An event to mark the opening of Boeing’s newly renovated H-47 Chinook manufacturing plant also commemorated the 50th anniversary of helicopter’s first flight in 1961. The US$130 million factory revamp will allow Boeing to increase Chinook production rates to six aircraft per month, up from the current rate of four per month, helping it to
The US Air Force has designated the Bombardier Global Express XRS the E-11A, after acquiring an example of the type to be used as an overhead communications-relay platform in Southwest Asia, equipped with a Northrop Grumman Battlefield Airborne Communications Node (BACN), which allows various battlefield communications systems to share data.
Lockheed Martin says the F-35 flight test fleet remained eight per cent ahead of planned flights for the year to date at the end of August, despite the aircraft’s recent grounding due to the failure of an Integrated Power Pack (IPP) on test aircraft AF-4. F-35s have completed 642 test flights for the year to
Raytheon has announced plans to integrate its Griffin missile onto the Hawker Beechcraft AT-6 light attack aircraft, aimed at providing a “cost-effective solution” for counterinsurgency operations. According to Raytheon, the 20kg Griffin B is a precision guided, forward firing missile designed for rapid integration onto rotary, fixed-wing and ground-launched platforms. An ‘A’ variant is also
Lockheed Martin has announced the completion of static structural testing for the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, one of five key milestones for the program for 2011 set by the Joint Program Office (JPO). Engineering teams from Lockheed Martin, BAE Systems, Northrop Grumman and the JPO conducted structural tests over the past two years, during which
Raytheon Australia will provide three Bell 429 helicopters to “maintain and develop the skills” of junior RAN aircrew under a new, four year Retention and Motivation Initiative (RMI) contract from 2012. Raytheon will support and maintain the Bell 429s under the four year, $26 million contract. They will fly approximately 1500 hours per year in
