SOVIFT 0RRrRY9V(F"10fl* V There are two tail cones an the aircraft that appear to be tail warning devices. As in the B-1B, each crew station has individual ejection seats. The four batches can be seen from the outside. The seats were not as comfortable as those found in U. S. military aircraft, but Fornell said that human engineer- ing was evident in the rest of the cock- pit. Sliding windows on either side of the cockpit provided cool air during the more than 15 min. Carlucci and Fornell occupied it. Visibility from the cockpit is reasonably good, according to For- nell. The Blackjack has a centrally mount- ed control stick, as does the BAB, rath- er than a transport- or bornber-type yoke. "The Soviets must have found that it was better to provide their Blackjack pilots with figbter-type con- trols, rather than bomber controls," Fornell said. The stick, which has a slightly differ- ent grip from that' of the B-lB, sits on a pedestal slight.1y higher than the U, S. bomber's. Each pilot has four throttl(ApTp?buj&~ of his 010 rt I A e 11 eefta s A o--7- -7 l12 . . . . . . . . . . "'4i ~7 14-L N , MIG-29 engine air intakes feature doors that close during takeoff and landing to prevent foreign object Ingestion. Engine air is taken in through louvers In upper surface of wing rout leading edge. A, -4 QCHNOLOGYJAugust 15, 1988 17 AA-10 Alamo long-range air-to-air missile (inboard pylon) and two AA-8 Aphid close-range infrared air-to-air missiles shown mounted under the wing of a MIG-29 at Kubinka air base. SG1A S0V1EApKM#Fff1(~,§f -RDP96-OQ789ROO0300970001-2 '1ft?P0108/08: CIA Blu,mck*lack Shares-' Aspect, Of Ue So B"Ll B 'and XB=70 DAVID M. NORTH, JOHN D. MORROCCO/WASHINGTON ;4"-1 WC 7,- 2-M i1F 'P ZrA _7 Soviet Blackjack bomber, with MiG-29 in fore- The variable-sweep wing bomber, which fea- ground, Is shown at Kubinka air base, USSR. tures a straight, highly tapered nose similar to he Soviet Blackjack The Blackjack inspected bomber closely by Fornell T resembles the U. S. and Carlucci was painted Air Force B- I B white with a in red star on the tail its and bad the number conflguration as a strategic pene- trator, 12 stenciled on the but crew hatch door on features the contours and manufacturing the underside of the smoothness fuselage. It ap- of the ex- perimental peared to be an early XB-70 production version, built by North Amer- ican Fornell said. At least Rockwell 11 bombers have in the early 1960s, Ucording been produced and a to number are opera- a Defense Dept. official. The tional in the Soviet Blackjack air force. is similar in design and layout to the Rockwell International B- [B, INTERNAL WEAPONS BAYS but is closer in size to a Boeing B-52, U.S. The Blackjack has two Air large internal Force Maj. Gen. Gordon E. Fornell weapons bays, each of told which can ac- AVIATION WEEK & SPACE TECHNOLOGY. commodate six AS-15 The air-launchcd exterior skin of the aircraft cruise missiles (AI,CMs) is or 12 short- far more aerodynamically clean than range attack missiles most (SRAMs) on a ro- other Soviet aircraft, Fornell said. tary launcher. The launcher Fornell, in the a graduate of the Air Force test aircraft inspected by pilot Carlucci and For- training school at Fdwards AFII, nell was equipped with Calif., six ALCMs in was an observer of the XB- 70 the forward bomb bay, program which took up and has flown the B-113. U. two-thirds of its length. S. Fornell said Secretary of Deletise Frank C. Car]LICCi the launcher is very and similar to the B- Fornell, his senior military aide, I B's. inspected one of the Soviet bomb- ers The U.S. Air Force Strategic during Air a visit to Kubirika air base, 40 nIi. Command's newest bomber, west however, or Moscow on ALIg. 2 (AW&ST A has three ittfW19 Ug. 00/08 8, p. 14). 0 ved For-Release 2 Appro AVlA[;C)~, 1~1 19";A ;~ 4 '0 O , r 1*44 - iE.. the Anglo-French Concorde's, T is 171 ft. 10 ~9 and has a wingspan fully extendedof 182 ft- each rotary launcher is capable of hold- ing eight SRAMs each. The Blackjack observed during the visit did not appear to have an external weapons capability, Fornell said. Access to the cockpit is through a large hatch on the underside of the fu- selage forward of the bomb bays using a separate support equipment platform, Fornell said. The access to the aircraft is unlike that on the B-IB, which has its own electrically driven, self-con- taincd ladder (AW&ST Sept. 14, 1987, p. 54). There is a long corridor toward the nose that passes through the avionics bays on both sides for 10- 15 ft. - before reaching the defense and offensive elec- tronic system operator positions. As in the 13- 1 B, the crewmember positions are on opposite sides of the aircraft. Fornell was not allowed to linger in this area to observe the electronic e . ympmcrit. The interior layout o the lllackju~k is similar to that of-Ae B-lB, bu'; Is and grey, Fornell said 2 sbvl ET S~WTM(f C~~Mgtr 2000/08/08 : CIA-RDP96-00789ROO0300970001-2 The throttles have a round lollipop As the wing is swept forward, Fornell craft. The aircraft symbol was dis- grasp, rather than the molded grasp said, a triangular piece of the middle played on the attitude indicator/flight found on the B-lB, Fornell said. portion of the wing raises. The resulting director, but there were no other visual A manual selectable wing-sweep 3 X 3-ft. vertical tab or fence resembles cues shown, Fornell said. There is a mechanism, on the right side of both a winglet on the Gulfstream 3. large center console featuring engine in- the pilot and copilot, allows for settings Flight instrumentation, displayed di- strumentation displayed in Vertical of 20-65 deg. The forward wing sweep rectly in front of the pilot and copilot, tape format, similar to that favored by position on the B-IB is 15 deg., and it is similar to that of the Collins FD-109 the U. S. Air Force. There ar6 very lim- has a similar, 65-deg. aft position. system found. in many corporate air- ited instrumentation and cont Irots in the cockpit overhead, and aircraft system controls are located on the lirge center console between the seats, Fdrnell said. INSTRUMENT CONSOLE A CRT display, mounted high on the center instrument console, al~peared to 49V be the caution and warning light panel, Fornell said. There was no ti~ad-up dis- lay. A Soviet pilot who briefed Fornell p on the aircraft said there was no artifl cial presentation of the environment ~A! de the cockpit, but that the aircraft outsi did have a terrain-following capability. Underneath the Blackjack's fuselage, 11-78 Midas aerial refueling tanker, photographed a Kuhinka air base, became operational last year. aft of the radome, is a chin-mounted The tanker, a version of the 11-76 transport, will replace the M-4 Bison. unit similar to that on McDonnell Douglas RF-4s housing some kind of electro-optical or infrared sensor, most likely transmitted to the electronic war- fare officers, Fornell said. The engine inlet compartments on the four-engine bomber feature splitters on the divider between each intake, with variable ramps on either side. For- ~ . . . . . . . nell said they resembled those used on the XP-70. The Black-jack uses a fully movable W~& vertical tail for yaw control, rather than the conventional rudder arrangement ost aircraft, especially those Lbund in m with supersonic capabilities. The hori- zontal stabilizers are mounted'at the in- tersection of the aircraft's dorsal and Close-up view shows drogue-type refueling pods on port side of rear fuselage of 11-78 aerial main fins, slightly higher than the B refueling tanker. The aircraft Is equipped with three refueling pods. 1B's stabilizers. Fornell said he saw evi dence that the Soviets have been 57 changing the design and position of the f fully movable horizontal stabilizer. For nell could not determine whether the 0n_ Blackjack had conventional flight c _17-5 ~1- trols or a more advanced fly-by-wire sys- tem found on some advanced U. S. 4f' 4, Y- 1, Y -7 ~7 Z A A", re pox MI-26 Halo heavy-lift helicopter, with eight-blade main rotor, can carry 85 comhat-equipped troops or a maximuAporeWdWdi K(Mg&§Vn2~00JWM86§ GIALROPIWO0711MR0 IS AVIATior,j WEFK SPACL I[_(',I1N0I_(,GY/AU9L1';t 15. 1988 INTELLIGENCE ASSESSMENTS Soviet air force officials coifflrmed carli er U. S. intelligeiice assessments of the aircraft's design and performance speci- fications, including a gross weight of -it 590,000 lb. and in unrefueled comb, radius of 7,300 kin. (3,930 naut. mi.). viet pilot who briefed Carlucci The So arid Fori let[ said that the aircraft did not hav ability, c an aerial refueling cap, though U. S. ititelligcnce has seen evi- dence of a d rog ue-and-p robe system, with the probe located forward of the bornber's cockpit. Fornell said it at)- pearcd tile Soviets were still sortim, Out )30091SM04 42ocess for the aircrart. [-I