http://www.freerepublic.com/tag/aerospace/ en-us Mon, 6 Jul 2009 04:08:14 GMT Focus Forum 15 http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2286279/posts US pressures IAI to drop bid on fighter jets to India By YAAKOV KATZ Under pressure from the Pentagon, Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI) has been forced to back out of a joint partnership with a Swedish aerospace company to compete in a multi-billion dollar tender to sell new multi-role fighter jets to the Indian Air Force. The deal, estimated at a whopping $12 billion for over 120 new aircraft, is being fought over by Lockheed Martin's F-16, Boeing's F-18/Hornet, Russia's MiG-35 and BAE's Eurofighter. IAI was asked by Saab, manufacturer of the Gripen fighter jet, to jointly develop an advanced... The Jerusalem Post http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2286279/posts#comment Mon, 6 Jul 2009 04:08:14 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2284367/posts WASHINGTON, July 2, 2009 – A giant, unmanned airship capable of hovering at about 70,000 feet promises to give future warfighters an unprecedented eye on the battlefield. The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency's Integrated Sensor is Structure program, ISIS for short, will provide a detailed, real-time picture of all movement on or above the battlefield. Defense DoD graphic courtesy of Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency  (Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image available. The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency's Integrated Sensor is Structure program, ISIS for short, will provide a detailed, real-time picture of all movement on or above the battlefield, explained... American Forces Press Service http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2284367/posts#comment Thu, 2 Jul 2009 20:10:16 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2283672/posts Airbus is expected to face calls to ground its worldwide fleet of long-range airliners tomorrow when French accident investigators issue their first account of what caused Air France Flight 447 to crash off Brazil on June 1. It is believed that the accident bureau will report that stormy weather was a factor but faulty speed data and electronics were the main problem in the disaster that killed 228 people. The European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) is likely to be asked why it had never taken action to remedy trouble that was well known with the Airbus 330 and 340... Timesonline http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2283672/posts#comment Wed, 1 Jul 2009 23:12:50 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2283139/posts Meet the "wonder weapon" that could have won the war for Hitler. Called the Horten 229, the radical "flying wing" fighter-bomber looked and acted a lot like the U.S. Air Force's current B-2 — right down to the "stealth" radar-evading characteristics. Fortunately for the world, the Ho 229 wasn't put into mass production before Nazi Germany surrendered in May 1945. But American researchers boxed up and shipped home the prototypes and partially-built planes that existed — and now the same company that builds the B-2 has rebuilt one. FoxNews.com http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2283139/posts#comment Wed, 1 Jul 2009 11:36:17 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2283093/posts Pakistan begins domestic final assembly of JF-17 By Siva Govindasamy Pakistan has begun the final assembly of the first Chengdu Aircraft/Pakistan Aeronautical Complex JF-17 fighter to be produced in the country, and aims to have the first flight by end-2009. Islamabad collaborated with China in the design and development, and received its first two JF-17s in March 2007. It has since taken delivery of around a dozen JF-17s, which China has designated as the FC-1, says the Pakistani air force. While PAC had work-share in the earlier examples and tried some limited assembly at its facilities in Kamra, Chengdu Aircraft... Flight International http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2283093/posts#comment Wed, 1 Jul 2009 08:46:55 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/2282704/posts The breaking of the sound barrier is not just an audible phenomenon. As a new picture from the U.S. military shows, Mach 1 can be quite visual. This widely circulated new photo shows a Air Force F-22 Raptor aircraft participating in an exercise in the Gulf of Alaska June 22, 2009 as it executes a supersonic flyby over the flight deck of the aircraft carrier USS John C. Stennis. The visual phenomenon, which sometimes but not always accompanies the breaking of the sound barrier, has also been seen with nuclear blasts and just after space shuttles launches, too. A vapor... LiveScience.com http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/2282704/posts#comment Tue, 30 Jun 2009 19:34:46 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2282431/posts Ex-F-22 engineer to sue Lockheed for stealth design By Stephen Trimble A stealth expert on the F-117 and B-2 programmes intends to file suit against Lockheed Martin later this week for concealing alleged deficiencies with the stealth coatings for the F-22. The pending lawsuit accuses Lockheed of knowingly providing defective coatings used to reduce the aircraft's radar and visual signatures, and covering up the problem by adding 272kg (600lbs) worth of extra layers. The lawsuit comes after the Department of Justice declined an opportunity under the Fair Claims Act to take up the case under seal. Now, Darrol Olsen, who... Flight International http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2282431/posts#comment Tue, 30 Jun 2009 14:41:43 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2282117/posts Pakistan Updates F-16s, Builds JF-17s Posted by Graham Warwick 6/29/2009 9:52 AM CDT Turkish Aerospace Industries (TAI, aka Tusas) says it has finally signed the deal to upgrade Pakistan's F-16A/Bs. The contract, worth around $75 million, is to install Mid Life Update kits and structural modifications in 42 F-16s over 46 months beginning in October 2010 - about two years later than originally planned. Pakistan is also to receive 18 new F-16C/Ds beginning in 2010. JF-17s (Photo via Wikipedia) The chief of Pakistan's air force, meanwhile, says production of the JF-17 lightweight fighter codeveloped with China will begin at the... Aviation Week http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2282117/posts#comment Tue, 30 Jun 2009 02:25:38 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2280959/posts ON TV Hitler's Stealth Fighter airs Sunday, June 28, at 9 p.m. ET/PT on the National Geographic Channel. Preview Hitler's Stealth Fighter >> July 25, 2009--At a Northrop Grumman facility in California, top stealth-plane experts admire their handiwork in late 2008—a full-size, though flightless, replica of a Horten 2-29, aka Hitler's stealth fighter, created for a documentary airing June 28 on the National Geographic Channel. (Read the full story.) The team tested the re-created Nazi jet against World War II-style radar. With its radar-resistant design and 600-mile-an-hour (970-kilometer-an-hour) speed, the team concluded, the Ho 2-29 would have allowed British antiaircraft... National Geographic http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2280959/posts#comment Sun, 28 Jun 2009 01:30:17 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/2279841/posts ON TV Hitler's Stealth Fighter airs Sunday, June 28, at 9 p.m. ET/PT on the National Geographic Channel. About the show >> Top stealth-plane experts have re-created a radical, nearly forgotten Nazi aircraft: the Horten 2-29, a retro-futuristic fighter that arrived too late in World War II to make it into mass production. (See Hitler's stealth fighter in pictures.) The engineers' goal was to determine whether the so-called stealth fighter was truly radar resistant. In the process, they've uncovered new clues to just how close Nazi engineers were to unleashing a jet that some say could have changed the course... National Geographic http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/2279841/posts#comment Fri, 26 Jun 2009 11:37:21 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-bloggers/2280620/posts Surprising to most, the U.S. military's space-age B-2 Spirit was not the world's first stealth bomber. That honor belongs to the Horton 2-29, an experimental jet created by Nazi Germany at the tail end of World War II. However, because it was never in wide use during the conflict, the 2-29's stealth capabilities were never given much of a test. That is, until now.Researchers hired by National Geographic studied the last remaining 2-29 in existence -- locked away in a U.S. government hangar -- and built a replica. They then tested the plane's resistance to the kinds of radar active... Inside Catholic http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-bloggers/2280620/posts#comment Sat, 27 Jun 2009 13:18:37 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2280070/posts letter from Sen. Daniel Inouye (D-Hawaii), chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee, to Japan's ambassador in Washington lists an estimated average unit cost of $290 million per aircraft for a theoretical export sale of 40 F-22 Raptors. Both Inouye and Rep. John Murtha (D-Pa.), chairman of the House defense appropriations subcommittee, and other lawmakers in both chambers are pushing both in public and behind the scenes to allow export of the stealthy, fifth-generation fighter. But a White House veto threat and persistent opposition from Pentagon leadership - as well as tenuous congressional support - are ratcheting up budget-making tension in... Avation Week Online http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2280070/posts#comment Fri, 26 Jun 2009 16:44:05 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2278187/posts India - Last Chance for Super Viper Posted by Graham Warwick at 6/23/2009 3:17 PM CDT I'll be delighted to be proved wrong, but I can't see Lockheed Martin's F-16IN as the front runner in India's 126-aircraft fighter competition, even if it has been rechristened the "Super Viper" (farewell, belatedly, to the unloved Fighting Falcon moniker). Artwork: Lockheed Martin Maybe I am being ageist. I became an aviation journalist in August 1978, the same month and year that the F-16 entered service. And that seems a long time ago to me. But I'm still writing and Lockheed is still building... Aviation Week http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2278187/posts#comment Wed, 24 Jun 2009 10:05:18 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2277583/posts Congressional computers have been penetrated, probably by the Chinese. The avionics system of the F-22 fighter may be compromised. Computers of our presidential candidates were hacked into -- and probably not by teenagers...Last year's advance of Russian tanks into Georgia was accompanied by the disruption of Georgian government computer systems. ...Attacks on computer systems will be an integral element of future conflict, and the United States is more dependent on computer networks than any other nation. ...policymakers and the military are in the early stages of coming to grips with this. We need to take some important first steps to... Washington Post http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2277583/posts#comment Tue, 23 Jun 2009 16:04:55 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2277788/posts The F-22 Raptor, the most advanced fighter jet in the world, is in a dogfight with a tough adversary: Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.). Frank, the chairman of the Financial Services Committee, said Tuesday he is “vigorously” opposed to Lockheed Martin’s F-22 fighter jet. Frank has called recent congressional efforts to add more money for the production of the F-22 a “major assault” on President Obama’s efforts to control military spending. Frank is intent on striking $369 million authorized for the procurement of advance materials and items necessary to build 12 additional F-22s. House defense authorizers, in a surprising move, last... The Hill http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2277788/posts#comment Tue, 23 Jun 2009 20:33:47 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2277572/posts Before the markets opened Tuesday morning, Boeing issued a shock announcement that the first flight of the 787 Dreamliner has been postponed again. The company cited a structural defect prompting "a need to reinforce an area within the side-of-body section of the aircraft." Though Boeing chief executive Scott Carson is quoted in the statement saying that "structural modifications like these are not uncommon in the development of new airplanes," the issue appears serious. Adding to the impact of the delay is uncertainty: Boeing said it will be "several weeks" before it will even come up with a new schedule. Seattle Times http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2277572/posts#comment Tue, 23 Jun 2009 15:46:35 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2277262/posts The first Chinese-assembled A320 is set for delivery, symbolizing the importance of future demand in Asia. PARIS -- Will emerging markets make or break the aerospace industry? Though the airline industry is suffering across the world, executives from Boeing and Airbus talked up the prospect of future demand from China as one bright spot at this month’s Paris Air Show. And on Tuesday, Airbus will deliver its first China-assembled A320, part of a joint venture that could help the plane-maker take more market share from its American arch-rival. The Airbus A320, which was assembled at a plant in Tianjin that... Forbes http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2277262/posts#comment Tue, 23 Jun 2009 02:17:13 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2277200/posts Defense: By a narrow margin, a House subcommittee has voted to keep open the F-22 Raptor production line. The future of American air dominance and the fate of the world's most capable fighter hang in the balance.On May 30, with North Korea huffing and puffing about nuclear war, the first of 12 high-tech U.S. F-22 Raptor fighter jets landed at Kadena Air Base on the southern Japanese island of Okinawa. It was just days after North Korea unnerved the region by detonating a nuclear device. There were reasons the F-22 was deployed to Japan. The stealthy, radar-evading fighter jet is... IBD Editorials http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2277200/posts#comment Tue, 23 Jun 2009 00:32:55 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2276902/posts PICTURE: IAI delivers Colombia's first upgraded Kfir fighter By Arie Egozi Israel Aerospace Industries has delivered the first upgraded Kfir fighters to the Colombian air force. The company was contracted in late 2007 to modernise 12 Kfirs from Colombia's air force inventory, and to provide several additional examples that had been stored at Israeli bases since the locally built type was phased out of service. Upgrade activities include equipping the aircraft with new avionics, an EL/M-2032 fire control radar from IAI subsidiary Elta Systems, and a new electronic warfare suite. The modified aircraft will be designated as Kfir C-10s or... Flight International http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2276902/posts#comment Mon, 22 Jun 2009 16:48:31 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2276783/posts First Rafale Export Sale Advances as UAE Detail Specifications (Updated) (Source: defense-aerospace.com; published June 19, updated June 20, 2009) PARIS --- Negotiations for the sale to the United Arab Emirates of 60 Dassault Aviation Rafale combat aircraft passed a major milestone today, as the U.A.E. government submitted its specifications to France. This will allow detailed contract negotiations to begin on prices and delivery dates, possibly leading to contract signature by year-end. This government-to-government deal is valued at 6 to 8 billion euros, depending on the exact content of the weapons, support and spares package included in the contract. Long-running talks... defense-aerospace.com http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2276783/posts#comment Mon, 22 Jun 2009 14:10:19 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/2276042/posts Shenyang, China (AHN) - The world's first plane powered solely by sunlight will fly around the world in 2011 as part of a project to promote the use of sustainable and clean energy, according to a sponsor of the aircraft. The Solar Impulse will fly for 30 days and land once on each continent, Jean Cai, vice president of Deutsche Bank (China) Co., Ltd., told Xinhuanet.com. The bank is one of the sponsors of a project to develop the plane. "The solar plane project is aimed at promoting sustainable energy in the world and the potential and future of clean... All Headline News http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/2276042/posts#comment Sat, 20 Jun 2009 23:26:07 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2276202/posts Panel to suggest powerful engine for Jaguar Ravi Sharma Honeywell offers F125N, a 43.8-kilo Newton thrust engine Rolls Royce proposes its Adour Mk821 turbofan -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- BANGALORE: The Indian Air Force has set up a committee to indicate which new engine will be suited to power India’s frontline but overweight and underpowered Jaguar tactical light strike fighter. The new, lighter, high performance engine will allow the IAF to improve the Jaguar’s mission performance, especially in medium and high level sortie profiles, undertake missions which are not possible with the existing engine, reduce pilot workload and cut maintenance cost. Headed by K.V.L.... The Hindu http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2276202/posts#comment Sun, 21 Jun 2009 12:07:41 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2276189/posts Air France Airbus jets experienced at least nine incidents in which airspeed probes iced over in the past year, according to an internal company report obtained by AFP Friday. A probe into the June 1 crash of AF 447, in which an A330 jet flying from Rio to Paris plunged into the Atlantic with the loss of all 228 people on board, has focused on contradictory readings from its "pitot" speed probes. The probes, made by aerospace company Thales, were found to be faulty on flight AF 447. But French aviation investigators have played down the significance of the discovery... AFP http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2276189/posts#comment Sun, 21 Jun 2009 11:22:39 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2276193/posts June 21, 2009 Eurofighter guns for £10bn Indian deal BAE Systems is preparing for a dogfight that could result in it landing an order for 130 modern fighter jets for India Dominic O'Connell The fortunes of Eurofighter, the much-criticised European combat aircraft, could improve sharply next month when it stakes a claim for a multi-billion-pound contract in India. India wants to buy more than 130 modern fighters, making the contract one of the largest international arms deals in recent years. Analysts say that with ongoing support deals, it could be worth more than £10 billion. If Eurofighter wins, it would... The Times,UK http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2276193/posts#comment Sun, 21 Jun 2009 11:35:26 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2275775/posts Taiwan to build 3rd-generation warplane with Russia's help Europe News Jun 19, 2009, 1:44 GMT Taipei - Taiwan plans to build its third-generation warplane with Russian technology as the United States has refused to sell Taiwan F-16C/Ds, a newspaper reported Friday. The Aerospace Industrial Development Corp (AIDC), which sent personnel to Russia for instruction from Russian experts, has finished designing the third-generation warplane, the China Times quoted an unnamed military official as saying. The as-yet-unnamed third-generation warplane will have twin engines and be able to take off and land with a short airstrip, the official said. During the design process,... Deutsche Presse-Agentur (dpa) http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2275775/posts#comment Sat, 20 Jun 2009 11:46:52 GMT