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Grumman has won the competition to build and test fly the first modern forward-wing fighter. The aircraft, designated X-29A will begin flight tests in December 1983 unreal a $71m contract to build and test two such aircraft. The X-29A includes such features as dIgItal fly-by-wire controls, advanced cockpit displays, two-dimensional exhaust nozzles and a very large proportion of structure in advanced composites. A canard will effectively replace the traditional horizontal tail while the thin supercritical wing will virtually eliminate stall, reducing landing speeds greatly and enhancing low speed maneuvering
Newsdesk – Military
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Fokker COD Plans Firm:
Plans to offer the US Navy a Carrier On-board Delivery (COD) version of Fokker’s F-28 Fellowship have firmed as the Dutch company takes head-on long-time US Navy supplier Grumman in an effort to win the 40-aircraft order. Grumman is offering an updated version of their established C-2 Greyhound while Lockheed are also bidding with a version of the S-3 Viking. The Fellowship, according to Fokker, may at first seem an unusual entrant for the role due to its airline heritage but they claim this very point is the greatest single factor in favour of the large twinjet. The F-28 COD would be an Mk5000 which features a high-lift STOL wing and the short fuselage of the Mk1000 to provide an approach speed of 105 kts, the lowest in its class. The F-28 would utilise an outer panel wing fold and probably use Pratt & Whitney JTB engines in an effort to bring US content up to around the 60% mark. Fokker claims their aircraft would be cheaper than either the revamped C-2 and S-3 variants while the F-28 COD would be able to carry twice the payload twice the range at twice the transit speed. A significant point here is that the USN could transport goods and personnel directly from one major point to another without having to use C-9 or USAF aircraft for additional transport support. The F-28 would also serve as a tanker able to offload 30,000 lb of fuel at a radius of 200 nm of the carrier.
Orion Survives:
It was bad enough hearing that the L1011 had gone, that was ultimately inevitable, but when a day later the news leaked from Washington that the US Navy had not received funding approval for further P-3C Orion production then one began to wonder what the future held for Lockheed California Company. At the time of closing for press, it looked certain that the Orion programme would be reinstated in the FY82 US DOD budget, albeit at a lower monthly production rate. It looks now as if the US Navy will receive between six and nine Orions each year through to 1988. Australia has 10 P-3Cs on order while the Netherlands has just received the first of 13 such aircraft with the final being produced in 1984, the year Australia will receive its first P-3C Orion on current estimates. Overseas, Lockheed is hoping for an eventual Orion purchased from West Germany while there is always the possibility that the Norwegians will replace their seven P-3Bs with Cs. While the US Navy currently operates some 480 Onons (140 As, 140 Bs and some 200 Cs) the force is spread over a very large area facing a principal threat from an equally large number of Soviet submarines.
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