Questions tagged [missiles]
In modern military usage, a missile, or guided missile, is a self-propelled precision-guided munition system, as opposed to an unguided self-propelled munition, referred to as a rocket. All known existing missiles are designed to be propelled during powered flight by chemical reactions inside a rocket engine, jet engine, or other type of engine.
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Why are the Mi-28 exhausts turned downward?
Some helicopters, like the HH-60M, H160m Guépard, some Mi-24's, and AH-64E, have exhaust tailpipes that are pointing upwards. I've heard that this helps spread out and cool the exhaust gases, which is ...
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How did the acoustic fuse on the German Ruhrstahl X-4 activate when near a bomber?
The German Ruhrstahl X-4 was a air-to-air missile designed by Germany through 1943 and 1944. I have read articles that say it used some form of acoustic fuse designed to activate when near a Bombers ...
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Simple Guidance System for Missile homing on stationary target
I implemented the three loop autopilot system in the following paper form Raytheon: "Missile Longitudinal Autopilots: Connections Between Optimal Control and Classical Topologies."
This ...
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Does proportional navigation transform closed-loop missile control system into a PD controller?
[This question was inspired by a discussion in chatGPT. ChatGPT is excellent at making cohesive summeries, but from my experience is not so good at explaining/clarifying deep "core issues". ...
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Why are an F-35’s missile rails angled outboard?
In this video of Marine ordnance crews loading an AIM-9X air-to-air missile onto its launch rail at the #11 weapons station of an F-35B, it’s clearly visible that the launch rail is mounted at an ...
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Missile Impact Velocity
For the past 10 years or so I hear more and more about so called "Hypersonic Missiles" that can hit their targets at speeds exceeding Mach 10.
I wonder about the accuracy about such ...
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What are the reasons to use a downward vertical stabilizer?
Came across this AGM-129_ACM missile and noticed its downward vertical stabilizer and then I also recalled seeing other aircraft (just can't recall which one) with downward vertical stabilizer as well....
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Can the Kinzhal really fly 2,000km? Or can the ROCKS (at least its warhead)? Is there a way to tell fact from fiction for ALBM ranges?
Published ALBM (air launched ballistic missile) ranges are all over the place. For the Russian Kinzhal, wikipedia gives "an estimated range of 460–480 km". But another site (which was the ...
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Why does the R-27 have reverse taper?
Pictured here is a R-27 missile. If you take a look at the forward fins, they have a reverse taper (meaning they have a higher chord as you extend span).
Aerodynamically speaking, this is the opposite ...
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Acceleration command in proportional navigation?
I was recently taking a gander at proportional navigation, a missile guidance law, and I noticed most PN laws output something known as an acceleration command. The acceleration command is a command ...
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Is there any video of an air-to-air missile shooting down an aircraft?
I was curious, is there is any video of a missile shooting down an aircraft?
I have looked around, and I can’t seem to find anything substantial.
(Anything I did find was fake, such as this)
Air-to-...
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What could be the purpose of multiple mount positions for the rear fins of a (turbine-powered) missile?
The official photos of the Iranian 358 missile have an interesting detail. Apparently the rear fins can be mounted at different positions on the body, given the multiple mounts.
I have circled the ...
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Are missiles aircraft?
So, at work we have had an ongoing debate for several months now about whether missiles are aircraft or not. We all agree that they're not airplanes of course, but... are they to be considered ...
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Image recognition in air to air missiles
Given advancements in machine vision, what issues would there be if air to air missile guidance used image recognition (at least in the terminal phase) to defeat flares and chaff?
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Estimate the drag caused by wind on a free falling body
I'm trying to solve the following problem for my masters thesis: Estimate the drag caused by wind on a free falling body from H altitude. H is in range of 300-1000 meters.
What would be the best way ...