Yester Year

The Ardour engine fitted to the aircraft was the first to be assembled by Qantas at Mascot.

• Following a ‘name the airline’ competition conducted by Brisbane radio station 4KQ, the name Virgin Blue Airlines has been selected for Richard Branson’s new Australian low cost domestic airline. The first aircraft for the new operator is the Boeing 737-3M8 OOLTM leased from Virgin Express due to arrive next month.

The aircraft will be used for route proving flights in connection with the gaining of an Air Operator’s Certificate. Initial services between Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne are planned to commence in July or August.

• Impulse Airlines formally launched domestic services in a ceremony at Canberra on May 7 with a $139 everyday fare on all flights linking Sydney-Melbourne which are due to commence on June 5. The airline’s first 717-200, VH-IMP, arrived in Sydney on April 27 followed by VH-LAX and VH-IMD due this month. These aircraft leased from Bavaria International will be joined by two other 717s leased from Pembroke Capital due in the third quarter of this year, which will see Brisbane-Sydney services begin around September.

25 Years Ago

• Mount Pleasant airport on the Falkland Islands was officially opened by Prince Andrew on May 12. The first aircraft to land there was a RAF TriStar on a proving flight which arrived on May 1.

• A prototype GM-Hughes AIM-120A AMRAAM fireand- forget Advanced Medium- Range Air-to-Air Missile was test fired successfully from an F-16 flying at Mach 0. 85 at 21,000ft at a QF-100 Super Sabre drone on May 14.

• The maiden flight of the Dassault Falcon V 10F business jet took place on May 21. It is the first commercial aircraft to be substantially built with composite materials.

• Pan Am signed a US$1. 1 billion contract with Airbus on May 24 for 16 A320s and 12 A310-300s plus options on 34 A320s and 13 A310s.

• The keel was laid for USS Wasp in a ceremony at Pascagoula, Mississippi, on May 30.

It is the first of a new class of amphibious ship, the LHD, designed to carry helicopters such as the CH‑53E, SH-60B, and also the MV-22 tiltrotor and AV-8B Harrier.

• Trans-Australia Airlines is seeking Australian government approval to purchase 12 Boeing 737-300s for delivery from July 1986. The new 737s would have the capability to operate Sydney-Perth nonstop.

• British Aerospace celebrated the 600th sale of the 125 in a ceremony at Chester on May 23.

The 600th aircraft was a Series 800 delivered green to the Arkansas Modification Center for fitting out for the Gillett Group of Tennessee. The 601st sale was of another Series 800 to Carlton and United Breweries of Australia for a November delivery.

50 Years Ago

• Following its takeover of the helicopter division of Bristol Aircraft on March 23, Westland Aircraft further expanded when it took over Fairey’s aviation interests on May 2.

• The last North American B-25 Mitchell in USAF use was retired from service on May 21 at Eglin AFB, Florida.

It had been converted for use as a staff transport.

• A Lockheed U-2 on a reconnaissance flight from Peshawar, northern Pakistan to Bodo, Norway, was hit by a ground launched SA-2 guided missile at an altitude of 65,000ft near Sverdlovsk (Yekaterinburg) over the USSR on May 1. Soviet premier Nikita Khrushchev described the mission as “aggressive provocation” and said the pilot, Francis Gary Powers, was being held in custody. Powers was subsequently sentenced to 10 years in jail. On February 10 1962 he was released together with US student Frederic Pryor and exchanged for Soviet KGB spy Colonel Rudolf Abel at the Glienicke Bridge over the Havel River, Berlin.

• The conversion of at least 245 North American T-28 trainers will be carried out by Sud-Aviation under licence from Pac- Aero Engineering Corporation of Santa Monica, California.

The T-28s will be converted to Nomad close support configuration and used by the French Armee de l’Air in Algeria.

• There have been reports that 12 Czech built MiG-15s have arrived in Havana in crates for the Fuerza Aerea Revolucionaria with 13 Russian mechanics arriving soon after to carry out their assembly. Their arrival is likely linked to the previous Cuban government statement that it was no longer interested in obtaining Hawker Hunters.