Fixed-wing – Page 1315
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757 prepared for F-22 testbed
Boeing has flown its flight-test 757 to Wichita, Kansas, for modification into an avionics development testbed for the Lockheed Martin/Boeing F-22 air-superiority fighter. The 757 will be fitted with an F-22 forward fuselage, under construction at Lockheed Martin's Marietta site in Georgia. The aft section of the same fuselage will ...
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Sikorsky supports BD-10 unmanned target for USN
Sikorsky has agreed to provide financial support to Monitor Jet, which plans to produce the Bede BD-10 jet-powered kitplane in Canada as a low-cost trainer and unmanned target drone. The agreement, to provide manufacturing and marketing support, is part of Sikorsky's bid to win the Canadian Search-and-rescue Helicopter programme. ...
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Israel/Ukraine work on Ethiopian upgrade
Israel and Ukraine are proposing jointly to upgrade Ethiopian air force Mikoyan MiG-21 Fishbed fighters. The service wants to upgrade 18 of its MiG-21MFs. It is not known whether all the aircraft are airworthy. The talks came to light when four Israel Aircraft Industries (IAI) managers involved in ...
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P&W low-observable nozzle tested on F-16
Lockheed Martin has ground-tested a Pratt & Whitney low-observable axisymmetric nozzle (LOAN) on an F-16 and is planning flight tests. The LOAN, developed for the Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) programme office, features shaping, cooling and coatings to reduce radar and infra-red signature. Improved cooling also promises to more than double ...
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Additional partners line up to participate in JSF Project
Ramon Lopez/WASHINGTON Canada, Denmark, The Netherlands and Norway are soon expected to gain a limited role in the Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) programme, says US Navy Rear Adm Craig Steidle, JSF programme director. Steidle hopes to draw greater international interest in the US/ UK JSF collaboration, ...
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South Korea may bring forward its AEW plans
Paul Lewis/SINGAPORE South Korea could advance its planned airborne early warning (AEW) programme by 12 months, in response to criticism of the military's surveillance capability and its failure to detect recent North Korean incursions. According to local industry sources, initial funding for an AEW procurement may ...
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Thai Government re-examines defence
He may not be looking at an upgraded radar display, after all Thailand's election of a new Coalition Government, headed by Chavalit Yongchaiyudh, has revived industry hopes that the Star of Siam military-satellite project will go ahead. The former defence minister was forced to shelve the ...
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On the wing
Technology has broken military training's dependence on ground-based combat ranges. Paul Seidenman/SAN DIEGO Air-combat manoeuvring and instrumentation (ACMI) ranges have proved valuable assets in tactical-aircrew combat training, but they have one limitation: they are surface-based. Ranges require either large areas of land, or, for overwater operations, expensive ...
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Change of mission
The Dassault Mirage IVP's role has moved from that of strategic strike to one of strategic reconnaissance. Gert Kromhout/MONT DE MARSAN After more than 30 years, the Dassault-Breguet Mirage IVP of the French air force has lost its nuclear mission, with the disbandment of one of two squadrons ...
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Ilyushin
Il-62M/MK Three versions of the four-engined 170- to 195-seat Il-62 were built between 1963 and 1985, before it was superseded by the re-engined Il-62M. All versions were dimensionally identical, with the main differences being in engine type, weight and performance. While the initial production version was ...
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Lockheed Martin Aeronautical Systems
L-100 Hercules The L-100-30 is the civil version of the C-130 Hercules military transport. It is certificated under US Federal Aviation Rules Part 25 to carry 97 passengers when appropriately modified or manufactured. The passenger version has structural re-inforcement, windows, additional doors and cabin amenities, plus ...
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Accidents force Czech air force to increase training
Czech's raise flight training hours The Czech air force is to increase flight training from 50h to 60h for front-line pilots, in the wake of several recent accidents. The increase in flying hours has been ordered by Miloslav Vyborny, the Czech Republic defence minister. The air ...
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Iran and China negotiate FB-7/F-8IIM fighter deal
Iran is considering the purchase of the Chinese Xian FB-7 strike aircraft, the Shenyang F-8IIM and Chengdu F-7 fighters, as part of a multi-billion dollar arms deal it is negotiating with Beijing. Talks between Beijing and Tehran to cement the $4.5 billion deal have been progressing for several ...
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Alliant wins canopy fracturing contract
Alliant Techsystems has won a $2 million contract to qualify its Laser Canopy Fracturing Initiation System for use in the Raytheon Aircraft Beech/ Pilatus PC-9 MkII. Over 700 Beech MkIIs will be built for the US Air Force and Navy under the $4 billion Joint Primary Aircraft Training System programme. ...
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Taesa tamed
The peso's crash halted Taesa's assault on the two incumbents. But with fortunes reviving, will Mexico's third airline bare its teeth again. Before 'La Crisis', Taesa Airlines terrorised Mexico's two major carriers. With lower-than-bus fare prices, it captured a quarter of Mexico's domestic traffic in its first two years of ...
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McDonnell Douglas loses JSF contest
The role MDC and partners Northrop Grumman and British Aerospace will play in JSF in the future is unclear- Stonecipher contemplates loss What next for the USA's former first fighter house Ramon Lopez/WASHINGTON To Harry Stonecipher, president and chief executive of ...
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The contenders
MDC's JSF failed to get off the deck Lockheed Martin's "low-risk" design Boeing's bid is a far cry from a widebodied aircraft Guy Norris/LOSANGELES Boeing and Lockheed Martin have begun final detailed design work on their respective Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) demonstrator ...
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PP7 accident forces programme rejig
Accident places Merlin in programme hover Douglas Barrie/LONDON EH Industries is being forced to re-arrange its EH101 military utility/anti-submarine-warfare helicopter development and flight-test programme in an attempt to avoid a service-entry delay following an accident involving the PP7 prototype in August. EH Industries members, ...
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Chinese AAM aspirations may build on Alenia Aspide
Aspide translates to Chinese LY-60 family on show at Zhouhai Douglas Barrie/LONDON Andrea Spinelli/GENOA China appears to be continuing to use the Alenia Aspide medium-range air-to-air missile (AAM) airframe as the basis for a family of weapons, despite the collapse of a "highly sensitive" deal to ...
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Japan's Skymark will be launched in 1998
Paul Lewis/SINGAPORE A Japanese business consortium has formally launched Skymark Airlines as the country's next planned carrier to compete for the world's second- largest domestic air-travel market. Skymark Airlines plans to take to the air early in 1998, equipped with three leased Boeing 767s. The start-up ...