Originally posted by Timcouchfanclub
Why is there a lot of posting going on about a good replacement for the F-111B. That plane was a piece of junk. The Air Force hyped it up so they
wouldn't be stuck buying another Navy bird(F-4). IF it was so great then why did many countries cancel its order? If it wa so great then why build
the F-15 or F-16. Plus the found that the sweep wing design was a serious flaw. that it creates to many stress fractures in the body. If sweep wing
is so great then why aren't all of our planes sweep wing?
Ok if you know the history of the F-111 you know that it came from the ATF program started by McNamara in the 60's to try to build a common fighter
aircraft for the Air Force and the Navy. As a fighter the F-111 is a prime example of why you can't have design by committee. The F-111 proved to
be too heavy for use on carriers and so the Air Force was stuck with them. Instead of letting them rot the Air Force found a use for them as attack
bombers in Vietnam. I'll give you the point on the F-111's swing wing pivot having stress fractures, but that was resolved in the 80's by
replacing the airframe attachment points. The lessons learned from the F-111's pivoting wing and advances in metalurgy were applied by Grumman on
the F-14. Improvements in aerodynamic design namely improvements to flap and leading edge slats as well as boundry layer control has eliminated the
need for a swing wing for land based aircraft. You may see it again on carrier based planes.
There is no such thing as the ultimate multipurpose plane. And that is the problem that the F-22 is going to get into. To be a bomber you
have to make them bigger taking away the agility for Air-to-Air and to be a fighter it won't be extremly big so it will be limited on the amount of
bombs it carries. I say call it the PB-22. The Percision Bombing raptor. That is what it will be used for. In a true Air-to-Air fight stealth
isn't going to save you. If you strip down an F-16 or F-18 to their Air-to-Air Physique which is about 5-10,000Lbs less than their weight now they
will detroy any plane. It is because of the buttonhook effect. They are able to turn in and out of turns harder and faster than any other plane.
Your statement about multipurpose planes is 100% dead on. We havent been talking about making a bomber out of the F-22, what we have been saying is
that you could make a totally seperate attack aircraft that would share many of the same systems and components with the F-22 that there would be a
great cost savings in money and infrastructure.
The only thing that stealth is good for is to evade radar. That isn't going to do you much good in a dogfight. The AMRAAM missile has a range of 30
miles and there is talk of increasing it to over 60 miles. Problem is that very rarely do the rules of engagement let you shoot at an aircraft that
can't be identified visually. Murphy's Laws of Combat state that "If you can see the enemy, he can see you.". There goes your stealth advantage.
In close the F-22 is not much better than the fighters that we have now.
But hey if you want to bomb cities then its the PB-22 all the way. Me personally I like the Dog fights that is why I choose the F-16. But
because the raptor is the newest it must be the best. Keep on thinking that and when we get into a close Air Battle we will be SOL. Way to go
military, Way to burn billions of Dollars on another plane that has no real job except the BS multipurpose.
The F/B-22 or F/A-22 won't be any good for bombing cities because it can't carry enough bombs to make it worthwile. What it can do is to remove the
ground based radar and high altitude surface-to-air missile systems. This would clear the way for planes like the F-15E and B-52's with preciscion
weapons
