page_title: Supermaneuverability
section_title: Thrust vectoring
hierarchical_section_title: Supermaneuverability / Characteristics / Thrust vectoring
caption_attribution_description: The first Rockwell-MBB X-31 (Bu. No. 164584) flies over Edwards Air Force Base, California, in 1993. Aircraft 584 completed 292 flights during the Enhanced Fighter Maneuverability (EFM) program before being lost on January 19, 1995 when icing in the nose probe caused the flight control computer to receive bad data. German test pilot Karl-Heinz Lang ejected after the aircraft became uncontrollable.
context_page_description: Supermaneuverability is the capability of fighter aircraft to execute tactical maneuvers that are not possible with purely aerodynamic mechanisms. Such maneuvers can use controlled side-slipping and angles of attack beyond maximum lift.
  This capability was researched beginning in 1975 at the Langley Research Center in the United States, and eventually resulted in the development of the McDonnell Douglas F-15 STOL/MTD as a proof of concept aircraft. See also the Saab 35 Draken for early aircraft with limited supermaneuverable capabilities.
  The USAF abandoned the concept as counter-productive to BVR engagements as the Cobra maneuver leaves the aircraft in a state of near-zero energy, having bled off nearly all of its speed in performing the Pugachev's Cobra maneuver without gaining any compensating altitude in the process. Excepting one-on-one engagements, this leaves the aircraft very vulnerable to both missile and gun attack by a wingman or other hostile, even if the initial threat overshoots the supermaneuvered aircraft.
context_section_description: Though a high thrust-to-weight ratio and high aerodynamic maneuverability are found on both aerodynamic and supermaneuvering aircraft, the technology most directly linked to supermaneuverability is thrust vectoring, in which the geometry of the exhaust nozzle of a traditional jet engine can be modified to angle the engine's thrust in a direction other than directly to the rear (i.e., upwards or downwards). 
  This applies force to the rear of the aircraft in the opposite direction similar to a conventional control surface, but unlike a control surface the force from the vectored thrust is dependent on current engine thrust, not airspeed. Thus thrust vectoring not only augments control surfaces (generally that of the elevators) at speed, but allows the aircraft to retain maximum maneuverability below corner speed and some attitude control below stall speed while in maneuvers. 
  Technology demonstrators such as the X-31, F-16 VISTA and F-15 S/MTD were built to showcase the capabilities of an aircraft using this technology; it has since been incorporated into pre-production and production fighters such as the F-22 Raptor. Eastern Bloc design companies have also introduced this technology into variants of fourth-generation aircraft such as the MiG-29 and Su-27 to produce the MiG-29OVT tech demonstrator and Su-30MKI air superiority fighter respectively, and planned fifth-generation Russian-designed aircraft such as the Sukhoi Su-57 will use the technology as well. In addition domestic Russian Su-30 fighters will be upgraded with thrust vectoring engines.
  Thrust vectoring is most useful while performing maneuvers such as the aerial J-turn, where the nose of the aircraft is pointed upwards (and thus the engine thrust counters gravity as well as providing attitude control). It is generally considered impossible, in fact, to perform a true J-turn maneuver without vectored thrust. Other maneuvers that are considered impossible to perform under control using only aerodynamic maneuvering include the Bell (a 360° loop with negligible altitude change) and the controlled flat spin (360° of yaw around a point of rotation that lies inside the aircraft).
caption: The Rockwell-MBB X-31, an experimental supermaneuverable aircraft incorporating thrust vectoring
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