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AVIATIONWEEK
& S PA C E T E C H N O L O G Y
May 16-29 . Volume 184 . Number 10
2022 Winner
56
The Boeing 747’s ability to launch after passing through weather
proved the system’s resilience in January, Virgin Orbit says.
Access AW&ST Online
Go to AviationWeek.com/AWST
WAR IN UKRAINE
DEFENSE
37 | Inside Russia’s failure to control
Ukrainian airspace
DEPARTMENTS
5 | Feedback
13 | Leading Edge
6 | Who’s Where 62-63 | Tech Take
8-9 | First Take
64 | Marketplace
10 | Up Front
65 | Contact Us
11 | Going Concerns 65 | Aerospace
Calendar
12 | The Launchpad
FEATURES
14 | Take 3
After 29 months, Boeing will again
try to fly its commercial space taxi,
the Starliner, to the space station
20 | Lunar Uber
Lockheed Martin-General Motors
lunar vehicle designed to transit
Moon autonomously for rendezvous
with incoming missions
32 | Regional Rollercoaster
Renewed focus on narrowbody
aircraft and the U.S. pilot shortage
challenge RJ operations
44 | Safe Efficiency
Aviation Week Network puts
Dassault’s flagship business jet
through its paces
50 | New Directions
Developed for Pegasus air launch,
the world’s last operational TriStar,
the L-1011, is pivoting to high-speed
test and launch vehicle markets
AviationWeek.com/AWST
SPACE
16 | Vega C will kick off revamp of
Europe’s space launch services
18 | Demonstrators smoothing path
toward UK ISR constellation
22 | JAXA and Toyota progress on
their lunar cruiser plan
DEFENSE
23 | New software pipeline seeks to
smooth agile path for F-35
24 | COVID-19 jumbles U.S. Army
armed scout schedule
COMMERCIAL AVIATION
25 | Airbus moves closer to rate as
supplier concerns persist
27 | JetBlue looks increasingly
vulnerable after Spirit bid fails
28 | Proposed Avianca-Viva merger
could foreshadow a trend
30 | Qantas confirms Airbus order for
Project Sunrise flights
FUEL
35 | Sustainable aviation fuel
production chases demand
CARGO
36 | Middle-mile logistics need spurs
autonomous aircraft development
BUSINESS
41 | Czech manufacturer breaks free of
Russia sanctions uncertainty
42 | Follow the money: Who financed
Boeing deliveries in 2021
TECHNOLOGY
53 | Riding along for an L-1011 Air
launch flight demonstration
56 | Virgin Orbit plan targets
responsive space capability
60 | Pylon flight tests mark Roc
milestone toward hypersonic role
VIEWPOINT
66 | Are we witnessing the end of air
assault in Ukraine?
ON THE COVER
Northrop Grumman’s unique Lockheed L-1011 TriStar “Stargazer” is on the verge of a new lease
on life as a platform for hypersonic tests and next-generation space launch vehicles. Senior Editor
Guy Norris flew on the Stargazer as part of a special report from Mojave, California, which
includes updates on Stratolaunch’s Roc and Virgin Orbit’s Boeing 747-400 air launch platforms.
It starts on page 50. NASA photo.
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AVIATION WEEK & SPACE TECHNOLOGY/MAY 16-29, 2022 3
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FEEDBACK
JOEPRIESAVIATION.NET
electric for decades!” they
said, because the Jindivik
had been designed with
electric control actuators.
I have often wondered
whether the team that
modified the F-16 had been
able to learn anything from
our experience of Jindivik
operations.
HOW LOW CAN YOU GET?
The recent concerns about 5G transmissions interfering with radio altimeters (“5G Approvals Leave Gap in
U.S. Regional Networks,” Feb. 7-20,
p. 34) reminded me of an incident
during the 1980s, when I was the flighttest manager for the Jindivik target
drone, a 3,000-lb. aircraft powered by
a Rolls-Royce Viper turbojet.
We had set up a test to fly the aircraft
at 500 kt. and 50 ft. over the Irish Sea
under radio altimeter control. It was
pretty hairy for a 1950s design with
a flight control computer that still
contained a few vacuum tubes! There
happened to be a Defense Ministry
officer from the finance department
on site at the Llanbedr airfield dealing
with a different project. Out of courtesy, we invited him to sit in on the
preflight briefing.
When he realized how risky this
trial was, he was concerned that the
aircraft (which was owned by the
Defense Ministry and cost the best
part of $1 million) might be lost at
such a low altitude. He tried to insist
that we should fly higher, but we
pointed out that we were tasked with
providing a target that would simulate a sea-skimming anti-ship missile.
The discussion became quite heated
and dragged on for about 10 min.
A young BAe engineer present was
getting very bored by this time and
suddenly interjected, “Would you feel
more comfortable if we conducted
the trial at low tide?” The Defense
Ministry guy felt able to back down
without losing face.
While working on the Jindivik, a
copy of AW&ST dropped on my desk.
The cover picture was of a modified
F-16 under the headline “World’s
First All-Electric Airplane.” Its flying
controls had been converted from
hydraulic to electric actuation. My
team chuckled. “We’ve been flying allAviationWeek.com/AWST
Austin Parfitt, Bristol,
England
RISKY BUSINESS
I much enjoyed your article on fuel
for airlines, “High Prices Put FuelHedging Policies in the Spotlight”
(April 4-17, p. 66). A deeper dive into
attempts to manage fuel costs: Back
in the 1970s, American Airlines had a
subsidiary named American Airlines
Energy Corp. whose job was to find,
drill and produce petroleum that
could be refined into Jet A. American
Airlines sold the company in the late
’70s—too many dry holes and no oil
to be found.
Hedging futures on petroleum is
like playing toss with a lit stick of
dynamite: Someone is going to get
hurt. I worked for an energy company
that hedged a certain percentage of its
production. In 2019, it hedged 75%, and
the price of oil increased drastically
during the hedge period. The company
left $800 million on the table.
There is only one other business
that is more risky than airlines—the
oil business.
James Sherrard, Plano, Texas
PROJECT SEWERS
I read with high interest Alex Kovnat’s
letter “Natural Gas” (April 18-May 1,
p. 5) regarding the potential for use
of biomethane in aviation and space
applications.
In 1971, as a senior engineering
project at the University of Denver,
I collected natural gas from the Littleton, Colorado, sewage treatment plant,
which I then used to fire a 1-lb.-thrust
laboratory methane/gaseous-oxygen
rocket engine. In my project paper,
I proposed that biogenerated methane
could be used for reaction controls on
long-duration spacecraft. The project
was called “Space Ecology Waste
Energy Recovery Systems” (Project
SEWERS). I also expressed the potential for the monthly production from
the sewage treatment plant to heat
10,000 houses in the metropolitan
area by utilizing the wasted gas being
flared off from the plant. Considering
Mr. Kovnat’s thoughts, it is interesting
to note the use of methane by SpaceX
on its Starship.
James W. Barnard, Highlands Ranch,
Colorado
ONLINE, in response to “Pratt Outlines
Hydrogen Steam-Injection Engine Concept” (May 2-15, p. 48), Paladin writes:
I wonder if PW did a trade against
using the existing method of water
injection? It seems the weight and
complexity may not be worth it.
ABOUT “Boeing Works On 737-7
And 737-10 Approvals Amid Strict FAA
Scrutiny” (April 18-May 1, p. 48),
John L. comments:
Why drop the MAX 7? Southwest
has bought a boatload of them.
Granted w/o Southwest it probably
would be a lost cause. And the
MAX 10 looks like a reasonably good
seller too. It’s the MAX 9 that’s not
selling. Likely to be dropped once
the current backlog is delivered.
AND regarding “U.S. Air Force’s
Premier Test Wing Revamps Ahead
Of B-21, NGAD” (April 18-May 1, p. 32),
JLWSO writes:
The 53rd Wing’s goal of shifting as
much testing as possible into the
virtual environment shows they are
not paying attention to what has
happened with the F-35. . . . [T]he
biggest issue is how to build a simulation of advanced, sometimes
nonexistent threats and believe the
answers that come out. There is no
way currently to validate such results
in the open air, and our track record
with “high fidelity” digital simulations
is nothing to brag about.
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AVIATION WEEK & SPACE TECHNOLOGY/MAY 16-29, 2022
5
WHO’S WHERE
Todd Harrison has
been named Meta
Aerospace senior vice
president and head
of research. He was
director of both
defense budget analysis and the Aerospace Security Project as well as a
senior fellow in the International
Security Program at the Center for
Strategic and International Studies.
Charles Blankenship, Jr., has been
appointed Woodward chairman,
CEO and president. He succeeds
Tom Gendron, who has retired after
31 years with the fluid and motioncontrol systems supplier.
Hoverfly Technologies has promoted
Kevin S. Cochie to chief strategy officer.
A retired U.S. Army officer, Cochie was
vice president and general manager of
Teledyne FLIR systems’ airborne sensor
business and before that vice president
and general manager for defense and
national security at Erickson Helicopter.
MTU has elected Lars Wagner as
chief operating officer. He is to become
CEO on Jan. 1, 2023.
He succeeds Reiner
Winkler, who will
leave the company
at year-end.
Erin Defosse has
joined Slingshot
Aerospace as chief
operating officer and
Belinda Marchand
has been promoted
to chief scientist; she
was director of astrodynamics and space
systems research and
development. Defosse held commercial
space technology leadership roles after
starting out at NASA. Marchand, a former McDonnell Douglas engineer who
transitioned to academia, has held
concurrent appointments at The Johns
Hopkins University’s Applied Physics
Laboratory and The Aerospace Corp.
Intelsat has filled four key positions:
Anthony O’Brien has joined the company as chief financial officer; he was
corporate chief financial officer at Raytheon Technologies. Michael DeMarco
has been promoted to chief commercial officer from chief services officer.
Clay McConnell has joined as senior
vice president of corporate communications and marketing; he was Airbus
Americas’ communications head.
Jeff Sare has joined as president of
commercial aviation; he was vice president and connectivity business segment leader at Panasonic Avionics.
Wisk Aero has hired Tyler Painter
as chief financial officer. He had been
chief financial officer at Surf Air
Mobility, Fair Financial Corp., the
Solazyme biotech
company and corporate treasurer and
vice president of
finance for Wind
River Systems.
Sabrina Barbera
has been appointed
executive director
and Anne-Pascale
Guedon executive
vice president of
business development at Blade
Europe, the Parisheadquartered Blade Air Mobility
subsidiary. Barbera was Airbus
Helicopters vice president of simulation and training. Guedon was Airbus
vice president of international
business development.
Aviation industry software and
technology provider ATP has hired
Drew Plisco as chief financial officer.
He was chief financial officer of Holon
Solutions and Infutor Data Solutions
and held senior leadership positions at
Sage Group, First
Advantage and SAP.
Mark Humphreys
has been named
director and chief
pilot of the Disney
Aviation Group.
Humphreys had held
many executive roles in 36 years with
the FAA, including as flight standardization board chairman. He led FAA
pilots in development and certification
for multiple aircraft types and set the
FAA’s training, checking and currency
requirements for future pilots.
Dornier Technology has promoted
Nikos Gitsis to CEO from president
and has hired Joseph Espiritu as chief
operating officer. Espiritu was deputy
general manager and vice president
of operations at Cebu Pacific Air’s
aircraft maintenance organization,
Aviation Partnership
Philippines.
Carol Marsh has
been named head of
digital systems at
Celestia UK. She is
chair of the Institution of Engineering
and Technology council and of the
Engineering Policy Group Scotland.
Marsh held various senior roles at
Leonardo, most recently as deputy
head of electronics engineering.
Rocket Lab has hired Arjun Kampani
as senior vice president, general counsel and corporate secretary. Kampani
held a similar multipronged leadership
role with Aerojet Rocketdyne.
Commercial space company Momentus has appointed Charles Chase vice
president of engineering, Nick Zello
vice president of operations and
Gary Bartmann vice president of
supply chain. Chase founded and led
Revolutionary Technology Programs.
Zello was vice president of smallsat
operations and delivery at Maxar
Technologies and before that was with
SSL for eight years. Bartmann was
director and vice
president of supply
chain at United
Launch Alliance and
Lockheed Martin.
John Curry has
been named chief
mission operations
officer and Teresa
Burchfield chief
financial officer at
Sidus Space. Curry is
a former NASA flight
director and program
manager and was
program director for Dream Chaser
crew and cargo designs at Sierra
Nevada Corp. and senior director and
test and flight operations deputy at
Blue Origin. Burchfield had a 19-year
tenure at Tupperware, where she was
most recently vice president and
chief financial officer of the U.S. and
Canada business unit. c
To submit information for the Who’s Where column, send Word or attached text files
(no PDFs) and photos to: whoswhere@aviationweek.com For additional information on
companies and individuals listed in this column, please refer to the Aviation Week Intelligence
Network at AviationWeek.com/awin For information on ordering, telephone
U.S.: +1 (866) 857-0148 or +1 (515) 237-3682 outside the U.S.
6 AVIATION WEEK & SPACE TECHNOLOGY/MAY 16-29, 2022
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NOVEMBER 3, 2022
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DEFENSE
The South Korean Air Force is preparing
to purchase 60 additional fighters to replace its F-4 and F-5 aircraft five years
sooner than planned.
Australia will spend $8 billion to buy
Boeing AH-64 Apache attack helicopters and Sikorsky MH-60R maritime
helicopters, Prime Minister Scott Morrison announced.
Poland says it will protect Slovakia’s airspace should the latter decide to ground
its fleet of Mikoyan MiG-29s and transfer the fighter aircraft to Ukraine.
Switzerland’s government says it will
sign a contract to buy its planned
fleet of 36 Lockheed Martin F-35 Joint
SPACE
NASA’s Space Launch System heavylift rocket will head back to its Kennedy
Space Center launchpad in June for a
second run at a wet dress rehearsal.
QUOTED
“WE ARE ON THE VERGE OF
TURNING THE CORNER.”
Satellite air launch company Virgin
Orbit has secured an agreement with
conversion specialist L3 Harris Technologies to acquire two Boeing 747-400
airframes, with first delivery in 2023.
The highly anticipated debut of the
Maxar WorldView Legion high-resolution Earth-observation satellite constellation is slipping to September as the
Colorado company works through a test
configuration anomaly.
UK space startup Orbex has unveiled a
fully completed prototype of the company’s Prime satellite launcher.
COMMERCIAL AVIATION
Boeing delivered just 28 737 MAXs in
April, complicating efforts to clear a
backlog that stood at 320 aircraft at the
end of March. The company blamed the
slowdown on supply issues with wiring
connectors (page 11).
BOEING
Finland’s leaders say the country “must
apply” for NATO membership, in response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine,
and is expected to apply at NATO’s Madrid summit in June.
Strike Fighters by the end of March
2023, before an offer deadline expires.
—BRIAN WEST,
Boeing chief financial officer,
to the Goldman Sachs Industrials
and Materials Conference May 11,
promising the company will return
to delivering “great airplanes
and defense products.”
Thales’ PureFlyt next-generation flight
management system was selected by Airbus for its commercial airliners in a key
breakthrough for the avionics company.
VIEW FROM NORTHERN VIRGINIA
Boeing HQ Bound for DC Area
Aviation Week & Space Technology
won a Jesse H. Neal Award for Best
Industry Coverage for articles covering
the dawn of commercial human spaceflight. Recognized in the award were
Irene Klotz, space editor; Jen DiMascio,
executive editor for defense and space;
Andrea Hollowell, managing editor;
Lisa Caputo, art director; Thomas De
Pierro, content design specialist; Jack
Freifelder, copy editor; Audra Avizienis,
copy editor/production editor; and
Michael Lavitt, director, editorial
content production. Aviation Week’s
coverage included the opening of Blue
Origin and Virgin Orbit flights to paying customers, the growth of civilian
spaceflight and articles on actor
William Shatner’s trip to space on a
Blue Origin rocket, as well as a Russian
crew filming part of a feature film on
the International Space Station.
Boeing will relocate its corporate headquarters from Chicago
to Arlington, Virginia, home of the Pentagon and just across the
Potomac River from the White House, Capitol and FAA.
CEO and President Dave Calhoun says Northern Virginia’s
“proximity to our customers and stakeholders and its access to
world-class engineering and technical talent” were key factors in
the company’s decision to leave its signature Chicago office tower
after 21 years. The headquarters will move to an existing office
building that Boeing opened in 2014 near the Pentagon and adjacent to Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport. The facility
already houses the headquarters of the company’s Defense, Space
and Security unit, which moved there in 2017 from St. Louis.
Boeing also says it will create a new research and technology center in Northern Virginia to focus on cybersecurity, autonomous operations, quantum sciences and software and systems engineering.
The company moved its headquarters to Chicago in 2001 after
85 years in Seattle. That switch was meant to signal Boeing’s
transformation into an aerospace and defense giant following its
merger with McDonnell Douglas.
8 AVIATION WEEK & SPACE TECHNOLOGY/MAY 16-29, 2022
AviationWeek.com/AWST
Air Lease Corp. blamed more than $800
million in write-offs related to Russian
aircraft seizures for a net loss in the
first quarter, but it remains bullish on
the outlook for lessors for the rest of
this year.
BUSINESS AVIATION
Bombardier continues to see strong demand for Challenger and Global business jets, with its backlog growing $1.3
billion during the first quarter of 2022.
200
Estimated
180
Regional Jet
160
Turboprop
140
Widebody Jet
120
Narrowbody Jet
100
80
60
40
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Norman Mineta, the longest-serving U.S.
transportation
secretary and a
difference-making advocate for
the nation’s aviation system, died
May 4 at the age
of 90. During a
5.5-year tenure
under President George W. Bush, Mineta
ordered the grounding of all civil aircraft during the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks
and guided the formation of the Transportation Security Administration.
Born in San Jose, California, Mineta
was among 120,000 Japanese Americans interned during World War II. As
Transportation Secretary, he insisted
20
ALEX WONG/GETTY IMAGES
Air Cargo Conversions Take Flight
Source: AeroDynamic Advisory
Surging demand for air cargo will underpin a more than doubling of aircraft conversions, to 180 by the mid-2020s from about 80 a year before the COVID-19 crisis,
AeroDynamic Advisory Senior Associate Mike Stengel told Aviation Week’s recent
MRO Americas show in Dallas. He forecasts cargo conversions will then ease to
140 annually by the end of the decade.
that post-9/11 airline security protocols
not include racial profiling. Mineta was
a U.S. Army intelligence officer during
the Korean War as well as a councilman
and mayor in San Jose and Democratic
congressman from 1975 to 1995, includ-
ing seven years as the chair of the
House aviation subcommittee. He also
served as commerce secretary in the
final year of the Clinton administration,
becoming the first Asian-American
cabinet member. c
95 YEARS AGO IN AVIATION WEEK
In January 1927, Capt. Charles Lindbergh sent a telegraph
to this magazine asking about the terms of the 1919 Raymond
Orteig prize, which offered $25,000 (more than $400,000 in
2022 dollars) to the first aviator making a nonstop flight from
New York to Paris. Four months later, Lindbergh made his
historic 33.5-hr. journey, touching down at Le Bourget Airport
on May 21 and landing on the cover of our May 30 edition. His
feat was considered so momentous that the 25-year-old aviator
was featured on our cover the following week, waving from the
balcony of the Aero Club in Paris, and again on June 20, when
U.S. President Calvin Coolidge decorated Lindbergh with the
Distinguished Flying Cross. “In all the realm of sport or science
or adventure no greater honor has ever come to an individual,”
our editors wrote. “To the general public so long skeptical of
the feasibility of the airplane for long flights, the success of this
young American must come as a revelation.”
Subscribers can access every issue of Aviation Week back to 1916 at: archive.aviationweek.com
AviationWeek.com/AWST
AVIATION WEEK & SPACE TECHNOLOGY/MAY 16-29, 2022
9
COMMENTARY
UP FRONT
ALEX KRUTZ
THE COMMERCIAL AEROSPACE
industry has had a tough several years.
While resiliency has overall been strong
for most of the supply chain, it also looks
more tenuous than after past downturns such as after
Sept. 11, 2001, and the 2008 financial crisis. Now is
the time for “shared investment” across the industry
versus financial engineering.
Balance sheets now are heavier with debt, and material and labor costs are increasing because of
40-year-high inflation. Airframer OEM production
volumes are still lower overall, with slower recovering
demand and excess inventory from overproduction
during the pandemic-induced economic downturn.
Sharing the Burden
Why OEMs should pursue
a shared-investment supply chain strategy
Supply chain managers arguably are in a uniquely
challenging position at this juncture, as multiple industry headwinds and several years of exogenous
events remain. Unlike past recoveries, uneasiness and
instability will characterize a return to “normal operations” and will continue to test supply chain management reactively.
Supply chain strategies once developed and implemented within the business are vulnerable and could
rapidly morph due to exogenous events and the outcomes from unmitigated risks that are affecting the
commercial aerospace industry.
Such challenging times increase the focus on supply chain actions and decision-making process. Supply
chain leaders are pushed to reduce costs and ensure
work transfers are successful while cost ratios are positive. Make/buy strategies are adjusted per management guidance while having to simultaneously ensure
high-quality parts are delivered on time.
The OEMs in the past took actions such as the Airbus
SCOPE+ and Boeing Partnership for Success (PFS),
which have led to supplier profitability challenges.
SCOPE+ pressed its suppliers to reduce costs, renegotiate contracts and trim expenses. PFS was focused on
supplier cost-reduction sharing, extending supplier invoice settlement periods and negotiating revised terms.
But today’s downstream business situation does not
warrant those OEM supply chain strategies and some
currently in progress. Recent initiatives such as negotiating prices down to secure a renewed contract and
applying debits to suppliers for quality rejections are
becoming increasingly detrimental to supplier relationships. At this point, positive engagement with the
supply chain should be the focus.
The OEMs will need Tier 1s to invest their own capital expenditures (CAPEX) for future activities. It is
likely that past OEM supply chain cost initiatives will
10 AVIATION WEEK & SPACE TECHNOLOGY/MAY 16-29, 2022
further constrain CAPEX investments in future programs. Consequently, when the OEMs launch a new
airplane program, they will need supplier partners to
help shoulder the burden of development, which could
be strained if new cost initiatives are pursued.
Further down the supply chain, key Tier 2 suppliers
with which the OEMs directly contract are experiencing
operating-margin pressures. The graph below indicates
how these suppliers are also feeling the “crunch,” as
recently discussed on Aviation Week’s Check 6 podcast.
The Tier 2s have a contractual misalignment in that
they have longer contract periods with the OEMs but
shorter contract periods within their subtier suppliers.
This could create sourcing challenges with suppliers
that walk away after one- or two-year contracts, leading
to the additional expense of requalifying new sources.
Publicly Traded Tier 2s’ Operating Margin Average
15%
10
5
0
2015
2016
2017
2018
2019
2020
2021
Source: Bloomberg Intelligence
The OEMs have previously exercised supply chain
strategies that can help. For instance, Boeing consolidated raw materials through TMX Aerospace and
aggregated volume orders for the supply chain, which—
along with a focus on streamlining fasteners—were a
win-win for Boeing and its suppliers.
The OEMs further can work with suppliers on technical synergies for product improvements by reviewing
requirements, specifications and engineering changes
that could yield cost-reduction opportunities on a
shared basis. Once a supplier’s nonrecurring engineering expenses are paid back through the cost-reduction
changes, overall cost reduction could be split 50-50.
OEM relationships with suppliers are important for
the long-term viability of the commercial aerospace
industry. Commercial suppliers now have more choices
to diversify into defense, space and even urban air mobility markets, among others. In today’s environment,
working through the principles of a shared-investment
strategy with OEMs and suppliers will prove to be
more successful for the entire industry. c
Alex Krutz is managing director at Patriot Industrial Partners, an
aerospace and defense advisory firm that focuses on manufacturing
strategy and supply chain optimization.
AviationWeek.com/AWST
COMMENTARY
GOING CONCERNS
MICHAEL BRUNO
PROFESSIONAL JOURNALISTS MAY
not be good for much, but we know when
a conversation turns. As veteran observers and want-to-be novelists, we sense
moments when the zeitgeist changes and new narratives snowball into a critical mass or even a consensus.
When the future story of Boeing is written, early 2022
may be one such pivot point.
whether Boeing can meet its self-imposed promise to
be cash-flow positive this year. For others, the ongoing
red ink is just another reason to question the company’s wherewithal. Increasingly, the cognoscenti are
discussing once-blasphemous possibilities out loud.
Aviation Week guest columnists Richard Aboulafia
of AeroDynamic Advisory, Ron Epstein of Bank of
America and Sash Tusa of Agency Partners discussed
the prospect of Boeing breaking up on recent Defense
and Aerospace Report podcasts. And Lexington Institute Chief Operating Officer Loren Thompson—a
paid advocate for Boeing and other companies that
Boeing cannot shake the specter
fund his industry think tank—in a late-April column
in Forbes lumps current issues in a list of existential
of an existential crisis
crises that Boeing has faced before.
“But today feels different, because the danger
The catalyst came April 27 when Boeing reported
seems to be driven mainly by problems within Boeing
first-quarter losses. Almost universally, financial anarather than externalities,” Thompson writes. “The
lysts expressed dismay and disappointment, not
company isn’t likely to survive on its current vector.
because of the losses themselves but their breadth and
Either management will improve performance, or
depth. Many observers called it a “kitchen-sink”
Washington will need to step in.”
report—an allusion to the American idiom “everything
To be clear, those commentators are
but the kitchen sink.” In other words,
not themselves advocating for Boeperhaps the report aimed to purge all
ing’s breakup. But the fact that they
bad news. The problem is that Wall
are publicly mulling whether Boeing
Street thought Boeing did that already
faces insurmountable challenges is
in January, if not also last year.
telling. It begs the question of what
“Just when you think things can’t
should be done.
get any worse at Boeing, they do,”
Thompson seizes on Boeing’s current
lamented Vertical Research Partners
situation to lobby for Washington to do
analyst Rob Stallard.
something “constructive to support its
Boeing’s revenue for the quarter
recovery.” Others suggest the comended March shy of $14 billion, down
pany somehow form a leading internal
8% year-over-year. Its net loss more
power center around engineering, even
than doubled, to $1.2 billion, as did loss
dismantling the Chicago headquarters
per share at $2.06. Cash burned in opand moving the corner office back to
erations was $3.2 billion, slightly betWashington’s Puget Sound area.
ter than the burn in the first quarter of
Regardless, several observers agree
2021. Total debt stood at $57.7 billion,
Boeing CEO Dave Calhoun
with analyst Rob Spingarn of Melius
down $300 million from the prior
Research, who suggests that Boeing
year—but Boeing’s cash on hand also
faced questions about
engineers simply are stretched too
dropped by one-fourth to $12.3 billion.
leadership on the latest
thin. “We think ultimately the issue
Net debt at the end of March was
quarterly teleconference.
here is Boeing lost a lot of engineers
$45.4 billion, worryingly up from
during the pandemic to early retirement, furloughs,
around $42 billion at the end of 2021. Boeing’s own soetc., and now has to reprioritize engineering resources
called core loss per share of $2.75 blew past analyst
among various programs,” he says.
consensus expectations of just a $0.25 loss.
During the quarterly teleconference, Spingarn
While analysts anticipated potential charges repressed Boeing CEO Dave Calhoun about it, who delated to the effects of the Russian invasion of Ukraine,
murred. “I don’t attribute our certification issues and
inflation, labor shortages and other pandemic-related
timelines to engineering shortfalls in any way,” Calhoun
costs, many observers were stunned by ongoing prosaid. He further reiterated that Boeing has made engigrammatic write-offs and pushbacks. “Chaos ensued
neering changes since the 737 MAX debacle.
when Boeing disclosed [about] $2.8 billion of combined
Whatever the answer, there is unlikely to be a quick
Boeing Defense and Space program charges and unrefix. Boeing has been placed in the “show me” category,
lated Boeing Commercial Airplanes program delays
and stakeholders expect more to be done to make a
that will sap Boeing’s long-awaited free-cash-flow redifference. Time will tell what corrective action will be
covery in 2022-23,” defense industry consultant Jim
necessary to right Boeing. But many observers say
McAleese noted.
time is running out for the status quo. c
Doubts among financial analysts are growing as to
Groundhog Day
BOEING
AviationWeek.com/AWST
AVIATION WEEK & SPACE TECHNOLOGY/MAY 16-29, 2022 11
COMMENTARY
THE LAUNCHPAD
IRENE KLOTZ
SCIENTISTS’ BLUEPRINT FOR THE
the ability to directly sample, in large volume, material
coming from the subsurface oceans,” Canup says.
next decade of planetary exploration features flagship missions to Uranus and to
The spacecraft would operate both in orbit around
Saturn’s ocean-bearing moon Enceladus
Enceladus and then from the moon’s surface, where it
as part of a multifaceted initiative to answer questions
would collect material that rains down on it from the
about the formation of the Solar System and to search
plumes and actively scoop samples for analysis.
for life beyond Earth.
In addition to the multibillion-dollar flagship misThe National Academies of Sciences, Engineering,
sions, such as the ongoing Mars Sample Return camand Medicine’s latest decadal surpaign—the top priority of the last
decadal survey—the National
vey, released in April, concludes
that the Uranus Orbiter and Probe
Academies want NASA to retain a
(UOP) should be the highest-priormix of planetary science programs
ity large mission because of what it
by funding low- and medium-price
can reveal about giant icy worlds,
missions. The report recommends
which may be the most common
hiking Discovery mission cost caps
type of planet in the galaxy.
to $800 million and boosting fundScientists want a flagship
The advantage of a dedicated
ing for New Frontiers missions to
mission to Uranus
mission to Uranus instead of Nep$1.65 billion in fiscal 2025 dollars.
tune—neither of which has been
The survey also advises NASA
visited since NASA’s Voyager 2
and the National Science Foundation, which co-sponsored the
spacecraft flybys in 1986 and 1989,
respectively—is that all the technolreport, to increase funding for reogy for the UOP is in hand today.
search and analysis, a necessary
“Both Uranus and Neptune are
step to ensure a new generation of
amazing objects,” says Southwest
scientists and engineers—with an
Research Institute planetary scienemphasis on building workforce
diversity, equity, inclusivity and
tist Robin Canup, who co-chaired
accessibility—will have the skills
the decadal survey steering committee. “Understanding the compofor the heavy lift ahead. The goal:
sition and the properties of either
transformative advances in human knowledge and understandone would revolutionize our understanding of ice giant systems and
ing about the origin and evolution
Solar System origins.”
of the Solar System and about life
Uranus, the seventh planet from
beyond Earth.
the Sun, is a primordial system of
Rather than focus on destinaNASA/JPL
tions, the report identifies three
multiple large satellites, some of
which may harbor oceans beneath their frozen surfaces.
high-level scientific themes—origins, worlds and proNeptune, the eighth planet, has a single large satellite,
cesses, and life and habitability—and 12 key questions
Triton, that is believed to be a captured Kuiper Belt obto help set research focus and guide the selection of
ject. The retrograde-orbiting Triton has an atmosphere
missions. The topics include:
and plumes and may also be an ocean world.
■ Original conditions of the Solar System and how plan“Both of these would transform our knowledge, but
etary building blocks formed.
what proved to be the distinguishing factor was techni■ Origin and evolution of the giant gas outer planets.
cal readiness,” Canup says. “For the Uranus Orbiter and
■ Origin of asteroids and volatile elements that formed
the inner planets, including Earth.
Probe, we have an end-to-end viable mission concept
right now on currently available launch vehicles.”
■ How rocky planets formed atmospheres, magnetoOnce at Uranus, which rotates at a nearly 90-deg.
spheres and climates, and how they evolved.
angle from the plane of its orbit (scientists do not know
■ How planets form rings, moons and other features.
why), the probe would be released to sample the atmo■ Origin and evolution of life on Earth and what that
sphere as it descends into the planet. That would be
reveals about the habitability of other worlds.
followed by a multiyear orbiter tour to investigate Ura■ Determining if there is or was life elsewhere in the
nus’ satellites, rings, atmosphere and magnetosphere.
Solar System.
The survey recommends NASA initiate funding for UOP
■ What the evolution of the Solar System reveals about
in its fiscal 2024 budget and target launch in 2031-38.
extrasolar planetary systems.
The second priority flagship mission, the Enceladus
The 782-page report, titled “Origins, Worlds, and Life:
Orbilander, would attempt to determine if the Saturn
A Decadal Strategy for Planetary Science and Astrobimoon, which is jetting material from its subsurface into
ology 2023-2032,” is available at the National Academies
space, is inhabited. “With its active plumes, you have
website: nap.nationalacademies.org/download/26522 c
Planetary
Priorities
12 AVIATION WEEK & SPACE TECHNOLOGY/MAY 16-29, 2022
AviationWeek.com/AWST
COMMENTARY
LEADING EDGE
GRAHAM WARWICK
HYDROGEN IS GAINING MOMENTUM
keep it fluid until the last moment before it’s combusted,
as the zero-emission fuel of the future for
and that allows us to deal with the potential corrosivity.”
aviation, but the technology requires masThere are several challenges to using ammonia as an
sive investment in new infrastructure as
aviation fuel, and corrosiveness is one of them. Others
are its toxicity, combustion stability and the potential
well as completely new propulsion systems or aircraft
for unburned ammonia in the engine exhaust, which is
designs if it is to be used to its full potential.
considered unacceptable.
Aviation H2, an Australian startup that has set the
aggressive goal of flying the country’s first hydro“Ammonia becomes corrosive when it’s near its boiling
gen-powered aircraft by
point and is becoming a gas,”
mid-2023, has selected an
Mayer says. “But when it’s
alternative decarbonization
liquid, it’s not a problem. So
we need to keep it liquid unpath it says will allow use of
existing engines, aircraft and
til the combustion chamber,
infrastructure.
where we atomize it,” hence
The company plans to use
pressurization, Mayer says.
Is there another route to
liquid ammonia as a car“Ammonia is a dangerous
decarbonizing aviation?
bon-free fuel. Anhydrous
material unless you handle
it properly,” he says, adding
ammonia has less than half
the specific energy of kerothat both hydrogen and Jet A-1
sene, which reduces payload
fuel are dangerous, too, unless
and range capability, but it is
handled properly. “We are relying on modern technologies
lighter and easier to transport and store than hydrogen.
to make sure there’s no leakAmmonia brings its own chalage and it properly combusts.”
lenges, however.
In Aviation H2’s system, liqSydney-based Aviation H2
uid ammonia is pressure-fed
from the tanks to the engine
has partnered with Australian charter operator Falconand injected into the comAir, which will provide access
bustion chamber. More liquid
to its hangar at Bankstown
ammonia is then injected into
AVIATION H2
Airport and help the startup
the engine exhaust, like an afacquire engines and a Dassault Falcon 50 business jet
terburner, to remove the NOx.
(pictured) to test ammonia-fueled propulsion.
Drawbacks to ammonia are the potential for incomplete
Liquid ammonia was selected after a three-month
combustion, slow flame propagation rates and the stability
feasibility study that looked at various carbon-free proof the flame in the combustion chamber. To overcome these
pulsion paths. “Our objective was to come up with a
variables, some of the liquid ammonia is fed to a cracker
technology that allows us to convert existing aircraft,”
where it is broken down to produce a small amount of
says Helmut Mayer, Aviation H2 director.
pure hydrogen that is injected to stabilize the flame.
The study concluded that batteries are too heavy to
“[The hydrogen’s] purpose is to give us a way to make
retrofit. Gaseous hydrogen requires heavy, high-pressure we don’t have a flameout,” Mayer says. Heat from
sure tanks that pose safety risks. Liquid-hydrogen tanks
the engine exhaust is used to power the ammonia crackare lighter but large, and cryogenic storage at airports
er. The amount of hydrogen needed for stable combusand on aircraft poses operating challenges, he says.
tion will be determined by ground and flight tests.
Combusting hydrogen at high temperature in a turboAviation H2 plans to replace the center engine on the
fan engine produces nitrogen oxides (NOx). “Then you
Falcon trijet with a smaller engine modified to operate
have to break those down,” Mayer says. “The benefit of
on liquid ammonia. The startup has launched a capigoing to ammonia is you then have ammonia onboard
tal raise to buy high-time engines for modification and
ground testing over the next 12 months.
to break down those [nitrogen] oxides without using
In July, the startup plans to launch another capital
catalytic converters in the tailpipe.”
Using the fuel on board to remove NOx is one of the
raise to buy a high-time Falcon 50 for modification. The
attractions of ammonia, Mayer says. “And that’s added
plan is to fly the Falcon out to a remote area on its two
remaining certified engines, start the ammonia-fueled
to the fact that the ammonia can be stored much more
turbofan, conduct the test flight, then shut it down and
easily on the airplane.” Ammonia must be pressurized
fly back to Bankstown, Mayer says.
to stay liquid at temperatures up to 60C (140F)—but at
30-35 bar (435-500 psi), not the 700 bar for hydrogen.
After a successful test flight, Aviation H2 plans a pub“Once the ammonia leaves the tank, we will pressurlic listing on a major stock exchange by the end of 2023
ize it a bit more to manage it in the fuel system, maybe
to raise the funding required to certify and commercial200-550 bar,” he says. “That way we make sure that we
ize its ammonia propulsion system. c
The Ammonia
Alternative
AviationWeek.com/AWST
AVIATION WEEK & SPACE TECHNOLOGY/MAY 16-29, 2022 13
SPACE
> Europe’s space launch revamp p. 16
UK satellite demos p. 18
Lunar rover hopefuls p. 20 Japanese lunar cruiser p. 22
TAKE 3
Irene Klotz Cape Canaveral
> BOEING STARLINER
SPACE TAXI POISED
FOR THIRD TRY TO
REACH SPACE STATION
> CREWED FLIGHT TEST
TO FOLLOW
A
t one time, Boeing and SpaceX were neck-and-neck in parallel programs to provide crew transportation services to
the International Space Station for NASA. But the companies’ paths diverged after software and communications
glitches prevented Boeing’s CST-100 Starliner from reaching the
station during an uncrewed orbital flight test in December 2019.
Five months later, SpaceX completed a crewed flight test to the International Space Station (ISS), leading
to certification and the start of operational missions, the fourth of which is
underway. In addition, SpaceX flew two
private charters aboard Crew Dragon
spacecraft, demonstrating a key facet
of NASA’s strategy to leverage government investments for the commercial
development of low Earth orbit.
Boeing returned to Space Launch
Complex 41 at Cape Canaveral Space
Force Station on July 17, 2021, for a
second attempt to send an uncrewed
Starliner spacecraft on a shakedown
flight to the ISS. Liftoff aboard a
United Launch Alliance (ULA) Atlas
V was targeted for July 30, but NASA
decided to delay four days so ISS
teams could complete checkouts of the
newly arrived Russian Nauka module
before the Starliner docked.
The countdown for a launch attempt
on Aug. 3 was underway when Boeing
engineers detected 13 stuck oxidizer
isolation valves in the Starliner service
module propulsion system, delaying
launch for a day. When cycling the
valves and other attempts to resolve
the problem at the launchpad failed,
the rocket and capsule were rolled back
into ULA’s Vertical Integration Facility
(VIF) for additional troubleshooting.
Eventually, technicians were able to
command nine of the 13 stuck valves to
open, but the rest remained closed.
Two weeks later, the Starliner was
back at Boeing’s Kennedy Space Center production facility while engineers
delved into a technical puzzle that
would take months to fully resolve. After ruling out issues related to
avionics, flight software and wiring,
Boeing eventually homed in on what
would prove to be the root of the problem: ambient moisture interacting
with oxidizer vapors that had seeped
through the valves’ Teflon seals. That
allowed nitric acid to form, causing
corrosion that prevented the valves
from moving.
Boeing swapped the capsule’s service module—which was sent to
NASA’s White Sands Test Facility in
New Mexico for additional testing—
with the service module earmarked for
the follow-on Crewed Flight Test
(CFT). It also took steps to ensure
moisture from Florida’s humid air
would not reach the valves. “If you can
eliminate the moisture from the valve,
you won’t have this reaction and it
won’t lead to corrosion,” Michelle
Parker, Boeing vice president and deputy general manager for space and
launch, told reporters on May 3.
To resolve the issue, a potential path
for ambient air to enter the valve
through an electrical connector was
sealed, and the valves are now drypurged with gaseous nitrogen. Boeing
also delayed fueling the Starliner service module until closer to launch, reducing the time the nitrogen tetroxide
(NTO) propellant would be exposed to
the elements. Finally, the valves are now
cycled every 2-5 days prior to launch to
ensure they remain operational.
“There was a lot of work to go
through all of the details and ensure
that we’ve got this nailed,” Parker said.
“We’re confident we understand
the issue.”
Despite the remediations—and the
successful operation of the valves
14 AVIATION WEEK & SPACE TECHNOLOGY/MAY 16-29, 2022
UNITED LAUNCH ALLIANCE
during a Starliner service module hotfire test in May 2019 and the abbreviated Orbital Flight Test-1 (OFT-1) six
months later—the valve issue is
not closed.
“We have a usable solution for
OFT-2. We don’t expect to have any
issues,” Parker said. “We’ll look longterm and see if there are improvements to be made. The aluminum
housing [on the valves] may be one
piece of that, but right now we’re confident in the solution that we have.”
Boeing now says that contractor
Aerojet Rocketdyne did not meet design requirements for the Starliner’s
propulsion subsystem to include a 60day period between propellant load
and launch. Aerojet disagrees.
For each Starliner service module,
Aerojet provides: four launch abort
engines, each providing 40,000 lb. of
thrust and used only in case of a launch
vehicle failure; 20 orbital maneuvering
and attitude-control engines, each providing 1,500 lb. of thrust for abort, maneuvering and stage separation; and
28 reaction control system engines,
each providing 85 lb. of thrust for
on-orbit maneuvering. For each
Starliner capsule, Aerojet also provides 160 valves, 18 tanks and more
than 500 ft. of ducts, lines and tubing,
among other items.
AviationWeek.com/AWST
A Boeing CST-100 Starliner was attached
to a United Launch Alliance Atlas V on
May 4 in preparation for the uncrewed
Orbital Flight Test-2 to the space station.
Issues with oxidizer corrosion are
nothing new. During the space shuttle
program, for example, NASA wrestled
with moisture that caused reaction
control system thruster valves to stick.
“We had to take some mitigations to
eliminate moisture [from] forming iron
nitrates and things that caused the
valves to stick,” says Steve Stich, a former shuttle flight director who now
manages NASA’s Commercial Crew
Program. “It’s a long-term issue across
human and other spaceflight.”
Kathy Lueders, associate administrator for space operations adds:
“These propellant isolation valves, especially with NTO, are like the bane of
our existence. This is not a new phenomenon on the spacecraft side.”
Freshly fueled and kitted with valve
moisture mitigations, the as-yetunnamed Starliner Spacecraft 2—the
same capsule that was at the launchpad eight months ago—was rolled out
from Boeing’s Commercial Crew and
Cargo Processing Facility at the Kennedy Space Center on May 4 and attached to another Atlas V. Liftoff on the
OFT-2 mission is targeted for 6:54 p.m.
EDT on May 19, with a backup opportunity at 6:32 p.m. EDT on May 20.
If all goes well, 14 min. 54 sec. after
launch, the Atlas V’s dual-engine
Centaur upper stage will separate,
AviationWeek.com/AWST
leaving the Starliner on a 113-mi.-high
suborbital trajectory. The Starliner
will fire its orbital maneuvering and
attitude-control thrusters 16 min. later
to put itself into orbit. During OFT-1, a
misconfigured internal clock caused
the Starliner Spacecraft 3, named the
Calypso, to perform a series of maneuvers at the incorrect time and miss its
orbital insertion burn.
Ground controllers were able to
place the spacecraft in a lower but stable orbit, forgoing the ISS docking attempt. The capsule successfully parachuted to a landing in New Mexico on
Dec. 22. It was then returned to Florida for refurbishment and reflight in
late 2022 or 2023 on the CFT, which is
expected to be the third and final flight
test ahead of Boeing’s two-ship Starliner fleet entering commercial service.
For OFT-2, Boeing and NASA are
particularly interested in testing systems and procedures that were not
accomplished during OFT-1, mainly
ISS rendezvous and docking. Unlike
SpaceX’s Crew Dragon, which uses a
proprietary docking system, Boeing’s
Starliner is outfitted with a NASA
docking system, a version of which will
also be used on the agency’s deepspace Orion capsule.
“SpaceX designed their system to
be optimized for the Dragon vehicle in
terms of its mass, performance and
speed, velocity, closing rates and so
forth to the ISS,” says Stich. “The
NASA docking system is tunable for a
wider range of masses and conditions.
“For this flight, obviously, [the docking system] is optimized for Starliner,”
he adds. “Orion is using a derivative
that has a few changes for that vehicle’s power architecture and for the
space environment.”
En route to the station—a trip that
will take about 24 hr.—the capsule will
demonstrate that it can hold docking
attitude, receive commands from the
space station crew, and command holds
and retreats during final approach.
While docked, the Starliner will undergo a number of checkouts, including charging batteries, transferring
files through the ISS for downlink,
opening and closing the hatch, establishing joint ventilation with the station and transferring cargo. The Starliner is carrying about 500 lb. of
cargo—nearly all food—to the ISS and
will be returning with a 600-lb. load
that includes three reusable Nitrogen/
Oxygen Recharge System tanks.
NASA is eager to add Starliner
flight services to the SpaceX Crew
Dragon missions that currently ferry
astronauts to and from the ISS. “It’s
very important . . . to have our second
transportation system up and operational to continue our assured access
to ISS and also to grow the low-Earthorbit economy,” says Stich.
In addition to its $4.4 billion Commercial Crew flight service contract
with NASA, which covers six ISS
crew-rotation missions, Boeing is a
partner in the Blue Origin- and Sierra
Space-led Orbital Reef commercial
space station program under which
Boeing plans to offer crew transportation to and from low Earth orbit, a
laboratory module and other services.
SpaceX’s current Commercial Crew
contract with NASA, covering nine
ISS crew rotation missions, was worth
$3.5 billion as of March 31, NASA figures show.
Costs to resolve the Starliner’s technical issues, including purchasing additional launch services from ULA, are
being borne by Boeing, which has taken
$595 million in charges on the program
since 2019. “We’ve been a partner with
Boeing since the beginning of the Commercial Crew Program . . . and our intent is to have two certified space
transportation systems,” says Stich. c
AVIATION WEEK & SPACE TECHNOLOGY/MAY 16-29, 2022 15
ARIANESPACE IMAGES
SPACE
Avum+, uses liquid fuel. The fairing’s
diameter is now 3.3 m (9.4 ft.), enlarged from 2.8 m.
Ride-share schemes will be more
flexible with the Vega C—the greater
volume capacity allows different sizes
The Vega C is taller than its
predecessor, requiring the mobile
gantry to be modified accordingly.
Vega C Will Kick Off Revamp of
Europe’s Space Launch Services
>
>
ROCKET WILL OFFER IMPROVED CAPACITY AND FLEXIBILITY
DEVELOPMENT LAUNCH SCHEDULED FOR EARLY JULY
Thierry Dubois Lyon
E
urope’s spaceport in Kourou,
French Guiana, has been waiting
a long time for a new launcher.
Arianespace’s family of in-service rockets has been unchanged since 2012: the
heavy Ariane 5, medium-lift Soyuz and
light Vega. But Kourou is entering a
new era, where significant stages of
evolution will take place quickly.
The Vega C’s first launch campaign
marks the beginning of that phase.
For Europe’s space industry, it signals faster, continuous adaptation
to market needs with new and upgraded launchers.
The first Vega C is scheduled for
launch in early July. The inaugural
Ariane 6 will fly late this year or in
2023. Vega’s next version, the Vega E,
is slated for liftoff in 2026. In addition,
several improvements to the Ariane 6
are planned for this decade.
European space players are already
studying a family of launchers to succeed the Ariane and Vega, probably
with reusable stages.
Meanwhile, the Russian-built Soyuz
has been taken out of the picture earlier than planned. The Ariane 6 and
Vega C were designed, as part of a
sovereignty strategy, to replace the
Ariane 6-Soyuz-Vega combination.
However, that was not set to happen
until the Ariane 6 entered service. The
Russian invasion of Ukraine caused
space agency Roscosmos to suspend
cooperation with its European counterparts in February. This effectively
canceled Soyuz launches from Kourou
and created capacity problems that
launch service provider Arianespace
and the European Space Agency
(ESA), the contracting authority, have
yet to solve. The Ariane 6 and Vega C
have been in development since 2014
and 2017, respectively.
“Vega C stands for ‘consolidation’—
it is an upgrade based on the experience of the first years in service,” says
Marino Fragnito, head of the Vega
business unit at Arianespace. The
design driver was the need to launch
radar satellites such as the Sentinel 1
and Cosmo-SkyMed. They were too
heavy for the Vega’s thrust capability
and too large for its fairing.
The Vega C features a payload capacity of 2,300 kg (5,000 lb.), up from
1,500 kg, thanks to the additional
propellant on the P120C main stage,
which weighs 142 metric tons, an increase from 80 metric tons. On the
second stage’s Zefiro 40 motor, propellant weight increases to 40 metric
tons, up from 23 metric tons. The
third stage’s Zefiro 9 is unchanged.
On the Vega C, the first three stages
use solid propellant. The fourth, the
16 AVIATION WEEK & SPACE TECHNOLOGY/MAY 16-29, 2022
and shapes. “Under the fairing, it is like
the Tetris game, and the cost is reduced
for each customer,” Fragnito says.
The Vega C can release payloads
on three different orbits, versus two
with the Vega. The Avum+ upper
stage carries 50% more fuel, at 750 kg,
and can ignite its engine seven times.
For each separation orbit, one ignition is used to raise the orbit altitude
and a second is used for orbit circularization. The seventh ignition is for
stage deorbiting.
On the Vega’s upper stage, the
number of ignitions is limited to five.
Moreover, the Avum+ can adapt firing
durations in real time to reach target
positions in orbit. The Vega C can thus
provide a more customized service.
The Vega C is more competitive
than the Vega, thanks to its greater
payload capacity for the same cost,
Giulio Ranzo, CEO of prime contractor Avio, points out. The production
rate for the P120C is planned for 35
per year, as opposed to three per year
for its P80 predecessor on the Vega,
an increase that will generate economies of scale.
Among other capabilities, the Vega C
will be able to accommodate a larger
version of Vega’s Small Spacecraft
Mission Service (SSMS) dispenser. In
2020, a Vega used the SSMS to place
53 nano- and microsatellites in a rideshare mission. The Vega C will also be
able to place the Space Rider reusable
uncrewed vehicle into orbit.
All these capabilities have created
great expectations for the Vega C’s
first launch campaign. In 2019, the
hope was that launch would happen
the following year, but technical problems and the COVID-19 crisis caused
delays. The campaign is now commencing in earnest.
The Vega C’s first launch campaign
is planned to last 36 days. Once in
“normal” mode, that duration will be
cut down to less than four weeks, says
Eric Robert, project manager for Vega
launchers at French space agency
AviationWeek.com/AWST
CNES, which operates the spaceport.
The first milestone was a flight
readiness review (FRR), says Renato
Lafranconi, ESA’s Vega program manager. On April 15, it was completed,
and ESA authorized integration of
the first three stages.
The main stage was installed on
the Vega’s launchpad—under a mobile gantry—the last week of April,
the Zefiro 40 was integrated during
the first week of May, and the Zefiro 9
was to follow in the second week of
May, according to Ranzo.
The fourth stage is still being
worked on at Avio’s Colleferro, Italy,
production facility. It will be flown to
Kourou any day now, Ranzo says. Once
it is integrated, avionics testing will
begin. The payload is ready, integrated
with the payload adaptor.
A second FRR will authorize the
remaining preparations imminently.
These include integration of the fourth
stage and fueling and integration of
the payload and fairing.
Unlike the Ariane 6 program, the
Vega C’s development does not include combined tests, which involve a
ground-test configuration simulating
a launcher. In the Vega C program, interfaces with ground installations will
be validated with the first launcher.
Launch readiness is expected by
June 24, and the corresponding review
is planned to take place a few days
before launch. The launch will likely
take place early in July, as some systems at the Kourou spaceport must be
reconfigured after an Ariane 5 launch
planned for June 22. High-speed cameras have to be moved, for instance.
A number of changes have been
made at Kourou in preparation for the
Vega launch. For final assembly, the
Vega’s mobile gantry was modified.
The launcher’s height stands at 35 m,
up from 27 m, requiring changes in
fluidic, avionics and mechanical systems, Robert says. And due to the increased weight, roads to the launchpad were reinforced. A new control
center, dubbed Pandora, was located
farther from the launchpad than the
old ones because of the larger amount
of explosive matter on the launcher.
The first launch is part of the
Vega C’s development, aimed at verifying the launcher’s performance. ESA
is the operator of the flight, Lafranconi
says. Arianespace will operate the
Vega C starting with its second flight.
For the first flight, Arianespace will
AviationWeek.com/AWST
The larger fairing enables more
configurations such as a main payload
with smaller secondary ones.
provide technical expertise and familiarize itself with the Vega C.
The first payload includes the
Lares 2 scientific satellite, designed
by Italian space agency ASI to study
relativity, and four cubesats. They
will be placed into orbit at 6,000 km
(3,728 mi.), with an inclination of
67 deg. The mission involves a relatively light 400-kg payload and a high
altitude, which will test the Vega C’s
performance, Ranzo says.
Data from the first flight will be
compared to that from ground tests.
Accelerations and vibrations may be
different. More telemetry channels
will be available than on a standard
flight, Robert notes. The tail end of the
propulsion phase will take place in a
vacuum, as opposed to atmospheric
pressure, a change in environment
that could affect performance.
Flight data also will be analyzed
within the Ariane 6’s development
framework. The P120C will be used
as a strap-on booster on the Ariane 6.
Two and four P120Cs will equip the
Ariane 62 and Ariane 64, respectively.
The Vega C’s first flight is expected to
validate performance predictions.
Arianespace has several customers for the Vega C. Airbus’ Pleiades
Neo constellation for Earth observation will use a Vega C launch late
this summer for its last two satellites.
The European Commission and South
Korea’s Kari aerospace research institute are also among customers.
The backlog stands at nine launches,
to be spread out over 2022-25. “The
next orders will be accepted after the
first flight, which is our priority,”
Ranzo says.
Avio has a production capacity
of four launchers per year. “We are
working on ramping up to five or six
by 2024-25,” Ranzo adds.
The company does not anticipate
any medium-term issue with the supply of RD-843 engines—despite its
Ukrainian origin—for the Avum+
stage. “Since 2017, we have worked to
create a strategic inventory,” Ranzo
says. “I am not being specific on how
many engines we have here in Italy or
in Ukraine. This is a sensitive issue.
For the long term, we have to determine whether we need a different
engine or [will] keep the same fourth
stage. We are very happy with our
supplier’s work, including since the
beginning of the war. Deliveries have
been punctual. I am very confident:
When a supplier works so well in such
a situation, it is strong evidence of
reliability. I hope to continue to work
with them.” The current contract
runs through 2026.
The existing Vega and Vega C will
be operated in parallel until 2024. A
similar plan is in place for the Vega C
and Vega E in 2026-30. “You cannot
end a program until its successor has
proven its worth,” Ranzo asserts.
“Ariane 5’s end is coming a bit too
early, relative to Ariane 6’s ramp-up.”
For the Vega’s next version, the
Vega E, the upper stage’s liquidoxygen-methane M10 engine has just
been tested on the ground. The
launcher’s architecture is different,
with a third stage replacing the current combination of a third and fourth
stage. The fairing is unchanged, and
the payload capacity increased by an
unspecified weight. c
AVIATION WEEK & SPACE TECHNOLOGY/MAY 16-29, 2022 17
SPACE
Demonstrators Smooth Path
Toward UK ISR Constellation
>
PROMETHEUS-2 WILL BE LAUNCHED BY
VIRGIN ORBIT FROM UK SPACEPORT
>
FIRST PHASE OF ISTARI WILL FEATURE
SYNTHETIC APERTURE RADAR SATELLITES
Tony Osborne London
A
wave of upcoming satellite launches will help prepare the UK’s fledgling defense space community for
the creation of a multirole intelligence, surveillance
and reconnaissance constellation.
At least six satellite demonstration programs, many
named for Shakespearian characters, will be sent aloft,
proving the reliability of sensors, in-orbit data processing and downlinks, as well as testing the interoperability
among nations.
The shoebox-size Prometheus
cubesats will be the first satellites
to be launched from a UK mainland
spaceport, flying on Virgin Orbit’s
Boeing 747 launch aircraft.
DEFENSE SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY LABORATORY
The collective goal for this group of programs is to smooth
the way toward the phased development of Istari, the UK’s
planned £1 billion ($1.2 billion) eye in low Earth orbit, data
from which will be delivered to commanders through an
in-orbit communications network called Minerva.
Initial efforts around Istari will be focused on the development of a synthetic aperture radar (SAR), but additional
capabilities are to be added later.
“We’ve constantly asked the question: ‘With the money
and ambition we have, where should we put our efforts to
actually deliver something that is a niche capability that
can be brought to the table by the UK?’” Air Vice Marshal
Harvey Smyth, the head of the UK Defense Ministry’s Space
Directorate, told Aviation Week on May 10 at the Defense
Space conference in London.
Plans for Istari emerged with the publication of the UK’s
Defense Space Strategy in February, but few details about
what the constellation will comprise have been revealed
until now.
Previous initiatives such as the UK’s Artemis and Carbonite programs, which focused on real-time electro-optical
imagery and video, have since been disbanded, Smyth says,
in part because these capabilities, along with signals intelligence, can be easily sourced from the commercial market.
18 AVIATION WEEK & SPACE TECHNOLOGY/MAY 16-29, 2022
“High-end SAR gives us that all-weather capability, and
with the right algorithms you can do automatic target recognition and automatic target cueing,” Smyth says.
The SAR satellites may also be able to perform ground
moving target indication, thanks to change detection
modes, although the level of persistence will depend on
the number of satellites.
Another goal of the Istari constellation will be to do as
much data processing in orbit as possible, with the aim
of pushing a nearly complete product to the actual user,
Smyth says, cutting out a “middleman” and speeding up
the kill chain.
Once the SAR capability has been established, Smyth
foresees Earth-observation capabilities and even orbital
observation capabilities being added, with the latter being
eyed to support space domain awareness. Officials cite the
capabilities exhibited by Canada’s Sapphire space surveillance satellite, with the sensors onboard being used for
identification and attribution of potential nefarious activity—particularly in higher orbits where communications
satellites may make attractive targets for adversaries.
The size of the Istari constellation has yet to be formally
decided, but the plan is to “spirally develop from 2025
through to the back end of the decade . . . learning lessons
from the first tranche,” Smyth says.
By then, officials are hopeful that Istari could be plugged
into a broader network of coalition satellites, including the
option of linking Istari with the UK’s Skynet fleet of communication satellites in geostationary orbit.
Preparation for Istari will see two missions launched this
year, including Prometheus-2, a pair of cubesats that will be
lofted into orbit this summer on Virgin Orbit’s LauncherOne
during its first flight from a UK spaceport.
Each of the two Prometheus cubesats—built by In-Space
Missions, which was acquired by BAE Systems last year—
will carry different payloads. One features a hyperspectral
imager, laser detector and GPS receiver, while the second
will feature two optical imaging cameras, a laser range
finder and a GPS receiver. Control of the satellites will be
carried out by the Defense Science and Technology Laboratory’s (DSTL) newly established Hermes ground station,
located near Portsmouth, England.
One of the cameras will feature a wide-angle lens, while
the second will be used to observe the first satellite. A second mission, the Coordinated Ionospheric Reconstruction
CubeSat Experiment, conducted in conjunction with the
U.S. Naval Research Laboratory, also is slated to launch
before year-end to prove formation operations.
Other missions include Tyche, which is being built by
Surrey Satellite Technology and is planned to be launched
in three years as one of the first demonstrators for the
Minerva program. Others include: Jove, a cluster of small
satellites; Juno, a joint U.S.-UK mission studying shared
control; Titania, a laser-based communications satellite
developed to test high-speed transmission of data through
optical links; and Oberon, which will demonstrate the SAR
capability (AW&ST Sept. 30-Oct. 13, 2019, p. 27).
“The core of all this, of course, isn’t just what we’re
putting in space,” says Mike O’Callaghan, DSTL’s space
program manager. “It is about that architecture that sits
underneath, working with allies and partners . . . and looking at how we can bring these capabilities together and
understand how it fits into multidomain integration.” c
AviationWeek.com/AWST
SPACE
> LUNAR ROVER
HOPEFULS EXPLORE
NEW APPROACHES
> LOCKHEED MARTIN-GM VEHICLE
LEVERAGES ULTIUM TECHNOLOGY
> BIDDERS AWAIT NASA
LUNAR VEHICLE RFP
Guy Norris Colorado Springs
hen the crew of Apollo 15 landed on the Moon in
July 1971, they brought along with them the first
Lunar Roving Vehicle for exploring the surrounding
Hadley Rille area and conducting experiments.
Considered a key advance, rovers
were subsequently used successfully
on all three final Apollo missions,
clocking more than 56 mi. over 11 hr.
of total drive time. Alongside the
crewed vehicles, the Moon has been—
and continues to be—explored by a
series of partially or fully autonomous
robotic vehicles ranging from the
Soviet- era Lunokhods to the latest
China-developed Yutu-2 rover.
Now, more than 50 years after the
debut of the Apollo Lunar Roving
Vehicle, Lockheed Martin and automotive partner General Motors (GM)
are developing a different approach
to lunar roving as NASA and other
space agencies plan for the imminent
return of humans to the Moon. The
two partners have teamed to produce
a 21st-century rover dubbed the Lunar
Mobility Vehicle (LMV), which will be
transported separately to the Moon
and will be ready and waiting for the
astronauts at touchdown.
“We’ve been doing a ton of engineering and have been working on
concepts and basic designs for about
a year,” says Kirk Shireman, vice president of lunar exploration campaigns
at Lockheed Martin. “We’re now
pretty far along and actually have
long-lead parts ordered, and we are
really moving forward.”
The LMV is designed to go far beyond the capabilities of the vehicles
from the Apollo era, though they continue to be considered a remarkable
technological achievement for their
time. “It’s going to be a little bit bigger
and have the ability to carry significant payloads on the back,” Shireman
says. “It’s also designed to last the
lunar night. That’s the beauty of this
one. On Apollo, when the Sun went
down, the rovers would die.”
Unlike Earth, days and nights on
the Moon are just under 14 days long.
As a result, the LMV is being designed
to survive and even operate in the
20 AVIATION WEEK & SPACE TECHNOLOGY/MAY 16-29, 2022
The Lockheed Martin-General
Motors LMV will arrive ahead of
human landers and will be available
in different versions (inset).
two-week-long night that sees temperatures plummet to -280F; daytime
temperatures can climb as high as
260F. The power system will leverage
GM’s Ultium cell technology, which
relies on a nickel-cobalt-manganesealuminum chemistry and requires
70% less cobalt than the cells used in
the car company’s current Bolt EV.
The survivability element is “huge,”
Shireman says, particularly for the expanded operational capability it will
give to the LMV in polar areas that are
permanently shadowed regions. “You
have these places where the Sun never
hits, and those are actually where a
lot of really interesting scientific areas
are, such as places for water and other
AviationWeek.com/AWST
GENERAL MOTORS CONCEPTS
volatiles,” he adds. “We’ll have the ability to go in in there and do whatever it
is our customers want us to do.”
The vehicle will therefore be capable of “pole-to-pole” operations across
the Moon and will also be able to transit autonomously from one landing
site to another. In order to conduct
science operations without a driver,
Lockheed Martin says astronauts
should have the ability to send tasks
from the Human Landing System or
the orbiting Lunar Gateway to the
rover. This will enable NASA to fit
more science into a smaller amount
of time, Lockheed Martin adds.
“It’s autonomous or it can be
crewed, so we land on one part of the
Moon to help the astronauts, and then
for the next mission the rover will just
drive itself to be there at the landing
site where it needs to be,” Shireman
says. “There are some fantastic opportunities here. When it’s not doing
NASA’s work with astronauts, it can
be doing all kinds of things on its own
supporting other customers.”
Based on a long history of successful powered descent vehicles for
robotic science missions, Lockheed
is also developing a lander capable
of delivering the 1.5-ton mass of the
encapsulated LMV to the Moon. “For
the first one, we expect to have it on
the lunar surface prior to the first
human landing there with Artemis,”
he says. “We’re going to film the vehicles arriving. With Apollo, you had
pictures from the lunar module as it
came down. And now we are going to
have high-definition pictures from the
Moon of them coming down.”
Lockheed Martin is also reviewing launch vehicle options for the
AviationWeek.com/AWST
delivery flight to the Moon. “We don’t
have a launch vehicle on contract yet,”
Shireman says. “But we know the
mass target of our lander and rover,
so we know the kind of launchers we
need. Part of the business is finding
the cheapest launch you can get in
the time frame that you need, so we’re
working with a number of companies
to figure out how to do that.”
While the Lockheed-GM LMV is
designed to support NASA’s Artemis
program, which is now targeting the
first human landing with Artemis III
no earlier than 2025, the vehicle will be
provided as a “service to all customers,
including NASA,” Shireman says. “As
the service provider, it’s our responsibility to have the rover there. So we’ll
deliver the rover to the Moon, and then
it’ll be ready to provide services.”
Although Lockheed has been targeting a provisional late 2024 launch
date, the latest slip of Artemis III into
2025, indicated by NASA Administrator Bill Nelson during a recent budgetary speech to the U.S. Senate, gives
the program some added leeway.
Regardless of whether NASA or
another agency or company wishes to
use the LMV, Lockheed remains confident in its baseline business model.
“We’ll run it,” Shireman says. “Customers will get a much better deal
than they would otherwise because
they don’t have to build a lander or
something to transport their devices around. They will just pay for that
fraction of time that they’re going to
use it. NASA will have this capability
for much cheaper than they would if
they had to build everything and own
it themselves.”
Combining GM’s know-how in offroad and electric vehicles with its own
spacecraft experience, Lockheed envisages several roles for the LMV,
which will be offered with the ability
to deploy and retrieve payloads using
a robotic arm. This will be supplied by
Canadian company MDA—the provider of robotic arms to both the space
shuttle and the International Space
Station (ISS)—which joined the development team in April.
Based on the GM-designed Mk. 1
chassis, Lockheed foresees three initial
LMV variants including a crew transport, a bulldozer-like excavation resource transport model and a robotic
science prospector version. Additionally, the Lockheed-GM program includes development of a Mk. 2 chassis
vehicle with a longer wheel base that
would use many of the common components developed for the Mk. 1 design.
Although the LMV was launched
originally in May 2021 for Artemis
missions in anticipation of a future
NASA solicitation, the program is
now targeted at a broader capability vehicle and continues into development independently of potential
government funding. NASA issued a
second request for information (RFI)
late in 2021 for a Lunar Terrain Vehicle (LTV) that could support Artemis
astronauts around the lunar South
Pole later in the 2020s, and industry
anticipates a formal request for proposals (RFP) in the next few months.
Nathan Howard, project manager
for the LTV at NASA Johnson Space
Center in Houston, says that the “LTV
won’t be your grandfather’s Moon
Buggy used during the Apollo missions.” As part of its RFI, NASA has
asked if U.S. companies are interested
in providing the LTV as a commercial
service or as a product NASA would
purchase and own.
Working with industry to inform
the LTV design for Artemis is part of
the agency’s expansion of commercial
partnerships from low Earth orbit to
the Moon and follows NASA’s commercial partnership model now in use
for crew and cargo transport services
to the ISS. The agency plans to buy
astronaut transportation services for
Artemis surface missions.
“For LTV, NASA is not paying anything, and we’re not asking for a dime
from them,” Shireman says. “We are
saying: ‘Just tell us what you want,
how many, what you want to do and
where to pick you up.’ We are embracing commercialization and trying
to take it a step further. We’re really
trying to be a leader in that area.”
Other teams are also assembling
for the Artemis rover requirement.
In November, Northrop Grumman
announced it was bringing together
a group that includes both space and
automotive experience. Northrop is
leading the rover development while
Texas-based Intuitive Machines is designing Nova-D, an upgraded version
of its Nova-C lander, to deliver the rover to the lunar surface.
The effort will be assisted by Lunar
Outpost, a Colorado-based company
developing a small robotic rover called
the MAPP (Mobile Autonomous Prospecting Platform) that is scheduled to
AVIATION WEEK & SPACE TECHNOLOGY/MAY 16-29, 2022 21
ASTROLAB
SPACE
Venturi Astrolab tested its FLEX
rover prototype—designed to carry
astronauts or cargo—in California’s
Mojave Desert this year.
go to the Moon on the Nova-C lander
late this year. Automotive input for
Northrop’s team comes from electric
vehicle and autonomous driving technology specialist AVL, while tire-maker
Michelin is developing an airless tire.
Teledyne Brown Engineering,
which built a lunar rover prototype
for NASA in the 1960s, is also leading
the development of a rover targeted
at Artemis as part of a team that includes Sierra Space and Nissan North
America. Sierra Space will provide
components and flight software while
Nissan is providing expertise in automotive design and autonomous driving. Nissan has developed lunar rover
prototypes that leverage the all-wheel
steering technology e-4ORCE from
the electric model Nissan Ariya.
California-based startup Venturi
Astrolab has also set its sights on the
Moon, and in March the company unveiled a multirole lunar rover prototype it has developed and tested as
part of plans to offer the capability for
use on future Artemis missions. The
Flexible Logistics and Exploration
rover, or FLEX, is designed to carry
astronauts or up to 1,500 kg (3,300 lb.)
of cargo, with optional capability for
remote control.
Astrolab says the FLEX system architecture gives it the ability to pick
up and deposit modular payloads in
support of robotic science, exploration, logistics, site survey/preparation,
construction, resource utilization and
other activities “critical to a sustained
presence on the Moon and beyond.” It
adds that the vehicle can serve as an
unpressurized rover for two crew. c
JAXA and Toyota Progress Cruiser Plan
Guy Norris Colorado Springs
THE JAPAN AEROSPACE EXPLORATION AGENCY (JAXA) IS
working toward the launch this year of a small lunar rover
that will pave the way for a large, follow-on pressurized
crewed lunar vehicle due for deployment to the Moon at
the end of the decade.
To be launched by SpaceX and carried to the lunar surface on Mission 1 (M1) of Tokyo-based Ispace’s Hakuto-R
program, the small spherical rover is designed to split in half
after landing. The two hemispheres will act as wheels, propelling the vehicle as it collects data on autonomous driving technology. The Japanese rover will be deployed to the
lunar surface at the same time as another vehicle, the United
Arab Emirates’ round, wheeled robot Rashid, which is intended to adapt its shape autonomously to suit the varying
topography of the lunar terrain.
In the longer term, JAXA and partner Toyota will incorporate lessons learned from M1 to develop the
Lunar Cruiser—the first lunar vehicle designed to
accommodate crew in a pressurized environment.
Configured with a robotic arm to be developed by
startup Gitai Japan, the vehicle will be powered by hydrogen fuel cells and have a range of 10,000 km (6,200 mi.);
onboard power will be augmented by solar panels. “The
rover will be used for missions to explore the Moon’s polar
regions, with the aim of investigating the possibility of using the Moon’s resources,” JAXA says.
In the interim, Toyota has established a dedicated Lunar
Exploration Mobility Works that, together with JAXA, has
developed and tested a prototype rover. Displayed at the
recent Space Symposium in Colorado, the vehicle is being
used to lay foundations for the design, manufacture and
evaluation of an engineering model of the Cruiser starting in 2024. This phase, which includes the design of the
follow-on flight model, will begin to accelerate in 2027,
when assembly of the Cruiser is due to commence. c
The JAXA-Toyota Lunar Cruiser
is targeted at operations on
the Moon starting in 2029.
JAXA
22 AVIATION WEEK & SPACE TECHNOLOGY/MAY 16-29, 2022
AviationWeek.com/AWST
DEFENSE
> U.S. Army armed scout schedule jumble p. 24
New Software Pipeline Seeks
To Smooth Agile Path for F-35
coding mistakes or unexpected results.
Such a pipeline should help the
program in numerous ways. First,
the automated tools are expected to
prevent errors created during manPENTAGON,
GAO
HAD
FAULTED
LACK
OF
AUTOMATED
PIPELINE
>
ual testing by human coders, Bulnes
says. The pipeline also provides a
> NEW TOOLS AUTOMATE ERROR-FINDING, REAL-TIME UPDATES
visualization of the software development status, giving Lockheed and
Steve Trimble Fort Worth
JPO managers real-time updates.
The JPO previously relied on quarter(JPO) and Lockheed had already been
fully equipped software dely reports that, according to a March
working on software development revelopment pipeline has been
2021 report by the Government Acforms for more than a year. A joint
running for about nine months
countability Office (GAO), often conworking group was convened in Auinside Plant 4, the nearly mile-long
tained inaccurate information.
gust 2020 to identify better metrics
plant here dedicated to assembling
The pipeline also is expected to supfor tracking Lockheed’s performance
the Lockheed Martin F-35.
port the program’s gradual shift to a
with software development. The
In contrast to the F-35 final assem“more agile” process for developing
group also created an independent rebly line, the facilities and hardware
software, replacing the traditional
view team to recommend a whole new
needed for the software pipeline’s
waterfall development cycle. Rather
approach to automating the process of
automated tools for detecting coding
than compiling huge batches of new
building and testing software code at
errors seem modest.
software code over 18-24-month cythe lowest level possible.
Visitors walk through a windowcles, Lockheed’s process now splits
By securing internal funding to beless, second-floor office space filled
the work into quarterly segments,
gin acquiring new equipment, Lockwith cubicles, a foosball game console
each carved into two-week sprints.
heed moved immediately in January
and a table covered by an unfinished
The new development cajigsaw puzzle, then enter a
dence has not yielded all of
garage-size storage room.
the anticipated benefits. New
A row of server cabinets
software is released to the fleet
stuffed with standard HP
now in yearly batches rather
servers running the Linux
than every six months as inioperating system is on one
tially envisioned by the JPO for
side of the room.
the shift to “more agile” develDespite its humble apopment in 2018. But the annual
pearance, this newly opened
release cycle is still about twice
server room is a key piece
as fast as traditional, waterin Lockheed’s response to a
fall-style development. Morepersistent rash of software
over, Lockheed has found that
“escapes,” meaning coding
agile development reduces
errors that elude the comspan times up to 40% to create
pany’s manual tests and
the code, Bulnes says.
laboratory checks and are
Despite the shift to the
discovered by pilots while
more agile development
flying F-35s in test squadrons. Some glitches even A rash of software bugs showing up on test and operational model, the JPO and Lockheed
were slow to implement the
slip into aircraft delivered F-35s has prompted a new approach to testing and monito operational units.
toring coding activity inside Lockheed’s Fort Worth factory. pipeline of automated tools
that often accompanies such
“We have a lot of work to
a shift. The transition, however, may
to implement the recommendations
do in the software arena,” says Santi
have been slowed by the F-35’s origifrom the working group and the reBulnes, the head of engineering and
nal configuration. Although all of the
view team. “It usually takes a while
technology for Lockheed’s AeronauF-35 software is written in the popular
to turn on what we call charge numtics business.
C++ language, the code runs on a Green
bers, but we were up and going the
The program’s struggles have been
Hills operating system. The Block 4
first week back from the holidays,”
documented by the Defense Departprogram, however, introduces a new inBulnes says.
ment’s office of the director of opertegrated core processor, which uses the
The funding established the proational test and evaluation (DOT&E).
Linux operating system, Bulnes says.
gram’s first automated software pipe“The program continues to field immaBy shifting to one of the world’s
line for mission systems software. Inture, deficient and insufficiently tested
most popular operating systems,
stead of relying on a series of manual
missions systems software to fielded
Lockheed set up a pipeline for usfunctional tests, Lockheed’s software
units without adequate operational
ing standard commercial processors
coders now check batches of code into
testing,” the DOT&E said in its 2021
made by HP, Bulnes adds, rather than
an automated tool. The tools run the
annual report published in January.
far more expensive and limited syssoftware on a virtualized version of the
By the time of the DOT&E assesstems used on the F-35 itself. c
F-35’s mission systems, searching for
ment, the F-35 Joint Program Office
A
U.S. AIR FORCE
AviationWeek.com/AWST
AVIATION WEEK & SPACE TECHNOLOGY/MAY 16-29, 2022 23
DEFENSE
U.S. Army Armed Scout
Schedule Jumbled
by the Pandemic
>
>
FARA CONTRACT AWARD NOW SET FOR MID-2025
FIRST UNIT EQUIPPED MILESTONE TIMING
REMAINS LOCKED IN FOR 2030
Steve Trimble Washington
A
military axiom holds that no plan survives first contact with the enemy. It appears to apply to the twoyear-old acquisition plan for the U.S. Army’s next
armed scout helicopter, which failed to hold out against
the disruptive onslaught of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The engineering and manufacturing development (EMD)
phase for the Future Attack Reconnaissance Aircraft
(FARA) program will now begin in mid-2025 and end in
early 2032. Until recently, the Army had hoped to wrap up
EMD by mid-2028.
The program executive office for FARA blames the delays
with the single-engine helicopter’s propulsion system—the
GE Aviation T901, a 3,000-shp turboshaft that entered development separately in 2019.
To support the original
A Bell 360 Invictus (top)
EMD schedule for FARA,
and the Sikorsky Raider
the Army had called on GE
offer different approaches
to accelerate development of
to meeting the Army’s
the advanced engine by up
requirements for a
to a year, but “COVID chalnew armed scout.
lenges” to GE’s supply chain
got in the way.
A nine-month delay in delivering the first T901 engine to
testing sent ripples through the Army’s schedule. The start
of the EMD phase depended on data generated from flight
tests of competitive prototypes of the Bell 360 Invictus and
Sikorsky Raider X. Those tests were supposed to begin this
year but now are not expected until the end of 2023.
“A schedule realignment was necessary to allow [competitive prototype] flight testing to inform the final requirement,” says a spokesman for the Army’s Program Executive
Office (PEO) Aviation.
A GE spokesman confirms that the COVID-19 pandemic
slowed the progress of T901 development but says no further delays are expected.
“Our team began the T901 test campaign on March 22,
and we continue working closely with the Army to ensure
we deliver the first flight-test engines in November to support the FARA competitive prototypes,” the spokesman
tells Aviation Week.
The schedule change means that Sikorsky and Bell must
wait an extra 15 months, until mid-2025, to find out which
team will win the prized FARA development contract.
Despite the cascading schedule delays during the EMD
phase, the Army has not changed the timing for the pivotal
first unit equipped (FUE) milestone. FUE is usually defined
as an initial operational capability consisting of a certain
number of production aircraft on the ramp that are supported by a cadre of trained pilots and maintainers. The
Army may be taking a more flexible approach to the defini-
24 AVIATION WEEK & SPACE TECHNOLOGY/MAY 16-29, 2022
tion to keep the FUE milestone on track in fiscal 2030.
The initial fielding will begin in about eight years “to
support early training with operational units and preparation for [initial operational test and evaluation],” the PEO
Aviation spokesman says.
But delivering enough production aircraft in fiscal 2030
depends on an increasingly tight timeline for the EMD
contract winner.
The critical design review (CDR) for the winning FARA
bidder is now set for the second half of 2026, a two-year
delay compared with the original schedule. The Army is now
giving the EMD contractor 2.5 years after CDR to deliver
the first of eight test aircraft. But the same company then
must deliver enough production aircraft for the Army to
declare FUE within about two years after the start of
flight testing.
“The Army is currently assessing all options to find efficiencies in the FARA program post-Milestone B. The longlead procurement window will align with the appropriate
pathway,” the PEO Aviation spokesman says.
BELL (TOP) AND SIKORSKY
The Army launched the FARA program with daunting
performance targets. The T901 was mandated for the
scout helicopter as a cost-saving measure, as the same
system will be used to upgrade the twin-engine Boeing
AH-64E and Sikorsky UH-60M fleets. But the Army also
wants the FARA design to fly in the same urban canyons
as the retired Bell OH-58D, which limited the requirement for the rotor diameter to no more than 40 ft.
Those constraints to the thrust and lift systems set up
a challenging task for the FARA designers, as the Army
also wants an aircraft that weighs no more than 14,000 lb.
with a maximum speed no slower than 180 kt. Army officials said last year that they could soften one or more of
those standards in the final set of requirements for FARA.
Sikorsky officials were not surprised by the FARA schedule
changes. “I don’t want to say it gives us more time because
it’s the time that we were expecting,” says Andy Adams, vice
president of Future Vertical Lift for Sikorsky parent Lockheed Martin. “But it does give the Army, I think, more time
from an acquisition standpoint to do things right.” c
—With Brian Everstine in Stratford, Connecticut
AviationWeek.com/AWST
COMMERCIAL AVIATION
> JetBlue looks for new niche p. 27
Avianca’s ambitions p. 28 Qantas Project Sunrise p. 30
U.S. regional aircraft squeeze p. 32
Advantage Airbus
>
SLOW BOEING PRODUCTION RAMP-UP OPENS MARKET
OPPORTUNITIES FOR ITS EUROPEAN RIVAL
>
>
TO RAISE RATES, AIRBUS MIGHT NEED TO PREFINANCE SUPPLIERS
CERTIFICATION ISSUES ARE DELAYING A321XLR SERVICE ENTRY
Jens Flottau Frankfurt
A
irbus is slowly firming up its
plans to raise A320neo-family
production to 75 aircraft per
month. The move was planned for
more than a year and was not unexpected, and customer demand may
justify it. But the step-up is still being
met with skepticism about the supply
chain’s ability to cope with it.
“Following an analysis of global customer demand as well as an assessment
of the industrial ecosystem’s readiness,
[Airbus] is now working with its suppliers and partners to enable monthly
production rates of 75 in 2025,” Airbus
said May 4. The announcement notably stopped short of definitely saying
that production levels will move up
that high. The caution is a reflection of
supply chain realities set against a lack
of competitive pressure from Boeing.
Whatever level Airbus ultimately
achieves, it will be far higher than the
output its rival will be able to deliver.
The European OEM had already
committed to reaching 65 aircraft per
month in the summer of 2023. Now it
aims to increase that by another 10
aircraft per month within about two
years, roughly 14% more. The work for
the additional 10 aircraft will be
spread across all of its sites, but its
Mobile, Alabama, facility will be expanded to include a second A320neofamily final assembly line. All sites will
be made capable of building A321neos,
and that aircraft’s production share is
expected to continue to rise.
According to the plans, Airbus will
be building 89 narrowbody aircraft per
month starting in 2025, if the A220 is
included. Airbus has previously said
that it plans to boost A220 output to
14 per month, from six, within the next
three years. If the plans are implemented, Airbus would be producing
almost three times as many single-aisle
aircraft as Boeing, unless its U.S. rival is
also able to increase production. Boeing
President and CEO David Calhoun said
April 27 that the company has no plans
for the time being to go beyond rate 31,
given constraints it has discovered in its
own supply chain. Airbus may already
be building twice as many narrowbodies as Boeing by the end of 2023.
Such a large gap in production volumes over time would lead to further
significant shifts in the OEMs’ singleaisle market share. And recent industry trends show single-aisles taking an
even larger part of the overall market,
given the weakness of the widebody
segment and the retrenching of some
regional jets (see page 32).
“We see continuing strong growth
in commercial aircraft demand driven
by the A320 family,” says Airbus CEO
Guillaume Faury. Airbus has shared its
plans with engine manufacturers and
is “confident in the supply chain being
able to manage” the ramp-up, he says.
Many others in the industry are not
as optimistic. “Everyone is concerned
about the supply chain,” says Agency
Partners analyst Sash Tusa. “The
weakest part of the chain is what pulls
you down.” He points out that Airbus’
carefully chosen wording gives it “a
lot of wiggle room” and a way to back
off if the ramp-up plans cannot be
achieved to the full extent.
Consultant Nico Buchholz of Flightlevel500, formerly head of procurement at Bombardier and of fleet planning for Lufthansa, goes further. “The
supply chain is not capable of handling [rate 75],” he says. “Many are
still in dire economic straits.” Tier 1
suppliers will be able to handle the
production increase, he contends, but
he sees major weaknesses and risks
among Tier 2 and 3 companies. Airbus
may have to provide major prefinancing for some to kick-start growth, he
predicts. “That’s OK if it is only one or
two companies. But it’s a different story
Airbus rolled out MSN11000, the first A321XLR flight-test aircraft,
on May 2. Its first flight is planned before the end of June.
AIRBUS
AviationWeek.com/AWST
AVIATION WEEK & SPACE TECHNOLOGY/MAY 16-29, 2022 25
COMMERCIAL AVIATION
if many more request help,” he notes.
Buchholz says that even rate 65
will be challenging, and rate 75 will
only be possible over a longer stretch
of time. That may not necessarily be
bad for Airbus, since the usual escalation clauses ensure that prices can
be raised for delivery delays requested by customers at the peak of
the COVID-19 pandemic.
A220-100
is “refining the design in the certification process,” he adds.
The issues are related to the rearcenter fuel tank (RCT) that will be
added to the A321XLR as a fixed feature that is also part of the aircraft’s
structure. Airbus plans to install insulation between the tank and the
passenger cabin to avoid a “cold-feet
effect” but has told the European
Airbus Narrowbody Order Backlog
47
Through April 2022
485
A220-300
A319neo
combined A220/A320neo single-aisle
backlog is 6,388 units (see chart). In
addition to the return of general demand, other factors support the view
that the production of more new aircraft is desirable. Airlines are under
such intense political pressure to
demonstrate a strong commitment to
reducing their carbon footprint that
orders for new-generation aircraft are
TOTAL: 6,388
66
2,343
A320neo
3,447
A321neo
Source: Airbus
Michael Santo of aerospace consultancy H&Z notes that suppliers
in general have gained more faith in
Airbus’ forecasts in recent months.
An H&Z survey taken last year found
that 41% of Airbus suppliers were
second-guessing the OEM’s forecasts
and preferred to make their own assumptions. In that same survey, 45%
of respondents described the planned
Airbus rate increases as “unrealistic.”
The mood has since shifted, in part
because Airbus has been willing in some
cases to commit earlier to purchase
orders. Suppliers benefiting from those
deals have been able to reassure their
own suppliers further down the chain.
Despite all the factors affecting its
partners, Airbus is still pushing for
cost reductions of around 10% per
unit in return for the higher guaranteed volumes. Santo says the pricing
negotiations are “very aggressive”
but stop short of putting some of the
weaker players at serious financial
risk. Further pricing concessions are
particularly difficult for suppliers in
the industry that depend on steady
widebody production, which has
taken a much more serious hit than
narrowbodies. Balancing steeper discounts on narrowbody contracts with
more profitable widebody assignments no longer works.
The demand side of the equation
appears to be the easier part. Airbus’
seen as smart, even if it means prematurely retiring older aircraft. The
high price of jet fuel is increasing the
competitive advantage of more fuelefficient aircraft. That is particularly
important where pricing is weakened
by low-cost carrier competition.
Boeing will not be able to do much
to help meet demand for new aircraft,
as it is staying at rate 31 for the 737
MAX, at least in the short term. So
some customers have nowhere to go
but Airbus for additional lift. For some
time, Airbus appeared hesitant to
push too hard for bigger market share
because it was not in its interest to
force Boeing to launch a new program.
That strategy is likely being reconsidered, though, as few in the industry
expect Boeing to be able to move
ahead with a new aircraft in the short
term. “There is a difference between
driving the opposition into a corner
and taking advantage of very bad decisions and filling space that has been
vacated,” Tusa says.
Airbus has other concerns besides
supplier capacity for the A320neo
family. The company had to delay
entry into service of the A321XLR by
about one fiscal quarter, to early 2024
from the end of 2023. Faury did not
confirm the exact reasons for the
delay, other than to say that the certification process “takes a bit more
time than we had assumed.” Airbus
26 AVIATION WEEK & SPACE TECHNOLOGY/MAY 16-29, 2022
Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA)
in the ongoing certification process
that there is no space for fire protection that is fully compliant with current standards between the tank and
the passenger cabin.
In addition, EASA’s special condition consultation paper states: “In
order to protect the cabin occupants
from an external pool fire, the lower
half of the fuselage in the longitudinal
location of the rear centre tank shall
be resistant to fire penetration.” The
special condition consultation process
is open for comments until May 23.
The RCT is a structural part of both
the center and aft fuselage sections,
which are joined around it.
“The certification of the A321XLR
is an ongoing project,” EASA says.
“The complete set of conditions in relation with the installation of the rear
centre tanks is still under definition.”
Faury says there will be “no material
impact” on the aircraft’s specifications
or range, even if there are design
changes. Airbus advertizes the aircraft at a range of 4,700 nm. Industry
sources say a local strengthening of
the lower fuselage is being discussed,
an element that neither Airbus nor
EASA is confirming.
According to the Aviation Week
Network Commercial Fleet Discovery
database, Airbus has 526 firm orders
for the aircraft. c
AviationWeek.com/AWST
JOEPRIESAVIATION.NET
JetBlue and Spirit would have had a
combined fleet of 455 narrowbodies
and orders for 312 more.
JetBlue Looks Increasingly
Vulnerable After Spirit Bid Fails
>
NEW YORK-BASED CARRIER CONTINUES QUEST FOR GROWTH
>
NEW POINT-TO-POINT ROUTES WITH A220-300s COULD BE A
COMPETITIVE OPPORTUNITY
Ben Goldstein Boston and Lori Ranson Washington
J
AviationWeek.com/AWST
board on May 2, was one approach
the airline hoped would solve this
competitive dilemma. It was also the
second bidding war the company has
lost in recent years, after Alaska
AARONP/BAUER-GRIFFIN/GC IMAGES/GETTY IMAGES
etBlue Airways was a breath of
fresh air when it launched two
decades ago, but it may need a
new niche to stay competitive.
The airline finds itself in an increasingly vulnerable position in the middle
of the U.S. market, wedged between
the three global network carriers and
the fast-growing ultra-low-cost carrier
(ULCC) sector. Airlines in this middle
swath of the market—notably JetBlue
and Alaska Airlines—lack the scale to
match the full-service airlines’ networks and schedules as well as the
low-cost structures needed to go headto-head with ULCCs.
Competition from ULCCs continues
to intensify in the U.S., and the combination of new entrants such as Breeze
Airways and Avelo Airlines—along
with the growing popularity of the nofrills business model—spells risk for
JetBlue in coming years. The pending
combination of Frontier Airlines and
Spirit Airlines makes this situation
even worse by creating a mega-ULCC
larger than JetBlue and with greater
geographic reach.
New York-based JetBlue’s effort to
acquire Spirit, now an unlikely prospect after it was rejected by Spirit’s
JetBlue’s insistence on maintaining
the NEA was a key reason Spirit’s
board cited for rejecting the merger,
having argued that the combined entity would be unlikely to gain regulatory approval with the alliance intact.
The U.S. Justice Department has sued
to block the NEA in federal court, with
initial arguments in that case expected to be heard in September.
Now with the merger hopes dashed,
JetBlue finds itself lacking strategic
direction and facing stiffer ULCC
competition than ever before.
“JetBlue has such a unique place in
the industry, with no obvious next
step for growth,” Brett Snyder, airline
expert and founder of the Cranky
Flier blog, says. “What they do works
to an extent in Boston and New York,
where there’s enough interest in that
more premium-type product. The
question is: How do they grow beyond
their core markets? There aren’t any
really obvious options for them.”
The situation facing JetBlue is
shared by other middle-market, hybrid-type airlines, which find themselves increasingly under threat from
fast-growing ULCCs. The combined
Frontier-Spirit could be a serious
rival not only to JetBlue and Alaska
but to Southwest Airlines as well,
Spirit expects its merger with Frontier to
close in the second half of 2022.
bested it for Virgin America in 2016.
JetBlue has leaned into its Northeast
Alliance (NEA) with American Airlines in Boston and New York as a key
growth engine, although the full impact of that relatively new arrangement remains to be seen.
which is by far the largest of the midmarket carriers. Should the ULCC
growth trend continue, the future U.S.
market could more closely start to
resemble Europe, which has widespread ULCC penetration but few
hybrid carriers like JetBlue or Alaska.
AVIATION WEEK & SPACE TECHNOLOGY/MAY 16-29, 2022 27
COMMERCIAL AVIATION
Indeed, the U.S. domestic market
share of ULCCs has grown consistently over the past decade, a trend
that has accelerated throughout the
pandemic and recovery.
“JetBlue is not a global network
carrier, and it’s not a low-cost carrier,”
observes Bob Mann, an airline analyst
and president of consultancy R.W.
Mann & Co. “For the past 20 years, it’s
gone from being [JetBlue and Breeze
founder] David Neeleman’s version of
a breath of fresh air to being just like
any other carrier, except smaller.
That’s a tough spot to be in.”
As JetBlue contemplates its next
steps, it is joining other U.S. airlines
in battling high levels of pilot attri-
tion. The company had hoped its proposed merger with Spirit would create a larger and more attractive
airline for pilots. But with that plan
now off the table, the airline is reining
in its growth plans for the remainder
of the year to get a better handle on
operational issues.
The carrier also had hoped its
merger with Spirit would allow the
combined airline to create a strong
aircraft orderbook in a tight narrowbody market. JetBlue does not have
many aircraft on order that are
scheduled to be delivered beyond
2025. The carrier has 154 aircraft on
order—90 Airbus A220-300s and 64
A321neos, according to the Aviation
Week Network’s Commercial Fleet
Discovery database. It has 216 aircraft
in its fleet.
The combination with Spirit would
have created an airline with a fleet of
455 narrowbodies and 312 firm orders.
JetBlue CEO Robin Hayes told reporters and analysts in April that,
while the company has a “really
strong level of conviction around” its
organic growth plan, constrained aircraft availability is putting a brake on
its acceleration.
So where does JetBlue go from
here? It could emulate Breeze’s A220300 operations. The aircraft has
enough range to fly transcontinentally
in serving smaller airports, opening
Avianca Aims To Build a
Fortress Airline Group
Avianca has emerged from
Chapter 11 with renewed
ambition to build a large
Latin airline group.
aircraft on more than 200
largely point-to-point routes
by the end of 2025.
But now Avianca has
gone a step further by announcing its plans to acquire Viva, which launched
in 2012, and join forces with
GOL by creating Abra.
During a recent conference call explaining the ra> COLOMBIA’S FLAG CARRIER WORKS
tionale behind Abra, Kriete
TO BROADEN SCOPE AFTER BANKRUPTCY
said the group will be relentlessly focused on costs
> POTENTIAL VIVA ACQUISITION WOULD GIVE
and will aim to achieve the
THE COMBO CONCENTRATED MARKET SHARE
lowest cost per seat on
long-haul flights. Kriete also
JOEPRIESAVIATION.NET
noted that the partnership
Lori Ranson
would allow Avianca and
GOL to each expand into markets in
The companies hope to close on the
ynamics have shifted in the
which they are not active today.
agreement to establish Abra during
Latin American airline marViva has experienced solid growth
the second half of this year, with Latin
ket during the past two years.
during its roughly 10 years in operaAmerican industry veteran Roberto
Those changes stem from the banktion. Carlos Ozores, consultant group
Kriete as the group’s chairman. Abra
ruptcies of the region’s three largest
ICF vice president and managing diwould own a noncontrolling interest
airline groups as well as operators
rector of aviation, travel and tourism,
in Viva as well as convertible debt
forming new partnerships to capitalcites data from Colombia’s civil aviarepresenting a minority investment
ize on the recovery from COVID-19.
tion authority, Aerocivil, showing that
in Chile’s Sky Airline.
Now Avianca is attempting to build
Viva’s domestic passenger share grew
Avianca emerged from Chapter 11
a mega airline group in Latin America
to 21% for the first two months of 2022,
bankruptcy protection in late 2021 with
through its planned purchase of ultrafrom 14% in 2019. Avianca’s share
a clear focus on competing fiercely with
low-cost rival Viva and the creation of
dropped to 42% from 55% during the
its low-cost rivals in Latin America. It
Abra Group, which includes Avianca’s
same period, while LATAM Airlines
used the restructuring process to slash
principal shareholders and the conColombia increased its share of pascosts and reconfigure its network to
trolling shareholder of Brazilian low
sengers to 24% from 20%.
operate roughly 130 higher-density
cost carrier GOL Airlines.
D
28 AVIATION WEEK & SPACE TECHNOLOGY/MAY 16-29, 2022
AviationWeek.com/AWST
up inventive, new route opportunities.
For example, Breeze operates routes
from Westchester County Airport outside New York City to Las Vegas and
Los Angeles. JetBlue has 10 A220s in
service and firm orders for 90 more,
which gives it plenty of opportunity to
fly its premium product on underserved routes.
“Those A220s are where the most
opportunity would lie,” Snyder says.
“Sure, you’re constrained in New
York with slots, and Boston doesn’t
have a huge amount of room to grow,
but going into some of those secondary airports—that’s the opportunity.”
As Spirit’s board reviewed the JetBlue offer, the company continued
simultaneous work on advancing the
Frontier transaction, which is now
scheduled for a vote by Spirit’s shareholders on June 10. On the antitrust
front, the company says it is working
with the Justice Department to provide additional documentation and
“satisfy everything they need.”
“We’re optimistic we can get this
deal resolved and closed sometime in
the second half of the year,” Spirit
CEO Ted Christie says.
Despite being rejected by Spirit’s
board, JetBlue could issue a formal
proxy to present its offer to its shareholders for a side-by-side vote, although it is not clear if the airline will
pursue that. c
Avianca’s decision to pursue Viva is
a shrewd strategic decision, Ozores
says. There are many elements Avianca can seize upon to transform itself
from a legacy into a lower-cost operator, but the company can never match
the cost bases of low-cost carriers to
become the lowest-cost operator in
the Colombian market, he explains.
As Avianca was restructuring
during the COVID-19 pandemic, its
low-cost rivals were not resting on
their laurels. In late 2021, Viva said it
had cut its unit costs by roughly 10%
from pre-crisis levels.
Through its purchase of Viva, Avianca could stabilize its Colombian
domestic operations financially and
“avoid and eliminate a distraction so
they can really put more emphasis
on returning to their growth plan,”
Ozores says.
However, questions are arising
about how regulators will view Avianca’s proposed acquisition—which
would give the combined carriers a
64% share of the domestic passenger
market—and if they would demand
concessions before approving it. Other
than LAN Airlines’ 2010 purchase of
Aires, little high-profile merger and
acquisition activity has occurred in
Colombia and certainly nothing of this
magnitude. LAN acquired Aires essentially to establish a greater foothold in the Colombian market.
Prior to the announcement of the
creation of Abra, it was not clear if the
potential Avianca-Viva tie-up would
spur additional consolidation in the
Latin American airline market.
Similar to many airlines worldwide,
operators in the region face higher fuel
prices, rising inflation, slower economic
growth and currency depreciation.
Those dynamics reinforce the need to
consolidate, Ozores says, “and we still
have a pretty fragmented market.”
He says the Colombian market is
not large enough for three carriers to
“be duking it out.” Chile and Peru are
not large markets either, Ozores adds.
“I think you would expect the region
to coalesce around a number of airline
groups,” he says.
Ozores notes that Central America
is already trending in that direction,
with Aeromexico, Volaris and Copa
having a strong presence in the region. And in South America there is
the LATAM Airlines Group, Avianca
potentially fortified with the acquisition of Viva, and the ultra-low-cost
group JetSmart, which has operations
in Chile, Argentina and soon Peru.
LATAM, Avianca and Aeromexico
all filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in 2020. Along with Avianca,
Aeromexico has also completed its
restructuring.
New partnerships are emerging in
Latin America, too, as ultra-low-cost
carriers Allegiant Air and Viva Aerobus are working to establish a joint
venture in the U.S.-Mexico cross-border market. Meanwhile, American
Airlines has opted to take stakes in
both JetSmart and Brazil’s GOL.
But Avianca has made the boldest
moves in its efforts to create a new,
powerful airline group to change competitive dynamics in Latin America. c
AviationWeek.com/AWST
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AVIATION WEEK & SPACE TECHNOLOGY/MAY 16-29, 2022 29
COMMERCIAL AVIATION
GRAHAM DENHOLM/AIRBUS
Qantas Confirms Airbus Order
for Project Sunrise Flights
>
>
EXTRA FUEL TANK WILL BOOST A350-1000 RANGE TO 9,700 NM
LOW SEAT DENSITY WILL ALSO HELP IT FLY LONGER ROUTES
Adrian Schofield Auckland
Q
antas has sealed a deal for the
Airbus A350-1000s it will use
for its much-delayed Project
Sunrise, with new details emerging
about how the aircraft will be configured to undertake the planned recordbreaking ultra-long-haul flights.
The carrier announced on May 2
firm orders for 12 A350-1000s, due
to be delivered between 2025 and
2028. This move also allows Qantas
to set the launch for the Project Sunrise flights for late 2025. The project
has had a gestation period of almost
five years so far, which will stretch to
about eight years by the time flights
actually begin.
Qantas indicated the first two of
the nonstop routes will be from Sydney to London and New York. Both
will have flight times of 19-20 hr., and
the London flight will likely be the
longest in the world.
The airline has also talked about
other potential ultra-long-haul destinations, highlighting Paris and
Frankfurt in particular. Qantas CEO
Alan Joyce emphasizes that the extra range of the modified aircraft it
has ordered “will make almost any
city in the world just one flight away
from Australia.”
Qantas has been discussing its ambitions for Project Sunrise since
2017. It did a significant amount of
work to build a business case for the
flights, and in late 2019 it named the
A350-1000 as its preferred operating
choice. The carrier reached a placeholder agreement with Airbus covering up to 12 aircraft.
The airline was very close to sign-
30 AVIATION WEEK & SPACE TECHNOLOGY/MAY 16-29, 2022
Airbus brought an A350-1000 to
Sydney on May 2 as part of a demonstration tour, coinciding with the
announcement of the Qantas order.
ing a firm order before the COVID-19
pandemic struck in early 2020, which
caused it to shelve the plan. But even
while Qantas was struggling for survival during the pandemic, Joyce reiterated his confidence that Project
Sunrise would eventually be put back
on the agenda once business conditions improved.
The non-stop routes to London
and New York will cut up to 4 hr.
from the one-stop trip times to the
same destinations. Qantas currently
offers one-stop services from Melbourne and Sydney to London via
Darwin in the Northern Territory.
However, Perth in Western Australia
and Singapore will take over as the
London transit points on May 23 and
June 19, respectively.
Including transit time, these London one-stop trips take 22-24 hr. The
flights via Darwin and Perth use Boeing 787-9s, while those via Singapore
will be operated by Airbus A380s.
The airline previously operated
AviationWeek.com/AWST
one-stop flights to New York via Los
Angeles, but they have been suspended
since the start of the pandemic.
Q a n t a s co n s i d e re d b o t h t h e
Boeing 777X and Airbus A350-1000
for Project Sunrise before selecting
the latter option. Airbus proposed
some modifications to boost the
range of the A350-1000 beyond the
standard offering.
The Sydney-London nonstop route
is about 500 nm farther than the current range of the A350-1000, Airbus
tells Aviation Week. The extra route
length will be made possible with
an additional center fuel tank. This
will carry 20,000 liters (5,300 gal.)
of fuel, adding to the standard A3501000 fuel load of 159,000 liters.
The range capability of the Qantas aircraft will be boosted to about
9,700 nm, compared to 8,700 nm for
the standard A350-1000. This will
give it enough buffer on the London
route if diversions or go-arounds
are needed. The lower seat density
will also decrease weight and help
with range. There will be no change
to the engines or thrust versus the
standard version.
The additional fuel tank will not
compromise performance when the
aircraft is used on routes that do not
need the extra range, Airbus says.
Airbus confirms that the A3501000s delivered to Qantas would
theoretically be able to fly between
Sydney and London while avoiding
Russian airspace.
In finalizing the Airbus order,
Qantas also revealed details of the
planned cabin configuration of the
A350-1000s. They will have 238 seats
comprising six first-class suites, 52
business-class suites, 40 premium
economy seats and 140 in economy.
This means 40% of the seats will
be premium, and Qantas said its
aircraft will have a lower seat count
than any A350-1000s currently in
service. Other operators of this variant have more than 300 seats.
The first-class suites in the Qantas
A350-1000s will each have a privacy
door and a separate bed and seat. The
business-class suites will all offer di-
rect aisle access. Premium economy
seats will have 40-in. seat pitch, with
33-in. pitch for economy seats.
Another feature of the cabin will
be a “wellbeing zone,” with space for
passengers to stretch, screens displaying stretching exercises and a
self-service hydration station.
Qantas is not revealing the price
it negotiated for the A350 orders, although the carrier says it obtained
“a significant discount from standard price.” Joyce has previously
noted that those carriers in a strong
enough financial position to place orders during the pandemic recovery
phase will likely be able to get advantageous deals from manufacturers.
In conjunction with the A350
order, Qantas confirmed an order
for Airbus narrowbody aircraft to
begin the renewal of its domestic
fleet. The narrowbody deal includes
20 A220-300s and 20 A321XLRs,
with purchase rights for another 94
A320-family aircraft. Qantas had signaled in December that it intended to
place this order with Airbus. c
Analyze commercial aircraft activity, down to the tail number, with
AWIN’s NEW Tracked Aircraft Utilization.
Global Flight Hours
and Cycles
Actual vs. Reported
Data
Utilization History
and Trends
To learn more, go to
aviationweek.com/TAUinfo
Or call Anne McMahon at +1 646 469 1564 or
Thom Clayton +44 (0) 7387 092 285
AviationWeek.com/AWST
AVIATION WEEK & SPACE TECHNOLOGY/MAY 16-29, 2022 31
COMMERCIAL AVIATION
REGIONAL
ROLLERCOASTER
> REGIONAL AIRCRAFT ARE UNDER PRESSURE
AS THE U.S. PILOT SHORTAGE KICKS IN
> EMBRAER SEES SOFTER U.S. DEMAND BALANCED
BY MORE INTEREST ELSEWHERE
> FLEET RENEWAL RATHER THAN GROWTH
BECOMES THE FOCUS
Ben Goldstein and Lori Ranson Washington,
Helen Massy-Beresford Paris and Jens Flottau Frankfurt
R
egional aircraft played a crucial part in sustaining air
travel during the COVID-19 pandemic, giving rise to
hopes of manufacturers that their role may have permanently strengthened.
But as the recovery of the air transport sector gains momentum, a renewed focus on narrowbody aircraft
and new challenges have emerged.
In the U.S., the ramifications of an
industry-wide shortage of commercial
airline pilots are playing out, and the
country’s regional carriers find themselves first on the chopping block for
capacity and route reductions. Rising
fuel and labor costs and the inferior
economics of 50-seat regional jets in
particular are contributing to an increasingly difficult situation that will
almost certainly result in an accelerated exit of the smaller regional aircraft and some difficult times ahead
even for the larger ones.
“We see a slowdown of the sales activity for the [Embraer 175] E1,” says
Rodrigo Silva e Souza, head of marketing for Embraer’s commercial aircraft
division. “But the rest of the world and
the E2 are picking up.”
The U.S. pilot shortage predated
the COVID-19 pandemic but has been
exacerbated by the roughly 6,000 early retirements at major carriers (and
10,000 across the industry) that have
occurred as a result. As demand has
come back more quickly than expected, majors have relied on pilots from
their regional affiliates. Since 2019, regional carriers have lost some 2,500
pilots, nearly twice the rate of the majors, according to the Swelbar-Zhong
Consultancy. That gap continues to
grow. A pilot union source with a major U.S. airline recently told Aviation
Week that as much as 80% of its newhire pilots currently in training were
former regional pilots.
The dearth of pilots is putting upward pressure on salaries, making
smaller regional jets less profitable
to operate. As a result, major carriers are removing their 50-seaters at
a steady pace, part of an upgauging
trend that has accelerated since the
pandemic began. Some of the smaller communities that depend on those
jets for connectivity to larger hubs—
including many that are subsidized
by the federal Essential Air Service
(EAS) program—are losing airline
service as a result.
United Airlines, which operates the
country’s largest fleet of regional jets,
32 AVIATION WEEK & SPACE TECHNOLOGY/MAY 16-29, 2022
has been upgauging at a rapid pace
as part of its United Next strategic
plan, which involves the removal of
hundreds of 50-seaters in favor of
larger mainline jets. United Chief
Commercial Officer Andrew Nocella
said in April that the company plans
to limit its fleet to around 300 RJs,
mainly larger 70-76-seat jets, along
with the company’s premium-heavy
Bombardier CRJ550s.
Delta Air Lines, by contrast, has
reduced its regional fleet to just 150
aircraft and has no plans to increase
it, CEO Ed Bastian said in April. The
airline continues to operate small RJs
on some routes to and from its hubs
in Atlanta, Minneapolis-St. Paul, Detroit and Salt Lake City, although it
has stopped flying them into Boston
and New York.
Executives at American Airlines—
which has retired its CRJ200s,
Embraer 140s and 190s since 2019—recently said they expect regional departures to decline 20% in the second
quarter of 2022, compared to just 5%
on the mainline side. CEO Robert
Isom blamed the deficit on high pilot
attrition and training bottlenecks,
noting that “we just can’t get them up
to speed and in position fast enough.”
The cuts mean small communities are increasingly losing service.
SkyWest Airlines, which flies on behalf of American, United and Alaska
Airlines, in April announced its intent
to halt service to 29 small airports
covered by the EAS program, citing
pilot staffing issues. The odds of the
Transportation Department finding
replacement airlines on most of those
29 vacated routes are “a lot closer to
0% than to 50%,” Bill Swelbar, chief
analyst with Swelbar-Zhong, tells
Aviation Week.
“As regional pilot salaries were
rightfully increased beginning in 2015,
the economics of flying the small jet
have been going in the wrong direction for some time,” Swelbar observes.
AviationWeek.com/AWST
Alaska continues to cancel flights
because of its pilot shortage.
ALASKA AIRLINES
AviationWeek.com/AWST
expect to change anytime soon.
“Embraer may have found the perfect defensible position,” says AeroDynamic Advisory Managing Director
Richard Aboulafia. “There’s so much
uncertainty here with scope clauses
and barriers of entry—Mitsubishi
found that out the hard way. I can’t
imagine anyone else being eager to
enter this market.”
In contrast to the U.S., very few
regional jets have been retired in
Europe in recent years, despite the
steep drop in utilization due to the
pandemic, according to Montserrat
Barriga, director general of the European Regions Airline Association
(ERA). And with balance sheets affected across the board, fewer airlines than usual committed to new
Embraer 175 Utilization in North America
Average Flight Hours per Month
300
250
224
227
222
200
195
Republic
150
157
SkyWest
100
181
North America
50
0
2017
2018
2019
2020
2021
2022 Q1
E-Jet Utilization in Europe
250
Average Flight Hours per Month
The shift away from 50-seat aircraft
on paper benefits Embraer, which currently enjoys a virtual monopoly on
the sale of new RJs in the U.S. market
with its first-generation E-Jets. Still,
even utilization on those aircraft is
lagging. As of mid-April, utilization of
large RJs—including E-Jets as well as
CRJ700/900s—had recovered to 89%
of pre-pandemic levels in the U.S., versus 94% for mainline aircraft, according to data from Swelbar-Zhong. By
contrast, utilization of 50-seat jets had
recovered just 53% in April.
Embraer shows 195 monthly flight
hours on average per E175 operating
in the U.S. market in the fourth quarter of 2021 and only an average of 181
hr. in the first quarter of this year. The
2019 equivalent was 227 hr. In Europe,
by comparison, operators typically
flew E-Jets 195 hr. per month, coming
down to just 101 hr. in 2020 and back
up to 138 hr. at the beginning of this
year. There are no pilot constraints;
the significantly lower number of
hours is mainly due to the fact that
routes are also much shorter, leading
to fewer hours in the air.
Still, Embraer’s competitive position remains strong, thanks to the
dominance of the E-Jets, particularly
the E175. SkyWest Airlines is introducing 47 E175s into service through
2023, while Republic Airways, which
operates on behalf of the three legacy
carriers, has a commitment to take
100 more. Silva e Souza expects the
relatively weak demand for the aircraft beyond orders that are already
in place not to be a long-term issue.
He predicts that U.S. airlines will be
able to improve the pilot situation in
the next one or two years.
But the next-generation E-Jets E2
family remains blocked from the U.S.
market due to major airline pilot scope
clauses, which few industry watchers
200
196
195
195
150
138
LOT
KLM
100
123
101
Europe
50
0
2017
2018
2019
2020
2021
2022 Q1
Source: Embraer
AVIATION WEEK & SPACE TECHNOLOGY/MAY 16-29, 2022 33
COMMERCIAL AVIATION
ATR Fleet Monthly Utilization
Number of Monthly Flight Cycles
(in thousands)
January 2020-April 2022
100
80
60
40
20
July
2020
Jan.
2020
July
2021
Jan.
2022
April
2022
Source: ATR
and CEO Conor McCarthy could tell
the timing was right as he started to
put together the fleet for his new regional carrier last year. He had been
looking for ways to set up a regional
airline in Ireland for some time, but
the opportunity ultimately came in two
ways. Aer Lingus was looking for a new
regional partner to operate secondary
JOEPRIESAVIATION.NET
aircraft during 2021, deferring their
replacement of current-technology
regional jets.
“As a result, there are multiple examples of European airlines planning
to operate their existing regional aircraft until the end of this decade before
introducing next-generation aircraft,
with more European airlines investing
United Airlines plans to limit its regional jet
fleet to around 300 jets in the future.
in cabin upgrades rather than replacement aircraft,” Barriga says.
However, the ERA noticed green
shoots starting to emerge in late 2021,
such as a large increase in ATR deliveries in 2021 compared to 2020.
“There are indications of fleet simplification amongst regional aircraft
operators across Europe, including the
streamlining of aircraft types operated
as well as consolidation of the scale of
aircraft operated,” Barriga notes.
For airlines that were in the market
for new or used aircraft, times have
been good. Emerald Airlines founder
routes too small for its mainline fleet.
And demand for aircraft was down so
much that airlines looking for capacity
anyway had access to really good deals.
“Twenty-four percent of all ATR
42s and 72s were available for lease,”
McCarthy told the April CAPA Airline
Leaders conference. “You can imagine what that means for lease rates.
It made sense to lock in those rates.”
And McCarthy did just that: In 2021,
Emerald leased six ATR72-600s from
Chorus Aviation and Nordic Aviation
Capital. The aircraft are between six
and nine years old, according to the
34 AVIATION WEEK & SPACE TECHNOLOGY/MAY 16-29, 2022
Aviation Week Network’s Commercial
Fleet Discovery database.
Less than a year later, the situation
has changed, ATR says. “The available
aircraft pool has dried up,” Zuzana
Hrnkova, ATR’s head of marketing,
says. Eleven new operators took delivery of ATRs in 2021.
Like other manufacturers, ATR
has been tracing the recovery curve
of its products since the beginning
of 2020. The trends very clearly reflect how different geographies have
been affected by the pandemic. For
ATR, with its large exposure to Asia,
the continuing border closures, lockdowns and other travel restrictions
there have taken a toll. In May 2021,
even the recovery in global regional jet
available seat kilometers (ASK) began
to exceed that of the ATR fleet. And it
was only in January 2022 that the ATR
fleet achieved a larger share of its 2019
ASK than the RJs, at 77%. By March,
ATR ASKs had risen to 79%.
According to Fleet Discovery, 816
ATRs are currently in service, 267 are
stored, 120 are parked, and 53 are in
parked/reserve status, meaning they
have flown one or two days within a
seven-day period.
Global narrowbody usage is higher,
at 83%, but regional jet utilization sits
at 66% in spite of the concentration
of RJs in the domestic U.S. market,
where demand has come back fastest.
ATR’s exposure to the U.S. is minimal, however, given the market’s dislike of turboprops. Other factors work
in its favor, Hrnkova argues: 40% of
ATR operations are on EAS routes,
which have continued through the pandemic even when passenger demand
was lowest. Also, 85% of the fleet is
typically operating on domestic routes,
shielding it somewhat from travel restrictions over the past two years.
More fundamentally, ATR is observing a small but noticeable shift in how
the aircraft are used. They are still
popular as route openers, with 131 new
routes added using ATRs in 2021 (84
in 2020). But now demand for pointto-point services appears to be coming back more quickly than that for
hub-feeding. Hrnkova says this is a sign
of megatrends—people moving out of
big cities and into regional centers.
Also, “the replacement of the fleet
is accelerating,” she says. ATR sold 35
aircraft in 2021, and more than 70%
of them were replacing older ATRs or
De Havilland Canada Dash 8s. c
AviationWeek.com/AWST
MAY 2022
™
SUPPLY CHAIN
STRAIN
RUSSIA’S WAR
Impact on the Aftermarket
American Optimism . . .
With Constraints
InsideMRO Contents
MRO 4 NEWS BRIEFS & CONTRACTS
SAFETY & REGULATORY
MRO 6 Paperwork Predicament
MRO 8 ARSA Update
AIRLINE INSIGHT
MRO 10 Egyptair
Yehia Zakaria, chairman and
CEO of Egyptair Maintenance
and Engineering
REGIONAL
MRO 12 Changing Landscapes
Ukraine war spurs Western
MROs to realign strategies
MRO 14 Bouncing Back
North American MROs are
optimistic about recovery
OPERATIONS
MRO 16 Supplier Struggles
As flight activity increases,
other risks to aftermarket
recovery emerge
AIRCRAFT
MRO 20 A Steady Paycheck
MRO providers expect
stability, modest growth for
aging regional airliners
ENGINES
MRO 22 Modular Moves
Why module changes are
proving more attractive than
full overhauls
ENGINEERED
MRO 24 Expanding the Envelope
The IFE industry
responds to passengers’
intensifying digital focus
ENGINE UPDATE
MRO 26 On the Descent
The number of GP7200powered Airbus A380s will
decrease sharply this decade
MARKETPLACE
MRO 28 Enhancing Aftermarket
Supply Chains
VIEWPOINT
MRO 30 What Could Have Been
Christopher Gibbs,
Navier Consulting
COVER CREDIT: PRATT & WHITNEY
AviationWeek.com/MRO
MAINTENANCE CHECK
Geopolitical
Concerns
R
ussia’s invasion of
Ukraine on Feb. 24
“This is a going to be
quickly prompted
a wild card to watch.”
Western sanctions and
a cascade of activity to
safeguard assets, personnel and supply chains (see James Pozzi’s
thorough analysis on page MRO 12).
Titanium supply is a concern
because about 40% of what is used in
aero space comes from Russia, says
Kevin Michaels, AeroDynamic Advisory managing director. Several Western aerospace companies are looking
for alternatives to contracts held with
Russian titanium producer VSMPOAvisma, which is a major supplier
to Airbus, Boeing, Embraer, RollsRoyce, Safran and others (AW&ST
April 18-May 1, p. 50). In fact, several aerospace companies, including
Textron Aerospace, stated in their
first-quarter results that they plan
to shift titanium sourcing away from
Russia permanently.
While the aerospace community
seems to have enough titanium for the
near term, if OEMs ramp up production rates, that could change.
“Landing gear on twin-aisles are
made of VSMPO titanium. While there
are other sources we can find for titanium, the forging presses that make
these landing gear struts need to be
certified—because right now they’re
stamped out, and a lot of these parts
are stamped out in Russia,” Michaels
said at a geopolitical panel at Aviation
Week’s recent MRO Americas’ conference. “This is a going to be a wild card
to watch.”
While Russia’s war is inflicting
pain—both on businesses and innocent civilians—the geopolitical
repercussions are a big concern as
well. Countries representing about
half of the world’s population support Ukraine, but the other half are
taking neutral positions—including
Brazil, China, India, Singapore and
Thailand. Neutral stances can be
taken to preserve independence or to
avoid getting tangled up in what could
become a new cold war, with China
added to the mix.
Given that China’s aviation market
is much larger than Russia’s, that its
zero- tolerance lockdown COVID-19
policy can close major cities for weeks,
and that it has moved to align more
closely with Russia than the West,
China is viewed as a bigger risk by
many Western nations.
Ron Epstein, managing director of
aerospace for BofA Global Research,
also pointed out during an MRO
Americas panel that the exemptions
to “the Section 301 import tariffs
that the Trump administration put
in place” for the U.S. expire in midMay. “Section 301 [of the Trade Act
of 1974] put tariffs on about two-thirds
of the goods that were imported from
China into the U.S., and the exceptions back those off,” he explained.
At the moment, it is not clear what
the Biden administration’s changes
might be. However, Epstein expects
China to retaliate if the exceptions
do not continue.
The bigger picture is that “we can’t
look at China right now in isolation regarding what’s going on in Ukraine,”
said Epstein. The level of China’s support for Russia during the war will
have a big impact on how the geopolitics play out. This is something for
suppliers to monitor. c
—Lee Ann Shay
Access InsideMRO Online
Go to: AviationWeek.com/awst
INSIDEMRO
MAY 2022
MRO3
InsideMRO News Briefs
Contracts
Highlights
FL Technics Launches Wheels and Brakes Business
FL Technics has launched a new wheels and brakes repair business and has
set up a dedicated facility for the services in Hanover, Germany.
The specialist shop commenced operation on April 4 at Hanover International Airport and also will work on aircraft tires and components. It will
operate under the FL Technics Wheels and Brakes name.
Lithuania-headquartered FL Technics says the location will be a support hub within its global network of MRO markets, which spans from the
Americas to Asia-Pacific and has facilities in Lithuania, Indonesia, China
and the UK. This includes more than 70 line maintenance stations.
De Havilland Canada has won a
Wider oe contract to incorporate its
Extended Service Program PLUS on 10
Dash 8-100s to increase service life to
160,000 cycles from 120,000.
Delta Material Services has been
awarded a consignment agreement for
teardown and parts sales of five FTAI
Aviation-owned Airbus A320s.
Asiana Extends
CF6-80 Engine
MRO Deal
GA Telesis Engine Services has received an AirAsia India contract to pro-
Asiana Airlines has
extended its maintenance agreement with
Lufthansa Technik for
the repair and overhaul
of the CF6-80 engines
powering its Boeing 747
and 767 aircraft.
The five-year extension covers a total of
17 767-300 and 747-400
aircraft operated by the
LUFTHANSA TECHNIK
South Korean carrier.
Lufthansa Technik says the extension will strengthen its business in the
Asia-Pacific market and generate a stable workload for the CF6 engine
over the next few years.
Lufthansa Technik also provides component maintenance for the Asiana
Boeing 777-200ER fleet, along with integrated total component support for
the airline’s Airbus A320F and A350 aircraft. It also performs CF6 engine
support and heavy maintenance for the carrier’s A380s.
vide CFM56-5B maintenance and repair.
2Excel Certified for Component Repairs
Muirhead Avionics has secured an ex-
2Excel Engineering has gained UK Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) certification to carry out aircraft component maintenance.
Under the new CAA accreditation, the company is approved to conduct
checks up to C level including inspection of airframes, engines and accessories, heavy lubrication and corrosion prevention programs.
In addition, it will test major internal mechanisms and fulfillment of
service bulletin requirements at its main facility at the former ATC Lasham
site in Lasham, Hampshire, located around 50 mi. southwest of London.
well to provide repair and ongoing support
SR Technics Joins Pratt’s GTF MRO Network
lion) Jetstar Airways contract to perform
Pratt & Whitney has added another partner to its geared turbofan (GTF)
engine aftermarket network after SR Technics became certified to repair
the Airbus A320neo powerplant.
The Swiss MRO signed terms with Pratt to repair the PW1100G-JM
engine powering the A320neo family. It will offer complete disassembly,
assembly and testing capabilities.
SR Technics estimates it has invested 80 million Swiss francs ($83 million)
at its Zurich facility, which will include a new test cell to accommodate the
new maintenance work. c
50 Airbus A320s. It teamed with Triumph
MRO4
INSIDEMRO
MAY 2022
IFS was selected by JAL Engineering to
provide its cloud-based fleet maintenance
planning software for Japan Airlines’ fleet
of nearly 200 aircraft.
JMC Group has won a two-year Boeing
contract to provide engineering support
for the new dedicated 737NG passengerto-freighter conversion line at London
Gatwick Airport.
Joramco has been awarded a five-year
Ryanair contract to provide Boeing 737
heavy maintenance at Amman, Jordan.
clusive 10-year agreement with Honeyfor its cockpit displays, control displays
and display computers for Embraer ERJ
135, 140, 145 and Legacy aircraft.
Quickstep Aerospace Services has received a three-year, A$35 million ($26 milV2500 nacelle maintenance for more than
Aviation Services Asia on the tender.
Revima was chosen by Bamboo Airways
for Airbus A320/A321 landing gear MRO
out of its new facility in Chonburi, Thailand.
Contract Source: SpeedNews
AviationWeek.com/MRO
SIMPLICITY
FOR THE
WIN
WHEELS AND BRAKES
IT’S THAT SIMPLE
TPAEROSPACE.COM
InsideMRO Safety & Regulatory
Paperwork
Predicament
AIRBUS
Several years ago, as part of periodic
changes to the maintenance annex
guidance (MAG) that underpins the
Bilateral Aviation Safety Agreement
(BASA) between the European Union
and the U.S., Europe introduced new
documentation requirements for certain parts. Specifically, new parts
subject to a dual release for export
E100 New Article Inspection Form.
The FAA, in a September 2016 letter to ARSA, said the E100 is an acceptable means of compliance for a
repair station’s parts-documentation
needs and the relevant “special conditions” in the new guidance, which
went into effect days later. EASA,
which was consulted by ARSA during
the E100 development process, took
the position that while it prefers an
8130-3 from the PAH, the E100’s validity as an acceptable means of compliance is a U.S. regulatory issue.
U.S.-based repair shops are getting pushback on an accepted parts-approval
method that supports European operators.
from the U.S. to Europe—as are parts
installed by a U.S. shop on Europeanregistered aircraft—needed to be
traceable to the relevant production
approval holder (PAH). Typically,
that means an 8130-3 airworthiness
approval form.
For repair stations with both FAA
and European Union Aviation Safety
Agency (EASA) certifications, this presented a problem. While the FAA encourages PAHs to ship parts with 81303s, the regulations do not require it.
Repair stations often ask for the forms,
but they are not always included.
But repair stations’ authority to inspect and tests parts to determine
whether they are airworthy presented
a solution. The Aeronautical Repair
Station Association (ARSA) led an effort to find it—and came up with the
MRO6
INSIDEMRO
MAY 2022
The issue seemed settled—until
recently.
ARSA has heard that some U.S.based repair stations with EASA certificates are getting pushback from
both the FAA and its European counterpart on E100 usage. In some cases,
both FAA inspections and EASA representatives conducting visits to U.S.
shops have been rejecting E100s.
The news prompted ARSA to write
Acting FAA Administrator Billy Nolen
and ask that the agency reiterate its
position on E100s—one that some
shops have used to refute inspectors’
objections.
“In one case, an E100 form-related
finding was subsequently withdrawn
after the repair station provided the
[September 2016] letter and additional
explanation of why the practice was
appropriate” under FAA regulations,
ARSA wrote in the April 7 letter.
Completing an E100 “requires a
comprehensive inspection by knowledgeable maintenance personnel; it
documents a process to determine if
an article is traceable to a PAH and
suitable for installation,” the letter
explains. “Completing the form requires a thorough assessment of all
aspects of the part, its packaging, records, physical condition, identifying
information, conformity with manufacturer data, etc. When completed
properly, the E100 form results in the
safety outcome required by the U.S.
and E.U. regulations—the installation
of an airworthy part.”
ARSA acknowledged that getting
8130-3s from the PAH is preferable,
and has long urged repair stations to
request them. But absent a mandate,
paperwork gaps will persist.
“It is clear EASA would prefer that
the FAA Form 8130-3 originate from
the PAH; however, the U.S. regulations, the [bilateral’s] special conditions and the plain language in the
MAG do not require that result,”
ARSA wrote. Given the FAA’s failure
to enforce requirements that PAHs
provide an FAA Form 8130-3 when
exporting a new article to an EASAapproved repair station, the E100
form is fully in line with the U.S. aviation safety system and is necessarily
in widespread use.”
ARSA also pointed out that the
FAA’s job is to enforce its own regulations, preferably with consistency.
Rejecting E100s fails on both counts.
“It seems that some FAA personnel
are more committed to enforcing
EASA preferences than the FAA regulations and the bilateral agreement’s
special conditions,” the letter says.
“We are also concerned that FAA personnel below the level of division manager have apparently ignored FAA
policy . . . issued six years ago.”
ARSA’s specific request to Nolen is
“confirmation of ARSA’s position that
the E100 form is still an acceptable
method of compliance with the U.S.
aviation safety regulations . . . and the
MAG when inspecting new parts received without an FAA Form 8130-3
from the PAH.” c
—Sean Broderick
AviationWeek.com/MRO
October 18-20, 2022
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InsideMRO Safety & Regulatory
ARSA UPDATE
At the Top of the Hill
REGULATORY COMPLIANCE IS LIKE
a slalom course. Each nuance of the
rules is the starting gate; getting successfully to the end means properly
navigating between the questions
and answers.
This is a favorite metaphor of ARSA
Managing Director Marshall Filler, so I
have heard it often both as a member
of the association’s board of directors
and through Nordam’s own engagement with regulators. The illustration
is based on a key point: Finding the
best answer means you must start at
the top of the right hill. Identifying the
right hill on which to begin the course
is rarely obvious, never easy and often
requires a compass.
Every time an industry member has
a question, the answer begins with
identifying the right slalom course.
Here are some of the questions fielded
by ARSA since October, when I began
my term as president, and the hills on
which to begin answering them:
Repairman eligibility in Part 65 Subpart E for inspection capabilities?
Requirements for repair station inspectors in §145.155.
Vision standards for nondestructive
inspection personnel based on guidance in Advisory Circular 65-31?
Repair station personnel requirements
in Part 145 Subpart D.
Medical marijuana use while performing a safety-sensitive function?
The definition of “prohibited drug” in
§120.7(m) points to 49 CFR §40.3.
Security responsibilities for repair
stations located outside the U.S.?
Transportation Security Administration
rules in 49 CFR Part 1554.
MRO8
INSIDEMRO
MAY 2022
Issuing 8130-3s for overhauls performed by subcontractors?
Privileges and limitations, contract
maintenance and manual requirements
in §§145.201, 145.209 and 145.217.
Compliance with repair station
rules for work performed on military articles?
Sections 43.1 and 145.1 tying applicability to U.S. certificates of airworthiness and potentially
manual and quality
system requirements
in §§145.207, 145.209
and 145.211.
In each of these
cases, finding the
“right” answer is
a b o u t p ro c e s s a s
much as (if not more
than) knowledge.
Each turn down the
course leads to another question and
yet another decision
point, until you reach
the bottom of the
hill . . . and, thus, success. So those of us in SHUTTERSTOCK
the aviation business need reliable
sources for good process and sound
knowledge to complete the course.
This way, we ultimately can make the
aircraft we put our “hands on” to “fly
families safely” (a Nordam slogan).
What are those resources for you?
If you take anything away from this
article, it should be the need for
trustworthy direction in your regulatory compliance activities. As an
analogy, if the IRS is not the best
place for tax advice, then the FAA is
not the best source for compliance
information—nor is putting the pres-
sure entirely on your own personnel.
Seeking help from experts is advisable and available.
Joining and supporting trade associations focused on regulatory compliance will bring alternative sources
of information. Finding, reading and
circulating public communications related to government matters is also
advisable. Participating in industry
activities, meetings, conferences and
conventions inevitably brings opportunities to ask questions, engage in
dialog and arrive at answers.
Making sure you get to the top of
the right hill begins your navigation
and will help you avoid being buried
in the snow. Seek help in your compliance efforts that can be a compass—a
navigator—you can count on. c
Terrell Siegfried is Nordam’s assistant
general counsel and corporate secretary.
He has been a member of ARSA’s board
since 2017 and was elected to his first
term as ARSA president in October 2021.
AviationWeek.com/MRO
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InsideMRO Airline Insight
Egyptair
Yehia Zakaria, chairman and CEO of Egyptair
Maintenance & Engineering, talks with James Pozzi
about growing the carrier’s MRO business.
What are the key elements of
Egyptair’s maintenance strategy?
hangar maintenance work, [we] took
advantage of the lull to address the
light and heavy maintenance requireEgyptair Maintenance & Engineering
ments. Supported by repatriation
inherited the legacy of the EgyptAir
operations, plus the need for vaccine
technical division. We evolved its
and medical supplies’ transportation,
business model to an affiliated MRO,
we managed to continue a very limited
capitalizing on immense expelevel of operations. Easing of
rience in maintaining modern
travel constraints after worldaircraft types and the wide
wide campaigns of vaccination
scope of capabilities and the
has enabled us to recover alquality-assurance system that
most 50% of our operations.
had been developed based on
Our full workforce is back at
international standards and
work, with operations returnaccreditations. We formuing to 70% of pre-pandemic
lated our customer-focused
levels. We managed to limit
Yehia Zakaria,
strategy through exploiting
our losses for two fiscal years,
maintenance
the embedded know-how,
and we expect to slowly regain
and engineering
modern capabilities and geo- chairman
the momentum for profitabiland CEO.
graphic proximity to vibrantly
ity, as the estimates show, by
growing regions to support aviation
the end of our current fiscal year on
regional growth by offering a wide
June 30.
range of maintenance services, adHas the pandemic presented a good
dressing operators’ needs and aiming
chance for airlines to innovate in MRO?
to be the preferred technical partner
for many clients other than our own
It was a challenge to maintain the serairline. The rollout of aviation-related
viceability of huge fleets that had been
technologies and digitalization have
stored and parked. Many solutions have
been accelerated as we strive for probeen developed in cooperation with
ductivity and maximizing the returns
manufacturers and authorities to adon our valuable assets. We are focusdress the technical requirements. Turning on upgrading capabilities, organiing around aircraft between flights and
zational systems and digital platforms
health precautions for both passengers
to cope with ever-evolving operational
and maintenance crews has translated
and business requirements.
into maintenance procedure burdens.
How has your maintenance operation
This is in addition to massive disruprecovered since the COVID-19 outbreak
tions in supply chains and the fact that
began two years ago?
almost all contractual terms had been
severely stretched, requiring special
The vulnerability of aviation industry
measures and arrangements between
to such crises is very high. Over the
airlines and MRO service providers to
history of aviation, it has experienced
navigate safely through the crisis.
either regional outbreaks or limitedWhat is the ratio of Egyptair fleet
time disruptions, and the COVID-19
maintenance work versus third-party
outbreak has maintained its global
maintenance?
consequences for a couple of years
now. During the complete lockdown,
We’ve managed to leverage the thirdearly in the outbreak, all line mainteparty contribution to operating revnance activities were suspended; while
enue to almost 30%, with plans to
maintaining some level of activities in
MRO10
INSIDEMRO
MAY 2022
Egyptair Fact File
CAPABILITIES: At its main base in Cairo,
Egyptair operates a system of light
and heavy maintenance airframe
hangars equipped and capable of
accommodating all modern aircraft
types up to heavy checks, supported
by structural repair workshops and
special services such as nondestructive
testing and borescope inspections.
Egyptair operates an engine
maintenance complex capable of
providing up to a B3 level of workshop
visit for many engine types, with a
100,000-lb. engine testing facility. Its
line station network covers all domestic
airports in Egypt and many other
airports in the Middle East and Africa.
CAPACITY: Hangars can accommodate
up to 12 slots for narrow- and widebody aircraft.
increase it to 40% soon. We have the
advantage of having a wide customer
base from Europe, Africa and the Middle East, given our list of international
approvals, along with our expansion
plan to attract more customers from
different regions. Our geographic location is an advantage as well.
Do you foresee adding new maintenance services or capabilities, and if
so, what will you prioritize?
Developing new services and adding
new capabilities are continuously managed in response to customer needs and
market dynamics. Egyptair has given
priority to collaborative initiatives with
potential regional partners to introduce
new services and/or expand our regional presence adjacent to point-ofservice delivery and our customer
base of operations. In addition, we can
increase our light and heavy maintenance capacity to fulfill the growing
regional demand for such services,
along with developing a new paint facility to complement our service portfolio.
However, we made a major leap during
the pandemic over the past couple of
years by intensifying our training programs and adding more aircraft types
to our line maintenance capabilities,
such as the Airbus A380, A350 and
AviationWeek.com/MRO
The airline’s MRO business
services most Boeing, Airbus
and Embraer aircraft types.
Which MRO technologies are you looking at investing in for the future?
We’ve managed to implement the initial
milestone in digital transformation to
streamline operational processes and
leverage the integration capabilities with
OEMs, manufacturers and customers’
digital platforms. This will provide a
solid foundation to introduce new digitally based predictive maintenance tools.
Are you anticipating capacity
constraints across your maintenance
network as soon as maintenance
demand picks up?
Yes, for sure, as the maintenance requirements creep up, which had been
postponed for stored fleets, as well
as airlines’ needs to recover faster to
compensate for some of their losses
and/or gain new market share. Many
operators already have made decisions
for returning leased aircraft, creating
additional demand for maintenance to
fulfill end-of-lease return conditions.
How has the Egyptair Maintenance &
Engineering supply chain held up over
the past few years? Have there been
challenges?
Recently, supply chain challenges
started ramping up, driven by many
causes; a shortage in capacity for engine maintenance services resulted
from early demand for shop visits for
some of the newly deployed engine
fleets and the availability of spare engines to compensate for service outages. OEM production challenges resulted in extremely long lead times to
supply some types of spares. Lockdown
and travel restrictions have squeezed
capacity availability and the efficiency
of logistics networks. It looks like MRO
facilities don’t have the agility to ramp
up sharply above steady-state demand.
How has the MRO labor market
changed over the past few years?
What is Egyptair seeing in terms of
technician recruitment and attracting
new talent into the industry?
AviationWeek.com/MRO
The demand for MRO labor is constantly increasing, especially in the
Middle East and even in Europe. The
huge demand in China and Asia to support the growth of fleets and traffic
motivates many MRO workers in the
Gulf area to return to their own countries in the Far East, resulting in scaling
up wages for expatriate MRO technicians. All of our staff is locally recruited, and we have the privilege of access
to a steady flow of fresh graduate en-
gineers and technicians. We also train
our MRO staff either as new recruits
or to improve the skills of experienced
staff. That allows us to maintain an
adequate workforce at a very competitive cost. On the other hand, many
regional MROs and operators have
eliminated many jobs during the pandemic crisis. It will take time for them
to re-recruit well-trained staff and recover operational capacity, but this has
not been the case for Egyptair. c
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InsideMRO Regional
SMBC CAPITAL
Changing Landscapes
Ukraine war spurs Western MROs to realign strategies
while lessors pursue aircraft repossession claims
James Pozzi London
W
hen Russia’s invasion of
Ukraine started on Feb .
24, Western governments
swiftly introduced a raft of economic
sanctions against Moscow. These had
ramifications for the aviation industry,
with Russian carriers banned from flying into the airspace of countries including the U.S., UK, Canada and the
European Union (EU). Sanctions imposed by 40 nations also had an impact
on aircraft leasing, the export of new
aircraft and the supply of components.
Over the next month, in accordance
with sanctions, Western aerospace
companies halted their Russian operations. Airframe manufacturer Boeing
suspended support of Russian airlines
operating its products. This included
the sale of spare parts and the provision of engineering services. In total,
Aviation Week’s Commercial Fleet Discovery database estimated in March
that this would affect around 369 Boeing aircraft in the Russian fleet. Rival
airframe maker Airbus followed suit
and, according to Fleet Discovery, had
an estimated 350 aircraft operated by
MRO12
INSIDEMRO
MAY 2022
Russian carriers at the time sanctions
took effect. Engineering services provided by its Russia-based Airbus Engineering Center were also suspended.
Engine manufacturers GE Aviation
and Rolls-Royce also curtailed services
in Russia.
In the long term, the West’s move
away from Russia could have its biggest impact on the supply chain, and
specifically on how titanium is sourced,
as Russia supplies around 40% of the
industry’s needs. “Pratt and GE have
largely avoided using Russian titanium, but Safran and Rolls-Royce do use
Russian titanium and are going to have
to find alternative sources [for] that,”
Kevin Michaels, managing director of
consulting firm AeroDynamic Advisory,
said during a panel discussion at Aviation Week’s MRO Americas event in
Dallas in late April.
Fellow panelist Ronald Epstein,
managing director of aerospace and
defense at BofA Global Research,
points to companies such as Raytheon Technologies, parent company of Pratt & Whitney and Collins
In the wake of the conflict, leasing
companies are terminating agreements with Russian carriers such as
Aeroflot.
Aerospace, indicating its intention to
source titanium outside of Russia permanently. “That’s a major shift in the
supply chain, which will come with
some disruption,” he said. “That’s
something we’re expecting to hear
more of as more companies report
this quarter.”
This self-imposed embargo could
also affect landing gear production,
and specialists like Liebherr-Aerospace. “We source a lot of material
and product from Russia,” says Alex
Vlielander, chief services officer at
Liebherr-Aerospace & Transportation. The company employs 2,500
staff across the group in Russia, with
200 of those specifically working in
aerospace, providing support for Russian carriers with Liebherr products.
As a result of sanctions, Vlielander
says Liebherr is unable to utilize that
workforce for their intended jobs. “We
AviationWeek.com/MRO
S7 TECHNICS
can’t even provide technical support
to the airlines. . . . If they call one of
our field service reps, they are not allowed to give them any type of technical information or continue their
work, so it’s a pretty impactful phase
for us,” he adds.
In the face of a shrinking commercial aviation sector and reduced
access to parts and MRO services,
Russia has stated its intention to look
toward Asia and source parts and materials for Boeing and Airbus aircraft
from countries like China, India and
Turkey, which have yet to go along
with sanctions imposed by the West.
However, any potential aerospace alliance with China remains uncertain after it reportedly refused aircraft parts
deliveries in the wake of the invasion.
Meanwhile, Czech Airlines Technics
(CSAT) saw only a “slight” impact
from the sanctions and the situation
in Ukraine on its operations. “Russian air carriers have been historically minor clients, and we have been
providing them mainly with line maintenance services,” a CSAT representative told Inside MRO, adding that “due
to the sanctions, it is not possible to
provide the service anymore.” Poland’s
LOT Aircraft Maintenance Services
(Lotams) stated that it had seen little
in the way of disruption to maintenance
services since the outbreak of war.
Companies with larger customer exposure in Russia experienced a more
sizable impact almost immediately.
German MRO giant Lufthansa Technik
held contracts with about a dozen airlines in Russia up to the point of sancIMPACT ON MRO PROVIDERS
tions being imposed, while also operAviation Week’s Fleet & MRO Foreating its Lufthansa Technik Vostok
cast values Russia’s MRO industry for
Services subsidiary in Moscow. The
Western-built airframes and engines
suspension of services affected about
at $2.3 billion for this year, which
400 aircraft in total, mainly comprisrepresents a steady flow of work for
ing component and engine services.
aftermarket specialists. In the immeLithuania-based FL Technics has a
diate aftermath of sanctions, MRO
greater volume of Russian and Ukraiproviders, particularly in Central
nian aftermarket work and saw a direct
and Eastern Europe, saw some level
impact in the early stages of the invasion. “Since Feb. 24
and the outbreak
of war in Ukraine,
there have been
interruptions as
a result; however,
these have calmed
to some degree
over the past few
weeks,” Zilvinas
Lapinskas, CEO of
FL Technics, told
Aviation Week in
mid-April. “Russia
and Ukraine are
Airframe and engine OEMs have ceased support services
both quite imporand the supply of spare parts for their aircraft in Russia.
tant markets for
of disruption to their business, mostly
us in terms of revenue—the planned
in line maintenance services due to
revenue was around 10% from those
cross-border flight restrictions. As
two countries for the year 2022. Our
EU member states, they were obliairline customers from both countries
gated to stop accepting any new ornumbered up to 20 carriers.”
ders from Russian airlines as of Feb.
Domestically, Russia’s aviation regu24. For providers like Estonia-based
lator granted several MRO providers
Magnetic MRO, the financial impact
new certifications throughout March.
was minimal; CEO Risto Maeots esThese included Yakutia Airlines adding
timates its percentage of Russia-reBoeing 737 line maintenance, Aeroflot’s
lated aftermarket work was in single
maintenance subsidiary A-Technics
digits in 2021, at around 7%.
being granted line and periodic repair
AviationWeek.com/MRO
services for Russian-registered Boeing
and Airbus aircraft, and Rossiya expanding its MRO certificate to include
services for aircraft built by both of the
airframe manufacturing giants.
LESSORS FACE UNCERTAINTY
Unlike many MROs, lessors have
been more adversely affected by the
sanctions, with many leased aircraft
still within Russian borders. In the
wake of sanctions, lessors moved to
repossess their aircraft, but efforts to
do so have met with mixed success.
As a result, many have taken substantial financial hits as Russian carriers
took advantage of a new national law
permitting them to reregister foreign
aircraft as their own property under
Russian registry.
The Russian commercial fleet is
estimated at nearly 1,000 aircraft, according to Aviation Week data, with
around half of that being leased. Aircraft manufactured by Airbus and
Boeing number around 700, with an
estimated 95% of that Western-built
fleet being on lease. Up to late April,
Aviation Week analysis shows approximately 222 commercial and business
aircraft had been seized by Russian
operators. These include Airbus
A320ceos (73), Boeing 737NGs (64)
and 25 widebodies.
AerCap, the world’s largest aircraft
leasing company, filed a $3.5 billion
insurance claim for its stranded aircraft in March. That same month, it
disclosed that it had 135 owned aircraft and 14 engines remaining in
Russia, having successfully recovered
22 aircraft and three engines. Meanwhile, U.S.-based lessor Air Lease
Corp. says it will write off around
$800 million of assets in Russia, consisting of 21 owned and six managed
aircraft, while Irish lessor Avolon
confirmed just 10 of its owned aircraft
were in Russia as of the end of March.
The woes of lessors have extended
outside of the U.S. and Europe. Dubai
Aerospace Enterprise (DAE) revealed
in early May that it had written off
more than $500 million of assets in the
form of aircraft leased to Russian carriers. Company CEO Firoz Tarapore said
DAE had filed claims of $1 billion under
certain insurance policies and anticipated filing additional claims to recover
payments owed to the company. c
INSIDEMRO
MAY 2022
MRO13
InsideMRO Regional
Bouncing Back
Regional optimism is
rising with recovery,
but the supply chain
remains a concern
Aviation Week’s Joe Anselmo (far
left) moderated the Airline Round­
table in Dallas with (from left) Delta
TechOps’ Penny Jacob, United Airlines’
Dag Johnsen, Avelo Airlines’ Gary
Martin and FedEx’s Leo Warmuth.
RC PHOTOGRAPHIC PRODUCTIONS INC. PHOTOS
James Pozzi Dallas
T
he rollout of new technologies
has been a recurrent theme in
aviation in recent years. Airlines
increasingly are looking to automation to help improve efficiencies while
tapping into predictive analytics and
drones for maintenance tasks. During
the airline roundtable panel at Aviation
Week’s MRO Americas conference
on April 26, representatives from the
technical divisions of Delta Air Lines,
United Airlines, FedEx and startup
airline Avelo discussed what they are
rolling out across their operations.
“There’s some really interesting
emerging technology today,” said Dag
Johnsen, director of tech ops powerplant engineering at United Airlines
who cited drone technology for lightning-strike inspections as particularly
interesting. “I don’t think it’s going to
make a huge dent in the overall workforce, but there are efficiencies, so
emerging technologies like this will
make things become more efficient.”
However, he does not see this trend extending to more labor-intensive areas
such as specific types of engine work.
Penny Jacob, vice president for
Commercial at Delta TechOps Services Group, said predictive maintenance is an important area for the
Atlanta-headquartered airline MRO.
“What we’re doing there is going to
MRO14
INSIDEMRO
MAY 2022
talize the business. “This will be when
we eliminate the paper logbooks on the
aircraft,” he said. “We weren’t quite
ready for this, but very soon we will go
into a digital environment, which was
a little easier for us since we didn’t
have a lot of legacy systems.”
drive a lot of efficiency in terms of how
we maintain the aircraft,” she noted.
“It helps the reliability for the customer as well, so that’s definitely an
important area of investment.”
Given its cargo focus, FedEx has invested heavily in areas such as warehousing and related tools. “Sorting
packages is just ripe for automation,
and we’ve invested tens of millions of
dollars into this,” said Leo Warmuth,
managing director for aircraft engineering and technical planning at
cargo carrier FedEx Express. He
shares Jacob’s view that predictive
maintenance, and specifically aircraft
health management tools, will grow in
importance for FedEx operations.
“This is so you spend less time with
mechanics trying to troubleshoot and
get the aircraft up in the air,” he said.
“The only challenge to that is as you
automate more and as business grows,
you still need more people.”
Gary Martin, vice president for
technical operations at Avelo Airlines,
said the airline has adopted forms of
automation ever since its launch in
2021. This included MRO software,
where it rolled out an AMOS package
across its technical operations. Citing
the airline’s reluctance to operate in a
paper-heavy environment, Martin said
the next step will be to further digi-
For office roles, the carrier also
sees itself as a “virtual” airline, with
many of its people working from
home, although it holds monthly team
meetings lasting one week at its Houston facility. “We’ve enjoyed that flexibility that was made possible by the
improvements in the technology,”
Martin said of the virtual environment. “You don’t miss phone calls or
video discussions you need to have,
which are really important.”
OPPORTUNITIES IN RECOVERY
Dan Abraham, vice president of Commercial Business at Boeing Global Services, said the airframe manufacturer
sees digital as one of two key areas of
focus going forward across all its businesses. One area where it will have an
impact is in parts, where Boeing is
looking to improve alignment with customer demand systems to better forecast the stocking of components to
ensure greater availability. The second
is sustainability. “This is the other big
opportunity—how do we support customers in their goals to reduce carbon
and fuel burn?” he said. Through platforms such as Flight Deck Advisor from
its Jeppensen subsidiary, Abraham
said digital technology has helped a
1.5% fuel-burn improvement across its
Boeing 787 aircraft program.
Another airframe-maker with a
digital focus is Airbus. Dominik Wacht,
for Customer Services-North America
at Airbus Americas, said this will likely
derive from a strategic point of view
rather than revenue concerns. The
company was investing in digital tools
pre-pandemic, but Wacht said things
have accelerated at a greater pace in
the past two years. “We’ve seen that
the pandemic has actually pushed even
more demand and [has pushed us to
AviationWeek.com/MRO
have] more efficient capabilities analyzing the data that we have today.”
However, long-term adoption of
these new technologies could be one of
the industry’s next big challenges.
Wacht said that the future will be
about not just having these digital
tools available but also working with
the customers and employees using
them. “We’ve been used to working in
a certain way for years and years. It’s
a highly regulated industry, and so
there’s certain constraints in the way
that we can deploy that,” he noted.
The digital focus is also evident in
the future long-term plans of engine
manufacturers. Mary Prettyman, director of marketing for Commercial
Engines at Pratt & Whitney, said the
company’s digital transformation, undertaken as part of a five-year plan,
presents an important opportunity.
“Things like robotics, the connected
factory, digital training—these are all
key components along with automated
visual inspections,” she said. “These
types of things are going to take us
through to that next level of capability,
and driving efficiency and productivity
in our aftermarket shops is absolutely
vital because that’s where the real opportunity is for us to move the needle
on our overall performance.”
While GE Aviation is also rolling
out digital strategies, Ryan Gunyan,
business operations leader for aftermarket solutions at the engine giant,
sees commercial innovation across
the aviation industry that is applicable to its CFM56 and Leap engine
programs. “On the CFM56 engine,
you’re seeing many more people come
onboard to provide new products that
we haven’t seen before,” he said. “I
think the operators and the lessors
are getting better support than ever
before.” Gunyan sees this innovation
further developing for the Leap engine. “As we bring on branded service
agreement shops, we’re going to see
continued competition there, and
we’re excited to see what those guys
can bring to the table,” he added.
SUPPLY CHAIN INCONSISTENCIES
Global pandemics, geopolitical events
and a rise in input costs such as energy and fuel have all contributed to
a perfect storm of challenges in today’s aviation MRO supply chain. At
AviationWeek.com/MRO
MRO Americas, the five key supply
chain challenges were cited as a consistent support of parts and material
supply, labor-retention challenges,
inflation and cost controls, adoption
of technology and automation and disaster recovery and readiness for
global events.
“The disruptions are pretty much
omnipresent,” said Drew Skaff, vice
president of supply chain at Republic
Airways. “It’s creating a more challenging environment for the industry
to recover. We’re feeling the pain as an
industry from an energy standpoint
and definitely from a labor standpoint.”
The supply of parts and materials
was seen by attendees as the biggest
challenge for MRO. This was no sur-
also asking our suppliers to partner,
and we’re trying to understand what
their supply chain look like—this entails supply-chain mapping,” he noted.
“We want to understand where they’re
sourcing their material, whether it’s
raw material or finished goods. We
want to understand what their labor
footprint looks like.”
Benjamin Moreau, senior vice president for strategy and business development at AFI KLM E&M, said OEMs
have limited access to alternative
sources of parts, and this, along with
the pandemic, has led to operators
streamlining their inventory, resulting
in no buffer. He said the airline-affiliated MRO is diversifying its supply
base away from single sources. “We
Aviation Week’s Sean Broderick (far left) moderated the OEM Roundtable with
(from left) GE Aviation’s Ryan Gunyan, Pratt & Whitney’s Mary Prettyman and
Boeing Global Services’ Dan Abraham.
prise to Skaff. Republic now operates
at around 90% of its capacity in terms
of block-hour production and deployed fleet. “If our demand is lower
than what it was two or three years
ago, we are still dramatically challenged with consistent sources of
supply,” he said.
One method the airline has adopted
to navigate this challenge is growing
its supplier-surveillance strategies,
using monitoring tools to track the
health of suppliers. “If we do see a
supply disruption, we’re at the front
end of that versus after we tap out our
current inventory,” Skaff said. “We are
work on finding alternative sources
such as [used serviceable material]
and dismantling aircraft with matching engines,” he said, while also targeting a wider scope of parts repairs.
Barry Swift, senior vice president of
supply chain at AJW Group, said the
company has revaluated its relationship with its partners including the
OEMs. “It has driven us to adopt a new
level of detail on the way in which we
discuss and manage the issues and
risk-mitigation plans,” he explained.
The company factors in the impact of
the supply situation as well as the logistics constraints it incurs. c
INSIDEMRO
MAY 2022
MRO15
InsideMRO
Supply Chain
Supplier
Struggles
As flight activity increases, other risks to
aftermarket recovery emerge
Sean Broderick Dallas
I
f the commercial aftermarket recovery stalls in the near
future, it will not be due to a lack of demand-stoking flight
activity, but rather supply chain-related constraints linked
to labor and production-rate increases on key programs at
Airbus and Boeing.
After a collapse that mirrored the
global airline passenger-activity decline
that approached 100% in mid-2020 with
the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, the
aftermarket has been rolling. Depending
on the market, airlines are either ramping
up activity to meet current demand or
preparing their fleets for an anticipated
summer-season breakthrough as pandemic-related headwinds subside.
The near-term upside: MRO specialists
are benefiting from full shops and brisk
sales. Full-year MRO sales and parts purchasing are projected to be up 15-20% in
2022 with steady quarter-to-quarter
sequential growth, a recent RBC Capital
Markets survey found.
During Aviation Week’s recent MRO
Americas conference, “we consistently
heard about a strong [first quarter], with
expectations that this strength continues
into [the second quarter],” RBC Capital
Markets Managing Director Ken Herbert
writes in a post-event investor note. “For
example, many distributors are seeing
similar levels of sequential growth into the
second quarter—mid-single-digits—with
what the industry saw in the first quarter.”
Coming out of a global economic downturn that saw many companies trim staff
while navigating two years of turbulence,
some are not prepared for such a demand
surge. Shortages of both high-skill, specially trained workers and key front-line
employees such as ground-service crews
are prevalent among airlines. The supply
chain is suffering as well, and operators
are beginning to feel the effects.
MRO16
INSIDEMRO
MAY 2022
“There was no buffer in the industry,” Drew Skaff, Republic Airways vice president for supply
chain, told MRO Americas attendees. “Our demand is lower than it
was two or three years ago, and we
are still dramatically challenged
with consistent sources of supply.”
The U.S.-based regional operator’s 220-aircraft Embraer 170 series fleet is operating at about
90% of comparable 2019 block
hours, Skaff said. Despite this lag,
suppliers are not keeping up.
One way Republic has responded
is by expanding its use of dynamic
modeling.
“We are now sending demand
signals to our suppliers at a more
frequent level,” Skaff said. “The
theory is that the supply chain will
become a little bit more nimble and
reactive. It does require more work
on behalf of our supply chain, because we are producing more orders. We’re receiving more orders.
But we have noticed that that has
produced dividends in terms of increasing our internal service level
to our operation. So it’s working.”
Staffing problems have hit the
carrier’s internal supply chain operation. A department of 85 employees several years ago is now
only 45—due at least in part to a
lack of available talent.
“We are now measuring that as
a constraint,” he said. “Even if sup-
pliers could provide all the inventory
we wanted right away, we would still
have an internal challenge” ordering
and processing all the parts, he noted.
Skaff sees the issue as akin to the
long-term pilot and technician shortages already plaguing the industry. “We
have to do a better job of luring talent
to the supply chain profession and attracting them to our industry,” he said.
Republic has also padded its inventory levels and asked its supply chain
to do the same—“and not just for
[aircraft-on-ground] scenarios,” Skaff
said. “The days of just-in-time inventory are absolutely gone,” he added.
While more inventory can solve
some problems, suppliers with other
options should examine them.
“If we go into just raising the inventory levels, we incur a huge cost,” said
Benjamin Moreau, Air France Industries KLM Engineering & Maintenance
senior vice president for strategy and
business development. “Alternative
sources take on more importance,” he
added, citing repair development and
used serviceable material (USM) as
prime examples.
Suppliers are adjusting to meet
AviationWeek.com/MRO
Airbus plans to be building
89 narrowbodies per month
in 2025.
customer expectations. GE Aviation
has pulled in about 500 repairs that
had been done by third-party shops,
said Ryan Gunyan, aftermarket solution business operations leader.
Among the benefits: using internal
capability mitigates the risk of the
supply chain not having qualified staff.
“Many of the constraints of the
OEMs are actually way down on the
supply chain,” added Barry Swift, senior vice president at parts specialist
AJW Group.
Republic is hardly the only operator
seeing supply chain issues, and they
are not limited to small carriers.
“We’re all saying the same thing—
it’s so hard right now,” Peter Requa,
Southwest Airlines senior director of
supply chain management for technical operations, said at the conference.
“You had your [issues], but everything
used to just kind of work. Now, every
single day we are sending out criticalparts lists. We’re chasing stuff. We’re
really running on the ragged edge.”
The supply issue is most acute in the
U.S., which is setting the global recovery pace. U.S. domestic revenue passenger kilometers (RPK) were down
AviationWeek.com/MRO
ules due to a lack of staff. The
issue goes beyond the wellpublicized shortages of pilots,
cabin crew and customerservice staff. One U.S. airline
representative tells Aviation
Week that it cannot keep its
cabin maintenance teams
fully staffed. The reason?
Prospective technicians keep
dropping out at the entry
level of the career pipeline,
cabin crew cleaning.
One consequence is fewer
technicians to address items
on the minimum equipment
list (MEL) or issues that need
fixing but do not ground aircraft. Eventually, MEL items
become too numerous to ignore, and the aircraft must be
pulled from service—either
voluntarily or because it
breaks down.
On the supplier side, there
STEFAN KRUIJER/AIRBUS
are signs that these cutbacks
7% for February from comparable 2019
are affecting lead times for parts and
levels, while available seat kilometers
even basic product support.
(ASK)—which drive aftermarket activAn executive with one repair station
ity—edged up to within 3%, the latest
that is also an authorized service cenInternational Air Transport Associater for a major supplier says lead times
tion figures show. Both were far ahead
for some parts the shop needs from its
of the global market, which had RPKs
larger partner have ballooned to a year.
down 45% and ASKs off 37% from what
“We had issues here and there prethey were three Februarys ago.
pandemic, but it’s far worse now,” the
While the front-line worker shortexecutive, whose shop did not cut any
age is apparent, an industry-wide depositions during the downturn, tells
parture of experienced employees is
Aviation Week. “In some cases, we
equally significant.
can’t even get answers to basic ques“We lost a lot of management staff,
tions. That’s just not sustainable.”
and we lost a lot of relationships in that
RBC’s Herbert said that while conprocess, a lot of knowledge base,” Requa
ventional wisdom may be that the
said. “I’ve seen issues linger longer than
smallest suppliers are at the forefront
they normally would because some of
of the supply chain labor crunch, the
those relationships are no longer there.”
pain seems more widespread—and
Many employees took early retirecould be particularly prevalent at
ment and are unlikely to return. The
companies that saw major swings in
gaps they left behind require more
staffing levels.
than simply filling positions.
“The risk of a labor shortage to re“It takes quite a bit of time to get
sults is growing,” he writes in the post[supply chain specialists] up to speed,”
show note. “The hiring challenge cuts
Requa said. “I hear two years typically,
across all defense and aerospace marsometimes three years.”
kets, and the companies that were the
The near-term ramifications vary by
most aggressive in lowering headcount
industry sector. Several U.S. airlines
in 2020-21 could be the most at risk.”
have pulled flights from their schedRunning alongside the labor crunch
INSIDEMRO
MAY 2022
MRO17
InsideMRO
Supply Chain
Raytheon Technologies CEO Greg
Hayes said on an April 26 earnings call
that he sees overall issues abating as
the year progresses, but he acknowledged that several challenges continue
to bedevil the company, including castings and forgings for Pratt & Whitney
engines headed to Airbus.
At an investor conference in February, Hayes warned that Raytheon
would miss delivering 70 engines to
Airbus due to a casting supplier’s
shortcomings.
“That problem is not behind us, but
we are working with that supplier to
recover,” Hayes reiterated April 26.
MTU
is a materials shortage risk. In some
cases, the issues are linked—a lack of
skilled labor at some repair shops
means component-repair turnaround
times (TAT) are lagging, for instance.
Some suppliers compensate with more
liberal exchange policies, but this often
just delays the parts bottleneck while
increasing overall costs.
“Repair TAT still matters,” Requa
said. “I sense that this is not being
treated with urgency. I appreciate the
free-of-charge exchanges, [but] this adds
cost for all of us. We cannot have [serviceable] components celebrating birthdays. We’ve got to get more efficient.”
MTU has few slots available for engine shop visits for the rest of 2022.
Of greater concern in the MRO
world is the looming rise in new-aircraft production rates. Airbus is now
targeting an eye-opening total of 89
A320neos and A220s per month in
2025, up from 46 a year ago.
Boeing recently reached 31 per
month on its 737 line, and Reuters
reported the company plans to be at
47 per month by 2024. Boeing has not
publicly committed to a future target.
“Our biggest job right now is to stabilize around that rate,” Boeing CEO
Dave Calhoun said on a recent earnings call (AW&ST May 2-15, p. 24).
“Anything else is going to be a future
decision that we’re not prepared to
take because we just want to get confidence in what’s right in front of us.”
While Airbus and Boeing eye more
output, some major suppliers are already working overtime to keep up.
MRO18
INSIDEMRO
MAY 2022
“We’ll get most of the way there by
the end of the year, but it is not without its challenges, like everybody
else. Our suppliers are seeing a shortage of labor.”
Hayes emphasized that despite the
challenges, his company is prepared
to support the production ramp-ups.
“We’re in lockstep with both Airbus
and Boeing on their production rates,”
he said. “We’re certainly doing everything we can to support our customers
there. But supply chain continues to be
an issue, I would say, across the business, especially on the electronics side,
where we’ve seen lead times go from
three months out to 12 months-plus.”
As parts suppliers work to satisfy
their largest customers—top-tier manufacturers—the aftermarket could feel
any resulting strain.
“Build rates are going up, [and] pro-
duction comes first,” Requa said. “I’m
not sure how we get to these build
rates and support the in-service fleet.”
Herbert’s latest conversations with
suppliers left him more optimistic.
“Lead times for materials and spare
parts are expanding,” he writes. “There
is a sense that lead-time risk is greatest
now, and it should improve across 2022.”
One upside to higher production
rates and more new aircraft deliveries
is that some aircraft pulled from service but still on the balance sheets
could finally be retired. That could
drive more USM into the market, providing some material-demand relief.
Strain on the supply chain could
grow as airlines match their labor
needs to growth aspirations over the
next few years, driving up demand for
maintenance. In the engine overhaul
world, most OEM engine shops are
running at or close to capacity, RBC’s
Herbert writes, while independent
shops still have capacity.
“We believe utilization at non-OEM
shops is running at 50-75% of preCOVID levels,” he writes. “We expect
much of this excess industry capacity
will get soaked up in 2023 as shop visits continue to recover.”
CFM International CFM56 shop
visits are projected to return to their
2019 level of about 2,000 next year,
while those for the V2500 will be back
to about 800, or 20% below the comparable 2019 figure.
“While the recovery in the V2500
is looking to slightly lag the recovery
in the CFM56 shop visit forecast, we
do see upside to the [approximately]
800 outlook for 2023-24 based on utilization of the A320ceo aircraft and
the pace of the narrowbody recovery,”
Herbert writes.
If international travel continues its
slow recovery, increased widebody
activity should help provide more lift
for the broader aftermarket.
RBC’s April survey of MRO providers names material lead time, availability and labor as the top three risks to
the aftermarket recovery’s momentum. But the risks are not yet a major
threat to near-term rewards.
“Most MROs do not yet expect labor
and stretching supply chains to be a
reason they do not make their 2022
forecasts,” Herbert writes. “But it is
clearly a watch item.” c
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InsideMRO Supply Chain
A Steady Paycheck
As regional airliners age, MRO providers will see
stability and modest growth in related spending
Paul Seidenman and David Spanovich San Francisco
W
MRO20
INSIDEMRO
MAY 2022
JETMS
ith regional jets as the leadprojected to decrease from $3.2 billion
ing revenue producers, a
to $2.9 billion.
steady MRO market for re“The Oliver Wyman 2022 Fleet &
gional airliners is expected to prevail
MRO Forecast numbers for regional
over the next 10 years as legacy airairliners are based on the assumption
craft remain in service with their curthat the current regional jet fleet will
rent operators or transition to others
remain in service well past historical
through sales and lease returns.
retirement ages, due to a lack of suit“The market for used regional airable replacement options which will
liners, turboprops in particular, is
drive MRO growth,” explains Brian
recovering post-COVID quite
well and arguably faster than
larger aircraft since they predominantly operate in shorthaul domestic or neighboringcountry markets,” says Angus
von Schoen berg, partner at
ALTEA, a London-based consulting firm. “Many continue to be
used in a right-sizing context in
place of larger aircraft where
traffic has not yet recovered.
Used units have been relatively
cheap to lease or buy over the last
two years, but that is not expected to last as supply tightens.”
The result will be at least a
modest rate of growth in regional
airliner aftermarket support. The
Oliver Wyman 2022 Fleet & MRO
Forecast—for 2022-32—released
March 21 of this year, predicts that
total MRO spending on regional
jets in 2022 will be $5.6 billion,
increasing to over $6.2 billion by
2032. For turboprops during the JETMS says lease returns have generated
same 10-year period, the pro- considerable business over the past 3-5 years,
jected numbers are $2.7 billion but this could change after the war in Ukraine.
for 2022, rising to $3.2 billion in 2032.
Prentice, Oliver Wyman partner and
Engine work is projected to make up
global lead for operations, manufacturthe lion’s share of MRO spending, for a
ing and MRO. “On the turboprop side,
combined regional jet/turboprop total
we are forecasting more deliveries
of $3.55 billion this year, increasing to
especially within the next few years,
$4.1 billion by 2032.
which will result in more MRO spendAviation Week’s 2022 Commercial
ing toward the end of the forecast.”
Fleet and MRO Forecast projects
For both regional jets and turboslightly different numbers, with
props, modifications represent another
spending on regional turbofan aircraft
prominent category of MRO spending
decreasing from $6 billion in 2022 to
for the forecast period, with the jet and
$5.3 billion by 2031. During the same
turboprop shares at $409.6 million and
10-year period, turboprop spending is
$325 million, respectively, for 2022. By
2032, the respective numbers will be
$380 million and $244.7 million. Modifications include lease returns, new
and refurbished interiors and passenger-to-freighter (P2F) conversions,
Prentice explains.
“Our view is that as the global regional jet and turboprop fleet ages,
modifications will be driven by investments in the cabin and cockpit to extend the life of the aircraft,” he says.
Prentice expects that over the next
10 years, some 1,200 regional jets will
be delivered out of the factory, coupled
with an annual retirement of 75, for a
net fleet growth of 500. For the turboprops, 950 new deliveries are projected over the same decade, with 45
yearly retirements. “We also expect to
see an increase in turboprop passenger-to-freighter conversions
over the next decade,” he says.
A more measured view of the
market is expressed by Adam
Guthorn, managing director of
Alton Aviation Consultancy. “In
the event of an aircraft transition,
a major airframe inspection along
with interior refurbishment and
paint would be expected; however,
activities [in the regional airliner
MRO market] have been subdued,”
he says. “Further, the parked regional fleet has increased from
1,000 aircraft in early 2020—preCOVID—to approximately 1,600
aircraft today. So the ultimate fate
of many aircraft—return to service versus part-out—has yet to
be determined.”
Guthorn also points to the 50seat-jet MRO market, which he
describes as “well into its sunset
phase,” now that the three major
U.S. carriers—Delta Air Lines,
United Airlines and American
Airlines—have announced plans
to significantly reduce their fleets by
2026. American, he notes, has retired
a large number of 50-seat jets over the
past two years.
Ismail Mokabel, senior vice president
and head of aftermarket at MHI RJ
Aviation, is more optimistic. “The maintenance requirements for the 50-seat
fleet will continue and provide a vibrant
MRO market over the next decade,” he
argues. “Given that there is no replacement for these aircraft in design or
even being planned at this stage, the
AviationWeek.com/MRO
MHI RJ AVIATION
The global Bombardier CRJ700 fleet is expected
to generate $1.2 billion in MRO in 2022.
AviationWeek.com/MRO
livery applications, major airframe
inspections up to and including the 12year check, as well as major component changes such as landing gear and
engines,” he says.
In addition, Pike cites service bulletin work, avionics upgrades and engine borescope inspections. “These
work packages always drive additional
work, with corrosion findings in particular arising out of the larger airframe inspection packages. Dent and
buckle findings may also give rise to
reworking of old repairs to new approved design organizational approval/
OEM standards,” he adds.
Asked about the potential MRO
market for turboprops in the 50-seat
segment, Pike says there is an opportunity for the 48-seat ATR 42-600.
“Generally, we see the ATR 72-600,
which is configured for 78 seats, at
Vallair,” he reports.
For companies that service regional
airliners in Europe, Russia’s war in
Ukraine could be a wild card. Vytis
Zalimas, CEO at JETMS Regional in
Vilnius, Lithuania, says this situation
will particularly affect maintenance on
aircraft coming off lease.
“Over the past 3-5 years, lease returns generated a considerable amount
Vallair’s regional airliner MRO work is focused on the ATR turboprop family.
INSIDEMRO
MAY 2022
MRO21
VALLAIR
current generation of aircraft will continue to operate—mainly in the United
States—for the foreseeable future.”
Larger regional jets will account for
much of the growth in the regional aircraft MRO market. As an example, Alton
Aviation’s Guthorn cites Embraer’s
170/175 family as the aircraft of choice
for U.S. regional airlines, and one that
fared best throughout the pandemic.
“While the Embraer 170 and 175 are
overwhelmingly owned by their operators (93%) and therefore not often
traded on the used market, they will
generate the most regional aircraft
MRO spend in 2022—specifically $1.5
billion,” Guthorn says. “Similarly, the
Bombardier CRJ700/900/1000 fleet,
which is 85% operator-owned , has
fared relatively well owing to its U.S.
concentration and will generate $1.2
billion in MRO in 2022.”
As for P2F opportunities, especially
in the 50-seat-jet segment, Guthorn
notes that only 13 CRJ100/200s have
been converted and he says that none
has been converted for the past several
years. “The regional aircraft P2F market has focused much more on turboprops, primarily ATR 72s and ATR
42s, with some activity on Saabs,” he
says. “In March of this year, Embraer
announced the launch of an E190/195
freighter conversion program.”
Steve Pike, aerostructures and MRO
services sales manager for Vallair, reports that the Montpellier, Francebased company has noted some leasereturn activity as well as aircraft being
taken out of storage by leasing companies and returned to service with new
European operators. He says Vallair’s
exclusive regional airliner MRO focus
is the ATR turboprop family, adding
that the work varies and includes all
types of maintenance events.
“This includes new paint, customer
of business, when the regional aviation
industry was forecasted to renew their
current fleets,” Zalimas says. “However, looking forward—after the war in
Ukraine—the situation might change
dramatically. Operators may continue
with the same fleet for longer time periods. Therefore, MRO activities may stay
at the same level for the retrofit fleets.”
Zalimas adds that leasing companies
typically require fresh airframe and
engine maintenance checks to enable
aircraft to operate for at least two years
without longer grounding for maintenance. Complete avionics upgrades for
aircraft to comply with recent air traffic control and flight safety directives,
he points out, are also projected.
Carl Glover, vice president of sales
and marketing for the Americas at
AAR, says the demand for MRO from
regional airline operators is expected
to remain constant.
“There are well-publicized maintenance capacity constraints regarding
the support of these fleets and, more
recently, flight crew availability,” Glover
says. “We have seen some retirements
on the mature CRJ200 platforms but,
conversely, a slight uptick for the
ERJ145 aircraft. The mainstay fleets
seem to continue to be the E-Jet and
CRJ fleets, with considerable numbers
among the U.S. regional carriers.”
Glover reports that there are
“smaller pockets of consideration” for
supply chain issues with respect to
support of older fleets. He blames cutbacks on spending for inventory and
associated repairs during the pandemic, as operators have focused on
capacity and cash preservation. “This
is now seeing a rebound and brings
with it challenges on inventory availability and capacity,” he says. c
InsideMRO Engines
Modular Moves
Why module changes are proving
more attractive than full overhauls
Alex Derber London
E
says Sam Hammoud, head of The Module Factory business
unit at FTAI Aviation.
Many airlines are taking advantage of such benefits as
they seek to ramp up capacity quickly in response to the
loosening of coronavirus-related travel restrictions.
“Demand [for module changes] has increased greatly
since mid-2021 with the gearing-up back to capacity of the
world fleet, and it will continue to be used as balance sheets
are rebuilt,” comments Greg Macleod, CEO of London-based
CFM56 repair shop GT Engine Services. He notes that of the three major CFM56 modules—the fan, core
and low-pressure turbine (LPT)—
demand is highest for LPT changes.
“The cost and time savings are
huge: A simple module change could
see an engine refitted to the aircraft
within a week and at 5-10% of an
overhaul cost,” he says.
MRO22
FTAI AVIATION
ngine maintenance has been the hardest-hit sector
of the aftermarket during the
COVID-19 pandemic. As the
biggest-ticket maintenance items,
engine overhauls immediately were
in the firing line as airlines sought to
slash costs and preserve cash. It also
has been relatively easy for airlines to
adopt this tactic—grounded aircraft
and limited demand meant shop visits could be delayed, while remaining operations could be sustained by
WHEN TO CHOOSE MODULE CHANGE
green-time engines and those with the
The coronavirus pandemic caused
longest remaining service intervals.
many airlines to reassess their fleets
Major engine MRO providers saw
and accelerate their transition to
revenues fall by roughly half in the
new-technology aircraft, often by
first year of the pandemic. But after
retiring, returning or selling older
those dark days, there is significant
models. Current geopolitical events
optimism about a recovery as flights,
may lead to an acceleration of that
especially of narrowbody aircraft,
trend as fuel prices spike in response
rebound in many key markets. But
to sanctions on Russia.
airlines must weigh pressures to
This presents a dilemma for cerrapidly scale up their operations to
tain operators, as the cost of a full
meet pent-up demand with the need
overhaul may be justified by the
to protect balance sheets weakened
reduced time a current-generation
by almost two years of cash burn.
FTAI Aviation sources modules for exchange engine, such as a CFM56 or an IAE
from its large portfolio of CFM56 engines.
SHORT CHANGE
V2500, is due to stay in service.
One solution is to pursue alternatives
Together, these two narrowbody
to full engine overhauls, which are expensive and take
engines will account for $14.2 billion in MRO demand and
engines out of service for long periods. Over the last two years,
3,200 shop visits this year, rising to a peak of 4,000 shop visits
there has been evidence of this trend as airlines specified
and $18.5 billion in 2025, according to the latest Aviation Week
more limited workscopes for the shop visits they did perform,
Network Commercial Aviation Fleet & MRO Forecast.
a tactic that is continuing this year.
Traditional engine overhauls often occur when some of a
“In the course of 2021, we [saw] a slight decrease of workmodule’s life-limited parts (LLP) are nearing or at the end
scope in shop visits,” said Safran CEO Olivier Andries durof their designated service lives. The engine then goes to a
ing a February 2022 earnings call. “The airlines have been
major overhaul shop to remove the module and fully tear it
basically, on average, pushing to the right [delaying] . . . the
down to replace its LLPs. The module then is rebuilt and
LP [low-pressure] side of the shop visit, the fan typically
reinstalled as part of a process with a turnaround time of 3-6
and sometimes the LP turbine.” Andries also said that while
months. As this work proceeds, MROs typically pass signifiSafran expects airlines to catch up on such work eventually,
cant cost risks to customers through exclusions.
this correction will not occur this year.
“A traditional overhaul targets the entire engine to
As well as lighter workscopes, airlines can take advantage
achieve a minimum build goal,” notes David Moreno, chief
of the modular nature of modern turbofans and swap out
operating officer of FTAI Aviation. “As a result, this often
individual modules to achieve desired performance restoraforces overhaul on modules that still have useful life remaintion of entire units. Such module changes are far cheaper
ing but do not meet the target build. Typically, that remaining
than full overhauls and can be performed in a small fraction
life is wasted.”
of the downtime required for an overhaul.
Macleod explains that module changes avoid such wast“This [module change] process takes 5-15 days maximum,
age. “There are many cases where a module change would be
can be accomplished at many more shops (as they need less
advantageous to a full overhaul—the most common reason
capability) and exactly replicates the end result of the trawould be to change certain LLPs and leave the rest of the
ditional overhaul in a shorter time and at much less cost,”
engine undisturbed.”
INSIDEMRO
MAY 2022
AviationWeek.com/MRO
Another potential downside of a full overhaul is the MRO
provider may identify additional, unforeseen maintenance
to perform on the engine, further widening the cost gap
between an overhaul and a module change.
“Module exchanges are transacted at fixed pricing, which
is lower than an overhaul and with zero exclusions—no maintenance is required aside from installation,” Hammoud says.
Moreno adds: “In addition to being faster and more costeffective, module exchanges eliminate the risk of budget
exceedances typical to overhauls that are caused by higher
scrap rates or unexpected findings.”
An additional reason for a full overhaul might be performance restoration of the engine’s core. “This can occur at
different times in an engine’s life depending on operating
regime and environment,” Hammoud says.
For a performance restoration of an engine’s core module,
overhaul customers typically select a target life for the next
run, and any other module with useful life remaining below
the target then undergoes a traditional overhaul, which,
again, can be avoided via a module change.
IN THE FIELD
FTAI Aviation reports it has traded 65 engine modules—
mostly fan and LPT sections—since April 2021. Of these,
fan module changes were accomplished on wing in a couple
of days, while the LPT can be swapped out “near-wing” in
10-15 days, according to Moreno.
AviationWeek.com/MRO
“Most customers are largely accomplishing module exchanges in the field or hospital [light-duty MRO shop] environments. Others are performing exchanges during a shop visit
where the core module of the engine is overhauled,” he adds.
One such customer is Lufthansa Technik, which in February subcontracted FTAI to provide module exchanges as part
of a seven-year CFM56 engine maintenance program the German MRO provider has won from Canadian carrier WestJet.
“In subcontracting a third-party supplier like FTAI, we
are confident that we will be able to provide a high-quality
and reliable product at a competitive cost,” said Georgios
Ouzounidis, vice president of corporate sales for the Americas at Lufthansa Technik. “One major pillar in our collaboration is that we will be able to, where appropriate, further
optimize an engine’s life.”
The feedstock for FTAI’s module inventory is its portfolio
of more than 300 CFM56 engines. “The replacement modules we offer were removed from engines with plenty of life
remaining and inspected to certify that they are airworthy
prior to sale,” Hammoud says.
Modules that FTAI removes are serviced and maintained
by its MRO partner, Lockheed Martin Commercial Engine
Solutions in Montreal. GT Engine Services, meanwhile, uses
its own network to source modules.
“We have access to partners that we purchase modules
from, some of which we hold on consignment, and have our
own overhauled or repaired,” Macleod says. c
INSIDEMRO
MAY 2022
MRO23
InsideMRO Engineered
Expanding the
Envelope
The IFE industry responds to passengers’
intensifying digital focus
Technology from the consumer electronics and automotive industries
is making IFE cabin components smaller and lighter.
BURRANA
Paul Seidenman and David Spanovich San Francisco
W
ith the proliferation of smartphones and tablet devices,
airline passengers are seeking a seamless connectivity experience
in their homes and offices as well as in
the aircraft cabin. The airlines know
this, and providers of inflight entertainment are responding.
A notable trend is “concurrent consumption” of both entertainment and
connectivity services, according to
Josh Marks, CEO of Anuvu, a content
services provider. Passengers typically
use the same smartphones or tablets
for work-related messaging and cloud
collaboration as they do for TikTok,
Reels or YouTube, he explains.
“In parallel, they are using seat-back
screens to watch movies or episodic
television, expecting the same diversity
of content they find on subscription
services like Netflix or Disney+,” Marks
MRO24
INSIDEMRO
MAY 2022
says. He notes that inflight entertainment (IFE) interfaces and content libraries need to reflect at-home experiences. “Video-rich social media, which
makes greater demands on the network than streaming,” is now replacing
movie streaming as the primary passenger-use case, mandating changing
network requirements, he says.
“Upload speed from aircraft to
ground is becoming critical, as social
media apps depend on two-way cloud
connectivity to power their ‘infinite
scroll’ interfaces,” he explains. “To meet
this requirement, Anuvu is launching
our own vertically integrated geostationary satellites, engineered for interoperability with LEO networks.
“Today’s satellite network has to
adapt to a social-media-driven future,
and specifically designed for aviation,”
Marks says. “Every aspect of our tech-
nology, including the network control
software and digital payload on the
satellite, has been redesigned to take
advantage of that—and to work with
existing aircraft antennas.”
In 2018, Anuvu digitalized its content-processing architecture and
launched what he says is the industry’s
only end-to-end—studio-to-airplane—
cloud-based content supply chain that
mirrors what modern streaming platforms have built while enabling the
airline to decide how the content is
displayed in the cabin. “Anuvu recognized that the media value chain
needed to modernize to keep pace
with the latest IFE systems,” he says,
adding that prior to this, content
would be manually loaded by a technician, with little automation.
Anuvu’s current focus is on the link
from cloud to aircraft. “Pushing content updates to aircraft, touch-free, at
the gate or over satellite links requires
deep integration between seat-back
OEMs and content services providers,” he says. “At Anuvu, we dynamically update content in real time on
aircraft with our satellite connectivity
systems, so targeting content to individual passengers and routes isn’t just
possible, it’s reality.”
According to Tracy Trent, CEO of
Fort Worth-headquartered Stellar Blu,
the future of IFE will be tied to higher
performance and greater capacity.
A specialist in high-performance
terminals, Stellar Blu is introducing
Sidewinder, which has been specifically designed to work with electronically steerable antennas. It is a collaborative project with antenna supplier
Ball Aerospace and OneWeb, an operator of low-Earth-orbit satellites.
“The collaboration with Ball Aerospace has led to a product that is easily
removed and reinstalled for maintenance support and customized to an
airline’s needs,” says Trent, who likens
Sidewinder’s design to Lego blocks.
“This makes the server easy to configure to interface with multiple satellite constellations and service providers—and to expand or scale down,” he
explains. “It also is designed with a
common adapter and avionics, so that
there is minimal impact on the airframe, with upgrades or changes
accomplished within minutes.”
The system includes a modem and
AviationWeek.com/MRO
PERSONAL DEVICES
AERQ
Personal electronic devices (PED), used
in conjunction with seat-back systems,
are becoming more common, along with
the ability to charge the newer-generation PEDs at up to 60 watts over USB
ports, according to David Pook, a vice
president for Burrana, an IFE developer
based in Australia. “Enabling passengers to use their own Bluetooth headphones is now a common requirement,”
he says. “The expectation is for these to
become standard on aircraft so that the
IFE system supports the PEDs, which
will be the center of the IFE experience,
rather than the other way around.”
DigEcor, rebranded as Burrana following the acquisition of Collins Aero-
AERQ’s seat-centric design pushes the content
file to the seat’s display and saves it there.
AviationWeek.com/MRO
UB
TD
space’s IFE business
in 2019, offers RISE
Power, a USB charging
option. “RISE Overhead
and RISE Wireless are on the
near-term horizon as well as a costeffective technology upgrade path for
our large PAVES Broadcast install
base,” he notes.
Interestingly, Pook says the latest
technology from the consumer electronics and automotive industries is
making IFE cabin components smaller
and lighter while consuming less
power. At the same time, new technology is offering longer life spans prior
to becoming obsolete.
Advancements to the RISE platform
now in development “utilize much of
this new technology in order to provide
solutions that solve many of the challenges presented by traditional closed,
heavy, expensive and unreliable IFE
solutions,” Pook remarks.
Barry Flynn, chief commercial officer of Inflight Dublin, notes that passengers and crew are looking for more
digital communication options for
onboard services.
“Using passengers’ own devices to
make requests, place orders and communicate with the crew is an important development that we have seen
the demand for grow, particularly due
to the pandemic, where a digital,
touch-free service has become the preferred option,” Flynn says.
LIN
Inflight Dublin’s crew
app for managing and
fulfilling onboard retail
supports duty-free
sales and food and
beverage purchases.
INF
LIG
H
server connected with wireless access
points on the aircraft. Mounting could
be done in the aircraft crown, under the
floor, the electronics bay or crew area.
Trent says it can be scaled for installation on aircraft sizes from a small business jet to a large twin-aisle airliner.
The first version of Sidewinder is
slated to commence flight testing in
June and continue throughout the remainder of 2022 on a Boeing 777-200LR,
expanding to a regional jet later this
year. In 2023, Sidewinder’s second
version is scheduled to undergo flight
tests on a Bombardier Global 6500.
The testing will include the total certification package, encompassing the
antenna, adapter plate, the terminal
itself, avionics, modem, server, wireless access and all software needed to
integrate and manage these pieces to
airline standards. Sidewinder’s first
and second versions are planned for
delivery in the first and second quarters of 2023, respectively.
Inflight Dublin has developed a
crew app for managing and fulfilling
onboard retail, supporting duty-free
and food and beverage purchases, producing operational efficiencies for
ordering and delivering, and improved
communications between passengers
and crew, he says. “Multiple payment
options can also be integrated with
Inflight Dublin’s Everhub solution to
ensure an optimized service for crew
and passengers,” he adds.
Another notable IFE development
is happening with content updates.
Legacy IFE systems were built on proprietary software platforms, making it
expensive and slow—taking as much
as 60-90 days—for airlines to update
their IFE content or even make software or user interface changes, says
Mark Smith, director of sales at AERQ
in Hamburg, Germany. “By incorporating the same cloud technology D2C
[direct-to-consumer] streaming companies use today, AERQ has reduced
current content lead times tremendously and is working on reducing that
even further,” he says.
Smith notes this is being accomplished through AERQ’s Aerena platform, based on an open software architecture, allowing virtual testing and
addressing any bugs. “This allows
rapid development and deployment of
new digital services and applications
offered by AERQ, third parties and/or
the airline’s own partners,” he notes.
AERQ uses a seat-centric design, so
that the content file is pushed to the
seat’s display and saved there. “The
seat display includes content storage
space which is larger than the total file
server storage on some legacy IFE systems today,” he points out. “If an AERQ
file server or network fails, the passenger can continue to enjoy a large selection of content from his or her seat.” c
INSIDEMRO
MAY 2022
MRO25
InsideMRO Engines
On the Descent
The number of GP7200-powered Airbus A380s
will decrease sharply this decade
James Pozzi London
M
bered around 15 operators in the mid2010s, the decision by its manufacturer
in 2019 to end production by 2021 has
also accelerated the demise of the type.
The COVID-19 pandemic and operators’ preference for twin-engine aircraft such as the Airbus A350, Boeing
777 and 787 have reduced the size of
the global A380 fleet. At the height
of the pandemic, the majority of inservice A380 aircraft were parked in
long-term storage for more than three
GP7200 retirements are expected
to outstrip those of the Trent 900
in the coming years.
months. Some were removed permanently from the fleet, either through
retirements or being handed back to
their lessors. Chief among these was
Air France, which operated a fleet of
10 GP7200-powered A380-800s until
the summer of 2020 before retiring all
of them with immediate effect as the
pandemic hit.
More than two years later, Aviation
Week’s Commercial Fleet & MRO Forecast estimates around 232 GP7000family engine units are in service. This
contrasts with Trent 900-powered
A380s, which number 108 units, according to the Commercial Fleet &
MRO Forecast. In 2023 and 2024, more
A380s are anticipated to return to service from long-term storage, which will
lead to greater numbers of the GP7200
active in the global fleet. Aviation Week
data estimates this will rise to 320
MTU AERO ENGINES
QUENTIN DOUCHET
anufactured by the Engine
Alliance joint venture set up
by GE Aviation and Pratt &
Whitney, the GP7200 was derived from
the PW4000 and GE90 families and
developed as a rival to Rolls-Royce’s
Trent 900 as a powerplant for the Airbus A380 program.
The engine had its first flight in
2006, before entering service two
years later with Dubai-based Emirates,
the world’s largest A380 operator. The
GP7000-family engines and 208 Trent
900s next year.
The higher number of A380s returning to service over the next year will
inevitably result in a sizable increase
in maintenance spending by operators.
Approximately $843.7 million is expected to be spent on MRO this year,
but in 2023 this will more than double,
to $1.9 billion. Approximately $1.5 billion will be spent on GP7200-powered
A380s, with an estimated 50% of next
year’s MRO spend generated from engine maintenance consisting of shopvisit work. Next year, 138 MRO events
are anticipated, representing a peak
for the GP7200-powered A380, before
drop-offs every year for the rest of the
decade. For the 2021-31 period, the
compound annual growth rate (CAGR)
for MRO for the A380 is expected to
next year, in 2009, Air France took its
first GP7200-powered A380 and would
eventually grow its fleet to 10 aircraft.
In subsequent years, Etihad Airways,
Korean Air and Qatar Airways also
opted for GP7200-powered A380s.
Over its lifespan, the program had two
models, the GP7270 and the GP7277,
and has held the majority share of the
program’s engine market throughout
its duration.
In comparison to the stalwart widebody powerplants from which it was
derived, the GP7000 engine family is
being retired at a relatively young age
as airlines move away from four-engine
aircraft in favor of twin-engine aircraft. While the A380 program num-
MRO26
INSIDEMRO
MAY 2022
Emirates’ GP7200-powered A380
fleet will account for nearly all of the
megatransports over the next decade.
see a 9.1% reduction, reflecting the
decline of the A380 fleet over the same
period, with a CAGR of -15.3%.
With more airlines moving toward
twin-engine options, Emirates is set to
carry the future of the entire A380 program over the next 10 years as other
carriers look to offload their remaining
A380s. The airline announced its A380
retirement plan back in 2019 but will
fly the aircraft until at least 2035. It
began retiring the aircraft in early
2020, starting with a 12-year-old A380
with GP7200 engines. No engine retirements are expected in 2023 and 2024,
but these will start in high volumes in
2024, leading to a peak of 72 engine
retirements in 2029. c
AviationWeek.com/MRO
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Official Publication
Products and Services
Enhancing Aftermarket
Supply Chains
operations in Europe with a new facility in
Spain that will serve as its European hub once
it opens in 2023. Farsound offers a variety of
supply-chain services, including procurement
consolidation, consignment, kitting, warehouse
management and line-feed solutions, which it
says provide benefits such as reduced costs
and inventory. It also offers vending and carousel products that feature consigned stock
on a pay-per-use basis, which enable parts
to be readily available at a customer’s site to
increase productivity and accuracy.
marketplace.aviationweek.com/
company/farsound-aviation
Lindsay Bjerregaard Chicago
1. Developing Supply Chain Sustainability
Company: Kuehne + Nagel
Product: Worldwide logistics specialist Kuehne
+ Nagel (K+N) offers a variety of supply-chain
management services for aviation, including
engine and spare-parts logistics, supplier management and aircraft-on-ground (AOG) support.
Its portfolio includes KN EngineChain, a digital
aircraft engine logistics tool; KN InteriorChain, an
interior refurbishment supply-chain service; and
KN SparesChain, a spare-parts logistics and
repair service that it says can reduce up to 60%
of repair-cycle logistics costs and significantly
reduce inventory. K+N is targeting aerospace
logistics growth in the Asia-Pacific region and
working on initiatives aimed at supply-chain
sustainability and electric aircraft battery logistics.
marketplace.aviationweek.com/company/
kuhne-nagel-international-ag
2. Automating the Supply Chain
Company: Satair
Product: Airbus subsidiary Satair manages
approximately 650 suppliers and provides a
range of supply-chain services that it says
can improve aircraft uptime and reduce fixed
costs. Its Expedited Routine Ordering service
guarantees specific delivery lead times, which
Satair says serves its customers’ line and base
maintenance needs for more than 125,000
parts. It also offers Customized Spare Logistics,
Integrated Material Services and Airbus
Managed Inventory. Satair says its supplychain innovations include automated ordering,
robotics process automation and machine
learning to facilitate supply-chain operations
without manual intervention.
marketplace.aviationweek.com/company/
satair-airbus-services-company
1
4. Boeing 737NG USM Support
2
3
5. Digital Data for Distribution
4
3. Aero-Engine Supply Specialist
Company: Farsound Aviation
Product: Farsound Aviation is a UK-based
supply-chain specialist focused on the engine
MRO segment. It also has locations in North
America and Asia, and it soon will expand
Company: VSE Aviation
Product: Headquartered in South Florida,
VSE Aviation provides MRO services as well
as distribution and supply-chain management
for aftermarket parts. Its supply-chain services
include AOG support, supply-chain procurement, kitting, planning and logistics services.
VSE maintains partnerships with major OEMs
such as Honeywell, Pratt & Whitney Canada
and Triumph Group. VSE also is partnered
with Southwest Airlines to support the Boeing
737NG platform for end-of-life asset management services. VSE just launched its 737NG
used serviceable material program, through
which customers can purchase or lease
refurbished components.
marketplace.aviationweek.com/
company/vse-aviation
5
Company: Proponent
Product: Proponent is an independent distributor of commercial aircraft parts that operates
from 11 global locations. It supports more
than 400,000 parts and serves as a stocking
distributor to 150 OEMs. Proponent recently
added products from Auxitrol, Meggitt, Sensata
and Safran. Its supply-chain services include
custom kitting, vendor consolidation, consignment, market intelligence and e-commerce via
its ProCart digital platform. It also offers intelligent stocking services, through which it applies
industry data and historical usage trends to
create parts forecasts. In February, Proponent
signed an agreement with Joramco at MRO
Middle East to support the MRO’s supply of
consumables and expendables.
marketplace.aviationweek.com/
company/proponent
Go to marketplace.aviationweek.com for more information.
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INSIDEMRO
MAY 2022
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InsideMRO Viewpoint
What Could Have Been
A few changes could have made the A380
aircraft program more successful
T
he Airbus A380 production line has closed, with the last
of only 251 aircraft built delivered to Emirates in December.
Now is a good time to look back on why the A380, though a
favorite with passengers, was not successful commercially.
Explanations start in the cabin,
where 10-abreast seating on the
main deck was far too generous
when compared to 10-abreast on a
Boeing 777 or nine-abreast on a 787,
the density standards to which
almost all airlines have moved. While
customers liked the extra room, they
would not pay for it. No airline would
push seating to 11 abreast, which is
awkward, requiring a 3-5-3 layout.
With some different
decisions and
further investment,
the A380 might have
achieved success
similar to that
of the 747-200.
STEFAN KRUIJER/AIRBUS
A second feature that customers
liked but that made the A380 less
economically viable was the low noise
level. Pushed by Singapore Airlines,
Airbus designed the A380 to address
that issue back when noise concerns
around London Heathrow Airport
were the driving environmental
requirement rather than the carbon
footprint. The result was that the
Engine Alliance GP7200 and RollsRoyce Trent 900 have a wider fan,
and the aircraft has bigger, heavier
nacelles than are optimal for fuel
MRO30
INSIDEMRO
MAY 2022
burn. If the A380 had been designed
to minimize fuel burn, it would have
been 0.5% more efficient.
The A380 also missed some key
technologies and will be the last
all-metal aircraft ever built. Carbon
fiber is clearly superior, at least for
the wings, though it is perhaps less
critical for the fuselage. The metal
made the aircraft heavier than it
should have been, a problem compounded by carrying excess weight
in preparation for a stretched version.
The design and production delays,
CHRISTOPHER GIBBS
Christopher Gibbs, senior advisor
at Navier Consulting, served
as Cathay Pacific’s engineering
director for a decade.
followed by slow deliveries, rendered
the overall technology of the aircraft—particularly the engines—obsolete too soon. The slow sales did
not encourage either engine manufacturer to invest in upgrades, a
problem exacerbated by Airbus’
unnecessary and costly decision to
provide a choice of engines.
The issues described here are not
entirely market factors. The A380’s
main problem was its inability to offer
key features driving market demand.
Emirates was the only carrier that
preferred the A380 over other options
to the extent that it placed repeat
orders, an acid test of a commercial
airplane’s attractiveness. The aircraft
works for Emirates because its average stage length for the A380 is low.
Although used for some very long
routes such as Dubai-Los Angeles,
the more typical mission is 6-7 hr.,
to Europe or Asia. Emirates also
often uses the A380 on even shorter
routes, of a few hours, to the Indian
subcontinent and within the Middle
East. The A380 can compete on efficiency on dense routes of seven hr.,
but not on routes of 10-12 hr., where
the big twins are far more efficient.
Three changes would have been
essential for the A380 to have been
more viable commercially. First, it
needed a stretch, perhaps of only
50 seats. Since adding seats would
not have changed trip operating
costs very much, the cost per seat
would have decreased significantly.
Second, to fill these seats with
lower frequencies, operators would
have needed to focus on leisure
travel routes rather than business
travelers. Finally, the aircraft needed
technology upgrades or at least
upgraded engines, the same recipe
that has successfully been applied
to the Boeing 737 and 777 and the
Airbus A320 and A330.
When first launched, the Boeing
747-100 was not a big seller, but the
stretched, reengined 747-200 was.
With some different decisions and
further investment, the A380 might
have achieved similar success, at
least in an environment not distorted
by the disruptions of COVID-19. c
AviationWeek.com/MRO
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To advertise in the Marketplace, contact Elizabeth Zlitni at 212-600-3713 or elizabeth.zlitni@aviationweek.com.
MRO BEER returns as a LIVE event for the first time in two years on June 15-16 in Istanbul, Turkey.
MRO BEER is the premier gathering place for operators, OEMs and suppliers from the Baltics and Eastern
Europe region. The conference provides an unrivaled forum for the commercial air transport maintenance,
repair, and overhaul industry to come together and forge new partnerships and cement existing relationships.
Join key stakeholders from the region to exchange ideas and best practices, share experiences, debate
issues, and gather knowledge. Host Sponsor, Turkish Technic will be hosting a facility tour of one of their
hangars at Sabiha Gokcen Airport. See the agenda and learn how to become an exhibitor, sponsor, or
register to attend at mrobeer.aviationweek.com.
Visit aviationweek.com/events for more information, including complete exhibitor listings!
ADVANCED AERO SERVICES
AEROTRON
YOUR FULL-SERVICE REGIONAL JET MAINTENANCE
SOURCE
Engine & Airframe Material Supplier
Advanced Aero Services (A2S)
provides a full range of airframe
maintenance services including: Ramp
On-Call and Overnight Maintenance,
Heavy Maintenance (A through C
Checks), Modification, Thrust Reverser
Overhaul, Engineering (Liaison, DER
and AOG, Design), Virtual Airline
Maintenance Program Support
MRO
www.a2saero.com
https://marketplace.aviationweek.com/
product/your-full-service-regional-jetmaintenance-source
Incorporated in 1973,
Aerotron has provided high
quality engine and airframe
parts to airlines, MROs, and
suppliers. The business has
over $200m of serviceable
stock avialable to provide
to our customers on a 24/7
basis. Please call our sales
office +44 1293 516651 or
email sales@aerotron.co.uk
Services
www.aerotron.co.uk
https://marketplace.aviationweek.com/
product/engine-airframe-material-supplier
ALARIS AEROSPACE SYSTEMS LLC
ALPHA QUANTIX WEARABLE ROBOTICS
Local Everywhere. SM
Productivity/Safety with Powered Wearable Robotics
Leading aircraft parts
distributor & asset
manager serving 300+
airlines & MRO clients.
Our rapidly increasing
global footprint in N.A.,
EUR. & Asia allow us to
be Local Everywhere. SM
Our acquisition & part-out, repair & distribution of current
gen. Airbus, Boeing & Embraer aircraft, enable us to serve our
customers in Zero Downtime. SM
Our wearable robotics and
exoskeletons enhance worker strength
and endurance when gripping, lifting
and carrying everything MRO – tools,
parts and materials.
New in 2022: The Ironhand powered
exo-glove that doubles grip strength
and the Cray X that adds 66 pounds
powered lift and carry assistance.
Asset Management •
Consulting Services •
Leasing/Financial Services •
Supply Chain/Logistics
Airport Equipment &
Services • Ground Support
Equipment • Safety/
Emergency Equipment
www.alarisaero.com
https://marketplace.aviationweek.
com/product/local-everywhere
www.alphaquantix.com
https://marketplace.aviationweek.
com/product/productivity-safetypowered-wearable-robotics
Go to marketplace.aviationweek.com for more information.
MRO32
INSIDEMRO
MAY 2022
AviationWeek.com/MRO
ADVERTISING SECTION
MRO Products and Services
AMS GROUP, INC.
AMSAFE BRIDPORT
We make it. We sell it. We support it.
Leading Net & Evac Slide MRO in North America!
AMS Group Inc. is
a leading distributor,
manufacturer and
supplier of engineered
aerospace and defense
systems, components and subsystems, providing innovative
technologies and logistics support to defense and security
markets.
AmSafe Bridport’s Part
145 repair centers
in Bridport, UK, and
Anaheim, CA, provide
aftermarket repair
services covering safety
restraints, cargo liners,
main deck nets, and smoke curtains. The Anaheim facility also
specializes in emergency evacuation systems and carries a
full line of slide and oxygen cylinders.
amsgroup.net
https://marketplace.
aviationweek.com/product/
we-make-it-we-sell-it-we-support-it
MRO
Services
www.amsafebridportmro.com
https://marketplace.
aviationweek.com/product/
leading-net-evac-slide-mro-north-america
APOC AVIATION
ATAP, INC
Leasing, Trading, Part-Out and Component Support
Aircraft Jacks and Ground Support Equipment
We offer a wide
range of services,
including landing gear
management solutions,
component support &
management solutions,
engine management
solutions, aircraft sourcing for tear-down, technical & lease
management, quality & IT services.
ATAP, Inc. is an AS9100
certified supplier of
aircraft jacks that stocks
aviation jacks and ground
support equipment. ATAP
specializes in commercial
narrow and wide body axle
jacks, refueling product, as
well as various support equipment. Don’t let long aircraft jack
lead-times get you in a pinch! Contact ATAP today to find out
how we can support your airline/MRO operations!
Components • Engines/
Engine Systems • Landing
Gear/Wheels/Brakes
www.apocaviation.com
https://marketplace.aviationweek.
com/product/leasing-trading-partout-and-component-support
Hydraulics/Pneumatics •
Tools & Equipment •Ground
Support Equipment •
Test Equipment • Tools
www.atap.com
https://marketplace.aviationweek.
com/product/aircraft-jacks-andground-support-equipment
ATEC, INC.
AVEMAR GROUP
PHOENIX MODULAR FACILITIES
We Buy Ugly Windows
Atec, Inc., provides high quality products and
services for Aerospace and Energy. Our 69
years of experience in design, manufacturing,
construction, procurement, maintenance,
and field service offer confidence and value to our customers
worldwide. We provide harsh environment solutions for
medium volume requirements involving engine test, aero
support equipment, constructed facilities, space flight
components and energy service products. Celtech Corp., the
global leader in fabrication of Jet and Turboprop Test Stands,
bolsters our reach and capabilities for heavy production. Vital
Link, Inc. brings the world’s leading noise suppressor & hush
house firm to our corporate family.
www.atec.com
AVEMAR GROUP is
a repair management
and broker for all your
transparency needs.
Aircraft windshields, wing
tips, lenses and windows
are our specialty. We
are the patent owners
of special-order approved processes to repair windshield
failures.
AOG LINE 305-699-7410 text/ call 24/7
Original Equipment •
Test Equipment
https://marketplace.aviationweek.com/
product/phoenix-modular-facilities
MRO
www.avemargroup.com
https://marketplace.aviationweek.com/
product/we-buy-ugly-windows
Go to marketplace.aviationweek.com for more information.
AviationWeek.com/MRO
INSIDEMRO
MAY 2022
MRO33
ADVERTISING SECTION
MRO Products and Services
AVIATION COMPONENT SOLUTIONS
AVPARTS INTERNATIONAL LLC
AVIATION COMPONENT
SOLUTIONS RANKS AT
THE TOP OF ITS CLASS.
High Quality Aviation Parts
AVPARTS sells aviation
parts produced with
the latest technology
to bring highly reliable
parts. We aim to be
the best parts supplier
in the international
arena. Our mission
is to provide fast and reliable parts built on the safety related
reputation we acquired with our clients.
Major Airlines across the world
continue to recognize ACS’s
superior performance in areas
of Quality, Cost and Delivery.
Airframes • Components • Hydraulics/
Pneumatics • Landing Gear/Wheels/
Brakes • Parts Manufacturer
www.acs-parts.com
https://mrolinks.mronetwork.com/product/
aviation-component-solutions-ranks-top-its-class
www.avpartsinternational.com
https://marketplace.aviationweek.com/
product/high-quality-aviation-parts
Distributing
BOES AVIATION AND ASSET MANAGEMENT
BONUS TECH, INC.
A330 HONEYWELL BRAKE MATERIAL FOR THE
2612202-4
Upcycle your engine assets!
HONEYWELL IS NO LONGER
SUPPORTING THEIR PRODUCT
LINE PART#2612202-4, WHICH
IS THE MOST USED BRAKE
FOR THE A330 AIRCRAFT. WE
HAVE A LIMITED SUPPLY OF BRAND NEW CARBON
STACKS FOR THIS BRAKE TO ENSURE CONTINUING
OPERATIONS! PLEASE CONTACT SALES@BOESAAM.
COM OR CALL 727-366-7605 FOR MORE DETAILS ON
OUR PRODUCTS!!!
Our services includes
full engine disassembly,
parts tagging and full
packing. As part of Bonus
Tech commitment to offer
customized service we offer
the possibility to manage
parts shipment to various
repair vendors. Our capability : PW200, PW4000, GE90, CF6,
CF34, RB211, V2500, CFM56, Trent 800).
www.boesaam.com
Original Equipment •
https://marketplace.
Airframes •
aviationweek.com/product/
Avionics/Instruments a330-honeywell-brake-material-2612202-4
Maintenance, Repair
& Overhaul • Engines/
Engine Systems
BRIDGESTONE AIRCRAFT TIRE USA
COMPONENT OVERHAUL SERVICES
Serving Society with Superior Quality
Global Leader - Landing Gear & Components
Bridgestone Group
has used the concept
of “foundation” to
demonstrate the
sustained commitment
of employees to provide its customers with world class
products and services and to serve the communities where
Bridgestone does business.
Component Overhaul Services
is a commercial/regional landing
gear, accessory, and airframe
repair station conveniently located
in Miami, FL. We are committed
to competitive prices and quick
turnaround times to meet customer
demands, with a vast inventory
to provide exchanges and fast
replacements of spare parts at
minimal cost.
Original Equipment
www.bridgestone.com
https://marketplace.aviationweek.com/
product/serving-society-superior-quality
MRO
WWW.BONUS-TECH.COM
https://marketplace.aviationweek.com/
product/upcycle-your-engine-assets
componentoh.com
https://marketplace.
aviationweek.com/product/
global-leader-landing-gear-components
Go to marketplace.aviationweek.com for more information.
MRO34
INSIDEMRO
MAY 2022
AviationWeek.com/MRO
ADVERTISING SECTION
MRO Products and Services
DODSON INTERNATIONAL PARTS, INC.
ELECTRO ENTERPRISES, INC.
Dodson International = Your M + R + O Partner
Value-Added Distributor of Electrical Components
We are committed to customer satisfaction
and are always open to competitive and
reasonable offers. We welcome you to
reach out to us if you find better pricing
elsewhere or have comments about our
stock or service. We want to be the ONLY
source you need for your aircraft spares.
Electromechanical: Switches,
Relays, Circuit Breakers, Fuses,
Knobs, and more
Interconnect: Value-Added
Mil-Spec Connectors, D-Sub
& RF Connectors, Backshells,
Contacts, and more
Wire/Cable & Harness Management Products: Terminals,
Terminal Blocks, Jumpers, Tools, and more
Original Equipment •
Parts • MRO
www.dodson.com
https://marketplace.
aviationweek.com/product/
dodson-international-your-m-r-o-partner
Services
www.electroenterprises.com
https://marketplace.aviationweek.com/product/
value-added-distributor-electrical-components
FERROECOBLAST
FLUID MECHANISMS
Shot Peening Done Right
Aerostructures Machining & Assembly Specialists
Our machines for shot
peening, paint stripping,
abrasive blasting solutions
and machines for postprocessing of additively
manufactured parts can
be found in the most
respected MRO shops
around the globe, ranging from Europe to the Americas,
Middle East, Russia, Asia, and the Pacific region.
Fluid Mechanisms
builds machined
aerostructures &
complex assemblies in
aluminum, titanium and
alloys for flight critical & flight safety applications. Aerospace
& Defense primes have trusted the FM team for best-in-class
engineering & manufacturing for 60 years on commercial &
military programs.
MRO • Services
ferroecoblast.com
https://marketplace.aviationweek.com/
product/shot-peening-done-right
Original Equipment
fluid-mech.com
https://marketplace.aviationweek.com/
product/aerostructures-machiningassembly-specialists
FOKKER SERVICES
GALAXY INTERNATIONAL INC.
Independent Aerospace Service Provider
It’s All About the Accessories
As an authorized repair
station for major OEMs, we
offer in-house component
repairs (including Avionics
& Instruments, Air Cycle
Machines, Air Turbine
Starters, Hydraulics,
IDGs & Pneumatics) and
modifications (such as CPDLC, LPV, ADS-B Out & EFB with
USB-C power supply) for various platforms.
Galaxy International is
an FAA/EASA AS9110
Repair Station that
specializes in ATA 49
& ATA 38 Component
& Accessory Repairs.
For 22+ Years Galaxy has repaired/overhauled APU Fuel
Controls, Exciters & Lube Pumps. Galaxy is a Woman
Owned Small Business Located on the field of GYR Airport,
Goodyear Arizona.
MRO • Components
www.fokkerservices.com
https://marketplace.aviationweek.
com/company/fokker-services
www.galaxyinternational.com
https://marketplace.aviationweek.com/
product/its-all-about-accessories-0
Go to marketplace.aviationweek.com for more information.
AviationWeek.com/MRO
INSIDEMRO
MAY 2022
MRO35
ADVERTISING SECTION
MRO Products and Services
HENKEL
IAC
Avoid Process Stalls with Ready-to-Use Products
AIRCRAFT PAINTING
Henkel’s global portfolio
of surface treatment and
structural adhesive solutions
meets small and large scale
aerospace MRO needs. From
BONDERITE Touch-N-Prep
conversion coating pens to
LOCTITE composite and
structural adhesive kits, repairs are easy and efficient with
these ready-to-use solutions.
Since 1990, IAC has
been the global leader
in Aircraft finishing for
commercial, regional,
military, & OEM
segments. With 9
state-of-the-art facilities
across the US and Europe, IAC has capacity for 22 lines of
aircraft & can processes 1000+ paint events per year.
www.henkel-adhesives.com/aerospace
Consumables/Supplies •
https://marketplace.
Materials • Advanced
aviationweek.com/product/
Materials/Composites avoid-process-stalls-ready-use-products
MRO • Painting/Coatings
INFINITY AIR GROUP
INTERSKY PRECISION AEROSPACE
To be your Supplier and
Repair Station of Choice
The Intersky Advantage-Safety-Quality-Eng.Solution
Infinity Air Group consist of 4 divisions
of unique Aerospace capabilities.
• Infinity Air, Repair /Allflight WA
(PK3R654Y), Allflight
FL (8A9R791B) 2 FAA EASA 145 repair stations.
• Infinity Air, MFG / AF MFG, manufacture of
advance composites.
• Infinity Air, Dist / distributor of New and used aircraft spares
• Infinity Air, Engineering / FAA approved engineering
and certification.
Avionics/Instruments •
Components • Engines/Engine
Systems • Painting/Coatings •
Windows/Transparencies
www.infinityair.com
https://mrolinks.mro-network.
com/product/be-your-supplierand-repair-station-choice
www.iac.aero
https://marketplace.aviationweek.
com/product/aircraft-painting
Intersky Precision Aerospace
is an industry leading aviation
maintenance company that
specializes in the repair
and overhaul of aircraft
instruments, actuation, and
accessories. In addition, we
provide engineered solutions
tailored to solve your aircraft parts needs and challenges.
MRO • Avionics/Instruments
• Components
www.InterskyAero.com
https://marketplace.aviationweek.
com/product/intersky-advantagesafety-quality-engsolution
JANA, INC
JET INTERNATIONAL CO. LLC
Best-in-Class Engineering & Technical Solutions
Jet International Co. LLC
Advanced system
integration and design
for the Aerospace
Industry. JANA’s
expansive portfolio and
industry knowledge
gives you flexibility when needed.
In-house ODA unit provides direct certification approvals
FAA PMA-approved manufacturing systems
AS9100:2016 D & ISO 9001:2015 certified QMS
An aviation industry
leader for over 40
years, Jet International
has supplied airframe
& engine components
for commercial &
corporate aircraft.
We currently support
all commercial air transport aircraft manufactured by Boeing,
Airbus, Embraer and many others.
Engineering & Design
• Manufacturing &
Maintenance Services
www.janacorp.com
https://marketplace.aviationweek.
com/product/best-class-engineeringtechnical-solutions
Manufacturing
& Distributing •
Components
www.jetinternational.com
https://marketplace.aviationweek.
com/product/jet-international-co-llc
Go to marketplace.aviationweek.com for more information.
MRO36
INSIDEMRO
MAY 2022
AviationWeek.com/MRO
ADVERTISING SECTION
MRO Products and Services
JET MIDWEST
LIBRESTREAM TECHNOLOGIES
Global, multi-faceted aircraft service provider
Transform Your Workforce
Providing exceptional value
to the commercial aviation
industry for over 25 years.
Nose-to-taail product support
solutions. 6.5mil pcs of rotable
& expendable aircraft spares
in stock. Global aviation asset management, acquisitions &
trading. Component MRO repair & maintenance support.
The #1-rated provider of
augmented reality and
remote collaboration
solutions, Librestream
transforms workforces.
Our connected worker
solutions upskill workers
and instantly deliver access to IoT & data, digital work
instructions and remote experts – increasing efficiency,
safety, and resilience.
MRO • Services
www.jetmidwest.com
https://marketplace.aviationweek.com/
product/global-multi-faceted-aircraftservice-provider
www.librestream.com
https://marketplace.
aviationweek.com/product/
transform-your-workforce
Tools & Equipment •
Test Equipment • Technology
MID-MOUNTAIN MATERIALS, INC.
MOBILE ENVIRONMENTAL SOLUTIONS
Thermal Barriers for Enhanced Aircraft Safety
Inflatable Mobile Paint Booths made in the U.S.A.
Mid-Mountain Materials, Inc.
is one of the leading suppliers
of fabricated heat-resistant
materials for aerospace
applications. We aim to deliver
high-performance solutions
that offer tandem benefits
in terms of weight-savings,
efficiency, and insulating
capabilities. Explore our range of heat shield materials for
yourself to learn more!
Mobile Environmental
Solutions is the leading
provider for mobile paint
booths, and clean rooms
manufactured in the U.S.
MES’s patented airflow design has the highest air exchange
rate for inflatable booths on the market. 28 different sizes, all
American-made booths are commercial grade quality.
Materials • Advanced
Materials/Composites
mid-mountain.com
https://marketplace.aviationweek.
com/product/thermal-barriersenhanced-aircraft-safety
Tools
www.mobileenvironmentalsolutions.com
https://marketplace.
aviationweek.com/product/
inflatable-mobile-paint-booths-made-usa
MR STEEL
MTU MAINTENANCE
Engine/APU Stands
How to continue flying at lower cost!
MR Steel offers high-tech
manufacturing services with
innovative, flexible and costeffective shipping stand
and crate solutions to the
aerospace industry.
Fleet management is an extremely
cost-driven subject. At MTU
Maintenance, we are seeing more
focus on on-wing/near-wing repairs,
smart repairs, smaller workscopes
and an increased usage of used
serviceable material to reduce costs
during these difficult times.
Contact us for all of the above!
Tools & Equipment • Tools •
Ground Support Equipment •
Airport Equipment & Services
www.mrsteel.com
https://mrolinks.mro-network.
com/product/engine-apu-stands
Original Equipment
www.mtu.de
https://marketplace.aviationweek.com/
product/how-continue-flying-lower-cost
Go to marketplace.aviationweek.com for more information.
AviationWeek.com/MRO
INSIDEMRO
MAY 2022
MRO37
ADVERTISING SECTION
MRO Products and Services
NORTHEAST AERO COMPRESSOR CORP (NEACO)
O2 CORPORATION
Pneumatic and Hydraulic Specialist
Oxygen Solutions and Cleaning Services
“We Will Keep You Flying”
• Build to print
• Oxygen lines and accessories
• Fuel line build
• Hydraulic lines and hoses
• Clean
• To industry standards
• To customer specifications
• Test
• Particle
• Pressure
www.o2corporation.com
• Leak
https://marketplace.
• UV
aviationweek.com/
• Non-volatile residue (NVR)
product/oxygen-
NEACO is an Unlimited
Accessories Class I & II
MRO specializing in
Boeing, Airbus, and
Embraer component
repair. Our State of the
Art Technology and
uncompromising customer
service has been delivering
quality services for over 25 years.
www.neacorepair.com
https://marketplace.aviationweek.com/product/
northeast-aero-compressor-corp
Components • Engines •
Third Party Maintenance
Components • Cabin Hygiene
solutions-and-cleaningservices
OTONOMY AVIATION
PRECISION AEROSPACE PRODUCTS
Optronic & Camera On-Board Systems
The One Stop Shop For Your Aircraft Props!
PARABELLUM : On-ground
intrusion monitoring system SENTINEL : Ground collision
detectors, on ground awarness
Taxi aids for pilot, - CMS : Cargo
Monitoring System - VISIONOMY
: In-flight comfort via ultra-highdefinition cameras that stream all
flight sequences for entertainment
Precision Aerospace
Products is a combined
group of companies
that caters to Military,
Commercial, and Regional
large propeller aircraft. The companies consist of and is not
limited to C-130, ATR42/72, & P-3 Orion. We don’t only
specialize in large propellers; we specialize in Knowledge,
Relationships, and Solutions.
Cabin Interiors/InFlight
Entertainment • Electrical/
Electronics • Hardware
www.otonomy-aviation.com
https://marketplace.
aviationweek.com/product/
optronic-camera-board-systems
Materials • Advanced
Materials/Composites •
Services
www.precisionaerospaceproducts.com
https://marketplace.
aviationweek.com/product/
one-stop-shop-your-aircraft-props-0
PHOENIX COMPOSITE SOLUTIONS
PROFESSIONAL AIRCRAFT ACCESSORIES
AEROSPACE STRUCTURAL MANUFACTURING,
OVERHAUL, REPAIR, DESIGN ENGINEERING
You Have It. We’ll Overhaul It.
Phoenix Composite Solutions, LLC is an
FAA approved repair station with EASA,
JCAB, CAAC and CAAV certifications.
PCS offers high quality, low-cost repairs on
engine and airframe components, as well as
manufacturing capabilities on test nacelle
components and contract tooling. We pride ourselves on being a
solutions provider to the industry. We have an engineering team
on staff to develop DER repairs which can provide a more costeffective repair alternative for parts with a high scrap rate.
Maintenance,
Repair & Overhaul
www.phoenix-mi.com
https://marketplace.aviationweek.com/
product/aerospace-structural-manufacturing-overhaul-repair-design-engineering
No gear is too big for
our experienced team.
If you need main and
nose landing gear
overhaul services
for your Boeing
737-700/800, we’re
capable and ready for
your call. Our Reputation Precedes Us and Benefits You.
MRO • Landing Gear/
Wheels/Brakes
www.gopaa.com
https://marketplace.aviationweek.com/
product/you-have-it-we-ll-overhaul-it
Go to marketplace.aviationweek.com for more information.
MRO38
INSIDEMRO
MAY 2022
AviationWeek.com/MRO
ADVERTISING SECTION
MRO Products and Services
QOCO SYSTEMS LTD
RDI TECHNOLOGIES
Intelligent Integration and Data Exchange Platform
SEEING IS BELIEVING. Visualizing motion.
Finding solutions
EngineData.io is a SaaS
solution that enables
secure, automated data
streams between the main
collaborative players in the
aviation industry. It makes
data exchange between
systems that previously didn’t sync possible, removing time,
effort and costs of integrating different IT systems together.
Technology
www.qoco.aero
https://marketplace.aviationweek.com/
product/intelligent-integration-and-dataexchange-platform
RDI Technologies is
pioneering the camera as
the sensor of the future.
Our Motion Amplification®
technology lets users see
and measure motion that is impossible to see with the human
eye and could previously only be measured by contacting
sensors.
MRO • Aircraft on the
Ground • Components
rditechnologies.com
https://marketplace.aviationweek.com/
product/seeing-believing-visualizingmotion-finding-solutions
SANAD, A MUBADALA COMPANY
SCAN GLOBAL LOGISTICS
Powered by Evolution
We are there wherever you need us
Sanad offers full MRO
services for GEnx, V2500,
Trent700 and LEAP.
At Scan Global Logistics,
we exist to make the world
a little less complicated.
We are a global logistics
organization with employees
and partners all over the
world that specialize in aviation and aerospace logistics. Our
global transportation network enables us to reach even the
most remote corners of the world.
Tools & Equipment •
Test Equipment
www.sanad.ae
https://marketplace.aviationweek.com/
product/powered-evolution
Services
www.scangl.com
https://marketplace.
aviationweek.com/product/
we-are-there-wherever-you-need-us
SETAERO
SKYSELECT
Reliable Components Solutions
eProcurement Platform for Aircraft Material
We provide maintenance, repair and
overhaul of airframe structures. Our
capabilities include Nacelles, Flight
Surfaces and Structural Components as
well as full In-House NDT capabilities.
For our clients with sensitive time frames,
we have a wide array of rotables as well
as an AOG Rapid Response Team to
ensure you are constantly in operation
with the least down time possible.
SkySelect is an eProcurementas-a-Service platform for aircraft
material. We combine people,
processes, and technology to enable airlines and MROs to
digitize and automate material purchasing for leaner and more
asset-light operations. By leveraging artificial intelligence, you
can save up to 90% on staff time and 20% on parts costs.
Aftermarket Services •
Engineering and Design
WWW.SETAERO.COM
https://mrolinks.mronetwork.com/product/
reliable-components-solutions
www.skyselect.com
https://marketplace.
Software •
aviationweek.com/product/
Supply Chain/Logistics eprocurement-platform-aircraft-material
Go to marketplace.aviationweek.com for more information.
AviationWeek.com/MRO
INSIDEMRO
MAY 2022
MRO39
ADVERTISING SECTION
MRO Products and Services
SOLAIR GROUP
SOUTHBOURNE RUBBER CO. LTD
High-quality tooling & GSE full service supplier
Precision Elastomeric Sealing Products
Solair Group, LLC is your-full
service supplier for high-quality
tooling and Ground Support
Equipment (GSE) for all types
of aircraft. We offer full-service
technical support, maintenance
tooling, GSE, repairs,
recertification, and calibration to
our customers such as airlines
and MROs.
As a highly responsive manufacturer of
elastomeric sealing products and with over
40 years’ experience in the Aerospace
Industry, SBR provide specialist industry and product
knowledge in order to support our customers’ platforms,
including narrow and wide-body commercial aircraft and
helicopters. Our high-performance solutions include: O-rings,
Grommets, Gaskets, Diaphragms, Anti Vibration, Gaiter and
Custom Mouldings which are manufactured from a range of
industry approved materials including Silicone, Fluorosilicone,
Nitrile, FKM and many more.
Aircraft on the Ground
WWW.SOLAIRGROUP.COM
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STEEGER USA
TAT TECHNOLOGIES
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TP AEROSPACE
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ADVERTISER INDEX
Advanced Aero Services. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . MRO32
Mid-Mountain Materials, Inc . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . MRO37
Aerotron. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . MRO32
Mobile Environmental Solutions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . MRO37
Alaris Aerospace Systems LLC . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . MRO32
Mr Steel. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . MRO37
Alpha Quantix Wearable Robotics. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . MRO32
MTU Maintenance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . MRO37
AMS Group, Inc . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . MRO33
Northeast Aero Compressor Corp (NEACO) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . MRO38
AmSafe Bridport . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . MRO33
O2 Corporation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . MRO38
APOC Aviation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . MRO33
Otonomy Aviation. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . MRO38
ATAP, Inc . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . MRO33
Precision Aerospace Products. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . MRO38
ATEC, Inc . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . MRO33
Phoenix Composite Solutions. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . MRO38
AVEMAR Group. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . MRO33
Professional Aircraft Accessories . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . MRO38
Aviation Component Group . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . MRO34
QOCO Systems LTD . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . MRO39
AVPARTS Internatinoal LLC . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . MRO34
RDI Technologies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . MRO39
BOES Aviation and Asset Management . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . MRO34
Sanad, A Mabadala Company . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . MRO39
Bonus Tech, Inc . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . MRO34
Scan Global Logistics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . MRO39
Bridgestone Aircraft Tire USA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . MRO34
SETAERO . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . MRO39
Component Overhaul Services . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . MRO34
SkySelect . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . MRO39
Dodson International Parts, Inc. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . MRO35
Solair Group . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . MRO40
Electro Enterprises, Inc . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . MRO35
Southbourne Rubber Co. LTD . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . MRO40
Ferroecoblast . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . MRO35
ST Engineering . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . MRO40
Fluid Mechanisms. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . MRO35
StandardAero . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . MRO40
Fokker Services . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . MRO35
Steeger USA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . MRO40
Galaxy International Inc . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . MRO35
TAT Technologies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . MRO40
Henkel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . MRO36
Titan Robotics, Inc . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . MRO41
IAC . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . MRO36
TP Aerospace. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . MRO41
Infinity Air Group. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . MRO36
Tungsram Aero Space Power KFT. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . MRO41
Intersky Precision Aerospace . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . MRO36
TurbineAero. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . MRO41
Jana, Inc. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . MRO36
Wibdi Aviation Company. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . MRO41
Jet International Co, LLC . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . MRO36
Xolvis Corporation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . MRO41
Jet Midwest. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . MRO37
Zip-Chem® & Andpak. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . MRO42
Librestream Technologies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . MRO37
MRO42
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FUEL
WORLD ENERGY
SAF Production Chases
Fast-Growing Demand
>
>
INDUSTRY MOVES INTO A NEW PHASE
RAPID GROWTH FOR SAF MAY BE COMING
Garrett Reim Paramount, California
A
s governments around the world ready incentives
and mandates to decarbonize the aviation industry,
a slew of sustainable aviation fuel production facilities are in the works.
A case in point: World Energy plans to increase sustainable
aviation fuel (SAF) production at its facility in Paramount,
California, by 700% to 340 million gal. annually, the company
said at an April 22 ribbon-cutting event. The former conventional oil refinery should be able to reach maximum output
by 2025 after $2 billion in upgrades are completed.
“By 2050, the facility will eliminate at least 76 million
megatons of carbon, the equivalent of 3.8 million carbon-net-zero flights from Los Angeles to New York,” World
Energy said. The company says it is preselling Paramount’s
future capacity. Current customers include Amazon Air,
United Airlines, JetBlue Airways, Rolls-Royce and Boeing.
SAF adoption has accelerated in the past two years,
above and beyond test and demonstration projects, says
Robert Boyd, International Air Transport Association
(IATA) assistant director for energy transition and policy.
“This is really morphing into serious, business-as-usualstyle fuel procurement offtakes,” he says. “They’re not
small anymore.”
IATA projects that 100-200 million liters (26-53 million
gal.) of SAF will be produced in 2022. By 2025, it predicts
4-5 billion liters could be produced, Boyd says.
SAF projects are lining up. In April, South Africa’s Sasol
ecoFT signed a letter of intent with Swedish energy company Uniper and the municipality of Solleftea to investigate establishing an industrial-scale SAF production facility, energy company Bangchak Group of Thailand signed
a memorandum of understanding with biofuel producer
BBGI and palm oil producer Thanachok Oil Light for SAF
production, and JetBlue Airways signed an offtake agreement with Aemetis valued at $530 million for 125 million
gal. of 40% blended SAF over 10 years.
As part of World Energy’s investment in its Paramount
facility, SAF would be supplied to Los Angeles International
Airport (LAX), about 15 mi. away, via a new pipeline. The
facility started producing SAF in 2016, and World Energy
calls it the world’s first commercial SAF production site. It
currently transports fuel to LAX with trucks.
The facility uses Honeywell UOP’s Ecofining technology to refine animal fats supplied by JBS, a Brazil-based
meat-processing company, into SAF. While the facility is
focused on SAF production, it also produces some renewable diesel and, as a byproduct, naphtha, a flammable liquid
hydrocarbon mixture.
Air Products, an industrial gases and chemicals supplier,
is helping finance the Paramount facility’s upgrades. It supplies hydrogen for the hydroprocessing part of refining SAF.
The Paramount facility will be connected to Air Products’ local hydrogen pipeline. Upgrades also will include
AviationWeek.com/AWST
World Energy’s Paramount, California, refinery is an early
example of large-scale sustainable aviation fuel production.
a new Air Products-operated steam methane reforming
facility to produce gray hydrogen. The supplier says it is
working with World Energy on technologies that would
allow it to produce green hydrogen.
World Energy plans to expand the types of feedstocks
it uses at its SAF facility, says CEO Gene Gebolys. “When
we’re finished with this, we’ll be able to [use] absolutely every feedstock under the Sun. We are continuing to work on
new feedstocks, and we’ll source everything we could possibly source,” he continues. “As fats, oils and greases experience higher demand, the price is going up. And as the price
goes up, alternatives are starting to become more viable.”
World Energy says SAF produced at its site would have
up to 80% lower life-cycle carbon emissions than conventional jet fuel. The company says the fuel is approved for a
50-50 blend with conventional jet fuel for commercial use.
Though World Energy receives several tax credits for SAF
production, the company expects that corporate “carbon insetting,” a strategy of avoiding emissions, will drive demand.
“SAF is really going to be private-sector-led,” Gebolys
says. “There are companies that are heavily aviation-dependent that are looking for ways to reduce their carbon
impact.”
SAF analysts say airlines see the writing on the wall
when it comes to climate change legislation and are trying
to get ahead of the curve.“The airlines are recognizing that
it’s strategically dangerous to sit back and wait,” says Boyd.
“You need to get your hands dirty, especially when you actually start to learn about the nuances of these arrangements
relative to conventional fuel.”
Compared to Jet-A, which is well known and relatively
straightforward to produce, SAF is more complex to make.
Airlines need to understand the costs of and technologies
for refining various feedstocks, methods for judging how
sustainable different versions are, different regulatory regimes and which tax credits provide the best value.
“It tends to require a lot of people in the organization
becoming relatively SAF smart,” Boyd says. Ultimately,
World Energy chose the Paramount site because of California’s culture of innovation and its climate change policies, particularly the state’s “Low Carbon Fuel Standard,”
Gebolys says.
“The commitment to decarbonization is greater in this
state than it is in any other jurisdiction,” he says. “So that
matters a lot. We’re making huge financial bets.” c
AVIATION WEEK & SPACE TECHNOLOGY/MAY 16-29, 2022 35
CARGO
of its Atlis hybrid-electric VTOL uncrewed cargo aircraft. This is designed to carry 500 lb. of cargo 300
mi., or 400 lb. for 600 mi., with greater
simplicity and reliability than competing eVTOL aircraft.
Automating Middle-Mile Logistics
Pelican Cargo will be a development of Pyka’s autonomous
agricultural aircraft.
>
>
CROP SPRAYER PROVIDES BASIS FOR CARGO CARRIER
MULTICOPTER MEETS GYROPLANE IN eVTOL DESIGN
PYKA
Graham Warwick Washington
M
wing, electric propulsion and flight control systems combined with a larger
fuselage. With four electric motors for
a total 100 kW of power and a 50-kWh
swappable battery, the 1,320-lb.-grossweight Pelican Cargo is designed to
carry 400 lb. for 200 mi.
Oakland, California-based Pyka’s
Series A funds will be used to increase
production of the Spray and Cargo.
Pyka is flying a proof-of-concept aircraft over longer ranges and plans to
fly the Pelican Cargo within four
months and launch the first applications by year-end, CEO and co-founder
Michael Norcia says.
AERGILITY
ore startups are developing
uncrewed cargo aircraft as
growth in e-commerce drives
potential demand for more efficient
and responsive middle-mile logistics
to move goods from warehouses to
delivery centers.
FedEx Express is working with Elroy
Air to test the shipment of packages
between sorting centers using the
startup’s Chaparral hybrid-electric
vertical-takeoff-and-landing autonomous logistics aircraft. Flight tests
are planned for 2023.
UPS intends to use Beta Technologies Alia electric vertical-takeoff-andlanding (eVTOL) vehicles to connect
its jet gateways directly to its package
centers, avoiding flying packages by
regional feeder aircraft to nearby airports, then moving them by truck to
the centers for onward delivery.
Combined with increasing interest
in uncrewed air logistics from the military and for humanitarian missions
overseas, perceived demand is bringing new companies into the market.
The latest to unveil their aircraft are
U.S. startups Pyka and Aergility.
Autonomous electric aircraft developer Pyka has closed a $37 million
Series A funding round to support
production of its Pelican uncrewed
crop sprayer and develop a cargo version of the aircraft.
The Pelican is already being used for
aerial application in Central and South
America. As an agricultural aircraft,
the 38-ft.-span, 1,125-lb.-gross-weight
Pelican Spray is able to carry a 550-lb.
payload from a 500-ft. runway with a
30-min. flight endurance, covering up
to 130 acres per hour.
The cargo version will use the same
Taking off like a multicopter, Atlis
has rotors that autorotate in cruise
to provide lift and control.
The company has produced seven
Pelicans so far and is working with its
suppliers to ramp up to one a month
and build another eight this year,
Norcia says. The company originally
selected crop spraying as the fastest
route to market for an electric aircraft
and says it has multiple active customers worldwide, “with another dozen or
so launch customers in the pipeline”
in the agricultural and cargo sectors.
Dunnellon, Florida-based Aergility
has unveiled the full-scale prototype
36 AVIATION WEEK & SPACE TECHNOLOGY/MAY 16-29, 2022
The Atlis’ configuration combines a
multicopter with a gyroplane. The aircraft takes off and lands vertically like
a multicopter, using six electrically
driven lift rotors. For forward flight,
the fixed-pitch rotors autorotate, generating half the lift while the rest is
provided by a narrow-chord wing.
A 90-kW turboprop in the nose provides cruise propulsion and drives a
4-kW generator to recharge the batteries in flight. Flight control in all axes is
accomplished by varying rotor rpm,
adding and subtracting electrical power
while averaging a state of autorotation
and zero power draw from the battery.
Aergility calls this “managed autorotation technology” and says it allows
transitionless flight from hover to
cruise and back without requiring tilting propellers or variable-pitch rotors.
This simplicity results in fewer moving
parts for higher reliability and lower
maintenance and ownership cost, the
company says.
A 90-kW turboprop in the nose provides cruise propulsion and drives a
4-kW generator to recharge the batteries in flight. Flight control in all axes is
accomplished by varying rotor rpm,
adding and subtracting electrical power
while averaging a state of autorotation
and zero power draw from the battery.
Aergility has been flying a 30%scale model of the Atlis and plans to
begin testing the 24-ft.-span full-scale
prototype this summer. The company
expects to begin customer deliveries
in 18-24 months. “We have a customer
that has funded much of our development up to this point, but we are
unable to disclose additional details,”
CEO James Vander Mey says.
Initial buyers are expected to be military and overseas customers that do
not require FAA certification of the
aircraft, although that is planned eventually, he says. Aergility sees strong
potential for a simple and efficient
hybrid- electric VTOL cargo aircraft
in markets such as Africa, where road
infrastructure can be inadequate. c
AviationWeek.com/AWST
WAR IN UKRAINE | DEFENSE
Inside Russia’s Failure To Control
Ukrainian Airspace
>
>
MOST STRIKES CARRIED OUT WITH UNGUIDED WEAPONS
BOMBER FLEETS STRIKE TO DISRUPT DELIVERIES OF WESTERN
EQUIPMENT TO TROOPS
Piotr Butowski Gdansk, Poland
I
numerical and qualitative advantage,
Ukraine’s air defenses—rather than
its aircraft—have prevented Russia
from controlling the air (see page 66).
The Russians have damaged some
RUSSIAN DEFENSE MINISTRY
n more than two months of fighting in Ukraine, Russia has failed
to control the airspace, despite
dedicating a significant portion of its
main aviation assets to the war.
A heavily damaged Sukhoi Su-25 from Chernigovka, in far eastern Russia,
landed in Belarus less than a month into the war.
About 60-70% of all Sukhoi Su-25s,
Su-34s, Su-30SMs and Su-35S squadrons of the Russian Aerospace Forces
(VKS) and the navy’s aviation units
are estimated to have been involved.
This is a significant burden for Russia,
as it leaves little reserves.
And since the squadrons deployed
for this fight are likely to be the besttrained aviators in the force, the remaining 30-40% are likely Russia’s
weakest units.
Ukraine’s relative success was no
accident. Its forces had been preparing for Russia to attack. Before the
first strike, the country moved most of
its combat aircraft to temporary airfields, including its many Soviet-era
facilities. The Russians did not notice
this maneuver, giving an indication of
their relative lack of reconnaissance.
“The first strike of cruise missiles hit mockups in many places,”
Ukrainian presidential advisor Oleksiy Arestovych says about the first
day of the Russian invasion.
While Russia’s Air Force retains a
AviationWeek.com/AWST
Ukrainian long-range stationary
S-300P surface-to-air missile (SAM)
systems with cruise and ballistic missile strikes. But medium-range mobile
Buk-M1 systems remain operational.
This has forced Russian helicopters
and close air support aircraft to operate at very low altitude, where they in
turn fell victim to the massively present man-portable air defense systems.
Long-range anti-aircraft missiles
are still critical to Ukraine’s defense,
which is why the U.S. and its allies are
working to obtain S-300 systems for
Ukraine from various sources, including Slovakia.
“They’re being very nimble, very agile in how, when and where they apply
air defense,” a U.S. defense official said
about Ukrainian air defense on March
21. “I’m not just talking about shoulder-fired air defense, short-range, but
also long-range mobile air defenses.”
Detailed real-time intelligence provided to Ukrainian forces by the U.S.
and NATO, about when and where
Russian missiles and bombs were
intended to strike, cannot be overestimated. This intelligence has helped
the Ukrainian air defense and air
force to avoid blows.
According to U.S. defense officials,
the Russian Air Force has performed
an average of 200 crewed aircraft
sorties per day, with several periods
of increased intensity.
Ukraine conducts only 5-10 sorties
per day, except for short periods of increased activity. Its actions are limited
by the widespread presence of Russian long- and medium-range SAMs.
The Russians have lost only one
Su-35S fighter, but those aircraft have
largely stayed out of Ukraine. “A good
number of Russian sorties never leave
Russian airspace or Belarusian airspace,” a U.S. defense official revealed
on March 21.
Losses of Su-25 close air support
aircraft, Su-34 fighter-bombers and
Su-30SM two-seat multirole fighters, which operate more deeply into
Ukraine, have been more significant.
According to very conservative estimates, the Russian Air Force has lost
at least five Su-30SMs and about 10
each Su-25s and Su-34s. That is far below figures released by the Ukrainian
Defense Ministry, which says that by
May 3 Russia had lost 194 fixed-wing
aircraft and 155 helicopters.
Likewise, there is no confirmation of
Russian claims that 146 Ukrainian aircraft and 112 helicopters had been destroyed as of May 3. If taken seriously,
it would mean Russia is starting to destroy the same aircraft a second time.
Russian aviation losses were greatest in the first days of March. Those
losses decreased as missions became
limited to fighter patrols at very high
altitudes and significant standoff ranges, or strike sorties at low altitude.
Technically, modern Su-30SM, Su34 and Su-35S aircraft can use both
air-to-air missiles (AAM) and air-toground precision-guided munitions
(PGM). However, in practice, use of
PGMs by fighter aircraft as well as the
use of AAMs by strike aircraft is rare.
Pilots are not trained to use them, and
fighter aircraft lack electro-optical
targeting pods.
The Russians only recently started
developing targeting pods for fighter
aircraft. The KOEP-35 pod for the
Su-35S and the Atoll-N pod for Su-57
fighters are presented at air shows,
but it is unknown how many, if any,
are actually in service.
AVIATION WEEK & SPACE TECHNOLOGY/MAY 16-29, 2022 37
WAR IN UKRAINE | DEFENSE
Sukhoi Su-34 Self-Defense Systems
L265VP Jamming Pod
UV-5 Chaff-andFlare Dispensers
L265VI Receiving Pod
PIOTR BUTOWSKI
FIGHTERS
The Su-35S Flanker M is the service’s
most advanced fighter aircraft, and it
bears the brunt of the air superiority
mission. Available footage shows that
the Su-35Ss are flying typically armed
with four R-77-1 beyond-visual-range
AAMs and two R-73 or R-74M closeair-combat missiles.
On March 20, the Russian Defense
Ministry published a video showing
a combat sortie over Ukraine of Su35S fighters armed with one or two
Kh-31PM anti-radar missiles (ARM),
in addition to standard air-to-air
missiles. Two Russian Su-35S pilots
boast in the film that they shot down
Ukrainian aircraft.
The main task of the Su-35S was to
fight Ukrainian aircraft; it uses the
ARMs for self-defense against SAM
systems. In self-defense mode, the
pilot activates the missile’s passive
radar seeker before entering the danger zone. The launch of a Kh-31PM
missile takes place automatically
when its seeker detects a working fire
control radar of the enemy’s antiaircraft missile system—within seconds, according to a Russian pilot.
According to the pilot, during the
first days of the war, a large number of
SAMs were fired during one Russian
mission, but over time the Ukrainians
have stopped trying to counter their
aerial missions.
The first small batches of Kh-31PM
missiles were made in 2012, first for
the Su-34 fighter-bomber. Integration
of the missile with Su-30SM and Su35S fighters was completed around
2018-19. Russia first used the Kh-31PM
operationally in Ukraine; before that
it was seen only at air shows (in the
export Kh-31PD form).
In another video published by the
Russian Defense Ministry, the UPAB-1500B heavy-wing bomb is suspended under the wing of an Su-30SM
or Su-35S fighter, its first appearance
in an operational scenario. The bomb
weighs 1,525 kg (3,362 lb.), of which
1,010 kg is the warhead. Thanks to the
extendable wing, it reaches a range of
up to 50 km (31 mi.).
It is guided to the target with coordinates given by inertial navigation
with satellite correction; there is no
terminal seeker in the current version.
The UPAB-1500B bomb has been in
production since 2019.
The second Russian fighter aircraft
operating over Ukraine, the two-seat
Su-30SM Flanker H, is usually armed
with four R-27 medium-range AAMs
in the R-27R radar and R-27T infrared
versions and two small R-73 AAMs.
Sometimes it carries 100-kg and 250kg general purpose bombs. Strike
tasks are assigned to the Su-30SM
because of the second crewmember,
the navigator and weapons operator.
According to the testimony of captured Su-30SM pilots from the 43rd
Independent Naval Attack Aviation
Regiment based in Saki, Crimea, the
regiment was given three tasks when
entering the war.
The first was the suppression/destruction of enemy air defenses
(SEAD/DEAD), the second was protection of ground troops against
Ukrainian aviation, and the third was
support for a planned sea landing that
was canceled after the first Russian
failures in the war.
One captured Russian pilot said all
seven sorties he made up to March
5, when he was shot down by a
Ukrainian anti-aircraft missile, were
SEAD/DEAD missions. The pilot did
not say what weapons the Su-30SMs
38 AVIATION WEEK & SPACE TECHNOLOGY/MAY 16-29, 2022
used for these tasks, but they had to
be Kh-31P or Kh-31PM missiles.
The most active aircraft over
Ukrainian territory are Su-34 Fullback heavy fighter-bombers and Su25 Frogfoot close air support aircraft.
They also suffered the greatest losses.
Kh-35U and Kh-59M2A anti-ship
missiles have been used, most likely by
the Su-34, on several occasions. Such
missiles, while designed to counter
surface ships, can also be used against
radar-contrasting land targets. Both
of these missiles are relatively new—
or more precisely, they are new versions of the Kh-35 and Kh-59 missiles
from the Soviet era.
There are images of the wreckage of
two Kh-35U missiles that did not reach
their intended targets in Ukraine and
crashed, probably due to technical failures. One was found in Belarus, 30 km
from Ukraine. Remains of another
Kh-35U were found on April 4 in the
Rostov region of Russia, more than
200 km from Ukraine, as if the missile
had flown in the opposite direction.
The second anti-ship missile seen
in Ukraine is the Raduga Kh-59M2A,
in production in Smolensk since
around 2015. This is its first known
operational use. It is heavy for tactical aviation, weighing 930 kg, with a
320-kg warhead. Powered by a small
turbofan, the missile flies to the target
at a distance of 285 km, according to
data for the export Kh-59MK version.
In addition to these new weapon
types, the Russian Air Force is using
its standard precision-guided missile
arsenal in Ukraine. Photos show the
legacy Kh-29 missiles in the laser- and
TV-guided versions, as well as the
laser KAB-1500L/LG and satelliteguided KAB-500S bombs. Undoubtedly, although there are no images
confirming this, the most popular Russian KAB-500 guided bombs in the
laser and TV versions are also used.
UNGUIDED WEAPONS
In the first phase of the war, the
Russian Air Force flew over Ukraine
primarily with general purpose
bombs and unguided rockets.
An Su-34 pilot from the 2nd Composite Aviation Regiment based in
Chelyabinsk, whose squadron of 10
aircraft was deployed to the Seshcha
air base before the war, was shot down
on March 5 near Chernihiv and taken
prisoner by Ukraine.
The pilot told a press conference
AviationWeek.com/AWST
in Kyiv that he used general purpose
bombs in the three combat sorties, six
500-kg or eight 250-kg each. He conducted the bombing from high altitude
on targets for which he was given the
coordinates before the mission and
which were routinely described to
him as “concentrations of weapons
and military equipment” or as a command post. He had no way of visually
recognizing the target.
The Su-25 Frogfoot attack aircraft, the oldest combat aircraft of
this war, are only seen over Ukraine
with unguided weapons: 80mm S-8
and 122mm S-13 rockets and general
purpose bombs.
There are no reliable estimates
of Russian PGM stocks, but many
missiles are believed to be available
in relatively limited numbers. The
production of new types of weapons
is going slowly, and much of the old
stocks were used up by Russia during
the expeditionary operation in Syria
that started in the autumn of 2015.
tion and replace it with a guidance
unit, as the U.S. does with the JDAM.
In the 2000s, the Russians tried to
create a range-extension kit—a gliding module with an unfolding wing
and a guidance device to which the
bomb was attached—but they ended
up with only plans.
HEAVY BOMBERS
Russian strategic bombers have been
involved in the war with Ukraine from
Day 1. All reports mention the use of
Tupolev Tu-95MS Bear H bombers.
There is no information about Tu-160
Blackjack bombers also being used.
The Tu-95MS bombers carry Kh-555
and Kh-101 strategic cruise missiles.
Images on social media have captured only the Kh-101 missiles in
Ukraine. The stock of Kh-555 missiles,
which are smaller and cheaper, was
probably exhausted during Russian
operations in Syria. The Kh-555 is a
conversion of the older Kh-55 nuclear
missile into a non-nuclear weapon;
One of Russia’s few Forpost UAVs,
the largest uncrewed air vehicle in
the nation’s fleet, took off from
Belarus with two 20-kg KAB
20 guided bombs.
RUSSIAN DEFENSE MINISTRY
If the West manages to enforce an
embargo on the supply of electronic
components, Russia will have serious
problems with the further production of precision-guided munitions
(the same applies to aircraft equipment). Despite “import substitution”
programs launched after 2014, the
Russians still depend heavily on the
import of electronic components.
Russia has no low-cost equivalent to the U.S. Joint Direct Attack
Munition (JDAM). In contrast to U.S.
aerial bombs, Russian general purpose bombs are welded monoliths. It
is impossible to remove the tail secAviationWeek.com/AWST
an unknown number of missiles were
converted in the mid-2000s.
The Raduga Kh-101 weighs 2,500
kg and flies at Mach 0.55-0.75 to a
distance of more than 3,500 km; the
range of the nuclear Kh-102 is farther.
Its guidance system combines strapdown inertial navigation, a satellite
navigation receiver, a radar altimeter
terrain-contour-matching system and
an electro-optical digital scene-matching area correlation system.
In addition to the air-launched
Kh-101s, Russia is using similar landbased 9M728 Iskander-M and shiplaunched 3M14 Kalibr cruise missiles.
The Kh-101 missile is not difficult to
distinguish from the other types,
even in poor-quality images, because
the engine hangs under the rear fuselage; the 9M728 and 3M14 missiles
have engines built inside the fuselage.
Strategic air-launched missiles are
being fired from outside Ukraine. The
distance from the Russian Engels air
base to the farthest part of Ukraine
is 1,700 km, half the range of the Kh101 missile.
During U.S. President Joe Biden’s
visit to Poland on March 26, Russian
strategic bombers fired the cruise
missiles at a military training ground
in Yavoriv in western Ukraine, 10 mi.
from the Polish border. The same
base was shelled by Russian airborne
cruise missiles two weeks earlier.
On April 7, Russian President
Vladimir Putin awarded the 121st
Heavy Bomber Aviation Regiment
in Engels—the only strategic bomber
unit in the European part of Russia—
the title of Guards, the most prestigious title for Russian military units,
for heroism in combat operations.
According to a senior U.S. defense
official, by May 2 Russia had launched
more than 2,125 missiles of all classes
into Ukraine. That is about 30 missile
launches per day; the average for the
first weeks of the war was around 50.
It is unclear how many were airlaunched. Ballistic and cruise missiles launched from the ground were
by far the majority, and the share of
cruise missiles launched from ships
did not exceed 1-2%.
But many air-launched cruise missiles missed their intended targets.
On March 21, a senior U.S. defense
official said: “Either they’re failing
to launch, or they’re failing to hit the
target, or they’re failing to explode on
contact.”
At the present stage of the war,
when Russian ground troops are
concentrated in the east and south
after being pushed out of Kyiv, the
Russian Air Force is conducting longrange strikes in central and western
Ukraine, targeting military installations, defense production and repair
plants, strategic fuel stocks and railway facilities. Russia is trying to cut
supplies of military equipment from
the West. On April 16, Russia’s Defense
Ministry claimed the downing near
Odessa of a transport aircraft delivering Western hardware to Ukraine;
no evidence was provided.
AVIATION WEEK & SPACE TECHNOLOGY/MAY 16-29, 2022 39
WAR IN UKRAINE | DEFENSE
RUSSIAN DEFENSE MINISTRY
Most of the munitions dropped on Ukraine have been unguided,
general purpose weapons such as these 500-kg weapons
pictured on a runway in Voronezh, Russia, east of Ukraine.
Tu-22M3 Backfire C medium bombers joined the operation on April 15,
when the defense ministry announced
their use to bomb the Azovstal steel
factory in Mariupol. The event also coincided with the sinking of the Moskva cruiser on April 14, after which the
Russians briefly increased the intensity of the retaliatory fire. The bombing
of Mariupol by Tu-22M3s continued in
the following days.
HYPERSONIC MISSILES
The newest airborne weapons in the
Russian inventory are hypersonic
ballistic missiles shot from MiG-31K/I
Kinzhal strike aircraft. The missile was
used operationally for the first time on
March 18 against an ammunition depot
in Delatyn in western Ukraine, 70 km
from the Romanian border.
The defense ministry said the
Kinzhal missile struck “from a distance of more than 1,000 km,” while
the missile flight lasted “less than 10
min.,” essentially with a speed of more
than 6,000 kph (3,700 mph).
Two days later, the Russian Defense
Ministry reported that a missile from
a Kinzhal struck a fuel and material
depot in Kostyantynivka in eastern
Ukraine; the missile was launched
“from the airspace over the territory
of Crimea,” it said, a distance of 300400 km. On April 11, the ministry said,
a missile from a Kinzhal struck a
“Ukrainian command post,” in Chasiv
Yar in Donbas, just 30 km from the area
occupied by Russian troops. The motivation for using the Kinzhal system is
unclear; this may just be testing a new
weapon in an operational environment.
UNCREWED ASSETS
Despite numerous declarations
about the importance of uncrewed
air vehicles (UAV) in modern warfare, numerous research and development programs
and prototypes,
Russia’s
and the large sums
spent on them, the
Russians have
nothing in operat i o n a l u s e t h at
would rival the
Turkish Bayraktar
TB2 used in this
war by Ukraine,
not to mention the
larger uncrewed
systems. They
have nothing in
the high- altitude
long- endurance
class, and their one
and only mediumaltitude long-endurance drone, the
Inokhodets, is still
in single copies.
The Russians
have turned to 18kg Orlan-10 drones,
which take off from
a catapult and land
on a parachute. A
video of the dismantling of parts of the Russian
Orlan-10, published by Ukrainians,
indicates that it is mostly made of
foreign components. The basic sensors are a Canon EOS 800D amateur
photo camera and a Chinese thermal
imager, the powerplant is a Japanese
40 AVIATION WEEK & SPACE TECHNOLOGY/MAY 16-29, 2022
SAITO engine, and the fuel tank is a
plastic drink bottle.
Images have shown the damage to
the larger, 30-kg Orlan-30 UAV, and
several times the even smaller 5-kg
Eleron-3 and the 7-kg Tachyon surveillance drones, as well as the Zala
KUB loitering munitions with a 3-kg
explosive charge.
Completely unique are the air targets, probably used by the Russians
to activate Ukrainian air defense systems: the Eniks E95M aircraft, weighing 75 kg and flying at 260 kph, and
the Dinamika VM-V helicopter drone.
The latter is a novelty that has been
operated by the Russian Air Force
since the end of 2020.
The Russians released a video of
the Forpost-R, the largest UAV in
Russian service among those used in
noticeable numbers, operating over
Ukraine. A Forpost-R with the number 007 took off from the civil Gomel
Airport in Belarus and carried two
20-kg KAB-20 guided bombs.
New Airborne Weapons
Kh-31 PM
UPAB-1500B
Kh-35U
Kh-59M2A
Kh-101
9S7760
Kinzhal
PIOTR BUTOWSKI
For some time, there were doubts
as to whether Russia was using
its largest Inokhodets UAV over
Ukraine (Orion is its export name).
Photos indicate an Inokhodets was
shot down by Ukrainian air defense
on April 7. c
AviationWeek.com/AWST
BUSINESS
> Who financed Boeing 2021 deliveries p. 42
Saved From
Sanctions
>
>
>
Top 10 L-410-Operating Countries
Fleet Size
Commercial and Defense
Country
ALGERIA
6
COLOMBIA
8
CONGO (DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC)
11
CZECH OEM BREAKS FREE OF UNCERTAINTY
FOLLOWING RUSSIAN INVASION OF UKRAINE
CZECH REPUBLIC
15
AIRCRAFT INDUSTRIES TAKEN OVER BY OMNIPOL
RUSSIA
NEARLY 200 L-410S WERE OPERATING IN RUSSIA
Tony Osborne London
C
HONDURAS
LIBYA
SLOVAKIA
SOUTH SUDAN
VENEZUELA
8
13
189
12
6
12
Source: Aviation Week Network Fleet Discovery
and financial transaction blocks imposed on Russia in
response to its Feb. 24 invasion of Ukraine left the future
of the Kunovice-based manufacturer looking bleak.
The aircraft-maker was cut off from its Western suppliers—most notably engine provider GE Aviation Turboprop,
which caused engine deliveries to stop—as well as its core
customers. It can no longer provide spares or services to
L-410 operators in Russia. And those are numerous: The
Aviation Week Network Fleet Discovery database shows
While best known as a commuter aircraft, large numbers
of Let L-410s also wear military livery in Europe and
Russia, such as this one flown by the Czech Air Force.
that of a nearly 400-strong worldwide operational fleet,
almost 200 of the 19-seat aircraft were flying in Russia (see
table), many in service with the country’s air force as well
as with numerous small airlines and transport companies.
“From March 28, Let Kunovice could not export any
aircraft [or] parts or anything needed to service these
aircraft,” Jozef Piga, Omnipol vice president and chairman
of the board, told Czech financial daily Hospodarske Noviny.
“As a result, everything they had invested in, machines and
human labor, was hanging in the air,” Piga said.
The deal came weeks after Aircraft Industries published
an open letter stating that its future was uncertain because
TONY OSBORNE/AW&ST
zech aircraft manufacturer Aircraft Industries and
its Let L-410 twin-turboprop may have been spared
the impact of crippling international sanctions
against Russia, but it is now isolated from its largest market.
After 13 years of Russian ownership, the 86-year-old
company passed back into Czech hands on April 21 and is
now owned by OMPO Holding, part of Czech defense group
Omnipol. The group also has a share in Czech jet trainer
builder Aero Vodochody.
For over a decade, Aircraft Industries—often known
as Let Kunovice—had been linked with Russian group
Ural Mining Metallurgical Co. (UGMK). But Omnipol has
confirmed to Czech media that it negotiated the company’s sale with Russia’s Ostov group, owned by UGMK
shareholder Andrei Kozitsyn.
While neither Ostov nor Kozitsyn has been subject to
individual sanctions, the various international embargoes
AviationWeek.com/AWST
AVIATION WEEK & SPACE TECHNOLOGY/MAY 16-29, 2022 41
BUSINESS
of the sanctions, adding that its staff—which includes
employees from the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Ukraine,
Belarus and Russia—had expressed no support for the invasion of Ukraine. “Currently, we are a Russian-owned organization, and this fact is likely to change a lot for us as a
company, but we ourselves do not know what the consequences will be,” the letter stated.
Just as Aero Vodochody’s L-39 jet trainer was the platform
of choice for Warsaw Pact air forces, the Let L-410 had met
Soviet-era Aeroflot’s need for a commuter airliner, filling the
gap between the Antonov An-2 biplane and An-24 turboprop.
That alone accounted for many of the 1,200 L-410s built
since 1969. When the Russian owners took over the company
in 2009, they hoped to continue to support the burgeoning
Russian domestic market with a modernized version of the
aircraft, the L-410NG. Aircraft Industries was even looking
to build the aircraft in Russia through a subsidiary, the Ural
Works of Civil Aviation, a maintenance, repair and overhaul
house near Yekaterinburg. But even though a Russian supply
chain was established, that ambition was never realized.
Nor were plans to resurrect development of the larger
40-passenger L-610, originally shelved in the early 1990s,
>
NO BOEING COMMERCIAL DELIVERIES
REQUIRED COMPANY FINANCING
>
EXPORT CREDIT AGENCIES SURPRISINGLY
SIT OUT THE RECOVERY
PAUL WEATHERMAN/BOEING
Follow the Money:
Who Financed Boeing Deliveries in 2021
Boeing says there is no lack
of third-party funding to deliver
commercial aircraft such
as its embattled 737 MAX.
Michael Bruno Washington
A
irline passengers may have taken a wait-and-see
approach to air travel in 2021 as COVID-19 variants surged, but commercial airframers and air
transport buyers had few problems sourcing funding for
new aircraft deliveries.
Thanks to private sector investors that stepped in while
traditional commercial banks and export credit agencies
did not, $64 billion in funding was available for commercial aircraft deliveries manufactured by Airbus, Boeing,
Bombardier and Embraer as well as for the Comac ARJ
and C919 aircraft, Mitsubishi MRJ, Irkut MC-21, Bombardier Q400 and Sukhoi Superjet model types. That figure
is up from $59 billion in 2020 but far below the $98 billion
in 2019 and a recent peak of $126 billion in 2018.
The news came on May 2 as Boeing Capital Corp. (BCC),
the wholly owned bank subsidiary of Boeing, released the
2022 version of its annual Commercial Aircraft Finance
Market Outlook (CAFMO). In a teleconference with reporters, Boeing executives promoted an optimistic outlook
for air transport deliveries based on the 2021 results.
“Financiers and investors remain committed to the
long-term fundamentals that continue to make aircraft a
valuable asset class,” BCC President Tim Myers said.
“Despite the changing landscape since the emergence of
42 AVIATION WEEK & SPACE TECHNOLOGY/MAY 16-29, 2022
the COVID-19 pandemic, the industry remains resilient,
and there continues to be sufficient liquidity in the market for our customers with increasing opportunities as
traffic recovers.”
Additionally, the 2021 data entailed some surprises even
for the executives. Excluding customer concessions for
delayed 737 MAXs or 787s, Boeing did not have to finance
the delivery of any of its airliners in 2021—the second year
in a row that third parties have backed all aircraft receipts.
One of the line items that stands outs in Boeing’s CAFMO
report: 35% of Boeing’s air transport deliveries in 2021 were
funded by cash. BCC Vice President of Customer Finance
Rich Hammond and Managing Director of Capital Markets
and Outreach Ben Faires said they did not expect cash to
remain the top financing mechanism for company aircraft
going forward, adding that the trend likely reflected shortterm market effects of the pandemic.
The executives also said they were relatively surprised
by lower levels of commercial bank debt activity in financing Boeing aircraft in 2021. They said they see “pockets” of
growing bank debt activity as risk tolerance creeps back
toward pre-pandemic levels. But commercial banks remain
focused on supporting preexisting customers or those in
their own regions rather than a worldwide clientele.
AviationWeek.com/AWST
for Russian regional airlines. That plan was finally abandoned in 2020.
With the new Czech owners, the company is seeking to
stabilize its supply chain and production and looking for
new markets for the aircraft. This will not be easy with new
entrants into the market such as the Cessna SkyCourier or
established platforms such as the modernized Viking Air
Twin Otter and Dornier 228, both firm fixtures in the commuter aircraft market. Yet Aircraft Industries and Omnipol
signed a now seemingly prescient agreement on strategic
cooperation in international markets at last year’s Dubai
Airshow, which has already resulted in an order for two
aircraft for the Philippines, Omnipol announced on April 28.
“Aircraft Industries has been a recognized manufacturer of aircraft since 1936, so in the current crisis situation, it was a matter of course for us to do our best to save
the final Czech aircraft manufacturer,” Omnipol President
Jiri Podpera says.
Podpera says it is now Omnipol’s duty to “maintain and
further develop their [Aircraft Industries] production.”
Omnipol’s takeover of Aircraft Industries is due to be completed in the coming weeks. c
“What we have not seen them do is expand their business,” Hammond said.
Another relative surprise was how little export credit
agency (ECA) activity was involved in supporting Boeing
deliveries last year. Historically, ECAs were a major or leading financing backstop for Airbus and Boeing deliveries
during recessions and international crises. But in 2021, the
second year of the COVID-19 crisis, they were responsible
for slightly less than 5% of funding for Boeing deliveries,
data from the report shows.
By contrast, institutional investors and funds continue
to seek aviation exposure for their portfolios, “filling in
North America accounted for 51% of Boeing delivery
funding in 2021, including 48% from the U.S. Europe made
up 24% of funding for Boeing aircraft last year, while both
the Middle East and the Asia-Pacific region came in at 11%
each. China and Russia were 3% apiece.
Lessor activity remains as active as ever, the Boeing
executives said. They counted 193 lessors in 2021, the year
that General Electric sold its majority stake in GE Aviation
Capital Services to Ireland’s AerCap to form the world’s
largest lessor. There have been at least 192 lessors since
2017, Boeing data shows.
“The market is still very diverse and very competitive,”
Faires said.
Asked about customer compensation deals that Boeing has
struck over delayed deliveries of
737s and possibly 787s, the Boe2021 2022*
ing executives explained that
those arrangements are not inLeasing
cluded in CAFMO calculations.
Boeing has racked up billions of
Capital
dollars’ worth of concessions to
Markets
customers as its narrowbody and
widebody programs were halted.
Commercial
It does not reveal to whom or how
Banks
much, but the company accounts
for them as part of financial
Export Credit
charges it has revealed for several
Agencies
quarters. Boeing leaders have
Institutional
said they expect to get through
Investors
“most” of it by 2023.
and Funds
Regarding the Russia-Ukraine
war
and how that could affect airTax Equity
craft delivery financing, the BCC
executives said it was still too
Credit
soon to tell. “We don’t see any negEnhanced
ativity outside a particular region
so far,” Hammond said.
Airframe
Assuming the current trajecand Engine
Manufacturers
tory holds, the healthy financing
*Forecast
outlook presented by Boeing is
crucial for underpinning its—and
the whole commercial aircraft marketplace’s—growth
prospects. The Boeing 2021 Commercial Market Outlook,
a separate annual 20-year forecast addressing the market
for all commercial airplanes and services, forecasts demand for more than 43,500 new aircraft worth $7.2 trillion
at list prices through 2040. c
Aircraft Financing Environment
Satisfactory
2009
2010
2011
2012
2013
Cautionary
2014
2015
2016
Major Concern
2017
2018
2019
2020
Source: Boeing
where traditional sources of capital retrenched,” the Boeing
executives said. Indeed, private sector financing interest is
so robust that the Boeing executives declared the marketplace to be healthy overall.
“In the long run, we believe the fundamental investment
thesis for this industry remains intact,” Faires said.
AviationWeek.com/AWST
AVIATION WEEK & SPACE TECHNOLOGY/MAY 16-29, 2022 43
FLYING THE FALCON 8X
SAFE EFFICIE
> FUEL-EFFICIENT ENGINES AND AIRFRAME DESIGN
MAXIMIZE THE DASSAULT FALCON 8X RANGE
> CLOSED-LOOP FLY-BY-WIRE PROVIDES
TRAJECTORY-BASED CONTROL
James Albright Bedford, Massachussetts
D
DASSAULT
assault’s Falcon business jets have long been
praised for their fuel efficiency and flying
qualities, and its current flagship Falcon
8X is no exception. Compared to the
Gulfstream GVII-G500 that I fly in my fulltime job, the Falcon 8X is about 10 ft. shorter
and 7,000 lb. lighter. But if you need to carry eight passengers
a long distance, the 8X will go 6,450 nm at Mach 0.80, much
farther than the G500’s 5,300 nm at Mach 0.85.
Besides maintaining the marque’s
legendary efficiency, the latest Falcons are notable for their advanced
digital flight control system (DFCS).
Dassault says that with its latest
DFCS, the pilot flies a “trajectory
rather than an attitude.” In a closedloop, trajectory-based flight control
system, the pilot sets the desired
path, and the DFCS monitors the resulting path, using control-law logic
to move the surfaces as necessary to
match the desired path.
Invited by Dassault to fly the Falcon
8X, I wanted to understand the
aircraft’s ability to extract so
much performance from every
drop of fuel and also to explore
the unfamiliar “closed-loop” and
“path-stable” concepts behind its flyby-wire (FBW) flight control system.
Dassault Falcon Jet Chief Pilot
Franco Nese brought the 8X demonstrator to Hanscom Field in Bedford,
Massachusetts. The aircraft’s ramp
presence is misleading. It is smaller
than other ultra-long-range business
jets in terms of length and fuselage
height. But upon entering the cabin,
all preconceived notions of size evaporate. At 74 in. high, 92 in. wide and
42.8 ft. in length, the 8X’s cabin nearly
equals that of the G500.
My attention was drawn to the
cockpit and the EASy III avionics.
The system is based on Honeywell’s
Primus Epic avionics, as used by
other manufacturers but tailored for
Dassault as the Enhanced Avionics
System (EASy).
Thanks to my experience with
Gulfstream Primus Epic systems, I
was immediately comfortable. The
44 AVIATION WEEK & SPACE TECHNOLOGY/MAY 16-29, 2022
four 14.1-in. displays are arranged in
a “T” configuration—an integrated
primary flight display (IPFD) for each
pilot, with two multifunction display
units (MDU) stacked vertically in the
AviationWeek.com/AWST
NCY
Derived from the Falcon 7X,
the 8X has longer range
due in part to improvements
in the wing design.
Dassault Falcon 8X
by the Numbers
Dimensions (ft.)
Length . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80.3
Wingspan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86.3
Height . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26.1
Cabin
Length (ft.) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42.8
Max. height (in.) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74
Max. width (in.) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92
Engines . . . . . . 3 X Pratt & Whitney PW307D
(takeoff thrust 6,722 lb. each)
Weights (lb.)
Max. takeoff . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73,000
Max. landing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62,400
center. Each pilot has access to ownside and center displays through
dedicated cursor control devices
(CCD) with trackballs and multifunction keyboards.
AviationWeek.com/AWST
The cockpit feels spacious, owing to
the wide fuselage and absence of control yokes in front of each pilot. The
layout is designed to minimize workload, with all flight avionics directly in
Performance
Range (nm @ Mach 0.80, 8 passengers). . . . 6,450
Max. operating Mach . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.90
Max. altitude (ft.) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51,000
Source: Dassault Aviation
AVIATION WEEK & SPACE TECHNOLOGY/MAY 16-29, 2022 45
FLYING THE FALCON 8X
authority digital engine control handles the start from that point on.
Aircraft electrical and pneumatic
systems switch automatically from
the auxiliary power unit (APU) to engine electrical and air outputs.
After all three of the 8X’s 6,722-lb.thrust Pratt & Whitney PW307D
turbofans were started, Nese untied
the electrical bus, shut down the APU
and completed several systems
checks. The flight control check is
conventional except that it is accomplished by each pilot in turn and then
by the FBW system itself.
The sidesticks are not linked mechanically and do not move in response
to inputs from the other pilot, autopilot
or air loads on the control surfaces. I
asked to see what happens when both
pilots move their sidesticks in opposition. Nese moved his stick to the right
JAMES ALBRIGHT
front of each pilot and a guidance
panel for flight director and autopilot
on the center eyebrow panel.
Each pilot has an electronic flight
bag (EFB) outboard of their IPFD.
The EFBs are Windows tablets that
can be loaded with approach charts
and other applications, including Dassault’s FalconSphere II suite of performance calculation, dispatch, documentation and planning apps.
Other than the EFBs, none of the
displays are touch screens. Most systems are accessed through physical
controls and adhere to the “dark cockpit” concept: If they are not illuminated, they are in a good flight mode.
The final distinguishing components
of the cockpit are the dual sidesticks
and large head-up display (HUD).
There are plans for a dual HUD installation this year.
I think auditory senses are the first
to go in a highly stressful situation,
and an audible alert is insufficient.
The haptic feedback on the 8X stick
is better—the vibration in your hand
is hard to miss. Another solution is to
have one stick move in response to
the other, as with Gulfstream’s active
sidestick. I prefer that but was still
learning the 8X’s “hands off ” approach to flying.
Once we completed our flight control checks, Nese prompted the FBW
system to perform its own check.
While it is only required once every
24-hr. period, he activated the check
for my benefit. Most manufacturers
opt for three flight control computers, including a backup. The 8X has a
total of six—three main and three
secondary—as well as an additional
backup computer.
We were ready to taxi in a few minutes. The nosewheel steer-by-wire is
electrically controlled and hydraulically actuated for a maximum of 60deg. turning authority at low speeds,
decreasing as speed increases. Once
we were moving at a fair pace, idle
thrust was more than sufficient to
maintain taxi speed.
Sidestick controls help give the 8X
cockpit a spacious feel, says Aviation
Week’s evaluation pilot.
Nese downloaded the flight plan
using the aircraft’s airborne flight information system. This uses either
VHF or satellite data link, automatically prioritizing VHF if available. The
downloaded flight plan is displayed in
the center top display in a large waypoint list window. The flight plan can
be modified by using the CCDs to select
the desired waypoint and the keyboard
to make the changes, or changes can
be made directly on the map display.
Engine start is accomplished by
moving the selected engine’s fuel
switch from OFF to ON and rotating
another switch to START. The full-
stop and asked me to move mine left.
A voice announced “Dual input” and
the stick vibrated.
How to best alert pilots to a dual
input has been a hot topic since the
2009 crash of an Air France Airbus
A330. In that accident, the right-seat
pilot was pulling his stick full aft,
causing the aircraft to stall. The leftseat pilot was pushing his stick full
forward, attempting to recover, but
the right-seat pilot had priority. Neither was aware of the dual input. The
crash could have been prevented had
the left-seat pilot understood he was
not in control.
46 AVIATION WEEK & SPACE TECHNOLOGY/MAY 16-29, 2022
Nese selected Slats Flaps 1, or “SF1”
in Falcon-speak, which means all six
leading edge slats and the trailing
edge flaps extended to 9 deg. SF2 is
also available for takeoff, increasing
the flap angle to 20 deg. Slats and flaps
are selected manually through a
four-position handle (SF0, SF1, SF2,
SF3) or can be deployed automatically
by the flight control system if necessary to reduce the angle of attack.
We then reviewed our performance
numbers, generated by the avionics
and displayed on the bottom MDU.
The aircraft had just under 10,000 lb.
of fuel added to our basic operating
weight of 36,100 lb. and three pilots,
bringing our takeoff gross weight to
46,400 lb. The weather was clear,
temperature around 20C (68F), and
we had a right-quartering headwind,
giving us our performance numbers
and a takeoff distance of 2,813 ft.
Once cleared for takeoff, I aligned
the aircraft with the runway and
moved all three throttles to their forward limit, the takeoff detent. The
AviationWeek.com/AWST
DASSAULT
Touch-screen electronic
flight bags are mounted outboard
on either side of the panel.
AviationWeek.com/AWST
in similar conditions at Mach 0.80
with a slightly higher total fuel burn
of 2,300 lb./hr.
I then pushed the engines to maximum continuous thrust and watched
the airspeed climb to Mach 0.878 but
no further. We were at 44,500 lb., and
the temperature was ISA+3C. Total
fuel burn was 2,880 lb./hr. Most notably, the cockpit was still quiet. The
DASSAULT
aircraft accelerated nicely and in a few
seconds reached the 111-kt. VR (rotation speed), and I pulled back on the
sidestick to increase pitch to about
20 deg. With a positive rate of climb,
Nese retracted the landing gear and,
passing 400 ft., the slats and flaps.
The pull on the stick took more
force than I expected. Falcon 8X instructors teach students to move the
stick until the path of the aircraft is as
desired, then release the stick and
guard it. Climbing through 500 ft., I
released the stick and watched the
nose stay right where I had left it.
The DFCS is designed to maintain
the pilot-commanded bank angle
“hands off” up to 35 deg. of bank unless disturbed. If the pilot rolls into
15 deg. of bank and turbulence increases it, the flight control system
counteracts the disturbance. In pitch,
the “flightpath stable” aspect of the
DFCS adjusts the controls to maintain the desired flightpath angle.
I selected “Climb” mode—something
others call “Flight Level Change”—
and the flight director displayed a
magenta bar showing the path
needed to maintain our desired climb
speed. The autospeed climb schedule
starts at V 2 +10 kt. (takeoff safety
speed) until cleaned up, 200 kt. until
out of the airport traffic area, 250 kt.
to 10,000 ft., 260 kt. to Mach changeover, then Mach 0.78.
A new litmus test for what makes
a business jet fast is having a maximum operating Mach (MMO) speed of
at least Mach 0.90, and the 8X does
not disappoint. As maximum range
numbers are based on a more economical Mach 0.80, I wanted to evaluate the differences in flight characteristics, noise levels and fuel burns.
The aircraft’s maximum operating
altitude is 51,000 ft., but I opted for
41,000 ft. to avoid having to don an
oxygen mask.
We made it to 41,000 ft. rather
quickly, in about 17 min., at the recommended climb speed of Mach 0.78.
In a few seconds, we stabilized at
Mach 0.80. The aircraft was light at
44,700 lb., and the outside air temperature was nearly at standard,
ISA+2C. The cockpit was very quiet,
and the total fuel burn was 2,270 lb./
hr. For comparison, I’ve flown a G500
The 8X’s sidestick controls use
haptic feedback to alert the pilots
to dual inputs.
G500 in similar conditions easily
made it to Mach 0.90 with a fuel burn
of 3,050 lb./hr. The G500’s cockpit,
however, becomes noticeably noisier
when above Mach 0.85.
The 8X does have lower fuel flows,
but its superior range appears mainly
due to its higher fuel capacity of
35,141 lb. compared to the G500’s
maximum of 30,250 lb.
Nese then arranged for a block of
airspace between Flight Level 390 (FL
390) and FL 410 (39,000-41,000 ft.)
and asked me to complete a left 360deg. turn at 60 deg. of bank. He clearly
had something in mind, so I dutifully
rolled into 60 deg. of bank and applied
whatever back pressure was needed
to nail the altitude. Placing the flightpath vector (FPV) on the zero-pitch
reference line (ZPRL) made quick
work of that, and the altitude indication remained glued to 40,000 ft.
Up to 35 deg. of bank I did not need
any back pressure at all, but above
that the FPV started to nudge downward, and I needed aft stick to hold
altitude. As we approached 60 deg. of
bank and 2g, the aft force was considerable. Even with altitude and bank
angle rock steady, the airspeed needle
hardly moved. The autothrottles were
responsible for the precision, but the
fact that we had enough thrust to do
that at 40,000 ft. was impressive.
Nese suggested 10 deg. of lead would
be ample to roll out. I thought that
would not be enough but waited until
we were 10 deg. off heading and then
rolled. It was more than enough, due
to the 8X’s nimble roll response.
I tend to think of maneuverability
and stability as inversely related: The
more maneuverable an aircraft is, the
less stable it tends to be, and vice
versa. So far, the DFCS seemed to
break that rule—the 8X was both maneuverable and stable at these speeds.
We received clearance for an unrestricted descent to FL 230. With the
AVIATION WEEK & SPACE TECHNOLOGY/MAY 16-29, 2022 47
FLYING THE FALCON 8X
DASSAULT
inertial reference systems and other
computers to close the second loop.
The Bedford pattern was busy, and
we were instructed to intercept a long
final approach, giving me a chance to
better understand the “path-stable”
and “trajectory-based” flight control
system. On final, I was able to see that
positioning the FPV to establish a desired descent rate was quite easy. In
Dassault’s combined vision system
displays synthetic and enhanced
imagery on the HUD.
the aft stop. Once we reached about
90 kt., the aircraft started a gentle
descent at 400-500 ft./min. The lowest
speed I saw was 88 kt. before recovering with thrust.
Once level again, Nese negotiated
our return to Bedford with Boston
Center as I played with the pitch and
started to come to terms with the
“closed-loop” fly-by-wire system. Half
the 8X pilots I talked to said the aircraft flies like any other. But the other
half said, “Move the stick, release and
guard,” to take full advantage of the
aircraft’s “path-stable” flight control
system. It turns out both are right.
You can fly the 8X like any other aircraft. But only the “release and
guard” pilots are taking full advantage of the closed-loop FBW.
In a conventional aircraft, the pilot closes the control loop by monitoring and adjusting first attitude
and then flightpath. A conventional
FBW system does not change that
input/output flow but adds flight envelope protection.
In the Falcon 8X, the DFCS closes
the first loop by moving whatever
control surfaces are needed to
achieve the desired aircraft attitude.
The pilot moves the stick to establish
an aircraft path or trajectory, and the
DFCS does whatever it takes to
achieve and maintain that path, provided it is within the aircraft’s flight
envelope. The DFCS then monitors
the actual aircraft trajectory with its
48 AVIATION WEEK & SPACE TECHNOLOGY/MAY 16-29, 2022
DASSAULT
autopilot engaged, I pushed the nose
down to about 20 deg. below level
flight. As we approached the Mach
0.90 MMO/370 KIAS VMO (knots indicated airspeed maximum operating speed), the autothrottles pulled
back to maintain the limiting speed.
Nese said this was a function of the
automatic flight control system,
which could be removed by disengaging the autopilot.
I disengaged the autopilot and
pushed the nose farther down. The
DFCS would have none of that and
limited my pitch to prevent overspeeding the aircraft. The aircraft
remained fully controllable in all axes,
and as we neared our target altitude,
I pulled aft on the stick to reduce our
descent rate and level us at FL 230,
then released the stick. Putting the
FPV on the ZPRL results in level
flight, as it does with any aircraft with
an FPV. What sets the Falcon 8X
apart is that when you take your hand
off the stick, it stays there.
Once we were level, with autopilot
and autothrottles still disconnected,
I pulled the throttles to idle and
watched as the aircraft maintained
level flight while we configured with
landing gear down and full flaps, SF3.
Once speed decayed to below around
110 kt., a warning voice commanded
“Increase speed, increase speed,”
leading-edge slats automatically deployed, and I was able to keep us level
with added aft stick until I reached
non-Falcon terms, I moved the stick
to put the nose where I wanted it,
took my hand off the stick, and the
nose stayed where I left it.
The limiting flap speeds are tightly
spaced at 200, 190 and 180 KIAS for
SF1, SF2 and SF3. The landing gear
operating speed is also 200 KIAS.
Once at 200 kt., we quickly configured and settled on an SF3 approach
speed of 117 kt. at a gross weight of
just over 43,000 lb.
Once we intercepted the glidepath,
I placed the FPV on the touchdown
zone of the runway using the HUD
and took my hand off the stick. The
FPV just stayed there, even as the
wind changed in direction and increased in velocity as we descended.
The synthetic vision system (SVS)
showed a clear view of the terrain on
the top portion of the HUD. The bot-
AviationWeek.com/AWST
JAMES ALBRIGHT
tom depicted the view from the enhanced vision system (EVS). Unlike
other EVS installations, the Falcon
8X’s FalconEye system uses a combination of six sensors that fuse infrared
and visible light together to create a
combined vision system (CVS).
With the runway clearly in view, I
used the panel-mounted SVS Split
control to maximize the SVS display.
Three Pratt & Whitney PW307D
engines are key to the 8X’s
fuel efficiency.
The system automatically cuts out a
trapezoid for the EVS image where
the runway appears. This ensures
pilots are seeing an actual view of the
runway, not one generated by an SVS
database. Even in daylight visual conditions, the utility of the system was
clear. Adding the SVS makes this a
much better HUD solution than any
other I have seen.
I pulled the throttles to idle at
about 30 ft., and we touched down
right at the 1,000-ft. fixed distance
markers. Fully deploying the center
engine’s thrust reverser and applying
moderate pressure to the wheel
brakes brought us to taxi speed in
less than 3,000 ft.
As someone who started flying
business jets with what Nese called
“Brand G,” I came to the Falcon 8X
with preconceived notions. Can the
aircraft really be that much more efficient? What about those claims for
the trajectory-based flight control
system? And is the aircraft a step
ahead of its competitors in safety, the
most important metric?
The 8X’s maximum range number
is due in part to efficient engines. It
is also due in part to the aircraft having been designed to provide a lower
basic operating weight, which allows
for greater maximum fuel capacity.
The trade-off is a lower cruise speed.
Higher speeds do impress on
shorter distances. A G500 at Mach
0.90 will fly from New York to Frankfurt almost 30 min. faster than an 8X
at Mach 0.83. But that extra speed is
negated if a fuel stop is needed.
Dassault compares the 8X to Gulfstream’s longer-range G600, but because I am familiar with the G500, I
used that to run the numbers for a
flight from New York to Tokyo. The
8X took 13 hr. 47 min. nonstop at
Mach 0.80. The G500 needed a fuel
For its apparent size on the ramp,
the Falcon 8X has a surprisingly
large cabin.
stop in Anchorage, Alaska, for a total
flight time of 13 hr. 21 min. It is possible to fully refuel a G500 in under 36
min., but everything must go right.
And if we are measuring efficiency,
we must consider fuel burn. The
Great Circle route from New York to
Japan is almost 800 mi. shorter than
the combined routes from New York
to Anchorage to Tokyo. While the
AviationWeek.com/AWST
G500 required a total of 45,311 lb. of
fuel over both legs, the 8X used
32,300 lb.—40% less.
The Falcon’s controls are lighter
and more responsive than those of
older Gulfstreams I have flown, but I
would place the GVII series on a par
with or maybe ahead of the 8X. That
might be due to my personal preference for an active sidestick. A seasoned 8X pilot would probably prefer
its “hands-off” stick.
Is the Falcon 8X really path-stable?
Pretty much. The aircraft will maintain a flightpath to a point. Turbulence or a shift in wind direction can
disturb the targeted path, but corrections are easy to make because of the
closed-loop flight control system.
Does the 8X “close the loop” in flight
control systems? It does indeed. In a
conventional aircraft, the pilot must
constantly monitor the aircraft’s attitude and path to ensure they are as
intended. If an 8X pilot has the discipline to release the stick after moving
it, the DFCS should keep the aircraft
on the intended path.
And is the Falcon 8X a step ahead
in safety? My answer is an unequivocable “yes” for two reasons. First, the
closed-loop DFCS provides a huge
advantage to pilots who choose to use
it. Second, the FalconEye CVS provides pilots a situational awareness
tool that has no parallel. I have been
flying with conventional EVS for a
long time and can confidently say
these systems are effectively blind in
some conditions. Any HUD without
SVS is at a severe disadvantage. c
AVIATION WEEK & SPACE TECHNOLOGY/MAY 16-29, 2022 49
TECHNOLOGY
> Flying along for TriStar air launch demo p. 53
Virgin Orbit responsive space plan p. 56
Roc milestone toward hypersonic role p. 60
NEW
DIRECTIONS
> NORTHROP GRUMMAN TARGETS L-1011 HYPERSONIC TEST ROLE
> FIRST HYPERSONIC TESTS ALREADY COMPLETED
> L-1101 CAPABLE OF CAPTIVE CARRY, AIR LAUNCH AND
INTERNAL PAYLOAD CARRIAGE
Guy Norris Mojave, California
A
lmost 28 years after pioneering the use of nonmilitary air launch for commercial spacecraft with the
Pegasus rocket, Northrop Grumman’s one-of-a-kind
Lockheed L-1011 TriStar is on the verge of a new lease
on life as a platform for hypersonic tests and next-generation
space launch vehicles.
“There’s a lot in promise out there,”
says Bryan Baldwin, Northrop Grumman Space Systems program manager. “We’re looking specifically in the
hypersonics area, and there are other
uses for the L-1011. We are continuing
to look for other customers who need
the specific air launch capabilities
that we can offer.”
With the ability to carry external
payloads up to 57 ft. long and 5 ft. deep
beneath its wide belly, the L-1011’s
capacity to loft loads up to 53,000 lb.
to an altitude of 42,000 ft. at Mach
0.86 or faster is in demand as a valuable test asset for the growing needs
of hypersonic weapon and vehicle systems developers, Baldwin says.
He acknowledges, for the first time,
Northrop’s active engagement in this
new high-speed test role: “We have
started work with a customer that
we’re doing some flight tests for,”
Baldwin says. Although the classified program cannot be identified, he
adds: “We’ve been working with them
for quite some time with the L-1011.
We offer a lot in this test area, and we
are supporting some of those companies.” Since 2019, the aircraft, dubbed
the Stargazer, has been observed con-
ducting what appear to be non-Pegasus, hypersonic test-related flights
out of Edwards AFB, California.
Having launched 39 of the 45 Pegasus/Pegasus XL space missions todate—the latest being the Tactically
Responsive Launch-2 for the U.S.
Space Force last June—Northrop also
continues to pursue additional space
launch opportunities for the aircraft.
Though no Pegasus launches are in
the pipeline, the capability is still offered, says the company, which was
one of 12 selected by NASA in January to provide launch services for the
agency’s Venture-Class Acquisition
of Dedicated and Rideshare (VADR)
missions aimed at fostering the lowcost launch market.
Baldwin says Northrop is “hopeful”
of securing work for the L-1011 under
the VADR contract, which targets
delivery of a range of FAA-licensed
commercial launch services capable
of delivering payloads ranging from
cubesats to Class D missions to a
variety of orbits. These small satellites and Class D payloads tolerate
relatively high risk and serve as a
platform for technical and architecture innovation, NASA says.
50 AVIATION WEEK & SPACE TECHNOLOGY/MAY 16-29, 2022
“From a satellite launch perspective, I don’t see us going outside of a
Pegasus envelope, although I certainly
see us being able to launch other vehicles with different adapter designs,”
Baldwin says. While the L-1011 was
initially modified solely for the Pegasus, the ventral fairing and hook
attachment system have subsequently
been adapted to carry different loads.
These notably included captivecarry flight tests in 1999 of the NASA
X-34 spaceplane testbed developed
with Orbital Sciences, the Virginiabased space company originally behind the Pegasus/L-1011 launch combination. After merging in 2015 with
Alliant Techsystems to create Orbital
ATK, the enterprise was acquired in
2018 by Northrop Grumman, which
two years later rebranded the unit
Space Systems.
According to Northrop Grumman
sources, the company also is working
with the Japan Aerospace Exploration
Agency (JAXA) on studies of an adaptor design for an unspecified potential
mission and has developed a 45-in.wide framework configuration on
which the payload could be attached.
“We’re working with an international
customer to figure out what their
needs are,” Baldwin says. “We have
some flexibility to bring in different
racks to the L-1011 if they have larger
power requirements and those kinds
of things. The fairing underneath the
aircraft would change based on the
needs of a different payload.
“I’m hoping we don’t have to cut into
AviationWeek.com/AWST
NORTHROP GRUMMAN
AviationWeek.com/AWST
Reengining with more powerful RB211-524B4
turbofans has enabled higher-altitude
captive-carriage and launch operations.
MARK WAGNER/AVIATION-IMAGES
the fuselage for any other vehicles—
and we haven’t at this point—because
that’s a major rework. But it does have
that flexibility, and we could if the right
customer came along,” Baldwin says.
Installation of tail-fin-configured
launch vehicles, like the Pegasus, is
made easy thanks to the unusual parallel keelson design feature of the
L-1011. Unlike most other widebody
transport aircraft, which have a single
keel beam running the length of the
fuselage, Lockheed designed the L-1011
with two major load-bearing longerons
that run parallel along the base of the
fuselage. The feature not only provides
ample space for a “doghouse” into
which the vertical fin of the launch
vehicle fits between the structural
members, but also ample spacing for
the four main hook attachment points.
Another unusual design feature of
the baseline airliner that made conversion easier for air launch operations is
an unpressurized 14-ft.-long hydraulic
service center between the main landing gear wells. During conversion,
which followed the acquisition of the
aircraft from Air Canada in 1992, Orbital moved the hydraulics and accumulators to the bulkheads, which provided space for the tail fin doghouse.
The assembly containing the four
main hooks of the carriage and release
mechanism and a fifth forward support
attachment point is “actually designed
to carry up to 60,000 lb.,” says Ed
Dunlap, L-1011 flight operations program manager. “They built it with a
contingency to go up to 80,000 lb. but
AVIATION WEEK & SPACE TECHNOLOGY/MAY 16-29, 2022 51
TECHNOLOGY
MARK WAGNER/AVIATION-IMAGES
The flexible ventral payload attachment system has a 53,000-lb. hook capacity.
we’ve never gone any higher than what
we’ve been doing with the Pegasus XL.”
Below the aircraft—forward and aft
of the ventral fairing—is a set of payload-monitoring video cameras. The
cameras are “critical,” Dunlap says.
“One of the last things we do before
launch is activate the batteries for
the fins, and of course those batteries
only have so much energy. We activate
them to do a fin sweep to make sure
that they’re operating properly,” he
adds. A visual check of the fin sweep
is therefore a vital prelaunch check.
Forward of the wingbox in the lower hold is the nitrogen purge system
and airborne air conditioning system
(AACS). The nitrogen system is pressurized up to 5,000 psi for launch, but
the majority of the gas is normally
used to prevent moisture buildup on
the payload during delivery to the
launch location. “If we’re going to, say,
Kwajalein [a Marshall Islands atoll
used for some Pacific launches], when
we descend below 18,000 ft. you can
get condensation forming on the satellite and solar panels. At that point,
we have a control system we can use
to blow nitrogen to keep any moisture
from building up,” he says.
The purge system is then renewed
for launch with additional nitrogen
stored aboard the aircraft. It is a
highly variable configuration to suit
the needs of different payloads. “We
have different outlet locations along
that ventral fairing depending on
whether the aft skirt needs nitrogen or not,” Dunlap says. “It almost
always goes to the Pegasus avionics
pallet, the batteries for cooling as
well as to the satellite. There are also
different flow rates, and that’s why
we have special orifices for varying
rates. Some missions you need nitrogen all the time at a very slow rate—
even when we’re taxiing, as well as
for takeoff and cruise—and for other
missions there’s hardly any flow rate
at all during the flight.”
The AACS redirects air originally
designed to be ducted into the lower
galley to condition the payload. “We
pump it through here with the heater,
HEPA filters, charcoal filters and all
this suite of sensors,” Dunlap says. “We
modify it for different launches and
make sure that before we dump air into
the vehicle, it meets all of the requirements given to us by the customer in
terms of cleanliness, flow rates, particle count [and] moisture content.
“Part of the launch panel operator’s
job is to make sure that we keep everything operating within those parame-
52 AVIATION WEEK & SPACE TECHNOLOGY/MAY 16-29, 2022
ters,” he continues. “The AACS was
upgraded in 2020 to better control
and monitor the system. The upgrade
included replacing individual LED
gauges with a touch-screen panel for
control and monitoring.”
Power for a Pegasus at 110V AC/400
Hz is provided via a set of three umbilicals, which are routed separately
through a dry bay and attach to the
vehicle between the aft set of main
attachment hooks. The umbilicals
connect with breakaway connectors
that separate when the vehicle falls
away. The umbilical configuration can
be changed to suit different vehicle
requirements, Dunlap says.
Although originally sized for the
power needs of 300 or more passengers, the aircraft has ample spare
power since most of the cabin electrical system was removed along with
furnishings, Dunlap notes. Configured
with three engine-driven 90-kVA generators plus a fourth 90-kVA generator on the auxiliary power unit, the
power is taken at 125 VAC at 400 Hz
and converted to 60 Hz for some systems and 28 VDC for others. Power for
the payload is tapped off this system.
The forward lower cargo hold is
the only one fully operational with
the original cargo container drive system. “We do put containers in there
because being an L-1011, anywhere we
AviationWeek.com/AWST
Developed for the Pegasus rocket,
the Stargazer has begun initial
hypersonic system tests.
go we’re not going to get much in the
way of parts support,” Dunlap says.
The container is therefore stocked
with various line replaceable units
(LRU), tires and other spare parts.
The 18.3-ft.-wide main deck is empty
aft of what was the original first-class
cabin area, and the bulk of its 2,452-ft.2
area is available for airborne equipment. Stripping the cabin interior
removed almost 30,000 lb., reducing
empty weight from the standard
L-1011-100’s 240,000 lb. to around
226,000 lb., when modifications for the
launch role are included. Maximum
takeoff weight is 466,000 lb., enabling
mission ranges up to 3,000 nm with
most external payloads or 4,200-nmrange missions when clean.
The forward cabin contains a handful
of 1990s-era first- and economy-class
ex-Delta Air Lines TriStar seats with
the launch panel operator (LPO) station
occupying the center. Configured with
computer and video screens, the twoseat console includes the release system and the hydraulic system for payload release. “During an actual launch,
the LPO arms the system, but the pilot
actually releases the rocket. From a
safety standpoint, we want the pilot to
have ultimate control,” Dunlap says.
The left-hand LPO operator monitors
the launch vehicle while the righthand operator monitors the payload.
The flight deck, considered highly
advanced for the 1970s, is a standard
original L-1011 three-crew cockpit with
NORTHROP GRUMMAN
electromechanical analog instruments
and illuminated push-button switches
on the overhead and flight engineer
panels. Updated with the addition of
GPS and augmented with side-mounted
portable iPad navigation displays, the
only significant air-launch-related
modifications are a payload-release
button and emergency release switch
nestled between the flight management systems on the center pedestal.
Although a flight deck update of the
type partially developed by Marshall
Aerospace for the UK Royal Air Force
L-1011-500 tanker-transport fleet in
the 2000s was considered, “there
was no payback for us,” Dunlap says.
Instead, the cockpit displays and avionics, like the rest of the aircraft, are
meticulously maintained and are supported by a vast array of spares assembled specifically to keep the L-1011
flying for many years to come.
To ensure the aircraft’s future,
Gallery Fly aboard Northrop Grum man’s Stargazer, the world’s last flying
Lockheed L-1011 TriStar, with Aviation Week: AviationWeek.com/flying-last-tristar
Rocket Run Rehearsal
>
FLIGHT DEMONSTRATES THE L-1011’S COMPLEX
PRELAUNCH TEAM CHOREOGRAPHY
>
PILOT HOLDS FINAL PAYLOAD-RELEASE CONTROL
Guy Norris Mojave, California
A
viation Week was invited to join a Lockheed L-1011
TriStar training sortie, which included a demonstration of the main procedures involved in a typical
air launch. The flight began with a spirited departure from
Runway 12 at the Northrop Grumman Stargazer’s Mojave
Air and Space Port base.
Turning to the north and climbing quickly over the
Tehachapi Mountains, it was difficult to believe the acceleration and agility of the trijet—the prototype version of
which had made its first flight more than 51 years ago from
nearby Palmdale, California. Although relatively lightly
loaded for our short mission, the difference-maker was the
AviationWeek.com/AWST
Northrop Grumman also acquired a
second TriStar, an L-1011-500 formerly
operated by TAP Air Portugal that is
retained in nearby Victorville, California, for spares—including engines. “We
have massive amounts of spare parts
and five or six shipsets of LRUs, so we’re
actually in pretty good shape for another 8-10 years,” says Michael Scanlon,
L-1011 carrier aircraft program manager. “There’s only a handful of things
that are a challenge at this point. We
are looking to find vendors that will
overhaul some of the avionics.”
The very low number of flying hours
per year also helps extend the aircraft’s life. “Over the first 15 years of
its life, this aircraft put on over 46,000
hr. Over the next 30 years, it added
only 1,000 hr.,” Scanlon says. “If we
fly 100 hr. a year that would be crazy,
so we are on a low-utilization maintenance program and don’t do the traditional C and D check schedule.” c
50,000-lb.-thrust Rolls-Royce RB211-524B4 turbofans with
which the Stargazer had been reengined in 2010.
Replacing the original 42,000-lb.-thrust RB211-22Bs, the
more powerful engines have dramatically boosted performance says Ed Dunlap, L-1011 flight operations program
manager, who was also flight engineer for our demo flight.
“With the -22Bs, after takeoff it was about a 58-min. trek to
allow the airplane to get to 31,000-ft. altitude. When we put
on these engines, we went out over the ocean to test them at
heavy weights, and when we got to 31,000 ft. it didn’t stop. We
were at 900 ft. a minute all the way up to 39,000 ft.,” he says.
For the demo mission, Don Walter, chief pilot of L-1011
flight operations, devised a flightpath that approximated a
typical launch profile. For airspace and time reasons, the
route took us over California’s Central Valley toward
Bakersfield rather than into the Stargazer’s more regular
haunts in the Pacific test ranges off the coast from Vandenberg Space Force Base. As we checked in with air traffic
control, a twice-repeated question of “Say again aircraft
type?” from a perplexed controller unfamiliar with the
“L-1011” moniker prompted grins from the crew.
Our approach to the launch point was at roughly half the
AVIATION WEEK & SPACE TECHNOLOGY/MAY 16-29, 2022 53
TECHNOLOGY
MARK WAGNER/AVIATION-IMAGES PHOTOS
Its ventral fairing barely visible under the forward
fuselage, Northrop Grumman’s Stargazer performed
a low fly-past before departing Mojave.
speed and one-third the altitude of a standard mission. Walter’s navigation waypoints were therefore spaced out to replicate the final 12 min. of the sequence in terms of time rather
than distance and brought us to the initial point (IP) after
approaching downwind from the south and reversing course
for the launch. “I’m given the point for launch by the guidance, navigation and control [GNC] team, and my inbound
course is the direction the rocket wants to go,” Walter said.
With Walter juggling the throttles, Takoushian prepared
to hit the payload-release button.
54 AVIATION WEEK & SPACE TECHNOLOGY/MAY 16-29, 2022
With all the familiarity of a carefully choreographed and
much-rehearsed procedure, the crew entered the simulated pattern with Allan Takoushian, L-1011 captain in the
right seat, coordinating with the launch conductor. Passing
the IP, Takoushian called out “L-7” (launch minus 7 min.)
to the launch conductor, using positioning information
from an iPad that displayed the calculated time to the
launch point—and entry into a “launch box”—based on
airspeed, winds, drift and other factors.
A typical box could measure 10 X 40 mi., Walter said,
and provides a small margin for launch delay in the event
of a last-minute detection of a potential orbital conflict
with a crewed or active spacecraft. “We’re doing 8 mi. a
minute, so we can go for 4 min. and the launch director
can delay the launch—usually by 30 sec. or so—within
that period,” he said.
Working with the launch panel operator (LPO), launch
operations verified that the range was “green” and good
to go, heaters were turned off, and the switch for holding
the fin pins was placed in the disengage position. The aft
belly camera was then switched on in readiness to monitor
the fin sweep test, as Takoushian reported “L-5” on his
GPS/inertial navigation system (INS). A final poll for the
launch countdown followed, where the launch vehicle
team, the range, LPO and launch manager all declared the
launch was ready for go.
At L-4, the terminal count began and the launch conductor verified that the launch window was go. The launch
team transitioned the rocket from transient to internal
power and verified the correct currents and voltages.
Takoushian called out L-3 and verified the INS as ready
for flight, while the ground and LPO checked to make sure
they also saw the INS ready on their consoles.
At the L-2 mark, the LPO verified he was prepared for
the fin sweep test, while Takoushian nudged the L-1011 to
acquire the launch heading. Shortly after L-1, the LPO
activated the fin batteries. “To me, that’s the most crucial
part in the last 45 sec. before drop, where you have to ignite
the thermal batteries and sweep the fins, because there’s
no going back after that,” Takoushian said.
The pins for the starboard, port and rudder fins were
retracted in that sequence by the LPO, followed by the fin
sweep for each control surface. The LPO then verifi ed
AviationWeek.com/AWST
with the control team that movement was
as expected.
“That’s the time it gets real heart-pounding,”
commented Bryan Baldwin, Northrop Grumman Space Systems program manager, who
played the LPO role for the demo. “If you don’t
get a good sweep, you can try a couple of times
to make sure, but then you’re done and you
have to abort and come home,” he added.
Following confirmation of a good sweep
and verification from the GNC lead in the
control room that heading and ground speed
were both nominal, the autopilot was
switched off and the technical team said it
was “go” for launch. The launch conductor
verified approval for launch and checked with
Takoushian that he was also ready and had
heard that communication.
Despite this being a demonstration, the The left seat of the LPO station, aft of the flight deck, monitors the
atmosphere on the flight deck was tense as launch vehicle while the operator in the right seat (unoccupied for
the launch conductor said, “Drop on my the demo) monitors the payload.
mark . . . three, two, one . . . drop!” Takoushian
we were pushed into our seats with positive G as the L-1011
punched the release button, and he and Walter pulled back
briefly climbed at more than 4,000 ft./min.
on the control columns to simulate the sudden pitch up
After a real launch, the crew would gently bank the aircaused by the release of a 52,000-lb. weight.
craft away and observe the rocket climbing on heading
“There’s a fairly loud clunk and a negative G maneuver
before returning to land, but for our demonstration we
because the airplane is going up so fast,” Walter said. For
leveled off and flew back to land on Mojave’s Runway 30. c
our flight, however, the pullback had the opposite effect, and
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AVIATION WEEK & SPACE TECHNOLOGY/MAY 16-29, 2022 55
TECHNOLOGY
Virgin Orbit Plan Targets Responsive
Space Capability
>
>
SIX LAUNCHES ARE SCHEDULED FOR 2022
UPGRADED LAUNCHERONE IS IN WORKS
Guy Norris Mojave, California
W
ith three successful launches
in the past 17 months, Virgin
Orbit is gearing up for a ma­
jor expansion phase through the re­
mainder of this year as it simultane­
ously starts international missions,
creates a new consolidated opera­
tions and engineering hub and intro­
duces a more powerful Launcher­
One rocket.
“It’s a very busy year for us with
this first international launch from
the UK. That’s going to be a major
milestone,” says Dan Hart, CEO of
Virgin Orbit, referencing the planned
inaugural orbital launch mission from
Spaceport Cornwall this summer.
Supported by $10 million in fund­
ing from the UK Space Agency, the
launch forms part of an expanding
mission backlog that grew from $86
million at the end of 2020 to $575 mil­
lion at the end of 2021.
Although only $152 million of this
funding came in the form of binding
agreements, the growth trend is unde­
niable, Hart says. He adds that the or­
derbook equates to at least 45 launches,
with more expected to be firmed up
soon. The company’s optimism is based
on the growing confidence of U.S. and
international defense and commercial
businesses in the robustness and flex­
ibility of Virgin Orbit’s Cosmic Girl air
launch system based on a Boeing 747­
400, particularly since the January
2022 mission, Hart says.
“We flew to an orbital inclination of
45 deg. that was previously impossi­
ble from California,” Hart says. “We
flew through 10,000 ft. of turbulent
clouds, which would have grounded
any other ground­launched rocket.
But we did what a 747 has done for
50 years—take off, climb through the
clouds, get above them and do our
work. So the system has capabilities
that nobody else has, and that’s why
we’re in a different position when it
comes to competition in the small­
satellite launch market.”
Amid rising international tensions
and renewed U.S. Defense Depart­
ment investment in tactical respon­
sive space, Hart says a growing area
of focus is “on some key differentiated
areas.” These include providing sov­
ereign launch capabilities to some
nations as well as supporting “hyper­
sonics, missile defense, national secu­
rity and high­level NASA and [De­
fense Department] payloads.”
To this end, Virgin Orbit in late
April changed the name of its U.S.­
incorporated subsidiary Vox Space to
Virgin Orbit National Systems and
continues working to obtain Mission
Assurance Category II flight airwor­
thiness certification to enable launch
of high­value U.S. government pay­
loads. Commenting in March at the
company’s first earnings call since
going public at the end of 2021, Hart
said Virgin Orbit also concluded a
study for the Missile Defense Agency
that underlined the utility of its sys­
tem for missile defense targets and
other uses. He also added: “We are
seeing increased momentum for the
use of the system in support of hyper­
sonic research and development.”
“We can scramble much quick­
er,” Virgin Orbit founder Richard
Branson told Aviation Week on the
sidelines of the Space Symposium in
April. “If, God forbid, there’s conflict
56 AVIATION WEEK & SPACE TECHNOLOGY/MAY 16-29, 2022
The 747’s ability to launch after
passing through weather proved the
system’s resilience in January, Virgin
Orbit says.
somewhere in the world and, even
more God forbid, if the enemy puts
the satellites above that conflict area
out of use, then in future years we
will be one of the few entities capable
of putting those satellites right back
into position.”
“We’re looking keenly at how we
improve our responsive space pos­
ture,” Tony Gingiss, Virgin Orbit’s
chief operating officer, says. “You’re
talking about getting down to you
24­hr. call­up, when customers can
say, ‘We want you to go tomorrow.’
That capability is not available today,
but it’s not years away either.”
The process is now underway,
Gingiss says. “With each mission,
we’re looking at opportunities [to de­
termine how to] deliver a rocket ready
to go, mate it to the payload and mate
it to Cosmic Girl so it’s just ready to
take off,” he adds. “With each one,
we’re already starting to demonstrate
this. On the next flight, we’re going to
decouple some of the rocket prepara­
tions from Cosmic Girl, so the time for
mating and preflight operations will be
decreased significantly.”
The Cornish launch, dubbed the UK
Tribute Mission, is part of the respon­
sive buildup, Gingiss says. “When we
go to Cornwall, we’re also demonstrat­
ing the ability to ship everything to a
remote site. We are talking about the
shipment of responsive launches
where we can have a rocket ready to
go and a payload ready to come in
AviationWeek.com/AWST
VIRGIN ORBIT
AviationWeek.com/AWST
Transportable Ground Operations
System will manage the fuel and
liquid- oxygen propellants. “We’re
working with them on building an
additional subset of our GSE that will
be utilized in the UK,” he adds.
GSE development is a critical element of the ground operations leading
up to the launch sequence, says
Deenah Sanchez, Virgin Orbit launch
engineer. “I’d say 90% of it is loading
the rocket with commodities at the
right pressures and temperatures, so
the GSE has to be built reliably and be
able to function very well in all conditions,” she says. “It’s got to be flexible
enough to produce those temperatures and pressures based off the ambient conditions. Mojave can be really
cold, really hot or windy, and you have
to take all those things into account
before you load the vehicle.”
cantly shorter than the one before,”
Sanchez says. “Within the last two
campaigns, especially the launch operations team has worked really closely with the engineering teams in the
factory to minimize those checkouts.
Not only are we minimizing them and
only utilizing the most critical ones,
but we’re also automating a lot of our
procedures or combining them. You
start to realize that a lot of the checkouts can be combined into one and
also that we could move around operations in general to be more efficient.”
Rocket 6 will launch Flight 5—the
U.S. Space Force’s STP-28A mission—
from Mojave at the end of June. Pending a successful launch, Flight 6 is
expected to be the first international
mission out of the UK, to be followed
by Flight 7—also potentially out of the
UK—around two months later.
MARK WAGNER/AVIATION-IMAGES
either from a customer or already
encapsulated.
“We will have a payload processing
facility over there and do some of the
same things that we do here in Southern California in Cornwall so that we
can start to get to a model where a
customer can ship their payloads to
whatever spaceport we’re launching
from,” he adds.
To help streamline operations,
testing and engine work, Virgin Orbit
is also centralizing many of its disparate high-desert facilities into a single
site in a refurbished hangar on the
flight line at Mojave, California.
Hangar 61, dating back to World War
II, is being extensively updated to
form a central hub for engine test and
launch control operations, engine rework and the production of nextgeneration ground support equipment (GSE). The site will also provide
a center for customer facilities.
“It’s kind of an interim step,”
Gingiss says. “We don’t see this as our
final place by any means, but it allows
us to take what today is a few little
dots around Mojave and a big test site
and bring it all together and have a
hub here.” The company’s Long Beach,
California, headquarters and manufacturing site will remain unaffected.
Co-locating teams will have knockon benefits, says Tyler Grinnell, vice
president of Virgin Orbit flight and
launch services. “We’re getting the
operators working together under one
roof so that as we’re upgrading and
testing engines, we bring those lessons learned over to the flight and
launch side of the house, as well as
having that integrated launch flow occurring out of Long Beach.”
Another key element of the responsive launch effort involves the development of transportable GSE. Designated GSE 2.0, the equipment effectively
replaces the broad array of groundbased trailers, tanks, plumbing lines,
air conditioning and integration units
that support the fueling, defueling and
“care and feeding” of the LauncherOne
and its payload. “We added a lot of the
lessons learned in its development and
included some built-in redundancy,”
Gingiss says, adding that the 2.0 set is
fully transportable.
Grinnell says some work on the portable GSE is being undertaken in partnership with the UK division of Spanish-based space system supplier AVS
under a contract awarded in 2021. The
The baseline pylon will also accommodate the upgraded LauncherOne.
Launch preparations have also been
streamlined and shortened after an
initial test campaign called R2D2
(Rocket 2 drills and demonstration)
was developed to ensure both air and
rocket teams were practiced at working safely together as a unit. The success of the buildup process was proved
for the first launch attempt in May
2020, despite the loss of the vehicle
itself after launch. Scaled-back versions of the R2D2 template were used
for Rocket 3’s successful deployment
on Flight 2 in January 2021 and followon missions.
“Each campaign has been signifi-
Rocket 9, due to be flown on Flight 8
scheduled for later this year, will be the
inaugural mission for an upgraded version of the liquid-oxygen/RP-1-fueled
LauncherOne. The new rocket, dubbed
LauncherOne 1.1, will incorporate an
extended, more powerful NewtonThree (N3) first stage and a modified
NewtonFour (N4) second stage.
Compared with the existing
73,500-lb.-vacuum-thrust, pump-fed
N3, the upgraded version is expected
to generate around an additional 25%
thrust, while the revised N4 will feature a redesigned structure, highercapacity tanks and improved avionics.
AVIATION WEEK & SPACE TECHNOLOGY/MAY 16-29, 2022 57
TECHNOLOGY
VIRGIN ORBIT
The crew commands LauncherOne
release from a glare-shield-mounted
launch release control system.
“They’re the sort of logical improvements you’d do if you’re doing an upgrade to the vehicle,” Gingiss says. He
notes that the “1.1” is designed to offer
increased payload capability over the
current “block one” standard LauncherOne that is designed to loft a
baseline of 300 kg (660 lb.) to orbit.
Virgin does not expect any handling
issues for the 747 with the larger vehicle, which will be several feet longer
and heavier than the baseline 70-ft.long, 57,000-lb. vehicle.
Virgin Orbit has also continued its
search for sister ships to Cosmic Girl
as it plans for expanded future operations, and unlike Cosmic Girl—an
ex-Virgin Atlantic former 747-400 passenger model—has focued on newbuild or converted freighter variants.
“Our next plane will be a cargo configuration because with Cosmic Girl,
we can’t put a rocket inside,” Gingiss
says. “The true place where we want to
be is to be able to take all the GSE, the
rocket and the payload all inside the
plane. Then you go to wherever you’re
going to unpack it.” The company is
reviewing the options of nose-loading
and side-loading freighter versions, as
well as cargo conversions.
On May 10, Hart revealed Virgin
plans to acquire two 747s through conversion specialist L3Harris Technologies. The first aircraft is expected to
join Cosmic Girl in 2023 while delivery
of the second aircraft will be driven by
market requirements. c
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TECHNOLOGY
The 8,000-lb. pylon and
attachment for Talon-A flew on
the Roc for the first time on May 4.
Pylon Flight Tests Mark
Roc Milestone Toward Hypersonic Role
>
MATING WITH TALON TO FOLLOW PYLON TESTS
>
YAW AUGMENTATION SYSTEM TO AID CONTROL
STRATOLAUNCH
S
Guy Norris Mojave, California
MARK WAGNER/AVIATION-IMAGES
tratolaunch’s Roc, the world’s largest heavylift air
launch aircraft, is accelerating toward initial hypersonic test operations after starting flight trials of
the payload pylon for carrying and launching the in-house
developed Talon-A flying testbed.
Repurposed from its original goal of air-launching
medium-class space launch vehicles, the 385-ft.-wingspan
carrier aircraft is now aimed squarely at a widely perceived gap in U.S. high-speed test capability. Powered by
year and enter service as an evaluation asset for government and industry in 2023.
“Let’s test early and let’s test often,” says Zachary Krevor,
Stratolaunch CEO and president. “We really see that the
U.S. government is opening the aperture to nontraditional
companies such as ours to bring forward those hardwarebased solutions to get that testing done. As long as we continue to see those budget increases as currently forecast,
we really see us being able to play a strong role in accelerating American capability in hypersonics.”
Stratolaunch’s role with Roc will be to “contribute
and help everyone get to that operational deployment of those systems by doing the necessary flight
testing,” he adds. System integration is underway
First full cycling of the 28-wheel gear and associated
34 doors was completed in February.
six engines, the Roc’s immense lifting capability is
designed to provide hypersonic developers with routine
access to what the company describes as a virtual wind
tunnel in the sky.
While Roc’s gargantuan proportions inevitably steal the
headlines, the focus within Stratolaunch is progressively
shifting with each test flight toward the ultimate aim of
the program—deployment of the rocket-powered, reusable Talon-A test vehicle. Designed to carry customized
test payloads at speeds above Mach 5, the sharply swept,
autonomous testbed is expected to make its first flight this
60 AVIATION WEEK & SPACE TECHNOLOGY/MAY 16-29, 2022
on the first two hypersonic test vehicles, the expendable vehicles TA-0 and TA-1, while fabrication has
also started on TA-2, the first fully reusable hypersonic test vehicle.
But while the first Talon vehicles take shape inside
the company’s expansive facility here, the immediate
priority rests on completing flight tests for the Roc’s
air launching role. Although initial progress was
slow, with two years separating the aircraft’s first
and second flights in April 2019 and April 2021, the sortie
rate in 2022 continues to accelerate.
“We’ve learned a lot on each flight,” says Daniel Millman,
Stratolaunch’s chief technology officer. “Some things we
haven’t needed to change and others we’ve made minor
modifications to, but overall we’re seeing an exponential
decrease in the time between sorties. Two years between
the first two, nine months between two and three and just
over a month of turnaround for the fourth.”
The third and fourth flights, in January and February of
this year, focused on further envelope expansion as well as
AviationWeek.com/AWST
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weight, [in vehicles or fuel,] is not going to really make it
flinch. Even at the 1.3-million-lb. mark, that is considering
that you’d have 45,000 gal. of fuel on there, which you don’t
necessarily need for upcoming missions either.”
Despite the ample lift generated by the Roc’s large highaspect-ratio wing, the aircraft’s maximum operational altitude will ultimately be determined by the top-of-climb
performance of its Pratt & Whitney PW4056 engines.
“These will probably top out somewhere around 43,000 ft.,”
Millman says, adding that the most likely altitudes for operational missions will be in the high 30,000-ft. ranges.
“To be clear, we don’t need to get to those higher altitudes
to be successful for the Talon-A missions,” Krevor says. The
testbed vehicle will be powered by a single liquid-fuel, staged
MARK WAGNER/AVIATION-IMAGES
gear retraction tests. The third flight, lasting 4 hr. 23 min.,
evaluated the aircraft’s performance and handling characteristics at altitudes up to 23,500 ft. and airspeeds up
to 180 kt. Only the left mid-main gear, including door operations and alternate gear extension, was tested on this
mission to reduce overall risk.
The gear tests included several retraction and extension
cycles at nominal altitudes as well as after cold soaking
the gear at higher altitudes above 20,000 ft. Tests also
evaluated gear cycling during maneuvers with varying yaw
and beta angles. Operating well below its designed maximum takeoff weight, the test flight was performed at an
MTOW of 750,000 lb., of which 200,000 lb. was fuel.
All six main and two nose legs were cycled for the first
time on the Feb. 24 flight, which lasted 1 hr. 42 min. and
saw the Roc climb to 15,000 ft. On the ground, Stratolaunch can only cycle all the gear on one side at a time
because the hydraulic power availAutopilot and yaw
able in the hangar is insufficient
augmentation
with the aircraft on jacks and the
engines not running. Tests of a yaw
systems were
augmentation system originally
tested on Flight 5.
slated for Flight 4 began on Flight 5
on May 4. The system is designed to counteract the slabsided aircraft’s susceptibility to Dutch roll and adverse
yaw during turns.
The fifth flight, which was the longest to date at almost
5 hr., focused on handling qualities with the large underwing pylon and adapter that will be used to carry and
launch the Talon-A. Attached to the underside of the
95-ft.-wide center wing section midway between the Roc’s
twin fuselages, the 14-ft.-wide pylon is specifically designed
for the sole carriage of the Talon.
However, other types of pylons capable of supporting
multiple launch vehicles and flight experiments are also in
the pipeline, says Brandon Wood, senior director of programs at Stratolaunch. In the meantime, he adds: “We’ve
got a relatively short window to do the noncaptive envelope
expansion work for Roc with the pylon attached, and then
we will pull the TA-0 vehicle over [into the hangar] later
this year and start the integration operation.”
Flight tests with the pylon will target “the envelope
expansion that’s required to get it into the altitude and
airspeed to release a Talon,” Millman says. “Once that’s
done, then we can start the captive-carry flights of the
TA-0 vehicle, release that and then get into tests of TA-1.
So this airplane is going very rapidly from full development
and flight test to operational capability.”
Flight tests with the pylon therefore mark a turning
point for the program. “We’re not interested in expanding
the altitude without the pylon on,” Millman says. “You’ll
find in the air launch business that altitude is more important than airspeed. So folks will want us to get higher, and
we’ll continue to do that expansion.” The 28-ft.-long Talon
has a wingspan of 11.3 ft. and is configured with a single
vertical tailfin. Launch weight will be around 6,000 lb.
Even with the weight and drag of the pylon—and ultimately the Talon-A—Millman has no concerns about
meeting the required performance with the Roc, which is
designed for a 1.3-million-lb. maximum takeoff weight. “The
payload design intent was 500,000 lb., so with the pylon and
the Talon vehicle, right now the aircraft probably doesn’t
even really notice that,” Millman says. “Even adding on more
combustion 5,000-lb.-thrust Hadley engine developed by
Colorado-based startup Ursa Major, which will propel the
Talon to higher altitudes at speeds above Mach 5.
Beyond the initial pylon flight test on Flight 5, Stratolaunch aims to focus on continuing envelope expansion for
Flights 6 and 7. These will clear the way for separation
testing in late summer with TA-0. “It has 3 sec. of glory to
cleanly separate from the carrier vehicle,” Wood says. “It
won’t have energetic propellants, so we can separate it
with reduced risk to Roc.”
As Stratolaunch continues to push toward a higher
flight-test tempo and ultimately a target of multiple operational missions per month, Wood notes how the Roc has
benefited from relatively problem-free operation during
test flights to date. “For a very large airplane, the number
of squawks that we had after those flight tests was shockingly low,” Wood says. “All the systems worked. There were
little things, but in terms of major lessons learned between
flights, they’re actually pretty minor.”
Part of the answer is the Boeing 747-400 heritage
embedded in the Roc, says Dale Stix, Stratolaunch’s director of aircraft and manufacturing. The aircraft’s engines,
like much of the systems, cockpit and landing gear, are
from a pair of ex-United Airlines 747-400s that were cannibalized for the carrier project. “Unlike other programs
I’ve been on, where everything’s a one-off design, in this
vehicle the engines, the landing gear, the fuel valves, the
hydraulic systems—not the tubing—but the actual components, they’re so well known,” Stix says. “We have the
benefit of so many years of experience coming off the 747.
You don’t wonder every time you hit the switch if it’s going
to work or not.” c
AVIATION WEEK & SPACE TECHNOLOGY/MAY 16-29, 2022 61
TECH
TAKE
By Graham Warwick
For the latest, go to AVIATIONWEEK.COM
EasyJet Joins With
GKN on LH2
GKN AEROSPACE
EasyJet is continuing to support efforts
to develop technology for zero-emission
commercial aircraft. In its latest move,
the low-cost carrier is working with
GKN Aerospace on two projects to develop hydrogen propulsion systems.
emission Islander is planned to be production-ready by 2025.
The GKN-led H2Gear is a five-year,
£54 million ($68 million) program supported by £27 million in UK government
funding through the Aerospace Technology Institute. The project is developing a 1-2-megawatt cryogenic hydrogenelectric propulsion system sized for a
19-seat subregional airliner that could
enter service by 2026 but would be scalable to larger aircraft.
H2Jet is a two-year Swedish national
project to validate component and subsystem technologies for hydrogen combustion in turboprop or turbofan engines
powering medium-range single-aisle
aircraft for potential entry into service
on intra-European routes in 2035.
Air Methods EMS
Goes FBW With
Skyryse
The UK’s GKN-led H2Gear project is
developing hybrid hydrogen-electric
propulsion for subregional aircraft.
SKYRYSE
Skyryse will certificate its FlightOS
system first on the Robinson R66,
which it is using as a flight testbed.
62 AVIATION WEEK & SPACE TECHNOLOGY/MAY 16-29, 2022
Airbus Tests Folding‑
Wing X‑Plane in
Wind Tunnel
Airbus has completed wind tunnel tests
of its eXtra Performance Wing demonstrator, which is planned to fly in the
mid-2020s to validate inflight folding
wingtips and other technologies to improve the aerodynamics of wings on
future commercial aircraft.
AIRBUS
EasyJet is collaborating with GKN on
its UK government-backed H2Gear project to develop a liquid-hydrogen (LH2)
fuel-cell propulsion system for regional
aircraft as well as its Swedish government-backed H2Jet project to enable
hydrogen combustion in turbine engines
powering medium-range aircraft. Part
of EasyJet’s support will include exploring options for flight demonstration.
In 2017, EasyJet partnered with U.S.
startup Wright Electric on development
of a 180-seat short-haul electric aircraft,
and in 2019 the carrier began working
with Airbus on its plans to field an
LH2-powered zero-emission airliner by
2035. In each case, EasyJet is providing
expertise rather than funding.
Wright started testing a 2-megawatt
electric motor early this year and is
planning to modify a 100-seat BAe 146
to electric propulsion. The aircraft is
planned to fly with one electric engine
in 2023 and all four in 2025; the goal is
to enter service by 2026.
In January, EasyJet added its support to Cranfield Aerospace Solutions’
Project Fresson to convert the nine-seat
Britten-Norman Islander to hydrogenfuel-cell propulsion. A demonstrator is
scheduled to fly in 2023, and the zero-
U.S. air medical transport company Air
Methods has partnered with startup
Skyryse to retrofit more than 400 helicopters and fixed-wing aircraft with
full-authority fly-by-wire (FBW) flight
controls to improve safety.
Air Methods has also invested $5 million in Los Angeles-based Skyryse’s
$205 million Series B funding round,
taking the total raised so far to more
than $250 million. Skyryse is developing
the FlightOS hardware and software
system to replace mechanical flight controls with a simpler and safer interface.
Air Methods plans to retrofit FlightOS
across a diverse fleet of light singleturbine helicopters, including the Airbus AS350 and EC130 and Bell 407,
and fixed-wing aircraft such as the
Pilatus PC-12. Air Methods’ goal is to
reduce operational complexity by making its flight decks more intuitive and
standardized.
The multiplex-redundant FlightOS
is designed to provide flight envelope
protection and reduce pilot workload
by managing emergencies, including
engine failures and autorotation, Skyryse says.
Skyryse is working to obtain an FAA
supplemental type certificate (STC) for
FlightOS on the Robinson R66 light
turbine single as a first step. The company will then move on the subsequent
platforms but is not announcing a
planned date for certification of the
first Air Methods aircraft.
Skyryse will hold the STCs for the
retrofits, and Air Methods will perform
the modifications to its fleet. The
startup says it is working closely with
Air Methods and the FAA to develop
the pilot-training programs for the
modified aircraft.
A model of the Cessna Citation VII
with a folding-tip, long-span wing was
tested in an Airbus UK wind tunnel.
The scaled demonstrator will be a
Cessna Citation VII business jet converted to remote control and fitted
with an increased-span, semi-aeroelastic hinged wing, gust sensors, pop-up
spoilers and multifunction trailing
edges to enable active control of the
wing. Partly 3D-printed, the scaled
model of the modified Citation VII was
tested in Airbus UK’s low-speed wind
tunnel in Filton, England.
Launched in September 2021, the
eXtra Performance Wing project is led
by the Airbus UpNext demonstrator
AviationWeek.com/AWST
unit and is a follow-on to tests of the
AlbatrossOne, a 1/14th-scale model of
an Airbus A321 fitted with an increasedspan wing to reduce cruise drag.
The AlbatrossOne tested the semiaeroelastic hinge, which is locked for
takeoff and landing but can be unlocked
in flight to flap freely in response to
gusts, providing load alleviation. The
hinge can also fold up on the ground,
allowing for a longer, more slender
high-aspect-ratio wing.
GE AVIATION
BAE Systems will provide energy management components, including the
battery and cabling, for the megawattclass hybrid-electric propulsion system
being developed by GE Aviation under
the NASA Electrified Powertrain Flight
Demonstration (EPFD) project.
Regent Seaglider
Tested Near Tampa
New Zealand’s Ocean Flyer, a new company formed by the owner of small
charter operator Air Napier, has placed
firm deposits with U.S. startup Regent
for 25 sea-skimming electric seagliders
for harbor-to-harbor overwater regional transportation.
The Ocean Flyer purchase order covers 15 12-passenger Viceroy wing-inground-effect vehicles and 15 larger
Monarchs, which will carry up to 100
passengers. Boston-based Regent announced the deal on April 20 at the CoMotion Miami conference, where it also
unveiled its quarter-scale demonstrator.
The 18-ft.-wingspan uncrewed demonstrator is being tested in waters off
Tampa, Florida, to validate the Regent
seaglider’s “float-foil-fly” mode of operation. The vehicle will maneuver at low
speed in harbor on its hull, rise onto its
foil to accelerate out of the harbor and
then become wingborne to cruise 30 ft.
above the water, using ground effect to
reduce energy consumption.
GE Aviation, Boeing-Aurora and now
BAE Systems will convert a Saab 340
into a hybrid-electric testbed.
BAE will develop the components at
its Endicott, New York, facility and will
also provide the controls for the demonstrator’s power management system.
The propulsion system will be tested on
a Saab 340B powered by modified GE
CT7-9B turboprops and could pave the
way for integrated hybrid-electric engines on future single-aisle aircraft.
The addition of BAE to the program
follows GE Aviation’s announcement in
February that it had teamed with Boeing
and its subsidiary Aurora Flight Sciences to modify the regional aircraft into
a flying hybrid-electric testbed for the
EPFD project. The agreement, which
followed GE’s $179 million EPFD NASA
contract win in September 2021, targets
ground and flight tests in the mid-2020s.
NASA also awarded a $74.3 million
EPFD contract to electric propulsion
developer MagniX for a 500-kW system.
The agency hopes the demonstrations
AviationWeek.com/AWST
REGENT
The quarter-scale demonstrator of
Regent’s float-foil-fly seaglider is being
tested in waters off Tampa, Florida.
A team of software, controls, mechanical and test engineers are working
in Tampa. “On testing days, we are testing for 14-16 hr., or sunrise to sunset,”
Regent says. “We’re foiling at 35 kt. and
are working to fully characterize the
hydrofoiling mode before progressing
to flight in the coming months.”
The Ocean Flyer agreement is valued
at $427 million, and Regent said it now
has firm deposits on orders for a total
of 334 vehicles valued at $6 billion. Customers include U.S. regional carriers
Mesa Airlines and Southern Airways
Express, a European ferry operator, and
an undisclosed shipping magnate.
France Advances
Hydrogen Tank
Manufacturing
A three-year project to develop manufacturing technologies for liquid-hydrogen tanks in commercial aircraft is
attracting aerospace players in France.
AIRBUS
BAE To Support
GE’s Hybrid-Electric
Demonstrator
will prove electrification can achieve
mission energy savings of about 4% for
a Part 25 commercial aircraft and 10%
for a Part 23 regional aircraft.
—Guy Norris in Colorado Springs
France’s Nomade project targets
the development of manufacturing
technology for aircraft LH2 tanks.
With €5 million ($5.4 million) in funding, the IRT Jules Verne research and
technology (R&T) institute in Nantes
is coordinating a team that includes
Airbus, steel supplier Aperam and the
CEA energy research center, as well as
aerostructures and aircraft manufacturer Daher.
The Nomade project also involves automotive equipment specialist Faurecia,
additive manufacturing expert Fives,
airship startup Flying Whales, R&T
institute IRT Saint Exupery, the LHEEA
hydrodynamics and energetics research
laboratory in Nantes, warship manufacturer Naval Group, and Rafaut, a supplier of military equipment such as external tanks for fighter aircraft.
The project centers on creating manufacturing methods suitable for an industrial environment. This includes
developing an automated laying process
for insulation materials and an assembly process for metallic tank walls that
ensures airtightness. Nondestructive
procedures will be conceived for inspecting the insulation before and after
the double wall has been closed.
Nomade includes thermodynamic
modeling of the tank, development of
more efficient insulation materials—
especially targeting weight—and optimizing the insulation’s architecture.
The project is a follow-on to the IDHYL
feasibility study in 2021. c
—Thierry Dubois in Lyon
AVIATION WEEK & SPACE TECHNOLOGY/MAY 16-29, 2022 63
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May 16-29, 2022
VOL. 184, NO. 10 (ISSN 0005-2175)
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VIEWPOINT
The End of Air Assault?
By Sash Tusa
W
ars teach many lessons. Most are harsh, many are missile attack on ground targets, is increasingly being asforgotten after previous conflicts, and some are sumed by armed UAVs. That these are less operationally
plain false. Among the latter, the U.S. and its allies flexible and still vulnerable is arguably far less important
returned from Iraq and Afghanistan with unrealistic (or to than hard economics. The price per UAV can be as little as
be more generous, nontransferable) ideas about air opera- 1/20th that of a new-build Boeing AH-64 Apache, and a UAV
tions. They took air dominance as a given, with air support has an even smaller logistics footprint.
The other challenge is the need for greater protection of
(whether fighter jets or attack helicopters) on call 24/7 and
an ability to maneuver sometimes large formations of heli- crewed air assets deployed at low altitudes over a fragcopters at will over large expanses and wholly unmolested mented battlefield. Cockpit armor directly subtracts from
payload, and directed-energy countermeasures demand
until the last minute of the landing phase or takeoff.
electrical power and storage from
The Ukraine war is turning such
airframes that have little to spare.
cozy assumptions on their heads. The
Attack and assault helicopter deupper airspace over Ukraine clearly
signs will have to become physically
belongs largely to Russian triple-digit
larger and hence more expensive.
(S200/300/400) surface-to-air missiles
Interestingly, the U.S. Air Force
(SAM). No close air support aircraft
has been the first to acknowledge
can loiter there. And U.S. and European
this new scenario with its curtaildeliveries of very short-range man-porment of the Sikorsky HH-60W Jolly
table air defense missiles (Manpads)
Green II combat search-and-rescue
have turned the airspace below 3,000 ft.
helicopter program due to the heliinto a no-go zone for Russian aircopter’s lack of survivability over
craft and helicopters.
current battlefields.
These unpleasant reminders of
Western defense budgets—even in
the realities of high-intensity warfare
Germany, whose proposed €100 bilagainst near-peer adversaries are in
lion ($105 billion) equipment plus-up
turn undermining the case for furequates to nearly twice its annual
ther investment in and maintenance
pre-war defense spending—are likely
of Western air assault capabilities,
to remain under pressure, given the
whether fixed- or rotary-wing.
costs of reversing the downsizing and
Russia started the war with apparhollowing out of conventional forces
ently strong air assault capabilities.
over the last three decades. We see
Such desant operations have been a
investment priorities focusing on
core element of Russian (and previUkrainian servicemen unloaded
core areas of air defense, UAVs, arously Soviet) doctrine since the Cold
FIM-92 Stinger Manpads provided
mor and indirect fire. Air assault opWar. But the failure of the Hostomel
by the U.S. in February.
erations are likely to be relegated by
Airport operation (one that all too
both the U.S. and European nations
closely resembled U.S., UK and
French air assault doctrines and practice) should have been a to niche roles in out-of-area operations, sealing off penetrashock to many observers. The Ukrainians reinforced more tions in defense.
Boeing, therefore, probably will retain its dominance
quickly, denying the Russians the all-important but oft-overlooked rapid- and follow-on air/land phases. Artillery and over this shrinking market. The AH-64E is the clear choice
Manpads made sorties by a mix of Ilyushin Il-76 transports for attack helicopters this decade. But of the two new U.S.
vertical-lift programs, the justification for the Future Atand attack and assault helicopters too dangerous.
Since those early days of the war, the air defenses of both tack Reconnaissance Aircraft looks especially weak, and
sides have had a clear deterrent effect on helicopter opera- the market size for the Future Long-Range Assault Airtions. This has had the greatest impact on Russia, which craft will most likely shrink.
The two European manufacturers, Airbus and Leonardo,
expected attack helicopters to roam far and wide in support
of its armored thrusts. Ukraine’s operations therefore look have achieved civil helicopter leadership despite the comlike a valuable template for future wars: Armies have become mercial failure of their attack helicopter product lines (the
smaller, and their deployments are both dispersed and frag- Tiger and A-129 Mangusta, respectively). They would be
mented—there is no “front line” any more. But the battle- ill-advised to throw good money after bad to maintain a
field also has become more technologically dense, especially presence in a segment that is in such flux. c
with sensors and missile systems. Absent air superiority, it
is an especially harsh environment for helicopters and Check 6 Sash Tusa and Aviation Week editors discuss the
sweeping airborne maneuvers.
future of air assault: AviationWeek.com/Check6
The case for future investment in attack and armed reconnaissance helicopters was weakening before the inva- Aerospace and defense analyst Sash Tusa is a partner at
sion of Ukraine. A major part of their role, surveillance and Agency Partners. He is based in London.
“U.S. AND EUROPEAN AIR
ASSAULT OPERATIONS ARE
LIKELY TO BE RELEGATED
TO NICHE ROLES.”
SERGEI SUPINSKY/AFP/GETTY IMAGES
66 AVIATION WEEK & SPACE TECHNOLOGY/MAY 16-29, 2022
AviationWeek.com/AWST
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