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  • To pick a suitable aircraft there are many requirements but the first questions to be asked (apart from price) are:
    (a) What loads do you want to transport?
    (b) How far do you want to transport a particular load?

    Once that is clear (as it sets the aircraft size) then all the others can come; do you want rough field landing? what STOL performance should the aircraft have etc, etc

    Comment


    • [QUOTE=Chuck;475604]Starting to show how long you are gone now.

      Yes they do. You hardly think they just throw a load of gear into the aircraft, strap it down and fly off and hope for the best do you? Although given how much you pontificate about how badly everything was done in the Air Corps, maybe you do.

      Apart from the fact that you can stick your sneer where the sun doesnt shine, the Air Corps managed to operate the King Airs and then the Casas for years with no load supervisors of any kind and certainly no loadmasters ( a loadmaster being the kind of NCO or officer aircrew used by air forces to calculate the loading and unloading of cargos onto aircraft, in conjunction with the pilots calculating the final trim position). Nor were there any for the helicopters. In the early years of the Casa operation, there was little or no provision for cargo nets,cargo tie downs,pallets, bins, tie down straps etc or any dedicated training for loading or unloading and we depended entirely on the few senior NCOs who recieved Type training to tell us where exactly in the cabin the loads could be tied down. On several occasions, we had to unload and reload cargos on the King Air, Gulfstream and cabin Casa and Maritime Casas, as we had no formal loadsheets,no training and no kit. We used posted floor weight limits but were sometimes caught short, a classic example being the weight of medical equipment such as a loaded hospital trolley. We had a fairly small scales and could weigh most things but big units like hospital trolleys were beyond us and sometimes it was down to crude guesses. we did ask for more training,many times, as well as for more kit,such as nets,tie downs, but as ever, it was like pulling teeth and always subject to priority. Certainly, before I left in 95, no-one in our hangar had any formal loading training and I'd be delighted if you can tell me when the AC got formally trained load supervisors / loadmasters.

      Comment


      • Originally posted by EUFighter View Post
        So the option left would be to buy a -700 PAX and do a P2F conversion.
        Or a "FlexCombi" conversion as the STC on the 73NG will likely come through this year for KF / PEMCO.

        The configuration of older passenger aircraft into freighters has become a lucrative business during the past decade or so. In the meantime, there are hundreds of ‘P2F' aircraft operating on behalf of express companies around the world and also for smaller regional airlines, specifically in the Far East and Africa.


        The forward cabin can swap in the palletised VIP module, Medevac or Troop configuration. IIRC I think ST Aero subcontracted in pallet specialists AeroPrecison on the B757-2K to provide the roll-on/roll-of hardware.

        Comment


        • Originally posted by Anzac View Post
          Or a "FlexCombi" conversion as the STC on the 73NG will likely come through this year for KF / PEMCO.
          https://www.cargoforwarder.eu/2019/0...es-to-the-air/The forward cabin can swap in the palletised VIP module, Medevac or Troop configuration. IIRC I think ST Aero subcontracted in pallet specialists AeroPrecison on the B757-2K to provide the roll-on/roll-of hardware.
          This has the slight hint of grasping at straws.

          Comment


          • Originally posted by Charlie252 View Post
            This has the slight hint of grasping at straws.
            Really? On the balance of probabilities it seems much more likely to see the light of day in Air Corps service knowing the proposed costing put forward by Leo Varadkar at €10m than hundreds of millions for a couple of C-130J's which will take much much longer to IOC into service and sustain. I'd love to see C-130J's or KC-390's in service but with what you have said earlier - the DoD is happy to keep the Air Corps on a starvation diet.

            Comment


            • Originally posted by Anzac View Post
              Or a "FlexCombi" conversion as the STC on the 73NG will likely come through this year for KF / PEMCO.

              The configuration of older passenger aircraft into freighters has become a lucrative business during the past decade or so. In the meantime, there are hundreds of ‘P2F' aircraft operating on behalf of express companies around the world and also for smaller regional airlines, specifically in the Far East and Africa.

              Coincidentally there was a documentary on one of the Discovery channels recently showing a 737 "FlexCombi" configuration operating in the high Arctic regions of Canada. It was operating regularly off both gravel and snow runways and appeared highly capable. But then again I defer to my learned aviation colleagues.
              “The nation that will insist on drawing a broad line of demarcation between the fighting man and the thinking man is liable to find its fighting done by fools and its thinking done by cowards.”
              ― Thucydides

              Comment


              • Originally posted by Shaqra View Post
                Coincidentally there was a documentary on one of the Discovery channels recently showing a 737 "FlexCombi" configuration operating in the high Arctic regions of Canada. It was operating regularly off both gravel and snow runways and appeared highly capable. But then again I defer to my learned aviation colleagues.
                I think that was a 737-200C, very old aircraft tend to find their way into the far north of Canada

                Comment


                • Originally posted by Charlie252 View Post
                  I think that was a 737-200C, very old aircraft tend to find their way into the far north of Canada
                  Yes you're right - just looked back at the listing. Wasn't aware they had that configuration - half cargo/half pax on the 200.
                  “The nation that will insist on drawing a broad line of demarcation between the fighting man and the thinking man is liable to find its fighting done by fools and its thinking done by cowards.”
                  ― Thucydides

                  Comment


                  • The old 737-200C aircraft are a very different beast from the models that followed. They had the JT8D engines with the big bucket TRU's which did not endanger the engine when used on gravel. From the 737 Classic the engine changed to the high by pass CFM-56 engine with a fan TRU, use this on a gravel runway and the likely result will be the need for two new engines.

                    The aircraft shown in the documentary were modified by Boeing with a "gravel runway kit" to operate in Alaska on dirt runways. Now they are used in the very north of Canada serving the local communities. They do not meet StageIII noise and so would have been banned in Europe in the '80, why the early Ryanair jets had the big ugly hush-kits.

                    The combi configuration was very popular in the '70's but started to decline in the '80's and today is extremely rare.

                    Comment


                    • There is a reason the Russian AN72 & AN74 transports mounted their turbofans on the top of the wing. (they used to be regular visitors to EINN, transporting horses.)
                      For now, everything hangs on implementation of the CoDF report.

                      Comment


                      • The An72 & An74 like the Boeing YC-14 exploit the Coand? effect to have STOL capability. This is the primary reason why the mount the engines where they do. That it increases the distance above any debris is a welcomed secondary effect. This was the result of research to find a replacement for the C-130 in the early '70's with the Advanced Medium STOL Transport (AMST) project.

                        The alternative was the externally blown flaps used on the YC-15, which MDD used as a template for the later much bigger C-17.

                        Comment


                        • I know it is not related to the topic itself but still airlift related somewhat, I see an Alenia C27J Spartan of the Slovak Air Force has just touched down at Dublin airport.

                          Comment


                          • [QUOTE=GoneToTheCanner;475707]
                            Originally posted by Chuck View Post
                            Starting to show how long you are gone now.

                            Yes they do. You hardly think they just throw a load of gear into the aircraft, strap it down and fly off and hope for the best do you? Although given how much you pontificate about how badly everything was done in the Air Corps, maybe you do.

                            Apart from the fact that you can stick your sneer where the sun doesnt shine, the Air Corps managed to operate the King Airs and then the Casas for years with no load supervisors of any kind and certainly no loadmasters ( a loadmaster being the kind of NCO or officer aircrew used by air forces to calculate the loading and unloading of cargos onto aircraft, in conjunction with the pilots calculating the final trim position). Nor were there any for the helicopters. In the early years of the Casa operation, there was little or no provision for cargo nets,cargo tie downs,pallets, bins, tie down straps etc or any dedicated training for loading or unloading and we depended entirely on the few senior NCOs who recieved Type training to tell us where exactly in the cabin the loads could be tied down. On several occasions, we had to unload and reload cargos on the King Air, Gulfstream and cabin Casa and Maritime Casas, as we had no formal loadsheets,no training and no kit. We used posted floor weight limits but were sometimes caught short, a classic example being the weight of medical equipment such as a loaded hospital trolley. We had a fairly small scales and could weigh most things but big units like hospital trolleys were beyond us and sometimes it was down to crude guesses. we did ask for more training,many times, as well as for more kit,such as nets,tie downs, but as ever, it was like pulling teeth and always subject to priority. Certainly, before I left in 95, no-one in our hangar had any formal loading training and I'd be delighted if you can tell me when the AC got formally trained load supervisors / loadmasters.
                            Theoretical Loadmaster Course provided by Airbus since at least 2007

                            Comment


                            • From Flightglobal today......

                              Peruvian air force adds third 737 to transport fleet
                              19 May 2020

                              Peru has placed a contract worth $3.75 million with Fort Lauderdale, Florida-based D&S Aviation for the supply of a second-hand Boeing 737-300 for the country’s air force.

                              Delivery of the CFM International CFM56-3C1-powered narrowbody will take place within three months, reports Spanish-language news site Defensa.com

                              To be operated by the Peruvian air force’s 8th Air Group, the twinjet will be located at the service’s Mayor General Armando Revoredo Iglesias base, adjacent to Lima’s main international airport.

                              Peru intends to use the 737-300 for the transport of passengers and equipment as part of its response to the coronavirus pandemic.

                              Defensa.com identifies the airframe as MSN24717, a 1990-built example initially delivered to United Airlines. Most recently it has been operated by Ukrainian carrier Dream Wind Airlines where it was registered as UR-CRL, according to Cirium fleets data.

                              This will be the Peruvian air force’s third 737, joining a -200 and -500 already in service. Although the latter is usually employed as a presidential aircraft, the jet is currently being used for medical flights serving the city of Iquitos in the north of the country.

                              Additional transports operated by the 8th Air Group include a trio of Antonov An-32Bs, four Leonardo C-27J Spartans, a pair of Lockheed L-100-20s, and a single Bombardier Learjet 45XR.

                              Comment


                              • Feud murder suspect to be flown home by Air Corps on safety fear

                                A man due to be charged with the feud-related murder of David 'Daithi' Douglas is expected to be flown to Ireland on an Irish Air Corps aircraft.

                                Comment

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