UK environmental research specialist APEM Ltd has expanded the scope of its aerial surveys by bringing a Vulcanair Observer into service.

The U.K.'s Army Parachute Association (APA), based in Netheravon in Wiltshire and open to civilians, has acquired a Cessna Caravan 208 on a flexible five-year asset finance package put together by The Solent office of asset finance provider Lombard. A Lombard team also agreed to do a sponsored parachute jump from the Caravan to raise funds for Naomi House, a children's hospice in Winchester.

Lombard Aviation, part of asset finance provider Lombard, has funded a Super King Air for the Cardiff-based DragonFly. Howard Palser, DragonFly founder and ceo, says: "We urgently needed this second aircraft to meet the growing number of requests flooding in. The purchase of the Super King was complicated as it was originally on the American register and needed to be transferred to the U.K.