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Aviation History
1991
1991 - 2002.PDF
DEFENCE CASUALTIES SOVIET UNION A Soviet Air Force Mikoyan MiG-23 Flogger crashed near Yaroslavl, north of Moscow in mid-July. The MiG suffered a flame-out at 13,000ft (4,000m). The pilot, Victor Aleshin, ejected safely at 3,000ft. A MiG-23 crashed in woods 65km (40 miles) from the city of Nizhniy Tagil in the Urals on 15 July. The pilot, Capt Khokhlov, was killed. A fighter, thought to be a MiG-21 Fishbed, crashed dur ing its final approach to an airfield near Stavropol in the Crimea. The cadet pilot ejected safely following an en gine failure. A Mil Mi-2 helicopter crashed-landed near the city of Monchegorsk, in the north of the USSR.The incident fol lowed an engine fire caused by a birdstrike. UNITED STATES A US Navy Grumman A-6E Intruder of VA-176 deployed on USS Forrestal, crashed into the sea north of Crete on 21 July. The two-man crew ejected but only the bombar dier/navigator was found alive. The pilot of a US Marine Corps McDonnell Douglas A- 4 Skyhawk ejected 10km off Cape Cod on 7 July. The aircraft was from NAS South Weymouth. Australians buy MUGS McDonnell Douglas has given Australian company Electro Optic Systems (EOS) the rights to its Multipurpose Uni versal Gunner Sight (MUGS) as part of an offset deal with the Royal Australian Navy. MUGS is a small ballistic, line-of-sight, fire-control system that can be mounted on direct-fire weapons. EOS recently won a $2 million contract from the US Army for a pre-production laser-based weapon sight based on the MUGS. • Cheap changes to T56s will cut smoke emissions and fuel use Modifications to the Allison T56 engines of Royal Aus tralian Air Force Hercules C-130s and Lockheed P-3 Ori- ons are planned to reduce visible smoke emission by 80%, save 1% on typical fuel burn and cut maintenance costs. The Australian Government's Defence Science & Technology Organisation's Aeronautical Re search Laboratory (ARL) devel oped the rework to an RAAF specification calling for a 30% reduction in smoke emission from its Orions. The smoke em- missions made the Orion visible to periscope-depth submarines. Changes to the internal gas flow and burning profile in the combustor cans, designed to re duce smoke, have also modified flame-temperature profiles, which, ARL says, improve heat distribution in the combustor and on the turbines. The RAAF, which acts as its own airworthiness authority, has already approved and fitted the ARL modification to seven T56s and has scheduled adoption to its entire fleet of Orions and Hercules. ARL's procedure will be pat ented and a business agreement has been signed with Allison — conditional on further tests by the US engine maker to prove a minimum of 50% in smoke re duction and 0.5% in fuel con sumption. Tests by ARL have already confirmed the specific fuel consumption saving in Qan- tas' Allison test cell, and the RAAF has air tested the modi fied engine through a full test regime. Following an Allison endorse ment, the modification data will then be licensed to fleet owners and overhaulers. Without disclosing any detail, ARL says that the cost will be less than 1% of the cost of a T56 engine overhaul; that one man can modify one set of combus- tors in one day and that there are no rrjaterial costs. Estimating a global market of 16,000 T56 engines, particularly within the US military, ARL and Pacific Aviation, a TNT/Austra lian Consolidated Press subsidi ary, have formed a joint venture company, Defence Technologies Australia, to market the product. Conditional letters of intent to purchase have been received from the air forces of Canada, the UK and New Zealand, and ARL says that there has been "considerable interest" from European users. Following the successful de velopment, ARL has been asked by the RAAF to examine possi ble similar modifications to the Pratt & Whitney TF30 engine in its F-lll fleet, which also has serious combustor cracking problems. D NEWS IN BRIEF SOVIET MUSEUM The Soviet Union is to set up a National Aeronautical Mu seum at Frunze Central Air field, just outside Moscow. The museum has the approval of the Ministry of Defence. MORE GAS TO PASS Lockheed Aeronautical Systems is building two new stretched tanker versions of the C-130 Hercules for the US Marine Corps. The KC-130T-30Hs are 15ft longer than the standard KC-130H tankers. The aircraft will he delivered to the 48th Reserve Group at NAS Glenview in Chicago in October and November. 16 FLIGHT INTERNATIONAL 31 July - 6 August. 1991
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