Fixed-wing – Page 1342
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Boeing offers UK 200% offset
BOEING IS offering the UK Ministry of Defence (MoD) a 200% offset deal if it purchases the CH-47 Chinook to meet the Royal Air Force's £1 billion support-helicopter requirement. The company hopes that the offset offer will counter what it perceives to be a growing political lobby in ...
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Hand-Me-Down Hokum
The US Department of Defense (DoD) is doing, on the surface, what any responsible government department anywhere would do. It has thousands of helicopters (and parts for them) which have been paid for once by the taxpayer and are now surplus to requirements. Rather than scrapping or mothballing them, the ...
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MDHS to offer EH101 to US Navy
McDONNELL DOUGLAS plans to offer the EH Industries EH101 to meet a US Navy requirement for a fleet-support helicopter. Other likely competitors include Sikorsky, with a cargo version of the Navy's SH-60 Seahawk anti-submarine helicopter, and possibly Kaman, with a military derivative of the K-MAX external-lift helicopter. McDonnell ...
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FLA in Japan
Sumitomo has agreed to market the European Future Large Aircraft (FLA) in Japan. The country's Defence Agency has a requirement for a new long-range transport aircraft to support its overseas peacekeeping operations. The McDonnell Douglas C-17 and Kawasaki's proposed C-X, will also be considered. Source: Flight ...
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JDAM for F-22
The US Air Force has awarded a $105 million contract to Lockheed to develop a capability for the F-22 combat aircraft to carry the Joint Direct Attack Munitions weapon. The work is to be completed in March 2002, according to the USAF. Source: Flight ...
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Saudi F-15 Maintenance
The US Air Force has awarded McDonnell Douglas a $257 million contract to assist Saudi Arabia's McDonnell Douglas F-15 fighter maintenance programme. It says that the work is to be performed at various sites in Saudi Arabia through to December 1996. Source: Flight International
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Spares shortage grounds Australian Black hawks
ONLY THREE of 27 Sikorsky UH-60 Black Hawk helicopters operated by the Australian Defence Force's (ADF) 5th Aviation Regiment at Townsville, Queensland, are available for operational flying because of a shortage of spares. The ADF says that the rate at which some parts (principally transmission mounts and the ...
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Surviving in Sarajevo
Tim Ripley/SARAJEVO The small sign pinned to the control-tower window at Bosnia's Sarajevo Airport says it all. "You are now standing in one of the most dangerous places on earth," it proclaims. Fortunately for the French air force air-traffic controllers, bulletproof glass now provides them with some ...
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Eurocopter boss firm on cuts cost-cutting warning
Julian Moxon and Gilbert Sedbon/PARIS EUROCOPTER president Jean-Francois Bigay has warned that the Franco-German manufacturer will have to press on with cost-cutting measures in the face of a patchy market performance in 1994, when orders and deliveries fell again. The tally of new helicopter deliveries ...
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Bigger and better
Assembly of the MDC F-18E/F is meeting or exceeding its performance guarantees. Graham Warwick/ATLANTA When McDonnell Douglas (MDC) lifted the first F-18E forward-fuselage out of its assembly jig on 12 January, development of the US Navy fighter was on schedule and within budget and the aircraft was ...
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Grifo delays hit Pakistan and Singapore upgrades
Douglas Barrie/LONDON and Andrea Spinelli/GENOA PAKISTANI AND Singaporean air force combat-aircraft upgrade programmes centring on the Fiar Grifo multi-mode radar are experiencing technical difficulties, causing both projects to suffer delays. Singapore's avionics upgrade of its Northrop F-5E/F fighters has run into trouble, with systems integration ...
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France offers Mirages to Philippine air force
Paul Lewis/SINGAPORE FRANCE HAS offered to sell an undisclosed number of surplus Dassault Mirage F.1 fighters to the Philippine air force as replacements for its badly depleted fleet of Northrop F-5A/Bs. The ex-French air force aircraft form part of a larger package of defence-equipment sales ...
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Funding threat to France's FLA plans
FRENCH AIR FORCE chief Gen. Jean-Philippe Douin has warned that France may have to purchase the Lockheed C-130J and ditch the acquisition of the European Future Large Aircraft (FLA) unless his budget gets a major boost. Douin is concerned about whether the Government will have funding available ...
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US Army examines laser damage to helicopters
THE US ARMY IS TO test-fire laser and ballistic weapons against experimental composite-helicopter tail-booms in a combined test programme with Boeing aimed at improving helicopter battlefield-survivability. The directed-energy weapon tests will be conducted at Wright Patterson AFB, Ohio, using lasers representative of projected threats such as slewed-beam ...
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Dutch delay helicopter choice again
THE NETHERLANDS Government has delayed for a second time the selection of an attack helicopter to meet a NGL1.5 billion ($875 million) requirement for 32 aircraft for the army. Cabinet officials say that the choice could now be put off until March. The leading contenders for the deal ...
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Socata discusses light- aircraft tie-up with Grob
Julian Moxon/PARIS FRENCH general-aviation manufacturer Socata is talking to its German counterpart Grob about a possible alliance. "Our product lines are very complementary," says Socata president, Jean-Marc de Raffin. The Le Bourget, Paris-based Aerospatiale subsidiary says that it is also talking to Italy's Piaggio, and ...
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End of an era for combat aircraft?
Sir - According to your report "Worth fighting for" (Flight International, 14-20 December, 1994, P40) the French air force is planning to buy Dassault Rafale fighters for use until 2055. Although I have great respect for the aircraft that literally brought the house down on a US defence ...
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UK Denies CH-47 Purchase
The UK Ministry of Defence (MoD) is refuting claims that it has decided to purchase only Boeing CH-47 Chinooks to meet a support-helicopter requirement. The CH-47 is in competition with the EH Industries EH101. According to the MoD, pricing negotiations are continuing, but no recommendations have yet been made to ...
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Lockheed F-16s Return
The US Air Force began returning General Electric F110-129-powered Lock-heed F-16s to flight status in late January after determining that foreign-object damage to the engine's fan was the likely cause of an F-16D crash (Flight International, 25-31 January). The service has ordered inspections of all F110-129 fan blades and tightened ...
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MDC cleans in a flash
McDONNELL DOUGLAS (MDC) HAS BEGUN marketing its Flashjet paint-removal system to other aircraft manufacturers, operators and maintenance centres. The Flashjet uses a combination of pulsed light-energy and carbon-dioxide pellets to remove paint without creating toxic waste. The system was developed for the US Air Force, which is installing a production ...