Brent VanFossen, Engineer with a View

In a AIN Online report, the FAA plans for airspace transformation by 2025.

Where will aviation be in 20 years? What will the traffic mix look like in 2025? How many airplanes, how many passengers, how many airports, how many runways? How will we manage it all to achieve even higher levels of safety and security than we have today? And finally, how much will it cost to get there?

Traffic in the U.S. and Europe is expected to double by 2025.

Since this my blog, and I work on the development and installation of the wireless/satellite broadband Internet being installed on commercial planes all over the world, it was exciting to see Boeing VP of Marketing, Randy Baseler, blogging about Blogging the Stratosphere. And even more exciting to know that some of the bloggers on this PR flight around Mt. Rainier were using WordPress, the blogging software we use on this site, and a company my wife is very involved with. What a small world. Boeing Connexion is the driving force behind the installation of Internet on commercial airplanes, and a company I’m working with handles much of the technology and installation of the Internet package.

According to Technical Center Team Cited for Contributions to Domestic Reduced Vertical Separation Minimum Requirements, the Federal Aviation Administration’s (FAA) William J. Hughes Technical Center has been honored for its innovative research that helped the agency reduce the minimum requirements for vertical separation of aircraft.

Federal Aviation Administrator Marion Blakey and other top FAA officials held a nationwide satellite ceremony to honor agency employees who contributed to this stellar effort. In January, the FAA reduced the minimum vertical separation of aircraft from 2,000 to 1,000 feet, on domestic airspace routes flown at altitudes between 29,000 and 41,000 feet, doubling the available air navigation space at high altitudes. Similar practices have been followed across the North Atlantic for years.

More precise navigation and altitude-reporting instruments on aircraft are the keys to implementing and using domestic reduced vertical separation minima (DRVSM).

Boeing’s “The Flight Test Journal” is one of the few blogs that take you deep into the project of developing and testing new commercial aircraft. The team is currently working on the Boeing 777-200LR, the Long Range version of the 777. The photographs and information helps you understand how the whole flight test process works.

It’s a unique blog as it is not the words and perspective of just one person. Each person on the flight test team participates, adding stories about themselves and their work. It’s a rare chance to meet the people who help build the planes that you fly.

Want to see the numbers for comparing the Boeing 787 to the Airbus 350? This chart on the comparison will give you the numbers.

For example, some statistics for the Boeing 787-9 and Airbus 350-900:

• Length: Boeing - 202ft and Airbus - 213ft 11in
• Speed: Boeing - Mach .85 and Airbus - Mach .86
• Passengers: Boeing - 259 and Airbus - 300
• Range: Boeing - 8,300 nm and Airbus - 7,500 nm

In a team effort by Honeywell and ATW Media Group, a webcast will be offered that looks at a More Electric Aircraft. Registration is required.

“More Electric Aircraft,” or MEA, technologies offer the first major redesign of aircraft systems in over 50 years. This breakthrough technology will improve mission performance, comfort and availability and provide more design flexibility. Additional benefits include reducing manufacturing time and enabling the use of several new technologies such as fuel cells, full electromechanical actuation and high re-circulation of cabin air.

The More Electric Aircraft Revolution
With MEA technology, the complex, heavy, maintenance-intensive and (in combat) vulnerable hydraulic systems of today will be a thing of the past. Gone, too, will be the miles of tubing, the pumps and valves. The weight in an aircraft will be shifted from plumbing to passengers, fuel or mission payloads. MEA technology could dramatically reduce per-passenger costs and ticket prices for commercial aircraft, while giving military planes more maneuverability and survivability due to less vulnerability to enemy fire.

Boeing Current Market Outlook on the Demand for Commerical Airplanes is out. This 16 page overview of the commercial aircraft industry resembled the Airbus Global Market Review for the Aircraft Industry with positive growth in the future.

The worldwide fleet will be 35,300 airplanes in 2024, more than double its current size. About 58 percent of the world fleet will be single aisle jets, and 22 percent will be midsize twin-aisle airplanes. The rest of the fleet will consist of regional jets (16 percent) and some 747-sized and larger airplanes (4 percent). The large domestic markets in Europe and North America, along with the strong preference of low-cost carriers, drive the dominance of the single-aisle fleet. A mix of single- and twin-aisle airplanes is more common in geographically diverse regions such as Asia. Twin-aisle jets are the mainstay of intercontinental markets. More than half of the regional jet deliveries will be in North America.

The freighter fleet will double over the next 20 years from 1,760 to 3,530 airplanes. Three quarters of freighter fleet additions, satisfying both market growth and replacement needs, will come from modified passenger and combi airplanes. Half of these conversions will be widebody conversions.

Almost 26,000 passenger and cargo airplanes will be delivered over the next 20 years. About 60 percent of the deliveries will be single-aisle jets, making up about 39 percent of the 2.1 trillion delivery dollars (in 2004 numbers). Midsize twin aisle airplanes will account for about 22 percent of the deliveries and 45 percent of delivery dollars. Large airplanes are a little more than 3 percent of deliveries. About three quarters of total deliveries will go to fleet growth, while the rest will replace retiring airplanes.

Airline passenger traffic is forecast to grow at an annualized rate of 4.8 percent. World GDP growth of 2.9 percent explains the majority of air travel growth. During the 20-year forecast period, world regions and traffic flows will have varying growth rates around these norms.

Both reports highlight the fact that the developing economies of the Asia-Pacific and Latin America regions will see the biggest growth in airline travel and industry. China is expected to be a boom market for airline travel and purchases.

In a PDF report on Speed News on the Global Market Forecast for Airbus 2004-2023, this 76 page report states:

Over the 2004-2023 period, world passenger traffic is forecast to increase by 5.3% per annum. This traffic growth, combined with fleet renewal, will require delivery of 16,601 new passenger aircraft.

17,328 new passenger and freighter aircraft deliveries The number of passenger aircraft in service will double from a fleet of 10,838 at year end 2003 to 21,759 in 2023.

Passenger airlines will replace 9,200 aircraft, of which 3,520 will be recycled back into passenger service, 2,412 will be converted to freighters, with the remaining 3,268 aircraft permanently withdrawn from service over the forecast period.

Freight traffic is expected to grow at 5.9% per annum over the 2004-2023 period. Traffic growth and fleet renewal will create a demand for 3,139 freighter deliveries, of which 727, or 23%, will be factory-built freighters.

The world’s airlines are forecast to take delivery of 17,328 new passenger and freighter aircraft over the next 20 years, equating to average annual deliveries of 866 aircraft.

There is a lot happening in the aircraft business today. This page is updated frequently.