All Helicopters articles – Page 454
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USAF military 757 makes first flight at Renton
The first of four military Boeing 757s, designated C-32A, made its maiden flight from the company's Renton site on 11 February. The first aircraft, NP901, landed at nearby Boeing Field after a 2h test flight. Unlike previous military transports built for the US Air Force, the C-32As are being ...
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Partners poised to restart X-31 VECTOR
Andrzej Jeziorski/MUNICH Industrial partners in the tri-national X-31 VECTOR research programme expect the signature in March of an inter-government memorandum of understanding (MoU) signalling the restart of the successful thrust vectoring work. Following the approval of the US portion of the programme's funding in mid-January, similar clearance is expected from ...
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V-22 delivered
The last of four production-representative Bell Boeing V-22s has been delivered to the US Navy's Patuxent River, Maryland, test centre, for avionics testing and operational evaluation. Source: Flight International
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Shake, rattle and roll
Ramon Lopez/WASHINGTON DC With deployment of the Boeing Sikorsky RAH-66 Comanche not due until the next century, and a conceptual Joint Transport Rotorcraft (JTR) available no earlier than 2015, the US Army and various defence contractors are working to improve the safety, comfort and performance of current-generation military rotorcraft. For ...
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Pentagon seeks more money for weapons
The US Department of Defense wants to spend $257.3 billion during fiscal year 1999, according to budget figures presented to Congress. The request is $2.4 billion more than the US Congress allowed the Pentagon for FY1998 weapons spending. There are no surprises in the budget submission, which includes ...
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CFM pushes commonality in USAF re-engine bid
CFM International (CFMI) is stressing fleet-commonality benefits to the US Air Force in its bid to re-engine almost 200 Boeing KC-135E, RC-135, E-3 and Northrop Grumman E-8 aircraft. The company's response to the USAF's request for an "alternate propulsion-system assessment" will be complete in the "March-April timeframe", according to ...
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Defence units expect to evade Boeing axe
Boeing's space and defence businesses will escape major changes when post-merger consolidation plans are revealed later this month, says Alan Mulally, president of Boeing Information, Space and Defense Systems (ISDS). "There is not much overlap" in products or manufacturing between the Boeing, McDonnell Douglas and Rockwell businesses which now make ...
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US giants digest their mergers
Kevin O'Toole/LONDON After five years of breakneck consolidation, positions are firming up at the top of the US aerospace league, but attention now turns to digesting the latest, and probably last, series of mergers and acquisitions. With the 1997 round of annual financial results, Boeing reclaims its position at the ...
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Turbine-helicopter deliveries increase
Graham Warwick/WASHINGTON DC Deliveries of turbine-powered helicopters increased in 1997, buoyed by sales of new light single- and twin-engined aircraft. Bell shipped no fewer than 140 of its new single-turbine Model 407s in 1997, while Eurocopter delivered 28 of its new EC135 light twins. Bell led deliveries in 1997, shipping ...
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US Navy eyes unmanned aircraft for utility role
Douglas Barrie/LONDON A vertical take-off and landing support unmanned air vehicle (SUAV) is being pushed as an alternative to a crewed design for the US Navy's future carrier-borne utility aircraft. The USN's Common Support Aircraft (CSA) programme is intended to determine a successor to Northrop Grumman E-2C Hawkeye ...
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Bosses mull Airbus merger ideas
Douglas Barrie/LONDON Airbus Industrie presidents were due to meet on 2 February to hear new proposals from a high-level working party tasked with finding an acceptable solution for a merger of Aerospatiale, British Aerospace, and Daimler-Benz Aerospace into a single European aerospace giant. It is hoped that the ...
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US Air Force places Capricorn in orbit
The US Air Force has launched a prototype of a new-generation National Reconnaissance Office satellite data-system (SDS) spacecraft, called the Capricorn, on 29 January, aboard an ILS International Launch Services Atlas 2A booster from Cape Canaveral, Florida. SDS spacecraft, which are operated in highly elliptical, 38,400 x 320km, orbits, ...
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FSI wins V-22 deal
Bell Boeing has selected FlightSafety International (FSI) to supply a full-flight simulator for the MV-22 Osprey tilt-rotor transport. The device will be delivered to the US Marine Corps air station at New River, North Carolina, and supported by FlightSafety Services. FSI was selected over Hughes (now Raytheon), which developed the ...
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Launching forward
Graham Warwick/WASHINGTON DC Lockheed Martin/Boeing's F-22 represents the pinnacle of US military-avionics development, but the air-superiority fighter is not scheduled to become operational until 2005. Meanwhile, manufacturers have begun development of the next generation of avionics, for the Joint Strike Fighter (JSF), which, probably optimistically, is scheduled to enter service ...
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KTX-II faces new threat from cuts
South Korea's on/off development of the Samsung/ Lockheed Martin KTX-II advanced-trainer/light-combat aircraft is again facing the threat of delay, as the country's defence ministry conducts an across-the-board review of military expenditure. Seoul is cutting the 1998 defence budget by 10% after the International Monetary Fund's (IMF) recent $57 billion ...
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USMC tests multiple cargo hook
A cargo-hook concept which allows multiple drops from heavy-lift helicopters is being evaluated by the US Marine Corps at the Naval Air Test Center at Patuxent River, Maryland. Developed by Utah-based SkyHook Technologies, the new system uses a tetrahedral frame attached to the usual single-hook pendant. Each of the ...
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Enhanced Skynet 4 launched
Tim Furniss/CAPE CANAVERAL The UK's Skynet 4D military-communications satellite was lofted into orbit by a three-stage Boeing Delta 2 booster from Cape Canaveral, Florida, on 10 January. The launch was the first of 18 planned by the Delta this year and the first of 11 Matra Marconi Space ...
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JT8D-200 gives new life to 707
Pratt & Whitney has signed an agreement with the Seven Q Seven group to certificate the JT8D-200 turbofan for re-engined Boeing 707s and, possibly, KC-135 military variants. The "7Q7" programme could potentially involve the re-engineing of up to 500 in-service 707-320s and KC-135s with the 98kN (22,000lb)-thrust JT8D-219, says ...
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USN picks UAVs for VTOL demonstration
Ramon Lopez/WASHINGTON DC The US Navy will test three entirely different unmanned-air-vehicle (UAV) designs in its forthcoming vertical take-off and landing (VTOL) demonstration, which the contractors hope will lead to the deployment of an operational system. In late 1997, the UAV Joint Project Office chose Bell Helicopter, Bombardier and Science ...
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Quick-change artist
Peter Gray/ARLINGTON The tilt-rotor concept has been around for many years, but only recently has the first military application (the Bell-Boeing V-22 Osprey) received production approval from the US Department of Defense. Even more recently, Bell and Boeing have launched the Model 609 civil tilt-rotor which is scheduled to fly ...