9.

Weapon Weights
Initially it was thought that performing hovers at various weapon and fuel states would
provide the data needed to calculate how much di↵erent weapons weight. Initial testing
revealed that the di↵erence in throttle values recorded in YFS files caused significant
errors in the calculated thrust. To achieve a higher weight resolution, the test was
changed so that the aircraft was overloaded with fuel on the ground and had to burn
o↵ fuel in order to begin to hover. This method proved much more accurate thanks to
the fuel meter on the Simple HUD reading to two decimal places. The point at which
the aircraft’s acceleration is 1.00g (determined via the Complex HUD), the weight of the
aircraft is equal to the thrust, and thus a simple subtraction can be used to determine
the actual weight of the aircraft.

9.1. Equations
Determining the weight of the aircraft is vital. Using the fuel weight and a static
(known) thrust, the di↵erence between aircraft weight and thrust will be the weight of
the weapon(s). Using multiple weapons of the same type will help average out errors.

WF uel = W EIGF U EL ⇤ HU DF U EL (9.1)

WAC = WF U EL + W EIGHCLN (9.2)

✓ ◆
1
WW eap = (T HRM ILIT WAC ) (9.3)
N U MW EAP

9.1.1. Error Reductions

One interesting thing that was noticed using some of the data was that if the fuel
percentage at 1.00g was used exclusively, the weights were consistently underestimating
weapon weights (it was assumed that 500 pound bombs weighed 500 pounds). Therefore
the fuel percentages at 1.00g and 1.01g were averaged together.

F U EL1.00g + F U EL1.01g
WF U EL = (9.4)
2

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9.2. Results
There were two odd results found during these trials. First was the 250 pound bomb
weighing 240 pounds. The second was that the AIM9X missile weighed nothing.

Weapon Weight (lb) Weight (kg)

B500 500 226.8
B500HD 500 226.8
AGM65 600 272.2
RKT 20 9.1
AIM120 300 136.1
AIM9 180 81.6
FUEL1 300 136.1
FLR2 300 136.1
B250 240 108.9
AIM9X 0 0

Table 9.1.: Weapon weights in pounds and kilograms.

1
This is the weight of the empty fuel tank.
2
When flares are finally dispensed, the weight doesn’t change.

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