F-22 wing area?

**Inst** · 20 Feb 11,, 08:56

I've just done an estimate of the J-20 wing area based on the attached wings, pictures, and third-party diagrams and the figures indicate extreme wing loading, with various wing areas being 48, 55, and 57 m^2.

We compared it over to the F-22, but using the same methodology, we only got around 40 m^2 for the F-22's wing area, which is far below the listed Lockheed wing area.

How does Lockheed calculate wing area?

**FJV** · 20 Feb 11,, 11:10

Could be that the F-22 is also designed to be (partly) a lifting body. That is, the plane's body also works as a wing.

However with all the secrecy surrounding that plane it is impossible to confirm this with 100% certainty.

**andrew** · 22 Feb 11,, 10:58

Originally Posted by Inst

We compared it over to the F-22, but using the same methodology, we only got around 40 m^2 for the F-22's wing area, which is far below the listed Lockheed wing area.

Did you include the tailplanes and LERXs.
I did a rough estimation and got approximately 72-74 m2.
That's less than 78 m2 they give in wiki.
Perhaps they include the horizontal projection of the vertical tails, since they are canted and therefore should produce some lift.

**Phoenix10** · 23 Feb 11,, 19:00

It is my understanding that in most cases, the vertical and horizontal tails are symmetric airfoils. Therefore, even if canted, they would not provide any lift unless they were 1) permanently installed at some positive angle of attach relative to the free stream or 2) unless control surface deflections are made. That is, even if canted there would be no pressure difference from the bottom or top side due to the symmetry. This is usually done so that there is no contribution to pitch/roll/yaw moments until the pilot intends there to be (by deflecting a control surface). Again, I do not know the details of the PAK-FA's design, I am just speaking to my understanding of how things are usually done.