August 7, 2000

August 7, 2000

View Full Issue Table of Contents
WORLD NEWS & ANALYSIS

France’s Concordes Still Grounded

By PIERRE SPARACO8 min

WORLD NEWS & ANALYSIS

Pentagon Demands Radar Upgrade Accord

By DAVID A. FULGHUM5 min

WORLD NEWS & ANALYSIS

RAF Criticizes, Praises C-130J

By DAVID A. FULGHUM5 min

View Full Issue
More Features
2829
WORLD NEWS & ANALYSIS

France’s Concordes Still Grounded

Fuel tanks have been penetrated at least twice before by tire bursts—one British Airways incident as recently as 1993

By PIERRE SPARACO8 min

4041
WORLD NEWS & ANALYSIS

Pentagon Demands Radar Upgrade Accord

LONDON Senior Pentagon officials are putting financial pressure on Raytheon and Northrop Grumman by withholding the funds to upgrade the E-8 Joint-STARS long-range, ground-surveillance radar aircraft until the two companies reach agreement on how to tackle the improvement program together.

By DAVID A. FULGHUM5 min

3637
WORLD NEWS & ANALYSIS

RAF Criticizes, Praises C-130J

LONDON British officers preparing the C-130J and its crews for Royal Air Force operations have a long list of both complaints and praises for their new aircraft and look to apply lessons learned to the upcoming introduction of C-17 airlifter and Astor airborne ground surveillance aircraft.

By DAVID A. FULGHUM5 min

3031
WORLD NEWS & ANALYSIS

BA Keeps Its Fleet Of Concordes Flying

LONDON Scheduled British Airways Concorde operations continued unabated last week, although services were disrupted by several incidents. The airline maintained there was no concrete evidence to ground the fleet, although it did put in place additional precautionary procedures following the July 26 loss of an Air France supersonic transport.

By JOHN D. MORROCCO4 min

3233
WORLD NEWS & ANALYSIS

Europe Grapples With Pooling Airlift Assets

LONDON As they await the arrival of the new A400M military transport, European nations are studying the idea of pooling their existing airlift assets. During the Farnborough air show late last month, seven European countries committed to acquiring a total of 225 A400M transports from Airbus Military Co. (AMC) in a procurement program valued at $17-18 billion over the next 20 years (.AW&ST July 31, p. 28). Governments hope to negotiate a contract with AMC early next year which would allow for first deliveries of the four-engine, turboprop airlifter in late 2007.

By JOHN D. MORROCCO4 min

4849
WORLD NEWS & ANALYSIS

Cohen Rebuts Censure Of Missile Defense

By PAUL MANN4 min

4445
WORLD NEWS & ANALYSIS

New Weapons, Tactics Explored for JSF

LONDON Taking advantage of weapons bay locations on its Joint Strike Fighter design, Boeing engineers have developed a new way to foil enemy anti-aircraft. The JSF has two large, triangular weapons bays that open to the side rather than straight down, a design innovation that permits both tactical sleight-of-hand and growth room to carry larger weapons or specialized equipment for additional combat roles.

By DAVID A. FULGHUM4 min

4647
WORLD NEWS & ANALYSIS

Sea Launch Hones Mission Operations

LOS ANGELES The Sea Launch system, following its third successful mission, is boosting payload weight capability and trimming overall processing times as the international venture prepares for launch of a Thuraya communications satellite next month.

By BRUCE A. SMITH4 min

3233
WORLD NEWS & ANALYSIS

Concorde Accident To Affect Paris Airports

PARIS Concorde’s crash is expected to compel the French government to enforce urbanization regulations near airports and decisively pave the way for an all-new international hub set to complement Roissy/Charles de Gaulle. The July 25 crash into a hotel could have a dramatic impact on France’s long-term airport strategy.

By PIERRE SPARACO3 min

4647
WORLD NEWS & ANALYSIS

U.S., U.K. Missile Needs Seen Converging

WASHINGTON Emerging cruise missile requirements in the U.S. and U.K. are beginning to look a lot alike, creating embryonic interest in trying to fuse the programs over the coming years prior to the start of serious development work. At the heart of the discussions are the U.S. Air Force’s concept for a long-range cruise missile (LRCM) and U.K.’s plans for a cruise missile being spawned as part of the Future Offensive Air System (FOAS) program.

By ROBERT WALL3 min

July 312000 August 142000