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Aviation History
2004
2004-09 - 1507.PDF
TECHNOLOGY DEVELOPMENT STEPHEN TRIMBLE / WASHINGTON DC Engine chosen for demonstrator Lockheed Martin will adapt SR-71's powerplant to provide expendable strike vehicle with top speed of Mach 3 Lockheed Martin plans to adapt the Rolls-Royce Allison Advanced Deve lopment YJ102R engine, first tested on the SR-71, to provide a Mach 4- plus propulsion system for an expendable, air-launched vehicle. The new propulsion system has been selected by the US Office of Naval Research (ONR) for a Phase 2 contract under the $50 million Revolutionary Approach To Time- critical Long Range Strike (RATTLRS) flight-demonstration programme. Lockheed Martin's RATTLRS vehicle is being designed to pro vide speed equivalent to the SR-71's listed maximum of M3, but will rely on unspecified turbine cooling technology advances to avoid the high fuel consumption of after burning engines. The ONR-led propulsion pro gramme falls under the US National Aerospace Initiative, which is seek ing to fund hypersonic advances. RATTLRS and the navy's HyFly hypersonic demonstration pro gramme are intended to produce missile propulsion systems capable of Mach 4 and Mach 6, respectively. First-phase RATTLRS contracts have also been awarded to Boeing, Orbital Sciences and Raytheon, but Lockheed Martin is the first to announce a Phase 2 contract. The RATTLRS system is required to be capable of integrating with an exist ing tactical aircraft, and specifically the Boeing F/A-18E/F Super Hornet, Lockheed Martin/Boeing F/A-22 Raptor and Lockheed Martin F-35 Joint Strike Fighter. The air-launched version is required to weigh no more than 800kg (1,8001b) with a 225kg pay- load and a sea-launched version should be no heavier than 1,540kg with a 340kg payload, including a vertical launch booster. Lockheed Martin is aiming for an M4 propulsion capability, but the ONR contract requires the vehicle to cruise at M3 for at least 5min in level flight. ONR has bud geted $50 million for the five-year flight demonstration programme, with potential options increasing the funding to a maximum of $175 million. ENHANCED VISION ROB COPPINGER / LONDON BAE to develop zero visibility guidance A head-up display (HUD) fusing millimetre-wave radar images with other sensor data to allow military transport aircraft pilots to land in zero visibility is being developed by BAE Systems Platform Solutions for service entry by 2010. The three-year, $13 million US Air Force Research Laboratory Autonomous Approach Landing Capability (AALC) programme aims to test a liquid-crystal display HUD that presents a pilot with a synthetic colour image of sur rounding terrain generated by the combination of radar returns and possibly infrared and low-light camera imagery. The HUD-based vision system will be tested on either a Boeing C-17 Globemaster III or a Lockheed Martin C-130 Hercules by October 2007. "We couldn't get into Bosnia for 11 days because of fog," says Dutch Neilson, BAE Systems Platform Solutions business development director responsible for AALC. "That won't happen in future with our system. We are developing the radar. There are no firm decisions yet on what optical sensors it will have until the end of the first phase." The first phase ends this year and the electro-optical sensors chosen might be infrared and low-light cameras. The programme has a phase per financial year, with sys tem integration first, then aircraft integration and flight tests. The data-fusion algorithm has been developed, but problems to be over come include ensuring the radome does not interfere with the radar's operation by reflecting back some of the energy. The programme will also develop a surface guidance system for a head-down display. This will use a synthetic terrain database. PROPULSION UK research project to solve STOVL problems Problems with interference between multiple exhaust jets on short take-off/vertical landing (STOVL) aircraft are being tackled by a three-year research project led by the UK's Cranfield University. An early conclusion of the pro ject - which is examining multiple exhausts for manned and unmanned STOVL vehicles - is that the problems can be mitigated by better nozzle placement and thrust control, say researchers. The complexity of exhaust flows and their interaction with the ground and each other, can cause hovering instability. Exhaust gas re- ingestion could result in cata strophic failure. Although the con cept has existed for 50 years, engineers say vertically directed jet exhaust behaviour is still poorly understood. "This work could be applied to JSF-like aircraft and potentially to unmanned air vehicles," says Cranfield project leader Dr Alistair Saddington. "One problem yet to be solved is the re-ingestion of jet exhaust. Even with today's com puters, computational fluid dynamics struggles to cope with Cranfield University's work could prove valuable for JSF [modelling] exhaust fluid flow." The laboratory-based research is using high-speed digital cameras and lasers that measure exhaust velocities to understand the dynamic factors involved. The three-year project received £60,000 ($111,000) from the UK's Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council and has been assisted by BAE Systems. The work is due to end later this year, and Saddington hopes further grant support will allow it to continue. 24 17-23 AUGUST 2004 FLIGHT INTERNATIONAL www.flightinternational.com
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