It’s the other way around. The thrust will be fine. It’s the electrical system that needs a reliable generator. If you’re running two engines and there’s power drop off in one or both of them the plane will fly fine but the electrical output might get disrupted. You’re not likely to *lose* all electric power but for high output electrical systems especially losing output can disrupt system performance, sometimes when you need surge capacity. Distributing that load to three sources with one primary and two auxiliary helps resolve those kinds of situations.
Chengdu next gen combat aircraft (?J-36) thread
- Thread starter Blitzo
- Start date
It's not just about thrust, it is also about bypass ratio and exhaust velocity.
It's probably simpler than developing an engine that is able to meet all of the requirements for J-36 in a two engine configuration, in a manner which is timely and effective.
Three engines will burn more fuel than two engines of the same model.
However an aircraft with three engines can also be heavier than an aircraft with two engines of the same model, thus carry more fuel.
It may well be that an aircraft with three engines of the same model can achieve greater range than an aircraft with two engines of the same model, because the two engine design will inevitably have a lower MTOW.
You're really looking at things from an individual perspective here.
A dorsal intake will increase and compromise signature reduction relative to having no dorsal intake yes -- but no dorsal intake means either no third engine (thus having a smaller aircraft), or forcing your two side mounted intakes bigger, which is something perhaps the airframe is unable to accommodate with adverse consequences to signature reduction and drag (compared to having a dorsal mounted intake as a solution instead).
If the aircraft is in a position where they need the Mk1 eyeball to glance rearwards, then something has gone wrong.
Air refuelling probes are usually mounted on the side, thus offset from the dorsal air intake.
X-47B uses a probe and has a single dorsal intake. I consider it a non-issue, and it's odd you would even raise it as if it is a genuine engineering conundrum.
KFX, the best way for you to approach the 3 engine matter, is to try to reverse engineer out the combination of compromises by first assuming the following conclusion:
"The three engine configuration for J-36 is the most effective and capable configuration for the mission that the PLA expects, and is irrespective of engine technology relative to the rest of the world".
From there, you can start to come up with reasons for yourself for why they've chosen the three engine, three intake configuration among the permutation of engineering decisions they've made.
Instead of "why would they choose a three engine design because of XYZ deficiencies," think and come at it from this angle "of course they would choose a three engine design, because of XYZ benefits".
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Three engines overall also offer more growth capacity for power generation in the long term -- assuming each engine has its own genset, and as gensets will likely advance and improve in future, you'll get disproportionately more power generation from a three engine setup versus an equivalent two engine setup.
Yes. Also load stability and flexibility.
3 engines are good for redundancy in case of failures, true. But wouldn't distributing the load evenly across three engines be better for reliability/redundancy? So as to minimize the impact of any disturbances in any one engine?
Her's an idea... don't fly you secret aircraft aound heavily populated urban areas where every single person is carrying some sort of camera on their phone or other device.
If they were really that worried about it IMO, they would be flying this aircraft in the gobi desert.
asif iqbal
Banned Idiot
Don’t think you need to be a PLA watcher
it’s pretty clear to everyone China has leaped frogged every 6th generation fighter project
and showing these kinds of manoeuvres so early on the development is clearly making a big statement
6th generation fighter shouldn’t be able to make these kinds of turns without traditional add ons unless you have a serious advantage and advancement in relevant technology
Can we not cross post things from other communities please.
We don't need inter-community/platform strife.