Static Display Highlights At EBACE This Year

Dominating the static display – but with its most interesting features concealed within – is the first BBJ version of 787 airliner to be shown with a VVIP interior installed. The airplane illustrates the talents of completions specialist Greenpoint Technologies (Booth #I051) of Kirkland, Washington; the creative skills of Pierrejean Design Studio, Paris; and the expertise of fleet acquisition and management specialist, Kestrel Aviation. It is also testimony to the steep learning curve facing outfitters transitioning from traditional metal airplanes to those with significant carbon-fiber structures. Discreet Greenpoint has two 787s in hand, these possibly the pair destined for the Saudi Arabian Ministry of Finance.

Blink and you’ll miss it. Making the point that it is ready to book more than the current single order for an ACJ350, Airbus is bringing the second A350 XWB airliner prototype to Geneva on Tuesday afternoon only, landing around midday. Technically, it is on show, but it will remain outside the official static park and inaccessible to delegates until it leaves in the evening. Seeking to boost the aircraft’s suitability for corporate transport modifications, Airbus is launching here this week an “Easyfit” version that simplifies the installation of specific VIP interior features in a carbon-fiber fuselage.

Last EBACE was a little too soon for Pilatus to show its PC-24 prototype on home ground, but with two of the twinjets now flying and 500 hours accumulated, the manufacturer is able to spare one for static display – but on Tuesday only. Delegates who miss it, or would like a closer look, are invited to Booth K115 at any time to view the full-scale cabin, finished in one of the six standard interiors on offer. This, too, represents a first public showing for the production standard of interior.

Announced at the beginning of April and delivered to its first customer at the end of that month, the latest in the TBM turboprop range is fresh to the EBACE lineup. Unusually for a Daher aircraft, it does not replace its predecessor but is offered alongside the only slightly older TBM 900. Daher believes the two will not steal each other's markets, with each instead complementing its partner and increasing overall sales. The newcomer offers increased speed [330 kt., or 380 mph], new e-copilot functions in the cockpit, simplified engine management, faster starting and increased use of carbon fiber for lightness.

Step inside, won’t you? Embraer’s Legacy 450 was here on static display last year, but two things are different now. One: It has a type certificate. Two: It now has a production interior in its 6-ft.-high cabin. Currently the only example in Europe, operated by Air Service Liege, the Legacy 450 is the first jet in its market segment with digital flight controls having full fly-by-wire technology. It also features side-sticks, Rockwell Collins Pro Line Fusion avionics, graphical flight planning, Jeppesen charts and maps, and the synthetic vision system. 

Although Germany’s Rheinland Air Service took delivery of the first HondaJet in Europe [the seventh production] last month, Marshall Aviation Services, the type’s Northern European distributor, will go one better at Geneva on Tuesday when it receives the keys to the first of the type to fly under a non-FAA registration. M-HNDA is the “tail number” assigned to the eighth production aircraft by the Isle of Man registry, although the aircraft is to be based in Birmingham, UK, at Marshall’s recently completed sales and support center. EASA approved the aircraft’s GE-Honda HF120 engines on April 20, and the whole HondaJet will not be far behind, having obtained its FAA sign-off in December.

There’s nothing like the pure air of the Swiss Alps in which to relax after a grueling round-the-world promotional and proving tour. Recently, over four weeks, the third Dassault Falcon 8X prototype flew 55,000 nm [101,860 km], executing 65 types of mission, from short hops to ultra-long-range flights, in Europe, the Middle East, North and South America, and Asia and China. More than 650 flight hours have been logged in 325 sorties by the test trio, paving the way for imminent FAA and EASA certification and deliveries beginning in the second half of the year.

It might be only Flexjet’s fourth Legacy 500, but it was worth bringing to the Geneva static display a month after its delivery in Cleveland, because it was also the thousandth business jet to have been built by Embraer. The airplane, complete with celebratory artwork, is part of a firm order for both Legacy 500s and Legacy 450s for the Flexjet fleet. The company’s fractional program also fields Embraer Executive Jets’ Phenom 300. “Embraer’s Legacy midsize aircraft are a natural progression for us since they meet a growing demand for jets with larger cabins, longer range capabilities and industry-leading operating economics,” said Michael Silvestro, Flexjet’s CEO. 

Phenom 100E, Phenom 300, Legacy 450, Legacy 500, Legacy 650 and Lineage 1000E: A full house of Embraer business jets is arrayed on the Geneva ramp this week – not necessarily for the first time in themselves but, nevertheless, representing a uniquely complete collation of certified, in-production Brazilian bizjets.

The company started selling executive versions of its ERJ-135 regional airliner in 2000 and, having made a promising start, formed a new division in 2005 to cover the field from smallest to almost the largest. Now, Phenoms, Legacies and Lineages operate in more than 60 countries and are supported by a network of 75 company-owned and authorized service centers, complemented by a 24/7 contact center.

Wisely, Textron Aviation is not trying to stop us calling them Beechcraft and Cessnas. Although collaborating strategically under a single banner, the two product lines are still perceived by traditionalists as different. In the EBACE static park, Cessna is showing the Citation Sovereign+, Citation Latitude, Citation CJ4, Citation CJ3+ and Citation M2 bizjets, plus the Grand Caravan EX utility single-turboprop; while Beechcraft provides a pair of turboprop-twins – the King Air 350i and King Air 250, both of them with Pro Line Fusion avionics. Here last year, the Latitude is now certified, while there are three more promised for the Geneva ramp in times to come: Citation Longitude, Citation Hemisphere and the new Beechcraft turboprop.