Fixed-wing – Page 1218
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P&W's Eagle soars to bolster perch in overhaul business
Guy Norris/LOS ANGELES Pratt & Whitney expects to see its engine-services sales reach $1 billion this year as its Eagle Services business continues to expand in the repair and overhaul sectors. Eagle Services generated roughly $600 million in 1996, representing around 10%of P&W's sales, but will have added another $400 ...
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Snecma returns to profitability
Snecma president Jean-Paul Bechat says that the group is back in profit and may not need to pursue its long-running call for fresh cash from the French Government. He also confirms that the re-organised group is keen to grow. Final figures for 1997 are not yet available, but Bechat ...
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South Africa lines up three contenders for fighter requirement
South Africa is expected to issue formal requests for information for its future combat-aircraft requirement to British Aerospace/Saab, Daimler-Benz Aerospace (Dasa) and Dassault in March or April. The Dasa-led AT-2000 advanced trainer, the BAe/Saab JAS39 Gripen and Dassault Mirage 2000 are the three types shortlisted to meet its air ...
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Brunei clears deck for BAe deal
Paul Lewis/SINGAPORE Royal Brunei Armed Forces defence planners are expected to focus their attention on concluding a deal for ten British Aerospace Hawk 100/200 trainer/light-combat aircraft, after signing an order with GEC-Marine for three missile-armed frigates. The planned $300 million purchase of six Hawk 100s and four single-seat ...
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Lockheed Martin plans C-130J world sales tour
Lockheed Martin will launch a world tour with the C-130J in February in a bid to stimulate sales for the improved Hercules transport aircraft. The 15-week tour will be conducted in five stages, using a US Air Force aircraft which is not involved in the continuing commercial-certification flight-test programme. ...
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Iryda teeters as Mielec decides to sue Polish defence ministry
AndrzejJeziorski/MUNICH Polish aircraft manufacturer PZL-Mielec is suing the country's defence ministry over its alleged failure to stick to the terms of a contract to upgrade the I-22 Iryda advanced-jet-trainer. While Mielec declines to comment on the case, the ministry says that the manufacturer is claiming Pzl17.7 million ($5.5 million) in ...
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Lockheed Martin will offer Elta radar for Israeli air force F-16
Lockheed Martin is to offer the Elta El/2032 multi-mode pulse-Doppler radar as part of its F-16 bid for the Israeli air force's $2 billion fighter-procurement competition. The Israeli air force, say sources close to the competition, has made it clear that installing the El/2032 on the F-16 is a priority ...
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Danish Challenger
Denmark has purchased a special-mission Bombardier Challenger 604, with options on two more, to replace the air force's Gulfstream IIIs. Bombardier Services will equip the aircraft for maritime-surveillance, search-and-rescue, VIP-transport and medical-evacuation missions and will train pilots. Source: Flight International
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Boeing tests F-22 radar against T-33 target
Boeing is evaluating the radar cross-section (RCS) of a Lockheed T-33 which will act as a calibrated airborne target during tests of the Northrop Grumman APG-77 radar under development for the Lockheed Martin/Boeing F-22 Raptor fighter. "We hung the T-33 in our compact range chamber and took measurements across a ...
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Launching forward
Graham Warwick/WASHINGTON DC Lockheed Martin/Boeing's F-22 represents the pinnacle of US military-avionics development, but the air-superiority fighter is not scheduled to become operational until 2005. Meanwhile, manufacturers have begun development of the next generation of avionics, for the Joint Strike Fighter (JSF), which, probably optimistically, is scheduled to enter service ...
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The generation gap
Douglas Barrie/LONDON Fifth-generation fighter, second- generation cockpit - what's the point? So goes the succinct view of no less than Col Gen Anatoly Sitnov, Russian defence ministry acquisition chief, in considering Russia's future combat-aircraft programmes. Sitnov's barbed comment was directed at the Sukhoi S-37 forward-swept-wing multi-role fighter prototype, but it ...
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USAF investigates interoperable C-130 upgrade
An Upgrade of the US Air Force's newer Lockheed Martin C-130 Hercules transports to a common configuration, tentatively dubbed the C-130X, is now being studied in an bid to improve interoperability. The USAF operates different standards of C-130E and H, and wants to rationalise its fleet around two variants: ...
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Eurocopter predicts that Asian crisis will bring order cancellations
Eurocopter president Jean-Francois Bigay is forecasting cancellations and order delays as a result of the continuing economic crisis in Asia. Orders for 15 civil helicopters from South Korea and Thailand have already been put on ice. The warning came as the Franco-German company announced that, in 1997, it achieved ...
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ADAM studies supersonic seat
The US Air Force has launched a fully instrumented Advanced Dynamic Anthropomorphic Manikin (ADAM) from a multi-axis seat-ejection sled travelling at Mach 1.05 in the New Mexico desert. The objective was to test propulsion systems and stabilisation, and to determine how high-speed ejection affects aircrew, as part of the ...
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IPTN service centre
Allison Engine has named Indonesia's IPTN as an approved authorised maintenance centre for the Model 250 turboshaft engine used in commercial and light military helicopters. Source: Flight International
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APR-48A order
Lockheed Martin Federal Systems has won a $94 million contract from the US Army to manufacture 222 radar-frequency interferometer (RFI) systems for integration on the Boeing AH-64D Apache Longbow attack helicopter. The RFI, which is designated the APR-48A, is a passive, all-weather radar detection system. The RFI would be used ...
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Fifth SU-27IB flies
The fifth Sukhoi Su-27IB fighter-bomber variant of the basic Su-27 Flanker has been flown from Sukhoi's Novosibirsk production site. The Su-27IB(Su-34) programme remains one of the few Russian air force combat-aircraft projects still receiving state funding. The Su-27IB is earmarked to replace the Su-24 Fencer in the strike role. Source: ...
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JT8D-200 gives new life to 707
Pratt & Whitney has signed an agreement with the Seven Q Seven group to certificate the JT8D-200 turbofan for re-engined Boeing 707s and, possibly, KC-135 military variants. The "7Q7" programme could potentially involve the re-engineing of up to 500 in-service 707-320s and KC-135s with the 98kN (22,000lb)-thrust JT8D-219, says ...
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Boeing aims for C-17 cost cuts
Guy Norris/LOS ANGELES Boeing is studying a further round of cost-cutting measures for the C-17 transport in 1998 as part of efforts to generate further sales to the US Air Force as well as to potential export customers such as Japan, Saudi Arabia and the UK. The unit fly-away ...
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Turkish F-5 upgrade programme gets under way
Paul Lewis/SINGPAORE The Turkish air force's first upgraded Northrop F-5A/B fighter is expected to begin flight testing 18 months after the service concludes a contract with the recently selected Israel Aircraft Industries (IAI)-led consortium. IAI and its partners, Elbit and Singapore Technologies Aerospace (ST Aero), will begin contractual ...