QUESTION : Would it be possible for a 6th generation MRCA-STOVL jet to land and take off Trieste's Piazza Unità d'Italia ?

[TheRejectionist]

I would love to set one scene over the skies of Trieste (to get a partial idea of how the city is here the Google results https://www.google.com/search?q=tri...HZXoCcoQ_AUoAnoECAIQBA&biw=1366&bih=661&dpr=1 ) and the city's homonymous gulf ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gulf_of_Trieste) as well as the Greek city of Thessaloniki
I was wondering also if you had any insight on the feasibility (and how) of a spaceplane or sixth-generation jet fighter (or later generations)landing and taking off from the 12,280 m² surface of Trieste’s Piazza Unità d'Italia (English: Unity of Italy Square, https://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Piazza_Unità_d'Italia ) and if you think that in the near future ( like end of the 2020s to 2040s/2060s) or when will sixth generation fighters or spaceplanes be widely implemented it would be realistic to have air forces’ jet planes to be easy to control and air forces easy to train(without the use of artificial intelligence and whatnot), as well if it would be realistic in your opinion for someone (my main character) who initially wanted to become an English teacher to be then be a “guerrilla” military aviation-trained pilot to military interrogator ; I am trying to write a non-American-aligned perspective point of view, because I haven’t found military fiction (so far!) written from a non-American aligned side perspective.

@Archibald @archipeppe @Dilandu tagging you guys because seem to be expert on everything regarding Italian aerospace/aeronautical stuff.
@Jemiba because I was given part of this idea from one of your threads.
@Orionblamblam @GTX @uk 75 @overscan (PaulMM) for your insightful observations.

 

[archipeppe]

I know Trieste, imho is not likely to have anything near a 6th generation fighter (or worse a spaceplane) which would take off or landing from the big squadre of a city, especially an historical one like Trieste.
No one would or will allow doing something like that for safety reasons.

 

[Dilandu]

Well, let's define the "6th generation fighter" first? Currently there aren't exactly any coherent opinion what must be included in 6th gen. For example, if we assume that 6th generation fighter would be a drone fighter, fully unmanned, then its size and mass could be quite significantly reduced (also it could be made much cheaper)

 

[TheRejectionist]

I know Trieste, imho is not likely to have anything near a 6th generation fighter (or worse a spaceplane) which would take off or landing from the big squadre of a city, especially an historical one like Trieste.
No one would or will allow doing something like that for safety reasons.

Not even in wartime?

 

[TheRejectionist]

Well, let's define the "6th generation fighter" first? Currently there aren't exactly any coherent opinion what must be included in 6th gen. For example, if we assume that 6th generation fighter would be a drone fighter, fully unmanned, then its size and mass could be quite significantly reduced (also it could be made much cheaper)

Ok, in this case, not an unmanned drone.

 

[Dilandu]

Not even in wartime?

No. Just not practical to put an airbase into the center of the city, where it's hard to disperse or camouflage and a big headache to supply.

 

[TheRejectionist]

Not even in wartime?

No. Just not practical to put an airbase into the center of the city, where it's hard to disperse or camouflage and a big headache to supply.

Well, let's define the "6th generation fighter" first? Currently there aren't exactly any coherent opinion what must be included in 6th gen. For example, if we assume that 6th generation fighter would be a drone fighter, fully unmanned, then its size and mass could be quite significantly reduced (also it could be made much cheaper)

So, should I go with an aircraft carrier in the harbor/port of Trieste?

 

[riggerrob]

You can land any aircraft anywhere ONCE!
But only dedicated STOVL or STOL aircraft can land and take off repeatedly from confined spaces.
I worry about jet blast damaging the paving stones. Landing immediately after a heavy rain would help reduce burning damage to stones. Mind you, all the steam created would reduce visibility to zero, so hopefully your super-advance VTOL fighter has synthetic vision and some fancy software to help landing in brown-out or white-out conditions.

Perhaps the white-out problem can be solved by another guerrilla simply tossing a 10 kilogram homing beacon into the middle of ths square. The pilot then tells the plane's auto-pilot to land on the miniature beacon. The beacon only needs a range of 5 kilometers or less. If the beacon is home-made, then it might only work within visual range.

That burning damage will be caused by the hot engine exhaust that lifts all operational VTOL fighters (Harrier, F-35, Yak-38 and Yak-141). Even though F-35 has a cold fan at the front, its tail is still lifted by hot engine exhaust. Hopefully the sixth generation of VTOL fighters (e.g. fictional "Killswitch") will entrain more cool ambient air to improve lift and reduce its temperature.

Your hero can probably dodge those two huge lamp posts once or twice, but if you want to land on the Piazza Unita d'Italia, repeatedly you will want to remove those tall posts.
Rolling take-offs allow you to carry 40 percent more fuel or weapons.
How long is the Piazza?
How wide is the gap between harbor-front buildings?
If you want to do rolling take-offs, you will also want to remove all those 1 meter tall bollards.
Naturally, all landing approaches and take-offs will be over the harbor to the North-West of the Piazza.
If there are any winds, the pilot will struggle with turbulence as he descends below the roof line of surrounding buildings.

Forget about taking-off from the Piazza in a space-plane as they are too big.

Perhaps you could partner up your guerrilla pilot with a computer nerd buddy who stays on the ground and assists him in operating some of the more complex systems. The computer nerd would stay in some remote basement and communicate with the pilot and the plane's central computer via some electronic link that has not been invented yet.

Finally, please do not waste time translating Italian place names into English as I find it laborious to remember three different names for the same place in three different languages.