Posted on 01/25/2006 10:28:11 PM PST by Paleo Conservative
Boeing may introduce a Soviet-era military transport jet as a new option for the US military's need for a new fleet of small airlifters, the airframer told Flight International in Washington, DC yesterday.
The Antonov An-72, a 70-seat jet with over-wing-mounted engines (pictured below in Aeroflot livery), is one of the options Boeing is considering to enter the US Army's pending Future Cargo Aircraft (FCA) competition, says George Muellner, Boeing vice president for Air Force Systems.
A Boeing evaluation team has visited Antonov headquarters in Kiev, the Ukraine, and both companies remain in active discussions, says Muellner.
The FCA competition is on hold for two months to allow army officials time to discuss blending the programme with a US Air Force requirement for a new light cargo aircraft fleet. Muellner says Boeing's plans will not be decided until the army unveils the final requirements for FCA.
As another option, Boeing also is in discussions to Alenia to join the Global Military Aircraft Systems team that plans to offer the Alenia C-27J Spartan. Raytheon and EADS CASA North America also plan to compete, offering the CASA C-295, CN-235, or both, depending on the army's final requirements.
The An-72, if Boeing were to offer it, would be the only jet-powered aircraft in the competition.
STEPHEN TRIMBLE / WASHINGTON, DC
and children...
As Monty Python would say, "but she has large ... tracts of land."
It's called the Coanda effect, where the airflow follows the surface of the airfoil design. That's why the Boeing YC-14 and Antonov An-72/74 had high-mounted engines, since the airflow from the engine exhaust actually followed the large wing flaps right behind the engine itself in a process called upper surface blowing. This results in dramatic reduction in takeoff and landing runs; indeed, the An-72 during its public demonstrations showed it could land and takeoff with the runway equivalent of not much more than the length of two American football fields!
The version of the An-74 proposed would probably use the same General Electric CF34 variant now used on the Embraer 190 regional jet airliner.
Coanda Effect and its quieter than it would be if you hung the engines below the wing.
I wonder if Boeing would also use lighter more advanced alloys than Antonov used.
From the people who brought us, "NOW ISS SWIMWEAR! NOW ISS EEVENINKVEAR!"
Vedy niiice!
Wish I could find that commercial online (it used to be somewhere just a few months ago). Classic!
The women could've been from Cheswick or Sharpsburg.
Don't even THINK about it.
She might well have been my ancestor.
They were actually Polish American women from Chicago.
Vedy niiiice!
Isn't that the plane that Bruce Willis punched out of in one of those "Die Hard" movies?
CASA C-295
CASA CN-235
Ugly, but functional. Still, what does it say about the state of the U.S. aircraft industry when Boeing, the 800 lb. gorilla of the transport aircraft business, has to offer a Soviet-era aircraft to meet a government requirement?
Kinda looks like a C-130 with big turbofans.
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