All news – Page 6770
-
News
RTM322-powered Apache gets set for June flight
First Flight of the Rolls-Royce Turboméca RTM322-powered Boeing AH-64 Apache is set for 1 June, say programme officials, who are now 50% through initial ground tests with the Anglo-French engine. The powerplant was selected over the incumbent General Electric T700-701C after a competitive evaluation by the UK Ministry of Defence ...
-
News
C-130J deliveries to RAF await ice test results
Lockheed Martin is hoping finally to complete type certification and begin deliveries of the first C-130J Hercules transport once it has completed critical ice shape testing on the aircraft. Certification will end the technical problems which have delayed deliveries to customers by nearly two years. The US manufacturer claims ...
-
News
Airbus fights FLA delays
Douglas Barrie/LONDON Airbus Military Company (AMC) is attempting to pull forward a German-led study on the Antonov An-70's ability to meet European tactical military transport requirements. This is in an effort to avoid further delays to the European Future Large Aircraft (FLA) programme. The German study timescale conflicts with AMC's ...
-
News
USAF starts B-1B JDAM update
Graham Warwick/WASHINGTON DC Modification of US Air Force Rockwell B-1B bombers to carry the Boeing Joint Direct Attack Munition (JDAM) has begun at Tinker AFB, Oklahoma. The first two upgrade kits have been delivered to the Oklahoma City Air Logistics Center, and the initial block of seven B-1s is ...
-
News
European MPA
Alenia and Daimler-Benz Aerospace (Dasa) have signed a memorandum of understanding to develop a "competitive solution" for mission equipment package components for the German/Italian Maritime Patrol Aircraft (MPA) that will replace the Breguet Atlantique 1150. Alenia's avionic systems and equipment division and Dasa's defence and civil systems unit plan to ...
-
News
RAM acquires surface ability
Andrzej Jeziorski/MUNICH Germany's RAM-System is developing a surface-to-surface mode for its Rolling Airframe Missile (RAM), designed for close-in air defence of ships, which will allow attacks to be made on small surface vessels. According to prime contractor RAM-System - a joint venture between Bodenseewerk Gerätetechnik (BGT), its parent ...
-
News
Thais lose deposit on abortive F/A-18 purchase
The Royal Thai Air Force (RTAF) will have to forfeit a $74.5 million deposit on eight new Boeing F/A-18C/D Hornet fighters under a buyback deal struck with the US Government, after a last ditch effort to sell the fighters to Kuwait proved fruitless. Washington had given Bangkok until 1 ...
-
News
Singapore issues letters of request for attack helicopter
Paul Lewis/SINGAPORE Singapore has formally kicked off the tendering process for an attack helicopter by issuing competing European, South African and US manufacturers with letters of request (LoR) for up 20 airframes The LoR has given the three shortlisted bidders until June to submit their offers to the ...
-
News
P&WC steers new turboprop towards C-130/P3 market
Pratt & Whitney Canada is studying the market potential of re-engineing Lockheed C-130s and P-3s with its newly developed PW150 turboprop. Thermodynamically rated at 4,980kW (6,680shp), the engine is the most powerful turboprop ever produced by the Canadian-based manufacturer and would be offered as a replacement for the incumbent ...
-
News
Corporate high flyer
Andrzej Jeziorski/MUNICH The Heinkel He 162 Salamander was a product of desperation. A wooden airframed jet fighter designed in 1944 as the tide of war was clearly turning against Germany, the aircraft - also known as the Volksjäger (people's fighter) - was intended to be mass-produced and then flown by ...
-
News
Counting on Columbus
Andrzej Jeziorski/MUNICH Despite recent fears of delays in the assembly of the International Space Station (ISS), Daimler-Benz Aerospace (Dasa)is still working on the assumption that its key contribution - the Columbus Orbital Facility (COF) - will be launched on time, or perhaps earlier than expected. Russia is running ...
-
News
Picking up the gauntlet
Andrzej Jeziorski/MUNICH Despite a background of optimism generated by the economic revival of Germany's aerospace industry, questions remain about the future of its main showcase, the Berlin International Aerospace Exhibition (ILA) to be held on 18-24 May at Berlin Schönefeld Airport. The European air show circuit is overcrowded, and the ...
-
News
Raytheon modifies F33C
Raytheon has modified a Beech Bonanza F33C as a testbed for NASA's Advanced General Aviation Transport Experiments programme. The aircraft features two flat-panel primary flight displays presenting "highway in the sky" guidance symbology; a real-time graphical weather display; digital datalink; and automatic dependent surveillance-broadcast. Fly by wire decoupled flight ...
-
News
TLM revives Grumman singles
Dave Higdon/WITCHITA TLM Aerospace has acquired the rights to the four-seat Grumman Tiger and Cheetah piston singles, and plans to start production by the year-end at a factory under construction at Martinsburg, West Virginia, in the USA. TLM, a subsidiary of Taiwan's Tong Lung Metal Industries, plans to ...
-
News
Gulfstream/Chrysler launch aircraft management service
Kate Sarsfield/LONDON Gulfstream has teamed with Chrysler Pentastar Aviation to provide an aircraft management service designed to "simplify aircraft ownership" and stimulate business jet sales. Called Gulfstream Management Services, the programme is aimed at new and existing Gulfstream owners and offers a turnkey aircraft service. "We will offer ...
-
News
Lancair picks Avrotech display for Columbia
Lancair has selected an AvroTec multifunction display with Avidyne software for its Columbia 300 light aircraft. The four seat, all-composite Columbia 300 is planned to be certificated in the fourth quarter of 1998. AvroTec will supply the 265mm-diagonal, full-colour, flat panel display, with the control unit integrated into the ...
-
News
IAM union trades its Learjet 35A for a 60
The International Association of Machinists (IAM), the labour union representing US aerospace workers, has traded in its 18-year-old Learjet 35A for a Model 60 built by its members at Bombardier Learjet. With more than 750,000 members scattered across Canada, Guam, Canada and the USA, the IAM's international officers travel ...
-
News
Cessna and Learjet certificate 'superlights'
The era of the "super-light" business jet has arrived, with final certification of the Cessna Citation Excel and full approval for the competing Bombardier Learjet 45, achieved on 1 May. Next begins the delivery race for Cessna and Learjet, both of which boast large order backlogs for their respective products. ...
-
News
717 first flight decision awaits engine testing
Max Kingsley-Jones/LONDON The First flight of the Boeing 717-200 looks set to slip into late July or August, as the US manufacturer waits for BMW Rolls-Royce to complete testing of modifications to its BR715 engines. Although Boeing hopes that there is sufficient cushion in the flight test programme to ...
-
News
Schiphol Airport earns safety black mark from pilots
David Learmount/LONDON Amsterdam's Schiphol Airport has been blacklisted as unsafe by the International Federation of Airline Pilots (IFALPA) for putting pressure on pilots to use runways chosen for environmental considerations rather than flight safety. IFALPA chief Rob McKinnis says that the Federation is concerned that environmental lobbies will ...