Fixed-wing – Page 1217
-
News
A smarter attacker
Allan Winn/DUBAI Ever since the then-Hughes AH-64 Apache entered service with the US Army in 1984, it has been the benchmark against which other combat helicopters are measured. Since then, it has undergone two marque-name changes (first to McDonnell Douglas, then, more recently, to Boeing) and become the most prolific ...
-
News
Shake, rattle and roll
Ramon Lopez/WASHINGTON DC With deployment of the Boeing Sikorsky RAH-66 Comanche not due until the next century, and a conceptual Joint Transport Rotorcraft (JTR) available no earlier than 2015, the US Army and various defence contractors are working to improve the safety, comfort and performance of current-generation military rotorcraft. For ...
-
News
EAI is selected to provide Joint Strike Fighter virtual prototype
Lockheed Martin has chosen visualisation software from Engineering Automation (EAI) for use in the virtual product-development environment being created for the Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) and other advanced projects. EAI's VisProducts software will allow designers at different sites to work collaboratively on digital models. EAI's VisFly software will be ...
-
News
Safer US military
Despite a rash of aircraft accidents during the final weeks of fiscal year 1997, the US military completed one of its safest flying years on record. The accident rate was 1.5 accidents per 100.000 flying hours, unchanged from the previous two years. There were 68 major US military accidents, three ...
-
News
Thai Hornet sting
Thai and US military officials have begun negotiations over the fate of the Royal Thai Air Force's eight Boeing F/A-18C/D fighter aircraft, which Thailand says it can no longer afford. The Thais would like the USA to consider deferring payment or for the US Navy to try to find another ...
-
News
Boeing ponders Chinook cockpit avionics choice
Boeing Helicopters intends to select an avionics subcontractor for the $3 billion Chinook Improved Cargo Helicopter (ICH) programme in the next few weeks, following a bidders' conference early in January. Company sources say that Boeing wants to have identified its avionics provider before the requirements document and engineering and ...
-
News
Russian air force chief overhauls merger plan
Alexander Velovich/MOSCOW Plans to merge the Russian air force with the country's air-defence forces are being overhauled by Col Gen Anatyoly Kornukov, the recently appointed commander-in-chief. Kornukov inherited the restructuring proposals from his predecessor, Col Gen Piotr Deinekin. While Kornukov, a former senior air-defence forces commander, is pushing ahead ...
-
News
US Navy launches study to look into P-3 replacement aircraft
The US Navy has launched studies into a replacement for its Lockheed P-3 maritime-patrol aircraft. Industry was briefed in late January on plans to field a Multi-Mission Maritime Aircraft (MMMA) by 2015, to replace the Navy's land-based P-3s, electronic-intelligence EP-3Es, submarine-communications Boeing E-6s and tanker/transport Lockheed Martin C-130s. The ...
-
News
Tanker savings
The US General Accounting Office claims that the Department of Defense could save as much as $209 million annually in Lockheed Martin C-130 and Boeing KC-135 costs - yet meet all mobility requirements - by requiring the US Air Force to re-organise the aircraft into larger-sized squadrons and wings. The ...
-
News
Australia could issue Air 87 RFP by May
The Australian Army plans to issue a request for proposals (RFP) by May for Phase II of its Air 87 programme to replace six Bell UH-1H Iroquois and 43 Bell 206 Kiowas with a common type. Manufacturers will have "three to four" months to respond. Speaking at a Shephard ...
-
News
France reconsiders multi-year Rafale purchase to aid exports
Julian Moxon/PARIS The French Government is reconsidering approving a multi-year procurement of the Dassault Rafale multi-role fighter in its 1998 defence budget, to bolster the programme's ailing credibility in the export market. Defence minister Alain Richard told the French senate in December that the 1998 defence budget had "no ...
-
News
US Navy eyes unmanned aircraft for utility role
Douglas Barrie/LONDON A vertical take-off and landing support unmanned air vehicle (SUAV) is being pushed as an alternative to a crewed design for the US Navy's future carrier-borne utility aircraft. The USN's Common Support Aircraft (CSA) programme is intended to determine a successor to Northrop Grumman E-2C Hawkeye ...
-
News
USA makes last-ditch ASTOR effort
Douglas Barrie/LONDON A high-level US delegation visited the UK in early January in an eleventh-hour attempt to persuade the Government to procure a variant of the Northrop Grumman Joint Surveillance Target Attack Radar System (JSTARS) to meet its Airborne Stand-Off Radar (ASTOR ) requirement. The delegation, say US sources, ...
-
News
Grob favoured for RAF trainer
Kate Sarsfield/LONDON A battle between the Royal Air Force and the UK's Department of Trade and Industry over the choice of a basic trainer aircraft to replace the RAF's fleet of Scottish Aviation Bulldog T1s has been resolved in favour of the military. The stand-off between the two sides ...
-
News
Marking territory
Paul Phelan/CAIRNS It was clearly strategic planning and global thinking, rather than short-term opportunism in the volatile pilot-training market, which recently impelled British Aerospace to boost its investment in Australian-based pilot-training schools. The training needs of the Asia-Pacific region, despite the recent economic downturn, are considerable, and Australian schools are ...
-
News
Turbine-helicopter deliveries increase
Graham Warwick/WASHINGTON DC Deliveries of turbine-powered helicopters increased in 1997, buoyed by sales of new light single- and twin-engined aircraft. Bell shipped no fewer than 140 of its new single-turbine Model 407s in 1997, while Eurocopter delivered 28 of its new EC135 light twins. Bell led deliveries in 1997, shipping ...
-
News
Brazil cracks the fare nut
Brian Homewood Brazil, a country with some of the highest internal air fares in the world, has taken the first tentative steps towards deregulation by allowing unrestricted charter flights. The Civil Aviation Department (DAC) has given the go-ahead for any nationally-owned company to operate charters on any route ...
-
News
Joint SIGINT test
The US Navy has begun flight testing of TRW's High Band Prototype (HBP), part of the Joint Signals Intelligence (SIGINT) Avionics Family, in a Lockheed EP-3EAries. The Navy plans to deploy the HBP outside the USA in May for more testing. Source: Flight International
-
News
UK Apache CMWS
Lockheed Martin Sanders is to supply its AAR-57 common missile-warning system (CMWS) for integration with GEC-Marconi Avionics' HIDAS defensive-aids system for the British Army's Westland/Boeing WAH-64D Longbow Apache attack helicopters. The contract covers 58 shipsets, each with four passive ultra-violet sensors. Source: Flight International
-
News
Omega purchase
Omega Air finalised the purchase of a former British Army depot site near Fishguard, in Wales, on 21 January. The Dublin, Ireland- based aircraft-leasing company is believed to be planning to construct a 18,500m sq (200,000ft sq) maintenance base for engine overhaul. Source: Flight International