Jettison able pylon

Military aircraft - Post cold war aircraft, including for example B-2, Gripen, F-18E/F Super Hornet, Rafale, and Typhoon.
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by eloise » 26 Apr 2015, 18:24

I used to think F-22 is the only aircraft that can jettison it's own pylon when necessary, and it can only do that with the external fuel tank because the tank and the pylon was designed as one piece to be dropped together
Image
However I just recently stumbled on this thead :
http://www.militaryphotos.net/forums/ar ... 41182.html
and here is what they said
Not seen everything yet then :) from the manual
http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=8nXr ... ER&f=false

Double hit on selective jettison will drop the TER as well. Emergency Jettison will drop everything pylons 1-7.
I see one maybe two tanks and a TER

Interesting, not worked with F16 before. However, yes TERs can be jettisoned, as can pylons containing ERUs. The question, as I interpreted it anyway, was could a bomb and the ERU be jettisoned together, which isn't possible as the ERU is bolted into the TER or pylon. Perhaps I was being too pedantic/specific

so according to what they said F-16 can also jettison it's whole pylon, and it can even jettison pylon that connected to bomb racks ( TER)
. Can anyone here confirm that?, is that true that F-16 can drop all of it's pylon in emergency situations. ? , is that capabilities unique to F-16 or all other fighter can do that? btw what is ERUs?


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by basher54321 » 26 Apr 2015, 19:18

On the F-16 the pylons do jettison with the 370 Gal tanks like the F-22 above.

This is not the case with the 600 Gal tanks or the 300 Gal tanks where the pylons stay

TER/BRU-57 are jettisoned AFAIK - but the MAU type pylon they attach to stays.


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by eloise » 26 Apr 2015, 19:34

basher54321 wrote:TER/BRU-57 are jettisoned AFAIK - but the MAU type pylon they attach to stays.

so basically for example in the pictures below : the horizontal BRU-57 rack can be jettison but the vertical trapezium pylon cant be jettison .?
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Can something like MER, BRU-61 or the double missiles rack on F-18 be jettison?


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by KamenRiderBlade » 26 Apr 2015, 19:38

BTW, how much does a pylon cost?


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by basher54321 » 26 Apr 2015, 19:58

eloise wrote:
basher54321 wrote:TER/BRU-57 are jettisoned AFAIK - but the MAU type pylon they attach to stays.


so basically for example in the pictures below : the horizontal BRU-57 rack can be jettison but the vertical trapezium pylon cant be jettison .?



Yes exactly - someone would need to chime in whether the MAU-12 pylon can actually be jettisoned or whether a cartridge is just not installed for example.

The Danish F-16AMs have AG pylons with internal jammers etc - so you wouldn't want to ditch those.


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by basher54321 » 26 Apr 2015, 20:11

KamenRiderBlade wrote:BTW, how much does a pylon cost?


Although they create extra drag its unlikely to be worth jettisoning them in most cases. Today with A-G stores/pods and AIM-120s can engage at standoff range if ever required for A-A.


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by johnwill » 26 Apr 2015, 21:08

The F-16 pylon containing a MAU-12 ejector rack (or more recent equivalent) is called a weapon pylon and cannot be jettisoned. There is no ejection mechanism, and the pylon is bolted directly to the wing. With a cartridge installed in the MAU, anything below the ejector rack can be jettisoned. For example, ECM pods are installed without cartridges, so cannot be jettisoned. Auxiliary racks like LAU, TER, MER, etc can be jettisoned.

About terminology - jettison is either selective or emergency, ejection is dropping on a target. Selective, as it is implied, allows the pilot to select which items to jettison. Emergency is a one-button push that clears the wings of all jettisonable stores. There is no flight test verification of emergency jettison capability, so due to the possibility of store collisions, it is limited to 200 kt. airspeed. It is designed to be used right after takeoff or just before landing, following some kind of emergency condition, like engine failure.


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by mrigdon » 26 Apr 2015, 21:15

KamenRiderBlade wrote:BTW, how much does a pylon cost?


Drop tanks cost tens of thousands. They have a lot more steel than a pylon, but they don't need the same amount of wiring. A pylon holding a missile or bomb needs all sorts of wiring to interface with the jet. Doesn't seem anyone knows the breakdown (I once found an article about a drop tank contract, but I doubt there's separate pylon contracts, someone can correct me), but a pylon might not be much cheaper than a drop tank.


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by eloise » 27 Apr 2015, 04:04

basher54321 wrote:Although they create extra drag its unlikely to be worth jettisoning them in most cases. Today with A-G stores/pods and AIM-120s can engage at standoff range if ever required for A-A.

I was thinking that jettison the whole pylon could be a useful ability for F-22, f-35 to have to regain their stealth when necessary
anyway thanks everyone for your answer :D


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by basher54321 » 28 Apr 2015, 00:04

johnwill wrote:The F-16 pylon containing a MAU-12 ejector rack (or more recent equivalent) is called a weapon pylon and cannot be jettisoned. There is no ejection mechanism, and the pylon is bolted directly to the wing. With a cartridge installed in the MAU, anything below the ejector rack can be jettisoned. For example, ECM pods are installed without cartridges, so cannot be jettisoned. Auxiliary racks like LAU, TER, MER, etc can be jettisoned.



thanks John



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