Questions tagged [fighter]

A fighter is an aircraft designed primarily for aerial combat.

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How do flares work?

How do fighter jet flares work? What is the concept behind them and how do they stop impending missiles during flight? And also how do pilots know when a good time to launch flares is?
mateos
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What is the highest muzzle velocity of a gun on any fighter aircraft?

I'm looking for the greatest muzzle velocity of a gun on any fighter aircraft. I looked up the GAU-8 Avenger from the A10 Warthog first. Its muzzle velocity is 1,070 m/s, which is pretty darn high (almost 3 times the speed of sound). Are there any…
DrZ214
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Why did the later versions of AeroVodocody L-39 Albatross find much market success?

The Aero L-39 Albatros had great success in the past. Why didn't the later versions of AeroVodocody L-39 Albatross find much marketing success in the post-cold war modern aircraft market, like Aermacchi M-346, BAE Hawk, Korean T-50 golden eagle,…
user8792
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On modern fighter aircraft, why do most carry a rotary cannon when they tend to have little use against aircraft?

I understand that in multirole or strike aircraft the cannon has a CAS use, but on a purely fighter aircraft, does the benefit of a fallback weapon outweigh the handicap of added weight?
ClippedWings22
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Which features identify an aircraft as a "Sixth Generation Fighter"?

I've been seeing all this news about how the Navy and Air force are going to get some new next gen fighter jets soon. However, I was wondering what will be the difference that makes it 6 gen instead of 5 gen. Will it be faster? More stealthy (if…
Luke Justin
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What are these on the F/A-18F's wingtips?

At 5:34, former TOPGUN instructor Cdr E. Vincent Aiello (the narrator) says Looks like you've got [I can't decipher] Xes. What words was he speaking? Is he identifying the missile-looking object marked by my red arrow below?
user128
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Would one fighter pilot know that another's mask is not on?

I admit, this comes from the original “Independence Day” movie from 1996, but during the first dogfight scene one of the characters claims they can't breathe and takes their mask off. Another character tries to order him to put the mask back on. I…
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Why don’t fighter jets use symmetrical airfoils?

Won’t they be more manoeuvrable in dogfights?
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Fighter aircraft information

Can fighter aircraft accomodate more than one pilot who flys the plane? I mean similar to pilot, copilot. In general if Yes or No, Is it useful to have more than one pilot in a fighter plane?
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Why are some aircraft finally announced to the public?

What is the reasoning for telling the public about an aircraft like the f-22 for example.source:(commons.wikimedia.org) Isn't the point of keeping an aircraft top secret so other countries won't know about this new technology this company came up…
Ethan
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Placing bomb bays on top in order to avoid radar detection

Considering that opening the bomb bay on a stealth aircraft increases the chances of the plane being detected by radars, why no one is placing the bomb bays on top of the airplane? At least for jet fighters like F-22 or F-35. Edit: Asking this from…