A Sample Feature From Aviation News

Millennium Trainers

It might not hit the headlines, but efficient training is the vital element for the success of the front-line forces. In the first of two articles, Roy Braybrook reviews the latest types available for pilot training, beginning with the piston and turboprop-powered aircraft.

The most important recent events in military pilot training have been the development of advanced jet trainers that can reduce the time and money spent in operational conversion, and the beginnings of multi-national training schemes, inspired by the USAF Euro-Nato Joint Jet Pilot Training (ENJJPT) at Sheppard AFB, Texas. Tired of the high cost of running national training schemes, a growing number of air forces are taking part in collaborative programmes that employ a common airfield and intensively-flown aircraft that in some cases are commercially owned and operated. Taking the concept of ‘jointness’ one stage further, 12 European air forces are collaborating on formulating a new jet trainer requirement, with a view to co-operative manufacture and operation at perhaps three massive bases.

Above: top to bottom: Slingsby T67M Firefly, Grob G115T Acro and Sukhoi Su-49.

Piston Power for Pilots

A typical first-stage (primary in UK terminology) trainer is the Slingsby Aviation T67M-260 Firefly with fixed gear and a 260 hp Textron Lycoming piston engine. Under a training scheme being established in Bahrain with help from BAE Systems, students will progress directly from the Firefly to that company’s Hawk 129 advanced jet trainer, omitting conventional basic training on a turboprop. Slingsby is studying the development of a faster T67M with a smaller, thinner wing and a ‘glass’ NVG-compatible cockpit.

Slingsby’s main rival is Germany’s Grob, which produced the 190hp G115E Tutor used by RAF University Air Squadrons. The G120A operated by Lufthansa Flight Training in the US, to provide initial training for student pilots of the German armed forces, has a retractable gear and 260hp engine. Some 27 G120As (designated Snunits) are to be operated under a ten-year contract by Elbit Systems’ subsidiary Cyclone to provide primary training for the Israeli Air Force.

An older trainer in the 260hp, retractable gear category is the Aermacchi SF-260. Under a recent contract with the Italian Air Force, the company will take back the service’s remaining 21 SF-260AMs as part-payment for new-build SF-260EAs.

After an aircraft procurement hiatus of more than a decade, the Russian Air Force has decided in principle to adopt the piston-engined Sukhoi Su-49 and the Yakovlev Yak-130 advanced trainer to replace the Yak-52 and L-29/39 respectively. The idea of omitting a turboprop basic flying training stage recalls the earlier French decision to combine the 300hp Epsilon (which is admittedly less well powered than the Su-49) and the Alpha Jet. France later found it necessary to add the turboprop Embraer Tucano for some students.

The Su-49, which was earlier designated Su-32 and then Su-39, is a development of Sukhoi’s highly successful Su-26 and -29 aerobatic aircraft. Relative to the Yak-52 that it will replace, it has a stepped cockpit and a much neater undercarriage retraction, but (strangely) twin nosewheels. Reports state that the Su-49 will have a head-up display (HUD), LCD head-down displays (HDDs), Zvezda SKS-94M-49 ejection seats and a 420hp Vedeneyev M-9F radial engine, turning a three-blade propeller (a feature of the Aerostar IAK-52W development of the Yak-52). However, it appears that the Su-49 programme is stalled, because Sukhoi refuses to complete development without a production contract.

Possibly as a bargaining manoeuvre, the Russian Defence Ministry is talking with Yakovlev about upgrading 50-70 Yak-52s (currently fitted with 360hp Vedeneyev M-14P radials) to Yak-52M standard, with new avionics, a stronger wing, more fuel, and a three-blade propeller. At a later stage the Yak-52M, which made its public debut at MAKS 2003, will have Zvezda SKS-94MY lightweight ejection seats and the more powerful M-9F engine.

Before leaving the subject of piston engines, it may be noted that the Lichtenstein-registered Thielert Aircraft Engines and France’s SMA (a joint venture by Renault-Sport, Snecma and EADS) are the leaders in developing avtur-burning diesels, responding to the growing desire to end the use of avgas. Both are developing engines in the 300hp class, which might be used as retrofits for Armée de l’Air Epsilons.

Above: Embraer A/AT-29 Super Tucano.
Below: Raytheon T-6A Texan II.

Below: The modern high-performance turboprop trainer cockpit, as seen on the PC-21, has multifunction displays and head-up display to more efficiently transition the trainee to the front-line fighters.

For the rest of this article please see the February 2004 issue.