A question for you jet jockeye types...concerning exhaust flame

[OBIO]

I am working on a restoration of the freeware FSD T-38 package. A nice package that needed some cleaning up, some tweaking, some new skins, some better effects.

My question is about the exhaust flame. I know that when the after burner is kicked in, there are the flame thingies. The effects package I am using on the T-38 currently has the A/B effects kicking in at around 90% throttle. At what point in the Throttle/RPM range would exhaust flames become visible outside of the exhaust pipes? Would there be a shorter flame at 90% throttle that was different than the A/B flame?

I want to take the effects on this jet to the max.

OBIO

[Tom Clayton]

The only time you have the flames visible is when the afterburners are lit. You might see a little flame at engine start from raw fuel in the tailpipe, but otherwise, the burner section inside the engine is where all the flame is normally contained. The afterburner is a set of concentric fuel injection rings that spray raw fuel into the hot exhaust, which is hot enough to ignite the fuel at high throttle settings. When the fuel ignites, it provides an expolsive boost to the thrust, but also sucks the tanks dry in a hurry. From what I understand, early AB systems just started dumping instantly, which caused such an instant thrust boost that it was hard on the pilot, if not the airframe. Modern systems light one ring at a time for a gradual increase in thrust over a second or two.

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

[Bjoern]

In Thirdwire's sims, afterburners ignite at 70% throttle.


Also, early turbojets on afterburners were so thirsty that the Su-7 for example got sucked dry within seven minutes (or even less). :d


That's the reason why I cling to my external fuel tanks as long as possible in Strike Fighters. Heck, I even dogfight with them!

Nothing worse than missing a kill because you've got to RTB with bingo fuel. *Grr*

[jmig]

Afterburners don't light until 101% throttles. MIL power is 100%. The ABs are staged after MIL. In fighters, you have a stop at 100%. You have to lift a gate, go through a detente, or shift the throttles over to go into AB. Often you also will have several stages of AB.