Fixed-wing – Page 1251
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Raising the tempo
The Eurofighter EF2000 programme is about to enter what may prove to be its most critical phase, with funding and workshare again presenting the stumbling blocks. Despite this, however, the project remains robust in many areas. The four Governments involved in the project need, by the end of ...
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Centre of excellence
The market for cargo conversion of widebodied aircraft has been booming recently, as suitable aircraft have become available at the "right price" to make conversion programmes cost-effective. Although the Boeing 747 has been the prime candidate, the European specialists have developed conversions for the smaller, twin and tri-jet widebodies, the ...
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Italy cuts F-104 upgrade numbers
The Italian air force has slashed the number of Lockheed F-104 Starfighters which it intends to put through what is effectively a continuing service-life-extension programme. The air force originally planned to implement an upgrade on 106 of its ageing F-104s, to cover the delays in the entry into ...
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Bidders line up for F-18E/F sensor work
THREE BIDDERS have declared their intentions to compete in a fly-off to equip the McDonnell Douglas (MDC) F-18 strike aircraft with an upgraded night navigation and targeting sensor. A team composed of the USA's Northrop Grumman and Israel's Rafael is expected to compete against Lockheed Martin and Hughes ...
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Chile cleared to receive data on F-16 and F-18
CHILE IS TO receive technical information on the Lockheed Martin F-16 and McDonnell Douglas (MDC) F-18, but the US Government remains undecided on whether it is willing to sell the aircraft to Chile. The move marks a shift of policy: the Carter Administration banned the sale of advanced ...
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Lifting the loads
Given its rapid growth, observers would be forgiven for thinking that Atlas Air is alone in providing wet-lease freighter capacity and that the business is a "new fashion". In fact, this type of enterprise, (described variously as supplemental, contract, wet-lease and chartering), has existed since the Berlin Airlift ...
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Virgin Executive Aviation takes off
The Virgin Group has joined forces with the McCarthy leisure-investment group to form Virgin Executive Aviation, a corporate-jet and helicopter charter company aimed at exploiting European business and leisure-travel markets. The new company also plans to offer feeder services into London's Heathrow and Gatwick airports for Virgin Atlantic's ...
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R-R, Lyulka Saturn form joint venture
Rolls-Royce and Russia's Lyulka Saturn are to form a joint-venture company to develop an industrial-gas-turbine engine based on the design bureau's AL-31 powerplant, which is fitted to the Sukhoi Su-27 fighter aircraft. The 16mW-power AL-31ST will be marketed by Lyulka Rolls-Royce, and will use advanced combustion system technology ...
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Force multiplier
FAR FROM viewing the Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) as a possible cheaper alternative to the Lockheed Martin/Boeing F-22, the US Air Force believes that deployment of the F-22 air-superiority fighter is a prerequisite for development of the multi-role JSF. "If we fail to deliver and deploy sufficient F-22s, ...
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Lockheed 'can claw back' Raptor cost
Lockheed Martin is confident that it can contain the price of the Lockheed Martin/Boeing F-22 Raptor air-superiority fighter, despite warnings from the US Department of Defense (DoD) that the US Air Force faces additional costs running into billions of dollars. F-22 programme manager Tom Burbage says cost-cutting initiatives ...
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KTX-II funding frozen as delays continue
Lockheed Martin has told South Korea that it intends to halt funding for the KTX-II advanced jet-trainer/ light-combat aircraft at the end of June, in the face of continuing Korean Government indecision on launching full-scale development of the programme. The US manufacturer is understood to have decided finally ...
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Last of a breed
THE ROLL-OUT OF THE Lockheed Martin F-22 marks the end of an era. It is the last of the "cold-war" fighters; probably the last brand-new combat airframe with a brand-new engine to be flown this century; probably the last to embody "all the technology we could afford" instead of the ...
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Arsenal upgrades Molniya R-60 missile
Ukrainian guided-weapons specialist Arsenal has unveiled an upgraded seeker for the Russian Molniya R-60 (AA-8 Aphid) infra-red (IR) short-range air-to-air missile, giving it the capability to engage frontal targets. Previous variants of the R-60 did not have an all-aspect engagement capability - the early models were restricted to ...
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Allied near to completing F-22...
AlliedSignal is in "the final throes" of high-altitude testing of the auxiliary-power generating system (APGS) for the Lockheed Martin F-22, in a bid to clear the full envelope before the fighter has its first flight, planned for the end of May. Revealing details of the integrated APGS on ...
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Turkish F-4s arrive in Israel...
The first of 54 Turkish air force McDonnell Douglas F-4 Phantoms being upgraded by Israel Aircraft Industries (IAI) were flown to Tel Aviv in March. The upgrade includes the installation of a new Elta radar. They first few aircraft will be modified by IAI in Israel, with the rest going ...
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Australia impounds Papua New Guinea-bound Mi-24s
Australia has intervened in a pending dispute between a UK military consultancy and the Papua New Guinea (PNG) Government over ownership of an arms shipment, including four Russian military helicopters, now on Australian soil. Australian prime minister John Howard says that the diversion of the Antonov An-124, which ...
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Apache scalped by Rooivalk in Malaysia
Malaysia and South Africa are finalising a deal covering the purchase of an initial eight Denel CSH-2 Rooivalk attack helicopters. If signed, it would mark the Rooivalk's first export order. Malaysia has given the clearest indication to date that it has opted to purchase the Rooivalk, rather than ...
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A changing challenge
It is now a foregone conclusion that the aircraft the F-22 was designed to outperform will never enter service, with the West having seen the last of the big MiGs. With the fall of the Soviet Union, however, the USAir Force has begun to see potential threats to its air ...
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Working together
THREE COMPANIES came together to develop the F-22 in the belief that their combined resources would be required to see the programme through to production. They are being proved right. So far, the F-22 industry team has invested about $2 billion on the programme, estimates programme ...
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Common modules take control
ADVANCING THE STATE of the art in system design and integration has enabled the F-22 team to meet demanding weight and cost budgets "flowed down" to the subsystem level by the integrated product-team structure. Many of the traditional boundaries between systems have be blurred in a bid to ...