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This Is Lockheed's Training Plane Built With F-16 DNA
Citat:The T-50 is smaller and lighter than the F-16 and has a different engine—General Electric's F404-102. which is derived from the F404 that powers older F/A-18 Hornets. Despite making less thrust (17,700 pounds) than the Falcon's engine, the F404 gives the T-50 performance on par with the F-16, according to Mark Ward, Lockheed Martin lead test pilot for the T-50A.
Ward is a former Air Force F-16 tactical pilot and test pilot, later a Lockheed Martin test pilot for the F-16, and for the last five years has flown the F-35. He was also an instructor pilot in the T-38, which, he says, just can't give students the experience they need to get into new fighter aircraft. "The T-38's performance is closer to something like an F-4 Phantom in terms of its flight control system, performance and handling. It's lacking in how it behaves compared to airplanes like the F-35 and F-22."
Training pilots in a plane with F-16 DNA makes more sense, Ward argues. The flight control system is proven and reliable. The airframe aerodynamics are well understood. "You put those into the T-50A and you end up with an extremely reliable, high performance airplane that flies very similar in terms of control and engine response that you'd see in a fifth-generation airplane."
The T-50A that Lockheed is proposing for the Air Force shares the performance characteristics of the basic T-50: a top speed of about Mach 1.5, a 48,000-foot service ceiling, and approximately 1,150 miles of range. But Lockheed Martin adds new avionics including a HUD and a Large-Area-Avionics-Display (LAAD) very much like the one used in the F-35.
"We can program the screen any way the Air Force desires," Ward says. "One of the things we can do is essentially run a video game inside the airplane based on real-world data."
The LAAD can display a simulated tactical situation with accurate radar, infrared, and other target information displays—even though the T-50A doesn't have these sensors. Student pilots can then target simulated threats, dropping simulated weapons from a theoretical load of laser or GPS bombs. They can run through all the switches, buttons, and displays, getting a feel for operating a strike fighter for a fraction of the cost. Similarly, the T-50A's in-flight refueling capability (via a removable "dart pod" on the spine of the aircraft) could allow pilots to train for aerial refueling before they get into expensive single-seat F-35s and F-22s.
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