Fixed-wing – Page 1255
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No European airlift delight
Sir - Your Comment "Strategic retreat" (Flight International, 12-18 February, P3) and the story "UK slashes FLA [Future Large Aircraft] numbers" in the same issue (P5) both allude to a forthcoming Lockheed C-141-replacement programme. While the C-141 is due to be replaced by 2006, there is not, and ...
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IAI considers joint AEW bid for Australia and South Korea
Israel Aircraft Industries (IAI) is considering tendering for South Korea's pending airborne early-warning (AEW) competition offering an Elta Phalcon phased-array radar version of the Airbus Industrie A310, as well as the Boeing 767. IAI has already teamed with Raytheon E-Systems to offer an Elta radar-equipped A310 for Australia's ...
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Python 4 heads for Chile and Singapore air forces
The Chilean and Singaporean air forces are on the brink of acquiring the Rafael Python 4 infra-red dogfight missile, with some indications that missile deliveries may have already begun. The image above appears to show a modified Northrop F-5 carrying four Python 4 missiles. The aircraft strongly resembles the Chilean ...
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Italy cuts projects to protect EF2000 interest
Italy's Tornado is in the frame for cuts The Italian air force has cut back severely its expenditure on proposed procurement projects, to ring-fence funding for the Eurofighter EF2000 programme. The definitive version of the Italian defence ministry's budget has been settled, according to defence sources, with EF2000 funding being ...
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Policymeeting holds key to FLA future
The European Future Large Aircraft (FLA) project could be caught in the turmoil of a UK general election, and possibly a defence review, unless the FLA Policy Group meeting on 11 March agreed a way forward on the struggling programme. The meeting follows a tri-lateral National Armament Directors ...
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Going Dutch
The third quarter of 1997 will see the first Royal Netherlands Air Force (RNlAF) squadron begin conversion to Lockheed Martin F-16s upgraded under the Mid-Life Update (MLU) programme. The introduction of the MLU aircraft, with its associated weapons and systems, will dramatically broaden the operational flexibility of the almost 20-year-old ...
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French figures show improvement as shake-up looms
As it prepares for its biggest shake-up since the Second World War, the French aerospace industry has revealed a significant improvement in performance for 1996, with sales growing by more than 7% and a similar improvement forecast for this year. The growth was led by airframe manufacturing, with ...
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R-R is buoyant on future growth
Rolls-Royce has rounded off an upbeat round of financial results from the world's main aero-engine suppliers with a steady performance from its aerospace division, and the promise of further growth this year. Sales from the R-R aerospace division climbed by nearly one-quarter in 1996 to come close to ...
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RAF VC10 refuels C-130J during tests
Lockheed Martin has completed initial aerial-refuelling tests with the C-130JHercules 2 transport. Two flights were conducted in February, during which a C-130J-30 was refuelled by a Royal Air Force British Aerospace VC10 tanker. On the first test, 2t of fuel was transferred from the VC10 as the C-130J was manoeuvred ...
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Philippines air force plans to extend life of F-5A fleet
The Philippine air force plans to bolster and extend the life of its fleet of Northrop Grumman F-5A/Bs as interim lead-in fighters, until a replacement trainer aircraft can be funded. Despite the F-5's advanced age and problems with airframe cracking, the air force wants to retain the type, ...
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Turkish F-4s arrive in Israel for upgrade
The first two Turkish air force McDonnell Douglas F-4s to be upgraded by Israel Aircraft Industries (IAI) arrived at IAI's Lahav plant on 24 February. The two aircraft will be prototypes for a $600 million project which will involve the modification of 54 aircraft. Thirty-two aircraft will be ...
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Bell bid for IAR majority gives Dracula extra teeth
Bell Helicopter Textron has submitted a $70 million bid for a majority stake in Romanian manufacturer IAR, lending renewed credibility to talks on licensed production of a Bell AH-1 Cobra attack-helicopter derivative known as the Dracula. Neculai Banea, president of Transylvania-based IAR, says that Bell wants the 70% ...
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Changing the guard
Taiwan's Aerospace Industrial Development Corporation (AIDC), once assured of a steady income from the country's defence ministry, is struggling to become a private corporation by the end of 1999. Its survival is at stake. Government funding for the AIDC-built Indigenous Defence Fighter (IDF) will dry up by the ...
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Next Hubble service mission will also repair insulation blankets
The next planned Space Shuttle mission to service the Hubble Space Telescope in orbit, in December 1999, will involve repairs to damaged insulation blankets over the telescope's central equipment bays. The damage was probably caused by ultraviolet radiation and atomic oxygen. The damage to the area of the ...
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F-22 cost overruns 'higher than US Air Force estimated'
A REVIEW BY THE US Office of the Secretary of Defense (OSD) has concluded that cost overruns on the Lockheed Martin/Boeing F-22 programme could exceed US Air Force projections by $2 billion. An Air Force Joint Cost Estimating Team (JET) reported in December 1996 that the F-22 programme ...
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US Air Force F-16s drop JDAMS in early weapons test
OPERATIONAL US Air Force pilots have dropped Joint Direct Attack Munitions (JDAMs) in an early look at the performance of the weapon, now under development by McDonnell Douglas (MDC). The JDAM is a tailkit which adds global-positioning/inertial-navigation guidance to 900kg bombs. During the so-called integrated-systems experiment at Nellis ...
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Australia signs P-3 maritime marketing upgrade agreement
Australia's Department of Defence has signed an initial agreement with Raytheon E-Systems to market internationally upgrades for the Lockheed Martin P-3 and other types of maritime-patrol aircraft. The agreement, the first of its kind between Australia and a foreign company, is intended to promote the Royal Australian Air ...
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Lockheed Martin eyes joined-wing tanker/transport model
LOCKHEED MARTIN plans to fly a small-scale radio-controlled model of a joined-wing design being considered for its proposed New Strategic Aircraft (NSA). The NSA is being studied as a private-venture replacement for US Air Force Boeing KC-135 tankers and Lockheed C-141 transports, to enter service early next century. ...
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British Aerospace is on course to consider vertical integration
British Aerospace chief executive Sir Richard Evans, has conceded that the group, which confirms that it has again held talks with GEC, may be forced to consider vertical integration, depending on the outcome of defence restructuring in France. "We're talking to everyone in Europe at the moment, and ...
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Jordan receives C-130H
Jordan has taken delivery of a Lockheed Martin C-130H from the US Government, the latest part of a military-aid package donated by Washington to boost the Arab nation's defence forces. Jordan now has five C-130s and is hoping for more, according to its air force chief-of-staff Maj Gen Mohammad Ababneh. ...