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THIS WEEK

12 | Flight International | 17-23 February 2015 flightglobal.com

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N

orthrop Grumman has de-
signed a new aircraft for the
US Air Force’s T-X trainer
programme, rather than offer a
modified version of the BAE
Systems Hawk that it had previ-
ously planned to pitch.
Design work on the new aircraft
has been delegated to Northrop’s
Scaled Composites subsidiary.
Announcing the development on
6 February, the company said:
“We’ll be flying this year”.
“The Hawk is a tremendous air-
plane,” says Northrop, responding
to questions from Flightglobal.
“However, we decided as a team
to offer a new design as the US Air
Force continued to mature their
requirements.”
Last July, Northrop took the
lead role in offering an advanced
version of BAE’s Hawk 128/T
now flown by the UK Royal Air
Force for T-X, with Rolls-Royce
and training specialist L-3 Link
Simulation also on the team.
Northrop says those relation-
ships are not necessarily severed

A

European Space Agency

plan to master hypersonic

re-entry got a boost on 11 Febru-

ary, with the successful suborbi-

tal flight of a wingless testbed

designed to validate heat shield-

ing and control technologies that

will feed into a follow-on

programme to develop a reusa-

ble, autonomous runway-land-

ing spaceplane.

About 5m (16.4ft) long,

weighing 2t and heavily wired up

with sensors, the Intermediate

eXperimental Vehicle (IXV) lift-

ing body craft enjoyed an

apparently flawless launch from

Kourou, French Guiana atop

ESA’s small rocket, Vega.

Following an eastward and

roughly equatorial trajectory to a

height of around 450km, IXV

carried on to a Pacific Ocean

splashdown about 100min after

launch, when it was recovered by

a waiting ship.

Initial data from the flight will

be available in about six weeks.

Apart from aerothermodynamics

and heat shield performance, IXV

was testing autonomous guid-

ance systems capable of manag-

ing a craft at hypersonic speeds.

The results will feed the

Programme for Reusable In-orbit

Demonstrator for Europe, which

has been granted funding by

ESA’s member states and could

fly as early as 2018, also atop

Vega. Ultimately, ESA’s objective

is to be able to bring material back

from space, including possibly

from asteroids or even Mars.

IXV technology could also in-

form a manned spaceplane. Sier-

ra Nevada’s Dream Chaser bid to

build a seven-crew craft for

NASA ended in late 2014 when

the agency opted not to select it

for its private sector crew trans-

port programme, but the compa-

ny, ESA and Germany’s DLR are

exploring options for an iteration

that might fly on the Ariane 5.

Significantly, Vega’s solid fuel

stages form the basis of ESA’s

plan to replace Ariane 5 with a

less costly modular rocket from

about 2020. Noting that Vega has

recorded four successes in four

flights, ESA’s director general,

Jean-Jacques Dordain, says the

IXV flight was “very encouraging

for Ariane 6”.

IXV’s prime contractor is

Thales Alenia Space Italia, with

the programme costing €

million ($170 million), excluding

the Vega launch. ■

REQUIREMENT DAN PARSONS WASHINGTON DC

Northrop makes clean sheet T-X pitch

Modified BAE Systems Hawk abandoned in favour of newly-designed aircraft for competition to meet USAF’s trainer needs

T-38C Talons are not sufficient for fifth-generation fighter training

US Air Force

ESA’s IXV brings hypersonic re-entry a stage closer

SPACEFLIGHT DAN THISDELL LONDON

as a result of its airframe deci-

sion, and that discussions are

ongoing to determine whether

BAE will provide the new air-

craft’s training system equip-

ment, including embedded simu-

lation capabilities.

“BAE remains a strategic part-

ner, as does L-3,” Northrop says.

The T-X project will provide

replacements for the USAF’s

roughly 45-year-old Northrop

T-38C Talons, which are insuffi-

cient to train pilots for fifth-

generation fighters like the

Lockheed Martin F-22 and F-

Lightning II.

A funding schedule for the

programme outlined in the

USAF’s fiscal year 2016 budget

request to Congress includes

$11.4 million for T-X. That sum

should increase to $107 million

in FY2018 and $262 million the

following year, before hitting

$275 million in FY2020.

A request for proposals is ex-

pected by the end of FY2016,

with an engineering and manu-

facturing development contract

planned by FY2018. Service

entry is anticipated from around

2023, with a likely requirement

for around 350 aircraft.

Northrop will face competition

from a Boeing/Saab team also

working on an all-new aircraft,

and from General Dynamics and

Alenia Aermacchi – who are pro-

moting a T-100 version of the lat-

ter’s M-346 – and Lockheed, of-

fering the T-50 developed jointly

with Korea Aerospace Industries.

Separately, Israel Aerospace

Industries earlier this month de-

livered the first replacement wing

for a T-38 from a contract which

could lead to it producing more

than 200 shipsets for the USAF.

Flightglobal’s MiliCAS data-

base records the service as oper-

ating a current 492 T-38A/Cs. ■

Additional reporting by

Arie Egozi in Tel Aviv

See Defence P

European Space Agency
The testbed was taken 450km
above earth by the Vega rocket