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From: daniel@blake.acs.washington.edu (Daniel Perreault)
Newsgroups: sci.military
Subject: Burt Rutan Goes Military
Summary: New Plane hits the sky
Keywords: It looks sort of strange.
Message-ID: <14403@cbnews.ATT.COM>
Date: 1 Mar 90 04:03:38 GMT
Sender: military@cbnews.ATT.COM
Organization: University of Washington, Seattle
Lines: 37
Approved: military@att.att.com



From: daniel@blake.acs.washington.edu (Daniel Perreault)

Burt Rutan, the man who designed and co-piloted the first non-refueled non-stop
flight around the world has designed and constructed a military jet. At the
cost of $2million to his personal company in R&D Rutan's fighter is ready to
be offered to the military. It is a fairly small jet with top speed ~500mph.
Obviously it is fully aerobatic, and despite the somewhat slow top speed is
reputed to have excellent power to weight ratio. It is made primarily out of
Carbon-fiber and kevlar composites(can you say Stealth?) and has excellent
low alltitude handleing charateristics. Powered by a Pratt&Whitney turbofan,
the plane has some unusual features. It is Asymmetric. The cockpit and the
engine are slightly offcenter and the intake for the jet is on one side to
avoid the smoke from the 20mm cannon that is going to be mounted in the nose.
I think it is supposed to be mounted along the same lines as the vulcan
cannon in an Eagle. It has large canards in the front which are reputed to 
give it excellent low speed control as well as the low altitude handling.

Mission profile? Rutan thinks that this small quiet little plane can fly in
to someplace, say off of a carrier at about 100' off the ground and be able
to slip in under detection and destroy or accompany whatever it is supposed
to. Rutan also feels that this aircraft can fight effectively against current
military fighters, because of its size, quick responsiveness and very small
turning radius. It should be able to carry a few missles as well. I've just
seen pictures of the plane, but it looks like typical futuristic Rutan style.
I don't know whether the military is going to take him seriously or not, but
the plane is very efficient for a jet and has excellent range(more than 25%
by wieght of the aircraft is fuel under full load). It also seems like it
could be really hard to detect. It doesn't look like it could absorb much
damage though...If nothing else it looks like a heck of alot of fun to fly.



Dan Perreault
Engr. Computing Services
University of Washigton