Number 58 – 25 July 2024

“Flying is more than a sport and more than a job; flying is pure passion and desire, which fill a lifetime.” Adolf Galland

Rockwell XFV-12

(Information from Wikipedia)

The Rockwell XFV-12 was a prototype supersonic United States Navy fighter which was built in 1977. The XFV-12 design attempted to combine the Mach 2 speed and AIM-7 Sparrow armament of the McDonnell Douglas F-4 Phantom II in a VTOL (vertical take-off and landing) fighter for the small Sea Control Ship which was under study at the time. On paper, it looked superior to the subsonic Hawker Siddeley Harrier attack fighter. However, it was unable to demonstrate an untethered vertical take-off and its inability to meet performance requirements resulted in the program’s termination.

In 1972, the US Navy issued a request for proposals for a next generation supersonic V/STOL fighter/attack aircraft. Rockwell’s design with the XFV-12 won against Convair’s proposal with the Convair Model 200. The XFV-12A, despite its concept being considered risky compared to that of the Harrier, was selected for development. To reduce costs, the nose from the Douglas A-4 Skyhawk and intakes from the F-4 were used. Engine rig testing began in 1974. Free-flight model tests conducted at the NASA Langley full-scale wind tunnel showed the projected thrust augmentation levels were highly optimistic and that the aircraft would most likely be incapable of vertical flight on the thrust available, while the design remained suitable for conventional flight.

The XFV-12 used a thrust augmented wing concept in which exhaust would be directed through spaces in a wing opened up like venetian blinds to increase available lift, somewhat like Lockheed’s unsuccessful XV-4 Hummingbird. Such arrangement restricted weapons carriage to under the narrow fuselage and two conformal missile mounts. Its canards were extremely large, almost 50% of the area of the wings, making it effectively a tandem wing. The 30,000 lbf (130 kN)-class afterburning turbofan engine was modified to provide enough thrust to lift the weight of the 20,000 lb (9,072 kg) aircraft. Some of these modifications included closing the rear engine exhaust and redirecting gases through ducts to ejector nozzles in the wings and canards for vertical lift.

Ground testing of the XFV-12A began in July 1977 and the aircraft was officially rolled out at the Rockwell International facility in Columbus, Ohio on 26 August. Due to increasing costs, construction of the second prototype was abandoned. Tethered hover tests were conducted in 1978. Over the course of six months, it was determined that the XFV-12A design suffered from major deficiencies with regard to vertical flight, especially a lack of sufficient vertical thrust. Lab tests showed 55% thrust augmentation should be expected. However, differences in the scaled-up system dropped augmentation levels to 19% for the wing and a mere 6% in the canard. While the augmenters did work as expected, the extensive ducting of the propulsion system degraded thrust and in the end the power-to-weight ratio was such that the engine was capable of vertically lifting only 75% of the weight of the aircraft in which it was mounted.

Following the tests and with the programme suffering from cost overruns, the US Navy decided the XFV-12A was not worth further development and cancelled the project in 1981. Of the two prototypes built, only one was completed, while the second prototype was cancelled. The United States Marine Corps eventually adopted the subsonic British-designed Harrier, the only truly successful V/STOL design of the 1960s.

Surviving aircraft

Following programme cancellation, the aircraft was disassembled and the cockpit section of the fuselage was stored at NASA’s Plum Brook Station in Sandusky, Ohio. As of May 2012, a group of high school students at the EHOVE Career Center, with guidance from NASA contractor personnel, were to restore the fuselage for use as a museum display.

Those persons that correctly identified this week’s mystery aircraft.
Altogether around 40 people provided correct answers. However, I lost part of this edition of APAnews due to a power issue in Oshkosh, so I had to start the news from scratch again. They say back up and then back up again and again and this time I did not back up correctly.  

EAA AirVenture, Oshkosh

Having spent the past three days at AirVenture camping with Neil Bowden’s South African group I have been like a young boy all over again with so much ‘eye candy’ on the Oshkosh airfield. It is almost impossible to take all of this in, even though this is my 23^rd trip to the largest aviation celebration in the world. There are so many stories, so many wonderful people and so many beautiful aircraft and helicopters of all shapes and sizes. I have kept this edition of APAnews rather short so that I can concentrate on what is out on this vast airfield and frankly there is really not enough time to take it all in.

In addition, the atmosphere within the South African camp has been wonderful due to meeting new people, renewing friendships and simply enjoying the comradeship of fellow aviators. Neil’s amazing team have catered especially well for the 190 persons in the group, which is one of the largest ever to have travelled with Air Adventure Tours. Well, if you did not make it this year, there is always next year because I firmly believe that everyone within aviation should plan at least one trip to Oshkosh in his / her lifetime. I have spent hours shooting specific videos that will be prepared into two Oshkosh longer videos and a series of shorter videos on specific subjects.

Airspan Navigation rally July 2024 By Iian Myburgh

On the morning of 20 July 2024, conditions were perfect for the first ever navigation rally hosted at the Airspan Executive Airport. This event was aimed at introducing new participants to the sport of Rally flying and to sharpen the skills of experienced crews after a long break in the rally flying calendar. 

Two classes were catered for, Open Class for experienced crews and Sportsman Class for crews looking for a less stressful experience. Two crews took up the challenge in the Open Class, Fanie Scholtz and Herman Haasbroek in their Sling 2 and Jonty Esser and Sandie Goddard in their C152. Unfortunately, the third entry in the Open Class, Piet Meyer and Adrienne Visser in their Jabiru J400 could not participate due to technical issues encountered before leaving their home base in the morning. 

The Sportsman class was a mix of experienced and new faces. Veteran rally flyers, Hans Schwebel and Ron Stirk swapped pilot and navigator role for this event. They also hold the record for the oldest combined age of crew still actively participating in rally type events, not just in South Africa but globally. Sean Cronin and Tarryn Myburgh flew in Sean’s water-cooled Jabiru J400. Christo and Schantell Erasmus flew with their lovely yellow Ercoupe. Nick Tatalias and Henry Harmse teamed up together in the Grumman, having only met each other on the morning after breakfast. The final team was Marius van Rensburg and Stefan Erasmus in a C210, with Stefan coming all the way from the Northern Cape to join the event. The start to the morning was relatively relaxed as breakfast and barista coffee was enjoyed by the participants as well as visitors to the airfield. Once all the teams had arrived, briefing could start with an overview of rally flying and what to expect on the route.

Rally flying tests a crew’s navigation, timing and observation skills. Each crew prepares their route map from a set of clues to find the various checkpoints. Crews then use their own map to navigate to each turn point. Timing is tested with penalties applied for arriving at a checkpoint too early or too late or missing it completely. The observation part of the competition requires crews to identify if the turn point photos provided are true or false and the note the location of en-route photos as they fly.

After briefing the Open Class crews hurried to their aircraft to start their planning, with only 36 minutes to prepare their routes from the clue sheet provided. Sportsman class crews were given an hour to prepare their routes, with plenty of experienced help available to assist. The Sportsman class rules are also more lenient with the timing at each checkpoint and teams are provided with an indication of which en-route photos to expect on each leg.

The first aircraft was airborne at 10h45 and 45 minutes later, the final aircraft departed. The route took crews through the Olifantsnek to the south-west of the field and then westward to the Koster area. From there the route turned north-east towards Rustenburg before finishing just to the north of Airspan. The total route distance was just over 80 nautical miles and included 10 turn points plus a start and finish point to total 12 timed checkpoints.

Upon arrival back at Airspan, the usual war stories were shared by the crews. Notes were compared to see if others faced the same challenges and those who became lost analysed what went wrong.

Jonty and Sandy lifted the trophy in the Open Class with a respectable score of 579 penalty points. With a timing score of 219, it means that they averaged less than eight seconds away from the target time at each checkpoint. Hans and Ron won the Sportsman class with a score of 681. They also did the second best across both classes with their observation score showing that age did not affect eyesight, and experience can’t be bought.

Thank you to all participants and the Airspan for making the event a huge success. We highly recommend visiting Airspan for their fantastic food, coffee and facilities. It is also one of the most picturesque airfields in the country with its lovely view of the Magaliesberg Mountains. We are planning a series of fun training events. If you do not want to miss out on the next one, visit the SAPFA website www.sapfa.co.za or join our WhatsApp group for the latest information.

22 to 28 July
EAA AirVenture Oshkosh, Wisconsin, USA

22 to 26 July
Farnborough International Airshow London, United kingdom
Contact E-mail: enquiries@farnborough.com

Dynon’s new feature

With the new feature, the pilot can press and hold the nearest (NRST) button and automatically engage the autopilot to configure to a preprogrammed best-glide speed. At the same time, the avionics suite will locate the nearest airport within gliding distance, accounting for wind and terrain obstructions. “If the system finds a suitable airport,” Dynon said, “SkyView HDX will command the autopilot to navigate the aircraft to the airport immediately.”

The system also automatically loads the airport identifier into the communications radio, making available all applicable radio frequencies. Finally, upon arrival over the airport, the autopilot sets up a banked orbit over the site and alerts the pilot to take over control of the aircraft. Michael Schofield, director of marketing at Dynon, said, “The new Emergency Glide feature simplifies critical decisions and actions during an emergency, providing pilots with the tools they need to focus on flying the aircraft to a safe landing.”

Vertical Aerospace starts the testing phase of its new air taxi prototype

UK-based electric vertical take-off and landing (eVTOL) air taxi manufacturer Vertical Aerospace is back to testing aircraft. The manufacturer has begun ground testing a new, more advanced full-scale prototype of its flagship VX4 air taxi after an initial prototype was damaged during an uncrewed flight test last year.

Vertical’s latest prototype air taxi is more powerful, capable of reaching 150 mph, the intended cruise speed for its flagship model, courtesy of an improved power-to-weight ratio. It features new propellers, which were developed prior to last year’s crash, and proprietary battery technology manufactured at a dedicated facility in Bristol. Sixty percent of the aircraft’s technology and components come from suppliers including Honeywell, Leonardo, GKN Aerospace, Hanwha and Molicel, compared to 10 percent on the first prototype. The company is also developing an identical prototype.

The new aircraft and its systems have been tested and commissioned and Vertical has already completed initial ground testing, including propeller balancing and spinning tests that measure the weight distribution of each blade. The next step will be powered propulsion system testing of the air taxi’s powertrain and battery packs, during which the engines will be run while the vehicle is anchored.  

After this, Vertical will need to secure a permit to fly from the UK’s Civil Aviation Authority (CAA), which will allow it to move to the ‘wheels up’ phase: crewed testing of tethered aircraft and low-speed untethered flights. It will also need to perform thrust borne, wing borne and transition flights, demonstrating that the aircraft can manoeuvre and gain lift as expected.

The manufacturer’s type certification safety target is the same as that for commercial airliners. Its flagship model will enable a pilot to fly as many as four passengers up to 160 kilometres (87 nm) while producing zero operating emissions and just 50 dBA of noise during cruise, which the company says allows it to fit seamlessly within an urban soundscape. The firm claims it will be capable of flying from Miami to Fort Lauderdale, Florida, in only 11 minutes.

Despite suffering a crash, Vertical continues to receive support from the UK government, which in February awarded it $10 million to develop its next-generation propellers. The allocation brings the manufacturer’s total UK government grant funding received to $47 million. Vertical founder Stephen Fitzpatrick also committed $50 million to the company, which he predicted would keep it liquid through mid-2025. The money will be used to support the aircraft testing and certification process, which the manufacturer hopes to complete by the end of 2026.

Drones at Oshkosh

I am very happy to report that at last the FAA has lightened up on its drones’ rules so that many drone types could be flown at AirVenture and I will be dealing with this specific subject in the August edition of Future Flight.

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