Ergonomically Terrific!

Hey gang! Just a quick post to throw out my thoughts on one of the new Eldar kits out there that has me very excited!

The Wraithfighter/Hemlock kit!

As an avid enthusiast of aircraft as well as an Aerospace Engineering student this kit really does tick a lot of the boxes for me!

Seen below in classical 3-view configuration it can be seen very easily that this aircraft for once displays signs of aerodynamic balancing as a sub sonic interceptor. I say subsonic for a few key reasons of which I will talk about after the pictures!

So its a pretty kits and needless to say I will be getting one for display purposes if nothing else and maybe the occasional apoc game, with great performance indicators like the streamlined front fuselage, cowled engine nacelles and my personal favourite, Canard layout for the horizontal stabilisers! 

It does bear some striking resemblance to the Eurofighter, but for a few key points. (warning im about to get even nerdier)

So this brings me around to the reason why I say its subsonic. Barring of course 'Alien' Technology if we were to apply this design to our understanding of modern Aeronautics it would fall short on a few key areas, Chiefly the cross sectional area, which varies greatly across the body of the aircraft, leading to unstable airflow and drag (go to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Area_rule if you would like to know more). Further to that the control surfaces are too small on the stabilisers to provide effective yaw and pitch control under trans sonic or even super sonic conditions, something about which Chuck Jaeger wrote about at some length with the Bell X-1 project.  

Lastly, the Engines are mounted too far from the centre of rotation for the vehicle to be able to maneuver like a fighter should, instead they would help keep it stable... oh but that's a good thing you say, well if your flying in a passenger aircraft trying to eat dinner (somewhere you would see that configuration) it is a very good thing, if your in a small nimble aircraft worried about avoiding enemy fire, perhaps not so great. I wont even talk about the drag profile of the aircraft as it would be... well not as bad as say a Storm Raven (the flying brick of the sky) but it certainly does have some draw backs!

Will this stop me from buying one, Hell no!


Nerdy enough yet? how about I do the calculations for lift and drag coefficients.