In the US Navy’s F/A-XX program, an unmanned combat air vehicle (UCAV) is looking increasingly attractive.
In comparing the loiter time at 925 KM from a carrier, a manned vehicle has a 1/2 hour loiter time, and the unmanned vehicle had a 20-1/2 hour loiter time.
DARPA has now revealed one of its hypersonic research programs,the Vulcan engine.
The test vehicle, see below, is about the size of the Have Blue stealth prototype (smaller than a F-5)
As shown in the slide, this would use conventional fuels.
There would be a common inlet and exhaust nozzle with the flow path varying depending on speed and altitude. A turbojet would be used for takeoff and low speed, and as speeds increased, the inlet air would be diverted to a pulsed combustion ram/scram jet type system.
Boeing is looking at a development of the Chinook’s dual rotor concept that stretches it capacity to somethere around 15T payload.
The most notable differences I see, in addition to my guesstimate of size from the windows, is the advanced 4 bladed rotors, and buried engines.
Relations between Thielert, and Diamond, its largest customer, who has had to halt production for lack of engines continues to be poor.
Diamond continues the rapid development of its aircraft diesel engine, the Austro, and even though Thielert has resumed production, Diamond is not taking any shipments, even though Thielert has moved to the next step of insolvency.
Diamond has a statement out on the situation. It’s basic points are:
This is an unbelievable mess.
The first production standard example of the Indian Tejas Light Combat Aircraft (LCA) has flown. (See video)
It’s still using the GE F-404 engine, though this one is uprated, as the Indian Kaveri is not through development.
It’s a tiny thing, though.
The G.A.O. has ruled against the Air Force on Boeing’s protest, which probably means a rebid.
I’m kind of surprised. After Boeing bribed the Pentagon acquisition officer, I figured that they would have handled this better.
I also figure that when you chose the plane that is:
That it’s tough to screw up the process.
Needless to say, Boeing is doing a happy dance about all of this.
The GAO language is fairly strong, which means that a recompete is almost certain.
If Obama’s folks have any guts, they will have proxies demagogue the hell out of this against McCain, who killed the original corrupt deal.
They have the first STOVL airframe flying, but it looks like we will have to wait for any demonstrations of its vertical capabilities.
It’s intended for medium-haul routes, and there would actually be very few physical changes to the aircraft.
They would change the placards and manuals, and they might derate the engine some.
Why do this? Because landing fees are based on MTOW (Maximum Take Off Weight), and this would generate lower landing fees.
Interesting concept.
Airbus is refining the aerodynamics and structure of its A350.
Changes include:
The oft-delayed Wedgetail, Australia’s choice for an AEW aircraft (see again), has been delayed again to July of 2009, with full capability, there are problems with the electronic warfare system, in 2010.
It was originally intended to be delivered in 2006.
It’s sh%$ like this that had the USAF giving extra points to Airbus on the tanker competition.
Airbus is increasing maximum take-off weight on all models of the A350 XWB by three tons as a result.
More weight=more fuel burn, so this is not good news for Airbus.
It appears that there is a memo going around suggesting that the problems are more involved than just water in the air data sensors.
Specifically, there is a wheel speed sensor, and you should get a warning at about 60 kts if the wheel and air speed data does not match. Additionally, it appears that you can’t turn on the pitot heat too early to dry out the water, because it would warp the skin in that area, which would compromise the plane’s stealth characteristics.
Since 1984, the Air force chiefs have staff have all been former fighter pilots. Before that, they were all bomber pilots.
With the appointment of General Norton Schwartz, who flew C-130s and AC-130s, it’s clear that Robert Gates is slapping down the so called “fighter mafia” hard.
What’s more, Vice Chief is now General William Fraser III, a former bomber pilot, which is another slap at the fighter jock leadership culture.
Maybe now, we can start seeing the Air Force do something useful at the upper leadership.
The cause, water on the air data sensors, giving the flight control inaccurate data.
There had been a previous incident on Guam when a pilot aborted takeoff, and the solution was to turn on pitot heaters to dry off the sensors, but this was never adopted as a formal part of the checklist.
It was an “underground procedure”.
You know, I would think that on an aircraft that is literally worth its weight in gold, that they would get their maintenance act together just a bit more.
USAF report here.
The video of the crash follows, with the 2nd aircraft being the one that crashed.
Norway is deciding between the upgraded Gripen-N and F-135 for a replacement for its F-16 fleet, and it appears that the F-35 may be significantly larger and noisier than they would like(Paid Subscription Required).
Aircraft noise and politically sensitive basing options may become decisive factors in Norway’s selection process for a new fighter aircraft to replace the country’s Lockheed Martin F-16s.
New information received from the two remaining contenders (Lockheed Martin’s F-35A and Saab’s enhanced Gripen-N) indicates that one (understood to be the F-35) is “significantly more noisy” than the other, senior government and military sources here say.
The information could mean that Norway’s Bodo Main Air Station, located right outside a major population center, gets ruled out as a future operating base if the F-35 is selected. Bodo is one of two active fighter bases in Norway, the other one being Oerland, which is in a sparsely populated area 50 mi. from Trondheim.
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At Oerland, too, the F-35 appears to have one disadvantage compared to Gripen, which is that the U.S. jet is too bulky to fit inside the hardened aircraft shelters there (those at Bodo are larger). “The question is,” [State Secretary for Defense Espen Barth ]Eide allows, “does that really matter at a time when the trend is to no longer operate out of hardened facilities?”
Given that the F-35 is more than twice the gross weight, and roughly twice the thrust of the Gripen-N, basic physics say that it will be noisier.
As I’ve said before, the F-22 is a sort of roach motel for data. It collects data from its own sensors and other platforms, but nothing ever leaves, at least not in the current software drop.
It’s a legacy of its Cold War origins, where it was expected to operate in a post apocalyptic sky above a Europe in flames.
Well, it looks like the USAF is finalizing plans on how to rectify this problem (Paid Subscription Required).
They are looking at a number of different technologies to implement their, “IP-based advanced tactical data link (ATDL)”, “Tactical Targeting Network Technology (TTNT) wideband data link”, which transmits to ground stations for relay, the “Multifunction Advanced Data Link (MADL)”, which is more distributed and is slated for use in the F-35.
ATDL looks to be fielded somewhere in the 2014 time frame in any case.
It looks like Italy will sign a contract for 2 F-35s this month (Paid Subscription Required) as a part of the, “initial operational test and evaluation phases of the JSF program”.
This is no surprise. Italy has always been on board, though some questions remain, specifically it’s mix between conventional and STOVL variants, and whether final checkout prior to delivery will be done in Italy.
Demand for the services of the An-124 Ruslan airlifter has been growing by leaps and bounds, and now Russia and the Ukraine appear to be on the verge of restarting productions(Paid Subscription Required).
It’s not surprising. The aircraft offers an absolutely unique capability in terms of outsized and heavy lifting, and VolgaDnepr charter service for the aircraft has been doubling turnover annually.
It would be significantly upgraded:
The upgrade, known as the An-124-150, includes a glass cockpit capable of reducing the flight crew to four from six, along with airframe improvements, digital brake control, improved thrust reversers and major improvements in the aircraft’s Motor Sich D18-T engines. The 124-150 will have a maximum lift capacity at nominal range of 150 metric tons, compared with 120 tons for the basic aircraft. It will permit 10,000 flights and 45,000 flight hours with a first A-check required only after 500 hr. on the wing.
One item of note, is that this would theoretically mean that two, rather than one MBTs could be carried.
Since their twin engine 6 passenger Eclipse 500 is already a VLJ, should we call the Eclipse 400 a teeny-tiny jet instead?
FWIW, I noted that they showed a prototype almost a year ago, here are the pix from that prototype:
It’s going to sell for $1.35 million, and Eclipse is raising the price of it’s 500 by 33% to 2.15 million.
My guess is that this is being driven by two things, that the E-500 is costing more to build than they had hoped, and that there are some single engine VLJs our there, and they are attracting a lot of interest.
Active electronically scanned array (AESA) radars look to be approaching some major reductions in cost as the technology matures(paid subscription required). They are looking at the cost to drop from $5 million/m2 to $500K/m2 so “cheap” is a relative term.
Additionally, the use of an AESA with a parabolic reflector setup can give a much larger effective aperture, and hence resolution. It’s called AESA-fed reflectors (AFR), and it’s less agile than pure AESA, but a lot cheaper.