FlightGlobal.

com April 2024

Hex plan
rises at
Heli-Expo

Leonardo boss sketches

ambitious future p22

Osprey tiltrotor ready for

operational return p48

Buying big
American renewal boosts commercial backlogs p8
£5.99

City slicker Into formation

Airbus aims Uncrewed
high with assets tempt
eVTOL type US Air Force
p37 p42
 Comment
Moviestore/Shutterstock
Encore l’amour
Faced with continued missteps by one of its largest
suppliers, Boeing is contemplating rebuilding its union with
a company it divorced decades earlier. That move is not
without risk, but doing nothing is also not an option
D
ivorce and subsequent
remarriage to the same
person is not unheard
of – think Elizabeth Tay-
lor and Richard Burton – but the
long-term outcome is not always
lasting happiness.
With that in mind, what to make
of Boeing’s pursuit of loss-making
and embattled aerostructures sup-
plier Spirit AeroSystems – a busi-
ness it originally divested in 2005.
But this appears to be a marriage
proposal driven by necessity, not
rekindled passion.
Boeing will argue that the move
is justified, that too many of its
recent problems have stemmed
from under-performance by one of
its largest suppliers.
By bringing Spirit back into
the fold, the airframer can train
significant institutional firepower –
engineering, production, financial
– on its problems to make them all
go away.
Quality oversight is improved,
less costly rework needs to be per-
formed, and Boeing also shores up
a vital piece of its supply chain.
While Spirit cannot be fixed
overnight, Boeing’s bet is that it
3 Flight International April 2024
will still be a sight quicker than
letting its supplier work through
the issues alone.
Should Boeing proceed, it could
even point across the Atlantic for
reassurance that such a strategy
makes sense.
There, Airbus has successfully
revamped and reintegrated its in-
house aerostructures suppliers in
France and Germany and seems –
at this stage, anyway – to be better
managing the demands of a steep
production ramp-up.
What will Spirit cost? In purely
financial terms, it is hard to know.
The firm’s market capitalisation sits
at around $3.5 billion, but that in-
cludes a substantial chunk of work
for Airbus – A220 wings and A350
fuselage sections – that will almost
certainly need to be divested.
For the sake of argument, let us
say it will cost Boeing somewhere
in the region of $2.5 billion – rela-
tively small change for a company
that brought in revenue north of
$70 billion last year. That it made
a net loss of $2.2 billion in the pro-
cess was in no small measure due
to the disruptions caused by Spir-
it’s quality lapses, of course.
For richer,
for poorer
Therefore, the airframer will
argue, the cost of doing nothing is
significantly higher. (The fact that
such a deal might also disrupt its
rival’s operation would merely be
an incidental bonus).
But there are other costs that
Boeing will be considering. For in-
stance, does it have the manage-
ment bandwidth to successfully
re-integrate Spirit’s operation? On
a similar note, while its engineers
try to fix its own problems, does it
have sufficient strength in depth to
take on Spirit’s as well?
For Boeing there are no easy
answers. It cannot stick with
the status quo for fear of see-
ing disruption to its production
system continuing indefinitely.
Equally, finding another supplier
for such a critical component as
the 737’s fuselage would be nigh-
on impossible without enduring
even worse upset.
On that basis alone, a deal for
Spirit may seem the only sen-
sible course of action, however
unpalatable it may be.
Time for Boeing to walk Spirit up
the aisle again? ◗
See p14
 In focus
Piling up 6 Sweden accedes to NATO 16 Buy, buy, bye: industry spends
Flying the flag 8 Rafale output ramps up 17 big at final Heli-Expo 26
JetBlue, Spirit drop merger 9 UK nearing end of Apache F-15E nears ACES 5 update 34
USAF cuts fighter procurement renewal 20 CityAirbus NextGen unveiled 37
targets in new spending plan 10 Pilots slept simultaneously on Poor airmanship preceded fatal
Corporate structures 14 Jakarta flight 25 A320 crash at Karachi 38

20

Warrior spirit British Army to declare readiness with AH-64E

FlightGlobal.com April 2024

Hex plan
rises at
Heli-Expo

Leonardo boss sketches

ambitious future p22

Osprey tiltrotor ready for

operational return p48

Buying big
American renewal boosts commercial backlogs p8

9
£5.99

City slicker Into formation

Embraer

Airbus aims Uncrewed

high with assets tempt
eVTOL type US Air Force
p37 p42

Regulars Comment 3 Straight & Level 60 Women in aviation 66

4 Flight International April 2024


In depth
Moving into formation 42
The US Air Force is leading
the way as militaries around
the world eye the potential for
using uncrewed combat aircraft
alongside manned fighters to
gain an operational advantage
66
Troubled return 48
V-22 Osprey fleet to resume
service, but questions remain
After FARA 52
How war in Ukraine influenced
US Army helicopter plans
56
Contents
Sustainable view 56
Hybrid Air Vehicles’ Airlander
is set for polar expeditions
Green bonanza 58
Stralis Aircraft is pioneering
hydrogen-electric powertrains
42
April 2024 Flight International 5
 Visit FlightGlobal Premium for all the latest aviation news and insight FlightGlobal.com
Piling up
As pressure mounts from the NTSB’s
probe into the 5 January door-plug
loss, Boeing is also facing customers
wondering when their aircraft will arrive
Jon Hemmerdinger Tampa
A
nother month, another
barrel of trouble for Boe-
ing. In recent weeks, the
USA’s top aviation safe-
ty investigator essentially said the
company has been stonewalling
her team’s inquiry into the 5 Jan-
uary ejection of an Alaska Airlines
737 Max 9’s mid-cabin door plug.
Meanwhile, several of the air-
framer’s most important customers
are expressing their displeasure,
with United Airlines’ chief execu-
tive even threatening to hand more
business to Airbus if Boeing cannot
get its house in order.
These developments heap more
negative press on Boeing as it
works to recover from the 5 January
incident, which was apparently due
to an internal safety lapse. In the
meantime, the door-plug failure
has forced Boeing to slow produc-
tion, leaving customers fuming.
“This is not a 12-month issue…
This is a two-decade issue,” Unit-
ed chief Scott Kirby said during an
investor conference on 12 March.
His team is considering switching
orders for the long-delayed and
still-not-certificated 737 Max 10
with orders for Airbus A321neos –
but only if “we get a deal where the
economics work”.
Fleet plan
United holds unfilled orders for
235 Max 10s according to Cirium
data. But in January the airline said
it was removing the type from its
fleet plan – though not cancelling
the commitments – amid the con-
tinuing delays to the programme.
“We’ve asked Boeing to stop
building Max 10s for us and build
Max 9s,” Kirby says. “If and when
the Max 10 gets certified, we’ll con-
vert them back to Max 10s. The Max
10 is out for us until it’s certified.”
While unwelcome for Boeing,
commercial pressure is perhaps to
6 Flight International April 2024
be expected. But continued deep
regulatory scrutiny is another
thing entirely.
In recent weeks, the head of the
National Transportation Safety
Board (NTSB) has criticised Boeing
for not disclosing to investigators
basic information about the work
that was performed on the door
plug at the manufactuer’s Renton
site before the jet’s delivery to
Alaska last October.
“Boeing has not provided us with
the documents and information
that we have requested numerous
NTSB
times over the past few months,
specifically with respect to open-
ing, closing and removal of the
door [plug], and the team that
does that work at the Renton facil-
ity,” NTSB chair Jennifer Homendy
told lawmakers during 6 March
testimony on Capitol Hill.
46
737 Max jets Southwest Airlines
estimates it will receive this year –
down from a previous forecast of 79
She adds that Boeing had
specifically failed to name the
workers who performed the door-
plug work, or even name the 25
workers in Renton who compose
the team that oversees 737 doors.
“We don’t have the records. We
don’t have the names… It’s absurd
that two months later we don’t
have that,” Homendy says.
In an earlier preliminary report,
the NTSB said that the four bolts
intended to secure the plug were
absent at the time it failed. Inves-
tigators also said workers at Boe-
ing’s Renton site had opened the
plug to perform fuselage rework
before delivering the jet. That evi-
dence – and Boeing’s admission of
responsibility – suggests workers in
Investigation into door-plug failure is being
hampered by apparent poor record keeping
Renton failed to replace the bolts
when they refitted the plug.
Boeing has consistently insist-
ed it is fully co-operating with the
NTSB’s inquiry. Immediately after
Homendy’s 6 March testimony, the
airframer said it had supplied in-
vestigators with names of the 25
workers on the door team.
But in a 13 March follow-up letter
to lawmakers, Homendy revealed
that Boeing had still not identified
the actual workers who completed
the work on Alaska’s jet.
The reason: Boeing cannot find
any records.
“Boeing has informed us that they
are unable to find the records doc-
umenting this work,” Homendy’s
letter says. “The absence of those
records will complicate the NTSB’s
investigation moving forward.”
Her letter also notes that in-
vestigators have been unable to
communicate with the Boeing
employee who manages the door
team in Renton. The manager is un-
available as he is on medical leave,
his attorney told the NTSB, accord-
ing to Homendy’s letter.
Additionally, Boeing told the
NTSB that security camera footage
at the Renton site – footage that
might have shown the plug being
opened – has been overwritten and
is therefore unavailable.

“We will continue supporting
this investigation in the transpar-
ent and proactive fashion we have
supported all regulatory inquiries
into this accident,” Boeing says.
“We have worked hard to honour
the rules about the release of
investigative information in an en-
vironment of intense interest from
our employees, customers and
other stakeholders.”
Ongoing inquiry
The NTSB’s investigation remains
ongoing, and investigators have
not said why Boeing lacks an offi-
cial record of the plug work.
However, a purported Boe-
ing employee, commenting in
mid-January on aviation website
LeehamNews.com, gave an appar-
ent account of what happened.
The employee wrote that the door-
plug work was cited in a “bulle-
tin-board”-like communications
“Boeing has not provided us with
the documents and information
that we have requested numerous
times over the past few months”
Jennifer Homendy Chair, National Transportation Safety Board
system used by Boeing, but not in
the company’s official system for
logging build records.
The employee said the plug was
opened – but not fully removed
– to replace a faulty pressure
seal. Notably, employees wrote in
Boeing’s communications system
that fully removing the plug would
necessitate filing a report in the
official build-record system, but
that just opening the door would
not. This was despite the fact
that the four critical bolts that
secure the plug must be removed
whether the plug is fully removed
or just opened.
As the investigation continues,
Boeing has significantly slowed
its Renton 737 production lines,
meaning further delivery delays.
In January, it also disclosed fresh
delays to the certification of its
smallest and largest 737 Max
varaints, the Max 7 and Max 10
Airframer Safety
– the latter, of course, the subject
of United’s displeasure.
Through last year, Boeing
had said the Max 7 would be
certificated in 2023. That was, it
appears, in expectation of the jet
being granted a temporary ex-
emption by the US Federal Avi-
ation Administration (FAA) from
airworthiness rules related to an
engine anti-ice system, due to a
problem involving the risk of over-
heating. If granted, the exemption
would have allowed the FAA to
certificate the type – and airlines
to operate it – while Boeing devel-
oped a permanent fix.
The exemption request, howev-
er, prompted swift criticism from
lawmakers and pilot unions, and
in January Boeing reversed course
by withdrawing it.
Improved system
Boeing says it will now certifi-
cate the Max 7 after develop-
ing an improved anti-ice system,
a process executives say could
take one year. Where that change
leaves the Max 10’s timeline
remains unclear – Boeing has long
planned to have that jet certificat-
ed after the Max 7.
Such troubles pose particular
problems for United, a top Max 10
customer, and Southwest Airlines,
which holds orders for 300 Max 7s,
far more than any other airline.
During the 12 March conference
attended by United’s Kirby, South-
west chief executive Bob Jordan
also vented at Boeing.
“Boeing needs to become a
better company – and the de-
liveries will follow that,” Jordan
says. “Fix the culture, whatever is
at work here. We all need Boeing
stronger two years from now, five
years from now, 10 years from
now. And that takes precedent
over delivery delays.”
Like United, Southwest has also
had to significantly revise its fleet
plan as a result of the delays. It
now expects to receive 46 737
Max from Boeing in 2024 – and
possibly as few as 25 – down from
an estimate just weeks before of
79, Jordan says.
In response, Boeing says it is
“squarely focused on implement-
ing changes to strengthen quality
across our production system and
taking the necessary time to deliv-
er high-quality airplanes that meet
all regulatory requirements”. ◗
See p14
April 2024 Flight International 7
 Cover story
Flying the flag
Although American Airlines’ latest fleet expansion deals
included solid business for Airbus and Embraer, the big
winners were Boeing and its delayed 737 Max 10
Boeing
Howard Hardee Sacramento
A
cknowledging that Amer-
ican Airlines’ deal for 115
737 Max 10s is a “vote of
confidence in Boeing”,
airline executives say financial
protections are built into the
deal should the aerospace giant
stumble further.
Disclosed on 4 March, the Boe-
ing agreement – which comprises
85 new orders and the conver-
sion of 30 orders for the 737 Max
8 – was placed alongside separate
deals with Airbus for 85 more
A321neos and Embraer for 90 E175
regional jets.
American chief financial officer
Devon May says the majority of
the aircraft will be delivered in
2029 or later.
“These orders maintain the con-
sistency of our fleet, drive premium
capacity growth, increase our
average gauge and further smooth
deliveries over the remainder of the
decade,” May says.
While undoubtedly a boon for
all three aircraft manufactur-
ers, American’s order is a par-
ticular boost for Boeing and an
endorsement of its beleaguered
Max 10 programme.
“This is a vote of confidence in
Boeing,” May says. “We expect them
to deliver Max 10 for us starting in
2028. That being said, given some
of their recent challenges, we have
negotiated for full flexibility and
financial protections.”
May did not detail the specif-
ics of American’s contract with
Boeing, however.
8 Flight International April 2024
Stan Deal, chief executive of
Boeing Commercial Airplanes,
says the manufacturer is com-
mitted to “delivering on this new
order and supporting American’s
strategic growth. We deeply ap-
preciate American Airlines’ trust
in Boeing and its confidence in the
737 Max family.”
Due to ongoing challenges, the
Max 7 and Max 10 programmes have
faced repeated delays in achieving
certification from the US Federal
Aviation Administration. Boeing
hopes the Max 7 will be certificated
within about a year, followed short-
ly after by the Max 10.
115
American’s 737 Max 10 commitment
– 85 new orders and 30 conversions
from previous deal for Max 8s
The largest variant of Boeing’s
re-engined narrowbody family, the
Max 10 will be capable of carrying
up to 230 passengers and will have
a range of 3,100nm (5,740km).
Boeing now holds more than
1,000 unfilled orders for the type,
according to Cirium fleets data.
“The Max 10 is a new variant for
us, but it will allow us to continue to
upgauge our fleet,” May says. “It will
be great for our customers, provide
more flexibility for our network and
match capacity with demand in a
truly efficient manner.”
For the next several years, Amer-
ican expects to receive 35-40 new
Carrier will begin receiving largest variant
of re-engined narrowbody in 2028
aircraft annually – mostly 787-9
widebodies and long-range A321X-
LR narrowbodies – and for annual
capital expenses to stay between
$3 billion and $3.5 billion.
“In 2025 and beyond, we have a
fleet that allows for a wide range
of growth, depending on the de-
mand environment we’re in,” May
says. “We also have the flexibility to
grow at a much slower rate – or not
grow at all – if we find ourselves in a
soft demand environment. We don’t
have 80 or 100 airplanes a year
coming at us, so we won’t find our-
selves locked into outsize growth.”
Through what May calls
an “accelerated fleet renewal
programme”, American added 630
aircraft between 2014 and 2022, re-
tiring 500 aircraft over that period.
It has simplified its mainline fleet
since 2019, cutting this from nine to
four aircraft types: 777s, 787s, 737s
and A320-family jets.
“Over the past decade, we have
invested heavily to modernise
and simplify our fleet, which is the
largest and youngest among US
network carriers,” says chief execu-
tive Robert Isom.
Including the latest commit-
ments, American now holds orders
for 440 aircraft.
The incoming E175s – to be
operated by American’s wholly
owned subsidiary carriers under the
American Eagle brand – will allow
the retirement of its 50-seat region-
al jets by the end of the decade.
At the end of 2023, American’s
fleet included 98 50-seat jets,
including 40 Bombardier CRJ200s
and 58 ERJ-145s, according to the
airline’s 2023 financial filings. ◗
 Airlines Strategy

JetBlue, Spirit pull plug on merger

US carriers claimed combination was the only way to compete
with ‘big four’ but federal judge ruled against plan in January
Jon Hemmerdinger Tampa

J
etBlue Airways has called off
plans to acquire Spirit Air-
lines and agreed to pay it a
$69 million termination pen-
alty, a move coming after a federal
judge in January blocked the carri-
ers’ proposed combination on an-
ti-competitive grounds.
New York-based JetBlue and
Miramar, Florida-based Spirit signed
Markus Mainka/Shutterstock

a termination agreement on 1 March,

announced three days later.
“Given the hurdles to closing that
remain, we decided together that
both airlines’ interests are better
served by moving forward inde-
pendently,” says JetBlue chief ex-
ecutive Joanna Geraghty.
“We believed this merger was
worth pursuing because it would
have unleashed a national low-fare,
high-value competitor to the ‘big
four’ airlines.”
JetBlue in 2022 began execut-
ing a hostile takeover of discounter
Spirit, which at the time was pursu-
ing a plan to be acquired by Den-
ver-based Frontier Airlines.
Spirit chief executive Ted Chris-
tie initially opposed JetBlue’s offer,
saying a Spirit-Frontier combination
faced a better chance of clearing a
US government anti-trust review.
But JetBlue’s terms proved too
tempting for Spirit’s shareholders,
who overrode Christie and his team
when they voted later in 2022 to
move forward with that offer. The
US Department of Justice sued to
block the deal last year, and a feder-
al judge ruled against it in January.
JetBlue and Spirit initially ap-
pealed the decision but have now
abandoned their plan.
“Given the hurdles to closing, we
decided together that both airlines’
interests are better served by
moving forward independently”
Joanna Geraghty Chief executive, JetBlue Airways
Carriers have now set out separate
roadmaps to regaining profitability
“After discussing our options
with our advisers and JetBlue, we
concluded that current regulato-
ry obstacles will not permit us to
close this transaction in a timely
fashion,” Christie says.
“We are disappointed we cannot
move forward with a deal that
would save hundreds of millions
for consumers. However, we re-
main confident in our future as a
successful independent airline.”
The move leaves JetBlue and
Spirit to compete alone against
four massive carriers – American
Airlines, Delta Air Lines, Southwest
Airlines and United Airlines.
Spirit, which lost $447 million last
year, faces massive looming debt
payments and has been saddled
with operational disruptions result-
ing from Pratt & Whitney’s recall of
PW1100G powerplants, prompting
questions about its viability as a
standalone business.
“Spirit is confident and focused on
returning to profitability,” the carrier
says. “The company has been tak-
ing steps to ensure the strength of
its balance sheet and operations,
including assessing options to refi-
nance upcoming debt maturities.”
Spirit has hired two companies to
help advise on operational and fi-
nancial matters: investment banking
firm Perella Weinberg Partners and
law firm Davis Polk & Wardwell.
Value proposition
Geraghty, meanwhile, insists Jet-
Blue “has a strong organic plan and
unique competitive advantages, in-
cluding a unique value proposition
and high-value geographies”.
“We have already begun our plan
to restore profitability,” she adds.
That plan will involve JetBlue
“deepening its network relevance in
proven geographies and better seg-
menting its product offerings while
delivering meaningful cost savings.”
Already this year JetBlue has
pulled its 2024 expansion plans,
appointed Geraghty to replace the
long-serving Robin Hayes, and re-
hired former chief commercial of-
ficer Marty St George as president.
JetBlue, which lost $310 million in
2023, intends to reveal more details
about its plans during an investor
day on 30 May. ◗

April 2024 Flight International 9

 Visit FlightGlobal Premium for all the latest aviation news and insight FlightGlobal.com
USAF cuts fighter procurement
targets in adjusted spending plan
Service seeks reduced acquisition of two frontline types
during next financial year, with increased allocation to go
on advancing its Next Generation Air Dominance platform
Ryan Finnerty Syracuse
T
he US Air Force (USAF)
has outlined planned ma-
jor changes to its fighter
acquisition programmes in
fiscal year 2025, including taking
fewer total Boeing F-15EXs and
slowing the pace of Lockheed
Martin F-35 purchases.
Detailed in a formal budget
request to Congress, the service’s
proposal also would see billions
of dollars continue to flow
into its next-generation fighter
development initiative and an
associated effort to build autono-
mous combat jets.
“This budget request sustains
the modernisation momentum of
the operational imperatives while
taking measured risk in the near
term,” assistant air force secre-
tary Kristy Jones said during an 11
March briefing at the Pentagon.
The USAF’s proposed spending
plan includes buying 42 F-35As
and 18 F-15EXs in FY2025, which
starts on 1 October 2024. That
F-35 programme gains symbolic Milestone C approval
Lockheed Martin’s F-35
programme has reached what
is usually a critical milestone
for a major US defence
acquisition, although in its case
the significance may be more
symbolic than substantial.
On 12 March, the US
Department of Defense (DoD)
approved the F-35 programme
for full-rate production, following
a so-called “Milestone C”
decision. This signals that the
aircraft is ready for operational
deployment, and that industry
is capable of fully supporting
production and sustainment.
10 Flight International April 2024
combined figure of 60 would mark
a substantial reduction from its
previously stated goal of acquir-
ing 72 new fighters per year to
support fleet modernisation.
Notably, it also is proposing cut-
ting its overall acquisition target for
new Eagle II version of the F-15.
60
Total fighters to be acquired in revised
USAF budget request for FY2025 –
down from previous target of 72
“For the F-15EX, we are reducing
the total programme to 98,” says
Jones, who adds that the reduc-
tion “is almost exclusively due to
fiscal constraints”.
The USAF’s F-15EX procurement
target has fluctuated repeatedly,
falling from an original high of 144
aircraft to at one point as few as
80, before most recently having
settled at 104 examples.
“This is a major achievement
for the F-35 programme,” says
US undersecretary of defense
for acquisition and sustainment
William LaPlante. “The F-35
programme is the premier system
that drives interoperability with
our allies and partners while
contributing to the integrated
deterrence component of our
national defence strategy.”
While a full-rate production
decision usually translates
into more orders, long-term
US Air Force
sustainment contracts and better
margins, in the case of the F-35 it
may be largely immaterial.
Boeing has so far delivered
six of the aircraft to support test
activities, and is now preparing
to hand over the first combat-
configured example.
When it comes to the stealthy
F-35, the cuts requested by
the USAF appear to be only a
temporary measure. “The F-35
story is different,” Jones says. “We
haven’t changed the total pro-
gramme of record.”
Lockheed lists the USAF as hav-
ing a total requirement for 1,763
F-35As. While that may not be
changing, the service is looking
to reduce the number of aircraft it
will purchase on an annual basis.
Jones cites spending constraints
that were imposed by Congress
in 2023, and an ongoing deliv-
ery pause related to challenges
with the programme’s Technical
Refresh 3 upgrade, as the reason
for the reduction.
“Our approach is to minimise
the impact of that by procuring
fewer [F-35s] in the first years
of the Future Years Defense Pro-
gram,” she notes, referencing the
Lockheed is already producing type at
maximum output of 156 units per year

Department of Defense’s (DoD’s)
ending plan.
multi-year spending
The air force hopes to restore an-
chases to higher lev-
nual F-35 purchases
ent years, she adds.
els in subsequent
Additionally, the USAF wants
to reduce the number of Boe-
ing T-7A Red Hawk advanced jet
trainers to be purchased annually,
and slightly trimm its planned total
ype.
offtake of the type.
Being acquired d to replace
the service’s fleetet of aged
and nance-
maintenance-
plagued hrop
Northrop
T-38C Talon train- in-
ers, the T-7A hass
suffered its own
delays and set-
backs during its
development and initial produc-
tion phases.
Budget documents indicate that
the USAF is now seeking to shrink
its total T-7A acquisition from
351 to 346 aircraft. Its request
for FY2025 includes seven exam-
ples: half the number contained
within its still yet-to-be-approved
FY2024 plan.
Annual purchases of the
single-engined type would then
rise to 23 in 2026, and climb
“This budget request sustains
the [air force’s] modernisation
momentum... while taking
measured risk in the near term”
Kristy Jones Assistant air force secretary
Lockheed is already producing
F-35s at its planned maximum
output of 156 annually. It has
already delivered more than
990 of the type, and in January
completed assembly of the
1,000th example.
Globally, F-35s are operated
by nine nations and 14 military
services, and the fleet has logged
more than 811,000 flight hours
during some 486,000 individual
sorties, according to Lockheed.
US defence officials had
previously hoped to make a
Milestone C decision as early
as 2019, but technical issues
related to integrating the F-35
into a Pentagon simulation
again to reach 36
two years later. That
ramp-up corresponds with
project d start of low-rate
a projected
production activities in May 2025.
Elsewhere, the service plans to
devote $3.4 billion in FY2025 to
its Next Generation Air Dominance
(NGAD) programme to develop a
sixth-generation fighter. That fig-
ure includes $600 million to sup-
port work on Collaborative Com-
bat Aircraft, which are intended to
pair with the NGAD platform.
A further $2.7 billion will support
the continued development of
Northrop Grumman’s B-21 Raider
stealth bomber, which is currently
in flight testing.
system delayed the move. The
DoD says simulated missions
were successfully completed in
September 2023.
The prior lack of full-rate
production authorisation has not
deterred nations from ordering
the F-35. Singapore in February
added eight short take-off and
vertical landing F-35Bs to its
existing commitment, while
US arms regulators in January
approved a request from Greece
covering 40 F-35As.
Multiple other customers have
opted to order the type within the
last several years, also including
Canada, Finland, Germany, Poland
and Switzerland. In all, 18 nations
Defence Spen
Spending
ndi
d ng
US Air Force
Service now aims to acquire
98 examples of the Eagle II
Air force officials also hope to
continue an initiative to boost pro-
duction and stockpiling of long-
range precision munitions.
The FY2025 spending request
would continue a multi-year plan
included in the 2024 budget
bill that funds the production of
550 Joint Air-to-Surface Stand-
off Missiles and 115 Long-Range
Anti-Ship Missiles by Lockheed, as
well as 128 of Northrop’s Advanced
Anti-Radiation Guided Missile –
Extended Range.
All DoD spending must be
approved by Congress, whose
members often modify budget re-
quests made by the armed services
based on strategic priority differ-
ences or their own political goals.
Significantly, elected lawmakers
in Washington DC still have yet to
approve the DoD’s FY2024 budget,
with disagreements around finan-
cial support to Ukraine having
delayed any consensus. ◗
have now committed to operating
the stealth fighter.
“The F-35 enterprise has made
significant improvements over the
last decade, and we… continuously
[work to] improve its sustainability,
interoperability and lethality,” says
Lieutenant General Mike Schmidt,
the top officer overseeing F-35
development and procurement.
The DoD is not currently
accepting delivery of F-35s
produced to the programme’s
new Technical Refresh 3 standard,
while Lockheed works to
complete flight certification work.
As a result, Lockheed currently
expects to deliver between 75 and
110 F-35s in 2024.
April 2024 Flight International 11
 Visit FlightGlobal Premium for all the latest aviation news and insight FlightGlobal.com
Spin cycles
Bell and Leonardo Helicopters opt for joint tiltrotor-based
proposal to NATO next-generation rotorcraft concept study
tender, dashing Airbus’s hopes of combined European bid
Dominic Perry Anaheim
B
ell and Leonardo Helicop-
ters are to work together
to explore future military
opportunities for tiltro-
tor technologies – dashing Airbus
Helicopters’ hopes of an alliance
with its European counterpart for
an upcoming NATO contract.
Announced at February’s Heli-Ex-
po show in Anaheim, the pact – the
subject of a memorandum of under-
standing – will see the pair “evaluate
co-operation opportunities in the
tiltrotor technology domain”.
As a first step, they will submit
a joint response to the latest ten-
der issued by the NATO Support
and Procurement Agency (NSPA)
seeking concept studies for the al-
liance’s Next Generation Rotorcraft
Capability (NGRC) programme.
Leonardo Helicopters will
lead that submission, with Bell
providing support, the Italian
manufacturer says.
The tie-up is a blow for Airbus
Helicopters, which had been hoping
to propose what officials described
as a “fully joint European answer”
to the NGRC tender.
Europe plans flight tests as part of future research programme
European defence officials are
calling for a series of flight and
ground demonstrations in the
coming years of technologies
to equip a future rotorcraft for
service entry in the mid-2030s.
That ambition is laid out in the
latest call for proposals from the
European Defence Fund (EDF),
published on 15 March.
From a total budget of €1.1
billion ($1.1 billion), the EDF
has allocated €100 million for
the second phase of the EU
Next Generation Rotorcraft
Technology (ENGRT) project.
Bell
12 Flight International April 2024
At this stage it is unclear what
impact the move will have on the
cohesion of the grouping leading
the NGRC effort, which compris-
es France, Germany, Greece, Italy,
the Netherlands and the UK, with
Canada expected to join shortly.
Bidders have until 26 April to
submit responses to the tender, with
contracts to be awarded in July.
Bell has long experience with
military tiltrotors, having devel-
oped the V-22 Osprey alongside
Boeing, and more recently having
seen its V-280 Valor selected by
the US Army for the service’s
Future Long Range Assault Aircraft
(FLRAA) programme.
Further opportunities
Leonardo says further opportuni-
ties have been identified in Europe
and the USA, including potentially
the joint promotion of the AW609
tiltrotor, which is still in develop-
ment, for the governmental market.
Announcing the pact, Bell chief
executive Lisa Atherton says the
two companies “are pioneers in
the tiltrotor space”, adding: “It
makes all the sense in the world
for us to jointly explore co-opera-
tive opportunities.”
Intended to “lead to a step
improvement in EU [vertical
take-off and landing] capability
with a view to future EU/NATO
rotorcraft programmes” likely
to enter service around 2035 or
beyond, the technologies under
study may also “be used for
upgrades of legacy platforms,
where applicable”.
Phase 1 work began early last
year and saw Airbus Helicopters
and Leonardo Helicopters
jointly leading an EU-wide
industry consortium on an initial
programme of research, focused
Gian Piero Cutillo, managing
director of Leonardo Helicopters,
adds: “We believe a tilting technol-
ogy is the answer, so let’s explore
this together.”
Leonardo continues a sepa-
rate study on behalf of the Italian
military that is seeking to identify
the best architecture for a future
high-speed rotorcraft.
Initial work was in collabora-
tion with Sikorsky related to its
X2 coaxial-compound technology,
but this has since been broadened
to include other architectures,
says Cutillo.
Leonardo expects to submit its
recommendation to the Italian
defence ministry later this year.
Under the NSPA-managed effort,
three prime contractors will be
selected by July, with the goal to
deliver completed NGRC studies
by late 2025.
The NGRC effort aims to deliver
a new rotorcraft in the 2040s to
replace thousands of legacy heli-
copters currently in service.
If it progresses to the devel-
opment stage, the NGRC will be
one of the biggest internation-
al rotorcraft programmes in the
coming decades.
on feasibility studies, assessment
of alternatives and developing a
concept of operations.
The follow-on activity will allow
for refinement of the outputs
from the earlier effort and will,
for the first time, include real-
world testing.
Proposals should aim to
“perform ground and flight
demonstrations of systems
and technologies, relying on
technology demonstrators and
available assets, as well as on
laboratory testing”, the call
document says.

A virtual meeting with industry
held shortly after the tender was
released was attended by around
40 representatives from 15 compa-
nies, the NSPA says.
Although the agency declines
to disclose their identities, it is
almost guaranteed that the indus-
try’s big four – Airbus Helicopters,
Bell, Leonardo Helicopters and
Sikorsky – participated.
While Bell and Leonardo Heli-
copters have declared their hand
with the tiltorotor-based partner-
ship, and Sikorsky certain to offer
an international version of its X2
technology, Airbus Helicopters’
likely proposal is less clear.
It appears wedded to a version
of the architecture that will short-
ly fly on the Racer high-speed
technology demonstrator which
features a single main rotor and
twin pusher-props mounted on
V-shaped box-wings.
Speaking prior to the Bell-Leon-
ardo pact, David Alfano, head of
next-generation military rotor-
craft at Airbus Helicopters, said it
hoped to “bid a fully joint European
answer”, and would “favour
an answer with
Leonardo”.
Flight testing should cover
interoperability with other assets
across multiple domains, manned-
unmanned teaming, and other
“technology bricks”, including the
aircraft’s modular architecture,
survivability systems, and
“future on-board energy/power
capability” and related power
management requirements.
In addition, the call for
proposals envisages rig or
laboratory testing of the system
architecture, survivability
elements, aerodynamic
performance and characteristics,
and of “critical structural and
dynamic components”.
He points out that the current
six European NGRC partner na-
tions are all familiar customers,
either directly or through the
NH90-producing NH Industries
consortium Airbus Helicopters
runs with Leonardo Helicopters
and GKN/Fokker.
“We have a pretty good knowl-
edge of what they have today and
what they ask to be prepared in the
next-generation platforms,” he says.
Technology demonstrator
Although likely to use technology
from the Racer project, as a civil
technology demonstrator Alfano
points out that it “cannot be a
copy-paste – we will have to adapt
[the design]”. But the architecture
will allow a rotorcraft to fly “fast,
low and far”, offering “state of the
art manouevrability”, he adds.
Although Sikorsky’s X2-based
Defiant X lost out to the V-280
in the US Army’s FLRAA contest,
In the latter case, this would
enable collection of “experimental
data for preliminary validation
activities of design concepts,
in support to the rotorcraft
architecture assessment”.
Extensive simulation activity is
also required, the call document
says, in combination with the
results of rig testing.
At its heart, the ENGRT
programme seeks to begin the
process of converging “towards
a single vehicle architecture”,
the document says, with related
assessment of “operational
concepts for high-performance
military VTOL platforms”.
Defence Technology
the US airframer sees the NGRC
work as offering a suitable outlet
for the technology. “We remain
confident that X2 technology is
the right solution to meet inter-
national mission needs now and in
the future,” says Luigi Piantadosi,
director of Future Vertical Lift,
international at Sikorsky.
“We look forward to participat-
ing in Study 5 and continuing to
work with NATO to develop its
NGRC requirements as our X2
rotorcraft will provide the speed,
maneuverability and survivability
to meet those requirements with a
next-generation capability.”
The NSPA has already awarded
two concept study contracts,
to GE Aerospace and Sikorsky,
respectively covering propulsion
development and the rotorcraft’s
open systems architecture. ◗
Bell brings its experience developing
the V-280 Valor to the partnership
Key areas of focus include the
platform’s characteristics such
as speed and range, survivability,
connectivity and maintainability.
In addition, manufacturing
advances should be capable of
reducing acquisition and upgrade
costs, it says.
A “feasibility analysis and
preliminary requirements review
of rotorcraft architectures” should
also be conducted, the call for
proposals says, “to confirm the
technical, programmatic, industrial
and market feasibility of the
solution(s), with a view to further
development and industrialisation
and production phases”.
April 2024 Flight International 13
 Visit FlightGlobal Premium for all the latest aviation news and insight FlightGlobal.com
Corporate structures
Facing ongoing quality issues at its largest supplier – and a key
part of its 737 Max programme – Boeing is considering buying
Spirit AeroSystems, reuniting the firm with its former owner
Jon Hemmerdinger Tampa
B
oeing’s relationship with
Spirit AeroSystems is a
complex one. The two are
bound together by shared
history and industrial necessity, but
in recent times the interaction be-
tween them has seemed increas-
ingly dysfunctional.
Quality issues have caused de-
livery delays for Boeing’s cash-
cow 737 Max programme as the
airframer fixes the defects found
on Spirit-built fuselages. Spirit also
remains stubbornly loss-making
and is currently implementing a re-
covery plan led by former Boeing
executive Pat Shanahan.
Now Boeing is considering radical
action, revealing on 1 March that it is
exploring the possibility of bringing
Spirit back into its corporate em-
brace. The Wichita aerostructures
firm was originally spun out of Boe-
ing in 2005 as the airframer pursued
a strategy of global outsourcing.
Boeing clearly hopes that being
back in control will offer a quick fix
for Spirit’s ills. However, analysts
have so far offered mixed reactions
to the airframer’s plans.
Some warn an acquisition would
heap another pile of problems onto
Boeing’s already full plate, arguing
that Spirit will fare best under the
current Shanahan-led recovery plan.
“We have been working close-
ly with Spirit AeroSystems and its
leadership to strengthen the quali-
ty of the commercial airplanes that
we build together,” Boeing says.
“We confirm that our collaboration
has resulted in preliminary discus-
sions about making Spirit AeroSys-
tems a part of Boeing again.”
Course change
This would be a major course
change for Boeing, reversing its pre-
vious outsourcing push. An acquisi-
tion would also have wide-ranging
implications for Airbus, which re-
lies on Spirit to produce composite
parts for its A350 and A220, the
14 Flight International April 2024
latter following Spirit’s purchase of
the former Bombardier aerostruc-
tures unit in 2020.
“We believe that the reintegra-
tion of Boeing and Spirit AeroSys-
tems’ manufacturing operations
would further strengthen avia-
tion safety, improve quality and
serve the interests of our custom-
ers, employees and shareholders,”
Boeing adds. “Although there can
be no assurance that we will be
able to reach an agreement, we
are committed to finding ways to
continue to improve the safety and
quality of the airplanes.”
Aerospace analyst Michel Mer-
luzeau with consultancy AIR thinks
Boeing, with direct control of Spirit,
could better stabilise and oversee
737 fuselage production and bring
its resources to bear on helping
modernise the Wichita operation.
64%
Proportion of Spirit’s revenue that
came from Boeing in 2023; 45% of its
turnover was from the 737 programme
“It seems logical from a Boe-
ing perspective, but it could really
throw a wrench into Airbus’s plan-
ning and execution,” he says.
Spirit confirms it is “currently en-
gaged in” the discussions, although
similarly stresses that “no assur-
ances can be given that a definitive
agreement will be entered into”.
Richard Aboulafia, an analyst
with AeroDynamic Advisory, views
the move as positive for Boeing.
“This is the first thing current man-
agement has done that I agree
with,” he says.
He thinks Boeing’s troubles result
partly from prioritising short-term
financial results and shareholder
returns over new product devel-
opment, a focus that led Boeing in
recent decades to outsource more
work and institute Partnering for
Success, a programme to wring
price cuts from suppliers.
Taking Spirit back in-house
would signal a shift away from that
course, Aboulafia says. There has
already been evidence of change
Paul Christian Gordon/ZUMA Press Wire/Shutterstock
in the air, with Spirit last Octo-
ber gaining a price increase from
Boeing on the 787, spurring some
of its contemporaries, notably
Leonardo, to seek similar improve-
ments. Boeing has also “provided
[Spirit] funding for tooling and
capital through 2025 for certain
planned and potential 737 and 787
rate increases”, with an initial $100
million injected into the company
late last year.
Buyer beware
But many in the financial commu-
nity think the plan is ill-conceived.
“We do not believe acquiring [Spir-
it] represents a near-term fix for
[Boeing] and the Max issues,” RBC
Capital Markets financial analyst
Ken Herbert says. “We also believe
current [Spirit] CEO Shanahan
represents as good of a near-term
solution for [Boeing] as it can ask
for. Every indication has been that
Shanahan has been working very
closely with [Boeing] to address
current issues with the Max.”
Boeing and Spirit have suffered
a rash of recent quality and pro-
duction problems. Both companies
were forced to slow production and
cut workers during the 20-month
737 Max grounding and the ensu-
ing Covid-19 pandemic. They have
since struggled to ramp back up
amid shortages of skilled labour
and other troubles.
Several quality lapses in the last
year came from Spirit, including an
issue involving mis-drilled holes in
737 Max aft-pressure bulkheads.
On 5 January, a door plug blew
out of an Alaska Airlines 737 Max 9
in flight, prompting the US Federal
Aviation Administration (FAA) to
launch audits of Boeing and Spirit.
Meanwhile, Spirit has stumbled
financially, losing more than $500
million in both 2021 and 2022,

and another $633 million in 2023.
It relies heavily on Boeing, which
accounted for 64% of its 2023
revenue; the 737 programme alone
generated 45% of Spirit’s turnover
last year.
Several analysts have suggested
the FAA might be pressuring Boe-
ing to acquire and mend Spirit. The
agency did not respond to a re-
quest for comment.
Herbert thinks Boeing could
likely buy Spirit relatively cheaply,
noting the company’s market cap-
italisation has been about $3.3 bil-
lion, albeit it currently sits slight-
ly higher at $3.74 billion. “We see
Boeing’s balance sheet as being
largely un-impacted by an acquisi-
tion,” he says.
While Herbert thinks Boeing
could realise some long-term ben-
efits by acquiring Spirit – such as
supply chain stability – he worries
that doing so “would add to [Boe-
ing’s] near-term executive issues”.
“This is the first thing Boeing’s
current management has done
that I agree with”
Richard Aboulafia Analyst, AeroDynamic Advisory
“Would acquiring Spirit solve the
quality issues? In short, our answer
is no.”
Financial firm Jefferies is also
firmly in the ‘no’ camp. “There is
a price for everything, but buying
a troubled supplier likely does not
generate the shareholder returns
and de-leveraging investors want,”
it says.
The eventual price will also de-
pend on what exactly Boeing
buys; Airbus is unlikely to coun-
tenance its rival holding the reins
of a key supplier for the A350 and
A220, therefore the expectation
is that part of the business will be
divested. Spirit builds composite
fuselage sections for the A350 in
Wichita and wings for the A220 in
Belfast, Northern Ireland.
Both those programmes have
been operating deep in the red,
with Spirit last year logging more
than $200 million in forward losses
against the work.
Business Strategy
737 programme has been delayed
by defects in Spirit-built fuselages
Former chief executive Tom
Gentile said Spirit’s composite
manufacturing work proved more
labour-intensive and expensive
than anticipated.
Divestment required
Reports in the Wall Street Journal
suggest Spirit is exploring the sale
of its Northern Irish operation as
part any deal with Boeing. Ana-
lysts say Spirit would need to di-
vest all the Airbus work, and that
the European manufacturer would
be the logical company to acquire
it. After all, Airbus has recently
restructured its in-house suppliers
under the Airbus Atlantic and Air-
bus Aerostructures units in France
and Germany, respectively. Its
wing expertise also sits in the UK
at sites in Bristol and Broughton.
Although Airbus declines to com-
ment on any speculation, Aboulafia
sees its involvement as vital for any
deal. “Obviously… [a Boeing acqui-
sition] needs to be done with some
co-ordination with Airbus,” he says.
If matters were not compli-
cated enough, there is a further
issue: thanks to its history, the
Belfast plant also builds parts
for Bombardier business jets, an
activity Airbus is unlikely to have
much interest in. ◗
April 2024 Flight International 15
 Defence Alliance
Sweden finalises NATO accession
Western military alliance welcomes its 32nd member state,
as Stockholm ends 200 years of neutrality and works
towards doubling annual expenditure on defence
Craig Hoyle London
N
ATO has completed its
latest round of expansion,
with Sweden having for-
mally joined the western
military alliance as its 32nd member.
“We will live up to high expecta-
tions from all NATO allies,” Swedish
Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson said
on 7 March, after depositing the
nation’s instrument of accession
with the US government in Wash-
ington DC. “We will share burdens,
responsibilities and risks.”
Describing the move as “a victory
for freedom”, he says: “Sweden has
made a free, democratic, sovereign
and united choice to join NATO.
Sweden is now leaving 200 years
of neutrality and military non-align-
ment behind. It is a major step, but
a very natural step.”
Kristersson says Stockholm is in
the process of doubling its defence
spending, and notes: “From this
year onwards, Sweden will meet
NATO’s standard of [spending] 2%
of GDP” on its military.
“We are increasing the numbers
of conscripts, strengthening civil
defence and reintroducing civilian
service,” he adds.
Saab
16 Flight International April 2024
“NATO is not new to the Swedish
armed forces,” notes General Micael
Byden, the nation’s chief of de-
fence. “We have for decades been
training and operating alongside
NATO allies, both in our own back-
yard and in crisis response opera-
tions all over the world.
“We bring highly capable
and interoperable forces to the
alliance,” Byden adds. Its air force
has an active fleet of almost
100 Saab Gripen C/Ds, with 60
Gripen Es on order. Stockholm has
previously indicated that it could
increase its commitment for the
new-generation fighter by another
20 examples.
“We have unique capabilities to
contribute on land, in the air [and]
at sea. Our support to Ukraine is a
fundamental part of that,” Kristers-
son notes. In August 2023, Sweden
and Ukraine revealed discussions
around a potential future transfer
of Gripen fighters to Kyiv.
“Sweden brings with it capa-
ble armed forces and a first-class
defence industry,” says NATO sec-
retary general Jens Stoltenberg. Its
accession “makes NATO stronger,
Sweden safer and the whole alli-
ance more secure”, he adds.
Along with neighbouring Fin-
land, Sweden asked to join NATO
shortly after Russia’s February
2022 invasion of Ukraine. But while
Helsinki’s addition was finalised in
April 2023, Stockholm’s accession
process was delayed by opposition
from Turkey and latterly Hungary.
The Hungarian parliament in
late February voted to approve
its addition to the alliance, shortly
after the nations sealed a follow-on
deal for Budapest to take another
four Gripen C fighters.
Hungarian agreement
Signed by the Hungarian defence
ministry and Sweden’s Defence
Materiel Administration (FMV),
the pact will see the Hungarian
air force bolster its current fleet
of 12 single-seat Gripen Cs and
a pair of twin-seat D-model jets.
Its additional aircraft will be new-
build examples produced at Saab’s
Linkoping site.
Budapest and Stockholm in
December 2001 signed a long-
term agreement to equip the NATO
nation’s air force with its current
leased Gripens.
“Agreements on extended logis-
tical support, ongoing upgrades
and training until 2035 are [to be]
signed separately with Saab and
other parties,” says Lars Helm-
rich, head of the FMV’s aerospace
business area.
“Saab is ready to provide
additional upgrades and support
for the Hungarian fighters beyond
2035,” the airframer says. ◗
Swedish air force has an active fleet
of almost 100 Saab Gripen C/Ds

Rafale production
gathers momentum
Annual output of in-demand fighter on
course to exceed 22 units, says Dassault chief,
as company continues to tackle supply chain challenges
Dominic Perry London
D
assault Aviation continues
to increase production of
its Rafale fighter to meet
soaring demand from the
export market, as total orders for
the multirole type have edged past
the 500-unit mark.
The French airframer took in
orders for 60 Rafales last year –
42 tranche 5 jets for the French
air force and 18 for Indonesia. That
built on a blockbuster 2022, which
saw combined commitments for
92 examples, from the United Arab
Emirates (80), and six each for
Greece and Indonesia.
A further 18 Rafales were added
to Dassault’s backlog by Indonesia
in January this year, representing
the third and final tranche of a 42-
unit acquisition.
But deliveries in 2023 totalled
just 13 Rafales: two fewer than it
had previously guided for.
Dassault chief executive Eric Trap-
pier says the goal is to deliver 20 air-
craft this year as the company works
towards “rate 2” – or production of
two aircraft per month, for an annu-
al total of 22 units.
Some of the company’s “up-
stream facilities” are already work-
ing at rate 3, but that increase will
not be felt at its Merignac final as-
sembly site near Bordeaux “for a
year or two”, he says.
Speaking at the company’s 2023
AirTeamImages
results briefing on 6 March, Trappi-
er said progress has been “a great
challenge” due to the state of the
supply chain, but that he is confi-
dent that “we will go on to pace
3” and achieve an annual total of
“more than 22 Rafales”.
As of 31 December 2023, total
orders for the Rafale stood at 495,
including 234 for France and 261 for
export customers. The type’s unde-
livered backlog was 211 aircraft.
Trappier sees Dassault’s produc-
tion system as capable of coping
with future increases should addi-
tional orders materialise.
“If we have to
increase, we can
increase further.
We can go
above 22 units
per year”
Eric Trappier
Chief executive, Dassault Aviation
“If we have to increase, we can
increase further,” he says. “While
we cannot reach pace 20, we can
go above pace three.”
Discussions continue with Saudi
Arabia over a potential sale to the
Middle Eastern country, which has a
requirement for 54 aircraft. Trappier
says Dassault also is working with
local companies in the Kingdom to
“form partnerships with industry” to
meet workshare requirements.
Manufacturing Fighters
French airframer took orders for 60
examples of multirole type in 2023
However, Dassault faces compe-
tition from the Boeing F-15EX and
Eurofighter Typhoon for the Saudi
Arabian requirement.
Separately, while Trappier has
in the past been highly critical of
Dassault’s relationship with Airbus
Defence & Space on the Future
Combat Air System programme
the pair are developing alongside
Indra for France, Germany and
Spain, he says the relationship is
now “quite normal”.
Work is proceeding on the
programme’s Phase 1B – led by
Dassault – to develop a demonstra-
tor for the manned New Generation
Fighter, which should fly in 2029
assuming a Phase 2 manufacturing
contract is signed off in 2026.
Nonetheless, difficulties be-
tween the two companies are nev-
er far from the surface. A recent
German defence ministry report
blamed tensions between the pair
for development delays affecting
the Eurodrone programme, where
Airbus is prime contractor.
“Airbus D&S is trying to solve
the existing problems regarding
Dassault’s work comprehensively
and promptly,” the report noted.
Trappier says that “it is difficult
with Airbus”, in part due to
Dassault’s position as a sub-
contractor for the unmanned
air vehicle’s flight controls and
mission communication system.
The company continues to wait
for detailed specifications to be
delivered, he says, while suggest-
ing: “What was written in Germany
is not the truth.” ◗
April 2024 Flight International 17
 Visit FlightGlobal Premium for all the latest aviation news and insight FlightGlobal.com
Ottawa waves Hawk
trainers into retirement
CT-155’s departure sends Royal Canadian
Air Force fast-jet instruction into ‘hiatus’,
with a next-generation platform likely to
be fielded from the early 2030s
Ryan Finnerty Syracuse
C
anada retired its BAE
Systems Hawk 155 ad-
vanced jet trainers without
replacements on 8 March,
entering a “period of hiatus” in its
ability to instruct new fighter pilots.
“419 Tactical Fighter Squadron
held a cessation of operations cer-
emony in Cold Lake, Alberta to
mark the end of CT-155 Hawk train-
ing operations for the RCAF [Royal
Aeralis unveils core fuselage design
Common structure to be used across modular aircraft family,
which is attracting strong interest from Royal Air Force chief
Craig Hoyle Doha
U
K developer Aeralis has
unveiled the common core
fuselage design that will
be at the heart of its future
modular family of military aircraft.
Displayed as a full-scale mock-up
at the DIMDEX exhibition in Doha,
Qatar in early March, the structure
is described by the company as
“an accurate representation of the
aircraft that is currently being de-
signed and built”.
Aeralis will fly a single-engined
test platform named Phoenix in
2026, which chief executive Tristan
Crawford says will be close to a
production-standard asset. Service
entry for an operational system is
targeted around 2030.
The common core fuselage is the
result of extensive redesign work
18 Flight International April 2024
Royal Canadian Air Force
Canada operated a 17-strong fleet
of the single-engined type
Canadian Air Force],” the service For now, RCAF students will
says. Use of the same type from attend training overseas, including
Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan had at the Euro-NATO Joint Jet Pilot
come to an end in mid-2023. Training programme at Sheppard
AFB in Texas, flying aged US Air
NFTC role Force Northrop T-38Cs. Others
Ottawa fielded the single-engined will receive instruction in Finland,
type in 2000, with operations and at Italy’s Leonardo M-346-
conducted under the NATO Fly- equipped International Flight
ing Training in Canada (NFTC) Training School (IFTS).
programme, delivered initially by Canada already has seven in-
Bombardier and then current pro- structor pilots flying the T-38C in
vider CAE. Its fleet of the type had the USA, and will also now boost
totalled 17 in late 2023. its annual student throughput to
outlined by the airframer at the DSEI A central part of the Aeralis
show in London last September. development is the use of the
Crawford notes that versus Pyramid open architecture avion-
Craig Hoyle/FlightGlobal
an earlier concept, its trainer’s ics system developed by the UK
widened front cockpit can ac- Royal Air Force’s (RAF’s) Rapid
commodate the full range of pilot Capabilities Office.
sizes. It also has gained additional
internal fuel capacity thanks to its Certification requirements
wing being moved to the base of Crawford says Aeralis is already
the fuselage. working with the UK Military
Forming part of an exhibit by Aviation Authority with an eye to
Qatar’s Barzan Holdings – an in- aircraft certification requirements,
vestor in the Aeralis project – the and aims to also secure joint ap-
company’s display at the 4-6 March provals from the UK Civil Aviation
event also included a flight simula- Authority and the European Union
tor rig demonstrated in conjunction Aviation Safety Agency.
with industry partner Inzpire. Using its common core fuselage,
The device showcased the devel- Aeralis plans to produce a range of
opmental aircraft’s reconfigurable models, led by a single-engined ba-
avionics system, named Aerosa, sic trainer. Its concepts also include
which will enable common cockpit a twin-engined advanced jet train-
displays to mimic the capabili- er, light-attack variant and an ag-
ty of those found in fourth- and gressor/surrogate training platform
fifth-generation fighters. which would support frontline types

seven. Two instructor pilots and six
students will also participate in the
IFTS programme from next year,
the air force says.
Following Ottawa’s “bridge” use
of these pilot training services,
its 419 Sqn will be “reactivated in
the future with a new fifth-gen-
eration trainer aircraft as part of
a Future Fighter Lead-in Training
programme”, the RCAF says. Ex-
pected to occur in the early 2030s,
this will support the frontline use of
88 Lockheed Martin F-35As, being
including the Eurofighter Typhoon
and Lockheed Martin F-35.
Other potential roles could in-
clude intelligence, surveillance and
reconnaissance, in-flight refuelling,
uncrewed tasks or employment
from an aircraft carrier. Aeralis
claims that its family of products
will deliver significant cost savings
to operators by featuring more
than 85% parts commonality.
Additionally, its Aerflex service
provision model will “release air
acquired as replacements for its
current Boeing CF-18 Hornets.
“With the Hawk reaching the end
of its service life after 20 years, Can-
ada, along with many countries, is
faced with the challenges of what
will be the next jet trainer in a world
of fifth-generation fighter aircraft,”
says Colonel Adam Carlson, the
RCAF’s director of training.
Future need
Potential future candidates could
include Boeing’s T-7A Red Hawk.
The company’s St Louis, Missouri
production line should be at full-
rate output by the time of a deci-
sion in Ottawa. Korea Aerospace
Industries’ T-50 – developed in
partnership with Lockheed – may
also be in contention.
In the meantime, the RCAF will
continue to operate a variety of
turboprop-powered assets, includ-
ing NFTC-provided Beechcraft CT-
156 Harvard II basic trainers, De
Havilland Canada CT-142 Dash 8s,
and Beechcraft C-90B King Airs.
Ottawa’s retired Hawks will be
transferred to the Canadian Forces
Concept is envisoned as the
foundation of a range of variants
forces from the burdens of capital
outlay and fleet management”, by
“passing responsibility for owner-
ship, maintenance and availability
to industry”, it says.
The company also is eyeing
the RAF’s future training require-
ments related to the UK’s Global
Combat Air Programme (GCAP)
partnership with Italy and Japan.
Its high-subsonic-speed platform
could be adapted for such an ap-
plication, it believes.
Defence Programmes
School of Aerospace Technology
and Engineering at CFB Borden in
Ontario, where they will be used as
ground-based articles for training
new RCAF aircraft technicians.
Separately, the RCAF has taken
delivery of its first of three King Air
350ER twin-turboprops modified
for intelligence, surveillance and re-
connaissance tasks.
Named the CE-145C Vigilance and
delivered to CFB Trenton in Ontar-
io, the platform has been modified
with mission system equipment by
L3Harris in Texas.
Delivery of its additional two air-
craft via the Manned Airborne In-
telligence, Surveillance and Recon-
naissance programme will be made
before the end of 2024. Enabled
via the USA’s Foreign Military Sales
system, the $300 million acquisition
was announced in 2018.
Canada’s Department of National
Defence says the new fleet will sup-
port special operations forces with
sensors and secure communica-
tions “enabling enhanced situation-
al awareness and decision-making
during operations on the ground”. ◗
RAF chief of the air staff Air Chief
Marshal Sir Richard Knighton says
the service is starting to assess
its pilot training needs for GCAP,
having determined that its current
BAE Systems Hawk T2s will not be
suitable for the task.
Retirement plan
A 28-strong fleet of Hawk T2s cur-
rently delivers advanced jet training
in support of the RAF’s Typhoon
and F-35B fleets, with an out-of-
service date set for 2040.
“We’re pretty clear that it [Hawk
T2] won’t meet the requirements
for a GCAP solution,” he told the
House of Commons Defence Com-
mittee on 21 February.
“The [Aeralis] model of a modu-
lar system that would enable you
to deliver capability for a number
of different scenarios is something
we’re very interested in,” he adds.
An ongoing analysis is looking
at the service’s training system re-
quirements, Knighton confirms.
“I’d like to bring that capability
investigation to a conclusion before
we get into the next spending and
defence review, because that would
be the point at which we would
need to establish a programme.” ◗
April 2024 Flight International 19
 Rotorcraft
otorc
crra
afftt Modernisa
Modernisation
Crown Copyright
UK nearing end of Apache renewal
Last flights with original AH1-standard attack helicopters
to take place in late March, as Army Air Corps builds up
frontline capacity on remanufactured AH-64E model
Craig Hoyle London
B
ritish Army operations with
the legacy Apache AH1 at-
tack helicopter will come to
and end in late March, when
the service will declare a formal
transfer of readiness to Boeing’s
new-generation AH-64E.
In May 2023, the Army Air Corps
(AAC) declared initial operation-
al capability with the E-model
Apache. This milestone marked the
completion of training activities for
lead unit 662 Sqn to perform basic
land operations.
The service has now fielded 38 of
its 50 on-order AH-64E V6-stand-
ard helicopters, which are being
prepared in the USA as rebuilds,
“harvesting” parts from its earlier
AH1-standard airframes. The re-
maining 12 examples will be trans-
ferred to the UK before the end of
this year, says Colonel David Amlot,
the AAC’s assistant head delivery.
After taking part in a multina-
tional exercise in Norway, the last
IN ASSOCIATION WITH
20 Flight International April 2024
AH1-equipped unit – 656 Sqn – will
conduct a series of farewell flights
around the UK, before the unit
stands down at the end of March.
The UK originally acquired 67
Apaches, with final assembly
work having been performed by
the then Westland at its Yeovil
site in Somerset. Of its remaining
unmodified assets, eight will be
transferred to a military engineer-
ing school in Lyneham, Wiltshire,
and others will be used to support
maintainer training.
Surplus airframes
Additionally, two surplus airframes
have been sold to Australia to
support ground-based training
activities ahead of its army’s own
introduction of the AH-64E.
Speaking to FlightGlobal at
Defence IQ’s International Military
Helicopter conference in London
on 28 February, Amlot said
remaining clearances for the new
model’s UK-specific defensive aids
subsystem and Lockheed Martin
AGM-114 Hellfire air-to-surface
Download the 2024
Wo r l d A i r Fo r c e s r e p o r t
FlightGlobal.com/waf
Service has now fielded 38 of its 50
on-order V6-standard helicopters
missiles are expected to be
received in September.
So far, the AAC’s 662 and 663
squadrons are fully trained on the
E-model, with its 664 and 656
squadrons to reach the same stand-
ard before the end of 2025. A full
operational capability declaration is
scheduled for January 2026.
Unlike the Apache AH1, which
featured a significant number
of UK-unique modifications, the
AAC’s AH-64Es are virtually
identical to the standard operat-
ed by the US Army, and have been
acquired via Washington’s Foreign
Military Sales mechanism.
In UK service, the E-model
Apache’s main armaments also will
include the Lockheed Joint Air-to-
Ground Missile, 70mm rockets and
a 30mm cannon.
Meanwhile, Amlot confirms that
the AAC has identified a poten-
tial requirement to acquire a long-
range precision missile to extend
the stand-off range of its Apaches,
but says no timeline has yet been
set for a competition. ◗

NMH contest finally takes off
Delayed Puma replacement effort enters next phase, as
Ministry of Defence issues invitation to negotiate to trio of
bidders, with contract award expected during 2025
Craig Hoyle London
T
he UK Ministry of Defence
(MoD) has launched the
bidding phase of its New
Medium Helicopter (NMH)
contest, and expects to sign a pro-
duction contract during 2025.
A long-awaited invitation to ne-
gotiate (ITN) was issued on 27
February to previously shortlist-
ed candidates Airbus Helicopters
(offering the H175M), Leonardo
Helicopters (AW149) and Lock-
heed Martin UK (Sikorsky S-70M
Black Hawk). The companies will
now prepare bids for the require-
ment, which is primarily intended
to replace the UK’s Puma HC2s.
The MoD says that once opera-
tional, the new medium-lift rotor-
craft will be “capable of operating
in all environments in support of a
broad spectrum of defence tasks,
from warfighting to humanitarian
efforts around the world”.
“Proposals will be evaluated
through 2025 when, subject to
government approvals, a contract
award is anticipated,” the MoD says.
It has not provided further schedule
details, but ITN responses are un-
derstood to be due in August 2024.
“The competition includes es-
sential criteria key to securing vital
rotary-wing operational independ-
ence, allowing us to respond swiftly
to emerging
Crown Copyright
Make-up of the UK’s future military
rotorcraft fleet is under evaluation
threats in a highly contested world,”
says minister for defence procure-
ment James Cartlidge.
Speaking at Defence IQ’s Inter-
national Military Helicopter confer-
ence in London, he provided lim-
ited details about the assessment
criteria, which he wants to be a
“beacon of smarter procurement”.
A points-based decision-making
process will consider factors includ-
ing export potential and sustaining
the UK’s defence industrial base.
Cartlidge says the selected NMH
aircraft will be “future-proofed and
procured in a way to give our forc-
es and our defence sector maxi-
mum clout and flexibility”.
Estimated requirement
The MoD declines to outline its
potential fleet requirement at this
stage, saying the number of aircraft
to be acquired will be informed by
offers made via the ITN process. It
had earlier this decade estimated
an up to 44-aircraft need to replace
the Puma and several other support
types flown by the British Army, at
that time targeting the ITN release
for late 2022.
This number could potentially
be reduced, with the MoD to re-
place two niche requirements – to
provide non-combat rotorcraft to
support operations in Brunei and
Cyprus – by purchasing six H145s.
Talks continue with Airbus Helicop-
ters to finalise a deal, the MoD says.
Defence Competition
Speaking to the House of Com-
mons Defence Committee on 21
February, Chief of Defence Staff
(Finance and Military Capability)
Lieutenant General Rob Magowan
declined to disclose a target date
for the NMH platform to achieve ini-
tial operational capability (IOC).
“We think there is going to be a
healthy competition. As a result of
that we will be able to declare how
many aircraft we are going to de-
sign and build in this country and
when the in-service and IOC dates
will be. We can’t do that until we
have run the competition,” he says.
Referring to the Puma fleet, he
notes: “At the moment we are not
planning to run it on past 2025, but
we may well need to,” or face a ca-
pability gap until the NMH enters
use. The MoD late last year signalled
that it could extend its in-service
support arrangement for the aged
type, enabling operations to contin-
ue until late March 2028.
Separately, the MoD will continue
with its acquisition of 14 extend-
ed-range Boeing CH-47 Chinook
transport helicopters, after agree-
ing a more than £300 million ($382
million) price reduction. It had
been reviewing the 2021 contract
– originally valued at £1.4 billion –
after encountering increased costs
via Washington’s Foreign Military
Sales funding mechanism.
Deliveries are to run
from 2027. ◗
April 2024 Flight International 21
Dominic Perry/FlightGlobal Visit FlightGlobal Premium for all the latest aviation news and insight FlightGlobal.com

Leonardo chief fields questions from

journalists during 12 March event

Cingolani reinvents Leonardo for

changing world security outlook
New chief executive details Italian aerospace and defence
giant’s priorities for next five years as it seeks to spearhead
evolution of European industry in the face of global instability
Dominic Perry Rome Cingolani, as he reminds his audi- Despite the levity, Cingolani’s
ence several times, is a physicist by strategy is deadly serious. Point-
training: “I was a scientist for most ing to the near-60 conflicts raging

T
here is something of the
tech entrepreneur, or possi-
bly a successful motivation-
al speaker, about Leonardo
chief executive Roberto Cingolani.
For one, there is the absence of
the typical Italian CEO’s uniform –
tailored Armani suit – replaced by
jeans, a dark blue shirt, jacket and,
heaven forfend, Sketchers trainers.
The radio mic and a shape-shift-
ing red and black backdrop –
atoms, apparently – add to the
sense of viewing a TED talk rather
than the presentation of a five-year
industrial plan.
But as he outlined the Italian
aerospace and defence giant’s
strategy at an event in Rome on
12 March there was a sense that
things might be very different un-
der Cingolani’s stewardship.
of my life and I need formulas from
time to time,” he says, explaining
how Leonardo’s future financial
performance has been calculated.
However, his presentation style
and the conviction with which he
delivers the message are those
of the politician he later became,
serving as minister for ecological
transition from 2021 to 2022 in the
government of Mario Draghi.
Artistic ambition
There is also a more playful side:
he admits a love for drawing com-
ics and says he sketched out one
graphic – initialled and dated ‘RC
2024’ – to illustrate Leonardo’s am-
bitions in the space sector over the
preceding days, finishing off during
a board meeting the day before. “My
nature comes out here,” he says.
across the planet – including on
Europe’s borders – he outlines a
changed world where “security”
rather than “defence” is the priority.
Under the heading “Technologies
for a Safer Future”, the industrial
plan outlines how Leonardo will
“transform into a global, technol-
ogy-based aerospace and defence
solutions provider”.
Through that transformation, it
hopes to capture an increased share
of defence spending by European
NATO nations – forecast to rise by
4.5% to €380 billion ($415 billion)
annually by 2028 – pushing revenue
to €21.3 billion from €15.3 billion in
2023, while EBITA will almost dou-
ble, from €1.3 billion to €2.5 billion.
The three core business units –
defence electronics, helicopters
and aircraft – will be strengthened,

22 Flight International April 2024

 Business Strategy

while the aerostructures operation foreseen is aero-

continues its slow recovery to- structures; instead,
wards break-even. stabilisation seems
In addition, Leonardo will place to be the main goal.
increased emphasis on growing its Break-even is still tar-
capabilities in the cyber and space geted for late 2025,
fields, establishing a dedicated and beyond that, the
division for the latter. aim is to “scale-up
All this is underpinned by heavy to achieve strategic
investments in high-performance relevance”. Industrial
computing – a process kicked off partnerships are also
in 2019 during Cingolani’s previous envisaged.

Leonardo
stint at the company as chief tech- Even if, as forecast,
nology and innovation officer – and revenues more than
artificial intelligence. Group-wide double to €1.4 bil-
efficiency measures will also de- lion by 2028, it will Cingolani’s
Cingolani’s sketch illustrates ambitions in the space sector
liver savings of around €1.5 billion remain Leonardo’s
over the five years. smallest ‘hardware’ business and country can make it on its own”,
will be in danger of being rapidly particularly when the continent’s
Leading lights outstripped by the emerging cyber defence industry “has fragmented”.
For the three main “hardware” and space operations. “Every country in Europe wants
divisions – the successors to sto- The overall business transfor- its own aircraft, its own tank, its
ried aerospace brands like Aeritalia, mation is supported by “massive own machine,” he says. “This is not
Alenia, Agusta, Macchi, Marconi and digitalisation”, with that digital effective, this is not efficient – we
Westland – the goal is to become backbone seen as a way of secur- have to do much better.”
leaders in their respective fields. ing additional high-margin services On this point, Cingolani sug-
“We have to strengthen our core and support work. gests that there needs to be a
businesses. Our platforms, whatev- Cingolani points to the change in Europe’s attitude to-
er hardware we make, have to be achievements in the helicopter wards mergers and acquisitions
competitive,” he adds. unit “where 40% of revenues are to better reflect what he calls the
In the short term there is a fo- from services because they are current “war economy”.
cus on securing orders for current ahead in digitalisation”. That 40% The anti-trust laws governing
programmes like the Eurofight- figure “should be an achievable M&A activity work during “an econ-
er Typhoon – “it has a long tail”, target for most of the hardware omy of peace” and “guarantee
Cingolani says, “it will not be extin- platforms”, he notes. market competitiveness” which is
guished in the next two years” – or International alliances will also be “good for all citizens”, he says.
AW-family helicopters, while in the vital, says Cingolani. Leonardo is “But in the case of wartime you
longer term preparing the ground already involved in the tri-nation- need to understand what the prior-
for next-generation aircraft. al Global Combat Air Programme ity is for citizens. Do they still want
Product rationalisation will also as Italy’s industrial representative, a free market while the system is
take place – already under way in alongside the UK’s BAE Systems falling apart or access to Continen-
the defence electronics business and Japan’s Mitsubishi Heavy tal safety? I think safety prevails.”
where around 20% of the catalogue, Industries, and he sees more of the
chiefly older products, will be cut. same in the future, driven by the Emerging markets
It is not yet clear whether the axe evolving global context. Meanwhile, Leonardo due diligence
will also fall on platforms in other Or, as the industrial plan puts it: is ongoing for up to a dozen bolt-
divisions. But a footnote to a graph- “Defence is no longer regarding on acquisitions, with these likely
ic showing its helicopter portfolio individual national borders but has to be in the “emerging markets” of
says: “For AW119, AW109, AW159/ become an international and ‘global cyber, space or unmanned systems.
Super Lynx a form of value man- security’ scenario, and the strategy However, the guiding principle
agement will be attempted, finding of alliances is one of the possible is that these must not represent
a suitable partner/buyer.” However, answers. The group will play a pro- more than 15-20% of a division’s
Leonardo did not immediately clar- active role in the evolution of the turnover, he says, to ensure they
ify the strategy for these products. European defence industry.” can be easily integrated.
The only unit where significant That last element is key: Cingolani Being Leonardo’s chief exec-
change, industrially anyway, is not points out that “no single European utive is a highly political role:
the post-holder is nominated by

“Every country in Europe wants its

the Italian government, and they
require the sure-footedness to

own aircraft, its own tank, its own

balance national industrial policy
against market-driven concerns.

machine. This is not effective, this

Given this, you cannot help but
wonder if Cingolani might be tempt-

is not efficient”
ed by a return to politics. But he is
quick to dismiss such suggestions:
“I’ve done my civil service,” he says.
Roberto Cingolani Chief executive, Leonardo “I like screws and bolts better.” ◗

April 2024 Flight International 23

 Safety Report
Alert refueller prevented SIA
A350-900 from pushing back
with pitot covers still installed
Incident in May 2022 followed a similar occurrence at
Brisbane four years earlier involving same MRO firm
David Kaminski-Morrow London
I
nvestigators have revealed that
a Singapore Airlines (SIA) Airbus
A350-900 at Brisbane was only
prevented from departing with
its pitot covers still fitted through
the actions of an alert refueller on
the adjacent parking bay.
The aircraft (9V-SHH), which
was operating flight SQ256 to
Singapore on 27 May 2022, had
undergone a 2h turnaround and
was preparing for pushback.
Two aircraft engineers from Hes-
ton MRO were carrying out mainte-
nance and dispatch duties. One of
the two was supervising the work
on SQ256 while also assisting with
turnaround of another aircraft.
Covers were fitted to all four
pitot probes at Brisbane in line
with company procedures. The
supervising engineer entered the
cockpit to record this
cover-fitting in the
technical log, and
place a warn-
ing placard
on the
AirTeamImages
Procedures to prevent re-occurrence
had ‘not yet’ been implemented
Download the 202 Commercial Engines Report
now with updated enhanced data and in-depth market analysis
FlightGlobal.com/commengines
24 Flight International April 2024
engine controls, says the Australian
Transport Safety Bureau.
After attending to another
aircraft, the supervising engineer
returned to SQ256 to discuss fuel
figures with the colleague and
the crew, before re-entering the
cockpit, removing the placard
and clearing the log entry for the
pitot-cover fitting.
The inquiry says that this was
done “without visual or verbal
confirmation” that the pitot covers
had been removed.
The supervisor and the colleague
then spoke on the ground, near
the A350’s nose, about attending
to another aircraft. The colleague
then remained with SQ256 to con-
duct pushback headset duties.
Around this time, says the inquiry,
an aircraft refueller working on an
adjacent bay noticed that SQ256
appeared ready for pushback but
its pitot covers were still fitted.
The refueller immediately
pointed to the A350,
informing the su-
pervisor that the
covers remained
attached.
SQ256’s crew had requested
pushback from air traffic control,
and turned on the aircraft’s bea-
cons, around the same time as
the supervisor returned to the air-
craft to alert the colleague. The
airbridge was being withdrawn
from the A350 when its crew was
told to standby because the pitot
covers were being removed.
Previous problems
The inquiry highlights a similar
occurrence at Brisbane in July 2018
during which a Malaysia Airlines
A330-300 – which had also been
attended by Heston MRO, then
known as AMSA – took off with
pitot covers still in place.
As a result of that investiga-
tion, Heston MRO implemented a
number of procedures to improve
the consistency of pitot-cover
use and better control measures
around tools and equipment used
during turnaround.
These measures, ironically,
included introducing the cockpit
placard to be put in place each
time pitot covers were fitted.
The SQ256 incident investigation
found that Heston MRO, despite
the earlier A330 incident, had “not
yet implemented an acceptable
method” to account for tools and
equipment prior to pushback.
SIA has since provided Heston
MRO with pitot covers featuring
longer streamers, to make them
more visible. ◗

Sanctions loom after pilots slept
AirTeamImages
simultaneously on Jakarta flight
Batik Air Indonesia A320 strayed off course over a 28 minute
period while both captain and first officer were unconscious
Alfred Chua Singapore
I
ndonesia’s civil aviation regulator
is to carry out “special investi-
gations” into Batik Air Indonesia
after two of its pilots were found
to have slept simultaneously while
operating a service to Jakarta.
A series of navigation errors were
reported during the 25 January
incident – classified as serious by
Indonesia’s National Transportation
Safety Committee (KNKT) – while
the pilots slept for about 28min.
The two crew members – a
32-year-old captain and a 28-year-
old first officer – were operating
flight ID6723 from Kendari in Su-
lawesi province to the Indonesian
capital. The flight has a block time
of 2h 35min, according to Batik Air
Indonesia schedules.
As the Airbus A320 (PK-LUV)
reached cruising altitude at
around 08:37 local time, both crew
members removed their headsets,
and the captain asked the first
officer if he could doze off. The
first officer agreed.
The first officer took control for
the next 40min before his colleague
woke up to ask if he wanted to
rest. The first officer declined and
continued his duties. It is unclear if
or when the younger pilot put his
headset back on.
At around 08:43 Jakarta time, the
first officer, still flying the aircraft,
made initial contact with Jakar-
ta air traffic control, and was in-
structed to head towards waypoint
KURUS, located northeast of the
capital’s airport.
At the time, the A320 was flying
on a heading of 250° and was east
of the waypoint.
Around 1min after contact
with Jakarta, the first officer
“inadvertently” fell asleep. Jakar-
ta area control centre asked the
crew how long the A320 needed
to fly on its current heading but
received no response.
Several attempts to contact the
aircraft were made, including asking
other pilots to call the flightcrew.
Off course
About 28min after the first officer
fell asleep the captain woke up and
realised the aircraft was “not in
the right path”, says the KNKT. He
roused his colleague and respond-
ed to calls from Jakarta’s area con-
trol centre, saying that they had
“experienced radio communication
problems”, which explained their
lack of response.
Subsequent investigation
found no issues with the aircraft’s
communication systems.
“Prior to the flight there were
no records or reports of aircraft
system malfunction. After the [inci-
dent], the aircraft radio communi-
cation system was found in normal
condition,” the KNKT says.
According the KNKT, the same
flightcrew had operated the Ja-
karta-Kendari flight that morning.
Scheduled to depart at 02:55 local
time, the crew members were re-
quired to sign in at 01:25.
Safety Probe
Captain blamed the silence on
‘radio communication problems’
The KNKT found that the first
officer had informed his colleague
he “did not have a proper rest” the
night before. The committee notes
that the first officer was a new
parent, with one-month-old twins.
Although the night before he
was due to fly to Kendari he had
attempted to sleep early, he “had to
wake up several times to help take
care of the babies”, and felt “his
sleep quality had degraded” as a
result. He was allowed to rest on the
flight into Kendari, while the captain
took over as pilot flying.
Indonesia’s Directorate Gener-
al of Civil Aviation says the two
flightcrew involved have been
removed from duty following the
incident. The transport ministry
will also dispatch an inspector “to
find the root of the problem and
recommend mitigating actions
related to this case”.
“We emphasise that [we will
impose] sanctions [on Batik] in
accordance with the results of in-
vestigations,” says director-general
of civil aviation Kristi Endah Murni.
In its preliminary findings,
the KNKT notes that Batik Air
Indonesia’s operating manual cov-
ers pilot health and medical fitness,
including “a personal checklist”
to identify any “factors that could
impair human performance”.
But the KNKT says “the inves-
tigation did not find any detailed
guidance nor procedures for pilots
when using the… personal checklist,
such as the assessment guidance
for each impairment category.” ◗
April 2024 Flight International 25
 Visit FlightGlobal Premium for all the latest aviation news and insight FlightGlobal.com
Buy, buy, bye: resurgent industry
spends big at final Heli-Expo
Rebranded trade show will return next year as Verticon,
with sector seeking to capitalise on rising demand from
rotorcraft operators and emerging new technologies
Howard Hardee & Dominic Perry
Anaheim
D
espite its strong corporat-
ist tendencies, the Helicop-
ter Association Internation-
al (HAI) Heli-Expo event is
unlike other trade shows.
There are some familiar trap-
pings – the mega-booths of the
industry’s dozen or so largest play-
ers, the frequent churn of order
announcements – but the most
popular stand freebies are stickers
or beer coolers, hinting at a slight-
ly different clientele to that seen at
Paris, Farnborough or NBAA.
In fact, you did not have to spend
much time walking the halls at this
year’s Heli-Expo – held in Anaheim
in California in late February – to
conclude that a great number of
attendees were there, or more gen-
erally work in the industry, because
they really, really like helicopters.
THC plays down overexpansion fears as it unveils deals for almost 300 helicopters
Saudi Arabia’s The Helicopter
Company (THC) will not grow too
large, too soon, its chief executive
insists, despite an orderbook that
has ballooned with the signature
of agreements for almost 300 new
helicopters to be delivered by the
end of the decade.
THC disclosed at the Heli-
Expo show separate deals with
Airbus Helicopters and Leonardo
Helicopters comprising a mixture
of firm orders for short-term
delivery, and more tentative
framework agreements to meet
its anticipated fleet needs over
the longer term.
Those firm orders were for
10 Airbus Helicopters H125s
and eight H145s, plus 20
AW139 intermediate-twins from
26 Flight International April 2024
In a sense, the rotorcraft indus-
try straddles two worlds: at one
end it is general aviation – down to
earth, mom-and-pop outfits – while
a much lower number of big fleet
operators at the top of the business
have more in common with airlines.
Visitor attraction
Regardless, the latest Heli-Expo was
a busy one, for both attendance (a
record, according to the organisers)
and news. Even though there were
no product launches – airframers are
still attempting to gain certification
for what they already have in de-
velopment – the volume of orders
spoke of a resurgent industry, albeit
one that is struggling to ramp up
to match demand thanks to the
broader aerospace supply chain’s
post-Covid hangover.
But barring a major U-turn, 2024’s
edition was the final Heli-Expo in its
current guise. HAI has rebranded as
Vertical Aviation International (VAI)
Leonardo, via an agreement first
flagged at last year’s show.
But Arnaud Martinez, THC chief
executive, says that while he can
“see the need to double the fleet”,
the company’s goal is not growth
for growth’s sake. “We will confirm
and onboard only the helicopters
that the Kingdom needs,” he says.
“We don’t buy helicopters just for
the sake of buying helicopters.”
Although he says THC has
“only scratched the surface” in
terms of Saudi Arabia’s domestic
helicopter requirements –
whether for tourism, transport
or emergency medical services
– that market is not infinite,
which will force the company to
look outside the Kingdom for
additional opportunities.
to better reflect the new technol-
gies and vehicles seeping into the
industry, and as a result the show
receives a new name too, becoming
Verticon from 2025.
If there was one standout order –
and in the tradition of Paris or Farn-
Airbus Helicopters
borough, every show must have one
– it was provided by Saudi Arabia’s
The Helicopter Company (THC),
which signed framework agree-
ments with both Airbus and Leon-
ardo covering almost 300 helicop-
ters. THC started operating just five
years ago and has already amassed
a 48-strong fleet (see box, below).
Not as sizeable, but almost as
significant for the message it sent,
was Bristow Group’s deal for 10
firm Leonardo AW189s, plus 10
options. That it has turned to the
Italian super-medium rather than
the bigger Sikorsky S-92 for future
growth speaks volumes and should
be seen in the context of the US
airframer’s ongoing challenges
“At some stage we will reach
a cap and sooner or later
the ambition is to go to the
international market.”
Established just five years ago
through Saudi Arabia’s Vision
2030 initiative and funded by its
Public Investment Fund (PIF), THC
already boasts a 48-strong fleet.
Prior to the Heli-Expo
announcement it already had
commitments for 42 helicopters
from Airbus – a mixture of H125s,
H145s and H160s – with the latest
deal, converting options from an
earlier contract, taking the firm
order total to 60 units, of which
Airbus Helicopters
25 have already been delivered.
THC’s framework agreement
for 120 helicopters covers
undisclosed rotorcraft types

supporting the heavy-twin. Sikor-
sky insists it is committed to the
civil market in the long term (see
p28) and sees the potential for
more S-92 orders. It was Sikorsky
though that provided the only real
product development announce-
ment at Heli-Expo, showing more
detail of the hybrid-electric aircraft
it intends to fly under its experi-
mental Hex programme (see p32).
Bell, meanwhile, continues to
deal with the headaches thrown
Eight H145s were among Saudi
Arabian operator’s latest orders
up by the development of its
525 Relentless. First announced
at Heli-Expo in 2012, the super-
medium helicopter continues to
inch towards certification, a mile-
stone now expected this year.
Awaiting customers
Although the airframer did an-
nounce at Heli-Expo an order for
the 525 – 10 units from Norwegian
oil company Equinor – it concedes
that the initial production aircraft
across Airbus’s range, offering
future order flexibility.
Similarly, the 130-unit
framework agreement with
Leonardo includes a mix of
aircraft, including AW109s,
AW169s, AW139s and AW189Ks
– the Safran Helicopters Engines
Aneto-1K-powered variant of the
super-medium-twin designed for
hot and high operations.
Both framework agreements
specify delivery positions between
five and seven years away.
Despite the eye-catching
totals, Martinez points out that
many of the future deliveries will
be for replacement rather than
expansion as its existing fleet
reaches up to eight years old.
At that point, they will be sold
to sister leasing and helicopter
distributor Rotortrade, a
Show Heli-Expo
Anaheim, California hosted the
last event under its current guise
are effectively ‘white-tails’ still
waiting for customers (see p29).
For its part, Leonardo Helicop-
ters is also confident of securing
certification for the AW609 soon
and plans demonstrations for the
Italian military (see p30).
Elsewhere, Robinson Helicopter
marked a changing of the guard,
appointing David Smith as chief ex-
ecutive. He is only the third person
to hold the post and the first not to
bear the family name (see p30). ◗
Singapore business acquired by
the PIF in 2023.
That relationship is “really
crucial”, says Martinez, allowing
THC to “exit from its existing fleet
any aircraft at any point”, whether
due to the end of a contract or to
“onboard new aircraft”.
Martinez says the two European
manufacturers were selected
following a tender process
that spelled out product and
delivery requirements, including a
willingness to localise operations
such as training and maintenance.
In addition, having two airframers
vying for business ensures THC
“has leverage” in its negotiations,
he adds.
“The more we grow the more
strategically it makes sense to
keep these two OEMs aligned with
us,” says Martinez.
April 2024 Flight International 27
 Visit FlightGlobal Premium for all the latest aviation news and insight FlightGlobal.com
Sikorsky ‘remains committed’ to
civil market despite S-92 ‘drama’
Airframer insists spare parts shortages that have grounded
large numbers of heavy-twin will be resolved by year-end
S
ikorsky denies it has lost the
trust of offshore helicopter
operators amid an ongoing
spares shortage that has
resulted in large numbers of S-92s
being grounded – and insists that
it remains committed to the civil
helicopter market.
Owned by defence giant Lock-
heed Martin, Sikorsky’s annual pro-
duction is dominated by military
helicopters – in particular the UH-
60M Black Hawk and its derivatives.
In 2023, just six of Sikorsky’s 69
total deliveries were civil helicop-
ters – three S-76Ds and a trio of
S-92s – and the current backlog
consists of three more S-92s for
VIP transport missions.
Current issues with S-92
availability for the oil and gas sec-
tor have brought concerns about
an apparent indifference to the civil
market to the fore.
Leon Silva, Sikorsky vice-presi-
dent of global commercial and mili-
tary systems, acknowledges “a little
bit of drama” around the issue but
plays down the suggestion there is
a rift with its customer base.
“But when I talk to my custom-
ers… I don’t think I have a trust is-
sue. I think they understand what’s
going on and that we have been
very, very transparent and they are
fully aware of the plans we have
AirTeamImages
Bristow says the availability of its
S-92 fleet is an ‘acute challenge’
28 Flight International April 2024
in place and that things are slowly
improving,” he says.
Silva expects that the actions
Sikorsky is implementing to ad-
dress the shortage of spare main
gearboxes will see the situation
normalise by the end of 2024.
“We remain very committed to
the commercial market,” he adds,
describing it as a “robust and
vibrant opportunity”.
6
Civil helicopters – three S-76Ds and
three S-92s – delivered by Sikorsky
last year, out of a total of 69 aircraft
Discussions are ongoing with
several potential S-92 customers
regarding the “next lot of signif-
icant aircraft production”, Silva
says, which could be finalised “at
some point, I expect, this year”.
Lead time for an offshore-
configured example is currently
around 36 months.
Work also continues on the new
S-92A+ upgrade which incorpo-
rates the latest Phase IV gearbox
– boasting improved run-dry capa-
bility – onto the heavy-twin.
Certification is expected in 2025
with launch customers already
secured, says Silva. In all, it has
around 15 orders for the upgrade
kit and is seeing interest from op-
erators in multiple sectors and de-
livery slots are available from 2026.
The S-92A+ will also become the
standard for new-build aircraft.
But any hope of an order at
Heli-Expo for new S-92s was not
realised, with one of the most likely
candidates, Bristow Group, instead
signing for 10 Leonardo Helicopters
AW189s, plus 10 options, in what it
calls a “strategic fleet upgrade”.
Bristow sees the super-medium
AW189 as able to perform many of
the S-92’s missions, but at a lower
cost and with lower CO2 emissions.
Presenting Bristow’s full-year
2023 results in the wake of
the show, chief executive Chris
Bradshaw said that the issue with
the S-92 remained an “acute chal-
lenge” for the company.
“We are still seeing very extend-
ed delays in the delivery of parts
and repairs for the S-92,” he says.
In its filings to the US Securities
and Exchange Commission, Bristow
notes that the S-92 comprises 31%
of its total fleet. Problems securing
timely access to parts have caused
it to “forgo certain related business
opportunities”, it says. ◗

Bell ends 525
order drought
with Equinor deal but
‘white-tail’ worries linger
Oil producer signs for 10 examples to be delivered from 2026,
but initial batch in final assembly have still not found a buyer
B
ell has finally secured an
order for its 525 Relentless,
with Norwegian oil pro-
ducer Equinor taking the
unusual step of signing for 10 off-
shore transport-roled examples of
the super-medium-twin.
However, the first 525s to roll off
the production line later this year
are still without a customer, the air-
framer admits.
Deliveries under the Equinor deal
are due to begin in 2026, Bell says,
without disclosing a contract value.
“Our relationship with Equinor
will enhance the standard of
innovation for oil and gas mis-
sions and North Sea operations,”
says Danny Maldonado, Bell’s chief
commercial officer.
Bell has yet to secure US Federal
Aviation Administration (FAA) cer-
tification for the 525 but hopes to
reach that milestone later this year.
Equinor says it expects to receive
four 525s in 2026, with the remain-
der to be “delivered in line with
the agreed production plan for the
period 2027-2030”.
Given the differing delivery
timelines, it appears that Equinor
has shied away from taking
early-build examples.
Separately, Equinor has also
agreed to purchase five Leonardo
Helicopters AW189s, for delivery in
2025 and 2026.
It is rare for an oil and gas pro-
ducer to invest in aircraft itself,
typically pushing that role on to
helicopter operators like Bristow
Group and CHC Helicopter.
Bell
But with rising customer demand
and long lead times amid supply
chain challenges, there had been
suggestions an oil major would act
to secure future lift to its platforms.
Equinor says its decision was
driven by the fact that its business
depends on “safe and efficient
helicopter transport”.
“By entering into these agree-
ments, we secure a place in the pro-
duction queue and we can signifi-
cantly shorten the timeline for when
the helicopters can be in operation
in Norway,” the company says.
“It is the first time Equinor has
carried out a direct procurement of
its own helicopters,” it says, adding:
“We will now enter into a dialogue
with our helicopter operators re-
garding the operating model.”
Future missions
Between them, Bristow and CHC
fly 24 Sikorsky S-92s on behalf of
Equinor. It also has an additional
contract with Luftttransport RW to
operate two new AW139s from 2026
for search and rescue missions.
For Bell, the order was welcome
news, but does not fully address
the 525’s immediate needs with
the first serial helicopters already
in final assembly.
Maldonado concedes that the
initial batch of eight series aircraft
in final assembly are effectively
“white-tails”.
“You have to build ahead, you
have to have a hot line,” he adds.
While admitting that the back-
log for the 525 is not where the
Show Heli-Expo
Manufacturer hopes to achieve
certification for the type this year
airframer wanted it to be, Maldona-
do believes customers will emerge.
“You’d always want to have or-
ders already ahead of time, but we
are lining them up with certifica-
tion and that’s perfect because you
want to build to a specific iteration.
“So, from a timing perspective
we are in a good place so long as
we get orders as the aircraft move
down the line,” he says.
Maldonado is convinced the safe-
ty and operational benefits from
the 525’s fly-by-wire controls and
enhanced maintenance system will
bring sales, despite a price tag that
is higher than its immediate rivals.
Initial deliveries will be in the
oil and gas segment and talks are
also under way with the biggest
operators in the space to perform
route-proving work with the 525.
In recent filings to the US Secu-
rities and Exchange Commission,
Louisiana-based operator PHI said
it was “seeking to partner with
Bell to route-prove its 525-model
aircraft in certain markets”.
Maldonado says Bell is “talking to
PHI and talking to others also” re-
garding the route-proving activity.
First, however, the airframer
needs to clinch certification for
the Relentless. Bell remains hope-
ful it will reach that milestone by
the end of the year, but cautions
that the pace will be dictated by
the FAA.
But based on its interactions with
the regulator, Bell feels “much more
comfortable that certification will
happen this year”, he says. ◗
April 2024 Flight International 29
 Visit FlightGlobal Premium for all the latest aviation news and insight FlightGlobal.com
Robinson Helicopter looks outside
the family for latest CEO pick
Former vice-president of operations David Smith takes reins
as company seeks to shorten lead times and ramp up output
R
obinson Helicopter (RHC)
has appointed David Smith
as its new president and
chief executive, becoming
the first leader in the airframer’s
50-year history not to bear the
family name.
Smith, currently RHC’s vice-presi-
dent of operations and a former Bell
veteran, succeeds Kurt Robinson,
son of founder Frank, who moves
into an advisory role while retaining
his place on the firm’s board.
Explaining the decision, Rob-
inson says: “We are poised for
growth here – but it felt like we
needed some help and expertise as
we get to the next level.”
Having joined the company
in early 2023, Smith’s aim is to
help the airframer enter its “next
phase”, he says.
Over the next 12 months, the com-
pany will implement a “major pro-
duction ramp” to reduce lead times
for the turbine-powered R66 and
piston-engined R44 Raven, current-
ly sitting at around 15 months.
“We think that’s too far out –
customers are not buying because
of it,” says Smith.
Leonardo plans AW609 demonstrations for Italian government agencies, military
Leonardo Helicopters could
begin demonstration flights of its
AW609 tiltrotor this year for the
Italian military and other domestic
government agencies.
Gian Piero Cutillo, managing
director of Leonardo Helicopters,
says the company has been
studying the potential for “more
governmental applications” for
the tiltrotor in order to broaden
its customer base beyond launch
operators from the oil and gas
and VIP markets.
“There is a lot of interest from
the armed forces and other
agencies in Italy and we are
studying together what the
30 Flight International April 2024
“We are pretty much sold out
for this year and I don’t like that,”
Robinson adds.
The goal, Smith says, is to raise
production of the R44 to four per
week, and of the R66 to three per
week, giving respective annual
totals in the region of 210 and 160.
Delivery data
Last year, RHC delivered 163 R44s
– a mix of Cadets, Raven Is and
IIs – plus 118 R66s, data from the
General Aviation Manufacturers
Association shows.
RHC is working with its key sup-
pliers to ensure the ramp-up is as
smooth as possible. But deliveries
from engine suppliers Rolls-Royce
and Lycoming have been “lumpy”,
says Smith, due to disruption further
down the supply chain.
“We are poised for growth – but it
felt like we needed some help and
expertise to get to the next level”
Kurt Robinson Advisor, Robinson Helicopter
mission could be,” he says, an
initiative which could include
“trials” of the platform.
Potential applications include
transport, surveillance, and search
and rescue operations.
In addition to boosting public
interest in the helicopter, such an
effort could help drive “maturity”
into the tiltrotor, Cutillo says.
Although Leonardo is likely to
wait until “right after” the AW609
is certificated – expected later this
year or in early 2025 – company
sources indicate the test campaign
could happen before then.
To achieve the flights, the
airframer will need close co-
But he thinks the market could
even support higher output on a
“sustainable basis”.
Looking further out, Smith has
started preparing the company for
what comes next, with an increase
in the firm’s engineering head-
count “so we are capable of devel-
oping the products of the future”.
While he will not be drawn on
what the next product will look
like, RHC continues to examine the
potential and maturity of advanced
powertrains and autonomous
flight-control systems.
Electrification in particular
holds strong appeal for Smith. “I
see real promise to the idea of a
zero-emission solution for specific
missions,” he says, while acknowl-
edging that will likely come at the
expense of range.
operation with Italy’s Armaereo
armaments and military
airworthiness agency, says Cutillo.
To date, the confirmed backlog
for the AW609 remains in single
figures: Bristow Group is taking a
pair of aircraft and an undisclosed
VIP customer four units.
Malaysia’s Weststar Aviation will
also use a single example to assist
with the service-entry process.
But Cutillo says the company
is not overly concerned with
Leonardo Helicopters
the state of the orderbook: “We
are really focused on getting
certification. Even if there is a lot
of interest, we are not pushing to
have these kind of pre-orders.”
 Show Heli-Expo

“We are going to be active in

the development of an electric
helicopter so when we are ready,
we can go to our customers with
the best-value solution.”
Tests of an R44 powered by a
Magnix electric motor have pre-
viously been conducted by Tier 1
engineering and Smith sees signif-
icant advantage in modifying an
existing platform.
It is, he says, more cost-effective
and safer “for a helicopter OEM to
work some electrification into their
portfolio rather than develop a
completely new design”.

Increased autonomy
In parallel, RHC is also contemplat-
ing the addition of higher levels
of autonomy to its helicopters to
boost safety.
It has been providing engineering
support to New Hampshire-based
Rotor Technologies, which is devel-
oping a pilotless conversion of the
R44 it calls the R550X.
While Smith says it will contin-
ue to support the development,
he is guarded on whether the new
flight-control system could be of-
fered as a line-fit option, noting that
“we don’t know enough about the
performance of the final design”.
Nonetheless, he is confident that
both powertrain and flight-control
advances – delivered via a partner-
ing approach – can be introduced.
Robinson Helicopter

“Going forward we’ll become

more active in these spaces,” he
says. “But I do think there is a
The potential of electrification
longer timeline than most start-up
holds a strong appeal for Smith
companies expect.” ◗

In development for almost three in the Boeing 737 Max scandal.

decades, the AW609 now appears
to be in the “final stages” of its
long route to service entry, a
milestone expected in 2025.
Matteo Ragazzi, the company’s
engineering and innovation
director, says around 350 flight
hours remain to be completed:
150h of function and reliability
testing using aircraft 6 and 200h
of other tests split between
aircraft 4 and 5. That target is
“perfectly achievable”, he says.
However, he highlights the
challenges of working with the US
Federal Aviation Administration
After almost 30 years of development, (FAA), the lead certification
tiltrotor is set to enter service in 2025 agency for the tiltrotor, which
remains “nervous” due to its part
Cutillo says the FAA is “taking
things quite prudently” but
believes the programme is making
“significant progress”.
Leonardo Helicopters is
“extremely confident” that it can
later this year or in early 2025
“terminate” all the certification
activities it needs to perform,
including the submission of
paperwork, Cutillo adds.
A series of “very successful”
demonstration flights were
also performed last year in the
USA and Dubai, he adds. Those
included guests and pilots from
Japan, where the AW609 is being
considered as a tool to improve
inter-island connectivity.

April 2024 Flight International 31

 Show Heli-Expo
Sikorsky spells out Hex strategy
Airframer partners with GE Aerospace to build hybrid-electric
tiltwing demonstrator, with first flight targeted for 2026
A
fter previously teasing an
under-development hy-
brid-electric demonstrator
but revealing only sparse
programme details, Sikorsky has
shared its vision for a tiltwing ver-
tical take-off and landing (VTOL)
aircraft called Hex.
Sikorsky president Paul Lemmo
says the company is “not confined
to rotor blades” as it prepares with
partner GE Aerospace to build, test
and eventually fly a testbed for
its autonomous flight-control and
hybrid-electric propulsion systems.
“What we want to look at is how
well a turboshaft engine combined
with a 1MW-class generator and as-
sociated power electronics save on
fuel, reduce emissions and optimise
engine performance,” Lemmo says.
“We also want to look at how this
architecture will provide quieter
flight experiences, save on produc-
tion and operating costs and im-
prove the safety of flight.”
“We envision a family of systems
that are safer, more reliable, easier
to maintain and can fly farther and
faster at a lower cost”
Sikorsky
Paul Lemmo President, Sikorsky
32 Flight International April 2024
Sikorksy disclosed that it was
developing the demonstrator
during last year’s Heli-Expo show
but did not share details of the
aircraft’s architecture. The Lock-
heed Martin company chose to
pursue a tiltwing design for several
reasons, says Lemmo.
“First is the flexibility to test
a range of integrated system
dynamics,” he says. “Second, we
want the ability to validate the
benefits of electrification, and
then finally the opportunity to ex-
plore new configurations enabled
by electrification.”
Tiltwing and tiltrotor concepts
have existed for decades, Lemmo
acknowledges, but “I’ve always
said they make a lot of sense when
you can electrify them”.
Additionally, Sikorsky’s custom-
ers have reported that range and
speed are their top priorities for
next-generation aircraft, he says,
“but they also still need the ability
Testbed will feature company’s
autonomous flight technology
to do the missions that traditional
helicopters do”.
Sikorsky is hoping to achieve a
range exceeding 500nm (926km)
“at high speed” with the Hex
demonstrator, which will have
a maximum take-off weight of
4,800kg (9,000lb).
Family values
The aircraft itself is not intended to
become a commercial product but
rather to inform the development of
a future family of advanced air mo-
bility vehicles, including rotorcraft
and fixed-wing aircraft.
“We envision a family of systems
that are safer, more reliable, easier
to maintain and can fly farther and
faster at a lower cost,” Lemmo says.
Its Hex will be equipped with
the company’s Matrix technology,
allowing it to fly autonomously, he
adds: “As we [test] the aircraft, it
will be flown by a pilot – but it will
have autonomous capability.”
Sikorsky and GE are finalising de-
signs for a hybrid-electric systems
testbed to be powered by a 600kW
electric motor, which they say is
the first step in evaluating the Hex’s
hover performance.
Flights of a sub-scale proof-of-
concept aircraft have already taken
place, adds Lemmo, which could
pave the way for the Hex to get
airborne by 2026. ◗

Airbus Helicopters touts H225’s
rehabilitation to offshore market
Despite a chequered safety record, airframer insists it can see
a future need for its Super Puma in the oil and gas industry
Dominic Perry Marseille
A
irbus Helicopters contin-
ues to insist that it sees a
way back into the oil and
gas market for the H225
after implementing safety improve-
ments to the heavy-twin, however,
it cautions that demand from the
sector is unlikely emerge much
before 2030.
Previously a mainstay of the seg-
ment alongside the Sikorsky S-92,
the H225 was effectively dropped
from the offshore transport role
following a 2016 crash in Norway in
which 13 people were killed.
Investigators subsequently
pinned the accident on a faulty
bearing design which caused the
main gearbox (MGB) to fail and led
to the separation of the rotor.
While the gearbox issue was
subsequently addressed by
the manufacturer, allowing the
helicopter’s return to flight, the
reputational damage – alongside a
downturn in the oil and gas indus-
try – meant that operators were
content to cope with only a single
heavy type in service.
Despite its absence from the en-
ergy segment, the Super Puma has
continued to sell, with Airbus Heli-
copters making “a little bit more”
than 100 deliveries over the past
five years, Michel Macia, head of
the H225 programme, said during a
briefing in Marseille in late February.
He expects the pace of produc-
tion to be maintained over the
next five years as well, based on
“a good dynamic in the market
for heavy aircraft”. Backlog for
the type is dominated by either
military or governmental-support
Airbus Helicopters
Type continues to sell but backlog is for
parapublic roles such as search and rescue
roles, although that figure did not
grow in 2023 when no orders were
registered for the H225.
But a rebounding oil and gas
industry and availability challeng-
es with the S-92 – ironically driven
by a shortage of gearboxes – have
Airbus Helicopters reassessing the
H225’s potential interest to the
offshore market.
“With the difficulties the S-92 may
have, we may be, for heavy aircraft,
the only solution in the market, or at
least we want to be the alternative
solution,” says Macia.
Enhanced gearbox
Regis Magnac, head of energy
segment at Airbus Helicopters,
says the company has begun
briefing the sector on the chang-
es it has made to the aircraft, in-
cluding the introduction last year
of what it calls the enhanced main
gearbox, or eMGB.
“We have started to do things.
We are in conversation with people
who are interested in the product,”
says Magnac. That has included
holding briefings with workforce
unions in Norway, he adds.
He says it has not been a “hard
sell” to get the message across.
“Those people are engineers… and
can understand what we have done
and the energy we have put into the
work to improve the aircraft, and
make changes, and to understand
the root cause of what happened.”
Rotorcraft Programme
Magnac declines to say if sales
talks are under way with operators,
however. Around 20 offshore-roled
examples remain in service, he
adds, chiefly in China and Vietnam.
Although most conversations
with operators “are on super-
mediums” like the company’s H175
and the AW189 from rival Leonardo
Helicopters, Magnac insists there
will always be a requirement for
heavy helicopters to handle the
long-range or higher-capacity
missions the super-mediums
cannot perform.
With the youngest S-92s only
reaching the 20-year mark in 2032
or 2033, interest in brand-new
heavies will only begin to crystalise
“in the 2030 horizon”, he thinks.
Production of the H225 is likely to
remain active until 2040, he adds.
“It fits well into future needs.”
However, the airframer is still like-
ly to face an uphill struggle. “We do
not see the H225 coming back into
operations in the offshore regions
that we service,” says one major
North Sea operator.
Union opposition is also a given.
“The possible reintroduction of the
Super Puma would poison industrial
relations,” says Mick Lynch, general
secretary of the UK’s RMT union.
“Any confidence built up since
2016 amongst offshore workers
over the safety of the helicopters
will disappear if they are expected
to travel to and from installations
on Super Pumas.”
Key to the H225’s rehabilitation
is the introduction of the eMGB
and additional safety monitoring
systems, which are being installed
on all new-build H225s and will
be progressively retrofitted to the
in-service fleet. ◗
April 2024 Flight International 33
 Defence Technology
Legacy system has been credited with
710 ‘saves’ across multiple types
F-15E nears ACES 5 update
Ejection seat manufacturer Collins prepares to start
certification testing of safety modification slated for 218
aircraft, with work to follow for other US Air Force types
Ryan Finnerty Syracuse
C
ollins Aerospace will soon
begin testing its Advanced
Combat Ejection Seat 5
(ACES 5) for installation
in the US Air Force’s (USAF’s)
Boeing F-15Es.
The seat is a successor to Col-
lins’ ACES II design, which was first
fielded in the 1970s and equips
the USAF’s F-15, Fairchild Repub-
lic A-10, Lockheed Martin F-16 and
F-22, and Boeing B-1B and Northrop
Grumman B-2 bomber fleets.
Now in need of replacement,
the legacy system was designed
before pilots commonly wore
helmet-mounted displays and
night-vision equipment, which
can increase the potential for
sustaining head and neck injuries
during ejection.
In addition to such safety con-
cerns, the ACES II was also fielded
when pilots were exclusively men,
meaning that it was not designed
to work with lighter-weight aviators.
Having won a $700 million con-
tract in 2020 to replace the ACES
II, Collins says it now is preparing
to begin certification testing the
ACES 5’s F-15E integration.
“We are deep into the exe-
cution right now,” says Donald
Borchelt, the company’s director
of ACES business development
and a former F-15C pilot for the
US Army
USAF. “We’ll start sled testing that
34 Flight International April 2024
later this year,” he adds, with the
activity’s early development mile-
stones completed.
Following the completion of cer-
tification testing, Collins plans to
secure production approval from
the USAF during 2025, with this
to cover ACES 5 seats for its 218
F-15Es. Borchelt says Collins is in
discussions with the USAF to also
install the seat in its new F-15EX
Eagle II, initial examples of which
use the ACES II, but older F-15C/
Ds, which are nearing retirement,
will not be included in the retrofit.
Production phase
Although ACES 5 production has
not yet begun for the F-15E, Collins
is already producing its latest seat
for the USAF’s incoming Boeing
T-7A advanced jet trainer.
Once testing is complete on the
F-15, Collins will begin ACES 5
evaluations with the F-16, with the
company and the USAF already
working to develop a qualification
programme. Separate qualification
and production plans will then be
developed for other models, in-
cluding the A-10, B-1B and F-22.
ACES 5 assembly work is under
way in Colorado Springs, with
Collins’ current contract covering
the delivery of an indefinite quan-
tity of seats through 2030.
Collins says the ACES II has been
credited with 710 “saves” since its
introduction to use, including a rare
four-person ejection from a B-1B at
Ellsworth AFB in South Dakota in
January 2024.
Borchelt says the ACES 5 will be
more reliable and even safer, with a
new passive head and neck protec-
tion system to reduce the possibili-
ty of ejection-related spinal injuries
for pilots wearing helmet-mounted
displays and other devices. It also
will boost safety at higher speeds,
of up to 600kt (1,110km/h).
The new ejection seat also has
been designed to accommodate
pilots weighing between 46.5-
111kg (102-244lb), versus 63-90kg
for the ACES II.
Borchelt says the ACES 5 will
also dramatically simplify regu-
lar maintenance, reducing lifetime
sustainment costs.
“The seat was designed from the
beginning to be disassembled very
simply and very easily inside the
cockpit, without having to take off
the canopy,” he notes. By contrast,
servicing the ACES II requires
removing the canopy and ejection
seat with cranes – a process he
describes as a “multi-hour, if not
multi-day event”.
As Collins moves into perfor-
mance testing with the F-15E,
Borchelt says the ACES 5 will
undergo an “extremely high level of
scrutiny”, but that the new seat has
performed “extremely well” through
evaluations conducted so far.
There are currently some 6,000
ACES II seats in service worldwide,
according to Collins. ◗

UK details uncrewed evolution
Strategy document says autonomous technologies will play
crucial part in delivery of future combat effect, with transition
backed by £4.5 billion investment over the coming decade
Craig Hoyle London
T
he increased use of un-
crewed systems will provide
the UK’s military with vital
operational capability and
increased combat mass, accord-
ing to its newly published Defence
Drone Strategy.
“The seamless integration and
operations of uncrewed and au-
tonomous systems will significantly
enhance our defence capabilities,”
the report says. “Through constant
adaptation and iterative develop-
ment, they will deliver a more po-
tent military effect that ensures we
are better able to defend and deter.”
“The conflict in Ukraine [is] a very
visible representation of a ‘new way
of war’, characterised by innovation,
the proliferation of technology, dig-
itisation of the battlefield and the
need to rapidly deploy capability
fit for the tempo of operations,” UK
minister for defence procurement
James Cartlidge says.
“There is no clearer example than
the development and employment
of uncrewed systems, where low-
cost solutions are increasingly de-
feating more exquisite capabilities
and delivering disproportionate
impact on the battlefield.”
Noting that the UK’s current in-
terest in such assets spans
roles such as naval mine
clearance, one-way at-
tack, heavy-lift and
intelligence/
BAE Systems
Development Unmanned systems
surveillance, he adds: “It is in the un-
crewed space that we will drive the
mass of our forces, whilst… strength-
ening the lethality and survivability
of our platforms and personnel.”
“The frontline operational envi-
ronment [in Ukraine] is the most
challenging for these types of sys-
tems, with previously unseen lev-
els of electronic warfare [and] high
attrition rates,” the strategy notes.
“Our initial priority is the success-
ful delivery of the Ukraine-UK un-
crewed systems initiative,” it adds.
“We will drive procurement at scale
to meet the demands both of our
armed forces and those of Ukraine”.
The UK has so far donated more
than 4,000 drones to Kyiv, with its
continuing commitment to value
over £200 million ($252 million)
during 2024.
Coherent partnership
Meanwhile, Cartlidge points to the
need for “a more deliberate and
coherent partnership” between the
Ministry of Defence (MoD) and UK
defence industrial base, to ensure
the nation’s ability to “collabora-
tively develop platforms and com-
ponents to keep up with relentless
cycles of battlefield adaptation”.
The MoD says its strategy will be
supported “by at least £4.5 billion of
investment over the next decade”.
The Defence Drone Strategy
was formally launched at Mal-
loy Aeronautics’ production site
near Maidenhead in Surrey. The
uncrewed systems producer was
recently acquired
by BAE Systems,
which has been
working with it
to develop the electric-powered,
300kg (660lb)-payload T-650.
Designed for applications ranging
from cargo transport to deploying
a lightweight torpedo or casualty
evacuation, the T-650 is due to
make its first flight later this year.
The strategy document also pro-
vides fresh details of current devel-
opment and trials activities being
conducted by the UK armed forces.
“Alongside the Global Combat
Air Programme, the RAF [Royal Air
Force] is testing cost-effective au-
tonomous collaborative platforms
[ACPs] designed to leverage cut-
ting edge technology to support
high-risk combat operations,” it
says. “The ACP programme has a
range of experimental and devel-
opment platforms able to deliver
strategic effects at range,” it adds,
without providing further details.
Other recent trials have included
operating a W Autonomous Sys-
tems-developed cargo drone and
General Atomics Aeronautical Sys-
tems Mojave unmanned air vehicle
from the deck of the Royal Navy
aircraft carrier HMS Prince of Wales.
Meanwhile, the report says opera-
tions with the RAF’s General Atom-
ics MQ-9 Reaper fleet have exceed-
ed 140,000 flying hours since the
type’s introduction in 2007, with
“1,500 weapons releases”. The
service late last year launched
training activities in the UK using
the successor MQ-9B Protector
RG1, operations with which are due
to commence this year. ◗
T-650 is designed for applications including
cargo transport and casualty evacuation
April 2024 Flight International 35
 Visit FlightGlobal Premium for all the latest aviation news and insight FlightGlobal.com
CityAirbus NextGen prototype
unveiled as test centre opens
Airbus reveals eVTOL flight-test article at new Donauworth
facility ahead of planned maiden sortie later this year
Dominic Perry London
A
irbus has taken the wraps
off its CityAirbus NextGen
prototype, revealing the
electric vertical take-off
and landing (eVTOL) platform at
an event in Germany.
Although the configuration of the
aircraft has not changed since the
programme was disclosed in 2021,
it is the first public showing for the
battery-powered NextGen design.
Featuring eight electric-powered
rotors and a 12m (39ft)-wing-
span, the CityAirbus NextGen is
scheduled to make its first flight
later this year. Power-on of the
Dassault blames tardy
suppliers for delays to
Falcon shipments
Airframer’s chief executive says targets
are being missed due to ‘disruptions and
shortages’ at aerostructures providers
Dominic Perry London
D
assault Aviation continues
to feel the pinch from sup-
ply chain challenges which
have forced the French air-
framer to slow the ramp up of its
new Falcon 6X business jet and
pushed back the arrival of the de-
velopmental 10X until 2027.
Briefing reporters on its 2023
financial results on 6 March,
Dassault chief executive Eric
Trappier said “disruptions and
36 Flight International April 2024
completed prototype was achieved
in late 2023.
The prototype was unveiled dur-
ing the opening of the manufactur-
er’s new CityAirbus test centre in
Donauworth in southern Germany,
also home to Airbus Helicopters’
second largest production line.
Final assembly
While Airbus Urban Mobility is a
separate legal entity, it draws on
expertise from the airframer’s dif-
ferent divisions, with the helicopter
unit a key partner. Final assembly
of the production eVTOL aircraft
will also take place at Donauworth.
“Rolling out CityAirbus NextGen
for the very first time is an important
shortages” in its supply chain had
continued last year.
In some cases, “missing parts”
delayed the final assembly of Fal-
con jets, he says, adding: “We had
to postpone our schedules.”
Last year, the manufacturer
shipped just 26 Falcons, down on
the 32 handed over in 2022 and
lower than the 35 units it guided for.
While that was partly due to the
late-running certification of the Fal-
con 6X – approval was only gained
in August – supply chain issues
also took their toll, says Trappier,
Airbus
and very real step that we are tak-
ing towards advanced air mobility
and our future product and market,”
says Balkiz Sarihan, chief executive
of Airbus Urban Mobility.
Testing at the Donauworth facility
ahead of the uncrewed maiden
sortie later this year will focus on
the propulsion system, flight con-
trols and avionics.
Featuring a lift and cruise
architecture, along with a
distinctive V-tail, the CityAirbus
NextGen is designed for mis-
sions of around 45nm (80km)
travelling at a cruise speed of
65kt (120km/h). Airbus opted for
fixed rather than tilting rotors to
maximise simplicity.
despite Dassault’s efforts to catch
up during the completions process.
He cites the flow of aerostruc-
tures from its European supply base
as a bottleneck, naming Daher, GKN
Aerospace and Latecoere as “com-
panies that are [so] late we have to
postpone our plans”.
Trappier singles out GKN, as it
“put us in difficulty with the 6X”, he
says, due to its selection of a “sub-
contractor far away from Great
Britain or France” which was not
performing: “We had to change, so
that costs us money.”
As a result, “we had to find a
new partner in France” – Potez
Aeronautique – and dedicate time
and resources to establish a new
production line, he says.
“We have to industrialise in a cer-
tain way and set up new teams and
this is done together with GKN.”
In response, GKN says: “As a
global manufacturing business,
we are well-used to managing
complex programmes and supply
chains around the world.
“Occasionally, this means
moving suppliers or exiting
inappropriate work packages.
[However] we remain a long-term

Unlike many of its eVTOL peers,
Airbus does not see an initial use
case for the CityAirbus NextGen as
an air taxi. Instead it is developing
missions for the platform, such as
emergency medical services (EMS),
that offer a broader societal benefit.
“This new technology has to
demonstrate value to the commu-
nities it serves,” Sarihan said during
a February briefing.
EMS provision is “a way of mak-
ing a direct impact on the lives of
people in the communities we want
to serve”, she says.
While she sees the potential for
“scheduled services on pre-planned
routes” to link poorly connected
communities, Sarihan says there will
partner with Dassault, providing
the 6X empennage and 7X move-
ables from the Netherlands.”
But the issues are not confined
to larger companies, says Trappier:
smaller suppliers have also need-
ed additional support resulting in
Dassault seconding staff or ad-
vancing payments as required.
“We are making advances so that
these small companies are able to
survive. But when you are working
with companies that are not totally
secure you are taking a risk.”
Service entry
Dassault Aviation
An initial Falcon 6X was delivered
in November for use by Dassault
as a company demonstrator. Since
entering service in early December,
it has racked up more than 250h
across 200 flights, covering desti-
nations as far afield as North and
South America, Asia and Australia.
A further campaign in India will get
under way shortly, says Trappier.
The first customer aircraft was
also handed over in February, he
adds; Cirium fleets data records
the recipient as Take Off Aviation
in Switzerland, with the jet to be
operated by charter firm Cat Air.
All-electric aircraft is designed
for missions of around 45nm
not be “on-demand rooftop-to-roof-
top services from day one”.
Operators will have to “earn the
trust” of the public before launching
intra-city services, she adds.
Business viability
Airbus does not have a target date
for service entry, Sarihan says;
that depends on the aircraft be-
ing “business viable”, for both the
manufacturer and operators. “If it’s
not business viable all we are do-
ing is building some very expensive
museum pieces.”
Airbus has been building exten-
sive partnerships to help prove out
the technology and the infrastruc-
ture and operating environment
Delayed Falcon 6X achieved
certification in August 2023
But the late-running 6X has had a
knock-on effect on the schedule for
the ultra-long-range 10X, pushing
back first deliveries until 2027 from
a previous target of late-2025. As-
sembly of the initial aircraft is due to
begin later this year.
Adjusted net Falcon sales in 2023
were €1.82 billion ($1.98 billion),
down from €2.1 billion in 2022.
Programmes Development
essential to its future adoption.
With that in mind, later in 2024, the
airframer will fly a subscale model
of the CityAirbus NextGen – with
a 3.7m wingspan – and an airship
between Ingolstadt, Manching and
Munich in southern Germany.
Part of the Bavarian Air Mobility
Initiative in which it is participating,
the flights will test “how the whole
system works”, says Sarihan.
Separately, Airbus signed an
agreement with lessor LCI at the
recent Heli-Expo show in Anaheim
committing the pair to collaborate
in three core areas for advanced air
mobility: strategy, commercialisa-
tion and financing.
“Our entire history is based
around financing and financiers
– we will bring that network to
the CityAirbus programme,” says
Jaspal Jandu, LCI chief executive.
LCI has not placed an order with
Airbus as part of the pact, but that
could come in the future, Jandu
adds. In addition to finance options
for the aircraft themselves, LCI will
also look at the funding require-
ments for ground infrastructure
such as charging or vertiports. ◗
Dassault expects to deliver 35
Falcon-family business jets in 2024,
plus 20 Rafale fighters, generating
group revenue of around €6 billion.
Total revenue last year was €4.8
billion, with adjusted operating
income of €349 million. Adjusted
net income was €886 million, in-
cluding €453 million from its near-
25% stake in Thales. ◗
April 2024 Flight International 37
 Visit FlightGlobal Premium for all the latest aviation news and insight FlightGlobal.com

Investigators detail catalogue of

poor airmanship that preceded
fatal crash of A320 at Karachi
Crew continued highly unstable approach and attempted
gear-up landing before failed go-around that killed all but
two of the 99 people on board in May 2020
David Kaminski-Morrow London pitched 13.7° nose-down – an verbalised. The inquiry has not
attitude which caused the auto- indicated a reason for the decision
pilot to disconnect – with a de- to raise the landing-gear.

Shahzaib Akber/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock
I
nvestigators have not clarified scent rate of 6,800ft/min, which But it states that, almost simul-
why the crew of a Pakistan Inter- increased to 7,400ft/min. taneously, the aircraft was grant-
national Airlines Airbus A320 re- Overspeed warnings sounded ed landing clearance and, a few
tracted the landing-gear during owing to the aircraft’s airspeed seconds later, it finally acquired the
its descent and approach to Kara- reaching 261kt (483km/h), some 3° glideslope at 1,400ft.
chi, but the blunder featured in a 31kt higher than the limit for its flap As the A320 descended, over-
catalogue of poor airmanship which configuration. The first officer, who speed warnings continued to
preceded the aircraft’s fatal crash. was flying, pulled back on his side- sound because the crew selected
The aircraft (AP-BLD) ultimately stick to arrest the descent. flap configurations before the air-
made a gear-up touchdown on craft had decelerated below speed
runway 25L, damaging its en- Multiple warnings limits for the settings.
gines, before the crew attempted The inquiry states that, about the The jet deviated above the glide-
a go-around – during which the jet same time, the ground-proximity slope, and the first officer asked the
lost height and came down in a res- warning system issued a ‘sink rate’ captain whether they should per-
idential suburb. and two ‘pull up’ alerts. No call-out form an orbit. The captain rejected
Its initial approach to 25L had was made by the crew, and no go- the suggestion, and took over the
been mismanaged. The aircraft around was initiated. flight controls.
was excessively high, passing a But almost immediately after the Analysis of the aircraft’s final
waypoint designated SABEN at ‘pull up’ alerts, at about 1,600ft and approach reveals multiple alerts,
7,830ft when the approach from 5nm, the landing-gear lever was including ‘pull up’ warnings, were
this point should have commenced selected ‘up’, and the undercar- triggered while cockpit indications
at just 3,000ft. riage retracted. The speed brakes showed the continuing overspeed
The speed brakes had already were retracted a few seconds later. condition and the fact that the
been extended. The crew extended Both retractions were select- landing-gear was still retracted.
the landing-gear at 7,239ft, some ed by the first officer, the inquiry The crew did not execute a go-
10nm (18km) from the runway, and believes, but it says neither was around but proceeded with the
pitched the aircraft 7.4° nose-down.
Although Karachi approach
control informed the crew that they
could perform an orbit, this was re-
fused, with the crew responding
that they were “comfortable we
can make it”.
The jet continued to dive, with a
rate of descent exceeding 4,000ft/
min, and when approach control in-
structed the crew to make a 180°
left turn, the crew simply reiterat-
Shahzaib Akber/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock

ed that they were “comfortable”,

established on the ILS for 25L, and
descending through 3,500ft for
3,000ft – even though the aircraft
was actually at 3,900ft.
A second instruction to make the
180° turn was similarly disregarded.
Both engines sustained damage
At 5.5nm from the runway, the
during attempted gear-up landing
aircraft was still at 2,730ft and

38 Flight International April 2024


unstable approach, selecting full
reverse thrust on both engines at
7ft, just before touchdown – al-
though the reversers did not de-
ploy because sensors detected the
aircraft was still airborne.
Investigators say the aircraft’s en-
gine nacelles contacted the ground
nearly 4,500ft along the runway.
Maximum braking was record-
ed for 14s. Both pilots applied
sidestick inputs, in opposite
directions – the first officer pulling
nose-up, while the captain pushed
nose-down.
Both thrust levers had been set
to maximum-reverse, but were ad-
vanced to full power after the first
officer urged the captain to take
off. The twinjet became airborne
but the go-around was unsuccess-
ful and the badly-damaged jet
crashed about 1,340m (4,400ft)
short of the 25L threshold during
its second approach attempt.
But the performance of the
damaged jet had been severely
degraded by the crew’s idling of
the only engine delivering power
at that point.
Both of the CFM Internation-
al CFM56 powerplants sustained
damage when their nacelles
contacted the runway.
As the aircraft became airborne
again, the left-hand engine’s
Both pilots applied sidestick inputs,
in opposite directions – the first
officer pulling nose-up, while the
captain pushed nose-down
power increased to 94% of N1,
but that of the right-hand engine
lagged at 16%, probably due to
a transient loss of power to its
electronic control unit during the
runway contact.
As the aircraft climbed through
140ft the landing-gear was momen-
tarily selected ‘down’ before imme-
diately being returned to ‘up’.
Both engines reached 94% N1 at
442ft with the A320 travelling at
182kt and the crew cleaned the air-
craft’s configuration.
Full power
The thrust levers were briefly re-
tarded to the maximum-continu-
ous setting before being pushed
back to full power.
“Both engines responded accord-
ingly,” says the inquiry, although it
states that oil quantities in each
were falling. At 790ft the thrust le-
vers were reduced to the climb de-
tent and autothrust engaged.
Safety Investigation
Stricken jet crashed short of
the runway in a residential area
The crew received oil-pressure
warnings, initially for the left-hand,
and then the right-hand engine,
but cancelled the alarms.
At 1,270ft the autothrust switched
to speed mode, with a target of
212kt compared with the aircraft’s
speed of 243kt, and the thrust of
both engines reduced.
Karachi approach control cleared
the aircraft to climb to 3,000ft and
turn left, to prepare for a second
landing attempt.
As the aircraft entered the turn its
left-hand, or number one, engine
speed began to decline, indicating
that it was suffering an uncom-
manded in-flight shutdown, and
its generator stopped supplying
power. But a few seconds later,
the first officer remarked: “Thrust
lever number two idle, move num-
ber two to idle.”
This thrust lever was reduced
to the ‘idle’ setting immediately
afterwards, while the lever for
April 2024 Flight International 39
 Safety Investigation

the left-hand engine was kept at

climb power. Pakistan’s civil aviation authority has
Speeds of both engines declined. now prohibited flying while fasting
At 3,140ft neither generator was
producing electrical power, and
the ram-air turbine automatically
deployed. The flight-data record-
er stopped operating and only the
cockpit-voice recorder continued.

Shahzaib Akber/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock
Analysis of the cockpit-voice
information shows that the crew
started receiving stall warnings
and altitude alerts, prompting
a query from Karachi approach
control about the aircraft’s
declining height.
The recording also reveals that
– about 1min after the right-hand
thrust lever was idled – the crew dis-
cussed the status of the right-hand
engine, confirming it was running. PIA crew’s judgement ‘probably impaired’ by effects
Spectral analysis shows the of fasting but direct link to A320 crash undetermined
engine’s speed started increas-
ing. As the crew worked through Pilots of the Airbus A320 that fatally crashed in Karachi had been
procedures, the captain told the fasting for the holy month of Ramadan, and this probably impaired
first officer: “You had selected en- their judgement, Pakistani investigators have disclosed.
gine number two to ‘idle’, whereas But the inquiry has been unable to determine whether the effects of
engine number one was gone.” fasting had any specific consequences on the crew’s performance.
The Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) aircraft had conducted a
Situational awareness highly-unstable approach to the airport, ultimately striking the runway
The inquiry says the right-hand with its landing-gear still retracted. Its crew attempted a go-around
powerplant, “the only running en- but the impact damage to the A320’s engines caused it to lose thrust
gine”, had remained idle for about and height, and it came down in a residential suburb of Karachi.
1min “until [the] flightcrew even- Investigators point out that the 22 May 2020 accident occurred
tually realised it” and advanced during Ramadan, a month in which followers of Islam practice fasting
its thrust lever, adding that this during daylight hours. But the inquiry’s final report states: “Clear and
showed a “lack of airmanship and precise regulations were not available to restrict flying while fasting at
situational awareness”. the time of accident.”
Thrust available from the dam- Pakistan’s civil aviation authority prohibited the practice of flying
aged engines after the runway while fasting in the aftermath of the crash.
strike could not be simulated or as- Both pilots of the A320 were participating in the Ramadan fast. Each
certained, states the inquiry. had a regular sehri and iftar – morning and evening meals, eaten before
“It is not possible to estimate sunrise and after sunset – and declined snacks from the cabin crew.
the additional power available The inquiry states that fasting may affect a crew’s flight
if [the right-hand engine] was performance by reducing spatial cognition and lowering blood sugar
not retarded to idle,” it adds, or hydration. It adds that it may “invert” normal day-night routines,
preventing investigators from de- affecting circadian rhythms and general health.
termining whether a safe landing “Judgement of both flightcrew was probably impaired due to the
during the go-around could have effects of fasting while flying,” says the inquiry.
been achieved. “However, its consequence on flight performance of the flightcrew
While the right-hand engine had could not be determined.”
been delivering power, its speed At the time of the crash the civil aviation authority’s regulations
fluctuated before settling at about left the decision on fitness to fly during fasting to the judgement of
65% of nominal for a short period. individual pilots.
But spectral analysis indicates the Although the authority revised its rules on flight duty, rest periods
speed then started to decrease until and fatigue management in 2021, to forbid flying while fasting – and
it was below the point of detection. issued directives on the ban – the inquiry states that its aeromedical
The inquiry says a sequence of regulations remained unchanged and contain “different instructions”
stall warnings followed, and the which “may create ambiguity”.
first officer told Karachi controllers: Feedback mechanisms between operators and regulators, it adds,
“We have lost engines.” are “not clear”.
The A320 continued to descend. The authority has advised crews seeking to fast during Ramadan to
The landing-gear was extended apply for leave, and instructed operators to facilitate such measures. It
below 800ft, but the jet crashed in has also issued aeromedical advisories stating that cockpit and cabin
a residential area of Karachi. Only crew should consume at least a glass of water, juice or soft drink prior
two of the 99 occupants survived to operating flights.
the 22 May 2020 accident. ◗

40 Flight International April 2024


CFM56 control logic to be modified
after A320 thrust-reverser incident
Pilots of TAP narrowbody reported ‘unanticipated difficulties’
in controlling twinjet during go-around at Copenhagen
David Kaminski-Morrow London
A
irbus is aiming to introduce
an engine control unit soft-
ware modification for CFM
International CFM56 pow-
erplants, to reduce the safety risk
if A320 pilots attempt a go-around
after activating reverse-thrust.
Standard procedures require
crews to commit to a full-stop
landing once reverse-thrust has
been selected. But analysis of flight
AirTeamImages
data indicates the level of adher-
ence to procedures during reverser
operation was “lower than expect-
ed”, says Danish accident investiga-
tion authority Havarikommissionen.
This analysis was conducted as
part of a CFM56 reverser design
review, after a serious incident at
Copenhagen in which a TAP Air Por-
tugal A320’s (CS-TNV) landing was
aborted despite the crew activating
thrust reversers on touchdown.
The aircraft then climbed away
with asymmetric thrust after a soft-
ware logic condition enabled the
left-hand engine’s reverser doors to
remain open while the right-hand
engine’s doors were stowed.
Investigators say the crew – hav-
ing already selected reverse thrust
– advanced the thrust levers to
execute a go-around, just at the
point when the left-hand main land-
ing-gear bounced on touchdown.
This bounce removed the weight-
on-wheels signal and, combined
with the thrust lever advance-
ment, interrupted the left engine’s
reverser stowage.
The crew regained control and
landed safely, but the 8 April 2022
incident prompted Airbus to inform
A320 operators of the event, and
revise the type’s operating manual
to increase crew awareness that a
full-stop landing must be performed
after reverser selection. It also ad-
vised against premature arming of
reverse-thrust before touchdown.
Airbus examined 3.4 million
flights from 31 operators, to assess
Initial landing was aborted despite
crew activating thrust reversers
the adherence to recommendations
relating to A320 reverser use.
This indicated a go-around after
reverser selection occurred about
once in 1 million flights across the
A320 family. This equated to a rate
of one per month – although the
Copenhagen incident was the first
involving the failure of a reverser to
stow during an aborted landing.
Software update
Danish investigators recommended
that the CFM56 engine control unit
software be modified, and state
that Airbus has embarked on devel-
oping an update which it expects to
be ready next year.
In the Copenhagen incident, both
pilots were aware that selecting
reverse-thrust meant committing to
land, but the Havarikommissionen
states that each was “convinced”
that the subsequent selection of
go-around thrust would result in
stowage of the reversers.
Inbound from Lisbon, the aircraft
had conducted an approach to
runway 30 in gusting conditions.
The approach was stable but
the aircraft drifted slightly right
of the centreline, then briefly
banked 7.4° left. The left-hand
main landing-gear made ground
contact, with wheel spin-up, and
Safety Report
Havarikommissionen Denmark
Left-hand engine idled with reverser doors
open, resulting in asymmetric thrust
as the aircraft started to de-rotate
the crew activated maximum
reverse-thrust.
The reversers began to deploy 2s
later when the engine control units
on the CFM56 powerplants received
a weight-on-wheels signal.
But as the A320 bounced, the
captain – uneasy about the aircraft’s
attitude – opted to abort the land-
ing by advancing the thrust levers
to go-around power.
The aircraft began to climb away
with its right engine spooling up
to go-around thrust but its left en-
gine still at idle, because its reverser
doors were still deployed.
This asymmetric thrust presented
the captain with “unanticipated dif-
ficulties” in controlling the aircraft.
At 300ft the captain declared an
emergency and the crew shut down
the left engine, before carrying out a
single-engined approach to runway
22L and landing safely.
The aircraft’s left-hand reverser
doors were found to be deployed
after it arrived at its parking stand. ◗
April 2024 Flight International 41
 The US Air Force is leading the way as militaries
around the world eye the potential for using
uncrewed combat aircraft alongside manned
fighters to gain a crucial operational advantage

Moving into
formation
Ryan Finnerty Syracuse Greg Waldron Singapore defence technologies to warfighters around the
world,” it says.
Anduril is a relatively new entrant into the defence

A
string of US companies have been selected industry, having been founded by Silicon Valley billion-
to participate in an ambitious effort to aire and virtual reality pioneer Palmer Luckey in 2017.
develop a new class of autonomous fighter Indeed, it notes that it is the only “non-traditional”
aircraft for the US Air Force (USAF). company to have been selected for the CCA activity.
Anduril Industries, Boeing, General Atomics Luckey’s strategy for competing with sector giants
Aeronautical Systems, Lockheed Martin and Northrop like Boeing, Lockheed, Northrop and Raytheon has
Grumman will all produce prototypes in support of been to apply principles from the US technology
the Collaborative Combat Aircraft (CCA) effort, the sector, including rapid product development and a
service announced in late January. focus on ultra-efficient manufacturing.
The CCA programme aims to deliver pilotless While Anduril had initially focused on developing
jet-powered aircraft that can be produced at a software that could enable autonomy across a range
relatively low cost and fielded in large numbers to of applications, the company has been steadily
supplement crewed fighters. expanding into the aerospace realm.
It now offers multiple small uncrewed air vehicle
Wide range (UAV) designs for traditional intelligence and
Exactly what role each of the selected manufacturers
will play within the development of CCA remains
vague. But the USAF is seeking a range of high-speed, Anduril’s Fury is being developed from an
autonomous aircraft that can be paired with a Next uncrewed adversary air training platform
Generation Air Dominance (NGAD) fighter and other
types to assist with tasks including electronic warfare,
carrying extra weapons or providing aerial refuelling.
Several of the confirmed CCA participants are
currently designing and testing aircraft that could fit
such requirements.
Anduril is developing the Fury, which has evolved
from an uncrewed adversary air training platform into
Anduril Industries

what the company envisions as a fully-operational,

multi-role fighter.
“We look forward to continued collaboration with
our government partners to bring these advanced

42 Flight International April 2024


reconnaissance purposes, and recently unveiled
its Roadrunner design: a low-cost, jet-powered
interceptor for targeting and destroying enemy
UAVs in the air.
But following its September 2023 acquisition
of autonomous fighter developer Blue Force
Technologies, Anduril is also expanding into the type
of high performance platform the USAF hopes to
mature under the CCA programme.
Boeing has two major uncrewed efforts under
way: the MQ-25 Stingray autonomous refueller
being developed for the US Navy, and the MQ-28A
Ghost Bat; a general-purpose autonomous jet being
developed with the Royal Australian Air Force.
Designed for use aboard aircraft carriers, the
MQ-25 will deliver tanker support for the USN’s
carrier air wings. Currently, that role is filled by
using refuelling pod-equipped Boeing F/A-18 Super
Hornets, reducing the number of combat aircraft
available for missions.
“[We] are confident in our ability to provide the US
Air Force a capable, versatile and affordable Collab-
orative Combat Aircraft fleet that can be produced
efficiently and delivered at scale,” Boeing says.
Evaluation effort
The airframer has brought at least one example of the
Australian-developed MQ-28A to the USA for testing
and evaluation by the USAF. FlightGlobal observed the
experimental aircraft at the headquarters of Boeing’s
defence unit in St Louis, Missouri in May 2023.
General Atomics on 8 February revealed the
existence of its experimental XQ-67A, with the design
flown for the first time just days later.
Defence Unmanned systems
US Air Force
General Atomics’ XQ-67A made its maiden
flight from Palmdale, California on 28 February
“We are confident in our
ability to provide the
US Air Force a capable,
versatile and affordable
Collaborative Combat
Aircraft fleet”
Boeing
“We think you’re looking at the future of unmanned
combat air vehicles,” says C Mark Brinkley, the compa-
ny’s senior director of communications and marketing.
Also known as the Off-Board Sensing Station
(OBSS), the single-engined jet was developed and
built for the US Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL).
Neither the AFRL nor General Atomics have
provided details about the OBSS programme’s goals
or test parameters. However, the company confirms
that the test platform is currently remotely piloted,
rather than autonomous.
It is unclear if General Atomics intends to put
forward the XQ-67A for the CCA role. The company
is also developing an autonomous jet concept it
calls the Gambit, which appears tailored for the
USAF mission. It also has been testing autonomous
technologies with its remotely-piloted MQ-20
Avenger, formerly known as the Predator C.
April 2024 Flight International 43
 The XQ-67A conducted its maiden sortie from
General Atomics’ flight operations facility near
Palmdale, California on 28 February. The AFRL has
not provided details about the duration of the flight
or activities that were performed while airborne,
but released images show the aircraft flying with its
landing gear lowered.
According to the AFRL, the aircraft represents
a second generation of autonomous collaborative
platforms (ACPs). The XQ-67A provides a common
chassis or “genus”, allowing for a standardisation of
airframes, but with the ability to quickly integrate
different capabilities, it says.
“This approach will help save time and money by
leveraging standard substructures and subsystems,
similar to how the automotive industry builds a
product line,” says Doug Meador of the AFRL’s
Aerospace Systems Directorate.
“From there, the genus can be built upon for other
aircraft – similar to that of a vehicle frame – with
the possibility of adding different aircraft kits to the
frame, such as an off-board sensing station or off-
board weapon station.”
Meador adds that the XQ-67A builds on previous
work on low-cost attritable aircraft technologies
(LCAAT). Starting in the mid-2010s, LCAAT work re-
sulted in the definition for the low-cost attritible strike
demonstrator, which ultimately led the team to define,
build and test the Kratos XQ-58A Valkyrie in 2019.
US Air Force
“This approach will help
save time and money
by leveraging standard
substructures and
subsystems”
Doug Meador Aerospace Systems Directorate, US Air Force
Research Laboratory
“The first generation was XQ-58, and that was
really about proving the concept that you could build
relevant combat capability quickly and cheaply,” says
Trenton White of the AFRL.
“We had always intended from the start of LCAAT
to have multiple vehicle development spirals or
threads of vehicle development. Then once the vehicle
is proven ready, you can start integrating stuff with it,
such as sensors, autonomy, weapons and electronics.”
Secretive support
Lockheed confirms that its secretive Skunk Works
unit is supporting the CCA programme.
“The team is hard at work, prioritising speed to
ramp and delivering quantity at scale to realise the
air force vision of autonomous systems working
synergistically with crewed systems to provide the
ultimate in mission flexibility as part of a distributed
team,” the airframer says.
Northrop – known for developing the pioneering
B-2 Spirit stealth bomber and that aircraft’s successor,
the B-21 Raider – says it will contribute “expertise in
advanced manufacturing, digital technologies and
autonomous systems to deliver Collaborative Combat
Aircraft capabilities rapidly and affordably”.
“Our technologies and solutions will give the US
and its allies the advanced systems and platforms

needed to address evolving threats,” Northrop adds.

Kratos’s XQ-58A Valkyrie has already
Notably, Valkyrie developer Kratos is not among
demonstrated ‘low cost attritable’ concept
those selected for the CCA programme. The

Canberra boosts Ghost Bat investment and targets 2025 demonstration campaign
Greg Waldron Singapore
Australia will fund the production
of three additional Boeing MQ-
28A Ghost Bat unmanned air
vehicles, as it eyes launching a
demonstration campaign with the
type in 2025.
To be produced in Australia,
the Block 2-standard MQ-28As
will feature improved sensor and
payload options, according to
“The goal is to have the three
Block 2 [aircraft] available for
the really critical capability
demonstration exercises next
year,” he says. “They’ll allow [the]
air force to really evaluate how
capable these aircraft are, how
the systems work in co-operation
with crewed aircraft, and then
[the] air force and government
will look at making decisions
about further deployment.”
The new deal will see Canberra
Conroy says the funding will
“go into developing the unique
Australian technology that allows
Ghost Bats to work with each
other and crewed aircraft as one
team to achieve their mission”.
Australia’s Defence Strategic
Review document of April 2023
highlighted the importance of the
MQ-28A programme, envisaging
production aircraft as operating
alongside Royal Australian Air
Force (RAAF) types including
Boeing

Australia’s minister for defence put a further A$399 million ($259 the Lockheed Martin F-35A
industry Pat Conroy. million) toward the programme. combat aircraft and Boeing E-7A

44 Flight International April 2024

 Defence Unmanned systems

MQ-25 is designed to deliver tanker

support for US Navy carrier air wings

company already has secured multiple orders from
the USAF and US Marine Corps for its XQ-58A,
delivering aircraft to support their evaluations of the
concept: which also was previously referred to as for
a ‘loyal wingman’.
Last October, Kratos revealed that it had acquired
Sierra Technical Services, a California-based start-up
that has been developing a fifth-generation-style
autonomous platform.
“We are in discussions with a customer and hope
to be under contract next year related to certain
other Kratos tactical drone systems, including
Thanatos,” it said the following month, referring to an
in-development uncrewed fighter.
US Navy
Under an initiative dubbed “Replicator”, the US De-
partment of Defense (DoD) aims to field thousands of
autonomous systems over the coming years, across
its various military services and warfighting domains.
The USAF is advancing its secretive NGAD project,
which is likely to be delivered by Boeing or Lockheed.
Northrop announced in July 2023 that it would not
compete for the sixth-generation fighter requirement.
Meanwhile, an autonomous fighter resulting from
the CCA effort could soon be eligible for export
to overseas customers, including countries in the
Asia-Pacific region.
While the earliest versions of the pilotless combat
jets may be restricted to domestic use, the USAF’s

Block 2-standard aircraft will gain
sensor and payload updates
Wedgetail airborne early warning
and control asset.
In March 2023, Australia also
entered into an agreement with
the US Department of Defense to
collaborate on the development
of so-called Collaborative
Combat Aircraft.
Conroy says that one objective
for Australia’s programme,
following the demonstration
phase in 2025, will be to produce
an MQ-28A for only 10% the cost
of an aircraft such as the F-35A.
Originally known as the
Airpower Teaming System,
the MQ-28A programme was
announced at the Avalon air
show in 2019, and a first example
completed its debut flight in
March 2021.
The Ghost Bat platform has
been designed to enable different
mission payloads to be swapped
in and out using a detachable
nose section.
Involving Boeing Australia and
the RAAF and representing the
first military aircraft to have been
developed in the country since the
Second World War, the MQ-28A
is a key programme for Australian
industry, involving over 350 jobs
and 200 suppliers.

April 2024 Flight International 45

Craig Hoyle/FlightGlobal Defence Unmanned systems
Jeniah ‘loyal wingman’ is being advanced by
the United Arab Emirates’ EDGE group
top procurement official says exportability is being
planned for subsequent iterations, which could arrive
as soon as 2025.
Speaking at the Singapore air show on 20 February,
assistant air force secretary Andrew Hunter said
the service is “deeply exploring” the options for
“significant partner involvement” in the autonomous
fighter programme’s next step.
“We see a deeper level of international engagement
on increment two,” he says. “That’s not to say that we
might not eventually export increment one, as is, to
certain partners, if there’s interest in that,” he adds.
The USAF’s goal for the CCA programme is
to deliver “something that is substantially less
expensive than a [Lockheed] F-35”, Hunter says. The
conventional take-off and landing F-35A’s current
unit price is around $78 million.
With its plans to field thousands of autonomous
systems in the coming years, the USAF wants to
rapidly move through the CCA development effort.
Notably, this could potentially lead to it awarding
manufacturing contracts to more than one provider.
“In order to get to the inventory levels that the [US
defense] secretary has identified as a target, it’s quite
possible that we could take multiple vendors into
production,” Hunter confirms.
Defined capabilities
While the USAF has provided industry with a de-
fined set of capabilities for the first increment of
CCA platforms, Hunter believes use of the type will
eventually expand to deliver the full range of air
warfare functions, including air-to-surface strikes and
air-to-air engagements.
Separate from the aircraft themselves, the USAF
also plans to share with overseas partners the
reference architecture and interfaces that will be the
common foundation of each CCA. Doing so will allow
non-US companies to independently develop their
own autonomous aircraft that can still be compatible
with its systems.
“Whether or not we would necessarily do a
traditional export-type arrangement, countries would
be able to build towards the same standard and have
inherently interoperable platforms,” Hunter says.
The US DoD is not alone in eyeing the future
potential for uncrewed combat assets. Multiple other
nations already have studies or projects under way,
including India, South Korea and Turkey.
India’s Hindustan Aeronautics in February 2021
revealed early design work on a Combat Air Teaming
46 Flight International April 2024
“We are all trying to
thrive in a domain where
autonomous systems are
something of the future.
We have to prepare now”
Hamad Al Marar Chief executive, EDGE
System, with the aim of eventually operating this in
tandem with the nation’s Tejas light combat aircraft.
Both Korea Aerospace Industries (KAI) and Korean
Air’s Aerospace Division are working on unmanned
combat air vehicle (UCAV) and CCA concepts for
Seoul, which could use such systems to support KAI’s
in-development KF-21 fighter.
Turkish Aerospace performed the first flight of its
Anka-III UCAV last December, while Ankara-based
Baykar is advancing the development of its Kilizelma
unmanned fighter, including for use from an adapted
helicopter carrier vessel.
And in early February, the UK’s BAE Systems dis-
closed it is working on an ACP demonstrator, revealing
that the Hawk jet trainer-sized design is expected to
get airborne for the first time within two years.
“Alongside the Global Combat Air Programme, the
RAF [Royal Air Force] is testing cost-effective ACPs
designed to leverage cutting edge technology to
support high-risk combat operations,” the UK Ministry
of Defence says in its recently published Defence
Drone Strategy. “The ACP programme has a range of
platforms able to deliver strategic effects at range.”
Artificial intelligence
Other nations also are interested in developing such
capabilities, which will include introducing the use of
artificial intelligence technologies.
Speaking to FlightGlobal at the World Defense
Show near Riyadh, Saudi Arabia in early February,
EDGE chief executive Hamad Al Marar explained the
rationale for the United Arab Emirates’ company’s
design work on its ‘loyal wingman’-type Jeniah.
“We are all trying to thrive in a domain where
autonomous systems are something of the future,” he
says. “We have to prepare now. If you do not ride this
wave today, you are never going to be on it.” ◗
 After a three-month grounding imposed following
the fatal loss of a US Air Force CV-22, Washington
has cleared its Osprey tiltrotor fleet to resume
normal operations – but questions remain

Troubled
return
Ryan Finnerty Syracuse Also notably, NAVAIR’s fix for the problem does not
involve any physical changes to the V-22’s airframe or
individual components.

T
he US military on 8 March cleared the Bell-
Boeing V-22 Osprey tiltrotor to resume flight
operations, more than three months after
a crash off the Japanese coast killed eight
American personnel.
Airworthiness authorities at the Pentagon grounded
the entire Osprey fleet shortly after, covering more
than 400 aircraft fielded by the US Air Force (USAF),
US Marine Corps (USMC) and US Navy (USN).
Now, those same regulators say they are confident
that the troubled type can be safely returned to
duty, based on the assessment of data collected
from multiple investigations into the loss of the
USAF-operated CV-22.
“We have high confidence that we understand what
component failed and how it failed,” says Colonel
Brian Taylor, V-22 programme manager at the US
Naval Air Systems Command (NAVAIR), which serves
as the airworthiness authority for the tiltrotor.
Taylor declines to detail the mitigation measures
NAVAIR plans to deploy, but confirms there will
be revised maintenance guidelines and changes to
some in-flight procedures.
“The mitigations that we’re putting in place really
address this one particular component and how it
operates inside of the aircraft,” he says.
The preventative measures will add an “extra
perimeter of safety”, he adds, while still allowing the
component in question to perform its mechanical
US Marine Corps lost an MV-22 last
year operating from Darwin, Australia

Unprecedented event
While Taylor will not reveal the exact nature of the
failure, or identify which component was involved,
he says the issue had not been observed in previous
Osprey mishaps.
“This is the first time we have seen this particular
component fail in this way,” he reveals, adding: “this
US Marine Corps

is unprecedented.”
That is a significant claim for a platform that has
logged around 750,000 flight hours in operational use
by the US services and lone export user Japan.

48 Flight International April 2024


function. The changes are intended to identify and
avoid a possible mechanical failure ahead of time.
However, significant questions about the 29
November 2023 crash remain unanswered: chief
among them, what caused the component to fail.
Taylor says this is in part due to salt water corrosion
of the aircraft’s wreckage, which was recovered from
waters some 43nm (80km) south of the Japanese
island of Kyushu.
“While the exact why may not necessarily be
determined, we understand generally the mechanics
of what played out,” he says. “That’s what the
mitigations address.”
Operators of the V-22 are expressing confidence in
NAVAIR’s findings, and the Department of Defense’s
decision to return it to operation.
“Our return to flight is founded on the absolute
confidence in the analysis by NAVAIR,” says
Brigadier General Richard Joyce, the USMC’s
assistant deputy commandant for aviation.
Fleet availability
With 348 MV-22s currently in its fleet, the USMC is
by far the largest operator of the type. Joyce notes
that its 17 Osprey squadrons ordinarily have around
240 of the aircraft available for frontline use at any
point in time.
Despite the importance of the tiltrotor to USMC
operations, Joyce says “there has been no race” to
get its MV-model examples back in the air before the
platform was deemed safe.
The USMC has endured its own safety challenges
with the Osprey over two decades of service. Three
marines were killed and five others injured in an
Defence Safety
US Air Force
November 2023 accident involving AFSOC-
operated aircraft killed eight personnel
“Our return to flight is
founded on the absolute
confidence in the analysis
by NAVAIR”
Brigadier General Richard Joyce Assistant deputy
commandant for aviation, US Marine Corps
August 2023 crash near Darwin, Australia during
a training flight. The previous year, two crashes in
Norway and the USA saw nine USMC personnel lose
their lives.
Also in 2022, an Air Force Special Operations
Command (AFSOC) CV-22 had to be recovered by
barge after its crew made an emergency landing on a
remote island in Norway.
The Aviation Safety Network, a service of the US
non-profit Flight Safety Foundation, lists 57 mishaps
and 62 fatalities associated with the Osprey since 1991.
At least six of those incidents occurred during combat
operations, with hostile activity a factor in some cases.
A number of previous crashes have been linked
to the issue of hard clutch engagement, during
which the tiltrotor’s clutch releases from the rotor
system and then suddenly re-engages, sending an
impulse through the drive train which can potentially
damage the system.
Although some facts from last November’s CV-22
crash are not yet known, Joyce says his service is
April 2024 Flight International 49
 satisfied with the safety measures now in place.
“We have the proper understanding, and NAVAIR
applied the proper risk mitigation controls, allowing
the marine corps to get back airborne safely,” he says.
USAF and USN officials have similarly expressed
their confidence.
“I trust them implicitly,” USAF Lieutenant General
Tony Bauernfeind says of NAVAIR and the decision to
remove the Osprey’s grounding bulletin.
Bauernfeind – who oversees AFSOC, whose
CV-22 was the incident aircraft – does not mince
words when describing the cause of that crash.
“It was a catastrophic material failure,” he says,
citing a separate investigation being conducted by
AFSOC. “It was a single component that failed in such
a way that led to catastrophic consequences.”
High confidence
Bauernfeind says the USAF has a “high level of
confidence” that it knows why the failure occurred,
but not enough to make a definitive conclusion. “I
have confidence that we know enough now to return
to flight,” he says.
Each service will develop its own return-to-flight
plan based on its operational needs and available
resources. Leaders from all three US operators say the
process will involve simulator training and re-certifying
pilots after three months out of the cockpit.
The USMC, with its large fleet and deeper roll of
instructor pilots, estimates it will take approximately
30 days for one of its Osprey squadrons to regain
basic currency to perform normal flight operations.
By contrast, the USN says it will take significantly
longer for its small fleet of CMV-22 transports to
resume their operational mission of resupplying
aircraft carriers at sea.
“We expect it will be several months or more
before we reach this phase,” says Vice Admiral Daniel
Cheever, commander of naval air forces. The extended
US Air Force
50 Flight International April 2024
flights over water associated with the type’s carrier
on-board delivery (COD) role will require a longer
recertification process for aircrew, he adds.
The USN has been using its aged Northrop
Grumman C-2A Greyhound fixed-wing turboprops
– the last of which are due to leave use in 2026 – for
COD tasks during the Osprey’s grounding.
Bauernfeind declines to provide a timeline for
AFSOC’s return-to-flight plan, saying the resumption
of normal operations will be “conditions-based”.
Meanwhile, Joyce travelled to Japan on 7 March
to brief its military about the findings of the crash
investigation. The Japan Ground Self-Defense Force
operates 14 MV-22s.
But with a latest fatal accident having been caused
by a previously unknown and little understood
engineering issue, US military leaders are being asked
questions about the Osprey’s future.
Perhaps not surprisingly, as the USMC is most
deeply committed to the tiltrotor operationally,
Joyce states: “We’re not having conversations about
anything that replaces V-22.” He notes that the
service has almost completed its planned acquisition
of 360 MV-22s, and that the type is expected to
continue in service for decades to come.
“The Osprey delivers
a critical capability to
the navy… its versatility
extends the navy’s reach
and responsiveness”
Vice Admiral Daniel Cheever Commander, naval air forces,
US Navy
Stranded CV-22 was recovered by barge from
a Norwegian island after 2022 emergency

Indeed, Joyce says the USMC is now evaluating
what modernisations will be required in order to
keep its Osprey fleet airworthy and operationally
relevant. He describes the unique speed, range
and flexibility of the type as having “fundamentally
changed” USMC aviation.
Similarly, the USN has no plans to retreat from its
embrace of tiltrotor technology.
“The Osprey delivers a critical capability to the
navy,” says Cheever. “Its versatility allows for [the]
rapid deployment of personnel, critical cargo and
supplies to-and-from aircraft carriers, extending
the navy’s reach and responsiveness in diverse
operational profiles.”
By contrast, the USAF appears to be more open to
moving on from the troubled CV-22.
“I do think that it’s time for us to start talking about
what is that next generation of capability that can
replace what the V-22 does,” Bauernfeind says.
While the Osprey has lived up to its promise of
combining fixed-wing speed and range with the
vertical take-off and landing flexibility of a helicopter,
he describes it as an “older platform”, based on
“1980s, first-generation tiltrotor technology”.
Although no replacement is readily available,
potential alternatives are starting to take shape.
The US Army in 2023 selected a new-generation
tiltrotor – Bell’s V-280 Valor – to meet its Future
Long Range Assault Aircraft (FLRAA) requirement.
Drawing on lessons learned from the V-22, Bell
has substantially redesigned the mechanics of the
V-280 to make the transition between horizontal and
vertical flight less complex.
Whereas the entire nacelle and engine assembly
rotate between flight modes on the Osprey, only the
rotors and driveshafts will move on the Valor, also
simplifying maintenance.
Radical alternatives
In addition to the FLRAA effort, the US Defense
Advanced Research Projects Agency and Special
Operations Command are in the early stages of
developing an even more radical alternative.
Known as Speed and Runway Independent
Technologies, or Sprint, their project seeks to deliver
a prototype aircraft that can combine vertical take-
off and landing with the ability to cruise at speeds
equivalent to a fixed-wing jet.
Bell has revealed its High-Speed Vertical Take-
off and Landing concept, which would add a third,
jet-powered flight mode to the existing tiltrotor
architecture. The company has already conducted
sled testing on the novel propulsion system at
Holloman AFB in New Mexico.
Boeing subsidiary Aurora Flight Sciences,
meanwhile, plans to offer a blended-wing-body
design that incorporates fan-in-wing rotors to provide
vertical lift – a combination Aurora calls a “high-lift,
low-drag” design. Northrop and Piasecki Aircraft are
also competitors in the Sprint programme, but have
not released details of their designs.
Whatever such development programmes may
deliver in time, it seems likely that the Osprey will
remain a vertical-lift fixture within the US military
fleet for years to come.
“There is no taking our eye off of V-22 and the
years of service life it has in front of us,” Joyce says. ◗
Defence Safety
US Navy Tiltrotor’s ice protection system
accounted for 44% of failures
CMV-22 ‘not operationally suitable’
for carrier delivery role, report says
The US Navy’s (USN’s) Bell-Boeing CMV-22 tiltrotor
is unsuitable for its primary mission of resupplying
aircraft carriers at sea, according to a report from
the office of Washington’s Director for Operational
Test and Evaluation (DOT&E).
Published in January, its fiscal year 2023 annual
report says the CMV-22 is “not operationally
suitable” for the carrier-resupply mission. It
attributes this assessment to the “failures of many
subsystems”, with the tiltrotor’s ice protection
system accounting for 44% of such events.
The DOT&E says the CMV-22’s required
maintenance hours per flight hour also do not
meet programme requirements. Only 45% of
logged maintenance hours were related to normal
scheduled maintenance, with more than half of
repair time arising from unexpected issues.
The USN’s Osprey variant is significantly modified
from the standard V-22 configuration to provide
50% greater fuel capacity and extended range. The
CMV-22 is in the process of replacing the service’s
Northrop Grumman C-2A Greyhound in the carrier
on-board delivery (COD) role.
With greater range, a larger cargo bay and
vertical take-off and landing capability, the CMV-
22 is supposed to deliver greater operational
flexibility, although it has less payload capacity
than the fixed-wing type. Notably, the tiltrotor
transport can accommodate a Pratt & Whitney
F135 engine to support maintenance of embarked
Lockheed Martin F-35s.
The CMV-22 achieved initial operational
capability in 2021, with Cirium fleets data showing
the service as having so far received 32 examples.
Full operational capability is due to be declared
this year, with the USN to acquire 44 in total.
Despite the critical review from the DOT&E, the
navy – which declined to comment on the FY2023
report – appears to be fully embracing the CMV-22
for the COD mission.
April 2024 Flight International 51
US Army
Major investment in AH-64E Apache
includes adding Spike NLOS missiles
Craig Hoyle London
T
he US Army’s surprise decision to terminate
its ambitious Future Attack Reconnaissance
Aircraft (FARA) programme put the brakes on
an expected major shift in the military rotor-
craft sector – and delivered a significant boost to
Washington’s incumbent suppliers.
Reading between the lines of the service’s
termination announcement, its leaders had become
increasingly concerned about the poor survivability
rate for combat helicopters during the war between
the armed forces of Kyiv and Moscow.
“We are learning from the battlefield – especially
in Ukraine,” army chief of staff General Randy
George said as the FARA requirement was
cancelled on 8 February. “Aerial reconnaissance
has fundamentally changed. Sensors and weapons
mounted on a variety of unmanned systems and in
space are more ubiquitous, further reaching, and
more inexpensive than ever before.”
Rather than continue to plough billions of dollars
into the FARA project, the service instead has opted
to “rebalance its aviation modernisation investments
across new and enduring platforms”.
“Without re-prioritising funds in its constrained avi-
ation portfolio, the army faced the unacceptable risk
of decline and closure of production and sustainment
lines for the [Boeing] Chinook and [Sikorsky] Black
Hawk fleets,” the service says. “The new plan will re-
new and extend production of both aircraft, while also
sustaining the experienced workforce and vendor base
that underpin the army’s aviation capabilities.”
“To maintain strategic advantage means acceler-
ating the pace of change,” the US Army’s director of
52 Flight International April 2024
aviation General Walter Rugen said at Defence IQ’s
International Military Helicopter conference in London
shortly after the announcement of FARA’s demise.
He also confirms that the lessons of the ongoing
conflict in Ukraine “played very large” in the army’s
reassessing its equipment needs.
“We must speed our transition from a counterinsur-
gency force to one postured for large-scale combat
operations,” Rugen says. “We must invest in capabili-
ties that will deter China and Russia in the near-term.
“This means difficult decisions need to be made in
the Pentagon – and it has been difficult,” he says. “The
competition for resources is as intense as it has ever
been – maybe more so. With increasingly downward
pressure being applied to top-line budgets each year
and continued budget uncertainty, we simply cannot
afford to build everything.”
Current programmes
As it was not involved in the FARA contest, the deci-
sion to shut down the armed scout need delivered a
welcome boost for two of Boeing’s current-generation
aircraft programmes. Using released funds, the army
will make fresh investments in the AH-64E Apache at-
tack helicopter and CH-47F Chinook Block II transport.
“The army is going to be flying Chinooks and Apach-
es into 2060,” notes Mark Bellew, Boeing’s senior di-
rector, business development, vertical lift programmes.
The service will continue fielding AH-64Es until fiscal
year 2027/2028 under current plans, with production
also taking place for new export customers Austral-
ia and Poland, who will take up to a combined 125
examples. “We are going to continue to build the
aircraft through until the end of the decade,” says
Bellew, who is confident that the company also will
secure additional international sales for the type.

After
Washington is renewing its investment in
FARA
current rotorcraft platforms instead of funding a
high-speed armed scout – but do lessons from
the war in Ukraine support its decision?
While a deal has yet to be concluded, the US Army
will enter into an agreement with Boeing “with a path
to full-rate production in the future” for its Block
II-standard Chinook, which brings enhanced lift and
extended-range performance.
Washington’s acquiring the latest version of the
CH-47F in volume also represents good news for
international buyers. Germany, for example, will see
a financial benefit in its 60-aircraft Chinook buy, as it
will be able to draw on unit cost savings enabled via
a multi-year procurement by the larger customer.
“We are quite happy with the US Army decision
[on FARA],” notes Colonel Christian Guntsch, advisor
to the German air force chief for Berlin’s roughly €7
billion ($7.6 billion) CH-47F buy. Being acquired via
the Foreign Military Sales mechanism to replace the
Bell’s V-280 tiltrotor will succeed the UH-60
Black Hawk through FLRAA acquisition
Bell
Defence Helicopters
European nation’s Sikorsky CH-53s, the rotorcraft will
be delivered from 2027.
Sikorsky, meanwhile, can expect to enjoy several
more years of success with its UH-60M Black Hawk
platform, even though the army’s continuing Future
Long Range Assault Aircraft (FLRAA) project will
provide a successor for the type: Bell’s V-280 Valor
tiltrotor. The service is due to continue receiving
UH-60Ms through FY2026 currently.
Long service
Jay Macklin, Sikorsky’s director, army FVL and innova-
tions business development, notes that the US military
will continue to fly UH-60-series aircraft until 2070.
The company is eyeing a potential need to update
the type with features including a digital backbone
using modular open systems architecture avionics,
and fly-by-wire controls.
It also continues to advance work to enable the
Black Hawk to perform autonomous missions, or
to operate with enhanced safety by using what it
describes as an “intelligent co-pilot”, which can warn
about potential controlled flight into terrain.
The key elements within the army’s Future Vertical
Lift (FVL) effort to transform its aviation fleet, both
FLRAA and FARA sought to acquire breakthrough
technologies, particular with regard to speed.
Bell was in December 2022 selected to produce the
V-280, defeating a rival offer from a Sikorsky-Boeing
team with the Defiant X. “FLRAA’s inherent reach
and stand-off capabilities will ensure mission success
through tactical manoeuvre at operational and strate-
gic distances,” the army said of its selection.
For FARA especially, the army envisioned a
platform that would capable of operating low and
fast. Such traits would enable the service to keep
April 2024 Flight International 53
 its aircraft and personnel out of harm’s when facing
advanced ground-based air-defence systems and
man-portable weapons.
Yet to be flown, the FARA candidates – Bell’s 360
Invictus and Sikorsky’s Raider X – were designed to
meet a performance requirement of at least 180kt
(333km/h). Following a fly-off process, the selected
type was to have delivered a capability to replace the
army’s already retired Bell OH-58 Kiowa Warrior.
Instead, the service will continue to employ the
Apache for such tasks, in concert with assets including
a future tactical uncrewed aircraft system (FTUAS)
and so-called air-launched effects (ALEs).
Still in its competitive phase, the FTUAS programme
aims to deliver aircraft from FY2026. These will
replace its Textron RQ-7B Shadow vehicles, with the
current supplier and Griffon Aerospace in contention.
Extended reach
The service has already performed trials involving the
Black Hawk deploying Anduril Industries’ Altius-600
UAS. Such a system could be employed as an ALE,
extending platform reach by providing surveillance,
electronic warfare capability or kinetic effect.
The army will later this year also begin fielding
Rafael’s Spike NLOS long-range air-to-surface missile
with its V6-standard AH-64Es. The weapon has a
precision strike capability against fixed and moving
targets from a maximum range of 27nm (50km).
“There are a lot of countries interested in the in-
tegration of Spike NLOS for Apache ‘Echo’,” Rafael
says, pointing to lessons learned from the war in
Ukraine. “Everybody is looking for stand-off [range],
since the threat is much greater than it used to be.”
Questions remain around the complex task of
managing airspace congestion and deconflicting
assets in an era where manned rotorcraft will operate
in the same battlespace – and in many cases at the
same altitude – as multiple UAS and ALEs.
Meanwhile, pointing to the transformational future
effect of the FLRAA platform, Rugen notes: “We will
learn from our sister services when introducing a new
and complex capability.”
Current plans call for the first army unit to be
equipped with the V-280 during FY2031.
Notably, the FARA platform was to conduct a role
that multiple other nations did not see a need for.
Poor Russian tactics have contributed
to its loss of multiple Ka-52s in Ukraine
Vectorkel/Shutterstock
54 Flight International April 2024
“We must draw the right
lessons from the war in
Ukraine. Proliferation of
air defence is not a new
problem”
British Army
“As we fly very low altitude, high speed is not a
priority – in fact, we question it,” a French army
official says, noting that nap-of-the-earth operations
– used to protect against detection and hostile fire –
require aircraft to operate at slower speeds.
Paris will add extended-range weapons to its
Airbus Helicopters Tiger attack helicopters as part
of a future Block II+ update, and make efficiencies
by replacing multiple aged platform types with the
manufacturer’s H160M. The nation’s armed forces also
are increasingly fielding unmanned systems.
Other speakers at the recent conference noted the
importance of not drawing snap conclusions from the
war in Ukraine – and especially regarding Russia’s poor
performance using attack helicopters.
Heavy losses
Kyiv claims to have destroyed 310 Russian helicopters
since Moscow’s forces invaded Ukraine in February
2022, although this total cannot be independently
verified. Losses have included multiple examples of
the Kamov Ka-52 and Mil Mi-28N.
“Ukrainian and Russian aviation capabilities – and
tactics in particular – are different to NATO, so it
is difficult to draw conclusions,” a British Army
source notes. “Russian helicopters started [combat
operations] by flying in daylight and at height. Their
aircraft protection systems are outdated, and they
have no mission management.
“Appropriate ‘shaping’ options are also required,”
the official says, referring to the need for supporting
ground forces, artillery, electronic warfare and cyber
techniques to reduce the risk for helicopters as part
of an operating package.
“We must draw the right lessons from the war
in Ukraine,” the same source says. “Proliferation of
air defence is not a new problem – we have been
countering it for decades with our technology and
our tactics. Vulnerability is a constant reality.”
As an example, the official points to Russian forces’
major helicopter assault on Hostomel airport near
Kyiv in the opening hours of the conflict, which
failed not due to rotorcraft losses, but because
transport aircraft carrying supporting personnel and
equipment failed to arrive.
“We should see [the assault on] Hostomel as a
failure of planning, synchronisation and condition
setting – not a general ruling on the applicability of
combat aviation,” the official says.
Referring to future operations with a mix of manned,
uncrewed and autonomous systems, the source notes:
“By combining these different capabilities we can
continue to deliver a competitive advantage.” ◗
 Eco-tourism company Grands Espaces plans to
use one of Hybrid Air Vehicles’ first Airlander
aircraft during polar expeditions, as its UK
developer nears production launch

Sustainable
view George Land, executive director of sales at HAV,
Murdo Morrison London
says the Airlander 10 allows tourism operators to
broaden their portfolio “without the negative effects

H
ybrid Air Vehicles’ (HAV’s) green ambitions legacy aircraft have on the planet”.
have been buoyed via a reservation “Through this reservation agreement [we] are
agreement reached with French “eco-tourism” rethinking what is possible for a low-impact, low-
company Grands Espaces. carbon tourism industry,” he adds.
Announced in February, the deal is expected to see Kempf says Grands Espaces has been working on
the operator take one of the first three Airlander 10s the deal with HAV for four years, and that the reserva-
off the production line. tion agreement represents “a significant step forward”.
The commitment comes as the hybrid airship devel- Other would-be customers for the Airlander 10
oper prepares to launch production this year from a include Air Nostrum, which has a commitment for
site near Doncaster in northern England. It has yet to 20 aircraft, each fitted in a 100-passenger configura-
confirm the exact location, but says it will eventually tion. The Spanish regional airline plans to launch an
be capable of delivering 24 aircraft annually. Airlander network from Malta to surrounding islands
HAV had previously said that it held reservations for and countries, as well as within Spain.
three aircraft for use in the tourism and leisure sector,
without naming its potential customers.
Company expects to eventually
New adventures produce 24 aircraft per year
Grands Espaces was founded by Arctic scientist
and author Christian Kempf and specialises in polar
cruises, or “expeditions”, currently using small ships.
It will use the Airlander 10 to “offer its customers the
opportunity to experience new adventures in hard to
reach and undiscovered places”.
It expects to take delivery of its aircraft in 2028.
“Airlander’s ability to take-off and land from any rea-
sonably flat surface, including water and ice, and the
minimal requirement for fixed infrastructure will help
to sustainably expand Grands Espaces’ services, of-
fering improved access to areas that cannot be easily
reached by conventional aircraft or boat,” HAV says.

56 Flight International April 2024


Other potential markets for the UK-based start-up
are cargo, for which the aircraft will have an up to
10t payload capacity, plus communications, and
military surveillance. Last September, HAV signed a
memorandum of understanding with BAE Systems
to “explore the potential in security and defence
applications” of the airship.
HAV plans to deliver its first Airlander 10 in 2026,
and to produce 10 per year by the end of this decade.
In support of the airship’s journey towards service
entry, the company in late February formally entered
into the type certification process with the UK Civil
Aviation Authority.
“Work is planned to be carried out concurrently
with the European Union Aviation Safety Agency and
the [US] Federal Aviation Authority to enable global
deliveries,” the company adds. The certification
process “will utilise a range of analysis, simulation,
laboratory, ground and flight tests”.
Certification target
“Airlander makes new, sustainable aviation services
possible at scale,” says HAV chief executive Tom
Grundy. “Alongside our production programme,
applying for type certification is a key milestone in
our journey towards this goal.”
HAV says it has attracted “£1 billion [$1.27 billion]
of current reserved orders for Airlander 10”. It aims
to have a zero-emission, hydrogen-fuelled version
Hybrid Air Vehicles
available for use by 2030.
Also in support of its type certification and
production activities, the developer is to incorporate
Dassault Systemes’ 3DExperience software platform
Environment Airlander
Hybrid Air Vehicles
Airship will allow operator to offer
‘adventures in undiscovered places’
“Through this reservation
agreement we are
rethinking what is possible
for a low-impact, low-
carbon tourism industry”
George Land Executive director of sales, Hybrid Air Vehicles
into its design process, under a new memorandum
of understanding.
HAV says that by employing the company’s
‘virtual twin’ technology it will ensure its aircraft
“is developed, manufactured, and operated in an
efficient and sustainable manner, whilst preparing for
hydrogen-fuelled, zero emissions flight, as Airlander
advances to being an early adopter of fuel cell-
powered electric motors”.
“Through the 3DExperience platform, we will access
valuable insights into our aircraft, enabling us to mini-
mise our own environmental footprint,” Grundy adds.
Also as part of the agreement with Dassault
Systemes, the companies will work with engineering
and design solution specialist TriMech, “to ensure the
efficiency of deployment, business processes, and
utilisation of investment”. ◗
Additional reporting by Craig Hoyle
April 2024 Flight International 57
 Brisbane-based Stralis Aircraft is advancing its
pioneering work on hydrogen-electric powertrains:
one of many initiatives now taking off as Australia
addresses the zero-emission challenge
Green
Bonanza Tony Harrington Brisbane
I
n the corner of a hangar on the edge of Brisbane
airport, a wingless Beechcraft Bonanza called Clyde
has become a key enabler of zero-emission flight.
For decades, this six-seat, piston-powered aircraft
flew for Darwin-based Air Frontier in Australia’s
searing Northern Territory.
Now it is pioneering new frontiers as a ground-
test rig for Stralis Aircraft, a start-up developing
hydrogen-electric powertrains to retrofit existing
models and power future designs.
Stralis is one of a growing number of sustainable avi-
ation enterprises evolving in Australia: a nation which
has been slower than many to embrace cleaner flight.
One by one, projects are taking off, among them
plans for locally-produced sustainable aviation fuel
(SAF), battery and hydrogen-electric propulsion
systems and aircraft, and proposals for green
hydrogen production at or near airports.
All of this is occurring as the federal govern-
ment finalises an Aviation White Paper which
it says will guide the sector’s economic and
sustainable growth to 2050.
AirTeamImages
Regional carrier Rex plans to use one
of its Saab 340s as propulsion testbed
58 Flight International April 2024
As in most markets transitioning to low- or
zero-emission flight, SAF is considered the biggest,
fastest pathway to meaningful progress – a one-size-
fits-all solution until others evolve to sufficient scale.
Near Perth, the capital of Western Australia, BP is
well advanced with plans to convert its Kwinana oil
refinery to produce SAF and renewable diesel from
2026, using recycled fats and oils as feedstocks.
Across the country, in tropical North Queensland,
emerging biofuel refiner Jet Zero Australia and
US-based LanzaJet have announced a licence and
engineering agreement to progress development of
another SAF facility, near the coastal city of Townsville.
Project Ulysses
Designated Project Ulysses, after a butterfly species
in the region – and still subject to final investment
approval – the new plant should start production
in late 2026 or early 2027, says Jet Zero chief
executive Ed Mason.
It will have annual capacity to produce 102 million
litres, leveraging LanzaJet’s alcohol-to-jet technology,
through which ethanol is created from feedstocks
includ
including sugar cane, and then converted to SAF.
This will offer a natural diversification for North
Queensland, a major sugar producing region.
Other partners are the Queensland State
Government, Airbus, and Australia’s largest
a
airline group, Qantas. The carrier is a long and
lo
loud campaigner for a local SAF sector, arguing
tha
that the nation has abundant feedstock but no
pro
production capacity.
“S
“Sustainable aviation fuel is the most
significa
significant tool airlines have to reduce their
emission
emissions, but it’s only available offshore, with no

“We think Australia
has every chance of
becoming a sustainable
fuels superpower”
Stephen Forshaw Airbus chief representative,
Australia, New Zealand, and Pacific
local supply for airlines in Australia,” says Andrew
Parker, Qantas Group’s chief sustainability officer.
Qantas already uses foreign-sourced SAF for some
international flights and will buy up to 500 million
litres annually from 2028. To support Australian
SAF production, it wants enabling policies including
mandates for blending and use.
“We think Australia has every chance of becoming
a sustainable fuels superpower with the right
support from government and industry,” says
Stephen Forshaw, Airbus chief representative,
Australia, New Zealand, and Pacific. “The challenge
to start production is urgent.”
In the southern city of Melbourne, Victoria, Dovetail
Electric Aviation is also progressing sustainable flight,
developing battery-electric powertrains to retrofit
into current commuter aircraft.
The first, scheduled to fly early next year, is a
Cessna Caravan of tourist airline Sydney Seaplanes,
which co-founded Dovetail with Spain’s Dante Aero-
nautical, and has drawn orders and options valued at
over $160 million for its zero-emission conversion kits.
Environment Australia
Stralis Aircraft
‘Clyde’, a wingless Beechcraft
Bonanza, is Stralis’s test rig
Next year Dovetail plans to switch a Beechcraft King
Air to hydrogen-electric propulsion. It will come from
Pel-Air, a sibling of Australian domestic airline Rex,
whose assets also include 52 Saab 340s: the world’s
largest fleet of that type.
Rex has also invested in Dovetail and plans to use
one of the Saab 340s as a testbed for zero-emission
powertrains, and will potentially convert more, since
no equivalent-size replacement aircraft exists.
Stralis is also making headway. Co-founder and
chief executive Bob Criner, an aerospace engineer,
says that while his company is small, it has big plans
for liquid hydrogen-powered flight.
Clyde, the Bonanza test-rig, performed its first
zero-emission ‘prop-spin’ late last year, and this year
its sibling – named Bonnie – is scheduled to make the
company’s first hydrogen-powered flight.
In 2025, Stralis plans to convert a Beechcraft 1900D
commuter aircraft, targeting supplemental type
certification in the USA and Australia, and entry into
service by the following year.
Clean-sheet design
Then, in 2028, it plans to start building a clean-sheet
50-seat aircraft, currently designated the SA1, aiming
for commercial launch by 2030.
“When we started out, we were told ‘It won’t work.
You can’t do that.’ But we are,” Criner says. “We are
pushing the boundaries and disrupting the status quo.”
But why are the company’s current test assets
named Bonnie and Clyde, after two outlaws?
Bonnie was an Australian nickname for the
Bonanza, so Clyde seemed an obvious choice for the
second aircraft, he explains.
“Bonnie and Clyde does have a ring to it.” ◗
April 2024 Flight International 59
 From yuckspeak to tales of yore, send your offcuts to murdo.morrison@flightglobal.com

Qatar’s bizarre
bazaar
Amid rising global divisions it’s reassuring to know
that there are still places where mutually hostile
nations happily rub shoulders – such as Middle
Eastern arms fairs.
Our man at Qatar’s recent DIMDEX exhibition
reports that the stand of UK defence champion
BAE Systems was wedged between two Chinese
companies, while the Iranian ministry of defence
booth was hosting uniformed Russian military
personnel, not 100m away from a Ukrainian exhibit
running videos on a loop graphically illustrating the…
er… effectiveness of its weapon systems against
Moscow’s soldiers and ships.
Meanwhile, wandering the aisles and browsing the
bazaar of goods was a Taliban delegation.
However, the spirit of detente did not seem to
spread as far as February’s Singapore show, where
Alef Aeronautics

Airbus was forced to apologise after a group of

Chinese visitors claimed they were prevented from
visiting an A400M operated by Germany’s Luftwaffe
on the static display.
A video circulated by a Chinese blogger
appeared to show a representative of the European
manufacturer asking him for his nationality, and, after
being told, refusing him entry because “it’s German
rules, it’s military restrictions”. His account was
corroborated by other Chinese show-goers who said
they had received similar treatment.
Amid the online furore, Airbus later clarified: “We
immediately communicated and co-ordinated with
the customer and our Airbus teams at the show to
ensure that the aircraft was open to all visitors for the
remainder of the air show.”
Perhaps Airbus was recalling an incident at
the Zhuhai air show in 2010, when reporters who
were not Chinese citizens were banned from the
Alef’s flying car: yours for $150, plus $299,849 on delivery
auditorium when Comac launched its C919. Our
intrepid reporter had to stand under an open
window near a bathroom to hear details of how
Beijing planned to take on the Airbus and Boeing
narrowbody duopoly.
Sometimes at air shows though there can be too
much access. At Aero India in 2011, lax security
meant our two scribblers were free to get up close
and personal to all the fighters in the contest for
New Delhi’s Medium Multi-Role Combat Aircraft
requirement, including checking out the highly
sensitive intakes of the likes of the Dassault Rafale,
Lockheed Martin F-16, and Saab Gripen.

From the archive

1924 Great antagonisms

100
Major-General Seely asked whether the Prime Minister
could see his way to take some steps towards the
limitation of air armaments, to stop the mad race
which was now beginning; and which, if not stopped,
would result in a catastrophe to civilisation the like
of which mankind had never seen. We had started
an air race against France which was being joined in
by others. Great armaments tended to make great
antagonisms. He believed that there was no more
humane way of maintaining order among savage
tribes than the aeroplane, because the use of air
power was generally for dropping warnings, which
were only in rare cases followed by dropping bombs.
But in the case of civilised countries air warfare was
the most cruel and deadly ever devised.
1949 Dewdropped
75
Much to the discomfort of the Republicans, the
national pollsters, and the political pundits – all of
whom guessed wrong – Mr. Truman is now firmly
seated at the White House piano playing his own
favourite ditties. Whether or not this is a good thing
for America and the rest of the world must be decided
by the historians. A widely circulated news story
recently hinted that the U.S.A.F. had prepared a new
million-dollar executive aircraft for the incoming
Republican “President” – a specially fitted Lockheed
Constellation – in the expectation that Governor
Dewey of New York State would be elected the next
U.S. President. To the acute embarrassment of the
Air Force, this so-called Dewey Special was quickly
dubbed the “Dewdrop” by the national Press.

60 Flight International April 2024

 Straight & Level

Car you There is Slovakia’s dual-mode

KleinVision AirCar, which received its
certificate of airworthiness from the

serious? country’s civil aviation authority more

Electric vertical take-off and landing
(eVTOL) aircraft might be a bit of a
mouthful, but we’ve got used to it. Despite
this, Adam Goldstein, chief executive of
eVTOL developer Archer, hates the term,
and wants to replace it with “flying car”.
It seems a strange choice given that
neither Archer’s Midnight – nor any of its
competitors – are designed to travel on
terra firma. They don’t have wheels, for
a start.
On the contrary, there have been
any number of flying car prototypes
– automobiles that can with a flick of
a switch take to the air – but that sub-
segment seems even more pie-in-the-sky
than the dozen or more eVTOL types
under development, all of which (China’s
eHang apart) remain uncertificated.
than two years ago but has yet to go
into production.
It has been three years since European
regulators came up with a special
category of certification for the PAL-V
Liberty, a roadworthy gyroplane. Little has
been heard of it since.
The same fate seems to have befallen
US-based Terrafugia, which shut down
development of its Transition flying car
early in the pandemic.
Hopes may rest with Alef Aeronautics,
which revealed “the world’s real flying
car” at last year’s Detroit Auto Show.
There have been plenty of early
adopters prepared to stump up just
$150 to “pre-order” Alef’s $299,999
wingless wonder – or $1,500 to join the
“priority queue” – but, like the prospective
customers, we’re not getting carried away
by flying cars just yet.

Philosophical board says, the pilot and instructor were “having a

conversation about when to extend the landing-gear”.
After an exchange with air traffic control over a

approach possible change of runway, the pilot performed a

From the open-and-shut-case files of the US National
Transportation Safety Board comes this tale of woe
involving a Piper PA-34 Seneca pilot who, being new
to the aircraft type, was receiving instruction regarding
landing technique on 9 January.
During the downwind leg of the traffic pattern at
Groton New London airport in Connecticut, the safety
normal approach to landing.
“The pilots reported that they realised they had
forgotten to extend the landing gear when they heard
the airplane contact the runway,” says the inquiry.
Piper named the Seneca after the Native American
people, rather than the Roman philosopher – who
reputedly said “a gem cannot be polished without
friction”, without mentioning things you shouldn’t try
polishing with friction, like the underside of a PA-34.

1974 Problems for Paris

50
Allegations that the Paris air traffic control system is
“unworkable” were being made as the new Charles de
Gaulle Airport at Roissy opened. “The air lanes in the
Paris area are complicated under the new plan – pilots
have to switch lanes and radio frequencies too often,
increasing the potential danger of midair collision,”
a spokesman for the French National Union of Air
Traffic Controllers said last week. He stated that the
radar at the new de Gaulle airport had blank spots
and frequent failures. “Flying in the Paris area has now
become more dangerous,” alleged the spokesman.
“We have reached the point where we feel we must
issue a clear public warning about safety aspects
of the new flying rules,” added M Jean Harbion,
president of the French Union of Pilots.
1999 Talking to Typhoons
25
Eurofighter’s Typhoon – the export version of the
Eurofighter – is expected to be the first production
fighter to have direct voice control in the cockpit.
Prime contractor CDC, which leads a consortium
comprising MID of Italy, Enosa of Spain and Teldix of
Germany, says the interactive voice capability “...is
probably the most exciting aspect of the CAMU, and
of the Eurofighter Typhoon itself”. The system will
allow the pilot to control verbally aircraft functions
such as displays, radios and navigation systems.
Speech feedback will allow the pilot to ask the aircraft
for information and receive it verbally. The DVI module
is a speaker-dependent, connected word, voice
recognition system. It can recognise up to 200 words,
any 25 of which may be active at a given time.

April 2024 Flight International 61

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Cheques payable to Flight International
 Sabina Mohammadi discovered a love for aviation
after a commercial flight in 1969, which ultimately
led her to establish Tampa-based airport project
company American Infrastructure Development

Building
momentum
Jon Hemmerdinger Tampa says. “So, when I walk in, people know who I am, they
know who the company is, and they know our team.
“You are only as good as your last job,” she adds.

S
abina Mohammadi vividly remembers the day After living for several years in the UK, the
she took the BOAC flight that carried her to Mohammadi family moved to Canada around 1973
the UK in 1969. before heading to the USA in 1975, settling in South
Her family was from Kashmir – a region long Carolina. She fell in love with the original Star Trek
at the centre of an oft-violent land dispute between television series – “It was just, to me, magical,” she
India and Pakistan – and was emigrating in search of says – and her family often travelled by air.
a new life. “I really loved Pan American, and Eastern Air
That flight ignited a passion for aviation that would Lines. Back then, I used to be able to step into the
ultimately lead her to launching American cockpit and meet the pilots… they’d give you little
pment (AID): a
Infrastructure Development wings and colouring
colou books and crayons.”
20-employee firm based ed in Tampa, Mohammadi
Mohammadi’s career followed a winding
rports with
Florida, that assists airports path that eve
eventually led to the industry that
infrastructure projects;; and inspired her
her.
becoming a private pilot. ot. She atten
attended the University of South
The growing company, ny, which Carolina, a
achieving a bachelor’s degree
out $6
currently brings in about in political
politica science and a master’s in
million in annual revenue,ue, healthcar
healthcare administration.
provides airports with plan- That led to working at the US
ning, design, engineeringing and Departm
Department of Transportation as a
project management work,
axiway
covering runway and taxiway
rehabilitations, hangar construc- “I stic
stick out like a
ansions.
tion and terminal expansions.
Mohammadi, now 57,, has sore thumb because
succeeded in an industrytry largely
dominated by men. She e has not I’m a female
felt held back, and de-
scribes her success as iin a male-
a reflection of hard
work, reputation, dominated
strong industry
relationships and the industry. So,
strength of her team.
when I walk in,
Sabina Mohammadi

“I stick out like a

sore thumb because
I’m a female in a people know
male-dominated in-
dustry,” Mohammadi who I am”
66 Flight International April 2024

Sabina Mohammadi
manager of roadway, bridge and other engineering
projects. The job involved coordinating with elected
officials and constituents, and taught her about large-
scale transportation infrastructure and the influence
such projects have on communities.
She later worked for a lawyer on projects involving
real estate and land acquisitions, held a procure-
ment job at a large hospital network and became a
licensed real estate agent.
Past experience
After the 2007-2008 real estate market crash,
Mohammadi considered her next move. She read up
on large developments then under way in Florida, tak-
ing particular interest in aviation projects like those at
Tampa International airport. Thanks to her past work,
she understood the ins and outs of such efforts.
“I started looking more and more into aviation,
and I thought: I could just do programme project
management again.”
She attended numerous outreach events, including
those hosted by Tampa International, where she met
people with similar interests, including engineers and
project managers who were looking for new opportu-
nities. She also worked with the Small Business Devel-
opment Center at the University of South Florida.
Before long, Mohammadi had collected a stack
of 50-60 resumes. She thought: “If I can help these
people [find] some work… it’ll be a win-win for them
and for me. That’s how AID started.”
Launched in 2009, the company also helps to
design and oversee projects involving airport aprons,
fencing, parking lots, drainage systems and rental car
facilities. And it provides planning services involving
noise and environmental studies, airspace analyses,
pollution prevention plans, emergency plans and
hangar layouts. It manages construction projects and
assists airports with securing federal grants.
AID assisted with Tampa International’s construc-
tion of a 975m (3,200ft) elevated concrete taxiway. It
provided St Pete-Clearwater International airport with
design services related to rehabilitation of a 3,048m
taxiway and construction of seven taxiway connec-
tors, and supplied a storm water master plan.
Subscribe today at www.FlightGlobal.com/subscribe
Women in aviation
Mohammadi received a
private pilot licence in 2012
Another top client has been St Croix’s Henry E Ro-
hlsen airport. AID was lead engineer for, and managed
construction of its new rescue and firefighting facility,
and helped with runway, taxiway and apron improve-
ments, and in renovating passenger waiting areas.
The company has also performed work at Albert
Whitted airport in St Petersburg, Brooksville-Tampa
Bay Regional airport, Orlando International airport,
Palm Beach International airport and Peter O Knight
airport in Tampa. It has several offices in Florida, and
others in St Croix and Washington DC, and frequently
partners with large US engineering firms including
AECOM, C&S Companies, Jacobs and VHB.
Mohammadi is planning further expansion for AID.
She intends to add an architectural services arm this
year and to eventually launch a real estate division,
which would, for instance, provide services related
to land acquisitions and leasing. She is also pursuing
more airport-related work with the US military.
Quality matters
But her growth goals are modest, grounded by a
philosophy of prioritising relationships and quality
over expansion.
“We like to be lean and mean,” she says. “It’s not all
about the big bucks, but it’s about the comfort level.
We always want to make sure the projects are moving
smoothly: that’s more important.”
Having always been fascinated by aviation, she
received a private pilot licence in 2012, flying out of
Brooksville, north of Tampa.
While aviation tends to be dominated by men,
Mohammadi thinks women hold more senior
positions than many people might realise,
particularly in jobs like airport directors, engineers
and planners. “A lot of women… run this industry,
you just don’t hear about it,” she says.
She also stresses the importance of accepting and
facing challenges, saying, “You can always let some-
thing get in the way of success. Make yourself fit in.” Z
April 2024 Flight International 67