The Need For Speed

[schlamm]

*

[LordMuck]

i must rule myself outta this, since I've been cheating by spending the last twenty minutes on f16.net, and I'm more bewildered than when I started.
Gee golly; the Viper- It's like Megadeath meets Accesorise for blokes.
AMRAAM's? I didn't know you could stick 'em out there.
Just a random thought: Do IRIAF pilots who get capped by an ASRAAM still get their seventy-two raisins, or do they get stoned like everbody else (e.g. women)?
Say it out loud. Never in the field of human conflict has so much amusement been created by bean-counters, by so many ordinary joes, to the eternal detriment of so many schmucks.

[Mynock]

The A-10 makes me feel kind of philosophical. Is it a plane with a big-ass gun attached to it or is it a big-ass gun with a plane attached to it?
Even if you think it's ugly (personally I like it) you gotta' respect the Gau 8 Avenger poking out of it's nose....
I love the video below. The barrels are cut off but you have a real nice view of the of the shells blurring as they're fed into that beast. Firing rate is somewhere in the vicinity of 70 rounds a second.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sALiuWg_I1k

[kham]

This pic pretty much covers it

[water_bug_62208]

SR-71 Airshow arrival, 1983

A wee bit dated maybe, but still a good one

Might be dated, but it's still MOST IMPRESIVE!

A supervisor once told me he use to watch the SR-71 land at the base he was assigned. The pilot would plan his landing approach 100 miles out. He said there was a REALLY souped-up Trans Am sitting at the start of the runway with an enlisted troop at the wheel and an SR-71 pilot riding shotgun. Due to the steep angle of attack that the pilot had to elevate the plane to slow it down as well as maintain sufficient lift, he couldn't see the runway to judge where the pavement was. So, when the aircraft was a certain distance out, the enlisted troop would start dashing down the runway while the pilot in the passenger seat radio the distance the aircraft was from the ground to the Blackbird pilot. The enlisted troop would be flooring the car to its max and, if everything was planned just right, the car would be within close proximity to the Blackbird as it touched down.

And ,for the Friday night lighter side....

Bumpy Landing
Y'know, I think I have never landed that bad in a sim

Wow! Don't know if the pilot was caught offguard by a change in the wind or not paying attention, but that still was a good recovery.

Thanks for sharing!

[kham]

Considering that the whole project was done in the slide-rule era, it makes you just shake your head at these guys

Yeah , the weather was a factor apparently -- not sure why he didnt go around, but maybe was too close-in. I do know one commenter said 'he handled it like a dirt bike' Yeah, would have loved to see the expressions de-planing there...

Lex visits the Miramar Airshow some interesting comments on the F-22 there -- will try and post that vid tomorrow, there is no link to it

[water_bug_62208]

The A-10 makes me feel kind of philosophical. Is it a plane with a big-ass gun attached to it or is it a big-ass gun with a plane attached to it?
Even if you think it's ugly (personally I like it) you gotta' respect the Gau 8 Avenger poking out of it's nose....
I love the video below. The barrels are cut off but you have a real nice view of the of the shells blurring as they're fed into that beast. Firing rate is somewhere in the vicinity of 70 rounds a second.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sALiuWg_I1k

As Kham noted, the gun came first and the A-10 was built around it.

I had a chance to talk to an A-10 pilot once. He noted how the aircraft would actually slow a bit when he fired the GAU 8. He also noted that the gun is empty at all times. When he squeezes the trigger, the barrels spin, load then fire. All of the spent casings are dumped into a storage drum versus being expelled from the aircraft. That's because the aircraft confirgured to be nose-heavy with the gun and when fully loaded with ammunition. If they were to expel the spent casings, the aircraft would become so light up front that it would be unstable. So, the spent casings are kept to help maintain the aircraft's balance. He also said that once he releases the trigger, the barrels spin in reverse to cool as well as eject the unused rounds into the storage drum.

The A-10 pilot noted that he carried both depleted unranium (DU) rounds and incinerary rounds. With the DU rounds he could "Swiss cheese" anything on the battlefield. With the incinerary rounds he could set mud on fire. Should a tank he was firing upon have sufficient armored thickness to resist penetration (unlikely), he said the kenetic energy from the impacting rounds would transfer through the armor, cause the inside of the armor to become molten, and shoot out like large shotgun pellets inside the tank. Even if that didn't happen, he said the rounds are hitting so hard that something is going to break.

Gotta love an aircraft that can dish out tremendous amounts of punishment and be able to take it, too... and still fly back home with large portions of the airframe and and control surfaces shot away.

[water_bug_62208]

Considering that the whole project was done in the slide-rule era, it makes you just shake your head at these guys

Yeah , the weather was a factor apparently -- not sure why he didnt go around, but maybe was too close-in. I do know one commenter said 'he handled it like a dirt bike' Yeah, would have loved to see the expressions de-planing there...

Lex visits the Miramar Airshow some interesting comments on the F-22 there -- will try and post that vid tomorrow, there is no link to it

Nice! Thanks for sharing!

[kham]

And consider the Cap'n 's last assignment was CO at Topgun -- so he seen a bit

[DangerGirl]

excellent eye Mr Edwards, you are indeed correct.
Unusual placement, the AIM-9L's usually occupy that position with the AMRAAM's hung on under wing pylons, reversed on this particular '16 for whatever reason

Wingtip-mounted AIM-120s is pretty much the standard configuration for the later-block F-16s, which have the dual-rail wingtip launchers. Aerodynamically, it just works out better having the 120s on stations 1 and 9, and the AIM-9s on stations 2 and 8.