All news – Page 7418
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UK/France consider joint air-dropped-weapon programme
The UK and French defence ministries are contemplating releasing a joint request for information (RFI) during the middle of this year, covering the development of an improved-accuracy family of bombs for their respective air forces. The move towards a joint RFI is being driven by the desire to ...
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F-22 makes progress towards first flight
PREPARATIONS FOR THE 29 May first flight of the Lockheed Martin/Boeing F-22 have moved ahead with delivery of the initial avionics software. Endurance testing of the Pratt & Whitney F119 engine, required for initial flight release, has also been completed successfully. Fort Worth, Texas-based Lockheed Martin Tactical Aircraft ...
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Lack of flying hours may force Russia to ground MiG-31s
Russia is considering grounding its entire fleet of Mikoyan MiG-31 Foxhound interceptors because a lack of pilot flight hours is making the aircraft dangerous to fly. Col Gen Victor Prudnikov, chief of Russia's air-defence force, says that, at the present level of annual flying, it is "shameful and ...
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General Electric-led JSF team pushes ahead
General Electric has received $96 million from the US Joint Strike Fighter (JSF)programme office to carry out further development of the core of its YF120-FX advanced fighter powerplant, as part of the JSF Alternate Engine Programme. GE, which is teamed with Rolls-Royce and the UK company's Allison Engine ...
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All-weather Havoc flight testing starts
Mil is to begin flight testing of the Mi-28N all-weather variant of the Havoc attack helicopter in March, following a four-month delay in the programme. The Mi-28N was first flown with a short hop at the end of 1996. It was then grounded because there was no funding ...
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Hearing voices
The Westland Sea Kings of the UK armed forces are to be fitted with Racal's Automatic Voice Alerting Device, primarily to provide pilots with low-height warnings. The UK Civil Aviation Authority has made the equipment mandatory for commercial helicopters involved in offshore operations, and the Royal Air Force's search-and-rescue Sea ...
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Hungary for business
Lockheed Martin and the Hungarian Government signed a protocol at the end of January, "paving the way for expanded, long-term, industrial co-operation". The US company has presented a preliminary plan offering 100% offset in exchange for Lockheed Martin products. The agreement comes in the middle of active marketing of the ...
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RAM hits home at White Sands range
A rolling-airframe missile (RAM), fitted with the newly designed Block 1 seeker, achieved a direct hit on the wingtip-mounted infra-red source of a BQM-34 target drone during the weapon's first flight test, conducted at the White Sands Missile Range, New Mexico, on 1 February. The RAM Block 1 ...
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Dubai-based VIP 747 prepares for launch
Chess International Aviation says that it is close to completing the setting up of a VIP 747 charter company. According to Alistair Cristinni, the Dubai-based airline's chairman, the new company expects to complete the acquisition of its first aircraft soon, a 747SP, and aims for a launch in ...
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BFG brakes 737-700
Maersk Air has chosen BFGoodrich to supply wheels and brakes for six recently ordered Boeing 737-700s. The Danish carrier is scheduled to receive the first aircraft in October. Source: Flight International
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Litton smartens UH-60
Litton's Guidance and Control Systems division is to retrofit an initial four US National Guard Sikorsky UH-60A helicopters with cockpit smart multi-function displays (SMFDs). Woodland Hills, California-based Litton says that the SMFDs could be fitted to up to 83 more aircraft, with the aircraft reconfigured as UH-60Qs for battlefield medical- ...
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Boeing signs BAe deal
Boeing has signed a $639 million contract with British Aerospace, under which the US manufacturer will supply mission hardware and software for the Nimrod 2000's tactical-command system. BAe is prime contractor on the UK's $3 billion programme to upgrade the Royal Air Force's Nimrod maritime-patrol aircraft. ...
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Emery DC-8s get FMS
Emery Worldwide Airlines is to retrofit 22 McDonnell Douglas DC-8s with Universal Avionics Systems UNS-1D global-positioning-system-based flight management systems. Source: Flight International
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New skids from Dart
Canada-based Dart Aerospace has developed a new helicopter-skid design which is up to seven times stronger than the conventional unit, according to the company. The Round-I-Beam skidtube is strengthened with a central web which runs through the centre of the tube. The skidtube has been designed to fit several Bell ...
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HUMS accelerometers
Sikorsky has selected California-based Endevco to supply vibration accelerometers for the health-and-usage monitoring system and active vibration-control system on the S-92, as well as appointing it as the recommended supplier on the S-76. Endevco is a subsidiary of UK-based Meggitt. Source: Flight International
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Falcon 20-B retrofit
Garrett Aviation and AlliedSignal have formed an exclusive partnership under which the latter will continue to market the TFE731 engine retrofit to CF700-powered Falcon 20 operators. Garrett will put its own Falcon 20s into the programme, retrofit and refurbish them, and offer the re-engined -20Bs for sale to non-Falcon 20 ...
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CTA satellite milestone
CTA Space and Telecommunications has shipped its first geostationary communications satellite, the Indostar 1, to the David Florida Laboratories in Canada for environmental testing in preparation for its launch aboard an Ariane 4 in July (Flight International, 5-11 February). The Indostar is being built for PT MediaCitra Indonesia to provide ...
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Northrop sale
Northrop Grumman has elected to sell its Astrotech subsidiary to SPACEHAB, which develops, owns and operates habitable modules for the Space Shuttle. Astrotech provides payload-processing services for commercial spacecraft. It employs only 18 people, who earned $8 million for Northrop Grumman in 1996. The terms of the sale, which is ...
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Lockheed sells units
Lockheed Martin has outlined its plans to spin off ten "non-core" communications and instruments businesses into a newly created standalone company which will have sales of $650 million and a workforce of nearly 5,000. The move comes as part of announced plans to tidy up its portfolio following the Loral ...
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Aim-120 awards
The US Air Force has awarded Hughes Aircraft a $133 million contract for Lot 11 production of 433 Advanced Medium-Range Air-to-Air Missiles. Production should be completed by September 1999. Raytheon, which is in the process of acquiring Hughes, won the rest of the order for 385 missiles worth $122 million. ...