Rhino inlet ducting
 

Hello Eric. I'm curious how large the inlet cross section needs to be to supply the Rhino in my F-16. The reason I'm asking is because I plan on reducing is as much as practical because the inlet passes right through the fuel tank. I'm trying to maximize my fuel load for longer flights.

Many thanks,

Jason Hoyle

RE: Rhino inlet ducting
 

Jason:

Great question which I conference d with Juan Ruiz who is our engineer extraordinaire guru. His answer is:

"As a general rule, we prefer to have the same cross section as the turbine, The rhino is 110mm in diameter so the cross section area is about 9500 square mm or 14.7 square inches
I don't recommend to go less than 20% of that area, it may start having fast acceleration problems." end quote.

OK, to the rule of "the inlet must be equal to or greater than the exit" seems to prevail here.

Again, thanks for the question.

Regards,
Eric