All Fixed-Wing news – Page 1268
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US Navy records SLAM-ER success
A US Navy Boeing Stand-Off Land Attack Missile-Expanded Response (SLAM-ER) successfully hit a target on San Nicolas Island in the Point Magu Sea Test Range off the California coast on 10 December. The test flight, launched from a Boeing F/A-18C/D, was the third and most complex yet in the ...
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Multiple engine failure blamed for An-124 Irkutsk accident
Alexander Velovich/Moscow Multiple engine failure immediately after take-off caused the fatal crash of a Russian air force Antonov An-124 Ruslan on 6 December in Irkutsk. The investigation commission says that, based on data from flight recorders, "-between three and 11 seconds after the take-off, engines number three, two ...
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Italy ponders AMX disposal
Andrea Spinelli/GENOA The Italian air force is considering selling off some of its Alenia/Embraer AMX fighter aircraft as it struggles to rationalise the number of variants of the type in the fleet and to improve its poor availability. The AMX disposal option has emerged from the highest echelons ...
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Safe USAF
Despite a rash of aircraft accidents during the final weeks of fiscal year 1997, the US military completed one of its safest flying years on record. The aircraft major accident rate was 1.5 accidents per 100,000 flying hours, which is unchanged from the previous two years. There were 68 major ...
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Philippines awaits best offer as fighter contenders line up
Paul Lewis/Singapore The Philippines is shortly to issue a best-and-final request for tender (RFT) to a "shortlist" of six competing fighter manufacturers, in what is proving to be increasingly drawn-out selection process. A Philippine air force technical committee has completed its evaluation of competing types and had been ...
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Turkish Tadiran
The Turkish army has ordered the Tadiran Spectralink airborne search- and-rescue systems for the Turkish army Eurocopter AS 532UL Cougar helicopters. The ASR-700 is the airborne unit which allows search-and rescue helicopters or fixed- wing aircraft quickly to locate a downed pilot. Source: Flight International
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Swedish delivery
Saab Dynamics has delivered its IR-OTIS infra-red search and track radar to the Swedish defence ministry for flight testing on-board a Saab JAS37 Viggen fighter. The system, developed under a contract for the Swedish Defence Material Administration, will also be fitted to Saab's JAS39 Gripen. Source: Flight International
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Upgrades promised for RAAF F/A-18s
Australia is almost certain to upgrade its Boeing F/A-18 Hornet irrespective of continuing fighter-requirement studies, according to the country's defence minister, Ian McLachlan. McLachlan took the opportunity of the release of Australia's Strategic Policy document to tell Parliament that"-it is likely that a major upgrade of the F/A-18 will ...
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Spar goes shopping
Spar Aerospace has agreed to acquire Canadian maintenance company CAE Aviation for about $62 million. The company, which specialises in servicing and upgrading Lockheed Martin C-130 transports, was put up for sale in August by parent company CAE, following a decision to focus on its advanced-technology businesses, such as simulation. ...
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Netherlands rotary club
Rene van Woezik/THE HAGUE IT MUST SEEM TO THE DUTCH that rental was enormously cheaper than acquisition, at least as far as the Royal Netherlands Air Force is concerned. Its 12 leased Boeing AH-64As cost the grand sum of $12: its 30 AH-64Ds, deliveries of which begin in April ...
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Canada orders review of SAR bidding
The Canadian Government has refused to endorse the Department of National Defense's (DND) recommendation to procure the EH Industries EH101 Cormorant helicopter to meet its search-and-rescue (SAR) requirement. The EH101 came top in the DND's technical recommendation, but the Federal Cabinet is now demanding that the bid process be ...
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B-1B crash
The fatal crash of a Rockwell International B-1B bomber in Montana on 19 September was caused by pilot error, says the US Air Force. The B-1B assigned to the 28th Bomb Wing at Ellsworth AFB, South Dakota, had been on a low-level defensive countermeasures and simulated bombing training mission. The ...
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Lufthansa Technik signs to support Tu-204-120
Sirocco Aerospace International has signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Lufthansa Technik which will see the German national airline's maintenance division providing product support and technical services for the Tupolev Tu 204-120. The MoU covers acceptance of each Sirocco aircraft from Aviastar, the Ulyanovsk, Russia-based manufacturer, and the ...
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From strength to strength
Peter Henley/MARIETTA The C-130 Hercules has been in service with military and commercial operators around the world since the 1950s. Demand for the type has been such that it has stayed in production throughout that period. It has appeared in various guises since the original A model. The major ...
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Workshop
++ Qantas is setting up a venture at Avalon Airport, near Melbourne, to begin an A$560 million ($378.3 million) interior refurbishment of its 29-strong Boeing 747 fleet. ++ Pemco World Air Services is to refurbish the interiors of 11 AirTran Airlines (formerly ValuJet) McDonnell Douglas DC-9s to install business-class sections. ...
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Enaer plans to fly Chilean 707 tanker/AEW in 1998
ENAER plans to fly its modified Chilean air force Boeing 707 combined tanker/airborne-early-warning (AEW) aircraft for the first time early in 1998. Modification work, being carried out with the support of Israel Aircraft Industries (IAI), will see the aircraft fitted with nose- and side-panel-mounted phased-array radars similar to those fitted ...
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Elta begins development of phased-array fighter radar
Israeli radar house Elta is working on a phased-array fire-control radar for fighter aircraft, using technology developed originally for the Israel Aircraft Industries (IAI) Phalcon airborne- early-warning aircraft. No details of the programme have been released, but the phased-array development, if successful, will supersede Elta's family of planar-array radars, ...
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Report damns French policy
Julian Moxon/PARIS A French parliament report on the national defence industry has called for a complete review of France's long-term defence-spending plans to put right what it terms the "brutal and repetitive" reductions in funding over the past few years. The report, by the parliamentary deputy responsible for ...
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Poland threatens to cancel Huzar tender
Andrzej Jeziorski/MUNICH The new Solidarity Government in Poland is threatening to cancel the controversial avionics and weapons tender for the planned PZL-Swidnik Huzar battlefield helicopter. Programme sources say that the current tender could be dropped if no compromise agreement is reached between Boeing, which is offering an international ...
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Italy eyes JSF to replace AMX and Harrier
Andrea Spinelli/GENOA Italy is the latest nation to show interest in joining the US Department of Defense's Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) project, with the air force and industry aiming to take more than "observer status". A formal announcement on joining the concept-definition phase of the JSF programme is ...