All Helicopters articles – Page 470
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Bedek backs 707 as tanker platform
Douglas Barrie/TEL AVIV ISRAEL AIRCRAFT Industries' Bedek group is to stay with the Boeing 707 airframe as the basis for its tanker-conversion business, following internal studies into alternative airframes. Despite the age of the 707 design, senior Bedek officials believe that the airframe still provides ...
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USA tries again to close F-16 Indonesian sale
US GOVERNMENT officials are hoping that a planned visit to Indonesia by the Chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff will revive the flagging deal to sell nine embargoed Lockheed Martin F-16A/Bs which had been destined for Pakistan. Gen John Shalikashvili is due to visit Indonesia in early May ...
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P&W uses fluid dynamics to cure F119 fan flutter
Graham Warwick/ATLANTA PRATT & WHITNEY has used computational fluid-dynamics (CFD) to develop a remedy for fan flutter on the F119 engine for the Lockheed Martin/Boeing F-22. CFD analysis identified an airflow disturbance over the inlet guide-vanes which was causing vibration and flutter of the hollow fan blades. The F119 is ...
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Pentagon orders VIP aircraft update
US DEFENCE SECRETARY William Perry, has ordered that all US military transports dedicated to passenger flights, be equipped with cockpit-voice recorders (CVRs), flight data recorders (FDRs) and global-positioning-system (GPS) hardware. In a letter to armed forces chiefs, Perry says: "Military flight crews must have the most capable and ...
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Lockheed Martin confirms follow-on transport plan
Graham Warwick/ATLANTA LOCKHEED MARTIN is looking for partners to develop a multi-purpose large aircraft to replace Boeing KC-135 tankers, Lockheed C-141 transports and tanker/transports such as the Lockheed TriStar and McDonnell Douglas KC-10. The aircraft, dubbed the "World Airlifter", would also be offered as a ...
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Eurocopter is close to clinching Cougar sales
Julian Moxon/MARIGNANE Eurocopter president Jean-Francois Bigay claims that the Franco-German consortium is aiming to conclude orders for "around 100" AS.532 Cougar military-transport helicopters this year. Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, the United Arab Emirates and a further unnamed country are among those which could, says Bigay, make ...
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DarkStar rises over California
The Lockheed Martin/ Boeing DarkStar high-altitude endurance unmanned air vehicle (UAV) had its first flight at Edwards AFB, California, on 29 March. The 21m-span UAV had a fully automated flight lasting 20min from take off to landing using differential global-positioning-system (GPS) navigation signals for guidance throughout. "The ...
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Pentagon plans aerostat cruise-missile defence
Ramon Lopez/WASHINGTON DC The US military is moving ahead with plans to field helium-filled aerostats to help support cruise-missile defences. A new tri-service project office, called the Joint Aerostat Project Management Office for Cruise Missile Defence is being established under US Army auspices at the ...
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Norwegian upgrade
Norway plans a $65 million upgrade of its four maritime-patrol Lockheed Martin P-3C Orions with satellite and secure communications and missile-warning systems. Loral Defense Systems will be prime contractor. Source: Flight International
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VTOL contenders line up for TUAV
BELL HELICOPTER Textron has surprised rivals by offering the Eagle Eye tilt-rotor unmanned air vehicle for the US Department of Defense's multi-billion dollar Tactical Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (TUAV) competition (Flight International, 27 March -2 April). The US helicopter maker joins at least six other bidders for a two-year ...
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BAe offers to build new Nimrod 2000s for RAF
Douglas Barrie/WARTON BRITISH AEROSPACE HAS submitted an option to build new Nimrod 2000s in support of its bid to meet the Royal Air Force's replacement maritime-patrol-aircraft requirement. With its offer, BAe hopes to overcome possible RAF concerns over the attrition rate of its maritime patrol ...
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USA thinks again on combat-aircraft sales
US POLICY BARRING THE sale of combat aircraft to Latin America is "under review" by the Departments of Defense and State. That is all the US Government would say at the show, despite fielding a major military presence led by defence secretary William Perry, after boycotting the show in 1994. ...
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Bell to lead AH-1W and UH-1 upgrades
Graham Warwick/Atlanta THE US MARINE CORPS is to award Bell Helicopter Textron a single prime contract to upgrade its AH-1W SuperCobra and UH-1N Huey dynamic systems and AH-1W cockpit in November 1997. Bell will then conduct a competition on behalf of the USMC to select equipment for ...
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Vertical virtuality
Peter Gray/FORTWORTH If "flying" the simulator is any guide, Bell Boeing's V-22 Osprey proves the tilt-rotor concept. THE PRINCIPLE behind tilt-rotor aircraft has been around almost since the Second World War. Bell developed the first experimental design in the mid-1950s, carried the idea forward with the XV-15 technology demonstrator, ...
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Win some, lose some
The US DoD's 1997 budget request represents a 6% decline in defence spending. Ramon Lopez/WASHINGTON DC THE US Department of Defense (DoD) has sent to Capitol Hill a fiscal year 1997 budget request which represents a 6% decline in Pentagon spending from the previous year's ...
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Four decades of development
THE TILT-ROTOR is a remarkable aircraft. With the "prop-rotor" nacelles vertical, it can hover, fly sideways and backwards and turn on the spot - just like a tandem-rotor helicopter. With the nacelles horizontal, it has the speed, range and cruising altitude of a conventional twin turboprop. The ...
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Concerns about V-22 downwash crop
BELL BOEING AND the US Marine Corps are playing down concerns over downwash which emerged from testing of the V-22 Osprey tilt-rotor. A report rated downwash as a "moderate risk" after a test in which a soldier rappelled 18m (60ft) from the rear ramp of a hovering V-22 and was ...
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Buses to Bosnia
As USAF McDonnell Douglas C-17s are withdrawn from Bosnia, assessment of the transport aircraft begins Tim Ripley/BOSNIA WHEN THE HARSH Balkan winter halted US Army efforts to bridge the River Sava and troop trains became backed-up in Hungarian marshalling yards, US military planners began to ...
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US Air Force moves on with anti-missile laser device
Karen Walker/ORLANDO A REQUEST FOR proposals (RFP) covering the development of an anti-missile laser system will be released by the US Air Force in May. Two teams aim to win the airborne-laser (ABL) system demonstration/validation award. The $754 million demonstration phase will allow the winning ...
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Boeing plans CH-46 lifeline
Guy Norris/LOS ANGELES BOEING IS PUSHING A service-life extension of its CH-46 to the US Navy as an alternative to procuring a new helicopter to fulfil the vertical-replenishment (vertrep) role. It has proposed a basic CH-46 fleet-sustainment plan to the US Naval Air Systems Command, ...