LOCKHEED MARTIN AND Alenia have signed a preliminary agreement to develop jointly the C-27J Spartan derivative of the Italian company's G.222 medium-lift military transport.
The deal is closely related to Lockheed Martin's attempt to sell the C-130J Hercules 2 to the Italian air force, to meet its interim military-transport requirement. Lockheed Martin vice- president Terry Graham believes that the US Army also has a requirement for an aircraft in the C-27J class.
Graham says that the C-27J design will draw on the C-130J's Allison AE2100D3 turboprops and Dowty six-bladed propellers, along with "portions of the cockpit". The two companies have already completed preliminary engineering and market studies. The AE2100D3 would replace the G.222's twin General Electric T64 turboprops.
Graham and Alenia president Nino D'Angelo insist that the Lockheed Martin tie-up is not intended to undermine Alenia's involvement in the European Future Large Aircraft (FLA), which will be in direct competition with the C-130J. D'Angelo says that Alenia "...supports the FLA. We are very anxious to go ahead with the pre-development phase of the programme."
Some of Alenia's FLA partners are less convinced about the motives behind the Lockheed Martin tie-up, suggesting that the C-130J/C-27J deal hardly provides an image of Italian solidarity on the FLA programme.
Final assembly of the C-27J would be carried out by Alenia at its Caselle site, near Turin. If the two companies were to launch the aircraft in 1996, a first delivery could be made as early as 1999. The C-27J will not enter production without a launch order, however.
The aircraft would provide a claimed 35% range increase over the G.222, along with a 30% improvement in cruise ceiling, 15% increase in high-speed cruise, and a 12% improvement in the take-off run.
Besides performance improvements, the C-27J is aimed at cutting operating costs by 30% along with a 50% increase in reliability.
Source: Flight International
