Manual

Pilots often discuss the relative merits oftheir aircraft in terms of thrust-to-weightratios. A Thrust-to-weight (T/W) ratio is anumerical calculation which compares theamount of Thrust being produced versusthe weight of the aircraft.Ideally, aeronautical design engineerswould like to build every aircraft with aT/W ratio greater than 1:1. Such aircraftwould then produce more thrust than theirweight and allow them to maintain verticalclimbs almost indefinitely. Unfortunately,greater thrust requires larger engineswhich drives the weight of the aircraft upwhich then requires more thrust—well,you get the idea.Many players have expressed themisconception that the Tomcat’s twin jetengines should allow it to makeaccelerated vertical climbs. Sorry to saybut there aren’t any front line fighteraircraft that can perform such a climboutside of Hollywood. This type of climb isreserved for ICBMs and the national debt.Each of the F-14B’s two General ElectricF110-GE-400 turbofans are able toproduce approximately 16,100 lbs. of drythrust or 27,000 lbs. of wet (afterburning)thrust each. That is a huge amount ofpower being generated but given theTomcat’s combat weight of almost 80,000lbs. it’s not nearly enough to sustain avertical climb. Nuff said!DragAerodynamic resistance to the forwardmovement of the aircraft is known asDrag. Just as Lift and Weight counteracteach other in the vertical plane, Thrustand Drag counteract each other in thehorizontal plane.To grasp the concept, it is first necessaryto separate Drag from the idea of weight.Weight is only an impediment to the extentthat it counteracts Lift. Therefore, weight iscounter-acted by increasing Lift whileDrag can be counter-acted by altering theaircraft (in simple terms). IncreasingThrust does not overcome the effect ofDrag.Drag is a function of a particular aircraft’ssize and shape (design). All aircraftcreate a certain amount of Drag nomatter how aerodynamically wellconstructed they may be. For example, anaircraft which exposes a large frontal areato the direction of flight creates a lot ofDrag. This type of Drag is known asParasitic. It can be reduced byaerodynamic streamlining such asminimising the exposed frontal area of theaircraft.Parasitic Drag is a major concern toaircraft designers. The size of an aircraftis usually dictated by the avionics carried,the size of the radar, and the amount ofpayload (including crew members)required. These factors cannot bechanged to any great degree once anaircraft is in flight. Therefore, the amountof Parasitic Drag is generally fixed.Some aircraft, like the F-14, are capableof changing the sweep of their wings from90 degrees to something almost flushwith the fuselage. These variablegeometryfighters are able to cut down onthe effects of Parasitic Drag by adjustingtheir wings thereby exposing less criticalsurface to the direction of flight. As ageneral rule, variable sweep wings areextended forward for low energymanoeuvrability and retracted for speed.BASIC CONCEPTSAirspeedYour airspeed is given in knots or nauticalmiles per hour. Since a nautical mile is2,000 yards in length (longer than a regularmile), an aircraft travelling at a speed of200 knots is going considerably faster thanone going 200 miles per hour. Keep this inmind when you are flying, especially at