Lockheed Martin will roll out the C-130J Hercules amid signs that its private-venture gamble to upgrade the Hercules may yet pay off.
Graham Warwick/MARIETTA
LOCKHEED MARTIN'S first C-130J Hercules II transport is in "good shape" for the roll-out on 18 October, says programme director Bill Mikolowsky. Preparations for a first flight "before Christmas" will begin with the release of the first software load immediately after the roll-out, he says.
It promises to be an eventful week at Lockheed Martin's Marietta, Georgia, plant. The first Hercules II to be rolled out is the first of 25 "long-body" C-130J-30s for the Royal Air Force. Two days later, the first "short-body" C-130J for the US Air Force will be rolled out.
The two aircraft are part of an initial batch of five Hercules IIs built by Lockheed Martin for the flight-test programme. Aircraft numbers 1, 3 and 5 are RAF C-130J-30s, while aircraft numbers 2 and 4 are USAF C-130Js. Fabrication of the sixth aircraft, an RAF C-130J-30, has begun, Mikolowsky says.
The C-130J is being developed as a private venture, and customers have agreed to accept civil certification, rather than military qualification, as the basis for demonstration of the aircraft's airworthiness. US Federal Aviation Administration certification of the C-130J is planned for mid-December 1996.
Lockheed certificated the Hercules in 1985, as the L-100-30, and plans to gain approval of the C-130J under an amended L-100 type-certificate - but without building an "L-100J". Mikolowsky says that the company has US Federal Aviation Administration approval to use the military C-130Js for certification flight-testing, provided any switches not required in the civil version are taped over.
Changes from the current-production C-130H include new 3,420kW (4,600hp) Allison AE2100D3 turboprops driving Dowty six-blade composite propellers; a two-crew cockpit with four large, liquid-crystal, head-down displays and two head-up displays; new digital avionics; and various system improvements (Flight International, 31 August-6 September, 1994).
SOFTWARE TASK
Perhaps the biggest task facing Lockheed Martin is certification of the almost 600,000 lines of software code in the C-130J. To achieve this, new software is being designed to both civil DO 178 requirements and military standard 2167 - a tough undertaking, says Mikolowsky, adding: "We will show equivalency [with DO 178] for off-the-shelf military software."
A rigid software-development process is being used, involving the staged release of software loads which will be exhaustively tested in the systems-integration laboratory, engineering flight-simulator and the aircraft before it is flown.
The initial release, labelled 1.1, is expected at the end of the roll-out week and will allow functional testing of the electronic circuit-breakers. "These are unique to the C-130J, and we have to be sure they work," says Mikolowsky. This software will be fully "ventilated" in bench and aircraft tests before the first flight, he says.
Initial qualification of release 1.2 is expected in mid-October. This adds the software required for the aircraft to be flown, including software for the head-down displays, propulsion controls, radios and other safety-critical systems. This release will be loaded into the flight simulator for dynamic verification in parallel with laboratory and aircraft testing - "...to intensely search out problems," he says.
Release 2 will add the software required to complete FAA certification and will encompass "90%-plus of the final functionality", Mikolowsky says. Release 3, scheduled in mid-1996, will add the military-specific functionality. Release 4.1 will be the software version for RAF aircraft and release 4.2 the version for USAF aircraft. Differences between the releases will be minor, he says, and limited to items such as radios.
"We will do more software testing than has ever been done on a military or civil aircraft," he says, adding: "We will do as much testing as possible to provide evidence that the safety-critical software is safe."
Another task facing Lockheed Martin is certification of the dual Flight Dynamics head-up displays (HUDs), which will be operational in the Hercules II simulator by mid-December. The company believes that the C-130J will be the first aircraft to be certificated by the FAA with a HUD as the primary flight display.
As the HUDs operate independently off the same 1553B digital databus, the FAA was concerned that the non-flying pilot would not be able to make a cross-check with the flying pilot. Lockheed Martin has added a toggle switch which allows the non-flying pilot to display momentarily on his HUD the symbology being presented to the flying pilot. "The last major [certification] issue was the HUD. We believe the FAA is happy," Mikolowsky says.
FLIGHT-TEST FIVE
Of the five C-130Js in the flight-test programme, the first aircraft will have the most instrumentation and will be used for the majority of performance testing. Some tests will be duplicated on the long-bodied and short-bodied aircraft, but generally the flight-test duties will be shared. Aircraft 2, 3 and 4 will be used mainly for avionics testing, while aircraft 5 will be used for the 150h function and reliability testing required by the FAA to prove the aircraft is fit for service.
Certification flight-testing is scheduled to be complete by the end of October 1996. The first two RAF C-130Js will be delivered to Boscombe Down in the UK, where testing will be conducted to obtain Controller Aircraft release. The first aircraft is scheduled to be delivered to Boscombe Down in November 1996. The third RAF C-130J will be the first operational aircraft to be delivered and is scheduled to arrive at RAF Lyneham in July 1997.
As the USAF is buying the C-130J "as a commercial programme," it will not take the aircraft to the Edwards AFB, California, flight-test centre for final qualification, Mikolowsky says. Instead, Lockheed Martin will be contracted to perform additional testing towards the end of the basic test programme. This early operational-evaluation will cover areas such as air dropping, low-level flight and operations from unprepared airstrips, he says. USAF Air Combat Command will then perform follow-on operational test and evaluation before the C-130J becomes operational at Little Rock AFB, Arkansas, in 1997.
RAF test pilots are already resident at Lockheed Martin and will be joined soon by pilots from the USAF and the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) - which plans to order 12 C-130Js early in 1996. Their participation in the flight-test programme will be informal, but will ease the transition to operational testing once the aircraft are delivered, he says.
So far, Lockheed Martin has firm orders only for the 25 RAF C-130Js, although the USAF is expected to finalise its order for the initial two C-130Js by the time of the roll-out. Mikolowsky says that the contract has taken time to negotiate because Air Combat Command plans to buy the same standard of aircraft for the next five years, whereas C-130Hs produced for the Air National Guard "...change every year - that's okay for the Air National Guard, but not for Air Combat Command", he says.
The USAF-standard aircraft is not substantially different to that planned for the RAF and RAAF, Mikolowsky says. RAF aircraft will have the same cargo-handling system as the service's existing C-130Ks, while USAF and RAAF aircraft will have an improved system with a loadmaster's workstation similar to that developed for the McDonnell Douglas C-17.
Air Combat Command has a requirement to replace some 150 C-130Es and early C-130Hs, and funding for a second pair of USAF C-130Js has been included in the fiscal year 1996 budget, along with money for additional C-130Hs to complete the Air National Guard's re-equipment programme. Lockheed Martin is hopeful that the USAF will step up the pace of C-130J procurement to between eight and 12 aircraft a year.
Potential customers
The company still plans to build C-130J production to three a month, "...but we need another major customer", admits Mikolowsky. After Australia, potential customers include Canada, New Zealand and Saudi Arabia. C-130H production has been running at three a month, but is reducing as the transition to the C-130J begins. Fabrication of the sixth C-130J began in May, signalling the beginning of the end of the C-130H line.
The sixth C-130J will be the first built to the production plan. "A lot of components in the first five aircraft were installed out of position," Mikolowsky acknowledges. Assembly of the sixth aircraft will begin in September 1996, by which time Lockheed Martin plans to have substantially upgraded centre-fuselage assembly to include installation of components which under the present system are installed later, in final assembly.
Reducing the cost of manufacturing the C-130J is vital to Lockheed Martin's plan to recover its development investment without increasing the price of the aircraft, which sells for about the same as a comparably equipped C-130H. Mikolowsky says that the company has relocated engineers to the shop floor to help with problems encountered during production.
"Nothing has arisen that has been a problem for more than a few days," he maintains. Some components, such as racks, have had to be redesigned when it was found that they did not fit, but Lockheed Martin has taken the opportunity to reduce parts count and weight. "We can say with confidence that there are no show-stoppers hidden away," he says.
Source: Flight International
