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Russia's Finist seven-seat light utility aircraft was flight-tested at the Rendcomb airfield, north of Cirencester, England. The all-metal SM-92 Finist was unveiled by Technoavia, the new Russian design bureau, in May 1994. The flight test showed that the Finist is a competent, slow-flying and maneuvreable utility aircraft. Other outstanding features are its easy maintenance and well-tried engine. It was also found to be ideal for operation from fields as small as 350m.

Mandate directed primarily at Pen Turbo Aviation, owner of some 80% of country's fleet 'Who's going to repossess an aircraft on the other side of the world?' R gobalian Pen [...]

REPORT DAVID LEARMOUNT LONDON 'Fatal flaw' made Challenger 604 lose pitch control AAIB raises design issue and criticises decision to direct business jet over London with flight-control compromised A Bombardier [...]

Europe's decision to wield a big stick against airlines and states that don't take safety seriously looked heavy-handed, but it seems to be producing the desired results This apparently blunt [...]

Virgin Galactic has pushed back the flight-test andin-service dates for the space tourism company's suborbital launch system. Its announcement came just before the SpaceShipTwo (SS2)-related test explosion on 26 July [...]

A government study using a new type of anthropomorphic dummy and inflatable shoulder restraints could lead to business jet makers increasing passenger numbers and safety on aircraft by using side-facing [...]

A half-scale model of Spain's Diana has been flying since January Spain's INTA research agency has unveiled a development programme for a new high-speed target drone, with a demonstrator to [...]

Later this year a propeller-driven aircraft will be used to test landing gear with in-wheel electric motor-generators for pushback, taxiing and braking. Virginia-based Delos Aerospace has developed the in-wheel system, [...]

Further to my letter on GEnx risk (Flight International, 6-12 July 2006), I am annoyed that the US Federal Aviation Administration has agreed to a reduced risk blade-off test (Flight [...]

Recently completed tests on the leased 747-400 -8 technology demonstrator have 'dramatically increased confidence that we'll be able to meet our targets on range,' says 747 chief project engineer Corky [...]

Radars Raytheon expects to achieve two major milestones with its active electronically scanned array (AESA) radar family over the next month with the start of tests of the first Boeing [...]

A parachute system equipped with a 1.5m (4.9ft)-span delta wing and two micro-turbojets which could propel a paratrooper 200km (110nm) from a drop point could be tested from third-quarter 2007. [...]

A month-long series of windtunnel tests of different flight-control surface configurations for a military blended wing body (BWB) aircraft was to be completed on 12 May. The Cranfield Aerospace-built, Boeing [...]

Airbus has begun testing winglets on its A320 development aircraft. Two different designs are to be flight tested, with JetBlue Airways providing an additional aircraft for part of the flight-test [...]

A resin film-infused composite winglet is undergoing lightning strike tests under the [euro]79 million ($92 million), four-year Aircraft Wing with Advanced Technology Operation (Awiator) project, a European Union Fifth Framework [...]

Active control of wing flexing can allow a high-flying surveillance aircraft to have a long, swept wing that is both aerodynamically efficient and lightweight, Northrop Grumman has demonstrated. The work [...]

New 'scarfed' engine inlets have been tested on Airbus's CFM International CFM56-equipped A320 testbed under the EU's SILENCER Fifth Framework noise research [...]

Open jet windtunnel tests at Australia's University of New South Wales have found that vibrating a wing's upper surface at 400hz can increase lift coefficient by 22% and stall angle [...]

Construction has begun of a flight-ready variable inlet pre-cooled turbojet engine that could power a Japanese two-stage to orbit launcher or an aircraft that would travel from Tokyo to Los [...]

Laboratory testing is under way on a resin-infused composite spar, developed through a European Fifth Framework research project, which is made more quickly and cheaply than spars using other composite [...]

The Dutch Aeroplane Company (DAC) has delayed test flights of its RangeR two-seat kitplane. The RangeR is an all-composite version of the Lucas Dieselis aircraft and uses an adapted 82hp [...]

Sikorsky completed the first flight of the modernised UH-60M on 17 September. The machine, flown by Kevin Bredenbeck and Chris Geanacopoulos, flew for 75min from Sikorsky's flight test centre in [...]

The first prototype of the Wolfsberg-Letov 257 Ravenall-metal utility aircraft has resumed flight testing after significant modifications. Alec Clark, chief designer of the aircraft, says that pilots had 'experienced quite [...]

nEJSF PROPOSALS Lockheed Martin and Boeing have submitted their competing Joint Strike Fighter proposals. The programme office will select one to begin the next engineering and manufacturing development phase. Meanwhile, [...]

Wing Cdr Dave Best, OC ETPS, says the school has introduced training in civil certification programmes as many new aircraft, including the Lockheed Martin C-130J Hercules future tanker and ASTOR [...]

n Raptor flies fourth The fourth Lockheed Martin/Boeing F-22, Raptor 4004, flew for the first time on 15 November. The aircraft has the initial Block 1.2 avionics software. Raptor 4005 [...]

Andrew Doyle/TOULOUSE after completing 320 days of windtunnel testing Airbus Industrie predicts that its A340-500 and -600 will marginally exceed nominal range targets . The better-than-expected aerodynamic performance will fully [...]

*ORION UPGRADE Raytheon has flown the first Royal Australian Air Force Lockheed Martin P-3C to be upgraded to AP-3CSea Sentinel standard with new navigation, communication, radar and acoustic systems. The [...]

NASA's Dryden Flight Research Center's systems research aircraft (SRA) is one of the world's most advanced flying testbeds. SRA was designed to help identify and flight test the most sophisticated technologies having subsonic, supersonic, hypersonic and space applications. SRA is also currently being used to hasten the development of new technologies having commercial and military applications.

Airbus Industrie is about to begin flight testing a specially equipped A340 to show that the new A3XX can fly with less static and dynamic stability than its current fly-by-wire [...]