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OT: RAF Tanker Deal signed

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JNiemczyk		#11	[-]
Posts: 6196 (30-Mar-2008 01:13:53) Reply Quote More My Recent Posts Message Me Connection Blocking Invite Ignore User's Posts	How easy would it be to adapt the A330 airframe to have a weapons bay though? That's the sort of thing that might make such a project more expensive than first thought.
Zen9		#12	[-]
Posts: 3401 (30-Mar-2008 01:15:04) Reply Quote More My Recent Posts Message Me Connection Blocking Invite Ignore User's Posts	Where do you put the weapons? And is that wing designed to thrash it out turning hard at low level over the North Sea? I mean if it can be done cheaply then the A330 seems a sensible bet, but if not.....
PMN1		#13	[-]
Posts: 3408 (30-Mar-2008 01:52:19) Reply Quote More My Recent Posts Message Me Connection Blocking Invite Ignore User's Posts	JNiemczyk wrote: How easy would it be to adapt the A330 airframe to have a weapons bay though? That's the sort of thing that might make such a project more expensive than first thought. Well I doubt putting a weapons bay was anywhere near the designers thinking when the Comet was developed, which can be said for most if not all of the airliner conversions to MR aircraft. I did have some piccies of the VC-10 and Trident alternatives to Comet/Nimrod somewhere but I cant find them at the moment - Zen may have them.
taschoene		#14	[-]
Posts: 4180 (30-Mar-2008 02:30:00) Reply Quote More My Recent Posts Message Me Connection Blocking Invite Ignore User's Posts	PMN1 wrote: JNiemczyk wrote: How easy would it be to adapt the A330 airframe to have a weapons bay though? That's the sort of thing that might make such a project more expensive than first thought. Well I doubt putting a weapons bay was anywhere near the designers thinking when the Comet was developed, which can be said for most if not all of the airliner conversions to MR aircraft. Not a heartwarming comparison -- the Nimrod basically had a big fairing grafted on under the Comet fuselage to accommodate the bomb bay, becuse they didn't think it wise to cut into the pressue cylinder to accomplish that. A comparable modification of the A330 would be quite extensive. Of course, the USN does plan to fit a bay in the P-8 (737 derivative), and Airbus has proposed an A320 development with weapons in an underfuselage "canoe" fairing. But The A330 is also rather larger than needed for the mission--the A320MPA and P-8 are about a third the weight, and even MRA4 is only about half the weight.
LordArpad		#15	[-]
Posts: 1960 (30-Mar-2008 17:59:51) Reply Quote More My Recent Posts Message Me Connection Blocking Invite Ignore User's Posts	How about A400M ?
shaun		#16	[-]
Posts: 145 (30-Mar-2008 18:16:24) Reply Quote More My Recent Posts Message Me Connection Blocking Invite Ignore User's Posts	A400M is already plumbed for the AAR role - even the UK units. So I think if any further need for the AAR capability that can't be delivered by the 13 KC330s will be met by the A400M. That'd be a sorry state of affairs for defence procurement... not being able to buy enough dedicated tankers at a reasonable price in the first place.
BenRoethig		#17	[-]
Posts: 1741 (30-Mar-2008 18:22:29) Reply Quote More My Recent Posts Message Me Connection Blocking Invite Ignore User's Posts	JNiemczyk wrote: How easy would it be to adapt the A330 airframe to have a weapons bay though? That's the sort of thing that might make such a project more expensive than first thought. Not very hard, Boeing did it with an 737-800 busines jet airframe. That being said, the much larger A330 is going to cost a small fortune to buy and run compared to a P-3, P-8, or Nimrod.
PMN1		#18	[-]
Posts: 3411 (30-Mar-2008 19:25:43) Reply Quote More My Recent Posts Message Me Connection Blocking Invite Ignore User's Posts	JNiemczyk wrote: How easy would it be to adapt the A330 airframe to have a weapons bay though? That's the sort of thing that might make such a project more expensive than first thought. Presumably something like the A320. http://www.flightglobal.com/pdfarchive/view/2002/2002%20-%202356.html?search=mpa%20aircraft%20project
JNiemczyk		#19	[-]
Posts: 6201 (30-Mar-2008 23:01:58) Reply Quote More My Recent Posts Message Me Connection Blocking Invite Ignore User's Posts	PMN1 wrote: JNiemczyk wrote: How easy would it be to adapt the A330 airframe to have a weapons bay though? That's the sort of thing that might make such a project more expensive than first thought. Presumably something like the A320. http://www.flightglobal.com/pdfarchive/view/2002/2002%20-%202356.html?search=mpa%20aircraft%20project I do worry that it would be the sort of thing that would make an A330 based replacement for the Nimrod MRA.4 more expensive that it would first appear.

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