Rockwell Ranger 2000
| Rockwell Ranger 2000 | |
|---|---|
| Type: | Trainer aircraft |
| Design country: | |
| Manufacturer: | |
| First flight: |
January 15, 1993 |
| Number of pieces: |
3 |
The Rockwell Ranger 2000 was created as a joint draft of a trainer aircraft by the American aircraft manufacturer Rockwell International and the German Messerschmitt-Bölkow-Blohm for a tender by the US Air Force and the US Navy for a trainer aircraft called the Joint Primary Aircraft Training System (JPATS). The development initially took place at Rhein-Flugzeugbau in Mönchengladbach under the name Rhein-Flugzeugbau Fanranger and was continued from 1993 under the name Rockwell Ranger 2000.
history
When the US Air Force and the US Navy announced a joint successor model for the Fairchild T46 trainer under the name “Joint Primary Aircraft Training System (JPATS)” in 1989 , Rhein-Flugzeugbau in Mönchengladbach received the order from its parent company Messerschmitt-Bölkow-Blohm to design an aircraft suitable for the tender. Under the direction of Christoph Fischer , a further development of the Rhein-Flugzeugbau Fantrainer with a turbofan engine was then developed at RFB under the name RFB Fanranger.
Since the JPATS tender only allowed American companies as applicants, MBB and the American Rockwell International from Tulsa formed a development association for the fan ranger. MBB / RFB took on the development work and the prototype construction, while Rockwell as the provider of the design compared to USAF and USN and later serial producer should occur. After the sale of the MBB subsidiary Rhein-Flugzeugbau to ABS International, further development and final assembly of the prototype was relocated to MBB's Manching plant from 1992 onwards. The first flight of the MBB Fanranger took place on January 15, 1993 in Manching with the civilian approval D-FANA. The second prototype planned for the JPATS tender flew in February 1993 with the D-FANB approval. The second prototype was lost during factory testing on July 27, 1993 in a crash near Dollnstein, killing test pilot Frank Birk.
The remaining D-FANA fan ranger was aerodynamically revised until the end of 1993 as a result of the crash. The type designation for the modified design was then changed from Fanranger to FR-06 Ranger 2000. A third prototype of the Ranger 2000, D-FANC, flew for the first time in Manching on June 20, 1994. Between July and October 1994, both prototypes (N104NA and N204NA) were tested at Wright Patterson Air Force Base with the remaining candidate aircraft by the JPATS team. In June 1995 the USAF and USN selection process in favor of the Pilatus / Beech T-6 Texan II was completed.
After the Ranger left the American JPATS tender in 2000, Rockwell and DASA offered the aircraft to other trainer tenders, including in 1995 in South Korea as a successor to the KTX-II and in 1997 to a trainer tender from the Turkish Air Force. After both tenders for the Ranger 2000 were negative, DASA and Rockwell decided in 1998 to discontinue the Ranger 2000 program.
construction
The design of the fan ranger used an enlarged and clad metal hull of the fan trainer in the rear area, while the front area was completely redesigned using fiber plastic technology. A 14.2 kN Pratt & Whitney JT15D-5C turbofan engine was used as the drive, which was arranged behind the two-seater cabin and was supplied with air through two air inlets above the wing.
variants
- MBB / RFB Fanranger - V1 / V2 prototype
- Rockwell FR-06 Ranger 2000 - modified V1 / V3 prototype
Technical specifications
| Parameter | Data |
|---|---|
| crew | 2 |
| length | 10.91 m |
| span | 10.45 m |
| height | 3.91 m |
| Wing area | 15.55 m² |
| Takeoff mass | 3583 kg |
| Top speed | 725 km / h |
| Service ceiling | 10,600 m |
| Engine | 1 × PWC JT15D-5C, 14.19 kN |
Whereabouts
A total of three fan rangers / rangers 2000 were built in Manching between 1993 and 1994. One of the three prototypes was lost in a crash in 1993. The two remaining prototypes were split between MBB and Rockwell after the program was discontinued in 1998. Rockwell gave his prototype to the Tulsa Air and Space Museum. The MBB prototype first came to the German-Canadian Air Force Museum in Karlsruhe. It is currently stored in Manching.
See also
literature
- nn: Dogfight for Navy / Air Force Trainer. Popular Mechanics, Jan. 1995
- J. Schweiger: Aeroelastic design and flight test evaluation of the Ranger 2000 training aircraft. Aeronautical Journal, Oct. 1996
- Paul Zöller: Rhein-Flugzeugbau GmbH and Fischer Flugmechanik. 2016, ISBN 978-3-7431-1823-2
Web links
- Airwar.ru - Russian site with Ranger 2000 images
Individual evidence
- ↑ Der Spiegel 32/1993: Armaments: Order in danger, June 9th, 1993 . ( spiegel.de [accessed on May 23, 2017]).
- ↑ Rockwell Corp .: Rockwell test pilot dies following jet trainer crash, August 4, 1993 . ( thefreelibrary.com [accessed May 23, 2017]).
- ↑ Defense Daily: Rockwell JPATS candidate back flying, December 17, 1993 . ( highbeam.com [accessed May 23, 2017]). Rockwell JPATS candidate back flying, December 17, 1993 ( Memento of the original from November 16, 2018 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ Flight International: DASA offers Ranger 2000 jet trainer to Turkish Air Force, May 21, 1997 . ( flightglobal.com [accessed May 23, 2017]).
- ↑ Third Ranger 2000 is flown . In: Flight International . June 29, 1994, p. 13.
- ^ Tulsa Air and Space Museum - Exhibits
- ^ Air Britain Aviation Photographs
