Calidus 350 - Dubai Air Show

[chopper2004]

I spotted this walking along the static of the show last weekend (my pics below)


https://cimg3.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune.org-vbulletin/2000x1504/f942602e_6e49_47b9_b3aa_dd2dbe215f7c_e9819dddbaed2c78670ecb1 c8c2e8fbf2f5b6745.jpeg
https://cimg4.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune.org-vbulletin/2000x1504/ef5f47cd_7ad5_4bfe_b3a5_9ed8b994f024_6ace2989cdf361decfb5a03 1879a7031f20b918f.jpeg

Any thoughts?

cheers

[meleagertoo]

Looks like a handy, affordable and capable piece of kit.

[NutLoose]

https://www.pprune.org/military-aviation/643785-new-calidus-b-350-show.html

[The B Word]

A few more pictures here and detail of the cockpit. As CAS, ISR and COIN aircraft then they obviously value 2 people over the crazy push towards single seaters by other manufacturers. In the past 5-10 years we have seen 2 seaters in the form of F15EX, F18F, F18G and even the Airbus FCAS concepts are 2 seat. When is Tempest going to wake up and see that 2 heads are better than one when the warfighting gets complex?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o5hawSylwXQ

[Dan Gerous]

That's a hefty bit of kit. Has someone been putting steroids in the Tucano's fuel.

[Fortissimo]

When is Tempest going to wake up and see that 2 heads are better than one when the warfighting gets complex?

F35 seems to manage single pilot. It really depends on how complex the mission and how much you want to spend on through-life costs by doubling the numbers of your most expensive manpower category. If you are going to use 2 x pilots you are likely to be over-training one of them (assuming one will be on WSO duties while the other flies), and if you want a WSO then you need a separate training pipeline for them. Manpower costs are significant in any programme - part of the equation that led to the Wedgetail buy will have been the manpower saving of 6 people per crew (vice E3D) over the next 10 years.

Given that Tempest may be manned or RPAS or a combination of both, it would be reasonable to assume there will be some form of near-real time reach-back available. Whilst 2 heads are indeed better than one, access to several heads may be better still, especially if those heads can get to other resources that might not be available in the cockpit.

[sharpend]

I'm with The B Word. Having flown single seat, Hunters & Jaguars and Strike/Attack Canberras (B(I)8s & B15s I much favour 2 man cockpits. Allows the pilot to concentrate of flying rather than navigation/systems. At least once, a navigator has saved my life. Moreover, complex avionics are more likely to fail than a back-seater.

[Fortissimo]

I have also operated single-man and 2-man cockpits and agree that 2-man was easier with the systems in play at the time. A nav saved my life too, and another couple almost cost me it. Pilots come with variable levels of ability and so do back seaters.

What has changed since the 2nd and 3rd generation fighters is the quality and extent of automation and avionics, which will have developed even further by the time Tempest is fielded. For example, F35 has an autoland capability, Harrier did/does not. The F35B/C has an auto-eject capability that is active in some flight regimes - that would have saved a lot of lives on the Canberra, Sea Vixen, Buccaneer and the like. Simulators have improved to the point where zero-flight time training is a realistic option (Harrier had a 2-seat variant for training, F35 does not, etc.) and to the point where genuine mission rehearsals are entirely possible.

Everywhere you look, designers are trying to remove the prospect of human limitations, and part of that will be removing humans from the cockpit where possible - I don't think there will be any aviators who like that idea (I certainly don't) but it seems to be the fiscal and technical reality we are heading towards.

[Lima Juliet]

Airbus FCAS has 2 seats and is as ‘next generation’ as Tempest? 6th Gen or 5th Gen, I know that Airbus call it 6th Gen.
https://i.ibb.co/Dz7Q1jj/8-B2587-EE-3-CBC-4-DD2-911-D-230-C11529-AEA.jpg

Then there is USN’s F/A-XX, which appears to be 2 seat:
https://cimg6.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune.org-vbulletin/440x202/image_65d7555c9641beb8c20bc108dba98b846f166184.jpeg

Or the 2-seat Su 57 variant for deep penetration and swarming Okhotnic drone missions:
https://cimg5.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune.org-vbulletin/696x463/image_c4fe98517af9d6c0777f2c5ed9d00105dd544812.jpeg
https://www.shunlongwei.com/two-seat-su-57-fighter-jet-to-be-designed-for-control-of-okhotnik-drones/

WSO training is cheaper than Pilot and the way that autonomy is going, the Pilot as we know it is looking more and more like a WSO every day. We have auto air-air refuelling, AI programs that can beat F16 Fighter Weapons Jockeys ‘3 sore bottoms to 0’ and auto-land has been around for ages. Sadly, the notion of Biggles as a stick waggling and nose gunning hero is on borrowed time. When you watch Star Wars, they got it wrong, R2D2 should have been in the front seat and Luke Skywalker in the boot - that way R2 would have smashed the exhaust port first time and Luke could have told Wedge not to go into the trench as Darth Vader was going to smash him.

However, it does make huge sense to have someone with more Pilot-type skills and someone with more WSO-type skills in a 2 seat aircraft - it also makes huge sense to have 2 Aircrew in all of our Combat Air types. The F35B couldn’t fit a second cockpit, it’s a compromise for that stupid lift fan and too little fuel anyway.

But Tempest, if it doesn’t want to be severely limited, needs to be a 2-seater. Otherwise, we are buying a pup, a bit like buying a 16Gb iPhone because that is all you can afford when the entry standard these days is 64Gb.