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Aviation History
1980
1980 - 0081.PDF
FLIGHT International, 12 January 1980 75 Five hundredth Orion delivered LOCKHEED has now produced 500 P-3 Orions. The 500th aircraft has gone to the United States Navy, the main P-3 operator. The first P-3 was de livered in 1961 and Lockheed now produces 12 aircraft a year for the US Navy. In 1980 the production rate will increase to three aircraft a month. This is to meet the commitment for 18 of the Canadian CP-140 Aurora version. The first CP-140 will be de livered next May. A total of 25 P-3s of all versions are scheduled for 1980 delivery. The US Navy buy is expected to continue at 12 a year through Fiscal Year 1986. The plan is to bring the active fleet up to P-3C Update II stan dard. The earlier P-3A and P-3B models will be transferred to the US Navy Reserve which has 12 squadrons of the type. Some early models will be sold to other nations. Norway will add two P-3B Orions to its existing fleet of five aircraft. Spain will take three A models giving a total strength of eight P-3A. The long term US Navy plan, subject to annual approval by the Department of Defence and Con gress, is to bring the active fleet P-3C strength to 275. At present there are 197 on the inventory. The first of 45 Japanese P-3Cs are due for delivery in 1981. The first three aircraft will be built at Burbank and the remainder under licence in Japan. The first of 13 Dutch Orions are also scheduled for 1981 delivery. The Update III modification entails improving the acoustic sensors. This will not be incorporated in a produc tion airframe before 1984 but flight- testing will take place well before then. The Harpoon anti-ship missile sys tem can only be used on Orions pro duced since the introduction of Update II. The US Navy plans to retrofit all P-3B aircraft to Update II Standard and Harpoon capability. Total production to date is 157 P-3A, 144 P-3B, 190 P-3C, six P-3F (a ver sion of the C) and three P-3D. Several aircraft have been converted into special research versions with such diverse tasks as geo-magnetic survey and meteorological research. The Orion is in service with US Navy, Australia, Norway, New Zealand Iran and Spain. Tracer... Ford Aerospace has delivered the first forward-looking infra-red (Flir) pod for the McDonnell Douglas F/A-18 Hornet. The stabilised system pro vides a television display for locating, identifying and automatically tracking targets. The pod is 13in in diameter, 72in long and weighs 3331b. Texas In struments provides the infra-red imag ing subsystem. Six preproduction pods are being built under a $26-7 million contract. Attack Hornets will carry a Flir pod and a laser spot tracker pod in place of the Sparrow missiles. Boeing has received the first B-52G scheduled for offensive avionics instal lation. Modification will take eight months and the aircraft will then em bark on a one-year, 58-flight test programme. Boeing has contracts to build the first 36 retrofit kits but will Tracer... only instal the first two B-52G kits and the first B-52H kit. Subsequent refits will be carried out by the US Air Force. B-52Gs will receive additional modifications to accommodate air- launched cruise missiles. The first modified B-52 will be delivered to Strategic Air Command in September 1981 and be operational by December. Raytheon's Partiot surface-to-air mis sile for the US Army has destroyed an F-86 target drone in the presence of countermeasures. The test involved three fire units, a command station and a launcher. The fire units acquired the target, feeding information to the command station which then assigned engagement to the fire unit in the best location. The live missile destroyed the target, which was flying at high speed at low altitude and long range. Following signing of a Memorandum of Understanding between Britain, France, Ger many and the US, the General Support Rocket System becomes the Multiple Launch Rocket System WINNER OF "WE Md<EMNA TCoWY FOR gersnJMKT. /?(<&AL FOSTERS PATUXlNTft&DK*. Ft It. TREVOR SKDWN.^ COMAIK AWARD roe BKrFLYlNSAglUTy 6UEST OF HONOUR 4i*CfiiefMardtal SR MICHAEL BEETOAM Cttefof1teAf$aff BRWN TRU&SHAW, dcyen oftelt pilotsprssentr.wiXM&ieratPK Utfrai <&n&how CbpedrViffl teitfifi^g. "/seemfohat/e a -flair fin dr "fe says ^(SCMfeffelENDOP ETPJATMOPffE). TOUi OLIVER MOD (ft) DUM!£>P TRoW/ ESR- BEST RJGtfT TEST EMSWEER foe eesrFfcEviEW 37tfi Bni-of-Covrse EMPIRE TEST PILOTS SCHOOL Md<£rtNA DINNER Sostoirfe&w/H, December13, iff!) No.3SRXE[>**l<? Wal7«3TAR7'-vM<? lb. 6 FlKStfl" TKT ENGINEERS frtf^vftftt-- /Mian Airfcr&.rVGW TBTENSINBR/dJbEleCKDNIC? A<X -EDWARPS' AwARpfcK MCSrPEOSRESS (fa^pt MEDWTH if-and fr&tMtnf , 4.64EE-.' k£6tr: JIM WtTT^-FtJlUJFS CA*fInsofar RK.
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