All news – Page 7157

  • News

    RAAF limbers up for air-to-air missile tender

    1997-02-26T00:00:00Z

    The Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) is expected to issue a request for tender (RFT) by mid-year for a short-range air-to-air missile (AAM) for its McDonnell Douglas F-18A/Bs. After months of delay, manufacturers are now confident that an RFT will be forthcoming within the next four months for ...

  • News

    Danger: space ahead

    1997-02-26T00:00:00Z

    More research needs to be done to protect space travellers and their spacecraft from cosmic-ray radiation and debris, says the US National Research Council (NRC). Two recent NRC reports indicate that NASA does not yet fully understand the effects of long-term exposure to space radiation, and that agencies worldwide need ...

  • News

    Mystery in the East

    1997-02-26T00:00:00Z

    Far from encouraging foreign airlines to invest in India's burgeoning civil-aviation industry, the much-heralded new aviation policy recently announced by India's United Front Government has confused and bewildered overseas investors. India's powerful Cabinet Committee On Foreign Investment (CCFI) has announced that foreign airlines will no longer be permitted ...

  • News

    Today tackles tomorrow

    1997-02-26T00:00:00Z

    DESIGNERS OF TOMORROW'S fighters are already wrestling with an unusual problem - obsolescence. Not of the aircraft as weapon systems, but of key components, principally in the avionics. The problem is being made worse by the protracted development and production timescales caused by reduced defence budgets, and by the decline ...

  • News

    Belgian police receives first MD Explorer

    1997-02-26T00:00:00Z

    Belgium's national police force, the Gendarmerie, has taken delivery of its first McDonnell Douglas Helicopter Systems MD Explorer helicopter. A second will be delivered in June, and the force also has an option on a third. The Explorer will replace four ageing Sud-Aviation Alouette IIs and an Aerospatiale Puma. The ...

  • News

    Extra investigates turboprop EA 400

    1997-02-26T00:00:00Z

    German aircraft manufacturer Extra Flugzeugbau is investigating a turboprop version of its six-seat EA 400 tourer machine. According to Extra, the idea has attracted strong interest from potential customers, particularly in the light of the US Federal Aviation Administration's forthcoming repeal of the ban on commercial, instrument-flight-rules (IFR), ...

  • News

    Lockheed Martin and Transfield tackle Jindalee problems

    1997-02-26T00:00:00Z

    Lockheed Martin has formed a software-engineering joint venture with Transfield Defence Systems (TDS) to take over management responsibility of Australia's troubled Jindalee Operational Radar Network (JORN) programme. By June, the yet-to-be named joint venture will draw up a programme to complete the over-the-horizon radar-surveillance system. If the proposal ...

  • News

    Saab penetrates Japanese market

    1997-02-26T00:00:00Z

    Saab has made what it describes as a significant breakthrough in the Japanese market, with the placing of an order by the Japanese transport ministry for two Saab 2000s. The order, worth $60 million, is for the first two of what is expected to be a total of five new ...

  • News

    E&S sells visuals to BA and Thomson

    1997-02-26T00:00:00Z

    EVANS & SUTHERLAND (E&S) has received contracts from British Airways and Thomson Training & Simulation (TTS) to supply a total of four commercial flight-simulator visual systems. TTS has ordered ESIG-3350 image-generators for installation on Airbus A330 and Boeing 777 simulators under construction for Thai Airways international. The order ...

  • News

    Boeing picks Hughes maintenance trainers for F-22 programme

    1997-02-26T00:00:00Z

    HUGHES TRAINING (HTI) is to provide maintenance-training devices for the Lockheed Martin/Boeing F-22 fighter. The $22 million development award from Boeing follows receipt of a $28 million contract to supply the initial suite of F-22 pilot-training devices (Flight International, 19-25 February). The maintenance-trainer contract covers the supply of ...

  • News

    Tayside success

    1997-02-26T00:00:00Z

    Tayside Aviation has landed a ú6 million ($9.7 million)contract from the UK Ministry of Defence to provide flying scholarship training for up to 520 people a year. The five-year deal, which includes an option for a two-year extension, starts on 1 April. The Dundee, Scotland-based flying school has been conducting ...

  • News

    TTS moves Heathrow into its Orbit

    1997-02-26T00:00:00Z

    THOMSON TRAINING & Simulation (TTS) is to relocate its Orbit Flight Training subsidiary from East Midlands Airport to a site near London Heathrow. As part of the move, planned for early 1998, the independent pilot-training centre has sold its two Boeing 737 simulators to Continental and Southwest Airlines. ...

  • News

    Reflectone wins deal

    1997-02-26T00:00:00Z

    REFLECTONE HAS won a $34 million contract to supply the South Korean army with flight simulators for the Bell AH-1F Cobra attack and Sikorsky UH-60P Black Hawk transport helicopters. The simulators will be installed in a new army-aviation training centre. Each will have a five-channel Evans & Sutherland ESIG-4500 visual ...

  • News

    Japan launches M5

    1997-02-26T00:00:00Z

    Japan's Institute of Space and Astronautical Sciences launched the first M5 solid-propellant three-stage satellite booster from Kagoshima on 12 February. The 30m-high three-stage vehicle placed the 1,800kg Muses B radio-telescope satellite into orbit. The world's largest radio telescope will be created, combining radio waves detected by the Muses ...

  • News

    Kurs docking system fails again

    1997-02-26T00:00:00Z

    The Russian Soyuz TM25 manned ferry vehicle - launched on 10 February - was docked manually to the Mir space station on 12 February, after the latest failure of the Kurs automatic docking system. The erratic system, which has failed several times previously, is being phased out, and ...

  • News

    Things Fall Apart

    1997-02-26T00:00:00Z

    If the USA remains the last political superpower, then it must be seen, also, as the last aerospace superpower. Just as the Byzantine Soviet empire has been torn apart by centrifugal forces, so has its aerospace industry been shattered, perhaps beyond hope of repair, by the collapse of the old-style ...

  • News

    UK/France consider joint air-dropped-weapon programme

    1997-02-26T00:00:00Z

    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 ...

  • News

    F-22 makes progress towards first flight

    1997-02-26T00:00:00Z

    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 ...

  • News

    Lack of flying hours may force Russia to ground MiG-31s

    1997-02-26T00:00:00Z

    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 ...

  • News

    General Electric-led JSF team pushes ahead

    1997-02-26T00:00:00Z

    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 ...