This week Flightglobal publication Flight International reviews last week's Singapore Air Show. The F-35 and Boeing's attempt to upstage it dominated a show where executives were cautiously upbeat on economic recovery. The cover features Tom Gordon of Billpix's Boeing AH-64 Apache and Lockheed Martin F-16 Falcon of the Singapore air force in a synchronized flypast during the show.

Also featured are:

Blazing a Trail: New weapons in Australia's fight with wildfires

PAK to the Futute: Why Sukhoi is strong export sales demand for Russia's latest stealth fighter

Back to Basics: Now even the US pilots' union says elementary flying skills are being dangerously eroded

You can subscribe to Flight International here or here for the digital version.

Head over to Flightblogger's page for more of his photos of the 747-8's first flight.

This week's Image of the Week (featured on page 5 of Flight International), is taken by AirSpace user Navigator. His photo depicts Jet2 Boeing 737-300 G-CELB Yorkshire logo jet taking off from runway 24R at Palma de Mallorca.

Lufthansa Technik's US completions subsidiary BizJet International has delivered its first Airbus A318 Elite for a private customer.

The handover comes as LHT - designer of the A318 Elite interior - prepares to outfit the last of these types at its Hamburg, Germany site. This follows its decision to transfer all completion work for this VIP airliner to the Tulsa, Oklahoma-based company. Continue reading...

In a boost for Bahrain's efforts to rival Abu Dhabi and Dubai as a business aviation hub for the Middle East, the biggest Airbus corporate jet operator, Comlux, is to set up a business in the kingdom in partnership with MAZ Aviation of Saudi Arabia.

The Swiss-based company will house an A319-based ACJ and an A318 Elite in Bahrain and it will be joined at the end of the year by an A320 Prestige, which is undergoing completion in Comlux's centre in Indianapolis. Continue reading...

Mission Aviation Fellowship has despatched its Quest Kodiak single-engined turboprop and four pilots to join three of MAF's other aircraft in the relief effort in Haiti.

The deployment is the first use of this aircraft in disaster relief work, says MAF, which has four Kodiaks in service and a further 14 on order. Continue reading...

For more Haiti relief flight information, see:

• LAN Cargo commits resources to Haiti
• John Travolta delivers aid in his Boeing 707
  

There have been multiple efforts to educate passengers about flying. ICAO has hosted conferences about the fears of flying and Virgin Atlantic has an iPhone app to explain different phases of a flight.

But I've never seen quite an effort as South African LCC Kulula has carried out. Readers of the Airline Business blog may remember Kulula's quirky telephone system, and that quirkiness isn't lost on these photos of their specially painted (err, decaled) 'Flying 101' 737.

Stickers explain parts of the aircraft, like engine and seats, but also mention "the big cheese" for the captain's seat and explain the lavatory as "loo (or mile-high club initiation chamber)". Click on the photos for a larger view.

(These photos have been making the rounds on e-mail chains, so I suspect these images are from the airline, but if you have copyright info please let me know.)
5 Feb Update: These photos are from Flickr user shanair (Malcolm Nason). At the time I posted them I did not have any copyright info, photographer info, or know the photos originated from Flickr. Apologies and great photos Malcolm!

7 Feb Update: Hat tip to user Zulu Maraba, who pointed out Gerry McCready's Contrails blog on our AirSpace section snapped a photo of the aircraft arriving in Shannon for painting.

Preliminary information about the final few minutes of yesterday's ill-fated Ethiopian Airlines flight out of Beirut indicates that the aircraft was struggling to comply with air traffic control instructions to change heading.

The Boeing 737-800, bound for Addis Ababa as flight ET409, departed towards the south from Beirut's runway 21 in darkness, but initial information suggests that the jet first turned right to head north, over the Mediterranean Sea, and was cleared to climb to a minimum crossing altitude to transit through Syrian airspace to the east. Continue reading....

The Royal Australian Air Force's first Airbus A330-based multirole tanker/transport has for the first time passed fuel to another large aircraft, moving the type closer to its delayed service entry late this year.

One of five RAAF-designated KC-30As on order, the modified airliner transferred almost 30t of fuel from its centreline boom to a French air force Boeing E-3F airborne warning and control system aircraft during two test flights conducted from Airbus Military's Getafe site near Madrid. Continue reading...

This week Flightglobal publication Flight International features honing the Tornado for Afghanistan: how the UK Royal Air Force's 31 sqn battle to win over local hearts and minds as it adapted its strategy in the fight against the Taliban.

Also featured are:

• Bahrain Air Show wrap-up: the news from the inaugural show at the island nation
• Boeing studies re-engined 737, but is in no rush to launch: Boeing is examining a re-engined 737, but says it will not be rushed into a launch decision to counter the Bombardier CSeries or any A320 upgrade from Airbus. "We continue to look at ways to improve the 737 further and re-engining is one option," says Boeing Commercial Airplanes vice-president marketing Randy Tinseth.
• Training: jobs for tomorrow: Professional pilot skills are expensive to gain and, for the foreseeable future, expenditure on pilot training will remain essential to the functioning of commercial air transport. Nobody in the global industry is talking realistically about pilotless airliners in the next 25 years, although the spectre of single-pilot operations is looming.

You can subscribe to Flight International here or here for the digital version.