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Aviation History
1983
1983 - 1330.PDF
DEFENCE IAI Lavi: custom-built for Israel TEL AVIV Israel Aircraft Industries' first prototype Lavi fighter is scheduled to fly in late Febru ary 1986, reports our Israeli correspondent Charles Fleming. Five prototypes are planned, and production deliveries are to begin in 1990, reaching 30 a month. Some 300 Lavis are required to replace Israeli Air Force Skyhawks and Kfirs. The single-seat, single-engine Lavi is being designed for high-speed penetration, first- pass bombing, manoeu vrability, and survivability. A two-seat variant will be devel oped for advanced training. "Lavi will be a superior aircraft" to the F-16 and Mirage 2000, believes Menachem Eine, head of the Lavi programme, "but the most important point is that the Lavi will be a custom- made aircraft, designed and built for IAF requirements". All of Israel's considerable combat experience will go into the design of the Lavi. "We are looking for some thing that combines our experiences together in one aircraft," says Eine. When the US Air Force or Navy develops an operational requirement for a new combat aircraft, Eine explains, the threat they have to consider is the best of current and future Soviet equipment. When the Israeli Air Force formulates an operational requirement "we have to consider a threat that consists of the best of Soviet weapons and the best of American weapons, in the air and on the ground. "F-15s are flying in Saudi Arabia; F-16s are flying in Egypt and, in the not-too- distant future we believe, with other countries in the Middle East. Ground defences are also heavily accumulated in this area, Soviet and Ameri can." The Lavi will have to face a much higher threat than the current F-16 or any future US Air Force devel opment, Eine concludes. The Lavi will have almost the same role as Israel's F-16s: "a multi-mission aircraft and an excellent air- to-air fighter" says Eine. Why develop a new aircraft? Apart from the opportunity to 236 With a length overall of 47-2ft and a wing span of 28-6ft, Lavi is only slightly smaller than the F-16 incorporate combat experi ence in a new design, there is an economic advantage, Eine claims: "We strongly believe we can make the Lavi cheaper than the F-16 ... its life-cycle cost will definitely be less, and we are still hoping to make the Lavi's price tag lower than the F-16's. "One of the reasons for the Lavi's importance is to increase Israel's technological manufacturing abilities. We want a modernised industry with the technical ability in Israel, otherwise we will stay a developing country forever. We want to be a developed, not a developing, country," Eine emphasises. Lavi's canard-delta layout reflects current thinking worldwide. IAI is familiar with the delta, and the canard, from its work on the Kfir, which was developed from Dassault's Mirage. The delta provides low weight, important in a single-engine design, ample fuel volume, low gust response for a smooth low-level ride, and directional stability at high angles of attack. The all- moving canard, particularly on a longitudinally unstable aircraft such as the Lavi, adds lift and provides positive control at high AoA. The chin intake is based on that of the F-16: "a very beau tiful technical solution" to some of the problems of inlet design, says Eine. The forward fuselage helps to direct air into the inlet at high angles of attack, there is no intake blanking with sideslip, and duct design is simplified, all combining to provide low distortion and high pressure recovery at the engine. There are few surprises in the airframe, Eine admits. "At present we see that the future of aircraft development is in the systems, not in the platform." The breakthrough in airframe design came with the F-15 and F-16, he argues, although the demand for low Lavi structure weight requires a composite wing with carbonfibre substructure as well as skins, "and this is pushing technology a step further", Eine admits. Grumman is responsible for the design, development, and initial production (20 ship- sets) of the carbonfibre wing and vertical fin. "We initiated a programme in Israel [to develop these components]", says Eine, "but we realised that it would cost us some eight months in time, and probably a bit more money. What was important was the eight months, which is a long delay, almost unacceptable to the programme." Where the Lavi will be an advance over existing aircraft is in the integration of its avionics and electronics. "We have to fight more soph isticated weapon systems and in heavily defended areas, so we have put much more emphasis on defence systems in the aircraft, better warning systems ... a better picture of what is going on in the area," says Eine. IAI subsidiary Elta Elec tronics Industries is responsible for the elect ronic-warfare self-protection system, which provides rapid threat identification and automatic flexible response using passive and active coun- termeasures including power- managed noise and deception jamming. The Lavi will have internal and podded jamming systems. The Lavi will make exten sive use of distributed, FLIGHT International, 30 July 19S3
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