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Recently in Paris Air Show 2011 Category

Sukhoi_Business_Jet_2_560.jpgLAS VEGAS -- When the Sukhoi Superjet Twitter account checked into McCarran Airport on Foursquare late last week, more than an eyebrow's worth of interest was raised. A sign, perhaps, of the 100-seater's growing presence in business aviation, with its recently announced Sukhoi Business Jet (SBJ).

At Sunday's NBAA press day, Switzerland-based Comlux ordered two green SSJ100s which will be converted to an SBJ at the VIP charter company's Indianapolis, Indiana facility starting in 2014. The aircraft will be fitted with auxiliary fuel tanks in the factory in Komsomolsk-on-Amur, Russia to achieve non-stop London-New York and Moscow-Dubai flights.

The name Comlux may be unfamiliar in commercial aviation, but the Zurich-based company operates a fleet of 19 aircraft, including five A320 ACJ family aircraft, seven Bombardier Global and three Challenger family aircraft, as well as a Dassault Falcon 900LX and Boeing 767.

While it remains a modest order, Comlux, which has become a staple at NBAA and MEBA shows in past years, bringing its Airbus ACJs to the static display, has thrown its weight behind the Russian regional jet, providing an unexpected Western stamp of approval from a major industry player.

Rendering Credit Superjet International
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Boeing 787 Dreamliner N787BA ZA001
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US Airways Airbus A330-200

PARIS -- During the Airbus concluding show press conference with CEO Tom Enders and COO Customers John Leahy, I posed the following question to  press conference. Here's the interchange:
FlightBlogger: In the time period between 2017 when you have the A350-1000 entering service and the 2025-2030 A30X, what is your planned technology road map look like between those two aircraft?

Enders: I think we have a very good technology road map, but we're not going to share the details for this road map. Let me just say we're working obviously on engine makers, we focus on the aerodynamics, we focus on wings we focus on flight management systems. And particularly we are focusing on reliability and maintainability of any new single aisle aircraft in the future, bringing the cost down for composites, all that kind of stuff. So that in broad brush is a very comprehensive, and not inexpensive [research and technology] roadmap for the future.

FB: And does that imply that on some levels you guys are actually looking at an A330neo, based on the success you've had with the A320neo?

Enders: [Laughing] That's a bright idea, why haven't we thought about that?

Leahy: You've been talking to (AirAsia CEO) Tony Fernandes? That's one of his ideas.

Enders: I think we have enough on our plate right now, thank you very much.
On a tactical level, the seemingly rapid decline in interest to pursue A350-800, also suffering a two year delay, would leave a hole in the Airbus product lineup to compete against Boeing's 787-9 and -10X. A re-engined A330-200 or -300 may offer significant range and fuel burn improvements as the long-range twin benefits from continuing evolution in engine technology on GEnx, Trent and PurePower engines later in the decade, while allowing for an aircraft to compete on cost with the comparatively low investment that preserves the customer base.

On a strategic level, the period between 2015 and 2025 fits within the Airbus methodology of  incrementally evolving platforms to de-risk and improve aircraft of their life, as seen in the first part of Ender's answer about small changes in technology.

Applying Piepenbrock's Red-Blue, which we also know as Toward a Theory of the Evolution of Business Ecosystems, which balances maximum benefit at a given cost and minimum disruption, emphasizes incremental "red" developments rather than large "blue" step changes that have become more and more expensive to achieve with each successive iteration. As it is unfolding now, Airbus' is likely to see this lesson again up close with the leap in technology it's taking on the development of the clean sheet, majority composite A350.

An A330neo would follow the same strategic technology roadmap that saw the A320 become the A320neo and the A300 fuselage serve as the basis for the A310, A330 and A340, and initially the original A350 - a re-winged, re-engined A330. It might not be close at hand, but the A330neo is in Airbus's DNA.
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PARIS -- AirAsia has placed a firm order for 200 A320neo aircraft, the largest single commitment in Airbus history. The firm order will be powered CFM Leap engines.

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PARIS -- Bombardier unveiled its CSeries flight deck for the first time at the show Wednesday, the first commercial application of Rockwell Collins Pro Line Fusion avionics. 

With its twin sidestick controls for the two crew flight deck, the CS100 and CS300 are the first three-axis full fly-by-wire aircraft for Bombardier and a first for the 100 to 149-seat market.

At first glance, many of the CSeries flight deck features may not seem unique and are seen on many widebody aircraft, but when you consider the size of the C100 and C300, the integrated application breaks new ground for commercial aircraft of its size.

The Canadian airframer employs five 15.1in (38.4cm) displays, which have become an industry standard for new flight decks, with two primary flight displays (PFD) on the outboard and two inboard and a center console multifunction displays (MFD) that allow for information to move across multiple screens.


The aircraft's flight control system, a closed-loop fly-by-wire architecture "keeps the pilot in the loop," says Robert Dewar, CSeries program vice president. "The ultimate control of the aircraft always remains with the pilot, so the pilot can choose actually to exceed what the flight deck is telling him. If a pilot wants to do an aggressive maneuver, he is not limited by the aircraft."

Closed-loop fly-by-wire means that a pilot sidestick and pedal input results in a rate of roll, pitch and yaw for the aircraft, not a set deflection of the control surfaces that results in a varying aircraft response at different speeds. Further, Bombardier has opted for a moving auto-throttle system, not auto-thrust, providing a tactile and visual indication to the crew about engine activity.

Bombardier and Rockwell Collins have taken a "head-up, eyes out" approach to the CSeries flight deck, integrating the radio panel into the glareshield, along with an option for dual heads-up displays that provide flight path vectoring and flare guidance.

The integrated flight management system (IFMS) enables RNP .1 navigation, continuous descent capability, along with autoland CAT IIIa baseline and IIIb optional, while the HUD allows for low visibility take-offs.



The avionics package is provisioned for NextGen/SESAR, ADS-B in, and allows for precise altitude, speed and arrival time for waypoint crossing.

Dewar says none of the capabilities of the flight deck features are factored into the aircraft's touted 20% better fuel efficiency over the Airbus A318 and A319 and Boeing 737-600 and -700, while saying the precision navigation capabilities could save a further 2%.

Further, Bombardier is offering an optional Class Two electronic flight bag to achieve a paperless working environment, and also features electronic checklists with closed-loop items that automatically indicate completion when performed by the crew.

The flight deck capabilities are likely to grow in the future with provisions for enhanced and synthetic vision systems to be displayed on both heads-up and heads-down displays.

Dewar says the flight deck is "well defined" and the company is already producing parts. The avionics test rigs are expected to be up and running "later this summer" and will be loaded into the Complete Integrated Aircraft Systems Test Area (CIASTA) before the end of the year.

Dewar says pilot training for the CS100 and CS300, which will enter service in 2013 and 2014, respectively, will take 20 days.
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PARIS -- ANA has unveiled its colors for its first two 787s, Airplanes Eight and Nine.

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