Aircraft Super Thread Mk.VII

[electric indigo]

Plenty, which is why DARPA and the USAF has been funding such work for so long. Satellite technology is limited in two respects. First, adversaries are able to know when a satellite is coming into view, therefore can hide their activities. Relatedly, they cannot easily change their orbit making it difficult to obtain information on demand in a crisis. Finally they are limited by the payload they are carrying from the time of their launch, their altitude, and climactic conditions. The SR-72 would be able to avoid those problems.

I still have the feeling that there's too much "old school" thinking going on in another supposedly multi-billion dollar project. I imagine a rocket distributing a swarm of small, disposable recon drones, doing the same job at lower systemic costs.

[David Hingtgen]

distributing a swarm of small, disposable recon drones

[Ghost Train]

I feel the need... the need for speed. Wait a minute...

You know a movie is bad when you can watch the whole thing on youtube and no one bothers to take it down.

[Noyhauser]

I still have the feeling that there's too much "old school" thinking going on in another supposedly multi-billion dollar project. I imagine a rocket distributing a swarm of small, disposable recon drones, doing the same job at lower systemic costs.

Except that raises political issues, like when the sentinel crashed in Iran last year. Moreover the speed of this aircraft would be phenomenal; depending on the drone's bases location, it may well be faster to send the hypersonic aircraft then fly the drone at subsonic speeds.

[Knight26]

Changes in the battlespace created the need for an SR-72. The SR-71 was surpassed by sattelites finally having the data bandwidth and resolution to provide near real time imagery to the analysts that wasn't complete garbage. What we are seeing now is that hacking and jamming are coming into play much more, allowing our enemies to disrupt UAV operations. An SR-72 will be able to carry mission specific elint or strike packages at a speed that will allow it to strike almost anywhere in the world relatively quickly.

Deployment of a probe droids via rocket is not a feasible plan. What happens to the rocket? It either crashs in enemy territory, creating an international incident, or self destructs, creating the same issue. The same goes for the mini-uav/probes and now you have handed our tech over to the enemy. Beyond that, the data transmission gear onboard the uav is not tiny people, especially if you want a satellite uplink.

[Shadow]

"Imagines a 2000 lb JDAM dropped at Mach 4+."

I wonder how this will affect Russian and Chinese air defense thinking if the SR-72 becomes a physical reality. Imagine the Russians will continue to evolve their long range S-300/400 missile family.

[hutch]

Aurora and rumors of Aurora.

[skullmilitia]

Rumors? The media named the would be "Aurora".

But it's not actually called that, hell the nickname isn't even "Aurora".

[renegadeleader1]

Rumors? The media named the would be "Aurora".

But it's not actually called that, hell the nickname isn't even "Aurora".

Nope. Some idiot left it in the public documents for the 85 U.S. budget. The head of skunk works once claimed it was the code for the budget allocation for the B-2.

[skullmilitia]

From what I remember, Aurora was just the project name for the engine testing phase for another

Project that never got past test flights.

(This is from a family friend who was a Test pilot for several projects including the aircraft surrounding the aurora namesake.

[buddhafabio]

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2013/sep/19/us-pilot-scares-iranians-top-gun-worthy-stunt-you-/#ixzz2kpdZk1Ui

The U.S. Air Force has a message for Iran: Don’t mess with our drones.

In what only can be described as a scene out of Tom Cruise’s “Top Gun,” Gen. Mark A. Welsh III, Air Force chief of staff, describes how F-22 stealth jets scared off Iranian jets from a U.S. drone flying in international airspace.The Aviationist reports that in March a U.S. MQ-1 drone came close to being intercepted by an Iranian F-4 Phantom combat plane, but the Iranian aircraft stopped short after a warning by an American pilot.

“He [the Raptor pilot] flew under their aircraft [the F-4s] to check out their weapons load without them knowing that he was there, and then pulled up on their left wing and then called them and said ‘you really ought to go home,’” Gen. Welsh said.

According to The Aviationist, the Iranians came within 16 miles of the drone.

Read more: http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2013/sep/19/us-pilot-scares-iranians-top-gun-worthy-stunt-you-/#ixzz2kr72Cd7o
Follow us: @washtimes on Twitter

Edited November 16, 2013 by buddhafabio

[David Hingtgen]

Global Hawks are big:

[electric indigo]

The pic of the F-16 brings up a question that always puzzled me: Why are the AIM-120s preferably carried at the wingtips while the (presumably lighter) AIM-9s are on the underwing stations?

[miles316]

Most likely for aerodynamic reasons the aim-120 is longer than the sidewinder and might interfere with handling . Just a guess.

Edited November 18, 2013 by miles316

[David Hingtgen]

Wingtip missiles act much like winglets---reducing tip vortices, and thus drag, thus increasing range a smidge. AMRAAMs seem to work better, mainly because they're bigger.

However, it was found out that for an F-16, an AMRAAM is just a little too heavy, and they're causing cracks as the years go by. So there's been a trend to bringing the AMRAAMs back under the wings with the Sidewinders at the tips again.

[Knight26]

That is one of the reasons why USN and USMC decided not mount AMRAAMs on the wingtips of their hornets. The stress of carrier landings and takeoffs were stressing the airframe enough, putting additional strain on the wings would shorter their useful lives even more.

[David Hingtgen]

Seen at WalMart a few days ago, thus probably a Veteran's Day display:

[F-ZeroOne]

Oops. A few months ago, a newspaper in the UK ran an article decrying the state of childrens education and how they didn't know "basic facts" about things like World War II. They illustrated the article with a picture captioned something like "Battle of Britain history: a flight of Spitfires".

See if you can guess which aircraft were actually in the picture...?

[Vifam7]

Oops. A few months ago, a newspaper in the UK ran an article decrying the state of childrens education and how they didn't know "basic facts" about things like World War II. They illustrated the article with a picture captioned something like "Battle of Britain history: a flight of Spitfires".

See if you can guess which aircraft were actually in the picture...?

Spanish Buchons (which posed as Me109s) from the Battle of Britain movie?

Hopefully it was, at the very least, RAF aircraft...

[Noyhauser]

Can't be as bad as this one, which is problematic given the situation in Washington State.

[David Hingtgen]

The worst ever, which I cannot find any more, was one of those "print shops that'll print most anything on clothing" and someone had made a T-shirt that said "My Daddy Flies a Jet".

The image was a B-29.

[Ghost Train]

in b 4 "it's China's fault that we have these print errors because they're supposed to know everything and fact check everything for Walmart too."

[miles316]

The flight crew of a Boeing Dream Lifter flying in to Wichita Kansas lands at the wrong airport.

Edited November 21, 2013 by miles316

[miles316]

The plane has arrived at it's final destination.

[F-ZeroOne]

Spanish Buchons (which posed as Me109s) from the Battle of Britain movie?

Hopefully it was, at the very least, RAF aircraft...

Hah, no, it was at least RAF aircraft - the other one, the Hawker Hurricane. (to add insult to injury, the ones shown in the image had two-bladed propellers so the picture might even have pre-dated the Battle as well...!).

Edited November 21, 2013 by F-ZeroOne

[Model-Junkie]

New paint scheme for Blue 55

[electric indigo]

The Carraidas private swing-wing jet designed for the Tintin comic "Flight 714" from 1966.

[David Hingtgen]

That shows something that a lot of fictional swing-wing designs do----minimal change. What's the point of making swing-wings if that's all you're going to do with them? That's a waste----the amount of engineering, parts, weight, etc---not worth it for like 25 degrees of change. If you're going to do it---go big. Look at the F-14 and F-111------THOSE are swing-wings.

However---- it's clear a good amount of thought/care/research went into the overall structure etc. I'm trying to figure out exactly what the pylon/intake/nacelle arrangement looks like though.

I'd suggest larger tailplanes though, with how short the moment-arm is.

::edit:: Trijet, with the outer engines having split intakes? One going to the outboard engine, and the "inner" half of the nacelle's intake going to the center engine?

[David Hingtgen]

Brazil has picked the Super Gripen: http://www.flightglobal.com/news/articles/saab-wins-brazils-f-x2-fighter-contest-with-gripen-ng-394289/

[anime52k8]

That shows something that a lot of fictional swing-wing designs do----minimal change. What's the point of making swing-wings if that's all you're going to do with them? That's a waste----the amount of engineering, parts, weight, etc---not worth it for like 25 degrees of change. If you're going to do it---go big. Look at the F-14 and F-111------THOSE are swing-wings.

yep, super unrealistic:

[David Hingtgen]

Still pointless though, as it had to be----it was modified from an existing fixed-wing design. It was considered so pointless that for years it was believed it never went into production. It did of course, but everyone still asked "why?"

Never said it wasn't realistic, said it was pointless. The time/effort/expense/weight put into making the tips move a bit, could have been much better spent in other areas with notable gains---or on a different aircraft.

[anime52k8]

I still like the Su-17 though, I think it's an great looking aircraft.

[David Hingtgen]

Pointless and awesome are often one and the same. Most "cool" features have little practical purpose. I mean, if I had a private jet----it would so look like Tintin's.

We all know the Lambo Countach's spoiler was an expensive option that added weight and drag---but dang did it look cool with it.

[electric indigo]

First testshot pics of Tarangus' 1/48 Viggen:

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/i93fjc13pzdbapf/TJrVvHik7T

[derex3592]

The Viggen was always one of my favorite aircraft as a kid. It was just so different and cool. Might have to build one someday.