What is used to steer jets and how can they maneuver so fast at such high speeds?

Question

also if you know how long a euro fighter typhoon can last on a full tank of petrol along with any other jets would be helpful:)

Answer 1

computers, fly by wire is used when complicated manuvers are performed

Answer 2

Att: students

The flight controls are used to steer the aircraft as it flights..elevator for pitch, aeleron/flight spoilers for roll and rudder for yaw or directional control.. Once in the air the pilot chooses to engage the autopilot which will position the flight controls according the the input set by the crew. Flight computers then take over usually at least two ..called the pitch and roll channel comp.. they will send an electrical signal to the flight controls actuator to properly place the airfoils to perform the manuevers.. Also to help out at high speeds the aircraft got a yaw damper and mach trim.. yaw damper helps to avoid the crew from having to apply rudder inputs as the aircraft turn, it automatically does it. Mach trim controls a constant pitch as the aircraft accelerates, since the center of gravity tends to move foward the faster the ac gets,it counter acts that....what else? In case of autopilot failure the crew can then take manual control without a problem, they might choose to land on a alternate airport depending how far the destination, since they could get exhausted flying it manually..Also when it comes to speed, commercial ac are equipped with auto trottles...simply controlling the airspeed via inputs to actuators which transmit the electrical input to mechanical input to move the cables which controls the fuel unit.. The explanation is general, it may not apply to some aircrafts.. hope i was helpful

Answer 3

"Flight controls" are used to "steer" aircraft. They are the elevator, rudder, aileron, spoilers and flaps.  

Answer 4

They usually use the same control surfaces as any other aircraft, but many new aircraft can also vector their exhaust for even better maneuverability.

Fighter aircraft are not really that maneuverable, They have extremely high wing loading, most new fighters weigh over 100lbs for every square foot of wing, but A Cessna 172 has a wing loading of 16lbs per square foot when fully loaded.

As you get faster, the slower you can turn for any given G load. A F-15 turns 11 degrees a second at 8.5G's, but a Cessna 172 can turn that quickly at under 3 G's since it flies so much slower.

The typhoon can last a great deal of time on a single tank, Its the only Aircraft besides the F-22 that can break the speed of sound without afterburner. The Typhoon uses about 0.7lbs of fuel for every lb of thrust per hour, which is called specific fuel consumption. A F-15 has a SFC of over 2.0 with the afterburner lit. Same with other aircraft like the Su-27, and even worse for those like the Mig-21 and F-4. That means The Typhoon is usually about 3-4 times as efficient at any given speed.

It does cruise quite a bit faster than most other fighters, but it still has a very good operational range, but it varies greatly with weapons load.

Missiles add a huge amount of drag, but the Typhoon is still very efficient even when armed. The F-22 does have an advantage over the Typhoon in this area, since it carries its weapons inside and so avoids extra drag and radar reflection.

The Typhoon and the F-22 have great ranges, I believe in excess of 500 miles, which is extremely good, seeing that aircraft like the Mig-21 and Mig-25 have ranges of less than 150 miles. Even aircraft like the F-15 and F-16 can barely match the range of the Typhoon and F-22 when flying half the speed.  

Answer 5

a plane can steer sharper when its faster

Answer 6

there are control surfaces situated at various parts of the airplane

there are elevators which as horizontal, movable fins in the tail section of the plane. Other planes have canards, which are elevators in front of the wings. others, like delta wing-ed airplanes, have "elevators" incorporated in the back of the wing.

there are also ailerons on the trailing of of the wings. These could be the entire trailing edge of the wing, or a part of it, most likely near the end of it.

in addition, there are rudder(s) situated on the trailing edge of the tail fins. Tail fins are usually vertical, and there could be one or more.

the reason why they are so maneuverable at speed is because the faster the plane is going, the more air is hitting the control surfaces, rendering them very effective at directing the plane where it wants to go. However, past a certain speed, past mach 1or so, the airplane is actually less maneuverable.

nowadays, high performance planes are made to be unstable, so they become more maneuverable. This instability requires a few computers to help the pilot control the plane. this is called the Fly-by-wire system.

----------------------------EUF Typhoon-------------------------

the EUF's internal fuel capacity is classified but on an official report says it is similar to the internal fuel capacity of the F-15C which is : 13455 lb

a website said it can go supersonic without afterburner like the f-22 but I'm not so sure.

anyway, any plane, at max afterburner, will have less than 5 minutes flight time. (more close to 3)---we're talking about with full internal fuel only. no drop tanks.

at full military power, flight time for planes like f-16, f-18, f-15, EUF, are around 20-30 minutes. (again, internal fuel only)

at max loiter thrust setting, I guess those plane can hang around up to nearly an hour.(internal fuel only)

If they get into an engagement, air-to-air or air-to-ground, don't expect them to hang around. Even though these engagement happen within a few minutes or even a few seconds, gas is burned horrendously. (remember, full reheat give them like 3-4 minutes of flight time-its like a fire hose pouring gas into the exhaust)

Answer 7

The control surfaces on the aircraft (ailerons on the wings, rudder on the tail, and elevators or stabilator) allow the aircraft to be steered by the pilot.

Some modern fighters are deliberately designed for instability.  Fly-by-wire systems use computers to adjust the control surfaces many times per second so that the aircraft don't spin out of control.  The advantage to this instability is that it makes the aircraft "nervous" and very maneuverable; the disadvantage is that, if the computers fail, the airplane is impossible to control manually.