Technology Transfer
Jul. 29th, 2005 01:15 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
frustratedpilotHey.
I looked up an old mystery and came back with news of sorts.
Way back in 1998, I saw a picture in a magazine of an F-16 that had been fitted with a new engine air inlet. I wanted to get more information about it from Lockheed Martin but my queries went nowhere.
Turns out I missed them going public on the project in 2000. The new inlet was a technology trial for the Joint Strike Fighter and was designed to allow for all speeds of flight (subsonic, transonic and supersonic) without needing moving parts to control the airflow. The tests were all successful, the new technique was applied to the JSF X-35 demonstrator and the new fighter is in the pipeline.
Asthetically, I thought the new intake beat the one the F-16 started with and I kinda wish that LM had decided to phase it into the F-16s being built today...or even offer it as a retrofit to current F-16 users. I mean, if it has no moving parts and offers better performance, then you know you can sell it. So why not? Heck, LM knows they'll still be building F-16s for FIVE MORE YEARS! But so far, LM isn't offering the DSI system for anybody.
Meanwhile, the Chinese have figured out DSI themselves--and rumor is they intend to install new DSI intakes on their J-10 and FBC-1 fighter jets, making them more efficent aircraft than they already were--and making them slightly that much more cheaper to build and operate.
Now how was it that the Chinese got the DSI technology? Some people blame Israel, some people blame Pakistan. Still, if somebody in the Chinese technical field read the article that I read tonight--from 2000--they would have had plenty of time to emulate Lockheed Martin on their own and reach a similar solution.
The secret is there are no secrets.
FP
I looked up an old mystery and came back with news of sorts.
Way back in 1998, I saw a picture in a magazine of an F-16 that had been fitted with a new engine air inlet. I wanted to get more information about it from Lockheed Martin but my queries went nowhere.
Turns out I missed them going public on the project in 2000. The new inlet was a technology trial for the Joint Strike Fighter and was designed to allow for all speeds of flight (subsonic, transonic and supersonic) without needing moving parts to control the airflow. The tests were all successful, the new technique was applied to the JSF X-35 demonstrator and the new fighter is in the pipeline.
Asthetically, I thought the new intake beat the one the F-16 started with and I kinda wish that LM had decided to phase it into the F-16s being built today...or even offer it as a retrofit to current F-16 users. I mean, if it has no moving parts and offers better performance, then you know you can sell it. So why not? Heck, LM knows they'll still be building F-16s for FIVE MORE YEARS! But so far, LM isn't offering the DSI system for anybody.
Meanwhile, the Chinese have figured out DSI themselves--and rumor is they intend to install new DSI intakes on their J-10 and FBC-1 fighter jets, making them more efficent aircraft than they already were--and making them slightly that much more cheaper to build and operate.
Now how was it that the Chinese got the DSI technology? Some people blame Israel, some people blame Pakistan. Still, if somebody in the Chinese technical field read the article that I read tonight--from 2000--they would have had plenty of time to emulate Lockheed Martin on their own and reach a similar solution.
The secret is there are no secrets.
FP
