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Given that you have an aircraft that uses a liquid cooled engine, and a certain list of criteria, what would be the best radiator housing arrangement for a single seat, single engine fighter?
Criteria:
--Aircraft has to have provision to carry fuselage mounted cameras (ports out to the side/sides and, preferably, ventral).
--Conversion for being a dual control trainer with minimal changes beyond adding the second cockpit.
--Allowing for max fuel capacity (wings and/or fuselage) while maintaining CG (radiator(s) can be used to balance CG as well)
--Present a minimum of drag (at least some useful use of the Meredith effect preferred)
--Optimum (if possible) balance of aero efficiency, cooling efficiency, and ease of servicing and maintenance.
I suppose only that the OP seems to be implying he wants a new design, lolWhat am I missing here?
[citation needed]It's been suggested that that was actually one of the factors in the Mosquito's high altitude performance.
I only say "it's been suggested" because I don't remember by whom, where or how reliably. May well be bullshit, though intuitively I think it makes some sense.[citation needed]
Kinda my point.I only say "it's been suggested" because don't remember where or how reliably.
For multi-engine subsonic jets, yes I think the reason for pylons is that once bypass engines (turbofans) were invented and it was quickly discovered that fuel efficiency was strongly correlated with the bypass ratio, the engines just didn't fit into the wing roots anymore. Also you see the pylons jut out a bit in front of the wing, I think this is in order to ensure that engine gets clean airflow to prevent compressor stalls. For a longer version of this argument see Tradeoffs in Jet Inlet Design: A Historical Perspective | Journal of Aircraft (you can find the article free IIRC on the authors university site).I mention this because jet engine intakes used to be in the wing but later went to pylon mounts. Increase in engine diameter?
Hmm, that's an interesting argument! But OTOH, if you have the outlet in a high pressure region, then you'll have more backpressure in the radiators and thus more drag from the radiators. I don't have any numbers showing anything either way, so just idly speculating..If it's well designed it will actually improve lift, as the outlet will increase pressure beneath the wing. It's been suggested that that was actually one of the factors in the Mosquito's high altitude performance.