Aircraft

16.07.2010 2:00

FLIGHT TEST: Boeing 777-300ER - Fast and heavy

Boeing has retained the 777's excellent flying qualities with the heavier, more powerful -300ER, while adding range and fuel performance gains Boeing's original game plan for the 777 family always included longer-haul variants to satisfy an embryonic point-to-point market with massive potential. But 10 years ago, even the keenest visionaries could not have foreseen the sheer size and power of the 777-300ER, the first of two variants developed to attack this growing global network. The 777-300ER is the largest and most powerful twin-engined aircraft ever developed. [Read more]

16.07.2010 2:00

FLIGHT TEST: Bombardier Challenger 300 - Polished player

Bombardier is giving its super mid-size competitors run for their money with the Challenger 300, which offers good value and spacious cabin with low operating costs When formally launched at the Paris air show in 1999, Bombardier's new super mid-size business jet was named the Continental, to emphasise its US transcontinental design mission. Later the aircraft was rebranded the Challenger 300 to associate it more closely in customers' minds with the company's Challenger 604, the value-for-money leader among large business jets. In fact, the Challenger 300 is designed to bridge the gap between Bombardier's Learjet and Challenger lines, and is intended to combine the traditional strengths of the two families: speed and style with size and reliability. [Read more]

16.07.2010 2:00

FLIGHT TEST: Cessna Citation XLS - Cessna excels

With a package of improvements, Cessnahas made the latest version of the world'sbest-selling jet even better Cessna's latest offering, the Citation XLS, is the enhanced descendant of the world's best-selling business jet, the Citation Excel. Since certificating the Excel in April 1998, the manufacturer has delivered more than 350 to customers worldwide. The aircraft owes its success in part to the niche that Cessna carved out for a light business jet with mid-size cabin, outstanding runway performance and low acquisition and operating costs. [Read more]

16.07.2010 2:00

FLIGHT TEST: Gulfstream G550 - Longer ranger

Gulfstream's G550 aims to guarantee making New York-Tokyo a non-stop flying experience, a boon to business travellers who absolutely have to be there on time. The world's first ultra-long-range business jet, the Gulfstream GV, gave operators the ability to fly New York to Tokyo non-stop. While its 12,000km (6,500nm) range with eight passengers at Mach 0. [Read more]

16.07.2010 2:00

FLIGHT TEST: Learjet 40 - Filling the gap

Bombardier Aerospace has strengthened its light-jet challenge with the Learjet 40. But can it better its Cessna and Raytheon rivals? Bombardier is unique in offering products covering the business-jet spectrum from light to ultra-long-range. But when the company stopped producing the Learjet 31A in 2003, it left a gap at the light-jet end of its product line - a crowded market segment with several strong competitors already in place, particularly the Cessna Citation Encore and Raytheon Beechjet 400A (now the Hawker 400XP). [Read more]

16.07.2010 2:00

FLIGHT TEST: Bell/Agusta AB139 - Medium rare

Flight International is first to flight test the Bell/Agusta Aerospace AB139, which offers impressive twin-turbine performance. Will it excite a market poised to re-equip? A new medium twin-turbine helicopter does not come along every day and, judging by the healthy order backlog for the Bell/Agusta Aerospace AB139, the market is ready for a new entrant. The AB139 is coming to market just as its target customers - corporate, offshore and utility operators - are entering a long-overduere-equipment phase. [Read more]

16.07.2010 2:00

FLIGHT TEST: Diamond Aircraft DA42 - Sparkling performer

Diamond Aircraft's DA42 Twin Star is high on technology and economy - and proves itself a delight to fly A quiet revolution in European general aviation is taking place in Austria. Diamond Aircraft, based at Wiener Neustadt, south of Vienna, has just certificated its DA42 Twin Star under the new European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) procedures. US certification is expected by September. [Read more]

16.07.2010 2:00

FLIGHT TEST: C-27J - No small measure

Nicknamed "half a Hercules" due to its commonality with the four-engined C-130J, the twin-turboprop C-27J may set the standard for medium tactical airlifters Based on the Alenia G222 and the C-27A operated by the US Air Force in Central America, the C-27J Spartan represents a significant enhancement of an already capable tactical transport. Offered by the Lockheed Martin Alenia Tactical Transport Systems (LMATTS) joint venture, the C-27J follows the route set by the C-130J in taking a proven design and adding improved avionics and propulsion. Rather than develop unique systems for the Spartan, LMATTS borrowed them from the C-130J. [Read more]