Yester Year

These may be linked to a reported acquisition of four Mi-24s from the Ukraine mentioned in early 1998, with the delivery of the first two understood to have been made at that time.

• The Fairchild Dornier 328JET was awarded European JAA certification on July 8 after the completion of a four aircraft, 1560 flying hours flight test and certification campaign. Orders and options stand at 162.

• Bombardier announced the first delivery of its Global Express ultra long range business jet on July 8. The aircraft was handed over at the manufacturer’s new completion centre in Montreal to AirFlite of Long Beach, California, which will operate the aircraft on behalf of Toyota Motor Sales USA.

Bombardier so far holds orders for 105 aircraft.

• After being laid up for eight months NASA’s SR-71A is flying again. Following a first flight on June 30 by the NASA Dryden Flight Research Center at Edwards AFB, California, another flight is scheduled for the middle of this month with two more by September.

NASA’s SR-71B proficiency trainer is also in flyable storage.

When the USAF stopped flying the type in 1998 it handed over its two remaining flyable SR-71s to NASA

25 Years Ago

• The first flight of the prototype Bell Model 400 Twin- Ranger took place at Fort Worth, Texas, on July 4. During the flight contractual requirements specified by the Canadian government for a forward speed of 100kt and sideward and rearward speeds of 20kt were exceeded, and the flight envelope will now be expanded.

• A ceremony was held at Dijon on July 2 to welcome the first Dassault-Breguet Mirage 2000s into French air force service with Escadron de Chasse (EC) 1/2 Cigognes. Current production will see about 27 Mirage 2000s delivered by the end of the year.

• The first spacewalk by a woman was made by Soviet cosmonaut Svetlana Savitskaya when she left the Salyut 7/Soyuz T-10B/Soyuz T-12 complex on July 25 for 3hr 35min 4sec.

• The McDonnell Douglas F/A-18 Hornet will soon enter service at sea operationally onboard the USN Constellation following a work-up of the type by VFA-125 and VMFA-314 squadrons on board the USS Enterprise.

• British Aerospace has confirmed South Africa is looking at the acquisition of eight BAe 748 Coastguarders. The Coastguarders would be used by a newly formed coast guard service for fishery protection and the monitoring of shipping in the country’s Exclusive Economic Zone.

• Air Atlantique has purchased Bristol 170 Freighter G-BISU for its Atlantic Air Transport subsidiary based at Stansted.

The Freighter will join Atlantic Air Transport’s eight DC-3s, and will be used for short haul ad hoc freight charters.

50 Years Ago

• The Sud-Aviation Caravelle entered service on July 27 on an Air France flight from Paris to London operated by F-BHRB Lorraine.

• Squadron Leader Charles Maughan RAF was the winner of the 50th anniversary London- Paris air race held during July 13-23 to commemorate the first crossing of the English Channel by Louis Bleriot on July 25 1909. His city-centre to city-centre time of 40min 40sec was achieved using a Hawker Hunter, a Bristol Sycamore helicopter and two motorcycles.

• The Royal Navy’s first operational unit equipped with the de Havilland Sea Vixen, No 892 Squadron, was commissioned on July 2.

• The first scheduled jet airliner service across the Pacific from Sydney to San Francisco was operated by the Qantas Boeing 707-138 City of Canberra, VH‑EBC, on July 29.

• The prototype Northrop N‑156F (F-5) Freedom Fighter exceeded Mach 1 on its first flight from Edwards AFB, California on July 30.

• The first flight of the SNECMA C. 450-1 Coleoptere circular-winged vertical takeoff and landing aircraft at Melun- Villaroche on July 23 ended in failure when test pilot Auguste Morel ejected at a height of 45ft due to control difficulties.

An unusual aspect of the aircraft, which is powered by an Atar 101E. V. engine, is the need for the pilot to stand during the takeoff phase and then lie flat after the transition to horizontal flight.

• Lockheed will pay for the cost of retrofitting 59 Electras with modified nacelles that tilt upwards three degrees to reduce airscrew vibration.