I use my creative mind and state of the art as well as not so state of the art software to come up with ideas for the planes of tomorrow. Though I don't know the exact specs of the planes today, I know how they work. Currently I'm working on a plane called the 'platypus' and trying to get the plane to be something flyable. Though I'm in the early stage, the plane won't be very fast, I'm only in the basic concept stage of the design too. My point I'm getting to is, are there any other people here that love coming up with concept designs for aircraft.
So, what crazy ideas have you came up with for aircraft design before?
My "made up" planes are infact what certain aircraft should have been. Thats if we knew what we knew now.
My JSF - Super F-16
A stealthy F-16 like aircraft with a single F-119 engine from the F-22. Fuel fraction would be much higher than an original F-16. Stealth would be from the shape of the aircraft only it would still be built using conventional and cheap materials. A small weapons bay on each side of the fuselage that could carry two AMRAAMs each or Four small diameter bombs each. This would make it fairly stealthy and allow it to supercruise for short periods.
It would have used off the shelf F-16 block 40+ avionics. Using the existing components and the latest production techniques it would cost the same as a normal F-16 but would win against a Eurofighter. It would be so cheap to produce the airforce could replace its aircraft with a 1 to 1 replacement.
On the international market it would have sold like hot cakes. As it used no state of the art technology it could be sold to any country that is allowed the F-16. The development costs would be so little that this aircraft would have produced an extremely large profit due to the international sales. Air to Air wise it would be better than the current F-35 with higher agility and higher speed due to lower weight and higher thrust to weight ratio. Strike capabilties would be less due to know 2,000lb bomb or advanced netcentric systems.
My "NATF"
As the Navy wanted an advanced long range strike fighter it joined the JSF program. The Navy requirements caused the JSF to be very advanced, very stealthy, very big and very expensive. The USAF would have been happy with the more conventional "super F-16" and with all that money saved it would have procured more F-22's to form a high-low combat mix.
The Navy wanted an aircraft with two engines with the range and stealth levels of the F-22, it also wanted avionics and advanced radar again of F-22 standards. So my NATF would be a navalised F-22. I would have done whatever it took to get the F-22 landing on a ship. Heavy duty landing gear and a massive landing speed would be required.. who cares, re-inforce the carrier deck if required. A thicker high lift, low speed wing would bring the landing speed right down to safe levels and would have also increassed fuel capacity. Cruising and Top speed would have been reduced significantly but itwould still be better than the Super Hornet that they currently operate and the JSF that they soon will operate. Range and stealth would be far better than either. The US navy would only need one combat aircraft type for its carriers. Self escorting aircraft would increase the number of aimpoints so much that they could reduce the number of aircraft per carrier or even reduce the number of carriers.
FB-22
With the reduced cost of the "Super F-16", it would have freed up alot of money for the USAF. With the Navalised F-22 it would have significantly reduced the price of the Airforce version and any other future F-22 version. This would have made it cost effective to produce a third "bomber" version of the F-22.
Basically it would use the same single seat cockpit as the F-22. The wing sweep cant be changed as the whole aircraft would have to be redesigned. So the aircraft would be turned into a massive delta wing. It would look like the old
Vulcan bomber. The aircraft would receive a 5 metre plug into the rear fuselage. This would allow for a second pair of internal weapons bays the same as the normal F-22 to be fitted. Keeping them the same reduces cost. So twelve AMRAAMS could be carried though bomb wise four 1,000lb JDAM and four small diameter bombs and two AMRAAM's would be the usual config. The fuel fraction would be increased dramatically. It could even use the same heavy duty undercarriage from the Naval F-22.
The original F-22 is known for its supercruising ability, but in real life it doesn't have the fuel capacity to sustain it so 90% of the time it cruises subsonic to get the longest range. With the FB-22 its fuel capacity will be large enough that it should be able to supercruise the entire mission. With a combat radius greater than an F-111. Drag and weight would be increased and thrust would remain the same as the F-22 but it should still be able to supercruise with ease.
So in hindsight the US armed forces would have been better off with these options.
