Interesting video for a civi

[mad_jock]

Military Launches Gone Horribly Wrong - YouTube

Got sent the link by a mate.

The engineer inside of me is quite interested in what was going wrong.

[Wander00]

The human in me hope a few guys managed to eject

[NutLoose]

They did Wander, see

F-18 hits A-4 chase plane with bomb|F-16|Forum :: F-16.net (http://www.f-16.net/f-16_forum_viewtopic-t-11190.html)

[mad_jock]

Sorry I had presumed they all had as well and it was test flight footage which wouldn't have been public if there was a fatality.

[smujsmith]

Blimey, thank god they got out. It's something that never occurred to me, being a simple ex GE, do these "imbalanced" weapon releases happen often? I'm sure some ex F4, Harrier and Jag drivers must have seen this in service ?

[Wander00]

Very pleased about that. Thanks

W

[Pontius Navigator]

Yes, they do.

Valiant, dropping the 10,000lb Blue Danube. Followed by the bomb aimer saying "It's coming back", or words to that effect.

F4M firing Sparrow from IIRC Stn 4, it departed vertically in front of the starboard wing.

Oh, and a Vulcan doing an emergency safe jettison, level 250 kts, 500 feet. The bomb made 490 feet on the first bounce.

Oh and another Vulcan, Mk 1 at Boscombe this time, dropped 21x1000lbs. Only problem was the bomb doors were shut at the time.

[lightningmate]

Early Canberra days before the Bomb Bay High-Speed Deflector was fitted, 6 x 1000lb Bombs wriggling around inside the Bomb Bay refusing to come out after being released.

Range Safety Trace was busted somewhat that day!

lm

[smujsmith]

Aahhh, blokes, that's just frightening to hear. I'm not taking the proverbial, it's simply something that never occurred to me. I did all the Aerodynamic studies at Halton as an Apprentice, we even had to learn how to work out ballistic curves for bomb release etc. but never did anyone say this sort of stuff happened. I spent most of my career on training aircraft, or transport. The Hercs tended to throw people, or great lumps of stuff out of the back, no chance it could return. Maybe I needed to get around a bit more. Could be a good subject for a thread though, "The ones that wouldn't go away".:eek:

Smudge

[safetypee]

F4M Sparrow launch had a slow cordite generator burn / late motor ignition. Fell below and to the rear of the aircraft; motor lit and missile flew between the tail and wing, over the wing next to the cockpit.

G90 film (from the engine intake) of a Lightning launching a nose pack of ‘unguided’ 2” rockets, where a few ‘twirled’, which the aircraft then overtook.

Early Firestreak launch attempt from a Lightning resulted in the missile controls unlocking but without motor ignition. The missile attempted to guide the Lightning to the target with large control deflections – canard control.

[Fox3WheresMyBanana]

Even the simple dumb bullet causes problems. A mate of mine on the TWU course ahead of mine had a dive strafe ricochet come back through the side window, rattle around the cockpit and end up under his seat. The trick, of course, is remembering to pull out as you discover you've shot yourself. Some harrier pilots have not been so lucky...

[ExAscoteer]

The Hercs tended to throw people, or great lumps of stuff out of the back, no chance it could return.Are you sure about that Smudge?

It's one of the reasons ULLA was binned - the risk of knocking the tail off.

[onetrack]

That's your "lowest bid", military subcontractors at work. :(

I'll wager 90% of the failures were assembly errors, caused by inadequate supervision and poor assembly procedures.

[dat581]

I'm pretty sure one of the FSD F-14s was lost due to an unarmed AIM-54 pitching up to soon after it was launched and striking the underside of the jet. To a layman it sounds a little over the top until you think that it's the equivalent of a Volkswagen Beetle with a large rocket attached hitting the aircraft.

I do wonder what was said to the bomb loaders for that F-18 when the double ejector rack decided to leave with the 500lb bombs. I bet the Skyhawk pilot didn't have to buy beers for a long time.

[Pontius]

A mate of mine on the TWU course ahead of mine had a dive strafe ricochet come back through the side window, rattle around the cockpit and end up under his seat.

Did he go on to fly the Phantom, F3? Could be a mutual friend we have.

[ancientaviator62]

ExAscoteer,
I did a lot of ULLA drops when I was at JATE and have no recollection
of any of the platforms getting anywhere near the control services. I understand that ULLA was binned because of the cost of training the crews and the currency requirement. ULLA was limited in the type of store you could drop but ar 42000lbs per pass (triple ULLA , 3X14000LBS per platform) it was an effective way to deliver these stores. I understand the that it saw limited use in GW1.

[smujsmith]

ExAscoteer,

Well, I never saw an ULLA drop whilst on Albert so cannot comment. I did see quite a few MSP, Double MSPs etc, and boy didnt they used to zip out the back :eek: And,of course, both MFF and Static line jumping. I also remember the AD lads throwing jerry cans of water from the para doors, low level in Scotland. I believe to simulate SF re supply. Now that did look a bit dodgy.

But I have to say, a fast jet being hit by its own missile is frightening. Likewise the OPs original incident. Much respect to the fast jet drivers:ok:

Smudge

[Fox3WheresMyBanana]

Pontius,
no, Buccaneer - only RAF FJ without a gun at the time; very sensible considering!


Didn't the Harrier GR5 have some trials 'fun'? ISTR a full stores jettison causing all the bombs to collide about 20 ft below the a/c. Might have been the original jettison charges on the new wing causing more wing 'up' than bomb 'down'. Happy to be corrected.

[dragartist]

I'm with ancient aviator. Not much danger with ULLA knocking the tail off. During extraction at least. Of the 4 ULLA drops I have on film all are maldrops. perhaps as PN mentions about aborting a bomb at 500 ft and it bouncing up 490 ft. this could be a possibility with ULLA when dropped too high and the extraction bridle snapped.

More danger of MSP knocking the tail off. As almost happened at JADTEU not many years back. What's worse is that they did not realise for two weeks when the damage to the aircraft was spotted during servicing.

Good to see how much effort is being put into understanding weapons release in the tunnels and CFD at ARA Bedford. Would have loved to have employed these folks to study airdrop as some of our loads were quite close.

[Plastic Bonsai]

F3: Didn't the Harrier GR5 have some trials 'fun'? ISTR a full stores jettison causing...

The carbon fibre wing was very flexible, in some releases the store stayed where it was and the wing/pylon moved up and then down and "dribbled" the store basketball style for several oscillations. After quite a few drops BAe Brough's CFD section were called in and they came up with ejector throttle settings that would give a clean release.

They had honed their techniques on a Bucc test release of a JP233 container that reared up, hit the wing leading edge, slid to the end and took off the pitot. Aircraft landed without a problem.

[BOAC]

I seem to recall a lucky chap had one of two concrete 1000lb'er hang on a shallow dive bombing run in a Harrier. After his aerobatics entry I think we went to c/line carriage only.........................

[ancientaviator62]

dragartist,
any chance of posting the ULLA films ? I was on the JATE maldrop when the MSP clipped the 'ducksbill' at the back of the a/c as it departed the a/c. And yes I had several ULLA maldrops (and of other drops) but this is of course par for the course on any trial.

[dragartist]

check your pms. Not sure if Ex Ascoteer and smudge wish to pm me
drag

[ancientaviator62]

dragartist,
got your PM thanks and have tried to reply but not sure if it has worked. Please let me know.