Dornier LSK (Leichtes Schwebefähiges Kampfflugzeug) (Lightweight hoverable fighter) (1972)

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Light V/stol fighter

Dornier is studying a "light, hoverable combat aircraft" as a substitute for armed helicopters under conditions of enemy air superiority. It is primarily a tank-killer project. The intake to the gas generator has a tortuous shape in this Dornier study of a lightweight V/Stol fighter. The type might be an alternative to the "tank-buster" armed helicopter. It uses tip-driven remote fans and is derived from work on the Aerodyne wingless reconnaissance vehicle Such a type would need to be cheap, small (G.91 size) and able to operate from dispersed sites, but be able to reach High subsonic speeds and to defend itself against enemy fighters.

Helicopter escort and attack would demand good lowspeed manoeuvrability, and there could be advantages in making missile attacks on tanks from the hover. Taking technology derived from the Aerodyne wingless reconnaissance vehicle a stage further, the fighter project would use twin tip-turbine-driven fans with cascade deflectors for Vtol performance. (Hawker Siddeley Dynamics and Dornier
are now jointly studying wingless reconnaissance vehicles.)

In principle a tip-turbine-driven fan for the fighter is available from General Electric. It is used as a horizontal fan in the wings of the Ryan XV-5A Vtol research aircraft. Dornier says such gas-driven fans, if mounted in suitable ducts, can produce pressure ratios of between 1-15:1 and 1-5:1, and can be used at up to near-sonic speeds. When integrated as closely as possible into the wing, such a propulsion system can induce, says Dornier, a jet-flap effect beneficial to high-speed combat manoeuvrability at low cascade deflection angles. Dormer says that the radius of action of the type depicted here would be 320 st miles, 200km with a 2,000Lb, 1,000kg-plus weapon load on a lo-lo, high-speed mission.

Shaft-driven fans have been investigated, but are not as advantageous except at lower fan pressure ratios (optimum would be 1.1:1), when hover endurance would be higher than for gas-driven units. Although the weight of the shaft engine is reduced with
decreasing pressure ratio, the weights of fans, gearboxes and airframe increase considerably, which results in a reduction of the useful load. With increasing fan pressure ratio, gas-generator power and fuel consumption increase as well. On the other hand, high-speed performance, manoeuvrability and radius of action are improved. The amount of useful load remains almost constant, since the increasing gas generator weight is offset by decreasing fan and airframe weights. The wing would be sized primarily on the basis of combat-manoeuvrability requirements.
 
From Aviation Week November 1972:
- the "schwebefähiges Kampfflugzeug" (hoverable fighter)
 

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LSK stould for "leichtes, schwebefähiges Kampfflugzeug", in English : light, hoverable combat aircrafas already mentioned in Paul's post.
This not only would have been a technical challenge, but a new type of mission for a fixed wing aircraft,
because AFAIK the only V/STOL jet fighters actually shooting during hovering flight were to be seen in Arnie's "True Lies"
(AV-8B) and in Bruce Willi's "Die Hard IV" (F-35).
As a side note: Would it be feasible ? Could imagine, that there would be problems due to hot gas ingestions or vibrations.
 
Thank you for the info my dear Jemiba.
 
Very interesting find gents!!

Would be great to see more!! ;)

Regards
Pioneer
 
Seems like a different take on the RIVET approach to mounting the engine backwards. Seems like the next step after jet flaps would be some sort of tilt wing, but has anyone seriously proposed a tilting gas driven fan approach to VTOL, due to the complexity of the rotating tilt joint having to accommodate the gas duct?
 
Aviation Week 20th November 1972

DornierHoverablefighter.png

Hoverable Fighter Concept Shown

Hoverable fighter under consideration by Dornier has two ducted fan engines with pitch control engine in nose (AW&ST Nov. 6, p. 18). It
would be capable of reaching transonic speeds and could fire its nose cannon from hovering or wing-supported mode of flight. Aircraft
would be used for ground support and helicopter escort.
 
A78-34822 # Dormer LSK - Light combat aircraft with hover capability for anti-tank missions and shipboard deployment (Dormer LSK - Leichtes schwebefahiges Kampfflugzeug fur Panzerbekampfung und Schiffsdeck-Emsatz) P Pletschacher Flug Revue/Flugwelt International, May 1978, p 68,69 In German

To counter the growing Warsaw Pact build-up in Central Europe, a light, relatively inexpensive aircraft is now in the testing phase, which will have tank busting and close ground support as its primary mission objectives Design and operating characteristics of the Dormer LSK are presented, with attention to high maneuverability, especially hovering maneuvers An additional jet intake is built into the nose to augment steering and stability Weapons stores will
consist mostly of the electronically guided variety, weight up to 1000 kg, and permit a combat radius of 200 km.
 
Leichtes schwebefähiges Kampfflugzeug ( LSK ) is the designation of a new study project undertaken by Dornier. This flying weapons platform came about in response to a requirement for more effective antiarmor systems which would function well when an enemy had air superiority. The LSK is conceived as being able to hover although of fixed-wing design. The high-wing monoplane is to have two ducted fanjets mounted below the wing to provide lift. An additional fanjet in the fuselage nose will facilitate transitional flight and hovering. Steer and trim capability during hover will be by this engine. During conventional flight, traditional rudder, surfaces and wing flaps provide the steering capability. The theoretical planned maximum speed of the LSK is reputed to be near the speed of sound . – Soldat und Technik, ©1973.
 
From Aviation magazine 1973.
 

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From ,Quarterly Review of Military Literature.
 

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