Gareth Jennings, London - IHS Jane's Defence Weekly
04 February 2015
An infographic showing how the KC-390 compares with its closest competitors. Source: IHS
The Embraer KC-390 transport aircraft made its maiden flight from the company's Gavião Peixoto production facility, north of São Paulo, on 3 February.
The flight of the first of two prototype platforms lasted for 1 hour and 25 minutes, during which time the crew evaluated the twin jet's handling characteristics and performance.
With the first flight now completed, the company will work to prepare the second prototype for trials in the coming weeks. Certification of the 'green' aircraft is expected at the end of 2015, with the final operational clearance set for mid-2016.
The KC-390 is billed as being able to carry 23 tonnes (or a concentrated maximum payload of 26 tonnes over the centre of gravity) at 470 kt (Mach 0.8) out to 1,300 n miles. A typical payload would include 80 regular troops or 64 paratroopers, or three Humvee-sized vehicles or a single Sikorsky UH-60 Black Hawk utility helicopter. The ramp, which is longer than that of most aircraft of its class in order to ease access for vehicles, is limited to 4.5 tonnes.
In addition to its baseline cargo/troop transport configuration, the KC-390 will be equipped to perform aerial refuelling and will have provisions for an electro-optic/infrared pod for a secondary search-and-rescue role.
Although billed as a competitor to the Lockheed Martin C-130J Hercules (22 tonnes payload), the KC-390's other primary competitors include the Antonov An-70 (47 tonnes) and Airbus Military A400M Atlas (37 tonnes).
The Brazilian Air Force has ordered 28 KC-390 aircraft (plus the two prototypes, which will be refurbished after trials are complete), with production set to run through to 2023. Embraer has also received letters of intent from Colombia (12 aircraft), Argentina (6), Chile (6), Portugal (6), and the Czech Republic (2).
This story, first published on 4 January, has been updated with an infographic
COMMENT
The first flight of the KC-390 was originally billed to have taken place in late 2014. With the development and production schedule being so tight, programme officials will be especially relieved to have got this major milestone under their belt.
Although Embraer has 30 firm orders for the Brazilian Air Force, it currently only has letters of intent for the 32 export aircraft. The C-130J-30 is already operationally proven and ready for delivery and, while the A400M programme has been experiencing some delivery delays of its own lately, that platform too is ready for fielding. While production of the An-70 has been approved, poor relations between the partner nations of Ukraine and Russia will almost certainly have a detrimental effect on that programme.
Embraer, therefore, needs to complete trials and get the KC-390 into serial production at the earliest opportunity if it is not to lose too much ground to its competitors in the global race for sales. That said, interest in the Brazilian airlifter is high, with high-ranking military and political representatives from 32 countries attending the official roll-out ceremony in October 2014.
发表于 2015-2-6 12:28
QQ好友和群
QQ空间
腾讯微博
腾讯朋友
收藏
