FlightGlobal.

com July 2023

All the best

coverage from
Le Bourget

Big deals
Narrowbody orders soar as Paris air show
revitalises a changing industry p6

Climate agenda dominates

EBACE proceedings p44

Dream ending? Why EirTrade

sent 787s to scrap p54
£5.99

Flying start Trailblazers

China Eastern Partners propel
launches C919 UK’s new fighter
into service demonstrator
p29 p30
Airbus Comment

Demonstration game

Indian summer
Large order commitments for narrowbody products dominated
the headlines at Le Bourget, but be in no doubt – the aerospace
industry is powering towards a more sustainable future

I
f anyone thought the novelty of root, and the prolonged gap has to say nothing of war and economic
triple-figure aircraft orders at air meant the change is more star- malaise, served to subdue.
shows might have worn off, the tlingly evident. But that left room for agile inno-
press throng gathered in a small In the capital that gave its name vators to pour into the Paris spot-
Le Bourget conference room to to a legally binding international light, eager to demonstrate that
hear IndiGo detail a record agree- treaty on climate change, this year’s sustainability is no longer abstract
ment for 500 Airbus single-aisle Le Bourget festival showcased the but tangible, with futuristic de-
jets testified to the contrary. rapid advances in alternative aerial signs appearing on the static line
IndiGo had been in on this trend transport and propulsion – from bi- and already starting to make con-
from the start. Its founding compa- ofuels and electric air taxis right up ventional aircraft look, if you dare,
ny InterGlobe unveiled a deal for to hydrogen-powered engines – all somewhat passé.
100 aircraft for the carrier – which blossoming in the drive for sustain- This is not a death-of-the-dino-
had still to be established – at the able aviation. saurs thing. The airframers have
2005 Paris show, and followed up Contrast this with the previous a harder game to play, their evo-
with 180 more in 2011, another 250 edition of the event, pre-pandem- lution will be slower, and they will
in 2015, and 300 further aircraft in ic, during which the focus had re- take longer to catch up.
2019. mained on more conventional air- But the press briefings on techno-
To put its latest order into per- framer jousting. The immediate logical momentum, detailing back-
spective, it amounts virtually to interest had centred on the Boeing ground research as hydrogen-pow-
the entirety of Airbus’s A320-fam- 737 Max and the A321XLR, and the er concepts translate into real-world
ily production last year – quite the aerospace industry’s outlook fell demonstrations, are tremors tele-
overture to reopen a show which far short of predicting the greatest graphing a fundamental upheaval in
became, like so much of the avia- crisis in its history. the aviation sector, one as momen-
tion sector, a casualty of the pan- tous and far-reaching as the advent
demic last time around. Subdued orders of the jet age.
But even if journalists have yet Outlier Indian agreements aside, the Never mind 500-aircraft orders.
to appear jaded by the rewriting order conveyor belt – so often a cen- If you’re looking for some serious
of numerical high-marks, the four- trepiece of the Paris show – barely excitement, it’s coming to an air
year absence of Paris has allowed seemed to step into second gear. show near you. ◗
a new era of aerospace to take Undoubtedly the Covid hangover, See p6

July 2023 Flight International 3

 In focus
Airbus to trial fuel cell APU C919 ‘comes of age’ 29 Tecnam pauses P-Volt 37
aboard A330 7 UK propels supersonic Supply chain woes hinder
Typhoon sales ready to soar 15 demonstrator achievements 30 airline recovery 40
RISE arises 17 US counts the cost of F-35 EBACE show report 44
Embraer gets stronger 24 power struggle 33 VoltAero drives towards
Rolls-Royce’s UltraFan plan 26 Malaysia spends big at LIMA 34 Cassio’s first flight 49

Powering up Could hydrogen fuel cells

offer a non-propulsive energy alternative?

44
FlightGlobal.com July 2023

All the best

coverage from
Le Bourget

Big deals
Narrowbody orders soar as Paris air show
revitalises a changing industry p6

Climate agenda dominates

EBACE proceedings p44

Dream ending? Why EirTrade

AirTeamImages

sent 787s to scrap p54

£5.99

Flying start Trailblazers

China Eastern Partners propel
launches C919 UK’s new fighter
into service demonstrator
p29 p30

Regulars Comment 3 Best of the rest 50 Straight & Level 76 Letters 78 Women in aviation 82

4 Flight International July 2023

 Contents

In depth
Dream ending? 54 The right approach? 62 Fuelling change 72
The first 787s have been Air traffic management system The Royal Air Force has an
scrapped – but their composite improvements have potential to aggressive goal of reaching
structures are a challenge accelerate decarbonisation net zero carbon emissions
Burning issue 58 Quiet revolution 68 by 2040. But what is the
Boeing is taking a progressive Attention is increasingly turning service doing to deliver on its
approach to cutting emissions to the issue of noise pollution decarbonisation promise?

68

26 54
July 2023 Flight International 5
 Paris Commercial

FlightGlobal Staff Paris

Indian ink
I
f last year’s Farnborough was char-
acterised by a relative lack of or- Two huge deals from Indian carriers
ders, the latest edition of the Paris
air show saw, if not a return to the dominated the orderbooks of Airbus
consistently blockbuster deals of a
few years ago, at least steady mo- and Boeing at Paris, skewing what was
mentum after a spectacular start.
Mind you, for a while it looked otherwise a healthy, if modest, intake
like the first day would pass with-
out any orders, even after Airbus
insiders had tipped journalists to
watch out for an “Indian summer”.
But then, late on Monday, there it
was: a record-breaking 500-aircraft
deal with IndiGo. And once that
had been unveiled, every other
commercial agreement announced
at Le Bourget was always going to
pale in comparison.
It is worth reflecting on the
scale of that order. The 500 Air-
bus narrowbodies IndiGo is taking
are slated for delivery well into the
2030s. Or to look at it another way,
IndiGo has committed to a whole
year’s worth of A320neo output.

Growing backlog
IndiGo chief executive Pieter Elbers
says the aircraft will “bring us well
into the next decade” with delivery
BillyPix

over the 2030-2035 period. “No- IndiGo chief Pieter Elbers (left) celebrates with staff after unveiling record order in Paris
one has ever [placed] an order of
this magnitude,” he adds, pointing
out that the agreement is firm and
there are “no options”. – with Airbus and Boeing for 470 -1000s for Philippine Airlines, the
It comprises A320neo and aircraft, a mixture of single- and subject of an earlier memorandum
A321neo variants, and the airline twin-aisle jets. of understanding. That dozen air-
has the flexibility to take the long- Between them, the two Indian craft added to the 40 signed for
range A321XLR. The final composi- carriers accounted for 970 firm or- by Air India, a mix of A350-900s
tion has yet to be decided. No en- ders – by far and away the bulk of and -1000s.
gine selection has yet been made. the deals disclosed at Paris. In the narrowbody market, Boe-
IndiGo already has around 300 ing scored a handful of wins: Indian
Airbus jets, with a further 480 on Modest business low-cost carrier Akasa Air ordered
order until the end of the decade. Elsewhere, order figures were more four more Max 8s, Luxair became
Elbers says the new order takes modest, or comprised the firming the European launch customer for
the carrier’s order book to nearly of options or previously disclosed the Max 7 with a deal for four jets,
1,000 aircraft. tentative commitments. and Air Algerie finalised an agree-
The agreement has emerged at a Of the lessors, Avolon was the ment for eight Max 9s.
pivotal point in Indian aviation, with big spender, revealing a preliminary Airbus, meanwhile, disclosed
Air India resurgent following its ac- deal for 20 A330-900s, alongside that Mexico’s Volaris was behind a
quisition by Tata Group in 2022. a firm order for 40 Boeing 737 Max previously unattributed deal for 25
And it was the flag carrier that 8s. Rival Air Lease, meanwhile, or- A321neos, while Saudi Arabian low-
emerged as day two’s big buy- dered a pair of 787s. cost carrier Flynas firmed up an or-
er, firming separate agreements In all, Boeing disclosed orders der for 30 more A320neo-family
– originally disclosed in February and options for 50 787s in Paris. As jets. And Qantas placed an incre-
well as the Air Lease pair and 20 mental order for nine A220-300s,
for Air India – plus 20 options – Tai- having signalled its intention to do

970
Firm orders placed by IndiGo and
wanese carrier China Airlines also
exercised eight options.
Airbus, meanwhile, ensured that
its A350 backlog also ticked up,
securing a three-unit order from
so in February.
In fact, that was it for Airbus sin-
gle-aisle orders, although when
you have two carriers ordering 710
narrowbodies between them, you
Air India at the Paris air show Air Mauritius for -900s, plus nine are allowed a little latitude. ◗

6 Flight International July 2023

 Paris Technology

The ‘HyPower’ demonstrator will

aim to reduce emissions and noise
generated by conventional APUs

Airbus to trial fuel cell Embraer and GKN

outline hydrogen
APU aboard A330 flight-test effort
Embraer and GKN Aerospace
Evaluations using adapted widebody are to collaborate on
development and integration of
will be led by UpNext division a hydrogen fuel cell powertrain
that could result in flight tests
aboard one of the Brazilian
airframer’s jets.
The partnership brings
together two companies that
have “really good directional
alignment” on their strategies
for zero-carbon aviation, says
GKN chief technology officer
Russ Dunn, who describes
Embraer as the “ideal partner”.
GKN has been developing a
1MW-class fuel cell powertrain
David Kaminski-Morrow Paris exercise to learn, as well, the certifi- under the UK government-
cation efforts that we require to get backed H2GEAR programme,
hydrogen safely into civil aviation.” which will result in full systems

A
irbus is to modify an A330- Airbus will undertake certifica- tests by 2025.
200 to explore the poten- tion work with the European Union Initially targeted at the sub-
tial for hydrogen fuel cells Aviation Safety Agency to secure regional market for 19-seat
to power systems other approvals to fly the modified jet. aircraft, the UK firm believes it
than those directly related to the The aircraft will use 10kg (22lb) of can be scaled up to power an
main engines. gaseous hydrogen and conduct aircraft with at least 90 seats.
Lighting, avionics and air condi- flights of 1h under realistic condi- Embraer, meanwhile, has
tioning are driven by the auxiliary tions, at altitudes up to 25,000ft. been working on future low-
power unit (APU). But Airbus chief UpNext will obtain a production emission aircraft concepts
technical officer Sabine Klauke be- system for renewable hydrogen under its Energia programme,
lieves 5% of the fuel consumption with which to supply the A330. including 200nm (370km)-
on aircraft could be saved if re- Aguello says HyPower will be led range 19- and 30-seat fuel
placed by hydrogen-based electri- from UpNext’s facilities in Spain, cell-powered models that could
fication. “Powering using fuel cells and it is co-operating with the enter service in 2035.
could be promising,” she says. Spanish government and other Dunn says he has seen
Airbus future technology initi- partners on the programme. “fantastic engagement” in the
ative UpNext is to develop a new Meanwhile, Airbus-Safran space project from the Dutch and UK
demonstrator, based on a modified launch venture ArianeGroup has governments and is hopeful of
A330-200, to test architecture for conducted a proof-of-concept test securing financial support from
non-propulsive energy. of hydrogen conditioning which both to advance the initiative.
Two air compressors will be fitted would be suitable for feeding an Flight testing would take place
in the forward fuselage, with three aircraft engine. in the Netherlands, he says.
gaseous hydrogen tanks in the aft, The test, carried out on 12 May No decision has been taken
and the APU will be replaced by a at the Vernon facility northwest on which Embraer aircraft the
hydrogen fuel cell system, feeding of Paris, marks the conclusion to powertrain would be tested
a power distribution network. a project named Hyperion, which on: “There are options we have
UpNext chief executive Michael looked at hydrogen propulsion op- discussed,” he says. “But there
Aguello says the demonstrator is tions for commercial aviation. is more work we need to do
branded ‘HyPower’ and will look to It re-used equipment initially in- together.”
reduce emissions and noise gener- tended for the spaceflight industry, Dunn envisages testing the
ated by conventional APUs. including gas generators, exchang- propulsion system through a
The three-year programme in- ers and electric pumps. podded solution on the aircraft,
volves design and integration work Hyperion, which commenced at with its existing engines
in the first year, ground-testing the the end of 2020, has confirmed the remaining in place.
A330 in the second, and flight tests potential of hydrogen as an energy Flight tests would take place
in the third. source for civil aviation decarbonisa- in the 2028-2029 timeframe
“Ultimately we want to fly fast tion. Its work has included examining to mature the technology for
and we need to have permits to the whole process of fuel transfer service entry in the mid-2030s,
fly,” says Aguello. “This is a great from tanks to ignition and exhaust. ◗ he says.
Airbus

July 2023 Flight International 7

 Paris Mobility

eVTOL makers outline ambitions

A swathe of companies showcased their in-development
products for the emerging advanced air mobility sector
Alfred Chua, Howard Hardee & Pilar planning date. As we get [further]
Wolfsteller Paris down the road we will talk about
specifics,” he says.
“There are very practical ways

D
evelopers of electric ver- that we benefit from technology
tical take-off and landing and products that Boeing uses on
(eVTOL) aircraft were out in its airplanes,” Yutko notes. “We can
force at the show, with ex- use the material systems from the
ecutives describing next year as the 787 programme directly on this air-
most important yet for the emerg- craft.”
ing advanced air mobility market. Eve announced letters of intent
Airbus, Archer Aviation, EHang, covering up to 150 of its air taxis:
Eve Air Mobility, Lilium, SkyDrive, Vo- 70 for Brazil’s Voar Aviation, 50 for
locopter and Wisk Aero were among Norway’s Wideroe Zero, and 30 for
the companies competing for atten- Nordic Aviation Capital.
tion, with prototypes or mock-ups of The vehicle’s electric propulsion
their aircraft and cabins. systems will be supplied by a Nidec
Germany-based Volocopter aims Aerospace joint venture, to be es-
Volocopter plans to be operating air taxis
to become the first to begin flying tablished by Brazil’s Embraer and
SIAE

during next year’s Olympic Games in Paris

air taxi operations, targeting Euro- Japan’s Nidec, while BAE Systems
pean certification for its VoloCity will provide an advanced energy
in the second quarter of 2024. This “2024 is a huge year for us as storage system and Duc Helices
would pave the way for flights to an industry, because we’re moving Propellers its rotors and propellers.
be performed in Paris coinciding into the flight-test-for-credit [pro- Meanwhile, Joby Aviation and
with the Olympic Games. gramme] with the Federal Aviation GKN Aerospace signed a multi-year
Volocopter says five vertiports Administration [FAA],” he says. “In agreement covering the latter’s
will be built in the city by the start Archer’s case, you’re going to see supply of thermoplastic flight-con-
of operations, with the first to be six-plus piloted conforming planes trol surfaces.
completed by September 2023. flying around Silicon Valley every “This cutting-edge manufactur-
It is also to supply two aircraft to day, multiple times a day, racking up ing process will enable high-rate
German emergency medical ser- thousands of flights over that year.” production while delivering on the
vices operator ADAC Luftrettung Archer recently hired former act- high-performance requirements of
for a two-year test phase, which if ing FAA administrator Billy Nolen Joby’s aircraft,” says GKN.
successful could prompt orders for to help it navigate the aircraft’s And Japan-based SkyDrive has
another 150. lengthy and costly multi-step cer- updated the specifications of its
US companies Archer and Wisk tification process. in-development aircraft, which
have also zeroed in on a major in- Wisk chief executive Brian Yutko chief executive Tomohiro Fukuza-
ternational event: the 2028 Olym- calls the Los Angeles games a “very wa says can now carry two passen-
pic Games in Los Angeles. interesting” potential date to show gers and a pilot.
Archer chief executive Adam off the Boeing-owned company’s It aims to perform demonstration
Goldstein envisions “hundreds or vehicle, implying that it could be flights at the Osaka Expo in 2025,
thousands” of eVTOL aircraft being ready for commercial operations before gaining certification by
in use above the Californian city dur- sooner than previously thought. 2026. Assembly will be via a part-
ing the event – including its Midnight. “We obviously have an internal nership agreement with Suzuki. ◗

FlightGlobal’s winning formula

Two members of the FlightGlobal consulting editor Mark Pilling won
editorial team scooped accolades the Best Propulsion submission for
at the 2023 Aerospace Media the second year in a row.
Awards, hosted in Paris on the eve Several other members of
of the show. the FlightGlobal team had also
Asia editor and bureau chief been shortlisted, in recognition
Greg Waldron (right) was named of contributions across multiple
BillyPix

Aviation Reporter of the Year, while judging categories.

8 Flight International July 2023

 Visit FlightGlobal Premium for all the latest aviation news and insight FlightGlobal.com

No to Neo – why Airbus rejects

calls for revamped A380
Airframer insists A350-1000 is a suitable successor to the
double-decker, despite requests from type’s largest customer

Michael Derrer Fuchs/Shutterstock

David Kaminski-Morrow & not being entertained. closely with Emirates to ensure
Dominic Perry Paris “There is no -2000 study ongo- the A380 continues to fly with the
ing at the moment,” he says. “That Dubai-based carrier “as long as
was done in the past in very specif- possible”.

A
irbus is unmoved by Emir- ic conditions. “We’ll deliver the -900 [to Emir-
ates Airline president “Today we believe the -1000 is ates] next year with a brand new
Sir Tim Clark’s plea for a the right size, in particular to make configuration and this will be an
modernised version of the sure the airlines operating the -900 outstanding cabin and outstanding
A380, insisting that its A350-1000 can [increase capacity or] replace aircraft for Emirates,” he says.
is a suitable successor as well as a the 777-300ER.” Airbus is continuing to tweak the
strong candidate for Boeing 777- A350 to enhance its performance,
300ER replacement. Replacement wave introducing a wider interior – en-
Emirates is the largest operator He says the -1000 is “large enough” abling 10-abreast economy-class
of A380s and Clark, undeterred by and the “perfect size” for the 777- cabins – and reworking the forward
Airbus’s cessation of A380 produc- 300ER replacement wave ahead, and aft door areas to expand crew
tion, still believes a re-engined ver- adding that the Airbus twinjet has working space.
sion would be highly efficient. “more range and much better effi- Massou says the twinjet will
But Airbus is not considering ciency”. benefit from weight-reduction ef-
aircraft larger than its A350-1000, “This is the natural platform to forts from 2026 – trimming 400kg
says widebody programme sen- take the lion’s share of 777 replace- (880lb) from the -900 and 600kg
ior vice-president Florent Massou, ment. This is where we see the from the -1000 – through the use
pointing out that even the pro- market in the next few years.” of new materials and new assem-
posed stretched ‘A350-2000’ is Massou says Airbus is working bly processes which are saving

A321XLR powers ahead

after fuel tank accord
Certification of long-range narrowbody
on horizon following EASA agreement
David Kaminski-Morrow Paris aft centre tank, critical to the XLR’s
range of up to 4,700nm (8,700km).
Three flight-test aircraft –

A
irbus’s long-range A321X- both Leap- and Pratt & Whitney
LR has made its air show PW1100G-powered models – are
debut, as the airframer participating in the certification
aims to certify the CFM In- campaign, but the regulatory dis-
Airbus and European regulator have
ternational Leap-1A version by the cussions on the XLR’s modifications
Airbus

agreed model’s technical baseline

end of this year. from the A321neo mean they are
Executive vice-president for not identical.
programmes Philippe Mhun tells “They’re not completely, at the
FlightGlobal that Airbus has agree- same time, reflecting the final are not representative of the final
ment on the twinjet’s technical configuration that we agreed with material, while others have been
configuration for the twinjet fol- EASA,” says Mhun. fitted with the latest structural rein-
lowing discussions with the Euro- Some of the prototype A321XLRs forcement and fuel-tank protection.
pean Union Aviation Safety Agen- have tested extended belly fairings “We had to exchange with the
cy (EASA) – notably regarding the for aerodynamic assessment, which authority, taking their inputs in

10 Flight International July 2023

 Paris Programmes

currently equipping its A380 fleet

– both the Engine Alliance GP7200
and Rolls-Royce Trent 900 – were
“designed in the 1990s”.
Equipping the quad-jet with a
next-generation powerplant, such
as the R-R UltraFan, would “give
a step-change” in performance:
“It would give us a 25% reduction
in fuel burn and emissions on the
A380,” he says, “that’s startlingly
good.”
R-R ran its UltraFan demonstra-
tor for the first time on 24 April
and sees the architecture as hav-
ing potential to equip future sin-
gle- and twin-aisle aircraft requir-
Emirates is the leading
ing between 25,000lb (111kN) and
operator of A380s
100,000lb of thrust. The Trent 900
is rated at 84,000lb.
Other aerodynamic improve-
“grammes and kilogrammes, a bit the A380 as a passenger, but adds: ments to the design, plus moving
everywhere on the aircraft”. “Do we really need to close the gap to a high-wing configuration – to
Software improvements, he adds, to the A380? Do we need to have accommodate the larger UltraFan
enable new take-off configurations double-deckers flying out there? – would also be needed, he adds. “I
and better landing-gear retraction. “I think the A350-1000 is very ca- have done a lot of soul searching on
Airbus commercial aircraft head pable to take over from the A380s how it would look,” he says.
of marketing Stan Shparberg says and 777-300ERs and be the aircraft “I know it’s flying a kite but I am
the A350-1000 is the “flagship of choice for a lot of our customers.” trying to get people thinking,” he
product” for the airframer, adding: says, arguing that an ultra-high-ca-
“We believe it’s got the right ratio Dreaming big pacity aircraft will be the only solu-
of risk versus reward, the number Clark’s latest plea for an “A380neo” tion for slot-constrained airports,
of seats in premium and economy came at the Paris air forum confer- bearing in mind forecast future
configuration.” ence shortly before the show. passenger growth. ◗
He stresses his enthusiasm for He points out that the engines See p26

terms of improving the technical Mhun says the principle resem- ahead of the P&W jet is unconnect-
baseline of the aircraft. We have bles the fitting, two decades ago, ed to the durability issues current-
agreement now on the technical of Kevlar lining to the inside of ly affecting a number of in-service
baseline,” says Mhun. BAC-Aerospatiale Concorde tanks PW1000G-series powerplants, says
“The flight-test aircraft will reflect, to protect against fuel spillage Mhun.
at some point in time, the structur- from debris impact. “As per the initial plan, it’s CFM
al reinforcement and internal [fu- “The spirit of it could be simi- certification first then Pratt &
el-tank] liner that we agreed on.” lar, but the content is different,” Whitney – that’s just reflecting the
While the XLR has wing fuel ca- he says, because the materials in- choice of customers,” he adds.
pacity of 15,328 litres (4,050USgal) volved have advanced. Mhun says flight-test pilots have
and standard centre-tank capacity provided positive feedback during
of 8,200 litres, it features a high-ca- Plugging leaks demonstration preparations for
pacity aft centre tank able to hold Rather than being puncture-resist- the Paris show. “They’re really very
a further 13,100 litres. The aircraft ant, Mhun states, the lining is soft happy with the manoeuvrability of
also has options for an additional and “optimises” such that “the hole the aircraft,” he says.
3,120-litre forward tank. in the liner would be smaller than “That’s something we incorpo-
The aft tank’s size raised con- the hole in the [tank] structure”. rated on top of some of the big
cerns over the potential for large But he stresses that the XLR’s topics on flight control and load
fuel spillage and fire in the event of range is not compromised by the improvement. Performance-wise
an accident. liner’s presence. “We’re able to de- we’re happy with what the aircraft
Mhun says the protective liner liver on the mission agreed with is delivering.”
is designed for the interior of the the customers,” he insists. Airbus’s most recent specifi-
tank and its task is to contain the Route-proving will take place to cation documentation for the
fire risk long enough for passenger test the cabin and long-haul capa- A321neo lists two initial weight
evacuation. bilities under real-world operation- variants for the XLR – designat-
“If you have a kind of puncture in al conditions before the XLR enters ed WV099 and WV100 – with the
the tank, [the liner is] a way to de- service in the second quarter of same maximum take-off weight of
lay and reduce the leak rate to avoid next year. 101t, but different maximum land-
getting fuel on the ground,” he says. That the CFM-powered aircraft is ing and zero-fuel weights. ◗

July 2023 Flight International 11

 Paris Narrowbody
y
737 Max 10 is set for certification
and service entry in 2024

Boeing nears next Max rate rise

Airframer is to increase narrowbody output to 38 aircraft per
AirTeamImages

month as it works to overcome supply chain headwinds

Graham Dunn Istanbul action – and has required Boeing “That shows the profound effect
Jon Hemmerdinger Paris to perform rework on an unspeci- Covid had on the extended supply
fied number of jets. But the manu- chain, not only for manufacturing.

B
oeing is nearing the latest facturer stresses that the problem You see it at airports. You see it
production rate increase for does not present a safety concern around the globe. The human cap-
the 737 Max, taking output for in-service aircraft. ital toll of Covid was pretty devas-
to 38 aircraft per month, al- “We had to methodically rework tating.
though its priority is to first address each airplane that has the issue, at “Eventually we will get through
a horizontal stabiliser problem af- both Spirit’s production [site] and that, but it has taken longer than
fecting some of the narrowbodies. ours, and we are working through we anticipated.”
“It’s pretty soon,” says Boeing that now,” said Deal, speaking Deal sees strong order momen-
Commercial Airplanes chief exec- ahead of the Paris show. tum, having recently bagged Max
utive Stan Deal, although he de- “The initial plans we laid out and commitments from Ryanair and
clines to specify the date. communicated with the airlines [are] Air India – the latter one of sever-
The next rise will bring output actually going as predicted, if not al agreements firmed up in Paris –
from 31 to 38 737 Max jets monthly, slightly better. That’s good news.” as carriers conduct long-term fleet
adds Deal. “It’s sooner rather than planning.
later.” Production obstructions “Unconstrained demand [with]
Boeing has in the last year been Boeing and Airbus have been seek- constrained supply will still be the
working to increase 737 output in ing to ramp up production in re- story for a while, I believe,” Deal
the face of widespread production, sponse to heightened demand for adds.
supply and labour challenges. new narrowbodies. The US airframer Boeing, meanwhile, aims to have
Then earlier this year the air- hit the 31-per-month rate one year the 737 Max 7 certificated this year,
framer disclosed that horizontal ago and says it remains on track to followed in 2024 by the Max 10 –
stabiliser brackets on some jets deliver 400-450 737s this year. which it flew daily at Paris.
were found to be defective, fur- Last year, chief executive David “We are in the midst of certifying
ther complicating the programme Calhoun said engine shortages them under a new set of laws that
and forcing the company to stop were the main impediment to high- were implemented, and that takes
delivering some 737 Max 8s and er rates of production. time,” Deal says. While he does not
737NG-based maritime patrol air- But Deal now says supply chain see any “major technical hurdles”, he
craft. Deliveries of 737 Max 9s have “pinch points” are not specific to points to the time-consuming nature
continued, however. one part but rather “move around” of complying with new rules. “That’s
The issue involves brackets and affect various components. why we… asked for more time on
supplied by Spirit AeroSystems He concedes that production has the [certification],” he says. “We got
– which on 22 June announced been “much harder to ramp up” it last year and we are working with
a production halt due to strike than in any period before. the regulator on that.” ◗

12 Flight International July 2023

 Paris Technology

Collins pitches thermal fix for F-35

Initial tests of enhanced power and cooling system design
suggest replacement of existing Honeywell product could
provide doubled capacity, supporting future growth
Ryan Finnerty Paris maintenance cost that I would say
the US and the partner countries
in the services across NATO would

R
aytheon has conducted lab- not want to see.”
oratory tests on a new pow- Currently, P&W is focused on
er and cooling system for the delivering an engine core upgrade
Lockheed Martin F-35, which (ECU) package from 2028 that
the company says can more than will address the short-term cool-
double capacity versus the fighter’s ing and degradation issue ahead
current Honeywell-supplied power of the Block 4 rollout.
and thermal management system However, the recent GAO re-
(PTMS). port found that the Department of
Raytheon subsidiary Collins Defense (DoD) will need to devel-
Aerospace is developing the en- op a plan for upgrading the cur-
hanced power and cooling sys- rent PTMS to support any F-35
tem (EPACS), which is intended to capability improvements beyond
support the planned Block 4 suite Block 4.
of upgrades to the F-35. “All of that requires a different
Collins’ president of power and level of cooling than we’ve seen
controls Henry Brooks says that before,” Brooks notes.
based on initial test results, EPACS
will provide more than twice the Future ready
cooling capacity of the existing While the DoD has not yet estab-
PTMS. lished a formal programme for ad-
“This development can really dressing the shortcomings of the
carry improvements for the F-35,” PTMS, Collins and Raytheon are
Brooks says. “That is expected to positioning the EPACS as a poten-
support the cooling needs for the tial successor to the current Hon-
remainder of the F-35 life cycle.” eywell system.
Just as P&W is building the ECU
Rising costs to be a so-called “drop-in sys-
The PTMS works in tandem with tem” requiring no structural mod-
the F-35’s Pratt & Whitney F135 ification to be compatible with all
engine. Siphoning bleed air from three F-35 variants, Collins has a
the engine, the PTMS provides similar goal for EPACS.
electrical power and cooling to the Demands on type’s F135 engine far exceed But on 21 June, Lockheed ap-
fighter’s radar and advanced sen- original specifications, increasing wear peared to plunge the F135’s mod-
sor package. ification package into doubt.
However, as capability improve- “We stand ready to support
ments have been made to those “It’s operating beyond two times and continue to work with the US
systems since the type’s operation- the specification of what it was government on the capability and
al debut, its onboard power and originally operating at,” Jill Al- performance upgrades that best
cooling requirements have grown. bertelli, P&W president of military support their requirements for the
That currently requires diverting engines, says of the F135. F-35 for decades to come – in-
additional bleed air to the PTMS, The cooling problem will soon cluding an engine upgrade,” the
reducing engine performance and become even worse, as Lock- airframer says.
increasing degradation. heed and the Pentagon prepare “AETP [Adaptive Engine Transi-
While P&W maintains the F135 to launch the Block 4 series of up- tion Program] technologies deliv-
can operate under such condi- grades: a modernisation package er more power and greater cool-
tions, it comes at the cost of lon- of some 50 improvements that ing capability, which is required
gevity. A recent report by the US will dramatically expand the F-35’s as we modernise the F-35 beyond
Government Accountability Office power and cooling needs. Block  4,” it adds. Both GE Aero-
(GAO) found that overtaxing the “[The engine] could keep go- space and P&W have previously
F135 has racked up $38  billion in ing supporting Block  4,” Al- tested potential replacement de-
extra maintenance costs (see p33). signs via the AETP effort. ◗
BillyPix

bertelli says. “But it will bring a

14 Flight International July 2023

 Paris Demand

Spain is considering acquiring a

further batch for its Halcon II need

“With this [configuration] we will

show how flexible the Eurofighter
system is,” Mezzanatto says, with
15 aircraft to gain equipment such
as Saab’s Arexis electronic warfare
suite, recently selected by Berlin.
Eurofighter partner companies
Airbus Defence & Space, BAE Sys-
tems and Leonardo have so far de-
livered 589 of the aircraft to nine
nations, against a current total or-
der book for 680.
Mezzanatto says a 10-year plan
for the Eurofighter programme was
endorsed by the defence ministers
of its partner nations in March, and
that “there is a very good under-
standing between the core nations
and ourselves where we are, and

Typhoon sales what long-term evolutions of the

aircraft will look like.”
Separately, Belgium has taken

ready to soar observer status in the French-Ger-

man-Spanish Future Combat Air
System (FCAS) programme, which
aims to deliver a successor for the
Between 150 and 200 additional Eurofighter and France’s Dassault
Aviation Rafale for operational use
examples could be ordered within
Airbus Defence & Space

from 2040.

next two years, new Eurofighter chief European strength

“I think it’s positive that Belgium
executive says, as deliveries near 600 joins,” says Jean-Brice Dumont, Air-
bus’s head of military aircraft. “It is
a European programme and we are
talking about European sovereign-
Craig Hoyle Paris not progressed so far due to export ty, so having more European coun-
restrictions previously imposed by tries in principle is good news.”
the German government. “By joining this project we allow

E
urofighter’s new chief ex- Mezzanatto says a three-year our companies to stay at the fore-
ecutive sees opportunities spares and repair contract for Ri- front of innovation while having a
to close multiple Typhoon yadh’s current 72 Typhoons was positive impact on employment,
sales by the middle of this signed in late 2022, and that “the and we are strengthening Europe-
decade. political scenario has changed an defence,” Belgian defence min-
“There are really promising op- quite dramatically” under the ad- ister Ludivine Dedonder said on 19
portunities in front of us, both for ministration of chancellor Olaf June. The nation’s involvement ini-
additional aircraft for our core na- Scholz. “Now Germany is much tially will concern topics such as in-
tions [Germany, Italy, Spain and the more engaged than it was before,” formation sharing around research
UK], but also on the export front,” he says, while adding: “I am quite and technology.
Giancarlo Mezzanatto says. These optimistic.” Belgium currently operates 53
include planned follow-on purchas- Lockheed F-16A/Bs, and plans
es by Germany and Spain, plus ex- Long-term prospects to acquire 34 examples of the US
port potential with nations includ- Poland has a potential requirement company’s F-35A.
ing Poland, Saudi Arabia and Turkey. for air superiority fighters, while “We have Phase 1B and Phase 2
“I see 150 to 200 aircraft as op- Turkey needs advanced aircraft fol- [FCAS] contracts signed with three
portunities over the next two years lowing its ejection from the Lock- nations, so we are going to execute
in terms of new orders,” Mezzanat- heed Martin F-35 programme. [industrially] with three nations,”
to says. “What we are doing as Meanwhile, the updated P4E Dumont says. “The role of Belgium
Eurofighter is getting prepared to standard required to deliver will need to be defined politically
fully support our partner compa- Germany’s replacement for the first, between the nations, and then
nies on the export market in order Panavia Tornado ECR electronic industry.”
to meet these demands,” he adds. combat and reconnaissance plat- The current phase of the FCAS
“We are thinking about how we can form is currently being defined, effort kicked off earlier this year,
sustain the production rate.” with a contract signature expect- and Dumont says “Our engineers
Saudi Arabia has long held an in- ed late this year or in early 2024. are working. It is much more pos-
terest in acquiring a second batch Initial operational capability will be itive than it was during the intense
of 48-72 Typhoons, but a deal has declared in 2028-2029. phase of negotiation.” ◗

July 2023 Flight International 15

 Paris Research

Partners progress after SWITCH on

MTU-led consortium investigating potential to add hybrid-
electric system and WET technology to PW1100G engine
Dominic Perry Paris says, in order to overcome “vol- cruise and take-off, says Graham
ume, weight and size” challenges. Webb, P&W chief sustainability of-
Using residual heat from the en- ficer.

P
artners in an EU-backed pro- gine’s exhaust gas, WET technolo- By 2025, initial ground test-
ject to validate engine tech- gy uses a heat exchanger to vapor- ing of the hybrid-electric system
nologies that could help de- ise water, which is then injected into will have been carried out using a
liver a 25% fuel-saving over the combustor, increasing engine modified PW1100G geared turbo-
current-generation powerplants efficiency through heat recovery, fan. Technology and component
are deep into their initial design slashing greenhouse emissions, and tests for the WET engine will also
work as they eye later ground- and reducing contrail formation. be performed, alongside aircraft
flight-test programmes. In the SWITCH concept, further integration studies for the com-
Working through the SWITCH efficiency gains are driven by a bined system.
(sustainable water-injecting tur- 0.5MW motor-gener- Dependent on securing fund-
bofan comprising hybrid electrics) ator on the ing from Clean Aviation’s
consortium, the partners were in second phase, to start in
September 2022 selected by the 2026, flight tests of the hy-
EU’s Clean Aviation body as one brid-equipped GTF could
of 20 projects to share over also take place.
€700 million ($764 million) in Initial predictions suggest-
phase-one funding. ed the SWITCH engine would
Their design marries the be 50% heavier than a current-gen-
Water Enhanced Turbofan eration powerplant, but Riegler
(WET) – a concept champi- says it has seen a “significant”
oned by MTU – with a P&W SWITCH concept
mass reduction, down to 40%, as
geared turbofan that has combines WET with
the project has progressed.
been boosted with a pair of P&W geared turbofan
WET technology is one of sever-
Collins-supplied electric-motor al concepts being eyed by P&W for
generators. high-pressure spool and a similar its Gen2 geared turbofan, which
Dr Claus Riegler, MTU chief tech- 1MW unit on the low-pressure sys- could arrive in the mid-2030s.
nical officer, says that since a Feb- tem (see below). Both motors will As well as further increasing the
ruary kick-off meeting the team be cooled by air taken from the fan fan size, taking the bypass ratio
has been “continuously optimis- stream. to around 15:1 from 12:1 at present,
ing” the SWITCH configuration. The motors will allow energy Webb says technologies to improve
MTU Aero Engines

There has been “a lot of focus” on to be added to or extracted from the thermal efficiency of the engine,
the “integration of the engine con- the engine, enabling optimisation such as ceramic matrix composites,
cept” with partner Airbus “working of the gas turbine for efficiency in are being readied, alongside im-
intensively” on such studies, he high-power flight phases such as proved aerodynamics. ◗

Collins demonstrates fine motor skills

Raytheon Technologies’ ambitions Collins says the new electric scalable to cover a broad range of
to advance hybrid-electric flight motor will deliver four times the applications.
have taken a significant step power and twice the voltage, with Completion of the rated
forward with the completion of a half the heat loss and half the power test means the motor has
rated power test of a 1MW electric weight, than its current highest- delivered the stated 1MW output
motor-generator developed by its performing units. in laboratory conditions.
Collins Aerospace subsidiary. Motor development is taking In December last year, it was
The motor will subsequently place at Collins’ facilities in Solihull, combined and run with the gas
be combined with a new Pratt & UK, with tests taking place at the turbine engine in P&WC’s facility
Whitney Canada thermal engine University of Nottingham’s Institute in Longueuil, Quebec.
to form the core of a hybrid- for Aerospace Technology. Cunningham says the motor
electric propulsion system, which Eric Cunningham, vice-president uses a radial-flux architecture,
will next year be flight tested electric power systems at Collins, which was selected due to the
aboard a modified De Havilland says although the test motor “speed ranges we are dealing
Canada Dash 8-100. is sized at 1MW, its design is with, as well as the power levels”.

16 Flight International July 2023

 Paris Technology

Dominic Perry Paris some of our parts – it’s real parts

for a real engine.”
Ali says the programme is on

C
FM International has be- track to meet its target of ground
gun manufacturing parts and flight tests of the demonstra-
for its first RISE open-fan tor by mid-decade.
demonstrator as it ramps CFM will also incorporate a hy-
up component testing for the new brid-electric system into the RISE,
powerplant. further contributing to its 20% fu-
Detailing its progress in Paris, el-burn reduction goal.
Mohamed Ali, vice-president of A separate NASA-sponsored
engineering for GE Aerospace – a programme will by mid-decade
partner in CFM alongside Safran – carry out flight tests of that system
said the RISE, or Revolutionary In- aboard a modified Saab 340 tur-
novation for Sustainable Engines, boprop, following ground-based
was moving from a “paper engine altitude tests in 2022. That aircraft
into real parts and real tests”. has now been procured ahead of
Behind its large composite fan the planned test campaign, Ali
CFM International

– roughly the size of the 134in notes.

(340cm) fan on the GE9X – sits an
ultra-compact core, smaller than Alternative option
that seen on small business jet en- While the RISE will be compati-
gines, says Ali. GE is testing hot section components using ble with 100% sustainable aviation
GE has designed, with the sup- an F110 powerplant at its Evendale site fuel from the beginning, CFM also
port of NASA, new turbine airfoils, intends for the powerplant to be

RISE arises
nozzles and blades using super- capable of burning hydrogen as an
computing technology, which alternative.
yielded “fascinating results in terms As a precursor, CFM will by
of fuel-burn improvements, as well mid-decade flight test a modified
as durability”. The outcomes were hydrogen-combusting Passport
then validated through rig tests. First parts being business jet engine aboard Airbus’s
A380 flying testbed.
Positive results made and tested Changes to the combustion and
Components, notably the airfoils, fuel system will be required, says
have benefited from CFM’s additive for open-fan Ali. “As a matter of fact we have
manufacturing and ceramic matrix been doing quite a bit of combus-
composite capabilities. “They are al- demonstrator tion testing at our research facility
ready manufactured and made and in upstate New York. The results
as we speak today they are going engine, with CFM are quite encouraging about the
through engine testing,” says Ali. ability to burn hydrogen with a
Tests of the high-pressure tur- International on new combustor design and obtain
bine parts using a modified GE very low emissions.”
F110 military engine recently began track for ground He envisages a second RISE flight-
at the company’s Evendale facility test campaign taking place “to-
in Ohio. and flight testing wards the end of the decade” with
Heat-exchangers for the power- the engine running on hydrogen.
plant have also been made through by mid-decade Launched in 2021, the 35,000lb
additive manufacturing. Ongoing (156kN)-thrust class RISE demon-
tests of the parts are demonstrat- strator programme will allow the
ing “superior results”, says Ali. that the noise level is lower than two CFM partners to mature the
Additional evaluations of today’s Leap,” says Ali. technologies required for a new
low-pressure turbine blades – in- And, says Brioude, the manufac- narrowbody engine to potentially
cluding static, vibration and im- turing of parts for the demonstra- enter service in the mid-2030s.
pact tests – are under way at Sa- tor engine has started: “We have CFM is working with both Airbus
fran’s Villaroche facility, says Safran procured the raw material but now and Boeing to understand the in-
vice-president of engineering we are forging parts in our Genne- tegration and installation require-
Michel Brioude. villiers plant north of Paris. ments of the engine for possible
“We are getting good results “If you go there, you may see future aircraft designs. ◗
from this. So it’s a real test and a
real part.”
Windtunnel tests of a scaled “They are already manufactured and
model of the RISE have also been
performed, he discloses. In addi- made and as we speak today they
tion, a separate campaign to evalu-
ate the noise profile of the fan was are going through engine testing”
conducted at an Airbus facility in
Hamburg, which “demonstrated Mohamed Ali Vice-president of engineering, GE Aerospace

July 2023 Flight International 17

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Rolls-Royce outlines upgrades that

could equip A350-1000’s engine
Dominic Perry Dahlewitz Core of Trent XWB-97
may benefit from high-

R
olls-Royce could introduce
performance upgrades to temperature technologies
the Trent XWB-97 for the
Airbus A350-1000 within being matured on
two to three years as the manufac-
turer seeks to enhance the “avail- demonstrators
ability, efficiency and reliability” of
its engines, according to the new including
head of its civil aerospace busi-
ness. UltraFan
Although executives are keen to
stress that the propulsion special-
ist has yet to formally commit to an
upgrade programme, it continues
to validate on several test engines
the next-generation components
that could be used for such an ef-
fort.
Speaking during a tour of the
company’s Dahlewitz, Germany site
ahead of the Paris air show, Rob
Watson, newly installed president
of Rolls-Royce civil aerospace, said
the company places “huge focus
on delivering ever-more efficient
engines and improving their perfor-
mance in service through their life”. Enhancements would be
However, the “technology inserts” available for new-build and
that will deliver better durability in-service powerplants
and time-on-wing will first be
matured through demonstra-
tor programmes, says Watson, the clearest route into its roll it out into the fleet,” says Wat-
highlighting the recent first current engine portfolio. son.
runs of its UltraFan engine “These technologies are Those technologies could start
(see p26). critical to the next generation of flowing into the Trent XWB – or oth-
While its geared-fan archi- aerospace engines and critical for er in-production engines – “over the
tecture is clearly a major departure us to introduce to our current fleet next two to three years”, he says.
from the company’s traditional to give us more reliability, more ef- Simon Burr, director of product
three-spool widebody engine con- ficiency and allow us to drive avail- development and technology, says
figuration, Watson stresses that ability over time,” he says. the manufacturer intends to con-
the UltraFan is a “suite of technol- In addition to the UltraFan tinue running the HT3 demonstra-
ogies” it can “use to improve our demonstrator, R-R is also evaluat- tor through this year as it seeks to
products today”. ing the high-temperature parts in further validate the performance
its HT3 test engine – a modified benefits of the new components.
Critical technology Trent XWB-97.
Incorporated in the UltraFan “It is going very well so far, so we Durability testing
are carbon-titanium fan blades, are going to take them through a In his view, the lower-thrust Trent
a low-emission combustor, and full test programme and then we’ll XWB-84 – which powers the
high-temperature materials and A350-900 – is performing well
components. It is these in particular and does not need modifications
– ceramic matrix composite (CMC)
turbine seals and nozzle guide
2,500+ beyond those embodied in the EP
variant, which is due to arrive in
James Morgan/Airbus

vanes, plus high-pressure turbine 2025.

blades made using its CastBond “But as you go up in temperature
process to reduce cooling require- Cycles run on a Trent 1000 engine to and size, [an enhancement] be-
ments – that are viewed as having validate durability improvements comes more applicable.”

18 Flight International July 2023

 Paris Propulsion

Burr stresses, however, there is

“no commitment to put this tech- Rig tests near for new small turbine
nology into an engine until we are
absolutely sure it is robust”. Propulsion specialist Rolls-Royce will shortly begin rig tests of a
Tests of the HT3 demonstrator clean-sheet small gas turbine engine that has been specifically
will include those designed to sim- designed as part of a new turbogenerator being developed for the
ulate operations in harsh condi- advanced air mobility (AAM) market.
tions, such as sandy environments, Announced at last year’s ILA Berlin air show, R-R has rapidly
to assess long-term durability. That designed and built the gas turbine, with the completed engine now
marks a change in its approach to installed in a testbed at its facility in Dahlewitz, Germany, a stone’s
testing, he says, and is based on throw from the air show site.
its challenging experience with the Designed for AAM applications which require more range
Trent 1000. and payload than can be provided with batteries alone, the
Upgrades will rolled into new- turbogenerator is due to enter service in 2029, says Matheu Parr,
build engines and will also be avail- customer director at Rolls-Royce Electrical.
able for in-service powerplants The company was previously working on a turbogenerator built
during overhaul, he says. around its M250 helicopter engine, but Parr says better performance
“We are really happy with the is enabled by designing the system with the specific end-use in mind.
performance of the XWB family of “What we are doing, which is very different to the other solutions
engines but, like all engine OEMs on the market, is from the outset we are designing a gas turbine to
across the industry, when we are support this turbogenerator focused
operating in hot and sandy condi- on it being for that role.”
tions there is an impact on durabil- That has enabled optimisation of
ity,” adds Watson. the design, including its rotational
A number of A350-1000 opera- speed, and allowed weight to be
tors are from the Middle East, no- stripped out, delivering power density
tably Etihad Airways and Qatar of 4kW/kg.
Airways.
Meanwhile, R-R will continue to Hydrogen upgrade
add durability im- Initially capable of running on
provements to the sustainable aviation fuel, the engine
Boeing 787-powering will also be designed to operate on
Trent 1000. hydrogen in the future.
“We are really pleased “It will require an upgrade but we are
with how the [Trent 1000] is do- making the right sort of architecture
Rolls-Royce

ing,” says Watson. “It has had its decisions now that allow us to make
problems earlier in its life, but it such an upgrade,” says Parr.
has largely recovered.” He says the new gas turbine will be
There are still “a couple of up- around 15% more fuel efficient than Gas turbine engine is sized to
grades we need to deliver into this the M250, and the total system weight produce 800kW of electrical power
engine,” he admits, with those al- has been halved to around 200-250kg
ready having been implemented to (440-550lb) through the optimised design. Other metrics such as
the derivative Trent 7000 for the noise and time-before-overhaul have also been improved.
A330neo, which have “doubled the “We have looked at all the key criteria that the customers are
time on wing”. looking for… and this surpasses the M250 in all regards,” says Parr.
“That modification we have just “The fact that we build it from the outset as a turbogenerator
taken through certification with means that we can take such benefits.”
the [US regulator] and we’ll roll R-R has incorporated new technology in the engine including a
that in to the Trent 1000 towards combustor “derived from larger civil products” and a two-stage
the end of this year. centrifugal compressor, says Uwe Minkus, chief engineer, future
“In the next 18 months we’ll have programmes and electrical – business aviation. It also features the
those engines back where custom- latest materials and 3D aerodynamics, he adds.
ers would expect that engine to be “It is markedly different from what you would find in smaller-size
performing,” he says. engines today.”
Burr says the improvements to Sized to produce 800kW of electrical power, the gas turbine has
the Trent 1000 were validated an output of a little over 1,000shp. However, the “versatile” design
through an exhaustive test pro- is scalable, says Minkus, allowing it to address applications requiring
gramme, during which it “thrashed electrical power in the 500kW to 1.2MW range.
an engine for over 2,500 cycles”, Tests of the gas turbine will continue for the remainder of the year
including extensive simulation of and will be followed in 2024 by evaluations of the generator before
a sustained climb and injection of the two parts are brought together.
sand into the powerplant to repli- “There is quite a bit of testing and further product development to
cate real-world conditions. “I think go,” adds Parr.
the testing that companies have R-R says the turbogenerator will be suitable for electric vertical take-
done traditionally didn’t mimic all off and landing or commuter aircraft applications up to 19 seats. It can
of those conditions,” he says. ◗ be used in either a series or parallel hybrid configuration.

July 2023 Flight International 19

 Visit FlightGlobal Premium for all the latest aviation news and insight FlightGlobal.com

Buyers splash out on

new Twin Otter 300-G
De Havilland Canada launches improved
version of its veteran utility aircraft,

BillyPix
attracting commitments for 18 examples
Jon Hemmerdinger Paris De Havilland Canada has iden- “They’re looking for improved
tified Jetcraft Commercial, a divi- avionics. They were looking for
sion of aircraft broker Jetcraft, as greater payload. They were looking

A
fter a 35-year hiatus, launch customer for the type, with for some flexibility in the engines,”
De Havilland Canada is an agreement to purchase 10 exam- Sweeney says.
rebooting production ples. Indian regional airline Flybig “They wanted something that
of its DHC-6 Twin Otter has also signalled its intention to was lighter and had more ability to
300, with the move in response purchase six 300-Gs, alongside two make them a profit.
to customer demand for a lighter Twin Otter Series 400s. And Swiss
utility aircraft with more payload operator Zimex Aviation will take
capability than its current Series two 300-Gs.
400 variant. The air-
The Canadian manufacturer framer says it
launched the Twin Otter Classic expects to deliver the first 300-G De Havilland Canada
300-G variant on the opening day in 2024.
of the show. It will have Garmin Vice-president of corporate af-
G1000 NXi avionics and a choice of fairs Neil Sweeney says the compa-
Pratt & Whitney Canada PT6A-27 ny launched the Twin Otter 300-G
or -34 turboprop engines. after a review with customers.

Safran, MTU join forces for future

rotorcraft propulsion development
Manufacturers announce plans to co-operate on turboshaft
engine for Europe’s next-generation heavy military rotorcraft
Dominic Perry Paris “It is a matter of sovereignty and and other advanced materials, plus
strategic autonomy,” he adds. higher levels of hybridisation.
Goubet says it is “premature” to Details of the workshare on the

T
wo of Europe’s leading pro- speculate on the size of the engine joint-venture are still being ham-
pulsion specialists will work to be developed. “But we will be mered out, but Schreyogg points
together on a clean-sheet ready to develop a very powerful out that Safran Helicopter Engines
engine to equip a future Eu- engine,” he says; it is likely to be is a “leader in turbine technology,
ropean heavy military rotorcraft that in excess of 4,000shp (3,000kW), while MTU has good competencies
could enter service in the 2040s. but could even extend to a on the compressor side”.
The subject of a memorandum of 6,000shp-class turboshaft. The partners hope to formalise
understanding signed at the show the joint venture “very, very fast –
on 20 June, the new high-power tur- Technology maturation not within years but months”, says
boshaft will be developed by a joint Initial technology maturation work Schreyogg. It will be based at Sa-
venture between Safran Helicopter should enable first ground runs of fran’s facilities in Pau, France, but
Engines and MTU Aero Engines. a new engine by the middle of next with a German chief executive.
Cedric Goubet, chief executive of decade, says Michael Schreyogg, Safran Helicopter Engines and
Safran Helicopter Engines, says the chief programme officer for MTU. MTU previously worked together to
venture’s ambition is to deliver “a Technologies to be incorporat- develop the MTR390 powerplant for
totally European solution”. ed will include 3D-printed parts the Airbus Helicopters Tiger attack

20 Flight International July 2023

 Paris Programme

from Viking to the De Havilland increased payload range and de-

Canada brand, which it also owns. creased operating costs for our cus-
The decision to reboot the Twin tomers”, calling the Twin Otter “the
Otter 300 throws fresh momentum backbone of our business”.
behind the programme. “We [added] our first 300 54
The 300-G will weigh 136-181kg years ago and have basically flown
(300-400lb) less than other pre- the Twin Otter on every single
vious variants, allowing it to car- continent,” he adds.
ry more payload, or to fly farther
Brian Chafe (left) with the same payload. Some of Versatile applications
with Raphael Haddad that weight saving comes from the Like other Twin Otters, the 300-G
Garmin avionics, which are lighter will be able to carry passengers or
than the Series 400’s Honeywell cargo, and De Havilland Canada is
package, says Sweeney. also offering it with floats or skis in-
“We’ve put into production a The 300-G’s maximum pay- stead of traditional landing gear.
more-usable, more economical, load on a 100nm (185km) flight PT6A-27s are the “economical”
customer-friendly aircraft,” he adds. will be 1,970kg, which compares of the two engine options, the
De Havilland Canada had stopped with 1,840kg of payload for a Twin company says, while -34s are “de-
producing Twin Otter 300s, which Otter Series 400 operating the signed for extreme operations” and
it offered with PT6A-27s, in 1988. same mission. “challenging environments”.
Production remained paused until “With the same rugged airframe, The global fleet of Twin Ot-
Viking Air acquired the programme the lighter-weight DHC-6 Twin ter 300s currently stands at 342
and launched the updated Series Otter Classic 300-G will deliver in-service and 62 stored aircraft,
400 variant in 2007. increased payload range and de- according to Cirium data.
It had been producing the Series creased operating costs for our Despite launching the 300-G,
400 ever since, although the mod- customers,” says De Havilland Can- Sweeney says De Havilland Canada
el’s future has recently become ada chief executive Brian Chafe. will, should demand exist, also con-
uncertain. In 2020, during the pan- Jetcraft Commercial president tinue producing Series 400 aircraft,
demic, Viking Air parent Longview Raphael Haddad calls the new although the company has now
Aviation Capital said it was pausing model “the best-in-class commuter nearly cleared its order backlog. ◗
Series 400 production and con- aircraft solution”.
ducting a customer review. Long- g Zimex chief executive Daniele Ce- Additional reporting
p g by
y
view also shifted thehe Twin Otter reghetti says the 300-G “will deliver Howard Hardee

NH90 was a result of

helicopter, also in European co-operation
s-Royce.
partnership with Rolls-Royce. Olivier Andries,
Goubet says the new venture is Safran chief exec-
seeking additional partners from utive, says the
across Europe to driveive the sover- new agreement
eignty agenda. builds on the
Requirements are being shaped pair’s joint
cts. The indus-
via two parallel projects. venture to
try-led European Nextext Generation develop a
Rotorcraft Technologygy effort seeks new engine for
ogies support-
to mature technologies the Future Com- introduce ad-
ing that development nt and involves bat Air System for func
ditional func-
companies, including Airbus Heli- France, Germany and Spain. tions as needed.
copters and Leonardo Helicopters, His MTU counterpart Lars Wag- “Europe’s armed forces need
from eight nations. A PESCO initia- ner praises the partners’ “very long powerful helicopters,” says Florian
tive, led by France, is a four-coun- history of working together”. Maier, chief executive of Diehl Aer-
try grouping. ospace. “I am proud that Diehl
Additionally, a NATO-led project Computer upgrade Aerospace contributes in equip-
called Next Generation Rotorcraft Also at the show, Diehl Aerospace ping the Tiger MkIII with the best
Capability is seeking to design and – a joint venture between Diehl armament computer.
develop a new heavy helicopter for Aviation and Thales – secured a “I consider it exemplary how
service entry in the 2035-2040 pe- contract for the development, pro- Airbus Helicopters and Diehl
riod. Its core grouping is currently duction and customer support of Aerospace prove European co-op-
five EU members, plus the UK, while a new armament computer and its eration in such an important heli-
Canada will also join shortly. operating system for the Tiger MkIII copter upgrade programme.”
Europe’s current military helicop- upgrade programme. France and Spain are to modern-
ter co-operation led to the develop- The Tiger Armament Computer is ise their in-service fleets of Tiger ro-
ment of the NH90, produced by the to control the helicopter’s weapons torcraft via the MkIII effort. ◗
NH Industries consortium involv- system, including its gun, missiles,
ing Airbus Helicopters, Fokker and and rockets. Operators will be Additional reporting by
BillyPix

Leonardo Helicopters. able to install different software to Greg Waldron

July 2023 Flight International 21

 Paris Fighters

Rafale ready to “The aim is to have a global ap-

proach on firing air-to-air missiles,
and to be robust if we are facing

‘fight connected’ jamming or any kind of counter-

measure,” Badrinath says. “All the
tactics can be really enhanced now,
using these additional features.”
DGA exhibits air force and navy OT&E activities will run into 2024,
while an initial operating capability
examples in new F4.1 operating standard will be cleared for use be-
fore the end of this year. This sup-
standard, with major updates enabling ports a schedule to employ modi-
fied Rafale Ms operationally on the
a ‘new era of collaborative air combat’ Charles de Gaulle.

Early experience
Badrinath says early experience
during the test campaign has led
the military to adopt the motto
‘Now fight connected’.
Two of the updated F4.1-stand-
ard Rafales were on display at the
DGA’s exhibit area. An air force B
sported two 1,000kg Hammers and
the Talios pod, while a navy M was
configured with a full load of eight
DGA air-to-air missiles; another en-
Modifications are undergoing operational test and evaluation
hancement made possible via the
latest configuration.
Later this decade, additional
Craig Hoyle Paris enhancements within a multi-aircraft functions will be introduced via
formation of Rafales. the F4.2 and F4.3 updates, among
“Now we can share all kinds of in- them a Thales software-defined ra-

T
he French military is hailing formation from the radar, sensors, dio and satellite communications.
a major advance with its electronic warfare, and optronics,” Qualification activities on the up-
Rafale combat aircraft, with Badrinath says. coming standards will be finalised
the Dassault Aviation-built Updates to the Thales RBE2 radar in early 2025 and early 2027.
type poised to employ a raft of support enhanced ground moving “There has been an incremental
new operational capabilities. target indication and tracking func- approach since the beginning of
Approved in March for introduc- tionality, while the aircraft’s modi- the Rafale programme,” Badrinath
tion to the fleet and now involved in fied infrared search and track sen- says. “Each time there have been
an operational test and evaluation sor provides longer-range passive enhancements in all directions.”
(OT&E) activity, the fighter’s new detection of airborne threats. Describing the Rafale F4 as “a
F4.1 standard represents the first very effective aircraft, ready to re-
stage of a three-part enhancement Comprehensive upgrade alise any kind of mission”, he notes:
process which will further bolster its F4.1-standard aircraft gain the “we have a product that is really
capabilities by late this decade. ability to carry up to three Safran ready for the next 10 to 15 years.”
“With this F4 standard France Electronics & Defence 1,000kg All F3R-configured Rafales – in-
and the Rafale enter a new era of (2,200lb) AASM “Hammer” GPS/ cluding those to be delivered to the
collaborative air combat,” says laser-guided bombs. The Thales French air force this year – will be
General Arvind Badrinath, head of Talios laser designation pod gains updated to the new mark by Das-
combat aircraft and Rafale pro- a “permanent vision” mode, capa- sault, the DGA or at a squadron
gramme director for the nation’s ble of maintaining target tracking level, with the task taking no more
DGA defence procurement agency. in poor weather conditions. Optical than one week for new examples.
Several in-service aircraft have fibres have also been installed to re- Meanwhile, Paris is expected to
been brought up to the new stand- lay HD-standard imagery from the within the coming weeks approve
ard from the currently operation- sensor to the cockpit, which gains its next military planning law, with
al F3R configuration, including air two new digital displays. the spending plan due to include a
force B/C and navy M models. Additional benefits include the final batch of 42 Rafales for France.
“We modified six aircraft so that pilot’s use of an enhanced Thales Longer term, an F5 operating
they could be used immediately on Scorpion helmet-mounted display. standard will in the 2030s add the
the [Charles de Gaulle] aircraft car- New cyber-protection steps pro- ability to carry MBDA’s in-develop-
rier and from air bases to test all the vide data encryption, while the jet ment ASN4G fourth-generation nu-
new enhancements in an operation- also gains communication system clear missile, and the Future Cruise/
al environment,” Badrinath says. updates. And a new onboard sim- Anti-Ship Weapon family, which is
The update’s key advance cen- ulation capability will support ad- to succeed the current SCALP-EG
tres around providing connectivity vanced training tasks. and AM39 Exocet missiles. ◗

22 Flight International July 2023

 g FlightGlobal.com
Visit FlightGlobal Premium for all the latest aviation news and insight g

Current E-Jet E2 sales campaigns

could add 200 aircraft to backlog

Embraer gets stronger

After steering the Brazilian airframer to
post-pandemic recovery, Francisco Gomes Neto wants
to drive innovation and boost sales across all products
BillyPix

Craig Hoyle Lisbon Neto told FlightGlobal in late May, more than a combined 1,000 Airbus
referring to its ‘Fit for growth’ sta- A319s and Boeing 737-700s which
bilisation programme. “We adjusted will leave use over the next few

F
our years ago, Embraer the workforce, reducing by almost years. Embraer also sees increasing
participated in the Paris air 4,000 people, and put in place a interest in a 100-150-seat “crossover
show as a company readying strategic plan. jet” market for regional aircraft to
for major transition, with its “The period to 2022 was recov- operate beneath carriers’ narrow-
commercial aircraft business being ery,” he says. “From 2023 onwards, body fleets. Recent examples have
prepared for sale to Boeing. we see a growth period to capture included E2 deals with Royal Jorda-
It was also the first Le Bourget Embraer’s potential.” nian, SalamAir and Scoot.
attendance for Francisco Gomes “Since I joined Embraer I have nev-
Neto, who in April 2019 became the Vital statistics er seen so many sales campaigns in
Brazilian airframer’s chief executive. The company recorded revenue of commercial aviation,” Gomes Neto
By early 2020, the company had $4.5 billion last year, and its expec- says. “The market is starting to
been plunged into twin crises. tation for 2023 is in the $5.2-5.7 bil- come back for regional jets – with
“One was the drop in revenue lion range – similar to pre-pandem- the exception of E1s, because of the
because of the pandemic, but with ic 2019. Meanwhile, its firm order pilot shortage in the US.”
costs much higher than usual, be- backlog totals some $17.4 billion. However, that situation could
cause we had duplicated a lot of But Gomes Neto is targeting turno- soon change to the company’s ad-
resources internally to prepare ver of $8 billion in 2027. vantage, as it expects to secure a
the company for the carve-out of Embraer Commercial Aircraft is fresh wave of E175 orders from US
commercial aviation,” Gomes Neto currently running campaigns pursu- carriers. With there being no indi-
says. “And then they [Boeing] de- ing the potential sale of 200 E-Jet cation of potential changes to the
cided to pull the plug.” E2s, and Gomes Neto says: “We ex- scope clause agreements which
The parties remain in an arbitra- pect to close some deals this year.” restrict their operation of larger air-
tion process, with Embraer seeking One such commitment was placed craft, work on the more efficient but
financial compensation after the at Paris, with Binter Canarias sign- heavier E175-E2 remains on hold.
US giant’s abandoned action. ing for six E195-E2s. Gomes Neto also believes a deal
The challenges prompted a busi- By late-May, the company had to supply Porter Airlines with 50
ness rationalisation effort, to stabi- sold a total of 270 Pratt & Whitney E195-E2s “might open some doors
lise the company and maintain its PW1900G-engined E190-E2s and for us” in the North American mar-
status as the third-ranked producer E195-E2s, and delivered more than ket. The Canadian regional carri-
of commercial aircraft. 70 of these. er took its first two of the 132-seat
Embraer

“I think we did a good job re- Opportunities include with airlines type last December.
organising the company,” Gomes needing to replace E-Jet E1s, plus Embraer’s commercial aircraft

24 Flight International July 2023

 Interview Francisco Gomes Neto

shipments are expected to total active C/KC-390 sales campaigns opportunities. Embraer could as-
65-70 units this year – up from 57 with at least eight countries. Those semble the Gripen E/F for custom-
in 2022. This will continue a steady understood to be keen include ers in the region, after earlier this
recovery, having already climbed Austria, Romania and Sweden. year opening a final assembly line
from 48 in 2021 and 44 the previ- Interest in the twinjet has spiked at its Gaviao Peixoto site to support
ous year. It delivered 89 E-Jets in due to the changed security situ- output for the Brazilian air force.
pre-pandemic 2019 and 90 in 2018, ation in Europe following Russia’s Strong business performance also
and last achieved triple-figures – at February 2022 invasion of Ukraine. is expected from Embraer’s Execu-
101 aircraft – in 2017. And, Gomes Neto notes: “After the tive Jets unit, which is due to deliver
“We are working to ramp-up pro- Netherlands’ decision, things have 120-130 Phenom- and Praetor-se-
duction to more than 100 [com- changed in our favour.” ries light and midsize business jets
mercial] aircraft per year, as we did The C-390 also is being promoted this year. Demand is so strong that it
in the past,” Gomes Neto says. Em- in the Middle East via a partnership is currently offering new customers
braer is targeting such an output with the UK’s BAE Systems, and a delivery slots from 2025-2026.
around 2027-2028. so-called Agile Tanker develop- “We want to be faster than the
With international sales of huge ment is being offered to the US Air competition in innovation,” Gomes
importance to Brazil’s aerospace Neto says, citing focus areas as in-
champion – which generates 90% cluding zero-emission advances,
of its revenue from overseas – se-
curing defence deals are also high
on its agenda.
Embraer has delivered six of the
Brazilian air force’s 19 on-order
$4.5bn
Revenue recorded for 2022 – with
artificial intelligence, data science
and autonomous flight.
“We are working to have our
products ready to fly with SAF
[sustainable aviation fuel],” he
KC-390s, and has commitments to turnover predicted to be $5.2-5.7bn adds, while its Energia project is
supply 12 more of the Internation- this year, and $8bn targeted by 2027 exploring the potential of electric,
al Aero Engines V2500-powered hydrogen and hybrid propulsion. It
type to export buyers. also aims to have all its production
The first of five C-390s for the Force (USAF) with partner L3Har- facilities in Brazil running on 100%
Portuguese air force is having its ris. The partners plan to conduct renewable electricity by 2024.
NATO-standard systems installed future flight testing of a KC-390
before service entry, while Hunga- with a lightweight refuelling boom Turboprop wait
ry’s first of two examples was re- installed beneath its aft fuselage. But having paused the develop-
cently due to achieve its power-on Separately, Embraer expects to ment of a new family of turboprop
milestone, ahead of delivery in the announce a first order for the NA- airliners – an investment estimated
first quarter of 2024. TO-optimised A-29N version of its as worth around $1.4 billion – due
And Embraer remains in nego- Super Tucano later this year, having to the lack of a suitable engine of-
tiations with the Netherlands re- demonstrated the light attack tur- fer, their potential service entry has
garding NATO-standard updates boprop to alliance members includ- been pushed back from 2028 until
for its five jets, selected last year as ing the Netherlands and Portugal. the early 2030s.
replacements for aged Lockheed It also is supporting Latin Amer- Despite this, Gomes Neto believes
Martin C-130Hs. ican Gripen sales efforts led by the 70- and 90-seat aircraft, with
Gomes Neto says Embraer has Saab, with Colombia and Peru as quiet aft-mounted engines, two-by-
two seating and large overhead lug-
gage bins, “would be right to open
new markets – even in the US”.
“We now have this ‘one team’ Other initiatives include an effi-
ciency drive, working with Toyota to
spirit. We have a very modern find production improvements.
The company is on a journey to-
and competitive portfolio, wards reducing its aircraft produc-
tion cycle time by 30%, with a 17%
and a really bright future” improvement recorded last year. It
also is targeting cost reduction and
Francisco Gomes Neto Chief executive, Embraer an increased margin from sales.
Separately, Embraer also wants
at least 20% of its senior leadership
positions to be held by women by
2025 – up from 17% currently.
“After four years I have had the
opportunity to learn a lot, and to
leave all the difficulties that we had,”
Gomes Neto says. “Now at Embraer
we have this ‘one team’ spirit. We
have a very modern and compet-
itive portfolio of products, and a
really bright future. We are really
exiting the crisis much stronger.” ◗

July 2023 Flight International 25

 Propulsion Development

Design will eventually be taken to

its full output of 80,000lb-thrust

Rolls-Royce details UltraFan plan

Engine manufacturer powers up technology demonstrator
Rolls-Royce

but programme will be paused after initial tests are complete

Dominic Perry Derby without any issues and has pretty for the technologies and systems
much behaved as predicted. brought together on the UltraFan.
“We were able to confirm the fun- In particular, the Advance3 core

R
olls-Royce will put its damentals but we will need further and high-temperature materials
UltraFan demonstrator pro- work to refine our understanding.” used in the hot section are “100%
gramme on hold once the Alan Newby, R-R’s director of applicable to the Trent XWB”.
initial phase of testing has aerospace technology and future While any engine in the Trent
been completed as it waits for programmes, says since its first run family could in theory gain Ultra-
customer interest in a new power- on 24 April the UltraFan engine has Fan-derived upgrades, improve-
plant to materialise. been taken to idle and beyond; that ments to the XWB “would make
Speaking at an event held in its had increased to 60% power by sense” as it is the “most advanced
Testbed 80 facility in Derby on 18 early June but it is unlikely to reach [engine] in our portfolio”.
May to celebrate the engine’s first its full output of 80,000lb (355kN) No further testing of the current
runs, which began in late April, thrust until the end of the test phase. demonstrator is envisaged beyond
Tufan Erginbilgic, R-R chief execu- “We are gradually going to ex- the first phase, but R-R will use the
tive, said the tests would “continue plore the envelope,” he says, to UltraFan architecture to develop a
for a number of months” but would ensure there are no “emerging new narrowbody powerplant – to
then be stopped. behaviours” from the interaction be ready for potential service en-
“Once we have finished this of the sub-systems integrated on try in the mid-2030s – through a
phase of testing on UltraFan we the engine. Particular focus has project funded by the EU’s Clean
will be putting the whole engine been given to the power gearbox Aviation body.
demonstrator programme on hold and its effect on oil consumption. Led by the manufacturer’s German
until one of our airframe custom- unit, Project HEAVEN – hydrogen
ers is ready to take this new engine Systems integration engine architecture virtually engi-
architecture,” he says. Most of the sub-systems have neered novelly – will seek to scale
However, he notes R-R will be been extensively ground tested, the engine down to a size suitable
“taking the technology [used in or in some cases flight tested, but for a single-aisle jet, says Newby,
UltraFan] and applying it to in- Vittadini says this is the first time alongside analysing how it could be
production engines”. they have been integrated together. run on liquid hydrogen.
A similar plan had been out- However, the continued absence He also sees aerodynamic
lined by Erginbilgic’s predeces- of any new widebody development improvements being made to
sor Warren East after it became programme from either of the big the second-generation UltraFan,
apparent no new aircraft in the two airframers means that, for now, alongside “micro hybridisation”
UltraFan’s class was in the offing. she sees no need to take the Ultra- through the integration of small
Grazia Vittadini, R-R’s chief tech- Fan to flight test. motor-generators.
nology officer, says the initial test “Flight testing an engine means Launched in 2014, progress on
programme is scheduled to last for you would have the first flight of a the UltraFan was delayed by two
a minimum of three months “and we [new] aircraft coming,” she says. consecutive crises to hit R-R: the
will take it from there” if additional Vittadini adds: “Dear airframers: Trent 1000’s premature degre-
evaluations are required. give me an aircraft and we will have dation, followed by the Covid-19
The engine manufacturer is “very your engines.” pandemic. It is the first time in 54
pleased with the results so far”, But she points out that R-R is years that the company has tested
says Vittadini, adding: “It started already considering applications a brand-new engine architecture. ◗

26 Flight International July 2023

 Safety Report

Crew was complying with a

collision-avoidance procedure
ure

Crosswind pushed Hop E170

into A320’s take-off path
Incident happened as Embraer jet executed go-around,
with investigators also flagging the risks of windshear to
simultaneous operations on closely spaced parallel runways
David Kaminski-Morrow London The controller intervened to simultaneous operations on close-
order the A320 crew to stop climb- ly spaced parallel runways.
ing – but did not use emergency It turned up three similar inci-

F
rench investigators have de- phraseology. The A320 crew re- dents – two at Paris Charles de
tailed a serious airprox in- sponded that they were following a Gaulle and one at Toulouse – in
cident at Paris Charles de collision-avoidance advisory. the space of just over three years,
Gaulle when an Embraer 170, The BEA says the Embraer crew during which short-term conflict
executing a go-around, drifted into then “ambiguously” informed alerts were triggered by an aircraft
the climb path of an Airbus A320 the controller of their own colli- executing a missed approach, in
departing simultaneously from the sion-avoidance advisory, using the strong crosswinds or windshear,
parallel adjacent runway. past tense, which might have led the while a parallel flight departed.
While descending to runway 26L controller to believe the conflict was Investigators note that Charles de
on 21 October 2020 – during strong over – and meant they were giving Gaulle’s southern parallel runways,
crosswinds and turbulence – the orders to the crews even as the con- 26L and 26R, are 384m apart – less
Hop Embraer aborted its approach flict resolution was continuing. than the minimum set out in French
at 200ft, after a windshear warning. Analysis of the aircraft flightpaths air traffic regulations for specialised
Its crew applied a windshear ma- shows they came within 0.09nm – simultaneous operations.
noeuvre, climbing to 1,500ft while about 550ft or 167m – horizontally Such closely spaced runways
maintaining a wings-level attitude, and 460ft vertically at their point can nevertheless be used simul-
and then notifying the tower con- of closest approach. taneously if the air traffic services
troller of the go-around. authority approves a safety study
But the strong crosswind had Resolution advisory taking the runway geometry and
caused the Embraer to drift to the The BEA says the A320 crew operational control into account.
right in the meantime, straying into stopped the climb at about 2,000ft The BEA says it has “no knowl-
the vicinity of the Brussels Airlines as part of the resolution advisory, edge” of any study for Charles de
A320 taking off from runway 26R. and the Embraer crew, after flying Gaulle which examined the com-
French investigation authority clear of the conflict, resumed a left bined risk of a windshear go-around
the BEA says the controller – about turn onto a heading of 200°. during strong crosswinds.
10s after hearing of the go-around Investigators state that “insuffi- It adds that arguments which the
– attempted to resolve the conflict cient consideration” was given to French air navigation service used
with emergency phraseology, in- implementation of simultaneous to demonstrate sufficient safety lev-
structing the Embraer crew to turn runway operations during strong els – through an alternative means
left onto a heading of 240°. crosswinds and with the risk of of compliance – to the French civil
“The crew read back the instruc- windshear. The inquiry adds that aviation regulator last year are “un-
tion but the controller’s order to the Embraer crew’s compliance dermined” by the specific ‘wind-
change the heading was not fol- with the windshear procedure up shear during go-around’ scenario.
lowed,” says the inquiry. to 1,500ft altitude – irrespective of If an aircraft deviates from its track
The BEA says the Embraer whether windshear was still present while flying a wings-level windshear
crew was complying with a col- – could have delayed subsequent escape manoeuvre, it could lose
lision-avoidance procedure and aircraft-separation actions. separation with another departing
stopped the turn on passing a None of the occupants – 62 on the parallel runway.
heading of 250°. The crosswind the Embraer (F-HBXK) and 41 on While it acknowledges such in-
meant the aircraft was still tracking the A320 (OO-SNE) – were injured. cidents are rare, the BEA is rec-
263°, towards the A320’s path. Additionally, the BEA believes ommending that the French air
AirTeamImages

Owing to a busy radio frequen- the specific circumstances of a navigation service revises its
cy, the Embraer crew had not strong crosswind during a wind- demonstration of safety compliance
told the controller about the colli- shear-escape manoeuvre can to take account of the observations
sion-avoidance resolution. undermine the safety case for highlighted by the Hop incident. ◗

28 Flight International July 2023

 Programme
g Debut

Leap-1C-powered twinjet made a 1h

57min flight from Shanghai to Beijing

C919 ‘comes of age’

Chinese-developed narrowbody finally enters service with first
commercial flight carried out by China Eastern in late May
Alfred Chua Singapore new aircraft, and the C919 will get The SkyTeam carrier took delivery
better and better if it stands the of the aircraft in early December
test of the market,” says Zhang 2022 – two months after the CAAC

C
omac’s C919 narrowbody Xiaoguang, director of sales and certificated the type – and began a
has entered commercial marketing at Comac. series of flight tests.
service with launch custom- The C919’s commercial ser- The C919 was added to its com-
er China Eastern Airlines, vice entry was marked with a mercial schedules for late February,
almost six months since the carrier high-profile launch event at Hong- also under flight number MU9191,
took delivery of its first aircraft. qiao airport on 28 May, attended but tracking data shows the service
On 28 May, flight MU9191 took by senior officials from the Civil was operated by an A320. The shift
off from Shanghai’s Hongqiao Aviation Administration of China came amid reports of issues with
airport at about 10:33 local time, (CAAC), China Eastern and Comac, the aircraft that were delaying its
operating a 1h 57min service to who later boarded the aircraft for entry into commercial service.
Beijing Capital airport, according the maiden flight. Although a Chinese programme,
to flight tracking data. the C919 is entirely reliant on west-
Comac, China Eastern, as well Guest list ern systems, including its CFM
as Chinese regulators, hailed State media reports suggest the International Leap-1C engines.
the “historic” milestone for the flight was carrying 128 passengers, The commercial debut came a
domestic programme, with Comac including invited guests. China month after Comac had secured
describing the commercial debut Eastern’s C919s are configured with commitments from privately-owned
“a new beginning” for the country’s 164 seats in two classes: eight in Hainan Airlines for 60 C919s, which
civil aviation sector. business and 156 in economy. will eventually go to subsidiary
Beijing hopes the C919 will China Eastern deployed the Urumqi Air and Suparna Airlines.
become a serious competitor to type on daily flights from Shang- Launched in 2007, the first C919
the Airbus A320 and Boeing 737 hai Hongqiao to Chengdu’s Tianfu did not roll off the production line
Shutterstock

narrowbody programmes. airport from 29 May, and will “grad- in Shanghai until November 2015,
“The first commercial flight is a ually extend” operations to other with a maiden sortie following
coming-of-age ceremony of the undisclosed routes in the future. around two years later. ◗

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July 2023 Flight International 29

 Visit FlightGlobal Premium for all the latest aviation news and insight FlightGlobal.com

UK propels supersonic
demonstrator achievements
Industry partners reveal design and test work in support of
‘sixth-generation’ testbed, due to take flight in mid-2027
Craig Hoyle Warton challenge is,” says Conrad Banks, also has already manufactured
R-R’s chief engineer future pro- its intake ducts at its Samlesbury
grammes. “That is where we are plant in Lancashire.

T
he UK is making strong de-risking the programme and ap- “We have developed a toolset
early progress with its plying technology going forward.” that we will now apply to the GCAP

BAE Systems
sixth-generation flying Banks notes that with the demon- [Global Combat Air Programme],
technology demonstrator strator’s twin engines entirely so that when BAE designs the
programme, with its industry part- hidden from external view, perfor- advanced intake and we bring the
ners having already performed mance challenges include the risk advanced sixth-generation propul-
tests on key engine, crew escape of intake vibration and distorted air- sion system together it will be truly
and flight control technologies. flow causing surges and increased world class,” Banks says.
Announced at the Farnborough wear to fan blades.
air show in July 2022 as a UK-only “The important thing here is Further testing
effort supporting the development to make the EJ200 think that it’s He notes that a separate full-pow-
of a Tempest fighter which is to form sitting in a Typhoon,” he says, as er engine demonstrator will follow
part of a Future Combat Air System this will enable the powerplant to in support of the Tempest plat-
(FCAS) capability, the demonstra- be operated using established flight form, with this the subject of work
tor effort is on schedule to achieve clearance protocols. This has been between R-R, Italy’s Avio Aero and
first flight in mid-2027, officials say. achieved thanks to modelling, com- Japan’s IHI. The companies are
On 13 June, BAE Systems – a joint putational fluid dynamics and sub- looking at technologies including
member of the Team Tempest in- scale windtunnel testing performed “distortion-tolerant fan systems that
dustry group, alongside Rolls-Royce by BAE, and validated in Filton. can live behind even more aggres-
and the UK arms of Leonardo and “We have tested all power ranges sive intakes”, he reveals, along with
MBDA – for the first time invited on the testbed for the engine and electrical generation and thermal
journalists into a new facility at its intake full installation,” Banks says. management requirements.
Warton site in Lancashire dedicated He describes the activity as “fully The supersonic demonstrator will
to the demonstrator effort. successful”, proving that the EJ200 be the UK’s first such asset since
can perform without experiencing British Aerospace’s Experimental
Engine trials air distortion or resonance issues. Aircraft Programme of the mid-
Systems on display included a Testing was performed using a 1980s, which preceded the devel-
low-observable airframe-compat- representative flight intake, and also opment of the Typhoon. Key design
ible engine inlet and duct design, with a so-called “bellmouth” design, aspects will include the use of low
which underwent rig-based aero- which replicates the effect of airflow observability shaping techniques,
dynamic testing between Novem- at mid-altitude, cruise conditions. similar to those likely to be em-
ber 2022 and February this year. It The architecture tested in Filton ployed on the Tempest platform.
was trialled in combination with an has been validated for use on the Meanwhile, in another early devel-
unmodified Eurojet EJ200 turbofan demonstrator platform, and BAE opment, work has been completed
– sourced from a Royal Air Force
(RAF) Eurofighter Typhoon – at
R-R’s Filton site near Bristol. Sled tests have concluded on
While the overall design of the Martin-Baker crew escape system
demonstrator vehicle has not been
revealed, its large scale is indicated
by the engine duct design, which
is roughly 10m (32ft 8in) long from
the intake to the front of the engine.
Constructed from five sections, the
serpentine duct has been “uniquely
shaped to slow the air from super-
sonic to subsonic speeds at the en-
gine face”, BAE and R-R say.
“This [demonstrator] will be flying
BAE Systems

with existing EJ200 engines. How-

ever, it’s going to be a sixth-gener-
ation installation – that’s where the

30 Flight International July 2023

 Programme Technology

EJ200 engine will sit behind

a 10m-long serpentine duct

on the demonstrator’s crew escape

system, which is centred on a Mar- “This a sixth-generation installation.
tin-Baker Mk16A ejection seat –
also common to the Typhoon. That’s where the challenge is. We
A test campaign commenced in
February 2022 with a static firing to are de-risking the programme and
evaluate a canopy design which in-
corporates detonation chord tech- applying technology going forward”
nology from BAE’s Hawk advanced
jet trainer. This was followed by two Conrad Banks Chief engineer future programmes, Rolls-Royce
sled test qualification firings each
at speeds of 280kt (518km/h) and
450kt, involving both lightweight confirms, while the platform will Strang also reveals that the UK
and heavy instrumented manne- have a triplex flight-control system. is currently exploring the possible
quins being deployed from a repre- Engineers are also using the rig expansion of its demonstrator pro-
sentative forward fuselage section. set-up to assess the performance gramme to also include Italian and
Housed within Warton’s Hangar of a suite of hydraulic actuators Japanese involvement.
5, the new demonstrator facility for one side of the aircraft – three
also accommodates four integrat- to support control surfaces on the Combined effort
ed development rigs; respective- wing and another for a flaperon in- Air Commodore Martin Lowe, FCAS
ly assigned to its cockpit, flight stalled on the tail – to compare their programme director for the UK Min-
control system management, performance with digital modelling. istry of Defence (MoD), describes
computing and models, and utility Neil Strang, BAE’s Tempest pro- the combat air demonstrator as “a
management system. gramme director, says the early hugely important part” of its wider
successes underscore the demon- effort, along with preparations for
Simulated flight strator’s importance as a “catalyst” industry to conduct separate radar
Using a mix of hardware, emulators for the GCAP effort, which also and engine technology initiatives.
and digital models, the so-called involves the defence aerospace The demonstrator effort is part of
hybrid rig already allows pilots to industry champions of Italy and a £2.8 billion ($3.5 billion) funding
fly the design in a simulator. Japan. Around 1,000 people are commitment made so far by the
To date, 10 pilots – from BAE, currently working in support of the MoD and industry, with the over-
R-R and the RAF – have evaluated demonstrator project, he notes. all FCAS project currently in its
the simulator, logging more than a Strang describes the flying concept and assessment phase.
combined 170 test hours through demonstrator as “an ambitious “In early 2025 we will know a lot
roughly 125 sorties. BAE notes that design, to understand better key more about what we want, and our
it is also using this process to help technologies which will inevitably ability to build it,” says Lowe.
inform the design of the platform’s end up in the FCAS programme”. The next major funding invest-
flight control system design, by “We can make sure that when ment decision will be taken by the
“capturing crucial data about how we come to key decision points end of 2025, following the agree-
the jet will handle and perform, through the FCAS programme we ment of project terms between the
years before its first flight”. It also is can provide schedule confidence three partner nations.
employing “auto coding, to create and cost confidence that we can The Tempest platform is due to
safety-critical systems software”. deliver this programme as we say enter operational use with the RAF
The aircraft’s cockpit will fea- we can. It’s about providing belief in 2035, as a replacement for its
ture a sidestick controller, BAE and confidence in 2035-plus.” multirole Typhoons. ◗

July 2023 Flight International 31

 Defence Surveillance

737NG-based type has been

declared preferred candidate

Canada urged to halt P-8A buy

Ottawa faces call to launch competition to replace its aged
CP-140 Aurora fleet, with Bombardier promising to deliver
better performance than front-running Poseidon
Boeing

Ryan Finnerty Tampa technology, while ensuring Canada’s In addition to meeting all CMMA
continued leadership in the ASW performance requirements previ-
and ISR domains,” Bombardier ously outlined by Ottawa, Bom-

B
ombardier is calling on said while announcing the teaming bardier says its Global 6500-based
Ottawa to initiate a compe- agreement with General Dynamics’ offering will provide Canada with a
tition to procure new mari- local subsidiary on 18 May. potential new export product.
time patrol aircraft (MPA) The airframer declines to reveal “We see an export potential of 80
for the Royal Canadian Air Force further specifics about its offer, aircraft currently identified around
(RCAF), rather than proceed with saying it would be “premature” to the world,” Patrick says.
a sole-source purchase of Boeing do so unless Ottawa opens a for- More than 160 of the 737NG-based
P-8A Poseidons. mal competition. However, Patrick P-8 are in service with the US Navy,
Teamed with General Dynam- confirms: “The platforms are made plus international operators Austral-
ics Mission Systems – Canada, in Canada and will be modified and ia, India, New Zealand, Norway and
Bombardier is putting forward a delivered in Canada.” the UK. Germany and South Korea
development of its Global 6500 have examples on order.
long-range business jet for the However, Bombardier does not
Canadian Multi-Mission Aircraft seem to be deterred by its rival’s
(CMMA) programme. This aims to head start. Vice-president of de-
replace a fleet of 15 CP-140 Auro- fence Jean-Christopher Gallagher
ras – the RCAF’s designation for the says he is confident the company’s
Lockheed Martin P-3 Orion. Global 6500 CMMA design will out-
“This is a viable, deliverable perform the P-8.
option to meet CMMA high-lev- “What we want to see here… is
el mission requirements,” Steve a competition fair and square,” he
Bombardier

Patrick, vice-president of Bombar- Bombardier is putting forward a

says. “We’re going to be able to
dier Defense, said at the CANSEC development of its Global 6500
show that our platform not only
conference in Ottawa on 31 May. burns 30% less fuel, it flies further,
Bombardier’s call for a compe- faster, higher… and it does it better
tition came after Ottawa in March than the American aircraft.”
indicated that it intended to buy the Boeing says its CMMA enterprise As a business jet, the Global 6500
US-built model. will create “nearly 3,000 jobs and has a range of 6,660nm (12,200km),
“The government has deter- $358 million in economic output to a maximum speed of Mach 0.9 and
mined that the P-8A Poseidon is Canada”, according to a forecast can operate at up to 51,000ft.
the only currently available air- produced by independent econo- Saab has already adapted Bom-
craft that meets all of the CMMA mists at Ottawa-based Doyletech. bardier’s earlier Global 6000 into
operational requirements, name- Boeing says it is “committed to its GlobalEye multi-role surveillance
ly anti-submarine warfare [ASW] deliver industrial and technologi- platform, securing deals to supply
and ISR [intelligence, surveillance cal benefits on the P-8 programme, the United Arab Emirates with five
and reconnaissance],” the Public significantly growing Canada’s aer- examples, and Sweden two, plus
Services and Procurement Canada ospace and defence industry”. two options. The type can perform
agency said. “What we now need to hear simultaneous airborne, maritime
Acquired in 1980, the CP-140 fleet from government is a request for and ground surveillance tasks.
is slated for retirement in 2030. proposal including specific perfor- Canada plans to acquire up to 16
“This platform provides the latest mance parameters and objectives,” of its selected CMMA candidate for
in airborne mission management says Patrick. the CP-140 replacement need. ◗

32 Flight International July 2023

 Defence Engines

US watchdog counts $38bn cost

of ongoing F-35 power struggle
Shortcomings with fighter’s propulsion and cooling system
infrastructure detailed by Government Accountability Office
Ryan Finnerty Tampa The GAO says Lockheed discov- Latka says the ECU package
ered the cooling issue in 2008, and “restores the engine life complete-
in 2013 requested a design revision ly”. She notes that the improve-

O
vertaxing the Lockheed to address the problem. Howev- ments – to be available for delivery
Martin F-35’s Pratt & er, the DoD rejected the proposal, in 2028 – will provide the F-35 with
Whitney F135 engine is citing cost and schedule impacts. enough power and cooling capa-
costing the US Depart- “Programme officials decided bility to meet current needs, as well
ment of Defense (DoD) billions of to continue with the F135 engine’s as requirements for Block 4.
dollars in unexpected maintenance original design with the understand- However, both P&W and the GAO
costs, the US Government Account- ing that there would be increased say the DoD will also need to up-
ability Office (GAO) says. wear and tear, more maintenance, grade the PTMS if it plans to contin-
A failure to design in adequate and reduced life on the engine be- ue adding capability to the jet.
cooling capacity to support the cause it would need to provide “The engine will [otherwise] need
fifth-generation fighter’s advanced more air pressure to the PTMS than to provide even more air pressure
sensors and radar has already add- its design intended,” the GAO notes. to [the] PTMS to support future
ed $38 billion to the programme’s Instead, additional bleed air is capabilities, which will further re-
total lifecycle cost, auditors say. diverted into the PTMS for cooling. duce engine life,” the GAO notes.
That problem is expected to This causes excess wear on the tur- “When we go beyond Block 4,
worsen as Lockheed rolls out the bine, resulting in a shorter lifespan there has got to be an upgraded
much-anticipated Block 4 upgrade and more frequent overhauls. PTMS,” Latka says.
to the type, which will further To date, the DoD has not deter-
increase its electronic sensing capa- Design specifications mined how it plans to modern-
bilities, and add data transmission The GAO notes that P&W designed ise the PTMS, meaning a solution
at 5G speeds. the F135 to meet the air pressure is still years away. Its F-35 Joint
“The addition of Block 4 will re- specifications it had been given at Program Office says it has not yet
quire more cooling capacity,” the the time. The Raytheon Technolo- established the power and cool-
GAO says in a 30 May report. gies subsidiary says the auditor’s ing requirements for the aircraft
The F-35’s Honeywell-designed report supports its calls to upgrade beyond 2035.
power and thermal management the F-35’s powerplant. Meanwhile, the cost of the Block 4
system (PTMS) uses bleed air tak- “We do feel that the GAO report improvement package has climbed
en from the F135 engine to cool on- validates the government’s decision to more than $16 billion: a 55% in-
board sensors. to pursue the engine core upgrade crease from the $10.6 billion esti-
“They’re two different systems, [ECU] on the F135,” says Latka. mate provided by the DoD in 2018.
but they work in a symbiotic way,” After months of jockeying The spending watchdog describes
explains Jennifer Latka, P&W’s between P&W and rival manufac- the Pentagon’s cost reporting for
vice-president of F135 engines. turer GE Aerospace, the US Air the process as “inadequate”.
Sensor improvements to the F-35, Force in March threw its support “Congress lacks critical informa-
along with bureaucratic mishan- behind the F135 ECU. GE had been tion for overseeing the broader
dling of its cooling system, have left pushing for the service Block 4 effort and holding the pro-
it pulling electrical power and air to instead adopt a gramme and contrac-
cooling beyond its de- replacement tor account- able,”
sign specifications. engine. it says. ◗
US Air Force

Cooling issue was discovered in 2008

but a design revision was rejected

July 2023 Flight International 33

 Show Contracts

Malaysia spends big at LIMA

More than 40 defence deals concluded at event, with new
light fighters and maritime patrol aircraft at top of the list
Greg Waldron Langkawi A deal for two ATR 72MPs is set to boost
nation’s maritime surveillance capability

T
he Malaysian government
used the Langkawi Interna-
tional Maritime and Aero-
space (LIMA) exhibition to
sign contracts for the provision of
new light fighters, maritime patrol
aircraft (MPA), utility helicopters
and unmanned air vehicles (UAVs).
The highest-profile deal was
for 18 Korea Aerospace Industries
Leonardo

(KAI) FA-50s. The South Korean

type had been selected in Febru-
ary to meet Kuala Lumpur’s fight-
er lead-in trainer-light combat
aircraft requirement. maintainability, low lifecycle costs Sikorsky S-61A Nuris, creating a
KAI had a large presence at the and comfort features of the base- capability gap.
show, while the Republic of Korea line ATR 72-600,” Leonardo notes. “The [UH-60A+] aircraft functions
Air Force’s Black Eagles aerobatic “They will also be equipped with a as a platform for the purpose of
display team performed with its flexible mission system, advanced training and operational flight duty,”
T-50B trainers. sensors and a complete commu- says Malaysia’s defence ministry.
The FA-50 contract is valued at nications suite for command, con- A contract was also signed with
MYR3.84 billion ($832 million), trol, communications, intelligence, Turkish Aerospace for a trio of Anka
according to a local defence blog. surveillance and reconnaissance 2 UAVs. Announced in October
A deal was also signed with Leon- missions over land and sea.” 2022, the Medium Altitude Long
ardo, which will supply two ATR Leonardo had flown its ATR 72MP Endurance Phase 1 requirement is
72MP twin-turboprops via Phase 1 at the LIMA event in 2017 in pursuit valued at MYR424 million.
of an MPA acquisition announced of the requirement. In all, 43 deals worth a combined
late last year. Its contract is valued Local company Aerotree De- MYR10.1 billion were signed at the
at MYR790 million, with the aircraft fence & Services secured a deal show, according to Malaysia’s de-
to boost the maritime surveillance to provide four Sikorsky UH-60A+ fence ministry.
capabilities of the Royal Malaysian Black Hawks. Meanwhile, the Malaysian army
Air Force (RMAF). The rotorcraft will be employed gave a show debut to its six MD Hel-
“The aircraft chosen by Ma- in the transport role. In 2020, icopters MD530Gs, which were de-
laysia retains the reliability, the RMAF grounded its obsolete livered to the service last year. The
type appeared in the static display,
and also participated in the 23-27
May event’s opening ceremony.
Primarily used for training duties,
the MD530G is equipped with an
L3Harris Wescam MX10D elec-
tro-optical/infrared sensor and Tek
Fusions Pathfinder Ares weapons
management system. Kuala Lum-
pur has a potential need for six
more of the type, which could be
armed for light-attack duties.
Greg Waldron/FlightGlobal

Other show highlights included

a first international public perfor-
mance by China’s August 1st aero-
batic display team using the She-
nyang WS-10B Taihang-engined
Chengdu J-10C fighter. The team
had previously appeared at LIMA
Army’s recently-introduced MD530G
shows flying the Saturn AL-31-
rotorcraft made debut appearance
powered J-10A. ◗

34 Flight International July 2023

 Defence Unmanned systems

RQ-7B requires a landing strip, but

new system will have VTOL capability

Four to contest
Shadow replacement
A quartet of bidders have been selected to advance design
work on a vertical take-off and landing successor for the
US Army’s tactical UAV, with AeroVironment missing out
Ryan Finnerty Tampa effectiveness and flexibility of the The first and second option
future UAV when compared to its phases will consist of successive
predecessor, the service says. The design reviews, while the third is to

T
he US Army has advanced fixed-wing RQ-7B must be launched cover flight demonstrations. During
four designs in its effort from a pneumatic catapult and the final Option 4 phase, FTUAS
to develop a new tactical recovered on a landing strip. participants will be required to
unmanned air vehicle (UAV) The army notes that FTU- deliver four fully functional aircraft,
to replace the Textron Systems AS candidates must be able to in addition to airborne payloads
RQ-7B Shadow. operate in environments lacking and ground control system and
Proposals from Griffon Aerospace, GPS navigation capabilities, since maintenance equipment.
Northrop Grumman, Sierra Nevada jamming technologies are likely to AeroVironment, which produc-
and Textron Systems will move to be employed in any future conflict es numerous small reconnaissance
the next stage of evaluation in the with near-peer adversaries such as UAVs and the Switchblade series
Future Tactical Uncrewed Aircraft China or Russia. of loitering munitions, failed to
Systems (FTUAS) programme, the “FTUAS will revolutionise the advance to the Option 1 activity.
service announced on 24 May. way our soldiers fight and win “AeroVironment completed the
“The FTUAS is the army’s pre- wars by providing enhanced recon- Base period of performance, and
mier vertical take-off and landing naissance, surveillance and target [we] are grateful for their com-
[VTOL] uncrewed aircraft moderni- acquisition, with unparalleled mitment and professionalism in
sation effort,” the service’s aviation speed and agility,” says Colonel advancing the FTUAS programme
procurement office says. Danielle Medaglia, unmanned air- of record,” the army’s UAV procure-
Requirements for FTUAS include craft systems project manager. ment office says.
runway independence, so-called The successful FTUAS design will
point take-off and landing, and a Development phases be required to operate at low to me-
rapid deployment capability. The The army had in February advanced dium altitudes and include capabili-
goal is for the new aircraft to im- five proposals into a first round of ties such as an electro-optical/infra-
prove the ability of ground troops design reviews, known as the Base red sensor, laser target designation,
to “collect, develop, and report period. Its FTUAS programme will data encryption, modern data links,
actionable intelligence”. cover five development phases, manned-unmanned teaming tech-
The requirement for VTOL perfor- also including four option periods nologies and the ability to operate
US Army

mance will significantly expand the to run between 2023 and 2025. autonomously, the army says. ◗

Download the 2023

IN ASSOCIATION WITH
Wo r l d A i r Fo r c e s R e p o r t
FlightGlobal.com/waf
July 2023 Flight International 35
 Operations Proposal

US retirement age debate takes off

Initial vote to increase mandatory limit by two years, to 67,
pleases regional carriers, but unions raise alarm over safety
Jon Hemmerdinger Tampa But US pilot unions are raising age 65 mandatory retirement, and
the alarm. They have also denied raising the pilot retirement age
the existence of a pilot shortage, would introduce additional risk into

T
he US House of Repre- saying airline mismanagement and commercial aviation,” says APA
sentatives’ transportation low pay are keeping carriers from president Ed Sicher.
committee has approved a filling their ranks. Meanwhile, the FAA has finalised
measure that would raise In a letter to lawmakers, Air Line a rule that will require new passen-
the USA’s mandatory airline-pilot Pilots Association (ALPA) president ger aircraft to have “secondary”
retirement age from 65 to 67, earn- Jason Ambrosi calls the proposed cockpit barriers, to better prevent
ing praise from regional airlines but retirement-age change “anti-union” unauthorised access.
spurring criticism from pilot unions. and “politically driven”. ALPA “Aircraft manufacturers are
However, whether the proposal – says the measure will worsen a required to install secondary bar-
which passed by a narrow margin pilot-training backlog, put the USA riers on commercial aircraft pro-
on 14 June – will ultimately become out of step with international stand- duced after the rule goes into ef-
law remains unclear. It is part of ards and erode aviation safety. fect,” the FAA said on 14 June.
a broader House bill, to be voted “There is an increased risk of car- To take effect after 60 days, the
on during July, to fund the Feder- diovascular issues, diabetes and measure will “ensure the safety of
al Aviation Administration (FAA) cognitive decline with increasing aircraft, flightcrew and air passen-
after the agency’s current funding age. It is imprudent for Congress gers” by protecting cockpits “when
expires in October. to impose its own view on safety,” the flightdeck door is open”, the
The move has strong support Ambrosi says. agency states.
from the Regional Airline Associ- The decision alters US air carrier
ation (RAA), whose members say Training backlog operating rules and aircraft
they have been particularly hurt by ALPA also notes that existing ICAO certification rules to require that
an industry-wide pilot shortage. standards call for retirements at aircraft manufactured two years
“Raising the pilot retirement age the age of 65. It notes that older after the rule takes effect must
is the one solution that will have a US pilots would be unable to con- have the devices.
near-immediate effect on the pilot duct some international flights, “When the flightdeck door must
shortage, allowing time for more which are typically operated by be opened for lavatory breaks,
long-term solutions to mature,” widebody aircraft. As a result, such meal service or crew changes, the
says the RAA. “It’s also the right pilots would likely need to be re- flightdeck could be vulnerable to
thing to do for pilots who are today trained to fly narrowbody jets, attack. This rule… is [intended] to
being pushed out of flightdecks which it argues would “displace slow such an attack long enough
while they still have much to offer.” junior pilots” and create “a cascad- so that an open flightdeck door
US regional airlines say a short- ing training backlog”. can be closed and locked before
age of pilots has forced them to The Allied Pilot Association an attacker could reach the flight-
ground hundreds of aircraft and (APA), which represents pilots at deck,” the FAA says.
cut services to smaller communi- American Airlines, also opposes The new cockpit barrier must be
ties. In the USA, airlines have about any increase. capable of resisting 272kg (600lb)
490 regional jets – including Bom- “Safety considerations drove of load in the forward direction,
bardier CRJs and Embraer E-Jets the establish- 463kg of load in the aft direction,
– in storage, and 1,340 in ment of the and of delaying a person’s entry
service, according to Cirium current in- into the cockpit by at least 5s.
fleets data. te r n a t i o n a l The US Congress had or-
Airlines for America, the standard of dered the FAA in a 2018
trade group represent- law to require
ing large US air- the addition
lines, declines to of secondary
comment. barriers. ◗
Robin Guess/Shutterstock

US airlines have cut regional

services due to pilot shortages

36 Flight International July 2023

 Programme Strategy

Energy density and storage capacity

of cells were areas of concern

Tecnam pauses P-Volt

as it loses faith in batteries
Airframer to postpone development of all-electric aircraft on
concerns that it would not be able to deliver a ‘viable’ product
Dominic Perry London applications “would mean anoth- flown a wing optimised for the air-
er massive degradation of mission craft. It is hopeful the project can
performance”, says Russo. be reanimated at a later stage, says

T
ecnam has paused the de- The need to always operate with Russo, but this will hinge on factors
velopment of its all-elec- a “healthy battery pack” would also outside its control.
tric P-Volt over fears that see these needing to be replaced “Once battery technology is
battery performance would after “less than 1,000 cycles”. ready, Tecnam will be fast in bring-
degrade so quickly that within Tecnam estimates that 10% bat- ing the P-Volt back,” he says.
weeks the nine-passenger aircraft tery performance degradation Tecnam was partnered with
would be reduced to flying routes would complicate mission planning, Rolls-Royce on the P-Volt, which
of under 40nm (74km). as range would decrease by 20% was to provide the aircraft’s elec-
Announcing the move on 13 after less than 1,000 cycles – driving tric propulsion units. The engine
June, the Italian airframer said that up operating costs significantly. maker says the collabortion al-
batteries were not sufficiently ma- Based on its forecasts, Tecnam lowed the two companies to “fully
ture, and their development path estimates that with aerospace bat- analyse the electrification roadmap
so uncertain, that it would not be teries likely to cost at least $1,500/ for this platform” and sees “market
possible to bring a “viable” product kWh, an entire 215kWh battery demand” for such solutions.
to market by its target of 2026. pack suitable for the P-Volt would However, detailed analysis of the
“We are convinced that a come in at more than $300,000. system’s capabilties and limitations
full-electric passenger airplane can “With these considerations and showed that although “the initial
be developed and certified, but [looking] at every single aspect of range is sufficient for key appli-
the business figures won’t allow us the aircraft design and lifecycle, it cations, energy storage lifecycle
to definitively establish whether could mean that after a few weeks performance results in business
the end-user would benefit,” says of normal airline operations, the cases which do not lend them-
Fabio Russo, chief R&D and product P-Volt could feature a realistic range selves to broad market adoption.”
development officer for Tecnam. of less than 40nm, plus [visual flight R-R sees better viability in the
He says the energy density of cells rules] reserve,” says Russo. sub-regional space provided by hy-
and their ability to maintain storage brid-electric or fuel cell power.
capacity over hundreds of cycles Effective range Norwegian regional carrier
were the two areas of concern. Tecnam had targeted an effective Wideroe was also involved in the
Tecnam’s analysis suggests that range of 85nm at service entry – P-Volt project and had hoped to
although battery performance is far lower than the 950nm offered launch services with the type in
slowly improving, the constraints of by the combustion-engined P2012 2026. Andreas Aks, chief executive
aircraft design mean that, at pack Traveller that the P-Volt is based on. of the airline’s Wideroe Zero unit,
level, energy density “will be far be- Hydrogen fuel cells offer an al- states: “In this, as in all our collab-
low 200Wh/kg”, Russo says. ternative powertrain solution, but orations with our many OEM part-
Fireproof battery storage struc- Russo says the continued uncer- ners, our role is to research whether
tures and ancillary equipment will tainty around their development, new aircraft concepts can be oper-
further erode the effective power particularly relating to weight and ated in a commercially viable way.
density, he says, “eventually leading certification requirements, does not “Although this particular con-
to values lower than 180Wh/kg”. provide sufficient clarity to justify cept didn’t prove viable today, this
Although automotive batteries investment on aircraft development. may change as technology ma-
can be limited to charge levels of Tecnam had progressed deep into tures. It’s a difficult code to crack,
around 80% to maintain their lon- the analysis of the likely P-Volt de- and we appreciate Tecnam’s effort
in doing so.” ◗
Tecnam

gevity, to do the same for aerospace sign – and had developed, built and

July 2023 Flight International 37

 Airlines Strategy

Lufthansa looks south as it strikes

deal for initial ITA Airways stake
German airline group will take 41% share in Italian flag carrier
and believes profitability can be secured within two years
Graham Dunn London overnight, but believes there are A fourth new type, the A330neo,
“quick wins” to improve the entered service on 2 June follow-
carrier’s performance. ing delivery of the initial example

L
ufthansa chief executive “If the transaction can close in on 26 May.
Carsten Spohr believes ITA 2023 and we can assume joint con- “We’ll optimise, and in parts right-
Airways can be profitable trol of the operations in half a year size, its short-haul feeder network
in 2025, if it can secure reg- or so, we are confident we can make so that it supports growing a larger
ulatory approval this year for its ITA profitable in 2025,” he says. profitable long-haul business out of
acquisition of a minority stake in However, the history of foreign Rome Fiumicino, where we intend
the Italian carrier. investments in Italian carriers is to grow our share,” says Spohr.
On 25 May, the German airline chequered to say the least. Air “We see potential in long-haul
group and Italy’s finance minis- France-KLM and Etihad Airways to bring it up to 24 aircraft in our
try agreed terms on a deal under both had their fingers burnt after business plan over time and that will
which Lufthansa will acquire a investing in Alitalia. Notably, Etihad rebalance the market share of a car-
41% stake in ITA via a €325 million was hindered by EU foreign owner- rier that has not had natural share
($350 million) capital increase. ship rules restricting it to a minor- of a national carrier for some time.”
ITA Airways launched operations ity stake. That restriction is not an The addition of ITA marks the fifth
in October 2021 as a successor issue for Lufthansa, and while it is network carrier and sixth hub into
carrier to Alitalia, and speaking only acquiring 41% in ITA to begin the Lufthansa Group. Alongside the
to analysts about the acquisition, with, it has agreed options to take German carrier’s Frankfurt and Mu-
Spohr drew a distinction between full control at a later date. nich hubs, the group includes the
the new Italian flag carrier and its Brussels, Vienna and Zurich hubs of
long-struggling predecessor. Performance linked Brussels Airlines, Austrian Airlines
“ITA really has nothing in com- Spohr stresses this is tied into the and Swiss International Air Lines,
mon with the old Alitalia besides performance of the company. “The respectively. Notably, the addition
its market,” says Spohr. “It is a new option mechanism ensures we can- of ITA brings a southern European
airline. It does not carry any of the not be forced into a full takeover hub, positioning the group to better
legacy burdens of Alitalia. [It is] as long as the joint business plan serve Latin America and Africa.
fully restructured and in our view is targets are not achieved,” he says. “It will allow us to become even
right-sized, and key to our industry, ITA’s business plan, shared with more international and less de-
it has a competitive cost base.” Lufthansa, aims to lift revenues pendent on our home markets,
ITA cited high fuel costs and the from a projected €2.5 billion this which we believe is key to main-
ongoing effects of the pandemic year to €4.1 billion in 2027, and to taining our competitive position
in posting a €486 million full-year increase staff numbers by 1,200 to around the world,” Spohr says.
net loss in 2022, its first full year of 5,500 and the fleet from 66 to 94 Lufthansa is not alone in looking
operations. Spohr acknowl- jets over the same period. south within Europe for growth
edges it will not Since its launch, ITA has em- opportunities. IAG has launched a
reach profit- barked on a major fleet overhaul fresh attempt to complete its on-
ability based around Airbus aircraft. That again-off-again acquisition of Air
had already seen it debut three new Europa, while Air France-KLM has
types – A220s, A320neos and flagged interest in the planned
ITA received its initial
A350s – over the past privatisation of TAP Portugal
A330neo on 26 May
12 months. later this summer. ◗
Airbus

38 Flight International July 2023

 Incident Report

Crew were intially unaware

of damage to nacelles

Shifting crosswinds
preceded Cargolux 747’s
AirTeamImages

double engine pod-strike

Jumbo freighter’s left-hand powerplants contacted runway
during aborted landing attempt at Luxembourg in April
David Kaminski-Morrow London The investigating authority found conditions, landing in such condi-
the aircraft was 68ft above ground tions may be challenging because
on its first approach, and 5s from rapid changes are likely to be en-

I
nvestigators have disclosed that landing, when a shift in wind led to countered in a highly dynamic
a Cargolux Boeing 747-400ERF a 7kt (13km/h) decline in airspeed phase of the flight,” the inquiry says.
experienced shifting winds be- over the course of the next 2s. It adds that the 747’s high
fore suffering a double engine This was followed by a 19kt air- approach speed and descent rate,
pod-strike during an aborted land- speed increase before touchdown. a result of the aircraft’s weight,
ing attempt at Luxembourg. “These airspeed fluctuations can “further exacerbated” this situation.
The aircraft – arriving from be traced to variable environmen- “Reduced thrust on landing also
Dubai on 15 April – rolled to the tal conditions and could not be limits the reactivity to corrective
left shortly after touchdown, and related to the control inputs of the inputs due to the spool-up time
both its inboard and outboard pilot flying,” says the inquiry. of the engines,” it says. “All this
left-hand engines struck the sur- combined left the crew with only
face of runway 06. Variable winds limited margin to react to changing
According to Luxembourg’s Meteorological data from the environmental conditions.”
administration for technical inves- airport, used by the crew, indicat- Investigators have concluded
tigation, the crew was “not aware” ed variable winds, ranging from the that there were not systemic safe-
of the pod-strikes and executed a northwest to the northeast, as well ty issues, the incident was unlikely
go-around. as gusts up to 25kt. to have evolved into an accident,
Damage to the GE Aerospace When landing clearance was giv- and any additional safety barriers
CF6 engine nacelles was discov- en, the tower informed the crew would be “difficult” to implement
ered only after the 747 success- of winds from 350° at 17kt – the given the circumstances.
fully landed on the same runway equivalent of a 16kt left crosswind. Cargolux introduced the
about 14min later and taxied to the “Although the crew was aware 2009-built aircraft (LX-ECV) to
parking apron. of the potentially variable wind service in 2013. ◗

Download the 2022 Commercial Engines Report

now with updated enhanced data and in-depth market analysis

FlightGlobal.com/commengines

July 2023 Flight International 39

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Supply chain woes

hinder airline recovery
Executives at IATA AGM highlight challenges facing
operational recovery, but association doubles profitability
forecast for 2023 amid stronger than expected demand
Graham Dunn & Lewis Harper Istanbul delays have become a “major While supply-chain concerns
issue”, saying they are felt particu- were centre-stage, airline fortunes
larly acutely by smaller carriers have quietly improved amid a

A
ircraft maintenance and who do not have the fleet flexibility continued stronger than expected
delivery delays were available to larger operators. demand and yield environment.
among the hot topics at “Getting parts is becoming IATA now forecasts that the
this year’s IATA AGM in more and more difficult, our AOGs airline industry will make a net
Istanbul, with the chief executives [aircraft on ground] are lasting profit of $9.8 billion this year – a
of three carriers tackling the issue longer, and even when you get the doubling of its initial projection for

BillyPix
on the event’s set-piece panel. parts you get them at a premium as sector profitability.
Unfortunately for airlines, the well, so the operating costs shoot The airline association had initially
issues appear to be getting worse, up,” she states. projected the industry would make a
and are in some cases prompt- profit of $4.7 billion, but Walsh says
ing desperate measures to keep the airline financial performance in
aircraft in the air.
“As recently as a few months ago
we took delivery of some brand-
new [Airbus] A321s for our domes-
tic business and literally, within a
$9.8bn
Predicted net profit for the airline
2023 is beating expectations.
“Stronger profitability is sup-
ported by several positive de-
velopments,” he says. “China lift-
ed Covid-19 restrictions earlier in
few minutes of them landing, we industry in 2023, according to IATA – the year than anticipated. Cargo
were taking parts off those planes more than twice its initial projection revenues remain above pre-pan-
in order to keep some other ones demic levels even though volumes
operational,” says Air New Zealand have not. And, on the cost side,
chief executive Greg Foran. IATA director general Willie there is some relief. Jet fuel prices,
“We keep a close watch on the Walsh calls on manufacturers to although still high, have moderated
number of parts we are robbing off address the issues. “Airlines are over the first half of the year.”
a plane to go and put on another, beyond frustrated. A solution must The profit will be driven by North
and they are running about double be found,” he says. American carriers at an expect-
what they were traditionally, and In the meantime, IATA has up- ed $11.9 billion and by European
it’s across the entire supply chain,” graded the severity of the risks
he adds. posed by supply-demand imbal-
ances in its latest industry forecast, Air New Zealand has been taking parts from
Sourcing spares as factors such as aircraft delivery new A321s to keep other aircraft operational
Air India chief executive Campbell delays weigh on the airline sector’s
Wilson also cites “an absence of recovery and growth options.
new parts” for aircraft – a significant IATA chief economist Marie
challenge for an airline that recently Owens Thomsen repeats a “very
needed to source 30,000 spares to good expression” of the imbalanc-
get 13 Boeing 787s back into the air. es that she heard from an industry
They had been grounded “for many stakeholder: “When aircraft are
years”, Wilson says, and were used delivered six months late that is
as a source of spares “as a conse- considered to be on time.”
quence of Air India not having the The supply-chain problems be-
funds to pay for spare parts”. hind such delays reflect the fact
Wilson says he is particularly that “it was so much easier to turn
unhappy with delays to the deliv- the global economy off than it was
ery of new aircraft, “because there to turn it back on again”, Owens
is a market opportunity that is there Thomsen suggests.
for the taking, and to be sitting on And the supply-side constraints
AirTeamImages

assets and people that are under- go beyond aircraft, to include

tapped [is] very frustrating”. factors such as air traffic control
RwandAir chief executive Yvonne capacity restrictions caused by a
Makolo concurs that maintenance lack of staff, she notes.

40 Flight International July 2023

 Airlines Outlook

(Left to right): moderator Richard Quest

with CEOs Wilson, Makolo and Foran

operators, which are expected to The forecast load factor of 80.9% at some point passengers will
make a net profit of $5.1 billion. for 2023 would be “very close” to become more price sensitive.”
IATA also sees Middle East carriers the 2019 record performance of She also notes that rising
in profit again in 2023, as they 82.6%, IATA predicts. nominal interest rates and a slow-
were last year. Cargo revenues continue to re- ing global economy “is not a su-
However, Asia-Pacific, Latin flect a softening in that market, with per-happy place to be”, given the
American and African carriers are IATA predicting a full-year figure of high levels of debt that some air-
all expected to remain loss-making $142.3 billion. While that would be lines are servicing coming out of
this year. down significantly from $210 billion the pandemic.
Split by revenue type, passenger in 2021 and $207 billion in 2022,
income is expected to reach $546 amid several factors that temporar- Deep resilience
billion this year, representing a rise ily made air freight more attractive, As a result, she makes a distinc-
of 27% from 2022 and 10% from it is still significantly above the $100 tion between the airline indus-
2019. That would be achieved on billion recorded in 2019. try’s resilience and its robustness.
revenue passenger kilometres still A profitable 2023 would mark On the former, Owens Thomsen
some 12.2% short of 2019 levels the global industry’s first net prof- describes as “phenomenal” the
this year. it since 2019, after the heavy losses industry’s resilience in achieving
incurred over three pandemic-hit a turnaround from a $140 billion
years. However, the strong end to loss in 2020 to a forecast profit of
last year means IATA now estimates almost $10 billion in 2023.
the airline sector lost less than orig- But on robustness, she notes that
inally expected. It says airlines col- a forecast industry net profit mar-
lectively lost $3.6 billion in 2022, gin of 1.2% this year would generate
having originally expected the in- just $2.25 per passenger.
dustry to be $6.9 billion in the red. “We might be amazingly resil-
But there is also a lack of clari- ient, but we could still do better
ty on what comes next – notably in terms of robustness,” Owens
when it comes to the longevity of Thomsen states.
pandemic-era pent-up demand The impact of that dynamic may
and passengers’ willingness and be tested soon at some carriers,
ability to pay high fares to travel. even with airline operating costs
“It’s possible that 2023 is a bit of likely to have peaked in 2022,
a sweet spot for all of these devel- according to IATA estimates, amid
opments and that the sweet part of falling inflation and fuel prices.
that sweet spot is likely to wane go- “A number of risks, notably a
ing forward,” says Owens Thomsen. strong US dollar, rising interest
“So far, we have been rather rates and war in Ukraine, tilt our
amazed at the low price sensitivity range of possible outcomes to the
of demand for travel in the recov- downside,” she says of the pas-
ery. Logically speaking, you would senger traffic outlook. “There are
think this cannot last for ever, that threats on the horizon for sure.” Z

July 2023 Flight International 41

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Warsaw weighs domestic

need for Armed Black Hawk
With S-70i production humming at Polish site for multiple
customers, Lockheed Martin-owned PZL Mielec believes
weaponised version will complement incoming AH-64E fleet
Bartosz Glowacki Mielec PZL Mielec directly employs Thailand, Turkey and the USA, and
1,500 people and sustains jobs for the type is used by Poland’s police
more than 5,000 more in Poland’s and special operations forces.

P
ZL Mielec believes it could supply chain. In January 2019 the MND con-
sell its Armed Black Hawk to “After design and certification is firmed a four-unit order to provide
the Polish army, with the ser- completed, the S-70i could be con- an enhanced capability to sup-
vice potentially having a re- verted into an armed helicopter in port special operations tasks. The
quirement for 32 of the rotorcraft. several months, so we can provide assets were delivered in December
“We were asked by the Polish a weaponised variant for the army. the same year, with their configu-
MND [Ministry of National De- We are working with suppliers of ration supporting night flights in
fence] to provide a notional con- weapons, to integrate them and degraded visual conditions, plus
figuration and schedule, and we deliver,” says chief design engineer armament and equipment which
delivered those documents at the Radoslaw Gronski. enables them to transport loads
end of last year,” says sales and and evacuate wounded personnel.
business development manager Assembly site The MND in September 2021 de-
Marek Chojecki. “We heard recent- PZL Mielec became a whol- cided to order another four S-70is
ly that soon we might expect an ly-owned part of Lockheed unit for special forces duties, but no
invitation to negotiate, and we are Sikorsky in March 2007. It produced additional details were disclosed.
waiting for the MND to invite us to its first S-70i cabin two years later, Meanwhile, PZL Mielec last De-
continue dialogue.” and in 2010 assembled a complete cember finalised a contract with
In 2019, Lockheed Martin-owned example of the utility helicopter. the Polish National Police for two
PZL Mielec exhibited an S-70i S-70i deliveries began in 2011, S-70is, which will increase its
with Lockheed AGM-114 Hellfire with the UH-60 Black Hawk deriv- fleet of Black Hawks to five by
and JAGM air-to-surface missiles ative’s first customers being Brunei, the end of 2024. The expanded
installed on a Polish-designed Colombia, Mexico and Saudi Arabia. fleet will perform duties includ-
wing armed pylon station, plus By 2022 the company had deliv- ing counter-terrorism activities,
door-mounted machine guns. ered 640 S-70/UH-60 cabins and search and rescue, and firefight-
Other armament options include shipped 90 S-70is to customers ing. Its current three Black Hawks
Rafael Spike air-to-air surface in 10 countries. Operator nations were delivered in 2018 and 2019,
missiles and guided/unguided also include Chile, the Philippines, and are employed for tasks such
rockets, or the structure can carry
external fuel tanks.
Poland in late May announced
its intention to buy 22 Leonardo
Helicopters AW101s, to replace Mil
Mi-8/17s operated by its army’s
25th Air Cavalry Brigade from mid-
2025. It also last year finalised an
order for 32 Leonardo AW149s.
“There is still room for the Armed
Black Hawk, given how the MND en-
visions using its coming [96 Boeing]
AH-64E Apaches,” Chojecki says.
“The US forces always use Apach-
es and Black Hawks together, so we
think that there is a place for us.
“There are two OEM helicop-
ter manufacturers in Poland [PZL
Lockheed Martin

Mielec and Leonardo-owned PZL

Swidnik], and the Polish govern-
Weapons are mounted on
ment can use both of them for
wing armed pylon station
deliveries,” he adds.

42 Flight International July 2023

 Rotorcraft Manufacturing

PZL Mielec
Type is used by Poland’s police
and special operations forces

as search and rescue, border pa-

trol and natural disaster response. “After design and certification is
The Mielec facility is able to pro-
duce 20 Black Hawks per year, while completed, the S-70i could be
its minimum sustainable produc-
tion rate is between eight and 10. It converted into an armed helicopter
currently has its 130th example on
the final assembly line, with aircraft in several months”
typically taking between three and
five months to complete. Radoslaw Gronski Chief design engineer, PZL Mielec
Asked about the possibility of
increasing manufacturing output to
24 helicopters per year, Piotr Nied- Chojecki says a first batch of five Preparation work started last
bala, business development and aircraft will be delivered this year, year, including site modernisation
programmes director, notes: “after “followed by 10 helicopters each in and establishing a production line.
doing some analysis of where the 2024 and 2025, and the final seven A group of 46 PZL Mielec employ-
bottlenecks are, the facility is ready in 2026. This was our largest single ees also spent six months work-
to fulfil the higher number”. contract signed, after we delivered ing at Lockheed’s Greenville final
the first 16. The Philippine air force assembly site in South Carolina to
Contract wins will become the largest user of gain experience.
In the past four years, PZL Mie- Polish-built Black Hawks.” “We are producing the central
lec has signed several multi-year Romania in November 2021 part of the fuselage: the aft, centre
contracts for the S-70i. In April signed a framework agreement and forward parts,” says PZL Mie-
2019, Manila awarded it a contract with PZL Mielec covering the provi- lec president and general director
for 16 examples, as part of the sion of up to 12 aircraft over a four- Janusz Zakrecki.
armed forces of the Philippines year period. The S-70M helicopters The first two aircraft sets were
modernisation act. will be configured for land or mar- completed and shipped to Green-
Delivered over a 12-month period itime operations, including disaster ville in late March.
from December 2020, the aircraft relief, search and rescue and med- Lockheed hopes to achieve peak
are in use with the Philippine air ical transport, with their cabins to production of four sets of F-16
force’s 205th Tactical Helicopter include a medical suite supplied by parts per month within the next
Wing at Mactan-Benito Ebuen air Cluj-Napoca-based Deltamed. four years, but its Polish supplier
base. In February 2022, the com- The lead Romanian S-70M made says that it could achieve this out-
pany secured a follow-on order to its debut flight last September, and put by 2025-2026 if required.
supply the service with another 32 the nation’s first six aircraft are to Asked if there any future plans
of the type, to be transferred by be delivered this year. Bucharest to carry out final assembly of
2026. The assets will be used to has so far confirmed an order for its the fighter in Mielec, Zakrecki re-
dramatically increase the air force’s seventh example. plies: “it is the beginning of the
ability to perform search and res- Meanwhile, the latest addition to F-16 journey for the company. We
cue missions, humanitarian assis- PZL Mielec’s business portfolio is its manufactured [TS-11 Iskra and I-22
tance and disaster relief flights, and production of structures for Lock- Iryda] jet trainers in the past, so we
troop transport. heed’s F-16 Block 70/72 fighter. have the capabilities.” ◗

July 2023 Flight International 43

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Climate changes
EBACE mood music
Biggest headlines at the European
business aviation show were created by
the actions of environmental protesters
Dominic Perry Geneva disrupted flights into Geneva air-
port – as a “completely unaccept-
able form of protest”.

T
his year’s edition of the Privately they are understood to
EBACE business aviation have been furious that security was
show, held from 23-25 May insufficient to prevent the protest,
in Geneva, highlighted an given how well-telegraphed it was.
industry in transition. Additionally, the NBAA and
That the major programme news EBAA chiefs claim the demonstra-
on day one was Textron Aviation’s tion ignores the progress being
latest enhancement of the Cessna made by the industry towards its
Citation Excel – called the Ascend 2050 net-zero goal.
– seemed telling. Three big airfram-
ers – Bombardier, Dassault Aviation, Decarbonisation challenge
and Gulfstream – have programmes However, the protest highlighted
moving through the development the decarbonisation challenge fac-
phases, albeit facing supply chain ing the industry – and its perception
Greenpeace

disruption, while other companies as the preserve of the ultra-rich. Demonstrators chained themselves
are eyeing their next steps. At its core, the coalition – includ- to aircraft on outdoor static display
But like it or not, it was the topic ing Greenpeace, Stay Grounded
of climate change that created the and Extinction Rebellion – is calling
biggest headlines at the show after for a ban on private jets.
a coalition of environmental groups Klara Maria Schenk, transport Germany, another member of the
disrupted its opening day. Around campaigner for Greenpeace’s protest coalition.
100 protesters scaled a fence and Mobility for All campaign, says: “It But in a perfect illustration of the
rushed the outdoor static display is high time for politicians to put divide between the two sides of the
where they chained themselves to a stop to this unjust and excessive debate, Dassault Aviation’s chief
several aircraft. pollution and ban private jets.” executive Eric Trappier came out
“I saw people going over the Protesters argue that business swinging against those seeking to
fence, and people running into the aircraft produce significantly more demonise business aviation, saying
field,” says Honda Aircraft chief greenhouse emissions per passen- the industry must fight back.
executive Hideto Yamasaki, who ger kilometre than commercial jets. “Latterly business jet bashing has
witnessed the protesters as they “We’re in a climate emergency. been a bit of a sport in Europe,” he
charged the static display. Therefore, it is no longer tolerable said during a press conference held
“The police were reinforced and that the super-rich keep parad- the day before the protests.
it took more than an hour for them ing themselves in events such as “The best defence is to demon-
to control it. It was a big thing.” EBACE and keep buying and flying strate that we are embracing emis-
Unsurprisingly, the show organ- in their private jets for their own sion-reduction targets,” he says.
isers, the US National Business benefit, while we know that this fu- Trappier also rails against the
Aviation Association and its EBAA els the flames of climate breakdown, “politicised” decision by the Euro-
European counterpart, condemned threatening all of us,” says Cordu- pean Commission to exclude busi-
the demonstration – which also la Markert from Scientist Rebellion ness aviation from the list of green
industries which “can be consid-
ered sustainable investments”.
“Business jet bashing has been a bit Business aviation’s inclusion
would open the way for additional
of a sport. The best defence is to funding sources, he argues, spur-
ring further decarbonisation efforts.
demonstrate that we are embracing “I do hope that the European
Commission will change its mind
emission-reduction targets” and allow OEMs, suppliers and
other business aviation firms to
Eric Trappier Chief executive, Dassault Aviation help decarbonise the economy.” ◗

44 Flight International July 2023

 Show EBACE

Trappier wary over supply chain delays to Falcon 10X schedule

Dominic Perry Geneva the Falcon 10X’s schedule, rather advance the adoption of single-
than announcing repeated six- pilot operations, he says.
month delays to the programme. “We do expect it as soon as
Dassault Aviation is keeping a In addition, discussions possible – it is totally in line
careful eye on the certification continue with the European Union with the 10X development,”
timeline for its developmental Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) says Trappier. However, he says
Falcon 10X amid continued supply relating to the introduction of Dassault will not commit to the
chain pressure that could push feature’s availability at service
back the arrival of its new flagship. entry if there is a risk of delaying
Briefing journalists ahead the programme.
of EBACE’s official opening, Carlos Brana, executive vice-
Dassault chief executive Eric president of civil aircraft, says
Trappier said it was “a little bit production of primary parts for
too early to say” if the ultra-long- the first Falcon 10X prototype is
range Falcon 10X would make its under way, while long lead items
end-2025 target or “would be a such as the landing gear have
little bit later”. been manufactured.
But he notes the challenges Ground tests of the Falcon
Dassault Aviation

in the supply chain which are 10X’s composite wing are also
impacting the construction of the ongoing: the demonstrator has
initial prototype. Dassault chief would not accumulated 10,000 cycles to
“Manufacture of the first aircraft commit to 2025 target date with a target of 20,000 by
takes time because of the delays the end of summer.
at suppliers,” he says. “We may Meanwhile, European
expect some delay.” single-pilot operations in the certification of the Falcon 6X is
Trappier says the supply chain Falcon 10X. due “in the coming weeks”, says
congestion is “worse than last Dassault hopes a relaxation of Brana, supporting service entry
year” and it is unclear whether the rules will be possible to allow around mid-year.
the issue has reached its nadir one of the two crew to rest in the Flight tests of the ultra-wide-
and “it [will be] back to normal in cockpit during low-intensity flight cabin jet have wrapped up and
the coming months or year”. phases such as cruise. all the required documentation
But he says he prefers to wait EASA representatives have has been supplied to EASA, says
until the situation is clearer to been integrated into Dassault’s Trappier; US approval is likely to
provide a more concrete update to “advance studies” in order to follow later this year.

July 2023 Flight International 45

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Honda launches 2600

light jet programme
US airframer details specifications
and suppliers for new development,
following EBACE hints, while Brazil’s
Embraer could be next to move
Jon Hemmerdinger Geneva & Tampa represents a new product line for
Honda Aircraft.”
Details of the supply chain were

H
onda Aircraft has commit- also disclosed, with the propulsion
ed to develop its Honda- provider the most notable change
Yamasaki sees 2600 as ‘Honda’s
Jet 2600 light jet, having over the existing super-light HA-
next chapter of skyward mobility’
teased a launch at EBACE. 420 jet.
Service entry is planned for 2028. Rather than relying on the GE
At the Geneva event, Honda Honda Aero Engines joint venture,
Aircraft chief executive Hideto which supplies HF120 engines for “The commercialisation decision
Yamasaki said the manufacturer the HA-420, power will come from serves as a clear demonstration of
would in June hold a “supplier con- the Williams International FJ44-4C Honda Aircraft’s formal commit-
ference” at its site in Greensboro, – a variant of an established turbo- ment to the programme, solidifying
North Carolina, where it would ad- fan that powers other light aircraft, our intention to bring the aircraft
dress “the commercialisation” of notably the Cessna Citation CJ4 to market,” says the airframer.
the 2600. and Pilatus PC-24. “The HondaJet 2600 concept
That was followed on 13 June by Spirit AeroSystems will produce has transitioned from being mere-
an official launch. “Honda Aircraft the 2600’s fuselage, Spanish firm ly a paper or conceptual project to
will commercialise the HondaJet Aernnova will provide aerostruc- a tangible product in active devel-
2600 concept,” the company said. tures and other components, and opment.”
“It will target type certification in Garmin will equip the aircraft with At present, the company is “final-
2028 for the new light jet, which its G3000 avionics. ising engineering designs for the

Textron Aviation to Ascend further

US manufacturer updates long-running Cessna Citation Excel
with new engines, avionics and ‘luxurious’ cabin tweaks
Jon Hemmerdinger Geneva “The Citation Ascend is designed The G5000 avionics include
to bring an entirely new cockpit, three 14in (35cm) high-resolu-
improved performance and a more tion displays, weather detection

T
extron Aviation was the only luxurious cabin to the midsize busi- and avoidance technology, dual
company to launch a new ness jet market,” the airframer says. flight management systems and
product at EBACE, unveiling Key updates on the Ascend are auto-throttles.
the Cessna Citation Ascend. Garmin’s G5000 avionics suite –
An update to the venerable Cita- replacing its predecessor’s Collins More power
tion Excel – which first flew in 1996 Aerospace Pro Line 21 cockpit – Available power from the PW545Ds
– the 12-passenger midsize jet is and the improved engines, plus a rises to 4,213lb (18.7kN)-thrust, up
pitched for service entry in 2025. flat-floor cabin and larger windows. from 4,119lb on the current C-model
In tandem, engine supplier Pratt & “We asked customers what they variant, and the engine also features
Whitney Canada (P&WC) disclosed wanted in the next evolution of this a FADEC system.
the development of a new ver- aircraft, and we believe the Citation The PW545D also runs cooler
sion of the PW545 turbofan – the Ascend will deliver,” says Textron and burns less fuel in certain condi-
PW545D – which will power it. Aviation chief executive Ron Draper. tions, says Textron Aviation senior

46 Flight International July 2023

 Show
Sector
Show
EBACESubject
EBACE
2023

“The HondaJet 2600 concept has

transitioned from being merely a
paper project to a tangible product
in active development”
Honda Aircraft

The 2600 will have capacity for Embraer, meanwhile, sees an

nine or 10 passengers, depending opportunity to develop a larger
on whether it is flown by one or business jet to help it retain cus-
two pilots. tomers looking to upgrade from
“The new aircraft will surpass the the midsize Praetor 500 and 600.
performance, comfort and efficien- Michael Amalfitano, Embraer Ex-
cy of typical light jets by providing ecutive Jets chief executive, says
a medium-sized jet experience,” his team is also eyeing possible new
Honda Aircraft says. offerings in the light jet segment,
BillyPix

“It is designed to be the world’s where Embraer now competes with

first light jet capable of nonstop the Phenom 100 and Phenom 300.
transcontinental flight across the Although nothing is launched,
United States, with a quiet and spa- Amalfitano admits the company is
new light jet, with fabrication activ- cious cabin.” weighing its options. “Longer term,
ities under way”. It declines to say if Honda Aircraft first revealed the you are going to see us look up-
it is taking orders for the 2600 but 2600 in 2021, teasing a concept stream at what’s next above the
says it will reveal more information that would take the company into Praetor 600 super-midsize air-
later this year. a significantly larger size category. craft,” he says. “Clearly, that’s an
Yamasaki says the new jet will opportunity that’s intriguing for us
Performance details build on the design and success to evaluate.
Honda Aircraft has also released of the HA-420, sharing a similar “Now that the fleet is continuing
performance details for the 2600, fuselage and structural layout, in- to grow, we need to be mindful to
with a range of 2,630nm (4,860km), cluding its distinctive over-wing keep those customers in our prod-
maximum cruise speed of 450kt engines. It “represents Honda’s uct family,” Amalfitano adds.
(833km/h) and a 47,000ft operat- next chapter of skyward mobility”, Any programme would involve a
ing ceiling. he adds. clean sheet design, he indicates.
clean-sheet indic ◗

Textron Aviation
t h e o f

manager
of technical mar-
keting Jimmy Beeson.
“The engines use new materi-
als and technology – including maiden
a more-efficient high-pressure sortie of a certifi-
compressor, an enhanced sin- cation-conforming aircraft.
gle-stage high-pressure turbine “Preliminary performance tar-
module and an upgraded exhaust gets” for the Ascend include range p ay l o a d
mixer,” Textron Aviation says. at high-speed cruise and with four and fuel load, while
“The engine was designed and passengers of 1,900nm (3,519km), retaining access to short run-
enhanced for Textron Aviation to maximum range of 2,100nm, and ways”. Its maximum take-off weight
deliver improved specific fuel con- maximum cruise speed of 441kt will be 9,300kg (20,500lb) – 80kg
sumption, thrust and time between (817km/h) – similar specifications more than the XLS Gen2.
overhauls,” adds P&WC. to the XLS Gen2. It will carry nine Textron Aviation last updated the
Textron Aviation is now working passengers in a standard configura- Excel in 2021 when it rolled out the
toward securing an amended type tion but be capable of carrying 12. XLS Gen2 variant, which included
certificate for the Ascend. It has Textron Aviation says unspecified several cabin updates. It has deliv-
already started flight-testing some “design improvements” will allow the ered more than 1,000 Excels since
components but has not completed Ascend “to carry a high combination the type entered service in 1998. ◗

July 2023 Flight International 47

 Show EBACE

Initiative will help inform future

business jet configurations

Bombardier grows
EcoJet test fleet
Larger scaled version of blended wing-body
concept already being flown as Canadian firm
seeks to validate design’s fuel-saving potential
Dominic Perry Geneva programme where information is Global 7500, using the same
good, whatever the information is.” wing, fuselage and GE Aerospace
A further scaled model could be Passport engines.

B
ombardier has begun considered but it will be informed Although Bombardier has
testing a larger version by the results of the current phase already flown a modified version
of its EcoJet technolo- “to see if we need to go any larg- of its FTV1 test aircraft, the re-
gy demonstrator, having er”, says McCullough. A bigger cent sortie shows the programme
completed an initial trial of a sub- version would also allow the in- continuing to make progress.
scale version of the blended wing- clusion of “more representative McCullough says the aircraft
body concept. systems”, he notes. performed flawlessly during its
First unveiled at the EBACE early May milestone flight.
show last year, the EcoJet is in- Industry engagement “On the first day of testing it
tended to help develop low-car- In addition, Bombardier has been conducted a flight of more than 7.1
bon technologies to equip future “extremely pleased” with the level hours,” he says.
business jet designs. of engagement shown by the wid- “We are fully on track for a
Flights of the 7% scale mod- er industry in the project: “We are successful service entry in the
el have now been “successfully keen for collaboration,” he adds. second part of 2025,” he adds, not-
completed”, Stephen McCullough, Research carried out through ing that the airframer is “confident
Bombardier’s senior vice-presi- the EcoJet programme will con- of meeting its performance com-
dent of engineering and product tribute to a 50% reduction in emis- mitments” for the Global 8000,
development, said ahead of the sions from business jets, through a carrying 19 passengers at speeds
show on 22 May. combination of aerodynamic and of up to Mach 0.94 – up to 1.3%
Bombardier is “really happy” propulsion enhancements. faster than the Global 7500’s
with the results generated by that Meanwhile, development of the M0.925 maximum.
test phase, McCullough says, and ultra-long-range Global 8000 con- Changes between the two air-
has now embarked on trials of a tinues apace, with a recent flight craft include modifications to the
larger demonstrator with a 5.4m of the first prototype maintaining control software for the Passport
(18ft) wingspan. the jet’s trajectory for service en- engines and the carriage of more
“We are happy with the first try in the latter half of 2025. fuel to boost range.
flights of the larger unit,” he adds. Launched at EBACE last year, Bombardier has previously in-
Bombardier

“It’s a technology demonstra- the 8,000nm (14,800km)-range dicated it would use a single
tor – we are at the stage of the twinjet builds on the current prototype for the test campaign. ◗

48 Flight International July 2023

 Technology Development

VoltAero drives towards Cassio’s

maiden flight as backlog builds
First prototype now revealed and hybrid-electric powertrain
is already in assembly, as manufacturer adds to backlog
Dominic Perry Geneva French transmission specialist the six-passenger Cassio 480, us-
Akira. Batteries are supplied by US ing the same fuselage and wing
firm Electric Power Systems. but equipped with a more pow-

F
rench hybrid-electric aircraft Taxi, take-off, climb and landing erful 480kW propulsion system,
developer VoltAero is gear- are performed solely using elec- and then the larger 12-passenger,
ing up for the maiden sortie tric power, while the thermal en- 600kW Cassio 600.
of its initial Cassio 330 pro- gine serves as a range extender, VoltAero has taken pre-or-
totype, which the company ex- recharging the batteries during ders covering the entire family of
pects to take place later this year. cruise. It also provides a back-up in aircraft and will work this year to
An initial test article was revealed case of an electrical system failure. begin converting these into firm
at the Paris air show on 18 June, Already used in the motorcycle commitments, Botti says.
with the airframer having hinted at industry, the Kawasaki power unit The backlog includes a pre-order
the unveiling during May’s EBACE will deliver high levels of maturity for 15 aircraft from Swiss fraction-
event. In addition to the comple- at service entry, helping to de-risk al ownership provider SKY2SHARE
tion of the aircraft, Jean Botti, chief the programme, Botti says. that was revealed at EBACE. The
executive of the Royan-headquar- Bench tests of the complete deal covers the Cassio 330, while
tered start-up, says its hybrid-elec- powertrain will commence shortly, “also incorporating the flexibility”
tric powertrain is also being assem- ensuring it is ready for installation for the operator to later take the
bled. in the second prototype. Cassio 480 and Cassio 600.
He anticipates a first flight “in the Including the latest agreement,
fall”, during which the aircraft will New investments VoltAero has now accumulated
be powered solely by its Kawasa- Kawasaki Motors recently became a total of 218 orders and commit-
ki Motors-supplied 150kW (201hp) an investor in VoltAero, contribut- ments for its Cassio family; around
thermal engine. ing to its Series B funding round 60% of the backlog is for the five-
Botti says the first prototype through which the company aims or six-seat aircraft.
will be used to assess the Cassio to raise €32 million ($34.5 million). The Cassio family will be pro-
330’s handling qualities and aero- Botti says total Series B funding duced at a new facility in Rochefort
dynamic performance and will be will be sufficient to see the Cas- in southwest France.
later used for additional propul- sio 330 into production, before a The Cassio design incorporates
sion development activities. follow-on investment round to be a forward fixed canard and an
A subsequent example, to fol- launched in mid-2024. aft-located wing with twin booms,
low in early 2024, will be the first And on 8 June, VoltAero an- supporting a high-set horizontal
to be fitted with the complete hy- nounced its receipt of a €5.6 mil- tail. The rear-mounted propulsion
brid-electric powertrain and will lion grant placed via the French system powers a low-noise pusher
lead the certification push. government’s ‘France 2030’ propeller supplied by Duc Helices.
VoltAero’s hybrid-electric mod- technology investment plan. Propeller performance is current-
ule combines the Kawasaki thermal Certification of the five-seat ly being assessed using VoltAero’s
engine, Safran Engineus 100 elec- Cassio 330 is targeted for end- Cassio testbed, a modified Cessna
tric motor and a 2024. It will be followed, 337 Skymaster. That aircraft has
gearbox at 18-month in- now been rebadged as the Cassio S
from tervals, by – for sustainable – and is also test-
ing a new synthetic fuel. Z
VoltAero

Swiss fractional ownership provider

SKY2SHARE has pre-ordered 15 aircraft

July 2023 Flight International 49

 Visit FlightGlobal Premium for all the latest aviation news and insight FlightGlobal.com

AirTeamImages
Riyadh Air chose GE Aerospace GEnx engines to power its on-
order fleet of Boeing 787-9s, with services due to start in 2025

Turgis & Gaillard

Francois Jaubert’s Trashboard company and Airbus began French developer Turgis & Gaillard unveiled its unmanned
BillyPix

promoting skateboards made from scrapped A380 parts Aarok surveillance aircraft, eyeing operations by late 2025

Leonardo named Azerbaijan as a buyer

Leonardo

of the C-27J Spartan tactical transport,

without disclosing the number on order

50 Flight International July 2023

 Highlights

Boeing completed taxi tests of a first

Boeing
engineering, manufacturing and development-
phase example of the T-7A Red Hawk trainer

Best of the rest

We showcase some of the other
notable events covered by the
FlightGlobal team between issues

JetZero claimed its 250-

seat Z4 blended-wing-body
Textron Aviation

design will offer a 50% fuel-

burn reduction on flights of Hawaiian operator Lanai Air took delivery of the first Cessna
JetZero

up to 5,000nm (9,260km) SkyCourier twin-turboprop in a 19-seat passenger version

July 2023 Flight International 51

 August’s issue

Next month Mind

the gap:
industry eyes
US Air Force On sale
tanker 27 July
need

Safety check New wave

Our review Will regional
Skanda Gautam/Shutterstock

of the airline air mobility

sector’s major programmes
accidents and deliver after
incidents so their early
US Air Force

Eviation

far this year promise?

52 Flight International July 2023

 With spares in high demand, Ireland-based Eir
Trade recently scrapped the first two 787s to be
parted out – but determining how to dispose of
their composite structures is a work in progress

Dream
ending?
EirTrade Aviation
Howard Hardee Sacramento EirTrade has been “inundated” with requests
for 787 components from its customers, making
disassembling the jets to sell the parts a

I
n an operation somewhat resembling a reverse- “no-brainer”, Gleeson says.
motion assembly line, two 10-year-old Boeing But what to do with the carbon composite
787-8s – the first of the type to be retired from material from the 787s’ wings and fuselages is less
commercial service – were recently reduced to a obvious. In an emerging issue for the airline indus-
pair of bare fuselages, stripped of components. try, best practices for recycling and repurposing
The used serviceable material from the jets advanced materials used to build next-generation
has already generated “huge interest” amid a widebody jets – such as the 787 and Airbus A350
global shortage of aircraft parts, says Irish aircraft – have yet to be established, says Sam O’Connor,
management and trading company EirTrade Aviation, interim executive director of the Aircraft Fleet
which performed the tear-downs. Recycling Association (AFRA), a trade organisation
Since these were the first 787s ever to be disassem- that provides guidance and oversight for aircraft
bled, close to zero used parts had previously been dismantling operations.
available for operators of Boeing’s flagship Dreamliner.
“It is no secret that the 787 market has supply Viable solutions
chain issues,” Paul Gleeson, vice-president of sales for Composite materials from aircraft, cars and industry
EirTrade, tells FlightGlobal. “It is difficult to find MRO are often incinerated or buried in landfill, but these
slots, before you even get to the materials that are are not viable long-term solutions for the disposal of
available for getting stuff repaired. major airframe components. The 787-8 is 57m (186ft)
“Ultimately, it came down to a maths equation. from nose-to-tail and has a wingspan of 60m.
We had been seeing massive demand from our And such material is difficult to recycle.
customers for this type of material, and that made it “There are few accepted technologies… to break
a natural progression for EirTrade to start targeting down that material to be usable,” O’Connor says of
next-gen aircraft, with the 787 being the first one we carbonfibre composites. “These existing technologies
got our hands on.” can be costly and limited in facilities that have the

54 Flight International July 2023

 Environment Recycling

The 10-year-old airframes were originally operated by Norwegian

ability to recycle composite materials. Right now, it The recently dismantled Dreamliners – serial
has the potential to end up in landfill. numbers 35304 and 35305, both built in Everett,
“When you cut up fibrous materials such as Washington and originally operated by Norwegian’s
composites, it turns to dust and gets in the air, long-haul business – would have been due for 12-year
so there are potential environmental concerns,” checks and landing-gear overhauls, making them
O’Connor adds. good candidates to be parted out, EirTrade says.
How to handle advanced aircraft materials Cirium fleets data shows that the Rolls-Royce
stripped from next-generation jets is a problem that Trent 1000-powered pair were delivered to
has the attention of major aviation companies, he Norwegian in June and August 2013, originally
says: “This is something that the industry realises registered as EI-LNA and -LNB. Each had a 291-seat,
needs to be done. We are just really trying to figure two-class cabin configuration.
out the best way to do it.”
Taking parts
Based at Ireland West airport in Knock, EirTrade’s
“We are always on the bread-and-butter is disassembling narrowbody jets,
having completed projects on 737- and 757-series
hunt for ways to really aircraft. But in early 2020, the company became the
first to take apart a twin-aisle, double-decker A380.
shake things up, and That process helped EirTrade prepare for taking on
the 787s.
it is great to be the first The company says it is “no stranger to
disassembling new technology” as it was also “one
to market on any of of the first companies to disassemble the [CFM
International] CFM56-7BE engine”, which powers
these assets” 737NG narrowbodies.
“We are always on the hunt for ways to really shake
Paul Gleeson Vice-president of sales, EirTrade Aviation things up, and it is great to be the first to market on

July 2023 Flight International 55

 The 787’s structure is 50% carbon composite by weight

any of these assets,” Gleeson adds. “It is an exciting When it entered service in 2011, the 787 was the
project for us – everybody wants to be a part of it.” first commercial aircraft with major sections – the
The 787s were disassembled at Prestwick airport fuselage, tail and wings – manufactured with com-
near Glasgow, Scotland, and the tear-down process posite material. The aircraft is 50% carbon composite
itself took about 60 days. But EirTrade spent much by weight, Boeing says.
of the past year planning how it would take apart the Introduced by Airbus in 2015 as a response to
pair of 787s and distribute their parts to airline and the 787, the A350 is also manufactured with major
MRO shop customers, Gleeson says. composite sections.
The company has “routed quite a lot of the [787] Composite material is high strength and low
parts to MROs to get tagged, and so far, so good, in weight, making it ideal for use in airframes. “It is more
terms of getting serviceable units back”, Gleeson says. durable, it doesn’t corrode or fatigue and [it has]
With strong demand for commercial aircraft parts better maintenance cycles and much better design
and different pinch points in the supply chain arising possibilities,” says Lane Ballard, vice-president and
“almost weekly”, he adds, it is an ideal time to capi- general manager for the 787 programme.
talise on the market for 787 components.
The pair of widebody jets getting dismantled well Polymer problem
before the limit of their design life does not suggest Despite its benefits, the material is difficult to recycle
the global Dreamliner fleet will exit service sooner because it cannot be melted down and reformed like
than expected, Boeing tells FlightGlobal. scrap metal. It is made from long carbon fibres fixed
“787s have been designed and built to operate for within a polymer and cured at high temperatures and
decades in service,” the company says. It adds that a pressures. While the polymer can be burned off or
“backlog of more than 500 airplanes, including more dissolved with chemicals to recover the fibres, known
than 250 orders and publicly announced commitments processes are cost-prohibitive.
since late 2022, show its strength in the market.” “We need to figure out how we can separate the
It is not unusual for aircraft to be cannibalised to material from other bonding materials,” O’Connor says.
keep others in service, and observers agree there is no That is the catch with carbon composites in airframes:
indication the 787 is headed for an early retirement. “Its carbon footprint is lower, but we did not think
“The reason you part it out is because there is a long-term about what happens when this aircraft is no
business case,” Jonathan Berger, managing director longer in service. What are we going to do with it?”
of Alton Aviation Consultancy, told FlightGlobal dur- Boeing says that “composite recycling was consid-
ing the MRO Americas conference in Atlanta on 19 ered early in the design process for the 787”. In 2008,
April. “Someone needs the engines, someone needs it helped establish AFRA, which “brings together
the landing gears, someone needs the avionics… It is OEMs, airlines, lessors, dismantlers, recyclers and
just math, not like a deficiency in the Dreamliner.” research institutions to enable an end-of-service
More than 1,000 787s are currently in service world- ecosystem”, the airframer says.
wide, according to Cirium fleets data. Boeing says it AFRA’s research and development committee is
has unfilled orders for a further 592 of the type. working to develop new methodologies to recycle,

56 Flight International July 2023

 Environment Recycling

repurpose and re-use composite material. “We are go- The elegantly curved wings from the 787s were
ing to start in the coming months figuring out ways to sent to the National Manufacturing Institute of
best break down the composite fibres,” O’Connor says. Scotland, nearby where the jets were dismantled.
“The industry is challenged with finding a solution Some of the carbonfibre material removed from the
for recycling carbon composites at the end-of- pair of Dreamliners has been returned to Boeing,
service,” says Christin Datz, an associate technical which will use the recovered material for research
fellow of product lifecycle sustainability for Boeing. and development purposes.
“While technologies for fibre recovery from produc- Better understanding how to handle carbonfibre
tion excess are applicable, the industry also faces composites will only become more pressing as more
challenges that include dismantling, material prepa- aircraft are produced with such components. It is
ration and separation processes – and matching possible that Boeing’s next narrowbody jet will be
predictable supplies to future market demand.” designed with a mostly composite airframe, though
that decision is years away, as chief executive David
Fresh purpose Calhoun says its next clean-sheet aircraft will likely be
Datz says Boeing is working with universities and introduced in the middle of next decade.
aviation companies to find ways to recycle aero- “It is hard for me to imagine us not taking full
space-grade composite waste – including for use in advantage of everything we have learned on ad-
railway undercarriages, laptop cases and car parts. vanced composites,” Calhoun said during a 30 May
To better understand end-of-life issues for next- press conference at the company’s 787 assembly
generation jets, AFRA has taken possession of what is plant in North Charleston, South Carolina.
left of the recently-retired Dreamliners, including the
carbon composite fuselage and wing-tips, and some
engine components, O’Connor says. The fuselages “How are we going to
were cut into smaller sections and shipped to ECube,
an aircraft dismantling company in Wales that has take these [materials]
agreed to store the material for one year.
“Then we will be seeking out additional entities that when they are at the end
Boeing

may like access to the composite material to start

doing research and development on it,” he says. of service, and not put
AFRA is working to ensure that whatever is
discovered regarding the disposal of composite them in a landfill? We
material as a result of the Dreamliner dismantling
process will be published information. need to start designing
“What we are requiring, once we provide that
material to them, is that this intellectual property is that aspect at the very
made available to the world,” he says. “We want to
say, ‘OK, this is what we found out and this is the in- beginning of the process”
formation that we are going to relay so everyone can
start doing it the same exact way.’ Sam O’Connor Interim executive director, Aircraft Fleet
“It is not something that we’re looking to seek any Recycling Association
type of monetary gains from,” he adds. “It is for the
betterment of our planet.”
Boeing says it has worked with AFRA to ensure that “I have no doubt that will play a significant role,” he
“sections of interest” from the 787s will be preserved adds. “We are simply going to continue to progress
to study end-of-service for advanced materials. with the technologies we have available to us.”
Other sectors, including developers of electric
vertical take-off and landing aircraft for the advanced
air mobility market, are also making widespread use
of the technology.
Boeing’s 787 programme has suffered a series of
high-profile setbacks, including a roughly 22-month
delivery pause that ended in August 2022 after the
airframer addressed manufacturing quality issues
involving sections of the composite fuselage and
pressure bulkhead – calling into question whether
producing thousands of narrowbody jets with
carbonfibre airframes is feasible.
But as more next-generation jets are manufactured
and retired in the decades to come, it will become
critical to establish best practices for handling
high-tech aircraft components at the end of their
useful lives, O’Connor says.
“How are we going to take these [materials] when
EirTrade Aviation

they are at the end of service, and not put them in a

landfill? We need to start designing that aspect at the
very beginning of the process. We need to consider
Landing gear is among the components that are in demand
how we are going to be able to dispose of this stuff.” ◗

July 2023 Flight International 57

 While its European rival is pursuing futuristic
concepts exploring the use of hydrogen propulsion,
US giant is taking a more progressive approach
towards achieving emissions reduction

Burning
issue
Howard Hardee Seattle Sustainable fuel use is
contributing towards

T
emissions-reduction
hinking of innovative ways to cut fuel
consumption and improve efficiency is
nothing new for the aviation industry.
Since the start of the jet age, commercial
aircraft have become progressively more efficient
in a continuum of fleet renewals and carbon dioxide
emissions reductions, says Sheila Remes, vice-presi-
dent of environmental sustainability for Boeing.
“It is innate in what we do,” she says. “We have
reduced the fuel burn every single generation.
We have [now] reduced it by 70%. But getting to
that last 30% is a really, really hard task when you
consider how far we have come.”
Boeing

Urgent action
The matter is more urgent now. The aviation
industry must supercharge its efficiency gains and the European Union Aviation Safety Agency,
to meet its pledge to achieve net-zero carbon along with airline executives, bankers and energy
emissions by 2050, Chris Raymond, Boeing’s chief sector representatives.
sustainability officer, said during the airframer’s The gathering was Boeing’s first effort to expand
first-ever Sustainable Aerospace Together Forum in sustainable aviation discussions beyond individual
Seattle, Washington on 17 May. meetings with “think tanks, energy companies, fuel
“We have come far, but we are also known as a producers” and airlines, Raymond tells FlightGlobal.
hard-to-abate sector,” Raymond says. “Now we have “This is our first time bringing a global audience
a new shared industry challenge of how to get to together,” Remes adds. “But we are really focusing on
net zero.” the four different sectors – policy, finance, energy and
Raymond was speaking to representatives from aviation – because all of these sectors have to come
major aerospace stakeholders such as NASA, IATA, to terms with what we need to accomplish in order to
ICAO, the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) scale decarbonisation solutions.”

58 Flight International July 2023

 Environment SAF

AirTeamImages
Airliners such as the 737 Max are up to 70%
more efficient than previous generations

Boeing says the consensus solution is drastically “For many emerging economies, SAF represents
scaling up production of sustainable aviation fuel a development agenda and job-creation agenda,”
(SAF), which is said to be sustainably derived and to he says. “They have a big quantity of feedstock they
have a smaller carbon footprint than conventional jet can leverage. We have estimated that if many of the
fuel. SAF is typically biofuel but can be synthetic fuel countries we work in get into this space, that can
derived from CO2 and hydrogen. create up to 14 million jobs just in the SAF production
Though propulsion systems powered by electricity and feedstock space.”
and hydrogen fuel are showing early promise – India, Kenya and South Africa are economies
particularly for regional and urban air mobility that are “positioning themselves in developing
operations – SAF has emerged as the leading feedstock” and producing SAF in the decades
emissions-reduction strategy for airlines. ahead, Reja says.
“When we look at all of the options that are Though most airlines’ decarbonisation strategies
available, the one that is clearly and evidently ready rely heavily on SAF, significant challenges remain –
to be used by the industry is sustainable aviation including lack of available feedstock and land-use
fuel,” Willie Walsh, director of IATA, told attendees issues, which involve concern that land used to grow
to Boeing’s forum. food crops will be converted to grow SAF crops,
driving up food prices.
Global concern
Juan Carlos Salazar, ICAO secretary general, adds
that efforts to ramp up production of SAF must be “It is clear that we need a
international. “It is clear that we need a significant
early push on SAF all around the world, and that this significant early push on
is vital to get the sector to where we need to be by
2050,” he says. SAF all around the world,
Salazar urged attendees to “not forget the potential
of the developing world” and smaller markets to and that this is vital to get
contribute to SAF production capacity. “I think we
will find that SAF may come from many surprising the sector to where we
places around the world,” he says.
That idea was shared by Binyam Reja, need to be by 2050”
who oversees a World Bank transportation
decarbonisation programme. Juan Carlos Salazar Secretary general, ICAO

July 2023 Flight International 59

 Currently, less than 0.1% of jet fuel burned globally Some critics of the SAF-centric approach – such as
is SAF, according to a March report from the US Val Miftakhov, chief executive of hydrogen fuel-cell
Government Accountability Office. propulsion specialist ZeroAvia – say SAF is far from a
But production is scaling rapidly, Remes says. “Over perfect solution.
the last two years, the amount of sustainable fuel has “Sustainable aviation fuels… do not eliminate
increased by over 200%,” she says. “200% of a small carbon emissions in flight, nor do they significantly
number is still a small number, but what it tells you is reduce other noxious and climate-warming emis-
that there is a transition happening.” sions,” Miftakhov said in prepared testimony during a
SAF is produced from alternative hydrocarbon 30 March Senate hearing about the feasibility of SAF
sources like grain, oil seeds, algae, fats, oils and greas- and alternative propulsion systems.
es, and agricultural and forestry residues. Engines “These non-CO2 emissions, as well as contrails, are
burning SAF still emit carbon, but it is considered off- known to have a multiplier effect on climate change.”
set by carbon pulled out of the atmosphere by plants Raymond says it is “too early to say” whether hydro-
used to make the fuel. Depending on production gen- or electric-propulsion systems could be incorpo-
methods, SAF is advertised as having 80% less life- rated into Boeing’s next clean-sheet narrowbody air-
cycle greenhouse gas emissions than fossil-based fuel. craft design, which chief executive David Calhoun says
But the actual benefits remain debatable. the company will bring to market in the mid-2030s.
“There is uncertainty on what the actual life-cycle
emissions reductions from these fuels will be,” said Engineering challenges
the FAA in a November 2021 report. “There are no But hydrogen brings with it significant engineering
mandatory governmental standards for calculating challenges – requiring aircraft to be substantially
the environmental benefits or dis-benefits of SAF.” redesigned – and has lower volumetric energy den-
The FAA’s report assumed SAF has net emis- sity than fossil fuel. All-electric propulsion is widely
sions reduction of “at least 50%” compared with seen as unsuitable for anything but small aircraft.
For those reasons, some analysts suspect Airbus’s
and Boeing’s next narrowbodies will have largely
“We are going to need traditional fuel-burning engines – though perhaps
the powerplants could be open-fan designs, such as
sustainable aviation one under development via CFM International’s RISE
effort, or be augmented by electric systems, in a
fuel, but that doesn’t hybrid-electric architecture.
“Finding renewable energy alternatives with the
mean we are not same energy density and volumetric efficiency as
fossil fuels is difficult,” Raymond wrote in an op-
spending [research and ed article earlier this year. Advances in battery
technology will allow for electric-powered short-haul
development funding] on flights in the near future, but batteries still weigh too
much for long-haul routes.
electric and hydrogen” “We are going to need sustainable aviation fuel,
but that doesn’t mean we are not spending [research
Chris Raymond Chief sustainability officer, Boeing and development funding] on electric and hydrogen,”
Raymond says, pointing to Boeing-backed electric air
taxi developer Wisk.
conventional fuel. At 50%, the US aerospace industry’s “It means that we have taken a position that we are
net emissions would be roughly the same in 2050 as in probably not going to achieve very much aviation
2020, the report said.
Research is also under way to convert carbon
removed from the atmosphere into a synthetic SAF, ZeroAvia will retrofit Alaska Airlines
with United Airlines disclosing in March a $15 mil- Dash 8-400 with hybrid propulsion
lion investment in carbon-capture technology firm
Svante. Converting municipal waste into SAF is
another possibility, though some argue that doing so
would release into the atmosphere carbon that would
otherwise remain buried underground in landfills.
“Focusing on the next type of feedstock is important
because there is a limit to [the availability] of fats, oils
and greases,” Remes says. “Essentially all the sustaina-
ble fuel that is produced now is from that feedstock.”
Under current standards, approved SAF can be
combined with conventional petroleum-based jet
fuel in blends of up to 50%, but 100% SAF that
works as a “drop-in” replacement for the most
common jet fuels – Jet A and Jet A-1 – remains in
development and unapproved.
Alaska Airlines

A first step would be widespread use of half-and-

half blends, Raymond says: “Just getting to the 50/50
blend would be incredible for the industry.”

60 Flight International July 2023

 Environment SAF

50%
Maximum currently approved blend of sustainable
aviation fuel with conventional petroleum-based jet fuel
Eremenko told FlightGlobal it aims for its hydro-
gen-electric hybrid propulsion system to be incorpo-
rated into next-generation narrowbody jet designs.
He believes rapidly developing and scaling hydro-
gen propulsion systems, which emit water vapour
as exhaust, is the only realistic way of achieving
zero emissions from aviation by 2050. He also says
embracing SAF as a primary decarbonisation strategy
could eventually stifle the industry, as reducing
operations could become the only way to achieve
emissions-reductions targets.
“Whether it is dinosaur kerosene or SAF, it is still
a hydrocarbon that you are going to burn at 35,000
feet,” he says. “If we end up with one or two hydro-
carbon-burning narrowbodies in the 2030s, I think
there will be a curtailment of traffic volumes, and a
curtailment of growth – and I think that would be
really bad for the industry and the world.
“We are doing this to influence that late-2020s
decision, because that is going to be at the heart and
soul of the aviation sector for a while,” he adds.
Airlines clearly view SAF as the clearest way
forward – at least for large jets, and at least for now.
They also have few other options, as fuel-burning
turbofans will be flying for decades.
But some carriers say novel technologies might
work for regional aircraft.
“We think about electric-hydrogen as sort of a real
Boeing

Critics point out that sustainable fuels do not eliminate emissions

possibility for [regional operations] in the future,”

carbon emissions reduction on a global scale [from “Whether it is dinosaur

hydrogen or electric propulsion] by 2050.”
Despite recent landmark flights achieved by kerosene or SAF, it is still
start-ups developing hybrid-electric propulsion
technology – and Airbus’s exploration of several con- a hydrocarbon you are
ceptual hydrogen aircraft designs – Boeing remains
sceptical of fuel cell-powered commercial flight. burning at 35,000 feet”
There are a number of technical and logistical
issues currently preventing hydrogen propulsion from Paul Eremenko Chief executive, Universal Hydrogen
taking off, Raymond says. He cites NASA’s experience
with handling cryogenic fuel as a cautionary tale for
the aviation sector; hydrogen fuel must be stored at Diana Birkett Rakow, senior vice-president of public
extremely low temperatures – -253°C (-423°F) – to affairs and sustainability for Alaska Airlines, said
retain its liquid state. during Boeing’s forum.
The carrier recently delivered a Dash 8-400
Rocket science to ZeroAvia, which intends to retrofit it with a
“We use it in rockets every day,” he says. “Hydrogen hydrogen-electric propulsion system. The 76-seat
is hard to work with and changes the properties turboprop is set to become the “world’s largest
of metal. It is hard to store. It leaks. These are all zero-emissions aircraft”, the companies say.
things that have to be solved if we really think we But that does not offer an immediate solution
are going to run a scheduled commercial service on for Alaska’s mainline operation. ”Our mainline is all
[hydrogen] with airplanes leaving 15 minutes after Boeing 737s, and that is going to be flying on jet fuel
they arrive at a gate. and SAF in the future,” Birkett Rakow says.
“Getting something into service and having it That is an example of why Boeing is betting SAF
scale up to the point where it makes a big dent in will be the most-critical factor in helping the aviation
the carbon emissions of aviation… we just don’t see sector take its next great carbon-reduction leap.
that coming from electric or hydrogen by 2050,” he For that to happen, the industry must develop
adds. “That doesn’t mean we shouldn’t be working supporting technologies, energy sources and
on it, but we have been pretty straight on that, infrastructure. Currently, SAF is available for
based on our analysis.” purchase at only a few airports around the world,
Some clean aviation players hope to change but that is expected to change as global aviation
Boeing’s mind on hydrogen-based propulsion, pushes toward a cleaner future.
including Paul Eremenko, founder and chief executive “It is an exciting time in this industry,” Raymond says.
of California-based start-up Universal Hydrogen. “We are attracting venture capital, we are attracting
Following first flight of his company’s retrofit- engineers, we are attracting all this interest. Why?
ted De Havilland Canada Dash 8-300 on 2 March, Because we have a big problem to solve.” ◗

July 2023 Flight International 61

 The opportunity to improve air traffic management
systems to accelerate decarbonisation seems to
be strong – but it is characterised by complex and
interdependent networks, loaded with politics

The right
approach?
Mark Pilling London optimised to make massive improvements and help us
to achieve the net zero by 2050 target,” he says.
But has aviation’s drive to net zero and societal

T
he roadmaps that promise aviation industry concerns about the environment accelerated the in-
progress towards achieving a net-zero troduction of improved ATM systems, or even reform?
decarbonisation target by 2050 show air Achim Baumann, policy director at Airlines Four
traffic management’s (ATM’s) contribution to Europe (A4E), acknowledges that it does provide
be in the 8-10% range. While such a figure would be political leverage and motivation.
an order of magnitude less than the expected use of “We try to benefit from this political pressure and
sustainable aviation fuel (SAF), which will represent to ensure that projects, which possibly have been
over 50% of the target, it is still significant. slowed down because it’s not topical or it costs
Perhaps critically, the belief is that carbon dioxide money, move forward,” he says.
emissions reduction through ATM operational

8-10%
improvements are “low hanging fruit” that can be
achieved relatively quickly. While agreeing updates
poses a clear challenge, the sector is acutely aware of
the need for change.

Imperative action
Simon Hocquard, director general of the Civil Air
Navigation Services Organisation (CANSO), puts Contribution to 2050 net-zero target that improvements in
the importance of aviation actions to decarbonise air traffic management systems are projected to make
in perspective. “Getting there for sustainability is
an imperative, or our industry will cease to exist,”
he says. “ATM measures are a massively important In Europe, the focal point for that pressure is
part in the near term,” he adds, enabling emissions speeding up the slow progress on Single European
reduction now – years before SAF production will Sky (SES), a long-touted reform of the continent’s
kick in at scale to deliver its contribution. complex air traffic control system that aims to make
Stuart Fox, IATA’s director flight and technical it less fragmented. SES started in 2000.
operations, who began his flying career in the 1980s Today, a key element of this reform – which is
and worked for a variety of carriers, explains that the essentially the EU passing laws that enable the latest
route networks he flew then are virtually unchanged version of SES to be implemented – is blocked be-
today. “There have been some efficiencies, but I cause of state concerns about sovereignty. This is an
think it’s recognised that the ATM system could be old story, but it remains the key barrier to progress.

62 Flight International July 2023

 Environment Air traffic

Irina Anosova/Shutterstock
Technologies required to implement improvements in air traffic management are already available

Over the past decade or so, Europe’s air navigation However, this is not the case in Europe, where
service providers (ANSPs), airports, and airlines there are 62 Area Control Centres that control air
have advanced on the technological, operational, traffic and each charges its own rate. This leads to
and procedural fronts. Much of this change has been airlines filing flight plans where the priority is the
driven by the SES work that has taken place over lowest air traffic control (ATC) cost, rather than the
the past two decades, but it cannot be fully realised lowest carbon cost.
without states giving the green light. European airline bosses have for years berated
It is ironic that there is already technology available progress on SES. At its annual conference in March,
to implement many of the system improvements chief executives from the A4E member airlines said
promised by SES, and enable carbon avoidance that multiple crises can no longer be used as excuses
through more efficient flying. to delay airspace reform in Europe as traffic levels get
closer to their pre-Covid 2019 peak. “This increased
Regulatory updates traffic means that the need for a seamless and digital-
“There are a lot of updates necessary within SES 2+ ised airspace is more pressing than ever,” they said.
[the European Commission’s latest version of the Bastin understands, but asks a provocative ques-
SES laws] on the regulatory side to actually allow tion of the airlines. “Are you ready to fly the most
the aviation industry to easily materialise
the benefits of new technology, new oper-
ational procedures, and new organisational “Are [airlines]
structures,” says Baumann.
But would an approval of SES be a sil- ready to fly
ver bullet? As always in the ATM world, the
answer is not straightforward. the most
“It’s not so easy because I would say yes
and no at the same time,” says Marylin Bastin, fuel-optimised
head of sustainability at Eurocontrol.
“Yes, definitely it would help to have one trajectory
single European sky to have more efficient
flight,” she says. “For example, in the United every single
States they have one [ATM] scenario, [which
is] open skies. You don’t have different day?”
Eurocontrol

route charges in every airspace. And so,

by default, they are trying to fly the most Marylin Bastin Head of
fuel-optimised trajectory.” sustainability, Eurocontrol

July 2023 Flight International 63

 fuel-optimised trajectory every single day? And the especially before 2030, and before new technolo-
answer for now is clearly no. gies are coming to market.”
“For me, this is also part of the complexity of our Hocquard agrees, pointing to continuous descent
airspace,” she says. “And I can understand they want approaches – where an aircraft comes in to land in a
to fly the cheapest route because they need to do a smooth, constant-angle descent, rather than in mul-
lot of investment as well to be able to accelerate on tiple steps as directed by ATC – as one of three quick
decarbonisation. It’s all about trade off. It’s not easy. wins.
“Clearly, having one single airspace would really “They are phenomenally important for reducing fuel
help to have more harmonisation and predictability,” burn,” he says. “Modernising our airspace design to
says Bastin. However, she stresses that it is wrong enable them, enhancing the collaboration between
to say the lack of a Single European Sky means the pilots and air traffic to achieve them is a simple thing
“ATM world is not moving”. and is massively important.”
“I am a little frustrated because I hear a lot of things The second system to improve ATM is air traffic
about the single European skies as if implementing flow management, says Hocquard. This is an area
it would be the solution to decarbonise ATM, but it’s where Europe excels, with Eurocontrol’s Network
not true,” she says. “It would help, but we are already Manager delivering impressive flow management
working a lot on ATM optimisation and it’s really
important to emphasise this.”
“Modernising our airspace
Technological pillars
For example, Bastin points to the 260 projects design to [reduce fuel
deployed as part of SESAR that bring improvements
to Europe’s ATM system. SESAR is described as the burn] and enhancing the
“technological pillar of the EU’s Single European

Urbanandpsort/NurPhoto/Shutterstock
Sky policy and a key enabler of the European Com- collaboration between
mission’s Sustainable and Smart Mobility Strategy.
SESAR defines, develops, and deploys technologies pilots and air traffic to
to transform air traffic management in Europe.”
The huge body of work within SESAR, even without achieve this is massively
the Single European Sky legislation being delivered
by EU member states, demonstrates what is going on important”
to accelerate decarbonisation.
In its Objective Skygreen report published in May Simon Hocquard Director general, CANSO
2022, Eurocontrol showed that if all the new ATM
technologies and projects on the table now were
implemented there could be an 8% improvement in across the continent. The rest of the world may
carbon emissions in its best scenario. “Compared to not be at this level, and there is the opportunity to
all the other different solutions to decarbonise the “smooth air traffic flows around the world to reduce
aviation sector, ATM [solutions] can be achieved in airborne holding and reduce extended routings – this
the short-term, before 2030,” Bastin notes. can have a huge impact”, he explains.
“If you had all these different improvements that Thirdly, “further improving our work with our
can be done without disruptive technology, we military airspace users to really maximise the flex-
could already have a few percent that could be ible use of airspace so that unnecessary airspace
implemented right away,” she says. “That's why I and inefficiencies are minimised has a huge benefit
really believe that ATM has an essential role to play, attached to it”, says Hocquard.

Could a one-size European system suit all?

In September 2022, Eurocontrol published a “Think because of differences in unit rates. This could save
Paper” re-examining the idea of charging a common up to 4,400t of carbon dioxide emissions on a busy
en-route unit rate capable of incentivising airspace day, it calculated: an overall reduction of 1.6%.
users to fly more efficient routes. This could be one Eurocontrol recognises that there are difficulties,
of air traffic management’s “easy wins” in the carbon as there will be winners and losers on either side.
emissions reduction drive. The air navigation service provider side could be
Since 1971, the provision of en-route air navigation dealt with by using a reattribution system, although
services in Europe has been financed by charges this would need to be designed to ensure revenue
through a common Route Charges System. However, neutrality for participating states to reflect the
these rates vary considerably from state to state, national unit rates.
ranging today anywhere between €28.72 ($30.80) However, from an airline perspective, a common
for Cyprus to €120.30 for Belgium/Luxembourg. unit rate could lead to a significant financial impact,
Eurocontrol concluded that a common unit rate depending on where carriers operate. Some airlines
is technically feasible, and could have a potential would face route charge-related increases of up
beneficial environmental effect by removing the to 20%, adding up to €30 million per year to their
economic incentive for airlines to file longer routes current bill, Eurocontrol calculates.

64 Flight International July 2023

 Environment Air traffic

Vueling has shown that a fuel optimised trajectory is

more efficient than the geographically shortest route

“I think as an industry we know how to do all brought in by Switzerland, the Federal Aviation
those things. They don’t require massive capi- Administration (FAA) in the eastern USA, and in
tal investments. They don’t require brand new the North and South Pacific. According to the Air
technologies that haven’t been invented yet. It’s Transport Action Group Waypoint 2050 report, up to
about having an open mind and a willingness to 500,000t of CO2 per year could be saved when fully
embrace new ways of doing things.” implemented over Europe alone.
There are other examples of improvements in the The better use of performance-based navigation
ATM system that are beginning to be implemented. (PBN) flight procedures, using GPS and satellite
One is free route airspace or user preferred routes technology for guiding aircraft, is another significant
(UPRs), where an aircraft can choose its preferred win. “It enables much more efficient flight paths,
route across a country rather than zigzagging to its massively reducing track miles into and out of an
destination, says Fox. airport or between two points,” says Fox, with most
An IATA study conducted in 2019 showed the modern aircraft already equipped with the technolo-
impacts of implementing UPRs across the traffic gy to fly these enhanced flight paths.
flow between Europe, the Middle East and Asia. The
analysis indicated an average fuel cost saving on the Fastest route
routes provided by airlines during summer operations The Waypoint report says PBN could save 1t of CO2
would be around $2,000 per route/flight on medium- per landing, while IATA estimates that globally,
to long haul-flights. This amounts to 4-6%, but on shorter PBN routes could cut CO2 emissions by 13
some routes it produced nearly a 15% saving in fuel. million tonnes per year.
This ability to react to changing weather pat- Many ANSPs are introducing these procedures
terns and fly more efficient direct routes has been as part of airspace modernisation projects, and EU

$2,000
regulations stipulate a gradual migration to a full PBN
environment with satellites as the main positioning
source by 2030.
The growing list of ATM projects and procedures that
offer improvements illustrates the complexity of the
undertaking. Another one is 4D trajectory-based oper-
ations (TBO). “This is a big game changer,” says Bastin.
This mode of operation will enable an aircraft to fly
Cost saving per route or flight IATA analysis suggests could the most fuel-optimised trajectory because it takes
be achieved through implementing user-preferred routes account of the wind conditions, which is not always

July 2023 Flight International 65

 the shortest distance. “For each single flight in pre-Covid growth rates and as more users, like those
Europe, the fuel optimised trajectory will be different seeking to operate air taxis and unmanned aircraft,
and specific,” she says. enter the picture.
In the USA, the FAA began working on the Next “Airspace is finite,” says Hocquard. “I think the com-
Generation Air Transportation System, or NextGen, to mercialisation of airspace will happen eventually be-
transform its ATM system, in 2007. Ultimately, this will cause of the plethora of different users that are now
see its ATC system moving to a TBO concept. This wanting to use the same airspace. How we integrate
huge project is being undertaken in stages and has all the different new airspace users sustainably and
already introduced a host of systems that improve safely is going to be a big challenge going forward.”
safety, capacity and efficiency while reducing fuel To meet the challenge, he returns to the ques-
burn, carbon emissions and noise, says the FAA. tion of ATM reform. “Is it reformation or is it about
For a 4D trajectory to be flown, an aircraft must be leveraging the capabilities that we currently have?
equipped with the latest flight management systems Reformation of ATM will not by its own volition create
able to compute these trajectories into messages for a more sustainable air traffic environment.
air traffic controllers and on the other side the ANSPs “Ultimately, to break it right down it is about all
to be ready to read and act on them, says Bastin. stakeholders sharing information safely and securely:
One of the first with this capability is Eurocontrol’s that’s a big challenge across very large global pieces
Maastricht Upper Area Control Centre, which man- of airspace,” says Hocquard. “If we can do that, and
ages the airspace from 24,500-66,000ft over Bel- crack that complex, highly dynamic environment, we
gium, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, and north-west can play a huge role.”
Germany: one of Europe’s busiest and most complex This is where collaboration between all stakehold-
airspace areas. ers, which is happening, is vital. “We [the ATM stake-
holders] can’t do that on our own,” says Hocquard. “It
Fuel efficiency will only work if we all sit down and work together on
However, all ANSPs will need to have such capabili- how we’re going to be able to crack this nut.” ◗
ty and all aircraft will need to be suitably equipped
to change the current system for one that is more
fuel efficient. “We are not there yet, and that is the “There are a plethora
problem,” notes Bastin.
An example of an airline working with an ANSP of different users now
partnering and pioneering on fuel-optimised
trajectories is Spanish low-cost carrier Vueling and wanting to use the same
ENAIRE, Spain’s ANSP.
In this work Vueling has demonstrated that flying airspace. How we integrate
the shortest route can add 16% of additional fuel
compared to the optimised one. “When you have a big them sustainably and
country along the sea you can really benefit from the
winds to decrease your fuel consumption,” says Bastin. safely is going to be a big
Clearly, a more efficient global ATM system has a
very important role to play in the push for a more challenge going forward”
sustainable aviation industry. It is a system that will
come under increasing strain as traffic returns to its Simon Hocquard Director general, CANSO

The non-CO2 effect

Air traffic management’s (ATM’s) central role in
helping deal with the environmental problems
of non-carbon dioxide effects such as contrails
and nitrous oxides, in addition to reducing CO2
emissions, is highlighted in a recent report from
aviation consultancy Roland Berger called Aviation’s
Roadmap to True Zero.
The report talks about the path to achieving this
metric, as opposed to net zero: the term used by
Christian Handl/ImageBroker/Shutterstock

the aviation community at large for its emissions

reduction target.
“Aviation's climate footprint extends beyond just
CO2,” Roland Berger argues. “Considering non-
CO2 effects such as contrails and nitrous oxides,
aviation's total footprint may be 2-4 times as much
as CO2 alone.”
Its analysis shows that by 2030 aviation can
reduce its total impact by approximately 30% from
Eurocontrol is planning a second wave of contrail avoidance tests
coordinating efforts to minimise fuel burn through

66 Flight International July 2023

 Environment Air traffic

The FAA began working on its Next Generation

Air Transportation System project in 2007

Fabian Joy/Shutterstock

better operations and air traffic control (ATC), and CO2 field, it asserts that while the exact quantum
by accelerating contrail mitigation. of the impact of Coordinated Skies may vary,
One of its scenarios is called Coordinated Skies, optimising operations and targeting contrail
which would see airlines and ATC accelerate flight mitigation is an essential lever, and that flight trials
operations optimisation (including in-the-air, on-the- to begin developing mitigation techniques should
ground, and crucially contrail avoidance) by 2030. be welcomed.
While Roland Berger forecasts that these Marylin Bastin, head of sustainability at
improvements would happen eventually anyway by Eurocontrol, says that the organisation is working
2050, the Coordinated Skies scenario specifically hard on this area, but notes: “There is a lack of
seeks to quantify the impact of bringing forward consensus in the scientific community [on non-
their enactment. CO2].” In addition, it has performed flight trials to
In this scenario, Roland Berger models the impact test contrail mitigation in Europe, and found that the
of contrail mitigation efforts being accelerated, ability to predict their avoidance was not good.
highly targeted and successful, delivering up to 80% “We are not saying that we should do nothing
mitigation at a global level by the early 2030s. about non-CO2, because this is really important,”
Recognising the range of current scientific she says. “But we don't want to start too early on the
opinions on non-CO2 effects, Roland Berger has avoidance of contrails from an ATM point of view if
conducted a sensitivity analysis to address the at the end there is a bad outcome of burning more
current uncertainty in non-CO2 effects. fuel and still producing contrails.”
Through this effort, which includes input from Eurocontrol is planning a second wave of contrail
some of the leading global academics in the non- avoidance tests to find the answers.

July 2023 Flight International 67

 As well as the aviation industry’s pursuit of
zero-emission flight in the post-pandemic era,
attention is also turning to addressing the issue
of noise pollution and public complaints

Quiet
revolution
AirTeamImages
Tony Harrington Brisbane The Dutch government, the airport’s biggest
shareholder, had already publicly floated a staged
reduction of Schiphol’s annual flights, from 500,000

D
espite enormous reductions in aircraft noise to 440,000. A first-step reduction to 460,000 will
since the dawn of the jet age in the late start later this year.
1950s, the issue is once again amplifying as a “We are astonished by this unilateral decision,”
critical challenge for the airline industry. says the airport’s biggest and most affected
The problem is not so much the noise created by operator, KLM, which accounts for 60% of Schiphol’s
modern aircraft – which has been reduced by some aircraft movements.
90% since the early days of the jet era – but the Acting together with other airlines and IATA, KLM
major increase in the number of flights as airlines sought, and won, a court injunction against the air-
return to and build on their pre-pandemic growth port and the government for having failed to consult
trajectories. Passenger volumes are projected by with them before declaring such a significant change.
IATA to double from 4 billion next year to 8 billion
by 2040. Red flag
The flashpoint for new tensions was the Whether their stay of imposition is approved or
announcement by Amsterdam’s Schiphol airport, one overturned, the episode is a red flag for airlines,
of Europe’s busiest hubs, that it would reduce flight which have been focused on recovering from
movements as early as the coming winter season, the pandemic-driven downturn and how to meet
follow up proposals to ban most midnight-to-dawn ambitious and growing expectations to reduce car-
flights, and scrap plans to build an additional runway. bon emissions to net-zero by 2050.
While it cited a desire to reduce the noise created Noise has been a delicate and bitter issue for the
by aviation, the airport operator’s step prompted almost 75 years since the de Havilland Comet first
uproar from airlines. Major operators claimed that took to the air, as the pioneer and catalyst for long-
they had been blindsided by the announcement, and range, high-speed air travel.
others protested amid concern that the measures Each new jet’s introduction incrementally
taken at Schiphol could create a precedent for similar delivered new social and commercial connectivity
cutbacks elsewhere. within and between nations. But for those people

68 Flight International July 2023

 Environment Noise

KLM Group accounts for 60% of

Schiphol’s aircraft movements

Photo credit
living near airports or beneath flight paths, that occur quietly, arguing that an increased number of
progress came at a price. flights will create higher volumes of noise.
With increased aircraft noise came worsening IATA fears such rumblings could elevate the subject
political headaches, and generations of mitigations of aircraft noise well beyond battles at local levels to
including flight curfews, restrictions and exclusions potentially impact flight connectivity and international
of the noisiest jets, aircraft movement caps, airspace agreements including bilateral air traffic rights and
redesigns, and rapid technological evolution, from open skies policies. They could even ignite trade wars.
modifications to all-new airframes and engines. “The technology has only gotten better. But the
ICAO says that since the introduction of jets, huge ‘curfew science’ is based on the [Boeing] 707,” says
and continuous investments across the airline and Neil Hansford, chairman of Australian consultancy
aerospace sectors have reduced the noise of modern Strategic Aviation Solutions.
aircraft by 90% compared to their ancestors.
But the new restrictions at Schiphol could threat- Night freight
en the very fragile peace that the industry may have Hansford is a veteran of aviation’s noise wars. In the
believed it achieved. 1980s, he was one of the architects of an audacious
Anti-noise campaigners question how aviation’s strategy by TNT to introduce night freight flights in
recovery and deployment of many more aircraft can Europe without breaching stringent noise limits at
key airports.
TNT jointly owned Australian domestic carrier
“We’re astonished by Ansett, which operated passenger versions of the
British Aerospace 146 – promoted as the world’s
this unilateral decision quietest jet. It worked with the airframer to develop
the BAe 146QT (Quiet Trader), then ordered and
[to reduce flights from optioned up to 72 – the entire production run for up
to five years.
Amsterdam Schiphol]” “We saw the way things were going as far as
aircraft noise,” says Hansford. “What sold the 146 was
KLM Group its short runway performance and its low noise.”

July 2023 Flight International 69

 Marnix Fruitema is chair of the Board of Airline “Noise reduction has emerged as a critical factor
Representatives in the Netherlands, a group repre- in engine design and development, but the battle
senting all carriers operating there. It is caught in against climate change gets most attention from cus-
the eye of the Schiphol storm, which it warns could tomers, environmentalists, and regulators,” he says.
extend to other markets in Europe. “Most noise comes from the tips of the fan blades
“Noise has not significantly increased,” Fruitema breaking the sound barrier,” Webb notes. To address
says. “For many airlines it has even decreased due to the problem, P&W’s geared turbofan uses a fan drive
the introduction of new types of aircraft and engines. gear system, developed over 20 years at a cost
“After Covid and its silence, resuming flights has of $10 billion, to enable the fan to work at a lower
led to an increase in perceived noise,” he says. “We speed, keeping blade tips subsonic.
have also seen a more active role by environmental Rival manufacturer CFM International, a joint
groups, and those representing citizens living venture between GE Aerospace and Safran, is
around airports. concurrently progressing its RISE (Revolutionary
“A very small percentage of those complaining Innovation for Sustainable Engines) open-rotor
is responsible for the majority of total complaints. demonstrator programme, which is intended to
Some complain – for which we have an established increase efficiency while reducing carbon dioxide
platform – more than 20 times a day.” emissions and cutting noise levels.
The German Aerospace Federation, BDL, reports
the same trend. “More and more individual com- Computer modelling
plainants are submitting thousands of automatically- “A key enabler we have in our toolbox now for design-
generated complaints, thereby distorting the picture ing new engines, that we didn’t have before, is super-
of actual noise exposure.” computing capability,” says Arjan Hegeman, general
Germany’s Federal Environment Agency assess- manager of advanced technology at GE Aerospace.
es the impact of aircraft noise across the country “This gives us the ability to model noise sources with
every five years. In 2018, when the last research was high fidelity for next-generation engine development.”
But while noise-reduction technology is evolving,
regulations are not, often persisting to guard against
“Noise is back as an issue noise from aircraft types no longer flying.
One example is in Sydney, where long-term restric-
to address mainly due tions eclipse much of what Schiphol is proposing.
When a new parallel runway was commissioned in
to population growth, the mid-1990s, the political price of approval includ-
ed a ban on most flights between 11pm and 6am, an
increasing demand in

Brisbane airport
hourly ‘slot cap’ of 80 arrivals and departures, and
an aircraft ‘movement cap’ between 6am and 11pm –
air travel, and continued measured in 15min blocks and documented by staff
hired purely to count aircraft.
expansion of the
commercial fleet”
Graham Webb Chief sustainability officer, Pratt & Whitney

undertaken, it found that during the day, 8.7 million

people were affected by street noise, 6.4 million by
rail noise, and 800,000 by aircraft noise.
“While the objectively measurable exposure to
aircraft noise is decreasing, the number of people
who feel subjectively annoyed by aircraft noise is
increasing,” the BDL says.
As well as expediting the introduction of new, low-
noise fleets, it says “a responsible residential settle-
ment policy in the vicinity of airports is also neces-
sary in order not to increase the number of people
affected by aircraft noise”.
Boeing says that between its 1958-model 707 and
the 787 Dreamliner, which entered service in 2011, it
had cut noise by 60dB, and reduced aircraft ‘noise
footprints’ by 90%. It also claims to have roughly
Hollandse Hoogte/Shutterstock

halved the noise footprint of the 737NG, launched in

1993, with the re-engined 737 Max.
“Noise is back as an issue to address mainly due to
population growth, increasing demand in air travel,
and continued expansion of the commercial fleet,”
says Graham Webb, chief sustainability officer at Groups representing people living near
Pratt & Whitney. airports are becoming increasingly active

70 Flight International July 2023

 Environment Noise

Noise pollution is a hot topic around Brisbane

airport, where a new runway recently opened

In a recent submission to a government white new runway opened. While the sample group was
paper, Australia’s aircraft noise ombudsman flagged small, the issue demands delicate handling, not least
the need for more stringent oversight of airport because curfew-free Brisbane airport is desperate to
planning to help minimise noise nuisance. retain this status, with huge growth plans linked to
“The impact of aircraft noise on overflown the city hosting the 2032 Summer Olympics.
communities is an inevitable result of airport Following an initial independent review, Airservices
operations, and discussion of aircraft noise manage- Australia has been trialling simultaneous opposite
ment should begin with regulation on the planning direction parallel runway operations, with more of
and approval processes of airports,” it says. Brisbane’s arrivals and departures being flown over
The observation is timely, as the issue of aircraft water. An expansion of the programme is planned by
noise is also a hot topic near Brisbane airport, which year-end.
opened a new parallel runway just as the pandemic
took hold. Now, as air traffic returns to the city, so do Intense attention
public protests about noise – including in areas not The trial will be closely watched, not only in Brisbane,
previously impacted. but in other cities which are facing new or intensified
The Brisbane Flight Path Community Alliance lobby resistance to increased flights.
group surveyed 2,000 residents across 81 areas of In the Netherlands, despite their initial win in court,
the city, concluding that 80% of those questioned airlines are nervous about what will happen next,
had not been impacted by aircraft noise before the and are bracing for an expected appeal by the Dutch
government and Schiphol airport.

800,000
“The government has done this for one and
only one objective – to reduce flight movements,”
Fruitema says. “The industry wants to reduce noise,
but via different means. We don’t need to reduce
flights to reduce noise.
“Many EU countries outside the Netherlands are fol-
Number of Germans affected by aircraft noise every day, lowing closely what’s happening. It’s a possible threat
according to environment agency research from 2018 for other countries if the shrink scenario continues.” ◗

July 2023 Flight International 71

 The Royal Air Force has an aggressive goal of
reaching net zero carbon emissions by 2040.
But what is the service doing to deliver on its
decarbonisation pledge, and will others follow?

Fuelling
change
Mark Pilling Farnborough technically achievable, but for Lloyd that date “would
be a long time in the future, because we haven’t accel-
erated some of the technologies we need to”.

S
wap the military uniform for a business “So, it’s the other way around. If you set it in 2040,
suit and you would struggle to tell the what would you need to do to achieve that date?
difference between UK Royal Air Force What are the challenges and how do we get there?”
(RAF) Air Vice-Marshal Paul Lloyd and the The aspirational side of 2040 comes with a hard-
chief executive of an airline, when discussing their edged need to meet UK law. Decarbonising defence is
collective climate challenge. a necessity, as current government legislation requires
He speaks in precisely the same tone and all greenhouse gas emissions to be net zero by 2050.
covers the same themes as his counterparts in the In addition, the RAF takes a wider view of the
commercial aviation world. The talk is about road- emissions challenge by leading strategic thinking
maps, sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) and disruptive within UK defence as it acknowledges it is “34% of
propulsion technologies, as the military and airlines the problem”, says Lloyd, who was in January 2021
pursue decarbonisation head-on. promoted to his role of chief of staff support, Head-
The RAF remains unique among world air forces in quarters Air Command, and chief engineer (RAF).
setting a date by which it aims to reach net zero. In He is also co-chair of the Defence Suppliers Forum
July 2021, its then-chief of the air staff Air
Chief Marshal Sir Mike Wigston established
the target as 2040, identifying climate “The world is
change as a transnational challenge.
going to change
Leading role
“This is super-ambitious,” Lloyd told to these new
FlightGlobal at the Farnborough Interna-
tional-organised Sustainable Skies World energy and fuel
Summit in mid-April, where he was a
keynote speaker. “The view was if we don’t sources, and we
get ahead of the game, if we don’t take
have got to be
Farnborough International

the leading role then we’ll be left behind.

“It was around setting a challenging
date and then working out what would ready for that”
you have to do to achieve it,” he says. A
more conventional and scientific approach Air Vice-Marshal Paul Lloyd
would have been to set a date that was Chief of staff support, UK Royal Air Force

72 Flight International July 2023

 Environment Military

Crown Copyright
Voyager tanker flew for the the first
time using 100% SAF last November

Climate Change and Sustainability Working Group at brings operational advantage to you. For example, if
the Ministry of Defence (MoD). you deploy to a forward base in the future and you
Furthermore, setting a date that is just 17 years can provide your own energy, which will tend to be
away was also designed to galvanise the RAF itself. by solar or whatever, it has a benefit of helping the
“The reason the last chief of the air staff set the net-zero [goal] but at the same time it builds resilience
2040 deadline is because he believed it brings it because you’re no longer reliant on external power.”
into the consciousness of the workforce now,” says In addition, moving to a world where more jet fuel
Lloyd. “If we let this meander on for another 10 years, is manufactured locally would be a benefit. Today, the
because of the way the budgetary cycles work in the UK imports about 60% of the jet fuel it needs and the
military, it could be too late. I know that the new chief RAF acquires it from the market.
of the air staff, Air Chief Marshal Sir Richard Knighton, “We have seen the challenges over the years of
is as equally committed to dealing with the RAF’s instability and issues around supply chains, so if we

60%
sustainability challenge.
“There is also a thought leadership role around the
RAF helping other nations, partners, and NATO, in
moving forwards as well, in concert particularly with
the Americans,” he adds.
“The way we are delivering it is in three buckets: a
net-zero real estate infrastructure, because we have a
sizeable number of 29 bases to deal with; the net-zero
aviation part; and bringing ‘consciousness sustainabil- Amount of jet fuel the UK currently imports: increasing
ity’ into our culture, our business-as-usual processes, domestic production, particularly SAF, will boost resilience
and our investment appraisals.”

Operational edge can generate more, particularly SAF, locally in the UK,
The flying part of the RAF contributes the hardest that builds resilience, and it is a good thing for the
to abate and largest element of the service’s carbon military to have resilience,” says Lloyd.
challenge. The trick will be doing this and not “But also, we’re on the journey,” he adds. “The world
compromising the ability to fight. is going to change to these new energy and fuel
“Within defence, clearly what can’t happen is sources, and we have got to be ready for that. We
we trade operational effectiveness or operational have got to operate throughout the world, with our
advantage for sustainability and net zero. We have allies and partners, and we need to better operate
got to maintain that operational edge,” he says. together, and we need to continue to use whatever the
“But the good thing about that is when you look new fuels are available to us. If we don’t do that, then
at the work in net-zero technologies a lot of that we’ll be at an operational disadvantage.”

July 2023 Flight International 73

 Environment Military

To coincide with the conference in Farnborough, the Training and transport missions, and those that cur-
RAF conducted its latest in a series of SAF demonstra- rently use helicopters, are being examined. The RAF is
tions, with an Airbus Defence & Space A330 Voyager also looking at advanced air mobility aircraft, such as
multi-role tanker transport refuelling four Eurofighter Vertical Aerospace’s VX4. “We are analysing how that
Typhoons over the North Sea with a 43% SAF blend. type of technology might fit into the battlespace,” says
Today, all RAF aircraft are qualified to operate Lloyd. “It’s not about the last mile kind of logistics, but
on SAF blends of up to 50%, but last November it could be the last 100-mile logistics.”
a Voyager was flown for the first time using 100% The likely availability of such platforms is still five to
SAF. Since then, the service has performed “proof- 10 years away, given current certification targets.
of-concept” flights passing SAF to receiver aircraft An obvious contender for an electric aircraft is via
including the Typhoon and Lockheed Martin C-130J. Project Telum: a plan to provide a carbon-neutral
From a pure performance viewpoint, the RAF is not solution for Air Cadet and University Air Squadron
concerned about SAF. “We are more interested in the flight training, to replace Grob Aircraft G115E Tutor
long-term effects of SAF on fuel systems and seals, T1s by 2027. The RAF has been testing Pipistrel’s
because it comes from a different place,” says Lloyd. battery-powered Velis Electro since 2021 as it
The RAF, along with its partners Airbus, Rolls-Royce, investigates the technology.
the MoD’s Defence Equipment and Support procure- Lloyd is among many who see partnership and
ment agency, and others, is analysing the data from collaboration as key ingredients in progressing
these flights to answer all the questions around SAF to defence sustainability. “It is essential that we do this
be completely confident in its future use. with other air forces. There are several NATO working
groups to get the standards set up,” he says.
Delivery pipeline “We also signed last summer the Global Air Chiefs
The RAF is following the Department for Transport’s Climate Change Collaboration (GACCCC),” he adds.
policy of having at least 10% SAF blended in the UK
jet fuel mix by 2030. “We buy off the market through
the pipeline [which delivers jet fuel to all UK civil and ‘Proof-of-concept’ refuelling flights have
military users], so if the pipeline is delivering 10% SAF passed SAF to aircraft including the Typhoon
by 2030 we will likely be buying 10%,” says Lloyd.
Conversations with suppliers on SAF offtakes are
happening. The fuel used during trials was acquired on
a one-off basis but, like its airline cousins, the RAF will
have to consider signing long-term SAF deals now.
The service is instead encouraging the ramp-up in
SAF production, with Lloyd describing its role as a
“fast follower, where we are trying to help the system
Dominic Perry/FlightGlobal

get the process going”.

“The fact the RAF is buying it has a value way more
important than the physical volume,” he notes. “It’s
more about moving together and trying to get those
contracts moving forwards.”
The RAF also has several projects investigating the
use of alternative propulsion technologies. In April it
announced Project Monet, a joint initiative between its
Rapid Capabilities Office, Babcock and Swift Aircraft “Over 50 nations have now signed an agreement to
to develop two experimental test aircraft to showcase work together on understanding this and collaborat-
the capabilities and potential of a range of sustainable ing in several working groups.”
technologies in the military context. Air forces from all corners of the globe are re-
The project will examine apects including the sponding positively to the challenge defence has on
potential for all-electric battery power and synthet- sustainable operations. “It has not been a big effort
ic-fuelled internal combustion engines, as well as [to sign people up to the GACCCC],” stresses Lloyd.
hydrogen fuel cell and hybrid propulsion. “There are the usual bigger players taking the lead,
“Electrification is a totally different way to do busi- and then some of the other smaller air forces are keen
ness,” Lloyd says, and brings with it a plethora of ques- to understand it. They all have very different perspec-
tions. “What is the electrical infrastructure you need? tives and concerns about what climate change will
How would you turn the aircraft around rapidly? How do to them,” he says. “Everyone is trying to figure out
do you deal with the whole system around it – it’s not what they could be doing and how to work together.”
just the go flying thing, we need to understand it.” It is a conversation that many air forces are engag-

50+
ing with. “I ran the Typhoon team just over two years
ago, and I wasn’t really talking about this. In that peri-
od, it has changed, and it feels exponential,” he says.
“Everybody is behind this. It is the most collabo-
rative thing I’ve ever seen, because if we don’t do it
together – and that’s internationally as well – then
we’re not going to get there.
“It is important that we show leadership. It is impor-
Number of nations that have signed up to the Global Air tant that we show that sustainability is not just a civil
Chiefs Climate Change Collaboration agreement sector thing – the military has a role in that as well.” ◗

74 Flight International July 2023

 From yuckspeak to tales of yore, send your offcuts to murdo.morrison@flightglobal.com

Ryanair’s
big problem
Ryanair’s agreement to take the Boeing 737 Max 10 will
present the airline with an operational vulnerability as it
adapts to the larger aircraft type.
While group chief financial officer Neil Sorahan,
during a briefing on the deal, deadpanned that the
airline will be putting in “very comfortable first-class
seats for all of our customers”, chief executive Michael
O’Leary considered the practicality of maintaining
25min turnaround times with a 228-seat jet.
“We’ll be [having] special training programmes for
our customers for the next 10 years on how to move
faster, travel with fewer bags,” he said. “We have no
doubt we’ll do 25-minute turnarounds when it’s raining.
But when it’s sunny and we’re getting them on and off
the back of the aircraft, this is going to be a challenge.”
RAF Museum

O’Leary says the airline will be working closely with

its customers to “incentivise” them, but he’s obviously The bomber is one of only two examples remaining
just joking. Maybe. Perhaps.

Speeding up the
self-loading cargo What the blazes?
Sometimes a news headline does not deliver the story
expected, and so it was when we read: “Car completely
destroyed in fire on A380”.
Was this a bit of massive aviation safety news that
had somehow evaded industry journalists worldwide –
but been picked up by the… er… Teignmouth Post?
Claudio Divizia/Shutterstock

Perhaps the source should have provided a clue.

The A380 is the A road that connects Torbay and
Exeter. A conflagration in an abandoned Volvo – no
injuries reported – was no doubt interesting news in a
corner of south Devon, but probably did not account
for the story becoming one of the most-viewed articles
that day on a certain UK news aggregation site.

From the archive

1923 Immunity from risk

100
At the Gothenburg International Aero Exhibition,
1948 Model behaviour
75
This month we celebrate the centenary of the first
which opens on Friday of this week, the British section, flight by a power-driven model aircraft. On July 2nd,
thanks largely to the backing by our Government, 1848, John Stringfellow succeeded in making his
probably forms the most important combined steam-driven model fly under its own power. That
national exhibit in this great show, occupying as it many years were to lapse before Wilbur and Orville
does the centre of the great pavilion. Fortunately, in Wright made their first flights in a full-size machine
spite of the exhibits being held up in the Docks, all does not detract from the merits of the efforts of such
difficulties were overcome, and the machines arrived early pioneers as Cayley, Henson and Stringfellow.
in Sweden on Monday last. Once the world realises They appreciated the basic principles of heavier-
that British design and quality in aircraft spell practical than-air flying machines and visualized the general
immunity from risk and disaster, the placing of orders form. Stringfellow proved that a fixed-wing machine
with our constructors is but a natural sequence. We could be sustained in the air by the lift of its wings
look forward to valuable results in this direction, generated by its forward speed – and this was at a
and congratulate the Society of British Aerospace time when most experimenters were trying to emulate
Companies on their work upholding British prestige. the birds with their flapping wings.

76 Flight International July 2023

 Straight & Level

Wellington reboot
Experts have restored a Second World War Vickers
Wellington to its original glory after more than 10
years of work.
The bomber – one of only two remaining – is now on
public display at the Royal Air Force Museum Midlands’
new Bomber Command exhibition.
The Wellington, with its Barnes Wallis-designed
geodetic fuselage, was a night bomber in the early
years of the conflict, and by 1942 had become the
most numerous type in Bomber Command before four-
engined bombers such as the Halifax and Lancaster
began to replace them.
Vickers built the museum’s example in 1944 and it
served with the No 1 Air Navigation Training School
from 1949 to 1953. Although it was not operational
during the war, the museum says the example
represents the bomber’s contribution to the war effort.
It had been on display at the RAF Museum’s site in
London until 2010, before moving to the Conservation
Centre in the Midlands for treatment on corrosion to its
structure and replacement of its fragile, Irish linen skin.

Just for lavs Flying pics

Kudos to someone at the European Union Aviation
Safety Agency (EASA) for their choice of phrasing
when they were drawing up a recent airworthiness
directive on Airbus A350 lavatories.
Michael Turner/Guild of Aviation Artists

The 17 May directive refers to discovery of corrosion

on floor fittings, and instructs operators to conduct
repetitive inspection on the affected parts.
EASA warns that the condition could lead to “lavatory
module detachment”, with possible injury to cabin
A quick final plug for the Guild of Aviation Artists’ Aviation
crew or passengers.
Paintings of the Year exhibition. If you missed the show at the
But it also cautions that the sudden departure of
Imperial War Museum, Duxford over the weekend of 23-25 June,
the toilet from its foundations could result in “reduced
there is a chance to view the works at gava.org.uk
evacuation capacity”.

1973 Raising the Halifax

50
A team of divers from RAF Strike Command led by Sgt
1998 The seeds of EADS
Winning the World Cup may have been a dream come
25
David Walker of RAF West Drayton, Middx successfully true, but bringing a vision for a combined European
recovered a Second World War Halifax from Lake defence and aerospace super-company centred on
Hoklingen, Norway, recently. The Halifax crash-landed French soil to fruition must be seen in French circles
on the lake after being hit by anti-aircraft fire during an as a mix of miracle and pure genius. This week’s
attack on the German battleship Tirpitz in April 1942. surprise announcement by the French Government
The lake was frozen at the time and only one member that in just five months the country’s two biggest
of the crew was hurt in the landing. The aircraft, which rival defence groups – state-owned Aerospatiale
sank during the night after the raid, was located in 90ft and private sector Matra Hautes Technologies (part
of water in 1968. Apart from corrosion to magnesium of Lagardere) – would merge to create Europe’s
components and a fracture in the wing, the aircraft largest aerospace and defence company took most
was said to be in “unbelievably good condition.” It will by surprise. Not least Europe’s other prime defence
be dismantled and shipped to Britain, where it will be powerhouses in the UK and Germany, with which
rebuilt for display at the RAF Museum at Hendon. It is France has ostensibly been engaged in cross-border
believed to be the only surviving Halifax. consolidation talks this year.

July 2023 Flight International 77

 Letters

Rewarding your
ur contributions
From this month’s issue, we are rewarding one sent to the postal address at the foot of this page, for
reader with a free cutaway poster or print of their the attention of the editor.
choice for submitting what we judge to be the best The selected winner will be able to choose one of
letter contribution. the prints available via our flightglobalimages.com
Your letter can be in response to an article published online store, with a maximum value to be notified
in Flight International or online on FlightGlobal.com, or through correspondence.
relate to other aviation-related topics. The editor’s decision will be final, and we regret
Letters should be no longer than 500 words, and we will not be able to enter into any correspondence
emailed to flight.international@flightglobal.com or regarding our monthly choice.

retired members of the 787 design and production

Lessons learned teams should be invited back to give seminars on the
mistakes and near mistakes that they made. Should
In your Comment article ‘Just a hiccup?’ (Flight they also be present at critical design reviews, to help
International, May 2023), you state that with its draw on their past experience?
long and rich history Boeing should find it easy to An organisation may have a long and illustrious
develop and build aircraft without its current difficulties. history, but the hard-won knowledge and experience
I would suggest that the “corporate memory” of of the people within it are constantly leaching away
any large organisation is about 10 years. This is the with the passage of time.
result of the churn of personnel due to retirements Also, is it truly cost-effective to outsource critical
or promotion, or by moving to other parts of the aircraft structures work to subcontractors, given the
company and other enterprises. Hard-learned lessons extremely high direct and indirect costs of subsequent
are forgotten or lost in a relatively short time. re-work when quality standards are not achieved?
This is critical when it comes to new aircraft As a minimum, a very significant presence of
programmes, as the length of time between them is the prime company’s quality assurance inspectors
becoming ever longer. The last all-new commercial is essential to ensure that correct procedures are
aircraft programme undertaken by Boeing was the followed and the necessary quality standards are
787, launched in 2004 – nearly 20 years ago – and first achieved during build. The cost of subsequent
flown in 2009. rectification is enormous and causes immense
How long will it be before the launch of Boeing’s reputational damage.
next new programme? It is likely to be a first for the
majority of the individuals involved. Martyn Hurst
How might the risks of this be mitigated? Perhaps Godalming, Surrey, UK

We welcome your letters about the coverage in Flight International and online at FlightGlobal.com – or about any other
aerospace-related topic. Letters should be no longer than 500 words in length, and supplied with the correspondent’s name
and location. They may also be featured anonymously, on request. Please email flight.international@flightglobal.com or write
to: The Editor, Flight International, 1st Floor, Chancery House, St Nicholas Way, Sutton, Surrey, SM1 1JB.
Letters may also be published on FlightGlobal.com, and do not necessarily represent the views of the editor.

78 Flight International July 2023

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80 Flight International July 2023

 US Air Force pilot Kim Campbell miraculously
recovered her A-10 after it was hit over Baghdad 20
years ago – now she shares her experience as an
author, public speaker and leadership coach

How ‘Warthog’ ace

survived Iraqi strike
Ryan Finnerty Tampa the seven-barrelled Avenger 30mm cannon used to
engage ground targets at low-altitude, the Warthog
is intended to survive hostile fire.

A
violent shudder rocked through the airframe, A titanium “bathtub” surrounds the cockpit, the fuel
as a surface-to-air missile (SAM) slammed tanks are enclosed in fire-resistant foam lining, and
into the low-flying fighter. its two GE Aerospace TF34-100 engines are durable
Pulling out of a left-hand turn, Kim “KC” enough to survive extensive battle damage.
Campbell felt the impact behind her, as the Fairchild But what really saved Campbell over Baghdad was
Republic A-10 ‘Warthog’ was engufled in a ball of the aircraft’s triple-redundant, manual flight control
flame. The flight controls went limp in her hands. back-up system, officially known as manual reversion.
“It really felt like I had no flight control at all,” the “It’s fairly unique to the A-10s,” she notes, describing
retired US Air Force (USAF) officer recalls, 20 years the system as using “old-school cranks and cables”.
later. “I pulled back on the stick in that left-hand turn While this provides only limited flight control, it
and I just felt like nothing. Nothing was happening.” allowed Campbell to regain control of her aircraft and
The SAM had impacted the jet’s right horizontal pull out from its dive toward the Tigris. However, she
stabiliser, sending shrapnel into the fuselage and still had to limp the jet some 300nm (480km) back to
severing the primary and back-up hydraulic lines. a friendly base in Kuwait an hour away. If the manual
It was April 2003, and Campbell’s A-10 squad- flight system failed, she would be forced to eject over
ron was deployed to Iraq, providing air cover to US the Iraqi desert, to an uncertain fate.
ground forces driving toward Baghdad. Her flight had Even if Yard 02 made it back to base, landing
responded to a call for help from troops pinned down under manual reversion would be extremely risky.
in the Iraqi capital, facing entrenched enemy forces.
After lining up a low-altitude attack run, Campbell,
flying that day as callsign Yard 02, launched a salvo
of rockets at the Iraqi position – breaking off just as
the missile struck her jet.

Critical moments
In her memoir Flying in the Face of Fear, she recounts
the ensuing seconds.
“The jet rolls over to the left and points directly
down at Baghdad… I can see the Tigris River getting
closer… and I know I might have to eject,” Campbell
recalls. “But the last thing I want to do is eject out of
my airplane into the hands of the enemy.”
Although she now faced another life-threatening
situation, Campbell had survived the SAM’s impact
Kim Campbell

thanks to her aircraft’s uniquely rugged design.

Shrapnel severed aircraft’s
The Cold War-era A-10 was built to kill Soviet tanks
hydraulic control lines
on the plains of Central Europe. Designed around

82 Flight International July 2023

 Women in aviation

With no speed brakes or steering, the procedure

was considered so dangerous that it was not even
practised during A-10 flight training.
Indeed, such a landing had only been attempted
three times previously, resulting in one pilot fatality
and two destroyed aircraft.
“I knew about those stories,” Campbell says. She
says that A-10 pilots do train on manual reversion in
simulators, or while flying at a safe altitude of at least
10,000ft, “Just to get a feel for how it flies – because
it’s heavy, it feels different. But we don’t try to land –
it’s just too risky.”
A 1982 USAF investigation into the performance of
A-10 pilots while under manual reversion found the
system offered an “added margin for survival”, but
also created “unacceptable workload” for aviators
during landing.
“Aircraft control in the manual flight mode is excep-
tionally demanding of piloting skills,” the report noted.
In the end, Campbell was able to bring her A-10
Kim Campbell

home, landing safely.

Campbell retired from
“I’ve struggled to find a word to describe it,” she
military as a colonel
says of walking away from the combat experience.
“Relief just doesn’t describe it.”
However, that sense of relief was to be short-lived,
as Campbell was back in the air the next day support- “Every time there’s a
ing a search and rescue mission for another A-10 pilot
who had been shot down. conflict, the A-10 proves
Full career itself, but after the end of
She would go on to a full career in the air force,
retiring as a colonel. Her A-10 from the Baghdad the conflict we talk about
mission, tail number 81-987, was deemed too
damaged to fly again, and is now on display at getting rid of it again”
Seymour Johnson AFB in North Carolina.
The USAF recently began retiring its first A-10s, with
defence leaders pointing to the aircraft’s age and lack selected to fly the Warthog. But that changed as the
of survivability against modern air defence systems. type proved itself in combat.
“It wasn’t designed for that high-threat environ- “I think a lot of student pilots were realising that if
ment,” Campbell acknowledges. However, she cautions they want to go do what they’ve been trained to do,
against rushing to eliminate the Warthog’s powerful then the A-10 was absolutely an airplane to go fly,”
ground attack capability altogether, noting that the she says.
troops below will always need close air support. “Every time there’s a conflict, the A-10 proves itself,
Indeed, service leaders are still seeking ways to but then after the end of the conflict we talk about
creatively employ the aged jets. In May, the USAF’s getting rid of the airplane again,” she notes. “We
top officer in the Middle East announced that A-10s prove ourselves when it counts.”
upgraded to carry additional precision-guided bombs Since retiring from the air force, and in addition to
will deploy to the region on a deterrence mission – a writing, Campbell now works as a public speaker and
task usually reserved for newer, multi-role fighters. leadership coach, and remains connected to aviation
The type’s cult status among active-duty troops through those efforts.
and veterans – a result of protracted ground wars in “We have a responsibility as fellow aviators to
Iraq and Afghanistan – has significantly raised the keep each other safe,” she says. “That means we
A-10’s profile from the time when Campbell attended share our stories, we share those experiences, even
flight school in late 1990s. when they expose mistakes or weaknesses. Those
“I couldn’t even find a poster of the A-10 to put on stories can help make other people better and they
my wall,” she recalls after finding out she had been can save lives.” ◗

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July 2023 Flight International 83