Now to be fair, that dev did come back and apologise/clarify for the choice of words. However the sentence has since been added to the hallowed hall of fame that is ‘Gaijin Comedy Phrases’.
It is on-topic, since the whole tagline came about because of the Typhoon and Supercruise.+
+The actual term as recognised by every aviation company, organisation, Air Force, etc.
And? That’s not a requirement for supercruise, so it is completely irrelevant.
We are discussing the maximum possible supercruise speed.
The devs believe it is mach 1.3 at 9000m, but there is no available source for this.
The only other information we have that we can use allude that the maximum supercruise speed is mach 1.5 but there is no given altitude details and the devs refuse sources with incomplete data.
We have other sources with partial data, which on their own are not enough to satisfy bug report requirements.
I swear theres times where the devs are actually good and actually follow what the actual source’s say, then theres times that makes you think that the devs are bias and ignore actual given source’s and pretend that they do not understand it or that it’s lies/fake and they’ll say stuff like o theres no way it could actually do that even if you have every single source out there that says it can they would still refuse it,
They did the same for challenger 2 TES/OES add-on armour kit and stinger missiles now there doing it to typhoon super cruise. The devs need to realise that they are contradicting sources. Like the developers and the moderators tell us that if we are looking something to get changed we need sources to back it up which is absolutely fair but it’s things like this when you actually do have the sources and information that they completely ignore it are say its fake are give some other bs excuse.
They need to release they can’t do that. When a player makes a bug report and does there research find source’s from books, pictures, brochures e.g the developer’s need to accept that information until any additional information is unclassified in the future which could state otherwise are could confirm what all the sources originally saided at the start. But until then what ever information we currently have the devs should do as it says and give that vehicle are weapon its capability until otherwise !!
The article very much reads like a Lockheed Marketing spiel to be honest. I would be wary of taking a single quote from 1999 (amidst a massive PR campaign to keep the program going when many big ticket items were being cut) and treating it as gospel. Especially when every other quote on the subject would disagree.
Supercruise as defined by pretty much every aircraft manufacturer is the ability to sustain flight at supersonic speeds without the use of afterburner. The threshold is clear-cut and Typhoon, Rafale, Gripen Lightning, Concorde all meet that threshold.
I’ll edit to add some sourcing. From the Bundeswehr.
Supersonic speed – without afterburner
The multipurpose combat aircraft is powered by two EJ200 engines produced by the Eurojet consortium. Each engine generates a thrust of about 60,000 N without afterburner. When the afterburner is used in addition, a maximum thrust of more than 90,000 N is generated. Unlike the Tornado, the Eurofighter takes off without afterburner during normal flight operations. This reduces noise pollution at the airfields of the German Air Force. The Eurofighter can accelerate into the supersonic range even without using the afterburner and fly at supersonic speed for an extended period of time. This capability, known as “supercruise,” is currently available to only a few combat aircraft worldwide.
From RUSI.
The distinguishing capabilities of so called ‘4.5 Generation’ fighters such as the Typhoon, Rafale and Gripen include low-observability to radar; the ability to supercruise (fly at supersonic speed without using afterburners); and extreme manoeuvrability at all speeds. The excellent beyond-visual-range (BVR) and within-visual-range air combat capabilities of all three European fighters revolve around supercruising at very high altitude using powerful sensors and long range missiles, as well as being able to sustain high energy levels during extreme manoeuvres in a dogfight.
To argue otherwise is basically trying to move the goalposts ‘after the fact’.
I don’t see how being held to a higher standard makes it a marketing spiel.
Yes, by the definition of the company that makes the plane, and the people that use it, every plane you listed supercruises, but none except the Concorde (which isn’t even a combat aircraft) can supercruise by USAF standards
Don’t see how it’s moving goalposts after the fact if the article I posted is older than both the ones you did
You kind of answer your own question. A single quote says that supercruise must be 1.5+.
Let’s say I find another internet quote that says supercruise must now be Mach 2.0+. Would we then now class the F-22 as no longer being supercruise capable? Or just moving definitions around?
Not having a dig at you personally - but the logic seems a bit off. After all, you either take the definition that is used by the majority - or you opt for the arbitrary one-off definition quoted in an article a quarter of a century ago.
The term supercruise implies supersonic cruise. While dry thrust is cruising compared to afterburner performance - it also isn’t nearly as efficient as being able to pull the throttle back to a cruise setting and still maintaining a speed above the wave drag boundary.
If your definition of supercruise is that it can surpass the sound barrier on dry thrust alone, sure it supercruises. Is it useful in a tactical manner? Sure! Does it have parity with an airframe actually designed for such operation? Absolutely not.
I mean, honestly… look at the wording. “Super” “Cruise” - That is to cruise in supersonic conditions. The Eurofighter can only do this if you dictate that “cruise” simply means to maintain a steady speed (above the sound barrier) on dry thrust. The F-22 uses the term to simply explain that it is efficiently cruising above the sound barrier and on less than full mil thrust. This is an entirely different level of “supercruise” and puts it well above the Eurofighter in that regard. Putting the two aircraft on the same level in regard to supercruise is as much of a stretch as saying the Eurofighter is also a stealth fighter simply because they slapped RAM on the leading edge of the canards and wing.
They got that definition from somewhere, seeing as it quotes USAF personnel involved in the program, and by that point production F-22 already flew, I think it’s fair to say 1.5+ combat load is the Air Force’s definition of supercruise for a fighter at least
Find another quote direct from the USAF stating it as policy and I’ll agree with you. No argument.
Otherwise it is single quote that may or may not be accurate. After all, we’ve got Mr Floggy claiming that quotes about the Typhoon performance are ‘propaganda’ - so we’ve got to hold all aircraft to the same standard.
If you want more we can DM about it, but it’s not worth arguing in this thread because clearly Eurofighter GMBH has a very different perspective about what supercruise means.
With the USAF you know that a vehicle tagged as “supercruise capable” is going to be able to exceed mach 1.5 on dry thrust whereas with Eurofighter you know it can do maybe 1.5 on dry thrust.
In the case of the F-22 it is certainly propaganda (true or not), with the Eurofighter it is a marketing strategy and not just propaganda seeing as they’re trying to export it.
I’d rather take the definition that best matches the word and purpose or use-case of it.
If you want to say anything that can exceed the sound barrier on dry thrust is supercruise go for it, but it doesn’t make sense. The entire point of developing an aircraft capable of supercruise is to be as efficient as possible while maintaining a high speed tactical advantage. To do so, you’d want to be able to exceed the wave drag barrier (up to 1.5 mach for unoptimized airframes like F-22), maybe 1.4 mach for a more optimized airframe like Eurofighter… Additionally, you’d want to be able to do so while pulling the throttle back off mil thrust. This allows you to avoid temperature limits and shortening of the engine MTBO / lifespan.
If you can’t do that, then there is no real reason to market the capability otherwise unless you’re trying to appear as though there is parity with a better system.