New design Hawk Mk 127 trainer set for quick success
JON LAKE
BAE Systems reported yesterday that a Royal Australian Air Force Hawk Mk 127 Lead In Fighter (LIF) recently demonstrated a speed of 568kt in level flight. The new Lead In Fighter Trainer (LIFT) version promises to be even faster.
Although it looks very similar to the basic RAF Hawk 1 trainer, which first flew in 1974, the BAE Systems Hawk LIFT is virtually a new design and competes head-on with the new generation of trainers typified by the Aermacchi M346, Aero L159, EADS Mako, Korean T50 and MiG-AT.
LIFT incorporates significant aerodynamic and structural improvements, and with the addition of full-authority digital engine control its Adour turbofan pushes out 6,500lb of thrust, more than enough to compensate for the weight of new equipment and avionics.
The Hawk has always been an extremely agile aircraft, with pleasant and viceless handling characteristics, and the LIFT version retains these attributes. BAE felt it unnecessary to design a new airframe or to incorporate fly-by-wire because that would have increased cost and raised airworthiness questions for little gain.
"Fly-by-wire is not cheap, and how often do you need to achieve 25 degrees angle of attack in a trainer?," asks Gordon McClymont, BAE's Hawk test pilot at Le Bourget. "The Hawk can still be used for instruction in basic fighter manoeuvring. Indeed it excels in that role."
Control
Some have suggested that modern training aircraft should have reconfigurable control systems to allow them to simulate the handling characteristics and limits of specific front-line types. But this seems to be an expensive irrelevance. "Most modern aircraft fly much the same - and it's significant that the Malaysians find the Hawk entirely satisfactory for preparing pilots for the MiG-29 and the F/A-18," McClymont tells Flight Daily News.
The aircraft has undergone revolutionary changes inside the cockpit. They include a modern, night-vision-goggle-compatible glass cockpit, and representative combat aircraft systems and sensors, including FLIR, state-of-the art displays, and even a radar simulation system.
Skills
They will allow the Hawk to be used to teach all the core skills required by today's fast-jet pilots, including systems management and the use of night vision goggles, helmet-mounted sights and advanced weapons.
Applications will include pre-operational conversion unit flying training, giving students early experience of the skills that would otherwise be taught at a type conversion unit or on a squadron.
The baseline Hawk provided an excellent grounding for aircraft like the Buccaneer and Phantom, while the new versions prepare student pilots for aircraft like the Eurofighter, Gripen and the latest versions of the F-16 and MiG-29.
Source: Flight Daily News
