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F-35 FLIGHT TEST UPDATE F-16S At ARAXOS GERMAN P-3 OPERATIONS FIREFIGHTING C-130S

TWENTY-FIVE YEARS OF COVERAGE

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his issue marks the start of Code One Magazine’s twenty-fifth year of publication.

The cover kicking off our silver anniversary year celebrates the first vertical landing of the F-35B Lightning II. The landing is one of many significant accomplishments for a program that Code One began covering in 1994.

Code One originated as a product support publication for F-111 and F-16 aircraft.

Through the years, the scope of the magazine expanded beyond tactical aircraft to include air mobility, maritime patrol and reconnaissance, and cutting-edge air vehicles.

Code One has always faithfully focused on the activities of customer communities that operate military aircraft produced and supported by Lockheed Martin.

That focus will not change.

But what will change is that www.codeonemagazine.com will play a larger role in our coverage going forward.

The magazine debuted its Internet site in 1996 (two years before Google was founded).

The site has been revised several times since then. We are putting the final touches on a major site redesign that will be launched later this year. Not only will this new site be updated more frequently, it will include more photo galleries, video clips, and other features.

We set some high standards with the magazine for the last quarter century.

We plan on exceeding those standards in the coming years.

Keep ’em flying.

Eric Hehs, Editor Jeff Rhodes, Associate Editor

2 2 F-35 FLIGHT TEST UPDATE

Lightning II Testing Highlights

EDITOR

Eric Hehs AS SOCIATE EDITOR

6 PEACE XENIA IV

Jeff Rhodes ART DIRECTOR

Stan Baggett

6

VICE PRESIDENT, COMMUNICATIONS

Greek F-16 Operations At Araxos AB

10 NEW DAY AT NORDHOLZ

Joseph LaMarca, Jr.

E XECUTIVE VICE PRESIDENT, LOCKHEED MARTIN CORPORATION PRESIDENT, AERONAUTIC S COMPANY

German P-3 Operations

Ralph D. Heath

14 FALCON AIR MEET 2009

PERSONAL SUBSCRIPTIONS

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Some back issues are available.

CONTACT INFORMATION

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Send correspondence to Code One Magazine, Lockheed Martin Aeronautics Company, PO Box 748, Mail Zone 1503, Fort Worth, TX 76101 Editorial office phone number: 817-777-5542 E-mail: eric.hehs@lmco.com Web address: www.codeonemagazine.com Fax: 817-777-8655 Distribution information: 888-883-3780 This publication is intended for information only.

Its contents neither replace nor revise any material in official manuals or publications.

Copyright © 2010 Lockheed Martin Corporation.

All rights reserved. Permission to reprint articles or photographs must be requested in writing from the editor.

Code One is a registered trademark of Lockheed Martin Corporation. Code One is published quarterly by Lockheed Martin Aeronautics Company.

ISSN 1071-3816 A10-30029

F-16 Units Compete In Jordan

18 BLACK EAGLES FLY T-50

New Aircraft For Korea’s Demo Team

22 TRANSFORMER: RISE OF THE COMPOSITES

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X-55 Brings Radical Change To Aircraft Construction

26 THE RECORD-SETTING C-5M

Super Galaxy Crews Set New World Marks

28 BERT’S LAST BLAST

Final Blue Angels C-130 JATO Launch

ABOUT THE COVER Front: The first F-35B Lightning II stealth fighter rode more than 41,000 pounds of thrust to its first vertical landing on 18 March. The vertical landing onto a ninetyfive-foot square pad at NAS Patuxent River, Maryland, showed the aircraft had the thrust and control to maneuver accurately both in free air and in the 150-foot descent through ground effect. Photo by Damien Guarnieri Back: A German Navy pilot inspects the outboard propeller of his P-3 Orion maritime patrol aircraft prior to a mission over the North Sea. Marinefliegergeschwader (Naval Air Wing) 3, based at NAS Nordholz, is the twentieth and newest P-3 operator worldwide. Photo by John Rossino

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32 GIVING SMOKEY BEAR A HAND

Putting Out Forest Fires With C-130s

36 NEWS

Editor’s note: The F-35 f light test program has made big strides since the last issue of Code One. To highlight progress, we plan to update program milestones in coming issues of the magazine. See www.codeonemagazine.com for a more comprehensive list of F-35 program accomplishments, additional photos, and video clips.

F-35 FLIGHT TEST UPDATE

Nine pilots have flown more than 200 hours and 160 flights as of 23 March in the current System Development and Demonstration phase of the F-35 program.

PHOTO BY ANDY WOLFE

14 November 2009 AF-1 First Flight First optimized conventional takeoff and landing variant, AF-1, completes its first flight. Piloted

by Lockheed Martin test pilot David Nelson, AF-1 takes off from NAS Fort Worth JRB, Texas, and flies to an altitude of 20,000 feet and a speed of Mach 0.6. Nelson raises and lowers the landing gear, performs 360-degree rolls, and lifts the nose to twenty degrees angle of attack during the 1.6-hour mission. Photo by Liz Kaszynski 15 November 2009 First F-35 Arrives At Pax River The first F-35 arrives at NAS Patuxent River, Maryland. The F-35B, called BF-1, is ferried from the Lockheed Martin facility in Fort Worth, Texas, via Dobbins ARB, Georgia, by F-35 chief test pilot Jon Beesley. The aircraft lands on the Patuxent River runway at 12:46 pm EST. (The aircraft lands at Dobbins on 13 November and is weather delayed before departing on the 15th.) Photo by David Drais 19 November 2009 AF-1 Hot Pit Refuels AF-1 hot pit refuels during its second flight. In hot pit refueling, the pilot stays in the cockpit and the aircraft remains on the ground and running as it is refueled. Lockheed Martin test pilot Jeff Knowles is the pilot for the mission (which counts as one flight). The overall flight lasts 2.3 hours. This is the first time hot pit refueling is used to fly back-to-back missions with the F-35. Photo by Liz Kaszynski

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he test pilots have expanded the flight envelope to 38,000 feet and Mach 1.1. Three F-35Bs have made cross-country flights to their new home at NAS Patuxent River, Maryland. The flight test team has completed thirteen flights that involved engaging the short takeoff/vertical landing, or STOVL, system. This total includes the first vertical landing—the latest major milestone reached.

The first short takeoff/vertical landing F-35B, called BF-1, has completed forty-two flights; BF-2 has twenty; and BF-3 has sixteen.

BF-4, planned for an early-spring arrival at Patuxent River, will be the first avionics-equipped F-35 and will perform the initial onboard f light testing of the F-35’s mission systems, which are essentially 100 percent common across the three variants.

Extensive mission systems testing, including sensor fusion and SAR mapping, has occurred already on the Cooperative Avionics Test Bed, a converted 737, and on surrogate airborne laboratories and in ground-based labs. The final F-35B test aircraft, BF-5, will ferry to Patuxent River in 2011, to be joined with the F-35C carrier variants, CF-1, CF-2, and CF-3.

The first F-35 optimized for conventional takeoff and landing, called AF-1, completed three flights before entering a series of ground tests in November. The aircraft is expected to be f lying again this spring and will ferry to Edwards AFB, California, soon after. AF-1 will be joined there by AF-2 through AF-4 this year as well.

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17 December 2009 AA-1 Last Flight Lands At China Lake Knowles flies AA-1 on its ninety-first and final flight. The mission takes AA-1 from Edwards AFB to NAS China Lake, California, where it will undergo live-fire testing later in 2010. Photo By David Henry 18 December 2009 USMC Pilot Completes Longest Duration Flight US Marine Corps pilot Maj. Joseph Bachmann completes the longest flight on an F-35 to date during the fifteenth flight of BF-2. The 3.7-hour mission, which includes aerial refueling, is in preparation for the ferry flight that will take the aircraft directly from Fort Worth, Texas, to Patuxent River, Maryland. Photo By Liz Kaszynski 29 December 2009 BF-2 Arrives At Pax River Bachmann delivers the second F-35B, called BF-2, to NAS Patuxent River, Maryland, in a nonstop flight from Fort Worth, Texas.

The aircraft is refueled en route by a KC-130.

Photo By Liz Kaszynski

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7 January 2010 Inflight STOVL Operations Begin BAE test pilot Graham Tomlinson, the lead STOVL pilot, engages the F-35B short takeoff/vertical landing, or STOVL, propulsion system in flight for the first time. Tomlinson climbs to 5,000 feet and engages the aircraft’s shaft-driven lift fan propulsion system at 210 knots, then slows to 180 knots with the system engaged before accelerating and converting back to conventional flight mode. The STOVL propulsion system is engaged for a total of fourteen minutes during the flight. Photo By Andy Wolfe 23 January 2010 Two F-35Bs Fly On Same Day At Pax River Both F-35B variants in flight test at NAS Patuxent River, Maryland, fly on the same day for the first time. Tomlinson flies BF-1 on its third STOVL-mode flight. He engages the lift system for eleven minutes during the flight. The flight profile includes airborne conversions at 200 knots and 5,000 feet and handling tests at 150 knots. The team at Patuxent River use hot pit refueling to fly a second sortie for BF-1 on the same day. Photo By Andy Wolfe The second F-35B, BF-2, conducts additional air-refueling testing during its seventeenth flight. Bachmann takes the aircraft to 10,000 feet where he makes two refueling contacts with a KC-130 from VX-20 during the 1.4-hour flight.

Photo By Randy Hepp

26 January 2010 First RAF Pilot Flies F-35 Royal Air Force Squadron Leader Steve Long becomes the first active duty service pilot from the United Kingdom to fly the F-35 Lightning II. He flies BF-2 from NAS Patuxent River, Maryland, logging the aircraft’s eighteenth mission. Long flies the aircraft to 20,000 feet before landing 1.3 hours later. The RAF pilot has more than 2,200 hours of flight time including more than 100 sorties over Kosovo and Bosnia, Sierra Leone, and Iraq. Long currently flies the F/A-18 as an exchange pilot with the US Marine Corps. Photo By Andy Wolfe 2 February 2010 BF-3 First Flight BF-3 takes off for the first time.

During the flight, from NAS Fort Worth JRB, Texas, Beesley tests the aircraft’s handling qualities, engine functionality, landing gear operation, and basic subsystem performance.

BF-3 is instrumented for flight sciences test work and will be used primarily to evaluate vehicle systems and expand the aircraft’s aerodynamic and structural loads envelope.

It will carry and release most of the weapons the F-35B is designed to employ. Photo By Carl Richards

17 February 2010 First Slow Landing At Pax River Tomlinson guides the F-35B to its first slow landing at NAS Patuxent River, Maryland. The landing at 130 knots, with the lift fan operating and the three-bearing swivel nozzle deflected, is the first in a series of progressively slower landings leading up to the first hover and vertical landing. Photo By Sean Seremet 17 February 2010 Third F-35 Arrives At Pax River Knowles flies BF-3 to NAS Patuxent River, Maryland, from Fort Worth, Texas, and is refueled in flight by a KC-130 tanker. Photo By David Drais 20 February 2010 Second USMC Pilot Flies F-35 Lt. Col. Fred Schenk becomes the second Marine Corps pilot to fly the F-35.

Schenk, who flies the sixth flight of BF-3 for his first mission, is the eighth pilot to fly the Lightning II. 17 March 2010 First Hover And Short Takeoff BF-1 demonstrates the capability to hover during a test flight at NAS Patuxent River, Maryland. The flight begins with a conventional takeoff before Tomlinson initiates conversion to STOVL mode at 200 knots. He then slows the aircraft to sixty knots and flies a decelerating approach to a zero airspeed hover at 150 feet above the runway. This marks the first free air hover in the F-35B. Upon reaching zero airspeed, Tomlinson executes test points to confirm the controllability of the aircraft in hover. After completing all hover test points, he executes a slow landing at seventy knots.

Later in the day, BF-1 performs the first F-35 short takeoff, lifting off at 100 knots using less than 1,000 feet of runway. Photos By Andy Wolfe 18 March 2010 BF-1 Completes First Vertical Landing Tomlinson successfully completes the first vertical landing in an F-35B during Flight 42 of BF-1. The flight begins with an eighty-knot short takeoff followed by low-speed jet-borne flight to confirm performance.

Tomlinson accelerates to about 150 knots before reducing speed to the point of hovering about 150 feet over the airfield at NAS Patuxent River, Maryland. After a minute of hovering, he commands the F-35 to descend vertically to a 96- by 96-foot square pad. Photo By Damien Guarnieri

4 February 2010 BF-2 Completes Twenty Flights Knowles flies BF-2 on its twentieth sortie. The 2.5-hour mission includes aerial refueling. Photo By Randy Hepp 4

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Vol. 25 No. 1 2010

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eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee

Five new Fighting Falcons touched down for the first time at Araxos AB in Greece on 28 January 2010. The Block 52+ F-16s, painted in unique light blue and gray camouflage schemes, constitute the last of thirty F-16s the Hellenic Air Force is receiving as part of the Peace Xenia IV program.

PEACEXENIAIV

H E L L E N IC A I R FORCE BLOCK 52+ AT A R A XOS A B

BY ERIC HEHS PHOTOS BY KATSUHIKO TOKUNAGA

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h i s m o s t r e c e nt Pe a c e Xe n i a pro g r a m , w h ic h covers the fourth purchase of F-16s by Greece, began in December 2005 when the Greek government signed an agreement for the delivery of thirty aircraft w it h a n opt ion for ten more. (T he option for additional aircraft was not exercised.) The purchase consists of twenty single-seat F-16C models and ten two-seat F-16D models. All are powered by Pratt & Whitney F100-PW-229 engines.

The new aircraft will populate two squad rons of 116 C ombat Wi ng at Araxos—the 335 Tiger Squadron and a second squadron to be designated either 334 or 342. Both squadrons will be operational in 2010. A third squadron at Araxos, 336 Olympus Squadron, flies A-7E Corsairs. The A-7s are expected to remain in operation for at least two more years.

Col. Kostas Vouzios, commander of 116 CW since June 2008, has overseen the transition to the new F-16s.

“Araxos was not the high priority for our air force before the F-16s arrived,” he says. “Now it is. My job is to make sure the transition goes smoothly.”

Col. Kostas Vouzios 6

Code One

Vouzios brings strong F-16 credentials to the task. Besides having more than 2,000 hours of f lying time in the F-16, he was the former commander of 347 Squadron at Nea Anchialos AB, where he oversaw the HAF transition to Block 50 F-16s during the Peace Xenia II program. Vouzios’ experience at Nea Anchialos was further supplemented by his responsibilities in the planning and operations at HAF Tactical Air Force command during the Peace Xenia III program, which involved establishing t he f irst Block 52+ F-16 squadrons for the HAF at Souda Bay AB on Crete.

“Our air force has accumulated a lot of experience through the years with several versions of the F-16,” Vouzios says. “We are using what we have learned to benefit the Peace Xenia IV program here at Araxos.”

Modern Facilities A ra xos is about a t hir t y-mi nute drive west along the northern Peloponnese coast from Patra, which is Greece’s third-largest city. Construction of the base began around 1958, and it became operational in 1962. The 336, the first squadron operating out of the base, began with the F-84F and later switched to the F-104G. The 335 was established on the base in 1977, also f lying F-104Gs. The F-104s were replaced with A-7Es beginning in 1992.

The 335 began receiv ing Block 52+ F-16s in May 2009.

Araxos was chosen as the newest F-16 base for both strategic and available space reasons. Another factor taken into account was the additional space that will open up when the A-7s retire from the HAF fleet.

A sign just inside the front gate offers the f irst hint that new facilities are accompanying the new aircraft. The sign shows the Lockheed Martin logo.

Aside from producing the aircraft and prov iding technica l assistance, t he company functions as a general contractor for many of the infrastructure improvements associated with the F-16 as part of an offset program. The new facilities include two squadron hangars, two squadron operations buildings, and an engine maintenance building.

The two squadrons also share a f light simulator building.

“We have the best aircraft facilities in our air force. They are above our expectations,” Vouzios says. “The new hangars are designed to be maintenance friendly, which they are. A new mentality comes with the new facilities.”

The new mentality at Araxos can be viewed as a shift into the digital age.

“Our most important improvement is a fiber optic network,” Vouzios continues.

“We hope to have a paperless operational system fully functioning by the end of 2010. The network will link all activities at the base—logistics, base operat ions , a nd ma i ntena nce. Even ou r security and ground-based air defense units will be attached to the network.”

335 Squadron The 335 Squadron functions as an elemental node on that network. “As of November 2009, we have only two network terminals—one at our operations desk and another in the maintenance squadron—so we use the radio a lot a nd do a lot on paper,” notes Lt. Col. Evangelos Tzikas, commander

of 335 Squadron. “But that situation w i l l cha nge qu ick ly in t he coming months as we incorporate more terminals in the squadron.”

Half of the thirty F-16s and forty-five or so F-16 pilots at Araxos are assigned to 335 Squadron.

Four pilots in t he 335 a re for me r A-7 pilots who learned to f ly F-16s with the Arizona Air National Guard in Tucson. Five others are F-16 Lt. Col. Evangelos Tzikas pilots who went t hroug h upg rade t ra ining in t he United States to become instructor pilots. Most of the remaining pilots a r e f o r m e r F -16 p i l o t s w h o w e nt through training at Souda Bay to transition from other versions of the F-16 to the new Block 52+.

The majority of the maintenance technicians are veterans of 335 Squadron when it wa s a n A-7 squ ad ron. For example, Capt. Eleftherios Karfitsas worked in quality assurance with the A-7 at Araxos before he was selected as chief of maintenance for the 335. He went to the United States to train for eleven months—three months at Sheppard AFB in Texas for a maintenance officer course and then eight months at Lockheed Martin in Fort Worth for F-16 classes. “My training in Fort Worth was very helpful since I had no previous experience on F-16,” Karfitsas says.

While the majority of technicians have A-7 backgrounds, the squadron’s

The AGM-154 Joint Standoff Weapon is a GPS-guided glide bomb that allows standoff ranges of up to seventy nautical miles.

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maintenance function began with a core group with solid F-16 experience.

“We sent some of the experienced F-16 technicians to the US for training in systems u n ique to t he Block 52+,” Karfitsas continues. “The technicians with no F-16 experience were sent to our Block 50 and Block 52 units at Ne a A nch ia los a nd S oud a Bay for eighteen months.”

The F-16 is a radical change for maintenance technicians coming from the A-7. “Maintaining the F-16 is way different from the A-7 and the F-4 before that,” explains Karfitsas, who worked on F-4s from 1998 to 2004. “The Phantoms are very difficult for maintainers.

The F-4 is difficult to access. Changing the main wheel on an F-4 takes three or four times the effort and time needed to change a wheel on the F-16. The F-16 maintenance system tells us where the problems are located. The data acquisition system in our Block 52 aircraft makes troubleshooting even easier.” The system, unique to the F-16s at Araxos, processes and stores flight data on the F-16 from a variety of sensors.

“The differences between the aircraft are huge, and the work itself is a major change,” adds CMSgt. Spiros Koutelidas, a former A-7 crew chief at Araxos who now works as an inspector on the F-16.

“A simple inspection is difficult and dirty on the A-7 because the airplane is so old. We inspect and repair on the A-7. We inspect and fly on the F-16.”

Block 52+ Details The Block 52+ F-16s flown at Araxos are representative of the most advanced F-16s produced to date. They have additional fuel and payload capacity, new or improved avionics and sensors, color cockpit displays with enhanced pilot/vehicle interfaces, as well as many other improvements.

Conformal fuel tanks, which can be used in lieu of wing tanks, free the inner w ing store stations and, if needed, double the primary air-to-ground payload. The tanks have a negligible effect on the F-16’s agility, handling qualities, flight limits, and signature.

The aircraft’s Northrop Grumman APG-68(V)9 multimode radar, one of the most advanced radars flying today, has more than fivefold faster processing 8

Code One

The F-16 debrief system at Araxos allows pilots to focus wherever they want without having to rewind one or more tapes. The system records every detail of the flight and shows displays from every aircraft in the flight.

speed a nd tenfold g reater memor y capacity over the previous radars. A high-resolution synthetic aperture radar mode allows the pilot to locate and recognize tactical ground targets from considerable distances.

The Block 52+ gains an enhanced capability for precision strike from st a ndof f d i st a nc e s w it h adv a nc e d weapons, such as GBU-31 Joint Direct Attack Munition and the AGM-154 Joint Standoff Weapon. Air-to-air improvements include a thirty percent increase in detection range and functionality and tracking quality improvements in various modes.

The aircraft will employ LANTIRN targeting pods. In conjunction with laserguided bombs, the targeting pod provides day/night precision strikes from high altitudes. Among other uses, the targeting systems can be employed for seeker cueing of a variety of guided weapons and for covert air-to-air operations.

T h e c o c k p i t f e a t u r e s t h e j o i nt helmet-mounted cueing system, color mu lt i f u nc t ion d isplays, d ig ita l r e c o rd i n g e q u ipm e nt , a nd l a r g e capacity data transfer cartridges. The a i rc r a f t h a s c o c k pit l i g ht i n g a nd external strip lighting compatible with night vision goggles.

All two-seat models of the Block 52+ have a distinctive dorsal avionics compartment that allows these aircraft to accommodate all of the systems of the single-seat model in addition to more chaff/flare dispensers. The rear cockpit can be configured for either a weapon system operator or an instructor pilot

and can be converted with a single switch in the cockpit.

Unique Systems While the systems above are shared with the Block 52+ aircraft at Souda Bay, the Araxos F-16s have several unique systems. Some of the more significant are a digital video recorder, Link 16 datalink, and a reconnaissance system.

The digital video recorder captures relevant flight information for an entire sortie. Pilots don’t have to start and stop a recorder, for example, to capture critical portions of a training f light. The recorder is part of a ground debrief system with impressive features. “We can replay the mission from the perspective of any F-16 involved in that mission,” explains Capt. Demetrios Papageorgiou, a pilot with 335 Squadron.

“The system allows us to focus wherever we want without having to rewind one or more tapes. It records every detail of the f light, every communication. The system is one of the best things that came with these aircraft.”

While pilots have high praise for the new debrief system, all agree Link 16 datalink is the most impressive of the new capabi lit ies. Li n k 16 prov ides secure, jam-resistant, high-volume data exchange on a multinode network.

“An air force will have to be part of the network to fly cooperative missions in the future, so Link 16 is a prerequisite for participating in joint operations,” explains Vouzios. “Link 16 provided a huge tactical advantage when we participated in a NATO exercise on Crete

in November. For now, we are the only fighter unit in the Hellenic Air Force with Link 16, besides the only unit with a i r b or ne e a rly w a r n i ng a s s e t a nd ground-based air defense units. But we want to upgrade all of our Block 52 and Block 50 aircraft with the datalink capability as soon as we can.”

T he G o o d r ich DB -110 a i rb or ne reconnaissance system allows pilots to capt u re i mages day or nig ht usi ng elec t ro-opt ica l sensor tech nolog y.

Images can be transmitted to analysts on the ground in real time for immediate exploitation and analysis. The DB-110 gives the HAF a long-range, high-resolution, standoff imaging capability to support tactical operations.

“While both F-16 squadrons will fly multirole missions with air-to-ground as their primary role, reconnaissance will be a specialized role for the 335,” notes Tzikas. “We will begin working the reconnaissance mission after the squadron is declared operational in 2010.”

“We have to start our operational concept for the reconnaissance mission f rom scratch,” adds Vou zios. “ T he manufacturer provides the data on how the system works, but the operational

tactics are country-specific. We can’t borrow from other users’ experience, so we have a lot to accomplish with this advanced capability.”

Tzikas sums up the capabilities of his squadron’s new jets: “I can do anything and see everything in this airplane. The situationa l awareness is excellent. If I miss something during a flight, I have made the mistake. I didn’t miss it because the airplane failed to detect it.”

“From the perspective of a younger pilot, the Block 52+ is a real challenge,” adds Lt. Panagiotopoulos Panagiotis, one of the few lieutenants in the HAF assigned to an advanced F-16 squadron.

“The aircraft combines the F-16’s power and agility with a totally new cockpit environment that enhances situational awareness. It is a delight to f ly.”

Right People “Because we a re f ly i ng a bra ndnew airplane with the most advanced systems, our air force is focused on us,” says Maj. Stratos Grivas, flight lead with the 335. “We have to perform to a set of expectations that are set very high by the capability of the Block 52+. To

meet those expectations, we have to create a coherent te a m from many people w it h a variety of backgrounds and Maj. Stratos Grivas experience levels.

We are getting there.”

“Apart from performing acceptance inspections and generating f lights, we are organizing a new squadron,” adds Karfitsas. “The process is something like forming a new family—an interesting challenge.”

“We have the right people here to do the job,” Tzikas concludes. “I feel very proud of what we have accomplished so far. The aircraf t are performing as expected. We have some of the best facilities in the Hellenic Air Force. We have t he t rad it iona l operat iona l weapons in place, and we are beginning to receive new precision-guided weapons. These new weapons will add even more capability to the aircraft. We are looking forward to the future.”

Eric Hehs is the editor of Code One.

Vol. 25 No. 1 2010

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BY JEFF RHODES

“The only aircraft this wing flies that needs a longer runway is the P-3,” says Lt. Cmdr. Nils Holger Christiansen, maintenance officer for MFG 3. “If we had given up the maritime patrol mission, the next logical questions would have been, Do we need an air wing? Do we even need an air station? Those questions were in the back of everyone’s mind. The future of the P-3 is the future of this air station.”

On The North Sea “If the world were f lat, Nordholz might be the place where you drop off the edge,” jokes Krey. Actually, Nordholz is the largest air base in the German

NEW DAY AT

NORDHOLZ GERMAN NAVY PHOTO

“FOR A WHILE, I THOUGHT I WAS GOING TO WIND UP BEING AN OPERATIONS OFFICER ON A SHIP,” SAYS KORVETTENKAPITÄN (LT. CMDR.) THOMAS KREY, A GERMAN P-3 ORION TACTICAL COORDINATOR AND MISSION COMMANDER. “WE WERE LOOKING AT A SITUATION WHERE T H E G E RM A N NAV Y WOU LD H AV E NO M A RI T I M E PAT ROL A I RCRAF T. T H E N T H E DU T CH GOV E RN M E N T M ADE T H E DECISION TO GET OU T OF T H E M ARI T I M E PAT ROL BUSI N E S S .

THE DEAL TO BUY THEIR P-3S HAPPENED QUICKLY, SO WE KEPT FLYING.” “Usually, it takes a decade to get a new aircraft,” adds “The Dutch then trained our first instructors, two crews, Kapitän zur See (Capt.) Ranier Kümpel, commander of and our maintainers. It was definitely a tough situation Marinef liegergeschwader (MFG, or Naval Air Wing) 3 at for both parties. They had to teach the people who were NAS Nordholz, Germany. “We received our P-3 aircraft from taking their aircraft.” the Netherlands in 2005 and 2006. By November of 2007, “The German philosophy is to keep equipment forever, we were f lying operational missions with the Orion for keep it polished and up-to-date, and use it endlessly,” NATO in Operation Active Endeavour.”

Kümpel notes. “About every ten years, the government The Royal Netherlands Air Force ordered thirteen P-3C looks at service life extension. The career of the Breguet aircraft in 1978, and deliveries began in 1982. After much Atlantic aircraft we had been f lying since 1965 had come political wrangling, the Dutch parliament approved drastic to an end. Moderndefense budget cuts in late 2004, which ended the country’s izing those aircraft Lt. Cmdr. Thomas Krey more than five-decade-long maritime patrol mission. The again was not ecoDutch government sold its P-3s, with five aircraft going to nomically or operaPortugal and eight to Germany. Three of the now-Portuguese tionally viable. If the aircraft are dedicated trainers, or “bounce birds.” All of the P-3 d id n’t work, it now-German aircraft are operational mission aircraft. would have been the Ironically, ten of the Dutch aircraft had received the end of the maritime Capability Upgrade Program improvements shortly before patrol aircraft busithe P-3 transfer was announced. “The Dutch upgraded the ness in the German equipment on their aircraft, and then they sold them,” Navy. And that was notes Krey, who is also the training officer for MFG 3. not an option.”

Capt. Ranier Kümpel

armed forces in terms of both physical size and assigned personnel. The base is about an hour’s drive north of Bremen near the resort town of Cuxhaven on the North Sea. Nordholz was commissioned as a naval airship base in 1914. Forty-two of the seventy-f ive Zeppelin Company airships in the Imperial German Navy fleet were stationed there during World War I. The base was dismantled and demilitarized starting in 1919.

During World War II, Nordholz was used as a forward operating base by the Luftwaffe with only occasional deployment s by squ ad rons f ly i ng Bf-10 9 fighters or reconnaissance aircraft. In the early 1950s, the US Air Force 402nd Fighter Wing was temporarily stationed at Nordholz, flying F-84s there for about a year. After that, the Nordholz was demilitarized again.

In May 1958, a German naval antisubmarine warfare, or ASW, squadron was formed at R A F Eg l i nton i n Northern Ireland, f lying the Britishbuilt Fairey Gannet carrier-based ASW aircraf t. Construction of a modern airbase began at Nordholz in 1958 but was not completed until 1964.

MFG 3 was formally established on 1 July 1964, and wing operations with the twinengine French-built Atlantic ASW aircraft began in 1965.

The wing carried out its first NATO assignments in 1967. Later that

same year, German Federal President Heinrich Lübke conferred the name Graf Zeppelin to the wing to honor both the base’s earlier airship heritage and airship innovator and designer Count Ferdinand von Zeppelin. The next year, the town of Friedrichshafen, where the g ia nt a i rsh ips were bu i lt , b e c a me the official sponsor of MFG 3.

Beginning in 1970, three of the ASW versions of the Atlantic were converted into signals intelligence aircraft. Those aircraft were retired in 2009. In 1982, the ship-based Sea Lynx Mk 88 ASW helicopter was assigned to MFG 3. A pair of Dornier Do-228 aircraft used for maritime pollution control was t ra nsferred f rom MFG 5 at K iel, Germany, to Nordholz in 1994. Decommissioning of MFG 5 and transfer of its Sea King helicopters to Nordholz will occur in 2012, leaving MFG 3 as the only German naval air wing.

Orion On Station “We are still in the workup phase with the P-3,” notes Kümpel. “We struggled a little bit when we first got the aircraf t. Even now we sti l l need to improve the technical and logistics stability of the aircraft. Part of the problem is the small number of aircraft we have.

Our goal is to always have four aircraft available. If one of those four breaks or takes longer in depot, it disrupts what we are able to do.” As an example, corrosion wa s d iscovered i n t he f i rst German P-3 to go through depot maintenance and that aircraft was out of service for a year instead of the planned six months.

PHOTOS BY JOHN ROSSINO

PHOTO BY JOHN ROSSINO

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“There is a difference between the aircraft and the onboard equipment, though,” continues Kümpel. “We have some of the most modern mission equipment in the world on our P-3s. We want to invest a little more to upgrade the avionics suite, but we are very happy with the mission capability of these aircraft.” The wing is looking to add the Traffic Collision Advisory System, a new navigation system, and new high frequency radios to its aircraft.

“We try to fly with hard crews,” Krey note s . “Hav i ng t he s a me c re w f ly together all the time is perfect for standa rd izat ion a nd deploy ment.” The German P-3s are f lown with a crew of eleven: four officers (the patrol plane commander, copilot, navigator, and tactical coordinator), and seven enlisted aircrew members (five sensor operators, one f light engineer, and one inf light technician). The wing currently has five full-time crews with substitutes, but eventually wants to work up to nine operational crews along with a f leet replacement squadron. That milestone likely won’t be reached for another three years. German P-3 missions typically last eight-to-ten hours.

“The infrastructure at the base wasn’t completely ready when the P-3s arrived,” says Krey. Both an operational f light trainer and the mission simulator that operates like the back end of the aircraft were originally located off base. They were moved to Nordholz in 2009. A birdbath, the ground-based taxi-through wash system to hose salt water off the a i rc r a f t a f ter a m i s sion, w a s a l s o installed last year. Before the birdbath was completed, the aircraft were hosed off at a standpipe near the taxiway.

Of the nearly 2,000 civilians and militar y personnel assigned to Nordholz, approximately 1,400 are in the wing’s Technical Branch, or the supply, electronics/avionics, and aircraft maintenance functions. Approximately 10 0 P-3 Ger ma n ma i nta i ners were trained at Valkenburg AS, Holland, before the aircraft were transferred.

Maintainers are now trained on base.

A new hangar for the P-3s also opened in 2009. This glass-walled building holds five aircraft with pneumatic and electrical connections at each bay. One position features permanent workstands that allow maintainers access to the Orion’s fin and rudder. “Flight crews,

maintainers, the powerplant, avionics, spares, and quality assurance sections, as well as the isochronal inspection dock, are all now in the same building,” says Manni Wilken, a civilian maintenance supervisor at Nordholz. “Nobody has to walk too far to talk about an issue. It is much better.”

Real-World Missions “There are still 500 non-Allied submarines out in the world,” notes Krey.

“But taskings like Operation Enduring Freedom around the Horn of Africa, Operation Active Endeavour in the Mediterranean, and UNIFIL [United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon], and even basic tasks, like sea surveillance, are ta k ing so many hours to

PHOTOS BY JOHN ROSSINO

Sonobuoys being unloaded after an anti-submarine warfare training flight PHOTOS BY JOHN ROSSINO

This glass-walled building holds five aircraft with all necessary connections at each bay.

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accomplish that ASW is no longer our primary mission.”

Operation Atalanta is the European Union Naval Forces counter-piracy mission in the Gulf of Aden and off the coast of Somalia. The German contribution to this mission originally was

carried out by Sea Lynx helicopter crews f lying off a frigate, but the mission shifted to the land-based P-3 crews f lying out of Djibouti in 2008. MFG 3 has completed two six-month deployments there so far, and another deployment there began in March 2010.

“The deployment was challenging duty. Our people were almost overmotivated,” Kümpel observes. The first German P-3 detachment completed 107 percent of tasked missions on the wing’s first deployment despite temperatures that would often approach 140 degrees Fahrenheit during the day.

“We gained a lot of experience when we deployed,” Krey notes. “We have only a very brief time in the morning

to get airborne there. The temperature rises fast, and the heat really affects aircraft performance.” One maintenance issue on that deployment that was new to the Germans was dealing with sand in the propeller gearboxes.

“All operations need to put eyes on the target,” Krey continues. “The aircraft came with Star Sapphire electrooptical/infrared equipment, but we used a national immediate operation upgrade process to fit some of the aircraft with a Wescam MX-15 system in theater. We had to operate it off line because that system was not tied into the aircraft’s mission software.” The new Wescam M X-2 0 H D E O/ I R s y s t e m w i l l b e installed on the German P-3s starting in 2011.

Most of the necessary spares were f lown to Djibouti on a leased An-124 with one notable exception. “We could have disassembled the propellers and shipped them, but that solution comes with its own set of problems. There was only one viable solution to shipping propellers and that was to keep them in the maintenance stands, which are not air transportable,” notes Christiansen. “We had to ship them by sea. Unfortunately, on some things with the P-3, we are still at the starting point.”

As the twentieth and the newest P-3 operator worldwide, Germany is still gaining experience with the Orion. MFG 3 is sorting out such issues as aircraft configuration documentation and spares support. “We are well set for whatever operations are coming,” Krey notes. The German Nav y intends to operate its eight P-3s for at least a decade. With that goal in mind, Germany is considering ordering service life extension kits that will include replacement wings.

“The P-3 gives us an improved capability as far as the maritime patrol mission goes. It is better for reconnaissance taskings over sea and land,” concludes Kümpel. “We have a strong belief that, when we get the aircraft up to the high operational standard we want, which should be soon, the P-3s will be the most capable and the most requested system in the joint operations environment. The P-3 can do the job for our nav y, our armed forces, and for our allies.”

Jeff Rhodes is the associate editor of Code One.

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THE ROYAL JORDANIAN AIR FORCE HOSTED ITS FOURTH ANNUAL FALCON AIR MEET, OR FAM , FOR T WO WEEKS L AST OCTOBER AT MWAFFAQ SALTI AB IN JORDAN. AS IN PREVIOUS YEARS, FAM WAS HIGHLY SUCCESSFUL— THANKS TO F-16 PILOTS, MAINTAINERS, AND I N D U S T RY PA R T I C I PA N T S FRO M A RO U N D THE WORLD. BY CAPT. NICOLE DAVID

T

FALCONAIRMEE T2009

hree countries participated in t he 2009 meet. The United States was represented by the 169th Fighter Wing, the South Carolina Air National Guard unit at McEntire JNGB. Belgium was represented by 349 Squadron from Kleine-Brogel AB. Jordan was represented by Squadron 1 from the host air base. Also in attendance were air force representatives from Australia, Bahrain, Egypt, England, Greece, Italy, Oman, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, and the United Arab Emirates. These countries came to observe in hopes of participating in future Falcon Air Meets.

Representatives from the 140th Wing, the Colorado Air National Guard unit at Buckley Air Force Base, once again judged the meet. The Colorado Guard was instrumental in the inception of the first Falcon Air Meet in 2006.

The 2009 meet was built around realworld coalition scenarios that drove the competition events and continuation training. The meet kicked off with a four-ship formation arrival. It was followed by a simulated attack on the base, causing F-16s to be scrambled in a large force employment. Once airborne, t he F-16 pi lots per formed a defensive counterair mission through an air-to-air intercept. During these missions, the fighters were supported by air-to-air refueling, which allowed them to remain in the f ight longer.

Eventually the pilots needed to land to reload weapons as quickly as possible to return to the air for an offensive counterair attack.

The three air forces participated in other continuation training during the three weeks in Jordan, including

basic fighter maneuvers, air combat training, and ot her large force employment missions. Unlike previous years, the 2009 meet added close air s u p p o r t t r a i n i n g w i t h Jo r d a n i a n Special Forces and US Air Force joint terminal attack controllers.

The South Carolina team took top honors in five of the competition’s six categories, including top overall team.

Formation arrival required a fourship f light of F-16s to arrive over a designated target in a sy mmetrica l formation. This competition was won by the Royal Jordanian Air Force with a perfect score of 100 points. The RJAF pilots showed “good formation and a c t ion ,” a c c ord i n g t o t he ju d ge s , and their arrival time over the target was precise to the second.

S c r a m ble l au nc h a nd i nt e rc e p t required pilots and crew chiefs to work together to safely launch an alert aircraft in the fastest time possible and then for the pilot to conduct an intercept mission. A mere ten points separated the first-place South Carolina team and the second-place Jordanian team.

Large force employment was a twopart competition in which a f light of F-16s was tasked to drop inert Mk 82 500-pound bombs on a target at a precise time. Later, the jets uploaded live Mk 82 bombs and engaged a ground target. The judging parameters were airspeed, dive angle-of-attack, release altitude, accuracy, and time on target.

Each F-16 carried two bombs. The winning South Carolina ANG team scored 190 points of a possible 200.

The weapons load competition involved crews loading two air-to-air missiles to an F-16. The event was judged on speed, safety, and reliability. The top overall maintenance award—based on the overall results of the scramble, weapons load, and sortie generation—was won by the South Carolina Guardsmen.

B r i g . G e n . Yo u s e f A l - H n a i t y, Mwaffaq Salti AB commander, emphasized that the Falcon Air Meet is not just about competition. “The interaction between teams showed me how these pilots and maintainers matured during their time here,” he said. “The Falcon Air Meet is not about competing a nd w i n n i n g t r o p h i e s . It ’s a b o u t enhancing our relationship on professional and personal levels.”

Lt. Gen. Faisal bin Al Hussein, special assistant to the chief of staff of the Jordanian Armed Forces and the creator

Brig. Gen. Yousef Al-Hnaity, Mwaffaq Salti AB commander

PHOTOS BY KATSUHIKO TOKUNAGA

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of t he event, presented t he awa rds during the closing ceremonies.

“This has been a great opportunity to work together in different scenarios as one team,” he said. “Falcon Air Meet is about building friendships, learning from each other, and helping each other bring peace to the region.”

FAM brings together partner nations to demonstrate tactics and techniques through friendly competition and con-

tinuation training in airborne, ground, and maintenance events. The meet prepares air forces of participating and observing countries for future coalition operations and increases strategic readiness. The experience raises the proficiency and employment capabilities of all air forces involved.

Capt. Nicole David is the public affairs officer for the 140th Wing, Colorado Air National Guard.

PHOTO BY STEFAN DEGRAEF

South Carolina Air National Guard pilot stands ready on the flightline.

Members of the Belgium 349 Squadron from Kleine-Brogel AB

PHOTO BY STEFAN DEGRAEF PHOTO BY KATSUHIKO TOKUNAGA

PHOTO BY Capt. Darin Overstreet PHOTO BY TSGT. WOLFRAM STUMPF

PHOTO BY TSGT. WOLFRAM STUMPF

Airmen from the 169th Fighter Wing, South Carolina ANG, compete in the weapons load competition.

PHOTO BY STEFAN DEGRAEF

Royal Jordanian Air Force F-16s in diamond formation

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The Black Eagles, the aerobatic team of the Republic of Korea Air Force, exchanged their A-37 light-attack aircraf t for T-50 Golden Eagle supersonic trainers in 2009. The team flew its first public aerial display at the Seoul International Aerospace and Defense Exhibition last October. The eight-aircraft demonstration wowed show crowds with tight formations and dynamic maneuvers.

BY ERIC HEHS • PHOTOS BY KATSUHIKO TOKUNAGA

BLACK EAGLES FLY T-50 “Our transition from the A-37 to T-50 was not a simple change of aircraft,” notes Lt. Col. Chul Hee Lee, commander of the Black Eagles. Since aircraft performance defines airshow maneuvers, the high-performance T-50 fundamentally changed the team’s repertoire.

“The T-50’s exceptional thrust and handling characteristics, which are consistent at both high speed and low speed, are strong contributors to t he specia l ma neuvers we now per form,” continues Lee. “The hands-on-throttle-and-stick design, the head-up display, and the multifunction displays also enable pilots to process more easily all information during flight.”

The team also added two aircraft to its show in the A-37 to T-50 transition. “In designing our show routine, we analyzed the maneuvers of American aerobatic teams, such as the US Air Force Thunderbirds and the US Nav y Blue Angels, and of some of the European aerobatic teams that employ eight aircraft,” Lee says.

The Team The Black Eagles team is composed of nine pilots—one who is the squadron commander and doesn’t fly in the shows.

The team has thirty maintenance crew members and six assistant crew members to maintain the aircraft, provide narration, produce videos, and set up the sound equipment. None of the current pilots came to the team with T-50 hours.

The T-50 team retained three of the six pilots who flew A-37s on the previous team. These three pilots in addition to six other pilots were assigned from Wonju AB (where the Black Eagles are based) to Gwangju AB, about 160 miles south of Seoul. At Gwangju, they went through the T-50 transition course and, later, the instructor course for the T-50.

The additional six pilots were chosen in a rigorous selection process. First ROKAF leadership decided the appropriate class of Air Force Academy (or the year of commission) for the replacement assignments. The potential candidate list was refined by considering only pilots above f light lead status (that is, pilots qualified to lead a f light of four aircraft) and only those with more than 800 flight hours. They must also have graduated in the top third of their class from basic and advanced f light training. A series of interviews and discussions followed. The final decision was based on a unanimous agreement by all team members.

Support personnel were selected from the most skilled candidates supporting the T-50s at Gwangju.

Lt. Col. Chul Hee Lee, commander of the Black Eagles, in cockpit

The Aircraft The T-50s flown for the 2009 and 2010 show seasons have red-and-white schemes associated with the training units at the 1st Fighter Wing at Gwangju AB. The aircraft are on loan from the training unit at Gwangju for the 2010 season.

The Black Eagles will begin taking delivery in 2010 of ten T-50s built specifically for the team. The deliveries will take place f rom May u nt i l December 2010, at which t i me the team will have a complete set of its own aircraft. In the interim, a mix of Gwangju aircraft and the new aircraft will f ly together. The new aircraft will sport a jet-black color scheme that features a golden eagle design on the wings.

The artwork was selected in a two-month contest that attracted more than 200 entries.

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The Black Eagles will begin taking delivery in 2010 of ten T-50s built specifically for the team. The new aircraft will sport a jet-black color scheme that features a golden eagle design on the wings.

These aircraft, designated T-50Bs, carry such unique gear as two internal smoke oil tanks (a thirty- and a forty-gallon tank), internal and external cameras, and high-visibility lighting at the wingtips. The smoke system, which is installed on the engine nozzle like on the F-16s of the Thunderbirds, was developed from requirements set by the team pilots.

The system can deliver smoke for more than twenty minutes. The two internal oil tanks accommodate the possible use of two colors of smoke. A smoke indication light, remaining oil indicator, and voice command for smoke spray aid in controlling the smoke display during the airshows.

The internal/external cameras are installed to allow flight analysis by the pilots and to produce promotional videos.

Five cameras are installed per aircraft: four inside the cockpit and one at the bottom of the aircraft. The wingtip lights, which resemble sidewinder missiles, improve the visibility of the aircraft for other team aircraft in the air and for the audience on the ground.

The rear seats of the T-50s, which remain empty during airshows, are often used for training new team members, taking aerial photography and video, and ferrying other team members to show locations.

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a

b

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d

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f

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h

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q

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Aerial Routines The team flies three aerial routines depending on weather conditions—a high show, a low show, or a flat show. The high show, the most extensive of the three, consists of a takeoff(a) with two three-ship T-50s followed by a two-ship. The entire team then rejoins and flies a loop(b) as an eight-ship formation. The loop is followed by a roll(c), diamond pass(d), wedge pass(e), eagle pass(f), and a bon ton roll(g).

The high show continues with a single T-50 performing a loop thrown in the middle of a slow pass (h). The aircraft reform and f ly a downward bomb burst (i) followed with a synchronized continuous roll(j) and an eight-point roll(k).

A single ship flies a screw roll(l), and the formation follows with an echelon loop (m). Two aircraft perform a calypso pass (n), and a single aircraft performs an Apache roll(o).

The show continues—a single T-50 performs a knife-edge pass(p), and the formation executes a rolling combat pitch(q).

Two aircraft perform a synchronized line-abreast loop and 20

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w

Team History The ROKAF established its first aerobatic team in 1953, f lying four P-51 Mustangs until 1958. Four years later, the ROKAF formed the Blue Sabre aerobatic team, f lying four specially painted F-86 Sabre fighters. The team traded F-86s for F-5As in 1968 and became the Black Eagles. The Black Eagles flew F-5As through the 1978 airshow season.

The Black Eagles were designated as the official aerobatic team of ROKAF in December 1994. Their first demonstration took place on 25 September 1995. While based with the 238th Squadron from 8th Squadron Wing at Wonju AB, the team flew six Cessna A-37B Dragonfly light-attack planes through the 2007 show season. The Black Eagles will return the T-50s to their original home at Wonju AB in December 2010.

T-50 Program Background Korea Aerospace Industries, or KAI, is the prime contractor for the T-50 with Lockheed Martin the principal subcontractor. KAI is under contract to deliver seventy-two T-50s to the ROKAF for training, which include fifty advanced jet trainers and twenty-two TA-50 lead-in fighter aircraft.

The aircraft began flying in 2005 and has been used to train ROKAF fighter pilots at Gwangju AB since 2007.

Eric Hehs is the editor of Code One.

split (r) followed by a double max turn(s) (a max-g turn in opposite directions). Four aircraft rejoin for an arrowhead loop and a rainfall(t), and a single ship performs a max turn and loop(u). The high show ends with a wedge break(v) and a pitch up landing(w).

“The wedge break makes a big impression on our audiences,” Lee explains. “The maneuver involves a formation of seven aircraft approaching show center. The aircraft scatter in seven different directions with smoke trails creating a huge fan shape in the sky. The shape symbolizes Korea’s dream to move forward into the world. The fan symbol connects with Korean audiences and contributes to the overall grandeur of the show.”

The Black Eagles will perform their routine at about ten airshows in 2010. Most of the shows coincide with Korean national ceremonies or military celebrations, to include the sixtieth anniversary of the start of the Korean War. Vol. 25 No. 1 2010

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PHOTO BY DENNY LOMBARD

“This program probably has one of the world’s most uninspiring viewgraph presentations,” says Barth Shenk, then the US Air Force program manager for the Advanced Composite Cargo Aircraft effort. “But looking at the original metal fuselage sitting next to the composite one now on the ACCA demonstrator, that’s when it sinks in. This is something fundamentally very different.” BY JEFF RHODES

T

he ACCA program was initiated in April 2007 to capitalize on the investment in composite materials made by government and industry over the last three decades through the Composites Affordability Initiative.

Greater use of the fiber- and resin-based composite materials, which are both strong and light weight, is seen as the way to significantly reduce development time and costs for new aircraft.

The longer-term challenge to the aerospace industry is straightforward: advance composite technologies to build aircraft faster, using less labor, fewer parts, and simpler tools, as well as make them lighter and easier to maintain.

The payoff: significantly lower costs to design, manufacture, and operate those aircraft. The ACCA program is a first step toward that goal.

Although composites are increasingly used in aircraft construction, ranging from panels and wing skins on the F-22 22

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and F-35 to f laps on the C-130J, those parts are generally considered “black aluminum,” that is, parts fastened to frames, stringers, and ribs the same way metallic aircraft have been built for decades. “ T he gover n ment ’s C omp osite s Affordability Initiative matured these technologies at the component-level,” note s Shen k, a c iv i l ia n i n t he A i r Vehicles Directorate of the Air Force Resea rch L aborator y, or A FR L , at Wright-Patterson AFB, Ohio. “With ACCA, we had t he oppor t u n it y to demonstrate we could build a large, integrated airframe faster and cheaper than history said we could. We took on that challenge and succeeded in a big way.”

The ACCA demonstrator, now officially designated X-55A, is the result.

The X-55, a highly modified Dornier 328Jet commuter airliner, was flown for the first time in June 2009, twenty-five months after the program began.

Airlift Demonstrator “Historically, airframe costs tend to sca le w it h size, a nd a irlif ters tend to be among the larger aircraft,” Shenk observes. “Next-generation airlift platforms appear on paper to be prohibitively expensive to pursue, even though the age of the f leet, increased demand, and a renewed emphasis on fuel efficiency are compounding the need. So, a irlif ters sta nd to ga in t he biggest benefit from a program like ACCA. A r my pay load s a ren’t ge t t i ng a ny smaller, so any aircraft weight reduced i s pay load ga i ne d . Wit h t he Joi nt Future Theater Lift tactical airlifter program in the initial study stages, the ACCA technologies are pretty timely.”

When the ACCA program began, AFRL selected two competitors, Au rora F l ig ht Sciences and Lockheed Martin Aeronautics Company’s Advanced Development Programs, better known as the Skunk Works, for Phase I. This five-month effort funded preliminary design and risk reduction efforts. One contractor would be selected to proceed to Phase II—fabrication, assembly, and flight test of a demonstrator.

“Boeing and Northrop Grumman didn’t even bid,” says Mike Swanson, who was t he Lock heed Mar tin ACCA program manager during Phases I and II. “We were skeptical that we could meet the AFRL requirements. But we accepted the risk.”

The requirements called for an aircraft with a fully pressurized fuselage and enough volume to accommodate standard-sized military 463L cargo pallets; structural robustness that could withstand common types of service-induced damage; and 463L pallet- and vehicle-compatible flooring and aft ramp loading. The aircraft had to be capable of landing on unprepared fields and to tolerate climate extremes.

“We looked at a clean sheet design, but that wasn’t going to get what the Air Force wanted,” notes Swanson. “A new design would’ve required more time than we had. We decided to take an existing airliner and transform it into an airlifter.

The 328Jet we selected is pressurized, has a digital f light control system, and is designed with a high mounted wing, which provides room for cargo and a ramp. We didn’t want to redo the systems; we just needed an aircraft to modify.”

In October 2007, AFRL authorized the Skunk Works to proceed with Phase II. Getting Started “ACCA was very much like an old Skunk Works program— a small group of experts working very closely, with minimal oversight, to achieve a goal quickly,” notes Swanson. “The engineers were located across the hall from the shop floor.

We could resolve issues in minutes.” At its peak, the ACCA PHOTO BY PAUL WEATHERMAN

The eight structural support frames that are in the new fuselage are located in high stress areas—these four bear the main landing gear.

Below: The single-piece composite upper fuselage is mated to the lower fuselage.

PHOTO BY DAVID HENRY

program had only eighty Skunk Works employees assigned to it.

“There was a high degree of trust between the prime contractor and the customer,” Swanson adds. “That trust was the only way this project could work.” Shenk agreed. “Transparency was a key factor. It was nice doing business jointly in a collegial environment. We had weekly teleconferences, but we also had a lot of informal communication. That kept everything moving smoothly.”

The biggest technical challenge was developing a process to produce a f lightworthy composite aircraft. “The weight savings that composites bring is great,” Shenk notes. “But their biggest advantage can be found in reduction of parts, tooling, and fasteners and in not having to build specialized facilities to fabricate and assemble aircraft.”

Four material technologies were key to the ACCA program. Large integrated sandwich structures brought an order of magnitude reduction in parts count—what would normally be two or more individual parts could be cast as one single assembly to reduce both assembly time and cost.

Highly tailored stiffening, or HiTS, is a process where the fibers are oriented in the composite matrix in the most efficient way for that component. Using HiTS reduced the amount of touch labor required to fabricate parts.

“Composite structures like to be large and continuous,” notes Swanson. “So, the idea is to make parts as large as possible. The use of joints between, say, barrel sections of a fuselage introduces complexity.” Traditional composite parts are cured in an autoclave with high heat and pressure.

PHOTO BY PAUL WEATHERMAN

The completed fuselage is rolled out.

PHOTO BY DAVID HENRY

One major part of the ACCA demonstrator, now known as the X-55, that did have to be made of composites was the cargo ramp.

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PHOTO BY PAUL WEATHERMAN

The use of a new generation of composite materials on ACCA that could be cured outside of an autoclave and at considerably lower temperat u res reduced tool i ng costs and allowed very large single-piece structures to be fabricated.

Finally, the use of Pi joints, which look like the Greek letter (π), allowed parts to be bonded, almost like a plastic model kit, rather than having to spend time drilling holes and installing fasteners—and adding complexity—to connect parts together. “We took a leap-frog approach with the use of bonded parts,” Swanson notes. The use of Pi joints eliminated the need for ninety-five percent of traditional metal fasteners on ACCA. Building Frankenplane The demonstrator, the second 328Jet Dornier built for development testing in the 1990s, arrived in Palmdale, California, in November 2007 and was essentially beheaded.

The flight station, a small section of fuselage, and the passenger door were separated from the rest of the fuselage. The horizontal tail, rudder, the engines, and the nearly seventyfoot-long wing were also removed to be reinstalled later.

The 328Jet’s original metal fuselage with ribs, stringers, and formers was placed off to the side in a hangar. The composite fuselage that replaced it in late 2008 is wider and taller with no stringers or ribs and with smooth sidewalls.

The eight structural support frames that are there are located in high stress areas—four to bear the main landing gear, three to support the tail, and one to strengthen the area around the cargo ramp.

Using the large sixty-foot-long by twenty-foot-wide oven in the Skunk Works’ Advanced Prototyping Shop, the fuselage was cast in two halves, upper and lower. The lower fuselage half is the largest single piece of the aircraft at fifty-five feet long and ten feet wide and was cast much like a fiberglass boat hull. A twelve-inch wide seam running the leng t h of t he f uselage is t he v isible sy mbol of where the upper and lower fuselage halves were bonded together.

The interior of the aircraft was left unpainted to show the composite materials.

“We made sensible design decisions, not just using composite parts for composites’ sake,” notes Shenk. One major part of the X-55 that did have to be made of composites was the cargo ramp, which not only had to support the weight

PHOTO BY PAUL WEATHERMAN

PHOTO BY PAUL WEATHERMAN

of pallets or vehicles being loaded but also had to hold aircraft pressurization. Cost and complexity were reduced by not installing hydraulics to operate the ramp. Instead, the ramp is operated by a simple hand-crank mechanism.

Creating the replacement vertical tail involved engineers and technicians at four Lockheed Martin facilities. The vertical was designed in Marietta, Georgia; laid up at Michoud, Louisiana; assembled in Fort Worth, Texas; and completed and installed in Palmdale. Installation into the aircraft required only fifteen minutes, and it fit perfectly.

The final numbers for this aircraft’s transformation are startling: The original metal fuselage and vertical tail contained about 28,000 fasteners. The X-55 has only about 4,000 fasteners and nearly all of them are in the area where the metal f light station joins to the composite fuselage. The original fuselage and tail had 3,000 metal parts. Those same structures on the X-55 are made up of only 300 composite parts, with sixty-two of those in the tail and twenty-nine in the cargo ramp.

Keeping the flight station intact reduced risk considerably.

The original digital flight display system was transferred to the new aircraft configuration to eliminate the need to develop specialized software. Many of the original wiring harnesses were reused, but some new ones were required, including those necessary for flight test instrumentation.

“We could save fifteen to twenty percent of structural weight in an aircraft if the manufacturing processes were optimized for production,” says Brian Shoemaker, the Lockheed Martin ACCA build team manager. “We did have some teething pains on this aircraft. Some parts didn’t fit the first time, a few had to be repaired, and some didn’t initially bond well. But across all the new composite structure, we encountered almost no delaminations and only a couple of voids [air pockets in the material]. The fact the aircraft received an airworthiness certificate by the FAA is proof the process works.”

The real proof came when the aircraft took to the air.

Last September, AFRL awarded Lockheed Martin the ACCA Phase III contract. This nineteen-month program will include further f light envelope expansion, training of government pilots, construction of a fuselage fatigue test article, and additional materials testing. Full documentation of the program will also be completed in this phase.

Longer term, AFRL is working with industry and NASA to de velop t he ne x t pha s e s of X-55 a s a te s tb e d for advanced technology programs, including further work in composite materials, energy efficiency, ISR technology, and advanced aerodynamics.

Another potential test project is to design and build a new composite wing for the X-55 to replace the existing metal one. “The Joint Future Theater Lift aircraft will likely have short takeoff and landing capability,” says Shenk. “We could incorporate high lift devices into the X-55 to provide a STOL baseline for JFTL. We have a rugged test asset with volume, payload capacity, and endurance that opens the door for a number of experiments.”

“Most of the existing processes in the aerospace industry are set up to build metallic aircraft,” concludes Swanson.

“With this program, we hope to fundamentally change how aircraft are going to be built in the future.”

Jeff Rhodes is the associate editor of Code One. PHOTO BY PAUL WEATHERMAN

Next Up First f light of the ACCA came on 2 June 2009. Rob Rowe and Joe Biviano, Lockheed Martin test pilots, f lew the aircraft from Air Force Plant 42 at Palmdale, testing basic aircraft functionality and control. The f light lasted eightyseven minutes and marked the final milestone for ACCA Phase II. Two other test f lights in July and August opened the aircraft’s performance envelope.

PHOTO BY DAVID HENRY

PHOTO BY PAUL WEATHERMAN

The original flight deck, as well as the metal horizontal tail and wing, and the engines from the original 328Jet, were reused on the ACCA demonstrator.

The original fuselage and tail had 3,000 metal parts (left). Those same structures on the X-55 are made up of only 300 composite parts (right).

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T HE R ECORD - S ETTING C - 5M

BY J E F F R H O D E S PHOTOS BY JOHN ROS SINO

T

he fall of 2009 was one for the record books for the C-5M Super Galaxy strategic transport. In September, a joint US Air Force and Lockheed Martin flight crew set forty-one world aeronautical records on a single f light from Dover AFB, Delaware. And in November, an Air Force Reserve Command crew set a speed over a closed course record flying from Dover to Turkey.

The early morning f light on 13 September broke eight existing world records and established marks in thirty-three other categories where there had been no previous record attempt. The records were set in the Class C-1.S, Jet category for altitude in horizontal flight; altitude with payload; time to climb and, separately, time to climb with payload; and greatest payload to 2,000 meters.

These records demonstrate the C-5M’s ability to quick ly get out of ha r m’s way a nd f ly at operational altitudes, all with a payload heavier than any other US airlifter can carry.

Class C-1.S is for aircra f t weighing f rom 250,000 kilograms (5 51 , 1 5 5 p o u n d s) t o 300,000 kilograms (661,386 pounds). The C-5M had a takeoff weight

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of 649,680 pounds (nearly 327 tons), which included fuel, crew weight, equipment, and the 176,450-pound payload.

The f light set a new record for altitude with payload of 41,188 feet. It also set marks for time to climb and with payloads of 35,000 kilograms (77,162 pounds), 40,000 kilograms (88,185 pounds), 45,000 kilograms (99,208 pounds), 50,000 kilograms (110,231 pounds), 60,000 kilograms (132,277 pounds), 70,000 kilograms (154,323 pounds), and 80,000 kilograms (176,370 pounds). The flight took 4 minutes, 13 seconds to attain 3,000 meters (9,843 feet) altitude; 7 minutes, 27 seconds to attain 6,000 meters (19,685 feet); 13 minutes, 8 seconds to attain 9,000 meters (29,528 feet); and 23 minutes, 59 seconds to attain 12,000 meters (39,371 feet).

The flight also broke existing class records for altitude with payloads of 35,000, 40,000, 45,000, 50,000, 60,000, and 70,000 kilograms, (achieved at 41,188 feet) and altitude in horizontal flight (41,116 feet held for more than ninety seconds). The mission also broke the existing record for g reatest payload (80,036 kilograms/176,450 pounds) to 2,000 meters (6,562 feet).

The new altitude in horizontal f light record broke the mark set by a Russian crew in a Tupolev Tu-160 bomber in 1989.

The other records were s e t i n 19 93 by c r e w s flying a C-17 airlifter.

Planning and coordination for the record flight took several months. Because this was a mass-to-altitude flight, each component—the aircraft, the payload, the fuel, and even the crew and their personal equipment—had to be carefully weighed beforehand. Kris Maynard, an observer with National Aeronautic Association, the nation’s oldest aviation organization, supervised the weigh-in. The NAA is the US representative to the Fédération Aéronautique Internationale, or FAI, the sanctioning body for all world aviation records.

As can be imagined, weighing a C-5 is not an easy task.

The C-5M, Air Force serial number 86-0013 and nicknamed Spirit of Normandy, was towed into a hangar, and scales were set up under each landing gear bogie. Calculating the weight of the C-5M took the better part of a day.

Next, the payload was weighed. The 176,610-pound payload consisted of twenty-nine standard 463L military pallets with additional pallets stacked and strapped down on top of them. Each pallet of pallets had to be individually weighed on the scales at Dover’s aerial port squadron. All C-5s can carry thirty-six pallets.

Using a new drive-on/drive-off system, the fuel trucks were first weighed full and then weighed empty to calculate the total fuel weight put on the aircraft. After loading and fueling, the aircraft was sealed until the crew boarded for takeoff.

The crew was augmented for the record f light and consisted of pilots, f light engineers, and loadmasters from Dover’s active duty 9th Airlift Squadron, Air Force Reserve Command’s 709th Airlift Squadron, Air Mobility Command, and Lockheed Martin. Air Force Maj. Cory Bulris, a 9th AS pilot and the 436th Operations Group C-5M Program Integration Office chief, was the aircraft commander.

Lt. Col. Scott Erickson, the pilot on the f light and a Reservist with the 709th AS, noted there wasn’t a lot of conversation on the f light deck during the 1.6-hour f light.

“The crew knew we had benchmarks to reach and was working quietly. We were watching the altimeter with one eye and the clock with the other. We shared the anticipation. We just wanted to make sure everything went smoothly.

And it did.”

The forty-one records were certif ied as US national records by the NAA in December and as world marks by the FAI in January.

The forty-second record came on 6 November when an Air Force Reserve crew led by Lt. Col. Mark Alderson set a new speed over a recognized course record f lying from Dover to Incirlik AB, Turkey, in 10 hours, 9 minutes. The aircraft took off at a weight of 807,581 pounds and delivered a payload of 115,781 pounds, nonstop and unrefueled.

The record was set in t he t hird C-5M (seria l number 69-0024), a former C-5A. That record was certified by the NAA and FAI in early 2010.

“Both of these record flights were well within the normal capabilities of the aircraft,” noted Erickson. “There was nothing we did that was outside of what is in the technical manual.

What we did can be done in the C-5M every day.”

Jeff Rhodes is the associate editor of Code One.

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Bert’s Last BLAST FOR NEARLY THIRTY YEARS, ALMOST EVERY AIRSHOW PRESENTED BY THE BLUE ANGELS, THE US NAVY’S FLIGHT DEMONSTRATION SQUADRON, BEGAN WITH THE TEAM’S C-130 HERCULES SUPPORT AIRCRAFT MAKING A FIERY, SMOKY, NOISY JET-ASSISTED TAKEOFF. THAT ERA CAME TO AN END ON 14 NOVEMBER 2009 AS THE CREW OF FAT ALBERT, THE AFFECTIONATE NICKNAME GIVEN TO THE TEAM’S C-130, CARRIED OUT THE LAST-EVER JATO BLASTOFF. BY JEFF RHODES PHOTOS BY JEFF RHODES AND JOHN ROSSINO

“Our primary mission is to provide logistical support for the Blue Angels,” said Maj. Brendan Burks, Fat Albert’s lead pilot in 2010. “We f ly approximately 35,000 pounds of spares, tools, and equipment and thirty-to-forty maintainers to the show sites during the season. We f ly close to 100,000 miles each year.” The Blue Angels typically f ly twice at each of the approximately thirty-five show sites where they appear during the average show season from March to November.

“Our secondary mission is to show the max capabilities of the C-130,” Burks adds. “We fly the aircraft to its limits.

The primary task of this squadron, after all, is to enhance the image of Naval aviation to the American public through our flying and civic outreach.” The team performs in front of approximately 15 million people each year.

But the Hercules wasn’t always a part of the show. In 1969, the Blues switched show jets from the F-11A Tiger to the larger, faster F-4J Phantom II. If a spare engine was needed at a show site, the team’s C-121 Constellation support aircraft could not carry the F-4’s huge J79 jet engine. So the C-130, which could, was assigned to the team in 1970.

In exchange for the Marines offering up a non-tanker C-130F as a dedicated support aircraft, the commandant of the US Marine Corps at the time, Gen. Leonard Chapman, directed that the aircraft would be crewed by Marines.

Fat Albert f lies with three pilots and five enlisted crew members—two f light engineers, a navigator, a loadmaster, 28

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and a f light mechanic. The enlisted crew members are all cross-trained and also maintain the aircraft.

“At the beginning, the C-130 crew was considered a Marine detachment to the Blue Angels,” notes Phil Brooks who, as a Marine captain, f lew Fat Albert from 1976–78. “They weren’t even part of the team. It was just a Marine Corps aircraft painted white with Blue Angels painted on the side.

The Navy and the Marine Corps have really come together.”

An Icon Shortly after it premiered in 1972, Fat Albert and the Cosby Kids, an animated Saturday morning cartoon show, became a huge hit. “We don’t know the exact date, but a little kid saw the big C-130 slowly taxi in at an airshow and said it looked like Fat Albert,” notes Burks. “And the name stuck.” Team members shortened the nickname to just Bert and collectively call themselves Bert Boys.

“We have our own fan base,” adds Capt. Edward Jorge, Fat Albert’s second pilot in 2010. “Kids everywhere love Bert. It’s big and bright. It’s a friendly looking airplane.”

One former Bert pilot noted that when he was on the team, many of the children of the Blue Angel jet pilots actually liked Bert better than the aircraft their fathers flew.

The Blue Angels traditionally end the show season at NAS Pensacola, Florida, their home base. Near the end of the 1975 season, then-Capts. Steve Petit and Ron Fleming decided they wanted to include Fat Albert in the annual homecoming show.

Recalls Petit: “We walked into the boss’ [Blue Angels leader/commander] off ice and said, ‘We want to be in the airshow,’ and he said, ‘What can you do?’ So we said we could put JATO bottles on Albert and light them off and climb up rapidly. Walking out of his office, I asked Ron, ‘How do you do one of t he se JATO lau nche s? ’ We had no idea.”

Developed at Cal Tech under the direction of legendary aerodynamicist Theodore von Kármán, the first JATO test launch came in 1941. During the Vietnam War, the bottles

were used regularly to get C-130s airborne in minimal time and distance to escape ground threats.

The only guidance Petit and Fleming could find on JATO was two pages of instructions in the Naval Aviation Training and Operations, or NATOPS, manual. Eight JATO bottles were shipped down from the Naval Air Test Center at NAS Patuxent River, Maryland, and were attached to Fat Albert on 12 November 1975, the day of the final show that year.

The C-130 crew performed no practice runs.

“We fired the bottles, climbed out at show center, and the crowd went nuts. We circled and landed. I looked at Ron and said, ‘Well, that was fun.’ That was it,” says Petit, whose last military assignment was as the Fat Albert pilot. He later had a thirty-year career as a captain with American Airlines.

However, it appeared that first JATO launch was only a one-time spectacle. For several years after the first blastoff, officials at Pensacola had no interest in storing the bottles, which require special handling and procedures. But a memorable impression had been made.

Popular demand brought the flames and noise back, and, by the early 1980s, the Fat Albert crew was carrying out JATO launches at nearly every practice and at most shows.

This has continued with the three C-130Fs, the TC-130G, and the current C-130T that have served as Fat Albert. “The JATO launch became a trademark for us,” observed Jorge.

“It’s a great wow factor for the crowd.”

A Full Show “The demo has greatly expanded since that first takeoff and landing. We now have an eleven-minute show that shows the capability of the C-130,” notes Maj. Drew Hess, who completed his three-year tour in 2009 as the lead Fat Albert pilot. “For a long time, the show started with the JATO launch.”

The eight solid rocket bottles weigh about 150 pounds each full and produce about 1,000 pounds of thrust. They prov ide t he equiva lent power of a f if t h engine to t he Hercules. Igniters are threaded into the top of the bottles and are linked via a simple electrical connection to a button on the flight engineer’s panel in the cockpit.

“On takeoff, we release brakes and pick up speed. Near show center, the f light engineer pushes the magic button,” Hess notes. “The rockets go off with a big pop and a lot of smoke and f lames,” adds GySgt. Donny Pharr, who also completed his tour on Bert in 2009. The aircraft takes off at a forty-five degree angle and reaches 1,200 feet in about eleven seconds.

The eight solid rocket bottles w eigh a bou t 150 p ounds e a ch full a nd produce a bout 1,000 pounds of thrust. They provide the equivalent power of a fifth engine to the Hercules.

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resource management. The demo requires constant communication between the pilot, copilot, and flight engineer.

We all support each other. The Navy’s safety school has even sent observers to watch us work.”

As the bottles are expended, the aircraft noses over, and the crew and the twent y to thirt y passengers on each f light—loca l civ ic leaders, recruiters, and ot her VIPs generally—brief ly experience negative g. The loadmasters, who are not strapped in, grab something solid like a door frame and take great pleasure in simply f loating up.

After a series of turns, the C-130 crew repositions and makes a parade pass at a sixty-degree bank angle in front of the crowd. Another series of turns and Bert comes back for a f lat pass at 370 mph at sixty feet off the ground. “We always use miles per hour instead of knots because it sounds faster,” quips Hess.

The f lat pass is followed by a minimum-radius turn in front of the crowd. The crew then gains altitude and sets up on the downwind leg for an assault landing. Approaching the runway, the crew pushes the nose over at a twenty-eight degree nose-down attitude, makes a maximum effort landing, and stops in 1,200 feet. The crew concludes the show by putting the engines in full reverse and backing up—to cheers from the show crowd.

“We have a lot of crew interaction,” says Hess, who has now returned to the operational Marine Corps f leet f lying KC-130J tankers. “Our demo is a textbook example of crew

After landing, each member of the current Bert crew signed the used JATO bottles.

End Of JATO The development of higher performance engines over the last several decades has eliminated the need for JATO launches in the wider C-130 fleet. The non-operational nature of the JATO launch was a contributing factor, but costs—storage, handling, and operations with the bottles—were becoming prohibitive. However, the main issue that spelled the end to the Fat Albert JATO takeoffs was the fact that the Navy was simply running out of the bottles.

“The last bottles were cast shortly after the end of the Vietnam War,” Pharr notes. “The remaining bottles had to be X-rayed every year to make sure the solid fuel was still intact, and a number of bottles were failing inspection. We have been rationing the bottles for the last several years.

Because the bottles were also considered armament, they had to be shipped separately to the show sites.”

Nearly two dozen former Bert Boys returned to NAS Pensacola to f ly as passengers on Ber t ’s last blast i n November. Many were retired, but a couple of the former crew members now command KC-130J squadrons. The last f light also included current Blue Angel enlisted personnel who were completing their tour with the team as well as a couple of what the Bert crew calls JATO Dogs—current team members who act as safety observers during the demo as recognition for their good work.

On command, Pharr fired the JATO bottles for the last blast. Shouts of “one more time, one more time” could be heard as Hess, making his last f light on Fat Albert, taxied off the active runway at the end of the demo. The appreciative crowd of about 100,000 people roared their approval.

After landing, each member of the current Bert crew signed the used JATO bottles as did Petit. The Fat Albert JATO launch had passed into histor y, a nd t he empt y bottles were enshrined in the National Museum of Naval Aviation just down the ramp from the Blue Angel hangar at Pensacola. By tradition, the two Marines rotating off the 2009 Fat Albert crew were presented specially painted and decorated JATO bottles.

“It would be great if the JATO launches could continue,” said Brooks. “It was a great era. But it has passed. The Marine Corps has gotten a lot of good press out of Fat Albert.

Marine aviation, in the form of this C-130, will continue to be an integral part of the Blue Angels.”

The Navy’s long-term aircraft recapitalization plan calls for replacing the current Fat Albert with a C-130J, but that is several years away. For now, the Fat Albert crew w ill continue to lead of f Blue Angels shows, creating goodwill and demonstrating the capabilities of the C-130.

But as the Bert pilots all noted, “We won’t have JATO, but we have some great ideas on how we’re going to start the show this year.”

“On takeoff, we release brakes and pick up speed. Near show center, the flight engineer pushes the magic button [The rockets go off with a big pop and a lot of smoke and flames].” – Maj. Drew Hess

Jeff Rhodes is the associate editor of Code One.

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A

small, white, twin-engine Beechcraft King Air aircraft crests the ridge and drops down into the valley. A much larger, gray, fourengine C-130 transport immediately pops up and follows the King Air into the gorge. On cue, the C-130 crew, now flying at 130 knots and only 150 feet above the ground, releases 3,000 gallons of water, hitting the exact line where the spotter in the lead plane wanted it to go.

Coordination between the two aircraft is critical.

“We t r y to t ra i n exac t ly how we would operate in a forest fire. The only thing that is missing is the fire and smoke and the turbulent air near the ground,” said Lt. Col. Wylie Walno, the military commander for the annual Modular Airborne Firefighting System, or MAFFS, training, held in May 2009 at Tucson Internationa l Airpor t in Tucson, Arizona.

More than 300 military personnel and seventy-five US Forest Service, other government agency, and associated contractor personnel attended the weeklong training period. During the session, procedures were reviewed, new aircrew

GIVING SMOKEY BEAR A HAND

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Ph o t o s B y John R o s s in o

members were qualified, and multiple water drops were made on simulated fire lines in the mountains near the city.

Three Air National Guard C-130 units—the 145th Airlift Wing at Charlotte, North Carolina; the 146th AW at Channel Islands ANGS, California; and

the 153rd AW at Cheyenne, Wyoming— along with the 302nd Airlift Wing, the Air Force Reserve Command Hercules wing at Peterson AFB, Colorado, are tasked with the MAFFS mission. Each wing has two of the palletized MAFFS units. However, by law, the military can only be called in to assist when all available commercial airborne firefighting assets are engaged in fighting a blaze.

The 2010 fire season will mark the thirty-seventh year of MAFFS operation. Crews have f lown close to 6,700 MAFFS sorties since the program began and have dropped more than 167 million pounds of retardant on fires across the United States.

In 2009, the C-130J made its debut as did the new and improved MAFFS 2 equipment, which, while specifically designed for operation with the Super Hercules, can be used on any Hercules.

Last year, Channel Islands and Colorado Springs operated the MAFFS 2 on both the C-130J and C-130H, respectively. This year, all four wings are scheduled to operate the MAFFS 2 equipment. Aero Union Corporation in Chico, California, builds both types of MAFFS equipment.

“M A F F S h a s b e e n d e s c r ib e d a s the most dangerous thing we do,” says

Col. Robert Baxter, an aircraft commander at Channel Islands. “It is very challenging and it tests the skills of the pilots. We f ly a heavy aircraft at low altitude, but that’s something we’re trained to do. C-130 crews adapted very quickly to firefighting and have been very successful at it. People see the effectiveness of this system when we put a line of retardant between the back deck of their house and the fire line.”

One Nozzle Vs. Two A series of devastating wildfires on Air Force-owned property and on private lands in California in 1970 and 1971 led to t he development of M A FFS. During those blazes, commercial firefighting aircraft, known as tankers, became so overwhelmed that the need for an emergency backup system was evident. Funding for initial design, development, production, and testing of a prototype system was provided by the Air Force and was completed in 1973.

Congress established the MAFFS program under the US Forest Service, which actually owns the equipment. MAFFS was declared operational in 1974.

MAFFS can drop either water or retardant, which is a phosphate-based fertilizer mixed with water, and orange dye, so the mixture can be seen from the air and from the ground. Because t his goopy blend—of ten derisively called “elephant snot”—is highly corrosive to aircraft, a rust inhibitor is also added. The most commonly used ret a rd a nt goes by t he bra nd na me PHOS-CHeK—and arrives at fire air attack bases on a semi-trailer in oneton bags. Each gallon of mixed retardant weighs about ten pounds. When the retardant is applied correctly—from the optimum altitude at the most efficient speed—it can put out a fire by smothering it or by coating the vegetation to prevent it from catching fire, thus providing a firebreak. After the Vol. 25 No. 1 2010

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water evaporates, the fertilizer in the retardant promotes new growth.

“The forest resource officer assigned to each fire will decide whether to use water or retardant,” says Clay Meyers, a Forest Service air tanker base manager. “While retardant is the first choice, we won’t use it in areas with endangered plants and animals, for instance. We’ll use water instead.” Only water is used at the annual weeklong MAFFS unit training sessions to reduce expense, mess, and maintenance. The 2010 training session was held near Greenville, South Carolina, in late April.

Legacy MAFFS is a series of five 500gallon aluminum tanks that are rolled onto the aircraft on connected, standardsize, military 463L cargo pallets. The system is pressurized by large groundbased compressors during reloading.

Over the fire, two articulated nozzles are positioned over the C-130’s open cargo ramp, and the 30,000 pounds of retardant in the tanks and ducts can be released in three short dumps or all at once in about ten seconds, leaving a swath 150 feet wide by 1,500 feet long.

While legacy MAFFS is like a bucket, MAFFS 2 is more like a Super Soaker water gun—only as much retardant as necessary is dispensed out of its single, 3,000-gallon tank to allow for multiple passes over a fire. On MAFFS 2, the reta rda nt is d ispensed t hroug h a n S-shaped duct to a single nozzle mounted in the aircraft’s left paratroop door. An easily removable plug door with a rubber collar fitted around the nozzle allows t he aircraf t to remain pressurized.

Because the ramp isn’t open during drops, retardant doesn’t blow back into the cargo hold, and the smoke and heat from the fire are also kept out.

Like the original MAFFS, MAFFS 2 is also a three-pallet roll-on/roll-off system except that it has its own onboard compressors powered by the aircraft’s electrical generators. The onboard compressors allow for faster turnaround because, after the aircraft is reloaded on the ground, the retardant can be pressurized while the aircraft is enroute to the fire.

“MAFFS 2 is a more sophisticated system,” says Scott Fisher, an aviation management specialist with the Forest Service. “The nozzle forcefully directs 34

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“FIRES COME IN THREE SIZES—SMALL, MEDIUM, AND OUT OF CONTROL.” – Col. Robert Baxter

a stream of retardant. The spray comes out at about seventy miles per hour and is optimized for the best coverage on the ground, and it keeps retardant off the tail of the aircraft. MAFFS 2 lets us be more effective around the fire. It’s sort of like using a ruler versus a yardstick to set off fire limits.”

Flying Missions The prevalence of yearly wildfires over the last several decades, particularly in the western United States, has brought about the need for permanent fire bases around the country. These facilities have basic necessities like pu mps , hose s , hold i ng t a n k s , a nd mixing tanks. Other logistics and support, like communications equipment, security, food and water, and places to sleep for the hundreds of people necessary to fight the fires, are brought in just like at bases near the fires or at training sites, such as Tucson. When the MAFFS units deploy, they bring in their own ground personnel and additional aircrews, as well as spare parts for the aircraft. A MAFFS activation is very much like a military deployment.

At Tucson in 2009, portable 6,000ga l lon water hold i ng ta n k s, ca l led pumpkins, were brought in, as well as pumps and compressors to load all the aircraft because the compressors on the MAFFS 2 units were not certified for use at that point. The crew of a C-130, with its easily recognized large Day-Glo orange MAFFS number on the fuselage and tail, would taxi into one of the three pits, and that aircraft’s maintainers, who double as the load crew, would spring into action. The MAFFS tanks aircraft were refilled in about fifteen minutes.

Mu c h l i k e c lo s e a i r s up p or t i n combat, retardant drops—from commercial tankers, helicopters, or MAFFS C-130s—are designed to support fire crews on the ground. Coordination in fighting a fire is complex. In addition to communicating with the airborne assets, the Forest Service has to work with other agencies such as the state highway patrol, the Park Service, the Bureau of Land Management, the Fish and Wild life Ser v ice, and even t he Bureau of Indian Affairs to bring a fire under control.

At an air attack base, Forest Service dispatchers talk to all the lead pilots, com mercia l t a n kers , a nd M A FFS equipped C-130s. To deconf lict the a i rspace, d ispatchers u se a Fore st Service-specific system that shows all the airborne firefighting assets involved in a fire with a bird’s-eye view. Click on an icon and the dispatcher instantly gets an altitude and airspeed reading.

“This system eliminates what used to take fifteen minutes of radio check-ins,” says Fonda Knox, the dispatcher in Tucson. To ma ke sure t he MAFFSequipped C-130s can come up on the f i re net, t he a i rcra f t a re equ ipped with the same type of new VHF/FM radio the Forest Service uses.

“This kind of operation gets hectic, but safety is paramount,” says Knox.

“We don’t drop retardant at night, for example. MAFFS is the safest aviation fire program ever. No one has ever been lost and, knock wood, the C-130s have never had an accident.”

“Fires come in three sizes—small, medium, and out of control,” notes Baxter. “Once the guy on the ground makes the decision to drop, the pilot in the lead plane will take me where he

wants me to go. We call the lead plane at about twelve miles inbound. The lead pilot will acknowledge us or tell us to orbit if he’s busy.” Once the lead pilot describes what he wants the C-130 to do, the crew starts running through the pre-drop checklist, slows the aircraft, lowers the f laps, and arms the MAFFS equipment.

“From the lead pilot’s direction, we see the target area and get the line. We know the way in, we have an escape route, and we have a way out of the drop. We stay about 800 to 1,500 feet behind the lead aircraft. Lead will go through and pull off, and I’ll follow him through. He is my seeing eye dog.”

During the run, the MAFFS pilot f lies

the aircraft while the co-pilot works the radio, runs the checklist, and initiates t he drop from a hand-held, corded trigger that runs from the f light deck to the MAFFS 2 set. Two loadmasters are carried on each drop to monitor the system. One of the two loadmasters riding on the MAFFS 2 equipment also has an auxiliary trigger.

“The common thread for lead pilots is an interest in putting fires out,” says Greg House, a Forest Service lead pilot.

“Knowledge of fires is a big help, but no two fires are alike. Flying through a fire is a very dynamic environment. It’s not really an adrenaline rush, though. We have to pay very close attention to what we are doing. If we do something that gets us excited, we’ve done something wrong. We fly at 150 feet because that’s how the job gets done.”

“The MAFFS mission is one of the most rewarding things we do,” said M a j . P a t r i c i a M u r r a y, a p i l o t a t Channel Islands. “We have to get the drop right or somebody cou ld lose their house or their life. We really feel like we help people.”

Jeff Rhodes is the associate editor of Code One.

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New Wings For CBP

Super Galaxy To Iraq

PHOTO BY JOHN ROSSINO

PHOTO BY JOHN ROSSINO

US Customs and Border Protection officials marked the delivery of its first set of new-production P-3 Orion wings at the Lockheed Martin facility in Marietta, Georgia, on 18 November 2009. Under the newly renamed P-3 Mid-life Update Program, or MLU, the aircraft’s outer wings, center wing lower surface, horizontal stabilizer, stabilizer leading edges, and fillet fairings are replaced. The program replaces all necessary fatigue life-limiting structures and employs new alloys that provide a fivefold increase in corrosion resistance. The MLU program removes all current airframe flight restrictions and extends the life of the P-3 for more than 15,000 flight hours. US Customs and Border Protection has ordered six replacement wing shipsets with options for eight more.

A 9th Airlift Squadron crew from Dover AFB, Delaware, carried out the first C-5M Super Galaxy mission to Iraq in mid January. The flight, a short-notice channel (that is, regular route) mission, delivered more than 85,000 pounds of cargo. All four takeoffs during the mission occurred on time—from Dover, from the outbound and inbound refueling stops at Incirlik, Turkey, and from Iraq. The crew arrived back at Dover more than four hours ahead of schedule. After the C-5M has been approved for direct delivery, Dover aircrews will save more than a day’s travel time by flying cargo directly to Iraq without stopping to refuel.

C-5M missions to Afghanistan began in February.

Black Sheep Raptors

C-5M Into LRIP

PHOTO BY JOHN ROSSINO PHOTO BY NEAL CHAPMAN

F-35C Update Assembly of the first F-35C, the carrier-based variant of the Lightning II fighter, is complete and first flight is expected by mid 2010.

The C-model, third of three F-35 variants to roll out of the Lockheed Martin facility in Fort Worth, Texas, is the US Navy’s first stealth fighter.

The first F-35C, known as CF-1, is the ninth F-35 test aircraft to be built.

After several initial airworthiness flights at Fort Worth, the aircraft will be delivered to the US Navy’s test center at NAS Patuxent River, Maryland.

The F-35C has an eight-foot larger wingspan (total 43 feet) and a greater wing area (total 668 square feet) than both the F-35B

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and conventional takeoff and landing F-35A. The larger wings give the F-35C a greater combat radius (more than 600 nautical miles) and range (more than 1,200 nautical miles) than the other two variants.

The wingtips on the F-35C fold up vertically to reduce the aircraft’s footprint on the carrier.

This variant also features a strengthened keel and beefed-up landing gear to withstand the stress of carrier landings and takeoffs. The F-35C can carry more than 18,000 pounds of ordnance in both internal weapon bays and underwing pylons.

The Air Force issued an Acquisition Decision Memorandum in January that authorizes the C-5M Super Galaxy Reliability Enhancement and Re-engining Program, or RERP, to enter low-rate initial production, or LRIP. The $344.3 million funding increment supports LRIP production for fifteen Super Galaxy aircraft, including RERP kit installation on three aircraft, material and parts fabrication for five aircraft, and long-lead funding for seven aircraft. When a C-5 has been through both the Avionics Modernization Program and RERP, it is redesignated as a C-5M. Production of the first C-5M Super Galaxy began in August 2009. That C-5M is slated for redelivery to the Air Force in September 2010. Current plans call for fifty-two fully modernized C-5Ms by 2016.

PHOTO BY SRA JOHN D. STRONG II

The 8th Fighter Squadron at Holloman AFB, New Mexico, received its first of twenty F-22 Raptors on 21 December 2009. The arrival of 8th FS flagship starts the next chapter of the squadron history that began in 1941. The 8th FS has not had any aircraft assigned to it since the F-117 was retired in April 2008. The squadron nickname, the Black Sheep, dates back to 1943 when the 49th Fighter Group was transitioning to the P-38 Lightning. The 8th FS was the last of the three squadrons to receive the P-38, and pilots began calling them the Black Sheep. Pilots from 8th FS were credited with 207 aerial victories during World War II.

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Taiwan P-3s Hit The Road

Manatee And Turtles. Oh, My!

10K Missions

A P-3 Orion travelled nearly 2,000 miles last October without leaving the ground. The Orion, the first of a dozen used P-3Cs purchased by Taiwan, was carried by flatbed trailer from the Aerospace Maintenance and Regeneration Group at Davis-Monthan AFB, in Tucson, Arizona, to the Lockheed Martin facility in Greenville, South Carolina, where it will receive standard depot-level maintenance, new wings, and an avionics upgrade in preparation for delivery. To move the aircraft, a transport cradle based on a standard piece of assembly tooling was modified to hold the fuselage. The aircraft was then disassembled and loaded onto nine trucks. All twelve aircraft for Taiwan were determined to be nonflyable as a result of structural fatigue.

Herd O’ Herks

PHOTO BY TSGT. TONY TOLLEY

Record Airdrop

The 737th Expeditionary Airlift Squadron in the Middle East completed its 10,000th mission of 2009 on 23 December 2009. The milestone mission, which moved personnel and delivered supplies in Iraq, was carried out by a 40th Airlift Squadron crew flying a C-130H, Air Force serial number 74-2065, deployed from Dyess AFB, Texas. Crews from the 36th Airlift Squadron at Yokota AB, Japan, were also participants in the milestone yearly combat mission total for the 737th EAS.

The 772nd Expeditionary Airlift Squadron dropped a squadron-record fifty-six containerized delivery system, or CDS, bundles over three different drop zones within Afghanistan from the same aircraft on the same day—27 January 2010. The test comes as a part of preparation for the increase of troops in the southern region of Afghanistan as well as an increased demand for airdrops. For the test, the squadron loaded and airdropped twenty bundles from a C-130J, returned for another twenty bundles, and then dropped an additional sixteen bundles on the day’s final mission. Each bundle weighed approximately 1,500 to 2,000 pounds. The airdrops combat improvised explosive devices by keeping vehicles and troops off the roads.

Orion And Hercules Together

PHOTO BY SGT ROB NYFFENEGGER

PHOTO BY PO3 SABRINA ELGAMMAL

PHOTO BY A1C STEPHANIE RUBI

A group of C-130 Hercules transports are taxied toward the runway at Nellis AFB, Nevada, on 18 November 2009, during a Mobility Air Forces Exercise, or MAFEX. The aircraft were participating in the biannual exercise, which provided realistic training for combat air forces, mobility air forces, and US Army personnel.

PHOTO BY SRA NANCY HOOKS

Desert Raptors

PHOTO BY 2LT. KIDRON B. VESTAL

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The US Air Force deployed six F-22 Raptors and 150 Airmen to the United Arab Emirates in late 2009 to participate in coalition training at the UAE’s Air Warfare Center. Exercise Iron Falcon, which ran from 15 November to 10 December, was designed to bring together Gulf Cooperation Council nations plus other countries to strengthen military-to-military relationships; promote regional security; improve combined tactical air operations; and enhance interoperability of forces, equipment, and procedures. The F-22 pilots, based at Langley AFB, Virginia, also participated in bilateral training opportunities with coalition partners. This was the first time Raptors were deployed to the Gulf Region. One Raptor flew a demonstration flight at the Dubai Airshow in November.

US Coast Guard HC-130 crews were involved in two unusual water dweller rescues recently. A wayward manatee was captured by New Jersey Fish and Wildlife officers near Newark, New Jersey, and transported to Miami, Florida, by an HC-130J crew from CGAS Elizabeth City, North Carolina, on 29 October 2009. The manatee was taken to the Miami Seaquarium for rehabilitation before being released back into open water.

On 28 January 2010, an HC-130H crew from CGAS Sacramento, California, flew two sick sea turtles from Newport, Oregon, to NAS North Island, near San Diego, where they were picked up by caretakers from Sea World. Now recovering, the turtles will be released back into the wild by midyear.

The Royal Australian Air Force combined its AP-3C Orion and C-130H/J Hercules operations in the Middle East to a single location in December 2009. The RAAF has shifted its emphasis from Iraq (Operation Catalyst) to Afghanistan (Operation Slipper). The consolidation of forces is expected to yield significant efficiency in logistics support as well as to reduce fatigue on personnel and equipment. Since 2003, 37 Squadron C-130 crews from RAAF Richmond, near Sydney, have completed nearly 11,000 sorties, delivered 63 million pounds of cargo, carried 130,000 passengers, and carried out 2,300 aeromedical evacuation sorties. AP-3C crews from 11 and 12 Squadrons at RAAF Edinburgh, near Adelaide, have flown more than 1,750 missions, accumulating 16,500 flying hours in Middle East operations.

Second C-5 Inducted For RERP The second C-5 Galaxy strategic transport was inducted into the Reliability Enhancement and Re-engining Program, or RERP, production line at the Lockheed Martin facility in Marietta, Georgia, on 13 January 2010. The RERP modifications consist of more than seventy improvements and upgrades to the C-5 airframe and aircraft systems and include the installation of new higher thrust, more reliable CF6-80C2 turbofan engines. The second aircraft to enter the RERP production line is a C-5B based at Dover AFB, Delaware. This aircraft, Air Force serial number 85-0002, currently has more than 19,000 flight hours. The aircraft is scheduled to return to service in early 2011.

PHOTO BY JOHN ROSSINO

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Last Tanker Out The last US Marine Corps KC-130J remaining at Al Asad AB, Iraq, departed on 26 January 2010, marking the end of a 59.5-month deployment. During the nearly five years in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom, the Marine KC-130Js at Al Asad logged over 17,000 sorties totaling more than 29,000 flight hours and delivered 89,000 passengers and more than 30 million pounds of cargo. The tanker crews off-loaded over 190 million pounds of fuel to probe-equipped fighters and helicopters during that time. The KC-130Js were rotationally deployed from VMGR-252 at MCAS Cherry Point, North Carolina, and VMGR-352 at MCAS Miramar, California.

PHOTO BY SGT. SCOTT WITTINGTON

Blastoff

PHOTO BY SSGT. SAMUEL MORSE

An F-16 Fighting Falcon piloted

by Capt. Cory Farrer takes off before dawn on 3 February 2010, the final day of an operational readiness exercise at Misawa AB, Japan. The jet’s afterburner kicked up a plume of steam and snow as the aircraft rotated.

Cope North Exercise A pair of F-22 Raptor pilots assigned to the 90th Fighter Squadron at Elmendorf AFB, Alaska, fly near Guam, while Japanese Air Self-Defense Force maintainers from the 8th Tactical Fighter Squadron at Tsuiki AB, Japan, prepare F-2 aircraft for a mission on Guam during exercise Cope North in February. The US and the Japanese air forces conduct Exercise Cope North annually at Andersen AFB, Guam, to increase combat readiness and interoperability by concentrating on coordination and evaluation of air tactics, techniques, and procedures.

PHOTOS BY SSGT. JACOB N. BAILEY

Milestone Engines

PRATT & WHITNEY PHOTO

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Pratt & Whitney delivered the first F135 production engine for the F-35 Lightning II to the Lockheed Martin facility in Fort Worth, Texas, in late January 2010. The F135 has accrued more than 13,000 test hours during its development program. The F135 is derived from the F119 engine that powers the F-22. In a related note, P&W delivered the 400th F119 to the Lockheed Martin facility in Marietta, Georgia, at the end of November 2009. The F119 has surpassed more than 125,000 operational flight hours since the F-22 was first flown in 1997.

Fini Flight

Final Touchdown

ROYAL AUSTRALIAN AIR FORCE PHOTO

Warrant Officer Rudy Mech, the longest-serving enlisted aircrew member in the Royal Australian Air Force, retired on 18 February 2010 after a forty-two year career with more than 15,000 flight hours—roughly 625 days—most of which came as a C-130 loadmaster. During his career, he served on C-130E, H, and J models, loading everything from emus to a submarine periscope. His last flight came on a C-130J tactical exercise a week before he retired. Mech joined the RAAF in 1968 at age seventeen. He served as a door gunner on UH-1 helicopters during the Vietnam War and flew with then-Pilot Officer Angus Houston, who is now Air Chief Marshal Houston, chief of the Australian Defence Force.

PHOTO BY SARAH DICKERSON

An L-1011 TriStar airliner destined for the scrap heap was refurbished instead and cleared for a one-time flight from Roswell, New Mexico, on 30 January 2010, to become the newest exhibit at the Airline History Museum in Kansas City, Missouri. The aircraft, built in 1972 and formerly owned by TWA, will become an educational exhibit. The landing marked the first time a TriStar had touched down at Wheeler Downtown Airport, the location of the museum. The museum’s other aircraft includes a Lockheed Constellation and a Martin 404.

Turkish F-16s Visit Fort Worth

In Memoriam

PHOTO BY JOHN WILSON

Four Turkish F-16s, two Block 40 and two Block 50 aircraft, are going through the flight test phase of the Peace Onyx III program at the Lockheed Martin facility in Fort Worth, Texas. The aircraft arrived in June 2009 after a successful ferry mission from Akinci AB located near Ankara, Turkey. The Turkish Air Force provided tanker support for the ferry flight. The F-16s received a complete avionics upgrade prior to the start of the test program at the Turkish Aerospace Industries facility, also located in Ankara. The flight test phase is expected to last through September 2011.

Kleine Brogel Museum Opens Kleine Brogel AB opened its own air museum on 20 January 2010. The museum provides historical overview of one of Belgium’s most important air bases through photos, documents, and artifacts relating to the base and its mission. Kleine Brogel is home to 10 Wing, which operates F-16s.

Robert A. Fuhrman, who retired as vice chairman and chief operating officer of Lockheed Corporation in 1990, passed away 21 November 2009. He was eighty-four. He directed the Polaris fleet ballistic missile program and led development of the Poseidon and Trident sea-launched ballistic missiles for the US Navy.

Fuhrman served as president of Lockheed-Georgia Company and then Lockheed-California Company where he oversaw development of the L-1011 TriStar airliner and the S-3A Viking carrier-borne multimission aircraft. Fuhrman became president and chief operating officer of Lockheed Corporation in 1986, then vice chairman in 1988. He was elected to the Lockheed Board of Directors in 1980 and served until he retired in 1990, closing out a thirty-two year career.

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