Air International 1987-10
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Airscene
Grumman rolled-out the first A-6F Intruder II at Calverton, NY, on 3 August 1987, this being one of the five FSD aircraft included in the development programme for this new variant under a $497.8m (?313m) contract.
The Ministry of Defence has confirmed its approval of the development phase for the battlefield surveillance system Orchidee (Observatoire Radar Coherent Heliporte d'Investigations des Elements Ennemis), releasing the necessary funds for work to continue. Carried by Aerospatiale Super Puma, Orchidee is intended to detect and localise columns of vehicles and low-flying helicopters over ranges of up to 62 mis (100 km). As well as Aerospatiale, major contributors to the system include Electronique Serge Dassault, Thomson-CSF, Matra and LCTAR.
A Fokker F27 has now entered service at Edinburgh for fisheries protection duties in Scotland, operated by Harvest Air on behalf of the DAFS. Previously operated by Air UK, the F27 Mk 200 went through a 21-week overhaul and modification programme with the latter company, during which it was fitted with centre-section bladder tanks a modification never previously made retrospectively to an F27.
The first delivery of a Fokker 50 was made on 7 August, 1987, to German regional carrier DLT. The company has seven aircraft on order with six more on option.
The first Lockheed C-5B, “City of Dover”, assigned to the 436th US Military Airlift Wing, Dover AFB, recently transported 1,173.400 lb (532 254 kg) of cargo from RAF Sculthorpe to Rhein Main AFB, in 13 sorties over four days.