The World of Aviation

The Dutch armed forces took delivery of the first customer NFH 90 helicopter shortly before Christmas. The aircraft, the first of 12 NFH 90s The Netherlands has on order, was handed over on December 23 at the AgustaWestland facility in Italy were it was built, and has been delivered in a ‘Meaningful Operational Capable (MOC)’

The Indian Finance ministry has instructed the Indian Air Force to cancel a contract for six Airbus A330 MRTT tankers after raising objections over the cost of the order. The concerns are reported to centre around increasing costs of the program and the higher acquisition costs of the MRTT compared to Russian Ilyushin Il-78 tankers

Lockheed Martin says it plans to merge its Maritime Systems & Sensors (MS2) and its Systems Integration business units this year, with the resultant loss of 1200 jobs. The new business unit will be called Mission Systems & Sensors and will retain facilities at the former MS2 sites in Washington and Virginia amongst others, and

US regional airline Mesa Air Group has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection while it undergoes a financial restructure. Chapter 11 will allow the airline to continue to trade while it restructures. Mesa operates 130 aircraft, most on regional or thinner routes on behalf of or on codeshare agreements with United, US Air and Delta,

EADS CEO Tomas Enders has threatened to abandon the troubled A400M military airlifter program unless partner nations contribute more funds towards the development of the aircraft, describing the program as a “constant drain on resources”. The Financial Times Deutschland has reported Enders as telling company directors in late December that he “no longer believes in

Northrop Grumman Corporation has announced it will move its corporate headquarters from California to Washington DC in 2011. Currently located at El Segundo near Los Angeles International Airport, the move means there will no longer be any major aerospace companies based in California, once the hub of the US aerospace industry. But the relocation will