Surveillance plane makes maiden flight
The new surveillance plane being built for the Australian Air Force, the Wedgetail, has made its first flight.
The Wedgetail Airborne Early Warning and Control Aircraft has made its first flight from Boeing Field in Seattle in the United States.
Based on Boeing's 737, the Wedgetail is to be the eyes and ears of the Australian Defence Force, using phased array radar to conduct air and maritime surveillance.
Defence Minister Robert Hill says the $3.4 billion project is on budget and ahead of time.
The Government last week announced that it will buy an extra two of the planes to create a fleet of six aircraft.
The first two Wedgetails are to be delivered in 2006, to be based at Williamtown in New South Wales.
Nifty. So we are getting the whole six instead of the four the Government was considering. Nifty. I'm still a bit put of by the Radome design. I understand the reason, drasticly reduces drag. But a full circular, slowly rotating dome just looks cool
Surveillance plane makes maiden flight
The new surveillance plane being built for the Australian Air Force, the Wedgetail, has made its first flight.
The Wedgetail Airborne Early Warning and Control Aircraft has made its first flight from Boeing Field in Seattle in the United States.
Based on Boeing's 737, the Wedgetail is to be the eyes and ears of the Australian Defence Force, using phased array radar to conduct air and maritime surveillance.
Defence Minister Robert Hill says the $3.4 billion project is on budget and ahead of time.
The Government last week announced that it will buy an extra two of the planes to create a fleet of six aircraft.
The first two Wedgetails are to be delivered in 2006, to be based at Williamtown in New South Wales.
Nifty. So we are getting the whole six instead of the four the Government was considering. Nifty. I'm still a bit put of by the Radome design. I understand the reason, drasticly reduces drag. But a full circular, slowly rotating dome just looks cool
Chris OFarrell wrote:
Nifty. So we are getting the whole six instead of the four the Government was considering. Nifty. I'm still a bit put of by the Radome design. I understand the reason, drasticly reduces drag. But a full circular, slowly rotating dome just looks cool
You just like it when people paint the spiral desing on the top of the rotating radome.
So what exactly does the radome on this thing look like anyway?
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evilcat4000 wrote:I guess it will look like a Boeing 737 with a large circular disc on top. Much like the Joint Stars aircraft.
The E-8 JSTARS does not have a circular radome on the top, it has an equipment "sled" mounted on the bottom of the fuselage just ahead of the wings.
Only AWACS aircraft like the E-3 Sentry, the E-767, the E-2 Hawkeye, the Russian A-50 "Mainstay", and a number of others have a circular radome. These aircraft are designed are designed to track airborne targets, but JSTARS is designed to track ground targets.
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