December 2010 Archives

Qantas and its A380 fleet were in the news for much of the end of the year due to an uncontained engine failure on VH-OQA and the fleet's subsequent grounding. The damaged aircraft, VH-OQA, will be out of service for many more months. Afkabruce89 captured this photos of VH-OQA during better times. The aircraft is seen departing Sydney's runway 16R to Singapore as QF31. Taken with a Canon 40D.

This composite photograph of a Dassault Rafale at Sion Air Base in Switzerland earned a place in our cover competition's "best of the rest" category, although for future years we will stipulate only un-touched photos made be entered. Taken with a Canon EOS 500D by AirSpace photographer Niels_Boswinkel. Niels took the original photographs.

It is not often we see vertical aviation photos, and AirSpace photographer afkabruce98's photo of a Thai Airways 777-300 and its reflection approaching Sydney's 16R runway was nicely composed, earning it a spot in our cover competition's Best of the Rest grouping. Taken with a Canon 40D.

Regular AirSpace contributor Sunshine Band, who won last year's cover competition took home a "best of the rest" award for his dramatic photo of two Harriers from the last ever 3(F) Sqn detachment about to land onboard the HMS Illustrious. He took the photo with a Canon ESO300D.

The Airbus A380 made its airshow flying debut long ago, but every performance still generates wonderful photo ops. AirSpace photographer HummelfX captured one of those moments at Airbus Family Day with a Canon 40D and won a place in our cover competition's Best of the Rest grouping.

AirSpace photographer Biggles71 won the General Stars category for his photo of a Yak 52 over the White Cliffs of Dover, taken during a ferry flight from the UK to Belgium.

Who doesn't have appreciation for bygone jets? That is why we have our Old Flyers category, which AirSpace photographer Akoolsbergen placed first in for his picture of a Fairey Firefly Mk V, flying in honour of the 100th anniversary of the Canadian Navy. He took his photo with a Canon 50D.

This week's cover image of Flightglobal publication Flight International is the winner of our annual cover photo competition. The winning photo was taken by AirSpace user Coalburner and depicts a Northwest Airlines Boeing 747-200 departing London Gatwick. He took the photo with a Nikon D70.

We also had category winners, including best photos for sleek jets, old flyers, general stars, and "best of the rest". We'll feature those photos in the coming days.

We wouldn't leave you without reading material for the holidays, and this week's cover articles include how Airbus is more restrained with its market outlook than Boeing, but is keeping faith in its A380 aircraft. We also have a feature on flying props in the Arctic.

This week's Image of the Week (featured on page 3 of Flight International), is taken by AirSpace user sunshine band. His photo depicts a Eurofighter Typhoon "rocketing into the late afternoon sun" during a role demonstration at RAF Waddington, he says.

Today's image of the day comes from our sister blog Flightblogger by Jon Ostrower, who says this photo (sent to him anonymously) is believed to have been taken around November 28 and shows the 747-400 LCF Dreamlifter (N780BA) sitting between Lufthansa's first A380 (D-AIMA) and Qantas's second A380 (VH-OQB) inside Lufthansa Technik's Frankfurt, Germany hangar.

Since the photo Qantas has received back its A380, although the type still requires its Trent 900 engines to be replaced after 75 full-thrust take-offs, rendering the aircraft unsuitable for flights to Los Angeles.

This week Flightglobal publication Flight International presents its annual, and free, directory of the world's air forces.

We also look at common threads across nations. Budgetary pressures have influenced nations around the world over the last year in how they operate their existing military aircraft and seek to acquire more capable and cost-effective replacements.

We look at Lockheed Martin's F-35 programme, which Lockheed says is on track despite ongoing challenges. We ask if it can still deliver the dream.

On the cover (below) is a photograph from Lockheed Martin of the first two F-35A flight test aircraft.

Also featured this week are:

This week's Image of the Week (featured on page 3 of Flight International), is taken by AirSpace user Nicolas.H. His photo depicts a Corsair Boeing 747-400 taking off on runway 03 on a ferry flight from Nantes - Atlantique (Chateau Bougon) to Paris - Orly on 07 Febuary this year.

Picture credit: BillyPix

The Flightglobal team was lucky enough to escape the UK snow to the sunshine of Dubai, where there were highs of 24 degrees at for the MEBA10 show.

Stories coming out of the show included the opening of a new business aviation airport, Al Bateen, in Abu Dhabi, and Rizon Jet (which has fixed base operations in the Gulf and Europe) becoming the latest Middle Eastern operator to take on an Airbus Corporate Jet liner.

Read on....

This week's Image of the Week (featured on page 5 of Flight International), is taken by AirSpace user SteveBailey. His photo depicts an Embraer EMB-120 performing a flypast with anti-missile defence bomb burst at Africa Aerospace and Defence at Cape Town, South Africa in September 2008.

To say it was a chance shot would be an understatement. I was closing down for the day, walking away from the field as the light conditions were fading fast, goodness knows why I turned to watch the aircraft doing a cross field run, put my bag down and started to shoot (Canon 5D, Canon EF 400mm IS USM lens). Shot off about 7 frames as the star burst exploded. The aircraft was operated by Naturelink (now absorbed into National Airways Corporation), was modified with the ECM (electronic counter measures) and was operating in Africa.