It has been rather a busy period for first flights.
On the 12th of November the Agusta Westland AW159 lynx Wildcat took it’s first flight at the company’s Yeovil site. The type will enter service in 2014/2015 with the Army (34) and Royal Navy (28)
The day after, at the Agusta Westland Vergiate plant, the first prototype AW149 tooks its first flight. The first helicopter will be followed by a second prototype in 2010 with the aim to achieve initial operational capability in 2014.
Half way around the world on the Woomera test range in Australia BAe flew the Mantis UAV for the first time, a joint technology demonstrator part funded by BAe and the MoD. This is an impressive performance, less than 2 years in development, the programme is maturing rapidly.
Finally, in a ‘nearly first flight’ the A400 has started engine testing in preparation for an expected first flight before the end of the year.
Having looked at the Wildcat from several different angles I’m still not convinced it hasn’t already suffered from a some sort of landing mishap.
Must say, it’s not one of the world’s most aesthetically pleasing aircraft, despite the promise of the computer-generated artist impressions. It lacks the graceful lines of the AW139/149 to say the least.
Compare it with some other fuglies….
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Richard I agree the AW-159 is not as pleasing to the eye as other aircraft the exhaust system looks hideous but I guess it serves a purpose. The faceted design however looks alright and should look better when sensors etc are added. Funny how the press releases push the point that it Is “on time and on budget” I’m unsure of the timing but we all know for a fact that costs have ballooned from what it was meant to cost and the aircraft numbers have dropped.
Nice to see the AW-149 partial prototype flying and hopefully all goes well for the program, it should be flying and proven by the time of the 2010 defence review. Let’s hope a decision to acquire more helicopters is taken and funded with an eye on capability as a primary concern rather than politics and cost. Having seen how tight a Merlin is inside a C-17 stripped down I would question it’s suitability for a support helicopter when so much needs to be done to transport it.
In regards to the A400M as one Airbus employee said once the aircraft is in the air it will sell itself which I agree with in ways. Hopefully it is flying by the end of the year and no major problems are found during ground testing and no serious problems found during flight testing. I still question the ability of the A400M to meet load and range requirements but hopefully it will come very close to them.
True, if all kit had to be good looking they’d have never built the Sten Gun.
The AW149 does look like a fantastic piece of kit though, lets hope someone in the MOD sees sense and buys a few for UK forces.
The pictures of the Merlin being loaded onto the C-17 are very reminiscent of a Lynx Mk 7 being loaded onto a C-130; the Lynx was designed to be fitted into the back of a Shorts Belfast, which was abandoned in favour of the Herc – funny thing politics. I’m sure (fingers crossed) the Wildcat will fit in the back of the A400 with just the blades off.
The A400 does look the part and I hope it hits its performance targets (or scores a near miss at least), but I’m always a bit dubious when the MOD sets its sights on the Mk.1 of anything. The Herc was a good aircraft but the A/B models were performance limited compared to the later H model. I hope we’re not going down the same road with the A400 – the RAF looking on in envy at those forces which hung back and bought the Mk.2.
You said the word ‘sense’ now it may never happen but yes ideally the MoD and the next government would decide to purchase the type as part of the strategic defence review due next year. Ideally a fair number of them so that we are guaranteed to have a decent number able to deploy when needed when we include the need for training and all the other necessities.
What was also funny about the Shorts Belfast is that it was very close and with time it would have become the A400M that we are now waiting for. Think about it new engines, updated avionics etc and we would have the A400M that is now 3 years late and over budget but we would have had those years ago and could have sold them on the export market and made some money. Strange thing labour Government’s, well I’m pretty sure it was a labour Government? There is still a Belfast flying in Australia which could have given Airbus a starting point or could have allowed the UK to build updated versions but oh wait that makes sense in a way so it would never happen.
At the current time I would rather buy more C-17’s and wait a bit longer for the A400M until we know it works and Airbus have managed to get it up to spec. The C-17 line is close to closure and I think adding orders now would be sensible as they could be needed in future ideally I would like to see the C-17 fleet double to around 12. I’ve always thought for a long time the joint NATO fleet should be much larger but nobody is willing to pay for it and a pooled C-17 and A400M fleet would give the EU a decent airlift fleet for anything they wanted to do. To keep Airbus happy not that we need to I think more A330’s should be ordered and we could get a good deal due to the slump in aircraft demand. Does anyone know what some in the RAF are calling FSTA?? I do
Harping back to the days of the Belfast, very nostalgic…
We also should have given governement money to BAe when the wall came down and bought the design rights to the Antonov An 70 – better than the A400M and it would have been flying for years by now…. flights of fantasy….
Although I am normally a Euro-player, bin the A400M, buy more C17′s and standard length C130J, plus C130J tankers and fit the AW101 and CH47 with IFR probes ! Buy some cheap flat tops (Schelde Enforcer 18000 ?) and ferry 12 to 18 of them at any one time – takes a bit longer but most be more efficient that shoving one aircraft up the ****hole of another……
Nostalgia of something that was not given a chance to fully prove itself and would have surely proved extremely valuable to have had a proper sized fleet of them. I’m not sure about buying the An-70 design if I’m honest as it would have needed a western engine to be developed or the engine design licensed to RR at the very least. It would have been and will be a decent air lifter once the program gathers steam and produces aircraft and will be a major competitor to the A400M and will no doubt sell well due to its lower cost and origin. It will I suspect be a better airlifter as it has a higher payload which is needed to carry modern armoured vehicles.
Even although I personally am a Euro sceptic I still think sticking with the A400M over more C-130J’s is the better path as the C-130J does not have the payload to carry modern vehicles that will be coming into service. This to me is its main advantage is the ability to carry the weighty APC’s and MRAP’s etc that are becoming more prevalent although with thought the next generation of vehicles could be lighter and C-130 transportable although many have failed in this goal. My preferred path would be to order more C-17’s to fill the gap caused by A400M delays and add excellent additional capability afterwards. I would stick with the A400M as long as cost increases are kept very low and performance targets are met if not I would consider ditching it and looking at the possibility of other options including more C-130J’s. I see the A400M as both a transport and a tactical tanker, the tanker role will be no doubt needed a more than originally planned thanks to the FSTA program (Fu<king Short of Tankers Again). If the A400M does deliver I would see its role in the transport fleet as a strategic asset moving cargo to regional areas alongside the C-17 fleet for the C-130J fleet to move into forward areas.
The tanker facility will also be useful for tactical roles in theatre freeing up the scare A330 MRTT’s for other duties, although I would like to see the A330 fleet grown. One option I would like to see for the A330 MRTT fleet is 14 aircraft in RAF service with another 14 aircraft on lease to a national airline. This would provide much needed tanker capacity when needed without costing as much as having a full 28 aircraft fleet in RAF service and could work via modifying the current PFI. This is of course based on the idea of strategic raids which is option 2 in another article, basically more tankers with many more available when needed to deploy and support a raid when it happens.
In regards to Helicopters after seeing the tight fit of a Merlin into a C-17 I would simply switch to a support helicopter fleet of AW-149 as the medium helicopter which should be much easier to transport. The Lynx wildcat would be given to the RN with them being the sole operator although I would maybe keep some in the army configuration for the marines if they wanted them. The venerable Chinook would still fill the heavy lift helicopter slot and although it needs disassembly to transport it is designed to be put back together with less hassle. The RN helicopter fleet would consist of Merlin and Lynx wildcat which should simplify things with only 2 helicopter types, although I would consider some AW-149’s for the Royal Marines if they did not like the Lynx.