Last year's winner of Flight International's front cover photo competition was Coalburner's image of a Northwest Airlines Boeing 747 at London's Gatwick Airport, taken with a Nikon D70.

There was surging traffic to a FlightBlogger post titled 'Photos of note: ANA brings Boeing's 787 into service'.

On As the Cro(ft) Flies, John Croft observed that "Albatross Air has one around its neck" in a post on the investigation into the non-fatal crash of a Beechcraft 58 Baron in a Rainelle, West Virginia backyard.

The DEW Line featured a Russian TV special on the engine that powers Sukhoi PAK-FA fighter - and noted the bold claim that the Saturn NPO 117 "enables the execution of a wide range of manoeuvres which match the performance of the Raptor and in some parameters exceed it".

Blog author Stephen Trimble's take? "It's your move, Pratt & Whitney."

And on Ariel View, Arie Egozi examined Israeli airline El Al and its "desperate race to go back to profitability".

The carrier "could make money - a lot of money - but it has some built-in problems that have not been solved, despite the fact that some could be solved relatively easily", he wrote.

Fligthtglobal this week launched its Flight International Front Cover Competition for the fifth year giving you another chance to have your best aircraft image featured on the front cover of your favourite weekly magazine. 

We want to capture THE image of 2011 so it's important to note that only photographs taken before 20 October 2010 will not be allowed.

The deadline to upload your images to this year's competition gallery on AirSpace is 5 December and the chosen image will once again feature on the cover of Flight International's festive issue and the winner will receive £100GBP and a framed copy of the front cover.

Check out a heatmapped image showing a collection of Flight Magazine's iconic front covers. Any one of these images would make an ideal gift as a print or on canvas or even as a jigsaw for Father's Day.

Take advantage of the 20% offer on everything from the Image Store until 20 June only when you quote the code: FD01.

See a new gallery of images of including photographs of retro fashions of airline stewardess uniforms and there are also a few of Amelia Earhart to look out for to accompany a feature on Women in Aviation.

The feature will also include video interviews of women who flew the iconic Spitfire aircraft.

Take a browse through our special edition of Flight interactive magazine with an introduction by Flight International Editor Murdo Morrison, who let's us know what the aviation industry has in store at the Paris Air Show, including who's going to order what and the exciting possibility that, weather permitting, the Solar Impulse prototype will perform a flight display at the Paris air show in  

Did you know that you can create your own customised Flightglobal page which will show you what you want to see, in time for the Paris air show.

You can choose whether you want to see just defence content, or airlines, and helicopters or all of Flightglobal's content. Sign up to design your own bespoke MyParis site.

And could you be the Paris Power Tweeter? Come to Flightglobal Media Hub (Chalet D 64) on 23 June at 15:00 for the Power Tweeter Tweet Up to see who will win the award for most influential and active social media player(s) during this year's Paris Air Show. 

The DEW Line ponders the identification of a new aircraft seen in airspace near Beale AFB, Calif, with an "unmistakably Burt Rutan-ish design". 

To author Stephen Trimble "it looks like the Scaled Composites Proteus and the Israel Aircraft Industries (IAI) Heron TP decided to have a baby."

But this mysterious aircraft's existence raises some interesting questions. What do you think?

Runway Girl author Mary Kirby whipped out her video camera to film her seat mate's opinion of Aircell's Gogo in-flight Internet service while on a flight in business class on a Delta Air Lines flight from Newark to Atlanta.

Her victim "Tim" is a monthly subscriber to the service and a lover of the Gogo app. He uses the connection to access his personal music server at home.

See more of their conversation. Kirby also warns future seat-mates: "I tend to break out the camera after a glass of wine. Or two." Could you be next?

And FlightBlogger wrote a post about a lecture he attended where the CEO of the merged airlines United and Continental, Jeff Smisek spoke about how vulnerable the industry is from external shocks such as like 9/11, volcanoes, fuel or attempted bombers.

Smisek says these are just the nature of the industry, but "it is long-term sustainable organisational stability is found from within by transparently understanding the state of your business and creating a work environment where people develop trust."

Take a look at AirSpace's Duxford gallery to see some images of the first engine being removed from a B-17.

The UK's Imperial War Museum at Duxford's Conservation Department is involved in a project to undertake conservation work on B-17 Flying Fortress Mary Alice, currently on display in the American Air Museum.

FlightBlogger Jon Ostrower was in Everett, Seattle, to cover the rollout of the Boeing 747-8I and his flurry of activity can be seen on our dedicated page which gives you background information on the aircraft programme, the story so far, 210 images to pore over, video, Twitter and news as it happened.

Elbit performed joint sorties with the Hermes-family of UAVs highlighting the cost benefits of using a common GCS capable of simultaneously controlling two parallel missions, each managed by a single operator. See a video of the software in action.

Take a look at the 18 February issue 100 years ago in the Flightglobal archive to see what was important in the world of aviation back then.

The front page has two images taken at Brooklands in Surrey; which "give some idea of the gatherings which assemble day by day around the actual flving village. In the upper photograph Tom Sopwith is flying his Howard Wright biplane... In the bottom picture Mr. Low, one of the expert pilots of the Bristol Co., is making one of his fine flights round the aerodrome."

See our extensive range of cutaways on AirSpace including this Piaggio Avanti. Buy reprints, posters and framed photos of this and many more on the Flightglobal Image Store. Go to www.flightglobalimagestore.com.

RunwayGirl wants YOUR help to find the aviation communIty's favourite airline viral video for 2010.

If you didn't manage to get to Aero India, not to worry, you'll feel as though you were there when you see how Flightglobal covered the show.

See also our three digital Flight Daily News magazines, and in day one we explore the MMRCA battle, weighing up India's fighter jet options. And you can rely on us to showcase video, images, news and the twitter conversation.

There are some great action shots of aircraft including this one of the Red Bull Aerial Display Team, performing at the show uploaded by uploaded by AirSpace user Maverick but taken by Billypix.

Find out why www.privatefly.com won the Flightglobal Webbies and see who else won in the five other categories.  

Take a look inside Brit Air's new 100-seat Bombardier CRJ1000 cabin on Runway Girl's blog. You'll see footage of the cockpit, a bigger washroom and includes information about Bombardier's in-flight connectivity and electronic flight bag (EFB) plans.

There's also an informative look at the WTO spat looking at the history of the investigation on subsidies plus the Boeing view, and the Airbus view soon to come.

Take a look at a picture of a great retro aircraft, the Junker JU-52 flying in South African skies uploaded by AirSpace user sonjaG.

Valentines Day is approaching so don't forget you can send your beloved a print of a favourite aircraft or cutaway drawing which are all available in a range of gifts including mugs, jigsaws or canvas prints on the Flightglobal Image Store.

Airframer Boeing published its full-year financial results for 2010 and with Coveritlive, Flightglobal was able to livestream updates from its earnings conference call, along with comments and questions from users with Flightglobal journalists on hand to offer analyses.

Flight International editor Murdo Morrison has published a blog post about the cutaways schedule for 2011. "Our artists Giuseppe Picarella and Tim Hall have a packed schedule, travelling to factories around the world to peer inside the most intimate workings of the latest aircraft programmes."

Posters to look out for include Bombardier's CRJ1000, the Northrop Grumman Global Hawk in NATO AGS guise, the Cessna Citation CJ4 and the Grob G120TP.

AirSpace user Airliners_Illustrated has uploaded some great images of airliners including a close up of the Boeing 787 Dreamliner's Rolls Royce Trent 1000. Another user Niels_Boswinkel has uploaded some retro style images of Air Malta aircraft.

Flightglobal has launched Atlas, a new realtime aircraft tracking service overlaying aircraft/airline flight data onto Google Maps to provide a flight tracking service. Over the coming weeks and months Atlas will have new features and enhancements. Any comments or suggestions are welcome.

FlightBlogger reports that Greenpoint Technologies, which is already supplying the SkyLoft overhead space utilization (OSU) on Boeing's 747-8I VIP, has dreamed up an addition to the new jumbo that looks as though it has come straight out of a James Bond Film. The firm has designed an internal elevator that exits on the outside of the aircraft! Not surprisingly it's called the SkyLift. Greenpoint is in talks with two customers about the product.

Don't forget to enter your images for the front cover competition where you could have your photo on the end of year issue of Flight International magazine. Take a look at previous entries from the various categories.

For more of his images see his gallery.

During the Battle of Britain 70th anniversary celebrations, we're offering 20% off images of aircraft during the 1939 and 1945 period at our Image Store.

You can get prints in a range of formats, from canvas, framed, images on t-shirts and mugs and as jigsaw puzzles, all of which make perfect gifts.

Safety and Operations Editor, David Learmount shares some highlights of his recent trip to Iceland.

He visited Reykjavik aerodrome, originally a WW2 base built by the UK Royal Air Force and see some images of the ash as he flew over the volcano as part of an exercise in sharing knowledge learned by the industry from the travel chaos caused by Eyjafjallajökull eruptions in April.

Ever considered wearing your luggage to avoid paying to put your bags in the hold? A UK department store is selling big coat with lots of pockets so passengers can do just that.

"They are putting the new trend down to reports from the shop floor that customers prefer to pack heavier items such as books, towels, electronic net books and cameras, into large pocketed garments, rather than pay fees up to £40 return, charged by some low-cost airlines for cases stowed in the hold, according to an Airline Business blog post.

See video footage of a Korean Air 777 that gets into an oscillation on landing. John Croft, author of As the Croft Flies Blog suggests the control column was cycling fore and aft, promoting a pilot-induced oscillation and there doesn't appear to be a go-around attempt.

What do you think this Korean Air pilot have done?

And don't forget to vote for your choice of the brightest and best people in aviation and aerospace today.

The Flightglobal Achievement Awards celebrate and acknowledge individuals, teams and innovations at work in the aviation and aerospace industries. The four exciting categories aim to find four exceptional people or teams.

Nominees for the Leader, Aviator and Innovator of the Year, as well as our Lifetime Achievement Award, are nominated by you and shortlisted by a panel of experts.

Voting closes 11 June 2010 and winners announced at the Farnborough Airshow on 20 July 2010.

See a great in-motion shot of a Harrier GR9 of the Naval Strike Wing at low level in the Lake District by AirSpace user gatwicksteve.

AirSpace users were quick of the mark to upload images from around the web showing the wreckage and began discussing the developments to the story as it unfolded.

RunwayGirl posted an article about the first iPad IFE system to be formally launched at the Hamburg Interiors show this week. And says "an unidentified international carrier" would be using it on flights from July.

RunwayGirl says: "The system leverages the power, flexibility and quality of the Apple iPad, the most advanced consumer device ever produced".

View an animation of the Turkish Airlines Boeing 737-800 that crashed on approach to Amsterdam.

It shows the aircraft's autothrottle reduced the thrust to idle early in the approach, after receiving incorrect altitude information from a faulty left-hand radio altimeter, causing the jet to lose airspeed.

There's a superb black and white image on AirSpace of the Eurofighter Typhoon taken by user andychittock.

Mary Kirby has a rant in a post on Runway Girl. She says: "I think in-flight mobile connectivity rocks. I want to be able to call my daughter when I'm on the road - and in the air! I want to be able to interview you in-flight. I'm not scared of the future. Are you?"

See the comments, one of which highlights the irritation felt by some passengers. One user said that the new generation of aircraft are very quiet and someone talking at length on a cell phone will annoy all passengers.

"With inflight net access people can IM. You can communicate with whoever you want and you won't annoy anyone around you."

David Learmount thinks remote piloting of airliners is not a far-fetched notion for the future. In a blog post he says: "The mental picture of pilots controlling drones in a hostile Afghan military environment, or operating tiny remotely controlled "model aeroplanes" carrying out video surveillance on a gas pipeline, no longer challenges the modern imagination."

And technology in 20 or 30 years time may well enable one pilot on the ground to operate the aircraft remotely. "Why do I say this now?", he asks. "Because a lot of people who know what they are talking about are talking about this", he says.

And while Gulf Air celebrates 60 years in the air, it is also seen departing Heathrow  sporting a special Bahrain F1 2010 livery on one of its A330s. See it on AirSpace in apgphoto's gallery.

He writes: "it wouldn't surprise me if Eurofighter thinks politics -- and not performance -- will decide who wins India's mega-fighter contract. But it does surprise me that somebody actually said it. India is currently judging the six competitors on technical performance."

He spies that StratPost blog editor Saurabh Joshi quoted Matthias Schmidlin, who leads Eurofighter's pursuit in India, saying: "The final decision at the end of the day will be political. We all know that."

There's a fun post on As the Cro(ft) Flies about the art of the apology - a course being offered to scientists and engineers at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Centre.

John Croft writes: "A news alert says the course promises to be a highly interactive and engaging class.

"Objectives include learning multiple types of apology and their delivery, timing, sincerity and effectiveness; learning about research as to the impact of apologies and understanding how men and women use apology differently."

AirSpace has an ever growing blogs portfolio, with six individual bloggers using our blogging platform to write exclusively to an aviation audience.

Find out how we can help you create your own blog and identity by creating a blog header for you.

See an image of an RNLAF Fokker 50 uploaded by AirSpace user Boswinkel.