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Next generation of aircraft will encourage sales
送交者:  2014年10月21日07:38:02 于 [世界军事论坛] 发送悄悄话

October 20, 2014 9:01 pm

Corporate aviation industry hopes next generation of aircraft will encourage sales

Bombardier’s Global 7000

Bombardier’s Global 7000 will be powered by the Passport engine

It is far from obvious visiting General Electric’s sprawling Peebles test site that the work it is undertaking should give hard-pressed chief executives more time with their families.

But the GE Passport engine that hangs from one of the testing gantries at the former US military rocket-testing range is designed to give the largest business jets increased range and greater reliability, getting executives to meetings – and home – faster.

The Passport will power Bombardier’s new Global 7000 and Global 8000 aircraft, the longest-range and most expensive of a range of new aircraft developed to exploit an expected upswing in business jet demand following the trough since 2008.

Pat Gallagher, head of sales for NetJets, which allows customers to buy predetermined slots to use private jets, says the new models will eliminate some of the frustrations users have faced. They are due to enter service this decade.

“You used to have to make trade-offs, which might be baggage for passengers, or speed for range, or fuel load for payload,” he says. “The new aircraft are far more capable, with far fewer trade-offs.”

Many improvements are thanks to a new generation of engines such as the Passport, which use advanced materials to produce higher pressures and more thrust for a given amount of fuel. Many aircraft also feature more efficient wing designs and new control systems.

Shawn O’Day, business aviation marketing manager for GE Aviation, says their fuel efficiency will mean the Global 7000 and 8000 will be able to fly nonstop from New York to Singapore.

Passport engine

Passport engine

The Passport is a variant on the Leap engine. This was developed for narrow-body commercial jets by GE’s CFM joint venture with Snecma of France. The Passport is adapted to the rigours of operating at up to 51,000ft, higher than normal commercial jets. It will also feature titanium turbine blades, rather than the Leap’s carbon-fibre ones, because, on the smaller Passport, carbon-fibre blades would be vulnerable to a bird strike.

“These aeroplanes are being designed for these very long-range missions,” Mr O’Day says. “We think we’re a big part of that with the technology and design we’re bringing in.”

The question is how the new designs are using the improved fuel efficiency made possible by the engines, lighter-weight materials and wing designs.

Only the highest-end aircraft are using improved efficiency mainly to prolong the aircraft’s range. The shorter-range Cessna Citation Latitude uses the improved efficiency to provide a larger cabin for up to nine passengers. Textron Aviation, Cessna’s parent has announced that the aircraft would have a 2,700 nautical mile range – 200 miles more than expected – and be able to use shorter runways than expected.

“Those great performance announcements . . . coupled with the large cabin are going to make this a game-changer for us,” Kriya Shortt, Textron Aviation’s head of sales and marketing, says.

Other designs – such as Cessna’s CJ3+, which has just received certification – are using efficiency gains to reduce the cost of private aviation and bring it in reach of a wider range of buyers.

The new aircraft are just far more capable, with far fewer trade-offs

Dustin Dryden, chief executive of Hangar8, a corporate aviation charter and management company, predicts a growing role for such aircraft, which can compete with the price of a business class ticket for a party of three or four.

Yet the challenge facing the corporate aviation industry, after development of the new jets, may be to persuade customers to buy them. Demand collapsed after the 2008 financial crisis and remains flat or declining across much of the industry.

Mr O’Day says many in the industry hope the new products will encourage sales. Mr Dryden points to their ample room and sophisticated entertainment and in-cabin systems. But at a list price of $72m, those who purchase them might consider buying and outfitting a commercial airliner instead.

“There are folks that are expecting the stimulus of new products perhaps to stimulate some more purchasers,” he says.

It bears eloquent testimony to the continued depressed demand across much of the market that the greatest optimism surrounds the Global 7000 and 8000 products, whose list prices are around $72m.

“If you’d announced [the launches of the 7000 and 8000] three years ago, people would have laughed at you and said, ‘Not in a million years would someone produce that and expect to get an order’,” Mr Dryden says.

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