20 juin 2023 | International, Autre défense
Biden hosts forum on artificial intelligence with tech leaders
The Biden administration is seeking to figure out how to regulate the emergent field of AI.
29 octobre 2018 | International, Aérospatial
Could the Air Force restart the C-17 production line?
By: Valerie Insinna
WASHINGTON — As part of the Air Force's push to boost its number of operational squadrons to 386 total, and the service may need additional C-17s, the head of Air Mobility Command said Friday.
The service's expansion plan, which was named “The Air Force We Need” and unveiled this September, called for one airlift squadron and 14 tanker squadrons to be added by 2030.
At the time, service leaders from Air Force Secretary Heather Wilson to AMC Commander Gen. Maryanne Miller, said more work would need to be done in order to determine the mix of aircraft needed to get to the 386 squadron goal, which is 74 more than the service has now.
But now, AMC has a better idea of what it could require, Miller told reporters during an Oct. 26 roundtable.
The analysis from “The Air Force We Need” supports adding three new C-17 Globemaster III squadrons and cutting two C-130 Hercules squadrons from the airlift inventory, she said. That would bring the total number of airlift squadrons up to 54, an increase of one squadron.
But Boeing's C-17 production line in Long Beach, California is dead, with the company having manufactured the final Globemaster in 2015. Increasing the number of C-17s could entail restarting the production line — an expensive proposition for any aircraft — but Miller said the Air Force had not yet begun discussing the possibility with Boeing.
"Those are the details that we have not looked at,” Miller said.
“That will be the next discussion as we proceed, talking with Congress and working with Congress, because the same would apply for the tanker fleet,” she said. “An additional 14 squadrons by 2030 — what would be the path to get there? Something we're looking at, but again, this is just the initial stages of talking with Congress and getting this concept out there."
It's unclear what other options would exist to increase the number of C-17 squadrons aside from restarting the production line. The U.S. Air Force currently operates 222 C-17s, but began retiring some of the oldest Globemaster IIIs in 2012. It may be possible that those C-17s could be taken out of storage and revitalized.
A spokeswoman for Boeing had no comment.
Miller stressed that discussions about the makeup of the future airlift fleet are still in the beginning stages, and will be informed not only by Congress but also by an ongoing AMC study.
That Mobility Capabilities Requirements Study is slated to be delivered to Capitol Hill in a couple of months, and may have different recommendations than the “Air Force We Need” analysis on how many airlift squadrons are needed, and of what aircraft models.
“The two studies took slightly different approaches to that,” she said. “The results of each of those studies will be reviewed and I think there will be a combination somewhere in there to try to validate the results of those studies put together.”
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26 juin 2018 | International, Aérospatial
General Atomics to make first transatlantic flight of a MALE RPA
Written by Wings Staff General Atomics Aeronautical Systems Inc. plans to make the first-ever transatlantic flight of a Medium-altitude, Long-endurance (MALE) Remotely Piloted Aircraft (RPA). GA-ASI's company-owned MQ-9B SkyGuardian RPA is scheduled to fly from the company's Flight Test and Training Center in Grand Forks, North Dakota, to Royal Air Force (RAF) Fairford in Gloucestershire, UK. The aircraft will then be on static display July 13 to 15 for the Royal International Air Tattoo (RIAT) airshow being held at RAF Fairford. The flight and display will help commemorate the RAF's centenary celebration (RAF100). “GA-ASI is proud to have supported the RAF over the past decade with our MQ-9 Reaper. In honour of the RAF100 celebration, and to demonstrate a new standard in RPA flight endurance, we will fly SkyGuardian across the Atlantic,” said Linden Blue, CEO, GA-ASI. “Given the distinguished 100-year history of the RAF, we believe that this flight is an appropriate way to celebrate the RAF's position as a leader in innovation.” In 2017, GA-ASI and the RAF marked the 10-year anniversary of RAF MQ-9 operations, which coincided with the RAF completing 100,000 flight hours with its Reaper force. The entire Reaper fleet has completed over two million flight hours to date and is comprised of over 300 aircraft within the NATO alliance. The RAF is acquiring MQ-9B SkyGuardian as part of its PROTECTOR RG Mk1 program. MQ-9B is the latest evolution of GA-ASI's multi-mission Predator B fleet. GA-ASI named its baseline MQ-9B aircraft SkyGuardian, and the maritime surveillance variant SeaGuardian. MQ-9B is a certifiable (STANAG 4671-compliant) version of the MQ-9 Predator B product line. The company explains its development is the result of a five-year, company-funded effort to deliver a RPA that can meet the airworthiness type-certification requirements of various military and civil authorities, including the UK Military Airworthiness Authority (MAA) and the U.S. FAA. GA-ASI explains type-certification, together with an extensively tested collision avoidance system, will allow unrestricted operations in all classes of civil airspace. Several important MQ-9B milestones were achieved in recent months, explains the company, including the first FAA-approved flight for a company-owned RPA through non-segregated civil airspace without a chase aircraft, and an endurance record of more than 48 hours of continuous flight. As part of the transatlantic flight, GA-ASI has partnered with Inmarsat, a provider of global mobile satellite communications (SATCOM) services. Inmarsat's SwiftBroadband SATCOM will be used by the MQ-9B's ground control station to communicate and control the aircraft and also will be used in the RPA's final configuration for capabilities such as automatic takeoff and landing. https://www.wingsmagazine.com/news/general-atomics-15726
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22 mai 2020 | International, Sécurité
Coulson’s CU-47 is ready for the fire fight
Posted on May 22, 2020 by Howard Slutsken Leveraging its experience with fixed-wing air tankers, Coulson Aviation has unveiled its latest aerial firefighting conversion, based on the Boeing CH-47D Chinook heavy-lift helicopter. In early March, the first Coulson-Unical CU-47 was flown from the company's Port Alberni, B.C., base to the Aerial Firefighting North American 2020 conference in Sacramento, Calif. Featuring a 3,000 gallon roll-on/roll-off internal tank and an advanced Garmin avionics suite, up to 12 CH-47Ds will be converted into next-generation heli-tankers, in a partnership with Unical Aviation that was announced a year ago. “Unical provides us with the aircraft and a vast supply of parts,” explained Britt Coulson, president and COO, in an interview with Skies. “They bought the entire Canadian Forces CH-47 parts inventory and were the largest purchaser of CH-47Ds from the U.S. Army.” The twin-rotor Chinook is well known for its speed, size and payload. While the helicopter is often deployed on fire attack missions carrying a water bucket as an external load, Coulson wanted to give the CU-47 more flexibility and capability. The company's engineers had already developed a 4,000 gallon Retardant Aerial Delivery System RADS-XXL for its Lockheed C-130 Hercules tanker conversions, and that tank was shrunk to create a 3,000 gallon RADS-L for the CH-47D conversion. “It's the same overall design as the C-130. It shares most of the same hydraulic components, the same doors and the same design of a roll-in, roll-out tank,” said Coulson. Other CH-47 internal tank systems utilize the small hook well in the centre of the helicopter as the water and retardant delivery port, but according to Coulson, that has its limitations. “The other tank designs are plagued with flow rate issues, which means they don't pack enough punch to really get through [forest] canopies or drop in heavy timber – the hook well opening just isn't big enough. “The lower the flow rate you have out of your tank, the slower and lower you have to fly. The problem with a big helicopter like a Chinook is if you fly too slow and low, your downwash is going to negatively affect the ground fire conditions and your drop is going to be ineffective.” To increase and optimize the flow rate for the RADS-L, the belly of the CH-47D was modified by cutting the helicopter's lower skin and adding structure below the floor to accommodate the tank installation and a pair of drop doors, controlled by the pilots through a state-of-the-art touchscreen controller. From the same touch panel, the pilots also control the CU-47's newly-developed retractable snorkel system to refill the RADS-L tank from water sources close to a fire's location. Installed internally, the snorkel head sits flush with the belly when retracted, so that with no additional external drag, the helicopter can maintain its fast 140-knot cruise speed. In a hover, the snorkel takes just four seconds to deploy and six seconds to retract, and the pilots and flight engineer can monitor the system's operation via a high-definition belly-mounted camera feed, displayed on the touchscreen controller. “The snorkel system has exceeded our expectations and we're filling the entire tank in under two minutes,” said Coulson. With the advanced capabilities of the Garmin avionics, the relocation of the flight engineer's panel, and the new RADS-L tank, Coulson originally believed that the CU-47 could be crewed solely by two pilots, without a flight engineer. But recent operational experience led the company to rethink that strategy. “We realized that with a helicopter of this size, going into some of the smaller dip sites, to have an additional set of eyes looking out the side or back is valuable to the pilots. So we've de-modified the helicopter and gone back to a full-time flight engineer to provide that increased safety and situational awareness.” Like Coulson's C-130 conversions, the CU-47 can also be tasked with night-time firefighting missions, thanks to the Night Vision System (NVS) certification of the helicopter's avionics suite. Wearing NVS googles, the CU-47's crew work in tandem with a fire attack “Intel” helicopter's pilots. The Intel crew uses a thermal camera to evaluate the behaviour of a fire, and if a drop is required, they take a page from military ground-attack operations. Using a laser, the Intel crew designates the target for the tanker. “With a geo-referenced lock, the Intel helicopter can orbit, and the laser beam will stay on the same spot. It illuminates an area on the ground about the size of a car,” said Coulson. The first CU-47 will soon be joined by a second RADS-L equipped helicopter, two CU-47's with upgraded avionics that will fly “bucket” missions, and a fifth, tank-equipped CU-47 that will deploy as a spare. “All of our FAA testing [on RADS-L] has finished, we're just waiting for the final Supplemental Type Certificate signature,” said Coulson. “We're doing some minor cleanup to the helicopter to make sure that it's ready to go fight fires this summer.” Howard Slutsken's lifelong passion for aviation began when he was a kid, watching TCA Super Connies, Viscounts, and early jets at Montreal's Dorval Airport. He's a pilot who loves to fly gliders and pretty much anything else with wings. Howard is based in Vancouver, B.C. https://www.skiesmag.com/features/coulsons-cu-47-fire-fight