All Fixed-Wing news – Page 1361
-
News
NH90 rolled out amid support speculation
NH INDUSTRIES HAS rolled out the first prototype of the four-nation NH90 medium-lift transport helicopter, at Marignanne, France. The event took place on schedule, but against a background of increasing doubt about the programme's future. France, with a 42.4% share, Germany (24%), Italy (26.9%) and the Netherlands (6.7%) ...
-
News
Panavia
Anglo-German-Italian consortium Panavia, industrial prime contractor for the Tornado combat aircraft, has appointed Reinhold Faltlhauser managing director. He was formerly vice-president for finance and control of the military-aircraft division of Daimler-Benz Aerospace (DASA). He takes over from Oskar Friedrich, who leaves Panavia to become advisor to the managing director of ...
-
News
Litton inertial purchase
Litton Industries intends to buy the inertial-systems business unit of Hughes Electronics. With operations in California and Wisconsin, the unit expects sales to total $70 million this year. The business includes maintenance and upgrade of aircraft avionics for commercial and military customers. Terms of the deal, which is ...
-
News
Air Foyle
Capt. John Mayes has been appointed to the newly created position of operations director at UK passenger and cargo carrier Air Foyle, of London Luton Airport, Bedfordshire. Mayes, who was a commercial pilot for UK airline Dan-Air, served 16 years with the Royal Air Force as a fighter pilot, flight ...
-
News
Teams aim for the stars
AT LEAST THREE US industry teams will bid for a multi-million-dollar contract to modernise the US Federal Aviation Administration's terminal radar-approach-control (TRACON) system, which handles aircraft within 80km (45nm ) of US airports. The aviation agency's upcoming standard terminal-automation-replacement system (STARS) competition involves the upgrade of more ...
-
News
New broom sweeps Nigeria Airways
Gunter Endres/LONDON THE NIGERIAN Government has sacked the entire management team, at loss making Nigeria Airways and dismissed the chief executives and other senior managers at the Federal Civil Aviation Authority and the Nigeria Airports Authority. Aviation minister Air Cdre Nsisak Eduok has announced that the ...
-
News
3-D model used for F-22 testing
A THREE-DIMENSIONAL (3-D) computer-generated "ballistic vulnerability analysis model" of the Lockheed/ Boeing F-22 next-generation air-superiority fighter is being used to determine the aircraft's ability to withstand weapons damage. The model was developed by the Lockheed Martin Tactical Aircraft Systems Vulnerability Team to show which sections of the aircraft are vulnerable ...
-
News
Russia tests new cruise missile
RUSSIA IS TESTING a next-generation air-launched long-range cruise missile at the air force's Ahktubinsk air-weapons evaluation centre. The development, thought to have been initiated in the late 1980s, is probably the recently, reported Raduga Kh-101 subsonic-cruise-missile programme. The missile is being tested from a modified ...
-
News
UAE rejects F-16U proposal
LOCKHEED MARTIN'S plans to produce advanced derivatives of the F-16 combat aircraft have been dealt a blow with the United Arab Emirates (UAE) deciding to drop the F-16U from its strike-fighter competition. The UAE's decision to reject the Lockheed Martin offer was because of the associated $2-3 ...
-
News
Variable nozzle tests planned for PW306
CALCOR AERO Systems, the developer of novel variable-exhaust-nozzle (VEN) and thrust-reverser (TR) designs, has signed an agreement with Pratt & Whitney Canada to demonstrate a combined TR/VEN on the PW306 which will power the Israel Aircraft Industries Galaxy. The California-based company claims that the combination TR/VEN is ...
-
News
India and Russia haggle over Su-30MK cash
INDIA IS NEGOTIATING to licence-manufacture the Sukhoi Su-30MK at the Nasik plant of Hindustan Aeronautics, which already produces Mikoyan MiG-29 Floggers. Indian officials have visited the Irkutsk Su-30MK production plant in Russia recently. The Indian air force is satisfied with the aircraft from a technical viewpoint, although negotiations ...
-
News
Birdstrike is suspected in AWACS crash
A US AIR FORCE BOARD of inquiry is trying to determine why a Boeing-built E-3B Advanced Warning and Control System (AWACS) surveillance aircraft crashed at Elmendorf AFB, Alaska, on 22 September. The militarised four-engine Boeing 707 was attempting to take off for a training mission. All 24 aboard, ...
-
News
F-14 Lantirn buy
The US Navy has purchased 75 Lockheed Martin Low Altitude Navigation and Targeting Infrared for Night (LANTIRN) systems for installation on Northrop Grumman F-14 tactical aircraft. The device gives the F-14 a ground attack capability. Including options, the contract is worth as much as $270 million. The initial installment totaled ...
-
News
S Korea to field spy aircraft by 2000
AN INTERNATIONAL multi-million dollar competition is under way to supply South Korea with an indigenous airborne intelligence-gathering capability, beginning in three years. The classified project, known in US military circles as Peace Pioneer, will reach a climax this month when South Korea is due to pick the ...
-
News
Malaysians to upgrade C-130Hs
THE MALAYSIAN air force is planning to upgrade its fleet of Lockheed C-130H Hercules transport aircraft with new cockpit avionics and an integrated self-defence countermeasures system. Rockwell-Collins, is understood to have been selected to equip the aircraft, with its flat-panel EFIS-90 electronic flight-instrumentation system, a new digital tactical ...
-
News
French slash military spending
Gilbert Sedbon/PARIS DELIVERIES OF Dassault Aviation's Rafale combat aircraft, the Eurocopter Tiger attack helicopter and the NH90 troop transport and anti-submarine-warfare helicopter are to be delayed as part of cuts in French military spending over the next five years. On 21 September, the Government unveiled ...
-
News
Czechs freeze MiG-21 modifications
THE CZECH DEFENCE ministry has frozen the upgrading of three Mikoyan MiG-21 Fishbed prototypes, and has established a joint team with US Government specialists to study the acquisition of Lockheed Martin F-16A/Bs. The decision was announced, at the end of September by Czech Defence Minister Vilem Holan, following ...
-
News
Damaged RAF Tornados centrepiece of upgrade plan
THE ROYAL Air Force is considering using Tornado F3s, damaged in a modification programme by private contractor Airwork, as the basis of an upgrade programme to fill the gap left by the late entry into service of the four-nation Eurofighter. Some 16 of the damaged aircraft are ...
-
News
BA 777 delivery date uncertain
Guy Norris/LOS ANGELES Kevin O'Toole/LONDON THE SCHEDULE FOR delivery, of the first General Electric GE90-powered Boeing 777 to British Airways, continues to hang in the balance, with the engine undergoing a new series of icing tests in the USA and facing the possibility of further hurdles being ...
-
News
B-1 flight envelope restricted after flare strike
THE US AIR FORCE has restricted the peacetime flight envelope for the firing of countermeasure flares from the Rockwell B-1B bomber, because of tail strikes. In one case described at the Society of Experimental Test Pilots meeting in California on 28 September, the flare impacted the vertical ...