My position as a technician that has worked on machines all my life is the fact that ANY machine that is supposed to be a do all, end all, all things to all people, ends up doing all those jobs rather poorly. This would include the F-35

Would also include the Rafale, F-16 and Gripen. Also PAK FA & J-20.

HAL Light Helicopter Makes First Flight

Ajai Shukla
Business Standard, 7th Sept 16

On Tuesday, nine months after Prime Minister Narendra Modi laid a foundation stone at Tumakuru for Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd’s (HAL’s) new helicopter manufacturing complex, the helicopter that will be built there made its inaugural flight.

HAL announced today: “Achieving yet another significant milestone, HAL conducted a technical flight of indigenous Light Utility Helicopter (LUH) in Bengaluru, today. The helicopter lifted [off] at 1210 hours (12.10 p.m.) and was in the air for 15 minutes at HAL facilities.”

The LUH will replace the military’s obsolescent fleet of Chetak and Cheetah helicopters that have flown, in many cases, for over three decades. The defence ministry is following a dual track — HAL is designing, developing and building 187 LUHs, while importing-cum-building 197 Kamov-226T light helicopters with technology transferred from Russia.

HAL’s today stated: “Apart from replacement of ageing fleet of Cheetah/Chetak, LUH is expected to capture a sizeable share both in domestic and international market.”

In the test, which HAL described as “flawless”, veteran test pilots, Wing Commanders Unni Pillai and Anil Bhambari, got airborne and carried out a few basic turns and manoeuvres. Helicopter testing is unforgiving, since pilots have no way of bailing out of a chopper that loses control.

Veteran test pilots like Pillai are part of an experienced HAL helicopter division that has already masterminded two successful indigenous programmes — the Dhruv Advanced Light Helicopter (ALH) that is serving the army in large numbers; and the Light Combat Helicopter (LCH) that is undergoing flight-testing before being inducted into the army and air force.

HAL intends to speed up flight-testing of the LUH by distributing flight-testing over three prototypes. It hopes to obtain initial operational certification by end-2017.

Limited Series Production will be done in Bengaluru, and the 610-acre Tumakuru unit is slated to commence series production in 2018-19. The defence ministry told Parliament in a statement on July 29: “The initial investment for the [Tumakuru] project could be of the order of Rs 2000 crore.”

According to HAL’s internal manufacturing targets, the Tumakuru plant will ship about 30 LUHs annually, starting in 2019-20. In Phase II, which will take another 3-4 years, production will be ramped up to 60 helicopters per year.

HAL today described the LUH as a light, single-engine helicopter that is powered by the Safran HE Ardiden-1U engine. In addition to two pilots, the helicopter can fly six passengers at sea level, with load capacity reducing with altitude. HAL says the LUH’s engine, which delivers 750 KiloWatts of power, permits flight operations as high as 6,500 metres (21,325 feet). That would allow it to fly to India’s highest posts in the Siachen Glacier sector.

HAL says the LUH has an “all-up weight” of 3,150 kilogrammes, which places it in the 3-tonne class. Its operating range of 350 kilometres allows it to carry out various roles, including reconnaissance, transport, cargo load and high-altitude rescue operations.

The twin-engine Dhruv ALH, which is a 5-tonne class helicopter, was initially sold by HAL to the military for about Rs 40 crore ($6 million); but the current order is likely to be priced at Rs 65-70 crore ($10 million). By that yardstick, industry analysts estimate the smaller LUH would be delivered at about Rs 40 crore per piece; and the 200-helicopter order would be worth about Rs 8,000 crore.

Larger wings help reduce wing loading so is very good for A2A fighter.
An higher wing loading however give plane stability, so usually is accepted if not sought in A2G oriented plane, so not a surprise to found it in F-35.
Drag depend however more by the profile of wing that to their overall dimension, hence the sucess of delta wing in fighter role.

Wing loading – (empty)

F-16C: 307.5 kg/m^2

F-35A: 309.1 kg/m^2

So for the same fuel fraction, the wingloading for the F-35 and F-16 is nearly identical…. which would make the F-16 an ‘A2G oriented plane’…

(BTW the need for ‘stability’ in a strike platform went out with the advent of large scale PGM usage.)

That is a Blue Shark. When not in pursuit it cruises around at about 5 miles/hr.

The fat little Emperor Penguin while ungainly on land is superb swimmer than also cruises around at 4-5 miles/hr.

In bursts it can do a very respectable 12 mil/hr (though less than the 22 mil/hr that a Blue Shark touches).

F-35 Thermal Scan Highlights New Stealth Features

By Tamir Eshel – Aug 12, 2016

FLIR Systems published today a short video depicting the F-35 Lightning II 5th Generation fighter during its flight display at the recent Farnborough Airshow (2016). The clip shows the JSF after a simulated takeoff, in forward flight, approach to vertical landing and hover.

While the video highlights the extremely hot air exhaust during vertical hovering, it also shows the striking low thermal contrast of the skin, canopy and engine bay, against the sky, which testify to the Lightning II’s effective thermal masking. While the aircraft and exhaust are clearly visible against the sky background in the flypast, it is clear that such image is taken with maximum gain, which isn’t likely to be useful for normal operation. In other shots that are tuned to show the exhaust heat, the aircraft itself almost blends with background, as it would be, when seen in a front view that masks most of the jet exhaust. Low contrast objects would be less detectable by thermal imagers, at long range. For aircraft it also improves protection from heat seeking missiles.

The IR image maps the hot areas inside the wheels and weapons bays, which are covered in forward flight. Particularly impressive are the rear vertical engine doors – one side is boiling hot, the other side is as cool as the rest of the aircraft. Photo: FLIR Systems

Critics of the F-35 claim that while its stealth design denies its detection by radars, infrared imagers can easily spot the aircraft at long range, by its heat signature. Unlike Russian, Chinese and European aircraft manufacturers that have employed infra-red search and track (IRST) technologies, US services are relying almost exclusively on radar for aerial situational awareness. While the F-35, like every physical object, has a thermal signature, this thermal scan shows its designers made significant effort to ‘flatten’ its thermal image, making the aircraft less detectable and trackable at long distance.

The video clip shown below compares the recent images taken with FLIR Systems’ new Star SAFIRE 380-HDc high definition FLIR, with a similar video taken by another FLIR sensor in 2010, showing the F-22 Raptor. At the recent Farnborough show the F-35 Lightning II performed a flyby and hover, but did not perform high performance maneuvering like the Raptor did back in 2010. Previous FLIR videos of 4 Generation fighters such as the F-16, Typhoon, and Su-27 showed skin area with much higher thermal contrast.

The most intriguing view is the forward flight, showing the aircraft from a forward 3/4 view, in very high contrast to the sky but low contrast between the hot air and cold aircraft – note that the camera shows minimal difference between the aircraft and hot air plume of the engine exhaust. In the flight phases where the engine runs in high power, the contrast between the air exhaust and aircraft, especially around the engine, is striking.

At that short distance, the FLIR SAFIRE 380-HDc camera details the hot and cold parts on the aircraft, for example, the windows of the Distributed Aperture Systems (DAS), where high-resolution IR cameras are located.

Full story: http://www.defensenews.com/story/defense/air-space/2016/08/02/india-france-move-closer-rafale-fighter-deal/87951264/

wow, are they really going through with this?

Defense Minister Manohar Parrikar told parliament Aug. 2 in a written reply that an agreement has been reached to sign the IGA.

He’s reporting the original agreement to sign the the IGA i.e. the one agreed upon at Paris in Feb last year. If there’d been some breakthrough, the next bit would have been given in past tense (“negotiating team has recommended a draft agreement”).

Both sides also agreed to conclude an Inter-Governmental Agreement (IGA) for supply of the aircraft. A negotiating team has been constituted to negotiate the terms and conditions of the procurement of 36 Rafale jets and recommend a draft agreement. – MoD statement

Boiler plate response I think. The ‘negotiating team’ has been at it for several months now.

At this stage, I am somewhat puzzled they don’t buy 36 F-35A instead? Should be roughly the same price and more capable.

Its stuck because the foolishness of the decision to buy Rafales at this price point is bound to be raising red flags within the MoD. Coupled with the fact that a Dassault-linked arms dealer is being investigated for facilitating corruption/money-laundering, the caution is justified.

That said, stupidity has been has only ever been a hurdle for the Indian MoD, not a barrier. The deal’s quite capable of rolling through on sheer inertia. After all, its only the taxpayer’s money.

Or are they still concerned about potential lack of support from the US in the future?

Just signed an $1 bn order for 4 more P-8Is last week (bringing the total value of US defence imports since 2005 to about $15 bn IIRC). Also issued an RFP for 22 Reapers and one EMALS. They’re long past the stage of warranted wariness with respect to weapons purchases from the US.

The SFC of the oldie is 13-18% higher (depending on which engine is used on the A330), the newer PS-90A have comparable SFC, the PD-14 are some 10% lower at cruise (@M0.8, 11,000 m, around 80% throttle setting)

D-30Kp 0.67 lb/lbf/h
PS-90A 0.595 lb/lbf/h
PD-14 0.526 lb/lbf/h
RR Trent 700 0.565 lb/lbf/h
PW 4000 family 0.591 lb/lbf/h
GE CF6 family 0.583 lb/lbf/h

You can put whatever engine you want under it. A high wing rear ramp design like the Il-76 (or C-17 for that matter) will NEVER be anywhere as fuel-efficient as a civilian airliner derivative.

I think it’s mainly due to the 15,321 tons hauled in 4,275 sorties which means the “much needed” strategic airlifters are being flown around almost empty..

The weight of the payload has little to do with the aircraft being ‘full’ or ’empty’. A C-17 carrying a full infantry compan, less than 15 tons in payload, is hardly empty.