In western jets you use the battery only for small things, closing/opening canopy etc. If you make your functional checks on the ground for example you’ll use external sources as well instead of the APU to save live of the APU. During daily routine operations aircraft with an APU will use it for autonomously powering up the aircraft and start the engines.

In terms of procurement costs not, the question would be how does these aircraft compare in terms of operating costs. The Super Hornet as such isn’t “big” for the pocket either.

With external ground power source you start the APU at first, then APU turns with the compressor engine. You can do the same with aircraft batteries, but bcs of excessive current drawn from the battery, under normal peace conditions external ground sources are used. The Su-34 does deffinitely have APUs, rather two for each AL-31 but they are looking for better solution like on the Su-35 to have one APU which can be repeatedly started with on-board accumulators.

VIDEO> Mig-29 engine APU start up, check the APU exhaust.

http://deton.lietadla.com/gtde117-rd33.avi

Thanks Martinez, that makes sense, though it is unusual from a western point of view, where no external power is required to start up the jet.

It is not particular to the F-35/F135 but a well known fact of all jet/turbine engines since their inception.

Certainly not for all jet engines. On the Tornado for example throttle settings are described as degrees, not as percentage that’s the reason why I asked. Might be that the US is using the common standard of percentage.

Robert is correct – % throttle setting is not typically used (% max rpm or power being most common) but when it is used, 0% throttle = idle rpm/power & 100% = max dry/military rpm/power.

That’s certainly correct that the RPM % is usually the given indicator of thrust, but that article about the F-35 spoke about the throttle setting in percent and if it is as you say and idle would be 65% (just a guess) then the 40% throttle setting would equal a RPM of 79%.

0% throttle means idle, 100% throttle means max dry with afterburner ‘throttle’ given as AB1, AB2, AB3 & so on.

Is there a source to confirm this for the F-35 in particular?

@alfakilo,
I respect your view, but gently disagree. I think it’s a generation issue you will encounter everywhere, even in daily live where technology is used. Buy your grandpa a mobile phone and he’ll be hopefully overstressed by the complexity. He’s still used to the good old dial ring phones and that worked for him for so many years. Old people (not meant in an offending way) are mostly reluctant to learn the use of such technology or to understand it. That’s not because they are dumb, but because they aren’t used to it and represent the view that the old stuff worked and they don’t need something new, “overly complex” to use.

The same is true for combat aircraft. I only hear the complains about the new technology from those who are used to the old stuff, whether these are ground crews or the pilots. You don’t hear such complaints from the younger crews who have grown with the new toys.

Technology can kill that’s true, but it can also save lives and isn’t any aircraft, regardless of its sophistication a piece of technology anyway…

Technology evolves and you must keep up to stay competitive. In the military business being hopefully outdated will certainly kill you with much greater probability, like it or not.

The fact that Russia was disintegrated and broke for the last 20 years is not a what if scenario.

That not, but your “If someone has ordered an advanced Fulcrum variant earlier…” is a what if scenario and as said a couple of times (I had to repeat myself) it’s not of interest for me, because it simply didn’t happen. It’s fair to discuss the reason why something isn’t achieved, but it won’t change the facts.

Putting basic MiG-29 Fulcrums from mid 80s as comparison base to most modern variants of US fighters reveals intention to bend the reality towards favoring certain designs over others. I don’t like that attitude and never did.

Neither do I, but comparing a yet non operational MiG-35 with existing F-16 blk 60 isn’t a much better move. It’s just the other way round. Some people compare todays F-16 with yesterdays MiG-29, while others compare tomorrows MiG-29 with todays F-16. It’s neither fair in anyway and complaining about one way while going it your same into the other direction is somewhat dishonest. But it is valid to point out that the majority of MiG-29s in service are fact those examples from the 1980s.

Aerospace is a very investment-intensive industrial sector where labor cost plays rather minor role. In agriculture you can replace a high tech tractor by two dozens of cheap peasants – in aerospace you cannot replace a radar by 20 workers screaming peep-peep in unison.. No money – no funny.. A Japanese computer controlled six-axis CNC or 50x CATIA licenses cost exactly as much in Russia as they do in the US (maybe even more due to limited market).

Yes but the overall production and development cost in Russia are lower than in the west and that makes out the waste difference. Anyway it’s once again the what if brabbling which I’m no fan of, especially when it’s simply not given.

Thanks, looks like you were right. I stand corrected here… :)[/QUOTE]

@Vanir,
I somewhat doubt that the F/A-18 reaches M1.1 on dry thrust at sea level, possibly at higher altitudes, but at SL sounds somewhat unbelieveable. Many modern combat aircraft and even some 60s designs were able to go supersonic on dry thrust, but they usually don’t do so in combat configuration. Modern fighters achieve M 1.2+ in combat config, the F-22 has demonstrated ~M 1.8 a 50% difference.

@Wrightwing,
is it known what the 40% throttle refers to? Certainly not 40% RPM, because idle RPM is somewhere between 60-70% for every turbofan engine I know. So the relevant question is what RPM percentage does 40% throttle setting really refer to? If 60% RPM (idle) refers to 0% throttle setting for example, 40% throttle setting might in fact mean 100% RPM or military thrust (full dry thrust) with everything above 40% being reheat envelope. Note these are just an examples to make you understand.