The sound of....

[TwoDeadDogs]

Apologies in advance if this comes across as a stupid question........When air-launched weapons are fired, what do you hear? I ask this because my only experience of same is of podded rifle-calibre machine-guns, in a piston-engined trainer. All I could hear was a faint hammering above the wind noise in the dive. What do you hear, for example, when unguided rockets or AAMs are fired? Or, when in formation, can you hear the weapons of another aircraft being fired?
regards
TDD

[STANDTO]

FREEDOM!!!!!!!!!

[Impiger]

Fired a dozen or so guided (well we thought they would guide) AAM in my time and it is a bit of an anticlimax. For Aim 7 and Skyflash there is a definate clunk as the missile is forced off the airframe but not much afterwards, slight woosh but in an F4 you'd not hear it above cockpit noise and in the F3 it was still quite muted. Sidewinder a bit more firework rocket like but nothing spectacular. In formation I reckon you'd have to be damn close to hear anything although I was formating as photochase when an Aim 7 came off, fired and blew up 1100 feet in front of us. The noise of the pilot's expletives far outdid the noise of the rocket!

Best of the lot is the gun - great noise, vibration through the airframe and .... the smell of cordite fills the cockpit - bloody marvellous - but 6000 rounds a minute takes some beating!

[hyd3failure]

I've fired around a dozen ASM and the sound is the least of yr worries. The fact that you got the thing away is as much a relief.

Press the tit - Silence....click,click noise as the gyro's run up....alnmighty wooooooooooooooooooooooosh as it leaves the rail....and then the most significant noise is from the aircrew as they...go...PHEW....... "TFFT ! at least it got off the rail".

[BEagle]

You never got to hear 'my' Sparrow at Aberporth, Impiger, 'cos you couldn't find the $odding Jindi'! Then the buggers flew us out of the box for the SW attempt - "Firing"..."Firing"...STOP STOP STOP "Bugger!" (In stereo)....

But at least you told Tony-the-Poof that it weren't my fault for once!

:p

[foldingwings]

TV Martel (TVM) vs Buccaneer (Trail Mistico, Aberporth Range, mid-70s)

Not so much the noise but the thrust when a 15ft telegraph pole leaves the ac. Yep, it goes with a loud whoooooooosh as the booster takes it off the rail but the opposite yaw effect had to be experienced (circa 15 degrees if my powers of recollection haven't withered!)

Reminds me of the true story (I was missile chase) of the TVM that decided rather than enter its Terminal Phase (an 8 degree dive towards the 'oggin) it decided to head for the sun! Off it went through 8/8ths clag at about 3000ft straight past the wing of the Leuchars F4 that was angling (all part of the trial programme) to get a CW lock on the missile in flight. Fair made their wives' day when the Phantom crew brought home the soiled underwear! (A true story not apochryphal!)

[BEagle]

OK - pull up a sandbag.

I once heard tell that the biggest near-own-goal was by a Vulcan crew test firing a Blue Steel. Apparently you were supposed to wait for it to fall off, then fly an escape manouevre to avoid the effect of it going BANG in an atomic sort of way. Well, that's what they thought. So, one fine day out of Woomera they decided that they'd let it go, then watch it whoosh off in a cloud of fire and smoke - figuring that as it was only an inert round, it wouldn't be a problem.

So they did just that.

CLUNK! Then nothing seen.

"Where the f*** has it gone?" quoth one of the pilots.

"Dunno, nothing out my side either", said the other.

"What's that noise?" said someone downstairs.

"Noise, what noi.....HOLY $HIT!!" exclaimed the front end as they had a very close view of the black slug racing upwards a few feet in front of them at the speed of heat!

For it seems that when the Blue Tool came off, it went inert whilst various cogs and wheels sorted themselves out, then the blue touchpaper was ignited and a few seconds later it did the 'up' part of its flight. And no-one had told them that the escape manoeuvre was to avoid being hit by the rocket, not to avoid the nuclear megadeath!

[Smoketoomuch]

There's a video of a blue steel launch on the spaceuk.org site (unfortunately it seems down at the moment). It does seem to require a large amount of faith that the missile is going to behave. Missile drops below and behind the Vulcan and then overtakes it once the motor has lit. Certainly didn't seem to be much in the way of avoiding action from the launch aircraft.

[Conan the Librarian]

In fact, Muggins has a copy of this video and it does look to my untrained eye, to be a bit, erm, exciting.. Have just looked at it and am now wondering if this is the footage from the flight BEagle was referring to.

If anyone can host it, or wants a looksee, then please PM me.

[SilsoeSid]

When air-launched weapons are fired, what do you hear?
While acting as safety a/c during a TOW shoot in Poland a few years ago, in 6/8 firings, the only things heard were;




BANG......................................"Rogue!"



;)

[Titan Locked]

The site is back up with the Blue Steel launch ...

http://www.spaceuk.org/videos/bsteel.mpg

Quite bizarre seeing it fall behind then accelerate and overtake (below the Vulcan). No evasive mvr at all!!!

TL

[BEagle]

Yes- that could well be it as the Blue Tool clearly 'undertakes' the Vulcan and then starts to climb...

Blue Steel was before my time, but those even more aged than I asured me that you were supposed to release the thing, then bugger off sharpish lest it rise up and smite thee!

[foldingwings]

Blue Steel

One assumes that since gravity had been invented by then, as it was moving into a rearwards position, it was also dropping away from the ac! So not that fraught really unless it did a snap-up manouevre and winked at the crew on the way past!

OK! OK! Only asking!

[WE Branch Fanatic]

.....and to think there were experiments into firing ballistic missiles from aircraft.

[Gainesy]

Yep, remember the footage of a Minuteman being para-extracted from a C-5 (or C-141?) assuming vertical under the 'chute then firing off. Russians still have a plan to do similar with An-124s for cheap-as-chips sat launches.

[maxburner]

I've just seen the Vulcan video. It seems an act of faith on the part of the crew was required. If the vertical gyro in the auto-pilot was a little dicky, it could have been a very short ride after release.

ASRAAM is quite exciting as it goes. It's vvvvv quick, makes a nice whoosh and disappears into the mddle distance faster than the eye can follow. Great little rocket!