good so you agree its for taiwan XD
H-20 bomber (with H-X, JH-XX)
- Thread starter Deino
- Start date
No it can be a difference maker. That doesn’t mean not having it is a show stopper.
plawolf
Lieutenant General
You do realise trying to dodge missiles is even harder than dogfighting right?
Folding tails would be to add stability and control authority to the plane without baking in the RCS penalty of having vertical tails.
But we need to be reasonable and realistic with just how much adding V tails could possibly boost agility, which is not a lot for a huge flying wing bomber. As such, these tails will have effectively zero combat applications so the only reasonable justification for having them would be benefits they convey at take-off and landing.
The biggest question that no one outside of the design team can answer right now is whether those benefits outweigh the costs of adding folding V tails.
It can be for everyone. Sharing is caring.
It depends on the expected engagement envelope. A MRAAM or LRAAM trying to intercept at the far end of its engagement range can have its pK greatly reduced against an evasive sustained turn that’s tight enough, since such a missile will have exhausted a good degree of its potential energy by the time it’s within range of intercept. I don’t think the addition of folding tails alone would be sufficient for this sort of requirement, but it might make some sense in conjunction with a cranked kite configuration.
A lot of these design decisions depend on very specific details of expected mission profiles. It’s possible that the tails are just for improving handling for take off and landing, but similar questions need to be asked about additional design complexity and weight being added solely for those benefits.
Just remind people that the purpose of the folderable V tails are not limited to take-off and landing, but also high speed (not necessarily super sonic) stability. There are many different kind of air turbulence, such as vertical current, side winds etc. We all have experienced those in airliners below the cruising altitude. These turbulence could be even worse to handle than take-off and landing.
A pure fly wing is really bad in keeping itself stable, it constantly wobble in yaw and pitch axis. FBW does make it handlable by human, but it is still very bad. Increasing its flight characteristic isn't to match a figher jet, but to get closer to a regular bomber or cargo aircraft.
Also, folderable V tails are not the only venue that designers have investigated. One other known is two distant aft bulges to add stability. A third known is similar to V tails, it is two folderable fins on the upper aft fuselage, no visible gaps or edges on the under side.
So, we should neither overstate nor understate the benifit of the V tails or its other alternatives. I think PLAAF is really serious about it. In other words, B-2 equivlant is NOT satisfactory for PLAAF, not even in its current role as subsonic bomber.
A pure fly wing is really bad in keeping itself stable, it constantly wobble in yaw and pitch axis. FBW does make it handlable by human, but it is still very bad. Increasing its flight characteristic isn't to match a figher jet, but to get closer to a regular bomber or cargo aircraft.
Also, folderable V tails are not the only venue that designers have investigated. One other known is two distant aft bulges to add stability. A third known is similar to V tails, it is two folderable fins on the upper aft fuselage, no visible gaps or edges on the under side.
So, we should neither overstate nor understate the benifit of the V tails or its other alternatives. I think PLAAF is really serious about it. In other words, B-2 equivlant is NOT satisfactory for PLAAF, not even in its current role as subsonic bomber.
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Well since China is in a "sharing mood" Japan,India,USA,SK and Australia can be on our H20-"gift list" but I hope never to get to that list.TW is China/Chinese gift to ourselves -all we need-for now.
Is that possible, though? This isn't something that should be compromised, a stealth bomber lives and dies by all-aspect, broadband VLO. That can't be compromised in the slightest, which is why I'm very skeptical of this folding tails narrative.
IT depend of what you want in the end, something to launch volley of cruise missiles undetected or something to bypass air defences to fly in circle shooting laser guided bombs... All-aspect is cool but overkill for most use, If you have time to unload your missiles, airdefences and fighters will have their hands full of targets and you willhave plenty of time to go back home.
No, no, no, 100% all the way. The bomber should be kissing a radar and it still wouldn't see it. All aspect, broadband VLO can't be compromised on whatsoever, everything else must be optimized around it.