All news – Page 7153
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German parliament finally clears EF2000 funding
The Eurofighter EF2000 has cleared the final political obstacle to a German signature on the production memorandum of understanding (MoU), expected to be signed later this month along with partners Italy, Spain and the UK. On 26 November, the German parliament passed the 1998 defence budget, giving the all-clear ...
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BAe tests helmet mounted sight
British Aerospace has test flown a Pilkington Optronics/Kentron helmet-mounted sighting system on a Hawk 200 light-fighter aircraft. Pilkington Optronics has developed the helmet sight, and South Africa's Kentron is providing the optical helmet-tracker. Flight trials are being carried out by a BAe Military Aircraft & Aerostructures Cockpit Research and Development ...
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Lockheed Martin eyes USAF role for KTX-2
Lockheed Martin is helping Samsung Aerospace to design and develop the KTX-2 light combat aircraft/advanced trainer with a view to offering a version to the US Air Force to meet its future Bomber Fighter Training System (BFTS) requirement. The BFTS programme will provide the USAF with an eventual replacement ...
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Turkey LANTIRN
Turkey has ordered 20 more Lockheed Martin LANTIRN targeting pods, worth $54 million, for delivery in 1999. Delivery of 20 targeting pods and 40 LANTIRN navigation pods was completed in 1993. Source: Flight International
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Polish Gripen
Polish air force commander-in-chief Kazimierz Dziok has become the first Polish pilot to fly the Saab JAS 39 Gripen, one of the aircraft being considered for Poland's new fighter requirement. The flight - in a two-seat JAS39B - took place during a visit to Sweden shortly before the arrival of ...
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Rafael tempts Australia
Douglas Barrie/LONDON Israel's national armaments agency, Rafael, is offering the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) an imaging infra-red (IIR) variant of its Python 4 short-range dogfight missile, alongside its baseline bid of a basic IR variant. The IIR seeker for the weapon, possibly known as the Python 4 ...
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Comanche and Apache ride out together
The Boeing/Sikorsky RAH-66 Comanche, which resumed flight-testing with a new transmission in August at Sikorsky's West Palm Beach, Florida, test site has yet to undertake critical snap turns, but has reached a top airspeed of 171kt (316.4km/h). The single Comanche prototype (seen alongside the US Army's attack helicopter, the Boeing ...
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RNZAF upgrades
The Royal New Zealand Air Force plans to upgrade its primary-trainer fleet by replacing its 15 Pacific Aerospace (PAC) CT/4B Airtrainers with 13 leased CT4Es. The later model is powered by Avco Lycoming's AIO-540L1E5, delivering 225kW (300hp). Half the order is scheduled for delivery by August 1998, with the ...
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RAF Queen's Flight contractor comes under safety audit
A full safety audit of the civilian maintenance contractor employed on the Royal Air Force's Queen's Flight began on 24 November, the UK Ministry of Defence (MoD) has confirmed. The check followed an investigator's interim report on a potentially catastrophic multiple-engine failure on a British Aerospace 146-100 C.Mk 1 on ...
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Phazotron offers China second alternative for its F-10 radar
Douglas Barrie/LONDON Russian radar design house Phazotron is offering China an electronically scanned phased-array radar for the Chengdu F-10 fighter aircraft alongside the mechanically steered variant of the Zhuk, or N-010, already on offer for the project. When Phazotron revealed its bid for the F-10 radar, it described ...
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Eagle Eye VTOL demonstrator gets airborne again
The Bell Helicopter Eagle Eye tiltrotor unmanned air vehicle (UAV) has resumed flying in preparation for the forthcoming US Navy vertical take-off and landing (VTOL) demonstration, which may lead to the fielding of an operational system. The USN's plans for a maritime VTOL UAV were shelved five years ago, ...
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F-18 wing-drop hitch still defies cure
Boeing and the US Navy are to report in mid-December on the prospects for curing a persistent wing-drop problem with the F/A-18E/F Super Hornet. Fixes tested so far have failed to eliminate sudden uncommanded wing drops during manoeuvres, which have been described as "the toughest problem to date" in ...
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Boeing's long stretch
Guy Norris/SEATTLE BOEING'S stretched 777-300 carries a list of superlatives almost as long as the aircraft itself. The latest member of the Boeing family is the largest twin-engined aircraft ever built, the world's fastest widebody twin, the longest airliner ever made and the first transport big enough to replace the ...
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Training in private
Graham Warwick/WASHINGTON DC Tomorrow's combat pilots could find themselves training in classrooms, in simulators, or even in aircraft bearing a plaque with the legend "Owned and operated by-". Whether the term is "contractise", "privatise" - or, some would complain, compromise - the commercial operation of military training is fast ...
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Asia's economic haze
Brent Hannon/KUALA LUMPUR Concerns over the state of the once-unstoppable Asia-Pacific airline market were underlined again as the Association of Asia Pacific Airlines (AAPA) met in Kuala Lumpur in mid-November for the 41st assembly of presidents. The latest figures show a 25% drop in collective operating profits over ...
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AAIB advises ban on VFR night flights
A Eurocopter AS355F1 Twin Squirrel crash in Cheshire, UK, on 22 October, 1996, was a result of the pilot's excessive work load in marginal weather conditions and his inexperience of instrument-flight-rules (IFR) operations, according to the UK Air Accident Investigation Branch (AAIB) official accident report. The crash at Middlewich, ...
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Unleaded avgas 'more expensive'
Fuel supplier Phillips 66 has warned that environmental pressure to switch to unleaded aviation gasoline could increase US avgas prices by up to 50%. The Oklahoma-based firm expects today's 100-octane low-lead (100LL) avgas to be available for the next five years, but admits that pressure to eliminate this last ...
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Beriev restarts flight testing of Be-103
Beriev has resumed flight tests of its Be-103 utility amphibian, three months after the first prototype was destroyed in a crash at the Moscow air show. The second, six-seat, prototype had its maiden flight on 17 November from the Russian design company's airfield in Taganrog. The aircraft is is ...
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Eurocopter distributor delivers first UK EC135
McAlpine Helicopters has delivered the first UK-registered Eurocopter EC135 to an undisclosed UK customer. The Oxford-based helicopter distributor has received 11 orders to date for twin-engined EC135, six of which are scheduled for delivery to police forces and corporate customers in 1998. Source: Flight International
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Jet Support in maintenance link
Graham Warwick/WASHINGTON DC Jet Support Services has teamed with two business-jet manufacturers to provide hourly-cost maintenance programmes for their aircraft. The Chicago-based company will administer Dassault's Falcon First programme, initially available for the Falcon 2000, and the ServiceCare programme for the Gulfstream IV-SP. Both will cover scheduled and ...