The World of Aviation

Boeing has finalised the firm configuration of the stretched 787-9, which is expected to make its first delivery in late 2013. “Firm configuration means the airplane’s structural, propulsion and systems architectures are defined and not changing,” said Mark Jenks, vice president of 787-9 development, Boeing Commercial Airplanes. Boeing says it has completed the trade studies

Virgin Blue CEO John Borghetti has issued a memo to Virgin Blue staff outlining his new executive team, as well as plans to integrate the airline group’s long haul and short haul operations more closely. Under the planned changes, V Australia’s operations will become integrated with those of Virgin Blue, reversing the current structure which

Gulfstream Aerospace has announced that the third and final G250 to be involved in the flight test program has made its first flight from Israel’s Ben Gurion airport. The aircraft took off from Ben Gurion on June 28 at 10:30am local time and undertook a 2 hour and 56 minute flight which saw the aircraft

The Virgin Blue group recorded a static 72.4 per cent revenue load factor for May, as a moderate increase in load factors on international services offset a fall in domestic loads. Overall, the group’s passenger numbers increased by 4.6 per cent for the month, which pushed revenue passenger kilometres (RPKs) up by 18.3 per cent.

Qantas says that premium traffic is starting to return as its May operating statistics showed that the overall airline group recorded a 5.6 per cent increase in passenger numbers compared to the same time last year. Qantas’s domestic services fared well during the month, with passenger numbers up 4.7 per cent, although an 8.7 per

The German Euro Hawk development of the Northrop Grumman Global Hawk made its first flight from Palmdale, California, on June 29, flying a two hour sortie before landing at nearby Edwards AFB. The Euro Hawk is a development of the Block 20 Global Hawk, and encompasses an EADS designed signals intelligence (SIGINT) package. “Formed as