QinetiQ and the MOD Joint Test and Evaluation Group, which comprise
the UK Aircraft Test and Evaluation Centre, have performed a series of
landing trials of a short take-off vertical landing (STOVL) aircraft on
to the French Navy's Charles de Gaulle carrier, using
QinetiQ's Vectored-thrust Aircraft Advanced Control (VAAC) Harrier.
Undertaken as part of the US Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) programme on
behalf of the UK MOD Joint Combat Aircraft Integrated Project Team (JCA
IPT), the trials were designed to expand the limits and knowledge of
ship-rolling vertical landings (SRVL) as a possible aircraft recovery
technique for the Royal Navy s two projected Future Carrier (CVF)
vessels. Land-based Rolling Vertical Landings (RVL) are routinely used
on legacy STOVL (Harrier) aircraft, rather than vertical landings on
unprepared surfaces, in order to avoid ingestion of debris into the
engine. A requirement for JSF to perform land-based RVLs has therefore
always been a feature of the contract specification. However, the
development of new RVL procedures for the F-35B aircraft, with its
greater useable wing-lift at low speeds, means that either increased
payloads can be returned and landed on the ship or the stress on the
propulsion system can be reduced, leading to increased operational
flexibility and propulsion system life.
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According to the MoD, consideration of the aerody-together with the
available deck area of CVF design, has shown that significant benefits
could be realised by extending the principles of land-based RVL to ship
borne operations and the UK is keen to exploit this opportunity.
The trials involved the first-ever piloted evaluation of the SRVL
manoeuvre onto an aircraft carrier, and comes on the back of a number of
studies undertaken over the past few years into the feasibility of the
SRVL concept. The MOD has also stated that the increasing maturity of
this body of analysis and simulation indicates that SRVL could be
performed safely by JSF on CVF although the effects of equipment
failures and adverse conditions require further investigation.
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