Posted on 06/25/2014 9:43:56 PM PDT by sukhoi-30mki
Eurofighter will by year-end make is final proof-of-concept test flight on an aerodynamic modification kit that promises to improve the combat aircraft’s subsonic turn rate by 15%.
Adding leading edge root extensions and extended trailing edge flaps, and reshaping the side-of-cockpit ILS antennae covers as 70° delta strakes should improve the aircraft’s agility for close-quarters combat.
Laurie Hilditch, head of future capabilities at Eurofighter, says the modification kit should give the aircraft the sort of “knife-fight in a phone box” turning capability enjoyed by rivals such as Boeing’s F/A-18E/F or the Lockheed Martin F-16, without sacrificing the transonic and supersonic high-energy agility inherent to its delta wing-canard configuration.
Speaking at Airbus Defence & Space's Manching Eurofighter final assembly and maintenance facility near Munich, Hilditch says the root extensions – or LERX – have already flown and show significant improvement in the subsonic airflow over the wings. And, changing the shape of the ILS antennae cover to resemble a delta strake does the same for the vertical tail fin. The canards, he adds, act as strakes but not throughout their range of movement.
By: DAN THISDELLMUNICH Source: Flightglobal.com 13 hours ago Eurofighter will by year-end make is final proof-of-concept test flight on an aerodynamic modification kit that promises to improve the combat aircraft’s subsonic turn rate by 15%.
Adding leading edge root extensions and extended trailing edge flaps, and reshaping the side-of-cockpit ILS antennae covers as 70° delta strakes should improve the aircraft’s agility for close-quarters combat.
Laurie Hilditch, head of future capabilities at Eurofighter, says the modification kit should give the aircraft the sort of “knife-fight in a phone box” turning capability enjoyed by rivals such as Boeing’s F/A-18E/F or the Lockheed Martin F-16, without sacrificing the transonic and supersonic high-energy agility inherent to its delta wing-canard configuration.
Speaking at Airbus Defence & Space's Manching Eurofighter final assembly and maintenance facility near Munich, Hilditch says the root extensions – or LERX – have already flown and show significant improvement in the subsonic airflow over the wings. And, changing the shape of the ILS antennae cover to resemble a delta strake does the same for the vertical tail fin. The canards, he adds, act as strakes but not throughout their range of movement.
Dan Kemsley/Eurofighter
A further boost to agility could also come from the addition of thrust vectoring, which Hilditch likens to an extra control surface. Eurofighter, he says, has done quite a bit of work on the concept and could move forward with customer interest.
Coat of wax will make it go 15mph faster.
I remember a line like that out of ba ba black sheep.
The Euros have caught up to the 1970's.
Seems they have some drawback that counters their advantages, but it escapes me. They look like they could open up a lot of options to control airflow over the wings in extreme angle of attack flight where a stall might occur otherwise.
Drawback seen by US designers: NIH.
“Drawback seen by US designers: NIH.”
BTW, German Air Force checked the MiG29 after unification and they were surprised of the missiles. That did lead to the development of the IRIS-T missile with a lock-on-after-launch capability.
So dog fight is just necessary for the use of the cannon. The IRIS-T can get a firing solution via the radar warner at the back of the Eurofighter and the missile is fired other the “shoulder”.
A sub type of this missile IDAS is used protect submarines against helicopter. The missile starts from a submerged submarine out of the a normal torpedo tube. At first the missile is locked on the active sonar of the helicopter. 4 missiles fit in the place of one torpedo.
“I remember a line like that out of ba ba black sheep.”
Wow, blast from the past. I was a kid and loved that show.
F4U was one heck of a bird - inverted gullwings, huge prop, ...
Yes they’re socialists. Our local library is calling for a computer lab saying, “We want to remain cutting edge.” Didn’t HS in the 80s have computer labs?
Socialists have very low expectations.
“F4U was one heck of a bird...”
No kidding! As a kid I would watch “Blacksheep” and fell in love with that elegantly-shaped aircraft. I don’t know how many crayons I expended drawing Corsairs over and over and over.
I wonder how many are still around and flyable.
Maybe a couple dozen. But not even close to the number of flyable P-51s
One issue is that the make the aircraft more unstable. Consider what happens when you let loose an arrow with the feathers in the front, not the back.
This is counteracted in modern fighters through computer controlled fly by wire that make massive numbers of control inputs/corrections every second.
Still seems like there was some other drawback to maneuvering in combat that canards limited things. Maybe not.
They have been around a long time. While not a fighter, the B-70 bomber had them in the early 60's.
1903 actually
Generally the Air Races held annually at Reno sees one or two, and the OshGosh Fly-In often has one. Very expensive toy to keep flyable - keeping the radials engines operating - big bucks.
The last variants were built by Goodyear (e.g., FGs) and I believe Breswter (IIRC F3As).
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