The 747-8 freighter achieved first flight yesterday, taking off from Paine Field in Everett, Wash., at around 12:40 p.m. local time following a nearly 3-hr. weather delay and landing at the same airport at 4:18 p.m., marking the start of flight testing for the latest derivative of Boeing's successful widebody program.

Rockwell Collins will provide its CMU-900 communications management unit and GLU-925 multi-mode receiver to Gol for use on its 737NG fleet.

BAE Systems said it placed 44 aircraft and won 41 remarketing mandates from third parties in 2009. Of the 44 placed aircraft, 30 were BAe 146/Avro RJs (23 of which were placed for passenger service, three as business jets, three as freighters and one for military use). It said it manages 40% of the market but was a party in 60% of the recorded transactions. It has 24 idle 146/RJ aircraft in its portfolio, which it admitted presents a "significant challenge." The 14 other placed aircraft comprised 11 ATP turboprops (eight freighters, three for passenger use) and three Jetstream 32s.

Ethiopian Airlines 737-800's flight data recorders were recovered from the Mediterranean Sea over the weekend and sent to France for study, the carrier said. The Jan. 25 crash killed all 90 people onboard (ATWOnline, Jan. 27).

Pratt & Whitney announced that Hong Kong Airlines selected the PW4170 Advantage 70 to power the six A330-200s it ordered last week at the Singapore Airshow (ATWOnline, Feb. 5).

Lufthansa's first A380 completed painting Friday and is on schedule for May 10 delivery (ATWOnline, Feb. 2). Aircraft is named Frankfurt am Main. LH's second A380, dubbed Munchen, arrived at Airbus's Hamburg Finkenwerder facility last week ahead of cabin interior and painting work. Iberia Friday took delivery of a new A319, the first aircraft to join its fleet since deliveries were suspended more than a year ago as the company reduced capacity.

Bombardier Aerospace received net orders for 88 commercial aircraft in its fiscal year ended Jan. 31, down from 114 the prior year. Orders for 2009-10 comprised 22 CRJs, 16 Q400s and 50 CSeries aircraft. However, the company's net total was 11 owing largely to -85 net orders for business aircraft. Its 2008-09 net was 367. Full-year commercial deliveries rose to 121 from 110 in 2008-09, comprising 60 CRJs and 61 Q-Series aircraft. Total deliveries dropped to 302 from the 349 posted in the year ended Jan. 31, 2009.

Airbus announced A350 supplier contracts with Panasonic Avionics Corp. on OnAir, its joint venture with SITA. Panasonic will provide on-demand audio and video, eXPhone inflight mobile phone service, eXConnect broadband Internet and its Panasonic Airborne Television Network. OnAir's connectivity technology will be linefit offerable on the A350, the company said, adding that more than 40% of A350 customers have ordered the product.