All Things Stealth

[Mr King]

lol good one.

[cybermax]

Reminds me of that Northrop Grumman commercial.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wCM4y6gOQdM

Edited September 21, 2013 by cybermax

[Ivanhoe]

From below, the F-35 looks reasonably aerodynamic. The usual pics make it look thick-necked to the point of looking a little "hunchback".

[Mr King]

[Corinthian]

Reminds me of that Northrop Grumman commercial.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wCM4y6gOQdM

 

Awesome because of the F-14.

 

Iz like bacon, F-14 makes things better.

[Mr King]

[sunday]

More curves than Marilyn Monroe

[Mr King]

[Mr King]

 

 

Edited October 10, 2013 by Mr King

[BabyOlifant]

So, what're Tanknet's thoughts on the J-20 being some F-111-esque strike aircraft?

Edited October 10, 2013 by BabyOlifant

[Josh]

Its seems likely and practical given PRC requirements and capabilities.

[BabyOlifant]

It's certainly big enough.

[Max H]

Hawaiian Chieftain.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/rikdom/2655810919/sizes/o/in/photostream/

FIFY I've heard it referred to as "dougal" as well

[Mistral]

Well you wouldn't be looking for it in the mud would you? Ergo its stealth. , I wonder if a coating of mud has radar absorbing properties.

Its Bulgarian I think

 

[mnm]

[Mr King]

[JW Collins]

Hmm, makes me think we should have a fighter bigger, than the F-22, with more range.

[Ivanhoe]

Back in the day when AAMs sucked, we saw the need for a true interceptor as well as interceptor/bombers. As technology improved, our design philosophy reverted from interceptors to dogfighters; ironically, by the time that reversion was complete AAMs were pretty damned deadly. The munitions are ready and capable now, budgets aside it would be very nice to have a big supercruise interceptor/bomber (and really by bomber I mean ground/surface attack by PGMs and ASMs).

 

CONUS hopefully doesn't need to fend off the Russkies any more, but such a bird would seemingly be very appealing to Japan, South Korea, Turkey, etc.

[tankerwanabe]

So, what're Tanknet's thoughts on the J-20 being some F-111-esque strike aircraft?

 

It's a realistic and scary threat to USN carriers.

[Josh]

 

So, what're Tanknet's thoughts on the J-20 being some F-111-esque strike aircraft?

 

It's a realistic and scary threat to USN carriers.

 

It seems a little early in the J-20 development process to label it as such. There are no known statistics on the aircraft; we just know it looks like a low RCS design and is a larger airframe, implying a long range for a fighter.

[Corinthian]

 

The PAK-FA is a big plane.

 

I just realized that the F-35 has the usual nozzles instead of the thrust vector stealthy types found in the F-22. And the Japanese ATD-X is so adorably kawaii.

[sunday]

On thrust-vectoring nozzles, I remember I met some friends of one of the engineers that were designing them for EFA, in 1988. After 25 years, they are not used yet...

 

Edited November 11, 2013 by sunday

[Guest Charles]

On thrust-vectoring nozzles, I remember I met some friends of one of the engineers that were designing them for EFA, in 1988. After 25 years, they are not used yet...

 

With the aforementioned new Gen of AAM's, does thrust vectoring bring much to the table?.

I believe with G suits and forced airbreathing, most pilots can handle around 9G's. Modern AAM's can do considerably more.

 

Maybe once the A/C are in the Merge, using cannon; thrust vectoring might come in handy.

 

Charles

[tankerwanabe]

I suppose that in theory, they can aid in short field take offs and landing.

 

Air show enthusiasts are certainly impressed.

 

If they ever get thrust vectoring to work without losing airspeed, it can be a benefit in air to air.

[JW Collins]

How are you losing any more speed vs. using conventional control surfaces? You can certainly use thrust-vectoring to put you in a bad spot, but that is probably more a matter of training than anything else.