Well you know the missles sit outside of the jet, if you were to only shoot one would it change how the plane steers and stuff in anyway?
Moved to 'the draw' first.
Missiles are relatively aerodynamic, so the difference in drag (between the missile being there and not being there) would be minuscule.
Mcminty.
Missiles are relatively aerodynamic, so the difference in drag (between the missile being there and not being there) would be minuscule.
Mcminty.
In the "early years" of combat aviation...and aircraft was very sensative to "off" wieghts. i.e. 90% or more of the time you saw both left and right wing stores dropped togeather. This was to maintain balance and help to ensure a bit of bomb effectiveness.
With todays modern fly by wire aircraft, and fighters having enough power to rip asphault away from the ground, that "balance" issue is very very small.
With todays modern fly by wire aircraft, and fighters having enough power to rip asphault away from the ground, that "balance" issue is very very small.
What if someone was to shoot one your missiles? You'd blow up, right?
I don't think they work like that. They have to be armed then fired. Of course at the end of the day they're made out of explosive stuff so you're probably right. And they would be armed and ready to go in a dogfight.FFLink13 wrote:
What if someone was to shoot one your missiles? You'd blow up, right?
Good question and good answers.
Well i think the shots are too weak to let the bomb explode
the missiles that we use today are very stabile and the explosive properly has the some of the same abilities as plastic explosives c4, semtex etc. and therefore they need to be exploded by a electric charge, though they won't explode by an emp because they have to be armed before they can explode. and as a security feature the missiles arm them self inflight when they are at a save distance to the aircraft they were fired from, and some of them disarm themselves if they are in vicinity with a friendly aircraft.
I just thought at the speed that the aircraft is going that an small change in its outline and stuff would completely destablise the plane. Does the plane not need to make any adjustments to its thrust at all then to counter balance the slight change?
As has been mentioned, missiles are very aerodynamic, and, compared to the overall weight of the aircraft, they're very light. Also, jet engines on modern fighters are extremely powerful. For example, an AIM-9 Sidewinder missile has a launch weight of 190lbs (85.5kg). An AIM-120 AMRAAM has a launch weight of 330lbs (150kg). Compare that to the take-off weight of a fully loaded F-15, a massive 68,000lbs (30,600kg). It's a tiny proportion of the aircraft's overall weight.*wah1188 wrote:
I just thought at the speed that the aircraft is going that an small change in its outline and stuff would completely destablise the plane. Does the plane not need to make any adjustments to its thrust at all then to counter balance the slight change?
Having an unbalanced load probably does have an effect on the handling of an airplane, but it would be very, very minor, and modern avionics are more than capable of compensating for such a small change. I know that the F-35 and F-22 use internal weapons bays to enhance their aerodynamic properties, but 'planes like the F-15, F-14, and any number of other jet fighters have been happily using external weapon loads since they were invented.
*Weights taken from www.fas.org