Commercial Aircraft Sales

Virtual Reality

Honeywell has come up with a great idea to test its H-764G embedded global positioning system navigation sensor — on a wild roller coaster ride. The company installed the equipment in Florida’s ‘Kumba’ roller coaster, a seven loop, 100km/h monster which simulates a ‘high dynamics’ F-16 fighter environment including 4.5g loadings, 200deg/sec angular rates and GPS antenna shading. The roller coaster provides an excellent, reusable testbed for verifying the H-764G’s ability to quickly reacquire a satellite in a high ‘g’, fighter like environment, and all at minimal cost!

Nomad Officially Gone

As anticipated, the Australian Defence Force’s fleet of 24 Nomads is to be retired in the wake of the joint RAAF and Army review of the aircraft (refer p8 9/95 AA). According to Minister for Defence Robert Ray: “The [operational] restrictions [imposed after the issue of a CAA airworthiness directive last September] limit the payload and range, as well as tactical handling and short takeoff and landing operations, which are common in Australian military use of the aircraft. The revised flight parameters would constrain continued military use of the aircraft and the joint Army and Air Force review recommended leasing or hiring suitable civilian aircraft as a cost effective interim solution”. Arrangements have been put in place to dispose of the Nomads with preference to be given to interest from other governments whose military forces already operate the aircraft. The Nomad has been cleared for civil operations and support of the aircraft has been guaranteed. A long term replacement will be considered within the “normal force development process”.

AA Comment: Several questions arise from this sorry saga — what civil aircraft of similar carrying capacity are available which can match the Nomad’s STOL and rough field performance? Why is the Nomad considered good enough to sell off to foreign military users but not good enough for use in its country of origin? Does the fact that Nomad is considered fine for civil use mean that the problems lie not with the aircraft itself but with its ADF operators? Is there a hidden agenda behind the fact that the ADF has always been anti Nomad? Was consideration given to re-engining the Nomad with the B17F version of the Allison 250 engine in place of the original B17B/C? This engine offers slightly more power but more importantly, that power is available to higher temperatures and in general doesn’t have to work as hard as the original. We believe that GAF did all the necessary investigations into a B17F powered Nomad in the mid 1980s when the engine first became available but the programme went no further due to lack of Federal Government interest.

Woomera Blasts Off

The Woomera rocket range will reverberate to the sounds of liftoff from this month as NASA launches seven small rockets from the facility. The Black Brant IX rockets to be used in the programme are 13m (43ft) in length and comprise two stages, a booster and a payload of scientific instruments. Seven will be launched in October and November carrying astronomical instruments. The payloads will be propelled almost vertically to a height of 500km (310 miles) where they will spend about 10 minutes taking observations before returning to Earth by parachute for recovery and reuse. They will land within 10km of the launch site. NASA last used Woomera in 1987 for trials of the Super Nova rocket but the last major programme conducted there was the ELDO project more than 30 years ago.

Lockheed Delivers Best Offer for C-130j

Lockheed Martin has presented the RAAF with final details of its offer against the RAAF’s request for sole source provision for the C-130J-30 Hercules.