The rush to invoice before year end certainly kicked in over the Christmas period at Shannon. Starting with the Spicejet B737 on Christmas Day there have been a number of other aircraft, notably biz jets ferried through the airport in recent days.
Sunday saw the arrival in darkness of Gulfstream 550 CAEW 'Eitam' (White tailed sea eagle in Hebrew) N643GA, msn 5143 on delivery to the Israeli Ministry of Defense. The CAEW (Conformal Airborne Early Warning) variant was first delivered to Israel in 2006, along with the SEMA (Special Electronic Mission Aircraft) version, both of which were developed by Gulfstream for the Israeli MoD.
The CAEW variant is delivered as a shell with the systems fit out being undertaken by IAI's Elta subsidiary in Tel Aviv who install the multi sensor AEW hardware incorporating phased array antennae mounted on the fuselage which give 360 degree coverage.
The development by Gulfstream of the CAEW necessitated several upgrades of the base aircraft.
To accommodate the extra payload imposed by the Elta systems, the aircraft's zero fuel weight was increased by using a Mid Wing Fuel Ejector Pump which pumps fuel from the inboard section of the wing to the outer fuel cells, thereby reducing the wing loads at the fuselage.
A fully 'loaded' CAEW aircraft places significant electrical loads on the aircraft's systems so two additional generators were added, one to each of the engines with the result that the aircraft delivers 3 times the electrical power of a standard G550.
A byproduct of all the electronics is heat so a liquid cooled air conditioning system has been added.
The first two CAEW aircraft were delivered by Elta to the IMoD in February and May of this year and one aircraft, serial 569 appeared at Farnborough 2008 as part of the company's presence at the show.
The initial order from the IMoD was for four aircraft serials 514, 537, 544 and 569 which joined three Shavit ('Comet' in Hebrew) aircraft 676, 679 and 684 in the 122 Nachshon Squadron. Since then another aircraft serial 532 was delivered to Israel in December 2007.
The first aircraft to be ferried through Shannon, N637GA (serial 537) passed through in September 2006. N914GA (serial 514) passed through in March 2007. Two examples were delivered through Edinburgh, N944GA (serial 544) in May 2007 and N969GA (serial 569) in July 2007.
In 2007, the Singapore Air Force announced an order with IAI for four G550 CAEW aircraft, the first of which was to be delivered in late 2008.
N643GA departed Shannon this morning at 9.00 am and is pictured above rotating off R06.
For more pictures of this morning's departure see N643GA pictures
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