CARRIAGE AND ENVIRONMENTAL TRIALS FOR MARITIME AIRCRAFT INCLUDING BUCCANEER, NIMROD, AND P3 ORION

摘要

The Environmental Sciences Group (ESG) of Cranfield Aerospace Ltd has carried out a number of vibration data gathering exercises on maritime aircraft with internal bomb bays. The trials included in this paper are the carriage of 1000 lb bomb in Buccaneer; Sting Ray torpedoes in Nimrod MR2 and P3C Orion and Harpoon missiles in Nimrod MR2. This paper describes the data-gathering phase, the subsequent signal processing activity, and data characteristics of these exercises. It is seen that the vibration characteristics of the weapon systems are significantly affected by the bomb bay being open to the atmosphere. The severity of vibration that the weapon is subjected to is significantly increased and the weapon’s rigid body modes are excited. These effects are far more defined for a jet aircraft than for a propeller aircraft due to the vibration being aerodynamic in nature. It is recommended that the carried weapon system be qualified for this environment by means of a separate laboratory vibration test. Due to the limited time that the aircraft spends with its bomb bay open this would be a short duration test.