Helicopters – Page 487
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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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Boeing suspension
New York-based EDO has received a $1.1 million subcontract to support Boeing Defense & Space Group's Military Airplanes division in development of new weapon-suspension and -release equipment for future combat aircraft under the US Air Force's Weapons Carriage Technology programme. 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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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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P&W uses fluid dynamics to cure F119 fan flutter
Graham Warwick/ATLANTA PRATT & WHITNEY has used computational fluid-dynamics (CFD) to develop a remedy for fan flutter on the F119 engine for the Lockheed Martin/Boeing F-22. CFD analysis identified an airflow disturbance over the inlet guide-vanes which was causing vibration and flutter of the hollow fan blades. The F119 is ...
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Investigators probe DarkStar accident
THE LOCKHEED Martin/Boeing team is hurriedly revising plans for its second DarkStar unpiloted surveillance aircraft, following the destruction of the first aircraft in a crash at Edwards AFB, California, on 22 April. The accident compounds already-serious delays to the Tier III Minus DarkStar programme, which is being developed ...
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Pentagon orders VIP aircraft update
US DEFENCE SECRETARY William Perry, has ordered that all US military transports dedicated to passenger flights, be equipped with cockpit-voice recorders (CVRs), flight data recorders (FDRs) and global-positioning-system (GPS) hardware. In a letter to armed forces chiefs, Perry says: "Military flight crews must have the most capable and ...
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Lockheed Martin confirms follow-on transport plan
Graham Warwick/ATLANTA LOCKHEED MARTIN is looking for partners to develop a multi-purpose large aircraft to replace Boeing KC-135 tankers, Lockheed C-141 transports and tanker/transports such as the Lockheed TriStar and McDonnell Douglas KC-10. The aircraft, dubbed the "World Airlifter", would also be offered as a ...
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Pentagon plans aerostat cruise-missile defence
Ramon Lopez/WASHINGTON DC The US military is moving ahead with plans to field helium-filled aerostats to help support cruise-missile defences. A new tri-service project office, called the Joint Aerostat Project Management Office for Cruise Missile Defence is being established under US Army auspices at the ...
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DarkStar rises over California
The Lockheed Martin/ Boeing DarkStar high-altitude endurance unmanned air vehicle (UAV) had its first flight at Edwards AFB, California, on 29 March. The 21m-span UAV had a fully automated flight lasting 20min from take off to landing using differential global-positioning-system (GPS) navigation signals for guidance throughout. "The ...
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Eurocopter is close to clinching Cougar sales
Julian Moxon/MARIGNANE Eurocopter president Jean-Francois Bigay claims that the Franco-German consortium is aiming to conclude orders for "around 100" AS.532 Cougar military-transport helicopters this year. Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, the United Arab Emirates and a further unnamed country are among those which could, says Bigay, make ...
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Norwegian upgrade
Norway plans a $65 million upgrade of its four maritime-patrol Lockheed Martin P-3C Orions with satellite and secure communications and missile-warning systems. Loral Defense Systems will be prime contractor. Source: Flight International
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VTOL contenders line up for TUAV
BELL HELICOPTER Textron has surprised rivals by offering the Eagle Eye tilt-rotor unmanned air vehicle for the US Department of Defense's multi-billion dollar Tactical Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (TUAV) competition (Flight International, 27 March -2 April). The US helicopter maker joins at least six other bidders for a two-year ...
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BAe offers to build new Nimrod 2000s for RAF
Douglas Barrie/WARTON BRITISH AEROSPACE HAS submitted an option to build new Nimrod 2000s in support of its bid to meet the Royal Air Force's replacement maritime-patrol-aircraft requirement. With its offer, BAe hopes to overcome possible RAF concerns over the attrition rate of its maritime patrol ...
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Bell to lead AH-1W and UH-1 upgrades
Graham Warwick/Atlanta THE US MARINE CORPS is to award Bell Helicopter Textron a single prime contract to upgrade its AH-1W SuperCobra and UH-1N Huey dynamic systems and AH-1W cockpit in November 1997. Bell will then conduct a competition on behalf of the USMC to select equipment for ...
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USA thinks again on combat-aircraft sales
US POLICY BARRING THE sale of combat aircraft to Latin America is "under review" by the Departments of Defense and State. That is all the US Government would say at the show, despite fielding a major military presence led by defence secretary William Perry, after boycotting the show in 1994. ...
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Vertical virtuality
Peter Gray/FORTWORTH If "flying" the simulator is any guide, Bell Boeing's V-22 Osprey proves the tilt-rotor concept. THE PRINCIPLE behind tilt-rotor aircraft has been around almost since the Second World War. Bell developed the first experimental design in the mid-1950s, carried the idea forward with the XV-15 technology demonstrator, ...
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Win some, lose some
The US DoD's 1997 budget request represents a 6% decline in defence spending. Ramon Lopez/WASHINGTON DC THE US Department of Defense (DoD) has sent to Capitol Hill a fiscal year 1997 budget request which represents a 6% decline in Pentagon spending from the previous year's ...
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Concerns about V-22 downwash crop
BELL BOEING AND the US Marine Corps are playing down concerns over downwash which emerged from testing of the V-22 Osprey tilt-rotor. A report rated downwash as a "moderate risk" after a test in which a soldier rappelled 18m (60ft) from the rear ramp of a hovering V-22 and was ...
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Four decades of development
THE TILT-ROTOR is a remarkable aircraft. With the "prop-rotor" nacelles vertical, it can hover, fly sideways and backwards and turn on the spot - just like a tandem-rotor helicopter. With the nacelles horizontal, it has the speed, range and cruising altitude of a conventional twin turboprop. The ...