Fixed-wing – Page 1288
-
News
CAE signs for Pakistan maintenance
CANADA'S CAE AVIATION has signed a joint-venture agreement with the Pakistan air force's Shaheen Foundation to establish an aircraft-maintenance centre in Islamabad. The centre is scheduled to be opened in November, initially offering routine maintenance of Lockheed Martin C-130 transports. The initial investment is $3-4 million and annual ...
-
News
Smiths set for RAF Chinook HUMS contract
David Learmount/LONDON HEALTH AND USAGE monitoring systems (HUMS) are to be fitted to all Royal Air Force Boeing Chinook helicopters during the next three years, and "progressively" to the entire UK military helicopter fleet, according to the winning equipment supplier, Smiths Industries Aerospace. The UK contract ...
-
News
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 project ...
-
News
Speckled Trout on the menu for Boeing
BOEING HAS completed flight-testing of a full-scale prototype of its phased-array communication-antenna system, aimed at demonstrating the technology's suitability for use in commercial and military aircraft. The Satellite Telemetry Airborne Receiving System (STARS) will be installed on the US Air Force chief of staff's Boeing C-135, known as ...
-
News
Pentagon studies UAV shake-up schedule
Ramon Lopez/WASHINGTON DC SENIOR officials in the US Department of Defense are expected to decide soon how best to revamp management of its unmanned-air-vehicle (UAV) programmes. Although maintaining the status quo is one option, Paul Kaminski, the Pentagon's acquisition chief, is expected to make changes in ...
-
News
Small is beautiful
Swiss military-trainer specialist Pilatus is lookingto further penetrate the civil market. Julian Moxon/PARIS Oscar Schwenk, president of Switzerland's Pilatus Aircraft, renowned for developing a range of successful turboprop trainers, says: "We're small, but small is beautiful." Military trainers have always been Pilatus' speciality, but, with ever-tighter ...
-
News
USAF places huge C-17 contracts
The US Air Force has signed for $16.2 billion in multi-year contracts for 80 McDonnell Douglas (MDC) C-17 Globemaster III military-transport aircraft, powered by Pratt & Whitney F117 turbofan engines. The C-17s and 350 F117s will be delivered over six or seven years. The USAF had previously committed ...
-
News
US Navy plans commercial vertrep contract awards
THE US NAVY'S Military Sealift Command (MSC) is planning to award a series of contracts involving use of commercially operated helicopters for vertical replenishment (VERTREP) of its warships. The contract awards are designed to meet a projected shortfall of US Navy Boeing Helicopters CH-46 helicopters, which are now ...
-
News
IAI plans maintenance operation in Turkey
ISRAEL AIRCRAFT Industries' MATA helicopter centre is discussing the establishment of a helicopter-maintenance operation in Turkey. The talks are understood to involve potential Turkish partners. Under the proposal, the Turkish army's US-built combat and transport helicopters would be maintained at the centre. "Dynamic" systems would be flown to ...
-
News
IAR agrees with Eurocopter to build Ecureuil
IAR has signed an agreement with Eurocopter International for licensed production of the French Ecureuil light helicopter in Romania.The deal, due to come into force following approval from the respective Governments, covers airframe manufacture and final assembly of 80 single-engined AS350BA Ecureuils and twin-engined AS355N Ecureuil 2s. IAR ...
-
News
Norway asks to join JSF
Graham Warwick/WASHINGTON DC NORWAY IS SEEKING to join the US/UK Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) programme.The Scandinavian country regards the JSF as a possible replacement for its Lockheed F-16 MLUs (mid-life updates), which will be retired by about 2012. The Norwegian air force says that it wants ...
-
News
Sagem of France sells 40 upgraded Mirages to Pakistan
Gilbert Sedbon/PARIS SAGEM OF FRANCE has signed a Fr500 million ($97 million) contract with Pakistan for the sale of up to 40 upgraded secondhand Dassault Mirage III fighter aircraft. The upgrade of the aircraft includes avionics, navigation systems and day/night attack capability. The aircraft have been ...
-
News
Denel chases Australian gunship/transport order
DENEL HAS confirmed the company is planning to enter the contest to supply the Australian Defence Force's (ADF) new reconnaissance and troop-lift helicopters, with the Rooivalk and the Oryx aircraft, respectively. While the ADF was widely known to be looking for a replacement for its existing Bell Kiowa ...
-
News
France and Germany rethink joint defence programmes
Julian Moxon/PARIS FRANCE AND GERMANY have agreed to review all co-operative defence programmes shared by the two countries, to reduce costs and solve major budget difficulties faced by both. The decision followed a meeting held on 5 June at Dijon, in France, between France's President, Jacques ...
-
News
PZL-Swidnik picks PT6 for new Sokol
PZL-Swidnik has selected the Pratt & Whitney Canada PT6C-65 turboshaft to power a new model of the multi-purpose, twin-engined, W-3 Sokol helicopter. The PT6C-65 is a new turboshaft series derived from the PT6 turboprop family and will be available in thrust ratings from 895-1,490kW (1,200-2,000shp). The Sokol programme ...
-
News
Boeing talks again to Harbin about Chinook production
Paul Lewis/SINGAPORE BOEING HELICOPTER is in further talks with Harbin Aircraft Manufacturing (HAMC) about transferring and restarting production of the Model 234 Commercial Chinook in China. A HAMC team is understood to have visited Boeing in Philadelphia in mid-May to discuss market prospects and funding for ...
-
News
DASA and GEC aim to settle DASS dilemma
Andrzej Jeziorski/ULM SENIOR DASA AND GEC-Marconi officials were due to have met at the end of May in an effort to head off an industrial dispute over Germany's purchase of a defensive-aids subsystem (DASS) for the Eurofighter EF2000 combat aircraft. DASA is concerned that the German ...
-
News
What's on
Society of Flight Test Engineers European Symposium 10-12 June, Blackpool, Lancashire, UK. Contact: R A Hartley, c/o Flight Test Department (W27K), British Aerospace Military Aircraft Division, Warton Near Preston, Lancashire PR4 1AX, UK; tel: +44 (1772) 852105; fax: +44 (1772) 855295). Reliability and 1309 Design Analysis for Aircraft ...
-
News
A new Fulcrum for Russian industry
Alexander Velovich/MOSCOW IT IS EITHER a confederation of cripples, or the creation of a group which mirrors the scale advantages enjoyed by US aerospace goliath Lockheed Martin: only time will tell which is true of VPK MAPO. The creation of VPK MAPO (Military Industrial Complex - ...
-
News
US Air Force looks at hand-held GPS sets
THE US MILITARY is considering requiring the use of hand-held global-positioning-system (GPS) sets in both fixed-and rotary-wing military passenger-aircraft, following the US Air Force Boeing CT-43 crash near Dubrovnik, Croatia, on 3 April. The hand-held GPS equipment would fill the gap until an integrated GPS is fitted to ...