Free Republic

UPDATE-Sunday the names of victims in this crash were released. They are identified as pilot 68-year-old Mark Peterson of Foley, Alabama and passenger 72-year-old Thomas Volz of Amelia, Ohio. Two people lost their lives when a helicopter and gyrocopter crashed in the air near the Ultralight Runway at EAA AirVenture just before 12:30 Saturday. The collision sent both aircraft to the ground and one landed on a parked plane. The Winnebago County Sheriff’s Office tells EAA two more people are hurt, but stable, right now. “Obviously somebody was in the wrong place at some time and that will be part...

Beechcraft hopes Congress will get involved to kill a U.S. Air Force contract with its Brazilian rival Embraer to make $431 million worth of fighter planes for Afghanistan.

Super Tucano Supporters In Shock: AF To Pick Tucano Or AT-6 Without Flying Either The Air Force will choose a winner in its troubled Light Air Support competition without actually flying the two contending planes, the Embraer Super Tucano and the Hawker-Beechcraft AT-6, and it will even disregard what it has data from the limited "flight demonstration" it conducted last year. That's a disturbing departure from best practice in a program that has already been an agony for the Air Force, with the delivery of ground-attack planes to the fledgling Afghan air force now delayed by 15 months, enough to...

An Open Letter to General Schwartz on the Light Air Support Aircraft by Ed Timperlake Please do not validate that the AT-6 was compliant when submitted for LAS Solicitation FA8615-10-R-6088” by allowing your investigators to focus exclusively on the end-game selection paperwork. “There will be hell to pay” USAF Chief of Staff General Norton Schwartz was recently quoted about possible results depending on what the “investigation” of the “smoking hole” debacle of trying to deliver a combat aircraft to the Afghan war effort. This is more tough talk from a General who previously told industry: “Don’t blow smoke up my...

Hawker Beechcraft's AT-6 Guns For Embraer's Super Tucano: Rival Planes Compared It's Texan versus Tucano, take two, and the embarrassed Air Force has got to get it right this time. With all the claims, counter-claims, and rumors swirling about the controversial contract to buy the Embraer Super Tucano, which the Air Force cancelled unexpectedly on Tuesday and will likely re-compete, AOL Defense went both to the rival companies and independent sources to distill this definitive guide to the competition, from the two planes' performance to the manufacturers' twenty-year history of feuding. The bottom line? Both leading competitors are offering small,...

The United States Air Force is facing questions from Hawker Beechcraft Corp. after a recent GAO decision effectively removed them from the running in a bid to build our next generation of light attack aircraft.... Hawker Beechcraft, which has been excluded by the U.S. Air Force from competing for a contract to supply a new light attack aircraft, is fighting mad and fighting back. The Wichita-based manufacturer of business jets and turboprops filed suit yesterday with the Court of Federal Claims following notification that the Government Accountability Office (GAO) declined to review its protest of the Air Force decision, which...

Hawker Beechcraft loses out on big Air Force contract By Dan Voorhis The Wichita Eagle Hawker Beechcraft Corp. says the Air Force has informed the company that it lost out on a military contract worth nearly $1 billion. The company had hoped to win the Light Air Support contract with its AT-6, an armed version of its T-6 trainer. But on Friday, the company said it received a letter from the Air Force saying the AT-6 had been excluded from the competition. The company wants an explanation. According to the company’s news release: “The letter provides no basis for the exclusion....

Hawker Beechcraft posts $42.2 million third-quarter loss BY MOLLY McMILLIN The Wichita Eagle Hawker Beechcraft on Monday reported an operating loss of $42.2 million in the third quarter, an improvement from losses of $81.4 million for the same period a year ago. Sales totaled $518.8 million, down from $594.7 million during the same period last year because of lower aircraft deliveries. The company delivered 38 aircraft in the quarter, compared to 49 deliveries a year ago. The decline is due to supply disruptions that affected the production of the King Air, Hawker 4000 and piston aircraft, which delayed deliveries, the...

Raytheon Aims to Integrate Griffin® on AT-6 Light Attack Aircraft Small precision weapon is ideally suited for counterinsurgency mission Published Wednesday, Sep. 14, 2011 LONDON, Sept. 14, 2011 -- /PRNewswire/ -- Raytheon Company (NYSE: RTN) is seeking to integrate the combat-proven Griffin missile onto the Hawker AT-6 light attack aircraft. Griffin weighs 44 pounds with its launch tube, is 43 inches long and is an air- and ground-launched, precision-guided missile designed for rapid integration onto rotary- and fixed-wing aircraft and ground-launch applications. "Integrating Griffin on the AT-6 aircraft gives the warfighter a cost-effective solution to provide persistent surveillance and low-collateral...

AT-6 Seen As Versatile Combat Aircraft By David Fulghum Washington The turboprop-powered T-6 Texan II began life as a trainer and then morphed into the AT-6 light attack aircraft for the Greek air force. Now, as the AT-6B/C, it is promising to become an inexpensive path to network-centric operations, precision strike and advanced surveillance for other air forces. Nor is there a foreseeable end to the development potential envisioned for the two-seater. It offers 1,600 shp, 5-6-hr. endurance and an A-10C cockpit—a combination that’s being created by the team of Hawker Beechcraft and Lockheed Martin. As for what a light...

The Passing of a Generation 4/30/11 A Perspective on the Evolving Global Marketplace by Ed Timperlake and Robbin Laird American Labor Unions are in a self inflicted “Hurt Locker.” (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0887912/).With the actuarial tables taking the sad but inevitable final toll on the men and women identified as “The Greatest Generation,” (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greatest_Generation) a significant demographic shift has occurred. With the decline of the American industrial base and the rise of public sector unions a significant force in American politics has shifted focus. There was an old saying that with their solid pro-military conservative principles union members would vote their “American Legion...

USAF test center fuses old, new technology for light attack 07:03 GMT, October 15, 2010 DAVIS-MONTHAN AFB, Ariz. | Test pilots and engineers here are learning what happens when high-tech systems are combined with low-tech airframes for a new, cost effective, light-attack aircraft. Light attack, a revitalized concept in the Air Force, addresses the need for an airplane that offers surveillance as well as strike capabilities and walks the line between remotely piloted aircraft and high-performance fighters. In appearance, Hawker Beechcraft AT-6Cs resemble the fighters of yesteryear with single engine propellers and shark-face nose art. They are, in actuality, one...

Hawker Beechcraft proposes F-35 cannon for AT-6 By Stephen Trimble Hawker Beechcraft has revealed new details about its plans for the AT-6 light attack and armed reconnaissance (LAAR) fighter, including the possibility of integrating a 25mm cannon. A derivative of the General Dynamics GAU-12 Equalizer, a five-barrel cannon developed for the Lockheed Martin F-35, is among the weapons in consideration for the turboprop-powered aircraft, says Derek Hess, Hawker Beechcraft's director of AT-6 development programmes. A French 20mm gun is another option under review to either replace or augment the .50cal gun pod that is integrated on the twin-seat fighter, Hess...

USAF chief says "light strike" fighter could be needed By Stephen Trimble The US Air Force's top officer said today that a "light strike" platform optimized for the irregular warfare mission could be added to the service's inventory of manned fighters. Such an aircraft could serve both as a basic trainer for the USAF and "partner" air forces, and as an attack platform in operations against terrorists and insurgents, said Gen Norton Schwartz, USAF chief of staff. "There is a legitimate need to talk about the light strike role and the building partner capacity role, and we certainly intend to...