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Aviation History
1997
1997 - 1278.PDF
L>~S1NCK NEWS IN BRIEF • LITTON WINS Litton Industries beat out two competitors in a compe tition to upgrade APR-39A radar-warning systems installed on Royal Nor wegian Air Force Bell 412 helicopters. Under terms of a $3 million contract, Litton will provide 25 systems as well as support, training and software. The US firm manu factures the radar-warning receiver and Norway was the first international customer fortheAPR-39A. • Tl BACKS TIALD Texas Instruments plans to offer a derivative of GEC- Marconi Avionics thermal- imaging airborne laser-des ignator (TIALD) to meet the US Navy requirement for a new targeting pod for the McDonnell Douglas F-18. TI would install a new-genera tion forward-looking infra red sensor in the TIALD pod. • ESGJOINSJSTARS Northrop Grumman has named ESG Elektronik- system un Logistik as a main European subcontractor for the ground-support system if the E-8 Joint Surveillance Target Attack Radar System (JSTARS) is selected for use in NATO's Alliance Ground Surveillance programme, for which a decision is expected in October. • COLUMBIAN MI-17S The first two Mil Mi-17 heli copters were delivered to Colombia by Russian state arms-sales agency Rosvoor- ouzheniye in April. Valery Kartavtsev, deputy depart ment head, says that the con tract for ten Mi-17s worth $43 million was signed earli er this year. Kartavtsev says that the contract was signed despite heavy pressure on the Bogota government from the USA. Rosvoorouzheniye hopes that the deal will open up further opportunities in Latin America. US Government resists Thai bid to buy Popeye THE ROYAL Thai Air Force (RTAF) wants to purchase the Lockheed xMartin/Rafael AGM- 142 Popeye air-to-surface missile (ASM) for its Lockheed Martin F-16A/B and McDonnell Douglas F/18C/D fighters, but it is facing resistance from the US Government. According to US Government sources, Washington has asked Thailand to defer any procure ment decision until the planned lightweight Popeye 2 missile is available. It argues that the smaller Popeye 2 is better suited to the F-16. The Thais want to procure the weapon under a foreign-mili tary-sales deal with the USA. It could, however, purchase the weapon from Israeli if Washington continues to resist. The heavier AGM-142 has not been certified by the US Air Force for the F-16. The US Government also adds that its has not yet cleared AGM-142 for sale to South-East Israel has already flown an early model of the Popeye 2 on one of its F-16s Asia, despite it already having been ordered by Australia and offered to South Korea. Thailand argues that the missile has already been flown on the F-16 by the Israeli air force and that it does not want to wait for a lighter version to be developed. The RTAF is understood to have even offered $4 million toward having the US-built version of the Popeye integrated on to the F-16. The US Government, in the meantime, has briefed Thailand on the F-16 mid-life update pro gramme nowunderway in Europe. The RTAF operates a total of 36 Block 15 standard F-16A/Bs, including 18 delivered in die past 18 months, and is considering an avionics upgrade and structural life extension for the aircraft. • P&W advances work on JSF turbine GRAHAM WARWICK/WASHINGTON DC PRATT & WHITNEY plans to run an advanced turbine for its Joint Strike Fighter QSF) engine by the end of this month. The tur bine, incorporating the company's Superblade/Supervane advanced cooling, will allow higher tempera tures to increase thrust for the short-take-off/vertical-landing (STOVL) JSF, and will be tested in its CEASAR research engine. JSF concept-demonstrator air craft (CDAs) to be flown by Boeing and Lockheed Martin in 2000 will be powered by derivatives of the Fl 19 developed by P&W for the Lockheed Martin/Boeing F-22. The new engines will run at higher temperatures. P&W recently completed a 1,000-cycleteston the baseline Fl 19 at turbine tempera tures within 40°C of that required for the CDAs, and demonstrated the life required for flight tests, says programme manager Bob Cea. CDA engines will be based on production Fl 19s, which will have increased temperature margin, ".. .givingus three or four times the life needed", he says, adding: "We have extreme confidence that we can operate the Fl 19 core at the increased JSF temperatures." Cea says: "We are now about two-thirds of the way to meeting the full life requirement for pro duction JSF engines." The next step is die advanced turbine, which will be run this month "...at JSF conditions", he says. The turbine and other technologies will be incorporated in two Fl 19s which will be ground-run in 1999 before P&W submits its JSF engine- development proposal, Cea says. P&W completed the prelimi nary design review in April, and parts for the Boeing and Lockheed Martin engines, designated SE614 and SE611, respectively, are being produced, including the integrally bladed-rotor fans, which are scaled from those on the Fl 19. Engine assembly is to begin in October, and P&W hopes to begin ground test ing in February 1998, two mondis ahead of schedule, Cea says. Initial tests will be conducted in conventional take-off and landing mode, but tests in STOVL mode will begin "soon after", says Cea, with the lift-system hardware attached - direct-lift nozzles for Boeing and a shaft-driven lift fan for Lockheed Martin. "Several" engines will be provid ed to Boeing and Lockheed Martin for flight-testing in 2000. Each will build two CDAs, and one team will be selected in 2001 to develop the JSF. The F119 will power develop ment and initial-production JSFs, after which P&W will face compe tition from Cieneral Electric's Fl 20 alternate engine. • See feature, P35. 22 FLIGHT INTERNATIONAL 14 - 20 May 1997
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