Why Airbus or Boeing not planning Concorde like planes?? (jet)
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
The flying tube pilot was skilled and lucky. Other incidents have had less positive results, and some, such as the Air Transat that landed in the Azores, or the Air Canada "Gimli Glider" fared well. All a matter of luck. (I personally have performed two gliding landings, one from an engine that came apart, one after a compressor stall during a functional check flight. Both cases the engine continued to run but provided no usable thrust, better than a seized or windmilling engine. Both cases I was perfectly set up to succeed... I know some F-16 pilots who were not and are card-carrying members of the Caterpillar Club.)
In those three instances, some of the luck involved was that in each case the aircraft was being piloted by someone who was an experienced glider pilot.
This video may interest you - RDAF F-16 pilot took off, and the main landing gear strut (there's probably a more correct term) parted from its mounting point inside the wheel well. As it turned out, no one could predict how (if) a landing would work with a yard or so of metal dragging from the left main landing gear - metal that was presumably needed to keep the plane upright. Some attempts at negative-g maneuvers to force the wheel back didn't work.
So the decision was to have the pilot ditch. Over the friggin' North Sea. The rest of the video, sadly, is mostly the pilot telling what happened in Danish - with subtitles, but I know it's not everybody's cuppa.
Luckily, there was time to bring an RDAF Air/Sea rescue helicopter on to the scene before the pilot ejected, and time elapsed from pulling the ejection handle to pilot-in-helicopter was less than six minutes, which I - as a layman - think is fairly decent.
The bottom line is that it doesn't really change the experience of travel for the customer that much. It's more important to have a nonstop from San Francisco to Chengdu China (for instance) and avoid the layover in Seoul or Tokyo than it is to have a faster plane. It's more profitable for an airline to give away expensive food and drinks, and then charge 10X as much for the seat.
The Gulfstream G650 has a cruise speed of Mach 0.85 to 0.90, with maximum speed of Mach 0.925 and a range of up to 7,000 nmi (13,000 km). It can be equipped with a full kitchen and bar and may be equipped with a variety of entertainment features including satellite phones and wireless Internet. The cabin is 8 feet 6 inches wide and 6 feet 5 inches high, allowing the craft to be configured to carry between 11 and 18 passengers.
The next civilian supersonic aircraft will be in the G650 tradition, and not in that of the Concorde with 100 passengers.
This video may interest you - RDAF F-16 pilot took off, and the main landing gear strut (there's probably a more correct term) parted from its mounting point inside the wheel well. As it turned out, no one could predict how (if) a landing would work with a yard or so of metal dragging from the left main landing gear - metal that was presumably needed to keep the plane upright. Some attempts at negative-g maneuvers to force the wheel back didn't work.
So the decision was to have the pilot ditch. Over the friggin' North Sea. The rest of the video, sadly, is mostly the pilot telling what happened in Danish - with subtitles, but I know it's not everybody's cuppa.
Luckily, there was time to bring an RDAF Air/Sea rescue helicopter on to the scene before the pilot ejected, and time elapsed from pulling the ejection handle to pilot-in-helicopter was less than six minutes, which I - as a layman - think is fairly decent.
The F-16 Dash One (flight manual) checklist has an extensive procedure if one or more landing gear do not extend, or partially extend but are not locked. In the case above, it would fall into the Approach End Arrestment (F-16s have a tail hook, believe it or not) requirement, and if none is available, then the step listed states "15. b. RECOMMEND EJECTION IF EXTERNAL FUEL TANK(S) IS NOT CARRIED OR IF CONDITIONS ARE NOT CONSIDERED FAVORABLE FOR AN ATTEMPTED LANDING WITH EXTERNAL FUEL TANKS(S)". The F-16 may "break" right behind the cockpit in certain off-runway situations, which would invariably prove fatal to the pilot. So ejection is sometimes the preferred procedure, or a gear-up landing.
Having SAR on-scene is great, beats floating in the cold in a raft for an hour.
The F-16 Dash One (flight manual) checklist has an extensive procedure if one or more landing gear do not extend, or partially extend but are not locked. In the case above, it would fall into the Approach End Arrestment (F-16s have a tail hook, believe it or not) requirement, and if none is available, then the step listed states "15. b. RECOMMEND EJECTION IF EXTERNAL FUEL TANK(S) IS NOT CARRIED OR IF CONDITIONS ARE NOT CONSIDERED FAVORABLE FOR AN ATTEMPTED LANDING WITH EXTERNAL FUEL TANKS(S)". The F-16 may "break" right behind the cockpit in certain off-runway situations, which would invariably prove fatal to the pilot. So ejection is sometimes the preferred procedure, or a gear-up landing.
Having SAR on-scene is great, beats floating in the cold in a raft for an hour.
So, it is safer to land an F-16 partially wheels up with an external fuel tank attached? I guess that sort of makes sense, the external tank would keep the plane more nearly level and keep the drag forces from the ground more or less centralized, as opposed to getting a wingtip down and probably then spin.
I would think the tank needs to be empty or nearly empty to do this, no?
We are learning a lot of interesting and arcane stuff from you, Sluggo! Thanks!
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
