80
IAI Kfir—
Mirage
successor
By Y E H U D A BOROVIK
O UTWARDLY the Kfir is markedly
similar to the Mirage family, espec-
ially the 5J—60° delta wing, central
fin, twin semi-circular air intakes with
variable-geometry spikes, underslung
pitot tube and ventral fuel tank pro-
truding from the rear fuselage.
A major drawback of Mirage Ills
and 5s, however, is their Snecma Atar
9 engine, which develops relatively low
thrust and has a high specific fuel
consumption (s.f.c).
Israeli Air Force Mirage IIIBs and
IIICs are engined with the Atar 9B,
whereas later models such as the HIE
and the 5 have the more advanced
Atar 9C. Both develop the same maxi-
mum thrust but the 9C has a slightly
lower s.f.c., an improved compressor
being used.
The Kfir engine is practically iden-
tical to the J79-17 which powers the
F-4E, possibly with minor modifica-
tions.
The J79's s.f.c. is better than the
Atar's and is about half-way to that
of a modern engine: Atar 9C, 1-01;
J79, 0-84; F100, 0-70. The Atar's s.f.c.
is 17 per cent higher than the J79's in
dry thrust and 3 per cent higher in
afterburning.
Kfir has the 60° delta wing of the Mirage
SJ—which would have been Israel's ground-
attack aircraft had France not embargoed its
sale—and employs no leading-edge high-lift
devices
•
igf*
" -•"
The General Electric engine therer
fore burns 17 per cent less fuel on a
pound-for-pound basis. The J79 is
more efficient for a number of
reasons:—
• Mass flow is about 11 per cent
higher, necessitating a redesign of
the intake ducts.
• Compression ratio is significantly
higher, 12-4:1 compared with only
5-4:1 on the Atar 9.
• Turbine inlet temperature on the
J79 is higher at 954°C, thanks to the
use of better heat-resisting alloys and
more efficient cooling.
• The increased turbine inlet tem-
perature manifests itself in a much
higher external wall temperature (up
to 700°C against 350°C for the Atar),
and this posed one of the major prob-
lems which the Kfir developers had to
overcome.
• The J79 exhaust system and after-
burner, with a variable nozzle, are
more efficient than those of the Atar.
The intake flow rate in both the
Mirage and the Kfir is varied by
means of a spike moving forwards and
backwards within the duct, thereby
changing the throat area and the
Shockwave pattern. As noted above,
the J79 requires a flow rate about
11 per cent higher than that of the
Atar 9, but—apart from the increased
inlet area, which obviously entails a
modified spike displacement rule—no
other changes in the Kfir intake duct
can be discovered from an outside
|Ff|L
* *.
•
HI • >
WKmm^
»i!Sk „ jfF
' ( _ w # ~*"5
FLIGHT International, 17 July 1975
inspection. To increase the flow rate
during take-off the Kfir, like all Mir-
ages, is fitted with auxiliary blow-in
doors behind the inlet.
The J79 is about 64cm shorter than
the Atar 9C, itself some 30cm shorter
than the Atar 9B. Since the variable
exhaust nozzle must protrude from
the fuselage to provide operating
clearance the Kfir afterbody had to be
shortened and modified.
The afterbody must be designed
for minimum drag as well as to pre-
vent interference between the jet
efflux and the flow passing over the
afterbody and the wing control sur-
faces. To reduce base drag the clear-
ance between the portion of exhaust
nozzle enclosed within the fuselage
and inner fuselage wall must be kept
to a minimum. At the same time the
afterbody contours must not vary
drastically, since this would result in
increased drag.
The J79's external wall temperature
is about 300°-350°C higher than for
the Atar. The Atar is provided with
a thermal shield fitted directly on the
engine but the-J79 is not. In other
J79-powered aircraft such as the F-104
and the F-4 the fuselage portion en-
closing the engines is built of mater-
ials such as steel superalloys and ti-
tanium. The Mirage, however, is built
entirely of aluminium alloys, which
are liable to develop creep at such
high temperatures.
Viewed from the outside, the Kfir
fuselage appears to consist entirely of
aluminium. It can therefore be as-
sumed that some other type of solu-
tion has been found for engine cooling
and/or thermal insulation of the fuse-
lage—the fitting of an extra thermal
shield around the J79 and provision of
external cooling air. In the Mirage,
engine cooling air is supplied through
the boundary-layer separation ducts
wedged between the air intakes and
the fuselage wall. The quantity of air
thus provided was adequate for cool-
ing the Atar, but insufficient for the
J79. An examination of the Kfir re-
Installation of a General Electric J79 turbojet
in place of the Mirage's Snecma Atar saves
64cm in engine length and has resulted in a
new design of afterbody being adopted for Kfir