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The Pentagon's Supersonic, Shape-Shifting Assassin

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the this-switchblade-illegal-to-carry-also dept.

grammar fascist writes "CNN reports that Northrop Grumman is under contract to build a new supersonic, shape-shifting bomber by 2020. The main innovation is in its single, rotating wing. From the article: '[It] will cruise with its 200-foot-long wing perpendicular to its engines like a normal airplane. But just before the craft breaks the sound barrier, its single wing will swivel around 60 degrees (hence the name) so that one end points forward and the other back. This oblique configuration redistributes the shock waves that pile up in front of a plane at Mach speeds and cause drag. When the Switchblade returns to subsonic speeds, the wing will rotate back to perpendicular.'"

5 of 489 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Stability? by evanbd · · Score: 5, Informative

    The reason it's hard is that now all the control moments are linked -- you can't roll the plane without causing pitch and yaw changes too. So you need to control all the surfaces in unison. This makes it complicated and hard to fly, but not necessarilly unstable. That's why there's a computer flying it, not a person -- once they get a good model of how it behaves, applying all the corrections at once isn't a hard thing for a computer.

  2. 2020? What about 1951? by Baldrson · · Score: 5, Informative
    This was known in 1951:
    The first to prove that such a wing has minimum wave drag was R.T. Jones (1951). More recently, inviscid CFD calculations proved that the best performances are obtained with a wing of aspect-ratio 10:1 with a cruise CL=0.068. The best yaw angle would be 68 degrees, and the wing would have the flying operation shown in Fig. 1 below.
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    Seastead this.
  3. NASA did a test plane decades ago by n76lima · · Score: 5, Informative

    I recall seeing a NASA test plane with a swiveling wing at the EAA OSHKOSH airshow back in the early 80's. It was one place, jet powered, and was flown in the airshow with the wing rotated to a fairly steep angle several times. It was a proof of concept to explore control issues and to prove that the wing need not be swept BACK on both sides to improve aerodynamics at high speeds. They referred to is as the AD-1", an oblique wing aircraft.

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    We don't need no stinkin' sig!

  4. NASA page on the AD-1 by TopSpin · · Score: 5, Informative

    Here is a link to the NASA page on the AD-1

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    Lurking at the bottom of the gravity well, getting old
  5. Re:Swing Wing Designs by ceejayoz · · Score: 5, Informative

    With the upgrades done over the years, it still the the best carrier fighter we have.

    With the upgrades done over the years, it still the the best carrier fighter we don't have.

    Fixed that for ya. They've been decomissioned since March.

    It has range, computer power, ability to lock onto six different targets at the same time and shoot them all down, and doesn't need to be pointed at the bogeys after the missles are fired. The F-18 Hornet is a short range fighter, and has to keep itself pointed in the general direction of the bogeys until the missles hit.

    Incorrect, to my knowledge. Fire-and-forget is based on the weaponry, not the platform firing it. Just about every air-to-air weapon - the only exception being the AIM-7 Sparrow, which is being phased out for the AMRAAM - the F/A-18 launches is fire-and-forget and doesn't require external guidance from the launching aircraft. It can carry more payload, too, if Wikipedia is to be believed.