From:      skunk-works-digest-owner@harbor.ecn.purdue.edu
To:        skunk-works-digest@harbor.ecn.purdue.edu
Subject:   Skunk Works Digest V2 #62
Reply-To:  skunk-works-digest@harbor.ecn.purdue.edu
Errors-To: skunk-works-digest-owner@harbor.ecn.purdue.edu
Precedence: bulk

Skunk Works Digest        Monday, 25 January 1993      Volume 02 : Number 062

In this issue:

	RE: F-22 Sidewinder Firing
	IR Seekers

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From: gt6745b@prism.gatech.edu (Michael David Knight)
Date: Sun, 24 Jan 93 17:02:57 EST
Subject: RE: F-22 Sidewinder Firing

> Nice.  But, the way Sidewinders are used on today's aircraft is that the 
> seeker acquires a target *before* it is launched.  I guess the F-22 will 
> need to download targeting data into the missile before firing.  It would 
> also require the aircraft to have its own IR seeker.
> 
> - -dean
> 
	I realized that Sidewinders aquire their targets with their own
seeker heads before launch, but I don't know what provisions will be made
for internal carriage.  I haven't seen any evidence of an IR seeker on 
the F-22, but I could be wrong.  This summer at the airshow at NAS Atlanta
(Which shares a runway with Dobbins AF Base and Lockheed Marietta) one of 
the YF-22's was on display.  It was the one originally fitted with GE engines
and was the "non-flying" test aircraft after the fly-off.  I looked over 
the whole thing carefully for sensors/avionic antennas but the only things
readily obvious were the RWR and the usual pitot tubes. There was certainly
no FLIR or DLIR as on the F-117.  Does anyone know whether the F-22 will
be fitted with IR avionics/sensors.  Nothing I've seen or heard would
suggest such.
	I can't see downloading info to the seeker head before launch.  The 
IR seeker on a Sidewinder is a pretty simple electronics package.  To add 
capabilities for complex information transfer would increase the weight and
would negate the KISS philosophy of the experienced Sidewinder.  How to 
get the target aquired before launch would certainly be an interesting 
problem.  Any answers/speculation/ideas (bright or otherwise)?

							-Michael

Michael David Knight gt6745b@prism.gatech.edu   * COMBAT AIRCRAFT:  A mix of * 
Georgia Institute of Technology                 * sharp teeth, cold steel,   *
Atlanta, Georgia 30332                          * cosmic warlords, and evil  *
Aerospace Engineering (404)676-0520             * spirits.                   *



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From: kuryakin@bcstec.ca.boeing.com (Rick Pavek)
Date: Sun, 24 Jan 93 17:47:21 PST
Subject: IR Seekers

I'd doubt that all of the production systems would find their way
to a preproduction prototype, so if there is an internal IR sensor
it could merely be absent from the YF-22.  Lots of a/c have them,
though.  F-14, F-101B, etc.  Even the YF-12A.  

I don't personally know where it would go, but it's obvious that since
the weapons are stored and fired from an internal configuration, there
must be an IR device on the a/c somewhere.  

Rick

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End of Skunk Works Digest V2 #62
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