Fixed-wing – Page 1227
-
News
Royal Thai Air Force unwraps extended-range Paveway LGB
Paul Lewis/UTAPAO The Royal Thai Air Force has unveiled an extended-range development of the Texas Instrument GBU-12/Paveway II laser-guided bomb, equipped with extendible wings and a global-positioning-system (GPS) antenna. The strap-on Longshot modification kit is claimed to extend the range of the 227kg munition to up ...
-
News
Born-again trainer
The Phoenix Fanjet could provide ab initio to ATP training in one aircraft Dave Higdon/Lakeland Canadian John McIntee and his American ally, Ray Johnson, believe that they have an aeroplane for which the time has come, a special-purpose aircraft for a special mission: training airline pilots - ab ...
-
News
Hughes HISAR is used to monitor German traffic
Hughes Aircraft has teamed with German company Traffic 2000 to market the Hughes Integrated Surveillance and Reconnaissance System (HISAR) for applications in ground surveillance and environmental monitoring in Europe. The synthetic-aperture radar (SAR) was demonstrated in Germany in July during a sales tour with a HISAR-equipped Raytheon Beech ...
-
News
Alberta goes into Phoenix sales negotiations
Alberta Aerospace is in "serious negotiations" with three major flight-training operations, two in the USA and one in the UK, to sell the Phoenix Fanjet turbofan-powered trainer. The Phoenix, formerly the Promavia Jet Squalus military trainer, is being certificated by the Canadian company for the airline-pilot-training market. Calgary-based ...
-
News
BAe and Dassault open door to joint venture
Dassault Aviation confirms that it is "moving closer every day" to British Aerospace on joint development of combat aircraft. There is no hint of a merger, but the two are understood to have "opened the door" to a joint venture, building on a memorandum of understanding signed in 1996. ...
-
News
Data Sciences closes on airline order after RAF FEST success
Ian Sheppard/Cranwell Data Sciences is close to securing the first airline customer for its low-cost full-motion Flight Engineering Systems Trainer (FEST), following the launch of the personal-computer-based simulator with the Royal Air Force. FESTproject manager Neil Baker says that "detailed discussions" are being held with a ...
-
News
War in the financial dimension
The Royal Air Force faces one of its biggest battles as the UK Government finalises another defence review Douglas Barrie/LONDON What do politicians do when they finish one defence review? They start another one. The UK's armed forces are now bracing themselves for the outcome of what is ...
-
News
Lockheed Martin outlines air-mobility
Graham Warwick/WASHINGTON DC Lockheed Martin believes that next-generation military-transport aircraft will use commercial engine and cockpit technology, but will require unique features precluding the adaptation of civil-freighter designs. The next military transport will have to be produced for around the same $100 million price tag as ...
-
News
Apache Logistics
The US Army and Team Apache Systems, a joint venture involving Boeing, Lockheed Martin and Corpus Christi Army Depot, are negotiating a contract under which the team will provide support for the army's Boeing AH-64A/Ds. Source: Flight International
-
News
USN/USMC team pinpoints F-18 'falling leaf' rescue manoeuvre
A combined US Navy and Marine Corps test team has identified the warning signs which will help pilots of Boeing F/A-18s avoid the danger of losing the aircraft during a "falling-leaf" departure from controlled flight. The team estimates that at least eight F/A-18s have crashed because of this ...
-
News
GAO says that DoD should scale back aircraft purchases
The US General Accounting Office (GAO) says that the US Department of Defense cannot afford to buy or upgrade nearly 8,500 aircraft at a cost of $335 billion between 2000 and 2015, and that it should be more realistic about what it can afford. "The DoD needs to ...
-
News
Tornado storms on until 2018
The Royal Air Force will run its Panavia Tornado GR4 fleet until 2018, indicating that procurement of its replacement, the Future Offensive Air System (FOAS), is slipping. The RAF had been working toward procurement of the FOAS and replacement of the Tornado GR4 by 2013-15, but industry and ...
-
News
Congress bolstersUSArmy Chinook upgrade
The US Congress has provided a fillip to the US Army's a ambitions to upgrade at least 300 aging Boeing CH-47D Chinook transport helicopters, by providing additional funding for the project in its proposals for the 1998 budget. A planned $29 million request from the army for the ...
-
News
Dutch begin IRIS-T F-16 trials
The Royal Netherlands Air Force has begun evaluation flight-testing an IRIS-T short-range high-agility air-to-air missile (AAM) seeker coupled with a helmet-mounted sight. The tests are part of an air force evaluation programme intended to lead to the procurement of a replacement for its AIM-9 Sidewinder dogfight AAMs as ...
-
News
Outrider is grounded pending accident probe
Contractor testing of the Alliant Techsystems Outrider tactical unmanned air vehicle (UAV) has been suspended pending completion of an investigation into the crash of a prototype during a flight evaluation on 15 October at Hondo, Texas. It was the final test of the UAV with the McCulloch 4318F ...
-
News
Turkey eyes Phalcon for AEW requirement
The Turkish air force has evaluated the Elta Phalcon airborne-early-warning (AEW) aircraft, and has asked for detailed proposals for the purchase of up to four aircraft. The service has been briefed on the Phalcon and, according to some Israeli sources, it had a chance to evaluate its capabilities ...
-
News
UK contracts out helicopter training
In what is the first major contract awarded under the UK Ministry of Defence's Private Finance Initiative, the Royal Air Force is to farm out aircrew training for its fleet of medium-support helicopters to CVS Aircrew Training, which is a consortium of CAE Electronics of Canada and UK companies Vega ...
-
News
New Zealand air force delays CT4 upgrade plans
New Zealand has delayed plans to upgrade the Royal New Zealand Air Force's (RNZAF) CT4B primary-trainer fleet by replacing its 17 155kW (210hp) trainers with the later 225kW CT4E variant. The RNZAF has instead named the CT4's manufacturer, Hamilton-based Pacific Aerospace (PACL), as preferred tenderer for all levels ...
-
News
Italian defence budget favours procurement
The Italian defence ministry has attempted to ring-fence key procurements in its planned 1998 budget, with personnel cuts and shorter tour lengths preferred to cutting acquisition projects. Funding for the Eurofighter EF2000 is set at L1.169 billion ($678 million), out of a total defence budget of L31,000 billion. ...
-
News
TAG wins Farnborough lease
Techniques d'Avant-Garde (TAG) Group to is to convert the UK's Farnborough Aerodrome into a dedicated business-aviation airport following the decision by the UK Ministry of Defence to award the Luxembourg-based holding company a 99-year lease. The aerodrome, which will continue to be the venue for the biennial Farnborough ...