June 21, 2007

Airliner buying spree unabated

By Ian Goold

This week’s spate of large-airliner orders, many confirming previous announcements, continued on Wednesday as Airbus and Boeing unveiled further business. More new deals could be revealed today. For example, International Lease Finance Corp. is talking to Airbus about its unresolved requirement for about 16 A350 XWB aircraft.

Under an MOU, India’s Kingfisher Airlines yesterday “agreed t more

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Rolls-Royce working on new two-shaft engine

By Julian Moxon

Rolls-Royce has revealed exclusively to Aviation International News details of an entirely new family of two-shaft engines under development to power business jets and large regional aircraft.

The UK company, fresh from its success in winning the all-out competition to power Dassault’s new business jet, said the aircraft is only the first in a series of potential applications. “We’re wo more

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NetJets buys new Cessnas worth $1B

By Stephen Pope

NetJets, the founder of fractional aircraft ownership and the world’s biggest purchaser of business jets, put some more distance between itself and mere market mortals yesterday with an order for 96 new Cessna Citations valued at more than $1 billion.

The order includes 50 Citation Encore+ models, 37 XLS+s and nine Citation Xs, all of which have been allotted spots in the production sch more

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Saudi deals done for helos and Typhoons

By Chris Pocock

Saudi Arabia and the UK have already concluded the huge contract for 72 Eurofighter Typhoon combat jets that has been in negotiation for 18 months, informed sources told Aviation International News yesterday. The deal will be worth about $16 billion for the airframes alone. At his lunch with President Nicolas Sarkozy in Paris today, Saudi King Abdullah may shake hands on another large package of m more

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Eurofighter can penalize suppliers

By Chris Pocock

Eurofighter GmbH has finally been empowered to write real subcontracts with penalty clauses for Typhoon production with the four partner airframe companies (Alenia, BAE Systems, EADS-Germany and EADS-Spain) that are also its shareholders. “It’s a revolution! We’re becoming a normal type of business now,” Aloysius Rauen, the CEO of Eurofighter, told Aviation International News here more

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Austrian saga may be resolved next month

By Chris Pocock

Eurofighter’s first export sale–to Austria–has not been a happy experience, although the company has met all its schedule and performance commitments to date. The first of 18 aircraft is already flying, the second will fly soon, there are four more in final assembly and parts for the other 12 are already in production. The first Austrian pilots have been trained on the aircraft in Germany.
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Northrop Grumman selects own radar for BAMS entry

By David Donald

Northrop Grumman has selected the Multi-Function Active Sensor (MFAS) radar from the corporation’s Electronic Systems division to equip its entry in the BAMS competition. The Broad Area Maritime Surveillance program is being run by the U.S. Navy for an unmanned maritime patrol aircraft capable of medium-altitude, long-endurance patrols. Northrop Grumman’s BAMS entry is the company’s RQ-4 Global Ha more

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German Airline Picks IAE Power for A320s

By Stephen Pope

Germany’s Blue Wings has selected IAE International’s V2500 engine for 20 Airbus A320s on order. The deal was valued at $350 million. more

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Socata To Make A330-200F’s Nose Fairing

By Stephen Pope

EADS Socata said Airbus has selected it to manufacture the nose fairing for the A330-200F freighter. Socata has supplied the airplane’s belly fairing for almost a decade. more

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Avianca Places $500M CFM Engine Order

By Stephen Pope

Adding to impressive sales tallies announced here this week, engine maker CFM said it landed South America’s Avianca as a customer for the CFM56B-5B engine to power 33 Airbus A319/A320s in a deal worth $500 million. more

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