What is the most important in the air fighter to be better ,the powerplant or speed?

[Elmoktaeb]

What is the most important in the air fighter to be better ,the powerplant or speed?
and what is the most important the powerplant or range of the airfighter
and What is the most important too the service ceiling or powerplant

Generally What is the most important factor on the performance of the air fighter : the powerplant or the the speed or the range or the service ceiling?


and finally i want to know if the power/weight in an airfighter is higher than the other , does that mean that it is better?

[Ths]

The important parameters are thrust/weight ratio and specific fuel consumption.

By wrapping aluminium around that gives an envelope of range, lift and speed.

As speed is a first order function of engine, it does not give any meaning to ask what is most important.

[rjmaz1]

What is the most important in the air fighter to be better ,the powerplant or speed?
and what is the most important the powerplant or range of the airfighter
and What is the most important too the service ceiling or powerplant

Generally What is the most important factor on the performance of the air fighter : the powerplant or the the speed or the range or the service ceiling?


and finally i want to know if the power/weight in an airfighter is higher than the other , does that mean that it is better?
Wow so many questions! You could write a 100 page book answering these questions.

It all comes down to the phrase "first look, first shoot, first kill."

Aircraft are a compromise of many factors, the compromise depends on the mission required. Speed, service ceiling, stealth, range, cost, weight, agility you try increase some and the cost/weight goes up.

These days it seems stealth, avionics and speed is the most important factor that make a fighter good. Being able to detect the enemy from far away using an advanced radar while making it difficult for the enemy to detect you due to stealth is very hard to counter. Add speed to the mix and the enemy's reaction time is reduced and the effective range of the enemy's missiles are also reduced. Having all three like the F-22 ends up with it being a very expensive aircraft!

The second part of your question regarding engines. A cheap engine often has a lower thrust to weight ratio so it needs to be heavier and larger to produce the power required. If you had an unlimited budget then you'll have a high thrust to weight engine.

Also speed of an engine usually sacrifices specific fuel consumption.

A low bypass turbojet /fan usually has a higher exhaust velocity for high speed flight but with a low fuel consumption. Afterburners provide not only aircraft thrust but increased exhaust velocity this however consumes an extremely large amount of fuel.

A high bypass turbofan is a lower exhaust velocity and a much better specific fuel consumption. It allows aircraft to fly slow and long distances. However using afterburners on such an engine will still result in extremely poor fuel consumption. It will also have to use afterburners more often if you want to travel fast when compared to a lowbypass turbojet.

So if you want a supercruising fight you'd look for a lowbypass turbojet so you dont have to use afterburners to hit moderate supersonic speeds.

I hope this helps.

[Salty Dog]

In the by-gone days of the "pure interceptor" fighter, speed and thus the powerplant were extemely important. This is epitomized in the Mig-25 and Mig-31, true speed demons which were capable of little else, but were ideally configured for their interceptor missions.

Now-a-days fighters tend to be more "multirole" or "multimission" so due to trade-offs to be all-around efficient, speed is less important.

Having said that, technological advances in aerodynamics, materials, and engine designs have allowed newer generation designs to retain top end speeds relative to their earlier counterparts whilst assuming multirole capability.