Newsdesk – Military

Raf Orders Additional Hawks:

The RAF has ordered an additional 1 8 BAe Hawks trainers to compliment the 1 7 5 aircraft already on order. So far more than 90 Hawks have been ordered and the type is currently being equipped with IR Sidewinder AAMs for the airfield defence role. To date, the Hawk has been the latest aircraft yet operated by the RAF.

 More Dollars, More Men:

A US DOD report indicates that in 1979 the mission-ready availability of USAF F-15 Eagles was only 56 per cent while the US Navy were even less mobile with an F-14 readiness rate of only 47 per cent. Primary source of the problem, apart from the obvious Pratt & Whitney F100 spares drought, was a lack of trained manpower and the long-term effect of continuing budgetary cutbacks limited the spares available for squadron deployment. Defence Secretary Harold Brown stated that in 1977 the services had sufficient funds to purchase 94 per cent of the spares required, this dropped to a mere 15 per cent in 1980. Emphasis on the current budget is on building up the spares inventory ahead of purchasing new equipment.

 Fouga 90 Program Cancelled:

The Aerospatiale Fouga 90, an up-market, turbofan version of the successful Magistar trainer, has been axed due to lack of interest from prospective customers. The French Air Force has been flight testing the aircraft in recent months to establish requirements for their proposed transition trainer which is scheduled for introduction by 1985.

Rolls & Pratts Tie the Knot:

The days of nations, indeed companies, forging ahead with aerospace projects on their own are well and truly gone. McDonnell Douglas appears to be getting closer to British Aerospace with the passing of each year and now Rolls-Royce have agreed on production sharing with Pratt & Whitney for the development of the RR Pegasus as used on the Harrier and AV-8B. Rolls will build 75 percent of the engine with Pratts responsible for the remaining 25 percent by value. With the nations of Europe (whose total GNP now exceeds that of the USA) working closer together on collaborative ventures a trans-Atlantic US/UK union in some aerospace projects could be a good move. The Boeing 7 5 7 with Rolls engines is a typical example of this trend.

Benefits of Re-Engined Kc-135s:

The long-term benefits to the USAF of reengineering its operational fleet of KC-135 tankers will greatly outweigh the $10 million cost per aircraft of introducing the modifications. USAF plans to operate at least 300 re-engined KC-135 aircraft plus 40 McD KC-10 tankers. Since 1957 USAF has taken delivery of some 820C and KC-135 aircraft of which 762 are still in service, either with the Strategic Air Command or the National Guard. The benefits to be had by using the CFM-56-powered KC-135 are such that a force of 300 such jets equates to more than 600 of the non-modified version. As a typical example, a standard KC-135 taking off at maximum gross (which they are often not able to due to temperatures above 25C or runways under 9,000ft) can supply 30,000lb of fuel at a range of 3,000nm, the re-engined version can supply 72,000Ib for the same mission profile. Furthermore the CFM powered aircraft can operate at maximum design payload from runways and at high temperatures that would prohibit the deployment of the original Stratotanker.

 New Pratt & Whitney Engine:

Pratts are to develop a de-rated version of their F100 turbofan which powers F-15 and F-16 fighters. The new engine will feature a new core and will operate at lower engine temperatures eliminating some of the maintenance requirements of the more powerful F100 engine currently in use Designated PW1120, the new engine will produce 20,000lb thrust, be 20 inches shorter than the F100 and measure 33in diameter instead of 40 inches for the F100. PW1120 is expected to be flight tested during 1983 with qualification by 1985.

 Philippines Orders Three Fokker F27 Maritime Aircraft:

The Philippines Government has ordered three Fokker F27 Maritime aircraft for operation by the Philippine Air Force in a variety of duties, including coastal surveillance, counter-infiltration, off-shore installation control, fishery protection and search and rescue. Deliveries will begin early next year. In collaboration with several vendor partners in the F27 Maritime project, Fokker will train 42 Philippine air and ground crew including pilots, navigators, radar operators and engineers. Courses will begin at the Fokker Schiphol plant this autumn.

The objective of the specialised curriculum will be to give in-depth operational and ground training to selected students, who will later act as instructors in their own country. Fokker F27 sales now total 711 to 157 operators in 63 countries. Ten are Maritime versions sold to Peru, Spain, the Netherlands and now the Philippines.

 Air Cushion Take-off Plan Investigated:

The USAF are investigating the feasibility of using small air cushion vehicles to overcome an ever-increasing vulnerability suffered by concrete runways. The basic the concept is that a small air cushion vehicle powerful enough to support a gross weight F-4 Phantom will elevate the host aircraft sufficiently high so as to avoid a bomb damaged runway. Take-off would be made using the thrust supplied by the host aircraft with a reduced take-off run being possible due to lack of traditional wheel-to-runway drag experienced in a normal take-off. As the host aircraft rotated the air cushion the vehicle would be released and an air-braking system would be remotely deployed to slow and recover the device. USAF will test the system in a wind tunnel in scale form to estimate the feasibility of such a system.

F-16 Passes Another Milestone:

The first F-16 fighter to be flown 1,000 hours reached that milestone recently at the U. S. Air Force Flight Test Center, Edwards Air Force Base, California. The single-seat fighter is one of eight F-16s assigned to flight test and prove important aircraft systems and mission capabilities during an ongoing joint operations program at Edwards AFB involving U. S. Air Force and General Dynamics personnel. The aircraft reached the 1,000-hour mark on its 696 flight. The F-16, which first flew on May 3, 1977, is under consideration as a replacement fighter for the RAAF.

The 170 F-16s delivered to six air forces to date have now flown more than 20,000 hours. Seven nations, including Israel and Egypt have announced plans for nearly 2,000 of the fighters. The F-16 was designed for a minimum service life of 8,000 flying hours, or 15 years of Air Force flight operations. In a program that successfully demonstrated inherent ruggedness of the Air Force’s newest fighter, General Dynamics engineers tested an F-16 to 16,000 equivalent flight hours in a computer-controlled durability test apparatus at the company’s Forth Worth plant. The first 1000-hour F-16 averaged about 27 flying hours and 19 flights monthly during a program to evaluate the fighter’s all- 1 weather radar, air-to-air and air-to-surface I weapons delivery accuracy, and to measure the efficiency of the aircraft’s cockpit environmental control system.

Soviet Armed Forces Growth Shows No Signs of Slackening:

Figures 1 released recently by NATO confirm the UqSR and WARPAC nations have pursued an aggressive arms build-up program far outstripping that of the West. During the Seventies, the NATO report claims, the USSR maintained a similar number of strategic nuclear missiles at 1300 yet today each missile has an MIRV capability more than quadrupling the number of warheads available to this force. The number of nuclear-powered missile-firing submarines has tripled to 70, of which 60 are of the advanced Yankee and Delta class. The number of surface vessels has increased from about 200 in 1970 to around 280 in 1980 including a large number of advanced missile firing cruisers and aircraft carriers. Meanwhile, Naval Aviation has introduced the capable supersonic Backfire in addition to VTOL Forger attack aircraft and are working a full speed to develop a carrier borne MiG 23/27 derivative for deployment aboard the new 60,000-tonne class of Soviet carriers.

The Soviet Union had also made great strides in replacing its earlier generation jet aircraft of the MiG 17/19 and 21 family with MiG 23/27 and Foxbat aircraft. Where in 1 9 7 0 the bulk of Soviet jets were optimised for air defence by 1980 there had been a marked swing to attack and ground support types as depicted in the MiG 27, SU-17 and SU-19 Fencer.

Boeing Into Rpvs:

Boeing are developing a small remotely piloted vehicle for use aboard ships to assist in targeting over-the-horizon missiles. The RPV is fourteen feet long and powered by a small petrol engine, is housed ready for launch in a deck-mounted firing tube and can be stored for long periods without specific maintenance. First flight of the RPV is scheduled for June 1981 while primary operational application of such a system would be in targeting short-range SSMs and cruise missiles and provision of an over-the-horizon ECM capability.

 Westwind Target Tugs:

The Israeli Westwind has been selected by the West German Defence Forces for target towing duties. The Westwind was able to fulfill a requirement that called for the deployment of a radar-reflective target six kilometres astern of the jet while being able to maintain a constant 300kts. Four aircraft will undertake this role while being operated by civil operators under charter to the defence forces as required.

 Defence Association Grows:

The Australia Defence Association in Victoria is sponsoring the formation of branches in the Eastern States to join with it and the West Australian branch in a national organisation. Readers interested in joining such a branch – or one of the existing branches – in their own State should write to: The Secretary, Australia Defence Association (Vic), Box 329, North Melbourne, Vic. , 3051.

Enhanced III

The U. S. Air Force, has begun a $300 million modification program to enhance the capabilities of the Fort Worth built FB-IIIA strategic bombers. Sixty-five of the swing-wing aircraft are to be modified during the initial program.

Improvements to the aircraft will include an aircraft-satellite telecommunications capability, a stall warning system, a radar warning receiver and an improved electronic countermeasures system.

The telecommunications modification will permit the aircraft to send and receive teletype messages anywhere in the world while the plane is in the air.

In addition to the telecommunications system, the modification program calls for a stall inhibitor system that will interface with the aircraft’s flight control system, the addition of AN-ALE-62 radar warning receivers that will enable the FB to greatly improve mission performance in a high-threat environment and A N – ALQ-1 3 7 countermeasures systems with greater frequency range.

The FB-11I is the most accurate all-weather bomber in the U. S. Air Force inventory. Air Force units flying these Mach 2. 2 aircraft have won the Strategic Air Command’s annual bombing competition for the past five years.

Carriers to Brazil

The Brazilian Defence Ministry has announced that it intends to build two new aircraft carriers for introduction to service by 1990. There was no mention of tonnage or a preference for VSTOL aircraft or conventional fixed-wing types though the report did point towards one of the vessels being nuclear-powered.

Lynx Order Book Grows:

Westland Helicopters have announced orders for a further 32 of their Lynx helicopter. The Royal Navy has re-ordered 10 units for a total of 70 while France has followed suit with an order for an additional 14 taking its total to 40. The new aircraft will be powered by uprated 1,120shp Gem turboshafts and take the total order book to 283. At time of going to press there was still no clear date on when the RAN would make a firm decision on the helicopter choice for the soon-to-be-delivered FFG frigates. Lynx and the Sikorsky Seahawk are rival contenders in a contest that was initially to have been wrapped up in 1978.

X-15 Marks 20th Anniversary:

Occupying a place on honour in the Smithsonian Institution’s National Air and Space Museum in Washington, DC, is a black, dart-like, stubby-winged craft that resembles a cross between a rock and an airplane. The X-15 is, in fact, just that.

The X-15 was conceived some 25 years ago and went on to fly 199 flights in a joint NASA-Air Force-Navy research program. The craft’s first research flight took place March 25, 1960; its last, October 24, 1968.

During those 8% years it set altitude and speed records for winged aircraft that remain unchallenged. An X-15 achieved an altitude of 117,960 metres (354,200 feet, or more than 67 miles) and, on another flight, a modified X-15 reached a speed of 7274 kilometres per hour (4250 miles per hour) 6. 7 times the speed of sound.

But altitude and speed were not the X-15’s only purposes. The three X-158s served as reusable manned platforms for a range of experiments that helped advance the development of vital aeronautical and space flight systems. Materials, instrumentation, space suits and techniques were developed for NASA as well as the military.

The X-15 was the latest in a series of manned rocket research planes. The first of the series the X-1 was the first plane to fly faster than the speed of sound.

Twelve experienced military and civilian pilots flew the X-15, including Neil Armstrong, the first man to walk on the moon, Joe H. Engle, currently an astronaut, and A. Scott Crossfield, the X-15’s first pilot.

The X-15 was launched from beneath the wing of a B-52 aircraft once that aircraft had reached 13,716m (45,000ft) altitude and a speed of 805km/hr (500mph).

Freed from the B-52’s wing, the X-15 engine fired, rocketing the craft downrange at hypersonic speed. The flights were made over a broad expanse of desert stretching from Utah through Nevada into California. Its flight completed, the craft glided to 322km/hr (200mph) landing on a dry lake bed at Edwards, Calif, using a conventional nosewheel landing gear and ski-like skids at the rear.

North American Aviation, El Segundo, Calif (now part of Rockwell International Corp Pittsburgh) built the 15m (50ft) long X-15s after extensive wind tunnel and structural component tests demonstrated the basic validity of the design.

Virtually all of the pressures and forces measured in flight were found to be in agreement with the wind tunnel predictions.

In contrast to the accurate predictions of hypersonic aerodynamic forces, however, little was known about turbulent heating rates for vehicles in this speed range. Measured flight data showed a marked departure from available predictions, averaging about 35 per cent lower than expected.

The X-15 required a departure from ordinary aircraft construction materials. A nickel-steel alloy called Inconel X was used on all external areas of the craft exposed to high temperatures such as the skin of the fuselage, wing and tail.

The internal primary structure of titanium and stainless steel was designed to withstand heat which might penetrate the Inconel skin. For other areas, where neither high temperatures nor high loads were encountered, aluminium was used.

When the X-15 program began in 1954, there were many unknowns about hypersonic flight (flight faster than five times the speed of sound) and flight above most of Earth’s atmosphere. The effects of weightlessness, high heat rates, steep re-entry angles, and the difficulty of altitude control in space, all were questions that only actual flight in the hypersonic, low space environment would answer.

One of the major goals of the X-15 program was to explore the capabilities and limitations of a human pilot in an aerospace vehicle. The X-15 showed that a human pilot can play an important role in the safe and successful completion of a mission. The basic philosophy of piloted aircraft operation was shown to be just as applicable to the realm of hypersonic and space flight as it is to supersonic flight.

Analysis of the first 44 flights showed that 13 of them would have failed in the absence of a human pilot together with the various redundant systems provided in the airplane. There were only a few examples where pilot error degraded the m1ss1on performance. The only fatal crash of an X-15 occurred in 1967.

The broad positive finding of the program, however, was that the capabilities of the human pilot for sensing, judging, coping with the unexpected and employing a fantastic variety of acquired skills remain essentially undiminished in all the key problem areas of aerospace flight.

When originally designed, the X-15 was expected to generate extremely valuable information about the realm of hypersonic flight. While it did indeed provide a wealth of such information, the X-15 program’s greatest contribution was knowledge of space flight.

One significant contribution to the space program was the demonstration that simulators could be used extensively for crew training. There were no two-seat X-15s so the pilots trained in simulators. The success of this method paved the way for similar all-out use of simulators in the space program.

Government and industry teams, working together on the X-15 program to solve unprecedented problems, because an invaluable asset in the space program.

The X-15 had completed its primary high-speed flight research goals by 1964 and was well on its way to becoming a flying research laboratory.

Scientists attached instruments to the X-1 5 and loaded others aboard in modified compartments. Astronomy, Earth science, solar studies and other fields all were given a boost by the X-15 program.

The program produced more than 700 technical documents, 200 of which reported general research that would not have been undertaken had it not been for the program.

Total cost of the X-15 program, including the construction of the three aircraft, was about $300 million.

In addition to the aircraft on display at the Smithsonian, X-15 number 2 is on display at the Air Force Museum at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Dayton, Ohio. The third craft was destroyed in the 1967 crash.