Sepecat Jaguar

Delancey

Below is photo of a Jaguar in flight .

One thing I have always wondered about this aircraft was the positioning of missiles on the topside of the wings .
My ( limited ) understanding of Aerodynamics says that the upper surface of the wing should be kept clear of anything that could reduce the effectiveness/lift capability - there have been plenty of cases of aircraft crashing because of ice build-up on the wings disrupting the airflow.

How come this did not appear to impact the performance of the Jaguar ?

Manic Moran

I believe it's an acronym, and should be 'SEPECAT'

There is precedent, the Lightning.

The wing tanks were mounted above the wings rather than under, due to lack of space.


They also had a crack at putting rockets up there.



The aerodynamic worries of frost etc are caused by the rough surface which destroys the smooth flow of air over the wing. Pylons are smoothly designed, so that the loss of lift is fairly minimal.

The advantage, of course, is that it frees up space for other weapons stores. However, only certain systems can be mounted. Sidewinder is a rail-launched missile, not a drop-free. As a result, you could get away with firing the missile from above the wing, or on the pylon shoulder on the F-4 or F-15, or on the fuselage side on A-7 or F-8. Sparrow, which drops free before ignition, obviously wouldn't work. It's also a tad more difficult to load the missile.

Anything bigger than Sidewinder is also pretty much pointless, as it's going to weigh so much that you can't put even more goodies on the underwing hardpoint, so you might as well just mount the big stuff under there anyway. Tip or fuselage rails tend to provide most of the benefits of the overwing mounting, without the disadvantages, which is why they're not common.

NTM

Growler!!!

Hi Delancy,

Linky below explaining/describing a Wing Fence. Hope it helps.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wing_fence