Israel Aircraft Industries

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The passing of "The Greatest Generation" has gotten a fair amount of ink since Tom Brokaw wrote his book now close to 20 years ago. It's hard to remember, given our current political circus (moderator, this is not a political thread), that there was a generation of actual adults who built the world we live in through intellect, hard work and personal danger in many cases. Shimon Peres was one such person though not an American. He and an American, Al Schwimmer, started IAI back in 1953. He died the other day after a lifetime of accomplishments almost too numerous to list. While Israel is one of those "allies that bear watching" for good reasons (industrial espionage, side deals with others, etc.) they have accomplished much in aviation with original and bold innovation along with, yes, Uncle Sam's aid and support. Some from that first group split off and built a nuclear reactor (French help) and their own nuclear weapons. Not bad for a country that averaged over all that time has had the population of metro Atlanta. But enough of that, Peres mothered all of it over time. I've often told people who deserved it, from mechanics to doctors, that it is such a pleasure to watch a professional work. He was one such. If you get a chance check him out and look at IAI as well. From fighters to rockets to missiles to satellites to, well.... These days it includes the Gulfstream G280 bizjet among a hundred other things. I wish we still had such adults but I fear that time has passed.
 
I don't know that Peres was involved with them, but IMI (Israeli Military Industries) also made some interesting small arms innovations.
 
Thanks for your gutsy, well written post. One of the best I've read here ever.

Hopefully, it gets read. Maybe better to be in the General section.
 
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I agree that Israel is an ally "that bears watching" for the reasons that you cite.

I don't understand how we give Israel BILLIONS in 'aid' every year (with no end in sight), they then turn around and buy weapons, politicians etc...with the money....it doesn't seem right...but it would be political suicide to oppose Israeli aid for various (not PC) reasons.
 
Originally Posted By: user52165
Hopefully, it gets read. Maybe better to be in the General section.


This thread would never survive in the General section; it's much safer over here.
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Bought a hamper yesterday. On the bottom, "Made in Israel"

A freaking hamper. I was SURE that it was made in China, but was pleasantly surprised that it was made by our Israeli friends.
 
I remember being surprised to see our F/A-18 drop tanks were manufactured in Israel. I want to say by IMI but I may be wrong. That was back in the late 80s.
 
Lots of parts on Boeing aircraft are made in Israel. When replacement parts are needed on aircraft owned by some Muslim nations, those parts manufactured in Israel are not accepted. Parts must be obtained from other "Non-Israeli" sources.
 
Yeah, there is no shortage of weirdness there. One nice thing they (Israel) used to do is that on country entry if they saw Arab visas in your passport they would ask if you were going to be doing other business "in the area"? If you said yes they would put in tip-in sticky post thing in your passport where they would stamp your entry and exit stamps. Then you could remove it before transiting through Rome/Athens/other (at the time no direct flights were allowed) to an Arab country. Some of them would either hassle you greatly or not let you in at all with Israeli stamps in your passport. Another funny one (likely still in place) was Saudi where you had to be "sponsored" into the country to do business giving rise to a phenomenon known as "rent-a-royal". With 7-8,000 royal family members it wasn't too hard.
 
Originally Posted By: DeepFriar
...These days it includes the Gulfstream G280 bizjet among a hundred other things. I wish we still had such adults but I fear that time has passed.


The G280 was one of last two projects I worked on at RockwellCollins before I retired from there.

The IAI people are great to work with.
 
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I got to know them during the upgrade program for Singapore's A4's (ex US Navy) back n the 80's-early 90's. We (Honeywell) had a good working relationship with SAF and Singapore Tech. The IAI guys were fine to work with. I enjoyed working with you Cedar Rapids guys years later in the Datalink Solutions composite "company" (I was at BAE) marketing Link16. In those earlier days at Honeywell we were always at each other's throats!
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Originally Posted By: DeepFriar
I got to know them during the upgrade program for Singapore's A4's (ex US Navy) back n the 80's-early 90's. We (Honeywell) had a good working relationship with SAF and Singapore Tech. The IAI guys were fine to work with. I enjoyed working with you Cedar Rapids guys years later in the Datalink Solutions composite "company" (I was at BAE) marketing Link16. In those earlier days at Honeywell we were always at each other's throats!
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These days the relationship between Honeywell and RockwellCollins is very symbiotic.

We cross-license each other's avionic products.
 
IAI's Tamam subsidiary seems to have licenced or run off with someone's ring laser gyros. And aside from them it appears that Sagem has eaten Honeywell's lunch offshore in the RLG land nav business. I spent five long years making MAPS/GPS the US Army standard and selling it offshore. It grinds me to see they've let it slip away from them overseas. The product I'm most interested in learning more about from Rockwell is your new non-projector HUD/EVS.
 
Rockwell/Embraer has provided the pricing on the HUD, Enhanced Vision System, Synthetic Vision System discussed earlier (and further off-topic, sorry). The HUD itself is $275K and the EVS system with both short and long wave IR is also $275. Combo price at about $500K. Expensive but as the article points out, half the cost of the projector type albeit with a narrower field of view. It makes lower minimums performance (with the usual provisos) more economic for midsize jets or maybe deep pockets lighter turbines. Would that I had such money!

http://m.aviationweek.com/nbaa-2016/pilot-report-embraer-legacy-500s-enhanced-vision-system-hud
 
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I did development and testing on the RC SVS and EHV which is why I did not comment on pricing. Proper channels, ya know.
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In the SIM's, we could land with pretty low min's. I really liked the ability to identify and avoid potential obstructions when landing in min's, due to the extensive database for background imagery.
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Originally Posted By: MolaKule
I did development and testing on the RC SVS and EHV which is why I did not comment on pricing. Proper channels, ya know.
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In the SIM's, we could land with pretty low min's. I really liked the ability to identify and avoid potential obstructions when landing in min's, due to the extensive database for background imagery.
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Kudos to you guys, that's an outstanding product! I think it takes minimums down to 100 feet within whatever other requirements that exist. Considering that others have been gouging, I mean offering, systems for up to a million and a half bux on bizjets the Rockwell product is maybe the beginning of something of a step-change. Bravo!

(Seditious thought) If it weren't for certification and liability cost considerations you and I could make and sell these things for something less than $50K and make a nice living doing it. There's always the experimental market although obviously no IFR)
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