A major advance in visual simulation technology will provide P-3C Orion crew members with the most realistic, uninterrupted field-of-view, computer-generated images yet created for simulator training. Undistorted images are visible with equal clarity to all on the flight deck.

Charles A Lindbergh was flying the Ryan NYP "Spirit of St Louis" when this photo was taken during an early test flight over San Diego in May 1927.

Ten Saab-Fairchild 340s were in service by mid-February with four airlines in Europe and the USA, and deliveries have been made since then to two more operators, one American and one Australian.

The long, hard-fought and, at times, acrimonious competition to provide the RAF with its next basic trainer ended on 21 March 1985 with the announcement that a version of the Embraer EMB-312 Tucano built by Shorts in Belfast and powered by the Garrett TPE331-12B part-manufactured and assembled in the UK by Rolls-Royce had been selected to fulfil the 130-aircraft contract at a cost some 35 per cent below the original estimate of ? 180m.

Following its first flight on 14 December 1984, the Grumman X-29A FSW demonstrator made three more flights during February to complete the contracts phase of the programme.

Northrop will make several changes in the fourth F-20 Tigershark, construction of which is now under way, using production jigs, for a first flight in 1986. A larger antenna for the General Electric AN/APG-67(V) radar will be fitted, with the radar itself moved 6 in (15 cm) aft in the nose and some changes to the nose profile.