Author: Jon Ostrower

As part of its PrivatAir CSeries CS100 order announced yesterday, Bombardier provided a significant allusion to one of its unannounced customers.

“Included among the 11 customers that have selected the CSeries aircraft are major network carriers, national carriers, premium airlines serving city centre airports, a low-cost airline, leasing companies and now, with the order from PrivatAir announced today, a full service provider to airline partners,” said Philippe Poutissou, Vice President, Marketing, Bombardier Commercial Aircraft. 

The orders are indicated as follows: Firm orders for Republic Airways, Lufthansa, Lease Corporation International, Korean Air, Braathens Aviation, an unidentified major network carrier, an unidentified European customer, a well-established, unidentified airline, and letters of intent from Atlasjet and Ilyushin Finance.

With PrivatAir specifically not included in its list of operator descriptions above, Bombardier appears to be tipping its hand about its prospects for already having secured a premium configured CSeries operating out of a city center airport, like that of London City, which sounds an awful lot like the rumoured Odyssey Airlines.

Submitted without further comment.

Its first delivery of the 747-8 Intercontinental internally slated for February, Boeing is locking out the tail fuel tanks of its new jumbo after a structural flutter was found to occur in the event of a certain structural fitting failure. FULL STORY

Boeing says the restriction will shave 300-400nm off the range of the VIP configured 747-8 and will have little impact to the airline configured aircraft, as tail fuel usage is precluded if the non-fuel weight exceeds 60% of the aircraft’s maximum structural payload. In such a situation, the fuel payload would be entirely carried by the wing tanks.

Boeing recently updated, then removed – pending review – its 747-8 and -8F maxiumum structural payload and operating empty weight (OEW) weights:

The document listed the maximum structural payload for the passenger configured model as 82.1t (181,000lb) and the pre-service bulletin for the 747-8F at 134t (295,200lb), which increased after April’s update to 139t (306,000lb).

47-8 airline launch customer Lufthansa says, “For our mission profile it’s not a problem at the moment,” adding the tail fuel restriction would not restrict the aircraft’s deployment on its initial routes, which have not yet been announced. 

“Of course you want an airplane that can run as long as possible” in unrestricted operation, it added.

MIAMI — I’m here in Florida for the next two days for an Airbus simulator training that will explore the European airframer’s digital fly-by-wire philosophy, which has oft been a point of discussion about the role of computers and the role of pilots in flying. 

Those philosophical discussions, both of which diverge and converge amongst commercial aircraft manufacturers, have guided aircraft development for three decades now, with some implementation of fly-by-wire included on every single new aircraft in development. The systems have evolved from simply providing a flight control input all the way to being the basis for structural design through limiting loads on an airframe.

The video above shows the technology in action aboard an A320 family aircraft operating around South America in routine operation and presented in rather dramatic fashion. 

Over the next two weeks, the 787 will add four new destinations, including its first international long-haul route, aided by a growing number of deliveries from Boeing.

The only deviation of note during the first months of service was the November 6 incident in which the landing gear failed to deploy on the first attempt while on approach to Okayama.

Since September, structural parts for the first two A350-900s have traversed the Atlantic ocean and the European continent on their way through Airbus’s most distributed commercial supply chain.

I received word this morning of the passing of legendary Grumman test pilot Robert “Bob” Smyth. Smyth, 84, was responsible for an extraordinary contribution to civil and military aeronautics and astronautics.

After leaving the US Navy as a pilot in the Grumman F8F Bearcat, Vought F4U Corsair and McDonnell F2H Banshee and de Havilland 112 Venom, Smyth joined Grumman Aircraft Engineering in 1955. Smyth served as assistant project pilot of the Gulfstream I, consulting pilot and astronaut liaison to NASA on the Lunar Excursion Module during the Apollo program.

Smyth was at the controls for the first flights of the Grumman A2F (later the A-6A Intruder) and captured the experience in 2001, writing:

Now, the real purpose of a first flight is to make a successful landing. There is a tremendous level of interest at this point. Hundreds of people have worked long hours for months to reach this point; a large part of the company’s future is tied to the airplane’s success; and the customer is anxious to see what he’s buying. All this creates a great deal of pressure on all concerned. One person has it within his power to bring instant relief to all hands: the lucky guy who gets to make the first flight.

His career spanned an extraordinary variety of aircraft, being the first to fly the Gullfstream II and as chief Grumman test pilot, flew the F-14A for the first time in 1970. Smyth left Grumman and joined Gulfstream Aerospace in 1981 and retired as vice president of flight operations in 1993.

Smyth spoke to the Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum in 2007, discussing his incredible career and his indelible contribution to aerospace in the video above.

Smyth passed away yesterday at his home in Florida and is survived by his wife, Sally, and two sons, Robert and Andy.

Last week brought an odd re-occurring pattern of sorts: Different people, from very different places pointed me toward two different photographers who both captured the past and present of Russian aerospace in a series of extraordinarily detailed and artistically poignant photo essays. This page in the past has explored the immediate post-Soviet era in commercial air transport, though photographers Lana Sator and Sergey Dolya each have taken another step in telling that story, illustrating both the decay and fledgling rebirth of the country’s aerospace industry.

Sator strolled effortlessly into a former Soviet Roscosmos missile factory and what appears to be a facility once used by Illuyshin for static testing, while Dolya explores – in extraordinary  detail – the process of fabricating and assembling the new Sukhoi Superjet in at the company’s facilities in Komsomolsk-on-Amur. Dolya, with the apparent permission of Sukhoi, brings to life the first metal cut for each aircraft all the way through final assembly to the flight line in what must be bordering on proprietary detail. In lieu of a moving Movie Monday, the 200 photos should occupy the eye for quite a while.

“It’ll fly when it’s ready”, as goes the perennial line from aerospace leaders about the maiden flight of new aircraft.

In a wide-ranging interview yesterday, Stephen Trimble and myself sat down with CSeries vice president and general manager Rob Dewar, covering what’s ahead as the CS100, the aircraft maker’s first clean sheet commercial aircraft design, pushes toward its goal of flying at the end of 2012 and entering service late next year with its undisclosed launch customer.

The margin for error is gone, acknowledged Commercial Aerospace president Guy Hachey, during October’s National Business Aviation Association in Las Vegas, so hitting every note over the next 24 months is the path to meeting the schedule. Though CEO Pierre Beaudoin says a three to six month slip to the first half of 2014 falls within the realm of acceptable delays.

CIASTA – the Complete Integrated Aircraft Systems Test Area – Bombardier’s “iron bird” began commissioning systems late in December, with its Aircraft 0 beginning tests on the pedestal, throttle quadrant and FADEC software. That activation is the first of many systems that will come to life inside CIASTA over the first quarter of this year. 

What makes CIASTA different from other “iron bird” systems integration rigs is Bombardier’s emphasis on having every non-fuel system running inside the building. On one side of the facility, accounting for 90% of the aircraft’s systems, is the hydraulics, avionics, electrics and primary flight controls, known as the Integrated Systems Test and Certification Rig (ISTCR). 

On the other, a complete cabin systems and Environmental Control System (ECS) demonstrator with pressurization, heating, cooling, lighting and cabin management systems, accompanied by smaller test laboratories and a CAE-supplied engineering simulator.

The on-site expansiveness exceeds that of both the Boeing’s 787 Integrated Test Vehicle (ITV) (pdf) and Airbus’s Aircraft 0 iron bird. 

“This is really the first time someone has really made sure we integrated all the systems, all the software in a real aircraft production configuration in one building,” said Dewar, who says 4,800h of testing are planned for the facility.

In short, CIASTA is a structureless reproduction of the the CS100.

Moving toward production of the first “structured” CS100, the static test airframe will be first to inaugurate its final assembly facilities, which will eventually be sized for a rate of 20 aircraft per month or one aircraft per manufacturing day. The center wing box for that aircraft, called the Complete Aircraft Static (CAS) test article has been delivered to its Belfast, Northern Ireland facility.

At Mirabel Airport’s final assembly line, Dewar says the plastic comes off of the first set of tooling next week and all its tools will be in place later in the quarter. 

After the static airframe, Bombardier will build five test aircraft dubbed its Flight Test Vehicles (FTV). FTV1 will be the first 100 to 125-seat CS100 to fly around year’s end, kicking off a 2,400h flight test program. Part of its certification trials will include a 180min extended operations (ETOPS) certification for over-water flights, such as those connecting London City Airport and New York.

Such a mission was part of the initial requirements for the CSeries, and the aircraft maker confirmed it is in “advanced discussions” with a customer for an all-business class layout.

The CS300, due in 2014, will add two additional FTVs for certification of the stretched jet.

With its late-2013 first handover planned, CSeries production will see a gradual ramp up, delivering 40 aircraft in 2014, 80 in 2015 and 120 in 2016. Delivery slots for 2014 and 2015 are both sold out and 2016’s positions are 60% booked.

Boeing has reported its orders and delivery totals for 2011, confirming the 9 747-8 and 3 787 deliveries in 2011. In addition, the company reports that 737 Max commitments have topped 1,000 from 15 customers, though still holds only one firm order for 150 from Southwest Airlines, which receives its first re-engined 737 in fourth quarter 2017. Boeing also added 25 new 787 orders to its backlog from an unidentified customer, lifting the total program orders to the positive for 2011.