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Aviation History
1986
1986 - 3005.PDF
The ATF teams are already squaring up to the paper battle that will be fought as the prototypes take shape. Northrop, for example, notes that its existing partnership with McDonnell Douglas (which is prime contractor on the F-18) has survived diffi cult times through the legal battle over foreign sales of the aircraft. "We have a real advantage," says a Northrop spokesman, "in that we've ironed things out between us. We understand each other." Northrop is also empha sising the benefits of having pushed the F-20 for the USAF's air defence fighter competition, which it lost to General Dynamics' F-16A irta decision announced concur rently with that for the ATF. "The F-20 has helped us to build new levels of capability in systems integration, design engineering, and maintenance manpower reduction," said the company's chief execu tive, Tom Jones. Lockheed's team members had what the company called a "unique" meeting after the ATF announcement, in which each contractor had to reveal its ATF design secrets to the other two. Lockheed says its team's expertise covers all aspects of the ATF require ments, Boeing contributing strengths in avionics integra tion, materials, and aero dynamics, and General Dynamics sharing its know- how on supplying front-line fighters to the USAF (a feature also claimed by McDonnell Douglas) and on supportability and arma ments Lockheed itself claims a long history of advanced development work (largely through its "skunk" works") and in designing supersonic aircraft. Individual workshares have yet to be decided, but are likely to be split evenly between team members. Who does what, and how some of the lucrative ATF subcontract awards will be spread around the industry, will be settled in the months ahead. The ATF programme should have a significant effect on employment. Already, Lockheed is plan ning to expand its number of people involved in ATF work from 300 to 1,000, while Northrop, which has 600 people involved in TF, is "moving forward enthusias tically". Vought gains C-17 work LONG BEACH McDonnell Douglas has awarded LTV's Vought division $180 million worth of sub-contracted work on the C-17 transport. The contract calls for Vought to develop and produce the tail section, including the fin and tail- plane, and the engine nacelles. Also included in the devel opment contract is production of two tail/empennage sections to be used in static fatigue testing. Separate contracts for production of the major components by Vought will be let after the US Air Force gives McDonnell Douglas the go-ahead for C-17 production. Long-lead fund ing for this is expected later this year. Vought has already supplied a test nacelle for test runs of the Pratt & Whitney 2037 turbofan at West Palm Beach, Florida. The C-17 nacelles include the thrust reversers which direct exhaust up and forward. The thrust reversers will be used for in flight deceleration and rapid descents, on-ground braking and reversing and will allow loading and unloading with all four engines running. World Recce Meet inaugurated BERGSTROM AFB ~ The United States Air Force's Tactical Air Command is sponsoring the first World wide Reconnaissance Air Meet now running at Bergstrom AFB, Texas. The event is planned to be bi ennial and will promote tacti cal reconnaissance. In the first meeting 16 teams representing the US Air Force, US Navy, US Marine Corps, and Royal Australian Air Force are competing and the UK has a Royal Air Force observer team at Bergstrom in antici pation of participating in future meets. Each team enters two aircraft in seven low-level, high-speed missions with four targets on each mission. All sorties can be flown as a single or two-ship at the discretion of the team captain. Factors such as mutual support, photo coverage requirements, and maintenance workload must be weighed to determine how many aircraft to launch per mission. The top team will be determined by overall aircrew, imagery interpretation, and maintenance performance during the four days of flying. Nasp funding pleases Nasa WASHINGTON D.C. ~ Nasa has expressed relief at the level of funding approved by Congress for the National Aerospaceplane (Nasp) in the coming financial year. The agency had feared that under the more stringent budget conditions now prevailing the programme, being relatively new, it would suffer severe cutbacks. Overall Nasp funding for FY1987 was cut from the $212 million asked for by the administration to $167 million. Nasa will receive $57 million of this instead of the $62 million requested, while the DoD request was cut from $150 million to $110 million. The reduction in the DoD proportion came about as a result of a Congressional direction that Nasa should shoulder a greater part of the Nasp development responsibility. Nasa has also been told to increase industry investment in the programme, and half of the 1987 budget is being withheld pending evidence of moves in this direction. Part of the reason for this is that Nasp is both a commercial and a military venture. The US Air Force is not yet sufficiently confident in the vehicle to throw its full weight behind the devel opment effort. Study contracts have been awarded to Boeing and McDonnell Douglas for future civil transports. DEFENCE Ship-launched Mistral scores hit TOULON ~ The first firing of a Matra Mistral under "operational" conditions scored a direct hit, destroying the target drone, reports Gilbert Sedbon. The Mistral was fired from a Dadral launcher on the French Navy's guided missile experimental ship Isle d'Oleron at the Mediterranean test centre off Toulon on October 23. The target, a CT-20 drone, was presented at low level on a radial con figuration at a range of 3,800m. The wind speed was 35kt. The Sadral (Systerhe d'auto defense rapprochee anti- aerian leger) is an azimuth- and elevation-stabilised mount with six ready-to-fire Mistrals. The infrared homing Mistral weighs 18kg, has a range of 6km at Mach 2-5, and its 3kg warhead is proximity fused. The first production Sadral/Mistrals will arm the French Navy's new Cassard-class anti aircraft frigates. USAF awards laser testbed contract WRIGHT-PATTERSON AFB The US Air Force is funding development of a permanent flying testbed to study laser communications between aircraft. The USAF Systems Division's avionics laboratory has awarded $1-5 million to McDonnell Douglas to modify a C-135 satellite commu nications aircraft. Laser airborne commu nications promise very high rates of jam-resistant data transfer between, for example, airborne command posts and reconnaissance aircraft. At present the Air Force has to spend $\ million to modify two aircraft tempo rarily each time a laser experiment is carried out. The C-135 will feature a large optical window installed in the cargo door, an optical radome on top of the fuselage, and a computer for processing data. FLIGHT INTERNATIONAL, 15 November 1986 11
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