Yesteryear

9m length and 14.

9m wingspan will cruise at Mach 0.

85 carrying a 2,040kg payload over a 1,300nm (2,400km) mission radius.

Two earlier X-45As are under test at Edwards AFB, California.

Japan’s second largest carrier, All Nippon Airways (ANA) announced on June 7 that it proposes to establish a low-cost airline by the spring of 2005.

It intends to operate Boeing 737s although other types may be obtained.

John Young, the Assistant Secretary of the Navy for Research, Development and Acquisition announced at a Pentagon briefing on June 14 the selection of Boeing’s contender, the 737-800ERX, for the supply of the Multi-mission Maritime Aircraft (MMA) to replace the USN’s P-3C Orions.

The program is looking at the production of 108 MMAs to replace the Navy’s 196 P-3Cs at an approximate average flyaway cost of US$126 million in FY04 dollars.

There is also the potential for exports with about 225 P-3s in service with 15 countries.

On June 14 the Scaled Composites SpaceShipOne, flown by test pilot Mike Melvill, became the first private manned vehicle to reach beyond the Earth’s atmosphere, attaining an altitude of 328,491ft.

Carried aloft from Mojave Airport, California by the White Knight carrier aircraft the vehicle was released at 50,000ft, the rocket motor was ignited and it entered a near vertical climb to the record altitude.

After re-entry, SpaceShipOne glided to a normal landing on Mojave’s runway.

The handover of the first Airbus A320 for Jetstar, A320-232 VH-JQG (ex F-WWDQ) took place on June 17 at Toulouse.

It departed the next day with overnight stops at Dubai, Phuket and Darwin flying via Rockhampton and the Gold Coast arriving in Melbourne on June 21.

25 years ago

In a dramatic incident at the Paris Airshow on June 8, the press preview day, Russian test pilot Anatoly Kvotchur ejected horizontally at 300ft from his single-seat MiG-29 Fulcrum-A after a starboard engine failure during a slow, high-alpha pass down the runway at 650ft.

Full afterburner climb had been selected and Kvotchur was unable to control the aircraft with one engine on afterburner, the other providing zero thrust.

The K-36 ejection seat performed faultlessly although deployed slightly outside its design envelope.

USN Squadron HS-10 accepted the Navy’s first Sikorsky SH-60F Seahawk CV-Helo inner zone antisubmarine warfare aircraft during a ceremony at NAS North Island on June 22.

At the Paris Airshow British Aerospace introduced the BAe 146‑QC convertible airliner based on the 146-200QT freighter.

This version will adopt the wide door introduced on freighter versions combined with removable passenger interior trim.

The Anglo-Italian EH101 advanced helicopter program reached another goal with the maiden flight of the basic naval preproduction aircraft, PP4, with a fully integrated and functioning avionics suite, on June 15 at Yeovil, Somerset.

It is the fifth EH101 to join the 4,000-hour flight development program.

Airbus Industrie delivered its 500th aircraft, the first of 100 A320s ordered by Northwest Airlines, on June 10.

Northwest is Airbus Industrie’s largest customer with orders for 140 aircraft comprising 100 A320s, 20 A330s and 20 A340s.

Airbus expects to deliver its 1,000th aircraft in 1992.

Certification of the Boeing 747‑400 powered by the Rolls-Royce RB211‑524G was confirmed by the US FAA on June 8 enabling first delivery to Cathay Pacific that day, the eighth 747-400 delivery.

50 years ago

The Minister for Defence, Senator Shane Paltridge, announced on June 8 that increased military aid to South Vietnam would include the deployment of six RAAF DHC-4 Caribous.

The first flight to Antarctica in the winter season was conducted by a Lockheed LC-130F Hercules of USN Air Development Squadron VX-6 on June 26 with a landing at McMurdo Sound.

The round trip from Christchurch, New Zealand was made for the emergency evacuation of Petty Officer B L McMullen who was critically injured in a fall.

A new specification for the colour of USN aircraft was issued on June 29 with the colour of anti-submarine patrol aircraft changed to gull gray with a white upper fuselage.

A Vought RF-8 Crusader reconnaissance aircraft flown by Lieutenant Charles F Klusmann from the USS Kitty Hawk was shot down by communist insurgents over the Plaine des Jarres, Laos on June 6.

The following day an F-8 Crusader, also from the Kitty Hawk, was shot down over the same area while escorting a reconnaissance aircraft.

A contract valued at £10 million, including aircraft components, missiles and test equipment, has been signed for the purchase of the Matra R.

530 air-to-air radar-guided missile to equip the RAAF’s Mirage IIIO fighters.

On June 5 the Blue Streak missile, which is the first stage of of the European Launcher Development Organisation (ELDO) satellite launcher Europa 1, was launched from the Lake Hart pad, Woomera Range.

With the granting of its C of A on June 4, the Hawker Siddeley 125 became the first jet aircraft specifically built for executive use which had qualified for a full airworthiness certificate.