Flight Image of the Day

Happy 20th Birthday Uzbekistan Airways

Thu, 09 Feb 2012 18:25:33 +0000

Uzbekistan Airways is celebrating its 20th anniversary with a shiny new present, a Boeing 767-300ER. This is the first of four 767-300ERs from a 2008 order. Uzbekistan Airways, headquartered in Tashkent, also has two 787-8s on order.

11th C5-B on the Super Galaxy line

Wed, 08 Feb 2012 17:05:20 +0000

Lockheed Martin inducted the 11th aircraft to the C-5M Super Galaxy production line in Marietta, Georgia on February 1, 2012. Based at Dover Air Force Base, Delaware, this aircraft has supported operations across the globe, delivering cargo in locations such as Iraq, Italy, Germany, Kuwait, Kyrgyzstan, Qatar, Spain and Turkey.

Credit: Lockheed Martin

More milestones - Air Nostrum takes its 75th Bombardier

Mon, 06 Feb 2012 14:00:44 +0000

Spanish carrier Air Nostrum has taken delivery of its 75th Bombardier aircraft - a CRJ1000 - at a ceremony in Mirabel, Canada. It follows previous deliveries of nine CRJ1000s (part of an order for 35 of the type), 11 CRJ900s, and 35 CRJ200 regional jets, as well as 19 Q300 turboprops. It's one of just two customers for the CRJ1000, whose backlog - as of 31 October - stood at 32 aircraft (which is now at least down to 28). The overall CRJ backlog, meanwhile, was a dwindling 52 aircraft.

Credit: Bombardier

AirAsia's 100th Airbus A320

Fri, 03 Feb 2012 15:31:44 +0000

Replete with dragon motif - to celebrate the Chinese Year of the Dragon - this Airbus A320, the carrier's 100th (registration - we think - 9M-AQM, although that's listed in our database as a 1972-vintage Boeing 737-200 that was parked in 2008) arrived in AirAsia's fleet earlier this week. According to the press bumf, it took a team of 1,000s of painters, a billion hours to complete it (although to be honest, I might have skimmed that bit).

Credit: AirAsia

Rafale's prospects on the up

Wed, 01 Feb 2012 10:25:42 +0000

With yesterday's announcement that the Dassault Rafale has been selected for India's MMRCA fighter contest, I thought it timely to use this picture of the aircraft from Flightglobal's Airspace gallery. Of course it might have been more apt to have a picture of a Eurofighter in a nose dive, given its current sales figures.

Credit: Zhukovsky gallery on Flightglobal Airspace

Eurocopter in NH90 acronym hell - shock

Mon, 30 Jan 2012 15:35:41 +0000

Forgive us - but when confronted with a press release jam-packed with acronyms (TTH, DGA, NAHEMA, ALAT etc) the will to live is quickly eroded. Nonetheless, we present to you the first NH Industries NH90 Tactical Troop Transport in final operational configuration for the French armed forces. And yes, that's a TTH in FOC to you.

Credit: Eurocopter

Thirsty work for Italian Eurofighters

Fri, 27 Jan 2012 15:36:39 +0000

This striking image of a formation of four Italian air force Eurofighters being supported by a Lockheed Martin KC-130J tanker during a training flight was released by the consortium which manufactures the Typhoon. The same combination saw operational use last year, when Italy helped to enforce a UN-mandated no-fly zone around Libya.

Bahrain Air Airbus A320 on home turf

Mon, 23 Jan 2012 12:55:54 +0000

Here, from Flightglobal's AirSpace gallery, is a lovely image from last week's Bahrain air show of a (repetitively named) Bahrain Air Airbus A320 doing its stuff with the tail of a Sukhoi Su-27 of the Russian Knights display team in the foreground.

For more news from the show, click here.

F-35's first night flight

Fri, 20 Jan 2012 16:36:15 +0000

It's exceptionally cheesy, it's very Top Gun, but hell, it's Friday - here's a shot of the Lockheed Martin on its first night flight.

Credit: Lockheed Martin

Greek air force on exercise in Israel

Tue, 17 Jan 2012 14:09:43 +0000

Via our Israeli correspondent, Arie Egozi, comes this image of Greek air force Northrop Grumman F-16s, Israeli air force Boeing F-15s and an IAF Boeing 707 tanker on exercise above Israel back in November. In all, five Greek F-16s took part, flying from the IAF's base at Uvda in southern Israel and performing a five-day exercise, which included practice dogfights as well as ground attacks.

Credit: IAF Magazine

B-2 Spirit (of America) bomber over Pasadena

Mon, 16 Jan 2012 14:48:53 +0000

Here's a nice shot from the US Air Force site of a Northrop Grumman B-2 Spirit bomber over Pasadena in California earlier this month.

Credit: US Air Force

None more black: ANZ's latest 777

Fri, 13 Jan 2012 14:36:34 +0000

To borrow from Spinal Tap: How much more black could it be? None more black. It's Air New Zealand's latest Boeing 777-300ER (ZK-OKQ) resplendent in the All Black colour scheme sat next to a Beech 1900D turboprop belonging to Eagle Airways at Auckland. Could it be any more awesome? None more awesome.

Credit: Peter Clark

Iran Air's Boeing 727

Wed, 11 Jan 2012 16:46:52 +0000

A trip up to London yesterday and a walk along Picadilly took me past the window of Iran Air's office (sadly in the process of moving to Hammersmith Road). Displayed in said window was a model of a Boeing 747 in the old seventies livery. Although I was unable to find a picture of one in the flesh, here's another golden oldie in the shape of a Boeing 727, pictured in 1975 on its way in to London Heathrow. The aircraft - EP-IRB - continued flying until 2002, when it was parked in Tehran.

Credit: AirTeamImages

FedEx Boeing 777 Freighter (and probably some MD-80s)

Tue, 10 Jan 2012 16:26:40 +0000

This picture of a FedEx 777 Freighter comes from our own Flightblogger on a recent trip to Memphis where FedEx has its air hub and a number of aircraft in jarring hues come to congregate. This particular model of the GE90-powered -200LRF dates from 2010.

Credit: Flightblogger on Flickr

Marvellous MiG-21UMD captured in Croatia

Mon, 09 Jan 2012 11:55:55 +0000

From Flightglobal Airspace comes this picture of a Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-21UMD. To quote the photographer, Boran Pivčić: "It's still glistening with the morning's dew and looking absolutely brilliant at the head of the static lineup for the 2011 Pleso AFB Open Day. The distinctive ILS shack paintjob is actually a blown-up version of the Croatian coat of arms - known locally, for obvious reasons, as the "chessboard" - and is the source of the aircraft's popular nickname, 'Kockica' (or 'little square')."

Credit: Boran Pivčić (user TripleDelta on Airspace)