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HUGHES AIRCRAFT COMPANY By: Mike Glenn Initial Contract In 1962, the Navy contracted with Hughes Aircraft to build the Phoenix Missile System for the General Dynamics F-111B (TFX) aircraft. The system consisted of development of a new state of the art computerized radar designated the AWG-9, and development and full certification firings of the AIM-54 Phoenix missile. As the F-111B airframe was not due to be delivered until 1966, Hughes required the Navy to furnish testbed aircraft to allow concurrent development of the systems thereby shortening the ultimate delivery of the aircraft to the Navy operating units. After a tour of the testbed aircraft at the Naval Missile Center, Point Mugu, Hughes and the Navy jointly chose the A-3 Skywarrior as their testbed aircraft due to the performance as a high subsonic aircraft, and the internal space available for re-configuration and installation of the system under development and it's required instrumentation for documentation and recording of that development. The contract document utilized by the Navy to allow Hughes responsibility and accountability is called a bailment agreement, a legal term meaning that the owner of the aircraft, the Navy, holds the title and ultimate directional control of the aircraft, and the bailee, or Hughes, has the day to day operational control utilizing people, processes, and procedures approved by the Navy. An analogy that most military people understand is a bailment agreement makes the bailee into an organizational level unit, similar to an identifiable squadron. The major difference is that the contractor or bailee, may also in some cases perform what is now known as Intermediate and Depot level changes to the aircraft dependent on the program and contractual requirements. F-111B Phoenix Missile System Development Two A-3A aircraft, BuNo's 135411 and 135427 were selected by the Navy to perform the flight testing, and those aircraft were transferred from VAH-123 to Hughes via the depot at Alameda where most of the mission systems were removed, and the aircraft arrived at the Hughes Aircraft facility at Culver City, California in late 1963. The aircraft engineering office at Point Mugu was tasked to oversee and approve any modifications and installations performed by Hughes, and the NMC A-3 maintenance crews were assigned to assist and oversee any systems changed, modified, or relocated during those modifications. The modifications to the two A-3A aircraft included installation of prototype or "breadboard" controls and displays for the radar in the pos.#2 navigators instrument panel, controls and displays for the on-board instrumentation systems in the pos.#3 crewman's panels, installation of a GTP-70 gas turbine APU in the aft radio compartment for additional 115VAC 400hz power, installation of missile pylons to the fuselage alongside the bombay, and installation of the radar racks and cooling air and liquid systems internally in the bombay. Miles of associated wiring was required. The most visible external modification was the installation of modifications to the nose of the aircraft, adding an approximate 3' barrel to the FS76 bulkhead for the radar transmitter, power supplies, and antenna, Infrared chin pod, and the installation of an F111B nose radome. The first flight of 135411 with the modifications was flown in May, 1965, chased by a Point Mugu A-3A, BuNo 135409, to validate the aircraft systems. A-3A 135411 was designated as the radar development aircraft, while A-3A 135427 whose modifications were completed in early 1966, was designated to be the Phoenix Missile and IR development aircraft. During the next five years, 135411 flew numerous sorties on the Pacific Missile Range developing the radar, and 135427 flew numerous sorties developing the missile and IR systems, and performed the initial firings of the prototype AIM-54 Phoenix. By late 1967, the two prototype F111B's were at Culver City and operating, so 135427 was dropped from the program. The aircraft was de-modified except for the major structural modifications, and was bailed to Westinghouse for testbed usage. In 1968 the Navy made several decisions that affected this program. The F-111B aircraft program was canceled as it appeared the aircraft would never meet the carrier weight requirements even after several weight improvement programs, and Grumman was given the F-14 development contract. However, the Navy felt the development of the AWG-9 and the Phoenix missile were important additions to the fleet, so Hughes was given a separate contract to continue development of those systems, and Grumman was told to design their aircraft to carry the AWG-9 weapons system and Phoenix missile in addition to Sparrow and Sidewinder missiles. The Navy also decreed that the A-3A's were to be removed from service due to inadequate evaluation of the wing structure, as many structural differences existed between the A series and the B series wings. None of the structural changes being engineered to extend the life of the B series wings were applicable to the A's, and, as there were no longer any fleet operated A's, all A's should be sent to the boneyard. Hughes was given the option of various testbeds to continue development, and TA-3B 144867 was chosen as the most desirable airframe, with many of the changes incorporated into 135411 were transferable to the TA-3B airframe, including the engineering for the nose modifications. As the aircraft was recently out of SDLM, the aircraft was transferred directly from VAH-123 to Hughes. Modifications similar to the A3A's were performed to this more robust aircraft, with the radar racks being installed inside the pressurized cabin, and the cooling support systems were installed in the tail compartments and wiring, air, and liquid cooling plumbing were run through external tunnels along the fuselage. Eventually, an F-14 nose radome was fitted to the F-111B nose barrel to allow more accurate F-14 radar development. A-3A 135411 continued on the program until 144867 was operating with the F-14 radar in 1969, then it became the development aircraft for some additional programs, finally being sent to the boneyard in January 17, 1975. At the time, it was the last A-3A flying, and that ended the flight operations of the A3B-1 series aircraft. TA-3B 144867, now re-designated as an NTA-3B to denote it's extensive modifications, performed many sorties during development of the F14 radar and missile systems, operations were relocated from Culver City to Point Mugu in 1971, and, when Hughes obtained the prototype F-14 aircraft in 1972, continued to be the initial software development aircraft, freeing the F-14's for envelope expansion. An interesting sidelight of the operations of the NTA-3B was the training of the F-14 NFO's in the airborne functioning of the radar systems prior to actually performing that task in the back seat of an F-14. All NFO's in the NAS Miramar pipeline had two flights in the "Whale" with a fully qualified NFO looking over their shoulder in-flight during their prequalification training for the F-14. NTA-3B 144867 has the distinction of being the only A-3 to fire all of the Navy's currently operational air-to-air missiles, including the AIM-54 Phoenix, the AIM-7 Sparrow, and the AIM-9 Sidewinder. A true "Killer Whale". In late 1981 the aircraft was inducted into a modified SDLM at Alameda to bring the airframe up to fleet standards, incorporating all of the structural modifications currently in the fleet aircraft. During the SDLM, Hughes elected to replace the GTP-70 APU with a GTCP85-129 unit that supplied additional 400hz power and bleed air for additional electronics cooling units. F-14D APG-71, Development In 1982, the Navy decided that the NTA-3B was no longer needed as sufficient F-14's were now available for development work. The aircraft had the AWG-9 removed and was stored at the Hughes Facility, now relocated to the Van Nuys Airport in Los Angeles. This storage remained until 1986 when the APG-71 radar development program for the F-14B/D was started. Again, a major modification was performed to allow installation of the digital APG-71 radar systems. At this point, Grumman was the prime contractor for the APG-71 development, so the aircraft was de-bailed from Hughes and bailed to Grumman, then given to Hughes as GFE for the radar development. The APG-71 flight testing was performed at Point Mugu from mid-1987 until mid- 1989. The aircraft achieved a 100% sortie rate during this program, no missed schedules due to the aircraft. Civil Operations After completion of the APG-71 development program in 1989, the aircraft was de-bailed and transferred to PMTC Point Mugu for storage while program decisions were being made. Several programs were interested in the highly modified testbed, but no funds were forthcoming, so a new contract was given to Hughes for storage and operation of the aircraft at no cost to the Government. As part of that agreement, Hughes was allowed to utilize the airframe for various programs, not necessarily Navy, but deemed to be in the interest of the Government. Various government agencies saw the value of this testbed, and scheduled various flight test programs into it. The aircraft was civil certified as the Navy no longer had the means to certify operations and modifications with the anticipated closing of the Depot at Alameda, and NTA-3B 144867 became N14867 and made the first civil certified flight of an A-3 in December, 1990 after being modified for the Army NLOS missile program. The next program to utilize this aircraft was a program to evaluate special radar characteristics of various aircraft, Additional modifications have been performed to both the nose and the tail with various radars installed, and continues to this day. The civil registration was changed to N577HA to align with the rest of the aircraft operated by Hughes. Final Fleet Disposal and Disposition In 1991, the Navy made decisions to eliminate all A-3 aircraft from the fleet. While the RDT&E units, notably Point Mugu and China Lake, attempted to retain their testbeds, VADM Dunleavy, an old A-3 Navigator, regretfully made the decision final. In the agreement Hughes had with the Navy, the Navy had agreed to retain at least one aircraft in inviolate storage at Davis-Monthan for long term parts support for major structural parts. NRA-3B 142256 operated by Westinghouse was in a similar arrangement. Raytheon's RA-3B 144843 was no longer on the Navy records as it had been given to the Army, but was of a concern also. The NAVAIR Weapons System Manager, who participated in the drafting of the contract, saw that support as no longer possible, and Hughes was contacted to meet with Westinghouse and Raytheon to finalize plans for the support shutdown of the aircraft. At the last Integrated Logistics meeting at Alameda, both Raytheon and Hughes indicated their willingness to obtain fleet assets vice sending them to Davis-Monthan, thereby saving the airframes from destruction and saving the Navy the cost of storage at AMARC. As the plan matured, two other contractors, Thunderbird Aviation and CTAS also elected to participate in similar agreements. The fleet assets were distributed as follows: Hughes: TA-3B 144858 from
VAQ-33 Raytheon: ERA-3B 144841 from VAQ-33 CTAS: EA-3B 144865 from VQ-2 Thunderbird: ERA-3B 142668 from VAQ-33 The fleet spares from ASO were distributed between the contractors evenly, and warehouses were emptied all over the United States. Unfortunately, due to misunderstandings and reorganizations within the Navy, the world wide ASO assets were scrapped, not getting to the contractors. In early 1993, CTAS decided that they no longer had use for their aircraft, and Hughes had several programs needing additional assets, therefore EA-3B 144865 was added to the Hughes fleet for use on a special radar program with Lawrence Livermore Labs, approved by NAVAIR In early 1994, a USAF program decided to modify an A-3 for F-15 Radar tests, and the only available airframe was EA-3B 146454 which had been stored at Alameda since the fleet shutdown. Hughes added that aircraft to the bailment, and ferried the aircraft to Van Nuys for modifications. An entire nose section was removed from a stricken F-15B at Davis-Monthan, and grafted onto the front of the aircraft. Racks and equipment were installed in the cabin, and the aircraft is utilized by Hughes and the USAF for F-15 software development. In 1994 Westinghouse decided to terminate their agreement with the Navy, and Thunderbird added their aircraft to the Thunderbird bailment. In 1996, Thunderbird Aviation went into receivership, and Hughes, through mutual cost savings to the Government, added the Thunderbird assets to the contract, prepping them for ferry at Deer Valley airport, and relocating them to Mojave, CA and Tucson, AZ for long term storage. A recap of the Hughes A3 Skywarrior Operations - 1964 to 1997 A-3A 135411 modified
for AWG-9 development Stricken at DM 1975 Various programs NRA-3B 142667 Universal testbed modifications Active at Van Nuys Tail modifications ERA-3B 146446 Fleet EW configuration Active, stored at Tucson, AZ Recent Changes In December, 1996, Raytheon bought the aerospace units of Hughes Aircraft Company. Hughes Aeronautical Operations, now a part of Raytheon Systems, continues to operate the A3's from their base at Van Nuys Airport, CA. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
