From: megazone@obsidian.WPI.EDU (MegaZone23)
Newsgroups: rec.aviation.military
Subject: F/A-18E/F bad idea?
Date: 9 Oct 1992 20:17:03 GMT
Organization: Worcester Polytechnic Institute
NNTP-Posting-Host: obsidian.wpi.edu

Well, here's a miltary aviation topic, it's been bantered about sci.military
on and off. As you may or may not know the navy is planning on purchasing a
new version of the F-18, the F-18E (F two seat trainer). Is this a good idea,
the stats don't seem to be that much of an improvement, and there is no
guarantee that McDD will be able to meet their proposed performance specs,
yet the Navy is not requiring a prototypig tryout. Rather they are treating
the 18E like a modified 18C. 

This seems foolish, the 18E has a new wing, new engines, new electronics,
a stretched fuselage, and more composite components. It is basically a new
aircraft, the airframe has had some major changes.

The 18E is supposed to help cover for the cancelled A-12 and also phase into
the fleet air defense role as the F-14s phase out. Yet the 18E has neither
the speed, range, carrying capacity, not weapons systems to perform theses
roles with the capabilites of a specialized aircraft. Perhaps a 'Strike 
Hornet' could do the job of attack, perhaps a cross between the 18E and 
Northrops F-18L, similar to the F-15E. The AF has acknowledged that one man
is hard pressed to perform gorund attack in the modern environment, even with
the latest electronics, hence the 15E is a two seater. Yet the 18E is a single
seater which is supposed to do both ground attack in place of a dedicated
attack aircraft, and fleet defense i place of a dedicated interceptor.

I view the F/A-18 as a jack of all trades, master of none. It is best suited
to dog fighting with excellent high AOA performance, but it suffers from one
of the lowest thrust to weight ratios of the modern crop of aircraft...

There was an article on the F-18E/F in the September Proceedings. Fairly
critical. They had a lot of the stats listed:
                                            F/A-18E  F/A-18A/C   Change
Fuel Fraction 
  Takeoff Weight (fighter escort)           .302     .288         +4.9%
  Maximum fuel                              .44      .42          +5.6%

Thrust specific fuel consumption
  best cruise, alt., Mach; full int. fuel   1.0956   1.0578       +3.6%
  Mil. power at M=.7/20K/60% int. fuel      1.0618   1.0383       +2.3%
  Max A/B at M = .9/20K/60% int. fuel       2.063    1.983        +4.0%

Thrust to weight ratio
  Takeoff, IRP, ftr. escort, int. fuel      .50      .54          -6.5%
  Takeoff, Max A/B, ftr escort, int. fuel   .75      .80          -6.3%
  Mil. power at M = .7/20K/60% int. fuel    .35      .36          -3.1%
  Max A/B at M = .9/20K/60% int. fuel       .68      .73          -6.5%

                              F/A-18E        F/A-18C
Wing area                     500 sq ft      400 sq ft
Weight  
  Empty                       30,600 lb      24,600 lb
  Max TOGW                    66,000 lb      51,900 lb
Propulsion
  (2) F404 Derivation
  Turbofan Engine
  Total Thrust (SLSU)         44,000 lb      32,000 lb
Fuel (JP-5)
  Internal                    14,500 lb      10,900 lb
  External
  330gal tanks                 6,700 lb       6,700 lb
  480gal tanks                 9,800 lb        -----
Design load factor (USN)       7.5g           7.5g
%spotting factor               119%           100%

Width                          
  wings extended               44.7 ft        40.4 ft
  wings folded                 30.6 ft        27.5 ft
Length                         60.1 ft        56.0 ft
Height                         15.8 ft        15.3 ft

From the article:
The 18E/F had a predicted 28% increase in combat radius.
The 18E/F is practically a new aircraft, not really a derivative.
$5 billion R&D budget
New wing should improve lift to drag ratio by 23% at 10,000 ft and 7% at
cruise altitude.
McDD is only allowing a 1,050 (3.6%) weight reserve, most contractors use
4.5%. And McDD has a rep for busting weight limits.
Leading edge sweep will be increased from 26.7 degrees to 29.4 degrees, taper
will be increased, twist removed, thickness-to-chord ratio will be increased,
a snag will be added on the outboard leading edge, the ratio of exposed wing
to total wing area will be increased, and the leading edge root extension
(LERX) wil be shortened.
The air inlets will be much larger and instead of a semi-circle will be a
rectangle shaped ramp inlet.
The 18E/F will use an engine which was derived from the engine for the A-12.


All in all not too impressive. The same issue hard an article calling for the
development of a Naval ATF, possibly the Naval F-22 proposal, to take over
fleet air defense, plus the NATF would have attack capability too. 

Discussion?

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