The F119 engines make sufficient thrust to allow high altitude supersonic
cruise at a Mach somewhat less than Mach 2 while not requiring any
significant change to the current fixed inlets. The tradeoff is a
significant reduction in range.
Scott Ferrin wrote in message
...
On Tue, 1 Jun 2004 19:50:12 -0400, "Paul F Austin"
wrote:

From this week's AvWeek. Boeing responded to an Air Force RFI against a
requirement for improved bombers by suggesting re-engining the B-1 fleet
with F-119 engines with the following characteristics: Mach 2 cruise,
3000
mile radius, 60,000 foot ceiling (with a couple of hours loiter).

Is this plausible? From others in this group, I though the B-1 was
marginal
above 30,000 feet.


1. Different engines.

2. I think the Mach 2 figure was dash speed. I don't recall it
saying it could cruise that fast. One thing I was wondering is the
B-1 lost Mach 2 capability when they changed the inlets. Are they
going to change them again?

3. The B-1A could do Mach 2.2 at 60,000ft so the basic airframe is
capable of it. Comes down to the engines, intakes, weight. The
article raised more questions than it answered.


I also thought the aritcle talking about the F-22 chasing down Mach
0.6 cruise missiles a particularly desperate move. If they want to
sell the F-22s capabilities why don't they mention how it will enable
the US to maintain air supremacy over any battlefield anywhere? For
one thing if you're against an opponent you'd use F-22's against
they're not likley to be using Mach 0.6 cruise missiles. And if the
missiles are supersonic or the ballistic variety their scenario pretty
much falls apart. Why don't they mention the deterent value a
squadron or two of F-22's deployed to Taiwan in a crises would be? Oh
wait, that's not PC. The areas where the F-22 will really shine are
those where the F-15 might have a difficult time and that's against a
country with relatively large numbers of modern, high performance
aircraft. And that means China, India and East Asia in general. For
those who scoff at the idea of China ever being a threat you need to
take off the blinders. The whole China / Taiwan thing is going to
come to a head eventually and if we plan to stick to our word (fat
chance these days) then we had better be prepared.