Flight_International 28Jan2020

THIS WEEK

8 | Flight International | 28 January-3 February 2020 flightglobal.com

SAAB STARTS T-7A AFT FUSELAGE WORK

PRODUCTION Saab has started work in support of the US

Air Force’s Boeing T-7A advanced jet trainer programme, with

seven aft fuselage sections in progress at its Linkoping site in

Sweden. Future production will move to a new facility in West

Lafayette, Indiana, with Boeing to perform final assembly in St

Louis, Missouri. Boeing won a $9.2 billion contract in

September 2018 to supply the USAF with 351 of the type.

BAE TO BUY COLLINS, RAYTHEON UNITS

ACQUISITIONS BAE Systems intends to acquire Collins

Aerospace’s military GPS business and Raytheon’s airborne

tactical radios unit: divestments that were mandated as part of

the US companies’ ongoing merger process. Worth a

combined $2.2 billion, the purchase affects around 775

employees in Florida, Indiana and Iowa, with the interests to be

integrated within BAE’s US-based Electronic Systems business.

FAA EXTENDS GE90 SEAL WARNING

SAFETY Operators of Boeing 777-300ERs are being ordered

urgently to remove another batch of interstage seals from GE

Aviation GE90 engines, following an uncontained failure last

October involving a Thai Airways International-operated

example. The US Federal Aviation Administration had already

issued such a directive, but this second emergency order

expands the serial numbers of the seals involved.

MA700 TRACKS TOWARDS LATE 2020 FLIGHT

PROGRAMME AVIC seems likely to fly its developmental

MA700 turboprop in late 2020, after an initial aircraft entered

the final stages of production. A report by Chinese state news

agency Xinhua indicates the first MA700 is expected to roll off

the assembly line by the middle of the year. AVIC had

previously been targeting an end-2019 maiden sortie.

BRAHMOS READY FOR INDIAN AIR FORCE

INDUCTION The Indian air force has resurrected its 222 Sqn

“Tigersharks” unit as the first Sukhoi Su-30MKI squadron to be

equipped with the Mach 2.8 BrahMos air-launched cruise

missile. Based at Thanjavur air base, the aircraft will be able to

carry the 8.5m (28ft)-long 2.5t anti-ship and land-attack

weapon, which has a range of up to 162nm (300km).

AFRL PREPARES HYPERSONIC X-60A

TESTING The US Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL)

test-fired the Hadley rocket engine for its X-60A hypersonic

demonstrator at Cecil Spaceport in Jacksonville, Florida, on 15

January. Designed to test air-breathing propulsion, advanced

materials and vehicle subsystem technologies above Mach 5,

the X-60A will be launched from a NASA C-20A (Gulfstream III)

platform for the first time later this year.

COULSON C-130 LOST IN AUSTRALIA

ACCIDENT Canadian fire-fighting operator Coulson

Aviation has confirmed the loss of a Lockheed Martin C-

water bomber that was being used to combat bush fires in

New South Wales, Australia. All three occupants were killed.

The Hercules (N134CG), which Cirium fleets data records as a

1981-built airframe, was acquired by Coulson in 2017.

BRIEFING

B

ombardier is “reassessing” its

involvement in the Airbus-led

partnership that owns the A220,

citing the need for additional cash

investment and lower-than-ex-

pected long-term profits.

The Montreal-based airframer

holds 33.6% of Airbus Canada

Limited Partnership (ACLP),

which owns the A220 business.

Divesting that stake would align

with Bombardier’s strategy in re-

cent years of moving away from

commercial aviation.

“With its exit from commercial

aerospace, Bombardier is reassess-

ing its participation in ACLP,” the

company said on 16 January.

It notes that ACLP’s latest

financial plan “calls for addition-

al cash investments to support

production ramp-up, pushes out

the break-even timeline and gen-

erates a lower return over the life

of the programme”.

“This may significantly impact

the joint venture’s value. Bombar-

dier will disclose the amount of

any write-down when we

complete our analysis and report

our fourth-quarter and 2019 fi-

nancial results [on 13 February],”

says the airframer.

Bombardier’s original agreement

with Airbus gives the Canadian air-

framer the right to require that the

European firm acquire its shares in

ACLP after seven and a half years

of the deal closing, which occurred

in July 2018.

Bombardier had struggled for

years under financial strain

caused by designing, developing

and certifying what was then

called the CSeries, subsequently

handing majority ownership of

the programme, for free, to Airbus.

The programme has since re-

sided under the ACLP venture:

Airbus has a majority stake of

50.06%, Bombardier 33.6%, and

Investissement Quebec 16.34%.

As part of the divestment,

Bombardier agreed to “fund the

cash shortfalls” of the programme,

up to $350 million in 2019 and

another $350 million during the

2020-2021 period. In exchange,

Bombardier receives shares pay-

ing a 2% annual dividend.

The three partners are also on

the hook for any additional cash

that the programme may need

during the period.

As of 30 September 2019, Bom-

bardier had invested $575 million

in ACLP, documents reveal.

Bombardier’s CSeries sale

sparked a broader exit by the

company from commercial

aviation: it has or is in the

process of divesting its Q400 tur-

boprop line, CRJ regional jet

family and aerostructures manu-

facturing operations.

The company says it intends to

focus on business jets and its

transportation business, which

manufactures trains. ■

See Air Transport P

PARTNERSHIP JON HEMMERDINGER BOSTON

Bombardier looks

towards A220 exit

Risk of rising costs and declining returns leads Canadian

airframer to ‘reassess’ its involvement with former CSeries

Airbus

Airbus currently has a 50.06%

stake in the programme