Some information for 'PhilipG' regarding long history of RN SRVL investigation and testing via VACC Harrier - plenty more where this came from....
Successful Trials
"The new Short Take Off and Vertical Landing (STOVL) F35 Joint Strike Fighter is another step closer following successful trials of the aircraft’s advanced flight control software which will enable pilots to land onboard ship in all weathers, day and night with ‘centimetric accuracy’.
The trials, carried out onboard HMS Illustrious using a veteran two seat Harrier airframe, the Vectored-thrust Aircraft Advanced Flight Control (VAAC) Harrier, put the new system to the test. The Harrier has been heavily modified with a conventional control arrangement in the front cockpit and the rear being connected instead into an experimental flyby-wire system using left and right hand interceptors[sic] [inceptors?] to manoeuvre the aircraft and simulate the way the new Joint Strike Fighter will fly and respond to different inputs. 66 running landings and recoveries were achieved in varying sea states up to and including sea state 6, with outstanding results. (Late Low Waveoffs for all approaches)
The test aircraft, XW175 is the oldest flying two seat Harrier in the world. Commander Kieron O’Brien, the Air Engineering Officer, HMS Illustrious said “The VAAC Harrier provided an ideal facility to trial the Shipborne Rolling Vertical Landing (SRVL) techniques that will be utilised by the Joint Strike Fighter in the new carriers. It worked brilliantly. XW175 represents an incredible link between the past and the future of the Fleet Air Arm.”
http://www.fleetairarmoa.org/Content...0_ISSUE_30.PDF
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Extra long screed about SRVLs and the like in this very informative (but old) article. No need to register continue to scroll down the page here to read it all:
Preparing for take-off: UK ramps up F-35 carrier integration effort [EDITED] 11-Dec-
2008 International Defence Review
“A range of simulation, modelling, risk-reduction and technology-demonstration activities are under way to optimise the safety and operability of the ship/air interface between the UK's new aircraft carriers and the F-35B Joint Strike Fighters that will operate from them. Richard Scott reports....
...SRVL manoeuvre
As currently conceptualised, an aircraft executing an SRVL approach will follow a constant glidepath (five to six degrees) to the deck. This angle is about twice that of a normal CV approach, offering increased clearance over the stern and less touchdown scatter. The touchdown position on the axial flight deck is about 150 ft from the stern, similar to that of a conventional carrier. No arrestor gear is required. Instead, the aircraft brakes are used to bring the aircraft to a stop. Low-key studies to investigate the SRVL technique were initiated by the MoD in the late 1990s, but the work has latterly taken on a much higher profile after the MoD’s Investments Approvals Board (IAB) in July 2006 directed that SRVL should be included in future development of the JCA design to mitigate the risk to KUR 4. Accordingly, the JCA IPT amended the CVF integration contract in mid-2008 to include this requirement. Addressing IPLC 2008, Martin Rosa, F-35 technical coordinator in Dstl’s air and weapon systems department, said the SRVL studies to date had shown “a way forward exists to achieving operationally useful increases in bring-back, compared to a vertical landing, on board CVF with an appropriate level of safety”.
Dstl began early work to examine the feasibility of employing the SRVL manoeuvre in 1999. According to Rosa, an initial pre-feasibility investigation demonstrated the potential payoff of the manoeuvre in terms of increased bring back, but also threw up four key areas demanding further examination: performance (as affected by variables such as deck run, wind over deck, aerodynamic lift and thrust margin); carrier design; operational issues (such as sortie generation rate); and safety.
Further feasibility investigations were conducted in 2000-01 using generic aircraft and ship models. Dstl also ran a two-day safety workshop in late 2001. This showed that there were no “showstoppers, and no SRVL-specific safety critical systems were identified”, said Rosa. “Also, the ability to ditch weapons and carry out a vertical landing instead of an SRVL in the event of a failure was seen as a powerful safety mitigation.”
During 2002, more representative F-35B information became available which altered assumptions with respect to aircraft ‘bring back’ angle of attack (from 16 degrees to about 12 degrees, so reducing the lift co-efficient); wing area (revised downwards from 500 ft2 to 460 ft2, reducing lift available on approach at a given speed by 8 per cent); and jet effects in the SRVL speed range (which were significantly greater than those in the hover).
Aggregated, these revised assumptions significantly reduced predicted bring back performance. Even so, the improvement offered by an SRVL recovery was still substantial and MoD interest continued. In the 2003-04 timeframe, Lockheed Martin became formally engaged in the investigation of SRVL recovery, with the JPO contracting with Team F-35 for a study into methods for Enhanced Vertical Landing Bring Back. Once again, safety and performance characteristics were considered broadly encouraging. “However,” pointed out Rosa, “at this stage work on the adaptable CVF design was progressing rapidly.... Consequently the obvious next step was to consider the detailed impacts that SRVL might have on the CVF design.”..."
Military Nuts -> The F-35 JSF/Lightning II thread
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‘carrier waves” Issue 1 - January 2009
‘Creating a unique & diverse ship-air interface’
"...It is in aircraft recovery that perhaps the greatest challenge exists and here too the team has been busy. Shipborne Rolling Vertical Landings (SRVL) is a new manoeuvre, introduced to increase the bring back capability of the aircraft, which requires a radical change in the interface between the aircraft and the ship. Aviation Director John Ward said: “Modifications to the visual landing aids, a stabilised glide path array and aircraft closure rate sensors coupled with glide path cameras are all being examined through studies, simulations and trials. Next year will see the formal introduction of these changes.” The diversity in the ship-air interface is not limited to the challenges associated with the JCA...."
http://www.aircraftcarrieralliance.c...s-jan-2009.pdf
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Good explaino about SRVLo here:
Jane's Defence Weekly | Mar-04-09 | Inside | Zinio Digital Magazines
Diagram from thence above....
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Lockheed gets funds for UK F-35 landing modification 08/10/2010 by Craig Hoyle
"....The US Marine Corps has also shown interest in potentially using the SRVL technique with its own F-35B fleet...."
Lockheed gets funds for UK F-35 landing modification
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US Marines eye UK JSF shipborne technique DATE:15/06/
07 Flight International
“A shipborne rolling vertical landing (SRVL) technique being developed by the UK for the Lockheed Martin F-35B is being eyed by the US Marine Corps as a way to facilitate operation of short take-off and vertical landing (STOVL) Joint Strike Fighters from US Navy aircraft carriers.
The F-35B is scheduled to replace USMC Boeing F/A-18s and concerns have arisen that integration of the STOVL JSF with conventional US Navy fighters will disrupt carrier landing operations....
...For the USMC, the technique would allow a conventional approach to a short landing on the carrier and could ease integration of the F-35B with US Navy F/A-18E/Fs.
“We strongly support what the UK is doing on rolling landings,” says Lt Gen John Castellaw, USMC deputy commandant for aviation. Studies on how the F-35B will be operated continue, but SRVL “appears to be a viable option”, he says...."
US Marines eye UK JSF shipborne technique
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UK to extend rolling carrier landing research for JSF 21 Aug
2008 Flight International
"...Qinetiq used its VAAC Harrier testbed to perform representative land-based flight trials and a ship-based SRVL demonstration aboard the French navy's aircraft carrier Charles de Gaulle last year.
Rosa said past work has also identified a promising visual landing aids (VLA) concept optimised for SRVL & stabilised against deck motion. "We will continue to mature the SRVL-optimised VLA arrangements, look at the possible 'tuning' of the JSF flight-control laws, and further study the effect of SRVL on the CVF sortie generation rate," he said. The capability's full scope will be confirmed after flight trials from the 65,000t vessels, which are due to enter service in 2014 and 2016, respectively.
Other forthcoming work includes optimisation of the approach profile, agreement on the optimal post-touchdown technique, and mitigation for failure cases, such as a burst tyre on touchdown.”
UK to extend rolling carrier landing research for JSF
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Cleared to Land! 'desider' Jan 2013
"...“...One objective of the [BAE computer simulator] trials has been to come up with a set of requirements that define which tools and techniques are required by the Landing Signals Officers in the Flyco, helping in the safe recovery of the approaching aircraft.”...”
https://www.gov.uk/government/upload...2013_Jan-U.pdf
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JSF To Develop Landing Technique For U.K. carriers 15 Oct
2010 Graham Warwick
"...The [Bedford Array] lights illuminate based on ship motion to provide a stabilized aimpoint for the pilot. This array is used in conjunction with a special velocity-vector symbol and glideslope scale on the pilot's helmet-mounted display.
Aligning the helmet symbology with the aimpoint provided by the lights on the deck allows the pilot to clear the ship's aft ramp and touch down at the planned point with the specified descent rate, Cook says...."
http://web02.aviationweek.com/aw/mst....K.%20Carriers
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U.K. Looks Ahead To F-35 Carrier Ops 29 Apr 2013 Tony Osborne : Aviation Week & Space Technology
"...Simulator experiments have proven the validity of the deck parking layout for the aircraft. Because the U.K. ship in the simulator does not have an angled deck, landings are conducted down the length, but F-35s that are not flying can be parked on both sides of the deck. Initial experiments showed that at certain angles of parking on the port side, pilots on approach would adjust and push the aircraft to the right and closer to the ship’s islands. However, by parking aircraft at a more acute angle to the stern of the ship, pilots were more comfortable touching down on the centerline.
The ships will also make use of a Bedford Array, which is a lighting system that includes a series of flashing units down the centerline of the ship at the landing point that are stabilized for the vessel’s heave and pitch. On the pilot’s head-up display is a new ship-reference velocity vector. By maneuvering the aircraft and the vector onto the Bedford Array, the pilot can comfortably make a 6-deg. glideslope landing using the Shipborne Rolling Vertical Landing (SRVL) method....
...Wilson said the SRVL work was also influencing how the Marine Corps may also use their F-35Bs on larger vessels such as the U.S. Navy’s big-deck nuclear carriers. Several Navy carrier air wings feature Marine squadrons, and the Marines are examining if it might be possible to use SRVL on the larger vessels without issues with systems such as the
arrestor wires.
“The B model offers huge flexibility,” said Wilson. “The U.S. Navy has 10 large-deck carriers capable of delivering first-day strike, with the F-35B operating from LHDs [landing helicopter dockships], you have then got 20 carriers capable of doing that, and that’s a very different concept.”
Wilson says the choice of the F-35B for the U.K. is significant mainly because the training burden is substantially reduced, particularly compared with the AV-8B Harrier but also for conventional carrier operations. During the DT-1 deck trials on the USS Wasp in October 2011, one of the test pilots, who had previously flown F/A-18s was cleared to land on the Wasp after conducting 18 vertical landings on ground....”
U.K. Looks Ahead To F-35 Carrier Ops
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QinetiQ solution for F-35B ‘rolling landings’ QinetiQ : 27 January,
2009
DefenseFile: QinetiQ solution for F-35B ?rolling landings?
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Trials Ahead for Navy Carrier Landing Software by Armed Forces International's Defence Correspondent 21/10/2011
"New software designed to assist US Navy pilots landing combat jets on aircraft carriers will be tested in 2012, the Office of Naval Research said in a 20 October press release. The flying skills demonstrated by naval aviators are often applauded - given that theirs is a role that demands extreme accuracy and concentration. Bringing high performance combat aircraft like the Boeing F/A-18E/F Super Hornet into a comparatively small space, on a moving platform, is a tricky business. It requires constant speed and flight control surface adjustments to ensure the correct trajectory's being followed.
Navy Carrier Landing Software
The new naval carrier landing software aims to simplify this process, bringing an unprecedented degree of precision to the maritime arena. "The precision that we can bring to carrier landings in the future will be substantial", the deputy chief of naval research for naval air warfare and weapons, Michael Deitchman, explained in the release, adding: "The flight control algorithm has the potential to alter the next 50 years of how pilots land on carrier decks."
The algorithm is designed to work in tandem with a so-called Bedford Array lighting system positioned on the aircraft carrier and a series of symbols presented in the pilot's HUD (Heads-Up Display). It connects the control stick straight to the aircraft's trajectory with the result that, rather than have to make minute shifts, the pilot directs the aircraft so it beams a fragmented green line in the HUD.
"You're tracking a shipboard stabilized visual target with a flight path reference, and the airplane knows what it needs to do to stay there", Naval Air Systems Command representative James Denham stated, in explanation...."
Advanced Navy Carrier Landing Software Trials: Armed Forces Int. News
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And as noted elsewhere recently the VACC Harrier has carried out automatic vertical recoveries and here is another repeat tidbit for good measure:
Just Push ‘Auto-Land’ April
2011 John A. Tirpak
“A Lockheed Martin F-35B short takeoff & vertical landing test aircraft last week achieved an impressive milestone, according to Warren Boley, Pratt & Whitney military engines president. “For the first time,” Boley said in an interview, “a pilot pushed a button & the [air]plane landed autonomously.”
Boley joked that the pilot could fold his hands behind his head or ‘read the paper’ while the air-plane safely settled down to a vertical landing from hover. The flight was the 74th vertical landing of the F-35 test program, & the fact that the Marine Corps was willing to allow the test indicated high confidence in the airplane & its Pratt-supplied F135 engine, Boley told the Daily Report April 8.”
http://www.airforce-magazine.com/DRA...Auto-Land.aspx