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Falling bullets are similar to falling stones, albeit with higher density and higher terminal velocity. Small ones won't do much damage, but I don't want to be hit by one from a 37mm cannon. Same goes …

Modern fighter aircraft will be in service for at least 20, if not 40 years. … Just consider the variety of tasks for a modern air superiority fighter: Intercept intruders. What is a fighter worth that cannot climb up to an unknown threat in a hurry? …

In fact, there was already a wooden jet fighter. The Horten IX (or Gotha 229) had wooden wings and a steel tubing frame in the mid wing with wooden skin. …

In a paper by Ray Whitford on fighter design he published a comparison study between the conventional Jaguar and an advanced version optimised for relaxed static stability. … Note that this optimization was for the ground attack role; an optimized fighter version would had maintained a larger wing and horizontal tail for higher agility. …

The pilots who became Air Force generals in the Fifties had learned their trade in the Thirties when speed was the most-desired quality in a fighter. … When the requirements for new fighter aircraft were written in the Fifties, those generals made sure that a higher top speed was part of the specification. …

I once led a group of Antonov engineers through the aircraft exhibition of the Deutsches Museum in Unterschleissheim near Munich. There are two halls connected by a walkway, and from that walkway you …

This depended strongly on the flight altitude. Staying at low level for the full mission meant that the Me-262 would run out of fuel within 40 to 50 minutes. Climbing above 6 km (20,000 ft) would ext …

Why does Harrier have split hot exhaust nozzles? Because a central tail exhaust is too far from the two front exhausts which are fed by bypass air. The split exhaust makes all ducting mercifully sho …

Of course designers still care about the area rule, but it has become less important. The original area rule is just for Mach 1; at higher speeds you need to look at the cross section distribution alo …

With so many questions I need to structure the answer: Effect on performance Moving the wing backwards will also move the aerodynamic center backwards, but the high sweep of a swing wing normally me …

Long range missiles benefit from the lower air density at higher altitudes. Short-range missiles normally fly line-of-sight to the target, but for distances of more than 8 or 10 km, the range of the m …

Ejecting at 1000 knots means ejection into supersonic flow. Not even the Zvezda K-36, the indisputably best ejection seat around, is rated for that. For this kind of speed, whole enclosures have been …

Circular nozzles have these advantages: They can be swiveled in any direction, so both pitch and yaw moments can be produced. Square nozzles only allow to create pitch forces, because their panels c …

contemporaries like the Hawker Hurricane, the Supermarine Spitfire, the Curtiss P-40, the Heinkel 112 or the Dewoitine 520 had cantilevered stabilizers, why would he tolerate a strut on the tail of his new fighter …

Nevertheless, his aircraft achieved surprising performance with very limited engine power, so he was unofficially asked to contribute a design when a competition for a new standard fighter was announced …