The World of Aviation

Emirates vice president of Australia Stephen Pearse has resigned from the airline to pursue other interests, the company announced on May 18. Richard Jewsbury, Emirates’s senior vice president, commercial operations, Far East & Australasia said, “During Stephen’s tenure since January 2007, Emirates has significantly grown its presence in the market, with increased services to our

The RAAF’s first A330 MRTT (KC-30A) tanker currently undergoing certification testing in Spain has successfully ‘buddy’ refuelled the second RAAF KC-30A in flight. The milestone demonstrates the type’s flexibility to conduct long endurance and long range refuelling as well as its ability to pass fuel to and receive fuel from other large aircraft. The two

F-35A development aircraft AF-01 and AF-02 have flown from Lockheed Martin’s Forth Worth factory in Texas nonstop to Edwards AFB in California to commence flight test operations with the USAF. The two aircraft are the first of eight to be eventually based at Edwards for propulsion, aerial refuelling, logistical support, weapons integration and flight envelope

The US House Armed Services Committee has added funding for the GE/RR F136 engine for the JSF program to the FY011 US defence budget after funding was omitted by the Pentagon, the fifth year in a row this has been done. The US$485m (A$553m) in funds would allow development of the F136 engine to continue.

The Navy’s three AgustaWestland A109 Power helicopters provided under the Retention and Motivation Initiative (RMI) by Raytheon Australia achieved 1500 hours over the last contract year. The milestone was recognised by Raytheon Australia’s managing director, Michael Ward, on May 13. “From its inception this program has characterised everything we are about as a company –

London’s airports, including Heathrow and Gatwick, were forced to close for six hours on May 17 due to new ash clouds from Iceland’s Eyjafjallajökull volcano. The new ash clouds have also forced airport closures in Scotland, Northern Ireland and the Netherlands, including Amsterdam-Schiphol and Rotterdam airports, which is expected to have a major knock-on effect