Future USAF Transport Projects (MACK, ATT, NGT, AMC-X, AJACS, HAWSTOL, Speed Agile)

[SpudmanWP]

Boeing distributed propulsion RCEE concept via the same source

What benefit would having 26 engines provide?

 

[Jemiba]

What benefit would having 26 engines provide?

Maybe a more even flow on the underside of the wing and less impact in the case of an engine failure,
without the need for elaborate ducting or coupling of engines ?

 

[sferrin]

Boeing distributed propulsion RCEE concept via the same source

What benefit would having 26 engines provide?

Well, it would keep the maintainers employed.

 

[SpudmanWP]

I thought faster flow over the wing provider better lift.

Wouldn't this much fast-flow under the wing actually reduce lift?

 

[Triton]

I've read that distributed propulsion is attractive for decreased noise, increased fuel efficiency, and increased STOL performance.

 

[AeroFranz]

Distributed propulsion comes in different flavors. If you simply put a bunch of small turbofans where there used to be a small number of large ones, you are not going to get fuel efficiency, as that parameter tends to drop with scale.


You can get some structural benefit from the resulting span loading of the wing structure, but probably not enough to offset the fuel hit.
You need to do things like integrate the propulsors into the controls and start getting rid of control surfaces, making the tail smaller (no engine out condition to worry of if you lose 1 engine out of 26) or getting rid of it at all (differential thrust on the propulsors). Additionally, if the exhaust is blowing your flaps, you can get better powered lift than if you had a limited number of engines blowing small parts of the wingspan.


Distributed propulsion becomes a little bit more attractive if you start considering cryo fuels and turbo-electric propulsion.

 

[Machdiamond]

From http://arc.aiaa.org/doi/abs/10.2514/6.2013-1100 Design and Transonic Wind Tunnel Testing of a Cruise Efficient STOL Military Transport.

 

[Sentinel36k]

Just found this on my computer, from an aiaa document put out last year I believe?

Sentinel

 

[pedrospe]

Great ,thanks a lot for sharing.




regards




Pedro

 

[fredymac]

Couldn't find an entry for this in the search engine and this seemed to be the thread for it.


I haven't seen any other info on this so I am guessing it went nowhere.



http://youtu.be/chmmUF9fPSE

 

[hesham]

Great find Fred,


specially those variants.

 

[Triton]

Couldn't find an entry for this in the search engine and this seemed to be the thread for it.

More information can be found here in an existing topic:

"Boeing Pulse-Ejector-Thrust-Augmentor (PETA) VTOL concepts"
http://www.secretprojects.co.uk/forum/index.php/topic,224.0.html

Also known as the Boeing LAMV (Light Aerial Multipurpose Vehicle).

 

[fightingirish]

Looks like a future USAF transporter will be produced with 3D-printing machines. B)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KyWuHcvyqD0

Imagine a world where we can 3D print a full-size cargo plane or quickly produce a body part to save someone's life. Through additive manufacturing or 3D printing, we are bringing people closer to products and solving challenges in new ways. We are pushing the limits of this technology to produce parts quickly and affordably with geometry and design that has never been possible before.

 

[Triton]

Has Boeing released any concepts for the Revolutionary Configurations for Energy Efficiency (RCEE) program?

 

[Sentinel36k]

Strike/tanker wind tunnel work http://psp-tsp.com/pdfs/AIAA2005-4719%20%20PSP%20Blended%20Wing.pdf

Sentinel

 

[ouroboros]

Has Boeing released any concepts for the Revolutionary Configurations for Energy Efficiency (RCEE) program?

http://t.co/jrGO2eEnUq

Appears somewhat similar to ES Aero's deign, which they came up with after reviewing their NASA N+3 work. ES Aero went back and tried to to do a 737 class N+2 setup with no superconductors and found a closing deign. ES Aero has their design in one of the pictures in their rotating banner at the top of their website. Considering ES Aero has worked with Boeing in the past...

http://esaero.com/

 

[fightingirish]

Hi folks,
these three Lockheed Advanced Tactical Transport (ATT) concepts are from 1986.
The first concept on the left uses a upper-surface blowing system to achieve STOL.
The second concept in the middle has lift-jets for Super-STOL and 3 open prop-rotor engines for forward flight.
The third and last concept is more conventional as it used 4 open prop-rotor engines.

Source: Interavia Germany, December 1986, page 1394

 

[hesham]

Wow,the middle aircraft is amazing,thank you my dear Rolf.

 

[flateric]

http://www.secretprojects.co.uk/forum/index.php/topic,413.msg106626.html#msg106626

 

[Sentinel36k]

Sounds like lockheed is looking for a transport test pilot http://search.lockheedmartinjobs.com/ShowJob/Id/18158/Test-Pilot-Level-Four/ able to operate in "--Requires current commercial pilot skills and experience to include operations in restricted airspace (MOA's (Military Operating areas), Restricted Areas, and the like)" with a top secret clearance.

Sentinel

 

[Ian33]

Sounds like lockheed is looking for a transport test pilot http://search.lockheedmartinjobs.com/ShowJob/Id/18158/Test-Pilot-Level-Four/ able to operate in "--Requires current commercial pilot skills and experience to include operations in restricted airspace (MOA's (Military Operating areas), Restricted Areas, and the like)" with a top secret clearance.

Sentinel

Transport or bomber? I was in transport camp until I.got.to the weapons part. That stumped me.

 

[Sentinel36k]

Ian33 The term "complex weapon systems" is an odd one, aren't most systems now point and shoot? My first thought was electronic warfare. I was hesitant to say bomber due to the lack of anything other than "complex weapon systems" that could be bomber related. Perhaps the term "sensor packages" could mean EW/ISR type, so maybe there is (like many have said before) a EW/ISR variant/capability for our next bomber.

Sentinel

 

[ouroboros]

The recent comments in the LRS-B thread where a large BWB lurking with a boatload of SDB-II and other guided munitions made me wonder. Could RCEE be a potential LRS-B contender? If LRS-B is a family of systems, notably deep penetration UAV sensor platforms and a missile truck, this would fit the missile truck role well at standoff ranges. If at the very least, the unpressurized cargo spaces have bomb bay potential, a cargo aircraft suddenly pooping out ALCM's till the cows come home would be a little terrifying.

Considering the near term producability needs of both LRS-B and RCEE, plus the limited budgets to replace the C-5 and acquire LRS-B, is it that hairbrained to think they might be one and the same?

 

[donnage99]

If you already spend all that investment into building an ultra stealthy platform, it makes more sense to just put a bomb bay on it, and have it be a stand in platform. Missiles are more expensive than bombs, and flying 2 giant aircraft instead of one for the same mission is also alot more expansive. Not to mention that the bomb truck here would not be stealthy, so it possibly needs escort, even at standoff range of the ALCM.

 

[bobbymike]

USAF Future Airlifter Vision Closely Linked With Army Ground Vehicle Plans

Posted: Oct. 23, 2014

As the Air Force moves toward transitioning its vision for a next-generation airlifter from early developmental planning into the requirements-setting phase, its next moves are highly dependent on the direction the Army takes in pursuing a next-generation ground vehicle, according to an Air Mobility Command requirements official. In the world of air mobility, the Army is the Air Force's primary customer, and Scott McMullen, deputy director of Air Mobility Command's strategic plans, requirements and programs directorate, told Inside the Air Force in an Oct. 21 interview that this means any planning the service conducts is done with an eye on Army requirements. The Army's efforts to move forward with a new ground vehicle were most recently articulated through the Ground Combat Vehicle program, which was canceled in February because of a lack of funding. The program has since been downgraded to a science and technology effort without follow-on procurement funding. That S&T work is largely aimed at maturing next-generation capabilities -- work that, according to McMullen, the Air Force is closely watching. "What we are trying to do is go down track, joined at the hip with the Army on what their new ground vehicle requirement is, what their maneuver requirement is, how they will be organized, trained and equipped, so that whatever airlift concept we come up with is as supportive as it can be to our primary customer," McMullen said. "So we are working closely with the Army as we go down track with this examination."

Air Mobility Command, along with the Air Force Life Cycle Management Center, completed a C-X developmental planning study in 2013 and, as McMullen described it, is on a path toward beginning to establish requirements for the future platform. That two-year preliminary analysis considered what qualities a future global airlifter, replacing or supplementing the capabilities of the C-5 or C-17, might need to have in order to operate in the 2035 or 2040 strategic airlift environment. The Air Force's C-17 fleet is expected to remain operational into the 2030s and the C-5 through 2040.

AMC looked at a host of potential capabilities, including the aerodynamics of certain types of aircraft designs, propulsion systems and avionics. The study then considered in some detail how those capabilities might match with operational criteria such as range, crew speed, life-cycle sustainment, and payload size. "For example, some designs were good for range and crew speed but were expensive," McMullen said. "Some were beneficial for operating cost and payload but lacked crew speed. We looked at other designs that sort of had mid-value results." McMullen said a link exists between almost all of those qualities and potential Army requirements. For example, the Army vehicle's maneuver scheme will drive the Air Force's speed and payload requirement. The dimensions of the Army vehicle -- which could be considerable should the service decide to increase its crew size -- will drive the airlifter's cargo-box size.

"How deep we're going to be able to operate, what kind of threat environments we're going to be operating in, how close we are to the direct conflict region, how far does the Army need to get -- they all truly influence each other," he said. "Every single one of those categories that I had talked about is related to a customer requirement at some point in the study." That study has helped the service frame its science and technology vision for C-X and, according to McMullen, has helped move AMC closer to the beginning of the requirements-setting process. He said the Air Force's work with the Army and the larger joint community is continuous, and he noted that the effort is still very early in development. "It will take years to go down the track to come up with the operational requirements for what that platform would be," McMullen said. -- Courtney Albon

 

[flateric]

USAF Future Airlifter Vision Closely Linked With Army Ground Vehicle Plans

Closely linked? Panic moden

 

[yasotay]

Fairness in advertising I am very biased on this topic.
The Army spent ten years working this issue. The USAF Inc. took control of the effort and in two years decided the Army did not "know" what it wanted (the Army "wanted" propellors and runway independence for Gods sake!). In the land of four engine, turbofan afficianado's this is not well received.
The Air Force expects the Army to secure the airport so they can land. As most airports in less developed parts of the globe are part of major urban centers, it is would take a significant portion of an Army to adequately secure the airfield. So... if the USAF Inc. needs to have the Army secure the airfield so they can bring in the Army, you can see the slight flaw. Yes you have paratroopers who do this sort of thing, but they get the airport environment, NOT the airport approach departure terrain. As I have harped here many times if the bad guys know you are always going to come into their house throught the front door, they plan accordingly. So after ten years the Army came to the conclusion maybe they should try to land some place else.

 

[sferrin]

USAF Future Airlifter Vision Closely Linked With Army Ground Vehicle Plans

Closely linked? Panic moden

On the one hand I totally understand. On the other, you want army stuff to be as air-mobile as possible so I can see why they'd do that.

 

[marauder2048]

As most airports in less developed parts of the globe are part of major urban centers, it is would take a significant portion of an Army to adequately secure the airfield. So... if the USAF Inc. needs to have the Army secure the airfield so they can bring in the Army, you can see the slight flaw. Yes you have paratroopers who do this sort of thing, but they get the airport environment, NOT the airport approach departure terrain.

The less developed world has also been on an airport building binge in the last 10+ years with an emphasis on placing airports in less urban areas (Imam Khomeini International is a good example).

 

[DrRansom]

Can't this be split into two sections of Airmobile lift?

Airmobile lift when airfields aren't secured

Airmobile lift when airfields are secure(ish)

The second type would be driven by the development of light vehicles to support paratroopers.

 

[yasotay]

As most airports in less developed parts of the globe are part of major urban centers, it is would take a significant portion of an Army to adequately secure the airfield. So... if the USAF Inc. needs to have the Army secure the airfield so they can bring in the Army, you can see the slight flaw. Yes you have paratroopers who do this sort of thing, but they get the airport environment, NOT the airport approach departure terrain.

The less developed world has also been on an airport building binge in the last 10+ years with an emphasis on placing airports in less urban areas (Imam Khomeini International is a good example).

I will defer on the amount of airfield construction going on, not familiar with the data on this. Airfields are by their nature are one of the most surveyed pieces of land in any country (ports being the other). I have had artillery officers tell me they could drop pinpoint barrage just from using the data on an approach plate. Given the ever increasing profusion of information in a few years you will be able to watch the activities at almost any airfield. So you do not have to fight for the airfield, you just pick when you are going to start lobbing artillery at it and the USAF Inc. will stop landing until the ground guys stop that pesky indirect fires (usually coming from densely populated urban areas).

The Army thought if they could use any farmer’s field, golf course (Par 5 is about a MOG 4), parking lot, or big flat space as an airport sot that it would be harder for someone to figure out where they were going to come in at. If they did, you just move to another big field.

(On a humorous note, the Army guys really like to talk about using golf courses as combat landing areas cause it really gets the USAF Inc. pi**ed off. Yes it has been done, in Panama)

 

[marauder2048]

All fair points which I think are helping to motivate the development of more expeditionary oriented C-RAM (LM's "C-RAM in a Can" EAPS for example).

The artillery officers' remarks remind me of an anecdote from I think "Company Commander" when McDonald's troops are setting up positions in shell craters. They then start taking extremely accurate and heavy barrage fire seemingly out of the blue. They later realize that they took up position on a field used to train German artillery officers!

 

[kagemusha]

"CFD and Aircraft Design" by Robert Gregg

Boeing AJACS and Speed Agile at page 15-19

http://aero-comlab.stanford.edu/jameson/aj80th/Gregg_AJ80_Nov20_2014.pdf

 

[flateric]

Dōmo arigatō

 

[Sentinel36k]

Sentinel

 

[bring_it_on]

System Noise Assessment of Hybrid Wing–Body Aircraft with Open-Rotor Propulsion - Boeing - JOURNAL OF AIRCRAFT
Vol. 52, No. 6, November–December 2015

https://www.scribd.com/doc/294181277/HWB-Boeing

 

[flateric]

https://patentimages.storage.googleapis.com/pdfs/eee45785849bc0ab71cd/EP2543862A2.pdf

 

[bobbymike]

http://aviationweek.com/technology/hybrid-wing-body-emerges-potential-c-130-successor?NL=AW-19&Issue=AW-19_20170228_AW-19_101&sfvc4enews=42&cl=article_1&utm_rid=CPEN1000000230026&utm_campaign=8867&utm_medium=email&elq2=b988ab1a1ebb4e70a0d9b6fd1de48cbd

 

[Triton]

"Support Grows For Unmanned Tanker, Transport Aircraft"
Jun 11, 2018 Graham Warwick | Aerospace Daily & Defense Report

Source:
http://aviationweek.com/awindefense/support-grows-unmanned-tanker-transport-aircraft

From surviving in contested airspace to supplying remote areas, interest in unmanned transport and tanker aircraft is growing.

A U.S. Senate committee is proposing funding to “explore options for optionally manned and more survivable tankers,” while Russia’s Ilyushin is studying an unmanned cargo demonstrator based on the Il-112V light transport.

In its markup of the fiscal 2019 defense budget, the Senate Armed Services Committee says it is “concerned about the growing threat to large high-value aircraft” and recommends an increase of $10 million, for a total of $38.4 million, for prototyping a contested environment tanker.

Essential to the operational availability and range of U.S. combat and transport aircraft, the Air Force’s Boeing KC-135 and KC-46A aerial refueling tankers “are manned and increasingly difficult to protect,” the committee says.

“Given the increasingly challenging operating environments our potential adversaries are presenting, it is prudent to explore options for optionally unmanned and more survivable tankers that could operate autonomously as part of a large, dispersed logistics fleet that could sustain attrition in conflict,” it says.

An unmanned tanker prototype could draw on research underway at Boeing to increase the level of automation in its commercial aircraft and to address a looming pilot shortage by introducing supervised autonomy, as well as demonstrations of a robotic co-pilot by subsidiary Aurora Flight Sciences under Darpa’s Alias program.

In Russia, meanwhile, Ilyushin has signed a memorandum with Kronstadt Group to create a joint working group to develop an unmanned transport aircraft. Kronstadt is developing the Orion-E, Russia’s first Predator-class medium-altitude, long-endurance UAV.

“It is in our interests to create transport drones that could solve the tasks of cargo transportation to remote areas with difficult accessibility,” says Alexey Rogozin, general director of Ilyushin and vice president for transport aviation at parent company United Aircraft Corp.

The first prototype Il-112V military transport is nearing completion at the VASO aircraft manufacturing plant in Voronezh and is expected to fly this year. Powered by two 3,500-shp Klimov TV7-117ST turboprops, the aircraft has a maximum payload of 11,000 lb. and a range of 1,500 nm with a 7,700-lb. load.

“Given the active development of the Arctic, it can be assumed that aircraft capable of transporting up to several tons of cargo from one point to another in an autonomous mode will be highly demanded,” Rogozin says.

“We want to be technologically ready to open this market. Joint work with [Ilyushin] will allow us to optimize the time and resources, and therefore the first to create answers to market demands,” says Kirill Dybko, executive director of Kronstadt Group.

The first step under the joint working group will be to create a road map for research. Kronstadt’s Center for Advanced Studies and Ilyushin’s Center for Aerospace Technologies in Zhukovsky will be involved in the project. The Myasishchev design bureau, part of Ilyushin, will later become the main focus for the work.

Kronstadt presented a three-stage plan for the introduction of unmanned air cargo services at the Aeronet-18 conference in Moscow on June 1. This begins with “last mile” delivery of small packages, then shifting short- and medium-range freight from land transport to aircraft, and finally regular long-haul cargo transport using unmanned aircraft.

In the medium term, Kronstadt says in a June 1 release, the Aviation Unmanned Transport Network project is being implemented. “A demonstrator of a transport unmanned aerial system is being created and a pilot project on unmanned delivery of goods on a regional scale is being implemented.”

 

[GeorgeA]

Latest AFRL Speed Agile concept demonstrator model:

https://twitter.com/AvWeekGuy/status/1012369504993710080