Turbomeca Australasia officially opened its new support facility at Bankstown Airport during a ceremony on March 12. The new 2500 square metre facility comprises workshops, a repair hall for MTR390 and RTM322 engines as used on the Army’s ARH Tiger and MRH 90 helicopters respectively, and an RTM322 engine production line. “Our new Killara building
The fourth Boeing 787 to join the flight test program, ZA003 N787BX, made its first flight from Everett’s Paine Field on March 14. Captains Ray Craig and Mike Bryan were at the controls of ZA003 for the three hour, six minute flight, which took off from Paine Field at 10:55am local time and landed at
Pentagon acquisition head Ashton Carter has told a US Senate Armed Services Committee (SASC) hearing in Washington that the USAF’s and US Navy’s planned Initial Operational Capability (IOC) milestones for the F-35A and F-35C JSFs have been delayed another 12 months. Carter told the SASC that USAF and US Navy officials had reassessed their definitions
The US Senate Armed Services Committee (SASC) spent most of Thursday (Washington time) grilling Pentagon officials on the faltering JSF program as it hurtles towards a probable Nunn-McCurdy cost breach in April, which will likely result in all expenditure being frozen while the program is substantially restructured. Of key interest to SASC members was the
Boeing announced on March 11 that the 747-8 Freighter has achieved initial airworthiness, allowing test flights to operate with engineers on board, and clears the way for the second two test 747-8s to fly. “This is a critical milestone in our test and certification plan,” said Andy Hammer, test program manager for the 747-8. “With
Qantas has lodged an application with the International Air Services Commission (IASC) seeking an allocation for QantasLink to operate services from Cairns to Port Moresby from July 2010. The brief application notes that the airline seeks an allocation of 888 seats per week to operate 12 weekly services on the route using the 74-seat Bombardier


