Demetrious
Airman 1st Class
- 104
- Aug 22, 2007
(I don't know if this is the best board for this, so if you think it should be moved, please feel free.)
Ever since I started studying the comparative performance of aircraft in earnest, I've been routinely frustrated by the total lack of some of the most basic performance data in nearly any source you might care to name. Even the best-cited Wikipedia articles (which will include wing-loading, drag-ratio and zero lift drag coefficients, and if you're lucky, power/weight ratios already calculated for you,) you'll find glaring errors. For example, the F-4 Phantom page on Wikipedia (which is phenomenal compared to most of the aircraft entries,) gives the powerplant's thrust as 17,000 pounds, without noting that 17,000 pounds is for the afterburner, and military power is only 11,000. And then- most mind-numbingly frustrating- there is absolutely no data on roll rates. Even on this very forum, the most I've ever seen in the way of roll rates is two charts from wwiiaircraftperformance.net (which are heavily relied upon,) so apparently this blackout is total.
And that's at best. A staggering number of those "PLANES OF THE WORLD + CRUCIAL STATS" books that friends and family have bought for the "airplane guy" in the clan will tell you this much, if you're lucky:
--Loaded weight
--Gross weight
--Range (combat radius? ferry? with a full weapons load? LOL I DUNNO)
--Who made the engine.
AND THAT'S IT.
Now, after three hours on the internet trying to find out what the MiG-21 (any variant's) roll rate is, and failing, I'm ready to drop some cash on this problem. I can understand if data beyond educated guesses is not to be had for the F-15, (it's classified, after all,) but the MiG-21? Get out.
So I come to you fine folks to ask a simple question- what reference books are out there that would give me the absolute low-down on military aircraft, modern and archaic? I want to know everything, how many tanks the fighter has and how many gallons in each (so I can guesstimate the likely combat weights, and such) data on roll rates, and the like. ("Roll rate" is a misnomer, I'm aware that it varies as much as "turn rate" does, so any book that gives me the aerodynamic data needed to roughly infer roll rates is fine.) In short, where can I find the reference texts the experts use?
Ever since I started studying the comparative performance of aircraft in earnest, I've been routinely frustrated by the total lack of some of the most basic performance data in nearly any source you might care to name. Even the best-cited Wikipedia articles (which will include wing-loading, drag-ratio and zero lift drag coefficients, and if you're lucky, power/weight ratios already calculated for you,) you'll find glaring errors. For example, the F-4 Phantom page on Wikipedia (which is phenomenal compared to most of the aircraft entries,) gives the powerplant's thrust as 17,000 pounds, without noting that 17,000 pounds is for the afterburner, and military power is only 11,000. And then- most mind-numbingly frustrating- there is absolutely no data on roll rates. Even on this very forum, the most I've ever seen in the way of roll rates is two charts from wwiiaircraftperformance.net (which are heavily relied upon,) so apparently this blackout is total.
And that's at best. A staggering number of those "PLANES OF THE WORLD + CRUCIAL STATS" books that friends and family have bought for the "airplane guy" in the clan will tell you this much, if you're lucky:
--Loaded weight
--Gross weight
--Range (combat radius? ferry? with a full weapons load? LOL I DUNNO)
--Who made the engine.
AND THAT'S IT.
Now, after three hours on the internet trying to find out what the MiG-21 (any variant's) roll rate is, and failing, I'm ready to drop some cash on this problem. I can understand if data beyond educated guesses is not to be had for the F-15, (it's classified, after all,) but the MiG-21? Get out.
So I come to you fine folks to ask a simple question- what reference books are out there that would give me the absolute low-down on military aircraft, modern and archaic? I want to know everything, how many tanks the fighter has and how many gallons in each (so I can guesstimate the likely combat weights, and such) data on roll rates, and the like. ("Roll rate" is a misnomer, I'm aware that it varies as much as "turn rate" does, so any book that gives me the aerodynamic data needed to roughly infer roll rates is fine.) In short, where can I find the reference texts the experts use?
