LEARNING TO LOVE THE ‘WARTHOG’ MOSQUITOS OVER THE JUNGLE RAF Far East VIRGIN recon in WW2 QUEEN CARRIER BIDS 747 A FOND FAREWELL SUKHOI STANSTED Su25 LOOKS AHEAD Russia’s close air Planning for growth support specialist post-COVID EXCLUSIVE £4.99 Japan Airlines at 70 Birth of the Dancing Crane FEBRUARY 2021 FEBRUARY 02 Swiss Hornets 772047 719108 9 swarm to UK www.aviation-news.co.uk Untitled-1 1 07/12/2020 09:48:56 Contents p28 FEATURES p10 REGULARS 16 Virgin Atlantic’s 747s: A Fond 04 Headlines Farewell Lee Cross looks back at the service of the Boeing 747 06 Civil News with Virgin Atlantic 10 Military News 22 Phantom to Warthog: A Fighter 14 Preservation News Pilot’s Career Col Steven K Ladd (ret’d) fl ew F-4 Phantoms and p22 52 Flightbag A-10 Warthogs, becoming one of the latter’s most enthusiastic proponents 66 Air Base Movements 28 Grob G 120TP – Beyond the Basic 68 Airport Movements Trainer 72 Register Review Stefan Löfgren experiences a demonstration fl ight in the G 120TP with Grob's test pilot and chief instructor We are happy to report that, at time of going to 34 Double Dutch Anniversary: 298 press, production and dispatch of our magazine is Squadron Chinooks p34 not a ected by the ongoing coronavirus pandemic. Carlo Kuit and Paul Kievit of Bronco Aviation report on Should this change, we will continue to update you as the latest developments with the Royal Netherlands best we can. Some postal services may be delayed. Air Force Chinook fl eet You can keep in touch with our latest updates and see what we are doing to keep distribution as normal as 42 Swiss Hornets Swarm to RAF possible by visiting www.keypublishing.com/FAQs. Leeming Joe Campion details the recent Swiss Air Force night fl ying exercise in the UK, which faced some extra challenges owing to the pandemic SUBSCRIBE 48 Coping with COVID at Stansted p54 AND SAVE Stephen Skinner considers the impact of the A subscription to Aviation News o e r s pandemic on London Stansted Airport which has been great savings on the cover price. See badly a ected by restrictions on holiday travel pages 32 and 33 for details. 54 Su-25 Frogfoot: CAS Specialist Alexander Mladenov details the Su-25 in Russian Top Left Steve Ladd fl ew the A-10 in the service, its combat use and the progress of its second half of his career USAF Cover continued development (main image) Virgin Atlantic has said goodbye to the Boeing 747 after 31 60 Tales of the Dancing Crane: The years of faithful service AirTeamImages. Story of JAL Part 1 com/Enda Burke Inset (lower left) A Swiss Jozef Mols explores JAL’s early history, including the p68 Air Force F/A-18 Hornet taxiing out for introduction of jet services, and the carrier’s expansion a mission during Exercise Yorknite at up to the mid-1980s RAF Leeming in December Joe Campion Inset (lower right) The DC-8 brought 78 Mosquitos Over the Jungle: 684 Sqn Japan Airlines into the jet age. This in the Far East DC-8-62 was captured at Heathrow in The Mosquitos of 684 Squadron ranged far and wide the summer of 1976 AirTeamImages.com/ over Southeast Asia, supplying the RAF with most of Carl Ford its strategic reconnaissance, as Tom Spencer relates WWW.AVIATIONNEWS.CO.UK 3 MAX Recertifi ed, but Boeing Pays Penalty HEADLINE NEWS Air Canada Boeing 737 MAX 8, C-FNSU, taking o from Vancouver on December 22 AirTeamImages.com/Alvin Man The Boeing 737 MAX is beginning to return fl ight had been over 90% full, but this was $2.5bn (£1.8bn) to settle a Department of to service after clearance from regulatory during the busy post-Christmas period. Justice (DOJ) criminal investigation into authorities, following its grounding for Air Canada was expected to begin training circumstances surrounding the certifi cation over 20 months. The fi rst airline to make a fl ights in January. On December 23, an Air of the 737 MAX. The DOJ claims the revenue fl ight with the type was Brazil’s Gol Canada MAX 8 on a positioning leg between manufacturer conspired to defraud the Linhas Aéreas Inteligentes, on December Marana, Arizona and Montreal, Quebec, Federal Aviation Administration’s Aircraft 9 with a rotation from São Paulo to shut down an engine in fl ight and made an Evaluation Group in connection with its Porto Alegre. The low-cost carrier began emergency landing in Tucson, following an evaluation of the 737 MAX. Boeing will pay scheduled fl ights later that month and engine malfunction warning. Alaska Airlines a criminal monetary penalty of $243.6m, said it would refund tickets of passengers planned to fl y the type again from March compensation to airline customers of unwilling to fl y on the MAX. American 1 but Southwest Airlines said it would not $1.77bn, and set up a $500m fund to Airlines followed on December 29 and in reintroduce the MAX until the second compensate the heirs, relatives and legal the following week made 14 fl ights between quarter of 2021 “at the soonest”. benefi ciaries of the 346 passengers who Miami and New York/LaGuardia. The airline Meanwhile, on December 7 it was died in the crashes of Lion Air and Ethiopian reported that as of January 4, all but one revealed that Boeing has agreed to pay Airlines 737 MAXs. Wedgetails to Lossiemouth Navy Wings Stops Sea The RAF’s fl eet of Boeing E-7 Wedgetail AEW1 airborne early warning and control (AEW&C) aircraft is to be based at RAF Vixen Restoration Lossiemouth, Moray, it was announced on December 18. The fi ve The board of trustees of Navy Wings has decided to cease work on aircraft on order will be delivered between 2023 and 2026, replacing returning de Havilland Sea Vixen, XP924, to fl ight. The twin-boomed the Boeing Sentry AEW1s, based at RAF Waddington, Lincolnshire. jet fi ghter su ered a wheels-up landing on May 27, 2017, which The movement of the RAF’s AEW&C aircraft will co-locate them caused extensive damage to the underside. Despite an extensive with the Poseidon MRA1 fl eet, which is also based on the Boeing fundraising appeal to underwrite the repairs, which are estimated 737, albeit a di erent variant, and will see the return to the airfi eld of at just over £2m, it has not been possible to generate the required 8 Sqn, which operated the Shackleton from Lossiemouth until 1990. cash. Instead the trust will now focus its e orts on Hawker Sea Fury Two of the aircraft are used examples, including ex-Deer Jet 737- FB.11, VR930, and aim to get it fl ying alongside Sea Fury T.20, VX281, 700 BBJ1, N946BC, which was built in 2010 and arrived in the UK making a magnifi cent Sea Fury Pair. Ownership of most of the for conversion on January 7. The work to turn it into a Wedgetail will aircraft from the ex-Royal Navy Historic Flight transferred to Navy be carried out by STS Aviation Services in Birmingham. Wings on January 1, 2021. Falcon 6X Unveiled Dassault Aviation revealed the fi rst prototype of its new Falcon 6X long-range business jet during a ceremony in the Charles Lindbergh Hall, at the company’s facility at Bordeaux/Mérignac on December 8. Due to COVID-19 restrictions The Falcon 6X after its December rollout Dassault Aviation the ceremony was conducted over the within the Falcon family, the ultra- completed ground and fl ight testing of internet and live-streamed globally. widebody Falcon 6X. The challenges posed the Falcon 6X’s PW812D powerplant. This, Speaking at the event, Eric Trappier, by the COVID-19 pandemic required coupled with the rollout of its Dassault Aviation chairman, commented, exceptional perseverance and co- maiden jet, now clears the way for a “Today’s rollout is a signifi cant operation on the part of Dassault and its ground test programme and subsequent achievement. I am very pleased to present partner companies.” fi rst fl ight, which is expected to take place the addition of an all-new aircraft design Pratt & Whitney Canada has recently in early 2022. 4 AVIATION NEWS FEBRUARY 2021 First A400M for Belgium The first Airbus A400M for the Belgian Defence – Air Component (CT-02/MSN106) was delivered from the final assembly line at Seville, to Melsbroek, Brussels on December 22, where it will join 15 Wing. The operating unit will be 20 Sqn, a bi-national squadron that will eventually have seven Belgian A400Ms and one from the Luxembourg Armed Forces, which was delivered in October. Delivery of the second Belgian Belgian Defence – Air Component A400M, CT-02, departs Seville on its delivery flightAirbus A400M is expected early this year. Defence & Space New COVID Variant Hits Travel The emergence of a new variant of the would require a negative COVID-19 test 8 after a coronavirus case in Brisbane COVID-19 virus in December prompted before arrival. This ruling would apply was linked to a traveller from the UK. more than 40 nations and territories to England, while the devolved Scottish Canada made a negative test mandatory to ban passengers from the UK. They government said they would implement before embarkation on flights to the included Belgium, Canada, Germany, the same measure “as soon as practicably country on January 7. Hong Kong, Ireland, Italy, Portugal, possible”, as did Wales, although there are Ryanair planned to cut much of its Romania, Russia, and Switzerland.