Flight International Aug 2021 6429

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com August 2021
Learning from
tragedy
Rolls-Royce speeds
electric charge p26
Rising hopes
Veteran Islander’s
green future p34
Airframers get set for recovery p48

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Comment
Moviestore/Shutterstock
Join the future!
United Airlines has been on an order spree, assembling the
building blocks it thinks will be required for 21st century air
travel. Is chief executive Scott Kirby a visionary or a gambler?
I
n the past eight months, United There has been a steady flow of efforts to achieve carbon neutrali-
Airlines has been on a tear. The orders from the carrier this year as ty by 2050.
Chicago-headquartered company it brings together these transfor- But the airline’s core business –
has committed to at least six mas- mational jigsaw pieces. In Febru- transport of passengers between
sive investments in innovative aero- ary, there was a deal with Archer cities in today’s commercial aircraft
space technologies that it hopes Aviation for 200 eVTOL air taxis; – is not being ignored: in June, Unit-
will relegate its image as a lum- in June, Kirby committed to the ed placed the biggest new aircraft
bering behemoth of the US skies purchase of 15 faster-than-sound order in its history as it speeds the
– weighed down with the baggage “Overture” aircraft from Boom Su- renewal of its narrowbody fleet.
of tradition – to the history books. personic, with options for 35 more; Those 200 Boeing 737 Max and 70
Chief executive Scott Kirby and and in July, United and its regional Airbus A321neos are due to begin
his airline are on the cusp of a new partner Mesa Airlines announced entering service in 2022.
era in aviation, and are banking on their intention to acquire up to 200 To some observers, Kirby is a vi-
the fact that United’s future pas- 19-seat electric regional aircraft sionary; an ambitious ambassador
sengers will gladly pay a premium from Sweden’s Heart Aerospace, for an industry reinventing itself as
to get from point A to point B fast- plus an undisclosed investment in travel habits and expectations shift
er, and in style. The company has the company. in a post-Covid environment; a
embraced electric vertical take-off While only the Archer order had bold futurist who has taken the cri-
and landing (eVTOL) air taxis, elec- any indication of its value – $1 billion sis and turned it into opportunity.
tric regional aircraft as well as Con- – it is safe to say that shaping the For others, he is a fool, sinking
corde-like supersonic airliners. future does not come cheap. billions of the company’s hard-
The current airline transportation It is difficult to say which of earned cash into pie-in-the-sky
system is based around passengers these three projects is the riski- futuristic projects that may never
driving to overcrowded major air- est – or most rewarding. All of the see the light of day, or gain the ac-
port hubs and then cramming on to technologies face an uphill climb ceptance of the customers it aims
large jet airliners. to become technically viable, cer- to serve.
United thinks eVTOL and electric tified and financially sound. And so Kirby the technophile is deter-
regional aircraft could feed travel- far not a single one of the in-devel- mined to lead his airline in the 21st
lers to major airports more effec- opment aircraft upon which Unit- century with a host of new tech-
tively – or bypass hubs completely ed has placed its costly bets has nologies that could permanently
– while supersonic jets would cover flown a single – even uncrewed – change air travel.
longer routes in less time. test mission. “United is the new leader in glob-
Turning this futuristic vision of Amid the whizz-bang of super- al aviation,” he declared at the
aviation into reality will probably sonic travel and electric aircraft, event celebrating the aircraft order
take decades. And the cost? Well, Kirby has also made fighting cli- on 29 June.
no-one is sure. But United has at mate change a top priority, launch- It remains to be seen if the flying
least made a few down payments ing several schemes as United be- public agrees. ◗
against its plan. comes ever more aggressive in its See p10
August 2021 Flight International 3

In focus
Domestic deals boost UAC at Pret a Porter 16 Boneyard to digital twin 28
MAKS as Su-75 is unveiled 6 Data hints at recovery 18 RAF’s transformation 29
BA 787 incident pinned on No moon shots for NASA 20 D328eco gains momentum 32
mechanic’s mistake 8 Powering ahead 22 B-N’s green machine 34
United order lifts Max 10 F-35A gets Swiss decision 24 Thales’ unmanned ambition 37
More trouble for Dreamliner 14 R-R leads the charge 26 747 wrecked after overrun 40
48
All aboard How big is the

market for Airbus A220?
12 26
Regulars Comment 3 Best of the rest 44 Straight & Level 74 Letters 76 Jobs 81 Women in aviation 82
4 Flight International August 2021

Contents
In depth
Up in the air 48 Pause for thought 64 Building back 70
Airframers face some familiar A reduced volume of flight What long-term damage has
– and newer – challenges. We activity should equate to fewer the pandemic done to the
look at seven key programmes accidents, but the slower rate production chain? And will
or market segments, where of working is also providing managing the recovery be as
decisions in the next months the industry with extra thinking much of a challenge as coping
could be critical time around safety with the collapse in demand?
FlightGlobal.com August 2021
64
Learning from
tragedy
Rolls-Royce speeds
electric charge p26
Rising hopes
AirTeamImages
Veteran Islander’s
green future p34
Airframers get set for recovery p48

9
£4.99
770015 371327
Orders split Lightning Bern

United boosts F-35 downs
Max and Neo its rivals in
backlogs Switzerland
0 8
p10 p24
6 20
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Russia eyes Checkmate

with Su-75 move
Sukhoi’s single-engined stealth platform
could see deliveries from 2026, with
international customers being targeted
Vladimir Karnozov Moscow confer designations traditionally
Garrett Reim Los Angeles belongs to Russia’s armed forces,
once an aircraft is operational.
He notes that the name is a
T
he Sukhoi Su-75 will fly in deliberate reverse of the digits
2023 and be delivered from on Sukhoi’s twin-engined Su-57
Vladimir Karnozov
2026, according to United stealth fighter, developed for the
Aircraft (UAC), which un- Russian air force.
veiled Russia’s latest lightweight Slyusar describes the Su-75 as an
fighter design at the MAKS air affordable fifth-generation fighter
show on 20 July. that offers high performance at low
UAC chief executive Yuri Slyusar acquisition and sustainment costs.
says the single-engined jet – which Sergei Chemezov, chief executive large, provided we bring the prod-
was earlier revealed to Russian Pres- of UAC parent Rostec, says the uct to market quickly enough.”
ident Vladimir Putin – is “more than “flyaway” price of each aircraft will He admits that to do that with-
just a mock-up”. Instead, the result be between $20 million and $30 in five-and-a-half years is chal-
of its project “Checkmate” is under- million. UAC is targeting 300 sales. lenging, but progress on the pro-
stood to be an engineering proto- “This is not a dream,” insists Sly- gramme has allowed UAC to bring
type for ground testing, including usar. “We made a thorough assess- the entry-into-service target date
iron bird and copper bird functions. ment of the global market using a forward from 2027.
While Slyusar referred to the number of criteria and found that The type’s primary role will in-
design as the Su-75, the right to the demand for such an aircraft is itially be aerial combat, with
Domestic deals boost UAC

David Kaminski-Morrow London
U
nited Aircraft (UAC) used
the MAKS air show to high-
light its commercial de-
velopment activities, and
announce fresh commitments for
domestic airliners.
Speaking to Russian President
Vladimir Karnozov
Vladimir Putin ahead of the show,

UAC chief executive Yuri Slyusar
said the manufacturer is aiming to
reach a production rate of 36 Irkut
MC-21s per year by 2025, and to
Orders for a total of 58 Superjets
double this figure within the fol-
were announced at MAKS show
lowing two years.
Slyusar says the certification
programme for the MC-21 has com-
pleted more than 500 flights, and class will be acquired in the Rus- the state. “We need to be techno-
that the Ulyanovsk-based Aero- sian market over the next 10 years. logically ready for this,” he adds.
Kompozit facility has “mastered” “We expect, of course, that a sig- Russia’s Rossiya has been con-
the composite technology to pro- nificant part of our domestic market firmed as launch operator for the
duce the type’s wings. will be held by MC-21 aircraft,” Sly- MC-21, with the Aeroflot Group car-
According to UAC estimates, usar says, partly as a result of “pro- rier expecting to start operations
around 600 aircraft in the twinjet’s tectionist support measures” from with the type next summer. The

Show MAKS
electronically scanned array radar

capable of tracking 30 targets si-
multaneously and guiding missiles
against six of them.
Slyusar says the Su-75 is an in-
dustry-led initiative rather than a
response to a specific Russian air
force requirement. However, he is
confident that Moscow will order a
number of examples.
Russia’s trade and industry min-
ister Denis Manturov says industry
has been working on the fighter
concept for four years, and notes
that the Su-75 marks an attempt
to re-enter a segment that was
once served by the likes of the
Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-21.
Yuri Borisov, a deputy to the
Russian prime minister with re-
sponsibility for the defence in-
dustrial sector, says potential cus-
UAC aims to sell 300 examples of
tomers include India, Vietnam and
fighter unveiled on 20 July
“African countries”.
Meanwhile, Alexander Mikheev,
director general of Russia’s Rosob-
adaptations for ground attack, lightweight fighters. Although it oronexport arms export agency,
anti-ship, and reconnaissance fol- has not named an engine, it is be- says five countries are interested in
lowing. The aircraft will have five lieved to be considering a variant procuring an international version
internal weapons bays and a weap- of the “Item 30” version of the NPO of Sukhoi’s current stealth fighter.
ons load of up to 7.5t. Maximum Saturn AL-41F1 being developed “The interest from foreign cus-
speed is given as Mach 1.8, and for the Su-57M. tomers [in the Su-57E] has risen
range as 1,620nm (3,000km). Mikhail Strelets, the chief de- substantially,” he says. “The aircraft
UAC says the Su-75’s aero- signer who heads the project does have a high export potential
dynamic shape will give it better at Sukhoi, says the Su-75 will despite the unfair competition in
stealth credentials than existing be equipped with an active the form of sanctions.” Z
airline says it has been assured by Irkut gave a show debut to – produced with a 100-seat, sin-
Irkut that the technical acceptance its Aviadvigatel PD-14-powered gle-class layout – are due to be de-
process for its first example will MC-21-310, which flew in the open- livered during August.
start in the spring of 2022. ing display alongside its PW1400G- Southern Russian operator
Irkut completed mating of the equipped sibling. Azimuth, which already has 15 of
left wing of the initial customer In the show’s main orders the type, also has reached a pre-
MC-21 on 14 July, following installa- announcement, four domestic car- liminary agreement to take anoth-
tion of the centre section and right riers signed agreements covering er 10 by 2026. It will also take six
wing, and says it will start assem- the acquisition of a combined 58 Airbus A220-300s.
bling the aircraft’s systems “in the Sukhoi Superjet 100s. Also at the show, Russian carrier
near future”. The -300 variant jet Aurora signed a preliminary agree-
will be powered by Pratt & Whitney Done deals ment to acquire eight Superjets
PW1400G engines. Red Wings’ agreement covers 25 by 2024 on lease. The airline also
Rossiya says it has commenced aircraft to be received by 2022. has emerged as a customer for 19
preparations to organise cockpit These will join seven examples in examples of the Ilyushin Il-114-300
and cabin crew training, estab- use since last September. twin-turboprop.
lish a maintenance network on Red Wings general director Slyusar says UAC expects to de-
potential routes, and update infor- Evgeny Klyucharev describes the liver 30 Superjets this year, tak-
mation systems. Superjet as “perfect for regional ing the overall operational fleet to
“These aircraft are designed to transport in Russia”. more than 180.
serve as an additional basis for the Rossiya signed for 15 examples in Development of an Aviadvigatel
growth and development of Rossi- an agreement which involves leas- PD-8-engined ‘SSJ-New’ version is
ya’s domestic and international ing company PSB Aviaprofleasing. “proceeding on schedule”, Slyusar
routes,” says general director Sergei The carrier has since January in- says. “We hope that, in a two-year
Aleksandrovsky. The carrier says troduced 38 Superjets drawn from horizon, we will receive our new
the MC-21 will be an “integral part” Aeroflot’s mainline operation, and domestic engine, which will be of-
of a strategy to operate a core fleet expects to have 66 by year-end. fered to customers along with the
of modern, Russian-built aircraft. The first three of its new aircraft [PowerJet SaM146]”, he adds.

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BA 787 incident pinned on mistake

during maintenance procedure
Nose-gear retraction that left aircraft damaged took place
as engineers attempted to rectify fault before cargo flight
David Kaminski-Morrow London It sustained damage to its low- To prevent the landing-gear
er forward fuselage – which came retracting during this process, pins
to rest on the articulated arm of were required to be inserted in
B
ritish Airways is to speed a ground power unit – and engine the nose-gear and the main land-
up implementation of a fix cowls, which struck the ground. ing-gear downlocks.
to prevent a repeat of the One passenger door detached as But that pin was mistakenly in-
nose-gear retraction inci- a result of contact with the access serted into an adjacent hole, the
dent that damaged one of the car- stairs as the aircraft sank. “The AAIB says. “When the landing gear
rier’s Boeing 787-8s on the ground door hinges and actuating mecha- selector was cycled the [nose-
at London Heathrow, in the after- nism had failed and the door, which gear] retracted.”
math of two similar events in the was resting on the top platform of Two mechanics had been tasked
previous five years. the stairs, remained attached to with inserting the locking pins. But
UK investigators have yet to the fuselage by the remains of its the inquiry says that one of them
complete their assessment of the wiring loom,” says the Air Acci- was “not tall enough” to reach the
factors that led to the 18 June dents Investigation Branch (AAIB). insertion point on the nose-gear,
event, but have attributed it to a and so he simply pointed to the
nose-gear locking pin being insert- Deferred defect location while the other mechanic
ed in the wrong location before The jet had been undergoing a pro- fitted the pin.
the landing-gear was cycled on the cedure to clear maintenance mes- Four personnel were on board
parked aircraft as part of a mainte- sages relating to a deferred defect the aircraft. One suffered minor
nance check. when the incident occurred, says injuries, as did another individual
The incident involving the wide- the AAIB. who was operating a cargo loader.
body, G-ZBJB, occurred at Heath- This procedure required the land- Although an airworthiness direc-
row’s stand 583, as the aircraft was ing-gear selection lever to be cy- tive, with a three-year compliance
being prepared for a cargo service cled with hydraulic power applied deadline, had been issued in Jan-
to Frankfurt. to the aircraft. uary last year to install an insert

Incident Investigation
2013-built aircraft G-ZBJB is
currently being repaired
Lack of clarity surrounded the completely and block any attempt

Ethiopian incident. Boeing ac- to insert a nose-gear lock pin.
knowledged the retraction to the When the FAA put forward a pro-
FAA but believed the event was posed directive to mandate Boe-
not caused by a wrongly inserted ing’s solution – an insert fixed with
lock pin, but was “specifically due a cotter pin – the airline asked for
to there being no ground lock in its sealant-based mitigation to be
installed at all” – which technically accepted as an alternative, given
amounted to a different issue. that it had already modified its 787
But the FAA, in a December 2019 fleet, and to delay adoption of the
directive, said it had received “con- Boeing fix until the next compo-
flicting information” over the prob- nent overhaul.
able cause of the incident, sug- But both Boeing and the FAA ar-
gesting that it might have occurred gued that sealant was “not a long-
as a result of wrong insertion. term solution” because it could
There was less doubt over a degrade over the life of the land-
second occurrence, two years lat- ing-gear, whereas the bore insert
er in March 2018, when a 787-8 was a “more robust” answer which
experienced an on-ground nose- could withstand the nose-gear’s
gear retraction while undergoing rough environment.
maintenance testing at a US con-
version facility in Grant County Long deadline
airport, Washington. While the FAA directive mandated
“Although no maintenance per- the Boeing fix from mid-January
sonnel were injured, the incident 2020, it provided operators with a
resulted in major structural dam- three-year compliance deadline.
age to the forward fuselage,” the BA had published a technical
FAA stated. It attributed the nose- leaflet regarding nose-gear lock
gear retraction to the lock pin be- pin installation in April 2020, three
over the apex pin bore – in order ing fitted in the apex pin inner bore months after the FAA directive,
to prevent incorrect fitting of the of the nose-gear’s lock link assem- highlighting the correct and incor-
downlock pin – this had not been bly – which was immediately adja- rect positions. This was reissued
implemented on the BA 787 at the cent to the correct location for the the following December, with an
time of the event. lock pin. This mirrors the AAIB’s expiry date of 9 June – nine days
That safety mandate followed findings in the BA event. before the Heathrow event.
several such incidents involving After the Grant County incident The aircraft had not undergone
landing-gear issues. the FAA received a safety report the modification. It sustained sub-
One of Ethiopian Airlines’ 787-8s from an operator’s maintenance stantial damage from the nose-
suffered an inadvertent nose-gear technician which described the risk gear retraction, not least because,
retraction at Addis Ababa in March of accidental nose-gear retraction as the jet sank, one of its forward
2016, as the aircraft was preparing arising from misidentification of left-hand passenger doors was al-
for a flight. the lock pin’s insertion point. most completely torn off.
Passengers were on board the United Airlines had pre-empted BA plans to “expedite” imple-
aircraft at the time, according to Boeing’s identification of the po- mentation of the modification in
the US Federal Aviation Adminis- tential for such an error and de- the aftermath of the event, says the
tration (FAA), and some received vised its own solution to prevent it. AAIB. The inquiry has yet to reach
minor injuries, while the aircraft re- The US carrier introduced a seal- conclusions on the human fac-
ceived “substantial” damage. ant to fill the apex pin inner bore tors that might have contributed,
but states that the lead mechanic
tasked with fitting the landing-gear
lock pins was not tall enough to
reach the nose-gear insertion point
without the aid of steps.
But the investigators add that
the lead mechanic fitted each main
landing-gear assembly with two
Air Accidents Investigation Branch
pins “with the aid of some portable

steps”, while the other mechanic
observed. The lead mechanic then
confirmed to an engineer, both in
the cockpit and over a headset,
that the pins had been installed.
G-ZBJB is a 2013-built 787-8,
powered by twin Rolls-Royce Trent
1000 engines, Cirium fleets data
Forward fuselage came to rest on a power
records, and is scheduled to return
unit and engine cowls struck the ground
to service in September. ◗

United’s order reinvigorates

Boeing’s Max, but Airbus deal
casts unwelcome shadow
Carrier’s 70 A321neos will operate from

Airbus
slot-constrained airports
While 200-aircraft deal for 737 Max is a boon for Boeing, a win
for its rival is a reminder of the A321neo’s competitive threat
Jon Hemmerdinger Tampa of the longer-range A321XLR – is 3,300nm (6,110km) range – enough
illustrative of the success Airbus is to fly transcontinental US routes.
having with the largest variant in Meanwhile, United can deploy its
T
here is no getting away from its narrowbody line-up. new A321neos on both domestic
the fact that United Airlines’ “Those 70 [A321neos] could have and international routes, and from
recent 200-unit order for been 737s, but Boeing doesn’t slot-constrained airports. With a
Boeing’s 737 Max throws have an airplane that can do what baseline range of 4,000nm – ris-
considerable – and much needed – the A321 can,” says BofA Securities ing to 4,700nm for the in-devel-
additional momentum behind the financial analyst Ron Epstein. “To opment A321XLR – those jets can
programme, even if the airframer me, the real story is [that] Airbus serve transatlantic destinations
had to offer a significant discount is taking more share at an airline from places such as Newark, a ma-
to secure the business. that... was leaning toward Boeing.” jor East Coast hub for the airline.
But the carrier’s simultaneous Analysts view the split order as
deal with Airbus for another batch perfectly logical. The airline can Discount deals
of A321neos is a reminder that the use its 737 Max fleet primarily to BofA pegs the list-price value of
European airframer is continuing to operate domestic flights – a role the combined Airbus-Boeing or-
encroach on Boeing’s turf. well suited for the 737 Max 10. That ders at $30 billion, though airlines,
Unveiled on 29 June, the parallel jet can carry more passengers particularly those the size of Unit-
commitments comprised 50 737 than other Max variants and has ed, do not pay list prices. The actu-
Max 8s and 150 Max 10s – the larg- al value of a new 737 Max 8 is $49.6
est variant of the 737 Max family – million, compared with $49 million
plus 70 A321neos. United expects
to begin operating both the Max 10s
and A321neos in early 2023, around
the time that Boeing plans to deliv-
er its first examples of the variant.
$30bn
List-price value of the combined
for an A320neo, according to Ciri-
um, which also values a 737 Max 10
at $54.6 million, and an A321neo at
$58.8 million, giving a deal value of
about $15 billion.
That deal for A321neos – added Airbus-Boeing orders, according “United probably got very
to an existing commitment for 50 to BofA Securities good pricing coming out of a

Airline Strategy
downturn,” says George Dimitro- “I think it’s important to acknowl- 25 of the incoming 737 Max will be
ff, head of valuations at Ascend edge that… in sheer performance white tails – meaning aircraft that
by Cirium. “I’m almost certain [the and technical merits, the Max 8 is have been built but which are not
Max 10’s price] was cheaper than doing better than the A320,” says assigned to specific customers.
the A321, which explains why they Michel Merluzeau, analyst with Boeing’s inventory of such jets has
ordered 150 Max 10s.” consultancy AIR. accumulated in recent years as air-
Dimitroff says the deal’s heavy In a two-class layout, the Max 8 lines cancelled orders amid the Max
tilt toward Max 10s further benefits can carry about 162 passengers grounding and Covid-19 pandemic.
Boeing because those jets com- – eight more than the A320neo – In 2020, the airframer logged
mand a higher price than smaller and costs 5-8% less per seat-mile 641 Max cancellations, offset by
Max 8s and Max 9s, but cost com- to operate, according to data from new orders for 130 of the jets. Last
paratively little more to produce. AIR affiliate AirInsight Group. year, Boeing also stripped another
“Even if United got a sweet deal for “If you line up the 737 Max [8] roughly 550 Max orders from its
the Max 10, Boeing is getting more to an A320, it’s a better plane,” backlog to reflect uncertainty that
money for the Max 10,” he says. Epstein adds. those sales would complete owing
Analysts also view United’s order Some additional good news for to factors including the financial
as an endorsement for the Max 8, Boeing can also be discerned from condition of the buyers.
which the airline chose over the United’s commitment: disclosing That trend has reversed in 2021.
A320neo. its new order, the airline said only In the year to date, Boeing has
landed new orders for at least 505
737 Max, offset by 255 cancella-
“I’m almost certain [the Max 10’s tions, according to customer re-
ports and Boeing’s data. (Those
price] was cheaper than the A321, figures will probably change, as
Boeing has not yet reported fi-
which explains why they ordered nal June order and delivery num-
bers.) Besides United, Alaska Air-
150 Max 10s” lines, Dubai Aerospace Enterprise,
SMBC Aviation Capital and South-
George Dimitroff Head of valuations, Ascend by Cirium west Airlines have ordered Max
aircraft in 2021.
As of 1 July, Boeing’s pool of
completed aircraft included only
23 Max white tails, according to
Rob Morris, Ascend by Cirium
global head of consultancy.
Loyal customer
“Those orders seem to have cleared
up the inventory of white tails,” his
colleague Dimitroff says. Finding
customers for those jets can help
Boeing “slowly increase their pric-
ing on the Max”, he adds.
As the airline is one of its most
loyal customers, the United deal
was always Boeing’s to lose.
The carrier is the product of the
merger between the legacy Unit-
ed Airlines and Continental Air-
lines – a famously staunch Boeing
operator long headed by Gor-
don Bethune, who had previously
worked at the airframer.
That is not to say the airline has
shied away from Airbus products.
Pre-merger United was an ear-
ly customer of first-generation
A320-family jets. It still has nearly
200 of those in service and stor-
age, but they are aged between
14 and 28 years and quickly ap-
proaching retirement.
But the bulk of United’s narrow-
body fleet are 737s. It has nearly
375 of those jets, including many
Boeing
Latest order gives Max

programme valuable boost new 737NGs and 737 Max jets,

plus outstanding previous orders

for another 180 737 Max aircraft.
For those reasons, United might
Kirby’s grip
have been expected to stick solely
with the Max for its narrowbody re- Latest order signals repositioning of the
quirements. But the type’s ground-
ing set the programme back and US major – and, in Scott Kirby, shows a
threw Boeing off track, says Ep-
stein. The company has not moved chief executive unafraid of taking risks
forward with a 757/767 replace-
ment – the so-called “mid-market
jet” that the aerospace commu-
nity expected Boeing would have
launched several years ago.
If not for the Max issues, “all
those airplanes would have been
737s”, Epstein says. “And Boeing
probably would have had an an-
swer in the middle of the market.”
Analysts view United’s A321neo
orders as reflecting continued in-
roads into the middle market made
by the European manufacturer.
Ten years ago, Boeing’s 737 and
legacy McDonnell Douglas types
held about 60% of the global nar-
rowbody market, with A320-family
jets accounting for the remainder,
Cirium data shows.
Shifting shares
Those figures have since shifted
to an almost 50-50 split between
the two airframers. At the end
of May, Airbus had 6,144 A220s
and A320-family jets in its back-
log, compared with Boeing’s
4,014-strong Max order book.
Analyst Richard Aboulafia of
United is buying 15 Overture
Teal Group has predicted that the
supersonic jets from Boom
A321neo’s success could drive
Airbus’s share of the narrowbody
market to 60%. As of end-June it
had taken orders for 3,543 exam- Pilar Wolfsteller Newark, New Jersey A321neos – is among the largest air-
ples, 47% of total A320neo-family craft orders in history. As the indus-
sales, the airframer’s data shows. try digests the massive deal, United
U
Industry watchers also broad- nited Airlines’ new fleet has signalled that it is squarely fo-
ly view United’s order as another plan not only shifts its focused on premium customers and
reminder that neither Boeing nor cus to the premium-travel on squeezing efficiencies and prof-
Airbus offers a jet truly filling the segment, but it also ce- its from its multiple hubs.
mid-market niche – the space long ments chief executive Scott Kir- The airline thinks a renewed
occupied by 757s and 767s. by’s reputation as a leader una- fleet will drive up profitability as
United chief executive Scott Kirby fraid of taking risks in the face of the sector recovers from the more
says the incoming jets will replace industry upheaval. than year-long global pandemic. It
the airline’s roughly 40 757-200s, In addition to disclosing an order is also adding more lie-flat seats
which have up to 176 seats in the air- for 270 more Airbus and Boeing on long-haul flights, significantly
line’s configuration. But he says the narrowbodies on 29 June, Kirby upgrading in-flight entertainment
carrier has not identified replace- says United’s focus has shifted to- (IFE) and investing in customer
ments for its roughly 20 757-300s ward strengthening its presence in service improvements – changes
– larger jets with 234 seats. large markets – and scaling back in United views as key to success in
Boeing has hinted at develop- small ones. United has also recent- the post-pandemic era.
ing a mid-market jet for years. ly committed to acquiring electric “This is much more than just
But in early 2020, amid the Max air taxis and supersonic jets, and an aircraft purchase,” Kirby says.
struggles, it shelved a project pledged to invest in sustainable “This is about changing the entire
called the “New Mid-market Air- aviation fuels (SAFs). customer experience.
plane”. There is, as yet, no sign of United’s latest order – for 200 “The bet we are making today
that plan being revived. Z Boeing 737 Max and 70 Airbus is that the customers care about

Airline Strategy
the product,” he adds. “We had no United’s first 737 Max 8 was delivered a
chance to compete effectively, and day before it announced the new orders
this order is about remedying that.”
The underlying problem for the
carrier to date, executives say, has
been the size, or gauge, of its jets.
“This is not about opening new
cities and routes,” says chief com-
mercial officer Andrew Nocella.
“This is about gauge. Gauge, gauge,
Pilar Wolfsteller/FlightGlobal
gauge. This is about getting the
right aircraft on the right mission.”
The new jets, which will begin
arriving in 2022, will significantly
increase the size of aircraft in Unit-
ed’s fleet, giving the carrier the op-
portunity to offer some 30% more
seats per departure by 2026, and
75% more premium seats per de-
parture, United says. “A low-cost carrier trying to fly to match the schedule depth of
It estimates the larger jets will in an expensive airport like New- our primary competitors in some
cost about six cents per seat, per ark – the business model doesn’t smaller markets. “We also know we
mile (excluding fuel expenses) to work,” Kirby says. “They don’t real- are not going to bridge that entire
operate, helping United drive down ise that yet.” gap,” he adds. “We cannot be all
its overall adjusted unit cost by 8% United held a slick media event things to all people.”
by 2026. “We will essentially have in a hot and humid Newark hangar United and other network carri-
the same cost as the ultra-low-cost on 29 June to promote its narrow- ers added many point-to-point lei-
carriers,” Nocella says. body order, part of a wider trans- sure routes to their networks amid
That will allow United to bet- formation the airline calls “United the pandemic – an effort to com-
ter compete, via its hubs, with Next”. The event’s backdrop: its pensate for a total collapse of busi-
ultra-discounters. Kirby thinks the first 737 Max 8, which was deliv- ness travel. That strategy is clearly
airline will have a significant com- ered one day earlier. That aircraft not United’s long-term focus.
petitive advantage at large airports is outfitted with seat-back IFE The hubs are United’s “high
in major cities, which he views as screens, larger overhead bins and ground”, Nocella adds. “And we
too costly to be viable in the long other features United says im- know it.”
term for low-cost competitors. prove customer comfort. United’s fleet renewal comes on
That is why Dallas-based South- the heels of other major technology
Boom Supersonic
west Airlines left Newark, Kirby More space and fleet announcements this year.
adds, and why UK discounter Also on 29 June, United committed In February, United said it intend-
Ryanair does not fly to London to retrofit older jets with the up- ed to buy up to 200 of Archer Avi-
Heathrow airport. dated cabins and IFE. It promises ation’s in-development electric ver-
larger overhead bins will provide tical take-off and landing (eVTOL)
enough space for every passenger aircraft, which “are expected to
to stow one carry-on bag. give customers a quick, economi-
It expects to receive 40 new nar- cal and low-carbon way to get to
rowbodies in 2022, 138 in 2023 and United's hub airports and commute
the balance in 2024 and beyond. in dense urban environments”.
At the same time, United expects In April, United launched its
in the coming years to operate only “Eco-Skies Alliance”, a programme
about 100 50-seat regional jets, through which it will allow custom-
down from about 300 before the ers and corporate partners to in-
pandemic. The airline will replace vest in SAF. The airline hopes this
those aircraft with larger types. year to purchase 12.9 million litres
United’s fleet plan reflects a (3.4 million USgal) of the fuel.
decision by the airline to accept its And just weeks ago, United said
trailing position at many smaller US it had committed to buying 15 of
airports, where the carrier already Boom Supersonic’s Overture su-
lags behind competitors such as personic jets.
American Airlines and Delta Air “Whether it’s this new aircraft
Lines, Kirby says. order with the great interior, or su-
Pilar Wolfsteller/FlightGlobal
Therefore, United will focus on personic aircraft or electric aircraft,

strengthening its position in major or what we are doing for sustaina-
markets, where Kirby sees a com- bility, United really is the new lead-
petitive advantage. er in global aviation,” Kirby says. Z
“In smaller communities, we are
Kirby is shifting United’s focus
on the smaller side,” Kirby says. Additional reporting by Jon
to larger aircraft and markets
“We don’t expect we are going Hemmerdinger

Programme Disruption
More trouble for Dreamliner

Fresh production problems identified on 787 spark another
round of inspections, slowing output of the widebody twin
Jon Hemmerdinger Tampa
Latest issue centres on tolerances
of forward pressure bulkhead
B
oeing’s latest 787 manufac-
turing issue and associated
production cut has raised
more uncertainty about the
programme, leaving analysts un-
clear about output this year and
Mic Smith/AP/Shutterstock
the pace of regulatory approval.
On 13 July, the manufacturer said
it had discovered a new problem
on the Dreamliner involving gaps
in the forward pressure bulkheads
of undelivered jets. While not a
flight-safety issue, the components
fail to meet exacting specifications,
requiring the company to complete Financial services firm JP Morgan can always pose incremental ques-
inspections and potential rework says Boeing’s disclosure of the new tions about something as complex
on about 100 undelivered 787s. 787 problem raises more questions as assembling an aircraft,” JP Mor-
“As Boeing has previously shared, than answers. gan’s report says. “There is still un-
the company has been engaged in “How much will [management] certainty regarding execution, and
detailed discussions with the FAA lower production? What will be it may be some time before [man-
[Federal Aviation Administration] the duration of that cut?” it asks. agement] can provide a detailed
on verification methodology for “And, more fundamentally, what is financial path forward.”
787 fuselages, and conducting as- the process for Boeing to show the
sociated inspections and rework,” FAA that its 787 assembly process Cancel culture
the company says. “In connection and inspections meet specifica- As delivery delays continue, so too
with these efforts, the company tions fully?” does the risk that customers will
has identified additional rework The answer to that last question cancel orders, notes BofA Securi-
that will be required on undeliv- is most critical, says JP Morgan – ties. That is because aircraft sales
ered 787s.” and most uncertain. agreements typically allow airlines
Boeing is shifting assembly work- Boeing halted most 787 deliveries to walk away from deals with little
ers to assist with inspections and in May after the FAA said it needed or no penalty when deliveries are
rework, and as a result is cutting more time to evaluate a compa- delayed by more than one year – an
production to an unspecified rate; ny-supplied algorithm intended to issue Boeing is all too familiar with,
787 output had been set at five per aid inspections of the skin-flatness given the 737 Max’s travails.
month this year. issue. Deliveries remain paused, “The delays in deliveries of over
except for a single 787 that was a year could start triggering penal-
Deliveries drop handed to Turkish Airlines in June; ties and no-fee walk-away option-
“Based on our assessment of the the airframer was able to ship that ality pretty soon,” says BofA. “We
time required to complete this jet because it had been certificated estimate that, within the next 12
work, Boeing is re-prioritising pro- before recent manufacturing prob- months, a third of current 787 or-
duction resources for a few weeks lems, the company says. ders in backlog will be affected by
to support the inspection and re- Boeing also stopped 787 deliv- the [one-year-plus] delay clauses.”
work,” the airframer says. “As that eries from October 2020 to March Boeing has accumulated the in-
work is performed, the 787 pro- this year owing to a similar fuse- ventory of roughly 100 undelivered
duction rate will temporarily be lage issue. The company deliv- 787s during the course of the pan-
lower than five per month and will ered just 14 787s in the first half of demic and delivery halts.
gradually return to that rate. Boe- 2021. Boeing still holds authority Exactly how many 787s Boeing
ing now expects to deliver fewer to issue airworthiness certificates will actually hand over in 2021
than half of the 787s currently in for individual 787s, but regulations remains difficult to predict because
inventory this year.” require the company to develop much depends on the FAA’s ap-
The latest problem follows Boe- fixes before delivering more air- proval. Financial firm Jefferies esti-
ing’s May halt to 787 deliveries as craft, the FAA says. mates Boeing will ship 72 787s this
a result of another issue involving “We believe Boeing is still de- year, down from 158 in 2019, before
the flatness of the skin at areas termining the scope of rework re- the Covid-19 pandemic. ◗
where fuselage sections join. quired, and we imagine regulators See p50

Pret a Porter
Canadian regional airline
has selected Embraer
195-E2 jets to power
route expansion, in the
process ending any
lingering interest
in Airbus A220
Jon Hemmerdinger Tampa Billy Bishop, including to some US says. “Potential markets reach
Pilar Wolfsteller Las Vegas destinations, but only as far south coast to coast in Canada and the
as north Florida. United States, including US sun
The carrier halted operations destinations, as well as Mexico
C
anada’s Porter Airlines in March 2020 amid the Covid-19 and the Caribbean.”
has ordered 30 Embraer pandemic and has pushed back Sister company Porter Aircraft
195-E2s and taken options its expected restart several times, Leasing will acquire the jets. The
to acquire a further 50 of most recently until 8 September. company also has the option to
the jets, while also announcing “This is a defining moment in convert the orders to the smaller
plans to expand to Toronto Pear- Porter’s history,” its chief execu- E190-E2, it says.
son airport and to southern warm- tive Michael Deluce says. “Today, “This provides opportunities to
weather destinations. we lay the foundation for a new introduce nonstop service in mar-
The deal marks a major fleet and and further-reaching service for kets where connecting flights are
network shift for Porter, an all-tur- our customers.” He cites the E195- often the only option today. It also
boprop operator that has never E2’s “spacious cabin, quiet opera- enables higher-frequency service
previously served Pearson. It also tions and no middle seats”. for routes with greater demand,”
spells the end for the carrier’s in- the airline adds.
terest in the Airbus A220, which Leisure destinations Deluce adds: “Now is the right
dates back to 2012 when the air- “Porter intends to deploy the time to make this investment, as
craft was still known as the Bom- E195-E2s to popular business and the pandemic resets the avia-
bardier CSeries. leisure destinations throughout tion landscape. Adding a di-
Porter intends to place its Canada, the United States, Mexi- verse selection of popular busi-
E195-E2s into service in the second co and the Caribbean, from Otta- ness and leisure destinations
half of 2022. wa, Montreal, Halifax and Toronto to our network means that we
Porter will not operate the jets Pearson International airports,” are better positioned to serve
from its hub at Billy Bishop Toron- the airline says. many more passengers.”
to City airport, where the airline Porter has not disclosed how The airline says its operation at
is also headquartered. But Porter it will configure its E195-E2s. Billy Bishop will “remain core to
insists it will continue flying its De The airline plans to release new its business”, adding that Porter
Havilland Canada Dash 8-400s planned routes in 2022. Moving will maintain a “high-frequen-
from the downtown site. into Toronto Pearson will see cy service” using Dash 8-400s
Since beginning operations in Porter competing more direct- from the facility.
2006, Porter has operated only ly against major carriers like Air “The airport is essential to
Dash 8-400s, of which it has 29, Canada and WestJet. the airline’s immediate plans
according to Cirium fleets data. It “The E195-E2’s range allows for re-establishing flights and
primarily operated those aircraft for the creation of a conti- developing future routes,”
on regional Canadian routes from nental route network,” Porter
Porter

Airline Development
Carrier has ordered 30 jets, with

options to acquire a further 50
Embraer maintains
turboprop course
Dominic Perry London
Embraer is pressing ahead with

Porter says. “The E2s will not op- on the city of Toronto lifting noise its plans for a new turboprop
erate from this airport.” and aircraft size restrictions at Bil- airliner and is eyeing a
In addition, the airline’s head- ly Bishop to allow the operation of programme launch next year.
quarters at Billy Bishop is “being A220s at the smaller airfield. Arjan Meijer, chief executive
maintained and we will continue While there may have been hope of Embraer Commercial
serving the same network of rein some quarters that the deal Aviation, says the airframer
gional markets from downtown could be revived, Porter confirms has been “more and more
Toronto,” says Deluce. “We are that its selection of the E195-E2 vocal” in recent months over its
moving beyond this existing foot- has ended any lingering interest it intentions for the market.
print to welcome more travellers had in the A220. “Embraer is very much
across North America.” “Porter no longer has a con- focused on the segment. We are
Embraer previously disclosed ditional order with Airbus,” it still working on a turboprop and
Porter’s 30-aircraft order but had confirms; an outstanding letter of hope to launch the programme
not named the customer. The deal, intent is believed to have expired in 2022,” he said in late June.
including options, is worth $5.8 in January. Last year, Embraer showed
billion at list prices and will make “The A220 and E2 are both great updated renderings of its
Porter the launch customer for the aircraft. We looked at all of the air- design that now shares the
E195-E2 in North America. craft options available today and same fuselage cross-section as
chose the E2 for a number of rea- its current E-Jet family.
Conditional order sons, including the ability to meet This, says Meijer, will allow
But while it is good news for Em- our preferred delivery schedule the new aircraft to “bring much
braer, it is the end of the line for starting next year,” Porter adds. better passenger appeal to the
Porter’s flirtation with the A220. In addition, the airline says 37% turboprop segment”.
Porter was among early custom- of the E2’s major components are Service entry is likely in the
ers for the A220-100, signing a produced in Canada, making the 2027-2028 timeframe, he says.
conditional 30-unit order in 2013, new order a sizeable investment in “It will really stand apart from
which firmed up a letter of intent the country’s aerospace industry. the products out there today.”
from the previous December. Airbus builds A220s at sites in Mira- Meijer says Embraer has also
At that stage, the programme was bel, Quebec and Mobile, Alabama. “selected the turboprop as
owned by Bombardier and called Both types are powered by Pratt & the platform for the future”,
the CSeries. Airbus bought the pro- Whitney geared turbofan engines. allowing the airframer to add
gramme in 2018 and rebranded it. An A220-100 can carry 100-135 “more sustainable solutions” to
But the order was always very passengers and has a 3,450nm later iterations.
conditional: Porter said it hinged (6,210km) range, against 120-146 That does not imply that the
passengers and 2,600nm range manufacturer is moving away
for the E195-E2. ◗ from jets, but that it views
the turboprop as an ideal fit
for new power or propulsion
technologies.
Discussions with several
potential partners on the
project are “progressing well”,
Meijer adds.

JetBlue Airways took delivery

of its first A321LR in April
Half-year data hints at recovery

Orders and deliveries inch higher at big two airframers in
first six months of 2021, though cancellations remain high
Airbus
Jon Hemmerdinger Tampa albeit that 356 cancellations took the onset of the air transport cri-
David Kaminski-Morrow London the net figure to 243. Still, that sis. The level was exceeded only by
compares well with the first half the 89 achieved by the airframer
of 2020, when gross orders stood during its end-of-year push in
I
f you look only at orders, then at 59. June was the fifth straight December 2020.
the first half of the year belonged month that the airframer’s orders Boeing, which has been slowly
to Boeing, which racked up deals outstripped cancellations. ramping up 737 Max deliveries
for almost 600 aircraft in the Airbus, meanwhile, had seen its following the type’s re-approval,
first six months of 2021. On the net order figure languish in neg- shipped 45 aircraft in June, more
other hand, if deliveries are what ative territory over the course of than in any month since March 2019,
counts, then Airbus comfortably including 33 Max jets.
outscored its rival, shipping just However, that narrowbody ship-
shy of 300 jets.
Boeing’s first-half cancellations
also outstripped those disclosed
by Toulouse, which will continue to
worry the US giant.
599
Gross orders recorded by Boeing
ment total was well shy of the 57
A320neo-family aircraft that were
delivered by Airbus, plus five of
the smaller A220s.
But whichever side of the fence for the first half of the year Dreamliner woes
you sit on, what the first-half data And while Boeing is returning the
does appear to indicate is a recov- Max to an even keel, production
ery of some sort, or at least airlines 2021 until the United order was problems on the 787 meant that it
positioning themselves for that. recorded on 28 June. The deal handed over a solitary example in
meant the airframer’s gross orders June – and just 14 in the first half
Positive territory for the half-year of 165 aircraft of the year.
United Airlines’ blockbuster deal exceeded the 127 cancellations. June’s activity brought Boeing’s
for 200 Boeing 737 Max jets and In terms of deliveries, however, backlog to 4,166 aircraft, up from
70 Airbus A321neos in late June Airbus is comfortably ahead, hav- 4,121 at the end of May. That com-
was very much with the future in ing shipped 297 aircraft in the first prises: 3,334 737s, 11 747s, 107 767s,
mind. It also contributed one-third six months of the year – over 100 286 777s and 428 787s.
of Boeing’s 2021 half-year total and more than the 196 recorded at the Airbus, meanwhile, currently has
pushed Airbus into positive order same point in 2020. a total backlog of 6,925 aircraft:
territory for the year. In addition, the 77 aircraft hand- 484 A220s, 5,666 A320-family
In all, Boeing recorded 599 gross ed over in June marked the sec- jets, 293 A330s, 479 A350s and
orders in the first half of the year, ond-highest monthly figure since three A380s. Z

Orders and deliveries Analysis
Better freight than never for Boeing, as cargo customers keep lining up
Figures at the half-year point clearly illustrate the The European airframer is contemplating
difference that Boeing’s freighter line has made to development of an A350 freighter to establish
the two main airframers’ long-haul order activity a stronger presence in the cargo aircraft sector
following the onset of the air transport crisis in the and provide a competitor to the 777F.
early months of 2020. Airbus and Boeing
Both Airbus and Boeing Atlas Air Worldwide has ordered respectively recorded gross
have struggled to secure four more 747-8 freighters orders for 21 and 29 long-
orders for twin-aisle haul passenger aircraft
passenger aircraft since in the pre-pandemic first
the pandemic took hold. quarter of 2020.
Over the 18 months to But this market, which
the end of June this year, had already been weak,
Boeing obtained gross virtually evaporated for
orders for 58 new long- the remaining months of
haul freighters – of which 2020 and has picked up
56 were gained after only slightly over the first
March 2020, the point half of this year.
where the Covid-19 crisis Airbus has listed orders
started severely affecting for just seven twin-
airline operations. aisle passenger aircraft,
These 56 freighters including a private jet,
included 26 777Fs, 25 767-300Fs and five 747-8Fs. since March 2020, while Boeing has fared better
But Airbus attracted no interest in its A330-200F, with 21, among them a 747-8.
the only freighter it offers, over the period – and Boeing’s business also benefited from large
actually fell into negative orders after a previous orders for 29 military 767 tankers over the period,
Boeing
agreement for three was cancelled. compared with Airbus’s total of two military A330s.
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No moon shots for

NASA Aeronautics
Agency’s latest demonstration project
for commercial aviation lays the ground
for next-generation narrowbodies
Jon Hemmerdinger Tampa industry’s next-generation sin-
gle-aisle transport aircraft.”
NASA’s proposed SFNP fund-
N
ASA has left no doubt ing is a fraction of what industry
that it wants to help make spends on research and develop-
next-generation narrow- ment. But, being free of commer-
body jets significantly cial pressures – though dependent
more efficient. on Congressional purse strings –
That will be achieved via its Sus- allows the agency to advance tech-
tainable Flight National Partner- nologies that industry might other-
ship (SFNP), a technology devel- wise consider too revolutionary for
opment effort aimed at bringing near-term applications. “NASA has
25% efficiency gains to single-aisle pinpoint focus and can take bigger
jets coming to market in the 2030s. risks,” Wahls says.
Sustainable Flight Demonstrator X-plane
Under the SFNP, which encom- The SFNP’s “centrepiece” will
NASA
will probably have truss-braced wings

passes several existing projects, be a “full-scale Sustainable Flight
NASA intends to develop and fly a Demonstrator X-plane to validate
demonstrator of a new commercial integrated systems and their ben-
airliner, alongside compact engine efits,” NASA says. The agency aims NASA has studied various designs,
cores, hybrid-electric systems and for the X-plane to make its first including “double-bubble” fuse-
advanced composite manufactur- flight in FY2026, which starts in lages, blended-wing bodies and
ing methods. October 2025. truss-braced wings. Wahls calls the
“If we are successful, it puts tech- truss-braced design a “leading can-
nology into the design and trade didate” for the X-plane – one that
space that [industry] can look at,”
says Richard Wahls, strategic tech-
nical adviser at NASA Aeronautics’
Advanced Air Vehicles Program. “It
doesn’t mean that it automatically
25%
Targeted improvement in fuel
could boost efficiency by 5-10%.
Trusses can support longer, more
slender wings, meaning higher as-
pect ratios and “much higher levels
of aerodynamic efficiency”, says
makes it on to an aircraft.” efficiency for new single-aisle in 2030s NASA. But trusses bring complex-
ity. They have joints and differing
Narrow options load paths. Engineers must address
The SFNP will help “enable the NASA intends to solicit proposals powerplant-integration challenges
next-generation single-aisle trans- from industry to design and build and buffet and icing concerns.
port, expected by the early 2030s, the X-plane in its next fiscal year.
to be a game-changing, ultra-effi- As such, which companies will par- Truss tests
cient and low-carbon-emitting de- ticipate remains unknown. The agency, which plans to per-
sign at least 25% more fuel efficient Boeing says: “We are excited form truss-wing buffet tests in the
than today,” NASA says in its fiscal about the opportunity to be part next fiscal year, has long studied
year 2022 budget request. of this Sustainable Flight National trusses. It previously partnered
Analysts widely expect Boeing Partnership and look forward to with Boeing to advance the con-
and Airbus will each bring to mar- working with US industry, research cept via its Subsonic Ultra Green
ket a new narrowbody in the 2030s. and academic collaborators on this Aircraft Research programme. In
That leaves NASA needing to move important project for future trans- 2019, Boeing revealed a conceptual
fast: new technologies need to be port aircraft technologies. Mach 0.8 truss-braced airliner fea-
demonstrated by the mid- to late- “We were pleased to see that the turing folding wings with a span of
2020s to be sufficiently mature for president’s budget request includ- about 52m (170ft) – 18m wider than
an aircraft to enter service next ed a 10.4% increase in the NASA the span of a 737.
decade, Wahls says. Aeronautics account, and the Initially at least, the X-plane will
Or as its documents note: “NASA prioritisation of critical subsonic not demonstrate all the techn-
will ensure that the technolo- aircraft technologies.” ologies being advanced by the
gies will be ready by the mid-to- The X-plane’s configuration is SFNP. High-power-density turbofan
late 2020s to transition into US also undetermined. In recent years, cores, for example, will probably be

Research Investment
“If we are successful, it

puts technology into the
design and trade space that The SFNP also encompasses
NASA’s Hybrid Thermally Efficient
[industry] can look at” Core effort to develop smaller,
more-efficient and more-powerful
Richard Wahls Strategic technical adviser, NASA Aeronautics engine cores, from which up to 20%
of power can be extracted for con-
version to electricity. Smaller cores
can mean greater bypass ratios
(meaning more efficient engines),
and the electricity generated can be
used to power other systems on the
aircraft – replacing heavier pneu-
matic and hydraulic systems.
Longer term, engineers hope to
use electricity to “hybridise pro-
pulsion”, meaning to store elec-
tricity in batteries and use that to
supplement power from jet fuel,
Wahls says.
Material improvements
But smaller cores require different
architectures and new, high-tem-
perature-capable materials, which
NASA is studying, Wahls says. The
agency hopes to perform small-core
ground demonstrations in FY2026.
Small-core engines could be
5-10% more efficient, and increased
electrification could deliver anoth-
er 3-5% efficiency gain, Wahls says.
Under the SFNP, NASA will also
insufficiently mature by the date of the X-plane but could incorporate demonstrate new methods of car-
the X-plane’s planned first flight, some technologies matured under bonfibre production, continuing
Wahls says. “There are multiple par- the SFNP, Merluzeau adds. work already started under its
allel paths that are demonstrating NASA launches the SFNP against Hi-Rate Composite Aircraft Manu-
different technology… If you put too the backdrop of an US-EU trade facturing programme.
many miracles on a big demonstra- dispute that finally seems to be Widebodies such as the 787 and
tor, the risk goes way up.” heading for resolution. Airbus A350 already have com-
NASA says the project will ben- For years, governments have posite fuselages, but, at their high-
efit US competitiveness and help hurled allegations, via the World point, were built at rates of 14 per
industry meet emissions goals. Trade Organization, that each unfair- month, in the Dreamliner’s case; in
“SFNP is NASA’s response to ly subsidised aircraft development. contrast, even in the current down-
increasing challenges from inter- But on 15 June, the sides seemed turn, Airbus has been churning out
national entities to the nation’s to reach a detente when they 40 A320neos each month.
long-term leadership in commer- agreed to a “co-operative frame- Enabling complex composite pro-
cial aircraft manufacturing,” it says. work”. Under that deal, they com- duction to hit those narrowbody
“This partnership aims to accom- mitted to support their respective rates is the challenge, Wahls says.
plish the aviation community’s ag- aerospace industries “on market Therefore, NASA intends to
gressive climate change agenda.” terms” and to “make the results demonstrate technologies that
Pressure to curb emissions has of fully government-funded R&D will enable composite airframe
never been greater. The US Con- widely available”. structures to be produced four to
gress is evaluating an infrastructure six times faster. “The project focus
bill that includes clean-energy ini- Propulsion focus will be airframe structural compo-
tiatives, and lawmakers have pro- Much of the SFNP’s focus will nents for single-aisle transport air-
posed subsidising biofuel produc- be on propulsion. As part of craft,” it says.
tion. Meanwhile, the airline industry the programme, NASA plans to NASA’s FY2022 budget proposal
is working to slash emissions by award contracts to demonstrate calls for $915 million for its Aero-
2050 to half of 2005 levels, but how “1MW-class electric powertrain nautics division: it is less than 4% of
it can achieve that is still unclear. systems” for single-aisle jet hy- the agency’s total proposed $24.8
Aerospace analyst Michel Mer- brid-electric powerplants, doc- billion budget but is a 10% increase
luzeau with consultancy AIR views uments say. The agency aims to on the amount received this year.
NASA’s efforts at least partly “about begin flight testing such systems By comparison, Boeing alone
preparing Boeing to be compet- in FY2024 or FY2025, Wahls spent $1.4 billion on commercial
itive… for the next generation of says. The effort is related to NA- aircraft research and development
commercial airplanes”. Boeing’s 737 SA’s Electrified Powertrain Flight in 2020, down amid the pandemic
replacement might look nothing like Demonstration programme. from nearly $2 billion in 2019. Z

Propulsion Evaluation
De Havilland Canada will modify a Dash 8-100
to house the hybrid-electric technology
Powering ahead Canada’s Strategic Innovation

Fund, which helps bankroll large-
scale Canadian research and de-
velopment projects, “is backing the
New P&WC hybrid demonstrator gets technology demonstrator”, P&WC
says. The province of Quebec is
funding from Canadian government, also supporting the programme
through government corporation
with goal of test flights by 2024 Investissement Quebec and the
province’s ministry of economics
and innovation.
Jon Hemmerdinger Tampa P&WC aims to begin ground-test- “We are investing to create
ing its hybrid-electric propulsion good, well-paying jobs for our re-
technology in 2022, followed by covery,” Canadian Prime Minister
C
anada is backing an am- flight testing of the system on a Justin Trudeau says. “This invest-
bitious project to convert modified Dash 8-100 in 2024. ment will also secure the [aero-
a turboprop airliner to P&WC president Maria Della Pos- space] industry’s long-term future
hybrid-electric power, with ta says the programme will make in Canada” by advancing “green
demonstration flights scheduled to the engine maker “an integral part aviation” technologies.
begin in 2024. of Canada’s green recovery plan”. P&WC calls the effort a “succes-
Led by Pratt & Whitney Canada, “Hybrid-electric technology has sor” to Project 804, a programme
the effort also involves airframer an important role to play in ena- launched in 2019 by United
De Havilland Canada, which is sup- bling the next step-change in effi- Technologies Advanced Projects
plying a Dash 8-100. ciency for aircraft engines, and we (UTAP), a rapid-prototyping divi-
The programme advances work are uniquely positioned to demon- sion of former P&WC parent United
that P&WC and its sister compa- strate this potential,” she adds. Technologies, which merged with
nies had already started under P&WC is collaborating with De Raytheon to form Raytheon Tech-
their Project 804 initiative, which Havilland, a unit of Longview Avi- nologies in April 2020.
stalled in 2020 amid the fallout ation Capital, which acquired the As of 2019, Project 804 – named
from the pandemic. Dash 8 programme from Bombar- for the distance in miles between
P&WC has now committed again dier in 2019. P&WC’s Montreal site and Collins’
to the hybrid-electric technology electric-technology facility in Rock-
– this time with the backing of Cockpit interfaces ford, Illinois – aimed to equip a Dash
the Canadian federal and Quebec The companies will integrate a hy- 8-100 demonstrator with a 2MW
provincial governments, which are brid system into a Dash 8, which hybrid-electric system, which would
together contributing around half typically carries 40 passengers. replace one of the aircraft’s two
of the C$163 million ($129 million) The system will include an “ad- P&WC PW120 turboprop engines.
total investment. vanced electric motor and control- Project 804’s hybrid system was
“The new hybrid-electric propul- ler” supplied by Collins Aerospace, to consist of a 1MW gas turbine
sion technology will drive signifi- a sister company of P&WC under paired with a 1MW electric system,
cant improvements in aircraft effi- the Raytheon Technologies group. each helping drive a propeller via a
ciency by optimising performance De Havilland will “design a mod- gearbox and each providing power
across the different phases of ified nacelle structure to house the during take-off. After take-off, the
flight, allowing the demonstrator to hybrid-electric technology” and turbine, optimised for cruise, was
target a 30% reduction in fuel burn “be responsible for the cockpit to provide 100% of the hybrid sys-
and [carbon dioxide] emissions, interfaces needed to safely moni- tem’s output.
compared with a modern regional tor and control” the system. It will UTAP said the hybrid-electric
turboprop airliner,” P&WC says. also “conduct the flight-test and system would increase the Dash 8’s
It is a significant commitment by demonstration programme and operating empty weight and ap-
an engine manufacturer to develop interface directly with Transport proximately halve its fuel capacity,
a propulsion system that could sig- Canada for the corresponding ex- leading to a 400nm (740km) range
nificantly reduce fuel burn. Though perimental flight permit”. reduction, to around 600nm.
several start-ups are working to “We are immensely proud to be However, no details are available
develop all-electric passenger air- the first manufacturer of regional on the performance characteristics
De Havilland Canada
craft, most are commuter-catego- aircraft supporting the develop- of the new hybrid demonstrator.
ry designs with 19 or fewer seats, ment of hybrid-electric propulsion Raytheon in mid-2020 said it had
where the drawbacks of battery technology,” says De Havilland chief slowed the Project 804 effort as a
power are not as significant. transformation officer Dave Riggs. result of Covid-19. Z

F-35A proves Swiss precision

Lockheed offer wins out in Bern’s Air2030 contest, with
36-strong fleet to be delivered to Alpine nation from 2027
Craig Hoyle London ranked first in three of its four force’s current jet aircraft”, its as-
main assessment categories, fall- sessment continues.
ing short only in terms of direct Lockheed’s candidate also was
S
witzerland will replace its industrial participation. ranked first with regard to product
Boeing F/A-18C/D Hornet Factoring in projected operating support, “because of its efficient
fighters with 36 Lockheed costs over a 30-year period, the operation and maintenance, mod-
Martin F-35As, following a F-35A acquisition should total ap- ern training design, and the high
decision announced by Bern on proximately Swfr15.5 billion, which security of supply throughout its
30 June. Widespread speculation Armasuisse says is roughly Swfr2 service life”.
about a victory for the US-built billion less than any of its rivals. An assessment of co-operation
stealth fighter had built in the week potential also placed the US model
before confirmation came from the Stealth factor ahead of its rivals, “offering exten-
nation’s federal department for “In terms of effectiveness, the sive opportunities for operational
defence, civil protection and sport. F-35A achieved the best result collaboration and broad access to
The outcome of the Alpine na- because it has a marked techno- data and technical resources”.
tion’s Air2030 competition rep- logical advantage over the oth- “Ultimately, as the most modern
resents a dual blow to European er candidates: it includes entirely weapons system, the F-35A can
industry, with Switzerland’s Fed- new, extremely powerful and combe assumed to have a technologi-
eral Council having rejected offers prehensively networked systems cal lead well into the future. This is
of the Dassault Rafale and Euro- for protecting and monitoring air- a major advantage over the other
fighter Typhoon – along with the space,” the procurement agency candidates,” Armasuisse adds.
F/A-18E/F Super Hornet – and the says. Also pointing to the type’s However, “In direct offset, the
Eurosam SAMP/T air-defence sys- stealthy design, it adds that “the re- F-35A did not achieve the best re-
tem. The programme’s ground- sulting high survivability is a great sult at the time the bid was made.
based air-defence element is to be advantage for the Swiss air force”. The offset obligation of 60% of the
met by acquiring five Patriot sys- The type’s “ease of operation… order must be fulfilled in full no lat-
tems from Raytheon. means that it requires about 20% er than four years after receipt of
“An evaluation has revealed that fewer flight hours than other can- the final delivery.”
these two systems offer the high- didates, and about 50% fewer Late last year, Lockheed said it
est overall benefit at the lowest take-offs and landings than the air had identified potential industry
overall cost,” Bern’s Armasuisse
defence procurement agency says.
While all four fighter candidates Swiss air force’s F/A-18C/D Hornet
met the nation’s evaluation re- fighters will be phased out
quirements, Armasuisse says the
F-35A’s procurement bill will total
Swfr5.07 billion ($5.48 billion): “by
far the best result”. Bern had re-
ceived budget approval to spend
Swfr6 billion on the new fighter
Michael Derrer Fuchs/Shutterstock
fleet, plus Swfr2 billion on air-de-

fence equipment.
“With 336 [evaluation] points, it
showed the highest overall bene-
fit and was the clear winner, with
a lead of 95 points or more over
the other candidates,” Armasu-
isse says of the F-35A. The type
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IN ASSOCIATION WITH
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Selection Fighters
Lockheed Martin
Stealthy type was the clear winner
in nation’s evaluation process
partners in all three of Switzer- air base between April and June acquiring a third squadron of the
land’s language regions, and that 2019, with Saab’s in-development type. “We are seeing interest now
the country could become a Euro- Gripen E excluded from the pro- in Spain, Greece and the Czech Re-
pean centre for F-35 transparencies cess before reaching this stage. public, and we expect more to fol-
and canopies. Before the selection, “The Swiss selection was very, low,” he adds.
the airframer had two Swiss firms very data-driven. They looked Separately, Lockheed’s F-16 pro-
working in its F-35 supply chain, into all of the concerns that all of gramme could be facing an orders
both “mostly in the optical area”. our customers have for the cost boost, after the US government
“Switzerland will become the and sustainment of their aircraft, gave its approval for a potential
15th nation to join the F-35 pro- and their comments were that it sale to the Philippines.
gramme of record, joining sev- was a hands-down winner across Worth up to $2.43 billion, the
eral European nations in further the board,” says JR McDonald, FMS programme deal would in-
strengthening global air power vice-president business develop- clude 10 single-seat F-16Cs and
and security,” says Bridget Laud- ment, integrated fighter group at two F-16Ds, in the Block 70/72 pro-
erdale, Lockheed’s general man- Lockheed’s Aeronautics unit. duction standard.
ager of the F-35 programme. “The proposed sale will improve
“Swiss industry will have the op- Binding contract the Philippines’ capability to meet
portunity to participate in research Armasuisse notes that it has more current and future threats by en-
and development, production and than 40 years’ experience in con- abling the Philippines to deploy
sustainment opportunities that will ducting FMS deals with the US fighter aircraft with precision muni-
extend their capabilities into the government, and that “there were tions in support of counter-terror-
future,” Lockheed says. no cost overruns in any of the many ism operations in the southern Phil-
Delivered via the US govern- [previous] contracts”. ippines, increasing effectiveness
ment’s Foreign Military Sales (FMS) “The prices and the contractual and minimising collateral damage,”
framework, Lockheed’s offer had conditions are binding and are also the US Defense Security Coopera-
included an option for Swiss indus- demanded by means of strict su- tion Agency says.
try to perform the final assembly of pervision,” it says. In the event of Manila is also considering the
four aircraft at RUAG’s Emmen fa- any cost overrun, “the American Gripen C/D in a process to rein-
cilities. The same company and the government would demand that state a dedicated fighter capabil-
Swiss air force will be responsible the prices be binding on the man- ity which has lapsed since the re-
for in-country maintenance. ufacturer in favour of Switzerland”. tirement of its F-5s in 2004. The
Introduction of the new fleet is Lockheed is eager to build on Philippine air force currently oper-
scheduled for completion by 2030, its success in the Swiss contest, ates 12 Korea Aerospace Industries
with deliveries to commence in McDonald notes, pointing to on- FA-50 armed trainers and six Em-
2027. The new type will also re- going competitions in Canada and braer EMB-314 Super Tucano tur-
place the Swiss air force’s obsolete Finland, the United Arab Emirates boprop-powered strike aircraft. ◗
Northrop F-5s. gaining US government approv-
Evaluations of the fighter candi- al last December to acquire up to Additional reporting by Greg
dates were conducted at Payerne 50 F-35As, and Israel’s interest in Waldron in Singapore

Leading the charge

Rolls-Royce may be better known for
its large gas-turbine engines, but it sees
a huge opportunity as the market for
electric aviation takes off
Dominic Perry London several years – but what it has done
is to push that interest to the fore.
S
The current focus is on two key
hould all proceed to plan, segments: urban air mobility (UAM)
later this summer a small – air vehicles operating at ranges in
electric-powered aircraft in the region of 100nm (185km) – and
a distinctive red, white and commuter aircraft capable of car-
blue livery will lift off from Bos- rying nine to 19 passengers over
combe Down airfield in Wiltshire. distances of around 500nm.
Rolls-Royce
Its pilot, Phil O’Dell, will take the Crucially, the manufacturer has
modified Sharp Nemesis NXT up already secured contracts in both
to around 1,000ft before perform- sectors: in the former, R-R was re-
ing four consecutive passes along cently selected by UK-based start-
a pre-designated 3km course, in up Vertical Aerospace to provide
the process smashing the current the electrical propulsion system with its M250 series, the move into
speed record for an electric aircraft – save for the batteries – for its the new segments is a “big step”
of 210mph (337km/h). VA-X4 four-passenger aircraft; and into markets that the company has
Such are the power demands of in October 2020, Italian airfram- not previously addressed, says Parr.
the effort that during the record er Tecnam announced R-R was to That is doubly so for UAM,
attempt lasting just 10min the supply the electrical powertrain for which is an entirely new propo-
charge in the aircraft’s 6,000-cell its nine-passenger P-Volt commut- sition whose business model re-
battery pack will be almost com- er aircraft. The two programmes lies significantly on the cost sav-
pletely depleted. are also in the healthy position of ings and architectures enabled by
“It is,” says Matheu Parr, who having launch orders in place. electric propulsion.
heads the ACCEL project for the While R-R has maintained an in- But it is a sector that is evolving
UK engine manufacturer, “great to terest in engines for light helicopters quickly: Vertical Aerospace plans
be an electrical engineer at Rolls- for its VA-X4 to enter service in
2024
Royce today.” 2024 or 2025, in line with other
similar programmes. While an ini-
Turbine troubles tial prototype due to fly this year
Parr is customer director at R-R’s will not have the R-R powertrain,
electrical business unit. Having the first system will still need to
joined the Derby firm in 2006, he Vertical Aerospace’s service entry be shipped in 2022 for integration
has seen electrical power slowly target for its VA-X4, to be powered with the developer’s Iron Bird test
assume ever greater importance by R-R’s electrical propulsion system rig, says Parr.
for the company.
Of course, that is in some part a
result of the propulsion specialist’s Sharp Nemesis NXT has been modified
travails in the market for gas tur- with electric motors and battery pack
bine engines for large commercial
aircraft, where a particular expo-
sure to the long-haul segment has
posed recent challenges.
That downturn has coincided
with technological advances that
have made electrical power for avi-
ation a viable prospect – illustrated
by the ACCEL project – plus an in-
creased focus on the decarbonisa-
tion of aviation.
All of which does not mean that
Rolls-Royce
R-R has rapidly switched course –

research into the potential for elec-
tric power has been taking place for

Propulsion Development
“We want to go and

establish ourselves as the
number one electrical commuter operations to give a ze-
ro-carbon operation. “Our portfo-
propulsion system provider” lio plays really strongly across the
group,” says Parr.
Matheu Parr He believes the compelling
Customer director, Rolls-Royce Electrical economics promised by electri-
cal power – lower operating and
maintenance costs – will reinvigor-
ate the commuter segment. Even
when the need to replace batteries
is factored in “it remains an incred-
ibly attractive proposition”.
But, says Mountain, the frequen-
cy with which those cells need re-
placing, and the speed at which
they can be charged are two sig-
nificant variables for developers of
electric aircraft to consider.
Design goals
While you can have batteries that
last longer or will charge more
P-Volt commuter aircraft quickly, extra weight is the penalty
will carry nine passengers in both cases.
“It’s about educating the custom-
er and coming to an agreement on
what the design trade-offs are,”
“It is accelerating much faster
than traditional aerospace devel-
opment timelines,” he says, and is
an area that is “coming at us quite
a bit quicker than we thought a few
210mph
Speed record for an electric aircraft –
he says, noting that an aircraft’s
intended mission profile “sets the
parameters of what the battery
must do”.
Key to R-R’s success in these
years ago”. However, that is backed which ACCEL project aims to surpass new markets is how many units its
by what he describes as “credible airframe partners can sell. Vertical
plans from our customers”. Aerospace is gearing up for the
The rapid pace of progress is not energy storage systems (ESS) for production of thousands of units
an issue for R-R, says Parr, “because aerospace applications to comple- each year – similar output levels
we are not starting today – we be- ment its existing electrical propul- are predicted by other UAM manu-
gan four or five years ago”. sion systems. facturers – but there have been few
For the UAM segment, the pro- The move, says Parr, is about forecasts yet for the sub-regional
pulsion system is sized to deliver “taking the battery technology” it or commuter segment.
around 100kW of power – around has used in several research pro- No details on the pricing for the
135hp – which Parr says is the grammes “and turning that into a P-Volt or VA-X4 have so far been
optimal size for the architecture product range”. released, but they are likely to be in
planned by Vertical Aerospace and While the VA-X4 may not use the single-digit million range. Parr
others which feature multiple tilt- R-R’s ESS, it is central to the says R-R’s contribution to such
ing rotors. The VA-X4 will use eight Tecnam P-Volt’s powertrain, which aircraft will represent 30-35% of
R-R-supplied motors. is sized to deliver 600kW to a pair their total value – a strong revenue
of electric motors. stream to be sure, but many units
Stored energy Based on the P2012 airframe, the will need to be sold to match the
Steve Mountain, engineering direc- P-Volt’s new propulsion system re- value of a single large gas turbine,
tor at Rolls-Royce Electrical, says places the 375hp Lycoming tur- which has a price ticket typically in
that the design of the system and bocharged piston engines of the the tens of millions of dollars.
its size is driven by the eventual original. As yet, no range or speed Nonetheless, Parr says R-R has
application. Other considerations performance has been released a clear ambition for the segment:
include how to make it “resilient to for the aircraft. “We want to go and establish our-
different failure modes”. Service entry for the P-Volt will selves as the number one electrical
Although Vertical Aerospace has be in 2026 with Norwegian region- propulsion system provider.” On
chosen to develop its battery pack al carrier Wideroe. top of which, the business contin-
in-house, for future applications R-R’s move into the segment ues to work on MW-class power
R-R hopes to deliver a complete can also benefit from the research systems for use elsewhere in the
power system: from the energy carried out by the firm’s power civil aerospace business.
storage at one end, through to the systems business into the use of Meanwhile, Parr’s focus will
electric motors at the other. renewables to generate the elec- shortly shift to the skies above
In mid-June, the company tricity for so-called microgrids the Wiltshire countryside in the
announced a significant £80 mil- – potentially feeding the charg- hope of R-R securing a place in the
lion ($110 million) investment in ing infrastructure required for record books. Z

Fighters Support
From boneyard to digital twin

Creating a 3D model of the F-16 could help the US Air Force
to cut support costs and speed up modernisation of its fleet
Garrett Reim Los Angeles The Air Force Life Cycle Man- multiple manufacturers to compete
agement Center’s F-16 programme for business.
office is sponsoring the project “We’ll have the 3D models, and
T
he US Air Force (USAF) is via a contract with Wichita State designs that we can send to the
to disassemble and make University’s National Institute of manufacturers we choose,” Cran-
3D digital scans of two Aviation Research in Kansas. This dall notes.
Lockheed Martin F-16s will also create 3D models of some With a digital replica available,
mothballed in the Arizona de- of the aircraft’s larger components, the USAF – which Cirium fleets
sert, believing the effort will help such as the environmental control, data shows has a current active
to lower future sustainment and hydraulic and fuel systems. fleet of 997 F-16C/Ds – says it “ex-
modernisation costs. Currently stored at the 309th Aer- pects to save time and money on
Announced on 5 July, the activi- ospace Maintenance and Regener- sustainment”. It could, for example,
ty will produce a “digital replica”, ation Group site at Davis-Monthan bring some MRO work in-house, by
giving precise specifications of the AFB, the F-16s will be disassem- having its maintenance groups use
fighter’s parts and airframe. bled and transported to Wichita by 3D printers to recreate parts.
“Our goal is to create a full-scale 30 September. Despite being the incumbent
3D model of the aircraft, with the The service last October launched provider for many such support
exception of the engine,” says a similar effort with Wichita State activities, Lockheed is supporting
First Lieutenant Connor Crandall, University to create a digital replica the effort.
digital twin programme manager of the Boeing B-1B bomber. “Using a proven platform like
within the F-16 programme office. The USAF has been looking for the F-16 to advance digital twin
“The data will be used to help ways to break so-called vendor data models allows our team to
address future parts obsolescence, lock, a situation where it has only demonstrate a further reduction
and to mitigate supply chain risks, one supplier for a component, soft- in lifecycle cost for sustainability
because we won’t have to rely on ware program or aircraft. By having while also introducing additional
legacy manufacturing sources and its own set of digital specifications capability through digital thread
processes,” he says. the service could, in theory, ask continuity,” says Aaron Martin, pro-
gramme manager for Lockheed
Martin Skunk Works StarDrive, the
Two jets stored at Davis-Monthan AFB company’s proprietary digital engi-
will be disassembled during project neering programme.
A digital model could also help
the USAF and Lockheed to mod-
ernise the F-16 with new weapons
and improved parts, and upgrade
electronics faster.
“Developing a virtual engineer-
ing environment that integrates
structures and systems compo-
nents will provide a virtual test-
bed for future modifications and
other sustainment actions prior
to physical implementation,” says
Melinda Laubach-Hock, F-16 pro-
gramme manager and director
US Air Force
of sustainment at Wichita State

University’s National Institute of
Aviation Research. Z
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Simulator Census online now.
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Technology Defence
Eurofighter Typhoon force will be first to

benefit from distributed simulation system
RAF advances
transformation
Service’s chief outlines technological Wigston says the Gladiator sys-
tem will be connected to the Nexus
leaps, as net-zero target prompts study combat cloud, to “experiment how
artificial intelligence can hone our
into electric-powered trainer purchase warfighting edge, both in live and
training environments”.
Turner believes it will be possible
Craig Hoyle London brilliant effect,” he says. “We have to achieve “flight-free certification”
been focused on confusing and of the UK’s Tempest future com-
overwhelming adversary air defenc- bat air system and Mosquito loyal
U
K Royal Air Force (RAF) in- es, but we are already contemplating wingman, thanks to the use of dig-
vestments in command and new disruptive missions,” he adds. ital-twin technology. “There will be
control, swarming drone and “That success, in little over a year, components or facets that we sim-
networked training technol- points to the operational utility of ply don’t want to show in the public
ogies are starting to pay off, as the swarming drones,” he says. “I aim to domain, because it will compromise
service also embarks on a campaign declare it operational in an equally capabilities,” he says.
to reduce its environmental impact. short period of time, with more than Separately, Wigston wants the
Speaking during the service’s an- one squadron.” RAF to balance its carbon emissions
nual Global Air Chiefs’ conference Meanwhile, looking at the service’s a full decade ahead of a UK gov-
on 14 July, RAF chief of the air staff training activities, Wigston says: ernment commitment to achieve
Air Chief Marshal Sir Mike Wigston “I can see a future where almost all net-zero status by 2050.
announced that its Rapid Capabili- training, force generation, and mis- The service plans to fly an undis-
ties Office-led “combat cloud” de- sion planning and rehearsal is done closed aircraft on 100% synthetic
velopment has been completed. in a synthetic environment, preserv- aviation fuel (SAF) before year-end,
Demonstrated aboard an Airbus ing our real world activity for live op- and make the enhancement oper-
A330 Voyager tanker/transport erations or strategic signalling.” ationally ready for the type within
earlier this year, the Nexus technol- around a further two years. It recent-
ogy fuses data in real time “from Gladiator training ly made an investment in a private
every sensor, on any platform in the The RAF’s synthetic versus live company that has demonstrated
operating space, [which is] flagged training balance is already at or be- production from apple and lavender
to any user with a need for that in- yond parity, and deputy command- by-products, with laboratory results
formation”, Wigston says. er Air Marshal Andrew Turner told “more stable than jet fuel”.
“We are now at the point where a Farnborough Connect online au- However, with SAF typically cost-
Nexus can begin to be introduced dience on 13 July that it eventually ing around four times as much per li-
operationally,” he says, describing aims to achieve an 80:20 mix. tre as Jet-A1 fuel, Turner says broad-
it as “flexible, secure, proven and A new distributed simulation sys- er adoption is needed to close this
developed at a fraction of the cost tem named Gladiator is on track to price gap. “We need a momentum in
of comparators”. achieve initial operating capability society to be demanding of change
Wigston also notes that the by the end of this year. While its such that airlines, the whole industry,
RAF’s 216 Squadron drone test initial focus has been on enhanc- moves in this direction,” he notes.
unit “has proved beyond doubt ing training for the Eurofighter A more visible sign of change
the disruptive and innovative util- Typhoon force, Wigston says an- will be acquiring an electric-pow-
ity of swarming drones under our other £40 million ($55 million) will ered aircraft to replace the RAF’s
Alvina programme”. be spent to incorporate additional Babcock-operated Grob Aerospace
“Working with our Defence Sci- platforms, such as its future Boeing Tutor elementary trainers.
ence [and Technology] Laborato- E-7A Wedgetail airborne early “We will have a competition,”
ry and specialist industry partners, warning and control aircraft and Turner says, outlining an in-service
Crown Copyright
we have exercised swarms of over General Atomics Aeronautical Sys- target from 2024. “If battery tech-
20 ultra-low-cost drones operating tems Protector RG1 remotely pilot- nology moves faster, then we will
together against threat systems to ed air system. move with it,” he notes. Z

Hydrogen power
planned for future
demonstrator
Aside from the D328eco
programme, Deutsche Aircraft
is also partnering with German
fuel-cell developer H2FLY on
a project to demonstrate a
hydrogen-powered Dornier 328
by 2025.
H2FLY has previously flown
a hydrogen-electric-powered
four-seater, but the partnership
with Deutsche Aircraft will
see it scale up its fuel-cell
technology for the regional
D328eco gains
aviation market.
Ultimately, the two companies
are aiming to “validate the
momentum
potential” for hydrogen fuel
cells to power a 40-seat aircraft
– a 328-100 can accommodate Deutsche Aircraft working to secure
33 passengers.
Under the collaboration, first sale of modernised turboprop by
covered by a memorandum of
understanding, the pair will year-end, as design activities continue
use a 1.5MW fuel-cell system to
power a 328. At present, the
twin-turboprop uses a pair of Dominic Perry London will in the second half of this year
Pratt & Whitney Canada PW119C bring together a customer adviso-
powerplants, each rated at ry board in order to help refine the
D
2,180shp (1,620kW). eutsche Aircraft is confident configuration of the modernised
Aside from the integration it will end the year with a Dornier 328 twin-turboprop.
of the new powertrain, the launch order for its devel- Its plans call for a 2.1m (6.8ft)
two companies will work opmental D328eco, as the stretch of the fuselage, raising ac-
together to define the technical regional airline market shakes out in commodation to a maximum of
and certification standards the wake of the coronavirus crisis. 43 passengers, 10 more than pre-
that will be required for large Jose Costas, vice-president of viously. Maximum take-off weight
transport aircraft. sales and marketing at the German also increases by 1,700kg (3,750lb)
While it may be for illustrative airframer, says that while he cannot to 15.6t – the same as the legacy
purposes only, the image disclose names, the company is in jet-powered 328-300.
supplied by Deutsche Aircraft discussions with “a number of po-
to accompany its announcement tential launch customers”. New world
shows an aircraft branded “Before the end of the year we Costas believes that the likely com-
as a “D328H”. It also bears hope to have someone relevant mercial economics of the D328eco
the registration D-CAAN – a on board,” he tells FlightGlobal, al- versus small regional jets can per-
1996-built airframe acquired by though he clarifies that this may be suade operators to switch to the
328 Support Services in 2018. an early commitment rather than a turboprop as the industry rebuilds
Deutsche Aircraft’s sister firm order, given that service entry in the post-Covid-19 world.
company 328 Support Services is not due until 2025. Changes to travel patterns and
is the holder of the 328-100’s As Deutsche Aircraft contin- behaviours will require airlines to
type certificate. ues to work through the prelimi- rethink operating models, he ar-
nary design review (PDR) phase it gues, while a possible population
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Programme Propulsion
shift away from urban areas will Regional carrier Aurigny is selling a
also drive a need for new routes Dornier 228 to the developer
from secondary airports.
“All of these changes are bring-
ing new dynamics to a segment
that was pretty quiet,” he says.
Key suppliers to the programme
have recently been announced, in-
cluding Garmin, GKN and Hegge-
mann, which will supply the flight-
deck, empennage and tail, and
landing-gear, respectively.
Costas says a number of addition-
al partners will be revealed shortly,
likely to include suppliers for the
wings and fuselage.
Pratt & Whitney Canada is to
provide its PW127S engines for the ZeroAvia eyes Dorn of new age in testbed plan
Deutsche Aircraft
D328eco, replacing the PW119Cs

of the earlier 328-100. Maximum David Kaminski-Morrow London
take-off power on each power-
plant rises to around 2,750shp
(2,050kW) at 1,200rpm, from H2FLY is not the only company looking to use Dornier aircraft as test
2,180shp at 1,300rpm. assets for advanced propulsion systems: US-based ZeroAvia is also
Deutsche Aircraft intends for acquiring a pair of 228 turboprops for research, as it seeks to progress
the aircraft to be able to operate towards developing a 19-seat hydrogen-electric-powered aircraft.
on 100% sustainable aviation fuel The company has also obtained further funding for a proposed
and Costas says it has received engine intended for aircraft of around 50 seats.
assurances from the engine man- North Carolina-based AMC Aviation and the Guernsey regional
ufacturer that the powerplants will operator Aurigny are supplying the Dorniers, which will respectively
be compatible. be used for research in the USA and the UK.
“Together with P&WC there is a ZeroAvia had demonstrated a 250kW hydrogen powerplant in a
roadmap to get to that level,” he six-seat Piper M350 aircraft, under a project designated HyFlyer I
says, but notes that it is “too ear- which was part funded by the UK.
ly to tell” what percentage will be While this aircraft was badly damaged in a landing accident
achieved by service entry. towards the end of the test programme, ZeroAvia says it
“successfully demonstrated” the powerplant.
Single pilot It will incorporate its findings into the follow-on HyFlyer II project,
Garmin’s presence on the aircraft which aims to develop a 600kW powerplant for a 19-seat aircraft.
– a first foray into the airline seg- The work will take place at Kemble, Gloucestershire, supported by
ment for the US firm – is driven by testing at the company’s Hollister, California facility, which will build
its ability to deliver a flightdeck a second demonstrator for the North American market.
based on its G5000 suite that will Two 600kW powertrains will be installed to replace the turboprops,
in future enable a transition to sin- while tanks will be fitted to hold 100kg (220lb) of hydrogen gas.
gle-pilot operations. ZeroAvia, which aims to achieve a 500nm (926km) range for the
Costas says the airframer is al- aircraft, gives a “commercial offering” date of 2024.
ready talking to the European Un- “We are eager and ready to begin testing our hydrogen-electric
ion Aviation Safety Agency to un- powertrain technology on a larger commercial-size aircraft,” says
derstand “what’s the roadmap to ZeroAvia founder and chief executive Val Miftakhov.
get to single-pilot [operations]”. The company’s work is being backed by investor AP Ventures
Deutsche Aircraft aims to con- and other funding sources, providing another $13 million for an
clude the PDR process for the engine-development programme for aircraft in the 50-seat sector.
D328eco by year-end, with the crit- This follows another private investment of $24 million for the
ical design review following around 50-seat initiative unveiled a few weeks ago.
12 months later, allowing the flight- Aurigny chief Nico Bezuidenhout says that, along with achieving
test campaign to start in early 2024. decarbonisation, the 19-seat programme could “expand the reach”
Two prototypes will be con- of regional aviation by reducing operating costs and making smaller
structed at Deutsche Aircraft’s cur- aircraft “competitive” with larger ones.
rent Oberpfaffenhofen site, before Aurigny identifies the aircraft it is selling to ZeroAvia as a
serial production begins at a new 1985-built Dornier 228. Registered as G-SAYE, the twin-turboprop
facility at Leipzig Halle airport. was acquired by the airline in 2015 and is currently in storage at
That will be sized to support its Guernsey airport base, having been withdrawn from service in
production of 40-50 aircraft per April 2019.
AirTeamImages
year, depending on demand; Cos- However, Aurigny stresses that its participation in HyFlyer II is
tas anticipates reaching a rate of limited to the sale of the aircraft, which it does not expect to receive
48 per year around three years af- back at the end of the test campaign.
ter service entry. ◗

Green machine
The UK’s last surviving airframer has become an unlikely
zero-emission pioneer. Britten-Norman is backing twin
Britten-Norman
projects to develop an alternative-powered Islander
Murdo Morrison Lee-on-Solent focused on developing an aircraft September, it will take delivery of
powered by a hybrid-electric pow- a second-hand Islander sourced
ertrain, that path was abandoned, by Britten-Norman, its fifth, and a
K
nown for its enduring, and Hynett believes that hydro- requirement driven by increasing
no-nonsense, short take-off gen-based technology is the tourist traffic, says the airline.
and landing (STOL) Island- “game-changer” that will allow Aside from sightseers, the hus-
er – an aircraft it has been commercial aviation to achieve its band and wife-owned airline trans-
building since the 1960s – tiny Brit- zero-carbon goal. ports locals, mail and cargo, and
ten-Norman might seem an unlikely That became clear last year, as provides a medical evacuation ser-
trailblazer in commercial aviation’s Project Fresson began to scope out vice. In winter, when Lake Michigan
quest for sustainability. the potential of hydrogen fuel cells freezes, its operation becomes all
However, the UK’s last surviving rather than alternatives such as bat- the more vital. With ferries out of
airframer is playing a key role in teries. “It started to make sense,” action, the 15min flight is the only
two government-backed technol- says Hynett. “It takes away the need connection to the mainland.
ogy initiatives to develop greener for charging. It takes away weight.” Another recent customer is the
aircraft, and firmly intends to be Falkland Islands Government Avi-
“at the forefront of the electric air- Core offering ation Service (FIGAS), which ac-
craft revolution”, according to its Such is his confidence in Project cepted its fifth Islander, a new-
long-serving chief executive Wil- Fresson’s progress that Hynett be- build, last December. FIGAS has
liam Hynett. lieves a hydrogen-powered aircraft operated the type since the 1970s,
One, Project Fresson, sees the could be Britten-Norman’s “core performing air ambulance and en-
Hampshire-based company work- offering” by the end of the decade. vironmental monitoring missions,
ing with a consortium headed by “We are very comfortable that we as well as scheduled flights.
Cranfield Aerospace Solutions to could sell a hydrogen-powered air- Of the roughly 1,300 Islanders
develop a passenger aircraft capa- craft in our market,” he says. produced over 56 years, 470 are
ble of being powered by hydrogen That market is mostly tiny airlines thought to still be in service. Some
fuel cells. A demonstration flight is and public sector-run entities – 80% are powered by Lycoming
planned for September 2022. there are some 230 operators of the O-540s; the remainder by Rolls-
Another, Project HEART – it nine-seat Islander around the world Royce M250-B17 turboprops, which
stands for hydrogen electric and – serving remote communities from deliver a higher maximum take-off
automated regional transporta- North America’s Great Lakes to the weight. Most of the latter are in
tion – aims to demonstrate an Falkland Islands, and from the Scot- government or special mission use.
autonomously-controlled Islander tish isles to Pacific archipelagos. Hynett believes a compact and
on essential routes such as those Island Airways is typical. The simply engineered type like the
serving the thinly-populated far 76-year-old carrier serves Bea- Islander is “perfect” to pioneer to-
north of Scotland. ver Island, a settlement of around morrow’s green technologies such
While Project Fresson initially 600 people in Lake Michigan. In as hydrogen power. “Opportunities

Airframer Propulsion
for-longer range aircraft will hap-

pen through the work we do in “There is a clear political agenda
short-range,” he says.
As well as collaborating on the when it comes to aviation’s
green projects, Britten-Norman,
which has Oman-based backers, emissions. Fail to go down this
has spent much of the pandemic
period settling into new premises road and we’ll be left behind”
on the former RNAS Lee-on-Solent
naval air base, now operated as a William Hynett Chief executive, Britten-Norman
private airfield and aviation park by
the local authority.
It had been working from Second Britten-Norman, when it had a con- with cars, where motorists are no
World War-era hangars since be- tract to supply 10 Defender vari- longer prepared to accept the “idi-
ing evicted from its former home ants for the UK Ministry of Defence, osyncrasies” of a budget brand.
at Bembridge on the Isle of Wight and maintain them during service To this end, he is looking at launch-
around a decade ago, but moved in Afghanistan and Iraq. ing a new interior for the aircraft,
into the modern, local authori- With production at between one although he rules out upgrading to
ty-owned units just as the pandem- and five new aircraft per year, Brit- a full Garmin 1000 integrated glass
ic was taking hold in March 2020. ten-Norman’s main business for cockpit, instead offering less expen-
“Covid has not been a complete- now remains MRO and brokerage sive Garmin options. “We would fit a
ly awful story for us,” says Hynett. – sourcing used aircraft for cus- Garmin 1000 if our customers asked
Although MRO activity has dipped tomers, and usually updating them for it, but they don’t,” he says.
and a target to be assembling up to with new interiors and avionics at Hynett has not yet settled on the
four aircraft per year for the com- Lee-on-Solent. platform for a hybrid-electric or ful-
mercial market is on hold, the crisis ly hydrogen-powered Islander. As
has driven up demand for domestic Kit construction well as the turboprop version, Brit-
tourism, and hence for pre-owned New aircraft are built as kits by ten-Norman offers 260hp (194kW)
Islanders, he says. Britten-Norman’s long-standing and 300hp piston variants. Its of-
However, as they also have for partner, Bucharest-based Ro- fering is likely to be a “customisa-
much larger aviation companies, maero, transported by truck, and tion of one or two variants to cre-
Hynett concedes that pandemic-re- assembled. Until 2010, Islanders ate the optimal chassis”.
lated travel restrictions have made were flown “green” to Bembridge, Other questions include whether
it difficult to visit most of the com- but this caused more problems to opt for a liquid or gas hydrogen
pany’s far-flung customers, either to than it solved, as aircraft had to be system. Hydrogen in liquid form
discuss sales or to carry out repairs. registered too early, says Hynett. will provide more range, but re-
The company has a Miami-based Hynett has considered bringing quire a heavier airframe. “The most
sales and service operation, but production in-house, but says the important consideration is that we
Hynett – who is formally in charge labour rates in Romania for a type mustn’t lose our STOL capability.
of the entity, and maintains a lo- that is largely hand-built from met- That’s what our customers tell us is
cal apartment – has not been able al structures make it unviable. “We the bottom line,” he says.
to visit for 15 months. “My car’s could automate it, but I can’t see a Britten-Norman may have been
battery is flat and the tyres are scenario where the volumes would offering essentially the same de-
square,” he says. justify the investment,” he adds. sign for six decades, but the com-
The focus on the civil market – a While the Islander remains a pany has been a disruptor since
sector Hynett admits the company no-nonsense aircraft, Hynett ad- former de Havilland trainees John
had allowed to “wither a bit” – fol- mits that customer expectations Britten and Desmond Norman de-
lowed a relatively lucrative spell for have changed, just as they have vised their simple transport piston
twin that could be used on short
runways, says Hynett.
Britten-Norman innovated 15
years ago when new compact sur-
veillance equipment suddenly made
it possible for much smaller aircraft
such as the Islander to be developed
into cost-effective special mission
platforms, and the Defender variant
was born, he says.
Its bet on hydrogen power is its
latest challenge. “It will be a long
journey – the regulators have no
Britten-Norman
way at the moment of certificating

an electric aircraft,” says Hynett.
“But there is a clear political agenda
when it comes to aviation’s emis-
Company has new premises at former
sions. Fail to go down this road and
RNAS Lee-on-Solent naval air base
we’ll be left behind.” ◗

Manufacturer Financial
Airframer will upgrade 19 P.180s
operated by Italian armed forces
Piaggio’s progress
Johannes Kraak/Shutterstock
Italian manufacturer inching closer to conclusion of sale and

administration process, with possible offer by end of summer
Dominic Perry London Several government approvals early 2022, with certification fol-
will be required for the deal to pro- lowing later that year.
ceed – including from the authori- Meanwhile, the 19 aircraft already
N
egotiations between the ties regulating anti-trust legislation in use by Rome will be raised to the
administrator of Italy’s and the sale of Italy’s strategic as- P.180 Avanti II Plus standard, gaining
Piaggio Aerospace and sets – plus workforce unions. new landing gear and brakes, plus
a potential buyer for the Nicastro had hoped to conclude enhancements to their communica-
troubled airframer have been given the sale talks by April, but disrup- tions systems. The CDR was passed
the go-ahead by the country’s eco- tion caused by the pandemic de- earlier this year and test flights
nomic development ministry. layed the process. However, Piaggio with an initial conforming example
Piaggio has been in extraordinary plays down the delay, noting that should lead to civil certification in
administration – a form of business the company has remained opera- the coming months, with military
rescue – since 2018, with Vincenzo tional and has “added new orders to approval to follow in the autumn.
Nicastro appointed by the state as its portfolio” during the period. Piaggio’s financial troubles were
a commissioner to oversee its re- triggered by the decision of former
structuring and sale. New commitments owner, Abu Dhabi’s Mubadala, to
In March, Nicastro disclosed that Piaggio has commitments for 14 pull out of the business.
he had received four offers for the new P.180 Avanti Evos, plus con- Based in Villanova D’Albenga
company; that has now been whit- tracts related to the modernisation near Genoa, Piaggio has a suc-
tled down to one contender which of 19 examples of the twin-pusher cessful maintenance, repair and
is seeking to acquire both of the turboprop operated by the Italian overhaul business and builds en-
group’s businesses, Piaggio Aero armed forces. gine components, but it remains a
Industries and Piaggio Aviation. Of those 14 new-build examples, single product company, and the
Piaggio says the preferred bidder nine are destined for the Italian air Avanti, though updated twice, is a
was “deemed most suitable” due force: five in a transport and am- 1980s-designed platform.
to the “quality of the industrial plan bulance configuration, and four for Since it went into administration,
and long-term vision, jobs preser- special missions. These will be built orders and commitments from the
vation and value of the offer”. How- to the P.180 Evo Plus standard, spe- Italian government worth $980 mil-
ever, it declines to reveal the identi- cifically designed for governmental lion has provided a lifeline.
ty of the potential buyer. customers, says the company. While the administration may
Negotiations are expected to last That variant is now entering the have resolved the company’s imme-
around one month and should cul- critical design review (CDR) phase, diate financial troubles, the under-
minate in an “irrevocable and bind- which is expected to conclude by lying issues around its future direc-
ing offer” by the “end of the sum- the end of the summer. First flight tion and product range remain so
mer”, it says. of the new model is anticipated in far unresolved questions. ◗
Harness the power of analytics with

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Development Unmanned systems
Thales shows unmanned ambition

Half-scale model of three-engined UAS 100 makes first flight
as French manufacturer develops multiple market prospects
Craig Hoyle London
T
hales is targeting 2023
for European civil certifi-
cation of its new UAS 100
unmanned air system, after
conducting the first flight of a half-
scale model on 22 June.
Developed in partnership with
French general aviation manufac-
turer and composite materials spe-
cialist Innoaire Aviation and auto-
pilot software provider Hionos, the
Thales
three-engined aircraft will have a
maximum take-off weight of 100kg
Hybrid propulsion uses twin electric
(220lb) and a 10kg payload.
motors and a conventional engine
A hybrid propulsion system com-
prises a pair of electric motors
and a mid-mounted convention-
al engine, each driving propellers. zones, near general aviation, to be Continued testing with the
This configuration – installed on a safe doing that with a light system half-scale vehicle will progress
tri-hull airframe – offers “optimum that is easy to operate and deploy.” to conducting automatic beyond
safety, endurance and discretion”, Thales says the operational UAS line-of-sight operations. It also is
the company says, referring to its 100 will meet the European Un- scheduled to perform in a flight
low noise output. ion Aviation Safety Agency’s Spe- demonstration during the UAV
“Having three engines is part of cial Condition – Light Unmanned Show near Bordeaux on 21 October.
the safety concept,” notes Marc Aircraft Systems regulations, with A full-scale example is due to get
Duval-Destin, vice-president strat- “world-class safety performance”. airborne for the first time in the
egy, product policy and innovation “We have safety features that second half of 2022.
at Thales’s flight avionics business. have no equivalent on the mar-
With a 5.4m (17ft 6in) wingspan ket today” for this category of Market interest
and 5h endurance during auton- unmanned system, Duval-Des- Thales has already received mar-
omous operations, the UAS 100 tin says. This includes the use ket interest in the UAS 100 design,
has short take-off performance, re- of co-operative sense and avoid with Duval-Destin noting: “Our first
quiring “much less than a football technology, and Thales is also ex- prospects are out of France.”
pitch” to get airborne. ploring the use of equipment for Meanwhile, eyeing a projected
non-co-operative capability. massive increase in the commercial
Government applications “We will be capable of still flying use of UAVs over the coming years,
Range will be in excess of 54nm even after two failures of our critical Thales is promoting its TopSky air
(100km), with expected commer- systems, and land safely in a known traffic management technology for
cial or government applications remote area,” says Emmanuel Guy- use during drone operations.
including powerline inspection, onnet, drone programme director at Referring to the challenge of
border surveillance, fire monitor- Thales’s flight avionics business. safely introducing a high volume
ing, event security and search and Military roles could also be ex- of UAVs alongside manned aircraft
rescue (SAR) tasks. plored for the system, with the de- while also defending against their
Multiple payloads will be carried velopment activity supported by reckless or malicious use, Olivier
simultaneously, such as an elec- the French defence ministry via its Rea, Thales’s head of unmanned
tro-optical sensor and GSM signal Defence Innovation Agency. Thales traffic management services, notes:
receiver for SAR duties. says that its modular design con- “We have to do what aviation did in
The company’s concept of op- cept means that longer-endurance [its first] 100 years within 10 years.”
erations involves automatic flight surveillance operations could be The company and Operation-
in non-segregated airspace at no performed by using a larger wing. al Solutions also have announced
more than 10,000ft, but typically Yannick Assouad, Thales’s exec- a teaming agreement to offer the
only 1,500ft above populated areas. utive vice-president, avionics, also latter’s FACE command and con-
“It is not our aim to operate in con- notes that “the new system paves trol software with Thales’s coun-
trolled airspace,” says Duval-Des- the way for the [unmanned] air ter-UAV and unmanned traffic
tin. “Our challenge is to fly in open mobility solutions of tomorrow”. management technology. ◗

Programme Development
Eviation confirms Eviation’s website now says Al-

ice will cruise at 220kt (407km/h)
and have 440nm range, with pow-
Alice design changes er coming from an 820kWh lithi-

um-ion battery system weighing
3,720kg (8,200lb).
Previously, Eviation had said
Electric aircraft developer ditches Alice would cruise at 240kt, and
have 540nm range and a 920kWh
three-motor configuration in favour battery system weighing 3,600kg.
As currently designed, Alice will
of more conventional architecture be 17.1m (56ft) long, 3.8m high and
have an 18m wingspan. Previously,
Alice’s dimensions were given as
13.2m long, 4.2m high and with a
16.1m wingspan. Eviation has also
seemingly upped Alice’s adver-
tised maximum take-off weight
from 6,350kg to 6,670kg.
When Eviation changed the fig-
ures remains unclear.
Lessons learned
Eviation Aircraft
The company tells FlightGlobal

that the performance modifica-
Switch to T-tail will result in improved
tions “are a result of several de-
performance and handling, says company
sign lessons learned and an adap-
tation to the needs of our clients,
focusing on cabin and baggage
Jon Hemmerdinger Tampa feedback, defines Alice’s path to compartment volume, passenger
certification and entry into service, comfort and compliance with the
expected in 2024,” Eviation says. safety guidelines of the FAA [Fed-
E
viation Aircraft has signif- The aircraft “is on track for first eral Aviation Administration]”.
icantly shifted the design flight later this year”. Alice will have an altitude ceiling
of its in-development Alice Changing from a V-tail to a T-tail of 32,000ft and maximum payload
all-electric aircraft, and says will “optimise performance and of 1,130kg, Eviation says. It will have
it remains on track for a first flight handling, making it easy for pilots a composite fuselage and Honey-
this year. to seamlessly transition to flying well fly-by-wire flight controls.
The aircraft developer – now the aircraft”. Eviation’s latest image confirms
based in Washington state, having The updated design “represents the accuracy of a separate render-
moved from Israel – also says the a final step in our iterative journey ing published by FlightGlobal in
nine-passenger Alice will have more toward Alice’s first flight”, adds January and obtained from an un-
powerful Magnix-made propulsion Eviation chief executive Omer named source who said the image
systems than previously planned. Bar-Yohay. showed design changes to Alice.
Additionally, figures from Evia- Eviation had previously hoped
tion’s website show the company Powered up for Alice to make first flight in 2020,
has in recent years tweaked Alice’s Eviation also confirms Alice will but that milestone slipped. In Jan-
advertised capabilities, shaving use two of sister company Magnix’s uary 2020, a fire damaged an Alice
some 100nm (185km) off its range. 640kW Magni650 electric power- prototype on the ground in Pres-
Eviation on 1 July released an im- plants, rather than three 280kW cott, Arizona, where Eviation and
age showing the latest design iter- Magni250s. In June Magnix said it partner Magnix were performing
ation for Alice. The new configura- was replacing the Magni250 and tests. The fire involved lithium-ion
tion has two electric motor-driven a previous model, the Magni500, batteries and occurred after hours
propellers – one mounted on each with two more powerful motors, of powerplant testing, according to
side of the aircraft’s rear fuselage. the Magni350 and Magni650. US and local government reports.
It also has T-tail and clean wings The design changes were not Eviation’s decision to eliminate
with small upturned tips. unexpected. In December 2020, wing-tip-mounted propulsion units
As previously designed, Alice had Bar-Yohay said Eviation had made could reflect challenges with that
a V-tail and three electric motors “a few minor modifications” to Al- design. Such a configuration can
– one on each wing-tip and a third ice, resulting in a design “slightly reduce drag-causing vortices and
powering a pusher propeller at the different than what you have seen deliver improved efficiency, ac-
rear of the fuselage. That configura- at the Paris air show”. cording to a 2017 NASA research
tion was displayed on a prototype Alice is to be a nine-passenger, paper. But placing motors on an
at the 2019 Paris air show. two-crew commuter or private air- aircraft’s wingtips risks instabili-
“The production configuration, craft. In 2019, the developer named ty, as failures can cause “a large
optimised based on real-world US regional airline Cape Air as the yaw moment due to asymmetric
lessons learned and customer type’s launch customer. thrust”, NASA said. Z

Aircraft collided with ILS localiser

antenna before coming to a halt
Transportation Safety Board of Canada
747 freighter wrecked after minor

factors conspired to cause overrun
Sky Lease jet came to rest 270m beyond opposite-direction
runway threshold as crew braked late during tailwind landing
David Kaminski-Morrow London the 747 was still 52nm (96km) from touchdown meant the aircraft did
the airport – this was not commu- not brake sufficiently.
nicated to the crew, although it was The jet touched down “firmly”
C
anadian investigators have broadcast on the automated termi- at 179kt (331km/h) groundspeed,
found that belated braking nal information system. about 410m beyond the threshold,
during a Boeing 747-400F’s It was not until the aircraft crabbing 4.5° to the right.
landing at Halifax in Nova (N908AR) was 80s from the run- Although the spoilers began to
Scotia led to its overrunning the way 14 threshold that the crew deploy, the investigation found
runway and being written off as a discovered it was subject to a tail- that the thrust lever for the out-
result of substantial damage. wind component. board left-hand Pratt & Whitney
The Sky Lease Cargo aircraft’s But with only limited time to PW4000 engine advanced beyond
crew, arriving from Chicago on touchdown, the pilots did not re- its idle position. This went unno-
7 November 2018, had conduct- calculate the landing performance ticed by the crew, says the inquiry,
ed an ILS approach in darkness to data to confirm sufficient runway and the reason for the lever move-
Halifax’s wet runway 14 after unwit- length was available. ment could not be determined. Re-
tingly believing the longer runway verse-thrust was engaged only on
23 was unavailable. Braking bad the other three engines.
NOTAMs had advised that the While the unexpected tailwind The shift in the lever was critical
runway 23 threshold was displaced did not extend the required land- because it caused the spoilers to re-
for repairs, and the landing dis- ing distance beyond the runway tract and the autobrake to disengage.
tance was reduced. But the Trans- length available, the inquiry says a The aircraft’s weight-on-wheels
portation Safety Board of Canada “rapid succession” of events upon switches reverted momentarily to
says the “ineffective” presentation
style of NOTAMs led the crew to
think the runway was unavailable “During the overrun, the aircraft
owing to approach restrictions.
The crew instead chose to land crossed a significant drop [of
on the shorter runway 14, about
2,350m (7,700ft) in length, think- 2.8m] past the end of the runway
ing it was the only option.
Although a shift in the wind and was damaged beyond repair”
direction prompted a change in
arrival runway from 14 to 23 – while Transportation Safety Board of Canada

Safety Investigation
‘air’ mode before transitioning again decelerating as expected and be- suffered minor injuries but the
to ‘ground’ mode. gan using manual braking, using fourth occupant, a deadheading
Investigators state that the right the rudder pedals to try to regain senior captain, was uninjured.
crab, combined with a crosswind the centreline. The investigation notes that the
component and the asymmet- With just 243m of runway re- crew was fatigued, operating a
ric reverser selection, caused the maining the aircraft was still trav- night flight through the circadian
aircraft to deviate to the right of elling at 100kt and, although decel- trough and having had “insufficient
the centreline. eration was markedly greater over restorative sleep” in the previous
About 6s after touchdown the the subsequent 7s, it failed to stop 24h. This would have “degraded”
outboard left-hand thrust lever was and overran at 77kt. the pilots’ performance, it adds.
retarded to just above idle, allow- It also points out that the acci-
ing the spoilers to deploy fully. Drop zone dent illustrates the additive effect
But the first officer, the monitor- The jet ran over rough ground and of minor issues.
ing pilot, was focused on the lateral collided with the ILS localiser an- “Although the aircraft was flown
drift and required callouts for the tenna at 50kt, before coming to within the stable approach crite-
position of deceleration devices rest 270m past the opposite-direc- ria, the accident demonstrates how
were not made. tion runway threshold and 21m to several factors affecting landing
“Without the benefit of the land- the right of the extended centre- distance – although individually
ing roll-out callouts [the captain] line. It was also less than 50m from small – can combine to result in a
did not recognise that all of the a public road. reduced margin of safety,” it says.
deceleration devices were not fully “During the overrun, the aircraft Built in 1997, the 747-400F was
deployed and that the autobrake crossed a significant drop [of 2.8m] previously operated by Singapore
was disengaged,” says the inquiry. past the end of the runway and was Airlines’ cargo division; Sky Lease
Just 8s into the landing the cap- damaged beyond repair,” the in- Cargo took the freighter on lease
tain realised that the 747 was not quiry says. All three crew members in 2017. ◗
Confusing NOTAMs influenced decision to land on shorter runway

Investigators probing the overrun that destroyed All the NOTAMs were presented in the sequence
a Boeing 747-400F at Halifax have highlighted they were issued, without being prioritised, and all
the contribution of poorly-presented NOTAM in a format containing entirely-capitalised text.
information to the accident. “NOTAMs are intended to be a clear, concise and
The safety hazard posed by complex and cluttered unambiguous presentation of essential information,”
NOTAMs is an issue being tackled by an ICAO says the safety board’s inquiry into the 7 November
campaign initiated earlier this year. 2018 overrun.
The Transportation Safety Board of Canada says “It is difficult to reliably extract the crucial
the Sky Lease Cargo crew received 98 NOTAMs information because of their presentation style,
before departing Chicago O’Hare for Halifax. using all capital letters, and because of their
Thirty-seven of these NOTAMs concerned Halifax, sequence, in which important approach and runway
and 22 were about runway 05/23, referring to NOTAMs are not prioritised but buried among other
unserviceable navigation aids, runway lighting, and information,” the inquiry says.
a displaced threshold owing to work in progress. Those reading the NOTAMs must search “back
Ten of the 22 runway NOTAMs contained repeated and forth” to compare and extract information,
information with modifications but had to be in order to build a list of unavailable approaches
compared with the previous version in order to or runways.
identify any differences. “This extraction process of elimination is
usually performed mentally, increasing the risk of
misinterpretation, resulting in the crew having an
Transportation Safety Board of Canada
inaccurate mental model of the operational hazards

affecting a flight, and reducing the crew’s situational
awareness,” adds the inquiry.
Having read through the NOTAMs the Sky Lease
Cargo 747 crew concluded that no approaches or
lighting were available for runway 05/23 when, in
fact, two approaches – involving NDB aids or lateral
navigation – were an option.
The crew instead chose to conduct an ILS
approach to Halifax’s runway 14, which was shorter
than runway 23, even taking into account the latter’s
displaced threshold.
Investigators determined that the 747 was
subjected to a tailwind during the approach to
Crew concluded that no approaches runway 14 and that decisions including the use of a
were available for runway 05/23 25° flap setting, rather than 30°, further increased
the landing distance.

Opinion
to guide them; the ones perhaps

most likely to be reluctant to chal-
lenge Boeing’s assertions.
The FAA needs to put its best
people in, at the very least, moni-
STR/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock
toring or mentoring positions. Its
failure to do so embodies the long-
time brain-drain catching up with
the agency. If the bureaucrats above
them do a bad job, smart engineers
become frustrated and leave – tak-
ing their regulatory knowledge and
Ethiopian Airlines Max 8 crashed shortly after take-off on 10 March 2019, killing 157 people influence to industry.
The FAA needs to be diligent in
Changing the agency

performing its duties. Trusting the
companies it oversees is important,
but the FAA has the obligation to
verify that those companies de-
serve to be trusted. Boeing should
The US regulator deviated from its role not have been able to get the Max,
as it was, through certification. The
with the certification of the 737 Max FAA’s job is to be an independent
body that protects the public, not
by ceding too much responsibility to an organisation that fast-tracks a
billion-dollar corporation’s project.
Boeing, but reform is not impossible,
Honest approach
argues safety expert John Goglia On the manufacturing side, Boe-
ing needs to be open and honest –
both internally and to regulators. It
I
n March, veteran former Federal you could argue, was being pres- needs to clearly identify changes it
Aviation Administration (FAA) sured not to dig too deeply. has made, as a failure to do so puts
safety engineer Joe Jacobsen This way, the flaws with the Max passengers and crews in danger.
went public with concerns that were overlooked. Months after the FAA re-approved
the agency had an overly cosy That is the reverse of the FAA’s the Max, it was forced to ground
relationship with Boeing. In in- intended role: its job is to question some jets again when a wiring is-
terviews with The Seattle Times, everything and never assume that sue that needed to be fixed imme-
Jacobsen said the FAA ceded far changes are minor and therefore do diately became apparent. That the
too much control in the certifica- not necessitate regulatory scrutiny. most-scrutinised jet ever made it
tion of the 737 Max and left veter- Jacobsen would have been a fa- through re-certification with anoth-
an FAA engineers out of the pro- miliar face to Boeing engineers. er flaw (albeit minor) is troubling.
cess until after problems became How he could have been exclud- While it appears the FAA is trying
all-too tragically apparent. ed from the certification process to do better, whether it actually im-
Not until after the first Max crash – even in nothing more than an proves remains to be seen. Jacob-
in October 2018 was Jacobsen oversight role – is baffling. He had sen called for replacements at the
pulled into the Max project; he extensive knowledge, and was highest level of the FAA, citing the
quickly identified numerous issues known inside the FAA and amongst culture that placed corporate inter-
with the plane (including with the manufacturers as a thorough and ests over safety.
much-discussed Maneuvering Char- meticulous reviewer. The next certification programme
acteristics Augmentation System). I spoke to several sources at is already upon us with the 777X.
The FAA has been too close to the FAA while writing this article. We need to identify where the FAA
the industry it is meant to police for Jacobsen has a reputation as being – and Boeing – deviated on the Max
too long, and has squandered its highly knowledgeable, particularly and have an independent review of
knowledge and resources during on certification. The FAA’s Seattle the whole process.
high-pressure certification efforts. certification office, which report- Certainly a scenario where de-
That Jacobsen was left out of edly has been dysfunctional for tails are hidden in reams of paper-
the process is an illustration both quite some time, was largely held work is not one that can ever be
of how deep the rot goes at the together by virtue of Jacobsen and repeated. But with the recent FAA
FAA, and how Boeing sought to a small team of veterans. pushback on the 777X certification,
take advantage of it. Jacobsen Despite his experience, the FAA the signs are that the agency has
was right, is right, and must now did not use Jacobsen as part of the listened to the criticism and per-
be taken seriously. Max’s original certification team – haps changed its approach. ◗
It is pretty easy to hide what you neither to ensure the plane’s safety
have done in a massive amount of nor to mentor younger engineers John Goglia is a former member
paperwork. The FAA did not work who were supposed to be review- of the US National Transportation
out what Boeing had done and ing the Max. They were the ones in Safety Board and is now an inde-
why. It trusted the airframer and, most need of an experienced hand pendent aviation safety consultant

Berlin is to update the German

navy’s maritime patrol aircraft fleet
with five Boeing P-8A Poseidons,
due for delivery from 2024
Bell ceased use of its V-280 Valor

demonstrator, after 214 flight
hours and achieving a top speed
of 305kt (564km/h)
Boeing
Irkut’s PD-14-engined MC-21-310
received its flight-test livery before
heading for July’s MAKS air show
United Aircraft
Bell
US fractional start-up Jet It has become

launch customer for Bye Aerospace’s
eFlyer 800 electric-powered twin
Bye Aerospace

Highlights
The US Air Force released a new artist’s

impression of its in-development
Northrop Grumman B-21 Raider bomber,
featuring distinctive cockpit windows
US Air Force
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Cover story Airliners
The Airbus A220 is finding success

with regional carriers such as Swiss
As the industry emerges from the

pandemic, its lead airframers face some
familiar – and newer – challenges. In our
special report on commercial airliners, we
focus on seven key programmes or
market segments, where decisions
in the next months could be
critical. For Boeing, these include
how to breathe new life into the 787 as the type approaches a
decade in service, whether it can push the 777X on a market
that has fallen out of love with ultra-large widebodies, what
its strategy should be to counter long-range versions of the
Airbus A320neo family, and whether the 737 Max is over the
worst. Its European rival is enjoying success with the A220 –
how much more potential is there for the former Bombardier
CSeries? Meanwhile, Airbus’s lack of a dedicated freighter has
seen it lose ground in the cargo market. Is an A350F on the
cards? Finally, for Embraer, after delays and rejections, does
the smallest member of the E2 family have a future?

❱
787 777X
Pausing the dream

Delivery interruptions caused
Waiting
by fuselage manufacturing have
hit the 787 as it nears a decade
in service – does the Dreamliner
game
still have better years ahead? Despite the pandemic, decimated
international travel demand and
Jon Hemmerdinger Tampa
certification delays, Boeing’s chief
executive has no regrets about
I
f you must halt deliveries of a commercial airliner
– a jet like, say, Boeing’s 787 – doing so during the developing the 777X
deepest downturn in the history of commercial
aviation might be the best conceivable time.
At least there is that. Jon Hemmerdinger Tampa
Boeing has halted 787 deliveries twice during the
pandemic – both times as a result of problems with
Y
the jet’s composite fuselage. The most-recent deliv- ou might wonder if Boeing’s top brass have
ery pause remained in effect as of early July. come to regret the 2013 decision to launch
But despite stopped deliveries, fuselage issues, the 777X programme.
withered demand for international travel and marked- After all, Boeing’s newest widebody, now in
ly reduced 787 production rates, analysts still foresee flight testing and certification, has faced no shortage
bright tomorrows for the jet. of hurdles – not least being the Covid-19 pandemic,
“Over the long term... it’s a strong product,” analyst which essentially evaporated demand for long-haul
Michel Merluzeau with consultancy AIR says of the international travel.
Also, amid the pandemic and heightened regulato-
14
ry scrutiny following the 737 Max’s troubles, Boeing
said it was tweaking design elements of the first 777X
variant, the 777-9.
Knowing all that, was launching the 777X still a
good move? Chief executive David Calhoun recently
answered that question.
“If I had a clean slate of paper today, and [there]
Maximum monthly output of 787s before the pandemic wasn’t a 777X loaded in my development pipeline,
– and the current target Boeing says it is working towards would [Boeing] want to do it again? The answer is,
absolutely. Yes,” Calhoun said on 3 June during an
investor conference hosted by AllianceBernstein.
787 programme. “It has a shelf life that goes deep “It will have a 40- or 50-year run,” he added. “I have
into the 2030s.” lots of confidence in it.”
Boeing’s chief executive insists that the airframer’s
flagship widebody programme will do more then Freight factor
endure. It will shine, he says, and production rates Calhoun cited the 777-9’s cost per seat (and by
will climb back to output levels last seen in pre- volume of cargo) as a key attribute, and noted that
Covid-19 days. competing jets such as 747s and Airbus A380s are
“We will get back to the rates that we used to be at the end of their production runs.
at,” David Calhoun said on 3 June during an investor Analysts likewise suspect the 777X programme
conference hosted by AllianceBernstein. will succeed ultimately – that sales will accelerate in
Calhoun clarified that yes, he expects 787 produc- the coming decade and that Boeing will tap into the
tion – now at five jets monthly – will eventually return cargo market with a freighter derivative.
to the 2019 programme-high rate of 14 monthly. “I think the 777X will have a renaissance in a year
“You don’t go from five to that number overnight. or two or three, when the international market is
You get there in increments, and we have plenty of back and everything that was flying that market is
cycle time to stage those increments appropriately mothballed,” says Credit Suisse analyst Robert Spin-
and reconfigure the flow of airplanes to the factories, garn. “Then you are going to see a wave of orders
such that we can accommodate those kinds of rates,” for big widebodies.”
he said.

“The 777X is a little early for its

time. The demise of the A380
could provide a second chance,
but the timing is unfortunate"
Jefferies
In January, Boeing delayed the planned first 777-9 years old, according to Cirium fleets data. Of those,
delivery from 2022 to “late 2023”. Calhoun also dis- some 800 are 777-300ERs, which are an average of
closed then that the company was making “design 8.5 years old.
modifications” to reflect “expectations of global reg- The 777-9 made its maiden flight in January 2020.
ulators”. The news came as the US Federal Aviation That jet can carry 426 passengers in two classes
Administration (FAA) stepped up oversight following and has 7,280nm (13,500km) range. In 2019, Boeing
the 737 Max’s flight control problems. paused development of the smaller 777-8, an
Boeing is “still confident [the 777-9] will be cer- 8,730nm-range, 384-passenger variant. Boeing holds
tified in the fourth quarter of 2023”, Calhoun said orders for 320 777X from customers ANA, British
on 3 June. “We have incorporated all the timeline Airways, Cathay Pacific Airways, Emirates Airline,
learning that we could possibly incorporate from the Etihad Airways, Lufthansa, Qatar Airways and Singa-
Max [recertification], and pore Airlines, company data shows.
the architectural preferenc- Boeing has not committed to a 777X Freighter, but
es that both the FAA and Calhoun suggests such a project is likely.
[European Union Aviation “I am confident that this one will move down
Safety Agency] EASA that path,” he said on 3 June, referring to a potential
[have] embedded in their 777X Freighter.
regulations.”
That timeline means the Production cut
777-9 will enter service Also in January, Boeing said it was taking a
nearly 10 years after the $6.5 billion charge against the 777X and trimming
company launched the the programme’s expected production quantity by
programme. 12.5%, to 350 from 400 aircraft. Boeing’s former
Even still, the jet seems chief financial officer, Greg Smith, who recently
premature. left the company, attributed the changes to “what
Boeing
“The 777X is a little early we are seeing in the marketplace with the current
No regrets… David Calhoun for its time. The demise of pandemic, as well as how we are seeing the
says the 777X could be in the A380 could provide a marketplace shift in the near term”.
operation for up to 50 years second chance, but the tim- Boeing’s expectation of producing just 350 777Xs
ing is unfortunate,” says a 21 “highlights how niche the aircraft is”, Dimitroff says.
June research note from Jefferies. “The issue is the But he suspects sales will exceed that number,
777-300ER isn’t old enough to be replaced.” because the 777-9 will particularly excel at operating
“I think the demand will come, but... you “very long sectors”, like those from the USA and Eu-
probably won’t see that demand picking up until rope to Asia. A freighter will help also.
the late 2020s, early 2030s,” adds Cirium head of “It will have a market, but that market has shrunk,”
valuations George Dimitroff. He cites a “surplus” of Dimitroff says, noting that smaller widebodies such
777-300ERs. as A350s and 787s, having extremely long range, can
The roughly 1,550 777s (of all variants) in service operate some long-haul segments that first-genera-
and storage globally are, on average, less than 12 tion 777s once dominated. Z
Boeing

But Boeing was cranking out 14 787s month-
ly when it had two production sites – the original
in Everett, Washington, and the second, in North
Charleston, South Carolina. This year Boeing
stopped Everett 787 production as part of a pro-
gramme overhaul. It now produces the jets only in
North Charleston.
Some aerospace analysts, among them Teal
Group’s Richard Aboulafia, have doubted Boeing will
ever recapture rate-14 on the 787. Aboulafia has said
that 14 787s monthly was too many even in 2019,
and noted that Boeing began trimming output even
before the pandemic.
Doubtful demand
Merluzeau thinks a 14-per-month rate is feasible only
if Boeing develops a new 787 variant – perhaps a
787-8 tweaked with new engines or other efficien-
cies. Such a derivative could help Boeing compete
better in the mid-market segment – though only at
the longer-range, higher-capacity end of that sector
– where the company has lost ground to Airbus’s
A321neo.
“There is simply not enough demand for -9 and -10”
to support 14 jets monthly, Merluzeau says. “Demand Mid-market
for [the] -8 has all but evaporated.” Indeed, the 787-8,
which has substantial fuselage differences from the
two larger variants, has been a slow seller.
Minding
Boeing holds firm orders for 436 787s – enough to
sustain years’ more production.
The company first paused 787 handovers between
October 2020 and March, then stopped again in May.
Although Boeing did deliver one 787 to Turkish Air-
the gap
lines in June, that jet was built last year; the broader
delivery halt remains in effect.
Boeing has attributed both pauses to a “skin-flat-
ness” issue involving aft fuselage sections, saying it
has been conducting inspections and repair work.
Final Max variant matches

“Demand for [the smallest A321XLR on capacity, but
Boeing 787 variant] -8 has lacks its range. Could this spur
all but evaporated” Boeing to go ahead with plans
Michel Merluzeau AIR consultancy to build a mid-market type?
United Airlines took first jet after Jon Hemmerdinger Tampa

Dreamliner’s initial delivery pause
A
s the pandemic eases, Boeing finds itself
in the familiar position of still having to
deal with the competitive threat posed by
Airbus’s A321neo – particularly the longer-
range A321XLR variant.
Boeing took a long step toward addressing that
threat on 18 June, when the 737 Max 10 made its
maiden flight, inching Boeing nearer to beginning
deliveries of the model.
But the Max 10 does not solve the entire problem
for Boeing. That is because, while it carries about the
same number of passengers, it lags the A321XLR in
United Airlines
range. For that reason, some aerospace analysts still

think Boeing must counter Airbus by launching a so-
called “mid-market jet”.

Max 10 takes off from Renton be a narrowbody with 4,000-5,000nm range, or a

for its first flight on 18 June small widebody such as a 767 with 6,000nm range
– enough “to reach any point in Europe from the East
Coast”, Jefferies says in a 20 June research report.
Such a jet might nibble into shorter routes served by
787-8s, but would otherwise lack range to compete
more directly with 787s or 777s.
Demand could potentially support production of
7,200 such aircraft over 20 years, or 30 monthly,
Jefferies says.
Boeing has for years flirted with launching a
mid-market jet, most recently working on a concept
known as the “New Mid-market Airplane”, which
industry sources had expected would carry up to 270
seats and have 4,000-5,000nm range. But Boeing
stepped away from that project, with Calhoun saying
in January 2020 that the company was taking a dif-
ferent approach.
During the 3 June investor conference, Calhoun
conceded the A321XLR holds a “performance advan-
tage” – but only in what he described as a narrow
Boeing
segment of the jetliner market.

For that reason, Calhoun said, Boeing’s next jet will
not simply be “an overlay of the A321XLR”.
Boeing chief executive David Calhoun insists his “We are going to tackle something much bigger
company – which is in the midst of major 787 produc- than that,” he said.
tion problems and still clawing out of the Max ground- Leaving aside Boeing’s next aircraft, analysts gener-
ing disaster – will indeed strike back with a new jet. ally describe the Max 10 as a capable jet with a prom-
But Calhoun has provided few details. Nor has ising future – one that helps bridge a competitive
he said whether Boeing’s next aircraft will be the gap. That optimism stems partly from the Max 10’s
mid-market jet for which analysts have clamoured, capabilities, and partly from the duopolistic make-up
or a 737 replacement, or some combination. of the narrowbody aircraft manufacturing market.
Calhoun faces questions about Boeing’s develop-
ment plans nearly every time he speaks publicly. “It Demand surge
won’t be all that long before we’ll announce ours,” he Although China’s Comac is working toward certifica-
said of Boeing’s next jet during an investor confer- tion of its C919 narrowbody, Airbus and Boeing es-
ence on 3 June. sentially have the narrowbody market to themselves.
Airbus launched its A321XLR at the 2019 Paris air Market forecasts broadly point to surging demand
show, quickly racking up orders and commitments. in the coming years for narrowbody jets, as airlines
With advertised range of 4,700nm (8,700km), the replace 737NGs and A320ceos. Neither Airbus nor
180- to 220-passenger A321XLR has transatlantic Boeing will be able to fill that demand alone, which
capability, which is exactly why airlines such as Jet- bodes well for both companies’ products.
Blue Airways ordered the type. Airbus expects the The Max 10 also stands on its own merits, analysts
first A321XLR will enter service in 2023. say. It is significantly more efficient than the 737NG
and has enviable seat-mile costs. Also, cockpit and
Going further? pilot-training commonalities mean Max 10s fit seam-
By comparison, the 737 Max 10 carries 188-204 pas- lessly into the fleets of existing 737 operators.
sengers in two classes, but has only 3,300nm range, “For the US majors, it’s going to be a hit,” Cirium
according to Boeing. It expects to deliver the first head of valuations George Dimitroff says of the
Max 10 in 2023. Max 10. He notes that the Max 10’s range allows for
Aerospace analyst Richard Aboulafia of Teal Group transcontinental US flights and flights from the US
thinks Boeing will continue playing catch-up until West Coast to Hawaii. Also, US airlines are large
it launches a wholly new jet to fill the “mid-market” enough to also order A321neos if they desire a
space – the sector wedged between traditional narrowbody with a bit more range.
narrowbodies and smaller widebodies. The A321XLR Boeing holds firm orders for about 430 Max 10s, in-
sits in the mid-market, as do 757s and 767s. The 737 cluding from customers Flydubai, Gol, Lion Air, Unit-
Max 10 does not. ed Airlines and Vietjet Air, according to Cirium data.
Still, Aboulafia thinks Boeing may not pull the The Max 10 programme was given renewed
trigger, at least not soon, noting the company has momentum when the type got airborne for the
recently cut research and development spending and first time, leaving Renton Municipal airport and
slashed its workforce. flying for about 2h 30min before landing at Boeing
Major customers such as Air Lease chief executive Field in Seattle.
Steven Udvar-Hazy have likewise called for Boeing to “I [fully] expect to see more orders,” Boeing
move on a mid-market aircraft. Commercial Airplanes chief executive Stan Deal said
Financial firm Jefferies sees opportunity for Boeing of the Max 10 on 18 June. “We are starting to see a
to develop a 200- to 250-seat jet for service entry recovery in the market, particularly pronounced in
in the late 2020s or early 2030s. The aircraft could the US.” Z

737 Max (FAA) lifted the type’s 20-month grounding. During
that period, Boeing had continued manufacturing the
jets despite not delivering them, consequently accu-
mulating an inventory of some 450 aircraft.
Fighting
Finally, in December 2020, the airframer resumed
deliveries and began working through the inventory,
aiming to deliver about half of the stored jets by the
end of 2021 and the majority of the remainder by
end-2022.
back
Boeing has since whittled its Max inventory down
to about 340 aircraft, some of which it produced af-
ter the FAA lifted the grounding, Cirium data shows.
But the Max programme suffered a setback this
year when airlines pulled 106 aircraft from service
owing to an electric grounding issue involving stand-
Its troubles are not entirely over, by power control units. The FAA approved Boeing’s
fix in May, though the issue led Boeing to temporarily
but the 737 Max programme halt Max deliveries.
has landed some significant new Smallest first
orders, as Boeing looks to clear Still, Boeing has landed new Max orders in recent
months, and surging air travel demand (at least in the
a huge inventory of aircraft USA) bodes well for continued sales.
Southwest Airlines ordered 100 737 Max 7s in
March, throwing a major wave of support behind the
Jon Hemmerdinger Tampa smallest Max variant, which Boeing expects to begin
delivering in 2022. This year, Boeing has also secured
Max orders from Alaska Airlines, United Airlines,
D
espite ongoing technical issues, Boeing has financial company 777 Partners and lessors Dubai
won new orders for the once-grounded 737 Aerospace and Aviation Capital. It has concurrently
Max narrowbody, progressed with clearing a logged Max cancellations, but Max orders in 2021
hundreds-deep inventory of stored jets and through May exceeded cancellations by 61 jets, com-
achieved first flight of the Max 10. pany data shows.
“It’s onward and upward,” Cirium head of valuations Boeing’s Max momentum accelerated in June. Mid-
AirTeamImages
George Dimitroff says of the Max programme. “As a month, it delivered the first high-capacity 737 Max
whole, the programme will get back to health.” 8-200 to low-cost carrier Ryanair. Then, on 18 June,
Boeing passed the highest hurdle in November the 737 Max 10 got airborne, kicking off a certification
2020, when the US Federal Aviation Administration campaign that will lead to a first delivery in 2023.
Boeing has orders for 436 787s, with

deliveries now approaching 1,000
Boeing

Max fleet has been brought back to

service since December 2020
The Max programme faces several remaining being 737NG-based military surveillance jets),
hurdles, notable among those being China’s recerti- according to company figures. Boeing needs revenue
fication of the jet. When that might happen remains from those deliveries to fund its future.
unclear; the process appears snarled in the broad The company intends to ramp up 737 Max produc-
US-China trade dispute. But China’s approval is crit- tion to 31 jets monthly in early 2022. But the FAA
ical – the country’s airlines will generate an expect- remains involved. The agency still holds responsibility
ed 25% of the aerospace industry’s growth in the for issuing Max airworthiness certificates – the doc-
next decade, Boeing chief executive David Calhoun uments that clear individual aircraft to fly. The FAA
recently said. took that duty from Boeing in 2019.
Additionally, as part of a 2021 settlement with
Making more the FAA, Boeing agreed to perform a safety risk
Ensuring the Max’s success means more to Boeing assessment of its “readiness for increasing” Max
than just about anything else. Of the 4,121 jets in Boe- production. The FAA will have the chance to
ing’s backlog at the end of May, 3,291 – 80% – were evaluate Boeing’s readiness ahead of production
737s (the majority being Max, with a small number rate increases. Z
The US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), into the 787’s production run. Why did the problems
which has taken keen interest in the problem, says crop up now? Spingarn speculates that Boeing per-
the latest delivery halt came after the agency de- haps tweaked some aspect of production – after all,
clined to accept a Boeing-proposed algorithm related airframers are always adjusting processes in search of
to fuselage “shimming”. improvements. Perhaps such an adjustment created
Shimming is one means of addressing the skin-flat- an unexpected issue.
ness issue, Boeing has said. But more broadly, Spingarn says, the fuselage
The FAA requested Boeing provide data to support troubles highlight “design and development”
the algorithm, which would have freed the company problems that seem ongoing at Boeing. The 787
from needing to individually inspect multiple compo- programme trudged through battery issues last
nents, says the FAA. decade. Then came the 737 Max disaster. Mean-
while, Boeing delayed the 777-9 programme (first
Complex composites delivery is now scheduled for late 2023), citing
Neither the agency nor Boeing have disclosed more factors including redesign of certain elements. The
details, but the issues remind engineers and safe- 767-based KC-46A military tanker has also suffered
ty experts of complexities inherent in composite quality problems.
materials. Amid the pandemic and delivery halt, Boeing had
Composites require vastly different manufactur- accumulated an inventory of about 100 stored 787s.
ing processes than metals. They fail differently and Calhoun in June said it still hopes to deliver the ma-
require unique inspection and repair procedures, ex- jority of those jets in 2021, though he cautioned that
perts say. Composites are so complex they cannot be the FAA’s review creates some uncertainty.
manufactured at rates high enough for narrowbody Merluzeau suspects Boeing will not finish clearing
jets, which is why NASA is heading a programme to the backlog until mid-2022 – later if the pandemic
advance composite technologies. recovery stalls, or if travel remains locked down in
Credit Suisse analyst Robert Spingarn notes that countries and regions where the 787 shines, such as
the fuselage issues are happening roughly a decade Australia, India and elsewhere in Asia. Z

A330-200F variant was met
Airbus
with fairly muted demand
A350 15 years to emerge, with Airbus having experienced

poor reception for its A330-200F and the stillbirth
of the A380F in the interim.
“The freighter market has been put to the forefront
Well worth during the pandemic because freight is the only thing
flying in significant quantities,” says Airbus chief com-
mercial officer Christian Scherer. “It has exacerbated
the fact that the freight market is underserved by
freighting for Airbus.” He claims customers have told the airframer

that the A350, with its range, volume and operating
costs, is a “really good platform” on which to develop
a “fabulous freighter”.
With its limited offering in the Key customers

“That’s an important message to take into account,”
air cargo sector exposed during says Scherer. “To some extent we are now reacting
to those market forces. I dare say we have some
the Covid-19 crisis, Airbus is wind in our sails towards seeing the emergence of
now weighing up its options for an A350 freighter as we consolidate our studies and
our business case.”
developing an A350 derivative Some six months before it delivered its final
A300-600F – to express cargo specialist FedEx in
July 2007, exactly a year after unveiling the A350 –
David Kaminski-Morrow London Airbus had committed to developing the A330-200F
to compete against Boeing’s 767-300F.
But while the 767-300F has secured more than
A
irbus has given its strongest signal yet 230 orders, just two customers – the express cargo
that it is looking to revisit the dedicated integrators FedEx and UPS – have been central to its
freighter sector, in a bid to break a run popularity, and Airbus was not able to convince them
of strategic missteps that have left rival to defect to the A330-200F. Whether the A330-
Boeing virtually unchallenged. 200F was unnecessarily capable, its price too high,
When the airframer first showed off the A350 XWB or availability too low compared with the 767, Airbus
family in July 2006, it featured a freighter version was unable to replicate the success of its A300-600F
of the -900 variant. But the proposition has taken in the integrator market.

This contrast was underlined recently when FedEx aggressive. We believe we have the products to be
received its 100th 767-300F, and revealed that it was able to be more aggressive in the future.”
exercising options on another 20 of the type, taking to Creation of an A350 freighter might seem a logical
48 the number to be delivered to it over 2022-2025, step, given the Airbus rationale of developing the
while the A330-200F backlog dropped to zero. A350 to dent the dominance of the 777.
Just 38 A330-200Fs have been delivered across But the task is not straightforward. With 277 orders,
the type’s entire customer base; barely half the num- the 777F has far outsold the passenger 777-200LR
ber of aircraft ordered in the first year after its launch. on which it is based, attracting interest from a diverse
Airbus has not delivered a freighter for more than cargo customer portfolio.
four years, following the handover of an A330-200F Airbus, keen to avoid another misalignment with
to Etihad Airways in February 2017, and its involve- cargo customer requirements, will need to consider
ment in the freighter market has been more peripheral, whether to pursue the original -900 freighter con-
through a participation in the conversion business. cept, producing a jet with around 90t payload capa-
bility, or aim for higher capacity.
Conversion therapy Converting the larger -1000 instead might offer
Its EFW joint venture with ST Engineering has re- 20% more volume than the -900 – and more than the
sulted in cargo modification programmes for the 650cb m (22,600cb ft) of the 777F – but the aircraft
A330-300 and -200 – creating freighters with re- would also inevitably be more expensive than the
spective 61t and 60t payload capability – as well as Boeing product. The US company has not developed
conversions of the A321 and A320. a 777-300ER freighter, but a -300ER conversion is
This venture had followed an earlier failed Airbus becoming available.
attempt to establish a conversion line for A320s The most radical idea would be to develop the
with the involvement of EFW plus Russia’s United A350 freighter with a tailored fuselage length, per-
Aircraft and Irkut. haps around 70m (229ft 6in) to position it midway
Airbus has long been aware of its lack of presence
in the freighter sector, a situation lamented by chief
executive Guillaume Faury towards the end of April. “Indeed we will be more
“I don’t like the idea to remain weak on that seg-
ment in the future,” he said. “Indeed we will be more aggressive. We believe
we have the products
Airframer is still considering how best to
reconfigure A350 as a specialist cargo aircraft to be able to be more
aggressive in the future”
Guillaume Faury Chief executive, Airbus
between the two passenger variants. Such a deci-

sion would not be unprecedented; Boeing originally
conceived the 747-8F as longer than the passenger
747-8, although the two eventually emerged with
fuselages of the same length.
Before the pandemic, Airbus had forecast a global
demand for about 2,500 new-build and converted
dedicated freighters over the two decades to 2038,
with 60% of them intended for replacement – nota-
bly, a large number of Boeing MD-11Fs remain opera-
tional with cargo fleets – and 40% for growth.
But new-build aircraft would total some 850 jets,
it predicted, and most of these would occupy the
mid-size category. Airbus expected about 360 new-
build freighters would be needed in the high-capac-
ity category, with payload capabilities of more than
80t. Boeing has most recently estimated a need for
930 new-build freighters, split more or less equally
between medium and large widebody models.
Airbus vice-president of programmes Philippe Mhun
says an A350 freighter will be launched only “when
launching conditions are met”, without elaborating.
While the pandemic has generated an undeniable
near-term surge in air-cargo traffic, less clear is the
extent to which pre-crisis forecasts will need revis-
ing, and the degree to which the increasing focus on
sustainability will influence Airbus’s latest attempt to
Airbus
exorcise its freighter demon. Z

S Ramadier/Airbus
O
A220 ne curious effect of the air transport crisis
is that it has effectively pushed the sector
back in time, resulting in a fleet technolog-
ically shaped to address the 2020s facing
Proving
levels of demand that were last seen at the turn of
the millennium.
“This industry, in a matter of a year, has lost some-
thing like 15 – if not more – years of growth,” says
Airbus chief commercial officer Christian Scherer.
its value
Activity level might be back to that which exist-
ed when the Airb us A318 was entering service and
the A319 was reaching peak deliveries. But Scherer
believes the airframer’s ability to pitch the 100- and
130-seat sectors with the A220 – an aircraft which
was still an unlaunched Bombardier concept, the
With air travel recovery likely CSeries, at the time – will prove an advantage during
the recovery of the single-aisle market.
to come first with smaller jets, “We had a very timid attempt in the past with the
A318 in this category,” says Scherer. “But we now
acquiring the A220 programme have a family of products with A220-100 and -300
from Bombardier now looks like that clearly addresses the upper regional segment
where Airbus wasn’t really present before.”
a masterstroke by Toulouse Neither the A318 nor rival Boeing’s answer, the
737-600, sold more than 70-80 aircraft and the lower
David Kaminski-Morrow London end of the single-aisle battleground has since be-
come even tougher.

Airbus says successful A220

complements A320neo family
When Airbus re-engined its popular A319, it believed Carriers such as Air Canada, Delta Air Lines and
the updated aircraft would continue its predecessor’s Swiss were operating almost all their A220s by June,
run of success, while consigning the CSeries, then a while keeping substantial numbers of A320-family
prospective competitor, to the status of also-ran. jets parked.
But while the A319 and the 737-700 each managed The airframer plans to increase combined monthly
to secure close to 1,500 orders, neither of their re-en- A220 output from its Montreal Mirabel and Mobile,
gined counterparts – the A319neo and 737 Max 7 – Alabama assembly lines from five to six aircraft
has been able to replicate these figures. The CSeries, in early 2022, and its aim is for 14 by around
however, took more than 400 orders under Bombar- mid-decade.
dier and Airbus has added another 337 gross orders “Our order book is pretty full, we have no issue in
in the three years since acquiring the programme, terms of open slots,” says Mhun.
now the A220, in mid-2018. Although longer-range single-aisle aircraft have
been able to encroach on routes traditionally
Crisis managed plied by twin-aisle types, the use of smaller air-
Scherer believes the A220 hands Airbus an advan- craft on such routes carries a potential comfort
tage in the current circumstances. While Airbus cut
production rates of other aircraft in its portfolio, he
points out, there was no such reduction for the A220 “This industry, in a
– the airframer only “adapted slightly downward the
positive slope” for the type’s ramp-up. matter of a year, has lost
Airbus vice-president of programmes Philippe
Mhun says the A220 was the “most active fleet in its something like 15 – if not
segment during the crisis”, claiming that a minimum
50% of delivered aircraft were still being operated more – years of growth”
at the lowest point, before the figure “very quickly”
recovered to higher levels. Christian Scherer Chief commercial officer, Airbus

JetBlue says the A220 has 30% better
“This fleet will be pivotal to helping us reshape our
cost-efficiency per seat than the E190
cost structure and growing our margins,” he adds.
Lufthansa Group carrier Swiss was the launch op-
erator of the A220 during its period as the CSeries,
and has built a fleet of 30 including both the -100 and
-300 variants. The aircraft has the range to integrate
smoothly with its A320 fleet, offering economical
capacity options.
“We use our A220 and A320-family aircraft very
flexibly on the entire short-haul network, according
to demand, with very few exceptions for operation-
al reasons,” the carrier states, pointing out that the
A220 is necessary for Swiss to access specific air-
ports such as London City and Florence.
Scherer claims Chinese interest in the A220 from
Airbus
operators in regions “outside of the mainstream”

routes, while the type has attracted interest from ex-
ecutive and premium operators interested in exploit-
penalty, requiring carriers to adapt single-aisle ing the long-range potential of low-density cabins.
types to feature interior configurations suitable for Although Airbus has been enhancing the
longer-duration flights. performance of the A220, with hikes in maximum
Radical interior reconfiguration is less of a consid- take-off weight, it views the A220 and A320 families
eration at the regional end of the scale, but Airbus as separate products. Scherer says the lack of full
believes the basic A220 already provides advantages commonality between the two types has “not proven
by offering a tailored five-abreast aircraft rather than to be a major handicap” and points out that there is
further stretches of narrow four-abreast regional jets “no such commonality” between upper-size regional
or inefficient shrinks of larger six-abreast models. jets and mid-size single-aisle aircraft.
“It’s absolutely the reference in cabin comfort,” “There are no plans to revamp or change the value
says Scherer. proposition of the A220 or A320 to construct a com-
He believes that, although the A220 has “margin- mon cockpit,” he says. “That’s not to say they won’t
ally higher” trip costs than its “direct competitor”, converge over time, but there are no hard plans.” Z
by virtue of being 20-30 seats larger, customers will
favour the range advantage and increased revenue
generation potential.
“It clearly commands a value premium in the mar-
ket,” he says.
But it also shifts the competitive arena, pitching
Airbus more directly against Embraer at a point
where the Brazilian airframer remains without a
strong partner after its proposed tie-up with Boeing
suddenly collapsed last year.
Thinking big
Over the past three years – a period in which the
Embraer E195-E2 and E190-E2 have entered service
– the A220’s net orders, under Airbus, have risen by
more than 60%, while its backlog has increased by a
third to nearly 500 aircraft. Customers have strongly
backed the larger -300 over the -100, and a similar
pattern has emerged at Embraer, where the E195-E2
has sold better than the E190-E2. Embraer’s E2
backlog stood at 139 at the end of March.
New customer JetBlue Airways is taking the A220
to replace its older E190s. Chief financial officer Steve
Priest says the carrier is “particularly excited about
the outstanding economics”, giving a figure of 30%
better cost-efficiency per seat over the regional jet.
60%
AirTeamImages
Increase in orders for the A220 over the three years Air Canada had almost all its
since Airbus acquired the programme A220s in operation again by June

Embraer has pushed back entry into service for E175-E2 until 2024
Embraer
E-Jet E2 just weeks before the air transport industry was hit
by the shock of the global coronavirus pandemic.
Since then, as airlines reconfigure fleets and plan
post-Covid-19 strategies, Embraer has quietly pushed
Scope for out the type’s timeline to certification by three more

years. The airframer hopes that changes in pilot con-
tracts will allow it to sell the aircraft in the USA, the
biggest regional jet market in the world.
hope And so far, Embraer has no firm E175-E2 orders.

“Demand for this segment of aircraft would
naturally be high in the US, given the strong region-
al network already in place,” says Daniel Galhardo
Gomes, strategic marketing director at Embraer
Embraer has pushed back Commercial Aviation. “Of course, due to its heavier,
but much more fuel-efficient engines, the aircraft
certification of its smallest doesn’t meet current scope clauses – which is a huge
missed opportunity environmentally.”
E2-family member, but is
confident that the jet will find Job protection
Scope clauses are passages written into contracts
favour with regional carriers between major US airlines and pilot unions that limit
the number and size of aircraft that may be flown
by airlines’ regional affiliates. They generally prevent
Pilar Wolfsteller Las Vegas carriers from farming out more flying to regionals –
such as Mesa Airlines, Republic Airlines and SkyWest
Airlines – thus protecting mainline pilot jobs.
T
he smallest member of Embraer’s E2 family, Additionally, scope clauses largely prohibit regional
the E175-E2, has a long road ahead if it is to affiliates from operating aircraft that have more than
embark on the same path to success as its 76 seats or maximum gross take-off weights exceed-
larger siblings, the E190-E2 and E195-E2. ing 39,000kg (86,000lb).
The first Pratt & Whitney PW1700G-powered While the first-generation E170 and E175 did not
E175-E2 made its maiden flight on 12 December 2019, exceed that limit, the E175-E2, with its heavier

Ian Dewar Photography/Shutterstock Cover story Airliners
Airframer is looking for a way round scope clauses

that mean E2 variant is too big for E-Jet operators
P&W turbofan engines, is about 5,440kg over the Embraer also gave its E2s new wings and landing
maximum weight. gears, and the company says 75% of all systems are
“Embraer recognises the uncertainty of the future new as well.
scope clause scenario in the USA,” Galhardo Gomes The E190-E2 entered service in early 2018 with
says. “Nevertheless, considering that all next-gen- launch customer Wideroe, in Norway, and the
eration regional jets are heavier, mostly due to the E195-E2 followed in September 2019 with launch
larger, higher-bypass ratio engine, Embraer sees the customer Azul, the Brazilian airline founded by
86,000lb [maximum take-off weight] scope relief as David Neeleman.
a natural step to allow airlines to benefit from new The E175-E2 now is unlikely to enter service until
technologies and increase their efficiency in a highly 2024, four years behind its original schedule.
competitive, low-margin industry. The environmental At the 2013 Paris show, with the aircraft’s launch,
benefits should also not be overlooked.” US regional carrier SkyWest announced a firm order
The airframer touts the jet’s increased fuel efficien- for 100 E175-E2 jets, with an additional 100 options.
cy over older models, especially since the industry That deal has since expired, Embraer says.
has committed to reducing its global greenhouse gas The E175-E2 has one more row of seats than the
emissions to half of 2005 levels by 2050. first-generation E175. It will burn 16% less fuel and
save airlines 25% in maintenance costs, Embraer says.
Launch ambitions
Embraer launched the E2 programme in 2013 at the Other markets
Paris air show, building on its globally successful But even without the US market – into which it plans
line of first-generation E-Jets, which include the GE to continue to sell the lighter first-generation E175
Aviation CF34-powered E170, E175, E190 and E195. – Embraer sees ample opportunity for the type in
Just three variants compose the E2 line-up: the other regions.
80-90-seat E175-E2, 97-114-seat E190-E2 and the “The US is not the only market for the E175-E2.
120-146-seat E195-E2. PW1700Gs power E175-E2s, In fact, we see relevant replacement opportunities
while more-powerful PW1900G engines are used on in Europe, where the first-generation E175 is suc-
the two other variants. cessfully operated by many carriers, as well as [the]
Asia-Pacific, including China,” Galhardo Gomes says.
“Embraer sees the

Embraer has started sales campaigns in other parts
of the world and expects to announce an E175-E2
86,000lb [maximum
launch customer soon.
The jet’s certification campaign will be conduct-
take-off weight] scope

ed with three aircraft, Embraer says. The first and
second prototypes will be used for aerodynamic,
relief as a natural step to

performance and system tests, while the third will be
outfitted with interior furnishings and used to vali-
allow airlines to benefit

date maintenance tasks.
Embraer has not said how many E175-E2s it
from new technologies”

hopes to sell, but Galhardo Gomes says the compa-
ny expects the model will be “as successful as the
first-generation E175 along its lifecycle”.
Daniel Galhardo Gomes Strategic marketing director, “This should give you an idea of our ambitions with
Embraer Commercial Aviation this aircraft,” he adds. Z

A reduced volume of global flight activity should
equate to fewer accidents being recorded, but the
current slower rate of working also is providing the
industry with extra thinking time around safety
Pause for
thought
David Learmount London increased. This will need to be effectively managed.
However, this situation will be transient and should
have no significant negative impact on the long-term
T
ravel restrictions associated with the contin- trend of improving airline safety.”
uing Covid-19 pandemic mean that relatively He continues: “On average, globally, airline safety
little flying is taking place, so proportionately (measured by the fatal accident rate) is now three
fewer fatal or serious accidents have hap- times better than it was only 10 years ago, and safety
pened so far in 2021 compared with the same period has increased by an order of magnitude in the last 30
(January-June) in the pre-pandemic years. years – more or less during a pilot’s career.”
The resulting slower pace in personal and working In pointing out risks during the recovery period,
lives, however – including in commercial aviation – Hayes refers to the need to prepare long-stored
has given people time to question professional and aircraft to fly again, and the challenge of providing
private priorities. This may mean that the industry furloughed crews with refresher training to return
never entirely returns to its pre-pandemic operating them to proficiency.
philosophies. Indeed, it seems likely there will be an
additional focus on specific safety priorities; a pro- Storage risk
cess that has already begun. Some of the less obvious problems potentially in-
In the first six months of 2020, and again in the cor- volved in returning stored aircraft to service include,
responding period this year, only four fatal accidents for example, an elevated risk of microbiological con-
occurred worldwide: the joint lowest number ever. The tamination of fuel, according to Conidia Bioscience’s
first half saw only one of the fatal accidents involve a aviation manager Andrew Rushton. He explains that
big jet – the remainder were turboprop aircraft. merely resuming normal fuel testing regimes might
But given that flying operations reduced worldwide miss this type of biomass contamination. In any case,
in many of those months by between 90% and 50%, the airlines’ operations, training and engineering de-
depending on the region, those figures mean very little partments will all be kept busy.
on their own (see figures for past decade, p66). Sim- Meanwhile, the worst accident in this year’s first six
ilarly, the number of deaths – 102 and 77 respectively months, the Sriwijaya Air Boeing 737-500 crash off
in the first halves of 2020 and this year – are low but the coast of northern Java, Indonesia in January looks
unexceptional given the traffic reduction. as if it may exemplify the main accident risk that air-
Paul Hayes, director of air safety and insurance at lines still face (see listing, p67).
Cirium, describes the general commercial air trans- By far the most common fatal accident cause glob-
port safety situation now: “The airline industry’s ally for more than two decades has been crews losing
recovery following Covid-19 can be expected to result control of aircraft that were perfectly controllable,
in a period during which threats to air safety are even if aircraft faults had been the initial cause of their

Safety Half-year
Corvin Y O/Shutterstock
The worst accident in the first half of this
year involved Sriwijaya Air Boeing 737-500
distraction. The two 737 Max 8 loss of control in-flight can be beaten. The question is how to persuade the
(LOC-I) crashes in Indonesia and Ethiopia, respectively rest of the world that they can achieve the same.
in October 2018 and March 2019, involved complex Hayes describes the general situation neatly: “We
technical causes for which specific pilot training had laughed when the FAA [US Federal Aviation Adminis-
not been provided, but there were many LOC-I events tration] – in 1995 – announced a goal of ‘zero acci-
involving multiple aircraft types in Indonesia, Asia, dents’. But, if we consider just fatal accidents alone,
Africa and Russia over the past two decades. this goal is already being achieved by the vast major-
Although the Indonesian air accident investigator ity of airlines every year. LOC-I accidents still happen,
of the Sriwijaya crash has not yet completed the full but none of these have been ‘Acts of God’, so there is
investigation, the circumstances established in its certainly still scope for further improvement.”
preliminary report suggest LOC-I is likely to have
been the causal factor. Basic skills
LOC-I as an accident category is, unfortunately, an Hayes is not the only one to have identified this
established phenomenon. It shows no sign of being operational issue as needing attention. The Royal
brought under control on a worldwide basis, despite Aeronautical Society’s (RAeS’s) Flight Operations
the industry’s awareness of it as as the greatest single Group (FOG) ran a webinar in late June entitled: Pilot
killer of airline passengers and crews. Training: is it time to revisit the basics? The issues
Even the USA, which normally would claim a good addressed were summed up by the society like this:
record on such issues, is not immune, as evidenced “It is not the number of accidents that is at issue here,
by a 23 April 2018 Atlas Air 767F crash in which the it is the fact that so many of them were avoidable
crew became disorientated, and the report noted a had the pilots used basic skills to recover from the
record of poor performance in training. situations they found themselves in. The lack of these
The fact that LOC-I accidents have already been skills raises the question as to whether the skills were
eliminated by many airlines in some of the world’s bus- ever in place, or whether this is evidence of skill fade
iest aviation regions is evidence that the phenomenon due to an over-reliance on the automatics.”
77
The conclusion suggested by the webinar con-
tributors was primarily the former: the skills had not
been instilled – or perhaps not consolidated – during
training in the first place.
In the Sriwijaya accident, the left power lever is
known to have retarded – probably automatically –
during the early climb, but the crew appeared to take
no account of the consequent asymmetric loss of
Total deaths in aviation accidents in first six months of 2021 power and its effect on the aircraft’s performance.

Reliance on simulator-based
training has been criticised
The aircraft was flying in instrument meteorological

conditions owing to rain-bearing cloud with embed-
ded cumulonimbus. When, about 5min after take-off,
the autopilot could no longer hold the control forces
caused by asymmetric power, it disconnected and the
aircraft rolled rapidly left to a bank angle of 45°. Soon
after this, it pitched dramatically nose-down and en-
Vivooo/Shutterstock
tered a high-speed descent to impact with the sea.
The failure of the crew to react to the developing
situation during the climb is difficult to understand,
unless it was because they had completely failed
to monitor the engine and flight instruments. Then,
when the aircraft rolled rapidly toward the left engine
with its low power setting – the roll suggesting a
flight condition close to a stall – the crew’s failure to Leahy and Scott continued: “Among the drivers for
act to correct the aircraft’s developing attitude, air- these reductions have been better automation and
speed and power setting suggests that, by that time, more reliable warning systems, resulting in aircraft
they were so disorientated they could not recognise that are considered to be easier to fly. Currently, pilot
what needed to be done. training is a combination of mastery of basic handling
Even if this were the only recent fatal LOC-I acci- skills and the ability to manage complex automated
dent the evidence of the crew’s inability to manage systems, with an increasing emphasis on the latter.
the aircraft’s performance would be worrying, but Thus, although management of automation has im-
since it is one of many such events, the situation can proved, less and less time is now spent on developing
no longer be ignored. and maintaining the basic skills that are so necessary
when automation fails or causes confusion.”
Human factors Leahy and Scott are not the first to have called out
A speaker at the RAeS webinar, Dr Kathy Abbott, a this issue. But the question remains: how can the many
human factors specialist at the FAA, pointed out that airlines that persist with training their pilots to the
pilots today need more training than their predeces- absolute minimum legal standards be persuaded to do
sors because of the increased technical complexity of more, especially when accidents remain rare, however
the aircraft they fly. Unfortunately, many airlines have shocking they are when they occur?
interpreted the provision of greater flight automation
as a tool for reducing pilot workload, thus reducing Global standards
the need for pilot training, especially in the cognitive Leahy says the only solution he can suggest is that
and physical skills associated with manual flying – es- the world’s leading airlines, which already choose to
sential when the automation fails or disengages. train to standards well above legal minima, need to
Also contributing to the webinar was aviation con- take the lead as conspicuously as possible, setting
sultant and former British Airways and Ryanair training standards for the global industry.
specialist Captain John Leahy. He recently co-authored The travelling public are not stupid, he says, adding
– with RAeS FOG member Captain Robert Scott – a the observation that the 737 Max accidents have “wok-
study for the RAeS journal Aerospace that sums up en the public up to the fact that aviation isn’t perfect”.
the training conundrum: “Pilot training has changed They will notice, he suggests, that the carriers with
greatly in the last two decades. It is shorter in dura- high training standards simply do not have fatal acci-
tion, with less flight time on real aircraft, less exposure dents any more, while other airlines continue to crash.
to the stress of actual flight, and much of it comput- There are examples from recent history that confirm
er-based. Simulator time is reduced in many cases to dramatic improvement can be achieved. Between Au-
the minimum required to achieve certification.” gust 1997 and April 1999, Korean Air suffered four hull
losses, two of them fatal, all of them involving jets, and
three of them widebodies. Delta Air Lines, which had a
code-share with Korean that it wanted to preserve – if
World airline fatal accidents and possible – worked with the carrier to improve its safety
management. For the last 22 years Korean has had no
fatalities, Jan-Jun 2012-2021 fatal accidents or hull losses.
Similarly, between November 1993 and May 2002
Fatal accidents Fatalities
China Airlines suffered five hull losses of which four
25 450 were fatal, and all were widebody jets. The Civil Aer-
20 360 onautics Administration in Taiwan then worked with
15 270
international consultants and the US authorities to
establish a safety management system culture, and
10 180 since 2002 the carrier has had no fatal accidents.
5 90 The first six months of 2021 brought no brand-new
0 0 safety lessons for the industry, but the thinking time
2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021 conferred by the pandemic’s effect on airline opera-
tions may yet motivate the action to eliminate LOC-I.
Fatal accidents Fatalities On the other hand, the financial strain imposed by
Source: FlightGlobal an extended loss of earnings may tempt some airlines
to do nothing. Vigilance is going to be important. ◗

Safety Half-year
Dita Alangkara/AP/Shutterstock
There were no survivors of the
Sriwijaya Air 737 crash in January
Fatal accidents:
Scheduled passenger flights

Date: 9 Jan ● Carrier: Sriwijaya Air ● Aircraft type/registration: Boeing 737-500 (PK-CLC) ● Location: In sea off northern Java coast, Indonesia
Fatalities (crew/pax): 6/56 ● Total occupants (crew/pax): 6/56 ● Phase: C
The aircraft took off normally at 14:35 local time from Jakarta Interna- cleared, and a moment later the controller advised a temporary climb
tional airport’s runway 25R for a domestic flight to Pontianak, and began restriction to avoid traffic. Just over 5min after take-off the aircraft began
a wide right turn onto a north-westerly heading, initially cleared for unre- an uncommanded turn left, and as it was climbing through 10,600ft the
stricted climb to 29,000ft, but later restricted to 11,000ft to avoid traffic. autopilot disconnected. The heading was 016°, pitch just above 4° nose
It was raining, overcast at 1,800ft, and there were cumulonimbus clouds up when the aircraft suddenly rolled left to a 45° bank. The left thrust
in the vicinity. According to Indonesian accident investigation agency lever was continuing to retard, the right lever still in the position the crew
KNKT, just after the aircraft climbed through about 8,000ft the left had set. The autothrust then disconnected and, with the nose pitched
power lever began slowly to retard and the engine N1 rpm to reduce, but about 10° down, the aircraft entered a high-speed descent to impact
this appears to have gone unnoticed by the crew. The right engine rpm with the sea. In the days before the accident, the autothrottle had twice
and power lever remained where they were set. Shortly after that the been reported unserviceable, but the faults were written up as having
crew requested a turn onto heading 075° to avoid weather, which was been rectified with all deferred defects cleared.
Fatal accidents:
Non-scheduled flights
Date: 2 Mar ● Carrier: South Sudan Supreme Airlines ● Aircraft type/registration: Let L-410UVP (HK-4274*) ● Location: Near Pieri, South Sudan
Fatalities (crew/pax): 2/8 ● Total occupants (crew/pax): 2/8 ● Phase: C
The South Sudanese authorities report that one of the engines failed *The registration HK-4274 is believed to have been counterfeit, as
during the climb away from the departure airstrip at Pieri, then the other Colombian authorities had withdrawn it from use after the helicopter it
failed as the crew turned back to attempt a landing there. originally identified was disposed of.
Date: 20 Mar ● Carrier: Aeronav Air Services ● Aircraft type/registration: Cessna 208B Caravan (5Y-JKN) ● Location: Near Marsabit, northern
Kenya ● Fatalities (crew/pax): 2/0 ● Total occupants (crew/pax): 2/0 Phase: AA
The aircraft was chartered to carry out a flight from Marsabit to Nairobi, airport. It crashed into high ground in cloud at about the time it was due
and set out on its positioning flight to Marsabit from Nairobi Wilson to start its descent.
Fatal accidents:
Non-passenger flights
Date: 16 Jun ● Carrier: Kin Avia ● Aircraft type/registration: Let L-410 (9S-GRJ) ● Location: Near Bukavu-Kavumu airport, Democratic Republic
of Congo ● Fatalities (crew/pax): 2/1 ● Total occupants (crew/pax): 2/1 ● Phase: TO
Taking off for a short cargo flight (about 100nm/185km) to Shabunda structural damage suggests an attitude at impact that was more or less
with 1.6t of freight on board, the aircraft got airborne but came down flat, with little or no nose-up or nose-down pitch, and a low airspeed.
about 3min later and hit the ground hard close to the airport. Both pilots The cargo consisted of sheet metal. According to Cirium fleets data the
and the one additional person on board were killed. The nature of the aircraft was first in service with the old Aeroflot in 1987.

❱
Significant non-fatal accidents/incidents:
All commercial airline categories

Date: 4 Jan ● Carrier: Southern Airways Express ● Aircraft type/registration: Cessna 208B Caravan (N887MA) ● Location: Near Pittsburgh, USA
Injuries (crew/pax): 0/0 ● Occupants (crew/pax): 2/5 ● Phase: ER
The aircraft’s belly luggage pod came open in flight. Contents or incident happened in darkness (06:02 local time) while the aircraft
structure struck and damaged the aircraft’s flaps and horizontal was operating a scheduled flight (FDY227) from Dubois, Pennsylvania
stabiliser. The pilot was able to maintain control and landed safely. The to Pittsburgh.
Date: 16 Jan ● Carrier: Green Flag Aviation ● Aircraft type/registration: Antonov An-74 (ST-GFF) ● Location: Kidal airport, Mali
Injuries (crew/pax): 0 ● Occupants (crew/pax): ? ● Phase: L
Chartered by the UN, the aircraft overran the runway and suffered extensive damage.
Date: 19 Jan ● Carrier: West Atlantic ● Aircraft type/registration: Boeing 737-400F (G-JMCY) ● Location: Exeter airport, UK
Injuries (crew/pax): 0 ● Occupants (crew/pax): 2 ● Phase: L
Inbound on a domestic cargo flight from East Midlands airport, the lage just aft of the overwing exits was visible, and it was subsequently
aircraft landed so heavily on runway 26 that skin wrinkling in the fuse- written off.
Date: 26 Jan ● Carrier: Pegasus Airlines ● Aircraft type/registration: Airbus A320 (TC-NBH) ● Location: Basel Mulhouse airport, Switzerland
Injuries (crew/pax): 0/0 ● Occupants (crew/pax): ?/? ● Phase: L
The aircraft, inbound from Istanbul on a scheduled passenger flight, the nosewheel locked at 90° to the direction of landing. Damage to
developed a nosewheel fault which compelled the crew to land with the aircraft was slight.
Date: 1 Feb ● Carrier: Nippon Cargo Airlines ● Aircraft type/registration: Boeing 747-8F (JA13KZ) ● Location: Tokyo Narita airport, Japan
Injuries (crew/pax): 0 ● Occupants (crew/pax): 2 ● Phase: L
Inbound from Hong Kong Chek Lap Kok airport on a rainy night, the to land the aircraft safely on the second attempt, but the damage
aircraft suffered a significant tailstrike while carrying out a go-around was found to be significant. Windshear is believed to have been a
from its first attempt at landing on runway 16R. The pilots were able contributory factor.
Date: 10 Feb ● Carrier: Delta Air Lines ● Aircraft type/registration: Boeing 717 (N998AT) ● Location: Pittsburgh International airport, USA
Injuries (crew/pax): 0/0 ● Occupants (crew/pax): 5/72 ● Phase: G
While taxiing in snowy conditions, the flightcrew lost directional embankment. The accident happened in darkness (18:29 local time)
control as the aircraft was turning left from taxiway F towards runway and reduced visibility in snow. The aircraft, which was operating a
10R. The Boeing 717 subsequently ran part-way off the right side of flight to Atlanta, Georgia, was found to have suffered minor damage
the taxiway and its nose wheel continued a short distance down an as a result of the incident.
Date: 13 Feb ● Carrier: DHL Air (UK) ● Aircraft type/registration: Boeing 757F (G-DHKZ) ● Location: Near Leipzig, Germany
Injuries (crew/pax): 0 ● Occupants (crew/pax): 2 ● Phase: C
After taking off from Leipzig for Frankfurt at about 05:30 local time, was open. They elected to return to Leipzig and landed safely on
the crew were warned during the climb that the forward cargo door runway 08L.
Date: 14 Feb ● Carrier: Manta Air ● Aircraft type/registration: Viking Air Twin Otter floatplane (8Q-RAE) ● Location: Velana International airport
(water), Male, Maldive Islands ● Injuries (crew/pax): 0/0 ● Occupants (crew/pax): 3/6 ● Phase: L
The Twin Otter floatplane, inbound from one of the Maldives’ many able to escape the aircraft safely and were rescued. The aircraft suf-
tourist resorts, overturned on its water landing. All on board were fered major damage.
Date: 16 Feb ● Carrier: Azman Air ● Aircraft type/registration: Boeing 737-500 (5N-SYS) ● Location: Lagos International airport, Nigeria
Injuries (crew/pax): 0/0 ● Occupants (crew/pax): ?/? ● Phase: L
All four tyres on the aircraft’s left main undercarriage failed during the aircraft came to a halt safely. It was daylight (17:58 local time) with
landing on runway 18R at Murtala Muhammed International airport, rain and a gusting crosswind from the left. The aircraft was operating a
with debris apparently being ingested into the No 1 engine, but the scheduled flight from Abuja.
Date: 20 Feb ● Carrier: United Airlines ● Aircraft type/registration: Boeing 777 (N772UA) ● Location: Near Denver International airport, USA
Injuries (crew/pax): 0/0 ● Occupants (crew/pax): 10/231 ● Phase: C
The aircraft’s No 2 Pratt & Whitney PW4000 engine suffered a The incident happened in daylight (13:07 local time), and VMC. The
multiple fan blade failure as it was climbing through about 12,500ft aircraft was operating a flight to Honolulu, Hawaii. Further investiga-
at 280kt (518km/h) after take-off from runway 25 at Denver In- tion identified multiple fatigue fracture origins on the interior surface
ternational airport. Following the failure the engine’s inlet and fan of a cavity within one blade, and a second blade had also failed but
cowl detached and broke away, falling in the residential district of in overload. When the blade failed, the engine had been in service
Broomfield some 30km northeast of the airport. The falling debris for 2,979 flight cycles since its previous inspection. It had undergone
damaged the roof of a house and a parked vehicle. A fire broke out in thermal acoustic image inspections in 2014 and 2016, and the 2016
the aft section of the engine and continued to burn until put out by data had been re-examined in 2018 following a similar in-flight failure
the airport fire service after it returned to Denver and landed safely. that year of another PW4000.
Date: 26 Feb ● Carrier: LAM Mozambique Airlines ● Aircraft type/registration: Boeing 737-700 (C9-BAR) ● Location: Quelimane airport,
Mozambique ● Injuries (crew/pax): 0/0 ● Occupants (crew/pax): ?/? ● Phase: L
Inbound from Maputo, the Boeing 737-700 veered off the left side of (14:40 local time), but rainy conditions are likely to have been a factor.
runway 18 and came to a halt on the grass just past the high-speed Runway 18 has an 1,800m (5,900ft)-long asphalt surface, which was
turn off at the end of the runway. The incident happened in daylight wet from recent heavy rain.
Date: 6 Mar ● Carrier: Batik Air ● Aircraft type/registration: Airbus A320 (PK-LUT) ● Location: Sultan Thaha airport, Jambi, Indonesia
Injuries (crew/pax): 0/0 ● Occupants (crew/pax): 6/117 ● Phase: TO
After the crew selected the gear up after take-off, a nose landing gear of travel. The crew elected to return to Sultan Thaha airport and land.
fault on the aircraft led the gear to jam facing 90° from the direction Damage was slight.

Safety Half-year
Significant non-fatal accidents/incidents:
All commercial airline categories

Date: 11 Mar ● Carrier: Transcarga International Airways ● Aircraft type/registration: Airbus A300F (YV560T) ● Location: Maiquetia, Venezuela
Injuries (crew/pax): 0 ● Occupants (crew/pax): 3 ● Phase: TO
The crew aborted take-off when the left GE Aviation CF6 engine suffered detached and hit a workshop at the airport. The aircraft was delivered to
an uncontained failure. A disk failure, believed to be a turbine disk, Eastern Airlines in 1983 and began operating with Transcarga in 2014.
Date: 12 Mar ● Carrier: Grant Aviation ● Aircraft type/registration: Cessna 208B Caravan (N407GV) ● Location: Chevak airport, Alaska, USA
Injuries (crew/pax): 0/0 ● Occupants (crew/pax): 1/3 ● Phase: TO
The pilot began the take-off run for a scheduled domestic service, but runway surface and crosswind. The aircraft swerved off the runway and
then elected to abandon the attempt because of a combination of an icy rolled onto a wingtip, sustaining considerable damage.
Date: 20 Mar ● Carrier: Trigana Air Service ● Aircraft type/registration: Boeing 737-400F (PK-YSF) ● Location: Jakarta International airport,
Indonesia ● Injuries (crew/pax): 0 ● Occupants (crew/pax): 4 ● Phase: L
The aircraft was operating a cargo flight from Halim Perdanakusuma In- Directional control was lost and the aircraft ground looped off the left
ternational airport, Jakarta to Sultan Hasanuddin airport, Makassar. Just side of the runway; coming to rest on the grass beside the runway on its
before lift-off or during the initial climb after take-off, the right engine belly. Tyre marks on the runway suggest that the right main wheel may
failed. The crew stopped the climb at 3,000ft and elected to return to have been shimmying during the short time between touchdown and
Jakarta. The aircraft subsequently landed on runway 24 at Halim airport the failure of the right main undercarriage. The accident happened in
but touched down hard (1.79g) with some lateral drift, right wheel daylight (11:26 local time); weather, wind 060°/6kt, visibility 3,000m in
first. Shortly after touchdown, the right main undercarriage collapsed. haze, cloud, few at 2,000ft and temperature 32°C (90°F).
Date: 16 Apr ● Carrier: Lake Clark Air Services ● Aircraft type/registration: Beechcraft C99 (N991AK) ● Location: Chignik Lagoon airport,
Alaska, USA ● Injuries (crew/pax): 0/0 ● Occupants (crew/pax): 2/9 ● Phase: L
The aircraft’s right main undercarriage struck an obstruction on the runway, failed and collapsed during the landing roll. The occupants escaped unhurt.
Date: 27 Apr ● Carrier: ASL Airlines Belgium ● Aircraft type/registration: Boeing 737-400SF (OE-IAJ) ● Location: Porto airport, Portugal
Injuries (crew/pax): 0 ● Occupants (crew/pax): 2 ● Phase: TO
The aircraft was cleared for its night take-off from runway 35 while the runway some 10min before take-off clearance was passed to the
an inspection vehicle was still on the runway close to its far end, but aircraft, and was carrying out its fourth runway inspection of the day.
motoring south toward the aircraft taking off. At the aircraft’s unstick The car driver called the tower to ask about the lights he could see
point, Portuguese investigators have established the 737 was about approaching, and was told to clear the runway to the left. The ASL
300m laterally from the Follow Me car, which had been cleared onto flight was operating for FedEx.
Date: 10 May ● Carrier: Uni Air ● Aircraft type/registration: ATR 72-600 (B-17010) ● Location: Matsu Nangan airport, Taiwan
Injuries (crew/pax): 0/0 ● Occupants (crew/pax): 4/70 ● Phase: L
The aircraft undershot its final approach to runway 21 at Matsu Nangan time later. The accident happened in daylight (10:07 local time), wind
airport, Nangan Island, Taiwan and its right main undercarriage struck a 170°/5kt, variable between 140° and 210°, visibility 4,000m in mist
concrete wall just short of the runway. A go-around was performed and and cloud, scattered at 300ft and broken at 2,500ft. The aircraft was
the aircraft returned to Taipei where a safe landing was made some operating a flight from Taipei.
Date: 12 May ● Carrier: Key Lime Air ● Aircraft type/registration: Swearingen Metro II (N280KL) ● Location: Denver-Centennial airport, USA
Injuries (crew/pax): 0 Occupants (crew/pax): 1 ● Phase: RA
The aircraft collided with a Cirrus SR22 (N416DJ) while on final ap- onto final approach to runway 17R and collided with the Metro. The
proach to runway 17L at Centennial airport, Denver, Colorado. The col- centrelines of the two runways are only 200m apart, although their
lision occurred as the aircraft was descending through 6,400ft above thresholds are displaced. That of runway 17R is about 600m further
mean sea level (515ft above ground level), on the extended centreline south than 17L. Although the aircraft was very badly damaged, the
of the runway but about 3nm from its threshold. The SR22 had been Metro pilot was able to maintain control of the aircraft and landed safe-
cleared for a visual approach to the parallel runway 17R and its pilot ly. The pilot of the SR22 used the aircraft’s ballistic parachute recovery
had apparently been warned about the other traffic on approach to system to slow its descent and it crashed near Cherry Creek Reservoir,
runway 17L. However, it would seem that the SR22 overshot the turn to the north of the airport. All on board both aircraft survived.
Date: 20 May ● Carrier: Fly Air Africa Aviation ● Aircraft type/registration: Antonov An-26 (3X-APL) ● Location: Near Bor, South Sudan
Injuries (crew/pax): 0 ● Occupants (crew/pax): ? ● Phase: ER
The aircraft’s left propeller broke away in flight near Bor, South Sudan and returned to Juba for a safe landing. The accident happened in
while it was en route from Juba to Paloich. The pilot maintained control daylight (14:30 local time) and in VMC.
Notes on tables
Data comes from Flight International’s research in association with
Ascend by Cirium, which compiles the World Aircraft Accident
Summary, among other safety analysis products. In many countries,
details of non-fatal incidents are not made available officially, but
Flight International continues to list known significant incidents to
maximise the availability of relevant information. We accept that
the non-fatal listing may be weighted against the airlines of those
countries that make safety information more readily available.
Glossary of terms and abbreviations

AA airfield approach/early descent ● ATC air traffic control
NTSB
C cruise ● EGPWS enhanced ground proximity warning system

ER en route ● G on ground ● ILS instrument landing system
PW4000 engine of United Airlines 777 IMC instrument meteorological conditions ● L landing ● RA runway
suffered uncontained failure in February approach ● TO take-off ● VMC visual meteorological conditions

What long-term damage has the pandemic done
to the aviation industry’s production chain? And will
managing the recovery be as much of a challenge
as coping with the sudden collapse in demand?
Building
back
Murdo Morrison London immediately after March 2020 – and this on top of
the impact of the Max grounding – no high-profile
suppliers and only a handful of small and medi-
A
irbus monthly shipments at their second um-sized enterprises (SMEs) have gone to the wall.
highest since the pandemic; Boeing 737 Max This is largely down to three factors. Firstly,
airliners flying out of Renton; packed airport government support schemes have provided emer-
terminals in the USA; and Mediterranean gency loans, tax relief, and employee furlough
beaches busy again. Headlines in recent weeks must be payments. Secondly, after a pause, Airbus resumed
giving commercial aerospace suppliers hope that – if monthly production rates only marginally down on
not actually over – it is the beginning of the end for the 2019. And lastly, military programmes have been
industry’s deepest crisis since the Second World War. largely unaffected by the pandemic, cushioning
But what will be the long-term effect of almost suppliers with customers in that sector.
18 months – and likely many more – of lockdowns,
international travel bans, aircraft groundings, and
delayed and cancelled orders on a global supply
chain that only at the start of last year was preparing
its factories and workforces for an historic ramp-up in
single-aisle production?
Sudden shock
It was the suddenness of the shutdown that was
toughest to cope with. Although the shocks that
followed 9/11 and the global financial crisis were
dramatic, their impact was more gradual. This time,
a commercial aerospace sector at full canter was
Spirit AeroSystems
over the course of a few weeks faced with a situation

where most airliners in the world were parked, and
no-one wanted or needed its products.
Despite this, perhaps the most surprising out-
come has been that – as with airlines – there have
Major Boeing supplier Spirit AeroSystems says 2020
been remarkably few business fatalities. Despite the
brought unprecedented challenges to its business
trapdoor drop in demand from the two big airframers

Pandemic Supply chains
Airbus
Airbus output levels are cited as a key factor
in the survival of European supply chains
to give a big thank you to Airbus,” he says. “They

“Defence has really kept have helped to give SMEs a future.”
Christophe Cador, president of the SME division of
us going, and sales have France’s GIFAS trade body, also attributes the sur-
vival of all but a small number of already-troubled
actually been up over the aerospace firms in that country to Airbus maintaining
healthy production rates, something that has also
past year” helped suppliers to Safran, which produces, with
GE Aviation, the CFM International Leap-1A for the
Phil Hart Executive chairman, MEP A320neo family.
Supplier stability
“If it wasn’t for defence, I don’t think we’d be having “The OEM has been fully transparent. They did what
this conversation,” remarks Phil Hart, executive chair- they promised us 14 months ago [after France’s first
man of MEP, a family-owned UK build-to-print manu- lockdown was relaxed],” says Cador, who is chief
facturer of complex metal and plastic components for executive of aircraft and railways interiors specialist
avionics and electrical equipment. The company em- Satys. He contrasts this “stability” for Airbus’s suppli-
ploys 39 people, and customers include BAE Systems, ers with the impact on Boeing’s manufacturing base
Collins, Safran, and ejection seat maker Martin-Baker. of a production decrease that was exacerbated by
Before the crisis, Aylesford, Kent-based MEP’s turn- the Max grounding.
over of around $5 million was split roughly equally The pandemic has spread red ink over the ac-
between defence and commercial. In this financial counts of tier ones on both sides of the Atlantic.
year, Hart expects revenues to be down by a third, Spirit AeroSystems, a major Boeing supplier, lost
entirely due to the fall in the commercial market. $171 million in the first quarter of 2021. That followed
“Defence has really kept us going, and sales have a 2020, described by chief executive Tom Gentile, of
actually been up over the past year,” he says. “unparalleled challenges to our business”, in which
In Germany, where Airbus accounts for about revenues more than halved to $3.4 billion and Spirit
70% of the supply chain’s revenues, the airframer’s recorded a net loss of $870 million.
decision to keep narrowbody output at rate 40, the In the UK, Chinese-owned Gardner Aerospace
A350 at rate five, and the A330neo on rate two has revealed late last year that revenues for the first nine
been crucial, maintains Volker Thum, managing direc- months of 2020 had fallen by 45%, pushing the previ-
tor of the German trade association, BDLI. “We have ously profitable and fast-expanding aerostructures

Max’s return to service has helped
Boeing
ease pain for many Boeing suppliers
company into a loss and prompting it to close North of the border, Ottawa has also promised
plants and seek financial support from UK and French its aerospace sector specific aid to the tune of C$2
governments. Its most optimistic outlook sees a re- billion ($1.6 billion) over the next seven years. Aside
covery to 2019 levels by 2024. from manufacturers such as Bombardier and Airbus,
One of France’s biggest tier one suppliers, Lateco- the Montreal and Toronto regions are home to a host
ere, was forced to shed 1,000 jobs during 2020 in a of aerospace suppliers such as Pratt & Whitney Can-
restructure designed to ensure its “long-term com- ada, CMC Electronics, Heroux-Devtek and Magellan,
petitiveness”. However, the Toulouse-based company as well as training giant CAE.
pressed ahead with a commitment to buy Bombar- “Aerospace has been a driving contributor to
dier’s Mexican wiring business for $45 million, closing Canadian prosperity for decades, providing nearly
the deal early this year. 235,000 highly-skilled, well-paying jobs and over $28
Repercussions could have been worse for aerospace billion annually to our nation’s economy,” says Mike
had it not been for government intervention and the Mueller, chief executive of the Aerospace Industries
hedging provided by sectors such as defence, space, Association of Canada. In addition to the C$2 billion
and helicopters. This includes in the USA, where suc- package, he is calling for a government-backed “na-
cessive Covid-19 relief packages from the Trump and tional plan” to lead industry recovery.
Biden administrations, coupled with other targeted as-
sistance schemes, have helped keep companies afloat. Government support
The pandemic on the heels of the Max crisis was a The BDLI’s Thum pays credit to his government for
“double whammy” for US industry, but moves by the helping companies retain key staff by funding part-
Department of Defense to expedite supplier pay- time working. But he also attributes the sector’s abil-
ments, and this year’s Aviation Manufacturing Jobs ity to ride out the crisis – he knows of just one firm
Protection Act, which offers payroll assistance to af- that has gone bust – to a culture among family-run
fected companies, have softened the blows, says Rich SMEs to own outright their machinery and buildings,
Efford, the Aerospace Industries Association’s (AIA’s) and remain debt-free. “They have not been caught by
assistant vice-president for legislative affairs. fixed-cost payments,” he says.
With Max deliveries having resumed and the domes- In France, a “charter” that emphasis OEMs’ respon-
tic air travel market rebounding strongly, Efford says sibility to support domestic SMEs, and a GIFAS initi-
AIA members who rely on the commercial aviation ative to identify and help at-risk suppliers have been
sector see recovery ahead, albeit one that is “bumpy”. crucial to keeping the supply chain intact throughout
Worries remain, however, about a still stagnant busi- the crisis, believes Cador. Government loans of up
ness and international air travel market, he adds. to 25% of revenues, issued within four weeks and

Pandemic Supply chains
repayable over five years, have also helped firms deal additional costs of £65 million a year. Although re-
with cash shortages, he says. bates can be claimed if it is shown that raw materials
Many UK aerospace companies have been shielded were used solely for manufacturing, ADS expects that
from the worst of the commercial aviation downturn to add significant paperwork costs.
by the defence, security and space markets, which Craven also hopes a government pledge to create
have been “substantially more resilient”, says Kevin a net-zero economy by 2050 will boost the industry.
Craven, chief executive of trade body ADS. In fact, “There is a genuine opportunity for the UK aerospace
according to the latest ADS member survey, com- sector to be a world leader in terms of new technolo-
bined industry turnover remained constant at £79 gies, and an emerging alignment between us and the
billion ($110 billion) in 2020. government on the roadmap to get us there,” he says.
However, despite a “cautiously optimistic” mood, UK “It won’t be instant, but it may be an element that will
aerospace suppliers have had to deal with an addition- help recovery.”
al disruption: Brexit. Apart from some initial problems, However, last November, European trade body
the country’s official withdrawal from the EU in Janu- ASD highlighted another risk of a prolonged slump in
ary this year has not perhaps created the unmanagea- revenues and profitability. Chinese and other state-
ble tangle of red tape for importers and exporters that backed investors could see it as a chance to expand
some predicted, suggests Craven. their influence in Europe’s aerospace sector with
But it does affect aerospace firms in Northern Ire- acquisitions, with implications for sovereignty and
land, and those in the rest of the UK doing business security. The organisation wants a “European fund” to
with them. Under a quirk of the Northern Ireland Pro- “stabilise the supply chain”.
tocol between the UK and EU, raw materials moving
between the British mainland and the province are Avoiding disaster
subject to tariffs in case they end up in the EU as a The world’s aerospace sector may have, by and large,
result of the “invisible border” with the Republic of avoided disaster over the past year-and-a-half, but
Ireland, an EU member. the rebound from a crisis can be just as problematic
As a result, ADS estimates Northern Irish pro- for companies as a downturn, suggests Alex Krutz,
ducers – they include Spirit AeroSystems (formerly who runs the Patriot Industrial Partners consultancy.
Bombardier) and seating manufacturers Collins and Chief among the risks is liquidity – finding the cash
Thompson, along with dozens of SMEs – could face to invest in machinery and increase production when
reserves are at rock-bottom.
Other challenges include inflationary pressures on
“Cutting costs and raw materials, equipment and staff costs, he says.
And, after a period of retrenchment, where many sea-
reducing business size is soned employees have been laid off, bringing work-
forces back up to strength is not always straightfor-
often the easy bit. You ward, as many of these skilled and experienced staff
will have retired or moved to other sectors.
can take drastic measures “Cash is king and is definitely risk number one,”
he says. “Lead times for the likes of castings can be
to save costs. Growing nine to 15 months, so when the ramp-up does hap-
pen, that cash outlay will be a challenge.” He adds:
again is what’s very hard.” “Cutting costs and reducing business size is often the
easy bit. You can take drastic measures to save costs.
Alex Krutz Patriot Industrial Partners Growing again is what’s very hard.”
Hart at UK SME MEP agrees. After an effort to
manage costs, the company has managed to re-
main profitable through the first three quarters of
its current financial year, and he plans to keep it that
way. “We have seen an increase in demand [from the
commercial sector]. All our team members are back
working five days,” he says.
“We are reasonably confident that in the latter
part of 2021 and through 2022 we will continue a
very gradual growth. We don’t expect to be back
to pre-Covid levels for some time, but for us it’s not
about wanting a massive increase as that would cre-
ate its own set of problems. We are happy to manage
for now with our current staff, and keeping an eye on
our cash flow.”
The aerospace supply chain has survived the initial
onslaught of Covid-19 but, as airliners return to the
skies, recovery may be cautious, especially when it
Latecoere
comes to investment and rehiring. Demand for flying

will come back, but long-term changes to travel
habits prompted by the pandemic are still to be
French tier one Latecoere is one of many large
understood. For suppliers, there are many months,
suppliers forced into making drastic job cuts
perhaps years, of uncertainty ahead. ◗

From yuckspeak to tales of yore, send your offcuts to murdo.morrison@flightglobal.com
Must-have Mustang
The North American P-51 Mustang was a scourge of
the Luftwaffe in the Second World War. Now, the first
serial example of a German-designed 70% scale replica
of the type has flown for the first time.
ScaleWings says its SW-51 is a near-perfect copy
of the iconic fighter, down to the hand-riveted finish,
and a modernised version of the 1940s cockpit.
However, although the structure looks like the polished
aluminium of the original, it is in fact 100% composite.
Aircraft 001 completed a 35min sortie from Mlada
Motorbuch Verlag
Boleslav airport in the Czech Republic on 20 May. It
followed a flight of a proof of concept version seven
years ago.
Since then ScaleWings has been working on
industrialising the programme at a plant in Poland,
capable of producing 60 examples a year, and
pitching the Rotax-powered ultralight to the leisure
and aerobatic markets. It is priced at up to €300,000
($355,000). The SW-51 is also available in kit form.
Going nowhere
The Bavarian company is also looking for investors to An invite from the group Sustainable Aviation
launch the aircraft stateside this year, with the rallying to the launch of the UK aviation sector’s first
call: “Let’s bring the Mustang home to the US!”. decarbonisation targets notes that “since making its
net zero pledge in February 2020, the UK aviation
industry has continued to make exciting progress
towards decarbonising aviation”.
Presumably, the fact that much of its fleet has been
sitting idle since March 2020 has helped.
Comeback quads
Lufthansa plans to bring five of its furloughed Airbus
A340-600s back into service, citing expected buoyant
demand for first-class and other seats on long-haul
routes from Munich next year.
The German carrier retired the quadjets from service
ScaleWings
at the start of the pandemic, saying it was highly

Back to the future unlikely they would make a return.
Should we call that a lack of four-sight?
From the archive
1921 Shackleton’s scout 100

When shortly the Quest, the ship in which Sir Ernest
1946 Research investment 75
There is cause for a good deal of satisfaction with the
Shackleton and his companions are about to set out plans for the new National Aeronautical Establishment
on their journey of exploration, slips her moorings near Bedford. The estimated cost of £20 million will
near London Bridge, she will carry under her bridge possibly appear high to many, but it may well prove
a small two-seater seaplane, which it is intended to inadequate. Aeronautical research has never been
use for photographic survey work on the Antarctic generously treated here, but if this country is to retain
journey. That the seaplane offers great possibilities a leading position in the air (and unless it does it is
for this class of work is not to be doubted. It provides finished as a world factor), it is vitally necessary that
a platform from which many miles of country (or sea) the numerous problems which now beset the aircraft
can be surveyed, and it is able to cover distances in designer be solved as soon as possible. Fortunately,
as many hours as previously took weeks with dog- those responsible are, we believe, fully alive to this
sledges. It appears to us that it might be found useful, fact, and our scientists will, if given the necessary
when the ship approaches ice-floes, for sending out support, ensure that the new National Aeronautical
to find, like a sort of modern dove from the ark, open Establishment shall have the technical means for
“lanes” through which the ship may proceed. giving the designer the answers to his queries.

Straight & Level
Not too big to fail
Leahy’s late
verdict on A380
We take our hats off to Andreas Spaeth, who has
managed to pin down an interview with former
Airbus sales supremo John Leahy for his new book
on the A380.
Leahy – rarely out of the headlines during his long
stint in Toulouse – has kept a low profile since his
retirement in 2018 and move to Miami.
A champion of the superjumbo, who at least once
persuaded his board colleagues to offer the largest
ever airliner a stay of execution, Leahy says certain
customers and the engine manufacturers contributed
to its commercial failure.
Vertical landing Operators including Singapore Airlines “interfered

with the design,” he tells Spaeth. “Too much weight
was built into the airplane”, based on the premise
Visitors to the new offices of aviation group Avia that Airbus would launch a stretched A380-900.
Solutions in Vilnius, Lithuania will spot an interesting “That was clearly a design mistake that we made,”
feature in its entrance hall – a Bombardier CRJ200. he says.
The decommissioned regional jet was lowered by He adds that Airbus was “blindsided” by the engine
crane into in the atrium of the eight-floor complex, manufacturers, who promised that it would be 10
during its construction, by Avia’s maintenance, repair years before new powerplants offered a step-change
and overhaul subsidiary JET MS. It might give rise to a in efficiency.
local riddle: what building is square, but has two wings? However, three years after the A380’s launch
in 2000, the Boeing 787 was launched with GE
Aviation and Rolls-Royce powerplants offering a
12% improvement on the A380’s engines. “Can you
imagine the success of the A380 if it had 12% better
fuel burn?” asks Leahy, ruefully.
Unfortunately, non-German speakers will have to
wait until towards the end of the year for an English
version of the book, whose sub-title translates as “the
Avia Solutions
last giant”.
With 224 pages in the German edition, the 1kg
coffee table tome is a genuine heavyweight, just like
its subject.
Easy does it
1971 Moving on the Moon 50

Perhaps the most impressive aspect of the day was
1996 Behind blue ice 25
British Airways hopes to slash the cost of
the outstanding amount of work achieved by the implementing US airworthiness directives concerning
astronauts. This is thought to have been facilitated the formation of “blue ice” on aircraft, with a testing
by a combination of factors. Most effective were the device developed by Aaxico Industries of the UK.
resting periods offered by the rover. Knowledge of The FAA ADs, which initially apply to the McDonnell
economic movement on the Moon acquired from Douglas DC-10 and Boeing 727, require that toilet-
previous missions was thought to be an important drain and flush-fill valves are regularly tested for any
contributor and certainly the new space suits, with leakage of sewage. Blue ice forms when leaking fluid
their more flexible joints, did much to alleviate strain. freezes at cruising altitude, breaking off in lumps as
Nevertheless, both Scott and Irwin were fatigued at the ambient temperature rises during descent. This
the end and were found to have used some 17 per poses a safety hazard to the aircraft’s structure and
cent more oxygen than anticipated. It was feared engines, and people and property on the ground.
that the second EVA would have to be trimmed by Aaxico’s Blister (blue-ice tester) is designed to
half-an-hour because of this. “Well,” responded eliminate the expensive need to pressurise aircraft on
Scott, “I’ll breathe a little less tomorrow.” the ground to check for leaks.

Letters
Regular volcanic eruptions put vast
amounts of CO2 into the atmosphere
Francesco Campo/Shutterstock
Emissions: impossible?
It is an interesting time, with your magazine reporting on all these creative technological challenges to engineer
more fuel-efficient turbofan and open rotor engines (Flight International, July 2021), develop hydrogen- and
electric-powered aircraft, create less carbon-based synthetic fuels, and so on, all designed to lower CO2 emissions
and help reduce global warming.
However, without any help from us, last year 73 active volcanoes were reported erupting, and this year 42 are
erupting right now. That is putting more CO2 and sulphur dioxide in our atmosphere than humans have generated
since we discovered fire.
Maybe the UN’s Paris Agreement participants should include nature when looking to tackle climate change?
Peter Parsons
via email
Editor’s reply: The pandemic and associated massive reduction in flying has given us all pause for thought about
the environmental impact of our life choices, including air travel. Managing tectonic activity and associated
volcanic emissions are clearly beyond our control, so we will continue to focus on the exciting developments and
innovations that appear poised to change the industry much sooner than we all might have previously expected.
Danger money The very outdated bonus that was

previously included in Alitalia’s pilot
Outdated view
After reading about the pending remuneration survived well beyond I was surprised you published
arrival of Alitalia’s successor its sell-by date, and must have the letter ‘Family first’ (Flight
(FlightGlobal.com, 15 July 2021), I contributed to its financial woes. International, June 2021). I thought
was left asking myself the question: it should have appeared elsewhere
Will the ITA pilots still be paid Dr Peter Sander in the issue, within the Straight &
‘danger money’? Hythe, Kent, UK Level section’s ‘From the archive’
column: perhaps from 1946?
Women are put off from
careers in aviation by such sexist,
misogynistic and out of date views.
Most children have fathers as well
as mothers, and these days fathers
often share child-rearing duties.
Name and address supplied
Editor’s reply: Our disclaimer text

at the foot of this page states that
Massimo Insabato/Shutterstock
published correspondence does

not necessarily represent the views
of the editor. It is not our intention
to censor opinions. While the
views expressed in this instance
would not be held by all, they are
unlikely to be unique – and serve to
illustrate the very real challenges
Still a risky business? that remain as the industry strives
to address its gender imbalance.
We welcome your letters about our coverage, or any other aerospace-related topic. 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 should be no longer than 350 words in length, and supplied with the
correspondent’s name and location. Letters may also be published on FlightGlobal.com, and do not necessarily represent the views of the editor.

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Chief pilot at oil and gas sector operator Bristow
Helicopters’ Aberdeen and Sumburgh bases
Christina Brun explains how rotary-winged flight
drew her to the cockpit from a career in IT
Offshore role
a perfect fit
Dominic Perry London combination of “persistence and timing”, as the cliche
goes: you make your own luck.
With its regular departures, operations in support
I
t was the “fluidity and freedom” of helicopter flight of the oil and gas industry are the closest thing the
that grabbed her, says Captain Christina Brun; the rotorcraft sector has to a scheduled airline opera-
fact that “you can pick them up or put them down tion, albeit everyone is wearing a survival suit and
wherever you want” without relying on a runway. although passengers are on business, there is no
“I was never really interested that much in fixed- business-class.
wing flying – it was always helicopters that fascinated For Brun, the appeal was “the structure, the
me. I did a trial lesson and I was hooked,” she says. training and the progression” promised by Bristow:
Brun is chief pilot for Bristow Helicopters at its “From the point at which you start until you get your
Aberdeen and Sumburgh bases in Scotland, dividing command it is so structured and defined; it says
her time between flying oil and gas crew-change where you have to be and the standards and exams
missions and all the tasks required to manage the you need to attain,” she says. “That’s what you want
85 pilots in her charge. as a pilot.”
Hailing from leafy Buckinghamshire in England’s She did consider search and rescue (SAR) work at
Home Counties, a location far removed from Aber- the beginning of her career, but even though oil and
deen, the UK’s oil and gas capital, Brun had no famil- gas work requires early starts, “I know myself, and it
ial links with aviation. But with a keen interest in golf wouldn’t suit me to be woken up and called out”.
as a child, her attendance at one tournament provid- Of course, the crew-change routine does not suit
ed the inspiration for her later career choice. everybody – “some people would hate the regularity
“It was really sparked when one of the players ar- you get with the oil and gas operation”, Brun says –
rived in a helicopter – that was just a ‘wow’ moment.” not least her husband, who is a SAR pilot at Bristow’s
Stornoway base.
IT girl Part of the structure alluded to is the career
But becoming a helicopter pilot was not her first progression pathway within Bristow: there are clear
choice. Instead she felt it was “more sensible to go milestones and assessments in place to guide a pilot
into business” and ended up with a job in the IT sec- from first officer, to senior first officer and ultimately
tor. But once lodged, that “spark never leaves you”, to commander.
she says, spurring a decision to switch careers.
Brun gained her private pilot’s licence in parallel with
working in her IT role, then moved to the written ele- “I was never really
ment of a commercial licence. Eventually she reached
a point of no return: the flying portion of the ATPL interested that much in
required her to quit, to dedicate herself to the effort.
A year later, she had a job as a first officer at Bri- fixed-wing flying – it was
stow. There was always an aim to work in the North
Sea region, says Brun, and early on she had made always helicopters that
contact with Bristow’s head of training. “There was
no doubt in his mind what my goal was,” she says. fascinated me. I did a trial
Although Brun says that obtaining an interview
and the subsequent job offer were partly thanks to a lesson and I was hooked”
Women in aviation
“It’s the same with a chief pilot: you are bridging a

gap between the pilots and the higher levels of the
company.” There is also a requirement to liaise with
customers, particularly if there has been an incident
offshore, whether safety- or staff-related.
Those skills were put to the test in 2016 when an
Airbus Helicopters H225 flown by another operator in
Norway crashed with the loss of all 13 on board after
its main rotor separated in flight.
The H225, like the Sikorsky S-92, was a mainstay of
the offshore sector. Its subsequent grounding for oil
and gas operations slashed capacity at a stroke.
People first
Bristow Group
While this posed obvious logistical problems – how to

maintain a service to clients and the need for pilots to
qualify on other types – those were easily dealt with.
The larger challenge was one of reassurance and
Christina Brun says she was “incredibly lucky”
outreach. “Your primary function is to make sure your
because she could carry on flying during Covid
crews are okay,” she says. And while crews are “fact-
based” and would understand that a different aircraft
type is unlikely to have the same issue, passengers
But what that process does not necessarily provide who are “just travelling to work” are less likely to have
for – although it might prepare a candidate – is the the same depth of knowledge.
shift to a more managerial post. Bristow had to address the “hearts and minds” of
Brun had been a commander for a couple of years passengers so they “wanted to get on board a heli-
when she approached management asking to be con- copter again”, she says.
sidered if a vacancy for a deputy chief pilot opened While Brun participates in numerous initiatives to
up. Within six months a suitable role in Aberdeen encourage women into aviation, sparking interest
appeared, to which she was appointed. Then, in 2014, in a career as a helicopter pilot remains a challenge.
Brun was promoted to chief pilot, covering both During a recent recruitment round, just 2% of appli-
the mainland site and a second base in Sumburgh, cations were from women, although Brun is hopeful
Shetland, off Scotland’s north coast. that Bristow’s newly announced sponsored cadet
Crucially, though, Brun divides her time equally programme will see greater female participation.
between flying and desk-based work: “It’s never The Covid-19 crisis of the past 18 months has forced
boring,” she notes. everybody to adopt new working patterns, with those
Ultimately, a chief pilot’s role is the “safe execution in office jobs having to carry out their role from home.
of the flying programme”. Brun is in charge of the 85 Although 50% of Brun’s time is in the cockpit, the
flightcrew across the two bases and is responsible for other half usually involves face-to-face contact –
“everything that is involved in managing that group something which is hard to replicate from a distance.
of pilots”. But she also performs another vital func- Of course, “as pilots, we can’t really fly remotely”,
tion – acting as a conduit between management and she says, which, in the depths of lockdown, was a rare
those in the cockpit. In this respect she sees strong bright spot. Flightcrews were “incredibly lucky be-
similarities with her previous career, where she was cause we got to come in and fly”, she says. “That was
“bridging between the client and the company”. a godsend – interacting with other human beings.” Z
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com August 2021

Airframers get set for recovery p48

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4 Flight International August 2021

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Airframers get set for recovery p48

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R-R has rapidly switched course –

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From boneyard to digital twin

of sustainment at Wichita State