Flight International test pilot -- and former Red Arrows team leader -- Peter Collins (above right) gives the Dassault Rafale a ringing endorsement in this week's magazine. "If I had to go into combat, on any mission, against anyone, I would, without question, choose the Rafale," Collins concludes in his six-page flight test report published in our Dubai Air Show preview issue.

Read the full article here.

Collins' report is timely because the Rafale appears to be nearing the end of a two-decade-old search for an export customer. If all goes perfectly well for Dassault, Brazil, Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates could all be signed up as customers by the end of November (although that's still a big 'if'.)

If you want to cut to the chase, here's is the text from the last page of the excellent report.

It is worth remembering that stealth-optimised, or fifth-generation fighters such as the Lockheed F-22 Raptor and F-35 Joint Strike Fighter are not only likely to be hugely expensive, but they can only preserve their stealth characteristics by carrying a very limited weapons load in their internal weapon bays.

Therefore, in the current and predicted financial defence climate, it could well be that so-called fourth-generation fighters will remain the aircraft of choice for most nations - perhaps even including the UK.

Moreover, the fact that the Rafale is the only European fighter in production that is carrier-capable gives it, in my opinion, a distinct advantage in any future export "fly-off" competition as a single combat type that can equip a country's air force and naval air arm.

In answer to my own evaluation objectives, it was obvious the Rafale has earned its omnirole definition, even though I barely scratched the surface of its sensor and weapon capabilities. The aircraft has an incredible level of performance befitting a fourth-generation type, and despite flying a highly complex and demanding evaluation sortie, I felt completely at home in the aircraft and retained full situational awareness. If it could keep me safe, it would also do the same for young first-tourist pilots coping with tactical operations.

The classic definitions of aircraft combat roles really do not do justice to this aircraft; the Rafale is Europe's force-multiplying "war-fighter" par excellence. It is simply the best and most complete combat aircraft that I have ever flown. Its operational deployments speak for themselves. If I had to go into combat, on any mission, against anyone, I would, without question, choose the Rafale.

Boeing decided last week to move the second 787 production line to Charleston, South Carolina. As a primarily military aviation journalist, I, of course, immediately wondered what this means for Boeing's KC-X tanker bid. (I apparently wasn't the only one.)

The 787 move to Charleston potentially shifts South Carolina's GOP-leaning political delegation into the pro-Boeing camp, perhaps helping offset Northrop Grumman's support from Alabama, Mississippi, Tennessee and West Virginia. South Carolina already had reason to be miffed. Remember during the last competition when Northrop Grumman spurned South Carolina for the final boom assembly location?

But I also wondered if there might be an industrial angle to Charleston/KC-X story.

Boeing told me in September that they were looking for a low-cost location for the KC-X finishing center, perhaps shifting the work away from Wichita, Kansas.

So I asked Boeing's KC-X spokesman last week if Charleston was in the running. I got a surprisingly direct answer a few days later.

"Our answer is no," the spokesman said.

Well, thank you. That answers that - sort of. So if Charleston is ruled out, where could Boeing install the finishing center if they win the KC-X contract? The answer is not trivial because it comes with both cost and political consequences.

Hmm ... could it be here? 

Alcoa's famed Cleveland Works builds the single-piece, aluminum bulkheads for the Lockheed Martin F-35, perhaps the most complex and expensive structural parts of the aircraft.

So Lockheed must have been very worried a year ago when Alcoa decided to shut down the massive, 50,000-ton hydraulic press -- a Cold War industrial monument -- rather than invest $68 million to fix a crack in the foundation. The shutdown threat spread concerns far beyond the F-35 program. It would have added more devastation to the Cleveland economy, and eliminated one of the USA's most important domestic manufacturing capabilities.
 
Happily, that situation now appears resolved. Thanks to massive state and local tax subsidies, and the long-term commitment of the F-35 full-rate production, Aloca has decided to repair the famed press.

Bloomberg reports today:

Alcoa to Fix Largest Cold War Era Press to Build F-35 Parts

Nov. 5 (Bloomberg) -- Alcoa Inc., the largest U.S. aluminum producer, is set to invest $110 million to repair one of the nation's biggest pieces of industrial machinery to help boost output for Lockheed Martin Corp.'s F-35 fighter jet.

The 50,000-ton Cleveland Works press, which has been out of service for more than a year, will be completely disassembled and renovated, said Bill Christopher, head of Alcoa's engineered-products division. New York-based Alcoa aims to complete the project by the end of 2011's second quarter, aided by $21 million in state and local tax credits.

A thousand bonus points to the South African Air Force for managing to write this news release with an exclamation point and a hint of humor:

Astra lands minus passenger

By Dean Wingrin

In a highly unusual incident, a SAAF Astra training aircraft landed with one person less than which it took off!

The PC-7 MkII Astra, a two-seat training aircraft, is the aircraft flown by the SAAF's Silver Falcon aerobatic team. A member of the aerobatic team, Capt Gerhard Lourens, who occupies the number four position in the five man team, was flying with a passenger in the rear seat yesterday when the passenger unintentionally initiated the ejection seat.

The ejection seat is normally only used when the pilots need to exit the aircraft in a dire emergency as the aircraft is about to crash.

The unknown passenger landed without serious injury, apart from that to their pride. The Astra landed safely, but has suffered damage from the ejection.

 

The US Air Force's acquisition community apparently has gone all 'soup Nazi' on the Afghan National Army Air Corps.

A market survey released last week by the Aeronautical Systems Command on behalf of the ANAAC basically rules out vendors selling light attack jets.

That's despite a) the availability of two jet fighters for ANAAC's requirement, and b) the USAF's top combat adviser in Afghanistan publicly saying that only jets are suitable.

The ASC solicitation twice says it wants intdustry to submit data on only turboprops for Afghanistan's light attack fighter requirement.

I reported in late September that AleniaAermacchi wants to pitch surplus Italian Air Force AMX jets. A few days later, I met with ANAAC chief Maj Gen Mohammed Dawran and USAF Col Brad Grambo in Naples, Italy. In addition to confirming that the Aero Vodochody L-159 was another candidate, Grambo outspokenly endorsed jets as the only sensible option for Afghanistan's terrain.

"It's a country the size of Texas," Grambo told me. "How are you going to cover that with a [turboprop] aircraft that cruises around at 200-250kt [370-460km/h]?"

Korean Aerospace Industries (KAI) made a big splash at the Seoul Air Show a couple of weeks ago, showing off an Avenger-like unmanned combat air vehicle (UCAV). KAI also released a video that introduces several new design concepts for unmanned air vehicles.

Northrop Grumman has started building the center fuselage for the first international F-35 -- BK-1, ordered by the United Kingdom. In hono(u)r of the occasion, I build a flow-chart based on Lockheed Martin images showing 12 major steps in the center fuselage assembly process. Note: The chart describes the conventional take-off and landing variants center fuselage, but BK-1 is a short-takeoff-vertical-landing version.

Only one day after President Barack Obama signed a defense bill authorizing the shutdown of the F-22 production line, the US Air Force announced signing a contract to buy the last four F-22s.

Lockheed Martin Corp., of Fort Worth, Texas was awarded a $474,200,000 contract which will provide for the issuance of full production of four F-22 Lot 10 air vehicles, alternate mission equipment, production engineering support and work in process through Aug. 11, 2009 for 16 shipsets of raw material aircraft fuselage titanium.  478 AESG/PK, Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio is the contracting activity (FA8611-09-C-2900,P00007).

The notice shows all hope for the F-22's future within the USAF apparently died on August 11, when Lockheed's supply chain stopped work on titanium to build 16 more stealth fighters. Let the record show that was three weeks after Senate authorizers voted to kill the F-22, but nearly one month before Senate appropriators followed suit.

Although I called it a 'parting gift' in the headline, yes, I do realize more money is coming. Lockheed now has to negotiate a program termination fee. The USAF also plans to spend some $8 billion to upgrade all 186 F-22s, including the last four purchased above.  The only question left is whether the last F-22 contract will be paid in yen.

Lockheed Martin has doubled-down on its F-35 proposal to South Korea, my colleague in Singapore Siva Govindasamy reports.

To steal a contract that presumably favors Boeing's V-tailed F-15 Silent Eagle, Lockheed sales veep Steve O'Bryan made the following promises at the Seoul Air Show last week:

• Delivery slots in 2014
• Second-tier supplier deals
• Final assembly role in South Korea

Lockheed's sales pitch also appeared to get the full support of the US government. In a pre-show interview with the english-language Korean Times, top US Air Force weapons salesman (ahem, I mean, deputy undersecretary) Bruce Lemkin suggested the F-35 would be an excellent choice for the KF-X contract. If Lemkin mentioned the Boeing F-15SE, the reporter didn't note it.

Mikhail Petrovich Simonov, designer of the iconic Su-27 Flanker, realized after the 1977 first flight that the T-10 prototype was a dog, a fact he explained to the aviation minister in Moscow.

"'It's a good thing, Petrovich, that today is not 1937," the minister replied.

That is one of the incredible anecdotes sprinkled throughout a Simonov feature published today in the London Telegraph. The article is a must read for anyone even slightly curious about aviation history. For example, we learn the lead designer's delightfully Russian reaction to Simonov's proposed solution to the T-10's problem, which involved moving a belly storage compartment onto the top of the fuselage.

"'Why don't you, Mikhail Petrovich, go to your wife," the designer shouted, "and ask her to move her breasts onto her back?! We'll see how useful she will be then!'"

But the best -- and most newsy -- part of the feature is about Simonov's views about the F-15's performance compared to the Su-27. Simonov is obviously biased, but he makes some interesting points. Simonov described what he believes happened when Russian Su-27s and American F-15s 'fought' during a 1990s exercise. 

"The F-15 constantly needed to make a kind of a "step" - fly along a straight line for a certain period of time. The Russian pilots took advantage of that - they persuaded the Americans to go upward, at which point they lost speed, and the Sus, having made a sharp turn, found themselves on the tail of the enemy. A moment later and the target was "destroyed"." 

Simonov also revealed what he thinks about the Indian's Su-30MKI's recent run-ins with American fighters.
 

Thus, when the Americans learnt that India had acquired the more advanced Su-30s, they decided to pay them a visit. In their exercises they decided to use the improved F-15. The result of the meeting was 6:4 in favour of the Su-30. However, instead of the Su-30MKI, the Indians used the ordinary training Su-30, a machine without the new radar or thrust vector control. The next time Americans arrived in India, they brought the improved F-16.

"This fighter jet is smaller and lighter than our Su-30," says Simonov. "Thus, logically, it ought to be more manoeuvrable and win in close combat. But everything was exactly the opposite. Su-30MKIs were used. The defeat was unquestionable."