Category: Aviation

Russian Draws Back Veil from MiG-31BM

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Russia has finally displayed the latest version of the MiG 31 interceptor along with its weapons loadout.

Of interest is that this is the first showing of the R-33S (bottom pic, right hand side), which differs from the basic R-33 by having some small destabilizing surfaces up front (the ones with the ray and white bodies).

It’s about 40 kg (88 lb) heavier than the basic R-33, which would imply some increase in range, and the destabilizing surfaces implies an increase in maneuverability, though it is still clearly not intended for highly maneuverable targets.

You can click the pics for the full size photographs.

Indian Air Force says Rafale Remains in MMRCA Competition

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Remember when I said over the weekend that the Dassault Rafale had been dropped from the Indian MMRCA competition?

Well, it appears that the reports of the French Fighter’s demise have been exaggerated.

The Indian Air Force has denied reports that the Dassault Rafale has been eliminated from the country’s medium multi-role combat aircraft competition.

“We have not ruled anyone out yet in the MMRCA competition,” says an IAF spokesman, who confirmed that the service is responsible for evaluating the contenders. “All of the tests have not been completed. The technical evaluations are only just over and we are scheduled to begin the flight tests next month. Everyone is still in the competition.”

Last week, several Indian newspapers reported that the Rafale was eliminated after failing the technical evaluation. …..

No clue as to what is going on here, or why.

Indian Drops Rafale from MMRCA Trials

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Unofficial reports from a “senior Indian Defence Ministry” are that, “Dassault was unable to give full technical bid requirements, but this is obviously a rather vague and uninformative.

I find this very odd. Dassault and India have a long and established relationship, with India owning and operating Mirage 2000s, and at one point, offered to transfer the whole Mirage 2000 line to India.

The idea that they did not cross their “I”s and dot their “T”s, and thus was dropped from the Medium Multi Role Combat Aircraft (MMRCA) competition is curious.

In any case, it appears that the Official MMRCA trials in August, with the, Boeing F/A-18, Lockheed Martin F-16, Eurofighter Typhoon, RSK MiG-35 and Saab Gripen.

General Atomics Rolls Out Stealthy Predator C

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David Fulghum and Bill Sweetman post their observations, most of which are obvious from the top picture, edge alignment, a serpentine inlet, a flattened exhaust nozzle, and a lack or right angles for stealth, along with a roughly 10 foot long weapons bay, more than enough for 500 lb JDAMS, or Hellfires, etc., and some wing to accommodate the higher speeds that the jet engine can generate.

There are some more pictures here, and you can also look through the Aviation Week gallery.

The aircraft has been designed with folding wings and a tail hook (bottom pic), which implies that it is intended to be operated from an aircraft carrier at some point, and this is clearly an early prototype, as the current air data probes, and the antenna/sensor on the bottom of the fuselage (also bottom pic) appear to be decidedly non stealthy.

Dutch Soft Pedal JSF Order

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It turns out that the Dutch Government did not have the votes to buy two JSF test aircraft without a firm fixed price commitment (Yeah, what are they smoking?*)

They managed a compromise, in which they order the test aircraft, but defer the production order from 2010 to 2011 or 2012, when the price should be firmer. (Yeah, what are they smoking?*)

The problem is that the last sale was what was clearly a phony price (around $80m a pop), and the opposition expects massive cost and schedule problems….And they are probably right.

*Well, it’s Holland, so we have a pretty good idea.

The Return of the Airship

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It appears that plans for long duration unmanned lighter than air surveillance platforms continue apace, with a subscale demonstrator, the High Altitude Long Endurance Demonstrator (HALE-D), due to fly in August. (paid subscription required)

This aircraft, which relies on solar cells and batteries to maintain station for 2 weeks at 60,000 feet altitude with a 50 lb sensor payload, with successor operational aircraft extending both payload and range significantly, though they would be huge, as this demonstrator is already twice the size of the Goodyear blimp.

Me, I’m dubious of the return of the airship, if just because takeoff and landing are so troublesome in anything but absolutely calm weather.

Airbus Looking at GTF On A-320?

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That certainly is what this patent application filed by EADS , which shows a modified wing-fuselage fairing that is supposed to reduce drag from the installation of a larger engine, seems to indicate.

The problem would seem to be directly associated with the installation of the Pratt & Whitney Geared Turbofan (GTF) which has a significantly higher bypass ratio, and fan size, as compared to the engine currently used on the A-320 series.

The new fairing is the bottom of both pics.

Basically, it appears to be a sort of area ruling which accommodates the changes in air flow from a larger nacelle.

Contest for Brazilian Fighters Kicks Into High Gear

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The lead competitors are the SAAB Gripen, Dessault Rafale, and the Boeing Super Hornet, with Super Bugs systems being their selling point, the Gripen’s short/rough field capabilities being their selling point, and the Rafale’s independence of US political restrictions being their selling point.

The down sides are, single engine for the Gripen, poor aerodynamics for the F/A-18E/F, and cost, lack of other export orders, and a relatively limited number of weapons qualified for carriage for the Rafale.

It appears that Brazil looks at this order as a way to expand its domestic aerospace capabilities through offsets and tech transfers, which probably would favor the French, who are desperate to get an export order.

This raises an interesting question: This is a large order, but just how many are one Brazilian?

Yeah, I know, lame joke.

Patents Reveal Shap of Northrop Grumman Bomber

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Rather unsurprisingly, Northrop Grumman’s design for the “Next Generation Bomber” (NGB) looks rather a lot like the cranked kite concept that has been floating around for some time.

Among other things, it’s supposed to provide much lower drag, and better high altitude performance than the original B-2, giving improved range, though some of the additional range appears to be at the expense of weapons load: word is that payload is in the 20,000 pound range, or about ½ that of its predecessors.

There is an additional interesting bit of information in another Northrop-Grumman patent application, which shows the aircraft with a mustache.

Given the stealth requirements for the aircraft, and the fact that it will generally be operating at high altitude at relatively high mach numbers, the obvious conclusion is that this is a retractable canard, much like the Tu-144 Charger and the Mirage Milan. (in the latter, the retractable canards were actually called a “mustache”)

The advantages on takeoff and landing are clear, giving a whole lot more pitch authority than is generally available with a short coupled tailless design, which can increase max takeoff and landing weight, decrease takeoff and landing speeds, and shrink the landing gear and breaking systems.

It’s Alive!!!!

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It’s beginning to look like the leading candidate for purchasing the assets of Eclipse Aviation may be positioning itself to restart the company as a going concern.

Given the relatively large customer base, and given that the debts of the company will be discharged in bankruptcy, they may be in a position to bring them back in some form, though I would be doubtful of full scale production restarting with the current investment environment.

More JSF Problems

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The first is a report from the GAO revealing the least well kept secret in defense procurement, that the JSF is over budget and behind schedule, to the tune of about $2 billion, the GAO also believes that the F-35 will need about 1000 additional flight test hours than the F-35 Joint Programme Office (JPO) does, and notes that the time to assemble the first production airframes was 40% greater than predicted.

Additionally, as I have noted before, it appears that there are some very concerning issues regarding thermal management for the aircraft, and it looks like the fuel-air heat exchanger, which not only cools the avionics, but the electro-hydrostatic flight controls is not sufficient in hot weather conditions, like the Middle East.

Additionally, the author of the linked article, Bill Sweetman, notices another potential heat issue, this one having to do with IR signature, that the location of the exhaust for the integrated APU/EPU exhaust has been relocated in the production models.

In the pre-production models, it was located on the top of the aircraft in front of the left vertical stabilizer (you can see where the heat cooked off the paint in the top picture), but in the production models, it has been relocated to the bottom of the fuselage.

The exhaust does not look particularly stealthy from a radar perspective to my untrained eye, and I would have to imagine that it would be a big infra-red “kick-me” sign for Marine STOVL JSFs which would be minutes from the battlefield with APUs running on unimproved strips when the aircraft is used to provide close air support.

AIG F#@$ed Up Yet Another Perfectly Good Business

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This time, it’s International Lease Finance Corp. (IFLC), the largest aircraft leasing operation in the world, which was fabulously profitable when they bought it from Stephen Udvar-Hazy in 1990, and it looks like they are angling for a government bailout, at that’s the subtext that I read into the article.

Isn’t the idea of successes in their own financial niche moving into areas in which they have no clue such a wonderful idea?

A400M Troubles Continue

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Best evidence of this is that the seven partner nations in the program have agreed to a moratorium on cancellation until July.

They are not agreeing to continue, they are just saying that they won’t cancel in the next 4 months, because the program is 4 years behind schedule, and well over budget.

I think that the new lesson of defense procurement is never buy anything unless you can cancel it when costs escalate and schedule slips.