Fixed-wing – Page 1124
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Dasa pursues partners for Mako launch by year-end
Andrew Doyle/MUNICH DaimlerChrysler Aerospace (Dasa) is stepping up talks with potential industrial partners for its proposed Mako light combat aircraft/advanced trainer. It hopes to launch full-scale development later this year. The aircraft must be launched by the end of this year if significant inroads into the target market are to ...
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Taking breath
In the headlong rush to consolidate its defence industry in the search for efficiency, the USA may just have blinked. Having set itself on a steadfast course towards a winner-takes-all competition for one of the largest combat aircraft programmes in history - the Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) - the US ...
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Comment3...
Comment3 Headlines USA reconsiders JSF policy4 Dragonair plans 26-aircraft order Dash 8-Q400 delays lengthen5 Lockheed Martin eyes job cuts A400M engine rivals in joint talks 6 MDH to take over former owner's site Air Transport Bombardier picks regional engines8 Crew drills highlighted at Little Rock hearing BM starts CityLine services9 ...
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Work begins on US airborne laser
Ramon Lopez/WASHINGTON DC Boeing Wichita has started the 18-month conversion of a 747-400 freighter into the YAL-1A Airborne Laser (ABL) prototype for the US Air Force. Tests will conclude with firings against simulated theatre ballistic missiles targets in 2003. Laser testing as well as lethality and vulnerability assessments ...
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Dasa to launch A300-600 cargo conversion challenge
Andrew Doyle/MUNICH DaimlerChrysler Aerospace (Dasa) Airbus is to launch an A300-600 passenger-to-freighter conversion programme, once again pitching it in direct competition for cargo work with fellow Airbus Industrie partner BAE Systems Aviation Services. The German company will formally announce its plans to expand into the A300-600 market next month, say ...
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Crash spate leads to Taiwan air force safety investigation
The Taiwanese Ministry of National Defence plans to set up a task force to investigate recent air safety problems in the Republic of China Air Force (RoCAF). The decision is understood to have been triggered by concerns following the latest two crashes, in November and December, of Dassault Mirage ...
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Thai F-16 obtains US Congress thumbs-up
The Thai air force says its proposed order for about 18 ex-US Air Force Lockheed Martin F-16A/Bs has been approved by the US Congress. The air force is still considering its budget projections for funding the purchase. Partial financing is expected to come from a refund programme on Boeing ...
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Tiger helmet and engine agreed
France and Germany have placed a series of contracts following the Eurocopter Tiger attack helicopter production go-ahead, signed in June last year. Sextant is to supply the French Ministry of Defence with 160 Topowl monocular helmet-mounted sights/displays. A binocular Topowl, developed with German avionics company VDO-L, has been chosen ...
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Tornado fires AMRAAM for first time
The first launch of a medium-range, radar-guided Raytheon AIM-120 AMRAAM has been made from a Panavia Tornado F3 as part of the fighter's capability sustainment programme (CSP). The CSP started in December 1996 and is designed to ensure the Tornado F3 retains a frontline capability until the type is replaced ...
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Turkey buys Elop systems for RF-4Es
Turkey is to equip its McDonnell Douglas RF-4E reconnaissance fighters with Elop's long-range oblique photography system (LOROPS). The deal is worth $50 million to the Israeli company which beat a competing bid from Lockheed Martin Fairchild Systems. The LOROPS consists of a camera system - including a charge-coupled device camera, ...
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VECTOR programme takes shape
Guy Norris/LOS ANGELESFirst details of the Vectoring, Extremely short take-off and landing, Control Tailless Operation Research (VECTOR) programme are starting to emerge as the US-German team begins work on returning the X-31 Enhanced Fighter Manoeuvrability testbed to airworthy condition. The aircraft, which has been in storage at Boeing's Palmdale site ...
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Asian Aerospace 2000 - Showcase for recovery
Asian Aerospace 2000 will reflect renewed confidence in the Asia-Pacific region as it recovers from economic crisis Andrzej Jeziorski/SINGAPORE The tenth Asian Aerospace show, between 22 and 27 February, in Singapore, comes at a time of increasing optimism that the region's economies are recovering from the turmoil of ...
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Eurocopter on the up
Eurocopter took 382 orders last year while deliveries were up 20% on 1998 across all markets to 241 machines. In the civil and parapublic sector, which grew by 5%, the Franco-German manufacturer accounted for 45% of all deliveries. Its defence business took 40% of the market. Turnover, however, was ...
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C-130X close as C-5 engine is delayed
Paul Lewis/WASHINGTON DCThe US Air Force is set finally to release a request for proposals (RFP) by March for the Lockheed Martin C-130X avionics upgrade, but selection of a new engine for the Lockheed C-5A/B Galaxy transport has been delayed. According to the USAF's Air Systems Command, a revised draft ...
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Exint cleared for AH-64 as production starts
UK advanced design firm Avpro has cleared its Exint transport pod for use with the Boeing AH-64 Apache. Certification to carry personnel is required. The pylon-mounted Exint is designed for combat search and rescue and special forces insertion. Avpro director Mike Ryan says that 17 countries have expressed an ...
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F-16 output to be increased
Paul Lewis/WASHINGTON DC Lockheed Martin plans to ramp up production of the F-16C/D again from 2001, the revival in domestic and international fighter sales over the last 12 months having reversed a six-year period of decline. "The last year has been very good in terms of sales announcements ...
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Ukraine agrees to Russia re-arming in the Black Sea
Russia has received permission from Ukraine to re-equip Black Sea Fleet Aviation Command's one strike unit with Sukhoi Su-24M Fencers. The Black Sea Fleet is based at Sevastopol in the Crimea, part of Ukraine. The Gvardeyskoye-based 43 naval attack aviation squadron has operated ageing Soviet-era Sukhoi Su-17M3s which have ...
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Kamov makes plans to beat Ka-226 backlog
Kamov plans to deliver "at least 14" Ka-226 twin-engined helicopters within two years to meet its growing order backlog. This year the Russian manufacturer's Orenburg-based Strela plant will build one prototype and five pre-production helicopters which will be shipped to the Kamov plant near Moscow in mid-2000. The first ...
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Boeing bounces back with improved profit
Boeing has gone some way towards putting the problems of recent years behind it, bouncing back to financial form with a net profit of $2.31 billion for 1999, up 106% on the previous year. Turnover rose by 3% to $58 billion, while operating margins improved from 2.8% to 5.5%. ...
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Australia drops EW project as prelude to defence cuts
Peter La Franchi/CANBERRA Australia has shelved its Project Echidna requirement for an integrated family of electronic warfare (EW) self-protection suites for Australian Defence Force aircraft. The move is included in a review of all defence acquisition projects worth more than A$50 million ($33.3 million). The review, established in mid-December ...