Farnborough 2008 Show News - July 15, 2008 - (Page 42) FA R N B O R O U G H 2 0 0 8 Boeing Hired to Design Heavy Lifter Boeing has teamed up with a Canadian company to develop a commercial heavy-lift aircraft that combines a neutrally buoyant airship with four Chinook rotor systems to lift a 40-ton payload over 200 miles. Calgary-based SkyHook Intern a t i o n a l i s p a y i n g B o e i n g ’s helicopter division in Philadelphia to design the JHL-40 and build two prototypes for Canadian and U.S. certification in 2012. Privately owned SkyHook will be the sole customer for the aircraft, says president and chief executive Pete Jess, and plans are in place to establish an operating company to offer heavy-lift services to the energy, forestry, mining and construction industries. The initial A-model JHL-40 is aimed at the market for lifting heavy equipment to remote areas in the Canadian Arctic and Alaska to avoid the expense and environmental impact of building roads. SkyHook sees a need for 50 to 60 aircraft. The airship/helicopter hybrid is not new, Piasecki having flown the PA-97 Helistat in 1986. This combined a 343 ft-long U.S. Navy the payload of the largest helicopt e r, t h e M i l M i - 2 6 , w i t h l e s s installed power. Boeing plans to use off-the-shelf components to reduce upfront costs, says Laubsch. These include already-certificated Commercial Chinook rotors. Boeing is in talks with three potential suppliers of commercially available engines, he says, and has selected off-the-shelf thrusters to maneuver the vehicle. The fly-by-wire aircraft will have a crew of five with facilities for eating, bathing and sleeping on board. These will be able to sustain the crew if the aircraft is forced down in the Arctic, says Laubish. Neutral buoyancy will improve safety because the envelope will still carry the vehicle’s weight if there is a loss of power. Boeing completed a feasibility study for SkyHook in 2007 and began work on the 59-month development effort earlier this year. The program will progress through a series of risk-reduction steps, says Laubsch, beginning with a configuration freeze in October. —Graham Warwick Two prototypes with Chinook rotors will aim for certification in 2012. aerostat with four H-34 helicopters, but “was brought down by ground resonance,” says Boeing’s SkyHook program manager Ken Laubsch. Computing tools now available will avoid that problem, he explains. Because the 302 ft-long helium envelope will carry the empty weight of the aircraft, all of the rotor thrust will be available to lift payload, says Jess. As a result, the JHL will be able to lift more than twice Blast from the Past–Air Atlantique’s DC-6A Cloudmaster More than a few veteran showgoers will be doing a double take at Farnborough this year when they see Air Atlantique’s Douglas DC-6A Cloudmaster. The veteran piston-engined airliner wears the livery of long-gone UK independent carrier British Eagle, which operated the iconic airplane nearly half a century ago. Built at Santa Monica in mid-1958, “Sierra Alpha” came to the UK seven months later and led a busy life carrying tourists to exotic destinations and rockets to Australian test grounds in support of Britain’s short-lived space program. After a spell in the Arabian Gulf “The Six” was brought home to England in 1987 and has been operated by Air Atlantique ever since, carrying freight throughout Europe, North Africa and the Middle East. Although the aircraft’s working life is over and it is now an airshow star, this is no pristine forshow-only rebuild. Air Atlantique’s aim has been authenticity, maintaining the classic airplane in much the same condition as when it made its last commercial flight. And if the sight of Sierra Alpha’s remarkably agile display routine doesn’t spark a wave of nostalgia in you, surely the sound of those four 2,500 hp Pratt & Whitney Double Wasps will? 42 July 15, 2008 www.aviationweek.com/shownews http://www.aviationweek.com/shownews
For optimal viewing of this digital publication, please enable JavaScript and then refresh the page. If you would like to try to load the digital publication without using Flash Player detection, please click here.