Questions tagged [fighter]
A fighter is an aircraft designed primarily for aerial combat.
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Why is YF22 designed with conventional rudders while YF23 with all-moving rudders?
Are all-moving rudders more stealthy? If so, how come YF22 which is just as fixated with rear body stealthiness as the YF23 comes with conventional ones?
Also, all-moving rudders have fixed camber, ...
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369 views
Do fighter jets have deicing in their wings?
If there is such thing as deicing for fighters? If so, is bleed air or electric heating preferred? I could not imagine that a $50MLN fighter jet would not be able to get the ice off its wings.
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Can a bird strike destroy the stealth capability of F-35?
There is a video according to which a F-35 aircraft has been struck by a bird in Israel. This, allegedly, disabled its stealth capability.
More than a year earlier, two storks allegedly damaged ...
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4answers
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Aviation theory for fighter pilots
Background:
I'm an 18-year-old Finn and so I'll be starting my military service next summer. I'm currently applying to the Air Force to become a fighter pilot, but I don't have any previous training ...
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1answer
153 views
How was this flight authorized?
In this clip, we see a fighter performing risky manoeuvres at very low altitude around a densely populated civilian area.
What authorization would have been required for this and why would it be ...
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2answers
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Was any MiG-29 modernized to incorporate digital systems?
Did any air force using the MiG-29 ever modernize their aircraft so that they can fly on fully digital equipment such as the following?
Digital HUD
Digital fly-by-wire
Digital navigation system
...
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3answers
335 views
What is the vocabulary used by fighter pilots used to communicate?
As far as I understand, fighter pilots or more general military aircrews will use a dedicated phraseology to communicate with each other, which is different to communicating to ATC.
Is this ...
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1answer
149 views
What is the late BF109's (G models) internal fuel capacity?
What is the late BF109's (G models) internal fuel capacity? I've been trying to google the answer for a few hours with no luck, perhaps someone here has the right source
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1answer
318 views
What kind of jet fighter is this?
I visisited Tirana, Albania the first week in August. Outside a shopping mall called "TEG" there was an old jet fighter on display. I can't recognise what make and model this is. Can anybody here help ...
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192 views
On modern fighter aircraft, why do most carry a rotary cannon when they tend to have little use against aircraft? [duplicate]
I understand that in multirole or strike aircraft the cannon has a CAS use, but on a purely fighter aircraft, does the benefit of a fallback weapon outweigh the handicap of added weight?
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What drives the shape of an engine's intake on a fighter jet?
Rectangular intakes have more corners which might increase subsonic pressure losses and would weigh larger than a pitot (Semi-circular) type intake. Are the designer drivers solely based on supersonic ...
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Why does Martin-Baker use a Gloster Meteor as a testbed for ejection seats?
Martin-Baker uses a Gloster Meteor for testing ejection seats, according to their website.
While it's a stylish plane, and a true delight that there are still airworthy fuselages of this plane left, ...
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3answers
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Why was Energy Maneuverability theory not applied to the F-14?
In John Boyd's (declassified) 1966 Energy Maneuverability [PDF] report, studies were done on the F-4 and on the MiG-21 and those studies were applied to the F-15, F-16 and F-18. My questions:
Why ...
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2answers
527 views
Can current fighter jets perform a deadstick landing?
If a current modern day fighter were to have a total engine failure over a suitable landing site or airport, can the pilot safely perform a dead stick landing? If so, are they routinely given training ...
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Why double delta wing is used over delta wing? [duplicate]
I was thinking about delta wing then I saw the picture of double delta wing and thinking about its significance over delta wing.
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511 views
What is the difference in VTOL technology between British Aerospace Harrier II and F-35B?
F-35B safer and looks more stable in terms of VTOL capability.
What is the basic difference between Harrier II and F-35B's VTOL technology?
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310 views
What additional functionality is provided by the F-14 nose pitot, absent in early models?
Early model F-14A had no nose pitot:
... but they seem to have quickly acquired them sometime in the late 1970s. The Iranian F-14s have them, and it's quite hard to find a picture of an F-14 without ...
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4answers
774 views
Why don't single-engine jets suffer severe gyroscopic effects?
I was reading up on World War I fighter aircraft, and saw that rotary piston engines, which powered many of those planes, produced extreme gyroscopic effects due to the large, heavy chunk of metal ...
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1answer
207 views
Is making faster military fighters even practical?
I was curious after reading a book on Cold War plane development about the Soviet ideology of making increasingly powerful jets that could break Mach 3 and so on. With the advent of BVRAAM's such as ...
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1answer
220 views
Reason for limited engine fuselage on Sukhoi fighter aircraft? [closed]
To my amateur eye, there appears to be limited fuselage on the engines for Sukhoi fighters from Su-27 on. That is, the fuselage follows the curvature of the engines closely and there is a definite ...
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How do solo fighter pilots sleep?
Tonight I watched Nova's "The Impossible Flight", a documentary film about the around the world Solar Impulse project where a solo pilot set the world's record for a 5 day non-stop flight from Japan ...
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4answers
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Do fighter jets have an auxiliary power unit?
Do fighter jets have an auxiliary power unit? If they don't, then how does the propulsion/ignition process start in the engine?
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Why are only some aircraft in this formation creating contrails?
The Republic Day celebrations at New Delhi, India had a series of flypasts by the Indian Air Force.
What struck me the most was that in a formation with a C-17 in middle and two Su-30MKI flanking it, ...
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1answer
313 views
How are modern fighters cleaned? [closed]
I found this photo of a fighter jet being cleaned, how does this process work?
(usatoday.com)
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3answers
950 views
Do fighter jets use elevators as ailerons?
I saw jets in game using elevators to roll right and left, but I never saw them doing in real life. I was wondering if fighter jets actually use elevator to roll like they do in game.
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What is the lightest weight operational jet/turboprop fighter ever deployed in combat?
Since the beginning of WWII there was been a trend towards larger fighter aircraft. In about 1960 the United States continued with larger fighters (F4, F100, F111, F15) but also started a branch of ...
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1answer
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Can civilians who buy ex-military fighter jets get the necessary maintenance information for them?
I was looking for fighter jets which are available to be bought by private citizens. I was wondering: how would you schedule the maintenance, as most of the jets are ex-military and there are no ...
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What fighters have both 1 & 2 engine versions?
Northrop originally built the F-5 "Freedom Fighter" (and T-38 "Talon") with two engines. Later it was re-fitted with a single F404 engine from the F/A-18, re-designating it the F-20 "Tigershark" to ...
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4answers
834 views
How did ww1 pilots handle G-forces?
The wikipedia page on G-forces, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/G-force, lists that WW1 aircraft encountered 4.5-7g during dogfights.
This made me wonder, how did pilots in the early days of aviation ...
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2answers
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What is this feature on a Sukhoi Su-27? [duplicate]
Most but not all Russian Su-27's (and variants like the Su-30, -32, -33) have a device that looks like a headlight in front of the cockpit. What is it?
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543 views
How is the centre of lift and centre of gravity misalignment problem solved in Delta wing aircraft?
Since Delta winged aircraft don't have horizontal stabilizers to produce down force, how is that problem solved ?
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1answer
209 views
How is that there is no leak through the fuel vents during aerobatics maneuvers?
Can anyone tell me how aircraft such as jet fighters and stunt planes design the fuel tank vent system to prevent fuel leaking through the vents when performing aerobatics, 360 flips and complex ...
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1answer
471 views
Does the F-4E Phantom II have a weather radar?
Here's the cockpit of the F-4E:
The Main Panel NO7 says "Radar Scope" and when you put your mouse cursor on that "magician globe", the X-Plane 8.15 tooltip says "Weather Radar". So, what is that ...
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6answers
435 views
Why mount multiple autocannons on a fighter or CAS aircraft as opposed to a revolving barrel auto-cannon with a higher rate of fire?
Why would one design an aircraft with multiple chain guns instead of a single large rotary cannon, like the GAU-8 Avenger, and similar weapons?
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1answer
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What is this “No Hand Hold” thing in the P-51 Mustang cockpit?
Does Anybody remember Combat Flight Simulator WW2 Europe Series ?
In the P-51, there is a "something" with "No hand hold" text on top of it
What is that ?
Image source
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1answer
571 views
Can a F-35 shoot while hovering?
I know fictional aircraft are different than real ones but there is an F38 on Black Ops 2 (F35 based plane in 2025)
http://callofduty.wikia.com/wiki/FA38
It appears in a mission like this
...
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2answers
327 views
Where was the J-20 design stolen from? [closed]
Lets clear the Question Detalis
Once upon a time, I heard something like "China hacked X country and stole aircraft designs" and rest of the news were about an newer Chinese jet
Now, It looks somewhat ...
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1answer
4k views
What is the 0-60mph time of an aircraft carrier catapult?
Tesla's new Roadster is giving a 0-60mph time of 1.9 seconds. Truly ludicrous acceleration.
I was wondering how a fighter jet released from a steam catapult compares.
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Why F4 Phantom II didn't have an cannon? [duplicate]
Question is simple but seriously ? Who would design a FIGHTER bomber without an cannon ? What was the crazy reason they didn't added an cannon to it ? (Also My CPU is Athlon X2 II 250.... If only I ...
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1answer
212 views
In Polikarpov I-153, Were the gulled wings very important?
Lets look to the I153
It looks like it was made in order to make space for pilot to see its front just like here
But What about in the aerodynamics study ?
Are Gulled wing design very important ...
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1answer
157 views
Why would a country prefer to purchase Su-35 rather than Su-30MK? [closed]
Given that the Su-35 is merely an upgrade from the Su-27, why is Indonesia purchasing Su-35?
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2answers
380 views
What are the criteria for classifying which generation a fighter aircraft belongs to?
Current jet fighters have been classified as 4th generation, 4++ generation, and so on, with 5th generation being the latest, i.e F- 22. What is the criteria for such segregation? B-2 is a stealth ...
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2answers
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Did the F-8 have a stall speed of 1.6x its landing speed?
Wikipedia says that the F-8 was to have
a landing speed of no more than 100 mph (160 km/h)
This web page says that the F-8 did have
Stalling speed 157 mph.
The two don't explicitly discuss ...
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1answer
863 views
Can an airliner land safely using only propulsion control?
In this amazing story ,after losing all hydraulic power of the aircraft , Captain Al Haynes guided the plane to the Sioux city, crashed but saved 185 of the 296 lives (United Airlines Flight 232-Sioux ...
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Would it be feasible to build a jet fighter plane based on a wooden construction?
I read about the de Havilland Mosquito recently and that it was a quite successful British bomber in WW2 due its lightweight wooden construction. As far as I understand it, usual planes at that time ...
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How does a jet fighter with water-skis land safely?
I just read about the Convair F2Y on the obvious encyclopedic site. It's a delta wing jet fighter from the 1950's, with hydroskis so it can take off and land on water.
Can such a landing be made ...
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1answer
229 views
What would escorting an airliner which is the subject of a security threat by fighter jets achieve? [duplicate]
Today, a Ryanair flight from Lithuania to London Luton was the subject of a presumed hoax, and had some form of security alert. In the incident, it was diverted to Stansted, while being escorted by ...
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5answers
925 views
Were WW2 American fighters designed to operate from dirt airstrips?
Fighter or fighter-bomber planes built in America during WW2, such as the P-36, P-39, P-47, P-51. Were these designed to takeoff and land on dirt airstrips?
My impression, and correct me if I'm wrong,...
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0answers
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Is delta wing design on a fighter a compromise? [duplicate]
I apologize for not providing a reference, but I recall reading a Russian designer, I think he had something to do with Mig-29, while talking about Mirage 2000, said that a delta wing is essentially a ...
