Helicopters – Page 462
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World market for casting
Expansion of the export side of its business is high on the agenda for British-based castings specialist Finecast at the show this week. The UK firm, exhibiting in Hall 2/J12, which produces lost wax investment castings for military and civil aviation clients, currently does 40% of its business ...
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BAe mini-movie looks a five-minute winner
American actress Rachel Lee, star of British Aerospace's film Partners in Flight, looked every bit the part when she flew into Paris for the mini-movie's preview. The five-minute film, shot over three months at locations in Inverness, Scotland and Preston, England, features stunning flight-simulation footage. Rachel ...
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TRW's MMW camera will offer low-visibility landing capability
ATRW-LED team is preparing for flight tests of a passive millimetre-wave camera which could allow low-visibility operations with commercial and military aircraft. System checkout will begin later this month and 60h of flight testing is scheduled to start in September, using the US Air Force's Boeing C-135CSpeckled Trout testbed. ...
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Hanging in the hover
Military helicopters The past two years could hardly be described as "vintage" for European military-helicopter programmes, with Eurocopter (chalet 156B/B) having to battle with politicians for orders for its Tiger attack and NH90 naval/tactical helicopters, and GKN Westland (2C/15) and Agusta (external 38) having to grapple with prototype-losses on ...
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Regional power struggle
It has been bubbling away for years, but the regional-jet market is finally exploding into action. More than a dozen regional-jet types are either under intense study, in development, or in production. The increased tempo has sent the engine makers into a flurry of activity, and the cut-throat ...
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Dull, dirty and dangerous
They fly and they crash, but defence ministries keep on pouring cash into unmanned air vehicles (UAVs), despite a litany of programme failures and embarrassing flops. Defence ministries in general, and the US Department of Defense (DoD) in particular, continue to fund UAV programmes because they are on the cusp ...
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Cuts and thrust
The USA is facing significant order cuts, Europe is arguing about project launches, and Russia is in chaos, with procurement at a halt. That is situation normal for military-aircraft manufacturers in the 1990s. This year's Paris air show will once again be dominated by discussions of problematic programmes, ...
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Tour de force
Unlike the last two air shows at Paris, where the talk among military-engine makers was dominated by budget cutbacks, consolidation and survival, this year's discussions will welcome decisions to proceed with some military programmes. Leading the drive is the US/UK Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) which, as the US Department of ...
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Cuts threaten Japanese air force procurement projects
Japanese military-aircraft procurement plans face chaos because of pending cutbacks in defence expenditure within the next five-year mid-term plan. The Japan Defence Agency (JDA) is faced with having to make critical decisions on future acquisition priorities before the end of the current five-year plan in 2000. Included in ...
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ABL team holds missile-tracking talks with USN
The Boeing-led Airborne Laser (ABL) team is in talks with the US Navy over the collection of missile-tracking data using Northrop Grumman F-14Ds equipped with infra-red search and track (IRST) systems. The YA-1A laser platform, a converted Boeing 747-400F, will be fitted with six Lockheed Martin IRST sensors ...
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UK MoD considers long-endurance UAV options
The UK Ministry of Defence (MoD) is considering a high-altitude long-endurance unmanned air vehicle (UAV) technology-demonstrator programme (TDP), which could be led by the Defence Evaluation Research Agency. In attempting to address its UAV requirements, the MoD has set up a tri-service steering group led by its Air ...
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-as USAF studies Boeing 707 re-engineing options
The US Air Force will seek innovative approaches for re-engineing additional Boeing 707-derivative aircraft which are now equipped with Pratt & Whitney TF33 turbofan engines. The study contracts, which will be awarded once funds have been identified, are expected to go to Boeing, which initiated the re-engineing debate ...
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Basic decisions
ALL THREE US tactical-aircraft programmes survived the Quadrenniel Defense Review (QDR) - but Congress will have to accept more base closures or one of the fighters may yet have to be cancelled. US Defense Secretary William Cohen has given lawmakers a stark choice: preserve the status quo and compromise combat ...
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Mergers
++ Schlumberger has agreed the sale of its French-based Data Acquisition & Recorders Division (DAR) to Avicore, a UK company formed in 1996 to acquire W Vinten, the reconnaissance and electronic-countermeasures producer. The two operations are of roughly equal size, and together will boast a turnover of around £40 million ...
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Engine power
France has been in the aero-engine business as long as aircraft have been flying, and today the industry remains present in virtually every area of propulsion activity. The two principal companies, state-owned Snecma and privately owned Turboméca, provide power for civil and military aircraft, helicopters and space - the latter ...
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Philippines spells out maritime needs
The Philippine air force has begun drawing up its requirement for six new long-range maritime-patrol aircraft (MPAs), as part of a recently approved 15-year defence-modernisation programme. A replacement fleet of MPAs represents the air force's next procurement priority after the acquisition of new multi-role fighters and surveillance radars. ...
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Brazil and Canada battle over aircraft support
A trade dispute is building up between Brazil and Canada over the level of state support going to their rival regional-jet manufacturers, Embraer and Bombardier. The dispute began in June 1996 with allegations from Canada that sales finance being provided by Brazil's PROEXexport agency for the Embraer EMB-145 ...
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Joint-mission E-6B is delivered to Pentagon
RAYTHEON E-SYSTEMS has delivered the first E-6B joint services command and control aircraft to the US military. The TACAMO (Take Charge and Move Out) aircraft, an extensively modified Boeing 707, combines the functions of the US Air Force's EC-135C Airborne Command Post (ABNCP) and the US Navy's E-6A ...