Carrier deck launching of adapted land-based airplanes23 Jul 2017 HERNANDO, José-Luis and MARTINEZ-VAL, Rodrigo - Department of Aircraft and Spacecraft
School of Aerospace Engineering; Universidad Politécnica de Madrid; 28040 Madrid, Spain"
AbstractHarrier VTOL is the basic combat airplane for many Navies, but it will soon be retired from service. Three main alternatives appear: to incorporate another, already existing or under development airplane; to design a completely new aircraft; or to modify an existing land-based airplane for carrier suitability. The present paper is part of a study to assess the feasibility of the third option. In former papers the authors have addressed the compatibility of land-based airplanes with aircraft carriers and the details of the carrier approach guidance and recovery; and showed some major modifications required in wing structure and landing gear. The research proposed here studies the airplane performance during the launching manoeuvre, formed by a take-off run on the flat deck followed by a ski-jump....
…
5. ConclusionsThe present paper has been devoted to assess the feasibility of launching an advanced combat airplane from a midsize carrier, without entering into the complex analysis of how such aircraft would board the vessel, topic that would deserve a specific study. As an example of critical aircraft/vessel combination Eurofighter Typhoon (EFA) and Juan Carlos I have been used. Needless-to-say, any analysis on the aircraft/vessel compatibility topic is highly specific and cannot be extrapolated to another combination.
In this research a number of aerodynamic features of the aircraft have been estimated, with methods proper of preliminary design and, therefore, the findings presented here have such depth level. The key finding is that EFA is capable of safely operate from a mid-size carrier without catapult, and the only help of a ski-jump on the ship’s bow. The fly-away from the end of the curved deck follows a trajectory compatible with common piloting practice.
Interestingly, the aircraft requires no major modifications for the launching manoeuvre, as opposed to what can be expected from the recovery, this last due to the much higher than normal vertical speed at touchdown in sea approaches. This preliminary study has been carried out with the original all up weight. This means that the land-based airplane could perform the manoeuvre without being penalized for the requirement of taking-off from a carrier, and would keep all its combat capability.
Additional research is necessary to confirm the preliminary results, to assess the effectiveness of thrust vectoring control, and to optimize piloting control laws and airplane attitude during the initial fly-away phase."
Source: https://www.eucass.eu/doi/EUCASS2017-275.pdf