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Languages : en
Pages : 0
Book Description
From the late 1980s through the present, the U.S. Air Force and the U.S. Navy have been acquiring two multirole fighter aircraft platforms. The Air Force has pursued the F/A-22, the world's first supersonic stealth fighter, while the Navy has developed the F/A-18E/F, a carrier-capable fighter with air-to-air, interdiction, and close air support capability. Currently, the F/A-22 is in the late stages of development, while the F/A-18E/F is in full production and has already been deployed in Operation Enduring Freedom and Operation Iraqi Freedom. The design of the F/A-22 includes advancements in all the major areas of the aircraft, including airframe, avionics, and propulsion. The airframe incorporates an advanced stealth design to lower its radar cross section and uses large amounts of advanced materials, such as composites and titanium. The integrated avionics suite of the aircraft brings together information collected from several sensors on the aircraft to be displayed to the pilot. The propulsion system features two high thrust, Pratt and Whitney, F119 jet engines to allow the F/A-22 to supercruise above the speed of sound without using the fuel-consuming afterburner. The airframe design, flight controls, and thrust vectoring are also used to improve the maneuverability of the aircraft. The F/A-18E/F Super Hornet was designed to be an upgrade to the existing F/A-18A/B/C/D multirole aircraft fleet. The programsought to increase the aircraft's range, payload, and survivability. The program was an outgrowth of a Secretary of Defense memorandum from July 1987, directing the Navy to investigate advanced versions of the F/A-18 for 2000 and beyond. The trade studies, known as Hornet 2000, led to a Milestone IV/II review in March 1992 to begin formal Engineering and Manufacturing Development (EMD) of the program in July 1992.