Quote:
Originally Posted by Michael Thayne
Good point. I like +6.
I'm a little disappointed I haven't gotten more pushback on the fusion-powered stealth bomber. Again, does anyone know enough about these hypothetical proposals to tell me if it's realistic? It has pretty big consequences for the design of aerospace craft! Notably, nuclear air-rams become strong choices for variations on a number of designs in Spaceships 4 if they can be stealthy.
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Note they're crazy expensive...
But...IR stealth for aircraft is a bit different, I think. A fusion reactor for your ramjet
might give you considerably more heat to dispose of than a conventional fuel-burning turbine, but the main thing is to keep the externally visible heat diffuse and dissipate it into the air without presenting sharp 'hot spots' for IR sensors, I think. And that probably isn't impossible to do around a fusion reactor.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Michael Thayne
Is it possible for a more efficient drive to have a reduced IR signature? I assumed this was the rationale for higher-TL drives with increased delta-V per fuel tank having the same IR signature. But maybe it doesn't work that way.
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To some extent - you can't actually
see the energy output of the drive that Anthony is tabulating. Kinetic energy is basically stealthy.
However, for
thermal rockets the kinetic energy of the departing particles is proportional to their temperature, and I think there's basically nothing you can do about
that.