2009-3

This space is devoted to announcements and items of general interest. For our non-pilot readers, NOTAM is short for Notice to Airmen. NOTAMS, briefed before every mission, contain important information that may concern the flight.

PHOTO BY Eric VOrsTEnBOscH

The Royal Netherlands Air Force F-16 demonstration team began the 2009 air show season in style with one of the most brilliant paint schemes ever sported by a Fighting Falcon. The team, based at Volkel AB near the town of Uden, includes personnel from 313 and 311 Squadrons. “One Team, One Task” is the motto of the RNLAF. The aircraft will appear in approximately thirty shows in 2009. For more information and photos, visit: www.f16demoteam.nl.

Clean The Canopy, Sir?A Polish

Air Force F-16 Fighting Falcon pilot receives fuel from a US Air Force KC-135 Stratotanker aircraft from the 100th Air Refueling Wing at RAF Mildenhall, England, during a NATO exercise near Poland on 7 April. The Polish Air Force fleet received its first F-16 in 2006. Its fleet will consist of forty-eight aircraft.

Super Hercules For OmanThe Sultanate of Oman ordered a C-130J Super Hercules

in late May to further support its operations, particularly on remote, austere airstrips. The aircraft, to be delivered in mid-2012, is the longer fuselage configuration of the C-130J. Oman currently operates a fleet of three C-130Hs purchased in the early 1980s. Oman is the eleventh country either to operate the C-130J or to have the Super Hercules on order.

More Missionized

The US Coast Guard recently exercised contract options to install mission systems aboard two additional HC-130J aircraft. The modifications include a belly-mounted surface search radar, a nose-mounted electro-optical/infrared imaging system, a flight deck mission operator station, and an integrated communications system. These aircraft will complete the Coast Guard’s planned inventory of six missionized HC-130Js, which are used for search and rescue, law enforcement, and homeland security missions. The aircraft are based at CGAS Elizabeth City, North Carolina.

Opa! The first F-16 Block 52 fighter delivered

under the Peace Xenia IV foreign military sales program for Greece was accepted by the Hellenic Air Force in ceremonies at Lockheed Martin in Fort Worth, Texas, on 19 March. Peace Xenia IV includes twenty single-seat F-16Cs and ten two-seat F-16Ds, all powered by the Pratt & Whitney F100-PW-229 engine. This latest purchase brings the total number of F-16s ordered by Greece to 170.

Star Fighter Meets Star Ship

The Orion crew exploration vehicle pad abort test vehicle, known as PA-1, was being towed to the weight and balance hangar at the Air Force Flight Test Center at Edwards AFB, California, for mass properties testing on 20 April when an F-22 assigned to the Raptor test fleet was taxied out for takeoff. Orion is NASA’s new manned space vehicle that will replace the space shuttle early in the next decade.Airborne Artillery

US Airmen load an M777A2 lightweight towed howitzer into a C-130J Super Hercules at Bagram AB, Afghanistan, on 14 March. The aircraft, normally based at Little Rock AFB, Arkansas, is currently rotationally assigned to the 772nd Air Expeditionary Airlift Squadron, which has been activated to assist with the surge of US forces in Afghanistan.

In TheaterVehicles and equipment belonging to the US Army’s 5-52 Air Defense Artillery

Battalion were off-loaded from a C-5 Galaxy on 6 March at the 380th Air Expeditionary Wing in Southwest Asia. The 5-52, a Patriot missile unit, was deployed from Fort Bliss, Texas, to the 380th AEW to provide an air defense capability. The C-5 is from the 105th Airlift Wing at Stewart ANGB, New York.

Checking Clearance

Sgt. Destin Waldron, a crew chief with Marine Light Attack Helicopter Squadron 367 (HMLA-367) at Camp Pendleton, California, is the topside spotter on a UH-1Y helicopter being maneuvered into the cargo bay of a C-5C Galaxy during an exercise at Travis on 20 April. The purpose of the exercise was to determine the helicopter’s best fit into the cargo bay of the C-5 and the number of helicopters that could be loaded at one time.

Hammer DropAn F-22 pilot

from the 49th Fighter Wing from Holloman AFB, New Mexico, drops a GBU-32 Joint Direct Attack Munition at Hill AFB, Utah, in May during a two-week large-scale air-to-ground weapons evaluation exercise known as Combat Hammer. Almost every fighter, bomber, and unmanned aerial vehicle in the Air Force inventory participated in this particular evaluation. The 86th Fighter Weapons Squadron at Hill conducts the Combat Hammer missions.

Where The rapTor STarTS ITS DayDeployed F-22s Bolster US Presence On Guam

LIghTnIng SIghTF-35 Pilot’s Helmet Isn’t Science Fiction

goIng VerTIcaLHover Pit Testing Prepares F-35B For Ups And Downs

The norSe goDDeSSeSNorway Begins Operations With The C-130J

on The FaST TrackRamstein AB Converts To The C-130J…Quickly

eVenTS

DoVer DeLIVeryC-5M Begins Operations

VIkIng DeparTureS-3 Retires From Navy Fleet Service

EDITOR

Eric Hehs

ASSOCIATE EDITOR

Jeff Rhodes

ART DIRECTOR

Stan Baggett

VICE PRESIDENT, COMMUNICATIONS

Mary Jo Polidore

EXECUTIVE VICE PRESIDENT,

LOCKHEED MARTIN CORPORATION

PRESIDENT, AERONAUTICS COMPANY

Ralph D. Heath

PERSONAL SUBSCRIPTIONS

Send name, address, and $20 for a one-year subscription (four issues) to PO Box 5189, Brentwood, TN 37024-5189.Foreign subscriptions are $30 (US).Some back issues are available.

CONTACT INFORMATION

Send correspondence to Code One Magazine,Lockheed Martin Aeronautics Company,PO Box 748, Mail Zone 1503, Fort Worth, TX 76101Editorial office phone number: 817-777-5542E-mail: [email protected] address: www.codeonemagazine.comFax: 817-777-8655Distribution information: 888-883-3780

This publication is intended for information only. Its contents neither replace nor revise any material in official manuals or publications. Copyright © 2009 Lockheed Martin Corporation. All rights reserved. Permission to reprint articles or photographs must be requested in writing from the editor. Code One is a registered trademark of Lockheed Martin Corporation. Code One is published quarterly by Lockheed Martin Aeronautics Company. ISSN 1071-3816 A09-27531

V O L U M E 2 4 N U M B E R 3

ABOUT THE COVER

Front: Two F-22 Raptors deployed from Elmendorf AFB, Alaska, are flown over the Pacific Ocean during a theater security mission. The F-22s were flown nonstop from Anchorage to Guam in a ten-hour flight. The Raptors deployed for three months to Andersen AFB, Guam, where they were joined by B-2 bombers. This is the first time the United States has deployed the B-2 and the F-22 to a forward base location together. Photo by MSgt. Kevin Gruenwald

Back: A C-130J from the 146th Airlift Wing at Channel Islands ANGB, California, is marshaled in as a C-130H from the 302nd Airlift Wing at Peterson AFB, Colorado, is taxied out during the annual Modular Airborne Firefighting System, or MAFFS, training, held this spring at Tucson International Airport, Arizona. This marks the thirty-ninth year C-130 units have been involved with putting out forest fires. Photo by John Rossino

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“Where America Starts Its Day.” This slogan, appearing on T-shirts sold in tourist shops all over Guam, highlights the island’s distinction as the west-ernmost US territory and, hence, where day first breaks on America. Guam’s proximity to Japan, about a two-hour flight south from Tokyo, makes it a popular destination for Japanese tourists, who can be seen wearing the aforementioned T-shirts at local beach resorts and outlet malls, where they take advantage of warm weather and favorable yen-to-dollar exchange rates. Location explains Guam’s attract ion to Japanese tourists. Location also explains the reason military officials view the island as a strategic asset for the United States.

Location, Location, Location“Location and sovereignty,” stresses Brig. Gen. Philip Ruhlman,

commander of the 36th Wing that operates from Andersen AFB on the nor thern tip of the island. “Guam’s location shrinks the tyranny of distance in the Pacific. The fact the island is a sovereign US terri-tor y means we don’t have to get anyone’s permission to land here. More impor tantly, we don’t need permission to operate from here.”

Tyranny of distance can easily be understood by studying a map of the Paci f ic . US Paci f ic Com-mand’s area of operations runs from the west coast of Nor th America to the east coast of Afr ica. The area encompasses almost sixty percent of the world’s population, more than fif ty

3Vol. 24 No. 3 2009

RaptoRs DepLoyThe fighter role was elevated from non-

stealthy fourth generation to stealthy fifth generation in January 2009 when twelve Raptors from the 90th Fighter Squadron at E lmendor f AFB, A laska, landed at Andersen. Initially, the F-22s from the 90th were deployed with B-52s from Minot AFB. With the arrival of B-2s in April, the Air Force’s premier stealth assets were working together for the f irst t ime at a forward deployed operating base.

“ This deployment is his tor ic,” says Lt. Col. Orlando Sanchez, 90th FS com-mander. Sanchez f lew one of the dozen Raptors in the initial group deployed from

E lmendor f to Andersen. “This is the first time t h e U n i t e d S t a t e s h a s deployed the B -2 a n d t h e F-22 to a for-ward base loca-t ion together. T h e B -2 ha s

Where the Raptor starts its Day BY ERIC HEHS

Brig. Gen. Philip Ruhlman

percent of the earth’s sur face, the Pacific and Indian Oceans, and sixteen time zones.

Just f inding Guam in this expanse can be a challenge. The island is relat ively small—only about thir ty miles long and twelve miles across at its widest point. Its proximity to the Korean peninsula, the Taiwan Strait, Southeast Asia, and vital sea lanes near Singapore and Malaysia underscore its stra-tegic signif icance.

The signif icance is fur ther highlighted by a continuous US Air Force bomber presence. “We have had bombers at Andersen twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week, and 365 days a year since 2004,” Ruhlman says. “This is PACAF’s bomber base. I cannot let one bomber unit leave before another one is on station.”

The bombers rotate in and out of Andersen on regular ly scheduled four- to six-month intervals as part of the Air Force’s Air E xpedit ionar y Force, or AEF, deployments. The aircraf t typically come from three bases in the US. Minot AFB, Nor th Dakota, and Barksdale AFB, Louisiana, send B-52s; Whiteman AFB, Missouri, sends B-2s. Approximately 300 personnel accom-pany each rotation.

“Deterrence didn’t go away with the Cold War,” Ruhlman says. “The bomber presence sends a strong message. It deters adversaries. It assures our allies.”

In addition to the bombers, the 36th Wing hosts a year-round expedit ionary air refueling force provided by the Air National Guard or Air Force Reserve Command. “We have a substantial f lying operation at Andersen,” Ruhlman explains. “This is not Sleepy Hollow.”

The continuous bomber and tanker presence on Guam has been supplemented more recently by regular f ighter deploy-ments called theater security packages. “The theater security package is a Pacific Command initiative,” Ruhlman continues. “Up to nine months out of the year, we are going to have US Air Force or US Navy fighters here to augment our continuous bomber presence on the island.”

been here before many times. F-22s came to Ander sen f r om E lmendor f f o r t he first time last July for about a week. But this is the f irst t ime both aircraf t have operated together.”

The previous deployment of F-22s was to ensure that the 90th could fulfill obli-gations related to its initial operational capabil i t y, or IOC, s tatus. The f ighter squadron had to show that it could deploy and function as a fighter squadron. In the latest deployment, a four-month st int, the 90th is fulfilling a real-world role as part of a theater security package.

The F-22s were f lown nonstop f rom Anchorage to Guam in a ten-hour flight. “Flying 4,000 miles from Anchorage to Guam made me appreciate the scope of the Pacif ic theater,” says Lt. Col. Chris Niemi, director of operations for the 90th. “ The F-22s f lew along the Kamchatka peninsula and then along the coast of Japan, over Iwoto, and on to Guam.

“We kept busy during the flight refueling and keeping track of the nearest diver t runways,” Niemi continues. “We came with three four-ship formations, and then we brought two more Raptors about a month later to maximize our sortie rates.”

The pilots exercised as much as they could during the extended flight. “We can’t get up and walk down the aisle in an F-22, so we run the seat up and down several times during the long flight to stretch the legs,” explains Niemi.

Before the R a p t o r s l e f t A l a s k a , t h e t e mp e r a t u r e d r o p p e d t o m inu s f o r t y -f i ve deg r ee s F a h r e n h e i t . “ T h e n t h e t e mp e r a t u r e went up and it

rained,” Sanchez adds. “We had freezing rain and sheets of ice under the aircraft. But we took all twelve aircraft in one shot. When we landed in Guam, the tempera-ture was eighty degrees. The crew rested one day, and then flew four teen sor ties the next day. We were up to a full schedule that f irst week, and we haven’t slowed down since.”

Lt. Col. Orlando Sanchez

Lt. Col. Chris Niemi

Code One2

GROUND PHOTOS BY KATSUHIKO TOKUNAGAAIR-TO-AIR PHOTOS BY MSGT. KEVIN GRUENWALD

Code One4

opeRationaL tempo“All of the jets have held up quite

well,” explains Capt. Mary Lent, main-tenance chief for the 90th. “We have had a few flight control issues. But other than that, maintenance has been fairly routine.” Aircraft take about one week to acclimate to a new environment. The F-22 is no different from any other fighter going between climate extremes of cold Alaska to warm tropics. “The low-observable coatings require a little more maintenance because of the tropical environment,” Lent adds. “So we rinse the F-22 with clear water daily to prevent corrosion.

“The operational tempo here is about the same as Alaska,” Lent continues. “The nice weather is conducive to hot pit refueling.” Hot pit refueling involves f lying a mission and then refueling the aircraft on the ground without shut-ting down the engine. Because pilots don’t exit the aircraft during hot pit refueling, the technique allows them to f ly two missions in rapid succession. Maintenance crews can hot pit refuel eight F-22s in less than one hour. “Cold temperatures at Elmendorf make hot pit refueling difficult between November and March,” explains Lent.

The 90th brought its entire maintenance team to Guam. Many are fairly new to the squadron and to the F-22. “They are getting a lot of hands-on experience here,” says Lent. “I am immensely proud of their performance. These are some of the best maintainers I’ve worked with. Further, they are generating some excellent sortie rates.”

“We have done phenomenally,” adds Sanchez. “We have lost no f lights to weather. Flying can be such a struggle in Alaska regardless of the airplane.”

The 90th brought about 250 personnel, including twenty pilots, four of whom are Reservists. About a dozen Reservists are supporting the mainte-nance side as well.

“The airfield at Andersen is not quite as busy as the airfield at Elmendorf,” Sanchez explains. “We have more competition for resources at home. We have the other F-22 squadron, an F-15 squadron, C-17s, and AWACS—all competing for the runway and airspace.” Flight schedules at Andersen can be more f lex-ible allowing the pilots to f ly day and night missions. “We typically f ly seven or eight jets, hot pit refuel, and f ly seven or eight again,” continues Sanchez. “Then we f ly once again in the afternoon. With that process, we f ly twenty or more sorties some days.”

Capt. Mary Lent

Hot pit refueling involves flying a mission and then refueling the aircraft on the ground without shutting down the engine.

The difference between two stealth platforms working together and one stealth platform working with non-stealth platforms is significant, according to Sanchez. “We have a much greater ability to project power into denied access environments,” he says. “We magnify the B-2’s capabilities, and it magnifies ours. The B-2 carries a lot of ordnance to the fight. The F-22 offers speed, sensors, and agility. These two platforms will likely work together in future contingen-cies, so this experience may prove invaluable.”

team steaLthSeveral of the deployed F-22 pilots have worked with B-2s

before at Nellis for Weapons School and Red Flag exercises. “Nellis offers an awesome opportunity,” Sanchez explains. “The downside is that the exercise is for a short period making aircrews run hard to keep up with their own training and mission objectives. The B-2s also f ly into the Nellis ranges from their home bases, so we don’t interact with them directly in Nevada.”

At Andersen, F-22 pilots can work directly with the B-2 crews. “We see them every day. We share the same locker room. We go to their briefings if we want. Our intel officers interact with their intel of f icers,” continues Sanchez. “Although we may actually only f ly once or twice a week with them, we interact with them every day. We can work on how we plan missions together toward an objective that is more like a Global Strike scenario. Such opportunities are rare.”

“We magnify the B-2’s capabilities, and it magnifies ours. The B-2 carries a lot of ordnance to the fight. The F-22 offers speed, sensors, and agility. These two platforms will likely work together in future contingencies, so this experience may prove invaluable.” — Lt. Col. Orlando Sanchez

5Vol. 24 No. 3 2009

7Vol. 24 No. 3 2009

mixing it UpThe 90th also got the chance to work with the B-52 Strato-

fortresses before those bombers redeployed to Minot. “In a higher-threat scenario, the B-52 can be a real challenge to defend,” says Sanchez. “They are much larger and have less ability to defend themselves. The tactics we use for the B-2 and the B-52 bombers are not the same.”

Raptor pilots are also getting exposed to other assets in the theater. “We f lew with F/A-18Es from VFA-27 last week,” says Capt. Patrick Williams, a pilot with the 90th. “That was my first time to f ly with Super Hornets. The experi-ence was a great opportunity to share tactics and capa-bilities. It was also a great opportunity to share techniques for working together.”

JUst VisitingBringing units up to speed is the name of the game at

Andersen as the base has no permanently assigned Air Force f lying units. “My biggest challenge is to learn all the mis-sions of the various aircraft as they come through Andersen,” explains Col. Tod Fingal, commander of the 36th Opera-tions Group at Andersen AFB.

Fingal, who took over the operations group three weeks before the Code One visit, deployed to Andersen in 2007 as part of a theater security package. At the time, he was with the 522nd Fighter Squadron from Cannon AFB, New Mexico. “We brought eighteen F-16s and stayed four and one-half months,” he recalls. “Now I am here for the long term as the operations group commander. Seeing the base from the deployed commander’s perspective certainly helps.”

The infrastructure at Andersen is growing to keep up with the base’s accelerating operational tempo. That tempo may never reach the levels seen during World War II, when

“Some Navy pilots have had some experience with the Raptor,” adds Niemi. “One pilot with VFA-27 flew with the F-22 at China Lake. But this deployment is the first time I escorted Super Hornets. We focused on joint integration. We also acted as Red air for the Navy Hornets or they played Red air for us. The Navy is starting to understand what we can do.

“The Navy rolls through Guam with an entire carrier group,” Niemi continues. “We don’t get carrier groups at Elmendorf. The experience working with a carrier group is worth its weight in gold. We may deploy somewhere and fight in the future with a unit that has never flown with us. So this experience exposes us to the questions we may face when we have to bring another fighter unit up to speed on our capa-bilities and the best way to coordinate missions with them.”

twenty-four squadrons of B -29s were s t at ioned at A ndersen. Or reach t he activity during the Vietnam War, when more than 100 B-52s f illed the ramps for Operations Linebacker and Arc Light.

“We are receiving funding to build facilities to meet our latest warfighting needs,” Fingal says. “We have several major projects under way. The south runway is under construc-tion. The north runway was completed in 2007.”

“Guam is all about those two huge 10,000-foot runways,” adds Ruhlman. “All we have is Hangar 1, a thoroughly modern hangar built to withstand typhoon season. In fact, everything built on the base has to withstand 170 mph winds and Category 4 earthquakes. Because of those requirements, con-struction that costs $1 in the United States costs $2.64 here.”

The base is also completing work on two new hangars to support the RQ-4 Global Hawk high-altitude UAVs that will be stationed at Andersen in early 2010. A lot of the improve-ments are designed to meet the needs of emerging technol-ogies in the US Air Force. The deployment of stealth assets, as well as the investment in infrastructure, amplifies the island’s strategic significance.

“Andersen is a jewel in the Pacific,” says Col. Damian McCarthy, deputy commander of the 36th Wing. “We are strategically located. Our base structure is very f lexible. Our prevailing winds allow pilots to take off over the water and immediately climb to the altitudes they need to train. We have great and patriotic hosts and excellent community support. Guam is a great place to host a lot of people and partners in the Pacific.”

Eric Hehs is the editor of Code One.

Capt. Patrick Williams

Code One6

Col. Damian McCarthy

Col. Tod Fingal

PHOTO BY MSGT. KEVIN GRUENWALD

Code One8 9Vol. 24 No. 3 2009

“WE HAVE ELIMINATED THE NEED FOR A HEAD-UP DISPLAY. INSTEAD, THE HELMET CONNECTS THE PILOT TO THE AIRPLANE,” says Jon Beesley, F-35 chief test pilot. “We’ve taken pieces that are essential for combat operations, such as targeting information, crucial flight measurements, and night vision capability, and merged them into the helmet to give the pilots more complete situational awareness.”

The helmet-mounted display system, or HMDS, displays head-steerable sym-bology, meaning the pilot’s line of sight dictates the content that appears on the visor. As soon as, or even before, a pilot sees another aircraft in the distance, the system projects a marker on the visor to locate, identify, and track the aircraft. If the designated aircraft is determined to be hostile, the pilot can use the tar-geting info to cue weapons—without

looking down at the cockpit displays and while pulling g’s.

“No matter where pilots look, they have all the f light information right in front of their eyes,” says Dave Perkins,

lead engineer of HMDS integration. “The helmet displays airspeed, altitude, rate of climb, and the aiming informa-tion for all the weapons. The helmet even displays all the information needed shou ld s ome t h i ng go w rong . For example, it provides an alert and directs the pilot’s attention if there’s something nasty coming from the nose of the air-plane while the pilot is looking some-where else.”

These HMD capabilities apply to F-35 air-to-ground missions as well. Pilots can mark new target locations by simply looking, pointing, and clicking a des-ignator on the sidestick as they f ly by. Then the aircraf t ’s data link system allows pilots to send the marked precise target coordinates quickly and easily to bombers and other combat aircraft in the same mission.

The F-35 helmet prov ides pi lots a unique ability to see through their aircraft. Even though the helmet doesn’t come equipped with x-ray vision, the HMD correlates images from a set of cameras, called the distributed aperture system, mounted on the outer surfaces of the jet. These cameras provide a constant 360-degree view of the air-craft’s surroundings. When a pilot looks down, the image of what is below the aircraft shows up on the HMD. This feature is helpful not only in combat, but also during carrier and vertical night landings with the Navy and Marine variants, respectively.

Through a night vision camera built into the front of the helmet, the F-35 HMD visor can also display f light and targeting information on top of night vision images. “No helmet provided the combination of night vision and sym-bology at the same time until now,” explains Beesley. “With legacy systems, pilots have to choose between the two capabilities.” This combination is a huge advantage for F-35 pilots because all night vision devices limit peripheral vision. The symbols help pilots interpret more of their environment than night vision capability alone.

For the display to correlate with what direction the pilot is looking, a magnetic field in the cockpit senses the direction the helmet is pointing. A transmitter on t he s e at em it s t he f ie ld w h i le a receiver on the helmet reads the

magnetic f lux as it moves in that field. “Most HMD systems require pilots to go t h roug h a n a l ig n ment process before each f light,” explains Beesley. “They may have to realign the system several times during a f light because

the systems can drift. This magnetic tracking system makes all the correc-tions itself, so that we pilots never have to adjust the alignment.”

Additionally, the night vision camera and a day camera right next to it ensure that the images and symbology correctly represent the direct ion the pi lot is looking. “The helmet cameras look out at all times, take a picture of the outside scene, and relate that image to other images from the fixed camera on the glareshield to make sure the line of sight is correct,” says Perkins. “If the two images are even a little bit off, the system self-corrects.”

eVoLUtionFlight display systems have evolved

from the head-down displays of every fighter through Vietnam to the head-up system now used in the F-16 and many other modern f ighters. However, no f light display system has achieved func-tioning HMD capability to the level of the F-35 helmet. In the 1980s, engineers developed the Falcon Eye system for F-16s—a project for which Beesley f lew test f lights. Falcon Eye was also head-steerable, with targeting and f l ight information symbology projected on the helmet display. However, imagery was analog with high latency, or lag times, in information transfer.

Current F-16 pilots f ly with digital imagery on the Joint Helmet-Mounted Cueing System, or JHMCS, but this system provides only targeting informa-tion and not the head-up display infor-mation pilots use for flying. “Providing that content was never a design goal for JHMCS,” notes Beesley. “If we tried to put all the F-35 information we need on the JHMCS, the potential latency would be too great for it to be effective.”

Advances in computer technology have significantly reduced latency of the content displayed on the F-35 HMD. The HMDS current ly exists in two forms. The first is a binocular system with optics that display images and symbology so that the right optic shines to the left eye and the left optic shines to the right eye. This bifurcated helmet is characterized by sharp, distinct edges down the center and around the perim-eter of the visor where curved surfaces come together. While the bifurcations

Lightning SightF-35HELMET-MOUNTEDDISPLAY

BY SYDNEY CARROLL

Jon Beesley, F-35 chief test pilot

The F-35 helmet provides pilots a unique ability to see through their aircraft. When a pilot looks down, the image of what is below the aircraft shows up on the HMD. This feature is helpful not only in combat, but also during carrier and vertical night landings with the Navy and Marine variants, respectively.

PHOTO BY JOHN WILSON


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The F-35 pilot’s helmet—with its glowing green eyes, bulbous shape, and carbon fiber construction—looks like something out of a sci-f i movie. And, in this case, the look actually f its.

11Vol. 24 No. 3 2009

allow for a larger field of view, they are visible as lines to the pilot and have proved to be problematic. “The bifur-cated helmet was rejected as the opera-tional answer even though we built a half dozen so we could still f ly with the HMD capability,” explains Beesley.

The Generation II helmet that evolved from the bifurcated system is the HMDS that F-35 pilots around the world will f ly with. It is still a binocular system with essentially the same shell as its predecessor, but instead of the bifur-cated visor, the Gen II HMD has a more traditional, rounded visor that can also be f lipped up and down. The visor is part of the display system on the bifur-cated helmet, so pilots have to lift the whole optic system and visor off instead of just f lipping the visor up to access their faces. The visor improvements make the Gen II more in line with every other current service helmet.

speciFicationsThe prime contractor on the F-35 HMD

is Vision Systems International, or VSI, of San Jose, California. VSI is a joint ven-ture between Elbit, an Israeli company responsible for the helmet’s operating system, and Rockwell Collins, an Amer-ican company responsible for building the helmet itself. Lockheed Martin produces the software and imagery that the HMD displays. The F-35 Joint Pro-gram Office in Crystal City, Virginia, is responsible for defining requirements, implementing capabilities, and testing the functionality.

The Gen II helmet is made of carbon f iber a nd Kevla r. It was ca ref u l ly designed to distribute weight without altering the pilot’s center of balance. If the majority of the helmet’s weight is too far forward, high g’s may force the pilot’s head in the direction of the turn. To keep head movement under the pi lot ’s cont rol , desig ners broug ht the optics to the top of the forehead of the Gen II helmet.

Every F-35 pilot will wear the same Gen II HMD. The lens of the visor is made of s t rong polyca rbonate for impact protection. Pilots will also be able to wear one of two outer visors: a darker, sun-screening visor for a bright day or one with protection against laser eye damage.

The HMD connects two ways to the F-35 cockpit to provide power, sym-bols, images, oxygen, and communica-tion to the pilot. The first connection carries the power, f light systems, and sensors to and from the HMD through a cable that runs from the middle of the back of the helmet and down the pilot’s f light suit before plugging into the right side of the seat. The second connection carries the oxygen hose and the com-munication link to the pilot interface connector that sits to the left of the seat. Both connections automatically discon-nect if the pilot ejects.

testingThe HMD runs the same gamut of

checks that all F-35 parts must run—and pass: temperature, altitude, vibra-tion, electronics, alignment, and general specification tests. Engineers also con-duct detailed safety research to ensure

that the helmet will protect the pilot’s head. For example, the helmet is fitted to a fully outfitted mannequin, put into a wind blast facility, and exposed to 600-knot wind blasts like those after an ejection. It is put on a simulated head equipped with sensors and dropped from eight feet onto a steel block to test impact safety. It is put through a simulated ejection to confirm it suffi-ciently protects the pilot. Before the HMD is cleared for operation, it must emerge from the wind blast, impact, and ejection tests unscathed.

The communications system is also caref u l ly examined to ensure t hat friendly forces hear everything and enemy forces hear nothing. Noise- reduction ear cups are checked for func-tionality. The communications system is also tested for noise and electronic inter-ference: an F-35 pilot must be able to

understand all incoming communica-tions, and friendly forces on the ground and in the air need to understand the F-35 pilot as well. At the same time, the electronics for the communications system is tested for surveillance suscep-tibility to ensure that conversations cannot be picked up by enemy forces.

FitEach of some 8,000 F-35 pilots world-

wide will be custom-fitted to his or her own helmet. Fit is vital to both safety and symbology because the function-ality of the HMD relies on precise posi-tioning of the optics. The optics, in turn, project the symbols onto the v isor directly in front of the pilot’s eyes, cre-ating two green spots. “If the helmet shifts when pulling g’s, the green spots can rotate out causing the pilot to lose all the symbols,” Beesley explains. “If the green dots aren’t in front of the eyes,

the pilot doesn’t see anything from the HMD. It’s called ‘losing the exit pupil.’ That’s why the f it must be exact and tightly positioned.”

The fitting process of the HMDS is as high-tech as its capabilities. First, the pilot puts on an elastic cap so his or her head can be scanned by a laser to create a computer profile. The three-dimensional image created from the scan determines whether the pilot needs a small, medium, or large shell. The image relays to a milling machine that scoops foam from the inside layer of the shell so that the pilot’s head fits snugly inside.

Next, technicians position the optics using data from the head scan. Mea-surements of distance between the pilot’s eyes, between the eyes and the visor (exit pupil distance), and from the eyes to the top of the head are a l l taken into account. The exit pupil distance

determines how much the display can move around and still allow the pilot to see the image. The measurement from the top of the head is used to position the optics to get the optimum image size.

To fit the visor, the pilot puts on the oxygen mask so that the visor can be hand-trimmed around it. “We have to hand-trim the visor because we don’t want it touching anything apart from its own fixings,” says Perkins. “Other-wise it will distort the image the pilot sees.” The gap between the visor and the oxygen mask should be small to al low a litt le bit of movement while pulling g’s. However, it also needs to fit closely enough to protect the pilot’s eyes from debris during ejections. “We are looking at a method to profile the face to quickly trim the visor to fit,” Perkins adds, “but right now the fit is done by hand.”

To test the fitting process, a group of four F-35 test pi lots went to the United Kingdom and f lew RAF Hawk T.Mk. 1A trainers with the displays in front of their eyes (not with the whole system). They f lew at nine g’s to deter-mine whether they would lose their exit pupils. “The results were very good,” Beesley says. “The pilots all had genuine success with keeping the display in the right position. We learned that the basic helmet capability and fit system is on the right track.”

As the Gen II system progresses a longside the F-35, more and more pilots will learn to f ly with advanced HMD capabi lity. Beesley, a veteran pilot who has f lown with HMD proto-types for more than twenty years, fore-sees no adaptation problems for new pi lots, whether they’re fresh out of f light school or they’re transitioning from other fighters.

“At first we keep things easy because t he helmet i s new,” he says of t he training process. “Pilots train some with the HMD in the simulator, but it falls short of what it’s like to really f ly. One of the best testimonies I’ve heard is that, after they’ve f lown for a while, pilots forget they’re f lying with the symbols on their heads.”

Sydney Carroll is in the Communications Leadership Development program at Lockheed Martin.

The visor is part of the display system on the bifurcated helmet, so pilots have to lift the whole optic system and visor off instead of just flipping the visor up to access their faces. The visor improvements make the Gen II more in line with every other current service helmet.

GENERATION II HMDGENERATION I HMD

Code One10

PHOTOS BY JOHN WILSON

Code One12

It took a couple of tries, but Norwegian Defence Minister Anne-Grethe Strøm-Erichsen followed tradition and shat-

tered a bott le of champagne on the forward fuselage jack pad of the Royal Nor wegian Air Force’s f i rst Super Hercules. The naming was the highlight of Norway’s official welcoming cere-mony for the C-130J held 25 November 2 0 0 8 a t G a rd e r mo e n A i r S t a t ion outside Oslo.

“the sages teLL Us FRIGG Was BeaUtiFUL anD the most poWeRFUL oF

the goDDesses. What BetteR attRiBUtes can one Wish FoR in a

tRanspoRt aiRcRaFt? i am conVinceD she WiLL seRVe heR coUntRy

in an oUtstanDing Way. it is With honoR anD Respect i chRisten oUR

FiRst c-130J tRanspoRt, FRIGG. i Wish yoU anD yoUR cReWs a smooth

anD saFe FLight.” By JeFF RhoDes photos By John Rossino

A crowd of more than 300 people attended the ceremony, including US Ambassador to Norway Benson K. Whitney; Royal Norwegian Air Force Chief of Sta f f Maj. Gen. Stein Nodeland; and rank ing of f icia ls f rom the Norwegian Ministry of Defence; the Norwegian Air Force; and the US government. Aircrew, maintainers, and family members from the air station were also in the audience.

Frigg—which is pronounced Freeg—is the first of four C-130Js that will be f lown by 335 Squadron, whose lineage dates back to 1946. Initially equipped with Lockheed C-60 Lodestar transports, the squadron mostly f lew logistics f lights within Norway. The introduction of the C-119 Flying Boxcar in 1956 allowed Norwegian Air Force crews to assist in international relief operations in Europe, Asia, and Africa.

Since 1969, t he squadron has f low n si x C-130 Super Es—basica l ly late-model C-130Es equipped with the C-130H model’s upgraded T56-A-15 turbo-prop engines—logging more than 132,000 hours of f light time. Impressively, this operational legacy has come without a single mishap or major incident.

Over the past four decades, 335 Squadron has sup-ported countless Norwegian, NATO, European Union, Open Skies Treaty, Arctic and Antarctic, aeromedical airlift, and humanitarian relief missions around the world. The aircraft have also been used to support search and rescue operations as well as Norwegian Special Opera-tions missions. But despite meticulous maintenance, the Norwegian C-130Es had reached the end of their useful service lives.

“At the end of the day, we were forced to ground the aircraft,” says Oberst (Col.) Diederik Willem Kolff, com-mander of 135 Air Wing, the parent unit of 335 Squadron. “We couldn’t f ly tactical missions. We did f ly some transport missions, but eventual ly we even had to suspend those missions, as well.” The last operational mission for Norway’s C-130Es came in July 2008.

neW aiRcRaFt“We were extremely lucky to get the opportunity we did to get our C-130Js,” Kolff notes.

“The US Air Force essentially allowed us to jump the queue to get new aircraft. It was a tremendous help to us. Otherwise, we would not have had a transport f leet.”

Delivery of the first C-130J to Gardermoen came only eighteen months after the US and Norwegian government representatives signed the contract. “My government’s decisive guidelines and quick political action paved the way for this speedy and efficient procure-ment,” Strøm-Erichsen said. “It is, in fact, quite rare that a defence minister gives the go-ahead for a project of this magnitude and gets to be in position when the order is delivered.”

“The original six C-130s were named after the male gods, Odin, Tor (Thor), Balder, Frøy, Ty, and Brage,” Kolff notes. “The C-130Js will be named after the wives of four of them. Frigg is the wife of Odin, according to Norwegian mythology. She’s the first lady.”

13Vol. 24 No. 3 2009

Oberst (Col.) Diederik Willem Kolff, 135 Air Wing commander

14

Frigg, the first C-130J for an inter-national customer to be delivered under a US Foreign Military Sales program contract, was joined by Idunn (Ee-dunn), wife of Brage, in June 2009. Nanna, wife of Balder, and Siv, wife of Tor, will be delivered in early 2010.

Frigg’s first official f light came after the naming ceremony, when Norwegian government and air force officials were given an orientation f light over Oslo. During the hour-long sortie, the new C-130J was accompa nied by t hree Norwegian F-16s. One of the squadron’s three remaining C-130Es was used as an aerial photography platform. At that point, two of the squadron’s old aircraft had already been retired, and one had been donated to a local museum. The last of Norway’s E-models was retired to the 309th Aerospace Maintenance and Regeneration Group at Davis-Monthan AFB, Arizona, in early 2009.

moDeRn BaseOriginally located on the site where

Oslo Airport’s commercial terminal now sits, Gardermoen was moved across the runway in 1996. A completely new air station was purpose-built to support C-130 operations. “The base is only a few square kilometers in area,” says Kolff, a former Dutch F-16 exchange pilot who stayed and later became a Norwegian

citizen. “What you see is pretty much it. But it is very efficient.”

A central building facing the f light-l ine houses the wing and squadron offices, military passenger terminal, and a storage and maintenance facility for ground servicing equipment. The ramp is sized for six C-130s and features an underground fueling system.

Much like Frigg, who, it was said, had the gift of prophesy, the Royal Norwegian Air Force sized the four hangars at Gardermoen for the longer fuselage C-130s while the base was being designed, just in case.

The maintenance complex, just off the central building, consists of three connected, side-by-side hangars—one f o r c h e c k s a n d inspections; one for heavy maintenance, s u c h a s a i r c r a f t engine changes; and one for washing or painting aircraft—w i t h t h e s u p p l y section and all nec-essary back shops, such as av ionics , propulsion, and sys-tems conveniently l o c a t e d a c r o s s a common ha l l , a l l of which allow the maintainers to stay indoors during the harsh winters.

“We wanted to make it easy for main-tenance to work,” says Maj. Vidar Haukås, chief of aircraft maintenance

at Gardermoen. “One of our ma i n goa ls i s e f f ic ienc y.

Manpower is expensive. We need low manpower and high efficiency.”

The fourth hangar, which is glassed in at both ends, is for operational air-craft. “The Air Movements [aerial port] section is located right next to that hangar to make it convenient to load the cargo,” notes Haukås. “An aircraft leaving on a mission will be parked and loaded in there. We don’t use chemicals to deice the aircraft. Instead, the pro-pane heaters in the hangar melt the ice and snow. There is a drain system in the f loor. In two hours, the aircraft is ready to go.”

getting ReaDyPreparations for the new aircraft began

in earnest in 2008. “We sent our first pilots and loadmasters to the US Air Force’s

C-130 schoolhouse at Little Rock [AFB, Arkansas] in April of 2008,” says Maj. Trond Sølna, 335 Squadron’s chief of stan-dardization/evaluation. “By the time we got the first aircraft, one-third of the squadron had finished the C-130J conver-sion course. We are sending crews to Italy to fly the J-model simulator there. We’ve had crews going to Keesler [AFB, Missis-sippi] to fly the simulators there as well.”

335 Squadron is made up of only about fifty aircrew mem-bers, but the unit is currently assigning a pilot to f ly with the Royal Danish Air Force’s C-130J unit, 721 Squadron at Aalborg AB. “Our pilots get flying time and the Danes get an additional pilot,” notes Kolff. “It works for both squadrons.”

“When we received the first aircraft, we had twelve techni-cians in the US on an on-the-job-training assignment with the Rhode Island C-130J unit,” adds Haukås. “We had two crew chiefs in Denmark for training with their C-130J unit. Twenty-five of our forty-five or so maintainers had already gone through training when we got our first aircraft. These are mostly the people who will be working directly on the aircraft.”

“We have a lot of experienced crew members in the unit, but they are starting to retire,” Sølna says. “We are getting new people in now who are starting with the J-model and getting experience. Some of our E-model navigators have gone to helicopters, and one is going to P-3s. The J doesn’t need a f light engineer, so some of our current f light engi-neers have elected to become loadmasters or have taken other positions in other squadrons.

“The main thing we’re trying to do is to make sure that we are all capable for Day One,” adds Sølna, the squadron’s chief pilot, who has more than 6,000 f light hours in C-130s. “We have to f ly the new aircraft first and see what we can do with it. There is a question of just how much training we will need in the C-130J.”

“We do need to get comfortable with this longer aircraft,” Kolff adds. “It is sometimes easy to forget the details. We need to train for cold weather ops—landing on short run-ways and on slippery runways. There is a lot of ice here in the winter. In Norway, there is a lot of open space and few people, but the terrain is very unforgiving up north where we train. A mountain can be hiding behind every cloud. If we do something wrong, that’s it.”

ops changeThe arrival of the goddesses will also signal significant

cha nge s i n how 335 S qu ad ron oper ate s . W hat had primarily been a daylight operation will shift to round-the-clock operations.

“The unit will have an initial transport capability in the summer of 2009,” Kolff says. “Then we’ l l start aircrew training in complex situations. We’ll go to Red Flag. We’ll f ly a lot at night in the winter when it actually gets dark here. We’ll start f lying with night vision goggles, which is something completely new for us. We’ ll have an initial tactical capability with two aircraft and four crews by January 2010. We’ll have full tactical capability in 2011.”

“We haven’t done heavy equipment drops before, but we will do that in the J-model. That’s a new capability for us,” Sølna observes. “With only four aircraft, what I think we’ll see when we are in full operation is one aircraft in main-tenance, one in training, one for tasking, and one that’s f lexible for any tasking.”

“With the J, we’ll be doing more night f lying and more special operations work,” adds Haukås. “Maintenance will have to go to two shifts. The technicians are used to working day shift only. The crew chief would call in specialists if there was something he couldn’t handle when an aircraft came in late. That will have to change.”

“These aircraft are not only essential for our air force—they are, in fact, essential for all the Norwegian armed forces,” said Strøm-Erichsen. “Transport aircraft are of paramount importance for our military to have the neces-sary f lexibility and deployability, especially for our troops on the ground. These new aircraft will play an even more vital role in supporting the complex operations of our spe-cial forces than the old ones did. It is my expectation that as soon as these aircraft are fully mission capable, they will be deployed to international operations.”

“We plan to do the job we did with six aircraft with the four new aircraft,” Kolff concludes. “We have seen what other nations have done with the J. We have large expectations for the goddesses.”

Jeff Rhodes is the associate editor of Code One.

15Vol. 24 No. 3 2009Code One

THE F-35 HOVER PIT MAY RESEMBLE AN OLYMPIC-SIZE SWIMMING POOL, BUT THIS SPECIALLY INSTRUMENTED TEST STRUCTURE AT THE F-35 FACTORY IN FORT WORTH, TEXAS, HOLDS NO WATER AND IS COVERED WITH INTERLOCKING METAL GRATES THAT SPAN ITS SURFACE.

BF-1, the Lockheed Martin designation for the first F-35B short takeoff/vertical landing, or STOVL, variant of the Lightning II, is attached to the top of a restraint system that juts out above the metal grid. As BF-1’s pilot pushes the engine to full power, a team of test engineers and techni-cians collects data to validate the performance of aircraft

software and systems. The hover pit diverts the exhaust from the propulsion system away from the aircraft, enabling the F-35B to perform STOVL operations as if airborne.

The most recent round of tests, which were completed in April, verified installed thrust performance of the Pratt & Whitney F135 STOVL propulsion system on BF-1—all in preparation for the F-35’s first vertical landing scheduled later this year.

Hover pit testing quantifies propulsion and f light control system performance. One of the major outcomes of pit testing is an accurate measurement of the thrust from the propul-sion system and the engine. Pit testing also measures thrust

from the lift fan. The results of the tests will not only allow the F-35B to obtain a STOVL-mode f light clearance, but will also provide increased levels of confidence in the ver-tical lift system during the initial phases of STOVL-mode f light testing.

Acquiring these results has taken planning, time, and analysis by a large group of F-35 teammates around the world.

Design, development, manufacture, build, pre-test, and testing of both the hover pit and the force a nd moment rest ra int system began five years ago. F-35 team partner BAE Systems developed the design of the actual pit using subscale wind t u n n e l m o d e l s a t i t s facility in Warton, UK, about 250 miles northwest of London.

“Hover pit testing is the only time engineers can measure and confirm the aircraft/engine inter-a c t i o n a n d t h e t o t a l system performance in a completely cont rol led set t ing ,” says R ichard Hoggarth, lead STOVL aerodynamics engineer for BAE Systems.

A significant portion of t he lates t rou nd of hover pit testing consisted of forc e a nd mome nt testing. During the test, forces generated by the propulsion system are precisely sensed by three load cells that substitute for the aircraft’s landing gear t i res . These cel ls measure forces in three axes. These force mea-s u r e m e n t s a r e t h e n resolved into forces that act along the thrust axes of the aircraft. Resulting p i t c h , r o l l , a n d y a w moments are then derived from this data.

The testing is specialized and required some adjust-ments to BF-1 before testing began. To prepare for the test, the aircraft was f irst taken to the hover pit where it was jacked up in the air to remove the wheels and brakes a nd to de-ser v ice a nd lock t he la nd ing gea r. It was

lifted by crane into the force and moment system. Special instrumentation added to the aircraft for the hover pit test col lects external environment data created by the impact of the propulsion system exhaust on the lower surface of the aircraft. The instrumentation will be removed now that the hover testing is completed.

“Restraining the air-craft over the hover pit allows us to conduct spe-cific testing that couldn’t be conducted in f light,” Hog ga r t h s ay s . “ T h i s testing also enables us to validate various aircraft/STOVL models that have been developed over years of work, both powered and unpowered aerodynamics, propulsion, performance, and in-f light thrust.”

“Before we do STOVL mode in f light, we have to make sure we have the p e r f o r m a n c e o u t o f the engine to support the a i r pla ne ,” notes Doug Pearson, F-35 Integrated Test Force vice president. “But more importantly, we have to ma ke su re that we can control the aircraft precisely.”

Du r i ng te s t i ng , t he aircraft simulates actual operational maneuvers, such as shor t ta keof fs a nd ver t ic a l t a ke of f s , wh i le be i ng locked to t he g rou nd . T he pi lot i n t he c o c k pi t i nput s a l l c o m m a n d s e i t h e r by d i re c t l y u s i n g t he norma l cockpit incep-tors or by selecting the bu i lt-i n sof t wa re rou-t i nes to exec ute more complex maneuvers that are diff icult to repeat to a high degree of fidelity. D u r i ng t he s e m a neu-v e r s , e n g i n e e r s t a k e measurements to con-

f irm the control authority needed for the pi lot to f ly the aircraf t successful ly.

“Everything has been tested with software models,” adds Mark Smith, Lockheed Martin F-35 Air Vehicle Lead for STOVL hover pit testing. “Pit testing is really a validation exercise for the modeling we’ve done.”

BY MONICA KEEN

HOVER PIT TESTING PREPARES F-35B FOR FIRST STOVL-MODE LANDING

GOING VERTICALPHOTO BY TOM HARVEY

PHOTOS BY TOM HARVEY

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19Vol. 24 No. 3 2009

limited because exhaust gases impinging on the aircraft were all ducted away by the hover pit.

In partially plated testing, a ground plane was placed directly beneath the aircraft’s three-bearing swivel exhaust doors. The plane, which is instrumented with temperature sensors, measures heating characteristics where the main engine exhaust impinges on the surface beneath the aircraft. These data are used to characterize the heating effects of t he eng i ne ’s ex haust on whatever surface the aircraft is sitting on, be it runway, taxiway, or ship deck.

In fully plated testing, the entire pit is covered with steel plates to simulate a solid surface. In this configuration, external instrumentation is mounted to the aircraft to measure surface heating from plumes rebounding off the solid surface and hitting the aircraft in the same manner that would occur during a vertical landing. Arrays of acoustic and pressure rakes are arranged around the aircraft to measure sound levels and out-wash from the jets. These data are used to characterize the environment around the aircraft to develop operating proce-dures for ship-based operations. Testing is conducted for short periods at full power to simulate aircraft heating during a vertical landing or vertical takeoff, or

VTO. During a typical VTO, the aircraft is twenty feet off the ground within five seconds of requested thrust.

“In open pit testing, the aircraft acts as if it were hovering fifty to 100 feet above the ground,” says Smith. “By directing the exhaust away from the aircraft, the aircraft is able to endure long periods at full power with no exhaust effects to its surfaces. Def lecting the exhaust during hover mode is the primary reason we built the pit.”

“Open pit testing also allows us to conduct high-power pro-pulsion runs with the lift fan engaged,” adds McFarlan. “The open pit will be used to conduct propulsion system checkouts, or functional checkouts, for every production STOVL airplane. These functional checkouts will be nothing like the hover pit test on BF-1. It will be more like an engine run on the flight line.”

Fully and partially plated pit testing is associated with environmental testing, which has two primary objectives. The first objective is to define the working environment

nea r t he a i rcra f t for t he ma inta iners a nd operators (especially those on board a ship). Velocities, temperatures, and pressures of the exhaust plume are measured at various locat ions as it hits the ground and spreads outward.

“The conversion button sets a lot of things in motion,” says Graham Tomlinson, a BAE Systems F-35 test pilot who participated in early test runs on the hover pit. “But the complexity is in the a irplane and the propulsion system. Converting to STOVL, which is fully automated, is a smooth transi-tion for the pilot.”

TESTING TYPESHover pit testing began in May 2008,

during which time the aircraft operated at thirty percent power and converted to STOVL mode. All doors and nozzles were exercised during testing. The 2009 testing was more intense, focusing on force and moment testing, environmental testing, as well as on other types of tests. The most recent testing encompassed three segments of pit testing: open, partially plated, and fully plated pit testing.

In open pit testing, the surface below the airplane is grated so that all the emitted exhaust is directed down into the pit away from the airplane and deflected out the exhaust section. Most of the hover pit testing was accomplished with an open pit. Functional checkouts, system characterization, performance, Integrated Flight Propulsion Controls, and control authority were tested during hover pit testing. Test times were not

For the F-35B pilot, converting from conventional to STOVL mode will be no more complicated than pushing a STOVL conversion button. The same button on a conventional takeoff and landing F-35 (an F-35A or F-35C) lowers the tai l hook. “The button initiates a m a g i c a l t r a n s fo r m a t i on ,” s ay s J.D. McFarlan, who leads the F-35 air vehicle development team.

This transformation, as McFarlan describes, includes the opening of all STOVL doors and the propulsion system preparing to engage the clutch. Once all doors are open, the clutch is engaged when sets of carbon plates are pressed together to spin the lift fan up from a complete stop to engine speed. Once the speeds between lift fan and engine are matched, a mechanical lock is engaged to remove the torque load from the clutch and permit operation to full lif t fan power. After the lock engages, the pro-pulsion system completes conversion to STOVL mode and responds to aircraft commands. The entire sequence takes approximately fifteen seconds.

When a pilot gets to a slow speed during STOVL mode, the sidestick is used to move the plane up or down. When the pilot’s hands are removed from the controls, the airplane simply hovers in place.

The second objective is to determine the effect of those exhaust plumes on such aircraft structure as the doors and the lower surfaces. Acoustic sensors placed on the underside of the aircraft collect environmental data.

Environmental data were not the only data collected during the latest round of hover pit testing. Engineers also conducted electromagnetic interference testing. These tests ensure that all the electronic equipment on the aircraft, especially communications equipment, is not affected by the operation of the STOVL propulsion system.

Other design features of the aircraft that were verified on the hover pit included the F-35’s thermal management system, the electrical power system during failure modes, and inlet pressure recovery. Testing was also done on the f light control system, STOVL door operations, ground envi-ronment, structures, fuel hydraulics, and pilot-commanded interaction with f light control system.

“The hover pit test has been a demonstration of the entire F-35 team. Participants from Lockheed Martin, BAE Systems, Northrop Grumman, Pratt & Whitney, Rol ls-Royce, and a l l our major suppliers have played important roles in the success of this critical test. The Integrated Test Force control engineers, test conductors, test directors, pilots, integrated product team discipline engineers, mechanics, facility managers, suppliers, and JSF Program Office all worked together to develop and execute this highly integrated test,” Pearson concludes.

RESULTSHover pit tests have since revealed that the aircraft is

meeting all thrust requirements, demonstrating more than 41,000 pounds of vertical thrust, an amount more than nec-essary for robust STOVL operations. Additionally, hover pit testing has demonstrated low-power and high-power engage-ments of the clutch that transfers power from the engine to the vertical lift fan. The testing has also captured critical performance data, such as inlet pressure recovery, pitching moment, rolling and yawing moment, effective vector angles of the exhaust, and control input response time.

“We have demonstrated with tremendous confidence that we will meet the hover requirements with this installed thrust capability,” McFarlan continues. “We are confident we will meet our key performance parameter requirements for STOVL performance, and we will demonstrate those parameters this summer during the f light test program.” The hover pit force and moment tests are used to demon-strate installed thrust capability; no more pit testing is required except for functional checkouts.

Flight test will demonstrate the F-35 has an integrated system that can land vertically with the required perfor-mance—known as vertical lift bringback. This demonstra-tion involves f light control authority, installed propulsion performance, and aerodynamics—the complete package.

“Hover pit testing is a key component for STOVL f light clearance,” says McFarlan. “All of this work eventually leads to a major program milestone—the first vertical landing.”

Monica Keen is a member of the Lockheed Martin Aeronautics F-35 Communications team in Fort Worth, Texas.

PHOTOS BY JOHN WILSONPHOTOS BY TOM HARVEY

PHOTO BY TOM HARVEY

The lift fan (top photo) provides almost half of the downward thrust needed for a pure hover mode. The fan’s two sets of counter-rotating blades are driven by a driveshaft connected to the face of the main engine fan. A clutch at the forward end of the driveshaft engages the lift fan.

The lift fan is covered from above by an aft-hinged door, which opens as the aircraft transitions to hover mode. Thrust is controlled by the speed of the lift fan, a set of variable inlet guide vanes that reside above the rotating blades of the lift fan, and by a device called a variable area vane box nozzle on the lower side of the fan. The vane box nozzle (middle photo) contains a set of six vanes (or louvers) that direct and control the amount of downward thrust emanating from the lift fan.

Two roll posts (lower photo) together contribute about ten percent of the downward thrust. More importantly, they are used to control aircraft attitude in the roll axis. The posts are at the exit end of a duct that taps into the fan section of the main engine. Thrust for the posts comes from cooler air that normally bypasses the engine’s turbine section. The exhaust areas of the two roll posts can be varied independently. The posts, therefore, control roll by expelling different amounts of thrust between the port and starboard sides of the aircraft.

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20 Code One 21Vol. 24 No. 3 2009

introduce the Joint Precision Airdrop System in Europe. Last year, the 37th also participated in re-enactments of the World War II D-Day and Operation Market Garden airdrops.

And all of those missions were car-ried out on C-130E transports that are, on average, forty-two years old. In March 2007, the Air Force made the decision to equip the 37th with new C-130Js. However, with a squadron as heavily tasked as this one is, simply having the Blue Tail Flies stop f lying and then convert to the Super Hercules was not a viable option for Air Force and NATO planners.

“We’re in a unique situation,” says Lt. Col. Mark August, commander of the 37th. “We are converting to a new air-craft, but at the same time, we have to keep flying and supporting combat mis-sions. When we started this transition, we knew we’d have to do it all without standing the squadron down.”

The 37th, whose lineage dates back to 1942, will receive fourteen extended-fuselage C-130Js, with ten of the aircraft scheduled for delivery before the end of 2009. The remaining four aircraft will be delivered by May 2010. The first Sup e r He rc u le s w a s d e l i ve re d to Ramstein in ceremonies on 7 April,

the fifty-fourth anniversary of the first f light of the first production C-130A.

The squadron’s new f lagship, f lown by US Air Forces in Europe commander Gen. Roger Brady, made a spectacular entrance, cruising low over the base’s brand-new 67,847-square foot, double-bay hangar that was designed to accom-modate the longer C-130J. After landing, the new aircraft was met by a pair of base f ire trucks that gave the Super Hercules a ceremonial hosing down. Brady taxied the C-130J in and parked it in front of the crowd of more than 2,000 people, which included NATO, USAFE, host 86th Airlift Wing officials, and local community leaders.

T he new C-130J (ser ia l nu mber 08-8601) was parked almost nose-to-nose with the aircraft it will replace, a C-130E (serial number 64-0527) that entered Air Force service in November

1964—and it is not even the oldest air-craft f lown by the 37th. A 1962-vintage Hercules claims that title.

“Basica l ly, every t ime we get a J, we ’ l l re t i re at lea s t one E ,” notes August. “We will be down to just two E-models by the late fall.” Half of the squadron’s sixteen C-130Es wi l l be retired to the 309th Aerospace Main-tenance and Regeneration Group at Davis-Monthan AFB, Arizona. Some of the other airframes will be sent to US Army bases where they will be used as ground trainers for paratroopers. A few aircraft, including the last E-model to come off the assembly line in 1972, will be transferred to the C-130 school-house at Little Rock AFB, Arkansas, and continue in service.

“Even as the E-models draw down, we wil l sti l l obviously need to keep enough qualified crews to continue to

f ly missions and deploy,” says August. “But with the reduced crew requirement on the J-model, we will also need to work on finding good assignments for the E-model navigators and f light engi-neers. Our maintainers will also have to keep the E-models f lying while facil-itating the changeover to the C-130J.”

“The hard part of the transition is that we are gett ing a lot of C-130Js quickly, but the crew pipeline is only so big,” says Lt . Col. Craig Wil l iams, director of operations for the 37th. “We sent an initia l cadre of aircrew and loadmasters to Little Rock for transition training last fall. With the delivery of our f irst new aircraf t, we now have fourteen loadmasters and eight pilots qualified to f ly the J-model. We wanted to be in a position that, when we get a new a ircra f t , we’re able to use it .” The 37th Airlift Squadron carried out its first C-130J training mission only two days after the f irst aircraft was delivered. The squadron’s first J-model paratroop drop came on 7 May.

To help the Blue Tail Flies convert to the new aircraft, the 143rd Airlift Wing, the Rhode Island Air National Guard unit at Quonset Point, deployed a ircrews and one of it s C-130Js to Germa ny. For t he si x week s pr ior to the arrival of Ramstein’s first Super Hercules, J-qualified members of the 37th f lew with the 143rd crews on missions, including f lights to Bulgaria and Italy. “The Rhode Island Guard has really helped us,” notes August. “We got experience in operations, and our maintainers received hands-on experience with the C-130J as well.”

“We originally thought it would take eig hteen mont hs to complete t h is transition,” says Williams. “But we have all the pieces in place that we need to pull the squadron together and make this switch happen. And it will happen in thirteen months.”


The Super Hercules receives a ceremonial hosing down.

Ramstein’s brand-new 67,847-square foot, double-bay hangar

he unit’s operational tempo is ver y h igh, as it has been for years. Among many 2008 high-lights, squadron crews f lew 211

tons of humanitarian aid on ninety-four sorties to the Republic of Georgia after that country was invaded; moved forty-five tons of supplies to support the standup of the United States’s newly established Africa Command; evacu-ated US citizens from Lebanon; trained Romanian C-130 aircrews; instructed South African Hercules crews in night-v ision goggle operat ions; dropped nearly 16,000 paratroopers during NATO exercises; and led the effort to

t

Lt. Col. Mark August, far left, and Gen. Roger Brady, far right

ON THE FAST TRACK the 37th aiRLiFt sQUaDRon at Ramstein

aB, geRmany, is the onLy peRmanentLy assigneD Us tacticaL aiR-

LiFt sQUaDRon in eURope. iF theRe is an aiRLiFt neeD in eURope,

aFRica, oR eVen WesteRn asia, the 37th, KnoWn as the BLUe taiL

FLies, is UsUaLLy the FiRst sQUaDRon to Be caLLeD. BY JEFF RHODES PHOTO BY JOHN ROSSINO

PHOTOS BY JOHN ROSSINO

PHOTO BY JOHN ROSSINO

USAF PHOTO BY SSGT. STEPHEN J. OTERO


deliveries completed in 2014. AMP provides new glass cockpit displays and a digital backbone to sup-port the second phase of the C-5 upgrade, the Reli-ability Enhancement and Re-engining Program, or RERP. Once a C-5 receives both the AMP and RERP upgrades, the aircraft is redesignated C-5M.

AMP reached init ia l operational capability with the Air Force in February 2007. As of February 2009, the AMP-modif ied C-5s have logged more than 50,000 operational f light hours on missions around the world. AMP installations are being completed on two separate modifica-tion lines, one at Dover and one at Travis AFB, California. The last AMP-modified C-5B is scheduled to be redelivered in September 2009.

Developmental flight testing on the three C-5M test aircraft was completed on 16 August 2008 after a two-year flight test program. The 403-flight, 1,037-flight-hour test program included verification of the more than seventy performance and reli-ability enhancements to the aircraft’s new utilities and subsys-tems, flight controls, airframe, and propulsion system. Flight testing took place in Marietta; at the Air Force Flight Test Center at Edwards AFB, California; in Yuma, Arizona; and at other sites. All of the flight test equipment and associated wiring was removed from the C-5s once testing was complete.

L ichte was joined on the delivery f light by John Young, Undersecretary of Defense for Acquisition, Tech-nology, and Logistics, and by Sue Payton, Assistant

Secretary of the Air Force for Acquisition. A f light crew consisting of Team Dover members from both the active duty 436th Airlift Wing and Air Force Reserve Command’s 512th Airlift Wing f lew the aircraft from Lockheed Martin in Marietta, Georgia, to Dover.

A host of dignitaries, including Lt. Gen. Charles Stenner, Chief of t he Air Force Reser ve; t he ent ire Delaware Congressional delegation; and local civic leaders looked on as the fully modernized C-5M, nicknamed Spirit of Global Reach, was taxied in. Greet ing the aircraf t were four members of the now-retired crew that had delivered the first C-5A to Dover nearly thirty-eight years ago.

In his remarks, Col. Manson Morris, commander of the 512th AW, noted, “Today we see the fruits of a long-term effort by thousands of personnel to develop an airlifter with greater strategic capability than any of its predecessors.”

The Super Galaxy is the result of the two-phase C-5 mod-ernization effort. The f irst phase is the ongoing Avi-onics Moderniza-tion Program, or AMP, that is more than forty percent completed. All 111 aircraft in the C-5 f leet are scheduled to receive the AMP modifications, with

The major R ERP upgrade is the insta l lat ion of the GE Aviation Aircraft Engines CF6-80C2 commercial engines. These 60,000-pound thrust engines, given the military des-ignation of F108-GE-100, are de-rated to 50,000 pounds thrust on the C-5M. During the system design and develop-ment phase of the program, the Super Galaxy propulsion system averaged more than seven times better than the legacy engines in terms of both mean time between maintenance actions and mean time between individual part failures. The C-5M also meets Federal Aviation Administration Stage 3 noise requirements—more than ten decibels quieter than the requirement—and emissions standards as well.

During her remarks at the ceremony, Payton highlighted one of the two international missions the C-5M test team carried out earlier this year. Taking off from Travis at a gross weight of 865,000 pounds, the C-5M crew lifted off in 5,000 feet, climbed to 30,000 feet in less than twenty-five minutes, and then f lew eleven hours nonstop and unre - fueled over the North Pole to RAF Mildenhall, England. She concluded by noting that, “The delivery of the C-5M is a huge, significant step forward bringing increased capability to the warfighter.”

The first C-5 to be inducted into the production M-model modification line will be f lown to Marietta in August. That aircraft will be redelivered in mid 2010. Low-rate produc-tion will continue through 2013, with three aircraft deliv-ered in 2011, f ive in 2012, and seven in 2013. A total of fifty-two of the 111 aircraft in the C-5 f leet are currently scheduled to be brought up to C-5M standard. The final thirty-three aircraft will be redelivered at a rate of eleven per year from 2014 to 2016.

A second C-5M, nicknamed Spirit of Normandy, was delivered to Dover on 27 February. Aircrews and maintainers from both the 436th and 512th Airlift Wings will spend the next several months familiarizing themselves with their new aircraft and f lying operational missions. Seven aircrews and close to 100 maintainers have already been trained on the C-5M. “We are going to f ly the aircraft and see exactly what its capabilities are,” said CMSgt. Don Cunningham, one of the C-5M initial aircrew cadre.

Both of the C-5Ms now at Dover are former C-5B aircraft. The third Super Galaxy, a former C-5A aircraft, is currently in depot maintenance at Robins AFB, Georgia. It will be f lown to Dover later this year. All three C-5Ms will be f lown during Air Force Operational Test and Evaluation, a critical evaluation of the C-5M’s ability to carry out its mission, which is scheduled to begin in October 2009 and run through the first quarter of 2010.


With Gen. Art Lichte, commAnder of Air mobiLity commAnd, At the

controLs, the first c-5m super GALAxy touched doWn At dover Afb,

deLAWAre, on 9 februAry to beGin A neW chApter in c-5 operAtions.

By Jeff Rhodes photos by John rossino

John Young, Undersecretary of Defense for Acquisition, Technology, and Logistics

Lt. Gen. Charles Stenner, Chief of the Air Force Reserve (far right)

22 Code One 23Vol. 24 No. 3 2009

The keynote speaker at the cere-mony, Vice Adm. David Architzel, principal military deputy to the

Assistant Secretary of the Nav y for Research, Development, and Acquisi-tion and a former S-3 pilot with more than 3,400 hours in the aircraft, suc-cinctly summed up the Viking’s career: “The S-3 stayed in the fight for almost four decades.”

The Navy began what became the S-3 Viking program in 1964 to replace the piston-powered S-2 Tracker. Known originally as VSX—for “carrier-based

antisubmarine warfare aircraft-X”—a formal request for proposal was issued i n A p r i l 1 9 6 8 . A j o i n t G e n e r a l Dynamics-Grumman team and the then-Lockheed Aircraf t Corp. were chosen from among the competitors to refine their proposals.

Although Lockheed had four decades of land-based antisubmarine warfare experience dating back to the World War II-era Hudson, the company had only built one carrier-based aircraft to that point, the T2V-1 SeaStar trainer. To build a strong Navy-oriented team, Lockheed

VIKING DEPARTURE

first brought on LTV Aerospace, formerly Vought, with its long history in carrier aviation, as a partner. Then the Federal Systems Division of Sperry Rand was added to develop the aircraft’s comput-erized acoustic detect ion system, a f irst for an airborne antisubmarine warfare platform.

The Lockheed team was declared the winner of the VSX competit ion on 4 August 1969. One of several speakers at the 2009 retirement ceremony was current Lockheed Martin F-35 Execu-tive Vice President Tom Burbage, who

f lew the Viking as a Navy test pilot and later ran the S-3 program for the com-pany. He noted that “the S-3 was a unique program. We went from first contract to f irst contact over a sub-marine in just three years.”

Vsx to ViKing Rollout of the first aircraft came at

Lockheed’s plant in Burbank, California, on 8 November 1971, a specific date that had been agreed to when the develop-m e n t c o n t r a c t w a s s i g n e d . J a n e McClel lan, wife of Nav y Bureau of Aeronaut ics head Rear Adm. T. R . McClellan, christened the aircraft with champagne and bestowed the aircraft’s official nickname—Viking, the winning entry in a Navy and contractor name-the-plane contest . But because the

aircraft’s GE TF34 turbofan engines sound much like a very large vacuum cleaner, crews were very soon calling the S-3 by its unofficial and more widely used nickname—Hoover.

After the rollout, the f irst of eight YS-3A f light test aircraft was trucked f r o m B u r b a n k t o t h e c o m p a ny ’s facility in Palmdale, California, for f i rs t f l ig ht . C ompa ny pi lot s Joh n Christiansen and Lyle Schaefer made the ninety-minute maiden sortie on 21 January 1972.

On 23 August 1972, a test crew tracked a submerged US subma-rine for the first time in an exercise off the California coast near San Diego. The first S-3 trap, or carrier landing, came aboard the USS Forrestal (CV-59) on 26 November 1973.

After the twenty-six month test program, Sea Control Squadron 41 (VS-41), the S-3 training unit, received its first air-craf t on 20 February 1974, another contract-specific date. The Shamrocks, based at NAS North Island, San Diego, California, would serve as the Viking Replacement Air Group until the unit

was decommissioned in Ju ly 2006, c omple t i n g 3 47, 0 0 0 f l i g ht hou r s w it h more t ha n 4 8 ,0 0 0 t raps a nd training more than 35,000 personnel.

Sea Control Squadron 29 (VS-29), known as the Dragonfires, made the f irst S-3 deployment aboard the USS John F. Kennedy (CVN-67) in July 1975. The S-3 f leet surpassed 100,000 f light hours less than two years af ter that first deployment.

A total of 187 S-3As—eight test and 179 operational aircraft—were built between 1971 and 1978. Over its career, the Viking would serve with eighteen Navy squadrons. Operational aircraft were homeported at North Island on the West Coast and first at NAS Cecil Field and then later at NAS Jacksonville, Florida, on the East Coast. All total, the Viking fleet accumulated approximately 1.7 million f light hours.

USN PHOTO BY PMA KRISTOPHER WILSON

25Vol. 24 No. 3 2009Code One24

THE US NAVY RETIRED THE LAST S-3 VIKING CARRIER-BASED MULTIMISSION

AIRCRAFT FROM FLEET SERVICE IN CEREMONIES AT NAS JACKSONVILLE, FLORIDA,

ON 30 JANUARY, CLOSING OUT THE AIRCRAFT’S OPERATIONAL CAREER. THE EVENT,

HELD TO FORMALLY DISESTABLISH SEA CONTROL WING, US ATLANTIC FLEET,

THE EAST COAST S-3 WING HEADQUARTERS, WAS ALSO A CELEBRATION OF THE VIKING

AND SEA CONTROL COMMUNITY’S LEGACY. NEARLY 600 FORMER VIKING CREW

MEMBERS, SQUADRON MATES, AND NAVY LEADERS ATTENDED. BY JEFF RHODES

26 Code One

ViKing the VeRsatiLeThe Viking became known as the

Swiss Army Knife of Naval Aviation, for its ability to carry out a range of m is s ions for t he Nav y, i nc lud i ng antisubmarine warfare, antisurface war fare, carr ier onboard del iver y, electronic surveillance, tanking, and over-the-horizon targeting.

In late 2008, to respond to an urgent Department of Defense tasking, four Vikings from VS-22 equipped with Low Altitude Navigation Targeting Infrared for Night, or LANTIRN, navigation pods were deployed to Al Asad AB, Iraq, to fill a critical need for additional intel-ligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance assets in theater.

Several variants of the S-3 were devel-oped. Seven aircraft were modified as US-3A Carrier Onboard Delivery air-craft, capable of carrying 4,250 pounds of cargo. The US-3 was first f lown in 1976, and the type served until the early 1990s. Development of a dedicated KS-3A tanker variant began in 1979. Although the KS-3 was never produced, it d id prove t he concept of buddy tanking, or aeria l refueling using a

heaDing FoR VaLhaLLaUnder the S-3 Integrated Mainte-

nance Program, or IMP, Lock heed Martin and Navy personnel worked side-by-side to perform scheduled depot maintenance and repairs to return the Vikings rapidly to the operational f leet. This highly successful program ran from 2001 until 2007. A total of 149 aircraft were cycled through the program.

IMP began in 2001 primarily as a means of reducing the backlog at the Naval Aviation Depots. Instead of a Viking being out of service for nine months while it went through a full depot-level teardown and reassembly, IMP broke the required inspections and maintenance tasks into three forty-eight day periods spread over five years. IMP increased S-3 aircraft availability by eighteen percent, reduced maintenance tasking by forty-seven percent over the previous depot-level maintenance plan, and resulted in significantly reduced costs to the Navy.

In 2004, the Navy made the decision to draw down the number of aircraft types on its carrier decks to save costs and to increase the eff iciency of the carrier air wings. The F-14 Tomcat f leet air defense fighter was already being retired, and the determination was made that the S-3 would be retired as well.

Under the drawdown plan, the S-3 squadrons at NAS North Island were decommissioned f irst, starting with VS-29 in 2004. Sea Control Wing, US Paci f ic Fleet was disestabl ished in August 2005, closing out West Coast Viking operations.

The last S-3 carrier deployment was comple ted on 15 December 20 07. A lt hough it was a n At la nt ic F leet squadron, VS-32, known as the Maulers, comple ted t he deploy ment i n t he Western Pacific on the USS Enterprise (CVN-65).

On 28 May 2008, a crew from VS-22 made the last S-3 catapult launch, taking

off from the USS George Washington (CVN-73). VS-22 was aboard the Wash-ington to assist with carrier qualifica-tions and f light deck certification in preparation for the ship’s homeport change to Yokosuka, Japan. The very last Viking at-sea deployment ended the next day when the aircraft returned to NAS Jacksonville. VS-22 also completed the last-ever S-3 deployment when the squadron was sent to Iraq later that summer. The squadron’s return to NAS Jacksonville came in December 2008. The Checkmates were disestablished the day before the Viking itself was retired in January.

Although the S-3 airframes have con-siderable useful service life left, most of the Vikings have been retired to the 309th Aerospace Maintenance and Regeneration Group—the Boneyard—at

Davis-Monthan AFB, Tucson, Arizona. A handful of aircraft now serve as gate guards at bases. Some of the Hoovers have been placed in museums.

But a few Vikings will live on. The NASA Glenn Research Center near Cleveland, Ohio, has four S-3Bs that have been modified and are being used for icing research missions. Four other Vikings are expected to remain in Navy service to support armament development testing at Point Mugu, California.

“Today is about beginnings, not end-ings,” Architzel said at the Atlantic Fleet S-3 wing disestablishment ceremony. “We recognize the impact this community has had, and the impact it will have. What was learned in the S-3 will pave the way for the future of naval aviation.”


wing-mounted pod, a task which most S-3s later performed.

The significantly improved S-3B was developed in the early 1980s to better detect quiet Soviet submarines, identify targets, and carry standoff weapons. The S-3B prototype was f lown for the first time in September 1984. A total of 119 S-3As were upgraded to the S-3B configuration between 1987 and 1994. The modification work took place at Cecil Field and at North Island.

After a series of fatal accidents, the Navy’s obsolete carrier-based EA-3B electronic warfare aircraft was with-drawn from service in 1987. The Viking was chosen to be its replacement. Fitted with a ventral faring, three radomes, and more than fifty antennas, an aero-dynamic prototype of the ES-3A Shadow was first f lown in 1989. The first oper-at iona l a ircraf t was f lown in 1991. Fifteen more aircraft would be modi-fied at Cecil Field by 1994. Despite out-standing results, high maintenance costs and the prospect of a major avionics upgrade led the Navy to withdraw the Shadow from service in 1999.

speaRs at the ReaDyThe Viking went to war in 1990.

During Operation Desert Shield-Desert Storm, Viking crews f lew many hun-dreds of armed surface reconnaissance, electronic surveillance, and overland support missions. The Hoovers were also used to bring the massive daily Air Tasking Orders in printed form to the f leet from US command in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Using buddy tanking, S-3s from seven squadrons transferred more than fifteen million gallons of fuel to Coalition aircraft over seven months.

The S-3 went to war a second time during Operation Iraqi Freedom, again performing a variety of missions and joining the digital age. At the top of the mission list was refueling. During major combat operations in 2003, Viking crews transferred nearly nine million pounds of fuel to Coalition aircraft.

Two other OIF highlights stand out. A VS-29 aircraft was equipped with the Surveillance System Upgrade, or SSU, a one-of-a-kind, computerized, carrier-based intelligence gathering asset. The SSU had the capability to stream real-time video from a camera or from the aircraft’s synthetic aperture radar to the ship or to a unique mobile ground station. With a range of more than 150 miles, SSU quickly became the primary choice for aerial surveillance in theater.

The Viking had toiled in relative anonymity for most of its career. That changed on 19 March 2003, when an S-3B crew from VS-38, the world famous Red Griffins, carried out the first-ever S-3 attack mission, disabling Saddam Hussein’s ocean-going yacht with a laser-guided AGM-65E Maverick mis-si le. For a brief period, the Vik ing became a media darling. As one pilot put it, “Nobody had ever heard of an S-3 before that.”

On 1 May 2003, the S-3 made world headlines as President George W. Bush f lew out to the USS Abraham Lincoln (CVN-72) in a VS-35 Viking to make a televised address. This marked the first time any Navy aircraft had carried the Navy One radio call sign, and the first time a sitting president had trapped aboard a carrier at sea.

ES-3A Shadow

The NASA Glenn Research Center near Cleveland, Ohio, has four S-3Bs that are being used for icing research missions.

USN PHOTO

President George W. Bush successfully traps aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln.

USN PHOTO BY PMA GABRIEL PIPER

USN PHOTO BY PM JOSHUA KARSTEN

USN PHOTO BY PM CHRISTOPHER STEPHENS


Two S-3 Vikings assigned to the Checkmates of Sea Control Squadron 22 (VS-22), the last operational S-3 squadron, conduct airborne refueling.

PHOTO BY DARIN RUSSELL

An S-3 Viking assigned to the Diamond Cutters of VS-30 is flown over an oil rig in the Arabian Gulf during flight operations in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom.

The Boneyard at Davis-Monthan AFB, Tucson, Arizona

27Vol. 24 No. 3 2009

29Vol. 24 No. 3 2009

First marine F-35 aviatorMaj. Joseph T. Bachmann

became the first US Marine Corps pilot to fly the F-35 Lightning II on 19 March, logging the flight test program’s ninetieth mission. Bachmann took of f from the Lockheed Martin facility in Fort Worth, Texas, and f lew the aircraf t to 15,000 feet, checking handling qualities and engine response be-fore landing seventy-five minutes later. Bachmann’s first flight came in F-35 AA-1, a conventional take-off and landing test variant. With more than 2,000 hours of flight time in more than thirty different aircraft types, Bachmann is the sec-ond active duty service member and the fifth test pilot to fly the F-35.

traveling BulldogsThe 525th Fighter Squadron at

Elmendor f AFB, Alaska, returned home in early March after an extend-ed deployment to Nellis AFB, Nevada, and Holloman AFB, New Mexico. The squadron participated in a Red Flag exercise while at Nellis. Because of volcanic act ivity in Alaska, the Bulldogs, as the 525th is known, had to extend their deployment and then trained with the 49th Fighter Wing at Holloman. At Red Flag, the 525th was able to complete all 350 scheduled sorties. Once the next Red Flag exer-cise started, a shortage of ramp space at Nellis necessitated the 525th relocating to Holloman, which is now ramping up as the third operational F-22 base.

Vigilant guard

Airmen from the 817th Contin-gency Response Group at McGuire AFB, New Jersey, guide a pallet onto a C-130J Super Hercules from the 135th Wing, the Baltimore-based Maryland Air National Guard unit, during the Vigilant Guard exer-cise held in Puerto Rico in March. The exercise involved more than seventeen Air Force, Air National Guard, and local and federal gov-ernment agencies. It focused on providing a coordinated response following a simulated natural di-saster in Puerto Rico. During the exercise, a hub-and-spoke opera-tion was used to move passengers and cargo to four locations around the island.

taiwan p-3 Upgrades

Taiwan’s P-3 maritime patrol aircraft will receive extensive mission system and structural upgrades to extend expected service life to 15,000 flight hours. The aircraft will receive upgraded electronic support measures; acoustics, communications, electro-optic and infrared systems; new data management software and hardware; and new controls, displays, and mission computers. The service life extension kits include new outer wings, center wing lower surfaces, horizontal stabilizers, and nacelle components. Work will be performed at Lockheed Martin facilities in Minnesota, Virginia, Georgia, and South Carolina. The Taiwan Navy obtained twelve surplus P-3Cs under the US Foreign Military Sales program in 2007. The first upgraded P-3C is scheduled for delivery to Taiwan in 2012.


PHOTO BY 1ST LT. DUSTIN DOYLE

I N M E M O R I A MH a r r y H i l l a k e r

Lockheed Mar t in aerospace engineer and designer Harry James Hillaker died on 8 February at his home in Fort Worth, Texas. He was eighty-nine.

Back in the mid-1960s, Hillaker spent his off hours designing the airplane of his dreams—a light-weight, high-performance jet that could f ly circles around all other f ighters. His spare-time project turned into an obsession. The obsession became a reality. Today that rea l ity, the F-16 F ight ing Falcon, is the standard against which all other fourth-generation fighters are measured.

Hillaker retired from the company (then General Dynamics) in 1985, after forty-four years of design work that i nc luded the B-36, B-58, F-111, and F-16. He remained active as a consultant to the US Air Force and indust r y. In 1990, he was inducted into the prestigious US National Academy of Engineering for his achievements. He also spent two terms as chairman of the Aerospace Vehicles Panel of the Air Force’s Scientific Advisory Board.

The two-part Hillaker interview in Code One, pub-lished in 1991, remains one of the most visited pages on the magazine’s website, www.codeonemagazine.com.

The last question Hil laker, the designer, answered in that inter-view was: Are you comfortable with the title Father of the F-16?

His answer: “I’m flattered by it. As its father, I had the best part, providing the sperm. Now the ges-tation period and much of what happened later was something else. Other people can take credit for what happened there. My interest in airplanes is the external shape. I’m not that interested in what goes inside, except as how it affects the outside shape.”

Harry was a gifted engineer. He was also a maverick with a dry sense of humor. During the interview, he told a story of how he ref used to s ig n t i meca rds when he worked for the company. He just didn’t bel ieve in them. One was brought to his magazine photo session to get a reaction.

The only t imecard he ever signed is the one he’s s igning in the photo used for the interv iew. That explains the grin.

Four pilots from the 301st Fighter Wing at NAS Joint Reserve Base Fort Worth paid Hil laker the ultimate tribute—performing the missing man formation in their F-16s over his funeral.

Da v i D P. C o o l e yLockheed Martin test pilot David P. Cooley was killed

on 25 March in the crash of an F-22 aircraft, while he was flying a test mission from Edwards AFB, California.

Cooley was bor n on 15 Febr ua r y 1960 at R A F Mildenhall, the US Air Force base in England where his father was assigned. He finished high school in Belleville, Illinois, and graduated from the US Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs, Colorado, in 1982 with a degree in aeronautical engineering.

Early in his military career, he f lew, and then later instructed students in, the F-111. In 1993, he transitioned to f l ight testing and conducted tests with the F-15 and F-117.

In 1998, Cooley was selected to be the operations officer of the F-117 Combined Test Force and was respon-sible for continued developmental f light testing of the Nighthawk. From 2001 to 2003, he served as the vice commandant of the USAF Test Pilot School at Edwards AFB.

Cooley retired from the Air Force in 2003 and was hired by Lockheed Martin as the F-117 chief test pilot. He joined the F-22 Raptor team in 2006 and was part of the F-22 Combined Test Force.

PHOTO BY TSGT. CHRIS FLAHIVE

EvEnts

Code One28

30 Code One 31Vol. 24 No. 3 2009

Lightning at eglinAn F-35 Lightning II test aircraft

was flown to Eglin AFB, Florida, on 21 April to educate the base and local community about the new fighter. The arrival of F-35 AA-1 at Eglin, which is slated to be the F-35 training wing, kicked off a week of events to showcase the aircraft. The Lightning II was later flown over the base and local area during a sortie on 23 April with two F-16 Fighting Falcon chase aircraft. The 33rd Fighter Wing at Eglin will transition from an opera-tional fighter unit into a joint train-ing unit in October 2009. The first F-35s are scheduled to arrive at the base in March 2010.

isis on station

The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency selected Lockheed Martin as the systems integrator and Raytheon as the radar devel-oper for Phase 3 of its Integrated Sensor Is Structure, or ISIS, pro-gram on 27 April. Lockheed Martin will lead an industry team to de-velop and test a one-third scale airship featuring Raytheon’s new, low-power density radar. The au-tonomous flight test system will operate on station for ninety days and prove several key technolo-gies. The demonstration is antici-pated to last for up to one year. The ISIS program will develop the core technologies necessary to demonstrate an extremely capa-ble radar sensor package within the structure of a stratospheric airship operating at approximately 70,000 feet for up to ten years.

Welcome to your new home

The first crew of Patrol Squadron 8 (VP-8) landed at the squadron’s new duty station at NAS Jacksonville, Florida, on 27 May, after completing a six-month deployment to the Middle East and Japan. Last December, the Fighting Tigers, as the squadron is called, departed NAS Brunswick, Maine, where the unit had been based since 1971. While on deployment, a Fighting Tiger crew was the first to reach the MV Maersk Alabama after the container ship was attacked by Somali pirates in April. Under Base Realignment and Closure Commission action, NAS Brunswick is scheduled to close in May 2011. Five P-3 squadrons from Brunswick are being transferred to Patrol and Reconnaissance Wing 11 at NAS Jacksonville.

polish herkAmerican and Polish airmen delivered the first of five refurbished

C-130E Hercules transports and spare parts to the Polish Air Force at Powidz AB, Poland, on 24 March. The new aircraft expands Poland’s ability to transport troops and equipment while providing support for evacuation and humanitarian operations. The C-130’s presence in the Polish fleet will also increase that country’s interoperability with other air forces. The Hercules received an escort to Powidz AB by F-16s from the Polish Air Force as the aircraft neared its final destination, where it will become part of the 14th Lift Squadron. The delivery of the five modernized aircraft is scheduled to be complete in mid 2010.

paris 100The Paris Air Show celebrated its centennial during the biennial aerospace gathering held at Le Bourget

Airport outside Paris on 14–21 June. The show featured an array of historic aircraft alongside the newest types from around the world. More than 2,000 exhibitors from forty-eight countries participated in this year’s show, a new record. The fiscal realities of the times were reflected in a reduced number of aircraft on the ramp compared to previous shows. The crowds were glued to the daily flying displays, which included both a C-130J and an F-16. A full-scale model of the F-35 was on static display.

international F-35s ordered

The US Department of Defense awarded Lockheed Martin a $2.1 billion contract modification on 3 June to produce seventeen F-35 Lightning II fighters in the third lot of low-rate initial production, or LRIP. The contract also includes two F-35B operational test air-craft for the United Kingdom and one F-35A for the Netherlands, which are the first aircraft ordered for the F-35 international part-ners. Assembly of the fourteen aircraft in the first two LRIP lots is already under way, with initial F-35 deliveries to the US Air Force scheduled to begin in 2010. Eight development aircraft have en-tered testing. The remaining elev-en test aircraft are scheduled to roll out by the end of 2009.

c-5m testers stand Down

The 418th Flight Test Squadron at the Air Force Flight Test Center at Edwards AFB, California, officially deactivated its Detachment 4 in Marietta, Georgia, in ceremonies on 15 April. The detachment was formed in 2002 to support developmental testing of the C-5 moderniza-tion effort. Detachment 4 worked with personnel from Lockheed Martin and personnel from the Air Force Operational Test and Evaluation Center at Kirtland AFB, New Mexico, as part of the C-5 Combined Test Force. Two C-5Bs and one C-5A were modified for test during the Avionics Modernization Program, which ran from December 2002 until November 2005, and the Reliability Enhancement and Re-engining Program, which ran from November 2005 until December 2008.

saDL Up

Three C-130 units conducted an operational utility evaluation of the Situational Awareness Data Link, or SADL, at Davis-Monthan AFB, Arizona, in mid-April. Similar to the Link-16 format used by other Air Force platforms, such as the A-10 and some F-16Cs, SADL is a military communications system that supports the exchange of tactical informa-tion between air and land assets in near real time. Operators can digi-tally access this information from command and control systems instead of receiving verbal reports and then annotating the information on paper. An MC-130P Combat Shadow rescue tanker and two C-130Hs were used in the evaluation. SADL is expected to significantly increase capability for rescue forces.

PHOTO BY SAMUEL KING, JR.

ARTIST CONCEPT BY WAYNE BEGNAUD

PHOTO BY CAPT. TONY WICKMANPHOTO BY NEAL CHAPMAN

PHOTO BY KEVIN ROBERTSON

PHOTO BY MC3 JOSHUA CUNNINGHAM

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Raptor pilot to Lead thunderbirds

Lt. Col. Case Cunningham, currently director of operations for the 43rd Fighter Squadron, the F-22 training unit at Tyndall AFB, Florida, was chosen by the US Air Force in June to lead the Thunderbirds aerial demonstration squadron in 2010. The selection of Cunningham marks the first time a Raptor pilot has been selected for the team. Team pilots, such as Cunningham, who currently fly different airframes than the Thunderbirds’ F-16Cs will undergo several months of F-16 familiarization training before they begin practicing aerial demonstra-tions with the other Thunderbird pilots. The Thunderbirds have been performing since 1953. Cunningham is the thirty-third officer to lead the team.

catB at edwards

The F-35 Cooperative Avionics Test Bed, or CATBird, aircraft complet-ed a two-week deployment to the Air Force Flight Test Center at Edwards AFB, California, in April. There, the highly modified 737 airliner was flown on ten test flights to evaluate the F-35’s radar operation; communica-tions, navigation, and identification system; and electronic warfare infra-structure and sensor function. The airborne testing reduces hardware and software risks that cannot be mitigated in ground laboratories and individual sensor test beds. The joint industry/government F-35 Inte-grated Test Force at Edwards provided logistic support, ranges, and ground and air targets during the deployment. The first mission systems-equipped F-35 is scheduled to be tested later this year.

poW corvette honored

A custom-built, specially painted Chevrolet Corvette honoring Vietnam-era Prisoners of War is now on display at the National Corvette Museum in Bowling Green, Kentucky. The car, which consists of parts from three vehicles, is painted in the gray-and-white scheme on the C-141 StarLifter transports that were used to fly American POWs out of Vietnam in 1973. The car features an image of a C-141 and an eagle breaking through barbed wire on the hood and the POW-MIA logo on the removable top. The car took more than 3,000 hours over fifty-one weeks to rebuild and paint. A team of eight Reservists and active duty Air Force members at Wright-Patterson AFB, Ohio, created the Corvette.

Blue angels Fly Flatley

The US Navy Flight Demonstration Squadron, the Blue Angels, flew a special passenger at the Florida International Air Show in Punta Gorda, Florida, on 21 March. Retired Rear Adm. James H. Flatley, III, who made twenty-one unarrested full-stop landings and takeoffs in a KC-130F tanker aboard an aircraft carrier as a test pilot in 1963, got to experience a jet-assisted takeoff in the Blue Angels’ C-130T support aircraft affec-tionately known as Fat Albert. Flown by an all-Marine crew, Fat Albert has led off Blue Angels shows since 1970. At the end of the flight, the Fat Albert crew presented Flatley with a framed personalized lithograph to commemorate the flight.

PHOTO BY SSGT. KRISTI MACHADO

PHOTO BY MAJ. RICHARD WEBSTER

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