Manufacturer:
Boeing Co.
Use:
Cargo plane
Weight:
250,000 pounds
Cargo Width Capacity:
18 feet
Wing Span:
To be determined
Length:
Maximum Payload:
80,000 pounds
Cruising speed:
400 mph
Distance without refueling:
3,000 miles
Minimum necessary runway length:
750 feet
Special Features:
Tilt-wings, no vertical tail, autonomous loading and unloading equipment for large cargo
Estimated Cost:
$80 million
The Air Force is carefully eyeing a next-generation cargo plane under development by Boeing Co. as a replacement for competitor Lockheed Martin Corp.’s C-130.
Should the project still years away move forward, it could mean tens of billions of dollars and thousands of jobs for the company’s Long Beach plant.
Boeing is developing the Advanced Theater Transport, which would serve as a compliment to its C-17 cargo and personnel transport plane.
Boeing engineers estimate the cost of the plane at around $80 million, and hold the hope of constructing at least 400 models for the Air Force and, potentially, another 300 for allied countries. The company would like to build about 20 planes a year for U.S. forces alone beginning in 2015.
“As the C-130 nears the end of its service life, it will be replaced by an Advanced Theater Transport variant on a roughly one-for-one basis,” said Maj. Gen. John Barry, the Air Force’s director of strategic planning. “Considering the concepts presented to us so far, along with what we hope to buy, we believe this (replacement) aircraft will have super short takeoff and landing capabilities.”
Lockheed has delivered 2,600 thin-bodied C-130s since 1954, making it the world’s longest continuously active aircraft production line. The C-130 can travel up to 4,000 miles without refueling and, like the ATT, can come to a halt on a 750-foot runway.
“We have seen (Boeing’s) concept and think this would fit well with our future needs,” said Capt. Almarah Belk, an Air Force spokeswoman. “(But) the Air Force is not committing to Boeing’s aircraft this far out. At this point, there might be others to choose from. The best design will be chosen that satisfies our requirements.”
The production location and the number of jobs the project would create are unknown. But 8,000 employees have delivered 73 C-17s to the Air Force and one to the United Kingdom’s Royal Air Force at an average per plane cost of $198 million since production began in 1988, according to Larry Whitley, communications director for the Military Aircraft & Missiles sector at Boeing.
Analysts said Boeing’s Long Beach plant would be the most logical place to assemble the ATT if it got the green light.
“It sounds like it would be about the same-sized workforce (as on the C-17),” said Paul Nisbet, a partner in JSA Research Inc., a Newport, R.I.-based defense analysis firm. “It would keep them gainfully employed for the foreseeable future. (But) it’s a dream at this point, nothing more. That doesn’t mean that a follow-on aircraft to the C-17 and C-130 isn’t necessary. But whether it will be the one Boeing is proposing or some other one remains to be seen.”
Company officials won’t know for a couple years what the Pentagon’s direction will be. The need for the ATT is in part dependent on the Army’s decision whether it will move forward with its Future Combat Systems program, which features a state-of-the-art 40,000-pound tank with an integrated communications system that would receive satellite images of enemy positions. A decision on that program is due in 2003.
Preliminary designs show the ATT would weigh 250,000 pounds with an 18-foot-wide cargo holding area (similar to the C-17’s), large enough to carry two of the tanks, or one more than the C-130.
The ATT also would be able to travel roughly 400 miles per hour for up to 3,000 miles without refueling, as well as receive and process satellite images to help pilots locate hard, flat territory.
An autonomous cargo handling system including a crane, powered rollers on the floor, and movable flap would remove the need for on-ground loading and unloading equipment.
But the plane’s most vital feature would be wings that could tilt upwardly at 20 degrees, allowing the plane to slow down to 70 mph so it could land on an undeveloped runways as short as 750 feet.
For Lockheed’s part, the prospect of a competing aircraft does not phase them a bit. “(The ATT) is an interesting technological concept, but the C-130 has proven to be a tremendously reliable and efficient platform for the unique task for which it is designed,” said Peter Simmons, a Lockheed spokesman. “We build a product that’s in demand around the world.”
The 86,000-pound plane has been modified at least two dozen times over the years, with today’s models cost between $60 million and $70 million each, depending on the configuration.
