toanM88 ECO should be a more advancing project / concept comparing with the original M88-3 plan ~ It plans to achieve the performance of M88-3 (20,000 Ib AB thrust or much longer engine life, better SFC, lower maintaining cost….) while still keeping roughly the same size, weight, and diameter as M88-2.
However, M88 ECO is very different from in-service M88-2 ~ about 60% components of M88 ECO are the completely new or upgraded ones. I think the difference between M88 ECO and M88-2 may just like the difference between F100-PW220 and F100-PW229.
toanhttp://www.snecma.com/IMG/pdf/Fact_sheet_Snecma_M88_pack_CGP_VA_OK.pdf
M88 ECO technology program
The ECO technology program, designed to demonstrate new technologies that could reduce operating costs and increase dispatch reliability, was completed at the end of 2007. It also aimed to study the feasibility of increasing the engine’s thrust without changing its weight or fuel consumption.
In the fall of 2004, Snecma kicked off tests of a technology demonstrator designed to reduce the M88’s total cost of ownership and lay groundwork for future enhancements.
The M88 ECO demonstrator focuses on several areas of improvement: low-pressure compressor with a “blisk” – integrally-bladed disk – offering higher flowrates and compression ratio; a new afterburner system with a ceramic matrix composite (CMC) nozzle to reduce weight; and a new high-pressure turbine architecture with cooled blades to increase mean time between inspections. All in all, the ECO program concerns about 60% of the parts on the M88.
The M88 ECO program satisfied all of its initial objectives, spanning increased engine part life, lower cost of ownership (including reduced operating costs) and higher performance (4,000 total accumulated cycles/TAC). The test engines logged more than 150 hours of flight tests, and the equivalent of 1,800 hours of flight under Rafale mission conditions. This program also checked out the feasibility of increasing M88 engine thrust to about 20,000 lb.
toanAccording with some reports, the operative availability of the f-22 is arround 65%, we are not talking about stealthy problems there..i mean is not that you keep your planes on the ground because your RCS is 4-10 m2…we are talking about serious maintenance problems, fatige, engine tearing, flying safety standars etc.., and we are talking about a brand new plane…this last point is the most alarming.
1. It is very nature that the brand new plane’s operative availability won’t be very impressive, because there are still some bugs needed to be fixed, the logistic system for the fighter is not complete, and the technicians’ experience for the fighter is not enough ~ This is not the problem for F-22A only, but also the problem for F-35, EF-2000, Rafale, Su-30MKI, Tejas and so on during their early stage of entering service.
2. The operative availability of 65% in peace time is not that bad. Taking French Air force for example:
http://www.assemblee-nationale.fr/13/pdf/budget/plf2009/a1202-tV.pdf
Page 24
The operative availability of French AF’s fighter during 2006, 2007, and the 1st season of 2008:
Rafale: 48% –> 50% –> 65%
Mirage 2000B: 56% –> 60% –> 46%
Mirage 2000C: 48% –> 50% –> 57%
Mirage 2000-5F: 55% –> 48% –> 52%
Mirage 2000D: 47% –> 44% –> 46%
Mirage 2000N: 64% –> 61% –> 61%
Mirage F1B: 66% –> 50% –> 55%
Mirage F1CR: 58% –> 50% –> 48%
Mirage F1CT: 62% –> 57% –> 55%
Total 55% –> 52% –> 54%
toanIt means that the maximal achievable ground AB thrust of EJ-200 now could reach 99 to 103.5 KNs (10,100 to 10,562 kg, or 22,270 to 23,285 Ib) with the cost of reducing engine’s life. But all of the five airforces who have used Eurofighter do not do so right now ~ They think the maximal thrust of EJ-200 now (90 KNs) is powerful enough for Eurofighter, so they prefer keeping this thrust for the maximum (thrust rated) service life.
toanhttp://www.flugrevue.de/index.php?id=339
Eurojet EJ200: More performance, lower costs
By Patrick Hoeveler
APRIL 2008
1. Eurojet consortium of Avio, ITP, MTU Aero Engines and Rolls-Royce is currently discussing with the Eurofighter customers for the third tranche of the EJ200 engine. According to the original plans, this is supposed to comprise 500 units. Matt Price, technical director of Eurojet, expects the first deliveries to take place in 2012.
2. “An initial increase of 10 to 15 percent was already considered in the design of the present version of the EJ200. But at the moment none of the nations is running its engines at the maximum possible thrust level. Instead, they are operating them for the maximum (thrust rated) service life through rating by the turbine inlet temperature.”
3. It would also be possible to operate the engines at the maximum thrust level throughout the entire engine life. On new engines this would result in higher thrust but it would also lead to greater wear and tear and at the same time the thrust level would steadily decline up to a certain point.
4. The engineers have also examined what measures would be needed to achieve a 30 percent increase in thrust. This would entail further modifications without throwing the basic engine architecture into question. At the same time the effect on integration into the Eurofighter must be kept as minimal as possible. Thus, for example, if the fan needs to be enlarged, then it must only be by a relatively small amount. But whether a 30 percent more powerful EJ200 would be feasible by 2012 depends first and foremost on what the customers want. According to Price, “That would entail a more extensive development programme.”
5. The subject of thrust vector control is not off the table as well. “That is an interesting technology on which we have made a lot of progress over the last 18 months. We are now looking at a less complex and hence lighter system which has virtually no impact on the airframe but still has great potential for cost savings and performance improvements.”
6. At the moment the discussion is centred around the extent to which the advantages of an upgrade in Tranche 3 would impact the life cycle costs. The customers have indicated that they are interested, but thrust vector control is not currently part of the Tranche 3 discussions.”
toanhttp://www.flugrevue.de/index.php?id=4187
Eurofighter: Signature for Tranche 3 gets urgent
By Karl Schwarz
It will therefore take some time before FW 74 is able to exploit the full potential of the Eurofighter. Despite the overstretched situation, it is planned that FW 74 will participate in international exercises for the first time in 2009. Informally, the pilots from Neuburg recently pitted their skills against their French Rafale colleagues in aerial combat. The results were extremely gratifying, the main difference being the much greater thrust of the EJ200 engine. As far as the pilots are concerned, moreover, the Block 5 standard has brought clear improvements compared with earlier versions of the software. Areas which were previously problematic, such as voice input of commands, now function a lot more reliably.
toanDATE:24/11/08
SOURCE:Flight International
UK prepares for carrier operations with JSF
By Craig Hoyle
Describing test and evaluation of the short take-off and vertical landing F-35B, the UK’s selection for its Joint Combat Aircraft (JCA) requirement, as “a key stepping stone”, Rear Adm Simon Charlier, the Royal Navy’s chief of staff for aviation, says the aircraft (F-35B) is the only candidate capable of meeting UK requirements.
“We want a fifth-generation aircraft it would be foolish to spend our money on anything else,” says Charlier. “There isn’t any other product on the market that can deliver within the parameters that we want.” Key attributes include the aircraft’s stealth performance and its integral intelligence, surveillance, target acquisition and reconnaissance capabilities, he adds.
“We have laid out a set of parameters and requirements. The aircraft at the moment is meeting those, and is on time,” says Charlier. “While it continues on track we will continue to be committed to it.”
toanbut not for eurofighter, that will use Gaas of UMS with thier Ceasar..
Up to now, I haven’t seen any fighter radar manufacturer formally declares that it will use GaN to upgrade its fighter AESA radar(s) ~ GaN is still too expensive for such a wide usage.
toanI’m wondering if the active arrays on the spectra can be “slaved” somehow to the actvie RBE2 version… any idea of the power of those arrays and the number of modules they consist of? Are they planning to update them with the newly developped GAN modules?
Nic
http://www.entrepreneur.com/tradejournals/article/166091651_1.html
Radar revolution: the arrival of gallium nitride components opens up new applications for radars, including jamming and telecommunications.
The emergence of GaN from the laboratory has been delayed by epitaxy issues–growth of the semi-conductor layer on the silicon (Si) substrate, or silicon carbide (SIC) in the case of cutting-edge military applications. GaN and the substrate are made of crystals with different interatomic distances, hence the difficulty in assembling the two materials at a microscopic scale. The largest slices of high-performance GaN that have been obtained to date have a diameter of three inches, compared with six inches for GaAs and up to twelve inches for silicon. The size of the slice determines the number of chips that the machine can produce in a single pass.
GaN is clearly destined to remain expensive and its utilisation unlikely to expand beyond a limited number of applications, particularly since suppliers of SiC substrates are themselves limited. This situation could change, however, as GaN slices are expected to increase to four inches in the near future, and the arrival of new players should help to drive prices down, predicts Dominique Pons who heads the Alcatel Lucent/Thales III-V Lab. (The name reflects the columns of the periodic table mentioned above.) In any case, the intrinsic qualities of GaN have convinced the US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (Darpa) to invest heavily–tens of millions of dollars per year–in the technology.
In this way the military potential of GaAs has opened up an industrial capability that has found market openings in Europe … the same openings that GaN will be able to exploit in its turn. Agreements are already in place with NXP (ex-Philips Semiconductors), explains Thierry Laboureau, UMS sales and marketing director, to develop power components for base stations for third- and fourth-generation cell phone networks and for WiMax base stations for mobile internet users. Ultimately, once prices have come down far enough, GaN could conceivably make its way into the kitchen, replacing the magnetron in the micro-wave oven.
However, these longer-term commercial perspectives will not be enough to cover the investment required to launch foundry operations. Nor is there any prospect of procuring components for military applications from the US or Japan–both countries have already placed an embargo on GaAs circuits, and there is no reason for them to be any more flexible concerning GaN. This explains why the defence procurement authorities in France and Germany are both helping to support industrial research efforts.
According to Dominique Pons, the III-V Lab should produce its first X-band or wide-band GaN MMICs this year. Following validation and industrialisation by UMS, series production should get under way by 2009.
EDA funding
GaN is also one of the very first research areas to receive funding from the European Defence Agency (EDA) under a 40 million [euro] programme called Korrigan that brings together 23 companies and laboratories in seven countries to accelerate the development of one or more European GaN foundries with associated supply chain by 2009. The programme leader is Thales Airborne Systems. Other participants include EADS, Selex Sistemi Integrati, Saab Ericsson and BAE Insyte. Their role initially is to define requirements for the foundries, before becoming directly involved, from 2008 onwards, in integrating the microchips into a variety of specialised modules covering a range of land-based and airborne radar applications, as well as self-protection or offensive jammers.
In this way, explains Thales Airborne Systems technical director Pierre Fossier, it should be possible to launch the first system applications in 2010. In France, one of the leading candidates for the new technology is the offensive jammer, a capacity that the French Air Force has had its eyes on for several years, and which has already given rise to the Carbone airborne demonstrator. The performance of the system attracted a lot of attention at NATO’s Mace X electronic warfare exercise in the year 2000.
The DGA procurement branch of the French MoD is continuing to provide limited funding for exploratory work by Thales while awaiting for national budgets to kick in to complete development. GaN would allow for a reduction in the size of the jammer, potentially clearing the way for integration into a combat aircraft. One of the first European acquisition programmes to integrate GaN technology could well be the Maritime Airborne Surveillance and Control (MASC) programme to replace Royal Navy Sea King Mk7 airborne surveillance helicopters, as required for the future CVF aircraft carriers. The three candidates for this mission are the Hawkeye aircraft, the EH-101 helicopter and the tiltwing V-22, though the Hawkeye would appear to be ruled out by the absence of a catapult in the current CVF definition. Both the other candidates would require a compact and powerful radar to meet missions requirements. The potential advantages of a GaN radar in this context have prompted the British MoD to finance some upstream development work in preparation for a programme launch in the 2009 timeframe–the same year that the first European GaN modules are scheduled to come off the production line.
toanYou sound like my dad lol :)! He has always exclaimed the lightning to be better than anything he’s seen in the vertical. The problem I have is the Lightnings initial climb rate is quoted by 99% sources, including the chap flying them in S.Africa, as 50.000ft/min. Where as the typhoons is quoted as at least >62,000ft/min.
These should be the climbing performance at sea-level height. However, as the altitude increase, the climbing performance will also change.
I think that from braking-off to the height of 40,000 fts, the performance of Typhoon should be better than Lightning. However, if you want to make a comparison between the two fighters of the climbing performance from braking-off to the height of 60,000 fts or even higher, then Lightning may be the better one…….
toanP-42 is a specialized plane for creating world climbing record. Anything that was unecessary for flying had been removed from P-42, and the enigines used by P-42 was also the uprated ones ~ which gave P-42 an amazing taking-off T/W ratio of around 2 : 1 for achieving such a record.
I think Southern African is not an ideal environment for achieving world speed or climbing record ~ The hotter the weather is, the less thrust will the engine be able to create (plusing that the speed of sonic barrier will also increase).
toanSo, the two Northern European countries are in the hand of LM now ~ Besides Norway, Finland’s MOD has also declared that it wants nothing other than F-35 to replace its F/A-18C/D right now a few weeks ago.
toani’ve seen someone on another forum, can’t remember his name said that he saw a british pilot telling that the london tube could reach 500kms/h on straight line!
adding time to start the turbine, the tube could be able to reach 490km/h in 1 minute…
i’m not sure!:eek:
I am not sure what meaning you try to present. As for Craig’s declaration that I’ve mentioned above, you can find it in:
http://tw.youtube.com/watch?v=SsxuArT3WKw
Craig made such a statement for Eurofighter’s climbing performance during the public interview. It is not a internet rumor from the declaration of an unknown guy.
toanIf there is any mistake, it should be European countries’ (except Russia) giving up for developing 5th Gen stealth fighter. While most airforces in the world today believe that the real stealthy capability as a necessity for their future fighters after 2015, the European fighter manufacturers (except Russian) just can’t provide such a product with enough maturity.
So, the history of F-16’s overwhelming victory over F-1E and JA37 in the international market is happening once again.
toanWouldn’t the more important numbers be how long do they take to get to 10000m though?
The former BAE SYSTEMS Test Pilot Craig Penrice declared that Eurofighter could reach the altitude of 40,000 fts (12,200 m) in one minute after taking-off.
Adding the time for taking-off, then theoretically, Eurofighter should be able to reach the altitude of 40,000 fts in 70 seconds after braking-off.
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