Helicopters – Page 469
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Good track record
The HeliStar programme, which operated during the Atlanta Olympic Games, proved to be more than an interesting experiment. Karen Walker/ATLANTA THE OLYMPIC FLAME has been extinguished in Atlanta, Georgia but among the many legacies, which the host of the centennial Games will have is that of having ...
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Developing power
New military engines, as well as old, will be under discussion at the Farnborough air show this year. Guy Norris/LOS ANGELES Andrew Doyle/LONDON IF THEY CAN MAKE themselves heard above the roar of the performing combat aircraft, visitors to this year's Farnborough air show will ...
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RAF rules out mini-B2 but looks at stealth EF2000
Douglas Barrie/LONDON THE UK MINISTRY of Defence (MoD) is expected to give the go-ahead in September for the feasibility study for the Royal Air Force's future offensive aircraft (FOA). A "mini-B2" design has been ruled out, but a stealthy development of the Eurofighter EF2000 will ...
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767 AWACS makes first flight
THE FIRST BOEING 767 AIRBORNE Warning and Control System (AWACS) aircraft had its maiden flight on 9 August, with a 2h 55min sortie from Everett, Washington. The flight marks the start of a seven-month test programme, before the installation of the aircraft's prime mission equipment (Flight International, 14-20 August, P4). ...
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RAAF prepares AEW shortlist
AUSTRALIA PLANS to release a shortlist of contenders for its airborne early-warning-and-control (AEW&C) re- quirement by the middle of September. Subject to Government approval, a request for tenders is expected to be issued at the same time, with the winner to be announced in late 1997. The Royal ...
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Transfield/Lockheed Martin team for Pacific Rim market
LOCKHEED MARTIN and Transfield Defence Systems are working to establish a joint-venture company to compete for defence and civil contracts in Australia and South-East Asia. A memorandum of understanding, has already been signed, by Lockheed's Ocean, Radar and Sensor division and Transfield Australia's second largest defence contractor. ...
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Racal-Thorn concludes Chinese surveillance-radar negotiations
RACAL-THORN Defence is to sell up to eight surveillance radars to China, in a deal worth around £40 million ($62 million). The radars are variants of the Searchwater, which is used in maritime surveillance and airborne early-warning applications by the UK armed forces. Negotiations over the sale have ...
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AWACS 767 begins flight testing
Guy Norris/LOS ANGELES THE FIRST BOEING 767 airborne warning and control-system (AWACS) aircraft was expected to begin a seven-month flight-test programme with a sortie from Everett, Washington, on 9 August. The 767-27C, which is a modified extended-range -200ER, is the first of four destined for ...
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QNC completes 707 hushkit tests and prepares DC-8 for flight
QUIET NACELLE (QNC) has completed flight-tests of a Stage 3 hushkit for the Boeing 707, and is awaiting supplemental type-certification (STC). The hushkit was installed on a Pratt & Whitney JT3D-powered US Air Force Boeing WC-135B (the military 707) for acoustic testing at Moses Lake, Washington. Miami-based QNC ...
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Japan goes it alone
Japan's helicopter industry is only now beginning to come of age, with the development of its own indigenous designs Paul Lewis/TOKYO JAPAN'S AEROSPACE INDUSTRY lays claim to a rich and varied history of manufacturing helicopters, dating back more than 40 years. For the most part, however, this ...
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-and expands with Rockwell
Graham Warwick/ATLANTA BOEING IS TO ACQUIRE Rockwell International's aerospace and defence businesses in a deal valued at $3.2 billion. The acquisition will boost the size of Boeing's defence and space business by more than one-third, taking annual sales to around $9 billion. Overall, the acquisition will ...
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Military helicopters
PROSPECTS for civil sales are improving, but the military-helicopter market remains oversubscribed. India's Hindustan Aeronautics, with its Advanced Light Helicopter, and Kawasaki, with its OH-X armed scout now in development, are two of the more recent entrants. Kawasaki is also considering offering the OH-X to meet the Japan Air Self-Defence ...
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UK firms gain most as RAF wins order battle
Douglas Barrie/LONDON THE UK GOVERNMENT has headed off an embarrassing political and military confrontation with a last-minute decision to award three key Royal Air Force contracts, worth almost £4 billion, which were being blocked by the UK Treasury. British Aerospace is the prime beneficiary, winning ...
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Williams proposes JASSM/Darkstar advanced engine
WILLIAMS International hopes to outfit the Lockheed Martin/Boeing DarkStar high-altitude-endurance unmanned air vehicle (UAV) with a more powerful turbofan engine, and to replace Teledyne Continental as the powerplant vendor for the Joint Air-to-Surface Stand-off Missile (JASSM). The Walled Lake, Michigan, engine maker is suggesting the Tier III Minus ...
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Forward thrust
The RNZAF has been rationalised, and is moving ahead in an increasingly commercial world Nick Lee-Frampton/WELLINGTON WITH LITTLE MORE than 3,700 people on its payroll, operating seven squadrons and more than 50 aircraft, the Royal New Zealand Air Force (RNZAF) takes personnel matters seriously. Indeed, Air Vice-Marshal ...
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Sea Launch confirms second customer
THE SEA LAUNCH joint venture headed by Boeing has secured a second major contract for space-launch services. Space Systems/Loral, a unit of Loral Space & Communications, has agreed to purchase five firings from the Sea Launch system, starting in the second half of 1998 and running through to ...
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Northrop Grumman to improve AWACS
NORTHROP GRUMMAN'S RECENTLY ACQUIRED Electronic Sensors and Systems division could earn nearly $100 million over the next five years in upgrading the reliability of the APY-1 and -2 radars used on the US Air Force's Boeing E-3 Airborne Warning and Control System (AWACS) aircraft. Since 1977, the former Westinghouse division, ...
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South Korea compiles shortlist for early-warning fleet
SOUTH KOREA is revising long-standing plans to acquire a fleet of airborne-early-warning (AEW) aircraft, as part of its next five-year mid-term defence plan. Defence observers now expect the South Korean air force to finalise its AEW requirements and issue a request for quotations before the end of ...
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Israel presses Russia in bid to clear way for China AEW deal
Ari Egozi/TEL AVIV THE ISRAELI Government is pressing Russia to approve the sale of an Ilyushin Il-76 Candid, to allow Israel Aircraft Industries (IAI) to conclude a deal to convert the aircraft into a Phalcon radar-equipped airborne early-warning platform for China. A $250 million deal to ...
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RAF considers JTIDS Tornado GR4 update
Douglas Barrie/LONDON THE ROYAL AIR FORCE is studying the possibility of equipping its Panavia Tornado GR4 strike-aircraft with the Joint Tactical Information Distribution Systems (JTIDS) data-communications network. Funding for fitting RAF combat aircraft with the JTIDS so far covers only two squadrons of Tornado F3s, along ...