All news – Page 7217
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News
Lockheed Martin completes final tests on C-130J stick-pusher
Lockheed Martin is completing final tests of a stick-pusher system designed to beat unexpected stall characteristics with its C-130J Hercules II. The discovery of unusual stall behaviour has delayed delivery of the first aircraft to the Royal Air Force and Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF), and forced Lockheed ...
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Budget cuts threaten to ambush South Africa's Cheetah C upgrade
Douglas Barrie/LONDON Budget cuts have forced the South African Air Force (SAAF) to consider cancellation of the last, and potentially most critical, element of its Cheetah C upgrade project - the acquisition of a beyond-visual-range (BVR) air-to-air missile (AAM). The SAAF's Cheetah C fighter upgrade programme ...
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Ericsson plans flying AESA demonstrator
Andrzej Jeziorski/ MOLNDAL Ericsson Microwave Systems is planning to have a flying demonstrator of its active electronically scanned array (AESA) radar operational in 1999. The company says that it is keen to find partners to continue the project, but will start to build the demonstrator on ...
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First digital F-14B is deployed at sea
The first US Navy unit equipped with digitally upgraded Northrop Grumman F-14Bs was due to be deployed to the Mediterranean Sea for fleet exercises on 3 October. The event marks the initial operational capability for the upgraded F-14B, which was sanctioned as a programme in December 1991. The ...
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F/A-18E/F tests show 'falling-leaf' immunity
Flight testing of the Boeing F/A-18E/F has reached the half-way point and demonstrated the aircraft's immunity to the "falling-leaf" departure problem which it suffered by earlier models, according to the test team reporting at the 41st Society of Experimental Test Pilots meeting in Beverly Hills, California, on 25-26 September. ...
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F-16 spin-recovery technique invented
A new spin-recovery technique for later-generation, Block 40/50, Lockheed Martin F-16s equipped with inlet-mounted pods is to be written into the aircraft's flight manual after investigation work by the US Air Force's F-16 Combined Test Force at Edwards AFB, California. The test team discovered that inlet stores, such ...
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Pilot reflects on first flight of Raptor
Initial pilot reaction to the Lockheed Martin/Boeing F-22 Raptor is that is an aircraft "quick in roll and acceleration, yet very stable with excellent control" in formation flying and approach configuration, says chief test pilot Paul Metz. Describing the 58min first flight on 7 September, Metz says that ...
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Calspan and UK agency aim to create JSF in-flight 'simulator'
Guy Norris/BEVERLY HILLS The UK Defence Research Agency (DRA) and Calspan, a US-based flight-test support company, are to develop the DRA's British Aerospace Harrier Vectored-thrust Aircraft Advanced Control (VAAC) tests into a flight-control development aircraft for the Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) project, it was revealed at the 41st ...
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Full-scale KTX-II launch waits for US green light
Paul Lewis/SINGAPORE Samsung and Lockheed Martin are hoping to launch full-scale development of the KTX-II advanced-trainer/light-combat aircraft by early November, provided that the programme receives final US Congressional blessing. The South Korean Government is awaiting a US export licence to be granted before proceeding with the ...
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Russians order French equipment for MiG-ATs
Alexander Velovich/MOSCOW MAPO-MIG has agreed to buy Snecma/Turboméca Larzac 04-R20 engines and Sextant Avionique avionics for the first ten MiG-AT advanced trainers, in an agreement which may be underwritten by Fr400 million ($67.5 million) in French Government export guarantees. The Russian air force has declared its ...
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F-117s fly again
The US Air Force's remaining 53 Lockheed Martin F-117 stealth fighters have been returned to flight status after the US Air Force lifted its grounding order which resulted from the crash on 14 September of an F-117 during an air show near Baltimore, Maryland. The aircraft broke apart and crashed ...
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USAF considers DC-X and X-33 for military-spaceplane testing
Boeing and Lockheed Martin have received US Air Force contracts to begin developing technologies and concepts for a military spaceplane. The Integrated Technology Testbed programme is aimed at demonstrating military-spaceplane operational concepts early next century. Boeing's demonstrator concept uses a re-usable rapid-response launch vehicle, derived from ...
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Fitters take over Polish reconnaissance
The Polish air force is now using some of its Sukhoi Su-22M4 Fitters to fulfil the reconnaissance role previously carried out by its Sukhoi Su-20s and Mikoyan MiG-21R Fishbeds, both types having been withdrawn from service. The MiG-21R was retired in July. The Fitters are being flown with the KKR-1 ...
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Aged to perfection?
Dave Higdon/WICHITA Flying from Clark County Airport in southern Indiana to a Kentucky state park a mere 110km (60nm) away hardly seemed a fair way to sample a Raytheon Beech Bonanza B36TC - let alone this loaded, 50th-anniversary edition. Certainly nothing to challenge the six-seat Bonanza's big speed, ...
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Schools in
Efforts to raise air-transport industry standards in China have not only been confined to the pilot, but have extended across the workforce. New training initiatives and investments have been targeted at high-level executives, middle-level managers, operations staff, down to line mechanics. China's call for help has been answered ...
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Cooking up business
The move to ATR 72s has so far been successful for Mount Cook Airline's crews and passengers Paul Phelan/CAIRNS A fleet of five to six Boeing 737-400s or Airbus A320s, and 13-14 Aero International (Regional) (AI(R)) ATR 72s, calculates one air-transport analyst, would far better fit Air New ...
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Misguided weapons
The Chinese air force's guided-weapons-procurement programmes mirror its fixed-wing projects in their profusion, and the leisurely pace of development. Like its combat-aircraft projects, the air force's air-launched-weapons procurements have relied heavily on licensed and unlicensed manufacture of Western designs while also pursuing the development of indigenous designs. ...
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Cultural revolution
The Chinese air force struggles on with its long march to modernity Douglas Barrie/London On paper, the Chinese air force is by far the greatest of Asia's Tigers, with its vast fleet of combat aircraft. In reality, it is closer to a woefully inadequate circus of museum pieces. ...
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Private pioneers
Tim Furniss/LONDON Sixteen organisations in Argentina, the UK and the USA are competing for a $10 million prize to be won by becoming the first to finance privately and build a spacecraft which can carry three people on a suborbital flight to an altitude of 100km. The prize ...
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Regional rewards
Europe's regionals meet in Italy on8-10 October, with much to be satisfied about Embraer's EMB-145, in British Regional Airways livery, is a direct rival for the Bombardier Canada Julian Moxon/PARIS Each year, it seems that the European regional-airline industry has better news to report. Traffic growth, ...