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Aviation History
1990
1990 - 1804.PDF
HEADLINES US Air Force reveals B-2 maritime mission New emphasis has been given to a maritime surveillance and strike role for the Northrop B-2bomber, according to US Air Force B-2 programme director Maj Gen Richard M Schofield. Although the maritime role would not be the B-2's primary mission, the aircraft could per form a similar mission to the B-52s currently tasked with con ventional maritime strike, and the B-2 could fly higher while remaining undetected. This would provide a larger '"sensor grazing area", says Brig Gen Harbin Y-12 wins UK certificate China's Harbin Y-12 utility transport has become the first aircraft to win UK Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) air worthiness certification. Lin Zongtang, Minister for the Chinese aerospace industry, says the CAA approval "lays a solid foundation for China's civil air craft to enter the world market", adding, "This marks a new stage in the design and development of our industry." The Y-12 was designed to meet western certification stan dards from the outset, the Chi nese government decreeing that the aircraft should meet US FAR 23 Part 135 design standards from its inception. HAECO, the Hong Kong air craft engineering company, in stalled western avionics in the aircraft which is powered by Pratt & Whitney Canada PT6A-27s. Harbin says the Y-12 has a maximum operational altitude of 7,000m (21,000ft), a cruising limit of 1,360km and a payload of 1,700kg. "More than 30 are now in operation domestically and abroad," says Harbin chief engineer Guo Jingshan. Ten Y-12s have been sold abroad, four to Laos and six to Sri Lanka. • William Davitte, special assistant for strategic modernisation. In a maritime strike role the B-2 would be armed with anti- surface-vessel (ASV) weapons such as the Harpoon missile. Among other new details re vealed about the B-2 in a Northrop/USAF status briefing at the company's Palmdale plant, California, it is now known that the stealth bomber has a payload of more than 18,150k (40,0001b). Over the 67.1 hours of flight time logged during the 16 flights by the first of six full scale development (FSD) flying aircraft, the performance enve lope has expanded out to 600km/h (325kt) at 3,050m (10,000ft), with a maximum alti tude reached of 35,000ft. Unrefuelled range is "more B-2 programme managers detail new role for stealth bomber than 6,000nm (9,650km)", while range with a single refuel ing is 10,000nm (16,100km), according to a Northrop docu ment. The aircraft lifts off at 140kt with a top speed described as "high subsonic". The maxi mum altitude is listed simply as "up to 50,000ft (15,240m)". The aircraft has proven to be an "excellent" refuelling plat form according to Northrop, fully qualifying on the KC-10 tanker in a single flight at 20,000ft altitude. Airframe number one is now in a three-month layup at Air Force Plant 42 in Palmdale pre paring for low-observable test ing in the third quarter of this year. Most of the work per formed during this second scheduled refit will involve seal ing and smoothing the aircraft's exterior to production achieve aircraft standards. • BAe in Active Sky Flash/F-16 talks British Aerospace (Dynamics) is negotiating with General Dynamics and McDonnell Douglas over the possible inte gration of its Active Sky Flash missile on the F-16 and F-18. The missile producer confirms that talks on undertaking the work were in progress and says that it has also been in discussion with a number of F-16 and F-18 operators. General Dynamics and McDonnell Douglas confirms that discussions have taken place. GD says that any F-16A or B that can carry the A1M-7 Sparrow can carry Sky Flash. Although no customers have re quested it, Sky Flash was flown on the original YF-16 prototype in the 1970s. Active Sky Flash is under de velopment by BAe and Thom- son-CSF with the latter produc ing the active seeker as a risk sharing partner in the private venture programme to update the existing Sky Flash missile. The medium range air-to-air missile will use active radar ter minal guidance to make it a fire-and-forget weapon. Although the seeker has not yet been mated to the missile —BAe says the equipment is being kept in France for further testing — the weapon is sched uled to be ready for supply by late 1992. Live firing trials are expected late next year — probably on an RAF Tornado — although this has not yet been settled. BAe says it has also had talks with Dassault Aviation — the French company's new name — over integration on the Mirage 2000, although not a priority. Potential customers for the weapon include Saudi Arabia for its Tornado and Hawk 200 fight ers, Kuwait for its F-18s and Bahrain for itsF-16s. The RAF, however, remains steadfastly behind the purchase of the troubled Hughes-built AIM-120 AMRAAM being devel oped as a result of an existing memorandum of understanding which also covers — for the moment —the even more troub led AIM-132 ASRAAM being developed by BAe. • Japan SST group looks for partners Afive-member delegation from Japan's three biggest aircraft manufacturers left Tokyo on 19 June on a four-nation trip to study the possibility of taking part in a $10 billion project to build a supersonic airliner. The group will visit Britain, West Germany, France and the United States. The offials represent Mitsub ishi Heavy Industries, Kawasaki Heavy Industries and Fuji Heavy Industries. Boeing and McDonnell Douglas announced last month that they will participate in the project, originally proposed by Aeerospatiale of France and Brit ish Aerospace, for a 200-seat jetliner capable of Mach 2.5. An SST engine materials re search effort is to involve US and UK companies (see P 21). • h FLIGHT INTERNATIONAL 27 June - 3 July 1990
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