FlightGlobal.com
Home
Premium
Archive
Video
Images
Forum
Atlas
Blogs
Jobs
Shop
RSS
Email Newsletters
You are in:
Home
Aviation History
2001
2001 - 0610.PDF
MILITARY AIRCRAFT CENSUS S m C f Flight International's inaugural Military Aircraft Census reveals the make-up, breadth and scale of the world's airborne fighting fleets The F-16's status as the world's most popular fighter is unlikely to be surpassed in the forseeable future STEWART PENNEY/LONDON FLIGHT INTERNATIONAL'S first mili tary aircraft census shows that the world's air arms operate nearly 90,000 aircraft. This figure includes VIP aircraft, essential ly unmodified airliners or corporate jets which are not included in the tables (PP47-68). It does, however, give a feel for the size of the world's military aircraft fleet. Leaving aside the Mikoyan MiG-19 and its Chinese copy, the Shenyang J/F-6, the Lock heed Martin F-16 is the world's most popular fighter with well over 4,000 aircraft delivered or on order. The MiG-19/J-6 is in service in mas sive numbers with the Chinese air force with many believed to be unserviceable. As this skews the numbers, the fighter is omitted from con sideration as the world's most popular fighter. The F-16 total includes every variant from early A/Bs to the Block 60 ordered by the United Arab Emirates last year. Lockheed Martin hopes the latter, along with Block 50-Plus sales, will keep its F-16 factory busy ahead of the Joint Strike Fighter's introduction, assuming the company is the winning bidder. Increasing numbers of companies are beginning to investi gate upgrades for the F-16; Israel Air Industries (IAI) and Singapore Technologies Aerospace to name two. IAI is developing its Avionics 42 FLIGHT INTERNATIONAL 20 - 26 February 2001
Sign up to
Flight Digital Magazine
Flight Print Magazine
Airline Business Magazine
E-newsletters
RSS
Events
