Fixed-wing – Page 1292
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News
GAO/DoD differ on SEAD future
The US GENERAL Accounting Office (GAO) and the Department of Defense (DoD) are at odds over future US military requirements for suppression of enemy air-defences (SEAD). The investigative arm of the US Congress has recommended postponing retirement of the McDonnell Douglas F-4G Wild Weasel and Grumman EF-111 Raven ...
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Looking ahead
Since the end of the Cold War, some officials complain that Germany's defence budget has been used as a "gold mine" for other state financial needs. Andrzej Jeziorski/MUNICH BETWEEN 1991 AND 1994 Germany's defence budget shrank from DM54 billion ($36 billion) to DM 47 billion, ...
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Eurocopter pitches EC135 at South African Air Force
Forbes Mutch/JOHANNESBURG EUROCOPTER IS LIKELY to offer a military version of its EC135 twin-engined light helicopter to the South African Air Force (SAAF) as a replacement for the ageing Aerospatiale Alouette III. A formal requirement to replace up to 50 SAAF SA316Bs Alouette, used in air-support ...
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Bombardier shows Australian maritime-patrol Dash 8s
BOMBARDIER is conducting a 12-country demonstration tour with the first of three de Havilland Dash 8-200 maritime-patrol aircraft for Surveillance Australia. The tour began in Scandinavia, and is continuing through the Mediterranean, Middle East and Asia, with the aircraft due to arrive in Australia in June and enter service in ...
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Out of the black comes Tacit Blue
Ramon Lopez/WASHINGTON DC THE US AIR FORCE has taken the wraps off another of its classified stealth projects with the unveiling of the Tacit Blue technology demonstrator. The Tacit Blue was used to test low-observable technologies eventually used in the Northrop Grumman B-2 bomber and other stealthy ...
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1997 launch planned for MD-11 stretch freighter
Guy Norris/LOSANGELES MCDONNELL DOUGLAS (MDC) could launch a freighter version of its proposed MD-11 stretch by the end of 1997, as part of a renewed attack on the large-cargo-aircraft market. "We hope to be out in the market with the MD-11 stretch by the second ...
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DASA develops a towed radar decoy for Transall
Douglas Barrie /LONDON DAIMLER-BENZ Aerospace (DASA) Airborne Systems is developing a towed radar decoy for transport- and combat-aircraft applications, for use against radar-guided air-to-air and surface-to-air missiles. The decoy has been successfully test-flown against monopulse radar emitters. In the transport-aircraft variant, the towed decoy would ...
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RAF will pull out of Germany by 2002
THE Royal Air Force is to withdraw its last combat-aircraft units from Germany by 2002 with the closure of RAF Bruggen and the relocation to the UK of its four Panavia Tornado squadrons. The decision to end the RAF presence in Germany was announced in the 1996 Statement ...
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Thrust-vectoring Sukhoi Su-27M flies
Alexander Velovich/MOSCOW SUKHOI HAS BEGUN flight testing from the Zhukovsky flight-test centre, near Moscow, the first pre-production Su-27M (Su-35) Flanker variant equipped with thrust-vectoring nozzles. The aircraft, Su-27 number 711, had five flights in April, apparently with the axisymmetric nozzles in a fixed configuration. ...
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Defence cuts threaten Franco-German programmes
GERMAN DEFENCE minister Volker Ruhe is threatening that Bonn may have to "reconsider" its bilateral co-operation programmes if France fails to commit itself fully to its joint helicopter programmes. The French Government is debating possible cuts to the Eurocopter Tiger and NH Industries NH90 programmes, which Germany ...
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Reconnaissance Office may get new Darkstar
Ramon Lopez/WASHINGTON DC The US Congress may subsidise the cost of building a replacement for the Lockheed Martin/Boeing Tier III Minus Darkstar unmanned air vehicle destroyed on its second flight on 22 April, says US Air Force Gen Kenneth Israel, who heads the Defense Airborne Reconnaissance Office (DARO). ...
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Powering into the future
Germany's two engine manufacturersstill have one programme in common. Andrzej Jeziorski/MUNICH DAIMLER-BENZ Aerospace problem-child MTU Munchen and its upstart rival BMW Rolls-Royce, along with the German Aerospace Research Establishment (DLR), are participating in a Government-sponsored research programme to develop technology for the next generation of ...
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USAF flies Starlifter with electric controls
THE US AIR FORCE has flown the first Lockheed NC-141A Starlifter fitted with Lucas Aerospace electric-aileron actuators, replacing the aircraft's traditional electro-mechanical devices (Flight International, 3-9 April). The USAF says tests of the Electric Starlifter could lead to the technology being introduced on its entire fleet of C-141s and C-5 ...
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FLIR for UH-1H
FLIR Systems has been awarded a US Navy contract for up to 100 thermal-imaging navigation sensors, potentially worth $45.5 million, for US Marine Corps Bell UH-1H helicopters. Source: Flight International
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JPATS hydraulics
Raytheon Aircraft has selected Dowty Aerospace to supply most of the hydraulics system for the Beech Pilatus PC-9 MkII trainer selected for the 712-aircraft US Air Force/Navy Joint Primary Aircraft Training System (JPATS) programme. The contract could be worth more than $40 million. Source: Flight International
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Talking Tanks
Richmond, British Columbia-based Con-Space Communications is to supply Air New Zealand with equipment allowing communication with maintenance crews working inside aircraft fuel-tanks. The company has supplied similar equipment to the Canadian and US air forces and several airlines. Source: Flight International
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USA tries again to close F-16 Indonesian sale
US GOVERNMENT officials are hoping that a planned visit to Indonesia by the Chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff will revive the flagging deal to sell nine embargoed Lockheed Martin F-16A/Bs which had been destined for Pakistan. Gen John Shalikashvili is due to visit Indonesia in early May ...
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Rising fortunes
Agusta's resurgence has been confirmed with one order from North America. Julian Moxon/MILAN THERE COULD HAVE BEEN no better sign of Agusta's long-awaited revival than the record order from Omniflight Helicopters, which was announced at the Helicopter Association International show in Dallas, Texas, in February. ...
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Bedek backs 707 as tanker platform
Douglas Barrie/TEL AVIV ISRAEL AIRCRAFT Industries' Bedek group is to stay with the Boeing 707 airframe as the basis for its tanker-conversion business, following internal studies into alternative airframes. Despite the age of the 707 design, senior Bedek officials believe that the airframe still provides ...
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Very-large-aircraft adaptability poser
Sir - The editorial "Missing a trick" (Flight International, 17-23 April, P3), proposing a European involvement in the Lockheed Martin C-141 replacement, seems to raise the more fundamental question of whether a new civil transport could be adaptable to military requirements. While the tanker role presents few ...