Boeing is set to start flight tests of the first US Navy E-6B Mercury long-endurance communications relay aircraft upgraded with a new flight deck, battle management, command and control equipment and a broadband communications system.
This is the first of the US Navy's 16-strong E-6B fleet to be retrofitted with the upgrade and will return to the Navy after the tests are completed in the third quarter of this year.
Flight tests are due to start at Boeing's Wichita, Kansas, modification centre around April. "Flight tests will validate system performance in flight and gather operations data," says E-6 programme manager Dave Brower.
The new flight deck is derived from the common display system (CDS) developed for Boeing's 737 Next Generation family. The CDS is based around six Honeywell multifunction liquid-crystal displays, and will provide flight data to the crew in electronic flight instrument display format. The $123 million upgrade also provides the USN with a means of compliance with global air traffic management requirements.
Retrofit of the full fleet will be completed in 2005, says Boeing, which adds that the modern system is expected to yield "huge cost savings in maintenance. We are now talking thousands of hours between failures versus today's aircraft which are more like a failure between 40h and 50h," says Brower. Boeing has also "exceeded" its weight saving target of around 225kg (500lb).
The other major modification is the addition of a phased-array broadband satellite communications antenna. It will provide in-flight communications with the USN's classified and unclassified internet systems, adds Brower. Boeing's Connexion will provide the broadband satellite service for the first 1,000h of operations.
Source: Flight International
