The World of Aviation

Reports and photographs from China indicate that country will soon test fly a large stealthy combat aircraft prototype from the Chengdu facility in the country’s north. Grainy images of the aircraft, variously dubbed J-XX or J-20, show a long and wide fuselage with low observable engine intakes and a forward chine, a high set delta

Jetstar took delivery of its 50th A320 Family aircraft earlier in the week, A320 VH-VGD, with the aircraft then operating its inaugural revenue flight, JQ446 from Melbourne to the Gold Coast, on December 23. Jetstar now has 44 A320s and six A321s in service, with 14 A320s added in 2010 alone. VH-VGD’s operating crew for

Air New Zealand’s first Boeing 777-300ER touched down at Auckland on December 24 at the end of its delivery flight from Seattle, bringing with it the airline’s much vaunted new interior, including its ‘cuddle couch’ economy ‘Skycouch’. “This is the best Christmas present we could possibly imagine,” Air New Zealand CEO Rob Fyfe said. “Four long years

Boeing has resumed 787 flight testing after fitting test aircraft ZA004 with interim updated power distribution system software, but says an updated program schedule won’t be known until January. “Initially, we will resume a series of Boeing tests that remain to be completed in the flight test program,” said Scott Fancher, vice president and general

Qantas international passenger numbers fell by 0.6 per cent in November compared to same month in 2009, as the airline felt the affects of grounding its Airbus A380 fleet for much of the month following the QF32 inflight uncontained engine failure emergency. Qantas carried some 479,000 international passengers for the month, despite its six strong

Airbus Military has failed to deliver a KC-30A MRTT to the RAAF by the end of 2010, despite the company saying as late as last month that it still planned to meet that schedule. The latest schedule slip, now taking total KC-30 program delays to over two years beyond the original late 2008 first delivery