The Swing Wing - Why the variable sweep wing was adopted - F-14 F-111 Tornado Tu-160 Mig-23

The Swing wing, or the variable sweep wing, is a technical solution no longer in use today but understanding the reason why it was used is a very interesting technical journey for the aviation fan.
We start from the basics of flight and, progressively, we see why varying the sweep, or swinging the wing, is beneficial in case of contrasting specifications.
Enjoy!
#SwingWing #Wing
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[@Millennium7HistoryTech]

Support me on Subscribestar www.subscribestar.com/millennium-7-history-technology Support me on Patreon www.patreon.com/Millennium7

[@abilliondreams8046]

Sir, Plz explaine The HAL Advanced Medium Combat Aircraft (AMCA) is an Indian programme to develop a fifth-generation fighter aircraft. It's capabilities compared to the existing modern fighters. en.m.wikipedia.org › wiki Web results HAL AMCA - Wikipedia www.google.com/amp/s/defenceupdate.in/can-india-make-5th-generation-amca-like-f-22-raptor/amp/

[@sean70729]

Glad to see you back healthy and doing the thing you love, I salute you sir and although we never met i consider you a very good friend to me and all military aviation enthusiasts.

[@luislealsantos]

sprezzatura; You attained such a level of mastery that make difficult things look easy. thank you for all these great educational videos.

[@michaeldschutte]

I don't know when or how I started watching this channel, but it's become one of my favorites. Also:your accent makes the videos better than they would've been without. Also the memes. The memes are amazing.

[@_NOBODY_8888]

Thank you for providing us with valuable content.

[@guilhermembeck]

Technical details presented in historical sequence mekes the best explanations! Congratulations! I am a big fan of this channel!

[@JoeCensored]

F-14 is still the best looking jet fighter ever made. I was very sad when it was retired.

[@andik.4235]

Wow, you Sir are getting better and better in explaining complex stuff. A big thank you for that effort.

[@waitingisfun]

This is technical as much as historical. I love it.

[@privatepilot4064]

There is no sexier fighter ever created than the F-14 Tomcat! Nothing even comes close! And it could hold its own!

[@Native_love]

Dude, I love your channel! You ROCK!

[@Mr1987Saadi]

Thanks a lot ...you're doing a great job !!

[@fang45acp]

Excellent work as always! Using the F-14 as an example will be interesting, as it also pioneered lots of other concepts (wide engines and lifting body) that may very well have put it over the edge of other contemporaries at the time.

[@jndvs95]

Still think it was retired too soon. Saw something a few years back about an offer to modernize a small batch of F-14s and they looked BA. If only government spending wasn't so political

[@fang45acp]

@@jndvs95 As much as I like the idea of an upgraded tomcat, at this stage of the game a new design with a similar layout would likely be a better solution (see NATF and A/F-X)

[@xile_hc]

This is awesome ! Had been waiting for part 2 🎉. Awesome to see part 3 will use the tomcat as a example. One thing I’d like to know is are the horizontal stabilisers at the rear also a different design ? Surely they are also part of the equation ! Also the Su17 is a bit strange with kind of variable sweet wings tips .

[@WALTERBROADDUS]

Different how?

[@lordsqueak]

Swing Wing, makes me think of that 60s toy commercial. "it's a what!?"

[@slmyatt]

Was stationed with 20th TFW and the F111 Aardvark at RAF Upper Heyford in the early 1980's. The F111 low level penetration ability meant USSR concidered us a high value high priority target, a target for nuke or chemical attack. Especially after introduction of the EF 111 Raven. I spent much of time in mopp gear, with a lot of scary FLASH communications occurring at the time.

[@Splattle101]

Excellent content, as usual. Thank you!

[@Native_love]

Thanks!

[@Millennium7HistoryTech]

Thank you so much!

[@jannegrey593]

So you answered the question from the comments in the previous video. I did already answered the guy/lady but you did it better.

[@stealthtomcat4739]

F-14 is my favorite fighter plane

[@jpteknoman]

this is why all passenger planes look pretty similar and all have about the same speed. its the best compromise between speed and fuel efficiency with a target cruise altitude of about 30k feet in mind

[@Millennium7HistoryTech]

Correct

[@magoid]

It may be a rushed conclusion, but I think what killed the VG wing was the turbofan engine, more specifically the ones with thrust/weight ratio above 7:1, like the P&W F100 and the Lyulka AL-31. This type of engine allowed a aircraft better acceleration on the take-off, thus achieving the required speed with less runway. Combined with larger wings than used in earlier designs, no strait wing was needed for a short take-off. Another problem, long range, was achieved by the greater economy of the modern turbofan, way less thirsty than earlier turbojets. And the supersonic speed problem was resolved by brute force, because later fighter jets needed bigger wings for agility and short take-off runs, so more power was needed to overcome the added drag. For example, the Mirage III had a 6.000 kgf/13.200 lbf thrust engine, the Mirage 2000 had one with 9.000 kgf/19.800 lbf, for the same mach 2.2 top speed.

[@gort8203]

The F-111 and B-1 both used turbofan engines but the VG wing was the largest driver of their cruise efficiency and high speed dash capability. The turbofan did not kill the VG wing, changing mission requirements made it undesirable. The B-2 was built for stealth, not speed. If anyone wanted to build another non-stealth aircraft with the performance envelope of an F-111 or B-1 again, they would again consider using a VG wing.

[@gort8203]

@@gooser__43 What about them? I'm not a mind reader.

[@Militavia]

The video totally missed explaining the area distribution along the length of the plane where also has very strong impact of the variable sweep wing.

[@christianm1533]

Maybe you have already covered this, but I cannot find it. I think you should explain that wing airflow stall is not the same as "stall speed" of an aircraft (And that stall actually isn't dependent on speed). I think a lot of people get this wrong and do not understand the differences (When talking about high altitude flight for example). Hence they usually don't understand consequences such as separation of the airflow bleeds energy but does not create more lift.

[@Millennium7HistoryTech]

Never covered but it is a good point.

[@alexandertheissl5517]

The mighty F14 ❤️🐈. Love the Cat... No question the most beautiful fighter jet ever built. I can't believe they hold not a few of the F14 D for airshows in good shape. 😪

[@Mungobohne1]

Its because of the Iranians wanting spares for their fleet

[@darinr9424]

that and it cost to darn much to mantain as it ages

[@alexandertheissl808]

@@darinr9424 They are so much billionaires in the USA... But not one has the hart too bring this beautiful airplane back in the air 😢

[@irisfailsafe]

You should make a video of the Boeing 787. That wing is very special

[@philkelly8031]

I cannot understand why America didn’t develop another swing wing as the F1-11 did such a great job destroying more than even the A10 did with it’s all terrain radar at ground level as it has the best of both world low speed as well as high speed depending on wing configuration.

[@chrisamies2141]

Because there are now better ways of overcoming the same problems? Variable sweep wings have issues of Centre of Lift change, difficulty of mounting underwing stores, and wing weight (especiallly if carrying fuel in them). Leading-edge slats and other technologies are better

[@pdarley58]

Yes brilliant.., designed by a Brit Sir Barnes Wallace!!

[@muhammadyaseen13002]

Please, more discussion on JF-17

[@F139]

Oh man ! Why I am here !

[@TLTeo]

Aaah so it's the NEXT video in which you go in the gory details of the aerodynamics? I expect at least a few differential equations then ;)

[@Millennium7HistoryTech]

It will be the next in the series, not the next in chronological order. The script for these videos is quite complicated and time consuming.

[@btbd2785]

So these shock waves st subsonic and supersonic speeds , could then stall the aircraft?

[@stevenhoman2253]

surely the wings chord ratio is also a factor in lift, particularly in light aircraft?

[@Millennium7HistoryTech]

Yes it is but it is less important in respect to drag. I had to cut some corners to keep the length to a manageable level.

[@jeanvaljean9293]

May i ask ? Could you do a 6gen video comparing the visual we saw of the ngf, tempest, faxx and pda ? Please

[@akhileshmoorthy]

There is a concept in the movie called "STEALTH" , it shows new gen stealth fighters with scramjet engine and sweep wings. Please look into that and what do you think about that concept.

[@Millennium7HistoryTech]

😂😂😂😂😂

[@jndvs95]

From everything I've read about SCRAMJETs and RAMJETS, I've been lead to believe they aren't used in planes as much yet because they require such high speeds to start being effective. When going that fast, you start running into issues with the air pressure being funny and the speed of most turbines going too fast for safety. Once successfully going fast enough for a scram or ram engine to work, you start running into other problems like the sheet metal becoming too hot. That's why the Blackbird was made with sheet metal specifically small on the ground because at cruising speeds the metal would expand and close up small gaps between the metal. On the ground they were notorious for leaking fule everywhere. I tried finding other info on why they don't work at lower speeds but I haven't found much luck. You can find a lot of cool info from the Blackbird though despite it's age

[@chrisamies2141]

Seriously one of the worst films I've ever seen. I left it muttering "If Stanley Kubrick was still alive, he'd sue." Not that he would necessarily have won a copyright infringement case for Stealth's overt HAL 9000 reference, but it would have been worth it.

[@jeanvaljean9293]

Mirage g !

[@hussain7675]

No offence, I usually love your videos because of your dynamic way of speaking and the gd visualisation. In this one it was more like a lecture then entertainment it was very hard to keep listening to everything. Next time please include yourself speaking, as in film your self, put one of your funny light jokes in along with the amazing information and visualisation you already have in this video. Anyways thank you very much and please keep up you amazing work.

[@Millennium7HistoryTech]

Noted!

[@scottyevens3174]

Thanks for a good explanation. One question? Why do some planes blow air out the side of the wings? Does this have to do w shockwave or lift issues?

[@Millennium7HistoryTech]

I believe to refer to devices to delay the stall, if I understand correctly.

[@scottyevens3174]

Millennium 7 * HistoryTech en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blown_flap Last paragraph is relevant to the discussion of military jets. Thanks you are right! Interesting engineering

[@shi01]

@@scottyevens3174 It makes the flaps more effective. Basically it increases the velocity of the air streaming over the flaps which in turn increses the pressure differential and in the end generates extra lift. IMHO these systems are crap. They are a maintenance nightmare and can lead to accidents if they don't work properly. For instance some F104s, which had such a system, crashed because the system only worked at one side which induced a severe roll moment low over the ground a low speeds, a certain recipe for disaster.

[@abilliondreams8046]

Sir, Plz explaine The HAL Advanced Medium Combat Aircraft (AMCA) is an Indian programme to develop a fifth-generation fighter aircraft. It's capabilities compared to the existing modern fighters.

[@stevenhoman2253]

in colonel john boyds autobiography, he notes that variable sweep wings were not ideal, due to added complexity and dead weight. [ he was instrumental in the f16 light weight fighter program and also behind the ooda loop, and the concept of energy/manuaverability for the usaf. something they still rely on.

[@gort8203]

It depends on mission requirements, and Boyd was speaking from a narrow point of view. The variable geometry wing is not ideal for a fighter designed to dogfight within a narrow speed range. The VG wing is good for an airplane that must be efficient at all speeds across a wide flight envelope. The F-14 and F-111 got a VG wing because they were designed to different performance criteria than the F-15.

[@magoid]

VG aircraft is not that much heavier than conventional ones. The press made it look worse than it actually is. Se for example the F-14 and the Su-33. Both weight about the same, with similar dimensions. Another example is the MiG-23 and the Saab Viggen. Again, similar dimensions, weight and engine power.

[@WALTERBROADDUS]

The operational needs of a naval aircraft are different than a light Air force jet.

[@paulbrooks4395]

So then, this is why delta plus canard (as I understood from the previous videos) is so effective, it combines a higher aspect ratio and a high sweep into one aerofoil to accommodate supersonic flight. However, it seems like delta plus canard isn’t as good for stealth, as stealth requires more parallel surfaces and a body shape that a delta plus canard may not be compatible with aerodynamically. Is this a correct understanding?

[@Millennium7HistoryTech]

Perfect!

[@agcgilmour]

STOP!! You said no commercial carriers are supersonic, why?

[@jeffreyraine7589]

.