Nolan-Garrett F-1000

The Nolan-Garret F-1000 is a low-cost lightweight fighter developed for the export market. It was intended to provide nations that could not afford more complex, more expensive contemporary fighter aircraft with a viable alternative. F-1000 is a derivative of the Miklanian Navy's F80 Shark. The design was simplified, the avionics made more reliable, and the engines and weapons improved. Continued updates have been made available, increasing the aircraft's performance. The aircraft is more than a match for most other fighters in service today.

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Background and Origin
In the early 1950s, the Miklanian Navy was searching for a fighter to take them into the supersonic age. The winning design came from the Vance Aviation Company. The design used a high mounted wing, a forward chin mounted inlet, and a very powerful F147-GM engine. The wing was one of the most sophisticated elements of the design. In order to achieve the low approach speeds necessary for carrier landings while simultaneously making the wing suitable for high-speed flight, the designers came up with a variable-incidence wing, which tilted the whole wing upwards 7° to increase lift during takeoff and landing. This feature worked very well for the Miklanian Navy. The Shark was their premiere fighter through the 1960s and 1970s. In the late 70s, however, the Navy moved on an aircraft with greater performance and more sophisticated avionics and missile armaments. This program selected the F84 Seahawk, which would be the Navy's primary fighter well into the 21st century. Vance submitted a development of the Shark that was capable of exceeding Mach 3, but it did not meet any of the Navy's other requirements. The last F80s were retired in 1986, ending the last of Vance's contracts with the military.

In an attempt to keep the company in business, the government issued a request for an attack derivative of the Shark, which would serve in small numbers in the Air Force, Navy, and Marine Corps. The services themselves had other plans, and were generally uninterested in the aircraft. The Air Force was outright hostile to the idea. In the end, only a small number would be ordered for the Navy and Marines. Vance tooled up to produce the new aircraft, when the Navy abruptly cancelled it's orders so that they could move the money to fix unforeseen issues with the F84 program. The order was never restored, and Vance lost an incredible amount of money on the project, producing only two dozen airframes for the Marine Corps. Out of a sense of guilt at plunging the company into greater financial troubles than they had been at the end of the F84 program the government issued a contract for a derivative fighter that could be sold at low cost to other countries.

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Design

The engineers at Vance used as much of the original Shark as they possibly could. However, as the requirements for this aircraft revolved around simplicity, ease of maintenance, and low cost, they had to make many major changes to the design. The first thing to go was the variable-incidence wing. The structure and hydraulics necessary to make it move were heavy and complex. The wing was revised to be much lighter, and was fixed in place. It retained the excellent aerodynamic characteristics of the original wing. Minor revisions to airfoil shape and a slight lengthening decreased drag and increased lift at moderate angles of attack, increasing the aircraft's agility. The next major departure was the choice of engine. The engineers ditched the F80's large and powerful engine for newer model. Despite being smaller and lighter than the previous engine, the F190-GM-540 was almost as powerful, and was far more efficient. The decrease in engine weight, as well as the corresponding decrease in the aft airframe size led to considerable improvements in the thrust to weight ratio. The inlet was revised to optimize airflow for the new engine. Edits were also made to the tail fin, increasing it's area slightly and reducing it's weight by simplifying the design and making greater use of composite materials. The final component to receive major changes was the tailhook, which was changed from the standard naval type to the lighter emergency type employed by land fighters. It was decided to retain the same carrier strengthened airframe and landing gear to minimize the expense of the redesign and to make the aircraft suitable for austere environments ashore. A retractable probe for mid-air refueling was made available as an optional extra.

Avionics were also revised. The original avionics were quite dated and were prone to failure by modern standards. The engineering team replaced the radar, radios, and other systems with solid-state equipment. The avionics were not significantly more capable than the originals, but were far more reliable and inexpensive to build and operate. The radar was a simple affair, featuring only a few air-to-air modes for the guns and for assisting with heat-seeking missile acquisition. The only major performance improvement was that the newer radar's processing system was less vulnerable to jamming and ground clutter. The gunsight was also of a new model, and featured superior symbology that enabled the pilot to make more accurate shots. While not necessary for the use of heat-seeking missiles, the radar and gunsight had a mode that displayed the acquisition window of the missile, as well as providing range, speed, and deflection information that could help the pilot make a better shot. The radios were of the latest MSTO standard, featuring multiple encrypted voice channels as well as standard encrypted and guard channels. The Infrared Search and Track (IRST) system that was equipped on some F80s was omitted.

The guns were also improved. The engineers replaced the original quartet of Mk. 12 Mod. 1 cannons for a brace of M39A3 revolver cannons. Still 20mm, they nonetheless improved the firepower of the aircraft. The revolver design featured a much higher rate of fire, allowing two guns to match the weight of fire thrown by the previous four guns. While the individual guns weighed more than the Mk. 12s, the use of only two more than compensated. The quantity of ammunition was unchanged, a total of 600 rounds, divided between the two guns. Missile armament was the same as late model F80s. The primary air-to-air weapon of the F-1000 would be the ubiquitous AIM-9 Sidewinder. The advanced L/M models, with all-aspect lock-on capability were assumed to be the standard, but comparability with most previous models was retained in case the customer had large stocks of older missiles and did not wish to waste them. 5 inch Zuni rockets were another staple. There was a rail on either side of the fuselage, aft of the cockpit and just forward of the wing root that could take one Sidewinder missile or one 4-round LAU-10 rocket pod. This rail was usually fitted with a "Y" splitter, which enabled two Sidewinders or rocket pods to be carried, one above the other. There was also a pylon on the wing, close to the root, which could carry racks for two Sidewinders or rocket pods or a variety of other bombs and missiles. The most advanced weapons that the F-1000 had access to were the early optically guided versions of the Maverick air-to-ground missile, used for attacking tanks, bunkers, SAM sites, and other point targets; the Harpoon Block 1, 1B, and 1C anti-ship missile, which enabled the fighter to serve as a credible sea denial asset; and the Shrike anti-radiation missile, useful for helping the aircraft defend itself against enemy surface-to-air missile systems. Dumb bombs up to 2000 pounds could be carried. Cluster munitions as well as simple Mk. 80 series iron bombs were available. The aircraft did not feature an air to ground mode for its radar, or any other type of bomb site. Pilots could control the Maverick missiles through the single monochromatic liquid-crystal multi-function display fitted in the cockpit. They could also attempt to use it without manually selecting the target by arming the missile and placing the desired target in the center of the HUD. A box would appear around whatever the missile locked onto, if anything. For best results, pilots would have to point the missile's seeker head and select the target manually, through the MFD. Shrike employment was based on audio cues and a "shoot" indicator on the HUD, the same as the Sidewinder. Flight plans for the Harpoon could be programmed via the MFD, or the pilot could lock the missile directly onto the target if the aircraft was within line of sight.

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Operators

Menna shuli - 75 (Hêsuk)
San Montagna - 200 (Aquila)

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Specifications (F-1000)

Physical

Length: 54 feet 3 inches

Wingspan: 35 feet 8 inches

Height: 15 feet 9 inches

Weight (Empty): 13,657 lbs

Weight (Max Take-off): 34,000 lbs

Internal Fuel Capacity: 8,528 lbs

Engine: 1x F190-GM-540 Turbofan

Thrust: 17,835 lbf Afterburner; 11,905 lbf Dry

Internal Weapons: 2x 20mm M39A3 rotary cannons, (300 rounds per gun)

Hardpoints: 2x side fuselage mounted Y-pylons (for AIM-9 Sidewinders and 5-inch Zuni rockets) and 2x wing mounted pylons each with provisions for:
2x AIM-9L/M Sidewinder heat-seeking air-to-air missiles
3x LAU-10 rocket pods (each with 4x Zuni rockets)
1x AGM-84A/C/D Harpoon anti-ship missile
1x AGM-45 Shrike anti-radiation missile
1x AGM-65A/B Maverick guided missile
6x 250lb bombs
4x 500lb bombs
2x 1000lb bombs
1x 2000lb bomb

Performance

Maximum Speed: Mach 2.3

Combat Radius (Internal Fuel): 550 nmi

Ferry Range: 1,900 nmi

Service Ceiling: 60,000 feet

Wing Loading: 73.7 lb/ft²

Thrust to Weight Ratio: 0.74

Maximum G Load: +9.0/-3.0