Category: Aviation

Ted Stephens is Dead

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He died in a small plane crash in Alaska.

He was an SOB, and he reveled in it, though I think that he would argue that he was Alaska’s SOB.

My take on his career is that he was not a benefit to the United States, and at best mixed for Alaska, which he was largely responsible for making into a corrupt petro-state.

Additionally, I agree with Zachary Roth, that it is far too likely that we will see a full blown hagiography which ignores the fact that he was actually very corrupt, deriving significant personal benefit from his position, whether or not the government could have successfully retried him after he won a dismissal on prosecutorial misconduct.

Meteor AAM Video Pr0n

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It highlights the better endgame kinematics and range available with a ramjet powered missile.

One of the things that surprises me is just how much smoke the initial booster puts out relative to the AMRAAM, which would increase launch platform visibility in visual range.

This implies to me that the European militaries planning to purchase this expect anticipate that its use in relative short range engagements, so I would expect that at least doctrinally, the minimum engagement distance for the missile would be a lot greater than that of the AMRAAM. (Reportedly 2km)

The music is a little bet better than most of these promotional videos:

Another Solution to Limited Look Angles of AESA Radars

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One solution, which I have posted about before, is the swash plate radar (also here), and the Russians are looking at mounting an AESA Radar on a conventional (though likely beefed up) radar actuators, and now we have radar mount that uses two oblique rotary bearings, rather like the 3 bearing nozzle on the STOVL version of the F-35 engine exhaust, to get off axis performance approaching that of conventional planar array radars.

One of the advantages appears to be that it avoids antenna polarization issues, and another advantage would be that conventional connectors for power, signal, and cooling could be used.

The original concept would have required slip rings and rotary fittings, which would likely have been maintenance headaches.

I Place This Up There With Soviet Super-Chopper Claims

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Skylon is claiming that it will have its liquid air engine ready for test in 3-4 years.

Considering the fact that it’s really being run on a shoe string, I simply do not find this a credible timeline.

Additionally (top video) it’s reentry profile appears to be problematic to me. The knife edge canard appears to be in a weak shock on reentry, which means that the surface temperature would much higher than in something like a space capsule, or the relatively blunt edged shuttle wing leading edges, where much of the heating occurs in a strong shock that is some distance from in front of any structures, but I am not an aerodynamicist.

If you look at the bottom video, from a couple of years ago, where Richard Varvill, Technical Director of Reaction Engines Limited talks about a 12+ year development cycle with a demonstration of the heat exchangers in 3 years, that sounds rather more realistic.

The bottom vid is also a nice primer on the basic operation of the Sabre engine.

My earlier post on the vehicle and engine.

Dutch Defer JSF Decision Again

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It looks like they might buy a 2nd test aircraft, in order to preserve some workshare for Dutch firms, but that it’s unlikely that they will sign a deal for a production run at this time.

Not surprising, they are undergoing austerity cuts to meet Euro zone budget guidelines, cutting, “education, healthcare and social security spending,” so why purchase an aircraft that costs (at least) 5 times as much as the F-15, and costs (at least) twice as much to operate?

H/t ELP Defens(c)e Blog:

US Aerospace/Antonov Out of KCX Competition

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Rather unsurprisingly, they missed the deadline, which is not surprising, since they seemed not ready for prime time.

Equally unsurprising is the fact that they have filed a protest with the GAO.

The cynic in me wonders if that was not the intention the whole time, to kinda file, and then use a GEO protest as a way to generate some ransom money.

Then again, now that the details have come out, the messenger showed up at the gate at 1:30, was delayed there, and then given bad directions by the gate guards, resulting in a 2:05 stamp, 5 minutes late, perhaps it is incompetence, or maybe the USAF had enough of this crap, and decided to play some hardball as US Aerospace claims.

Pass the popcorn.

You might as well watch. Your tax dollars are paying for this.

This is Not A Serious KC-X Bid

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Stephen Trimble has their PowerPoint, (the link is no good) and it is simply not a credible proposal.

As you can see, it is a twin turbofan variant of the An-70 quad turboprop transport, and I would note that the rough/austere capabilities shown on slide 8 include a an AN-70 crashed in the snow, which is a pretty good indication of the fact that the bidders are “not ready for prime time”.

Additionally, as I have noted before, a high wing aircraft is 50+ kts slower, which means that getting on station takes more time, and the advantages, austere field capability and the ability to paradrop people and cargo, are not a part of a requirement.

VIDEO: Silent Eagle Bay Watch

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Top Bay Only in Prototype, Production will Have Bottom Bay as Well


Door Opening and Missile Extending


Launch of an AIM-120

Boeing has now successfully flown a demonstrator for its slelent eagle, the F-15E1 demonstrator.

It has both extended and retracted a missile, and made a successful launch of the AIM-120 AMRAAM.

While these are significant, it should be noted that the system is nowhere near combat ready, with the time for opening the door and extending the missile being at least 10 times what you would want in real air to air combat.

Still, the aerodynamics involved, at least when flying straight and level at around 15,000 feet.

More significant might the fact that Boeing has secured an export license of the aircraft to South Korea.

It’s a low cost solution compared to either the F-35 or F-22, which is more of an indicator of just how the costs of combat aircraft have gotten completely out of control, rather than an indication of how inexpensive the F-15 is as platform.

This is a Stupid Idea

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Boeing is proposing a C-17 variant with a 4 foot narrower fuselage, the theory being that if it is too expensive to operate, this model will be a bit cheaper, though it won’t be able to carry (1) Abrams tank or (2) Bradley IFVs, though it could carry Stryker class vehicles.

Unless this is some sort of idea to get some more pork through the US Congress, this is a stupid idea.

While the reduction in takeoff weight, as well as an increase in installed thrust, it will still be outperformed by modern turboprops, and in terms of economy per ton mile, low wing commercial freighters will be cheaper to operate, as well as being about 50kts faster.

It just doesn’t make sense.

Ah, This is Obviously Some Strange Usage of the Phrase “Not an Aircraft Carrier” With Which I Was Previously Unfamiliar

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This is not an “Aviation Destroyer”
(Background)

The next generation of Japanese naval aviation will be the 22DH ships, which are the size of the Essex Class fleet carriers of World War II.

The kicker here is the fact that they are looking at deploying the F-35B STOVL fighter on the ship.

I understand why the Japanese are leery of saying that they have an aircraft carrier.

It makes them nervous.

Hell, it makes me nervous.

That being said, this is not a helicopter carrying destroyer.

When the Going Gets Tough, the Ukrainians Gets Weird

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An-124 Ruslan (NATO Designation: Condor)

Yes, it appears that Antotov is serious about bidding on the KC-X tanker contract, and they have just asked for a 60-day freeze on the competition so that they can get their bid together.

These folks haven’t even decided what plane to submit, with reports of their considering, “three potential offers based on the An-124-KC and two new aircraft designs – the An-122-KC and An-112-KC.”

The AN-124 is clearly too big for the competition, it’s bigger than the C-5, and the competition is for a medium tanker, the KC-10 is the big boy, and according to the Wiki, the An-122 appears to be a 2 engined variant of the of the Ruslan, and lord knows what the AN-112 is.

On the plus side of the bid, Russia’s mega transport does appear to have much better rough field capabilities than the competition, both because of the multi axle main and nose gear, and because its high wing is makes engines less likely to suck debris off an unprepared strip.

Still, this is so silly as to be surreal.

I think that someone, possibly on the side of their US partner might be playing both ends against the middle, and the money is heading to Lichtenstein.

Sikorsky X2 Breaks 181 Kts

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Photo: Sikorsky, By Way of Ares

Sikorsky’s X2 advancing blade helicopter has sustained a cruise at 181 kts, and has done so at very low vibration levels, the show stopper for Sikorsky’s XH-59A ABC helo in the 1970s, are a good sign.

This is about 40 kts faster than most conventional helicopters, and faster than almost any other helicopter out there.

They hope to make it to 250 kts, and they have yet to install the center hub fairing, which should further reduce drag, and the transmission is really not optimized for the mission, which implies that with some minor changes, performance could be improved:

The prototype is designed with no clutch between the main rotors and propulsor, which requires the pilot to increase forward speed through the variable pitch control on the six-bladed rear propeller. Once in the 180kt realm, the X2’s computer will automatically slow the main rotors and increase collective pitch to prevent tip speeds from entering high-drag transonic region, with Bredenbeck correspondingly increasing propulsor pitch to increase the X2’s speed as the propulsor also slows.

One of the things that blows my mind here is this vehicle has tested so well, so far, without any wind tunnel testing:

Weiner credits configuration maturity to Sikorsky’s advanced analytical tools given that the company did not perform windtunnel tests of the design before flight-testing. He says windtunnel tests would likely precede the design for a production model, the first of which could be a systems development and demonstration vehicle for the US Army’s potential competition to replace the Bell OH-58D Kiowa Warrior later this decade.

(emphasis mine)