HIMAT and the other AFTI Projects

Really makes you wonder what combat aviation would look like if stealth had never been "discovered".
 
From L+K 3/1984,

please note the upper one.
 

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Nice!
I just can't understand how most of the HiMat designs would have adequate pitch control? They're laid out like canard-deltas but they use a higher aspect ratio wing, it seems like the elevons wouldn't have as much leverage as they would on something like a Gripen or Rafale?
 
F-16 AFTI Info.
 

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One more find in the Paul H. Minert Collection. This was scanned from the February 8, 1985 issue of Newsreview, Andrews AFB - a newspaper for the Air Force Systems Command.


AEDC STOL Test.jpg
 
Three (Fairchild-) Republic Aviation AFTI & Advanced Concept Aircraft paintings, which I have never seen before. :eek::cool:
I found them at the Cradle of Aviation Museum web archive.
Some more wind tunnel pictures can be found there, too.
Link:
If this is the wrong topic or these pictures have been posted before, please let me know.
 
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Here are two AFTI projects for modified F-15 and F-16

Source:
  • Klaus Huenecke, Modern Combat Aircraft Design Airlife 1984 (based on article cited above)
A question about the F-16 tailess canard design. Is there anything more on this canard configuration? I've only seen this image of it; was it a real proposal, or a misunderstanding on the part of the artist of what the canards on the F-16 AFTI proposal actually looked like?
 
Good Day All -

From the Gerald Balzer collection, a number of drawings of the HiMat for your perusal....

Enjoy the Day! Mark
 

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How would a combat aircraft based on HiMAT done against modern air to air missiles? Would it’s high sustained turning have given it any advantage evading say a aim-9x or AMRAAM vs say an F-16 in a similar situation?
 
This places high premium on achieving a first pass kill while minimizing exposure to the threat. Also, because of the large inventory of unguided conventional munitions in our arsenal , our tactical air force must be able to accomplish ther mission while using these low-cost weapons.
integration of flight and fire controls ..outside the bandwidth of the human pilot..
This allows for weapon delivery during dynamic maneuver,....
 
AMAS bombing system is designed to deliver wpns in 4-5g lateral toss maneuver as low as 200ftAGL,..
 
mentioning the offaxis ability to deliver the cheapest munition (20mm fire) although previously appearing a couple times on SPF it is always good.. guess the F-15 smart aiming gun effort has also been mentioned on some thread.

firing head-on then the craft veering away by itself sounds unnerving but potentialy a winner

low altitude infil must continue to be practiced and a new 5th+gen should have all these revolutionary F-16 tricks like the flat turn and vertical translation w/o pointing the the nose up or down!.
 
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Grumman AFTI/HIMAT submission, shown as a manned fighter in this artwork.

Source:
Steve Pace, X-29, Aero Series, 1991
Worked on this at Grumman, and no, it was unmanned.
The proposal wasn't manned, agreed, but this artwork seems to have a cockpit and a pilot? There is similar artwork of Rockwell's HIMAT as a real fighter.
 
Nice!
I just can't understand how most of the HiMat designs would have adequate pitch control? They're laid out like canard-deltas but they use a higher aspect ratio wing, it seems like the elevons wouldn't have as much leverage as they would on something like a Gripen or Rafale?
Remember HiMAT was a small thing that weighed in around 5-6,000 lbs, so any amount of control surface force is more significant than on a full-sized one...which, then would likely have all-moving canards.
 
Nice!
I just can't understand how most of the HiMat designs would have adequate pitch control? They're laid out like canard-deltas but they use a higher aspect ratio wing, it seems like the elevons wouldn't have as much leverage as they would on something like a Gripen or Rafale?
Remember HiMAT was a small thing that weighed in around 5-6,000 lbs, so any amount of control surface force is more significant than on a full-sized one...which, then would likely have all-moving canards.
It's not that simple. Generally speaking, the smaller vehicle would have lower control power as well. Go look at the model Grumman used for developing the X-29 flight controls. The wings and canards were substantially larger than fuselage, proportionally speaking. You have to use the Reynolds number to properly get a scale affect that is correlated. But they weren't trying to do that with HiMAT, they were just using it to demonstrate advanced technologies that could be applicable to full size vehicles.
 
Does anyone know what power plants where proposed for a ful sized HiMAT?

Also was the XFV-12 ment to be highly maneuverable like HiMAT? I was struck by its very high thrust to weight and general similarities.
 
NASA Technical Memorandum 86725
HIMAT Flight Program: Test Results and Program Assessment Overview
Dwain A. Deets, V. Michael DeAngelis, and David P. Lux
Ames Research Center Dryden Flight Research Facility Edwards, California



Google Books scan has better picture reproduction quality.
 

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