Pins matching tag:Aerospace

F-WWOW, the first of the only full-length double-deck jet airliner ever built, flew from Toulouse–Blagnac with a crew of six under chief test pilot Jacques Rosay, who said handling it was "like handling a bicycle".

Bell delivered the first production Bell 429, serial number 57006, to Air Methods and MercyOne from its helicopter factory in Mirabel, Quebec.

N787BA lifted off from Paine Field at 10:27 am PST and landed three hours later at Boeing Field, reaching 180 knots and 13,200 feet. The first airliner with a primarily composite airframe flew more than two years later than Boeing first promised.

Lufthansa received its first Airbus A380 at Hamburg on 19 May 2010, putting the double-decker superjumbo into European airline service weeks later.

Boeing handed over the first 747-8 Freighter to launch customer Cargolux at its Everett, Washington widebody plant, putting the largest version of the 747 into commercial cargo service.

ADAC Luftrettung signs a framework order for 14 EC145 T2 (later renamed H145) and 3 EC135 P2e helicopters, built at what is now Airbus Helicopters' Donauwörth plant, the model whose build process this film documents.

Airbus Defence and Space delivered the first production A400M Atlas military transport, assembled at its Seville final assembly line, to the German Luftwaffe.

The German Aerospace Center's HY4, the world's first four-seat aircraft powered solely by a hydrogen fuel cell, made its first flight from Stuttgart Airport on September 29, 2016. The Future of Flight features it as a real prototype for zero-emission aviation.

Lufthansa took delivery of its first Airbus A350-900 from Airbus's Toulouse delivery centre, the initial aircraft of a 25-jet order that became the backbone of its new Munich long-haul hub. The A350 entered scheduled service two months later, flying Munich to Delhi.

Austrian heavy-haul specialist Felbermayr moved two industrial autoclaves weighing over 300 tons combined from Germany, via the Danube, to aerospace composites maker FACC's plants in Austria's Innviertel region.

On October 1, 2019, Airbus opened a highly automated fuselage structure assembly line for the A320 Family at its Hamburg-Finkenwerder site, using 20 robots to drill, countersink and rivet fuselage joints. The line was built to help meet the type's order backlog of more than 6,500 aircraft.

Gilmour Space Technologies test-fired the largest and most powerful rocket engine ever developed in Australia, a 75-second, 110-kilonewton hybrid-engine burn ahead of its Eris orbital rocket program.

The new coating is 12 times more effective than current ceramics. Dennis Muilenburg, CEO of Boeing has said that hypersonic passenger jets could be in the air within the next ten years. These aircraft would cut travel times by up to 700 percent. This would mean a flight from Shanghai to New York would be reduced from 15 hours to just two.

Arianespace flew Europe's Ariane 5 heavy-lift rocket for the last time from the Guiana Space Centre, retiring the launcher after 27 years and 117 missions. The final flight, VA261, carried Germany's Heinrich Hertz communications satellite and France's Syracuse 4B military satellite to orbit.

Europe's new heavy-lift launcher Ariane 6, built by ArianeGroup, flew for the first time from the Guiana Space Centre. The inaugural flight met its main objectives despite an anomaly in an upper-stage auxiliary unit late in the mission.

On August 11, 2024, the Martin JRM Mars flying boat "Hawaii Mars" made its final flight, escorted by Snowbirds jets, ending 78 years of service as the world’s largest water bomber.

Prague and Stockholm signed a joint declaration to keep the Čáslav-based Saab JAS 39 Gripen fleet flying beyond the lease's 2027 expiry, until Czech F-35s arrive; the binding contract covering 12 jets to 2035 was still being negotiated the following year. The deal underpins the fleet's ongoing depot-level overhauls, which strip and rebuild each jet roughly every few years.

Aircraft-maintenance and storage specialist Tarmac Aerosave opened its fourth Airbus A380-capable hangar at Teruel Airport, Europe's largest aircraft boneyard. The 15 million euro building, the world's largest metal-textile hangar, can house one A380 or four narrow-body jets at once.

On March 5, 2025, a New York Air National Guard LC-130H Skibird touched down on freshwater ice at Parsons Lake, Canada, a first for the unit’s ski-equipped Hercules fleet.

LTA Research's Pathfinder 1, the largest aircraft in the world, flew beyond its Moffett Field base in California and over San Francisco Bay for the first time on 15 May 2025 - the first rigid airship of its size to fly since the 1930s. Its larger successor, Pathfinder 3, is being built in the century-old Goodyear Akron Airdock.

NASA is moving forward with their plans to create a quieter supersonic jet that can cut travel times in half. The quiet plane will fly up to 55,000 feet at supersonic speeds. The new prototype will run on two engines and in theory, it could cut the flight time from New York to Los Angeles in half from 6 to 3 hours.

The quiet supersonic demonstrator reached Mach 1.1 and 43,400 feet on an 81-minute flight from Edwards Air Force Base, the first time it exceeded the speed of sound. A NASA F-15 chase plane flew alongside, its own booms drowning out anything the X-59 made.

The first Eurofighter Typhoon built for Germany's 20-jet Quadriga order, serial 34+02, flew for about an hour before returning safely to Airbus's Manching site.

The FAA granted Boeing an amended type certificate for the 737-7, clearing the smallest and longest-range MAX variant for commercial service after a test programme that began in 2018 and ran more than 1,000 hours.

Airbus’ first clean-sheet large freighter is expected to fly from Toulouse around 24 September, opening a roughly 400-hour, nine-month certification campaign flown by MSN700 and MSN701 ahead of a first delivery in the second half of 2027.

The largest aerospace exhibition in the world, held in odd years at Paris–Le Bourget since 1953 and first staged in 1909, runs 14 to 20 June 2027 – four days for professionals, then three open to the public.

Boeing says the first 777-9 will be delivered in 2027, seven years late, after taking a $4.9 billion charge; Lufthansa is the launch customer, with delivery currently scheduled for mid-2027, and Emirates has signalled it is planning for late 2027.

The US Air Force’s first operational B-21s are due "on the ramp" at their first operational base in South Dakota in 2027. The stealth bomber programme has raised production capacity by 25%, heading for about seven aircraft a year and a fleet of at least 100.

Flight tests of the UK’s crewed sixth-generation demonstrator are due to start from early 2028, after power-on in mid-2027. More than 11,500 parts – about 90% of the aircraft’s weight – have been designed and released, with final assembly under way in Lancashire.