Page 36 - World Airnews Magazine May Edition 2021

MILITARY

INTRODUCING THE EAGLE II

he Air Force’s newest fighter jet has

Ta name: F-15EX Eagle II.
The service unveiled the name of the jet
during a ceremony last month at Eglin Air
Force Base, Florida, USA

The Air National Guard will be the first

to receive the new jet operationally. ANG
Director Lt. Gen. Michael A. Loh said
during the ceremony the F-15EX’s improve-
ments will be key to its mission of home-
land defence.
“The Air National Guard flies 93 percent

of homeland defines missions, and along
with the F-35A, the F-15EX will help ensure
that legacy for many decades to come,”
he said. on March 10, and it was delivered to 12 years as its older F-15C/D ages out.

“These brand-new aircraft represent a the 96th test wing at Eglin one day later. The first production lot includes six

significant upgrade over the legacy F-15C. The first jet is owned by Air Force aircraft, to be delivered in fiscal 2023.

A significant upgrade in weapons capacity, Materiel Command for developmental Subsequent lots will be delivered to the

including the ability to carry outsize weap- testing, while Air Combat Command F-15 schoolhouse at Kingsley Field, Oregon

ons, for these missions and for stand-off will own the second F-15EX for opera- and the first operational base at Portland

roles in the high-end fight.” tional testing. International Airport also in Oregon in

The Air Force accepted the first F-15EX USAF plans to buy 144 F-15EXs over 10 to the USA. Q
HELICOPTERS
COOL YOUR JETS ON
ELECTRIC HELICOPTERS
irbus Helicopters President
ARomain Trapp isn’t so sure we

should be pu�ng all our rotorcraft eggs
in the eVTOL basket. While the magic of

electronic vertical take-off and landing

has captured the public imagination, he

said during a Helicopter Association Inter-

national webinar that it could be decades
before that rabbit comes out of the hat.
“We have to learn,” he said, “and
hopefully we are going to find a

game-changing technology, which I

don’t see today.” considered best suited for the so-called his view, citing the complexity of hoist

Trapp’s concern centres on safe- “Three Ds—” Dirty, Dangerous and Dull. operations as one reason.

ty, noting that it’s far easier to fly an These would include monitoring toxic But that’s not to say Airbus isn’t

autonomous aircraft in isolation versus waste sites, flying low-level search mis- committed to research in the air-mobility
in crowded airspace, and “sense and sions in bad weather and/or hazardous arena. Its City Airbus demonstrator and

avoid” is still beyond the horizon. “The terrain, and monotonous pipeline or Vahana research aircraft project have ad-
technology is not there yet, and the powerline patrol. vanced the technology in their own ways.
regulatory environment has not even Trapp sees eVTOL as a future partner “We have invested a lot of money and will

been defined. And for good reason. At to conventional helicopters rather than continue to do so,” Trapp said. Q

the end of the day, we still have a long a replacement. For example, search-

way to go to be able to do so.” and-rescue operations will continue Article courtesy: https://www.

Autonomous operations are often to be flown by manned helicopters, in planeandpilotmag.com/news/

World Airnews | May 2021
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