Fixed-wing – Page 1200
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Calling all choppers
Paul Lewis/GIFU, JAPAN Japan can best be summarised as a geographically compact and mountainous island nation of 120 million inhabitants, the bulk of whom are tightly squeezed into an urban coastal belt. The country therefore presents some fairly unusual challenges when it comes to disaster relief planning, in which ...
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Conair anxious to introduce fire-fighting C-130
Canadian fire-fighting specialist Conair hopes to introduce its first Lockheed Martin C-130 aerial tanker by the start of the 1999 fire season. The Abbotsford, British Columbia-based company says it has been "frustrated" in its efforts to find suitable C-130s, or civil L-100s, for conversion because delays in the development ...
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Rhetoric or reality ?
Douglas Barrie/LONDONIn the wake of two axe-wielding exercises led by the Conservative Government, half-heartedly wrapped in the guise of redefining the strategic role of the UK's armed services, there was concern among the forces that the new Labour Government's defence review would deliver only more of the same. In the ...
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KC-10 Support
The US Air Force has awarded Boeing a $1.5 billion contract to support its 59-strong fleet of KC-10A Extender tankers after a fiercely contested battle with incumbent contractor Lockheed Martin. The work will be managed and performed at the newly opened Boeing Aerospace Support Center at Kelly AFB, San Antonio, ...
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Allison tests X-35 LiftFan
Allison Engine, Rolls-Royce's US engine subsidiary, is testing the fan rig for Lockheed Martin's X-35 Joint Strike Fighter demonstrator's propulsion system at its Indianapolis base. The LiftFan assembly, to be installed behind the cockpit, is the key to the short take-off vertical landing aircraft's vertical landing capability. The clutch and ...
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DarkStar returns to flight
Guy Norris/LOS ANGELES The second Lockheed Martin/Boeing DarkStar Tier III Minus unmanned air vehicle (UAV) finally flew for the first time on 29 June, more than two years after the first was destroyed in a crash at Edwards AFB, California. The crash led to extensive upgrades to the ...
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Second F-22 heads for Edwards flight test effort
The second Lockheed Martin/Boeing F-22 air-superiority fighter is expected to join the US Air Force test programme at Edwards AFB, California, as early as the end of August following a successful first flight from Marietta, Georgia, on 29 June. Designated aircraft 4002, the second F-22 flew 11 days ahead ...
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IPTN Phoenix falls before Australian competition decision
IPTN has abandoned its attempt to sell a variant of the CN-235, the CN-235-330 Phoenix, to the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) to meet the service's requirement for a tactical transport intended to succeed its de Havilland DHC-4 Caribous. The Indonesian aircraft manufacturer is blaming the withdrawal on International ...
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Turkish Phantom
Prime contractor Israel Aircraft Industries is scheduled to start flight tests of the first prototype of the Turkish air force's upgraded McDonnell Douglas F-4 next January. The second prototype will fly two months later. The $600 million project covers 54 aircraft. Thirty-four of them will be upgraded in Israel, ...
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Poland weighs up acquisition of Pakistan's embargoed F-16s
Poland has expressed interest in leasing or buying 28 Lockheed Martin F-16A/Bs originally intended for Pakistan. A Polish delegation has visited the USA to look at the aircraft, which are in desert storage, but it is not clear whether the US Government is in a position to release the embargoed ...
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Tactical tomahawk
The US Navy has awarded Raytheon Systems a $256 million contract for engineering and manufacturing development of the Tactical Tomahawk missile. The award includes a fixed price of $800 million for 1,343 missiles to be built over five years. EMD is set to be completed in 2001, with production beginning ...
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JSF Primes share benefits of Technology maturation effort
Reducing risk is a major objective of the concept demonstration phase of the JSF project. To that end, the programme office is funding technology maturation (TechMat) projects, the results of which are being shared by the two design teams. Among the largest of these, exceeding $100 million, is the ...
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Contractors seek credit for cost initiatives
Industry is hoping to persuade the Government cost-estimating community to change its conservative habits and give credit for the new manufacturing initiatives vital to achieving JSF affordability goals. It is an issue that has dogged the US Air Force's Lockheed Martin/Boeing F-22 programme, with budget watchdogs refusing to factor ...
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B-2 upgrade is behind schedule and short of funding, says GAO
Graham Warwick/WASHINGTON DC More time and money than expected may be needed for the US Air Force to achieve full operational capability with the Northrop Grumman B-2 stealth bomber, says the US General Accounting Office (GAO). A report by the Congressional watchdog says that the upgrade of B-2s to the ...
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Additional Chinooks bound for Australia
Boeing is to provide the Australian Defence Forces with two additional Boeing CH-47D Chinook heavy-lift helicopters as part of a $45 million contract signed on 19 June. The deal covers two of six CH-47Ds that were being built for an unnamed customer which cancelled the purchase. The other four ...
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US Army orders immediate Cobra inspections
Ramon Lopez/WASHINGTON DC All US Army Bell AH-1 Cobra attack helicopters must be inspected immediately for problems that could cause the engine's N2 spur gear to fracture and fail. The safety-of-flight message stops short of grounding the 474 gunships, 34 in the active army and 440 in the ...
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JSF requirements 'still within acceptable limits'
The US Defense Department's Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) programme office is playing down concerns that the differing operational requirements of the three US services and the UK's Royal Navy are threatening to increase the cost of the programme. Most of the worries surround potential changes to the outer mould ...
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Kelowna/Embraer discuss Tucano cockpit upgrade
Canada's Kelowna Flightcraft is in teaming discussions with Embraer on a cockpit upgrade for the Brazilian manufacturer's Tucano turboprop trainer. Flightcraft believes that Latin American interest in a cockpit upgrade that the Kelowna, British Columbia-based company is developing for Bolivia's Lockheed T-33 jet trainers has prompted the approach by ...
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Defining JSF
Requirements and designs are firming up as the US-led Joint Strike Fighter programme takes a major step forward Graham Warwick/WASHINGTON DC With ground tests of the engines for the rival concept demonstrator aircraft now under way, the Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) has taken a major step towards becoming a reality. ...
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Growth Super Puma will challenge S-92
Eurocopter has launched a growth version of its Super Puma transport helicopter, the MkIII, that will bring it closer to matching the new Sikorsky S-92 in the offshore exploration market. The new variant will be ready for European Joint Aviation Authorities certification and delivery at the end of 2001. While ...