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Aviation History
1976
1976 - 0011.PDF
FLIGHT International, w/e 3 January 1976 mini n For Super Mirage read Delta 2000 DEFENCE Galaxy modification cost The cost of modifying and strengthening all Lockheed C-5A Galaxies in the US Air Force would be $1,500 million, according to a General Accounting Office (GAO) report. Of the total, modifications to the wing would cost $1,300 million and to the cargo door and other areas the remaining $200 million. Galaxies have already started developing fatigue cracks and are being flown at reduced load factors. It is calculated that, if the present flying rate were maintained, the entire fleet would have to be grounded in 1979. Meanwhile both the GAO and Sen Proxmire of Wisconsin are saying that the USAF could well buy a substantial number of Boeing 747F freighters for that price. The 747F has a larger total payload than that of the C-5A and there are apparently only five items of military equipment transport able by Galaxy which will not fit into a 747F: a Beech U-21 (King Air), two sorts of crane, a rock crusher and a ditch digger. If some of the Boeing aircraft were bought there could be important repercussions in another major USAF programme, the advanced tanker/ transport aircraft, for which versions of the 747 and McDonnell Douglas DC-10 are short-list contenders. The tanker/transport is likely to be one of very few entirely new programmes to receive funding in Fiscal 77 (see Flight for November 20, 1975, page 749). Tomahawk deploys control surfaces The LTV YBGM-110 Tomahawk sea- launched cruise missile has success fully demonstrated its ability to deploy wings and tail surfaces for flight following an underwater launch. The unpowered Pyrotechnic Development Vehicle (PDV) was mounted in a 100 m.p.h. airflow produced by a TF34 turbofan. Hermetically sealed covers over the wing slots, folded tail sur faces and jet-engine intake were blown off by explosive devices, the wing and tail surfaces swinging into position under the action of simple coil springs within 0- lsec. The test was to simulate the dyna mic pressure field over and around the wings, doors, access panels, tail surfaces and other fuselage features. The operation of various components and the effect of the deployment ex plosions on avionics equipment were also measured. A second test will be carried out with the PDV mounted at a greater pitch angle. The 1980s future combat aircraft (ACF) of the French Air Force will be an advanced development of the Dassault Mirage HI airframe powered by a single Snecma M53 turbofan engine. The twin-engined Super Mirage ACF was dropped by the French Cabinet at a meeting on December 18 (see Flight last week, page 900), although it is not clear what is to become of the single proto type under construction at Dassault and due to fly for the first time in about July this year. The name of the new aircraft is the Delta 2000 and it is due to enter service in 1982, according to a spokes man for the Cabinet who announced the decision in Paris on December 19. It will not take on all the roles fore seen for the Super Mirage, being limited to high-speed and high-level interception and reconnaissance. Attack and penetration missions at low level will be undertaken by a different type, with a Super Jaguar at present thought to be heading the list of con tenders. Some of the basic performance parameters for the Delta 2000 include a maximum speed of Mach 2-7, at about 65,000ft and a time to 40,000ft of lmin 15sec, emphasising the interception role to which France has always given prominence. A number of measures will be necessary to accomplish this kind of per formance with a strengthened Mirage III airframe. The thrust envisaged for the M53 engine in the Delta 2000 is 20,5001b dry and about 25,0001b with after burner. The extensive use of titanium will allow high Mach numbers to ,be achieved as well as contributing to structural weight reductions which needed to obtain overall thrust: weight ratios in excess of 1:1 Wide use will also be made of com posite structures—a gross weight of 22,0001b-24,0001b is planned. One of the problems will un doubtedly be the radar capacity of the new aircraft since the Mirage III nose diameter is very restrictive and France has yet to build an advanced pulse-Doppler radar. Thomson-CSF has some X-band equipment under development, using a 22-Sin-diameter antenna, which is designed to give a detection range of about 50 n.m., but this is markedly less than the planned radar range of the Super Mirage (about 90 n.m.) and develop ment of the new equipment is expected to take seven to eight years. The principal armament of the Delta 2000 will be further developments of the Matra Super 530 medium-range and Magic short-range air-to-air mis siles but no further details are known. Fly-by-wire is expected to be used for flying controls, possibly associated with a side-stick controller as on the General Dynamics FT6. The system would be based on that already de veloped by Sfena and tested on a Mirage IIIB two-seater. First flights were made with the equipment in February 1975 and about 100 trials have been done to date. The aircraft, at present laid up at the Istres test centre, is expected to resume flight- trials of the fly-by-wire system within the next two months. According to the French Cabinet spokesman, the price of the Delta 2000 will be between Fr40 million and Fr50 million (£4-5 million and £5-5 million) and will allow the French Air Force to acquire its full require ment of 200 aircraft. The cost of the Super Mirage had forced the Service to think more in terms of perhaps only 100 aircraft, although these would have been multi-role. Also of apparent importance in the decision to adopt the cheaper aeroplane is France's keenness to export it—criticism had been levelled at the Super Mirage on the grounds that its price would have been prohibitive in the export market at a time when aircraft in a com parable performance bracket (like MRCA) would have been well down the learning and price curves. It seems very likely that Aero spatiale will play an unprecedented part in development of the Delta 2000—the nationalised company has always been very short of military work. One report suggests that the work split with Dassault may end up with 40 per cent going to Aerospatiale. Larger P-XL studied The Japanese Maritime Self- Defence Force is considering a growth version of the proposed Kawa saki P-XL anti-submarine patrol air craft which could be introduced into service some three or four years later than originally planned. Introduction of the new type had been due to co incide with the start of P-2J Neptune retirement in 1982 but the cause of the postponement is the plan, not yet finally approved, to buy a number of Lockheed P-3C Orions as an interim measure. The postponement is seen as an opportunity to plan the P-XL with a larger amount of more advanced equipment. Details of the larger air craft under study are not known but the present Kawasaki design has an overall length of 115ft, a span of 98ft 6in, a wing area of 1,300 sq ft and a take-off weight of some 110,0001b. Power will come from four General Electric TF34 turbofans.
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