Max Kingsley-Jones/WASHINGTON DC
Plans for a commercial version of the C-17 Globemaster military airlifter have been revived by Boeing. The company hopes to launch the civil model, dubbed BC-17X, by the middle of next year.
The 78.6t payload freighter was first mooted several years ago, and originally designated the MD-17. Speaking to Flight International at last month's Air Cargo Forum 2000 exhibition in Washington DC, Boeing C-17 director of programme integration Mike Noonan said that during the two years that it has been in low profile, the former McDonnell Douglas project has come through Boeing's business case scrutiny successfully. The aircraft has now been redesignated and is being offered to cargo airlines as an out-size freighter to rival the Antonov An-124.
"We've continued dialogue with the [US] Federal Aviation Administration over the past two years to establish the certification basis and special conditions unique to this aircraft," said Noonan.
This includes agreement on the aircraft's power-on stall requirement, which results from the BC-17X's "blown-flaps" high lift configuration. "This enables the aircraft to use 1220m (4,000ft) fields rather than 3050m ones," added Noonan.
The configuration has provided another certification issue which has not yet been resolved said Noonan. "While we meet Stage 3, we will have difficulty when Stage 4 comes into effect," he says. "We are hoping to get a special category as we argue that the market projection for this aircraft is no more than 20 to 40 aircraft worldwide over the next 10 years."
Boeing is offering the BC-17X for a "sticker price" of $170 million, but is currently studying ways of reducing it. Assuming a BC-17X launch by July next year, Boeing expects to complete the first aircraft by early 2004 and begin deliveries in the third quarter. The company does not envisage producing more than four commercial aircraft a year.
Source: Flight International