AIRCRAFT AND AIR TRANSPORTATION SYSTEMS
Aircraft design
A Cessna Citation Mustang made
its maiden flight in April.
by the AIAA Aircraft Design
Technical Committee
24 AEROSPACE AMERICA/DECEMBER 2005
a milestone with the first flight of the Mustang,
This year’s commercial transport aviation news
has been dominated by two airplanes: the 223-
296-seat Boeing 787 and the 550-seat Airbus
A380. Responding to airline preference, Boeing
Commercial Airplanes has focused on the super-
efficient 787 Dreamliner. Production will begin
in 2006. First flight is expected in 2007, with
certification, delivery, and entry into service
planned for 2008.
Airbus’s A380 took to the skies on April 27.
This maiden flight, during which all primary
flight test objectives were met, marks the begin-
ning of a rigorous test flight campaign involving
five A380s and some 2,500 flight hours. It will
culminate in the aircraft’s certification, followed
by its entry into airline service in the second half
of 2006, with first operator Singapore Airlines.
The initial F-35 flight test aircraft, a conven-
tional-takeoff-and-landing F-35A, is on track
for completion by the end of the year at Lock-
heed Martin in Fort Worth, Texas. The aft fuse-
lage was joined to the center fuselage in June,
uniting all four of the aircraft’s major subassem-
blies. The forward fuselage, wing, and center
fuselage were mated in May.
The F-35 is designed for fast, streamlined
production, with extremely high standards for
assembly precision and quality. Peak production
rate will be one aircraft each working day. Mean-
while, parts fabrication has begun on the sec-
ond test aircraft, a short-takeoff/vertical-landing
F-35B. Weight reduction efforts on this variant
have been successful, with all key performance
parameters now being met or exceeded.
The most active segment of business and
general aviation has been in the area of entry-
level and very light jets. Cessna Aircraft achieved
while Eclipse Aviation now has four conform-
ing aircraft in its test fleet. Several other compa-
nies have announced programs, including the
Adam Aircraft A700, Diamond Aircraft D-Jet,
and, recently, Embraer.
In the light jet class, certification of the
Sino-Swearingen SJ30-2 is expected this year. In
the large aircraft arena, the Dassault Falcon 7X
flew for the first time. The 7X is the first pure
business jet with fly-by-wire flight controls.
Propeller aircraft deliveries remain strong, with
Cirrus Design delivering its 2,000th airplane
overall, an SR-22, in June.
The world of unmanned aircraft continues
to grow and flourish, with constant innovations
and system development. In its flight test pro-
gram with the Air Force, the BQM-167A multi-
role UAV from Composite Engineering has
demonstrated speeds in excess of 0.9 Mach,
sustained 9-g turns, low-altitude penetration,
and extended loiter capability. The Boeing X-
45A flight test program continued, demonstrat-
ing in-flight mission replanning, inert weapons
deployment, and transfer of decision-making
from ground to air vehicles. Dassault Aviation
led a European team launching the Neuron
UCAV (unmanned combat air vehicle) demon-
strator program at this year’s Paris Air Show.
Raytheon tested the SilentEyes
Micro UAV by deploying from the
Predator and downlinked video
images while it was being flown
via waypoint navigation. Global
Hawk surpassed 4,000 opera-
tional hours in March.
For FY05, NASA has three
aeronautics programs: Airspace
Systems (AS), Aviation Safety and
Security (AvSS), and Vehicle Sys-
tems (VS).
Within the AS program, the
Small Aircraft Transportation Sys-
tem integrated demonstration
project was recently completed in
Danville, Va. Using six aircraft,
this activity demonstrated the
ability to fly more safely and freely into more
than 3,500 airports, including many without
radar or air traffic control towers. This year the
AvSS program is scheduled to complete the first
phase of aviation safety research. Highlights in-
clude equipping regional airline aircraft with
automated weather reporting systems. In No-
vember 2004, as part of the VS program, the
Hyper-X (X-43A) project set a second world
speed record of Mach 9.6 (about 7,000 mph)
for air-breathing jet-engine-powered aircraft.