FlightGlobal.com
Home
Premium
Archive
Video
Images
Forum
Atlas
Blogs
Jobs
Shop
RSS
Email Newsletters
You are in:
Home
Aviation History
2003
2003 - 0803.PDF
Future of flight MAN IN THEL • • : In the fourth of our series, we look at combat aircraft evolution - does the way forward lie in UAVs, manned aircraft - or both? GRAHAM WARWICK / WASHINGTON DC THE FIRST 100 YEARS A century of military aviation 1914 First aerial combat - French Voisin shoots down German Aviatik 1918 Fokker D.VII flies - I arguably best WWI fighter HMS Argus commis sioned - first aircraft carrier 1951 Hawker Hunter flies - most successful UK export fighter 1953 North American F-100 Super Sabre flies - first supersonic flighter Cne hundred years after the Wright brothers made the I first manned, powered flight, debate rages over whether the latest generation of com bat aircraft will be the last to have a human crew. Post-war analysis of the air war over Iraq is likely to add to the debate, as experts assess the success of pre-planned precision strikes. The manned versus unmanned debate is not new. In 1957, UK defence minister Duncan Sandys cancelled almost every UK combat aircraft programme in favour of missiles. The controversial decision halted development of the Avro 730 supersonic bomber, Fairey Delta 3 long-range missile- armed bomber interceptor, and the Saunders-Roe SRI 7 7 mixed-power fighter. The English Electric Lightning survived to become the mainstay of UK air defences for decades to follow. The UK combat aircraft industry sur vived, only to receive another near-fatal blow in 1965, with cancellation of the BAC TSR2 strike aircraft and Hawker Siddeley PI 154 supersonic vertical/short take-off and landing fighter. The villain this time was budget cuts. The result, ultimately, was to bring the UK together with Germany and Italy on the Panavia Tornado strike fighter, which paved the way for today's four-nation Eurofighter Typhoon. In 1957, long-range air-breathing mis siles then under development, such as the Northrop B-62 Snark, North American B-64 Navajo and B-77 Hound Dog, looked every bit as promising as the Boeing X-45 ^~*^^^^^SP^^ 1936 Supermarine Spitfire prototype flies 1940 Battle of Britain First radar-equipped fighter enters service - Bristol BeaufighterMklF 1941 North American P-51 Mustang flies - arguably best WWI I fighter 1944 Meteor and Me 262 enter jfcl service-first jet fighters ^^ • ^v 1949 Flight Refuelling tests probe-and- drogue aerial refuelling system 1950 First jet-to-jet dog fight - Lockheed F-80 shoots "tf down MiG-15 over Korea JP 1954 Lockheed F-104 Starfighter flies - first Mach 2 fighter 1956 Dassault Mirage III flies — first of Mirage line Mikoyan MiG-21 prototype flies - most prolific jet fighter 1957 UK cancels most fighter programmes in favour of missiles 1958 McDonnell Douglas F-4 Phantom II flies 1959 Canada cancels Avro CF-105 Arrow Northrop F-5 Freedom Fighter flies 1961 Hawker P1127 flies-pro totype of Harrier V/STOL fighter A***'* —^•^^F iB/.'^^^i^ 5S pil i and Northrop X-47 unmanned combat air vehicles (UCAV) of today. In the end, they proved irrelevant in combat terms, but paved the way for one of today's most potent unmanned weapons, the Raytheon BGM-109 Tomahawk cruise missile. The way forward The latest round of the manned versus unmanned debate centres on whether autonomous UCAVs are the future, and whether the Lockheed Martin F-35 Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) will be the last manned combat aircraft developed in the USA. Not surprisingly, JSF competition loser Boeing is leading the pro-UCAV charge, as it faces the prospect of exiting the manned fighter business when production of the F-15 and F/A-18 ends within the next decade. Equally unsurprising is Lockheed Martin's advocacy of manned fighters, with its F-16 continuing to sell and the F-35 planned to be in production beyond 2030. Northrop Grumman has its feet firmly in both camps, as a partner on JSF and a leader in unmanned air vehicles (UAVs). As developer of the B-2 bomber, the company is considered a leading candidate to 36 8-14 APRIL 2003 FLIGHT INTERNATIONAL www.flightinternational.com
Sign up to
Flight Digital Magazine
Flight Print Magazine
Airline Business Magazine
E-newsletters
RSS
Events
