Fixed-wing – Page 1344
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Antonov An-70: heir apparent
Antonov's An-70 had its maiden flight in December, but funding shortages threaten its development. Alexander Velovich/MOSCOW A large crowd of workers, designers and officials received an early, but welcome, Christmas present at Svyatoshino airfield, Kiev, on 16 December, 1994, when the Antonov An-70 took off for ...
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Kawasaki presses JDA for transport-launch cash
Paul Lewis/TOKYO KAWASAKI HEAVY Industries (KHI) is pressing the Japan Defence Agency (JDA) to fund the development of the proposed indigenous C-X transport aircraft as a replacement for its C-1A. The Japan Air Self-Defence Force (JASDF) has a requirement for a new, long-range, medium-size, military transport ...
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Helicopter share deal gets under way in UK
Kieran Daly/LONDON A UK COMPANY is setting up a fractional-ownership scheme for helicopters, which it claims can reduce the total cost of rotary-wing ownership by as much as 87%. Privately owned Heli-Network, trading as First Heli-Network (FHN), envisages operating as many as 14 machines within two ...
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Lockheed to start work on revived SR-71s for US Air Force inventory
Lockheed Advanced Development expects to receive the first of three SR-71s by the end of February for maintenance work before the aircraft re-enters the US Air Force inventory. The US Congress ordered the Pentagon to re-activate three SR-71s and it earmarked $100 million in fiscal year 1995 to ...
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SABCA chosen to carry out Indonesian F-5 upgrade
INDONESIA has chosen SABCA of Belgium as a systems integrator to upgrade 12 Northrop F-5E/F fighters. A contract is to be finalised shortly. SABCA, together with Smiths Industries, was shortlisted in December after a year-long evaluation (Flight International, 21 December, 1994 - 3 January, 1995, P16). Other companies ...
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France firm on Rafale cuts
Gilbert Sedbon/PARIS FRENCH DEFENCE minister Francois Leotard has dismissed industry opposition to the Government's aim of cutting 2% a year from the costs of the Dassault Rafale combat aircraft as part of its overall drive to curtail defence expenditure (Flight International, 11-17 January). Commenting on the ...
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Hungary unveils Western IFF for MiGs
PICTURED BELOW IS THE ALLIEDSIGNAL Bendix APX-100 (V) identification-friend-or-foe (IFF) equipment fitted to Hungarian air force Mikoyan MiG-21 Fishbed, MiG-23 Flogger and Sukhoi Su-22 Fitter combat aircraft. One of the system's two antennae is visible to the rear of the MiG-21Bis cockpit (right). In the case of the MiG-21, the ...
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Mikoyan conducts 1.42 fast-taxi tests at Zhukovsky
Mikoyan has carried out fast-taxi trials of its prototype 1.42 next-generation counter-air fighter at the Zhukovsky flight-test research institute. According to Russian sources, the trials were undertaken at the end of 1994, but the aircraft has yet to have its debut flight.There are indications that the taxi trials ...
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Japan rolls out FS-X
Paul Lewis/TOKYO THE FIRST prototype of the Mitsubishi FS-X support fighter was rolled out on 12 January amid continuing uncertainty over future defence spending and the number of aircraft to be purchased. The single-engined FS-X is based on the F-16 and has been developed with Lockheed ...
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Advanced Citations win foreign orders
Graham Warwick/ATLANTA KOREAN AIRLINES has ordered four Cessna Citation Ultra light business-jets for use as flight crew trainers. The aircraft will be modified to accommodate a third crew-station aft of the cockpit. The forward bulkhead will be removed, but six cabin seats will be retained, enabling the ...
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Championing United
After sweeping consolidation, where does UTC go next? Kevin O'Toole/LONDON George David shows a near faultless eye for detail as he skips between the United Technologies (UTC) business units summoning up market statistics and programme information. As president of a group, which spreads from aircraft ...
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Belgian air force completes testing of Carapace ECM
THE BELGIAN air force has completed pre-production testing of the Dassault-built Carapace threat-warning system. Delivery of the first sets for installation on Lockheed F-16A/Bs, starting with No 2 Wing at Florennes, will start by the second quarter of the year. In all, 100 aircraft are to be ...
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Backing down
Russian air attacks on Chechnya seem to have failed. Simon Elliott/LONDON Alexander Velovich/MOSCOW Russian president Boris Yeltsin's 4 January decree to end the bombing of Grozny, the capital of break-away republic Chechnya, brought to an end, however temporarily, what appears to have been a singularly unsuccessful operation. ...
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Malaysia plans to sell F-5E/Fs after MiG-29s enter service
MALAYSIA IS looking to find a buyer for up to 15 of its air force's Northrop Grumman F-5E/F fighters, which are due to be replaced by Mikoyan MiG-29s later this year. The F-5s, are planned to be withdrawn from service, by January 1996 and disposed of according to ...
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Italian air force faces tough 12 months as cash cuts bite
THE ITALIAN air force's first leased Royal Air Force Panavia Tornado F.3 Air Defence Variant (ADV) fighters will be deployed with the 36th wing at Gioia del Colle air base in June, marking one of the service's few high points over the next year as defence budget cuts bite harder. ...
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Boeing buys Litton Precision Gear
BOEING HAS PURCHASED Litton Precision Gear, the Chicago-based helicopter-transmission manufacturer, to "...ensure a reliable supply of high-quality gears" for its main helicopter lines. The former Litton Systems division employs 170 people and is the principal supplier of transmissions for Boeing CH-47 Chinook transport and McDonnell Douglas AH-64 Apache ...
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Taiwan deal signals SJ30 go-ahead
Ramon Lopez/MARTINSBURG SWEARINGEN SJ30 light business-jets will be rolled off the final assembly line at the Eastern West Virginia Regional Airport in the first quarter of 1997. Aircraft production was made possible by the recent formation of a venture between San Antonio, Texas-based Swearingen Aircraft ...
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Lockheed and Taiwan expect to seal F-16 deal
LOCKHEED EXPECTS soon to conclude the first co-production contract with Taiwan for the manufacture of F-16 fighter airframe components, as part of wider offset package attached to the 1992 sale of 150 aircraft. The contract, estimated to be worth up to $40 million, will cover the production of ...
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MIG training
Some 23 Royal Malaysian Air Force pilots have begun a four-and-a-half month Mikoyan MiG-29 training course at Russia's Krasnodar military pilots and technicians school. The pilots will accumulate 25 flight hours. An additional seven Malaysian officers, are now being trained at the Zhukovsky Military Engineering Academy, in Moscow. ...
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Long-Lead Longbow
Martin Marietta and Westinghouse have received $31 million from the US Army for long-lead production items for 15 Longbow fire-control radar. Options to the contract total an additional $10 million. The team is developing the millimetre-wave fire-control radar and fire-and-forget radar-guided Hellfire missile for use on the McDonnell Douglas Helicopter ...