"The placement which was made to a broad group of accredited institutional investors demonstrated the confidence that debt investors have in the Group's strategy and long term development."

Confidence, for sure - Safran is borrowing much cheaper than several European countries, probably including France. And, it's inherently a good thing for a company like this to borrow broadly; stable long-term relationships with lenders in a home region are good things, but for borrowers as well as lenders, spreading risk is a wise strategy for the long term.

The Webbies, now in its fourth year, celebrates the best and brightest in aviation websites and social media activities - and this time includes new and improved categories.

We asked flightglobal.com users to enter or nominate their favourite websites in these categories: best mobile app, a very timely category as people become more dependent on mobile devices and companies realise the potential of apps for product awareness; advertising campaign of the year; best blog; best use of social media; and, of course, best website. 

The judging panel had some tough choices to find the top three in each category from a flood of quality entries.

Here are the winners...

A centenary is soon upon us but this event had been overshadowed by a tragedy which shares the same anniversary month.

Harriet Quimby was the first female aviator to fly an aeroplane solo across the English Channel from an airfield at Whitfield to land near Boulogne Sur Mer on the 16th April 1912.

But this pioneering and inspirational achievement by a female aviator was overshadowed by the Titanic disaster, which filled the newspaper headlines back then.

Martin Young, chairman of The Harriet Quimby Centenary Project, wants to ensure that the centenary is not overshadowed by the Titanic disaster once again.

He notes that pioneers Louis Bleriot, Matthew Webb and Charles Rolls have monuments to their pioneering achievements in the Dover area, Quimby is still forgotten, not only in Dover, but across Great Britain.

Young discovered Quimby three years ago while researching system failures, when he read her story in one of the local papers. 

The Project has obtained considerable funding from Kent County Council and the Lottery Heritage Fund but funding for a commissioned sculpture (made of stainless steel and standing at 2.7m high, to grace the cliffs above the Eastern Docks at Dover, to catch and reflect the rising and setting sun) is currently causing problems, and Young warns "we will not be able to get it financed, made and erected by the Centenary weekend unless sufficient funds become available soon."

Additionally the Project is set to commission an educational DVD and website, about Harriet's life and achievements, the Bleriot XI aircraft and its flying characteristics, Dover's history of early aviation, the airfield at Whitfield, and how the sculpture was made.

The Project plans to celebrate during the centenary weekend in Dover on 14th and 15th April with exhibits including a manniquin (or even a young lady) dressed in a replica purple satin flying suit - which he says was Harriet's trademark, a full size Bleriot XI, and a scale model of a Bleriot XI which will be donated to Dover Museum, to replace a model made in 1914, but destroyed in WW2.

The Project will be promoting its cause to highlight Quimby's story at the 'Women in Aviation event in March at Headcorn airfield.

Flightglobal's archive

20 April 1920 Miss Quimby flies the channel  

In it's final issue of 1912 in December Flight summarised aviator achievements in which it afforded a couple of lines mentioning Harriet Quimby.

Harriet Quimby in the Flightglobal Image Store  

From EADS:

Hamburg, 17 January 2012 - EADS turned 2011 into a year of growth and remarkably
improved performance: The Group reached a record order intake thanks to the strong
commercial aircraft momentum - particularly due to the A320neo's astounding market
reception - and solid performance in Astrium, Cassidian and Eurocopter.

At a joint New Year's press conference with Airbus, EADS CEO Louis Gallois said: "Our record order book and the strong net cash position are a testimony for the Group's strength and visibility. EADS is a cash and growth machine. Now it's time for growing profitability.

From Flightglobal:

Airbus secures record 1,419 net orders for 2011

Key tweets:

A320neo was "truly the star of the year" and "forced" Boeing to re-engine 737 which "doesn't seem to be an easy task": EADS chief Gallois

-- DavidKaminski-Morrow (@FlightDKM) January 17, 2012

Airbus expects 570 deliveries in 2012, and 600-650 orders

-- DavidKaminski-Morrow (@FlightDKM) January 17, 2012

Airbus has removed the American Airlines A320neo order (130 jets) from its 2011 books, but appears to have reinstated Republic's 80.

-- DavidKaminski-Morrow (@FlightDKM) January 17, 2012

Airbus looking at putting sharklets on A330: Leahy

-- DavidKaminski-Morrow (@FlightDKM) January 17, 2012

#Airbus discussing #A350-1000 with 3 airlines. "We're looking at how to get to get more 2018 slots" Leahy

-- Max Kingsley-Jones (@MaxABEd) January 17, 2012

End May EADS will designate successors "this is just the 1st step..but we have not to wait too much" Gallois

-- Max Kingsley-Jones (@MaxABEd) January 17, 2012

#AIRBUS ended 2011 w/ record low expose to export finance "couple 100 mill less" than end 2010

-- thisdell (@thisdell) January 17, 2012

Latest news and reaction from the press conference

A student at the Baltic Aviation Academy has released a video highlighting the differences between Airbus A320 and Boeing 737 cockpits.

Presenting the video is ATPL integrated student Pranas Drulis who provides a like by like comparison of B737 and A320 control devices, cockpit, engine failure control and comfort. 

He darts back and forth to each aircraft simulator to demonstrates the points he wants to make. He talks about the benefits and the shortcomings of each cockpit.

It's a simple, easy video to follow but do you agree with his observations? Would you want him as your first officer?

Why not head down to Tucson, Arizona, to see the latest exhibition in the Boneyard Project later this month?

Artists have used abandoned aircraft from the US Air Force to create works of art from the "eccentric shapes" from the metal.

Later this month (January 28) until May 31 you can see what the artists have created at the Pima Air and Space Museum in the Round Trip: Art From The Boneyard Project exhibition.

many of the artists have used nose art, made popular during the Second World War, and one graffiti artist, Nunca, has brought an abandoned DC-3 to life with a striking picture of an eagle.

The first part of the Boneyard Project, Nose Job, made its debut last summer of 2011 with an
exhibition of nose cones taken from military aircraft and given to artists to use "canvases" at Eric Firestone Gallery in East Hampton, Long Island.

In a release about the upcoming exhibition, it says that "Nose Job enjoyed critical success as the work tapped into both the broader cultural resonance of this history, and the very personal ways one relates to such a narrative.

"Some artists investigated the streamlined symmetry of the forms themselves, producing
eloquent, elegant and even whimsical hybrids of sculpture and painting.

"Other artists addressed the positive and negative associations we each carry towards the difficult history of war, and many spoke more directly to their own individual relationships to this material including memories of parents who were air force or civilian pilots."

The second installment in the series: Round Trip: Selections from The Boneyard Project, will
include selections from the previous Nose Job exhibition along with more than a dozen cones
interpreted by artists new to this project. It will feature five monumental works created on
military aircraft by a dynamic selection of popular graffiti and street artists from around the world.

More than 30 artists took part in Round Trip using a number of disuased aircraft including DC-3, a C97 cockpit, a C45, and a Lockheed VC 140 Jetstar.

The deadline to enter and nominate your favourite websites in the Flightglobal's Aviation Web Awards, aka THE WEBBIES, is fast approaching (deadline - 13 January) so don't forget to get involved in celebrating and acknowledging the best and brightest aviation websites and online activities during the past year.

For four years now, The WEBBIES has welcomed entries and nominations from the entire online aviation community, from established industry leaders to striving newcomers, to enter on their own behalf or nominate an airport, airline, aircraft manufacturer or other aerospace company.

This year's WEBBIES has new and modified categories including the on trend Best Mobile App Award.

A panel of independent judges within the industry and key figures in online development at Reed Business Information are looking for established industry leaders and enthusiastic newcomers - and everyone in between - to enter The WEBBIES, as well as encouraging them to nominate their own favourites in the five categories.

1. Best mobile app

2. Best advertising campaign of the year

3. Best blog

4. Best use of social media

5. Best website

What winners will receive:

• The WEBBIES logo to display on their website

• Coverage in the editorial review of The WEBBIES in Flightglobal and Flight International magazine

• Coverage on the Flight International blog at the time winners are announced

• Guaranteed week-long presence on the Flightglobal homepage

• Guaranteed week-long presence on relevant channel homepage on Flightglobal

• Links from the Flight e-newsletters

• Opportunity to post 2min video profiling their winning site on the Flight blog Timings • Entry/nominations open on 5 December 2011

• Entries/nominations close on 13 January 2012

• Judging period during 18-25 January 2012

• Winners announced during 30 January-3 February 2012

ENTER NOW

Asian Aerospace - Asian Aerospace returned to Hong Kong's Asia World Expo from 8-10 March , reflecting the region's booming market in civil aviation and commercial aerospace.

Heli Expo - Organised by the Helicopter Association International and held at the George R. Brown Convention Center in Houston, Texas.Heli Expo is the world's largest trade show dedicated to the international helicopter community, with more than 500 exhibitors displaying their wares to over 17,500 industry professionals throughout.

Aero Friedrichschafen

This niche regional show is located on the German shore of Lake Constance. Aero as it's known showcases the great and the good in the range of general aviation products and services including private and light aircraft, gliders, kit planes, helicopters and parachutes, air sports equipment, cockpit and onboard avionics systems and other pilot equipment.

See video interviews from AOPA's president and CEO and see demonstrations of newly launched avionics suites . 

EBACE - European Business Aviation Conference & Exhibition - the show where a zany new interior design for a Boeing 787 business aircraft was showcased by Gore Design Completions.

Paris Air Show

Flightglobal launched the Paris Power Tweeter Award and its My Paris campaign where you could sign up to get the news that matters most to you.

It was also the show where the Airbus A380 damaged its wing tip and was unable to perform in the flying displays. Korean Air's A380 on static display valiantly stepped in. See videos, images, the iFlight and so much more.

AUVSI

See Flightglobal's collection of Unmanned Daily News in digital format from the North American AUVSI conference. There are videos; watch an interview with Lockheed Martin's Kingsley Fregene talking about the design challenges of its Samurai monocopterand take a look at the Insitu Integrator. There are blogs, twitter and of course images and news from our team of journalists.

NBAA 2011

Air Show China at Zhuhai

At this show AVIC International signed an agreement with the Commercial Aircraft Corp of China (Comac) to purchase 100 ARJ21 regional jets to market to international customers.

Singapore Air show - February 2-7 2010

Farnborough Air show - July 19-25 2010 

Air show China - November 16-21 2010

Video footage emerged showing an Air France Airbus A380 colliding with a Comair Bombardier CRJ700 during taxiing at New York JFK back in April. The A380 "clipped the tail fin" of the parked Comair jet, causing only "material damage".

2. Tu 154 struggles against in-flight oscillation

The video clips below show a TU-154 departing from an air base in Moscow before it appears to encounter problems in lateral and longitudinal control.

It eventually returns to the airfield to land.

3. Sendai airport deluged as earthquake strikes

4. ANA 737 rolled near inverted after rudder trim blunder

Japanese investigators have detailed the extraordinary in-flight upset involving an All Nippon Airways Boeing 737-700 which resulted in the aircraft banking to a near-inverted attitude.

Flight NH140 from Naha had been cruising at 41,000ft, en route to Tokyo on 6 September, and had been some 43km south of Hamamatsu when the incident occurred.

5. ANA unveils first 787 configuration

All Nippon Airways has unveiled the long-awaited configuration of the first 787 to enter service, outfitting its first 787s with 264 seats for regional and domestic operations, with later regionally-configured aircraft to have 222 seats as the carrier ramps up its initial pilot and cabin crew training.

The aircraft, painted in bespoke white and blue colours highlighting Boeing's Dreamliner brand and ANA's service goals - innovation, uniqueness and the inspiration of Japan - is the eighth 787 built. It is also known as ZA101 and has been registered JA801A.

6. PICTURES & VIDEO: F-35B critical tests

With the beginning of at-sea trials for the Lockheed Martin F-35B, the short take-off and vertical landing (STOVL) variant had entered the most critical phase in a year-long campaign to overcome probation and be spared cancellation.

7. An-12 rolled inverted before Congo crash

Video evidence of an aircraft crash in Pointe-Noire, Republic of Congo in March identified the type as an Antonov An-12 freighter, and showed it rolling inverted moments before impact.

Images of the aircraft's last seconds show it diving steeply and rolling to starboard, crashing inverted.

8. No viable all new single aisle before 2030

Airbus believes that a viable all-new single-aisle airliner will not arrive before 2030, due to the timing of the necessary advances in powerplant technology.

John Leahy, Airbus' chief operating officer, spoke to Flightglobal on video.

9. Boeing poised for crucial phase in 747-8 test effort

Boeing underwent a crucial phase in the 747-8 flight-test effort as it prepares to start trials of the -8I passenger variant including maximum-brake-energy demonstration on the freighter version, plus an analysis of back-to-back wake vortex testing to determine whether the stretched 747 will be approved in the same separation category as the smaller 747-400. Four 747-8Fs were engaged in the flight-test programme, which began in February 2010.

10. Test pilots extract stranded Alrosa Tu-154

Pilots in Russia extracted an Alrosa Tupolev Tu-154 from a remote military airfield, six months after an in-flight power loss and emergency landing left the aircraft stranded.

The landing damaged the trijet, when it overran the 1,300m runway at Izhma in the Komi republic, and the short field meant that it could not easily be flown out again.

The airline believes that your air travel experience can be affected by the person you are seated next to and is proposing that passengers can opt to select their seat mate using tools like Facebook.

The airline says the "meet and seat" programme can be used for networking or to find passengers who share similar interests.

See this Taiwanese animation (by Next Media Animation) showing how the concept might work.