Russia is getting closer to developing its own supersonic business jet, including beginning tests in the supersonic wind tunnel at the Russian Khristianovich Institute of Theoretical and Applied Mechanics, according to domestic aviation bureau representatives and industry analysts.
Interfax Russia recently reported the main goal of these tests is evaluating parameters of a sonic boom in cruise flight mode. After the tests, Tupolev—developer of the Tu-160 supersonic bomber and the main designer on this project—plans to create an electronic geometric model of the aircraft with the maximum allowable level of sonic boom.
The new business jet is expected to top Mach 1.5, have a maximum takeoff weight of 70 tonnes (154,324 pounds), and carry up to 30 passengers. Tupolev earlier this year said it expected a prototype to fly in 2027. The total cost of the project is estimated at RUB 120 billion ($2 billion U.S.).
Domestic business aviation leaders see market potential but remain skeptical. “The new aircraft could be of interest to business aviation customers, many of whom are willing to pay more if it comes to a significant reduction in travel time,” Oleg Ivanov, corporate affairs director of FBO operator A-Group Aero, told AIN. “The main problem, however, is related to engines. The questions of particular importance are resource and cost-effectiveness of these engines.”
I get a kick out of the subject lines that are used daily to describe the motivation of a pre-owned business aircraft seller. After all, it is the subject line that should act as a hook to cause the recipient to click on the email and read further.
With the current positive economic and confidence factors, what might be the reason that more email subject lines are directed to “Price Lowered,” “Must Sell,” or “Ready to Sell?”
“The Owner is Ready to Sell” always makes me chuckle. Does this mean that, in the preceding five months the broker has been advertising this airplane, the owner was really not ready to sell?
Aircraft listing email subject lines should be about the aircraft rather than using them to create motivating soundbites about price. It is much more exciting to say “Fresh C-Check” or “High Options Package.”
When the best we can say about an airplane is “Huge Price Reduction” or “Must Sell,” we are drawing opportunistic lookers who are not focusing on the real benefits. Chances are you will never be cheap enough for that buyer. But when we use these communiques to deliver important aircraft information, more often than not they will hit their desired click target. Words do matter!
Signature in Operation at Milan’s Malpensa Airport
With the opening of the new Milano Prime general aviation terminal at Italy’s Milan-Malpensa Airport last week, Signature Flight Support has begun operations from its crew and passenger lounge within the modern 15,000-sq-ft facility. The first purpose-built structure for business aviation at the airport, it took 18 months to complete at a cost of $4.65 million.
Malpensa is expected to receive the majority of flights diverted from Milan-Linate Airport, which is favored by business aviation because of its proximity to the city, but which will be closed for the next three months for a runway rehabilitation project.
“The expansion of Signature’s presence at the Milan-Malpensa Airport is part of our strategy to provide comprehensive flight support solutions to business aircraft operators in Italy,” said John Angus-Smith, the company’s managing director for EMEA. “The new business and general aviation terminal at Malpensa comprehensively upgrades the experience of private aviation crews and passengers visiting the airport, and serves as an elegant gateway to Milan and the rest of Northern Italy.”
In addition to its facilities at both of Milan’s airports and in Rome, the BBA Aviation subsidiary recently announced further affiliate FBO partnerships at several other Italian destinations.
How Spirit Is Dealing with Max Grounding
The top executive of Boeing’s largest 737 Max supplier, Spirit AeroSystems, provided more detail about how it’s responding to the airplane’s grounding during the company's second-quarter 2019 earnings call this week. Spirit CEO Tom Gentile explained that the supplier, which manufactures the Max’s fuselage and other structures, continues to build the fuselages at a rate of 52 a month and expects that to remain unchanged through 2020.
Completed fuselages are stored for between 10 and 20 days before Spirit ships them by rail from Wichita to Boeing’s 737 factory in Renton, Washington. So far, Spirit has stored and shipped 130 of them, and currently has 35 stored outside at nearby Air Capital Flight Line. Fuselages are wrapped in a three-layer process to protect them from the weather, a procedure that takes four hours.
To keep costs in check, Spirit has undertaken a number of measures, including four-day workweeks for about 6,000 workers; 10-day furloughs for other workers as well as senior leaders; and a voluntary retirement program in which nearly 200 participated. It also reduced contract workers and cut overtime by half.
Should a Max return-to-service be delayed beyond 2019, “we have been doing that scenario planning and we are going to be prepared to respond to whatever [Boeing does],” Gentile added. “We have looked at slowing down production. We have looked at doing some temporary pauses in production.”
Helicopters Help Push Leonardo Higher
Driven in part by its helicopter sectors, Leonardo posted solid order gains in the first half. New orders for the period amounted to $6.8 billion (€6.145 billion), an increase of 34 percent from the year-ago period, while backlog increased 11.4 percent to $40.2 billion (€36.321 billion).
Revenues increased by 7 percent to $6.6 billion (€5.962 billion), while earnings before interest and taxes surged by 92.5 percent to $511.5 million (€462 million). Net income more than tripled to $386.4 million (€349 million). Group net debt also increased to $4.54 billion (€4.098 billion), compared with $3.84 billion (€3.474 billion) from the first half of 2018.
Leonardo CEO Alessandro Profumo said the first-half results are “in line with expectations and we have achieved a strong commercial performance in both domestic and international markets.” The company added it has seen good progress with the execution of its industrial plan for its helicopters businesses.
South African startup Pegasus Universal Aerospace named Robbie Irons CEO, working with founder and chairman Dr. Reza Mia as the company pursues investors for its hybrid turboshaft/electric-powered Pegasus One VTOL. The company has branded the aircraft as the "Vertical Business Jet"
Irons is a seasoned aviation professional who steered his own consultancy and previously has held senior business development and aircraft sales roles with ExecuJet Aviation at Johannesburg's Lanseria Airport. He will help manage product development and provide strategic support while the new business looks to secure investment.
Estimating it will need up to $500 million to bring the aircraft to market, Pegasus is planning investor events from September through November, beginning in its home town of Johannesburg. Having started in 2012, Mia told AIN that so far the startup has been largely self-funded, with some capital raised by a 2018 public stock offering in South Africa.
Powered by a combination of two 2,300-shp turboshaft engines and electric motors, the aircraft will be designed to carry six to eight people and travel up to 4,400 km (2,375 nm) from a runway or 2,124 km (1,146 nm) when taking off in VTOL mode.
Having contracted out engineering work to UK-based consultancy Callen Lenz, Pegasus has begun building a full-scale demonstrator, capable of vertical flight, which it hopes to display in Europe by June 2020.
Silicon Valley Airport First in Cali for No-lead Avgas
San Carlos Airport, located in Silicon Valley midway between San Francisco and San Jose, will be the first airport in California to sell unleaded aviation gasoline, according to producer Swift Fuels. Rabbit Aviation Services, the lone FBO at the general aviation airport, has completed a planned upgrade to its fuel tank facility that will make San Carlos the first airport in the state with a fully dedicated unleaded avgas system to provide Swift’s UL94 to its piston-engine customers. Sales are expected to begin on September 15.
“General aviation needs a piston fuel for the future, and that future doesn’t include toxic lead, so why not begin the transition with the highest quality unleaded fuel,” said Dan DeMeo, the FBO’s CEO, adding the airport's pilots and community see a large positive benefit to using the new fuel. “Swift’s UL94 solves the issues brought by tetraethyl lead and ethylene dibromide by radically lowering toxicity and engine corrosion, eliminating lead-fouled sparkplugs, and doubling the oil change intervals versus those required for 100LL.”
Swift Fuels CEO Chris D’Acosta added the fuel is commercially insured for aviation, and that similar announcements are expected soon for Texas and Florida. “Industry leaders like Dan DeMeo recognize the growing demand for cleaner fuel for their customers and continue to play an integral role in the transition,” he said.
ACS Skydive Raises $12,000 for Cancer Charity
Employees from London-based Air Charter Service staff raised almost £9,000 ($12,000) for a children’s charity near London by parachuting at Old Sarum airfield near Salisbury, England. The charity, Momentum, supports families with children facing cancer or other life-challenging conditions across southwest London, Surrey, and West Sussex.
A team of 11 ACS staff made the tandem jumps from a Cessna 208 Caravan operated by Go Skydive. Glenn Phillips, ACS’s public relations and advertising manager who was among the jumpers, said, “We were all a little apprehensive, but we knew that we were doing it for a very worthy cause, which helped with the nerves."
The jumpers boarded the aircraft and taxied down the runway. It took about 10 minutes to get to the required altitude of 10,000 feet, Phillips said, and then the door opened. "You could see out over the landscape, but there was no time to take in the view as you were shuffled to the edge of the cargo door. This was the scariest part!” he said. “Once falling, it was incredible; hurtling at more than 120 mph towards the ground was an experience I will never forget. After around half a minute my instructor pulled the cord and the parachute opened. Then we glided down and I finally had the chance to take in the beautiful Wiltshire scenery.”
As ever, you can count on AIN for full coverage of LABACE 2019. Our team will publish three of our award-winning daily LABACE Convention News editions at the show on August 13, 14, and 15. We will also have comprehensive real-time reporting of all the top news at AINonline.com and in our daily e-newsletters. If you are an exhibiting company that wants to share news or propose pre-show interviews and briefings please contact show editor Ian Sheppard.
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