News in brief

Radome

• Former Chief Technical Pilot for the Boeing 737 MAX, Mark Forkner, has been found not guilty by a US jury on four counts of wire fraud. Forkner, who was involved in the evaluation and certification of the MAX, had been accused of ‘scheming to defraud Boeing’s US-based airline customers’, through his actions with the company by ‘withholding critical information about MCAS during the certification process, leading to its omission from the published documentation training pilots on the aircraft’. Forkner’s defence was that Boeing engineers failed to inform him of changes to the flight software inside the MCAS and that he had been selected as a scapegoat.
• The European Commission has given its conditional approval to the takeover of UK’s Meggitt by US Parker Hannifin Corporation. The deal is still awaiting the outcome of an investigation by the UK Competition & Markets Authority. 
• Russia has announced that it is to accelerate the production and development of domestic built MS-21 and SuperJet airliners, following the imposition of international sanctions which have virtually grounded its fleet of Western-built aircraft. 
• Lockheed Martin has claimed a new endurance record for a lightweight (11-55lb) drone, with a modified fuel-cell-powered Stalker VXE UAV staying aloft for over 39hr. 
• International aircraft leasing companies are reported to be filing act-of-war-protection insurance claims to reclaim the value of around 100 aircraft which have been seized by Russia. The largest claim is from Dublin-based AerCap which has submitted a claim for around $3.5bn for 135 aircraft and 14 engines remaining in Russia but has only been able to repossess 22 aircraft and three engines so far. 

• Passengers at UK airports have faced travel chaos as airlines, including British Airways and easyJet, cancelled hundreds of flights due to staff on sick leave with Covid-19. The easing of Covid restrictions, meanwhile, has boosted passenger numbers, with airlines and airports racing to recruit new staff previously laid off during the pandemic. 
• Singapore-based lessor BOC Aviation has placed an order for 80 Airbus A320neo family airliners. The deal, the largest ever from BOC, breaks down into ten A321XLRs, 50 A321neos and 20 A320neos, with first deliveries set to take place in 2027. 
• ASL Aviation Holdings has confirmed an order with Boeing for up to 20 additional 737-800 Boeing Converted Freighters (BCF). The deal is for ten firm orders and ten options. 
• Indian regional carrier FlyBig has signed a Letter of Intent for up to ten De Havilland Canada Twin Otter Series 400 turboprops. The 19-seat aircraft will be used to serve small and remote regions. 
• Air Lease Corp has confirmed its order for 32 Boeing 737 MAX aircraft to meet the increasing demand for narrowbodies, following the signing of an MoU in February. ALC’s 737 MAX backlog is now 130. 

• India has cancelled plans to acquire 48 Russian-built Mi-17 V5 helicopters for the Indian Air Force. India now says it will pursue an indigenous ‘Make it in India solution’. 
• The Canadian government has begun negotiations with Lockheed Martin to finalise the selection of the F-35 as its next multirole fighter to replace the CF-18 Hornet. Canada is looking to acquire 88 F-35As with first deliveries in 2025. 
• Northrop Grumman has announced it has achieved full system handover of the RQ-4D Phoenix Alliance Ground Surveillance (AGS) to NATO. Five RQ-4Ds, a variant of the Global Hawk UAV, are now on call for NATO missions, based at Sigonella, Italy. 
• The RAF is to test the feasibility of electric aircraft for elementary training with a pathfinder project with the Military Flight Training System (MFTS) supplier Affinity and the Pipistrel Velis Electro. 
• The US State Department has cleared the sale of 12 Bell AH-1Z Viper attack helicopters to Nigeria under a $997m FMS deal. The acquisition includes laser-guided APKWS rockets, but not Hellfire missiles, as well as engines and training. 

• On 9 April, the first-ever all-commercial crew, Axiom-1, joined astronauts and cosmonauts on the International Space Station. The four private astronauts launched aboard a SpaceX Crew Dragon from Cape Canaveral, Florida, to join the seven ISS crew of Expedition 67. The Ax-1 crew is conducting eight days of scientific research during their stay on the ISS. 
• A report into the size and shape of the UK space sector found that, despite the Covid pandemic, it had grown almost 7% between 2019-20, adding 3,000 new jobs. Income by the sector grew from £16.4bn to £16.5bn with the biggest gains in manufacturing. 
• Satellite operator OneWeb has announced a new agreement with SpaceX to resume launching its mega constellation later this year. OneWeb had a previous launch contract with Arianespace which used commercial Russian-made Soyuz launchers (see Ukraine – implications for international spaceflight). 
• On 23 March, NASA announced it was to create additional opportunities for commercial companies to develop an astronaut Moon lander. In this new approach, NASA is asking American companies to propose lander concepts capable of ferrying astronauts between lunar orbit and the lunar surface for missions beyond Artemis III in a second contract award, known as the Sustaining Lunar Development contract. 
• Space Perspective, which is aiming to tap into the ‘space tourism’ market with a high-altitude ‘edge of space’ balloon flight has revealed cabin concepts for its pressurised balloon capsule. Its ‘Space Lounge’ aboard its pressurised balloon capsule shows two configurations with sofas in one and individual reclining seats in the other. Space Perspective aims to fly its first space tourists in 2024. 

• Switzerland’s Pilatus Aircraft has announced that it delivered a record 152 aircraft in the financial year 2021, despite the effects of the pandemic. The aircraft delivered included: 45 PC-24s, 88 PC-12NGXs, 17 PC-21s and two PC-6s. Sales grew 19 per cent to CHf1.3bn, stated Pilatus. 
• US aircraft manufacturer Textron is to take over European electric aircraft manufacturer Pipistrel. The deal is expected to conclude in the second half of 2022, with Textron to form a new business division, Textron eAviation, which will include Pipistrel. 
• Lilium has pushed back the planned type certification of its seven-seat Lilium Jet eVTOL from 2024 to 2025. The public company confirmed the delay to investors via a 20-F filing at the end of March with the Securities and Exchange Commission. 
• The UK’s 2Excel Aviation has signed a deal to acquire two Diamond DA62 MPP special mission aircraft. 2Excel says that the DA62s are being acquired to support growing demand from its customer base for special mission aircraft.