F-18 and F-17 Hornet

[GTX]

Here you go:



BTW, may I suggest this be merged with the    
F-18 and F-17 Hornet thread.

Regards,

Greg

[ChernayaAkula]

^ Sweet!

Now move the vertical stabilizers to the thingies* in the wings! 




*highly-scientific, aeronautical term

[GTX]

Here:



Regards,

Greg

[Jeffry Fontaine]

I wonder if there would be enough stability with the design to lose the vertical control surfaces completely such as the examples of the tailless F-16, F-22, and F-35 concepts that have appeared in various LockMart advertising. 

[ChernayaAkula]

Nice work, Greg!  Of course, I was impatient and took a shot at it myself. 

Here's my take, complete with head-on shot. Note the extended vertical stabs below the wing for high-alpha flight (and because it looks effin' cool! ) .



A set-up like this will go on a (probably twin-engined) Draken-whif one day. 

[Daryl J.]

That actually looks pretty good. 


Daryl J., visualizing this in green splinter wraparound

[Sauragnmon]

now let's see the Superbug XL!  The F/A/B-18XL, because it's FAB and Extra Large!

That Bug XL looks wicked!

[KJ_Lesnick]

Now that is a beautiful machine...

With the tailfins spaced farther apart like that it almost looks like a very distant evolutionary progression of the F7U

[dy031101]

When I'm typing a new post for the Alt. Military News thread, I began wondering......

...... would the under-wing pylons of the F/A-18E/F leave enough room for double-carriage of MBDA Meteor missiles?

Ten Meteors under-wing (two under the outboard pylons as well as eight under the middle and inboard pylons), two more under the intakes, and two ASRAAM at the wingtips...... mean firepower it would be...... (for a what-if Royal Navy machine?)

[Shasper]

Dy, that is a possibility . . . one load-out has dual 120s on the main 4 pylons and a single round on the outer set of underwing externals.

Akula, would the new ventrals on your XL affect the aircraft's ability to rotate on TO & landing?


Shas

[KJ_Lesnick]

Shasper,

Akula, would the new ventrals on your XL affect the aircraft's ability to rotate on TO & landing?

That's actually a good question especially with those ventral fins.  I think it might be do-able if the fins were shortened a bit


ChernayaAkula,

I love that design -- though you might want to shorten the ventral fins as it might have some trouble rotating (I suppose you could use folding fins though).  The only thing that could possibly be cooler would be an F/A-18E or F/A-18F with an XL-ish wing.


KJ Lesnick

[Sauragnmon]

I find myself wondering about a Draken/Hornet bash.  Any of our wonderous graphics boys wanna take a sledgehammer to the concept?

[Daryl J.]

A Draken/Hornet bash?   That would be cool.   

One can wonder if SAAB and Northrop had some sort of technology or data sharing going on for some time as the Northrop N-94 looks like a Draken embryo and there are rumors of the F-20/Gripen heritage, yes?


.....and now back to regular programming.....



Daryl J.

[ChernayaAkula]

<...> Akula, would the new ventrals on your XL affect the aircraft's ability to rotate on TO & landing?

Good question. On the one hand, they don't seem to extend that much below fuselage in the profile. On the other hand, the rear fuselage may slope up a good bit so they might stick out too much. Hmmm, maybe the fold away as on the MiG-23?  Sorry, I was going more by looks than practicality.

Should I ever get round to build it wheels down, I'll still extend them. When the engines are shut down and the hydraulic pressure drops they drop by themselves. As the flaps do. That's my story and I'm stickin' to it!

<...> The only thing that could possibly be cooler would be an F/A-18E or F/A-18F with an XL-ish wing.

Exactly! F/A-18XXL! Would the wing leading edge be more angular? With stealth and all that?

[Mossie]

Very nice!  You could make the lower fins partially or fully retractable, or pull the booms in to the trailing edge.