People are idiots - unsafe idiots. Photographic evidence inside!
- Thread starter Guden Oden
- Start date
http://safetycenter.navy.mil/photo/images/images-201-250/photo208.jpg
The only thing that could make that a better picture would be the faint glimpse of a shark fin approaching it from the distance.
The only thing that could make that a better picture would be the faint glimpse of a shark fin approaching it from the distance.
Guden Oden said:
I love that site. But most of those pics are pretty mild.
This is my very own picture. I've got a Powerpoint Saftey presentation that has the full story along with about a dozen pics of the incident.
http://www.mozeyoninn.com/Aircraft/Murphy/Donut/AF002.jpg
It's amazing that I posted that picture one time on a forum, and now it's on probably 200-300 web sites.
Uhhhmmm...Powderkeg said:
Did the car collide with the plane, or the other way around
Guden Oden said:Uhhhmmm...
Did the car collide with the plane, or the other way around
The car hit the plane. I have no idea what the cop driving it was looking at, but clearly it wasn't where he was going. The incident happend during a joint forces exercise in California
The presentation that the pic comes from was for a flightdeck/airfield safety course. I was in the Navy at the time working in Air Ordinance (Bombs and Missiles). The safety presentation was about being prepared for the unexpected, because you never know what kind of crazy things might happen. It really drove the point home that the unimaginable can happen, and you always have to watch out for hazards when working around $65 Million aircraft, tens of thousands of gallons of jet fuel, and several tons of high explosives.
They ended up having to cut the roof off the car to get it out.
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Cut the roof off? I guess the cruiser was too tightly wedged in that simply deflating the tires wouldn't have done the trick? What about taking the wheels off completely?
Then again, that car was probably a total write-off anyway, might as well cut it up. What were the damages to the plane? I suppose some kind of insurance covered it, if that cop would have to pay for repair himself I guess it would only amount to like 3-12 of his lifetime salaries.
Then again, that car was probably a total write-off anyway, might as well cut it up.
What were the damages to the plane? I suppose some kind of insurance covered it, if that cop would have to pay for repair himself I guess it would only amount to like 3-12 of his lifetime salaries. Guden Oden said:
You've got to be able to jack the car up off the ground to get the wheels off.
Then again, that car was probably a total write-off anyway, might as well cut it up.
Actually other than some really minor denting and scratched paint the plane was unharmed. The plane is armored after all.
I'd rather put the car on a bunch of cinderblocks or such to support it, and then jack the wheel up enough to remove it, but whatever.Powderkeg said:
I bet the cop breathed a sigh of relief.
"Armored" though, isn't that overstating it a bit? Seems to me that skin can't be particulary thick or it would quickly become very heavy... The warthog might qualify as being armored I guess, but a fighter jet?DudeMiester
Regular
Well I know once I was riding my bike and some contractors went by with bits of plastic panelling flying off their car. When we both stopped at the lights, I informed them of this, and they were just like, "Yeah, I know." Didn't even apologise. Idiots.
Guden Oden said:I bet the cop breathed a sigh of relief.
An F-15 weighs about 27,000 lbs (12,250kg) and the back half of the plane is mostly titanium and composite alloys. They don't have the kind of armoring a Warthog would have, but they do have enough that if the plane were hit in the engine with a heat-seeking missile the cockpit and pilot would survive long enough for the pilot to eject.
It wouldn't stop a tank round, but it will stop a police car.
Considering its length and wing span, I don't think that is exceedingly heavy, especially considering just the turbines and afterburners have to weigh at least a [metric] ton each. After all, those things have to withstand 9+ G turns while carrying quite a lot of deadly shit strapped on underneath them...Powderkeg said:
Then I would assume the armoring is actually around the COCKPIT, since a heatseenking missile would easily blast completely through the airframe of the craft, warhead of a typical air-to-air missile being what, a couple kilos of shaped-charge military-grade explosives? No armor (able to fly that is) would be able to stop something like that... Heck, DU autocannon rounds go through jet fighters like they were made of tissue paper.
Speaking of missiles, the phoenixes the F14 carries, isn't that like a 10 kilo warhead? That'd blow an airplane to smithereens.
Not sure if a pilot would be able to eject after such a blast, if he survived at all, chances are he'd be knocked unconscious by the shockwave and plummet to the ground/sea with the rest of the wreckage. Is there some kind of automatic safety system for cases like that?Heh, well, I guess that depends on how fast you drive it.
By the way, was that plane fuelled? One thing I definitely would NOT want to experience EVER is crashing into an airplane and then have thousands of liters of jet fuel start flooding down all over my crashed car, perhaps into the passenger compartment... Gah. Stuff of nightmares that is!How easily does kerosene spark into flame anyway? GAH!
Guden Oden said:
To put it into perspective, the F-15 is about the same size as the Learjet 60, which weighs 14,710 lbs (6,641 kg). In fact, the F-15 weighs more than the Learjet 60 and Learjet 25 combined.
Then I would assume the armoring is actually around the COCKPIT, since a heatseenking missile would easily blast completely through the airframe of the craft, warhead of a typical air-to-air missile being what, a couple kilos of shaped-charge military-grade explosives? No armor (able to fly that is) would be able to stop something like that... Heck, DU autocannon rounds go through jet fighters like they were made of tissue paper.
The cockpit is only lightly armored. The top 1/3rd of the cockpit is glass. The pilots primarily rely on body armor for personal protection.
Cockpits and pilots are very small targets, just about impossible to hit except by chance. Right behind them is several tons of fuel, and several tons of high explosives. You don't want an explosion at the engine (Either by enemy fire or engine failure) causing all of that fuel and weaponry to go off all at once or the pilot would have no chance of surviving.
Speaking of missiles, the phoenixes the F14 carries, isn't that like a 10 kilo warhead? That'd blow an airplane to smithereens.
I haven't been in the Navy since 1993, so I'm not positive if the Phoenix is still in use. The F-14 is being, or has already been completely phased out of service and the Navy doesn't have another plane capable of carrying the Phoenix. (The only other plane that can carry it is the F-111.)
It's designed specifically to shoot down Russian heavy bombers carrying nuclear weapons, which is why it has such a long range (Officially around 150 miles, closer to 300 is the true range). It's not something meant to be used against fighters, as it's big, heavy, and easy to dodged.
Heh, well, I guess that depends on how fast you drive it.
Fortunately is was pretty much empty at the time. It had just been parked from a flight about half an hour before the accident.
It's easier to ignite than gasoline. It's boiling point is only about 130F IIRC, and once it boils from liquid to gas almost any spark can set it off.
mjtdevries
Newcomer
Oh, it can be used against fighers with quite some success...
F14's did that against Dutch F16 fighters. (simulated of course)
But they fired from very close ranges. Something like 2 miles from behind... It is a lot faster than a sidewinder, and that apparantly helped a lot against the F16s.
(And if you can "kill" multiple F16s it cannot be all that easy to dodge)
But I guess it is a bit heavy and expensive to be used as a sidewinder
If the missile has a proximity fuse, the blast - especially if warhead is loaded with shrapnel - might damage the aircraft enough to cause a crash even if it dodges the actual impact...mjtdevries said:
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