Do we need speed in modern fighters anymore?

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I doubt you would find a fighter pilot who wouldn't want the fastest bird he can get. That would be like giving a race car driver a car that will only do 100 mph instead of 200 mph because the car is more stable and easier to control at the slower speed.
 
Erm...not to belabor a point...but cars built for rallies often do nearly much what you said...

And if you want to win rallies instead of drag races other factors than speed come into play...

And regarding the wishes of fighter pilots...in the interwar period many fighter pilots had a mistaken idea that doing loops and rolls and tight turns were more important than speed (Italian Air force, Russian Air Force, Large sections of the British Air Force, ditto French) and they were mistaken then. Who's to say that modern fighter pilots, who are in love with speed, aren't mistaken now?
 
Burmese Bandit said:
Erm...not to belabor a point...but cars built for rallies often do nearly much what you said...

And if you want to win rallies instead of drag races other factors than speed come into play...
Click to expand...



Could you make your first sentence clearer please?

what other factors come into play if you want to win a rallie?
 
I was just using racing as a example. Of course a rally car will not go as fast as a NHRA Top fuel car, but if you were driving a rally car, wouldn't you want the fastest car you could get? I make my living selling racing parts, motors, and chassis for dirt track racing and drag racing. Every driver I know wants the fastest, best handling car they can get, no matter the form of racing. I am sure pilots are the same.

With the F22 you get the whole package. Speed, weapons, maneuverability. you don't have to do mach 2, but if your situation calls for it, it is nice to know you have the option and can outrun anything in the sky as far as planes go.
 
Seems the speed of Mach 2 has more to do with air resistance than desire. If the builders could get them up to Mach 6, they would. But the amount of fuel you would burn getting there would run you out of gas fast, plus, your airplane would probably melt.

Going more towards stealth (or stealthness) seems to be the trend. That, and as was mentioned before, pilotless.

Question I have is does all this lead to a whole class of air weapons that are little more than remotely operated missles? Very fast and designed to fly straight into the target while under operator control. Seems to be going that way in another 30 years.
 

I agree with your last sentence there Tim.
 
Top speed is not the real issue; if that were the case, we would have built a bunch of F-108A Rapiers F-12A's, and that's it. Any design is a compromise; the more speed you have, the less maneuverability, and vice-versa. And, has already been pointed out, even with the F-22, top speed isn't nearly important as the ability to supercruise; the F-15 will do M2.5, but it will also burn up all of it's fuel before it gets to the target doing it. The F-22 will supercruise comfortably at M1.4 all day, and burn half the fuel the F-15 does. So it's not neccessarily about top speed, but about the ability to get to the target in the least amount of time efficiently.
 
Exactly. There is no point in burning over a target a Mach 6 and then having to land a few miles later.
Also when discussing if an aircraft has all these eletronic systems to protect itself does he need speed... Its my understanding that sometimes systems fail, and electronics no longer work. In that case it comes down to pure skill and SPEED which has been the essense of air combat for years. As said by evanglider it is all about energy managment. I certainly do not want to be on a "missile truck" when a jammer fails or an enemy pilot acquires me visually..

Just thought I throw in my thoughts
 
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