FlightGlobal.

com June 2022

How
Russian fleet
grab hit lessors

Airbus/Qatar spat
reaches court p14

Rate of US Air Force confirms

AWACS successor p34

recovery
Could A320-family output hit 75 per month? p8
9

£5.25
770015 371334

Sales target Fresh slip

Sikorsky sets Boeing delays
its sights on first customer
FVL victory 777-9 to 2025
p16 p6
0 6

The great rate wrangle
Airbus
While twin-aisle demand remains depressed due to the
pandemic, Airbus has detailed an ambitious plan to boost
A320neo-family output to 75 jets per month. But can its
supply chain cope with such a rapid acceleration?
F
aced with a backlog for
the A320 family that as of
the end of April was within
touching distance of 6,000
aircraft, Airbus has a problem.
Sure, it is a problem born of suc-
cess, but a problem nonetheless:
how does it deliver all those aircraft
to customers in a timely fashion?
If Airbus builds 50 of the aircraft
per month, it would take almost 10
years to fight through the backlog,
and even at rate of 65 – due to be
attained by mid-2023 – that only
drops to seven and a half years.
While not all those orders will
complete – there may well be
further cancellations down the road
– the broader air travel market, par-
ticularly for short- to medium-haul
traffic, is recovering.
Higher fuel prices are also driving
a switch to new-generation aircraft
that fly more frugally. And the fe-
brile recovery in long-haul seems to
be spurring demand for long-range
narrowbodies such as the A321XLR.
Based on those metrics, Airbus
clearly sees market demand as
supporting its decision for even
higher production rates. According-
ly it has taken the decision to ad-
vance the thrust levers, confirming
a plan to take monthly output of the
A320neo family to 75 aircraft – or
900 per year – by 2025.
But the airframer’s single-aisle
backlog is lopsided these days:
where once the A320 ruled, now
the larger A321neo is king. In fact,
almost 60% of the orderbook – or
3,447 aircraft – is for A321neos.
This is a problem, as not all the
airframer’s final assembly lines can
currently build the largest of its
family members.
Internal reconfiguration is under
way to change that – along with
a further expansion by mid-2025
at the company’s site in Mobile,
Alabama – as is a reshaping of Air-
bus’s aerostructures units in France
and Germany to better support its
own operation.
However, there are limits to what
the airframer can do on its own – it
needs the rest of the supply chain
to move in lock-step with it in
order to achieve those higher rates
without encountering production
snarls or shortages.
But the aerospace recovery is not
uniform. The tier ones are most-
ly coping, but further down the
supply chain there are companies
that weathered Covid-19 less well.
Comment
Keep on cranking them out
Shortages of staff, parts – castings
and forgings for engines, notably –
and raw materials are all reported.
On top of this, there is rising infla-
tionary pressure.
Airbus says it has canvassed its
supply chain about the future rate
rise, but it remains to be seen how
well it will cope, particularly as
Boeing will also be increasing out-
put of its 737 Max family simulta-
neously. The nightmare scenario is
a return to the sight of ‘gliders’ –
completed aircraft without engines
– cluttering Toulouse or Renton.
It is also worth remembering the
fragility of the recovery – Covid-19
has not gone away; Russia’s inva-
sion of Ukraine has sent problems
rippling outwards; and a recession
in large parts of the global economy
cannot be ruled out. Airbus’s suppli-
ers will not thank it if output is ac-
celerated, then later sharply yanked
back in the face of tepid demand.
In a sense, Airbus is damned if it
does, and damned if it doesn’t: it
cannot sit on that enormous back-
log forever. But its bold move to
push production to 75 jets per
month is very clearly not without its
fair share of supply chain risk. ◗
See p8
June 2022 Flight International 3
 In focus
Troubled times for Boeing 6 Lessors count the cost 18 Frontier cheered by Spirit 30
Demanding supply 8 Army slips FARA schedule 21 Gulfstream’s wind restrictions 32
ATR’s spin cycle 12 Embraer maintains turboprop Wedgetail picked as AWACS
Qatar loses bid to force Airbus course 25 successor 34
to build cancelled A321neos 14 Why the customer is king Super Hornet jumps at Indian
The future of FVL 16 for Northrop Grumman 26 navy need 40

16 FlightGlobal.com June 2022

How
Russian fleet
grab hit lessors

Airbus/Qatar spat
reaches court p14

Rate of
Markus Mainka/Shutterstock

US Air Force confirms

AWACS successor p34

recovery
Could A320-family output hit 75 per month? p8

52
9

£5.25
770015 371334

Sales target Fresh slip

Sikorsky sets Boeing delays
its sights on first customer
FVL victory 777-9 to 2025
p16 p6
0 6

Regulars Comment 3 Best of the rest 48 Straight & Level 76 Letters 78 Jobs 81 Women in aviation 82

4 Flight International June 2022


In depth
Recovery position 52
It has been all about survival for
seating manufacturers during
Covid-19. But with travel and
orders ramping up again, they
face new challenges as they
prepare for a return to AIX
King of spin Sikorsky
rises to FVL challenge
58
Wheels in motion 58
In-cabin access for wheelchairs
could finally become a reality
Sky-high Wi-Fi 62
The demand for connectivity
is greater than ever. What has
changed since the last AIX?
18
Contents
Power shift 66
Can aviation overcome the
challenges of using hydrogen
as a zero emissions fuel?
Aviation alchemy 72
Interest is growing in the
production of eFuels
66
June 2022 Flight International 5
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Troubled times
The problems are piling up for Boeing
as certification issues afflict two of the
airframer’s development programmes,
and deliveries of the 787 remain on hold
Jon Hemmerdinger Tampa
B
oeing has a mounting list
of problems afflicting its
commercial aerospace pro-
grammes, with the 787,
777X and 737 Max 10 all clamour-
ing for attention.
Deliveries of the 787 remain sus-
pended because of manufacturing
defects – and the airframer can of-
fer no precise guidance as to when
they might resume; the 737 Max 10,
meanwhile, faces a race to meet a
vital certification deadline; and the
service entry target for the flagship
777X has been pushed back again.
In fact, Boeing has delayed the ar-
rival of its new big-twin by another
two years, to 2025, dealing another
blow to the programme.
The airframer has also temporar-
ily halted production of the new
widebody, saying its revised deliv-
ery schedule reflects the pace of
certification work.
“Delivery of the first 777-9 air-
plane is now expected in 2025,
which reflects an updated assess-
ment of the time required to meet
certification requirements,” Boeing
said on 27 April.
The company previously said that
it expected to deliver the first 777-9
by the end of 2023, itself a delay
from the launch target of 2020.
“To minimise inventory and the
number of airplanes requiring
change incorporation, the 777-9
production rate ramp is being ad-
justed, including a temporary pause
through 2023,” Boeing says.
The airframer has not provid-
ed additional details about why
it has further delayed the 777-9
programme, but it has been work-
ing with the US Federal Aviation
Administration (FAA) to address
certification issues, including those
that led Boeing to make some
design changes.
Observers says the FAA is taking a
methodical approach to validation,
6 Flight International June 2022
following criticism of its 737 Max
certification.
The airframer says it will bump up
production of its first-generation
777 Freighter, starting in 2023 – a
move enabled by the changes to its
planned 777-9 production rate.
Boeing has not said if the revised
777-9 timeline will affect the certi-
fication and delivery timing of its
other two 777X variants: the 777-8F
and the 777-8. At present, it is stick-
ing to 2027 for the arrival of the
first -8F and has not updated on the
AirTeamImages
progress of the passenger model.
The 777-9 programme changes
will cost Boeing $1.5 billion in charg-
es, which it will start taking in the
second quarter of this year and
which will continue until 777-9 pro-
duction resumes, it says. already built, many of its first jets
Key customer Emirates Airline will essentially be secondhand
appears to be sticking with the aircraft by the time they arrive in
programme – for now at least – de- Dubai – a point the airline will need
spite the latest delay and previous to address with Boeing.
threats to walk away from the 777X. Lufthansa, meanwhile, is taking
Emirates holds 115 orders for the seven more 787s, from 2025-2026,
aircraft – mostly 777-9s, alongside to offset capacity shortfall from
14 777-8s – which it committed to at delays to its 777-9 order.
the Dubai air show in 2013 and were Lufthansa says the additional 787s
originally meant for delivery from were originally set to be delivered
April 2020. to other airlines. Its own previous-
ly-ordered 787s will have their de-
Secondhand jets liveries rescheduled – some aircraft
In a late-April interview with the will be advanced to 2023-2024.
Seattle Times, airline president Sir And in better news for the 777X,
Tim Clark suggests Emirates will Lufthansa has also ordered seven
retain its 777X order, but that he re- 777-8 Freighters, as well as three
mains sceptical on delivery dates. current-generation 777Fs.
At the same time, he is concerned Boeing’s first-quarter financial
that with a dozen or so of the type filings show that as of 31 March it
“Delivery of the first 777-9 airplane
is now expected in 2025, which
reflects an updated assessment
of the time required to meet
certification requirements”
Boeing

Delays to 777-9 production will cost Boeing $1.5 billion
had 224 777Xs in its firm order back-
log; 29 fewer than the total at year-
end. Factoring in Qatar Airways’
commitment for -8Fs – 14 new or-
ders plus 20 conversions – the 777X
backlog appears to have shrunk by
43 units since 31 December.
Bucket list
Boeing in late April updated its
backlog data to show that orders
for 55 777s – both the current
model and the X – had been shifted
into the ASC-606 accounting buck-
et it reserves for deals it thinks will
no longer complete.
Its quarterly filing notes: “Dur-
ing 2022, we have had higher
ASC-606 adjustments of 737 Max
and 777X aircraft partially offset
by 787 aircraft.”
Meanwhile, there is some progress
on the 787: Boeing has completed
rework on some undelivered aircraft
and submitted a “certification plan”
to the FAA, though when deliveries
might resume remains unclear.
“Rework has been completed on
the initial airplanes and the com-
pany continues to work closely
with the FAA on timing of resum-
ing deliveries,” Boeing says. “The
company has submitted the certifi-
cation plan to the FAA.”
Boeing is now producing 787s
“at a very low rate, and will contin-
ue to do so until deliveries resume,
with a gradual return to five per
month over time”.
Boeing stopped delivering 787s
in October 2020 to address qual-
ity control problems that required
rework. It resumed deliveries brief-
ly in March 2021, then stopped
them again last May after the FAA
declined to approve a Boeing-
proposed algorithm related to
fuselage inspections.
Issues needing attention have
included gaps between fuselage
sections that failed to meet spec-
ifications. Boeing also revealed a
similar issue involving gaps in for-
ward pressure bulkheads.
The company needs the FAA to
sign off on all rework.
While the two widebody pro-
grammes look troubled, the 737
Max 10 is not yet in crisis.
However, to keep it that way,
Boeing needs to secure an exemp-
tion for the narrowbody from new
certification regulations that are
due to take effect in December.
But, if Boeing does not receive
that waiver, the company faces a
difficult road, says chief executive
David Calhoun.
Airframer Programmes
At issue is a law that, starting in
December, prohibits the FAA from
certificating aircraft lacking a mod-
ern “flightcrew alerting system”.
Such a system helps pilots prop-
erly prioritise and respond to air-
craft warnings and alerts, and is
viewed as especially useful in situa-
tions involving multiple system fail-
ures. While other modern jets have
such systems, the 737 Max does not.
Boeing aims to deliver its first 737
Max 10 in 2023, suggesting the jet’s
certification may not be completed
before the December deadline.
In that case, Boeing would
require an exemption to avoid
needing to redesign the Max’s
cockpit alert system.
“I believe our chances are good
with respect to legislative relief;
and if we don’t [get relief], it’s a
problem,” Calhoun says.
Crash response
Boeing has also not achieved
certification for its 737 Max 7 but
expects to do so this year, presum-
ably before the deadline.
The US Congress wrote the rule
into a law passed in December
2020 that responded to two 737
Max crashes. Investigators suspect
the jets’ pilots may be been over-
whelmed by various cockpit alerts.
Congress gave the industry two
years – until December 2022 – to
comply. At the time, that seemed
plenty for Boeing to bring its 737
Max 7 and Max 10 to certification.
“There was a lengthy window
put in there, based on historic
certification timetables, that would
have provided for the 7 and 10
easily,” Calhoun says. “The intent of
that legislation was never to stop
the derivative product line, with
respect to the Max.”
But the same two accidents that
prompted the 2020 law also led the
FAA to significantly heighten its
regulatory oversight.
“It is definitely a more rigor-
ous process that we are all going
through,” Calhoun says.
Suddenly, two years does not
seem enough for the 737 Max 10,
which Boeing at one point aimed to
begin delivering in 2020.
Calhoun declines to say how
Boeing will respond if faced with
making costly and time-consuming
cockpit changes to the 737 Max 10. Z
See p29
Additional reporting by
Lewis Harper in London
June 2022 Flight International 7
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Demanding supply
The big two airframers plan steep
increases in narrowbody output in
the coming years, but will a wavering
production system be able to cope?
Jon Hemmerdinger Tampa
A
irbus’s plan to significant-
ly hike A320neo-family
production in the com-
ing years has raised the
question of whether the already
strained aerospace supply chain is
up to the task.
Major engine makers, even while
struggling with parts shortages,
have expressed optimism at their
ability to meet the ever-higher
production goals.
But some aerospace analysts are
not so sure, noting that Boeing is
also likely to boost rates and that
fundamental supply troubles are
already holding back production.
“Can they get there? I think it is
going to be very hard… with their
existing structure,” aerospace con-
sultant Alex Krutz says of Airbus’s
production goals.
Certification challenges slow arrival of A321XLR as prototype shows off livery
David Kaminski-Morrow London
Airbus has pushed back entry
into service of the long-range
A321XLR, as a result of
certification demands.
The aircraft – which the
airframer aims to fly by the end
of the second quarter – had
originally been intended for initial
deliveries next year.
But Airbus says “certification
requirements” have meant a
shift in the schedule. Chief
executive Guillaume Faury says:
“Unfortunately it’s not completely
uncommon in development of the
new versions of [aircraft].”
Some modifications on aircraft
are “conventional”, he adds, but
others are “a bit more specific to
this variant”. He says Airbus has
started certification work with
8 Flight International June 2022
Krutz, managing director at aero-
space advisory Patriot Industrial
Partners, thinks Airbus may need
to develop a more robust US sup-
ply network to meet its targets.
On 4 May, the European airfram-
er said it aimed to increase produc-
tion of A320neo-family jets to 65
per month by summer 2023, and to
75 per month in 2025. Airbus has
H Gousse/Airbus
not disclosed its current A320neo
production rate but previously
said it would produce 45 aircraft
monthly by the end of 2021.
Airbus will meet the higher
production rates by increasing
capacity at its industrial facilities
and “growing the industrial foot-
print” at its US plant in Mobile,
Alabama. Its preparations include
ensuring that all the final assem-
bly lines are capable of producing
the A321neo, a variant which now
makes up almost 60% of the air-
framer’s narrowbody backlog.
the relevant authorities, but the
certification schedule is “going
a bit beyond” the end of 2023,
although he insists the situation is
“not changing the picture of the
XLR programme as a whole”.
Faury also stresses that Airbus
will “stick” to the performance
commitments given to customers
of the XLR, while it strives
to address the certification
requirements. “We are working
hard with our customers to try to
mitigate the impact of [the delay]
situation,” he says.
Airbus on 3 May rolled out the
first example of the long-range
twinjet, capable of operating
routes of 4,700nm (8,704km),
complete with a special
promotional livery.
The aircraft is carrying a paint
scheme featuring landmarks from
New York and Rome on its port
CFM has agreed Leap-1A delivery
volumes with Airbus for 2024
At Mobile, Airbus will open a
new A320neo-family final assem-
bly line, it announced on 9 May,
which will come on stream in the
second quarter of 2025. The air-
framer already builds A320neos
and A220s at the site.
Additionally, by the end of 2023
Airbus intends to build a new paint
side and from London and New
Delhi on the starboard to illustrate
the additional range of the jet,
which will enter service in 2023.
This reflects the similar design
adopted for its predecessor, the
A321LR, which was based on
images from New York and Paris.
The initial test aircraft,
MSN11000, bears the French
registration F-WXLR.
Airbus does not break out
orders for the A321XLR, but
Cirium fleets data suggests the
airframer has so far taken in some
458 commitments for the variant.
Airbus disclosed the
postponement as it turned in
adjusted first-quarter earnings
of just over €1.06 billion
($1.13 billion) for the commercial
aircraft operation.
This followed delivery of 142
aircraft over the three months to

facility in Mobile and to modify its
existing hangars to what it calls a
“double-bay configuration”, to sup-
port the higher production rates.
Airbus chief executive Guillaume
Faury says analysis of its supply
chain supports its decision. “We
got feedback that tells us [the rate
increase] is possible,” he says.
Initial test aircraft carries images from London, New Delhi, New York, and Rome
31 March, although the net figure
has been adjusted downwards to
140 to account for two deliveries
to Aeroflot last year, which have
effectively been undone.
Airbus shipped an additional
48 jets during April – including
“We see that [to move] from
a rate of 65, which we intend to
reach in the middle of next year,
[to 75 by] 2025 gives enough time
to have a speed of ramp-up that
is consistent with what the supply
chain will be able to deliver.”
Aerospace analyst Michel Mer-
luzeau thinks Airbus’s “outlook is a
little too optimistic”, citing supply
chain challenges. “It’s going to be
tough,” he says.
75
Target for monthly output of
A320neo-family jets by 2025
In addition, Airbus is not operat-
ing in isolation, as Boeing is likely
to also raise output of its 737 Max
over the coming years.
Though Boeing chief financial
officer Brian West recently said
the company has “essentially” hit
its target of producing 31 737s
monthly, reports of production
hold-ups and supply shortages
– including for parts such as wire
bundles – are widespread.
Boeing has not confirmed fu-
ture 737 Max production levels,
but analysts suspect the firm aims
to increase output. Merluzeau
Airbus
five A350s and two A330s, plus
four A220s and 37 from the
A320neo family – taking the
airframer’s total deliveries this
year to 190.
Russian-related sanctions
accounted for a €200 million
Cover story Production
predicts Boeing will build 447
of the narrowbodies in 2023 (or
about 37 per month), and 570 in
2025 (47.5 per month).
The two airframers “share the
same suppliers”, Merluzeau points
out. “It creates lots of tension with
the ramp-up.”
The aerospace supply chain is al-
ready straining under inflation and
skilled-worker shortages. Compa-
nies across the industry laid off
staff early in the pandemic and have
struggled with rehiring, analysts say.
Engine manufacturers, which re-
quire incredibly complex compo-
nents, have been notably affected.
Shortages strike
“There are usually five or seven
parts that are always causing fits
for the engine makers,” Krutz says.
“Highly complex, high-tempera-
ture, high-tolerance components…
will be difficult to scale at volume.”
In late April, Raytheon Technol-
ogies chief executive Greg Hayes
said shortages of metal castings
prevented subsidiary Pratt & Whit-
ney from delivering 70 engines in
the first quarter.
P&W’s PW1000G-series geared
turbofans, which power A320neos,
A220s and Embraer E-Jet E2s, were
hardest hit, Hayes says. “We had
a problem with our structural cast-
ing supplier, where we were not able
to get castings in to our schedule.”
impact on the airframer’s finances
during the first quarter.
Airbus describes the results
as “solid” despite the “evolving
and complex” geopolitical and
economic environment. While
the manufacturer is maintaining
its delivery target of 720
commercial aircraft for the year,
Faury says the risk profile to its
business for the remainder of the
year is “more challenging”.
Net orders during the
quarter totalled 83 commercial
aircraft, after adjustments and
cancellations from the gross
figure of 253 – comprising 243
single-aisle and 10 twin-aisle jets.
Following April’s sales activity
– notably lessor BOC Aviation’s
deal for 80 A320neo-family jets
– net orders for the year had risen
to 178 aircraft.
The airframer’s commercial
order backlog at the end of April
stood at 7,070 aircraft.
June 2022 Flight International 9
 Cover story Production
Connecticut-based P&W deliv-
ered 119 large commercial engines
in the first quarter, down from 137
in the same period of 2021.
Still, Hayes says P&W is “in lock-
step” with Airbus and its produc-
tion plans. “We will see if we can
get there,” he says.
But the problem would seem
especially acute for P&W’s narrow-
body engine rival, CFM Internation-
al: its Leap-1As have a larger share
H Gousse/Airbus
of the A320neo market (as high
as 57% where a powerplant selec-
tion has been made, or 54% of the
delivered fleet) and Leap-1Bs are
the exclusive engine on the 737 Max.
Assuming the Leap-1A main-
tains a 55% share of future Airbus
A320neo-family deliveries (which
is not guaranteed, as no engine se-
lection has been made for 1,902 on-
order aircraft), then for the 900 nar-
rowbodies Airbus intends to build
each year from 2025 onward, CFM
will need to supply around 990 en-
gines. If Boeing also raises 737 Max
output to Merluzeau’s predicted
level of 570 annually in 2025, CFM
would need to produce another
1,140 Leap-1Bs, for an annual com-
bined total of 2,130 engines, or 177.5
engines per month.
CFM delivered 239 Leap engines
in the first three months of 2022,
up from 188 in the same period
a year earlier, as it ramps up to a
planned 2,000 shipments in 2023.
Safran, which is a partner in the
CFM joint venture alongside GE
Aviation, said in late April it had
signed off on 2024 delivery vol-
umes with Airbus, but had not
firmed up those for the following
year: “We have an agreement for
2024 and it’s too early to speak
about 2025,” Safran adds.
Safran did not address questions
about the ability to cope with pre-
dicted higher single-aisle rates at
both customers simultaneously.
Complex issue
But in February, Safran chief exec-
utive Olivier Andries warned that
CFM was dealing with “shortages
of parts, especially coming from
[CFM’s] US supply chain”.
Of course, it may be unfair to sin-
gle out engines as a pinch point,
given that other areas – seating, for
instance – have been a source of
production hold-ups. But the com-
plexity of the product – and the
vulnerability of the engine manu-
facturers to their own supply chains
– means it is something to watch.
10 Flight International June 2022
The success of Airbus’s expan-
sion plan may not hinge entirely on
external suppliers. The airframer
is also moving to restructure and
reintegrate its French and German
aerostructures businesses into the
company, having previously toyed
with their divestment.
Airbus has already created a new
entity called Airbus Atlantic, which
includes its Stelia Aerospace busi-
ness and other Airbus operations
in France. An announcement is
“A more robust
aerospace supply
chain will be
developed in the
southeast USA”
Alex Krutz Managing director,
Patriot Industrial Partners
awaited on what will happen with
Airbus’s Premium Aerotec business
in Germany.
Airbus said the restructuring,
which it disclosed in 2021, will
strengthen and improve the effi-
ciency of its supply chain.
Whether Airbus might need to
tweak its supply model further to
support US expansion is unclear.
The airframer builds A320neos in
Mobile using components, includ-
ing fuselage sections and wings,
shipped from its sites in Europe.
Krutz suspects Airbus might
choose to source more materials
from suppliers near its Mobile site in
the southeastern USA – or at least
from suppliers elsewhere in North
America. Such materials could
Airbus has decided not to divest its
aerostructures businesses in Europe
include large metallic fuselage skins,
he says. Doing so might require sig-
nificant new industrial capacity but
would help ensure the stability of
the Mobile operation, Krutz says.
“A more robust aerospace supply
chain will be developed in the
southeast,” he suspects.
Boeing employs such a model for
its 737, sourcing components from
the Seattle region and complete
fuselages from Spirit AeroSystems
in Wichita, Kansas. But Boeing took
the global-supply route for its 787 –
with high-profile hiccups resulting.
Global costs
Krutz is not alone in foresee-
ing a shift towards what he calls
“regionalisation”.
“The aerospace supply chain is at
the dawn of a significant transforma-
tion,” a November 2021 report from
consultancy Roland Berger argues.
Experts say numerous events in
recent years have exposed cracks
in – and the hidden costs of – the
global supply chain model.
For instance, the Covid-19 pan-
demic demonstrated that one coun-
try’s decision to close its borders
can disrupt production on the oth-
er side of the globe; trade disputes
and tariffs have also affected the
aerospace industry; and Russia’s in-
vasion of Ukraine caused a ripple of
problems – pushing shipping costs
higher and disrupting transport
links, as well as triggering shortages
of titanium on the global market.
Roland Berger’s report says
geopolitical stress and the pres-
sure to cut carbon “justify” the
transition to an increasingly “local”
aerospace supply chain. Z
Additional reporting by
David Kaminski-Morrow and
Dominic Perry in London
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Spin cycle
Airframer ATR appears poised to launch a new variant of
its turboprop family that will feature a mild-hybrid-electric
powertrain and could arrive by the end of the decade
ATR

Dominic Perry London As part of that process the The powertrain will also be “fu-
airframer has issued a request for ture-proofed”, says Viala, with “pro-
information (RFI) to the major en- visioning” to permit replacement of

A
TR is gearing up to launch
the Evo, a re-engined
hybrid-electric variant of
its best-selling turboprop
family, which will slash fuel burn by
20% over current models.
To arrive no later than the end of
the decade, the Evo will also benefit
from an aerodynamic clean-up, an
eight-bladed propeller, a revamped
cabin and other improvements.
ATR shareholders Airbus and
Leonardo have approved the start
of feasibility studies covering the
development, which should enable
a programme launch in 2023.
gine suppliers, seeking a new turbo-
prop powerplant for the aircraft.
Battery power
This should incorporate “mild hy-
brid” technology, says Stephane
Viala, senior vice-president of en-
gineering, which will use batteries
and an electric motor to supple-
ment the conventional engine dur-
ing the take-off and climb phases
of flight. That will allow the size of
the thermal engine to be optimised,
he says. The new powerplant should
also be capable of running on 100%
sustainable aviation fuel (SAF).
the batteries over the longer term,
potentially with a hydrogen fuel-cell
system as that technology matures.
Service entry for the Evo will be
in 2030 “at the latest”, says Fabrice
Vautier, senior vice-president, com-
mercial, noting that the exact tim-
ing “depends on what we discuss
with the engine manufacturers”, as
“we really want something that’s a
step-change [in performance]”.
The RFI is due to run until the end
of June, when more detailed discus-
sions with the propulsion providers
will take place. However, ATR has
already canvassed their opinion

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12 Flight International June 2022


Planned updates will introduce new
engines and eight-bladed propellers
to ensure “they were motivated to
come on this journey”, Viala says.
ATR last November committed
to incorporating the latest version
of incumbent engine supplier Pratt
& Whitney Canada’s PW127 on to
the ATR 42-600 and 72-600. To
become standard equipment on
all new-build ATRs from the final
quarter of this year, the 2,750shp
(2,050kW)-rated PW127XT-M prom-
ises a 3% reduction in specific fuel
burn, time on wing extended by 40%
and 20% lower maintenance costs.
But Vautier acknowledges there
is increasing pressure to go further:
“Decarbonisation is a key topic in
many of our markets,” he says.
New competition
In addition, a clutch of new mar-
ket entrants could imperil ATR’s
dominance. Fuel cell powertrain
developers Universal Hydrogen
and ZeroAvia have both announced
they will look to retrofit ATR aircraft
with their systems in future, while
Embraer is considering launching
its own clean-sheet turboprop.
Vautier denies that ATR’s move
is a response to these emerging
threats, adding: “We are the market
leader and we have a proven prod-
uct that we have constantly evolved
– that evolution is in our DNA. Ob-
viously we look at the competition
but we are going our own way. We
will continue to do what we have
done for the last 40 years.”
“We are the market leader and
we have a proven product that
we have constantly evolved – that
evolution is in our DNA”
Fabrice Vautier Senior vice-president, commercial, ATR
Airbus is also pushing ahead with
several zero-emission aircraft under
its ZEROe initiative, including a sub-
100-seat hydrogen-powered turbo-
prop, which could enter service
from 2035 onwards, just five years
after the ATR Evo is due to arrive.
But Vautier is unconcerned by the
potential competition from its own
shareholder, pointing to the remote
locations and the nature of the
markets served by its customers.
“There is quite a significant period
of time before these disruptive
technologies can be brought to our
customers, to these small commu-
nities, at an affordable price.”
Aside from potential infrastructure
constraints, Vautier notes that these
are highly price-sensitive markets,
where a passenger’s ability to travel
rests on the cost of the ticket.
“Our aircraft will address mature
markets with this hybridisation and
SAF capability and will keep its fun-
damentals for markets where the
cost per seat is important. There
is no reason we cannot operate a
conventional turboprop or mild-
[hybrid] turboprop beyond 2030.”
Additional improvements that
could make their way on to the Evo
include a thermal de-icing system
to replace the current pneumatic
de-icing boots, an eight-blad-
ed propeller to replace the cur-
rent six-bladed Collins Aerospace
design, and an advanced FADEC
system to manage the engine and
propeller together via a single lever.
An aerodynamic clean-up will
focus on some of the “secondary
structures” on the aircraft, such as
the nacelle-wing junction.
To provide input on the develop-
ment, ATR will convene a custom-
er advisory panel over the summer,
which will “support us in making the
right choices”, Viala says.
ATR declines to say which propul-
sion manufacturers have received
the RFI: incumbent supplier P&WC
will clearly be a candidate and Rolls-
Royce has recently shown renewed
enthusiasm for the civil turboprop
Programme Development
market. GE Aviation could also be
a contender, with its most power-
ful civil turboprop engine being the
1,700-3,000shp-rated CT7.
Reducing maintenance costs will
also remain a focus. Before an-
nouncing the Evo, ATR and Safran
revealed a new diagnostic product
system designed to slash aircraft
downtime following a hard landing.
Called “Smart Lander”, the ser-
vice relies on machine learning
technology and data analysis of
“hundreds of thousands” of simulat-
ed incidents to issue maintenance
recommendations based on how
hard the landing was and the forc-
es sustained by the landing gear.
This will allow the manufacturer to
optimise its response times to hard
landing events and enable aircraft
to be returned quickly to service.
Quick turnaround
Depending on the analysis, the
twin-turboprop can either be re-
leased back into service or sent to
a maintenance facility. This process
can take less than an hour, ATR says.
David Brigante, senior vice-
president customer support and
services at the airframer, says the
previous process could take from 10
to 20 working days, involving both
the ATR design office and Safran
Landing Systems.
Separately, ATR has conduct-
ed the maiden flight of the short
take-off variant of its ATR 42-600
(F-WWLY) from Francazal airport
near Toulouse, a sortie that lasted
2h 15min.
Designated the 42-600S, the
turboprop is designed to operate to
and from reduced-length runways.
Equipment including a new multi-
functional computer, autobrake,
and ground spoiler system, as well
as adapted take-off capabilities, will
be individually tested.
ATR will fit a larger rudder, which
will form part of the aircraft’s final
configuration, towards the end of
this year and enter the certification
phase in 2023. ◗
June 2022 Flight International 13
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Qatar loses court bid
to force Airbus to build
cancelled A321neos
Airframer free to make own decision
on narrowbodies – but still runs risk of
damages if A350 verdict goes against it
David Kaminski-Morrow London
Q
atar Airways has lost
a bid to force Airbus
to continue produc-
ing A321neo jets, with
a judge in London dismissing a
request from the airline after the
airframer cancelled Qatar’s order
for 50 of the type.
FlightGlobal was in London’s
High Court to hear the ruling on 26
April, which is linked to the contin-
uing legal tussle between the two
sides over skin-paint deterioration
on several Qatar A350s.
Airbus cancelled the A321neo
order citing a cross-default clause
following breach of contract, after
Qatar refused to accept delivery of
further A350s.
Qatar Airways had argued
that Airbus could not cancel the
A321neos and had sought an
Carrier bids to derail airframer’s resale plan
Among the legal jousts between
Airbus and Qatar Airways arising
from their court clash is an
attempt by the airline to prevent
the airframer from reselling
A350s built for the carrier but
individually cancelled after
Qatar’s refusal to take delivery.
Airbus has been cancelling
A350s which had been completed
and were ready for delivery to
Qatar, citing breach of contract,
but the carrier is trying to stop
the airframer from acting on the
termination notices and selling
the jets to third parties.
Qatar Airways also wants to
stop Airbus from cancelling any
further A350s.
14 Flight International June 2022
injunction to force the airframer to
continue building them.
But the oral ruling frees Airbus to
make its own decision – and bear
the risk of incurring damages if the
ultimate ruling on the A350 case
goes against the airframer.
If the judgement had favoured
Qatar, Airbus could have been
forced to build the A321neos – with
the possibility of having to disman-
tle them at Qatar’s expense, and
AirTeamImages
sell them to other customers if the
airline lost the A350 case.
Carrier is pursuing case against Airbus over
skin-paint degradation on long-range twinjet
Long-range capabilities
Qatar Airways had argued that it
specifically needed the A321neos for
their long-range capabilities, with
10 of the jets set to be the A321LR
version, but the judge appeared to
cast doubt on the claim.
The evidence that Qatar required
50
Number of A321neo jets ordered by
the aircraft for particular future Qatar Airways but cancelled by Airbus
long-haul routes – such as Bergen, in wake of disagreement over A350s
The carrier had 42 A350- deliveries, because Qatar’s
1000s on order, of which 19 have central case is that the A350 –
been delivered. But Airbus has owing to the paint deterioration
cancelled three of the remaining – is unsafe.
aircraft so far, after Qatar refused If Qatar’s point is valid, then the
delivery – a decision driven airline is legitimately entitled to
by the dispute over skin-paint reject delivery of the aircraft and
deterioration on the type. Among therefore Airbus’s termination
the A350s for which Airbus has of delivery, based on wrongful
served termination notices, and rejection, would already be
aims to offer to third parties, are contractually ineffective.
MSN409 and MSN430. Airbus also argues that there
Documents filed with London’s is no basis for an injunction to
High Court show that Airbus prevent resale of the rejected
believes Qatar’s motive is to put A350s to other carriers.
its A350 deliveries “on hold”. If the rejected aircraft are
The airframer argues that there defective, as Qatar maintains,
is no basis for an injunction to they cannot be redesigned or
prevent termination of A350 rebuilt. Qatar must therefore

Bilbao, Lyon and Toulouse – on
which twin-aisle aircraft would be
unsuitable, was “flawed and uncer-
tain”, the judge said.
With more than 150 leased air-
craft in its fleet, the airline was suf-
ficiently familiar with the leasing
never want to take delivery of
them, and cannot claim to suffer if
Airbus sells them to a third party.
Airbus’s court filing claims the
“obvious inference”, from Qatar
Airways’ seeking the injunctions,
is that the airline “does not
genuinely believe” that the
A350 is defective – and that it is
looking to “preserve a pool” of
new A350s which it would accept
at a later date.
Qatar Airways argues that
Airbus would not suffer any
burden except to maintain the
undelivered aircraft, whereas the
airline would be unable to obtain
similar replacement aircraft if they
were resold.
market to examine alternative
sourcing of A321s or similar types,
such as the Boeing 737 Max.
The judge pointed out that Qa-
tar Airways had reached a pre-
liminary agreement with Boeing
to take 50 737 Max jets just two
But Airbus rejects both
points. It says it will be “left
holding” manufactured or partly-
manufactured A350s, with no
avenue to realise their commercial
value – which would depreciate
over time – and with costs that
not only include maintenance but
storage and insurance.
The airframer also dismisses
the suggestion that Qatar could
not source comparable aircraft to
meet capacity requirements – the
airframer is particularly sceptical
over Qatar’s claim that it needs
this capacity at all.
While Qatar has been leasing
Oman Air A330s, this additional
capacity is far short of that lost by
Aircraft Dispute
weeks after Airbus cancelled the
A321neo deal.
Qatar had argued that this 737
Max agreement was not a response
to the cancellation. The judge
could not exclude the possibili-
ty that the Max deal was entire-
ly separate and perhaps brought
forward, but pointed out that the
airline had not released documen-
tation which would bring clarity to
the Max agreement.
At the time of the cancellation
the airline would have received its
first A321neo in January 2023.
Manufacturing slots
Given the legal wrangle and
the associated uncertainty over
whether it had to continue build-
ing the jets, Airbus had adopt-
ed a notional industrial schedule,
opting not to resell the manufac-
turing slots, but shifting the plan-
ning – with the result that the first
aircraft would have been deferred
to the fourth quarter of 2023.
Although A321neos are in high
demand, the judge stated, and air-
lines placing an order might have
to wait until 2028 to receive them,
Qatar Airways was “unlikely” to be
pushed to the “back of the queue”.
Airbus and Qatar remain locked
in a broader battle over the A350,
which centres on the safety of the
aircraft given the skin-paint dete-
rioration, and which has yet to be
resolved. The court hearing was due
to set out a schedule for proceed-
ing with this main case, which could
take place in early 2023. ◗
the airline’s grounding over 20 of
the larger A350.
As demand slumped during the
pandemic, Qatar had publicly
insisted it would not be forced
to take delivery of aircraft which
were not needed. Airbus’s court
filing claims that the carrier could
accept newly-built A350s, to
meet any capacity requirements,
but that not receiving them
“suits” the airline.
Qatar Airways is seeking
damages for the A350 grounding,
having alleged that the skin-
paint damage amounts to an
airworthiness concern. The
damages claim had totalled over
$982 million by the end of March.
June 2022 Flight International 15
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Engineering the future of FVL

Massive investment in enhanced processes and digital
technology at Sikorsky production site could prove
key to success in US Army contests, company believes

Ryan Finnerty Stratford is focused on acquiring two new goggles show technicians on the
models, respectively to replace CH-53K production line – where
the company’s 40-year-old UH-60 there are no paper schematics –

S
ikorsky has invested $1 bil-
lion in its Stratford, Connect-
icut manufacturing plant in
recent years, equipping the
facility with digital technologies
that it believes will help to win com-
petitions to produce the US Army’s
next generation of helicopters.
“Nothing here happens by acci-
dent,” says vice-president of oper-
ations George Mitchell – informally
known as ‘mayor’ of the 99-year-
old company’s headquarters and
sprawling production facility.
While the site still contains the
original office of its founder, Igor
Sikorsky, executives such as Mitchell
and company president Paul Lem-
mo are betting on Stratford also
being its future. The plant now has
its own supercomputer, 3D-printing
lab and an array of simulators that
allow engineers and pilots to test
aircraft that are not yet built.
Sikorsky says its digital factory
will reduce production costs,
streamline maintenance and secure
its offers for the US Army’s Future
Vertical Lift (FVL) programme. This
Black Hawk, and the retired Bell
OH-58 Kiowa Warrior armed scout.
While Sikorsky has other current
major contracts, including for the
US Marine Corps’ (USMC’s) heavy-
lift CH-53K King Stallion and the US
Air Force’s HH-60W Jolly Green II
combat search and rescue helicop-
ter, Lemmo acknowledges that fail-
ure to secure an FVL contract would
probably mean reductions to the
plant’s 6,500-strong workforce.
Production tour
On a tour of the production line,
during which Mitchell uses phrases
such as “machine learning”, “data
input” and “virtual reality”, he
quips: “You’re almost better off be-
ing a video gamer than machinist.”
Where workers still perform
traditional tasks such as tight-
ening rivets, the company has
invested heavily in technologies
to make the process faster, easier
and more reliable.
Its IT department took off-the-shelf
torque wrenches and enabled them
with wi-fi, and augmented-reality
which rivets need to be tightened,
and in what order. When placed
in the right spot, the networked
wrenches automatically tighten riv-
ets to correct specifications, and log
the work for quality control.
The process is so simple that it
has been mastered by employees
on their first day of work, accord-
ing to Bob Perchard, director of
manufacturing engineering.
A cluster of encased milling
machines – some of which are
nearly the size of a single-storey
building – are now used to produce
aircraft components.
Mitchell says these “magic ma-
chines” can automatically shape,
turn and drill a raw material into
parts. What once required days of
work by multiple operators on sev-
eral mills can now be completed in
10-15min, and with fewer errors.
Such precision is a pillar of
Sikorsky’s cost-saving strategy.
Another is its 3D-printing lab,
where 18 printers produce a vari-
ety of thermoplastic parts, includ-
ing components and work tools.

16 Flight International June 2022

 Rotorcraft Manufacturing

printed parts now reliably pass
quality control at a rate of 100%.
Meanwhile, part of the site’s
“front-end transformation” has
come in the form of a $10 million
supercomputer. Driven by two
banks of more than 25,000 core
processors, this powers flight simu-
lators and digital models of aircraft.
Traditionally, when a design is-
sue was identified, engineers and
test pilots would develop potential
solutions and build the changes
into a prototype, with no guaran-
tee that it would solve the problem
“You’re almost
better off being
a video gamer
than machinist”
George Mitchell
Vice-president of operations, Sikorsky
Lockheed Martin
reduce build times, Sikorsky’s true
bet for the FVL contracts is its “dig-
ital pedigree” concept. This involves
each aircraft having a “digital twin”,
where anything and everything that
happens to it will be reproduced.
The process starts on the facto-
ry floor and continues as the air-
craft reaches operational status. All
actions during flight are recorded
and logged by onboard sensors,
along with maintenance tasks,
providing mechanics with an “un-
broken digital thread” showing the
stresses being placed on individu-
al components within the airframe
through its entire lifespan.
Delivering change
“We are not talking about it, we are
doing it,” Lemmo says, noting that
the capability is already being rolled
out with the USMC’s CH-53Ks.
Lemmo says the plant is ready to
begin producing the army’s Black
Hawk-replacement Future Long
Range Assault Aircraft, for which
it is offering the coaxial main rotor
and rear-mounted pusher propel-

and not create new ones. That “fly-
Airframer is pitching Raider X (foreground) fix-fly” cycle can quickly result in
and Defiant X for Future Vertical Lift deals cost overruns and delays, says Mike
Ambrose, vice-president of digital
transformation and the company’s
former chief engineer.
The company expects delivery by He gives the example of a problem
year-end of two new printers that found during testing of the CH-53K,
will be able to produce metallic where exhaust gases from one
structural components. engine were being drawn into the
A component that once re- intake of another, rather than clear
quired 4.5kg (10lb) of raw mate- air. Sikorsky used its supercom-
rial to build using conventional puter to model design changes,
tooling now needs only 1.3kg, and and identified a solution. Ambrose
parts that may once have required says this virtual redesign saved two
assembly from four or five sub- years and millions of dollars.
components can now be printed While digitally backed design and
as one solid piece. Perchard says manufacturing can lower costs and
ler-configuration Defiant X, in part-
nership with Boeing. The team faces
competition from Bell’s V-280 Valor
tiltrotor, with a selection decision
expected in September.
Sikorsky says it will deliver the
5,000th Black Hawk in the fourth
quarter of this year, with produc-
tion for the US military to end in
2027 but further Foreign Military
Sales opportunities being eyed.
Its Raider X, which also employs
a coaxial/pusher propeller config-
uration, is competing with Bell’s
360 Invictus for the OH-58 succes-
sor Future Attack Reconnaissance
Aircraft requirement. Z
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Lessors count the cost

De facto theft of aircraft leased to
Russian carriers following imposition
of sanctions and consequent
insurance claims could have
long-term consequences
David Kaminski-Morrow First-quarter revenues stood at
& Dominic Perry London $596 million, up by 25.7% on the
same period a year earlier, driven
by fleet growth, lower cash and

G
lobal aircraft lessors have
begun to disclose the cost
of the aircraft that have,
in the view of one leasing
chief, been “stolen” by Russia
following its invasion of Ukraine
and the subsequent economic
sanctions imposed on Moscow.
As might be expected, the value
lease restructuring losses, and
the “recognition of approximately
$59.6 million in security deposits
and maintenance reserve income
resulting from the termination of
our leasing activities in Russia”.
However, the write-down pushed
ALC to a net loss for the period of
$468 million. AirTeamImages

of the aircraft is eye-watering: Air Avolon, which has 10 of its owned

Lease (ALC) has written off more
than $800 million, Avolon more
than $300 million, and AerCap –
the lessor most exposed to Russia
– around $2.4 billion.
Detailing its first-quarter results,
ALC flagged that as a result of the
sanctions imposed on Russia and
subsequent seizure of aircraft, it
would be writing down the value of
21 owned and six managed jets still
in the country.
The owned aircraft, valued at
$791 million, represented 3.4% of
its owned fleet by book value.
Cancellation of the leases also
means ALC will not receive $18 mil-
lion per quarter in rental revenue.
ALC is “vigorously pursuing in-
surance claims to recover its losses
relating to these aircraft”, but cau-
tions that the “collection, timing
and amounts of any insurance re-
coveries are uncertain”.
In addition, during the three
months ended 31 March, ALC can-
celled five aircraft in its orderbook
that were destined for delivery to
Russian airlines. Several aircraft,
particularly Airbus A321neos, that
were due to go to Russian carriers
were also placed with alternative
customers, says executive chair-
man Steven Udvar-Hazy.
“All of the aircraft that were des-
tined for Russian customers have
now been placed on long-term
leases,” he says.
aircraft still located in Russia, has
taken a $304 million hit on those
jets, reducing their carrying value
to zero.
As a result, Avolon turned in
a net loss of $182 million for the
first quarter, compared with an
$83 million loss in the same period
last year.
Moving on
“While we continue to make
every effort to recover these
assets and are pleased to have
repossessed four aircraft, we are
recognising the full impairment
this quarter,” says chief executive
Domhnal Slattery.
He says this will put the impact
of the Russian sanctions situation
“firmly behind us”.
Less than 1% of Avolon’s fleet
portfolio value – net of security de-
posits and maintenance reserves –
is affected by the Russian situation,
the company says.
Avolon has 592 owned and man-
aged aircraft as well as orders and
commitments for a further 240.
“Together we want to figure out
what our attitude is to financing
aircraft in the emerging markets”
Domhnal Slattery Chief executive, Avolon
AerCap-owned 777-300ER was
re-registered by Russia in April
In common with ALC, Avolon will
pursue an insurance claim to cover
the value of the aircraft, it says.
As expected, the bill for AerCap
is higher, given that before the in-
troduction of sanctions, the lessor
had 135 aircraft and 14 engines on
lease to Russian companies.
As a result, AerCap has filed $3.5
billion worth of insurance claims to
cover those assets.
Those and other sanction-
affected assets were worth about
$3.1 billion, or 5% of AerCap’s total
fleet value, at the end of 2021. The
assets generated about $33 million
in monthly revenue.
Chief executive Aengus Kelly
says AerCap has so far success-
fully repossessed 22 aircraft and
three engines.
“AerCap has terminated all
aircraft and engine leases we
have entered into with Russian

18 Flight International June 2022


entities,” Kelly adds. “We have
taken aggressive steps to recover
these assets.”
AerCap chief financial officer
Peter Juhas says many of Aer-
Cap’s aircraft in Russia “are now
being flown illegally by our former
airline customers”.
“We continue to make efforts to
repossess additional aircraft and
engines from Russia, but it is un-
certain whether we will be success-
ful,” Juhas adds.
Russian airlines that oper-
ate AerCap-owned jets include
Aeroflot, Rossiya Airlines, S7 Air-
lines, Smartavia and Ural Airlines,
according to Cirium data.
Aircraft reinstated?
Although ALC in its financial
statements offered a similar-
ly downbeat assessment on the
potential for the return of its
jets, Udvar-Hazy believes that
long-standing relationships with
certain carriers may enable an
eventual route back.
“So, as circumstances may
change in Russia, there could be
avenues where some of these
aircraft could be reinstated, subject
to sanctions and other government
regulations, and become normal-
ised again,” he says.
ALC chief executive John
Plueger also seeks to differentiate
between state-owned carriers such
as Aeroflot and its subsidiaries, and
privately owned Russian airlines.
Private companies are “anxious
to get behind this and move for-
ward as quickly as possible”, says
Plueger, adding: “I’m not 100%
$3.5bn
Insurance claims filed by lessor AerCap
to cover losses from seized jets
certain that it would be as quick
with Russian state-owned airlines.”
Udvar-Hazy adds that ALC had
a policy of not leasing aircraft
to “airlines in Russia that were
government-owned”.
While the company has not
identified the specific customers
that have retained its assets, ALC has
previously delivered aircraft to car-
riers including Ifly, Nordwind, S7
Airlines and Ural Airlines.
Leasing Financial
But in the longer term, Slattery
thinks the fallout from the leas-
ing industry’s exposure to Russia
will result in airlines in emerging
markets paying higher rates for
leased aircraft.
Slattery says that although
Avolon’s net exposure is relatively
small – “in the headache not mi-
graine zone” – the loss of aircraft in
Russia will make the wider industry
take stock.
“Together we want to figure out
what our attitude is to financing
aircraft in the emerging markets, in
certain of these more challenging
jurisdictions around the world,”
he says.
“And indeed, consequently, what
are the lease rates? What is the risk
premium that will be required for us
to put our capital to work in some
of these jurisdictions? My  view is
that it’s going to go up.”
Big claims
Avolon had just 14 aircraft on lease
to Russian carriers and was able
to repossess four examples after
sanctions were imposed; Slattery
says he considers the remaining
jets “stolen” by Russia.
With around 500 Western-built
aircraft seized by Russia – many of
them leased – Slattery thinks the
insurance industry will be faced
with billions of dollars of claims.
“My sense is that’s going to be a
really interesting and bumpy ride
between the lessors and the insur-
ance market,” he says.
That in turn is likely to increase
the insurance rates charged to
airlines and lessors, and the types
of insurance offered to those
customers, Slattery says.
Avolon’s relatively mild exposure
to Russia came out of a sense of
caution on Slattery’s part: “I have
always been nervous about Russia
because of the geopolitical risks
there,” he says.
Although regularly challenging
that view, not least that “in many
ways they were very good clients
because they always paid on
time”, Slattery says that he nev-
er felt “comfortable” dealing with
Russian airlines.
“As a consequence we just had
a sort of risk-off headset towards
Russia for years. And our portfo-
lio size in Russia was, on a relative
basis, small.” Z
Additional reporting by
Jon Hemmerdinger in Tampa
June 2022 Flight International 19
 Procurements Contracts
Commonwealth of Australia
Nation to replace Tiger and MRH90 assets via deals worth
A$8 billion, with deliveries of successor types from 2025
Greg Waldron Singapore
C
anberra has finalised orders
for 42 new attack and mar-
itime helicopters, with the
deals worth a combined
A$8 billion ($5.5 billion).
The Australian government in Jan-
uary 2021 announced that Boeing’s
AH-64E Apache had won its Project
Land 4503 contest, to deliver 29
armed reconnaissance helicopters
as replacements for its army’s 22
Airbus Helicopters Tigers.
Prime minister Scott Morrison
values the acquisition at over A$5.5
billion, including A$500 million to
upgrade facilities related to the
Apache’s introduction.
Boeing says deliveries will start
in 2025, with Australia targeting an
initial operational capability decla-
ration late the following year.
Worth A$2.5 billion, the na-
tion’s acquisition of 13 additional
MH-60Rs from Lockheed Martin
company Sikorsky – plans for which
were announced in October 2021
– will boost the Royal Australian
Navy’s (RAN’s) fleet of the type to
36 examples. Morrison says A$360
million of the sum will cover infra-
structure work at HMAS Albatross,
where its current fleet of the rotor-
craft is based.
“We’re following the 2020 Force
Structure Plan, that outlined the
20 Flight International June 2022
Australia seals
Apache, MH-60R buys
need to expand our naval opera-
tions in particular. The [MH-60R]
fits that role as a next-generation
submarine hunter and anti-surface
warfare helicopter, and can also
assist with search and rescue and
transport as they have during re-
cent bushfires and floods,” says de-
fence minister Peter Dutton.
To be delivered from 2025, the
additional MH-60Rs will see the
NH Industries MRH90 – Australia’s
local designation for the NH90 –
retired from RAN service.
Operational flexibility
“This additional growth further
enhances the Royal Australian
Navy’s rotary-wing capability and
increases operational flexibility to
transition from anti-submarine and
anti-surface warfare to maritime
utility and support missions,” says
Lockheed Martin Australia chief ex-
ecutive Warren McDonald.
Meanwhile, Canberra has opted to
proceed with a sole-source acquisi-
tion of Schiebel Camcopter S-100
unmanned air vehicles (UAVs) to
meet the RAN’s embarked surveil-
lance needs. The decision draws a
close its previous Project Sea 129
Phase 5 competition.
In 2017, Schiebel won an interim
contract for an unspecified number
of Camcopter S-100s, with these
now deployed aboard Australian
navy vessels. Its previous deal also
Navy’s maritime rotorcraft fleet
will grow to 36 examples
included a three-year package of
in-service support.
Schiebel says its latest contract
will support 100 new jobs in Aus-
tralia, where “design, development,
manufacture, integration and sup-
port” will be undertaken.
But in a blow for General Atomics
Aeronautical Systems, Australia’s
Department of Defence (DoD) has
axed a planned acquisition of 12-16
MQ-9B SkyGuardian UAVs.
“The government has decided
to not proceed with Project Air
7003 – armed medium-altitude,
long-endurance remotely pilot-
ed aircraft system,” the DoD says.
“A mix of other joint capabilities,
such as [Northrop Grumman]
MQ-4C Triton and [Gulfstream
G550] MC-55A Peregrine aircraft,
Teaming Air Vehicles and Apache
helicopters, will conduct roles
expected of the SkyGuardian.”
Canberra selected the MQ-9B
in November 2019, having also
considered the same manufac-
turer’s MQ-9A Reaper, plus Israel
Aerospace Industries’ Heron TP.
“The [cancellation] deci-
sion allows government to al-
locate that money to expand
our response to attacks against
Australia online, through the
REDSPICE programme,” the DoD
says. That initiative will strengthen
the capabilities of the Australian
Signals Directorate. ◗

US Army slips FARA schedule
Service confirms one-year delay to prototype flight-test
phase in next-generation armed scout helicopter duel
Ryan Finnerty Burlington
T
esting of two prototype
helicopters competing to re-
place the US Army’s retired
Bell OH-58D Kiowa Warri-
ors will not begin until late 2023
at the earliest: one year later than
previously planned.
Army budget documents show
that fiscal year 2023 funding for
the Future Attack Reconnaissance
Aircraft (FARA) programme will
be used to continue airframe and
mission system development. They
also show that competitive testing
of prototypes by Bell and Sikorsky
is now scheduled for FY2024.
The army’s Program Execu-
tive Office on Aviation blames
pandemic-related delays affecting
the development of GE Aviation’s
T901 Improved Turbine Engine (ITE)
– which will power both FARA
candidate air-
frames – for the
schedule slip.
Bell
Last year’s budget documents
had outlined a plan for competitive
testing to begin in FY2023.
“The FARA vendors are plan-
ning to start ITE integration into
their competitive prototype flight
demonstrators in November 2022
in order to support flight testing in
2023,” the army tells FlightGlobal.
It adds that the delay also is nec-
essary to allow the results from
prototype testing to inform its final
programme requirements.
Rival bids
Bell is pitching its 360 Invictus,
while Sikorsky is promoting the
RaiderX, which features a coaxial
rotor and rear propulsor.
Since the phased retirement of
the OH-58 began in 2014, the army
has used its Boeing AH-64 Apache
attack helicopters teamed with AAI
RQ-7 Shadow unmanned air vehi-
cles to fill the armed scout role.
In March, Bell’s vice-president
of military sales and strategy Carl
Coffman said first flight of its
Programme Delay
Invictus 360 could occur by the
third quarter of 2023, depending
on the receipt of its T901 engine in
October or November.
GE at that time told FlightGlobal
that it was working to deliver the
first flight-test T901s this year.
The FARA programme and an-
other effort called the Future Long
Range Assault Aircraft (FLRAA)
programme – which aims to deliv-
er a replacement for the Sikorsky
UH-60 Black Hawk – fall under the
army’s Future Vertical Lift project.
FY2023 appropriation for the
FLRAA programme will support
material acquisition and develop-
mental testing, the army says.
Bell is pursuing the requirement
with its V-280 Valor tiltrotor, which
faces competition from the Sikor-
sky-Boeing DefiantX. Production of
the selected designs for both the
FARA and FLRAA programmes is
scheduled to
begin around
2030. ◗
Bell is pitching its 360
Invictus for the requirement
June 2022 Flight International 21
PAID CONTENT
Back – and pioneering the future
The Farnborough International Airshow will resume its
position as the pinnacle event for aerospace and aviation
as it returns on 18-22 July
F
or decades, the Farnbor-
ough International Airshow
has been the most impor-
tant global platform for the
aerospace, aviation and defence
industry. Following the challeng-
es of the last two years within the
industry, the role of the event now
carries greater significance, with
the show promising unrivalled
networking and insight-generating
opportunities to support the recon-
nection of leaders from around the
world and enable business growth
and recovery.
Building upon the success of the
2018 Farnborough International
Airshow, which saw deals worth
$192 billion made, the 2022 edition
is propelling itself to new heights.
Pioneering change
Launching at this year’s airshow,
the Aerospace Global Forum
(AGF) is a revolutionary global
platform that aims to champion
change and drive immediate ac-
tion, accelerating transition to the
new, net-zero economy.
Developed by Farnborough In-
ternational, AGF will bring global
leaders together, across all sectors
and geographies, to drive con-
versation and interrogate issues
to actively change the world for
the better for the very first time.
22 Flight International June 2022
Working with world-leading con-
sultancies, such as KPMG, Cionet
and McKinsey, as well as US gov-
ernment officials, UK government
departments and ADS, AGF will
set the agenda for industry in the
years ahead, discussing the new
digital workforce and future lead-
ers of the aerospace and defence
industry, and preparing organisa-
tions for the new skills needed in
an AI-fuelled world.
FINN Sessions will be return-
ing to the airshow, with a cu-
rated programme of thought
leaders, innovators and disrup-
tors to showcase the upcoming
trends of the aerospace industry
across three theatres. Delivered
by leading industry experts, FINN
Sessions will be provid-
ing holistic overviews
and tactical updates
on key innovations,
technology and initia-
tives across the aero-
space sphere.
Smart networking &
exhibition features
The 2022 event will
see the expansion of
the airshow’s smart
networking opportuni-
ties with the launch of
the Business Connec-
tion Exchange – for-
merly Meet the Buy-
er – the evolution of
turnkey chalets and a
new Space Zone taking its place
within one of the new sound stag-
es on-site at Farnborough Inter-
national Exhibition & Conference
Centre, as part of the new Farn-
borough International Studios.
Steering the conversation on
six core themes pertinent to the
aerospace, aviation and defence
industries, Farnborough Interna-
tional Airshow will focus on the
future of the industry, sustainabili-
ty, aerospace and defence thought
leadership, space, future workforce
and air travel.
Showcasing an exhibition of in-
dustry-leading pioneers and a
programme of thought leader-
ship, the airshow will be the first
truly international opportunity to
witness the leaps in development
that have taken place as well as
showcasing innovation to a tru-
ly global audience, face-to-face.
Industry pioneers such as BAE
Systems, Boeing, Rolls-Royce
and Raytheon Technologies have
established their positions at the
five-day phenomenon.
Pioneers of Tomorrow
Pioneers of Tomorrow is bringing
the world of aerospace to the
next generation of leaders with a
dedicated day to inspire, engage
and recruit the industry’s future
workforce.
Organised in collaboration be-
tween Farnborough International
and ADS, the event will take place
on Friday 22 July and will provide
industry exhibitors a rare oppor-
tunity to engage with and inspire
future aerospace recruits.
Aimed at school leavers,
graduates and career movers,
Pioneers of Tomorrow will in-
troduce the next generation of
leaders, innovators, and pioneers
to employers, providing valuable
insight into the wealth of career
opportunities available through-
out dynamic, global industries.

Industry-leading flying display
We are delighted to see the
return of our full aircraft flying
and static displays. Showcasing
the most advanced aircraft across
commercial and military aviation
design, the daily flying display
brings innovation to the skies of
Farnborough.
Taking place on each afternoon
of the show, the flying display
will involve commercial airliners,
military jets and helicopters.
Running in parallel to the ex-
hibition, the static display gives
visitors the opportunity to view the
aircraft up close, with the natural
amphitheatre of the Farnborough
Aerodrome allowing aircraft to be
displayed to maximum effect.
Gareth Rogers, CEO of Farn-
borough International, says:
“Farnborough International Air-
show remains the leader in
connecting the world of aerospace
and the 2022 instalment will be
our most important yet.
“It has never been more vital to
connect the leading pioneers and
our event will enable the industry
PAID CONTENT
The show remains the pre-eminent
aerospace event in the world
to harness the power of the sector
to tackle the largest questions
and develop tangible outcomes
following global summits, such as
COP 26.
“With more than 70% of exhibitors
from more than 49 countries, we
are thrilled to see the eagerness of
the industry to return to face-to-
face events and work together to
initiate global change.” ◗
● For more, visit the Farnborough
International Airshow website:
farnboroughairshow.com/fia2022
June 2022 Flight International 23
 Airline Strategy
A new dawn for Qantas
Australian flag carrier signals intention
to begin Project Sunrise ultra-long-haul
flights with firm order for A350-1000s
Airbus
Nonstop services from Sydney to New York and London are to begin in 2025
Alfred Chua Singapore
Q
antas has confirmed
an order for 12 Airbus
A350-1000s, signalling the
launch of operations under
its Project Sunrise initiative, with
the first ultra-long-haul flights from
Sydney to New York and London
slated to begin in late-2025.
Deliveries of the ultra-long-range
A350s, powered by Rolls-Royce
Trent XWB-97 engines, will run from
2025 through to 2028, says Qantas.
They will be configured in a
low-density layout, with a signifi-
cant amount of space dedicated to
the first- and business-class cabins.
In fact, offering just 238 seats
across four classes, the carrier’s
new widebodies will be considera-
bly less dense than other examples
Harness the power of analytics with
CAE RiseTM IRUPRUHH΍HFWLYHSLORWWUDLQLQJ
24 Flight International June 2022
of the long-haul twinjet; Etihad, for
example, outfits its A350-1000s
with 371 seats.
Qantas has also revealed prelim-
inary cabin concepts to support
the Project Sunrise operations,
with the airline promising a “new
benchmark” for premium long-
haul travel. Apart from newly
designed first- and business-class
seats, the A350s will feature a
“well-being zone”, which Qantas
says is “designed for movement,
stretching and hydration” during
the 18-20h services.
Research missions
Qantas first disclosed its ultra-
long-haul ambitions in 2017, under
the Project Sunrise name. In 2019,
it operated three research flights,
using its Boeing 787-9s to fly from
London and New York to Sydney.
Later that year, the airline
announced its provisional selec-
tion of the A350-1000 for Project
Sunrise. It previously indicated
plans to roll out the ultra-long-
haul flights from the first half of
2023, but was forced to put these
plans on hold when the coronavi-
rus pandemic struck.
But the renewed optimism over
Project Sunrise comes amid a wider
recovery: Australian domestic travel
is returning to pre-pandemic levels
ahead of schedule, and internation-
al travel is also bouncing back.
As a result, Qantas also has
firmed orders for 40 A220s and
A321XLRs – meant for its domestic
and short-haul fleet – with deliver-
ies set to commence in late-2023.
Qantas also holds purchase
rights for up 94 aircraft for delivery
through to at least 2034.
Group strategy
Low-cost unit Jetstar Airways al-
ready has an agreement for more
than 100 A320neo-family jets, and
the latest deal involves combining
the commitments to create an avail-
able pool of up to 299 new aircraft
for Qantas, QantasLink and Jetstar.
Qantas provisionally selected
the two aircraft types in Decem-
ber 2021 as preferred options to
modernise its single-aisle fleet.
The A220s will seat 137 passen-
gers in two classes, a 25% increase
in seat count from the current 717s
which they will replace. Qantas
adds that the longer range of the
A220 means it “can fly between
any city in Australia”.
Qantas will meanwhile config-
ure the A321XLRs with 200 seats
in two classes, 15% more than the
airline’s 737-800s. The airline says
the aircraft has the potential to
open up “a wider range” of domes-
tic and short-haul direct flights, in-
cluding to points in Southeast Asia
and the Pacific Islands.
All A220s are powered by Pratt &
Whitney PW1500G engines, while
the carrier has selected PW1100Gs
to equip the A321XLR fleet. ◗

Dominic Perry London
E
mbraer is still considering the
launch of a new turboprop
airliner by the beginning of
2023, as development activ-
ities on the project continue.
Speaking in February, Arjan
Meijer, head of its commercial avi-
ation business, had indicated that a
launch announcement could come
by the end of 2022 or in early 2023.
Detailing the airframer’s first-
quarter results on 28 April, Embraer
chief executive Francisco Gomes
Neto reiterated that timeline.
“We expect to be ready to make
a final decision on the business
case by the end of the year, start of
2023,” he says.
Describing the project as “moving
very well”, Gomes Neto says tests
of different concepts are being per-
formed; preliminary development
work will continue throughout the
year, helping to inform Embraer’s
eventual recommendation.
Development funds
In parallel, the company is evaluat-
ing how to fund the development if
it chooses to proceed, he says.
Embraer has been considering
the launch of a new generation
turboprop for a number of years,
and is proposing both 70- and
90-seat aircraft.
The pair will use the same fuse-
lage as its E2 regional jet family,
which will simplify production and
improve passenger comfort, the
airframer has said.
Meanwhile, Gomes Neto is con-
fident that additional orders for its
E-Jet regional aircraft family will
be concluded in 2022, with sever-
al campaigns ongoing, driven by a
domestic air travel recovery in the
USA and Europe, and fleet renewal
needs. Its book-to-bill ratio for the
year is expected to be 2:1, he says.
Deliveries in the first quarter
stood at just six E-Jets – down
even on the nine aircraft shipped in
the same period of last year – due
to a production shutdown in Jan-
uary that lasted almost the entire
“We expect to make a final decision
on the business case [for a new
turboprop] by the end of the year”
Francisco Gomes Neto Chief executive, Embraer
Company sees strong customer
interest in C-390 Millennium
Brazilian air force
Embraer maintains
turboprop course
Brazilian airframer also eyeing a defence
market recovery driven by Ukraine war
month. This was due to the re-inte-
gration of the commercial aviation
unit back into the wider business; it
had been separated on the expec-
tation of an acquisition by Boeing
which collapsed in 2020.
However, Embraer is maintaining
its delivery guidance for the year of
60-70 commercial aircraft and 100-
110 executive jets, “even with the
challenging supply chain situation
due to the war in Ukraine and short-
ages of products worldwide”.
In executive aviation, Embraer
remains upbeat on the market,
selling 35 jets in the first three
months of the year, its strong-
est first-quarter total since 2016
when it sold 36 executive aircraft.
Backlog rose by 12% over the same
period last year, he says.
“I think our sales in the first quar-
ter are showing that the demand
continues [to be] strong.
“There will be some changes
in the future but we believe in a
soft landing in the market. We are
seeing a lot of first time buyers
and there is interest in small and
Manufacturer Programmes
medium-sized jets – exactly where
we have our portfolio of products.”
However, the performance of its
defence unit will lag in 2022, with
turnover projected to be around
$600 million.
Improving performance
“We see a tough year this year for
defence. We are working on initia-
tives to improve the performance of
that unit,” says Gomes Neto.
But he stresses that the “new
market environment”, driven by the
ongoing Ukraine conflict, “will help
us a lot, not only in 2023 but in the
years ahead”, enabling a return to
annual revenues of $1 billion.
Several campaigns are ongoing
centred on its C-390 Millennium
transport and A-29 Super Tucano
turboprop “and we expect acceler-
ation for sales campaigns for these
products”. Orders are expected in
2022 and 2023 for deliveries in the
short and medium term.
“This is a change, we believe, due
to the situation in Europe, between
Russia and Ukraine,” he says.
Separately, the manufacturer has
completed the sale of its Portu-
guese aerostructures businesses
– Embraer Metalicas and Embraer
Compositos – to Spain’s Aernnova
for $174 million. ◗
Additional reporting by
Jon Hemmerdinger in Tampa
June 2022 Flight International 25
 Visit FlightGlobal Premium for all the latest aviation news and insight FlightGlobal.com

Airframer has optimised form

factor on Model 437 concept

Why the customer is king

Northrop Grumman

for Northrop Grumman

Future programme chief at US defence giant outlines
technologies that could feature on Global Hawk successor,
loyal wingman UAV, or next-generation maritime rotorcraft
Dominic Perry London In this instance he is referring to (8,500lb). Northrop continues to
the Model 437, an unmanned con- fly the related Model 401 manned
cept aircraft built by Northrop’s aircraft, but it is clear that, as not-

U
nlike commercial aircraft
manufacturers which, safe
in the knowledge that
passenger capacity and
fuel economy will always be key,
can spend hundreds of millions
bringing a new product to mar-
ket without a confirmed customer
at the outset, prime contractors
in the defence sector can only
push self-funded research and
development so far before need-
ing a customer and some neatly
defined requirements.
“Do we have to get it to the five-
yard line, or the 10-yard-line or the
50-yard line? Because we are not
making it [informed by] custom-
er requirements, we are making a
concept,” says Richard Sullivan,
vice-president, future programs at
Northrop Grumman.
rapid prototyping business, Scaled
Composites, but it is a theme he
touches on several times through-
out the course of our interview.
In the case of the Model 437 –
revealed last year – the design is be-
ing shaped to meet mission needs
for not only the USA, but also other
international ‘loyal wingman’-type
efforts. The latest renderings of the
aircraft released by Northrop show
a more streamlined nose over the
previous version as the company
“optimises the form factor”.
Development limits
Sullivan sees strong customer
interest in a similar design, which
marries low cost with “fantastic
payload capabilities and fantastic
range”, despite a maximum take-
off weight of only around 3,850kg
ed, development can be taken only
so far without a customer. (The
company’s now-retired Model 355
Firebird is arguably a case in point.)
“We have to be careful not to
get too far with any of our designs
because if [customers] want it to
carry more payload or fly longer, or
slower [than the prototype], that
changes the wing aspect ratio, the
wing area, it changes the propul-
sion system you pick,” he says.
That guidance can also apply
when considering a possible
successor to an aircraft that has
already been successfully fielded.
Take, for instance, the RQ-4 Global
Hawk. Developed by Ryan Aero-
nautical, which was acquired by
Northrop in 1999, it had its first
flight in 1998, and has been in
service since 2001. Designed for

26 Flight International June 2022


persistent, wide-area surveillance
missions, the jet-powered high-al-
titude, long-endurance unmanned
air vehicle (UAV) has also spawned
a maritime variant, the MQ-4C
Triton, which arrived in 2018 after a
five-year development.
Sullivan thinks both will remain
relevant for years to come (in fact,
he argues the Triton has the poten-
tial to “revolutionise” naval oper-
ations), but inevitably Northrop is
giving some thought to a successor.
“We are always looking at what
the next high-altitude system might
look like,” he says. “We will continue
to evaluate high-altitude capability,
looking at other potential variants
– maybe it doesn’t look exactly like
the Global Hawk does today. And
we might be working on some new
configurations, just to be ready.”
Power play
Underpinning any studies is the
basic premise that there continues
to be “value to endurance and alti-
tude”. But given that the basic de-
sign is more than two decades old,
Northrop is asking, Sullivan says,
“What would we do today, given
what we know now? What would
we bring forward if the customer
asked us tomorrow?”
Aside from the twin building
blocks of altitude and endurance,
other considerations include pay-
loads, and the power necessary
to both run and cool them. While
Northrop is watching with interest
the development of solar-powered
surveillance platforms, that ap-
pears to be with a degree of scep-
ticism about their utility versus a
Global Hawk-type aircraft.
“As we all know, solar power is
really limited in how much power
you can provide to payloads and
other systems. You want to balance
that endurance but also have mis-
sion-relevant capability,” he says.
While he thinks there will be a
place for such systems, he ques-
tions whether they will be as ver-
satile as more traditional UAVs that
operate at a similar altitude.
But Sullivan points out that the
“interesting thing” about solar
power is that it offers “a clean or
carbon-neutral aspect”. Northrop
is looking at other powertrain
solutions, such as hydrogen or
“What would we
do today given
what we know
now? What
would we bring
forward if the
customer asked
us tomorrow?”
Richard Sullivan Vice-president,
future programs, Northrop Grumman
hybrid-electric for possible future
applications: “All of that is being
evaluated,” he says. Even batteries
could offer potential, albeit that Sul-
livan says they “still have a ways to
go” in terms of their energy density.
However, the pursuit of low- or
zero-emissions technologies raises
an interesting question: do environ-
mental concerns matter for a mili-
tary operator? In that instance, the
most important criteria when as-
sessing a system’s effectiveness is
surely whether it accomplishes the
MQ-4C Triton is employed in
maritime surveillance role
US Navy
Defence Development
mission in the most efficient way
possible, not how many grams of
carbon dioxide it produces.
But Sullivan says the answer is
more nuanced: provided the tech-
nology is “mission effective”, he
sees no reason it cannot be de-
ployed. And while emissions re-
duction may be one benefit, the
fact that such systems are likely
to also cut operating costs may be
the bigger driver for their adoption
– especially when the price of jet
fuel is at a record high.
“What does that [high fuel price]
mean in terms of what operators
originally planned in their budgets to
complete their annual flight hours?
Either they are going to override
[their budget] or they are not going
to fly as much – which means they
are either not training or not doing
missions,” Sullivan points out.
Meanwhile, Northrop contin-
ues to refine its approach to the
rotary-wing segment, following the
agreement it signed with Leonar-
do Helicopters last year. “There’s a
number of things we are looking at
from a cargo and ISR [intelligence,
surveillance and reconnaissance]
perspective that could leverage
that relationship and our increas-
ing knowledge of the AWHero
[platform],” Sullivan says. “It helps
us guide what the next aircraft may
need to look like, based on a de-
mand signal from the customer.”
Vertical integration
Sullivan says the company is
analysing how to approach a future
US Navy requirement for a maritime
strike helicopter – a replacement for
both the Northrop MQ-8C Fire Scout
UAV and Sikorsky MH-60R Seahawk
manned helicopter – alongside the
US Air Force’s (USAF’s) future ver-
tical lift ambitions.
Whether anything for the USAF
resembles a traditional rotorcraft
(for instance, a derivative of the
AW609 tiltrotor) or some other
vertical-lift technology remains to
be seen and will be guided by – you
guessed it – whatever the require-
ments dictate.
“We are not trying to bring a plat-
form and say ‘I have a vehicle, tell me
what the requirement is’,” he says.
“As the requirements mature we
will start [refining] our assessment
of what is the best solution because
we want to be prudent with what we
are going after. Can we compete?
Can we be affordable? And then we
will make a decision on that.” Z
June 2022 Flight International 27
 Financial Results
B-21 progress buoys Northrop
$5 billion funding request for production of stealth bomber
lifts developer, as lead example undergoes ground testing
Ryan Finnerty Burlington
N
orthrop Grumman has
provided limited further de-
tails about its B-21 Raider
development programme
for the US Air Force (USAF),
with the next-generation bomber
currently in ground testing.
Speaking during a first-quarter
earnings call on 28 April, chief ex-
ecutive Kathy Warden said she is
optimistic about the future impact
of the B-21 programme.
While Northrop’s net earnings of
$955 million from sales totalling
$8.8 billion in the first three months
of 2022 marked a substantial de-
cline from figures of $2.1 billion
and $9.2 billion, respectively, for
the same period a year earlier, the
company expects sales to acceler-
ate in the second half of 2022.
During the same call, chief finan-
cial officer David Keffer revealed
that the company received a $67
million incentive payment from the
US government in the first quarter,
tied to its performance on the B-21.
US Air Force
Keffer also notes that the Biden
administration’s proposed defence
IN ASSOCIATION WITH
28 Flight International June 2022
budget for fiscal year 2023 marks
the first time funds have been
requested for procurement of the
stealth bomber, with the prospec-
tive $5 billion allocation mov-
ing beyond previous funding for
research and development.
The USAF in early April awarded
Northrop a $108 million contract to
procure long lead items in support
of its first production lot of B-21s.
Test aircraft
Warden says the first B-21 is
undergoing ground testing with
the USAF, with test flights to fol-
low. Five additional test aircraft are
in various stages of development.
The B-21 is due to enter lim-
ited production next year. Dur-
ing that period, the government
will purchase individual aircraft
at contractually set prices. When
the programme subsequently en-
ters full-rate production, Northrop
and the USAF will negotiate a final
per-unit price for the aircraft.
Warden says this will provide a
hedge against inflationary pres-
sure in the supply chain. Northrop
expects full production to begin in
2026, with the B-21 fleet scheduled
Download the 2022
Wo r l d A i r Fo r c e s R e p o r t
FlightGlobal.com/waf
USAF plans to acquire up to
100 examples of new type
to achieve initial operational
capability in 2029, progressively
replacing the USAF’s Boeing B-1Bs
and Northrop B-2s. The service
plans to acquire up to 100 of the
new type.
Designed to penetrate anti-
access/area-denial air defences
and launch precision strikes with
conventional or nuclear weap-
ons, the Raider is a major pillar of
Northrop’s business strategy, with
executives projecting “robust fund-
ing” for the classified programme
in years to come.
Northrop also is under contract
to develop the next generation
of ground-based intercontinen-
tal ballistic missiles for the USAF,
replacing the long-serving Minute-
man III system.
Meanwhile, the company expects
to see solid earnings from its pro-
duction role supporting Lockheed
Martin’s F-35, and from further sales
of its E-2D Advanced Hawkeye.
It notes that the E-2 programme
will be dependent on foreign sales
for revenue after 2025, and cites
“strong interest” in the airborne
early warning and control/battle
management platform. ◗

Cost overruns mount at Boeing
Multiple programmes weigh on airframer, with presidential
fleet renewal and T-7A trainer deals suffering turbulence
Ryan Finnerty Burlington
B
oeing reported cost overruns
totalling almost $1.3 billion
across several of its major
defence programmes during
the first quarter of 2022.
Largely driven by changes to
US government contracts and
pandemic-related supply chain
challenges, the charges resulted
in a 24% decline in revenue – at al-
most $5.5 billion – compared with
the same three-month period in
2021. This saw the Boeing Defense,
Space & Security unit report a
first-quarter loss of $929 million.
“Covid-19 disruption and inflation-
ary challenges drove cost pressures
and earnings charges on some of
our fixed-price development pro-
grammes,” chief executive David
Calhoun said in a message to em-
ployees. “We’re navigating through
these challenges and are focused
on improving our own performance
as we mature these programmes
and transition to production.”
The largest contributor was the
VC-25B Air Force One programme.
The replacement for the US Air
Force’s (USAF’s) presidential air-
craft fleet accounted for $600
million of the total overrun, with
Boeing blaming rising supply costs
and schedule delays.
Speaking during a 27 April earn-
ings call, Calhoun went so far as to
express regret for accepting the VC-
25B contract. He describes the deal
to deliver two heavily adapted 747-
8Is as “a very unique negotiation, a
very unique set of risks that Boeing
probably shouldn’t have taken”.
The contract was awarded in 2018
during the Trump administration,
and the former commander in chief
appeared to take a personal interest
in the programme. Trump commu-
nicated dissatisfaction about delays
and cost overruns via Twitter and
apparently pushed the Department
of Defense into tough negotiations
with Boeing to drive prices down.
Cost considerations
Those tactics apparently result-
ed in a contract clause requiring
Boeing, not the government, to
absorb the cost of any overruns on
the programme.
Calhoun says pandemic-related
interventions were a significant
driver of delays. Workers on the
VC-25B modification line are re-
quired to be extensively vetted for
security risks, he explains. When
some of those technicians are
sent home due to Covid-19 expo-
sure, quickly replacing them is not
always possible, often leading the
line to shut down.
The USAF’s T-7A Red Hawk
advanced jet trainer was anoth-
er major source of cost overruns.
Boeing says pandemic-related
worker challenges and supply
Defence Losses
Red Hawk programme incurred
$367 million in charges
chain constraints led to $367 mil-
lion in charges on the programme.
On 28 April, the first engineering,
manufacturing and development
(EMD)-phase example of the T-7A
was rolled out in St Louis, Missouri.
“The aircraft will remain in St Lou-
is, where it will undergo ground and
flight tests before being delivered
to the US Air Force,” Boeing says.
Development partner Saab will
soon start producing the train-
er’s aft fuselage at its new facility
in West Lafayette, Indiana, with
EMD-phase structures being built
in Linkoping, Sweden. The USAF
plans to eventually field 351 pro-
duction examples of the Red Hawk.
The remaining cost overruns
were attributed to the 767-based
KC-46A Pegasus refuelling aircraft
and MQ-25 Stingray carrier-based
unmanned tanker programmes.
Meanwhile, the company deliv-
ered a combined 41 military air-
craft during the first three months
of this year. This total included
four F/A-18E/F Super Hornets,
one F-15, four KC-46As and three
P-8A Poseidons, plus 29 new and
remanufactured helicopters, com-
prising 22 AH-64 Apaches and
seven CH-47 Chinooks.
“We continue to see solid and
stable demand,” Calhoun told
Boeing workers. “Our [defence]
portfolio is well positioned and our
future franchise programmes have
a long runway ahead.” ◗
Boeing
June 2022 Flight International 29
 Visit FlightGlobal Premium for all the latest aviation news and insight FlightGlobal.com
Frontier cheered
by Spirit fillip
Ultra-low-cost carrier boosted as
acquisition target rejects rival JetBlue
bid on competition concerns
Pilar Wolfsteller Las Vegas
A
myriad of anti-trust issues
convinced Spirit Airlines’
board to reject a bid from
JetBlue Airways and in-
stead pursue an initial proposal
from Frontier Airlines.
The Miramar, Florida-based ultra-
low-cost carrier (ULCC) said on 5
May that the JetBlue offer is “not
superior” to the Frontier bid and
such a merger would be highly un-
likely to be approved by regulators.
“You don’t need to be an
anti-trust attorney to see the
issues here,” said chief execu-
tive Ted Christie – even from the
beginning, “there were a number
of red flags”.
After a “thorough review”, which
included bringing in external
advisers and asking JetBlue for ad-
ditional information and commit-
ments, Spirit’s conclusion was that
it would be a problematic and high-
risk endeavour for the company, its
employees and shareholders.
Frontier on 7 February had put
forward a deal to purchase Spirit
with cash and stock that at the time
was valued at $2.9 billion.
$967m
Revenue reported by Spirit Airlines for
the first quarter of 2022 – more than
double the equivalent period in 2021
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30 Flight International June 2022
JetBlue responded on 6 April with
a competing, all-cash offer to buy
Spirit for $33 per share, or $3.6 bil-
lion in total. JetBlue said at the time
that it planned to dismantle Spirit as
a ULCC, using the airline’s assets to
expand its own operation.
New York-headquartered JetBlue
revised the terms of the agreement
on 2 May, to allay concerns about
its so-called “Northeast Alliance”
(NEA) with American Airlines.
Official complaint
Yes Market Media/Shutterstock
The Department of Justice (DOJ)
is suing the airlines over the NEA,
which focuses on flights into and
out of hub cities Boston and New
York. Several other carriers, includ-
ing Spirit and Southwest Airlines,
have complained to the govern-
ment that JetBlue’s collaboration
with American undermines compe-
tition in some of the most impor- Spirit if the transaction failed to
tant markets in the USA. win anti-trust clearance”.
“At its core, the JetBlue propos- Spirit said JetBlue responded
al represents a high-cost, high- four days later, but had failed to
fare airline buying a low-cost, low- address those concerns, “includ-
fare airline with half the synergies ing an unwillingness to terminate
coming from reduced capacity and the NEA”.
increased fares,” Christie says. “When we have a suitor that is
“JetBlue’s acquisition of Spirit being actively sued by the DOJ for
would eliminate a key competitor a stated anti-competitive transac-
and a vocal public opponent of Jet- tion it strikes us as odd that they
Blue’s anti-competitive NEA deal.” think they can actually close on a
To help reduce some concerns, transaction with us at this time,”
Spirit at the end of April pro- he adds.
posed to JetBlue that it abandon The risk is that not only would the
the NEA should the deal come DOJ not give its approval, but that
to fruition, and demanded “a it would sue to stop it.
substantial reverse termination fee “That process would take 18
intended to partially compensate months or more, and we had
analysis

represents a high-cost, high-fare airline
concerns about our own business
risk here,” Christie says.
Spirit’s review of the JetBlue pro-
posal concluded that its “stock-
holders would shoulder most of
the very substantial risk that the
JetBlue transaction would not
receive anti-trust approval,” Chris-
tie wrote to the airline’s officers
explaining its decision.
Regulatory reluctance
Based on the pending litiga-
tion over the NEA, Spirit was
unconvinced that “the DOJ will
be persuaded that JetBlue should
be allowed to acquire Spirit in an
anti-competitive move that would
eliminate the largest ULCC carri-
er”, he writes.
“In contrast, Spirit believes that
merging with Frontier will enable
the combined ULCC to achieve
scale, improve reliability, have in-
creased relevance to consum-
ers, and do an even better job of
delivering ultra-low fares to more
consumers and competing more
effectively against the ‘big four’
carriers, as well as against JetBlue.”
“At its core, the JetBlue proposal
buying a low-cost, low-fare airline”
Ted Christie Chief executive, Spirit Airlines
Spirit saw revenue more than
double in the first quarter of 2022,
to $967 million, as customer de-
mand trends showed a “dramatic
improvement” in the later part of
the period. The figure was higher
than both the $461 million it took in
during the same period of 2021 and
the $856 million it recorded in the
first quarter of pre-pandemic 2019.
Capacity and load factor are
climbing to more normal, pre-pan-
demic levels, Spirit says, leaving the
airline optimistic about its trajecto-
ry for the rest of the year and its
tie-up with Frontier.
“There’s untapped and consider-
able demand for low-fare travel,”
Christie adds.
Frontier, meanwhile, continues
“to be excited about completing
the merger and delivering the sig-
nificant benefits that will come with
it”, says chief executive Barry Biffle.
“Our regulatory process is already
well underway and many months
ahead of any alternative,” he adds.
“For consumers, this merger will
super-charge the ULCC model.
Together, Frontier and Spirit will
Airlines Merger
offer even more ultra-low fares to
more people and more places and
deliver $1 billion in annual savings
for consumers.
“For the competition, the dom-
inant ‘big four’ airlines and other
high-cost airlines like JetBlue will be
faced with a true nationwide ultra-
low-fare competitor,” Biffle adds.
Fleet growth
At the end of March, Frontier had
an all-Airbus fleet of 112 aircraft:
75 A320neos, 16 A320ceos, and 21
A321ceos. It has commitments to
purchase an additional 232 aircraft
that have delivery dates through
2029, including 74 A320neos and
158 A321neos.
As of 31 March, Spirit had a fleet
of 176 Airbus jets: 31 A319ceos, 64
A320ceos, 51 A320neos, and 30
A321ceos. In addition, the airline has
orders in place covering another 117
A320neo-family aircraft, plus com-
mitments to take another 40 on
lease over the 2022-2024 period.
Frontier and Spirit expect the
acquisition to complete in the
second half of the year. ◗
June 2022 Flight International 31
 Visit FlightGlobal Premium for all the latest aviation news and insight FlightGlobal.com

Jon Hemmerdinger Tampa

Gulfstream adds
G wind restrictions to
ulfstream has further re-
stricted the wind conditions
in which G500 and G600
business jets are permitted
to land, a move following a recent
hard landing involving an unexpect-
G500 and G600
ed flight-control mode change.
The new limitations, specified
in flight manual updates, include
“maximum wind speeds for land-
ing” of 15kt (28km/h) – including
gusts. They also establish a “maxi-
mum wind gust for landing” of 5kt.
Gulfstream’s changes were con-
tained in a 29 April “Maintenance
and Operations Letter” from the
airframer to “all” G500 opera-
tors. The letter, available on online
publishing platform Scribd.com,
says Gulfstream is working on a
long-term software fix.
Seemingly the issue involves
the same flight-control problem
Gulfstream sought to address
with updates in 2020 to the flight
manuals for both jets.
The latest news comes amid Landing limitations have been imposed
heightened Federal Aviation Ad-
ministration (FAA) scrutiny of on twinjet pair following recent incident
all manufacturers. Detailing its
first-quarter earnings in late April, involving flight-control software issue
parent company General Dynamics

15kt
Maximum wind speed for landing
specified in update to flight manual,
with gust level capped at 5kt
warned that new software eval-
uation requirements could delay
certification of its ultra-long-range
G700 by three to six months.
“Gulfstream is and has been
working closely with the FAA on a
software update for the G500 and
G600 to remove published opera-
tional landing limitations in gusty
wind (>15 knots) conditions,” the
company tells FlightGlobal.
“Company testing of this update
has been completed and we antici-
pate FAA approval and subsequent
deployment later this year.”
The G500, certificated in 2018,
shares technologies with its G600
sister aircraft, which was approved
in 2019.
Gulfstream’s 29 April letter says
the flight manual updates follow
a “hard landing event following
an approach and landing in gusty
winds”. It does not specify the
location or date of the incident, but
calls it “recent”.
“Initial data analysis of the event
indicates the aircraft flight-control
system entered Angle of Attack
(AOA) Limiting Mode at approx-
imately 12ft above ground level
following a series of large, rapidly
alternating pitch stick inputs,” says
the document.
Pilot input
AOA Limiting Mode is a flight-con-
trol mode that can restrict the
aircraft’s response to pilot input,
and command nose-down elevator
input, according to a related video
from Savannah-based Gulfstream.
The revised manual, which was
released on 2 May, specifies that
the G500’s minimum approach
speed “during all approaches”
should be the “reference” landing
speed plus 10kt. Higher speeds re-
quire longer landing distances.
Additionally, the updates call
for pilots to use “auto-throttle
for approach and landing during
normal operations”.
The FAA on 6 May issued an
airworthiness directive (AD) that
requires operators to adopt Gulf-
tream’s manual updates. It says it is
responding to a hard landing that
took place on 4 April.
The National Transportation
Safety Board did not confirm
knowledge of the incident.
Gulfstream’s letter describes the
flight-manual changes as “an interim
mitigation solution until Gulfstream
can implement a flight-control
system software update to modify
the AOA Limiter performance and
remove these new limitations”.
There are strong similarities
between the latest issue and one
that came to light in 2020. On 13
March of that year, the FAA issued
an AD responding to an incident
involving activation of a G500’s
AOA Limiter Mode “during landing
flare in unstable air”.
The pilot had “insufficient
nose-up authority to control the
descent rate at touchdown, even
though the side-stick was in the

32 Flight International June 2022


full aft position”, says the 2020
directive. “The airplane landed in
a 900-feet-per-minute descent,
with resulting damage.”
Unstable air
The AOA Limiter was found capable
of engaging “even when the airplane
is not near a critical angle of attack”,
it adds. “Unstable air, combined
with rapid, large and alternating
pitch commands, contributes to the
alpha limiter engaging at an inap-
propriate time.”
The AD in 2020 required op-
erators to adopt flight manual
changes, prohibiting G500s and
G600s from taking off in cross-
winds exceeding 22kt, including
gusts. It also required that pilots
fly minimum approach speeds 5kt
higher than reference speeds.
Gulfstream addressed
flight-control issue in a video called
“GV-II-G500 Hard Landing Event:
Mitigation Strategies”.
“In this event, the limiter’s in-
itial nose-down elevator input
was larger than that seen during
company and certification testing,
Gulfstream
Manufacturer is developing long-term fix
for angle-of-attack limitation mode
and the recovery to commanded
AOA was slower than that seen
during company certification test-
ing,” Gulfstream director of flight
operations test Todd Abler says in
the video.
Abler instructs pilots to prop-
erly hold the side-stick to avoid
“over-control”.
“Gulfstream has proactively com-
municated with all G500 and G600
owners and is available for any
needed support,” the airframer says.
Globally, 90 G500s and 74 G600s
are in service, according to Cirium
fleets data.
The flight-control issues came
as Gulfstream progresses with
certification of its ultra-long-range
G700, which shares technologies
with the other types.
“The flight-test programme has
the
a first-time requirement that was
not part of our original plan”
Phebe Novakovic Chief executive, General Dynamics
Safety Business jets
Gulfstream executives say certifi-
cation programmes have come un-
der increased scrutiny by the FAA in
recent months, due to new software
evaluation requirements.
By all accounts, the FAA has
proceeded cautiously after flight-
control system malfunctions con-
tributed to two Boeing 737 Max
crashes that killed 346 people.
On 27 April, Phebe Novakovic,
chief executive of General Dynam-
ics, warned that increased software
validation work could delay
certification of Gulfstream’s ultra-
long-range G700 and G800.
Schedule slip
Gulfstream aims to have the G700
in service by year-end, but the new
FAA requirements might delay
that by three to six months, she
says. Likewise, approval of the
G800, which should come six to
nine months after that for its sister
ship, could slip from Gulfstream’s
end-2023 target to 2024.
“The flight-test programme has
a first-time requirement that was
not part of our original plan,”
Novakovic says.
Gulfstream needs to complete
“a line-by-line examination of the
plane’s software”, she adds. “The
level of effort is considerable”.
Gulfstream has not been more
specific, though Novakovic said the
additional work results from “events
that are independent of us”.
The company intends to com-
pensate for G700 delivery delays
by delivering more of its current
in-service jets, says Novakovic.
Gulfstream launched the 7,500nm
(13,900km)-range, 19-passenger
G700 in October 2019. It has started
assembling the first G700 produc-
tion aircraft and expects the type’s
Rolls-Royce Pearl 700 powerplants
will be certificated in the “next few
months”, Novakovic says.
Gulfstream followed the G700
by launching a longer-range
derivative, the G800, in Octo-
ber 2021. The 19-passenger, Pearl
700-powered G800 is about 3m
(9ft 10in) shorter than the G700
and has 8,000nm of range. ◗
June 2022 Flight International 33
 Procurement Surveillance
Wedgetail picked as
AWACS successor
US Air Force announces plan to replace
15 of its aged E-3s with 737-based
system, citing ‘exceptional capability’
US Air Force
during Australian service
Greg Waldron Singapore
T
he US Air Force (USAF) has
formally selected Boeing’s
E-7 Wedgetail to replace
part of its aged E-3 Sentry
airborne warning and control
system (AWACS) fleet.
“The E-7 is the only platform
capable of meeting the require-
ments for the Defense Depart-
ment’s tactical battle management,
command and control and moving
target indication capabilities within
the timeframe needed,” the USAF
said on 26 April.
US President Joe Biden’s budget
request for the 2023 fiscal year
includes $227 million worth of re-
search, development, test and eval-
uation funds for the 737NG-derived
E-7. A contract award is expected in
FY2023 covering the acquisition of
a rapid prototype aircraft, with this
to be delivered during FY2027.
“The notional schedule plans
for a second rapid prototype air-
craft funded in FY2024, and a
34 Flight International June 2022
Service should receive first
prototype in fiscal year 2027
production decision in FY2025
to continue fielding aircraft,” the
USAF says.
The FY2023 budget request out-
lines a plan “to replace a portion”
of the operational AWACS fleet.
This would involve the retirement
of “15 of 31 aircraft, and redirects
funding to procure and field its
replacement”, the service says.
Cirium fleets data shows that the
USAF’s E-3s have an average age
of 43 years, with its oldest airframe
having first flown in 1972.
The USAF has long eyed the E-7
as a potential replacement for its
707-based assets. In early February
it issued a request for information
“The E-7 is the only platform capable
of meeting the requirements for
the Defense Department… within
the timeframe needed”
US Air Force
seeking industry partners to deliver
two production-representative pro-
totypes, plus ground support and
training systems, within five years
of an FY2023 contract award.
Last December, USAF secretary
Frank Kendall said the service was
looking for a stopgap replacement,
to operate until it can develop and
field a space-based successor. This
followed remarks made by USAF
chief of staff General Charles Brown
that it was considering the Wedge-
tail platform, and discussing it with
lead operator the Royal Australian
Air Force, which has six examples.
South Korea and Turkey each
also operate four E-7s, while the
UK Royal Air Force (RAF) has three
of the type on order.
Major investment
Derived from the 737-700 narrow-
body, the E-7 platform features
a Northrop Grumman-developed
MESA active electronically scanned
array radar antenna mounted atop
its fuselage. Pointing to Australia’s
major investment in the technolo-
gy, the USAF describes the system
as offering “exceptional capability”.
The need to replace its E-3s has
received increased emphasis due
to difficulties experienced with
sustaining the aged fleet, which
suffers from substantial obsoles-
cence issues.
In March, Pacific Air Forc-
es commander General Kenneth
Wilsbach revealed that of the four
E-3s under his command, often all
four are unable to get airborne.
“When it gets airborne, those
sensors that we rely on with the
E-3 aren’t really capable in the 21st
century fight, especially against a
platform like the [Chengdu] J-20 or
something similar to that,” he said.
“It just can’t see those platforms far
enough out to be able to provide
an advantage to the shooters.”
France, Saudi Arabia and NATO
also operate the current-genera-
tion E-3 AWACS. The RAF retired
its last examples in 2021, with Chile
acquiring two of the aircraft. ◗

Greg Waldron Singapore
C USAF Global Hawk
rew error and a misunder-
standing of the aircraft’s
control logic led to the
6 August 2021 crash of a
Northrop Grumman RQ-4B Block
40 Global Hawk unmanned air ve-
hicle (UAV), a US Air Force accident
investigation report has concluded.
The $64 million surveillance air-
craft (tail number 08-2035) was de-
stroyed when it came down roughly
5.9nm (10.9km) beyond the runway
at Grand Forks AFB, North Dakota.
Detailing the factors that led to
the loss, the Accident Investigation
Board report says the high-altitude,
long-endurance RQ-4B had tak-
en off on 5 August from the base
to fly a 23h sortie in support of an
exercise. However, at 06:16 local
time the following day, 14h into the
flight, the UAV’s mission control
element workstation locked up.
This development required
that the aircraft return to base
by using an autonomous, pre-
programmed route. At the time of
the lock-up the aircraft was flying
at 54,000ft: some 19,000ft higher
than originally planned owing to a
previous command override.
“However, the aircraft did not
descend as planned, because
the mission control element pilot
failed to sever the ground com-
munications interface with the
RQ-4 before it reached the initial
approach fix,” says the report. “This
initiated the aircraft’s autonomous
missed approach route.”
While the ground control inter-
face was finally cut, this was only
performed after the aircraft had
passed over its final approach
fix. Subsequently, a second crew
Data overload downed
Investigators find landing mishap
was initiated by operator’s requests
overwhelming onboard processor,
compounded by incorrect response
comprising a pilot and instructor
pilot were able to re-establish a
connection with the aircraft. Their
orders were to salvage the flight
and continue the mission.
But the aircraft by this point
was already well into its missed
approach routine. As the Global
Hawk had already passed the final
approach fix for a second time, its
control logic demanded a landing.
Owing to the aircraft’s program-
ming, overriding this final approach
required the provision of an all-new
flight route, but neither the pilot or
instructor were aware of this.
Final approach
“Upon reaching the final approach
fix, the aircraft was approximately
4,000ft too high,” says the report.
“The pilot did not recognise the
aircraft’s altitude deviation or the
approach routing’s associated pre-
programmed logic. Because the pi-
lot did not command another route,
the aircraft continued on its pre-
programmed approach routing and
attempted to land on the runway.
“By the manufacturer’s design,
there were no other go-around/
missed approach route options
Incident involved RQ-4B operating from Grand Forks AFB
Accident Report
programmed in the aircraft’s logic,
therefore, with no further routes
commanded, the aircraft was
committed to its attempt to land.
“The mishap aircraft continued
its second approach, overshot the
airfield, and impacted farmland
6.8 miles north of the runway at
approximately 07:27 local time,” it
states. The UAV was destroyed by
the crash and post-impact fire.
The report records a number of
problems with the flight. It con-
tends that the original lock-up
may have been caused by the
pilot’s overwhelming the aircraft
by submitting seven requests for
detailed status reports within a
1min period. This was immediate-
ly followed by a central processing
unit fatal warning fault, investiga-
tion of the aircraft’s data logs found.
In addition, the mission control
element crew failed to follow pro-
cedures correctly, which delayed
the aircraft’s descent and its
pre-programmed selection of a
go-around/missed approach route.
Finally, the second crew tasked
with saving the mission failed to
make the correct control inputs,
causing the aircraft’s loss. ◗
US Air Force
June 2022 Flight International 35
 Rotorcraft Investigation
Exasperated NTSB hits
out at FAA inaction
Regulator’s failure to push through
long-standing safety recommendations
contributed to fatal Hawaii helicopter
crash, investigators conclude
Pilar Wolfsteller Las Vegas
F
rustrated US accident inves-
tigators have hit out at the
country’s aviation regulator
for failing to implement safe-
ty recommendations that could
have prevented a fatal helicopter
crash in Hawaii in 2019.
Approving a draft report into
the 26 December 2019 accident,
the National Transportation Safety
Board (NTSB) pulls no punches,
noting that it had been propos-
ing the implementation of safety
changes to the Federal Aviation
Administration (FAA) in some
cases for decades.
“When the NTSB issues safe-
ty recommendations, they are
data-driven, supported by factual
evidence developed from investi-
NTSB
gations, and are carefully crafted
to prevent accidents,” says NTSB
chair Jennifer Homendy.
“The NTSB previously made 11
recommendations to the FAA to
prevent accidents like this one, but
our recommendations only work
when they are implemented. It’s
time for the FAA to act.”
Sightseeing flight
The comments were spurred by
the fatal loss of the Airbus Helicop-
ters H125 (N985SA) in late 2019
with the deaths of all seven people
aboard. Operated by commercial
tour operator Safari Aviation, the
light-single crashed on the island
of Kauai during a sightseeing flight
at around 16:57 local time.
The NTSB determined that the
accident was a consequence of
the pilot flying into deteriorating
weather conditions.
The “highly-experienced pilot…
flew into a mountainous region
shrouded in low clouds and fog
and wasn’t able to exit the area
36 Flight International June 2022
NTSB chair Jennifer Homendy says safety
board’s advice needs to be implemented
of limited visibility before he ei-
ther lost control of the helicopter
or flew into rising terrain he wasn’t
able to see”, the NTSB says.
Although weather conditions
had been favourable for most of
the day, shortly before the depar-
ture of the planned 50min flight
“an atypical weather pattern of
low clouds and rain began to move
onshore from the northwest into
areas along the tour route”, says
the investigation. At least three
other air tour pilots diverted their
flights to avoid the low-visibility
conditions, the investigators add.
However, the crash pilot’s deci-
sion to continue flight into deteri-
orating visibility was likely to have
been influenced by several factors,
the NTSB says, including a lack of
up-to-the-minute weather informa-
tion, the unusual weather pattern,
and “by the possibility that he in-
adequately assessed the weather
conditions in flight or was overcon-
fident in his abilities.”
A contributory factor was
Safari Aviation’s lack of safe-
ty management processes “to
identify hazards and mitigate the
risks associated with factors that
influence pilots to continue [visual
flight rules] flight into [instrument
meteorological conditions]”, the
investigators say.
An “organisation-wide safety
management system” could have
“mitigated many of the safety is-
sues” involved in the accident, the
NTSB says, pointing out that it first
recommended the FAA require air
taxi and air tour operators to have
such systems in place in 2016.
“Since the FAA refused to take
such action, the board reiterated
the recommendation for the sixth
time,” it says.
Delayed implementation
In addition, the FAA’s “delayed
implementation” of an aviation
weather camera initiative in Hawaii,
its “lack of leadership in the devel-
opment of a cue-based weather
training programme for Hawaii air
tour pilots, and its ineffective mon-
itoring and oversight of Hawaii air
tour operators’ weather-related
operating practices” were addition-
al contributory factors, the NTSB
says. The recommendation around
weather-related training was made
in 2007, it points out.
Due to a lack of information on
the precise weather conditions en-
countered and the pilot’s response
to them, the NTSB has also repeat-
ed its call – first made in 2013 – for
mandatory installation of flight-da-
ta recorders on air tour helicopters.
In response, the FAA says it has
taken the recommendations seri-
ously. It has recently installed five
weather cameras on three Hawaiian
islands to assist pilots in determin-
ing the meteorological conditions,
with 21 more, across six islands, to
be installed by the end of 2023.
In addition, air tour operators
can apply to participate in a vol-
untary Safety Management System
programme, it says.
“We have rule-making under way
to make these systems a require-
ment,” the FAA adds. “We encour-
age air tour operators to equip
their aircraft with ADS-B and flight-
data recorders, and are exploring
making recorders mandatory.” ◗

Software snag spurs
urgent A350 directive
on elevator control
Airframer also tweaks flight guidance
system for A320-family jets to address
potential go-around pitch-up issue
David Kaminski-Morrow London
O
perators of certain Airbus
A350s have been instruct-
ed to urgently implement
a number of operational
and dispatch restrictions over a
software snag which could lead to
loss of elevator control.
The issue centres on the intro-
duction of a flight-control software
standard, known as X13, on produc-
tion aircraft – and which is available
for retrofit on in-service jets.
According to the European Union
Aviation Safety Agency (EASA),
an occurrence has emerged during
which the primary flight-control
computers indicated that both ele-
vator actuators were faulty.
“Subsequent investigations iden-
tified incorrect instructions had
been implemented with the intro-
duction of the [software] standard,”
it states.
Loss of elevator control
would be a serious con-
dition, and Airbus has
published a temporary
revision to the A350 flight manu-
al as well as the master minimum
equipment list.
These revisions cover aircraft with
the X13 flight-guidance software
standard installed. Both A350-900s
and -1000s are potentially affected.
Interim measure
EASA has issued an emergency di-
rective ordering implementation of
the manual and minimum equip-
ment list revisions within seven
days. It adds that the directive is an
interim measure, and further action
might be necessary.
Airbus has also tweaked the flight
guidance software for A320-fami-
ly jets to address a pitch-up issue
that could occur under certain
circumstances on go-around.
The modification followed an inci-
dent involving an unstable approach
Go-around led to A321neo’s autopilot disconnecting
Safety Updates
Both A350-900s and -1000s
are potentially affected
by an A321neo during which
a go-around was initiated
with the autopilot engaged.
According to EASA, the resulting
pitch-up attitude led the autopilot
to disconnect.
EASA says this was traced to the
combination of take-off thrust be-
ing activated, with the autopilot
engaged, and the jet in a high-lift
configuration, within 50s of full
speedbrake retraction.
Subsequent simulation analysis
indicated that, if some A320-family
aircraft were operated with signifi-
cant aft centre-of-gravity, the pitch
attitude could continue increasing
after the autopilot disengaged.
EASA points out that such a sce-
nario was “never encountered” dur-
ing actual operations. But it says
that the pitch-up situation could
nevertheless result in higher work-
load at a critical point of the flight.
In May 2020 the authority issued
a directive notifying crews, through
a temporary flight-manual revi-
sion, of the condition and adapting
speedbrake procedures.
Airbus has since developed new
flight guidance software standards
and issued installation instructions.
This will enable the removal of
the limitation carried in the flight-
manual revision. EASA is ordering
the upgrade on the affected
aircraft models, which
include A319s and
A320neo-family
variants. ◗
Airbus
June 2022 Flight International 37
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Dominic Perry London

How electric propulsion
“A developer Ampaire
mpaire has been under
the umbrella of news
for other companies for
the last year and a half,
but as a standalone entity, as an
organisation, Ampaire has been
plans to fly solo
doing tremendous things, and
I’d like to have the world see and Collapse of acquisition by Surf Air
acknowledge them,” says the firm’s
co-founder and chief executive Mobility has not deterred US powertrain
Kevin Noertker.
He is not specifically referring to start-up from goal of revolutionising
the now-abandoned acquisition of
the California-based company by regional air transport, as it gears up for
online booking platform Surf Air
Mobility, although that clearly col- flight testing of a converted Cessna
ours his outlook. Instead, Noertker
is justifying why Ampaire has not Grand Caravan and eyes future products
followed the path trodden by other
similar start-ups and attempted to
grab the headlines with details of
blockbuster customer orders.
That is not due to a lack of
commitments, he insists, simply
that the company would rather
attention was instead focused on
its product development.

Making progress
“Even though we do have large
orders, we do have a great supply
chain and we do have OEM rela-
tionships, the news today is about
Ampaire’s competency as an or-
ganisation. Today is about showing
the world the progress we’ve made
through our own volition,” he says.
At present, that progress is the
development of a hybrid-electric

70%
Potential fuel savings for operators
Ampaire

flying short-hop routes with aircraft

Ground runs with hybrid-electric Eco Caravan have started in California
using Ampaire’s hybrid-electric system

powertrain for the Cessna Grand
Caravan, a modification Ampaire re-
fers to as creating the Eco Caravan.
Ground runs of the system have
begun and Ampaire is hopeful
that a first flight will follow in the
second half of the year, eventual-
ly leading to a supplemental type
certificate (STC) and service entry
for the upgrade in 2024.
Ampaire had been eyeing the
Cessna platform virtually since its
founding in 2017, says Noertker, con-
sidering it as a “really ideal launch
product” for “electrified upgraded
planes in this category”.
Detailed analysis of potential
powertrain solutions for the mod-
ification culminated in the fourth
quarter of 2021, leading to the
selection of a parallel, rather than
series, hybrid-electric system.
Noertker says the upgrade will
have a “transformative impact on
[aircraft] operation, both economi-
cally and environmentally”.
Operators flying short-hop routes
– like Scottish regional carrier
Loganair, which last year trialled
Ampaire’s Cessna Skymaster-based
Electric EEL demonstrator – could
make fuel savings of around 70%,
he says, based on the batteries pro-
viding more of the power during the
take-off and climb phases. Those
making longer flights where the air-
craft attains a cruising altitude – be-
tween 50-250 miles (80-400km),
for example – could see savings of
up to 50% across a month of flying.
But because of the parallel hy-
brid architecture, recharging the

38 Flight International June 2022


aircraft’s batteries should not be
required after each flight; Noertker
says this feature – he calls the design
“plug-in optional” – means Ampaire
has “broken the chicken and the
egg cycle of whether the vehicles
come first, or the infrastructure for
the charging comes first”.
This should ensure that any air-
craft converted to run on Ampaire’s
system can access “every single air-
port that’s available” without having
to worry about turnaround times or
ground infrastructure, he says.
“And then as you prove the mar-
ket, as operators fly these routes
and they really see the benefit and
they see the frequency of operation,
then we will roll out the charging in-
frastructure alongside those planes
in those places that need it most.”
This should mean “seamless
integration with existing fleet
“We are building scalable technology
that goes all the way to the Dash 8,
ATR, these types of aircraft”
Kevin Noertker Chief executive, Ampaire
operations”, encouraging the “rapid
adoption and scale of the industry”.
Although the Ampaire powertrain
will be available to existing Grand
Caravan operators as a retrofit, the
now collapsed agreement with Surf
Air had promised something more.
In the months after the February
2021 announcement that it was
acquiring Ampaire, Surf Air struck
a deal with Cessna owner Tex-
tron Aviation to form an “exclusive
relationship” to electrify the Grand
Caravan, and purchase up to 150
examples of the aircraft for conver-
sion with its – for which, read Am-
paire’s – “proprietary hybrid-elec-
tric powertrain technology”.
Retrofit push
Noertker says that although it
“makes sense to work with the
OEMs directly to have a line-fit
variant of their vehicles”, secur-
ing an STC and proving the mar-
ket through conversions for the
existing operator base is a vital first
step; he calls it a “crawl-before-
you-walk-type approach”.
Ampaire has had conversations
with multiple OEMs and type cer-
tificate holders regarding line-fit
solutions, he says, “but the reality
is it all needs to be proven in the
STC, the retrofit, first”.
And while the powertrain itself is
vital, Noertker argues that a compa-
ny’s skill at integration and optimi-
sation will be the differentiator.
Ampaire’s current focus is clearly
on bringing the Eco Caravan modi-
fication to market, but it is already
considering the next project, cover-
ing “19-passenger and larger type
planes, all the way up through ATR”.
Most visibly the company has
highlighted the potential to convert
the De Havilland Canada DHC-6
Twin Otter; Ampaire’s website re-
fers to the project as the Eco Otter
SX, with images showing a distrib-
uted propulsion system using four
motors rather than the standard
twin-turboprop configuration.
Although that particular design
was born out of a NASA-backed
project to explore the scale-up of
the system, Noertker adds: “We
certainly believe that the Eco Otter
is going to be a tremendous prod-
uct and it is in our roadmap.”
He sees the potential for it to
arrive in 2025 or 2026, based on
the maturity of Ampaire’s under-
ling technologies. But further out,
“working with other OEMs we an-
ticipate having even more product
models coming out this decade”.
Noertker declines to go into
detail, but says its small UK oper-
ation is already “working on other
aircraft types”.
No decisions have been taken on
the exact architecture for any future
conversions, he says; any eventual
solution will be driven by the aircraft
and its intended mission profile. For
instance, certain types might see a
“These types of integrations are
very interesting. Our systems [are]
turning propellers today, but what
could they turn tomorrow?”
Kevin Noertker Chief executive, Ampaire
Propulsion Development
sufficiently large performance gain
to justify the cost and complexity
of a more radical approach. “It’s not
the same as dropping it right into
the nose [like the Eco Caravan] but
it’s also not out of the ordinary to
look at rewinging or fresh winging
a plane,” he says.
Although Ampaire has not re-
vealed any orders to date, Noert-
ker says that it has several “LoIs,
framework purchase agreements,
with both established and emerging
airlines” from multiple continents.
These mostly cover the Eco Cara-
van but Noertker says “there is sig-
nificant interest in larger planes as
well”, going from “19-seats and up”.
“We are building scalable tech-
nology… that goes all the way to
the [De Havilland Canada] Dash
8, ATR, these types of aircraft”.
And unlike conversion projects
for those aircraft based around
hydrogen fuel cells, such as those
proposed by Universal Hydrogen
and ZeroAvia, “it’s one that doesn’t
require us to completely transform
our energy economy”.
Windtunnel tests
Ultimately, Ampaire will consider
its own clean-sheet aircraft, says
Noertker. It is already part of anoth-
er NASA research project to per-
form windtunnel tests of a bounda-
ry layer ingested ducted fan design,
which could equip a future aircraft.
Renderings of a model called the
“Tailwind” on Ampaire’s website
feature such an architecture.
“These types of integrations
are very interesting when you
start scaling up to the higher-
performance, higher-power-type
vehicles. And that’s exactly where
we anticipate our systems going:
they’re turning propellers today, but
what could they turn tomorrow?”
But for all that, Noertker insists the
company remains firmly grounded
in the present: “We don’t talk too
much publicly about those futuris-
tic programmes because Ampaire,
at our core, it’s about what we are
doing today,” he says. ◗
June 2022 Flight International 39
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Super Hornet jumps
at Indian navy need
Upcoming shore-based test campaign
involving single-seat F/A-18Es in Goa
will showcase type’s versatility while
operating from smaller vessels,
Boeing executive says
Boeing
Fighter has already performed initial launch tests at NAS Patuxent River
Greg Waldron Singapore
B
oeing is preparing a series
of flight tests in Goa to
demonstrate the take-off
and landing capabilities of
the F/A-18E/F Super Hornet from
Indian aircraft carriers.
Planned for the May-June time-
frame, the activity will see the
company dispatch two US Navy
(USN) F/A-18Es to the Indian navy’s
Shore-Based Test Facility at INS
Hansa near Goa.
Arrested landings
The jets will demonstrate the ability
to take-off using a ski-jump ramp,
and also make arrested landings
on a runway configured to repre-
sent the deck of an Indian carrier,
says Alain Garcia, vice-president
of India business development for
Boeing Defense, Space & Security.
The work will involve a the development of a carrier-
composite team of Boeing and
USN personnel, and different air-
craft configurations such as air-to-
air, air-to-surface and anti-ship will
be demonstrated.
40 Flight International June 2022
New Delhi has a long-running
requirement to acquire 57 new
carrier-capable fighters. Initially, it
is likely to obtain a first tranche of
26 aircraft, of which eight need to
be two-seaters. For the time be-
ing the Indian navy is assessing its
options, and has yet to produce a
formal request for proposals (RFP).
57
Number of carrier-capable fighters
New Delhi seeks to acquire, probably
with an initial tranche of 26 jets
The Super Hornet’s primary rival
for the requirement, the Dassault
Rafale M, reportedly completed a
series of similar tests at INS Hansa
in January. Saab has also proposed
capable version of the Gripen E,
the Gripen Maritime.
Garcia, who formerly flew Super
Hornets for the USN, is confident
that the Boeing type is eminently
suited for India, noting that the
Block III configuration – which is on
the verge of entering US service –
plays an important role in creating
a common tactical picture.
He lists several attributes of the
Block III Super Hornet, such as its
active electronically scanned array
radar, large area displays, ability to
communicate with other platforms,
and open systems architecture.
Integrated approach
Garcia says the type will integrate
well with other US equipment in
use with the Indian navy, such as
the Lockheed Martin/Sikorsky
MH-60R anti-submarine warfare
(ASW) helicopter and Boeing
737-derived P-8I Neptune maritime
patrol and ASW aircraft. Moreover,
a Super Hornet acquisition would
also allow the service to work more
closely with the USN and fellow
Super Hornet operator the Royal
Australian Air Force.
India currently has one oper-
ational aircraft carrier, the INS
Vikramaditya. Derived from the
former Soviet Kiev-class vessel
Baku and with a displacement of

45,400t, it is less than half the size
of the USN carriers from which the
Super Hornet typically operates.
Vikramaditya’s fixed-wing air wing
now comprises 26 RAC MiG-29Ks.
In addition, New Delhi is pre-
paring its first indigenously-built
carrier, the INS Vikrant, for active
service. Its displacement is listed
as 45,000t.
Both Indian vessels are short
take-off but arrested recovery
(STOBAR) ships, equipped a
with ski-jump ramp to assist with
aircraft launch. By contrast, USN
carriers and the French navy’s
Charles de Gaulle are catapult-as-
sisted take-off but arrested recov-
ery (CATOBAR) designs.
Heavy payloads
While CATOBAR carriers are
larger and more complicated, their
deployed aircraft can take off with
heavier payloads than is possi-
ble using the STOBAR method.
They also can launch turboprop-
powered support assets, such as
the Northrop Grumman E-2C/D
Hawkeye airborne early warning
and control aircraft flown by both
the US and French navies.
In the longer term, India could
also develop its own CATOBAR
“They’ll really be able to see how
accurate the Super Hornet is in
its ability to land on any given
flight deck area”
Alain Garcia Vice-president of India business development,
Boeing Defense, Space & Security
vessel using an electromagnet-
ic launch system similar to that
currently being pioneered aboard
the USS Gerald R Ford.
Irrespective of the major differ-
ences between US and Indian air-
craft carriers, Garcia expects the Su-
per Hornet to perform well in Goa.
He notes that the type has already
undergone ski-jump tests at NAS
45,000t
Displacement of the Indian navy’s first
indigenously-built aircraft carrier, the
INS Vikrant, soon set for active service
Patuxent River in Maryland, with the
work performed in late 2020.
In Goa, the Super Hornets will
demonstrate the ability to take off
while carrying two Boeing AGM-84
Harpoon anti-ship missiles, although
India’s provisional requirement
only calls for the carriage of one
anti-ship missile.
Garcia declines to detail the pay-
load penalty that using a ski-jump
versus a catapult will impose on
the Super Hornet, but says the
INS Vikramaditya is currently
operated with embarked MiG-29Ks
US Navy
Requirement Naval fighters
fighter retains the payload capabil-
ity to meet all requirements.
As for recovering aboard an
Indian carrier, Garcia says the
Super Hornet’s Precision Landing
Mode allows for extremely precise
shipboard recovery.
“They’ll really be able to see how
accurate the Super Hornet is in its
ability to land on any given flight
deck area,” he says. “We’re so
confident that we actually told the
Indian navy that we’re more than
happy – if they have an aircraft
carrier parked off the coast of Goa –
to go fly out there and demonstrate
it on the aircraft carrier itself.”
The service has yet to take
Boeing up on this proposal.
Garcia adds that the compa-
ny has provided New Delhi with
considerable analysis of how
Super Hornets would fit aboard
its carriers, both on the flight deck
and in the hangar.
One challenge with both the
Vikramaditya and Vikrant are
their relatively small elevators,
which have been optimised for
the MiG-29. Garcia says that one
advantage the Super Hornet has
over the rival Rafale is the ability to
fold its wings, allowing for an easi-
er elevator fit. Boeing has devised a
way for Indian deck crews to move
the Super Hornet on and off Indian
carrier elevators, he adds.
Combat capable
Garcia also points out that the
Super Hornet’s two-seat version,
the F/A-18F, is fully combat capa-
ble and serves aboard USN carriers.
While air force variants of the Rafale
include a single-seat C and two-seat
B, the carrier-capable Rafale M only
comes as a single-seater.
While the ongoing flight-test work
at Goa suggests that there may be
some traction toward an acquisition
launch, New Delhi’s patchy re-
cord with fighter purchases could
suggest that a final decision is
some years away. Underlining this,
it has yet to issue an RFP for the
naval fighter need, despite having
released a 59-page request for in-
formation linked to the requirement
in early 2017.
Nonetheless, New Delhi’s long-
term ambition to boost its aircraft
carrier capability is clear. The
upcoming Super Hornet tests in
Goa – and what the Indian navy
takes away from them – will mark
an important step toward the
achievement of this vision. ◗
June 2022 Flight International 41
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Dominic Perry London

Where next?
R
esearch and technology
funding through the UK’s UK aerospace research funding body
Aerospace Technology In-
stitute (ATI) will be priori- outlines ‘Destination Zero’ roadmap as
tised across three areas to keep the
sector on track to achieve net-zero focus shifts to clean aviation target
emissions by 2050.
Although “unprecedented” lev-
els of investment will be needed
to hit the industry’s goals, the
government-backed ATI believes
that if successful, UK companies
could increase their share of the
global market for civil aircraft
by 2050, taking 18% of a sector
whose deliveries will be worth an
estimated £200 billion ($250 bil-
lion) by that year.
Sophie Lane, the ATI’s chief
relationships officer, says the docu-
ment is a “high-level strategy”, that
“sets out how we think we should
move towards 2050”.
FlyZero/ATI

Dubbed ‘Destination Zero’, the

strategy identifies three core are-
as of focus: zero-carbon-emission
aircraft technologies; ultra-effi-
cient aircraft technologies; and
cross-cutting enabling technolo-
gies and infrastructure.
Strong potential
Pursuit of all three streams is an
“imperative” for the UK as they are
“interdependent and mutually sup-
portive”, says the ATI; Lane points
out that while several areas offer
strong potential “there are no [com-
plete] solutions as to how best to
achieve sustainable aviation”.
In essence, it is essential to in-
vest in technologies that will drive
greater aircraft efficiency, as these
– the improved engines or wings
– will be deployable in the shorter
term, and, alongside an increase
in the use of sustainable aviation
fuels, will drive around 60% of
the carbon dioxide savings in the
period to 2050.
But, as the strategy outlines,
there is also a simple economic
reason too: “Maintaining progress
on ultra-efficient aircraft technol-
ogies is vital to the UK’s future
zero-carbon-emissions opportu-
nities, as our leading strengths in
wings, propulsion and systems
technologies are the areas that will
see the biggest change and there-
fore competitive threat.”
That also means that many of the
projects that will be funded under
the new strategy will continue work
FlyZero project developed three
concepts, including regional aircraft
that is already ongoing, says Lane.
She adds: “But over the course
of the programme we’ll have the
opportunity potentially to do
some more dictated calls for cer-
tain technologies if we think they
are not being covered adequately
and so looking at getting a good
balance across the portfolio.”
Investment priorities for each
technology area have been defined,
led by three goals: to position the
UK to lead the global aerospace
sector on the path to net zero;
accelerate the adoption of tech-
nologies aligned with a net-zero
ambition through capabilities for
design, manufacture and through-
life support; and secure UK indus-
trial competitiveness.
The ATI estimates that the mar-
ket for ultra-efficient commercial
“Maintaining
progress on
ultra-efficient
technologies
is vital”
Sophie Lane Chief relationships officer,
UK Aerospace Technology Institute
aircraft will be worth £4.3 trillion
over the 2022-2050 period. It sees
a possibility of the UK increasing
its share of the global civil aircraft
market from the 13% it currently
has to almost 18% by 2050 as
fleets are steadily transitioned to
zero-carbon technologies.
“However, achieving this market
growth relies on early and sustained
investment into the development
of zero-carbon, ultra-efficient and
cross-cutting technologies,” the
strategy says.
Risk tolerance
In addition, it warns that in order to
hit the government’s net-zero tar-
gets, UK aerospace firms will have
to “accept more risk within their
technology portfolios to make the
advances that will be needed”.
Key success criteria are laid
out for each technology stream.
For zero-carbon technologies,
the ATI’s goal is to mature “UK
strategic” systems, including a hy-
drogen gas turbine, cryogenic and
heat management fuel systems,
and dry wings. These should be at
technology readiness level (TRL)
6 for ground demonstration by
2025. A route to flight testing such
systems ahead of 2030 along with
international partners should also
be developed.

42 Flight International June 2022


Research into fuel cell systems
for regional aircraft should also be
continued, with the goal of achiev-
ing service entry of a “UK technolo-
gy supported vehicle” by 2030.
In the ultra-efficient workstream,
maturation of an ultra-high-bypass
ratio turbofan engine should see it
brought to TRL 6 “ensuring read-
iness for new commercial aircraft
opportunities with entries into
service from 2030 onwards”.
UK government hopes new body will help deliver on its promises
While the Aerospace Technology
Institute has a clearly defined role,
the UK government has launched
another advisory body to drive
its ambition of becoming a world
leader in green aviation.
Unveiled on 20 April, the Zero
Emission Flight (ZEF) Delivery
Group will be composed of
as-yet undisclosed “aviation
experts” drawn from industry
and government “who will work
together to make zero-emission
flight a reality”.
Sitting under the existing Jet
Zero Council – a cross-industry
advisory forum – it will help
to support the development
Composite wings suitable for
the next-generation of single-aisle
aircraft from 2030 and widebodies
from 2035 will be another priority
area. These should “exploit new
aerodynamic technologies and
high-rate manufacturing and as-
sembly [techniques]”, it says.
And for cross-cutting technolo-
gies, the ATI says the programme’s
success “will be judged by our ability
to meet the ultra-efficient and ze-
ro-carbon milestones” through the
development of “technologies that
dramatically improve the speed and
cost to design, develop, manufac-
ture and support aircraft”.
Unprecedented investment
Noting that action is required now
if the industry is to achieve its
goals, the ATI also points out the
“unprecedented” levels of research,
investment and technology devel-
opment required.
However, it also highlights the
“size of the opportunity”, adding:
“We must work together across
the wider ecosystem to seize
the opportunities presented and
establish the UK aerospace sec-
tor as the global leader for future
sustainable aircraft.
“How successful we are will
depend on how fast and how
aggressively we respond.”
To develop Destination Zero, the
ATI liaised with industry, academia
and the government. In addi-
tion, the work was “informed by
the outputs of the independent
FlyZero feasibility study” which
reported earlier this year and
of zero-emission aircraft and
supporting airport infrastructure
and will also analyse what
changes to the law are required
“so that sustainable flying can
truly become a reality”.
The new group will be chaired
by Rachel Gardner-Poole, who
is currently the chief operating
officer for the Connected Places
Catapult and has previous
experience at the UK Civil
Aviation Authority and the UK
Space Agency.
Participants will be drawn
from across the aviation
industry – including from bodies
representing manufacturing,
Environment Policy
determined “the technical, com-
mercial and economic potential
of large commercial zero-carbon
emission aircraft”.
“The FlyZero project, delivered
over 12 months by a team of more
than 100 specialists, has trans-
formed the ATI and industry’s
understanding of the potential
for zero-carbon emission technol-
ogies,” it says. Outputs included
three concept aircraft, addressing
the regional, narrowbody and mid-
size segments.
Those outputs now need testing,
says Lane: “One of the things we
really learned during the FlyZero
work is that it’s a very good paper
exercise but there’s a huge amount
of validation that needs to be done
with those conclusions.”
Earlier this year, the government
said it would provide £685 mil-
lion to the ATI over the next three
years, having previously confirmed
its support for the body until 2031.
That long-term backing is vital,
says Lane: “That’s incredibly im-
portant: what we need to be able
to do is to show a level of funding,
a sustained commitment from the
government and also from industry.
“As long as we have that, it
allows you to not only invest in the
technology development, but also
ensure that you get the environ-
ment in which that technology can
be adopted, because none of this
happens quickly.”
The first cohort of projects
informed by the new strategy will
be selected during the second half
of the year. ◗
airlines, airports, energy
producers and academia –
“to ensure the membership
provides cross-cutting input to
inform policy makers”, says the
Department for Transport (DfT).
“This will allow consideration
of the complete ZEF ecosystem,
from manufacture to
deployment,” it says.
The DfT says the ZEF Delivery
Group’s role is to “provide advice
to government and the [Jet
Zero Council] on how best to
accelerate the adoption of zero-
emission aircraft in commercial
air transport for passenger and
freight operations”.
June 2022 Flight International 43
 Unmanned systems Demand
Insitu boosts
Asian appeal
ScanEagle deliveries to four new regional operators and
Australian army contract give lift to Boeing’s small UAV unit
Greg Waldron Singapore
I
nsitu Pacific – the Brisbane-based
arm of Boeing’s small unmanned
air vehicle (UAV) unit – believes
its products are well suited for
surveillance work in Southeast
Asia, but says airspace integration
presents a challenge.
Australia’s Department of De-
fence in March announced that it will
acquire 24 Insitu Integrator UAVs to
meet land forces requirements.
“To be back supporting the
army again is a real honour for
us,” says Andrew Duggan, manag-
ing director of Insitu Pacific, who
notes that the company has done a
considerable amount of work with
the Australian military in the past.
“The army is going to keep this
platform for an extended period.
We’re very keen to make sure that
it stays relevant technological-
ly,” he says. Deliveries are due in
2023-2024.
The company also has been
delivering a combined 34 Scan-
Eagle UAVs to Indonesia, Malaysia,
the Philippines and Vietnam via the
US government’s Maritime Security
Initiative, announced in mid-2019.
Duggan tells FlightGlobal that
deliveries have gone well, despite
the challenges presented by the
Covid-19 pandemic.
Duggan says the ScanEagle is
particularly well suited for use in
“You can sell the best UAV in the
world, but if a customer can’t fly it
because of an inability to get into
airspace it’s a waste of money”
Boeing
Andrew Duggan Managing director, Insitu Pacific
44 Flight International June 2022
regional maritime chokepoints
because of its long endurance
and small size; typically operating
below the cloud layer, at between
2,500-5,000ft.
The UAV relies on its Vidar
passive sensor, which produc-
er Sentient claims is the world’s
first optical radar. Vidar is capable
of searching broad swathes of
ocean to pick out boats and other
objects in the water, such as peo-
ple or buoys.
Domain awareness
“The fact that you put [this] ca-
pability on something of that size
and send it out there for 12-plus
hours, really gives you the abil-
ity to sit and stare at a particular
strait, island chain or reef, to get
the maritime domain awareness
that these countries really need to
understand what’s going on in their
exclusive economic zones,” he says.
Alternatively, the ScanEagle or
larger Integrator can act as a relay
if equipped with a communica-
tions payload, or carry electronic
warfare packages.
“You don’t have to fixate on the
aircraft, and probably shouldn’t
fixate on the airframe,” Duggan
says. “It’s more around what
payload is necessary for the mis-
sion. You need multiple different
aircraft out there doing different
things. And what’s the effect you’re
trying to generate?”
Canberra will take
24 Integrator air
vehicles from 2023
Duggan reckons there are about
40-60 Insitu UAVs flying in the
Asia-Pacific region currently, but
stresses that it is more accurate
to think of systems comprised of
multiple assets.
One challenge he sees in South-
east Asia is airspace integration,
due to the region’s extensive
commercial air traffic, which he
believes creates artificial con-
straints on governments enjoying
the full capability offered by UAVs.
“You can sell the best UAV in
the world, but if a customer can’t
fly it because of an inability to get
into airspace then it’s a waste of
money,” he notes.
Insitu is working on ways to inte-
grate small UAVs into busy airspace,
with the ultimate goal of making
air traffic controllers feel the same
level of comfort as when they deal
with manned aircraft. In addition
to transponders, unmanned assets
will need to gain sense-and-avoid
system capability.
Duggan expects this to be a long
journey, with industry and militaries
in the region working closely with
civilian regulators.
Meanwhile, Insitu is working on a
vertical take-off and landing kit for
the Integrator, and plans to shed
more light on the update – which
offers increased operational flex-
ibility for an endurance penalty –
during the 10-12 May Indo-Pacific
defence show in Sydney.
“For certain missions, where
you’ve got the space and the capac-
ity to do so, the [current rail] launch-
er and the [recovery] skyhook is the
way to go,” Duggan says. “You get
the maximum endurance out of the
aircraft, and you’re able to load it up
with sensors and fuel, as opposed
to batteries and props that you’re
only going to use at the start and
finish of the mission.” ◗

Harbour Air plans first flight of
certifiable electric Beaver by 2023
Seaplane operator presses ahead with modification
programme but supply chain issues slow progress
Dominic Perry London
C
anadian regional operator
Harbour Air will not begin
flight testing a certifia-
ble version of its modified
electric-powered seaplane until
late 2023, blaming supply chain
issues and a revised development
process for the delay.
Harbour Air is converting a
1955-built De Havilland Canada
DHC-2 Beaver to run on battery
power, replacing the existing Pratt
& Whitney R-985 Wasp Junior
powerplant with a Magnix electric
propulsion unit (EPU).
A proof-of-concept aircraft
(C-FJOS) first flew in December
2019 and the carrier began con-
verting a second example (C-FIFQ)
to serve as a certification platform
for the electrification in Decem-
ber last year at its facilities near
Vancouver, British Columbia.
Although Harbour Air had pre-
viously expressed an ambition to
begin passenger flights using the
electric aircraft this summer, that
timeline has now shifted.
In an update posted on its web-
site, the airline says that as part of
the critical design review process
held in March along with its project
partners, the decision has been
taken to build the certification
prototype in two phases.
Harbour Air hopes to complete
the first step of its conversion pro-
cess by year-end, allowing ground
runs and system tests to take place.
Once this activity is finalised, cer-
tain components will be replaced
with certifiable versions, enabling
flight testing to start in late 2023.
Supply chain challenges are also
an issue: Harbour Air says shortag-
es of electronic components are a
particular problem, with lead times
of up to 25 weeks in some cases.
Modification work
In the meantime, refurbishment of
the aircraft’s fuselage continues in
order to ready it for the modifica-
tion work; Harbour Air’s distinctive
yellow “ePlane” livery should be
applied by the end of May.
Design tweaks to the EPU and en-
ergy storage system are also being
implemented to ensure an optimum
fit. Harbour Air is holding week-
ly meetings with Magnix to move
towards design freeze on the EPU.
Flight testing using the proof-of-
concept aircraft is continuing, says
the operator; glide performance
testing and low-power climbs are
envisaged for the coming weeks.
Harbour Air intends to vali-
date the modification through a
Aircraft Conversion
Proof-of-concept aircraft
first flew in December 2019
AirTeamImages
supplemental type certificate. Last
December the carrier said it had
held “preliminary” meetings with
Transport Canada which provided
“the basis of certification neces-
sary to approve this conversion”.
USA-based Magnix will certificate
its 640kW (850shp) Magni650 EPU
via the Federal Aviation Administra-
tion, which classifies the system as
an aircraft engine. Battery provider
H55 – a spin-off from the Solar Im-
pulse project – will meanwhile seek
European regulatory approval.
Harbour Air is also analysing “the
unique charging stations that our
infrastructure will require” over the
next 10 years, in conjunction with
consultancy LA Energy.
“LA Energy will liaise with us,
[electricity provider] BC Hydro, the
Vancouver Harbour Flight Centre
and any other stakeholders to
manage the charging infrastruc-
ture changes necessary,” it says.
While serving the cities of Van-
couver and Victoria, Harbour Air’s
route network also encompasses
many more remote locations across
British Columbia, potentially requir-
ing different charging solutions.
Harbour Air says the converted
aircraft will be capable of carrying
four passengers and a pilot on
flights of around 30min with a
30min reserve. ◗
June 2022 Flight International 45
 Airline Fleet
More than half of
Emirates A380s
back in service
Evren Kalinbacak/Shutterstock
Carrier forecasts return to profit in current financial year as
recovering demand boosts its utilisation of double-deck type
David Kaminski-Morrow London
M
iddle Eastern carrier Emir-
ates had returned more
than half of its Airbus
A380 fleet to service by
the end of the financial year in
March, having already restored full
Boeing 777 operations.
Passenger seat capacity for the
company over the period was 56%
down on pre-crisis levels, according
to its full-year figures.
Emirates has a total of 118 A380s,
after receiving its final five in 2021,
including the last of the type ever to
be produced.
After phasing out a 777-300ER
during the year, as well as a 777
Freighter, the airline retains a fleet of
262 jets including 124 777-300ERs,
10 777-200LRs and 10 777Fs.
The company states that it has
extended operating leases on 12
aircraft, most of which were due to
retire this year.
Emirates says it has taken the step
as it “anticipates delays” in new air-
craft deliveries. Boeing has been
experiencing difficulties with 787
deliveries and has also pushed back
the 777X’s entry into service.
But Emirates adds that its order
backlog “remains unchanged at
this time”. The airline has 197 air-
craft yet to be delivered.
46 Flight International June 2022
These include 115 777X models
and 30 787-9s, as well as 50 A350-
900s and a pair of 777Fs. It has
obtained committed offers to fund
the 777Fs, due for delivery this year,
through Islamic finance leases.
“Despite the challenging environ-
ment, Emirates remains optimistic
about the increase in long term
travel demand,” the company says.
It adds that confidence in its busi-
ness model and mid- to long-term
prospects are reflected in the “no-
table” support it has received from
lessors and financing partners.
Repaying loans
Over 2021-2022 the company raised
Dhs9.7 billion ($2.6 billion) in financ-
ing through loans, revolving credit
and short-term trade facilities. Emir-
ates says it has repaid Dhs4.5 billion
of a total Dhs17.5 billion raised dur-
ing the pandemic crisis.
But the airline group received a
Dubai government capital injection
of Dhs3.5 billion during the finan-
cial year, on top of Dhs11.3 billion in
government aid the year prior.
For the 12 months ended 31
March, the group turned in a loss
of Dhs3.8 billion. However, it is ex-
pecting to return to profitability in
the current financial year.
Emirates Airline generated a loss
of Dhs3.9 billion but this was a
considerable improvement on the
previous year’s deficit of more than
Dhs20 billion, and the carrier was
profitable in the second half with a
surplus of Dhs1.9 billion.
Ground-handling division Dnata
managed to make profit, with a full-
year figure of Dhs110 million – re-
versing last year’s Dhs1.8 billion loss.
Emirates Group says that, along
with the capital injection, it obtained
relief amounting to nearly Dhs800
million from industry support pro-
grammes during 2021-2022.
The company’s revenues over the
year – during which the United Arab
Emirates marked its 50th anniversa-
ry, and hosted the Expo 2020 show
in Dubai – reached Dhs66.2 billion.
“We expect the group to return
to profitability in 2022-23, and are
working hard to hit our targets,”
says chief executive Sheik Ahmed
bin Saeed Al-Maktoum.
But he adds that the company
is “keeping a close watch” on fuel
prices and inflation, political uncer-
tainty, and the pandemic.
Emirates Group has been recall-
ing furloughed staff and recruiting
new personnel, and its workforce in-
creased to 85,200 at the year-end –
although this was still 20% down on
the immediate pre-crisis level.
Al-Maktoum says the year was
“not just about restoring our ca-
pacity, but also augmenting our
future capabilities as we rebuild”. ◗
 Visit FlightGlobal Premium for all the latest aviation news and insight FlightGlobal.com

US carrier Southern Airways Express ordered

Tecnam

two Tecnam P2012 Travellers, and plans to take

another four of the nine-passenger type

Best of the rest

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

Australia and Japan conducted air-to-air

refuelling flights with their Airbus Defence &
Space A330 tanker and Mitsubishi F-2 fleets
US Marine Corps

The US Marine Corps’ Sikorsky CH-53K King

Stallion made its first operational flight,
from MCAS New River in North Carolina

48 Flight International June 2022

 Highlights

Hungary will field a dozen Aero Vodochody L-39NGs from 2024:

eight for training and four employed as surveillance assets

Lufthansa is acquiring seven Boeing

777-8 freighters, making it the first
European operator to commit to
the in-development model

Aero Vodochody
Omnipol Group is to take full ownership of L-410 producer
Aircraft Industries, by acquiring a 51% stake from Russia’s UGMK

BillyPix

Boeing

Embraer

Embraer launched its E-Jet passenger-to-freighter programme, with

the airframer to convert 10 E190s for lessor Nordic Aviation Capital

June 2022 Flight International 49

 July’s issue

Next month
As the
Farnborough
air show nears,
we focus on On sale
industry’s UK 30 June
spectacular

Power shift Fighting fit

How UltraFan Four years
Wirestock Creators/Shutterstock

development after its

is helping launch, can
to propel Tempest
BAE Systems
Rolls-Royce

Rolls-Royce’s hit target

transformation for partners?

50 Flight International June 2022

Wang An Qi/Shutterstock
Hamburg will be the first chance seat manufacturers have had in
three years to show their latest products to the market in person
Murdo Morrison Cwmbran & Kilkeel
F
or aircraft seating manufacturers the past two
years have been anything but a comfortable
ride. The grounding of commercial aviation
in 2020 saw heavyweights such as Collins,
Recaro and Safran drastically scale back production.
Meanwhile, for some start-ups that had ventured
into the market in the booming second half of the
past decade, the orders drought threatened their
very existence.
Seating suppliers have two main sources of
revenue. The lucrative supplier furnished equipment
segment is when aircraft manufacturers list a seat as
exclusive or an option on new aircraft, or an airline –
usually one with significant buying power – is able to
negotiate to have a unique, bespoke seat designed
for its premium cabin.
However, for many seat makers, retrofit – often
when an older airliner changes hands and is
refurbished – is the easiest route in for start-up
suppliers. The approval process from the aircraft
manufacturer is simpler and it is a more cost-effec-
tive option for smaller carriers. But both parts of the
market ground to a near halt from March 2020.
Yet, in the same way troubled airlines were able to
hunker down and sit out the Covid-19 crisis, so the
seating sector has seen vendors survive and emerge
bruised but confident of a swift recovery. Almost
all are keen to show off products that have been up
to three years in gestation at Hamburg’s Aircraft
52 Flight International June 2022
Interiors Expo (AIX), returning for the first time
since April 2019 on 14-16 June.
There is even a new name in seating, despite the
sector’s notoriously high entry barriers. Unum is the
brainchild of Chris Brady, who was chief executive for
more than a decade of the now Chinese-run economy
seating firm Acro. He set up Unum in late 2019 after
being released from a non-compete agreement with
Acro’s new owners.
However, the one-time Virgin Atlantic manager
has no intention of taking on his former employer
and others in the high-volume economy segment.
Instead Unum will try its chances in the higher-
margin but extremely competitive business class
space, where suppliers work for years to design
and finesse products that meet the exacting brand
requirements of premium airlines.
Growing opportunity
Long-haul is also the part of the market that suffered
most during the crisis and faces the lengthiest recov-
ery. However, Brady is undaunted. He sees a growing
opportunity for retrofit business on older widebodies,
particularly the Airbus A330, which he describes as
“underserved” by the major seating manufacturers.
The segment, he says, also has fewer competitors.
The company’s introductory lie-flat seat –
developed with design consultancy Acumen
– is intended to sit in an outward herringbone
configuration with direct aisle access. And, while
Brady says it has been shaped with comfort in mind
and will be “competitive” with leading products in

It has been all about survival for seating
manufacturers during the pandemic. But with
travel and orders ramping up again, they face new
challenges as they prepare for their return to AIX
Recovery
position
the market such as Safran’s Optima, he admits the
product is not “ground-breaking”.
Instead, Unum – which plans to establish a
production site in Crawley, near London Gatwick
airport – will set out its stall based on reliability of de-
livery. During the pre-Covid period, the rapid ramp-up
of airliner production caught many established seating
manufacturers on the hop, and the sector got a repu-
tation for late deliveries. “It lost its agility,” says Brady.
While the pandemic and Boeing’s well-document-
ed programme troubles have turned that situation
on its head, he insists smaller airlines, with less
commercial clout, will consider disruptive start-up
suppliers. “Turbulence is great for the entrepreneur.
Our offering will be as much about good service,”
he says, adding that Unum has modest market share
aspirations of around 2%.
Brady is raising funds – he has secured £1 million
($1.25 million) and needs another £4 million to take
the business to the production stage. There is still no
launch order. However, Unum is exhibiting at AIX and
“Without the benevolence
of our shareholders, we
would not be here. They
kept us going”
Ben McGuire Chief executive, Mirus Aircraft
Interiors Seating
Brady says that if a customer comes on board by the
end of this year, the company could be generating
revenue by mid-2025 with a break-even production
target of 18 to 20 seats per month.
While Unum had the advantage of having few
overheads when Covid-19 struck, the timing could
not have been worse for fellow start-up Mirus Air-
craft Seating. Mirus set up near Norwich in the UK in
late 2017 after securing a launch order from AirAsia
for 100,000 of its Hawk economy seats, as line fits
and retrofits on the Malaysian carrier’s existing and
on-order fleet of A320s and A330s.
Sudden brake
Bolstered by a second order from leisure airline TUI
to retrofit the Hawk seat to Boeing 767s, by the start
of 2020 Mirus was gearing up to produce 3,000 seats
per year. However, the pandemic put a sudden brake
on its plans. While AirAsia did not cancel orders,
“everything was pushed to the right”, says chief
executive Ben McGuire. The young company was
forced to halve its 120-strong workforce.
While being a start-up helped “as we had no cost of
stock”, the dramatic slowdown in revenues created a
cash crisis. “Without the benevolence of our share-
holders, we would not be here. They kept us going,”
admits McGuire. The company is now rehiring staff
as production restarts. “We are coming out the other
end stronger,” he says.
Evidence of that is clear from a visit to its factory
in the Norfolk village of Hingham. A dynamic test
facility, featuring a 30m (98ft) test sled, is due to
June 2022 Flight International 53
 open in July. It will avoid Mirus having to outsource
to third-party labs where lead times are long, and
will speed up product development. It will also be
“a statement to customers and OEMs that we are a
serious player”, suggests McGuire.
Boosted by a third customer, whose identity McGuire
will not reveal beyond saying it is “Middle Eastern”,
the company aims to produce around 4,000 seats this
year. That is well below where it had hoped to be by
now when the business was launched, but McGuire
expects production to double each year until “we are
close to capacity in the 30,000s”.
Also helping to achieve that target could be the
company’s latest product, Kestrel. Mirus unveiled
an “early prototype” at AIX 2019 and is showing the
finished design – a lightweight, “hybrid composite”

Mirus Aircraft Seating

fixed-back seat – at this year’s show, with a view to
launching production in the second half of 2023. This
will happen regardless of whether or not Mirus has
Everything was ‘pushed to the right’
secured a launch order by then, McGuire says.
during
Tem. EtCovid,
occussays Mirus’s
reperro Ben McGuire
reresed eostruptus voluptium esequidit,

Economic rival
Arguably Mirus’s biggest rival in economy is Recaro.
In common with its peers, the privately-owned
German company has yet to rebound fully from the
crisis – sales of just under €270 million ($285 mil-
lion) in 2021 were down on the previous year, but
that was largely due to a strong first quarter in 2020.
Deliveries of almost 60,000 seats were slightly up on
2020, but just 40% of the 2019 figure.
However, chief executive Mark Hiller sees strong
signs of market recovery. “We have rock-solid
programmes, and have had no cancellations from
customers,” he says. “Demand is picking up from
Crucial to those ambitions is its new research and
development centre at its Schwaebisch Hall main site
in south-west Germany, which opened last autumn.
The €50 million investment is intended to cut the
risks and costs of outsourcing testing. “It speeds up
feedback loops,” says Hiller. “It also shows customers
and partners the expertise we have in-house. It is the
pride of our engineers.”
In addition, Recaro has spent €3 million
refurbishing a final assembly line at Schwaebisch

a passenger point of view, and business trips are
coming back. We have been getting new [requests
for quotes].”
The one area Hiller believes will be substantially
slower is long-haul, with the sector further depressed
by hitches to Boeing’s 787 and 777X programmes.
Recaro entered the business-class market in earnest
late last decade, with Hiller stating in 2019 that it was
the company’s intention that it could be the leader in
this area – as well as economy – within 10 years.
“That is still our plan,” he says, noting “addition-
al wins in recent months”, including a retrofit deal
from an unnamed major airline. Last September,
Air China became launch customer for the CL6720
business-class seat for its A350s, with an order for
10 shipsets. “There are fewer programmes in this
segment,” admits Hiller, “but revenues [per unit] are
10 times higher than in economy.”
“Certifications are
complex, and there is a lot
of competition from niche
and big players – the same
ones are still there in a
market now half the size”
Mark Hiller Chief executive, Recaro
730
Number of employees at Collins’ seating factory in Kilkeel,
Northern Ireland – the world’s largest aircraft seating plant
Hall for premium products. Hiller admits breaking
into business class will not be easy. “We need to do
it step by step,” he says. “Certifications are complex,
and there is a lot of competition from niche and big
players – the same ones are still there in a market
now half the size.”
While the business-class segment is very much part
of Recaro’s long-term plans, the rapidly recovering
economy market remains its core activity. One of its
most recent deals has been with established customer
Etihad Airways, which introduced Recaro’s long-haul
CL3710 seat to service in April on its A350-1000s.
Recaro has also been pitching at another niche
market, regional jets, with KLM last year selecting its
BL3710 and lighter SL3710 offerings for its subsidiary
Cityhopper’s 132-seat Embraer E195-E2s. It was the
company’s first regional aircraft contract, and was
selected as a buyer-furnished option in preference to
“preferred” original-fit seating supplier Safran.
“The regional market is not big volume for us, but it
is important for us as a supplier to be able to deliv-
er across an airline’s range and offer commonality,”

54 Flight International June 2022


says Hiller, who also hopes to secure future deals on
A220s. “We want to be seen as a specialist in all areas
of seating, so this kind of diversification is vital.”
Collins’ seating factory is by far the biggest
employer in the Northern Ireland coastal town of
Kilkeel and is one of the reasons that the province
has become a world centre of excellence for aircraft
seating. Premium specialist Thompson Aircraft
Seating is based an hour’s drive away in Portadown
and there is an extensive local supply chain that
feeds off both businesses.
Cultural history
Collins’ factory was established in the late-1960s
as Aircraft Furnishing and was bought by US
interiors specialist B/E Aerospace in 1993, before
that business’s absorption into Rockwell Collins and
eventually Raytheon-owned Collins Aerospace. While
the workforce has shrunk from its 2019 peak of more
than 1,000, 730 employees remain, making Kilkeel the
world’s largest aircraft seating plant.
With second- and even third-generation staff among
them, the “culture is unlike any I’ve seen elsewhere in
the industry”, notes the factory’s managing director
Stuart McKee. Good access to road, air and sea infra-
structure, despite Kilkeel’s semi-rural location, coupled
with support from Northern Ireland’s devolved govern-
ment are major advantages, he adds.
Collins economy and premium seats are assembled
at Kilkeel, which, along with two sites in North Carolina
make up its seating business. Key lines produced at
Interiors Seating
the Northern Ireland plant include Finnair’s distinctive
“fixed shell” seat, unveiled as its business-class prod-
uct on A350s and A330s in March, and developed by
Collins with design house PriestmanGoode.
The idea behind the Air Lounge seat, deliveries
of which began earlier this year, is to remove many
of the seat mechanisms and replace them with a
rigid, curved structure that, nevertheless, provides
a similar amount of personal space to a tradition-
al business-class seat. Like the rest of the Finnair
business-class cabin, the seat is influenced by Nordic
themes and luxury hotel furniture, says Collins.
Mark Vaughan, vice-president of aircraft seating
for Collins, admits the premium segment is more
sluggish than economy, and says that “how nimble
and agile you can be” will be a differentiator between
suppliers as the market revives. With a hiatus in cabin
innovation through the pandemic, airlines are keen to
come back with strong products to entice returning
travellers, he says.
Carriers with older legacy fleets are looking hard
at retrofits to keep their brand appeal current, he
suggests. Another trend is the rise in longer flights
on narrowbodies, with airlines “pushing the cabin in
different directions in a smaller space” rather than
relying on the traditional business-class seating found
on a US domestic service.
Northern Ireland’s other seating suppli-
er is Thompson, now part of Chinese-run Avic
Cabin Systems, along with Bournemouth-based
monument specialist AIM Altitude. The all-premium
Etihad has introduced
Recaro’s long-haul CL3710
Recaro
seat on its A350-1000s
June 2022 Flight International 55
 manufacturer made the unusual move of launching
into the premium market, initially as a design house,
before moving into manufacturing and delivering its
first Vantage seats to Brussels Airlines in 2012.
“Market entrants traditionally start at the back
but we went in at the deep end,” says Andy Morris,
vice-president commercial. Thompson endured two
tough years even before Covid-19 struck, and had to
be bailed out by its parent company. However, the firm
is now “re-entering a growth phase and scaling for
growth”, says Morris, with forecast deliveries of 580 to
600 seats this year.
Fresh innovation
Thompson’s factory is certainly bustling again and,
despite the financial challenges, the firm has been in-
vesting in innovation. Last year, US airline JetBlue Air-
ways unveiled the company’s Vantage Solo – claimed
to be the first lie-flat product designed for narrowbod-
ies – as the centerpiece of its revamped Mint business
class product on A321LRs flying transatlantic routes.
The herringbone product, which has a 33in pitch,
comes, unusually, with a suite door – the first busi-
ness-class seat to have such a feature on an Airbus
narrowbody – and offers direct aisle access, claims
Thompson. JetBlue flies them in a 24-seat, 12-row
configuration on European services, while its New York
to Los Angeles route has them in a 16-seat layout.
New at this year’s AIX is the Vantage Duo, a reclin-
ing version of Thompson’s flagship product aimed at
customers flying mid-haul routes who want a greater
cabin density than lie-flat seats provide, but with the
Unum’s business-
Unum
class seat concept
56 Flight International June 2022
same comfort and privacy afforded by the Vantage
Solo, says Morris. He explains: “Our aim was simple –
greater comfort in the same space.”
The UK’s third big seating manufacturer is Safran,
whose factory in Cwmbran, Wales, specialises in
premium products. It was originally the main site
of Contour, which was acquired by Zodiac in 2012.
Zodiac was absorbed in 2018 by the giant French
aerospace group, with the purchase including
Zodiac’s other plants in France and the USA, which
make economy and premium economy products.
Like her counterparts, Victoria Foy, chief executive of
Safran Seats GB, concedes that the widebody market
has “not woken up” as much as single-aisle post-
Covid, but “we are starting to see opportunities again”.
She says that Safran spent much of the 2020-2021 cri-
sis focusing on new programmes “for the 2023-2024
timeframe”, some of which will be previewed at AIX.
While the pandemic disrupted output, Foy
says that, despite two order cancellations, “we
“Market entrants
traditionally start at the
back but we went in at
the deep end”
Andy Morris Vice-president commercial,
Thompson Aircraft Seating
 Interiors Seating

Safran’s Foy is keen to get in

front of customers at Hamburg
“We took the opportunity
to prepare for the ramp-
up by streamlining the
FALs, investing in digital
tools, and managing our
supply chain"
Victoria Foy Chief executive, Safran Seats GB

supply chain. Boeing felt this had become strained

during its ramp-up preceding the 737 Max grounding
and the pandemic. Boeing had already bought in June
2019 Californian company Encore, which makes the
Lift economy seat – the business transferred to Adient
Aerospace control later that year.
Of course, this was before the Max crisis and the
pandemic, which along with problems with the 787
programme has reduced Boeing’s need to broaden
its seating supplier base. However, with demand for
seating stepping up again, the question the sector
faces is whether, after two years of slowdown, it can
keep up with renewed demand.
As Vaughan at Collins
remarks: “We have con-
tinued to invest in new
products, and some of the
Safran

things we have done in

the past two years have

600
been among our most
complex projects. But the
biggest challenge we have
is managing our supply
chain. Being able to inno-
vate is important, but now
we also have to deliver.”
Deliveries forecast by Thompson Aircraft Seating this year,
as firm ‘re-enters growth phase’ following the pandemic Logistical pressures
A suspicion that the sector
will return to its old ways
never stopped the final assembly lines [FALs]” and of lapsed deadlines as
continued to deliver, albeit at much slower rates than demand ramps up, frustrat-
Thompson Aircraft Seating

in 2019. “We took the opportunity to prepare for the
ramp-up by streamlining the FALs, investing in digital
tools, and managing our supply chain,” she says.
Another seat manufacturer that emerged just before
the pandemic is Adient Aerospace, majority owned
by Boeing with automotive seating specialist Adient
as co-shareholder. In 2020, the company said it was
pressing ahead with development of a lie-flat busi-
ness-class seat for narrowbodies called Aspect, that it
had intended to show at that year’s postponed AIX.
The company’s first widebody business-class prod-
uct, Ascent, which was presented at AIX 2018 for the
first time, is flown by Qatar Airways and Hawaiian
Airlines on their 787-9s. Interestingly, Adient is the
second business-class seat provider to the Doha air-
line, which uses Collins Super Diamond product in its
787-8s and (currently grounded) A350s, respectively.
The launch of Adient Aerospace was a response to
the need by Boeing to gain back some control of its
ing smaller airlines without
purchasing muscle, is
what the likes of Unum are
banking on. But no matter
how efficient factories and
Thompson’s Vantage Duo
management are, small and
large vendors alike will be
subject to the same supply chain pressures over the
next few years – from shortages of raw materials and
rising prices to logistical complications resulting from
China’s zero-Covid policy.
For now, however, the emphasis is on anticipat-
ing what the designers and engineers have been
developing during AIX’s long absence – that, and
meeing face to face again. For Safran’s Foy, this
will be her first Hamburg show – she switched from
another Safran unit in January 2020. “I can’t wait to
get in front of customers,” she says. “The energy and
excitement in my team is incredible.” ◗

June 2022 Flight International 57

 After years of determined work by campaigners
and following recent design innovations from
industry, in-cabin access for wheelchair users finally
looks set to become a reality

Wheels in
motion
Kerry Reals London

C
ampaigners who have fought for years to
make air travel more accessible to wheelchair
users are finally starting to see some light at
the end of what has been a very long tunnel.
Last September, a report mandated by the US
Congress concluded that wheelchair securement
systems inside the cabins of commercial aircraft were
technically feasible. Hot on the heels of the report’s
release, two promising concepts to enable wheelchair
users to bring their own wheelchairs on board and
remain seated in them for the duration of their flights
Air 4 All

were unveiled. Both made the shortlist for this year’s

Crystal Cabin Awards.
One is the Air 4 All concept, put forward by a
UK-based consortium made up of design company
PriestmanGoode, airworthiness approval specialist
SWS Certification and aviation accessibility campaign
group Flying Disabled.
Adapted seating
Air 4 All’s patented idea uses an attachment mecha-
nism similar to ISOFIX/LATCH systems in cars, the idea
being that a wheelchair can be mechanically latched
into place during flight. The initial design is aimed at
narrowbody aircraft and involves converting front
row seats, in a two-by-two configuration, by installing
a guidance and locking system for up to two wheel-
chairs. When such access is not required, the seats can
be flipped down and used as regular seating.
“The main goal was to use the same footprint that a
front row, business class on a narrowbody would use,”
says PriestmanGoode design director Daniel MacInnes.
Air 4 All’s system uses flip-up seats and a locking mechanism
“The goal was not to use up any more space in the
cabin and to really just stick with that pitch.”
The two seats are housed in a fixed shell that “cra-
dles the wheelchair” when the seat is folded up, but
“when the seats are in the down position, it looks just
like a traditional business-class seat”, MacInnes says.
“The rest of the shell where it wraps around, on
the back of it you can either have monitors in there
or upper storage – anything that an airline would
want to replicate what the passengers behind
are being offered. So it makes everybody feel like
they’ve got a product and nobody’s being short-
changed,” he adds.
Flying Disabled founder Chris Wood says that when
he first saw the Air 4 All design, “my jaw dropped”.
Wood founded the charity almost 30 years ago when
he saw first-hand the difficulties faced by disabled

58 Flight International June 2022


air passengers while travelling with his two children,
both of whom are wheelchair users.
“I’ve seen many designs over the years and many
ideas, but none of them have really had a certification
champion and a design champion, and in SWS and
PriestmanGoode I’m standing on the shoulders of
giants,” says Wood.
The consortium is working on the concept with
the subsidiary of an undisclosed major airline, which
Wood says is “building it and funding it”. The project
has moved from the “MDF mock-up” phase into a
second stage, with a third – “a working prototype”
– expected later this year, says Wood. That will be
followed by certification.
Precision engineering
“We’re hoping in the next couple of years, it will fly,”
says MacInnes. “The engineering team that we’re
working with is trying to make sure that those unique
items are certifiable, and I think most probably to-
wards the middle to the end of this year we’ll be work-
ing with the authorities to introduce them to it and
make sure we’ve covered all of those key points that
the FAA [Federal Aviation Administration] and EASA
[European Union Aviation Safety Agency] will require.”
The Air 4 All concept’s patent drawings are
based on manual wheelchairs, but the consortium
is working with wheelchair manufacturer Sunrise
Medical to design a powered wheelchair that could
be fixed into the space.
“We’re looking at a fixing system that would be-
come a universal fixing point for anybody that needs
to lock their wheelchair [into place],” notes MacInnes.
The second such concept to be shortlisted for an
award is the Fly Your Wheels Suite, designed by
Interiors Accessibility
Canuplus/Shutterstock
Disability activists have long fought to make air
travel more accessible for wheelchair users
researchers and students at Wichita State University’s
National Institute for Aviation Research, in collabora-
tion with Collins Aerospace and wheelchair secure-
ment systems manufacturer Q’Straint.
This concept is also initially aimed at narrowbody
aircraft but unlike Air 4 All, it does not require the
modification of any seat rows. Instead, space for a
wheelchair would be created by modifying the closet
towards the front of the cabin.
“The fundamental idea lies in the modification of
the cabin’s closet, which has been re-engineered
to provide a safe, interactive and spacious suite
for passengers in wheelchairs, while ensuring
operational practicality and compliance with current
FAA regulations,” says Wichita State University. The
space can be turned back into a closet when it is not
required for a wheelchair user.
Glenn Johnson, a fellow of industrial design at
Collins Aerospace, says that by using this closet
space the concept avoids both the need for
“The cabin’s closet has
been re-engineered
to provide a safe,
interactive and spacious
suite for passengers
in wheelchairs”
Wichita State University
June 2022 Flight International 59
 Air 4 All solution does not require sacrificing
Air 4 All
cabin capacity, making it attractive to airlines
wheelchair users to navigate past it, and the need to
alter the aircraft’s seating configuration.
“One of the biggest problems airlines face is the
boarding and de-planing time. Most [Boeing] 737s in
the US have a closet in this location, and navigating
past that closet in a wide wheelchair is challenging,”
says Johnson. “Another advantage is this concept
doesn’t require the modification of existing seats. If
we put a person here, we’re effectively adding a pas-
senger and adding to the profitability of the aircraft.
We’re not taking revenue opportunities away, and
that’s the basis of this idea.”
Another advantage, says Johnson, is that the
concept uses “certifiable stuff”, with Q’Straint’s
wheelchair tie-down systems already in use on other
modes of transportation.
“We’re going to tie down the chair with a 20-plus-g
Q’Straint system. The configuration allows the wheel-
chair occupant to drive straight on board through the
primary door, along with all the other passengers. All
the existing emergency equipment is relocated within
the closet, so that doesn’t need to get moved,” says
Johnson. “As a company, we make the seats, lava-
tories, closet space and the monuments, so we can
supply each of the components required.”
Wheelchair users will have the option of facing
a carer or travel companion during flight or facing
forward, he adds.
The unveiling of the Fly Your Wheels Suite and Air
4 All concepts came within months of the publication
of a report by the Transportation Research Board
(TRB), which was commissioned by the US Access
Board after it was called on by Congress to examine
the feasibility of wheelchair securement systems for
passenger use in aircraft cabins.
60 Flight International June 2022
The report found that the majority of commer-
cial aircraft have a main boarding door that is wide
enough to accommodate most personal wheelchairs,
and that the most common cabin layouts on 737-
and Airbus A320-family aircraft “should require only
modest interior modifications to create a wheelchair
securement area” at the front. It concluded that there
were no design or engineering challenges that would
call into question the technical feasibility of an in-cabin
wheelchair securement system.
The TRB’s report was seen as a landmark moment
by disability activists, who have been campaigning for
years to make air travel more accessible to passengers
with reduced mobility (PRM). Michele Erwin, founder
and president of US-based All Wheels Up – a charity
which funded a proof-of-concept study in 2016 to see
if wheelchairs locked in place with Q’Straint tie-downs
could meet FAA standards – says her organisation
“hasn’t stopped” since the report was published.
Generating momentum
“All Wheels Up has been advocating for a wheelchair
spot for 10 years, and the momentum is there,” says
Erwin. “We did the first crash-testing in 2016 and ever
since then, the momentum has been more of a wave.
It’s amazing what you can do when you put facts and
science behind your advocacy.”
There are now “multiple OEMs in this space working
specifically on a wheelchair spot on airplanes”, says
Erwin, noting that “even if we’re just looking at from
two years ago to today, it’s definitely a different space
in the appetite for a wheelchair spot on airplanes”.
Erwin founded All Wheels Up in 2011 after trying to
arrange a trip to Disney World with her son, who has
spinal muscular atrophy. She points to the risk of injury
 Interiors Accessibility

to disabled passengers during the current process of

boarding aircraft for wheelchair users, which involves
physically transferring PRMs from an aisle wheelchair
to a regular airline seat. Flying Disabled’s Wood

Wichita State University/Collins Aerospace

agrees, noting: “We really shouldn't be man-handling
people in this day and age.”
In addition to potential injuries, there is a risk of
damage to the passenger’s own wheelchair when it is
stored in the cargo hold during flight.
“Wheelchairs can cost anything from $10,000 to
$85,000. We’re talking about equipment that costs
more than many cars on the road today, and we’re ex-
Fly Your Wheels design makes
pected to just toss it into the cargo hold,” says Erwin.
use of existing cabin closet space

Changing reality
Geraldine Lundy, founder of the Accessible Travel
Consultancy and former passenger accessibility to bring their own wheelchairs on board. The issue
manager at Virgin Atlantic, says the publication of the has since moved up the agenda and a number of
TRB’s report “warmed the cockles of my heart”. developments have taken place, says Lundy.
Lundy has worked alongside Erwin and Wood for a She praises the Air 4 All concept, noting: “When
number of years and says she was always supportive I saw the combination of their design with the US
of the idea of wheelchairs in the cabin, but knew there Access Board paper, I thought, ‘this has gone from, I
were “numerous hurdles to get through” before it may see wheelchairs in the cabin, to I really think I’m
became a reality. going to see them quite soon’.”
While Lundy was at Virgin, the carrier hosted the The TRB report envisions the removal of seat rows
inaugural Wheelchair in the Cabin Symposium at to make room for in-cabin wheelchairs, although
its Crawley, West Sussex headquarters in 2017. Both neither the Air 4 All nor Fly Your Wheels Suite
Erwin and Wood, along with politicians, designers and concepts would require this, which should be good
wheelchair users, spoke at the event, which shone a news for revenue-conscious airlines.
spotlight on the idea of enabling disabled passengers “The advantage that the Air 4 All design has over
what the US Access Board came out with was that
with the Air 4 All solution you don’t lose many seats,
“The momentum is there. so it’s not going to be a huge commercial disadvan-
tage to airlines,” says Lundy.
Even if we’re just looking As awareness of the issue has grown, so has demand
for more accessible air travel, Lundy asserts. The “PRM
at from two years ago penetration rate” has gone up across Europe since
pre-pandemic times, she says, noting: “Before the
to today, it’s definitely pandemic, at most major airports the PRM penetration
rate would hover around 2%. So for every 100 passen-
a different space in the gers who flew, about two would identify as having a
disability and would request assistance. Now, although
appetite for a wheelchair there are not as many passengers flying yet as before
the pandemic, the PRM penetration rate is about 4%.”
spot on airplanes”
Leisure market
Michele Erwin Founder and president, All Wheels Up Lundy attributes the rise, in part, to the fact that
leisure flights have eclipsed business travel as the air-
line industry has begun its recovery from the pandem-
ic. However, other factors are also at play, she believes.
“Another aspect is that your rate of disability
increases with age, and if you’re an older person
who has lost a year to two years of their life of travel
because of all the restrictions, you’ve got this impetus
of, ‘I want to travel. I want to get out there and enjoy
my life while there’s still time’,” says Lundy.
While there is still a way to go, including certification
of in-cabin wheelchair concepts, the need for airlines
to commit to making their aircraft more accessible and
for more wheelchair manufacturers to “come to the
table and make wheelchairs that are designed for air
Rudolfovich/Shutterstock

travel”, Lundy says that with regulators now on board,

she feels more optimistic that it will happen.
Campaigners also plan to keep up the pressure until
they get their way. As Erwin puts it: “We are not going
to rest until there’s a wheelchair spot on airplanes and
Current boarding process risks injury, or damage to wheelchairs
everyone is flying in their wheelchairs.” ◗

June 2022 Flight International 61

 The demand for personal and business connectivity
has become greater than ever during the pandemic
period, including on board aircraft. We assess the
key developments seen since the last AIX event
Sky-high
Wi-Fi
Kerry Reals London
I
n-flight connectivity (IFC) providers may have seen
a lull in activity over the past two years as their
airline customers were largely grounded by the
Covid-19 pandemic, but there is an upside. Demand
for onboard Wi-Fi, which was already growing
rapidly before the global health crisis, accelerat-
ed even more as people were forced by national
lockdowns to shift their professional, social and
educational lives online.
As IFC providers head to the first face-to-face
Aircraft Interiors Expo since 2019, they are keen to
show off the new products and services they have
been working on to ensure that they are in the best
position to compete and tap into this increased, seem-
ingly unstoppable, global demand for connectivity.
“We’ve seen a lot of change in the in-flight con-
nectivity market over the last couple of years,” says
Andy Masson, vice-president product and portfolio
management at Panasonic Avionics. “What we have
seen coming out of the pandemic is a big shift in the
way that people act on the aeroplane. We’ve seen that
reflect in the use of connectivity in the aeroplane, and
we’re seeing it in our numbers.”
Research carried out by Panasonic last year
“indicated to us that there has been a behavioural
shift – certainly in terms of online behaviour”, notes
Masson. He points to greater demand for productiv-
ity tools such as Microsoft Teams and Google Docs,
adding that “this has been mirrored on the personal
side as well, in the number of people on social media
and using connected devices to stay in contact”.
62 Flight International June 2022
These changes are also being reflected in the re-
quests that Panasonic is receiving from airlines, says
Masson, with “a bigger push for more bandwidth,
connectivity and for that service to be offered more
widely”. He adds: “We’ve always had the assumption
that connectivity was focused on the business user,
but an awful lot of people are using it for personal
use. Our suspicion is that’s just going to continue,
and the trend will proliferate because everyone’s very
used to that as a service now.”
Some airlines used the time during the pandemic
to equip existing aircraft with IFC systems, or to place
orders to ensure their future assets are connected.
Major contracts
Notable IFC deals inked over the past couple of years
include Delta Air Lines’ selection in 2021 of Viasat’s
Ka-band connectivity solution for more than 550
narrowbody aircraft; LATAM Airlines Group’s decision
earlier this year to install Intelsat’s 2Ku system on up
to 160 single-aisle aircraft; and Saudia’s announcement
last year that it would equip 35 new Airbus A321neo
and A321XLR jets with Inmarsat’s GX Aviation in-flight
broadband solution.
Saudia will be the launch customer for Inmarsat’s
new OneFi platform – a single portal interface through
which airlines can monetise IFC by offering ancillary
products and services to passengers in real time on
their own personal devices. Inmarsat senior vice-pres-
ident in-flight connectivity Niels Steenstrup says the
pandemic caused it to accelerate the launch of OneFi.
“A lot of airlines have recognised that they can
use connectivity to generate ancillary revenue, from
purchasing a Wi-Fi session and being connected,

to having sponsors who are willing to pay for that
access,” says Steenstrup. “We’ve seen a fair number
of those types of models, and an increase in interest
as airlines look to increase ancillary revenue.”
Summing up the impact of Covid-19 on the IFC
industry, Steenstrup says: “I think if you were drawing
a curve, you would have pre-pandemic where there
was a steady climb in the need for connectivity, a
drop off a cliff where everything just stopped almost
for 12 months or so, and then there was a slow climb
back out which is now an accelerated climb.”
While some aspects of the IFC sector were
quieter during the pandemic, the volume turned
up to maximum on merger and acquisition activity.
The market was stunned in November 2021, when
California-based Viasat announced plans to acquire
its London-headquartered rival Inmarsat in a
transaction valued at $7.3 billion.
“We’ve always had
the assumption that
connectivity was focused
on the business user, but
an awful lot of people are
using it for personal use”
Andy Masson Vice-president product and portfolio
management, Panasonic Avionics
Interiors Connectivity
Markus Mainka/Shutterstock
Delta Air Lines selected Viasat to equip
more than 550 of its narrowbodies
Few details have been disclosed on how the
proposed combination could affect the two satellite
companies’ IFC offerings, but both sides appear
positive about the deal.
“We see it as so transformative – these are both
great companies with complementary assets,” says
Don Buchman, vice-president of commercial mobility
at Viasat. “I think we’re going to bring a lot of value
to our current customers and our future customers.”
Details such as how IFC services will be branded “will
be determined post-acquisition”, he adds.
Strong competition
Steenstrup views the tie-up as “a significant positive”,
but stresses that “we’re head-on competitors today
and we’re head-on competitors until the minute the
deal closes”. He adds: “Viasat has a good reputa-
tion in IFC in North America, and Inmarsat is strong
and has a good reputation in IFC globally outside
North America, so the two together are a very strong
combination. I think together we will be able to bring
really good services to passengers and airlines.”
The proposed Viasat/Inmarsat combination follows
the sealing up of earlier M&A activity between IFC
providers Intelsat and Gogo Commercial Aviation.
Virginia-based Intelsat completed its $400 mil-
lion acquisition of Gogo in December 2020 and
announced in July 2021 that it had dropped the Gogo
name and branded all of its IFC and entertainment
offerings as Intelsat.
Earlier this year, Intelsat announced that it had
emerged from its financial restructuring process as
“a private company with a substantially strengthened
capital structure”. Frederik van Essen, vice-president
June 2022 Flight International 63
Inmarsat
Inmarsat’s GX Aviation product offers in-flight broadband
business development and managing director at
Intelsat, says the company has “more than halved” its
debt since entering restructuring, and is in a strong
position to participate in future consolidation activity.
“What we’re seeing in the market is a measure of
consolidation and in order to participate in growing
scale in the IFC market, it’s very important to be finan-
cially stable and in a healthy position,” says van Essen.
“Clearly, if you look at the dynamics in the market and
the talks in the industry, moves will be made. That is,
in my view, inevitable and Intelsat – given
its existing size in the satellite industry and
especially in IFC – is definitely right in the
middle of that and part of that dynamic.”
Integrated solutions
The integration of Gogo has gone “really
well”, says van Essen, and improvements
have been made to its 2Ku IFC solution. This
is something that Intelsat will be talking
about and promoting during AIX, along with
its $2 billion roadmap to create a “unified
global network” and the introduction of
more flexible software-defined satellites.
“We’ve started to make a lot of upgrades
Anuvu
to the [2Ku] network, so many airlines that
were used to the old Gogo [system] would Mike Pigott says the rebranded
not recognise the current experience,” says Anuvu offers new vision for IFC
van Essen. “Speeds and throughput have
gone up, latency has gone down, and there’s much
more capacity available.”
In early April, Alaska Airlines extended its existing
partnership with Intelsat by selecting its 2Ku solution
for 105 new Boeing 737 Max aircraft.
Going forward, van Essen sees telecommunications
networks becoming more unified and interopera-
ble with satellite-based IFC, resulting in a simpli-
fied process to log on to the internet in flight. For
passengers, this will mean that “you get on an aircraft
and your phone just works, you don’t have to go via
64 Flight International June 2022
portals and pull out your credit card to get a session,
you will be billed your normal subscription”, he says.
For airlines, decisions over whether to go with Ka- or
Ku-band IFC, for instance, will become less of an issue
as terminals become more sophisticated.
“Really technical choices that [airlines] felt they
had to understand – that’s going to be less and less
important, and more generic,” predicts van Essen.
Another significant development in the in-flight
entertainment and connectivity world during the
pandemic was Global Eagle
Entertainment’s filing for Chapter 11
bankruptcy protection in July 2020,
its subsequent sale to new owners
and emergence from restructuring
as the newly-rebranded Anuvu.
Explaining the new name choice,
Anuvu executive vice-president
connectivity Mike Pigott says: “We
wanted to send a strong message
to the market that we had a new
vision for mobile connectivity, and
a new strategy to deliver that to
our customers.”
Anuvu has traditionally provid-
ed Ku-band IFC services to airline
customers including Norwegian,
Southwest Airlines and Turkish
Airlines, supported by the leas-
ing of capacity from a variety of satellite operators.
Earlier this year, however, it signed a capacity deal
with satellite operator Telesat for about 10GB of
Ka-band capacity, as part of what Anuvu describes
as its “bridge to LEO” strategy. This will see it even-
tually offering IFC services using Telesat’s upcoming
Lightspeed low-Earth orbit satellite network.
Anuvu has also, for the first time, invested in its own
satellite constellation, in partnership with Astranis.
It plans to launch two MicroGEO high-throughput
satellites in early 2023, with six more to follow.

“Today, we’re a Ku provider in aviation using
the GEO [geostationary] arc, and we’ve done that
globally,” says Pigott. “We see a future world – a
five-year vision, call it – where there’s going to be the
GEO arc as a key part of our operation, and a LEO arc
for low-latency services and global coverage.”
The MicroGEO satellites are smaller than other
satellites in geostationary orbit and take months,
rather than years, to build.
“The advantage we get is a lower cost and targeted
performance for our mobility customers,” says Pigott.
While Anuvu’s decision to invest in the MicroGEO
constellation reflected its desire to have “our own
control over some of our assets”, Pigott stresses that
the company “still expects to lease a tremendous
amount of capacity on the market because we expect
performance demands to continue to skyrocket”.
Market entrants
On the LEO front, Telesat is not the only operator with
plans to enter the IFC market. London-headquartered
OneWeb aims to offer LEO satellite-based IFC services
to airlines from the second half of 2023, while public
charter operator JSX announced in late April that it
would be the first airline to adopt SpaceX’s upcoming
Starlink in-flight Wi-Fi service.
OneWeb vice-president mobility Ben Griffin says
there are “several airlines that are interested in
being the launch customer” for its IFC service, and
announcements could be forthcoming at AIX.
“We do certainly intend to announce some fairly
big things [at AIX], so we’re looking at that as a
target point for really putting a stake in the ground,”
says Griffin. “We will definitely be intent on making a
bit of noise and having a bit of fun.”
LEO operators bill low latency and full global,
pole-to-pole coverage as their key advantages over
GEO satellite-based IFC competitors. Griffin also
points to the electronically-steered array antennas
that OneWeb intends to use, which he says weigh
less, create less drag and are easier to maintain than
their mechanically-steered counterparts. OneWeb has
agreements in place with two terminal manufacturers
Interiors Connectivity
– GDC Advanced Technology and SatixFy UK –
although Griffin says it is open to entering additional
deals with other producers.
Telesat, meanwhile, signed an agreement with
ThinKom Solutions last year to collaborate on
integrating the latter’s Ka2517 mechanically-steered
phased array antenna with the upcoming Lightspeed
LEO network. The Canadian satellite operator also
plans to use Anuvu’s Airconnect IFC terminal for
Lightspeed, and is evaluating electronically-steered
antennas as well, says Philippe Schleret, Telesat’s
regional sales vice-president for North America.
Telesat expects to begin launching Lightspeed in
2025 and to offer full global services the following
year. Schleret predicts that LEO satellites will be a
“game-changer” for the IFC market.
“As the demographic
gets younger and more
willing to connect, I
think [demand] will just
increase organically”
Ben Griffin Vice-president mobility, OneWeb
In response to the threat, geostationary satellite op-
erators are making LEO moves of their own. Inmarsat,
for instance, last year unveiled its Orchestra network,
which it says will “seamlessly integrate GEO, LEO and
terrestrial 5G into one harmonious solution”. The net-
work will, in the future, include 150-175 LEO satellites.
One thing existing IFC players and new entrants
alike are banking on is that demand for connectivity
will continue to rise. “The propensity to connect will
only go one way,” predicts Griffin. “As the demo-
graphic gets younger and more willing to connect, I
think that will just increase organically.” ◗
OneWeb aims to offer LEO satellite-based
OneWeb
IFC services from the second half of 2023
June 2022 Flight International 65
 The aviation industry is focused on hydrogen
as the zero emissions fuel of the future, with a
100-seater or larger airliner touted for 2035. But
the challenges to make it a reality are formidable
Power
shift
Mark Pilling London
“T
his is a once in a generation renaissance for
aviation engineers,” Brian Yutko, Boeing’s
vice-president and chief engineer, sus-
tainability and future mobility, said during
the Sustainable Skies World Summit, hosted by the
Farnborough International Airshow in early April.
The likes of Yutko and his counterparts at Airbus,
Embraer, GE Aviation, Pratt & Whitney and Rolls-
Royce – intense rivals when it comes to selling aircraft
and engines – are today united as technologists facing
the colossal challenge of delivering the products to
meet the industry’s net zero greenhouse gas emis-
sions targets. In addition, they must deliver a 20%
hike in fuel efficiency compared to current generation
engines. “There is no chance of getting bored,” jokes
R-R chief technology officer Grazia Vittadini.
Given the vast number of words spoken and written
on the topic, we could be forgiven in believing that
the solution to achieve net zero emissions is already
here. That answer is hydrogen, the wondrous, lighter-
than-air element that when used as a fuel to power
aircraft produces no harmful carbon dioxide.
But hydrogen for aviation is far from a given, at
least not for aircraft of 100 seats and above. And
there are academics who believe the pursuit of
hydrogen for aviation is misguided.
Vittadini sums up the size of the challenge by
describing the energy required on the world’s long-
est commercial route – the 8,000nm (14,800km)
Singapore Airlines service from Singapore to New
66 Flight International June 2022
York, flown with a 300t Airbus A350-900 powered
by R-R Trent XWB engines. This 19h flight requires
44,000gal of Jet A-1 fuel. Converted to electrical units
this equates to 1.738GW. To deliver 1GW would re-
quire 3.125 million photovoltaic (solar) panels, or 365
utility-scale wind turbines. “That is a lot of energy,” she
says. And that is the energy needed for a single flight.
If the sustainability imperative was not urgent,
hydrogen, either in gaseous or liquid form, would be a
non-starter. It has never been used at scale in com-
mercial aviation (not since Zeppelins flew across the
Atlantic in the 1930s). It is tricky to manage. The cost
of delivering green hydrogen – made with renewable
electricity – at such a vast scale and at a sensible price
appears a distant prospect. And the physical proper-
ties of hydrogen, which is four times less dense than
kerosene, mean its greater storage requirement brings
aircraft designs with range and payload penalties.
Scientific difference
The Hydrogen Science Coalition, a group of inde-
pendent academics, scientists and engineers, says it is
working to bring an evidence-based viewpoint to the
heart of the hydrogen discussion in Europe. It is deep-
ly sceptical that hydrogen is the answer for aviation.
“When you crunch the numbers it’s clear that hydro-
gen is not suitable for transportation,” says Bernard
van Dijk, airplane performance lecturer at Amsterdam
University of Applied Sciences. “It requires too much
energy to produce it without CO2 emissions (green
hydrogen) and there is a significant storage problem.”
However, some believe aviation’s lack of
decarbonisation options puts hydrogen at the head

of the queue, and the size of the climate challenge
means it must be investigated. “There are only
a limited number of ways of getting to net zero
emissions,” explains Arjan Hegeman, general manager
of advanced technologies at GE Aviation. “Hydrogen
combustion does get to zero carbon emissions, so it
is a logical thing to look at.”
There are two ways hydrogen can power aircraft. It
Rolls-Royce
can be used in an onboard fuel cell to make electricity,
or it can be burnt in a gas turbine. MTU Aero Engines,
for example, is converting a Dornier 228 19-seater as
a testbed to develop a complete hy-
drogen fuel cell power system with
the aim to fly the demonstrator
in 2026, says Barnaby Law, its
chief engineer flying cell.
However, while fuel cell
technology shows promise
for smaller aircraft of up to
100 seats, for larger air-
craft of that size and above
the focus is on the direct
combustion of hydrogen.
Airbus, the industry’s
hydrogen champion, has
stated its ambition to bring
a zero emissions airliner of
beyond 100 seats in size
into service by 2035. The
R-R’s chief technology officer
Vittadini relishes the challenge
of reducing engine emissions
Environment Technology
Delivering hydrogen at scale will involve
transforming airport infrastructure
DLR
company going public on this target has galvanised
the entire industry into action.
“We want to create the ‘Tesla moment’ by bringing
a hydrogen plane to the market,” Guillaume Faury,
Airbus chief executive, told the European Commis-
sion’s Clean Aviation conference in March. He hopes
Airbus can do with hydrogen what Tesla Motors did
for the automotive world by pioneering electric cars.
“Hydrogen combustion
does get to zero carbon
emissions, so it is a logical
thing to look at”
Arjan Hegeman General manager of advanced technologies,
GE Aviation
“We did a detailed analysis on the many pathways
[to achieve net zero emissions],” Mark Bentall, head
of research and technology programme at Airbus tells
FlightGlobal. “SAF [sustainable aviation fuel] is funda-
mentally important and we must secure it. However, if
we try and drive forward, where do we go?,” he asks.
“Our analysis shows that liquid hydrogen is the desti-
nation because it gives you the better trade of energy
density and the better trade of energy production.”
In public, Boeing talks about its extensive research
into hydrogen for aviation, but it will keep to its
June 2022 Flight International 67
 philosophy of not discussing specific product time- turbines; validating 100% SAF capability in its engines
lines until there is a product to launch, says Yutko. by the mid-2020s; the introduction of hybrid electric
However, like Airbus and most others, the fact that technology from 2030; and the use of hydrogen from
SAF can deliver progress immediately on emissions 2035. P&W, in common with all the players, is working
reduction makes it a critical pathway. “That is why we to some degree on them all.
have leaned in so hard on SAF. Under any scenario P&W’s experience with liquid hydrogen as a fuel
we know we need a thousand times more SAF [than goes back to a 1958 project dubbed Suntan, where
made today]. If we do not do that we fail,” he says. it developed a long-range spy plane with Lockheed’s
“And then the question is: what are these other famous Skunk Works. The project was dropped
technologies and on what timeline do they start to because “it ran into the challenges the industry faces
make sense in product form?,” asks Yutko. Boeing today [with hydrogen], such as the volume of the fuel
is in the concept and demonstration phase of making the aircraft too large”, says Webb.
researching novel propulsion as it “looks at the art Although it failed on
of the possible”, he says. This investigation includes one level, Project Sun-
a partnership with GE and NASA to fly a 30-seat tan did prove hydro-
turboprop with a megawatt-class hybrid electric gen fuel was “doable”.
engine and work on large composite cryogenic fuel As Webb explains: “We
tanks to store liquid hydrogen. at least know the chal-
The information gathered from this work and lenges of hydrogen as
more is “synthesised” into future product concepts, a fuel and know they
and “then we layer on top of that certification have been overcome
in terms of making
a gas turbine engine
“Under any scenario we reasonably powered
by hydrogen.”
know we need a thousand A recent addition
Pratt & Whitney

to P&W’s hydrogen
times more SAF [than technology hunt is a
US Department of En-
made today]. If we do not ergy ARPA-E project
Graham Webb is Pratt & Whitney’s called the Hydro-
do that we fail” first-ever chief sustainability officer gen Steam Injected,
Inter-Cooled Turbine
Brian Yutko Vice-president and chief engineer, sustainability Engine (HySIITE). It is described as a revolutionary
and future mobility, Boeing hydrogen combustion system that uses water vapour
recovered from the exhaust stream to increase engine
efficiency, promising a reduction in fuel consumption
requirements and conceive technology programmes for next-generation narrowbody airliners of 35% com-
and demonstrators”, says Yutko. This is an established pared to P&W’s current Geared Turbofan range. P&W
industry process that can take multiple years. The hopes it could be ready for service entry from 2035.
difference today is that the clock is ticking to arrive
at decarbonisation solutions. Accelerated research
Speaking at the Clean Aviation Forum, Eric Dalbies, The HySIITE project, announced in February, is one
senior executive vice-president R&T and example of the acceleration that the engine giants are
innovation at Safran, said disruptive tech- undertaking in their hydrogen research. This pace is
nologies like hydrogen were essential essential if there is going to be any hope of meeting
to bridge the fuel efficiency gap in half the 2035 target. Working backwards from entry
the time it usually takes to develop a into service, Airbus has said it needs to see the
next generation powerplant. technology ready in 2026/2027 for it to have a
The major engine manufacturers chance of being exploited in an aircraft by 2035.
are all engrossed in a hunt for the The industry’s established metric for technology
technologies that will enable them maturity is the Technology Readiness Level (TRL),
to do this. Each has a roadmap and a methodology that originated at NASA in 1974
timescale that describes this pur- using a scale from 1 to 9. The critical number on
suit, and they are broadly similar. For the scale is TRL 6, which is defined as a system,
instance, P&W’s Graham Webb, the subsystem, model, or prototype demonstration in a
firm’s first chief sustainability officer relevant environment (ground or space).
responsible for its sustainable pro- Bentall, who as head of R&T is responsible for
pulsion technology roadmap all activity up to TRL 6, confirms that Air-
and strategy, describes the bus is asking for this level, but will
pathways to net zero as: a not give a specific date given
continuous investment to the OEMs to achieve it. “We
in fuel efficiency for gas want to see the technology
at scale, working in the latter
Boeing’s Brian Yutko says the part of the decade,” he says.
airframer’s engineers “look Showing technology in
Boeing

at the art of the possible” a relevant environment

68 Flight International June 2022


explains the collaboration announced in February be-
tween Airbus, GE and Safran on a flight-test demon-
strator that will see an A380 fitted with a GE Passport
turbofan engine modified to run on liquid hydrogen.
The first flight is planned towards the end of 2026.
“Our focus here is on the fuel part of the challenge,
be that storage, the fuel system, the propulsion system
and emissions,” says Bentall. “We will also look at the
route to getting it [hydrogen] into the tank,” he adds,
looking at areas like fuel quality and standardisation.
The engine makers are well aware of the over-the
horizon-planning under way at Airbus and Boeing.
“We share technology roadmaps at a deep level with
the engine OEMs,” says Yutko.
But is a deadline of 2026/2027 to demonstrate
hydrogen technology overly ambitious? Alan Newby,
director of aerospace technology & future pro-
grammes at R-R, says it is not, and that the develop-
mental timescale for a next-generation engine is in
line with previous programmes with kerosene-fuelled
powerplants. “On hydrogen we have got to 2027
to mature the technology and that is feasible in the
timescale. Yes, there are probably more unknowns,
and the uncertainty is higher than other programmes,
but it is achievable,” he says.
€735m
Amount EU-backed Clean Aviation has made available to
help develop green technology in its latest funding round
Environment Technology
Collaboration between Airbus, GE and Safran
Airbus
will see an A380 test liquid hydrogen’s use
From its work with the power generation busi-
ness in hydrogen handling and fuel cells, along with
research with German and UK-based universities, R-R
has experience with the fuel and the “hydrogen fun-
damentals are in place”, says Newby. “We are working
on the high-risk items for hydrogen now,” he adds.
While it has never been a case of the engine makers
developing an engine and simply giving it to Airbus
or Boeing and saying, “now go and hang it off your
wing”, the coupling of the airframe and powerplant
will be a big challenge, Frank Preli, vice-president
propulsion & materials at P&W told the Sustainable
Skies event. “In the future, as we move to more elec-
tric and hydrogen [aircraft] we will need to work at a
much closer level,” he says.
Engine integration
“The level of complexity of engine integration with
hydrogen goes up,” Bentall says. “There are different
interfaces between the engine and aircraft systems
that will be considered. Therefore, the level of working
and engagement [with the OEMs] is deeper,” he adds.
In addition to the Airbus/GE/Safran A380 hydrogen
flight test project, GE is working all angles to be ready,
says Hegeman. “In the 2035 timeframe we will have
everything matured that any of our airframe partners
in any thrust class can possibly ask for,” he says. This
means hybrid-electric, hydrogen combustion, su-
per-efficient engines using open fan architecture and
compact core technologies. All will be needed to meet
net zero emission targets by 2050. The core technol-
ogy the company is working on is “as revolutionary as
the open fan”, says Hegeman. “We are not done yet.”
Technically, none of the engine giants seem fazed
by hydrogen. And all acknowledge the barriers to
June 2022 Flight International 69
 Environment Technology

FlyZero
FlyZero says mid-size hydrogen-powered
aircraft should be introduced by 2035

delivering green hydrogen at scale and reasona-

ble cost, in addition to the infrastructure concerns.
“We need to do the work to solve the engineering
challenges and truly understand the technology to
make the right decisions. Now is the time to do that.
It is not the time to only talk about philosophies
without investing into the actual work to progress on
the maturation milestones,” says Hegeman.
The aviation industry is receiving significant
investment into hydrogen research to help make this
happen. The EU-backed research and innovation
body Clean Aviation has €735 million ($809 million)
available in its latest funding round to help industry
accelerate green technology development, with
hydrogen a key topic.
For the past year, FlyZero, a UK government-
funded project run by the Aerospace Technology
Institute, with 100 staff seconded from industry, has
been examining solutions to aviation’s carbon chal-
lenge. It detailed three concept aircraft powered by

“For us, hydrogen, hybrid-

electric and electric aircraft
will be an available solution
in the next 10-15 years for
short-haul [services]”
Carolina Martinoli Chief people, corporate affairs and
sustainability officer, IAG
hydrogen, with respective seating capacities of up to
75, 180 and 279 passengers.
FlyZero concluded that the introduction of the mid-
size, 279-seat hydrogen-powered aircraft by 2035,
followed by a narrowbody by 2037, represented the
greatest opportunity for reducing carbon emissions
and maximising market impact. Critically, it also
concluded that key innovations to enable hydrogen
propulsion must be brought to TRL 6 by 2025 if
they are to make their way onto the next generation
of airliners; an even more aggressive timeline than
suggested by Airbus.
GE Aviation
The positive messages from airlines around
hydrogen are also encouraging the industrial players.
In March, Delta Air Lines said it will help Airbus to
identify the operational and infrastructure needs for
a hydrogen-powered aircraft. European low-cost
player EasyJet also has been a vocal supporter of
zero-emission aircraft.
Decarbonisation roadmap
At the Sustainable Skies Summit, Carolina Martinoli,
chief people, corporate affairs and sustainability
officer at IAG, said: “For us, hydrogen, hybrid-electric
and electric aircraft will be an available solution in the
next 10-15 years for short-haul [services].” IAG’s 2050
decarbonisation roadmap sees 40% of its emissions
reduction coming from new technologies, either
next-generation efficient aircraft flown with SAF or
zero emission types.
Everyone’s 2050 roadmap has a notional
“game-changing or disruptive technology” contri-
bution to achieve net zero emissions. This includes
an aircraft powered by hydrogen. The Air Transport
Action Group’s Waypoint 2050 report has a figure
of 13% contribution for technology-related emissions
reduction, IATA director general Willie Walsh said
during the Clean Aviation Summit. However, this
figure is “conservative”, and he is optimistic that as
technology advances it could be greater.
The industry’s engineers and scientists are in a
golden age of aerospace advancement. They have
four to five years to develop technology mature
enough to give the OEMs a choice of hydrogen as a
fuel for a 100-seat-plus zero emissions aircraft.
It is a big ask, but all the aerospace players say
they can do it. “If you pull back the marketing, what’s

left is that we are all doing the hard engineering

GE sees the direct combustion of
work and hunting for the right products, timing, and
hydrogen as viable for large aircraft
market entry points,” concludes Yutko. ◗

70 Flight International June 2022

 Tem. Et occus reperro reresed
eostruptus voluptium esequidit,
As demand for sustainable aviation fuels ramps up,
the large scale production of eFuels from nothing
more than air, water and electricity is gaining
increasing attention, especially in Europe
Aviation
alchemy
Mark Pilling London
T
he lead statements on the websites of start-up
energy firms Zenid and Synhelion surely sound
too good to be true. “Jet fuel from air”, says
Dutch venture Zenid. “We turn sunlight into
fuel”, boasts Swiss firm Synhelion.
However, neither operation, nor a host of other
entrepreneurs like them, believe they are in
dreamland. These firms are the pathfinders on a
journey to develop sustainable aviation fuel (SAF)
from a route commonly known as Power-to-Liquids
(PtL) to make eFuels or eKerosene.
These SAFs are produced from air and water with
unrestricted potential for fuel production at a large
scale, while having a minimal environmental impact
and potential net-zero carbon dioxide emissions, say
eFuel advocates.
However, experts point out that the amount of
electricity required for manufacturing PtL SAF will be
enormous, and that it cannot simply be taken from
the existing “grid” – additional renewable electricity
must be produced.
Commercial production of SAF is currently limited to
the HEFA (Hydro-processed Esters and Fatty Acids)
technology, based on hydrotreated fats and oils. Other
SAF technologies, such as gasification-based SAF
and alcohol-to-jet, are currently being scaled up, and
commercial facilities are under construction. But these
technologies are based on land-based feedstocks or
materials available in limited quantities, such as used
cooking oil or municipal solid waste.
Many believe that eFuels will become an increas-
ingly important SAF production pathway if the
72 Flight International June 2022
barriers to manufacture them in large volume and at
a commercially sensible cost can be scaled.
“The use of green hydrogen, made with renewable
electricity, plus the direct air capture of CO2, means
eFuels have near climate-neutrality, making them the
best sustainability option for aviation,” says Matteo
Mirolo, aviation policy officer at Brussels-based Trans-
port & Environment, a non-governmental organisation.
Some believe too much focus now on PtL is a
distraction from the ramp-up in the proven SAF
production pathways. “You can get carbon savings
today [with current SAFs],” Jim Woodger, managing
director UK of LanzaTech, a SAF manufacturer, told
Farnborough’s Sustainable Skies Summit in April.
Investor confidence
The decarbonisation of aviation with SAF can begin
this decade if today’s technologies ramp up as adver-
tised. If this occurs it will help generate investor confi-
dence in SAFs as a fuel category enabling production
to grow with a transition to eFuels coming in the
2030s and 2040s, Paul Stein, chairman of Rolls-Royce
Small Modular Reactors, said at the same event.
This is not to say eFuels will one day replace SAF
made from other pathways, as sustainable fuel
produced from all avenues will be required to meet
the demand for air travel. However, other than some
laboratory-scale quantities, there is no PtL SAF
being made today.
But there are numerous projects, mainly in
Europe, seeking to get off the ground. The German
government is pioneering PtL, with detailed policies
aimed at incentivising its use, and the European
Commission is planning to bring in mandates for PtL
SAF to promote its use.
 Environment Fuels

Synhelion
Synhelion uses solar heat to power a reactor
that produces fuel from CO2 and water

“We acknowledge that PtL has challenges in scaling Europe’s SAF mandates and focus on PtL eFuels
up, but our research shows there are numerous start- are a clear signal for SkyNRG. “Our job is to go and
ups coming into this market which are all in need of build projects and we plan to participate in the man-
strong signals from governments,” says Mirolo. “There date market for PtL by 2030,” says Darrin Morgan,
will already be a small output by 2025, which will head of growth & investment at SkyNRG.
be promoted by binding mandates for its supply at The company is working in the Zenid consortium
European airports, and by 2050 eFuels could even and is studying an eFuel plant with Stuttgart Airport
be the predominant and Germany’s Schwenk, a building materials com-
SAF in Europe.” pany, where the CO2 would come from capturing the
gas as a byproduct of cement production. A plant
Demonstration plant with an output of 50,000t per year is envisaged by
This is where actors 2028. SkyNRG is confident the PtL market will devel-
with futuristic names op and is looking at several other opportunities. “We
like Zenid and others will build as many [plants] as we can competently
come in. Zenid is a handle,” says Morgan.
consortium formed in While most projects focus on electricity as the
February 2021 between power source to manufacture eFuel, Synhelion has
Rotterdam The Hague an alternative – heat from sunlight. The idea, which
Airport, SkyNRG, emerged in the 1980s at the Zurich-based Federal
German power utility Institute of Technology, sees solar radiation reflected
firm Uniper, and Clime- by a mirror field. The solar heat goes into a reactor
works, to develop a with CO2 and water to produce solar fuel.
SkyNRG

demonstration plant
making fully circular
Darrin Morgan of SkyNRG seeks to SAF with 100% CO2 “Green hydrogen, made
support SAF initiatives globally derived from air.
Zenid is typical of with renewable electricity,
the start-ups seeking to develop eFuels. It gathers
a group of players with different skills, experience, plus direct air capture of
and money to the table. SkyNRG, for instance,
specialises in supplying and supporting SAF uptake CO2, means eFuels have
globally, while Climeworks is a Swiss firm developing
direct air capture technology, with the world’s first near climate-neutrality”
large-scale plant operational since September 2021
in Iceland. Matteo Mirolo Aviation policy officer, Transport & Environment

June 2022 Flight International 73

 Environment Fuels

This KLM 737 made a demonstration flight

to Madrid using eFuel in January 2021

The technology has been tested in a facility in

Spain and an industrial demonstration plant to pro-
duce solar fuel will enter service in Julich (Germany)
next year, says Synhelion. “The beauty of this technol-
ogy is that it doesn’t use electricity, so the plants can
be standalone and thanks to cheap and eco-friendly
thermal energy storage, solar heat can be used around

BearFotos/Shutterstock
the clock for fuel production,” says the company.
In March, Lufthansa Group and Swiss backed
Synhelion, with Swiss agreeing to be the first air-
line customer of the “sun-to-liquid” fuel, which will
initially come from a demonstration plant under
construction in Germany, in 2023. The aim is for a
larger commercial operation to come on stream in
Spain in 2025 and multiple plants to follow.
While Synhelion’s ambitions illustrate the diversi- to decarbonise aviation is to focus on the fuels,
ty of technology and players entering this field, the and we need to take the opportunity of eFuels for
energy giants are investigating eFuels too. aviation as soon as possible,” says Falk Heinen,
who leads transport and environmental policy at
Commercial volumes the German Ministry for the Environment, Nature
Shell was one of the first to produce an eFuel, de- Conservation and Nuclear Safety.
livering some 500l from a laboratory for use during The country has established an incentive scheme
a KLM Boeing 737-800 demonstration flight from or Market-Based Measure, called the Greenhouse Gas
Amsterdam Schiphol to Madrid in January 2021. The Quota, that gives subsidies to companies producing
company is ramping up its SAF output fast, with an fuels that deliver the most greenhouse gas reductions.
ambition to make 2 million tonnes per year by 2025. The subsidies will get progressively larger as new laws
In parallel, Shell intends to move into making eFuels come into force during this decade.
at commercial volumes, Jan Toschka, president of In addition, Germany’s strategy will see specific PtL
Shell Aviation, tells FlightGlobal. sub-quotas being introduced alongside overall SAF
The company is building a large-scale demonstra- quotas. There was a long debate in the country about
tion plant in Germany and work on a full-scale PtL which sectors should have priority in taking advan-
operation, with an initial capacity of 100,000t per year, tage of eFuels, with agreement reached that aviation
could start in 2023 for commissioning in 2025. and shipping, which have few alternatives, should be
However, as Toschka points out, the capital invest- at the top of the list, explains Heinen.
ment needed for the PtL business case is six times or
more expensive than today’s SAF plants. “This is why
we need to talk about de-risking. The industry will “We need to take the
require incentives to invest in PtL,” he says.
According to Morgan of SkyNRG: “We think the opportunity of eFuels
techno-economics are viable when the incentives are
set up for PtL and the mandates do that. Investors are for aviation as soon as
telling us they have an increasing level of understand-
ing to make business cases start to close in this field.” possible”
Germany is leading the way in Europe with a strat-
egy to deliver such incentives, and even published a Falk Heinen German Ministry for the Environment, Nature
specific PtL roadmap in 2021. “The only opportunity Conservation and Nuclear Safety

“From 2026 there will be a 0.5% PtL sub-quota,

rising to 1% in 2028 and 2% in 2030,” says Heinen. Al-
though only a tiny amount, this means all aviation fuel
sold in Germany from 2026 will contain some eFuel.
This regime has encouraged energy firms to invest
in eFuels, says Heinen. There are at least two compa-
nies with plans for PtL plants in Germany and more
on the way. One, backed by Lufthansa, is Atmosfair.
On paper these plants have the capacity to deliver
50,000t of eFuel by 2026, which would be enough to
meet the 0.5% PtL quota.
These are small amounts, but it is important to get
started, say the players in this field. And no-one is un-
der any illusions about the enormity of the challenge,
whether in delivering green hydrogen, renewable
electricity, or direct air capture of CO2 at scale.
Climeworks

“This is huge,” R-R’s Stein told the Farnborough Sum-

Climeworks has a direct air capture plant in Iceland
mit. “The energy transition is said to be the biggest
reallocation of human capital since Roman times.” ◗

74 Flight International June 2022

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

Please take
your seats
It started as an alternative way to experience an air
show during Covid-19 restrictions when gatherings
were against the rules – but now, despite the return
of public events, the Armchair Airshow is back,
offering viewers the thrills and spills of a live aerial
extravaganza streamed directly to the comfort of
their front rooms.
Hosted by disabled flying charity Aerobility
from Biggin Hill airport near London, the 28 May
programme features UK display team The Blades, as

Joseph Thompson/Shutterstock
well as aircraft from the Biggin Hill Heritage Hangar,
and other attractions to be confirmed.
The show will raise funds in support of disabled
flying, and will include “incredible exclusives that are
only possible at a virtual airshow”, promises David
Winstanley, chief executive at Biggin Hill Airport.
A400M: Mission to Mars Bars

Good as Nieuport
What is claimed to be the USA’s oldest, airworthy
combat aircraft has taken to the skies again for the first
time since 1965 after a three-year restoration.
The Nieuport 28 was the first type assigned to
the American Expeditionary Force during the First
World War. It was fielded by several air squadrons
and President Theodore Roosevelt’s youngest son
Quentin was among those who flew it. This example –
construction number 6382 – came off the production
line just as the conflict was ending, and was used by
Douglas Birkey

Hollywood star the Air Service in the years after the war.
makes a comeback After decommission in the late 1920s, 6382 went
on to have an almost 40-year career in Hollywood,

From the archive

1922 There’s the rub 100

Mr. Bradly, of the Instone Air Line, had an unpleasant
1947 Nuclear aircraft 75
Fairchild has been granted a contract to develop
experience in Belgium on Monday last. Soon means for applying atomic energy to propulsion. This,
after leaving Brussels, piloting a D.H18, one of the it is suggested, “may lead to even more spectacular
connecting-rods of the engine broke, and tore new propulsion units in the not too distant future.” In
through the crank-case. Mr. Bradly glided down to stark contrast to this view, Mr. J. D. Cockcroft, C.B.E.,
alight, the district being particularly bad for forced- M.A., F.R.S., director of the Atomic Energy Research
landing, and, choosing the largest field he could see, Establishment, stated that “application of nuclear
managed to land safely in spite of numerous barbed- energy to mobile power units will be limited by the
wire fences which it was impossible for him to see weight of shielding required to protect operators. This
from the air. Before the machine actually pulled up, will be of the order of 100 tons for a unit developing
however, it struck a wooden rubbing-post, which had a few thousand horsepower. Nuclear propulsion
been erected in the middle of the field for cattle to could therefore be envisaged only for planes
rub against. The collision so damaged the machine weighing several hundred tons, and seems to be quite
that it had to be dismantled and carted to Brussels impossible for road vehicles. Ship propulsion would
for repairs and re-erection. seem to offer a more favourable field.”

76 Flight International June 2022


featuring in 1930s war movies including Hells Angels
and The Dawn Patrol. Its final sorties – before this one
– were in advertisements for Kool cigarettes and the
Ford Mustang.
In 1968, the aircraft was bought by auto racing
legend Jim Hall and acquired from him by the
American Heritage Museum in Hudson, Massachusetts
in 2019. From there it was sent to Sweden where
vintage aircraft expert Mikael Carlson began a full
appraisal, with the aim of restoring it to flight by
keeping as many original components as possible –
this includes the engine, which was rebuilt.
6382 took to the air on 2 April at Carlson’s private
airfield and will be shipped back to the USA, where it
is due to fly again as part of a First World War aviation
event at the museum in September.
1972 Shuttle to the future 50
In response to Nasa’s invitation, Mr Allen Greenwood,
president of the Society of British Aerospace
Companies, made a strong plea last week for
European participation in post-Apollo space
programme. He stressed the significance of space
activities and the rate of growth in this field. “Today,”
he said, “there are already satellites and sensors which
can locate mineral resources, identify plant disease,
report sources of pollution, log the movements of fish,
watch the build-up of the world’s weather, monitor air
traffic congestion and, above all, provide wonderful
new instant links in world communication. Who, in
1957, would have predicted such things by 1972? Who
can predict, in 1972, what mankind might be able to
do in another 15 or 20 years’ time?”
Straight & Level
Completely
loopy
“Glasgow skies shattered by sound
of huge RAF military plane flying
loops low above city”, an article
on the Glasgow Live website
breathlessly informs its readers
under a picture of an Airbus Defence
& Space A400M.
In the responses column, one
David Wheeler notes that the
manoeuvre is actually “doing circuits
for radar operator training… A400Ms
doing loops over Glasgow would be
very scary”.
However, he confides: “While
they’re up there they touch down
briefly to pick up a bag of deep-fried
Mars Bars for the Scottish airmen
down at Brize Norton!”
Working holiday
We note that Airbus is to hold its capital market
day – an important event where the airframer makes
presentations to analysts and investors – on 2-3 June:
one-off public holidays in the UK to mark the 70th
anniversary of the Queen’s reign.
This means that City suits will have to switch on their
laptops and brains and tune into Toulouse at a time
when attention on this side of La Manche is likely to be
more focused on barbecues, family outings and raising
a glass to Her Majesty.
Now the threat of an Airbus pull-out from its “fourth
home nation” seems to have passed, is it, we wonder,
the revenge of the Republican French for Brexit?
1997 Study with Santana 25
In the best tradition of Western culture’s “suggestive-
sell” concept, the advertisement does not show
an aircraft, an airport or an aviator, but starts with
a guitar solo by Carlos Santana playing against a
background of white clouds. The unseen announcer
tells the audience: “It costs less than you think. It
takes less time than you think. And you can do it.
So, what are you waiting for? You could be here.
Stop dreaming. Start flying. Call (888) BE-A-PILOT.
Or, e-mail: www.beapilot.com” The call or Internet
e-mail triggers a mailing to the candidate, which
includes a coupon for a $35 introductory flight at
a participating flight school. Additionally, through
advertisements in magazines, there will be more than
1 million coupons available this month.
June 2022 Flight International 77
 Letters

Discover your
aptitude for flying

Route to the cockpit

The Honourable Company of Air Pilots has launched an initiative to help those looking for their first (or next) job
in the aviation world.
It is apparent that as the industry recovers, as it seems to be at the moment, the job market is becoming
buoyant and competitive. Airlines are on the recruitment drive again, and associated organisations are
struggling with headcount in the ramp-up to summer.
We think there is an opportunity to bridge the gap between providing value and helping the next generation
of pilots with their preparation for interviews, aptitude assessments, group assessments, and the like.
We will be running a pilot assessment preparation weekend from 11-12 June 2022: a package of interview
training and group assessment skills (day one), and simulator assessment and pilot aptitude testing (day two).
The event will be run by industry experts who have been involved in pilot recruitment for decades, utilising
techniques and tests used by major airlines. The overall concept is to help prospective pilots focus on
developing their skills and to produce an overview/development plan to help optimise their training journey.
Also, if you are considering a career in aviation outside of being a pilot (cabin crew, ground handling, air traffic
control, etc), the Interview Training and Group Assessment (day one) is still an ideal place to start as you look to
secure a first job and step onto the career ladder.
This is a non-profit-making endeavour and any monies raised are driven towards covering costs, with any
excess donated towards our industry-leading scholarship programme.
We are ably supported by University of West London, which will host the event at its Ealing campus, and
Turnpoint for course delivery.
Maksim Denisenko/Shutterstock

To find out more about this course and other career development opportunities, visit airpilots.org/what-we-
do/career-development or sign up via the application form.

Will Wright
EasyJet first officer, Glasgow
Immediate Past Chair Young Air Pilots
Honourable Company of Air Pilots, Aviation Careers and Education Committee

Longing for about aerospace, and pay tribute

the glory days
I have taken Flight International
continuously since 1974, still have
every copy and am close to being a
‘total aviation person’!
By the time the weekly magazine
had dropped through the letterbox
I had probably read the previous
issue cover to cover over breakfast,
in the cockpit, and in the loo. I
considered myself well informed
to one of the most professional
journals on the market.
My teenage fascination with
aerospace is undimmed, but I now
find myself reading half-a-dozen
news items each week that come
through on email, and rarely finish
the monthly magazine.
Am I the only one who yearns for
the single interesting envelope in
the weekly post?
Tristram C Llewellyn Jones
Shropshire, UK
Editor’s reply: It is now almost
two years since our move to the
monthly format; we continue to
hone the magazine to deliver the
best of FlightGlobal’s coverage,
while maintaining the standards of
Flight since it was first published
in 1909. We urge subscribers to
make best use of their 24/7 online
access to FlightGlobal.com – our
daily email news alert delivers
only a selection of our content.
For help with subscriber access to
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international@flightglobal.com

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

78 Flight International June 2022


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June 2022 Flight International 79
 For Sherrexcia Rolle, the path to the airline C-suite
began as a child on Andros Island, helping out
at the airport where her parents established the
Bahamas’ now thriving Western Air
Making the family
business fly
Pilar Wolfsteller Las Vegas
W
hen Sherrexcia Rolle was 12 years old, her
parents started their own company. As
with many businesses, the entire family
was involved, and she often helped out.
“As a pre-teen, you just figure you’re being dragged
into doing something,” she says.
The company Rex and Shandrice Rolle founded was
Western Air, the island-hopping airline of the Bahamas.
That “something” little Rexy Rolle was dragged into
was the cornerstone of an aviation career.
“I would be hanging around the airport, lifting
bags, writing bag tags, and even tickets – we just
had manual tickets back then, we weren’t even on a
ticketing system,” she recalls.
Western launched operations in November 2001
with a single 19-seat Fairchild Metro III turboprop,
piloted by Rolle’s father. It later added more of the
type, as well as Beechcraft 1900s, to its fleet, compet-
ing against the country’s national carrier BahamasAir.
Island home
Initially, Rolle says, her parents just wanted to help
fellow residents of Andros Island – the largest Bahami-
an island, and the family’s home – travel to the capital,
Nassau, about 30nm (54km) to the northeast.
“People on the outer islands get familiar with
aviation early on because of the necessity to go
to Nassau for your basic needs – hospital, grocery
shopping, all of those things.”
The archipelago has some 2,700 islands and cays
spread across 500 miles (800km) of ocean east of
the Florida coast. About 30 of them are inhabited.
“The national carrier was taking that
[Andros-to-Nassau] route for granted,” she says.
“My parents’ idea was to get one aircraft and just
satisfy the needs of our small community – flying
from there to Nassau every day, throughout the day.”
But the Rolles soon realised there was a huge
demand for flights to other islands as well. “People
82 Flight International June 2022
wanted consistency, and they wanted another option”
to the national carrier, she says.
“I got to see first-hand what it took to run an airline.
It took a lot of guts for them take that kind of risk. I
think no-one thought it would expand like this.”
Like many Bahamian professionals, Rolle pursued
her post-secondary education abroad, earning
degrees in communications, political science and
law in Canada and the USA. She passed the bar in
California and worked at law firms on aviation issues
before returning to her home country.
“After college, I really started to understand where I
could be of value to the airline,” she says.
“My parents’ idea was to
get one aircraft and just
satisfy the needs of our
small community – flying
from there to Nassau every
day, throughout the day”
Today, 20 years after tossing bags into the hold of a
Metro III, Rolle is Western’s vice-president of opera-
tions and general counsel, managing the day-to-day
affairs of an ever-growing international business.
Western is now the largest privately-owned carrier
in the Bahamas. It has 180 employees and offers daily
scheduled flights to nine destinations across the
islands. It also operates charter flights to the Bahamas,
the Caribbean and Central and South America.
On 19 May, the airline launched its first direct flight
from Nassau to the US mainland, a daily 25min hop
to Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International airport
and back. With the new route, the airline is looking
to capture a slice of the sizeable US holidaymaker
 Women in aviation

market. According to Statista, in pre-pandemic

2019, 92% of all inbound international tourists to the
Bahamas came from the USA.
Western is also currently in talks to expand its
network to the neighbouring Turks and Caicos
Islands, as well as to Cuba.
The company now has nine 50-seat Embraer
ERJ-145 jets and four 30-seat Saab 340 turboprops,
which it is phasing out. Rolle says Western is eyeing
acquiring an E190 as well.
Like its far-larger airline peers across the hemi-
sphere, Western is navigating the numerous challeng-
es of the post-pandemic environment. Tourists are
returning to the Bahamas in greater numbers, and the
carrier is facing the same issues as the majors, such
as inflation, high fuel prices and staff shortages.

Close-knit operation
“We are a pretty close-knit family, and people are
exploring their options,” she says. “We recently lost
two pilots, which I know in the grand scheme of things
doesn’t sound like a lot, but they were based in the
outer stations, which are important to the way we do
business. So we are feeling the pinch.”
Rolle is proud to play a leading role in helping the
country develop its aviation network across the vast
stretches of the western Atlantic Ocean.
“I really feel a sense of commitment when it comes
to our service, [and how] people rely on us to get
from one island to the other.”
She is among just a handful of women in airline
C-suites across the region. Authenticity, she says, in
addition to very hard work, is how to convince the
harshest sceptic that the C-suite is exactly where
those women belong.
“Sometimes when you are in a male-dominated
industry, you tend to think, ‘I need to be a specific way,
have a specific persona that makes me come across
extra-professional or extra this or extra that’,” Rolle
says. “You don’t have to fit a stereotype to be success-
Rolle: ‘You don’t have
ful in aviation, you are enough the way you are, par-
Western Air

to fit a stereotype to be
ticularly if you come with good skills and experience.
successful in aviation’
“The truth is, your work product will speak for
itself,” she adds. ◗

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June 2022 Flight International 83