Yesteryear

10 Years Ago

The Minister for Defence, Dr Brendan Nelson, announced the order of Boeing C-17 Globemaster III transport aircraft for the RAAF at RAAF Richmond on March 3. The acquisition of three or possibly four new-build aircraft will be obtained through a Foreign Military Sale (FMS) contract with the USAF. The decision was announced against the backdrop of recently delivered USAF C-17 55146 *Spirit of Hawaii – Ke Aloha** flown in for the occasion. Delivery of the aircraft to perform a strategic heavylift airlifter role will take place during 2006/2008.

The General Aviation Manufacturers Association has reported over 3580 aircraft valued at US$15.1billion were delivered during during 2005. The most numerous type were 475 Cirrus SR22 aircraft and honours for the top jet were 64 Cessna Citation XLS deliveries.