The Excal

The Excal Fact Sheet

Max Speed (@ 30k ft): Mach 2.34 (supercruise: Mach 1.7)
Max Speed (@ SL to 10k ft): Mach 1.34 (Supercruise: Mach 1.1)
Max Speed w/ Unswept wings: Less Than Mach 1
Max Cieling: 50k feet (practically around 42k feet)
Max Range (full tank): 2500nm

I designed the Excal in a way that the military often designs their aircraft. I sat down and made a list of things I wanted this aircraft to be capable of. Here they are:

1. Extreme Agility: The Fighter of the Future must have stealthy characteristics, yes... but when the shit hits the fan you NEED to be able to turn. It can.
2. Mach 2+ performance: I knew it was going to be supersonic, that wasn't a problem, the thrust I wanted to give me a fantastic thrust/weight ratio dictated that it was going to have big engines. The problems came with drag. I solved those with the extreme-vector sweeping.
3. Carrier Capable: The fighter of the future needs to be versatile... and carriers scream vesatility. Excal shoots off the cat without any flaps no problem. I stuck the first carrier landing I attempted, and every one since. It lands fast, but its easy to hit a mark (especially with the flight path indicator in the HUD.).
4. Long Range Interdiction: I wanted the EXCal to have supercruise... as it seems like a good idea. Surprisingly enough, I think the range is better with full afterburners. In a knife fight, the EXCal can use wet thrust for up to a half hour. If you regulate dry thrust/ wet thrust accordingly, you could go upwards of an hour in a dogfight simulation. This wouldn't happen in real life, nevertheless its cool.
5. Room for Stealth: This wasn't a primary objective, but it just came off that with RAM coating and the lack of vertical control surfaces, this aircraft would probalbly have a small RCS. Probably... the huge bubble canopy (inspired by the eversocool F-16 Falcon) might relflect a LOT of radar energy.

BACKGROUND ON THE EXCAL

A close friend of mine, Etan Karni, and I were bored one day durring a summer a distant time ago. He had the FSFS program for MS FS5, and both of us being extreme aviation enthusiasts, decided to make us an airplane. The Excal (we called it Excal because a) it sounded cool and b) we were too lazy to say a four sylable word) was to be a "kick ass fighter." Here's a Screen.

Yeah, I know. Looks like an EF2000 gone completely mad. The explanation of the Skids is that we were too lazy to think about making landing gear... they are retractable though. My friend told me that we made it into a Mach 3+ VTOL, which if you know the limitations of the FS5 engine, this was quite an achievement. Anyway, the EXCal was forgoten for a while. Until X-Plane. So I built my Excal. It turned out fairly different.

It stayed true to the original on one respect: it has no flight envelope. Well, that is, it wouldn't if it wasn't for my FCS and FBW. I shudder to think about flying this puppy without a computer. Probably wouldn't take off... probably would flop like a fish on the runway.

As this photo demonstrates, the EXCal goes WAY beyond swing wings. Its more like, swing control surfaces. I know the impilications of this kind of thing would add all sorts of weight and performance limitations to the aircraft, but hell, this is supposed to be a "fighter of the future." I can do whatever the hell I want. Notice the -10degree sweep on the wing. This aids agility quite a bit, but when flying this beast you MUST be careful: WATCH YOUR SPEED. If your wings are unswept at velocities closing in on mach 1.000 the plane with go berzerk. It will flip and probably explode. The only time you want to use burners (or 90% throttle for that matter... remember... supercruise will happen even when the wings are unswept) with unswept wings is when you are in tight manuevers.

I really can't think of anything more to write about this bird. Enjoy... and WATCH THAT SPEED.
-Steven

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