mabieThis news must be giving execs at Airbus sleepless nights. 😀 If this news is ever confirmed, expect A380 orders to shrivel.
I hope Boeing pushes through with the project as the increase in efficiency is too compelling relative to the incremental improvements attainable by sticking to the existing paradigm. I would’nt mind riding in a plane w/o windows as long as there are other things to keep me entertained/distracted. Finally, there’s always sleep.
mabieThe lift for an aircraft is provided by the flow of air around the wing as it moves forward down the runway. If it is standing still, albeit with it’s wheels spinning on a conveyer type runway, there is no forward movement, hence no lift, hence no take off..
1L.
My opinion too. Like a hamster on a treadmill. I knew there were a coiple of reasons why planes came with wheels an this is probably one of them.:D
mabieThe Su-27 (and family) have two axis thrust vectoring, the F-22 has it only on one axis but, the movement of the nozzles is (plus or minus) five degrees greater on the vertical axis. Plus the nozzles can respond in a differential mode to aid in roll movements.
Adrian
Dozer who is the 90th FS commander has confirmed over at Fencecheck forum that the Raptor’s nozzles do not swivel up and down independenty. It was considered but wasn’t worth the effort and expense since the jet could do whatever was asked of it with nozzles acting in unison.
mabieI don’t think any competent F-22 pilot would intentionally engage WVR if he had the capability to attack from BVR. This goes against their training and isn’t very smart. Still, there will be occasions when the F-22 pilot may have to do so and they do practice for these situations. At the last Red Flag, F-22s were forced to engage opponent aircraft that could regenerate at will and not surprisingly they eventually ran out of BVR missiles and had to engage WVR presumably using sidewinders and guns. This is how at least one raptor was “killed”, though it did manage to take out 3 Vipers during the engagement.
As far as the Red Pilot being unable to lock onto a F-22 he could see thru his canopy, details are a but sketchy and we don’t really know if he had HMS/HOBS. There is speculation he was unable to get a radar lock on the raptor in order to cue his sidewinder w/c makes sense given the radar stealthiness of the jet.. open to any number of interpretations.
Re the T/R modules, I know the -77 has more than the -81. That’s one of the point I made. As to whether they are identical or not, I’ll go with Aurcov’s previous post that they are.. just doesn’t make sense in terms of standardization and economies of scale to have different T/Rs.
Finally, I’d really like to know what the F-35’s main processor architecture is like. Anyone know?
mabieActually there is a split opinion on that . Many raptor drivers who are now piling up hours on that bird , say that having high Of boresight missiles and HMS isnt a substitute for brute manunverability , and many of these pilots thought that it was . The reason why they say it is that they have had very favourable kill ratios as compared to f-15’s and f-16’s simulating HMS and HOBS missles while they were not carrying any . Many others dont think so provided that the enemy knows the tactics etc . I am no pilot so have no opinion on this other then a guess that HOBS and HMS should compensate for some manuverability shortcoming .. However against most competition the F-35’s offensive ability – Low RCS , High SA , Powerful sensors , Good Missiles should more then compensate for a preceived lack of top notch performance .
That’s interesting feedback. I’d expect Raptors to have their way with legacy jets w/ HMS and HOBS missiles primarily because they’d enjoy the element of surprise afforded by their stealthiness. They could close to WVR undetected and position themselves to best advantage. But in a WVR combat w/o the advantage of surprise, I’d expect that HMS/HOBS would be a great equalizer to the Raptors agility.
mabieAh! Something I forgot! How does the Lightning II’s systems differ from the Raptors integrated Avionics? The Common Integrated Processor etc, etc
I’ve never really come across what the F-35 uses as its CPU architecture though its probably based on some RISC design.. I did read something a long time ago that the F-35 far outstrips the Raptor in CPU performance because it uses more powerful CPU tech not available when the F-22 was designed but that’s only something I read. Made sense though as the F-35 has a lot more code due to its multirole design. Also re the Raptor’s CIP, didn’t LMA have to offload one of the subsystems from the CIP onto a dedicated processor a while back? (can’t recall w/c one it was though).. my immediate thought was that it may have been slowing down the CIP and it was too expensive to plug in a 3rd CIP.
mabieI agree that its the overall F-22 package that makes it so fearsome though much of the tech that goes into both platforms are identical or at least comparable. Its just that the AF spared no expense to get the absolute performance for the A2A regime and it seems that for now they got what they paid for.
Still, if a country with an advanced aviation manufacturing industry got its hands on a F-35 and wanted to build something to counter a F-22, it would make their job easier. Of course by the time their version was operational, it would have to contend with upgraded Raptors as well.
Re the radar I’m thinking that in terms of radar performance, the T/R modules are identical and there are simply more of them in the -77. In terms of radar modes, I guess that’s a software issue and no doubt there are safeguards built in to protect these. Still, never underestimate the skill of determined hackers backed by government/industry resources.
Other avionics/sensors the F-35 has stuff that the Raptor doesn’t or will only get later on.
Re the engines, the F135 is definitely optimized for a multi-role environment, doesn’t have supercruise, etc.n but it was still derived from the F119 so there will be substantial similarity IMO.
Re stealth, the stealth coatings on the F-35 are more advanced and easier to maintain than that on the raptor. Obviously that’s oversimplifying things and there are a ton of other things that contribute to overall stealthiness that gives the F-22 and edge in this area.
mabieSome comments from a TopGun instructor I came across.. he seems to have taken to the sidestick controller.. it really seems to be a matter of personal preference based on the comments posted so far.:rolleyes:
“The sidestick controller really bothered me at first,” Claggett continues. “I’d be distracted and make a grab for a stick that wasn’t there. After a while, though, it becomes natural. I wasn’t a fan of the sidestick before. Now I wish the F-18 had one. The visibility between your legs would certainly be improved in the Hornet. In the F-18, you always have to look around the stick to see what’s on the horizontal indicator. In the F-16, your office is in front of you. The things you need to see are in the open.”
mabieThe biggest pilot complaint with sidestick controllers is when they have to fly in formation over long distances. You cannot switch and fly with your left hand to give your right hand a rest.
On the F-16 I believe the right forearm rests on a pad to minimize fatigue.. anyway, maybe the pilot can just activate his autopilot if his arm start getting numb.. I think the comment about flying with an injury has some merit.
mabieJASSM if ever they fix it so it hits its target, SDBs, JSOWs for starters..
mabieWhy does the canopy have to be subject to computer code anyway? There should be an emergency release at the very least – not exactly rocket science as such facility has been around for decades.
IIRC, the stuck canopy had absolutely nothing to do with computer code.. had something to do with a screw coming loose or something like that but definitely mechanical in nature..
Granted that the international dateline glitch was embarrassing, and the stuck canopy caused a few red faces, if these are the type of problems being encountered by the most sophisticated fighter ever to take to the skies, then its critics must be pretty desperate to be scraping the bottom of the barrel. Paging Pierre Sprey…
mabieThe USAF follows simple policy – they ask much more than needed so that they can squeeze out as much as possible in the end. It has nothing to do with real requirements.
When you are drawing up a list of requirements and have to project 20-30 years into the future what the emerging threats will be, you have to allow the USAF some leeway on what it perceives its real requirements to be.:D
mabieYou can’t blame the USAF for wanting to have the most dominant platform possible. They basically came up with a wishlist of outrageous requirements/capabilities and the result is the Raptor. It may be overkill against the current threat but that was always the intent. Not to mention coping with both the envisioned and unforeseen threats that will surely emerge in the next several decades. The USAF is in an enviable position right now and looks to remain so. The F-22s dominance is a nice insurance policy to have for the future. In this context, 183 units seems hardly enough considering the US’ worldwide commitments.
mabielatest AESA for Raptor
U.S. advances testing of new F-22 radar
BALTIMORE, March 26 (UPI) — The U.S. F-22 Raptor only recently went operational but is already lined for the fourth version of its AESA radar system.
Northrop Grumman announced Monday it had completed radar flight-test certification for the fourth-generation AESA, or active electronically scanned array, radar for the futuristic fighter.
“These fourth-generation enhancements will help ensure that the Air Force continues to have the most technologically advanced equipment,” said Teri Marconi, a vice president at Northrop’s Electronics Systems sector in Baltimore. “With its high-resolution radar, the F-22 possesses a sophisticated sensor suite that allows the pilot to track, identify, and defeat air-to-air threats before being detected.”
Once deployed, the radar will be used to upgrade the Raptors beginning with Lot 5; two dozen planes that will be delivered beginning this spring, Northrop said in a news release. The Raptor went operational with USAF squadrons a little more than a year ago.
The flight-test certification is one of the prerequisites for the beginning of the Operational Utility Evaluation (OUE) phase, which confirms that the AN/APG-77V(1) radar is combat ready.
The OUE phase will be carried out at various Air Force installations. The flight-test certification took place this winter at Edwards Air Force Base in California and included the launch of AIM-9 and AIM-120 missiles and 1,000-pound Joint Direct Attack Munitions.
mabieadd a convertible to the long list of Flanker variants:D 😀
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