BELL'S new 417 completed its first flight in June. The new light single-engine aircraft took off from Bell XworX in Arlington, Texas and flew in the circuit at 70 knots for a little more than half an hour at about 1000 feet. W: www.bellhelicopter.textron.com  ... more

BELL showed off a model of its X-Hawk Fancraft project at the Farnborolugh Show last month. The X-Hawk offers the performance of a helicopter without exposed rotors. It's being developed with Urban Aeronautics, and if the craft flies successfully, Bell expects it to revolutionise civil and military operations in urban situations. W: www.urbanaero.com ... more

GOOD flying conditions saw a number of long-standing UK glider records fall in July.David Masson from Lasham Gliding Society flew 845.8km on 11 July to set a new UK distance record for 15m class gliders. This beats the previous record of 827.9km which had been held by Justin Wills since 1986.Masson's flight involved a remote start after being towed to Membury, Wilts.  From there, he flew to Rattlesden in Suffolk, Leominster in Hereford ... more

BRITISH AEROBATICSsponsored by LOOPMARK Jefferies won the Unlimited class of the 2006 British Aerobatic Championships held at Sywell on 6-9 July. Just four pilots entered the class - it's still affected by last year's grounding of the CAP 232. The Advanced class being run at the same event numbered 12 and was won by Gary Ferriman.RESULTSAdvanced Champion 2006H/C Alan Cassidy, Extra 300 1 Gary Ferriman, Extra 300L  2 Julian Murfitt, Ext ... more

BRITISH pilot Paul Bonhomme blew apart the elite group in the Red Bull World Air Race Series with an emphatic second place in the Istanbul round on 29 July.Flying a new Edge 540 - which has proved to be the winning aircraft for the past two seasons - Bonhomme beat both current champion Mike Mangold and Hungarian Peter Besenyei, and was less than 0.5 of second behind winner Kirby Chambliss.The race was held in the spectacular Golden Horn est ... more

Chinooks from RAF Odiham are in use in the Lebanon crisis, ferrying people in and out of Beirut, including taking in the EU's Foreign Policy Chief. Based at RAF Akritori on Cyprus, the giant load-lifters were also helping to evacuate high priority groups such as the elderly and children. ... more

A FIRST for gyroplanes: the CAA has given Airworthiness Approval for the German-built MT-03 after nine months of intense testing and development."This is the first time ever that a factory-built, two-seat gyroplane has been shown to comply with this airworthiness standard, said Gerry Speich, MD of Rotorsport, the UK importer. "It's a triumph for the team both at Rotorsport and at AutoGyro in Germany where the aircraft is assembled ... more

MOST RAF pilots stop flying in their 40s.  Some might make it to their early 50s, but at nearly 60 Flight Lieutenant Chris Stevens is a rarity.  In July, Chris logged his 10,000th flying hour - a total often reached by long-haul pilots but rare for a fighter pilot. He's also celebrating 40 consecutive years in the saddle this year, having dodged numerous attempts to get him to 'fly a desk.'Chris counts some of the RAF's most famou ... more

Steve Jones wins three-way race at SilverstoneWHO'S fastest around a lap of Silverstone? No, not F1 driver David Coulthard, nor British Superbike rider Jonathan Rea - it's aerobatic pilot Steve Jones. Pilot, driver and rider in their respective vehicles raced one full lap of Silverstone's Grand Prix Circuit at the end of July and as the chequered flag fell, Jones was noticeably clear of his motoring competitors despite their experience on t ... more

THE CAE Global Academy was launched at last month's Farnborough Show. It's an alliance of training organisations with the aim of producing 2000 type-rated new airline pilots a year. The Academy plans to introduce a standardised course for the new ICAO Multi-Crew Pilot Licence for airline pilots. W: www.cae.com ... more

A ONE-man aircraft powered by 160 AA batteries took off and flew for 59 seconds last month, reaching a height of 16ft above the runway. "I was careful at takeoff as it was very difficult," said pilot Tomohiro Kamiya, a senior member at the Tokyo Institute of Technology. W: www.titech.ac.jp ... more

FIRST of the new breed of Very Light Jets (VLJs), the Eclipse 500, received provisional Type Certification at AirVenture.The company expects to receive full type certification for the Eclipse 500 by the end of August that will allow day/night, VFR/IFR, single-pilot and Reduced Vertical Separation Minimums (RVSM) operations. Most importantly, full certification also means Eclipse can start delivering aircraft to customers - more than 50 are ... more

THE world's biggest supplier of kitplanes, Van's Aircraft of Oregon, also announced an entry into the Light Sport category, the RV-12. It's a two-seat all-metal low-wing design powered by the ubiquitous 100hp Rotax. Van's said the design goals for the RV-12 were flying qualities equal to or better than the RV-9A (not easily achieved!), 550lb payload, 750lb empty weight and a low parts count, to reduce kit costs and assembly time.The prototy ... more

CESSNA stole the show at this year's AirVenture showing off two brand new aircraft. First was a 'proof-of-concept' two-seat prototype for the US Light Sport category, built in just ten weeks for AirVenture. Second, just as LOOP exclusively predicted last month, was a sneak preview of Cessna's 'Next Generation Piston' aircraft - it made low passes along the runway at Oshkosh but did not land. However, photos show many of the details that LOO ... more