TR TF-X KAAN Fighter Jet

[Brokengineer]

wait a min, is this assembly or prototype line?

It could be production line, we can only see 2 slots from that angle, there could be more.

 

[MADDOG]

It's technically the final assembly but it's for prototypes. I highly doubt if this building will be used for serial production.

This building will be used.

 

[EternalTurk]

I am going into cardiac arrest!

 

[Yasar_TR]

Do you know why we chose F-110-GE-129 but not F-110-GE-132, which is more powerful?

Although 132 version has an advantage in thrust, it comes with penalties. It is more expensive and uses more fuel which can reach double digit number percentage levels. F110-GE132 is configured for a single engine use. We needed engines that were configured for twin engine use. Hence the “E” version of the 129 engine. If the 132 version were such a big improvement, the new F15EX would be using them as well. Yet they still use “129E” version.

 

[Motiv888]

Are the BAE engineers going to be staying around much longer?

 

[UkroTurk]

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1595440761251799041

This how we celebrated TFX in Pakistan.

Up up up

 

[UkroTurk]

New video

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1595399362716528641

Up

 

[Tonyukuk]

The size makes me wonder if combat radius will be a priority. I've heard that one of the advantages that 6th gen fighters will have over 5th gen fighters is their range. We knew TFX was going to be big, but the pictures really put it into perspective. It's fuel capacity must be enormous.

The size alone makes the TFX more suitable as a 5+/5.5+ gen fighter than any of its current competitors.

Imagine this beast with variable cycle engines.

 

[Khagan1923]

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1595701621715259394

"The purple part in the assembly model on the back is the bore gauge that Ismail Demir is working on. Again, we understand from the model that just above it, where there is a plaque, there is actually a sensor window.

It is understood that there will be the IRST here."

Looks like the mockup of the IRST we saw at the Farnborough air show would fit the shape and size of the cutout for a sensor seen here on the assembly model.
Nice catch.

So even this was taken into account for lowering the RCS.

When we compare this to how the IRST is embedded into the fuselage in the KF-X it just shows how serious TAI is taking the stealth characteristics of the plane.
I think the TF-X will be even more stealth than we expect when all is said and done.

 

[Heartbang]

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1595701621715259394

"The purple part in the assembly model on the back is the bore gauge that Ismail Demir is working on. Again, we understand from the model that just above it, where there is a plaque, there is actually a sensor window.

It is understood that there will be the IRST here."


View attachment 50750

Looks like the mockup of the IRST we saw at the Farnborough air show would fit the shape and size of the cutout for a sensor seen here on the assembly model.
Nice catch.

So even this was taken into account for lowering the RCS.

When we compare this to how the IRST is embedded into the fuselage in the KF-X it just shows how serious TAI is taking the stealth characteristics of the plane.
I think the TF-X will be even more stealth than we expect when all is said and done.

so it would have a separate IRST unit?

 

[notnull]

I have been watching this thread for a while now. I have just registered so I can say how happy I am to see the TF-X come to reality! It is a beauty! Congrats to the Turkish people on this achievement.

I have a question about the timeline: Has the CDR for the TF-X completed?

 

[Khagan1923]

so it would have a separate IRST unit?

Separate. One of the biggest criticism I heard of the EOTS/DAS on the F-35 is the IRST aspect(can't confirm if this is true or not). I think maybe because of that TAI and TurAF decided to go with a separate unit on the nose. I do not see another reason to go with an separate unit if the method used on the F-35 was satisfactory to the TurAF.

 

[Afif]

Separate. One of the biggest criticism I heard of the EOTS/DAS on the F-35 is the IRST aspect(can't confirm if this is true or not). I think maybe because of that TAI and TurAF decided to go with a separate unit on the nose. I do not see another reason to go with an separate unit if the method used on the F-35 was satisfactory to the TurAF.

F35 is EOTS is the most advanced of its kind.
There is nothing unsatisfactory about it.

However, Blending IRST and FLIR in one package is not very easy as I understand it.

 

[EternalTurk]

but but but...
haters said it is clearly not 5gen fighter.
it is 4.999 but not 5 mmmmmOKay!

 

[Osman]

Although 132 version has an advantage in thrust, it comes with penalties. It is more expensive and uses more fuel which can reach double digit number percentage levels. F110-GE132 is configured for a single engine use. We needed engines that were configured for twin engine use. Hence the “E” version of the 129 engine. If the 132 version were such a big improvement, the new F15EX would be using them as well. Yet they still use “129E” version.

Is it possible for us to convert the engines of our f 16s for twin engine use and use them in MMUs, cannibalise f 16s for MMUs, yes a bad idea but for the worst scenario in which we can not find/produce an engine because of harsh embargo..

 

[Umigami]

OK MMU is really big aircraft, but the boom-like section between the two engine block cavities is a very unusual approach too, for western systems. It reminding that:
View attachment 50740

You would end up with that design if you have 2 engine that are far apart and need to put something in the middle.

 

[Anmdt]

So , would you say there could be some truth in what @merzifonlu was trying to point out before many here dismissed his view and blamed him with flat-earthing.
Clearly Tusas and BAE engineers have moved away a bit from classic western design approach when it comes to the rear part of the plane. Also the plane looks wider than most western counterparts and more akin to what the Soviets used. Although it has a lot of similarities with an F22, it is nice to see that our design engineers have moved away from 100% Western approach and developed a new design altogether.
It is no sin if we were aspired by the Soviet design a little; After all it was thanks to a Soviet Scientist called Pyotr Ufimtsev that the western scientists cracked the stealth technology as we know it today, after seven long years of deciphering his mathematical calculations on electromagnetic radio wave equations.

A Russian was behind the stealth revolution - Aeroflight

By Raul Colon On a clear August morning in 1979, in the Nevada desert, a detachment of United States Marines armed with the newest generation ground to air missile system on the U.S. arsenal, the vaunted HAWK, tried to score a hit against a new bird. The new air defense system utilized by the...

www.aeroflight.co.uk

It was me who said that, and claiming TF-X based on Ex-Soviet design that left out in Ukraine following dissolution and reengineered by BAE and Ukranian engineers for TR is indifferent from flat earther theories.

Different styles might be adapted as @Nilgiri also pointed out, there are motives and design philisophies that can be debatable and open for discussion with trade-offs and gains but claiming 'TF-X is 'Ex-soviet design that is reengineered and redesigned by BAE and Ukranian engineers' is not something such.

See Tempest for example it also features separated engine with a large rear radar house in some of the alternative CGIs.

 

[Yasar_TR]

Is it possible for us to convert the engines of our f 16s for twin engine use and use them in MMUs, cannibalise f 16s for MMUs, yes a bad idea but for the worst scenario in which we can not find/produce an engine because of harsh embargo..

Theoretically could be possible. The FADEC of twin engined use, will be different to single engined use. There could be slight differences in the airflow of the two types of the engines in certain cases. This should best be answered by TEI.
Recent F16 planes generally use F110-GE129C and D engines if I remember correctly. TuAF in 2007 had ordered 42 F110-GE129B engines at a cost of 180 million dollars to upgrade the old engines on our f16s. These were delivered by 2011.
Newer engines have different airflow characteristics. TFX is going to use F110-GE129E. This engine is the same one that flies f15EX. The 129E model incorporates improvements from GE’s Service Life Extension Programme (SLEP).

 

[Hasanrize]

I have been watching this thread for a while now. I have just registered so I can say how happy I am to see the TF-X come to reality! It is a beauty! Congrats to the Turkish people on this achievement.

I have a question about the timeline: Has the CDR for the TF-X completed?

Nope, It will be completed in 2024. We prepare cargo during a delivery. This was the way all Turkish defense products are made, engineers design their stuff open for changes in the future.

 

[Rodeo]

This building will be used.

Isn't this building directly connected to the design bureau? I think it's a very convenient place for rapid prototyping. I would use it for different prototypes in the future as well. The engineers could implement the design changes very fast. Is the building big enough for accommodating both prototypes and serial production lines? What if we had a workload of building 50 TFXs per year?