Category: Aviation

I Have Had It With These Motherf%$#ing Crocks On This Motherf%$#ing Plane!

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We see yet another senseless crocodile disaster:

A stowaway crocodile on a flight escaped from its carrier bag and sparked an onboard stampede that caused the flight to crash, killing 19 passengers and crew.

The croc had been hidden in a passenger’s sports bag – allegedly with plans to sell it – but it tore loose and ran amok, sparking panic.

A stampede of terrified passengers caused the small aircraft to lose balance and tip over in mid-air during an internal flight in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

The unbalanced load caused the aircraft, on a routine flight from the capital, Kinshasa, to the regional airport at Bandundu, to go into a spin and crash into a house.

A lone survivor from the Let 410 plane told the astonishing tale to investigators.

Ironically the crocodile also survived the crash but was later killed with a machete by rescuers sifting through the wreckage.

We live in a very strange world.

Unconventional Helicopter Developments

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250 kt record breaking flight, complete with Pr0n film* music soundtrack


The EADS X3


And their EADS/Eurocopter video


X2 Raider Mockup


The X-2 Raider, blissfully music free

Graham Warwick gives a survey of new technologies that might find their way into the Joint Multi Role (JMR) rotorcraft program, along with the video of the X-2’s record breaking flight (top)

Meanwhile, EADS is flight testing its X3 (I wonder where they got that name) compound helo, which uses dual wingtip props, and it provides anti-torque by varying the pitch of the thrusters.

It’s far less ambitious than that of the X-2, but their selling point is reduced life cycle cost, which is probably more a shot at the expensive tilt-rotors out there than the X-2 advancing blade concept, which really doesn’t seem particularly different in the amount of bits that move.

One interesting twist is that the X3 will slow its rotor at higher speed, reducing drag, though I could see this added to an advancing blade helicopter as well, particularly if the aircraft has a wing.

My quick look at the demonstrator indicates that it is not a particularly useful helicopter.

With two props about a yard from where the entrance to the passenger/cargo area is, both loading and unload, as well as the use of a winch for a rescue mission, would appear to me to be highly problematic.

Of course, the X3 is a demonstrator cobbled together with bits of various existing helicopters, so an operational version would likely address these shortcomings.

Sikorsky is also pitching a replacement for the OH-58D, theS-97 X2 Raider, which is rather similar to the MI-24 Hind or the Augusta/Westland Lynx concepts for an attack helicopter which retains transport capabilities or the ability to carry its own reloads.

*Not that I’d know what pr0n movies’ sound tracks actually sound like.†
†Not that there is anything wrong with that.

Is the USAF F%$#ing Nuts?

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Lockheed’s Concept


Lockheed’s “Secret Sauce”, an ejector/blown flap lift augmentation system


Boeing’s concept uses the Coanda effect in upper surface blowing like its YC-14


A tailless design for a transport, what the f%$# are they smoking


How stealthy will anything be with debris regularly cutting grooves in the skin?

If they are serious about their proposal for a stealthy transport roughly the size of a C-130, the answer is yes.

It’s entirely possible to design a STOL aircraft of C-130 or A-400M size that can cruise at conventional jet transport speeds, i.e. more than Mach 0.7 and take off or land in less then 200 feet.

In fact, the A400M comes awfully close to meeting those requirements right now cruising at almost Mach 0.7 with a takeoff and landing distance of about 2500 feet.

That being said, the idea that you want to do all of this, and then triple (at least) the lifetime costs of the airframe by making it stealthy is simply deluded.

While reducing the vulnerability of cargo aircraft to shoulder launched MANPADS is a good idea, experience has shown that the threats are primarily that and small arms fire, the idea that you need to create a reduced radar cross section, as appears to be the case with all (the tailless design is a Northrop-Grumman concept) is really bizarre.

If the enemy has air-superiority in the region, you are simply f%$#ed, and if they are in a position to have radar guided SAMs near your bases, you are, again, simply f%$#ed.

I’m with what Bill Sweetman wrote in the comments:

Everyone, but everyone, writing future airlift requirements for the USAF and US Army is secretly working for Airbus Military. Other than the massive abuse of chemicals there is no alternative explanation for this malarkey.

Bad Ideas Revisited

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The Royal Navy has a problem, which is that with a typical weapons load in a tropical environment, the F-35B STOVL variant of the JSF cannot land without jettisoning some of its (very expensive) stores.

Their solution is the Shipboard Rolling Vertical Landing, for which the Royal Navy has just paid Lockheed $18 million for a viability study, in which the F-35 will land on a carrier deck in a combined wing borne and thrust borne mode, at about 60 kts airspeed without benefit of arrester gear.

So, you have an aircraft weighing something north of 35,000 pounds, which is going to hit the deck at 60+ kts, though the relative speed will likely be closer to 30 kts, and it will then be manually braked to a stop.

What a bloody mess.

F-35 Full Monty

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Such a tease!

Stephen Trimble gives us a shot of the internal weapons bay of the F-35.

This is intended to be the standard loadout, with one AMRAAM and one 2000 lb JDAM in each bay.

IIRC, with the 250 lb SDB, it can carry 4 per bay.

And yes, this appears to be a pretty small weapons load for an aircraft that has a maximum takeoff weight of 70,000 pounds, nearly that of the F-15 E, which can carry about 5 times the ordinance.

MBDA Proposes Compressed Carriage Meteor for F-35

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If you squint, you can see the Bobbetized fins

MDBA is looking at clipping the fins of the Meteor, as was done with the AIM-120 AMRAAM, so that it can be properly accommodated in the internal weapons bay of the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter.

It makes sense, since by any reasonable measure, foreign sales of the F-35 will dominate the international sales.

This is not surprising. Among the active radar guided missiles, is the 2nd smallest, after the French MICA, the AIM-120 has the what appears to be the shortest range and end game kinematics, which makes a ready market for an extended range missile, particularly when used in the F-35, which, unlike the F-22, is not expected to be launching the missile at 20,000 m and mach 1.3+, which significantly improves range.

The USAF is aware of this, and is looking to develop a longer ranged, “dual-role air dominance missile,” to replace both the AMRAAM and the HARM missile.

It would probably make more sense for the USAF to go with an existing system like the Meteor under license production, with some modification to the software and seeker to meet their needs, but that would eliminate some 6 figure consulting gigs for the generals once they retire, which mitigates against this sort of solution.

Sikorsky X2 Sets Unofficial Speed Record

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The helicopter has reached speeds in excess of 250 kt (460 km/h) in level flight, besting the official record of 217 kts set by a (then Westland) Lynx, and the unofficial record set by its predecessor, the XH-59A demonstrator, of 236 kts.

It also appears that it could achieve a speed of 265 kts with the addition of a “sail fairing” between the two rotors.

It’s unclear to me, however how this is a helicopter speed record, and not a compound helicopter speed record, since the tail thruster makes a significant difference in just how power is applied at higher speeds.

I was under the impression that either a wing or a horizontal thruster made it a compound helo, but it appears that the definition being used here is that it’s specifically the wing that makes it a compound helicopter.

Senate Appropriations Committee Pulls F136 Alternate Engine Funding

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In addition to zeroing out the alternate engine, they also cut 10 production aircraft from the FY 2011 for failure of the program to execute per schedule.

This implies to me that neither cut could have gone through on its own, but together, both those who have concerns about the JSF, and those who don’t want the engine got enough of what they wanted to support each other.

Meanwhile GE/RR is ramping up efforts to reverse this decision, noting, among other things, that the budget numbers that the Pentagon is putting forward on the F136 engine are sketchy at best.

H/t ELP Defens(c)e Blog

Brazil to Delay Fighter Acquisition Decision

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Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva will now make the decision after elections but before he leaves office:

President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva will decide who gets Brazil’s multi-billion dollar contract to build jet fighters after the October elections but before he leaves office on Jan. 1, his defense minister said Sept. 7.

The finalists now battling it out in the final stages of the tender are France’s Rafale made by Dassault, Sweden’s Gripen NG by Saab, and the F/A-18 Super Hornet manufactured by U.S. giant Boeing.

Da Silva favors the Rafale, because he thinks that there are more opportunities for technical transfer and other cooperation with the French, while the military favors the Gripen, which will be the least expensive aircraft over its life time, having half the engines, and half the weight of the two competitors.

As to the F/A-18, tech transfer is rather iffy, but the unit price is likely the lowest, and it might help with cooperation with any US military operations in Latin America.

My guess is that he will choose the Rafale, he has already expressed a strong preference for the aircraft.

At this point, there is no intention to use it on Brazil’s aircraft carrier, but that possibility might push them towards either the Rafale-M or the F/A-18 E/F, both of which are carrier capable.

The Next Chapter of the Airbus/Boeing Pissing Contest

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And it does not involve the tanker.

The WTO, after ruling that Airbus was the recipient of illegal state subsidies, has now ruled that Boeing has also received billions of dollars in illegal state subsidies:

The long-running trans-Atlantic spat over government support of the world’s two biggest aircraft makers gained fresh momentum on Wednesday as a trade panel found that Boeing had received subsidies that violated global trade rules, people briefed on the decision said.

American lawmakers said on Wednesday that the subsidies, $5 billion from federal and state agencies, were just a fraction of the $24 billion that Europe had alleged and were far less sweeping than the benefits its rival, Airbus, had received.

But European leaders said that the finding, by a panel of the World Trade Organization, showed that the United States had also relied on subsidies in the fight for plane sales, and that the ruling would help prompt negotiations to resolve the problems.

What is interesting here is that they cite the military contracts that Boeing gets, but also the tax abatements with the WTO board determining that, “Boeing had received subsidies through some of the research contracts from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration and the Pentagon, as well as through tax incentives linked to its facilities in Washington State, Kansas and Illinois.” (emphasis mine)

This is about more than just the Airbus/Boeing subsidies. The WTO just ruled that the shakedowns that business inflict on communities by way of tax breaks are illegal subsidies under the current international trade regime..

This is a good thing.

I’d like to see Congress to find a way to ban this little bit of corporate pay-to play.

I Want to Vacation in Iceland

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I company called ECA Program is in talks to purchase 15 Su-27 Flankers from Belarus in order to set up a private air-to-air combat academy at Keflavik airport in Iceland.

The primary customer is dissimilar air combat training for NATO forces, but I would really like to get a ride on one of these aircraft, and my guess is that they will make this available to private individuals as well.

Of course, now I just need a few million dollars.

I would also note that there are some differences of opinion amongst the various players in the Icelandic government about the merit of this proposal.

Israeli MoD Approves JSF Buy

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Israel’s Ministry of Defense has approved a purchase of 20 F-35 fighters, though the report of a price of “only” $96 million a copy, is clearly a blivit,* as evidenced by this report of that 20 JSFs will cost about $2.75 billion, which gives a price of $137.5 million each, which is closer, but probably still less than, the cost of the aircraft.

In any case, while the MoD has approved, there is significant resistance from the full cabinet, with Finance Minister Yuval Steinitz expressing significant concerns about Defense Minister Ehud Barak’s decision.

It’s clear that both Lockheed Martin and the DoD were desperate to get this sale, which explains why Israel Aerospace Industries got a contract to build 800 wingsets for the stealthy fighter, which comes close to Israel being paid to take the plane.

They want a stamp of approval from a country that is not already a partner in the F-35 consortium, and Israel gives them more market credibility than almost any other non NATO nation.

*10 pounds of sh%$ in a 5 pound bag.

I Am Not Sure if This Flies, or if It’s Just So Ugly That it Repels the Ground

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You have to credit the Russian aircraft designers, this eleptical fuselage transport aircraft, dubbed ‘EkoJet’, appears to be an interesting way of looking at how to get a large number of people on and off an aircraft.

But man, it is one fugly bird.

The designers claim that the aircraft can carry as many passengers as the Il-86 (around 350 in an all coach configuration), but that it would weigh 80 tons less, or about 40% less than the IL-86’s 217t MTOW, which I simply don’t find credible.

The problems with the Il-86 were always its propulsion, not its structure, and a 40% weight savings seems to violate the laws of physics.

Anachronisms in Defense Promotional Videos

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Lockheed has a video pushing its VTOL Advanced Reconnaissance Insertion Organic Unmanned System (VARIOUS) fan in wing UAV.

It’s OK defense video pr0n, but what caught my eye were the tanks at about 1:22 in the video.

They are T-34 tanks, and I actually think that they are the T-34/76 variant, which ceased production around 1944, and has been out of service for decades, though could could see T-34/85s in service in Bosnia in the 1990s.

H/t The DEW Line.

The Gang That Can ‘t Shoot Straight: Semi-Stealthy Fighter Edition

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Because of supply chain issues, and because the assembly line is being constantly raided to keep the test fleet flying, Lockheed Martin is having to partially dissemble the wing on the F-35 to install components out of sequence:

Lockheed Martin has pushed back the resolution of a manufacturing problem plaguing F-35 Joint Strike Fighter final assembly schedules, but key suppliers are making progress building components as the programme prepares for the next leap in production orders.

In October 2009 government audit reports showed that Lockheed expected to eliminate the “wing-at-mate overlap” problem for the F-35’s four-piece wing with final assembly of BF-13, the thirteenth short take-off and vertical landing (STOVL) in production.

The overlap means that key parts are delivered after the wing has entered final assembly, requiring workers to partially disassemble the structure.

The Defense Contracts Management Agency (DCMA) identified the resulting delays and inefficiency in the wing manufacturing process as one of the key drivers for production delays ranging from four to six months during the first two years of low-rate initial production (LRIP).

Your tax dollars at work.

Tests Of Alternate JSF Engine Show Higher Thrust

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GE’s F-136 has demonstrated a 15% sea level thrust advantage over the Pratt & Whitney F135 at the USAF’s Arnold Engineering Development Center.

Additionally, GE is saying that they are doing this at lower turbine inlet temperatures, which would imply lower maintenance costs as well as greater upgrade capability:

The intense battle over powering the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter could be heading to new levels following test results that show the General Electric/Rolls-Royce F136 alternate engine has more than 15% thrust margin against specification, significantly exceeding the power of the baseline Pratt & Whitney F135.

The tests at the U.S. Air Force’s Arnold Engineering Development Center (AEDC) in Tullahoma, Tenn., are the first to officially calibrate the combat-rated thrust of a production-representative F136 at sea level conditions. Although the test program is only a matter of days old, it already appears to be showing greater performance margin in afterburner than expected, says the General Electric Rolls-Royce Fighter Engine Team.

I would note that it is likely that, as with the F100/F110 comparison, that the GE engine is somewhat heavier, which would imply that at higher altitudes the P&W engines would provide better performance.

Trying to Go B-1 With the F-22

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Lockheed and the USAF have reached an agreement to preserve the F-22 production tooling for future use.

The claim is that this is about, “will be able to repair and modernise the service’s aircraft, or manufacture new Raptors.” (Emphasis mine)

Make no bones about this: This is not about SLEPPing the airframes or upgrades, they don’t need the tooling for this.

They are hoping for a President, SecDef, and Congress will at some point change policy, as Reagan did with the B-1, and this is the sort of insubordinate crap that really needs to be addressed.

In a perfect world, Obama would find out who is behind this, fire them, and take the tooling and sell it for scrap.

In this world, we’ll see the pigs at the trough every year or so for the next decade in an attempt to restart the program.

After Over a Decade of Starving Their Force to Make Room for F-22s and F-35s………

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The USAF is looking at buying new build F-16s and F-15s to fill the gap:

The Government Accountability Office (GAO) published a new report today that for the first time reveals how US Air Force plans to deal with a fighter shortfall that is expected to reach 200 jets by 2025.

The GAO report summarizes two mandatory reports the USAF delivered in March to Congress. There are four options:

1. Extending the service life of and modernizing about 300 F-16 aircraft
2. Increasing annual F-35 procurement above 80 aircraft per year
3. Procuring new upgraded variants of legacy aircraft such as the F-16 and F-15
4. A combination of options 2 and 3

The fact that the USAF has even considered resuming F-16 and F-15 orders could be very significant. Two decades of USAF leaders have consistently upheld the all-stealth rule for combat aircraft.

Significant is an understatement.

The USAF has been doing its level best to create a fighter shortfall for the past 15 years or so in order to force a move to an all-stealth force.

The fact that the situation has gotten so dire that the USAF is considering buying some Eagles or Vipers is a big deal.

It indicates that the budget pictures on the F-35 are even grimmer than previously understood.

BAE close to launch contract for APKWS rocket

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BAE is looking to get its 1st contract to deliver APKWS guided 2.75 inch rocket.

The advantage to a system like this is that something like a Hellfire is sometimes too big, and always too expensive for smaller jobs, like taking out a room, a car, or a mortar fire team, and a helicopter can carry a lot more of these than it can Hellfires.

Rather unsurprisingly, it’s the Marines who are looking to take a buy.

Honestly, I’m waiting for them to cancel this, and move the money to the JSF or Osprey, which would both penny and pound foolish.

Prior posts on the various programs to add guidance to 2.75 inch rockets.