Boeing and GE confirm that they are developing an enhanced version of the F414 for the F/A-18E/F that increases thrust by 20%, from 22,000lbs to 26,600lbs. The improved version is based on the new engine core that GE is developing for the U.S. Navy to increase engine durability and reduce fuel consumption. The EPE includes the same improved core but adds a new forward fan and compressor modifications to increase thrust.

Story here:

h**p://www.flightglobal.com/articles/2009/05/12/326376/boeings-super-hornet-seeks-export-sale-to-launch-20-thrust.html

Phaid This is a very interesting developement indeed.

Thanks for posting the story.

 

Regards, PlG

Phaid,

 

Thanks for the post, I have always heard that the F-18E/F is underpowered so this would be a welcomed addition. Is this something for upgrades on previous builds as well or just new planes?

Nevermind I just read the article, I should have known it was to appeal to the export market.

 At this level i don't know of any underpowered fighters appart for the flamers, one might have superior TWR or lower, they still all boast loads of it.

I think people often and wrongly look at TWR and when they see anything less than 1:1 they think of the fighter as inferior with regard to thrust. What folks should realize is that they do not build these aircraft and check to see how much the TWR is. They know from the beginning based on the design and SPEC. If you can achieve 1:1 great but that may not be an overriding feature of the design. Also, TWR can be misleading as they actual weights of these aircraft under combat conditions is never the nice neat precise numbers seen when you click specification in Wiki. The aircraft is continuously getting lighter as it burns fuel and the TWR is always changing. There are other factors to consider such as drag. Bottom line is that all of the modern designs have acceptable levels of TWR to be effective in air combat. So when one gets a 20% boost during life cycle, thats a major upgrade.

It's the same for the other Specs like Maximum Mach that people get all caught up over without realizing most combat loaded warplanes NEVER fly that fast and certainly not for any sustained period due to fuel limitations and mechanical limits on the engines and airframe. The only operational aircraft that go beyond what's typical in terms of flight performance speed are the F-22 and Mig-25/31. But these are specialized designs. All the rest are about the same from a flight performance point of view having their platform specific advantages and disadvantages.

-DA 

Allow me to desagree on several point:

There are several ways for computing of empty weight...

 

   Empty without whatever you canot flush like oil or ecces fuel.

 

   Operational weight empty with everything included crew but without weapon and fuel.

 

   Combat weight is computed on the basis of 50% internal fuel and weapon only (assumed jetissoned external tanks).

 

   As for Maximum mach it is generaly divided between Operational (A2Aconfiguration, AAM load otherwise clean) and Max DASH.

 

  FADEC limits engine wear for you these days and one can pretty much run at full A-B for hours.

 

  The Mirage IV was doing it for 500 km at speeds between Mach 2.08 and Mach 2.14 and 1000 kn with an average speed of 1 822 km/h in 1960, over its normal range it would be supersonic more than 50% of the time.

 

  The limitations of sustained M 2.0 flight being structural due to kinetic heating and fuel consumption.

 

  Saying that high dash speeds is not so important is ignoring what the egress time involves in terms of incresased likelyness of intercept, as the A7 Corsair II pilots figured for themself over Vietnam so our latest strikers and external tanks are all stressed for sustained M 1.6 to be safe.

 

  In short you want to bug out as fast as possible becasue we want you back home to do it all over again.

 

  Ingress is generaly done using a typical 89% military power with full external load which results into a <> M 89 cruising speed on most modern strikers as low as 100 ft.

 

 

 

 

What exactly are you disagreeing with?

  You views that Dash speeds aren't useful and never used and Max Mach values not sustained, in operation the opposite happens much too often expecialy if your life depends on it.

 

Regards, PlG