Textron AirLand (Cessna) Scorpion - a light attack, reconnaissance jet project

[overscan (PaulMM)]

SCORPION’S FIRST FLIGHT IS MILESTONE FOR TEXTRON’S TACTICAL JET

Textron AirLand engineering test pilot Dan Hinson couldn’t quit smiling Thursday afternoon.

Neither could others working on the Scorpion intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance strike aircraft under development at a Cessna facility in east Wichita.

Hinson, a former Navy pilot, and co-pilot David Sitz successfully flew the Scorpion for the first time on what was a beautiful Thursday morning.

“It was fantastic,” Hinson said after the flight. “It leapt off the ground.”

The flight marks one of the fastest developments of a U.S.-built tactical jet, Textron said. The project progressed from an initial design to first flight in less than 24 months.

“To go from paper … to flying the airplane the first time is just a feeling of pride,” Hinson said. “It’s a great team.”

The twin-engine jet took off from McConnell Air Force Base at 9:05 a.m. to the south.

The Scorpion then headed west toward Kingman and flew over Cheney Reservoir before returning to McConnell.

It landed at 10:30 a.m.

“I just greased her on,” Hinson said. “It had no tendency to float. It was nice and graceful on the runway.”

Hinson and Sitz conducted a range of flight handling maneuvers during the flight.

“The airplane is very light — very nimble,” Hinson said. ‘“You’re flying with your finger tips.”

The plane met all expectations.

In fact, “the performance was better than we expected,” Hinson said.

On the first flight, they kept the speed to no more than 200 knots and the altitude to between 10,000 and 15,000 feet.

The plane showed impressive stability and responsiveness, closely matching all of the predicted parameters for the flight’s maneuvers.

In the days leading up to the flight, Hinson went through all the steps of the first flight in a Scorpion simulator.

The airplane flew like the simulator, he said. That validates the analysis and wind tunnel testing that went before the flight.

Hinson, whose call sign is Shaka, has more than 5,000 flight hours in 79 different types of aircraft. He spent 23 years with the Navy and joined the Scorpion program after spending time in flight test at Beechcraft Corp.

On his second day at Cessna, he was offered the job with the Scorpion project.

“I couldn’t say no,” Hinson said with a smile.

The Scorpion prototype will now undergo a post-flight inspection before the next flight.

Hinson plans to take the plane back up for its second and third flights next week.

For Dale Tutt, chief engineer on the project, the first flight offered a great sense of accomplishment.

At the beginning of the project, people told Tutt that it was insane to expect to take on the project in such a short amount of time.

“They said it couldn’t be done in less than four or five years,” Tutt said. It feels good to prove that it could be done.

Textron announced the Scorpion in September as a demonstration plane designed to accommodate the budget restraints of shifting mission requirements of the U.S. Department of Defense and allies abroad.

The plane’s twin turbofan engines generate 8,000 pounds of thrust, which allows it to transition easily between low speed and high subsonic speed for a diverse set of missions, such as irregular warfare, border patrol, maritime surveillance, emergency relief, counter-narcotics and air defense operations, Textron said.

The Scorpion has a cruising speed of up to 517 mph, a ferry range of 2,400 nautical miles, an internal payload of up to 3,000 pounds and wing-mounted precision munitions.

Source: Kansas.com

 

[fightingirish]

Video first flight on December 12th 2013. B)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bnF1mr_cSLg

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bnF1mr_cSLg

 

[theponja]

I didn't pay attention to this project until. As always I come back to my favorite forum for projects and found a very interesting thread.

What amazes me is they flight on time! I've seen a lot of jokes around the web about they could not fly on this year. Very interesting.

 

[fightingirish]

Fanart "OA-30A Pawnee" by sobchak

Picture not attached to this post here in the forum "Aerospace".

 

[cluttonfred]

Neat, though my vote would be to name it after the other small Cessna twin jets that served with honor as both a trainer and light attack aircraft, the T-37 Tweet and A-37 Dragonfly (Super Tweet). Ultra Tweet would be fun, but I could live with Dragonfly II or Super Dragonfly. ;-)

PS--I just realized you used a U.S. Army paint scheme. Bad boy, the USAF has shown over the decades that they just will not allow the Army to have anything but helos and a few fixed-wing tactical transports, and those grudgingly.

 

[yasotay]

Neat, though my vote would be to name it after the other small Cessna twin jets that served with honor as both a trainer and light attack aircraft, the T-37 Tweet and A-37 Dragonfly (Super Tweet). Ultra Tweet would be fun, but I could live with Dragonfly II or Super Dragonfly. ;-)

PS--I just realized you used a U.S. Army paint scheme. Bad boy, the USAF has shown over the decades that they just will not allow the Army to have anything but helos and a few fixed-wing tactical transports, and those grudgingly.

Such herrasey against the USAF Inc. should not go unpunished! ;D

 

[F-14D]

PS--I just realized you used a U.S. Army paint scheme. Bad boy, the USAF has shown over the decades that they just will not allow the Army to have anything but helos and a few fixed-wing tactical transports, and those grudgingly.

... by an Amazing Coincidence, after the C-27J program was destroyed, the Army's C-23 tactical transports have all been grounded.

 

[seruriermarshal]

new ;D

 

[yasotay]

Really like the looks of this jet. To bad it is subsonic, might have been fun seeing a home grown contender for the USAF trainer effort.

 

[fightingirish]

The Textron's Scorpion Jet will fly over the Atlantic to be displayed at the Farnborough airshow, 14 - 20 July 2014. B)
Source (via SNAFU!): kansas.com - Textron making changes in Scorpion tactical jet, will fly it to airshow in England

 

[overscan (PaulMM)]

Windtunnel pics (http://www.sandiegowindtunnel.com/Gallery.php)

 

[overscan (PaulMM)]

Some more dynamic views.

 

[Stargazer]

Thanks PaulMM for the splendid pics.

 

[fightingirish]

Textron AirLand has released a new (CGI, PS-ed )photo of its Scorpion aircraft in the attack version.

Textron AirLand has released a new photo of its Scorpion aircraft, and this time, it’s fully loaded.


The above picture is the first look at what the plane, billed as an ISR/light attack aircraft, looks like when equipped with a weapons load on its wings.


So what’s on there? According to company spokesman David Sylvestre, the outer spots are taken by Lockheed Martin Hellfires, the middle stations by Textron Defense Systems G-CLAWs and the innermost stations by Raytheon Paveways.


That doesn’t mean the company isn’t looking wider for potential weapons loads. The Scorpion will be on static display at the RIAT and Farnborough air shows starting July 10, and that load will be more mixed, adding in Raytheon’s Griffin Missile and Enhanced Paveway 4; Boeing’s JDAM and SDB; and the Lockheed DAGR.


Textron officials have touted the versatility of the plane, so it’s no surprise the company wants to show off the number of different weapons that can be mounted on the wing. As of now, however, none of the weapons have been tested.


“No flight testing with actual weapons has begun. This is to show range of weapons likely to be used on the plane, and the plane’s weapons load capacity,” Sylvestre wrote in an email. “These are among the weapons we would expect Scorpion to carry, depending on the customer’s mission requirements.”


For more on the Scorpion, check out our July 7th Farnborough Preview special edition.

Hi-Res
Source:
http://intercepts.defensenews.com/2014/06/first-look-at-armed-textron-scorpion/

 

[yasotay]

Hmm... a contender for the slightly affluent who want to “one up” their Tucano flying neighbors?

 

[marauder2048]

Apparently, the wingbox is modular and designed to readily accommodate a swept wing.

Described in this interview:

http://link.brightcove.com/services/player/bcpid3590623486001?bckey=AQ~~,AAAACnIIBGk~,NZYO3xUDM_HNgnkGqjW5PlmXlJOVZ_5w&bctid=3609693646001

 

[Trident]

If that is true it might indeed make a credible back door T-X contender - may require a simultaneous move to slab tail planes though to get acceptable transonic behaviour (this may have been addressed in the video, unfortunately I didn't have time to actually watch it).

 

[AeroFranz]

hmmm...I would think a T-X contender would need higher T/W, lower bypass than what is preferable for a loiter platform.

 

[compton_effect]

Has anyone noticed the fleeting resemblance it has to the SU-25 Frogfoot?
Form meets function?

 

[Triton]

Source:
http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052702303949704579461191168434668

 

[Triton]

Published on Jul 1, 2014

Scorpion Jet waves goodbye to Wichita as it departs for the UK to be part of the Royal International Air Tattoo (RIAT) and Farnborough International Air Show.

http://youtu.be/5Ufe2V6ECJk

 

[Triton]

Published on Apr 30, 2014

Scorpion Jet performs some high speed fly-bys

http://youtu.be/pskK8MgKBDk

 

[Triton]

Published on Apr 8, 2014

Scorpion shows off its low speed handling characteristics during a mock interception of a Cessna 182 flying at 120 KCAS.

http://youtu.be/sMfYIjsGEmQ

 

[Triton]

Published on Jul 2, 2014

Textron AirLand, LLC, is a joint venture between Textron Inc. and AirLand Enterprises, LLC, with the express purpose of rapidly designing and manufacturing an affordable, multi-mission tactical military jet platform using commercially available technologies and processes -- the Scorpion.

The aircraft did a stop at Mirabel Airport while in route from Wichita to the Farnborough AirShow 2014.
More at http://www.scorpionjet.com/

http://youtu.be/dOuiawFoWw8

 

[Triton]

Photos of Scorpion arriving July 4th at Iceland's Keflavik Airport.

Source:
https://www.facebook.com/ScorpionJet?fref=photo

 

[Triton]

Stopover in Montreal July 2, 2014.

Source:
https://www.facebook.com/ScorpionJet?fref=photo

 

[Stargazer]

Thanks a lot Donald!

 

[Sundog]

I definitely like the new paint scheme. I take it the orange flight suits seen in the Keflavik landing photos are survival suits, just in case they went down over the Atlantic? Or are they just normal flight suits in a bright color to make them easier to spot in the ocean if they did go down?

 

[Kiltonge]

Arrived at Boscombe Down, UK this morning ( 7 July )

 

[Triton]

http://vimeo.com/100584382

 

[Triton]

"Farnborough: Scorpion makes international debut"

09th July 2014 - 10:42 by Jonathan Tringham in London

Source:
http://www.shephardmedia.com/news/uv-online/farnborough-scorpion-makes-international-debut/

The Scorpion will be showcased to international audiences for the first time at RIAT and FIA, after successfully completing a 4,700nm transatlantic flight from Wichita, Kansas to RAF Fairford, Gloucestershire.

Speaking to Shephard, Scorpion programme chief engineer Dale Tutt said the prototype had met or exceeded all objectives during flight tests conducted over the last six months, and was on track to successfully demonstrate its full flight envelope by the end of 2014.

‘To date we’ve had 57 flights and 107 hours on the airplane. We are stepping through an objectives-based flight test programme in a very methodical manner, expanding the [flight] envelope, taking the Scorpion to higher altitudes and faster speeds, and evaluating the lower speeds and stall characteristics of the aircraft,’ said Tutt.

So far the Scorpion has reached an altitude of 30,000 ft and achieved Mach .76 during flight tests.

‘Our objective is a little bit faster than that. We’ve been to 455 kts true, which exceeds what we had planned to do, and we’ve been to 310 kts indicated for VMO. On the slow speed, we’re showing stalls down at less than 90 kts, so we’ve seen stalls at 85 to 87kts depending on the configuration,’ Tutt added.

Textron designed the Scorpion to fill a perceived gap in the market between expensive-to-fly fighters like the F-16, and less capable turboprops such as the AT-6. The platform sports a large internal payload optimised for ISR missions, and six hardpoints for air-to-air missiles, guns and bombs.

‘We saw a strong demand for a modern, affordable, versatile multi-mission aircraft, a lot of demand for persistent loiter for ISR, but also with a strike capability,’ said Tutt. ‘So we see that demand everywhere in the world, and more importantly a need for that type of platform.’

The company claims the Scorpion can be flown for less than $3,000 per operating flight hour, which it hopes will appeal to cash-strapped militaries who may be currently utilising much more expensive aircraft in the armed ISR role.

‘With the payload bay and the way we’ve designed the plane to be easily adaptable to other mission sets, a lot of potential customers are seeing the flexibility in the airframe which is translating into interest,’ said Tutt.

While Textron has developed the Scorpion outside of any specific military requirement, the company remains optimistic it has a potential customer in the US National Guard, which has a stated need for air assets to assist in counter-narcotics and emergency disaster response missions.

The Scorpion is scheduled to take part in a US Northern Command (USNORTHCOM) sponsored disaster response exercise in Kansas later in the year, which will be hosted by the Kansas National Guard.

 

[Triton]

"Eyeing First Customer, Scorpion Comes to UK"
Jul. 9, 2014 - 03:45AM |
By AARON MEHTA

Source:
http://www.defensenews.com/article/20140709/DEFREG02/307090023

WASHINGTON — Roughly 10 months ago, Textron AirLand unveiled its Scorpion to US audiences. Now, it is showing it off to the international market.

The jet will be displayed at the Royal International Air Tattoo (RIAT) and the Farnborough International Airshow, flying from the company’s Wichita, Kansas, facility. While it won’t fly during the shows, company officials plan to put the plane on static display — and hope to generate interest from international customers.

The Scorpion test model has flown about 80 hours over the past six months, but Farnborough represents the first public appearance of the plane.

“We know a lot of people coming to RIAT and Farnborough are coming, in part, to look at the plane because this is the first time it will be convenient for a number of foreign nation air forces to really come and look at it,” said Whit Peters, a former US Air Force secretary who is working as an adviser for Textron on the Scorpion.

That’s important, because the first customer is almost guaranteed to come from overseas.

The Scorpion is equipped with twin turbofan engines and a tandem cockpit, although the jet is designed to be flown by a single pilot. There are six hard points that could hold a variety of equipment, as well as a large internal compartment with 82 cubic feet of modular space.

That space gives the Scorpion great flexibility, particularly with intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) packages, which are desired by countries in Southeast Asia and Latin America. The projected price point — Textron is holding fast to its assertion the cost will be under $20 million a copy — also makes it attractive to smaller international markets.

“There are a lot of air forces that need something that can do ISR, potentially strike, but primarily what they need is something they can afford to acquire and operate safely,” Peters said. “I think the market that we see is basically air forces that can’t afford either to purchase or operate things like F-16s because the acquisition cost is very high and the maintenance cost is high.”

A company spokesman said Textron is in “advanced discussions” with a number of international militaries, but declined to provide further details. Asked if there is a target buy in mind for a launch customer, Peters indicated a series of smaller buys may be more likely.

“Obviously, the larger the better, but I think there are a number of people we are talking to where the need is not going to be more than 20 to 25 aircraft,” Peters said. “You get four or five of those together, that would be fine. But we really don’t know what that [launch] number is.”

For Textron, though, the biggest prize is finding a way into the American market. But given budget realities, how could that happen?

The biggest “in” for Textron could come from the US Air Force’s trainer replacement program, known as T-X. The winner of T-X gains the rights to replace the service’s aged T-38 trainers with 350 new aircraft, making it one of the largest aircraft procurement programs in sight. Assuming funding stays on track — Air Force Undersecretary Eric Fanning has called the program “existential” to the Air Force’s future — the service wants to award a contract in fiscal 2017.

Not surprisingly, there are four competitors officially announced, representing some of the largest players in the defense world. Could Textron join in as well?

A spokesman for the company said, “we haven’t officially decided what to do in that area,” but Peters gave hints as to the company’s thinking.

“There are different views in different places [at the company] as to what exactly a T-X is. Is it a single-role trainer? A multirole trainer?” Peters said. “My sense is at the more senior levels of the Air Force they realize that whatever T-X is, it needs to generally be a T-38 replacement, and the T-38 has a number of different roles. It’s red air [used as an opposing force in training], it’s a companion trainer.

“At some point T-X is likely to morph into that as it gets more real,” Peters added, noting that the company could provide a trainer-specific variant with a single engine and modified wings. “If that happens, I think we have an airplane that’s really fit for that task.”

The global training market is an area Scorpion should naturally be targeting, said Michael Blades, an analyst with Frost & Sullivan.

“If you need trainers, you need more of them than ISR platforms,” said Blades, who, like Peters, expects the T-X to be a multirole platform. “I think that would be the bigger market to look at.”

Asked whether Textron is positioning itself to make a move on T-X, Blades said, “I think they are going after it.”

“If they can meet the requirements and have the low life-cycle costs that will drive competition, I think they will,” he said. “I think they should be going for any kind of training tender that’s out there, and there’s more than just the US.”

Winning T-X would have a two-fold impact on Scorpion. First, it would likely guarantee more sales for a trainer variant from international customers who want to train on the same plane used by the US, especially since T-X will help train pilots for the F-35.

Second, it would give Scorpion a back door into the US inventory, and a potentially lucrative National Guard market.

Paul Weaver, another adviser on Scorpion and a former director of the Air National Guard, highlighted the cost projections and versatility of the plane as ideal for a service that has to perform both military and civil operations.

“The figure that gets people excited is the less-than-$3,000 an hour,” Weaver said, citing the company’s projected flying hour cost. “This airplane pays for itself in a very short period of time, and it’s exactly what the governors need in their states, especially with all the ISR equipment, post-storm, post-floods, pre- and post-fires, and it can do the Title 10 responsibility as well and go to war.”

One source with knowledge of the Guard confirmed that leaders are interested in the plane. However, even if the Guard takes the highly unlikely step of purchasing a plane without it being used in the active force, the source said the Guard has no plans to use its National Guard and Reserve Equipment Account for new procurements.

“I would love it if the US Air Force would take off the sequestered money and buy some of them, but given sequestration and everything else, that’s not something that’s going to happen immediately,” Peters said.

 

[Triton]

http://youtu.be/4P37BT7dzbo

 

[Triton]

http://youtu.be/U140o5t4xwI

 

[GJ33]

If you compare this Textron with a Tucano prop driven aircraft. Isn't this Textron more susceptible to MANPADS because of its jet engines?

Or is it the other way around because the engine in the Tucano is in the front?
It is nice if you operate in Iraq at 18000 ft but what if you have a clouddeck at 7500 ft in Africa or Asia or the Ukraine?

 

[TomS]

A turboprop is still plenty vulnerable to MANPADS. OV-10s in Desert Storm were lost to fairly simple missiles when they stayed around after their flares were expended.

The Scorpion has the benefit of redundancy -- two engines, widely separated, with a fuselage in between.

 

[Triton]

"Farnborough 2014: Textron AirLand Scorpion makes international debut"
Peter Felstead, Farnborough - IHS Jane's Defence Weekly
16 July 2014

Source:
http://www.janes.com/article/40821/farnborough-2014-textron-airland-scorpion-makes-international-debut

Just two-and-a-half years ago the Textron AirLand Scorpion intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR)/strike jet was a concept in a PowerPoint presentation, but it has now made its international debut at Farnborough 2014.

Designed from the outset as a platform that can accommodate a number of ISR sensor and weapon options, the Scorpion has a straight-wing, twin-tail composite airframe with a tandem cockpit. Its twin Honeywell TF731 powerplants produce about 4,000 lb of thrust each, to give the aircraft a maximum speed of about 450 kts.

Most crucially, however, the Scorpion will cost less than USD20 million to procure and around USD3,000 per hour to operate, according to Textron.

Detailing the rationale behind the Scorpion's development during a briefing at Farnborough on 15 July, Textron CEO Scott Donnelly explained how the company identified a niche between the high and low ends of the combat aircraft market that remained unaddressed by any new designs.

"If you look at the market for military fixed-wing aircraft in the world, for the last probably 30 or 40 years, all of the investment from the US Department of Defense, the UK MoD [Ministry of Defence], European partners, everyone, was [focused on] investing in and developing extraordinarily high-performance aircraft; things like the F-35s, Eurofighters, Super Hornets, aircraft of that class," said Donnelly. "We also see that there's capability in the single-engine turboprop market served by aircraft like our AT-6 and some others, but there was a huge gap between the high end and the single-engine turboprop market. So we undertook a development programme that, while it's a military product, we ran much more like one of our commercial programmes.

"In less than two years we went literally from a PowerPoint slide with some key operating requirements, to the time we flew that aircraft [in December 2013].

The aircraft has now been in tests for about six months, it's got 130 hours flying on it, it's performing superbly, and as you can see it's out at our chalet on the static display. We flew it over 4,700 nautical miles from Wichita [Kansas] with no issues whatsoever, so we've now entered the marketing phase of that aircraft."

Emphasising the Scorpion's reliability (in contrast to the Lockheed Martin F-35's engine fire issues, which had kept it away from the airshow), Textron AirLand President Bill Anderson noted of the Scorpion to date: "We have not lost one scheduled flight for unscheduled maintenance, and the only thing we needed to get to the United Kingdom was good weather and fuel, and we got here right on schedule.

Remarking on how, at first sight, the Scorpion surprises people with its size - Textron's CGI press releases had certainly seemed to make it look smaller - Anderson noted: "It's a 21,250 lb max gross take-off weight airplane. It is a large airplane. One of the unique features about the airplane is that it has an 82 cubic foot payload bay in the centre."

The Scorpion also has six hardpoints - three on each side - to carry additional sensors, fuel or weapons, up to a total payload capacity of 9,300 lb. On its static display at Farnborough the aircraft was sporting Textron G-CLAW (four per hardpoint) and Textron/Thales Fury (three per hardpoint) light guided glide munitions.

Anderson added that the Scorpion "has cooling and electricity for all of today's high-end ISR packages" and that "no other aircraft in this class can offer that capability".

Detailing a typical mission performance for the Scorpion, Anderson said: "We can fly out 150 miles with a combat load, stay on station for five hours, return to base and land with reserve fuel, all with no in-flight refuelling."

That said, the aircraft has, in fact, been designed to accept a Cobham hose-and-drogue flight refuelling system.

Textron identifies the primary missions of the Scorpion as: close air support; maritime security; aerospace control against low, slow airborne threats; and tactical jet training. Additional mission areas identified by the company include: irregular warfare support and counter-insurgency missions; border security, counter-narcotics missions; forward air control (airborne); strike co-ordination/armed reconnaissance, airborne on-scene commander missions; humanitarian assistance/disaster response.

Asked about the prospects of the Scorpion addressing the US Air Force's T-X trainer requirement - set to replace the air force's Northrop T-38 Talon fleet with 350+ two-seat jet trainers from around 2023 - Donnelly told IHS Jane's : "The T-X programme office has been formed and they're in their requirements development phase as we speak. They've been issuing some draft versions of those requirements, and that's something that we're following very closely. . . . We think this aircraft would make a fantastic trainer. It's an easy-to-fly aircraft, a great aircraft to transition into a lead-in fighter-type role and, as far as our ability to go into T-X is concerned, we're very interested in doing that." However, he noted that this depends on what final requirements are released by the T-X programme.

 

[Triton]

"Scorpion Aimed At Unique Air Combat Niche"
Jul 16, 2014
by Bill Sweetman

Source:
http://aviationweek.com/farnborough-2014/scorpion-aimed-unique-air-combat-niche

My first reaction to photos of the Textron Airland Scorpion was not positive, I will admit. The tandem cockpit, twin canted vertical stabilizers and slender straight wing made it look too much like a Citation wearing a Super Hornet costume for Halloween.

From an operational viewpoint, it seemed to be at risk of falling between two stools: not that much more survivable than a light attack aircraft in the AT-6 or Tucano class, and, in a reconnaissance mission, able to carry the same kind of sensors as a special-mission King Air, but more expensive to buy and fly, and with one very busy weapon-systems operator in the rear seat.

Before I went to Farnborough, I ran those twin tails past some people I know who really design airplanes. The Scorpion passed this test: The fuselage was wide enough, I was told, to cause problems with body slipstream blanketing the tail at high angles of attack. Two tails could be lighter than the tall single fin that would be required to get some fin area above the body wake. (I’m looking at you, M-346.)

Next, it was a matter of venturing to the Textron display, located somewhere in Surrey, to talk to Textron Airland’s president, Bill Anderson, and chief engineer, Dale Tutt.

In person, the Scorpion is quite big. At 21,250 lb. max takeoff weight, it is about the size of the M-346 or a Citation Excel, it carries a 9,300 lb. useful load, and it stands well clear of the ground. As a jet, it offers much greater speed and altitude capability than a King Air or AT-6, Anderson points out.

Now that Textron owns both those aircraft, the Scorpion is not intended to compete with them. Or anything else, for that matter. The Scorpion costs more than its propeller-driven cousins but much less than a fighter: The goals were a $20 million acquisition cost and $3,000 per flight hour. Its niche is to do missions for which air forces today use fighters because that’s what they have, but where the fighter’s expensively acquired air-combat prowess and survivability are unused.

Textron Airland is careful to avoid the “light strike” label. Anderson says the role is intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR)/strike. It might be better called “non-traditional ISR,” which is what many fighters have ended up doing in Iraq and Afghanistan. “We talk to A-10 guys just back from their tours. Did they get shot at? No. Did they use weapons? 95% of the time, no,” Anderson says. “When you do that on an A-10 or an F-16, not only are you spending $18,000 an hour, but you’re chewing up lifetime on high-end assets.”

Anderson rattles off examples: counter-narcotics, armed reconnaissance over Afghanistan, border patrol. Modern sensors allow those missions to be performed at 15,000 ft. or above, well above “golden BB” range. The Scorpion is designed to be tough, and may get shot at, but it’s not intended to be sent against well-equipped defenses. “That’s what you use that for,” says Anderson, gesturing at a Super Hornet cavorting overhead.

Although Textron Airland surveyed the installed base of fighters when it was inventing the Scorpion, Anderson adds, conversations with customers “that have gone beyond the initial phase” include two substantial prospects who are not replacing anything.

The airframe, Tutt and Anderson explain, is designed around its 82 cu ft., cooled and power-supplied payload bay. The designers looked at pods and pallets, Tutt says, but the bay allows for better integration. The wide fuselage, pear-shaped in cross-section, has dual keels on either side of the bay, and the lower skin can be custom-designed with whatever doors or apertures the customer needs. The bay is a key feature for the aircraft’s ISR-strike mission, and is there for large, specialized sensors such as foliage-penetration radars or wide-area surveillance systems. In the cockpit, Textron is getting ready to demonstrate Thales’ low-cost helmet-mounted display, also called Scorpion.

The tandem cockpits, with Martin-Baker Mk16 seats, are preferred to side-by-side by international users, Anderson says, but Tutt adds that the layout points to another unusual feature of the Scorpion concept: It is designed to be modular. A tandem-seat configuration can easily be converted to a single-seater, or – in the future – a no-seater, an unmanned air vehicle with longer wings and smaller engines. Another option: The standard production aircraft will have a speedbrake above the beaver-tail, but some customers want to trade that for an antenna farm.

Wisely, Anderson is not setting a public target date for getting a customer. “There are some discussions that have gone well beyond the initial stage,” he says. We’ll see how that works out by Paris next year.

 

[Triton]

"Textron AirLand Targets National Guard for Potential Sales "
August 2014

By Valerie Insinna

Source:
http://www.nationaldefensemagazine.org/archive/2014/August/Pages/TextronAirLandTargetsNationalGuardforPotentialSales.aspx#.U8msVcmyUZk.twitter

Textron AirLand continues to search for a customer for its Scorpion light attack airplane, but it will have the chance to prove the aircraft’s capabilities to the Air National Guard in August.

Guardsmen will not operate the Scorpion, which will be flown by a Textron test pilot during the demonstration, said Dale Tutt, the aircraft’s chief engineer. However, the Guard will have access to intelligence and reconnaissance data provided by the aircraft during the mock search-and-rescue operation at the Smoky Hill Air National Guard Range near Salina, Kansas.

“The premise for the exercise is a tornado goes through Kansas and hits a train carrying chemicals, so you’re dealing with a large chemical spill cleanup,” Tutt said. “We’ll circle for a couple hours, transmitting full motion video of the area to the Guard members, and then we will return to base.”

The Scorpion was developed by a joint-venture of Textron Inc. and AirLand Enterprises and has been funded by the companies without any government money. The companies are marketing the aircraft as a low cost way to accomplish missions such as irregular warfare, border patrol, maritime surveillance, emergency relief, counter-narcotics and air-defense operations.

Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Mark Welsh has said it is unlikely that the service could afford new aircraft beyond its three priorities: the F-35 joint strike fighter, KC-135 tanker and a new long-range bomber. However, Textron AirLand is continuing to brief Welsh on the Scorpion, and executives believe the possibility still remains for procurement by the National Guard, said Paul Weaver, a consultant to Textron AirLand and former director of the Air National Guard.

“I believe that he and the secretary have left room and are also looking at modernization programs in the Guard,” he said. “The Scorpion really fits in that niche.”

The company is also targeting international customers with the encouragement of the Air Force, Weaver said. The aircraft in July flew 4,700 nautical miles from Wichita, Kansas, to Gloucestershire, England, for the Royal International Air Tattoo and Farnborough International Air Show.

“We are in consultations with many partnership nations, some further along than others. I think as the aircraft becomes known … the doorway has been swinging inward a lot and a lot of our people have been traveling,” Weaver said. “We’re very hopeful.”

The Scorpion has performed at speeds of up to 455 knots and an altitude of 30,000 feet in flight tests, Tutt said. The company plans on taking the aircraft to its maximum altitude of 45,000 feet later this year. Executives also want to demonstrate the plane’s ability to drop precision-guided munitions.

Flight test performance has closely mirrored what was expected based on windtunnel testing and computational analysis, Tutt said. No unplanned modifications to the plane have been needed.

“We haven’t identified anything that’s caused us to really scratch our heads,” he said. “It’s kind of been a mundane flight test program, and that’s always a good thing.”

Textron could start initial deliveries 30 months after receiving its first order, Tutt added.

 

[Triton]

"Textron AirLand Developing Scorpion Trainer Variant"
Aug. 26, 2014 - 08:27PM |
By AARON MEHTA

Source:
http://www.defensenews.com/article/20140826/TSJ/308260019

CHICAGO — Textron AirLand plans to enter a modified version of its Scorpion aircraft into the US Air Force’s T-X trainer replacement competition, a top company official said.

The company is also eyeing the international training market as an area of growth for its jet, which is still working on signing its first customer.

Textron executives have largely danced around the question of whether the Scorpion would enter the T-X competition, hinting it was under consideration but not giving confirmation. The comments from Stephen Burke, regional vice president for military business development at Textron AirLand, were the clearest and most decisive made by an executive about plans to enter the trainer market.

“We will compete for T-X,” Burke told Defense News Aug. 23 at the National Guard Association of the United States annual conference in Chicago.

Scorpion is designed to be an intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance plane (ISR) with strike capabilities. Since the plane’s unveiling in September, Textron officials have highlighted the modular nature of the jet, something Burke said would come into play with a trainer variant.

“Because of the modularity of that platform we are able to change certain air performance characteristics relatively easily and be able to compete for the higher air performance requirements of the T-X program using the same basic platform with small modifications,” he said.

A trainer variant would keep the twin-engine, twin-tail design of the basic Scorpion. The major change would involve shortening the wings from 47 feet to something smaller and more aerodynamic, as well as increasing the thrust in the engine.

“When you’re trying to fly an ISR mission you want persistent loiter,” Burke explained. “If you’re looking for a two-hour training syllabus, you can trade some of the air performance against your fuel efficiency so you can get that air performance at the expense of the fuel efficiency you need for ISR.”

The Air Force plans to issue a request for proposals in the third quarter of fiscal 2016 for the T-X program. Before that request comes out, Textron intends to have a model of its trainer variant up and flying to prove that it can meet Air Force requirements.

“The Air Force has made it absolutely clear they’re not interested in development aircraft,” Burke said. “It’s our intention to have that aircraft flying that meets the training objectives” of the program.

The winner of the T-X competition will replace the service’s T-38 trainers with 350 new aircraft, a major contract that has drawn significant competition.

Three existing trainers are being offered for the T-X in the Hawk Advanced Jet Training System, a joint program of BAE Systems, Northrop Grumman, L-3 Link Simulation & Training and Rolls-Royce; Lockheed Martin’s offering of the Korean Aerospace Industries T-50; and the T-100, a collaboration between General Dynamics and Italy’s Alenia Aermacchi.

Boeing and Saab have announced plans to create a “clean-sheet” design as well. Although details are scant, the companies claim it will not be based on Saab’s Gripen fighter.

While not one of the top recapitalization programs for the Air Force, T-X remains “existential” to the service going forward, Eric Fanning, service undersecretary, said this year.

“The trainers we’re using now are really old, well past their expected life, and if we do not have those, we cannot train to the next level of platforms,” he told Defense News in May. “To keep the [F-35] joint strike fighter affordable, it is important that we have that trainer.”
International Market

Textron remains on the hunt for its first customer, though Burke said several active discussions are underway. Scorpion officials have said they hope to sign several international orders as launch customers.

Michael Blades, an analyst with Frost & Sullivan, believes offering a trainer variant could open further sales for the Scorpion.

“If they want to move more products, they need to concentrate overseas,” Blades said. He said the modular nature of the Scorpion could make it easier to sell the aircraft, since the basic plane could be sold without equipment that is restricted by International Traffic in Arms Regulations.

At the same time, Frost & Sullivan’s numbers see the training market staying relatively flat for the foreseeable future. That means a new trainer should look to attack cost in order to break into that market.

Textron claims an average flying-hour cost of $2,700, relatively close to the $2,200 per flying hour for a T-6 prop plane.

“If you can get your flying cost close to where a prop is, you’re doing pretty well,” Blades said. “They’re attacking from the right vantage point.”

Burke said the international market has a history of using a single jet to do both basic training and light attack.

“I would say it is part of a strategic campaign plan that some countries are already employing, that I need a light attack aircraft that can perform trainer functions,” Burke said. “If they can buy a single aircraft which meets their training needs and operational needs in the same aircraft which is affordable, we may change the dynamic of ‘that’s a dedicated light attack plane and this is a dedicated trainer.’

“That, we think, is the market sweet spot, and our international customers are giving us the feedback we have targeted correctly.”

The Scorpion team also plans to take advantage of Textron’s diverse portfolio. A Scorpion bid could be accompanied by simulation from its internal TRU Simulation arm, and the company’s maintenance experience could allow it to provide a fully-integrated solution.

“A lot of our international customers in the ISR strike variant of the aircraft need the ability to do similar type training, so we’re offering turn-key solutions for those who want that, or mix-and-match from a menu of capabilities they may want to do in-house and outsource on others,” Burke said. ■