Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!att!cbnews!military From: nelson@udel.edu (Mark Nelson) Newsgroups: sci.military Subject: SU-27 Angle of Attack Message-ID: <8074@cbnews.ATT.COM> Date: 8 Jul 89 04:34:39 GMT Sender: military@cbnews.ATT.COM Organization: University of Delaware Lines: 38 Approved: military@att.att.com From: Mark Nelson A short article in the latest _Economist_ (July 3) discussed fighter maneuverability of the F-15, F-16, Rafale (sp?), and SU-27. Apparently, the F-16 is capable of a 35 degree angle of attack, and the Rafale of 45 degrees. The article didn't mention the SU-27's sustained angle of attack capabilities, but it described the SU-27's "Cobra" maneuver: The plane, in level flight, with 0 degree aoa, pivots back to 110 degrees (beyond vertical!), and then returns back to 0 degrees, all the while travelling essentially horizontally. Anyone care to speculate on this? Does it mean the SU-27 is incredibly maneuverable? How could the plane maintain control? How does it correlate to a sustained high angle of attack capability? As a related question, how does a high angle of attack translate into greater maneuverability? My assumption is that it allows faster turns in the horizontal plane by effectively decreasing the apparent length of the fuselage perpendicular to the (vertical) axis of rotation, thereby decreasing the angular momentum of the plane. Is this right? | / Attempted diagram | / | / |/ | /| / = Fuselage of plane, length = L / | | = Axis of rotation (vertical) / | ) = Angle of Attack = A /) | - = Apparent length of fuselage normal to axis of --------- rotation = L * cos (A) Mark Nelson ...!rutgers!udel!nelson or nelson@udel.edu This function is occasionally useful as an argument to other functions that require functions as arguments. -- Guy Steele