Grumman E-2 Hawkeye

Grumman E-2 Hawkeye sur Wikipedia.en

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The Grumman E-2 Hawkeye is an [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] all-weather, [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien]-capable tactical [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] (AEW) aircraft.

This twin-[Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] aircraft was designed and developed during the late 1950s and early 1960s by the [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] for the [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] as a replacement for the earlier [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien], which was rapidly becoming obsolete.

E-2 performance has been upgraded with the E-2B, and E-2C versions, where most of the changes were made to
the [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] and [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] due to advances in [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] and other electronics.

The fourth version of the Hawkeye is the E-2D, which first flew in 2007.

The E-2 also received the nickname "Super Fudd"^{[Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien]} because it replaced the E-1 Tracer "Willy Fudd".

In recent decades, the E-2 has been commonly referred to as the "Hummer" because of the distinctive sounds of its turboprop engines, quite unlike that of [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] and [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] jet engines.

The E-2 and its sister, the [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien], are currently the only [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] airplanes that operate from aircraft carriers.

In addition to U.S. Navy service, smaller numbers of E-2s have been sold to the armed forces of [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien], [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien], [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien], [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien], [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] and [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien].

E-2 C

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Development


Background


Continual improvements in airborne radars up through 1956 led to the construction of AEW airplanes by several different countries and several different armed forces.

The functions of command and control and sea & air surveillance were also added.

The first carrier-based aircraft to perform these missions for the U.S. Navy and its allies was the [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien], which was replaced in US Navy service by the [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien], which was a modified version of the [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] twin-engine [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] aircraft, where the radar was carried in an aerofoil-shaped radome carried above the aircraft's fuselage.

The E-1 was used by the U.S. Navy from 1958 to 1977.


E-2A and E-2B Hawkeye

In 1956, the U.S. Navy developed a requirement for an airborne early warning aircraft where its data could be integrated into the [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] aboard the Navy's ships, with a design from Grumann being selected to meet this requirement in March 1957.

Its design, initially designated W2F-1, but later redesignated the E-2A Hawkeye, was the first carrier plane that had been designed from its wheels up as an AEW and command and control airplane.

The problems facing the design engineers at Grumman were immense and were compounded by having to constrain the design to enable the aircraft to operate from the older ‘modified Essex class’ carriers.

These ‘smaller’ carriers were all built during WW2 and later modified to allow them to operate jet aircraft.

Consequently, various height, weight and length restrictions had to be factored into the E-2A design, resulting in some
handling characteristics which were less than ideal.

In the event the E-2A only operated from the modified Essex class for a few years before the ships were scrapped; in retrospect the design would have benefited considerably if this requirement had been lifted from the outset and the
restrictions had never been imposed.

The first prototype, acting as an aerodynamic testbed only, flew on 21 October 1960, with the first fully equipped aircraft following on 19 April 1961.

The E-2A entered U.S. Navy service on January 1964.

By 1965 the major development problems were still delaying the E-2A Hawkeye got so bad that the aircraft was actually cancelled after 59 aircraft had already been built.

In fact the E-2A didn't meet the expectations and was regarded as so unsatisfactory that production was halted in early 1965.

Particular difficulties were being experienced because of inadequate cooling in the closely packed avionics department.

Early computer and complex avionics systems generated considerable heat and, if this wasn’t channelled away effectively, caused serious problems, eventually resulting in some failure or other.

These system failures continued long after the aircraft entered service and at one point reliability got so bad that the entire fleet of aircraft was grounded.

Besides this the airframe was also prone to corrosion, a really serious problem in a carrier-based aircraft.

The entire Hawkeye fleet was grounded at one time.

Eventually in 1965, after Navy officials had been forced to explain to Congress why four production contracts had been signed before the extensive avionics testing had been completed, action was taken.

Grumman and the US Navy scrambled to improve the design.

The unreliable rotary drum computer was replaced by a Litton L-304 digital computer and various other avionic systems were replaced – the upgraded aircraft were designated E-2Bs.

In total 49 of the 59 E-2As were upgraded to E-2B standard and these aircraft replaced the E-1B Tracers in the various US
Navy AEW squadrons and it was the E-2B that was to set a new standard for carrier-based AEW aircraft.

E-2C Hawkeye and developments


However, although the upgraded E-2B was a vast improvement on the unreliable E-2A, it was an interim measure and the US Navy knew the design had much greater capability and still had yet to achieve the performance and reliability parameters set out in the original design back in 1957.

In April 1968 it instigated the next reliability improvement program.

In addition, now that the capabilities of the aircraft were starting to be realized, more were needed and, as well as
the 49 E-2Bs that would be upgraded, another 28 new E-2Cs were ordered.

The improvements in the new and upgraded aircraft were concentrated in the radar and computer performance.

Two E-2A test machines were modified as prototypes of the E-2C, with the first flying on 20 January 1971.

Trials proving satisfactory, the E-2C was ordered into production, with the first production machine performing its initial flight on 23 September 1972.

The original E-2C, known as the Group 0, saw 55 aircraft built and became operational in 1973, but underwent several upgrade programs during the decades since.

They began arriving on carriers in the 1980s, serving until the 1990s when they were replaced by Group II aircraft in first-line service, although some ended up in US Navy Reserve, being used to track drug smugglers.

After the experience with the E-2A/B, the E-2C Group 0 was an outstanding aircraft in service and provided an effective partner to Grumman F-14 Tomcat fighters, monitoring the airspace and then vectoring Tomcats over the Link-4 datalink to destroy potential threat with long-range Phoenix air-to-air missiles.