Since the March issue was coming together just as the Heli-Expo show was winding down in Anaheim, California, you’ll find plenty of rotary-wing news this month. Also, the scaled-back Singapore Airshow was also in play, with the AIN team on site, despite fears of the coronavirus outbreak. In other coronavirus-related airshow news, organizers have chosen to cancel the April ABACE event in Shanghai, China.

The big news from Gulfstream was the first flight of its new flagship G700 model. The largest Gulfstream, ever, has entered the flight-test phase and remains on track for certification and service entry in 2022. Meanwhile, Bombardier put to rest fears it was considering selling off its business aviation division to Textron Aviation. The Canadian airframer announced late in February it was selling its railroad car business unit, and committing it efforts to sustain its business aviation division. Boeing shared the first-flight spotlight with the launch of flight-test for its developmental 777X.

The General Aviation Manufacturers Association released its final 2019 report, and the results were encouraging. With recently certified aircraft hitting their delivery stride, the numbers show positive gains in most categories of fixed-wing business aircraft. Helicopters, however, face challenging headwinds in the face of depressed markets such as the oil-and-gas industry.