daniel@blake.acs.washington.edu (Daniel Perreault) (03/01/90)
From: daniel@blake.acs.washington.edu (Daniel Perreault) Burt Rutan, the man who designed and co-piloted the first non-refueled non-stop flight around the world has designed and constructed a military jet. At the cost of $2million to his personal company in R&D Rutan's fighter is ready to be offered to the military. It is a fairly small jet with top speed ~500mph. Obviously it is fully aerobatic, and despite the somewhat slow top speed is reputed to have excellent power to weight ratio. It is made primarily out of Carbon-fiber and kevlar composites(can you say Stealth?) and has excellent low alltitude handleing charateristics. Powered by a Pratt&Whitney turbofan, the plane has some unusual features. It is Asymmetric. The cockpit and the engine are slightly offcenter and the intake for the jet is on one side to avoid the smoke from the 20mm cannon that is going to be mounted in the nose. I think it is supposed to be mounted along the same lines as the vulcan cannon in an Eagle. It has large canards in the front which are reputed to give it excellent low speed control as well as the low altitude handling. Mission profile? Rutan thinks that this small quiet little plane can fly in to someplace, say off of a carrier at about 100' off the ground and be able to slip in under detection and destroy or accompany whatever it is supposed to. Rutan also feels that this aircraft can fight effectively against current military fighters, because of its size, quick responsiveness and very small turning radius. It should be able to carry a few missles as well. I've just seen pictures of the plane, but it looks like typical futuristic Rutan style. I don't know whether the military is going to take him seriously or not, but the plane is very efficient for a jet and has excellent range(more than 25% by wieght of the aircraft is fuel under full load). It also seems like it could be really hard to detect. It doesn't look like it could absorb much damage though...If nothing else it looks like a heck of alot of fun to fly. Dan Perreault Engr. Computing Services University of Washigton
oconnor@disney.crd.ge.com (Dennis O'Connor) (03/03/90)
From: oconnor@disney.crd.ge.com (Dennis O'Connor)
>From CNN Headline News :
The "Aries" or "Ares"(?) is the name of Rutan's new plane. It is designed
to carry a 20mm cannon with 500 rounds or so and four Stinger missiles.
It has a range of 1400 nautical miles (pretty good) and weighs only
6500 pounds when "dry".
--
--
Dennis O'Connor OCONNORDM@CRD.GE.COM UUNET!CRD.GE.COM!OCONNOR
"Let's take a little off the top ... a bit off the sides ...
trim the back a bit ... Surprise ! You've been bald-ed !"ae219dp%prism@gatech.edu (Devon Prichard) (03/03/90)
From: ae219dp%prism@gatech.edu (Devon Prichard) From: daniel@blake.acs.washington.edu (Daniel Perreault) >Burt Rutan, the man who designed and co-piloted the first non-refueled non-stop >flight around the world has designed and constructed a military jet. ... >It is a fairly small jet with top speed ~500mph. with the current level of capability of SAMs, the typical altitude of a fighter mission may well be below 300 ft AGL. in that case, supersonic flight is rarely possible. the aerodynamic and structural penalties for a supersonic-capable wing are quite high, so by limiting a fighter to subsonic or transonic flight, substantial improvements in range, payload, and low speed manueverability are made possible. most dogfight-type encounters quickly drop down to the 300-400 knot speed (due to the massive increase in drag at high G-levels overcoming the excess thrust of the engine). I imagine most fighter pilots in the dogfight scenario would prefer more Sidewinders and fuel. likewise, for both the attack and interdiction missions, supersonic speed is not necessary. however, due to the time between bomber detection and standoff missile launch, _sustained_ supersonic speed would be very useful for the interception role. I suppose trying to cover all attack/CAS/air defense/interception roles with one aircraft is like trying to use a Corvette on a farm; it gets you to the store fast, but not so good for mowing hay. -- |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||| | Devon Prichard making the world safe for helicopters ... | | ae219dp@prism.gatech.edu | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
bwood%janus.Berkeley.EDU@ucbvax.Berkeley.EDU (Blake Philip Wood) (03/03/90)
From: bwood%janus.Berkeley.EDU@ucbvax.Berkeley.EDU (Blake Philip Wood) In article <14403@cbnews.ATT.COM> daniel@blake.acs.washington.edu (Daniel Perreault) writes: > >Burt Rutan, the man who designed and co-piloted the first non-refueled non-stop >flight around the world ... Burt designed the voyager. Brother Dick flew it. Blake P. Wood - bwood@janus.Berkeley.EDU Plasmas and Non-Linear Dynamics, U.C. Berkeley, EECS
2fjmvery@kuhub.cc.ukans.edu (03/05/90)
From: 2fjmvery@kuhub.cc.ukans.edu In article <14403@cbnews.ATT.COM>, daniel@blake.acs.washington.edu (Daniel Perreault) writes: > >Burt Rutan, the man who designed and co-piloted the first non-refueled non-stop > flight around the world has designed and constructed a military jet. Where and when were the pictures published? Jim Sisul The University of Kansas
daniel@blake.acs.washington.edu (Daniel Perreault) (03/06/90)
From: daniel@blake.acs.washington.edu (Daniel Perreault) In article <14468@cbnews.ATT.COM> 2fjmvery@kuhub.cc.ukans.edu writes: > > >From: 2fjmvery@kuhub.cc.ukans.edu >In article <14403@cbnews.ATT.COM>, daniel@blake.acs.washington.edu (Daniel Perreault) writes: >> >>Burt Rutan, the man who designed and co-piloted the first non-refueled non-stop >> flight around the world has designed and constructed a military jet. > >Where and when were the pictures published? > >Jim Sisul >The University of Kansas The article that I paraphrased in my post came from the Seattle Times a local newspaper. I found it to be an interesting article so I posted it, I personally have yet to really decided whether I like it or not. I don't remember the exact date of the paper, but it was the day before my original post. Dan Perreault Engr. Computing Services University of Washington
root@uunet.UU.NET (Superuser) (03/06/90)
From: grumbly!root@uunet.UU.NET (Superuser)
->In article <14403@cbnews.ATT.COM>, daniel@blake.acs.washington.edu (Daniel Perreault) writes:
->>
->>Burt Rutan, the man who designed and co-piloted the first non-refueled non-stop
->> flight around the world has designed and constructed a military jet.
You'll probably get a million flames on this one -- brother Dick was the
co-pilot. The jet is odd in that it has an asymetrical single engine,
probably offset on the other side by a cannon.
Is everyone going to watch the SR71 trying for the Palmdale-Washington record?