This is the development method used in the F-22 fighter project, and it is also the method used by the LWF project of the US Air Force that year, and in the United States, this development method is called: prototype comparative test flight. Pen? Interesting? Pavilion wWw. ｂiquge。 ｉｎfo

The LWF project actually refers to the Pentagon's light fighter program, which was the aircraft that was closest to the mafia's requirements developed by the US aviation community under the operation of the fighter mafia at that time, and the LWF project was actually the F-16 fighter project of the year.

So those who know a little bit about the LWF project plan must also know that the project derived another YF-17 fighter, an aircraft that did a comparative flight test with the YF-16 that year, and then participated in the failure of the project and was favored by the Navy to develop into the F-18, and then there was another series of stories.

Prototype comparison flight test, as the name suggests, is to develop at least two models of prototypes, through the prototype flight test data comparison, and then a comprehensive comprehensive consideration score, so as to maximize the advantages and disadvantages of competing models data, in order to help the military choose the most suitable fighter model.

Judging from the final results of the LWF project, it is indeed the maximum effect of the development method in the end, and the project results have also been maximized by the US military, which can be described as a typical example of high investment and high returns.

Relatively speaking, although the prototype has a lot of benefits compared with the test flight, the project costs a lot of money, and it seems to be acceptable when developing a light fighter, which is not too complicated, after all, it was in the period when the Soviet Union attacked and defended the United States, and the United States did not dare to save this little money.

But who knows, how the F-16 fighter before the F-15 was developed? It should be known that the F15 fighter project that year was also a comprehensive scheme tender for the entire US aviation industry, and the companies participating in the bidding were no less than the companies that later participated in the bidding for the ATF project.

A strange question is coming, why haven't we heard of an aircraft that was compared with the prototype of the F-15 back then, you must know that there was no so-called YF-14 and there was no YF-16 number at that time, right?

At this point, it is necessary to mention another method of military fighter development: the "verification/validation" mode, which means that the project does not need to build a prototype for comparative flight testing, and this mode only requires all the test work except for the prototype test flight of the competing scheme.

The object's avionics were tested on simulators; The advantages and disadvantages of the aerodynamic design are tested in the wind tunnel; The radar reflection cross-sectional area is obtained by the specified test method; The manufacturer also manufactures full-size models for necessary evaluations, and so on.

The whole design model is to test the design of the subsystem through various methods, but will not build a prototype for comparative flight testing, only the winning manufacturer in the verification/validation mode can finally be allowed to enter the full-scale development stage, so as to build a prototype for test flight.

The F-15 fighter was actually designed and manufactured using the verification/validation mode, and the fact shows that the final project bidding scheme is indeed excellent, which also strongly demonstrates the correctness of the model.

The whole system of the heavy fighter is extremely complex, and the design is quite cumbersome, the US Air Force did not have enough funds to pretend, and the Congress at that time even wanted to cut the F15 at one time, and then stuff the Navy's salt water chicken to the Air Force again, so for various reasons, the F-15 project did not use the prototype to compare the test flight.

Later, with the success of the F-15, the U.S. military found that the heavy aircraft could also be developed in this way, so when the ATF project, in fact, at the beginning, the U.S. military also planned to let the ATF project continue the previous F-15 model, and in the end there may not be the YF-23 aircraft.

In 1985, the U.S. military at that time was holding the idea of preferring to spend more money to develop the best fighter to ensure the advantage of the next generation, so the project finally chose the prototype of the LWF project for comparative flight test mode, so that there were two fighters.

Later, when the JSF joint strike fighter was launched, it was entirely because the US aviation industry had been merged in large numbers at that time, leaving only three companies capable of developing military fighters, and among the three, the Norge company's plan was obviously unreliable.

Therefore, in the end, there were only two companies left to participate in the bidding, and at this time, it was necessary to spend more money for both companies to try to build prototypes and compare flight tests, so that the only remaining military fighter companies in the United States could master the technology of fourth-generation aircraft.

When the United States developed the five-standby aircraft, it took the prototype comparison flight route, but the republic really wanted to follow suit? You must know that the development of a fourth-generation heavy fighter is really not cheap at all, even if it is only to develop a prototype for test flights, this is also a large expense.

Don't you know that after the last republic's heavy four projects completed the bidding, in order to raise funds for the northeast to complete the development of the 31 program, it was really a smashing pot and selling iron, and it was only by selling all the automobile business of AVIC that he barely scraped together funds for the development of the prototype, but in the end, after the first prototype of the 31 program, he was still facing the embarrassing situation of running out of money?

What are the cost burns of prototype vs. test flight vs. verification/validation?

First of all, you need to complete the detailed design of the aircraft fuselage to make the prototype, you need to analyze and test the structural performance of the aircraft, and after the design/analysis is completed, you also need to process and manufacture various parts, and the first processing and manufacturing of the aircraft requires a lot of effort and resources in the process, and the aircraft needs to have a static testing machine for static testing for the first flight, and only when these are all completed, it is possible to carry out a comparative test flight.

And all of the above are extremely costly, the heavy four projects really want to play like this, Yang Hui guarantees that the government is in charge of the money bag directly to scold the mother, if you force it to do this, the three project plans may be able to get some funds at that time, but in the end no one will be enough.

Rather than this, in Yang Hui's view, it is better to go directly to the verification/confirmation mode, so that the cost of funds is relatively small, and the only drawback is that the losing party of the bid will have no chance to develop stealth fighters in this life, and even if it is not done well in the future, it will be directly squeezed out of the military fighter industry.

Now the pros and cons of the two models are obvious, one is to threaten the current development progress of the four major projects, and the other is to directly threaten the future military fighter development capability of the entire republic, both of which are extremely destructive. (To be continued.) )