The C-130J package being provided by the US Government is said to be comprehensive. The airlifter has already been deployed in relief operations and the IAF is pleased as punch about its capabilities.

On the growing India-US relationship, President Barack Obama had put it succinctly, stating that it is “one of the defining partnerships of the 21st century”. Taking a cue from there, the US Department of Defense has embarked upon strengthening defence relations with India.

Irrespective of the fall-out of the medium multi-role combat aircraft (MMRCA) deal in which the two US contenders—Lockheed Martin and Boeing—did not make the grade, the US has come up with a very positive approach. While it has made an offer for the joint strike fighter F-35, the US has categorically stated that it remains committed to a broad defence trade relationship that enables transfers of “some of our most advanced technologies”.

In this background, the IAF acquisition of six C-130J Super Hercules aircraft has to be seen. Joseph Noronha in his article dwells on what the C-130J Hercules aircraft means for India. This is India’s first experience with the aircraft and the package being provided by the US Government is said to be comprehensive. The airlifter has already been deployed in relief operations and the IAF is pleased as punch about its capabilities. In a short span of time, the Sarang team of IAF has earned a name for itself as a professional display team. Air Marshal (Retd) B.K. Pandey speaks about the pride of the nation’s ‘symphony in the air’.

Moving away from defence to commercial aviation, there is turbulence in the skies as the ‘King of Good Times’ is going through ‘bad times’. Financially strapped Kingfisher Airlines has cancelled several of its flights ahead of the winter schedule, explaining that it was on ‘rejigging’ its aircraft, giving emphasis to ‘business class’. It was not long ago that Vijay Mallya’s airline had bought India’s pioneering low-cost airline Air Deccan, and rechristened it as ‘Kingfisher Red’ and ironically it remained in the red. While low-cost carriers in India seemingly are having a good run, Kingfisher Airlines has not been able to manage the operations of a full-service carrier and a low-cost carrier at the same time. Air Marshal (Retd) V.K. Bhatia analyses on what went wrong with the airline in “In Focus and Forum”.

In this issue, we are trending on aviation and environment and A.K. Sachdev finds that China has scored over India in the all-important initiative of harnessing indigenous biofuel production capability for addressing the long-term necessity of replacing fossil fuels.

Talking about the Chinese, they swamped the annual NBAA event at Las Vegas. LeRoy Cook reports how the 2011 NBAA show will go down in history as the year of the Chinese buyout, when billions of dollars in orders were placed for all sorts of business aircraft.

Unlike the Chinese growth, India’s business aviation industry has also found momentum as Sucheta Das Mohapatra finds out from the Business Aircraft Operators Association of India which has forecast threefold increase. In a separate article, R. Chandrakanth mentions how the industry is gungho about the opportunities with Indian airports registering nearly 34 per cent more general aviation flights during the last four years from 2006. We at SP’s Aviation hope that it is ‘good times’ for all! Happy landings!