Summary: Qatar Airways 787 Dreamliner Jon Ostrower, Aerospace Beat Reporter for The Wall Street Journal returns as our guest. We talk with Jon about the Boeing press briefing in Tokyo where they annoyed the NTSB over 787 battery issues. Jon attended the International Society of Transport Aircraft Trading (ISTAT) Americas Conference and we get his impressions from that event, including industry concern about the sustainability of the huge narrowbody order volume in light of uncertainty about the future economic situation. We discuss Airbus progress on the A350 widebody (will we see it for the Paris Air Show?) and a larger Bombardier CSeries that starts to encroach on 737/A320 class airliners. Their test aircraft strategy employs a bit of concurrent flight testing. We also talk about the operating economics of old aircraft versus the new fuel efficient planes. Follow Jon on Twitter as @JonOstrower, visit his Facebook page and his photos on Flicker. The week’s aviation news: FAA releases final list of tower closures NTSB scolds Boeing over public comments on 787 batteries Controller Praised for Saving Hypoxic In this week’s Australia Desk: The Regional Aviation Association of Australia calls for more assistance from Canberra for the increasingly struggling regional sector…but receives a less than favourable response from Canberra Fiji Airways (formerly Air Pacific) launches the first of three new A330s, which will replace its ageing fleet of B747-400s Grant speculates about the LionAir’s possible plans to enter the Australian market A minor fire in the Melbourne ATC Centre causes an evacuation and delays in the skies over south eastern Australia during the week, Find more from Grant and Steve at the Plane Crazy Down Under podcast, and follow the show on Twitter at @pcdu. Steve’s at @stevevisscher and Grant at @falcon124. Australia Desk archives can be found at www.australiadesk.net. In this week’s Across the Pond segment: In memory of Sub Lieutenant Derrik Armson, Barracuda Pilot in the Royal Navy Fleet Air Arm. See Naval Air History and follow @navalairhistory. Find Pieter on Twitter as @Nascothornet, on Facebook at XTPMedia, and at the Aviation Xtended podcast. Ryan’s Su-30MKK Flanker G 1:72 scale model Mentions: A-4 Skyhawk Association Airline Pilot Guy Opening and closing music courtesy Brother Love from the Album Of The Year CD. You can find his great music at www.brotherloverocks.com.
