NAVAIR’s E-2 Integrated Test Team (ITT) has completed flight testing of the Navy’s new eight-bladed NP2000 propeller at Patuxent River, Md., successfully concluding a challenging series of developmental test and evaluation efforts that commenced in the summer of 2000. Development of the NP2000 was initiated in the mid nineteen-nineties when the Navy sought a viable replacement for the four-bladed HS54460 propellers utilized by its E-2 Hawkeye Command and Control and C-2 Greyhound aircraft. The new propeller incorporates several enhancements over its predecessor and is projected to reduce maintenance costs. Design features that facilitate these savings are a reduced parts count, the ability to replace individual propeller blades on the wing and a maintenance panel

Failure of a turbine blade caused an F-16C Fighting Falcon to crash in an unpopulated area near Rosepine, La., on Sept. 22, according to a report Air Force officials released Jan. 6. The pilot ejected in a sparsely wooded area about 12 nautical miles southwest of Fort Polk Army Airfield. The aircraft was part of a six-ship, unopposed surface-attack training mission, and was assigned to the 147th Fighter Wing at Ellington Field in Houston. The engine turbine blade failed because of fatigue, although there were no external signs of excess fatigue during routine inspections, according to the Aircraft Investigation Board report.