Supercruise Aircraft - “Having another aviation brigade transition to the J-20 would suggest that … the PLAAF is satisfied with, and confident in, the capabilities of the J-20, and that more combat units are likely to receive the J-20 in the future,
” the paper's author Derek Solen said. Richard Aboulafia, vice president of analysis at the Teal Group, said the F-22 is an “amazing” air vehicle, but the F-35 joint strike fighter — although stealthy — isn't top notch when it comes to speed, acceleration,
Supercruise Aircraft
altitude and “time to climb.” “It's not only what we build, it's how we build it so we can stay ahead of the threat,” Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Charles “CQ” Brown Jr. said recently at the McAleese & Associates annual defense programs conference.
Ramjets And Scramjets[]
“That to me is an important aspect, because it is the air superiority fighter of the future.” In comparison, the U.S. Air Force has just over 180 F-22s in its inventory, but the platform is no longer in production.
The service has more than 280 F-35As and is procuring dozens more each year. The Marine Corps and Navy are also buying variants of the aircraft. It also features forward canards which are suboptimal from a stealth perspective, and the planes have been powered by Russian AL-31 series engines without low-observability serrated nozzles.
The engines leave the aircraft “somewhat underpowered” and unable to supercruise, and also increase their radar cross section, it noted. “The J-20, in my estimation, would be dead long before it had the ability to maneuver against either the F-22 or the F-35,” he said.
“It's got enough spikes on it to where the radar returns on it are likely to be much more significant, which means that the F-22 and the F-35 can see it a lot farther away.” The platform is the largest low-observability fighter currently in production, the RUSI report noted.
Aircraft Designed To Cruise On Afterburner[]
“The downside is a heavier, less agile aircraft which will be more expensive to build and operate. It also cannot compete with the extreme performance or agility of the F-22” Raptor built by Lockheed Martin. The YF-23—contrary to popular belief—did not have an overall top speed that was any faster than the YF-22.
Both jets were limited to an aerodynamic max speed of about Mach 2.2 as a result of their fixed-ramp external compression inlets. In fact, operational F-22 Raptors are “red lined” at exactly Mach 2.0 with an artificial placard because the aircraft’s stealth coating are prone to delamination if the jet went any faster—particularly around the canopy.
The Northrop design also had better range compared to the YF-22, and was arguably a stealthier design. Russia is working on an all new Al41 engine with a complete redesign underway to add supercruise ability to the PAK FA and the Indo-Russian Sukhoi/HAL FGFA.
This is yet to bear fruit, but the stop-gap 117S engine, produced by this program, seems to achieve the supercruise goal already.[citation needed] It was recently announced[9] that during testing of a Su-35BM fighter equipped with
Military Use[]
these engines it was traveling in the ~M1.1–1.2 airspeed range at nominal power and was still accelerating, thus suggesting that the supercruise was possible at even higher speed. Further testing will show the extent of this possibility.[citation needed]
The Pentagon is moving to give the F-35 Block 4 capabilities which officials say are needed for the jet to be effective in future high-end battles against advanced adversaries. The ongoing Technology Refresh 3 effort will enable about 70 upgrades, which includes 14 new weapons and a number of software-enabled systems, according to program executive officer Lt. Gen.
Eric Fick. The removal of canards combined with changes to the wing shape could improve the stealth characteristics of the aircraft. Additionally, China is prioritizing the development of sensors and networks to improve its planes’ passive-sensor tactics and “cooperative engagement” capabilities, to help the PLAAF compete head-to-head against U.S. forces, the study said.
Due to its combination of decades long scheduled service and length of time spent at supersonic speeds, the main user of supercruise has been Concorde, with more time spent in supersonic, largely supercruise flight, than all of the other aircraft put together.[1]
The key challenge in attaining supercruise is not simply a high thrust to weight ratio but a radical redesign of the engine because the air entering a turbojet engine must always travel at subsonic speeds, regardless of aircraft speed.
Otherwise compressibility waves (or shock waves) will create uncontrollable vibrations among the compressor vanes. Engine inlet design therefore can effectively limit the speed of the aircraft, regardless of thrust. The SR-71 Blackbird's distinctive engine inlet spikes and a system of bleed doors are designed to funnel air around the J58 engines for that very reason.
On the surface, the decision to go ahead with the YF-22 might seem like a vote in favor of a more conservative design since both jets grossly more than exceeded the Air Force's requirements. But there was much more to the Air Force's decision than aircraft performance.
Three major factors played in Lockheed's favor. The SU-57 is a single-seat fifth-generation jet fighter with an external length of 20.1 meters, an external height of 3.8 meters, and a fuselage diameter of 1.9 meters. It has a tail height of 5.45 meters and a wheelbase of 7 meters.
The wingspan is 14.1 meters and the wing area is 78.8 square meters. It has an empty weight of 18,000 kg, a gross weight of 25,000 kg on a typical mission, and 29,270 kg on full load.
It has a maximum takeoff weight of 35,000 kg and an internal fuel capacity of 10,300 kg. The F-22 has demonstrated supercruise speeds of at least Mach 1.7, a difference of 320 knots (593 km/h) indicated airspeed (KIAS) at 40,000 ft (12,000 m).[6]
Supercruise in militarily significant parlance is meant to imply a significant increase in effective combat speed with a full weapons load over existing types. Virtually all current and past jet fighters, prior to the F-22, cruise at approximately Mach 0.8–0.9 with a militarily significant weapons load.
The F-22 represents a significant advance in cruise speed over previous types (for performance of current USAF types, see Air Force Magazine, May 2006, "Gallery of USAF Weapons," pp. 147–155[7]). Ramjet and scramjet powered aircraft have to date been mostly experimental (with exceptions such as the SR-71 and its turbojet/ramjet hybrid J58 engines, as noted above; and there have been numerous ramjet missiles), but these engines operate most efficiently at supersonic
speeds and therefore would be theoretically ideal for an aircraft intended to spend long periods in supersonic flight. Due to the exotic nature of the engines, whether this would be considered "supercruise" is largely semantic. The Pratt & Whitney J58 engines of the Lockheed A-12 and SR-71 Blackbird were designed for sustained and efficient operation at supersonic speeds using afterburners with air that was diverted past the turbojet core of the engine.
This gave a good compression ratio and higher efficiency simply due to the ram effect at the high operating speed of the aircraft. The afterburners acted essentially as ramjets and these types of engines achieve peak efficiency at around Mach 3.
Jet engines use afterburners to reach supersonic speeds. The afterburner is an attachment on the end of a jet engine that injects fuel into the exhaust to burn the oxygen left in the exhaust stream. The afterburner is an easy way to add power for short bursts, such as take-off or in a dog fight.
But the afterburner consumes a lot of fuel. Fighter jets use the afterburner to fly faster than the speed of sound for long periods, but it decreases the range they can fly without refueling. “The PLAAF is preparing upgrades for the J-20, which may include increasing the number of [air-to-air missiles] the fighter can carry in its low-observable configuration, installing thrust-vectoring engine nozzles, and adding supercruise capability by
installing higher-thrust indigenous WS-15 engines,” the DIA report said. The first turbine-powered aircraft to exceed Mach 1 in level flight without afterburners was the P.1 prototype of the English Electric Lightning, on August 11, 1954. However, this early demonstration of supercruise was extremely limited;
the Lightning could supercruise at approximately Mach 1.22[3] while later versions were able to achieve much higher speeds. Once the YF-22 was officially selected for the ATF program, it was designated the F-22 Raptor. Pratt & Whitney won the engine contest with its F119—which while not as powerful, was far more reliable than General Electric's novel variable-cycle YF120.
Ultimately, Lockheed Martin did deliver a world beating air superiority fighter that offers performance that is unmatched by anything else fly. However, one can still wonder, what would an operational F-23 have looked like? “I don't recall Barry Watts, although the name has a familiar ring.
He was right about supercruising for the whole sortie, as that’s the definition (Ps=0), but he was wrong about the number,” Jim Sandberg, test pilot of the YF-120 powered YF-23 told me a few years ago.
“The one you quoted was just a bit shy for our PAV-1 that was equipped with the relatively underpowered YF-119 engines developed by P&W. ‘My’ airplane, PAV-2, equipped with the more powerful YF-120 engines developed by GE supercruised quite a bit faster—‘very fast’, as the USAF censors advised us to say.”
The aircraft has a maximum speed of 1,145 knots at altitude and 923 knots supercruise at altitude. It has a subsonic range of 1,900 nautical miles and a supersonic range of 810 nautical miles. It can fly up to 66,000 feet and can climb at a rate of 64,000 feet per minute.
The SU-57 is armed with a single 30 mm Gryazev-Shipunov GSh-30-1 autocannon, twelve hardpoints, and several missiles such as air-to-air missiles, air-to-surface-missiles, anti-ship missiles, and anti-radiation missiles. It is also equipped with state-of-the-art avionics including the Sh-121 multifunctional integrated radio electronic system (MIRES) with Byelka radar that features an active electronically scanned array radar and has the ability to track sixty targets and shoot sixteen simultaneously.
The aircraft also features the 101KS Atoll electro-optical targeting system for tracking and locating targets in aerial warfare. In a somewhat similar vein, the XB-70A Valkyrie made use of specially designed turbojets (six General Electric YJ-93 engines) to sustain speeds in excess of Mach 3. Unlike the J58 engines powering the SR-71, the YJ-93 engines
of the XB-70A did not require the use of special fuel, and did not radically modify the intake/exhaust geometry in order to achieve Mach 3 flight. The YJ-93 engines did operate in afterburner at Mach 3;
however, the engines were specifically designed to be very efficient in afterburner, and the XB-70A AV-2 prototype sustained speeds in excess of Mach 3 for 32 minutes on one flight. Furthermore, the type was designed to operate at such speeds for periods of hours over intercontinental ranges.[10]
The initial production engines are two Saturn AL-41F1 two-shaft afterburning turbofans with thrust vectoring. It has four fans and nine HP compressor stages, annular combustors, and two single-stage turbines. The engine produces a 20,900 lbf dry thrust each and 33,100 lbf afterburning thrust.
Two Izdeliye 30 turbofan engines with thrust vectoring are also in development rated at 24,300 lbf dry thrust and 39,700 lbf with afterburner. Although the program is shrouded in secrecy, in September service leaders revealed that a prototype had already flown.
The Air Force and its industry partners are leveraging digital engineering to speed development and facilitate future capability upgrades, officials say. The issue with the J-20 is is that it does not have a gun.The F-35 is a joke.I don't understand why the US didn't continue with the F-22 program and why it didn't try
to make carrier and hover versions of it instead of setting off on the F-35 project, which has been a huge waste of money (over a trillion dollars). The final production version of the F-22 Raptor also cruises at speeds greater than Mach 1.8 without afterburner—but its endurance is much more limited.
In fact operational Raptor pilots tell me that it's not very useful during real world missions. “Supercruise is impressive on paper but not very practical in a fighter with limited fuel,” a senior Air Force F-22 pilot said.
“I would much rather have an aircraft that accelerates and gains energy back quickly than one that supercruises.” “Clearly the F-22 is the best air-to-ground [fighter] airplane in the world, in my opinion, except for the F-35.
And the F-35 is the best air superiority airplane in the world except for the F-22,” he said during a recent podcast hosted by Francis Rose. The F-22 Raptor's supercruise capabilities are touted, with or without justification, as a major performance advantage over other fighters.
Even so, supercruising uses much more fuel to travel the same distance than at subsonic speeds: The Air Force Association estimates that use of supercruise for a 100-nautical-mile (190 km) dash as part of a mission would cut the F-22's
combat radius from about 600 to about 450 nautical miles (830 km). However, this is still unconfirmed as the altitude and flight profile are classified (as are most of the F-22's capabilities). “The pace of iterative improvement visible in PLAAF equipment — from aircraft and weapons systems to increasingly realistic training and exercises — is striking,” the report said.
“If China can continue the level of investment, production and iteration demonstrated over the last decade, then existing capability gaps will close significantly, and more areas of outright Chinese advantage will emerge during the 2020s.” The F/A-22 is the first American fighter aircraft with the ability to supercruise, or fly at supersonic speeds without using the afterburner.
In early flight tests, it sustained speeds of Mach 1.5 -- that's one and a half times the speed of sound -- without using the afterburner. It can reach Mach 1.8 using the afterburner. “The design incorporates many features which have been copied from the F-22 and F-35, including nose cone shaping, the electro-optical targeting system (EOTS) under the nose, and the side-mounted [diverterless supersonic inlet] intakes,
” the RUSI report said. The Sukhoi Su-57 Felon was designed by Alexander Davidenko as a stealth multi-role fifth-generation jet fighter powered by twin engines. Aircraft development started in 2002 as air superiority and attack fighter.
It first flew in January 2010 and is expected to be introduced in 2020. The aircraft is in serial production and was intended to replace the MiG-29 and Su-27 fighters. The primary users of the Felon are the Russian Air Force and the Russian Navy.
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