FlightGlobal.com
Home
Premium
Archive
Video
Images
Forum
Atlas
Blogs
Jobs
Shop
RSS
Email Newsletters
You are in:
Home
Aviation History
2000
2000 - 1394.PDF
DEFENCE RSKMiG 1.44 shown on maiden flight PICTURED is the RSK MiG 1.44 fifth-generation fight er technology demonstrator during its maiden flight on 29 February. The flight from Zhukovsky lasted 18min during which the aircraft climbed to 3,300ft (1,000m) and twice cir cled Zhukovsky with the under carriage down at 270-325kt (500-600km/h). • Tri-nation success for Litening THE US MARINE Corps (USMC) has decided to equip its Boeing AV-8B Harriers with the Northrop Grumman/Rafael Lite ning II targeting pod as part of a tri partite deal that includes similarly equipping the Italian and Spanish navies' Harrier fleets. US prime contractor Northrop Grumman has been awarded a $24.5 million contract to supply the USMC with an initial nine Litening lis and the foreign mili tary sale of four pods to Italy and two for Spain. The USMC needs 56 pods to equip half of its AV-8Bs. Litening II is already partially integrated with the AV-8B using the Raytheon AGM-65 Maverick missile interface, head-down dis play and the pod's onboard soft ware as the result of a de monstration last year. The USMC purchase is packaged as part of a larger ongoing acquisition of 64 Litening II pods for the Air National Guard (ANG) and 32 for the Air Force Reserve to equip Lockheed Martin F-16s. The ANG plans to buy 100 more pods for its F-16s and has completed a fit check of the Lite ning II on the Fairchild A/OA-10. The service wants to equip the strike aircraft with a laser targeting pod as part of a larger avionics and powerplant upgrade. Q US Army delays FTR as Bell seeks Quad Tiltrotor funds RAMON LOPEZ/WASHINGTON DC US ARMY plans to award Future Transport Rotorcraft (FTR) study contracts in June have been scrapped because of a funding shortfall. Technical and opera tional concept determination stud ies will be delayed for at least a year. FTR could be a vertical take-off and landing aircraft, helicopter or tiltrotor. It will replace US Army Boeing CH-47 Chinooks and pos sibly US Marine Corps Sikorsky CH-53s and US Navy Grumman C-2 carrier-capable transports. Once funding is secured, up to three 24-month study contracts will be awarded. Contractors will be required to recommend config uration type, while also consider ing commercial and international variants. The powerplant is expect ed to emerge from the Joint Turbine Advanced Gas Generator programme. The studies are to be followed by a 36-month risk re duction programme, with engin eering and manufacturing devel opment beginning in 2010. Initial fielding would be eight years later. Bell responded to the US Army request as it believes a C-130-size four-tiltrotor aircraft can meet the FTR requirement. The company- funded Quad Tiltrotor (QTR) would use Bell Boeing V-22 Osprey components to reduce development costs. They would be mated to an enlarged fuselage and new landing gear, wings and flight control system (Flight Inter national,!-* J\mt, 1999). Bell's Dick Spivey says watertun- nel testing of a l/48th scale QTR aided visualisation of the complex flows around the tandem wings and four rotors, and showed enough promise for Bell to approach NASA and the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) for funding to build windtunnel models. DARPA is keen to support the research, but lacks funding, says Spivey. NASA could fund QTR through the Runway Independent Transport Aircraft programme. DARPA-funded or FTR-relat- ed work could lead to a military advanced concept technology demonstration. Components would be taken from the V-22 pro duction line to fabricate two QTR prototypes that could fly in 2005. Limited production could follow several years after, leading to initial fielding "as early as the end of this decade", Spivey believes. • Boeing fits ALQ-99 jammer on Super Hornet Boeing has tested the F/A-18G Growler, an electronic warfare dedicated version of the F/A-18F BOEING HAS conducted fit checks with ALQ-99 tactical jamming system pods on the F/A- 18E/F Super Hornet, as it contin ues to promote a variant of the aircraft, dubbed the F-18G Growler, to replace the US Navy's Northrop Grumman FA-6B. Although a decision on replac ing the EA-6B will not occur until the US Department of Defense completes an analysis of alterna tives at the end of next year, Boeing is continuing risk-reduction work on an electronic attack F/A-18. "If a manned aircraft is a solu tion, and the navy retains the lead, then it has to be carrier-based and the F/A-18F is the logical choice," says programme general manager Pat Finneran. As an interim step, the company is proposing the exist ing ALQ-99 jamming pods be transferred from the EA-6B to the two-seat F/A-18F. The resulting configuration would not have the range or loiter capability of the EA- 6B Prowler, Boeing admits. The aircraft would be able to use the electronic countermeasures capahilities of the active-array radar planned for the F/A-18E/F, Boeing says. Later, a new super sonic electronic attack pod would be developed combining the func tions of three ALQ-99 pods, which would allow the F-18G to keep pace with US Air Force and Navy strike aircraft. Q 20 FLIGHT INTERNATIONAL 2 - 8 May 2000
Sign up to
Flight Digital Magazine
Flight Print Magazine
Airline Business Magazine
E-newsletters
RSS
Events
