An update on Bombardier's and Raytheon's latest high-stakes projects
The market for new piston aircraft may still be thin and rocky, but sales and development of new business jets are flourishing in today's upbeat economy. All of the major manufacturing players — and some minor ones — are getting in on the action. Raytheon and Bombardier have undertaken two of the more recent design efforts, and their work provides fine illustrations of the very latest in modern design and manufacturing procedures.
Raytheon's focus is on the Premier I, a light twin-engine fanjet with a six-seat cabin, a 461-knot cruise speed, an NBAA IFR range of 1,500 nm, and a hybrid construction consisting of a blend of aluminum and carbon fiber composite components. Raytheon hopes that the Premier I will function as a Cessna CitationJet killer, and a high-tech benchmark that will dominate the rest of the light jet field in terms of speed, comfort, and economy of operation.
Bombardier's Global Express will work the other end of the business jet spectrum and, together with its competitor, Gulfstream's G-V, explore an untapped market niche. The Global Express will be a 91,000-pound (that's its projected maximum gross takeoff weight), Mach 0.80, 6,500-nm airplane capable of hauling up to 19 passengers in high style. On shorter legs, the Global Express is advertised as being able to tool along at speeds up to Mach 0.88 — and still able to fly nonstop for as far as 6,330 nm. This, its superior cabin volume, and its ability to take off from runways as short as 5,540 feet (at maximum takeoff weight under standard conditions) will make the Global Express a tough competitor for the G-V. Although the G-V will beat the Global Express to market, Bombardier says that it has close to 50 firm orders in hand and is planning on a total production run of some 250 Global Expresses.
A body of opinion has emerged that likens the G-V and Global Express competition to a race between Tweedledum and Tweedledee, inasmuch as both airplanes have huge cabins, nearly identical performance claims, and even the same engines — two BMW/Rolls- Royce BR710 powerplants of 14,690 pounds static thrust apiece. To this, John Lawson, president of Bombardier's Business Aircraft Division, says that as prospects become better informed, they realize that "there is a difference between the two companies." He says that he tells those debating a G-V purchase, "You owe it to yourself to look at the Global Express before making a decision to buy."
Raytheon President Roy H. Norris says much the same thing about the Premier project. "The Premier represents the way all business aircraft will be built in the future," he asserts. "Customers demand reliability, efficiency, and comfort now more than ever, and the Premier I will deliver on that. We'll have very low maintenance costs, excellent speed and range, and a cabin that's embarrassingly close to that of our Hawker jets. It will certainly be much larger, noticeably larger, than that of the CitationJet. And I should know." Prior to his job at Raytheon, Norris served a stint as a Cessna executive, working on the CitationJet project.
Although there are obvious differences, Raytheon and Bombardier employ many of the same basic techniques in achieving their objectives.
Give 'em what they want
To ascertain what kind of airplane to build and how it would best satisfy customers' needs, both companies polled their prospects. Bombardier relied in part on mailings to a select group of Challenger brand loyalists and owners of other large business jets. The mailings consisted of cutesy baseball-style trading cards. Mailees were asked to rank the desirability of the mock airplanes depicted on each card and then send in their results. Guess what? The most favored cards were those with airplanes having the performance, equipment, and comfort elements of an ocean-hopping behemoth with a Mach 0.80 cruise. In the midst of this mailing, Gulfstream announced its decision to launch the G-V on an extremely ambitious production schedule — a move that anticipated Bombardier's plans. Even so, Bombardier persisted, determined to build a better product and thus avoid the secondary image that had plagued the company from the days when its Challenger 600s and 601s competed against Gulfstream IIIs and IVs.
Raytheon took its polling to more aggressive levels, forming what it calls operator advisory teams (OATs). These teams, drawn from the ranks of Raytheon and other small business jet and turboprop owners and operators, said that they favored low acquisition and maintenance costs, a Mach 0.80 cruise, and a maximum range of 1,500 nm more than anything else. Things like coast-to-coast range were far less important than cabin comfort and an acquisition cost of less than $4 million. The OATs remained in place after the Premier I design was defined, serving as consultants on cockpit and interior design. Many changes — among them a shrunken and lowered cockpit center pedestal and one-inch lowering of the glareshield — were incorporated as the design efforts progressed. On one issue the OATs never wavered: Preserve a large, comfortable cabin — even if it meant sacrificing a little bit of speed and range.
This collaborative effort in the design definition phase marks just one aspect of changing times. In the bad old days, manufacturers hired their own experts, who did their best to guess at what hit customers' hot buttons. Sometimes they guessed right (Learjet, King Air, Gulfstream). Sometimes not (Starship, Hansa Jet, Piaggio Avanti, OMAC Laser). Making prospective owners a part of the design process achieves three simultaneous goals: a more relevant product; consensus as to acceptibility; and prospects who feel more psychologically invested in the programs. Either way, the hoped-for result is more sales. Maybe that's why Raytheon likes the phrase "risk reduction" to describe this portion of the collaboration.
CFD, CATIA, and a paperless factory
With the design goals as marching orders, the next steps were to come up with sets of detailed documents and instructions for building the airplanes. These days, that means using plenty of computer power to make doubly sure that targets will be met. Gone are yesterday's green eyeshades and endless flat files. In their place are supercomputers, huge video monitors at scads of electronic work stations, and paperless offices. Well, almost paperless.
Both Bombardier and Raytheon used computational fluid dynamics, or CFD, to perfect the Global Express's and Premier I's aerodynamic characteristics. CFD software lets engineers test many potential airfoils at various airspeeds, aerodynamic loads, and configurations. In effect, engineers create and test virtual airplanes right on their computer screens, obviating the need for expensive, time-consuming, trial-and-error style design methodologies of the past. You want an airfoil that goes Mach 0.80, lets you land on a 5,000-foot runway, and can hold enough fuel to fly New York to Tokyo nonstop? Plug in the variables, start tweaking, and confirm the results in fewer trips to the wind tunnel.
CATIA (computer aided three-dimensional interactive application) software rounds out the computerization of Raytheon's and Bombardier's design concepts. CATIA lets engineers create and design parts on-screen, and test the fit and operation of all the airplane's components. This extends to three-dimensional screen models that depict animations of landing gear operating sequences and the motions of other designated moving parts. In short, CATIA makes electronic mockups instead of aluminum ones.
CATIA also lets engineers check the way components fit together so that interferences are minimized or eliminated altogether. Finally, CATIA permits extremely close tolerances. Airframe components come together with minimal fuss, and the airplane's fit and finish is far better than that of airplanes assembled 15 or 20 years ago. Then, components and assemblies weren't as consistent and each airframe had its own "personality." Often, it took more than a little coaxing to make certain parts come together properly.
Bombardier, with some 300 CATIA work stations, leads the pack in applying this high-tech software. That company has been using computer applications for more than 10 years. Raytheon's foray into computerized design and manufacturing is much more recent. But what Raytheon lacks in experience it makes up with fervor.
Go, team, go
The Premier I will be the first airplane built under the Raytheon aegis. Before the Premier, a custom of buying and modifying other manufacturers' designs had slowly evolved (e.g., Mitsubishi's Diamond, the Hawker jets, and Pilatus' PC-9). Since the Premier is breaking new ground, there is great determination to succeed and revolutionize the way the company works in order to guarantee that success. There has been a company-wide drive to improve manufacturing processes, modernize the workplace, and rearrange assembly procedures for maximum efficiency. Raytheon has invested more than $125 million in this drive, and it shows.
The Premier will be built in an overhauled plant — Plant 3 — on the Raytheon site in Wichita. That's the plant that was used to make the ill-fated Starship. Assembly of Beechjets, Hawker 800XPs, and King Airs has been consolidated in Plant 4, a newly expanded facility. Plant 1, where many subassemblies are manufactured, has likewise undergone a massive renovation.
Raytheon's revamped approach also manifests itself in a preoccupation with a team approach to the Premier project. Under this scheme, the design, development, manufacturing, and marketing functions are fused in integrated processes. For example, instead of a design group working in comparative isolation, finishing its assignment, and then "throwing the job over the wall" to the next department, the ethic now favors integrated product teams, or IPTs. This concept fosters a cross-pollination of ideas and feedback at each stage of a component's evolution. Maintenance, performance, ergonomic, economic, and manufacturing issues — not to mention OAT feedback — crop up every step of the way, ensuring a more thoughtfully conceived Premier I as the final product.
Bombardier, a longtime user of integrated workplace concepts, employs its own brand of collaborative design, manufacturing, and inventory control strategies. The collaboration used in the Global Express project stems in large part from the company's decision to subcontract so many subassemblies to international partners. Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, for example, makes the Global Express' wing and center fuselage sections, Honeywell makes its avionics, and Lucas Aerospace supplies the electrical systems. Final assembly of the Global Express is performed in Bombardier's Downsview, Ontario, assembly plant, close to Toronto's Lester B. Pearson International Airport.
Vipers and milled slabs
Besides dispensing with the nuisance and cost of trial-and-error design and manufacturing changes on a scale-model or actual airplane, another great advantage of CFD and CATIA is the ability to take their products straight to the assembly floor. Many times, it's possible to take a diskette from an engineer's work station, then in effect pop it in a numerically controlled (or CNC — computer numerically controlled — for short) robotic milling or other fabricating machine, where the final product is made.
The Premier I's composite fuselage provides a good illustration of this new manufacturing approach. Raytheon bought a $5 million robotic tape placement machine to build up this fuselage, and this CNC unit requires just one person and a set of computer instructions to do its job. The machine, built by Advantage Milacron and dubbed the "Viper," deposits carbon fiber tape on mandrels shaped like fuselage sections. The Viper's tape dispenser consists of a device capable of sending anywhere from one to 24 1/8-inch-wide strips of carbon fiber tape, and it can lay down tape over mandrels with curves and compound curves with extreme precision at speeds up to 2,000 inches per minute.
Watching the Viper at work is an unforgettable experience. The tape head swivels and turns about seven axes, while the mandrel rotates to present new surfaces for tape placement. Where a windshield or window opening appears, the Viper stops, then resumes depositing tape, leaving an opening that conforms exactly to the windshield's or window's dimensions. Where extra strength is needed, the Viper lays down extra tape. Once one layer of tape covers the mandrel, a honeycomb sandwich is applied, then the Viper goes to work again, attaching the fuselage's outer skin. When that's done, fuselage components are removed from their mandrels, attached to the other composite fuselage parts, cured in an autoclave, and prepared for mating to the rest of the airplane, which is mainly of conventional aluminum construction.
(Interesting note: the Premier's empennage leading edges will have an electro-expulsive deicing system. This uses shock wave pulses to blast away ice accretions.)
Of the Viper, Norris says, "This is the most advanced application of industrial robotics in the industry today — and that includes Boeing." It's a far more efficient and precise way to make stronger composite sections, other company officials echo. It's also lighter. Norris says that a Viper-built fuselage can be created in a single day and will weigh 400 pounds less than if it had been made of aluminum. Hand layup of composite fabric is a dead method, goes the Raytheon mantra.
Of course, computerized manufacturing isn't limited to composite application. CNC milling machines are also in widespread use at Raytheon and Bombardier. For years Bombardier used CNC milling machines to make Challenger wing skins, spars, and other components from huge slabs of solid aluminum, and it's doing the same with the Global Express. Now Raytheon's doing the same thing with the Premier. The Premier's six aluminum spars and 63 riblets are all milled from solid aluminum. Gone are spar caps, webs, and the rivets that used to hold them together. The benefits are a lower parts count (one-third the number of parts in a Beechjet wing), greater structural strength, and reduced manufacturing costs.
Timetables
At this writing, two Global Expresses are in static load and fatigue test rigs, undergoing simulations of the G loads that can be expected over lifetimes (15,000 cycles or 56,000 flying hours, to be precise) of flying stress. One airframe will be stressed to the point of failure, to determine the nature of the airplane's strength under extreme overloads. Two other airplanes destined for flight test (and an appearance at this year's NBAA convention in Orlando) are nearing completion at Downsview. From there, they'll be flown to Bombardier's flight test center in Wichita. Rollout of serial number 9001 — the first flight test airplane — is set for August 26. First flight will come in the following month, and certification and first deliveries of customer airplanes are expected by mid-1998.
The Premier I is on a similar timetable. The airplane's design definition phase has ended, and Plant 3 is being readied for the assembly. The Viper is in place and undergoing shakedown runs. Fuselage mandrels are standing by, and production of the first Premier I should begin by the second quarter of 1997, according to Norris. First flight will come in the third quarter of 1997, certification should come shortly thereafter, and first deliveries will be made in the fall of 1998. Certification of the Premier I will be to the latest FAR Part 23 standards, in keeping with OAT input that strongly emphasizes the importance of single-pilot operations. Even so, the Premier I will undergo static test, damage tolerance, and function and reliability tests that come close to matching the more strenuous standards of FAR Part 25, the rules for certification of transport-category aircraft. (See " What's In a Name?" page T-1.)
The Global Express will be certified to Part 25, a practice that Bombardier has applied to all its large jets since the first Challengers. This means running a full gauntlet of tests, providing dual load paths for critical structures such as wing spar attach points, having the ability to overcome jamming of control surfaces, and meeting various performance standards such as guaranteed climb rates and takeoff distances in engine-out situations. (Although the Premier I will be a Part 23 airplane, Raytheon says that it will meet Part 25 takeoff standards.)
It's exciting to watch the development of these two airplanes. It means that there's plenty of life left in business aviation, that new fanjets offer new heights in quality, and that customers will have plenty of choices if they're in the market for a new airplane. Got $30 million and a need to get your staff to Riyadh tomorrow? Then the Global Express is for you. Have just $3.9 million, a need to fly 1,000-plus-nm legs, and tired of your aging Citation or turboprop? Then look at the Premier I.
Want to postpone your decision for a while? Stick around. We'll follow these programs as they evolve and keep you posted.
