Today we've upgraded our popular Blogs page with a tidier and up-to-date design.

The new page leads with the latest blog post from the portfolio of Flightglobal blogs.

We've also featured the weekly editorial "comment" from Flight International magazine (also know as the opinion leader column).

This is hosted on Murdo Morrison's Flight International Editor's Blog and is also published in the front of the magazine each week, and offers the "Flight International take" on topical industry matters.

The rest of the page includes all the popular blog-type links and lists, such as the full blog portfolio (from FlightBlogger to the Green Wing), all the latest posts, comments, tweets, social media links, and the top user blogs from contributors on the AirSpace forums.

The winners of the 2011 Aviation Web Awards (aka the Webbies) have been announced today. Congratulations to all the winners and shortlisted entries.

Being passionate about the aviation industry and about digital innovation, it's rewarding to see the wave of new ideas and design improvements continuing, with a heightened focus on usability and customer focus.

A good example of this is the winner of the Website of the Year category - ChangeYourFlight.

This site facilitates the exchange of non-refundable airline tickets for passengers who are unable to travel for one reason or another.

I suspect 5 years ago this site would have been more like a message board (think craigslist) or a standard classified advertising site.

Today - with the emphasis being on usability in design - the site is delivered in a slick, high-usable format that has real potential if they can gain traction with enough of the airlines.

 

You can read the full review of the winners here...

Webbies winners:

WEBSITE OF THE YEAR
Winner: ChangeYourFlight
Runners up:

• Design Your Own Boeing 787 Dreamliner
• Airliners.net

BEST MOBILE APP
Winner: Smart BRIEF CABIN
Runners up:

• PC-12 Digital Airplane Flight Manual
• Upcast Jetbook

BEST ADVERTISING CAMPAIGN
Winner: AIRBUS LOVE A380, "love at first flight" campaign
Runners up:

• Bombardier's 25th anniversary
• Avios

BEST BLOG
Winner: Aspire Aviation
Runners up:

• David Parker Brown's Airline Reporter
• Latedeparture.com

BEST USE OF SOCIAL MEDIA
Winner: Scandinavian Airlines
Runners up:

• Boeing - Design your own Dreamliner
• Estonia Air

Our Image of the Day blog featured a shot of a Bahrain Air Airbus A320  displaying in the kingdom. The Sukhoi Su-27 tail in the foreground bears the Russian Knights team's livery.

On Ariel View, Arie Egozi noted that the Israeli air force has stepped up its joint exercises with NATO members' militaries.

Since the Gaza flotilla raid lost it a partner in Turkey, it has built "working relations" with Romania and Greece. "NATO is not mentioned... but it is clear that 'mutual interests' are in the background," wrote Egozi.

A post on space blog Hyperbola pondered whether the US Air Force would use Boeing's X-37B minishuttle to spy on China's Tiangong 1 station. Verdict? "Maybe - but not yet."

On The Green Wing, Kirsty McGregor delved into a report by law firm Holman Fenwick Willan to list precisely what the emissions trading system requires airlines to do between now and April 2013.

FlightBlogger reported from Miami, where he sampled Airbus simulator training and learned about the European airframer's digital fly-by-wire philosophy. He posted video that "shows the technology in action... in rather dramatic fashion".

On defence blog The DEW Line, Stephen Trimble noted Northrop's next-generation airliner concept, a response to a NASA request. "It's the first airliner optimised for radar cross section!" wrote Trimble.

"That's one way for airlines to get around slot restrictions at LHR."

Our Image of the Day blog featured a shot of Greek air force Northrop Grumman F-16s, Israeli air force Boeing F-15s and an Israeli Boeing 707 tanker flying in the Middle Eastern nation in November (above) (credit IAF Magazine).

Five Greek F-16s took part in a five-day exercise that included practice dogfights.

We're pleased to announce a new look for our jobs and training areas, making it even easier for job seekers and those looking for training courses to find the next step in their career.

The new sites are more user friendly, quicker to use and provide new features to improve the experience for all users.

New features include:

• Career advice section providing advice on successfully applying for jobs.
  
• Quicker search - options to get straight to the jobs you are looking for Recruiting now section - hosting jobs with leading employers in the industry.
  
• New design - access your account and the jobs you're interested in more quickly
  
• Mobile friendly site - visit the job site and search jobs from your mobile phone

You'll still be able to visit us at the same web address - www.flightglobal.com/jobs.

And your current log in details, settings and information will be kept so you won't have to re-register.

Find out more about the new jobs and training sites here ...

Or go straight to:

• Flightglobal jobs
  
• Flightglobal training

FlightBlogger marked the passing of Bob Smyth by posting video of a lecture the legendary Grumman test pilot gave at the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum in 2007.

From Nashville, Tennessee, Stephen Trimble updated his military blog The DEW Line with a clip of Alton Romig - the new chief of Lockheed Martin Skunk Works - fielding a question on the possibility of a sixth-generation fighter.

A stroll past the window display of Iran Air's London office inspired news editor Dominic Perry to add a photograph of a Boeing 727 bearing the carrier's 1970s livery to the Image of the Day blog.

Asian Skies had shots of the Taiwanese air force's newly arrived Martin B-26 Marauder.

And on Ariel View, Arie Egozi noted the Israeli civil aviation authority's decision not to allow virtual airlines, sealing the fate of El Al's charter subsidiary Sundor.

In his Movie Monday series, Jon "FlightBlogger" Ostrower highlighted a CSeries-themed interview that Bombardier's Chet Fuller gave to Canada's Business News Network.

"The conversation does not touch on the tactic of price as a weapon in a sales battle," wrote Ostrower. "Fuller continually emphasises the technical merits of the aircraft as its selling point."

On his military blog The DEW Line, Stephen Trimble invited visitors to predict airpower's winners and losers in 2012.

On Asian Skies, Greg Waldron assessed an Institute for National Strategic Studies report on China's quest for advanced military aviation technologies - and decided it "does a good job balancing the pros and cons of buying technology overseas, developing it at home, and acquiring it through espionage".

The DEW Line reported that the US Air Force in Afghanistan had given itself an early Christmas present: a General Atomics Aeronautical Systems Predator C Avenger.

Crucially, the jet-powered, stealthy unmanned air system has an internal weapons bay.

"With the Avenger, the USAF's 'classified customer' will have an aircraft that can drop 900kg (2,000lb) bombs," wrote Stephen Trimble.

"Note to the underground residents of Natanz and Qom: GBU-24 penetrator bombs weigh about 900kg."

FlightBlogger noted the rollout of the first Boeing 787 to be delivered to JAL.

On Asian Skies, Greg Waldron recalled his tour of a RAAF Airbus KC-30A: "The remarkable thing was not how much has been changed to convert the aircraft to a tanker, but how little."

As the Cro(ft) Flies recalled how a Canadian squadron used an AgustaWestland AW101 "Cormorant" to rescue a hiker.

Don't forget to get involved in the Webbies 2011 where you can vote for or nominate your favourite websites. There's a new category of Best Mobile App,  

 

We launched the annual Webbies to find the best aviation resources on the internet. The awards, in their fourth year, include several new categories, such as best mobile app. The deadline for entries is 13 January.

See the new categories and enter now 

FlightBlogger Jon Ostrower continued his unrivalled Boeing Commercial Airplanes coverage, focusing this week on the deal with unions to ensure the 737 Max is made in Seattle.

Aviation safety is the subject of entries from John Croft on his general aviation blog As the Cro(ft) Flies, and from David Learmount on his eponymous blog.

Croft praises the robustness of the Air Tractor after a crash in which the pilot survived and was quoted as saying: "If I'd had been flying anything else, I'd have been dead."

Learmount bemoans the lack of risk awareness among sections of the helicopter community in a blog accompanied by real-time video of a low-altitude accident on an Auckland construction site, in which the chopper was torn in two but from which the pilot walked away, albeit shakily.

"Why gamble with your money when you gamble with your life???"

That, complete with extra question marks, is the marketing pitch of Skydive Las Vegas, which gives clients the chance to be thrown out of a Pacific Aerospace P-750 XSTOL turboprop.

Our intrepid Flightblogger Jon Ostrower took up the challenge. "The anticipation of the jump is harder than the jump itself," he said.

"The cold cabin, the rushing wind and lack of conversation provide the soundtrack for a swirling mind.

At some point, I just accepted the next events of my life were in the control of others."

And his post-jump reaction? "When can we go again?"

Elsewhere in blogs, Asian Skies recorded the "dismal fate shared by 23 former Royal Australian Air Force F-111s".

"The fuselages of the iconic aircraft were last week buried in an Australian landfill, outraging the sensibilities of the nation's aviation geeks," wrote Greg Waldron.

Mary Kirby signs off as Runway Girl with an uncensored blog post. She writes: "I am extraordinarily grateful for all the opportunities provided to me by Flightglobal - the ability to write for its esteemed magazine and online titles, to jump behind the shaky camera and in front of the (unforgiving) high-def camera, and to bounce around the aircraft static displays at some of the world's greatest air shows.

"More than anything, however, I am grateful for having been afforded the autonomy to write this blog uncensored."

Why not take advantage of a seasonal discount of 20% at the Flightglobal Image Store, which houses a whole host of modern and vintage images.

Check out the different categories to make it easier to find what you're looking for:

Iconic Front Covers / Women In Aviation / World War II - 1939-45 / Cutaways Pre 1914 / 1930s Civil / 1930s Military / Post WWII / Experimental Prototypes /Air Races and Modern Aircraft Flight Collection

And don't forget to enter the Flight International Front Cover Competition where your winning image could grace the final issue of the magazine in 2011. Closing date 5 December.