Russia's revolving president Vladimir Putin is reportedly set to strike a Kissinger-esque deal with China, but focused on aviation. In 1972, US Secretary of State Henry Kissinger flipped Beijing from a regional rival into a Cold War partner. Now Russian daily Vedomosti reports Putin is working on a similar deal, attempting to turn China from a rising commercial aviation competitor into a partner against Airbus and Boeing for the all-important widebody market segment.

Yuri Slusar, deputy minister of trade and industry, told the newspaper that Putin on 6 June in Beijing will unveil a new pact between Ilyushin and Comac. The two companies will partner to develop a new version of the widebody Il-96 airliner.

Of course, Airbus and Boeing are not likely to feel threatened by a new version of the Il-96. Ilyushin parent United Aircraft Corporation (UAC) killed the programme three years ago because it failed to compete against even the Airbus A340-series, much less the Boeing 787 then in development. Russia's credibility on producing new widebodies is also in question. In 2009, UAC floated pamphlets showing a nearly 767-sized twinjet, but killed the project after internal analysis showed it would generate only 100-200 orders globally -- if it worked.

Russia also is playing a dangerous game by partnering with its Chinese counterparts. Sukhoi's fighter division learned its lesson the hard way a decade ago, after then-chief executive Mikhail Simonov exported the Su-30 to China. The deals preserved the fighter maker at the deepest depths of Russia's post-Soviet depression. But then China reversed-engineered the Su-30s, and offered copied versions -- renamed the J-11 and the carrier-based J-15 -- on the export market at reduced prices. COMAC may have a similar strategy with the Il-96. Russian news reports suggest that the new widebody will be manufactured in China, using Russian designs and technology.

But Russia's urge to collaborate with China is understandable. Both nations wish to break from the duopoly of foreign manufacturers. Russia's Superjet 100 and MC-21 and China's ARJ and C919 are symbols of that ambition. It's not clear yet if any of those narrowbody projects will lead to viable production programmes. Eventually, both countries must still master the widebody market to truly establish an independent manufacturing base. The news from Moscow indicates that China and Russia may still be willing enough to partner with each other to achieve that goal.

Note: This post was written by our new airline reporter, Edward Russell, who doesn't yet have an account on our blog site. Stay tuned for more from Ed...

 

When American Airlines announced its schedule for the Boeing 777-300ER earlier today, it also gave away its delivery schedule for the type.

 

It will receive the first sometime in late November or early December, the second in mid-December, the third in mid-January 2013, and the fourth and fifth that March. This will allow it to fly the type daily between Dallas-Fort Worth and London-Heathrow (AA50/51) and New York's John F Kennedy and London-Heathrow (AA100/101) from 14 February, and daily between JFK and Sao Paulo-Guarulhos from 2 April.

 

American confirms that it will have two 777-300ERs in its fleet at the end of December, three by February 2013 and five by that April.

 

You can read more about the initial schedule from Flightglobal here.

 

When and where the Fort Worth-based airline flies the Boeing aircraft has been the focus attention for many lenders, travellers and aviation geeks for some time now. With American operating under chapter 11 bankruptcy protection since last November, one big question has been how it would pay for the aircraft. The court approved payments for the first two 777-300ERs that arrive later this year last December but has yet to rule payments for the remaining aircraft.

 

Travellers are excited about the new onboard products that will debut on the aircraft. American will introduce its first fully lie-flat business class seat, its new premium economy product called Main Cabin Extra, audio video on demand (AVOD) in each seat and inflight wifi, even on international overwater flights, on the 777-300ER. All of these features will eventually be added to the rest of its widebody fleet but not until 2014.

 

Aviation geeks, while they are always excited about the first flight of an airline's new aircraft type, have even more reason to celebrate the 777-300ER. American will be the first US carrier to operate the type, which has enjoyed significant success abroad, and it will be the largest aircraft in its fleet since it retired its 747-100s and -200s in 1985.

 

Plus, in the opinion of the author, the 777-300ER is just plain cool.

 

Now if only we could get details on the delivery schedule of American's Boeing 787-9s.

MINNEAPOLIS, Minnesota -- Engine makers General Electric and Pratt & Whitney have been signaling for months that ATR and Bombardier aren't the only airframers pondering the market potential of a 90-seat turboprop, but it was never clear to whom they referred.

Our first thought was Embraer. The Brazilian manufacturer once dominated the 35-seat turboprop sector, so they have the technical know-how. But Embraer chief executive Frederico Curado blew up that theory on 12 April, telling us in no uncertain terms that his company has no intention whatsoever of jumping back into the turboprop sector.

So who else could it be?

Today at the Regional Airline Association's annual convention, GE finally let slip the identity of the mystery airframer. In a briefing about GE's next-generation CPX38 turboprop, general manager Allen Paxson reminded the press that Saab was once in the turboprop game, and "Saab is going to want to play in that [90-seat market sector] as well".

Oh, really? In the question-and-answer, we quickly asked Paxson what he meant by invoking Saab. "Certainly Saab has been at the top of the market for decades," said Paxson, obviously alluding to the Saab 340 and Saab 2000 that ceased production in 1997. "It's fair to say they have been studying that as well."

Michael Magnussen, chief executive of Saab Aircraft Leasing, is also here, and he confirmed Saab's advanced design team is studying possible civil aircraft concepts. They have invited suppliers, such as GE, to brief them on current technologies, so that they can understand what's available. Magnussen also noted that Saab at the moment is a cash-rich company, and is looking for new business opportunities.  

MINNEAPOLIS, Minnesota -- Superjet International still can't say anything about what caused the 9 May crash of a Sukhoi-piloted Superjet 100 on a demonstration flight in Indonesia. The hunt for the digital data recorder continues, though the cockpit voice recorder has been recovered. 

CHICAGO O'HARE AIRPORT, K TERMINAL (en route to Minneapolis) -- It could not be a more auspicious moment for the US Regional Airline Association (RAA) to stage its annual convention this week in Minneapolis.The RAA's airlines members are in upheaval, with two (American Eagle and Pinnacle) in bankruptcy, one (Republic Airways Holdings) reorganizing a major subsidiary (Chautauqua) and still another (SkyWest Inc) posting its first annual loss in 23 years.
The regional airframers are hardly in better shape. Bombardier sold only 11 commercial regional aircraft all of last year, though sales rebounded in the first quarter. Superjet International is still reeling from the 9 May crash, which killed 45 people and hung a cloud over the programme until the investigation concludes. Meanwhile, the Mitsubishi Regional Jet has announced a roughly 18-month delay to service introduction.
And, yet, there is this fact: Both Bombardier and Embraer have publicly predicted that these beleaguered US regional airlines are poised to buy hundreds of new aircraft. Embraer confirms it is in talks with at least five US regional airlines on deals for a total of more than 400 aircraft this year.
Indeed, both airframers are counting on the US orders this year, as regional aircraft sales are expected to decline elsewhere in the world.  If the orders are consummated, they promise to begin a fundamental reshaping of the US regional airline sector, with the increasingly uneconomical 50-seaters exchanged via scope clause relief for 70-80-seaters.
Judging by the age of the US regional fleets, Bombardier and Embraer have a point. With regional aircraft generally acquired on 15-year finance terms, the FlightglobalAscend database (see chart below) counts more than 500 44-50-seaters at least 10 years old in US regional airline fleets.

Over 10 years old CRJ100 CRJ200 ERJ135 ERJ145 Airline totals Air Wisconsin 28 28 American Eagle 21 82 103 Chautauqua 43 43 Comair 28 28 ExpressJet 69 117 186 Mesa 5 5 Pinnacle 36 36 SkyWest 4 63 67 TransStates 12 12 Fleet totals 4 201 21 282 508

After some middle-of-the-night self reflection, punctuated by the largely negative comments on my 18 May posting regarding Lufthansa's 747-8I and its slight delivery slip, I decided to delete the posting early Saturday morning. I know that doesn't erase the fact that the posting did exist for several days and was probably read far and wide. 

 

Photo/Billypix

Conventions such as Europe's biggest aviation gathering always have two purposes: meet customers or show us new products. In the last few years at EBACE, there was less of the former and almost none of the latter. For the (ahem) wags churning out the event's three show dailies, which depend on almost exclusively on product announcements, EBACE was becoming uncomfortably like the stereotype of Geneva's many diplomatic missions: all talk and no action.

Not this year.

Maybe it's a sign the global economy is finally dragging themid-size and light jet sector out of its four-year funk. Maybe the industry could simply no longer remain idle. Or maybe the corporate marketers mistook EBACE for the Paris Air Show.

But this year EBACE was newsy, especially in the business jet sectors hardest hit by the economic crisis.

• Some may question if it's a case of too little, too late, but Bombardier finally moved to revive its franchise in the light and super-light jet sector. Packaged with new engines, avionics, winglets and interior features, the Learjet 70 and 75 will give the market a viable replacement for the Learjet 40 and 45 starting next years. Bombardier launched the programme in secret late last year, flying a Learjet 40 and 45 with the new Garmin G5000 avionics suite. The airframer's haste even as it continues to develop the all-composite, mid-size Learjet 85 may be telling. The unwritten rule in business jet product development is to launch new programmes when the market is bad, and have them ready when the market is good. The trick is to get the timing exactly right. All signs suggest the light and super-light segment remains in a slump, but the Bombardier 70 and 75 are among the first indications a turn-around is finally coming.
• Cessna probably wishes it had never canceled the short-lived Columbus project in 2009. The large cabin concept was scheduled to hit the market next year, as orders and deliveries in that segment of the market are expected to reach a new peak. But Cessna seems to have learned the right lesson.  It's too late for Cessna to chase the lost glory of the Columbus, and it's wisely not bothering to try. Instead, Cessna is rebuilding its franchise in the super mid-size sector by launching the stretched Longitude less than a year after revealing the all-new Latitude. Along the way, it is granting the Snecma Silvercrest engine finally a launch partner and opening the door to the Garmin 5000 flight deck in another new product family. This time, Cessna isn't so likely to get cold feet.
• Entering EBACE less than two weeks after filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection is never a good sign, but Hawker Beechcraft did more than put its best foot forward. If you believe executive vice president Shawn Vick, using bankruptcy to shed a $125 million payment on debt interest two investment house owners for three new ones is the best thing to happen to the firm since Hawker Siddely sold its manufacturing soul - and eventually half of its name -- to the Wichita-based firm.  The new owners inherit a company with struggling commercial products, declining military sales and a decent aftermarket support business. It could be tempting for the new owners to recoup a nearly $3 billion investment by selling off the most valuable pieces and disposing of the rest. But time will tell.

GENEVA, Switzerland -- In 1980, the National Film Board of Canada commissioned a young director named Stephen Low to document an ambitious plan to revive struggling Canadair by developing an advanced business jet -- the Challenger.

The rest of the story is now well-known. After surviving a disastrous crash in flight test, the Challenger went on to become one of history's most successful business jet programmes. The Bill Lear-inspired project not only revived Canadair and revolutionized the business jet industry by introducing the first supercritical airfoil and turbofan engines. A close derivative of the Challenger -- the CRJ100 -- went on to almost single-handedly create the regional jet boom in the early 1990s, and even now continues in production as the Bombardier CRJ700/900/1000 series.

The documentary, entitled Challenger: An Industrial Romance, also marks an early masterpiece by Low, who has become a legend in aviation film. Low has more recently directed "Legends of Flight" and "Fighter Pilot: Operation Red Flag", while also making his mark in mainstream movies with Rocky Mountain Express.

Even 32 years later, Low's documentary on the Challenger project remains one of the most in-depth and insightful records of the development of a mass-produced aircraft. Canadair granted Low seemingly all-access rights within the programme, with cameras allowed to capture boardrooms meetings, assembly work and sales strategizing. It's also a time capsule of the technology and marketing standards of late-1970s. 

The National Transportation Safety Board has quietly released hundreds of pages of information on the Gulfstream G650 crash on 2 April 2011 in Roswell, New Mexico, although a final report has still not been released. You can browse all of the documents on this page on NTSB's web site. It's a rare glimpse inside a major safety investigation while it is still in progress.

Flightglobal's John Croft filed two in-depth feature articles after reviewing the documents for nearly a week. The first article is posted below, and the second will appear later. More updates also will follow as part of our news coverage from Geneva, Switzerland, the site of next week's EBACE convention.

IN FOCUS: Two wing-drop incidents preceded G650 crash - NTSB

Factual documents recently made public by the US National Transportation Safety Board reveal that Gulfstream Aerospace did not fully investigate two wing-drop incidents that preceded the 2 April 2011 fatal crash of a G650 in Roswell, New Mexico.

Aircraft 6002, the second of five flight test aircraft in the programme, scraped its right wing seconds after becoming airborne. It then ploughed along the ground, caught fire and eventually became engulfed in flames as it exited the runway on the right side. The two pilots and two flight test engineers - who were all killed inside the aircraft by smoke and soot inhalation and burns - were performing the ninth and final test of the day as part of Flight 153, a heavy take-off weight field test performance flight with 10˚ of flaps and the right engine at idle to determine lift-off and climb-out speeds that would later be used for US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) certification runs. The tests are needed to develop procedures that pilots will follow after engine failure late in a take-off run.

UPDATE: Russian aviation blogger Sergey Dolya, who is on-scene in Jakarta, shows us the full Superjet 100 flight path. As a grease pencil retracing of radar data, its accuracy is difficult to gauge, but it gives some idea of the aircraft's course and environment as it circled what appears to be the Mount Salak volcano. Local reports indicate the pilot requested to descend from 10,000ft to 6,000ft shortly before the aircraft disappeared from radar screens. The Superjet was flying through an area with mountains as high as 7,500 feet. There is a sudden and sharp left turn indicated shortly the Superjet was lost. But, again, it's hard to judge the accuracy of the picture without actual radar data.

Sukhoi CEO Mikhail Pogosyan flies tomorrow to Jakarta to personally oversee the investigation of the Superjet crash, according to Russian media reports.


Sukhoi confirms on spokeswoman Olga Kayukova's Facebook page that a Superjet 100 went missing 20min after take-off on second demonstration flight from Jakarta, Indonesia. More news coverage is available here.

The first demonstration flight from Halim Perdamakusama Airport earlier today was completed successfully. A Russian photographer, Marina Lystseva, posted photos on her blog of Sukhoi pilot Sergei Alexander Yablontsev giving instructions to another photographer before the first or second flight. Lystseva flew on board the first demonstration flight, but it wasn't clear from her postings if she was on the second. "It was already a demo flight," she wrote, as translated from Cyrillic by Google. "I also fly."  

The second flight apparently disappeared from radar shortly after takeoff at 14:35 local time. "We are carrying out search operations, [and have] set up operational headquarters," Sukhoi says, via Google translation.

Jakarta was the latest stop on a global demonstration tour of the 75- to 95-seat Superjet 100. At each stop, the company has invited local airlines, aviation journalists and government officials on board for a series of demonstration flights. This morning, the Superjet 100 was decorated in Sky Aviation interior colours on the first flight, with glasses of champagne offered by flight attendants to the 47 passengers aboard, according to Lystseva. Sky Aviation is an important Superjet customer, expecting the airframer to delivery 12 of the regional jets later this year.

Movie Monday subjects are sometimes tough to decide. This week, for instance. Do we go with the Collier Trophy homage, in honour of the 2012 award that is being presented on Thursday to the Boeing 787? Or do we make it about the winglet, a la the vortex-reducing airframe accessory unveiled last Wednesday for the 737 Max? Alas, nobody ever won the Collier Trophy for inventing a wingtip device.

But we have the next best thing. Richard Whitcomb developed the methodology for applying winglets. He also claimed the Collier Trophy in 1954 for inventing the area rule, which adds a pinch in the fuselage aft of the wing leading edge to minimise drag at transonic speeds. In yet another revelatory moment, Whitcomb also came up with the supercritical wing, which can hold more fuel with no drag penalty compared to a thinner wing at the same cruise speed. 

The video above unfortunately cuts off just before Whitcomb discusses winglets. But this video released shortly after Whitcomb's death provides a few more details.

Boeing's Sugar Volt research programme, if it progresses from paper to structure, looks like a perfect candidate to one day replace today's turboprop configurations like the Q400 and ATR 42/72 in 20 years or so.

With a 70% cut in fuel burn compared to today's aircraft in that size category, and no externally whirling machinery like propellers, who's going to argue...

Pratt & Whitney allowed a group of reporters on board the 747SP flying testbed today at Bradley airport near Hartford, Connecticut. Two days ago, the former Korean Air airliner now owned by P&W completed the first flight of the PW1217G, the engine designed to power the Mitsubishi Regional Jet (MRJ). It's another step towards the introduction of a new kind of engine featuring a new kind of propulsion technology -- a 113kg (250lb) gear that decouples the speeds of the fan and low pressure compressor.  If Bombardier's schedule holds, a different version of the geared turbofan will fly for the first time aboard the CSeries by the end of this year.

Who came up with the dual-feather blended winglet concept that Boeing revealed earlier today?

Boeing says it owns the intellectual property on the split wingtip design for the 737 Max.

But that claim was only made because three different reporters asked about the technology's ownership in a teleconference this morning programme manager Beverly Wyse and chief engineer Michael Teal.

That's probably because the similarity with the already unveiled Aviation Partners winglet is too much to ignore. Aviation Parnters chief executive Joe Clark proudly showed off his new winglet design about six months ago at the NBAA annual convention.

Boeing's released images so far appear to show a few differences. Boeing's lower feather seems to end at a straight edge, while the Aviation Partners design curves slightly. There also seems to be more convex shaping in the upper feather of the Aviation Partners wingtip.