Because it provided money in the early '90's. Lockheed bought an Antonov developed combination of welding and bonding, from the early 1950's and the production of An-2's, around 1970.
PLANAF STOVL aircraft design from Cheng-Du
- Thread starter Air Force Brat
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- who knew???
I think I heard/read a while back that Yakovlev had been approached by/or had worked with the Chinese on their lift motor technology ... but then again I'm old and easily confused, so best you ignore me.
TerraN_EmpirE
Tyrant King
Sorry I am late Lets do some clean up
What Lockheed bought was not the lift fan. Lockheed had been experimenting with lift fans as far back as the 1960's With the XV-4 Hummingbird.
Yak Vtol aircraft used lift Jets The Yak 141 used three jet engines one main Soyuz R-79V-300 and two vertically mounted RKBM RD-41 engines, For lift the Soyuz's Nozzle swivels over 90* from horizontal to vertical via a system known as a 3 Bearing swivel duct well the 2 additional RKBM's Thrust These Form two main columns of Air which pushed the Yak 141 into the Air.
This is similar to what is used on the F35B. As F35B uses a Forward mounted Rolls Royce made Lift Fan ( that is to say a counter rotating ducked fan) mounted in the fuselage and slaved to the F135 engine to generate the forward columns of Air and the Exahust channeled though a Similar 3 bearing swivel for the rear.
However What Yak sold was not the Technology of the 3 Bearing swivel what it sold was the Performance Data of the Yak 141. Because Lockheed already had a 3 bearing swivel design.
WAIT WHAT??? you ask then where did the 3 bearing swivel come from?... I'll leave that for you to sweat on for a few well I cover a few other points.
Since the model 200 was the Yak 141's performance data enabled Lockheed to double cheek the home work. Lockheed Bought the blue prints of the Model 200 when Convair later General Dynamics sold off it's aviation elements to Lockheed and MacDonald Douglas ( now Boeing). Ironically This changes the Claims of Earlier by making Yak the Clone. If you look at the art work I just posted It's Very close to the Yak 141...
Sorry Brat, But Wrong.
What Lockheed bought was not the lift fan. Lockheed had been experimenting with lift fans as far back as the 1960's With the XV-4 Hummingbird.
Yak Vtol aircraft used lift Jets The Yak 141 used three jet engines one main Soyuz R-79V-300 and two vertically mounted RKBM RD-41 engines, For lift the Soyuz's Nozzle swivels over 90* from horizontal to vertical via a system known as a 3 Bearing swivel duct well the 2 additional RKBM's Thrust These Form two main columns of Air which pushed the Yak 141 into the Air.
This is similar to what is used on the F35B. As F35B uses a Forward mounted Rolls Royce made Lift Fan ( that is to say a counter rotating ducked fan) mounted in the fuselage and slaved to the F135 engine to generate the forward columns of Air and the Exahust channeled though a Similar 3 bearing swivel for the rear.
However What Yak sold was not the Technology of the 3 Bearing swivel what it sold was the Performance Data of the Yak 141. Because Lockheed already had a 3 bearing swivel design.
WAIT WHAT??? you ask then where did the 3 bearing swivel come from?... I'll leave that for you to sweat on for a few well I cover a few other points.
The F35B is a totally new ball game compared to the Harrier.
Here is where I drop my bomb shell. The F35B's 3 bearing swivel system was the product of... Convair In particular the Convair model 200 concept circa 1972
Since the model 200 was the Yak 141's performance data enabled Lockheed to double cheek the home work. Lockheed Bought the blue prints of the Model 200 when Convair later General Dynamics sold off it's aviation elements to Lockheed and MacDonald Douglas ( now Boeing). Ironically This changes the Claims of Earlier by making Yak the Clone. If you look at the art work I just posted It's Very close to the Yak 141...
The sale was more of a Charity action to keep Russian Aviation alive. as it was done After Lockheed had already installed the X35's Vtol system.
YES! As I said on the What IF Aircraft Thread, I had forgotten all about the Convair VSTOL aircraft proposal back then.
And it makes perfect sense that LM would get that data from them.
Good dig!
TerraN_EmpirE
Tyrant King
After all the Yak 141's lift system was basically the never built system proposed for the model 200 and it showed that Convair got it's home work right.
Hmmm...perhaps there is some info that the PRC could yet obtain from Yak, one way or the other then.
Personally though, I believe the Chinese have a LONG way to go before they go down the VSTOL road for CAS aircraft flying off of their LHD sor LHAs.
They have to get those vessels designed and built first, then develop enough LCACs and LCUs to move men and equipment ashore, and the helos to move them ashor in air assaultand also support them...all of that before they really should be worrying about that type of aircraft.
The US Navy built the dedicated Iwo Jima Class LPH vesses (the first in the world) starting in 1960. Seven were built, followed by the much larger Tarawa LHA class of which five were built in the early to late 1970s (actually yhthe last was commissioned in 1980).
They US Navy and Marines did amphibious and air assault with those 12 vessels for a lot of years before the Harriers ever came aboard.
The US Marines got their first AV-8B Harriers aboard those ships in an IOC capacity in 1985...twenty-five years after getting their first LPH vessels.
So, I expect it will be some time before the PRC attempts anything like this..
They just have too much on their plate to develop to make the ships and the Amphibious and air assault by helo before they go there. Then, like with the US, perhaps they will probably start initial CAS for the troops with helo gunships of some sort.
...and then maybe go to VSTOL aircraft after all of that. They will not develop all of that capability overnight. It will take them 10-15 years or so.
Anyhow, that's how I see it.
XV-4 was a test of using the flow from the two main engines in ejectors in the fuselage to increase the thrust available and directed vertically for take off and landing. Unfortunately the ejectors were so heavy that no advantage was achieved. The second craft, called XV-4B, had four lift jets instead of the ejectors. Both craft were destroyed in testing. See .
It still makes sense to build the STOL installation into the ship, not the aircraft.
TerraN_EmpirE
Tyrant King
It was an Early work to be sure There was also the Ryan Xv5 Vertifan which used exhaust driven lift fans.
The Lift fan of the F35B on it's own produces about 20,000 lbf (89 kN) for comparison the Harrier produces 23,500 lbf (105 kN). The lift fan alone is almost equal to the Harrier. add in the Main engine with it's 3 bearing swivel 18,000 lbf (80 kN) and the vectored thrust of the post rolls 3,900 lbf (17 kN) combined for 41,900 lbf (186 kN) and you have almost double the vertical thrust of AV8. Mind you F35B is almost twice the weight of AV8
In XV-5 the fans were driven by the jet efflux of the main engines, in F-35B by a shaft from the main engine. The second way was developed after the time of XV-4 and -5.