Aviation News Mega-Thread

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https://www.flightglobal.com/fixed-wing ... 46.article
https://www.flightglobal.com/strategy/i ... 45.article

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https://www.flightglobal.com/airframers ... 51.article

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According to Bloomberg, Emirates is seeking to cancel five of their eight remaining Airbus A380s on order. Airbus, however, is pushing back as all planes are already in various stages of production.

Both companies are declining to comment other than that they are in constant discussion.

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The government of Ecuador has decided to liquidate TAME Ecuador after five years of loss-making totalling over more than USD 400 million. The government, however, also decided to ensure that some key domestic routes will continue to operate for now.

TAME currently operated a fleet of one Airbus A319, one A320 and three ATR42-500s.

It was established in 1962 by the air force. In 2011 the air force withdrew from the airline and the company became a public, but fully state owned, airline. Their expansion plan was, however, a little too aggressive leading to the losses and now the end.

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USAF's Mission Capable Rate (MCR) 2019

The US Air Force’s fleet in fiscal year 2019 maintained an overall mission capable rate of 70.27 percent, a slight increase from the previous year as the USAF reveals. Strikingly, some key combat aircraft, such as the F-22A Raptor, sustained low capability rates. The USAF counterbalanced this with the announcement that the numbers do not tell the whole story.

Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. David Goldfein told @AirForceMag that the mission capable rate - a snapshot of how much of a certain fleet is ready to go at a given time - is an inaccurate portrayal of the service’s overall health. With the below percentages, the service instead wants to highlight how deployable a fleet is within a short period of time. Goldfein says “How many force elements do we have - fighters, bombers, tankers - across all of the USAF, and how are we doing relative to the time all of those forces need to be ready.”

Goldfein reports that the May 2019 deployment of a task force of B-52 Stratofortress, homebased at Barksdale AFB (LA) to the Middle East had two days to deploy, and immediately began flying combat missions, even though at the time the B-52H fleet had a mission capable rate of 65.73 percent. The fleet of B-1B Lancers, known to face dramatic mission capable rates, sees recently improved rates, reaching a 46.42 percent mission capable rate in 2019. In recent months, USAF Lancers have deployed across the globe as part of bomber task forces, flying training missions in Guam, Estonia, and Japan. The USAF is addressing the health of the fleet through improved fleet management, increased maintenance, and a dedicated structural repair line at Tinker AFB (OK). The B-2 Spirit in 2019 saw a rate of 60.47 percent.

The mission capable rate of the USAF’s fighters became a focal point in 2018, as then-Defense Secretary Jim Mattis ordered the USAF and US Navy to improve their rates to 80 percent. The order quickly fell by the wayside, as USAF fighters never met the mark, and service leaders moved on to other methods to measure readiness. Gen. Charles Q. Brown Jr., the nominee to be the next Chief of Staff, told the Senate Armed Services Committee earlier this month the USAF is instead letting commanders decide whether their aircraft are ready.

The USAF has made improvements in the readiness of its units. However, the continued high demand for USAF capabilities continues to impact recovery. The USAF will continue with a focus on recruiting, training, and retaining quality Airmen, driving down the average age of its aircraft fleets through modernization and balancing with current operations tempo and training for combat operations.

In fiscal 2019, the F-22A Raptor fleet was the least ready amongst fighters at a rate of 50.57 percent. The F-35A Lightning II had a rate of 61.60 percent, F-15C Eagle at 70.05 percent, F-15E Strike Eagle at 71.29 percent, and F-16C Fighting Falcon at 72.97 percent. The A-10 Thunderbolt II had a rate of 71.20 percent.

In mobility, the C-17A Globemaster III maintained a rate of 82.23 percent and the C-130J Super Hercules had a rate of 77.02 percent. KC-10A Extenders came in at 79.37 percent, while KC-135R Stratotankers had a mission capable rate of 72.50 percent.

For helicopters, the HH-60 Pave Hawk maintained a rate of 66.2 percent, while the Vietnam-era UH-1N Huey had a rate of 82.42 percent. The CV-22 Osprey had a rate of 53.45 percent in 2019.

Here’s a breakdown of all of USAF’s aircraft and their 2019 MC rates:

A-10C 71.2%

B-1B 46.42% / B-2A 60.47% / B-52H 65.73%

C-5M 63.16%
KC-10A 79.37%
C-12C 99.05% / C-12D 100% / C-12F 92.4% / C-12J 100% / MC-12W 100%
C-17A 82.23%
C-21A 100%
VC-25A 92.86%
C-32A 90.24%
C-37A 93.85% / C-37B 86.47%
C-40B 89.48% / C-40C 85.9%
KC-46A 63.11%
AC-130J 86.12% / AC-130U 85.62% / AC-130W 80.22%
C-130H 65.51% / C-130J 77.02%
EC-130H 73.19% / EC-130J 57.38%
HC-130J 79.81% / HC-130N 68.13% / HC-130P 61.52%
LC-130H 40.28%
MC-130H 68.65% / MC-130J 77.54% / MC-130P 28.07%
TC-130H 26.32%
WC-130J 56.2%
KC-135R 72.5% / KC-135T 71.11%
OC-135B 82.46%
RC-135S 90.39% / RC-135U 91.07% / RC-135V 74.1% / RC-135W 69.49%
TC-135W 84.8%
WC-135C 63.05% / WC-135W 80.14%

E-3B 74.41% / E-3C 73.19% / E-3G 74.36%
E-4B 64.75% / E-8C 67.36% / TE-8A 73.42%

F-15C 70.05% / F-15D 72.45% / F-15E 71.29%
F-16C 72.97% / F-16D 70.37%
F-22A 50.57%
F-35A 61.6%

TH-1H 74.63% / UH-1N 82.42%
HH-60G 66.20%

MQ-1B 99.52% / RQ-4B 75.75% / MQ-9A 89.32%

T-1A 60.51%
T-6A 63.29%
T-38A 74.48% / AT-38B 74.62% / T-38C 63.05%

U-2S 78.39% / TU-2S 74.96%

CV-22B 53.45%

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First two MRTTs to Eindhoven in June 2020

Earlier reports on the arrival date of the first KC-30M (Airbus A330MRTT) for the Multi Role Tanker Transport (MRTT) for the Multinational Multi-Role Tanker Transport Fleet (MMF) at Eindhoven airbase were talking of early May 2020. That definitely has passed. According to an official announcement from NATO on 15 May 2020, the first two MRTTs will arrive next month, June 2020.

Although no arrival date has yet been communicated, a (small) ceremony has already been planned months ago but it is not clear if this ceremony will still be the same due to the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic.

All KC-30Ms will be based at Eindhoven air base in The Netherlands and Cologne in Germany, but will be dispersed to the participating countries when needed. The MRTTs will operate under the supervision of the European Air Transport Command (EATC), that is based at Eindhoven. The exact number of aircraft that will be based at Eindhoven varies from five to eight. So far, six countries participate in this multinational tanker project. The latest participant, Luxembourg, joined in December 2019 *).

The Koninklijke Luchtmacht (KLu, Royal Netherlands Air Force) still has a single KDC-10 in the inventory for the Air-to-Air refuelling task. With the arrival of the KC-30M, an increased availability of Air-to-Air refueling capabilities would be available for the Royal Netherlands Air Force.

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Exotic Lightnings at Fort Worth (TX)

Carl Richards sent us some photos of "exotic" Lightning IIs at the manufacturer's airfield at Fort Worth (TX). The first one is Republic of Korea Air Force (RoKAF, South Korea Air Force) F-35A serial 20-021 (construction number AW-21), captured on 6 May 2020, during its second flight. The RoKAF's first F-35 deliveries started in 2019. By late 2019, ten had been delivered. The remaining thirty RoKAF F-35As, from its first order of forty, are scheduled for delivery by 2021.

The second Lightning is the test F-35I Adir from the Heyl Ha'Avir (Israeli Air Force). The test aircraft, serial 924 (c/n AS-15 and FMS 15-5232) was captured during its first flight testing various systems, on 19 May 2020. The first flight of this Adir was as early as on 5 March 2020. It is unknown how long this test aircraft will stay in the USA.

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Dassault Aviation back to work and Indian Air Force Rafales active again

Further testing has been picked up again at the Bharatiya Vayu Sena (Indian Air Force) Rafale fighter aircraft. Just after 17 March 2020, all work was stopped at Dassault Aviation due to the COVID-19 epidemic. Work at the factory started again on 11 May 2020.

On 20 May 2020, Rafale EH single seat serial BS004 was seen performing high speed runway tests at Dassault's factory airfield Bordeaux/Mérignac (France). Maciej Swiderski provided us with some photos and a nice video clip.

Video clip: https://youtu.be/mOpjfTbdomE

Already two months back, Rafale EH BS003 made the first taxi-runs *). On 19 May 2020, the aircraft made its first flight. It was expected that first deliveries to the Indian Air Force would occur in May 2020, but this has been delayed for at least one month.

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On 14 May 2020, another Luftforsvaret (Royal Norwegian Air Force) AW101 Mk612 was delivered from Leonardo at Yeovil (UK) to Stavanger/Sola Airport (Norway), via a fuel stop at Humberside Airport (UK).

Thankfully the UK-lockdown restrictions had been just lifted in time, so our vast contributor Rich Sleight could take a drive there to picture the nice helicopter.

It is marked as ZZ103 and will become 0268 in Norwegian service. It was unusual in that it used a UK Hex Code and not a Norwegian one and also used the call-sign "WHE01" instead of the "NOW5xxx" ones they usually do on delivery. Also the Norwegian serial is usually shown too but for some reason it was blanked out today. Anyone any idea why all these meaures were taken?

The 0268 will be most probably added to the 139 Luftving, 330 skv at Stavanger.

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B-1B Lancer bomber exercise over Norway and Sweden

In the morning hours of 20 May 2020, two B-1B Lancer bombers from the 34th Bomb Squadron 'Thunderbirds' at Ellsworth Air Force Base (SD) exercised over Norway and Sweden.

During the exercise, the bombers were accompanied by Luftforsvaret (RNoAF, Royal Norwegian Air Force) F-35A Lightning IIs from 332 skvadron and F-16AM and F-16BM from 331 skvadron. Continuing to Sweden, the bombers were accompanied by Flygvapnet (SwedAF, Swedish Air Force) Saab JAS39C and JAS39D Gripens from F7 Skaraborgs Flygflottilj at Såtenäs.