Fanborough, 2010 Day 4 and 787/747-8 flight testing

As the Farnborough International Air Show drew to a close, one leaves with the feeling that the industry is slowly turning the corner after a few years in the midst of the worldwide recession. The key was lessors coming in to buy a lot of narrowbody aircraft and rebuild their portfolios. There certainly wasn't a lot of widebody aircraft ordered at this year's airshow but those orders may just be around the corner for many carriers. Airbus, as usual, made a big splash at the air shows with many orders being announced for the first time. Boeing also announced a lot of orders but many were for airplanes that they have already booked.

However the surprise of the show was how well Embraer and Sukhoi did and well Bombardier did not. This may be a sign of things to come in the commercial airline industry and it serves as a warning to Airbus and Boeing.

Airbus:
Aeroflot - 11 x A330-300
Air Lease Corp - 31 x A320, 20 x A321
Garuda Indonesia - 6 - A330-200
GECAS - 60 x A320
Germania - 5 x A319
Hong Kong Airlines - converted 15 XA330 to 15 x A350 (MoU) ordered 10 x A330 (MoU)
LAN - 50 x A320 (MoU)
RBS Aviation - 53 x A320 (previously booked as unidentified customer)
Thai Airways - 7 x A330-300 (MoU)
Virgin America - 40 x A320 + 20 x A320 options (MoU)
Total - 5 x A319, 91 x A320, 20 x A321, 17 x A330

ATR:
Air Lease Corp - 10 x ATR-72-600
Azul - 20 x ATR-72-600
Golden Airlines - 2 x ATR-72-500
Lao Airlines - 2 x ATR-72-500
Total - 30 x ATR-72-600, 4 x ATR-72-500

Boeing:
Air Lease Corp - 54 x 737 + 6 x 737 (options) (MoU)
Air Austral - 2 x 777-200LR (previously booked as an unidentified customer)
Alaska Airlines - 2 x 737-800 previously booked as an unidentified customer)
American Airlines - 35 x 737-800 (not announced at Farnborough)
Avolon Air Lease - 12 x 737 (ordered in 2009)
AzerBaijan Airlines - 1 x 767-300ER, 1 -767-300F, -2 x 737
Emirates - 12 x 777-300ER (30 total, 18 were previously ordered this year as an unidentified customer)
GECAS - 40 x 737-800
Norwegian Air Shuttle - 15 x 737-800 (exercise of purchase rights)
OK Airlines - 10 x 737-800 (previously booked as an unidentified customer)
Qatar Airways - 2 x 777-200LR (previously booked as an unidentified customer)
RBS Aviation - 43 x 737-800 (previously booked as an unidentified customer)
Royal Jordanian Airlines - 3 x 787-8 (previously ordered as an unidentified customer)
Total - 90 x 737, 2 x 767, 12 x 777-300ER

Bombardier:
QANTAS Airways - 7 x Q400
Qatar Airways - 2 x G5000 Business Jets, 1 x Challenger 605
UFO Russian Customer - 4 x Global Express XRS
Vista Jet - 4 x Global Express XRS, 2 x Challenger 605
Total - 10 x G5000 & Global XRS, 3 x Challenger 605, 7 x Q400

Embraer:
Air Lease Corp - 15 x E190
Azul - 5 x E195
Flybe - 35 x E175
Republic Airlines - 24 x E190 (LoI)
Trip Airlines - 2 x E190
Total - 35 x E175, 17 x E190, 5 x E195

Sukhoi:
Kartika Airlines - 30 x SSJ-100 Super Jets (MoU)
Orient Thai Airlines - 12 x SSJ-100 Super Jets
Pearl Airways - 30 x SSJ-100 Super Jets
Total - 42 x SSJ-100

787 and 747-8 Test Flying

Yesterday, Boeing flight test division got very busy. They flew 3 of 4 747-8F and 4 of 5 787s. This included the first flight of RC503, the second production 747-8F that will be delivered to Cargolux late this year or early next year. Boeing is trying to make up ground in the 747-8 flight test program.

The 747-8F program has the most ground to make up and Flightblogger has an article explaining why the program is behind. Read it here:

Flightblogger: In Context: Why Boeing's Jumbo Freighter May Slip to 2011

The 787 got a big lift with many of the test flight airplanes flying during the day though not all at the same time. ZA001 took the longest test flight of the day which clocked in at just under 8 hours. Boeing will need to fly the Rolls Royce powered 787s at least 10 hours a day everyday if they hope to deliver the first airplanes to ANA by the end of this year.