30 Jul 2019, 21:51
quicksilver wrote:LtCol Hank Griffiths, who commanded the test squadron at EDW some years back said this on the matter —
“What we can do in our airplane is get above the Mach with afterburner, and once you get it going ... you can definitely pull the throttle back quite a bit and still maintain supersonic, so technically you're pretty much at very, very min[imum] afterburner while you're cruising," Griffiths said. "So it really does have very good acceleration capabilities...”
DT test guy...not prone to spin or hyperbole. Just the facts.
Based on your knowledge and experience, wouldn't "very very min[imum] afterburner" still drink fuel at a rather prodigious rate? (Though far less than max burner.) I am
guessing the motor is still burning a substantial amount of fuel more than max Mil. But what does this piston popper know?
Take an F-16, stir in A-7, dollop of F-117, gob of F-22, dash of F/A-18, sprinkle with AV-8B, stir well + bake. Whaddya get? F-35.