Added 29-6-09
The Skua Attack Aircraft arose from a thought experiment.
One day I was considering what types of aircraft a naval air arm would need.
An obvious niche was for some form of surface attack aircraft for use in anti-shipping and inland attack missions.
To achieve its mission, such an aircraft would need to fly low to avoid detection from enemy radar, and preferably have some stealth features included in the design.
Because of terrain undulations, low-level flight over ground is often not practical at speeds of more than 570 mph. This is not such a restriction for over sea flight so the Skua would be designed to give a smooth low-altitude flight at much higher speeds.
The design is optimized for low-level performance at transonic speeds and includes such features as a small wing area to reduce buffeting and turbulence during low-level flight.
In Bill Gunston's book “An Illustrated Guide to Future Fighters and Combat Aircraft” there is a section on Upper Surface Blowing (USB). While the emphasis was on using this technology for large transport aircraft, that section also included on page 63 a sketch from Boeing of a fighter/attack aircraft using USB.
I decided that upper surface blowing (USB) technology might be a something the Skua could benefit from.
The Skua should have a small wing area to reduce buffeting and turbulence during low-level flight but due to its USB features it would still be an agile aircraft with good STOL performance, even when not used with a carrier's catapults and arrestor hooks.
On the right is an artist's impression of what the Skua might look like. As always, many thanks to Nate Turner for his graphic abilities and infinite patience with all the corrections I made him make!
The Skua is painted light grey overlaid with a darker grey pattern on the upper surface, a style I call “Sea Lace”. This was inspired by this painting. This seems like a good pattern for a low-flying aircraft flying over the sea.
The Skua has canards, a small delta wing and a dorsal jet efflux. The rear part of the wing is articulated to direct thrust down by Coandã effect. The intakes are modelled on those of the F-19 and designed to minimize radar returns to higher flying aircraft.
Bomb load would hopefully be around 10,000 lb, putting the Skua on par with the A-4 Skyhawk.
By the Author of the Scrapboard : | |
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 | Attack, Avoid, Survive: Essential Principles of Self Defence Available in Handy A5 and US Trade Formats. |
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 | Crash Combat Second Edition with additional content. Epub edition Second Edition with additional content. Crash Combat Third Edition Epub edition Third Edition. |
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