Boeing AH-64D Apache Q-19 from 301 Squadron, with UN markings applied, long-range fuel tanks fitted and rotor blades removed, about to be loaded into Antonov An-124-100 UR-82072 at Gilze-Rijen AB on the evening of May 7, 2014.
McDonnell Douglas F-15C Eagle 214 (ex 79-0043) of 2 Squadron, Royal Saudi Air Force, landing at Nancy-Ochey during Exercise Green Flag.
Lockheed Martin F-16C Block 30F Fighting Falcon 87-0218/‘AL' City of Auburn was one of 12 from the Alabama Air National Guard that deployed recently to Afghanistan. The aircraft, from the 100th Fighter Squadron (FS), 187th Fighter Wing based at Montgomery Airport, Alabama, transited Moron AB in Spain on April 23, 2015. The 100th FS was one of the units originally assigned to the 332nd Fighter Group, manned by African American personnel and known as the Tuskegee Airmen after the Tuskegee Army Air Field in Alabama, where it was activated in February 1942.
Lockheed Martin F-16D Block 52 Fighting Falcon 1601 completed its first flight from Fort Worth, Texas, on May 2, 2014. The jet is the first of 24 single- and 12 two-seaters for Iraq which are also known as F-16IQs. Lockheed Martin was awarded a US Foreign Military Sales contract for the aircraft in December 2011. Initial deliveries are due in September and all the aircraft will be handed over by the end of May 2018.
McDonnell Douglas DC-10CF T-255 of 334 Squadron in storage at Eindhoven on April 3, 2014. It left eight days later for Newquay in Cornwall, UK, where it will be dismantled.
The Recce Meet provides a great opportunity for France’s specialists in the role to share experiences.
The German Navy s Marinefliegergeschwader 3 (MFG 3, Naval Air wing 3) celebrates the 50th anniversary of its formation on July 1, 2014. The unit has painted Lockheed P-3C Orion 60+05 (c/n 5765, ex Royal Netherlands Navy 308) to mark the occasion and it wears the silhouettes of all past MFG3 aircraft (Westland Sea Lynx Mk 88, Breguet Atlantic, Dornier Do 28OU and Do 228OU/LT and Fairey Gannet AS4) on grey and white stripes along the fuselage.
Kaman SH-2G(I) Super Seasprite N167KM is the first of the new variant for the Royal New Zealand Air Force to fly.
Sikorsky UH-60MU Black Hawk 05-20017 is currently being used as the Optionally Piloted Black Hawk. The helicopter is being directed via a man-portable ground control station.
US Army Sikorsky UH-60 Black Hawks and Boeing AH-64D Apaches of the 12th Combat Aviation Brigade on the ground at the Ujmajor military area of the Hungarian Defence Forces Bakony Combat Training Center during Varpalota Challenge 2014.
Embraer ERJ-190STD PH-EXD touches down on Schiphol's Runway 22 on its delivery flight on April 30, 2014. The blue cheatline along the fuselage is curved rather than straight, a change that, according to the new scheme's designer, was influenced by the way KLM’s colours will look on the Dreamliner.
Russian Air Force Antonov An-12BP Cub RA-11652 (c/n 402702) at its home at Chkalovsky air base in the Moscow region in mid-April 2014. The aircraft is used to support air accident investigations and incorporates a TA-6B auxiliary power unit (APU) run mission equipment. Its exhaust is visible just in front of the horizontal tailplane. Built as an An-12BP, it was modified for the role in the early 1970s as a laboratoriya isstedovaniya aviatsionnoy tekhniki (LIAT, aviation hardware examination laboratory). It moved to Chkalovsky in late 2010 from Kubinka after repair work following a nose wheel collapse during take-off from Buturlinovka on September 10, 2008.
The final Lockheed L100 Hercules registered in Europe left the continent on April 26б 2014. L100-30 EI-JIV (c/n 382-4673, ex ZS-JIV) of Air Contractors was operated on behalf of Oil Spill Response Ltd, based at East Midlands Airport, Leicestershire. The aircraft was used to provide a rapid airborne dispersant capability for oil pollution, but was due to be withdrawn from the role on July 1, 2013. The Hercules has been replaced by a pair of suitably modified Boeing 727s. The transport departed Birmingham Airport in the West Midlands for Amman in Jordan.
Eurofighter Typhoon FGR4 ZK342/‘ED' of No.6 Squadron based at RAF Leuchars, Fife, has received a special scheme inspired by the colours of the unit's Hawker Hurricane IID 'tank-busters' operated in North Africa and the Middle East during World War Two. The Typhoon was painted to mark No.6 Squadron’s formation in January 1914; a deployment to Nellis AFB in Nevada for Red Flag 14-1 meant celebrations had to be postponed until April 2014. The Typhoon was painted by the Serco-run paintshop at RAF Leuchars and it was rolled out from there on April 8. A centenary parade was held three days later, attended by two of the squadron's former Hurricane pilots.
As part of the commemorations due to be held in June for the 70th anniversary of Operation Overlord, the D-Day landings in Normandy, France, Eurofighter Typhoon FGR4 ZK308 of No.29 (Reserve) Squadron has received black and white ‘invasion stripes’ on its wings and rear fuselage, and the code ‘TP-V’. ‘TP’ markings were painted on Hawker Typhoon Ia/bs of No. 198 Squadron in June 1944, with ‘V’ belonging to MN526. The Typhoon jet first flew with its new markings on April 29, 2014 at its home base of RAF Coningsby, Lincolnshire.
Operational images of the Y-8GX-8 have started to appear on the internet. The bulbous nose, radome under the fuselage and on top of the tail, fairings along the side of the fuselage, and endplates on the horizontal tailplane are of note.
Four consecutively serialled Voyenno-Vozdushniye Sily (Russian Air Force) Kamov Ka-52 Hokum-Bs in formation. The helicopters (front to rear, RF-91336/‘44' to RF-91333/‘41') were practising for the Moscow Victory Day Parade flypast six days before it was due on May 9, 2014. They are understood to be assigned to the 696th Instruktorsko-lssledovatelskyy Vertoletnyy Polk (Training and Test Helicopter Regiment) of the 344th Cyentr Boyevovo Primyenyenya i Pyeryeuchivaniya Lyotnovo Sostava (Centre of Combat Applications and Retraining of Flying Personnel) at Torzhok. The helicopters carry long-range fuel tanks on the stub wings.
Upgraded Dassault Alpha Jet H 223 is one of eight redelivered to the Royal Moroccan Air Force.
Airbus A320-214 9H-AEI (msn 2189, ex XA-SOB) about to touch down at Budapest Ferenc Liszt International Airport in Hungary on April 18, 2014. As part of the carrier’s 40th anniversary celebrations, it wears the Air Malta scheme used at the time of the company’s first commercial flight on April 1, 1974.
New Airbus A320-214(CJ) Prestige F-WWBB (msn 6112) is destined for the Royal Thai Air Force as 60203/HS-TYT. The aircraft conducted a test flight at Toulouse-Blagnac Airport on May 5, 2014. Funding for the VVIP aircraft was approved by the Thai Government on June 25, 2014. Upon delivery, it will be housed in a specially constructed hangar at Don Muang AB, Bangkok.
Three Dassault aircraft in formation over the Mediterranean on March 20, 2014 - the nEUROn unmanned combat air vehicle testbed, a Rafale B fighter and the company’s current Falcon 7X demonstrator (F-HGHF) flew together during the one hour. 50 minute sortie while being photographed from two chase aircraft. The formation is believed to be the first involving a UCAV and manned aircraft, and required considerable planning to ensure turbulence from the other types did not interfere with the drone’s flight. Communication between the nEUROn and its ground control station also had to be maintained, so electromagnetic interference from the other aircraft had to be kept to a minimum. Images of the formation were released by Dassault in mid-April.
Short SC-7 Skyvan 3M-400 OE-FDN (c/n SH1964, ex 9M-FAT) at Marl Loemuhle in Germany, where it was chartered by the local parachute club over the Easter weekend in April 2014 as a jumpship. One of four operated by Pink Aviation Services based at Vienna in Austria, it was built for the Botswana Defence Force - Air Wing and sold to a private operator in 1994.
The fourth Embraer Legacy 500 made its debut in Africa at the Marrakech Airshow.
The 250th production Dassault Falcon 7X (F-WWUR) was rolled out at the manufacturer's facility at the Charles Lindbergh Hall at Bordeaux-Merignac in mid-April 2014. It will fly to the Falcon completion centre in Little Rock, Arkansas, in June and be delivered to its customer before the end of the year. A total of 216 Falcon 7Xs are currently in service in 34 countries, having accumulated more than 250,000 flight hours since 2007.
Airbus A330-343 F-WWKP (msn 1513) during a test flight at Toulouse-Blagnac in southern France on April 14, 2014. It was delivered ten days later to Saudi Arabian Airlines as HZ-AQL in SkyTeam colours, having first flown on March 6. Saudi currently operates 12 A330-343s and has four additional series 300 aircraft leased from Onur Air.
Airbus A330-202 EC-337 (msn 1516, ex F-WWKS) will become the sixth Multi-Role Tanker Transport (MRTT) for the Royal Saudi Air Force (as 2406). It is currently being converted to the role at Adolfo Suarez Madrid-Barajas Airport in Spain, the first to be worked on outdoors. The fifth MRTT for Saudi Arabia (EC-338, msn 1478, ex F-WWYT) is meanwhile being equipped in a hangar at the airport.
Voyager KC3 MRTT024 at Manchester Airport on April 25, 2014, the day it arrived from Spain.
Beech 200 King Air CN-ANG (c/n BB-1072) of the Ecole Bimoteur (Twin-Engine School) is used as a trainer and in the Al-Ghait weather modification programme. The canisters under the wing release silver iodine into the atmosphere, around which water droplets coalesce to form rain.
Beech 300 N194YY (c/n FA-194) transited through Glasgow Airport in Scotland on April 24, 2014 on its delivery flight to Luxembourg. The heavily modified aircraft will join the fleet of maritime patrol and reconnaissance aircraft operated by the Duchy in support of the European Union Naval Force (EU NAVFOR) based in the Seychelles. It is registered to Worldwide Aircraft Services of Springfield, Missouri, a repair and modification centre.
Thrush Aircraft Thrush 660 two-seater CN-AZX (c/n T660-118DC, ex N41020), one of at least nine delivered to the Royal Moroccan Gendarmerie from around 2005.
An EA-18G Growler assigned to Electronic Attack Squadron 130 (VAQ-130) ‘Zappers’ launches from the aircraft carrier USS Harry S Truman (CVN 75).
Conducting an emergency medical service (EMS) flight on May 1, 2014 in Costa Rica’s Ximari sector, MD Helicopters MD600N MSP008 (c/n RN082, ex N4250W) is a recent addition to the Costa Rican Direccion del Servicio de Vigilancia Aerea of the Ministerio de Seguridad Publica (Air Surveillance Service Directorate of the Ministry of Public Security). The helicopter, handed over on March 9, is also used for counter-narcotics, search and rescue and other humanitarian roles.
1 мая 2014г. компания Boeing сообщила, что на аэродроме производственного комплекса в г. Меса (шт. Аризона) поднялся в воздух первый серийный экземпляр легкого ударно-разведывательного вертолета AH-6i Little Bird.
The production representative Boeing AH-6i completed its maiden flight in late April.
Bombardier 415 CN-ATP (c/n 2087, ex C-GSYE) was one of three examples of the water bomber on display at Marrakech.
Boeing P-8A BuNo 167961 moving along the taxiway at Boeing Field on April 11, 2014, carrying the AAS sensor.
Bombardier DHC-8-402Q Dash 8 G-JECY Spirit of Liberum (c/n 4157, ex C-FLKV), one of the first Flybe jets to be repainted in its new scheme.
Dassault announced on May 1, 2014 the joining of the main centre fuselage sections of the first Falcon 5X business jet at Biarritz in southwest France. The front (seen here) and rear sections will be added in June and the completed fuselage will be delivered to Merignac for final assembly. The Falcon 5X was revealed in October 2013 during the National Business Aviation Association Convention in Las Vegas. Ground tests are scheduled to start in the summer with the maiden flight due in the first half of 2015, certification in the last quarter of 2016 and service entry in mid-2017. Three aircraft will participate in the flight test programme.
В полете U-2S (N 80-170)
Will the U-2 Dragon Lady buck the system and escape retirement following the military spending budget approved by the House Armed Services Committee on May 8, 2014.
