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.
Jump to postNo. 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...
Jump to postI 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...
Jump to postNo 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...
Jump to postWhat 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...
Jump to posthttps://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...
Jump to postNATO 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...
Jump to postNot 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...
Jump to postIs 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...
Jump to posthttps://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...
Jump to postAvatar2go wrote:Is there any reason to think it wouldn't be?
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...
Jump to postLets 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-...
Jump to postWhich 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...
Jump to postSpain 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...
Jump to postInternational 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...
Jump to postSo 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...
Jump to postWhich 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...
Jump to postClimb 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...
Jump to postshort bursts of time before there is a risk of structural damage and loss of stealth capability Not sure, but just because they call it after "burner allowance" it does not involve aerodynamic heating cause by excessive speed when using afterburners. bt They call it "afterburner allo...
Jump to postthat is because of the stealth coatings/materials inability to handle high mach temperatures and not because mach 2 is "unnecessary" Not only the stealth coating, but the thermo property of the composite material of the skin itself. Ironically, for an aluminum skin, even though it does no...
Jump to postWell the Gripen C is an honest mach 2 airplane and the T-50 can only do 1.5, and the T-7 is an outright dog at mach 1.2, so neither of those aircraft have to use materials that can handle mach 2 heating. That might account for some of the cost. The Gripen C is mach-2 at high altitude only. What par...
Jump to postI suspect it may not be valid to compare empty and takeoff weights, and conclude the airframes are structurally equivalent. As pointed out above there are materials needed for high speed flight, high g-loads, and high flight cycles at those loads. Also at least for the T-7, the lift capability is w...
Jump to postAlso remember the Pareto principle or the 80/20 rule. Generally developing something 80% as good only costs 20% of the price. This applies to other things like phones. This is a key design philosophy of the LM Skunk works that allowed for rapid development. I might believe this is true in many area...
Jump to postThe correct answer is fewer parts allowing for reduced assembly time. "The best part is no part. The best process is no process." - Elon Musk The Saab Gripen program started roughly 20 years before the Korean T-50 trainer. Improved CAD design and machining allows for a reduced parts count...
Jump to postWell the Gripen C is an honest mach 2 airplane and the T-50 can only do 1.5, and the T-7 is an outright dog at mach 1.2, so neither of those aircraft have to use materials that can handle mach 2 heating. That might account for some of the cost. The Gripen C is mach-2 at high altitude only. What par...
Jump to postMy understanding (from various sources) is that the earlier Gripen was around $60M, with the E model expected to be in the range of an F-35 at around $80M. However the Gripen is far more capable than any of the primarily trainer aircraft you cited. The airframe is far stronger and more durable, and...
Jump to postI think you are mixing up Gripen C and Gripen E. Gripen C uses a Volvo version of GE F404; Gripen E uses GE F414. What is your source supporting a Gripen E cost of $100 million? My error. I was refering to the Gripen C, which might cost just $60M. https://www.shephardmedia.com/news/air-warfare/swed...
Jump to postThe Gripen and the KAI T-50 both use the F-404 engine, and weigh within 3% of each other. Both are superonic, and can carry two crew. The T-7a is presumably very similar. A Gripen costs about around $100M, a T-50 costs about around $30M, and a T-7a costs less. Why does a Gripen costs so much? Are th...
Jump to postlxman1 wrote:The Tomcat followed by the F15 gets my vote.
Curious... how long is it likely to take to get a yea or nay from Congress? I ask that assuming that this deal is a little contentious and will not just be rubber stamped. There first must be an evaluation by various departments stating that the sale will not adversely affect US defense. Then if th...
Jump to postThe F-16’s (or rather, many of them) would seem to have a lot of life left, and a lot of countries/companies know how to upgrade them. I’d be surprised if they don’t order something newish in small quantities, but also get someone to do a SLEP/upgrade on the existing F-16 fleet. They ordered 80 upg...
Jump to postMarquette just lost a flight to Detroit, and now has the lowest number of flights in recent memory. Escanaba is losing half it's flights (from 2 downto 1). Even before the cuts flights were mostly full, an always expensive. Now, crazy. Of course I know there is a pilot shortage, but Delta should be ...
Jump to postRight now Turkey has 48 upgraded F-4s and 245 F-16C/D. None of this is what the kids call "modern". Turkey wanted F-35s, was approved for F-35s, and then un-approved because they bought Russian missiles. Turkey has requested 40 new F-16s and 80 F-16 upgrade kits. The white house has unoff...
Jump to postRight now Turkey has 48 upgraded F-4s and 245 F-16C/D. None of this is what the kids call "modern". Turkey wanted F-35s, was approved for F-35s, and then un-approved because they bought Russian missiles. Turkey has requested 40 new F-16s and 80 F-16 upgrade kits. The white house has unoffi...
Jump to postWouldn't buying essentially a Chinese jet like the FC-1/JF-17 further strain its relationship with NATO? Especially after all the fuss China is making around Taiwan? I'm sure they would sell it as buying a Pakistani airframe. It's hard to get mad at Turkey for buying someone else's fighter if you w...
Jump to postWouldn't buying essentially a Chinese jet like the FC-1/JF-17 further strain its relationship with NATO? Especially after all the fuss China is making around Taiwan? I'm sure they would sell it as buying a Pakistani airframe. It's hard to get mad at Turkey for buying someone else's fighter if you w...
Jump to postOr .. Turkey buys JF-17s. Available without requiring an American engine or avionics. Can do about-sort-of the same role as an older F-16, and clearly better in several ways than an ancient F-4.
Jump to postNext ... folding wings! Just a few on a carrier to save the F18s and 'hawks from doing missions that don't need their capabilities. The "Someone go look at that ship and see what it is" stuff.
Jump to postAnd of course, the single bladed prop. It’s asymmetric, with half the blades of a normal prop. And it flies safely.
https://www.aopa.org/news-and-media/all ... -sensation
I think I know the answer to this, and it has to do with cost, complexity and weight. However, a contrarotating propeller setup on a single-engine GA aircraft would it much easier to fly. Anyone who's driven dual-prop and single prop boats knows what I'm talking about. As a bonus, it would save CFI...
Jump to postOut of curiosity, how much does the proximity of the two propellers in the coaxial configuration affect performance? I imagine there would be a fair amount of turbulent air around both props. Or maybe just the aft prop. Or maybe not? It's actually a few-percent more effecient at turning power into ...
Jump to postLast time I looked at Wikipedia, Poland was NATO member (like germany) and EU member, so both countries are allies and close neighbours. It is true that Germany bashing is a hobby from Polands far right garden gnome government, but doesn't change the fact that both countries are very close. It woul...
Jump to postPoland to buy 48 FA-50 light fighter jets, 180 K2 tanks, 670 K9 self-propelled artillery pieces The biggest export deal ever from South Korea. The FA-50 seems to be selling well. The FA-50 delivery schedule is fast and strange: All deliveries are planned to be completed “in 2023, with 12 aircraft in...
Jump to post"This missile will hit him if the radar stays on, and even if he turns it off the radar will go to the predicted location and search with it's (admittedly small) built in radar." This is a problem. What is the predicted location? How does your missile predict the location? (Anti-radiation...
Jump to post"This missile will hit him if the radar stays on, and even if he turns it off the radar will go to the predicted location and search with it's (admittedly small) built in radar." This is a problem. What is the predicted location? How does your missile predict the location? (Anti-radiation...
Jump to postCould anti-radiation missiles be a SIGNIFICANT if PARTIAL answer to stealth? If the enemy stealth plane cannot turn on his radar, and my radar doesn't even detect him, we're at a rather even place. Lets suppose I'm flying around with the new anti-radation missiles that are about to equip the F-18Es ...
Jump to postBut my question is ... why did they continue to build F-16normals when they could have built F-16XLs? I think this is/was the crux of your initial question and the simple answer is: Someone would have needed to pay, upfront, for all the developmental work needed to actually get it to be volume prod...
Jump to postIt is becoming clear the A400M is extensively used these days in the European theatre as a tanker. For the various border patrols, supporting a variety of missions. While having every A400M basically suitable for this tanker role costed extra, it's paying off today. I'm so willing to be educated. B...
Jump to postI wonder whether Embraer can pitch their plane in this with Netherlands/Portugal/Czech/other European countries contents and local production/assembly and have a chance to win it ?.... No. Any tiny European nation that wants to buy 4 copies of an airplane cannot reasonably afford to set up a final ...
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