The long awaited Global 7000 has finally entered the final stage of completion. The current progress of the aircraft is destined to obtain its type certificate during the second half of the current year. To date the aircraft has incurred over 1300 flight hours through out the testing period. Managing to complete what is known as fatigue testing to their full airframe of the FTV5.
The Canadian based airline Viking just secured a qualification approval from Transport Canada. This qualification approval is for the Level D full flight simulator for the 400 Twin Otter family of aircraft. The actual approval is through Viking Air’s sister company, Pacific Sky Aviation.
Mirabel, QC Canada is home to the Bell Helicopter Textron facility that has completed a significant mark as a entire facility. The Mirabel location has completed its 5000 aircraft with the hard and efficient work of its employees. As Bell continues to increase its order log it requires from many of its locations to complete these orders in a timely fashion and is no easy task. Building up to the completion of the 5000th aircraft, Bell was presented with an order from a Chinese company known as Shaanxi Helicopter Co Ltd. (SHC). The order was detailed with the completion of 100 of Bells 407GXPs type aircrafts.
Dassault Aviation is using Pratt & Whitney Canada’s (P&WC) PurePower PW800 engine to power their new Falcon Business Jet. After experiencing delays on the Falcon 5X project due to problems with the Snecma Silvercrest engine, Dassault canceled the project last month and launched a new Falcon model with the same fuselage cross section and P&WC engines instead.
BAE Systems has triumphantly achived flight trials of Eurofighter Typhoon with MBDA's Brimstone air-to-surface weapon. The trials were conducted using the UK Typhoon Instrumented Production Aircraft (IPA) 6 to gather air data on the weapon and increase the carriage envelope. During the trials, Aero Data Gathering (ADG) flights were performed to test how the addition of the Brimstone weapon and other assets cooperate with the aircraft’s flight control system software.
The USAF's 100th Air Refueling Wing (ARW) has helped the Romanian Air Force to get certified to obtain fuel from all US KC-135s. The 100th ARW, based at Royal Air Force Mildenhall, sent a 14-person crew and a KC-135 to Romania in support of the mission.
The U.S Federal Aviation Administration has approved Bombardiers CS300 and small CS100 for transportation. News was made explicit by Bombardier Commercial Aircraft division making it Official . This long overdue approval is an addition to their collection of approval such as Transport Canada, and The European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA).
Finally, the very first A330neo has been finished by Airbus Industries. The A330-900 was finished at its last stop in an assembly line located in Toulouse, France. The A330-900 is moving right along schedule and is on time with the finishing touches of this new and improved aircraft. Airbus has claimed that customers will be very pleased with the outcome of the aircraft as it will be a very reliable aircraft.
American Airlines has just announced the debut of the first retrofitted Boeing 757-200 for its maiden voyage on transatlantic routes to Latin American and Europe. The program is part of a $3 billion dollar investment that includes the standardization of its narrowbody fleet. Being carried out at American Airlines’ Tulsa maintenance base, the retrofit program will have 24 757s fitted with 16 new lie-flat B/E Parallel Diamond Business Class seats along with 160 Main Cabin (Economy) seats. The retrofit is supposed to give the aircraft a more modern look with newer technology and connectivity along with all the furnishings such as new trim/finishes, curtains, carpeting that all align with the American Airlines branding. Business Class passengers will be able to use individual tablets for entertainment throughout the flight and cabins will have overhead monitors. In a previous announcement American Airlines has stated that satellite wifi will be available in the near future so that customers will be able to download and stream content onto their own personal devices.
Current situations in the Mediterranean region is causing a lot of tension in the Middle East and in Southeast Europe. Hellenic Navy, Lockheed Martin and HAI are taking preparatory steps towards their defense by upgrading the P-3 Orion. There was a celebration on July 25th of 2016 in the city of Athens regarding the P-3B patrol aircraft modernization, the first two aircrafts were shipped to the HAI’s facilities at Tanagra from Elefsis Air Base. The Lockheed Martin Aeronautics were granted approximately $149 million by the U.S. Navy and they have agreed on an undefinitized contract to allow the modernization of the Hellenic Navy P-3B Orion.