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COMMERCIAL AIRCRAFT World ReviewIntroduction
The last year as well as the coming year will witness major changes in the world of commercial aviation. In terms of airliner manufacturers, the world is now dominated by two huge companies, Airbus Industrie and Boeing. News of airliner types is currently dominated by very large aircraft and the burgeoning growth of the regional jet market. Engines or power-plants for these airliners are as important to an airliners success and economical operation as the airframe. The fourth big issue is one of airliner safety, continually improving on a worldwide scale, but in certain regions of the world, deteriorating. Linked to this issue is the safe usage of older - geriatric - jet aircraft as well as the reduction of noise from these older aircraft to enable them to continue in operational service, at least in the more developed regions of the world.
This encyclopedia details all the civilian airliner types currently known to be in commercial service on a worldwide basis. Several historically significant types that have recently been retired from airline service such as the HS121 Trident and the Tu-114 are also included. For each airliner type this encyclopedia provides a detailed history, technical descriptions, detailed specifications, a three-view drawing, performance data, known (current) operators of a type and fleet data. The lower determining factor for an aircraft's inclusion is capacity for 19 or more seats or the equivalent in cargo carrying capacity. "Paper projects" are not covered, unless as in the case of the Airbus A3XX there has been a commitment to proceed with manufacture, or as in the case of the British Aerospace RJ-X, first metal has been cut on the prototype against likely orders. No rotary craft or helicopters are included either.
As recently as the mid-1980's the world's large airliner manufacturers were profuse. The Soviet Union (USSR) was still intact and their famous manufacturers Antonov, Ilyushin, Tupolev and Yakovlev were designing and building a variety of airliner types, without the need for what we regard as normal market economics, heavily supported by government and for a guaranteed home/communist supported market. In contrast in the US, the names of Fairchild, Lockheed and McDonnell Douglas sat alongside The Boeing Company as significant manufacturers of airliners. In the rest of the world France's huge aircraft industry and companies such as Sud Aviation, Dassault-Breguet and Aerospatiale still existed but their civil airliner expertise had been creamed off in to Airbus. In Britain British Aerospace PLC (Public Limited Company) was one of the survivors of what had been Hawker Siddeley, Avro, Handley Page and Scottish Aviation. Short Brothers was the only other British civil airliner manufacturer. In Brazil, Embraer was still transitioning from infancy to childhood and the other significant airliner manufacturing countries could be numbered on the fingers of two hands - de Havilland Canada, Hanzhong and Harbin in China, LET in Czechoslovakia, Dornier in Germany (Federal - prior to unification of east and west), Fokker in the Netherlands, Iav Bucharest (Rombac) in Romania and CASA in Spain. International airliner manufacturers, such as Airbus Industrie, Avions de Transport Regional (ATR) and Saab-Fairchild, were just starting to come to the fore.
The agglomeration of companies and corporations since this mid 1980's has proceeded apace. The further demise of some historically significant manufacturers of civil airliners has also occurred. Fokker's bankruptcy in March 1996 stunned some but came as no surprise to other observers. Saab announced in 1997 that it was to terminate regional aircraft manufacturing before the end of 1999. This is now fact. Shorts no longer manufacture complete aircraft, the last SD360 airliner being built in 1991 - they are now involved in component manufacture for their parent company, Bombardier. Rombac only built nine One-Eleven's in Bucharest (Romania) and Dornier has lost its independence, now being part of Fairchild Aerospace.
Consolidation and growth of manufacturing companies is none better illustrated than in the aerospace industry. Again the "big two", Boeing and Airbus top the list overall in terms of total sales. In 1998 Boeing's Commercial Aircraft Division notched up sales of $35,545 million, whilst Airbus recorded $13,300 million. Bombardier meanwhile, now manufacturers of Canadair, Learjets, Shorts and deHavilland products, only recorded a figure of $4,288 million. In the equally important engine manufacturing business, similarly based figures saw General Electric as the top company with $10,294 million in sales, whilst United Technologies (now with Pratt & Whitney) recorded $7,876 million and Rolls Royce Aerospace $5,760 million. The rampant merger activity continued in to 1999 but had slowed considerably by the new millennium. In the US, following the merger of Boeing and McDonnell Douglas, their annual aerospace (including defense contracts) revenue projection for the year 2000 was $55,424 million, more than double that of nearest rival, Lockheed Martin.
Actual airliner deliveries were again dominated by Boeing and Airbus in 1999 with 915 aircraft delivered, the two companies rivaling each other for the greater share of the world's airliner market. Between them they delivered 620 and 295 aircraft respectively. In total these deliveries were 16 percent up on the 790 airliners they had delivered in 1998. Of significance, particularly to Boeing, have been large scale commitments from airline's such as Delta Air Lines in the US, to the Boeing product. In October 1997 Delta and Boeing signed a 20-year agreement for Boeing to be the sole supplier of new aircraft to the airline - this could represent deliveries of up to 644 new aircraft. This was of considerable concern to Airbus, who accused Boeing of anticompetitive practices. Continental Airlines in the US has also gone the Boeing way. In another twist of the rivalry between these two megalith airliner suppliers, was the decision by Singapore Airlines. After having ordered seventeen Airbus A340-300's and put them in to service, they switched allegiance to Boeing with their Boeing 777. Singapore Airline's deal for 777's involved Boeing in re-marketing the airline's A340's. However, Airbus were reported to have drawn up a business plan aimed at frustrating Boeing's efforts to re-market these A340's, Airbus allegedly saying that they were not going to support these aircraft to help Boeing!
Airbus though have achieved many world-shattering order breakthrough's. British Airways, always a Boeing customer in recent years, ordered 59 Airbus A320 family aircraft (39 x A319 and 20 x A320) for the first time in November 1998, following its announcement in August that it intended to purchase a total of 188 narrow-body Airbus aircraft. BA put the first of these in to service in September '99 to replace older aircraft such as their Boeing 737-200's. The Latin American TACA Group (Grupo TACA) of airlines, together with LanChile have opted for complete fleet renewal with Airbus aircraft, both A320 family and A340 types. In the US, the country's fifth largest airline US Airways, with a fleet of some 400 aircraft, announced that it planned to rationalize its fleet to become an all Airbus airline. A huge order (with options) for A320 family aircraft (A319/320/321) was supplemented by orders for A330-300's for its growing number of transatlantic schedules. Other big US airlines such as United, Northwest and America West have large and growing fleets of Airbus aircraft. Several of the large airliner leasing companies have also ordered Airbus', including the New Jersey, US leasing company CIT Group with 25 A320-200's and A319's in Spring 1999.
Airbus Industrie achieved a major landmark in 1999 when it delivered its 2000th aircraft. This achievement is all the more remarkable considering its first delivery, an Airbus A300, took place in May 1974. Their 1000th aircraft delivery was achieved after 23 years in March 1993. The 2000th aircraft was an Airbus A340-300 for Lufthansa. With a firm order backlog at Airbus of over 1200 aircraft, Airbus predicts that its 3000th aircraft will be delivered in 2002.
Whilst both Airbus and Boeing are busy selling many of their established short, medium and long-range types, they are also studying new types for the high-capacity, long-range market. Such is the huge investment required for such aircraft that both Airbus and Boeing have been reluctant to make a commitment to proceeding with such a project. However, Airbus have taken the lead in this with their Airbus A3XX, a 556-seater with double-deck passenger cabins and capable of flying London to Singapore or Los Angeles to Tokyo nonstop. .A full commercial go-ahead for the A3XX is expected in mid 2000 but to do this most observers consider that firm orders to the tune of about 40 aircraft would be needed. Prime candidates for these orders are British Airways, Air France, Singapore Airlines, United Airlines and FedEx. With a unit price per aircraft of between $188 million and $227 million, orders per airline will not be vast, so there must be a broader customer base.
Meanwhile Boeing has still not made a decision to proceed with the Boeing 747-400X or the 400X Stretch. These two types could accommodate upwards of 446 and 500 passengers respectively over a range of up to 16,300km. Boeing believes that there is a market for an aircraft larger than the current 747-400 but not large enough at their estimate, of between 400 and 500 aircraft, to justify the huge development costs of a completely new aircraft. Boeing's board in the meantime gave the go-ahead in February 2000 for an ultra long-range version of the Boeing 777, the 777-200LR (long-range) and 777-300ER (Extended Range). Smaller in terms of capacity at 301 and 359 passengers respectively, they would have immense range at 16,330 km and 13,380 respectively. The 777-200LR would be able to fly Singapore to New York nonstop and the 777-300ER Johannesburg to London or Paris to Los Angeles. Airbus' rivals to these aircraft would be the A340-500 and A340-600, still in development.
Another important candidate in the long-range airliner market is the new Boeing 767-400ER. A further stretch of the basic 767, that first flew in September 1981, the 767-400ER can carry between 245 and 375 passengers over a range of up to 10,400 km. A further version, the 767-400ERX could push this aircraft's range up to 12,000 km. The prototype was first flown in October 1999 and with firm orders for 21 from Delta Air Lines, who put their first aircraft in to service in May 2000.
Boeing 757 was developed as a Boeing 727 replacement and in fact used a common fuselage design. The 757-200 has been a successful and widely sold airliner, First deliveries of the new stretched version, the 757-300 are being delivered to customers, Condor Flugdienst, the German charter airline being the first. 757-300's have a 7.1m fuselage stretch to accommodate up to 280 passengers, stronger wings and landing gear. American Trans Air (ATA), the US domestic airline, has also ordered 757-300's to replace its aging Lockheed L1011-50 Tristars.
In the medium size airliner category one aircraft has outstripped all others in terms of sales, the Boeing 737, the most successful airliner design of all time. Although many more DC-3's were built, many of these were military C-47's, subsequently diverted to civilian postwar use. 1999 marked the end of production for the 737 - since the April 1967 first flight of the prototype 737-100 a total of 1,144 737-100 and 737-200's were delivered and 1,988 737-300, -400 and -500's, now popularly referred to as the Classic. Boeing shrewdly developed this world-beating and immensely popular design and in November 1993 launched production of the Boeing 737NG (Next Generation), embracing four different models, the 737-600, -700, -800 and -900 with seating capacity ranging from 108 to 190 passengers. Well over 1200 737NG's have been ordered and Boeing has even developed a business jet version the BBJ that incorporates the fuselage of a -700 and the strengthened wing of a -800.
The last McDonnell Douglas airliner, a MD-83 for Trans World Airlines left the company's famous Long Beach, California plant in December 1999. Meanwhile, Boeing's take over of McDonnell Douglas in August 1997 added another new type to the Boeing airliner product line. The MD-95 twin jet became the Boeing 717, basically a development of the Douglas DC-9 that had first flown in February 1965. Powered by two BMW Rolls-Royce BR715 engines, launch customer for the 717-200 was AirTran Airways in the USA. Whilst orders were initially slow to materialize, this situation has now improved. With seating for around 100 passengers, the Boeing 717-200 comes in to the size capacity of one of the few other competitors - Airbus A318 excepted - currently in production, the British Aerospace Systems RJ.100, a design now upgraded and re-engined as the RJX. The RJX will come in three versions, with 70, 85 and 100 seats. First metal on this type was cut in Spring 2000 and the type's first order was placed in April 2000 by Druk Air of Bhutan for two RJX-85's. Launch customer for the 107-seat A318 was Egyptair who placed orders for three in July 1999, an order now increased to five aircraft.
A fascinating new airliner type that first flew in February 1999, with three prototypes so far built, although only one flown, is the 102-seat Tupolev Tu-334 twinjet. With production split between the Voronin MiG plant in Moscow and the Aviant plant in Kiev, Ukraine, the aircraft is powered by two Progress D-436T jets. Funding for the project has been a perpetual problem, causing delays in development. No firm orders for the type have so far been received. Progress with development of a smaller, 50-seat Tu-324 regional jet with a low-wing, T-tail and twin rear-fuselage mounted GE CF34-3B1 engines has been similarly affected since the start of the project in 1997. No prototype has yet been completed and flown.
It's in the sub-100 seat airliner market that the competition is perhaps greatest. Now generically known as regional jets, this market is the province of an entirely different genre of airliner manufacturers. In 1998 almost 80 percent of the 570 regional airliner orders placed were for regional jets. Few could have guessed twenty years ago, when production of a 19/21 passenger turboprop commuter airliner in Brazil was under way, that this company and this country would become a tour de force in the airliner manufacturing world. Embraer have astonished the aerospace industry with their success, largely fueled by their two regional jets, the 49-seat ERJ-145 and the 37-seat ERJ-135. First flight of the ERJ-145 was in August 1995 and in April 2000 Embraer's President and CEO Mauricio Botello confirmed that his company had sold 1055 ERJ-135 and -145's and was well on course for the first flight of their new ERJ-170 and ERJ-190. The ERJ-170 is expected to enter airline service late in 2002 with launch customer, Swiss airline Crossair.
Providing much of the running with Embraer is the Canadian-based company Bombardier, who's subsidiary Canadair developed a version of their business jet as the CRJ100 and CRJ200 for the regional airliner market, the first of these entering service in November 1992. Not as successful, in terms of total sales as the Embraer, Bombardier have developed a stretched version, the 70-seat CRJ700, which made its maiden flight in May 1999 and should be delivered to launch customers Brit Air in France and American Eagle (the American Airlines subsidiary) early in 2001.
Fairchild Aerospace are another competitor in the regional airliner and jet market, having taken over German company Dornier who had established a small niche market with their 15-19 seat Dornier 228 turboprop and moved on to develop a 33-seat turboprop, the Dornier 328. With around 110 Dornier 328's sold, parent company Fairchild took the bold step in 1996 to offer a jet version of this aircraft, the 328JET. This first flew in January 1998 and first deliveries to Gandalf Airlines of italy commenced early in 2000. Atlantic Coast Airlines in the US became the launch customer for the larger 42/44-seat 428JET. Fairchild has looked at the market and come to the same conclusion as Embraer and Bombardier in wanting to expand their product range in the sub-100 seat regional jet market. As a result three further Fairchild jet designs are in development, the 528, 728 and 928JET. Formal launch of the 728JET took place in June 1998 and Lufthansa placed a commitment for up to 120 aircraft for its City Line commuter subsidiary. First flight of the prototype 728JET is scheduled for March 2001. Production of Fairchild's 19-seat, Metro turboprop at San Antonio, Texas in the USA, a design acquired from Swearingen, has all but ceased following delivery of 609 aircraft.
Several other smaller - not necessarily ascribing to the classification of regional jets - jet aircraft designs are still flying world wide. The 24-seat Yakovlev YAK-40 tri-jet which first flew in 1966, is still used extensively in many former soviet-bloc countries. The Romanian version of the British BAC-111, the Romaero/Rombac 111 first flew in 1982, but only nine aircraft were ever completed. A Chinese 58 and 76-seat project by Aviation Industries of China (AVIC), the NRJ58 and NRJ76 are in development, the start of what is hoped will be a family of regional jets, deliveries scheduled to commence in 2004.
With much of the market limelight being taken by regional jets, the stretch of the DHC-8 - the Dash 8 - and its associated certification and first delivery delays, have not been quite HELLO FROM SIAN so newsworthy. None the less Bombardier's deHavilland Division first flew their largest DHC Q Series aircraft, the 70-seat, twin P & WC turbo-prop-powered, Dash 8-Q400 in January 1998. First deliveries to SAS Commuter in Scandinavia and service entry were in early 2000. A total of over 620 Dash 8's of all models have now been ordered, with around 530 now in service.
Other existing designs and new proposals in the twin-turbo-prop airliner category proliferate, despite the apparent wholesale shift to interest in regional jets. However, the fairly recent demise of production runs of the Fokker 50, the Saab 340 and 2000 and British Aerospace's Jetstream 31 and 41 and the slowing in production rates of the Embraer EMB-120 Brasilia, leave the market open for these new types to stake their claim. The attraction of turboprops against jets is still recognized in many parts of the world, particularly those without the runways and facilities that the regional jets tend to need.
Antonov in the Ukraine currently have three turbo prop designs available to airlines. The An-32 twin turboprop dates from 1977 and is developed from the An-26. The more recent 27-seat An-38 was first flown in June 1994, but this in turn is a development of the An-28. Third, and potentially most lucrative Antonov design, is the An-140. This has a potential order book of some 600 aircraft just to replace aging An-24's and Yak-40's. The high-wing, 52-seat An-140 first flew at the Antonov plant in Kiev in September 1997. In another interesting move, the Iranian Government are claimed to have signed a contract for the license production of the type at Shakir in Iran to meet demand for orders for the An-140 from Iran Air and Iran Asseman Airlines. Another famous Russian name, Ilyushin has developed and built the twin-turboprop Il-114 64-seater but despite considerable sales efforts and a letter of intent from Aeroflot, the order book for the Il-114 has been sparse, just Uzbekistan Airways putting the type in to commercial service so far.
Czech Republic manufacturer LET has a trio of smaller, high-wing, turboprop types on its production lines at Kunovice. The company was also acquired by US manufacturer Ayres Corporation in 1998, who have instigated a program to westernize these promising designs. The largest, the 40-seat LET L-610M first flew in December 1992 with Walter M602 engines - these have now been substituted by two GE CT7-9D turboprops. The 19-seat L420 and L430 are developments of the smaller LET-410, of which of 1000 examples have been built.
Doyen of the regional turboprop manufacturers though is the joint French/Italian Avions de Transport Regional company and their ATR42 (48 seats) and larger ATR72 (64/74 seats). Both types are still in limited production by Aerospatiale Matra at Toulouse in France, with orders currently approaching 365 and 260 respectively. With a diverse and worldwide customer base, these types have perhaps come the closest to being the much vaunted Douglas DC-3 replacement. Several of the big US airlines commuter or express operators had fleets of these types, notably American Eagle (American Airlines) and Continental Express. A fatal crash of an ATR72 near Chicago in 199?, alleged to have been caused by severe icing, probably stymied what could have been an even larger order book for the types in more northern climes.
Several airliner designs hover around the margins of inclusion in this book. The Raytheon (formerly Beechcraft) B1900D, a development of the King Air and then the B1900C, is distinguishable because of its increased cabin height. This 19-seater is still in production at Wichita, Kansas, with over 630 delivered and still used extensively by commuter airlines and 'express' operators around the world.
In contrast to the sleek B1900D, the Harbin Aircraft Manufacturing Co (HAMC) in China designed, built and first flew their twin-engined, high-wing Y-12-I in 1982. The subsequent Y-12-II and Y-12-IV are 17 and 19 passenger utility aircraft respectively. Of note is the license agreement between Harbin and the Canadian Aerospace Group who have developed a 'westernized' version with P & WC PT6A-34 engines, known as the Twin Panda, with substantial orders for the type from South Africa and Brazil. The Harbin Y-12-IV is now certificated in the USA.
Many of the world's classic airliners are still in extensive service. The Boeing 727, at one time hailed as the world's most widely sold jet airliner, still has around 1,350 examples flying from a total production of 1,831 aircraft. Many of these are currently being replaced, moved aside in to the cargo airline fleets and many parted out on final retirement. The 727 tri-jets one big problem, apart from age - the last was built new in September 1984 - is noise. Several companies have devised retrofit and re-engineing programs so that the 727 can comply with Stage 3 noise level requirements. These including BF Goodrich using the Valsan "Super 27" system (fitted to some of Sun Country Airlines 727 in the USA) and Dee Howard who have re-engined UPS's freighter 727's with Rolls-Royce Tay engines. Concern has also been directed at 370 cargo 727 conversions operated by 30 airlines, the fear being that the conversions were carried out without Boeing's load-path data. At least 900 of the 1,144 older Boeing 737-100 and 200 series aircraft are still flying, many of them in the US by low-fare units of the larger airlines such as MetroJet (US Airways) and Delta Express (Delta Air Lines). Many of the first Boeing 747-100's to be built, the classic "Jumbo Jet" are also now being withdrawn from service, the first 747 flying in 1969, over thirty years ago. Some earlier 747-200's are also going the same way, whilst some airline's, including freight carrier Atlas Air have initiated a program to update the cockpit's of their 747-200F's to glass cockpit's more equivalent to those fitted to 747-400's. Virtually all the remaining 100 Boeing 707's still flying are 707-300's, dedicated cargo aircraft. Just a couple of Boeing 720's are still flying regularly.
The big wide-body tri-jets are still widely used, although the Lockheed L1011 is now generally being relegated to a freighter. However, the Douglas DC-10-30 is still in extensive use as a passenger airliner and the design that is spawned, the McDonnell Douglas MD-11 was in production until early in 2000, with 200 aircraft built.
No book on commercial airliners can omit mention of the BAC/Aerospatiale Concorde. The world's first - and to date only commercially successful supersonic passenger transport aircraft - first flew in 1969. Although initially 16 airlines reserved 72 production line positions, just British Airways and Air France bought the aircraft with considerable government subsidy. These two airlines operate the thirteen examples of the fourteen delivered. Singapore Airlines and Braniff operated Concorde's on lease arrangements from BA for a short while. Life extension programs have been initiated and the youngest Concorde is expected to continue in service until about 2014, assuming that the US authorities do not ban flights by Concorde to the USA in the meantime!
Whilst the many airlines of the former 'Eastern Europe' and Russia are converting their fleets to 'western' airliners, their former fleets, particularly Aeroflot, have found new homes with a multitude of upstart, privately owned airlines. Many of the older aircraft, such as Antonov An-12's,Tupolev Tu-134's, Tu-154's, Ilyushin Il-18's and Il-62's, are now also used as freighters, certainly in extensive use in the Middle East, Asia and Africa, albeit sometimes with dubious operational and air worthiness standards.
Some of the even older airliner designs, familiar on the airways and at the airport's of the world, are now but history. The HS.121 Trident, the Vickers VC-10, the Handley Page Dart Herald, the Bristol Britannia, the Vickers Vanguard and the Hawker Siddeley Argosy. This list illustrates that all these aircraft were of British origin. Airliners of a similar era from the USA, the Douglas DC-4, DC-6 and DC-7, all still having flying examples, albeit they are used as freighters and some are preserved in flying condition by enthusiast groups. In this category is the beautiful Lockheed L1049 Constellation, the Martin 4-0-4 and the DH114 Heron. An examples of the ATL-98 Carvair is still flying, as is a Bristol Freighter, many examples of the Convair 440, now modified in most instances to CV-580's. Kelowna Flightcraft in Canada build the Convair 5800, an Allison 501-turboprop-powered version of the earlier Convairs, but also with a 4.25m fuselage stretch. Lockheed Electra's are still flying extensively, those of Reeve Aleutian in Alaska still in passenger service. Curtiss C-46's, used still for freight flying in South America, as well as several preserved examples, are still operational. A few Japanese-built NAMC YS-11's are still operational on passenger services in Japan and the far east, the remainder being freighters. BAC-111's are still flying extensively, albeit in dwindling numbers, their noise emissions being one problem area for the type, although many have been moved sideways to operate as corporate transports.
A few Caravelle jets continue to fly, although it's sister aircraft at the dawn of jet transport aircraft, the deHavilland Comet survives only in air worthy condition as the highly upgraded and modified, military Nimrod. A small hand-full of Vickers Viscounts still fly on freight services in Africa and the HS.748 twin turboprop is also relegated for the majority of its operations to a freighter. It's rival in the early 1960's, the Fokker F.27 Friendship is also going the same way, although the US built examples by Fairchild and Fairchild-Hiller still fly passengers. There are no air worthy examples of the Convair CV-880 and CV-990 left in the world, although the aircraft these tried to rival, the Douglas DC-8, can still be seen quite frequently, but again flying for freight airlines.
Douglas DC-3's have been written about ad infinitum. Suffice it to say that this classic airliner continues to operate commercially in many parts of the world hauling passengers and freight. Many examples are preserved in flying condition by enthusiast groups throughout the world. At Oshkosh, Wisconsin, USA Basler Turbo Conversions, Inc continue to retrofit DC-3 with P & W Canada PT-6A-67R turboprops, the aircraft being known as the Basler/Douglas Turbo-67, although most of these have been delivered for military use in Latin America and Africa.
With fuel price rises increasing more at the beginning of the 21st century than they have for several decades, airlines are conscious of the impact this is having on costs and profitability. In the first eleven months of 1999, analysts Merrill Lynch reported fuel prices rising by 111% compared to a 25% decline in the same period in 1998. If more economic and fuel efficient engines can be built, and if at the same time they can be more reliable and environmentally friendly, then happier will be the world's airliner manufactures because more airlines will be buying their products. Apart from depreciation, fuel costs are the biggest direct operating cost of an airline.
The "mega-mergers" of the airframe manufacturers are also very much evident in the aerospace companies building aircraft engines. Pratt & Whitney Canada very much have the turboprop engine market sewn up. In France SNECMA and Turbomeca built jets and turboprops respectively. The Russian and Ukrainian engine industry is diverse, but supplies many homegrown projects but has little international impact. Rolls Royce still waves the British flag in the industry but also has ties with BMW in Germany following a joint venture by the companies in 1990. Infact the international specter is even more prominent in the aircraft engine industry than in the airframe manufacturing industry. Prime example of this is CFM International, a joint company formed by SNECMA and General Electric of the USA in 1974. Their objective was to provide management for the CFM56 program, and in its many variants this turbofan jet engine has been one of the most successful of its time, the many of the Airbuses sold also being fitted with CFM56 engines. Another international player is IAE (International Aero Engines), also selected by some airlines for their A320 'family' aircraft and for the MD-90. IAE was established in December 1983 to direct the program for the new V2500 turbofan, by Rolls Royce, UTC (P&W), Japanese Aero Engines, MTU and FiatAvio.
However, in the mega-league of engine manufacturers, two US based companies dominate,
General Electric (GE) and United Technologies (which embraces Pratt & Whitney). Between them they accounted for over $18,000 million in sales in 1998, Rolls Royce in comparison notching up sales of $5,760 million and SNECMA $3,185 million. As the airliners get larger so do the engines that power them and so does the investment, research and marketing to get engines in to a particular airframe. Gone are the days when if you bought an airliner it was Hobsons Choice as far as an engine was concerned. An airline often orders a new airliner without having specified a choice for its engines.
GE probably have the world's biggest turbofan available, their GE90-115 being large enough in terms of thrust (115,000lb/512kN) for either of the proposed Airbus A3XX or the Boeing 747-400X. And like the signing of exclusivity supply deals by some airlines with airliner manufacturers, (Delta/Boeing), so have there been similar moves from engine manufacturers. Boeing and GE are trying to tie up engine supplies for all Boeing 777X. However, this could backfire because some airlines appear not to want to be dictated to in such a way if their preference is for Rolls Royce Trent 500 or P & W 2000/4000 engines.
With the burgeoning regional jet market, General Electric has been one of the main beneficiary of orders, its CF34 family of engines being the usual customer choice for Bombardier CRJ-100, 200 and 700, for many of the Embraer RJ-170 and 190's and now for the Fairchild Aerospace 528, 728 and 928JET. However, GE don't have it entirely their own way, Fairchild choosing the Pratt & Whitney PW306A for the smaller 328 and 428JET and Embraer the Rolls Royce/Allison AE3007A for the popular RJ-135 and 145.
Safety is an ongoing issue in the increasingly crowded airspace that the world's airliners plie. Nowhere is this more critical than Western Europe, but the advent of global satellite navigation systems, together with new air traffic management systems (Eurocontrol in Europe), will help. Airlines though, always conscious of on time departures and arrivals and the negative effects of any delays will need to continue to work closely with the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) and national air worthiness/control bodies to ensure that global and regional solutions are established to push safety still further.
One airline in particular has apparently failed wholesale with several fatal crashes to aircraft in its fleet in the last few years, Korean Air Lines (KAL). Stringent safety audits have now been put in place by this airline. There is always the worry that another KAL may be out there waiting to happen and ICAO and the IATA (International Air Transport Association) are actively targeting those regions of the world - notably Asia Pacific/Indonesia and sub-Saharan Africa - to develop regional safety improvement forums. With the growing trend for airline alliances, the 'leading' airlines within these alliances are also now insisting that those airlines vying to join the alliance, or to code-share with them, have a certain level of safety performance.
In the 21st Century the courses set by the world's airlines and even more inextricably linked to the airliner manufacturers that they chose to buy their aircraft from. The days of government intervention and support in the choice of an airline's particular airliner purchase are thankfully in the majority of countries, history. The globalization of the manufacturing companies is now countered by the globalization of the airlines themselves. The five big worldwide airline alliances - Star, OneWorld, Wings, Qualifier and the Air France/Delta/ Aeromexico alliance - account for carriage of over 800 million passengers a year with a fleet of some 6,770 aircraft. Their influence in all aspects of civil air transport will be equally huge and their influence in airliner purchase and manufacture will be equally dominant. The romanticism of air travel is now history, as is the romanticism attached to the airliners that are flown.
From: COMMERCIAL AIRCRAFT World Review
Aram Gesar, Editor
AIRguide 000815 / ISSN
1544-3760 / ISBN 0-944188-09-5
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