Fixed-wing – Page 1314
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News
Variable nozzle tests planned for PW306
CALCOR AERO Systems, the developer of novel variable-exhaust-nozzle (VEN) and thrust-reverser (TR) designs, has signed an agreement with Pratt & Whitney Canada to demonstrate a combined TR/VEN on the PW306 which will power the Israel Aircraft Industries Galaxy. The California-based company claims that the combination TR/VEN is ...
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India and Russia haggle over Su-30MK cash
INDIA IS NEGOTIATING to licence-manufacture the Sukhoi Su-30MK at the Nasik plant of Hindustan Aeronautics, which already produces Mikoyan MiG-29 Floggers. Indian officials have visited the Irkutsk Su-30MK production plant in Russia recently. The Indian air force is satisfied with the aircraft from a technical viewpoint, although negotiations ...
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Birdstrike is suspected in AWACS crash
A US AIR FORCE BOARD of inquiry is trying to determine why a Boeing-built E-3B Advanced Warning and Control System (AWACS) surveillance aircraft crashed at Elmendorf AFB, Alaska, on 22 September. The militarised four-engine Boeing 707 was attempting to take off for a training mission. All 24 aboard, ...
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F-14 Lantirn buy
The US Navy has purchased 75 Lockheed Martin Low Altitude Navigation and Targeting Infrared for Night (LANTIRN) systems for installation on Northrop Grumman F-14 tactical aircraft. The device gives the F-14 a ground attack capability. Including options, the contract is worth as much as $270 million. The initial installment totaled ...
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S Korea to field spy aircraft by 2000
AN INTERNATIONAL multi-million dollar competition is under way to supply South Korea with an indigenous airborne intelligence-gathering capability, beginning in three years. The classified project, known in US military circles as Peace Pioneer, will reach a climax this month when South Korea is due to pick the ...
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Malaysians to upgrade C-130Hs
THE MALAYSIAN air force is planning to upgrade its fleet of Lockheed C-130H Hercules transport aircraft with new cockpit avionics and an integrated self-defence countermeasures system. Rockwell-Collins, is understood to have been selected to equip the aircraft, with its flat-panel EFIS-90 electronic flight-instrumentation system, a new digital tactical ...
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French slash military spending
Gilbert Sedbon/PARIS DELIVERIES OF Dassault Aviation's Rafale combat aircraft, the Eurocopter Tiger attack helicopter and the NH90 troop transport and anti-submarine-warfare helicopter are to be delayed as part of cuts in French military spending over the next five years. On 21 September, the Government unveiled ...
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Czechs freeze MiG-21 modifications
THE CZECH DEFENCE ministry has frozen the upgrading of three Mikoyan MiG-21 Fishbed prototypes, and has established a joint team with US Government specialists to study the acquisition of Lockheed Martin F-16A/Bs. The decision was announced, at the end of September by Czech Defence Minister Vilem Holan, following ...
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Damaged RAF Tornados centrepiece of upgrade plan
THE ROYAL Air Force is considering using Tornado F3s, damaged in a modification programme by private contractor Airwork, as the basis of an upgrade programme to fill the gap left by the late entry into service of the four-nation Eurofighter. Some 16 of the damaged aircraft are ...
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BA 777 delivery date uncertain
Guy Norris/LOS ANGELES Kevin O'Toole/LONDON THE SCHEDULE FOR delivery, of the first General Electric GE90-powered Boeing 777 to British Airways, continues to hang in the balance, with the engine undergoing a new series of icing tests in the USA and facing the possibility of further hurdles being ...
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B-1 flight envelope restricted after flare strike
THE US AIR FORCE has restricted the peacetime flight envelope for the firing of countermeasure flares from the Rockwell B-1B bomber, because of tail strikes. In one case described at the Society of Experimental Test Pilots meeting in California on 28 September, the flare impacted the vertical ...
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Catching up
Large numbers of personnel and aircraft are no compensation for the Chinese air force's lack of modern technology. Paul Lewis/BEIJING THE PEOPLE'S LIBERATION Army Air Force (PLAAF) of China has attracted considerable international attention in recent years. Reports of large-scale purchases of Russian arms, underwritten by double-digit ...
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Digital selection
The use of computer techniques for selecting candidates for pilot training is on the increase. Brian Walters/MAASTRICHT IT COSTS A GREAT DEAL to train an airline pilot (around £100,000) and even more (about £2 million) to train a fighter pilot - which is why the ...
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Czech parliament and MoD lock horns over fighter requirement
Andrzej Jeziorski/Jiri Kominek/PRAGUE THE CZECH DEFENCE ministry says that it cannot consider buying Western fighters until 2003, despite mounting parliamentary pressure to drop plans to upgrade its obsolescent Mikoyan MiG-21s. The 14 September closing date for bids to upgrade some 24 Czech air force MiG-21MF Fishbed ...
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Temperature rises in MD-80 anti-icing struggle
THE COMPETITION TO equip more than 1,100 McDonnell Douglas MD-80s with anti-icing systems is intensifying as both contending companies claim major new customers. The competing systems, AlliedSignal's electro-thermal ice protection system, the ETIPS-80, and TDG Aerospace's NOFOD, have been developed to combat clear-ice accretion problems, which affect the ...
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K-MAX has show debut at Helitech
Kaman's K-MAX intermeshing-rotor helicopter had its display debut at the Helitech show. The helicopter has already notched up civil sales in Europe, the USA and Japan. The helicopter on display belongs to Swiss operator Helog. Elsewhere, the US Navy continues to test the K-MAX as part of its vertical-replenishment demonstration ...
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DASA finalises Italian partnership talks
Julian Moxon/PARIS Andrea Spinelli/MILAN Daimler-Benz Aerospace (DASA) and Finmeccanica/Alenia have finally sealed their long-standing talks over a greater German-Italian aerospace partnership, by agreeing to study co-operation across "all fields of civil and military interest". The move comes as DASA, which posted a loss of ...
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USAF and USN plan to solicit bids for JASSM in January
THE COMPETITION to supply a replacement for the cancelled Tri-Service Standoff Attack Missile (TSSAM) is expected to begin in January 1996, with the release of a request for proposals for the US Air Force/Navy Joint Air-to-Surface Stand-off Missile (JASSM). Development of the Northrop Grumman AGM-137 TSSAM stealthy ...
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JAST engine contest ordered
GENERAL ELECTRIC is to be given the opportunity to compete with Pratt & Whitney, on the power plant for conventional variants of the Joint Advanced Strike Technology (JAST) programme, because of a US Congressional edict directing the US Department of Defense's programme office, to conduct a competition to power conventional ...
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GPS munitions reach milestones
SELECTION OF a single contractor, to develop the Joint Direct Attack Munition (JDAM), is scheduled for 11 October. Lockheed Martin and McDonnell Douglas (MDC) are competing for the contract to produce global-positioning/inertial-navigation (GPS/INS) guidance kits for 74,000 US Air Force bombs. The JDAM guidance kit will be ...