ON THE RISE SINGLE MINDED REALITY CHECK ANNUAL INDUSTRY Textron Aviation advances Boeing revises ground SNAPSHOT CHARTS plans for new clean-sheet rules governing range 787 FLEET GROWTH turboprop with launch set and seat-count figures CENSUS P24 for next Oshkosh show 10 for airliner models 15 FLIGINTERNHTAT IONAL 11-17 AUGUST 2015 COMBAT AIRCRAFT HOVER THE LINE US Marine Corps makes history as it declares first F-35B squadron ready for action ISSN 0015-3710 £3.50 33 9 770015 371273 C Series Q Series CRJ Series Progress mostly happens in inches, in tweaks, and in Ingenuity increments. But sometimes there’s a shift that changes everything. Those leaps require vision, intelligence, in Flight. and effort. They require the kind of courage that made flight possible in the first place. It’s this boldness that drives Bombardier’s relentless pursuit of excellence, and has seen us create the cleanest, quietest and most profitable aircraft in the skies. Bombardier, and the Evolution of Mobility, are trademarks of Bombardier Inc. or its subsidiaries. ©2015 Bombardier Inc. All rights reserved. FLIGINTERNHTAT IONAL VOLUME 187 NUMBER 5501 11-17 AUGUST 2015 NEWS ON THE RISE SINGLE MINDED REALITY CHECK ANNUAL INDUSTRY Textron Aviation advances Boeing revises ground SNAPSHOT CHARTS plans for new clean-sheet rules governing range 787 FLEET GROWTH turboprop with launch set and seat-count figures CENSUS P24 for next Oshkosh show 10 for airliner models 15 THIS WEEK 8 Seattle site joins MRJ development FLIGINTERNHTAT IONAL 10 India finally kills off MMRCA. 11-17 AUGUST 2015 Volaris seeks to slot in further A321s. Textron to unveil turboprop single at next Oshkosh COMBAT AIRCRAFT HOVER THE LINE 11 MH370 debris ‘unlikely to aid search’ US Marine Corps makes history as it declares first F-35B squadron ready for action AIR TRANSPORT 12 Flap setting errors led to fatal MASWings DHC-6-300 crash at Kudat. Ukraine conflict hits An-140 supply chain as ISSN 0015-3710 Antonov suspends programme £3.50 33 9 770015 371273 13 Strong call for action as US Gulf subsidy docket Lockheed Martin FIN_110815_301.indd 1 06/08/2015 10:10 closes. COVER IMAGE Remaining A330 values under pressure. An initial unit of US Marine IAG firms deal for new batch of widebodies Corps aviators flying the 14 Investigators give Greenland Dash 8 pilot credit Gulfstream short take-off and vertical for action at Nuuk. GAMA data positive for business jet makers P21 landing Lockheed Martin ‘New generation’ L-410 starts certification trial. F-35B have been declared 15 Reality alters Boeing’s assumptions COVER STORY ready for combat P9 DEFENCE 9 F-35B finally operational but spotlight still on 16 Dutch tanker assists Poland as European ties programme US Marine Corps declares capability strengthen. milestone as Lockheed Martin says big issues Egypt welcomes F-16Cs from the USA as embargo have been addressed is lifted 17 Serbia seeks new rotorcraft. FEATURES K-Max to inform cargo UAS concept. 24 WORLD AIRLINER CENSUS Making it count Defensive aids to boost USAF’s unmanned fleet Our annual snapshot of the global airliner fleet 18 RAF picks Selex for Puma upgrades. shows deliveries of current single-aisle types are Lynx AH7 flypast marks end of British Army holding up, while the 787 has debuted in the top BEHIND THE HEADLINES service 10 mainline aircraft Flightglobal’s Latin American BUSINESS AVIATION air transport expert Ghim-Lay REGULARS Yeo journeyed to Mexico to 20 Sabreliner unveils its family planning. interview Enrique Beltranena EASA grants approval to BBJ scimitar wing-tip 7 Comment the chief executive of carrier modification. 46 Straight & Level Volaris (P10), in which he NetJets to offer Citation Latitude from July 2016 47 Letters outlined the airline’s fleet NEWS FOCUS 50 Classified plans, including its intention 21 GAMA figures paint positive picture 52 Jobs to take more Airbus A321s 22 Airline profits soar on lower oil price 59 Working Week Rex Features NEXT WEEK RUSSIA On the eve of Moscow’s MAKS air show, we survey the country’s varied aerospace challenges and opportunities Jim Winchester Dassault, India formally cancels MMRCA requirement P10. British Army Aviation Corps retires its last Lynx AH7s P18 Flightglobal_Media_Banner_Nov2014_AM193.inddflightglobal.com 1 11-17 August 2015 | Flight International2014-10-24 |2:05 3 PM CONTENTS IMAGE OF THE WEEK Bombardier 415 water bombers operated by France’s Sécurité Civile agency fly from their Marseille airport base to tackle a July wildfire near St Jean d’Illac in the southwest of the country. France operates a fleet of 12 of the Canada-built aircraft, which are powered by twin PW210 engines View more great aviation shots online and in our weekly tablet edition: flightglobal.com/ flight-international Rex Features THE WEEK IN NUMBERS QUESTION OF THE WEEK Last week, we asked: Can Airbus still deliver its first A320neo in 2015? You said: 4.5% Flightglobal dashboard 23% 51% Russia slumped but “resurgent” Ireland, Greece, Portugal Yes, Touch and Spain drove H1 European airport traffic growth figures comfortably and go TOTAL VOTES: €27m Finmeccanica 2,664 The value of UK MoD contact with Selex ES – to run a just-in-time spares service for 15 aircraft types at 45 bases 26% Not a chance This week, we ask: The US Marine Corps’ Flightglobal dashboard IOC declaration for the F-35B? 300 ❑ Shows how far the programme has come The number of aircraft Iran needs to buy in the next decade ❑ Important, but challenges remain ❑ Papering over the cracks to replace a fleet of some 160 jets averaging 23 years old Vote at flightglobal.com Flightglobal’s premium news and data service delivers breaking air transport stories with profiles, schedules, and fleet, financial and traffic information flightglobal.com/dashboard DownloadDownload the thenew latest Commercial Commercial Engines Engines Directory Report nowDownload withnow with enhanced further The enhanced data Engine and data in-depth and in-depth Directory. market market analysis analysis flightglobal.com/ComEngDirectory flightglobal.com/commengines13flightglobal.com/commengines CFM 2015 strip ad.indd 1 10/06/2015 13:06 4 | Flight International | 11-17 August 2015 flightglobal.com Flight_CFM_25x180.indd 1 19/07/2012 17:51 E-JETS It’s time for fresh perspectives on airline fl eet strategies. We’ve just published “The New Metrics of Success.” It’s a fresh perspective on fl eet strategies based upon our premise that shareholders benefi t more from a return-on-investment emphasis than a unit-cost-centric view focused on a fi ght for market share. Visit newmetricsofsuccess.com to learn more. Because at Embraer we don’t just build airplanes – we help build our industry. 1,100+ E-JETS. 70 AIRLINES. 50 COUNTRIES. The most CNS/ATM upgrades. The least risk. Rockwell Collins is your lowest-risk choice for affordable C-130 CNS/ATM CNS/ATM upgrade programs upgrades. We’ve installed, or are on contract to install, our Flight2™ USCG HC-130H CNS/ATM avionics, with their advanced displays and integrated military/civil flight management system, on more than 150 C-130 aircraft in 14 nations USAF EC-130H and on 419 USAF C/KC-135s. All on schedule and on budget. Access the global International C-130 aircraft airspace with confidence. USAF C/KC-135, KC-10 rockwellcollins.com/tankertransport © 2015 Rockwell Collins. All rights reserved. COMMENT A promise not broken The all-purpose F-35 Joint Strike Fighter would be controversial even if it weren’t wildly behind schedule and over budget – so one milestone reached on time means more than it seems ometimes a purely symbolic achievement actually Smeans something. The Lockheed Martin F-35 programme has a lot of promises still to keep. Within five years, programme officials must now complete development of all three variants, reduce unit prices by 25% and sort out a cur- rent mess of a maintenance system. Meeting those measures will be challenging enough on its own, but probably impossible given another downturn in public confidence caused by more missed deadlines and budget limits. By declaring initial operational capability (IOC) with the first Lockheed Martin F-35B squadron on the last Lockheed Martin day of July, the US Marine Corps uses a mostly sym- One way to meet deadlines bolic act to nudge the programme in the right direction. In purely technical terms, passing the IOC milestone sacked and Secretary of Defense Robert Gates acknowl- in July 2015, as promised in 2010, is not by itself sig- edged a new budget overrun and a three-year delay. nificant. The USMC established its own criteria for When the marines promised five years ago to achieve IOC of the F-35B in 2015, few would – or The F-35 will never satisfy should – have believed them to keep their word. But the programme really has changed. The back-to- critics who believe its basic back appointments of Vice Adm David Venlet and Lt design is unworthy of its role Gen Christopher Bogdan transformed a dysfunctional F-35 joint programme office into a bureaucracy that ac- tually solves problems. achieving IOC, then came up with a waiver for one cri- The F-35, of course, will never satisfy a global chorus terion that could not be met in time. Compared to the of critics who believe the fighter’s basic design is un- more rigid and consequential status of full operational worthy of its role regardless of how much time and capability, IOC is more symbol than substance. money supports its development. But there is an unmistakable sense of momentum But the best argument against the F-35 has always growing around the programme. The atmosphere been a decade-long track record of expensively broken seems completely changed from five years ago.