She’s always been fun but loving playing the Lightning atm
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Because the lighting is another favorite of mine, I’ve considered researching its flight performance to compare it to in game.
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Yeah, it has a job now and the consistent downtiers are lovely
i’ll be trying to answer those based on an AGARD research paper of an air-to-air missile that works in a very similar way to the Meteor (it’s not the Meteor but the concept and scale is the same), i’ll also use some papers that talk about the Meteor itself or development predecessors to the Meteor.
the optimal altitude is unclear because it depends on launch conditions, specially range. the research paper had a commanded altitude of 25000m, that’s the altitude the missile will try to cruise at to reach a target in a very long distance, this gives you some idea of what altitude range the meteor should be able to obtain. the best info i have for maximum altitude of something closer to the meteor itself is in regards to the EURAAM missile, a predecessor to the meteor (slightly larger diameter than the meteor but very similar still), which had a high altitude similation rig that could simulate up to 30km of altitude.
this whole range thing and flight profile depends way too much on launch conditions, but for “max range” specifically we probably have some idea of what it does, the research paper missile (again, not the meteor) explains how the missile optimizes thrust for a 100km headon shot.
Spoiler
so for your question of very long distance shots it probably means an euro or rafale shot at very high altitude and speed, letting the missile reach the cruising altitude and speed without wasting too much fuel, allowing it to cruise at a lower thrust setting for a very long time, the meteor is capable of withstanding temperatures that are equivalent of mach 3.5 - 3.7 for “a few minutes” which is cool to know i think
one thing we know about the meteor is that it has a tdr ratio that “could be extended beyond 12:1”, that means for a very long distance shot it could cruise at an even lower thrust setting than that shown in the tdr 10 shot.
some sources i have
Spoiler
AGARD AD-A257 018
pages 33 to 37 talk about the ‘research missile’ i mentioned and pages 40 to 42 have images and graphs
History of Ducted Rocket Development at Bayern-Chemie
this has good info on meteor predecessors and the meteor itself
MBDA – Multi-National Missile Programmes IMEMG European IM Day 18-19 May 2017
pages 10 and 12 have some info about “Rocket Motors Fast Cook Off” for the meteor and some bonus ASRAAM stuff. note that the temperatures are related to the casing specifically
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Yes I can.
And if I don’t no one will lol.
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Thats not true, i have already looked at it and so has gunjob and flame
I just didnt really understand it at the time and i havent given it another go yet
What is their concussion about it
I do not believe they banged their head however i assume its either reported or accurate already
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I see, I believe gunjob assumed the scarrier was correct in the beginning.
If he doesn’t still as well.
Can’t be asked it does well enough.
Yeah honestly the lightning is fun to fly as is and isnt exactly op imo
one of the reasons i never went back to look at its performance
I just wish the red tops had better side aspect lock angles (in lieu of all-aspect)
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The Lightnings relatively low rip speed does kind of suck, it wants to go fast at low altitudes but if you push above mach 1.12 at sea level the wings can fall off
I’d be surprised if it was that low irl
converting the current rip speed in game to a manual’s VNe, it comes out to pretty much bang on 700 Knots, which as its a nice round number, seems correct
but i’ve not been able to find a pilots notes or manual that i haven;t needed to pay for
Does that account for the artificial buff that war thunder gives to max rip speeds?
+5% i believe
700 knots before the 1.05x multiplier
the rip speed is 1361kph, which then after removing the 1.05x is 1296.2 kph,
which is practically bang on 700 knots
could be wrong, but with it being such a round number, i’d have my doubts
I guess that makes sense, from a quick search 700 knots appears to be correct
To my knowledge the Lightning was limited to that at low level due to the radar nose-cone being vulerable to damage, however, I also heard the F.6 had an improved nose-cone. I’ll check again to see if thats the case or if I was just misremembering.
I still think the thrust is a bit dodgy. Especially at low and high speeds.
It was vulnerable to bird strikes but proved very stable even at low level.
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Pls be scramjet, please be scramjet…
It would be funny to develop & put into service an air to air scramjet missile before the Americans do