초록 ▼

A fighter aircraft achieves low aerodynamic drag and radar signature without sacrificing flight performance through a unique arrangement of the air inlets, the weapons bays, and the main landing gear. Separate main and auxiliary weapons bays permit a narrower fuselage than could be obtained with a s

A fighter aircraft achieves low aerodynamic drag and radar signature without sacrificing flight performance through a unique arrangement of the air inlets, the weapons bays, and the main landing gear. Separate main and auxiliary weapons bays permit a narrower fuselage than could be obtained with a single common bay. Also, the auxiliary weapons bays and the landing gear can be aligned outboard of the main weapons bay without needing to increase the length or width of the aircraft. The air intake ducts extend aft from each intake and curve upwardly and inwardly over the main weapons bay. The result of the design configuration is an aircraft of minimum fuselage width for optimal performance and which has a forward aspect reduced to the minimum necessary to accommodate the components that need forward visibilities, which translates to minimum aerodynamic drag and radar signature.

대표청구항 ▼

A fighter aircraft having minimized aerodynamic drag and radar signature without sacrificing flight performance and having a center of gravity, comprising: a fuselage defining a volume of substantially constant cross-section fore to aft for low aerodynamic drag and radar signature penalties and cont

A fighter aircraft having minimized aerodynamic drag and radar signature without sacrificing flight performance and having a center of gravity, comprising: a fuselage defining a volume of substantially constant cross-section fore to aft for low aerodynamic drag and radar signature penalties and containing the aircraft\s center of gravity; at least one jet engine mounted in the fuselage; a wing connected to the fuselage; at least one air intake for each jet engine; an air intake duct extending from each air intake to the engine; a radar dome mounted on the forward portion of the fuselage, a transparent pilot canopy mounted over and slightly behind the radar dome, ahead of the wing, and between the air intakes; the air intakes, radar dome, and canopy defining the frontal aspect of the aircraft to minimize its aerodynamic drag and radar signature; a retractable pair of main landing gear mounted in the fuselage slightly behind the center of gravity to allow rotation of the aircraft at relatively low takeoff speeds; and a pair of auxiliary weapons bays opening through opposite sides of the fuselage at or near the aircraft\s center of gravity, relatively short, lock-on-before-launch missiles being carried in the auxiliary weapons bays, each auxiliary weapons bay including launch means for deploying each relatively short missile outboard of the fuselage and forward of a leading edge of the wing to provide a relatively large field of view of at least about 270°for each missile, wherein each air intake duct curves inwardly in a serpentine path to avoid the respective auxiliary weapons bay to reduce observation of the engine, each launch means includes a deploying arm that connects between the weapon and a wall adjacent the air intake duct, each auxiliary weapons bay has a door that folds open when the arm deploys the missile, the configuration minimizes aerodynamic drag and radar signature of the aircraft, and launch of the short missiles from the auxiliary bays does not significantly shift the aircraft\s center of gravity.