Fixed-wing – Page 1276
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Re-engined AH-1S expected to fly by year-end
AN ISRAELI AIR FORCE prototype of the Bell Helicopter Cobra AH-1S, re-engined with a version of the General Electric T-700-701C, is due to start demonstration flights before the end of the year. The air force has decided to replace the original Avro-Lycoming T-53 engines to improve the Cobra's ...
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Kaman flies SH-2G composite blades
Kaman Aerospace says it has successfully flight-tested second-generation composite main rotor blades (CMRB2s) for its SH-2G Super Seasprite helicopter. The CMRB2s are designed for improved durability and lower life-cycle costs, compared with existing metal blades. "Flight tests indicate that the CMRB2 'rotor' has four-times the life of a ...
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Eurocopter pessimistic
Julian Moxon/PARIS EUROCOPTER SAYS that it faces stagnation in the helicopter market "for the next five years", with a virtually no-growth forecast in military business until well into the next century. Military sales account for the largest element of the Franco-German consortium's balance sheet, but ...
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Kuwait to buy armed UH-60L Black Hawk
Ramon Lopez/WASHINGTON DC KUWAIT IS EXPECTED to complete the purchase of an armed version of the Sikorsky Aircraft UH-60L helicopter within the next several months, say industry officials. In 1994, the Pentagon offered Kuwait 16 McDonnell Douglas Helicopters AH-64A Apache gun-ships, plus 500 Hellfire laser-designated-anti-tank ...
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UH-60Q Dustoff under development
SIKORSKY AIRCRAFT hopes that a UH-60Q medical evacuation helicopter two-year qualification programme will lead to the purchase of more than 300 UH-60Q Dustoff rotorcraft lasting through to the end of the century. In February, The US helicopter maker won a $14.6 million Phase II contract from the US ...
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Luftwaffe Tornado ECRs to lose IIS reconnaissance mission
THE GERMAN AIR force's Panavia Tornado ECRs are to lose their secondary reconnaissance capability as their Honeywell infra-red imaging system (IIS) is transferred to new reconnaissance pods. The ECR variant's primary defence-suppression mission is too demanding to allow an additional, secondary, reconnaissance role, according to German air force ...
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TWA bomb evidence mounts up
SUSPICIONS THAT A BOMB brought down Trans World Airlines Flight 800 on 17 July have been reinforced by additional traces of explosive residue and a Boeing analysis of a centre fuel-tank explosion. Accident investigators and federal law-enforcement officials still cannot say, that the TWA Boeing 747-100 was downed by a ...
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Sukhoi Su-37 display steals the show
Not content with introducing the "Cobra" manoeuvre into the display vocabulary, Sukhoi has gone a step further with an even more stunning manoeuvre from its thrust-vector-modified Su-27M. The aircraft, dubbed the Su-37, stole the show with a display which saw it entering a Cobra-like manoeuvre, only to continue beyond the ...
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MDC brings YC-15 out of the desert
THE McDONNELL DOUGLAS (MDC) YC-15 is being brought out of mothballs, after almost 15 years of desert storage, to act as an advanced-technology test bed for the US Air Force and MDC. Likely uses include advanced flight- and propulsion-control technology. The aircraft went into storage at Davis Monthan AFB, Arizona, ...
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Dornier and Thomson sign radar MoU
DORNIER AND THOMSON-CSF have signed a memorandum of understanding to co-operate on the provision of future synthetic aperture radar (SAR)-based airborne reconnaissance systems. The initial target for the Franco/German partnership is a proposal to supply the SARTO all-weather reconnaissance system for German air force Panavia Tornados. Dornier's Information and Communications ...
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More join race to win Australian AEW competition
AUSTRALIA'S airborne-early-warning (AEW) competition is intensifying, with Boeing proposing development of a new 737-based AEW aircraft and Northrop Grumman teaming with Lockheed Martin to offer the AEW&C variant of the C-130J. Boeing is considering developing an AEW derivative of the new 737-700 twinjet, as a low-cost solution to ...
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UK backs the Eurofighter
THE UK GOVERNMENT has committed "in principle" to the production phase of the Eurofighter EF2000 just weeks before two German Government committees sit to deliberate a critical funding decision for the fighter. The German budget and defence committees are due to sit later this month to consider the ...
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US about-turn on MoU signing threatens launch of KTX-II
THE US DEPARTMENT of Defense (DoD) has at the last minute withdrawn a memorandum of understanding (MoU) which was to have been signed by South Korea. The move threatens the Samsung KTX-II advanced trainer/light combat aircraft launch. According to informed US sources, the DoD's Defence Security Assistance Agency ...
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Boeing offers B-52 update
BOEING IS TO submit a revised proposal to the US Air Force by the end of this month to re-engine B-52H bombers with leased Rolls-Royce RB.211-535E4 turbofans and struts. An unsolicited proposal was submitted in July, but Boeing Defense &Space president Jerry King confirms: "We are in the ...
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US DoD extends European JSF briefing
THE US DEPARTMENT of Defense (DoD) has briefed seven European nations, including Eurofighter partners Germany, Italy and Spain, as well as Australia and Canada on its Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) project. The UK is the only foreign partner in the JSF programme. The DoD's JSF programme office provided ...
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BAe briefs Germany on Storm Shadow
BRITISH AEROSPACE has briefed the German defence ministry on its Storm Shadow derivative of the Matra Apache stand-off missile in the wake of its victory in the Royal Air Force's conventional stand-off missile (CASOM) programme. BAe officials visited Bonn in August. Germany has a similar requirement to the ...
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Snakes alive! What will they lose next?
The Exhibition police station, manned by the Ministry of Defence Police, is the repository for Lost and Found Property during the Show. Normally they re-unite owners with their wallets, passes, cameras and mobile phones - including one which was left on the roof of the owner's car as he ...
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Portillo calls for foreign tie-ups
UK Defence Secretary Michael Portillo underlined the need for international collaboration in the aerospace industry during his visit to Farnborough yesterday. Portillo says the British industry must find more and new ways of collaborating in Europe and the US to capitalise on its strengths. "The way of the ...
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Radar footprint
The mystery of the radar-evading capabilities of the super-secret Northrop Grumman B-2 Spirit bomber intensified yesterday when Farnborough air traffic controllers reported they had tracked the aircraft during its brief appearance at Farnborough on Monday. A National ATC spokesman says the Siemens Plessy Watchman radar on the show site ...
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Hawkeye in bid for radar paltform role
Northrop Grumman's E-2C Hawkeye is to continue with its sales offensive in southern Europe in spite of the company's link-up with Lockheed Martin, announced this week at Farnborough, to market alternative airborne early warning (AEW) platforms. "The Hawkeye is going to Madrid, Ankara and Athens after Farnborough," says Robert ...