home
***
CD-ROM
|
disk
|
FTP
|
other
***
search
/
Wild Blue Yonder 1: 50 Years of Gs & Jets
/
Wild Blue Yonder - Episode 1 - 50 Years of Gs and Jets (Digital Ranch) (Spectrum Holobyte)(1-107-40-101)(1994).iso
/
control
/
printext.dir
/
00134_Field_134.txt
< prev
next >
Wrap
Text File
|
1994-08-29
|
2KB
|
30 lines
A Killing Advantage
Since World War I, air combat victories have been made by
aircraft flying at their absolute limit. Inversely, kills were
missed and accidents occurred when the aircraft was taken past
its limit. In the heat of battle, an aircraft would often stall
and then snap into a fatal spin.
In the 1960s, missiles were to have replaced the gun as the
principal aircraft weapon, and dogfighting was supposed to be
obsolete. Missiles would be fired from long distances, and their
supersonic speed would obviate any maneuvering countermeasures.
Vietnam proved conclusively that this was not so. While
dogfights were not fought as closely as in World Wars I and II,
direct plane-to-plane combat did occur in the skies over Vietnam.
Pilots often had to push their aircraft to the point of stall
and keep their sights on a swiftly turning enemy.
The designers of the X-31 sought to keep their aircraft from
stalling not for safety reasons, but rather for enhanced combat
effectiveness. The aircraft will do so by flying and maneuvering
at exceptionally high angles of attack (the relationship of the
wing to the air flow passing over it). The purpose of the high
angle of attack maneuverability is apparent in a dogfight in
which one fighter pursues another into a zooming climb. At the
apex of the climb, the X-31-type fighter would still have the
ability to turn tightly, while its opponent would struggle to
recover from the stall and gain enough lift to resume normal
maneuvering. This would be a killing advantage.