NationStates Jolt Archive


AeroBlub Industries Unveils Zulu Strike Fighter (MT)

The Blub Colony
06-10-2008, 20:51
http://img399.imageshack.us/img399/7855/zuluxx3.png

Welcome AeroBlub Industries.

The F-77 Zulu is Blubland's first step into 5th generation aircraft design. It was built to primarily fill an air-to-ground role, but has proven itself capable in air-to-air test scenarios as well.

Design

From its forward-swept wings to its canard-delta wing, the F-77 Zulu has a unique outline in today's skys. Built from composites and alloys, the F-77 was designed from the ground up to be stealthy and its sophisticated fly-by-wire control systems along with the wing design give the Zulu incredible manuverability. The Zulu can perform angles of attack of to 55° or greater and the wing tips remain unstalled allowing the aircraft to retain aileron control.

The swept-forward wing, compared to a swept-back wing of the same area, provides a number of advantages:

- Higher lift-to-drag ratio
- Higher capacity in dogfight maneuvers
- Higher range at subsonic speed
- Improved stall resistance and anti-spin characteristics
- Improved stability at high angles of attack
- A lower minimum flight speed
- A shorter take-off and landing distance

The Zulu includes reduced radar signature features (including radar absorbent materials), an internal weapons bay, and space set aside for its advanced radar system. The composite materials also solve the problem of the forward-sweeping wing twisting problem, allowing the material to bend for improved aerodynamics behavior.

The Zulu has extremely high agility at subsonic speeds, enabling the aircraft to alter its angle of attack and its flight path very quickly while retaining maneuverability in supersonic flight. Although not revolutionary, the thrust vectoring of ±20° at 30°/second in pitch and yaw will greatly support the agility gained by the forward-swept-wings.


Maximum turn rates, and the upper and lower limits on airspeed for weapon launch, are important criteria in terms of combat superiority. The Zulu aircraft has very high levels of maneuverability with maintained stability and controllability at extreme angles of attack. Maximum turn rates are important in close combat and also at medium and long range, when the mission may involve engaging consecutive targets in different sectors of the airspace.

The tail booms of the Zulu house its rear-facing radar and an IR-confusing jamming pod. In tandem, these two features can reduce the liklihood of a heat-seeking missile being able to lock onto the Zulu by about 68% over its current missile avoidance.

Cockpit

The cockpit's design has focused on maintaining a high degree of comfort for the pilots and also on the pilots being able to control the aircraft in extremely high g-load manoeuvres. The aircraft is equipped with a new ejection seat and life support system. The variable geometry adaptive ejection seat is inclined at an angle of 50°, which reduces the impact of high g forces on the pilot. The seat allows dogfight and missile avoidance maneuvers with significantly higher g loadings than can normally be tolerable.


General characteristics

Crew: 2
Length: 23.6 m
Wingspan: 17.16 m
Height: 6.3 m
Wing area: 63.87 m²
Empty weight: 16,375 kg
Loaded weight: 25,000 kg
Max takeoff weight: 35,000 kg
Powerplant: 2× AeroBlub afterburning, thrust-vectoring turbofan engines with digital control.
Dry thrust: 87.4 kN each
Thrust with afterburner: 152.2 kN
Thrust vectoring: ±20° at 30° per second in pitch and yaw

Electronics & Countermeasures
RADAR: AeroBlub II Forward & Rear facing detectionn suite
Guidance: GPS and Terrain Navigation with Interial Backup
Weapon Guidance: RADAR, IR and laser reception with lookdown ground-attack mode.
Countermeasures: IR/RADAR countermeasures, chaff deployment and flares.

Performance

Cruise Speed: Mach 1.052 (About 850mph)
Maximum speed: Mach 2.83
* At sea level: Mach 1.88
Range: 4,500 km
Service ceiling: 19,500 m
Rate of climb: 273 m/s
Wing loading: 470 kg/m²

Armament
Hardpoints: 14:
2 wingtip
6 under wing
6 conformal bays under fuselage

Guns: 2× 30 mm cannon with 350 rounds
2x 30mm cannon with 450 rounds

Pricing
Export Cost: $150,000,000 (150 million)
Ralkovia
06-10-2008, 21:00
Ralkovia would like to know the cost to buy this fine aircraft
Catawaba
06-10-2008, 21:00
[OOC: Impressive, Blub. I like the Spore rendering. I have two questions. What do you expect the cruise speed to be? And is this for sale?]
The Blub Colony
06-10-2008, 21:02
[OOC: Impressive, Blub. I like the Spore rendering. I have two questions. What do you expect the cruise speed to be? And is this for sale?]

OOC: Let me add a cruising speed and cost real quick, 'k? :)
The Blub Colony
06-10-2008, 21:08
Ralkovia would like to know the cost to buy this fine aircraft

We greatly appreciate your interest. For this 5th generation, stealthy strike aircraft, we ask 200 million for export. (About as much as the F-22 Raptor)
The Blub Colony
09-10-2008, 02:18
The overall export price has been lowered to 150 million due to AeroBlub's unexpectedly strong assembly ability.
The Blub Colony
11-10-2008, 04:01
Bumpty bump.