N-156: Evolution of the Northrop F-5

[Scott Kenny]

Don't mean to detract from principle N-156 topic, but found this:

Nord Aviation AA.20 ‘Rapiere’ air to air missile - was designated the Type 5103. The AA.20 missile project was always regarded as a stepping stone to a more advanced missile (which would materialise as the R.530.). The AA.20 was command guided, using a similar system to that used by Nord's SS.10 ATGM.

Regards
Pioneer

Command guided AAM? Ewwwww, that would be utterly AWFUL to fight with!

From the article:

Weight penalty for the cooling system is slight compared with the gain in performance. 350 lb of fuel is replaced by 450 lb of water. Hardware in the precompressor cooling system weighs less than 200 lb. ... Norair feel that the minor loss of range through the loss of fuel is offset by the higher dash capability in a maximum power intercept mission.

Interesting, it seems there's a range of applications where this could be beneficial. Of course efforts like Reaction Engines' one have progressed way beyond these efforts.

Total weight gain of ~300lbs, not bad. If I'm doing the math in my head correctly, they replaced a ~50gal fuel tank with a water(etc) tank. It's more than 8lbs/gal for the cooling fluid because there's some corrosion preventatives mixed in there.