The Hindu Business Line : Aviation majors vie for orders, speed records

FOR three days as much on the space above Le Bourget, the venue of the Paris Air Show, there has been extreme action on the ground as aviation companies' battle it out for orders and even speed records.

With the recovery of the world aviation market, the roar of the competition is as deafening as the jet engines.

Big deals for Boeing: The American aircraft maker is on a high at the Paris Air Show, snagging orders collectively worth $13.1 billion, so far.

While GE Capital Aviation Services signed up for twenty 737-800s for delivery between 2006 and 2008, International Lease Finance Corp ordered twenty 737-700/800s for 2008 delivery, as well as a couple of 777-200ERs and six 777-300 ERs to arrive in 2006-08.

India's own Jet Airways signed a letter of intent covering ten 737-800s, 6 777-200LRs and four 777-300 ERs - all provisionally for delivery next year.

All the above 737s will be powered by CFM56-7B engines and will be worth $600 million to the engine-maker CFM International, a partnership between GE and the French aerospace giant Safran (the entity created by the merger of Snecma and Sagem).

Airbus-Boeing dog-fight: The two biggest aircraft makers, Airbus and Boeing; may be locked in a "vicious war" for market share that will continue until the end of the decade, according to analysts at consultancy Teal Group.

In its latest 2005-14 commercial-jetliner forecast, Teal analyst said the fight for a majority market share will "stay neck-in-neck" until 2009, at which point the new Boeing 787 will enter service - albeit after a year's delay to current schedules.

He concludes that the 767-replacement design has brought Boeing "clearly back into the game," with a consequent boost to customer confidence helped by the weak dollar.

He characterises the soon-to-be-launched Airbus A350 as a response to the 787 rather than as a product aimed at meeting similar market requirements. Nevertheless, he rates the A350 as also being an effective competitor against Boeing's 777-200ER.

Teal's forecast, which covers production, not orders, does not take into account "a new 747-400 Advanced" and even considers the A380 very large airliner as "much less relevant" to its consideration of upcoming production of commercial jetliners with 100-plus seats. However, the forecast does accommodate new composites-construction single-aisle aircraft from both manufacturers.

Teal analysts expect just over 7,250 such aircraft worth nearly $473 billion to be built in the period. This compares with a little over 6,500 such aircraft valued at $415 billion produced in the past 10 years.

Embraer 195 takes wings: This big brother of Embraer's E-Jet line made its international debut at Le Bourget, just after the Brazilian airframe maker landed a launch order for 14 from the UK's FlyBE.

The 195 flew for the first time last December, marking the start of a year-and-a-half-long certification campaign. Said to be the least conspicuous of the family despite its big-brother status, the airplane until last week had not drawn a firm order

Under Embraer's latest schedules, the 195 would gain certification by the second quarter of next year.

Bombardier, Gulfstream in speed race: The two business jet are in a speed race literally. A controversy was set off by Bombardier claiming that its Global 5000 long-range jet whipped the Gulfstream 450 in recent speed-record attempts by each company.

The G5000 on Sunday flew to Le Bourget from Chicago's Palwaukee Airport in a world-record time (pending official verification) of 7 hours 15 minutes. Three weeks ago, a G450 travelling to Geneva for the European Business Aviation Conference and Exhibition also attempted a speed record flight, this one from DuPage Airport west of Chicago to London Luton Airport, completing its sprint in 7 hours 19 minutes - four minutes longer than the Bombardier flight

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