Fixed-wing – Page 1191
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Radar contenders make final bids at show
Contenders for Britain's £727 million ($1.1 billion) airborne stand-off radar (ASTOR) programme will be making final pitches at Farnborough for the closely fought contract. The UK Ministry of Defence is due make its mind up "by the end of the year" on the programme, which was identified as a ...
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Crash avoidance system testing gets under way
Flight testing of an Automatic Ground Collision Avoidance System (AGCAS) which could eliminate 95% of military accidents involving controlled flight into terrain (CFIT) is under way in the USA. The system has been installed on a Lockheed Martin Block 50 F-16D assigned to the US Air Force Flight Test ...
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Workshop
-Pemco World Air Services will maintain three Boeing MD-11s operated by World Airways. Two of the aircraft will be maintained at the company's Dothan, Alabama facility, while work on the third will be accomplished at the company's new maintenance site in Victorville, California. World is the launch customer for the ...
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Northrop Grumman reorganises after failure of merger
Northrop Grumman is moving to cut costs and reorganise in the wake of the failed merger with Lockheed Martin. The aim is to slash annual operating costs by $300 million, partly through a realignment of operating units. While the company is planning a large number of redundancies, these are ...
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Japan looks at Eagle engine swap
The Japan Air Self-Defence Force (JASDF) is considering an industry proposal to re-engine its Boeing/Mitsubishi F-15J/DJ Eagles with the General Electric F110-129 turbofan powerplant, as part of a planned forthcoming upgrade of the fighter. Mitusbishi Heavy Industries (MHI) has been conducting initial design work for an F-15 upgrade since ...
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Daewoo buzzes for Woong Bee
Daewoo Heavy Industries (DHI) is gearing up to begin production of the KT-1 Woong Bee turboprop basic trainer at a new plant, as South Korean air force operational testing of a fifth and final prototype nears completion. The South Korean conglomerate has built a 15,600m² (168,000ft²) facility at Sachon ...
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Bidders revise AEW offers as South Korea delays
A revised line-up is emerging for the stalled South Korean airborne early warning (AEW) competition, reflecting developments in contests now under way in Australia, Greece and Turkey. Before the programme was delayed by the country's economic crisis, South Korea had shortlisted three contenders for its AEW requirement: Boeing's 767 ...
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Lockheed Martin delivers first RAF C-130J
Lockheed Martin plans to deliver around 30 C-130Js by the end of the year, following the handover of the first aircraft to the Royal Air Force at Marietta, Georgia, on 24 August. The company also plans to complete re-engineering of the C-130J assembly line by the end of the year, ...
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PZL-Okecie aims upgrade Orlik
Andrzej Jeziorski/MUNICH PZL-Okecie is taking advantage of the Polish air force's continuing dilemma over its choice of advanced jet trainer to propose further orders and upgrades for the PZL-130 Orlik turboprop trainer. According to Okecie, discussions are being held with the air force about shifting more of the ...
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Australia poised to reveal stand-off weapons plans
Australian defence minister Ian McLachlan is expected to unveil proposals soon for the acquisition of a new family of air-launched stand-off weapons for the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) in a procurement project known as Air 5398. The statement, being made at ministerial level because of concerns that the ...
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JSF X-35 remains on schedule despite late controls change
Graham Warwick/WASHINGTON DC Lockheed Martin says it is on schedule to fly the X-35 Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) concept demonstrator aircraft (CDA) in 2000, despite a late change to the fly-by-wire flight control computer. An advanced computer under development by Lockheed Martin Controls will now be used instead of the ...
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Take your partners
Andrzej Jeziorski/MUNICH While Western Europe moves towards an integrated European aerospace and defence company, manufacturers in former Communist Eastern Europe must decide how they will survive in a market dominated by giants. Clearly, the companies cannot continue in their present form, and they cannot survive alone. In Poland ...
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First Course
Julian Moxon/PARIS It was settled on a Sunday in late July over a bottle of France's best wine and a "piéce de boeuf". At the end of the luncheon, Aerospatiale president Yves Michot and Lagardère co-president Philippe Camus shook hands on a merger that will change forever the face ...
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Ninety year after Cody
Howard Gethin and Allan Winn/LONDON The 24 October 1908 edition of The Automotor Journal (which was shortly afterwards to spin off its "Aeronautics" pages as the world's first aeronautical weekly, Flight), was less than flattering in reporting the first true flight of a heavier-than-air aircraft on British soil. The ...
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Signs of hope
Howard Gethin/LONDON For the Russian military aviation industry, things look a little brighter than they did two years ago. For the first time in several years, Russia has ordered new military aircraft (albeit only a handful) and the manufacturers have flown new designs, with the tenuous promise of meaningful ...
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Orbital timebomb
Tim Furniss/LONDON Safety concerns are mounting over the de-orbiting of the Mir space station next June and an international debate has now begun on how to dispose safely of the flagship of Russia's aerospace industry. While Russia embarks this month on reducing Mir's orbit from its present 450km, ...
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Affordable AEW
Graham Warwick/WASHINGTON DC Guy Norris/SEATTLE Boeing's Airborne Warning and Control System (AWACS) with its distinctive rotodome, whether mounted on a 707 or 767 based airframe, is likely to be the last of the large, expensive surveillance platforms. While the USA is looking towards space-based surveillance in the long term, ...
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Too much, too late
Ramon Lopez/WASHINGTON DC The US government's unexpected opposition to Lockheed Martin's planned $12 billion acquisition of Northrop Grumman led to the deal's demise, but the so-called "merger mania" evident since the end of the Cold War is now expected to produce a wave of consolidation among smaller, second-tier US ...
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UAV breaks record with transatlantic crossing
An uninhabited aerial vehicle (UAV) completed a 3,200km (2,000nm) transatlantic flight on 21 August using only 6 litres (2USgal) of fuel during the 26h crossing. The record flight was achieved by an Aerosonde "robotic" aircraft built by composite manufacturing specialist RnR Products of Milpitas, California. It was developed over ...
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Boeing Delta III explodes on maiden flight
Tim Furniss/LONDON Boeing's first Delta III commercial booster exploded on its maiden flight about 70s after launch from Cape Canaveral, Florida, on 26 August. The Hughes PanAmSat Galaxy X satellite was lost in the $277 million failure. Boeing said that the Delta III began to malfunction at T+55s ...