The World of Aviation

Australian Aerospace CEO Jens Goennemann has said he “welcomes” the announcement by Defence Minister Stephen Smith and Defence Materiel Minister Jason Clare that the delayed MRH 90 helicopter program will undergo a ‘gate’ review. Goennemann, who stressed that the MRH program had not been placed on the Projects of Concern list, told media in Canberra

Air New Zealand’s recently delivered All Black A320 is set to give passengers the ability to use their mobile phones inflight, with the announcement of a partnership between Vodafone and communications provider OnAir. Starting next month, Air New Zealand’s All Black A320 will be the country’s first domestic aircraft to allow passengers to make and

Air New Zealand has signed a codeshare agreement with Etihad Airways, in a bid to bolster its presence in the middle eastern market. Subject to regulatory approval, Air New Zealand will codeshare on Etihad services between Sydney, Brisbane, Melbourne and Abu Dhabi, as well as between Abu Dhabi and London Heathrow. In return, Etihad will

Etihad Airways has appointed Robin Middleton to manager alliances, where he will oversee Etihad’s relationship with the Virgin Blue Group. Middleton, an Australian national who was formerly Etihad’s regional general manager Americas, will relocate to Brisbane, the home-base of Virgin Blue, to supervise the selling, marketing and distribution of Etihad’s partnership with VB. He was

The fifth Boeing 747-8F to join the flight test program made its first flight on February 4. According to Boeing, “The flight included a standard 2 hour, 30 minute ‘B1’ flight profile that Boeing conducts on all production airplanes prior to delivery, plus an hour of engineering testing woven into the profile”. The aircraft, RC523,

Northrop Grumman’s X-47B UCAS-D – Unmanned Combat Air System Demonstration – aircraft made its first flight on February 4, taking off at 2.09pm local time for a 29 minute flight. In a flight designed to gather test data to verify and validate system software for guidance and navigation, and the aerodynamic control of the tailless