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Videoscope inspection system

The Olympus IV7 Videoscope features a built-in working channel for foreign object retrieval without disassembly. Tools inserted through the channel can be used to grasp foreign objects and remove them easily.

Olympus America Inc. has developed the IV7 Videoscope with a built-in working channel that enables mechanics to easily retrieve foreign objects from inside turbines without engine teardown. The company is offering a selection of foreign object retrieval tools to operate with the IV7 Videoscope. These tools include a magnet, snare loop, four-wire basket, alligator jaw forceps, and three-prong grasper forceps. A simple one-hand control at the opposite end of the cable operates the tools. There is also a hook and cable assembly that facilitates inspections of Pratt & Whitney F100 turbines.

The videoscope is included with the ACC inspection kit and has been approved for Pratt & Whitney JT8D can inspections. Other applications include using fluorescent penetrant and magnetic particle techniques in areas normally inaccessible to handheld back lights; dispensing fluids and powders; and illuminating with UV light.

Videosopes combine both computer and video technologies. Small CCD chips in the tip of the probe transmit video images to monitors. Because the chips have thousands more pixels than fiberscopes, videoscope images have higher resolution. In addition, the images are electrical rather than optical so they can be transmitted efficiently and accurately over longer distances.

- Frank Bokulich

Navy JSF variant takes flight

Lockheed Martin's Joint Strike Fighter carrier variant, the X-35C, made its initial flight in December, marking the start of a flight-test program focused on carrier-suitable flying qualities and aircraft performance. The Boeing Co. conducted similar tests on its Navy JSF variant in October and November (Aerospace Engineering, Jan/Feb 2001). The X-35C was flown for about 27 min before touch down at Edwards Air Force Base, CA. The aircraft climbed to 10,000 ft and accelerated to 250 kts. Test pilot Joe Sweeney cycled the landing gear and performed aircraft flying-qualities evaluations, including rolls, sideslips, and overall systems checks.

The X-35C is designed to achieve good carrier-suitable handling qualities within a highly common family of JSF airplanes. According to Ted Spilman, the government's X-35 Program Manager, the flight represents an important step in creating a weapon tailored to each service, but derived from a common platform.

The X-35C, the U.S. Navy version of the Lockheed Martin JSF, takes off for its first flight test in December.

Flight tests for the U.S. Air Force variant, the X-35A, have been completed since November. The X-35C represents the second Lockheed Martin JSF demonstrator to enter flight testing. A third JSF variant, the lift fan-equipped X-35B, is scheduled to begin vertical-flight testing next spring.

While the Navy variant is similar to the X-35A, the X-35C has special characteristics to meet the demanding requirements of carrier operations. Its specifications include a larger wing and control surfaces, the addition of ailerons, and a special structure to absorb high-impact landings.

"The JSF Navy variant will provide the first carrier-supportable low observable (stealth aircraft), achieve first-look, first-shot air supremacy, and enhance Navy warfighter capabilities with breakthrough, all-weather precision strike," said Tom Burbage, Executive Vice President and General Manager of the Lockheed Martin JSF program. "Our X-35C is highly representative of the aircraft we've planned for production, so its in-flight behavior will be an extremely accurate predictor of the production airplane's flight characteristics."

The flight test program will include a series of field carrier landing practice tests to evaluate the aircraft's handling qualities and performance during carrier approaches and landings at an airfield. Also planned are up-and-away handling qualities tests and engine transients at varying speeds and altitudes.

- Frank Bokulich

Low-cost composite bonded wing for V-22

Under a joint project with the Air Force Research Laboratory Materials and Manufacturing Directorate and Air Vehicles Directorate, both the cost and the number of parts used in a V-22 composite wing box were reduced. The effort used innovative composite design technologies, materials, and manufacturing processes to reduce cost by 50% and eliminate 75% of the required fasteners.

Future weapons systems will require greater use of composite structures to meet performance and survivability requirements. Acquisition and ownership costs of these structures must be reduced.

Under a contract with Bell Helicopter in Fort Worth, TX, the Manufacturing Directorate and Air Vehicles Directorate demonstrated the 50% cost reduction. A new V-22 wing was designed to increase unity and reduce the number of parts fabricated and assembled. Detail concepts were developed to make maximum use of composite material properties. Through the use of concurrent engineering/integrated product development processes, the program successfully demonstrated the implementation of the new design, analysis, and manufacturing technologies.

The Bell concept featured extensive use of adhesive bonding of pre-cured components in a primary structure. Bond-line tolerances were loosened to simplify assembly. This tolerance change had no significant impact on strength or durability. Other notable changes included use of a wing-skin laminate that was designed to increase the automatic tape laying machine efficiency and the addition of pultruded rods. These high-stiffness graphite rods served to recover the bending stiffness characteristics in the wing. The V-22 demonstration article was tested for sufficient strength, stiffness, durability, and damage tolerance at the Air Force Structural Test Laboratory.

- Frank Bokulich

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