What if the Su 75 and the Yak 141 had a baby?

[Nicolas10]

Wouldn't that be a superb move? You could use the dronified version from a wide variety of ships for stealthier attacks (imagine taking off from a tanker or something), helicopter carriers & so on. Or you could sell it to countries which are always under the threat of being bombed by vastly superior forces to let them have a more dispersed airforce which would be much harder to target. Also it would enable the RuAF to base some quick reaction fighters much closer to the frontline in a situations such as Ukraine, considering the threats posed by ATACMS, Storm shadows and just plain drones for their airbases.

Plus it would probably look sexy as hell.

 

[paralay]

Two RD-41 lifting engines in the "side weapons bay"

 

[Nicolas10]

For stealth strike missions it would be enough to have the main bay available. For interdiction or fleet protection against drones and what not you could add 4 R74 underwing with HMS... neat little concept.

 

[jpa58]

Totally agree! If you could deploy drones from different types of ships, it’d be a huge advantage for stealth and flexibility. Imagine having drones taking off from a tanker or a carrier—it’d make it much harder for enemies to target air assets. For countries that are under constant threat, this setup would make their air force way more resilient and harder to pin down.

 

[Scott Kenny]

Means you're dragging around some dead weight in the form of those lift jets in cruise and losing all the capacity of your side bays.

You'd also need to design inlets for them, because they won't be able to feed off the main inlet for landing.

The TACIT BLUE team found out that with multiple engines feeding through one inlet, if you got one engine fully started before trying to start the next, the next engine would not be able to draw any air. TACIT BLUE ended up starting both engines within 30sec of each other to get air flowing right. So it'd work for a takeoff because you can start all 3 engines at about the same time, but not work for a landing because the main engine is hogging all the air.

 

[paralay]

There are separate air intakes here. Instead of the RD-41, there may be afterburners. They are much lighter and cheaper than engines

 

[Nicolas10]

It would need détachable wings to fit in containers. And yes rocket motors would be great for lift engines to save space.

 

[Scott Kenny]

There are separate air intakes here. Instead of the RD-41, there may be afterburners. They are much lighter and cheaper than engines

Ducted rockets, you mean?

Yeah, that'd be better in terms of airframe volume needed.

 

[paralay]

It would be more correct to call this device an "extended combustion chamber". It is powered by air from the compressor of the main engine
The characteristics of such an aircraft can be viewed here, in the F column: LTS-M
English in the AK column

 

[Scott Kenny]

It would be more correct to call this device an "extended combustion chamber". It is powered by air from the compressor of the main engine
The characteristics of such an aircraft can be viewed here, in the F column: LTS-M
English in the AK column

Ah, a burner in the bleed air vents, gotcha!