SUU-25F/A dispenser pod flight test program on the F/A-18A aircraft

Author

Roberts, David W.

Author_Institution

Naval Air Syst. Command, Patuxent River, MD, USA

Volume

5

fYear

2001

fDate

2001

Firstpage

2623

Abstract

A modified SUU-25F/A dispenser pod system was evaluated for employment on the U.S. Navy F/A-18A Hornet fighter/attack aircraft. Testing had been conducted previously on the F/A-18A with a standard SUU-25F/A system, but was discontinued when the dispensed stores nearly collided with the horizontal stabilator. A modified system of two pods on the outboard wing station was designed to increase the separation clearance of the aft launched stores, below and outboard of the horizontal stabilator. Test methodology included a level flight build-up in airspeed with qualitative analysis of separation characteristics being conducted real-time using onboard telemetered video. The innovations implemented in this program enabled demonstration of store safe separation with a minimum number of test flights and store expenditures

Keywords

aircraft testing; military aircraft; real-time systems; telemetry; F/A-18A Hornet fighter/attack aircraft; F/A-18A aircraft testing; SUU-25F/A dispenser pod flight test; U.S. Navy; aft launched stores; horizontal stabilator; onboard telemetered video; outboard wing station; qualitative analysis; real-time; Aerospace control; Aerospace engineering; Aircraft propulsion; Control systems; Marine vehicles; Military aircraft; Switches; System testing; Technological innovation; Weapons;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Aerospace Conference, 2001, IEEE Proceedings.

Conference_Location

Big Sky, MT

Print_ISBN

0-7803-6599-2

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/AERO.2001.931222

Filename

931222