Rafale C01, military plane

1991/01/01 Elhuyar Zientzia Iturria: Elhuyar aldizkaria

• Ingeniaritza
• Garraioak
• Aeronautika

The French aviator Dassault Aviation presented in October last year the prototype of the military plane “Rafale C01” at the Saint-Cloud facilities, where they investigate and assemble their hunting pieces.

However, the prototype used so far at the Bourget and Farnborough air fairs was intended only to “show” the technological systems used to the public and not to fly. It is worth mentioning some of these systems.

The air inlets for reactors, for example, are at the intersection between the body and the south, where there are no moving parts. It is also advanced in aerodynamics, allowing a weak signal on the radar.

Much of the materials used are composites (of light material and mechanical strength based on carbon fiber and kevlar) and in the structure have been used alloys of titanium and aluminum-lithium to make a light aircraft. The pilot's seat is tilted, taking into account the influence of accelerations in his circulatory system.

The C01 plane will make its first flights in March of this year when two Snecma M-88 turborreactors are installed.

The mission of this military plane is to eliminate the objectives of air, land and sea. For this it has a great maneuverability and is difficult to detect. The load it can carry is also no joke. Although the plane weighs only 9 tons in vacuum, it can transport 4 tons of fuel and 6 tons of armament. The flight controls are electric and allow different maneuvers to those of the classic military planes.

However, we must mention the enormous cost of the program of construction of this plane. In research and development they have spent 40,000 million francs (about 800,000 million pesetas) and manufactured each plane about 200 million francs (4,000 million pesetas).

They are incredible figures, as not, but as the objective is military…