All Fixed-Wing news – Page 1391
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X-31 wrecked after test-flight crash
One of two Rockwell/Daimler-Benz Aerospace X-31 enhanced-fighter- manoeuvrability demonstrators crashed near Edwards AFB, California, on 19 January. German test-pilot Karl Lang ejected safely. The single-engined canard-delta aircraft, designed to be used in high angle-of-attack, post-stall manoeuvres using thrust vectoring, was being flown back from a test flight when ...
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USAF grounds GE-powered F16s
THE US AIR FORCE has grounded all General Electric (GE) F110-129-powered Lockheed F-16s following the non-fatal crash on an F-16D in Belgium on 13 January. The front fan from the engine of the crashed aircraft has been returned to GE for testing. The precautionary stand-down is the third ...
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MDC gives F-15D reconnaissance modifications
McDonnell DOUGLAS (MDC) has begun modifying an F-15D for flight tests of a reconnaissance pod beginning in March. A modified F-15 will be offered to meet an emerging US Air Force requirement for a successor to the cancelled Advanced Tactical Air Reconnaissance System (ATARS). The pod will be ...
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JAST revision hardens ASTOVL project option
Guy Norris/SAN FRANCISO THE US NAVY/US Air Force Joint Advanced Strike Technology (JAST) programme is being revised radically to allow two finalists to build a total of four demonstrator aircraft. Two will be configured for advanced short take-off and vertical landing (ASTOVL). The changes will bolster ...
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Picking up the pieces
The UK Government and British Aerospace are in the final stages of concluding a contract covering the repair and return to service of Panavia Tornado F3 air-defence fighters structurally damaged by maintenance firm Airwork. The Ministry of Defence is declining to give a value for the contract, stating that it ...
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RAAF opts for Air New Zealand F-18 maintenance
AIR NEW ZEALAND Engineering Services has been named as preferred tenderer to overhaul the General Electric F404-400 engines of the Royal Australian Air Force's (RAAF) McDonnell Douglas F-18A fighter fleet. Incumbent contractor Hawker de Havilland, a BTR Nylex subsidiary, and Australian airline Qantas were the other two bidders. ...
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Russia agrees deal with India for aircraft carrier from Russia
Alexander Velovich/MOSCOW RUSSIA HAS AGREED to sell to India the Kiev-class 37,000t aircraft carrier Admiral Gorshkov (formerly the Baku) in a move which may have wider implications for the strategic balance in the Asia-Pacific region. India operates two ageing former UK aircraft carriers, the 28,700t Viraat ...
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Spain decides in favour of USNavy F-18s
SPAIN PLANS TO buy 24 McDonnell Douglas F-18As from the US Navy, to fill a gap in its fighter force until the Eurofighter EF2000 enters service. The country has rejected a US Air Force offer of secondhand Lockheed F-16s. The Spanish air force has sent a letter of ...
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Back to basics
Airline pilots have, for years, been warning over the growing threat of a mid-air collision in African airspace. On 13 September they appear, unfortunately, to have been proved right, with the apparent en route collision of a US Air Force Lockheed C-141 Starlifter and a German air force Tupolev Tu-154 ...
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GEC HUMS passes design review
THE AIRBORNE-SYSTEM critical-design review for the GEC-Marconi Defence Systems-developed Integrated Health & Usage Monitoring System (IHUMS II) has been completed successfully. The IHUMS II is scheduled for certification on the Sikorsky S-76C+ this year. The system uses high-speed computer processing to diagnosis engine, transmission and rotor-system health. ...
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Antonov An-70: heir apparent
Antonov's An-70 had its maiden flight in December, but funding shortages threaten its development. Alexander Velovich/MOSCOW A large crowd of workers, designers and officials received an early, but welcome, Christmas present at Svyatoshino airfield, Kiev, on 16 December, 1994, when the Antonov An-70 took off for ...
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Kawasaki presses JDA for transport-launch cash
Paul Lewis/TOKYO KAWASAKI HEAVY Industries (KHI) is pressing the Japan Defence Agency (JDA) to fund the development of the proposed indigenous C-X transport aircraft as a replacement for its C-1A. The Japan Air Self-Defence Force (JASDF) has a requirement for a new, long-range, medium-size, military transport ...
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Helicopter share deal gets under way in UK
Kieran Daly/LONDON A UK COMPANY is setting up a fractional-ownership scheme for helicopters, which it claims can reduce the total cost of rotary-wing ownership by as much as 87%. Privately owned Heli-Network, trading as First Heli-Network (FHN), envisages operating as many as 14 machines within two ...
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Lockheed to start work on revived SR-71s for US Air Force inventory
Lockheed Advanced Development expects to receive the first of three SR-71s by the end of February for maintenance work before the aircraft re-enters the US Air Force inventory. The US Congress ordered the Pentagon to re-activate three SR-71s and it earmarked $100 million in fiscal year 1995 to ...
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SABCA chosen to carry out Indonesian F-5 upgrade
INDONESIA has chosen SABCA of Belgium as a systems integrator to upgrade 12 Northrop F-5E/F fighters. A contract is to be finalised shortly. SABCA, together with Smiths Industries, was shortlisted in December after a year-long evaluation (Flight International, 21 December, 1994 - 3 January, 1995, P16). Other companies ...
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France firm on Rafale cuts
Gilbert Sedbon/PARIS FRENCH DEFENCE minister Francois Leotard has dismissed industry opposition to the Government's aim of cutting 2% a year from the costs of the Dassault Rafale combat aircraft as part of its overall drive to curtail defence expenditure (Flight International, 11-17 January). Commenting on the ...
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Hungary unveils Western IFF for MiGs
PICTURED BELOW IS THE ALLIEDSIGNAL Bendix APX-100 (V) identification-friend-or-foe (IFF) equipment fitted to Hungarian air force Mikoyan MiG-21 Fishbed, MiG-23 Flogger and Sukhoi Su-22 Fitter combat aircraft. One of the system's two antennae is visible to the rear of the MiG-21Bis cockpit (right). In the case of the MiG-21, the ...
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Mikoyan conducts 1.42 fast-taxi tests at Zhukovsky
Mikoyan has carried out fast-taxi trials of its prototype 1.42 next-generation counter-air fighter at the Zhukovsky flight-test research institute. According to Russian sources, the trials were undertaken at the end of 1994, but the aircraft has yet to have its debut flight.There are indications that the taxi trials ...
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Japan rolls out FS-X
Paul Lewis/TOKYO THE FIRST prototype of the Mitsubishi FS-X support fighter was rolled out on 12 January amid continuing uncertainty over future defence spending and the number of aircraft to be purchased. The single-engined FS-X is based on the F-16 and has been developed with Lockheed ...
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Advanced Citations win foreign orders
Graham Warwick/ATLANTA KOREAN AIRLINES has ordered four Cessna Citation Ultra light business-jets for use as flight crew trainers. The aircraft will be modified to accommodate a third crew-station aft of the cockpit. The forward bulkhead will be removed, but six cabin seats will be retained, enabling the ...