The World of Aviation

Virgin Blue has placed a brand new Boeing 737-800 into service featuring an anonymous all-white paint scheme as the airline prepares to relaunch with a new livery and branding in the first half of 2011. VB placed 737-8K8 VH-VUY into service just before Christmas, with the aircraft completely devoid of any airline logos and titles.

Queensland Health has opened a new helipad at the Thursday Island Hospital in the Torres Strait, replacing the old pad which had been found to be unsuitable. “The new helicopter landing site is better positioned and sized to suit the larger helicopters commonly employed today,” Australian Helicopters CEO Neil Shea said in a statement. “This

US regional carrier SkyWest Airlines has ordered four Bombardier CRJ700 regional jets. The aircraft will be configured with 65 seats in two classes and will be employed under the Delta Connection brand. SkyWest and sister company Atlantic Southeast Airlines operate the largest CRJ in the world with 406 CRJ200s, CRJ700s and CRJ900s on fleet.

European low cost carrier EasyJet has converted options it was holding on 15 Airbus A320s to firm orders, and has taken a further 33 options. The airline has also converted orders it had for 20 A319s to larger capacity A320s.

Lessor CIT Aerospace has ordered 38 Boeing 737s, comprising 23 737-800s and 15 737-900ERs. The order is the largest placed for the 737NG from a lessor, and will see deliveries made up until 2017.

The US Navy has placed an order with Raytheon for an undisclosed number of AN/APG-79 Advanced Electronically Scanned Array (AESA) radar sets for retrofit to early build Block II Super Hornets. The order takes the total number of APG-79s ordered for retrofit to 57. About 100 Block II Super Hornets were built with the modified