1

YSFlight Aircraft Performance Analysis:

Calculating Weapon Weights
By: Decaff 42

AbstractFor some weapons, their weight is well known, or

extremely obvious. How much does a 500 pound bomb weigh?
Why, 500 pounds. But for other weapons, it is not as clear
what they weigh. By utilizing thrust vectoring and the climb
rate instrumentation on the complex HUD in YSFlight, we can
determine the weight of other weapons.

I. I NTRODUCTION
There are many variables in the YSFlight DAT file which
effect how the aircraft performs in YSFlight. In order to
understand how the weapon load of an aircraft will effect the
hover performance of the F-35B, testing needs to be conducted
in order to determine how much each weapon weighs. This
information is hard-coded into the YSFlight program, but with
careful observation and some basic math, their weights can be
determined.

A. Variables to Consider & Eliminate

As demonstrated in other lines of YSFlight Aircraft Performance testing, altitude can have an impact on speed and
thus throttle settings. While perhaps not strictly necessary,
conducting the testing in a constant altitude band will eliminate
any possibility of effect due to altitude. Furthermore, since
this testing is to be done in the hover, no appreciable forward
or backward velocity should be maintained. By looking at
the shadow of the aircraft on the ground it is possible to
determine if the aircraft needs to be adjusted to correct for
drift. With the F-35B, the nozzles can be directed straight
down or slightly forward or aft to either maintain or correct
over ground position changes. DAT File parameters have been
chosen such that the aircraft can be easily controlled in pitch
and yaw (for small angles) while in the hover. Thus the aircraft
can maintain a perfectly level orientation, keeping the thrust
vector from the aircraft perfectly vertical and reducing the net
vertical component of the thrust force.

II. T ESTING M ETHODOLOGY

The goal of this series of test flights is to determine
the weight of various weapons. This can be determined by
knowing the thrust, empty weight and fuel weight of the
aircraft and finding at what fuel state the aircraft can maintain
a hover at full military power while carrying certain weapons,
the following equation can be used to calculate the weight of
the weapons themselves.
WW eapons = TM ilitary WEmpty WF uel

(1)

While this experiment could theoretically be done at full

afterburning thrust, there are several reasons to choose military
thrust.

In order to find the maximum military power hover fuel

state, the aircraft must start heavier than military power
can hold in the air. Thus the aircraft will fall slowly when
attempting to hover prior to reaching the right fuel state.
To maintain the altitude test band, the aircraft must
alternate between falling and climbing, all the while with
zero or negligible ground speed (<5 knots).
Going from Military to Max thrust is as simple as
toggling a key, and thus the altitude can be maintained
by cycling between military and max thrust.
From an operational perspective, few if any STOVL aircraft have afterburner capability while in STOVL Mode.
It is assumed that the F-35B does not use afterburner
while in STOVL Mode.

B. Test Procedure
Each test flight is conducted as a unique simulation, starting
from the same start position. By starting with approximately
5 percent more fuel than needed for a hover, a Short Take
Off (STO) can be accomplished to minimize lateral speed
throughout the flight and the test altitude of 1500-2000
feet can be achieved with very little fuel burn while not in
afterburner.
Once in the altitude band, the aircraft is slowed to zero
ground speed using thrust vectoring, pitch up orientation,
flaps and speed brakes. Using speed brake throughout the
testing adds additional resistance to any accelerations due to
incorrect aircraft orientation.
Cycling between afterburner and military power, position is
maintained over the ground while slowly climbing and falling
within the altitude test band. When the fuel state begins to
approach the hover envelope for military power, the g load on
the aircraft will transition from 0.99 to 1.00 while in military
power.
When looking at the climb rate indicator, the moment
when the aircraft enters the hover envelope is when the climb
rate turns from a descending value to an ascending number.
It doesnt matter if the number is positive or negative, but the
closer to 0 it is the more accurate the fuel state result will be.

The moment the climb rate indicator shows a constant

value for a few seconds, pause the simulation and change
the HUD from complex to simple. This will provide a two
decimal place fuel state value.
Record this value and the weapons load.

TABLE II
C ALCULATED W EAPON W EIGHTS
WEAPON
AIM-9
AIM-9X
AIM-120
B250
B500
AGM
FUEL TANK

WEIGHT (LB)
200
200
275
250
500
600
300

III. T ESTING
While equation 1 can be used to calculate a theoretical
fuel state at which the aircraft can hover in military power
with no weapons, it needs to be verified. Without verification
of the equation, then there will be too much variation to
easily extrapolate weapon weights. The baseline test with no
weapons, provided a maximum fuel state of 39.3 percent, or
just under 5190 pounds of fuel. The equation predicted 5200
pounds of fuel, meaning that the testing method provided
data that was only 0.03 percent different in gross weight as
calculated with the fuel state and known DAT file parameters
compared to the theoretical value. Error for other data points
rose to as high as 0.14 percent, but this is a negligible amount.

IV. R ESULTS
Table I shows the result from this line of testing, sorted by
fuel state in percent. As expected, the baseline test has the
most fuel as there are no weapons. The one surprise result
was the Air-to-Ground missile weighed 600 pounds.
TABLE I
F-35 T ESTED W EAPONS L OADS & H OVER F UEL S TATE
Fuel
(%)

AIM-9
AIM-9X

AIM-120
Meteor

B250

B500
B500HD

39.3
36
34.6
32.1
31.7
31.6
27.1
24.6
21.1
17
13.7
3

0
2
0
2
0
0
0
2
0
2
2
0

0
0
0
2
0
0
2
2
0
2
2
0

0
0
0
0
4
0
4
4
0
8
0
0

0
0
0
0
0
2
0
0
0
0
0
0

AGM-88E
AGM-154
Brimstone
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
4
0
4
0

Tank
0
0
2
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0

By looking at the difference between the baseline test, and

seeing what weapons were added, it is possible to approximate
the weight of the weapons added in each test point. By adding
more than one weapon (For example, two AIM-9s, or four
B250s) it is possible to reduce the error per weapon and
obtain a better weight value. While real weapons would weight
whatever they weight, it can safely be assumed that YSFlight
weapons have round numbers for weights, for simplicity if
nothing else.

Table II shows the calculated weapon weights for the

different weapon classes. The fuel tank weight is the empty
weight of the tank. Any fuel in the tanks needs to be accounted
for separately as part of the remaining fuel on the aircraft.
R EFERENCES
[1] Waspe414, [Request] .yfs file parameters, 25 August 2015. https:
//forum.ysfhq.com/viewtopic.php?t=8007#p90235
[2] Midnight Rambler et all, .DAT Variables. https://forum.ysfhq.com/
viewtopic.php?t=1772