Next-Generation Air-Mobility Concepts Focus on Efficiency.

• Author: Erwin, Sandra I.
• Position: Boeing and Lockheed bring their own

In anticipation of future investments by the U.S. Air Force in air-transport and in-flight refueling aircraft, aerospace giants Boeing Co. and Lockheed Martin Corp. are pushing their own air-mobility platform concepts, hoping that their ideas will result in long-term business opportunities.

The notion of a single platform--that would serve both as a transport and as a refueling tanker--underpins some of the ongoing work by design engineers at Lockheed Martin Aeronautics Co., in Marietta, Ga.

"We used to think of airlift as an end in itself," said Edwin E. Tenoso, the company's director of customer requirements. "I think we should think of airlift as part of the transportation system," he said during a Defense Week conference on military airlift in Washington, D.C. For that reason, he explained, tankers should not just be used for refueling, but also as a cargo-carrying platform. The Air Force KC-10 is an example of a dual-capable aircraft.

When planning for the future, the Air Force should not think about a new cargo plane or a new ranker, separately, but should focus on a large "mobility" aircraft that can serve as either, Tenoso said. "The Air Force should challenge those of us in industry to solve the mobility problem, not just a tanker problem.

"Should the Air Force be interested in a large mobility aircraft, we would be willing to engage in serious discussions," he said. So far, "the Air Force has not stated a requirement. When they do, we'll be ready to make a proposal."

Lockheed's concept is for a so-called advanced mobility aircraft, a multi-boom tanker/transport. That aircraft would be suitable as a KC-135 tanker replacement, and also could supplement the C-5 and the C-17 heavy transports.

"We have looked at several different types of large mobility aircraft," Tenoso said. The most promising so far, he said, is a concept for a tail-less aircraft called the "box-wing." As its name indicates, the box-wing is a diamond-shaped rigid structure, with two wingtip booms or drogues for in-flight refueling. This aircraft would be able to carry 200,000 pounds of cargo.

It would be about the same size of a KC-135, maybe slightly bigger, Teneso said. "[But] you could drive it into the KC-135 hangar."

The box-wing is a paper-only concept, but Tenoso said a model has been built and flown in a wind tunnel.

The box-wing, additionally, could serve as a strategic platform--as a command and control post or as a ground surveillance system. Tenoso...