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First flight for new AW109 Trekker light twin

GE Aviation creates Digital business

GE Aviation announced the creation of a digital organization that brings all of the digital expertise from across Aviation into one business. This new Digital business will be led by Jim Daily as president and chief digital officer, Engineering and Technology for GE Aviation. “Over the past...

OPINION: Rotorcraft sector must go back to basics

"There doesn’t seem to be a strategy to expand the industry. We’ve been suckling too long on the oil and gas teat.” However provocative, that stray comment from one of the organising team at the HAI Heli-Expo show neatly captures the state of the rotorcraft sector. Hamstrun...

Boeing and Paramount join forces for multi-role aircraft

US plane maker Boeing and the South African defence company Paramount said they would collaborate on light multi-role aircraft. Boeing will provide advanced intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance capabilities and weapons systems for Paramount’s Mwari military aircraft, the companies said on Monday. “The multi-role aircraft will become a significant player in the global aer...

Airbus touts its ‘Make In India’ credentials

The Airbus Group produced over $500 million worth of aero-structures, components, materials, and services in India during 2015. In the five years up to 2020, the company hopes to achieve a cumulative $2 billion in procurement from India, says Airbus Group in a statement. “Indian suppliers are a cornerstone of our globalisation strategy,” said Airbus chief procurement officer Klau...

Analysts Continue Panicking About the Boeing 777

In the past year or so, a growing contingent of aerospace analysts have made dire predictions about demand for Boeing's 777 widebody jet. They found some support for their bearish viewpoint earlier this year, when Boeing announced plans to cut the 777 production rate from 8.3 per month to seven per month for 2017. Weak demand for the current-generation 777 could potentially be exp...

Blast from the Past: Soviet-Era Tu-160M2 Is More Lethal Than Ever

Russia’s upgraded Tupolev Tu-160M2 Blackjack supersonic bomber is expected to make its first flight in 2019. Moscow currently has sixteen of the original version of the Mach 2.0-capable bomber, which are the last surviving examples of the thirty-five aircraft built by the Soviet Union before its demise. Moscow hopes to build fifty new Tu-160M2 aircraft to upgrade its aging strategic bombe...

'World's largest aircraft' prepares for first flight

The Airlander 10, a cross between an airship and an aeroplane, is reportedly weeks away from its maiden flight. The "world's largest aircraft", a cross between an airship and an aeroplane, is only weeks away from its maiden flight, Sky News reported on Sunday. The Airlander 10 was originally developed for the US Army back in 2009, but re-imagined for commercial use when the pro...

Check Out the Military’s Experimental Helicopter Plane

What takes off like a helicopter, flies like a plane, and looks like something Orville Wright might dream up on mescaline? The military’s next X-Plane! On Thursday, aircraft maker Aurora Flight Sciences announced that its LightningStrike design had received the prime contract to continue the development of the VTOL X-Plane project. (VTOL stands for vertical takeoff and/or landing.) The De...

Airbus and Boeing February 2016 O&D Roundup

Boeing delivered 55 commercial aircraft to 23 airlines, six lessors and one unidentified customer in February. Airbus had 46 commercial aircraft deliveries to 29 airlines and two lessors during the month. Year-to-date, Boeing has delivered a total of 104 commercial aircraft, compared to Airbus’ 68 total deliveries as of Feb. 29, 2016. February commercial aircraft orders were relatively...

ANALYSIS: America's hypersonic missile revolution beckons

Long before hitching a ride to the moon aboard Apollo 11, then US Air Force test pilot Neil Armstrong was zipping around in a rocket-powered North American X-15, which to this day remains the fastest manned, winged aircraft ever built. That flight record of Mach 6.72 or 7,274km/h was set by pilot William “Pete” Knight in 1967. Now, some 59 years later, America still hasn’t ful...

Photo Tour of Honeywell's Boeing 757 Test Aircraft

BY DAVID PARKER BROWN Honeywell recently reached out and let me know that their Boeing 757 would be parked at Paine Field (north of Seattle) overnight. They asked if I’d like to take a tour before it departed back to Phoenix. Um… yes please! The third engine on the side of the 757, with a B-52 in the background The rain partly cleared as I arrived and the first obvio...

Iran invites Boeing to talk about plane purchases: State TV

Iran has invited U.S. planemaker Boeing Co to Tehran to discuss purchasing jetliners aimed at revamping its aging fleet hit by decades of sanctions imposed on the Islamic Republic, state TV reported on Friday. In February, Iran's deputy transport minister Asghar Fakhrieh Kashan told Reuters the country was ready to buy at least 100 jets from Boeing. Boeing said it was assessing the ste...

This wild new concept aircraft is electric, autonomous, and powered by dozens of fans

DARPA has awarded a contract to Aurora Flight Sciences to develop the agency's newest unpiloted vertical takeoff and landing (VTOL) aircraft. The new "X-plane" concept (no, not that X-plane) will reach speeds of 400 knots and carry cargo loads of at least 40 percent of the plane's expected 10,000- to 12,000-pound gross weight, all while beating the efficiency of its predecessor,...

Airbus Helicopters Foundation supports Fiji in the aftermath of tropical cyclone Winston

Airbus Helicopters Foundation provided support to humanitarian relief efforts following the tropical cyclone Winston that hit the Fiji Islands on 21 February 2016, killing at least 43 people and affecting 350 000 others. The disaster has left large areas of the Fiji archipelago without power, water supplies and communication and heavy rains have brought flash flooding, landslides and coastal in...

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Ten years of growth, expertise and excellence at Dassault Falcon Service Mérignac

Located alongside Dassault Aviation’s flagship manufacturing facility, Dassault Falcon Service Mérignac is celebrating a decade of dedicated support to Falcon operators around the world....

Electra demonstrates revolutionary airport operations with Ultra-Short Takeoff aircraft using helicopter-style procedures

Electra announced the successful completion of first-of-its-kind flight operations from a heliport located on the commercial airport ramp at Roanoke-Blacksburg Regional Airport. The demonstration high...