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Thursday, September 17, 2015

Heads-Up Display

I am sorry to announce that I will have some repair and down time! The Doctor and engineers want to install a new operating system near to the center of my heart. It will make me fly a little longer. My sarcasm and what little wit I have left was promised as an intact feature and will remain operational after this system is installed and implemented. I should be down for maybe, up to several weeks according to the KC-46 program heads. After which, I will come out with parachute packed and safety net installed. If it works, I will land back here at Winging It soon. Thanks for reading and watching in advance, over this site while I'm down. Just keep clicking, there is a lot of blogging within Winging It for your further confusion. You will just have to get back to work. There is no other way, but work, it's your job!

Last of its kind before the Jet age. A Montana Teepee burner at Fort Missoula Historical Park. A complete train set and station sits behind me. It was spectacular when they put on a log afterburner show back in the day of the lumber mill. It was a wood burning jet engine that never flew.

Tuesday, September 15, 2015

First 737 Max In the Renton Assembly Line III



The 737 Max in this Boeing picture is at the start of line III. In front of its nose is open space going to the end of its ground journey. Notice the wing tip feathers. Just for fun count the number of people in this frame. I expanded the photo on screen and found 17 people. I may have missed a few.

The very first 737 Max on the line, with lots of empty space ahead to fill.

KC-46 Will Have An Air Force Problem Reveal Next Week (Updated \ Video)

Not only is the KC-46 on the docket for next week’s military problem reveal, the F-35 often criticized program will be there too. It’s perhaps the most important discussion coming from the US Air Force affecting the US military industrial complex in a long time. The stock market will parse and analyze words spoken.

Aviation junkies must memorize these Air Force names, Lt. Gen. Christopher Bogdan for the F-35, and Brig. Gen. Duke Richardson for the KC-46. They hold sway over the future of these two critical programs. They have been tasked with oversight and act as the canary in the mine if something falls short of delivering what was promised.

Many doubts are raised about the F-35 meeting and exceeding fourth generation fighters such as the F-16 and other foreign adversarial fighter airframes. 

What is purported on the F-35:

General Mark A Welsh III: AFA conference
Chief Of Staff USAF Washington, DC


Counters these arguments listed below and makes the F-35 case during the video.
Check The 36:12 minute mark on video about the F-35 Program Status.

Standard complaints offered on the sideline:

  • Its falls short to the F-16 in air to air close combat.
  • It has had encountered too many program faults
  • It will not have close combat air superiority over the latest generation foreign fighters
  • It compromised its air frame, giving up performance for both STOVL and Carrier based fighter configuration for the Navy and Marines. One concept does not always fit all.
  • Concurrency is a Military STD on its building complex. 
This now brings us to the Boeing KC-46 Air Force Report Card. The fixed cost has been an impediment to Boeing trial and error approach during development, with a follow-on air tanker from a commercial frame. Its error margin is already gone when installing critical systems. When delivery time is a key element for the military, it becomes a key cost to the supplier (Boeing) to make it on time.

  • The KC-46 needs and error free flight test period
  • The Air Force Should Tell Us straight Up Were The KC now stands
  • Boeing can deliver and succeed on this key project but it will take an investor hit because of it.
The Air Force Presentation next week will sway the Boeing stock market one way or another, when it comes to the KC-46 project. Lockheed's F-35 won't have a final answer until it goes to combat someday. However, early reports indicate the Marines have a winner. It is not known how well the F-35 super-secret internals will buy back many advantages in aerial combat, or how it can be used as an interface within the total combat arena assisting old technology.

Its multi-systems and pilot helmet controls can help fourth generation fighters with what they lack in the combat arena. The F-35's stealth gives it a longbow advantage for incoming fighters 100 miles out. Close combat may not be its specialty, but its added combat values nullify the need for close combat encounters. The Air Force must learn how to leverage the F-35 technology into air superiority, and that may take hands-on and brains-on time in the cockpit. The military has to catch up to this technology and not look back at the old paradigm of the F-16 as the role model. This is a different animal.

Latest News: 9/15/2016

AFA 2015: KC-46 first flight back on schedule

Budget Gridlock Looms Over AFA  Next weeks news added.

Friday, September 11, 2015

GE-9X Makes A Break Through With Its CMC

The 777X9 needs an engine. Boeing has chosen GE for the honors for that task. They have named it the GE9X reflecting a developmental label for the 7779X program. What is so different with this engine over the 777-300ER GE90 engine is that it will be a lighter, smaller by inches and made with stuff GE has been working on for ten years. The material is called CMC or a carbon ceramic material that is lighter thinner and heat resistant in a super-hot environment. This means, a more efficient Jet engine developing 102,000 pounds of thrust compared with 115,000 pounds of thrust with the 777-300ER. Engine Diameter will be 133.5 inches across. Sixteen blades are needed for the main fan. It will have a 10% fuel efficiency over prior models of the GE90 configured engines. A 5% improved specific fuel consumption (SFC) versus any twin-aisle engine at service entry.



Regarding the CMC testing just reported. GE has advanced its CMC materials used for fan blades and internal parts while subjecting it in duration testing and gaining such positive results it will proceed forward with those parts in the upcoming flying tests for the GE9X engine on the 747 test bed. The remark coming out of duration parts testing, indicated the materials retained a pristine composition after 2,800 hours of undergoing the duress of heat and pressures exceeding engine operational conditions. Ten years of research for the CMC material has paid off for GE. It is proceeding with making a better engine for the 777X9 program, and may spin-off more advances for the 787 program after it successfully testing out it engine building propositions for the 777-X9 program.

Thursday, September 10, 2015

B of A analyst Says: A Gap Filler Is A Good Place For Boeing Replacing Its 757

Bank of America analyst have recommended Boeing build the consummate tweener. A 757 2.0 version. Boeing could in one sweep of the design board stop all the nonsense found in the A-320 Neo program. A new class of Boeing with the possibility of 1,000 of its type in sales could be coming.

Seeking Alpha has Reported:


Boeing has said it is considering a new jet that would fit a niche between its single-aisle 737 and long-range 787 Dreamliner, and the BofA analysts find "a strong case" for Boeing to go ahead, estimating a market for ~2,700 planes from airlines to replace older planes or swap in for inefficient, long-range jets that they are currently using for medium-range flights.

However, the analysts say Boeing's ability to recover its cost of capital on the program would depend on executing a more cost effective production method than the 787, which has struggled with high production costs building the mostly carbon-fiber composite jet.

A Few Days Off Brings Us To : The F-35

"Today there are 126 F-35s of various models in service (plus 19 test aircraft); by the end of 2019, that will skyrocket to 493. “When we have those 493 airplanes out in the field in 2019, guess how many of them will be in what I consider to be the right configuration?” Bogdan asked the ComDef conference here. “Not. A. One. Every one of the airplanes coming off the production line today and coming off the production line for the next two and a half years, plus all the airplanes we’ve built already, will need some form of modification to get them up to the full capability that we promised the warfighter. That is a massive undertaking..”

So says,  Lt. Gen. Chris Bogdan, program executive officer (PEO) for the F-35.
This is from an intensive series of articles supplied by"Breaking Defense".

Currently exciting news comes from Italy: Via Defense News



In summary Italian interest have built or should say assembled its first F-35 at an airport plant, and rolled it out the door. It flew off for an hour and twenty-two minutes. How about that, it's a F-35 project milestone?

Now comes the entanglement of production the F-35 finds itself in, through the concept called "concurrency". They were right starting the word with "Con", as in con job. The above Bogdan quote best describes concurrency at its peak. "Not A One", is like any other F-35. Bits and pieces litter the production trail, marking a project falling apart along the production way. The mitigation of the problem is found with block production runs, hoping containment stays within each block. However, containment of production progress, within a concurrent plan allows seepage flowing into any block when having daily updates applied to anyone's model on-the-line!

Sad Sack is defending America from the production floor. Before "anyone" buys the next bomb shelter, there is some hope for future military programs. Concurrency is a buzzword waiting for the next military industrial complex idea. It will be retired by a new conceptual phrase, perhaps, "Next Fighter Up". The sum of all changes has to reach a culmination where all fighters are consistent within not a block but through entire division of military applications and concept. 

Starting with one frame, and applying that frame to three different applications is a nightmare. The Air Force, Marine, and Navy is a concurrent design flaw concept. The Marines affect both the Navy and Air Force potential capability. The Marine design must adapt a central fan for STOVL operations. The Carrier version is beefed-up and heavier than the Air Force version. The Air Force version is limited on speed and agility of what an advanced fighter could have been if it had not been penalized by the Navy and Marine versions in base designs. The Concurrent Three Musketeer sentiments flows with "A One for all and all for one," mess.

The limitations arrive with having flying characteristics marginally different than the F-16. There are faster more nimble fighters available as adversaries. However, they lack the electronic sophistications of the F-35 which gives them "internal" air superiority, and a very long reach with some invisibility.

This brings us to the biggest problem, internal computer codes that have to have so many updates. The code corrections are awaiting its implementation while in testing mode, assuring program stability and validation. The "main edge" over other adversarial aircraft is scattered all over the concurrent production floor within each "Block model" having a different "Block code version", installed controlling its secret military platforms. It is reaching its final giant Cluster F*** and then it will fly concurrently with Block 11, as its role model.

What the military and Lockheed are now doing for these dismal concurrent conditions is sweeping up the technological crumbs that were swept off the table after each "Block Release".

Monday, September 7, 2015

What Came First A Wing Or a Bird?

Answer: The Wing Plant

BOEING MEDIA DAYS 2015 - COMPOSITE WING CENTER-1

Boeing Building Business is alive and well in Everett. This Spring time photo shows the airplane will be built. The wing will roll out on a specialized carrier frame rolling into the 777 manufacturing site straight into the production building.

 

Note the orange or yellow colors of cranes in the background (center back of roof line). This is the wing plant under construction just behind the World's largest building. The Wing center remains dwarfed by the main show in the front of this photo.

It will receive the title of World's Largest Twin Engine Passenger Jet. It will be built in the World's Largest Building next to the Word's Largest Wing Manufacturing Facility. Records are made, to be broken. Today is Boeing's day as it embarks on a fanciful journey of airplane building, because it can. There is no glory in accomplishing what it can do anyways, as Airbus would have you believe. There is only glory in doing what no one else can do. Build planes that are needed for the existing market.              

Sunday, September 6, 2015

Boeing Goes For Extra Space With Its Starliner

Space the final frontier, is Boeing's new Florida gig. They will build its Starliner in Florida on-site near the launch cape. They have to build it because there already a rendering of the spacecraft.



Its really big tub taking on an Apollo motif. What it can carry is a full space station crew and large amounts of space station type cargo. It's a sole source project for the ISS. Boeing with this sketch is not going to Mars or around the Moon. It could carry and plant small satellites into orbit during a crew change out run to the ISS while  orbiting.  The Starliner is not breaching new technology in its approach but enhance the old technology by making it bigger, more durable and well suited for its mission. Making the US space program relevant with the ISS mission.

The importance of this demonstration is for American industry, which can once again re-enter the space age filling a mission gap existing since the space shuttle was mothballed by NASA. It also gives another domestic industry a step into the space age, where it could later design follow-on long range capsules for a Mars trip. Boeing will have gained a real bench mark experience through this Starliner project that could lead to building a Mars capsule, and for its return with a same unit from Mars.

Saturday, September 5, 2015

Boeing Builds Worlds Largest Airplane (errrh Twin Engine)

Every headline I take with a grain of salt as misleading. The recent Headline oft repeated Goes like this:

Boeing 777-9X: World's Biggest Jet 

This example of a headline is balderdash in the back pasture. So let's get this straight from the get go, we are talking "Twin Engine People", quoted from Yosemite Sam's cartoon series. The engines are bigger with two identical cans hung from the enormous wing which extend 235 feet in unflappable symmetry. Did you know the engine cowling leading edge will have Laminar Flow Technology, patented by Boeing and shared with GE. For those who don't care, I'll explain it anyways because you stumbled onto Winging It. Start with dimples on golf balls which make 'em fly further on the driving range with your new monster headed driver making you into an Arnold Palmer. Go to the aircraft body maker and lifting surface gurus and they say we've done it and patented it already. Boeing put edges on the Horizontal and Vertical leading edges and have done some golf-ball like tricking on its 787-9's and next the 787-10 model. 

They call it the Laminar Flow Technology Prominently Installed Somewhere Serious (LFT-PISS). Remember the old Spoilers on some race cars in the 70's with those awful looking wings welded, bolted, or glued on the back of a car. They called those "Spoilers". The really spoiled the looks of a race car on a short track. Laminar flow is now added to the Jet engine opening reducing drag, and you can't even really see it unless you are a maintenance guy with a scrub brush looking for bug splotches on certain surfaces. Digress I must, because people are expecting something World's Largest to happen, but it really bugs me about any headline pimping and bugs have to be accounted for in such an airplane as Boeing is building. They are going from a fly paper airplane to fly swatter sized Airbus smasher with its new 777X build. When they start making parts it's no longer a fly-paper airplane, it will include the LiftnPiss system.

Moving forward with intellectual commentary is the sole source of any humor. Boeing has Sole Sourced the 77X trump card thrown down on the industry. Everyone in the industry is blinking feverishly at the concept. You don't build a Wing Plant in Everett Washington state unless you are holding nothing but Aces as Trump cards in the game of Airplane poker. Say Goodbye A-350-1000 and say good-bye, dare I say, A350-900, as Boeing backhands them with a better product. Wide Body buyers are stunned. They bought Airbus already, hook line and sinker. Fleet renewal just took on a new definition from the 777X. It will replace the following aircraft in the next order round for all customers. The 747, A350-1000, A350-900, and A380 as the 777X will fit into nearly all high density airports.

Boeing has maximize the Twin Engine Concept (TEC). It’s the final pin Boeing has inserted into the Airbus Voodoo doll, ouch.  TEC is here to stay and four engines is so 1950's for both big and small types. 

Image result for four engine 1950's aircraft
Late 1950's Boeing 707

Friday, September 4, 2015

Oshkosh Defense Replaces Hummer: Primer

For those of you living under a rock. The Hummer productions is no more. China bought the mold. However, before going gonzo crazy over its demise. Stop drop and roll infantry style. The Oshkosh defense has a suite of combat vehicles starting with the L-ATV. It's not your kids four wheeling ATV. It looks more like a BLM fire truck.



The infantry will have to develop new combat tactics for its new equipment. Interurban or on a rocky ridge, the L-ATV is imposing compared with your own recreational ATV, where is was possibly made in China.

Oshkosh no longer is about aviation and shows, it's about defending our country.

Oshkosh L-ATV Main View