Guy Norris/SEATTLE
Boeing has opted to keep F-22 aft fuselage and wing assembly at Seattle rather than move it to St Louis, Missouri, to join the rest of its fighter family, pending the go-ahead of new production lots by the end of 1999.
Bob Barnes, Boeing F-22 programme manager, says: "We have looked at it, but we do not see an economic or political reason to relocate the F-22."
The move was considered as part of a wider restructuring of Boeing and to control cost of the fighter programme, a joint venture with Lockheed Martin.
"The main challenge for the programme is completing the plan to cost. The aircraft is shaping up to be the most dramatic and capable fighter in history. We have got to make it affordable, and that's our biggest job," says Barnes." We are all struggling with cost and staying under the Congressional cap, and the plan we have to accomplish that is still intact." One scheme is to exert tighter control over the subcontractors, which represent some 60% of Boeing's workshare. "We have a problem dealing and managing our subcontractors," adds Barnes. who expects changes later this year.
Meanwhile, flight tests of the integrated Block 1 radar and avionics software are to start around 1 March on the F-22 757 Flying Test Bed (FTB). Following completion of these initial tests, expected in August, the aircraft will be used to test Block 2/3S software for about one year.
This phase will check the integration of the baseline radar and avionics equipment with the communications, navigation and identification (CNI) systems and electronic warfare software and hardware. The final phase, extending for another year into 2001, will test the full sensor fusion capabilities of Block 3/3.1.
The start of tests follows the installation of the F-22 sensor wing on the crown of the 757 at Moses Lake, Washington last December.
Boeing has revealed first details of plans to demonstrate its Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) avionics on a modified 737-200ADV.
Modification with a new nose section, cooling and power systems will be complete by April and the aircraft will then be fitted with sensors, including Raytheon's electronically scanned multi-mode integrated radio frequency system - an advanced radar that combines electronic warfare and CNI capabilities in a single system.
The Avionics Flying Laboratory (AFL) will also test the advanced electro-optics/infrared distributed aperture IR system, if given the go-ahead this year, as well as the integrated core processor technology at the heart of the JSF avionics architecture. The AFL will later be used to support other avionics tests in forthcoming Boeing military programme upgrades for the F-15, F/A-18 and T-45, among others.
Meanwhile, Lockheed Martin and Northrop Grumman have joined forces to test JSF avionics on the former Westinghouse-owned British Aerospace One-Eleven testbed. The Common Avionics Testbed will be used for trials of several combinations of radar, electo-optical and other systems. Like the Boeing AFL and F-22 FTB, the One-Eleven will also contain a representative fighter cockpit.
Source: Flight International
