The Biggest Order of the Day Had No Aircraft

The Biggest Order of the Day Had No Aircraft

Aviation World, News

Airshow order announcements are usually about aeroplanes. One of the largest deals of Farnborough’s opening day involved no aircraft at all. BOC Aviation, the Singapore-based lessor, signed for as many as 300 CFM LEAP engines — up to 200 LEAP-1A and 100 LEAP-1B....
The Dreamliner That Turned Around Over England

The Dreamliner That Turned Around Over England

Aviation World, News

Two hours out of Rome, somewhere over the south-east of England, Alaska Airlines flight 181 turned around. The Boeing 787-9 had left Fiumicino at 15:45 on Sunday afternoon bound for Seattle, climbed to 34,000 feet and headed north-west across France. Then the track on...
Harare to Gatwick, Fourteen Years Later

Harare to Gatwick, Fourteen Years Later

Aviation World, News

In December 2011, an Air Zimbabwe Boeing 767 landed at London Gatwick and did not leave. It was impounded over unpaid debts, and with it went the last direct air link between Zimbabwe and the United Kingdom — a route the airline had flown since April 1980. On...
Riyadh Air Wants the Bigger Dreamliner

Riyadh Air Wants the Bigger Dreamliner

Aviation World, News

The first big order of Farnborough 2026 landed before most of the stands had finished setting up. Riyadh Air, the Saudi carrier that flew its first paying passenger barely three weeks ago, spent Monday morning committing to 34 more widebody aircraft across both Boeing...
Four Thousand Aircraft in the Desert

Four Thousand Aircraft in the Desert

Aviation World, Military Aviation

From the air it looks like a filing system for aeroplanes. Row upon row of them, wingtip to wingtip, laid out across ten square kilometres of Arizona desert in lines so straight they look drawn. Bombers here. Fighters there. Transports over there. Around four thousand...
Why Brand-New Aircraft Fly Around Half-Naked

Why Brand-New Aircraft Fly Around Half-Naked

Aviation World

Last week the Royal Air Force’s second E-7 Wedgetail flew out of Birmingham looking like somebody had forgotten to finish it. No roundels, no squadron markings, no grey. Just an unlovely metallic green from nose to tail. Almost every aircraft you have ever seen...