The F-15 was developed in response the the Air Force’s desire for a dominant air superiority fighter capable of ground attacks, partially to counter the perceived threat from the Soviet Mig Foxbat aircraft under development in the late 1960’s. The high-speed/long-range requirements for the jet led Mcdonnell Douglas to the twin-engine design of the F-15. There are now nearly 10 versions of the F-15, with such variants as a lower radar signature, 2-seat trainers, and improved all-weather radar models. The F-15 expected to be in service with the US Air Force until at least 2025.
Development
After the Vietnam war, the US military decided it needed a highly maneuverable and inexpensive fighter jet to complement the more powerful and costly F-15. The F-16 was developed by General Dynamics with the goal of being able to maneuver with a minimum amount of energy loss, and to have a high thrust to weight ratio. Having a single engine kept the aircraft light and maneuverable. https://everchicago.weebly.com/pediatric-powerpoint-templates-free.html. There are also about 10 variants of the F-16, which is also expected to be in service with the US Air Force until at least 2025.
The F-35 has its stealth over Typhoon but thats it. Typhoon technically has more combat persistance especially in air-air carrying a heavier warload. If F-35 is to carry HOBs they have to be external, greatly disabling stealth benefits. Also, around the time F-35 comes in service Typhoon will have a much more powerful radar system. The overall experience of flying the F-35 in aerial combat is different from what I’m used to with the F-16. One obvious difference is that the F-35 shakes quite a bit at high g-loadings and at.
Watch the documentary on the F-16 Fighting Falcon:
Characteristics
The F-15 is characterized by its twin-engine configuration, giving the aircraft so much thrust that it can accelerate while climbing straight up at a 90 degree angle, and can climb 30,000 feet in just 60 seconds. The twin-tail and swept wing design allows for a high angle of attack and good stability at extremely high speeds.
The F-16 is a single-tail, single-engine aircraft, using the same Pratt and Whitney P100 jet engine as the F-15. It was the first production aircraft designed with relaxed, or negative, stability. Most aircraft are designed with positive stability, meaning they naturally want to return to straight and level flight with no input from the pilot. Having relaxed stability means thus makes maneuvering more efficient in terms of energy loss, as the airframe is not resisting maneuvers. The onboard computer helps to keep the F-16 stable. With a full load of fuel, the aircraft can sustain 9 G maneuvers.
F-15s and F-16s flying in formation.
Strengths
Few fighter aircraft have a chance of competing with the F-15’s high speed and service ceiling. The aircraft has a long range, aided by the option of external fuel pods, and has the reliability of 2 engines. Advanced avionics allow it to pursue foes from long distances and in bad weather.
The F-16 is very maneuverable and loses little energy from maneuvering, which is partially achieved by a fly-by-wire control system. The aircraft is lightweight, relatively cheap, and has proven to be extremely versatile. Costing about $18 million per unit, it’s much cheaper to build and operate than the F-15.
F-15 low-level flying over North Wales and F-16 flying a mission in Iraq.
![]() Disadvantages
The F-15’s high performance comes at a high cost: $30 million per unit. During its development, critics worried that the aircraft was too large and heavy to be a successful dog-fighter, although its track record has proven otherwise. The aircraft is capable of flying faster than its airframe’s G rating, which necessitates a warning system for pilots to prevent them from putting too much stress on the aircraft.
F 16 F 35 Comparison Chart
As the F-16 only has one engine, it is more vulnerable to engine failure catastrophe than the F-15, which can fly on one engine. The F-16 also has a lower maximum speed, service ceiling, and a slower rate of climb than the F-15.
F 35 Fighter Vs F 16F-15 vs F-16 Dogfight
An interesting dogfight between the F-15 Eagle and the F-16 Falcon:
ReferencesF 16 Vs F 35The F-35 Joint Strike Figher represents the US Air Force, Navy, and Marine Corps' vision for the future of combat aviation, but a damning 2015 report detailed how the F-35 had lost in dogfights with F-16s and F-15s — the very planes it was intended to replace.Essentially it came down to energy management in the early days of the F-35's testing, according to the report.During a dogfight, jets have to manage extreme amounts of kinetic energy while making pinpoint turns and maneuvers. With smaller wings than some legacy fighters and an inferior thrust-to-weight ratio, the early F-35 pilots found it nearly impossible to engage with F-16s.The report has since become a talking point for detractors of the F-35 program who say it's too expensive and not capable.But according to retired US Marine Corps Maj. Dan Flatley, who helped design the training syllabus for F-35 dogfights, the F-35's lackluster performance against legacy jets had more to do with old habits of the pilots and a weapons system in its infancy rather than anything wrong with the F-35 concept itself.'When you first get in the F-35 and try to fight it visually, you immediately go back to everything you knew in your legacy fighter,' Flatley told Business Insider in a phone interview.Indeed, the same report that details the F-35's losses to older jets states that the pilot himself had 2,000 flight hours in an F-15 Strike Eagle, which is a very different beast.“If you try to fight it like a fighter it isn’t, you’re going to have terrible results,” Flatley said of the F-35. Like any new weapons system, the F-35 takes some getting used to. In 2015, F-35 pilots were pulled from other fighters and introduced to a plane that fundamentally reimagined aerial warfare. A learning curve had to be covered.Unlike dogfighters from World War II, the F-35 mainly focuses on flying undetected while using its array of fused sensors to paint a clear picture of the threat environment for miles out and to engage with targets before they're ever seen.As exciting as dogfights are, it's been decades since a US jet engaged an enemy in a turning dogfight, and the F-35's design reflects that new reality.'If I went out and fought an F/A-18 on day one I’d get destroyed,' said Flatley. 'But if you do what the jet is really good at, you can do things those other jets wouldn’t dream of.'Flatley stressed that dogfighting, where the close range diminishes the F-35's stealth and sensor fusion advantages, is certainly not the purpose of the Joint Strike Fighter, but rather it can excel in those situations in the right hands.That's not to say the F-35 was a perfect aircraft that was simply misunderstood in 2015. Flatley said he did approach Lockheed Martin to suggest changes to the jet after its poor run against legacy aircraft.One attribute the F-35 has that, counterintuitively, helps it in dogfights is its ability to slow down during a turn, but it was during these slow turns that pilots weren't able to control the plane how they were used to.Basically, the engineers at Lockheed Martin built the F-35's flight controls with an incredible amount of automation, which Flatley said could make the jet 'feel like it was fighting you,' or 'feel like the hand of god pushing you in certain directions.'Flatley and other F-35 pilots needed the ability to push their airplane right to the edge of its abilities — almost to the point where it would fall out of the sky because it hit slow speeds at insane angles — should they need to in a do-or-die dogfight.'You guys are hand-holding us,' Flatley told the engineers, who hadn't imagined the fighter pilot's need to push the limits of their aircraft. 'We want more authority. I want to be able to throw my nose around if I need to,' said Flatley, referring to the plane's ability to point its front end at threats in order to better assess and target them.So Lockheed Martin worked with the pilots and fixed the issues keeping them from acing dogfights, as they do now. Since that test, the F-35's record speaks for itself. During Red Flag, the US Air Force's most realistic and challenging jet-fighter training event, the F-35 came out with a stunning 20-1 kill ratio on the legacy aircraft that had once beaten it.Flatly, who came from an F/A-18 background, said he had to shake the old habits he formed in an aircraft that was originally conceptualized in the 1970s, but young pilots training today won't have those problems and could revolutionize the way the F-35 fights.'The next generation, the first lieutenants that have never flown an F-18 before, those are the pilots that are going to define what the F-35 is going to do,' said Flatley.Comments are closed.
|
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |