Also: Gone West-Herb Kelleher, Airbus A220-300 Buy, New Horizons Mission, DeFazio Confirmed

What do you get when you combine some of the finest talent in aerospace engineering, Formula E auto racing, and high-power battery development?

The answer is sitting in a hangar two hours west of london at Gloucestershire Airport. Propped on a waist-high platform, a modest 12-foot carbon-fiber airplane chassis with outsized ambition. Once complete, this plane, the centerpiece of Rolls-Royce’s ACCEL initiative, will be different from anything else you might find at Gloucestershire airport – or anywhere in the world, for that matter. It’ll be all electric. Viking Air has released a video that it says describes a new model of a scooping air tanker that could succeed the CL-415. The CL-515, which, as yet, has no production date, would have a tank that holds up to 1,850 gallons, representing a 15 percent increase in carrying capacity. It could also be outfitted with agriculture spraying equipment, or carry as many as 12 passengers or three stretchers. Other options include a larger cargo door, search radar or video cameras. The first L-39NG trainer and light attack aircraft with serial number 7001 made its initial flight last month at Aero Vodochody Airport. The new Czech jet trainer was piloted by Aero’s test pilots David Jahoda and Vladimír Továrek. At 10:38am, the aircraft took off, climbed up to 5,000 ft. and after 26 minutes, successfully landed at Aero Vodochody. All this -- and MORE in today's episode of Airborne!!!

Airborne 01.07.19 is chock full of info in this Daily News Episode, Monday, January 7th 2019... Presented by Aero-TV veteran videographer and Airborne Hosts Skylar Vanel, Laura Hutson, Brianne Cross, and Christopher Odom, and is supported by ANN CEO/Editor-In-Chief Jim Campbell, Chief Videographer Nathan Cremisino, and Aero-Journalist Tom Patton, this episode covers:

• Rolls-Royce Developing Worlds Fastest Electric Airplane
• Viking Air Previews CL-515 
• The New Czech L-39NG Makes First Flight
• Gone West: Southwest Airlines Founder And Chairman Emeritus Herb Kelleher
• JetBlue Airways Firms Up Order For 60 Airbus A220-300 
• NASA's New Horizons Mission Reveals Entirely New Kind Of World
• Rep. Peter DeFazio (D-OR) Confirmed As Chair Of House Transportation Committee 

Get Comprehensive, Real-Time, 24/7 coverage of the latest aviation and aerospace stories anytime, at aero-news.net. And be sure to join us again for the next edition of "Airborne Unlimited" here on Aero-TV. Thanks for watching. See you, again, tomorrow!

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