16-22 April 2019 I flightglobal.

com

Production

Cloudy outlook
Max grounding forces 737 rate reduction, as
Boeing counts cost of narrowbody’s troubles

ISSN 0 0 1 5 - 3 7 1 0
£3.90 Electric dream Splashing out
1 6
How Collins investment will Polish navy makes waves with
charge hybrid propulsion 15 AW101 helicopter selection 16
9 770015 371310
ALPHA
B R AV O
COLLINS
D E LTA
ECHO
FOXTROT
GOLF
HOTEL
INDIA
We are Collins Aerospace. With our customers
we chart new journeys and reunite families.
We protect nations and save lives. We fuse
intelligence and partnership to tackle the
toughest challenges in our industry. And every
day, we imagine ways to make the skies and
spaces we touch smarter, safer and more
amazing than ever.

UTC Aerospace Systems and Rockwell Collins

are now Collins Aerospace.

TOGETHER, WE ARE
R E D E F I N I N G A E R O S PA C E

collinsaerospace.com
© 2019 Collins Aerospace, a United Technologies company. All rights reserved.
 Aerospace
Big Data Series
flightglobal.com/bigdata

Key benefits of attending

How big data is Learn from the industry’s big data pioneers
Discuss how predictive maintenance is being scaled
revolutionizing across different fleet types
Expand your professional network
predictive Keep up to date with key disrupters and emerging
trends
How to unlock real value from data and build your
maintenance prognostics model
Airline case studies

To attend, visit: flightglobal.com/bigdata or contact Hannah Abdi +44 (0)2079 111 993
To sponsor, contact Rebecca Covey T: +44 (0)2079 111 490 E: rebecca.covey@flightglobal.com
To speak, contact Warka Ghirmai T: +44 (0)2079 111 813 E: warka.ghirmai@flightglobal.com

February figures reveal slump
in air freight market P12
BEHIND THE HEADLINES
Virgin Atlantic gave Lewis
Harper a sneak peek of its
interior for the A350-1000
at London Gatwick (P13).
And Greg Waldron gave
the Rotorcraft Asia show
in Singapore a spin (P21)
US Army
next week digital
In our digital-only issue, we
report from the US Army’s
annual aviation gathering.
Plus, ultra-long-range travel
REgulars
7 Comment
35 Straight & Level
36 Letters
38 Classified
40 Jobs
43 Working Week
Download the new
theCommercial Engines Directory
Download The Engine Directory.
Download 2018 Commercial Engines Report
ow with enhanced
now dataenhanced
with updated and in-depth market
data and
in-depth market analysis
flightglobal.com/ComEngDirectory
flightglobal.com/commengines
flightglobal.com/commengines13
CFM 2017 strip ad.indd 1
flightglobal.com
contents
volume 195 number 5682
16-22 April 2019
CargoLogicAir
news Cover story
9 Rate cut hints at
16-22 April 2019 I flightglobal.com
more Max disruption ProductIon
this week cloudy outlook
With monthly
Max grounding forces 737 rate reduction, as
8 Questions persist after Ethiopian loss
Boeing counts cost of narrowbody’s troubles
production reduced by
10 JetBlue unwraps Mint on London route 19% amid grounding of
11 Max woes dent first-quarter deliveries global fleet, significant
impact on operators is
air transport inevitable
AirTeamImages
12 Global cargo slump raises alarm at IATA.
Avianca fleet rejig trims smallest Neo’s backlog 9
ISSN 0 0 1 5 - 3 7 1 0
£3.90
770015 371310
1 6
Electric dream
How Collins investment will
charge hybrid propulsion 15
Splashing out
Polish navy makes waves with
AW101 helicopter selection 16
13 Virgin heralds A350 as powering return to profit. FIN_160419_301.indd 1 11/04/2019 10:02
Widebodies confirmed for Uganda
features
14 Global reach ups air traffic surveillance.
Air Italy counts costs of ongoing Max disruption
15 Collins investment gets electrification plan 25 Drone affairs
While the military continues eagerly to explore
onto The Grid
novel ways of exploiting UAV technology, civil
defence aviation’s love-hate relationship with remotely
16 Poland splashes out on AW101. piloted aircraft is developing cautiously
MD Helicopters protest gets Swift GAO rebuttal
17 US Army targets Black Hawk successor
19 F-35 fleet has 80% capability target in its sights.
Updated Jayhawk trainer takes wing
Rotorcraft Asia show report
21 S-92B makes a positive first impression.
Subaru spins up interest for 412EPX
business aviation
22 Stratos readies 716 for Oshkosh show.
Terrafugia founders quit as firm makes Transition
Airbus
23 Metal Master celebrates first sorties of LAR 1.
Sensor deal lets Honeywell land in air taxi market Cargo-carrying UAV delivers goods for Airbus P30
analysis
30/10/2018 10:12
16-22 April 2019 | Flight International | 5
19/07/2012 17:51
contents

Image of
the week
Taken during February, this
image shows a formidable
combination of firepower
flying over Hawaii. A trio of
A-10 ground-attack aircraft
from the US Air Force’s
Whiteman AFB flank an
MV-22B Osprey tiltrotor of
the US Marine Corps during
a joint combat search and
rescue exercise

View more great aviation

shots online and in our
weekly tablet edition:

US Marine Corps
flightglobal.com/
flight-international

The week in numbers Question of the week

100%
Last week, we asked: Turkish involvement in F-35?
You said:

Cirium Dashboard
Total votes: 1,723
Larnaca-based Cyprus Airways will double the size of its fleet
next year – by taking delivery of two additional Airbus A319s

£1m Gatwick airport

Investment by London Gatwick airport in sensors, website, app

72% 28%
Ankara facing ejection
1,238 votes

Will rejoin formation

485 votes
and phone line so local residents can monitor aircraft noise

100k
Commercial missions flown by DroneBase; FLIR Systems has
FLIR Systems
This week, we ask: Restoring confidence in 737 Max?
❑ Boeing will get it right ❑ No quick fix ❑ Too far gone
made “strategic investment” in unmanned vehicle operator Vote at flightglobal.com

Cirium’s premium news and data service delivers breaking air transport stories with profiles, schedules, and
fleet, financial and traffic information flightglobal.com/dashboard

Download the Military

Simulator Census online now.
CAE – Your worldwide training partner of choice www.flightglobal.com/milisim

6 | Flight International | 16-22 April 2019 flightglobal.com


Uncomfortable reading
Crisis management
An exit strategy around the ongoing grounding of Boeing’s 737 Max after
last month’s Ethiopian Airlines tragedy is uncertain, but the communications
challenge facing Boeing and the wider industry is very much crystal clear
T he Boeing 737 Max grounding is an
evolving and multi-faceted story. This
makes it extremely hard to predict how it
will be resolved, and the extent to which
Boeing, its customers and the global supply
chain will be affected.
The short-term outlook is certainly
­difficult, and there is a crisis-management
challenge for the public relations teams from
Boeing and the airlines, the like of which is
­unprecedented in modern times.
Not only does it seem to be open season to
take pot shots at Boeing, but the spotlight has
also swung onto the reputation of the USA’s
certification authority. Both will also need to
rebuild faith in their safety cultures.
The Max suspension is unlike any other
high-profile grounding in modern times –
and of course faces the glare of intense social-­
media scrutiny. It is difficult to judge how
much reputational damage was suffered by
the McDonnell Douglas DC-10, grounded
following the 1979 crash of an American
­ stood to the satisfaction of the most qualified
­Airlines aircraft after an engine pylon failed.
Any impact the grounding has on the 737
Max orderbook – both current and future –
will be determined by Boeing’s response to
the investigations, both in words and deeds.
The smart money says order will prevail and
that sooner, rather than later, the 737 Max
will be flying again, allowing the delicate
­Airbus/Boeing single-aisle ecosystem to be
restored. Given that the industry had – prior
to the grounding – expected to induct more
flightglobal.com
Southwest Airlines
than 1,300 single-aisles in 2019, alternative
scenarios would make for worrisome
­reading.
A 1979 Flight International opinion piece
around the DC-10 grounding stated the simple
decision-making process needed to return
the aircraft to flight.
The Max suspension is unlike
any of the other groundings –
and takes place in the glare of
intense social-media scrutiny
Paraphrasing that article, which was titled
“inspecting the inspectors”, it could equally
apply to the 737 Max situation: “The deci-
sion rests on affirmative answers to two ques-
tions: is the cause of the accidents under-
experts? And do all proposed new proce-
dures satisfy the same experts?”
The article went on to say that the DC-10’s
engine mountings would “surely be the safest
flying” after the scrutiny of the investigation.
The same of course must be true of 737 Max
systems and training once the required
changes are implemented.
But that is probably the easier challenge. A
harder one will be convincing the world. ■
See Cover Story P9
comment
Just LAWS?
A re they lethal autonomous weapons
systems, with the tidy acronym
“LAWS” – or killer robots? Either way,
politicians, soldiers, society and the aero-
space industry that serves them must
grapple with the question: how far should
we go in marrying artificial intelligence
(AI) and unmanned air systems – or, to
use their more emotive name, drones?
The fact is, LAWS already exist. As
noted in our feature on loitering muni-
tions, Israel Aerospace Industries’ lethal
Harop can be set to autonomously detect
and destroy anti-aircraft batteries, after
hunting down their radar emissions.
Air-defence systems, such as the USA’s
Raytheon-produced Patriot, also have an
autonomous capability.
In a defensive role, such autonomous
systems – guided by carefully written
rules of engagement – may be welcome.
But AI and electronics are so advanced
that deploying killer autonomous systems
in less clear-cut circumstances – say, to
enforce a curfew – may be only a matter of
choice. There are already legitimate
­worries about drone killings, commanded
by distant “operators” attempting to fol-
low rules of engagement while observing
a scene indirectly through sensors. Kill-or-
no decisions are being made without the
benefit of the sensory immersion available
to a ­ soldier or pilot. The notion that
­algorithms and AI can be perfected to de-
stroy only legitimate targets is delusional.
For sure, human control brings with it
the risk of collateral damage. But if robots
run amok, “justice” may be just a shrug of
the shoulders and adjustment of a few
lines of software.
It is, in short, time to decide how far
drones will take us. Otherwise, in the mil-
itary sphere the momentum of expedience
and operational capability may take us
there automatically. ■
See Feature P32
Alexander Becher/EPA-EFE/REX/Shutterstock
Lead, follow or get out of the way
16-22 April 2019 | Flight International | 7
This week

briefing
hawkeye advances with multi-year buy
surveillance Northrop Grumman has been awarded a
$3.2 billion, multi-year procurement contract by the US Navy to

Max Kingsley-Jones/FlightGlobal
produce 24 E-2D Advanced Hawkeye airborne early warning
and control system aircraft. The service will save $411 million, or
11%, via the five-year commitment, compared with approving
buys on an annual basis. It awarded a first multi-year contract
for the E-2D in 2014, covering 26 of the surveillance type.
Manual trim system would be difficult to move with elevator loaded
russia unifies mc-21, superjet roles
management United Aircraft (UAC) has appointed Ravil insight

Questions persist
Khakimov as a single president to oversee its Irkut MC-21 and
Sukhoi Civil Aircraft (SCAC) Superjet 100 programmes. Current
SCAC chief executive Alexander Rubtsov will become vice-

after Ethiopian loss

president, sales and marketing for UAC’s integrated civil aviation
division, also promoting the Russian group’s modernised Ilyushin
Il-114 twin-turboprop and the CRAIC CR929 widebody, being
developed jointly with China’s Comac.
Initial report into crash of 737 Max provided some answers,
australia picks falcon 7x for vvip role but our test pilot mulls over consequence of crew actions
selection The Royal Australian Air Force is to lease three
Dassault Falcon 7X business jets from an undisclosed party for
use as VVIP transports, with the trijets to replace a trio of
Bombardier Challenger 604s that have been in use since 2003.
A preliminary report into the
Ethiopian Airlines Boeing
737 Max 8 accident of 10 March
input, an AND [aircraft nose-
down] automatic trim command
occurred and the stabiliser moved
The Australian Department of Defence says the new assets has resolved some of the mystery in the AND direction from 2.3 to
“will have reduced operating costs, larger passenger load, behind flight ET302’s loss, but 1.0 unit in approximately 5s.”
and increased range and endurance”. The aircraft will enter also raised new questions. This was the stabiliser move-
service this year. FlightGlobal test pilot Michael ment that placed the 737-8 into its
Gerzanics – who flies the type for fatal dive, but why was it com-
iceland air plans all-economy flights a major operator – provides his manded? MCAS could not have
configuration Icelandair is to introduce aircraft next year thoughts on the initial findings: trimmed the stabiliser if the trim
with an all-economy layout, offering higher capacity on routes Firstly, the 737 Max family’s cut-out switches were still in cut-
such as Alicante and Tenerife. The carrier has not detailed the Maneuvering Characteristics Aug- out. Had they been repositioned to
aircraft types or configurations involved with its new strategy. mentation System (MCAS) is not a “normal” by a crew member, al-
“stall-prevention” or “safety” fea- lowing MCAS to re-engage? If so,
japan probes first f-35a loss ture. It is present to augment han- the action was not announced.
accident Investigators are probing the crash of a Japan Air dling in certain parts of the flight Notably, the 737’s manual trim
Self-Defence Force Lockheed Martin F-35A during a training envelope. Boeing certificated the system is purely mechanical, and
sortie flown from its Misawa air base – the first loss involving the re-engined twinjet with the fea- manual rotation of the stabiliser
conventional take-off and landing model. The accident took ture, which I understand was not trim wheel at high speed would
place just days after Tokyo had on 29 March declared initial needed for compliance, but to be very difficult with the elevator
­operational capability with the new type. make the re-engined model fly loaded up. It might even be neces-
more like its earlier 737NG. sary to relax the back pressure on
korean air chief cho dies at 70 After reviewing the Ethiopian the yoke – or even push it forward
leadership Cho Yang-ho, the chief executive of Seoul-based report, several issues arise. – in order to rotate the trim wheel.
carrier Korean Air since 1999, has died at the age of 70. His final The left stick-shaker activated The report also states: “The left
months in charge of the SkyTeam carrier involved controversy, after take-off. It seems the crew re- overspeed warning activated and
with shareholders blocking a proposal to retain his seat on the alised the warning was false, but was active intermittently until
board, following an indictment for tax evasion. the noise and column vibration no the end of the recording.”
doubt created a distraction. Proper response to an over-
flightglobal boosts editorial team The master caution “anti-ice” speed would be to retard the
appointments As FlightGlobal builds the strength and depth and overhead panel “L alpha thrust levers and adjust pitch at-
of its editorial operation, Graham Dunn has been promoted to vane” was called out twice. In ret- titude. The crew was trying to
the role of executive editor, while Niall O’Keeffe takes over as rospect, this provides an indica- raise the nose, yet thrust re-
Dashboard editor. New online content manager Amber Elias tion of the faulty angle-of-attack mained at 94% N1. Retarding the
will work with Dunn to innovate and expand our activities. In our vane – but at the time it would thrust levers and extending the
Asia-Pacific bureau, Ellis Taylor has been promoted to deputy have been a further distraction. speed brakes would have slowed
Asia editor. He is joined by Singapore-based Alfred Chua, who The report states that “At the aircraft, and may have al-
is covering the region’s fast-expanding aerospace sector. 05:43:20, approximately 5s after lowed the descent to be arrested
the last manual electric trim by the elevator alone. ■

8 | Flight International | 16-22 April 2019 flightglobal.com


output JON HEMMERDINGER boston & DAVID KAMINSKI-MORROW london
Rate cut hints at more Max disruption
With monthly production reduced by 19% amid grounding of global fleet, significant impact on operators is inevitable
B oeing will cut monthly pro-
duction of its 737 by almost
one-fifth – from 52 to 42 units –
amid the ongoing grounding of its
Max series, while chief executive
Dennis Muilenburg has an-
nounced that an internal commit-
tee will review how the company
designs and builds aircraft.
The 19% reduction to the 737’s
final assembly rate, effective from
mid-April, was confirmed almost
one month into a worldwide Max
grounding introduced following
the crash of Ethiopian Airlines
flight ET302 on 10 March.
“I’ve asked the Boeing board of
directors to establish a committee
to review our company-wide poli-
cies and processes for the design
and development of the airplanes
we build,” Muilenburg said on 5
April. “The committee will con-
firm the effectiveness of our poli-
cies and processes for assuring the
highest level of safety on the 737
Max programme, as well as our
other programmes, and recom-
mend improvements to our poli-
cies and procedures,” he adds.
“As we continue to work
through these steps, we’re adjust-
ing the 737 production system
temporarily to accommodate the
pause in Max deliveries, allowing
us to prioritise additional re-
sources to focus on software cer-
tification and returning the Max
to flight,” Muilenburg says.
Boeing is currently working to
complete and certificate a fix to
the aircraft’s Maneuvering Char-
acteristics Augmentation System,
Carrier involved in 10 March loss is among 50 operators affected
flightglobal.com
JetBlue unwraps
Mint on London
route
This Week P10
Southwest Airlines had
received 34 examples
Southwest Airlines
and is also creating updated pilot better prepare for and support
training practices for the re-en- 737 production.”
gined narrowbody. Prior to the Ethiopian crash
“We are co-ordinating closely and 13 March global grounding
with our customers as we work action, Boeing had been on a path
through plans to mitigate the im- towards raising monthly output
pact of this adjustment. We will of the 737 family to 57 aircraft.
also work directly with our sup- As the disruption persists, fi-
pliers on their production plans to nancial institutions are warning
minimise disruption and financial of a potentially extended period
impact,” Muilenburg adds. The of instability for the programme.
rate change will not affect Boe- JP Morgan analysts believe
ing’s employment levels. that the Max could remain out of
action until September, noting:
stored shipsets “Boeing’s 737 production cut
Spirit AeroSystems confirms it ­reflects rising uncertainty about
will not be cutting its production the length of the grounding.
rate for the 737’s fuselage, and Prospects for a quick end to the
“will maintain” its 52-unit out- grounding faded throughout last
put, storing accumulated shipsets week,” the company added, fol-
at its facilities in Wichita, Kansas. lowing Muilenburg’s rate reduc-
Chief executive Tom Gentile tion announcement.
says the situation is “challeng- Canadian financial services
ing” for Spirit, but adds: “This company Canaccord Genuity
staggered production approach says the production rate fall “re-
allows us and our supply base to flects greater regulatory uncer-
tainty and pressure around the
timing of the grounding, and po-
tentially more complexity associ-
ated with the software fix”, refer-
ring to scrutiny from the US
Federal Aviation Administration
during the process.
Canaccord analysts estimate
that the issue will cost Boeing
STR/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock
around $1.2 billion monthly,
including lost revenue and
­ (21%) and Air Italy (20%). ■
­potential compensation paid to
carriers unable to operate the
­ Harper in London and Edward
type as expected.
16-22 April 2019 | Flight International | 9
cover story
“We’re adjusting the
737 production
system to prioritise
software certification”
Dennis Muilenburg
Chief executive, Boeing
JP Morgan estimates lost reve-
nue and costs associated with
maintaining reduced production
without delivering aircraft could
hit $1.5 billion monthly, while
investment bank Cowen says a
three-month grounding could
have a $5 billion impact.
Meanwhile, the grounding is
impacting numerous carriers.
American Airlines has re-
moved the Max from its schedules
through 5 June. The Fort Worth,
Texas-based carrier has cancelled
roughly 90 flights per day that
were scheduled to be flown using
its 24-strong fleet of 737-8s.
capacity gap
Cirium’s Fleets Analyzer shows
that the new model’s sudden ab-
sence has left around 50 carriers
with a capacity gap, as many head
into their peak summer seasons.
Data shows at least 10 of these air-
lines were wet-leasing previous-
generation 737s or Airbus A320-
family aircraft as of early April.
The global Max fleet totalled
368 aircraft on 9 March. South-
west Airlines was the lead opera-
tor with 34, followed by Air Cana-
da, American and China Southern
Airlines – all with 24 each.
In terms of the carriers with the
greatest reliance on the Max,
Fleets Analyzer shows that Cay-
man Airlines’ two examples were
providing 46% of its total seats on
9 March. Others with the greatest
apparent exposure were Smart-
wings (24%), Mauritania Airlines
(23%), SpiceJet (22%), Flydubai
Additional reporting by Lewis
Russell in Washington DC
This week

OPERATIONS ghim-lay yeo washington dc

JetBlue unwraps Mint on London route

Carrier swaps orders to A321LR for transatlantic flights from 2021, based on performance of premium cabin product

N ew York-based JetBlue Air-

ways will convert 13 aircraft
in its Airbus A321neo orderbook
to the A321LR, and launch its
first transatlantic flights to Lon-
don in 2021.
The carrier, which announced
the plans to its employees on 10
April, will configure its long-range
twinjets with a larger Mint premi-
um cabin than its current offering
on Mint-configured A321s operat-
ing US transcontinental routes
and some Caribbean flights.
JetBlue will offer service to
London from both New York
John F Kennedy and Boston air-

ports. It says it is in the midst of
negotiations with “multiple” air-
port operators in the UK capital,
and has not yet decided on flight
frequencies.
“We are confident we have a
path into multiple London air-
ports,” JetBlue chief commercial
officer Marty St George tells
FlightGlobal.
The airline will shortly begin
the process to achieve extended
twin-engine operations certifica-
tion with the US Federal Aviation
Administration; a process that
could take 12 to 18 months.
TIPPING POINT
While JetBlue has pondered the
launch of transatlantic service for
years – the airline has described
London as its largest unserved
market from the US northeast –
St George says the performance of
its premium cabin prompted it to
commit to the move.
“It’s really been driven a lot by
our success with Mint,” St
George says. JetBlue, which
launched Mint in 2014, has con-
Current assets operate with 16 lie-flat seats, but longer-range model offers airline greater flexibility
tinuously touted the product’s
success in pushing premium
fares down and growing margins
on its US transcontinental routes.
“We are very confident
we can penetrate our
small share of that
premium market when
the time comes”
Marty St George
Chief commercial officer, JetBlue Airways
JetBlue now hopes to replicate
that success on transatlantic ser-
vice. While economy-class fares
on such routes are “pretty low
most of the year”, St George sees
an opportunity to offer a differen-
tiated product for premium trav-
ellers that will start at a lower
price point than rivals.
“This is made and broken on
premium service,” he says. “With
the incredible success we’ve had
with Mint, we are very confident
we can penetrate our small share
of that premium market when the
time comes.”
ADDED room
JetBlue currently configures its
Mint A321s with 16 premium
seats that recline into a lie-flat po-
sition. Four of the seats are “mini
suites”, with closing doors. St
George declines to specify how
many more Mint seats the airline
will have on its A321LRs, but
says the Airbus Cabin Flex ver-
sion gives it more flexibility in of-
fering a larger premium cabin.
The variation offers up to four
over-wing exit doors, and elimi-
nates a pair of doors immediately
ahead of the wing.
“When you lose that second
door right in front of the wing, you
AirTeamImages
are able to have flexibility for [the]
cabin size,” St George says, calling
this an “incredible advantage”.
JetBlue also is developing a
“reimagined” version of Mint for
transatlantic service, but St
George declines to divulge more
details. He will not comment on
how much lower transatlantic
fares could be compared to its
competitors, but notes: “When
we started flying Boston to San
Francisco, premium fares were
$2,400 and we basically cut those
fares in half. Transatlantic is more
expensive for other reasons, but
it’s not three or four times as ex-
pensive,” he says.
JetBlue revealed the option to
convert part of its A321neo orders
to the LR model in July 2016. The
airline now has orders for 13 of the
long-range type and 72 A321neos,
with Cirium’s Fleets Analyzer
showing it is due to receive the first
example next month. ■

Look out for FlightGlobal's

commemorative print supplement, AT
touching down 28 May

10 | Flight International | 16-22 April 2019 flightglobal.com

 Global cargo slump
This week
raises alarm at IATA
Air Transport P12

leadership NIALL O’KEEFFE london

Korea Aerospace Industries

New chief executive set
to re-energise Embraer
E mbraer has nominated Fran-
cisco Gomes Neto to succeed
Paulo Cesar de Souza e Silva as
its president and chief executive.
The election will take place
when the company’s board con-
programme venes following a shareholders’
meeting on 22 April, it says.
Seoul’s LAH powers towards debut Board chairman Alexandre
Korea Aerospace Industries (KAI) has conducted the first Silva credits Gomes Neto – cur-
­engine ground test for its developmental light attack helicopter rently the president of Brazilian
(LAH) in Sacheon, with a first flight likely to occur before mid- bus and coach manufacturer Mar-
year. The Airbus Helicopters H155-derived type – powered by copolo – with “vast international
a pair of Safran Helicopter Engines Arriel 2L2s – will replace the experience”. Noting his “focus on
South Korean army’s Bell AH-1J/S and MD Helicopters MD500 industrial sector management”, he
rotorcraft. KAI is aiming to complete development by November describes the appointee as having
2022, with the armed type expected to enter service the next “the right profile to lead Embraer
year. An Arriel 2C2-equipped light civilian helicopter variant is through this period of transforma-
also scheduled for delivery starting in 2021. tion of the company and the glob-
al aerospace sector”.
Embraer says its departing chief
executive will serve as a senior ad-
viser to the board during a transi-
tion period, and “throughout the
segregation of assets and resources
of the commercial aviation busi-
ness, until the completion of the
partnership with Boeing”.
Boeing and Embraer plan to
finalise their joint venture by
­
year-end. This will be led by John
Slattery, currently chief execu-
tive of the Brazilian company’s
commercial aviation division.
Under their proposed align-
ment, the two airframers will
also establish another joint
­venture to promote and further
­develop Embraer’s KC-390 tacti-
cal transport/tanker. ■

results JON HEMMERDINGER boston & DAVID KAMINSKI-MORROW london

Max woes dent first-quarter deliveries

Boeing records 19% fall in shipments through March due to grounding of 737 variant, while Airbus reports modest hike

A irbus and Boeing delivered a

combined 311 commercial
aircraft during the first three
months of 2019, with the latter’s
total having been eroded as a re-
sult of the ongoing grounding af-
fecting its 737 Max family.
Boeing’s shipment of 149 air-
craft during the first quarter rep-
resented a 19% year-on-year slip
from 184 during the same period
one year earlier, the company re-
vealed on 8 April.
The reduction can be almost
entirely attributed to the inter-
ruption of Max deliveries: ship-
ments of 737s fell from 132 in
January through March 2018 to
89 units this year. Boeing has not
specified the mix of first-quarter
shipments between the Max and
its earlier-generation 737NG
model, but Cirium’s Fleets Ana-
lyzer shows that airlines received
29 NGs during the period.
2018 to 61 this year, with Boeing
having handed over 36 787s, 12
767s, 11 777s and two 747s.
However, Airbus’s net orders
for the three-month period re-
mained at a 58-aircraft deficit,
Tom Enders was credited by
Ranque with creating value “for
our shareholders, and the devel-
Commercial-sector orders re- due to 120 cancellations. opment of our company to the
ceived in the same period to- Meanwhile, Guillaume Faury’s benefit of all” since becoming
talled 72 aircraft, according to appointment as Airbus chief ex- chief executive in 2012.
Boeing’s data. ecutive was confirmed at the com- Faury says he is looking for-
Airbus deliveries in the year to pany’s annual general meeting on ward to “shaping the Airbus of to-
31 March totalled 162 units, in- 10 April, while board member morrow, to better serve our cus-
cluding 74 handed over during Rene Obermann – managing di- tomers, increase competitiveness
March. Shipments comprised 126 rector of private equity house and grow in a sustainable way”. ■
A320-family jets, 22 A350s, eight Warburg – was chosen to succeed Additional reporting by
A220s, five A330s and a single chairman Denis Ranque in 2020. Michael Gubisch
A380. The total marked a small
rise from the 121 aircraft handed
over in the first quarter of 2018.
Order activity at Airbus in
March picked up following a
slow start to the year. An uniden-
tified customer committed to
acquiring 20 A320neos, while
­
Lufthansa’s agreement for 20
A350s and Taiwanese carrier
Starlux Airlines’ order for 17
A350s – plus a deal for a single
Boeing

Widebody deliveries climbed private A350 – took gross orders

from 52 in the opening quarter of for the first quarter to 62. Widebody business included a Bamboo Airways order for 787-9s

flightglobal.com 16-22 April 2019 | Flight International | 11

AIR TRANSPORT

logistics LEWIS HARPER LONDON

Global cargo slump raises alarm at IATA

Protectionist measures blamed for weakened demand, as body reports worst performance by sector in three years

T he global air freight market

recorded its worst perfor-
mance in three years during Feb-
Slowing trade with China was a
key reason behind a 0.7% decline
in FTK at North American airlines
ruary, amid what IATA describes in February, IATA suggests, while
as “damage being done from pro- pointing to a previously unbroken
tectionist measures”. period of growth stretching back
The Asia-Pacific region, which to mid-2016. Capacity rose by
accounts for the largest share of 7.1% in the same month.
the air freight market, experi- Reduced trade flows to and
enced the biggest decline, but from North America were also
was joined by North America for cited as Middle East region carri-
the first time since mid-2016 in ers recorded a 1.6% decline in
suffering a reverse. demand in February, while their

“Cargo is in the doldrums, with
smaller volumes being shipped
over the last four months than a
year ago,” says IATA director gen-
eral Alexandre de Juniac. “And
with orderbooks weakening, con-
sumer confidence deteriorating
and trade tensions hanging over
the industry, it is difficult to see an
early turnaround.”
Global demand measured in
freight tonne kilometres (FTK)
was down 4.7% year-on-year in
February – the fourth consecu-
tive month of negative move-
ment. Capacity measured in
European capacity climbed, but shipments slipped during February
available tonne kilometres (ATK)
rose by 2.7%, making it the 12th
month in a row where it out-
stripped demand.
“The industry is adapting to
new markets for e-commerce and
special cargo shipments,” de Ju-
niac says. “But the bigger chal-
lenge is trade is slowing. Govern-
ments need to realise the damage
being done by protectionist meas-
ures. Nobody wins a trade war.
CargoLogicAir
We all do better when borders are
open to people and to trade.”
In year-on-year terms, the
Asia-Pacific region experienced
an 11.6% drop in FTK. IATA
blames this on “weaker manu-
facturing conditions for export-
ers, ongoing trade tensions and a
slowing of the Chinese econo-
my”. It was alone among the re-
gions in recording a 3.7% fall in
freight capacity.
ATK increased by 3.1%.
Trade uncertainties regarding
the UK’s pending departure from
the EU and weakened demand in
Germany saw FTK fall by 1% year-
on-year in Europe, as capacity rose
4%. In Africa, the FTK figure was
down by 8.5%, while capacity was
up 6.8% year-on-year.
IATA notes that Latin America
was the only region to experience
a rise in demand during Febru-
ary, as “key markets performed
strongly”. However, the 2.8%
climb came with an ATK growth
of 14.1%. ■

orders DAVID KAMINSKI-MORROW lONDON

Airbus

Avianca fleet rejig trims

smallest Neo’s backlog
C olombian operator Avianca
has removed all 20 A319neos
from its order commitment, as
part of a rejig to its fleet plan. The
carrier had been the largest identi-
Delivery
fied customer for the smallest
member of the re-engined family.
First A321LR opens new TAP routes Avianca had 137 A320neo-fami-
TAP Air Portugal has received its first of 12 Airbus A321LRs. The ly aircraft on order, of which nine
CFM International Leap-1A-powered narrowbody equipped had been delivered by the end of
with a 171-seat cabin, comprising 16 full-flat business-, 48 “Eco March, but Airbus’s latest backlog
Premium” and 107 economy-class seats. The type will initially data shows that this figure has
be operated on TAP’s Lisbon-Tel Aviv route, but chief executive been cut to 120; in line with the air-
Antonoaldo Neves describes the long-range single-aisle as line’s recent disclosure that it was
being “critical” for the airline’s expansion plans. “With its superior cancelling orders for 17 aircraft.
range, we can comfortably explore markets in North America, Although Avianca is cutting all
South America and Africa from Portugal, and it will fit in seam- 20 of its A319neos, only eight of
lessly with our A330neos,” he says. these are listed as having being
cancelled. Instead, the airline
will now receive a total of 92
A320neos: a reduction from 100,
and 28 A321neos; a rise of 11
units. It had previously indicated
that it was looking to convert
some of its A319neos, after deter-
mining that the model was too
small to meet passenger demand.
With the reduction, Airbus’s
overall backlog for the A319neo
stands at just 35, of which 30 are
listed against unidentified buyers.
Air Cote d’Ivoire will receive two,
while the final three have been al-
located to business customers.
Separately, Spanish budget car-
rier Vueling has converted part of
its earlier orders for the A320neo
to now include six A321neos. ■

12 | Flight International | 16-22 April 2019 flightglobal.com


fleet LEWIS HARPER london gatwick
Virgin heralds A350 addition
as powering return to profit
Chief executive expects much from twinjet’s mid-year arrival and other business initiatives
V irgin Atlantic will deploy its
first Airbus A350-1000 to
New York John F Kennedy from
London Heathrow after receiving
the aircraft – named Red Velvet –
in “late summer”.
The airline confirmed the
route choice during an 8 April
launch event staged at London
Gatwick airport, where it un-
veiled a new Upper Class suite as
part of a complete revamp of its
cabin on the incoming aircraft.
The lie-flat, direct-aisle-access
seat – essentially the carrier’s busi-
ness-class offering – is manufac-
tured by Safran and arranged in a
1-2-1 configuration. The -1000
cabin also includes a new social
space named “The Loft”, which
replaces the bar featured in
­Virgin’s current fleet. The area in-
cludes seating and a large screen
with Bluetooth connectivity.
A new premium economy seat
made by Collins Aerospace and
an economy-class seat from Reca-
ro were also unveiled. These will
feature on Virgin’s A350-1000s
only, as the carrier has no plans to
retrofit the rest of its aircraft.
commitment DAVID KAMINSKI-MORROW LONDON
Widebodies confirmed for Uganda
U ganda Airlines has firmed its
order for a pair of Airbus
A330-800s, becoming the second
airline to hold orders for the wide-
flightglobal.com
Global reach ups air
traffic surveillance
Air Transport P14
First four examples will be accepted this year, with new-look cabin
Virgin is due to take four A350-
1000s this year, and a further
eight by the end of 2021.
Meanwhile, the airline has
cited sterling weakness, econom-
ic uncertainty and continuing
shortages of Rolls-Royce Trent
1000 engines for the Boeing 787
after remaining in the red last
year. Its £12.8 million ($16.7 mil-
lion) operating loss in 2018 was,
however, an improvement from
the £32 million deficit recorded
the previous year.
Revenue rose by 5.8% to
£2.78 billion, including a 13%
rise in cargo revenue, to £222
million, and passenger numbers
body’s smaller Neo variant. The
African airline disclosed its provi-
sional commitment during the
Farnborough air show last July.
African airline is second
customer for -800 variant
Airbus
Airbus
rose 4.8%, to 5.4 million. The
carrier argues its results put it
“in a strong position to realise its
plan to revive growth and return
to profitability”.
Chief executive Shai Weiss
highlights “several transformative
projects” Virgin is undertaking
this year, including its $13 billion
transatlantic joint venture with
Air France-KLM and Delta Air
Lines, the A350-1000’s introduc-
tion, new route launches and the
acquisition of Flybe, which he
says will “secure the future of Eu-
rope’s largest regional airline”. ■
Additional reporting by
Niall O’Keeffe
Airbus says the carrier has
c­ onverted the agreement to a firm
order for the Rolls-Royce Trent
7000-powered aircraft. It says the
airline will use the type to “build
its medium- and long-haul net-
work”. The operator previously
indicated that it would configure
the -800s with 20 business-class,
28 premium-economy and 213
economy-class seats.
Kuwait Airways is the only
other customer for the A330-800,
with an order for eight. Airbus is
continuing certification testing of
the model. ■
16-22 April 2019 | Flight International | 13
AIR TRANSPORT
manufacturing
MICHAEL GUBISCH london
GKN to shutter
its UK window
production site
U K aerostructures manufactur-
er GKN Aerospace will shut
down its Birmingham aircraft
window production facility in
2021. The decision was disclosed
a year after GKN was acquired by
turnaround specialist Melrose In-
dustries in a hostile takeover bid.
GKN says it conducted a “thor-
ough assessment” of the site’s
“visible” orderbook, capabilities
and cost base, and came to the
conclusion that the facility “re-
grettably… does not have a long-
term, sustainable future”.
With a staff of around 170, the
site manufactures cockpit win-
dows for commercial aircraft – in-
cluding Airbus A320-family jets –
and certain military aircraft, along
with “niche” transparencies for
the automotive sector and loco-
motives. Production will be trans-
ferred to other company facilities
or lower-cost locations, says GKN.
Some of the affected employ-
ees will be eligible to apply for
roles at other GKN Aerospace fa-
cilities, the company says, and a
staff consultation process has
been launched.
Unite national officer Rhys
McCarthy says the trade union
­
“has real fears that this announce-
ment is the prelude to concerns
we voiced – about asset-stripping
and UK operations being run
down during Melrose’s hostile
takeover of GKN – being realised.”
He argues that the plan appears to
“fly in the face of assurances given
around keeping military aero-
space manufacturing in the UK.”
GKN rejects the accusation and
insists that the decision was
taken by its own management
team, rather than Melrose’s.
Pointing to investments made
or planned in other GKN Aero-
space facilities – including a
planned £12 million ($16 million)
commitment to the company’s
sites in Luton and Portsmouth –
Melrose argues that it is honour-
ing commitments made during
the acquisition process. ■
AIR TRANSPORT
NAVIGATION MICHAEL GUBISCH LONDON
Global reach ups air traffic surveillance
Tripartite trial employing ADS-B technology hailed as making transatlantic operations radically safer and more efficient
A ir traffic controllers in
­Canada, Iceland and the UK
have begun trial operations to
monitor aircraft crossing the
North Atlantic via satellite-based
surveillance technology.
Flights in remote areas outside
the reach of ground-based radar
stations are normally controlled by
regular position reports from pi-
lots, typically provided every 10-
14min. However, automatic de-
pendent surveillance – broadcast
(ADS-B) technology will ensure
permanent flight surveillance.
ADS-B service provider Aire-
on’s system went live on 2 April,
after required capabilities were
established in February on the last
six of 66 Iridium Next satellites.
On aircraft equipped with
ADS-B, the transponder broad-
casts the flight’s position, alti-
tude, speed and heading. Satel-
lites relay that information to
ground stations within 1s.
Aireon describes the system as
“the first real-time, global air traf-
fic surveillance system”, which it
believes will “radically optimise
FLEET OLIVER CLARK MILAN
Air Italy counts costs of ongoing Max disruption
M ilan-based carrier Air Italy
has made contingency
plans should the grounding of its
­Boeing 737 Max 8 narrowbodies
Carrier had introduced a trio of 737-8s prior to grounding in March
14 | Flight International | 16-22 April 2019
AirTeamImages
Canadian controllers will test reduced separation between aircraft
flight safety and efficiency”. overall flight safety risks by
The North Atlantic is the around 76% across the North At-
world’s busiest oceanic airspace, lantic, while operators will be able
with more than 500,000 flights per to make fuel savings by flying at
year, notes Martin Rolfe, chief ex- optimal speeds and flight levels.
ecutive of UK air navigation ser- More than 95% of aircraft op-
vice provider NATS; this is forecast erating across the North Atlantic
to reach 800,000 per year by 2030. are equipped with ADS-B today,
NATS, Nav Canada and their says Nav Canada chief executive
Icelandic counterpart Isavia are Neil Wilson. US regulations man-
the first air navigation service date that operators install the
providers to adopt the system, as equipment by January 2020, with
part of the North Atlantic trial. European equivalence due by
Aireon says ADS-B will reduce June the same year.
endure beyond this month, chief
commercial officer Rossen Dim-
itrov has disclosed.
ed in early March, the Milan-based
carrier has leased aircraft on a
short-term term basis from Blue
Since its three -8s were ground- Air and Bulgaria Air, but has also
made preparations for a potentially
prolonged grounding.
“We have another plan if it
goes beyond April,” Dimitrov
told FlightGlobal in Milan on 3
April. “We have an agreement
with another airline to cover the
domestic market,” he adds.
So far, Air Italy has contracted
one 737 from Blue Air and an Air-
bus A319 and Embraer ERJ-145
from Bulgaria Air, with a second
Tony Best/FlightGlobal
ERJ-145 to be added soon from the
same source. The operator is also
in negotiations to potentially take
a further aircraft from another
Nav Canada’s facility in Ed-
monton, Alberta will reduce sep-
aration to 5nm (9km) between
aircraft operating in continental
airspace with no current surveil-
lance, provided they are within
range of very high frequency
(VHF) radio communication.
For flights operating in non-
VHF airspace with controller-­
pilot data link communications
(CPDLC) capability, the Edmon-
ton centre will from October re-
duce longitudinal separation to
14nm or 17nm and lateral separa-
tion to 15nm or 19nm, Nav Cana-
da says. Its Gander, Newfound-
land control centre will reduce
longitudinal separation in ocean-
ic airspace to 14nm or 17nm –
plus 5nm for aircraft flying in the
opposite direction to each other
– if CPDLC is provided. Lateral
separation will be reduced to
15nm or 19nm for flights in oce-
anic airspace from October.
Aireon notes that under con-
ventional operations, transatlan-
tic aircraft may currently be sepa-
rated by as much as 40nm. ■
­carrier, Dimitrov confirms.
Without disclosing the precise
costs to Air Italy of the grounding,
Dimitrov says they include leasing
payments on the Max jets, the fee
to wet-lease in aircraft from other
airlines, compensation and associ-
ated costs arising from disruption
to its flight schedule, and the
­“reputational cost” to its brand.
Dimitrov says the grounding
has had an impact on operations,
since the jets were being used
with “very high daily” utilisation
on domestic routes.
Air Italy was able bring two of
its Max 8s back to Milan before
the grounding, but the other
remains stuck in the Egyptian
­
capital Cairo. ■
flightglobal.com

innovation JON HEMMERDINGER CHICAGO
Collins investment
gets electrification
plan onto The Grid
Multimillion-dollar lab will take forward existing expertise
powering company’s drive for hybrid propulsion system
A t a time when the aviation
industry is abuzz with talk
of electric concepts, Collins Aer-
ospace is investing $50 million
to turn such ideas into reality
using a new technology labora-
tory in Rockford, Illinois. The
company plans within a year to
open “The Grid”, where engi-
neers will work to develop ad-
vanced electric systems for fu-
ture generations of aircraft.
Collins has ambitious goals, but
executives – well aware of tech-
nology limitations – are not prom-
ising an overnight revolution, or
yet developing a fully electric air-
craft propulsion system.
Rather, the new laboratory will
enable the company to improve
the types of onboard electric sys-
tems it already makes, and help
to develop and test a hybrid-elec-
tric propulsion system for a re-
gional airliner.
The Grid “represents a strate-
gic investment by Collins Aero-
space as we position to remain
the world leader in aircraft elec-
trification,” says chief executive
Kelly Ortberg. The facility “will
be the most-advanced electrical
power system lab in the industry,
and will enable us to design and
test the next generation of more-
electric aircraft,” he adds.
eyeing an opening
Collins sees an opportunity to de-
velop technology for military,
business and commercial aircraft
and electric air taxis, although its
electric systems generally pro-
vide much more power than the
last of these classes of vehicle
would require.
Executives say they are eyeing
certain aircraft development pro-
grammes already under way, but
decline to comment further.
flightglobal.com
Poland splashes out
on AW101 purchase
for maritime renewal
Defence P16
Collins president of power and
control systems Tim White says
the company is building The
Grid “in mind with some of the
announced projects, and to be a
resource for industry.”
The Grid will consist of four
labs, enabling testing of different
systems simultaneously. Collins
expects the first to open next
year, and for the entire facility to
be operational by 2021. The
2,320sq m (25,000sq ft) site will
employ about 50 people.
“The technical
requirements get even
more severe. You have
to be that much better
and efficient”
Tim White
President of power and control systems,
Collins Aerospace
Launching The Grid marks a
notable strategic move by Collins:
the $50 million cost is part of a
planned $150 million investment
by the company in electric sys-
tems during the next three years.
Electric systems can replace
bulky pneumatic- and hydraulic-
powered equipment, providing
improved efficiency and reduced
maintenance, Collins says.
Collins today makes the elec-
tric supply system for the Boeing
787, which it calls the “most elec-
tric” aircraft flying. The Dream-
liner’s six generators produce
1.5MW and about 270V, which
powers the twinjet’s environmen-
tal control, electronics cooling,
fuel inerting and fuel jettison sys-
tems, plus in-flight entertainment
and galley equipment.
Project 804 activity is to adapt Dash 8-100 testbed for 2022 flight
The new facility will have dy-
namometers capable of testing
motors, generators, electronics
and electric systems at up to
2MW and 1kV of power. It will
also study the challenges altitude
poses to electric systems, such as
the effect of air density on elec-
tric-arc distances, White says.
Additionally, the company will
seek to solve riddles such as how
to quadruple an electric system’s
power output while only doubling
its weight, says Mauro Atalla, its
vice-president engineering.
“The technical requirements get
even more severe when you think
about electric propulsion. You
have to be that much better and
lighter and efficient,” notes White.
trial advances
The Grid also will be used to test a
1MW electric aircraft propulsion
system being developed for instal-
lation on a Bombardier Dash 8-100
testbed by United Technologies
Advanced Projects (UTAP).
Named Project 804, this activity
also involves sister companies Col-
lins and Pratt & Whitney Canada.
“One of the engines is going to
be left completely as is. The sec-
ond will be replaced from the
gearbox back with a hybrid-elec-
tric powerplant we are produc-
ing,” says Project 804 lead Greg
Winn. This activity will mate the
1MW electric system with a
1MW fuel-burning engine, to cre-
ate a 2MW powerplant.
During take-off, the hybrid
system’s electric and fuel-burn-
ing engines would provide equal
16-22 April 2019 | Flight International | 15
AIR TRANSPORT
Collins Aerospace
power. But during cruise and
landing, when significantly less
power is needed, the electric
motor would be shut off, UTAP
says. The company will opti-
mise the fuel engine for cruise-
speed operation.
Electric assistance at take-off
will let the fuel engine run cooler,
meaning parts will last longer,
UTAP contends.
“The electrical assist is high-
power and short-duration, allow-
ing the size and weight of the en-
ergy storage device to be
manageable,” the company says.
The 1,810-2,270kg (4,000-
5,000lb) weight of the system’s
most likely lithium-ion batteries
will reduce the Dash 8’s range
from about 1,000nm (1,850km) to
600nm, but during an hour-long
flight the hybrid system should
boost fuel economy by 30%, the
company believes.
UTAP has already received the
Dash 8, and expects to conduct a
first flight with the hybrid engine
in 2022.
Battery technology limitations
make fully electric transport-air-
craft engines “out of reach for the
short- to mid-term future”, except
for use in small air-taxi concepts,
the developer believes.
“The demonstrator will help us
understand some of these system
integration-level challenges that
we would face when an OEM de-
cides to develop a hybrid-electric
aircraft, so we have that knowl-
edge ahead of time,” says Atalla.
“That’s what we really want to get
to by the end of 2022.” ■
DEFENCE
acquisition CRAIG HOYLE loNDON
Poland splashes out
on AW101 purchase
for maritime renewal
Contract for UK-built anti-submarine warfare helicopters to
be signed this month, following offset pact with Leonardo
L eonardo Helicopters is poised
to receive a contract to pro-
duce AW101s configured for anti-
submarine warfare (ASW) duties
with the Polish navy.
Polish defence minister Mariusz
Blaszczak confirmed the planned
buy on 8 April, stating that Warsaw
intends to finalise an order during
April. The acquisition is believed
to include four AW101s.
Ahead of the deal being final-
ised, Leonardo Helicopters and
Poland’s defence ministry have
signed an offset agreement worth
Z400 million ($106 million) in
relation to the order.
“The offset agreement provides
the Polish Ministry of National De-
fence with the commitment for es-
tablishing in the Military Aviation
Works No 1 in Lodz critical main-
tenance capabilities for the AW101
and its dedicated mission equip-
ment,” the company says. This
confirms “Leonardo’s commitment
procurement garrett reim los angeles
MD Helicopters protest gets Swift GAO rebuttal
T he US Government Account-
ability Office (GAO) has de-
nied an MD Helicopters protest
into a decision by the US Army to
MD902 derivative was being promoted to meet FARA requirement
16 | Flight International | 16-22 April 2019
to a solid and long-term co-opera-
tion with the Polish armed forces
and Polish industry,” it adds.
The 15t-class AW101s will
also will be capable of perform-
ing combat search and rescue
(CSAR) tasks, Blaszczak says.
Leonardo Helicopters confirms
programme BARTOSZ GLOWACKI WARSAW
Warsaw could accelerate F-35 buy after US endorsement
The Polish government believes it
can accelerate the purchase of up
to 32 Lockheed Martin F-35s, fol-
lowing indications that the USA is
willing to expand the type’s op-
erator base.
In recent testimony to the US
House of Representatives, Vice
Admiral Mathias Winter, director
of the Joint Strike Fighter pro-
gramme, said that the Department
of Defense is considering sales to
countries including Greece,
not contract the company to de-
velop a competitive prototype in
support of the service’s Future
Attack Reconnaissance Aircraft
MD Helicopters
15t type will also be suitable for combat search and rescue duties
that the rotorcraft will be assem-
bled at its Yeovil manufacturing
site in Somerset, the UK.
Warsaw had indicated its naval
helicopter requirement would be
for up to eight aircraft for ASW and
Poland, Romania and Spain.
Winter argues that the F-35
would strengthen Poland’s de-
fence capabilities in the face of
Russian aggression.
“Since the US side talks about
it publicly, it means that the pur-
chase can be accelerated,” says
Polish defence minister Mariusz
Blaszczak. “This is not a surprise,
because we have already started
negotiations. I have prepared the
legal and financial basis to ac-
(FARA) requirement.
MD Helicopters had protested
that the army did not grant it a so-
called other transaction agree-
ment (OTA), claiming that the
service “unreasonably evaluated
its proposal, and otherwise failed
to reasonably promote small
business participation”.
The GAO declined to action
the company’s protest, saying it
does not review the award of
non-procurement instruments,
such as prototype contracts, is-
sued under an agency’s OTA au-
thority.
The US Army solicited FARA
Leonardo Helicopters
CSAR missions. Poland early this
year also confirmed an order to ac-
quire four S-70i Black Hawk heli-
copters from Sikorsky, with the
armed rotorcraft to be used in sup-
port of special forces operations. ■
quire at least 32 fifth-generation
combat aircraft.”
Warsaw is expected to pur-
chase a first batch of 16 F-35s,
with its total requirement to po-
tentially reach 48 examples.
In March, Polish president
Andrzej Duda said he had already
discussed with the USA a possible
buy under Warsaw’s Harpia pro-
gramme, to replace its aged RAC
MiG-29 fighters and Sukhoi Su-22
ground-attack aircraft. ■
proposals from industry last
October, seeking a rotorcraft
­
comparable in size to its Future
Vertical Lift Capability Set 1
need: a light-attack and scout
type capable of carrying at least
six passengers.
MD Helicopters announced in
March that it was developing a
wing-equipped variant of its tail
rotor-less, twin-engined MD902
Explorer – called Swift – to help
it meet the FARA programme’s
speed requirements. It is not
clear if the army’s decision
knocks the airframer out of the
competition entirely. ■
flightglobal.com
 F-35 fleet has 80%
capability target in
DEFENCE
its sights, JPO says
Defence P19

ROTORCRAFT GARRETT REIM LOS ANGELES

US Army targets Black Hawk successor

Ambitious programme demands significant advances in performance, with deliveries required by fiscal year 2030

T he US Army wants a replace-

ment for its Sikorsky UH-60
Black Hawk utility helicopter –
the Future Long Range Assault
Aircraft (FLRAA) – to be delivered
to its first units by fiscal year 2030.
To meet that deadline, the
army is pursuing an accelerated
programme, with plans to award
a production contract by the
fourth quarter of FY2021, and for
a rotorcraft to be flying by the
third quarter of FY2024. The ser-
vice will lead the FLRAA pro-
gramme, with the US Marine
Corps (USMC) and US Special
Operations Command to piggy-
back on its development efforts,
before launching their own ac-
quisition activities about two
years later.
The US Army wants its
FLRAA to have an average unit

manufacturing cost of $43 mil-
lion: significantly higher than for
its current UH-60M. The service
paid about $20 million for each
example of the Black Hawk or-
dered in FY2019.
ENHANCED CAPABILITIES
This expected higher price tag is
a consequence of the service
­asking for a significant increase
in the performance of its future
rotorcraft. For example, the
­UH-60M has a maximum cruise
speed of 151kt (280km/h), while
its successor is expected to offer
a 280kt performance.
According to its requirements,
the army wants the new aircraft
to have an unrefuelled combat ra-
dius of 300nm (556km), and a
maximum unrefuelled range of at
least 2,440nm. In addition to its
crew, the service wants the rotor-
V-280 Valor is a likely FLRAA contender, with Marines also interested in an attack-configured version
craft to be able to carry 12 passen-
gers. External payload capacity
should be at least 4,540kg
(10,000lb), to be transported up
to 110nm while flying no slower
than 140kt.
Army requirements also call for
a design that can operate in hot
and high conditions. The FLRAA
should be able to deliver 100%
maximum continuous power to
perform a 50ft/min (0.25m/s) ver-
tical rate of climb from a hover out
of ground effect at mission start, at
up to 6,000ft and 35°C (95°F). This
should be achieved with a full
load of passengers and enough
fuel to reach a 122nm combat ra-
dius with a 30min fuel reserve.
The USMC’s requirements are
even more ambitious, including
an unrefuelled combat radius of
450nm with a 30min loiter time,
and a maximum continuous
cruise speed of 295-330kt.
Additionally, the Marines are
seeking an attack version of the
FLRAA, to feature as much com-
monality as possible with a future
utility platform.
VARIABLE WEAPONS
The armed type should carry in-
ternal weapons, including a tur-
reted or fixed gun system capable
of being employed at distances
greater than 1.1nm, air-to-surface
missiles, guided and unguided
rockets and air-to-air missiles. Its
crew should also be able to man-
age tactical unmanned air vehi-
cles from on board the aircraft,
according to the service’s outline
requirements.
Bell
Due to the differing perfor-
mance requirements, the US
Army says that respondents
should submit standalone de-
signs if they consider it unfeasi-
ble or cost prohibitive to modify
the FLRAA to also meet USMC
needs.
Leading contenders for the
army requirement include the
Bell V-280 Valor tiltrotor and the
Sikorsky-Boeing SB-1 Defiant
compound helicopter, both of
which are being flown during
the army’s joint multi-role tech-
nology demonstration activity.
Involved in flight-testing since
December 2017, the V-280 has
already been flown to its maxi-
mum speed of 280kt, while the
SB-1 got airborne for the first
time late last month. ■

Download the 2019

Wo r l d A i r Fo r c e s R e p o r t IN ASSOCIATION WITH

w w w. f l i g h t g l o b a l . c o m / w a f
Ruag 2017 strip ad.indd 1 04/12/2018 08:57
flightglobal.com 16-22 April 2019 | Flight International | 17
 PARKROYAL on Pickering, Singapore, 21-22 May 2019

Future-proofing loyalty
through data
driven insight

Loyalty programs were once a simple

marketing tool to get customers earning
points and flying with the same airline.
In recent times, they have morphed into
complex but revenue generating, networks
of partnerships, tiers and rules – providing a
gateway to greater customer data and insight.

This conference looks at the future of

loyalty, tackling challenges around customer
engagement and redemption; how airlines
can add value through experiential and
personalized rewards so that they can give
loyalty members the opportunity and freedom
to earn and redeem points through several
avenues.

Find out more at

flightglobal.com/points

To attend, visit: flightglobal.com/points or contact +44 (0)2079 111 993

To sponsor, contact Rebecca Covey T: +44 (0)2079 111 490 E: rebecca.covey@flightglobal.com
To speak, contact Warka Ghirmai E: warka.ghirmai@flightglobal.com

procurement GArrett reim los angeles
F-35 fleet has 80% capability
target in its sights, JPO says
Domestic and overseas units will hit milestone by September as availability improves
L ockheed Martin F-35s assigned
to combat units with the US
armed forces and international
partners are on track to reach 80%
mission capability by September
2019, with all examples to reach
the same level by September 2020,
according to Joint Programme Of-
fice (JPO) executive officer Vice
Admiral Mathias Winter.
Reaching 80% mission capa-
bility was mandated as a mini-
mum requirement by former US
defence secretary James Mattis
for key combat aircraft.
The JPO aims to improve aircraft
availability in co-ordination with
Lockheed, as 133 fighters are deliv-
ered in the 2019 calendar year.
Earlier production examples
and aircraft dedicated to training
have posted lower availability rates
so far, but Winter told the US
House Armed Services Tactical Air
and Land Forces Subcommittee on
4 April that once enough combat-
programme craig hoyle london
Updated Jayhawk trainer takes wing
F ield Aerospace has performed
the first flights of a Hawker
400-derived T-1A Jayhawk train-
er to have been equipped with an
updated avionics suite for the US
Air Force (USAF).
“The first fully modified aircraft
First modified example underwent check flights from Oklahoma City
flightglobal.com
S-92B makes a positive
first impression on
Asian market
Show Report P21
Improving Lightning II’s mission readiness is programme priority
ready F-35s are available, reliabili-
ty of these assets will also improve.
The JPO says more than 390
F-35s have been delivered, to the
US Air Force (USAF), US Marine
Corps and US Navy, plus Aus-
tralia, Israel, Italy, Japan, the
Netherlands, Norway, South
Korea, Turkey and the UK.
Meanwhile, a first operational
“hot crew swap” exercise involv-
ing the Lightning II has been con-
flew two successful consecutive
check flights,” the firm says, with
these performed from its Oklaho-
ma City facility on 22 March.
Key elements of the upgrade in-
clude integrating Collins Aero-
space’s Pro Line 21 avionics equip-
Field Aerospace
US Navy
ducted at Hill AFB in Utah.
“Bombers, tankers, helicopters
and twin-engined fighters have
been doing hot crew swaps for
some time,” notes Colonel Michael
Miles, commander of the USAF’s
388th Maintenance Group. “Until
now, it hasn’t been safe to do with a
single-engined fighter, but the
F-35’s maintenance-friendly de-
sign provided an opportunity to
develop this capability.” ■
ment and adding an automatic
dependent surveillance – broad-
cast out capability, to bring the
type in line with US Federal Avia-
tion Administration requirements.
As prime contractor, Field Aero-
space will lead a modernisation
activity on the service’s entire fleet
of 178 T-1As, which are used dur-
ing combat system officer and spe-
cialised undergraduate pilot train-
ing. Thirty ground training devices
will also be updated under the ac-
tivity, which involves partners
FlightSafety International, HEBCO
and Nextant Aerospace.
Cirium’s Fleets Analyzer
shows that the USAF’s Pratt &
Whitney Canada JT15D-powered
T-1A twinjets are aged between
21 and 27 years. ■
16-22 April 2019 | Flight International | 19
DEFENCE
unmanned systems
garrett reim los angeles
Quadcopter buy
to give US Army
major tactical lift
A need to provide ground
troops with real-time situa-
tional awareness on the battlefield
has prompted the US Army to re-
quest product information from
potential suppliers of off-the-shelf
commercial quadcopter drones.
The search for a “Squad Class 1
unmanned aerial system” is one
of several US Army efforts aimed
at purchasing and distributing
small reconnaissance assets to its
lower echelons. Other initiatives
include its short-range reconnais-
sance system platform and sol-
dier-borne sensor requirements.
The US Marine Corps is also
procuring small unmanned air
vehicles (UAVs), as part of its
“Quads for Squads” experiment.
The UAV’s primary
payload would be
a high-definition
electro-optical/
infrared camera
As part of its latest effort, the
army is looking for a quadcopter
to perform surveillance for small
combat outposts, supporting route
clearance work and tactical re-
treats. Little training should be re-
quired to operate such an air vehi-
cle, including during rapid
deployments in austere and harsh
environments, the service says.
Capable of fitting in a small
rucksack or assault pack, the en-
tire system – including air vehi-
cle, payload and battery – should
weigh less than 4.5kg (10lb), with
a minimum flight time of 45min.
The UAV’s primary payload
would be a high-definition electro-
optical/infrared camera, which
could be quickly swapped for a va-
riety of other sensors. An encrypt-
ed communication and data link
with a range of at least 2.7nm
(5km) should also be integrated. ■
See Feature P25
 PARKROYAL on Pickering, Singapore, 23-24 May 2019

The distribution strategies

which deliver customers
the right services, at the
right time, and through
the right channels
Airlines are operating in a market where
digitization is making it constantly harder to
add value. Airlines must identify the tools
which allow them to build value into their
offering, presenting customers with the
right offers and services, and on the right
platform.

To achieve this, and engage dynamically

with their customer base, airlines need to
dramatically increase their capabilities, which
are currently restricted by an over-reliance
on GDS and third-party sales channels, as
well as legacy infrastructure and systems.

Find out more at

flightglobal.com/reach

To attend, visit: flightglobal.com/reach or contact +44 (0)2079 111 993

To sponsor, contact Rebecca Covey T: +44 (0)2079 111 490 E: rebecca.covey@flightglobal.com
To speak, contact Luke Hill T: +44 (0)2079 111 813 E: luke.hill@flightglobal.com

programme greg waldron singapore
S-92B makes a positive first
impression on Asian market
Manufacturer upbeat about customer response in weeks since enhanced model’s launch
S ikorsky is optimistic about the
prospects for its new S-92B in
the Asia-Pacific region, and is
also promoting its urban mobility
ideas.
The Lockheed Martin-owned
company had kept the S-92B
under tight wraps before its
launch at the HAI Heli-Expo
event in the USA last month, so
discussions with prospective
Asia-Pacific customers are still at
an early stage, says Christophe
Nurit, who heads sales for Sikor-
sky in the region.
“The last few weeks we re-
ceived lots of very good feed-
back,” he says. “People are very
happy that we’re making it official
what we’re doing on the S-92.”
Upgrades on the new model
will also be available as a retrofit
package, raising in-service heli-
copters to an A+ designation. En-
hancements include optional GE
Aviation CT7-8A6 engines, an
improved gearbox, larger win-
dows and doors, and “phase one”
development
Subaru spins up interest for 412EPX
T he new Subaru Bell 412EPX
has been introduced to
Southeast Asia, with the latest
commercial variant of the aircraft
Scale model incorporating belly tank indicated a firefighting role
flightglobal.com
Stratos readies 716
for Oshkosh show
Business Aviation P22
Sikorsky
Improvements include CT7-8A6 engines, plus an uprated gearbox
of the company’s Matrix autono- to make them greater than they
my technology. are today.”
“As the commercial industry is Cirium’s Fleets Analyzer
still in a slowdown, we want to shows that there are 48 S-92As in
reassure the market,” Nurit told service in the Asia-Pacific region,
FlightGlobal during the 9-11 with an average age of 7.5 years.
April Rotorcraft Asia exhibition Sikorsky also used the event to
in Singapore. “As we’ve become showcase its efforts in the emerg-
more a part of Lockheed Martin, ing urban air mobility segment,
some will talk about us being where it is working with Otis Ele-
more of a defence company. This vator Company and The Space-
is a way to say we’re still in civil- ship Company on technologies for
ian products and we’re still going air taxis. ■
having been promoted at the Ro-
torcraft Asia event in Singapore.
Subaru sees applications for
ing offshore oilfield support,
emergency medical services,
search and rescue, and firefight-
the 412EPX in the region includ- ing. A scale model displayed on
the Japanese company’s stand
showed the utility rotorcraft with
a large belly tank, which would
support the firefighting role.
The 412EPX is a derivative of
the UH-X airframe being devel-
oped for Tokyo. Subaru’s first
prototype made its flight debut
last December, and was delivered
to the Japanese defence ministry
Greg Waldron/FlightGlobal
in late February.
The lone prototype will be used
for testing, with 150 serial exam-
ples of the UH-1J replacement to
be handed over from 2021. ■
16-22 April 2019 | Flight International | 21
Show report
technology
Urban mobility
potential drives
Airbus initiatives
A irbus Helicopters sees broad
opportunities for the devel-
opment of urban air mobility
operations in crowded Asia-­
­
Pacific cities.
Speaking at the Rotorcraft Asia
event in Singapore, Derek Cheng,
the company’s head of Asia-Pacific
urban air mobility, said he believes
that such ­services will become less
expensive and more accessible in
the coming years, allowing for their
“democratisation”.
“They are helping us
with the promotion
and acceleration of
UAM in Shenzhen”
Derek Cheng
Head of Asia-Pacific urban air mobility,
Airbus
Airbus has already rolled out
its Voom on-demand helicopter
booking service in Mexico City
and Sao Paulo, Brazil, and
Cheng says it also plans to
launch this in the Chinese city of
Shenzhen, having signed a
memorandum of understanding
with the Shenzhen Municipal
Commerce Bureau.
“They are helping us with the
promotion and acceleration of
UAM [urban air mobility] in Shen-
zhen, as well as creating a local
ecosystem,” Cheng says. “This
slides in quite nicely with what
they want to do in the greater bay
area for connectivity, where they
can link up 11 cities in the region.”
Cheng expects conventional
helicopters operating air taxi
­services to be gradually replaced
by dedicated electric vertical take-
off and landing aircraft, which will
eventually become autonomous.
He notes that such rotorcraft will
be more suited to an urban envi-
ronment because they will employ
much steeper glide slopes than tra-
ditional h­elicopters, which will
aid noise abatement. ■
BUSINESS AVIATION
PROGRAMME KATE SARSFIELD LONDON
Stratos readies 716 for Oshkosh show
Company to open orderbook and unveil cabin mock-up at July event as very light jet advances towards its first flight
U S start-up Stratos Aircraft will
open the orderbook for its 716
very light jet at the AirVenture
show in Oshkosh in July, where a
full-scale cabin mock-up of the
single-engined, six-seater will also
be on display for the first time.
The 716 was launched in 2018
as a longer and wider version of
the 714, which it replaces. A
proof-of-concept (POC) 714 has
logged over 250h since making its
debut flight in November 2016.
“It is a great baseline [test] air-
craft and we will continue to fly it
as long as necessary,” says Stra-
tos chief technology officer
Carsten Sundin.
He says the 716 programme is
making “steady progress”. Load
testing of the wing, horizontal
stabiliser, landing gear and flaps
is complete and Stratos is now
building the fuselage for the
ground-test article and first flying
prototype, which is scheduled to
RESTRUCTURE DOMINIC PERRY LONDON
Terrafugia founders quit as firm makes Transition
A nna and Carl Dietrich, co-
founders of US-based flying
car developer Terrafugia, have
departed from the business amid
sweeping changes at the compa-
ny, including the closure of its
California research facility.
Twin-seat flying car concept is one of two vehicles in development
22 | Flight International | 16-22 April 2019
Initial production examples will be kit aircraft with JT15D-5 engine
make its maiden sortie in the
fourth quarter of this year.
Sundin says the company has
spent “some time” developing a
method to co-cure the 716’s
­pressure vessel, which is now
one part and requires no second-
ary bonding. Stratos has also
­embarked on a weight-reduction
programme to increase the 716’s
The husband and wife, along
with three other Massachusetts
Institute of Technology gradu-
ates, set up Terrafugia in 2006.
Carl Dietrich was most recently
chief technology officer, while
Anna Dietrich served as chief
Terrafugia
Stratos Aircraft
payload and range.
“By optimising structures,
switching to lighter-weight mate-
rials and simplifying systems, the
empty weight will be significantly
less than our POC 714,” he says.
The first batch of 716s will be
produced as kit aircraft, branded
the 716X. This approach, Sundin
says, will allow the company to
commercial officer until 2014.
In a message posted on his
LinkedIn profile, Dietrich says
that “after 13 amazing years with
Terrafugia”, he has decided to
“step away from the company”.
Woburn, Massachusetts-based
Terrafugia was acquired in late
2017 by China’s Zhejiang Geely
Holding Group, which also owns
automotive manufacturers Lotus
and Volvo Cars. The deal prom-
ised extra financial and industrial
muscle to help bring the Transi-
tion flying car to market.
However, sources indicate that
earlier this year, Geely decided to
replace most of Terrafugia’s sen-
ior leadership team with staff
based in China.
That included chief executive
Chris Jaran, who has been suc-
ceeded by Charlie Jinn, a Comac
and Honeywell veteran; Huaib-
“fine-tune” the product before it
embarks on the US Federal Avia-
tion Administration FAR Part 23
type certification campaign.
The 716X is powered by the
same 2,900lb-thrust (12.9kN)
Pratt & Whitney Canada JT15D-5
engine as the 714 and features a
Garmin G3X flightdeck. Howev-
er, the certificated variant will be
powered by a 3,400lb-thrust
PW535, and feature either G3000
or G5000 avionics.
Stratos is “sufficiently funded
internally” to bring the 716X to
market, Sundin says, but the cap-
ital required for the Part 23 ver-
sion will be greater “by an order
of magnitude”.
“Our goal is to have something
close to the final product before
we seek outside investment and
embark on the certification cam-
paign,” says Sundin. “This
should help to reduce some of
the costs.” ■
ing Wang was also appointed as
chief financial officer.
Other US posts axed included
back office functions, as well as
the certification and business de-
velopment departments and the
research and development facili-
ty in Petaluma, California. US-
based headcount is falling by
around two-thirds, to roughly 60.
In April 2018, just five months
after its acquisition by Geely, Ter-
rafugia promised it was on course
to create 130 new US jobs.
Terrafugia is developing the
twin-seat Transition – due to ar-
rive this year – and a four-seat
modular vertical take-off and
landing concept called the TF-2.
The latter features a hybrid
propulsion system powering
eight electric motors and which
docks with a ground vehicle after
landing. ■
flightglobal.com

programme KATE SARSFIELD LONDON
Metal Master celebrates first
sorties of LAR 1 personal jet
Polish firm is targeting experimental certification by year-end and EASA approval in 2020
M etal Master’s Flaris LAR 1
got airborne for the first
time on 8 April and has now
completed a number of sorties
from the airframer’s flight-test
base at Zielona Gora airport in
western Poland.
The milestone came just under
six years after the launch of the
five-seat personal jet, which is the
first offering from a family of high-
performance, lightweight, low-
cost business aircraft planned by
Metal Master.
“The aircraft performed and
handled very well,” says compa-
ny founder Rafal Landinski, add-
ing that the tests also confirmed
the LAR 1’s ability to take off
using less than 100m (330ft) of
runway, and climb at a rate of
5,900ft/min (30m/s).
Certification under Polish S-1
regulations for experimental air-
craft is planned by the end of the
year, with this approval to enable
the company to start delivering
examples to local customers.
partnership JON HEMMERDINGER BOSTON
Sensor deal lets Honeywell land in air taxi market
H oneywell has jumped into the
urban air mobility market
with a deal to help develop auto-
matic landing technology for elec-
tric air taxis under development
by German start-up Volocopter.
The companies will jointly de-
velop and test sensor-based navi-
gation systems, making use of
Honeywell’s experience with ad-
vanced navigation equipment
and autonomous technology.
Volocopter has set a goal to fly
one of its aircraft with a
Honeywell inertial measure-
­ fully redundant powertrains, a
ment-based attitude reference
system this year, says the com-
pany’s chief technology officer
Henrik Boelens.
flightglobal.com
Drone affairs
Special Report P25
Test flights confirmed short take-off performance and fast climb rate
The Podgorzyn-headquartered
company will then pursue vali-
dation with the European Union
Aviation Safety Agency (EASA)
under CS-23 regulations, with the
aim of gaining approval by the
end of 2020.
Powered by a Williams Interna-
tional FJ33-5A-turbofan, the LAR
1 is believed to be the only CS-23
single-engined personal jet being
developed outside the USA. Its
Honeywell says the project
“launches” it into the “rapidly
developing” segment of urban air
mobility – a concept in which fly-
ing taxis, hailed via on-demand
technology, transport passengers
between rooftops in crowded,
gridlocked cities.
Volocopter is developing a
two-seat air taxi called the 2X,
which is scheduled to enter com-
mercial service in 2021. Available
in an autonomous or piloted ver-
sion, the 2X features 18 rotors,
full aircraft emergency parachute
and nine independent battery
systems with a charging time of
40min. The 2X is designed to
BUSINESS AVIATION
Metal Master
only rivals in this space are the in-
development Stratos Aircraft 716
and the Cirrus Vision Jet. The last
of these has already opened up a
significant lead, with an invento-
ry of over 100 aircraft since enter-
ing service in December 2016.
Privately-owned Metal Master
says it plans to open the order-
book for the €1.8 million ($2
­million) LAR 1 once flight testing
is in full swing. ■
have a flight time of 30min, a
cruise speed of 27kt (50km/h)
and a top speed of 54kt.
Volocopter has developed a
vision for a future network of
­ cities by 2028, in brief hops of up
hubs and ports for air taxis that
Volocopter’s electric 2X is slated to enter commercial service in 2021
16-22 April 2019 | Flight International | 23
INTEGRATIOn
KATE SARSFIELD LONDON
PrivateFly seals
Skyjet union and
plots expansion
O nline business aircraft
charter brokers PrivateFly
­
and Skyjet have completed their
merger, and are now operating as a
­single entity under the PrivateFly
brand within Directional Avia-
tion’s OneSky subsidiary.
Directional acquired St Albans,
UK-based PrivateFly in Septem-
ber 2018 to bolster OneSky’s
portfolio of business aircraft
­
­operators and brokers, which in-
cludes Skyjet, fractional owner-
ship company Flexjet and block-
charter provider Sentient Jet.
Directional also owns US main-
tenance firm Constant Aviation
and aircraft remanufacturing com-
pany Nextant Aerospace – devel-
oper of the updated Challenger
604XT and 400XT/XTi business
jets and G90XT twin-turboprop.
PrivateFly is now aiming to
create the leading digital platform
for on-demand business aircraft
travel in the world. “This is a very
exciting year, as we ramp up our
global presence and our offering,”
says Adam Twidell, who
­co-founded PrivateFly in 2008. ■
mainly relies on reusing existing
infrastructure to reduce upfront
capital costs. It has a goal of flying
100,000 passengers per hour over
to 14.6nm (27km). ■
Volocopter
 Cargo: The Digital Revolution
Hilton Amsterdam, 2-3 July 2019

Digital innovations
to drive profitability,
efficiency and
transparency in cargo
The air cargo market is massive. It is
currently valued at US$38.2bn and is just
one of the many modes of a much wider
logistics industry. Despite its size, a lot of the
industry is fragmented and very inefficient.
Digitalization can radically improve this,
however, owing to resistance, a lot of the
industry is still paper-based.

By attending this conference, you will have

the opportunity to learn from those that
have managed to overcome resistance
and implement digitalization – improving
efficiency and driving profitability at the
same time.

Find out more at

flightglobal.com/cargo

To attend, visit: flightglobal.com/cargo or contact +44 (0)2079 111 993

To sponsor, contact Rebecca Covey T: +44 (0)2079 111 490 E: rebecca.covey@flightglobal.com
To speak, contact Luke Hill T: +44 (0)2079 111 833 E: luke.hill@flightglobal.com
 UNMANNED SYSTEMS
Special report

drone affairs
While the military continues eagerly to explore novel ways of exploiting UAV technology,
civil aviation’s love-hate relationship with remotely piloted aircraft is developing cautiously

Medium-altitude, long-endurance Hermes 900 has a solid armed forces pedigree,

Elbit Systems

and could also prove ideal for some civilian tasks, including maritime patrol duty

Contents
26 Local danger Airport protection
28 Coast guards Eyes in the sky
30 Parcel force Courier trials
32 Strike on call Loitering munitions
34 Over the hill Nanoscouts see far
Israel Aerospace Industries

Crown Copyright

Harop can loiter and strike, autonomously Infantry troops love a palm-sized scout

flightglobal.com 16-22 April 2019 | Flight International | 25

UNMANNED SYSTEMS
Special report
Big threats come
in small packages
Drone sightings shut down London Gatwick
in the run-up to Christmas – highlighting
an unreadiness to counter this threat
Police helicopters searching for rogue
UAVs were all that moved during closure
Beth Stevenson London
O
ne of the most newsworthy events
relating to the use of unmanned
air vehicles (UAVs) came in De-
cember 2018, when drone sight-
ings disrupted operations at London Gatwick
airport, bringing it to a standstill in the busy
days leading up to the Christmas holidays.
Although protection of airports has been a
concern for regulators, travellers, airports and
law enforcement agencies for years, the
somewhat tardy response of the authorities
­ and has been for some time. The UK govern-
highlighted the fact that practical solutions had
not been put in place to deal with such an event.
While no details have been released on
who was flying the drones, how many there
were or what became of them, the disruption
was an embarrassment to the UK government.
A subsequent December sighting at London
Heathrow airport only added to the chaos.
More broadly, the use of drones per se – ei-
ther for recreational or commercial use – is
not as contentious as it once was, if only be-
cause increasing familiarity is softening objec-
26 | Flight International | 16-22 April 2019
tions. However, the management of this bur-
geoning activity is clearly becoming a matter
for urgent attention.
The Gatwick event flagged up two issues.
Firstly, the government lacks powers to coun-
ter UAV threats; and there is clearly a lack of
infrastructure and technology in place to
identify, track and neutralise malicious
drones that enter sensitive airspace.
URGENT ACTION
Work is under way to approach the first issue
ment plans to introduce a so-called Drone
Bill, to make a legislative response to the
prevalence of this technology. Its second read-
ing in Parliament has been delayed, but interim
measures were rapidly introduced following
the Gatwick event. On 13 March, the no-fly
zone surrounding airports was extended from
0.5nm (1km) to 2.7nm, which was one meas-
ure expected from the Drone Bill.
Karen Dee, chief executive of the Airport
Operators Association (AOA), says: “Drones
are a great new technology and are likely to
bring many benefits to the UK and aviation
specifically. To achieve these benefits, we must
ensure drones are operated safely and pose no
risk or disruption to air traffic and airports.
“Having called for an extension to the no-
fly zone around airports, the AOA welcomes
that an extended zone will now be in force.”
From 30 November this year, drone opera-
tors will have to register and drone pilots will
need to complete an online competency test.
A Department for Transport consultation doc-
ument outlining potential responses to the
Tim Ireland/AP/REX/Shutterstock
Thousands of travellers were stranded at
UK airport during the festive travel rush
flightglobal.com

Grant Falvey/LNP/REX/Shutterstock
drone threat published earlier this year – The
Future of Drones in the UK – also highlights
government work with manufacturers to
“help make sure drones are used in accord-
ance with the law”.
Earlier this year, UK aviation minister Bar-
oness Sugg noted that while extending the
no-fly zone around airports would not pre-
vent a deliberate incident, “it is important
that proportionate measures are in place to
help protect all arriving and departing air-
craft using our aerodromes and avoid poten-
tial conflict with legitimate drone activity”.
The government, Sugg added, will be able
“to expedite detailed policy work” to devel-
op means to allow more extensive counter-
drone technologies.
Another expected measure is to grant addi-
tional powers to the police to stop and search
people suspected of using drones malicious-
ly. There are also calls for mandatory geofenc-
ing, which “would safeguard critical airspace
around airports from accidental drone incur-
sions. We believe this is the most effective
way to ensure that unsafe drone use does not
flightglobal.com
UNMANNED SYSTEMS
Leonardo Falcon Shield system ensured
Gatwick operations could be resumed
have major consequences,” says Dee.
The UK cockpit union, BALPA, has insist-
ed that while it is not anti drones, the safety of
aircraft and occupants must be the priority.
More active counter-UAV technology has
been an industry talking point for the past few
years. But as the Gatwick event illustrates, im-
plementation by airports had arguably not
been taken seriously enough, at least as of the
end of 2018.
As an emergency measure, a Leonardo Fal-
con Shield counter-UAV system was de-
ployed to Gatwick by the Royal Air Force
(RAF), which has previously tested the UK-
made system. Details of its operation at Gat-
wick in the days following the airport disrup-
tion have not been revealed, but Leonardo
states: “By operating the [Falcon Shield] sys-
tem, the RAF confirmed to Gatwick airport
operating authorities the absence of any ‘hos-
tile or malicious’ drone activity.
“From the point at which Falcon Shield
was deployed and operating, the RAF was
able to report an absence of drones, enabling
the airport to continue or resume operations.
Throughout the period 21-24 December, Fal-
con Shield continued to provide assurance to
the airport authorities that aircraft could safe-
ly take off and land.”
valuable tool
Integrating a battery of electro-optic, electron-
ic surveillance and radar sensors and “low
collateral… advanced electronic attack capa-
bility”, Leonardo bills Falcon Shield as able to
“deny, disrupt or defeat unmanned air system
command, control, navigation and data
downlinks”. The system can be fixed or de-
ployed tactically.
Leonardo Electronics vice-president sales
Paul Burt tells FlightGlobal the RAF complet-
ed a Falcon Shield test programme in 2018.
He notes that the company was not specifi-
cally targeting the airport market prior to the
closure at Gatwick, but there has been a boost
Airport protection
Peter MacDiarmid/REX/Shutterstock
in interest from this market since the event.
Since the December disruption Gatwick
has contracted the AUDS (Anti-UAV Defence
System) consortium of three UK companies to
provide a counter-UAV system which, says
AUDS, promises to “detect, track and defeat a
drone in approximately 15 seconds at a range
of up to 10 km [5.4nm]”.
An effort that may be specifically tailored
to airport security is Geosafe, an initiative led
by the SESAR Joint Undertaking behind Eu-
rope’s next-generation air traffic management
initiative. Geosafe is managed by Thales; part-
ners include Aeromapper, AirMap, Airma-
rine, Atechsys and SPH Engineering.
Geosafe is supporting the European Com-
mission’s U-space unmanned traffic manage-
ment initiative. U-space’s mission is to re-
search and develop new approaches to safe,
efficient and secure airspace access by large
numbers of drones; geofencing, to keep
drones clear of sensitive airspace, will feature.
A one year, 280-flight test campaign will
work with 16 types of UAV, including fixed-
wing, unmanned helicopters and multirotors.
According to Thales, the UAVs being tested
by U-Space will weigh between 1kg (2.2lb)
and 25kg and will vary in size from 20cm
(7.8in) up to 2m.
U-space will explore techniques for keep-
ing drones out of certain areas, and also for
“caging” them in. This “geocaging” effort is
being undertaken with the French civil avia-
tion authority, DGAC.
Ultimately, these European programmes
aim to help authorities and industry define
regulations and technologies. According to
Thales: “The objectives of Geosafe are to es-
tablish state-of-the-art geofencing solutions
regarding U-space regulation and to propose
improvements and recommendations for fu-
ture geofencing system definition.
“Thales aims at providing solutions for safe
and secure drone operations, and geofencing
is among the key solutions.” ■
16-22 April 2019 | Flight International | 27
UNMANNED SYSTEMS
Special report
Persistence
pays at sea
With their long endurance and robust surveillance and
communications capabilities, UAVs honed during military
service are proving useful for coastguard duty in Europe
Beth Stevenson London
L
arge unmanned air vehicles (UAVs)
have arguably reached their current
level of technical sophistication thanks
to the development investment – and
operational experience – that has supported
and advanced their military uses over the past
couple of decades.
In terms of capability, flexibility, reliability
and safety, military-grade systems are argua-
bly near peers to crewed platforms, so it is no
surprise that there is growing interest in their
adaptation to civilian or para-public roles.
The motivation to find civil applications
for this new technology has a parallel in the
post-Vietnam War period in the USA. There,
Long-endurance UAVs are well suited to tasks
such as monitoring oil spills or refugee traffic
28 | Flight International | 16-22 April 2019
the helicopter industry – and pilots experi-
enced with the capability of a new generation
of reliable, well-optimised machines – pio-
neered in the 1970s their use by police depart-
ments and as air ambulances.
For UAVs today, civil applications with
some natural crossover include disaster relief
support, firefighting and maritime surveil-
lance. For emergency functions carried out in
often dangerous environments – or over water
– UAVs are inherently attractive because of
their endurance and the relatively low cost of
a loss. In addition, airspace restrictions are
easier to deal with than they would be for
daily routines such as parcel delivery in
urban areas, for example.
To this end, in recent months the European
Maritime Safety Agency (EMSA) and the EU’s
Frontex border and coastguard agency have
been contracting a number of military-grade
UAVs to carry out surveillance programmes
in waters around Europe, typically undertak-
ing two-year service provision programmes in
support of missions such as monitoring the
movement of people and environmental data
collection.
GEARING UP
During the last few weeks of 2018, EMSA
signed a string of remotely piloted air system
contracts to meet growing demand for the pa-
trol services it supplies to other European
agencies and member-state coastguards.
For long-range, long-endurance surveil-
lance, EMSA contracted Portugal-based struc-
tures and systems engineers CEiiA to provide
services based on an Elbit Systems Hermes
900 medium-altitude, long-endurance
(MALE) UAV adapted for maritime patrol,
which it will subcontract from Elbit.
EMSA says the operational flight duration
will be more than 12h, with a payload of elec-
tro-optical/infrared (EO/IR) cameras, a multi-
mode maritime radar and distress signal re-
ceiver; the aircraft will also carry an
automatic identification system (AIS) receiver
– the maritime counterpart of the automatic
dependent surveillance – broadcast system
used to track and identify aircraft.
EMSA adds that CEiiA’s Hermes 900 is
enabled for satellite communications to
monitor large maritime areas beyond radio
line of sight.
Loic Bernardin/AP/REX/Shutterstock
flightglobal.com

Falco Evo will provide maritime patrol
services in Italian and Maltese airspace
According to Elbit, the contract, worth up
to $68 million, will run for two years, with
two single-year option periods. Elad Aharon-
son, general manager of Elbit’s intelligence,
surveillance, target acquisition and reconnais-
sance division, says the EU contract is
­“another vote of confidence” in the Hermes
900, which is “extensively deployed” in Asia-
Pacific, Europe, Israel and Latin America.
The Hermes 900 would appear to be an
ideal solution for the coastguard mission. The
MALE platform has a maximum take-off
weight of 1,180kg (2,600lb) including 380kg
of payload; endurance is up to 36h, with a ser-
vice ceiling of 30,000ft.
Described by Elbit as “highly autonomous
and mission effective”, the aircraft offers mul-
tiple hardpoints and a 250kg modular pay-
load installation bay, as well as both satellite
and line-of-sight data links. With multispec-
tral payloads it is suitable for wide-area sur-
veillance and mapping – and features “ad-
verse weather capabilities”.
EMSA has also contracted with Schiebel
Aircraft to fly its Camcopter S-100 – a helicop-
ter that can be operated directly from ships to
extend their range of surveillance. In EMSA
service, the Camcopter S-100 will have more
than 6h of operational flight time with a maxi-
mum range of 54nm (100km).
Schiebel details the payload as an L3 Wes-
cam MX-10 EO/IR camera gimbal, an Over-
watch Imaging PT-8 Oceanwatch payload,
and an AIS receiver.
“This combination of the MX-10 and
Oceanwatch payloads is truly revolutionary,”
says Shiebel chief technology officer Chris
Day. “It offers game-changing quality and ef-
ficiency for wide-area maritime surveillance.”
While exact details on the type of mission
have not been revealed, the company says the
UAV was selected based on its “impressive
service record in the maritime domain”, as
well as its ability to be operated from either
the shore or from a vessel.
Another vertical take-off and landing type,
the Skeldar V-200, supplied by a three-party
flightglobal.com
UNMANNED SYSTEMS
rate with Italian air navigation services
­provider ENAV and the Italian civil aviation
Leonardo
consortium comprising Nordic Unmanned,
the Norut Northern Research Institute and
UMS Skeldar Sweden will monitor emis-
sions. Its payload features EO/IR cameras and
an AIS receiver, with an endurance of 4h and
a 27nm range.
Dual approach
Two Skeldar systems will be available for use
throughout the test phase, and two sets of
crews will support the service-based opera-
tion, according to UMS Skeldar head of busi-
ness development David Willems.
The two systems will each carry different
sensor sets and will include a gas emission
sensor to detect sulphur in support of a Euro-
pean initiative to reduce the pollutant tenfold
over the coming years. They will be shore-
based but will fly out over the sea, monitoring
exhaust emissions and feeding them back to
EMSA’s headquarters in Lisbon.
Willems notes that this type of environ-
mental testing is not new for Skeldar, but the
EMSA contract is the first time that it will be
carrying out such work on an ongoing basis.
Nordic Unmanned will also supply EMSA
with lightweight quadcopters to support sur-
veillance operations from vessels. These ser-
vices will be based on more than 10 Indago 2
quadcopters from Lockheed Martin, carried
initially by EMSA’s standby pollution re-
sponse vessels to support oil spill recovery
operations. At a later stage, they may also be
activated for surveillance operations from any
patrol vessel.
EMSA executive director Markku Mylly
adds that in addition to monitoring pollution
and emissions and supporting search and res-
cue operations, these remotely piloted sys-
tems may be used “in the areas of illegal fish-
ing detection, anti-drug trafficking and border
surveillance”.
Separately, Leonardo announced in De-
cember 2018 that it had been contracted to
carry out similar work for Frontex. For that
Elbit Systems
mission, Leonardo will deploy its Falco Evo
tactical UAV on a services basis to carry out
Maritime patrol
up to 300h of maritime patrol surveillance
within Italian and Maltese airspace.
This will be conducted to test the ability of
a UAV to monitor the external borders of the
EU, with flights conducted from Lampedusa
airport in Italy.
Italy’s Guardia di Finanza will co-ordinate
the flights under the remit of the interior
ministry. In addition, Leonardo will collabo-
authority.
A new maritime-roled configuration for
Falco Evo has been developed by the compa-
ny to meet the expected demand for the UAV
for this type of operation, which includes a
new heavy-fuel propulsion system, high-defi-
nition EO/IR imaging, beyond-line-of-sight
satellite datalink, AIS and a communications
relay suite.
The Falco Evo will also carry Leonardo’s
Gabbiano TS Ultra-Light radar for the project,
which will allow it to carry out day and night
missions.
The 650kg maximum take-off weight air-
craft can provide up to 20h endurance with a
maximum payload “in excess of 100kg”, and
has a service ceiling of 19,600ft.
Leonardo is also planning to test the radar
on its SD-150 Hero rotary-wing UAV in sup-
port of the European Defence Fund-supported
Ocean 2020 project, a 42-partner unmanned
maritime surveillance test programme led by
the company that will kick off this year, with
the Gabbiano testing scheduled for the third
quarter of 2019.
Two demonstrations are expected to be car-
ried out under Ocean 2020 in the Mediterra-
nean and Baltic seas, testing two different op-
erational scenarios using various assets.
They will explore a number of overarching
aims that the project wishes to achieve, name-
ly exploring how maritime situational aware-
ness can be increased by using UAVs, how
Europe can extend the range and performance
of maritime intelligence, surveillance, target
acquisition and reconnaissance, and achiev-
ing EU-NATO interoperability by using open
architectures and standards. ■
EMSA has tasked adapted Hermes 900
with long-range missions exceeding 12h
16-22 April 2019 | Flight International | 29
UNMANNED SYSTEMS
Special report
The logic
of logistics
Drone delivery schemes pursued by online retailers have
made headlines, but more promising results may come
where services can be tailored to unique applications
Beth Stevenson London
T
here has been much excitement over
promises from retailers and social
media companies over recent years
to develop unmanned air vehicle
(UAV) concepts that could deliver everyday
goods. So far, however, these have not
amounted to much, although the idea of an
unmanned system being used for delivery is
still evolving in other ways.
Operators and UAV developers in both the
commercial and military domains have recog-
nised that a system that can carry a sufficient
payload would be appealing for the cargo
market, and a number of efforts have emerged
that are evolving these concepts into fully
fledged development programmes.
At one end of the scale are developments
such as the optionally manned Hybrid Air Ve-
hicles Airlander airship, which promises to
carry a 10t or 50t payload depending on con-
figuration. Two accidents in testing have de-
layed the programme, but the company says it
is ready to build a production model.
There are also, however, smaller-scale, yet
significant developments being made else-
where, including from Boeing’s HorizonX
venture capital arm that funds disruptive
Tactical Robotics Ag-Cormorant is optimised for crop spraying
30 | Flight International | 16-22 April 2019
technologies. In 2018, HorizonX revealed the
prototype for its cargo air vehicle (CAV) with
a 230kg (500lb) payload capacity. The elec-
tric-powered CAV is a technology demonstra-
tor that will serve to establish the technolo-
gies required for this type of concept, and
now falls under Boeing’s NeXt organisation,
formed alongside artificial intelligence devel-
oper SparkCognition – one of the companies
previously funded under HorizonX – in 2018.
The prototype uses eight counter-rotating
blades to assist vertical flight. At 4.6m (15ft)
long, 5.5m wide and 1.2m tall, it weighs
339kg.
PARCEL FORCE
At the unveiling, HorizonX vice-president
Steve Nordlund said: “Our new CAV proto-
type builds on Boeing’s existing unmanned
systems capabilities and presents new possi-
bilities for autonomous cargo delivery, logis-
tics and other transportation applications.
“The safe integration of unmanned aerial
systems is vital to unlocking their full poten-
tial. Boeing has an unmatched track record,
regulatory know-how and systematic ap-
proach to deliver solutions that will shape the
future of autonomous flight.”
Airbus is also working on a cargo-carrying
Tactical Robotics
project, and in February 2019 announced that
a UAV developed with the Civil Aviation Au-
thority of Singapore (CAAS) had carried out
its first flight demonstration. The Skyways
project was established in February 2016 and
then extended in April 2017 when Singapore
Post (SingPost) joined the initiative to provide
logistics in the country. Also involved is the
National University of Singapore (NUS),
where the flight testing is taking place.
For its test flight, the demonstrator took off
from a dedicated maintenance centre and
landed on a roof, where it picked up a pack-
age from a parcel station using a robotic arm
and then returned to land. Alain Flourens,
Airbus Helicopters’ executive vice-president
of engineering and chief technical officer, de-
scribed the flight demonstration as paving the
way to a local trial service launch “in the
coming months”.
Flourens adds: “It is the result of a very
strong partnership among the stakeholders
involved, especially the close guidance and
confidence from the CAAS. Safe and reliable
urban air delivery is a reality not too distant
into the future, and Airbus is certainly excited
to be a forerunner in this endeavour.”
Airbus says it is at an “advanced stage” of
the project, and equipment and facilities have
been installed at the NUS campus, with more
testing under way ahead of a planned roll-out
of a long-term trial at the university that will
start this year and enable students to deliver
and receive small parcels within the univer-
sity. These will weigh between 2kg and 4kg
and will be delivered to designated parcel sta-
flightglobal.com

Malloy Aeronautics TRV80 has 36kg lift capacity using a pick-up-and-drop mechanism
tions across a campus that Airbus says is the
equivalent of 150 football fields in size.
“The urban logistics challenge is complex
and an ecosystem of parcel lockers and au-
tonomous vehicles will be a key piece to solv-
ing this puzzle,” SingPost Group’s chief digi-
tal and technology officer, Alex Tan, says.
“The trial service that is taking off later this
year will be an important step forward for
SingPost in our efforts to develop solutions
for the future logistics needs of Singapore and
other cities of the world.”
Airbus is taking another tack with Skyways,
having begun trials in March this year of parcel
delivery between ships and shore. Starting
with a 1.5kg package of “3D printed consuma-
bles”, a Skyways drone took off from Singa-
pore’s Marina South Pier, landed on the deck
flightglobal.com
UNMANNED SYSTEMS
Airbus Skyways trial transported
packages from ship to shore
in Singapore harbour
Airbus
Beth Stevenson
of the Pacific Centurion anchor handling tug
supply vessel to leave its cargo with the ship’s
master, and returned to base in a 10min mis-
sion described by Airbus as a first in “real port
conditions”. Later trials will handle up to 4kg
of cargo and travel along predetermined “aerial
corridors” to vessels as far as 1.6nm (3km) from
shore.
Marius Johansen, vice-president commer-
cial of Wilhelmsen Ships Service, which is
partnering with Airbus in these trials, praised
the “now proven, seamless operation of drone
deliveries from shore to ship in one of the
world’s busiest ports”. He added that delivery
of essential spares, medical supplies and cash
by launch boats is one of Wilhelmsen’s nor-
mal services: “Modern technology such as the
unmanned aircraft systems are just a new
Cargo delivery
tool, albeit a very cool one.”
However, Airbus reckons UAV use in the
maritime industry could enlarge the services
portfolio of ship servicing agencies and “speed
deliveries by up to six times, lowering deliv-
ery costs by up to 90%, reducing carbon foot-
print and significantly mitigating risks of acci-
dents associated with launch boat deliveries”.
CROP DUSTERS
Meanwhile, Tactical Robotics – a subsidiary
of Israeli unmanned systems house Urban
Aeronautics – announced in March that it had
teamed with crop protection company
Adama to develop an agricultural version of
its Cormorant cargo-carrying UAV (formerly
know as AirMule) to be used for crop spray-
ing. The aircraft is designed to carry payloads
of up to 500kg, excluding fuel.
“The Ag-Cormorant’s unmanned operation
and unique design promote a new standard of
safety in aerial spraying,” the companies say.
“It eliminates the risks of pilot injuries and ex-
posed rotor accidents. With a relatively low
acoustic signature and 24/7 flying capabilities
it will significantly increase the available win-
dow for application.”
They add that the UAV’s ability to adjust
flight height and speed according to the mis-
sion, as well as its aerodynamic properties, pro-
vide “better canopy penetration, drift reduction
and variable-rate application capabilities”.
Malloy Aeronautics, meanwhile, is devel-
oping new cargo-carrying concepts from its
Berkshire facility in the UK. These are being
tested under various initiatives by UK and US
armed forces. Building on its experience de-
veloping the Hoverbike, the company’s tacti-
cal resupply vehicle (TRV) UAVs will be able
to carry some 180kg in the largest form, the
TRV400. Smaller variants – the TRV50 and
TRV80 – will be able to carry 23kg or 36kg,
respectively.
The TRV80 has a pick-up-and-drop mecha-
nism and is being tested for phase 2 of the
British Army’s autonomous last mile resup-
ply programme. This initiative is testing air-
borne and ground-based technologies that
could be used to deliver supplies to troops,
with five teams competing in the current
phase, expected to conclude with demonstra-
tions to the army in the coming months.
Phase one assessed technologies at technolo-
gy readiness level (TRL) 1-2, phase two is ex-
ploring up to TRL 4-6, while phase three is
expected to take the technologies up to TRL 9.
Malloy Aeronautics chief executive Oriol
Badia explains that while the current work is
focused on army programmes, there is poten-
tially a civil market for the platforms as well.
“It is a really appealing business case,” he
says. “We can provide a versatile and flexible
platform on which other people can build
their own capabilities.” ■
16-22 April 2019 | Flight International | 31
UNMANNED SYSTEMS
Special report

IAI’s Harop can operate

­autonomously by detecting
radiation from radar sites

Israel Aerospace Industries

Loiter with intent
By holding station silently overhead until ordered to dive and strike, lethal unmanned air
vehicles hold the promise of quick, low-cost and precise intervention for small groups of
soldiers engaged in urban, counter-insurgency battles; they can even act autonomously

Garrett Reim Los Angeles Most of these UAVs come equipped with a “When you are dealing with counter-insur-
grenade-sized munition and are used to kill gency, urbanised type of warfare, you can’t

C
ircling silently, several hundred
feet above the battlefield – before
finding a target and dive-bombing it
– exploding unmanned air vehicles
(UAVs), also known as loitering munitions,
can hit their mark quickly and precisely. They
are also relatively cheap.
No wonder, then, that they are becoming
popular with armies around the world.
insurgent soldiers in the fleeting instant when
they gaze out of a building window, or light a
cigarette on a balcony. That being said, the
leading developers of loitering munitions are
Israeli defence firms, who have a long history
of creating weapons to fight groups such as
Hezbollah and Hamas in cities and towns –
areas where the Israel Defense Forces have to
be careful to limit civilian casualties.
just level four blocks to take out one guy who
is popping at you,” says Larry Dickerson,
­unmanned vehicles analyst with Forecast In-
ternational. “You’ve got to start developing
tactics differently, which effects the weapon-
ry you want to use.”
To that effect, Elbit Systems, Israel Aero-
space Industries (IAI), Rafael Advanced De-
fense S
­ ystems and UVision have each devel-

32 | Flight International | 16-22 April 2019 flightglobal.com


oped loitering munitions products. Outside
Israel the other top manufacturer of these
weapons is AeroVironment of Simi Valley,
California, which has sold its Switchblade to
the US Army, US Marine Corps and other un-
named branches of the US military.
Chinese and Russian manufacturers are
also in the game, though their work appears
to be less advanced, observes Dickerson. “If
you are looking at production numbers it’s
the Israelis [in the lead]. Everybody else is
way behind,” he says. “It’s just because of
their environment.”
new capability
Loitering munitions offer militaries a capabil-
ity they do not have with other weaponry,
says Shane Cohen, UVision’s vice-president
of marketing and sales.
“You can attack the target from any angle or
any direction,” he says of UVision’s family of
Hero loitering munitions, a missile-like UAV
with a pusher propeller and gimballed cam-
era on its nose. “Sometimes that’s important,
because if you have a vehicle travelling in the
road you have to attack it from the direction of
the road. You can’t come in from the side
through the buildings.”
The UAVs’ ability to quietly wait high
above potential targets for hours and then
launch a strike within minutes also offers ar-
mies attack speed that they cannot get from
scrambling a fighter, says Assaf Shechter, di-
AeroVironment’s Switchblade system is
used by the US Army and Marine Corps
flightglobal.com
UNMANNED SYSTEMS
rector of loitering missile systems at IAI’s mis-
siles division.
“These targets, the time that they are ex-
posed is really short. Mostly they are on the
move – [a] relocatable target. They are not
fixed assets where their co-ordinates are well
known,” he says. It takes time to surveil a tar-
get, relay its targeting co-ordinates to the
­closest aircraft and then launch an attack, says
Shechter. “Sometimes when you get there the
target already is not there,” he says. “The tar-
gets are not waiting for you.”
Ordering an air strike is also a laborious
and expensive operation, involving a chain of
command and support personnel, as well as
all of the materiel and fuel needed to fly a
modern aircraft. Fourth- and fifth-generation
aircraft operations can cost tens of thousands
of dollars per hour.
Loitering munitions do not come with a
vast support network, however. In terms of
size, most anti-personnel munitions can be
carried slung over a soldier’s shoulder or put
in a backpack. The UAVs are launched using
a mortar-sized canister. Such systems typical-
ly have an endurance of 15min to 45min, and
some can dive at a target at speeds in excess of
100kt (185km/h).
Relatively inexpensive and easy to use,
­loitering munitions have an obvious appeal to
tactical units, says Cohen.
“The affordability of this type of weapon is
now at a level where you can equip compa-
AeroVironment
Loitering munitions
UVision
The UVision Hero series of weapons can
be swiftly deployed in battlefield scenario
nies, battalions, brigades,” he says. “Prices are
going to range between tens of thousands of
dollars to maybe a couple hundreds of thou-
sands of dollars. It’s also very dependent on
quantities [ordered].”
For its part, IAI says its loitering munitions
start at two or three times the price of a
­Hellfire missile. The air-to-surface Lockheed
Martin Laser Hellfire II costs on average
$81,200 in fiscal year 2020, according to the
Pentagon’s comptroller.
And loitering munitions sales are taking
off. For example, AeroVironment has seen its
Switchblade sales rise to $49 million for the
nine months ended 26 January 2019, up
­nearly 39% compared with the same period a
year earlier. The company declines to disclose
the UAV’s price tag.
FUTURE FIGHT
Some manufacturers believe loitering muni-
tions will eventually be used for all sorts of air-
strikes on the battlefield, allowing command-
ers to replace arsenals of missiles and bombs.
For instance, UVision claims its Hero-120
and other larger systems could be used to
knock out main battle tanks and other ar-
moured vehicles. The UAV has an endurance
of 60min and can carry a 4kg (9lb) anti-tank
warhead. It drops onto the top of a tank’s tur-
ret, where its armour is thinnest.
“It would be the best solution for [enemy]
reinforcement of tanks that are coming in
from 10km to 20km away, before you are en-
gaging them with your anti-tank missiles such
as Javelin,” Cohen says. “You can really de-
cide the point of attack, which could be some
choke point. Take out the first [tank] of the
enemy convoy at a choke point. Then one by
one pick off the rest of the convoy.”
The company’s medium-sized UAV, the
Hero-400, has 4h of flight time and an 8kg
warhead. It could be used against concrete
buildings, says Cohen. ❯❯
16-22 April 2019 | Flight International | 33
UNMANNED SYSTEMS
Special report

❯❯ “It’s a dual-tandem warhead,” he says.
“You have a front charge, which can go
through concrete wall 20cm [8in] thick, dou-
ble-reinforced, and a secondary charge com-
ing in to take out the whole floor or room.”
The largest UAV is the Hero-1250, which
can carry a 30kg warhead over a 108nm
(200km) maximum range. It could be used
against strategic targets, including infrastruc-
ture, such as air bases, fuel dumps, power sta-
tions or bridges, says Cohen.
Ultimately, the future of loitering muni-
tions may be autonomy. IAI’s Harop can be
used against anti-aircraft gun or missile
­batteries. It attacks autonomously by detect-
ing the radiation that comes off such systems’
radar domes.
“You set the target. You set the area or
­perimeter in which you want to operate,” says
Shechter. “You set the priority, and then you
send it there.” ■

RECONNAISSANCE
For soldiers in the field, camera-toting tiny drones serve as handy scouts
Long the plaything of hobbyists,
small UAVs are fast becoming the
latest gadget in military scouting.
In November 2018, the US
Department of Defense (DoD)
­began accepting proposals for
commercial UAVs to be used as
the US Army’s Short Range
Reconnaissance (SSR) unmanned
air vehicle (UAV). The SSR is in-
tended to be an inexpensive UAV
that can be carried in a soldier’s
backpack, assembled and
launched in less than 2min.
These tiny UAVs must be able
to take off and land vertically, and
price point for the airframe is
$2,000, and another $2,000 for the
optical sensor package.
The UAV should also have a
maximum volume of 10 litres, with
total take-off weight not exceed-
ing 1.36kg (3lb). It should have a
camera to take pictures with a min-
imum of 16 megapixel resolution,
as well as the ability to record high
definition full-motion video.
The army is also pursuing the
acquisition of small UAVs through
its Soldier Borne Sensor pro-
gramme. The ultimate goal of that
effort is to field one UAV to nearly
The first contract award for the
Soldier Borne Sensor programme
was awarded to FLIR Systems in
January 2019 to deliver its Black
Hornet nano-UAV, a finger-sized,
helicopter-like drone that can carry
electro-optical and infrared
­cameras. Weighing less than 33g,
the tiny UAV has 25min of flight
endurance and can zip through
the air at 11.6kt, allowing soldiers
to investigate dangerous hiding
places such as darkened buildings,
caves and pipes in daylight, low
light and at night.
The number of UAVs ordered

are intended to give small tactical
units, such as a platoon, quick in-
telligence, surveillance and recon-
naissance information about
enemy forces at the end of a
street or over the next hill.
The DoD wants the UAV to have
a 30min flight endurance, 1.62nm
(3km) operational range, 8,000ft
service ceiling and the ability to fly
in 15kt (28km/h) winds or greater.
The SSR programme’s desired
US Marine Corps has bought 800
InstantEye Robotics quadcopters
all of the more than 7,000 squads
in the service – typically, a group of
seven to nine soldiers.
“The main purpose of this mis-
sion is to provide security, safety
and alertness to the soldiers as to
where the enemy is at all times,”
says Sunny Koshal, chief of the
soldier support branch at the US
Army’s Rock Island Arsenal Joint
Manufacturing and Technology
Center in Illinois.
US Marine Corps
for the Soldier Borne Sensor pro-
gramme has not been disclosed,
although the service has previ-
ously said it wanted a first tranche
of 2,400 systems.
EARLY CONTENDERS
The Black Hornet has become
quite popular in recent years.
FLIR Systems says it has delivered
more than 8,000 examples to the
US Army and US Marine Corps
(USMC), as well as to counter-
parts in Australia, France, Norway
and the UK.
FLIR is perhaps best known as a
manufacturer of infrared cameras,
but the company entered the UAV
market in 2016 when it acquired
the maker of the Black Hornet,
Prox Dynamics of Norway, for
$134 million. In January 2019, it
also acquired small quadcopter
manufacturer Aeryon Labs for
$200 million.
FLIR did not respond to multi-
ple requests for an interview.
Another popular UAV is
InstantEye Robotics’ Mk-2
­quadcopter. In February 2018, the
USMC ordered 800 examples of
the UAV as part of an experiment
named “Quads for Squads”.
Crown Copyright
Black Hornet carries infrared
and electro-optical cameras
military’s largest supplier of tactical
reconnaissance UAVs, jumped into
the market in 2017 when it un-
veiled the Snipe Nano UAS quad-
copter. This has foldable rotor
struts, weighs less than 142g and
can be readied and flying in less
than 60s. It has a flight endurance
of 15min and a top speed of more
than 19kt.
Steve Gitlin, AeroVironment’s
vice-president of corporate strat-
egy, says advances in electronics
have allowed manufacturers to
shrink down components to
­previously unfeasible sizes, while
also reducing prices. “It’s a natural
evolution that includes more
­advanced capabilities, as well as
being able to deploy them at low-
er and lower levels of the force
structures,” he says.
When looking to the future of
micro UAVs, he expects capabili-
ties, including sensor payloads, to
continue to expand –­ while the
size of the aircraft should continue

In light of growing military to shrink. “If you look at the evo-

­interest in small UAVs, lution of the technology, we are
AeroVironment, which is the US at the very early phases.” ■

34 | Flight International | 16-22 April 2019 flightglobal.com

 STRAIGHT&LEVEL

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

Michael

British Airways
Flying at Easter
O’Freebie The Air Ministry makes the
It seems we can no longer joke following announcement: “It
about Ryanair’s notorious is intended that
parsimony after those boarding civil aviation shall
a recent flight from Liverpool to commence on
Dublin were treated to free May 1.
drinks all round. Applications have been
The reason was that one of received for permission to
their fellow passengers was carry civilian passengers for
none other than Michael short flights during the Easter
O’Leary, returning from nearby holidays. It has been decided
Aintree and feeling A time-traveller alighting outside British Airways’ to give permission between
uncharacteristically generous engineering shed at Heathrow on 8 April might have April 17 and 22 inclusive.
after his horse, Tiger Roll, won thought there had been a serious tear in the space-time
the Grand National for the continuum after spotting these five aircraft sporting Atlantic record
second year running. And, no – liveries from 1959 to the present day. The line-up A transport Lancaster
as several Twitter users marked the 50,000th customer taking a flight on one of established a record for a
wondered – they did not have to the repainted quartet, to celebrate BA’s self-proclaimed non-stop
pay for the glass. centenary (the fifth is an Airbus A319 in the current westbound flight
Chatham Dockyard Union Flag design). The heritage from Britain to
liveries are a Boeing 747 in BOAC colours (G-BYGC), a Montreal last
Unlike a Virgin BEA liveried A319 (G-EUPJ), another 747 (G-BNLY) in the month, the pilot being
Meanwhile, in a reverse ferret British Airways 1984-1997 Landor scheme, and a third Capt. R. M. Smith, of T.C.A.,
on a par with Ryanair declaring jumbo (G-CIVB) in the 1970s Negus livery and the navigator F/O. H.
that it is to offer customers Thomas. The elapsed time
complimentary champagne and was 12hr 59min.
foot massages, it appears Virgin
Atlantic is going all “woke”.
of an Athenaeum or White’s,
Virgin is more your Spearmint
Thomas Heathrow opens
For 35 years, the UK’s “other” Rhino. Hirschmann Terminal 1 at Heathrow
flag carrier has been reinforcing Now, as part of an effort to We are sorry to report the Airport, London, the new
its nudge-nudge, wink-wink become a bit less BC and more passing after an illness of passenger
brand with photo opportunities PC, Virgin is replacing its Thomas Hirschmann, former building which
in which bikini-clad models 1940s-style pin-up Flying Lady chairman and chief executive of handles
have been required to drape motif on its latest Airbus A350- Jet Aviation, at the age of 64. domestic and,
themselves around Sir Richard 1000s with a range of male and He was the second son of Carl from May 7, international
Branson, and TV advertisements female “flying icons” of different Hirschmann, who founded the flights by British airlines,
featuring leggy female cabin genders, ethnic background and Zurich-based business aviation was royally inaugurated last
crew sashaying through airport sexuality that stress the carrier’s services group in 1967, and he Thursday, April 17, by the
terminals in bright red lip-gloss commitment to diversity and spent 29 years with the firm – Queen, accompanied by
and tight red uniforms. inclusion. now owned by General the Duke of Edinburgh.
As the old joke goes, if staid “I hope it encourages people Dynamics – including as its
old British Airways has always from all backgrounds to feel at leader from 1990 until 2003. PC-12 approved
thought of itself as an exclusive home flying with us, but also During his stint at the helm, Pilatus of Switzerland has
gentlemen’s club along the lines working with us,” says Nikki Jet expanded internationally, won Swiss certification for
Humphrey, the carrier’s senior and set up its Basel completions its PC-12 single-
vice-president of people. business, now one of the largest turboprop utility
The big question is, though, facilities of its type. aircraft. The
will Sir Beardie be able to resist Swiss
the temptation to gurn up for a manufacturer says that the
cheeky pose in front of the certification was conducted
cameras next time the airline he in compliance with US
founded launches a new route? Federal Aviation Regulation
23 requirements.
Mark Baker/AP/REX/Shutterstock

The GK-end 100-year archive

GKN is to shut its facility in Every issue of Flight
Birmingham that makes cockpit from 1909 onwards
Jet Aviation

transparencies. can be viewed online at

You could say it’s curtains for flightglobal.com/archive
Business models are changing windows factory. Hirschmann in 1991

flightglobal.com 16-22 April 2019 | Flight International | 35

LETTERS
We welcome your letters on any
aspect of the aerospace industry.
Please write to:
The Editor, Flight International,
Quadrant House, The Quadrant,
Sutton, Surrey, SM2 5AS, UK
Or email:
flight.international@flightglobal.com
The opinions on this page do not
necessarily represent those of the editor.
Letters without a full postal address sup-
plied may not be published. Letters may
also be published on flightglobal.com
and must be no longer than 250 words.
Simulation gap
in MH370 probe
Much of what Gerald Darby says
about Malaysia Airlines flight
MH370 in his letter: “MH370
scenario still stands up” (Flight
International, 2-8 April) is pure
speculation, unsupported by an-
ything in the Malaysian safety in-
vestigation report or the earlier
­computer crime examination.
A few waypoints, backed up
five weeks before the disaster by
a computer left idle for more
than 15min, is hardly evidence
of “very careful planning” and
“hours of practice”.
Mr Darby did not focus on the
simulations that could – and
should – have been carried out
by the investigators, but they
were not.
Until discounted by detailed
analysis, the scenario I consider
likely is that a cargo fire disabled
the ­electrics in the hold, over-
heated the adjacent electronics
bay, ­asphyxiated the crew, and
­eventually breached the hull.
A connection made by the co-
pilot’s cellphone suggests a
cockpit side window may have
been opened to clear smoke, and
the aircraft flew on, with the au-
PlaneCutaway.indd 1
36 | Flight International | 16-22 April 2019
flight.international@flightglobal.com
r­ emember the large glossy black
PROPULSION and whites from North American
Engine debate powers forward of their XB-70 Valkyrie bomber.
In contrast, not a single company
in the UK replied to me.
The Americans knew how to
enthuse children at an early age.
Pete Franks
via email
Little chance to
save the aircraft
Emirates
Further to the issues surrounding
A380 and 747-8 are being supplanted by long-range twins the Boeing 737 Max 8, I wonder
what the effect of a Maneuvering
The debate about four engines versus two engines for long- Characteristics Augmentation
haul airliners continues, courtesy of Tim Mear and Malcolm System (MCAS) failure on a
Bowden (Flight International, 12-18 March, and 2-8 April). flaps-up landing might be.
Starting a flight with two engines is safe in modern aircraft With flaps up in manual flight,
but common sense suggests that a four-engined aircraft is like- at a high angle of attack (AOA),
ly to be safer. It is not true, as Mr Bowden states, that after a MCAS triggers close to the
single engine failure on a four-engined aircraft, an immediate ground. Applying 10s of full-
landing would be required. down stab trim activation pro-
In February 2005, a British Airways Boeing 747-400 duces a 2.5° movement of stab
­suffered an engine failure during the initial departure from nose down (half full movement).
Los Angeles International airport and the crew decided to With stick-shaker one side and
continue the flight to the UK, taking advantage of the flight totally counter-intuitive pull-
continuation policy approved by the UK Civil Aviation back required on the elevator
Authority. controls – which does not stop
I have also taken advantage of this policy when shutting the trimming, but everything you
down a vibrating engine over Gander by completing the have ever learnt says it ought to –
flight to London Heathrow. you are in an apparent stall.
Regrettably, four-engined aircraft are fast being retired by Asking crews to understand
the world’s airlines. Airbus with the A380, and Boeing with the conflicting information while the
747-8, have both failed to predict the rise in popularity of the aircraft is performing in such a
long-range twin. way is not a practicable solution.
Colin Starkey As line pilots we are told to
Bath, UK look and see, get the checklist out
and do as it says. Without the
AOA disagree indication, I think
topilot disengaged and just the US enthusiasm crews had little chance for timely
envelope protection functional. Cartsen Wiltschko’s letter: “Avia- action.
The innovative calculations tion’s future lies with children” It’s fascinating to watch the
by Inmarsat and meticulous (Flight International, 2-8 April) aircrew experts from the calm of
­examination of recovered debris shows how easily the spark is lit. their living rooms, knowing both
must be praised. When I was at school in my the problem and the solution, tell
However, the search could young teens I wrote to every air- us how easy the solution is.
have been narrowed to a manage- craft manufacturer in the UK and Partly of course they are right,
able area by full and thorough the USA that I could find in the solution is easy; the real issue
simulation of how events might Flight International, asking for is knowing exactly what’s wrong,
have unfolded. photographs of their aircraft. in a highly pressured situation,
Richard Lloyd Almost every company in the without prior notification.
Coventry, UK USA replied. In particular, I Name and address withheld
Check out Flight International’s Image Store
Browse or customise a gift or memento from our CUTAWAY ARCHIVE
of more than 1000 aircraft drawings
www.flightglobalimages.com
09/02/2017 11:46
flightglobal.com

EDITORIAL, ADVERTISING, PRODUCTION & READER CONTACTS
EDITORIAL +44 20 8652 3206
Quadrant House, The Quadrant,
Sutton, Surrey, SM2 5AS, UK
flight.international@flightglobal.com
Editor Craig Hoyle
+44 20 8652 3834 craig.hoyle@flightglobal.com
Deputy Editor Dominic Perry
+44 20 8652 3206 dominic.perry@flightglobal.com
Head of Strategic Content Murdo Morrison FRAeS
+44 20 8652 4395 murdo.morrison@flightglobal.com
Features Editor Dan Thisdell
+44 20 8652 4491 dan.thisdell@flightglobal.com
Business & General Aviation Editor Kate Sarsfield
+44 20 8652 3885 kate.sarsfield@flightglobal.com
Consulting Editor David Learmount
+44 7785 901787 david.learmount@ntlworld.com
Magazine Enquiries
flight.international@flightglobal.com
AIR TRANSPORT TEAM
Executive Editor Graham Dunn
+44 20 8322 6858 graham.dunn@flightglobal.com
Dashboard Editor Niall O’Keeffe
+44 20 7911 1316 niall.okeeffe@flightglobal.com
Managing Editor – Flight Airline Business
Lewis Harper +44 20 7911 3105
lewis.harper@flightglobal.com
Air Transport Editor David Kaminski-Morrow
+44 20 8652 3909
david.kaminski-morrow@flightglobal.com
Aerospace Editor Michael Gubisch
+44 20 7911 1311 michael.gubisch@flightglobal.com
Senior Reporter Oliver Clark
+44 20 7911 1313 oliver.clark@flightglobal.com
AMERICAS
Americas Managing Editor – Air Transport
Ghim-Lay Yeo
+1 781 353 8054 ghimlay.yeo@flightglobal.com
North America Air Transport Reporter
Thomas Risen
+1 571 225 8833 thomas.risen@flightglobal.com
Americas Finance Editor Edward Russell
+1 703 836 1897 edward.russell@flightglobal.com
Americas Aerospace Editor Jon Hemmerdinger
+1 617 397 2809 jon.hemmerdinger@flightglobal.com
Aviation Reporter Garrett Reim
+1 571 216 5327 garrett.reim@flightglobal.com
ASIA/PACIFIC
Asia Editor Greg Waldron
+65 6780 4314 greg.waldron@flightglobal.com
Asia Deputy Editor Ellis Taylor
+61 498 878 583 ellis.taylor@flightglobal.com
Reporter Firdaus Hashim
+65 6780 4313 firdaus.hashim@flightglobal.com
EUROPE/MIDDLE EAST
Israel Correspondent Arie Egozi
FINANCE
Global Finance Editor Sophie Segal
+1 212 448 2253 sophie.segal@flightglobal.com
FLIGHTGLOBAL.COM
Online Content Manager Amber Elias
+44 20 8652 3835 amber.elias@flightglobal.com
EDITORIAL PRODUCTION
Head of Americas & Europe Copy Editing
Monica Lugo
Head of Asia Copy Editing Yuan Ting Chua
Chief Copy Editor, FlightGlobal Dan Bloch
Layout Copy Editors Sophia Huang, Tim Norman
Global Operations Manager Louise Murrell
Deputy Global Production Editor Rachel Warner
Global Digital Producer Damion Diplock
Deputy Global Digital Producer Andrew Costerton
Art Director Chris Gardner
Senior Designers Sonja Ye, Christine Zhang
Designers Zoey Chen, Lin Ning, Shirely Xiao,
Consulting Technical Artist Tim Hall
flightglobal.com
READER SERVICES
EVENTS
DISPLAY ADVERTISEMENT SALES READER SERVICES
29 April-1 May
Quadrant House, The Quadrant, Subscriptions Airports Show Dubai
Sutton, Surrey, SM2 5AS, UK Jenny Smith Dubai, UAE
Flight International theairportshow.com
EUROPE Subscriptions, Reed Business Information,
Key Account Manager Richard Perry PO Box 302, Haywards Heath, 21-22 May
+44 20 8652 8798 richard.perry@flightglobal.com West Sussex, RH16 3DH, UK POINTS of difference
Singapore
Sales Support Gillian Cumming Subscription Enquiries flightglobal.com/points
+44 20 8652 8837 gillian.cumming@rbi.co.uk From UK: 0330 333 9533
NORTH & SOUTH AMERICA
From overseas: +44 1444 475 682 21-23 May
Fax +44 1444 445301 EBACE
Vice-President, North & South America flightinternational.subs@quadrantsubs.com Geneva, Switzerland
Rob Hancock +1 703 795 5155
ebace.aero/2019
robert.hancock@flightglobal.com Subscription Rates
1 Year: £145/$229/€179
Regional Sales Director
2 Years: £246/$389/€304
23-24 May
Warren McEwan +1 703 836 3719
3 Years: £348/$549/€429 REACH your customers
warren.mcewan@flightglobal.com Only paid subscriptions available. Cheques Singapore
payable to Flight International flightglobal.com/reach
ITALY
Sales Manager Riccardo Laureri
Flight International is one of FlightGlobal’s 17-23 June
+39 (02) 236 2500 media@laureriassociates.it Paris Air Show
(publishing, events and FlightJobs) products and
Laureri Associates SRL, Via Vallazze 43, services. FlightGlobal is part of data and Le Bourget, Paris, France
20131 Milano, Italy analytics company Cirium. siae.fr
Cirium brings together powerful data and analytics
ISRAEL to keep the world in motion. Delivering insight, 2-3 July
Sales Executive Asa Talbar +972 77 562 1900 built from decades of experience in the sector, Digital cargo
Fax: +972 77 562 1903 talbar@talbar.co.il enabling travel companies, aircraft manufacturers, Amsterdam, the Netherlands
airports, airlines and financial institutions, among flightglobal.com/digitalcargo
Talbar Media, 41 HaGiva’a St, PO Box 3184, Givat
others, to make logical and informed decisions
Ada 37808, Israel
which shape the future of travel, growing revenues
and enhancing customer experiences. Cirium is
19-21 July
ASIA/AUSTRALASIA Royal International Air Tattoo
part of RELX PLC, a global provider of
Key Account Manager Jay Ee information-based analytics and decision tools for
RAF Fairford, Gloucestershire, UK
+65 6780 4301 jay.ee@flightglobal.com professional and business customers. RELX PLC airtattoo.com
Fax: +65 6789 7575 shares are traded on the London, Amsterdam and
1 Changi Business Park Crescent, New York Stock Exchanges using the following 27 August-1 September
ticker symbols: London: REL; Amsterdam: REN; MAKS
#06-01 Plaza 8 @ CBP, Singapore 486025
New York: RELX. Moscow, Russia
RUSSIA & CIS www.cirium.com aviasalon.com/en
Director Arkady Komarov
10-13 September
komarov@worldbusinessmedia.ru DSEI
Tel/Fax: +7 (495) 987 3800 London, UK
World Business Media, Leningradsky Prospekt, 80, Flight International welcomes unsolicited dsei.co.uk
contributions from readers but cannot guarantee to
Korpus G, Office 807, Moscow 125190, Russia
return photographs safely. 11-12 September
RECRUITMENT © and Database Rights 2019 Reed Business Aerospace Big Data Miami
Head of Sales Sophie Wild Information Ltd. All rights reserved. No part of this Miami, USA
+44 20 8652 4239 sophie.wild@flightglobal.com publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval flightglobal.com/bigdata
system or transmitted in any form or by any means,
Business Development Manager Katie Mann
+44 20 8652 3074 katie.mann@flightglobal.com
electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or
otherwise, without the prior permission in writing of the
21-24 September
publishers. World Routes
Business Development Executive Patrick Lappin Adelaide, Australia
+44 20 8652 4236 patrick.lappin@flightglobal.com Registered at the Post Office as a newspaper. routesonline.com/events
Published by Reed Business Information Ltd,
CLASSIFIED Quadrant House, The Quadrant, Sutton, Surrey SM2 5-7 November
5AS, UK. Tel: +44 20 8652 3500.
Key Account Manager Jay Ee Vertical Flight Expo
+65 6780 4301 jay.ee@flightglobal.com Newstrade distributed by Marketforce (UK), 2nd Farnborough, UK
Floor, 5 Churchill Place, Canary Wharf, London, E14
5HU, UK. Tel: +44 20 3787 9001. verticalflightexpo.com
ADVERTISEMENT PRODUCTION
Production Manager Sean Behan Classified advertising prepress by CCM. Printed in 17-21 November
Great Britain by William Gibbons and Sons Ltd
+44 20 8652 8232 sean.behan@rbi.co.uk Dubai Air Show
Flight International published weekly 49 issues per Dubai, UAE
MARKETING year. Periodicals postage paid at Rahway, NJ.
Postmaster send changes to Reed Business
dubaiairshow.aero
Group Marketing Manager Jo Goodwin
+44 20 7911 1366 jo.goodwin@flightglobal.com
Information, c/o Mercury International Ltd, 365 Blair
Road, Avenel, NJ 07001
4-5 December
Mexico’s Aerospace Summit
This periodical is sold subject to the following
DATA conditions: namely that it is not, without the written
Santiago de Queretaro, Mexico
Data cited in Flight International is sourced from consent of the publishers first given, lent, re-sold, mexicoaerospacesummit.com
Cirium, a data and analytics company in the hired out or in any unauthorised cover by way of
trade, or affixed to, or as part of, any publication of 5-6 December
wider travel industry. For Cirium’s data team, advertising, literary or pictorial matter whatsoever. Aerospace Big Data
please contact: Trevor Mountford No part of the content may be stored electronically, Barcelona
or reproduced or transmitted in any form without the
trevor.mountford@flightglobal.com written permission of the Publisher. Barcelona, Spain
flightglobal.com/bigdata
PUBLISHING MANAGEMENT ISSN 0015-3710 (Print) ISSN 2059-3864 (Online)
VP, FG Connect and Conferences 10-12 December
Mark Pilling Gulf Defense & Aerospace
mark.pilling@flightglobal.com Kuwait City, Kuwait
Executive Director Content gulfdefense.com
Max Kingsley-Jones
max.kingsley.jones@flightglobal.com
Commercial Director Publishing For a full list of events see
Stuart Burgess flightglobal.com/events
stuart.burgess@flightglobal.com
16-22 April 2019 | Flight International | 37

WORK EXPERIENCE CHARLES PORTEOUS
Why listening is the key to success
Charles Porteous is president and founder of Seefeld Group, a consultancy helping aviation companies
improve decision-making and grow revenues by better understanding their markets and customers
How did you come to business
aviation?
After completing an MBA, I start-
ed marketing research with a sub-
sidiary of British American Tobac-
co, where we regularly used the
latest techniques to gather market
feedback and derive insights.
However, I always loved aviation
and doing business international-
ly. In the 1990s, Bombardier up-
graded its marketing and market
analysis activity. The opportunity
to apply more sophisticated and
proven marketing research tools to
a dynamic, growing and interna-
tionally oriented industry was irre-
sistible. I was particularly interest-
ed in the commercial aspect of
business aviation because few
high-value, global industries have
its depth and breadth, so I em-
braced the opportunity to work
with the OEM. In the early 2000s, I
could see many businesses were
missing out on opportunities or
were unprepared for the future be-
cause they didn’t have the neces-
sary market information on which
to build commercial strategies, so I
set up Seefeld Group in 2006 to fill
the gap.
Where does a marketing and
research company fit into
business aviation?
Business aviation encompasses
so much more than just pilots, en-
gineers and OEMs. Establishing
the “voice of the customer” and
discovering what customers real-
ly think is vital to success. Re-
search helps clients grow revenue
and reduce risk by delivering un-
biased customer and market per-
spective. You can only gather that
flightglobal.com
Gaining firms’ input via research still has great value, says Porteous
information by working with an
independent third party that can
analyse responses and remove in-
built bias. We bring important in-
sights that assist international
companies in making better-in-
formed decisions.
What does your working week
consist of?
Through the hundreds of execu-
tive interviews or survey ques-
tionnaires in the field each year, I
speak privately with people
every week about a variety of
topics spanning the full business
aviation spectrum. Significant
time is spent designing the ques-
tionnaires and discussion guides
for upcoming marketing research
projects, and even more time is
spent analysing the results from
more data. It is always really in-
spiring to visit Seefeld’s clients
on site and present research re-
Seefeld Group
sults by letting the data “tell a
story”. Regularly attending busi-
ness aviation shows and confer-
ences is critical. It allows me to
see first hand how business avia-
tion is evolving and what are the
emerging topics or clients that
are likely to become future pro-
jects for Seefeld. Seeing our work
directly applied at shows
through product launches, re-
branding or investment an-
nouncements is very satisfying
and demonstrates that what we
do is hugely valuable.
What are the challenges?
Since we have clients from
around the world and multiple
projects happening simultane-
ously, we need to manage time
zones, language and cultural dif-
ferences. What is acceptable in
one region may not be in another.
We also need to be diplomats as
16-22 April 2019 | Flight International | 43
WORKING WEEK
findings sometimes tell “hard
truths”! We are always on the
hunt for the right people to inter-
view and we need to make sure
participation rates remain at sus-
tainable levels. “Survey fatigue”
means we always have to think
smartly about demonstrating our
interviews are influential, and
participation contributes to a bet-
ter aviation industry.
What will be the impact of Big
Data on business aviation?
There is a common misconcep-
tion that Big Data will reduce the
need to conduct “voice of the cus-
tomer” research as answers will
now exclusively lie in the data.
Yes, Big Data enables us to better
understand trends in customer
behaviour, but it cannot tell us
how customers feel or what they
perceive – both are critical. How-
ever, better understanding of mis-
sion/passenger/maintenance pro-
files using Big Data is enabling
business to better segment clients
and move away from a one-size-
fits-all approach to a new level of
competitive advantage. As new
buyer segments are uncovered,
there will be a need to interview
them to discover what they de-
sire. Ironically, this leads to tar-
geted marketing. n
Looking for a job in aerospace?
Check out our listings online at
flightglobal.com/jobs
If you would like to feature in
Working Week, or you know
someone who would, email
your pitch to kate.sarsfield@
flightglobal.com
Behind the ‘Seens’
It's what you don't see that matters
We have a history of providing cabin electronics and management systems. These
systems can encompass many things – all contributing to a better flight experience for
passengers and crews. Our products aren’t seen, but you’ll be glad they’re on board.

baesystems.com/intellicabin