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Aviation History
1979
1979 - 3233.PDF
706 FLIGHT International, 1 September 1979 The radio solar telescope antennas at Palehua, Hawaii (see first news item) Tacan systems. The lOOlb-system pro vides distance and bearing information to pilots landing at small, unimproved landing sites. Another contract calls for the sale of an AN/TRN-26 transportable Tacan system to Thailand through the US Foreign Military Sales Programme. This mobile system can be transported by military vehicle, helicopter or other air craft type. Two other international contracts include: six AN/SRN-15A ship-based Tacan systems for use on naval fast frigates (the system provides distance and bearing information to pilots oper ating in conjunction with the vessels), and eleven MM-6500 systems (light weight Tacan beacons, developed by E- systems for commercial and civilian uses). E-Systems ECI Division (St Petersburg, Florida) has a $4-9 million contract from the US Naval Sea Systems Command for continued production of AN/SYR-1 communication tracking sets for the Navy's new extended range Standard Missile-Two (SM-2). The order calls for the fabrication, assembly, test and delivery of two systems for in stallation on guided-missile cruisers. Previously E-Systems ECI had pro duced a single system and an engineer ing development model which earlier this year was successfully demonstrated on board the guided missile destroyer USS Mahan. The AN/SYR-1 downlink com munications tracking set is an on-line computer-based system which receives and processes data from the Terrier SM- 2 extended-range missile and routes the data to shipboard weapons-directing systems. Each set includes electronically steered phased array antennas, a detecting and receiving group, and a data processing group with a mini computer. The antennas are designed to handle simultaneous data from multiple missiles on a time-sharing basis. Edmac Associates (East Rochester, New York) has received more than $3-3 million in new military contracts for anti-submarine warfare and air-navigat ion test equipment. The new contracts include: • 17 AN/ARR-72 Sonobuoy Receiving Systems for the US Naval Air Systems Command to be used in patrol planes to pick up signals from sonobuoys (floating submarine detectors). • 214 Tacan test sets for the US Air Force. • 54 AN/ARR-75 Sonobuoy Receivers for the US'Naval Aviation Supply Office. • 8 Sonobuoy Simulators and spare parts for the Canadian government, to be used in testing sonobuoy receiving systems. • 4 Sonobuoy Simulators for Marconi- Elliot Avionics Systems, Ltd., supplier of acoustic systems to the British and Australian governments, to be used to test M-E's own acoustic systems. Rockwell-Collins' Government Avionics Division has been awarded a $4-2 million add-on contract to supply AN/ARC-186(V) VHF AM/FM communications transceivers to the US Air Force, bringing to 1,900 the units ordered for USAF aircraft, including the F-5, F-15 F-16, C-130, EC-135 and A- 10. The division was awarded a major contract to produce the services' stan dard VHF AM/FM communications transceiver in 1978. This add-on con tract also provides for delivery of sets to the US Army for installation in its Ad vanced Attack Helicopters. First production AN/ARC-186(V) units are scheduled to be delivered to the SIR — Congratulations to Ed Heine- mann, who participated in the handover at Long Beach of the 2,960th and last McDonnell Douglas A-4 Skyhawk. Back in 1954 this US Navy attack air craft was called Heinemann's Hot Rod, though in fact it was a docile and popular aircraft for generations of pilots from many nations. Ed was always slightly irritated by the unusual single- surface rudder. To effect a quick cure for "buzz" the rudder was hastily re designed with the skin down the middle and the ribs on each side. There was never time to get round to "doing it properly" and there it was on the last one 26 years later, just like the stuck-on airbrake on the Hunter. Twenty years of unbroken Skyhawk production is the same as seeing the last Sopwith Camel come off the line in 1943, or the last Mosquito in 1967 (one year earlier if we take it from the emergence of the first prototype). Such an idea would have been preposterous, and some might read into the figures a slowing- down of technology. This is surely a mis leading conclusion. It so happens that aviation progresses in plateaux, and the tough Mach 0 • 9 attack platform is as valid today as it was in 1951 when Ed Air Force in May 1979, with add-on quantities beginning in August 1979. Northrop Corporation has signed a $850-7 million USAF contract for train ing and support services to the Royal Saudi Air Force (RSAF). The three-year programme includes initial funding of $250 million and technical and mainten ance training for the RSAF's fleet of Northrop F-5 fighters.. The Peace Hawk programme began in 1972 when the Saudi Arabian Government selected the F-5 to modernise its Air Force. The test phase of the programme does not in clude the purchase of aircraft. designed the Skyhawk. The existence of a sound design into which we can build new subsystems today combines with in flation to yield an increasing number of 26-year programmes. Britain has suffered excessively from government vacillation and cancellation where aviation is concerned, and at one time we got used to seeing major pro grammes simply abandoned at the hard ware stage at the stroke of the proverbial pen. No Government Minister lasts 26 years, and most of them have departed long before anyone can point to the results of their actions, but they ought always to remember that today's aircraft programmes should either not be started or else they should be active in the year 2000. There is a fair chance the Harrier will even be a 40-year programme, though it will probably change more than the Skyhawk did. And if the air staffs of the three Panavia nations can agree on a next-generation combat aircraft, that ought to get their sons on the production line and their grandsons on the flight-line. High Beech, BILLGUNSTON Kingsley Green, Haslemere, Surrey Letters Skyhawk: an example of perseverance
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