"Prop-driven aircraft I/R target?" Topic

Do propeller driven aircraft generate enough heat to be targets for heat-seeking munitions?

As you've posted it on Ultramodern I presume you mean current IRM, if so most definitely. In fact most missiles from the 80's on should have a good chance to home on prop types and Helicopters. Earlier models might but it would not be a high probability.

Fatman

Engines produce heat. All engines. Cooling is a primary consideration in piston engine aircraft design, so I'd say yes. Turbo props, of course, are just jet engines driving a propeller.

OK just remembered the Israelis shot down several Mi-8 "Hips" with AIM-9D's on the first day of the October war. So yes even earlier missiles could home on a non jet engine.

Fatman

Yes which is why in the 80s Helicopters were fitted with IR suppression systems over the exhausts,

Tally Ho!

Cunningham once got tone on a truck on the Ho Chi Minh Trail. The Navy decided not to count it as a kill.

Assuming a rather large engine, then yes. I'm not sure a Predator drone's 115hp Rotax engine makes enough heat, but I'm sure the Reaper's 950hp turboprop does.

And I know the 4500hp turboprop on a C130 does.

Of course, the heat signature of a turbine-driven helo is vastly larger than that of a piston-powered single-engine aircraft and is usually at a different wavelength (very different temperature.

Some modern IRMs can lock on to piston exhaust or hot surfaces, but it's hard to get good info. In any case, the smaller heat signature means a shorter detection and lock-on range. There's also a difference between a Cessna Bird Dog and the massive radial on a Skyraider.

You'd be surprised what a stinger can lock onto…

Thanks guys!