General Aviation/Helicopter News

Airbus may study a possible stretched version of the A350-1000, its largest twin-engined jet design, but will not rush into a decision, its sales chief said on Monday. The European plane maker has not ruled out boosting the capacity of its 350-seat A350-1000 to counter Boeing's revamped 406-seat 777X aircraft. Sales chief John Leahy said Airbus did not need to rush out a so-called A350-1100 or -1200 model to compete with the 777X, which was launched by its rival last year, but added, "There is plenty of time to study A350 stretched versions in the future".

He was speaking at an annual Airbus news conference.

Leahy said earlier that Airbus may eventually look at adjusting the 270-seat A350-800 by adding a couple of seat rows in order to better compete with the Boeing 787-9. However, this was not an immediate priority as it focuses on other models. Chief executive Fabrice Bregier said a re-engining of the A330 was not the leading option for the wide-body jet.

(Reuters)

Rolls-Royce is to cut 200 jobs at an aerospace engine plant in Scotland.

Rolls said it had transferred some work out of its plant at Inchinnan near Glasgow. It said the move was because of tough market conditions. A Rolls-Royce statement said: "A drop in workload due to the completion of a planned transfer of work, and a review of operational effectiveness in some of our supply chain manufacturing operations, has resulted in the proposed reduction. "Due to challenging market conditions there have been limited opportunities to bring in new work, resulting in a proposed reduction of approximately 200 roles."

Abu Dhabi's state-owned carrier Etihad Airways is joining with French energy firm Total and US aircraft maker Boeing to develop biofuels in the emirate, company officials announced on Sunday. With its huge oil reserves, Abu Dhabi has ample access to cheap jet fuel, but it has said it wants to develop sustainable energy sources to diversify its economy. Biofuels could also help Etihad meet targets in the aviation industry for curbing emissions of greenhouse gases.

Etihad expects to start commercial flights of aircraft with bio jet fuel in five years, chief operations officer Richard Hill told reporters. "In five years, technology will mature for biofuel to be commercially viable. We could offer competitive fares in the industry," he said, adding that it was too early in the project to elaborate on issues such as the total cost of investment or production capacity.

Abu Dhabi Oil Refining (Takreer) and the emirate's Masdar Institute of Science and Technology will also take part in the project. The venture is looking at various raw materials to produce biofuel including agricultural waste, date palm leaves, and plants tolerant to salt water such as salicornia that could be grown in coastal areas of the United Arab Emirates, officials said.

(Reuters)

2,655 flights cancelled in the US today. Most impacted are Houston, Atlanta, Chicago...

Indonesia's Lion Air said on Monday it had purchased CFM International engines worth USD$1.2 billion for 60 new Airbus A320s on order as the budget carrier goes on a shopping spree to boost capacity in Southeast Asia. The privately owned airline said it would start taking delivery of its new A320s, with CFM 56-5B engines, in the middle of this year, with a total of six planes due to be delivered this year.

CFM is a joint venture between General Electric and Safran.

It also said in a statement that it had yet to decide on the engines for its 174-strong fleet of upgraded A320s it has on order. Lion Air wants to benefit from Indonesia's rising consumer class who are increasingly hopping between the myriad islands of the world's fourth-most populous country, whilst it competes internationally with the likes of AirAsia.

Faced with strong demand on its domestic routes, the airline said was considering wide-body aircraft from both Boeing and Airbus for an order it plans to make in the first quarter of 2015. Lion Air said it planned to cancel an existing order for five Boeing 787-8s, as it wanted bigger planes. In addition to the order for larger aircraft, Lion Air plans to purchase 737s to join a fleet that already includes a large number of that model.

BATAM HUB

The announcement was made on the sidelines of Lion Air's launch of its new maintenance, repair and overhaul hangar on the Indonesian island of Batam near Singapore. This is the first of four hangars that Lion plans to open on the island with the others due to be completed by June. "There are relatively few heavy maintenance facilities in Indonesia, despite the fact that Indonesia is one of the largest domestic aviation markets in the world," said Romdani Adali Adang, the president director of Batam Aero Technic, which is part of the Lion Group. "Some airlines are sending their aircraft overseas for heavy maintenance checks. But it costs money to ferry empty aircraft overseas and doing heavy checks is very labour intensive work. Therefore, it makes more sense for this work to be done in Indonesia."

Lion also plans to make Batam an international transit hub for passengers flying in and out of Indonesia and its second major Indonesian hub after Jakarta. The airline plans to increase the number of domestic destinations it serves from Batam to 20 from the current 15 and increase the frequency of these services. It then plans to launch services to points in southern China such as Guangzhou and Hong Kong, as well as Bangkok, Jeddah and the Indian cities of New Delhi and Mumbai.

This will help passengers bypass the congested airport in Jakarta, which is Indonesia's main international hub, said Rusdi Kirana, the president director of Lion Group. Indonesian carriers have been looking for alternatives to Jakarta's Soekarno-Hatta Airport for several years due to the congestion and delays that the airport faces. "The distance is actually shorter if you transit in Batam rather than flying south to Jakarta to transit," said Kirana. "The shorter flying time makes flying more convenient for passengers and it means aircraft burn less fuel, leading to significant cost savings."

(Reuters)

Additive manufacturing will drive the next aerospace technology revolution

http://www.aerospace-technology.com/features/featureadditive-manufacturing-will-drive-the-next-aerospace-technology-revolution-4167049/

Happy birthday, Charles Lindbergh! Here's to the intrepid aviator born 112 years ago today.

Airlines warned of possible toothpaste tube bombs ahead of Olympics.

On February 7, three years after its unveiling at the 2011 Paris Airshow, the AgustaWestland AW189 medium twin-engine helicopter received its EASA type certificate. Deliveries will commence shortly. (FC)

Pratt & Whitney has signed a deal with BOC Aviation to supply 15 engines for A320neos in 2017, Asia's largest aircraft leasing company said.

You may remember that Eurocopter EC135 police helicopter that crashed into a Glasgow pub last year. Investigations reveal that the crash was as a result of engine failure.

Rolls-Royce unveiled plans on Wednesday for a new aircraft engine which it said would be up to 6 percent more efficient than its latest model and could be ready by the end of the decade.

China's AVIC Xi'an Aircraft Industry (Group) has applied to ground its MA-60 planes after two instances of landing gear failure this month, in a move one commentator said could dampen enthusiasm for Chinese-made planes. The mishaps of the small jet add to over a dozen accidents in recent years and amount to unwelcome publicity as Commercial Aircraft of China (COMAC) struggles to develop an airliner to compete with Boeing and Airbus. Xi'an Aircraft applied to the Civil Aviation Administration of China to suspend domestic use of the MA-60 after the landing gear malfunctioned on a plane carrying 38 passengers on Tuesday, state news agency Xinhua reported.

The aircraft operated by Okay Airways circled Shenyang Taoxian Airport in northeast Liaoning province for two hours while crew assessed a "faulty instrument" related to the landing gear, Xinhua reported. The latest incident came just three weeks after the landing gear collapsed on an MA-60 operated by China Joy Air, causing the plane's nose to hit the ground on arrival at Zhengzhou airport in central China.

(Reuters)

Among the highlights for the helicopter OEM was the introduction of the Bell 505 Jet Ranger X, marking the re-entrance into the short light single market after the company ceased production of its popular Bell 406 JetRanger in 2010. Bell also showcased a full-size mock-up of a Bell 525 Relentless in a SAR configuration, a Bell 407GX, and a Bell 429WLG. During the show, Bell has reported almost 120 signings for different helicopters of its product line, among which 94 letters of intent for the Bell 505 Jet Ranger X, 10 orders for the Bell 525 Relentless, seven orders for the Bell 407GX, five orders for the Bell 412EP (of which two were delivered to Cairo, Egypt-based Petroleum Air Services) and two for the Bell 429.

(Fly Corporate)

British Airways teasing this morning...

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http://www.britishairways.com/en-gb/destinations/austin/flights-to-austin?DM1_Mkt=GLOBAL&DM1_Channel=SOCIAL&DM1_Campaign=CMQ1MARCHAUSTINFLIGHTS&DM1_Site=TWITTER&utm_source=TWITTER&utm_medium=SOCIAL&utm_campaign=CMQ1MARCHAUSTINFLIGHTS

CSeries: Busy week-end FTV1, 2 & 3 flew simultaneously Friday & today, FTV3 now in ICT, bravo!

Airbus asks this in the morning...

GECAS is looking at investing at least USD$4 billion in ship financing and helicopter leasing to diversify its portfolio - a potential move that reflects concerns over the value of some current aircraft. The aviation leasing arm of General Electric invests up to USD$7 billion annually to resupply and expand its portfolio of 1,700 aircraft. But although there is record demand for new fuel-saving models of the Airbus A320 and Boeing 737, GECAS is among those increasingly wary of investing in the models they will replace, as output starts to taper off. "You have to be careful of the last-of-the line planes. We don't want to buy as much," GECAS chief executive Norman Liu said. "But then we have to fill that gap unless we want to shrink. We are looking as they taper (production of existing models) to find replacement investments that are safe and secure." Lessors like GECAS rely on assets holding a predictable value as a cornerstone of their business, even though steep discounts may make it attractive to buy the outgoing models.

Some fear the value of existing A320 and 737 models, the best-selling jets in the industry, will suffer from competition with new variants that burn up to 15 percent less fuel. But Airbus and Boeing say they continue to sell as planned. Liu told Reuters news agency GECAS could spend about USD$2 billion on buying and renting out helicopters to oilfield service companies and another USD$2 billion offering shipping loans through its debt financing activity.

Airbus Helicopters, formerly known as Eurocopter, has said leasing is beginning to take off in the sector. "I think it is an area of potential interest. It is a different distribution process because of the different client base but it is something where General Electric has an existing rotor engine product," said Liu. "We would like to get some scale over time - a couple of billion. On the other hand we want to do sensible deals; we could just do some loans through our PK AirFinance group."

Helicopters sell for about USD$20 million each, he said.

In shipping, GECAS is not interested in buying cargo vessels and competing with the industry's many formidable tycoons, but would be interested in filling a lending gap left by European banks with roughly the same sums involved. Liu said GECAS is studying Boeing's planned new 406-seat 777-9X for which parent GE will make the engines, but has no immediate plans to place an order. The aircraft is due to enter service in 2020, meaning those ordering now face substantial bills for inflation adjustments, industry experts say. He was non-committal on whether the lessor would order a possibly re-engined version of the Airbus A330 to be called A330neo, but said the market would be relatively limited in scope. Airbus is expected to make a decision on whether to upgrade its most profitable wide-body jet this year.

(Reuters)

British Airways says...

Brazilian Helisul Air Taxi has ordered a Bell 429 and signed purchase agreements for three Bell 505 Jet Ranger X helicopters.