A CHEAPER AND SAFER SUBSTITUTE FOR SUBMARINES FOR THE PHILIPPINE NAVY

P-8: A Proven Multi-Mission Maritime Patrol Aircraft

The Boeing P-8 is truly a multi-mission maritime patrol aircraft, excelling at anti-submarine warfare; anti-surface warfare; intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance and search and rescue. The P-8 can fly higher (up to 41,000 ft) and get to the fight faster (490 knots). Shorter transit times reduce the size of the Area of Probability when searching for submarines, surface vessels or search and rescue survivors. P-8 is also designed for low altitude missions and has already proven its abilities supporting humanitarian and search and rescue missions.

The Poseidon P-8 will be  usefull in patrolling and protecting the Philippine Rise, also it is a  proven system with more than 155 aircraft in service the P-8 has executed more than 500,000 mishap free flight-hours around the globe. The P-8 has two variants: The P-8I, flown by the Indian Navy, and the P-8A Poseidon flown by the U.S. Navy, the United Kingdom’s Royal Air Force, Royal Australian Air Force, Royal Norwegian Air Force and Royal New Zealand Air Force.

Militaries that have selected the P-8 include the Republic of Korea Navy and German Navy. The P-8’s performance and reliability delivers confidence in an uncertain world — in any condition, anywhere, anytime.

The P-8 combines the most advanced weapon system in the world with the cost advantages of the most operated commercial airliner on the planet. The P-8 shares 86% commonality with the commercial 737NG, providing enormous supply chain economies of scale in production and support. Boeing’s expertise in commercial fleet management and derivative aircraft sustainment provides customers with greater availability at a lower operational cost. The P-8 is engineered for 25 years/25,000 hours in the harshest maritime flight regimes, including extended operations in icing environments.

The P-8A Poseidon maritime surveillance aircraft that continues to make sorties over the Indo-Pacific irking China is now set to become more lethal, with the aircraft acquiring the capability to drop winged torpedoes from a long range.

The P-8 Poseidon is truly a multi-mission maritime patrol aircraft, excelling at anti-submarine warfare; anti-surface warfare; intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance and search and rescue. The P-8 Poseidon can fly higher and get to the fight faster. Shorter transit times reduce the size of the Area of Probability when searching for submarines, surface vessels or search and rescue survivors. P-8 Poseidon is also designed for low altitude missions and has already proven its abilities supporting humanitarian and search and rescue missions. Globally proven, the P-8 Poseidon has two variants: The P-8 Poseidon, flown by the Indian Navy, and the P-8A Poseidon, flown by the U.S. Navy and the Royal Australian Air Force.

FUTURE DESIGN FOR  POSEIDON P-8

The drive to increase fuel efficiency and improve the aerodynamic performance of new aircraft is leading designers to move away from using aluminium in airframes.

Instead today's latest planes like Boeing's 787 Dreamliner and Airbus's A350 rely on lightweight carbon fibre composites - woven mats of carbon which are embedded in plastic.

The key to a composite material like carbon fibre is that it is incredibly strong for its weight.

"You have carbon fibres mixed into a matrix," says Manchester University lecturer Aravind Vijayaraghavan.

"Normally the matrix is a type of super wood, which is very strong, then if you mix in carbon fibre then it takes on the strength of carbon fibre and becomes very very strong. the design folows the NGAD FIGHTER but in a larger version like that of a fighter bomber.

In the UK, European aircraft manufacturer Airbus has been working with Britain's National Composites Centre into research and modelling of new industrial designs and materials. It will be designed to carry more weapons, fuel, missiles and torpedos.

The lift to drag ratio can be increased from something like the B-1to the a range in the mid 20’s for the BWB. This savings in drag translates into substantial economic and environmental benefits. This particular model would be expected to use 20-25% less fuel, require 10-15% less weight (or conversely allow for more paying payload) and result in 10-15% lower direct operating costs.
This was all started by a design study in 1989 by Dr. Dennis Bushnell, Chief Scientist at NASA Langley. He foresaw the need for a commercial aircraft that could carry 800 passengers over 7000nm and a speed of .85 Mach. This was the result of that design study which was originally McDonnell Douglas’.

One of the more interesting facets of this design was the position of the engine inlets. Since they are right down on the wing surface, they are ingesting the boundary layer so any airflow sucked into the engines can be ignored as drag. This gives a huge increase in the L/D due to the decrease in drag. There are also a lot of control surfaces on this version, however, the larger inner surface has been eliminated in follow-on designs. As part of what Al was talking about earlier, notice the 290’ span that won’t fit into the current passenger terminal infrastructure. This makes this configuration non-viable as a solution to the high density passenger carrying BWB.