The start of the first 787 flight-test operations to take place outside of Washington has been marked by the landing of the second Dreamliner aircraft at Victorville, California. The aircraft will be stationed at Victorville for approximately three weeks while ground effects tests will be conducted, among other activities. During these tests, the aircraft is flown very close to the runway to gather data on the aerodynamic effects and performance during the takeoff and landing phases of flight. Quantifying this performance is part of the certification requirements for all new aircraft.

Spanair has extended its Total Technical Support (TTS) agreement with Lufthansa Technik (LHT) for another ten years. The contract has been in place since 1999 and covers the airline's A320-series fleet. The work scope encompasses aircraft component support, including home base allocation, repair, overhaul and documentation. It also covers comprehensive services for the aircraft’s V2500-series engines, from MRO to engineering and logistics services, as well as spare engines support.

The SESAR Joint Undertaking (SJU) entity has announced that 1,400 engineers across member organisations are already involved in the modernisation of the European sky. SESAR is the technological pillar of the European Union’s Single European Sky legislative package; the SJU is the management entity co-founded by Eurocontrol and the European Commission. Speaking at the ATC Global 2010 conference, Patrick Ky, executive director of the SJU, said: “The mindset of SESAR is crystal clear. We work with a distinct implementation goal in mind, in the short, medium and long term. For this reason end-users of the SESAR systems need to be involved in all the steps of the programme.”

Aeronautical Engineers (AEI) is to become a supplemental type certificate (STC) holder for MD-81, MD-82, MD-83 and MD-88 passenger to freighter conversions. As an STC holder, working with licensed Boeing engineering data, AEI says customers will be eligible for access to Boeing technical support at reduced costs compared with freighters converted without data licensed from Boeing. Among the benefits, Boeing will host AEI’s conversion drawings/data on the MyBoeingFleet.com web portal for on-line access for aircraft digital data.

Plans for the first independent aircraft MRO facility in India have been abandoned. Duke Aviation Engineering had planned to site the facility in Nagpur, to be run by Maharashtra Airport Development Company. However, investors have now backed out of the project and the company has closed.