Asian Aerospace '98
Tuesday, 24th February 1998
The Ninth Asian Aerospace ‘98 (AA98) is a 6-day event, taking place from 24 February to 1 March 1998. The first 4 days of the Singapore Airshow are exclusively for trade attendees and the final 2 weekend days are open to general public at large. Show visitors are treated to an extra 30-minute aerobatic flying display taking place at this year’s Singapore Airshow over the public weekend. This is in addition to the 60-minute aerial display.
United States military forces participated in the Asian Aerospace (AA98) airshow. Military personnel and equipment from the U.S. Army, Navy and Air Force was in full force. Manning aircraft static displays include the F-16C Fighting Falcon, F-15C Eagle, F-15E Strike Eagle, KC-135 Stratotanker, P-3 Orion, AH-64D Apache, CH-47D Chinook and UH-60l Black Hawk. An F-16 is also scheduled to perform a daily aerial capabilities demonstration. A B-1 Lancer, F-117 Nighthawk and KC-10 Extender was flown during the event.
The RSAF TA-4SU was on display at the stand of Singapore Aircraft Industries (SAI). The modernised TA-4SU uses a non-afterburning General Electric F404-GE-100D turbofan engine had 29% more thrust, which resulted in a 30% reduction in takeoff time as well as an increase in usable payload, range and maximum speed. Also the avionics package was upgraded which included a laser seeker mounted in the nose, an Inertial navigation system (INS), a Tactical Air Navigation (TACAN) system, fore & aft Radar warning receivers (RWR) and chaff/flare countermeasures). The aircraft were thirty year-old ex-US Navy airframes that RSAF purchased in 1973.