Why was the F84 “Thunderjet” and F86 “Sabre”‘s air intake located in-line with the fuselage on the nose, while the F2H “Banshee” and F-80 “Shooting star” used radial intakes? What technological leap led us to only making single-engine fighters with radial intakes?
In: Engineering
TLDR: Radar
The addition of a self-contained radar unit in the nose of airplanes necessitated moving the air intakes for the engine more inboard.
That’s all there is to it, the Banshee was a radar equipped airplane
Biggest one is radar.
Need to stick the front facing electronics somewhere. Some aircraft like the MiG-21 crammed their radar into the intake but that wasn’t an ideal solution.
To an extent also, radar on the receiving end. A huge frontal circle perpendicular to the enemy radar is bad. Very bad. Though this became more of a thing when radar cross sections(how big the plane appears) came into play.
There some aerodynamic benefits too.
Summarizing a whole lot of aerodynamics, but radial intakes help control the flow of air into the engines at different flight profiles. Fighters move at weird angles and speeds.
Consistent non turbulent air at a certain speed is great for an engine.
Radial intakes do some stuff with the layer of air going around the skin of the plane using some geometry that gives a more consistent air flow to the engine.
Engines at the back also causes drag loss if there air has to travel farther down intake tube to get to the engine. Somewhat like sucking a longer straw.
Neither the F2H nor the P-80 were initially designed to have radar. Later F2H models added radar by lengthening the nose and moving the cannon. The F2H has two engines (a Navy requirement until the F-35), mounted at the wing root, so has two intakes.
The P-80 has two intakes to shorten the ducting length. It’s a very early jet design from 1943. Many of the problems with early turbojet engines were discovered by the P-80, leading to the nose inlet designs.
The side intakes also made room for the guns to be placed in the nose for better concentration of fire.
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