The “Twin Cat” of the late 1970s and early ’80s was one such example. A development of the 1950s-era, purpose-built Grumman Super Ag Cat biplane, it replaced the Ag Cat’s single 600 hp Pratt & Whitney R-1340 radial engine with two 310 hp Lycoming TIO-540 flat-6 engines.

Rather than being offered as a complete, factory-built aircraft, the Twin Cat was a modification offered in the form of a supplemental type certificate (STC). The Twin Cat Corporation targeted Ag Cat operators wishing for more easily serviceable engines with increased overhaul intervals and multiengine redundancy, and the company offered to travel to the customer for on-site modification of their Ag Cats.

The company had some impressive experience at the helm. The president had overseen the development of a turboprop conversion of the Grumman Albatross and was assisted by the former chief test pilot at the general aviation division of Rockwell International. Most of the test flights were flown by Herman “Fish” Salmon, retired chief engineering test pilot of Lockheed. Salmon had conducted spin testing of the P-38 Lightning and had flown the first flights of the L-188 Electra, P-3 Orion, YF-104A Starfighter, and XFV-1 turboprop VTOL fighter. 

When designing the Twin Cat, one of the top priorities was to minimize asymmetric thrust in the event of an engine failure. The team did so by utilizing an unconventional engine layout in which the engines were mounted on either side of the nose with only approximately 3.5 feet between the propeller tips. The engines were also canted slightly outward to further minimize the effects of asymmetric thrust during single-engine operations.

The company touted benefits beyond the engines’ 2,000-hour TBO and better parts availability. While the engines were rated at 310 hp each, a sales manager said in an industry presentation that they derated them “with a pencil” and that the full 350 hp was available if needed. The Twin Cat’s total fuel consumption was the same as that of the single-engine radial Ag Cat. They also claimed the new layout improved forward visibility, prop clearance, and spray dispersion. 

When the time came for flight testing, the team got to see whether the new design could deliver the performance that backed up predictions. While the Twin Cat’s empty weight was the same as the Ag Cat’s, at 3,500 pounds, the maximum takeoff weight was 2,000 pounds higher, at 6,500 pounds. A load jettison function enabled the pilot to dump 2,000 pounds of payload if needed.

The new engine layout worked. With both engines operating, the Twin Cat’s takeoff distances were approximately 20 percent shorter than the Ag Cat. Asymmetric thrust was so effectively minimized that a sales manager claimed the Twin Cat could even take off with one engine shut down and then climb at 400 feet per minute at sea level. The company marketed this feature as a useful solution to ferry an aircraft with an inoperative engine to a location where maintenance could be performed.

In the air, the maximum cruising speed was 130 knots. By canting the engines slightly downward, the stall speed was remarkably low, at a claimed 49 knots for power-off stalls and 43 knots for power-on. A brochure claimed that the Twin Cat had “no V_MC,” which would have enabled flight all the way down to stall speed without controllability concerns. 

One account of the airplane’s flight characteristics suggests that it needed more refinement, however. It reportedly lacked any kind of rudder trim, and with an engine shut down, a pilot claimed he ran out of rudder and had to reduce power on the good engine to maintain control. It’s unclear whether the company planned to introduce rudder trim in future aircraft.

In the end, only three examples of the Twin Cat were rumored to have been completed and flown, and few photographs exist. One reportedly crashed, and the others presumably returned to their original single-engine configuration when the company decided against pursuing the concept any further. 

The post The One, Brief Life of the Twin Cat appeared first on FLYING Magazine.

“Rimal serves as a hub for the Hamas terrorist organization in the Gaza Strip, from which many attacks against Israel were launched,” IAF said in a message on X, formerly known as Twitter. 

Gaza is one of the most densely populated areas in the world with a population of about 2.3 million in an area of about 141 square miles.

Earlier today, dozens of IAF fighter jets struck targets in the Rimal area.

Rimal serves as a hub for the Hamas terrorist organization in the Gaza Strip, from which many attacks against Israel were launched. pic.twitter.com/Fil0wQZNS2

— Israeli Air Force (@IAFsite) October 9, 2023

Fighter Fleet By the Numbers

The IAF, which was established during the country’s War of Independence in 1948, accounts for at least a third of the Israel Defense Forces’ (IDF) manpower.

The Israeli military is ranked 18th out of 145 countries by Global Firepower. According to the website, IDF has about 173,000 military personnel.

• READ MORE: US Moves Fighters into Mediterranean in Response to Attack on Israel 

The Israeli Air Force boasts a fleet of 581 aircraft, according to the World Directory of Modern Military Aircraft (WDMMA), which ranks it No. 9 among 129 air services.                                                                                                                 

The fleet force concentration breakdown, according to WDMMA, includes:

• 251 attack aircraft
• 128 helicopters
• 10 tankers
• 23 special mission aircraft
• 15 transport aircraft 
• 154 training aircraft

IAF also said it has orders for 68 additional aircraft.

Growing F-35 Arsenal

Among the aircraft on order are 25 F-35 fighters. In July, Israel signed a $3 billion agreement with Lockheed Martin for the purchase that will eventually increase its Joint Strike Fighter fleet to 75 jets. The deal is financed through the defense aid Israel received from the U.S. 

The IAF, which was the first unit outside the U.S. to buy the fighter, gave the F-35 the name Adir, which means “Mighty One” in Hebrew.

As of January, it had received a total of 36 of the fighter jets ordered. Those aircraft are divided into three squadrons, all at Nevatim Air Base in southern Israel.

“From there and without any aerial refueling, Israel’s F-35s could strike targets in Syria, Iraq, Lebanon, Jordan, and most of Egypt, Turkey, and Saudi Arabia,” according to a U.S. Congressional Research Service report. “One open source has suggested that Israel may have extended the range of its F-35s in order to strike targets inside Iran without first requiring midair refueling.”

• READ MORE: How Combat Forged an Israeli Fighter Pilot

Also in Israel’s fleet is the Boeing KC-46A Pegasus, a multirole tanker able to refuel many types of U.S. and allied aircraft. In August 2022, Israel agreed to a $927 million contract to purchase four KC-46A tankers, as well as maintenance, logistics, and training.

In a $372 million agreement, Israel also purchased the first four of 12 CH-53K King Stallion heavy-lift helicopters from Lockheed Martin’s Sikorsky Aircraft Corp. Those aircraft are expected to be delivered by 2026.

Since World War II, Israel has received the largest amount of American foreign aid, largely for its defense. As of March, the U.S. has provided $158 billion in bilateral assistance and missile defense funding to the country, according to a report prepared for Congress. 

In fiscal 2023, Israel will receive $3.3 billion for military assistance and $500 million for missile defense.

The post What the Israeli Air Force Has in the Sky appeared first on FLYING Magazine.

The group recognized that the transport aircraft category traditionally comprised three separate subcategories—passenger, cargo, and outsized cargo. It then created a concept that would combine all three. Aptly called the “Flatbed,” the concept aircraft would utilize an open platform and various modules to carry a wide variety of loads ranging from military equipment to passengers.

• READ MORE: The Unconventional, Bizarre Bell Airacuda

The most unconventional aspect of the Flatbed was the proposal that large pieces of military equipment be carried out in the open, completely unsheltered from the wind and elements. The team selected two sample military vehicles for the initial study, an XM-1 tank and an M60 bridge launcher, weighing 115,000 and 120,000 pounds, respectively. The big question was could this sort of outsized cargo effectively be carried out in the open at hundreds of miles per hour?

The group got to work on the drawing board and in the wind tunnel to answer that and explore how the Flatbed might serve as a multifunctional, “do-it-all” transport solution. The baseline Flatbed aircraft was a low-wing, turbofan-powered aircraft approximately the same size and weight as an Airbus A300. It utilized four CFM-56 engines, as found on the Airbus A320, Boeing 737, and Boeing KC-135R Stratotanker, and was optimized for a 2,600 nm range.

• READ MORE: That Time Cessna Made a Helicopter

Recognizing that carrying outsize cargo such as tanks out in the open would present serious drag and fuel-burn penalties, the team did not hedge its bets on this configuration alone. Instead, it designed the Flatbed to accept a variety of pressurized and unpressurized containers as well as a passenger module. The entire nose section of the aircraft was hinged, capable of being swung to the side to enable modules and vehicles to be quickly and easily loaded and unloaded using a variety of ramps, rollers, and latches. Raised engine pylons extending above the wing rather than below enabled shorter landing gear and a low, 7-foot cargo bed height.

With the cargo and passenger modules, the Flatbed was shown to be “generally fuel efficient in comparison with reference airplanes,” burning approximately 11 percent more fuel than a conventional design and targeting a 0.82 Mach cruise speed in these configurations. The primary benefit was presented as efficiency with regard to loading and unloading, particularly in the passenger configuration. In this role, the team proposed an entire restructuring of point-to-point travel.

• READ MORE: The Close Call of the Northrop YA-9A Prototype

By utilizing a large number of removable 180-seat modules, the passengers could board their module in a city center some distance away from their departure airport. Like multimodal containers, the module could be loaded onto a short-distance commuter train for transport to the airport, where it would be expeditiously loaded onto the waiting aircraft. The team proposed that this speedy loading and unloading of passengers would enable quick turns and high aircraft utilization. Similarly, it touted the ability of multimodal containers and even train cars to be quickly rolled onto and off the Flatbed.

But from the perspective of aircraft design in general and aerodynamics in particular, the most intriguing aspect of the Flatbed concept was the carrying of outsize cargo out in the open. Using scale models of both the Flatbed and tank and bridge launcher, aerodynamicists studied drag figures and later translated the data into speed and fuel-burn figures. The resulting performance numbers indicated the concept was surprisingly plausible.

Naturally, carrying external cargo was found to drastically increase drag compared to carrying the aerodynamically slick cargo and passenger modules. At higher altitudes, carrying the tank or bridge launcher would result in a 20 percent increase in fuel burn. At a lower 18,000 feet cruising altitude, this increased to approximately 55 percent. The external cargo also lowered the cruise speed to 0.5-0.6 Mach.

The team proposed multiple solutions to address the increased fuel burn. At the time of the study, engine manufacturers were looking at unducted “propfan” engines to improve fuel efficiency, and the team suggested exploring these new engines for the Flatbed. It also explored the possibility of “vortex control,” a system that introduced suction at the forward end of the cargo bed to smooth the air flowing around the back of the cockpit section, thus reducing drag. 

Ice accumulation on external cargo was identified as one potential challenge worthy of additional study. Engineers did observe that in-flight icing “does not appear to present a major problem,” however, as ice formation occurs only on the front part of the aircraft components. By tucking in the external cargo behind the cockpit section, it appeared to be sufficiently shielded from ice. 

While the Flatbed concept would never materialize beyond static and wind-tunnel models, the team partnered with NASA to publish a detailed initial study that evaluated the feasibility of the unconventional concept. The study ultimately concluded that the concept was both technically and economically feasible. They reasoned that the smaller size and increased versatility of such an aircraft would make it inherently more efficient to operate compared to existing military cargo aircraft.

Despite the overall finding that the Flatbed concept was worthy of additional examination, however, no such study ever occurred. The Lockheed Flatbed concept fizzled out after the publication of the NASA report.

The post The Fizzled-Out Promise of the Lockheed ‘Flatbed’ appeared first on FLYING Magazine.

Moffett Field Museum, Mountain View, California

Some airports are easy to miss when you drive by them—all you see is a flat area, some industrial buildings and a few aircraft. Moffett Federal Airfield (KNUQ) in Mountain View, California, is not one of them. It’s the home of Hangar One, one of the largest free-standing buildings in the world. The dome-topped hangar dominates the landscape of the Silicon Valley.

Built in 1933 to house the USS Macon, one of the navy’s dirigibles, the hangar measures 1,133 feet long by 308 feet wide by 198 feet high. Today the hangar is part of Ames Research Center and the home of the Moffett Field Historical Society Museum.

Speaking of History…

The construction on what was to be Airbase Sunnyvale began in 1931. The facility stood on 1,000 acres of reclaimed farmland between San Jose and San Francisco. Part of it was in the town of Sunnyvale, part of it in Mountain View.

Worried the name Mountain View would conjure up mental images of navy dirigibles crashing in high terrain, the navy opted to use Sunnyvale in the name.

Naval Air Station Sunnyvale was commissioned on April 12, 1933, but the name only lasted until September, when it was changed to NAS Moffett Field in honor of Rear Admiral William A. Moffett, the man behind the navy’s lighter-than-air program. Moffett was killed on April 4, 1933, in the crash of the dirigible USS Akron. The Akron, launched in 1931, had been designed to act as a flying aircraft carrier. The helium-filled ship was destroyed in a thunderstorm off the coast of New Jersey, taking with it 73 of the 76 souls on board.

Today, Moffett is a private airfield with an emphasis on new technology and research. Prior permission is required to land there—so it’s pretty much off limits to most pilots. However, you can access the base by car with relative ease and visit the museum.

The Curator’s View: F-8U-1 Crusader

Jeff Wasel is the executive director of the Moffett Field Historical Society Museum. According to Wasel, the museum’s artifacts are organized by era, starting with the 1930s all the way up through the Cold War and the space race.

Wasel oversees the curation, restoration, and preservation of the collection of aircraft, cockpit sections, and other major artifacts which he describes as “an unusual mix of one-off and historically significant aircraft.” His favorite is the Chance-Vought F-8U-1 (F-8A) Crusader cockpit section.

“The F-8 represents the ultimate in pure, pre-missile era U.S. Navy fighter capability, bridging the gap between the first generation of underpowered carrier-based jets of the early to mid-1950s, and the later arrival of the high performance, missile-centric F-4 Phantom II on carriers in the early 1960’s,” he explains.

“Nicknamed ‘the Gator’ for danger posed by its capacious under-nose, jet-air intake—as well as the ‘ensign eliminator’ for its unforgiving nature, especially in carrier landings—the Crusader was the hotrod of its day, and still remains legendary for its performance over the skies of North Vietnam, as ‘the last Gunfighter.’ This sobriquet is something of a misnomer though, as her four Colt Mk-12 20 MM cannons had an unfortunate tendency to jam under high G-loads, making them grossly unreliable in a tight gunfight. As a result, the F-8’s impressive 7-to-1 kill ratio was achieved primarily using early models of the AIM-9 Sidewinder air-to-air missile. Crusaders just look mean, nasty, and very purposeful, and are an icon of USN carrier aviation.”

The museum’s cockpit section comes from an early production F-8U-1, BuNo. 145399, that according to Wasel, first flew from NAS Moffett Field with “The Gunfighters” of Fleet Replacement Squadron VF-124, and later saw active service as the mount of Capt. Gordon Hodgson, USN, Commander, Carrier Air Wing 19, (CVW-19) on the USS Bon Homme Richard off North Vietnam on “Yankee Station”, and who also served as CO of VF-191, “Satan’s Kittens.”

The aircraft was in service from 1958 to 1969 and was acquired by the museum in February of 2014.

The Visitor’s Favorite: Lockheed U-2C

As far as the favorite of museum visitors, Wasel says it is the former Central Intelligence Agency -USAF-NASA Lockheed U-2C spyplane.

“The Museum’s U-2 was delivered as an ‘A’ to the CIA’s Groom Lake Test Facility, Groom Lake NV, on March 5, 1956, under contract SP-1913. After a variety of short test deployments, she was transferred to the Strategic Air Command, (SAC), but was retained by Lockheed for testing through January 1959.” says Wasel.

Most people know the U-2 as the CIA aircraft American pilot Francis Gary Powers was flying when he was shot down while flying a reconnaissance mission over what was then the Soviet Union.

“After the Power’s shoot down over Russia on May 1, 1960, the CIA began research into using USN carriers as a means to deploy U-2s,” says Wasel. “As a result, she was returned to the CIA in 1963 for conversion to a U-2G variant, where a carrier arresting hook and other modifications were added. Only 2 airframes were converted to ‘Gs’, making this an extremely rare U-2 variant.”

According to Wasel, the U-2G successfully tested the carrier basing concept of the USS Ranger, then placed into flyable storage in 1969. In 1971 the aircraft was transferred to NASA and returned to U-2C configuration, then used for testing instrumentation on early Lansat Earth-observing satellites.

“The program was so successful that she and other U-2Cs were used as earth observation platforms in their own right,” says Wasel. “She was finally retired from NASA operations at Ames Research Center in August 1987 and transferred to Moffett Field Historical Society Museum in 2015.”

The post Museum Spotlight: Moffett Field, California appeared first on FLYING Magazine.

Development work on an aircraft to improve the United States’ intelligence-gathering capabilities had already begun at Lockheed’s Skunk Works in Burbank, California. 

During President Dwight D. Eisenhower’s second term, tensions between the U.S. and the USSR escalated significantly. When Gary Powers’ U-2 aircraft was hit by Soviet surface-to-air missiles and he was forced to bail out and then was captured, the Cold War became even hotter. 

After the inauguration of President John F. Kennedy on January 20, 1961, relations between the two nations deteriorated even more—due to incidents like the Bay of Pigs, the loss of another U-2 over Cuba, the erection of the Berlin Wall, and the Cuban Missile Crisis. An improved spy plane was desperately needed.

Delivering ‘Impossible’ Technologies

Considered one of the best aircraft designers of the 20th century, Clarence “Kelly” Johnson led Lockheed’s Skunk Works team that had previously delivered “impossible” technologies on “incredibly short, strategically critical deadlines” (including the U-2). 

However, this new aircraft was radically different. “Everything had to be invented,” Johnson recalled. Nonetheless, he committed the Skunk Works team to create such an aircraft—and to have a prototype flying in “a mere 20 months.”

The new airplane’s speed was mandated to exceed 2,000 mph—1,740 knots—and not for short, after-burner-driven bursts, but to maintain that speed for hours. However, at that speed, atmospheric friction generates temperatures that could melt a conventional airframe of the time.

Dealing with the issue of extreme heat, there were numerous design and material challenges. Designers decided that only a titanium alloy would provide the strength needed, be lighter than stainless steel, and be durable enough to withstand excessive temperatures and speed.  

The titanium alloy was covered with a corrugated skin that was heat-resistant. The concept of a “stealth aircraft” was new, while the use of titanium was also an almost unexplored area of engineering. Because titanium is a very sensitive material, new tools and processes had to be developed. 

In regard to heat, while the airplane’s leading edges would be subjected to high temperatures, the ambient temperature that the aircraft would be flying through was minus-60 degrees Fahrenheit.

The team’s engineer Ben Rich grappled with this for long hours before he remembered that black paint both emits and absorbs heat. To help redirect the heat caused by friction, the aircraft was painted black, which led to its name: “Blackbird.”

First Flights and Modifications

Lockheed designated the Blackbird prototype the A-12. Its first flight occurred on April 30, 1962. The A-12 was a single-seat aircraft; in total, 13 A-12s were produced, and they were used in a top-secret CIA program. As FLYING contributing author Peter Garrison noted in his column, Technicalities (FLYING, October 1994), “Lockheed delivered an airplane…that could cruise at almost 2,000 knots 15 miles above the ground, and had an unrefueled range of 2,300 nm. At that time, such performance was unheard of. But the technology for it existed or lay just within reach; this was, remember, the era of the X-15 and the XB-70 as well.”

The new aircraft would inevitably draw comparison to the X-15, powered by a single Reaction Motors XLR99 57,000-pound thrust liquid propellant rocket engine, and famously taken to a record-shattering speed of Mach 6.7 by Air Force Capt. William “Pete” Knight during an Oct. 3, 1967 flight that reached an altitude of 102,100 feet.

Another A-12 variant was designed as an interceptor. Air-to-air missiles and another cockpit were added for a second crew member to operate radar equipment. This was the YF-12, and it looked identical to the A-12 except for its nose. Three YF-12s were constructed and operated by the U.S. Air Force. A third variant was the M-21, which had a pylon on its back for mounting and launching one of the first unmanned drones. Two M-21s were built; however, the program was stopped in 1966 after a drone collided with its mothership, killing one of the pilots.

The SR-71 Is Born

The final derivative of the A-12 had a twin cockpit and larger fuel capacity. Flight tests on the improved prototype continued, and the airplane broke height and speed records. On July 20, 1963, it achieved a sustained speed above Mach 3 at an altitude of 78,000 feet. 

Called the SR-71—SR for Strategic Reconnaissance—it first flew on December 22, 1964, piloted by Robert “Bob” Gilliland, a Lockheed test pilot. According to the National Museum of the U.S. Air Force, the first SR-71 entered service in January 1966, at Beale Air Force Base (KBAB) in California. This version would fly intelligence missions for the U.S. Air Force for more than 30 years. A total of 32 SR-71s were built, according to the National Air & Space Museum. Including all the variants, there were a total of 50 Blackbirds built. 

A key modification of the SR-71 was a reduction of its radar image. Although the initial test flight had gone well, there were rumors of new advances in radar by the Soviets, so the U.S. government requested the radar profile be reduced. 

To comply, the Skunk Works team redesigned the aircraft’s surfaces to avoid reflecting radar signals, moved the engines to mid-wing, and added radar-absorbing elements to the aircraft’s special paint. 

The improvements were radar-tested using a full-scale model of the Blackbird. The results were definitive; although the Blackbird was more than 100 feet long, it “would appear on Soviet radar as bigger than a bird but smaller than a man,” according to Lockheed. Skunk Works staff “had succeeded in reducing” the Blackbird’s “radar cross-section by 90 percent!”

As described by the Smithsonian Institution, “the Lockheed SR-71 was a twin-engine, two-seat, supersonic strategic reconnaissance aircraft. Its airframe was constructed largely of titanium and its alloys; while its vertical tail fins were constructed of a composite to reduce the aircraft’s radar cross-section. It was equipped with Pratt & Whitney J58 turbojet engines that featured large inlet shock cones.”

The engines were as complex as the rest of the aircraft. At the time, the J58 engines were the only engines built to continuously use afterburners (which is why the SR-71 consumed so much fuel). When the airplane was flying at supersonic speed, each engine inlet was “blocked” by a spike, which moved forward and backward depending on the airplane’s speed. 

• READ MORE: That Darkstar in Top Gun: Maverick—Was it Real?

The SR-71 in Operation

Interestingly, no Blackbirds ever flew over Soviet airspace, because the U.S. stopped Soviet overflights after the 1960 U-2 incident. However, SR-71s were used over Eastern Europe, the Middle East, Vietnam, North Korea, and locations that have yet to be declassified.

No Blackbird was ever lost to enemy fire. However, the airplanes’ reliability was an issue; 12 of 32 were lost to accidents. In addition, it was very complicated to operate and fly. According to aviation historian Peter Merlin, a great deal of effort was required to get an SR-71 into the air. “It took an army of people to prepare the aircraft. A Blackbird operational mission essentially had a countdown, like a space mission, because there was so much preparation involved in both getting the crew ready and the vehicle ready—an unbelievable amount of effort and manpower.” 

Piloting the Blackbird

Piloting the Blackbird was a very difficult assignment that took total concentration. However, its pilots welcomed the challenges. According to the Lockheed Martin website, Air Force Colonel Jim Wadkins said, “At 85,000 feet and Mach 3, it was almost a religious experience. Nothing had prepared me to fly that fast… My God, even now, I get goose bumps remembering.”

Because of the SR-71’s speed, normal visual references, such as highways, rivers, and metropolitan areas, were replaced by larger objects—mountain ranges, coastlines, and large bodies of water.

Blackbirds were unaffected by air defense systems because of their incredible speed and high-altitude operational characteristics. While the SR-71 had electronic countermeasures, its main defensive system against missiles was simply to outrun them. As quoted from a documentary about the SR-71 Blackbird on PBS, “If a surface-to-air missile launch was detected, the standard evasive action was simply to accelerate and outfly the missile.” 

Lockheed’s Johnson announced in 1981 that more than 1,000 missiles had been launched at the SR-71, but none of them had damaged one of the aircraft. 

NASA’s SR-71 Program

The Air Force retired the remaining SR-71s in 1990, but NASA continued to use four Blackbirds through the 1990s and early 2000s. At the SR-71’s service ceiling of 85,000 feet, it was possible to see the curvature of the Earth; it was an excellent experimental unit for space travel. With its speed and height capabilities, the aircraft was used as a platform to conduct research and experiments in aerodynamics, propulsion, structures, thermal protection materials, high-speed and high-temperature instrumentation, atmospheric studies, and sonic boom characterization. 

NASA’s high-speed and high-altitude aeronautical research occurred at Dryden Flight Research Center, which was located within the boundaries of Edwards Air Force Base. Dryden’s SR-71 activities involved other NASA research centers, government agencies, universities, and commercial firms. 

NASA’s SR-71 program was canceled in late 2001.

• READ MORE: NASA’s Supersonic X-59 Clears Critical Ground Tests

An Icon of the Cold War Era

The Air Force retired its fleet of SR-71s on January 26, 1990, owing in part to defense budget cuts and the high costs of operation. As technology improved, the SR-71 was replaced by satellites and UAVs, which offered instant access to surveillance data.

The SR-71 first leapt into the skies in December 1964. Many consider it the most iconic aircraft of the Cold War era. On July 28, 1976, a Blackbird set records that remain unbroken—flying at a sustained altitude of 85,069 feet and a top speed of 2,193.2 miles per hour, or Mach 3.3. 

Although most of us will never be privy to the critical information Blackbirds gathered, they provided the United States with detailed, mission-critical reconnaissance for more than two decades. The SR-71 was one of several spy airplanes built to venture into enemy territory without being shot down or even detected. From 80,000 feet, an SR-71 could survey 100,000 square miles of Earth’s surface each hour. 

Most of the remaining Blackbirds are stationed at museums or military bases across the U.S. On its retirement flight from Los Angeles to Washington, D.C., on March 6, 1990 (on the way to the Smithsonian National Air & Space Museum), a Blackbird flew coast to coast in a record-setting 1 hour, 4 minutes, and 20 seconds.

“It still looks like something from the future, even though it was designed back in the 1950s,” Merlin said. “Because of the way the fuselage bends and the wing curves and twists, it looks more organic than mechanical. Most conventional airplanes look like someone built them—this one almost looks like it was grown.”

FLYING thanks brickmania.com, CNN, Lockheed Martin Corporation, migflug.com, NASA, nationalinterest.org, the Public Broadcasting Corporation, the Smithsonian Institution, and sr-71.org for information and photographs used in this article. 

Aircraft Specifications

An SR-71 on a NASA mission. [Credit: NASA.gov]

The post FLYING Classics: Lockheed Created the ‘Impossible’ SR-71 Blackbird to Replace the U-2 appeared first on FLYING Magazine.

In fact, the occasion was the Will Rogers/Wiley Post Fly-In and National Day of Remembrance at the Will Rogers Memorial Museum and Birthplace Ranch. The event marks the day, August 15, 1935, when Rogers and Post died in the experimental aircraft Post had built in Alaska using Lockheed Explorer and Orion components.

More than 100 aircraft flew into Dog Iron Ranch (OK37) to take part in the gathering, which organizers said also “honors all those who have lost their lives in a small airplane crash.”

A Humorist and an Aviator

Post and Rogers were both prominent figures in 1930s popular culture of the 1930s. Rogers, an actor, performer, humorist, and commentator, reached a remarkably large audience through his syndicated newspaper columns and radio shows. He and the legendary transatlantic flyer Charles Lindbergh became friends in the 1920s and Rogers grew increasingly interested in aviation.

During visits to Europe, Rogers saw advances in aircraft and airport infrastructure that seemed well ahead of developments in the U.S. He began actively promoting aviation’s potential as a revolution in transportation. He eventually befriended Post and began flying with him on various exploratory missions, often gathering material along the way for his columns and radio presentations.

In a way, Rogers and Post were on the same proverbial page. Post, a pioneering aviator during the industry’s golden age between the two world wars, was famous for flying around the world twice and setting numerous records. Post’s Lockheed Vega, Winnie Mae, was one of those aircraft. However, Post’s years of experimentation with high-altitude flight, pressurization, and navigation instruments probably did more to advance air transport to the prominence it enjoys today.

Like Rogers, Post saw beyond the immediate gratification of record-setting to a potentially bright future for aircraft as people-movers. For a time, he and Rogers were a powerful promotional team for aviation. With Post working on the leading edge of the era’s technology, Rogers rode with him, tapping out stories on his typewriter, translating the complicated work of flying into reports his readers could digest easily.

In addition to providing entertainment for spectators and an opportunity for the local and pilot communities to get together, the fly-in put a spotlight on an interesting period in aviation's development. Post and Rogers raised awareness of flying as the possible future of long-distance travel when the public, distracted by the effects of the Great Depression, could have easily overlooked the fledgling industry.

The post More Than 100 Aircraft Gather To Honor Wiley Post and Will Rogers appeared first on FLYING Magazine.

Joseph Rank, chief executive for Lockheed Martin in Saudi Arabia and Africa, told Arab News on Tuesday that Lockheed plans to work with the Saudi General Authority for Military Industries (GAMI), the Saudi Arabian Military Industries (SAMI), and other partners to develop missile defense systems to ward off threats.

“The threats today and tomorrow are going to be drones and missiles coming into the kingdom,” Rank said. “So, the focus of our efforts is to help them enhance their defense.”

Rank said there are many ways Lockheed can achieve this. One Bloomberg report includes counter missiles and counter drones that use critical command and control systems that connect sensors to shooters out in the field.

Saudi Arabia’s ‘Vision 2030’ 

Since Saudi Arabia is one of the largest defense buyers in the world, localizing its military manufacturing would save the country lots of money. How much? An April 2021 report by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute indicated that Saudi Arabia had the sixth-largest defense budget in the world in 2020, roughly 2.9 percent of all military spending worldwide. 

The report also says that Saudi Arabia spent as much as 8.4 percent of its gross domestic product on its military in 2020. This year, the country plans to spend up to $45 billion to modernize its military toward a plan the Saudi Arabian government calls “Vision 2030,” which calls for the government to spend half of its military budget locally by 2030.

At the same time, Lockheed is also investing in scholarship and internship programs at local colleges and universities in Saudi Arabia to improve research and development efforts.

“We’re an official partner with GAMI that is going to initially start as a vocational-technical school to help teach Saudis young Saudis how to do complex defense, mechanical challenges so that they can sustain and repair and eventually design their systems,” Rand said in the Arab News report.

The post Report: Lockheed Martin to Spend $1 Billion to Help Saudi Arabia Make Military Equipment appeared first on FLYING Magazine.

The announcement comes after the Federal Trade Commission sued Lockheed to block the $4.4 billion deal, alleging that if the agreement proceeded, Lockheed could’ve used its control of Aerojet to harm rival defense contractors, and further consolidate multiple markets critical to national security and defense.

Lockheed Martin’s chairman and CEO, James Taiclet, said in a statement that the deal had synergies beneficial to the entire industry that would’ve led to “greater efficiency, speed, and significant cost reductions for the U.S. government.”

Ultimately, Taiclet said, the FTC’s lawsuit would create too much downside for shareholders.

How We Got Here

Lockheed initially targeted Aerojet in late 2020 to fast-track its hypersonic strategy and expand its business into missile defense and space travel. At hypersonic speeds, objects can travel faster than a mile per second. That efficiency has created a strong military and commercial appeal. 

Aerojet told its shareholders Sunday that the company would now focus on “space exploration and defense growth markets.” The company also pointed out its backlog, valued at three times its annual sales. 

Antitrust Pushback

The wrinkle in the deal for Lockheed came from the fact that Aerojet is one of only two rocket-motor providers in the U.S. The other, Orbital ATK, was acquired by Northrop Grumman in 2018, which left Aerojet Rocketdyne as the standalone supplier. 

When the FTC announced the lawsuit in late January, its members voted 4 to 0 to block the deal. 

“This deal would give Lockheed the ability to cut off other defense contractors from the critical components they need to build competing missiles,” Holly Vedova, FTC Bureau of Competition director, said in a statement, adding that the lack of competition could encourage Lockheed to “jack up the price the U.S. government has to pay while delivering lower quality and less innovation.”

Lockheed sensed the deal might not go through and discussed the FTC’s lawsuit during its January earnings call but said then would challenge it. At that time, Taiclet said his company would have benefited from the speed and efficiency of a vertically integrated supply chain, but “whichever way that deal turned out,” Lockheed would manage.

Lockheed’s and Aerojet’s share prices have dropped since the opening of trading Monday morning. Lockheed’s was down 1.6 percent to $389, and Aerojet’s fell 4 percent to $37.50 as of 11 a.m. ET. 

The post Lockheed Martin Pulls Back Aerojet Rocketdyne Bid Following FTC Lawsuit appeared first on FLYING Magazine.

Even nonpilots can look at an F-104 Lockheed Starfighter and see it as the quintessential definition of a fighter jet. The shockingly short, almost straight wing is a contrast to the delta and swept designs of its day. The leading edge is literally razor-sharp, a characteristic that compelled Air Force mechanics to utilize a cover to protect them from injury. And the fuselage, with its aerodynamic wasp waist, is merely a vessel to house a monster jet engine—or, as the airplane was touted by Lockheed, “missile with a man in it.”

The F-104 was used by the U.S. Air Force from 1958 to 1969. Other countries bought versions of the fighter throughout its production, where it was built by foreign manufacturers through a Lockheed license agreement. The Italian air force was the last military to operate the airplane, ending its service in 2004. Unfortunately, early in its career, the F-104 had a miserable accident rate. The Germans dubbed it the “widow-maker.”

The airplane itself has a colorful enough history to be the entire focus of this column, but that’s not my intent. Instead, I wanted to showcase the president and CEO of Starfighters Inc., Rick Svetkoff, a retired airline colleague who resurrected his livelihood by pursuing a second career with perseverance and determination.

Rick greeted us at the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex after our group of seven processed through security. We’d made special plans for this tour arranged by Geoff Hickman, a former Air Force veteran, F-16 airshow demo pilot and colleague of Rick.

A tall, lanky guy, Rick spoke with a relaxed, welcoming demeanor. If you had met him at a local watering hole, the first guess of his occupation might not necessarily have him strapped into a vintage Mach-2 jet. Discount the thinning hair, and the steely-eyed focus of a fighter pilot is still there.

Like most folks with ambition, Rick’s second career started with a dream. He loved the airshow circuit and, as a kid, always wanted to be a fighter pilot. The Navy offered that opportunity after he graduated college, where he flew the A-4 Skyhawk among other assorted jets. For the airshow team, Rick decided on the F-104 more out of happenstance because it became available at the right time during his search, even though it hadn’t actually been a consideration. It became apparent that fate made the right choice with the F-104.

Rick purchased the first Starfighter in 1995 and then bought two other F-104s shortly thereafter. By 1996, the three airplanes became the only Starfighter performers in the world, with Lakeland’s Sun ’n Fun being one of the first events. At the time, Rick was still gainfully employed as a Continental Airlines pilot, a career he had begun in 1984 after the Navy.

When the writing on the walls indicated that seniority and quality of life had the potential to change unfavorably in 2006 because of the looming United Airlines merger, Rick elected to hang up his hat as a 767 captain. After 22 years, he retired early at the age of 51, eagerly devoting all of his time to his Starfighter career.

In the background, NASA presented Rick with a new and potentially more lucrative opportunity. That being said, those of us who have become accustomed to a comfortable, steady paycheck—especially with years of longevity—tend to remain married to the airline rather than take a risk with the unknown. Rick had a wife, two kids and millions of dollars’ worth of airplanes to feed.

With the demands of the airshow circuit taking their toll, and slim profit margins despite sponsorships, it seemed the time was ripe to explore a new possibility with NASA. Because of activity starting to buzz in the commercial space industry, the agency asked Starfighters Inc. if they would consider a proposal to fly hardware designed to be flown aboard commercial spacecraft. Rather than find out too late that a piece of equipment would break or malfunction when subjected to high G-loads or high speeds, the F-104 would become the test vehicle. The airplane very closely simulates the G-forces experienced during a launch cycle.

By 2009, Rick had an agreement with NASA to operate out of Cape Canaveral, using the 15,000-foot space shuttle landing runway. The Starfighters are housed and maintained in the same hallowed hangar that investigators used to piece together the parts of the Challenger after the 1986 accident. Perhaps the hangar can be considered a good omen with it now being used for efforts that safely move the space program forward.

Read More from Les Abend: Jumpseat

Beyond the hardware testing, the government has licensed Starfighters Inc. for its current focus of training both civilian and military pilots. The Air Force uses the F-104 to broaden the experience for test pilots. And for civilian pilots who have never been astronauts, the training offers the opportunity to experience space flight in anticipation of being part of a crew for upcoming launches by commercial enterprises like SpaceX, Blue Origin and Boeing.

If you have an extra $17,900 to spend per 35 to 40 minutes of flight time, Starfighter Inc. will train licensed pilots to fly the F-104. The program involves about three days of ground school, which includes ejection-seat operation. The F-104 was the first airplane to train astronauts on the space shuttle arrival profile, so this is now the most popular sortie. You begin the descent over the runway at 25,000 feet and 325 knots, turn base at 15,000 feet, and then land over the threshold at a slow 180 knots.

And if the space shuttle arrival has you yawning, another profile is flying to high altitude and seeing Mach 2 on the instrument panel. Rick offers a discount for multiple flights. For those thinking the price tag is a little high, consider the fact one tire on the F-104 costs $1,200, which allows for about six landings before replacement.

What I find astonishing is Rick’s fortitude shortly after taking the leap from the airline. Not only was he investing blood, sweat and tears into a risky endeavor that was not quite making a profit, but he found himself in financial straits because of a $1 million investment with his retirement funds. He had trusted a retired pilot from another airline who turned out to be financing a Ponzi scheme with concert promotions. After attorneys prosecuted the case and put the man responsible behind bars, Rick recovered only a third of his money.

I could point an I-told-you-so finger, but yours truly invested in the same fund, fortunately losing only a fraction of Rick’s investment amount. Regardless, it was a devastating experience. Looking on the bright side, it compelled Rick even more to make a success of Starfighters Inc.

Though Rick is unassuming and humble, it would appear he has gained recognition and respect not only from NASA but other governmental agencies as well. For the moment, he is the only game in town safely training future astronauts. A cool way to repurpose an old airplane and an airline career.

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