i'm trying to build a British cold war plane
I'm trying to make something like in 1960s
Could anybody tell me the average armaments and flight performance, also the
technology of radars and HUD or some other electronics at 1960s ?
Was this radar lock on HUDs actually possible in the 1960s?
@F104Deathtrap Cool! Thanks
@brians1209 No. I oversimplified. The sight had an auto-rangefinder to assist with aim, and several useful indicators. This video gives a pretty good idea of what it looked like.
The key takeaway here is that most fighters were equipped with radar that could tell you if something was in front of you, and how far. They could tell you if they were higher, lower, or off to one side but only within a narrow cone, like very large flashlight beam sticking out your nose. But it wasn't easy to use. If your target was between you and the ground, he was basically invisible because all the radar screen would show you was the ground. And the screens were terrible.
It wasn't until the F-4 Phantom II that fighter planes were given really advanced radar, most other stuff in the 60's relied on help from ground based radar or AWACS.
@F104Deathtrap so the aim sight was just a simple gyro sight?
Radar itself was pretty advanced in the 1960's, there were even experimental aircraft that had built-in ground avoidance. But the actual radar display was exceedingly primitive, not any where close to what modern people associate with a radar screen. Here's an image of the radar screen from a MIG-21 Fishbed, one of the best fighters of the 1960's. No fancy "heads up" display or anything, just a WWR style holographic gun site and a crummy looking CRT screen down by your knees.
Radar was generally used to locate enemies, but heat seeking missiles usually proved to be more reliable than radar guided ones when it came to the actual fighting.
UK fighters came in 2 flavors:
supersonic interceptors that were extremely fast, extremely short range, and only good at shooting down other planes see E.E. Lightning
Or
Slower, subsonic multi role jets that had longer range and traded some air to air power for the ability to do a variety of jobs like ground attack see Blackburn Buccaneer
@brians1209
In that case it really depends on the aircraft. For a lock angle you are looking at around 30° max.
@TheFantasticTyphoon just a fictional british 60s cold war fighter jet
Which aircraft are you trying to build?