Wann написал(а):
более малозаметен, чем YF-22.
верно, но ето не от фонаря. процитирую одного прямого наблюдателя конкурса и аналитик в РАНД.
Why go with Lockheed? US Government contract law states that the bidder with the cheapest method of meeting all the requirements, within set guidelines, will usually be given the deal. Factors such as the ability of the company to meet the demand, etc also do come into play. Basically if all things are equal, and company A has a cheaper proposal than company B, regardless of company B presenting a more advanced product, company A wins.
It should be noted that Lockheed still relied somewhat on faceting to design the F-22. Why does this matter? Faceting is old news. Faceting still means you are reflecting energy, just in obscure directions. Northrop had a corner on the shaping concept of stealth, thanks to the B-2. Shaping gives radar waves a nice surface to travel over, minimising reflection. Add to that some RAM coatings to deal with travelling waves reflected back towards the front of the aircraft, and consequently the emitter, and you get a stealthier aircraft in general. The B-2 is smaller on radar than the F-117. Interestingly, Lockheed's ATB design used faceting rather heavily, and Northrop won the contest thanks to a stealthier design which became the B-2A. The bar had been raised. Of course, the F-22 also uses a degree of shaping, as it is the new tech on the block. But how did they get ahold of the idea? Either they A, researched it after the ATB contest and went from there, or B, General Dynamics gave them a push in the right direction. Why does GD matter? GD and McDonnell Douglas used the same concept in the A-12.
Now, faceting does present certain aerodynamic restrictions. Ergo, Lockheed used faceting and shaping in concert to come up with a maneuverable ATF contender, while still meeting the stealth goals (which, sorry, are still way secret
). They knew faceting and had a good background, and were able to use shaping to morph a faceted design into a workable fighter design. If you have seen the Lockheed Stealth book by Bill Sweetman, it shows the original Lockheed ATF design. Faceting on that one is a little more evident.
The end result of this diatribe on stealth and the ATF is that Northrop had a much stealthier platform by design, and met the maneuverability goals. Lockheed had a more maneuverable design, but met the stealth goals. Add the NATF program's impact on the decision into the mix, and you can see a little more clearly why Lockheed won. The USAF wanted a fighter, Lockheed gave them a stealthy fighter. The economics of both sides didn't have as much to do with the decision as people like to make out, in my opinion. For one, neither of the A-12 companies was a prime contractor. And both of them also had F/A-18, AV-8B, and F-16 contracts to present as evidence of their health anyway. Northrop was having problems with the B-2 not because it was out of their reach, but because the USAF and Congress were still trying to decide how many to buy, if any at all. Lack of a guaranteed income on a project does tend to slow the work, when the company may have to foot the bill on an aircraft which could end up as a prototype only. Lockheed, at the time, had nothing really to show as evidence that they were able to deliver a big contract on time and on budget. The F-117 was only 59 aircraft, and delivery stretched from the early 80s to the early 90s. Given that evidence, it would seem that Lockheed took their time with high tech aircraft, and rightfully so. All things being relatively equal, I think the US DoD just didn't want to put their main source of black aircraft and stealth research in a bad financial state. Stranger things HAVE happened
Добавлено спустя 1 минуту 7 секунд:
извиняюсь, но на руском не смога прямо перевести.... :-(