Photos: (From left) Test director Terry Aas, left, confers with test pilot Mark Mitchell in the renovated flight deck of an AWACS jet; a new digital flight deck offers five display screens; the radar dome atop an AWACS jet is 30 feet (9.1 meters) in diameter and mounted 11 feet (3.4 meters) above the rear fuselage. 26 | BOEING FRONTIERS in the U.S., United Kingdom, France and Saudi Arabia, plus the NATO fleet based in Germany. Japan operates an AWACS variant, the E-767, while Australia, Turkey and Korea use the E-7A Airborne Early Warning & Control, a military derivative of the 737 that offers similar capabilities. The E-3 Sentry previously received mission computing and mission radar improvements. The latest flight-deck changes, according to Hunsberger, help satisfy mandates by the Federal Aviation Administration and similar agencies overseas that the surveillance jets use the same safety features and operating practices as commercial airliners in controlled airspace and transoceanic airways; the upgrades also help resolve the increasing challenge of hard-to-find and out-of-production spare parts. “These systems are 35 to 40 years old,” Hunsberger said. “The industry, the technology and suppliers have moved on. It’s like VHS or eight-track tape decks—do you still have them?” Engineers have been focused on making sure the new AWACS equipment can co-exist with the original. They had to prove that the installation of new digital computer systems, which involves converting the flight deck into a five-screen “glass,” or digital, cockpit, wouldn’t interfere with the surveillance mission. Something as basic as airplane cooling ducts required upgrades to accommodate the new computers. Engineers have had to troubleshoot to find solutions that facilitate the crossover of past and present equipment, Hunsberger said. “This system is very unique to AWACS, maybe to all avionics engineers,” the program manager said. “If you have a problem, you have to understand the basic design. There is no framework here to understand it; it takes researching old data and drawings. Other people would intuitively know it, but they’re gone. I look at some of the engineering data—and it’s older than I am.” One of the most notable changes to the E-3 Sentry jet is the addition of an Automatic Dependent Surveillance Broadcast-Out system, which alerts other aircraft of the plane’s position when training or in-transit and and Navigation. Seely, a shipside support liaison, restores cars for a hobby. He’s doing much of the same with the AWACS aircraft, which he’s found to be extremely well-constructed and durable. “I’m so impressed with the original craftsmanship of these aircraft—they were built to last,” Seely said. “With the amount of things we’ve been able to touch, fix and investigate, I learn something new every single day. It’s interesting and exciting. They’re superb aircraft.” The 707 jetliner first entered commercial service with Pan American Airlines in 1958, and a military derivative served as an AWACS aircraft for the U.S. Air Force starting in 1977. The final 707 came off the Boeing production line in 1992. Seely’s grandfather, Donald, was part of the Boeing crew that installed the first AWACS radar dome on the plane and he’s passed down tools that he designed and used on the job to his grandson. The E-3 Sentry acts as a flying air traffic controller that provides surveillance, communications and battle command for military forces
Frontiers November 2016 Issue
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