Combat Performance Evaluation of Fighter Aircraft - Mission Performance Analysis Using Fuel-Distance Diagrams.

摘要

Comparative studies of aircraft performance, undertaken to assess the relative merits of similar types, will necessarily entail not only a detailed qualitative assessment of dynamic performance but also a measure of each machine's ability to carry out specific missions. Energy manoeuvrability theory can be used to provide specific excess power and turn capability of an aircraft throughout its operating envelope. The various manoeuvres comprising a complete mission can then be optimized from this data and a convenient graphical method employed to analyse the mission performance. In this technique each leg of a sortie is represented on a Fuel-Distance diagram as fuel weight consumed versus range traversed. The resulting diagram serves both as a convenient illustration of the relative contribution of each leg to the total fuel consumed and range traversed over a complete mission, and also as a simple method of determining the total operational radius of action or duration on station. (Author)