I'm just referring to the current design of the J36. When you add up the benefits to range from very low wing-loads, extreme low drag from tailess design and simply larger size, 3000km is not that hard so it requires an extremely bloated fuel storage.
Shenyang next gen combat aircraft thread
- Thread starter Blitzo
- Start date
You have it backwardsAll else held equal sustained turns are helped by larger wing area and lower wing loading. The Mirage’s poor sustained turns come from the drag penalties of the pure delta, a lift to drag issue tied to the wing shape, not a problem from the wing area. It’s also why deltas with vortex lift devices have better sustained turns (and also instantaneous turns, the discovery of vortex lift was basically a rare free lunch for the most part), and why deltas were mostly only found in dedicated interceptor designs until the discovery of vortex assisted lift.
Ahh thanks for correcting. I associated the Mirage's delta with the large wing area.
Delta wing's drawbacks are helped by canards to moderate that airflow over the wings and I don't expect 6th gen fighters to suffer compromising aerodynamic drawbacks of such magnitude.
That is part of the design philosophy of the J36 double delta design, the front small delta also doubles as vortex generators for efficient lift.
I wonder if the reverse is actually easier.
Operational use or "combat mode" can be 1 drone per large area of sky, quite literally a km apart or so. No issues of collision. Gross spacing of that kind is not hard even with degraded GNSS.
Platforms operating in close proximity will need proximity sensors to gauge relative positions and vectors to prevent collisions. Something which I highly doubt most such CCAs are equipped with? Frontal arc, perhaps the radars can handle that but side/rear/ventral/dorsal?
I guess one fix could be similar to civilian drone swarm displays which uses ground based GNSS stations to allow cm accurate positioning. But do you really want the risk of degraded signals causing your parade formation to fall apart or worse still, collide mid-air over the VIP stand?
Fixing a few platforms with the required sensors to hold parade station just for this purpose is simply too much of the "for show" BS that PLA commonly gets accused of.
In an air superiority role, you do realise that a J-36 will be expected to use afterburners at that distance?
That burns a lot of fuel.
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Plus we can expect US aircraft carriers to be in support, some 300-1000km behind the airbases.
Again, this will require more range from a J-36
J-36 and J-50 will use afterburner but only turning and accelerating. Both should be supercruise capable when WS-15 is installed. You cannot abuse afterburner if you want long range.
I notice that wingtip flutter is not as aggressive as it was in footage of earlier flights. Can this be taken as SAC working out kinks in using the wingtips to maintain aircraft orientation and direction of movement?
Maybe, but I also wouldn't presume that the prior wingtip movements were problematic to begin with if they were just part of its flight test regime.
lcloo
Major
The assumption is too pre-matured for a 15 second video.