I. Read the text and summarize the main idea of each paragraph
II. Read the text and answer the question. What provides low cost of this airplane?
III. Make up a summary of the text.
UNIT 6
Su-27
Vocabulary: leading edge extension, ventral fin, guide vanes, starboard.
The Su-27's basic design is aerodynamically similar to the MiG-29, but it is substantially larger. It is a very large aircraft, and to minimize its weight its structure has a high percentage of titanium (about 30%, more than any of its contemporaries). No composite materials were used. The swept wing blends into the fuselage at the leading edge extensions and is essentially a delta although the tips are cropped for wingtip missile rails or ECM pods. The Su-27 is not a true delta, however, because it retains conventional tailplanes, with two vertical tailfins outboard of the engines, supplemented by two fold-down ventral fins for additional lateral stability.
The Su-27's Lyulka AL-31F turbofan engines are widely spaced, both for safety reasons and to ensure laminar airflow through the intakes. The space between the engines also provides additional lift, reducing wing loading. Movable guide vanes in the intakes allow Mach 2+speeds, and help to maintain engine airflow at high alpha. A mesh screen over each intake prevents debris from being drawn into the engines during take-off.
The Su-27 had the Soviet Union's first operational fly-by-wire control system, developed based on Sukhoi OKB experience in the Sukhoi T-4 bomber project. Combined with relatively low wing loading and powerful basic flight controls, it makes for an exceptionally agile aircraft, controllable even at very low speeds and high angles of attack. At air shows the aircraft has demonstrated its maneuverability with a Cobra (Pugachev's Cobra) or dynamic deceleration - briefly sustained level flight at a 120° angle of attack. Thrust vectoring has also been tested, allowing the fighter to perform sharp turns with almost no radius, incorporate vertical somersaults into level motion and limited nose-up hovering.
In addition to its considerable agility, the Su-27 uses its substantial internal volume for a large internal fuel capacity. In an overload configuration for maximum range, it can carry 9,400 kg (20,700 lb) of internal fuel, although its maneuverability with that load is limited, and normal load is 5,270 kg (11,620 lb).
The Su-27 is armed with a single 30 mm GSh-30-1 cannon in the starboard wing root, and has up to 10 hardpoints for missiles and other weapons. Its standard missile armament for air-to-air combat is a mixture of Vympel R-73, Vympel R-27 weapons, the latter including extended range and IR guided models. More advanced Flanker variants may also carry Vympel R-77 missiles.
The Su-27 has a high-contrast tuneable HUD and a helmet-mounted sight capability, which, coupled with the R-73 missile and the plane's superb agility make it one of the world's best dogfighter aircraft.
The radar proved to be a major developmental problem for the Su-27. The original Soviet requirement was very ambitious, demanding a multi-target engagement capability and 200 km range against "bombers".
To achieve this at a reasonable weight, the design team came up with radar using electronic scanning for elevation and mechanical scanning for azimuth. Unfortunately, it proved too much for the Soviet microelectronics industry in the 1970s to achieve, and by 1982, the original Myesch program had to be abandoned and a less capable alternative array was selected.
2700 знаков.
I. Read the text and answer the questions.
1. What makes this aircraft lighter?
2. What provides additional lifting force?
3. What provides high range of the aircraft?
II. Translate the second paragraph in a written form.
III. Read the text and entitle each paragraph of the text.
IV. Make up a summary of the text.
UNIT 7
Su-30
Vocabulary: airframe, avionics, canard fore-plane, thrust vectoring control, twin-finned aircraft, fairing, tail beam, head-up display, redundancy, ejection seat, high-lift devices, flaperon, afterburning thrust, life span,
The Su-SOMKI was jointly designed by Russia's Sukhoi and India's Hindustan Aeronautics Limited. The aircraft airframe is a development of the Russian Su-27 while most of the avionics were developed by India.
The aircraft featured many modifications over the Su-27 and the Su-30MK variant. These included canard fore-planes, 2-dimensional thrust vectoring control (TVC), and a range of avionics complex from Russia, France, Israel and India which includes display, navigation, targeting and electronic warfare systems.
The Su-30MKI is a highly integrated twin-finned aircraft. The airframe is constructed of titanium and high-strength aluminium alloys. The engine nacelles are fitted with fairings to provide a continuous streamlined profile between the nacelles and the tail beams. The fins and horizontal tail consoles are attached to tail beams. The central beam section between the engine nacelles consists of the equipment compartment, fuel tank and the brake parachute container. The fuselage nose part is of semi-monocoque construction and includes cockpit, radar compartments and the avionics bay.
MK3, a further development of MKI variant, will integrate avionic systems being developed for the Indo-Russian Fifth Generation Fighter Aircraft program.
The displays include a head-up display consisting of bicubic phase conjugated holographic displays and seven liquid crystal multifunction displays, six 127 mm x 127 mm and one 152 mm x 152 mm. Flight information is displayed on four LCD displays which include one for piloting and navigation, a tactical situation indicator, and two for display systems information including operating modes and overall operation status. The rear cockpit is fitted with a larger monochromatic screen display for the air-to-surface missile guidance.
The aircraft has a fly-by-wire (FBW) with quadruple redundancy. Depending on the flight conditions, signals from the control stick position transmitter will be coupled to the remote control amplifiers. These signals are combined with feedback signals fed by acceleration sensors and rate gyros. The resultant control signals are coupled to the high-speed electro-hydraulic actuators of the elevators, rudders and the canard. The output signals are compared and, if the difference is significant, the faulty channel is disconnected. FBW is based on a stall warning and barrier mechanism which prevents development of aircraft stalls through a dramatic increase in the control stick pressure. This allows a pilot to effectively control the aircraft without running the risk of reaching the limit values of angle of attack and acceleration. Although the maximum angle of attack is limited by the canards the FBW acts as an additional safety mechanism.
The aircraft is fitted with a satellite navigation system, which permits it to make flights in all weather, day and night. The navigation complex includes the high accuracy SAGEM Sigma-95 integrated global positioning system and ring laser gyroscope inertial navigation system.
The crew is provided with zero-zero KD-36DM ejection seats. The rear seat is raised for better visibility. The cockpit is provided with containers to store food and water reserves, a waste disposal system and extra oxygen bottles. The KD-36DM ejection seat is inclined at 30°, to help the pilot resist aircraft accelerations in air combat.
Su-30MKI aerodynamic configuration is an unstable longitudinal triplane. The canard increases the aircraft lifting ability and deflects automatically to allow high angle-of-attack flights allowing it to perform Pugachev Cobra. The integral aerodynamic configuration combined with thrust vectoring results in extreme maneuverability, taking off and landing characteristics. This high agility allows rapid deployment of weapons in any direction. The canard assists in controlling aircraft at high angles-of-attack and bringing it to a level flight condition. The wing will have high-lift devices featured as deflecting leading edges, and flaperons acting as flaps and ailerons.
The forward facing N011M Bars is a powerful integrated passive electronically scanned array radar. The N011M is a digital multi-mode dual frequency band radar. The N011M can function in air-to-air and air-to-land/sea mode simultaneously with a high-precision laser-inertial or GPS navigation system. It is equipped with a modern digital weapons control system as well as anti-jamming features. N011M has a 350 km search range and a maximum 200 km tracking range, and 60 km in the rear hemisphere. The radar can track 15 air targets and engage 4 simultaneously. These targets can even include cruise missiles and motionless helicopters. The Su-30MKI can function as a mini-AWACS as a director or command post for other aircraft.
OLS-30 laser-optical locator system to include is used in conjunction with the helmet mounted sighting system. The OLS-30 is a combined IRST/LR device using a broad waveband sensor. Detection range is up to 90 km, whilst the laser ranger is effective to 3.5 km. Targets are displayed on the same LCD display as the radar.
The Su-30MKI is powered by the two AI-31FP turbofans. Each AI-31FP is rated at 12,500 kgf of full afterburning thrust. Two AL-31FP by-pass thrust-vectoring turbojet reheated engines (25,000 kgf full afterburning thrust) ensure a 2M horizontal flight speed and a rate of climb of 230 m/s. The mean time between overhaul for the AL-31 FP is given at 1,000 hours with a full-life span of 3,000 hours. The titanium nozzle has a mean time between overhaul of 500 hours. AI-31FP builds on the AI-37FU with the capability to vector in 2 planes. The TVC nozzles of the Su-30MKI are mounted 32 degrees outward to longitudinal engine axis (i.e. in the horizontal plane) and can be deflected ±15 degrees in the vertical plane. This produces a cork-screw effect and thus enhancing the turning capability of the aircraft. There is no strain-gauge engine control stick to change the engine thrust in the cockpit, rather just a conventional engine throttle control lever. The pilot controls the aircraft with the help of a standard control stick. On the pilot's right there is a switch which is turned on for performing difficult maneuvers. After the switch-over, the computer determines the level of use of aerodynamic surfaces and swiveling nozzles and their required deflection angles.
The Su-30MKI has a range of 5,000 km with internal fuel which ensures a 4.5 hour combat mission. Also, it has an in-flight refueling probe that retracts beside the cockpit during normal operation. The air refueling system increases the flight duration up to 10 hours with a range of 8,000 km at a cruise height of 11 to 13 km.
5800 знаков.
UNIT 8
MiG-31 FOXHOUND
Vocabulary: interceptor, moderate-swept wings, all-moving tailplane, air intake, pylon, afterburner, missile.
1.The Mig-31 Foxhound is a substantially improved derivative of the Mjg-25 Foxbat. The Mig-31 is an all weather two-seat interceptor with advanced digital avionics and with a tapered moderate-swept wings, all-swept twin-fin tail unit and all-moving tailplane. The MiG-31 airframe is an all-metal monoplane with lateral air intakes. Provision is made for installation of two underwing fuel tanks with a total capacity of 5,000 liters.
2. The most capable Russian air defense interceptor aircraft, the FOXHOUND has a multiple-target engagement capability and was the first Soviet fighter to have a true look-down, shoot-down capability. The N007 Zaslon radar was the first electronically scanned phased array radar to enter service in the world. It could scan 200 km forward and track 10 targets simultaneously. This radar could also track and engage target flying behind and below the aircraft. The Zaslon antenna is of the fixed type, instead of being mechanically directed the radar beam is moved electronically. This allows the full fuselage diameter to be used for the antenna, a considerable advantage since antenna diameter and effective operating range are directly related. Electronic steering of the radar beam is faster than can be performed mechanically, and it is also more accurate. All signal processing is digital.
3. The radar ensures simultaneous search and attack of several targets using long-range missiles and makes possible to interact within a group. The MiG-31 interceptor-fighter can intercept air targets in all weather conditions, day and night and in continuous and discontinuous field of control and guidance commands (solo and in group), or regardless target defensive maneuvers.
4.The aircraft avionics enables the use of missiles with radar- and IR-homing heads. The FOXHOUND carries the long-range air-to-air missiles, and can engage 4 different targets simultaneously with the M-9.
5. The airframe was extensively redesigned for supersonic flight at low altitude, with the welded nickel steel content reduced from the Mig-25's 80% to 49%, with 16% titanium, 33% aluminium alloy and 2% composites. The wings of the aircraft are high-mounted and swept-back with square tips and a negative slant. There are four underwing pylons. There are two turbofan engines in the fuselage. The aircraft is powered by two D-30F6 turbofans developing a takeoff thrust of 15,500 kgf each. The mixed-flow turbofan is fitted with an afterburner and fully-variable flapped jet nozzle. The new Soloviev D-30F6 engine was specified for the MiG-31 in order to improve range, the key performance parameter for which an improvement over the MiG-25 was demanded. There are rectangular and diagonal cut air intakes on the sides of the fuselage. The exhausts extend beyond the tail plane. The fuselage is rectangular from the intakes to the exhausts and has a long, sharp nose. The aircraft has a bubble canopy. The tail fins are back-tapered with angular tips and canted outward. The stabilizers are swept-back and tapered and mid- to low-mounted on the body.
6. Two specialized MiG-31Ds were built in 1987 as carriers for an antisatellite missile, in imitation of a contemporary US program that used a McDonnell Douglas F-15. These two Foxhounds featured triangular "webbed feet" wing endplate fins, like those fitted to some MiG-25 prototypes, in this case intended to provide improved flight stability at high altitudes for missile launches. A single large missile was to be carried under the fuselage, and a special upward-looking radar and associated intercept fire-control system was to be fitted to production machines.
7. The Mig-31M is an improved version of the basic Mig-31. The key to the MiG-31 M's effectiveness is the SBI-16 Zaslon fixed phased array antenna radar which is said to be the world's most powerful fighter radar. The cockpits were upgraded in the Mig-31M with a number of Cathode Ray Tubes (CRT) and an increased number of missiles.
8. The MiG-31E export model provides facilities for vectoring up to three fighters, types MiG-21-93, MiG-23, MiG-25, MiG-29, Su-27 to ensure a covert attack. A group of four MiG-31E fighter-interceptors is capable of interchanging data in the automatic mode on presence of air targets in the zone up to 800 km wide. MiG-31E fighter-interceptor is designed for interception and destruction of aerial targets flying at altitudes of 50 to 28 000m in front and rear hemispheres including those under normal and adverse weather conditions, the target maneuvering and enemy deploying active and passive countermeasures.
9. Aerial targets can be intercepted by a single MiG-31E aircraft or by a group of up to 4 MiG-31E aircraft. Interception can be performed with the aid of guidance by ground automated control system or autonomously with optimum target distribution among the members of the group.
4000 знаков.