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2DFQi-2A and the Long Chi

psCargilepsCargile417 Posts: 620Member
edited October 2012 in Work in Progress #1
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The FQi-2A Accipiter is a 7th generation post-singularity autonomous intelligent fighter activated August 15, 2032, in service and allegiance to the United Republics of the Americas, engaged in the Vengeance Skirmishes against Imperial China following the nine year nuclear world war of 2017.

Primary weapons are advanced tactical lasers in the 50 to 300 kW range, microwave pulse beams, and Write On-Demand killware, or invasive offensive algorithms. Defenses include extended spectrum microwave cloaking, adaptive camouflage, along with heuristic reflexive firewalls and anti-killware decoders, as well as photonics and fiber-optics replacing much of the electronics and wiring vulnerable to EMP and microwave weapons. The primary sensor is 90% of the outer skin, a conformal array for broad range multi-use EM spectrum transmission and reception. The array is meshed with the cloaking meta-material and the camouflage elements.

Beneath the array are self-sealing healing polymer layers. Some elements in the skin are electro-transparant for laser emissions along the upper and lower mold lines of the nose. Mold-line breaks around access and service panels are minimized by micro-latching elements. The high fineness ratio of the smooth surface lends to lower drag.

Flight control is accomplished through adaptive compliant frame members and flexible skin sections that allow variable wing leading and trailing edge incidence and partial to full wing dihedral in range from +7 to -10 degrees. Length is 45 feet. The optimal speed is Mach 2.8 and the overall planform is designed to fit within a Mach angle of 20.92 degrees. Top speed is Mach 3+. Lift and pitch stability is increased by nose-to-wing chines, eliminating the need for horizontal stabilizers or canards. Chine vanes ahead of the wing are vortex generators to delay boundary air separation over the wings at high angles of attack affording greater combat maneuverability and greater lift during landing. The vanes are also dihedral variable to position the vortex either above or under the wing for optimal flight performance.

Intelligence capacity is from 2 to 2.7 HEI (human equivalent intelligence, the baseline of 1 being of average human intelligence). The craft itself is not an individual; the pilot is either a downloaded copy of a non-corporeal machine sapience, or the braincase of a mobile machine sapience. In the event the piloting intellect is incapacitated, the fighter will operate autonomously via a backup intelligence rated at 0.7 HEI.

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The Imperial Chinese Long Chi has similar technology, though its primary mission of incursion attack requires an optimal sprint speed of Mach 3.8 and it is designed around a 15 degree Mach angle. Most noticeable are its large variable incident horizontal stabilizers, leading edge vortex notch, and inward turning intake flanges. The "Dragonfang's" primary weapons are killware and malware to cripple or destroy industrial or communication centers and networks, or to infiltrate and then incapacitate or subvert other machine sapience.

Neither aircraft are armed with kinetic munitions.

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Though I don't have a model planned (maybe for X-Plane 10), I'm using Rhino to help me visualize and design the overall look. I've been working on this over the last two to three weeks, mostly trying to decide whether a bottom intake or side mounted intake was better, and I finally went with the side mounted as the bottom versions left little room for landing gear.

In my middle-age, I've been striving for more science in the science-fiction and wondered where fighter aviation was heading. The inspiration for the technology comes from many an AW&ST article, coupled with my growing interest in Generational Dynamics, which forecasts impending nuclear war and the Singularity. For those that haven't heard about it or read science fiction pondering it, the Singularity is the event in which computers become smarter than people and can design and create even smarter computers. One possible outcome of this is a Cambrian explosion of technology and invention. Usually I tend to shy away from near future tech because it is more likely to be wrong, but this time I decided to throw caution to the wind, and its more likely that the tech I load these planes with will be mature before the 2030s. Given the production of drone aircraft and designs for them to operate autonomously, it's more likely that true machine intelligence will emerge from combat aircraft or other military hardware. Gen 6 aircraft will more likely be pilot optional, and the next generation wont need human pilots at all.

The design evolved from a rudderless near-F-22 likeness. And though I had read about Mach cones and Mach angles, the import of that didn't click until I was researching experimental aircraft. The faster above sound you go, the smaller that cone, and more of your aircraft you want inside that cone for the sake of increasing efficiency. Therefore the higher the Mach, the farther back the wings are placed as that is where the most room is at the base of the cone. The SR-71 is a good example: the Mach angle is the acrsine of 1/Mach and the angle off the centerline from nose to wingtip is about 19 degrees, about Mach 3. In the hypersonic range, the Mach angle gets really small, hence all the blunt nosed, tiny winged hypersonic test aircraft. Of course this does not mean that wingtips and other parts can't extend beyond the Mach cone. The Mach cone is a shock wave, and shock waves will be generated from other parts of the aircraft besides the nose. But if you are going to be spending a lot of time cruising at supersonic speeds, the planform should be optimized for the Mach cone and the Mach angles. As I chose an intercept speed of Mach 2.8 (and I played around with different speeds), I had to design the Accipiter inside an angle of 20.92 degrees, which is also the slope of the intake leading edge. Controlling the shock waves and putting them to good use is essential.

Given microwave cloaking, or radar invisibility, I opted against radar reflective angled surfaces. Radar will evolve to be more sensitive as it is and I speculate that a Gen 6 will be able to detect and track a Gen 5 aircraft.

These phone snapshots of my little sketchbook will have to suffice until I produce some better illustrations. Google translator is translating my Chinese. If it's wrong, blame them.

Questions? Thoughts?
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  • psCargilepsCargile417 Posts: 620Member
    drone-figher-01.jpg

    Haven't done much art with the other designs, but have been tinkering with this.
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