Listen: A week of firsts for manufacturers and STC holders

In this week’s episode of the “Cargo Facts Connect” podcast, Cargo Facts Editor Jeff Lee and Associate Editors Andrew Crider and Robert Luke discuss a week of milestones for the freighter aircraft industry. The first milestone was the first flight of an all-new aircraft type . with Eviation’s Alice aircraft becoming the world's first fully electric aircraft to take flight. The aircraft promises to have a cargo variant and has secured DHL as a launch customer. The editors then turn to Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI) and Xtreme Aviation, which have also made firsts of their own, with IAI launching the world's first 767 conversion line in Eastern Europe and Xtreme completing its first PEMCO conversion . A transcript is available below. This transcript has been generated by software and is being presented as is. Some transcription errors may remain. Andrew Crider Hello, and welcome to this episode of cargo facts connect the podcast of cargo facts, the newsletter of record for the air cargo and freighter aircraft industries for over 40 years. I'm your host Andrew Crider, associate editor of cargo facts. Robert Luke And I'm Robert Luke, associate editor of cargo facts. Jeff Lee And I'm Jeff Lee, editor of cargo facts. Andrew Crider I want to begin today with Hurricane Ian. The hurricane has struck both Florida and made landfall in South Carolina at the time of this recording. Our thoughts and prayers are with everyone in the path. Luckily, I'm able to report that we've heard from our conversion friends in Florida, who have resumed normal operations as of 7am This morning, we're very happy to hear that. Moving on to aviation cargo News. This week was a week of firsts. Eviations all electric Alice regional aircraft made its maiden flight. After weeks of testing the flight lasted just over eight minutes and occurred at 7:10am. DHL Express has taken an interest in the Alice placing an order of 12 at the time, it originally expected is first deliveries by 2024. But as of a press conference following the first flight deliveries are now expected to 2027 batteries will be the biggest hurdle to test this aircraft. Another aircraft, sabre Wings of regale cargo UAV made its first flight, shattering a world record, that aircraft weighing just over 2700 pounds is capable of carrying a gross weight of 3100 pounds. We'll be keeping an eye a very close eye on all the new developments. But that's not the only first and certainly not the only first that happened for aircraft. Jeff, didn't we have a first for our conversion partners and Israel? Jeff Lee We had more than one first, actually. But, yes, let's start with our friends in Israel, Israel Aerospace Industries. They had hinted earlier this year that they were looking at starting a new conversion site in Eastern Europe. And they said that in May, at our event in Dubai, didn't they, but so we were keenly waiting to hear where this new site was. And we now have our answer, because earlier this month, a 767 300er that is now owned by the challenge group arrived in Belgrade in Serbia. And it has now been confirmed to us that that is the site of the new 767 conversion at the jet Technica facility there. And this is interesting because, well, firstly, because it's the first wide body conversion site in Eastern Europe, and but when we think about what IAI is doing, obviously, they're focusing a lot of their efforts on the new triple seven 300ERSF conversion, right. And we know that they have always been very busy with the 767 conversions in Tel Aviv. And they still are, you know, with more and more conversion orders still coming in. But as they get near that first flight, they are another first the first flight of the triple seven 300ERSF, which they expect later this year. And as they ramp up that conversion capacity, they're gonna need more presumably more lines to work on those wide bodies instead of even though they are starting other lines outside of Israel. So, obviously, with with all that they do need the additional conversion capacity and they already have another line in Mexico, but with this one in Europe, now, they can have very very soon start working on that first aircraft and the aircraft is also the first for challenge group first of four, so, several firsts there. But you know another one that is also 767 related is cargo aircraft management's first 767 conversion with Boeing arrived in Singapore earlier this month, a week or so ago. And so this is the first of many Boeing 767 300 BCF conversions that cam is is doing and this is a major diversification in their 767 conversion strategy. They've always converted their medium widebodies with IAI even though they have a few in their fleet. But those weren't their own conversions. So. So this one is apparently eventually going to amerijet. Andrew Crider I'm always really excited to hear about Amerijet. I want to now turn it to Robert. Now you reported on a couple of first in particular interest to me was in the Dominican Republic. Robert Luke Yes, in Dominican Republic drew Bluebird Nordic continues to expand its move blueprint across the globe app. And just recently starting a new carrier in Indonesia, they have just partnered with Sky Cana to a CMI 2 7378 hundreds to the new startup in that region, with the purpose of providing cargo services throughout the Caribbean, Latin American and southern portion of the US markets. So it's very impressive, even in spite of the volumes decreasing that you're still seeing a lot of milestones being set, as demand is continuing to show that there's a need for these newer conversions coming into the market. So that's a definite positive sign that is a welcome news in our industry. Also what took place was, which is a bit which is also very encouraging with Boeing reaching its 100 conversion this week, delivering unit 34279 to 2006 Vintage 737 802. Its launch customer, which was formerly Gecas now AerCap after their merger has taken place. And it's very ironic that the very large customer they started with was the same customer that received its 100 conversion from Boeing. So kudos to both Aercap and Boeing on those great accomplishments there. And also in some very, very encouraging news. Our guys down at extreme aviation Hello, Carlos. Recently, completed their first conversion of a 737 300 as they recently partnered with PIMCO last year, to provide a backup touch labor in an additional conversion line for their freighter program. So they delivered it to our buddy, Jonathan marks CEO at Africa charter airline, and that aircraft should actually have already touched down in Johannesburg at this point. John, I am looking for a little return since we were supposed to meet up in Mia which is okay, I understand things happen where you couldn't make it here. But you owe our cargo facts team big. So we just wanted to give you guys a shout out and also congratulations on your first completion of conversion to the extreme aviation group. That's pretty much all I have in our milestone department for for this week. So I'll pass it back over to you Drew, continue to scoop. Andrew Crider Thank you, Robert. We'll be out we'll be be keeping an eye on extreme air. Most definitely What a fascinating facility that they have. I want to bring attention to ACI And IPR. ACI had purchased IPR a while back to have their own in house conversion facility. Now, IPR conversions is going to develop a large cargo door and bulk freighter conversions for the ATR 600 In partnership with their launch customer ici, a arrow racing. Now we know the first aircraft will be converted with the Empire aerospace facility. cargo facts doesn't think that this is the end of the story, right here and we'll be looking forward to something potentially next week on developments into this new conversion program. And with that bombshell, that's all the time that we have for today. For those of you listening, I want to thank you for tuning in to this episode of cargo facts Connect. For more multimedia content like this, check out cargo facts.com and search cargo facts connect on iTunes and Spotify. Join us again next time. Subscribe to Cargo Facts Connect on iTunes or Spotify , or download the episode on Transistor . Cargo Facts Symposium, taking place LIVE Oct. 19-21 at the InterContinental San Diego, is the essential event for stakeholders in the air cargo industry. Learn more and register today .

Listen: A week of firsts for manufacturers and STC holders

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