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F22 fighter withdrawn from Paris in spy row
15 Jun 2009Depressed it may be in the teeth of the worst slump in history but the much-awaited fixture of the aviation industry, the Paris Air Show, took off today amid a Franco-American spying row.
The biennial festival at Le Bourget is this year short of its traditional bank-busting airline deals and was instead ignited by news a F-22 stealth fighter has been withdrawn from the show by the US Air Force.
The Lockheed Martin-built F-22 Raptor has now also been withdrawn from Britain's Royal International Air Tattoo next month.
The aircraft had been due to go through its paces in Paris but was a late withdrawal amid unconfirmed accusations that it had been the target of French ultra-low-frequency, long-range radar tracking.
The official line is it is "imprudent" to fly the supposedly radar-dodging aircraft at Paris as it has an export ban on it to keeps its technology under wraps.
Reader views (1)
Trust the French to try to pull a fast one. Exocets to the Argies? The US appreciates what the French approach to cooperation really means.
- Coylum, vancouver, Canada, 16/06/2009 07:03
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