Fixed-wing – Page 1220
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US makers can offer helicopters to Turkey
US makers can offer helicopters to Turkey The Clinton Administration is to allow US helicopter makers to bid for a contract potentially worth $3 billion to supply attack helicopters to Turkey. Approving the bids, US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright says: "We seek to support this important NATO ...
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Honeywell flight-tests magnetic head tracking
Honeywell and the US Army have completed flight testing of a magnetic head-tracker in the Boeing AH-64 attack helicopter. The company says that its advanced metal-tolerant tracker (AMTT) exceeded the performance of the electro-optical sensor now used in the AH-64 to slave the gun and pilot's night-vision sensor to crew ...
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Forecasts 98': Defence
Douglas Barrie/LONDON While 1998 may hold little excitement for European and US combat-aircraft manufacturers at home, the year promises some interesting battles in what are increasingly becoming crucial export markets. By the end of 1998, Lockheed Martin may have a clear-cut view of the limits of the export ...
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Bombardier's turn-around on Super Tucanos annoys Brazil
Graham Warwick/WASHINGTON DC Brazil has threatened to suspend trade negotiations with Canada in retaliation for Bombardier's decision to switch from the Embraer EMB-314 Super Tucano to the Raytheon T-6A Texan II turboprop trainer for its NATO Flying Training in Canada (NFTC) programme. The Canadian company says that it ...
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Economic crisis delays Thailand F/A-18 purchase
Thailand plans to delay its purchase of eight Boeing F/A-18C/Ds by three years because of the country's economic crisis. A team from the Royal Thai Air Force plans to visit Boeing in mid-January in a bid to re-negotiate the $392 million contract, signed in 1996, which now calls for delivery ...
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Hughes wins Danish ATC training deal
Hughes Training's UK arm has won an $8 million contract to supply Denmark's civil-aviation administration with an air-traffic-control (ATC) training system for installation at its Copenhagen Airport academy. The system will include 34 radar-simulator positions, five aerodrome trainers and an ATC visual tower simulator. The contract marks the first ...
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R-R expands in Far East
Rolls-Royce is to conclude a new industrial joint venture with Malaysia early in 1998, linked to the sale of Trent engines to Malaysia Airlines. R-R and British Aerospace have also submitted proposals for the overhaul and repair of Adours used in Malaysian air force BAe Hawk trainers. Source: ...
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Smiths VADR
The US Army has installed the first production version of the Smiths Industries crash-survivable voice and data recorder (VADR) on a Boeing AH-64D Longbow Apache attack helicopter. The VADR will be standard on the UK's WAH-64. Source: Flight International
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F-117 error
The crash of a Lockheed Martin F-117 stealth fighter near Baltimore, Maryland, was probably caused by a maintenance error, according to the US Air Force's accident investigation. The crash occurred as the F-117 was participating in a local air show on 14 September. After a portion of the left wing ...
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Dasa struggles to gain support for AT-2000 definition phase
Paul Lewis/Singapore Daimler-Benz Aerospace (Dasa) is facing an uphill battle to drum up international support for its proposed AT-2000 advanced jet trainer, ahead of the start of a planned year-long definition phase. Following the conclusion of an initial conceptual study at the end of July, Dasa is preparing ...
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A TAD more
Lockheed Martin has won a $100 million foreign-military-sales contract from the US Army to build 30 Target Acquisition Designation Sight/Pilot Night Vision Sensor (TADS/PNVS) systems for installation on Netherlands Boeing Apache AH-64 attack helicopters. Source: Flight International
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Commander grounds crash-plagued Russian air force
Alexander Velovich/moscow A one-week ban on all flights of Russian air force aircraft "-except those directly connected to combat duty" has been ordered by Commander in Chief Gen Piotr Deinekin. The order was issued after an air force Antonov An-12 collided on landing with a civil Mil Mi-8 ...
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UAE orders Mirage 2000-9s and goes ahead with upgrade work
Julian Moxon/Paris The United Arab Emirates (UAE) is to procure 30 Dassault Mirage 2000-9s and associated weapons, as well as an upgrade package for the air force's Mirage 2000s. The deal, worth between Fr17 billion ($2.9 billion) and Fr20 billion, includes conversion of the UAE's 33 existing Mirage ...
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Over the ocean in a DC-4
Paul Duffy/SHANNON At 08.58 Greenwich Mean Time (GMT) on 4 May, 1997, Swissair flight 4001 lifted off from Shannon's Runway 24, outbound for New York, with a refuelling stop scheduled at Gander. You might be forgiven for questioning the need to refuel, but this was no ordinary flight ...
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Eurocopter wins big German helicopter order
The German interior ministry has placed a DM220 million ($124 million) order for 22 new Eurocopter helicopters to modernise the border-guard fleet. The order includes 13 AS365 Dauphin N4s to satisfy a light transport helicopter (LTH) requirement, and nine more EC135s, with two options, to meet a requirement for ...
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US Navy records SLAM-ER success
A US Navy Boeing Stand-Off Land Attack Missile-Expanded Response (SLAM-ER) successfully hit a target on San Nicolas Island in the Point Magu Sea Test Range off the California coast on 10 December. The test flight, launched from a Boeing F/A-18C/D, was the third and most complex yet in the ...
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Multiple engine failure blamed for An-124 Irkutsk accident
Alexander Velovich/Moscow Multiple engine failure immediately after take-off caused the fatal crash of a Russian air force Antonov An-124 Ruslan on 6 December in Irkutsk. The investigation commission says that, based on data from flight recorders, "-between three and 11 seconds after the take-off, engines number three, two ...
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Italy ponders AMX disposal
Andrea Spinelli/GENOA The Italian air force is considering selling off some of its Alenia/Embraer AMX fighter aircraft as it struggles to rationalise the number of variants of the type in the fleet and to improve its poor availability. The AMX disposal option has emerged from the highest echelons ...
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Safe USAF
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 aircraft major accident rate was 1.5 accidents per 100,000 flying hours, which is unchanged from the previous two years. There were 68 major ...
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Philippines awaits best offer as fighter contenders line up
Paul Lewis/Singapore The Philippines is shortly to issue a best-and-final request for tender (RFT) to a "shortlist" of six competing fighter manufacturers, in what is proving to be increasingly drawn-out selection process. A Philippine air force technical committee has completed its evaluation of competing types and had been ...