Fixed-wing – Page 1287
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Mistral-armed Gazelles enter French service
Julian Moxon/PHALSBOURG THE FIRST FRENCH army combat helicopters, to be equipped with a dedicated air-defence missile, have entered service with the country's 1st Air Combat Regiment, based at Phalsbourg. Over the next nine months, 30 Aerospatiale Gazelles equipped with the Matra Mistral light air-to-air missile will ...
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Israviation reschedules ST-50 certification
ISRAEL'S ISRAVIATION has set a new schedule for certification of the ST-50 single-turboprop business aircraft, following delays caused by funding difficulties and the recent military action in Israel. Certification is now scheduled for October 1997, with deliveries beginning in December 1997. Israviation president Stephane Juffa says that ...
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Saab prepares delivery of upgraded SK60W
SAAB MILITARY Aircraft is to deliver to the Swedish air force by the end of September the first nine upgraded Saab 105 trainers fitted with the Williams Rolls-Royce FJ44 engine. The upgraded aircraft are to have the military designation SK60W, and Saab says that they will remain in ...
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USA and Japan struggle on F-2 stalemate on F-2
US AND JAPANESE Government negotiators, have failed to reach agreement during meetings in Tokyo to clear the jam, which is holding up a critical industry-workshare agreement on the Mitsubishi F-2A/B fighter programme. The delay is threatening the project schedule. The Japan Defence Agency (JDA) and US Defence ...
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Ericsson looks for next-generation radar
Andrzej Jeziorski/STOCKHOLM ERICSSON MICROWAVE Systems is seeking partners to develop a next-generation combat-aircraft radar. It has held talks with the GEC/Thomson/DASA Airborne Radar (GTDAR) consortium and US companies about a potential partnership. The Swedish company is now studying an active electronically scanned-array radar (AESA), at the ...
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Boeing offers B-52 re-engineing
Ramon Lopez/WASHINGTON DC THE US AIR FORCE'S remaining fleet of Boeing B-52H bombers will be re-engined with Rolls-Royce RB.211 turbofan engines, if the Pentagon accepts an unsolicited offer from Boeing. The bid made to the USAF's Air Logistics Center involves upgrading 94 of the eight-engined ...
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Lockheed Martin and McDonnell Douglas pick up JASSM winners
Ramon Lopez/WASHINGTON DC LOCKHEED MARTIN and McDonnell Douglas (MDC) have been selected by the US Air Force to develop contenders for the $3 billion Joint Air-to-Surface Standoff Missile (JASSM) programme. Proposals submitted by Hughes, Texas Instruments and a Raytheon-Northrop Grumman team were rejected. The winning ...
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France slashes Tiger/NH90 numbers
Gilbert Sedbon/PARISAndrzej Jeziorski/MUNICH FRANCE IS TO CUT its orders for Eurocopter Tiger and NH90 military helicopters by half, according to a recently published parliamentary report. The cuts follow a drastic defence-budget squeeze, threatening 1,000 aerospace jobs and calling into question France's commitment to developing its ...
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Jordanian formality
The US Government has formally told the US Congress that it intends to supply Jordan with its first squadron of ex-US Air Force Lockheed Martin F-16A/B fighters. Officials say that the long-discussed military-assistance deal, involving 12 F-16As and four F-16Bs, is expected to go through by the end of July. ...
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JSF tests
The McDonnell Douglas, Northrop Grumman and British Aerospace Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) team, have completed 7,500h of tests to validate its near-tailless design. Tests proved that the fighter's "up-and-away" maximum turn performance is up to 40% better than that of a conventional aircraft because of its contoured fore-body and lack ...
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UK industry to launch research effort
Kevin O'Toole/LONDON AFTER YEARS of failing to win new Government funding for civil research-and-technology programmes, the UK's aerospace companies have taken matters into their own hands and launched a programme of industry-funded technology-demonstrator pilots. They hope that the UK Government will now help build the ...
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RAF targets its future needs
Andrew Chuter/LONDON THE ROYAL AIR FORCE has outlined a vision of the future where bombs do not go bang, and pilots fly combat aircraft without ever leaving the ground. UK defence officials say that, in some areas, work is starting to get under way which ...
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Lockheed Martin steps up C-130J testing
Graham Warwick/ATLANTA LOCKHEED MARTIN is to add aircraft and increase flying in a bid to recover delays in flight-testing the C-130J Hercules 2. The second C-130J had its first flight on 4 June - only the programme's second since the delayed maiden flight of the first aircraft ...
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MDC JSF design draws on
THE LIFT ENGINE under development for the McDonnell Douglas (MDC) Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) contender is to combine technology from General Electric, Allison and Rolls-Royce. The GEA-FXL is a 71kN (16,000lb)-thrust-class turbofan less than 1.5m high and 1.2m diameter, mounted behind the cockpit in the short-take-off/vertical-landing (STOVL) variant ...
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USN PC-9 plan
The US Navy plans to buy or lease two Pilatus PC-9 turboprop trainers, "or equivalent aircraft", to use as chase aircraft for the Bell Boeing V-22 Osprey tilt-rotor flight-test programme. The aircraft will be required for five years beginning in April 1997. The Navy is calling for a level-flight speed ...
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USAF 'broke orders' on CT-43 disaster flight
Ramon Lopez/WASHINGTON DC THE US AIR FORCE says that the 3 April Boeing CT-43A flight to Dubrovnik, Croatia, which crashed killing US Commerce Secretary Ronald Brown and 34 others, took place in breach of orders. The airport's, approach procedure had not been approved by ...
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Reflectone is awarded contract for RAAF C-130J training device
REFLECTONE HAS been awarded Lockheed Martin a contract to produce a C-130J Hercules 2 systems-familiarisation trainer for the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF). The device is scheduled to be delivered in the second quarter of 1997 and will be used for both pilot and maintenance-technician training. The award ...
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Saab flies upgraded Viggen fighter
Andrzej Jeziorski/LINKOPING SAAB MILITARY AIRCRAFT has flown the first prototype of an upgraded JA37 Viggen fighter, capable of carrying the Hughes AIM-120 advanced medium-range air-to-air missile (AMRAAM), thereby completing the development phase of its mid-life update. The aircraft's maiden flight took place on 4 June, ...
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Dornier redesigns Metro as 228 faces the axe
Andrzej Jeziorski/MUNICH FAIRCHILD AIRCRAFT, which took over 80% of turboprop manufacturer Dornier Luftfahrt on 5 June, looks set to kill the Dornier 228 programme. Dornier is to help design a new version of the Fairchild Metro. The unpressurised 19-seat 228 "probably" has no future, says ...
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Saab performs Gripen high-alpha trials
Saab Military Aircraft is performing high angle-of-attack flights as part of the last phase of testing of the JAS39 Gripen. The trials are designed to test the aircraft's manoeuvre load limiter, which allows the pilot to use full control inputs without exceeding safety limits. Saab's second test aircraft, repainted in ...