After a decade of asymmetric warfare against low-intensity opponents, Western air forces begin to increase their capabilities against near-peer adversaries, demanding more advanced capabilities.
It’s a far cry from the early 1970s, when Mitsubishi Heavy Industries built some 20 F-4 Phantoms a year, but the company has just rolled out the first of 38 Lockheed Martin F-35A Lightnings scheduled for local assembly.
Elbit Systems is publicizing a novel WAPS/wide area persistent surveillance capability that was kept under wraps for years, as it was providing unique operational capability for homeland security and the fight against terror.
The first short takeoff and vertical landing model F-35 to be assembled outside the U.S. has been rolled out from Italy’s Final Assembly and Check-Out facility.
Elbit Systems has received the first order, worth USD17 million, from a NATO country, for its BrightNite vision system, designed to enhance the visibility and situational awareness of helicopter pilots in degraded visual environment flight conditions.
After a decade of asymmetric warfare against low-intensity opponents, Western air forces begin to increase their capabilities against near-peer adversaries, demanding more advanced capabilities.
The German air force is seriously interested in the Lockheed Martin F-35 Lightning II as the central node of its future networked strike complex, which includes unmanned surrogates.
The world’s most “printed engine,” GE’s new Advanced Turboprop, in which additive manufacturing replaces 855 normally made parts with just 12 “printed” components, is on track to run for the first time this year. It will power Cessna’s new Denali aircraft.
Ontario, Canada, remains a stable source of aerospace activity, although some chinks in the armor have appeared over the last year. Some sectors have shown modest growth, while others have retrenched.
Driven by increased orders of Airbus, Boeing and Comac aircraft, CFM International plans to add an extra 800 CFM56 and Leap engines to its already bulging production plan between 2018 and 2020.
Boeing used the opening morning of the 2017 Paris Air Show to announce that it has officially launched the Boeing 737 MAX 10, destined to be the largest of the four-aircraft MAX range.
Changes designed for the Airbus A380-plus upgrade package will be available for entry into service by 2020, according to A380 marketing head Frank Vermeire.
Leonardo is progressing its plan to turn its M-346 jet trainer into a lightweight multi-role combat jet with the revealing of a new, meaner version of the aircraft here at Paris.
Aerostructure specialist and business aircraft manufacturer Daher says it is actually growing its American footprint, after years of expressing hope of doing so.
Announcing the agreement for the conversions at the Paris Air Show, UPS President Brendan Canavan said: “We are expanding our uplift to meet our customers’ needs.”
Aircraft lessor AerCap has placed a firm order for 30 Boeing 787-9s, valued at U.S.$8.1 billion at list prices. Delivery dates have not been disclosed.
With ongoing North Korean missile tests and tension in Eastern Europe, the first successful test of the U.S. missile defense shield against an ICBM could not have come at a better time for missile maker Raytheon.
