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By: Kevin "BEAR" McLean
Two versions of the US Navy’s Super Hornet passed their initial flight tests. The Big built by McDonnell Douglas at 60 feet 1.5 inches and the Little built by North Carolina State University at 10 feet 6 inches.
Copying the plan developed by the Wright brothers almost a century before, NC State’s Aerospace Engineering department is again writing aviation history.
Two professors, John Perkins and Charles Hall, have invested almost two years in building a scale model, radio controlled copy of the F/A18-E Super Hornet strike fighter. The Super Killer Bee is the plane the navy is planning to use to replace the aging F-14 Tomcats and A-6 Intruders as it principal carrier based aircraft. The NCSU plane looks, fly, and performs just like its big brother but costs $400,000 instead of $50 million a copy.
The model had its first test fight at Johnston County Airport before representatives of the Navy, University and the press. Powered by a pair of tiny jet engines the model did a high performance takeoff circled the field four times before coming in for a perfect landing. All that was missing was a Cat and a Trap.
The navy planes to purchase about 1000 of the real Super Hornets, costing a total of $80 billion during the next 20 years. An interesting fact is one of the plane to be replaced is the original F18-A which has been flying for almost 10 years. The current F-18 is the aircraft used by the US Navy’s famous "Blue Angles" flight demonstration team.
The Super Hornet is 23% larger, has bigger engines with a greater range that the original. Most of the additional size is taken up by larger internal fuel tanks.
The NC State model will be used by the Navy to test design modifications to the F/A18E without risking a $50 million aircraft or the lives of its pilots. Professor Hall told the press that "The idea is to fly this remotely piloted vehicle through a series of test flights to obtain data that can tell us more about how the full scale plane, which has the same aerodynamics, would respond." Hall continued, "Because the RPV can make many flights a day, it allows us to collect data from more areas of the flight envelope, in less time, than we could do using full scale simulators."
The Navy asked the University to build the plane because of it superior reputation in computer science and aerospace engineering. The NC State’s F/A18-E is unique by virtue of its highly developed onboard computer systems and its ability to make long duration flights.
Professor Perkins stated, "It has digital data acquisition and telemetry systems, full three-axis flight control systems, six onboard computers and is powered by two jet engines supplying 80 pounds of thrust. The complexity of the thing is mind boggling."
The Models onboard computers will be used to update the Super Hornets full scale simulators data base at the Navel Aircraft Warfare Center at Patuxent River, Maryland.
Chad Miller from Patuxent River said, "Its like running a big wind tunnel in the sky. Wind tunnels have been used to obtain much of the test data on new planes, but they are limited in their ability to assess thrust effects and flight control interactions in an unrestricted environment."
The NCSU model can stay in the air much longer than unmanned drones or "drop" scale model planes the Navy has been using. The longer flights will allow the collection of more data with less down time. Hall said, "The challenge was getting the engineering, electronics, computers and transducers down to a small enough scale.
The model is flown by a pilot at a ground based remote control station, he sets the test parameters and controls the maneuvers and flight patterns. The onboard computers then record the data to indicate how the plane is performing. Hall said. "it really allows the pilot to fly the plane to an extent previously impossible with scale models. If you can work the bugs out before you incur tooling or construction costs, you even further save money, reduce risks and produce a better aircraft."
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