Chinese UCAV/CCA/flying wing drones (ISR, A2A, A2G) thread

[latenlazy]

The DSI inlet, being non-adjustable, can only be optimised for a single cruising speed range. In contrast, conventional inlets feature internal or external adjustability, enabling them to maintain high efficiency across multiple cruising speeds. Therefore, it is not accurate to state that DSI inlets are only suitable for transonic or high subsonic ranges.

A “single” speed *range* is multiple speeds

Having a DSI also does not exclude possible adoption of other inlet adjustment mechanisms.

 

[Nevermore]

A “single” speed *range* is multiple speeds

Having a DSI also does not exclude possible adoption of other inlet adjustment mechanisms.

Speed is a range, just as different bypass ratios correspond to different optimal speed ranges. Additionally, it is indeed possible to internally modify the DSI intake duct to make it adjustable, but this could be extremely complex—at least I haven't seen such a design yet.

 

[mack8]

Lets not forget about the latest flexible materials allowing for variable DSI bumps. And speed wise, DSI J-20 and J-35 are obviously high performance machines, so it is reasonable to assume a DSI UADFs should be capable of the same bracket performance.

 

[plawolf]

Italian guy's new video on the type B UADF, some of his points:

1. He correctly recognizes it as very important and different in nature to other smaller CCAs from around the world
2. He reckons due to it having a rhomboidal wing without canard or wing tip devices that it's optimized for speed and not agility
3. He misidentifies the engine as WS-15 due to serrated petals, not realizing/forgetting that WS-10C has them too
4. He guesses from DSI intake that the aircraft is optimized at around transonic speed
5. He recognizes they can of course act as CCAs, but their larger size and evidentially capacity for electronics inside means they could also operate in a different mode. He guesses either full autonomous fighter or remote control fighter, he's leaning towards full autonomous fighter.

My opinions are I'm not sure why DSI would indicate optimized for transonic speed given J-20 has DSI intake and can reach Mach 2. I take Xiyazhou's argument that these UADFs can be thought of as a JF-17 sized aircraft fitted with J-10's engine, which should mean excellent thrust to weight ratio. Without the drag from a cockpit these things should be pretty fast as far as top speed go.

I wonder what kind of thrust to weight ratio an aircraft of that size would have if fitted with a WS-15, must be some scary number.

I think the choice of WS10 is more to do with the electrical power requirements of the UADF rather than raw thrust. Although that additional thrust is not going to hurt or go to waste either.

With no cockpit or vertical tails, that thing will have insanely good drag coefficient. As such, I don’t think it will be optimised for transonic flight, rather it will be optimised for high supercruise and will probably only drop to subsonic for take-off and landings and where speed restrictions are in place to avoid annoying people on the ground with sonic booms.

With the kind of TWR it will have, it can absolutely afford the thrust penalty from having stealthy nozzles. So either the RCS treatment on the existing nozzles are good enough; or they are waiting for stealth nozzles to be developed, or they need all that thrust for the kinds of high supercruise this thing is designed to live in.