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- Xref: sparky soc.culture.nordic:8078 rec.aviation.military:1534
- Path: sparky!uunet!spool.mu.edu!enterpoop.mit.edu!eru.mt.luth.se!lunic!sunic!ugle.unit.no!ugle.unit.no!steinarb
- From: steinarb@idt.unit.no (Steinar Bang)
- Newsgroups: soc.culture.nordic,rec.aviation.military
- Subject: Re: Finnish Defense
- Message-ID: <STEINARB.93Jan3140710@tindved.idt.unit.no>
- Date: 3 Jan 93 13:07:10 GMT
- References: <1992Dec10.213039.27288@nntp.hut.fi> <1g9632INN8m0@uwm.edu>
- <1992Dec13.184118.10124@nntp.hut.fi>
- <1993Jan3.010550.322@newstand.syr.edu>
- Sender: news@ugle.unit.no (NetNews Administrator)
- Followup-To: rec.aviation.military
- Organization: Norwegian Inst. of Tech./University of Trondheim, Trondheim,
- Norway
- Lines: 30
- In-Reply-To: ddawson@mothra.syr.EDU's message of Sun, 3 Jan 93 01:05:49 EST
-
- >>>>> On Sun, 3 Jan 93 01:05:49 EST, ddawson@mothra.syr.EDU (Dick Dawson) said:
-
- > ... FA-18 is much slower than Mi-29 but has very elegant and
- > effective weaponry.
-
- As Yeager pointed out in his autobigraphy: the top speed of a fighter
- (as long as it is in the Mach 2 range) is largely irrelevant. If you
- turn tail to flee you present a nice IR flare and will have a
- Sidewinder (or equivalent) up your ass before you can say "mommy!".
-
- You may need good top speed to get into position for intercept
- purposes. That's why mainly interceptors like the F-15, and the
- MiG-29 have top speeds in the Mach2-2.5 range while multirole planes
- that also are good dogifighters like the F-16 or the F-18 have a top
- speed of around Mach 2.0 at sea level. This is more than enough for
- dogfight purposes where you have engaged an enemy and where your enemy
- will engage you rather than attempt evasion.
-
- Top speed for a fighter is actually a high speed dash capability. You
- don't get many minutes of flight time on full afterburner for most
- modern fighters (the ATF has the capability of Supercruise, ie.
- supersonic flight without burner. This give a much longer operating
- time in the Mach 1.5-1.6 range. Top speed of the ATF is Mach 2+...? I
- dunno, actually...)
-
- Followup should go to rec.aviation.military, I guess...:-)
-
- "Who's Yeager?" you ask. If you have to ask, you don't have to know...:-)
-
- Take care
-