Superagile tactical fighter aircraft and method of flying it in supernormal flight

Claim 1

A superagile tactical fighter aircraft comprising: a fuselage having a nose, a midsection, an aft section and at least one vertical tail, said fuselage adapted to house a human pilot, a payload, fuel, automatic flight control systems, a navigation system, and a life support system to assist and sustain the pilot; fixed wings mounted on the aft section of the fuselage, behind a center-of-gravity of the aircraft; a high thrust-to-weight propulsion system being mounted to the wings; fully articulating air inlets at a front end of the propulsion system, said air inlets being deflectable so as to face into a local air stream so as to provide minimally distorted air flow to the propulsion system throughout a complete flight regime but particularly at very high angles of attack and low air speeds; fully articulating exhaust nozzles at a rear end of the propulsion system, said exhaust nozzles being rapidly deflectable so as to allow the pilot the capability to vector and direct gross thrust produced by the propulsion system; and rotatable canard surface means, mounted on the midsection on the fuselage in front of the center-of-gravity and separate from the wings, for fully and rapidly deflecting air flow thereacross in an angle-of-attack range with trailing edge about 90° up to trailing edge about 45° down, said canard surface means being located so as to provide pitch control forces and moments and to cause the aircraft to be longitudinally unstable and capable of trimming at very high angles of attack approaching the range from 70° to 90°.

Claim 4

A method of flying a human-piloted longitudinally unstable fixed-wing tactical fighter aircraft comprising the steps of: initiating an aerial maneuver in a vertical or pitch plane to very high angles of attack and pitch approaching a range from 70° to 90° by: highly deflecting rotatable canard surfaces on the aircraft to provide an angle-of-attack greater than an angle-of-attack which produces maximum lift; increasing thrust of a propulsion system to a maximum capability; vectoring gross thrust of the propulsion system by deflecting articulating exhaust nozzles to angles which augment turning capability and assure control of the aircraft at low velocities; deflecting articulating air inlets at the appropriate angle to face into a local air stream so as to provide minimally distorted air flow to the propulsion system; banking the aircraft to angles approaching 90°; decelerating the aircraft to a velocity less than stalling velocity; turning the heading angle of the aircraft; and pointing the aircraft in any direction necessary to be aimed at an opposing or threatening aircraft; whereby the aircraft has, by developing very high turn rates and decelerations, effectively become superagile in supernormal flight.

Claim 5

A method of flying a human-piloted longitudinally unstable fixed-wing tactical fighter aircraft comprising the steps of: initiating an aerial maneuver in a vertical or pitch plane to very high angles of attack and pitch approaching a range from 70° to 90° by: highly deflecting rotatable canard surfaces on the aircraft to provide an angle-of-attack greater than an angle-of-attack which produces maximum lift; increasing thrust of a propulsion system to a maximum capability; vectoring gross thrust of the propulsion system by deflecting articulating exhaust nozzles to angles which augment turning capability and assure control of the aircraft at low velocities; deflecting articulating air inlets at the appropriate angle to face into a local air stream so as to provide minimally distorted air flow to the propulsion system; banking the aircraft to angles approaching 90°; decelerating the aircraft to a velocity less than stalling velocity; turning the heading angle of the aircraft; and pointing the aircraft in any direction necessary to be aimed at an opposing or threatening aircraft; whereby the aircraft has, by developing very high turn rates and decelerations, effectively become superagile in supernormal flight.