AVIAT AIRCRAFT

Get behind the stick in an Aviat Aircraft and you will experience the difference.

GARMIN UPDATES

Upgrade your avionics with the GTN™ Xi series navigator

INTERNATIONAL DEFENCE EXHIBITION (IDEX)

The International Defence Exhibition & Conference, or IDEX, is a biennial arms and defence technology sales exhibition. The exhibition is the largest defence exhibition and conference in the Middle East and takes place in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates.

VIP AIRCRAFT: HOW DO PRESIDENTS, PRIME MINISTERS AND HEADS OF STATE TRAVEL?

While some of the world's leaders and heads of state arrive at regional and international meetings on massive four-engined planes, others travel on smaller airliners or business jets.

SAUDIA ANNOUNCES MAJOR BOEING ORDER

On 14 March 2023 Boeing and Jeddah-based Saudia announced that the Saudi national flag carrier will add up to 49 787 Dreamliners to its long-haul fleet.

NAMES TO REMEMBER

Famed cosmonaut Valery Polyakov dead at 80

DOUGLAS's A-26 INVADER ONE AIRCRAFT, THREE US WARS

The Douglas A-26 Invader was a World War II era, American, twin-engined light-bomber and ground attack aircraft designed to meet a 1940 US Army Air Corps (USAAC) requirement for multi-role light bomber optimised for low-level and medium-altitude precision bombing attacks.

BEST OF THE BEST DUTCH KINDEBERGER

James Howard 'Dutch' Kindelberger was an American aviation pioneer. He led North American Aviation from 1934 until 1960. As an extroverted character, Kindelberger was famed for his emphasis on hard work, orderliness and punctuality.

RARE WWII TARGET DRONE TO BE DISPLAYED IN A USA MUSEUM

On 28 February 2023, Idaho's Spirit of Flight Foundation museum announced that a rare WWII era Culver target drone has been donated to the museum's collection.

SPORTS AEROBATIC CLUB TRAINING CAMP AT KITTY HAWK

Once again, the superb Kitty Hawk airfield was the venue for the SAC's aerobatics training camp over two days, Friday 10 and Saturday 11 March 2023. I drove to the venue on Saturday morning to spend some time watching the aerobatics training taking place.

AERO CLUB OF SOUTH AFRICA'S AIRWEEK AT MIDDLEBURG

Once again, the annual AeCSA weekend fly-in staged at Middleburg airfield over three days Friday 3 to Sunday 5 March was an outstanding success. I drove to Middelburg on Friday morning and by 10h30 my tent office was set up so that I could report directly from this very important aviation event.

BLACKHAWK AEROSPACE UPDATES

Blackhawk Aerospace is adding the PC-12 to its roster of aircraft for aftermarket engine upgrade Supplemental Type Certificates (STCs).

AFTER ONE YEAR WILL UKRAINE BE VICTORIOUS OVER RUSSIA'S INVASION?

On 24 February when Russian forces first crossed Ukraine's borders there were few who believed Kyiv would even last a week, let alone have any chance against Russia's overwhelming military. Yet when US President Joe Biden made a surprise and morale-building visit to Kyiv on 20 February he did so with a startlingly different assessment than defence planners would have given him a year ago.

PISTON ENGINE AIRCRAFT 2023

Over the past fifteen years South Africa, which mirrors other countries in the world, has seen a steady decline in the number of 'certified piston engine' aircraft sold as 'new' to the market.

LEONARDO'S AUSTRALIAN AW139 FLEET GROWS

Leonardo has announced further growth in presence of the AW139 intermediate twin engine helicopter in Australia with orders for a total of six aircraft by three different prime operators: Babcock Australasia, RACQ CQ Rescue and StarFlight Australia. All six aircraft will be delivered from Leonardo's Vergiate final assembly line facility in Italy during 2024.

GRAVITY SUCKS

Well, I always wanted to talk about this thing called gravity.

EMIRATES SELECTS DIAMOND AIRCRAFT DA42-VI FOR FLIGHT TRAINING

Emirates Flight Training Academy (EFTA), operated by Emirates airline, is bolstering its current fleet with an order for three state-of-the-art twin engine training aircraft DA42-VI and its corresponding flight simulator from Diamond Aircraft.

AUSTRALIAN INTERNATIONAL AIRSHOW AT AVALON AIRPORT

The AMDA Foundation Limited is an Australian not-for-profit corporation established to promote the development of aviation and Australia's industrial, manufacturing and information / communications technology resources in the fields of aviation, aerospace, maritime, defence and security. AMDA achieves this goal by delivering Australia's most prominent and respected world-class biennial industry expositions as platforms for interaction between industry, defence, government and academia.

THE LUFTHA SA HEIST

Within hours, the men would flee, having committed one of the largest cash robberies in the United States, prompting an investigation which would span decades and would go on to be called the ‘Lufthansa Heist ’.

HUMAN FACTORS: WHOSE FAULT, REALLY?

It was a pretty little thing, the Cherokee. Liquidly gloss white, with two-toned red stripes on the wings, fuselage and tail its gear wrapped in wheel pants. It had been owned by one man for the previous 20 years without incident and yet, nine months after its sale to a new owner, the Cherokee was a crumpled pile of junk lying in a ditch off the end of Runway 24 at Oswego County Airport (KFZY) in Fulton, New York.

POISONLESS PERFORMANCE UNLEADED AVGAS APPROVED AMIDST SAN JOSE CONTROVERSY

Heavy lead fills the air with power and poison and a ban on 100 Low Lead fuel sales all year at two California airports sparked outrage that burned through decades of red tape. High performance piston fuel that does not cause brain damage was approved by the FAA on 1 September and the US Environmental Protection Agency started the process with a hearing on 1 November.

NAMESTO REMEMBER Amy Johnson (1903-1941) was a pioneering British aviator

\"The silence,\" she wrote in an article on gliding, \"broken only by the soft swish of the wind in my hair, is rapture after the deafening roar to which I have been accustomed for so many years.\"

PAN AMERICAN WORLD AIRWAYS

Pan American World Airways, originally founded as Pan American Airways and commonly known as Pan Am, was an American airline that was the principal and largest international air carrier and unofficial overseas flag carrier of the United States for much of the 20th century. It was the first airline to fly worldwide and pioneered numerous innovations of the modern airline industry such as jumbo jets, and computerised reservation systems. Until its dissolution in 1991, Pan Am 'epitomised the luxury and glamour of intercontinental travel' and it remains a cultural icon of the 20th century, identified by its blue globe logo ('The Blue Meatball') the use of the word 'Clipper' in its aircraft names and call signs and the white uniform caps of its pilots.

BEST OF THE BEST FRANK WHITTLE INVENTOR OF THE JET ENGINE

Air Commodore Sir Frank Whittle, OM, KBE, CB, FRS, FRAES was an English engineer, inventor and Royal Air Force (RAF) air officer. He is credited with inventing the turbojet engine. A patent was submitted by Maxime Guillaume in 1921 for a similar invention which was technically unfeasible at the time. Whittle's jet engines were developed some years earlier than those of Germany's Hans von Ohain, who designed the first-to-fly (but never operational) turbojet engine.

THE QUEEN OF THE SKIES FINALLY RETIRES

The Boeing 747 is a large, long-range wide-body airliner designed and manufactured by Boeing Commercial Airplanes in the United States. After introducing the 707 in October 1958, Pan Am requested an airliner that would be at least two and a half time larger than the 707 in order to reduce the cost of flying.

DOT's ICAD AIRSHOW AND AVIATION YOUTH DEVELOPMENT EVENT AT HEIDELBERG

Our team of photographers, Charlie and Fiona Hugo, Paul Ludick, Christine and I all attended the Department of Transport's (DoT) and South African Civil Aviation's (SACAA) International Civil Aviation Day (ICAD) at the Heidelberg airfield on Saturday 3 December 2022.

AERO CLUB OF SOUTH AFRICA AWARDS 2022

Due to my timeshare commitment at Mabula at this time of the year, I was not in a position to attend the AeCSA awards on Saturday 26 November. Like last year the awards ceremony was held at Rand airport in the beautifully decorated Springbok Flying Safaris hangar belonging to Captain Flippie Vermeulen and his family.

EXERCISE VUK'UHLOME 2022 LOHATLA 2022

The South African Defence Force (SANDF) has a very privileged position within the worlds military. The large expanse of South Africa allows our military to have huge training bases where large scale exercises and testing of military doctrine can be tried, tested, reevaluated and honed to perfection. There are ten such bases worldwide and the SANDF's Lohatla Combat Training Centre (CTC) in the Northern Cape is one of two such in the Southern Hemisphere.

BELL TEXTRON's VALOR WINS US ARMY'S FLRAA COMPETITION A TO REPLACE BLACK HAWK

The award is worth up to $1.3 billion, but a follow-on production contract could place the programme in the range of $70 billion over its lifetime.

DELIVERY OF FIRST BELL 505 TO ANGOLA

Bell Textron company, announced the delivery of the first Bell 505 to Angolan aviation company, BESTFLY. The aircraft was handed over during a ceremony in Mirabel, Canada.