Fixed-wing – Page 1174
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F-A-18E/F: Starting block
When it comes to the US Navy's plans for the Boeing F/A-18, the E/F upgrade is only the start. Having tackled the original airframe's deficiencies, the navy is now keen to get to grips with the limitations of the current avionics. "We used around 90% of the C/D's avionics ...
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F/A-18E/F: Production partners
Every F/A-18E/F begins life at Northrop Grumman's El Segundo plant, once home to a North American P-51 Mustang production line, and just a stone's throw from Los Angeles International Airport, California. The E/F programme sustains a 25-year long relationship between the team members that began with Northrop's YF-17 lightweight ...
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F/A-18E/F: Preparing to serve
Painted on the tail of a development aircraft at the US Navy's NAS Patuxent River flight test centre in Maryland, the unofficial designation "KF/A-18" says much about the Super Hornet's increased capabilities. "I never thought I would ever see a buddy refuelling store on an F/A-18," says Capt Jeff ...
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F/A-18E/F :Transition issues
Introducing an improved product while sustaining demand for its predecessor is a difficult task for any manufacturer. It is particularly so for fighter producers, dealing with protracted procurement processes, long production lead times and intense international competition. Introduction of the E/F has led inevitably to questions about Boeing's approach ...
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Tailboom stabiliser on the way
A US company has signed an agreement to commercialise a NASA-developed tailboom modification that improves helicopter stability and reduces tailrotor power requirements. Everett, Washington-based Boundary Layer Research (BLR) plans to certificate the modification - upper and lower strakes running the length of the tailboom on one side only - ...
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Russians consider industry restructure
Alexander Velovich/MOSCOW The Russian government is considering moves toward a merger of the nation's two fighter manufacturers, MAPO and Sukhoi. An order for the restructuring is reported to be awaiting approval at prime minister Yevgeny Primakov's office, say reports in the Russian media. The government set up an ...
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Taiwan LANTIRN
Taiwan has awarded Lockheed Martin a $106 million contract for 20 Sharpshooter targeting pods and 20 Pathfinder navigation pods to equip its fighter aircraft in a US Air Force foreign military sales deal. The pods are to be integrated with Taiwan's Lockheed Martin F-16s by 2001. The systems are a ...
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Whither Russia's Air Force?
Little wonder that few Westerners understand Russia. In the month that its air force finally reveals the closest thing it has to a fifth-generation fighter aircraft (MAPO's Article 1.44), and hints at grandiose plans for new fighters, missiles and long-range bombers, it also announces swingeing manpower cuts that include some ...
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Israel's BVR unveils training system
Israeli avionics firm BVR has developed an advanced training avionics suite system (ATAS) that will allow low cost basic trainers to emulate the characteristics of more advanced combat aircraft during the training of fighter pilots. The ATAS is based on a cockpit upgrade with the installation of multifunction displays ...
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F119 powers up for F-22 production standard
Pratt & Whitney plans to deliver its first full production standard F119 engine for the Lockheed Martin/Boeing F-22 fighter test programme in November. The powerplant, the 18th of 26 flight test engines the company will deliver by the end of 2000, will form P&W's production endurance demonstration engine. "It ...
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Indian AEW project set back by fatal crash
India's project to develop an indigenous airborne early warning (AEW) aircraft has been dealt a severe blow with the crash on 11 January of a British Aerospace 748 Airborne Surveillance Platform, about 50km (27nm) from Chennai (Madras), which killed all four crew and four scientists on board. The loss ...
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US KC-135 crash
A US Air National Guard Boeing KC-135 tanker crashed near Geilenkirchen, Germany, on 13 January, killing all four crew members. The aircraft was returning to base after refuelling a NATO Boeing E-3 and had made a go-around. The aircraft, with 18,000 litres (4,750USgal) of fuel, exploded on impact and burned ...
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India reveals light helicopter project
Hindustan Aeronautics (HAL) has unveiled details of a study for a light observation helicopter (LOH) design under way for the Indian forces. The 3t-class aircraft, which will have a maximum payload of 1,500kg (3,300lb) and a design ceiling of around 19,000ft (5,800m), will be in a similar class to the ...
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UK eyes new Phoenix partners
Tim Ripley/LONDON The British Army is reassessing its operational requirements for unmanned air vehicles (UAVs), including enhancements to the Marconi Phoenix and a possible purchase of new unmanned systems, after its first Phoenix exercises in Canada. The army is carrying out an operational requirements study for two additional UAV ...
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Northrop Grumman ships first rebuilt Prowlers to US Navy
Paul Lewis/WASHINGTON DC Northrop Grumman has delivered to the US Navy the first of 20 rebuilt and upgraded EA-6B Prowlers, planned to equip five new expeditionary squadrons, as part of a wider programme of rolling improvements to sustain its fleet of electronic warfare aircraft. The EA-6s are being ...
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RAH-66 Comanche team sticks with Longbow radar
Ramon Lopez/WASHINGTON DC Boeing Sikorsky, the prime integrator for the US Army's RAH-66 Comanche armed reconnaissance/attack helicopter, is to retain the Lockheed Martin/ Northrop Grumman Longbow millimetre-wave radar after failing to find a viable alternative. The search for another fire control radar solution for the RAH-66 was directed ...
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Russian air force chief calls for major overhaul programme
Lyubov Pronina/MOSCOW The Russian air force is in need of overhaul this year to improve its combat effectiveness, with a substantial equipment modernisation programme, the development of new tactics and armaments and a revised staff structure heading the list of requirements, says air force chief Col Gen Anatoly Kornukov. ...
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F/A-18E/F: Going for Growth
During the 16 years it has been in US Navy service, the Boeing F/A-18 Hornet has, on average, "grown" by more than a kilogramme a week. Most of that growth has been through improvements - new systems and capabilities - but there have been performance penalties to pay. By ...
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F/A-18E/F: Changing Roles
What the F/A-18E/F is - and what it is not - is best understood within the context of the programme's history, as the Super Hornet is the survivor of one of the most confused periods in US naval aviation planning. A decade ago, the carrier air wing envisaged for ...
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F/A-18E/F: Balanced Upgrade
Bigger does not automatically mean better. While, externally, the E/F is essentially a C/D scaled up by 25%, there is more to the Super Hornet design than the photographic enlargement of the original F/A-18 blueprints. "The E/F is a balanced design involving five variables: range, payload, bringback, survivability and growth," ...