A CHINESE General Aviation Company has placed an order for 50 Adam Aircraft A700 Very Light Jets to meet growing demand in the charter market. “The business plan of the Chinese company has been developed with the goal of capitalising on the fast growing General Aviation market in China with fractional share program and air taxi operation in mind,” said Jason Fan, boss of Hainan Zhong Hong Tai General Airlines. “Due to the immediate ch ... more

MUSTANGS MEETOVER 100 classic P-51 Mustangs are expected at 'The Gathering of Mustangs & Legends' at Rickenbacker Airport, Ohio, USA from 27-30 September. Marking the Mustangs 65th year in combat history, there are only approximately 1% of the original 15,868 Mustangs flying today - and the majority of those will be at the Gathering. W: www.gml2007.com ... more

THE CAA and NATS have been busy trying to convince UK pilots that flying outside controlled airspace could be safer by making better use of transponders. The CAA says a new procedure by NATS allocates transponder codes to aircraft receiving an air traffic service from 'London Information'. Although the Flight Information Service Officers providing the service have no radar, the unique code allocated can be seen by other radar controllers and ... more

COMPTON ABBAS 22-23 JUNEby NICK BUCKENHAMMOSTLY Compton Abbas is a little piece of aviating heaven - lovely grass airfield, gorgeous countryside, smashing people. At around 800ft amsl, however, when the weather goes sour, it's right there in it. The BAeA has over the years seen it all but this time the Rain Gods really danced and aerobatic successes were consequently rather thin on the ground.During a day frequently interrupted by monster cum ... more

by NICK BUCKENHAM THE British Aerobatic Association (BAeA) ran a highly informative inaugural Aerobatic Training Seminar for instructors at Wellesbourne Mountford in conjunction with On-Track Aviation, based at the airfield. LOOP contributor Alan Cassidy presented a wealth of information to the assembled group of a dozen or so QFIs. The aim was to pass on expertise in the most sensible ways to guide aerobatic students in their early tr ... more

Double win for Richard Verrall at Sleap aerosby NICK BUCKENHAMLIKE a beautiful time warp away from our busy world, Sleap airfield in Shropshire once again provided the perfect backdrop to the BAeA's Golding Barrett aerobatic competition over the first weekend in June. The sole entrant in the Beginners class, Andy Wilson and his Yak 52, posted an easy 66% at his first outing. At Standard level for the Golding Barrett Trophy, the competition ... more

RIGHT TO THE WIRESpain's Ramon Alonso wins by just 16 points after nine days of competitionRAMON Alonso of Spain won the 2007 World Aerobatic Championships in Granada in front of his home crowd, flying a Russian Sukhoi Su-31. After 21 years of competition flying, Airbus pilot Alonso now has both a European and a World title. But it was very close - just a 16 point margin out of a potential 10,000 points total between Alonso and second place ... more

Maiden flight for Dassault's 2000DXDASSAULT'S new Falcon 2000DX had its first flight at the company's Bordeaux factory on 19 June.Test pilots Denis Garnier and Herve Laverne were at the controls, says Dassault, and the flight lasted 2 hours and 15 minutes. During the flight, the aircraft was taken to an altitude of 41,000 feet and exceeded MMO (mach .86) to a maximum speed of mach .89. "All systems performed as expected," said a s ... more

EPIC Aircraft says its Elite single-pilot, twin-engine Very Light Jet had a "flawless first flight". The initial flight lasted more than 40 minutes and gave company test pilots Dave Morss and Len Fox the chance to explore the aircraft's control surfaces and low level performance capabilities. "What an amazingly wonderful airplane to fly!" said Fox after delivering the Elite back to waiting Epic engineers. "It's not ... more

BELL showed off its 609 Tiltrotor in civilian mode at the Paris Air Show last month. The aircraft has reached 200 flight hours in its test program.The first 609, based at Bell's XworX facility in Texas, has flown to all corners of the flight envelope, says Bell. This including speeds up to 304 KTAS in full airplane mode, as well as rearward and sideward flight in 35kt in helicopter mode. Pilots are also probing handling qualities at altitud ... more

Three brand new fully equipped EC145s[photo: EC145 Met Police river}[text]LONDON'S Met Police has just taken delivery of three new Eurocopter EC145s. The aircraft will be based at the Metropolitan Police Air Support Unit at its base in Lippitts Hill, Loughton, Essex. Britain's top cop, Sir Ian Blair, was there to meet them when they arrived.The Met Police has been operating three AS355 N 'Squirrel' helicopters since 1993 which will be replace ... more