Textron AirLand, a joint venture between Textron Inc. and AirLand Enterprises, unveiled its Scorpion jet-powered aircraft prototype, a versa...
The aircraft was introduced during a press conference at the Air Force Association Air & Space Conference andTechnology Exposition in National Harbor,Maryland.
The demonstration aircraft is now in test phase, with first flight scheduled to occur before the end of this year—a rapid schedule by any measure of military jet development.
Textron Chairman and CEO Scott Donnelly said, “We began development of the Scorpion in January 2012 with the objective to design, build and fly the world’s most affordable tactical jet aircraft capable of performing lower-threat battlefield and homeland security missions.” Donnelly continued, “We relied on commercial best practices to develop a tactical jet platform with flexibility and capabilities found only in far more costly aircraft.”
The Scorpion is designed to accommodate the increasingly stringent budget constraints of the U.S. Department of Defense and U.S. partner nations. The Scorpion’s design is well matched to the Air National Guard’s missions such as irregular warfare, border patrol, maritime surveillance, emergency relief, counter-narcotics and air defense operations. While Scorpion’s lower acquisition price is an advantage, an equally important benefit is the lower cost of operation over the aircraft’s full lifecycle. Combining ease of maintenance and globally-available commercial components, the Scorpion can significantly lower the customer’s total cost of ownership.
Configured with canted tails and unswept 47 ft 4 in long wing, it has a length of 43 ft 6 in and height of 14 ft.
All-composite airframe and structure ensure reduced fatigue and corrosion issues and has a 20,000 hour service life.
It has a empty weight of 11,800 lbs and max takeoff weight of 21,250 lbs with a max internal fuel load of 6,000 lbs.
The Scorpion’s 3000 lbs internal payload bay provides critical operational flexibility to quickly incorporate new payloads, scaling tactical systems performance to meet operational capability needs. With its modular partitioning, loading, alignment and retention system, the payload bay can accommodate a variety of sensors, fuel, and communications modules in the most appropriate capability mix to meet a diverse range of mission performance profiles. External hardpoints can carry scalable and precision munitions.
Max Speed is 450 KTAS with a service ceiling 45,000 ft and 2400 nm ferry range.
The Scorpion is powered by two turbofan engines that together produce approximately 8,000 pounds of thrust. The engines are directed by a Digital Electronic Engine Control and supply conditioned bleed air to the pneumatic system. Accessories mounted on the engine gearbox power electrical and hydraulic systems. The engines can operate on Jet-A, JP-5, and JP-8 jet fuels.
The Scorpion’s two cockpits use modern, multi-function color displays to present flight, aircraft performance, navigation, and weapons information.
It features:
*.Built-in Flight Management System
*.Class-B Terrain Awareness and Warning System (TAWS)
*.Engine Indicating/Crew Alerting System (CAS)/Master Caution
*.Dual Air Data Attitude Heading Reference Systems
*.Dual Global Positioning System/Satellite-Based Augmentation System (GPS/SBAS)
*.Display of External Video (Mission Processor, EO/IR, etc.) – Sensor Agnostic
*.Integrated Moving Maps Including Highway in the Sky Functionality
*.Weather Radar Controls
*.Night Vision Compatible
*.Low Power Consumption
*.Digital Flight Playback
