Space Union
19-08-2005, 21:49
F-76 Liberator
http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y76/Blackbird-SR-71/f76.jpghttp://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y76/Blackbird-SR-71/f762.jpg
OOC: Picture by Imported_Illior and Space Union :)
Overview:
The F-76 Liberator is the first of the 2nd Generation of aircrafts being produced by Tylon Aerospace Industries. It is intended to be the next-generation air superiority fighter that will dominate the battlefield no matter what the adversary. It will give any of its users an advantage of its adversary. The F-76 combines stunning technology with the pilot to get unprecedent capabilities. It is intended to replace the F-314 in the Space Union Air Force, though it is much more costly than the origional. In the end it is highly stealthy, manuverable, and low maintaince compared to any other aircraft on the battlefield and will ensure air superiority for a very good chunk of time.
Airframe:
The F-76 Liberator moves much away from the origional doctrine of TAI, by being totally redesigned. Unlike former aircrafts that use mainly Inconel, the F-76 Liberator uses all composite material on its airframe except for the engines. This has been done because of the need for stealth in this highly dangerous world, yet still maintain the manuverability of its predecessor, the F-314. The use of composite material for the body has also made it light-weight compared to its predecessor. This gives it the distinct advantage of better manuverability than heavy-weight aircrafts.
The aircraft is designed with a cropped delta-wing similar to the one featured on the F-16 Falcon but enlarged to the size of the delta-wing on the F/A-22 Raptor. This allows it to have considerable less coverage area that will allow for radar to bounce off. Unlike the F-22 or F-16, the F-76 features canards on the front of its nose. These have been added to provide considerable more lift compared to the F-314. But with this comes the problem of applying flaps to the wings. Deploying flaps causes a large nose-down pitching moment, but in a conventional aeroplane this effect is considerably reduced by the increased downwash on the tailplane which produces a restoring nose-up pitching moment. With a canard design there is no tailplane to alleviate this effect. To overcome this problem, the canards have been swept. This allows for flaps to be applied to the design without compromising the safety of the aircraft and its crew.
Another change to create a more stealthy aircraft, was the dropping of the vertical tail. This was done to further lower the RCS and make the F-76 stealthy. Not only that, but it greatly improves the manuverability of the aircraft. But because of the loss of the vertical tail, the aircraft is less stable. To solve this problem, the flight is assisted by computers similar to used in the B-2 Spirit and the F-117 Nighthawk.
To ensure that the F-76 is stealthy, all the weapons are carried in the two bomb bays of the aircraft. Both bays are on the underside, belly of the aircraft. The aircraft houses 8 missiles in the first bay and 3 GBU-35 1000-lb BLU-110 smart bombs in the second bay. This ensure that the weapons don't interfere with the RCS of the aircraft and give it away too easily to radar or other tracking devices. But if needed, 4 (2 on each wing) hardpoints each capable of carrying 5,000 lbs of weapons can be added on the outside of the aircraft. But the use of the hardpoints will increase the RCS, so beware.
To keep the aircraft manuverable still, it has a lowered weight compared to older aircrafts. Lower weight has been accomplished by having a powerful array of good weapons inside of the aircraft, yet not overdue it. Not only that but the entire plane has been constructed from ultra-lightweight composite material. This has allowed for the weight to much smaller compared to other fighters yet offer capabilities superior or matchable to heavier fighter aircrafts. The light-weight also makes the F-76 Liberator more agile than other aircrafts. This characteristic translate into better manuverability than other heavier aircrafts, meaning that it will dominate dogfights no matter the enemy.
The most drastic leap in technology for the F-76 was the addition of electric reactive armor to the airframe. Proved in tank combat, it has been since adapted to the F-76. It works by having two electrically charged plates separated by an insulator. When an incoming body penetrates the two plates and closes the circuit, a high current and voltage will flow through the penetrator, attempting to vaporize it, significantly reducing the resulting attack. The electric reactive armor is outside of the normal skin so that it gives the aircraft limited armor.
To add more stealth to the airframe, it is coated all-over with an RAM coating.
Propulsion and Engines:
The F-76 uses brand-new Union-172-2005 pulse-detonation engines, developed purposely for the F-76 Liberator. Each Union-172-2005 puts out an outstanding 61,000 lbs of thrust for a net thrust of 122,000 lbs of thrust. The pulse-detonation engine works by creating a detonation instead of the normal deflagration that occurs in normal jet engines. Instead the air rushing inside of the engine, comes at supersonic speeds instead of subsonic, which causes a detonation upon igniting of the air instead of deflagration. To make sure that the air exits to the back, the engine uses shockwaves generated by the ignition to act as shudders/valves. When the shock wave reaches the rear of the engine and exits the combustion products are ejected in "one go", the pressure inside the engine suddenly drops, and air is pulled in the front of the engine to start the next cycle.
The use of the Pulse-Detonation engine instead of a regular engine has increased the efficiency of the entire aircraft. Normal engines have an efficiency of 30% while the Union-172-2005 has a fuel efficiency of 45%. This means that the aircraft will be considerably less fuel hungry and have much bigger range and higher speed. In fact the pulse-detonation engine allows the aircraft to go to speeds of Mach 3.4 although it cruises at Mach 2.7 to avoid the structural problem associated at Mach 3+.
One problem in the design has been the loud noise caused by the pulse-detonation. To solve this the engine has been surrounded by open-celled foam. The open-celled foam dampens the sound while still being light-weight and not adding much weight to the engine. Another mechanism used is the fan in the front of the engine. The fan sucks in much air, sending most of it as bypass air. This bypass air helps dampen the sound too, the same effect used in turbofan engines. But to really quiet the engine down, QuietCraft has been applied to the outside of the engine. It has decreased the sound by 75%.
Both engines also feature thrust vectoring in an entirely new way. Engineers at Tylon Aerospace Industries have perfected the new technology called fluid thrust vectoring. Tests have shown that air forced into the exhaust stream can effect deflected thrust. Fluidic nozzles are desirable for their lower weight, mechanical simplicity (no moving surfaces) and lower radar cross section compared to older mechanical thrust vectoring. The fluid thrust vectoring method allows for the same benefits of the old thrust vectoring method, yet is much cheaper, much more maintaince-friendly, and overall more stealthy to fit with the new image for the F-76 Liberator.
The thrust vectoring capability also adds the capability of the aircraft to take-off and land vertically. This greatly improves its mobility without adding costly secondary engines. One final thing in the engine is its ability to supercruise past Mach 2. Although the speed limit is undisclosed.
To make sure the engines fit in the stealth profile of the aircraft, the
Avionics/Electronics:
In order to make sure that the F-76 Liberator controls the sky it has to have the best technology in electronics to date. But even that wasn't enough for the designers. Instead the goal of the electronic suite for the F-76 was to merge the pilot and aircraft, creating the ultimate fighting weapon ever to take to the sky. Meet the IAIVS Interface. IAIVS stands for Integrated Avionics Incorporated Virtual Systems. It is the successor to the BAP Suite, previously used on older aircrafts designed by Tylon Aerospace Industries.
The IAIVS Interface allows for unprecedent vision for the pilot. Instead of using glass window and HUD for the pilot and helmet is used. Built-into the helmet is also an advanced virtual reality environment that projects the environment outside of the aircraft. Using over 50 cameras (5 main and 45 small), a supercomputer, devoted to the job, can create a stunningly realistic environment that goes down to every detail. It literally allows the pilot to see around the aircraft 360 degrees in every direction. This gives the pilot an unprecedent vision that can't be matched by any other current aircraft to date. To help the pilot better see his environment, the virtual reality has two views, one as if the pilot were actually the plane and the other behind, in-front of, or on the side of the aircraft. This better enables the pilot to fly the aircraft in his/her preference and flying style. To help the pilot understand all about his environment, when messages come up concerning maintaince, tracking, guidance or other matters, it is displayed right in-front of him/her so that the pilot knows what is happening. When targetting, a green box will appear around the enemy(s) that the pilot wishes to engage, when it turns red, that means the missile(s) are locked on. Then it is up to the pilot to fire the missile(s).
To help the pilot in his flying style, an advanced voice command system complements the controllers and joystick. It allows the pilot to speak the commands instead of having to click buttons. In the export version, this feature isn't given away. For that reason only the domestic version (available only to me and allies and a select few) will have both voice command system.
Other systems employed by the aircraft are the use of advanced radar and LIDAR/LADAR systems. The computer uses a AN/AQ-76 Active Electronically Scanned Array and LIDAR/LADAR System to provide guidance for the aircraft and targetting. This system is capable of tracking up to 50 targets at the same time, though in the real-world that power won't be needed.
To make sure that the pilots fully understand how to fly the aircraft, customer will be given a manual for each aircraft detailed with flight operations and a flight trainer for every 100 F-76s bought. Allies only.
Electronic Countermeasures (ECM):
To defend itself against possible threats, the F-76 Liberator is designed with a couple of ECMs to stop threats. The most advanced of these is its Active Radar Cancelling System. It works by having multiple sensors on the skin that pick up incoming radar signals. The computer then studies the signals and outputs a signal that makes the receiving computer misjudge the location of the aircraft. This is mostly used against missiles although this is being deployed against aircrafts during dogfights.
Another weapon used against incoming missiles is MASERs. The F-76 shoots MASERS at incoming targets to fry their electronics and cause a premature explosion. This works in conjunction with the Active Radar Cancelling System.
The simpler ECMs that the F-76 has are a set of 10 flares in the side of the aircraft. They can be shot out of the side-panels automatically by the computer, if the pilot has the feature on, or manually by the pilot.
Weapons - Armenant:
The F-76 Liberator is outfitted with a deadly array of weapons that will ensure that it will be ready for any situation. All of the aircrafts standard weapons are housed inside of the aircraft. The aircraft has two bomb bays: the Missile Bay (MB) and the Smart Bay (SB).
The Missile Bay houses the dogfighting missiles that will be used by the F-76 when it engages the enemy. It is capable of holding 8 missiles. The 8 missiles can be either AIM-9X, AIM-120, or AIM-132. Depending on the mission, the array can be customized. You can even have all 8 missiles be of the same type if you choose.
The Smart Bay houses the smart bombs. It is capable of holding 3 GBU-35 1000-lb BLU-110 smart weapons. This bay can be outfitted to carrying 1 GPU-24 2,000 lbs smart bomb and is able to carry other bombs that don't exceed 3,000 lbs.
Along with the bomb bays, the F-76 is outfitted with a GAU-12 25mm Equaliser Gun incase of a close-range dogfight.
Although on standard model there is no hardpoints to allow for a smaller radar-cross section, but the aircraft can be modified to support hardpoints at the customers own will if he desires. The aircraft can support 4 hardpoints, 2 on each side. Each hardpoint can hold 5,000lbs worth of weapons. But the RCS suffers if the hardpoints are added.
Note: The hardpoints are capable of carrying fuel tanks. But the fuel tanks have to be 5,000 lbs or under.
Specifications:
Type: Advanced Air Superiority Fighter
Length: 23 m
Height: 5 m
Wingspan: 16.5 m
Powerplant: 2 Union-172-2005 Pulse-Detonation Engines rated at 56,000 lbs of thrust each
Empty Weight: 16,000 kg
Full Weight: 52,800 kg
Normal Payload: 5,000+ lbs
Maximum Payload: 25,000 lbs
Cruising Speed: Mach 1.7
Maximum Speed: Mach 3.6
Operational Altitude: 65,000 ft
Maximum Altitude: 87,000 ft
Armenant w/o Hardpoints (Standard Payload): 1x GAU-12 25mm Equaliser Gun, 2x AIM-9X Sidewinder, 6x AIM-120 AMRAAM , 4x GBU-35 1000-lb BLU-110 Smart Bombs
Range: 2,200 miles
Crew: 2
Price: $140 million
Export Version: The export version doesn't contain the highly sensitive technology in the domestic version. Here are the list of changes in the export version:
-Advanced Voice Command System (AVCS) has been removed. If the customer wishes, the entire virtual reality can be scrapped and the conventional controls can be put into to replace them.
-The export version has slightly weaker engines called the Union-171-2005 PDE rated at 52,000 lbs of thrust
Cost: $110 million
Allies do not receive any discount because of their access to the domestic version instead.
http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y76/Blackbird-SR-71/f76.jpghttp://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y76/Blackbird-SR-71/f762.jpg
OOC: Picture by Imported_Illior and Space Union :)
Overview:
The F-76 Liberator is the first of the 2nd Generation of aircrafts being produced by Tylon Aerospace Industries. It is intended to be the next-generation air superiority fighter that will dominate the battlefield no matter what the adversary. It will give any of its users an advantage of its adversary. The F-76 combines stunning technology with the pilot to get unprecedent capabilities. It is intended to replace the F-314 in the Space Union Air Force, though it is much more costly than the origional. In the end it is highly stealthy, manuverable, and low maintaince compared to any other aircraft on the battlefield and will ensure air superiority for a very good chunk of time.
Airframe:
The F-76 Liberator moves much away from the origional doctrine of TAI, by being totally redesigned. Unlike former aircrafts that use mainly Inconel, the F-76 Liberator uses all composite material on its airframe except for the engines. This has been done because of the need for stealth in this highly dangerous world, yet still maintain the manuverability of its predecessor, the F-314. The use of composite material for the body has also made it light-weight compared to its predecessor. This gives it the distinct advantage of better manuverability than heavy-weight aircrafts.
The aircraft is designed with a cropped delta-wing similar to the one featured on the F-16 Falcon but enlarged to the size of the delta-wing on the F/A-22 Raptor. This allows it to have considerable less coverage area that will allow for radar to bounce off. Unlike the F-22 or F-16, the F-76 features canards on the front of its nose. These have been added to provide considerable more lift compared to the F-314. But with this comes the problem of applying flaps to the wings. Deploying flaps causes a large nose-down pitching moment, but in a conventional aeroplane this effect is considerably reduced by the increased downwash on the tailplane which produces a restoring nose-up pitching moment. With a canard design there is no tailplane to alleviate this effect. To overcome this problem, the canards have been swept. This allows for flaps to be applied to the design without compromising the safety of the aircraft and its crew.
Another change to create a more stealthy aircraft, was the dropping of the vertical tail. This was done to further lower the RCS and make the F-76 stealthy. Not only that, but it greatly improves the manuverability of the aircraft. But because of the loss of the vertical tail, the aircraft is less stable. To solve this problem, the flight is assisted by computers similar to used in the B-2 Spirit and the F-117 Nighthawk.
To ensure that the F-76 is stealthy, all the weapons are carried in the two bomb bays of the aircraft. Both bays are on the underside, belly of the aircraft. The aircraft houses 8 missiles in the first bay and 3 GBU-35 1000-lb BLU-110 smart bombs in the second bay. This ensure that the weapons don't interfere with the RCS of the aircraft and give it away too easily to radar or other tracking devices. But if needed, 4 (2 on each wing) hardpoints each capable of carrying 5,000 lbs of weapons can be added on the outside of the aircraft. But the use of the hardpoints will increase the RCS, so beware.
To keep the aircraft manuverable still, it has a lowered weight compared to older aircrafts. Lower weight has been accomplished by having a powerful array of good weapons inside of the aircraft, yet not overdue it. Not only that but the entire plane has been constructed from ultra-lightweight composite material. This has allowed for the weight to much smaller compared to other fighters yet offer capabilities superior or matchable to heavier fighter aircrafts. The light-weight also makes the F-76 Liberator more agile than other aircrafts. This characteristic translate into better manuverability than other heavier aircrafts, meaning that it will dominate dogfights no matter the enemy.
The most drastic leap in technology for the F-76 was the addition of electric reactive armor to the airframe. Proved in tank combat, it has been since adapted to the F-76. It works by having two electrically charged plates separated by an insulator. When an incoming body penetrates the two plates and closes the circuit, a high current and voltage will flow through the penetrator, attempting to vaporize it, significantly reducing the resulting attack. The electric reactive armor is outside of the normal skin so that it gives the aircraft limited armor.
To add more stealth to the airframe, it is coated all-over with an RAM coating.
Propulsion and Engines:
The F-76 uses brand-new Union-172-2005 pulse-detonation engines, developed purposely for the F-76 Liberator. Each Union-172-2005 puts out an outstanding 61,000 lbs of thrust for a net thrust of 122,000 lbs of thrust. The pulse-detonation engine works by creating a detonation instead of the normal deflagration that occurs in normal jet engines. Instead the air rushing inside of the engine, comes at supersonic speeds instead of subsonic, which causes a detonation upon igniting of the air instead of deflagration. To make sure that the air exits to the back, the engine uses shockwaves generated by the ignition to act as shudders/valves. When the shock wave reaches the rear of the engine and exits the combustion products are ejected in "one go", the pressure inside the engine suddenly drops, and air is pulled in the front of the engine to start the next cycle.
The use of the Pulse-Detonation engine instead of a regular engine has increased the efficiency of the entire aircraft. Normal engines have an efficiency of 30% while the Union-172-2005 has a fuel efficiency of 45%. This means that the aircraft will be considerably less fuel hungry and have much bigger range and higher speed. In fact the pulse-detonation engine allows the aircraft to go to speeds of Mach 3.4 although it cruises at Mach 2.7 to avoid the structural problem associated at Mach 3+.
One problem in the design has been the loud noise caused by the pulse-detonation. To solve this the engine has been surrounded by open-celled foam. The open-celled foam dampens the sound while still being light-weight and not adding much weight to the engine. Another mechanism used is the fan in the front of the engine. The fan sucks in much air, sending most of it as bypass air. This bypass air helps dampen the sound too, the same effect used in turbofan engines. But to really quiet the engine down, QuietCraft has been applied to the outside of the engine. It has decreased the sound by 75%.
Both engines also feature thrust vectoring in an entirely new way. Engineers at Tylon Aerospace Industries have perfected the new technology called fluid thrust vectoring. Tests have shown that air forced into the exhaust stream can effect deflected thrust. Fluidic nozzles are desirable for their lower weight, mechanical simplicity (no moving surfaces) and lower radar cross section compared to older mechanical thrust vectoring. The fluid thrust vectoring method allows for the same benefits of the old thrust vectoring method, yet is much cheaper, much more maintaince-friendly, and overall more stealthy to fit with the new image for the F-76 Liberator.
The thrust vectoring capability also adds the capability of the aircraft to take-off and land vertically. This greatly improves its mobility without adding costly secondary engines. One final thing in the engine is its ability to supercruise past Mach 2. Although the speed limit is undisclosed.
To make sure the engines fit in the stealth profile of the aircraft, the
Avionics/Electronics:
In order to make sure that the F-76 Liberator controls the sky it has to have the best technology in electronics to date. But even that wasn't enough for the designers. Instead the goal of the electronic suite for the F-76 was to merge the pilot and aircraft, creating the ultimate fighting weapon ever to take to the sky. Meet the IAIVS Interface. IAIVS stands for Integrated Avionics Incorporated Virtual Systems. It is the successor to the BAP Suite, previously used on older aircrafts designed by Tylon Aerospace Industries.
The IAIVS Interface allows for unprecedent vision for the pilot. Instead of using glass window and HUD for the pilot and helmet is used. Built-into the helmet is also an advanced virtual reality environment that projects the environment outside of the aircraft. Using over 50 cameras (5 main and 45 small), a supercomputer, devoted to the job, can create a stunningly realistic environment that goes down to every detail. It literally allows the pilot to see around the aircraft 360 degrees in every direction. This gives the pilot an unprecedent vision that can't be matched by any other current aircraft to date. To help the pilot better see his environment, the virtual reality has two views, one as if the pilot were actually the plane and the other behind, in-front of, or on the side of the aircraft. This better enables the pilot to fly the aircraft in his/her preference and flying style. To help the pilot understand all about his environment, when messages come up concerning maintaince, tracking, guidance or other matters, it is displayed right in-front of him/her so that the pilot knows what is happening. When targetting, a green box will appear around the enemy(s) that the pilot wishes to engage, when it turns red, that means the missile(s) are locked on. Then it is up to the pilot to fire the missile(s).
To help the pilot in his flying style, an advanced voice command system complements the controllers and joystick. It allows the pilot to speak the commands instead of having to click buttons. In the export version, this feature isn't given away. For that reason only the domestic version (available only to me and allies and a select few) will have both voice command system.
Other systems employed by the aircraft are the use of advanced radar and LIDAR/LADAR systems. The computer uses a AN/AQ-76 Active Electronically Scanned Array and LIDAR/LADAR System to provide guidance for the aircraft and targetting. This system is capable of tracking up to 50 targets at the same time, though in the real-world that power won't be needed.
To make sure that the pilots fully understand how to fly the aircraft, customer will be given a manual for each aircraft detailed with flight operations and a flight trainer for every 100 F-76s bought. Allies only.
Electronic Countermeasures (ECM):
To defend itself against possible threats, the F-76 Liberator is designed with a couple of ECMs to stop threats. The most advanced of these is its Active Radar Cancelling System. It works by having multiple sensors on the skin that pick up incoming radar signals. The computer then studies the signals and outputs a signal that makes the receiving computer misjudge the location of the aircraft. This is mostly used against missiles although this is being deployed against aircrafts during dogfights.
Another weapon used against incoming missiles is MASERs. The F-76 shoots MASERS at incoming targets to fry their electronics and cause a premature explosion. This works in conjunction with the Active Radar Cancelling System.
The simpler ECMs that the F-76 has are a set of 10 flares in the side of the aircraft. They can be shot out of the side-panels automatically by the computer, if the pilot has the feature on, or manually by the pilot.
Weapons - Armenant:
The F-76 Liberator is outfitted with a deadly array of weapons that will ensure that it will be ready for any situation. All of the aircrafts standard weapons are housed inside of the aircraft. The aircraft has two bomb bays: the Missile Bay (MB) and the Smart Bay (SB).
The Missile Bay houses the dogfighting missiles that will be used by the F-76 when it engages the enemy. It is capable of holding 8 missiles. The 8 missiles can be either AIM-9X, AIM-120, or AIM-132. Depending on the mission, the array can be customized. You can even have all 8 missiles be of the same type if you choose.
The Smart Bay houses the smart bombs. It is capable of holding 3 GBU-35 1000-lb BLU-110 smart weapons. This bay can be outfitted to carrying 1 GPU-24 2,000 lbs smart bomb and is able to carry other bombs that don't exceed 3,000 lbs.
Along with the bomb bays, the F-76 is outfitted with a GAU-12 25mm Equaliser Gun incase of a close-range dogfight.
Although on standard model there is no hardpoints to allow for a smaller radar-cross section, but the aircraft can be modified to support hardpoints at the customers own will if he desires. The aircraft can support 4 hardpoints, 2 on each side. Each hardpoint can hold 5,000lbs worth of weapons. But the RCS suffers if the hardpoints are added.
Note: The hardpoints are capable of carrying fuel tanks. But the fuel tanks have to be 5,000 lbs or under.
Specifications:
Type: Advanced Air Superiority Fighter
Length: 23 m
Height: 5 m
Wingspan: 16.5 m
Powerplant: 2 Union-172-2005 Pulse-Detonation Engines rated at 56,000 lbs of thrust each
Empty Weight: 16,000 kg
Full Weight: 52,800 kg
Normal Payload: 5,000+ lbs
Maximum Payload: 25,000 lbs
Cruising Speed: Mach 1.7
Maximum Speed: Mach 3.6
Operational Altitude: 65,000 ft
Maximum Altitude: 87,000 ft
Armenant w/o Hardpoints (Standard Payload): 1x GAU-12 25mm Equaliser Gun, 2x AIM-9X Sidewinder, 6x AIM-120 AMRAAM , 4x GBU-35 1000-lb BLU-110 Smart Bombs
Range: 2,200 miles
Crew: 2
Price: $140 million
Export Version: The export version doesn't contain the highly sensitive technology in the domestic version. Here are the list of changes in the export version:
-Advanced Voice Command System (AVCS) has been removed. If the customer wishes, the entire virtual reality can be scrapped and the conventional controls can be put into to replace them.
-The export version has slightly weaker engines called the Union-171-2005 PDE rated at 52,000 lbs of thrust
Cost: $110 million
Allies do not receive any discount because of their access to the domestic version instead.