AIR International - April 2016.pdf

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MALAYSIA’S A400M
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BOEING’S NEW JETS
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SAAB’S SWORDFISH
Air LO
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APRIL 2016
Vol.90 No.4
£4.80
For the best in modern military and commercial aviation
INTERNATIONAL
Still Cruising?
Jumbo
Gulfstream G500
Soaring through flight test
Sea King HC4 Icelandair
Retired with honours
The North Atlantic Niche
www.airinternational.com
INTERNATIONAL
C
ha
ng
es
&
Top Stories
06
Development achievements on key
Boeing commercial aircraft programmes.
New maritime patrol aircraft plat-
forms have been launched by Saab.
MILESTONES
20
Key regional debuts in Singapore
by the latest transport aircraft.
The trend of special mission busi-
ness jets in Asia-Paci c.
A progress report on Russia’s
largest helicopter manufacturer, Kazan.
TRANSPORTS TAKE A BOW
30
36
FREE
D
when y
VD!
ou take
BRIGHT
FUTURE
08
SWORDFISH
24
BIZ-JET ISR
Embraer sees a
positive outlook for
commercial and executive
jets in Asia.
out
direct d
ebit sub a 2-year or
scrip
to
AIR In
ternatio
tion
nal.
See pa
g
es 3
for deta8 and 39
ils.
16
VIPER FOR ARH?
Bell and BAE team up for the Aus-
tralian Tiger replacement.
26
TURBULENCE
Viking Air is working on a new
seaplane version of the Twin Otter
utility aircraft.
400S SEAPLANE
FRONT COVER: This month we explore
the gradual demise of the Boeing 747-400.
Mathieu Pouilot/AirTeamImages
BOTTOM LEFT INSET: Gulfstream Aerospace
MIDDLE INSET: Ian Harding
RIGHT INSET: Steve Flint/AirTeamImages
40
66
A LOT HAPPENING
88
AROUND THE ISLANDS
72
LA MANCHA
SCOOTING AHEAD
96
GULFSTREAM FLIGHT TEST
76
E2 ROLLOUT
98
82
EXPEDITIONARY OPS
A pivotal time for LOT Polish Airlines.
A visit to Albacete Air Base, Spain.
Behind the scenes on G500 testing.
Another key F-35B deployment.
Editor’s Secretary
Melissa Smith
melissa.smith@keypublishing.com
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Features
40
A LONG FAREWELL
44
FIGHTER SCHOOL
52
THE NORTH ATLANTIC NICHE
56
THE MAGNIFICENT SEVEN
Boeing 747 phase-outs continue.
The 944th Fighter Wing.
A look at Icelandair’s success.
The Sea King HC4’s retirement.
Editor
Mark Ayton
airint@keypublishing.com
Designer
Dave Robinson
Production Manager
Janet Watkins
Ad Production
Danielle Tempest
Group Marketing Manager
Martin Steele
Marketing Manager
Shaun Binnington
Commercial Director
Ann Saundry
Managing Director & Publisher
Adrian Cox
Executive Chairman
Richard Cox
A look at ET 0/50 ‘Réunion’ in the
Indian Ocean.
An interview with the boss of all-
787 operator Scoot.
Kevin Wills
The roll-out of the rst Embraer
E-Jet E2.
Deputy Editor
Mark Broadbent
airnews@keypublishing.com
Advertisement Manager
Ian Maxwell
ian.maxwell@keypublishing.com
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3
Leading Stories
Next Steps in NASA’s QueSST
An Airbus
A350-8000?
An artist’s impression of a possible Low Boom Flight Demonstration Quiet Supersonic Transport (QueSST) design.
NASA
NASA has awarded a contract to
Lockheed Martin for the preliminary
design
for
Quiet
Supersonic
Technology (QueSST) as part of the
agency’s New Aviation Horizons
initiative, introduced in its FiY 2017
budget.
Lockheed Martin will receive about
$20 million over 17 months for the
QueSST preliminary design. The
work will involve the development of
baseline aircraft requirements and
a preliminary aircraft design with
specifications, and the provision
of supporting documentation for
concept formulation and planning.
Lockheed Martin was selected after
NASA’s Commercial Supersonic
Technology Project asked industry
teams to submit design concepts
for a piloted test aircraft that can fly
at supersonic speeds, creating a
supersonic ‘heartbeat’, which the
agency defines as, “a soft thump
rather than the disruptive boom”.
The detailed design and building of
the QueSST aircraft, to which the
preliminary design will contribute,
will be conducted under the NASA
Aeronautics
Research
Mission
Directorate’s
Integrated
Aviation
Systems Program. NASA says the
aircraft would be about half the scale
of a production aircraft and is likely to
be piloted. The aircraft starts its flight
campaign around 2020, depending
on funding. The ten-year New
Aviation Horizons initiative intends to
reduce fuel use, emissions and noise
through developing innovations in
aircraft design that depart from the
conventional and-wing shape.
Airbus is reportedly marketing a
new version of the A350 XWB to
airlines. The prospective aircraft,
provisionally called the A350-
8000, would be designed to
compete in the 400-seat segment
of the passenger aircraft market
with the forthcoming Boeing
777-9, which will seat 406
passengers.
Reuters quoted Airbus Chief
Operating Officer Customers
John Leahy saying on the side
lines of the ISTAT Americas
conference that the aircraft,
“would have similar capacity
and range [as the 777-9] and
substantially
lower
seat-mile
costs”, and that, “we are showing
it to airlines right now”.
The reports said the prospective
A350-8000
would
have
a
maximum
take-off
weight
of
319,000kg/703,000lb (up from the
A350-1000’s 308,000kg/681,000lb)
to cater for the capacity and
performance increases, and a higher-
power derivative of the A350-1000’s
Rolls-Royce Trent XWB-97. Airbus
is expected to provide more details
about its intentions in the 400-seat
segment of the widebody market
at July’s Farnborough International
Airshow. A prospective stretched
A350-1000, widely dubbed as the
A350-1100, has been a prospect for
some time. The A350-1000 will seat
366 passengers.
Mark Broadbent
Talon Hate
The left image shows what appears to be a tactical terminal mounted atop the right side fuselage and the right image shows the pod fitted with an infrared
search and track system carried on station 5.
Both images Bruce Smith
Two Air Combat Command F-15C
Eagles, 82-0022 and 83-0026,
assigned to the 422nd Test and
Evaluation Squadron ‘Green Bats’
based at Nellis Air Force Base,
Nevada flew missions in a recent
Red Flag exercise equipped
with the Talon HATE system.
Two external components were
seen: a pod carried on station
5, and what appears to be
a tactical terminal mounted
atop the right side fuselage.
Developed by Boeing’s Phantom
Works’ Advanced Network &
Space Systems, the Talon HATE
system assimilates information
transmitted over various data link
waveforms in real time, to create
a single common operating
picture for aircraft, ships and
ground stations. The ability to
receive data transmitted over the
F-22 Raptor’s intra-flight data link
and re-transmit that data in to a
battle picture available on multiple
concurrent
communications
waveforms, particularly Link 16,
is the system’s most evolutionary
aspect.
The pod, designed to be carried
on station 5, is fitted with an
infrared search and track (IRST)
system to provide the F-15C with
a passive detection capability. The
forward form of the pods carried
by the Nellis-based F-15C Eagles
are similar, but not identical to the
IRST system under development
for the F/A-18E and F/A-18F
Super Hornet with a seeker head
fitted in the forward section. The
aft of the pod appears to show a
cooling scoop.
4
AI.04.16
Please send all news correspondence to...airnews@keypublishing.com
Leading Stories
Bomb Dropping
Pilots assigned to the 34th and 466th Fighter Squadrons dropped inert 500lb GBU-12 laser-guided bombs from the F-35A Lightning II on the Utah Test and
Training Range during the last week of February. The squadrons are assigned to the 388th and 419th Fighter Wings respectively, the first units working up to
combat-coded status with the F-35A. The weapon drops were the first undertaken by an F-35A combat unit.
Jim Haseltine/US Air Force
The 25th M-346I Lavi produced by Alenia Aermacchi for the Israel Air and Space Force
at Venegono on March 2. The aircraft has new tail markings for 102 The Flying Tigers
Squadron based at Hatzerim Air Base. Monte Rosa, the second highest mountain in the
Alps, can be seen in the background.
Oscar Bernardi
Israeli Lavi
End of Tu-204
At this year’s Singapore air show,
Vladislav Masalov, Vice President of the
Russian United Aircraft Corporation,
declared: “it could be worth considering
a freeze of the Tu-204SM,” with a
possible “renewal in the future”. Such
conditional terms in reality mean the
Tu-204SM programme is dead.
Masalov confirmed that the Tu-204SM
has yet to pass the certification tests.
However, the most serious problem
faced by the programme is a complete
lack of orders. Tupolev declared 42
contracts and 35 options, but all of
them were declarations or orders
from airlines that subsequently went
bankrupt.
Piotr Butowski
Reaper Long Wing Maiden Flight
General
Atomics
Aeronautical
Systems
Inc
(GA-ASI)
has
conducted the first flight of a
Predator B/MQ-9 Reaper Extended
Range (ER) Long Wing variant. The
flight took place on February 18
at GA-ASI’s Gray Butte Flight Test
Facility in Palmdale, California. The
aircraft has what GA-ASI describes
as
“improved
long-endurance
wings with greater internal fuel
capacity and additional hard points
for carrying external stores”. It
has a 79ft (24m) wingspan, which
is 13ft (4m) longer than that on
a standard Predator B. GA-ASI
says endurance will increase from
27 hours to over 40 hours. Other
improvements include short-field
The Predator B ER Long Wing flew from
GA-ASI’s Gray Butte Flight Test Facility in
Palmdale, California. It is contributing to the
company’s Certifiable Predator B project.
General Atomics Aeronautical Systems
take-off and landing performance,
spoilers on the wings for precision
automatic landings, and provisions
for leading-edge de-ice and
integrated low-band and high-
band radio frequency antennas.
GA-ASI says the long wings are the
first components to be produced
as part of GA-ASI’s Certifiable
Predator B (CPB) development
project to create a next-generation
production Predator B in early
2018. Further hardware and
software upgrades planned for CPB
will include improved structural
fatigue and damage tolerance,
new flight control software, and
enhancements to allow operations
in poor weather.
Mark Broadbent
Please send all news correspondence to...airnews@keypublishing.com
AI.04.16
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