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AviationNews Flies. We Gather Intelligence. Every Month. From India.

SP’s AN SP GUIDE PUBLICATION

ISSUE 7 • 2008

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Space Travel Safety in Business Aviation Pune Needs Civil Airfield Farnborough Report

PAGE 14

BETWEEN PARTNERSHIPS PROMISED AND PARTNERSHIPS ACHIEVED,

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4 SP’S AVIATION Isuue 7 • 2008

Table of Contents

www.spsaviation.net

PUBLISHER AND EDITOR-IN-CHIEF Jayant Baranwal

ASSISTANT EDITORArundhati Das

SENIOR VISITING EDITORAir Marshal (Retd) V.K. Bhatia

SENIOR TECHNICAL GROUP EDITORSAir Marshal (Retd) B.K. PandeyLt General (Retd) Naresh Chand

SUB-EDITORBipasha Roy

CONTRIBUTORSIndia Air Chief Marshal (Retd) S.P. Tyagi,Air Marshal (Retd) P.K. Mehra, Air Marshal (Retd) Raghu Rajan, Air Marshal (Retd) N. Menon, Group Captain (Retd) A.K. Sachdev,Group Captain (Retd) Joseph NoronhaEurope Alan Peaford, Phil Nasskau, Rob CoppingerUSA & Canada Sushant Deb, Lon Nordeen, Anil R. Pustam (West Indies)

CHAIRMAN & MANAGING DIRECTOR Jayant Baranwal

ADMIN & COORDINATIONBharti Sharma

Owned, published and printed by Jayant Baranwal, printed at Rave India and published at A-133, Arjun Nagar (Opposite Defence Colony), New Delhi 110 003, India. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, photocopying, recording, electronic, or otherwise without prior written permission of the Publishers.

ASSOCIATE ART DIRECTOR: Ratan SonalLAYOUT DESIGNS: Raj Kumar Sharma

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Military13 JSF PROGRAMME

FAST FORWARD MODE

24 MMRCA DEAL

QUALITATIVE INPUTS

26 JOINT EXERCISE

READYING FOR RED FLAG

Cover Story14 GENERAL AVIATION

ALLURE & REALITY

One to One17 VICE PRESIDENT SIKORSKY

Civil BUSINESS AVIATION

21 PICTURE INCOMPLETE

31 COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGE FOR BUSINESS

32 INFRASTRUCTURE

FACELIFT FOR PUNE

Show Report34 FARNBOROUGH

FUELLING OPTIMISM

Space28 TRAVEL

FLIGHTS OF FANTASY

Hall of Fame39 DOUGLAS BADER

Allure & Reality: General aviation offers incredible solutions for fast travel. However, certain requirements need to be met. (Seen here: Cessna’s Caravan soaring against the backdrop of the setting sun.)

NEXT ISSUE: Market Segments of Business Aviation

34

FUELLING OPTIMISM AT FARNBOROUGH

26

READYING FOR

RED FLAG

Cover Photo: View from the cockpit of

a Falcon business jet as it prepares to land at an airport exclusive to general aviation, a boon for business travellers

who benefit the local economy.

Photo Credit: Dassault

14

ISUUE 7 • 2008

AviationSP’s

News Flies. We Gather Intelligence. Every Month. From India.

AN SP GUIDE PUBLICATIONRegular Departments5 A Word from Editor6 NewsWithViews - Astra Test for DRDO - A Booster Dose for Hubble

10 InFocus Invoke Damage Control Measures

11 Forum Minus All Thrills

40 NewsDigest44 LastWord Piling on the Flab

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SP's Avn 7 of 08 Cover.indd 1 8/5/08 4:05:35 PM

A Word from Editor

Issue 7 • 2008 SP’S AVIATION 5

Globally, alarm bells have been set off. Amid ominous rumblings and growing apprehensions brought on by rising fuel prices, July witnessed the scripting of disaster stories in the civil aviation sector with quite

a few airlines being forced to down shutters even as several others entered into mergers with relatively better-off partners to stay afloat. End of the day, airlines in India will have to do the juggler’s act by somehow balancing factors like capacities and airfares, apart from adopting a slew of fuel-saving and cost-cutting exercises. InFocus and Forum veers attention to the issues concerned and the remedial measures. Relevantly, LastWord dwells at length on Air India’s mounting losses, a sorry picture with privatisation the only ameliorative.

A distinct arm of civil aviation that’s increasingly draw-ing attention—this time, for the exciting promises it holds—is general aviation. Our foreign correspondent LeRoy Cook in his cover article makes the pertinent observation that rather than competing with scheduled commercial flying, general avia-tion is an adjunct that increases overall opportunity for busi-ness and personal travellers. Business aviation, meanwhile, is caught in a dilemma over safety regulations. Considering the ongoing influx of a large number of business aircraft, especial-ly small, fast jets, the time may have arrived when outsourcing business aviation safety may be the most viable solution.

Infrastructure hogs the limelight in Air Marshal (Retd) B.N. Gokhale’s musings on the need for Pune to have its own state-of-the-art civil airfield. Delving into the merits of joint use of airfields, that is, by both military and civil aircraft, he points out that while Lohegaon has been admirably serving the dual purpose, a new airstrip at Chakan would better meet the growing requirements of the civil sector.

Moving to the military milieu, most exciting is the develop-ment of Lockheed Martin’s Joint Strike Fighter F-35, christened Lightning II, which is entering an intense phase that will domi-nate the scene for the next 18 months. India could perhaps in the future consider acquiring the F-35—as the proposition gets progressively more lucrative. India’s MMRCA project gath-ered pace with Boeing submitting the Industrial-Participation Proposal even as EADS presented its offset offer on behalf of the entire Eurofighter community. Also eyeing the Indian mar-ket and rightly so, is Sikorsky Aircraft Corporation, whose Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer, World Sales Steve Estill elaborated on the company’s strengths and strategies.

The Indian Air Force, meanwhile, has dispatched a contin-gent to Mountain Home Air Force Base in Idaho to train with US fighters prior to participating in Exercise Red Flag at Nellis Air Force Base, Nevada, from August 9 to 23.

Both the civil and military sectors created waves at the Farnborough International Airshow 2008. There were many familiar outlines gracing the skies, but little that was new. The excitement was far more about agreements and technology than airframes, reports Alan Peaford from London. On the dis-play side, America’s latest showpiece—the F-22 Raptor—put on a magnificent display, regaling crowds with its vectored thrust aided manoeuvres. The buzz, however, reached a fever pitch with Etihad Airways splurging a whopping $21.4 billion (Rs 90,000 crore) for a total of 100 new Airbus and Boeing airliners. The figure ballooned to more than $43 billion (Rs 1,80,785 crore) with added options and purchase rights with both airframers for a further 105 aircraft, making it the big-gest order ever by a single carrier.

July also brought the aspiring space traveller closer to the cosmos with Richard Branson of Virgin Galactic unveiling the WhiteKnightTwo. A high-altitude aircraft christened “Eve” in honor of Branson’s mother, WhiteKnightTwo will be the moth-ership for SpaceshipTwo, which in turn will launch in midair at 50,000 ft and send two crew and six passengers hurtling into space. The occasion warranted a fascinating account of human aspirations to experience the aura of space flight, ad-mire the Earth’s bluish global surface and gaze at untwinkling stars. Holiday on the Moon anyone?

Coming to terms with rising fuel prices and hurriedly implementing

damage control measures, the business of flying—and buying—

carries on with remarkable tempo, as was evident at Farnborough. For the IAF, the F-35 could prove irresistible.

Jayant Baranwal

Publisher & Editor-in-Chief

New

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6 SP’S AVIATION Issue 7 • 2008 www.spsaviation.net

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ASTRA TEST FOR DRDOIndian defence scientists may be preparing to test the Astra—an indigenously developed beyond-visual-range air-to-air missile. Reports suggest the test flight could be conducted from an Indian Air Force Sukhoi-30MKI fighter aircraft “anytime in the next 45 days”. According to scientists at the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO), the Astra is a futuristic missile, which was first tested in March 2003, without control and guidance systems, and once again in March 2007, at low altitudes and short ranges. Equipped with a radar fuse and a pre-fragmented warhead, a beyond-visual-range missile enables fighter pilots to lock-on and shoot down enemy aircraft from 80 to 120 km away. Earlier, scientists suggested that the BVR missile would have a range of 80 km in head-on chase and 15 km in tail chase.

VIEWS

Astra, under development by Hyderabad-based De-fence Research and Development Laboratory, is in-tended to be a state-of-the-art beyond-visual-range air-to-air missile with a top speed of Mach 4. The

Astra will enable fighter pilots to destroy enemy aircraft ma-noeuvring at supersonic speeds at ranges of around 90 to 100 km. The weapon system, flaunting an operating enve-lope extending from sea level to 20,000 m, is being devel-oped to be integrated with the Mirage 2000, MiG-29 and Su-30MKI fleets of the Indian Air Force (IAF) that currently sport prohibitively expensive missile systems acquired from abroad. The Astra will also be mounted on the Tejas, should it ever become operational.

The Astra programme ap-peared in the public domain for the first time at Aero India 1998 where a mock-up of the missile was on display. The feasibility study was under-taken in 2001 and the time frame for the development of the Astra was estimated to be around eight years with de-livery scheduled to begin in 2009. The project, however, was launched only in 2004 with an initial budget of Rs 1,000 crore ($250 million ap-prox). Cost and time overruns, rather predictable in projects with the DRDO, have revised the estimated time frame in the wake of technological hurdles, indicating that the IAF may receive the missile not before 2012. Revised cost estimates are yet to be made known.

Success in the forthcoming ‘first full test flight’ will be a quantum jump in the DRDO’s technological prowess and catapult India into the big league in missile technology, comprising the US, France, Russia and Israel. This will also be a milestone in the DRDO’s journey to self-reliance in the development of high technology weapon systems for the armed forces.

In recent times, the DRDO has reported achievements in missile programmes such as Agni, BrahMos, Nag and

Akash, but if reports are to be believed, technologically, the Astra programme is the most challenging. After the initial hype following a series of tests in 2003, the programme ap-peared to have receded into a limbo till the resumption of flight tests in March 2007. Although the Astra programme is claimed by DRDO to be an entirely indigenous effort, it is unlikely the DRDO could have developed the missile’s infi-nitely sophisticated navigation and active guidance system, especially the active seeker head, entirely on its own. With

a vast operating envelope, the capability to sustain 40 g turns and ensure high kill probability, demands on the DRDO are formidable. In an increasingly integrated global aerospace industry, there is intrinsically nothing wrong in seeking technological collabo-ration and technology trans-fer rather than lose valuable years in trying to rediscover the wheel. The DRDO should scrupulously avoid risking re-peat of the experience with the indigenous effort at the devel-opment of the Kaveri engine or the LCA. Perhaps there is need to redefine the very concept of ‘self-reliance’.

Despite staggering levels of investments, the track record of DRDO so far has hardly been inspiring. Several major projects have been flounder-ing and some even abandoned after years of misguided effort or sub-standard equipment forced upon the hapless cap-tive customers. To date, no real major indigenous front line weapon system has been

produced successfully for the armed forces and battle tested. Undoubtedly there are impediments that retard the process, but paucity of funds has certainly not been one of them.

To restore its flagging credibility, the DRDO urgently needs success in the Astra programme. The big question is: can the IAF and the nation bank on the DRDO this time around? Only time will tell. SP

— Air Marshal (Retd) B.K. Pandey

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A BOOSTER DOSE FOR HUBBLEBy year-end, the world’s largest telescope should be able to see deeper into space and further back in time than ever before. According to media reports, if all goes as planned, it will be able to detect events closer to the big bang, explore the ‘cosmic web’ of galaxies and intergalactic gas that make up the large-scale structure of the universe. The US National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) is finalising plans to fly the space shuttle Atlantis on a mission to the Hubble Space Telescope to repair and upgrade the orbiting observatory that revolutionised astronomy. The long-delayed servicing mission will be the last for the Hubble, NASA says, but it will allow the telescope to perform at its highest level ever for the remaining five or six years of its operating life.

VIEWS

Dubbed a ‘White Elephant’ and compared with ca-tastrophes such as the ‘Titanic’, ‘Hindenburg’ and ‘Edsel’, the Hubble Space Telescope (HST)—or, just ‘The Hubble’, as it is sometimes referred to—has

rendered yeoman service to mankind by providing deep in-sight into the universe. All the same, the Hubble has had a chequered history.

The Hubble’s past goes back as far as 1946, when astrono-mer Lyman Spitzer wrote a paper titled ‘Astronomical Advan-tages of an Extraterrestrial Ob-servatory’. His efforts bore fruit when in 1965 he was appointed head of a committee assigned the task of defining the scientific objectives for a large space tele-scope. In 1966, NASA launched the Orbiting Astronomical Observatory (OAO) missions. Spurred by the success of the OAO programme, NASA decid-ed to develop a large space tele-scope (LST). After going through many a hurdle in the US Con-gress over funding, work on the design of the LST began in ear-nest in 1978. The telescope was named after Edwin Hubble who was the first to discover that the universe was expanding.

Development of the HST was beset with design, cost and time overruns. In 1986, when it’s planned October launch looked feasible, the Challenger disaster brought the US space programme to a halt, forcing the launch of the Hubble to be postponed for several years. By the time the Hubble was fi-nally launched in its low-Earth orbit (LEO) by the Discovery space shuttle on April 24, 1990, its cost had risen from the original $400 million to a staggering $2.5 billion.

When launched, the HST had carried a large number of scientific instruments for astronomical observation and re-search. But within weeks of its launch, the entire mission al-most came a cropper when it was discovered that there were serious problems with the Optical Telescope Assembly (OTA)—the very heart of the system. Fortunately, the telescope had

been designed so that it could be regularly serviced. However, it was only in December 1993, when the flawed mirror of the OTA was replaced by the astronauts aboard the space shuttle Endeavour. Subsequently, three more servicing visits have been made—the last one by space shuttle Columbia—that have not only restored the Hubble’s LEO from time to time, but also, further enhanced its capabilities.

Apart from resolving some long-standing mysteries in as-tronomy, the Hubble has thrown up results that have formed

the genesis of a slew of new theories. Among its primary mission targets was to measure the rate at which the universe is expanding, which is also relat-ed to its age. On the other hand, while the Hubble helped refine estimates of the age of the uni-verse. It also cast doubts on the-ories about its future as astron-omers uncovered evidence that, far from decelerating under the influence of gravity, the expan-sion of universe may in fact be accelerating. Whatever the case may be, one thing is evident that the Hubble has greatly helped in unravelling many astronomi-cal mysteries. In a recent brief-ing conducted at the Goddard Space Flight Centre, scientists confirmed that observations by the telescope have resulted in an average of 12 published dis-coveries a week for years and that almost 4,400 principal and co-investigators have produced articles based on its data.

In the aftermath of the 2003 Columbia space shuttle disas-ter, the fifth scheduled servic-ing of the Hubble in 2005 was

cancelled citing safety concerns, putting the future of the Hubble in great jeopardy. NASA’s change of heart under its new administrator Mike Griffin has come as a booster dose for the Hubble. While the cumulative costs of the Hubble may have touched astronomical figures, every penny would have been well spent if it helps to enrich mankind’s knowl-edge of the cosmos. SP

— Air Marshal (Retd) V.K. Bhatia

S U P E R I O R R E T U R N S O N I N V E S T M E N T C O M P A R E D T O A N Y O T H E R R E G I O N A L J E T

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SPS.AVI_267x420_RETURNS.indd 1 27/6/08 11:40:03

InFocus ECONOMICS


Unrelenting increase in crude oil prices and its deadly impact on aviation turbine fuel (ATF) seems to be killing the aviation industry, especially the airlines. Though airlines across the globe have

borne the brunt, their counterparts operating in India have been the hardest hit having to grapple with the maximum price rise. Most, if not all, airlines in the country had report-ed losses not only in the third and fourth quarters, but the whole of 2007-2008 with the cumulative figure exceeding a staggering Rs 4,000 crore. The trend in the current financial year fares no better.

Worst hit are the no-frills low cost car-riers (LCCs) which seem pitched against insurmountable hurdles that pose a seri-ous threat to their very survival. The future of LCCs may continue to hang in balance because even though crude oil prices are showing some signs of stabilising, it is un-likely to come down substantially to hoist these airlines out of the crippling financial morass they find themselves in. While the now merged low cost airlines, such as Air Sahara (with Jet Airways as Jetlite) and the Air Deccan (with Kingfisher as Simplifly Dec-can), may enjoy some breathing space due entirely to the deep pockets of their parent airlines, it would be the independent enti-ties, the likes of SpiceJet and Indigo, that could get choked out of business or forced into mergers. For instance, even after the re-cent infusion of $80 million (Rs 340 crore) by American Distress Fund owner Wilbur Ross, SpiceJet remains open to consolidation.

Affording a cushion to the LCC in terms of working capi-tal, the fund, naturally, cannot last forever. SpiceJet Director Ajay Singh put up a brave front, saying, “I am not ruling out any future consolidation—whether we are the consolidator or consolidates.” In reality, all the stakeholders appear to be looking to add as much value to the airline’s shares as possible before getting ‘consolidated’ by one of the bigger players. The airline has not only decided not to expand its fleet of 19 aircraft but also leased out two of its aircraft with two more to follow suit by cutting down considerably on its scheduled operations.

Rising ATF prices have had a cascading effect on pricing and a consequent dip in domestic passenger traffic. Higher operational and overhead costs and the difficult choice be-tween reasonable fares and occupancy, or load factor, have

taken a toll on all the airlines whether low-cost or full-ser-vice. Sadly, this could not have come about at a worse time when most of the airlines had placed bulk orders for new aircraft, announced major plans for expansion of operations and even hired pilots and engineers from abroad to meet the shortage of trained manpower in the aviation sector. Even the ever sluggish civil aviation infrastructure, which had come out of its slumber to try and match the growing demand, may get hit. Apart from ongoing modernisation of metro airports, two Greenfield airports have recently been

commissioned at Hyderabad and Bangalore at great costs. In addition, the Airports Au-thority of India (AAI) has embarked on administering a massive dose of expansion and modernisation to about 35 non-metro airports in the country. The big question is, can these plans be imple-mented if the very raison d’etre of the projects—the boom in air passenger traf-fic—goes into stagnation mode.

Civil Aviation Mister Praful Patel’s call to rationalise ATF prices across the country has elicited little response so far. For example, the empowered group of finance ministers of the states has deferred a de-cision on sales tax, VAT and other related issues on ATF, buying time on the pretext of seeking more information from the Centre.

Whatever the case may be, high fuel prices will in all likelihood become a permanent fixture in the changing glob-al scenario in the crude oil sector. Industry sources and fi-nancial consultants rightly suggest that airlines need to con-sider other business models and avenues to raise revenue. Instead of depending on just passenger traffic, discounted tickets and load factors, they need to streamline operations and look at non-airfare revenue, such as setting up MROs and flying/training institutions, hedging on fuel and crew rationalisation, including salaries. SP


Faced with the spectre of rising fuel prices, airlines in India need to streamline operations and adopt non-airfare revenues

Invoke Damage Control Measures

SURVIVAL INSTINCTS: PIONEER OF THE LCC CONCEPT IN INDIA, AIR DECCAN EVENTUALLY MERGED WITH KINGFISHER TO CURB MOUNTING LOSSES

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AT $147.27 (RS 6,259) A BARREL on July 11, price of crude oil not only touched an all-time high by more than doubling in the past one year, but also came dangerously close to crossing the psycho-

logical barrier of $150 (Rs 6,373). Even though prices have somewhat stabilised at around $125 (Rs 5,311) a barrel now, it is anybody’s guess as to which way the needle will swing in future. However, it can be said with more than consider-able certainty that the days when crude oil traded below $100 a barrel seem never to return again. Airlines the world over, which had just come out of the shadows of the 9/11 recession to collectively post a net profit of $5.6 billion (Rs 23,794 crore) in 2007, have once again plunged below their financial bottomlines. The International Air Transport Asso-ciation (IATA) in July said fuel prices would force the airlines into a net loss of $2.3 billion (Rs 9,773 crore) this year. Even that estimate is based on an old oil price of $106.5 (Rs 4,524) for a barrel of Brent Crude—an actual higher price punishes the sector even harder. In addition, the resulting inflationary pressures and the economic slowdown have had a devastat-ingly cascading effect on the civil aviation sector.

Globally, the sting of rising fuel prices has been more pro-nounced in the US, where the economic slowdown has com-pounded the distress. The American industry’s seven biggest carriers reported operating losses of 5.2 per cent in the first quarter of the year. Airlines have had to resort to restructur-

ing, including mergers, capacity and job cutting. The US pre-dicament has spread across the Atlantic with three of the four business-class-only airlines folding up in recent months. IATA has warned of more bad news to follow. Director General and Chief Executive Officer Giovanni Bisignani told airlines be-longing to IATA, “For every dollar the price of oil goes up, costs go up by $1.6 billion (Rs 6,797 crore).” He further point-ed out that 24 airlines had gone under in the past six months, despite a steady streamlining in the years since 2001. “The situation is desperate,” he said, calling for governments to re-move the regulation that prevents consolidation.

Back home in India, the scenario appears to be some-what different. While the only business-class-only Para-mount Airways seems to be somehow chugging along with its operations restricted by and large to the southern region, it is the low-cost model that has been scalded by the prices of crude oil. Take the case of SpiceJet which, according to its chairman, is posting daily losses of Rs 50 lakh to Rs 75 lakh on high jet fuel prices, forcing it to cut routes and delay plane deliveries to trim losses. Another case is that of Jet Airways, which reported a loss of Rs 221 crore for the fourth quarter of 2007-08, against a net profit of Rs 88 crore for the same period last year. The airline showed a consolidated loss of Rs 654 crore ($135 million) for the full year, mostly contributed by its low-cost subsidiary, Jetlite.

This year, the innovative Naresh Goyal-led Jet Airways

Minus all thrills

End of the day, airlines in India will have to do the juggler’s act by somehow balancing factors

like capacities and airfares, apart from adopting a slew of

fuel-saving, cost-cutting exercises

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put into practice a changed accounting system: charging depreciation on its narrow body aircraft used for domestic operations from written down value to straight line, similar to the practice for its bigger planes used on international routes. Whatever the merits of the new procedure—best left for detailed analyses by the financial pundits—the impact raked in a reported Rs 916 crore at the company level. In the process, Jet has been able to post a Q1 profit of Rs 143 crore in this fiscal. While the above may be a clever paper exercise to retain the investor confidence, the company can-not deny the fact that its low-cost subsidiary incurred a Q1 loss of Rs 134.80 crore, up from Rs 107 crore it had lost dur-ing the corresponding period last year. Executive Director Saroj Datta blames it on inflation which, according to him, has caused a decline in traffic growth resulting in overca-pacity. However, the fact of the matter is that, in India, the ever mounting fuel cess has driven the low-cost air traveller back to the railways. Datta admits, “Prices (fuel) have gone up so much, and forecasts

are so unclear, we are not even hedging now.” Jet Airways’ Chairman Goyal went a step further by stating that Indian carriers have 30 per cent excess capacity flights and are selling tickets 30 per cent below break-even levels. “Un-less the industry, that could collectively lose as much as Rs 10,000 crore ($2.5 billion) this fiscal, cut flights and raise average fares by 30 per cent, the situation will remain very bad,” he warned.

Vastly differing fuel pricing policies followed by states levying prohibitively high sales taxes within India haven’t helped matters either. Nudged by the Centre, the Empow-ered Group of Finance Ministers of the States which was to look at rationalising the aviation fuel pricing structure has deferred a decision on sales tax, VAT and related issues, resorting to delaying tactics on the pretext of seeking more information from the Centre. Commenting on the difficult financial situation, former SpiceJet CEO Siddhanta Sharma said, “Only, if sales tax (on aviation fuel), especially imposed by states comes down, can we see sustainable operations of airlines in the current fiscal.” Airbus Executive Vice Presi-dent (Market and Contracts) Kiran Rao voices his concern saying, “India has high cost of ATF and levies high taxes on that. These two factors are making things very difficult for airlines as passengers are very price-sensitive.”

Resorting to desperate ways to cut down costs, GoAir’s (another low cost carrier) Vice President Neeraj Kapoor

said, “As the fuel price is going up sharply, one has to cut costs. We laid off employees at four stations as part of our plan to cut operating costs. We would do our best to run the airline and offer our customers best services.” But, it will be a tough call. As Dinesh Keskar, Boeing’s Senior Vice Presi-dent (Sales) points out in the Indian context, “Airlines have realised that low fares have no chance of succeeding. Low fares may give one market share but nothing concrete. Now airlines are cutting flights. Initially, higher fares will mean exceeding capacity. But ultimately this will lead to airlines matching demand with supply at right fares.”

Looking at the global scenario, the impact of soaring fuel prices will be felt by all sectors of the aviation in-dustry. The fact that the recently concluded Farnborough International Airshow was dominated by these issues is evident from the remarks made by Accenture’s aero-space and defence partner Michael Hackerson. “It’s go-

ing to be fuel, fuel and fuel,” he observed wryly even before the show started. With

researchers and manufacturers responding to the chal-lenges, the issue has also lend momentum to the hunt for greater efficiencies and alternatives, such as composite materials that help reduce the weight of the aircraft, more efficient and also less polluting engines, and for alternate energy sources. While airlines the world over are cutting down on capacities, the emerging trend is to retire older fuel-guzzling aircraft and replace these with fuel-efficient models. The net result is manufacturers, with their earlier overflowing order books, are spared the blow of deferrals or slowdown in orders.

End of the day, airlines in India will also have to do the juggler’s act by somehow balancing factors like capacities and airfares, apart from adopting a slew of fuel-saving and cost-cutting exercises. They will also have to opt for next generation fuel-efficient aircraft and reschedule future or-ders accordingly. The silver lining is that while the growth in the aviation sector may be showing signs of a slow down, it may only be a temporary phenomenon but certainly not the end of the road. As pointed out by Kiran Rao of the Airbus, who still remains bullish on India, “The fantastic growth rate of 20 per cent in past few years would still remain ex-traordinary even if it comes to 10 per cent or 12 per cent. May not be at the same rate, but aviation is bound to move forward in India.” SP


“UNLESS THE INDUSTRY, THAT COULD COLLECTIVELY LOSE AS MUCH AS RS 10,000 CRORE THIS FISCAL, CUT FLIGHTS AND RAISE AVERAGE FARES BY 30 PER CENT, THE SITUATION WILL REMAIN VERY BAD.” —NARESH GOYAL, CHAIRMAN, JET AIRWAYS

“FOR EVERY DOLLAR THE PRICE OF OIL GOES UP, COSTS GO UP BY $1.6 BILLION (RS 6,797 CRORE).

THE SITUATION IS DESPERATE.” —GIOVANNI BISIGNANI,

DIRECTOR GENERAL & CEO, IATA

“INDIA HAS HIGH COST OF ATF AND LEVIES HIGH TAXES ON THAT. THESE TWO FACTORS ARE MAKING THINGS VERY DIFFICULT FOR

AIRLINES AS PASSENGERS ARE VERY PRICE-SENSITIVE.” —KIRAN RAO,

EXECUTIVE VICE PRESIDENT (MARKET AND CONTRACTS), AIRBUS

“AIRLINES IN INDIA HAVE REALISED THAT LOW FARES HAVE NO CHANCE OF SUCCEEDING. LOW FARES MAY GIVE ONE MARKET SHARE BUT NOTHING CONCRETE.” —DINESH KESKAR, SENIOR VICE PRESIDENT (SALES), BOEING


MILITARY JSF PROGRAMME

Post its maiden flight on December 15, 2006, devel-opment of the Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) has shifted to top gear. As of now, production activity for Lock-heed Martin’s JSF F-35 Lightning II is entering an

intense phase spanning across the next 18 months. The suc-cessful flight debut on June 11 of the first Short Take-off and Vertical Landing (STOVL) version airframe, christened BF-1, albeit in conventional mode, justified the programme’s abil-ity to make good its promises to religiously adhere to de-clared time schedules. The effort now would be to focus on preparing the BF-1 for its first flight in STOVL mode planned for early 2009.

Under a third revised production schedule unveiled in May, Lockheed’s final assembly and check-out facility in Fort Worth, Texas, is committed to deliver new prototype airframes at the rate of one completed aircraft a month for the next 17 months. Throughout this period, Lockheed will also be conducting a rigorous flight-test assessment of the conventional and STOVL variants, as well as starting the same phase for the carrier variant (CV), assembly of which had commenced on October 18, 2007 by BAE Systems at its Samlesbury facility in UK.

To recap (see cover story ‘Lightning Pace’ in SP’s Aviation 04/08), the F-35 programme started as an attempt to develop and produce an affordable, joint-service multi-role fighter with a high degree of commonality and low life-cycle costs to replace existing aircraft in the US and British armed forces. It later expanded to include Italy, the Netherlands, Turkey, Aus-tralia, Norway, Denmark and Canada. The fighter has been offered by the US as a natural corollary if India selects the F-16 in its drive to acquire 126 Medium Multi-role Combat

Aircraft (MMRCA), or even outside its purview. Several detractors have been lobbying against the JSF

programme, most vociferous being from within the US itself. The US Department of Defense (DoD) recently estimated the cost of the project at over $299 billion (Rs 12,52,975 crore) for 2,458 aircraft, which calculates to a total programme unit cost of about $122 million (Rs 512 crore) at this time. As the US-based Centre for Defense Information points out, “At $122 million per copy for a total programme unit cost at this stage of development, the F-35 has already failed to achieve one of its primary objectives: low cost.”

Apprehensions have also been raised about the perfor-mance characteristics with sceptics dubbing the F-35 as a “jack of all trades but a master of none”. They dismiss the F-35 to be too fast to find targets on the ground independently, too limited in weapons payload to persist on the battlefield and too thin-skinned and delicate to survive tactical air defences.

To counter the charge one may point out that the Fifth Generation F-35 was designed to operate in a futuristic and vastly networked battlefield scenario where, with a built-in all-weather precision attack and stealth capability, there would be no requirement for the F-35 to look for a target independently or expose itself to the adversary’s tactical air defences.

Pertinently, the present unit cost of the F-35 could, in all likelihood, stabilise around $100 million (Rs 420 crore) through amortisation with the total production figure predicted to ex-ceed 3,200 by 2035. Therefore, while for now India should persist with the MMRCA project and the PAK-FA joint venture with Russia, it could in the future consider acquiring the F-35—as the proposition gets progressively more lucrative. SP


Production activity for Lockheed Martin’s JSF F-35 Lightning II is entering the start of an intense phase that will dominate the scene for the next 18 months

Fast forward mode

FAST forward mode

Alliant Techsystems, Lockheed Martin and the Northrop Grumman on July 17 announced the signing of an agree-ment to jointly pursue the emerging market for advanced capability multi-role weapons. As the F-22 Raptor, F-35 Lightning II, unmanned aerial systems and future aircraft platforms

are fielded over the next decade, the team believes an advanced multi-role weapon requirement would emerge covering both air-to-air and air-to-ground missions. The team will pro-vide potential customers with product options that offer the best capabilities, schedule, and price. The endeavour

would be to integrate the capabilities that the team provides across sensors, automatic target recognition, guidance navigation and control, air vehicles, propulsion, lethality, survivability, mis-sion planning, platform integration, system engineering, and programme management. S SP P

TRIPARTITE AGREEMENT TO PURSUE MULTI-ROLE WEAPONS PROGRAMMES

14 SP’S AVIATION Issue 7 • 2008

CIVIL GENERAL AVIATION

www.spsaviation.net

Allure & Reality

Rather than competing with scheduled commercial flying, general aviation is an adjunct that increases opportunity for

business and personal travellers

CO

VE

R

ST

OR

Y



A primeval yearning in mankind is to share space with birds and clouds,

to be free to roam the halls of the skies. Pilots, particu-

larly light aircraft pilots, can revel in the freedom provided by controlling an aerial vehicle. Small, personal airplanes respond to light control inputs, giving one the feeling of the machine being an extension of the hands.

Of course, many reasons for private flying exist; valid uses other than pure sport involving the exhilaration of flight. The utility of general aviation—as that segment of flight operations not involving airline or military flying is called—makes it a vital part of a national aviation system. All too often, those involved with policy making and the shaping of general opinion consider only the needs and benefits of large air carriers when all aspects of civil aviation should be added into the national sum.

General aviation, as part of a country’s air transporta-tion system, encompasses small airports in communities not served by domestic or flag airlines, private business aircraft delivering goods and personnel from site to site at the own-er’s schedule, aerial work such as agricultural application or ambulance transport and personal flight operations by clubs or individuals in owned aircraft. The benefit to a na-tion’s transport system is from increased economic activity because the use of general aviation fosters direct connection in a timely manner between persons. Rather than waiting for a daily airline flight, it is possible to travel to and from a destination remote from the nearest large air carrier airport on one’s own schedule.

Therefore, apart from supplementing and supporting the large airline network connecting major cities, general aviation transports persons and freight from larger cities to smaller towns. Rather than competing with scheduled com-

mercial flying, it is an adjunct that increases overall oppor-tunity for business and personal travellers.

VITAL ELEMENTSTo foster a viable general aviation segment for a region, the following elements are required to be in place:

• Airport access is a must for each town and city. • Initial and recurrent training to encourage people to

become pilots.• Support for a general aviation fleet in the form of

maintenance, fuelling and storage. • Inclusion in the planning process at all levels of gov-

ernment.Access should include permitting general aviation ac-

tivity at major urban areas either at the commercial air-port—through the incorporation of smaller, separate run-ways adjacent to the ones used by large aircraft—or with independent reliever airports located nearby. By making these provisions, it becomes possible for travellers to move from small general aviation airports in outlying towns and cities to metropolitan locations. To complete the access net-work, each small city and town needs an appropriate land-ing facility.

Obviously, the local general aviation airport is sized to meet the means and needs of each community it supports. For a small town, an unpaved yet properly smoothed and drained, strip of land will suffice. Medium-size towns with an industrial base will need a 1,000 m runway while larger urban centers serving a region may need a runway of at least 2,000 m. Forward-looking cities may plan for expan-sion by building an initial small airport but reserve addi-tional space for future growth as needed.

PILOT TRAININGPilot training must not be restricted to large university campuses, airline academies or military institutes. General aviation training, in its simplest form, can be acquired by

The benefit to a nation’s transport system is from

increased economic activity because the use of general

aviation fosters direct connection in a timely manner between persons

By LeRoy Cook, Missouri,

USA



primary training imparted at a small town airport. The trainer aircraft need only have seats for the stu-dent and the instructor and may be equipped with the minimum instruments and radio for visual flight. This encourages broad participation by students of limited economic means from which a certain per-centage will proceed to more advanced aircraft and certificate ratings. Encouraging people to learn to fly guarantees the airport local support in the form of flying clubs, owned aircraft and economic activity.

On the other hand, ignoring the need for con-tinual training to replace older pilots and attrition due to loss of interest renders a general aviation

airport lifeless, an abandoned shell with no activity. It then becomes de-pendent on local government funds and is viewed as a lux-ury rather than a necessary transportation link. Lack of new pilots will mean fewer aircraft hours flown, less fuel sold, little storage fees paid and a lack of support busi-nesses—factors critical to general aviation. An aircraft cannot fly unless it can be refueled at the destination to return home or without replacement tyres, batter-ies and other critical parts.

Bringing this service support to each user creates employment and assures the viability of the system.

ROLE OF THE GOVERNMENT The role of the government should be to encourage investment, provide long-term planning and make financing available through disbursement of taxes collected. Remembering that the power to tax is the power to destroy; fair ad-ministration of fuel levy, user fees and excise taxes is crucial. Not all funding should come from the pilots and aircraft

owners. Public benefit is provided by an aviation transpor-tation system, assisting all businesses and people in the area served. The airport, like any other street or depot, should be considered part of a town’s infrastructure.

General aviation can, in many cases, require very little of the system. No contact with an air traffic control sys-tem is needed for visual flight and aircraft owners usually provide their own navigational electronics using signals already provided for military and airline users. Therefore, no expense should be charged to a user who did not ask for or require the service provided. As an important link in the transportation network that binds a nation together, general aviation deserves careful nurturing and on-going support. To ignore its benefits is to isolate remote areas from emergency medical care, industrial growth, trade and education. A free flow of goods, ideas and services can only occur with the help of general aviation. SP

SWIFT CONNECTIVITY: AUTOMOBILE TRANSPORTATION IS CONVENIENT FOR MEDIUM-LENGTH TRAVEL, BUT 2,000 TO 3,000 METRES OF PAVEMENT BECOMES A CONNECTION OF UNLIMITED LENGTH WHEN USED AS AN AIRPORT RUNWAY. THE CESSNA CITATION BUSINESS JET OPERATES WELL FROM A SHORT GENERAL AVIATION AIRPORT, PROVIDING SWIFT TRANSPORTATION FOR COMPANY PERSONNEL.

Access should include permitting

general aviation activity at major

urban areas either at the commercial

airport or with independent

reliever airports

located nearby


INTERVIEW SIKORSKY MARKETING CHIEF

SP’s Aviation (SP’s): The history of the Sikorsky endeavor is almost as old as history of aviation itself. Can you trace for us the important milestones in the growth of your com-pany? Steve Estill (Estill): Our founder, Igor Sikorsky, designed and flew the first successful four-engine aircraft in aviation history (nicknamed the Grand) less than 10 years after the Wright brothers’ first flight. After the Russian revolution in late-1917, Igor feared his life was in danger, and immigrated to the US in 1919. In 1923, he founded Sikorsky Aero Engi-neering Corporation, which became a subsidiary of United Aircraft in 1929. United Aircraft later evolved into United Technologies Corporation, which today is a Fortune 50 company and remains Sikorsky’s parent company. Since its founding, Sikorsky Aircraft is known for designing and building, among other aircraft, the famed Pan-Am ClipperShips. In early 1939, Igor Sikorsky designed and developed the VS-300, the first helicopter that proved the concept of the single-main rotor and anti-torque tail rotor. More than 95 percent of the world’s helicopters manufactured today use the same single-main rotor concept perfected by Igor Sikorsky. Today, Sikorsky produces what is arguably the best known helicopter in military history, the BLACK HAWK, and the very successful S-76® and S-92® commercial helicopters, among others.

SP’s: Sikorsky Aircraft Corporation has been described as world leader in the design, manufacture and service of military and commercial helicopters. How does your company compare with other global players in this regime both in the US and outside? Estill: With the BLACK HAWK, SEAHAWK®, and CH53 helicopters, Sikorsky Aircraft is a leader in the military sector. In the commercial markets, Sikorsky’s S-92 and S-76 heli-copters are leaders in several sectors including offshore oil crew transport and Head of State transportation. Sikorsky Aircraft offers an unmatched blend of rotorcraft expertise, manufacturing know-how, and global product support. Sikorsky technology gave the world its first stable, controllable helicopter in 1939. Subsequent Sikorsky helicopters were the first to make hoist rescues, the first to use dipping sonar, and the first to refuel from aerial tankers. The UH-60 BLACK HAWK in the 1970’s set new standards for combat survivabil-ity in utility transport helicopters. The Comanche successfully demonstrated fly-by-wire flight controls and large composite structures in the 1990s. Since then, the Sikorsky S-

Steve Estill, Chief Marketing Officer, World Sales and Vice President,

Sikorsky Aircraft Corporation out-lines his compa-

nies strengths and elaborates on plans

for the Indian market in reply to

queries put forth by SP’s Aviation

ONE TO ONE STEVE ESTILL

‘Sikorsky’s S-92 & S-76 helicopters are leaders’

PHO

TOG

RAP

HS

: S

IKO

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KY



92 helicopter earned the prestigious Collier Trophy for the greatest achievement in aerospace, based on the aircraft’s flaw tolerant design, crashworthiness, and other safety in-novations unmatched by past-generation aircraft. Today, Sikorsky continues to set ground breaking enhanced design standards with the H-92 SUPERHAWK® and the UH-60M BLACK HAWK helicopters. Sikorsky continues to advance vertical flight technology with the development of the X2 TECHNOLOGY™ Demonstrator aircraft due for first flight later this year. This mission changing technology includes an integrated suite of technologies that improves the per-formance of co-axial helicopters with intended benefits of roughly twice the speed and twice the range of conventional helicopters without impacting its hovering capabilities that make the helicopter unique.

SP’s: What is the level of competition from other helicopter manufacturers in the class in which your company has a stronghold in the medium to heavy class of machines? Are you price competitive in the class of machines you specialise in?Estill: Sikorsky produces only the highest quality products, and our customers recognize this as evidenced by the cur-rent $12 billion backlog. We work very hard to delight our customers, and to differentiate ourselves from our competi-tors not only by the quality of our products but also by our innovations in aftermarket support to give our customers high aircraft availability while reducing the cost of owner-ship. We believe we offer our customers the best value over the life of the helicopter and lower cost of ownership includ-ing the best resale value.

SP’s: In the general and corporate avia-tion markets, the potential buyer would like to insist on ‘business-sense’ factor i.e. a blend of the best machine and the best price. How do you offset your level of pric-ing which understandably remains higher than that of your competitions?Estill: As I have mentioned above, we offer the best value as we believe that a customer should look at the total cost of ownership and not just the acquisi-tion cost. These include direct operating costs, ease and cost of maintenance, the cost of insurance, crews etc., and resale value. The commercial customer can get this information from standard industry reports such as Conklin & De Decker. For example, when it comes to cost-effective performance, Sikorsky’s S-76C++™ helicopter delivers low direct operating costs – the best in its class.

SP’s: Sikorsky helicopters are renowned for their VVIP con-figurations. Can you give a glimpse as to which all VVIP cus-tomers operate your machines worldwide? Please elaborate on the USP your helicopters command.Estill: The President of the United States continues to fly in Sikorsky helicopters, as have his predecessors since 1957. The US President currently flies in the VH-3D, a variant of the S-61, and the VH-60N, a variant of the BLACK HAWK

helicopter. These helicopter variants cannot be duplicated or sold elsewhere and are very different from the base helicop-ter. This long track record has given Sikorsky unmatched experience and expertise in serving the Head of State sec-tor. Today, the S-92 helicopter has very quickly become the helicopter of choice not only for Head of State transport but also for other VVIPs and for the offshore oil market, based squarely on safety, quality and reliability. Already the S-92 has been the choice of nine nations for transportation of their Heads of State or VVIP’s. These include South Korea, Turkmenistan, Turkey and other Middle East and Asian cus-tomers. The Korean Presidential helicopters were delivered in October of last year, while the Turkmenistan, Turkey and some of the Middle East S-92 Head of State helicopters have been operating for some time.

SP’s: Initially, Sikorsky had ventured into the design and manufacture of fixed wing aircraft. Has the company re-tained its expertise and activities in this area or has it been discontinued?Estill: Sikorsky today remains in the fixed-wing aircraft business, in both the OEM and aftermarket industries. In 2007 we acquired a company in Poland, PZL Mielec, which produces airplanes, including the M28, for a variety of mis-sions including maritime patrol, search and rescue, and fire-fighting. Our worldwide aftermarket organization, Sikorsky Aerospace Services, includes Derco Aerospace, which we acquired in 2002. Derco provides aftermarket support for fixed-wing aircraft including military airplanes such as the F-16 fighter jet. Our mission statement reflects the fact that we produce more than just helicopters. It states, “We pio-neer flight solutions that bring people home everywhere ...

every time™”.

SP’s: What is the status of the X2 Tech-nology programme? What are the special features of the technology employed in this project? To what extent does the rear facing tail rotor enhance the performance of the machine?Estill: The X2 TECHNOLOGY program is progressing very well. Testing and analy-sis to date continue to bolster our confi-dence in the X2 TECHNOLOGY Demon-strator -- a helicopter designed to cruise with low vibration at 250 knots. We ex-pect the first flight for the X2 TECHNOL-OGY Demonstrator to take place later this year. The X2 TECHNOLOGY Demonstra-tor recently achieved a milestone with the

rotor system operational during ground testing. Ground testing began in November 2007 and represents the final se-ries of tests leading to first flight. As I mentioned earlier, X2 TECHNOLOGY refers to an integrated suite of technologies that will allow helicopters to fly at much greater speeds and with far greater productivity levels than today’s helicopters. The X2 TECHNOLOGY Demonstrator has co-axial main ro-tors and no tail rotor, but rather a pusher prop in the rear that is designed to provide power to achieve speeds of 250+ knots in forward flight. This advancement could allow, for example, air ambulance helicopters to reach accident vic-

“In the future, X2 TECHNOLOGY-based

offshore helicopters could negate the

greater distance

with the increased

speed travelling to and from

the oil rigs.”



tims twice as fast as they can today, potentially saving even more lives.

SP’s: The Sikorsky S-92 Executive Helicopter overlaps fixed wing Business Aircraft in terms of capacity, range and speed. Given that the cost of operation of a helicopter is sev-eral times higher than that of fixed wing Business Aircraft of comparable capacity and range, do you think there would be a market large enough to sustain viability of production for the civil market?Estill: The Sikorsky S-92 and S-76 helicopters do not com-pete with Business fixed wing aircraft but rather comple-ment the transportation options available to business execu-tives and VIP’s by providing a safe, reliable and comfortable way to travel in crowded metros, on short hops or in places where the infrastructure is limited or the terrain is not con-ducive to fixed wing aircraft. Since the first delivery in November 2004, the S-92 helicopter fleet has grown to 63 aircraft that includes VVIP / VIP configurations. We also de-livered our 700th S-76 this year of which a majority is being used for executive and VIP transportation. We agree with

aviation industry expectations that the “air taxi” market will grow into a large business as more airplane OEMs recognize the benefits. The helicopter in-dustry, however, has been in this market – you can say the helicopter industry created the market – for a long time. Again, we don’t consider small airplanes as competition, be-cause we each offer different advantages. Business people who want to land directly in Manhattan’s business district, for example, will continue to rely on helicopters versus landing at an airport several miles away.

SP’s: It is usually felt that the fixed winged aircraft remains much more stable and can reach considerably higher alti-tude with faster reach to destinations compared to the ro-tary-winged aircraft, how does Sikorsky counter these is-sues?Estill: As I mentioned above, current helicopters do not compete with fixed wing aircraft since they have such dif-ferent flight characteristics. The advent of X2 TECHNOL-OGY helicopters will potentially increase the attractiveness of helicopters in several sectors including executive travel, EMS, search and rescue, and certainly the offshore oil mar-ket, which fixed-wing aircraft can’t even touch.

SP’s: What is the extent, size and the nature of your pres-ence in India? Have you considered any joint venture or col-laboration with the Indian aerospace industry?Estill: We are in a serious dialogue with the Indian Air Force to meet their requirement for a Head of State helicopter. Our S-92 machine is the ultimate helicopter for the Head of State mission.

Sikorsky is not yet a widely recognised name in India. I emphasize the word ‘yet.’ We have embarked upon a global expansion programme, and India is on top of our expansion agenda. India is a huge emerging market for helicopters in various roles, and Sikorsky is poised to bring the world class machines to the Indian market for commercial as well as military use. I believe that in the very near future Sikorsky will be known in India as well as it is known in other parts of the world.

We are working with our parent, United Technologies, and with several Indian suppliers to tap into the wealth of talent and capability that is available in India. We firmly believe that India is on the cusp of becoming a large inter-national aerospace player. We are prepared to invest heav-ily in India. As an example, we signed a Memorandum of Understanding this February with Tata Advanced Systems Limited (TASL) to explore the manufacture of S-92 cabins in India.

SP’s: What is the perception in your company regarding market opportunities in India both for civil and military he-licopters?Estill: India is an emerging market with huge potential. The versatility of the helicopter makes it the preferred choice of air transportation for a variety of roles. It can be used for executive, airline, offshore, search and rescue, surveillance, law enforcement, emergency medical services, patrolling, firefighting and other purposes. Certainly India looks great for both the civil and military opportunities, and we believe Sikorsky’s reputation for producing safe aircraft will help us establish a presence. The name Sikorsky is synonymous worldwide with quality, reliability, and safety. I am happy to say that we have already sold our First VVIP Deluxe model in India. This machine will be seen in the Indian skies later this year.

SP’s: What is your analysis of the market potential for S-92?Estill: A number of S-92 helicopters are in service for vari-ous Heads of State and Corporate Executives the world over. The luxuriously appointed and customized interior of S-92 helicopter is the epitome of comfort and style. Most impor-tant, the S-92 is the first helicopter in the world to be certi-fied to the latest and most stringent safety standards by avi-ation regulators in both Europe and the United States. The S-92 has been recognized with two of the most prestigious awards in aerospace: the National Aeronautics Association’s Collier Trophy for “the greatest achievement in aeronautics,” and the Howard Hughes Award for “Outstanding improve-ment in fundamental helicopter technology.”

SP’s: What in your view will be the impact of high oil prices on the demand for helicopters in the future?Estill: We believe that higher oil prices will push oil explo-ration to new regions and farther offshore. Given that the Sikorsky S-92 and the S-76 helicopters enjoy such great suc-cess in the offshore market already, we see plenty of new opportunities for our products. Further, with the oil com-panies’ need to renew their fleets, we are achieving great success in the replacement market. Again, Sikorsky’s repu-tation for reliability, quality and safety is especially impor-

“The S-92 has very quickly become the

helicopter of choice

for the offshore oil market, based squarely on safety,

quality and reliability.”


“We offer the best value as

we believe that a customer should look

at the total cost of

ownership and not just the acquisition cost.”

tant for customers selecting aircraft that will perform crucial missions, such as Head of State, or operate in extremely dif-ficult environments, such as offshore.

SP’s: There are reports that the Indian contract for 80 MI-17 IV with Russia may be reviewed and a fresh RFP may be floated for this requirement. Does Sikorsky have a product to offer in this class, should a fresh tender be floated?Estill: Sikorsky would offer the S-92 helicopter, which has the unique distinction of being a 21st century helicopter yet one with a solid track record and proven performance in some of the world’s most extreme climates, such as the North Sea. The S-92 is a rugged aircraft with a large stand-up cabin. Safety and reliability is built into the design and includes a Health and Usage Management System to moni-tor the aircraft’s key systems, enhanced ground proxim-ity warning system, a fuel system design that keeps the fuel away from passengers, energy absorbing landing gear, lightening strike protection, a traffic collision avoidance system, bird-strike protection at maximum aircraft speed, and turbine burst protection.

SP’s: What is the status of the Comanche programme? Is the military helicopter of the future being developed in col-laboration? What are the unique features of this machine?Estill: The Comanche was designed for a battlefield that disappeared with the end of the Warsaw Pact. Recogniz-ing this, the US Army ended the develop-ment program in 2004, but not before the aircraft had successfully demonstrated fly-by-wire flight controls, the benefits of com-posite structure, and other technologies that Sikorsky has built into other platforms and is continuing to do so.

SP’s: There was a report that Sikorsky has delivered the latest version of the Blackhawk, the UH-60M to the US Army. What specifically are the improvements over the machine that is being replaced?Estill: The UH-60M is the next generation evolution of the venerable BLACK HAWK

with state-of-the-art integrated digital glass cockpit, more powerful engines, wide-chord composite blades and insertion of new tech-nologies to continue to make this helicopter the leader in its class.

SP’s: Do you think that the heavy, long range helicopter will be challenged by the hybrid aircraft like the V-22 Osprey?Estill: Sikorsky’s CH-53K will be the pre-eminent heavy-lift aircraft in the world. The “new design” CH-53K will use proven and mature technologies to deliver five times the capability at half the operational cost of current heavy-lift helicopters - it will be the most capable helicopter ever produced. Although the MV-22 will indeed allow users to expand their medium-lift capabilities, it is not designed as a replacement for a heavy-

lift solution.

SP’s: With land based resources of fossil fuels dwindling, there is likely to be enhanced effort at deep sea explora-tion requiring logistic support at greater distances from the shore. Does Sikorsky have a product to meet with this requirement in the future?Estill: As mentioned earlier, Sikorsky’s S-92 and S-76 he-licopters already are leaders in this sector. The S-92 has established a solid track record with proven performance worldwide in some of the world’s most extreme climates, such as the North Sea. The smaller S-76 helicopter is also servicing offshore oil markets around the world in-cluding in the harsh environment of the Gulf of Mexico. In the future, X2 TECHNOLOGY -based offshore helicop-ters could negate the greater distance with the increased speed travelling to and from the oil rigs. So, we are lead-ers now and positioning ourselves to remain there for a long time.

SP’s: It is understood that military sales outside the US are controlled by the US government. To what extent does this impinge on your effort at gaining market share abroad as it tends to downgrade the credibility and reliability of the supplier?Estill: Despite its challenges, US Government control of mili-tary sales has not impacted our ability to sell products over-

seas. In fact, the US continues to be the single largest supplier of defense equipment, ac-counting for 36 per cent of the world’s weap-on sales. Furthermore, the US Government supports the export of military equipment to foreign partners so as to increase military cooperation between countries and enhance interoperability amongst coalition forces. Specific to Sikorsky’s military products, more than 28 nations today fly the BLACK HAWK and SEAHAWK family of helicopters. Sikor-sky also has a history of international collabo-ration. Japan and the Republic of Korea fly the S-70 BLACK HAWK and SEAHAWK heli-copters from domestic production SP



CIVIL BUSINESS AVIATION

In the limelight for rising fares egged on by soaring fuel prices since July, the aviation sector was stunned when Mukesh Ambani’s aircraft

were seized for alleged evasion of cus-toms duty, setting off a domino effect with 70 corporate offices reportedly interrogated on the stated and practiced purposes of their aircraft. Current government policy is to promote commercial purposes of aircraft such as to pro-vide the opportunity and expedite air travel.

The customs duty differential between the commercial use—purportedly the original intent for acquiring some of these aircraft—and private use is substantial, the latter be-ing higher by 19 per cent. The resultant loss to the exchequer over the last six years could have well run into hundreds of crores. No doubt some nimble legal brains will circumnavigate the showcause notices issued to the importers of these aircraft and the eventual collection of evaded duty will come to naught. However, the issue has highlighted the fact that the actual op-erations of business aviation aircraft in India are perhaps not as transparent to the regulatory mechanism as the scheduled airline operations. While one of the penumbraic areas is that of the end use of aircraft imported for “commercial” use, another area is the safety standards these aircraft operate under.

ABSENCE OF SAFETY REGULATIONSA report in the Irish Times on investiga-tions into a helicopter crash recommend-ed the European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) carry out an urgent review of the regulation of corporate aviation activity

in Europe. According to the report, this is the third time in 11 years that the British Department of Transport’s Air Accident Investigation Unit has raised the issue of absence of regulations covering corporate aviation with the European authorities. Since 1997, the Joint Aviation Authority (JAA) and the EASA have been prompted by three accident investigation teams about the absence of regulations covering corporate aviation activity in Europe, but to no avail. A similar lack of regulations appears to exist in the context of business aviation in India.

Responsible for type certification, registration and de-reg-istration of all civil aircraft in India, the Director General Civil Aviation (DGCA) is also the authority for issuing, renewing and revalidating Certificates of Airworthiness in respect of these aircraft. However, as far as safety oversight is concerned, to quote from the paragraph titled “Safety Oversight” from the DGCA official Internet site http://dgca.nic.in: “Civil Aviation Requirements (CARs) Section 2 Series ‘A’ Part II puts the onus of responsibility for observing the airworthiness standards as

Considering the large number of business aircraft crowding the skies—especially small, fast jets—the time may have arrived when outsourcing business aviation

safety may be the most viable solutionBy Group Captain A.K. Sachdev,

Bangalore

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spelt out in the Aircraft Rules, 1937, CARs and manufacturer’s requirements on the part of the organisations engaged in avia-tion activities.” Six operational surveillance checklists and 30 airworthiness surveillance checklists have been issued by the DGCA for this purpose. A close scrutiny of the DGCA regula-tions would show that most of the regulatory framework fo-cuses on the following types of operations:

• Scheduled Air Transport Service (Passenger)• Scheduled Air Transport Service (Cargo)• Non- Scheduled Air Transport Service (Passenger)• Non- Scheduled Air Transport Service (Cargo)Business or private aviation is rather conspicuous by its

absence. Thus, while the regulatory mechanism for scheduled and non-scheduled operations is fairly well formalised, private aviation is relatively unfettered. Perhaps that is because the DGCA, being a government organ, sees its responsibility more towards the public the government represents while the pri-vate aircraft owner is expected to ensure his interests on his own. There is some merit in this line of thinking as private management, as is visible in almost all fields of commercial enterprise in India, is more capable and efficient than its public equivalent. However, there are two issues here that warrant discussion. The first is whether private business aircraft own-ers have the basic necessary understanding of aviation and aviation safety. Unlike in the case of a public airline, a private aircraft owner is not required to have a full time safety man-ager nor are his operations overseen by an external agency like the DGCA. Therefore, private aircraft operations are inher-ently prone to assault by unsafe practices and processes. The

DGCA finds it difficult to ensure adherence to all its regulations, even by scheduled operators whose operations it endeavours to oversee much more stringently than those of non-scheduled operators or private ones.

Second, the increase in aviation activity in Indian skies has raised the stakes for all stakeholders in aviation safety. An un-safe act on the part of a private aircraft crew could well involve an airliner in an accident as the same busy, cluttered and con-gested airspace is shared, especially in the vicinity of metros where both types of aviation activity are at their peak.

DIFFERENT STROKESThe trend in business aviation is towards smaller, lighter jets (VLJs) for quick and relatively inexpensive corporate travel. But most VLJs come with an inherent problem: occupying the same airspace as airliners, these are, however, not equipped with TCAS II which, in crowded airspace, could be crucial to safety. This factor could become a major safety consideration as the quantum of business aviation rises simultaneously with airline activity, wishfully presuming the oil slide will go away.

The impetus to the aviation industry in recent years has involved commensurate quantitative increase in business avia-tion. As of April this year, there were 76 non-scheduled opera-tors listed with the DGCA. The DGCA site of business and/or private operators does not have any such list and as a large number of privately owned aircraft are used in their overspill time for charter purposes, some of them have obtained non-scheduled operators’ permits. While this gives them customs duty benefits and the freedom to use their aircraft for commer-Asia Aviat_210x135 SP 7/25/08 7:36 AM Page 1

Composite

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Organised by:

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Aviation Outlook Asia returns for its 5th year to deliver the latest news andaviation market opportunities in the Asia Pacific. The most widely anticipatedevent of the year brings you the leaders of the Asia Pacific’s aviation industrywho will talk about their forecasts for the industry. As the region’s aviationindustry tackles the immense challenges of the rising cost of oil, and intensifiedmarket competition – learn from the leaders what their cut-throat strategies willbe in growing their market shares.

Aviation Outlook Asia is:• Where regulators unveil their plans to achieve the vision of Asia’s open skies• Where Asian aviation leaders share their strategies in innovating their business

models• Where new market opportunities are discussed• Where those who set the standards for excellence in the global aviation

industry will be recognised and rewarded

The Asian aviation leadership challenge

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29 – 31 October 2008, Raffles City Convention Centre, Singapore

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cial purposes, the trade-off is that their operations come under the umbrella of non-scheduled operations as far as DGCA is concerned and therefore get affected by some mandatory re-quirements in terms of airworthiness and safety. These regu-lations are not as stringent as those applicable to scheduled operations.

For instance, while the Flight Data Recorders (FDRs) of aircraft utilised for scheduled operations are required to be milked for every flight and the data analysed for ‘exceedances’ or variations from safe practices, the FDRs of aircraft used for non-scheduled operations are required to be milked only once a quarter. To an aviator, the logic is faulted. If the purpose of FDR data analysis is to ensure that all crew tread the safety fairway without going off into dangerous ‘roughs’, then the ap-plicability is equally relevant to scheduled and non-scheduled operations. However, as the latter lack the scale of infrastruc-ture scheduled airlines have, it is pragmatic to allow a less stringent regime apply to them. As a logical consequence, their operational safety oversight may be perceived to be at a lower standard than that for scheduled operations, which takes us to private/ business aircraft where most aircraft do not have FDRs and even when they do, it is not mandatory for them to be milked for every flight. There are several other indicators of lowered safety standards for business aviation. Crew operat-ing scheduled flights are, for instance, subject to a mandatory pre-flight medical examination that includes a test to check the level of alcohol in their blood. For private operations, pre-flight medical is more or less left to the operator and while it may exist as a formal, documented process, actual medical exami-

nation is often perfunctory, its stringency dependent on the op-erator’s perception of its importance. At times, the need to get airborne in a hurry may take precedence over crew fitness.

Similarly, there is no age bar for the owner of a private air-craft flying his aircraft. In contrast, for scheduled operations, 60 years is the limit. A pilot between 60 and 65 years of age may fly with some restrictions on the qualification of his first officer. However, there is some thought being given to restrict-ing private aircraft owners also to fly only till the age of 65. There is also no foolproof system for monitoring of Flight Duty Time Limitations of pilots engaged in business aviation as it involves small airports where the DGCA has no presence.

As is evident, safety oversight in relation to business avia-tion in India is left largely to the operator and, therefore, the standard of safety therein cannot be guaranteed by the DGCA, the statutory body entrusted by the Ministry of Civil Aviation to ensure safe operations and airworthiness of all civil aircraft fly-ing in India. That safety is nonetheless maintained at a reason-able and acceptable level is not so much attributable to regula-tion as to professional competence and the fear that an unsafe act could cost the perpetrator his job. Another contributory factor is that most business aircraft are comparatively younger than some of those being leased by airlines. The DGCA has its hands full trying to oversee scheduled and, to a lesser extent, non-scheduled operations. It would do well to carry out inci-sive introspection to see if it is geared up for the ongoing influx of a large number of business aircraft, especially small, fast jets. The time may have arrived when outsourcing business aviation safety may be the most viable solution. SP


MILITARY MMRCA DEAL

www.spsaviation.net

BOEING UPS THE ANTEBoeing, if anything, appeared to be more aggressive in its response to the MMRCA re-quest for proposal. Extending firm support to India’s efforts to shape a vibrant indigenous aerospace industry, it also underscored that the country would play a key role in en-hancing the company’s global competitiveness and growth through a series of strategic partnerships with Indian in-dustries. “The Boeing Com-pany has been, and will con-tinue to be, a true partner to India”, said Chris Chadwick, President of Boeing Military Aircraft. “To that end, our IP (Industrial Participation) pro-posal draws upon the com-pany’s vast pool of human talent, technical expertise and aerospace and defence resources, to both support In-dia’s defence modernisation drive and help spur growth of a world-class Indian aerospace industry.”

To help meet the MMRCA IP requirements, Boeing has assembled a formidable industrial lineup that in-cludes the Super Hornet industry supplier team of 16 leading aerospace defence companies and Boeing’s Indian IP partners consisting of 37 public and private sector compa-nies. “We are already establishing the groundwork that will lead us to success in this large undertaking through early engagement of Indian industry, both public and private,” said Vivek Lall, Boeing Integrated Defense Systems Vice President and India Country Head. The alliances had actually begun forming in earnest as far back as November 2006, when Boeing hosted a conference in Bangalore at which 25 of its key suppliers were introduced to more than 25 India-based aerospace and engineering services companies. As a result, in December 2007, Boeing signed an MoU with India’s Hin-dustan Aeronautics Limited, which is adopting Boeing’s lean and best-management practices.

Boeing has also signed an MoU with India-based Larsen & Toubro for joint exploration of business opportunities in the Indian defence market. More recently, Boeing has reached a landmark agreement to form a joint aerospace venture with Tata Industries Limited.

EADS WIELDS THE EUROFIGHTEREADS came up with a highly attractive off-set offer which has the support of the entire Eurofighter community. All the four partner nations in the Eurofighter programme and their industrial champions fully support the MMRCA campaign in India. “Our document provides the Indian Authorities with a full-fledged response to the Eurofighter offset requirements and spells out inherent and unrivalled benefits for India,” asserted Ber-nhard Gerwert, CEO, Military Air Systems,

an integrated business unit of EADS Defence & Security. “We are now looking forward to further detailing our offer with Indian government bod-ies as well as Indian indus-try representatives and are prepared for all subsequent discussions.

“Earlier this year, we in-vited India to become a mem-ber of the successful Euro-fighter family. Now I want to repeat this message. India is

our partner of choice and we are interested in long-lasting and mutually beneficial politi-cal, industrial and military relations, which are based on our dedication for equal, fair and true partnership.”

The EADS vision for the MMRCA programme is to solidly and pragmatically bring the capabilities, skills and technolo-gies across the board to the Indian industry—from defence PSUs to large private corporations and also to medium and small enterprises. EADS and their Eurofighter partners have already signed more than 20 MoUs with key Indian defence companies. Significantly, four nations, four air forces and the four leading European aerospace companies—EADS, EADS CASA, BAE Systems and Alenia Finmeccanica—have joined forces to fully support all military, technological and indus-trial aspects of the Eurofighter campaign in India.

Gerwert further emphasised that EADS, as the Eurofight-er Lead Company for India, fully appreciates the importance of industrial co-operation associated with defence acquisi-tion programmes. “This is particularly true when it comes to very large acquisition cases, where the industrial collabora-tion can decisively contribute to further shaping the future of the Indian defence industry,” he said. SP

— By SP’s Team

Qualitative Inputs

(Information as per inputs received from these two companies at the time of this issue going to press.)

Offset offers set soaring levels of industrial participation

August 4—the deadline for submission of the offset proposals by the participating vendors in response to India’s 126 Medium Multi-Role Combat Aircraft (MMRCA) deal—witnessed two of the global manufacturing giants in the field of military aviation, namely EADS and Boeing, offering lucrative offset proposals of such dimensions as to take industrial participation to hitherto un-scaled heights.

ENABLING BRIDGES: THE F/A-18 EF (LEFT) AND EUROFIGHTER (RIGHT) IN FLIGHT

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www.spsaviation.net

MILITARY JOINT EXERCISEMILITARY JOINT EXERCISE

2

THE HEAT IS ON:1. AN IAF SU-30 MKI FIGHTER JET TAKES OFF

FROM MOUNTAIN HOME AIR FORCE BASE, IDAHO ON JULY 25. 2. GROUP CAPTAIN AJAY RATHORE,

THE EXERCISE COORDINATOR. 3. THE IAF’S SU-30K JETS ARRIVE AT MOUNTAIN HOME AIR

FORCE BASE ON JULY 17. 4. A KF-16 FROM THE REPUBLIC OF KOREA AIR FORCE’S 11TH

FIGHTER WING TAKES OFF DURING EXERCISE MAX THUNDER 08-01 ON JUNE 19 AT KUNSAN

AIR BASE. 5. A SU-30 JET TOUCHES DOWN AT MOUNTAIN HOME AIR FORCE BASE.

6. IAF CORPORAL DAVID MEWA INSPECTS AN SU-30 MKI FIGHTER JET.

For the first time in history, the Indian Air Force (IAF) is at Mountain Home Air Force Base in Idaho to train with

US fighters prior to participating in Exercise Red Flag at Nellis Air Force Base, Nevada, from August 9 to 23. Exercise Red Flag is a multinational air exercise held thrice a year. The IAF would be participating in the exercise alongside the South Korean Air Force with F-15K and KF-16 and the French

Air Force with the latest Rafale, apart from the USAF. The IAF would be par-ticipating in the exercise with eight Su-30 MKI aircraft, two IL-78 air-to-air refuellers and one IL-76 transport aircraft. The contingent comprises 156 personnel below officers rank and 91 officers (including 10 members of Garud IAF Special Force team) led by Group Captain D. Chaudhury and Ex-ercise Coordinator Group Captain Ajay Rathore.

Readying for

Red Flag

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www.eurofighter.com n o t h i n g c o m e s c l o s e

25631_EF_SPsAviation_267x210:25631_EF_SPsAviation_267x210 22/7/08 15:51 Page 1


SPACE TRAVEL

www.spsaviation.net

The cosmos beckons the travel bug and every endeavour is being made to ensure safety and affordability

even as more aspiring space tourists queue up for the out-of-the-world experience

By Air Marshal (Retd)

V.K. Bhatia

Flights

Fantasyof

SPACE TRAVEL

MAKING IT HAPPEN: RICHARD BRANSON WITH VIRGIN GALACTIC ACCREDITED SPACE AGENT BETSY DONLEY AND BURT RUTAN OF SCALED COMPOSITES

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SPACE TRAVEL


pril 12, 1961. Singing “Rodina slooshaet, Rodina znayet (The Motherland listens, the Motherland knows) where her son flies in the sky,” Russian Cosmonaut Yuri Gaga-rin was blasted off aboard the spacecraft Vostok 1. The first human being in space fired the imagination of entire mankind for a chance to zoom into the cosmos.

Subsequently, the US successfully manned Apollo missions to the Moon and

such explorations were symbolised by wide public access to space, mostly in the form of space tourism. Aspirations were immortalised in science fic-tion works, such as Arthur C. Clarke’s A Fall of Moondust and also 2001: Space Odyssey. The famous Jules Verne wrote on space and Moon travels in his unforgettable From the Earth to the Moon and Around the Moon. In the 1960s and 1970s, it was common belief that space hotels would be launched by 2000 and an av-erage family of the early 21st century would be able to enjoy a holiday on the Moon. The early enthusiasm, however, received a setback with the end of the space race which was sig-nified by the Moon landing and which led to decreased demands, at least for a while, for public funding of manned space flights.

Fortunately, the lull did not last long and the Soviets established Mir (‘peace and world’), a permanent manned station in space. Mir was humanity’s first consistently inhabited

long-term station in space and the first third generation space station constructed over a number of years with a modular design. Mir not only held the world record for longest continu-ous human presence in space at just short of 10 years but, in the process and through a number of collaborations, was made internationally accessible to cosmonauts and astronauts of many countries.

In the late 1990s, breakup of the former Soviet Union and the resulting economic chaos gave the Russian MirCorp (a pri-vate venture by then) a bright idea: to seek potential space tourists to visit Mir to offset some of its maintenance costs.

BROADCASTS FROM SPACE In 1990, Japanese reporter Toyohiro Akiyama had flown to Mir for which his company, the Tokyo Broadcasting System paid $28 million to the Russian space company. During his one-week stay in the Mir, Akiyama gave daily broadcasts from space and was considered a performing member of the crew. MirCorp’s first space tourist, however, was Dennis Tito, an American businessmen and a former sci-entist. But before Tito could be launched into space, it was decided to decommission the Russian space station.

Mir was de-orbited on March 23, 2001, de-stroying itself during atmospheric re-entry with debris falling harmlessly into the South Pacific Ocean. Far from disintegrating with the Mir, Ti-to’s dream remained intact. The businessman switched his trip to the now operational Inter-

WhiteKnightTwo, unveiled on July

28, will be the mothership

for SpaceshipTwo, which in turn

will launch in midair

at 50,000 ft and send two crew and

six passengers hurtling into space

Flights

Fantasy

A

18 April, 2003

Scaled Composites unveil the existence of a commercial manned space programme.

18 September, 2003

Scaled Composites completes development phase for the SpaceShipOne rocket propulsion system and selects a motor component vendor for the flight test phase.

17 December, 2003

SpaceShipOne breaks the sound barrier; investor Paul G. Allen confirms international speculation that he is the sponsor behind the project.

13 May, 2004

The SpaceShipOne team completes another successful test of key systems on the craft’s reusable launch vehicle and its carrier aircraft, the White Knight.

21 June, 2004

SpaceShipOne makes history with the first private manned mission to space

27 September, 2004

Virgin Group enters into an agreement to licence the technology to develop the world’s first privately funded spaceships dedicated to carrying commercial passengers on space flights.

27 July, 2005

Virgin’s Richard Branson and Burt Rutan, President, Scaled Composites launch the Virgin Galactic to jointly manufacture and market spaceships for the new sub-orbital personal spaceflight industry.

26 January, 2006

Spaceport Sweden sign agreement with Virgin Galactic to give future customers the opportunity to fly from an European base. 1 October, 2006

Branson unveils the conceptual interior of SpaceShipTwo at Wired magazine’s NextFest annual technology and innovations exhibition in New York.

2 February, 2007

NASA and Virgin Galactic announce an agreement to collaborate in future manned space technology.

27 March, 2007

Virgin Galactic and the New Mexico Spaceport Authority sign an MoU under which the former would lease hangar and terminal facilities for its operations at Spaceport America in New Mexico.

23 January, 2008

Virgin Galactic heralds ‘The Year of the Spaceship’ with the unveiling of the designs of SpaceShipTwo and WhiteKnightTwo.

28 July, 2008

Branson, Rutan unveil WhiteKnightTwo carrier aircraft—christened “Eve” in honor of Sir Richard’s mother—that will ferry SpaceShipTwo and thousands of private astronauts, science packages and payload on the first stage of the Virgin Galactic sub-orbital space experience.

TIMELINE TO SPACE DREAM...

SPACE TRAVEL


national Space Station (ISS) through a deal between MirCorp and US-based Space Adventures Limited, defying strong oppo-sition from NASA. For $20 million, on April 28, 2001, Tito vis-ited the ISS for seven days. He was followed in 2002 by South African computer millionaire Mark Shuttleworth and then, in 2005, by Gregory Olsen—both paying $20 million each.

On September 18, 2006, Anousheh Ansari, an Iranian American millionaire, became the fourth fee-paying person in

space, earning the sobri-quet of ‘First Female Space Tourist’. Till date, the ISS has played host to five tourists, the last one be-

ing Charles Simonyi, an American of Hungar-ian descent. Waiting in the wings are three more mil-lionaires—

Richard Garriott (US), Vladimir Gruzdev (Russia) and Sergey Brin (US)—as possible future commer-

cial passengers to be launched on Soyuz spacecraft to the ISS in 2008, 2009 and 2011, respectively.

But will the dream of experiencing the aura of space flight, admiring Earth’s bluish global surface and wondering at un-twinkling stars remain in the domain of super rich billion-aires and multi-millionaires? Not if the innovative brilliance of aerospace engineer Burt Rutan and the commercial genius of British entrepreneur Richard Branson has anything to do with it. For just one-hundredth of the cost of a Soyuz-launched space travel, fare paying passengers will be able to experience all the thrills of space, including weightlessness, albeit for a few minutes only, in what has come to be known as Subor-bital Flights. In these flights, peaking at altitudes of 100 to 160 km above the Earth, travellers would experience three to six minutes of ‘Zero-G’ conditions, the panorama of a twinkle-free starfield and the vista of the curved Earth.

SPACESHIPONE VS SPACESHIPTWOCreation of SpaceShipOne in response to a $10 million An-sari X Prize started it all. The award was to go to the first private company who could reach and surpass an altitude

of 62 miles (100 km) twice within two weeks before the end of 2004. The altitude is beyond the Karman Line—the arbi-trarily defined boundary of space. Designed by Burt Rutan of Scaled Composites, the innovative reusable vehicle employed the concept of rocket propulsion spacecraft with an airborne launch. The first flight was flown by Michael Melvill on June 21, 2004 to a height of 62 miles, making him the first com-mercial astronaut. In September that year, Branson launched the Virgin Galactic, the world’s first commercial space tour-ism operator which sponsored the prize-winning flight flown by Brian Binnie on October 4, 2004, reaching an altitude of 69.6 miles (112 km).

Next, Scaled Composites embarked on developing the Model 339 SpaceShipTwo—a suborbital spacecraft for carry-ing space tourists as part of a tier 1b programme. The Space-ShipTwo project, to a great extent, is based on the technology developed for SpaceShipOne. Almost twice as big as the earli-er concept model, the apogee of the new craft will be approxi-mately 110 km and in the thermosphere, soar 10 km higher than the SpaceShipOne. SpaceShipTwo will reach a speed of roughly 4,200 kmph, using a single hybrid rocket motor.

On July 28 this year, Branson unveiled the WhiteK-nightTwo. A high-altitude aircraft christened “Eve” in honor of Branson’s mother, WhiteKnightTwo will be the mothership for SpaceshipTwo, which in turn will launch in midair at 50,000 ft and send two crew and six passengers hurtling into space. At the event, Branson said, ““We are naming it ‘Eve’ after my mother, Eve Branson, but also because it represents a first and a new beginning, the chance for our ever-growing group of future astronauts and other scientists to see our world in a completely new light.” The first flights of WhiteKnightTwo are expected to take place later this year, with SpaceshipTwo be-ing attached for a maiden flight sometime in 2009.

FUELLING A TRENDOrbital commercial travel will remain exorbitantly expensive, affordable only by the super rich. In comparison, a larger seg-ment of the society can afford sub-orbital flights—in which Virgin Galactic appears to have taken an unassailable lead. Branson’s Midas touch is evident with more than 65,000 tour-ists having applied for the first batch of 100 tickets for the initial price of $200,000 (Rs 85 lakh) each. The number of vehicles envisaged for production and with an average of six daily flights into space, it could take up to five and a half years to clear the current backlog.

By then, many more aspiring space travellers are likely to sign up, each craving for their own ‘Flight into Fantasy’. SP

—With inputs from Shikha Thukral

While details remain scant, according to the BBC, the Space-ShipTwo’s crew cabin will have about the same diameter as a Gulfstream V business jet, roughly 6 ft high and 7 ft wide. As in the case of SpaceShipTwo vs. SpaceShipOne, the White KnightTwo will also be roughly twice the size of its predecessor and will be powered by four afterburning turbojets compared to two of the earlier model.

Designer Burt Rutan has disclosed that the spacecraft would have extremely large porthole windows for the pas-sengers’ viewing pleasure and all seats would recline back during launch to help decrease the discomfort of ‘G’-forces.

‘Passenger astronauts’ will not have to don spacesuits like other astronauts who are catapulted from the ground. Also, the cabin will have a ‘shirt-sleeve’ environment, akin to that of a high-altitude passenger jetliner.

SpaceShipTwo will use the same novel feathered reen-try system as used by its predecessor, feasible due to low speed of reentry. By contrast, space shuttles and other orbital spacecraft re-enter the atmosphere at orbital speeds closer to 25,000 kmph, requiring the use of heat shields. “This vehicle is designed to go into the atmosphere in the worst case straight in or upside down and it’ll correct,” says Rutan, its inventor. As

for safety, he states that the vehicle will be at least as safe as the early airliners in the 1920s. Reportedly, the craft can land safely even if ‘catastrophic’ damage occurs during the flight.

The design of the vehicle was showcased in January 2008 wherein, it was stated that the vehicle itself was around 60 per cent complete. Reportedly, the development work con-tinues at a feverish pace to meet the targeted deadlines. Once complete there will be a series of 50 to 100 test flights before it is cleared to fly the first paying passengers by late 2009 or early 2010. Richard Branson reportedly wants to be on board the first flight of the SpaceShipTwo.

SPACESHIPTWO: DIMENSIONS & DYNAMICS

SIZE MATTERS: SPACESHIPTWO WILL ROUGHLY BE TWICE THE SIZE OF SPACESHIPONE (BELOW)



An airplane is no longer considered a recreational toy or a luxury reserved for super-rich individuals and major companies. Today, owning an aircraft

provides a competitive advantage for businesses of all sizes. This has long been the case in the US, but general aviation is being recognised as a vital business tool throughout the world, especially in the fast-developing economies of China and India.

According to the General Aviation Manufacturers Associa-tion (GAMA), the industry’s trade group, there are more than 320,000 general aviation aircraft worldwide, ranging from two-seat training airplanes to intercontinental business jets. These aircraft fly in excess of 35 million hours per year.

Cessna Aircraft Company is the world’s largest manufac-turer of general aviation airplanes based on unit sales and has the industry’s largest, most comprehensive worldwide customer service network.

Founded in 1927, Cessna has delivered some 190,000 airplanes to nearly every country in the world. The company offers a product range from Citation business jets, to freight- and passenger-hauling utility Caravan turboprops, to personal and small-business single-engine pistons.

General aviation products like these are spurring the growth of thousands of cities, businesses, services and manu-facturing facilities around the world by offering convenience, flexibility, efficient transportation and accessibility. Corpora-tions that want to extend their reach to smaller cities where commercial airline service does not exist and conduct more intra-regional and international business are choosing to in-vest in a business tool that allows them to do so.

Deliveries and orders support this trend. GAMA reported deliveries of 1,138 business jets in 2007, an all-time record for the general aviation industry. That number is expected to reach 1,200 by the end of 2008. Manufacturers have already delivered 297 business jets in the first quarter of this year, GAMA said, up 41 percent from 211 in the same period last year. Worldwide orders of business jets are on track to hit an all-time record, too. Honeywell International Inc, a leading maker of avionics, has forecast 1,300 or more orders for busi-ness jets this year.

Honeywell also estimated there are about 300 business jets in Asia, compared with 1,900 in Europe. Cessna has delivered more than 5,200 Citations to date, making it the largest fleet

of business jets in the world. Of the 5,200, 142 Citations have been de-livered to customers in Asia. Those numbers are growing at a faster pace these days. International sales once accounted for about 30 percent of sales for Cessna, headquartered in Wichita, Kansas. Now half of its or-ders are to customers outside US.

Cessna has more than 80 orders for business jets from customers in Asia. The aircraft on order span the company’s entire line of Citations, which ranges from the entry-level Citation Mustang to the recently announced all-new large cabin, intercontinental Citation Columbus. The product line is designed to form a seamless offering of business jets, each suited to a precise set of mission criteria and a natural tran-sition. Among the most popular models in India, according to Cessna, is the Citation XLS+. The XLS+ is an upgrade to the mid-size XLS business jet. With a global fleet of nearly 650 planes and more than 1.4 million flight hours, the Ex-cel/XLS is the world’s best-selling business jet model. Cessna received Federal Aviation Administration type certification for the XLS+ on May 30 following a 640-hour flight test program; European Aviation Safety Agency certification is in progress and expected by early 2009. Other top sellers are the Citation CJ3, CJ2+, Sovereign and Mustang.

“India is quickly becoming one of the world’s most exciting emerging aviation markets and we’re very pleased to see the market’s revival,” said Todd Duhnke, Director of International Citation Sales, adding that Taneja Aerospace & Aviation Limit-ed has been a Cessna authorized sales representative based in Bangalore for more than 10 years. “Cessna and Taneja Aero-space have been cultivating this area for several years and this is now paying off.” SP

Founded in 1927, Cessna has delivered some 190,000

airplanes to nearly every country in the world

Competitive Advantage for

Business

ADVANTAGE CESSNA: THE CESSNA CITATION X (ABOVE), INTERIOR OF WHICH SHOWN HERE, IS THE WORLD’S FASTEST CIVIL JET WITH A TOP SPEED OF MACH .92 AND A RANGE OF MORE THAN 6,000 KILOMETERS (3,000 NAUTICAL MILES). THE CESSNA CITATION XLS+ (RIGHT) IS THE WORLD’S BESTSELLING BUSINESS JET MODEL. IT TRAVELS AS FAST AS 815 KILOMETERS PER HOUR (440 KNOTS) WITH A RANGE OF MORE THAN 3,441 KILOMETERS (1,858 NAUTICAL MILES)

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CIVIL INFRASTRUCTURE

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The other day at Loheg-aon Airport, waiting for my flight to Delhi, I glanced out from the

departure lounge to catch the heart warming sight of a pair of Su-30s thundering down the runway before gracefully soaring into the blue yonder. My flight— the aircraft was to arrive from Delhi and return after a short halt—had been delayed either due to congestion at Delhi’s Palam Airport or non-availability of parking bay at Pune.

During service, and especially in the last few years in se-nior management positions, I had engaged in frequent dia-logues on synergy between the Indian Air Force (IAF) and civil aviation. Two areas of focus were the use of military airfields by civil air operators and air space management.

Handsome economic growth in the last five years has fuelled a boom in airline operations. From only four major airlines operating on the domestic routes in 2003, the fig-ure had peaked to 11. However, post consolidation, there are now seven entities. The fleet size has gone up threefold in this period, and by the end of 2008, the airliner holdings are expected to grow to almost 400. In the ensuing years, despite rising aviation fuel prices, the growth in this sector is likely to continue. It may be tempered but still quite impressive, as many other sectors of our economy become more vibrant.

This will not only see an increase in the number of flights operating on international routes but also in domestic travel reaching out to newer destinations for business and tourism. There is also talk of international medical tourism for cost ef-fective and caring treatment in India.

JOINT USER AIRFIELDS In view of the ever increasing density of air traffic, it would be pertinent to address the issues of joint use of airfields, that is, by both military and civil aircraft.

Facelift for Pune

By Air Marshal (Retd) B.N. Gokhale,

Pune

ENDORSEMENT: PUNE AIRFIELD GRABBED HEADLINES WHEN THE FORMER PRESIDENT OF INDIA, DR A.P.J. ABDUL KALAM, FLEW ONBOARD THE SU-30MKI

As one of the 10 future cities of India, Pune will hopefully

have its own state-of-the-art civil airfield at Chakan in the not too

distant future

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CIVIL INFRASTRUCTURE


At present, around 128 airports are under the control of the Airport Authority of India (AAI) from which civil flights operate—16 for international and 112 for domestic opera-tions. In addition, there are 28 civil enclaves at military air-fields. With anticipated increase in air traffic, it is expected that another 60-odd civil airfields would be made operational across the country in the next 10 years. Some reports indicate an ambitious figure of 500 in 20 years as the ultimate goal, but if one is to make a conservative analysis, 150 would be a more judicious estimate.

Out of the 55-plus IAF airfields, 50 per cent cater to civil airlines, reflecting a very accommodative policy by the air force. Military airfields from which civil airlines operate are all scattered across the country from Leh in the north to Port Blair in the south, as well as from Jamnagar in the west to Silchar to the east. Two more airfields at Bidar and Bathinda are also expected to start civil air operations.

The IAF has always been willing to accommodate civil flight operations from its airfields. However, due to reasons of commercial viability, the airlines sometimes choose not oper-ate from some airfields offered by the IAF. Conversely, the IAF also bases aircraft at some of the AAI airfields like Palam, Gu-wahati and Nagpur on a regular basis. Sharing each other’s infrastructure provides for better utilisation of expen-sive resources and is to mutual advantage. This has been the driving factor in the cooperation so far.

However, when the air traffic density increases to a point that it begins to interfere with the very op-erational purpose of the airfield, discord germinates. Which explains AAI’s restrictions on movements of military aircraft at Delhi and Mumbai during peak air traffic hours. Additionally, if such joint user airfield has only a single runway, congestion is likely to build up quickly. Such joint user operations are also com-mon to other countries. Take the case of Changi air-field of Singapore. One of the busiest airports in Asia, it has four runways of which one is dedicated to an air force squadron based at the airfield. When Delhi’s Palam airfield will add another two runways shortly, possibly one of the existing runways could be kept aside for the use by IAF.

LOOKING BEYOND LOHEGAON Frequently described as the fastest growing city in the world, besides being a cultural and educational hub, Pune has witnessed tremendous industrial growth. In turn, there has been a four-fold increase in the number of people travelling by civil air in the last five years. Today, there are a large number of commercial flights operating daily other than those by privately owned aircraft. Driven by the grow-ing automotive and IT sectors, civil air traffic is on the rise. The IAF has also accommodated direct international flights at Pune. But a point has been reached beyond which increase in civil flights will only lead to paralysing congestion and agonis-ing delays. There are also serious air safety implications both for civil and military flights.

Lohegaon airbase has always had a pride of place in the IAF. Located at considerable distance from hostile borders, the airfield has witnessed induction and exploitation of front-line fighter aircraft like the MiG-29 and Su-30. The base is also well situated for the conduct of maritime operations. De-

fending the industrial and military hubs around Mumbai and Pune has always been one of the responsibilities of this base. But with the newly acquired in-flight refuelling capability, an in-depth airfield such as Lohegaon can be used for different types of long range missions. There is also a need for young pilots to hone their skills at all sunlight conditions from dawn to dusk and, of course, at night. Undoubtedly, the IAF ought to have unrestrained use of the airbase.

That Pune needs an airfield dedicated to civil flights, is not a new thought. An area near Chakan has already been identified and initial process for the development of an in-dependent Greenfield international airport has begun. But the momentum towards actual operationalisation of Chakan airfield needs to be sustained. Experience shows that it takes seven to 10 years from conception for a Greenfield airport to become operational. Constraints are many such as budgeting, acquisition of land, construction, navigation aids and air traf-fic management to name a few.

After the recent runway resurfacing work at Lohegaon, civil flights have resumed with a fairly unrestricted schedule of operations. The air force authorities have also facilitated construction of additional infrastructure, such as parallel taxi track, fast exit taxiways and parking bays. These would

certainly facilitate civil flights, espe-cially with Pune hosting the Com-monwealth Youth Games scheduled in October this year.

CHAKAN, A VIABLE ALTERNATIVEHowever, the existing comfort level should not detract from the urgency for an independent civil airfield at Chakan. While there is no scope for expansion of the Lohegaon runway to accommodate bigger aircraft like Boeing747, a new airstrip at Chakan will have no such constraints. How-ever, it is not certain whether the necessary land has been acquired so far. Given the problems related to the establishment of SEZs across the country, the acquisition process can prove to be a major hurdle.

A possible solution lies in a typical Public Private Partnership model wherein the concerned con-sortium acquires the entire land. While the landowners are paid compensation there is invariably a hue and cry about fair price, the ensuing agitations lead to considerable delay in fruition of the project. We could think of another model, pos-sibly on the lines of Magarpatta City project. The land is not acquired but a share of profit from the project continues to go the landowners in perpetuity. The original landowners then become partners and shareholders in such a project. If India is to develop a hub and spoke type of airfield infrastructure, smaller airfields owned by a group of farmers as in Magar-patta project, can help in rapidly achieving the aim.

As Pune is one of the 10 future cities of India, hopefully it will shortly have its own state-of-the-art airfield at Chakan. Learning from the mistakes with Devanhalli and Shamshabad projects, high speed connectivity between the city and the air-port must be made integral to the project. SP

Facelift for Pune

While there is no scope for expansion of the Lohegaon runway to accommodate bigger aircraft, a new airstrip at Chakan will have no such constraints


SHOW REPORT FARNBOROUGH

www.spsaviation.net

At the Farnborough International Airshow 2008—amid the ominous reverberations of

rising fuel prices—there were many familiar outlines gracing the skies, but little that was

new. The excitement was far more about agreements and technology than airframes,

reports ALAN PEAFORD from London.

Fuelling Optimism

STAR ATTRACTION: THE F-22 RAPTOR ENTHRALLED CROWDS

WITH A MAGNIFICENT DISPLAY

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Trevor Sidebottom looked out from the balcony over the sea of chalets to focus on the runway where the lights were barely visible—this, in the middle of the afternoon. Ominous black skies that had unburdened itself over southern England enough to force an unprecedented cancellation of

the Royal International Air Tattoo, hung menacingly over Farn-borough. Quite like the gloom hanging over the aerospace in-dustry with the $140 (Rs 5,875)-a-barrel oil price hitting home, observed the Managing Director of show organiser Farnbor-ough International Limited wryly, voicing a concern clouding the Farnborough International Airshow, the world’s second largest industry trade event held from July 14 to 20.

Sunday, July 13. Hours away from the Red Arrows dis-play team and, rather bizarrely, a Formula One racing driver strutting their stuff on and above that runway, the air hung heavy with question marks. Twenty four hours later, Sidebot-tom was rubbing his hands with glee. Racing driver Hamilton had blasted down the runway to beat a Learjet 60XR less than 500 ft above him. America’s latest showpiece—the F-22 Rap-tor—had done what it failed to do at Fairford and put on a magnificent display. Elsewhere, the big two civil manufactur-ers, Airbus and Boeing, were pumping hands with sheikhs as potentially the world’s biggest ever order by a single airline was confirmed. In short, it was business as usual.

Farnborough was celebrating its 60th anniversary on the airfield that 100 years ago was the birthplace of British avia-tion. There was a time when only newly certificated aircraft or those in late development were allowed slots in the flying dis-play. Today, there are many familiar outlines gracing the skies, but little that is new. Indeed, the excitement was far more about agreements and technology than airframes.

Of course, there were moments when nostalgia crept in. The halls were virtually de-serted at 3.30 pm when an almighty roar of un-mistakable Rolls-Royce Olympus 202 engines heralded the departure of the newly restored Vulcan bomber. How-ever, as Sidebottom had said on the eve of the show, “This is an event with a great legacy, but this is all about looking forward.”

And so it was.

BUOYED BY HOPE & PROMISEIn the packed media centre, the hot news came from Cana-dian manufacturer Bombardier who finally decided to take the plunge and launch the long-awaited C-Series regional jet which will be powered by Pratt & Whitney PW1000Ggeared turbo-fan—renamed at the show as PurePower—offering a fuel-eco-nomic alternative in the 100- to 150-seat market. The launch, coming as it did on the back of a single letter of interest from Lufthansa, raised eyebrows from competitors Airbus and Boe-ing, with the European manufacturer’s John Leahy describing the move as “courageous. We have never seen a manufacturer launch an aircraft without a firm order before”. The more con-servative Boeing commercial airplanes Chief Executive Scott Carson dismissed the introduction, calling it “a bold move”.

Incredulity of rivals notwithstanding, investments in Cana-da and Northern Ireland for the manufacturing pleased the re-spective governments and President of the Bombardier group Pierre Beaudoin remained optimistic that the aircraft would fill a niche in the market, the latest technology from Pratt would translate to savings and airlines would soon be confirming or-ders for the aircraft.

Topping the news agenda were the engine makers. CFM became the first of the world’s major engine companies to break cover and announce an entirely new engine, Leap-X, de-signed specifically to power the next generation of single-aisle 100-plus passenger airliners. Joint owners GE and Snecma also announced plans to develop an open rotor engine, with a similar thrust of 20,000 to 30,000 lbs, using much of the newly-developed third generation core technology.

Leap-X will be completely new with “not one single part carried over from today’s CFM 56 engines”, said CFM’s Presi-dent and CEO Eric Bachelet. Featuring a bypass ratio 85 per

cent higher at 9:1 (to-day’s CFM engines have a 5:1 ratio), the new powerplant will provide 16 per cent lower fuel consumption versus to-day’s best ‘tech insertion’ CFM –5B and –7 models and it is environmentally friendly, too, with noise at 10-15dB less than Stage 4 and NOx emis-sions over 60 per cent lower than CAEP6. CFM says it would be impos-sible to build this engine without advanced mate-rials. It will weigh much


FLYING STRONG:A BOEING 777 IN AIR INDIA LIVERY TOUCHES DOWN; AVRO VULCAN BOMBER

EXUDES STRENGTH AND POWER

EYE IN THE SKY:IAI’S CONFORMAL AIRBORNE EARLY WARNING BASED ON A SPECIAL MISSION VARIANT

OF GULFSTREAM’S G550



less than today’s power-plants, largely due to its woven fan blades—18 weighing 168-lbs—as opposed to today’s CFM56-5C with 36 72-inch blades weighing 330-lbs.

In conjunction with the Leap-X engine, GE and Snecma also plan to commence research on an open rotor engine, offering a further 10 per cent reduction in fuel burn and featuring much of the Leap-X advanced core technolo-gy. The companies have also signed an agree-ment extending their 50:50 partnership, orig-inally created in 1974, specifically to produce the CFM56 family of engines until 2040.

Trade-off between reduced fuel burn and the increased noise generated by open ro-tors is at the root of research as GE, Snecma and CFM spend billions of dollars with NASA and similar research establishments in Rus-sia (TsAGI) and France (HERA) to achieve Stage 4 minus 10 noise levels by Q3 2011.

A day later, Rolls-Royce was in the spot-light with a whole new approach to powering tomorrow’s aircraft. Mark King, Rolls-Royce President, Commercial Engines believes the current obsession with time-on-wing could be overtaken by the power of the green de-bate and the relentless pursuit of greater fuel efficiency. The introduction of lighter, more fuel-efficient engines, which run at a higher temperature, would result in a signif-

SMILES & DEALS FIRMLY IN PLACE:(CLOCKWISE FROM TOP LEFT) RACING DRIVER

HAMILTON; AIR INDIA INTERIORS; BRISTOW BUYS TWO EC225; VP OF P&W COMMERCIAL

ENGINES WITH CFO OF TAM LINHAS



icant trade-off in service life, and engines would need to be replaced far more frequently, says King.

Responding to the “What will power the next gen-eration of narrowbody, single-aisle airliners?” debate, Rolls-Royce has come up with what King describes as his “option 15/50 plan”. This explains what R-R is doing to address a range of game-changing percentage efficiency improvements over today’s engines from 15 per cent to an “achievable” 50 per cent. The company has, he says, been talk-ing to airlines—“in excess of 50 of them”—and trying to distil their thoughts into a defined series of options that have been complicated by the era of oil at around $140 a barrel.

ETIHAD UNLEASHES SPLURGE SURGEWhen it came to civil orders then it was the Middle East carri-ers that were shining. Etihad Airways showed that the airline industry’s fuel crisis will not divert its mega-ambitious growth plans as it splashed out $21.4 billion (Rs 90,000 crore) for a to-tal of 100 new Airbus and Boeing airliners and added options and purchase rights with both airframers for a further 105 aircraft which would take the value to more than $43 billion (Rs 1,80,785 crore), making it the biggest order ever by a sin-gle carrier—some $10 billion (Rs 42,040 crore) more than the Emirates deal announced at Dubai air show last November.

Unveiling its shopping list early on July 15, the Abu Dha-bi-based carrier placed an order for 35 787-9s and 10 777-300ERs worth $9.4 billion (Rs 39,545 crore). It also took a further 25 787 options and 10 777 options, as well as 10 787 purchase rights and five 777 purchase rights. The first 777s will arrive from 2011 with the 787s entering service from 2015, said James Hogan, Etihad Chief Executive. The 777s will be powered by GE90 engines while the 787 engine choice will be revealed in the “coming weeks or months”. Later in the day, Etihad continued its spending spree with firm orders for 55 Airbus air-craft, including 10 A380s, in an order worth $12 billion (Rs 50,484 crore). The other firm orders are for 20 A320 aircraft and 25 A350XWB aircraft. While the latter will be powered by Rolls-Royce Trent XWB engines, ne-gotiations continue for powerplants on the other two types.

In addition, Etihad took options on five A320s, 10 A350s and five A380s, together with purchase rights for a further 15 A320s, 15 A350s and five A380s. “This is a momen-tous day for Etihad Airways and Abu

Dhabi,” said Hogan, adding, “It reflects the strength and pace of economic growth in the emirate and the integral role Etihad will play in Abu Dhabi’s future. “That fu-ture will see planned investments in infra-structure and projects within the emirate likely to exceed $200 billion (Rs 8,41,560

crore) during the next 10 years, an aggressive tourism push and enormous residential development.” He described Abu Dhabi as a “natural hub and a new hub that is developing” and that despite its close proximity to Dubai and its home carrier Emirates, “there is traffic to move over these hubs in their own right. I believe there is enough opportunity in our region to sustain the growth of both carriers”.

Etihad wasn’t the only Gulf carrier to be in order action. FlyDubai, the low-cost start-up being established by the Dubai government, pitched in with orders for 54 Boeing 737-800s worth $4 billion (Rs 16,832 crore).

AIR INDIA, KINGFISHER TARGET COMFORTFor visitors looking at civil aviation interiors, it was two Indi-an carriers that stole the show. Air India brought in a Boeing 777-300ER on its delivery flight. The aircraft features the new first class cabin and demonstrated just how much the Asian carriers are driving the cabin comforts.

“Technologically, this is the most advanced aircraft in the world today and is equipped to offer passengers a new level of unprecedented comfort,” said Air India’s Executive Direc-tor Jitender Bhargava. The aircraft first class is pure luxury with even the cutlery being gold plated. Stowage compart-ments for spectacles, shoes, mobile phones and magazines are also featured. Executive class is almost as comfortable with 35 seats in 2-3-2 configurations with the ability to trans-

form into flatbeds. Just metres along the static park

sat Kingfisher’s Airbus A330-200 with its new interior featuring an in-seat massager on every first-class seat. “This little luxury helps our first cabin passengers feel relaxed dur-ing the flight as well as helping their blood circulate,” said Brand Activa-tion Manager Jai Prakash. Other new features on the aircraft include mood lighting, touch-screen controls, in-seat chargers and USB connectors for every seat, plus there is an onboard chef and a service for jacket ironing.

POWER LINEUP: P&W’S PW4170

ADVANTAGE70 GTF; SEVEN CUSTOMERS SIGNED UP

FOR IAE’S V2500; THE PW1000G, RENAMED

PUREPOWER; AND (BELOW) CFM’S OPEN ROTOR



DEFENCE STEALS A MARCHAsian carriers aside, it was clear at Farnborough that the civil market is beginning to hurt. The mood though was still buoyed by the defence activities even as the presence of all the major players indicated the upswing in defence spending. However, there was much political wrangling taking place in the chalets of the Farnborough. Sources in Eurofighter said Germany has increased pressure on the UK to issue the green light for Eu-rofighter Tranche 3, saying any further delays would result in a “critical situation” for the programme.

Hoping to nudge the British towards a decision on the fi-nal Typhoon production tranche, the NATO Eurofighter and Tornado Management Agency met during the show. The deci-sion is long overdue, and Ruediger Wolf, State Secretary in the German Federal Ministry of Defence, said, “My perception is that the procurement programme might develop into a critical situation if the nations fail to define a common programme.” Though German procrastination was blamed for delay in the de-velopment programme and the resultant massive cost growth, the Germans are now fully committed to their Typhoon order, and it is the UK that has “dragged its feet”. Britain was late signing the Tranche 2 production contract, and while the other partner nations are now positioning themselves for Tranche 3, the UK seems to dither. Ays Rauen, CEO of Eurofighter, said he had hoped to complete negotiations on pricing before the summer break, though he confirmed that Britain and Italy had requested “options”, outlining the repercussions of ordering fewer aircraft in Tranche 3. He confirmed these included a ‘zero’ option and a 50 per cent buy by the two nations.

While Eurofighter is wallowing, Sweden’s NextGen Gripen is attracting more attention. At the show it was revealed that SAAB has put a Gripen proposal to Switzerland, claiming that this offered the Swiss the most cost-effective and proportion-ate replacement for its ageing F-5E/F fighters saying that Dassault’s Rafale and the Eurofighter’s Typhoon would both be “too expensive to allow the procurement of the required 33 aircraft while staying within budget.” Switzerland is one of a number of nations who need to replace their current US-sup-plied fighters, alongside Greece, Malaysia and Thailand (who recently ordered the aircraft) as well as some of the potential JSF customer nations. This is a new and difficult category for Gripen International. Launch customer South Africa helped to position Gripen as, what Bob Kemp, Gripen International’s Senior Vice President for International Sales & Marketing de-scribed, “the fighter-of-choice” for non-aligned nations, replac-ing French and Russian fighters. Argentina, Brazil and Ecua-dor are viewed as further “prospects” in this market sector. The Gripen’s next customers, the Czech Republic and Hungary, represented a different class of operator—new NATO member states who wanted to replace Soviet era fighters with western aircraft that would be fully compatible with their new NATO responsibilities and commitments. Gripen International still hope to supply some 400 examples of the existing production JAS 39C and two-seat JAS 39D models. Looking ahead and in the slightly longer term, Kemp hopes to establish the new vari-ant, the so-called Gripen NG, as the “world’s export market-leading single-engined multi-role fighter”.

Sikorsky Aircraft Corporation, a world leader in helicop-ter design, manufacture and service, meanwhile, announced the first flight of X2 TECHNOLOGY Demonstrator was “with-in reach”. James Kagdis, Program Manager, Advanced Pro-

grams, said: “The Demonstrator has completed Phase 2 of ground run testing with blades on, and is in final build-up for first flight.” Sikorsky provides the S-76C+ helicopter that the UK Royal Family currently flies and was named preferred supplier for replacement with the new S-76C++ scheduled to enter service in August 2009. Sikorsky’s S-92 helicopter fleet continues to perform at an impressive operational tempo, re-cently completing 1,00,000 total flight hours. In this context, Falcon Aviation Services, a provider of helicopter charter and maintenance services based in Abu Dhabi, announced the signing of delivery position agreements for four S-76D heli-copters with Sikorsky for VIP and corporate transport.

On the display side, the most impressive was also the most short-lived. Lockheed Martin’s F-22 Raptor did a very fast and impressive display for just a few minutes on the first day of the show. “The Raptor’s ability to fly higher and faster, to out turn or accelerate, combined with a quantum leap in situ-ational awareness and stealth properties, make for difficult engagements for any adversary in the air or on the ground,” said Larry Lawson, Lockheed Martin Aeronautics Executive Vice President and F-22 Program General Manager.

RUSSIANS ON A ROLLWhile the crowds were im-pressed by the Raptor’s vector powered spins and turns, the Russian visitors at the Sukhoi chalet were laughing, Su-30 MKI Project Manager Aleksandr Bar-kovsky said, “It is largely similar to the Su-30 performance but we were doing it 10 years ago. I will not lose any sleep.” The Russians were very clearly upbeat and with Irkut announcing more details of its civil airliner, there were deals to be done. The Sukhoi Superjet 100 saw more orders and on the business front there was news of a joint venture for helicopters.

AgustaWestland confirmed that AW139 helicopters are to be manufactured and assembled in Russia under its fledgling agreement with Oboronprom. The deal is a first for a western manufacturer and will open up a hugely lucrative market for AgustaWestland, particularly in the oil and gas sector. Crucial-ly, the 50:50 joint venture will offer western technology that is also built in Russia. The heads of agreement, announced at Farnborough, will involve the creation of a new final assembly facility outside Moscow to deliver aircraft for Russian and CIS civil markets. Assembly operations will begin as early as 2010, with the first aircraft fielded in 2011. The two companies said they would also consider co-development of a new helicopter, but only after establishing the initial manufacturing capability.

Farnborough finished with nearly two lakh members of the public flocking, in bright sunshine, to see just what the aviation industry can offer. Only time will tell whether the dark clouds that hung over the show at the start of the week were symbolic of what the industry faces or whether the sunlight breaking through reflects the optimism for technology and progress that made the Farnborough show a significant success. SP

Defying the airline industry’s fuel crisis, Etihad Airways splashed out $21.4 billion for a total of 100 new Airbus and Boeing airliners

Hall of Fame


DOUGLAS BADER IS NOT the kind of role model one would recommend lightly to a young, impressionable mind. A routine rule-break-

er who challenged the system head-on, Bader managed to exasperate and annoy most people. “Rules are for the guidance of wise men and the obedience of fools”, and such other defiant declarations, did not endear him to his superiors, especially not in an organisation like the Royal Air Force (RAF) which takes pride in its professionalism. What he lacked by way of diplomatese and deferential reverence, Bader more than made up with his infectious enthusiasm in tackling depressing circumstances. To the differently abled he was an inspiring person-ality all right—his determination in the face of crippling injuries made an entire generation forget their problems and “get cracking”.

Born on February 10, 1910 in London, Bader joined the RAF as an officer cadet in 1928. At the mid-point of his course, he was close to the bottom of the class. Then, a heart-to-heart with his Commandant who explained to him, “They want men here, not boys,” convinced Douglas that he had no future in the RAF unless he worked on his attitude. Result. By the end of the course he narrowly lost the race to secure the Sword of Honour. He was commissioned as a pilot officer in 1930. On De-cember 14, 1931, while attempting low-level aerobatics, apparently on a dare, his left wingtip touched the ground. Bader was pulled out of the mangled wreckage, seri-ously injured. Both his legs were amputated—one above the knee, the other below. Few expected the severely wounded 21-year-old to survive, but survive he did. More than the physical injuries, his ego had been bruised as can be gleaned from this log book entry: “Crashed slow-rolling near ground. Bad show.” Fitted with two alu-minium legs, the young Bader began to rebuild his life, physically and mental-ly. He made dogged efforts to return to flying fitness, even refusing a walking stick. Naturally, therefore, he suffered a devastating blow on being compulso-rily retired from the RAF on grounds of

ill-health. For the next six years, stuck behind a desk at Asiatic Petroleum, he longed to return to flying.

World War II helped Bader’s dream of a speedy return to a fighter cockpit. In combat, the lack of both legs made

control of the aircraft more difficult, but he was also more resistant to high ‘G’ forces that send blood rushing from a pilot’s brain to the legs and other body parts, often rendering him un-conscious. Absence of legs, in Bader’s case, prevented the blood from drain-ing away altogether from his brain. On August 9, 1941 he had to bail out over France, then in German hands, perhaps after being shot down. Misfor-tune struck when his right prosthetic

leg got trapped in the aircraft, but for-tunately the retaining straps snapped and he made good his escape. Though a prisoner of war, the Germans treated the famed legless fighter with respect and even guaranteed the British a safe

flight if they would undertake to air-drop a replacement leg by parachute, which they did. Unimpressed, Bader tried to escape from the hospital—the first of several more such at-tempts during his years in cap-tivity. Not before long, the Ger-mans, as vexed with him as the British, threatened to take away his legs to immobilise him. Yet another foiled attempt to es-cape landed him in Colditz Cas-tle, reputedly ‘escape-proof’, and there he remained till the Americans arrived almost three years later. Undaunted by his long captivity he begged for a Spitfire to shoot down some more German aircraft, but his request was turned down. At the time of manoeuvring his final combat flight, Bader had claimed 22 kills.

Bader flew for the last time in 1979. He died of a heart at-tack on September 5, 1982 aged 72. His bestselling biogra-phy, Reach for the Sky, written after the war by Paul Brickhill, is compulsory reading for aspir-ing combat pilots to this day. It was later made into a film by the same name. Douglas Bad-er’s contribution to aviation lies in his victory over his severe physical impediment and his success in reaching the com-manding heights of one of the toughest fields—combat flying. In addition to his many decora-tions for courage in the face of the enemy, he was knighted for

his service to the disabled. The Doug-las Bader Foundation, a charitable or-ganisation for the differently abled, was formed soon after his death by family and friends. The indomitable fighter pi-lot would have thoroughly approved of the maxim of the foundation: ‘A disabled person who fights back is not disabled... but inspired’. SP

— Group Captain (Retd) Joseph Noronha,

Goa

Douglas Bader (1910 – 1982)

Douglas Bader’s contribution to aviation lies in his victory

over his severe physical impediment and his success

in reaching the commanding heights of one of the toughest

fields—combat flying. His determination in the face of crippling injuries made an

entire generation forget their problems and “get cracking”.

PHO

TOG

RAP

H: W

IKIP

EDIA

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MILITARYAsia-Pacific

IAF nod to Hyderabad civil flights in restricted airspaceThe Indian Air Force (IAF) has permitted civilian flights in restricted airspace above the Hyderabad skies. On July 25, Assistant Chief of Air Staff Op-erations (Space) Air Vice Mar-shal D.C. Kumaria said the IAF is committed to flexible use of the airspace and had opened almost all its aerodromes for civilian use. He added that civilian-military cooperation with sharing of airspace was growing as can be seen by measures such as establish-ment of the Joint Regional Air Traffic Coordination Centre at the Chennai airport. The IAF, he added, was sharing the airspace above its base at Hin-don (near Delhi) with civilian flights to ease air congestion above IGI airport.

IAF to play decisive role in developing southern airstripsBeefing up its presence in peninsular India, the IAF is aiming to make maximum use of all available and proposed airports in the southern states. The IAF is also plan-ning to revive a World War II-era airstrip at Kayathar in Tamil Nadu built by the Brit-ish. It’s not just the LTTE gain-ing air power that is putting the IAF on alert in the south. Plans for new seaports and defence installations in the south and the proximity of the east-west international ship-ping lanes are critical factors pushing the IAF to transfer assets to the south. The IAF has approached the Kerala government for land at the Cochin International Airport Ltd, Nedumbassery, and at the proposed airport at Kannur.

US set to bag India’s contract for surveillance planes The US is set to bag a multi-billion dollar Indian Navy contract for maritime surveil-lance planes, with both sides deciding to put the contentious issue of signing an end user agreement on the backburner. According to Ministry of Defence sources, a Boeing-led consortium had concluded all technical and price negotia-

tions for the $2.2 billion (Rs 9,295 crore) contract and the proposal would now be taken to the Cabinet Committee on Security for approval.

This would be the second major military aviation contract signed with the US this year—both in areas once the preserve of the Russians. The first contract was for six all-weather all-terrain C-130J military transport planes with Lockheed Martin. Earlier, all military transport planes in the Indian armed forces were of Russian origin. Similarly, all long-range surveillance planes were from Russia. Boeing’s P-8I maritime reconnaissance planes would be breaching that suzerainty. Sources said if the navy was satisfied with the planes, repeat orders could be placed.

India issues tenders for 197 military helicoptersA total of 384 utility helicop-ters will be required for the Indian Army and the IAF to replace the existing fleet of Cheetah/Chetak. It is under-stood that the Request for Proposal has been issued by India for 197 utility helicopters for the army (133) and the air force (64). They are expected to be inducted by 2010 and the cost is expected to be Rs 3,000 crore ($750 million). The remaining 187 will be made by the public sector Hin-dustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL). The companies likely to compete are Bell Helicop-ters (US), Eurocopter (Euro-pean Consortium), Rosoboron Export (Russia), Augusta Westland (Italy), Sikorsky (US) and McDonnel Douglas (US).Technical evaluation will be carried out jointly by army, air force and officials from HAL, and completed by 2009-end.

Americas

Symposium gets to core of USAF’s role in cyberspace In an effort to bring together minds and ideas from across the cyberspace community, Air University officials hosted a week-long cyberspace symposium. Some 250 profes-sional civilian and military information experts gathered to discuss the implications of cyberspace, especially with

regard to the air force and national defence. Officials from the United States Strategic Command, 8th Air Force and the provisional Air Force Cyber Command assisted in hosting the symposium. “Air-men must implement their warfighting traditions in the cyberspace domain,” said Dr Rebecca Grant, Founder and President of IRIS Independent Research. “I think we need the air force to truly embrace and understand this and excel in cyberspace, as they have in the domain of air and space.” Air force officials have taken on a role in cyberspace protec-tion and plans are underway to select the host base for the newly formed, provisional Air Force Cyber Command.

F-22s deployed to Guam

Approximately 130 airmen and five F-22 Raptors from US Elmendorf Air Force Base, Alaska, have been deployed in Guam to participate in Exercises Jungle Shield and Cope Thaw. F-22 pilots will fly three primary mis-sions—defensive counter-air, offensive counter-air escort and offensive counter-air suppression of enemy air de-fences. Defensive counter-air missions showcase the F-22’s aerial combat capabilities, using the aircraft to defend a geographic point, area or high-value airborne asset against any air threat. When conducting offensive counter-air-escort missions, F-22s fly in front of a strike package and clear the airspace of any air threats, allowing a strike package an unimpeded attack on selected targets of interest. While flying offensive counter-air suppression of enemy air defences missions, the F-22s become a strike platform, targeting advanced surface-to-air missile threats by using the fighter’s key advantages of stealth, super cruise and advanced integrated avionics.

AGUSTAWESTLAND

• AgustaWestland has announced that the Qatar Armed Forces has signed a contract for 18 AW139 me-dium twin helicopters to be operated by the Qatar Emiri Air Force support-ing various government agencies.

AIRBUS

• Airbus has selected Sagem Défense Sécurité (SAFRAN Group) to supply the flight data acquisition and security system for its future long-haul A350 XWB. Sagem Défense Sécurité will develop, produce, integrate and provide support for the system, which will consist of Centralized Data Acquisition Unit and Secure Communication Interface.

BOEING

• The Boeing Company has signed an order with Air China, the flag carrier of the People’s Republic of China, for 15 777-300ER and 30 737-800NG jetliners. The order is worth approximately $6.3 billion (Rs 26,555 crore) at average list prices.

EADS-ASTRIUM

• Chilean Air Force, acting for the State of Chile and the European EADS-Astrium consortium have signed a contract for the acquisition of an earth observation system. Local media reports say that the deal is worth $70 million (Rs 295 crore), although it is not clear whether this figure includes launch.

EUROPEAN AVIATION SAFETY AGENCY

• EASA has granted Airbus a single Pro-duction Organisation Approval (POA), which replaces the previous four Airbus POAs issued by the French, German, Spanish and UK Civil Aviation Authori-ties. The new single POA recognises Airbus’ status as a single integrated European company, which Airbus has been working towards since 2000.

GKN AEROSPACE

• GKN Aerospace has won a lifetime contract expected to be worth over $750 million (Rs 3,167 crore) with Honeywell Engines for nacelle systems for the HTF7000 series busi-ness jet turbofan engine.

QuickRoundUp

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CIVIL AVIATIONAsia-Pacific

Air India seeks equity, loan supportAir India (AI) is bleeding. The national carrier is likely to seek an equity infusion of Rs 1,300 crore, along with a generous dose of loans or grants from the government to stay afloat. Hit by high cost of jet fuel, it is expected to report a loss of over Rs 4,000 crore in the current financial year,

doubling the Rs 2,160 crore estimated earlier and ac-counting for almost half of Rs 9,000 crore estimated loss of the domestic aviation indus-try. This bleak picture was revealed in Mumbai in early July when Aviation Minister Praful Patel and Secretary Ashok Chawla reviewed the ‘progress’ post-merger of AI and Indian Airlines (IA). The ministry was concerned over the declining load factor of the merged entity, averaging at present 60 per cent, compared to the industry figure of 68 to 70 per cent. Its market share in domestic skies is about 14

per cent with much higher capacity. “This just showed that despite more planes and flights, AI is not getting domes-tic passengers while private players with smaller fleets are able to use their fleets more in terms of revenue generation,” said a highly placed source.

INDUSTRYAsia-Pacific

US firm to partner HAL in $75-million MRO venture HAL will soon sign up with a partner to set up its long-

GRIPEN

• Swedish Gripen aircraft has arrived in Switzerland to take part in Phase one of the Partial Tiger Replacement programme involving air and ground tests. The aircraft will be stationed for about a month to participate in the evaluation for which about 80 sorties have been planned. During the second half of the year, the two other candidates, Rafale and Eurofighter, will follow in subsequent phases.

HONEYWELL

• Honeywell has announced that it has signed a contract extension with Southwest Airlines to provide aftermarket maintenance services for Honeywell avionics and mechanical products on Southwest’s entire fleet of Boeing 737s for the next 10 years.

INDIAN AIR FORCE

• Majority of the work of the IAF Placement Cell is carried out through the Internet, thus a need was always felt for an independent website. IAF Placement Cell has thus launched its website www.iafpc.co.in. The website which is made by ICICI Group has been dedicated to the ex-air warriors. The website will have separate log-ins for the employers and the job seekers. It will have a knowledge zone with tips on attend-ing interviews/ resume writing and a host of e-learning courses offered by ICICI Bank.

LOCKHEED MARTIN

• Lockheed Martin Corporation has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Aculight Corporation based in Bothell, WA. Aculight is a privately held company primarily focused on providing laser-based solutions for national defense and aerospace customers. The new business unit will report to Lockheed Martin’s Maritime Systems & Sensors business in Akron, OH.

• Qatari Armed Forces has signed a contract with the US-based Lockheed Martin Aeronautics Company for the purchase of transport aircraft. No other details have been released but the aircraft is likely to be C-130 J as there is no other aircraft in the company’s inventory. Lockheed Martin Corporation has delivered

QuickRoundUp

The two companies will jointly collaborate on activities related to India’s proposed MMRCA offset programme

Infotech Enterprises Limited (IEL), a global technology solu-tions provider with global headquarters at Hyderabad, and Dassault Aviation, one of the major players in the civil and

military aviation industry, have signed an MoU at Dassault Avia-tion Headquarters in France to jointly collaborate on activities related to India’s proposed Medium Multi Role Combat Aircraft (MMRCA) offset programme.

Speaking on the occasion, Charles Edelstenne, Chairman and CEO, Dassault Aviation said, “It is a privilege to work with Info-tech Enterprises for this significant programme which represents an important milestone for Dassault’s business in India. This MoU would go a long way in enhancing strategic technology expertise of Dassault.” Under the agreement, Infotech will be a technology partner to Dassault Aviation and provide business driven solutions performing engineering, defence related business process and IT services to help Dassault Aviation satisfy offset obligations.

“Infotech is proud to be associated with Dassault Aviation and the Ministry of Defence for this programme,” said B.V.R. Mohan Reddy, Chairman and Managing Director, IEL. “Having completed over seven million engineering service hours on aerospace proj-ects, Infotech has extensive knowledge in aerospace domain and offer a modular service concept that allows customers and part-ners such as Dassault Aviation to secure the services they need ranging from design to manufacturing stages.” The MoU is for a five-year period and can be extended by mutual agreement be-tween the parties.

—SP’s Team

INFOTECH ENTERS MOU WITH DASSAULT AVIATIONAPPOINTMENTSBAE SYSTEMS NAMES ERWIN BIEBER PRESIDENT OF NETWORK SYSTEMSBAE Systems has named Erwin W. Bieber President of Network Systems Business.

DAVID JOYCE NAMED PRESIDENT & CEO OF GE AVIATIONGeneral Electric Chairman and CEO Jeff Immelt an-nounced the appointment of David Joyce as President and CEO of GE Aviation.

GULFSTREAM PROMOTES ROBERT COWART TO DIRECTOR, SUPERSONIC TECHNOLOGY DEVELOPMENTGulfstream Aerospace, a wholly owned subsidiary of General Dynamics, recently promoted Robert A. Cowart to Director, Supersonic Technol-ogy Development.

LUIGI PASQUALI, PRESI-DENT & CEO OF THALES ALENIA SPACE ITALY AND DEPUTY OF THALES ALENIA SPACELuigi Pasquali has been ap-pointed President and CEO of Thales Alenia Space Italy, re-placing Carlo Alberto Penazzi.

AIRBUSMario Heinen has been appointed Executive Vice President, Centre of Excel-lence Fuselage and Cabin. The new head of the A380 programme is Alain Flou-rens. Daniel Baubil replaces Flourens as Executive Vice President, Head of the A320 Family Programme.

NEWSDigest


awaited, full-fledged com-mercial aircraft maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO) business. This could happen in “a month or two,” according to HAL sources.

The sources said an American company, a world-wide leader in the commercial aviation MRO business, had agreed to partner HAL in the $75-million (Rs 315 crore) venture. HAL is likely to contribute 45 per cent of the required capital.

HAL expects sufficient business opportunities with around 25 to 30 aircraft being serviced during the initial years of operation. Indian carriers now go to Singapore or Dubai for MRO services. Some such as Air India and Jet Airways have basic facilities, though these are insufficient even for internal risings.

The HAL is hoping that profits from the MRO venture

will offset some of the revenue losses suffered on account of closing down of commercial operations at the HAL airport.

Embraer platform for DRDO’s AEW&C systemIndia and Brazil have entered into a deal to jointly develop an early warning system for the IAF. The Airborne Early Warning and Control (AEW&C) System is being developed by Bangalore-based Centre for Airborne Systems. Under the deal, Brazil’s Em-braer aircraft manufacturer will modify its regional jet aircraft EMB-145 to carry the Active Array Antenna Unit developed by the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO). Three modified EMB-145 aircraft will be developed; the first one to be delivered in three years. The various sub-systems of the AEW&C Mission System

will be integrated into the ‘modified green’ aircraft by DRDO and the full-fledged EMB-145 based AEW&C will be flight tested for AEW&C Mission System in India by DRDO along with IAF from 2012. The AEW&C system comprises many sub-systems like radar and communication links that are being designed and developed by DRDO. A few EMB-145 based AEW&C/AWACS versions are already in operation with air forces of Brazil, Mexico and Greece.

Americas

Airline reductions shrinking MRO industry by $1.3 bnBased on mid-year airline announcements to reduce capacity and park aircraft, coupled with reductions from ceased operations, TeamSAI Consulting has determined that total spend for MRO in the commercial airline industry in 2009 will be down to $45.5 billion (Rs 1,92,060 crore), less by $1.3 billion (Rs 5,475 crore) compared to earlier estimates. In its annual industry forecast produced in the first quarter, TeamSAI projected 2008 total global spend of $45.1 billion (Rs 1,90,290 crore); 2009 spend was expected to reach $46.8 billion (Rs 1,97,535 crore).

Boeing 777 Freighter records first flightThe first Boeing 777 Freighter, the world’s most capable twin-engine cargo airplane, successfully took to the sky on July 14 for the first time and completed an initial series of tests during a flight lasting over three-and-half hours. The airplane performed well.

Sixth member of the 777 airplane family, the 777 Freighter will be capable of flying 4,885 nautical miles (9,047 km) with a full payload, making it the world’s longest-range twin-engine freighter. The airplane’s range capability

the Israeli Air Force F-16I Flight and System Trainer that will be used to support a variety of training require-ments for the force’s F-16I ‘Soufa’ fighter and ground attack aircraft. Lockheed Martin provides the hard-ware and software to simulate F-16I aircraft systems, sensors, weapons and flight dynamics.

NORTHROP GRUMMAN

• The Advanced Aerial Refueling Boom System for Northrop Grumman Corporation’s KC-45 Tanker has performed multiple aerial contacts with an operational Airborne Warning and Control System aircraft, confirm-ing its ability to support large aircraft in US, NATO, and allied air forces. Northrop Grumman Corporation has been selected by the Turkish Air Force to provide the latest fibre-optic gyro inertial navigation system, the LN-260, for use on its C-130 aircraft. The LN-260 inertial navigation system provides platform navigation and low-noise navigation inputs to radar pictures, assist in accurately aligning communications antennas, or guide sensors.

PARKER AEROSPACE

• Bombardier Aerospace and Parker Aerospace have announced that Parker has been selected as the exclusive supplier for a period of 10 years of fly-by-wire flight control systems for all new Bombardier wide body aircraft programmes requiring this technology. Parker estimates that this has the potential to generate revenues of $3.5 billion (Rs 14,785 crore) over the life of the programmes.

PRATT & WHITNEY

• Central and Eastern Europe’s largest low cost airline, Wizz Air, has selected the International Aero Engines V2500 to power a new fleet of 50 Airbus A320 aircraft. The com-bined engine and aftermarket deal is valued at more than $533 million (Rs 2,250 crore) to Pratt & Whitney, if all options are exercised.

RAYTHEON

• Raytheon Company has been awarded the data and systems implementation and operations, subcontract by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Raytheon will provide

QuickRoundUp The 2008 forecast for India includes 59 regional, 728 single aisle, 203 twin aisle and 11 747 and larger airplanes

In its market outlook for India for 2008, Boeing Company has forecast an increase in demand over a 20-year period, from 911 aircraft projected last year to the current 1,001. Boeing

appears to be bullish even in the near term. Addressing the media, Senior Vice President (Sales) Dinesh Keskar said despite the Indian aviation industry’s dismal performance in the first six months of this year, the company has not received a single request for order cancellation. “We think the market has about 10 per cent overca-pacity still left and once this is addressed, the situation would be back to normal…I think this should take between six months and one year,” he emphasised.

The forecast includes both passenger and freighter aircraft, and takes the order size from $86 billion (Rs 3,66,810 crore) to $105 billion (Rs 4,47,830 crore). The 2008 forecast for India in-cludes 59 (previous forecast 55) regional, 728 (672) single aisle, 203 (173) twin aisle and 11 (11) 747 and larger airplanes. The biggest increase from Boeing’s previous forecast was in the single aisle category. Keskar said commercial airplanes in the 100 to 400-seater categories will account for the vast majority of the growth in air travel over the next two decades “and airlines will accom-modate that growth by adding frequencies and point-to-point non-stop flights”.

Recent Boeing orders in India, Keskar said, stood at 164 air-craft worth $25 billion (Rs 1,06,625 crore), of which Air India or-dered 68, Jet 63, SpiceJet 30 and Indian Air Force three. This year, the Indian industry has 300 aircraft but another 345 are on order. However, SpiceJet dealt a blow to the upbeat projections when it announced plans to renegotiate its deal with the US commercial aircraft maker in preference of sub-leasing aircraft, either through wet sub-lease or dry sub-lease. In a wet sub-lease, the agreement provides for pilot and crew while in the case of a dry sub-lease, the arrangement is only for aircraft.

—SP’s Team

Boeing forecasts increase in demand

NEWSDigest


systems engineering and design, web development and information technology services to support the centre’s mission. The five-year base period of performance will have an initial value of $83 million (Rs 350 crore).

ROLLS-ROYCE

• Rolls-Royce has reported that it has secured orders worth around $9.3 billion (Rs 39,176 crore) during the Farnborough Airshow. These orders reflect the company’s ability to create market opportunities by continuing to develop its broad port-folio of power systems and services. Rolls-Royce provides engines for more than 30 types of civil and 39 military aircraft.

SCIENCE APPLICATIONS INTERNATIONAL CORPORATION

• Science Applications International Corporation of US has announced that it has been awarded the Nuclear Matters Professional Services con-tract to provide a broad range of technical and analysis services. The total contract value is more than $26 million (Rs 110 crore) if all options are exercised. The office oversees and develops the plans for a safe, secure, and credible nuclear stockpile.

SPANISH AIR FORCE

• Spanish Air Force has followed the lead of Air Forces of Germany, Italy, United Kingdom and Austria by deploying their latest weapon system in the first line role of air defence. Typhoon is the world’s most advanced new generation multi-role/swing-role combat aircraft and has been ordered by six nations with 707 aircraft under contract.

US AIR FORCE

• The US Air Force has flown its first operational MQ-9 Reaper mission during mid July to support Operation Iraqi Freedom. The Reaper’s powerful targeting pod is fully integrated into the existing intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance architecture employed by the smaller MQ-1 Predator and significantly enhances the strike and close-air-support capabilities. Like the Predator, Reap-ers are primarily flown via satellite from the US.

QuickRoundUp will translate into significant savings for cargo operators: fewer stops and associated landing fees, less congestion at transfer hubs, lower cargo handling costs and shorter cargo delivery times. To date, Boeing has secured 78 firm orders from 11 customers for the 777 Freighter.

Europe

Airbus beat Boeing in latest round of commercial ordersAirbus, the world’s largest maker of commercial aircraft, said it won a net 487 orders in the first six months of this year—12 more than Boe-ing. Airbus also delivered 245 planes. The European planemaker predicts orders this year may drop 50 per cent compared to 2007, the year the company, together with Boeing, took a record 2,754 orders. Demand is dwindling as slowing economies and spi-raling fuel prices push airlines toward losses.

Airbus delivers first A380 from Hamburg

All the bad blood over the late delivery of the A380 superjum-bo jet seems forgotten. Sheikh Ahmed bin Saeed Al-Maktoum personally came to Hamburg to collect the first A380 for his booming airline Emirates. He also came bearing a gift: an order for 60 more aircraft.

After delivering five aircraft to Singapore Airlines from its plant in Toulouse, France, Airbus delivered its first superjumbo jet from its Hamburg, Germany plant. Problems with the aircraft’s cabling during the design stage had led to the delays, inviting severe criticism of the German factory, which the company has internally blamed for getting the aircraft out of the door late and caus-ing the resulting €5 billion ($7.9 billion; Rs 33,290 crore) in losses.

SPACEAsia-Pacific

Raytheon bids to supply equipment to ISRO, AAIUS defence contractor Raytheon Company has bid to supply equipment for the final phase of India’s satel-lite based navigation system for aiding civil aviation being built by Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) and Airports Authority of India (AAI). To aid civil avia-tion traffic movement across the country, ISRO and AAI are jointly building the Global Positioning Satellite-aided geosynchronous augmented navigation system Gagan.

Raytheon has tied up with local firms Accord Software and Systems Private Ltd and Elcome Technologies Private Ltd to design global positioning system devices and logistical and on-site support, and Naverus Inc. of Kent, Washington, for performance-based naviga-tion route design, procedure flight validation and other related services. Raytheon had supplied radars in the initial test phase of the Gagan programme.

Americas

Lockheed Martin’s TSAT Programme on the rollThe Lockheed Martin /Northrop Grumman TSAT Space Segment team has completed a successful dem-onstration of its new-genera-tion High Power Hall Current Thruster (HPHCT) electric propulsion system designed for use on the US Air Force’s TSAT constellation.

TSAT will provide thou-sands of military users with wideband, highly mobile, beyond line-of-sight protected communications to support network-centric operations for the future battlefield. De-veloped by Lockheed Martin and Aerojet, the HPHCT pro-pulsion technology provides significantly improved fuel efficiency over conventional chemical propulsion systems. The Hall Current Thruster system will be used for both orbit transfer as well as on-orbit station keeping. •

SHOW CALENDAR12 August – 13 AugustSTRATEGIC PROCUREMENT SUMMIT ASIA 2008Prince Hotel, Kuala Lumpur.URL: www.procurementsum-mit.com

10 September – 12 SeptemberUNMANNED AIRCRAFT SYSTEMSAlexandria, VA, USA.URL: www.ttcus.com

15 September – 17 SeptemberAIR & SPACE CONFERENCE & TECHNOLOGY EXPOSITIONWashington, DC, USA.URL: www.afa.org

17 September – 19 SeptemberJET EXPO 2008Moscow Crocus Expo.URL: www.jetexpo.ru

25 September – 26 SeptemberELECTRONIC WARFARE 2008Cafe Royal, London, UK.URL: www.electronic-war-fare.co.uk

30 September – 1 OctoberCLOSE AIR SUPPORT 2008One Whitehall Place, London.URL: www.cas2008.co.uk

1 October – 5 OctoberJAPAN AEROSPACE 2008URL: www.japanaerospace.jp

6 October – 8 OctoberNBAA ANNUAL MEETING AND CONVENTION Orlando, Fla.URL: www.nbaa.org

12 October – 13 OctoberAIR POWER MIDDLE-EAST CONFERENCE 2008URL: www.shephard.co.uk/AirPower-ME

14 October – 15 OctoberNETWORK CENTRIC OPERATIONSSingapore.URL: www.site-members.com

20 October – 23 OctoberDEFENCE INDUSTRY PART-NERSHIPS MIDDLE EASTURL: www.militarypartner-shipssummit.com

27 October – 29 OctoberMILITARY RADAR 2008The RAI Centre, Amsterdam.URL: www.militaryra-dar2008.com

LASTWord


Once upon a time the pride of the nation, Air India seems to have now become a white elephant and a serious liability for the government. In fact, it is engaged in a

desperate struggle for survival. Quite like the other airlines in India that are at their wits’ end trying to deploy ingenious methods to cope with the rather unprecedented rise in oil prices, Air India has also been somewhat traumatised by this disconcerting trend rendered more alarming by the noticeable drop in passenger traffic in the first quarter of this year. Given the grim prognostication about the lev-els international price of oil may reach, there is no basis at this point in time to harbour optimism that the worst is over. Oil prices have rarely come down in the past, at least not significantly.

Viewed from a broader perspective, Air India’s plight is in tune with the pathetic state of the global airline industry that is expected to register a loss of $6.1 billion (Rs 25,000 crore) in 2008-09. This figure acquires significance as the industry had re-ported a profit of $5.6 billion (Rs 23,000 crore) during the previous financial year. However, a more minute scrutiny of the finances of the airline reveals the distressing situation the national airline is in.

The officially estimated figure for Air India’s cumulative losses at the end of the financial year 2007-08 stood at Rs 2,144 crore. This has been estimated to have risen to Rs 2,300 crore by the end of the first quarter of the new finan-cial year. On the contrary, one report in the media talks of cumulative losses rising to an astronomical Rs 30,000 crore or more by the end of financial year 2008-09. Other media reports also talk of staggering cumulative losses ranging anything between Rs 28,000 and all the way up to Rs 40,000 crore. The Centre for Asia Pacific Aviation estimates that Air India and Jet Airways together are incurring loss of $2 mil-lion (Rs 8 crore) a day in the prevailing scenario. In view of the fact that Jet Airways is a private company and has a respectable reputation for professional management, it is quite likely that Air India is responsible for the major share of this figure.

Estimates of losses incurred by Air India projected by dif-ferent agencies are, to say the least, utterly confusing. The variation in figures reported between the government agen-cies and the media is somewhat bizarre and their authentic-ity cannot be endorsed with any degree of certainty. How-ever, on scrutiny of data, one is left in no doubt about the irredeemable situation Air India is in. The figures quoted are also a shocking commentary on the financial management

of the company and the gross misman-agement of the tax-payer’s money.

Despite claims by Minister of Civil Aviation Praful Patel that the state owned airline would have to put its house in order, manage its fi-nances and balance books, reports in-dicate that the gov-ernment is indeed concerned with the airline’s precarious state of affairs. It is understood that the government is set to infuse Rs 2,300 crore, possibly by way of a soft loan (Rs 1,000 crore) plus eq-uity (Rs 1,300 crore) to help the airline stay afloat.

To complement the generosity, the airline needs to substantially reduce operating costs by adopting measures

such as cutting out non-profitable routes, curbing over ca-pacity, picking up less expensive ATF abroad and a slew of other less visible and discrete measures to reduce expen-diture. Unfortunately, being a government organisation, Air India does not have the privilege of laying off employees who enjoy ‘permanent’ status. The only ones who can be packed off are the expatriate pilots on contract with some savings on salaries. This would also be a blessing in dis-guise for Indian pilots aspiring to become commanders. The airline is not financially healthy enough to offer Voluntary Retirement Scheme, should the employees wish to depart on their own. Unlike the other major airlines in the private sec-tor, Air India is yet to cancel any order for aircraft or defer delivery. Delay in the Dreamliner programme has come as a welcome relief for Air India, if only by default.

Other airlines in the private sector have lost no time in implementing redefined business models, with Kingfisher cutting out 48 flights and GoAir 200. But Air India, en-meshed in procedural quagmire and multi-layered scrutiny of proposals, has been able to withdraw only 20 of its ser-vices beginning July 1 even as it gets set to commence seri-ous restructuring beginning August 1, 2008.

In the final analysis, the problems before the national airline are so deep-rooted that even the combined effort of the government and the airline may prove to be cosmetic and provide only temporary solutions. A permanent solution lies in complete privatisation alone. SP

— Air Marshal (Retd) B.K. PandeyILLU

STR

ATIO

N:

MAM

TA

Piling on the Flab

Estimates of losses incurred by Air India present a

shocking commentary on the financial management of the company and the gross mismanagement of

the taxpayer’s money

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