gray@uxc.cso.uiuc.edu (Ron Gray) (06/29/89)
From: convex!gray@uxc.cso.uiuc.edu (Ron Gray) > >"VIFFing" is Vectoring In Forward Flight. It was invented some years >earlier, by the USMC Harrier pilots I believe. > > Henry Spencer at U of Toronto Zoology > uunet!attcan!utzoo!henry henry@zoo.toronto.edu VIFFing is indeed Vectoring in Forward Flight, however early Viffing experiments were performed by the British Hawker-Siddeley Test Pilot Hugh Merewether in the Hawker-Siddeley Harrier GR Mark 1 prototype XV276. (First Flight of XV276 was 31st August 1966). The first American attempts at Viffing were not by the US Marine Corps, but by NASA on January 16th 1970, using an aircraft designated NASA 521 (previous designation being 64-18263; prior designation being being Hawker Siddeley Kestrel FGA Mark 1 XS689) (Background information on the Harrier: Two prototypes of the Hawker-Siddeley P1127 were ordered by the Ministry of Aviation in 1959. The first two prototypes were designated XP831 and XP836. Rollout of the XP831 was accomplished on August 31st 1960. Tethered hovering trials began on October 21st 1960 at Dunsfield, UK. Flown by A.W.Bedford. The first untethered hover took place on November 19th 1963, and the first conventional flight, lasting 22 minutes, was also flown by A.W.Bedford on March 13th 1961). Ronald W Gray, Convex Computer Corp , 3000 Waterview Parkway, P.O. Box 833851 MS ADM, Richardson, TX 75083-3851 Tel (214) 497-4000 (The opinions expressed herein are those of the author only) "Qui desiderat pacem, praeparet bellum." Let him who desires peace, prepare for war.
bryden@vax1.acs.udel.edu (Christopher F. Bryden) (07/01/89)
From: "Christopher F. Bryden" <bryden@vax1.acs.udel.edu> In article <7859@cbnews.ATT.COM> convex!gray@uxc.cso.uiuc.edu (Ron Gray) writes: } }VIFFing is indeed Vectoring in Forward Flight, however early Viffing }experiments were performed by the British Hawker-Siddeley Test Pilot }Hugh Merewether in the Hawker-Siddeley Harrier GR Mark 1 prototype XV276. }(First Flight of XV276 was 31st August 1966). So, can the Soviet pseudoequivalent (Forger) vector in forward flight? >From what I understand, it has a pair of jet engines near the nose of the aircraft that balance rear engine outlets that can vector rearward (throught 90 degrees) to downward. Chris -- arpa : bryden@vax1.acs.udel.edu | In the land of the fat, balding tourists, bitnet: AIT05167 at ACSVM | the one eyed surfer dude is king. plato : bryden/itpt/udel ----------------- I could turn you inside out uucp : ...{unidot,uunet}!cfg!udel!udccvax1!bryden | ...what I choose not to do.
gray@uxc.cso.uiuc.edu (Ron Gray) (07/05/89)
From: convex!gray@uxc.cso.uiuc.edu (Ron Gray) >From: bryden@vax1.acs.udel.edu (Christopher F. Bryden) >So, can the Soviet pseudoequivalent (Forger) vector in forward flight? >From what I understand, it has a pair of jet engines near the nose of >the aircraft that balance rear engine outlets that can vector rearward >(throught 90 degrees) to downward. > >Chris The Yakovlev Yak-38MP "Forger" differs from the design of the Yak-36 in that it has only one main lift/cruise engine (the Yak-36 had two). The Lyul'ka AL-21 Turbojet generates a takeoff thrust of approximately 17,600 lbs. with total takeoff thrust of approximately 16,500 lbs. VTOL capability is provided by 2 Kolesov turbojet lift engines foward aft of the cockpit, each lift engine generates approximately 7,700 lbs of thrust. Though the lift jets incorporate limited vectoring in the fore/aft plane, their centerlines are angled to the rear and the thrust component must be maintained by rotating the main engine nozzles to the 100 or 105 deg position, well forward of vertical. Because of the necessity for the thrust of the lift jets to be balanced by the full vectoring of the real engine nozzle, it was believed that the aircraft was limited to strictly VTOL, and thus incapable of STOL or VIFFing. Recent evidence however suggests that the aircraft is indeed capable of VSTOL. VIFFing though may still be inhibited as some sources believe that the procedure for use of the forward lift jets for takeoff and landing is fully automated, and thus could not be used in combat.