All Fixed-Wing news – Page 1340
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News
Reconnaissance Office may get new Darkstar
Ramon Lopez/WASHINGTON DC The US Congress may subsidise the cost of building a replacement for the Lockheed Martin/Boeing Tier III Minus Darkstar unmanned air vehicle destroyed on its second flight on 22 April, says US Air Force Gen Kenneth Israel, who heads the Defense Airborne Reconnaissance Office (DARO). ...
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Powering into the future
Germany's two engine manufacturersstill have one programme in common. Andrzej Jeziorski/MUNICH DAIMLER-BENZ Aerospace problem-child MTU Munchen and its upstart rival BMW Rolls-Royce, along with the German Aerospace Research Establishment (DLR), are participating in a Government-sponsored research programme to develop technology for the next generation of ...
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FLIR for UH-1H
FLIR Systems has been awarded a US Navy contract for up to 100 thermal-imaging navigation sensors, potentially worth $45.5 million, for US Marine Corps Bell UH-1H helicopters. Source: Flight International
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JPATS hydraulics
Raytheon Aircraft has selected Dowty Aerospace to supply most of the hydraulics system for the Beech Pilatus PC-9 MkII trainer selected for the 712-aircraft US Air Force/Navy Joint Primary Aircraft Training System (JPATS) programme. The contract could be worth more than $40 million. Source: Flight International
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Talking Tanks
Richmond, British Columbia-based Con-Space Communications is to supply Air New Zealand with equipment allowing communication with maintenance crews working inside aircraft fuel-tanks. The company has supplied similar equipment to the Canadian and US air forces and several airlines. Source: Flight International
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USA tries again to close F-16 Indonesian sale
US GOVERNMENT officials are hoping that a planned visit to Indonesia by the Chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff will revive the flagging deal to sell nine embargoed Lockheed Martin F-16A/Bs which had been destined for Pakistan. Gen John Shalikashvili is due to visit Indonesia in early May ...
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Rising fortunes
Agusta's resurgence has been confirmed with one order from North America. Julian Moxon/MILAN THERE COULD HAVE BEEN no better sign of Agusta's long-awaited revival than the record order from Omniflight Helicopters, which was announced at the Helicopter Association International show in Dallas, Texas, in February. ...
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Bedek backs 707 as tanker platform
Douglas Barrie/TEL AVIV ISRAEL AIRCRAFT Industries' Bedek group is to stay with the Boeing 707 airframe as the basis for its tanker-conversion business, following internal studies into alternative airframes. Despite the age of the 707 design, senior Bedek officials believe that the airframe still provides ...
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Very-large-aircraft adaptability poser
Sir - The editorial "Missing a trick" (Flight International, 17-23 April, P3), proposing a European involvement in the Lockheed Martin C-141 replacement, seems to raise the more fundamental question of whether a new civil transport could be adaptable to military requirements. While the tanker role presents few ...
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BAe introduces 'smart' monitoring to EF2000 structure
Martin Hindley/LONDON BRITISH AEROSPACE has revealed that the Eurofighter EF2000 is the world's first combat aircraft to be designed with an integrated structural health-and-usage monitoring system. The system is used to perform real-time airframe-fatigue calculations and to monitor "significant structural events and flight-performance parameters", says BAe. ...
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STAe poised for TigerEye modification
SINGAPORE Technologies Aerospace (STAe) is expected to win a contract to modify eight Taiwanese Northrop F-5Es to RF-5E TigerEye reconnaissance aircraft, after more than a year's delay to the order. Taiwanese defence minister Chiang Chung-ling has re-affirmed that STAe is the preferred choice over local companies. He ...
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Hercules update
Airod plans to begin work on converting the first of two Royal Malaysian Air Force Lockheed Martin C-130H transports into in-flight refueling tankers by the end of April. Lockheed Martin is acting as an integrator for the KC-130 modification programme, which will take six months to complete for each aircraft. ...
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RMAF backs F-5 upgrade
THE ROYAL MALAYSIAN Air Force (RMAF) is giving support to an industry-led initiative to upgrade its Northrop Grumman F-5E/F as lead-in fighter trainers. The RMAF has carried out a cost study of the proposed F-5 revamp and forwarded its conclusions to the Malaysian Government, say senior air ...
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MDC fights for F-18E/F as GAO calls for cancellation
Graham Warwick/ATLANTA McDONNELL DOUGLAS (MDC) has defended the F-18E/F Super Hornet after the leak of a US General Accounting Office (GAO) draft report, which has recommended that the aircraft programme be cancelled. Reports suggest that the Congressional watchdog, recommends buying upgraded F-18C/Ds, citing only "marginal ...
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Boeing advances weapons carriage
BOEING WILL ground-test an advanced weapons-carriage concept under a $2.5 million US Air Force technology-demonstration contract. The Weapons Carriage Technology programme "...will deliver advanced, multiple-purpose, weapon-suspension and release equipment", the USAF says. The technology is aimed at "...future multi-mission aircraft...that will carry a variety of current and advanced ...
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'Tailless' F-15 will feed Joint Strike Fighter programme
Guy Norris/LOS ANGELES PLANS ARE being drawn up to develop a "tailless" McDonnell Douglas F-15 supersonic research aircraft fitted with a thrust-vectoring system to provide data to the US/UK Joint Strike Fighter effort, other future combat-aircraft programmes and, possibly, the high-speed civil transport. Plans for ...
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Russian air force SLAR revealed
Douglas Barrie/LONDON THE RUSSIAN AIR FORCE, is believed to be testing a large side-looking airborne radar (SLAR), at its Ahktubinsk operational research centre in southern Russia. A heavily modified Antonov An-72 Coaler is being flown from the centre, with at least the rear-fuselage section reconfigured ...
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Eurocopter is sued over Oryx commission claims
Alan George/LONDON LAWYERS FOR Eurocopter are seeking a new date for a court hearing, originally scheduled for 2 May, in which the company is being sued by a Portuguese agent over non-payment of commission on alleged defence deals with the apartheid regime in South Africa. ...
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Elbit/Kaiser tie-up
Elbit and Kaiser have formed a joint company, Vision Systems International, to market helmet-mounted displays for fixed-wing aircraft. The team is expected to compete for the US Air Force/Navy joint helmet-mounted cuing system (JHMCS) programme in a joint bid with Honeywell and GEC-Marconi Avionics, which teamed in 1995. The JHMCS ...
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The enemy within
David Learmount/LONDON Ramon Lopez/WASHINGTON DC Julian Moxon/PARIS Paul Phelan/CAIRNS DESPITE BEING ABLE to report a particularly safe 1995, director of US Army aviation safety Brig Gen Thomas Konitzer sees a need for caution. "The force reduction has increased the workload for Army aviators. Not only have missions ...