Forum: Mishaps

You folks may have seen this, if so - sorry, if not - enjoy!

http://www.sonnyradio.com/F15.wmv

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Great airplanes!!!!

My time working and managing the F-15 C/D (493rd FS - USAFE) and E (492nd FS) - USAFE was Special for me, I loved it, had some great TDY's with the aircraft too.

Strong as an Ox too or so it seems Smile

Great flying by this pilot - no doubt about it.

Forum Veteran Joined: Dec 15, 2006 - 12:28 AM Posts: 760

F-15 Eagle Spatial (Spacial) Disorientation: World Record G?
http://youtube.com/watch?v=_-adcRA3u8Q

The next short clip shows the cockpit/HUD view From an F-15 that the pilot became spatially disoriented. If I remember correctly it was broad daylight in clear visibility, a mitigating factor is the color of the sky and seas that day were very similar.

The fact the F-15 held together and was able to land safely is a testament of its durability. I can't remember exactly but it sustained like 15-20 Gs for about 2-3 seconds. For a fraction of a second it pulled something like 30-40 Gs. It held together but the wing skin had crinkled (technical term j/k) because the airframe was bent so badly. Unfortunately I have no external views. It pulled so many Gs that the tape pulled off the recorder head and lost sync for a bit, so the tape misses the highest G.

I think this might be the worlds record for the most Gs a manned airplane has pulled and landed safely.

As far as I know it was the most Gs a piloted aircraft ever pulled and was able to return safely (though the plane was badly damaged).

If anyone knows how many Gs this plane pulled let me know if you can. I would really love to see any after photos of the plane documenting the damage and the G data from the flight recorder from this mishap. If it’s public info.

After kissing the F-15 and the ground(for either incident, moreso for the second one though), I would have been off to find myself a fifth of Stoli Elit real fast. Bozhemoi!!! Shocked

I'm pretty sure that video is of Maj Gen Nick Kehoe (ret). He was the 19AF/CC back around '95, and I flew with him once: I remember he talked about it.

Always amazes me, every time I see this, or read about it. I would fly through Hell in a gasoline suit with that man. Amazing display of airmanship and flying abilities. Superior Israeli training and a little good luck played a major part in this story ending on a happy note. Somebody was definitely looking out after those guys that day. I can assure you that there were no atheists in that cockpit!

After the incident, the IAF wrote McAir, and asked them what the chances were of losing a wing, and being able to recover the jet. McAir wrote back and stated that the wind tunnel and computer models showed that this configuration was aerodynamically impossible. After receiving their reply, the IAF sent McAir the pictures of that jet.

BTW, that jet is still flying with the IAF, and has IIRC, 6 AA kills to its credit. As an additional post script, the A-4 pilot did eject from his aircraft, and lived to fly another day.

Actually, because of that incident McDonnell Douglas came up with some kind of battle damage control system software to help compensate for such occurences in the future. Then again, they may have dropped it- but I did read about them working on it a while back.

I believe they did incorporate something of that nature Stoli. In this instance, it just goes to show that if you put enough thrust behind something, it WILL fly.

Funny you say that- I have a Patch with a cartoon SR-71 on it and it says above and below it with the red logo behind:

Pratt and Whitney

In Thrust We Trust

Good stuff, eh? Cool

You are all going to think I'm nuts, but I am not convinced the F-15 wing was lost in a mid-air collision. I have no evidence to back up what I'm saying, just a well-developed BS detector.

Remember the old cold war joke about Russia ordering a case of condoms from America? The condoms were extra large, but the box was labeled "Small". What if the Israelis decided to impress their enemies with this classic big brass ones story, by taking advantage a ground collision.

It is highly unlikely (but maybe not impossible) for the pilot to regain control of a one-wing airplane, then be able to land it successfully. Are there any photos or movies of the flying airplane? Was the wing recovered near the collision site? How was hydraulic pressure maintained after system A & B were torn away with the wing? (I know about isolation valves.) Is there any flight recorder data?

The .wmv file in-flight shots are pure fake. At 2:05 the wingman inspects the airplane and doesn't tell the pilot the wing is missing? At 2:07 the fuel spray is clearly fake. At 2:41 the missing wing appears to be cleanly broken off in a straight line, when it is very jagged at 4:03. The landing shot at 3:27 is also clearly fake. There the airplane about to touch down, left flap down, no roll deflection in the tails, no rudder deflection, no sideslip angle. No question the airplane would be rolling hard right. Also no tail hook down, when the pilot stated it was down. So there is no evidence that the airplane actually flew with one wing.

I'm not saying it was a hoax, but I do have my suspicions.

One more question. Why does this event (if it really happened) prove that the F-15 is strong?

I don't know that there is any real footage of the event. The shots in the video are probably CGI, which I thought was pretty good, even though you can tell it's fake. The cockpit/landing shots are probably spliced and edited from other footage.

For prop planes, it is possible to land like in this video, even without the high T/W that the model probably has.

It is unquestionably more complex in planes like the F-15, where high speeds (as noted in the F-15 video) are probably necessary to generate the forces to land in that fashion.

No need to be suspicious John. It REALLY happened. Of course the video is fake. That's why there's a Hitler Channel, er History Channel logo underneath.

There is no known aerial footage of the mishap that has been released, just like you haven't seen HUD footage from virtually any other IAF mission, as just about everything they do is of a clandestine nature, and for good reason. The IAF doesn't even identify active duty pilots.

We aren't talking about something that happened in the span of a Hollywood feature. The mishap and the ensuing landing happened within a span of a few minutes. They hit the Skyhawk, lit the burners, rolled out, and flew to the runway, which was about 10 miles away. Dunno if you've ever been in a bird with the pipes lit, but from personal experience, I can assure you, that you can put 10 miles behind you PDQ in blower!

Take a look under the jet, and you can see where they ripped the tailhook off of the jet trying to catch the barrier.

Remember, the Eagle also has an FBW backup to the hydraulic flight control system, designed to compensate for loss of hydraulic pressure.

Also, Israel is constantly at war. The IAF always maintains an alert posture, and with limited numbers, they need every available aircraft that they can possibly have at one time. Would they risk losing their top MiG killer, just to orchestrate some publicity stunt?

The chances of that are Slim and None, and Slim just left town.

Of course they wouldn't orchestrate it, but what I said was maybe they took advantage of a ground collision. OK, you say it really happened. How do you know that? Give us the proof. I am not saying it didn't happen, only that I have never seen any proof.

So the airplane has a FBW backup system to compensate for loss of hydraulics? What magical force moves the control surfaces? Are you telling me it has backup electrical actuators? Right.

I remain skeptical.

Just curious if you think we landed on the moon or not?

There is no proof right?

Forum: Mishaps

Who stated the F-15 Isn't Strong