Blog

This week’s movie Monday was inspired by a blog authored by a 24-year-old Malaysian 777 pilot. Journeys Across Continents is a must read that chronicles a MAS first officer’s cross-crossing the world in the right-seat of a 777-200ER. He guides you through all aspects of his world travels and delves into the technical workings of the 777. He combines some great up-close technical photography with his love of flying. I could not recommend this blog more.

Parts two and three are below the fold.

Lufthansa’s first A380 (MSN038) has departed the massive final body join facility and was towed outside in Toulouse for fuel calibration and cabin pressurization tests. The aircraft will return to Station 30 in the sprawling A380 final assembly building for final systems installation before returning to the flight line for its first flight to Hamburg for cabin outfitting. Lufthansa, the fifth A380 customer, is expected to receive its first superjumbo in early 2010.

The short term answer is unclear & the long term answer is likely no, though our friends at Leeham.net add some much needed perspective on the situation. ILFC is owned by a company that has been in the news lately: American International Group (AIG). Because of the difficulty securing financing, ILFC has been advanced nearly a billion dollars by its parent company to pay cash for airplanes. Udvar-Hazy is quick to acknowledge that this is an unsustainable way to purchase airplanes.

Scott Hamilton:

Since nobody seriously believes ILFC will be forced into Chapter 11
bankruptcy, what is the real meaning of its current situation?

It is that ILFC has become a microcosm of what is going on in the
financial markets. Access to commercial funding is nearly impossible,
and when it is available, it is expensive. Here is a business that is
profitable, one that is the largest lessor in the world (by asset
value), that is reduced to including language about being a going
concern, all because of problems out of its own control at its parent
that created a worldwide financial crisis and liquidity concerns for a
stellar subsidiary. Selling ILFC is problematic because of the
financial crisis.

Yet, the situation, in no uncertain terms, is very serious. ILFC accounts for about 168 outstanding orders (incl. 74 787s and 10 A380s) for both Airbus and Boeing or 2.4% of the total backlog. Losing $16.7 billion in orders isn’t devastating on its surface (it does hurt), though if ILFC goes bankrupt, what does that say about the stability of the rest of the industry?

Coincidentally enough, the $1B from AIG is flow-through cash from
the $173 billion bailout of the company by the US Government. I think
that makes me a fractional owner of a 777.

The Pratt & Whitney Geared Turbofan demonstrator engine returned home to Connecticut after concluding a two-phase, 120-hour flight test program under the wings of a Boeing 747SP and Airbus A340-600.

The PW1000G engine was shipped by air freight from Toulouse, arriving back in the United States where P&W will inspect the engine and analyze its findings from the flight test campaign.

The engine maker is set to begin detailed design of the PW1217G (17,000 lbs-thrust) and PW1524G (24,000 lbs-thrust) powerplants for the Mitsubishi Regional Jet and Bombardier CSeries, respectively. Ground testing of the PW1217G is planned for mid-2010 with certification in late 2011. Both aircraft are scheduled to enter service in 2013.

Pratt & Whitney’s new commercial engine is widely believed to be a front-running candidate to re-engine the 737 and A320 narrowbody aircraft in the near term. Airbus has said previously that it would require 24-30 months to re-engine the A320.

The PW1000G engine uses a gearbox to optimize the large diameter fan and engine core to improve the fuel burn. Pratt & Whitney hopes to deliver a 12-15% improvement in specific fuel consumption for airline operators.

Photos courtesy Pratt & Whitney

GEnx Engine For New Boeing 747-8 Begins Flight-Testing on Historic 747

VICTORVILLE, CALIFORNIA – March 24, 2009 – The new GEnx-2B jet engine for Boeing’s new 747-8 aircraft has begun flight-testing on GE Aviation’s 747 flying test-bed.

During the five-hour first flight Monday (March 23), a single GEnx-2B engine demonstrated aircraft systems and instrumentation functionality, climbing close to 40,000 feet and establishing engine performance baseline. About 40 flights with the engine are planned for this spring and summer.

The engine flew underneath the wing of N747GE a 747-121 (19651/25), formerly of Pan American Airways and the 16th 747 ever built and delivered in March 1970. Most recently, the aircraft served as the the test bed for the GEnx-1B and GE90-115B engines that power the 787-8 and 777-300ER/200LR/F aircraft, respectively.

Photos courtesy General Electric

In wee hours of Saturday morning, ZA001 emerged from from the paint hangar with freshly painted body and wings, as well as cleaned fuel tanks.* The aircraft returned to Building 40-24 (767 Line) where it is parked next to WF001, the first 777 Freighter (N5020K), also painted in the Boeing house livery.

Several hours before, the Alenia-fabricated horizontal stabilizer for the first production 787 arrived in Everett from Italy for Dreamliner Seven onboard the LCF. The stabilizer, which is the largest monolithic composite structure on the 787, joins a specially painted blue rudder on the assembly floor. The rudder currently sports a paintjob that would indicate the tail will read 7-8-7, similar to that of Dreamliner One when delivered to ANA.

In the near term, several sources indicate that ZA001 could be on the flight line as early as next week, though the way the time line is structured suggests that the factory gauntlet could actually commence outside of the factory.

The factory gauntlet is first of three stages of closed-loop systems testing that verifies the proper software and hardware functionality of the aircraft. The first phase is run on external and battery power.

*In case you were wondering the 787-8 holds 33,528 gallons of fuel.

Delta & V Australia
Another new wrinkle in the trans-Pacific price wars is a link up between Delta and V Australia. The two airlines inked an interline agreement to allow purchase of tickets for travel between the US and Australia on either airline. Both newcomers to the trans-Pacific market were once thought to be competitors against QANTAS and United, but have found that they gain more together than separate. This definitely says a lot about feeder traffic on both sides of the Pacific and filling airplanes.

QANTAS’ 5th A380 Flies
Airbus has flown the 5th A380 for QANTAS (MSN027) from Toulouse last week for outfitting in Hamburg. The aircraft will eventually become VH-OQE (Lawrence Hargrave) for delivery toward the latter part of this year.

Qatar to Houston
Next Monday, Qatar Airways will launch non-stop service between Doha and Houston with the airline’s new 777-200LR. The 16-hour and 45-minute flight will be the sixth longest (duration) non-stop flight in the world.

HBC gets a new CEO
Hawker Beechcraft named Bill Boisture, formerly president of NetJets, Gulfstream Aerospace and British Aerospace Corporate Jets, will assume the company’s top position, effective immediately. HBC has faced major workforce cuts and rumored cancellation of new aircraft programs amid major industry turmoil that has hit business jets hardest. The departure of HBC’s CEO Jim Schuster was entirely expected and planned, though the task put to Mr. Boisture is certainly a tall one, as his company is forced to weather the storm of uncertainty.

On Accidents, Incidents and Crashes
2009 has brought us an unusually high number of tragic and high profile aircraft accidents and this page has largely been silent on covering them. Many have asked my why I don’t report more on crashes, the simple answer is: if I have nothing to add with new information or insight, I find it best to refrain from comment. I want this page this page to be a place you find something you won’t find somewhere else, not a reiteration of someone else’s reporting. Our veteran safety experts, David Learmount and John Croft, have much more experience and insight on these topics and I recommend them highly. Thanks for understanding.

The Road to 787 First Flight
As we approach first flight, things on
the 787 program are speeding up rapidly. This calls for a change in coverage. Since I joined with Flight in
2007, I opted to write less frequent, longer updates as program progress
was moving at a slower pace. Moving forward, you will see more frequent and
compact updates tha twill better suit the coverage between here and first flight, though I still plan to post longer
comprehensive updates as warranted.