British Airways Airbus A380 at the Paris Air Show. Image from Jason Rabinowitz / Airchive.com.
Even though the business phase of the Paris Air Show wound down on Thursday, orders and announcements continued at a rapid pace. Airbus and Boeing had a great PAS13 ’“ Airbus had 466 orders and commitments for commercial aircraft and Boeing had 442 total. Here’s some of what happened since our last update:
Ryanair converted previous commitments into a huge order for 175 Boeing 737-800s, adding to the 303 -800s that Ryanair flies. As well, they might be placing an order for the 737 MAX by year-end. Ryanair CEO Ryan O’Leary said that ’œit wouldn’t be worth doing’ if the order wasn’t for at least 200 aircraft.
Boeing announced that the 737 MAX’s Entry into Service (EIS) will be the 3rd quarter of 2017, about 6 months earlier than previously expected. Among other details released about the 737 MAX, the flight deck will have 4 large ’œlandscape’ displays, and the nose will be 8 inches higher to accommodate the larger fan diameter of it’s advanced LEAP-1B engines.
Leasing and finance company, CIT Aerospace, ordered 30 737 MAX 8s.
The Boeing 787-10 seen in Dreamliner livery. Composite image from Boeing.
At the Paris Air Show today, Boeing officially launched the longer version of the Boeing Dreamliner: the 787-10. According to Boeing, “Customer launch commitments for the 787-10 include Air Lease Corporation, with 30 airplanes; GE Capital Aviation Services, with 10; International Airlines Group / British Airways, with 12 subject to shareholder approval; Singapore Airlines, with 30 and United Airlines, with 20 airplanes.”
The 787-10 becomes the largest of the Dreamliner family with an additional 20 foot stretch over the 787-9, seating for 300-330 passengers and the ability to fly up to 7,000 nautical miles. The new model is slated to complete final assembly and test flights in 2017 with first delivery in 2018.
CS100 Flight Test Vehicle 1 (FTV1) during fuel flow testing. Photo: Bombardier Aerospace
Here’s what’s been going on with the Bombardier CSseries over the past few weeks:
Bombardier announced that their team had completed the CSeries Complete Airframe Static Testing (CAST) for Safety of Flight. This was the last of seven tests required for obtaining flight certification for the CS100 from Transport Canada. In step with the Static Testing, the CS100 ’œAircraft 0’ Integrated Systems Test Rig has been ’œflying’ since last August.
On June 4, Moscow-based leasing company Ilyushin Finance Co (IFC), firmed up its order for 32 CS300s, along with options for 10 more CS300s. That brings the CSeries firm orders up to 177 aircraft.
On the same day, it was revealed that Gulf Air is the previously undisclosed customer for 10 CS100s that have been part of the firm order book since June 2011. Gulf Air also holds options for 6 additional CS100s.
Bombardier’s President, Pierre Beaudoin, has said that they’re on schedule for the first flight of the CS100 by the end of June. There’s been speculation that the first flight would happen before the Paris Air Show, which starts June 17th. But Chet Fuller, Bombardier’s Senior Commercial VP dismissed the rumors. However, Flight Test Vehicle 1 (FTV1) was moved to Bombardier’s flight test centre last week.
And following up on our earlier story about Porter Airlines’ order for CS100s, Toronto City Council recently voted to hire independent consultants to analyze the Porter proposal. Porter’s order for 12 CS100s is conditional on getting a 500 foot extension built on each end of the main runway at Billy Bishop Toronto City Airport (YTZ). Some results of the study will be reported to Toronto’s Executive Council in early July, with the issue expected to return to full council in November.
What do you think? Will FTV1 not fly until June 30th? Or will they try for the first flight while the Paris Air Show is on? If so, I’m thinking it would be great PR, and support for their marketing efforts at the show.
This story written by… Howard Slutsken, Correspondent. Howard has been an AvGeek since he was a kid, watching TCA Super Connies, Viscounts and early jets at Montreal’s Dorval Airport. He’s a pilot who loves to fly gliders and pretty well anything else with wings. Howard is based in Vancouver, BC.
Airbus flew a double-decker Airbus A380 to the 2011 Paris Airshow to put on display and to hopefully attract additional customers. However, while taxiing, the world’s largest airliner’s wing clipped a building ripping off the right winglet and putting the aircraft out of service and unable to fly.
Luckily an A380 owned by Korean Air came to the rescue and flew one of their A380s t0 the Paris Air Show. Being the largest airliner has its benefits and challenges — this is not the first time the A380s size has been an issue. Recently, an Air France A380 struck the tail of a CRJ 700, causing it to spin out.
A spokesperson for Airbus told AirlineReporter.com that the A380, “took the taxiway it was instructed by ground control to take.”
