FlightGlobal.com
Home
Premium
Archive
Video
Images
Forum
Blogs
Jobs
Shop
RSS
Email Newsletters
You are in:
Home
Aviation History
1989
1989 - 3649.PDF
OPERATIONS: DEFENCE Elta wins Australian P-3 ESM contract The SR-71 holds the sustained altitude record of 25,929m and speed record Blackbirds going cheap Israel Aircraft Industries subsidiary Elta has won the $70 million contract to supply electronic support measures (ESM) systems for Royal Austra lian Air Force (RAAF) Lockheed P-3C Orions. Elta was one of two final contenders in the competition for selection of the ESM systems. The second contender in the final phase was Elisra, also an Israeli company. The RAAF operates 20 P-3Cs in two squadrons for maritime reconnaissance and anti-sub marine warfare missions. The Israeli-made ESM system is part of an upgrading programme of the aircraft. According to the IDF crash caused by axle T he take-off crash on 29 Octo ber of the Taiwanese Indig enous Defence Fighter (IDF) was caused by nosewheel axle frac ture, says the Ministry of National Defence. An accident inquiry headed by Gen Hua Hsi-chin, director of the Aero-Industry Development Centre (AIDC) says: "The nosewheel axle broke as it tram pled an arrestor cable across the runway. The aircraft was at 126kt—a speed much higher than that of previous test flights. There were no structural or design problems, the prototype Turkey close to tn Turkey expects to select a new light transport for the Turk ish Air Force' by the end of the year. The Air Force is looking for about 60 aircraft to replace its air transport command C-47 Da- kotas. Bids by CASA, which is proposing the CN-235, and Aeritalia, which offers the G.222, are being evaluated by the de fence industries under-secretary, who is expected to submit a recommendation to the exec utive board next month. Turkey expects to be a partner in a joint venture to build the contract, AWA Defence In dustries in Australia will be the prime contractor. In the next 18 months knowhow will be trans ferred to the Australian company by Elta. Final assembly and test ing of the systems will be made in Australia. Elta says the winning of the contract "opens the Australian market to more Israeli-developed systems," and adds that some other countries operating P-3s waited for the results of the Australian competition and "will probably think more seriously of upgrading their P-3s". Approxi mately 600 P-3s are operated around the world, half of them in the USA. • failure had completed 47 test flights before the accident." The aircraft was making its first public demonstration, to Taiwan's President Lee Tung-hai at Chingchuankang AB. The air craft suffered minor damage to the nosegear, radome and elec tronic equipment. It will resume test flying in the near future. Taiwan intends to build 250 IDFs at a total cost of $4 billion. The aircraft will replace F-104 Starfighters and F-5E Tigers. AIDC is a subsidiary of the mili tary-funded Chungshan Institute which developed IDF. • isport decision new transport at factories estab lished for Turkish F-16 produc tion. The Ministry for National Defence says that an earlier com petition, which also involved the de Havilland Canada DHC-5 Buf falo, remained unresolved when the defence industries' depart ment was set up. The Turkish Air Force requirement for a new basic trainer is not expected to be met before next year. Selection will be made between the Italian Agusta SF.260D and Chile's ENAER T-35 Pillan. . • The United States Air Force last week retired its fleet of Lockheed SR-71 Blackbirds after more than $210 million funding was deleted from the 1990 De fence Appropriations Bill. Although the USAF has been trying to kill the SR-71 for two years, citing its high operating costs, there had been plans to fund the fleet for another year and to transfer responsibility to the Air National Guard. These plans were rejected by the House-Senate defence appropri ations conference and the SR-71s were grounded on 22 November. SR-71s based at RAF Mildenhall, England, and Kadena AB, Japan, will be flown Japan studies hea\ THe Japan Air Self-Defence Force (JASDF) is conducting a study into training pilots for large multi-engine aircraft simi lar to the US Air Force's tanker- transport-trainer system aircraft. The service's thinking is that an off-the-shelf type, such Nas the BAe 125, Beechjet, Learjet or Citation, would fit the bill. The JASDF operates five multi-engine types: the Be^ch B-65 Queenair, NAMS YS-'ll, Kawasaki C-l, Lockheed C-130 Hercules and the Grumman, E-2C Hawkeye. Larger and faster types are expected to enter service over the next decade in the tanker and back to Beale aAFB, California within a month. The aircraft either will be transferred to avi ation museums or scrapped. The SR-71 first flew in Decem ber 1964 and entered service in January 1966. The correct designation was RS-71 but when unveiled by President Lyndon Johnson, it is said that he re ferred to it as "SR" so the USAF stuck to this rather than embar rass him. The aircraft still holds several speed and altitude records including New York to London in lh 54min 56s and London/Los Angeles in 3h 47min 36s. It is believed that nine SR-71s were operating last week. • 1 trainer airborne early warning roles. JASDF rules state that all its pilots must be fighter-qualified. After advanced training on the Mitsubishi T-2, a pilot is as signed to a fighter unit for conversion to the F-l, F-4 or F-15 before posting to transports. Pilots destined for multi- engine types undergo a short introduction on the YS-11 before receiving type conversion. The service plans to introduce larger, faster types into service over the next decade in both the tanker and airborne early warn ing roles and is reviewing its expensive criterion that all pilots must be fighter-qualified. • FLIGHT INTERNATIONAL 29 November-5 December 1989 9
Sign up to
Flight Digital Magazine
Flight Print Magazine
Airline Business Magazine
E-newsletters
RSS
Events
