Mixed Verdicts in Indian AW101 Corruption Case

AIN online

October 15, 2014, 7:25 AM

On October 10 an Italian judge found former Finmeccanica CEO Giuseppe Orsi and former AgustaWestland CEO Bruno Spagnolini not guilty of international corruption, but convicted the pair for the lesser crime of “false invoicing” and sentenced them to two-year prison terms and fined each €1.5 million. The sentence is suspended pending an anticipated appeal.

Italian prosecutors had charged the duo with being part of a plan that used middlemen to funnel bribes to Indian officials in relation to a $734 million sale of 12 AW101s to that country’s government in 2010. The Indian government canceled the contract after it received three of the 12 when the corruption allegations surfaced and is continuing its probe of local officials. Indian law enforcement officials said the Italian verdict would not affect the ongoing investigation of the matter there. This August, Italian prosecutors dropped related corruption charges against AgustaWestland after the company agreed to pay a €7.5 million ($9.3 million) fine. Days later, India banned AgustaWestland and its parent company, defense conglomerate Finmeccania, from participating in future government tenders. For now, that ban remains in place. Earlier this year the Indian government took measures to recover $380 million held by Italian banks as a 45% advance on theAW101 deal.

Finmeccanica CEO Mauro Moretti hailed the verdict and said he would travel to India soon to get the ban against his company lifted. “This removes a shadow that has caused us so much suffering,” he said. Orsi also seemed to take the verdict as a victory, proclaiming, “We've always known that there hasn't been any corruption.” He further claimed that his acquittal on the more serious charge, by implication, automatically clears suspect Indian officials and former officials.

India has a $13 billion annual defense budget and is the world’s largest arms importer, purchasing $6 billion in finished defense goods in 2013. Finmeccanica’s exclusion from new contracts in India would be a major blow to the company, which is 30 percent owned by the Italian government.

Italian prosecutors claimed that Orsi and Spagnolini approved invoices totaling $67 million for “engineering services” to international middlemen who then used the money to pay bribes in India. One of those alleged middlemen, Guido Ralph Haschke, cooperated with prosecutors as part of a plea agreement, providing testimony and extensive documents used in the trial. However, in rendering her verdict, Judge Luisa Bovitutti said she dismissed the international corruption charges because “there was no case.”

India’s case is progressing, albeit slowly. However, on September 23, India’s Enforcement Directorate (ED), the federal law enforcement agency charged with fighting white-collar crime, did arrest Delhi-based lawyer Gautam Khaitan for suspicion of money laundering related to the case and seized his computers and mobile phones. Khaitan sits on the board of Aeromatrix, a firm that allegedly served as a financial front in the deal according to The Times of India. Khaitan’s attorney maintains his client’s innocence.

India’s Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) also is involved in its own official investigation, but has yet to bring charges.

As a replacement for the AW101s, which remain in storage, the Indian air force is presently upgrading six Mil Mi-17V5s for VIP use.

Gulfstream Launches New Large-Cabin, Long-Range Jets

Published in aviationweek.com

Updated : Oct 14,2014

For its latest large-cabin, long-range business jets, the G500 and G600, Gulfstream has moved away from its long-time engine supplier, Rolls-Royce, and left behind its original fuselage cross-section, as it did for the flagship ultra-long-range G650. The new aircraft were unveiled ahead of the industry-showcase National Business Aviation Association convention this week in Orlando, Florida.

The G500 and G600 are launch applications for Pratt & Whitney Canada’s (P&WC) PW800 turbofan and fit into Gulfstream’s product line-up above the Rolls-Royce-powered G450 and G550, which are to stay in production as long as demand continues. In addition to a larger fuselage cross-section, the new jets share with the G650 wing aerodynamics, fly-by-wire controls and systems.

The new aircraft not only have longer and larger cabins than the G450 and G550 but also will fly higher, faster, quieter and farther on less fuel. High-speed cruise for both aircraft is Mach 0.9. At Mach 0.85 long-range cruise speed, the $54.5 million G600 has a range of 6,200 nm, compared with the G550’s 6,000 nm, while the $43.5 million G500 has 5,000-nm range, compared with the G450’s 4,220 nm at Mach 0.8.

“We have a very long-term development strategy,” says Scott Neal, Gulfstream’s senior vice president of sales and marketing. “Cabin volume, range and speed were the design drivers, [and that combination] will be matched by no other aircraft.”

In the works since 2008 under Gulfstream’s project P42, the G500 rolled out in Savannah, Georgia, Oct. 14. With 1,800 hr. of wind-tunnel work completed, the G500’s first flight is planned for 2015, leading to expected certification in 2017 and entry into service in 2018. Five aircraft will be used in a two-year, 3,000-hr. flight-test program. The G600’s design, which includes a longer fuselage and increased span, will be frozen by year-end, aiming for a first flight in 2016 and service entry in 2019.

The new models’ enhanced performance is due to the new engines and a wing with G650 high-speed aerodynamics, including supercritical airfoil, 36-deg. quarter-chord sweep and increased span—10 ft. more than the G450, in the case of the G500. Gulfstream says the P&WC engines are lighter and more fuel-efficient than current 16,000-lb.-thrust-class engines. The G500 is powered by two 15,144-lb.-thrust PW814GAs, the G600 by 15,680-lb.-thrust PW816GAs.

Operators told Gulfstream they wanted a bigger fuselage but better fuel economy, and the company briefly evaluated using the G650 fuselage cross-section for the G500 and G600. But the weight and drag imposed unacceptable performance penalties. Instead, the aircraft have a new fuselage shape that is 7 in. narrower and less tall than the G650’s but provides 2 in. more headroom, 7 in. more cabin width and 8 in. more floor width than the G450 and G550. Used in the G650, the four-radii fuselage shape provides more head and shoulder room than a circular cross-section. The floor sits proportionately lower in the fuselage than in the G650, and headroom is only 1 in. less than in the flagship Gulfstream.

The new aircraft have the same cabin windows as the G650, 16% larger in area and positioned 3.4 in. higher than those in the G450 and G550. With a cabin 2.5 ft. longer than the G450’s, the G500 has six windows per side and three seating areas. The G600 cabin, 1.6 ft. longer than the G550’s, has seven windows per side and room for 3.5 seating areas—the extra length accommodates an optional crew-rest compartment. The 10.7-psi pressurization system provides a 3,000-ft. cabin altitude at 41,000 ft. and 4,850 ft. at the aircraft’s 51,000-ft. maximum ceiling, the lowest cabin altitude in their classes.

The digital fly-by-wire system is based on that in the G650, with a pair of dual-channelThales flight-control computers and Parker electronic power-control actuators. But new to the G500 and G600—and a first for civil aviation—are the active-inceptor sidestick controls supplied by BAE Systems. These are electrically back-driven, so they appear to be mechanically linked side to side: When one sidestick is moved, the other moves with it. The sidesticks also move in response to autopilot inputs, providing the pilots with tactile and visual feedback.

In addition to the active sidesticks, the new Symmetry flight deck for the aircraft introduces touchscreen displays and other features that distinguish it from the PlaneView cockpits of current-production Gulfstreams. Based on Honeywell integrated avionics, Symmetry provides four large-format, landscape-orientation flight displays, their associated cursor-control devices relocated from the sidewall armrests to the center console to make room for the sidestick controls.

Three large, software-driven touchscreens on the overhead panel control virtually all airframe systems. Four smaller touchscreens, two outside the main displays and two in the center console, provide flight management system, radio and avionics/display controls. There are no conventional multi-function control display units. Wider-screen standby flight instruments are installed in the glareshield. All this provides unprecedented redundancy. Gulfstream’s goal is to allow dispatch with one overhead, one lower touchscreen and one standby flight display inoperative.

The new aircraft are equipped with a standard head-up display and third-generation Elbit Kollsman EVS III infrared enhanced-vision system camera with four times the image resolution, an integrated exterior window and digital interface to the avionics suite.

Garuda Indonesia orders 50 Boeing 737 MAX narrowbodies

Published in atwonline.com

Updated : Oct 12, 2014

Garuda Indonesia has announced an order for 50 Boeing 737 MAX 8s, valued at $4.9 billion at list prices. The carrier will purchase 46 737 MAX 8s and convert existing orders for four 737-800s to 737 MAX 8s, Boeing said in a statement Sunday.

The order was previously listed on Boeing's orders and deliveries website as an unidentified customer. 

Garuda, a new SkyTeam alliance member, operates 77 737s. The MAXs will be powered by CFM International LEAP-1Bs, the sole-source engine the MAX.

Boeing said the total number of 737 MAX orders to date is 2,295 aircraft from 47 customers worldwide.

DGCA grounds three aircraft belonging to domestic operators

Published in Business Today Updated: October 11, 2014

In a series of surprise checks over the week, the aviation regulator has grounded three aircraft belonging to domestic operators such as Air India.

According to a senior official with the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA), the three grounded aicraft include two A320s and one Canadair Regional Jet (CRJ) belonging to Air India, GoAir and a non-scheduled private operator (NSOP).

Substantive safety lapses were found in the aircraft, the official told IANS.

Till now in the year, DGCA has conducted 55 surprise checks leading to the grounding of 14 aircraft.

The development assumes significance as in January the US Federal Aviation Authority (FAA) downgraded the safety ranking of India's DGCA.

The DGCA was downgraded under the pretext that the regulator does not meet international safety standards laid down by the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) in areas such as adequate manpower for inspections and safety checks of aircraft.

Currently, India is downgraded to category-II in terms of safety related aspects of its civil aviation operations.

The DGCA has been trying to improve its safety audit and has been conducting surprise checks ever since.

Nine airports to have e-visa facility this month

 Business Today

Updated: October 9, 2014  | 21:54 IST

In a move to boost tourism, nine airports equipped with e-visa facilities will be operational for 13 countries including USA and South Korea and Prime Minister Narendra Modi is likely to launch it this month.

In order to give a major boost to tourism in India, the facility of Electronic Travel Authorisation (e-Visa) would be introduced atnine airports in the country where necessary infrastructure are being put in place, sources in government said.

The authorisation facility would be operational at Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, Chennai, Goa, Hyderabad, Bangalore, Trivandrum and Kochi airports in the first phase and will be extended to other airports later.

The date of its launch will be decided shortly, they said.

In the 2014-15 Union Budget, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley acknowledged the importance of tourism as a major job creator and announced the government's intention to relax the existing visa regime.

Besides tourists from USA and South Korea, visitors from all 11 countries which have been given visa on arrival facility are being covered under the e-visa scheme.

Currently visa-on-arrival facility is extended to Japan, Singapore, New Zealand, the Philippines, Singapore, Indonesia, Finland, Myanmar, Vietnam, Cambodia, Luxembourg and Laos. 

Airbus Preparing A350-900 For First Delivery

Published in aviationweek.com on 6 Oct, 2014 

With European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) certification now in place for the A350-900, Airbus is shifting gears to prepare for first delivery of the aircraft and a steep production ramp-up.

EASA issued the type certificate for the Airbus A350-900 on Sept. 30 following an almost flawless flight-test campaign that started in June 2013 and involved five test aircraft. “We dealt with a very mature aircraft,” EASA Executive Director Patrick Ky says. “Airbus and EASA have learnt from experience and have established pragmatic working methods which have proved to be the recipe for the successful type certification and the way forward for future certification programs.” The A350 was the first all-new Airbus aircraft certified by EASA.

While the latter phase of development and flights tests took place without the huge delays and disruptions to which the industry has become accustomed, the A350 went through several iterations in the early project phase that included an updated version of the A330 initially and later several material selections or fuselage changes. The latest turn in the A350 strategy affects the A350-800, development of which Airbus says is “frozen,” a euphemism for being scrapped. In its August statistics for orders and deliveries, Airbus still listed 34 firm orders for the type, but program head Didier Evrard says more airlines have agreed to transition either to the recently launched A330neo or the larger A350-900.

The aircraft maker plans to deliver the first A350-900 to Qatar Airways before year-end. That aircraft, MSN006, is now “ready to be transferred to the flight-test team,” Evrard says. The exact delivery date will be determined jointly with the carrier in the coming weeks, he says, during which time Airbus is working on familiarizing Qatar Airways with the aircraft. Evard says that will require “a number of flights,” but it is difficult to predict just how many flights or hours. But he says, “If I were a golf player, I would say we are on the green.” 

Meanwhile, the next challenge, ramp up of production, is nearing. Airbus plans by year-end to reach a build rate of three per month from the current two, and by the end of 2015, it aims to produce five A350s per month. Output is to be expanded to 10 aircraft per month by 2018. However, chief salesman John Leahy is concerned that Airbus may not build enough A350s  to meet demand. “We are being prudent, but it bothers me,” he says. Airbus might soon decide to raise production rates, he indicated at the Istat conference in Istanbul late last month. “I believe this will be decided sometime next year,” he said.

Airbus had orders for 750 A350s at the time of certification of the first version. The -900 is by far the most popular version, with 547 firm commitments, followed by 169 orders for the A350-1000 and 34 for the -800, which will most likely never be built. Leahy said the further stretch represented by the -800, while technically possible, might not be a good idea.

For the A350-900, Airbus expects to receive FAA approvals “very shortly,” according to chief engineer Gordon McConnell. “It is in process just now, but not completed yet,” he says. The initial extended twin operations (ETOPS) clearance also has not yet been published by EASA, and McConnell believes it may take several more weeks. He says initial ETOPS will be “perfectly adequate” for the needs of the operators. The EASA certification document indicates there will be a 180-min. ETOPS approval and a separate one beyond that limit.

Airbus will return to lithium-ion-batteries—all A350s will be delivered with those batteries from 2016. As a consequence of the lithium-ion battery fires experienced on the Boeing 787, Airbus decided to use more conventional nickel-cadmium batteries temporarily to avoid schedule risk in case certification requirements changed. As it turns out, Airbus did not need to alter its original design. “We were fully aware of the risks inherent in the [battery] design,” Evrard said. “We have put measures in place to mitigate that to zero.”

The A350-900 has been certified by EASA for a maximum of 440 passengers, depending on the exit configuration. That will require at least eight cabin crew.

The maximum takeoff weight for the basic variant is 268 tons, although EASA has certified the aircraft for up to 275 tons, giving Airbus room for higher-weight versions later, even as part of the initial certification. While the A350 is available only in the basic 268-ton variant at this point, the A350-900 is about three tons heavier than initially planned. The aircraft is certified with a maximum operating altitude of 43,100 ft.

EASA has also determined that the A350-900 “is a variant of the A330/340 series aircraft” and, more precisely, is considered to be “a variant of the A330-200.” Pilots will be able to fly both the A330 and the A350 with the same type rating. 

On the move: Civil Aviation Ministry to strategise on improving city airport

The Hindu

Published in The Hindu Updated: September 30, 2014 02:05

The Union civil aviation ministry will soon formulate a new strategy to improve conditions at Chennai airport, said P. Ashok Gajapathi Raju, Union minister for civil aviation, on Monday.

Mr. Raju said many members of Rajya Sabha had complained about the condition of Chennai airport a few months ago.

Following this, a couple of officials from the ministry had taken pictures of the prevalent conditions at the airport. “If there are complaints of incomplete engineering works or design-related issues, nothing can be done overnight. But, there is no excuse for not maintaining elementary hygiene.” However, the conditions had improved since, he said.

“My staff took 75 pictures a few months ago. But, when I inspected the terminal last Saturday, there seemed to be definite improvement. But it should not slide,” he said. Talking about privatisation, Mr. Raju said the Union government ‘is neither enamoured about privatisation nor against it completely’. “We have a few airports that are privatised and working successfully,” he said. During his inspection, he also visited the new cargo complex in Meenambakkam.

Mr. Raju noted that Chennai was the leader in cargo services in the country. The cargo sector had exciting possibilities if the State government could think of backward and forward integration, he said.