Re: No F-22B version

From what I can see, the part is not being used by industry any more. They have another part that has the same fit but with more functionality that's more widely use. And even at $100 a piece, it is not worth keeping making them when we only consume about 10 a month. If push comes to shove, we can ...

Re: No F-22B version

… "politics stopped me from buying ahead" isn't really a good answer. Unfortunately, the government is full of “not good” answers. It’s just how the system is set up. No one is saying what you’re saying isn’t physically doable - it is. But it’s absolutely not economically doable. The syst...

Re: No F-22B version

However, LM has lots of warehouses, if you want to buy a few for future needs. I still want to know how the current F-22s are being supported. I told you, the DLA. They hold all legacy components for program sustainment. and LM uses that material per awarded contracts to sustain the aircraft. https...

Re: No F-22B version

Really hard to pick sides, here. On one side is the cogent, well-reasoned argument made by well informed people citing logical hardware, coding, and supportability flaws in the program which prevented “future-proofing” and prevented future growth. Flaws which are so well known they are industry pos...

Re: No F-22B version

I don't believe this. If the air force wanted to continue to build more F-22s, it would have been easy to buy a few thousand i960s and other ICs as the production was winding down. In fact, I rather hope they did because the existing fleet need to be supported. Seriously, if Intel calls up and says...

Re: No F-22B version

Just for comparison, the early 1970's Mig-25M (2 prototypes) which had R15BF2-300 engines which fixed the overspeed issues, gave legitimate mach 3.3 top speed, and had a lot more power (32k lbs thrust). Demonstrated 1200 nmi combat radius at mach 2.35 cruise with 4x1000 lb AAM's, 80,000 ft combat c...

Re: No F-22B version

No, production was curtained because a number of critical components in the F-22's avionics went out of production from various subcontractors, and there was no quick and cheap way of finding an alternative part or supplier to provide said components. Basically, the F-22 has a very bad case of lock...

Re: No F-22B version

No, production was curtained because a number of critical components in the F-22's avionics went out of production from various subcontractors, and there was no quick and cheap way of finding an alternative part or supplier to provide said components. Basically, the F-22 has a very bad case of lock...

Re: SpaceX - Tests, Launches, Developments - 2022

zanl188 wrote:

T-Mobile to provide cell service to existing cell phones thru Starlink satellites. In Beta starting next year.

Re: SLS / Orion - Tests, Launches, & Developments

In fairness RJMAZ, Artemis really only became a defined program fairly recently, in the past 5 years. It wasn't only political interference, a tug of war over funding COTS and SLS that caused delays, a lack of a defined mission did not help SLS. But isn't this how it always is these recent decades?...

Re: SLS / Orion - Tests, Launches, & Developments

I personally find these comparisons with Starship to be way off the mark. ... SLS may be a technical dead end (only if reusability at these kinds of scale and energy ever become doable, which is far from a thing yet), but at the moment, it is the only way to send humans to the moon. In 20 or 30 yea...

Re: SLS / Orion - Tests, Launches, & Developments

Duplicate sorry

Re: SLS / Orion - Tests, Launches, & Developments

Please do not alter or twist my thoughts and words to suit your purpose. That is an extremely lame form of argument, that is responsible for much of the misinformation put forward on this subject. You should be able to formulate and express your own independent thoughts & points, without co-opt...

Re: SLS / Orion - Tests, Launches, & Developments

The goal is not to spend about $100B to get new footprints on the moon. The goal is long term cheaper access to space in quantity. SLS does not move us toward that goal. Resuable rockets like Starship do. You can write about how Starship with it's lower ISP fuel has trouble with deep space missions...

Re: SLS / Orion - Tests, Launches, & Developments

IF SLS can send payloads on direct trajectories in a single launch why is it that they need a modified version of Starship to land and return astronauts from the moon? How is Starship getting out of orbit? Do a little research. You will see that the lander is launched in to lunar orbit and only the...

Re: SLS / Orion - Tests, Launches, & Developments

I'm saying that you misunderstand. I don't want SpaceX to make the SLS (though I'd be my house they would do a better job than NASA). I'm saying I want SpaceX to make Starship, or Falcon Heavy ... and if you really want to go to the moon with fragile humans to use Starship. or Falcon Heavy. Don't t...

Re: SLS / Orion - Tests, Launches, & Developments

bobinthecar wrote:

I bet your vision of the 20 years from now future includes nothing like the SLS, and a lot like Starship.

No matter how you spin it ULA is fleecing the government.

Re: SLS / Orion - Tests, Launches, & Developments

This again is a misunderstanding. The design goal of SLS is to maximize characteristic energy (C3) delivered to a given payload on orbit. Starship design goal is reusability. These are opposing trade constraints for any rocket. SLS gives up reusability for C3. Starship gives up C3 for reusability. ...

Re: SLS / Orion - Tests, Launches, & Developments

I believe this argument is largely based on misunderstanding of the industry. At the time SLS was conceived, there was no commercial entity that could have undertaken the project. As I mentioned, it's a fallacy that has taken root amongst Musk supporters, but Musk himself does not make this claim. ...

Re: SLS / Orion - Tests, Launches, & Developments

SpaceX's Starship is to be fully reusable, and no one thinks they spent $25B to develop it. Also, arguably it began serious development in 2017, and 5 years later they have a prototype. This again is a misunderstanding. The design goal of SLS is to maximize characteristic energy (C3) delivered to a...

Re: SLS / Orion - Tests, Launches, & Developments

No one I've met knows the future ... but I think one can make a strong argument that for NASAs launch system "burn it to the ground and contract everything to ULA/SpaceX" would be exactly right. I'd wonder if you would get twice the speed at half the cost. I believe this argument is large...

Re: SLS / Orion - Tests, Launches, & Developments

Second, I politely disagree with how you do math. For the F-35, development costs *should* count. For Artemis, development costs *should* count. And if it's purpose is to put humans on the moon, then the cost of a lunar-rated space suit also counts. Even though NASA plans to spend an astronomically...

Re: SLS / Orion - Tests, Launches, & Developments

Even better, project total costs over some reasonable number of launches. " NASA's spending on its Artemis program, which aims to establish a sustainable human presence on and around the moon by the end of the decade, is projected to reach a total of $93 billion by 2025, according to a new aud...

Re: SLS / Orion - Tests, Launches, & Developments

Math says max efficency is to carry the highest ISP fuel the highest, and burn the lowest ISP fuel as close to the ground as possible. Therefore the LOX+H engines *should* be the ones to throttle back, and the SRBs should be at max power. The efficiency of the stack is the combined efficiency of th...

Re: Which countries make jet engines?

bikerthai wrote:

kitplane01 wrote:

Neither China nor Russia nor have access to the best technology to build jet engines.

See ground rule 2 on the original post.

bt

Re: Which countries make jet engines?

I think the comparison by country / nation is a bit meaningless. Ding Ding. The technology for manufacturing of jet engines do not belong to any individual country but the multinational corporations that builds them. Things like single crystal casting of the turbine blades, to the superplastic form...

Re: SLS / Orion - Tests, Launches, & Developments

The current RSRMV SRB has only marginal improvements over the shuttle era, because of the need to use up the existing inventory. The follow on BOLE, which is based on the OmegA, is significantly improved. It has composite casing, which means it carries much more propellant for the same weight, with...

Re: Which countries make jet engines?

No it doesn’t. Where do you get all these ideas from? Do you even know what France has sent to Saudi? In the 80’s in terms of combat aircraft they tried hard but were beaten by.........Tornado. Don’t you think that Saudi buying large numbers of Tornados in the 80’s and 90’s, a UK/German/Italian pro...

Re: Which countries make jet engines?

Within the EU + EEA are no restrictions. Just if the producer wants to export it outside of EEA/EU, they have to get a license. So just building and using it there is no problem. France might want all of its aircraft built in France. If the engine contains significant German parts … the Saudi expor...

Re: Which countries make jet engines?

Except when Germany decides you can't export this or that to such and such country... Within the EU + EEA are no restrictions. Just if the producer wants to export it outside of EEA/EU, they have to get a license. So just building and using it there is no problem. France might want all of its aircr...

Re: An upgraded F-35 in 10 years

The biggest single upgrade, outside of a series of software module changes/upgrades/maintainability stuff which is boring for us to discuss, would to me be the integration of a directed energy weapon. This again would benefit from a maxed out electrical capacity from the engine, imho. I really real...

Re: No F-22B version

The answer to all your questions is money. Building them and operating them was super expensive, and the F-35 was to be *much* cheaper.

Re: An upgraded F-35 in 10 years

No. The J-10 (First flight 1998) is in no way a copy of the Saab Viggen (First flight 1967). They both have delta wings and canards, but so does every fighter made in Europe in the last 20 years (and they are not copies of the Viggen either). That combination is just one of the standard solutions t...

Re: Future of the Turkish Air Force

I think the long term future for the Turkish Air Force involves repairing relations with the U.S. after Edrogan is gone and re-entering the F-35 program. And they need to swallow their pride and scrap the stealth fighter program that is going to suck up tremendous amounts of money and resources. Bu...

Re: An upgraded F-35 in 10 years

No one thinks the J-10 or the J-20 are a copy of anything ... and most people believe both are potent fighters. What you wrote was more true in the past than now The J-10 is a rough copy of the Saab Viggen. The J-20 is more original but copies many elements of the F-22, adapting them to the J-10 ca...

Re: An upgraded F-35 in 10 years

What you wrote about the F-15/F-16 is kind of like "they are good except they're gonna get shot down". What does "less stealthy but good surviviability" even mean? It sure doesn't mean "successfully runs from missiles" or "can take a missile hit and keep flying&qu...

Re: Future of the Turkish Air Force

https://www.defensenews.com/pentagon/2022/08/16/us-holds-fire-on-reports-of-turkeys-second-s-400-shipment/ Think they will just keep pushing it until they are kicked out of the NATO. In my opinion... Turkey is not going to scrap S-400 at this point Turkey is not going to stop being an authoritarian...

Re: Future of the Turkish Air Force

NATO member Turkey dropped its opposition to Finland and Sweden joining NATO. If US Congress is going to block supply of US aircraft or engines to NATO member Turkey, what has Turkey received in return? Sweden and Finland have banned some Kurdish groups the Turkish government doesn't like. Not ever...

Re: Which countries make jet engines?

Not used in "sort of manned combat aircraft" but on a tactical cruise missile AV-TM300 (or MTC300): https://www.turbomachine.com.br/ https://static.wixstatic.com/media/e3761a_2020602b65a749cfac7b96abc34bf6f1~mv2_d_2000_2000_s_2.png/v1/fill/w_420,h_276,al_c,q_85,usm_0.66_1.00_0.01,enc_auto...

Re: An upgraded F-35 in 10 years

Is there any reason to think it wouldn't be? No one knows what China will have in 10 years. But when my guess some brand new fighter is in the works. True, but historically China has copied existing designs, and the copies have not had the same capabilities as the originals. When 6th gen fighters a...

Re: Future of the Turkish Air Force

https://www.defensenews.com/pentagon/2022/08/16/us-holds-fire-on-reports-of-turkeys-second-s-400-shipment/ Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Bob Menendez, D-N.J., has threatened to block the F-16 sale over Turkey’s continued possession of the S-400s, its violations of Greek airspace and C...

Re: An upgraded F-35 in 10 years

Avatar2go wrote:

Is there any reason to think it wouldn't be?

Re: An upgraded F-35 in 10 years

My opinion is that the F-35 will only get upgrades that reduce cost. The USAF will soon have the 6th generation fighter to offer high performance. The F-35 will move down the ranks to become the medium capability fighter. The F-35 is needed to make up the numbers so operating and purchase costs wil...

An upgraded F-35 in 10 years

Lets suppose the F-35 gets all the upgrades! * It gets a new engine from the Adaptive Engine Tranistion Program. * It gets Block 4 software, and then a bug-free very good Block 5. * The radar gets updated to whatever is best 10 years from now. * New missiles are developed. all sized to fit in the F-...

Re: Which countries make jet engines?

Which countries make jet engines usable in a combat aircraft? It has to be useful in some sort of manned combat aircraft. Not transports, and not AWACS/ASW. Anything as good as a Mig-21 (and an M-346, T-50, etc are all good enough). Not used in "sort of manned combat aircraft" but on a ta...

Re: Which countries make jet engines?

Spain and Italy (ITP Aero and Avio Aero) also produce components and have their own engine FAL. https://www.eurojet.de/innovation/ Producing components and having your own final assembly line is not enough. You need to be able to make a whole engine. I don’t think Spain and Italy can reach this thr...

Re: Which countries make jet engines?

International Aero Engines, whose V2500 powers many of the classic Airbus 320, is a Swiss company. ;-) MTU in Friedrichshafen can build their own engines, and they are also supplying parts for various engine types, including the V2500. Sweden is license-building the F404 engine for their Gripen jet...

Re: Which countries make jet engines?

So far I can only think of (1) USA (2) UK (3) France (4) China (5) Russia and (6) maybe Ukraine if they can still build the Ivchenko-Progress AI-222. I assume Germany and Japan could, if they cared to spend the time and money. India is trying without current success. Germany is building jet engines...

Which countries make jet engines?

Which countries make jet engines usable in a combat aircraft? Rules: 1) Assembling a kit built by others does not count. You have to be able to build the whole engine, including things like the high pressure turbine. 2) It does not have to be super-modern. If it's no better than 1970s tech, that's f...

Re: Price of a Gripen vs T-50 or T-7a

Climb high. Start the afterburner. Get to Mach 1.6. Start the clock. Turn off the afterburer and go into a dive. Stop the clock. Continue the dive maintaining speed. The clock does not run. This would be done why? Who knows. Chasing someone in a dogfight??? The point is that the stated limitation i...