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| Science & Technology |
| Supersonic Bombing Breakthrough |
| 2007-12-03 |
| The U.S. Air Force has developed a new technology that enables bombs to be dropped from internal bomb bays while the aircraft is traveling at high speed (above the speed of sound). The test, using a rocket sled on the ground, going at about 2,000 kilometers an hour when the bomb was released. The new technology is a series of micro air jets in front of the bomb bay. These air jets manipulate the air flow over the bomb bay ("active flow control") so that when the bomb bay doors opened and the bomb was released, it would leave the bomb bay, and not be forced, by the air pressure moving across the skin of the jet, back into the bomb bay. Supersonic bombing capabilities only became a problem with the appearance of GPS guided bombs. In the past, dumb, or laser guided, bombs required slower speeds to get some accuracy for dumb bombs, and to enable an aircraft to place the laser on the target for the guided weapons. But with JDAM (GPS guided bombs) all you got to do is drop that sucker, and be on your way. In situations where the air is hot with enemy fire (shells and missiles), you would want to get in there, drop the JDAM, and haul ass out ASAP. Now it is possible to do this. Bets are being made within the air force concerning how long it will take the Chinese to steal this new technology. |
| Posted by:lotp |
| #10 TASER-capable/armed "FLYING SAUCERS". |
| Posted by: JosephMendiola 2007-12-03 22:29 |
| #9 The Viggie also had a problem that sometimes they would drop the (nuclear) bomb, and it would just follow along behind the aircraft, stuck in the slipstream. According to Wikipedia, sometimes the bomb would fall out and land on the carrier deck during a catapult launch. |
| Posted by: Rambler 2007-12-03 15:42 |
| #8 Not that long ago, there was a report that the JDAM guidance package has been refined so you can now drop accurately from sixty to a hundred miles out from the target and 'way high up. Combine that with this, and you concievably could have a weapon released at Mach 2 from a long ways away and have it glide in for maybe a couple hundred miles on pure inertia--and hit within fifty feet of the aim point. Ooooh. Nasty! |
| Posted by: Mike 2007-12-03 15:29 |
| #7 Yup. But not in a stealthed airframe. |
| Posted by: lotp 2007-12-03 15:20 |
| #6 Out the back's been done: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A-5_Vigilante |
| Posted by: M. Murcek 2007-12-03 14:03 |
| #5 rjs, there are aerodynamic and center of gravity considerations. Plus you would probably require an auto-feed to poop them out one at a time from the pointy rear of the AC. Could it be done? Probably, but I wouldn't want to be flying that AC as the bomb load rolls to the rear, 500 or a 1000 lbs at a time. In addition you would have to design an entirely new AC to handle all of this at supersonic speeds. Not cheap! |
| Posted by: Throger Thains8048 2007-12-03 13:58 |
| #4 Well, if the Enterprise-D can separate the saucer section at warp speed, I don't see why this is such a big deal... |
| Posted by: Raj 2007-12-03 13:56 |
| #3 I'm ignorant abou the details by why not design the plane so that the bomb pop out the back into the plane's wake rather than planes belly. It's not as if we're using primitive targetting sites, it shouldn't matter from that point of view where we dump it and I find it hard to imagine the wind sheer pushing the bomb forward, back into the plane the way it might from below. |
| Posted by: rjschwarz 2007-12-03 13:30 |
| #2 I'd say they'll have it delivered within 24 hours of Hillary taking office. |
| Posted by: BrerRabbit 2007-12-03 13:01 |
| #1 . Bets are being made within the air force concerning Fixed for you. |
| Posted by: JFM 2007-12-03 12:15 |