Northrop N382 VSTOL fighter

Northrop 1989 Advanced STOVL design

Applications of Structural Optimization Methods to Fixed-Wing Aircraft and Spacecraft in the 1980s
Hirokazu Miura, Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, California
Douglas J. Neill, Northrop Corporation, Hawthorne, California

http://ntrs.nasa.gov/archive/nasa/casi.ntrs.nasa.gov/19930023023_1993023023.pdf

The Northrop N382-20 STOVL fighter is a descendent of a family of horizontal
attitude take-off and landing (HATOL) and vertical/short take-off and landing (V/STOL)
aircraft. Predecessors to the N382-20, such as the -12 and -18, were developed to meet basic
mission and point performance goals, with the exception of supercruise in dry power. The
-20 version incorporates configuration changes to satisfy the supercruise through shortening
the fuselage.

As part of the "Ultralightweight Structures" program, the N382-20 STOVL fighter
was chosen as one application to assist in the development of ultralightweight structural
design concepts and advanced materials.

The baseline STOVL fighter is a single engine aircraft that takes off
conventionally (with the addition of vectored thrust) in 600 feet, and can land vertically at the
conclusion of the mission. It employs a Remote Augmented Lift System (RALS) turbofan
propulsion system with vectorable nozzles to provide the thrust needed for take-off, vertical
landing, and for control during transition and hover. The fighter is a 28,000 lb class aircraft
that carries two AMRAAMs and two ASRAAMs in an under fuselage conformal pod and
carries a 20mm gun with 500 rounds of ammunition. Basic dimensional data and significant
characteristics of the STOVL fighter are presented in Table. The N382-20 has a canard delta
planform composed of four major structural assemblies constructed primarily from
advanced graphite reinforced composites: multi-rib wings, shoulder mounted to the fuselage;
semimonocoquefuselage; fully movable canards; and two wing-mounted nacelles that
accommodate the landing gear, contain fuel and support the vertical stabilizers."

flateric said:

Applications of Structural Optimization Methods to Fixed-Wing Aircraft and Spacecraft in the 1980s
Hirokazu Miura, Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, California
Douglas J. Neill, Northrop Corporation, Hawthorne, California

http://ntrs.nasa.gov/archive/nasa/casi.ntrs.nasa.gov/19930023023_1993023023.pdf

The Northrop N382-20 STOVL fighter is a descendent of a family of horizontal
attitude take-off and landing (HATOL) and vertical/short take-off and landing (V/STOL)
aircraft. Predecessors to the N382-20, such as the -12 and -18, were developed to meet basic
mission and point performance goals, with the exception of supercruise in dry power. The
-20 version incorporates configuration changes to satisfy the supercruise through shortening
the fuselage.

As part of the "Ultralightweight Structures" program, the N382-20 STOVL fighter
was chosen as one application to assist in the development of ultralightweight structural
design concepts and advanced materials.

The baseline STOVL fighter is a single engine aircraft that takes off
conventionally (with the addition of vectored thrust) in 600 feet, and can land vertically at the
conclusion of the mission. It employs a Remote Augmented Lift System (RALS) turbofan
propulsion system with vectorable nozzles to provide the thrust needed for take-off, vertical
landing, and for control during transition and hover. The fighter is a 28,000 lb class aircraft
that carries two AMRAAMs and two ASRAAMs in an under fuselage conformal pod and
carries a 20mm gun with 500 rounds of ammunition. Basic dimensional data and significant
characteristics of the STOVL fighter are presented in Table. The N382-20 has a canard delta
planform composed of four major structural assemblies constructed primarily from
advanced graphite reinforced composites: multi-rib wings, shoulder mounted to the fuselage;
semimonocoquefuselage; fully movable canards; and two wing-mounted nacelles that
accommodate the landing gear, contain fuel and support the vertical stabilizers."

Click to expand...

Also;

http://www.dtic.mil/dtic/tr/fulltext/u2/a243724.pdf

Great find, hesham. And here's the top and side views from the same document.

Here is a pic of this design in action.

Very nice! Can't wait to see more of your treasures, Bill...

Interesting, that it is obvious landing on or taking off from a helipad of Spruance or maybe
Ticonderoga class ship ! Were there really concepts either to fit use those ships with VTOL fighters,
or at least to use them for replenishing ? I can imagine, that such helipads would need considerable
changes, at least a more heat resisting surface.

Nice looking fighter! B) I wonder what would have happened had ASTOVL did not get merged with CALF and JAST in the late 1990's to form JSF? But would the propulsion methods have worked on the Northrop N382? All the videos that I have seen on Youtube about the X-35/F-35 have shown that the lift fan concept works, not to sure about the N382.

BTW the predecessor of this design was John B's N369 CAS STOVL Concept covered earlier in this forum.

Bill,


Thanks for the interesting posts!


Bill (vought one)

BillRo said:

Here is a pic of this design in action.

Click to expand...

I think the excellent picture posted by BillRo on July 05, 2013, is the earlier US Navy/NASA Ames "Type B" 1978 Northrop Horizontal Attitude VTOL submission, as the artwork pre-dates the N-382 design. Unfortunately I can not find a designation number of the 1978 submission. The artwork appears in several NASA technical memorandums dated from 1984 - TM-85937 and TM-85938. The design was similar to the N-382, but did not feature inboard inclined vertical tails - they were straight. Either way BillRo's picture is a great find and is much appreciated.

Jemiba said:

Interesting, that it is obvious landing on or taking off from a helipad of Spruance or maybe
Ticonderoga class ship ! Were there really concepts either to fit use those ships with VTOL fighters,
or at least to use them for replenishing ? I can imagine, that such helipads would need considerable
changes, at least a more heat resisting surface.

Click to expand...

Sorry for the belated comment. I think this ship is meant to be DDH-997, the proposed air-capable Spruance derivative from FY78. A normal Spruance would have its Sea Sparrow launcher aft of the helo pad and the pad itself would be less angled at the aft corners. There were indeed some plans to carry a pair of VTOL aircraft on this ship in lieu of four helicopters though I has always assumed they were talking about some Type A ASW aircraft, not the Type B fighter type. We have more discussion of the air-capable Spruance design here:

http://www.secretprojects.co.uk/forum/index.php/topic,7818.msg138915.html#msg138915

flateric said:

Northrop 1989 Advanced STOVL design

Click to expand...

Does anyone know the source of these images posted at the very start of this thread?

Doing some digging I've established that the images are indeed in the N382 series but not the N382-20, possibly the N382-18: due to the length of the fuselage (the N382-20 was shortened to 48.7 Ft) and the inclusion of wingtip and centerline missiles that are not very conducive of a "supercruise" design. N382-20 employed a ventral fuselage conformal missile pod. Any ideas are appreciated...

source - http://arc.aiaa.org/doi/abs/10.2514/6.1989-2112

BillRo said:

Here is a pic of this design in action.

Click to expand...

I'd say that the old Revell A-5A Vigilante would make a good starting point in making a model of this design.

flateric said:

source - http://arc.aiaa.org/doi/abs/10.2514/6.1989-2112

Click to expand...

Thank you Flateric.