All news – Page 7077
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News
End of an era
The demise of the BAe/AI(R) Jetstream 41 commuter airliner represents another step in the (often involuntary) rationalisation of the regional-turboprop market. It also, however, raises serious questions about the future of the lower end of regional-airline operations. There can be little surprise in British Aerospace's decision to cease ...
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Northrop Grumman bids for A-10 work
A NORTHROP Grumman-led team has formally joined the competition to provide long-term contractor support of the Fairchild A-10 Thunderbolt, to be used as a close-air-support/forward-air-control aircraft by the US Air Force until at least 2028. In late April, Lockheed Martin announced its bid for the A-10 work, with ...
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B-1B upgrade is accelerated
The US Air Force is pulling forward critical elements of its conventional-mission upgrade for the Rockwell B-1B bomber, to allow it to deploy the aircraft in the role earlier than originally anticipated. The fast-track plan involves the inegration of the Raytheon-made ALE-50 towed-decoy system (TDS) and the McDonnell ...
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UK launches new Strategic Defence Review
The UK Government has launched a Strategic Defence Review (SDR), expected to run for about six months, to re-examine the role, structure and equipment programme of the country's armed forces. The Government says that, with the exception of the Trident ballistic-missile submarine force, all programmes will be examined. ...
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US Air Force awards dual-range work
A McDONNELL Douglas/ Hughes team is poised to receive a $25 million US Air Force contract to test advanced flight controls for a dual-range air-to-air missile under the Air Superiority Missile Technology (ASMT) programme. Raytheon, meanwhile, has received a $600,000 contract to study even more advanced concepts under ...
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Cuts threaten Japanese air force procurement projects
Japanese military-aircraft procurement plans face chaos because of pending cutbacks in defence expenditure within the next five-year mid-term plan. The Japan Defence Agency (JDA) is faced with having to make critical decisions on future acquisition priorities before the end of the current five-year plan in 2000. Included in ...
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USAoffers to switch two USAF JSTARS to NATO operations
NATO OFFICIALS have been briefed on the USA's "Fast Track" offer to provide two Northrop Grumman E-8 Joint Surveillance Target Attack Radar System (JSTARS) aircraft off the US Air Force production line for the Alliance Ground Surveillance (AGS) programme. The two E-8s would be paid for by the USA. ...
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ABL team holds missile-tracking talks with USN
The Boeing-led Airborne Laser (ABL) team is in talks with the US Navy over the collection of missile-tracking data using Northrop Grumman F-14Ds equipped with infra-red search and track (IRST) systems. The YA-1A laser platform, a converted Boeing 747-400F, will be fitted with six Lockheed Martin IRST sensors ...
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Elbit wins Dracula
Elbit Systems will supply the avionics for the Romanian air force Dracula attack helicopter, a version of the Bell AH-1W SuperCobra to be built in Romania. The avionics will be made in Romania by subsidiary AE Electronics, formed recently by Elbit and Romania's Aerostar. The Dracula will be assembled by ...
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Air drop fatalities
Indonesia's IPTN lost its chief test pilot, Erwin Danoewinata, in a crash of a company CN-235 military transport aircraft. Erwin and five other crew died when the aircraft stalled on 22 May during a trial low-altitude cargo parachute drop. The company blames the crash on a failed parachute. Source: ...
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USN poised for supersonic-target contest
THE US NAVY is expected to initiate a competition in 1998 for a new supersonic sea-skimming target (SSST), needed to test shipboard defences against the Russian Raduga 3M-80 (SS-N-22 Sunburn) anti-ship missile. The USN now uses the AlliedSignal Aerospace Vandal extended-extended range (EER) target, remanufactured from Talos surface-to-air ...
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Service centred
INDEPENDENT BUSINESS-aviation service companies are facing increased competition from the producers of the aircraft they support, as those manufacturers push for a larger share of the after-sales market for maintenance, modification and refurbishment of their products. The major independents are thriving, nonetheless, thanks to strong demand for their services in ...
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Time to stop dreaming
The general-aviation industry in the USA is putting its money where its mouth has been for a long time. It is sponsoring a television-advertising campaign in an effort to revitalise the US pilot population and to reverse a decade-long decline in the number of people learning to fly for pleasure. ...
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MAKing aviation work in the CIS
The CREATION OF THE MAK (Interstate Aviation Committee) in December 1991, as the first intergovernmental body to be formed by the then-new CIS, was an acknowledgement of the need to present a common approach to major questions of aviation among the countries of the former Soviet Union. While most aviation ...
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Sharing safety secrets
In the commercial air-transport world, systems for sharing safety data among airlines and across borders are under construction. The military community, with its more conservative culture, is lagging behind, but there are some signs that firm foundations for pro-active safety exchanges are being laid. Many safety-conscious and commercially ...
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Searching for beginnings
If there are other planets in existence similar to Earth in orbit around nearby stars, are any of them habitable, and could one of them serve as a grand exploration target for the human race? These are two of the questions which NASA will be seeking to answer ...
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Russia gets real
Could the Russian aviation industry at last be on the verge of staging a recovery? The evidence is admittedly still a little patchy, but there are some encouraging signs of life from an industry which was left for all but dead following the unceremonious collapse of the Soviet system six ...
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Kawasaki offers improved BK117
Kawasaki Heavy Industries (KHI) has begun marketing avionics and structural enhancements for its locally built version of the Eurocopter BK117, in an effort to boost sales. In May, the Japan civil-aviation bureau completed type certification of KHI's new active vibration-reduction (AVR) system for the 3.5t-class helicopter. The system ...
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Collins advances Pro Line 21
ROCKWELL-COLLINS has embarked on the next step in development of its Pro Line 21 integrated avionics for business and regional aircraft. The US company is testing prototypes of an advanced processing architecture and is evaluating new human-computer interface concepts in a working cockpit mock-up. Pro Line ...
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IAI mates first Galaxy airframe sections
ISRAEL AIRCRAFT Industries (IAI) planned to complete mating all airframe sections for the first Galaxy mid-sized business jet (pictured here in late April) by the end of May. The first flight is due in late 1997, with certification following a year later. IAI had transferred the first wing to the ...