In the XX century, the development of aviation took place most actively. In just one century, mankind has gone from the simplest gliders to the most complex supersonic aircraft. Today we will just talk about the first representatives of Soviet jet aviation, namely, why Soviet aircraft needed some kind of mysterious cone on the nose.
The cone on the nose of Soviet aircraft of the early second half of the 20th century (for example, the Su-17) is a very important structural element. It is called "damping fairing". The main function of this device is to slow down the flow of air flowing at supersonic speed. This, in turn, is necessary so that the power unit of the aircraft can receive a sufficient amount of oxygen during the flight of the machine.
The bottom line is that at supersonic speed, the air flow accelerates to Mach 2-3. This, in turn, leads to a radical reduction in engine power. To prevent this from happening, the cone-shaped fairing on the nose moves forward or moves back, depending on the current speed of the car. Such cones do not have to be placed on the nose of the aircraft. The fairing will be exactly where the engine (or engines) sits.
The cone shape for the fairing was dictated by aerodynamic parameters. In addition, a small radar station was often installed inside the damping fairing. However, later this design solution was abandoned, since the dimensions of the fairings began to be greatly reduced, and the dimensions of the communication equipment remained unchanged.
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Fairings are still in use today, but only on some (usually hypersonic) aircraft. They used this design solution not only in the USSR, but also in other countries. For example, "cones" can be seen on the engines of the American experimental aircraft SR-71.
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A source: https://novate.ru/blogs/190919/51796/