Author: Jon Ostrower

Has Airbus decided to offer Sharklets for the A318?, originally uploaded by flightblogger.

LONG BEACH — Browsing through the new 2010 Airbus Family Figures guide, I noticed that the A320 family aircraft featured renderings with Sharklets. While I was unsurprised to see them on the A319, A320 and A321, Airbus has added them to the smallest member of the family, the A318. At the time they were first announced in November 2009, Airbus had not yet decided if it would offer Sharklets on its 100-seater narrowbody. Is this an artistic representation or a sign of things to come? Would a 32-seat Sharletted A318 from London City to New York-JFK still require that Shannon fuel stop? Is this a move to blunt Bombardier’s CS100? An interesting development indeed.

On September 10, Boeing’s first 787 flight test aircraft, ZA001, experienced an engine surge of one of its Rolls-Royce Trent 1000 engines during testing in Roswell, New Mexico. Boeing said in a statement:

ZA001 experienced an engine surge. The replacement engine is already in NM and being installed. Boeing and Rolls-Royce are working together to understand the root cause but initial understanding is that this is an isolated event. There is no impact to other airplanes and no relation to the test-stand incident from earlier.

Sources add the aircraft will return to flying as early as Friday or Saturday with a seasoning flight of the new powerplant, though Boeing declined to offer any forward looking schedule information on when ZA001 would return to braking and stability and control (S&C) testing. Business Week reports that Boeing says “it’s too soon to well whether the 787’s test schedule may be affected.”

An engine surge occurs when “the complete breakdown of pressurized flow through successive
stages resulting a flow reversal of the air in the compressor.”

This could cause a range of results ranging anywhere between a momentary loss of power all the way to a requirement to shut down the engine.

During development of the Pratt & Whitney PW4000 engine for the 777, the engine suffered a surge while flying under the wing of RA001, Boeing’s first 747-100.

This is not the first issue ZA001 has had with its engines, having experienced an uncommanded loss of power in February on one of its two engines due to a sensor malfunction, prompting a diversion to Moses Lake Airport.

UPDATE 3:37 PT: Program sources say the surge occurred near the end of the testing day on September 10th as the aircraft was taxiing out for brake testing at a medium weight condition when a “loud boom” was heard by the crew.

The purpose of the flight tests is to determine the ideal material for acoustically insulating the A350’s cabin. Carbon fiber does not attenuate sound the same way as aluminum and requires a different type of insulation between the fuselage structure and the cabin sidewalls.

Airbus cabin office vice president, Jonathan Norris explains that if the airframer had chosen traditional insulation used in an aluminum fuselage, it would require more to achieve the same level of soundproofing in the cabin of a composite fuselage.

Airbus is evaluating different types of acoustic foam that will line the outermost layer up against the carbon fiber skin of the A350, which will then be layered with traditional acoustic blanket like those found in aluminum aircraft.

Additionally, the photo above gives some sense of the size comparison of the A320, A330, A340 family windows in comparison to those of the A350.

Photos Credit Airbus

LONG BEACH — Yes, I could’ve called this post Video Blog: Circling Long Beach Harbor in a Grumman Albatross for the best possible search engine optimization, but let’s be honest, it was kind of lame. The irony of putting a nose bubble out the front of an aircraft means that you no-longer need any kind of electronic distraction. Lucky for Row 44, Southwest Airlines, Mango (South Africa) and Norwegian Air Shuttle, the only forward looking glass on their aircraft is reserved for the pilots.

That being said, Row 44’s Albatross rolled off the line in Bethpage, New York in 1951 and in a previous life served as a trainer for NASA astronauts. Today, the aircraft (N44HQ), which coincidentally has a near identically shaped crown as the 737, carries a Ku-band antenna and blister fairing to test the company’s in-flight internet technology. The aircraft has been outfitted with glass avionics and a host of other instrumentation to test the antenna.

For the brief flight over Long Beach Harbor, I grabbed my iPhone 4 and connected to the in-flight wi-fi, posting tweets and photos as we flew. This particular Albatross was fitted with a glass nose bubble for a nearly unrestricted view, including straight down. I’ll let the HD video I shot speak for itself.

LONG BEACH — I’m heading up in connectivity provider Row 44 for a spin around Long Beach Harbor for a demonstration of their Ku-band technology which powers in-flight internet on Southwest Airlines, Mango of South Africa and Norwegian Air Shuttle.

I’ll be posting twitter updates and photos right here, so stay tuned for some live uploaded shots of the harbor.

Last week in Everett, two factory fresh Rolls-Royce engines showed up ready to be hung under the wings of 787 Airplane Nine (ZA102/N6066Z). Boeing confirmed the arrival and installation of Trent 1000 serial numbers 10039 and 10037. The installation makes Airplane Nine the first production 787 to receive its engines.

The August 2 uncontained failure of one of the engine originally intended for Airplane Nine sidelined that unit and damaged the test facility, prompting an approximately three to four week slide in delivery of the powerplants to Boeing.

This delay, says Boeing, coupled with the inspections and rework of the horizontal stabilizer, which Boeing expected would push the schedule “a few weeks” into 2011 adds up to first delivery in mid-February as announced on August 27.

While Boeing’s plan to use two additional aircraft for ETOPS and functionality and reliability (F&R) testing due to production differences is not new, however Boeing’s use of Airplanes Eight (ZA101) and Nine is.

According to an April 2009 flight test briefing, the airframer initially planned to use Airplanes Seven and Eight for “follow on testing” on “structural and electrical changes that will need some certification” to “support the airworthiness certificate on the delivered airplanes.” Additionally, those aircraft will be used for production nautical air miles (NAMS) testing to establish the baseline for the fuel economy of the 787 at production weights and configurations.

While Airplane Nine will take part in the flying portion of the ETOPS and F&R testing, Airplane Eight will be used for ground tests. The switch from Airplanes Seven (ZA100) and Eight to Airplanes Eight and Nine, say production sources, is said to be driven by the cannibalization of Airplane Seven of parts to support flight test aircraft.

UPDATE 10:49 AM PT: Boeing confirms that the engines that will power Airplane Nine are Package A standard.

Another look at 787 taking on crosswinds that were 27kts gusting to 39 in Keflavik, Iceland last week. Special thanks to Dabb Films for bringing this to my attention. Also, here are my photos from last week’s 30 hour excursion to the North Atlantic.

SAO JOSE DOS CAMPOS — Like Airbus and Boeing, Embraer has its own year end target for a decision on the future of its commercial product portfolio, the Brazilian airframer now says a re-engined E-Jet may require too much investment to modify the airframe to achieve the efficiency improvements it hopes for.

Carlos Eduardo Camargo, Embraer director of external communications says initial evaluations of a new engine under the wing of its 70 to 110-seat E-Jet family may not yield a great enough benefit to justify its undertaking.

“We really have to see how it works. We have engineers simulating [different configurations] working with the [engine] producers, we obviously do not have a final decision or a final idea on that,” says Camargo.

Camargo says key competition from the Bombardier CS100, Mitsubishi Regional Jet and Sukhoi Superjet best E-Jet performance by 8-12%. “We have to learn to beat that,” he says.

Embraer says its options are re-engining its E-Jet family, a larger clean sheet design in the 110 to 130-seat segment, or doing nothing. The company has all but ruled out developing a large turboprop aircraft and formally shelved the E-195X, a stretch of the largest member of its E-Jet family.

In order to provide a significant enough leap in aircraft efficiency, Camargo says major modifications to the wings, pylons and landing gear would be required to accommodate a large enough fan to deliver the 8-12% improvement in fuel burn the company requires.

However, that investment could negate the benefit, says Camargo who adds aerodynamic modifications to the wings, including Boeing 787-style raked wingtips, instead of today’s blended winglet to improve efficiency, remains an options while maintaining the GE CF34-8E/10E engine under the wing of the E-170/190 aircraft families.

Engine maker Pratt & Whitney, which is offering a variant of its geared PurePower PW1000G family says “We could achieve fuel burn improvement with a GTF with an installation on today’s E190 with no changes, however, in order to optimize performance and achieve double-digit benefits for a re-engining, an engine with a larger fan is required.”

With the larger bypass ratio key to improved fuel efficiency, the larger front fan requirement is necessary for a GE/CFM or Pratt & Whitney PW1000G engine offering.

Adding, “We agree that Embraer would have to make modifications to its aircraft, including changes to the landing gear, in order to accommodate an engine with a larger fan.  We have been working closely with Embraer to study optimized installations to achieve the greatest benefits.”

When it set out to evaluate all its options for the future of its narrowbody product, Boeing established three potential goal posts for itself: An all new aircraft, a re-enginged 737, or leave the venerable workhorse alone, avoiding a costly investment against a re-engined Airbus A320 and Bombardier’s CS100.

While its final end-of-year decision has yet to be announced, the company’s thinking around its future plans have evolved significantly over the past year. As it stands today, Boeing is entertaining a fourth option, dubbed by Boeing Commercial Airplanes CEO, Jim Albaugh, as the 737 Next Generation Plus or 737NG+.

Albaugh’s comments on the upgraded jetliner came on Tuesday at an internal company webcast at the company’s Renton, Washington facility. The NG+, while lacking specifics, would incrementally improve the 737 family without the significant investment of a new powerplant, say those familiar with his comments.

Any improvements for the 737NG+ would be incorporated beyond the already-announced Sky Interior, aerodynamic improvements and CFM56-7BE engine planned for introduction between October 2010 and mid-2011.

The strategic chief of the company’s commercial unit believes that the improvement in direct operating cost yielded for a re-engined A320 would be limited to just 3-4%, bringing it in line with today’s 737. Boeing’s marketing of the 737 has maintained that the twin jet holds an overall advantage over its European competitor. With this logic, the sources add, Albaugh contends a 737NG+ would sell well against a re-engined A320, establishing a bridge to the all-new Boeing narrowbody in the 2020s.

When approached for comment, Boeing declined to address Albaugh’s remarks on the 737NG+ directly, saying only the evaluation of potential aircraft improvements – including a new engine – are ongoing.

Airbus, as well as engine makers, contend the improvement yielded with new engines would be in the 13-14% range, after factoring in the 1-2% lost on airframe modifications, far beyond the number touted by Albaugh. Additionally, it is not clear what assumptions were supporting his claim, nor what portion of any potential improvement was eaten up by the $7 to $8 million price premium the new engine option would bring.

Though for Boeing, re-engining has fallen out of favor, with CFO James Bell saying recently:

And we have looked at the re-engining, and we will continue to study it, but right now it looks like the engine could get to 10% to 15% more efficient, but it is not flow-through efficiency. When you add the additional weight associated with the change in the design of the airplane and you add the cost, it looks more like a single-digit improvement, which we don’t believe is something that our customers are interested in, in going through a re-engine and having a mixed fleet for just that minimal improvement in performance.

But I can tell you right now, our customers have not shown a real interest in a re-engine airplane.

Pratt & Whitney CEO David Hess said today at the Reuters Aerospace and Defense Summit in Washington, DC that it was by no means a forgone conclusion that both Boeing and Airbus would take the same path on re-engining.

“It’s conceivable they both could go different ways,” he said.

With agreements already inked between CFM and Pratt & Whitney establishing the technical foundations of re-engining the A320 family, industry sources say that all signs point to a nearing finalization of the Airbus engineering study, launching the NEO (new engine option) program.