Fixed-wing – Page 1299
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Airbus military set-up hit by French decision
Douglas Barrie/LONDON AIRBUS INDUSTRIE has shelved plans to unveil the Airbus Military Company (AMC) in the wake of the French Government's decision not to fund development of the collaborative European Future Large Aircraft (FLA) project. Airbus had been intending to formally set up its military-aircraft ...
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MDC/NASA to show X-36 fighter testbed
Guy Norris/LOS ANGELES McDONNELL DOUGLAS (MDC) and NASA are to unveil a newly de-classified future fighter research aircraft at the company's St Louis, Missouri headquarters on 19 March. The exact configuration of the X-36, as the sub-scale vehicle is called, is being kept secret until ...
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Russia cuts funding for An-70 series production work
RUSSIAN COMMITMENT to the Antonov An-70 military transport is collapsing, with work being abandoned on setting up the series production line at Aviacor in Samara. Lev Khasis, Aviacor president, says that the company has stopped preparing for production because the Russian Government has withdrawn financial support. ...
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French revolution
Julian Moxon/PARIS SEVEN YEARS AFTER the fall of the Berlin Wall, France has carried out its most far-reaching defence review since the end of the Second World War. The Dassault Aviation Rafale fighter, the Eurocopter Tiger attack helicopter and NH Industries NH 90 medium-lift helicopter have ...
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UAV promises satellite shake-up
AN ISRAELI COMPANY is developing a unique high-altitude long-endurance hovering platform designed to act as a low-cost substitute for a communications or surveillance satellite. The Rotostar, is being developed by Silver Arrow, one of Israel's leading unmanned-air-vehicle (UAV) manufacturers. The Israeli Government, is funding part of the ...
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Clearer vision
Created in 1989, Sextant Avionique has totally refocused its strategy to cope with an ever-tougher global marketplace Julian Moxon/PARIS FEW WOULD DENY that US manufacturers have made most of the running in the race to adapt their aerospace industry to the shrunken markets of the post-Cold War ...
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US Air Force
Col Richard Reynolds has been nominated by US President Bill Clinton and selected by the Senate for appointment to brigadier-general in the US Air Force. Reynolds who was director of the B-2 System Program Office of the Aeronautical Systems Center, at Wright-Patterson AFB, Ohio, is due this month to become ...
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Boeing plans CH-46 lifeline
Guy Norris/LOS ANGELES BOEING IS PUSHING A service-life extension of its CH-46 to the US Navy as an alternative to procuring a new helicopter to fulfil the vertical-replenishment (vertrep) role. It has proposed a basic CH-46 fleet-sustainment plan to the US Naval Air Systems Command, ...
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Malaysia ponders F-5 upgrade
BRISTOL AEROSPACE OF Canada has been holding discussions with Malaysian industry about a proposed upgrade of the country's Northrop F-5E/Fs. The Royal Malaysian Air Force's (RMAF) fleet of around 15 F-5s is scheduled to be phased out of service shortly, following the delivery of replacement Mikoyan-MAPO MiG-29N ...
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Thomson-Thorn proposes MMW package for UK
THOMSON-THORN IS proposing to package three millimetre-wave (MMW) radar-guided rocket-boosted sub-munitions in a Hunting BL755 cluster-bomb casing in its bid for the £800 million Royal Air Force air-launched anti-armour weapon. The Advanced Anti-Armour Weapon (TAAWS) proposal draws heavily on the original Thorn EMI Swathe design, although this envisaged ...
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Saab discusses Gripen weapons with Israel
Andrzej Jeziorski/WARSAW Arie Egozi/TEL AVIV SAAB HAS HELD preliminary discussions with several Israeli companies, including missile manufacturer Rafael, about an Israeli-sourced weapons package to be offered as an option with its JAS39 Gripen proposal for the Hungarian air force. Hungarian air force officials are understood ...
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Poland to cut air force
Andrzej Jeziorski/WARSAW THE POLISH AIR FORCE is planning a massive re-organisation, cutting aircraft numbers by one-third and personnel by one-fifth over the next ten years. By the end of 2005, the air force will have 230 aircraft, compared with today's 352, and 41,500 personnel, compared ...
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THAAD shot down in $2 billion TMD programme revamp
THE US DEPARTMENT of Defense plans to save more than $2 billion by reshaping its ballistic-missile-defence programme. The plan, which faces Congressional scrutiny, emphasises development of defences against short-range theatre-ballistic-missile (TBM) threats and pushes back production of weapons, designed to intercept ballistic missiles at greater distances. The Pentagon ...
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Too little too late
THE FRENCH GOVERNMENT has finally declared that it is to consolidate its fragmented aerospace industry. The move is hardly surprising. Tough markets, falling defence budgets and the threat of emerging US giants, have raised the urgency of consolidation throughout Europe. Neither is it particularly revolutionary. The UK ...
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France shakes up aerospace
Julian Moxon and Gilbert Sedbon/PARIS THE FRENCH Government has taken its first steps towards pushing through sweeping changes in the structure of the aerospace and defence industries, including the merger of Aerospatiale and Dassault Aviation. The moves, many of them announced by President Jacques Chirac ...
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Poles freeze Iryda orders after crash
Andrzej Jeziorski/WARSAW THE POLISH AIR FORCE has grounded its PZL-Mielec I-22 and M-93 Irydas, following the accident-investigation report into a fatal crash on 24 January. It is refusing to place further Iryda orders until design improvements are implemented. Manufacturer PZL-Mielec says that it is complying ...
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French risk FLA coup de grace
FRANCE HAS PLUNGED the European Future Large Aircraft (FLA) project into chaos by deciding not to provide funds for the project in its national draft defence budget for 1996. In a move which sources close to the FLA programme admit is "very dangerous", French defence minister Charles ...
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Weapon training
Hughes Training has received a $19.8 million US Air Force contract for a Lockheed Martin C-130H2 weapon-system trainer for use by the Air Force Reserves at Dobbins AFB, Georgia. Kohlman Systems Research is developing a Level D aircraft-data package for the simulator. Source: Flight International
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European debutante
This year sees the start of production of the first true Eurocopter product for the civil market: the EC 135. Andrzej Jeziorski/MUNICH Cutaway by Giuseppe Picarella ALL EUROCOPTER AIRCRAFT to date, apart from the military Tiger, have been either French, from Aerospatiale's stable, or German, of former ...
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Slow rise to recovery
Although the helicopter industry continues to struggle, the HAI convention booms. Ramon Lopez/WASHINGTON DC Julian Moxon/PARIS HELI-EXPO '96, THE Helicopter Association International (HAI) convention in Dallas, Texas, 22-24 February, comes as the industry continues to suffer depressed sales levels for new helicopters and is dogged by ...