Marc Joel Atrero

End of an era for the ‘Royal Purple’ As the last QANTAS 747-300 ‘Classic’ is parked against the fence, it will not only signal the retirement of a pioneering aircraft type, but the last, parting flickers of a band of Australian aviation specialists; the Flight Engineers. The Purple Empire: As airline crews have walked through

Qantas retires the 747 ‘Classic’ Tuesday January 20 saw the end of an era in Australian commercial aviation with the departure from Australia of Qantas’s last ‘Classic’ 747-300. Qantas personnel who had worked on or with the Classic gathered along the fence line next to Sydney Airport’s old control tower beach along with a group

Defence ponders bid to extend Orion, delay P-8 buy A joint Lockheed Martin-Australian Aerospace proposal to re-wing the RAAF’s AP-3C Orion maritime patrol aircraft could see significant changes to project Air 7000. Air 7000 envisions replacing the RAAF’s maritime surveillance capabilities currently provided by the 18 AP-3Cs with a combination of manned Boeing P-8 Poseidons

Although working well for airspace surveillance above 30,000ft, Airservices Australia has confirmed that it is pushing back the timetable on implementing ADS-B (Automatic Dependent Surveillance – Broadcast) technology across over 12,000 aircraft for use at lower altitudes. “Discussions between the government’s aviation agencies and stakeholders identified a number of significant issues to be overcome, including

Another shade of blue Five years since it started, Pacific Blue has grown from a small adjunct to Virgin Blue’s domestic Australian services, the New Zealand based carrier has become a major growth vehicle for the Virgin Blue Group. During those five years, it’s been a busy time for the Christchurch-based airline. After starting with

Despite receiving a number of submissions from airlines, tourism operators and different industry groups, there has been little change in the aviation industry’s treatment in the government’s proposed Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme (CPRS) white paper, which was released on December 15 last year. As with the original green paper released in July 2008, the paper