Advanced Medium STOL Transport
The Advanced Medium STOL Transport project ( AMST ) of the United States Air Force was sought in the seventies, a successor to the Lockheed C -130 Hercules aircraft.
History
The origins of the program date back to 1963, when in the Air Force as part of the CX Heavy Logistics Support Aircraft program, from which the C -5 Galaxy was also developing a VSTOL tactical transporter was discussed. After serious setbacks with both the C- 5 and the F -111 put the U.S. Department of Defense before any planned procurement action a detailed testing phase. As Deputy Secretary of Defense David Packard early seventies criticized the C -5 Galaxy sharp, the requirements have been greatly scaled back to the new tactical transporter. On January 24, 1972, the official tendering phase, were involved in the nine U.S. producers began. From Bell, Boeing, Fairchild, Lockheed, and McDonnell Douglas were to end before the tender stage on March 31 deals that were examined by the Ministry of Defence. 1974 were sent to Boeing and McDonnell Douglas, the contracts for the construction of two test patterns, the development budget amounted to 96.2 million U.S. dollars (Boeing ) or $ 86.1 million. By 1976, both companies presented the two patterns (Boeing YC -14 and McDonnell Douglas YC -15), which were both widely tested in the following year and a half. After Jimmy Carter was elected president in 1977, however, the military budget was cut. The AMST program, its evaluation had already been postponed for a year, was discontinued in the fall of 1977. Officially, the program was terminated on 10 December 1979.
From the YC -15 McDonnell Douglas developed the early eighties, the C-17 Globemaster III. The C -130 Hercules, the plane that was supposed to replace the winner of the program is still in production and used worldwide.
Requirements
- Start weight 110-117 tons
- Take-off distance of 610 meters at 13.6 tons loading
- 925 km combat radius
- 4820 km transfer range
- Unit price: 5 million U.S. dollars