GCAP technology demonstrator Excalibur completes first modification phase
December 10, 2024
A newly-modified Boeing 757, transformed into a flying laboratory to support the UK’s Future Combat Air System (FCAS) and tri-national Global Combat Air Programme (GCAP), has successfully completed its first phase of modification and flight testing – with the Excalibur aircraft to conduct live equipment trials within two years.
Following an initial engineering study, the first phase of modification saw 2Excel equip the former commercial 757 with new cheek and belly pods, designed to hold the Integrated Sensors, Non-Kinetic Effects (ISANKE) and Integrated Communications Systems (ICS) being developed by Leonardo for the future fighter project. First flights with this technology onboard are expected around 2026, intending to de-risk and accelerate the development of key technologies destined for GCAP.
The second of two 757s acquired by the project (funded by Team Tempest), Phase 1 of the contract saw 2Excel rigorously subject the airframe to a series of structural and stress tests before strategically disassembling it – described by 2Excel Aviation director Chris Norton as “turning of tons of airliner into tens of millions of points of data”, intended to help facilitate “freedom of action and freedom of modification” to the flight test aircraft.
This second airframe was delivered to 2Excel’s Lasham base from Titan in May 2023 and, following a C-check, began to undergo a unique series of modifications – including the addition of various test instrumentation, the installation of 280 strain gauge sensors, and a tail-mounted air data probe. The installation of cheek-mounted pods and a belly pod were also facilitated, with baseline flight testing validating initial modelling. The aircraft was then ferried to QinetiQ, with a further four flights carried out to date. With the team continuing to verify and validate the correction curve (analysing the impact of the external pods on the airframe’s handling), it is expected to make its next flight in March.
In 2025, Excalibur will continue to undergo its ongoing conversion – including the addition of a nose-mounted radar cone and chin fairing, a centreline pod, wing pods, the addition of heat exchangers at the rear of the aircraft, and relocated antennas. Inside, the cabin will be optimised for flight test missions with the installation of sixteen mission racks and ten workstations, while further synthetic modelling will serve to support and validate stability models.
