One of the key supporting elements of the UK’s Future Combat Air System (FCAS) activity is starting to take shape, with 2Excel Aviation starting modification work on the Excalibur flight-test aircraft (FTA).
To be employed as a UK-sovereign asset, the heavily adapted Boeing 757-200 will also help to inform decisions on the Global Combat Air Programme (GCAP) between Italy, Japan and the UK.
Now at Lasham airfield in Hampshire, “The aircraft is in bits and having its side and centreline pods fitted, and then we are expecting to fly again this year,” says 2Excel Aviation director Chris Norton.
The aircraft will subsequently be equipped with a radar, a variety of sensors and other systems which will begin in-flight evaluations “in the next couple of years”.
Starting work on the FTA follows the completion of a baselining flight-test activity conducted from Boscombe Down in Wiltshire.
“We really put the aircraft through its paces,” Norton says, including intentional three-point hard landings and stalls. In all, around 50 landings were completed using the instrumented aircraft, at a rate of up to “seven or eight in an hour”. The work was completed within around half of the expected sorties, he adds.
“We have proven that the digital twin is accurate,” he said at the Farnborough air show on 23 July, referring to technical data collated during the supporting tear-down of a second 757.
“The flying laboratory is an essential part of being able to test and demonstrate the equipment works in the air,” he notes. “It has to be able to carry and cool everything, and big enough to allow for integrated tests.” This will involve the aircraft being equipped with several mission system operator consoles, and data recording equipment.
“The FTA is key technology enabler for ISANKE and ICS,” says Andrew Howard, Leonardo UK’s senior responsible owner, Tempest and GCAP, referring to the company’s Integrated Sensing and Non-Kinetic Effects and Integrated Communications Systems equipment.
“We are making progress against a very aggressive timeline,” Howard says. “We unlock 2035 through excellent demonstrations of the technology,” he adds, referring to the targeted in-service date for the ‘sixth-generation’ manned fighter which will be the core platform in a GCAP system of systems.
The unique asset will be placed on the UK civil aircraft register, so that it in time will also be able to potentially support testing for Italy and Japan as part of the GCAP effort, following the completion of UK-specific activities related to its Team Tempest industry grouping.
“This makes the aircraft readily employable for decision-making demonstration flights and the spiral development of sensor and communication systems,” Leonardo says.
