KC-390 FLIES CLARK HITS BACK POWERING 777X EMBRAER CALLS Emirates boss attacks big GE ready to engine-test PATH TO TAKE-OFF US airlines for demanding series of technologies it ITS TOUGHEST TEST administration restricts believes will make the THIS WEEK P7 open skies with Gulf 9 difference on GE9X 11 FLIGHT INTERNATIONAL 10-16 FEBRUARY 2015 LASTINGINDIA SPECIAL DECISIONS Why transforming the air force is proving to be a long, hard climb £3.50 07 9 770015 371273 Maximizing your vision is our vision. At Rockwell Collins, we’re always looking forward – and so are our solutions. Like the head-worn technologies that provide unprecedented situational awareness to military aircraft pilots via fused sensor imagery. Or our head-up guidance systems (HGS™) that combine synthetic and wide-spectrum infrared vision to make whiteout conditions appear clear as day. And even the predictive features of our new MultiScan ThreatTrack™ weather radar, helping you see threats of turbulence, lightning and hail, before they happen. All to help you see the right information at the right time, every time. rockwellcollins.com/maximizingvision FLIGHT INTERNATIONAL VOLUME 187 NUMBER 5475 10-16 FEBRUARY 2015 NEWS KC-390 FLIES CLARK HITS BACK POWERING 777X EMBRAER CALLS Emirates boss attacks big GE ready to engine-test PATH TO TAKE-OFF US airlines for demanding series of technologies it ITS TOUGHEST TEST administration restricts believes will make the THIS WEEK P7 open skies with Gulf 9 difference on GE9X 11 THIS WEEK FLIGHT 6 ICAO sets time for tracking standard INTERNATIONAL 7 10-16 FEBRUARY 2015 TransAsia ATR 72s grounded after fatal Taipei THE WIDTH OF THIS IMAGE crash. LASTINGINDIA SPECIAL MUST REMAIN THE SAME DECISIONS Embraer uplifted as KC-390 makes debut flight Why transforming the air force is proving to be a long, hard climb 8 NASA plan to beat the boom. BUT THE HEIGHT CAN CHANGE Report criticises UK’s contribution to anti-IS IF NEEDED strikes. Helicopter deal is Milestone for lessor GECAS 9 Clark fights corner in open skies spat. NetJets bags rights for Phenom 300 at £3.50 07 London City 9 770015 371273 Rami Khanna-Prade COVER IMAGE AIR TRANSPORT We look at New Delhi’s top 10 Airbus studies extra seating for XWB. aerospace priorities ahead KLM eyes E-Jet and MRJ90 to succeed Fokker 70 of the Aero India show, 11 GE set to trial new GE9X technology where the formidable 12 Boeing to end Airbus’s reign as Monarch reduces Su-30MKI will be among realm. NetJets Europe NetJets Phenom 300s approved for London City P9 the flying attractions P20 Investors to fly flag with new Nicaraguan carrier. Air Astana offers lie-flat economy class to Europe 13 UAC is in it for the long haul. COVER STORY China Eastern buys into CAE’s Australia school 20 All fired up India aims to be a regional military and economic superpower – but faces huge DEFENCE challenges in achieving that goal. Successive 14 Pentagon submits plan for increased aviation procurement and international partnership spending programmes have stalled or are behind schedule, 15 Sixth-gen fighter initiative seeks to learn from past while high taxes, inadequate infrastructure and failings government meddling are slowing the growth of the 16 Sikorsky gets set to spin up S-97 Raider’s coaxial airline sector. Ahead of India’s big air show, Aero BEHIND THE HEADLINES blades. India, we examine where its aviation is heading Our Airline Business Daily TAI begins flight test programme for Block B Anka team was on the ground in NEWS FOCUS REGULARS Denver, Colorado, to cover 17 US Army helicopter ambitions in peril 5 Comment the Routes Americas forum 19 (P12). Meanwhile, Flight Daily Load-shift cited in 747 crash 32 Straight & Level Dominic Perry 33 Letters News Editor BUSINESS AVIATION got an update on the 777X’s 36 Classified 18 Luxaviation’s global vision. GE9X engine programme, in 39 Jobs Cincinatti (P11) Upgrade, rebrand for Piper’s Meridian. Latitude stays on track for Q2 certification 43 Working Week NEXT WEEK AUSTRALIA Ahead of the Avalon air show, we go Down Under with the Royal Flying Doctor Service and Mahindra Aerospace Embraer US Air Force, Pentagon proposes budget boost for military aviation P14. KC-390 tanker/transport makes debut flight P7 ownloadDownload the thenew new Commercial Commercial Engines Engines Directory Report Dwownload withnow updated enhanced with The enhanced data Engine and data in-depth and in-depthDirectory. market market analysis analysis flJightglobal.com/ComEngDirectoryÀLJKWJOREDOFRPFRPPHQJLQHVKWJOREDOFRPFRPPHQJLQHV flightglobal.com 10-16 February 2015 | Flight International | 3 CONTENTS IMAGE OF THE WEEK Abu Dhabi’s Etihad Airways gave its first Boeing 787 a revenue-service debut on 2 February, on an inaugural flight to Düsseldorf, Germany. Flightglobal’s Ascend Fleets database records the carrier as having received a single 787-9, with firm orders for 40 more, plus 30 787-10s View more great aviation shots online flightglobal.com/flight-international and in our weekly tablet edition: Etihad Airways THE WEEK IN NUMBERS QUESTION OF THE WEEK Last week, we asked: Best Air Force One? You said: 10% 27% 12% Flightglobal A380 Lockheed Stake Qatar Airways has acquired in IAG, parent of fellow Constellation Oneworld carrier British Airways TOTAL 3% VOTES:TOTAL 707 $65m 3,925VOTES: Flightglobal X,XXX What Canada’s Chorus Aviation will pay for a 15-year life 55% 3% extension programme for 19 Bombardier Dash 8-300s 747-8 747-200 This week, we ask: Are US airlines right to lobby to restrict open skies with Gulf? 74 ❑ Yes, subsidised Gulf airlines have unfair advantage Flightglobal ❑ No, stop whingeing and improve your service Lie-flat beds on La Compagnie’s all-business Boeing 757, ❑ Relax, overlap in routes is insignificant which will launch a London-to-New York service on 24 April 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 4 | Flight International | 10-16 February 2015 flightglobal.com COMMENT Is big spending back? After years of frugality, industry will greet with relief the US administration’s proposed defence budget. But hard political reality means this appearance of generosity may not be all it seems n the surface, the US military’s half-trillion dollar Obudget request for fiscal year 2016, unveiled on 2 February, feels quite profligate compared with recent, sequestration-constrained years. The Lockheed Martin F-35 programme is at a critical moment. It needs to dramatically ramp up production to drive the economies of scale that will lower unit prices. Next year’s budget request complies, with a line item that increases F-35 production by 50%. The budget also gives the US Air Force the money to ramp up development of a new bomber while increas- ing production of the Boeing KC-46 tanker, which, along with the F-35, are the service’s three sacred ac- Rex Features quisition priorities. Who will blink first? But there’s still enough left over to support several easily neglected programmes. A long-range cruise mis- cannot agree on what they want the aircraft to do. sile, which had been deferred in past budgets, gets ac- If you are a defence contractor, the FY2016 budget celerated in this one. A long-awaited replacement for request is still not the boom era of the middle of the past decade, but it is not so bad a deal either. The prob- The Obama administration’s lem with that perception is that this budget proposal is really just a wish-list. Strictly speaking, the Obama ad- budget proposal is a wish-list. ministration’s budget proposal is, in fact, illegal. Strictly speaking, it’s illegal The Budget Control Act of 2011 – passed amid a na- tional panic over soaring deficits – sets strict spending caps on annual outlays over a decade. Unless Congress the Northrop T-38C advanced jet trainer is also fully passes new legislation relieving the cap, the FY2016 supported. The Lockheed U-2S has barely survived request exceeds it by about $36 billion. It is a deliberate previous attempts to retire the fleet, but gets the bless- attempt by the White House to make Congress account- ing of this kinder, friendlier budget request. able for dealing with the spending caps that were It’s true that not every programme emerges as a win- passed five years ago. ner. There is still not enough money to persuade the In this game of budgetary chicken, it is still not USAF to continue flying the Fairchild Republic A-10, clear who will blink first. If Congress fails to amend leaving it to Congress – again – to ride to the rescue. the spending caps, the seemingly generous FY2016 The US Navy’s aged quest to field a carrier-based sur- budget plan could become an arbitrary, budget-slash- veillance and strike unmanned air system is deferred ing fiasco. ■ three years, but that is largely because service officials See Defence P14 On the right track fter Air France flight 447 was lost in the Atlantic in sea is deep. Either the position updates should be every A2009 the industry debated what it should do to en- 5min, or there must be additional location clues, like sure that never again would an aircraft’s oceanic posi- deployable emergency locator transmitters/flight data tion be so ill-defined that it takes two years to find the recorders, or a system for transmitting comprehensive wreckage. But nothing actually happened. data back to base when a distress situation triggers the This time, since Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 communications link.