Paul Lewis/WASHINGTON DC
The US Marine Corps is drafting a mission needs statement for a military trainer variant of the BA609 civil tiltrotor, in the first formal step towards an expected joint programme with the US Air Force. Following the USMC needs statement, the next step will be the drafting of an operational requirements document.
The two services are understood to be discussing a collaborative effort, with the establishment of a joint tiltrotor training study. Each service will require a lead-in machine to train aircrews for the larger V-22 Osprey, which will enter operational service with the USMC from 2001 and as the CV-22 special operations variant with the USAF in 2004.
"At this point, we're too small to pursue this as a single service effort. I imagine any follow-on programme will have to be a joint effort. The other services have started to look at it," says Maj Doug Hardison, Headquarters Marine Corps Aviation.
The military trainer version of the yet-to-fly BA609 would be common to both services. The major modification to the civil version would be the installation of a throttle control lever (TCL) for flight control commonality with the V-22. Because of the differences in cockpit size, the BA609 would have a smaller, but similarly configured, TCL.
The US Coast Guard is evaluating the BA609 for its Deepwater re-equipment programme but would retain the conventional collective and cyclic controls. The trainer version would be reconfigured from nine to four seats and there is a proposal to equip a potential navy version with a cargo hook for underslung-load training.
Deliveries of the first civil BA 609 are due to start in 2002 and provisional planning calls for the first military trainer to be available by early the following year. To meet this schedule, "things have to start now and we hope to get something by the end of the month", says Robert Oertel, manager military tiltrotors requirements.
A tentative conversion course has been mapped out for USAF and USMC Sikorsky MH-53 and Boeing CH-46 pilots to move to the V-22. It will include 40h of academic training, 15h on a simulator and 15h on the BA609. The US Navy is expected to follow a similar course for training pilots for its HV-22 combat search and rescue tiltrotors.
Source: Flight International
