posted on Jan, 13 2006 @ 10:15 PM
Planeman, that design, really, I'm not going to lie to you, isn't what I had in mind, and we're going to sacrifice 3 dimensional thrust vectoring
for some RADAR?
And to answer your question, this is the Designing phase of the concept, making it a design and not just a concept. I think that the only RADAR we
should have is the Phase Array in the nose Radome and with a few antennae sticking out of it. I don't want to sacrifice manueverability for RADAR
capability, that would defeat the purpose, this is why we have AWACS, aircraft designed specifically for this role. Also, I do not believe the plane
is overpowered, it will be pretty heavy, and right now it is bigger than the F/A-22 who's engines already put out about 35,000lbs of thrust each and
those engines do allow for supercruise. With 5,000lbs more thrust, I believe we can carry more of a payload and have a slightly faster supercruise
speed. This would also allow us to make a large wingspan if necessary to accomadate the fuel tanks.
Now, to the internal weapons bays, Planeman, no stealth designed into the structure, this is not a RAS stealth aircraft, nor is it stealth by any
respectable means, it may be slightly steatlh, but nothing a good modern RADAR couldn't defeat. The purpose of the internal weapons bays is to
provide better aerodynamics for the plane, if the weapons are inside, less drag correct? We want as little parasite drag as possible.
Also, I believe that the nozzles for the engines should be outwards more to allow for full 3dimensional thrust vectoring and the tail fins should stay
where they are. I am deciding on whether or not to add carnards, and if so, I would have to figure out the wing dihedral I would put the canards at
and which variable angle would allow for the best aerodynamic performance. I might also make the fuselage wider to encompass more gas tanks to give it
a bigger range. All in all, this aircraft will turn out to be a pretty big and heavy plane.
Shattered OUT...