At this year’s Avalon airshow in Geelong, Australia, Hawker-Pacific and Massey University School of Aviation signed an agreement for the replacement of Massey’s entire fleet of training aircraft. Under the agreement—worth around $NZ8 million ($US5 million)—Hawker Pacific, which is the regional distributor for Diamond aircraft, will supply 12 new Diamond DA-40 (single-engine four-seater) and two DA42L360 (twin-engine four-seater) aircraft to ...

Air Safaris—Southern Scenic Supremacy-Part 2 In Part II of Rob Neil’s Air Safaris story, the GAF Nomad features prominently. Perceived by those who don’t know it as an “ugly duckling” or an unwanted “orphan”, the Nomad has been a much-loved “swan” in the history of Air Safaris, which is the biggest operator of the type in the world. 309 AMARG—Desert “Boneyard” Few aviators ...

Following the crash of a Sikorsky S-92 off the Newfoundland coast on the 12th of March that killed 17 people, the FAA issued an emergency airworthiness directive in late March grounding all Sikorsky S-92 helicopters. The FAA said investigators found two main gearbox studs had broken. “Failure of a stud ... could result in rapid loss of oil, failure of the ...

Less than one year after announcing its introduction, Gulfstream announced the first simulated flight of its G650 business jet. The simulated test flight was carried out in Savannah, Georgia, and is a major milestone in the development of the company’s largest ever offering. While perhaps not as satisfying as an actual first flight, it offered the opportunity to demonstrate the ...

Boeing has unveiled a new version of its globally recognised F-15 Eagle. Boeing says the new F-15SE (“Silent Eagle”) has been designed to meet the future needs of international customers. “The F-15 Silent Eagle is designed to meet our international customers’ anticipated need for cost-effective stealth technologies, as well as for large and diverse weapons payloads,” said Mark Bass, the F-15 ...

The first of three Cathay Pacific aircraft to wear the company’s new oneworld livery, which celebrates the oneworld alliance’s 10th anniversary, arrived at Auckland International Airport on March 17. Each of the alliance’s 10 full member airlines will put a standardised oneworld livery on a proportion of the aircraft in its fleet to highlight their ongoing commitment to oneworld. The first Cathay ...

Swift Enterprises Ltd., an Indiana-based energy development company, has developed a new proposed replacement for 100LL that it says is both cheaper and higher octane-rated than Avgas. The company’s general aviation fuel is made from landfill waste, sorghum, algae, wood chips and other feedstocks, and Swift says it will be more fuel-efficient and environmentally-friendly than any GA fuel on the ...

Approximately 220 of the 736 Boeing 777s currently in service around the world are equipped with the Rolls-Royce Trent 800-series engines, which can allegedly suffer from ice-induced fuel constriction in flight. Investigators studying the British Airways 777 that crashed short of Heathrow in January (with no fatalities) and a Delta Airlines 777 that temporarily lost power at altitude last November ...

By Rob Neil. One would assume that every aviation business would select the most appropriate aircraft for their intended jobs. Where money is no object, this presents few difficulties. However, not every operator has the backing of sheikhs, emirs or billionaire entrepreneurs, and the “right plane for the job” often ends up—understandably—being simply the least expensive compromise. So it is that smaller ...

By Don Harward. Combat boots is probably a familiar term to many, but what about “pickle suits”? It’s a somewhat dated term, but I suppose I am somewhat dated also, which, I’ve come to appreciate, is not necessarily a bad thing. Pickle suit is the name given to the old one-piece green Nomex flight suit, which we all used to wear ...