Harrier hijack

[stilton]

Strictly movie / film plot here:



A C5 carrying one or more Harriers is hijacked, the miscreants start them up, depressurize the ‘mother ship’ then open the rear doors


Pointing the stolen Harrier towards this exit they accelerate inside the hold and depart
the aircraft



All of the above is quite possible but then things become problematic, once clear of the C5 the fighter will instantly be ‘immersed’ in
for example a 300 Kias airstream but in a tail first position



Not ideal for retaining control, I used the Harrier in this story so I could put forward the possibility of using nozzle vectoring to assist in stability, on reflection however I don’t think this would make a difference



Even if our Pilot manages to build up 100 knots prior to exit he will still be going backwards at 200 knots in the relative airstream and I doubt the nozzles would have any effect


The other idea is to let they Harrier drop out the back with the engine running and it’s instantly facing the ‘right way’ into the airstream


For the sake of this plot we are disregarding any local aerodynamic interference by the C5



Thoughts ?

[iggy]

Strictly film plot as well:

Before kicking the harriers out use one of the cargo straps around the nose gear, the other tip tied to the rear door/jump door. Don't accelerate the harrier in the cargo hold (enough room to reach 100 kts anyway?), just let it slide out and its own momentum will spin the harrier forward. Use the 300 kias to windmill start the engines and voila!, now you are ready to save the world.

Oh!, and it is stirred, not shaken.

[iggy]

Oh bummer, you beat it to me in the third to last paragraph...

[ShotOne]

It would work better aerodynamically if the Harriers were facing forward to direction of flight (i e. Pushed out backwards) although this may not fit in with your plot. Also, does plot demand the C5 has to be at speed? It would be more plausible at lower speed as there'd be danger of buffet from 300kt airflow and hitting C5 on exit.

You're doing the right thing asking us Brits; we do this all the time while we're saving the world. Some people even believe the silly cover story about scrapping all our Harriers!

[SnowFella]

Must be some sort of mini Harrier as none of the variants have a wingspan that would fit in a C5

[Arfur Dent]

.Harrier (OK 'Mini Harrier') facing forward. Bring to low hover. Open C5 rear door. Use nozzles to reverse Harrier out of C5. When in 200 kt airstream (300 too fast), rotate nozzles to aft - off you go and save the world.
Easy peasy! Used to do it all the time 'back in the day' when Harrier pilots were Gods........

[DaveReidUK]

Must be some sort of mini Harrier as none of the variants have a wingspan that would fit in a C5

I'll second that.

https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/624/media/images/76129000/jpg/_76129975_c5_2.jpg

[Piltdown Man]

Are a C5's doors wide enough for a Harrier? Are they an internal electric start? Without the doors being open, you would run of air to keep their engines running. But you can't be to high or the engines will not start. The engines have to be running to power the controls. The controls are required to recover from the instability of the exit.

PM

[Wizofoz]

Make em F-18s with the wings folded, facing forward- the cinematic impact of them exiting then unfolding their wings would be quite cool.

[Danny42C]

Or forget the whole idea, and lie down for a while in a darkened room ?

[pattern_is_full]

Make it an F-104 Starfighter (wingspan 20'10") inside an AN-225 Mriya (cargo hold width 21') - that gives you one inch clearance on each side. ;)

Don't use the rear cargo door - just open the An-225 nose in flight and let the slipstream strip away the 225 like a banana skin. Off you go!

Of course, 007 already escaped from a disintegrating An-124 in an MD900 helicopter (Die Another Day).

[Pontius]

I wouldn't over-think it.

(a)After a deck run of some 450-500' we only ever saw 90-95kts-ish, so there's no way you're going to accelerate to 100kts inside a C5.

(b)The Harrier always recovered really well after a slow speed 'unusual position', so even if it just trundled out of the back of the C5 and fell to earth for a few seconds, it would be flyable after a very short time of freewill. Just leave the engine at idle and the nozzles aft and your intrepid pilot will be fine.......so long as the C5 is not at low level :-)

[jugofpropwash]

It's already been done. Way back in the 80's, the Airwolf helicopter got dropped out of the back of a plane.
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0507137/?ref_=ttep_ep6

[cattletruck]

...then glide into the refuelling nozzle of an awaiting aerial tanker. Give us a break, no wonder I hate CGI in films.