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Aviation History
1985
1985 - 0224.PDF
DEFENCE JVX is V-22 Osprey WASHINGTON D.C. The Bell-Boeing JVX tilt- rotor has been designated the V-22 Osprey. US Marine Corps assault transport versions, the first to be deliv ered, will be designated MV-22As. The US Navy's decision not to procure an interim engine for the V-22 joint-Services tilt-rotor will delay first flight by six months to early 1988, but deliveries will still begin in 1991. To offset cost growth in the almost $2,500 million devel opment programme, the US Navy, as V-22 executive service, has cancelled a contract with General Elec tric for T64-GE-717 engines. These would have powered first prototypes and six early production aircraft. A first flight with interim engines was planned for August 1987, with deliveries of T64-powered aircraft to begin in 1991. Originally the first V-22 to be powered by definitive engines was to have flown in October 1988, with production deliveries to begin in 1992. The need to cut devel opment costs coincided with assurances from engine manufacturers that deliveries of the definitive powerplant could be advanced eight months for a February 1988 first flight while meeting the 1991 delivery deadline. The Navy elected to cancel the interim engine and to reduce flight-test aircraft from seven to six, saving some $105 million. Other measures taken to reduce V-22 development costs include deleting the nose-mounted 0-5in machine gun turret. Avionics equipment will now be moun ted in the nose to maintain the original e.g. limit range. The gun turret might be adopted at a later stage, and the avionics equipment relocated aft. Three companies are com peting for the V-22 engine contract. Front runners are General Electric and Pratt & Whitney, both working on 5,000 s.h.p.-class turboshafts under the US Army's Modern Technology Demonstrator Engine (MTDE) programme. General Electric's GE27 MTDE began running late last year, and Pratt & Whitney's PW3005 is due to run early this year. Allison is proposing a derivative of its T56 and T701 (Boeing HLH) engines. Partners Bell and Boeing- Vertol are in the final stages of a 23-month, $69 million V-22 preliminary design contract. Full-scale devel opment is scheduled to begin in June. An engine devel opment contract will be let in May. V-22 is a joint-Services project. The US Marine Corps has the largest requirement, for 552 assault transports to replace CH-46s and CH-53s. The Navy requires 50 for combat rescue, to replace HH-3s. The Air Force currently requires 80 V-22s, also for combat rescue and long-range covert operations. The Army is undecided, but could require up to 231 V-22s for logistics transport. Austria delays fighter again VIENNA ~ The deadline for Austria's choice of a new fighter has been pushed back for the third time since September, to May 31, the Austrian MoD tells Flight. But the extended deadline has given time for a fifth contender to enter the race for the contract. An unnamed arms dealer has offered secondhand Mirage Ills. The competitors are now British Aerospace, offering 24 secondhand Light ning Mk.53s, Dassault and the new entrant, both proposing secondhand Mirage Ills, Northrop, proposing 16 new F-5E/F Tigers, and Saab, offering 24 ex-Swedish Air Force J35 Drakens. The deadline was pushed back following a meeting of Austria's all-party defence committee. The committee No/Type Price (AScti) Annual Service operating expiry (ASch) 24 Lightnings 1,900 million 250 million 24 Drakens 2,900 million 24 Mirage Ills 3,800 million 16 F-SE/Fs 160 million 120 million 1999 1995 2010 c4,000 million 110 million c2020 was split over the question of whether to buy new or secondhand aircraft. The MoD tells Flight that the final decision will proba bly be made before the May 31 deadline, a date quoted by the Federal Chancellor as much to quell Press interest in the contract as for any other reason. The new fighter will be in service about a year and a half after the decision is made. The F-5 could be operational slightly earlier because it is a new aircraft, says the MoD. Israel bids for US Navy RPV contract TEL AVIV Mazlat, a joint subsidiary of Israel Aircraft Industries and Tadiran set up to manu facture remotely piloted vehi cles, is bidding for a $200 million US Navy contract for 12 batteries of mini-RPVs. The deal would involve supplying the entire launch ing, tracking, and recovery systems, and involves about 100 mini-RPVs. Zwika Schiller, Mazlat's managing director, tells Flight that a new mini-RPV is under development and would have a greater range, bigger pay- load, and fly higher than any of the mini-RPVs in use with either the US Army or Navy. "It will also be more sophisti cated and versatile than anything in service," says Schiller. Schiller also emphatically denies press reports in the USA that six of the eight Israeli RPVs supplied to the US Navy were totally unusable because of technical defects. He hints that these adverse reports are connected with the US Navy's new RPV contract which is to be tendered soon, and intended to damage Mazlat's chances of winning. Schiller concurs that the reports might have been caused by difficulties the in- service RPVs had initially. Strong TV signals off the US West coast had affected tracking of the RPVs, but a modification has overcome this problem. RAF Shackletons to carry on LONDON ~ The continuing delay of entry into service of the British Aerospace Nimrod AEW.3 is now likely to result in the Royal Air Force refurbishing its Avro Shackle- ton AEW.2s and retaining them in service. Air Chief Marshal Sir David Craig, Nato Com mander-in-Chief of UK Air Forces and C-in-C of RAF Strike Command, confirms that the Nimrod AEW's prob lems are centred on the radar system, built by GEC- Marconi Avionics. Flight understands that the receiver signal-to-noise ratio is too low. Because of this, the computerised tracking system attempts to allocate tracks and find height information on noise spikes. This, in turn, overloads the computer. Programme costs on Nimrod AEW are estimated to have risen from the projected £300 million in 1976 to more than £1,000 million today. Only a small part of this is because of inflation. It could be another two years before the RAF accepts the Nimrod AEW. The five remaining Shack letons could be refurbished for about £1 million, says the RAF, and the go-ahead for this must be given before the end of 1985. The Shackletons could run on another five years after refit, although the 1940s-vintage AN/APS-20 radar is of limited value except in the training role. The RAF has no plans to fit a new radar, but Thorn-EMI's Searchwater, as fitted to Royal Navy Sea Kings, is an obvious contender. Another problem is the lack of industry expertise and tool ing for the piston-engined Shackletons. It is ironic that a fairly large and varied Shackleton spares holding is out of reach in South Africa. ACM Craig is confident that Nimrod AEW will work, GEC-Marconi Avionics says that the problem can be over come, and sources estimate that another year will be sufficient. w FLIGHT International, 26 January 1985
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