Rudders are on the vertical stab - yaw control is by differential drag using split ailerons or spoilers or similar.
How are the rudders on the vertical stab? Can you show me a diagram, or highlight where on an image and explain?
By simply being. Elevators are placed on the horizontal stabilizer, rudders are placed on the vertical stabilizer.
Sure (and no I’m not mocking you - I’ve been in aviation 50 years and still get horizontal and vertical stabs mixed up occasionally - more so as I get older!! )
however the lack of vertical stabilisers (and therefore a rudder) reduces agility significantly. aircraft like the B2 can take this tradeoff for a smaller RCS as they arent a fighter but an air superiority platform does need to be able to at least take on the agile fighters of the previous gen up close and personal.
which is why i think thrust vectoring is not out of question.
thust vectoring has only ever been a supplement to agility for good reason.
well yeah, it would supplement the manueverability of the jet. there are probably going to be other control surfaces lol, it wont be the only thing.
That is an “it depends” statement - the B2 and B21 are never intended to be manoeuvrable in the first place, and that is not because they lack a rudder and VS - it is because they are big and heavy.
It is much easier to have yaw control with a vertical stabiliser, but with modern computing and FBW it is no longer a necessity for highly manoeuvrable aircraft.
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do you think the dihedral would help its yaw control at all?
well yes but it certainly would see a better amount of aerobatic ability from having them, there is still only so much a computer or other non vertical stabiliser control surfaces can do so make up for a design handicap
maybe the dihedral of wing will make yaw control easier, paired with possibly TVC it would probably be very manueverable
Ngl, just figured out what you meant, thanks for the clarification. Now I know how flying wings work :)
Dihedral is for stability in classic aerodynamics - it is not needed for yaw control.
I’m not a designer of 6th gen stealth fighters, so I wouldn’t presume to guess what they use for yaw control.
Classically it would be achieved by differential drag such as spoilers or split ailerons, but those would also have stealth implications when they pop open or out… I’m sure they’ve done something clever and well outside the box and our guesswork is kind of silly!
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ah ok. i was just thinking that with how other stealth jets liek YF-23 have really flat vertical stabilizer, the high dihedral could have a similar effect
Ik it’s still funny
Rafales Gripens and Eurofighters aren’t even 5th Gens
president #47 announces F-47. Pretty cool.
ps first impression: It looks ginormous, ~wingspan of a F-14 w/ wings out. Not a radar engineer but looks stealthy af. Huuuge cockpit, and tons of visibility. Larger weapon bay than F-35&F-22. Can’t deduce anything about the tail section like engines or vertical stabs. Canards.
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Yeah I think that was the problem with those two aircrafts. The bay just isn’t big enough to fit what the Air Force can make best in terms of long range AAMs.
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To add to Piano’s answer, yaw stability can be improved by positive wing sweep angle. When a plane yaws, the wings get different exposure to the incoming air. The more exposed wing gets pushed back, while the less exposed wing, of course, is pushed less, balancing the aircraft’s yaw axis.
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