The World of Aviation

Australia is to purchase long-lead items for the “potential conversion of 12 of the RAAF’s F/A-18 Super Hornets to the EA-18G Growler variant”, Minister for Defence Stephen Smith and Minister for Defence Materiel Jason Clare announced today. In a statement the ministers stressed that no Growler acquisition decision has been made yet, but that the

A Shadow 200 Tactical Unmanned Aerial System (TUAS) has been deployed to Afghanistan since August last year and a second will be delivered to Australian troops preparing to deploy, almost one year ahead of schedule, Minister for Defence Stephen Smith and Minister for Defence Materiel Jason Clare announced today. Purchased through the United States Foreign

The UK’s Royal Air Force will take delivery of an eighth C-17 airlifter later this year, Boeing has announced. “The tremendous teamwork of Boeing and US government officials has made it possible to announce this acquisition so quickly after we determined the need for this additional C-17,” said UK Ministry of Defence Head of Commercial

Air New Zealand is dropping its twice-weekly direct flights to Beijing from June 30 in favour increased services to Shanghai, following a review of its current China schedules. Flights from Auckland to Shanghai will increase from four to five times weekly from July 4, with Air New Zealand planning to operate daily flights to the

CASA is considering relaxing the requirements for private pilots to hold an aviation medical, and easing the drug and alcohol management plan requirements for smaller aviation organisations, director of aviation safety John McCormick says in the regulator’s latest newsletter. According to the newsletter CASA is well advanced on assessing the “merits and risks” of a

Pacific Aerospace says its P-750 XSTOL has been certified for single-engine IFR operations for RPT passenger flights. The Hamilton, New Zealand-based company says achieving certification involved making a number of modififcations to the aircraft, including fitting a new, dual-independent electrical generation system. The first operator to take advantage of the SE IFR certification will be