FUTURE GENERATIONS

Still far from the golden age, when hundreds of new projects were yearly presented, the aeronautical industry kept a frenetic rhythm of launches and novelties over the last decade. The worldwide expansion of business aviation, the growth of the regular market and the ageing of military aviation lead the creation of several new projects that begin to appear and shall be available before the end of this second decade of the millennium.

AIRBUS

THE NEO FAMILY

Airbus neo family had an important impact in the regular aviation market. A321neo LR, the newest launch, which has to enter into service still in 2018, will redefine the business model of several airlines, especially in intercontinental flights, such as from the US East Coast to the United Kingdom or from Brazilian Northeast to Portugal. The market, which was previously dominated by the Boeing 757, is not a new one. However, with the new long-range version of the A321, costs have become more competitive, justifying the large-scale use of single-corridor aircrafts in oceanic flights.

In spite of the success of both A320neo and A321neo, their little brother, A319neo, is still a mystery for the European consortium. With down 30% less seats than A320neo, the model has got little more than 50 orders, most of them from the American Frontier Airlines. On the other hand, most of the market attention is focused on the future of the CSeries project, which may be able to solve two critical issues for Airbus. First, keeping its presence in the 130-seat range, with a more efficient and modern model than the A319neo and the A318. And second, entering into the American regional market, considered as one on the world’s most important and valuable ones. For several decades, traditional manufacturers did not pay attention to the US regional market, up to now dominated by aircrafts such as the Embraer 175, the Bombardier CRJ, the ATR and the DHC-8 (Q Series). The success of the CSeries may ensure a new and billionaire market to Airbus.

In the double-corridor aircraft segment, the newest Airbus remotorized project is the A330neo, with significant improvements as compared with the current generation, such as