Sunday, November 6, 2011

Dubai Show May Include 1,000 Exhibitors................. JF-17 To Make Gulf Debut

PARIS - Pakistan is looking to steal the thunder with its JF-17 fighter jet, due to fly at the Dubai Airshow, opening Nov. 13.
The JF-17 Thunder, a single-engine, multirole combat aircraft, is co-developed by Pakistan Aeronautical Complex and China, where it is dubbed the FC-1 Fierce Dragon.
With a price tag of $20 million to $25 million per unit, the JF-17 is a low-cost plane poles away from Western-built fighters such as the F-15, F-16, F/A-18 and Rafale, also to be displayed.
Dubai will be the JF-17's fourth air show, after a static display at Farnborough, and flights at the Izmir show in Turkey and Zhuhai in China.
Pakistan also is showing off its Super Mushshak basic trainer, flown by the Saudi and Pakistan air forces, and its Karakoram-8 light trainer jet.
Alenia will field its M346 trainer jet, which previously won a UAE competition for a lead-in fighter trainer only to see the deal called off and a new tender set.
The U.S. is fielding the V-22 Osprey tilt-rotor aircraft alongside the conventional AH-64 Apache Longbow attack helicopter.
In the expanding market for spy planes, L-3 Communications will display its modified King Air 350ER turboprop, pitched at foreign clients as an intelligence, surveillance and recon asset.
At the large end of the spectrum, a Boeing 737 airborne early warning and control system plane from the Turkish Air Force will be at the show.
Dubai will host the 12th edition of the air show, which has booked up to 1,000 exhibitors from 50 countries, a 12 percent increase over 2009, the organizers said. More than 55,000 trade visitors are expected.

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