A Saab Erieye EW&C aircraft destined for Pakistan is entering final test, and should be transferred to Pakistan by year’s end.
But mostly, I’m posting it for the picture, which is a lovely bit of photography.
Category: Aviation
Ready, Fire, Aim
The USAF is looking at how new technologies might provide a diction for the service’s future:
The study will look 20 years ahead, with an eye toward implementing near-term investment decisions aimed at producing relevant military systems. “We are not talking about pie in the sky,” Chief of Staff Gen. Norton Schwartz said last month.
The problem ain’t technology, it’s the contracting, and cost control. At the rate things are going, all of the USAF’s budget will go to just buying one aircraft somewhere around 2075.
After all, the F-22 already costs almost ½ as much as the first nuclear aircraft carrier, the Enterprise.
Their future is bleak until costs come under control, which is true of most of the military, but the US Air Force appears to be in the worst position regarding this.
Denmark Defers Fighter Choice
Denmark is now deferring by a decision at least a year on its choice for a new fighter to replace its F16 fleet.
The decision will be some point in 2010, at the earliest.
Technicality, it is a competition between the F-35, F/A-18 E/F, and the Gripen, but until now, it has generally been assumed that the JSF had the inside track.
I think that any delay in orders will work against the JSF, as it is patently clear that the cost of the aircraft will continue to escalate, making selection of the F-35 that much more difficult.
Also, it appears that they are talking about downsizing their fighter fleet from 48 to somewhere in the 25-35 range.
Here is the original article and the Google translation.
Talk About Bad Juju
We now have reports that Libya is in negotiations with Russia about buying Sukhoi Flankers, probably the Su-35, which would imply that they are not going to buy the Rafale from Dassault, as I had previously noted.
Seriously, the number of times that a Rafale deal has gone pear shaped just boggles the mind.
Avent Upgrade “Feasable” for F-35 Engine
Essentially, they are looking at adaptive versatile engine technology (Advent) technology, which could change engine bypass ratio in flight.
Interestingly enough, this was a part of the architecture for GE F120 engine, which lost to the P&W F119 in the F-22 raptor, from which the F-35’s F136 engine was derived.
Boeing Needs to Fix Its Fix on 787
Basically, it looks as if it will be delayed even further:
While the installation of the 787 wing fix continues, Boeing engineers have returned to the drawing board to redesign part of the reinforcement, FlightBlogger has learned.
As a result, company and industry sources say the 2009 first flight target could be in jeopardy as engineers work to redesign the fix for four remaining wing stringers.
(emphasis mine)
Ben Sandilands makes a number of trenchant observations, but I think that he misses the bigger picture, which is, as I stated in my last post, that Boeing has given itself a cost cut driven lobotomy.
They cut the engineers and technicians because the finance guys thought they could, but they couldn’t.
It’s like when Boeing got their engineers (SPEEA) to strike a few years back, and they were surprised when the FAA said that they would not allow the suits to certify construction and deliver the aircraft.
Delay for Boeing, Airbus Next Gen 100 Seaters
We now have reports that both Airbus and Boeing are looking at engine upgrades to the A320 and B-737 so as to delay the introduction of new models.
When you look at where things right now, with Boeing having outsourced its knowledge to the point that the 787 and 747-8, and Airbus still behind schedule on A380 deliveries and up to its hips in getting the A350 into development,* it is far from surprising that they putting off new development.
Airbus is in a better situation here, since the 737 has had clearance with its engines ever since it went to high bypass ratio turbofans with the -300, and because Boeing seems to be incapable of finding its ass with both hands.
Boeing went all outsource everything starting in the late 1990s, while Airbus didn’t, and as a result, they seem to be lacking basic skill-sets to actually get a plane into service.
Part of this is the difference between the two cultures: In America a skilled work force is seen as a cost, rather than an asset, as it is in Europe, and part of it is European politics, which makes it much more difficult for EADS to ship jobs from Hamburg or Toulouse.
*As well as the clusterf$#@ that is the A400M military transport, but that is technically a separate division, so it’s in the footnotes.
Neat Tech That Won’t Be Going Into Aviatiion
Dyson, the company that uses a centrifugal separator in its vacuum cleaner, has another piece of neat tech, a Bladeless fan that works on the Coanda effect.
It’s a really interesting concept, if you don’t mind spending $299.99 for a 10″ freaking table top fan.
In any case, Bill Sweetman notes that this technology might have application for a VTOL aircraft, though, as he notes this concept is very close to the ejector lift concept that has failed abysmally when it has been tried.
For quieting a fan, it might work, for generating lots of thrust for VTOL, I’d wait for more tests.
GE Promises 56,000 Lb Thrust F136
Bradley Perrett at Ares notes that GE/Rolls Royce has had this this thrust number floating around since at least 2002, and would compare quite favorably to the 43,000 lbs of thrust available in the F135.
It’s clear that the F136 has a larger core than the F135, but at this point GE/Rolls is arguing that this can allow for greater reliability, and perhaps a few hundred pounds more thrust in STOVL mode for the F-35 JSF
The latter looks significant, as the Royal Navy is looking at a “shipborne rolling vertical landing,” basically a relatively low speed (under 150 km/h) non-arrested (!) landing on a carrier to increase bring-back weapons load and to reduce wear and tear on the engines, for vertical landings.
My guess, as is Mr. Perrett’s, is that the 56,000 lbs is the number that they are designing to for the purpose of creating a margin which would allow for reduced maintenance and capacity for upgrades.
In order to go from 43,000 lbs of thrust to 56,000 pounds of thrust in the JSF, I think that there would have to be some major airframe modifications, because there has to be more air flowing through that engine to get that performance, so I would expect significantly altered air inlets, no small change in a stealth aircraft, to realize that thrust level.
One interesting aside in the article, is the “cost” of the lift fan system that was chosen as the winner in this competition: both the GE/Rolls and P&W engines for the original fly-off for between Lockheed-Martin’s X-35 and Boeing’s X-32 delivered a lot more thrust in wingborne mode using when configured Boeing’s direct lift concept.
Richard T. Whitcomb, 1921-2009
A brilliant man who invented the Area Rule to reduce supersonic drag, the supercritical wing, and drag-reducing winglets, has died at the age of 88.
Thrust-Vectoring EJ200 for Typhoon
So it looks like Eurojet is looking at getting into the thrust vectoring game.
It also looks like they will be selling it on improved economics, based on the use of lower thrust settings for takeoff and landing, and improved straight-line performance through reduced trim drag, rather than any massive increase in agility.
This is not surprising: At the speeds at which combat generally occurs, aerodynamic surfaces just work better.
For all the play over airshow maneuvers like the Cobra, etc., you have to be out of energy and very slow for them to work, which mirrors Colonel Fornof’s talks on dealing with the thrust vectoring F-22 and Su-30MKI, where he says that using thrust vectoring creates opportunities for the opposing aircraft to shoot you down.
Sounds like the old truism of air combat, “Speed is life,” remains true.
Video:
Signs of the Apocalypse: EADS Edition
Click for full size
Dr. Peter Venkman: This aircraft is headed for a disaster of biblical proportions.
Mayor: What do you mean, “biblical”?
Dr Ray Stantz: What he means is Old Testament, Mr. Mayor, real wrath of God type stuff.
Dr. Peter Venkman: Exactly.
Dr Ray Stantz: Fire and brimstone coming down from the skies! Rivers and seas boiling!
Dr. Egon Spengler: Forty years of darkness! Earthquakes, volcanoes…
Winston Zeddemore: The dead rising from the grave!
Dr. Peter Venkman: Human sacrifice, dogs and cats living together… mass hysteria!
So there you have it, actual photographic evidence of the EADS A400M military transport with actual flight worthy engines on the wing, and they are now claiming that we should expect a first flight in December.
Personally, I expect that when the aircraft hits the runway for its first flight, we will see rains of frogs, burning pitch, daffodils, and Amway salesmen.
Rafale Video Pr0n
H/t The DEW Line, for this rather pretty bit of aviation videography:
Just Go Read Michael Moore
Basically, after years of no support for their unions, and bankruptcy laws that do nothing to reign in executive compensation, pilot salaries have become so low that pilots frequently have to work 2nd jobs, and no small number are on food stamps.
You get what you pay for, and right now, we are paying for lots of airliners crashing by not paying pilots enough.
Here’s a sample:
I told the guys that I have a whole section in my new movie about how pilots are treated (using pilots as only one example of how people’s wages have been slashed and the middle class decimated). In the movie I interview a pilot for a major airline who made $17,000 last year. For four months he was eligible — and received — food stamps. Another pilot in the film has a second job as a dog walker.
“I have a second job!,” the two pilots said in unison. One is a substitute teacher. The other works in a coffee shop. You know, maybe it’s just me, but the two occupations whose workers shouldn’t be humpin’ a second job are brain surgeons and airline pilots. Call me crazy.
There has been an aggressive war on the wages of people who actually do useful stuff, as opposed to bosses and investors, since the Carter administration, and this is not a good thing.
Saab’s South Korea Offices Raided in Bribery Investigation
It looks like its related to the ROK’s KF-X program, which is supposed to, at some point in the distant indeterminate future, yield a home grown fighter aircraft.
It appears that Saab was looking into partnerships on the program, and may, or may not, have paid off an official for technical data to help with a bid:
Saab acknowledged that its South Korean premises had been “inspected” last month but denied any wrongdoing and said it was co-operating with the investigation. SMI acknowledged their offices had been searched but declined to comment on the investigation.
Saab said the company had paid SKr120,000 to SMI to sponsor a seminar by its chief executive at a Swedish trade fair last March. But Saab had no ongoing relationship with SMI and had never paid the company for information on the KF-X, it added.
Not sure what’s going on, but I think that Saab is pretty desperate to get some revenue out of its investment in the Gripen.
Hypersonic Engine Pr0n
Lockheed Martin and P&W’s Rocketdyne division are working on a hybrid propulsion system for hypersonic flight, (paid subscription required) which uses a turbojet to take off and accelerate to Mach 2+, with a dual mode ramjet (DMRJ), it does supersonic combustion at higher speeds, taking over beyond that, with the turbojet being cocooned.
It’s kind of a “Son of Blackswift.”
As it currently stands, wind tunnel tests are proceeding on the DMRJ (phase 1), with a system integrating both the turbojet and ramjet being testing together in phase 2, and eventually testing of the system in flight.
Another Stealth Aircraft Done in by Rain
This time it’s the F-22 where the rain and humidity in Guam is causing shorts in its avionics.
This is the sort of sh$# that should have been handled in qualification, particularly for a plane that costs about $200 million.
I will say, however, that the last ‘graph is a classic:
The fighters’ maintenance issues had “no impact” on the strategic posture at Guam and did not put the island’s defense in jeopardy, Thomas said. The aircraft will continue to deploy to Guam and other parts of the Pacific, he said.
Because, I guess those folks in Palau and Ujelang are constantly threatening to invade.
Tanker Tango Update
Yeah, like that really worked well.Well, we have two bits of information, one technical, that Boeing is seriously considering submitting both 767 and 777 proposals for its KCX bid (s):
A lot of the defense press was puzzled by Boeing’s statement last week after the release of the draft RFP. “Our next step is to conduct a detailed review of the document. We want to understand how requirements will be defined and prioritized and how the proposals will be evaluated. That information will help us decide which plane to offer or whether to offer both planes. We appreciate that there will be frequent, open discussion with the U.S. Air Force as we go forward. Both the Air Force and the American taxpayer will benefit from the tanker options we can offer. Boeing has a KC-7A7 ‘family of tankers’ available to meet the warfighter’s requirements. Whether it’s the agile, flexible 767-based tanker or the large 777-based tanker, Boeing will deliver a combat-ready tanker with maximum capability at the lowest cost.”
I don’t know if they will submit both aircraft, but my guess is that any new proposal for the 767 will involve a variant that has already been produced, perhaps either Japan’s or Italys, as opposed to the “767-200 fuselage, a -300 wing and a -400 cockpit,” variant that they proposed last time around.
My guess is also that they will back off on their “super” refueling boom, which has still not flown.
I think that any 777 proposal would have to involve a shortened fuselage, because they are looking at a medium tanker proposal, and the 777 is otherwise too big.
On the other end of the bid, Northrop Grumman/EADS is concerned that Boeing received proprietary price data on their bid when they filed the challenge, which will give Boeing an advantage in the next course of bidding. (also here and (here)
And then there is what effect, if any, there is on this process of Airbus losing the WTO ruling on subsidies, and how this might alter the bid process.
These Things go Together
Click for full size
Aermacchi’s M-346
Korea Aerospace Industries T-50
First, we have South Korea selecting the Israel Aerospace Industries/Elta Systems EL/M-2032 radar for its combat version of its A/T-50 trainer, and now Israel eyes has the T-50 on its short list, along with the M-346, as a replacement for its A-4 Skyhawk advanced trainer.
Funny how that works out.
If I were a betting man, I’d put my money on the T-50.
In either case, I feel a great affection for the A-4 “Scooter.”
Aero Diesel Video Pr0n
Avweb produced two videos on the operation and description on Diamond’s Austro AE300 engines.
The nickel tour is that they are heavier than Thielert’s engines, but are promised to be much more durable.
A typical design decision is that the Austro has a heavier cast iron block, but this allows for the engine to be rebuilt.
I’m wondering why they didn’t sleeve an aluminum block. That would appear to me to give the best of both worlds, though my experience with sleeved engines is locomotive engines, which are sleeved iron blocks, I might be missing something.
They are promising a 1000 hour TBO, and hope to extend that significantly as Diamond gets information from the field on the first engines..
Engine Analysis
Flight Evaluation