FlightGlobal.com July 2021 RISE of the open rotor Airbus, Boeing cool subsidies feud p12 Home US Air Force studies advantage resupply rockets p28 MC-21 leads Russian renaissance p44 9 770015 371327 £4.99 Sonic gloom Ton up Investors A400M gets pull plug a lift with on Aerion 100th delivery 07 p30 p26 Comment All together now Green shoots Irina Lavrishcheva/Shutterstock While CFM International has set out its plan to deliver a 20% fuel saving from its next engine, only the entire aviation ecosystem working in concert can speed up decarbonisation ohn Slattery, the GE Aviation restrictions, the RISE launch event governments have a key role to chief executive, has many un- was the first time that Slattery and play here through incentivising the doubted skills, but perhaps his Safran counterpart, Olivier An- production and use of SAF; avia- the least heralded is his abil- dries, had met face to face since tion must influence policy, he said. Jity to speak in soundbites while they took up their new positions. It He also noted that the engine simultaneously sounding natural. was also just a week before what manufacturers cannot do it alone: It is a talent that politicians yearn would have been the first day of airframers must also drive through for, but which few can master; the Paris air show – the likely launch aerodynamic and efficiency im- frequently the individual simply venue for the RISE programme. provements for their next-genera- sounds stilted, as though they were However, out of the havoc tion products. reading from an autocue. wreaked by the coronavirus crisis Indeed, Andries estimated that What to make, then, of Slattery’s has blossomed a drive to acceler- a 10% fuel-burn gain could be de- exhortations during the launch of ate aviation’s decarbonisation. rived from airframe enhancements; CFM International’s RISE engine RISE offers great promise in that new powerplants are but “one com- demonstrator? There he called on respect – assuming the myriad ponent of the overall efficiency”, the engine manufacturer’s rivals technical hurdles can be overcome he noted. That becomes even more to “engage now and compete with – but is unlikely to enter service un- true when novel architectures such us” as “ultimately the planet will be til the mid-2030s. In the meantime, as RISE’s open rotor design are the beneficiary”. the thrust for the accelerated re- proposed – ever-closer integration Was it simply a rhetorical flourish duction of carbon emissions must with the airframe is vital to achieve or an expression of genuine hope? come from somewhere else. its full potential. Sure, he was speaking from a po- The most likely short-term hope The underlying message from all sition of strength – the first of the is sustainable aviation fuel (SAF). this? No single strand of the aero- narrowbody engine manufacturers For example, Rolls-Royce, as space industry can act in isolation: to reveal its likely future direction part of its net-zero roadmap, has airlines, engine and aircraft manu- – but the new GE Aviation boss is committed that its in-production facturers, and regulators and gov- correct: to stay competitive, Pratt & engines will be fully SAF compliant ernments must all work in concert Whitney and others will be forced by 2023. to deliver an environment in which to match the 20% fuel-burn saving But cost and availability remain decarbonisation efforts can be promised by CFM, leading to avia- significant impediments to the accelerated. Or, to leave the final tion as a whole reducing its impact widespread uptake of biofuel. word to Slattery: “There is no one on the climate. Launching R-R’s roadmap, technology or company that can These are extraordinary times, of Warren East, the engine firm’s do this alone.” ◗ course: thanks to Covid-19 travel chief executive, pointed out that See p6, p14 July 2021 Flight International 3 In focus CFM ascends with RISE 6 F-35 faces toughest fi ght 16 Atlas ready to soar 26 Max 10 makes fi rst fl ight 8 Putting the SAF in Safran 18 USAF launches rocket study 28 ‘Hijacking’ sparks discord 9 MC-21 in certifi cation push 19 Sonic gloom? 30 USAF to bridge tanker gap 10 Green to the Max 20 Fare’s fair in UAM? 32 End in sight to WTO row 12 Pratt & Whitney’s big fans 22 Embraer’s regional Net-zero heroes 14 eSTOL sparks into life 24 makeover 36 30 Hitting the barrier Aerion’s AS2 programme runs out of time FlightGlobal.com July 2021 RISE of the open rotor Airbus, Boeing cool subsidies feud p12 Home US Air Force studies advantage resupply rockets p28 MC-21 leads Russian renaissance p44 9 770015 371327 £4.99 Sonic gloom Ton up Investors A400M gets pull plug a lift with on Aerion 100th delivery 07 p30 p26 AirTeamImages 48 Regulars Comment 3 Best of the rest 40 Straight & Level 74 Letters 76 Jobs 81 Women in aviation 82 4 Flight International July 2021 Contents In depth Domestic imperative 44 Stronger together 52 Rostec’s revival 64 Irkut’s MC-21 is on track and set Russian military aviation sector Future of aerospace brightens to champion Russian engines is targeting fi ghter exports under Russian state ownership and homegrown composites Russia’s revolutionaries 58 Printing the future 66 Local hero 48 Owner of the Kamov and Mil Additive manufacturing Updated Il-114 is approaching design houses is increasing Ready for RIAT’s return 70 service entry in its -300 guise its share of the civil market Plans for comeback next July 32 64 58 July 2021 Flight International 5 Visit FlightGlobal Premium for all the latest aviation news and insight FlightGlobal.com Open rotor design features single rotating fan stage followed by static guide vanes CFM ascends with RISE engine Joint venture reveals open rotor demonstrator programme aiming to deliver 20% fuel-burn saving for aircraft in 2030s CFM International Dominic Perry London at the 1988 Farnborough air show Dijoud, executive manager, CFM aboard a McDonnell Douglas RISE programme, systems engi- MD-80 – and the French fi rm’s neering at Safran Aircraft Engines. FM International has more recent Sage2 demonstrator. RISE features a single rotating launched RISE – a new However, improvements in ma- fan, with variable pitch carbonfi bre engine demonstrator pro- terials technology and digital blades, behind which sits a row of gramme featuring an open modelling have enabled the part- static guide vanes. Safran’s earlier Crotor architecture that promises to ners to eliminate the signifi cant Sage2 demonstrator featured a deliver a 20% fuel effi ciency gain size, weight and noise penalties contra-rotating second fan stage, compared with today’s narrow- inherent in those earlier designs, but that required “complicated in- body powerplants. says Arjan Hegeman, general man- ternal structures which were very Flight tests under the RISE – or ager, advanced technology opera- heavy”, says Dijoud. revolutionary innovation for sus- tion at GE Aviation. The turbomachinery of the tainable engines – eff ort are sched- system is contained in a booster, uled for the middle of the decade, Keep it simple comprising a high-temperature and maturing the technologies required An open rotor architecture provides high-speed core and a high-speed to enable a new powerplant to “huge propulsive effi ciency” but is low-pressure turbine. Dijoud says it enter service in the 2030s. able to “fl y at the speed of today’s is “too early” to specify the number Programme goals include reduc- turbofans”, says Hegeman. of stages across each, however. ing fuel consumption and carbon Fan diameter has been signifi - Temperatures and pressure ra- dioxide emissions by more than cantly reduced, to 144-156in (365- tios in the core will exceed those 20% compared with CFM’s current 396cm) – in line with the external that are seen in current Leap en- Leap engine, which itself delivered diameter of a current-generation gines, says Hegeman, while declin- a 15% improvement in fuel burn single-aisle engine – meaning the ing to off er specifi cs. over the preceding CFM56. engine can be installed on a nar- That step-change in performance RISE builds on decades of rowbody-size aircraft. will be enabled by the use of ad- research into open rotor designs at In addition, the partners have vanced materials, an area which GE Aviation and Safran, CFM’s joint chosen to “simplify” the overall ar- has been “our strength and focus” owners, including the mid-1980s chitecture compared with previous across all generations of engines, GE36 – which made an appearance open rotor engines, says Delphine he says. That includes the ceramic 6 Flight International July 2021 Propulsion Technology matrix composites already in use benefits, but the generated power shape for “both performance and in the shrouds of Leap-family en- also provides distributed propul- acoustics”, says Hegeman. This will gines, plus the use of 3D printing to sion opportunities for the airfram- allow RISE to “meet, with margin, produce novel structures – stator er,” says Hegeman. “It’s a foun- future acoustics regulations”. vanes featuring internal channels dation to allow that to happen. It The RISE demonstrator engine will to provide better cooling proper- secures the real estate for the air- be sized to deliver 30,000lb of thrust ties, for example. framers to continue to build on.” (133kN), says Dijoud, but “we have These will “proliferate further” Although the mid-2020s flight- flexibility on that”. Cruise speeds into the core design, he says, where test goal is just four years away, equal to current levels “and even a they will be joined by other tech- Hegeman points out that CFM is little bit further” will be achievable nologies that “we are not at liberty building on decades of research with the open rotor design.