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Post by ironhold on Dec 20, 2023 17:42:06 GMT
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_American_Rockwell_OV-10_Bronco#VariantsBack around 2009, Rockwell was considering reviving the 1960s-era Bronco as an attack aircraft. The plan was to upgrade the avionics and redo the weapons load-out, creating both tank-killer and helicopter-hunter versions. This has me wondering if propeller-driven attack aircraft could compare against modern-day jet-powered aircraft in various roles.
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Post by rmc on Dec 21, 2023 2:46:43 GMT
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Post by wvengineer on Dec 21, 2023 13:02:33 GMT
A lot of the development work with modern military aircraft is going towards stealth and low radar visibility. So it doesn't matter how stealthily the rest of the airplane is, that prop will have a huge radar cross section. So such an aircraft will have limits to its usefulness. Any time you have a combat zone with anti-aircraft radar in use, this would be the wrong plane to send into the area.
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Post by GTCGreg on Dec 21, 2023 14:39:58 GMT
Military drones are meant to fly for a long period of time and at relatively slow speed. I have never seen a jet powered military drone. So I would say, even for manned aircraft, it depends on the application.
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Post by the light works on Dec 21, 2023 14:55:14 GMT
A lot of the development work with modern military aircraft is going towards stealth and low radar visibility. So it doesn't matter how stealthily the rest of the airplane is, that prop will have a huge radar cross section. So such an aircraft will have limits to its usefulness. Any time you have a combat zone with anti-aircraft radar in use, this would be the wrong plane to send into the area. prop noise is also a factor in stealth considerations. however, there are applications where stealth is less of a concern than just being a hard target, and ECM systems might be able to be advanced to defeat radar targeting systems. advanced composites might also reduce the radar profile of the prop disc. of course, such things are much easier on a theoretical or fictional battlefield than a real world one. I know from a youtube channel I watch that turbofan engines are reaching a point of diminishing returns one of the issues with the 737 MAX is that the new engines are just too big to mount in the optimum place for thrust stability. on the previous model of 737, it has what's called the "737 buzzsaw" which, from my intepretation comes from the fan disc spinning fast enough for the tips to go supersonic. some manufacturers counter this problem by gearing down the fan, so it turns slower than the engine core, but that adds weight and moving parts. the new generation of engines is closer to an unducted turbofan than it is to a turboprop. the blade shape is changed, to give more surface area for the diameter of the disc, and reduce bade noise, and vanes are added, to reduce losses from vortices. |
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