As Aerion Supersonic targets the middle of the decade for first flight of its AS2 supersonic business jet and service entry by 2027, the firm is taking a multi-decade view of its business plan with aspirations to build an AS3 that would dwarf the size of the business jet, move into hybrid and all-electric power, and eventually offer hypersonic aircraft.
Speaking during the AIAA Aviation Forum yesterday, Aerion chairman Tom Vice outlined this vision, saying, “We believe that we are building a future where humanity can travel between any two major city pairs within three hours. We know this is going to take a multi-decade approach [involving] hard technical challenges."
Calling supersonic Aerion’s “starting point,” Vice gave an update on the Mach 1.4 AS2 business jet, saying it has “made significant progress” in the last two years. However, principal design review has been pushed into 2021 and first flight has slid on the $120 million, 12-place aircraft with plans to fly it in 2025 and certification following within two years. “The pandemic has slowed us down a bit,” he said.
Citing a potential $40 billion market for the AS2, Vice said Aerion now has a $3.18 billion order backlog and is in discussions for orders valued at another $6.2 billion.
Longer range, the company would like to push into full electric, but Vice said a hybrid-electric approach would likely be the next step.
Flightdocs Merges with Aircraft Technical Publishers
Cloud-based maintenance-tracking company Flightdocs has merged with Aircraft Technical Publishers (ATP) in a move aimed at creating a comprehensive provider of software and information services to the business, commercial, and military aviation sectors. The merger agreement between Florida-based Flightdocs and San Francisco-based ATP was signed this week.
Under the ATP umbrella, the combined offerings of each company include aircraft maintenance tracking, troubleshooting, recurring defect analysis, inventory management, and flight scheduling, as well as a library of technical publications and regulatory content. ATP CEO Rick Noble told AIN that his company experimented with the maintenance tracking business but was “late to the game” and “couldn’t gain any traction,” so “for ATP it really was an easy decision” to merge.
ATP’s Aviation Hub, offered under ATP Information Services, supplies OEM technical and regulatory publications that are updated in real-time, while its Software Solutions division in Canada provides defect management and interactive troubleshooting software under the brands of ChronicX and SpotLight. With the merger, ATP serves 75,000 maintenance personnel at 7,500 MROs and flight departments in 137 countries.
GE Aviation Still Plans Denali Engine Delivery in 2020
More than halfway into 2020, GE Aviation still expects the first flight of its new Catalyst turboprop engine on a King Air 350 flying testbed and delivery of the first engine to Textron Aviation this year, a company spokesman told AIN this week. The clean-sheet engine will power Textron Aviation's Cessna Denali turboprop single.
“GE’s Catalyst program continues to move forward with engineering and certification testing,” the spokesman said, adding that to date, Catalyst has more than 1,800 hours of combined operation and 10 engines have been assembled. At NBAA-BACE in October, GE officials explained that newer turboprop testing standards and engine preparations for the flying testbed were delaying Catalyst’s flight testing and delivery. GE and Textron Aviation originally expected first flight of the Denali in late 2019.
Certification testing of the engine has been extensive and GE recently completed development testing for icing certification. Other development tests have included altitude (41,000 feet in an altitude chamber), vibration, durability, ingestion, and integrated prop controls. Earlier this week, a Textron Aviation spokeswoman told AIN that work on the Denali continues but wouldn’t “speculate” on development timelines for the turboprop single because of the pandemic’s impact to the Wichita airframer, along with its suppliers and regulators.
Preowned Business Aircraft Values Fall 15% in Covid Era
Average and median values of preowned business aircraft have fallen 10 to 15 percent so far during the pandemic, with some individual makes and models experiencing decreases exceeding 20 percent, according to a report released yesterday by Amstat.
Meanwhile, inventory of used business jets rose 1.6 percent between January and March and then further climbed 4.2 percent since mid‐March. Business turboprop inventory was largely unchanged between January and March, but grew 2.8 percent from March to May. However, the company noted, inventory levels still remain below 2016 levels and significantly below 2009 levels.
Resale retail transactions for business jets had been ahead of 2019 levels in January and February, but were down 23 percent and 40 percent in March and April, respectively. Similarly, Amstat said turboprop transactions were at or ahead of 2019 levels in January and February and then fell 27 percent and 40 percent in March and April, respectively.
“It remains to be seen whether the trends of the last few months will continue long‐term,” said Amstat general manager Andrew Young. He added that if inventory levels remain relatively low and interest in business aviation materializes as an alternative to commercial travel in parallel with an economic recovery, “Then we might expect to see a significant uptick in transaction activity leading to a recovery in aircraft values in the coming months.”
Unmanned Civil K-Max Helicopter To Deliver in 2021
Kaman Aerospace has already received commitments for its first five unmanned K-1200 K-Max helicopter kits for civil operators, according to Romin Dasmalchi, the company’s senior director of business development for government air vehicles. The kits to convert the K-Max into a UAS will be available for both new-build and in-service helicopters. First deliveries are scheduled for next year.
The new kits weigh approximately 200 pounds less than previous versions developed since the 1990s for military applications. Announced civil customers to date include Helicopter Express and Swanson Group Aviation.
Dasmalchi called the conversion of the company’s manned heavy lifter into a civil UAS “very much an evolutionary step” following the deployment of two unmanned K-Max in Afghanistan with the U.S. Marine Corps from 2011 to 2014. As that 33-month deployment changed the nature of how the Marines could conduct logistics supply, Dasmalchi believes it will be similarly disruptive for the civil market.
For civil operations, Dasmalchi envisions unmanned K-Max missions replacing high-risk manned flights—including night firefighting, offshore re-supply, and power line restoration—and making them beyond visual line of sight (BVLOS) and having the ability to dynamically change a mission and/or its location while the aircraft is in flight.
Nationwide calls to defund police units in the wake of the death of George Floyd is again putting law enforcement aviation under the microscope and widespread local tax shortfalls triggered by the Covid-19 pandemic are adding fiscal consequences. The implication for helicopter OEMs that were counting on the stability of the parapublic market to cushion dual blows from downturns in the air ambulance and offshore energy markets is potentially troubling.
High-profile police helicopter units, especially in middle-sized markets, can be the first to fall under the weight of budget cuts. But this time, not even large city programs might be totally immune from the fallout. In fact, political leaders in major cities, including New York and Los Angeles, have vowed to place the police on a budgetary diet.
The current political-fiscal dynamic has combined to potentially place even more pressure on police aviation. Baltimore plans to scale back its aviation unit to fly only 12 hours per day. Nashville, which has committed $12 million for two new police helicopters, is facing down the prospect of having to raise property taxes by 32 percent to bridge a $470 million revenue gap over the next 16 months and social activists there already are agitating for the helicopters to go.
Urban Aeronautics this week reached agreement with HyPoint to provide hydrogen fuel cells for its CityHawk eVTOL aircraft. The Israeli company believes that by late 2022 or early in 2023 it might be ready to fly a full-scale prototype with a hybrid-electric propulsion, with a view to a hydrogen-powered version of the six-seat design being ready to enter service between 2028 and 2030.
California-based HyPoint is already partnered with ZeroAvia, which last year started flight testing a hydrogen fuel powertrain system on a Piper M350 piston single and is aiming to re-engine a variety of fixed-wing aircraft seating between 10 and 20 passengers. The company is also partnered with eVTOL developer Bartini.
The CityHawk is based on Urban Aeronautics’ Cormorant unmanned aircraft, which is intended for cargo carrying and a variety of aerial applications. A full-scale Cormorant technology demonstrator is already being flight tested, and the company is evaluating whether the design can be adapted to make room for passengers and a second engine. Hybrid-electric versions of both aircraft are powered by Safran’s Arriel 2N turboshafts, which drive Urban Aeronautics’ ducted fan propulsion system.
A hydrogen-powered version of the CityHawk is expected to have a range of around 125 miles. The hybrid version of the rotorless and wingless design is expected to be able to fly up to around 175 miles.
Hilton Software, developer of the WingX electronic flight bag (EFB) app, won a $4 million contract with the FAA to support the agency’s Flight Program Operations. “This is a new contract, which now makes us a prime contractor for two government agencies,” said company founder and CEO Hilton Goldstein.
Previously, the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) signed a five-year contract with Hilton Software to develop the Aero App for the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA). Aero App is a moving-map EFB with worldwide charts and maps, georeferenced approach procedures, FLIP charts, and documents and is based on Hilton’s WingX EFB but designed for government users. Uniquely, Aero App runs on three computing platforms: iOS, Android, and windows, providing greater flexibility for a variety of users.
“This enables our DoD pilots, government foreign partners, and many others to fly paperless,” he said, “and obviously with the benefits of georeferencing, fast cloud-based downloads, and excellent moving map with many useful overlays for military pilots such as aerial refueling routes.”
Hilton added, “The purpose of this contract is to ensure that FAA’s Flight Program Operations has the tools they need to safely and accurately analyze and assess new and current instrument approach procedures on the ground and in-flight with regards to terrain, vertical obstructions, missed approach procedures, and other aspects and factors influencing the safety of flight.”
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