La Trobe-based GippsAero has been tasked by Indian parent company Mahindra Aerospace to build the prototype NM5 multi-mission aircraft. The NM5 will use the same engine as the GA-8 Airvan and will seat four to five people. The sleek-looking low-wing will be largely all-metal with composite likely for the cowl and fairings. With a planned useful load of 500-600kg and a cruise speed of 160 knots, the new aircraft will target the training, charter, tourism and medevac markets, which will put it up against the C206 and G36 Bonanza. The prototype is expected to make its first flight in mid-2011. There has been no indication at this stage where production will occur.
While surging ahead and having success after success with the project to date, Gulfstream Aerospace has suffered a major setback to its G650 flight test program this week with one of the five test jets crashing and being destroyed by fire during testing on April 2. The incident, in which two Gulfstream test pilots and two flight-test engineers died, occurred at the Roswell International Air Center in New Mexico. According to an FAA spokesman, the accident happened while the four were conducting brake testing – the G650 had just taken off when the right wing hit the ground. The aircraft crashed back to the runway, which collapsed the landing gear, and skidded for a distance. To read some of our previous reporting on the G650 program click here and here.
The Alaska Dispatch reports that British aviator Douglas Cairns is attempting to become the first pilot to land a light twin engine aircraft at the North Pole. Teaming up with Cairns in a Beechcraft Baron B58 for the adventure is Alaskan pilot Ron Sheardown, who has made the North Pole trip eight previous times. The expedition will fly from Barrow, the northernmost city in the US, on April 17 to raise funds for the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation. Cairns was banned from flying in the British Royal Air Force in 1989 after being diagnosed with Type-1 diabetes, but he regained his medical clearance in 2000 as a licensed US pilot. In 2003, he became the first ever pilot with Type-1 diabetes to complete a circumnavigation. You can read the full story here.
When the dust settled after the mayhem and excitement of last week’s tornado-hit Sun ’n Fun International Fly-In & Expo in Florida, Cessna were smiling from ear to ear after taking orders for 30 aircraft at the event. The manufacturer took 16 orders for the new Corvalis TTX, as well as 13 orders for its high-wing single-engine piston range and one for a Grand Caravan.
The last flying Avro Vulcan will spend the Northern Hemisphere summer based at the UK airfield where it stood on Quick Reaction Alert during the Cold War. Widely recognised as an iconic example of British technical innovation, Vulcan XH558 was returned to airworthy condition by the Vulcan to the Sky Trust following a decade-long struggle. Today the aircraft is the most complex all-British historic aircraft to be operated outside the RAF. Now, the UK’s newest commercial airport, Doncaster Sheffield, which used to be RAF Base Finningley and a base for the Vulcan fleet, has agreed to host the aircraft. The Vulcan to the Sky Trust says the agreement could be the first stage in the development of a Vulcan visitor centre at the airport.