Category: Aviation

I Don’t Know About You, But I Just Love Aviation Pr0n

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No women, just aircraft, though I’m not sure how I would classify aircraft nose art.

In any case, this is about NASA cutting contacts with aviation manufacturers to set its aeronautics agenda for the next few decades. (paid subscription required)

What gets my blood going are the concepts, whether SSTs, that look like they came out of the Thunderbirds classic TV show:

Open rotor engines:

And new configurations:


New engine congfigurations


Lowspeed high efficiency aircraft with externally braced wings

Hey, I Worked on This!!!!

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In 1996, I was brought in to work at what was then Loral Vought Systems to work on navalization issues for the VT1 missile, which was the missile for the Crotale NG system from Thompson CSF.

Now, they have adapted the missile for vertical launch, and made a successful launch.

It’s a fairly simple point defense system, roughly analagous to Seawolf, in that the launcher mounted fire control system guides the missile to the target, andt here is no seeker on the missile.

Since I’ve worked on the system, Thomson CSF become the French defense behemouth Thales.

Truth be told, I’m kind of surprised that they are still developing the missile. It feels like an awful long time ago.

It’s why I can claim to be a “rocket scientist”

The USAF’s Broken Procurement Program, and Remedies for This

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The USAF is looking to cut more than 250 fighters from its fleet, in order to make budget space for the increasingly expensive F-35.

The problem is that, once again, the aircraft are too damn expensive. More is the enemy of “good enough”.

In the meantime,
David Axe points to a book which proposes a solution, which suggests smaller and lighter aircraft, America’s Defense Meltdown.

They propose two aircraft:

  • A 9 ton class air-to-air fighter with a 16 ton class engine with a, “cutting edge, all-passive with 360-degree infrared and radar warning gear” that is supposed to be cheaper than an F-16.

I do not find this one particularly realistic. Whenever you insert the phrase “cutting edge” in a phrase, you never get low cost.

The other one is more interesting:

  • A higher performance aircraft to replace the A-10.

Given that the rate of fire of the A-10 of the GAU-8 cannon has been reduced by about 1/2, because the accuracy requires further rounds, simply by reducing the size and weight of the cannon, and the ammunition loadout, along with using a more modern engine with a higher thrust to weight ratio, you easily get to a thrust to weight ratio at combat weights that approaches unity. With advances in things like Aluminum alloys and ceramic armor, performance could be further improved.

The problem is that while the Army would love such an aircraft, the USAF hates it, and has been trying to kill the A-10 since sometime around 1981, and so is completely uninterested in developing a successor.

OK, Time to Call an Obama Adviser Stupid

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Specifically Paul Kaminiski, who is talking up a dual buy strategy for the USAF tanker competition.

There are a number of problems, not the least of which is the fact that this is the worst of all possible solutions, doubling inventory and supply issues.

You also pay the cost of the tooling and engineering twice

A bad deal for the tax payer and the military.

There is also the problem that the 767s being made for Italy do not work. (Paid subscription required)

Boeing has assigned a “tiger team” to deal with the wing flutter issues caused by the refuelling pods.

I Knew that It Did Not Look Right

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When I last posted about the PiperJet, I said that it didn’t look right, though I added the caveat that the same applies to the F-4 Phantom II.

Well, it appears that my hunch meant something. Piper is looking at , modifications to the airframe to deal with pitch changes from changes in thrust. They have an automatic trim system to handle this, but they would like to eliminate this and use, “a Coanda effect device that would channel the jet’s exhaust in an appropriate direction to reduce nose-down moment created by adding power and nose-up trim changes when decreasing power.”

Basically, they are talking a poor man’s thrust vectoring, I think.

“Baby Seal” Report May Have Cost RAND Analyst Their Job

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It appears that John Stillion has abruptly left his job as an analyst at the RAND corporation, He’s best known for writing a report which described the JSF as being clubbed like a baby seal in air to air combat by aircraft already flying.

Dennis Jensen, an Australian MP and a fierce critic of the JSF, who used this report to argue against Australia purchaasing the aircraft, is alleging that he was fired for this report.

Curiouser and curiouser.

It Looks Like the USAF and the JSF in Particular, Are In For Some Heat

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The Rand corporation, which a few weeks ago said that the 4th generation fighters would club the F-35 Lightning II like a baby seal, is now saying that the USAF’s reliance on extremely high tech cutting edge aircraft is unlikely to work in a real war, and are failing now:

The Rand and CSIS reports both deliver sharply critical outlooks for the future of US airpower. The first suggests that the superior technology of next-generation US fighters are no match for superior numbers and geographic advantage. The second, entitled America’s Self-Destroying Airpower, concludes failures of strategy and planning have made the US military-industrial complex its own worst enemy.

The reports go on to describe, “widespread breakdowns across the US military’s acquisition system for developing and fielding modern combat aircraft.”

Speaking from my personal experience working on the Army’s Future Combat System, it ain’t limited to aircraft.

At its core is the problem that systems are too damn expensive.

Neither aircraft offers a meaningful increase in performance in current deployments, just added costs.

US Army Aviation Looking for Helo Game Changer

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It looks like they are checking out both the, “Piasecki/Boeing X-49 SpeedHawk compound helicopter and the Sikorsky X2 coaxial helicopter,” as an interim measure toward higher performance helicopters, and they are looking at things like the Joint Heavy Lift (JHL) , such as the, “Bell Boeing QuadTiltrotor, a Sikorsky heavylift helicopter concept and the Karem/Lockheed optimum speed tiltrotor,” to carry A-400M sized, or at least larger than C-130 sized, loads.

What is really at the core of a lot of this is that since 1947, when the USAF became a separate branch of the service, and took over fixed wing aviation, they have not been well served, so they are looking toward bringing the capabilities back in house through new helicopter technologies.

Boeing Looking at Compound Helicopter Technology for Apache

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Boeing is looking at licensing Piasecki Aircraft’s compount helicopter technology for an improved Apache.

It strikes me that this might be a very good marriage of technology.

I’m not sure that it will make much difference on the actual battlefield, the mode would still be pop-up and shoot, but I can see a serious increase in range for deployment or by reducing response time from a base to the station.

Little Bird Returns in the Autumn

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Sorry about the hed, I thought it sounded cool, like code words for two spies who meet for the first time.

It’s actually true too, as the AH-6 Little Bird scout light attack/reconnaissance helicopter is experiencing a renaissance as a result of the problems with the Bell ARH-70, which is behind schedule and over budget. Boeing is not explicitly looking to replace the ARH-70 through the cancellation of the contract, though the US Army is considering this.

Right now, they are pitching the AH-6 on the export market, which has viewed Bells problems with some alarm.

[Update]
The Pentagon has declined to certify the ARH-70A Arapaho following a Nunn-McDurdy (budget) breach, so the program is effectively canceled.

Seeing as how Boeing has largely fixed the manufacturing capability issues that dogged their first bid, I expect them to come back and win the bid, but we know what my predictions are worth.


ARH-70A Arapaho


AH-6 Little Bird

I will note that the AH-6 has seen combat service with the Israeli Defense Forces.