Aviation Week & Space Technology - January 15, 2015

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Turkey is to push ahead with
developing an indigenous combat
aircraft. On Jan. 7, the country’s
Defense Industry Executive Committee
decided to move the TF-X program
into the pre-design phase. A feasibility
phase was completed in early 2013:
Turkish Aerospace Industries working
with Saab on the definition of three
initial aircraft designs: one twin- and
two single-engine. Turkish media
reports suggest the twin-engine design
may now progress further. But it is
unclear if the goal of a first flight in
2023 still stands.

The U.S. Air Force, which last year
proposed retiring the Lockheed
U-2 and transferring the high-altitude
intelligence collection mission to
Northrop Grumman’s unmanned RQ-
Global Hawk, has been directed to
restore funding for continued operation
and modest upgrades to the aircraft
(page 32).

China’s third flight test of a
hypersonic strike vehicle has
Lockheed Martin dusting off a
dormant proposal to develop a more
capable interceptor for the Terminal
High-Altitude Area Defense (Thaad)
system. So far the company has
invested internal funds for the
design of a Thaad-ER (extended
range). Lockheed argues that China’s
hypersonic glide vehicle is intended
to find a seam between systems such
as Patriot and Aegis that Thaad-ER
could close because it operates both
inside and outside the atmosphere.
Development could cost as much as
$1 billion (page 29).

Boeing is confident all four test
aircraft will be “in the air in 2015”
after the first engineering and
manufacturing development KC-46A
made its delayed first flight on Dec. 28.
Major wiring installation issues delayed
the flight by six months, and pushed
the first flight of the fully configured
KC-46A to April. The first test
aircraft is a specially developed 767-2C
commercial freighter variant that does
not yet have any aerial refueling or
other military systems. Boeing says “it
remains on plan to deliver the initial 18
combat-ready KC-46A tankers to the
[U.S.] Air Force by 2017.”

After saying it would not bid, because

of concerns over the requirements,

Sikorsky has submitted a proposal for

Poland’s $3 billion utility helicopter

program. The U.S. manufacturer, work-

ing with Polish subsidiary PZL-Mielec,

is competing against Airbus Helicopters

and AgustaWestland (with its Polish

subsidiary PZl-Swidnik) for an initial

purchase of 70 aircraft for three dif-

ferent missions. Around 48 will be for

troop transport, 12 used by the navy

for antisubmarine warfare and search-

and-rescue, and 10 for combat search-

and-rescue. AgustaWestland is offering

the AW149, Airbus the EC725 Caracal,

and Sikorsky its S-70i Black Hawk and

S-70B Seahawk.

The first 20 production MBDA Brim-

stone 2 air-to-surface missiles have

been delivered to the U.K. Defense

Ministry for operational evaluation tri-

als this year at China Lake, California,

likely fired from a Panavia Tornado

GR4. The Royal Air Force hopes to

have the improved dual-mode weapon,

which should have entered service

early in 2012, ready for operation by

this November. Brimstone 2 has an

insensitive-munition warhead and

rocket motor, increased engagement

envelope and beefed-up airframe.

The U.S. Navy’s Northrop Grumman

Fire Scout unmanned helicopter has

flown from a destroyer for the first

time, the developmental extended-en-

durance MQ-8C version operating off

the DDG 109 USS Jason Dunham off

the Virginia coast. The baseline MQ-8B

recently deployed to the Western Pacif-

ic on the littoral combat ship USS Fort

Worth, operating alongside an MH-60R

Seahawk manned helicopter.

SPACE

Sierra Nevada Corp.’s (SNC) argu-

ment that NASA overemphasized

the development schedule in select-

ing Boeing and SpaceX to fly com-

mercial crew vehicles did not fly with

the U.S. Government Accountability

Office (GAO), which on Jan. 5 denied

the losing bidder’s protest. The GAO

says it “found no undue emphasis on

NASA’s consideration of each offeror’s

proposed schedule, and the likeli-

hood to achieve crew transportation

system certification not later than

2017.” SNC says it “plans to further the

development and testing of the Dream

Chaser.” The company intends to pro-

pose the reusable spaceplane for the

second round of NASA cargo-delivery

bidding.

Testing of surplus Space Shuttle

Main Engines (SSMEs) for use in the

heavy-lift Space Launch System (SLS)

has begun, with NASA firing one of

two ground-test engines left over from

the shuttle program. Primary objective

of the 500-sec. test on Jan. 9—the first

time an Aerojet Rocketdyne RS-

SSME has fired since the STS-

Atlantis flight in 2011—was to “wring

out” a prototype engine controller

based on that developed for the J-2X

upper-stage engine. In addition to the

two development engines, NASA has

16 surviving RS-25s to be used four at

a time as the main-stage powerplant

for the initial 70-metric-ton SLS.

Virgin Galactic plans to assume con-

trol of the SpaceShipTwo (SS2) test

program from development partner

Scaled Composites when flights re-

sume later this year. The first SS2 was

lost in an accident over California’s

Mojave Desert on Oct. 31. At that time,

Scaled was on the verge of transfer-

ring full ownership and responsibility

for flight testing of SS2 to Virgin fol-

lowing the planned completion of key

contractual milestones. The structure

of the second SS2 is 90% complete at

The Spaceship Co., the Virgin/Scaled

joint venture formed to build the

vehicles.

NORTHROP GRUMMAN

NASA