Conceptual design and RCS property research of three-surface strike fighter

Abstract

This paper mainly focuses on the conceptual design and stealth performance of the three-surface military aircraft. A threedimensional (3-D) digital mock-up of the three-surface strike fighter with stealth feature was designed and the schemes of carrying missiles were analyzed in CATIA. Based on physical optics principle and the Method of Equivalent Currents (MEC), a numerical simulation of the RCS feature of the aircraft was carried out with RCSPlus which is a software designed by Beihang University. The paper contributes to the RCS feature analysis of the whole plane and different parts on X-band, S-band and UHF-band and a comparison of RCS feature to Su-37 and T-50 military aircraft is drawn. On X-band, the pitch angle of the incident wave was 0°, and the result shows: (1) Compared with Su-37 aircraft, the forward scattering RCS of the three-surface strike aircraft was reduced to 14.9%, the side scattering RCS to 9.6% and the back scattering RCS to 40.2%. (2) Compared with T-50 aircraft, the forward scattering RCS was reduced to 38.61%, and the side scattering RCS to 67.26%. This paper should be useful for researchers in conceptual design and stealth technology of the military aircraft.