Hawker Beechcraft wins Jordanian Premier II order
As the business aviation sector reels from the impact of the global recession, its representatives gathered in Geneva for the ninth European Business Aviation Convention and Exhibition (EBACE). The show’s organisers say they were cheered by the fact that the event lured 10,917 attendees, making it the third-largest EBACE ever, writes Andrzej Jeziorski.
Hawker Beechcraft announced at the show that it has won a joint order from Jordan-based RayaJet and Ayla Aviation Academy for one Premier II single-pilot business jet.
RayaJet is an executive jet charter enterprise, while Ayla Aviation provides an advanced, comprehensive flight training programme in the Middle East.
“We are delighted to provide RayaJet and Ayla Aviation with this superior aircraft,” says Brad Hatt, president, Hawker Beechcraft Commercial Aircraft. “The Premier II will be a perfect fit for RayaJet’s private jet travel services. Its unmatched performance and efficiency also make it a plane that pilots and companies training with Ayla Aviation will be anxious to operate.”
Developed from the manufacturer’s Premier IA jet, the Premier II features a higher cruising speed, 20 percent more range with four passengers, and an increased payload.
According to Hawker Beechcraft, the new aircraft will have an all-composite fuselage that allows for a medium-jet sized cabin at light jet costs. The aircraft features standard seating for up to six passengers and their baggage, and Hawker Beechcraft says it will “deliver more people to more locations, more efficiently and in more comfort than any other light jet”.
“The addition of a Premier II to RayaJet will allow us to fulfil our vision of expanding and modernizing our fleet and will enable us to combine both business and luxury travel,” says RayaJet Chairman Nader Dajani. “By jointly placing an order for a Premier II, both Ayla Aviation and RayaJet have taken one step further toward a full merger in 2009 after signing the strategic alliance in 2008.”
Hawker Beechcraft is planning to win certification for the Premier II in the first half of 2010, and says it has won orders for several dozen of the new aircraft.
Bombardier offers Global 5000 range extension
Bombardier Aerospace announced at the EBACE convention that an extended range option is now available for its Global 5000 super-large cabin business jet at Bombardier Service Centres.
A service bulletin regarding the 400-nautical mile (741 km) increase to the aircraft’s non-stop, intercontinental range issued on 21 April.
According to the manufacturer, the range extension is being obtained by increasing the jet’s maximum take-off weight to 92,500lbs, allowing for a fuel-tank capacity increase. The first installation on an in-service Global 5000 was completed at Bombardier's Fort Lauderdale Service Centre in Florida.
At its typical cruise speed of Mach 0.85, the Global 5000 now offers a non-stop range of 5,200 nautical miles – an increase of 8 percent. The added range allows the aircraft to operate between city pairs such as London-Los Angeles, Sao Paulo-Paris, Hong Kong-Wellington, New York-Honolulu, and Dubai-Perth.
The Global 5000's maximum cruise speed of Mach 0.89 and superior short field performance trims as much as an hour from long distance routes such as Moscow-New York, Johannesburg-Geneva, Jeddah-Jakarta and Sao Paulo-Madrid.
Bombardier says the aircraft has the widest and most spacious cabin in its class, paired with one of the most technologically advanced cabin electronic systems available. It also features the new Global Vision flight deck, with a Rockwell Collins Pro Line Fusion avionics suite, designed for enhanced situational awareness and comfort.
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EVAS WORLDWIDE has finalised an agreement with Dassault Falcon Jet to equip all the French business jet manufacturer’s demonstration aircraft with the US company’s Emergency Vision Assurance System (EVAS), now offered as an option on all new Falcon jets. The EVAS is a smoke-displacement system allowing crews to continue to operate the aircraft even with heavy smoke in the cockpit and cabin. According to the equipment supplier, the Flight Safety Foundation ranks such emergencies as the third highest cause of aviation fatalities, while smoke of unknown origin is the most frequent cause of diversions for aircraft flying over open water under ETOPS regulations. The EVAS is currently the only system of its kind approved and certificated by US, European and Canadian aviation authorities.
JET SUPPORT Services (JSSI) says it will provide complete support for Jet Republic’s entire fleet of 110 Bombardier Learjet 60 XR aircraft through its Tip-to-Tail hourly maintenance-cost guarantee programme. The programme covers virtually every part, component, assembly, and system on the airframe, including parts and labour for scheduled inspections and unscheduled failures, and on-site technical assistance. Maintenance of Jet Republic’s fleet will include cover scheduled maintenance on the engines, unscheduled failures, new recommended or mandatory service bulletins and airworthiness directives, rental engine cost and auxiliary power units. Jet Republic, a Lisbon-based private jet company that recently placed an order for 110 Learjet 60 XRs, plans to service more than 1,000 airports across Europe. JSSI says it is the world’s largest independent provider of hourly-cost maintenance programmes on private aircraft.
Russia’s revised airliner output plans hurt Superjet
Russia’s aerospace industry has scaled back its production ambitions in response to the economic downturn, hurting the one aircraft most likely to score success in the international market, writes Andrzej Jeziorski.
Russia’s government-owned United Aircraft Corporation (UAC), which consolidates the country’s aircraft manufacturing capabilities within a single group, has slashed its output targets up to 2012 in response to the global economic downturn.
The decision more than halves the production target for civil airliners to 185 aircraft between 2009 and 2012, threatening short-term production of the Sukhoi Superjet 100 (SSJ 100) regional jet. The previous target was to produce more than 400 aircraft in the same period, more than half of which would have been SSJs.
UAC says it is taking a necessary step in response to the overall drop in demand for new aircraft as passenger and cargo traffic weakens.
The new plan envisages the production of 118 Superjets in the period, compared with earlier planning for 322 – a cut of 63 percent. Output of Ilyushin Il-96 airliners drops 25 percent to nine aircraft, while Tupolev Tu-204/214 jetliner production drops 18 percent to 58. Antonov An-148 regional jet production is to fall 52 percent from previous planning, to 44 aircraft.
However, Sukhoi Civil Aircraft (SCAC) has told media that it is still basing its plans on its existing order book for 98 aircraft and envisages raising Superjet production to 70 aircraft a year by 2012. SCAC is a joint venture between Sukhoi, which holds 75 percent, and Italy’s Finmeccanica with the remaining 25 percent – and the 75- to 95-seat Superjet is seen as reviving the local industry’s potential as an exporter of commercial aircraft and finally shedding its Soviet legacy.
SCAC rolled out its first SSJ 100 in September 2007. Attending the rollout ceremony at the KnAAPO production site in Komsomolsk-on-Amur, Russia’s Deputy Prime Minister Sergey Ivanov stressed the importance of the Superjet as “the first aircraft designed and produced in the new Russia”.
“Sukhoi Superjet 100 is a child of thousands of people around the globe, committed to the project success with their hearts and souls,” Sukhoi Chief Executive Mikhail Pogosyan said at the rollout. “It took us all six and a half years to get here, overcoming scepticism and finding our way in translation of international rules of play to [the] Russian aerospace industry and incorporating world industry standards in it.”
Flight testing
Flight testing of the aircraft began on 19 May last year at Dzemgi airport in Komsomolsk-on-Amur, with the first stage of testing completed in October 2008. The second prototype had its first flight in December, with improved flight control software developed from the results of earlier test flights.
As of January this year, the first two test aircraft had completed more than 90 flights totalling 300 hours, while the engines has completed some 2,300 hours of testing in flight and on the ground.
The test aircraft are baseline models with a 95-seat cabin, powered by twin PowerJet SaM146 turbofans. The company plans to make six pre-production airframes, two of which are being set aside for static testing.
Russia’s national flag carrier, Aeroflot, is the Superjet’s launch customer, with a firm order for 30 aircraft plus 15 options. Entry-into-service was originally scheduled for November 2008, although that date has slipped because flight testing has proceeded more slowly than expected, in part because of problems encountered with the engines.
No new delivery target has been specified as yet. It is understood that the first delivery may now be to Armenian carrier Armavia, based in Yeravan, which has ordered two plus two options and is understood to need a less-demanding configuration of aircraft than Aeroflot.
Deliveries to Western launch customer ItAli have been pushed back at least a year from the original plan of late 2009.
Other overseas carriers also placed early orders for the type, including Pescara-based ItAli Airlines, which is scheduled to take delivery of the first of 10 aircraft in 2009.
SCAC’s new export marketing unit Superjet International – a Venice, Italy-based joint venture between Sukhoi and Italy’s Alenia has been gunning for more Western customers, scoring successes with Switzerland’s AMA Group, which ordered five aircraft in VIP configuration, and an unidentified European customer which is acquiring 20 aircraft with five options. SCAC says it has been in talks with almost 30 airlines in Russia and overseas.
Soon after the aircraft rolled-out, Russian regional carrier Orenburg Airlines said it had a need for five SSJs, while Belarus-based Belavia confirmed it was evaluating the aircraft for its needs.
In June 2008, soon after the first prototype began flying, Sukhoi Chief Executive Mikhail Pogosyan said the manufacturer hopes to control 15 percent of the world’s regional airliner market by 2024. He confirmed that the company plans to develop cargo and executive-jet versions of the aircraft.
Gathering orders
By the middle of last year, Sukhoi had gathered 73 orders for the aircraft and was predicting it would hit 100 by the end of the year. As of December, the order book had swelled to 122 firm orders and 67 options from nine customers, including the first in South-East Asia: Indonesia’s Kartika Airlines, which has ordered 15 plus 15 options.
Sukhoi has said it estimates a global need for 5,700 regional aircraft with a capacity of as many as 100 seats up to 2024, adding that this is a conservative estimate. SCAC aims to claim some 15-20 percent of this market with the Superjet, selling at least 800 aircraft, of which some 300 will go to operators in Russia and the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS). The rest will go overseas, with particular attention to be focused on marketing in China, Europe, India and the Middle East.
KnAAPO says its production line will allow six Superjets to be assembled simultaneously, with each to be completed within 28 days.
The Superjet 100 was designed to be a competitor to Embraer’s 78- to 118-seat E-Jet family of aircraft and to Bombardier’s proposed CSeries. The programme was originally announced in 2001 as the Russian Regional Jet (RRJ), before being renamed in July 2006.
At a catalogue price of US$27.8 million, the Russian aircraft undercuts the Embraer 190 and 195 models by 18-22 percent – thanks, in part, to the region’s lower labour costs. Sukhoi’s Pogosyan has also said the aircraft’s operating costs will be “significantly lower” than rival models, with a targeted margin of 10-15 percent.
The aircraft is to be initially available in two versions: the Superjet 100-95, seating as many as 98 passengers in a single-class layout; and the smaller Superjet 100-75, accommodating up to 78 passengers. According to SCAC, the two versions have 95 percent commonality in design, with identical airframe components, wings, engines, cockpit and main systems, although the -95 is lengthened with two fuselage plugs to about 30m, compared with the -75’s length of 26m.
The high level of commonality “fosters training, maintenance and repair cost reductions when operating different types of the SSJ 100 aircraft as a single fleet,” Sukhoi says.
The larger variant will offer a basic maximum take-off weight of 42,250kg, while the -75 will take off at up to 38,820kg. The -95 will offer 21.97 cubic metres of cargo space in the hold, with 15.01 cubic metres available on its smaller stable-mate.
Stretched version
Sukhoi is now studying a stretched version of the aircraft to meet a perceived preference in the market for larger regional jets. The manufacturer is still defining the aircraft, but it is likely to accommodate about 20 more seats than the baseline aircraft – as many as 115 passengers.
Superjet International says it hopes to make an announcement about the stretch soon.
About 40 percent of the Superjet airframe production work is being handled by Sukhoi affiliate Novosibirsk Aircraft Production Association (NAPO), which is building the nose, the auxiliary power unit (APU), and the horizontal and vertical tail surfaces. KnAAPO is building the jetliner’s wings, as well as handling final assembly.
France-based Thales was awarded a contract by Sukhoi in June 2005 to provide the Superjet’s avionics suite, including cockpit displays, communications and navigation equipment. The flight deck will have a similar design to that of the Airbus A380, with a CMA-9000 flight management system (FMS) provided by Canada’s CMC Electronics. The aircraft’s flight control system is being produced jointly by Liebherr Aerospace, in Toulouse, and its Russian partner Teploobmennik, while Liebherr is also providing the aircraft’s environmental control system.
The Superjet’s cabin, including walls and ceiling, baggage bins and the passenger oxygen system have been designed by Florida-based B/E Aerospace. The aircraft’s tricycle undercarriage is being supplied Messier-Dowty, with Goodrich providing wheels and brakes.
The SaM146 engines have been developed by PowerJet, a joint venture of the SAFRAN Group’s Snecma unit and Russian aero-engine manufacturer NPO Saturn. The powerplant is rated at 14,000-17,500lb of thrust and fitted with a Snecma Full-Authority Digital Engine Control (FADEC) system.
Snecma is also responsible for the core engine, accessory drive, overall integration and engine flight-testing. For its part, NPO Saturn is in charge of components of the engine’s low-pressure section, engine assembly for the Superjet 100 and ground testing.
Engine programme
According to PowerJet, the SaM146 draws on Snecma’s experience with the CFM International CFM56 turbofan, which is one of the engines available for the best-selling Boeing 737 and Airbus A320 families of single-aisle aircraft. The new powerplant also incorporates advances from CFM’s TECH56 research and development programme – which helped generate the design for the SaM146’s swept, wide-chord fan blades – as well as a single-stage high pressure turbine derived from Snecma’s advanced military hot-section technology.
The SaM146 core features technologies validated by Snecma on the DEM21 demonstrator. It has fewer compressor stages and parts than rival powerplants, which means lower maintenance cost and weight, plus a substantial decrease in specific fuel consumption, PowerJet says.
Ground testing of the engine began at NPO Saturn’s Rybinsk facility in July 2006, while on-wing trials were scheduled to begin on 15 November, using an Ilyushin Il-76 test-bed aircraft. The flight trials have been taking place in Russia and France, using three test engines to measure operational performance, in-flight engine-restarts and adjust settings for the Superjet’s certification programme.
NPO Saturn’s SaM146 programme director Viktor Yudin has said the engine “steadily exceeds” its design thrust rating by 900lb, meaning that it could be easily adapted for a larger version of the Superjet.
Boeing looks to single-aisle future
Almost 45 years after the Boeing’s 737 project began, the US manufacturer is still a long way from defining a successor. Ian Goold explores Boeing's approach to replacing the world's most successful airliner.
The timing of new airliner programmes – such as a successor to the single-aisle Boeing 737, now in its fourth iteration as the "Next Generation" variant – is driven by factors including technology development, environmental standards, and market requirements, the US aircraft manufacturer says.
"One, customer requirements: operators are interested in fuel efficiency, but they also want long-term solutions,” says Jeff VerWey, director of integrated product strategy at Boeing Commercial Airplanes. “That means going through a very deliberate process to examine all alternatives, so that a decision can be sustained for 20-plus years."
VerWey, who is responsible for overseeing all areas of Boeing development, including propulsion systems, flight-decks, and passenger-cabin systems, points out that economic considerations encourage carriers to commit to specific designs. "There is a lot of incentive for airlines to standardise on types, because they don’t want to jump from platform to platform," he says.
Boeing characterises future market requirements in terms of factors such as acquisition or direct-operating costs, as well as by comparison with contemporary offerings. "We talk about it both ways. It is easier for operators to express relative improvements [over current equipment]," VerWey says.
Environmental requirements also influence when a new design might come to the market.
"Regulation is also a factor, such as possibly more-stringent noise standards, or the emergence of emissions-trading systems," VerWey says. A further major consideration is the availability of appropriate infrastructure, with airports being expanded to match traffic development, while the availability of new technology is an additional factor driving the timing of aircraft development programmes.
Technology benchmark
Boeing's latest 787 twin-aisle twinjet defines the current benchmark for technology that could be used in a new single-aisle offering, but the manufacturer does not intend to rest on its laurels.
"We have made bold steps with the 787, particularly in composite materials, very efficient engines, more electric systems, and the passenger experience,” says VerWey. “That has left us in a good position, but a next-generation aircraft has to be even better."
The latest composite materials will "certainly" be a big focus, as will more-compact systems, taking up less space in the smaller airframe. Since propulsion technology will yield half of the efficiency improvements sought by airlines, Boeing is working with engine manufacturers to understand the timing of available advances, which "points more toward the latter half of the next decade", the executive says.
Boeing’s 737-replacement study (737RS) group has been absorbed into broader future projects work. The 737RS exercise focussed on a follow-on design that also could also succeed the A320.
VerWey says the study made clear that airlines have "a very high expectation regarding fuel efficiency, operating cost, environmental performance – especially noise and carbon emissions – and cabin standards." When the study was brought back into Boeing's product-development domain, it was clear to the manufacturer that such performance was feasible, he says.
"First and foremost, customer focus is on fuel efficiency: think in terms of 20 percent [reduction] in fuel burn, then a minimum double-digit improvement in direct operating cost – remembering that fuel is about half your cash operating cost," VerWey says. Boeing also expects to have to provide at least 10 percent benefits in areas such as airframe and engine maintenance costs.
"In trying to achieve such developments, we had a renewed appreciation for the current 737: how good it is, and how difficult it will be to replace with a compelling value proposition," the Boeing director says.
A key consideration is how much capacity and range to offer, especially how big the smallest variant of a new aircraft family should be.
"That is one question we must resolve with customers," VerWey says. While both Boeing and Airbus offer nominal 100-seat versions of their single-aisle types, these 737-600 and A318 models are generally seen as ways to provide some lower capacity aircraft in fleets of larger variants.
Bigger is better
VerWey reports "some" interest in a 120-seater, but says that considerations of fuel costs, environmental issues, and infrastructure constraints lead airlines to see "the advantage of larger aircraft". The initial, 66- to 99-seat 737-100 was very quickly replaced by the 100- to 115-seat Series 200, but the family has become steadily larger. Today, the largest 189-seat 737-800 versions accommodate as many passengers as did the largest 707.
Rather, the big question is whether there is a future 100-seat market for Boeing and Airbus, given the aspirations of Bombardier, Embraer and various Asian manufacturers in that market segment.
"It is not concrete yet," says VerWey. "My sense is it's best to think of a 737[-type] family. The vast interest is in the 737-800." The capacity range of the new aircraft family will also influence the design of its fuselage.
Boeing's future-narrowbody fuselage concept is taking shape with input from industry consultation. Airlines want fuel efficiency, but also cabin width for passenger comfort and under-floor space for standard cargo containers.
Yet a larger fuselage compromises fuel performance. "So, we try to show what trading comfort will cost in fuel efficiency. [A large part of the solution lies in] what passengers are willing to pay for," VerWey says.
He adds that the range now offered by the 737NG remains “about right” for the successor aircraft. Some operators do not use all the range available, prompts the question of whether the aircraft could be more efficient with less built-in range.
“We are looking at required wing area or lower thrust, factors that [must] be balanced," says VerWey.
Composite structure
With Boeing improving its understanding of composite materials, VerWey expects that a new aircraft could be as much as 50 percent non-metallic. He adds, however, that the advantages of the material on a large aircraft do not translate directly into a smaller airframe. "Composites scale up more easily than they scale down," he says.
Boeing is exploring various engine configurations, taking into account new technology that is likely to emerge, such as open-rotor powerplants. The company has looked at conventional, underwing installations with more clearance, high-wing configurations, and rear-mounted engines.
"We have no tendency to jump one way; we are working to understand the implications of alternative [solutions]," VerWey says.
He confirms the company has conducted wind-tunnel testing with models, but says this has been more to validate computational fluid dynamics work, and "is certainly not to try to integrate entire airplanes".
VerWey acknowledges that Boeing has considered the possibility of a ‘cheap-and-cheerful’ model aimed squarely at low-cost carriers (LCCs), such as Southwest Airlines or Ryanair. However, such a possibility is complicated by the fact that "up to now, the LCCs haven't been operating from a single business model."
