Except it fails on the first requirement, really. The Beagle is slower than the Eagle and much slower than the 111. I wonder how the F-16XL would've fared in that respect.




The Jedi Master

That's debatable. An F-15E going full burner 200 ft off the deck is not gonna be much easier to catch than an F-111. Plus, it has much better A/A capability than the Vark.

Very nice Flanker site, thanks for sharing.

The up front ICP looks like a Falcon design lift.

Would be interesting to see a real life dogfight between the Flankers
and F16/F15/F18 like I saw on RED OCTOBER on the WINGS cable show
where F18s when against MiG29s where were pretty close fights.

The East German MiG29 IP pilots were closely matched with the F18 carrier pilots.

I would love to see some of those cockpits in Lockon! Nice MFD's and better lay-out as in lockon me thinks.
Regards, Kodiak.

IIRC, the 111 is one of the few planes capable of supersonic flight at sea level. The F-15E is not.



The Jedi Master

A minimally loaded F-15E can break supersonic - IIRC it's max speed at sea level is ~800 kts, which is about Mach 1.2. Apart from bombs, the only thing that limits its low level speed is the AAQ-13 LANTIRN nav pod, which actually imposes a limit on how fast the Mudhen can go - I don't remember the speed at the moment. I know the ability to attain Mach 1.2 at low levels was a design requirement for the 'Vark, but I with a full loadout of 4 2000lb laser-guided bombs and the Pave Tack targeting pod, I doubt it'll be able to achieve that design requirement.

All I know for certain is no one has ever praised the Beagle for being fast at any altitude (unlike the Eagle itself), while the 111 has.



The Jedi Master