19 septembre 2018 | International, Aérospatial
By: Valerie Insinna
WASHINGTON — The U.S. Air Force has added two new technical issues to the KC-46 tanker's list of problems, potentially throwing a wrench into the projected delivery of the first tanker in October.
The service confirmed to Defense News on Sept. 17 that both deficiencies are category-1 , the most serious designation of technical problems, and revolve around the tanker's refueling boom system.
At this point, the Air Force is unsure whether the two problems will be solved in time for KC-46 manufacturer Boeing to deliver the first tanker next month, said Air Force spokeswoman Ann Stefanek.
“Boeing and the program office are still reviewing the test data and assessing the risk and potential solutions to these deficiencies, and proceeding in parallel to aircraft delivery,” she said in a statement.
The first new deficiency, which the service has labeled “No Indication of Inadvertent Boom Loads,” refers to situations where boom operators unintentionally provide an input into the flight control stick that induces loads on the boom while it is in contact with a receiver aircraft. The KC-46 currently has no way to notify that operator that this is happening.
The second deficiency was found when pilots of receiver aircraft reported that the boom is too stiff during the part of the process when the receiver plane moves forward into the fuel transfer zone.
“We discovered these deficiencies during the course of flight testing,” Stefanek said. “As the program progresses through receiver certification testing, we are still in discovery phase with the tanker/receiver pairs. ... The test team is still writing the test reports, but submitted the DRs [deficiency reports] in advance to assist in accelerating root cause, corrective action development.”
In a statement, Boeing said that it continues to work with the Air Force to determine a path forward.
“These are not safety of flight issues and we are confident in the unmatched capabilities of the KC-46 tanker aircraft," the company said. "To date we have completed more than 4,000 contacts during flights with F-16, F/A-18, AV-8B, C-17, KC-10 and A-10 aircraft. The refueling system has been tested extensively — we have a well-tested system that works.”
The Air Force can accept tankers at its own discretion, with or without active deficiencies. However, both Boeing and the Air Force have worked under the assumption that the service will not do so until all category-1 issues have been worked out or downgraded to category-2, which signifies that a workaround has been put into place.
The news of two more deficiencies is a blow to Boeing, which had been hoping to deliver the first tanker in October after finally coming to an agreement with the Air Force earlier this year on a proposed schedule. The KC-46 program has been notoriously above cost, and Boeing's fixed-price contract with the Air Force has forced it to pay out more than $3.4 billion to cover those overruns.
It has also run years behind schedule: The company was initially slated to deliver the first 18 certified tankers by August 2017. Boeing now has until October 2018 to meet that deadline — called required assets available— but will almost surely miss it, as the Air Force does not have the resources to absorb 18 new tankers in a month.
Over the past year, Boeing has been racing to resolve three additional category-1 deficiencies. Two involve the tanker's remote vision system, or RVS, a series of cameras and sensors that allow the boom operator to direct fuel into a receiver aircraft.
Unlike legacy tanker operators, KC-46 boomers will be unable to look out a window in order to see the refueling process happen — making them entirely reliant on the RVS. However, certain lighting conditions make it difficult to see the receiver aircraft's receptacle, leading to incidents where the boom has scraped the plane being refueled.
To fix the issue, Boeing has developed and tested a fix to the RVS' software. The Air Force is currently reviewing that data, and both RVS-related deficiencies are still in effect.
The final issue involves the system centerline drogue system, which has a mechanical lock that sometimes inadvertently disconnects during a refueling. Boeing plans to create a software fix to ameliorate that problem, too, but it remains a category-1 deficiency.
7 mars 2022 | International, Aérospatial
Redressement dans l'aviation d'affaires et succès à l'exportation pour le Rafale, Dassault Aviation a enregistré en 2021 plus de 12 milliards d'euros de commandes, contre 3,5 milliards en 2020. L'avionneur estime que les prétentions d'Airbus sur le projet franco-allemand espagnol de système de combat aérien du futur ont franchi « les lignes rouges ».
13 juillet 2020 | International, Aérospatial, Naval, Terrestre, C4ISR, Sécurité
The J-20B has overcome agility problems to finally be considered a fully fledged fifth-generation fighter, military source says Aircraft still will be fitted with Russian engine but ‘Chinese version could be ready in a year or two' A modified version of China's first stealth fighter jet, the J-20, has formally entered mass production, with upgrades earning it a place as a fifth-generation fighter jet, according to a military source close to the project. The moment was marked at a ceremonial unveiling of the modified J-20B stealth fighter jet on Wednesday attended by many senior military leaders including Central Military Commission (CMC) vice-chairman General Zhang Youxia, the source said. Zhang is the second-ranked vice-chairman of the CMC and is in charge of weapons development for the People's Liberation Army. “Mass production of the J-20B started on Wednesday. It has finally become a complete stealth fighter jet, with its agility meeting the original criteria,” the source said. “The most significant change to the fighter jet is that it is now equipped with thrust vector control.” Thrust vector control (TVC) allows pilots to better control the aircraft by redirecting engine thrust. In 2018, China debuted its J-10C multirole fighter – fitted with a WS-10 Taihang engine – at the China air show in Zhuhai, putting the aircraft through its paces in a performance that indicated that China had succeeded in thrust technology. While the TVC technology had been applied to the stealth fighter, the J-20B would still use Russian Saturn AL-31 engines because more work needed to be done on China's WS-15 engine, the source said. Chinese engineers have been developing high-thrust turbofan WS-15 engines for the J-20, but that work has fallen behind schedule. “The Chinese engine designed for the J-20s still failed to meet requirements, but its development is going quite smoothly, and it may be ready in the next one or two years,” the source said. “The ultimate goal is to equip the J-20B fighter jets with domestic engines.” China was thought to have built about 50 J-20s by the end of 2019, but problems with the jets' engines delayed further production plans. Meanwhile, Lockheed Martin's Fort Worth assembly plant in Texas delivered 134 F-35 stealth fighters in 2019, three more than its target and 47 per cent more than its output in 2018, according to the company. China's first batch of J-20s entered service in 2017 when the US decided to deploy more than 100 F-35s to Japan and South Korea that year. The J-20 was meant to be a fifth-generation fighter jet on a par with Lockheed's F-22 Raptor and F-35 Lightning multirole strike fighters. Fifth-generation fighters are defined by their stealth technology, supersonic cruising speed, super manoeuvrability, and highly integrated avionics. But the earlier version of the J-20 was described by Western media as a “dedicated interceptor aircraft” because of its lack of agility. “The launch of the J-20B means this aircraft now is a formal fifth-generation fighter jet,” the military source said, adding that Chengdu Aerospace Corporation (CAC), which manufactures the J-20s, had received “heavy orders” from the PLA. CAC set up its fourth production line in 2019, each one with a capacity to make about one J-20 a month. https://www.scmp.com/news/china/military/article/3092839/chinas-stealth-fighter-goes-mass-production-after-thrust
7 octobre 2024 | International, Terrestre