Dubai Pictures

Calidus B-350 is a 9-ton reconnaissance and combat aircraft with optoelectronic warhead and radar, armed with Paveway II and Al-Tariq guided bombs, as well as Desert Sting 16 and pp Sidewinder "pz" missiles.

Dubai Airshow 2021 is the only global aviation show to take place in the last two years. If only for this reason, everyone was eager to participate and meet. In addition, this is an exhibition that everyone can visit. There are military aircraft from the US and Europe, Brazil, India and Japan, as well as Russia and China. The last political hurdle disappeared in September 2020 with the conclusion of the Abraham Accords, an agreement to normalize relations between the UAE and Israel. In 2021, Israel Aerospace Industries and Elbit Systems took part in the exhibition in Dubai for the first time in history.

The exhibition in Dubai has a number of advantages for visitors. There are no days for the general public, and there are fewer people at the exhibition than anywhere else. Most of the aircraft on static display are not fenced in and can be easily approached and touched. Unfortunately, the flight shows are not very attractive: the runway is not visible, and the planes fly and do tricks in the sky far away and in hot air. Four aerobatic teams took part in this year's flight shows: the local Al-Fursan team from the United Arab Emirates on Aermacchi MB-339 NAT aircraft, the Russian Russian Knights on Su-30SM fighters and two Indian - Suryakiran on school planes Hawk Mk 132 and Sarang on Dhruv helicopters.

A Lockheed Martin F-16 Block 60 Desert Falcon, a version made specifically for the UAE, demonstrates in-flight firing of heat traps for the opening of the exhibition in Dubai.

Parade at the start

The most spectacular part of the entire exhibition was the opening parade on the first day, with the participation of aircraft from the United Arab Emirates Air Force (UAE) and local airlines. The first to pass was a convoy of nine military helicopters, including AH-64D Apache, CH-47F Chinook and UH-60 Black Hawk.

They were followed by passenger planes of local lines; This group was opened by an Etihad Boeing 787 from Abu Dhabi, escorted by seven MB-339s from the Al Fursan group. Further in the convoy of passenger aircraft flew Emirates A380-800 aircraft in bright colors - green, pink, orange and red. It was drawn this way to promote the Dubai Expo, an event the UAE is very proud of and runs from October 2021 to March 2022. Dubai Expo and Be Part of the Magic took place on both sides of the A380 fuselage.

Military aircraft closed the column, the most interesting of which were the GlobalEye radar surveillance vehicle and the Airbus A330 multipurpose transport tanker (MRTT), and the Boeing C-17A Globemaster III heavy transport aircraft flying at the very end was the most spectacular. , which fired a thermal garland that interfered with cartridges.

In total, more than 160 planes and helicopters arrived in Dubai; The exhibition was visited by delegations from more than 140 countries of the world. The most interesting novelties are the Russian single-engine fighter of the new generation Sukhoi Checkmate, the Emirati turboprop reconnaissance and combat aircraft Calidus B-350 and, for the first time abroad, the Chinese L-15A. A lot of interesting novelties of aviation weapons and unmanned aerial vehicles were shown by the local holding EDGE, formed as a result of the merger of 25 companies in 2019. The Boeing 777X became the most important premiere among civil aircraft.

Airbus takes the most orders, Boeing launches 777X

The exhibition in Dubai is primarily a commercial enterprise; military planes are nice to look at, but they make money in the civilian market. Airbus earned the most, having received orders for 408 cars, of which 269 were “hard” contracts, the rest were preliminary agreements. The largest single order was placed on the first day of the show by Indigo Partners of the United States, which ordered 255 aircraft of the A321neo family, including 29 XLR versions. Indigo Partners is a fund that owns four low cost airlines: Hungarian Wizz Air, American Frontier Airlines, Mexican Volaris and Chilean JetSmart. Air Lease Corporation (ALC) has signed a letter of intent with Airbus for 111 aircraft, including 25 A220-300s, 55 A321neos, 20 A321XLRs, four A330neos and seven A350 Freighters.

Boeing's results were more modest. India's Akasa Air placed the largest order for 72 737 MAX passenger aircraft. In addition, DHL Express ordered nine 767-300 BCF (Boeing converted cargo aircraft), Air Tanzania ordered two 737 MAX and one 787-8 Dreamliner and one 767-300 Freighter, Sky One ordered three 777-300s and Emirates ordered two 777s. Freighter. The Russians and the Chinese did not sign any contracts for large civil aircraft.

However, the largest premiere of the exhibition belonged to Boeing - 777X, which debuted at the international fair in the initial version of 777-9. The aircraft completed a 15-hour flight from Seattle to Dubai, its longest flight since testing began in January 2020. After the exhibition, the plane flew to neighboring Qatar, where Qatar Airways was presented. The Boeing 777-9 will carry 426 passengers (in a two-class configuration) for a distance of 13 km; the list price of the aircraft is US$500 million.

The Boeing 777X program was launched here in Dubai in 2013 with first orders for the aircraft from Qatar Airways, Etihad and Lufthansa. So far, 351 orders have been collected for the aircraft, including agreements of intent - which is not so much compared to expectations. Customer dissatisfaction causes the program to fail; the delivery of the first machines was originally planned for 2020, now it has been postponed to the end of 2023. The company's vice president of sales and marketing, Ihsan Munir, said at a press briefing ahead of the show that the four experimental 777Xs have so far completed 600 flights with 1700 flight hours and are performing well. Boeing needs success because in recent years the company has run into quality issues affecting the 737MAX, 787 Dreamliner and KC-46A Pegasus.

Demand for cargo aircraft

Until recently, the second model in the Boeing 777X series was to be the smaller 384-seat 777-8. However, the pandemic has changed priorities, bringing long international travel almost to a complete halt, and thus the demand for large passenger airliners; in 2019, Boeing put the 777-8 project on hold. However, in one sector of civil aviation, the pandemic has boosted demand – cargo transportation, spurred by exponential growth in e-commerce bookings. Therefore, the next model in the family after the 777-9 could be the 777XF (Freighter). Ihsan Munir said in Dubai that Boeing is in early talks with several customers about a cargo version of the 777X.

Meanwhile, Airbus has already received a pre-order from ALC in Dubai for seven A350 Freighters, the first order for this version of the aircraft. The A350F is expected to have a slightly shorter hull than the A350-1000 (but still longer than the A350-900) and be able to deliver 109 tons of cargo over 8700 km or 95 tons over 11 km.

The Russian company Irkut, its director of sales and marketing, Kirill Budaev, said in Dubai, seeing the rapidly growing demand, intends to accelerate the project of a commercial version of its MS-21. Brazil's Embraer also announced that it will decide on a program to convert the E190/195 regional aircraft into a cargo version capable of carrying 14 tons of cargo and reaching a maximum range of over 3700 km over the next six months. Embraer estimates the market size is 700 cargo aircraft of this size over the next 20 years.