accident of a CHC
Scotia-operated Eurocopter
AS332L2,the study has been com-
missioned by pan-industry body the
Helicopter Safety Steering Group.
Although it is still framing the
terms of reference for the inquiry
and considering who should chair it,
the HSSG promises that it will act on
any recommendations produced.
“Ignoring them is not an accept-
able outcome for any of us,that’s
just not how we do things around
here,” says Les Linklater,team lead
at Step Change in Safety,the organi-
sation behind the HSSG. “If there
are things we can do to make heli-
copter operations safer then we
have to do them.”
Linklater says the report,which
will take around six months to com-
plete,will have to look beyond any
issues around airworthiness and
also examine other areas of con-
cern,such as the relative safety
records of the UK and Norway,plus
the internal configuration of all the
offshore transportation helicopters.
Both the EC225 and the rival
Sikorsky S-92 can accommodate 19
passengers,but concerns have
been raised – notably via social me-
dia – that the cabin of the
Eurocopter type is too cramped to
comfortably seat that many people.
“The sense from [passengers] is
that they feel there are too many
people in the back. But it’s some-
thing that we are not going to con-
sider via Facebook,but through
interviews,” says Linklater.
Eurocopter says it will participate in
the study as part of its efforts to
mend relations with the offshore
workforce. Dominique Maudet,ex-
ecutive vice-president global busi-
ness and services at Eurocopter,
says: “You can’t avoid the emotion,
but at some point you have to look
at the facts and figures.
“We will look at whatever modifi-
cations we can make in the short
and medium term to better address
passenger comfort,especially com-
pared with other aircraft.”
HSSG includes representatives
from offshore workforce trade un-
ions,as well as the three Aberdeen
operators. However,Linklater hopes
to broaden this to include regular
participation from the three main
helicopter manufacturers:
AgustaWestland,Eurocopter and
Sikorsky.
PA
Four passengers were killed in the 23 August incident
“To date, no evidence
of a causal technical
failure has been
identified”
AAIB STATEMENT
David Learmount offers his
views on aviation safety:
flightglobal.com/learmount](https://image.slidesharecdn.com/no5406flight10092013-131007100802-phpapp01/85/No-5406-flight_10092013-10-320.jpg)
![AIR TRANSPORT
flightglobal.com12 | Flight International | 10-16 September 2013
Check out our collection of online dynamic
aircraft profiles for the latest news,images
and information on civil and military
programmes at flightglobal.com/profiles
Investigators have determined
that the crew of an Eva Air
Airbus A330-300 (B-16331) failed
to adapt to changing weather and
visibility, during an incident
where the aircraft veered off the
runway after landing at Taipei’s
Songshan airport last year.
The incident took place on 13
September, and involved flight
BR189, from Tokyo’s Haneda air-
port. Taiwan’s Aviation Safety
Council (ASC) says that during
the flight the crew received infor-
mation that visibility at Songshan
airport was 5,000m (16,400ft)
with haze, and that at 5nm (9km)
from the runway threshold, visi-
bility was 7,000m, with wet run-
way conditions and heavy rain.
Interviews with the crew re-
vealed that while they could see
the runway at 3-4nm from the
threshold during their approach,
they could not see the end of the
runway clearly.
About 9s before landing the
aircraft started to drift to the right
of the runway centreline. Upon
landing, the aircraft’s right main
wheels veered off the tarmac,
only regaining the runway ap-
proximately 305m (1,000ft) later.
Although the aircraft was not
damaged in the incident, two
runway edge lights were rendered
inoperative.
“The aircraft touched down at
the right side of the runway cen-
treline. After landing, the aircraft
veered off the runway [as] the
flightcrew did not adequately
control the aircraft direction,”
says the ASC.
Although the crew had ade-
quate situational awareness and
had acknowledged the rainy con-
ditions, they failed to make “ap-
propriate judgement and action
according to the weather change
and abrupt visibility variation at
landing phase”, it says. The pilot
monitoring the decent also did
not perform standard call-outs
when the speed range met the
criteria for doing so.
Eva also lacked any standard
call-out procedures in its manu-
als to deal with a runway excur-
sion post-touchdown. The ASC
has since recommended that Eva
reinforce its flightcrew’s manoeu-
vring and handling training in
instances where visual references
are insufficient.
INVESTIGATION MAVIS TOH SINGAPORE
Crew failed to adapt to poor visibility
Changing conditions on approach to Taipei airport led to A330’s right main wheels leaving the runway following landing
JetBlue Airways’s subsidiary
LiveTV has received supple-
mental type certification from the
US Federal Aviation Administra-
tion for its Ka-band in-flight inter-
net on Airbus A320s, paving the
way for the airline to offer broad-
band on revenue flights.
Testing of the satellite-based
wi-fi system has been completed
on an A320, and trials are also
underwayonaBoeing737-900ER
operated by United Airlines, says
LiveTV.
“This is game-changing tech-
nology,” says JetBlue chief
commercial officer Robin Hayes.
“We expect to have a number of
JetBlue aircraft installed with
wi-fi by the end of this year, and
will aggressively roll it out across
our Airbus fleet over the next 18
months, followed by our Embraer
fleet.”
Hayes claims JetBlue’s wi-fi,
dubbed “Fly-Fi” by the airline,
will be “the fastest in-flight wi-fi
in the industry”.
JetBlue has previously indicat-
ed it plans to operate three A320s
with the system for 90 days for
longer-term testing. Next year the
airline intends to install the sys-
tem on further A320s, before fit-
ting it on its fleet of E-190s.
JetBlue has 129 Airbus narrow-
bodies and 59 E-190s in its fleet,
according to Flightglobal’s As-
cend Online Fleets database.
LiveTv says it is also seeking
Ka-band certification from EASA
on Aer Lingus A320s.
REGULATIONS DAVID KAMINSKI-MORROW LONDON
Kazakhstan safety drive
targets EU blacklisting
IFE JON HEMMERDINGER WASHINGTON DC
FAA green lights JetBlue ‘Fly-Fi’
Kazakhstan’s government has
introduced dozens of amend-
ed regulations aimed at improv-
ing the central Asian state’s air
safety oversight.
Transport minister Askar
Zhumagaliyev discussed progress
in the area with ICAO’s European
regional director Luis Fonseca de
Almeida, during a meeting in
early September.
Kazakhstan has brought in 80
amendments to civil aviation
regulations, the transport minis-
try says, of which 70 relate to
safety, in an effort to harmonise
with international standards. On
3 September a new aviation
security training centre opened in
Almaty, which the ministry says
will complement other centres in
Moscow and Kiev.
Kazakhstan remains subject to
a blacklisting by the European
Commission, which the govern-
ment is keen to have lifted. Safety
revision efforts have included
recertification of the country’s
operators.
Air Astana is exempt from the
blanket European ban. The Com-
mission, in its most recent
blacklist revision, confirmed that
ramp checks had revealed “no
specific concern” with the carri-
er’s operations.
AirTeamImages
The Eva Air pilots were censured for failing to adequately control the aircraft’s direction
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![AIR TRANSPORT
10-16 September 2013 | Flight International | 13flightglobal.com
VirginAustraliaeyes
newwidebodies
AIRTRANSPORT P14
The parent company of defunct
Indian carrier Kingfisher Air-
lines has filed a $234 million law-
suit against International Aero
Engines (IAE) over its V2500-A5
powerplants.
The suit was filed by United
BreweriesinBengaluru,andalleg-
es that the engines “were inher-
ently defective, both in design and
manufacture”. The suit was re-
vealed in the carrier’s annual re-
portforthefinancialyearended31
March. The suit seeks damages of
$210 million in addition to Rs1.6
billion($24million).
An airline spokesman contact-
ed about the suit declined to pro-
vide further details. Kingfisher
has been grounded since Septem-
ber 2012, and in its annual report
states it has defaulted on “pay-
ments to several creditors”.
It attributed its problems to a
“difficult operating environment
as well as the engine problems”.
Kingfisher was formerly a
major operator of Airbus A320-
family aircraft powered by IAE
V2500 engines.
In August 2010 the carrier had
problems with the V2500 that
caused it to ground nine A320s.
The carrier said it had experi-
enced “technical issues” with
stages three to eight of the 10-stage
high-pressure compressor in the
engine,amongotherproblems.
Subsequently, on 19 August
2010, IAE said it would replace
parts on some of its V2500 en-
gines on in-operation aircraft after
discovering problems with the
engine’s high-pressure compres-
sor drum in 2009.
No-one from IAE was available
to comment.
AVienna court has called into
question the legality of a
move last year by Austrian Air-
lines to transfer flights to regional
subsidiary Tyrolean Airways as
part of its restructuring plans, de-
spite ruling it strictly complies
with the country’s labour laws.
The Lufthansa-owned carrier
moved all flight operations to Ty-
rolean in July 2012 to cut staff
costs for pilots and cabin crew
after failing to negotiate a new
deal with unions. While employ-
ee salary levels were not reduced,
the move was aimed at slowing
the rate of pay increases.
In the ruling, the Vienna La-
bour and Social Affairs Court
says that an “ostensible viola-
tion” of law has not taken place,
but it has called into question the
transfer of operations within a
corporate group.
“We acknowledge the first in-
stance judgment,” says Austrian
Airlines chief executive Jaan Al-
brecht. “It is surprising for us that
[the judge] casts doubt upon the
common practice of transferring
operations as part of group re-
structuring programmes.
“We will pursue every legal av-
enue at our disposal in the ap-
peals process in order to legally
safeguard our restructuring path.
In the meantime, we hope that
the talks initiated with the works
council on the collective wage
agreement will result in a viable
solution independent of the deci-
sion handed down by the court,”
he adds.
The labour court ruling deals
with the specific legal repercus-
sions on the transfer of flight op-
erations to Tyrolean from an em-
ployment law basis.
The Lufthansa Group carrier is looking to trim staff costs
Boeing764galleryonflightglobal.com/AirSpaceAirTeamImages
The carrier said it had
‘technical issues’
with stages three to
eight of the 10-stage
compressor
SAS Group has sold seven
Bombardier Q400 turboprops
to Norwegian operation Widerøe,
following its divestment of a ma-
jority shareholding in the airline.
It says the loans on these air-
craft have also been transferred to
the carrier.
Three Q400s were also sold to
Widerøe and then sold on to a
leasing company.
Investors led by the Torghatten
firm are taking an 80% share in
Widerøe and SAS will hand over
full ownership of the airline in
2016. SAS Group says it will re-
Q400 deal cements Widerøe sell-off
DIVESTMENT DAVID KAMINSKI-MORROW LONDON
EMPLOYMENT GRAHAM DUNN LONDON
Court raises questions over
Austrian’s Tyrolean transfer
Chief executive vows to appeal ruling as carrier seeks to safeguard restructuring plans
POWERPLANTS
GREG WALDRON SINGAPORE
IAE faces court
challenge from
Kingfisherowner
For more business stories, see
the September edition of sister
publication airlinebusiness.com
However, it will have no bear-
ing on a separate judicial probe
into the move being undertaken
by Austria’s supreme court to
clarify the effects on former Aus-
trian Airlines flight personnel
caused by the termination of their
collective wage agreement.
In June that court sought a clar-
ification from the European Court
of Justice on several legal issues
about the operational transfer.
ceive Swedish krona (SKr)2 bil-
lion ($300 million) through the
sale of the initial Widerøe share-
holding and the aircraft, from
which the group’s liquidity will
benefit by SKr1 billion.
SAS Group has sold the turboprops to its former regional carrier](https://image.slidesharecdn.com/no5406flight10092013-131007100802-phpapp01/85/No-5406-flight_10092013-13-320.jpg)
![AIR TRANSPORT
10-16 September 2013 | Flight International | 15flightglobal.com
UK revealsAEW
programme costs
DEFENCE P16
The Mitsubishi Regional Jet is
taking longer than anticipated
to develop because of the chal-
lenges it has encountered in
adopting the US Federal Aviation
Administration’s new certifica-
tion and approval process.
Yugo Fukuhara, Mitsubishi
Aircraft head of sales, says the
new regional type is the first air-
craft to fully apply the FAA’s or-
ganisational delegation authorisa-
tion (ODA) system, which came
into effect in 2009. Although the
new system had been partly used
before, this was in relation to
Boeing’s 787, where the airframer
delegated some responsibilities
for performing tests to demon-
strate that the Dreamliner’s lithi-
um-ion batteries complied with
airworthiness requirements.
Mitsubishi says under ODA it
has been granted the authority to
design, test and analyse proce-
dures and trial results to prove
airworthiness requirements. This
means that it has had to invest
significant time and resources to
develop the required processes, it
says. “With this new system, all
design and manufacturing
internal processes must be docu-
mented in advance and approved
by the authorities. We need to
build new processes to validate
compliance not only for our-
selves, but also for all our compo-
nent partners,” says Fukuhara.
“Our partners are aware of this
new system, but we have to inte-
grate their old system into our
new processes,” he adds. “Of
course, this new ODA system
came in 2009, we knew this
system conceptually, but it has
taken a longer time than expected
[to implement].”
The nature of the system
means that every component on
the regional jet was affected by
the process. With a clear process
in place, however, maintaining
the MRJ’s revised first flight
schedule should be “very
straightforward”, says Fukuhara.
His comments come a week
after the Japanese airframer an-
nounced a third delay to its pro-
gramme schedule, pushing first
flight of the MRJ90 from end-2013
to the second quarter of 2015,
with deliveries to follow in the
first half of 2017. “We hope this
should be the last delay we
announce,” says Fukuhara.
Mitsubishi is now assembling
its first flight- and ground-test air-
craft. The first Pratt & Whitney
PW1200G engines for the jet
should be delivered to Mitsubishi
in the spring of 2014.
MitsubishiAircraft
First flight is now expected in the second quarter of 2015
State-run Russian transport
leasing company GTLK is to
co-operate with lessor Ilyushin
Finance on the supply of Tupolev
Tu-204SM aircraft.
GTLK has signed a memoran-
dum with the lessor confirming
its interest in participating in
leasing projects to carriers Red
Wings and VIM-Avia.
The two sides reached the
agreement during August’s
MAKS air show in Moscow.
Red Wings has agreed to take
10 Tu-204SMs from Ilyushin Fi-
nance, as well as 10 Irkut MC-21s
and 10 Bombardier Q400s.
VIM-Avia is also taking a batch
of Bombardier CSeries twinjets
from the lessor, which has 32 on
order.
TWINJET MAVIS TOH SINGAPORE
MRJ delay pinned on FAA paperwork
Efforts by Mitsubishi to adopt administration’s new certification and approval regulations have delayed new jet, it says
AGREEMENT
Lessors sign up
for joint Tupolev
Tu-204 supply
Russia’s Rosaviaconsortium,
which is developing a triple-
aisle medium-haul aircraft desig-
nated the Frigate Ecojet, is edging
towards the production phase of
the programme.
Based on the aircraft’s dimen-
sions and technical characteris-
tics, ThyssenKrupp System Engi-
neering has developed a
masterplan for the Ecojet’s final
assembly. During a joint presen-
tation at August’s MAKS air
show, the partners released de-
tails of a new facility designed to
accommodate a 245m (800ft)-
long, 75m-wide assembly line.
Andreas Bekker, project man-
ager at ThyssenKrupp, says the
whole assembly process will be
completed at four workstations,
connected to logistics and inven-
tory areas. “It would begin with
the joining of parts of the [ellipti-
cal] fuselage,” says Bekker. “After
the wings, empennage and un-
dercarriage have been assembled,
engine mounting and interior
outfitting would follow. System
inspections and testing will be
done at the final station.”
“Flow line production should
allow us to raise annual output
from 16 to 45 aircraft within five
years,” says Ecojet programme
director Alexander Klimov.
Rosaviaconsortium has complet-
ed windtunnel trials of the Ecojet
mock-up at the TsAGI Central
Aerohydrodynamic Institute, and
plans to release working design
drawings by August 2014.
“With the masterplan in place,
our task now is to select a site for
the assembly line,” says Klimov.
“To this end, we’ll issue requests
for proposals to prospective bid-
ders in Russia and abroad.”
DEVELOPMENT TOM ZAITSEV MOSCOW
Ecojet project on approach to production phase
A mock-up of the aircraft has completed windtunnel testing
Rosaviaconsortium
Missed MAKS? Read all the
analysis from the show floor:
flightglobal.com/MAKS](https://image.slidesharecdn.com/no5406flight10092013-131007100802-phpapp01/85/No-5406-flight_10092013-15-320.jpg)
![DEFENCE
flightglobal.com16 | Flight International | 10-16 September 2013
For free access to Flightglobal’s Defence
e-newsletter visit flightglobal.com/
defencenewsletter
Pratt & Whitney and the US
Department of Defense have
reached an agreement in princi-
ple for the production of a sixth
lot of 38 F135 engines for the
Lockheed Martin F-35 Joint Strike
Fighter.
“This agreement represents a
fair deal for [the] government and
Pratt & Whitney,” says Lt Gen
Chris Bogdan, F-35 programme
executive officer. “Driving down
cost is critical to the success of
this programme, and we are
working together to lower costs
for the propulsion system.”
“Cost details will be released
when the LRIP [low-rate initial
production] 6 contract is final-
ised,” the F-35 Joint Program
Office (JPO) says.
Unit prices for the convention-
al version of the F135 are expect-
ed to drop by 2.5% compared
with the previous production lot,
the JPO says, but the price for six
short take-off and vertical landing
F135 engines to be contained
within the deal should fall by
roughly 9.6%.
Deliveries will begin in the
fourth quarter of this year.
Further details of the UK Royal
Navy’s Crowsnest next-gener-
ation airborne early warning pro-
gramme have been disclosed by
the nation’s Ministry of Defence,
with the effort expected to have a
maximum cost of around £500
million ($782 million).
To provide replacements for
the Fleet Air Arm’s current West-
land Sea King 7 airborne surveil-
lance and control system helicop-
ters, Crowsnest recently entered a
second assessment phase. This is
concerned with candidate radars
and mission systems which could
be installed aboard eight upgrad-
ed AgustaWestland AW101 Mer-
lin HM2 rotorcraft for the navy
from later this decade.
Merlin HM2 programme prime
contractor Lockheed Martin is of-
fering its Vigilance mission suite,
combined with a Northrop Grum-
man radar for Crowsnest, while
Thales is promoting an update of
its Cerberus system and Search-
water 2000 sensor already used
with the Sea King 7. Elta Systems
and Selex ES are also offering ra-
dars for the requirement, accord-
ing to evidence given to the UK
Public Accounts Committee by
MoD officials earlier this year.
In a report about the UK’s
future carrier strike capability
published on 3 September, the
committee voiced concern that
the Crowsnest system is not
scheduled to achieve full capabil-
ity until 2022 – two years after the
expected initial use of the RN’s
first Queen Elizabeth-class air-
craft carrier with deployed Lock-
heed F-35B combat aircraft.
Service trials with the selected
system would commence in
2020, the MoD says, with initial
operational capability to be de-
clared late the same year. “By the
time we get to 2020 we will own
four Crowsnest helicopters, of
which two would be available to
deploy in extremis,” deputy chief
of defence staff (military capabil-
ity) Air Marshal Stephen Hillier
told the committee.
Prior to achieving a full carrier
strike capability, the UK “would
be working alongside allies and
would be able to share capabili-
ties”, he notes.
The MoD expects to launch a
third assessment phase activity
next year, and to make a main
gate investment decision for the
Crowsnest system in 2017; one
year after its last Sea Kings have
been retired. The programme is
expected to have a total cost rang-
ing between £230 million and
around £500 million, it says.
The US Air Force and Boeing
completed a critical design re-
view (CDR) process for the KC-46
tanker on 21 August, more than
one month ahead of a contractual
milestone previously set for 24
September.
“I’m pleased to report that the
design of the KC-46A tanker has
been locked down,” says Maj Gen
John Thompson, the USAF’s pro-
gramme executive officer for
tankers.
Boeing and the USAF had been
working on component and sub-
system design reviews for 10
months to complete the process,
the service says. “Closure of CDR
formally establishes the KC-46
design and now allows the pro-
gramme to progress into its man-
ufacturing and development test
phases,” it adds. Manufacture of
the first tanker is already under
way, with Boeing having begun
wing assembly work on 26 June.
Flight testing of the basic Boeing
767-2C airframe, which will later
be reconfigured into the KC-46, is
scheduled to begin in mid-2014.
The first fully-equipped KC-46
tanker is projected to fly in early
2015, according to the air force.
Boeing is contracted to build
four test aircraft and deliver 18
combat-ready tankers by August
2017, as part of a process to re-
place a portion of the USAF’s
aged Boeing KC-135 fleet. If the
service exercises all of its options,
it will receive a total of 179 of the
aircraft by 2028.
CONTEST CRAIG HOYLE LONDON
UK reveals AEW
programme costs
Next-generation Crowsnest system to be readied for initial
use in 2020, as MoD sets potential value at £500 million
DEVELOPMENT DAVE MAJUMDAR WASHINGTON DC
KC-46 CDR accomplished early
The first fully-equipped aircraft is projected to fly in early 2015
POWERPLANTS
F-35 engine production
agreement a ‘fair deal’
Boeing
CrownCopyright
Operations with the aged Sea King 7 will end by March 2016](https://image.slidesharecdn.com/no5406flight10092013-131007100802-phpapp01/85/No-5406-flight_10092013-16-320.jpg)
![DEFENCE
10-16 September 2013 | Flight International | 17flightglobal.com
Israeli air force
pushes 12-aircraft
KC-135R deal
DEFENCE P18
Embraer has delivered the first
modernised A-1M AMX
subsonic strike aircraft to the
Brazilian air force at its Gavião
Peixoto site.
“The A-1 fighter jets are funda-
mental elements for the defence
of Brazil, including its territorial
coastal waters,” says Gen Juniti
Saito, the service’s commander.
“We have been very successful in
using this aircraft on such highly
complex operations as the Cruzex
and Red Flag exercises. Its
modernisation presents a big gain
in capability.”
The A-1M programme pro-
vides for the upgrade of 43 AMX
jets, which were originally devel-
oped under a joint venture with
Italy’s then-Aermacchi. So far, 16
of Brazil’s aircraft have been in-
ducted into Embraer’s facilities
for refurbishment.
The modernisation package
adds new weapons, radar and
navigation equipment, plus elec-
tronic countermeasures.
Embraer is also performing
structural refurbishments that
will extend the type’s service life
until 2025.
Brazil’s current operational
AMX inventory also comprises
46 A-1/1A single-seat strike air-
craft and 10 B-model trainers,
says Flightglobal’s MiliCAS
database.
India’s comptroller and auditor
general (CAG) has slammed the
acquisition of 12 AgustaWestland
AW101 VVIP transport helicop-
ters for the Indian air force in its
probe into the deal.
According to the report, “the
entire process of acquisition of
VVIP helicopters right from fram-
ing of [the] services qualitative
requirements to the conclusion of
contract deviated from laid down
procedures.” This, it adds, “poses
serious questions on accountabil-
ity and lack of transparency in the
finalisation of the contract, which
need to be addressed.”
India’s Central Bureau of Inves-
tigation has already registered a
case against 13 people and six
firms with regard to the AW101
contract, which has been put on
hold. New Delhi has already paid
about 30% of the €560 million
($737 million) total, and received
three aircraft.
AgustaWestland refutes the
auditor’s allegations, saying that
changed air force requirements,
including stipulating a cabin
height of 5.9ft (1.8m), was met by
other helicopters and did not lead
to the “ejection of any competing
aircraft”. This counters the
report’s claim that the decision to
raise the height from an original
4.8ft led to a single vendor
situation, and “resulted in an
operational disadvantage” for the
air force.
The CAG also highlighted a
reduction in the VVIP aircraft’s
required service ceiling, which
dropped to 14,800ft from the
19,700ft cited in an earlier request
for proposals. AgustaWestland
says it sent letters to the Indian air
force in 2005 stating that the
AW101 could be modified to op-
erate at the higher altitude.
Alleged violations with respect
to offset obligations are also men-
tioned in the report.
India has ordered eight
AW101s in a VVIP configuration,
and four for use as tactical trans-
ports. Its air force is already
believed to be having trouble in
keeping its received three
examples – delivered between
November 2012 and February
2013 – airworthy.
The ongoing controversy
means that the air force will have
to continue flying its eight ageing
VVIP-roled Mil Mi-8s, which
were acquired from 1988. The
CAG report also questions the
size of the AW101 order, noting
that the current inventory saw a
utilisation rate of approximately
29% between 1999 and 2010.
Uncertainty over the contract
has led to AgustaWestland slow-
ing down work on the order at its
Yeovil production site in Somer-
set, the UK. Three more Indian
aircraft are ready for delivery,
with the remainder in an ad-
vanced state of completion.
The company remains hopeful
that the transports will eventually
be handed over, but exhibited one
of the completed examples at the
MAKS air show in Russia in late
August, repainted in a new
corporate livery.
AgustaWestland
AgustaWestland took a repainted transport to the MAKS show
To learn more about our
rotorcraft data service go to
flightglobal.com/ascend
INVESTIGATION
Auditor slams Indian AW101 contract
Report into halted VVIP helicopter programme questions transparency and accountability of European type’s selection
CEREMONY
C-17 inducted by Hindan ‘Skylords’
The Indian air force’s newly-raised 81 Sqn ‘Skylords’ unit has for-
mally inducted the Boeing C-17 strategic transport into use, follow-
ing a ceremony at Hindan air base.
Three of New Delhi’s currently-contracted 10 C-17s were received
between June and August 2013, with the air force to field two more
before the end of this year, and the remaining five to be delivered
during 2014.
Boeing
ENHANCEMENTS DAVE MAJUMDAR WASHINGTON DC
Embraer delivers AMX upgrade](https://image.slidesharecdn.com/no5406flight10092013-131007100802-phpapp01/85/No-5406-flight_10092013-17-320.jpg)
![BUSINESS AVIATION
flightglobal.com20 | Flight International | 10-16 September 2013
Keep up to date with all the latest
business and general aviation news at
flightglobal.com/bizav
FANSTREAM FINANCING
US engineering company
Aviation Alliance has secured
funding to develop and market
its Gulfstream III conversion
and modernisation programme
– FanStream. According to the
Paso Robles,California-based
company,the modified
Gulfstream III “will be a like-new,
[US FAA noise level] Stage
3-compliant aircraft with a range
approaching or exceeding
5,000nm [9,260km]”. The
FanStream will feature new en-
gines and a glass flightdeck,as
well as a new interior,electrical
system updates and new paint.
Aviation Alliance plans to dis-
close the FanStream’s availabil-
ity,performance and pricing
before the end of the year.
TEGEL BOOST
Jet Aviation has extended its
facilities at Tegel International
airport in Berlin to satisfy cus-
tomer demand for full ground-
handling services, it says. The
fixed-base operation now in-
cludes a customer lounge and
crew briefing offices. “Tegel
International is proving to be a
very attractive destination for
business, charter, VIP and
[head of] state flights,” says
Jet Aviation.
TOCUMEN FBO
Aviation services provider ASIG
Panamá has broken ground
on a new Signature Flight
Support-branded fixed-base
operation and private jet termi-
nal at Tocumen International
airport, which serves the
Panamanian capital.
MRO EXPANSION
Dallas Aeronautical Services
(DAS) Brazil is building a new
maintenance, repair and
overhaul base in aerospace
centre São José dos Campos.
The 70,000ft2
(6,500m2
) facil-
ity, which will specialise in the
production, repair and over-
haul of composites, structures
and assemblies for business
aircraft, is scheduled to open
next year.
IN BRIEF
Russian Helicopters plans to
perform the maiden flight of
its new developmental high-
speed rotorcraft towards the end
of the decade as it eyes the fledg-
ling market for advanced vertical-
lift aircraft.
Development of the airframer’s
Russian Advanced Commercial
Helicopter – or RACHEL – was
first revealed at Farnborough air
show in 2012. The company is
now targeting first flight in 2018,
says chief executive Dmitry
Petrov. A flying testbed is being
built around a Mil Mi-35 to vali-
date systems that Petrov believes
will translate into a 10t-class ma-
chine capable of carrying 21-24
people at a cruise speed of 195-
205kt (360-380km/h). Compara-
tively, AgustaWestland’s 30-pas-
senger AW101 boasts a cruise
speed of 150kt.
Critically, says, Petrov, the air-
craft must go into large-volume
serial production, rather than
exist as an expensive niche prod-
uct. In addition to the basic
passenger transport model with
convertible cabin suitable for off-
shore operations, Russian Heli-
copters envisions special variants
for search and rescue, patrol and
medevac missions.
At this point the company is
giving away no clues as to the
configuration of RACHEL, al-
though its Mil and Kamov design
bureaux in 2011 both fielded con-
cepts for a high-speed helicopter.
In addition, when it outlined the
RACHEL programme in 2012
Russian Helicopters said it had
decided to follow a “twin track”
development approach.
Kamov’s Ka-92 concept echoes
Sikorsky’s X2, with coaxial main
rotors and a single rear-mounted
pusher prop. Mil’s Mi-X1 takes a
different tack, with a single main
rotor and pusher prop with
steering vane.
The latter design offers an in-
teresting blend of the X2 or Ka-92
with Eurocopter’s X3 hybrid con-
cept, which features a single main
rotor and twin pusher props
mounted laterally on short wings
that provide some lift in forward
flight. The speed parameters
Petrov outlined at an August
briefing at his Moscow offices fall
well below the speeds in excess
of 240kt achieved by the Euro-
copter and Sikorsky demonstra-
tion programmes.
But Petrov believes that while
technologies such as those being
evaluated at Eurocopter or Sikor-
sky “will eventually be used”, he
does not see any market break-
through for at least five to seven
years, during which time conven-
tional rotorcraft will dominate.
RACHEL is being designed to
replace the long-standing Mi-8/17
family, and sit alongside the
heavier Mi-38.
Meanwhile, a flying testbed
has been evaluating the upgraded
avionics, rotors and engines that
will go into serial production
with the Mi-171A2.
According to Petrov, this air-
craft will “bridge the gap” to
RACHEL, and should have a
mark∑et up to 2025. Talks are on-
going with prospective launch
customers, he adds.
DEVELOPMENT DAN THISDELL MOSCOW
Russian Helicopters speeds
progress of next generation
Prototype of faster rotorcraft, dubbed RACHEL, set for maiden flight by end of the decade
Modified Twin Otter helps G-Sky grow
TURBOPROPS KATE SARSFIELD LONDON
US engineering company Ikha-
na Aircraft Services has de-
livered a modified de Havilland
Canada DHC-6-200HG Twin Otter
to Canadian charter start-up
G-Sky Aviation.
Themodification,originallyde-
veloped by Ikhana predecessor
RW Martin, boosts the gross
weight of the Pratt & Whitney
Canada PT6A-27-powered aircraft
by 410kg to 5,680kg (12,500lb).
Bill Houghton, general manag-
er of operations for Fort McMur-
ray, Alberta-based G-Sky, says:
“This is the first Twin Otter to be
put into service by G-Sky, and we
are planning to use it as the
cornerstone of our operation.”
Ikhana
Ikhana’s changes have upped the turboprop’s gross weight](https://image.slidesharecdn.com/no5406flight10092013-131007100802-phpapp01/85/No-5406-flight_10092013-20-320.jpg)
![BUSINESS AVIATION
10-16 September 2013 | Flight International | 21flightglobal.com
Ansat clinches civil
certification
GENERALAVIATIONP22
LIGHT LAUNCH
Russian Helicopters and
AgustaWestland have formally
kicked off their joint bid to pro-
duce an all-new 2.5t-class sin-
gle-engined rotorcraft,with the
signing of a heads of agree-
ment at the MAKS air show in
Moscow last month. Details of
design and project manage-
ment for the 50:50 project,
along with a market assess-
ment,will be revealed by year-
end. According to Russian
Helicopters chief executive
Dmitry Petrov,European
certification is targeted for
the final quarter of 2016.
PIAGGIO CONNECTS
Piaggio has appointed UK
business aircraft sales,charter
and management company
ConnectJets as its dealership
for the Avanti II twin-engined
turboprop in the UK,Ireland,
the Channel Islands and the
Isle of Man.
COMLUX MOVE
Business aviation services
group Comlux completed the
relocation of its main holding
company from Switzerland
to Malta on 5 September.
The majority of the group’s
18-strong business jet fleet is
registered in Malta,although
two aircraft will remain on the
Kazakhstan register and three
on the Aruban.
FLIGHTSAFETY EXPANDS
FlightSafety International has
announced a “significant” ex-
pansion of the training the com-
pany offers for Cessna Citation
business jets and Caravan tur-
boprop singles at its learning
centres in Orlando,Florida,San
Antonio,Texas and Wichita,
Kansas. Training on the full
Citation Excel/XLS series will
now be offered in Orlando,
which houses a new level-D
XLS+ simulator. A CJ2+ simula-
tor will be added to the San
Antonio facility,while a Caravan
simulator equipped with a
Garmin G600 cockpit has been
delivered to Wichita.
IN BRIEF
Russian industrial conglomer-
ate Rostec has revealed the
pricing for two new commuter
and utility aircraft it has agreed to
develop with Austrian manufac-
turer Diamond Aircraft.
At June’s Paris air show the
companies signed a memoran-
dum of understanding to develop
a majority-composite 19-seater.
Rostec has now priced the air-
craft – targeted as a replacement
for Russia’s fleet of Antonov
An-2s and Let L-410s – at Rb120
million ($3.62 million).
The conglomerate has also re-
vealed that plans with Diamond
include developing a second air-
craft type in the family – a nine-
seater with a list price of around
$2.41 million.
Scale models of both aircraft
were displayed for the first time
at the MAKS air show outside
Moscow, late last month. The dis-
play depicted plans to begin the
collaboration with Diamond
building the entire first 19-seater
in Austria. That will be followed
by shifting the manufacture of
some components to Ekaterin-
burg-based Ural Works of Civil
Aviation, as a prelude to migrat-
ing full assembly of the aircraft
and diesel turboprop engines to
Russia, Rostec says.
Both companies intend to com-
plete airworthiness certification
of the 19-seater in 2016.
Marshall Aerospace and De-
fence Group (Marshall
ADG) has acquired Beechcraft’s
largest European maintenance,
repair and overhaul business as it
sets its sights on strengthening its
portfolio of business aviation
companies.
The acquisition of Hawker
Beechcraft Services Chester,
based at Broughton in the UK,
takes the proportion of Marshall
ADG’s annual turnover from its
commercial business, Marshall
Aviation Services, from 15 to
25%. However, the Cambridge-
based company, which specialis-
es in military aircraft modifica-
tions, is seeking to increase this to
around 40%.
“Marshall’s defence business
will account for the bulk of its
turnover, but we are keen to grow
the business aviation offering and
will look at opportunities – par-
ticularly in the Middle East – in
charter, management and MRO,”
says Steve Jones, managing direc-
tor of Marshall Aviation Services.
Marshall’s business and com-
mercial aviation’s offering in-
cludes Cambridge airport and the
Cessna Citation authorised serv-
ice centre based there, as well as a
line maintenance base at London
Luton airport and business air-
craft charter and management
company Flairjet. “These units
[have] a combined annual turno-
ver of £20 million [$31.2 million],
while the Broughton facility turns
over £30 million,” says Jones.
“The Broughton acquisition
gives us critical mass by allowing
us to capture a much bigger slice
of the market,” he adds. “We are
already a Citation [500-series] au-
thorised service centre but we
have been looking to extend our
maintenance offering.”
The 50-year-old Broughton fa-
cility will be rebranded Marshall
Aviation Services and will widen
its scope beyond Beechcraft,
Jones says. “We can offer a
breadth of services, including air-
craft completions – something we
have been unable to do until
now,” he adds. “The skilled
workforce can now be unleashed
to work on other models. The de-
mand is there.”
Marshall has also been ap-
pointed as Beechcraft’s distribu-
tor for the UK, Ireland and
Scandinavia.
Rostec reveals 19-seater price tag
DEVELOPMENT STEPHEN TRIMBLE MOSCOW
ACQUISITION KATE SARSFIELD LONDON
Ambitious Marshall snaps
up Beechcraft MRO centre
Aerospace group strengthens business portfolio with Broughton, UK services unit buy
The firm can now sell and
support the ubiqitous King
Air family](https://image.slidesharecdn.com/no5406flight10092013-131007100802-phpapp01/85/No-5406-flight_10092013-21-320.jpg)
![GENERAL AVIATION
flightglobal.com22 | Flight International | 10-16 September 2013
Explore 100 years of aviation history as it
appeared in the original pages of Flight:
flightglobal.com/archive
ALMATY ORDER
Russian Helicopters has sold a
Mil Mi-8AMT helicopter to
Almaty Rescue Service. The
medium twin-engined aircraft
will be used for search and res-
cue and medevac missions
when it enters service with the
Kazakhastan-based operator
next year.
MAINTENANCE TIE-UP
Russian operator UTAir and
Anglo-Italian airframer
AgustaWestland have signed an
agreement to establish a
maintenance and support unit
for AW139 helicopters in
Russia. UTAir is the first
commercial operator of the
medium twin-engined type in
the region with over ten
AW139s operating from bases
in Moscow,Saint Petersburg,
Sochi and Siberia.
TURKISH EMS
Turkey’s THK Gökçen Aviation
has taken delivery of the first
five of a 17-strong Eurocopter
EC135 order. The light twin-
engined aircraft will provide
emergency medical services.
The remaining EC135s will be
delivered early next year.
Eurocopter says more than
1,100 EC135s have been deliv-
ered worldwide to date,of
which,more than 500 are con-
figured for medevac missions.
FLYING CLUB BOOST
The US Aircraft Owners and
Pilots Association’s (AOPA)
campaign to grow the number
of flying clubs in the US to
reverse the declining pilot
population,has reached a new
milestone with over 400 clubs
added to the network since the
initiative began less than a year
ago. “Flying clubs are an under-
recognised part of aviation that
deserve [our] support and
encouragement,” says the
association. Meanwhile,the
International Council of AOPAs
(IAOPA) has approved Jordan
as its 72nd affiliate,making it
the seventh IAOPA Middle
Eastern affiliate.
IN BRIEF
VMD Aviagroup is to start
production of the four-seat
Canadian-designed Zenair Zodi-
ac CH 640 light aircraft at its Perm
facility from this month, the Rus-
sian company’s head Vladimir
Bolshakov says.
“The first of our planes, I hope,
will be a four-seater,” he says. “It
is a development of the Canadian
Zodiac 640. Our company will
make up to 20 aircraft a year. The
plane will, for now, use the Cana-
dian name, Zodiac 640.”
Bolshakov quotes a price of
Rb 4 million ($120,000) for the
aircraft, which will be powered
by a modified car engine. VMD
Aviagroup sees hobby flyers as
the main potential customer, as
well as Russian government
agencies.
The single-engined Zodiac CH
640 is produced by Zenair as a
kit-build design. The $29,000
four-seater features a tricycle un-
dercarriage and gull-wing doors
and is built from aluminium.
ARussian company is seeking
to develop and fly a hybrid
airship within about four years to
carry passengers and cargo, espe-
cially in remote Arctic regions.
RosAeroSystems, which dis-
played a model of the Atlant air-
ship at the MAKS air show, is
seeking to overcome the ground
handling and buoyancy issues
that have limited the application
of commercial airships.
Like the US military-funded
Aeroscraft, the Atlant is designed
to rapidly reduce buoyancy by
pressurising the lifting gas, says
Michael Talesnikov, vice-presi-
dent at the company. Conven-
tional airships must take on bal-
last while unloading cargo, or risk
floating away as buoyancy rises.
But the source of the ballast – ei-
ther tonnes of water or dirt – re-
quires heavy infrastructure at the
airship’s landing zone.
RosAeroSystems instead pres-
surises the air to control the vehi-
cle’s buoyancy, Talesnikov says.
RosAeroSystems, founded by a
former associate of Aeroscraft
chief executive Igor Pasternak,
has already built ground test rigs
of the air pressurisation system
and the Atlant’s thrust-vectoring
systems. But company officials
are aware they are attempting to
introduce a new kind of aviation
vehicle that is not quite an air-
ship, helicopter or fixed-wing
transport, but combines elements
of all three.
“It’s quite challenging,” Tales-
nikov says. “We are realistic peo-
ple. We understand we will face
some difficulties.”
In a country where 70% of the
land mass lacks access by ground-
based transportation systems, Ro-
sAeroSystems is targeting compa-
nies that need access to Russia’s
remote Arctic regions.
DIRIGIBLES STEPHEN TRIMBLE MOSCOW
Atlant Arctic airship bouyed
by answer to weighty issue
RosAeroSystems sets four-year goal to develop hybrid to fly in Russia’s remote regions
Russian Helicopters has finally
achieved civil certification of
the Kazan Ansat light twin, albeit
with hydromechanical controls
rather than the fly-by-wire system
initially proposed.
Kazan started work on the cur-
rent iteration of the Ansat in 2011
after encountering difficulty in
the certification process for the
fly-by-wire controls. The first pro-
totypes of the helicopter appeared
in the late 1990s.
To speed up the civil approval
process, it dropped the more
advancedtechnologyinfavourofa
traditionalcontrolsystem.Russia’s
a military will eventually take de-
livery of the fly-by-wire-equipped
Ansat-U trainer for its flight-train-
ing schools. Additional examples
willbehandedovertotheRussian
airforceinNovember.
The civil Ansat is powered by
a pair of Pratt & Whitney Canada
PW207K turboshafts and boasts a
maximum take-off weight of
3,600kg (7,930lb).
Separately, Russian Helicop-
ters has received approval for the
VIP transport variant of its Mil
Mi-171 medium twin.
Use of hydromechanical controls helped to speed up the process
APPROVAL DOMINIC PERRY LONDON
Ansatclinchescivilcertification
PRODUCTION
HOWARD GETHIN MOSCOW
Kit-built Zodiac
CH 640 set for
Russian role
RussianHelicopters](https://image.slidesharecdn.com/no5406flight10092013-131007100802-phpapp01/85/No-5406-flight_10092013-22-320.jpg)
![BUSINESS
10-16 September 2013 | Flight International | 25flightglobal.com
QUOTE OF THE WEEK
“We have made
considerable
progress with our
turnaround plan”
Qantas Group boss ALAN JOYCE
was pleased to announce an A$6
million ($5.4 million) net profit for
the 2013 financial year,turning
around a 2012 loss of A$244 million.
Revenue held nearly steady at
A$15.9 billion,but capacity cutting
helped Qantas International halve its
full-year EBIT loss to A$246 million
Clearing the air
FEATURE P26
RAVEN FLIES IN TOO LATE FOR AEROVIRONMENT Q1
UNMANNED SYSTEMS In AeroVironment’s first quarter to 27 July,
unmanned systems segment sales were down by 28% at $35.2
million and profit down by a third to $10.6 million – a result de-
scribed as “in-line with expectations [but] adversely impacted by sev-
eral one-time effects,as well as continued government contracting
delays”. This includes a US government fiscal 2012 Raven UAV or-
der,which arrived early in the second quarter.
ALL NIPPON BUYS LAST LINK TO PAN AM
TRAINING Pan Am International Flight Academy has been sold by
private equity owner American Capital to All Nippon Airways’ parent
ANA Holdings for $94 million. Pan Am,with more than 60 flight simu-
lators and programmes for pilots,cabin crew,mechanics and dis-
patchers,will bolster ANA’s Tokyo-based Panda Flight Academy.
SAFRAN SELLS MOTOR UNIT TO ALLIED MOTION
DIVESTMENT Safran is to sell its $106 million revenue electric
motors subsidiary Globe Motors to Allied Motion for $90 million.
Pending regulatory approval,the deal could close by year-end.
HELLENIC AEROSPACE UNDER ETHICS SCRUTINY
FRAUD Greece’s government-owned aerospace manufacturer
Hellenic Aerospace Industry must shore up its sagging financial situ-
ation if it is to remain in operation,warns auditor Grant Thornton. The
company,which saw 2012 revenue of barely €91 million ($120 mil-
lion),down from €164 million in 2011,has had its entire board of
directors suspended pending an investigation into the hiring – and
contract renewal – of a high-ranking and highly paid officer whose
post-doctoral education certificates have been revealed as forgeries.
TPG CREDIT MANAGEMENT REBRANDS
FINANCE Global aircraft asset and aviation finance company TPG
Credit Management has been renamed Castlelake,“to reflect its
growth and evolution over the past eight years”. Chief executive Rory
O’Neill says: “We are grateful for TPG Capital’s support in our earlier
years.” Castlelake has $2.4 billion of assets under its management,
from offices in Minneapolis and London.
TURBOMECA TAKES CHARGE OF RTM322 PROGRAMME
PROPULSION Safran has completed its €293 million ($387 million)
cash acquisition of Rolls-Royce’s 50% share in their joint RTM322 heli-
copter engine programme. Safran’s Turbomeca unit will assume global
responsibility for design,production,product support and service for
the engine,which powers certain Boeing AH-64 Apache,
AgustaWestland AW101 and NH industries NH90 helicopters.
NORTHROP GRUMMAN TO ACQUIRE QANTAS DEFENCE
MAINTENANCE Northrop Grumman Australian is to buy Qantas
Airways’ Defence Services business,which supports the Royal
Australian Air Force’s A330 multi-role tanker transport fleet and over-
hauls engines for its Lockheed Martin Orion P-3 and BAE Systems
Hawk lead-in fighter trainer. The deal is expected to close in 2014.
MEGGITT BUYS EXTREME TEMPERATURE CAPABILITY
TECHNOLOGY Meggitt is to acquire for $41.2 million Piezotech,a
specialists in piezo-ceramic technology for extreme temperature gas
turbine sensors. US-focused Piezo will operate as a standalone op-
eration within Meggitt’s sensing systems division,and retain existing
management operating from its Indiana and Colorado sites.
BUSINESSBRIEFSPEOPLE MOVES
Austro Engines, Bell, Cardiff Aviation, Gulfstream, Safran
Gibson: Gulfstream support
Rooney: Fine Tubes engineer
customer operations for its space
and defence segment. Plymouth,
UK-based Fine Tubes has
appointed John Rooney as
director of engineering and
technology. Safran Group has
named Peter Campbell as director
of financial communication,
replacing Pascal Bantegnie who
takes on other duties with the
French aerospace and defence
group. Jürgen Heinrich is now
CEO at Austro Engines afterthe
resignationofpredecessorThomas
MuellerinlateJuly.Heinrichwas
formerlysalesandmarketing
directoratAustro,thepowerplant
divisionofWienerNeustadt-based
Diamond Aircraft.
Bell Helicopter has reshuffled its
senior management team.
Gunnar Kleveland assumes the
role of senior VP integrated
operations, Dr Cathy Ferrie
becomes senior VP engineering,
and Matt Hasik is now senior VP
commercial programs. At Cardiff
Aviation, the Bruce Dickinson-
fronted MRO business, Andrew
Braley has been appointed
commercial director, joining
from AJ Walter Aviation. William
Gibson has joined Gulfstream in
the newly created position of
director, product support global
distribution. He joins from
Honeywell where he held the
post of senior manager
Gulfstream
FineTubesRexFeatures](https://image.slidesharecdn.com/no5406flight10092013-131007100802-phpapp01/85/No-5406-flight_10092013-25-320.jpg)
![10-16 September 2013 | Flight International | 27flightglobal.com
ETS
However, the fact that IATA is backing the
simplest of the three options with an imple-
mentation date seven years into the future has
drawn criticism from some quarters.
Jean Leston, transport policy manager at the
World Wide Fund for Nature’s UK branch, de-
scribes the IATA resolution as “a huge step
forward that will create momentum for
progress”, but expresses disappointment that
the industry body has opted for a non-reve-
nue-generating offset scheme over a cap and
trade-style system.
“It’s a shame the aviation industry is taking
the approach that mitigation has got to hap-
pen somewhere else,” says Leston, adding
that an emissions trading system “would have
been preferable to offsetting”. Leston also
takes issue with the proposed 2020 start date.
“I don’t want to see seven years of inactivity,”
he says.
“Offsetting is a simpler solution without
the governance issues surrounding cap and
trade, but it can very easily lack environmen-
tal integrity. It depends on the kind of offsets
purchased, and there are lots of bad ones,”
says Leston. “I’m also disappointed that IATA
is not thinking of any revenue generation,
even though this has been recommended by a
UN high-level advisory group. This is a
missed opportunity not only to show climate
leadership, by helping developing countries
address climate change, but it could also have
been used to fund biofuels.”
KEEPING IT SIMPLE
However, IATA senior vice-president member
and external relations Paul Steele counters
that the simplicity of a straight carbon offset-
ting system means it is more likely to be ap-
proved and much quicker to implement.
“You don’t need to create allowances or
auctions like you would for an ETS so it’s
much simpler for states to implement in the
short term. But that’s not to say in the longer
term we couldn’t introduce ETS,” he says.
On the lack of revenue generation in IATA’s
proposal, Steele says: “It would make it more
difficult to agree if monies were involved.”
Questions over responsibility for raising the
extra funds and deciding how the money
could be used would mean that “we’d still be
sitting here in 2040 trying to decide on this”,
he adds.
Both Leston and Steele agree on a major
point: trying to persuade governments from
191 different states to agree on a single MBM
that aims to regulate airline emissions on a
global scale is going to be an uphill battle, to
say the least.
RexFeatures
“If each state does its own
thing, this would be extremely
problematic for us”
PAUL STEELE
IATA senior vice-president, member/external relations
“In an ideal world, I would like to see the
assembly agree on a global offsetting scheme,
but I think this is a step too far for this meet-
ing,” concedes Steele. “But ICAO should de-
velop a full-blown proposal to be brought to
the 2016 [UN] assembly for adoption.”
He adds that ICAO “should start working
now on the building blocks”, including the
development of a global standard for the
monitoring and verification of offsets, a point
on which Leston agrees: “If we must go for
offsetting, it’s critical that [ICAO] establishes
some quality restrictions on what offsets the
industry purchases; otherwise it’s a race to
the bottom with airlines looking for the
cheapest offsets, which tend to be the low-
quality ones.”
Leston believes it is “essential to agree that
MBMs are needed in principle and to detail
what that could look like”, adding: “The
worst-case scenario is that there will just be a
very weak text in the final round-up. This
could restart the [EU] ETS clock ticking.”
STOP THE CLOCK
The EU dramatically announced in late 2012
that it was “stopping the clock” on its contro-
versial decision to include inter-continental
flights in its ETS, in order to demonstrate Eu-
rope’s commitment to seeing “a meaningful
outcome at the 2013 ICAO Assembly”. In a
consultation document seeking input from
stakeholders on the policy options for MBMs,
the EU says it “remains committed to seeking
multilateral progress”.
Pressure on ICAO to come up with a solu-
tion is building from all corners of the globe,
not just Europe. At the 2013 G8 Summit earli-
er this year, the leaders of the world’s eight
most powerful countries had the following
message for ICAO: “We call for the agreement
at the assembly in September 2013 on an am-
bitious package related to both market-based
and non-market-based measures to address
rising aviation emissions.”
The consequences for the industry if ICAO
fails to come up with a solution could be dire.
“If ICAO can’t agree and each state just does
its own thing, this would be extremely prob-
lematic for us,” says IATA’s Steele, pointing
out that carriers would have to comply with
“well over 100” separate MBMs.
Any agreement that can be reached during
the assembly, which runs from 24 September
to 4 October, is likely to come down to the
wire, according to Steele: “Sideline discus-
sions have gone on up until the last minute in
the past, and I fully anticipate something like
this happening here.
“From an industry perspective, I believe
agreement in ICAO is absolutely crucial. We
need it now because we need to know what to
plan for and how best we can contribute to
reducing our emissions,” he adds.Governments are muscling in on the discussion – and demanding a resolution](https://image.slidesharecdn.com/no5406flight10092013-131007100802-phpapp01/85/No-5406-flight_10092013-27-320.jpg)
![ENVIRONMENT
flightglobal.com
ENVIRONMENT
E
very oil-based fuel – from avgas to
Jet-A1 – has undergone a dramatic
rise in price, to the point where the
once virtually inconsequential cost
of fuel has become by far the largest expense
of operating an airliner.
These days, 50-60% of an aircraft’s direct
operating costs is represented by fuel. “Since
the dawn of the jet age we’ve gone from 10%
efficient to 40% efficient,” says Alan Epstein,
vice-president of technology at engine
manufacturer Pratt & Whitney. “Because the
hated word ‘thermodynamics’ is involved
here you can’t actually get to 100% theoreti-
cally. You can theoretically get to something
like 70-ish[%].”
Therefore, the race is on for alternative
sources of energy – both to reduce costs and
emissions. It is not yet clear that any one en-
ergy source will replace conventional jet fuel,
and researchers are scrambling to prove their
technologies. Part of the problem is simply
that hydrocarbons are an amazing fuel – en-
ergy-dense, easy to find, extract and process,
and until recently, very inexpensive. “Right
now the gas turbine is about about 55% ther-
mal efficient. It is the most efficient device on
planet Earth for converting chemical energy
into shaft power,” says Epstein.
The most plausible alternative – one
already in the mix – is to derive jet fuel from
non-conventionalsourcesbymeansofchemi-
cal wizardry. Biofuels can be produced from
organic waste – plants like halophyte or corn
– either by a series of chemical reactions or
feeding it to a special breed of bacteria. The
Fischer-Tropsch (F-T) method can convert
anythingwithcarbonmonoxideintofuel,and
while carbon-rich coal is the traditional feed-
stock, fuel has been created from wood chips,
methane and many other materials. From a
carbonstandpoint,usingbiomassfeedstockis
essentially the only way to guarantee net car-
bon neutrality – the carbon from the fuel,
when burned and injected into the atmos-
phere, is the same carbon once absorbed by
those plants.
“Chemicalengineerscannowmakealmost
anything from anything,” says Epstein. “Here
wastherealconceptualbreakthroughIthink,
which is genius because it’s so simple: if
chemical engineers can make anything into
anything, tell them to make jet fuel.” Two
major obstacles to producing such drop-in
fuels are the limited supply and high cost of
producing them. At the moment biofuels and
F-T-produced fuels are only economical if
made on a very large scale, which requires
giant infusions of capital to build and supply
the processing plants.
Natural gas is a hydrocarbon made by
similar processes to those that produce oil –
and consequently it has similar properties.
Recent discoveries of massive reserves and
new technological developments has made
naturalgasverycheapwhencomparedtooil.
It can be processed into conventional fuel
using the F-T method, but a simpler option is
simply to burn the gas itself.
The advantage is that natural gas, sans
processing, is only one-third the price of oil
on a per unit of energy basis. Light aircraft
builder Aviat made the first public showing
of its second compressed natural gas (CNG)
burning Husky test bed at the Oshkosh air
show in July. The Husky is powered by a
small piston engine, but the modified
version can run on either CNG or
conventional avgas.
“We did what we would call substantial
modifications, but the operative word is ‘re-
ally’infrontofsubstantial,”saysStuartHorn,
president of Aviat. “The parameters, specifi-
cations, manufacturing, materials process,
it’d all be different for a purpose-built CNG
engine. I don’t think that’s beyond anyone’s
manufacturing or engineering capability.”
Although the Husky testbed is a proof-of-
concept aircraft, with “nonspecific” plans to
produce the CNG-powered aircraft commer-
cially, Horn sees flight schools as a likely
market, given the high number of flight hours
per aircraft and short distances they travel.
Jet engines have an easier time. “We could
easily burn natural gas, you’d have a slight
change in the fuel injectors, you’d probably
get somewhat lower emissions, and that’s it.
But the airplanes have to be totally different,”
says P&W’s Epstein. “The engines aren’t the
problem. The natural gas has a much lower
energy density – it’s a gas, so how do you hold
it? If you liquefy it [which has higher density]
30 | Flight International | 10-16 September 2013
ZACH ROSENBERG WASHINGTON DC
With fuel costs climbing, carriers are looking to substitute sources of energy
– but the technology to power tomorrow’s airliners still has a long way to go
ALTERNATIVE
MEDICINE
“If chemical engineers can
make anything into anything,
tell them to make jet fuel”
ALAN EPSTEIN
Vice-president of technology, Pratt & Whitney
Boeing’s Blended Wing Body concept has plenty of room for CNG or LNG tanks
Boeing](https://image.slidesharecdn.com/no5406flight10092013-131007100802-phpapp01/85/No-5406-flight_10092013-30-320.jpg)
![FUEL
10-16 September 2013 | Flight International | 31flightglobal.com
FUEL
Read more about new technologies with the
potential to change the face of aviation today:
flightglobal.com/technology
you need cryogenic tanks, and airplanes now
store their fuel mostly in the wings, so you
have to integrate cryogenic tanks and have
very little fuel capacity.”
Moving away from the traditional tube-
and-wing configuration to maximise internal
volume – thus permitting a spherical LNG
tank – is an idea Boeing is exploring with its
Blended Wing Body (BWB) concept.
“What we found is if you go into the future
and you have improvements all over the
airplane – engines, aerodynamics and struc-
tures – then the amount of energy or fuel re-
quired to fly the airplane is reduced, and that
reduces the size of the tanks you have to add
for LNG,” says Martin Bradley, a Boeing tech-
nical fellow. Because of the relative lack of en-
ergy density compared to Jet-A1, Boeing’s en-
gineers speak of building a hybrid, capable
running on either conventional fuel or LNG,
switching seamlessly between the two as best
suits the situation. No LNG aircraft exist as
yet, but Boeing’s Phantom Eye demonstrator
runs on cryogenic liquid hydrogen.
ELECTRIC SLIDE
Of course, one way to handle a problem is to
make it irrelevant, and that is the great poten-
tial of electric power – allowing the fan to turn
without burning any fuel or emitting any car-
bon at all. Several aircraft have been built to
fly with batteries alone, and others with
hybrid battery/piston power.
The most obvious problem with batteries is
that they possess nowhere near the energy
density of hydrocarbons.
“We’re at 240 watt-hours per kilogram for
lithium-based cells. That is one-fiftieth of what
hydrocarbonsolutionshaveintermsofenergy
density,” says Mark Moore, NASA aerody-
namic scientist and engineer.
Despite this, several testbed aircraft have
flown, and at least two companies – Pipistrel
from Slovenia and Yunnec from China – are
actively marketing hybrid and all-electric air-
craft. Several unmanned aircraft concepts,
dubbed “atmospheric satellites”, are being de-
signedtostayairborneforyearsatatime,pow-
ered only by batteries recharged by solar pan-
els. Experiments are ongoing to recharge in
otherways–LockheedMartin,inparticular,is
experimenting with beamed power using a
ground-based laser to ‘fuel’ its Stalker un-
manned air vehicle. Upscaling to larger air-
craftisimpractical,butthefutureholdsgreat
promise. Battery energy density improves in
discretejumps,withanaverageimprovement
of about 8% per year. Greater improvements
arebeingresearchedbutarenotyetavailable,
andthuscannotbereliedupon.Still,thetime
is approaching when small electric aircraft
willbeamuchmorecommonsight–bothun-
manned and manned. Scaling up to airliner
size,however,isanotherstory.
“I don’t think we can answer how electric
propulsion is going to be on large aircraft,
because we’re just learning. This is the
Wright Brothers doing their first experi-
ments in terms of an equivalent,”
saysMoore.Boeinghasbeenex-
ploring an electric thrust
system for future aircraft,
but any inclusion is at least
two design generations
away – potentially 40 years
from now. “We found that [the] first
application is probably going to be a hybrid-
electric airplane, using electrical power at
just certain phases of the flight, using it at
take-off or cruising under electric power,”
saysBoeing’sBradley.“Butyouwanttohave
a conventional engine as well because there
are plenty of times when you need to com-
bine power, and a conventional gas-burning
turbine is very advantageous.”
“An all-electric airliner, we don’t see that
coming anytime soon. It would require
major breakthroughs in energy storage we
don’t see happening for a while,” he adds.
Boeing’s BWB studies found that 600-700
watt-hours per kilogram are required before
electric propulsion starts making any sense
– but the results are encouraging to NASA’s
Moore. “That’s a really exciting result com-
ing from Boeing, because we’re going to be at
those battery levels certainly before 2030. So
we’re already within a 20-year timeframe of
Boeing saying, ‘it makes sense to be doing
hybrid-electric solutions with pretty sub-
stantial battery packs very soon,’” he says.
Potentially the most disruptive effect of
batterypowerisoptimisingaircraftdesignto
take maximum advantage.
Moore is a noted proponent of distributed
thrust – essentially decentralising thrust
from two large engines to many small ones
with a battery attached to each. “Now you’re
going to see configurations come up that
would not have made sense with the prior
propulsion technologies, but now suddenly
make all the sense in the world,” he says.
Lockheed Martin
has tested using a
ground-based laser
beam to power its
Stalker UAV
Plants like halophyte could be an option
Boeing,LockheedMartin](https://image.slidesharecdn.com/no5406flight10092013-131007100802-phpapp01/85/No-5406-flight_10092013-31-320.jpg)
![SAFETY
flightglobal.com32 | Flight International | 10-16 September 2013
London Heathrow [12 July 2013]. As the film
points out, an in-flight fire that is out of con-
trol will, on average, lead to flight crew losing
control of the aircraft within 15 minutes.” The
vulnerability of aircraft to fire is on the CAA’s
“Significant Seven” list of the greatest threats
to aviation safety.
Cox observes that two of the principal rea-
sons for the change in the fire risk profile is
the proliferation of lithium batteries on air-
craft – both the batteries installed in the air-
craft and those carried by crew and passengers
in personal electrical/electronic devices. This
is in addition to the increasing use of compos-
ite materials in aircraft hulls. “Composites in
the vicinity of lithium batteries – how is this
going to play out?” he asks.
LIMITED EXPERIENCE
In this question, he is not only acknowledging
the kind of risk that the Ethiopian 787 fire
demonstrated, but also expressing concern
about the fact that the industry has little expe-
rience of the behaviour of composite materials
in the presence of heat and fire. Aluminium,
for all its limitations, is a known quantity.
One of the reasons for the fewer fatalities in
recent years is that the fire-related accidents
in the last decade have mostly involved
freighters. Since 2011, two Boeing 747Fs –
one operated by South Korean carrier Asiana,
one by US package shipper UPS – have been
DAVID LEARMOUNT LONDON
The proliferation of lithium batteries and composite materials in modern airliners has
increased the risk of onboard blazes, despite a recent fall in the number of fatalities
FIRE ALARMED
A conflagration on an Ethiopian Airlines 787 highlighted the danger of a blaze in a hidden part of the aircraft
F
ire on board aircraft has caused fewer
fatalities in recent years than it once
did, but the risk of fire-caused inci-
dents and accidents is increasing.
That is the conclusion of international ex-
perts assembled by the Royal Aeronautical
Society, who recently published the first part
of a study called “Smoke, fire and fumes in
transport aircraft” (SAFITA).
Capt John Cox – president of US-based
safety consultancy Safe Operating Systems
(SOS), and one of the experts on the SAFITA
team – says that as aircraft technology and
construction materials change, so does the fire
risk profile – and almost certainly not for the
better. Meanwhile, the US Federal Aviation
Administration and the UK Civil Aviation Au-
thority have just jointly launched a fire safety
awareness campaign, which includes an in-
structional video. In a particularly chilling
statement at the campaign launch, the CAA
said: “Of particular concern is the threat of
fires breaking out in hidden areas of the air-
craft, which cabin crew are unable to access
and bring under control in-flight.”
The CAA statement continues: “The impor-
tance of reducing fire risks was highlighted
with the recent significant fire on the Ethiopi-
an Airlines Boeing 787 on the ground at
brought down by fire with the loss of the en-
tire crew. In both cases, the fire was believed
to have started in pallets of lithium batteries
carried as cargo.
In the UPS case, said the investigators in
their official report, the time between the fire
warning being triggered and the first failures in
a cascading loss of aircraft systems was 2min.
The flightdeck filled with smoke and the cap-
tain left his seat when the supply of oxygen to
his mask unaccountably failed. The co-pilot
soon could not see his instruments, neither
could he see out of the windscreen. He could
notseeeventochangetheradiofrequency,and
so was totally incapacitated. The report and its
conclusions are a nightmare to read.
There is no indication, according to the
RAeS, that passenger aircraft are safe from sim-
ilar events and, if a single event like the loss of
Swissair Flight 111 were to take place now, it
would reverse the interpretation of medium-
term statistics. Swissair 111 was a McDonnell
Douglas MD-11 that crashed into the sea near
Halifax, Canada, in 1998 when a short-circuit
in a damaged wiring bundle generated a fierce
fire in the ceiling just aft of the cockpit. The
spreading fire caused a sequence of cascading
system faults, which eventually wiped out the
primary flight instruments. Finally, smoke
blinded the pilots so they could not fly.
The SAFITA report contains this general
conclusion with a number of individual ones:
PA](https://image.slidesharecdn.com/no5406flight10092013-131007100802-phpapp01/85/No-5406-flight_10092013-32-320.jpg)
![SAFETY
flightglobal.com34 | Flight International | 10-16 September 2013
Recommendations and mitigations
from the RAeS SAFITA Part 1 report:
Train all crew in handling hazard-
ous materials and specifically in
firefighting techniques for lithium
battery fires.
Identify and provide extinguishing
agents suitable for fighting lithium
battery fires.
Standards for shipping lithium bat-
teries as cargo must be raised. All
cargoes of lithium batteries should
be classified as hazardous cargo.
National aviation authorities should
monitor the effect of fires on compos-
ite materials and review the special
conditions that already apply.
Use more and better predictive
technology to detect potential
smoke or fire generating events,eg
alerts for the impending failure of
fan or pump bearings.
The procedure for pilots to open
direct vision windows on the
flightdeck during smoke events
should be abandoned (it does not
have a beneficial effect).
Adopt the Flight Safety
Foundation’s template for smoke/
fire/fume checklists.
Pilots should be provided with
full-face oxygen masks and be re-
quired to don them at the first sign
of smoke or fumes.
Pilots and cabin crew should be
aware of the importance of main-
taining the flightdeck door closed
as a smoke barrier between the
cabin and cockpit.
Requirements for crew firefighting
training should be thorough and com-
plete,and all crews should be trained
how to use the appropriate type of
fire suppression and emergency
equipment for the circumstances.
Aircraft,particularly those
certificated before 2007,should be
evaluated for single-point wiring
failures which may cause cascading
system failures in the event of
short-circuit arcing. Arc-fault circuit
interrupter technology should also
replace conventional circuit
breakers.
Aircraft manufacturers should be
required to carry out more realistic
certification testing assuming con-
tinuous smoke generation on the
flightdeck.
“Vision assurance technology
should be implemented to improve
pilot visibility during continuous
smoke on the flight deck.”
(Technology,such as VisionSafe’s
emergency vision assurance
system [EVAS],exist as options,
but the SAFITA report avoids
mentioning them by name.)
Conditions for smoke evacuation
tests must be made more realistic.
In the absence of automatic fire
detection and suppression sys-
tems in inaccessible areas,flight
and cabin crew should be provided
with means to detect smoke and
fire where it cannot be seen,and
ports for the insertion of fire extin-
guishant should be provided.
The number of smoke and fire
detectors should be increased,and
a mitigation against false alarms
can be provided by using different
sensor types (thermal/optical).
Halon or equivalent chemical fire
extinguishers provided to the crew
must be increased in capacity to
2.5kg (5.5lb).
Thermal/acoustic fuselage-lining
blankets should be checked for
cleanliness and be free from flam-
mable contaminants. Maintenance
procedures should also mitigate
against such contamination.
Improve wiring inspection
maintenance programmes by using
new inspection technology.
smoke is detected. Obviously with
Swissair 111 in mind, the FAA said that in the
event of an in-flight fire, “delaying the air-
craft’s descent by only two minutes is likely to
make the difference between a successful
landing and evacuation, and a complete loss
of the aircraft and its occupants”.
RAPID DIVERSION
Indeed, the SAFITA report concludes that
rapid diversion is one of the primary mitiga-
tion techniques for reducing the risk of harm
from onboard fire. The Swissair 111 report
concluded that the crew should have diverted
without any delay, although it cannot be as-
serted with any confidence that the aircraft
could definitely have landed safely even if the
pilots had acted with all possible speed. Les-
sons from both the recent Asiana and UPS
freighter accidents reinforce this advice.
The FAA, having recently reworked its pre-
dictive model for freighter fire accidents, now
forecasts the average number of US-registered
freighter fire-related accidents likely to occur
during the 2012-21 decade – if no mitigation
action is taken – to be between two and 12,
with six as the median probability. The agen-
cy explains: “Approximately four of those are
likely to be initiated by primary or secondary
lithium batteries on the aircraft.” The defini-
tion of “primary”, in this case, is batteries as
airfreight; “secondary” is airfreighted equip-
ment fitted with lithium-ion batteries, or lithi-
um-powered equipment brought on board by
crew and passengers. Almost all personal
electronic devices are powered by lithium-ion
rechargeable batteries.
Between March 1991 and October 2012, the
FAA Office of Security and Hazardous Materi-
als Safety recorded 132 cases of aviation inci-
dents involving smoke, fire, extreme heat or
explosion involving batteries or battery-pow-
ered devices. It found that lithium batteries
were involved in the majority of the battery-
caused incidents.
The SAFITA report describes the extent of
the problem posed by personal equipment car-
ried by crew and passengers: “On a typical
flight, a single aisle jet carrying 100 passengers
couldhaveover500lithiumbatteriesonboard.
These devices are not tested or certificated nor
are they necessarily maintained to manufac-
ture’s recommendations.”
In April 2012, a passenger’s personal elec-
tronic device burst into flames on a Pinnacle
Airlines flight from Toronto to Minneapolis-St
Paul. The SAFITA says: “During the in-flight
service, the flight attendant noted that the de-
vice was on fire on the floor; its battery was
burning several feet from the device. Using
water from the service cart, the flight attendant
put out the fire using wet paper towels. She
then submerged the battery in a cup of water
RexFeatures
A lithium-ion battery overheated on a Japan Airlines 787 in Boston on 7 January
REGULATIONS
RECOMMENDATIONS AND MITIGATIONS FOR FIRE RISK](https://image.slidesharecdn.com/no5406flight10092013-131007100802-phpapp01/85/No-5406-flight_10092013-34-320.jpg)
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No 5406 flight_10092013
The document discusses several topics related to aviation: 1. The Royal Air Force is seeing improved training results from early use of its new BAE Systems Hawk T2 advanced jet trainer. 2. The FAA is finalizing a "critical" 787 review and Delta is weighing in with an A330 deal. 3. The cover story examines how the airline industry is working to tackle emissions through electric taxi systems, alternative fuel sources, and reducing turnaround times.
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No 5406 flight_10092013
- 1. 10-16 SEPTEMBER 2013 FLIGHTINTERNATIONAL 10-16SEPTEMBER 2013 CABIN FIRES IS THE INDUSTRY IN DENIAL ABOUT ONBOARD RISK? FEATURE P32 ALMOST THERE CSeries nears high-speed taxi trials as long-delayed first flight for Canadian airliner edges closer 9 FAST DEVELOPER Russian Helicopters moving quickly to have racy RACHEL prototype in the air by 2018 20 ENVIRONMENT THE WORLD VERSUS ETSHow will aviation pay carbon debt now? flightglobal.com £3.30
- 2.
- 3. 10-16 September 2013| Flight International | 3flightglobal.com FLIGHTINTERNATIONAL 10-16 SEPTEMBER 2013 JAXA,Beechcraft Marshall Aerospace and Defence Group buys Beechcraft’s largest European MRO business P21 First flight of Japan’s Epsilon launch vehicle cancelled P23 10-16 SEPTEMBER 2013 FLIGHTINTERNATIONAL 10-16 SEPTEMBER 2013 FLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLIGHTINIII TERNATIONAL CABIN FIRES IS THE INDUSTRY IN DENIAL ABOUT ONBOARD RISK? FEATURE P32 ALMOST THERE CSeries nears high-speed taxi trials as long-delayed first flight for Canadian airliner edges closer 9 FAST DEVELOPER Russian Helicopters moving quickly to have racy RACHEL prototype in the air by 2018 20 ENVIRONMENT THE WORLD VERSUS ETSHow will aviation pay carbon debt now? £3.30 18 Israeli air force pushes for 12-aircraft KC-135R deal BUSINESS AVIATION 20 Russian Helicopters speeds progress of next generation. Modified Twin Otter helps G-Sky grow 21 Ambitious Marshall snaps up Beechcraft MRO centre. Rostec reveals 19-seater price tag GENERAL AVIATION 22 Atlant Arctic airship bouyed by answer to weighty issue. Ansat clinches civil certification. Kit-built Zodiac CH 640 set for Russian role SPACEFLIGHT 23 Bad timing delays Epsilon first flight. Zenit makes safe return BUSINESS 24 Boeing faces export storm REGULARS 7 Comment 36 Straight & Level 37 Letters 40 Classified 43 Jobs 47 Working Week NEWS THIS WEEK 8 Early Hawk T2 use aids RAF students 9 FAA finalising ‘critical’ 787 review. Delta weighs in with A330 deal 10 Human factors loom in crash report 11 Dirty fuel blamed for Cathay A330’s engine emergency AIR TRANSPORT 12 Crew failed to adapt to poor visibility. Kazakhstan safety drive targets EU blacklisting 13 Court raises questions over Austrian’s Tyrolean transfer. IAE faces court challenge from Kingfisher owner 14 Virgin Australia eyes new widebodies. Comac matures fledgling C919 iron bird test rig 15 MRJ delay pinned on FAA paperwork. Ecojet project on approach to production phase DEFENCE 16 UK reveals AEW programme costs. F-35 engine production agreement a ‘fair deal’ 17 Auditor slams Indian AW101 contract. Embraer delivers AMX upgrade COVER STORY 26 Clearing the air How best to tackle airline industry emissions FEATURES 28 ENVIRONMENT Electric avenues Airlines are weighing up high-tech taxi systems as they look to reduce fuel use and cut turnaround times 30 Alternative medicine Carriers are looking to substitute sources of energy 32 SAFETY Fire alarmed Onboard blazes are still a considerable risk, despite a recent fall in the number of fatalities VOLUME 184 NUMBER 5406 PIC OF THE WEEK YOUR PHOTOGRAPH HERE AirSpace regular sunshine band posted this up-close-and-personal shot of Royal Air Force Shorts Tucano (ZF239) running in to display through brilliant sunshine at RAF Scampton in Lincolnshire. Open a gallery in flightglobal.com’s AirSpace community for a chance to feature here. sunshinebandgalleryonflightglobal.com/AirSpace flightglobal.com/imageoftheday AirTeamImages COVER IMAGE AirTeamImages supplied this skyward view of an Airbus A340, showing just why aviation is struggling to reconcile demand for air travel with calls for a workable, global emissions control regime P26 NEXT WEEK HELI-TECH PREVIEW On the eve of the annual rotorcraft industry exhibition in its new venue at London’s ExCel,we look at helicopter safety,performance and prospects AgustaWestland Download the Military Simulator Census online now. www.flightglobal.com/milisim High-fidelity maritime patrol aircraft simulators and training systems.
- 4. flightglobal.com CONTENTS Flightglobal reaches upto 1.3 million visitors from 220 countries viewing 7.1 million pages each month BEHIND THE HEADLINES Vote at flightglobal.com/poll Find all these items at flightglobal.com/wotw THE WEEK ON THE WEB flightglobal.com For a full list of reader services, editorial and advertising contacts see P39 EDITORIAL +44 20 8652 3842 flight.international@flightglobal.com DISPLAY ADVERTISING +44 20 8652 3315 gillian.cumming@rbi.co.uk CLASSIFIED ADVERTISING +44 20 8652 4897 flight.classified@flightglobal.com RECRUITMENT ADVERTISING +44 20 8652 4900 recruitment.services@rbi.co.uk WEBMASTER webmaster@flightglobal.com SUBSCRIPTIONS +44 1444 475 682 flightinternational.subs@qss-uk.com REPRINTS +44 20 8652 8612 reprints@rbi.co.uk FLIGHT DAILY NEWS +44 20 8652 3096 flightdailynews@flightglobal.com Simply not good enough Some areas of concern 42 % 29 % QUESTION OF THE WEEK Excellent given challenging environment 29 % HIGH FLIERS The top five stories for the week just gone: 1 Airbus steadily clocks up A350 flight hours 2 Bombardier CSeries approved for first flight 3 Delta orders 40 A330s and A321s 4 BA to operate 787 to Austin 5 Israel seeks R-model KC-135s from USA Last week, we asked: Safety record of North Sea helicopters: You said: Total votes: 678 This week, we ask: How will you mark the 10th anniversary of the demise of Concorde? Mourning Confident about the return of supersonic transport Times move on With allies and foes feeling the Syrian heat in the eastern Mediterranean, Israel and the USA should perhaps have let the Russians know they were planning to air-launch a couple of targets designed to simulate the trajectory of a Scud ballistic missile. As The DEW Line found, Russia’s defence ministry was spooked to detect unidentified “ballistic objects” that were, actually, Sparrow-series targets released from an Israeli air force Boeing F-15 (pictured). And, Hyperbola finds the Syria crisis, which is unravelling UK-US relations with Russia, is raising questions about whether Moscow would disrupt plans for manned launches to the Space Station in the event of an attack on Damascus. After the fatal Super Puma crash off the UK, David Learmount looked at offshore helicopter safety and asks, why does Norway get it right? Defence editor Craig Hoyle got some hands-on practice using a flight training device for the UK’s new Hawk T2 trainer during a visit to the Royal Air Force’s base at Valley,Anglesey. The UK is looking to ramp up its use of the 28-strong T2 fleet,and cites strong international interest in the capability (P8). IN THIS ISSUE Companies listed AeroVironment.............................................25 AgustaWestland...........7, 8, 10, 17, 20, 22, 23 Air Astana....................................................12 Airbus....................8, 9, 11, 12, 14, 28, 35, 37 Air France ..............................................28, 29 Air New Zealand.............................................8 All Nippon Airways ...........................25, 33, 35 ANA Holdings...............................................25 Antonov.......................................................23 Asiana...................................................32, 34 Austrian Airlines...........................................13 Austro Engines.............................................25 Aviat............................................................30 Aviation Alliance ..........................................20 BAE Systems .................................................8 Beechcraft...................................................21 Boeing.........7, 8, 9, 12, 14, 15, 16, 18, 24, 29 Bell Boeing..................................................18 Bombardier .......................................9, 15, 37 Cathay Pacific..............................................11 Cessna ........................................................23 CHC Scotia..................................................10 Comac.........................................................14 ConnectJets.................................................23 Diamond Aircraft....................................23, 25 EasyJet ..................................................28, 37 Elta Systems................................................16 Emirates......................................................24 Ethiopian Airlines...................................32, 33 Embraer.......................................................17 Eurocopter.......................................10, 20, 22 Eva Air .........................................................12 G-Sky Aviation .............................................20 Gulfstream.............................................20, 25 Hawaiian Airlines .........................................24 Honeywell Aerospace.......................25, 28, 29 Ikhana Aircraft Services................................20 Ilyushin Finance...........................................15 International Aero Engines ...........................13 Israel Aerospace Industries ..........................28 Jet Aviation ..................................................20 JetBlue Airways ............................................12 Kamov.........................................................20 Kingfisher Airlines ........................................13 KLM.............................................................29 LiveTV..........................................................12 Lockheed Martin..............................16, 18, 31 Lufthansa ..............................................13, 29 Marshall Aerospace .....................................23 Meggitt........................................................25 Mitsubishi Aircraft........................................15 Northrop Grumman......................................16 Pratt & Whitney............. 15, 16, 18, 20, 22, 30 Qantas...................................................14, 25 Rafael............................................................8 Red Wings ...................................................15 Rolls-Royce............................8, 11, 14, 25, 47 RosAeroSystems..........................................22 Rosaviaconsortium ......................................15 Rostec.........................................................23 Russian Helicopters.........................20, 22, 23 Safran .............................................25, 28, 29 Sikorsky.................................................10, 20 Spirit Aerosystems .......................................24 Swissair.................................7, 32, 33, 34, 35 Transaero Airlines.........................................47 TUI...............................................................28 Turbomeca...................................................25 Turkish Aerospace Industries........................18 United Airlines .............................................12 UPS...................................................7, 32, 34 UTAir............................................................22 VIM-Avia......................................................15 Virgin Australia.............................................14 WheelTug...............................................28, 29 4 | Flight International | 10-16 September 2013 Download the new Commercial Engines Directory now with enhanced data and in-depth market analysis
- 5. The P-8 isthe world’s most capable maritime patrol aircraft. It brings together a networked state-of-the-art mission system with next-generation sensors, and a reliable airframe with high-efficiency turbofan engines. The result is an affordable multi-mission aircraft with superior speed and unmatched capability. The P-8 is now ready to secure sea and shore around the globe.
- 7. COMMENT 10-16 September 2013| Flight International | 7flightglobal.com See Defence P17 Official discomfort The worrying thing about India’s AgustaWestland AW101 scandal is how unsurprising it is. Big de- fence purchases anywhere are rarely smooth, but in India they seem to be particularly accident-prone. At its heart are allegations – denied, of course – that AgustaWestland bosses bribed Indian air force leaders to modify the requirements for the purchase of 12 VVIP helicopters. Early this year investigations in Italy prompted a further probe in India. Two AgustaWest- land executives are now standing trial over the matter. But the steady drip-drip of bad news continues. This week India’s government auditor issued a damning re- port on the acquisition process. But this fiasco – unlike other defence procurement travesties in India – will directly affect New Delhi’s senior leadership. Having received just three AW101s, India has sus- pended the deal, and could well cancel it altogether. The grounding of the new fleet will oblige worthies in- cluding the president and prime minister to resume the use of ageing Mil Mi-8s. At stake in the AW101 crisis are not key issues like operational readiness and deterrence, but the comfort of senior government leaders. Perhaps riding in obso- lescent, deafeningly loud helicopters will provide the spur they need to bring greater transparency and ac- countability to India’s defence acquisition process. RexFeatures Operations and safety editor David Learmount writes on aviation safety matters on his eponymous blog flightglobal.com/learmount See Feature P32 Just in case Fire risk on modern airliners is worse than it has been since aircraft were made of wood, but because there has not been a recent passenger aircraft loss, complacency has set in The smoking gun There has always been a chance of fire on commer- cial transport aircraft, but the risk profile in today’s fleet is definitely changing, and probably increasing – yet nothing is being done to tackle this. The reasons behind the change are many. Leading the list is the proliferation of lithium-chemistry batteries – a definable fire risk – in the personal electronic equip- ment of both passengers and crew. Their highly flam- mable nature has been blamed for the loss of at least one freighter aircraft, a UPS Boeing 747, which carried the lithium-ion cells among its cargo. And larger versions of those same lithium batteries have recently been de- ployed by aircraft manufacturers to power standby on- board equipment. In the case of the Boeing 787 they provide the ultimate back-up electrical supply. The very latest airliners are also “more-electric” – electricity replaces hydraulic, pneumatic or mechani- cal power – resulting in an increase in the amount of electrical cabling. The proliferation of in-flight enter- tainment systems adds both batteries and yet more cabling. And the rapidly increasing use of composite materials for aircraft primary structures is changing the risk profile because composites have a different reac- tion to heat. In the last three years, two freighters have been lost to onboard fires, but because they were not passenger flights public concern has remained dormant. The last catastrophic blaze that brought down a passenger air- Estimates put the number of onboard smoke events today at one in every 15,000 flights craft was Swissair 111 in 1998. That is a long time ago, and it involved a Boeing MD-11, but nothing funda- mental in terms of aircraft and cabin systems design has been changed as a result. Meanwhile estimates put the number of onboard smoke events today at one in every 15,000 flights. And cliché as it may be, where there is smoke, there is fire, be it real or potential. One of the most remarkable facts about aircraft de- sign for safety is that the only fire detection equipment on board commercial transport aircraft are in the en- gines, the freight bay and the lavatories. There are no detection systems in cockpits or cabins, so a fire that starts behind the panels because of an electrical short- circuit – like Swissair 111 – has a chance to take hold before its presence is noticed. And when smoke or fumes have betrayed its existence, there is no way of locating the heat source or directing extinguishant at it. This is simply unacceptable. The Royal Aeronautical Society is leading a study into these risks. Action must follow it.
- 8. THIS WEEK flightglobal.com8 |Flight International | 10-16 September 2013 For a round-up of our latest online news, feature and multimedia content visit flightglobal.com/wotw Early use of the Royal Air Force’sBAESystemsHawkT2 advanced jet trainer has dramati- cally boosted the quality of in- struction being provided to UK students, programme officials say. A first course of four ab initio pilots completed their training on the T2 with 4 Sqn at RAF Valley in June 2013, before progressing to its 29 Sqn operational conver- sion unit (OCU) for the Eurofight- er Typhoon at Coningsby in Lincolnshire. “I think we’ve doubled the standard of the students,” says Alasdair Shinner, station manager at the Anglesey base for Lockheed Martin/Babcock joint venture As- cent, the Ministry of Defence’s training system partner for the Military Flying Training System (MFTS) programme. The T2 has the potential to deliver a “multi- role, combat-ready pilot” to the OCU, he adds, whereas the RAF’s analogue cockpit Hawk T1s were not preparing students for the aircraft they would later fly. Several additional courses are now under way, with these in- cluding RAF and Royal Navy stu- dents and 11 more UK qualified flying instructors (QFI). With only 50% of system capacity being used on a 28-aircraft fleet, poten- tial options to increase the vol- ume of training delivered include TRAINING CRAIG HOYLE LONDON Early Hawk T2 use aids RAF students Programme officials highlight quality of instruction provided to trainees, better preparing them to fly more advanced jets CraigHoyle/Flightglobal The BAE Systems type is operated by the service’s 4 Sqn HIGHER-THRUST TRENT RUNS ON FIRST 787-9 PROPULSION Initial test runs have been conducted on the Rolls- Royce Trent 1000 engines powering Boeing’s first 787-9. The maid- en flight of the stretched twinjet is on track for “late summer”,says the airframer. Trent 1000 programme director John Griffiths adds that Rolls-Royce is “delighted at the successful first run” of the en- gines. Its Package C version of the powerplant,developed for the 787-9,provides 74,000lb (329kN) of thrust. Air New Zealand is the launch customer,with 10 of the type due for delivery from 2014. CHINESE A330 AMONG AUGUST AIRBUS ORDERS AIRFRAMES China Eastern Airlines was behind the only long-haul order for Airbus during a quiet August,but the deal for the single A330 marks the first firm Chinese order recorded by the airframer this year. Long-haul orders from China,particularly for the A330,had been held up by a dispute over the European emissions trading sys- tem. However,the airframer’s latest backlog data,covering the first eight months of 2013,includes a single China Eastern A330-200 order on 5 August. Airbus added nine other aircraft – all A320-family jets – to its backlog during the month,bringing its gross total to 942 and taking its net figure just above 900. Airbus delivered 394 aircraft over the first eight months,including 11 A380s and 70 A330s. AGUSTAWESTLAND SEALS CHINESE SALES PACT ROTORCRAFT AgustaWestland has signed a distribution agreement with Sino-US Intercontinental Helicopter Investment,with the pact also including a contract for 20 aircraft. Finmeccanica says the sale values €170 million ($223 million),and covers AW119Ke,AW139, AW169,AW189 and GrandNew aircraft,for roles including VIP trans- port. AgustaWestland says the agreement makes it “well-positioned” to grow further from the previous sale of 40 helicopters in China. ISRAELI TARGET LAUNCH SPARKS BALLISTIC ALERT INCIDENT Russia’s defence ministry was put on heightened alert on 3 September,after early warning radars detected two unidentified “ballistic objects” over the Mediterranean sea. The scare was later confirmed as having been prompted by the launch of two Rafael Sparrow-series target missiles from an Israeli air force Boeing F-15. The activity was performed as a joint Israeli/US test in support of the development of Israel’s Arrow 3 ballistic missile interceptor. DENMARK ORDERS MX-15 SENSOR FOR AW101 EQUIPMENT Denmark has ordered a minimum of eight L-3 Wescam MX-15 electro-optical/infrared sensors for its AgustaWestland AW101 tactical transport helicopters. The equipment will be fitted by the nation’s Defence Acquisition and Logistics Organisation by 2014. The Royal Danish Air Force operates 14 AW101s,with part of the fleet tasked with providing search and rescue services. FRANCE STEPS IN WITH ARIANE 5 UPGRADE BUDGET SPACEFLIGHT With a €25 million ($33 million) allocation,the French government has agreed to meet the lion’s share of the ap- proximately €35 million cost of upgrading the European Space Agency’s Ariane 5 rocket to accommodate a new generation of larger- volume telecommunications satellites. The programme,to fly from 2015,will add 2m (6ft) to the available height inside the launcher’s payload fairing,without altering its profile. The added volume is likely to be demanded by satellite customers opting for all- or more-electric designs,which eliminate propellant tanks but add solar panel area. BRIEFING preparing additional RAF QFIs, increasing the number of instruc- tors sourced from other air forces or approving Ascent-employed instructors to command some flights, officials say. “Spare capacity is something that is being looked at, but there is no simple answer,” says Grp Capt Simon Blake, from the RAF’s 22 Group training organi- sation. “Lots of other air forces are coming here and seeing that we are filling the [training capability] gap,” he notes. Meanwhile, activities involv- ing the RAF’s Hawk T1-equipped 208 Sqn have been extended at Valley, with the service currently providing Phase IV lead-in fighter training for Royal Saudi Air Force pilots. Riyadh will take delivery of its first of 22 T2-equivalent Hawks from BAE in 2015. The remainder of the MFTS programme’s fixed-wing equip- ment package should be deter- mined by 2015, with one type to deliver elementary training and a turboprop-powered basic trainer offering “jet-like performance” to replace the RAF’s current Shorts Tucano T1s. Operations should commence from around 2018, says Ascent’s Simon Falla. Follow the latest global defence aviation news and views at flightglobal.com/dewline
- 9. THIS WEEK 10-16 September2013 | Flight International | 9flightglobal.com Human factors loom in Super Puma crash report THISWEEK P10 SAFETY STEPHEN TRIMBLE WASHINGTON DC FAA finalises 787 electrical review Safety regulator has completed detailed technical work for investigation into Dreamliner’s problematic power systems The US Federal Aviation Ad- ministration confirms the agency is close to finalising a comprehensive safety review of the Boeing 787’s problematic electrical system. The agency has completed the detailed technical work for what the FAA now calls the “critical systems review” of the 787. “At this time the report is being final- ised,” the agency says. As the US National Transpor- tation Safety Board (NTSB) con- tinues its search for the root cause of the overheating lithium ion batteries, the public release of the report by the FAA on the overall electrical system could provide new context about the incidents that caused the 787 to be grounded for four months earlier this year. However, is still unclear if the FAA will call for any design changes or operational restric- tions on the 787 as a result of the report’s findings. “Boeing continues to work co- operatively with the FAA as the report on the 787 critical systems review is finalised,” the airframer says. “Until the report has been published, it would be inappro- priate for us to comment further.” The report was commissioned by then-Secretary of Transporta- tion Ray LaHood on 11 January, coming in between the two bat- tery incidents that prompted the FAA to order the 787 grounded for four months. While the lithium-ion battery became the focus of safety probes by the FAA and NTSB, the review initiated by LaHood was designed to consider safety concerns affect- ing the 787’s entire electrical ar- chitecture. The 787 had experienced sev- eral electrical problems before the two battery malfunctions in Janu- ary. In December, Qatar Airways and United Airlines grounded certain 787s due to a faulty batch of circuit boards. One United 787 made a pre- cautionary landing in Houston on 4 December after one of the air- craft’s six electrical generators failed due to the circuit board problem. The 787 is the first and still the only commercial airliner that uses electrical power to pressu- rise the passenger cabin rather than a pneumatic system driven by bleed-air from the engine’s compressor stages. Follow a timeline detailing the 787’s troubled operations: flightglobal.com/787woes Bombardier is readying its CSeries twinjet for its maiden sortie, with the final pre-flight tests beginning at the airframer’s Mirabel facility. Airport watchers spotted on 1 September the initial flight-test vehicle, FTV-1, performing what appeared to be high-speed taxi trials, although Bombardier later played these down, describing them as “high-speed low-speed tests”. Bombardier says these were slightly below its 70kt (130km/h) threshold for high-speed tests. Quicker taxi runs and rejected take-off trials – some of the last ground tests required before flight – were due to be performed in the following days, but were scrubbed due to weather con- cerns, Bombardier says. Landing gear and other further testing has yet to take place, the airframer says. The flightcrew reports that FTV-1 is “handling beautifully” in testing, it adds. The crew in- cludes chief pilot Chuck Ellis, first officer Andy Litavniks and flight test engineer Andreas Hartono. Bombardier received a flight test permit for the CSeries from regulator Transport Canada on 30 August. The permit allows Bom- bardier to conduct the high-speed trials as well as first flight once all ground testing is complete. DEVELOPMENT EDWARD RUSSELL WASHINGTON DC CSeries speeds towards maiden-sortie milestone ORDER EDWARD RUSSELL WASHINGTON DC Delta weighs in with A330 deal Airbus has secured a launch customer for the higher gross weight variant of its A330, after US carrier Delta Air Lines or- dered 10 of the enhanced type. The first A330s will be deliv- ered to the Atlanta-based carrier in the second quarter of 2015, and will be powered by General Elec- tric CF6-80E1 engines. Announced in November 2012, the 242t A330 benefits from 500nm (925km) of additional range, taking it to 6,100nm, and 5t of extra payload, compared with the current 235t A330, ac- cording to Airbus. Delta plans to use the aircraft on both trans-At- lantic and trans-Pacific routes. Delta additionally ordered 30 sharklet-equipped A321 narrow- bodies, with deliveries from the first quarter of 2016. The aircraft are to be powered by CFM Inter- national CFM56 engines. The carrier puts the total value of the deal at about $5.6 billion at list prices. “This Airbus agreement is another opportunistic fleet trans- action for Delta in which we ac- quire economically efficient, proven-technology aircraft,” says Richard Anderson, chief execu- tive of Delta. Many of Delta’s new A321s will come from Airbus’s new final as- sembly line in Mobile, Alabama, says the airframer, which will de- liver its first aircraft in 2016. Airbus The carrier will take the higher gross weight variant of the twinjet PatrickCardinal Taxi trials are under way at Bombardier’s Mirabel facility
- 10. THIS WEEK flightglobal.com10 |Flight International | 10-16 September 2013 For a round-up of our latest online news, feature and multimedia content visit flightglobal.com/wotw helicopter was “on the published horizontal and vertical profile of the approach to runway 09, with airspeed decreasing steadily”. However, a mile later it had de- scended some 240ft (73m) below the vertical approach profile, and its rate of descent had hit 500ft/ min, with an airspeed of 68kt (126km/h). The statement adds: “The airspeed continued to re- duce to below 30kt, and as it did so the helicopter pitched increas- ingly nose-up. “The rate of descent remained constant for a period before in- creasing rapidly. “Shortly thereafter the helicop- ter, which was intact, struck the sea in a near level pitch attitude with a slight right bank. Both engines were delivering power until impact.” Suspicions that the crash was not due to an issue with the air- frame or engines began to surface shortly after the Aberdeen-based Helicopter Safety Steering Group lifted its voluntary flight ban cov- ering all Super Puma variants on 29 August. A statement was released the following day by the UK Civil Aviation Authority which backed the HSSG’s position, stressing that it did not believe “the acci- dent was caused by an airworthi- ness or technical problem, and consider that the decision by the operators to resume Super Puma flights is appropriate”. “We would not allow a return to service unless we were satisfied that it was safe to do so. We will reviewthepositionifanynewevi- dence comes to light,” it said. miles, but was descending faster than appropriate at a time when the crew would still not have been able to see the runway through the thin mist present. When air traffic control at Sumburgh provided the CHC crew with radar vectors to join the localiser/DME approach to 09, visibility was 1.5nm (2.8km), and the wind was 17kt from the southeast. On such an approach lateral guidance is provided, but the crew must set and monitor their own vertical profile by plot- ting DME distance from the run- way against the height they should be passing at that point. The statement says that at three miles from the threshold the Aterse statement by the UK Air Accidents Investigation Branch has provided basic facts downloaded from the cockpit voice and flight data recorder of the CHC Scotia AS332L2 Super Puma helicopter (G-WSNB) in- volved in a fatal crash on ap- proach to Sumburgh, in the Shetland Isles, on 23 August. Crucially, no technical failure has been detected, the statement says, noting that both engines continued to deliver power until the helicopter impacted the sea. Four passengers were killed during the accident. It adds: “To date, no evidence of a causal technical failure has been identified; however, de- tailed examination of the [com- bined cockpit voice and flight data recorder] and the helicopter wreckage is continuing.” During the localiser/DME non- precision approach to Sum- burgh’s runway 09, the aircraft was on the correct vertical de- scent profile at three nautical INCIDENT DAVID LEARMOUNT LONDON Human factors loom in crash report Air Accidents Investigation Branch suggests technical issues with helicopter were not to blame for Super Puma accident STUDY DOMINIC PERRY LONDON Passenger capacity could be cut by wide-ranging review North Sea operators could face fun- damental changes – including red;ucing the number of passengers carried in each aircraft – depending on the outcome of a root-and-branch review of offshore helicopter trans- portation safety. Launched in the wake of the 23 August fatal accident of a CHC Scotia-operated Eurocopter AS332L2,the study has been com- missioned by pan-industry body the Helicopter Safety Steering Group. Although it is still framing the terms of reference for the inquiry and considering who should chair it, the HSSG promises that it will act on any recommendations produced. “Ignoring them is not an accept- able outcome for any of us,that’s just not how we do things around here,” says Les Linklater,team lead at Step Change in Safety,the organi- sation behind the HSSG. “If there are things we can do to make heli- copter operations safer then we have to do them.” Linklater says the report,which will take around six months to com- plete,will have to look beyond any issues around airworthiness and also examine other areas of con- cern,such as the relative safety records of the UK and Norway,plus the internal configuration of all the offshore transportation helicopters. Both the EC225 and the rival Sikorsky S-92 can accommodate 19 passengers,but concerns have been raised – notably via social me- dia – that the cabin of the Eurocopter type is too cramped to comfortably seat that many people. “The sense from [passengers] is that they feel there are too many people in the back. But it’s some- thing that we are not going to con- sider via Facebook,but through interviews,” says Linklater. Eurocopter says it will participate in the study as part of its efforts to mend relations with the offshore workforce. Dominique Maudet,ex- ecutive vice-president global busi- ness and services at Eurocopter, says: “You can’t avoid the emotion, but at some point you have to look at the facts and figures. “We will look at whatever modifi- cations we can make in the short and medium term to better address passenger comfort,especially com- pared with other aircraft.” HSSG includes representatives from offshore workforce trade un- ions,as well as the three Aberdeen operators. However,Linklater hopes to broaden this to include regular participation from the three main helicopter manufacturers: AgustaWestland,Eurocopter and Sikorsky. PA Four passengers were killed in the 23 August incident “To date, no evidence of a causal technical failure has been identified” AAIB STATEMENT David Learmount offers his views on aviation safety: flightglobal.com/learmount
- 11. flightglobal.com THIS WEEK Fuel contaminationhas been confirmed as the cause of a double engine malfunction on a Cathay Pacific Airbus A330-300 on approach to Hong Kong Inter- national airport, which led to a high-speed emergency landing of the twinjet. In a final report into the 13 April 2010 incident, Hong Kong’s Civil Aviation Department (CAD) says that 24.4t of contaminated fuel was uplifted into the A330 at Surabaya’s Juanda International airport in Indonesia. This caused stiction in the fuel metering units of both engines, leading to the total seizure of the components and the loss of thrust controls during approach. Contaminants entered the fuel system via a hydrant refuelling circuit serving 10 stands at Sura- baya. This had undergone exten- sion work as part of an apron ex- pansion project at the airport. However, CAD found that salt water had apparently entered the system during the construction works. The recommissioning process of the reworked hydrant wasalsonotproperlycoordinated, which led to the premature resumption of refuelling opera- tions, says CAD – leading to contamination of the fuel with su- per-absorbent polymer material. It was this substance that caused the malfunction of the fuel metering units. The report notes that airport personnel uploading the fuel failed to react to abnormal vibra- tions of the equipment, caused by the reaction between the polymer material and salt water to form a gel-like substance. Operatives failed to stop the procedure and investigate the cause of the vibra- tion, it says. The affected aircraft (B-HLL) was operating flight CX780 when both its Rolls-Royce Trent 700 en- gines malfunctioned. The crew had to issued a Mayday call and eventually landed at a high ground speed of 231kt (427km/h), causing the lower cowling of one engine to contact the runway and overheated brakes that left five tyres deflated. Passengers evacu- ated using escape slides. PT Pertamina, which carried out the refuelling at Surabaya, has since changed its procedures and equipment to prevent a repeat of the incident. SAFETY MAVIS TOH SINGAPORE Dirty fuel blamed for Cathay A330’s engineemergency Investigators pin twinjet’s double powerplant malfunction on contaminated Jet-A1 uplifted at Indonesia’s Juanda airport Keep up to date with the latest global airline news online at flightglobal.com/airlines flyphanUKgalleryonflightglobal.com/AirSpace The Cathay widebody landed with a ground speed of 231kt
- 12. AIR TRANSPORT flightglobal.com12 |Flight International | 10-16 September 2013 Check out our collection of online dynamic aircraft profiles for the latest news,images and information on civil and military programmes at flightglobal.com/profiles Investigators have determined that the crew of an Eva Air Airbus A330-300 (B-16331) failed to adapt to changing weather and visibility, during an incident where the aircraft veered off the runway after landing at Taipei’s Songshan airport last year. The incident took place on 13 September, and involved flight BR189, from Tokyo’s Haneda air- port. Taiwan’s Aviation Safety Council (ASC) says that during the flight the crew received infor- mation that visibility at Songshan airport was 5,000m (16,400ft) with haze, and that at 5nm (9km) from the runway threshold, visi- bility was 7,000m, with wet run- way conditions and heavy rain. Interviews with the crew re- vealed that while they could see the runway at 3-4nm from the threshold during their approach, they could not see the end of the runway clearly. About 9s before landing the aircraft started to drift to the right of the runway centreline. Upon landing, the aircraft’s right main wheels veered off the tarmac, only regaining the runway ap- proximately 305m (1,000ft) later. Although the aircraft was not damaged in the incident, two runway edge lights were rendered inoperative. “The aircraft touched down at the right side of the runway cen- treline. After landing, the aircraft veered off the runway [as] the flightcrew did not adequately control the aircraft direction,” says the ASC. Although the crew had ade- quate situational awareness and had acknowledged the rainy con- ditions, they failed to make “ap- propriate judgement and action according to the weather change and abrupt visibility variation at landing phase”, it says. The pilot monitoring the decent also did not perform standard call-outs when the speed range met the criteria for doing so. Eva also lacked any standard call-out procedures in its manu- als to deal with a runway excur- sion post-touchdown. The ASC has since recommended that Eva reinforce its flightcrew’s manoeu- vring and handling training in instances where visual references are insufficient. INVESTIGATION MAVIS TOH SINGAPORE Crew failed to adapt to poor visibility Changing conditions on approach to Taipei airport led to A330’s right main wheels leaving the runway following landing JetBlue Airways’s subsidiary LiveTV has received supple- mental type certification from the US Federal Aviation Administra- tion for its Ka-band in-flight inter- net on Airbus A320s, paving the way for the airline to offer broad- band on revenue flights. Testing of the satellite-based wi-fi system has been completed on an A320, and trials are also underwayonaBoeing737-900ER operated by United Airlines, says LiveTV. “This is game-changing tech- nology,” says JetBlue chief commercial officer Robin Hayes. “We expect to have a number of JetBlue aircraft installed with wi-fi by the end of this year, and will aggressively roll it out across our Airbus fleet over the next 18 months, followed by our Embraer fleet.” Hayes claims JetBlue’s wi-fi, dubbed “Fly-Fi” by the airline, will be “the fastest in-flight wi-fi in the industry”. JetBlue has previously indicat- ed it plans to operate three A320s with the system for 90 days for longer-term testing. Next year the airline intends to install the sys- tem on further A320s, before fit- ting it on its fleet of E-190s. JetBlue has 129 Airbus narrow- bodies and 59 E-190s in its fleet, according to Flightglobal’s As- cend Online Fleets database. LiveTv says it is also seeking Ka-band certification from EASA on Aer Lingus A320s. REGULATIONS DAVID KAMINSKI-MORROW LONDON Kazakhstan safety drive targets EU blacklisting IFE JON HEMMERDINGER WASHINGTON DC FAA green lights JetBlue ‘Fly-Fi’ Kazakhstan’s government has introduced dozens of amend- ed regulations aimed at improv- ing the central Asian state’s air safety oversight. Transport minister Askar Zhumagaliyev discussed progress in the area with ICAO’s European regional director Luis Fonseca de Almeida, during a meeting in early September. Kazakhstan has brought in 80 amendments to civil aviation regulations, the transport minis- try says, of which 70 relate to safety, in an effort to harmonise with international standards. On 3 September a new aviation security training centre opened in Almaty, which the ministry says will complement other centres in Moscow and Kiev. Kazakhstan remains subject to a blacklisting by the European Commission, which the govern- ment is keen to have lifted. Safety revision efforts have included recertification of the country’s operators. Air Astana is exempt from the blanket European ban. The Com- mission, in its most recent blacklist revision, confirmed that ramp checks had revealed “no specific concern” with the carri- er’s operations. AirTeamImages The Eva Air pilots were censured for failing to adequately control the aircraft’s direction Keep up with safety issues in aviation online by logging on to flightglobal.com/safety
- 13. AIR TRANSPORT 10-16 September2013 | Flight International | 13flightglobal.com VirginAustraliaeyes newwidebodies AIRTRANSPORT P14 The parent company of defunct Indian carrier Kingfisher Air- lines has filed a $234 million law- suit against International Aero Engines (IAE) over its V2500-A5 powerplants. The suit was filed by United BreweriesinBengaluru,andalleg- es that the engines “were inher- ently defective, both in design and manufacture”. The suit was re- vealed in the carrier’s annual re- portforthefinancialyearended31 March. The suit seeks damages of $210 million in addition to Rs1.6 billion($24million). An airline spokesman contact- ed about the suit declined to pro- vide further details. Kingfisher has been grounded since Septem- ber 2012, and in its annual report states it has defaulted on “pay- ments to several creditors”. It attributed its problems to a “difficult operating environment as well as the engine problems”. Kingfisher was formerly a major operator of Airbus A320- family aircraft powered by IAE V2500 engines. In August 2010 the carrier had problems with the V2500 that caused it to ground nine A320s. The carrier said it had experi- enced “technical issues” with stages three to eight of the 10-stage high-pressure compressor in the engine,amongotherproblems. Subsequently, on 19 August 2010, IAE said it would replace parts on some of its V2500 en- gines on in-operation aircraft after discovering problems with the engine’s high-pressure compres- sor drum in 2009. No-one from IAE was available to comment. AVienna court has called into question the legality of a move last year by Austrian Air- lines to transfer flights to regional subsidiary Tyrolean Airways as part of its restructuring plans, de- spite ruling it strictly complies with the country’s labour laws. The Lufthansa-owned carrier moved all flight operations to Ty- rolean in July 2012 to cut staff costs for pilots and cabin crew after failing to negotiate a new deal with unions. While employ- ee salary levels were not reduced, the move was aimed at slowing the rate of pay increases. In the ruling, the Vienna La- bour and Social Affairs Court says that an “ostensible viola- tion” of law has not taken place, but it has called into question the transfer of operations within a corporate group. “We acknowledge the first in- stance judgment,” says Austrian Airlines chief executive Jaan Al- brecht. “It is surprising for us that [the judge] casts doubt upon the common practice of transferring operations as part of group re- structuring programmes. “We will pursue every legal av- enue at our disposal in the ap- peals process in order to legally safeguard our restructuring path. In the meantime, we hope that the talks initiated with the works council on the collective wage agreement will result in a viable solution independent of the deci- sion handed down by the court,” he adds. The labour court ruling deals with the specific legal repercus- sions on the transfer of flight op- erations to Tyrolean from an em- ployment law basis. The Lufthansa Group carrier is looking to trim staff costs Boeing764galleryonflightglobal.com/AirSpaceAirTeamImages The carrier said it had ‘technical issues’ with stages three to eight of the 10-stage compressor SAS Group has sold seven Bombardier Q400 turboprops to Norwegian operation Widerøe, following its divestment of a ma- jority shareholding in the airline. It says the loans on these air- craft have also been transferred to the carrier. Three Q400s were also sold to Widerøe and then sold on to a leasing company. Investors led by the Torghatten firm are taking an 80% share in Widerøe and SAS will hand over full ownership of the airline in 2016. SAS Group says it will re- Q400 deal cements Widerøe sell-off DIVESTMENT DAVID KAMINSKI-MORROW LONDON EMPLOYMENT GRAHAM DUNN LONDON Court raises questions over Austrian’s Tyrolean transfer Chief executive vows to appeal ruling as carrier seeks to safeguard restructuring plans POWERPLANTS GREG WALDRON SINGAPORE IAE faces court challenge from Kingfisherowner For more business stories, see the September edition of sister publication airlinebusiness.com However, it will have no bear- ing on a separate judicial probe into the move being undertaken by Austria’s supreme court to clarify the effects on former Aus- trian Airlines flight personnel caused by the termination of their collective wage agreement. In June that court sought a clar- ification from the European Court of Justice on several legal issues about the operational transfer. ceive Swedish krona (SKr)2 bil- lion ($300 million) through the sale of the initial Widerøe share- holding and the aircraft, from which the group’s liquidity will benefit by SKr1 billion. SAS Group has sold the turboprops to its former regional carrier
- 14. AIR TRANSPORT flightglobal.com14 |Flight International | 10-16 September 2013 Check out our collection of online dynamic aircraft profiles for the latest news,images and information on civil and military programmes at flightglobal.com/profiles Virgin Australia is evaluating new long-haul twinjets from both the big airframers as potential replacements for its Airbus A330-300s and Boeing 777-300ERs. Chief executive John Borghetti says the airline is in the process of running the rule over both widebody types, and that it “could be making a decision in the next six to 12 months”. He notes, however, that as the carrier’s widebody fleet is rela- tively young, there is no great ur- gency to place an order. “We want to make a consid- ered decision – the right decision for our route network,” says Borghetti, adding that “they are both good aircraft”. Flightglobal’s Ascend Online Fleets database shows that Vir- gin’s six A330s have an average age of five years, while the five 777s are slightly younger, at an average of four years. The A330s are all leased, while the airline owns four of the five 777s. Comac has started installing components on its C919 iron bird ground-test rig, and is aiming to have the aircraft’s landing gear fitted by late September. The Chinese airframer says as- sembly of the test rig is a key task for the firm. In the first half of the year, several components necessary for iron bird tests were delivered, the manufacturer adds. Suppliers have also started tooling design and manufacturing of parts, it says, without provid- ing further details. So far, over 200 tubes for the iron bird have been made. Last month, Eaton and Shang- hai Aircraft Manufacturing’s joint venture delivered the first batch of conveyance tubes to Comac, becoming the first supplier to de- liver parts for the C919. First flight for the new narrow- body is now set for end-2015 – a delay from the original 2014 schedule. To date, Comac has received 380 commitments for its C919, mostly from Chinese airlines and leasing companies. Comac matures fledgling C919 iron bird test rig TRIALS MAVIS TOH SINGAPORE STRATEGY ELLIS TAYLOR SINGAPORE Virgin Australia eyes new widebodies Carrier evaluates rival long-haul twinjets as it looks for potential replacements for its Airbus A330 and Boeing 777 fleets PROGRAMME DAVID KAMINSKI-MORROW LONDON Brégier heaps praise on ‘maturity’ of A350 prototype Airbus has completed over 150h of flight testing with its A350 prototype, having resumed the campaign in August following a short break. The first test aircraft,MSN1,re- emerged in mid-August after under- going modifications to its flight-test installation in July. These included the fitting of a device beneath the aft fuselage which appears to be linked to high-attitude take-off testing,al- though Airbus says these minimum- unstick tests have not yet been conducted and are not scheduled for the “immediate future”. Airbus chief executive Fabrice Brégier has completed his first flight Virgin uses its A330s on do- mestic services, primarily on transcontinental flights, while the 777s are operated on long- haul route to Los Angeles and Abu Dhabi. Rival carrier Qantas is yet to decide on when it may firm up options for the 50 787-9s that are available for delivery from 2016 onwards. The airline has previously said it intends to use the 787s to expand its network in Asia, subject to its interna- tional business becoming profit- able in 2015. Last year, Virgin ordered 23 Boeing 737 Max 8s and deferred delivery of some of its existing 737-800 orders. The first Max air- craft are due to arrive in 2019. AirTeamImagesAirbus The Airbus CEO aboard the jet The airline’s five 777s have an average age of four years Get the latest news on the de- velopment of the Airbus A350: flightglobal.com/A350 on board the aircraft,joining a rou- tine 3h sortie over southwest France. “I was particularly impressed by the maturity of the aircraft at such an early stage in its life,” he says. “The new cockpit layout with the large screens and head-up display are amazing and I am confident that pilots are going to love being behind the controls of this machine.” Airbus is nearly three months into A350 flight testing,following the type’s maiden flight on 14 June.
- 15. AIR TRANSPORT 10-16 September2013 | Flight International | 15flightglobal.com UK revealsAEW programme costs DEFENCE P16 The Mitsubishi Regional Jet is taking longer than anticipated to develop because of the chal- lenges it has encountered in adopting the US Federal Aviation Administration’s new certifica- tion and approval process. Yugo Fukuhara, Mitsubishi Aircraft head of sales, says the new regional type is the first air- craft to fully apply the FAA’s or- ganisational delegation authorisa- tion (ODA) system, which came into effect in 2009. Although the new system had been partly used before, this was in relation to Boeing’s 787, where the airframer delegated some responsibilities for performing tests to demon- strate that the Dreamliner’s lithi- um-ion batteries complied with airworthiness requirements. Mitsubishi says under ODA it has been granted the authority to design, test and analyse proce- dures and trial results to prove airworthiness requirements. This means that it has had to invest significant time and resources to develop the required processes, it says. “With this new system, all design and manufacturing internal processes must be docu- mented in advance and approved by the authorities. We need to build new processes to validate compliance not only for our- selves, but also for all our compo- nent partners,” says Fukuhara. “Our partners are aware of this new system, but we have to inte- grate their old system into our new processes,” he adds. “Of course, this new ODA system came in 2009, we knew this system conceptually, but it has taken a longer time than expected [to implement].” The nature of the system means that every component on the regional jet was affected by the process. With a clear process in place, however, maintaining the MRJ’s revised first flight schedule should be “very straightforward”, says Fukuhara. His comments come a week after the Japanese airframer an- nounced a third delay to its pro- gramme schedule, pushing first flight of the MRJ90 from end-2013 to the second quarter of 2015, with deliveries to follow in the first half of 2017. “We hope this should be the last delay we announce,” says Fukuhara. Mitsubishi is now assembling its first flight- and ground-test air- craft. The first Pratt & Whitney PW1200G engines for the jet should be delivered to Mitsubishi in the spring of 2014. MitsubishiAircraft First flight is now expected in the second quarter of 2015 State-run Russian transport leasing company GTLK is to co-operate with lessor Ilyushin Finance on the supply of Tupolev Tu-204SM aircraft. GTLK has signed a memoran- dum with the lessor confirming its interest in participating in leasing projects to carriers Red Wings and VIM-Avia. The two sides reached the agreement during August’s MAKS air show in Moscow. Red Wings has agreed to take 10 Tu-204SMs from Ilyushin Fi- nance, as well as 10 Irkut MC-21s and 10 Bombardier Q400s. VIM-Avia is also taking a batch of Bombardier CSeries twinjets from the lessor, which has 32 on order. TWINJET MAVIS TOH SINGAPORE MRJ delay pinned on FAA paperwork Efforts by Mitsubishi to adopt administration’s new certification and approval regulations have delayed new jet, it says AGREEMENT Lessors sign up for joint Tupolev Tu-204 supply Russia’s Rosaviaconsortium, which is developing a triple- aisle medium-haul aircraft desig- nated the Frigate Ecojet, is edging towards the production phase of the programme. Based on the aircraft’s dimen- sions and technical characteris- tics, ThyssenKrupp System Engi- neering has developed a masterplan for the Ecojet’s final assembly. During a joint presen- tation at August’s MAKS air show, the partners released de- tails of a new facility designed to accommodate a 245m (800ft)- long, 75m-wide assembly line. Andreas Bekker, project man- ager at ThyssenKrupp, says the whole assembly process will be completed at four workstations, connected to logistics and inven- tory areas. “It would begin with the joining of parts of the [ellipti- cal] fuselage,” says Bekker. “After the wings, empennage and un- dercarriage have been assembled, engine mounting and interior outfitting would follow. System inspections and testing will be done at the final station.” “Flow line production should allow us to raise annual output from 16 to 45 aircraft within five years,” says Ecojet programme director Alexander Klimov. Rosaviaconsortium has complet- ed windtunnel trials of the Ecojet mock-up at the TsAGI Central Aerohydrodynamic Institute, and plans to release working design drawings by August 2014. “With the masterplan in place, our task now is to select a site for the assembly line,” says Klimov. “To this end, we’ll issue requests for proposals to prospective bid- ders in Russia and abroad.” DEVELOPMENT TOM ZAITSEV MOSCOW Ecojet project on approach to production phase A mock-up of the aircraft has completed windtunnel testing Rosaviaconsortium Missed MAKS? Read all the analysis from the show floor: flightglobal.com/MAKS
- 16. DEFENCE flightglobal.com16 | FlightInternational | 10-16 September 2013 For free access to Flightglobal’s Defence e-newsletter visit flightglobal.com/ defencenewsletter Pratt & Whitney and the US Department of Defense have reached an agreement in princi- ple for the production of a sixth lot of 38 F135 engines for the Lockheed Martin F-35 Joint Strike Fighter. “This agreement represents a fair deal for [the] government and Pratt & Whitney,” says Lt Gen Chris Bogdan, F-35 programme executive officer. “Driving down cost is critical to the success of this programme, and we are working together to lower costs for the propulsion system.” “Cost details will be released when the LRIP [low-rate initial production] 6 contract is final- ised,” the F-35 Joint Program Office (JPO) says. Unit prices for the convention- al version of the F135 are expect- ed to drop by 2.5% compared with the previous production lot, the JPO says, but the price for six short take-off and vertical landing F135 engines to be contained within the deal should fall by roughly 9.6%. Deliveries will begin in the fourth quarter of this year. Further details of the UK Royal Navy’s Crowsnest next-gener- ation airborne early warning pro- gramme have been disclosed by the nation’s Ministry of Defence, with the effort expected to have a maximum cost of around £500 million ($782 million). To provide replacements for the Fleet Air Arm’s current West- land Sea King 7 airborne surveil- lance and control system helicop- ters, Crowsnest recently entered a second assessment phase. This is concerned with candidate radars and mission systems which could be installed aboard eight upgrad- ed AgustaWestland AW101 Mer- lin HM2 rotorcraft for the navy from later this decade. Merlin HM2 programme prime contractor Lockheed Martin is of- fering its Vigilance mission suite, combined with a Northrop Grum- man radar for Crowsnest, while Thales is promoting an update of its Cerberus system and Search- water 2000 sensor already used with the Sea King 7. Elta Systems and Selex ES are also offering ra- dars for the requirement, accord- ing to evidence given to the UK Public Accounts Committee by MoD officials earlier this year. In a report about the UK’s future carrier strike capability published on 3 September, the committee voiced concern that the Crowsnest system is not scheduled to achieve full capabil- ity until 2022 – two years after the expected initial use of the RN’s first Queen Elizabeth-class air- craft carrier with deployed Lock- heed F-35B combat aircraft. Service trials with the selected system would commence in 2020, the MoD says, with initial operational capability to be de- clared late the same year. “By the time we get to 2020 we will own four Crowsnest helicopters, of which two would be available to deploy in extremis,” deputy chief of defence staff (military capabil- ity) Air Marshal Stephen Hillier told the committee. Prior to achieving a full carrier strike capability, the UK “would be working alongside allies and would be able to share capabili- ties”, he notes. The MoD expects to launch a third assessment phase activity next year, and to make a main gate investment decision for the Crowsnest system in 2017; one year after its last Sea Kings have been retired. The programme is expected to have a total cost rang- ing between £230 million and around £500 million, it says. The US Air Force and Boeing completed a critical design re- view (CDR) process for the KC-46 tanker on 21 August, more than one month ahead of a contractual milestone previously set for 24 September. “I’m pleased to report that the design of the KC-46A tanker has been locked down,” says Maj Gen John Thompson, the USAF’s pro- gramme executive officer for tankers. Boeing and the USAF had been working on component and sub- system design reviews for 10 months to complete the process, the service says. “Closure of CDR formally establishes the KC-46 design and now allows the pro- gramme to progress into its man- ufacturing and development test phases,” it adds. Manufacture of the first tanker is already under way, with Boeing having begun wing assembly work on 26 June. Flight testing of the basic Boeing 767-2C airframe, which will later be reconfigured into the KC-46, is scheduled to begin in mid-2014. The first fully-equipped KC-46 tanker is projected to fly in early 2015, according to the air force. Boeing is contracted to build four test aircraft and deliver 18 combat-ready tankers by August 2017, as part of a process to re- place a portion of the USAF’s aged Boeing KC-135 fleet. If the service exercises all of its options, it will receive a total of 179 of the aircraft by 2028. CONTEST CRAIG HOYLE LONDON UK reveals AEW programme costs Next-generation Crowsnest system to be readied for initial use in 2020, as MoD sets potential value at £500 million DEVELOPMENT DAVE MAJUMDAR WASHINGTON DC KC-46 CDR accomplished early The first fully-equipped aircraft is projected to fly in early 2015 POWERPLANTS F-35 engine production agreement a ‘fair deal’ Boeing CrownCopyright Operations with the aged Sea King 7 will end by March 2016
- 17. DEFENCE 10-16 September 2013| Flight International | 17flightglobal.com Israeli air force pushes 12-aircraft KC-135R deal DEFENCE P18 Embraer has delivered the first modernised A-1M AMX subsonic strike aircraft to the Brazilian air force at its Gavião Peixoto site. “The A-1 fighter jets are funda- mental elements for the defence of Brazil, including its territorial coastal waters,” says Gen Juniti Saito, the service’s commander. “We have been very successful in using this aircraft on such highly complex operations as the Cruzex and Red Flag exercises. Its modernisation presents a big gain in capability.” The A-1M programme pro- vides for the upgrade of 43 AMX jets, which were originally devel- oped under a joint venture with Italy’s then-Aermacchi. So far, 16 of Brazil’s aircraft have been in- ducted into Embraer’s facilities for refurbishment. The modernisation package adds new weapons, radar and navigation equipment, plus elec- tronic countermeasures. Embraer is also performing structural refurbishments that will extend the type’s service life until 2025. Brazil’s current operational AMX inventory also comprises 46 A-1/1A single-seat strike air- craft and 10 B-model trainers, says Flightglobal’s MiliCAS database. India’s comptroller and auditor general (CAG) has slammed the acquisition of 12 AgustaWestland AW101 VVIP transport helicop- ters for the Indian air force in its probe into the deal. According to the report, “the entire process of acquisition of VVIP helicopters right from fram- ing of [the] services qualitative requirements to the conclusion of contract deviated from laid down procedures.” This, it adds, “poses serious questions on accountabil- ity and lack of transparency in the finalisation of the contract, which need to be addressed.” India’s Central Bureau of Inves- tigation has already registered a case against 13 people and six firms with regard to the AW101 contract, which has been put on hold. New Delhi has already paid about 30% of the €560 million ($737 million) total, and received three aircraft. AgustaWestland refutes the auditor’s allegations, saying that changed air force requirements, including stipulating a cabin height of 5.9ft (1.8m), was met by other helicopters and did not lead to the “ejection of any competing aircraft”. This counters the report’s claim that the decision to raise the height from an original 4.8ft led to a single vendor situation, and “resulted in an operational disadvantage” for the air force. The CAG also highlighted a reduction in the VVIP aircraft’s required service ceiling, which dropped to 14,800ft from the 19,700ft cited in an earlier request for proposals. AgustaWestland says it sent letters to the Indian air force in 2005 stating that the AW101 could be modified to op- erate at the higher altitude. Alleged violations with respect to offset obligations are also men- tioned in the report. India has ordered eight AW101s in a VVIP configuration, and four for use as tactical trans- ports. Its air force is already believed to be having trouble in keeping its received three examples – delivered between November 2012 and February 2013 – airworthy. The ongoing controversy means that the air force will have to continue flying its eight ageing VVIP-roled Mil Mi-8s, which were acquired from 1988. The CAG report also questions the size of the AW101 order, noting that the current inventory saw a utilisation rate of approximately 29% between 1999 and 2010. Uncertainty over the contract has led to AgustaWestland slow- ing down work on the order at its Yeovil production site in Somer- set, the UK. Three more Indian aircraft are ready for delivery, with the remainder in an ad- vanced state of completion. The company remains hopeful that the transports will eventually be handed over, but exhibited one of the completed examples at the MAKS air show in Russia in late August, repainted in a new corporate livery. AgustaWestland AgustaWestland took a repainted transport to the MAKS show To learn more about our rotorcraft data service go to flightglobal.com/ascend INVESTIGATION Auditor slams Indian AW101 contract Report into halted VVIP helicopter programme questions transparency and accountability of European type’s selection CEREMONY C-17 inducted by Hindan ‘Skylords’ The Indian air force’s newly-raised 81 Sqn ‘Skylords’ unit has for- mally inducted the Boeing C-17 strategic transport into use, follow- ing a ceremony at Hindan air base. Three of New Delhi’s currently-contracted 10 C-17s were received between June and August 2013, with the air force to field two more before the end of this year, and the remaining five to be delivered during 2014. Boeing ENHANCEMENTS DAVE MAJUMDAR WASHINGTON DC Embraer delivers AMX upgrade
- 18. DEFENCE flightglobal.com18 | FlightInternational | 10-16 September 2013 For free access to Flightglobal’s Defence e-newsletter visit flightglobal.com/ defencenewsletter Boeing and the US Marine Corps are testing a prototype roll-on/roll-off aerial refuelling system for the Bell Boeing MV-22 Osprey tiltrotor, a senior service official says. The system, which consists of a high-speed aerial refuelling drogue and hose and reel mecha- nism, is being tested on an aircraft from the Marines’ VMX-22 opera- tional test and evaluation unit, says the squadron’s commander, Col Michael Orr. Boeing is paying for the demonstration, he notes. While flight-testing will in- volve the installation of a non- functional aerodynamic demon- strator for the refuelling system, Orr says he does not expect the process to encounter any issues, as it concerns the use of “off the shelf” equipment. Orr says the USMC is very in- terested in the MV-22 air-to-air refuelling system for use in sup- port of its short take-off and ver- tical landing Lockheed Martin F-35Bs. However, because test examples of the new type are scarce, the service is using a Boeing F/A-18 as a substitute for the current trials. Earlier in the year, the USMC’s deputy commandant for aviation Lt Gen Robert Schmidle laid out a number of operating concepts for the F-35B, including one where a full squadron of 16 of the new combat aircraft could be de- ployed onboard an amphibious assault ship, along with six MV-22s carrying roll-on/roll-off aerial refuelling kits. The Israeli air force will only evaluate a US offer to supply it with surplus Boeing KC-135 tankers if the aircraft are R-model examples, service sources say. Washington has so far only pro- posed the sale of three KC-135Es, worth around $200 million. These would be transferred under its ex- cess defence articles programme, through which it can equip its al- lies with secondhand hardware for free, or at a greatly reduced price. Israel’s air force is looking for a new tanker capability, and surplus KC-135s were several months ago included in a US offer of equipment, which also includ- ed an export sale of the Bell Boe- ing V-22 tiltrotor. According to Israeli sources, an agreement from Washington to supply ex-US Air Force CFM International CFM56-powered R-model aircraft could see the nation receive 12 examples, which would be transferred after undergoing depot maintenance in the USA. The air force intends to use two of the aircraft for VIP transport duties. The Israeli government has for some years evaluated options for acquiringan“AirForceOne”-type Turkish Aerospace Industries performed a 33min maiden sortie with its single-engined Hurkus turboprop trainer from Ankara Akinci air base on 29 Au- gust, the company says. EQUIPMENT ARIE EGOZI TEL AVIV Israeli air force pushes for 12-aircraft KC-135R deal Service to evaluate surplus tanker proposal if Washington offers CFM56-powered variant TAI The single-engined type was flown from Ankara Akinci air base Israeliairforce DEVELOPMENT TOLGA OZBEK ISTANBUL Hurkus turboprop trainer makes debut flight Israel currently operates an aged fleet of 10 707s capability to fly officials including the nation’s prime minister on overseas visits, but an earlier pro- gramme was shelved on cost grounds following the release of a requestforinformation.Noofficial response has been given to the sta- tus of the negotiations between Is- rael and the USA. Flightglobal’s Ascend Online Fleets database records the Israeli air force as having a current active fleet of 10 Pratt & Whitney JT3D-engined Boeing 707s, built between 1960 and 1979. Thistotalincludessevenboom- equipped tankers, two transports and one airborne early warning example equipped with Israel Aerospace Industries’ Phalcon surveillance radar, it says. ASSESSMENT DAVE MAJUMDAR WASHINGTON DC Boeing bankrolls Osprey in-flight refuelling kit test The MV-22 will trial tanker role Keep up to date with all the defence news from Israel at flightglobal.com/arielview USNavy Aircraft TC-VCH was flown with its landing gear extended and flaps set in a landing position for the duration of the debut. Take-off speed of the Pratt & Whitney Canada PT6-powered type was 100kt (185km/h), slight- ly higher than initially envisaged, and the Hurkus was flown to an altitude of 9,500ft (2,900m). A maximum speed of 140kt was achieved, due to the configu- ration flown, says test pilot Murat Ozpala. “We did not exceed 150kt, because the flaps were in the landing position.” he adds. The programme was launched in 2007, and the lead aircraft was rolled out in June 2012. TAI ex- pects to receive certification for the aircraft by the end of 2014, and to produce three variants.
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- 20. BUSINESS AVIATION flightglobal.com20 |Flight International | 10-16 September 2013 Keep up to date with all the latest business and general aviation news at flightglobal.com/bizav FANSTREAM FINANCING US engineering company Aviation Alliance has secured funding to develop and market its Gulfstream III conversion and modernisation programme – FanStream. According to the Paso Robles,California-based company,the modified Gulfstream III “will be a like-new, [US FAA noise level] Stage 3-compliant aircraft with a range approaching or exceeding 5,000nm [9,260km]”. The FanStream will feature new en- gines and a glass flightdeck,as well as a new interior,electrical system updates and new paint. Aviation Alliance plans to dis- close the FanStream’s availabil- ity,performance and pricing before the end of the year. TEGEL BOOST Jet Aviation has extended its facilities at Tegel International airport in Berlin to satisfy cus- tomer demand for full ground- handling services, it says. The fixed-base operation now in- cludes a customer lounge and crew briefing offices. “Tegel International is proving to be a very attractive destination for business, charter, VIP and [head of] state flights,” says Jet Aviation. TOCUMEN FBO Aviation services provider ASIG Panamá has broken ground on a new Signature Flight Support-branded fixed-base operation and private jet termi- nal at Tocumen International airport, which serves the Panamanian capital. MRO EXPANSION Dallas Aeronautical Services (DAS) Brazil is building a new maintenance, repair and overhaul base in aerospace centre São José dos Campos. The 70,000ft2 (6,500m2 ) facil- ity, which will specialise in the production, repair and over- haul of composites, structures and assemblies for business aircraft, is scheduled to open next year. IN BRIEF Russian Helicopters plans to perform the maiden flight of its new developmental high- speed rotorcraft towards the end of the decade as it eyes the fledg- ling market for advanced vertical- lift aircraft. Development of the airframer’s Russian Advanced Commercial Helicopter – or RACHEL – was first revealed at Farnborough air show in 2012. The company is now targeting first flight in 2018, says chief executive Dmitry Petrov. A flying testbed is being built around a Mil Mi-35 to vali- date systems that Petrov believes will translate into a 10t-class ma- chine capable of carrying 21-24 people at a cruise speed of 195- 205kt (360-380km/h). Compara- tively, AgustaWestland’s 30-pas- senger AW101 boasts a cruise speed of 150kt. Critically, says, Petrov, the air- craft must go into large-volume serial production, rather than exist as an expensive niche prod- uct. In addition to the basic passenger transport model with convertible cabin suitable for off- shore operations, Russian Heli- copters envisions special variants for search and rescue, patrol and medevac missions. At this point the company is giving away no clues as to the configuration of RACHEL, al- though its Mil and Kamov design bureaux in 2011 both fielded con- cepts for a high-speed helicopter. In addition, when it outlined the RACHEL programme in 2012 Russian Helicopters said it had decided to follow a “twin track” development approach. Kamov’s Ka-92 concept echoes Sikorsky’s X2, with coaxial main rotors and a single rear-mounted pusher prop. Mil’s Mi-X1 takes a different tack, with a single main rotor and pusher prop with steering vane. The latter design offers an in- teresting blend of the X2 or Ka-92 with Eurocopter’s X3 hybrid con- cept, which features a single main rotor and twin pusher props mounted laterally on short wings that provide some lift in forward flight. The speed parameters Petrov outlined at an August briefing at his Moscow offices fall well below the speeds in excess of 240kt achieved by the Euro- copter and Sikorsky demonstra- tion programmes. But Petrov believes that while technologies such as those being evaluated at Eurocopter or Sikor- sky “will eventually be used”, he does not see any market break- through for at least five to seven years, during which time conven- tional rotorcraft will dominate. RACHEL is being designed to replace the long-standing Mi-8/17 family, and sit alongside the heavier Mi-38. Meanwhile, a flying testbed has been evaluating the upgraded avionics, rotors and engines that will go into serial production with the Mi-171A2. According to Petrov, this air- craft will “bridge the gap” to RACHEL, and should have a mark∑et up to 2025. Talks are on- going with prospective launch customers, he adds. DEVELOPMENT DAN THISDELL MOSCOW Russian Helicopters speeds progress of next generation Prototype of faster rotorcraft, dubbed RACHEL, set for maiden flight by end of the decade Modified Twin Otter helps G-Sky grow TURBOPROPS KATE SARSFIELD LONDON US engineering company Ikha- na Aircraft Services has de- livered a modified de Havilland Canada DHC-6-200HG Twin Otter to Canadian charter start-up G-Sky Aviation. Themodification,originallyde- veloped by Ikhana predecessor RW Martin, boosts the gross weight of the Pratt & Whitney Canada PT6A-27-powered aircraft by 410kg to 5,680kg (12,500lb). Bill Houghton, general manag- er of operations for Fort McMur- ray, Alberta-based G-Sky, says: “This is the first Twin Otter to be put into service by G-Sky, and we are planning to use it as the cornerstone of our operation.” Ikhana Ikhana’s changes have upped the turboprop’s gross weight
- 21. BUSINESS AVIATION 10-16 September2013 | Flight International | 21flightglobal.com Ansat clinches civil certification GENERALAVIATIONP22 LIGHT LAUNCH Russian Helicopters and AgustaWestland have formally kicked off their joint bid to pro- duce an all-new 2.5t-class sin- gle-engined rotorcraft,with the signing of a heads of agree- ment at the MAKS air show in Moscow last month. Details of design and project manage- ment for the 50:50 project, along with a market assess- ment,will be revealed by year- end. According to Russian Helicopters chief executive Dmitry Petrov,European certification is targeted for the final quarter of 2016. PIAGGIO CONNECTS Piaggio has appointed UK business aircraft sales,charter and management company ConnectJets as its dealership for the Avanti II twin-engined turboprop in the UK,Ireland, the Channel Islands and the Isle of Man. COMLUX MOVE Business aviation services group Comlux completed the relocation of its main holding company from Switzerland to Malta on 5 September. The majority of the group’s 18-strong business jet fleet is registered in Malta,although two aircraft will remain on the Kazakhstan register and three on the Aruban. FLIGHTSAFETY EXPANDS FlightSafety International has announced a “significant” ex- pansion of the training the com- pany offers for Cessna Citation business jets and Caravan tur- boprop singles at its learning centres in Orlando,Florida,San Antonio,Texas and Wichita, Kansas. Training on the full Citation Excel/XLS series will now be offered in Orlando, which houses a new level-D XLS+ simulator. A CJ2+ simula- tor will be added to the San Antonio facility,while a Caravan simulator equipped with a Garmin G600 cockpit has been delivered to Wichita. IN BRIEF Russian industrial conglomer- ate Rostec has revealed the pricing for two new commuter and utility aircraft it has agreed to develop with Austrian manufac- turer Diamond Aircraft. At June’s Paris air show the companies signed a memoran- dum of understanding to develop a majority-composite 19-seater. Rostec has now priced the air- craft – targeted as a replacement for Russia’s fleet of Antonov An-2s and Let L-410s – at Rb120 million ($3.62 million). The conglomerate has also re- vealed that plans with Diamond include developing a second air- craft type in the family – a nine- seater with a list price of around $2.41 million. Scale models of both aircraft were displayed for the first time at the MAKS air show outside Moscow, late last month. The dis- play depicted plans to begin the collaboration with Diamond building the entire first 19-seater in Austria. That will be followed by shifting the manufacture of some components to Ekaterin- burg-based Ural Works of Civil Aviation, as a prelude to migrat- ing full assembly of the aircraft and diesel turboprop engines to Russia, Rostec says. Both companies intend to com- plete airworthiness certification of the 19-seater in 2016. Marshall Aerospace and De- fence Group (Marshall ADG) has acquired Beechcraft’s largest European maintenance, repair and overhaul business as it sets its sights on strengthening its portfolio of business aviation companies. The acquisition of Hawker Beechcraft Services Chester, based at Broughton in the UK, takes the proportion of Marshall ADG’s annual turnover from its commercial business, Marshall Aviation Services, from 15 to 25%. However, the Cambridge- based company, which specialis- es in military aircraft modifica- tions, is seeking to increase this to around 40%. “Marshall’s defence business will account for the bulk of its turnover, but we are keen to grow the business aviation offering and will look at opportunities – par- ticularly in the Middle East – in charter, management and MRO,” says Steve Jones, managing direc- tor of Marshall Aviation Services. Marshall’s business and com- mercial aviation’s offering in- cludes Cambridge airport and the Cessna Citation authorised serv- ice centre based there, as well as a line maintenance base at London Luton airport and business air- craft charter and management company Flairjet. “These units [have] a combined annual turno- ver of £20 million [$31.2 million], while the Broughton facility turns over £30 million,” says Jones. “The Broughton acquisition gives us critical mass by allowing us to capture a much bigger slice of the market,” he adds. “We are already a Citation [500-series] au- thorised service centre but we have been looking to extend our maintenance offering.” The 50-year-old Broughton fa- cility will be rebranded Marshall Aviation Services and will widen its scope beyond Beechcraft, Jones says. “We can offer a breadth of services, including air- craft completions – something we have been unable to do until now,” he adds. “The skilled workforce can now be unleashed to work on other models. The de- mand is there.” Marshall has also been ap- pointed as Beechcraft’s distribu- tor for the UK, Ireland and Scandinavia. Rostec reveals 19-seater price tag DEVELOPMENT STEPHEN TRIMBLE MOSCOW ACQUISITION KATE SARSFIELD LONDON Ambitious Marshall snaps up Beechcraft MRO centre Aerospace group strengthens business portfolio with Broughton, UK services unit buy The firm can now sell and support the ubiqitous King Air family
- 22. GENERAL AVIATION flightglobal.com22 |Flight International | 10-16 September 2013 Explore 100 years of aviation history as it appeared in the original pages of Flight: flightglobal.com/archive ALMATY ORDER Russian Helicopters has sold a Mil Mi-8AMT helicopter to Almaty Rescue Service. The medium twin-engined aircraft will be used for search and res- cue and medevac missions when it enters service with the Kazakhastan-based operator next year. MAINTENANCE TIE-UP Russian operator UTAir and Anglo-Italian airframer AgustaWestland have signed an agreement to establish a maintenance and support unit for AW139 helicopters in Russia. UTAir is the first commercial operator of the medium twin-engined type in the region with over ten AW139s operating from bases in Moscow,Saint Petersburg, Sochi and Siberia. TURKISH EMS Turkey’s THK Gökçen Aviation has taken delivery of the first five of a 17-strong Eurocopter EC135 order. The light twin- engined aircraft will provide emergency medical services. The remaining EC135s will be delivered early next year. Eurocopter says more than 1,100 EC135s have been deliv- ered worldwide to date,of which,more than 500 are con- figured for medevac missions. FLYING CLUB BOOST The US Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association’s (AOPA) campaign to grow the number of flying clubs in the US to reverse the declining pilot population,has reached a new milestone with over 400 clubs added to the network since the initiative began less than a year ago. “Flying clubs are an under- recognised part of aviation that deserve [our] support and encouragement,” says the association. Meanwhile,the International Council of AOPAs (IAOPA) has approved Jordan as its 72nd affiliate,making it the seventh IAOPA Middle Eastern affiliate. IN BRIEF VMD Aviagroup is to start production of the four-seat Canadian-designed Zenair Zodi- ac CH 640 light aircraft at its Perm facility from this month, the Rus- sian company’s head Vladimir Bolshakov says. “The first of our planes, I hope, will be a four-seater,” he says. “It is a development of the Canadian Zodiac 640. Our company will make up to 20 aircraft a year. The plane will, for now, use the Cana- dian name, Zodiac 640.” Bolshakov quotes a price of Rb 4 million ($120,000) for the aircraft, which will be powered by a modified car engine. VMD Aviagroup sees hobby flyers as the main potential customer, as well as Russian government agencies. The single-engined Zodiac CH 640 is produced by Zenair as a kit-build design. The $29,000 four-seater features a tricycle un- dercarriage and gull-wing doors and is built from aluminium. ARussian company is seeking to develop and fly a hybrid airship within about four years to carry passengers and cargo, espe- cially in remote Arctic regions. RosAeroSystems, which dis- played a model of the Atlant air- ship at the MAKS air show, is seeking to overcome the ground handling and buoyancy issues that have limited the application of commercial airships. Like the US military-funded Aeroscraft, the Atlant is designed to rapidly reduce buoyancy by pressurising the lifting gas, says Michael Talesnikov, vice-presi- dent at the company. Conven- tional airships must take on bal- last while unloading cargo, or risk floating away as buoyancy rises. But the source of the ballast – ei- ther tonnes of water or dirt – re- quires heavy infrastructure at the airship’s landing zone. RosAeroSystems instead pres- surises the air to control the vehi- cle’s buoyancy, Talesnikov says. RosAeroSystems, founded by a former associate of Aeroscraft chief executive Igor Pasternak, has already built ground test rigs of the air pressurisation system and the Atlant’s thrust-vectoring systems. But company officials are aware they are attempting to introduce a new kind of aviation vehicle that is not quite an air- ship, helicopter or fixed-wing transport, but combines elements of all three. “It’s quite challenging,” Tales- nikov says. “We are realistic peo- ple. We understand we will face some difficulties.” In a country where 70% of the land mass lacks access by ground- based transportation systems, Ro- sAeroSystems is targeting compa- nies that need access to Russia’s remote Arctic regions. DIRIGIBLES STEPHEN TRIMBLE MOSCOW Atlant Arctic airship bouyed by answer to weighty issue RosAeroSystems sets four-year goal to develop hybrid to fly in Russia’s remote regions Russian Helicopters has finally achieved civil certification of the Kazan Ansat light twin, albeit with hydromechanical controls rather than the fly-by-wire system initially proposed. Kazan started work on the cur- rent iteration of the Ansat in 2011 after encountering difficulty in the certification process for the fly-by-wire controls. The first pro- totypes of the helicopter appeared in the late 1990s. To speed up the civil approval process, it dropped the more advancedtechnologyinfavourofa traditionalcontrolsystem.Russia’s a military will eventually take de- livery of the fly-by-wire-equipped Ansat-U trainer for its flight-train- ing schools. Additional examples willbehandedovertotheRussian airforceinNovember. The civil Ansat is powered by a pair of Pratt & Whitney Canada PW207K turboshafts and boasts a maximum take-off weight of 3,600kg (7,930lb). Separately, Russian Helicop- ters has received approval for the VIP transport variant of its Mil Mi-171 medium twin. Use of hydromechanical controls helped to speed up the process APPROVAL DOMINIC PERRY LONDON Ansatclinchescivilcertification PRODUCTION HOWARD GETHIN MOSCOW Kit-built Zodiac CH 640 set for Russian role RussianHelicopters
- 23. 10-16 September 2013| Flight International | 23flightglobal.com Boeing faces export storm BUSINESS P24 SPACEFLIGHT LAUNCHERS ZACH ROSENBERG WASHINGTON DC Bad timing delays Epsilon first flight Japanese space programme suffers setback after computer glitch postpones maiden launch of new medium rocket Russia’s troubled Zenit launch vehicle made a successful re- turn to flight on 31 August, fol- lowing a January incident that destroyed both the rocket and its satellite payload. The latest launch, from Baikonur Cosmodrome, Kaza- khstan, placed into orbit an Israeli civilian communications satellite called Amos 4. Land Launch, the sister company of Sea Launch, which undertakes operations from the Kazakhstan site, says the operation proceeded normally. At least five additional Zenit launches are scheduled, both on land and at sea. The 31 August mission was the 81st launch using the Zenit vehicle. Of those 81 attempts, 12 have failed at various stages in the flight. De- spite the incidents, the Soviet-era design is generally considered a reliable rocket, mostly used to launch civilian communications satellites. Zenit’s most recent ill-fated mission took place in January. The launch from a converted oil platform in the Pacific Ocean, under the Sea Launch operation, went awry when a hydraulic pump failed to fully pressurize the RD-171 first-stage engine gim- bal actuators. As a consequence the rocket could not control its flight path and fell into the ocean. The problem was traced to manu- facturing errors. Zenit makes safe return RELIABILITY Japan saw a last-minute launch abort on 27 August as first flight of its Epsilon launch vehi- cle was cancelled only seconds before ignition of the first stage solid-fuel rocket due to an atti- tude abnormality alert. The alert has been traced to a .07s timing mismatch between the rocket’s internal computer and the ground controller’s com- puter. The disparity between tim- ing signals led the ground com- puter to automatically abort the launch sequence, according to Japanese space agency JAXA. A second attempt is expected later in September, although the date is yet to be announced. Epsilon is a three-stage, solid- fuel rocket, making the short no- tice of the launch abort particu- larly compelling: once solid fuel is ignited it cannot be shut off, unlike liquid-fuelled engines. Epsilon is meant to replace the now-defunct M-V, using updated technology from the significantly larger H-II-series rockets. The re- vised September launch plans to orbit SPRINT-A, an ultraviolet- range telescope for observing planets within the solar system. One additional launch of Epsilon is planned in 2014 with Asnaro 2, a civilian X-band radar satellite. Japan has long had an intense interest in space, one that is ex- panding because of politico-eco- nomic tensions in the region. The nation uses its own launch vehi- cles, often carrying highly ad- vanced satellites for military or research purposes. As rival China expands its al- ready large space programme and neighbouring North Korea and South Korea gain experience with space launches, Japan has come under increasing pressure to maintain its advanced missions. Meanwhile, India’s fledgling space programme received a knock on 18 August when the re- turn-to-flight launch of its Geosta- tionary Launch Vehicle (GSLV) was scrubbed due to a leak in the second stage’s fuel system. This was the second launch attempt for the updated GSLV II, having endured a failure in 2010. GSLV, which has undergone launch attempts six times, is itself an enlarged version of the less-powerful Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle. The leak seems to have origi- nated from the system that sup- plies unsymmetrical dimethylhy- drazine fuel to the second stage’s single Vikas engine, discovered as the tanks were being pressu- rised only two hours before scheduled launch. The Vikas engine has been re- moved and shipped to a facility for detailed inspection, says the Indian Space Research Organisa- tion. A standby Vikas engine will be integrated in the meantime, although another launch is likely to wait for the findings of the inspection on the previous en- gine. A new flight date has not been announced. The flight was meant to launch GSAT 14, a satellite built to test and operate indigenously built Ku- and C-band communications antennas. India’s space pro- gramme has been expanding as the nation grows wealthier and its military becomes more power- ful. At least four GSLV II launches are scheduled before 2017. TsENKI The Russian rocket has undergone 81 launches JAXA Updated technology is derived from the larger H-II launcher Keep up with advances in spaceflight on our blog: flightglobal.com/hyperbola
- 24. BUSINESS flightglobal.com24 | FlightInternational | 10-16 September 2013 Good week Bad week Aircraft finance is among the sectors covered by our premium news and data service Flightglobal Pro: flightglobal.com/pro Good week Bad week SPIRIT AEROSYSTEMS The troubled aerostruc- tures maker announced an unspecified number of job cuts in Wichita to start next month, on top of the 360 detailed in July. Voluntary departure of management and sal- aried employees could be followed by forced lay-offs. Spirit posted a $239 million operating loss for its second quar- ter and announced in August that it would di- vest two manufacturing sites responsible for po- tentially more than $1 billion in forward losses. STEVE UDVAR-HAZY The operating lease pioneer, who built ILFC into one of world’s biggest aircraft lessors before retiring to start again from scratch in 2010 as Air Lease Corporation, was cel- ebrating a BBB- invest- ment grade rating from Standard and Poor’s. The rating is the lowest of the investment grade tier, but is comparable to those held by rivals in- cluding AerCap and ILFC. Said Hazy: “This rating is a further testament to ALC’s rapid rise as an industry leader.” POLITICS EDWARD RUSSELL WASHINGTON DC Boeing faces export storm US lawmakers are no longer rubber-stamping government lending for overseas sales As justifications go, the follow- ing seems a compelling one. “The Export-Import Bank of the United States enables US compa- nies to turn export opportunities into real sales that help to main- tain and create US jobs and con- tribute to a stronger national economy.” So says the Ex-Im, which in its 78-year history has made direct loans and loan guar- antees to support, typically at be- low-market interest rates, more than $550 billion of US exports. Jobs and a strong America; what is there not to like? As it happens, quite a few law- makers in Washington DC want the bank abolished. The biennial reauthorisation of its charter is due in a year, and the process – historically painless until a con- tentious 2012 vote – looks set to be another political storm. The curtain-opener was a heat- ed US Senate debate in July over the reconfirmation of bank chair- man Fred Hochberg. Unsurpris- ingly, Maria Cantwell of Wash- ington state – home of the USA’s biggest exporter, Boeing, and re- cipient of $443 billion in Ex-Im authorisations between 2007 and 2013 – is pro-bank: “Ninety-five percent of the world’s consumers live outside our borders. Are we going to make sure US products get into the hands of the growing middle class around the globe?” On the nay side is Michael Lee ofUtah,wherebusinessessawjust ahundrethoftheEx-Imlargesseof their Washington counterparts. Lee, who sponsored unsuccessful abolition legislation in 2012 but has re-introduced the Export-Im- port Bank Termination Act, says: “The Export-Import Bank is an ex- ample of everything that is wrong with Washington today. “It is big government serving the interests of big corporations at the expense of individuals, fami- lies, and small businesses.” Some rather big businesses agree at least partly with Lee. Delta Air Lines, Hawaiian Air- lines and industry groups Air- Thank you, America Boeing SpiritAerosystems lines for America (A4A) and the Air Line Pilots Association, have filed lawsuits objecting to loan guarantees for widebody aircraft that help foreign rivals compete with US long-haul carriers. Among the recipients of Ex-Im support for Boeing aircraft pur- chases are Gulf powerhouses Emirates and Etihad Airways. WITH FRIENDS LIKE THESE... “It’s really investment grade com- panies that are owned by the gov- ernment where the president of the country, the chairman of the board and the president of the air- line are one in the same,” said Delta chief executive Richard An- derson. “It seems unreasonable to me that my government has got to finance my competitors.” Boeing naturally disagrees. “We struggle to fully understand the real reasons why they are so passionate in this conversation,” says Kostya Zolotusky of Boeing Capital. He adds that support for “better credit airlines” – under- stood to be ones like Emirates – usually kicks in only after they have maxed out other sources of liquidity and need financial sup- port in order to maintain their aircraft delivery schedule. That rationale probably cuts no ice with Delta et al; US-based air- lines cannot, by any twists of overseas money handling, qualify for Ex-Im support. It may also matter little that ex- port credit financing has got more expensive under the terms of the multinational Aircraft Sector Understanding of 2011, which were designed to push some bet- ter credit airlines to the commer- cial funds market. John Morabito, senior vice-president of transpor- tation at financier CIT, says export credit is still a competitive alter- native to commercial financing, though it is “more favourable to lower-tier borrowers”. Boeing expects export credit will account for only 23% of the $104 billion needed to finance its deliveries this year, down from 30% in 2012. Ultimately, howev- er, the political debate over Ex-Im should probably be viewed through the Boeing prism. Ex-Im provided $11.5 billion in support for aircraft and avionics during fiscal 2012, roughly a third of its entire programme. Boeing was the single largest beneficiary. Senator Lee and the airline in- dustry can lean on job figures to support their anti-bank stance. Total US aerospace industry em- ployment in 2011 was less than 625,000 jobs according to the AIA trade group. Airlines in the US, meanwhile, directly employed 661,000 people in 2010 says Ox- ford Economics. Meanwhile, Boeing’s Zolo- tusky says the uncertainty over Ex-Im’s future makes its custom- ers nervous. As a result, Boeing Capital has increased the number of backstop financing commit- ments it provides for orders.
- 25. BUSINESS 10-16 September 2013| Flight International | 25flightglobal.com QUOTE OF THE WEEK “We have made considerable progress with our turnaround plan” Qantas Group boss ALAN JOYCE was pleased to announce an A$6 million ($5.4 million) net profit for the 2013 financial year,turning around a 2012 loss of A$244 million. Revenue held nearly steady at A$15.9 billion,but capacity cutting helped Qantas International halve its full-year EBIT loss to A$246 million Clearing the air FEATURE P26 RAVEN FLIES IN TOO LATE FOR AEROVIRONMENT Q1 UNMANNED SYSTEMS In AeroVironment’s first quarter to 27 July, unmanned systems segment sales were down by 28% at $35.2 million and profit down by a third to $10.6 million – a result de- scribed as “in-line with expectations [but] adversely impacted by sev- eral one-time effects,as well as continued government contracting delays”. This includes a US government fiscal 2012 Raven UAV or- der,which arrived early in the second quarter. ALL NIPPON BUYS LAST LINK TO PAN AM TRAINING Pan Am International Flight Academy has been sold by private equity owner American Capital to All Nippon Airways’ parent ANA Holdings for $94 million. Pan Am,with more than 60 flight simu- lators and programmes for pilots,cabin crew,mechanics and dis- patchers,will bolster ANA’s Tokyo-based Panda Flight Academy. SAFRAN SELLS MOTOR UNIT TO ALLIED MOTION DIVESTMENT Safran is to sell its $106 million revenue electric motors subsidiary Globe Motors to Allied Motion for $90 million. Pending regulatory approval,the deal could close by year-end. HELLENIC AEROSPACE UNDER ETHICS SCRUTINY FRAUD Greece’s government-owned aerospace manufacturer Hellenic Aerospace Industry must shore up its sagging financial situ- ation if it is to remain in operation,warns auditor Grant Thornton. The company,which saw 2012 revenue of barely €91 million ($120 mil- lion),down from €164 million in 2011,has had its entire board of directors suspended pending an investigation into the hiring – and contract renewal – of a high-ranking and highly paid officer whose post-doctoral education certificates have been revealed as forgeries. TPG CREDIT MANAGEMENT REBRANDS FINANCE Global aircraft asset and aviation finance company TPG Credit Management has been renamed Castlelake,“to reflect its growth and evolution over the past eight years”. Chief executive Rory O’Neill says: “We are grateful for TPG Capital’s support in our earlier years.” Castlelake has $2.4 billion of assets under its management, from offices in Minneapolis and London. TURBOMECA TAKES CHARGE OF RTM322 PROGRAMME PROPULSION Safran has completed its €293 million ($387 million) cash acquisition of Rolls-Royce’s 50% share in their joint RTM322 heli- copter engine programme. Safran’s Turbomeca unit will assume global responsibility for design,production,product support and service for the engine,which powers certain Boeing AH-64 Apache, AgustaWestland AW101 and NH industries NH90 helicopters. NORTHROP GRUMMAN TO ACQUIRE QANTAS DEFENCE MAINTENANCE Northrop Grumman Australian is to buy Qantas Airways’ Defence Services business,which supports the Royal Australian Air Force’s A330 multi-role tanker transport fleet and over- hauls engines for its Lockheed Martin Orion P-3 and BAE Systems Hawk lead-in fighter trainer. The deal is expected to close in 2014. MEGGITT BUYS EXTREME TEMPERATURE CAPABILITY TECHNOLOGY Meggitt is to acquire for $41.2 million Piezotech,a specialists in piezo-ceramic technology for extreme temperature gas turbine sensors. US-focused Piezo will operate as a standalone op- eration within Meggitt’s sensing systems division,and retain existing management operating from its Indiana and Colorado sites. BUSINESSBRIEFSPEOPLE MOVES Austro Engines, Bell, Cardiff Aviation, Gulfstream, Safran Gibson: Gulfstream support Rooney: Fine Tubes engineer customer operations for its space and defence segment. Plymouth, UK-based Fine Tubes has appointed John Rooney as director of engineering and technology. Safran Group has named Peter Campbell as director of financial communication, replacing Pascal Bantegnie who takes on other duties with the French aerospace and defence group. Jürgen Heinrich is now CEO at Austro Engines afterthe resignationofpredecessorThomas MuellerinlateJuly.Heinrichwas formerlysalesandmarketing directoratAustro,thepowerplant divisionofWienerNeustadt-based Diamond Aircraft. Bell Helicopter has reshuffled its senior management team. Gunnar Kleveland assumes the role of senior VP integrated operations, Dr Cathy Ferrie becomes senior VP engineering, and Matt Hasik is now senior VP commercial programs. At Cardiff Aviation, the Bruce Dickinson- fronted MRO business, Andrew Braley has been appointed commercial director, joining from AJ Walter Aviation. William Gibson has joined Gulfstream in the newly created position of director, product support global distribution. He joins from Honeywell where he held the post of senior manager Gulfstream FineTubesRexFeatures
- 26. flightglobal.com ENVIRONMENT As the debaterages on how to tackle airline industry emissions, experts at ICAO are endeavouring to come up with a global solution – but the clock is ticking 26 | Flight International | 10-16 September 2013 KERRY REALS LONDON CLEARING THE AIR RexFeatures P ressure is mounting on UN special- ised agency ICAO to achieve global consensus on a single market-based measure (MBM) to address airline industry emissions at its triennial assembly in September. Although it appears unlikely that a global agreement will be signed and sealed this year, hopes are pinned on the next best outcome from Montreal this autumn: a fully developed proposal which can be presented and ratified at the next assembly in 2016 and would take effect from 2020. For the last 18 months, a group of experts at ICAO have been looking at two different approaches to tackling global aviation emissions: a framework approach, which would essentially involve a rulebook for individual countries to follow as they es- tablished their own individual MBMs; and a global approach. Given the international outcry that ensued when the EU attempted to impose its own emissions trading system (ETS) on the rest of the world, it is generally agreed that a global solution is preferable. There are three options on the table to use as the basis for a global MBM to regulate avia- tion emissions. The first, which is favoured by IATA, is a simple carbon-offsetting scheme, whereby airlines would have to buy credits on the open market to compensate for growth in their emissions. The second is a revenue- generating carbon-offsetting scheme, which would see a mark-up on credits to enable ad- ditional capital to be ploughed into funds to help developing countries tackle climate change-related issues. The third option is an emissions trading system along the lines of the controversial EU ETS, which has been put on hold in the hope that a global agreement can be reached. ANOTHER OPTION At its annual general meeting in Cape Town earlier this year, IATA put forward its own resolution, which will be presented for con- sideration at ICAO. The resolution calls for a mandatory carbon-offsetting scheme to be ap- plied to emissions growth post-2020. IATA wants to use as the baseline for its scheme the industry’s average annual emis- sions between 2018 and 2020. Its resolution includes provisions to recognise early movers, accommodate new market entrants while they get their operations off the ground, and take account of fast-growing carriers. The controversial EU ETS proved extremely unpopular with carriers
- 27. 10-16 September 2013| Flight International | 27flightglobal.com ETS However, the fact that IATA is backing the simplest of the three options with an imple- mentation date seven years into the future has drawn criticism from some quarters. Jean Leston, transport policy manager at the World Wide Fund for Nature’s UK branch, de- scribes the IATA resolution as “a huge step forward that will create momentum for progress”, but expresses disappointment that the industry body has opted for a non-reve- nue-generating offset scheme over a cap and trade-style system. “It’s a shame the aviation industry is taking the approach that mitigation has got to hap- pen somewhere else,” says Leston, adding that an emissions trading system “would have been preferable to offsetting”. Leston also takes issue with the proposed 2020 start date. “I don’t want to see seven years of inactivity,” he says. “Offsetting is a simpler solution without the governance issues surrounding cap and trade, but it can very easily lack environmen- tal integrity. It depends on the kind of offsets purchased, and there are lots of bad ones,” says Leston. “I’m also disappointed that IATA is not thinking of any revenue generation, even though this has been recommended by a UN high-level advisory group. This is a missed opportunity not only to show climate leadership, by helping developing countries address climate change, but it could also have been used to fund biofuels.” KEEPING IT SIMPLE However, IATA senior vice-president member and external relations Paul Steele counters that the simplicity of a straight carbon offset- ting system means it is more likely to be ap- proved and much quicker to implement. “You don’t need to create allowances or auctions like you would for an ETS so it’s much simpler for states to implement in the short term. But that’s not to say in the longer term we couldn’t introduce ETS,” he says. On the lack of revenue generation in IATA’s proposal, Steele says: “It would make it more difficult to agree if monies were involved.” Questions over responsibility for raising the extra funds and deciding how the money could be used would mean that “we’d still be sitting here in 2040 trying to decide on this”, he adds. Both Leston and Steele agree on a major point: trying to persuade governments from 191 different states to agree on a single MBM that aims to regulate airline emissions on a global scale is going to be an uphill battle, to say the least. RexFeatures “If each state does its own thing, this would be extremely problematic for us” PAUL STEELE IATA senior vice-president, member/external relations “In an ideal world, I would like to see the assembly agree on a global offsetting scheme, but I think this is a step too far for this meet- ing,” concedes Steele. “But ICAO should de- velop a full-blown proposal to be brought to the 2016 [UN] assembly for adoption.” He adds that ICAO “should start working now on the building blocks”, including the development of a global standard for the monitoring and verification of offsets, a point on which Leston agrees: “If we must go for offsetting, it’s critical that [ICAO] establishes some quality restrictions on what offsets the industry purchases; otherwise it’s a race to the bottom with airlines looking for the cheapest offsets, which tend to be the low- quality ones.” Leston believes it is “essential to agree that MBMs are needed in principle and to detail what that could look like”, adding: “The worst-case scenario is that there will just be a very weak text in the final round-up. This could restart the [EU] ETS clock ticking.” STOP THE CLOCK The EU dramatically announced in late 2012 that it was “stopping the clock” on its contro- versial decision to include inter-continental flights in its ETS, in order to demonstrate Eu- rope’s commitment to seeing “a meaningful outcome at the 2013 ICAO Assembly”. In a consultation document seeking input from stakeholders on the policy options for MBMs, the EU says it “remains committed to seeking multilateral progress”. Pressure on ICAO to come up with a solu- tion is building from all corners of the globe, not just Europe. At the 2013 G8 Summit earli- er this year, the leaders of the world’s eight most powerful countries had the following message for ICAO: “We call for the agreement at the assembly in September 2013 on an am- bitious package related to both market-based and non-market-based measures to address rising aviation emissions.” The consequences for the industry if ICAO fails to come up with a solution could be dire. “If ICAO can’t agree and each state just does its own thing, this would be extremely prob- lematic for us,” says IATA’s Steele, pointing out that carriers would have to comply with “well over 100” separate MBMs. Any agreement that can be reached during the assembly, which runs from 24 September to 4 October, is likely to come down to the wire, according to Steele: “Sideline discus- sions have gone on up until the last minute in the past, and I fully anticipate something like this happening here. “From an industry perspective, I believe agreement in ICAO is absolutely crucial. We need it now because we need to know what to plan for and how best we can contribute to reducing our emissions,” he adds.Governments are muscling in on the discussion – and demanding a resolution
- 28. flightglobal.com ENVIRONMENTENVIRONMENT 28 | FlightInternational | 10-16 September 2013 KERRY REALS LONDON With an attractive estimated 4% fuel saving per flight on offer, cost-conscious airlines are weighing up the three main competing options for high-tech taxi systems ELECTRIC AVENUES Safran and Honeywell have partnered to develop EGTS WheelTug, which is fitted to the nose wheel, is being offered as an affordable and flexible choice, with minimal installation costs Safran T hree very different electric or auto- mated taxi systems are battling it out to attract airline customers keen to avoid wasting fuel while their aircraft are on the ground. Estimated fuel savings of up to 4% per flight offer an attractive incen- tive to airlines seeking new ways to slash fuel costs and improve carbon footprints, but they will first have to weigh up the pros and cons of the varying products under development. Following the departure from the market of a planned joint venture project between L-3 Communications and UK-based Crane Aero- space, the three remaining players are Gibral- tar-headquartered WheelTug, Safran and Hon- eywell Aerospace’s joint electric green taxiing system (EGTS), and Israel Aerospace Indus- tries’ TaxiBot. The WheelTug and Safran/Honeywell systems are both built into the aircraft, the key difference being that the former is installed in the nose wheel while the latter is designed for the main landing gear. Taking a different ap- proach altogether, TaxiBot is a separate, pilot- controlled tractor which physically tows the aircraft from the gate to the runway. Safran/Honeywell unveiled their EGTS project at this year’s Paris air show. The sys- tem uses an aircraft’s auxiliary power unit (APU) generator to power motors in the main landing gear, enabling it to taxi without run- ning its engines. It is being tested and devel- oped on an Airbus A320, with entry-into- service (EIS) as a line-fit option targeted for late 2016/early 2017 and as a retrofit “very shortly after”, says Honeywell vice-president EGTS programme Brian Wenig. REDUCED EMISSIONS The two companies estimate that the system will save between 2% and 4% of total fuel consumption per flight, with a typical EGTS cycle reducing nitrous oxide and carbon diox- ide emissions by 47% and 62% respectively, compared with a standard dual-engine taxi cycle. “We conservatively estimate financial savings of approximately $200,000 per aircraft per year on fuel alone, before you add on sav- ings in groundhandling, maintenance and un- scheduled repairs from foreign object dam- age,” says Honeywell. As yet, no launch customer has signed up for EGTS, but Safran/Honeywell has signed memoranda of understanding with Air France, EasyJet and TUI, which will act as “testing partners” to help develop the prod- uct. Wenig believes that one of these airlines “very well could” eventually become a launch customer, but adds: “Our primary focus is on achieving our maturity goals – we’re partner- ing with airlines, but we’re not out in the mar- ket booking orders.” Air France’s involvement in the project will be to examine “all operational aspects” of using the EGTS system, says Air France senior vice-president new aircraft and corpo- rate fleet planning Bruno Delile. “The chal- lenge is to have an aircraft going at the same speed in traffic as all the other aircraft,” says Delile, adding that the way in which the sys- tem will be applied to the retrofit market is of particular interest to the French carrier. Air France is also keen to find out when the en- gines would need to be started up, given that they “have to run for 5min at least” before take-off. Delile believes the 4% fuel saving estimate to be optimistic, pointing out that “a couple of
- 29. 10-16 September 2013| Flight International | 29flightglobal.com GREEN TAXIING es that because it can be installed quickly and at “zero cost”, it appeals to airlines seeking to significantly reduce turnaround times with- out having to make any large commitments of time or money. “We’re not trying to do a permanent change to an aircraft. A key part of our value proposi- tion is that the system can be installed over- night, but it can also be uninstalled…so you can try it but, if you don’t like it, you can change your mind,” says Cox. WheelTug claims that a main landing gear system “will be hard to integrate into the pro- duction line and even harder to retrofit on ex- isting aircraft”. However, Honeywell’s Wenig envisages that retrofitting the EGTS system could be “managed over a series of over- nights” and that “integration does not require changes to the aircraft structure”. In terms of fuel and emissions reductions, Cox says the WheelTug system is on a par with EGTS, but he believes its key advantage lies in the amount of time it can shave off air- craft turnaround times. The company boasts that its system can reduce taxi times by up to 20min because of its location in the nose wheel well. “Time is valuable – much more Xxxxx WheelTug “Time is valuable, so turnaround time benefits could dwarf fuel savings” ISAIAH COX Chief executive and founder, WheelTug percent” is more realistic, although he notes that “whatever the savings, it makes sense”. Air France has made no commitment to sign up as a customer for EGTS and Delile says the carrier is also assessing the WheelTug offering. However, he adds that he is “a bit more comfortable with EGTS” because “it may be more robust to be fitted in the main landing gear”. Safran/Honeywell made the decision to de- sign their system for the main landing gear, as opposed to installing it in the nose wheel, be- cause this is where the majority of an aircraft’s weight is borne and they believe this will en- sure consistency of operation in inclement weather and on sloping taxiways. “The primary reason for installing it in the main landing gear, from a technical stand- point, is that you have north of 90% of the air- craft’s weight and the centre of gravity here. To give customers the required level of per- formance needed, it has got to be installed here,” says Wenig. GAINING TRACTION However, Isaiah Cox, chief executive and founder of competing electric taxi system pro- vider WheelTug, disagrees. The WheelTug system is being developed for installation in the nose wheel, which Cox argues makes it a more affordable and flexible option. Wheel- Tug points out that the system has demon- strated its traction abilities “in rain, on oil and in snow”. Cox describes WheelTug as a “much less ambitious programme than EGTS”, but stress- than fuel – so turnaround time benefits could easily dwarf the fuel savings,” says Cox. “Being in the nose wheel makes it much easi- er to capture that opportunity, since we don’t have any heat interaction with the brakes.” WheelTug has signed up 11 airline custom- ers, including KLM, Alitalia, Air Berlin and Icelandair, covering 573 aircraft. The compa- ny has not decided which aircraft type to launch the system on, a decision that will be “driven by airline demand”. The WheelTug system’s EIS is scheduled for late 2014/early 2015 “as of right now”, says Cox. Both the Safran/Honeywell and WheelTug systems are solely being designed for narrow- body aircraft at this stage, although Cox says there is “considerable interest” in a widebody version. WheelTug could launch a widebody system as early as 2016. Safran and Honeywell, however, are stay- ing firmly in the narrowbody camp, with Wenig noting that “at this point we don’t have any intention” of launching a widebody ver- sion. Wenig believes the off-board TaxiBot system, which is currently being tested by Lufthansa on its Boeing 737 fleet at Frankfurt, is more suited to the widebody market. One point on which all of the manufactur- ers agree is that demand for electric taxi sys- tems will be robust, as airlines take advan- tage of anything that could cut rising fuel bills. Europe is being billed as a strong mar- ket due to an abundance of longer taxi times and shorter flights, but China and India are also listed by Honeywell’s Wenig as being key markets. The system’s creators claim WheelTug can be installed overnight
- 30. ENVIRONMENT flightglobal.com ENVIRONMENT E very oil-based fuel– from avgas to Jet-A1 – has undergone a dramatic rise in price, to the point where the once virtually inconsequential cost of fuel has become by far the largest expense of operating an airliner. These days, 50-60% of an aircraft’s direct operating costs is represented by fuel. “Since the dawn of the jet age we’ve gone from 10% efficient to 40% efficient,” says Alan Epstein, vice-president of technology at engine manufacturer Pratt & Whitney. “Because the hated word ‘thermodynamics’ is involved here you can’t actually get to 100% theoreti- cally. You can theoretically get to something like 70-ish[%].” Therefore, the race is on for alternative sources of energy – both to reduce costs and emissions. It is not yet clear that any one en- ergy source will replace conventional jet fuel, and researchers are scrambling to prove their technologies. Part of the problem is simply that hydrocarbons are an amazing fuel – en- ergy-dense, easy to find, extract and process, and until recently, very inexpensive. “Right now the gas turbine is about about 55% ther- mal efficient. It is the most efficient device on planet Earth for converting chemical energy into shaft power,” says Epstein. The most plausible alternative – one already in the mix – is to derive jet fuel from non-conventionalsourcesbymeansofchemi- cal wizardry. Biofuels can be produced from organic waste – plants like halophyte or corn – either by a series of chemical reactions or feeding it to a special breed of bacteria. The Fischer-Tropsch (F-T) method can convert anythingwithcarbonmonoxideintofuel,and while carbon-rich coal is the traditional feed- stock, fuel has been created from wood chips, methane and many other materials. From a carbonstandpoint,usingbiomassfeedstockis essentially the only way to guarantee net car- bon neutrality – the carbon from the fuel, when burned and injected into the atmos- phere, is the same carbon once absorbed by those plants. “Chemicalengineerscannowmakealmost anything from anything,” says Epstein. “Here wastherealconceptualbreakthroughIthink, which is genius because it’s so simple: if chemical engineers can make anything into anything, tell them to make jet fuel.” Two major obstacles to producing such drop-in fuels are the limited supply and high cost of producing them. At the moment biofuels and F-T-produced fuels are only economical if made on a very large scale, which requires giant infusions of capital to build and supply the processing plants. Natural gas is a hydrocarbon made by similar processes to those that produce oil – and consequently it has similar properties. Recent discoveries of massive reserves and new technological developments has made naturalgasverycheapwhencomparedtooil. It can be processed into conventional fuel using the F-T method, but a simpler option is simply to burn the gas itself. The advantage is that natural gas, sans processing, is only one-third the price of oil on a per unit of energy basis. Light aircraft builder Aviat made the first public showing of its second compressed natural gas (CNG) burning Husky test bed at the Oshkosh air show in July. The Husky is powered by a small piston engine, but the modified version can run on either CNG or conventional avgas. “We did what we would call substantial modifications, but the operative word is ‘re- ally’infrontofsubstantial,”saysStuartHorn, president of Aviat. “The parameters, specifi- cations, manufacturing, materials process, it’d all be different for a purpose-built CNG engine. I don’t think that’s beyond anyone’s manufacturing or engineering capability.” Although the Husky testbed is a proof-of- concept aircraft, with “nonspecific” plans to produce the CNG-powered aircraft commer- cially, Horn sees flight schools as a likely market, given the high number of flight hours per aircraft and short distances they travel. Jet engines have an easier time. “We could easily burn natural gas, you’d have a slight change in the fuel injectors, you’d probably get somewhat lower emissions, and that’s it. But the airplanes have to be totally different,” says P&W’s Epstein. “The engines aren’t the problem. The natural gas has a much lower energy density – it’s a gas, so how do you hold it? If you liquefy it [which has higher density] 30 | Flight International | 10-16 September 2013 ZACH ROSENBERG WASHINGTON DC With fuel costs climbing, carriers are looking to substitute sources of energy – but the technology to power tomorrow’s airliners still has a long way to go ALTERNATIVE MEDICINE “If chemical engineers can make anything into anything, tell them to make jet fuel” ALAN EPSTEIN Vice-president of technology, Pratt & Whitney Boeing’s Blended Wing Body concept has plenty of room for CNG or LNG tanks Boeing
- 31. FUEL 10-16 September 2013| Flight International | 31flightglobal.com FUEL Read more about new technologies with the potential to change the face of aviation today: flightglobal.com/technology you need cryogenic tanks, and airplanes now store their fuel mostly in the wings, so you have to integrate cryogenic tanks and have very little fuel capacity.” Moving away from the traditional tube- and-wing configuration to maximise internal volume – thus permitting a spherical LNG tank – is an idea Boeing is exploring with its Blended Wing Body (BWB) concept. “What we found is if you go into the future and you have improvements all over the airplane – engines, aerodynamics and struc- tures – then the amount of energy or fuel re- quired to fly the airplane is reduced, and that reduces the size of the tanks you have to add for LNG,” says Martin Bradley, a Boeing tech- nical fellow. Because of the relative lack of en- ergy density compared to Jet-A1, Boeing’s en- gineers speak of building a hybrid, capable running on either conventional fuel or LNG, switching seamlessly between the two as best suits the situation. No LNG aircraft exist as yet, but Boeing’s Phantom Eye demonstrator runs on cryogenic liquid hydrogen. ELECTRIC SLIDE Of course, one way to handle a problem is to make it irrelevant, and that is the great poten- tial of electric power – allowing the fan to turn without burning any fuel or emitting any car- bon at all. Several aircraft have been built to fly with batteries alone, and others with hybrid battery/piston power. The most obvious problem with batteries is that they possess nowhere near the energy density of hydrocarbons. “We’re at 240 watt-hours per kilogram for lithium-based cells. That is one-fiftieth of what hydrocarbonsolutionshaveintermsofenergy density,” says Mark Moore, NASA aerody- namic scientist and engineer. Despite this, several testbed aircraft have flown, and at least two companies – Pipistrel from Slovenia and Yunnec from China – are actively marketing hybrid and all-electric air- craft. Several unmanned aircraft concepts, dubbed “atmospheric satellites”, are being de- signedtostayairborneforyearsatatime,pow- ered only by batteries recharged by solar pan- els. Experiments are ongoing to recharge in otherways–LockheedMartin,inparticular,is experimenting with beamed power using a ground-based laser to ‘fuel’ its Stalker un- manned air vehicle. Upscaling to larger air- craftisimpractical,butthefutureholdsgreat promise. Battery energy density improves in discretejumps,withanaverageimprovement of about 8% per year. Greater improvements arebeingresearchedbutarenotyetavailable, andthuscannotbereliedupon.Still,thetime is approaching when small electric aircraft willbeamuchmorecommonsight–bothun- manned and manned. Scaling up to airliner size,however,isanotherstory. “I don’t think we can answer how electric propulsion is going to be on large aircraft, because we’re just learning. This is the Wright Brothers doing their first experi- ments in terms of an equivalent,” saysMoore.Boeinghasbeenex- ploring an electric thrust system for future aircraft, but any inclusion is at least two design generations away – potentially 40 years from now. “We found that [the] first application is probably going to be a hybrid- electric airplane, using electrical power at just certain phases of the flight, using it at take-off or cruising under electric power,” saysBoeing’sBradley.“Butyouwanttohave a conventional engine as well because there are plenty of times when you need to com- bine power, and a conventional gas-burning turbine is very advantageous.” “An all-electric airliner, we don’t see that coming anytime soon. It would require major breakthroughs in energy storage we don’t see happening for a while,” he adds. Boeing’s BWB studies found that 600-700 watt-hours per kilogram are required before electric propulsion starts making any sense – but the results are encouraging to NASA’s Moore. “That’s a really exciting result com- ing from Boeing, because we’re going to be at those battery levels certainly before 2030. So we’re already within a 20-year timeframe of Boeing saying, ‘it makes sense to be doing hybrid-electric solutions with pretty sub- stantial battery packs very soon,’” he says. Potentially the most disruptive effect of batterypowerisoptimisingaircraftdesignto take maximum advantage. Moore is a noted proponent of distributed thrust – essentially decentralising thrust from two large engines to many small ones with a battery attached to each. “Now you’re going to see configurations come up that would not have made sense with the prior propulsion technologies, but now suddenly make all the sense in the world,” he says. Lockheed Martin has tested using a ground-based laser beam to power its Stalker UAV Plants like halophyte could be an option Boeing,LockheedMartin
- 32. SAFETY flightglobal.com32 | FlightInternational | 10-16 September 2013 London Heathrow [12 July 2013]. As the film points out, an in-flight fire that is out of con- trol will, on average, lead to flight crew losing control of the aircraft within 15 minutes.” The vulnerability of aircraft to fire is on the CAA’s “Significant Seven” list of the greatest threats to aviation safety. Cox observes that two of the principal rea- sons for the change in the fire risk profile is the proliferation of lithium batteries on air- craft – both the batteries installed in the air- craft and those carried by crew and passengers in personal electrical/electronic devices. This is in addition to the increasing use of compos- ite materials in aircraft hulls. “Composites in the vicinity of lithium batteries – how is this going to play out?” he asks. LIMITED EXPERIENCE In this question, he is not only acknowledging the kind of risk that the Ethiopian 787 fire demonstrated, but also expressing concern about the fact that the industry has little expe- rience of the behaviour of composite materials in the presence of heat and fire. Aluminium, for all its limitations, is a known quantity. One of the reasons for the fewer fatalities in recent years is that the fire-related accidents in the last decade have mostly involved freighters. Since 2011, two Boeing 747Fs – one operated by South Korean carrier Asiana, one by US package shipper UPS – have been DAVID LEARMOUNT LONDON The proliferation of lithium batteries and composite materials in modern airliners has increased the risk of onboard blazes, despite a recent fall in the number of fatalities FIRE ALARMED A conflagration on an Ethiopian Airlines 787 highlighted the danger of a blaze in a hidden part of the aircraft F ire on board aircraft has caused fewer fatalities in recent years than it once did, but the risk of fire-caused inci- dents and accidents is increasing. That is the conclusion of international ex- perts assembled by the Royal Aeronautical Society, who recently published the first part of a study called “Smoke, fire and fumes in transport aircraft” (SAFITA). Capt John Cox – president of US-based safety consultancy Safe Operating Systems (SOS), and one of the experts on the SAFITA team – says that as aircraft technology and construction materials change, so does the fire risk profile – and almost certainly not for the better. Meanwhile, the US Federal Aviation Administration and the UK Civil Aviation Au- thority have just jointly launched a fire safety awareness campaign, which includes an in- structional video. In a particularly chilling statement at the campaign launch, the CAA said: “Of particular concern is the threat of fires breaking out in hidden areas of the air- craft, which cabin crew are unable to access and bring under control in-flight.” The CAA statement continues: “The impor- tance of reducing fire risks was highlighted with the recent significant fire on the Ethiopi- an Airlines Boeing 787 on the ground at brought down by fire with the loss of the en- tire crew. In both cases, the fire was believed to have started in pallets of lithium batteries carried as cargo. In the UPS case, said the investigators in their official report, the time between the fire warning being triggered and the first failures in a cascading loss of aircraft systems was 2min. The flightdeck filled with smoke and the cap- tain left his seat when the supply of oxygen to his mask unaccountably failed. The co-pilot soon could not see his instruments, neither could he see out of the windscreen. He could notseeeventochangetheradiofrequency,and so was totally incapacitated. The report and its conclusions are a nightmare to read. There is no indication, according to the RAeS, that passenger aircraft are safe from sim- ilar events and, if a single event like the loss of Swissair Flight 111 were to take place now, it would reverse the interpretation of medium- term statistics. Swissair 111 was a McDonnell Douglas MD-11 that crashed into the sea near Halifax, Canada, in 1998 when a short-circuit in a damaged wiring bundle generated a fierce fire in the ceiling just aft of the cockpit. The spreading fire caused a sequence of cascading system faults, which eventually wiped out the primary flight instruments. Finally, smoke blinded the pilots so they could not fly. The SAFITA report contains this general conclusion with a number of individual ones: PA
- 33. 10-16 September 2013| Flight International | 33flightglobal.com followed by the application of a coolant, like water. However, at present, the crew training, the drills, and the equipment are all either non- existent or inadequate. Fatal fires on passenger aircraft may indeed be rare, but IATA calculated in 2002 that in- flight smoke events occur once in 5,000 flights, and diversions resulting from these about once every 15,000 flights. More recent- ly, the FAA said there are 900 reported smoke events per year in the USA alone, and these “frequently lead to diversion”. One of the ef- fects of the lessons learned from Swissair 111 is that pilots are much quicker than they used to be to make a diversion decision when says the AAIB’s initial factual report. But eventually, water was effective in dissipating the heat and stopping the fire’s progress. There has always been a concern that cabin crews are poorly equipped and trained to han- dle cabin fires that start behind the wall and ceiling panels, and the Ethiopian event high- lights just this. Barring the lavatories, there are no heat or smoke detectors anywhere in the cabin area to provide early warning or indi- cate the location of a fire. There are also no means existing to direct extinguishant into the space behind the panels. Cox notes that if there were a lithium battery fireinapassenger’slaptopcomputer,thecrews are issued with containment boxes and gloves to handle hot objects, but no protection for the arms, body or face. There is also no well-re- hearsed drill for handling lithium battery fires, which can generate huge heat through self- sustaining chemical reactions. Cox observes that ideally, there needs to be a system for in- tervening in the chemical process – the princi- ple on which the halon extinguishant works – “Composites in the vicinity of lithium batteries – how is this going to play out?” CAPT JOHN COX President, Safe Operating Systems “While the number of fatalities caused by avi- ation accidents has decreased, the risk of fu- ture fire-related incidents or accidents has in- creased due to the proliferation of lithium batteries and other risks. The importance of continued research, improved regulation, im- proved manufacturing standards, adoption of technology to mitigate in-flight smoke and fire, and oversight by safety professionals is proven in this document.” CARGO CONCERNS Both the recent 747F losses have been attrib- uted to fires that began in cargoes of lithium- ion batteries. The Ethiopian Airlines 787 fire at Heathrow, according to initial examination by the UK Air Accident Investigation Branch (AAIB), involved an emergency locator trans- mitter powered by lithium-ion batteries, and an extensive area of the composite fuselage crown just ahead of the fin suffered heat dam- age. When fire crews attended, halon extin- guishant directed to that area from within the cabin failed to bring the fire under control, PA A battery malfunction on board this All Nippon Airways 787 led to a global grounding of the type
- 34. SAFETY flightglobal.com34 | FlightInternational | 10-16 September 2013 Recommendations and mitigations from the RAeS SAFITA Part 1 report: Train all crew in handling hazard- ous materials and specifically in firefighting techniques for lithium battery fires. Identify and provide extinguishing agents suitable for fighting lithium battery fires. Standards for shipping lithium bat- teries as cargo must be raised. All cargoes of lithium batteries should be classified as hazardous cargo. National aviation authorities should monitor the effect of fires on compos- ite materials and review the special conditions that already apply. Use more and better predictive technology to detect potential smoke or fire generating events,eg alerts for the impending failure of fan or pump bearings. The procedure for pilots to open direct vision windows on the flightdeck during smoke events should be abandoned (it does not have a beneficial effect). Adopt the Flight Safety Foundation’s template for smoke/ fire/fume checklists. Pilots should be provided with full-face oxygen masks and be re- quired to don them at the first sign of smoke or fumes. Pilots and cabin crew should be aware of the importance of main- taining the flightdeck door closed as a smoke barrier between the cabin and cockpit. Requirements for crew firefighting training should be thorough and com- plete,and all crews should be trained how to use the appropriate type of fire suppression and emergency equipment for the circumstances. Aircraft,particularly those certificated before 2007,should be evaluated for single-point wiring failures which may cause cascading system failures in the event of short-circuit arcing. Arc-fault circuit interrupter technology should also replace conventional circuit breakers. Aircraft manufacturers should be required to carry out more realistic certification testing assuming con- tinuous smoke generation on the flightdeck. “Vision assurance technology should be implemented to improve pilot visibility during continuous smoke on the flight deck.” (Technology,such as VisionSafe’s emergency vision assurance system [EVAS],exist as options, but the SAFITA report avoids mentioning them by name.) Conditions for smoke evacuation tests must be made more realistic. In the absence of automatic fire detection and suppression sys- tems in inaccessible areas,flight and cabin crew should be provided with means to detect smoke and fire where it cannot be seen,and ports for the insertion of fire extin- guishant should be provided. The number of smoke and fire detectors should be increased,and a mitigation against false alarms can be provided by using different sensor types (thermal/optical). Halon or equivalent chemical fire extinguishers provided to the crew must be increased in capacity to 2.5kg (5.5lb). Thermal/acoustic fuselage-lining blankets should be checked for cleanliness and be free from flam- mable contaminants. Maintenance procedures should also mitigate against such contamination. Improve wiring inspection maintenance programmes by using new inspection technology. smoke is detected. Obviously with Swissair 111 in mind, the FAA said that in the event of an in-flight fire, “delaying the air- craft’s descent by only two minutes is likely to make the difference between a successful landing and evacuation, and a complete loss of the aircraft and its occupants”. RAPID DIVERSION Indeed, the SAFITA report concludes that rapid diversion is one of the primary mitiga- tion techniques for reducing the risk of harm from onboard fire. The Swissair 111 report concluded that the crew should have diverted without any delay, although it cannot be as- serted with any confidence that the aircraft could definitely have landed safely even if the pilots had acted with all possible speed. Les- sons from both the recent Asiana and UPS freighter accidents reinforce this advice. The FAA, having recently reworked its pre- dictive model for freighter fire accidents, now forecasts the average number of US-registered freighter fire-related accidents likely to occur during the 2012-21 decade – if no mitigation action is taken – to be between two and 12, with six as the median probability. The agen- cy explains: “Approximately four of those are likely to be initiated by primary or secondary lithium batteries on the aircraft.” The defini- tion of “primary”, in this case, is batteries as airfreight; “secondary” is airfreighted equip- ment fitted with lithium-ion batteries, or lithi- um-powered equipment brought on board by crew and passengers. Almost all personal electronic devices are powered by lithium-ion rechargeable batteries. Between March 1991 and October 2012, the FAA Office of Security and Hazardous Materi- als Safety recorded 132 cases of aviation inci- dents involving smoke, fire, extreme heat or explosion involving batteries or battery-pow- ered devices. It found that lithium batteries were involved in the majority of the battery- caused incidents. The SAFITA report describes the extent of the problem posed by personal equipment car- ried by crew and passengers: “On a typical flight, a single aisle jet carrying 100 passengers couldhaveover500lithiumbatteriesonboard. These devices are not tested or certificated nor are they necessarily maintained to manufac- ture’s recommendations.” In April 2012, a passenger’s personal elec- tronic device burst into flames on a Pinnacle Airlines flight from Toronto to Minneapolis-St Paul. The SAFITA says: “During the in-flight service, the flight attendant noted that the de- vice was on fire on the floor; its battery was burning several feet from the device. Using water from the service cart, the flight attendant put out the fire using wet paper towels. She then submerged the battery in a cup of water RexFeatures A lithium-ion battery overheated on a Japan Airlines 787 in Boston on 7 January REGULATIONS RECOMMENDATIONS AND MITIGATIONS FOR FIRE RISK
- 35. 10-16 September 2013| Flight International | 35flightglobal.com David Learmount keeps abreast of the latest development in aviation safety, and offers his succinct views: flightglobal.com/learmount because it was still smouldering.” The captain smelled the fire and diverted the aircraft. Meanwhile, those crews who carry elec- tronic flightbags in the flightdeck should be aware that they are all powered by lithium- ion batteries. Concern about lithium-ion bat- teries in aviation was considerably heightened by two high-profile battery overheat incidents on 787s within a week of each other in Janu- ary. The first involved a Japan Airlines aircraft on the ground in Boston, Massachusetts, where the auxiliary power unit starter battery caught fire, and the other an airborne All Nip- pon Airways 787 where the main battery overheated. The two events grounded the type for more than three months while Boeing and its suppliers, watched by the FAA, redesigned the multi-cell batteries and their containment units. The intention was to reduce the likeli- hood of a thermal runaway, and to contain it effectively if one occurred. The 787 is the first aircraft to incorporate lithium-ion main bat- teries as part of its originally certificated de- sign, although they had been used to power ancillary units in other aircraft types, such as the emergency lighting in the Airbus A380. Therefore, assessment of present and future onboard risks has to take account of recent technologydevelopments,andalsothoseinthe pipeline. The widespread use of lithium-ion batteries is the obvious factor, but there are otherchangestoo,includingthegrowinguseof carbonfibre reinforced plastic (CFRP) materials inaircraftprimarystructuressuchaswingsand fuselages. This is not to say that carbonfibre is reckoned to be a particular fire risk, but its be- haviour when exposed to heat is different from that of aluminium, and while the behaviour of the latter is a known quantity, there is general agreement that the industry has more to learn about the results of CFRP’s exposure to fire. Meanwhile, a more insidious fire-risk multi- plier is the ever-increasing length of electrical cabling in wiring bundles in modern aircraft – an estimated 150km of insulated wire per air- craft. As aircraft and their systems become in- creasinglydigitallycontrolled,ashydraulicsare increasingly replaced by electrics, as systems redundancyisreinforcedtoboostdispatchreli- ability figures, and as a result of the exploding demand for in-flight entertainment (IFE) sys- tems, the length of cabling carrying electric en- ergyinfatwiringbundlesisgrowingfast. The SAFITA report says: “The increasing complexity of electrical installations will re- sult in further issues. Each system installed in an operator’s aeroplane can require unique procedures to deal with a failure or a problem that might result in an in-flight fire. Another issue is the addition of new systems to aero- planes using existing circuit-breakers to power the new equipment.” On top of this concern is the industry’s acceptance, not for- malised until early this century, that electrical wiring insulation has a shorter safe life than most airframes. WIRING WORRIES Bigger wiring bundles all add to aircraft weight, so naturally, manufacturers look for ways of making the cable core and its insulat- ing layer lighter. The FAA has been worried by this side effect of progress, and in 2008 ob- served: “Wire specifications should be revised to incorporate resistance to cut-through, abra- sion, hydrolysis, and longer-term heat age- ing.” It was factors like these that led to the Swissair 111 tragedy. The fire began with short-circuiting in a wiring bundle, and then the insulating material itself began to smoul- der. The fire subsequently moved into the fi- brous thermal-acoustic hull lining blanket, which was contaminated with dust and the products of maintenance activity, like metal shavings, grease and even hydraulic fluid. The CAA’s synopsis of the just-launched FAA/CAA fire-risk awareness campaign par- ticularly addresses the serious risk of wiring- bundle damage combined with contamina- tion like dust and moisture. The purpose of SAFITA Part 1 was to iden- tify the sources of fire risk, prioritise them and highlight mitigation strategies. The verdict was this: “The aviation industry and its regu- lators acknowledge that there will be ignition sources and fuel sources for fires within aero- planes. Only through multiple layers of miti- gation can the risk be kept to an acceptable level. To be effective these multiple layers will need to be re-evaluated regularly.” Meanwhile, studies for SAFITA Part 2 are continuing, seeking approaches to better de- sign, materials, and tools for fire detection and suppression. It is a tacit admission that the situation right now is simply unacceptable. A short-circuit in a wiring bundle and subsequent blaze brought down Swissair flight 111 Reuters “A single aisle jet carrying 100 passengers could have 500 lithium batteries on board” SAFITA REPORT
- 36. STRAIGHT&LEVEL flightglobal.com36 | FlightInternational | 10-16 September 2013 From yuckspeak to tales of yore,send your offcuts to murdo.morrison@flightglobal.com 100-YEAR ARCHIVE Every issue of Flight from 1909 onwards can be viewed online at flightglobal.com/archive Strike the colours The British Army manoeuvres have just commenced, and thus it is impossible for us to do more than review the happenings of the initial operations in the war between Greenland and Brownland on the one side, and Whiteland, as the opposing forces have been designated. Landing lights-out When a R.A.F.V.R. machine struck an overhead power cable in making a forced landing near Cadmore End, High Wycombe, Bucks, last week, the electricity supply over a large area was cut off. Fortunately the machine did not catch fire and the pilot was unhurt. ‘At home’ with RAF Nearly one million people visited the 15 RAF stations which were “at home” to the public last Saturday, September 14, to see flying displays commemorating the Battle of Britain. Antheus drops in An Aeroflot Antonov An-22 Antheus was a surprise visitor to Farnborough after the display ended on September 7. The aircraft was bringing in a spare engine for the An-124 Ruslan, to replace the unit damaged when the air bleed unit failed on the opening day. The Ruslan made its public display for the first time on September 8. andyxh558galleryonflightglobal.com/AirSpace NX611: no Lincs to Lancs whatsoever Memories of Piper Alpha One is better than none The obviously strapped-for- cash Kuwaiti government is sticking one of its Amiri Flight Airbus A300s on the market. Before you all figure that it’ll be a dinner-party talking point and look nice on the driveway parked next to the Ford Mondeo, we’ll draw your attention to the fine print. Some way down a list of ‘special conditions’ attached to the sale is the minor point that the aircraft “has only one engine”. It then goes on to state that the aircraft will not be sold “partially”, shamelessly sidestepping the fact that a single-engined twinjet is partial in anyone’s dictionary. Caveat emptor and all that. Owning up Tweet from Heathrow airport: “Here’s a fun fact to kick off your Friday! @heathrowairport is twice the size in area of Gibraltar.” The other difference between the two places? The Brits still own Gibraltar. Left winger Ryanair marked World Left Handers Day on 12 August with a 100,000-seat sale, which could be booked on the company’s website by left-hand only. Ryanair’s left-handed chief executive provides the Aberdeen to fly to Shetland the next,” he recalls. “I was woken by all the helicopter traffic. The reason was apparent when I switched on the TV. Instead of proceeding to Shetland, I was used to fly an Sikorsky S-61N to the standby platform alongside what was Piper Alpha. “The sight was dramatic, even traumatic – the sea on fire and molten metal dripping into the sea. How those who jumped overboard survived is amazing.” “I later flew out Red Adair. He arrived in his private jet, no customs or immigration. He got on board my S-61N and I flew him out to the standby platform. Piper Alpha was still burning.” obligatory quote, although it’s probably the only time Michael O’Leary will describe himself as a “leftie”. Lax on Lancs Slapped wrists for us, demands Andy Burrows. “Always nice to see a picture of the Panton Brothers’ Lancaster,” he says. Unfortunately, the airfield where the famed Second World War bomber is on display is East Kirby, Lincolnshire, not “appropriately, Lancashire” as we noted in our Pic of the Week caption in 6-12 August. The flightcrew responsible for NX611 operate her on taxi runs, he says, “but they definitely haven’t flown her across to Lancashire. Yet.” Flying Red Adair Our 25 Years Ago reference to the Piper Alpha disaster prompts our helicopter test pilot Peter Gray to send in his memories of that fateful day. “I was with Bristow Helicopters, overnighting inYou’ve got to hand it to him RexFeatures Ryanair
- 37. LETTERS flightglobal.com flight.international@flightglobal.com We welcome yourletters on any aspect of the aerospace industry. Please write to: The Editor, Flight International, Quadrant House, The Quadrant, Sutton, Surrey SM2 5AS, UK. Or email flight.international@ flightglobal.com The opinions on this page do not necessarily represent those of the editor. Flight International cannot publish letters without name and address. Letters must be no more than 250 words in length. FLIGHTINTERNATIONAL We welcome your letters on any aspect of the aerospace industry. Please write to: The Editor, Flight International, Quadrant House, The Quadrant, Sutton, Surrey SM2 5AS, UK. Or email flight.international@ flightglobal.com The opinions on this page do not necessarily represent those of the editor. 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. FLIGHTINTERNATIONAL Your editorial (Flight International, 23-29 July), con- demning the Air Line Pilots Association for their outrage at the premature statements by the National Transportation Safety Board on the Asiana crash at San Francisco, was speciously biased. To argue that ALPA was inconsistent because it did not complain when the NTSB released post- accident statements in other cases that were favourable to the flightcrew’s actions, shows that you have perhaps only a nodding acquaintance with le- galities surrounding air accident investigations. Fatalities – of which in this case there were two – may lead, in common law countries, to an action for manslaughter against those responsible for the deaths and the flightcrew are high on the list for such a charge. Should the investigators release – be- fore their enquiry is completed – damning statements about the flightcrew, it may jeopardise their defence in any subsequent action. The popular option of “pilot error” can be set in motion very ear- ly on after an accident by unsubstantiated reckless opinions and untutored assumptions. One senior leading investigator caused political outcry when he stood at the crash site surrounded by twisted metal and debris, declaring that there was nothing wrong with one of the engines! On the other hand, where statements are made by the investigators that may be beneficial to the crew, then no such legal impediment is created. The objective of the pilots’ union is to protect its members dur- ing the arduous legal aftermath of an air accident or incident. It is noteworthy that there have been instances where the pilot unions have failed miserably in this role. The investigation is a process and those involved should not devi- ate from the established protocols and procedures simply to feed the sensationalism of the media and general public. Dr David McClelland Via email INVESTIGATION Nodding acquaintance with law I was surprised that the first flight of the Airbus A350 did not get ex- tensive coverage in Flight, or in- deed anywhere in the UK. It is a fine plane and will be a commer- cial success. It appears to have been well managed as a project (as opposed to the Boeing 787). I remember watching the first flight of the British Concorde at Filton which received huge media coverage. Will Flight be on hand to cover the first flight of the Bombardier CS100 due “in the coming weeks” (Flight International, 6-12 August, p9)? First flight disappointment 10-16 September 2013 | Flight International | 37 Are we not interested in first flights anymore? Are projects so well run now that a first flight carries little risk and therefore is hardly worthy of comment? John Adkins Via email Our 23-29 July Comment section 23-29 July 2013 | Flight International | 5flightglobal.com See News Focus P12 A shortcut to nowhere G Read our analysis of what the Asiana crash investigation will look into at flightglobal.com/asiana See This Week P7 Nothing to see here The largest pilots union in the USA has started a war of words with the country’s accident investigation agency, accusing the body of “sensationalising” the crash of the Asiana 777 Sticks and stones I ALPA’s criticism would have more credibitility if the union was more consistent Editor’s note: The A350’s first flight was on Friday, 14 June, one day after Flight International went to press, so we were not able to include it in our 18 June print edition (although it did feature extensively in our tablet edition, which goes to press a day later). The first flight was overtaken by events by the time our next, Paris airshow report issue came out on 25 June, where we did cover the flight test pro- gramme to date. A320 cowl check rule needed Flight International, 20-26 August, prompts concerns regarding the recent EasyJet A320 cowl loss at Milan Malpensa. During the incident the rudder and rear fuselage suf- fered domestic object damage that compromised the safety of flight. It is time that the regulatory authorities issue a mandatory airworthiness directive to physi- cally check that the A320-series engine cowl latches are secured prior to every flight. This could simply be done by the dispatch personnel using a low trolley to scoot under the cowls for a quick visual check. Accomplishing latch checks only when the cowls were opened for maintenance could lead to accountability errors leading to future unlatched cowl detachments. Chris Barnes Kentfield, California Xenophobic ban on approaches? “The FAA is assigning alternate instrument approaches to all for- eign carriers.” (Flight International, 6-12 August, p8) What!? Apart from the frankly astounding xenophobic implica- tion that only Americans can fly properly, is that discrimination even legal under international conventions? Bob Owen Sherborne, Dorset, UKA350: tablet coverage Training courses to take you there Build your career
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- 40. TEL+44(0)2086524897FAX+44(0)2086523779EMAILclassified.services@rbi.co.ukCLASSIFIED 40 | FlightInternational | 10-16 September 2013 flightglobal.com CLASSIFIED TEL +44 (0) 20 8652 4897 FAX +44 (0) 20 8652 3779 EMAIL classified.services@rbi.co.uk Calls may be monitored for training purposes LONDON BIGGIN HILL CLOSE TO THE HEART OF LONDON HANGARAGE AND OFFICES AVAILABLE IN LONDON TODAY For long and short term competitively priced office space and hangarage contact: Katy Woolcott +44(0)1959 578500 estates@bigginhillairport.com www.bigginhillairport.com D a u p h i n Parts Specialists w w w . a l p i n e . a e r o Helitech 2013 Booth E51 September 24-26, Excel, London JET A1 AVGAS 100LL AVGAS UL91 &HUWLÀFDWH1R)6 6XSSOLHGDOORYHUWKH%ULWLVK,VOHVLQ%XONDQG'UXPVDQG DURXQGWKH:RUOGLQ,627DQNVOLWUHVWDLQOHVV6WHHO
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- 45. TEL+44(0)2086524897FAX+44(0)2086523779EMAILclassified.services@rbi.co.ukCLASSIFIED 42 | FlightInternational | 10-16 September 2013 flightglobal.com HEAD OFFICE, BALAKA, KURMITOLA, DHAKA-1229, BANGLADESH, PHONE: 8901600-14, 8901680-94, FAX: 88-02-8901558,www.biman-airlines.com SALE AND LEASEBACK Biman Bangladesh Airlines is looking for reputable Lessors, Banks and other financial institutions to take over the purchase of its firm orders for 2 (two) new Boeing737-800 aircraft due for delivery in November and December 2015, and leaseback to Biman for a period of ten (10) years from said date, with options to extend. Pre-delivery payments are due in October 2013. Details are available on Biman website www.biman-airlines.com So you want to be an airline pilot? The right training will ensure you are best placed to achieve that dream. CTC Wings is one of the world’s leading airline training programmes. Our airline focused approach fully prepares you for operating one of today’s next generation aircraft and our pilots are highly sought after by leading airlines worldwide. Apply to CTC Wings - where the best pilots train - and make your career fly today. Next CTC Wings Careers Event - 02 November 2013. Register now! TRAINING TOMORROW’S AIRLINE PILOTS TODAY CTC WINGS MAKE YOUR CAREER FLY visit ctcwings.com to learn more committed to excellence Tenders Courses and tuition %XLOGRXUFDUHHU 7UDLQLQJFRXUVHVWRWDNHRXWKHUH ZZZÀLJKWJOREDOFRPWUDLQLQJ
- 46. HUNDREDSOFJOBS@flightglobal.com/jobsRECRUITMENT flightglobal.com/jobs EMAIL recruitment.services@rbi.co.uk CALL+44 (20) 8652 4900 FAX +44 (20) 8652 4877 Getting careers off the ground flightglobal.com 10-16 September 2013 | Flight International | 43 Try Flightglobal Training’s new site for the fastest route to building your aerospace and aviation career Training courses to take you there ZZZÀLJKWJOREDOFRPWUDLQLQJ Build your career Focus on the client - Focus on ValueLet your career take off Design Project Engineer – Avionics / Mechanical We are inviting applications from Design Project Engineers to join our EASA Part 21J, approved Design Organisation in Redhill, Surrey. As part of Bristow Technical Services, the Design Organisation provides technical and design expertise in support of the Bristow Group and to our External Customers. Responsible to the Head of Design, your duties will include but not limited to: • Researching and designing aircraft modifications that meet future operational or mandatory requirements; • Compiling and/or approving design documentation under the Organisation’s EASA Part 21, Subpart J Approval; • Ensuring design work meets compliance with appropriate approvals and airworthiness requirements; • Delivering Project Management of modification programmes; • Working closely with Bristow’s EASA Part 21G Approved Production Organisation on manufacturing issues and modification kit production; • Providing technical support and rectification action in response to operational problems, incidents and AOG situations, ensuring safety and airworthiness whilst minimising operational disruption and costs; • Liaising with internal Departments, Aircraft Manufacturers, Equipment Vendors and Regulatory Bodies; • Collaborating with Technical Specialists, as required, in relation to the interdisciplinary aspects of design projects; • Reviewing technical documents issued by Aircraft Manufacturers, Equipment Vendors and Regulatory Bodies, assessing the implications and implementing the appropriate actions to ensure continued compliance with regulatory requirements; • Negotiating, as necessary, with regulatory authorities to obtain approval for major modifications; • Representing the company, on a technical basis, at industry working groups, meetings and conferences. Skills / Experience • Aviation related, Engineering Degree, HND or other Professional Qualifications and knowledge equivalent to an EASA B1.3/B2 License Holder; • Previous experience in an aviation related engineering design / development role. Preference will be given to candidates who can demonstrate suitability to hold CVE status within an EASA Part 21J Design Organisation; • Must be thorough, detailed and analytical in approach to work with an ability to provide innovative solutions to problems; • Strong, demonstrable negotiation and interpersonal skills; • Excellent verbal and written communication skills; • Ability to work on own initiative or/and as part of a team; • Flexible with the ability to adapt to changing demands; • Able to make clear-cut decisions and communicate these effectively; • Ability to meet strict deadlines and work under pressure; • Proficient in the use of Microsoft Office and Web Based Software; • A working knowledge of AUTO-CAD would be desirable. To apply please submit an online application together with a covering letter and CV at: www.bristowgroup.com/careers
- 47. HUNDREDSOFJOBS@flightglobal.com/jobsRECRUITMENT 44 | FlightInternational | 10-16 September 2013 flightglobal.com A proposed dynamic airline in the Republic of Serbia is seeking an expression of interest from candidates interested in the following roles Licensed Aircraft Engineer The right candidate will need ● Valid aircraft maintenance license (ICAOII, EASA66) ● Post holder must have a minimum of 5 years’ experience within line maintenance, of which 3 years in a similar role. ● Formal technical training on (A319/A320 – B737CL – ATR72) aircraft type ● Excellent knowledge of line maintenance operations ● Excellent knowledge of aviation regulations (e.g. JAA, EASA, FAA) ● High standard of English language ● High standard of computer literacy (MS Office applications) Licensed Aircraft Technician The right candidate will need ● High School Diploma or equivalent ● Formal aircraft apprenticeship or equivalent ● Minimum 2 years line maintenance experience ● Excellent knowledge of aviation regulations Applications from citizens of the Republic Of Serbia are strongly encouraged. Please send all applications to enggrecruitment.serbia@gmail.com Deadline for applications is the 30th September If you’re ready to depart from your job, start with jobs.flightglobal.com THE job site for the aviation and aerospace industry. Ready to depart from your job? Print Online Mobile Your industry, your job site
- 48. HUNDREDSOFJOBS@flightglobal.com/jobsRECRUITMENT flightglobal.com 10-16 September2013 | Flight International | 45 www.cranfield.ac.uk School of Engineering Department of Aerospace Engineering Senior Lecturer/Reader £48,064 to £52,138 per annum Communications, Navigation and Surveillance (CNS) and Air Traffic Management (ATM) As a senior member of staff in the Aircraft Design Group, you will work closely with colleagues specialising in avionics design and avionics software systems and will be expected to develop and lead the CNS/ATM research activity in the group. An active researcher, you will have a strong background in modern avionic/CNS/ATM system design (e.g. RPN, 4D Trajectory based operations and PBN) a proven research track record and also a proven ability in winning funding from UK and EU initiatives in the field. The Department has a Large Aircraft Flight Simulator (LAFS), an Avionics Rig and various other Flight Simulators. Additionally, we are planning an innovative CNS/ATM Laboratory, which will include also the networking of the simulators available in the School of Engineering and possibly other resources in Cranfield University. You will lead the establishment of the CNS/ATM Laboratory and in the day-to-day activities required for running and maintaining the LAFS. In addition to high quality research, you will be expected to design and deliver aeronautical communications systems and ATM lectures and tutorials as part of the taught MSc programme in Aerospace Vehicle Design (Avionics option), with the aim of growing the CNS/ATM content leading to possibly a separate option including short and long courses. You will provide support to the Design Project element of the MSc programme and will supervise research theses. You must have a PhD in aeronautical/aerospace or electronic engineering and research experience in the field of CNS/ATM. Industrial and direct experience of practical CNS/ATM Integration also would be expected. Apply online now at www.cranfield.ac.uk/hr or contact us for further details on E: hr@cranfield.ac.uk or T: +44 (0)1234 750111 ext 2347. Please quote reference number 1427. Closing date for receipt of applications: 4 October 2013. A place for learning, an opportunity for development. Gulf Helicopters Company, a Commercial Helicopter operator based in Qatar, seeks to fill the positions of Licensed Aircraft Engineer and Technicians. Adv. Ref. No. LAE/TECH-01/2013 Possess Aircraft Maintenance Engineer’s License issued under the provision of ICAO Annex II in Airframe and Power plant or Avionics with all categories, or EASA Part 66 B1 or B2. Applicants should have appropriate experience on type and manufacturer’s airframe engine course certificates. Candidates holding type ratings on AW 139 and/ or Bell 412 will only be considered. We offer a TAX FREE, attractive and competitive remuneration package. Please apply online by visiting our website: www.gulfhelicopters.com specifying the job ref # as LAE/TECH-01/2013 in the Engineers application form and forward CV scanned copies of licenses and training certificates to email address: careers@gulfhelicopters.com with full name and position in the subject line. HEAD OF FLYING OPERATIONS (HFO) - PERTH BASED Responsible for the safe, efficient and cost-effective deployment of the company’s flight operations assets. Key Duties and responsibilities include: t ActastheprincipalflightoperationsadvisertotheGeneralManager,RegionalServices t Ensure compliance under the civil aviation law of all flying conducted by the company as the holder of a High Capacity AOC t Represents the Company with the regulatory authorities, Government agencies, clients, service providers and the public t Plan, organise, lead and control the daily operation of the Flight Operations Department t Ensure Operational Budget Performance and Cost Control measures Essential Qualifications and Experience: t Background/qualificationsacceptabletoCASAHFOrequirementsofaHighCapacity AOC t Demonstrable high level understanding of all of the essential operational and infrastructure requirements to conduct the company’s operations t Demonstrableleadershipandinterpersonalskillscommensuratewiththeposition t Australian AirTransport Pilot’s Licence (ATPL) t Current Command Multi Engine Instrument Rating To apply: Please email your resume to the HR Assistant, MonicaVan De Laak before close of business 3 October 2013 at regionalserviceshr@cobham.com.au Successful applicants will receive full training and a competitive benefits package. Requirements s Hold or have held JAA/EASA ATPL(H) with IR(H) or CPL(H) with IR(H) s Have at least 1,000 hours flying experience as a helicopter pilot s Have at least 350 hours flying experience as a pilot of multi- pilot helicopters Preferences s Previous Instructional Experience s S-92 or similar ratings s Search and Rescue s Offshore Operations Competitive Salary and Benefits For information or to apply, visit Careers at flightsafety.com, or call +44 (0) 1252 554 500. Equal opportunity employer/M/F/D/V A Berkshire Hathaway companyflightsafety.com EASA Instructors for Sikorsky S-92 FlightSafety International, Farnborough, UK seeks Ground and Simulator Instructors for the Sikorsky S-92 program to instruct Initial, Recurrent and Enrichment Pilot Training courses.