Based in London, Tony covers European defense programs. Prior to joining Aviation Week in November 2012, Tony was at Shephard Media Group where he was deputy editor for Rotorhub and Defence Helicopter magazines. Tony has covered avionics, unmanned vehicles, the supply chain and cyberwarfare.
Tony Osborne (Seville, Spain, and Orleans, France)
With its first Airbus A400M Atlas handed over, attention is now being focused on how the French air force will put the new European airlifter through its paces.
The U.K. Royal Air Force has retired the last of its vintage Vickers VC10 aerial refueling tankers, which opens an unlikely capability gap. For almost 50 years, the VC10 provided strategic transport, airlift and an aeromedical capacity. In the 1980s, with the arrival of several secondhand ex-airline VC10s, the role was extended to provide air-to-air refueling, a capability for which the type became best-known. Of the 54 VC10s produced by Vickers, the RAF operated 28, in four different versions.
Eurocopter has decided to assemble AS350 Ecureuil light helicopters in the U.S. to shore up its production capacity in Columbus, Miss., but the move is riling French unions.
