See the HondaJet (above) as it performs its first flight from Piedmont Triad International Airport in Greensboro, N.C.

Airbus Military's fourth A400M transport made its first sortie from Seville, Spain. Dubbed Grizzly 4, the aircraft will be used mainly for cargo and air-to-air refuelling tests.

And Eurocopter completed four first flights, including the debut sortie of the second prototype EC175 heavy twin civil helicopter being built in a joint venture with the Aviation Industry Corporation of China (AVIC).

Read data obtained by FlightBlogger detailing Boeing's historic order backlog for the 787. Author Jon Ostrower says it was based partly on steep discounts driven by now-discarded design and manufacturing assumptions.

See Runway Girl's video post of SAS cabin crew rapping in celebration of an inflight gay wedding ceremony plus a video of her new song which may be heard as the sign off on each of her vlogs.

And don't forget to enter the Webbies - the Flightglobal Aviation Web Awards.  

Links

A400M Hondajet Eurocopter: http://www.flightglobal.com/articles/2010/12/17/351077/pictures-eurocopter-completes-four-first-flights-in-one-day.html

Flightblogger

Runway Girl  / 

He recalls how he saw it perform the "dump and burn" trick at the Singapore Air Show in February and he invites you to share your memories, thoughts and comments of this aircraft on his blog The DEW Line. See also a video showing retro footage of the aircraft performing in the skies.  

See the pictures that illustrate the story about NASA moving its X-34s out of storage as it considers returning them to flight status after 10 years. Orbital Sciences Corp will determine whether the X-34s are still viable as technology demonstrators for reusable space vehicles.

There are more pictures of surplus UH-1s en route to the Philippines. Its air force will receive five used Bell UH-1 transport helicopters under a deal by the US Army Security Assistance Command (USASAC).

Ryanair launched its 2011 Ryanair Cabin Crew Charity Calendar which was shot in Fuerteventura.

The calendar costs €10 with proceeds going to German charity "Tafel" which provides food to people, many of them children and teenagers suffering poverty and malnutrition all over Germany.

See the images plus a video from the press conference and another video of the making of the calendar.

See Flightglobal and wider web content on the beleagured Rolls-Royce engines, in particular the Trent 900 currently under scrutiny following the uncontained failure on a Qantas A380 and get involved in the discussion thread about the latest catastrophe with the Boeing 787 which recently suffered cabin smoke in a test aircraft.

Flightglobal is gearing up to honour the best and brightest in aviation and aerospace at the Flightglobal Achievement Awards to be held on at the Farnborough Air Show.

Nominees for the Leader, Aviator and Innovator of the Year, as well as Flightglobal's Lifetime Achievement Award have already been selected by you and shortlisted by a panel of experts and now it's your chance to cast your vote from the shortlist in each category.

Flightglobal won a gong of its own last week at the AOP Awards when it was crowned Business Website of the Year.

The judges were impressed with Flightglobal's results in what has been a tough year for the site's audience and said: "the site uses the full spectrum of digital tools, with a special focus on engagement, and effective use of social media."

The team worked tirelessly to bring you news, blog posts from FlightBlogger, Learmount and As the Cro(ft) Flies, images, and videos of interviews with the movers and shakers of the business aviation community.

You can find all this throughout the pages of the interactive magazine and our dedicated EBACE 2010 page. And see what was being said on twitter by following the show's hashtag.

Eurocopter joined forces with automotive and design powerhouse Mercedes Benz to launch an interior for its entrepreneurial EC145 customers who work hard and play hard.

And then there's the Design Q and BAE Systems partnership that unveiled striking interior concepts including one where the cargo door opens to reveal an air deck described as the "ultimate living space".

The A380 celebrated its 5th birthday since its first flight.

We collated all our content, so why not revisit articles Flight International wrote including one about Airbus and Boeing pursuing different strategies to meet air travel demand and whether Airbus can produce an A380 freighter. See, also, a video of the giant making its first flight.

The Flightglobal team are all over EBACE in Geneva bringing you content for Flightglobal, the interactive magazine and next week's Flight International show report. Take a look and click on the interactive magazine's pages to explore images, graphics and videos and don't forget to check out all the news, video, blogs, Twitter updates from the show on the site.

Download our cutaway poster of Boeing's P-8 Poseidon with an adjoining technical description. It is the first detailed look under the skin at the aircraft's various modifications to the ubiquitous 737 Next Generation design.

See an animation illustrating the revival of air traffic across Europe following the closure of airspace during the Icelandic volcanic ash crisis. Transport mapping specialist ITO has compiled the sequence of images, with the aid of real-time flight-monitoring site Flightradar24 which draws data from a network of amateur tracking stations.

Our dedicated Icelandic ash cloud page kept users up to date with news from our own journalists and from around the web using realtime multimedia publishing platform CoverItLive which spewed out plumes of information from Twitter about the grounding of aircraft, live satellite images from NASA and ESA and the Met Office tracking the travelling ash cloud over European airspace.

Watch David Learmount's video explaining consequences and the impact of this unique event, and what the aviation world needs to do to be prepared for the next similar occurrence, as Icelandic authorities warn Europe that more volcanic eruptions are forecast over the next 20 years.

Have a look at images the Finnish air force released of its Boeing F-18 Hornets which show the effects of volcanic dust ingestion from inside the engines.

The jets were involved in a training exercise just hours before the imposition of airspace restrictions due to the ash cloud spreading.

And Flight covered the dangers to aircraft engines 28 years ago. Read an archive feature about Capt Eric Moody gliding to safety his British Airways Boeing 747 into Jakarta, Indonesia.

Sign up to this now for free so you can see what's going on if you can't make it to the show. You'll see hundreds of images and video stories which will also be showing on Flightglobal, where you can follow the team on twitter, read the latest blogs, see the daily flying display schedule and click on the image to see our interactive aircraft on static display graphic which is heatmapped to show aircraft profiles, including the first ever exhibit of the Airbus A330-200F.

Stefan the Pilot will be at the show being photographed in the best locations with the great and the good from the industry so make time to come and say hello to him.

The Webbies 09, Flightglobal's Aviation Web Awards shortlist has been announced. Find out if your company has made the grade. The bronze, silver and gold winners will be announced during the first week of February. Good luck from all at Flightglobal.

Here at Flightglobal, we put together some lists including Flightglobal's list of the year's first flights, roll-outs and anniversaries, how we covered the air shows around the globe and of course the usual top tens from the stories, the pictures and the videos that had you clicking furiously to see what the big noise was about.

You've still got time to enter the Webbies 09 Flightglobal's Aviation Web Awards. You can nominate your own favourite sites, as well, in the eight aviation-related categories including two new categories celebrating community and enthusiast websites and effective use of social media. The closing date for entries and nominations is 10th January so get cracking.

See how Flight saw the world in its last issue of its first year. In the 18th December 1909 issue, a reader, Harold Kelk wrote to the editor questioning the origination of the word "aviation", saying: M. Jules Verne used [the word] in his book "The Clipper of the Clouds ".

"I think 'aviation' a much pleasanter word to use than 'volitation', and its exact meaning quite near enough to the mark to justify its use," he says.

One speaker suggested that, worryingly, many pilots lack the basic knowledge of the principles of flying, while one student, with a PPL, spoke of his frustrations about the difficulty of entering the profession after he's awarded his degree.

Making plans for 2010? Why not plot your movements on a range of calendars available including the Ryanair Cabin Crew, Charity Beach Babe calendar in aid of Help for Heroes and you can now order your Flightglobal calendar which features 12 of the best images from users on AirSpace.

FlightBlogger reported that first flight countdown begins again for the Boeing 787. He says the internal schedule for first flight has been accelerated to 14 December, "reflecting the programme's rising confidence".

Previous reports had targeted 22 December for first flight. Read the complete FlightBlogger report.

Read Kieran Daly's blog post about how a rather large passenger was able to board an American Airlines flight having booked only one seat when he clearly needed two.

He says: "Sympathise with the guy or not, he's a major safety hazard in an evacuation, a gross inconvenience for the cabin crew, and I would suggest a totally unacceptable travelling companion for the guy next to him."

See a video of travellers at Heathrow's Terminal 5 getting romantic under the world's largest sprig of mistletoe. The ten foot by eight foot structure took three weeks to construct and weighs an impressive 43kg.

Be honest, who really takes notice of those safety demonstrations before takeoff?

Charter operator Thomson Airways knows this and has come up with a way to get passengers to sit up and pay attention by using children as cabin crew giving the instructions, which is all very heart-warming and actually very effective.

Check out Kieran Daly's blog post pointing to Boston Globe's 40 "fabulous" aviation pictures.

It's a spectacular selection, including an impressive shot of a hot-air balloon above the clouds in Germany and a helicopter, with tourists onboard, in front of Angel Falls at Canaima National Park.

Read about the Su-27 fighter jet that disappeared behind trees at Poland's Radom air show recently and burst into flames killing both pilots and view a newsclip of its aerial display.

Twitter user, RAFairman uploaded an image showing part of an aircraft and challenged followers to guess its type.

Our very own Stefan the Pilot was the winner guessing correctly that the image was of a Westland Wessex helicopter.

See more of the Wessex, once described by Flight International as the "world's largest VTOL aircraft".

Follow Stefan on Twitter... He's going to be busy over the next few months.

Westland Wessex http://www.flightglobal.com/pdfarchive/view/1969/1969%20-%200819.html?search=westland%20wessex

See Stefan the Pilot's images in his own gallery 

Week on the Web is also available as an audio podcast on AirSpace and iTunes. 

During the day, we learned how he has a strong focus on keeping a healthy work/life balance by spending as much free time on his own private island, Necker, near Costa Rica with his family.

On a typical day, he could be spanning a couple of continents with a breakfast meeting in Tokyo, enjoying a business lunch in the South of France, and racing to the UK in time to have afternoon tea with his mother.

Sir Richard on the blog 

As Flightglobal's guest editor he shared his views of the current state of the industry in his own Guest Editor's blog.

He said: "Everything has been thrown at our industry - volatile oil, swine flu, recession, environmental pressure, higher government taxes.

"What next? We're clearly at a tipping point. The next 12 months will determine how our industry looks for the longer-term..."

And he wrote another blog post about the British Airways and American Airlines merger whose "plans to effectively merge are not going according to plan".

Sir Richard as gatekeeper

He chose the lead stories throughout the day and wrote a short sentence justifying his decisions.

His lead story choices, unsurprisingly, reflected his interests in the airline industry. Airline CEOs will have logged on to Flightglobal in the morning to find that IATA announced, at its AGM in Kuala Lumpur, that it had revised its airline financial forecast for 2009 to a global loss of $9 billion, almost double its March estimate of $4.7 billion, due to a rapidly deteriorating operating environment.

He was clearly worried but while director-general and CEO Giovanni Bisignani might be a "merchant of doom and gloom... he's a good barometer of when recovery comes." 

He lead the news agenda in the afternoon with news that Virgin Nigeria will lose the Virgin brand next month.

In the story Virgin Atlantic says it "always intended" to pull out from the Nigerian carrier within about five years, and last week brought technical co-operation to a close, essentially ending its day-to-day participation in Virgin Nigeria's operations.

Sir Richard said that "Virgin Nigeria had been a breath of fresh air in the Nigerian aviation industry".

A final lead for the day showed Sir Richard's deep sadness over the tragedy of the Air France A330 accident last week. Pictures were released showing search team divers retrieving the aircraft's vertical tailfin.

Q & A competition  

Sir Richard answered a handful of the best questions you sent in and selected a question by Jean-Baptiste Betrand about the "real heroes of aviaiton" as his favourite out of the hundreds submitted.

Congratulations to Jean-Baptiste who wins a return flight anywhere in the Virgin network.

You saw it here first

As part of Virgin Atlantic's 25 year anniversary, the airline produced a short video featuring some of the highlights and iconic imagery that has marked Virgin Atlantic's colourful history. Sir Richard gave this video to Flightglobal as an exclusive so you saw it here first.

Maiden Voyager - maiden commercial flight

He chose an image for the Image of the Day blog of himself with a collection of celebrities on the steps up to the airline's first Boeing 747 named Maiden Voyager before it took off for Newark on 22 June 1984.  

See more images of Sir Richard in the Virgin Atlantic gallery and see how Flight reported on Virgin in the archives. 

Sadly, I didn't get a day off, nor was I running Virgin Atlantic (we didn't agree on a jobswap) so I spent most of the day strategising with our troops in preparation for the next week's 100th Paris Air Show.

And we've retrospectively gone back and tagged previous flight tests so they're all grouped in the one place.

These PIREPS are obviously great stuff - recent test flights include the Phenom 100 and Pilatus PC-21.

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