Australian Aviation

Virgin Blue has entered a new era with the retirement of founding CEO Brett Godfrey and his replacement by former Qantas executive general manager John Borghetti taking effect on May 8. Godfrey was fittingly farewelled by colleagues, key industry executives, political figures and media during a dinner at Sydney’s Ivy Room on May 5, shortly

One of the three 747-8F test aircraft, RC521, suffered minor damage to an engine fan cowl on May 30 when it hit a tug while being towed at its Victorville test base near Los Angeles. The impact did not damage the engine, and the aircraft is expected to resume flight testing soon. This content is

The third Gulfstream G650 ultra-long range business jet made its first flight in late May and has joined the other two jets in the type’s test program. T3 will be used to measure aerodynamic loads and to test the G650’s new PlaneView avionics suite and ice protection systems. T1 has been employed on envelope expansion

The USAF has appointed Colonel Dawn Dunlop to head up the 412th Test Wing at Edwards AFB, the first such appointment for a female officer. Col Dunlop is a former T-38 instructor, F-15E operational pilot, and F-15 and F-22 test pilot, and was operations officer for the F-22 Combined Test Force at Edwards. This content

Virgin Blue and Air New Zealand have revealed a planned revenue sharing trans-Tasman alliance. The non-equity alliance, announced on May 3, would see Virgin Blue and Air New Zealand between them share just over 55 per cent of the trans Tasman market through a codesharing deal covering a combined 210 flights a week. This content

The Civil Aviation Authority of Fiji (CAAFI) is investigating how a V Australia Boeing 777 and an Air New Zealand 767 ended up in close proximity in airspace near Nadi. According to The Fiji Times, the incident happened on May 7 at approximately 1600hrs local time, with both aircraft in controlled airspace approximately 100nm from