Shooting Aim120 over/under Mach 1

[Revientor]

Here is a video flying the F18 doing this analysis, is it interesting shoot a missile when your plane is over match 1 or is almost useless?

 

You can go direcly to the end of the video to check the values of fuel spended to get the mach speed vs the range of the missile.

 

Do not forget see the beggining of hte video to see the test parameters

 

What is your opinion about this?

Edited October 30, 2018 by Revientor
spelling

[Banzaiib]

The faster your aircraft is going when you fire the missile, the more energy the missile has. All things being equal, this increases the lethal range of the missile.

[Revientor]

1 - Your video is in spanish and you talk far too fast for my Marine Corps kitchen spanish.

 

2 - I don't understand what your question above is.

 

 

hahaha, you can try to slow daown the speed with youtube options :p

 

 

Is not a question. If you see the video, what is your opinion acording that data.

 

Yes we know the more speed your plane have, the far away the missile will go (due that energi at the beggining what your plane gives to your missile (initial speed))

 

 

Do you think is good? or may be you speend too much fuel (to make your airplane supersonic) vs the incremented range that you gain with all those extra speed?

[Revientor]

The faster your aircraft is going when you fire the missile, the more energy the missile has. All things being equal, this increases the lethal range of the missile.

 

 

Do you think speed 1000 lb extra of your airplane fuel (to fly supersonic vs subsonic) is worth it?

[BottledViolence]

I'm no expert, but it seems like you're trading fuel for speed. You still have the speed after you launch. Is that fuel in a drop tank you're about to jettison anyway? Is that fuel you need to get home?

[Banzaiib]

Do you think speed 1000 lb extra of your airplane fuel (to fly supersonic vs subsonic) is worth it?

 

It depends. Is that extra 1000 lb of fuel worth your life? If your missile gets to the bandit first, as a result, then yes. It's worth it. Few are the DCS pilots that can operate within that tiny, life and death envelope. For most, an extra 100 kts is not going to be worth it. You'd be better off burning and climbing 90% of the time, trading fuel for potential energy and lower air pressure. Then again, you make yourself more visible to su-27 data link, so it's situational.

[Capn kamikaze]

Over mach 1 is better than under, preferably above mach 1.2 so you can be sure the flow around the missile is definitely supersonic rather than transonic, then launching in this condition means the rocket motor isn't having to fight through the high drag transonic region during any of its burn time.

[Ironhand]

If i’m interpreting the information you presented correctly, it’s hardly worth it in DCS for the extra 0.4 nm range. Nor do I think the extra energy imparted lasted long enough to make any real difference.

[*Rage*]

When I tested it a few months ago it made very little difference. Not worth the fuel expenditure.

[Exorcet]

It seems like the other copy of this thread and its replies were deleted.

 

 

When I replied in that thread I think I misunderstood the question slightly. Faster is better for your missile and evading incoming missiles, but Mach 1 is not particularly important. The missile won't really care because it will accelerate to much higher speeds quickly, but the launching aircraft will likely be less efficient at very low supersonic speeds.

 

 

If you're attacking another fighter and might need to evade, then any additional speed that you can get is worth it. Keep in mind that you can gain speed through more than just dumping your fuel into afterburners. Flying higher and then diving is good for efficiency in general. Rather than worrying so much about your absolute speed, try to concentrate on having an energy advantage over your enemy. If the target is flying at M.5, you fly at M.9. IF the target is flying at M.9, you fly at M1.4, etc.