Zephyr Net

Absolutley amazing pics of two F-18s that were invloved in a midair and survived...

Truly is a miracle; two heavily damaged aircraft the pilots would have been justified in "punching out" of, but instead they chose to bring the jets in. This endangered their lives but saved the taxpayers about 80 million dollars. What is especially intriguing is in picture 03, notice the radome, radar and all of the avionics equipment, everything, is gone. This created several problems for the pilot: aerodynamics, eventual loss of hydraulics due to loss of fluid, navigation, and probably the most amazing, as the pieces fell away, some debris had to be ingested by the engines (F.O.D.) and he still was able to bring it home. !





The story behind them is : Two F/A-18 Hornets from Top Gun were dog fighting and made a head on pass, just a bit too close. One got home with
part of the left wing and left vertical fin and rudder missing, while the other jet is missing everything forward of the cockpit pressure bulkhead - and is a flying convertible because the canopy is shattered too.

Well I would award those two pilots with a medal for heroism in bringing those birds down without bailing out. They are sure fine pilots to be able to bring those suckers back and at the same time, thats a fine bird to be able to bring back in that condition. I couldn't imagine doing that in an F-16 TBH, maybe an F-14 but not an F-16.

You know one thing, them coming in for landing was a one pass deal. Either they made it or they were going down, especially the one who was running out of hydraulic fluid. LOL maybe HE was an F-14 pilot. They know a lot about loss of hydraulic fluid.

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Centurian

Whatever they flew previously to get their experience, they did a hell of a job... No wonder they are aggressor pilots... The Best of the Best!

I doubt an F-16 would have survived a similar situation as well.

IIRC, the F-16 used a revolutionary (at the time) gn during production, and I'm sure damage like this would fatally screw up its flight characteristics.

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AIM120S - The Electrician

Well, as I understand it, as long as enough of the control surfaces remain intact and are controllable by the fly-by-wire digital systems, the aircraft should remain flyable... to a much higher degree then previous mechanical systems which, when damaged, rely on over control inputs from the pilot and survive or fail reliant upon the experience of each individual pilot in such a cirsumstance...

yeah... the computerized correction is cool.

I'd like to see something fly with barely any aerodynamic capabilities.

If it could get airborne and the computers could correct fast enough, it coudl be done.

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AIM120S - The Electrician

it was called the F-4 Phantom!! lol sorry folks, just had to do it

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Fighting for justice with brains of steel

Let your anger be like the monkey which hides inside the piniata.

I wonder why we used it for so long?

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AIM120S - The Electrician

Because, at the time, it was the best anyone had...

Besides, it proved the fact, that with enough thrust, even a brick will fly!

Hell that brick could take abuse and still RTB safely.

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Centurian

And they lost one for two in combat against lighter, more maneuverable MiGs until tactics were taught to overcome the problems posed by the "Brickness" of the design...

Yeah well whoever thought that removing a gun was a good idea should have been fired and beaten.

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Centurian

F-8 Crusader had guns, didnt use them for Air to Air much, I think they got 1 guns victory in Nam

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Fighting for justice with brains of steel

Let your anger be like the monkey which hides inside the piniata.

Yes it is true that most aircraft did have guns but most were built before the missile mentality sunk in. Good thing they learned their lesson quickly.

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Centurian

During the course of the war, F-105 aircrews downed 27½ MiGs, sharing one with a F-4D Phantom crew. 25 of those kills were achieved with the M-61 internal cannon of the Thud, two with AIM-9 Sidewinder missiles.

The F-8 Crusader achieved 18 confirmed "kills" but only two of these were "gun" kills, the others being missile kills (all AIM-9 Sidewinders and within 2 year span of combat, 1966-68.)