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General Aviation/Helicopter News

Discussion in 'Commercial & General Aviation' started by Jet News, Dec 30, 2012.

  1. Jet News

    Jet News JF News Editor Staff Member

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    I guess the above AW tilt-rotor concept "Project Zero" has spurred interest at the Paris AirShow ;)

    Airframer AgustaWestland has scored more orders from two customers spanning the whole of its new family of rotorcraft - the AW169, AW139 and AW189. Lease Corp International (LCI) being one of them, which entered the rotorcraft leasing market in 2012 with a $400 million order with AgustaWestland - has increased its commitment with the airframer, adding three AW169s, five AW139s and two AW189s.

    China's Shanghai Zenisun Investment Group has opted for five of each type. It has additionally signed an agreement with AgustaWestland which is expected to lead to its appointment as an official distributor of the manufacturer's civil helicopters in China.
  2. Jet News

    Jet News JF News Editor Staff Member

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    Eurocopter expects EASA certification in a "matter of days" for the temporary fixes it has developed on the EC225, which should enable the grounded portions of the Super Puma fleet to return to service by "the end of this month or early July".
  3. Jet News

    Jet News JF News Editor Staff Member

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    China Southern Airlines will outfit Rockwell Collins' MultiScan threat detection system for weather analysis and its GLU-025 multimode receiver on 66 Airbus A320s, Boeing 777s and next-generation Boeing 737s.
  4. Jet News

    Jet News JF News Editor Staff Member

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    Metal vs Composite...Metal making a come-back?

    Metal is staging a comeback, at least in the aerospace world, where aluminium has been challenged by carbon-composites in the industry's perpetual war on weight. As plane makers showed off their latest carbon-plastic airliners at the Paris Airshow this week, metal firms lobbied hard for new, lighter aluminium alloys. Aleris International, for example, is developing an aluminium-magnesium-scandium alloy that it says is 5 percent lighter than conventional aircraft aluminium and could be ready for later production of next-generation Airbus A320neo and Boeing 737MAX jets.

    Nearly 90 percent of the 9,600 aircraft on order with Boeing and Airbus are metallic, said Ingrid Jorg, senior vice president of Aleris, mainly because smaller jets won't use composite fuselages for decades, if ever. "If you don't expect single-aisle planes to turn to composites before 2030, then there's a lot of demand," she said. The advent of composites with the Boeing 787 looked likely to undercut the aerospace aluminium industry. But years of research into lighter, more useable alloys is coming to fruition. Their use could keep aluminium demand strong for years, particularly in Asia.

    The new materials face tests in labs and regulatory approval. They are also more expensive than conventional aluminium. But aluminium's long use in aerospace means many properties are well known. And some new alloys can compensate for high cost with better manufacturing use. The Aleris aluminium-magnesium alloy can be welded, for example, replacing millions of fasteners on aircraft, says Jorg. Some aluminium-lithium alloys can cut weight by 8 percent over traditional alloys.

    LARGER PLANE CHALLENGE

    Still, composites are a key feature of next-generation large planes that are the centre of attention at the Paris Airshow. The Airbus A350's maiden flight last week provided another showcase for composites. Plastic composites account for half of the weight of Boeing's 787 Dreamliner and Airbus's A350, eroding aluminium's traditional dominance in materials for those planes. This tussle in aircraft materials mirrors growing competition in car making between dominant material steel and aluminium, which is the lighter challenger in this market.

    Aluminium makers accept composites are firmly established in wide-body aircraft, but say that after a first rush of composite demand, plane makers are being more pragmatic about materials so they can fulfil hefty orders and avoid further programme delays. "We believe that the aircraft of tomorrow will be hybrid - there will be no full aluminium aircraft and no full composites aircraft," Christophe Villemin, head of aerospace and transport at aluminium products group Constellium, said. Boeing's plans to use an aluminium fuselage on a future redesign of its 777 jet, rather than a composite design as used on the fast selling but heavily delayed 787, has brought welcome news for aluminium makers. Boeing said it is considering an aluminium-lithium alloy for the jet.

    Boeing estimates the market for these mid-sized, twin-aisle jets as worth USD$1 trillion over the next 20 years. Aluminium firms such as Alcoa say their latest alloys are in line with composites in low density, and that they can make healthy margins even when losing volume share. "The 787 generates for Alcoa over 80 percent higher value per shipset than the all-metal 767 that it is replacing, and three-times the ship-set value of a 737," said Olivier Jarrault, head of Alcoa Engineered Products & Solutions Group.

    YEARS OF METAL AHEAD

    Aluminium alloys have not been without teething problems. Cracks in the wings of Airbus's A380 super-jumbo have been linked to alloy brackets used to join aluminium and composite parts. Such joining issues are a big area of development, with metal and plastics set to co-exist for some years, and Alcoa says its fasteners business already made up almost 30 percent of its USD$3.8 billion in aerospace sales last year. In the segment of smaller, single-aisle planes, aluminium makers expect the metal's continued dominance and are talking up their experience in this high-volume market. Because single-aisle planes can use thinner aluminium skins, composites don't provide as much weight benefit, said Matthias Miermeister, manager of field engineering at Aleris, which recently opened a USD$350 million aluminium factory in China to meet demand.

    Overall expansion in plane manufacturing is expected to yield another record number of plane deliveries this year, and a long order backlog should sustain a similar pace for the rest of the decade, providing enough demand for metal and composites. Composite suppliers boast the more spectacular growth as plane makers step up deliveries of new models. Hexcel says it averaged 12 percent annual growth in commercial aerospace sales between 2004 and 2012.Yet global aluminium use in aerospace should grow about 2.4 percent a year between 2010 and 2020, and on average, the metal still makes up 70 percent of aircraft structural weight, Metal Bulletin Research analysts estimate.

    "I don't see a real threat for aluminium in aeronautics in the 10 years ahead," Antoine Chacun, managing director of French brokerage Oddo Metals, said. "All our rolling mill clients seem to be at full capacity and looking to add more."

    (Reuters)
  5. Jet News

    Jet News JF News Editor Staff Member

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    FedEx retires last domestic 727 freighter

    It is the end of an era for one FedEx plane. A retirement party was held for the company's last domestic 727 freighter. The 727F aircraft did a flyover before touching down for the last time at the FedEx Express World Hub in Memphis. More than 1,000 company executives and other team members were there to celebrate the historic and final flight for the 727.

    http://www.wmctv.com/story/22656454/fedex-retires-last-domestic-727-freighter
  6. Jet News

    Jet News JF News Editor Staff Member

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    Photo of the first Italian assembled Chinook by AgustaWestland. The first ICH-47F Chinook for the Italian army conducted its debut flight on 24 June from AgustaWestland's Vergiate site in northern Italy. The helicopter was flown for 15min, "carrying out basic handling tests and main systems checks", the company says.

    Under an agreement with Boeing, AgustaWestland is acting as prime contractor during the completion of 16 ICH-47Fs, and will perform system integration, final assembly and delivery. The type's fuselage is built at Boeing's Ridley Park site in Philadelphia. Under its agreement with Boeing, AgustaWestland is also licensed to market, sell and produce the CH-47F for other European countries, and several nations in the Mediterranean.

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  7. Jet News

    Jet News JF News Editor Staff Member

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  8. Jet News

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    Eurocopter has delivered two EC225 Super Puma helicopters to offshore operators in Vietnam and Malaysia. Southern Vietnam Helicopter took delivery of its third EC225 in June - a fourth unit will be handed over in 2014. Malaysia's Awan Inspirasi has taken delivery of its fourth EC225. The Super Puma will be transferred to the Eurocopter Malaysia subsidiary in Subang, where it will be painted and readied for service entry in September.
  9. Jet News

    Jet News JF News Editor Staff Member

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    The European safety agency or EASA, has approved Eurocopter's proposed interim fixes for its troubled EC225 Super Puma helicopter. As you know a large secto of the global fleet has been grounded since last year October.
  10. Jet News

    Jet News JF News Editor Staff Member

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    AgustaWestland is looking to start AW101 flight evaluation and bid refining phase for the Norwegian all-weather search and rescue helicopter programme, following Oslo's decision to narrow its Westland Sea King replacement contest to the Anglo-Italian type and Eurocopter's EC225.

    "This phase is expected to last until the end of the third quarter of this year", says Steve Powell, AgustaWestland's head of the northern Europe region. The Norwegian Ministry of Justice and Public Security is expected to make a preferred bidder selection following flight evaluations involving both candidates, to begin negotiations and award a contract before the end of 2013. Deliveries are expected to start in late 2016 or early 2017, with the last Royal Norwegian Air Force-operated Sea Kings to be rid of in 2020.

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  11. Jet News

    Jet News JF News Editor Staff Member

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  12. Jet News

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    CHC Helicopter has begun flight tests of a Eurocopter EC225 fitted with the full range of EASA-mandated safety modifications from its base in Aberdeen, Scotland, as it attempts to return its global fleet of 32 of the type to operation.

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  13. Jet News

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    United is expecting that their retirement of their 757-200s will outstrip the acquisition of 737 type aircraft. The Chicago-based carrier plans to remove 73 of the type and replace them with Boeing 737-900ERs over the next two and a half years, says John Rainey, chief financial officer of United.
  14. Jet News

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    SonAir resumes flights with the previously suspended EC225

    Angolan oil and gas offshore transportation provider SonAir has become the first operator to resume passenger flights with the suspended Eurocopter EC225 fleet. Two of SonAir's 11 Super Pumas performed three flights from the operator's Luanda base to two offshore platforms.

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  15. Jet News

    Jet News JF News Editor Staff Member

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    IAG has placed options for a total of 44 Airbus A350s and Boeing 787s to renew the Iberia long-haul fleet. Of course this is all subject to Iberia's successful restructuring, if not, no long-haul planes from IAG. When the Iberia parent company announced in April plans to order 18 A350-900s for British Airways, IAG disclosed that it had also reached agreement with Airbus as well as Boeing to secure commercial terms and delivery slots for A350s and 787s. IAG is already a 787 customer, having ordered the twinjet for BA. Confirmation of the options will be subject to Iberia's successful restructuring and the business transitioning into profitable growth, said IAG.
  16. Jet News

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    Air Canada will split its order of 37 Boeing 787 aircraft between the 787-8 and the 787-9, says Michael Rousseau, executive vice-president and chief financial officer of the airline on an earnings call today.

    "Starting in the first quarter 2014, we expect to take delivery of our first of 37 Boeing 787 aircraft, comprised of 15 787-8s and 22 787-9s," Rousseau tells analysts. "We're excited about the international growth opportunities in front of us and the industry-leading unit cost that this aircraft provides."
  17. Jet News

    Jet News JF News Editor Staff Member

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    Leading international wildlife experts, airport operations professionals, regulators, and other aviation industry representatives will gather August 12-15 in Milwaukee at the 2013 Bird Strike North America Conference to discuss the latest advances in keeping wildlife away from aircraft.
  18. Jet News

    Jet News JF News Editor Staff Member

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    RyanAir is back into the spotlight again but for the wrong reasons. Again the safety issues are being brought to the fore. It is the general consensus that a lowcost airline the size of RyanAir must be cutting corners on safety related issues.
  19. Jet News

    Jet News JF News Editor Staff Member

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    The US Department of Justice (DOJ) has challenged the proposed merger of American Airlines and US Airways, citing the deal's potential to reduce competition and increase airfares in the USA. "The department sued to block this merger because it would eliminate competition between US Airways and American and put consumers at risk of higher prices and reduced service," says Bill Baer, assistant attorney general in charge of the DOJ's antitrust division, in a statement.
  20. Jet News

    Jet News JF News Editor Staff Member

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    107 flights have been delayed, another 94 have been canceled in Hong Kong due to Typhoon Utor.