Looks indeed as if the pitot is gone …
J-35 carrier fighter (PLAN) thread
- Thread starter Deino
- Start date
Looks indeed as if the pitot is gone …
bro, please tell me why some fighters have pitot tube, others don't? what are the criteria that determines it?
by78
General
I think the resolution and clarity are too low to tell for certain.
All fighters have pitot tubes, which are essential flight instruments to measure air speed. The best position to install it to get an accurate measurement is in front of the aircraft, since the air flow is not yet disturbed by the airframe. However, technology has improved so that the pitot tubes can be placed in other positions as well.
was that black smoke I saw? or its something else ?
They all have pitots. Best location is on the front of the plane so the airflow being probed isn’t affected by the movement and aerodynamics of the aircraft itself. Previous generations would typically have a pitot on the point of the nose cone. With the advent of AESA radar they were moved to the sides of nose cones as they can interfere (but not impossible to workaround F-16V, F-16 block 70/72 and J-11BG/BHG have AESA and pitots on the nose cone). Newer technology also allowed them to be made smaller (or removed and replaced with pitot plates like on the B-2, but that’s a bomber).
That’s your background. Now, test and experimental aircraft need to collect lots of data, so we typically find many air data sensors and probes on them, with pitot tubes much larger than what you would find on any production or operational variant (go and look up pictures of the J-20 prototype).
So if J-XY/35 has (had) a large pitot on the nose cone for the purposes of flight testing and prototyping, then removal of it likely means….?
There’s some background for you, as well as rationale for why everyone has been “pitot watching” for the past X months and pages on this thread. A lot of what I’ve told you, I didn’t know before joining this forum. I encourage you to take the time to actually read things that are posted or discussed on this forum.
Others have pointed out that all fighters have pitot tube, I would add that all aircrafts have pitot tubes. What some fighters seem to be missing is the pitot tube mounted at the nose cone. This is actually common (all) practice in civilian aircrafts.
Here are pitot tubes of various aircrafts.
F-35
F-22
J-20
Airbus A-321
thanks a lot
All "good" engines also produce this at certain throttles and/or during takeoff. RD-33 based engines are a different matter.
Whatever engine that is on this J-35 certainly isn't the RD-33.
F-15 taking off watch from 3:16 onwards and look how much smoke is produced. This isn't even a good video example as there are plenty showing even worse.
Same for F-22 and F-16.
But RD-33 based engines are next level smokey as shown in typical Mig-29 images below using RD-33.
Whatever engine that is on this J-35 certainly isn't the RD-33.
F-15 taking off watch from 3:16 onwards and look how much smoke is produced. This isn't even a good video example as there are plenty showing even worse.
Same for F-22 and F-16.
But RD-33 based engines are next level smokey as shown in typical Mig-29 images below using RD-33.
thank you so much for all the illustrations, now I have a better understanding.