New answers tagged fighter
0
You need the plane to crashland, but not crash fully. So crippling not destroying the plane.
It is launching from Malta, but you want a land landing, not water landing? Thus a failure in the air, within 5 minutes of takeoff (better 2 minutes), as Malta is tiny and surrounded by much ocean.
Sabotage the coolant system
Just put a glass vial of nitric acid in ...
3
Maim but not kill, that's a fine line to walk
So, you're forcing him to land an unflyable plane. You need some sort of sabotage that takes effect before the plane reaches parachute height.
A bomb or mechanical control-wire cutter activated by raising the the landing gear perhaps.
the aileron wire however seems to be is quite far aft of the wheel bay and you'...
4
A cup of sugar in the fuel is a fairly traditional way to go, and was recommended by contemporary sabotage manuals.
As @Milwrdfan pointed out in comments though, "sabotage" covers a range of outcomes.
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Cross-rig the trim controls. So when trying to correct say, nose-down, the 'correction' has the opposite effect. Not a guaranteed fail but quite possibly cause a pilot to conclude the plane is uncontrollable and bail out.
(RAF bases on Malta were very pressurised both physically and psychologically. When writing, make sure there is nothing casual about ...
4
The hard part is circumventing the pre-flight checks.
You could locate the ammunition belt for the 4x 20mm Hispano cannons and cram in a dodgy round that will just plain explode when the firing mechanism hits that round.
The Hurricane would climb to intercept and once lined up would fire its cannons and start a fire as the false round explodes, detonating a ...
0
Perhaps one could subtly trim, or add weight to a propeller blade in a way that wouldn't be easily seen by eye.
The original Hawker Hurricane propeller was made of wood (perhaps later ones were as well I don't know), and tools such as wood drills and fillers existed and were available to good quality.
So let's say you get access to the hanger, or a spare ...
0
I would think probably the best way to sabotage an airplane to virtually guarantee the aircrew is killed if they cannot bail out would be to damage the control cables or bellcranks for elevator and elevator trim, causing a nose down trim condition with no means to effectively recover. This would be difficult to conceal, and once discovered, would quickly be ...
9
You could also pour a cup of carborundum polishing grit into the induction air inlet. This will get sucked up into the engine and quickly ruin it. This trick was used by air racers in the 1930's to sabotage their competitors' airplanes.
35
The Achilles heel, a good single-point-of-failure source that will be hard to detect until it's too late, of a plane like a Hurricane would be coolant system.
If I was going to sabotage a Hurricane in a way that forces it to return to base while enroute, and that is unlikely to be detected until it's on its way to combat, is to loosen a coolant line fitting, ...
4
Info below is from TU Delft lecture ae4-211, Aerodynamics of the Fighter Airplane, Prof. ir. E Obert.
Fighter jets manoeuvre both in the vertical and in the horizontal plane. At the beginning of WWII dog-fight tactics were a leftover from WWI, when power loading was low and did not differ much between aircraft types, and diving speeds were limited and could ...
6
It's Mk14 lead computing gyro gunsight. Designed by the Brits, and credited with increased accuracy / higher kill ratio (it took a lot of the guessing out of shooting). The padded part with "No hand hold" stenciled on it, was in fact padded to protect the pilots face / head from impact during a crash or crash landing. The Mustang did not have ...
1
What makes you think they don't. As the old saying goes "with enough thrust pigs fly just fine" To be serious, fighters also have to land and a little asymmetry would help at lower speeds, although I don't expect they use much, and it may only be a portion of the wing. The F-16 lands around 155 kts, so the wings are probably pretty symmetrical. ...
8
Fighters don't really need or want to fly at negative Gs for any sustained amount of time. There is no tactical reason to do so, and it is very uncomfortable on the human body.
A short duration negative G bunt may be employed effectively as a defensive maneuver, but overall a fighter will always keep positive Gs on the airplane. The body can tolerate many ...
3
I can answer on the F-16 :)
The general system description tells us that the Leading Edge Flaps may be positioned from 2 degrees (1 inch) up to 25 degrees (12-1/2 inches) down.
I assume it is similar on the F-22 and F-35, since the Leading Edge Flap subsystem provides high lift for takeoff and landing and optimizes performance in each flight
phase.
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On our RF-4C's the pilot could not fold the wings the crew chief had to do it. It was part of the 25 hour check to fold them and inspect and lube them.
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Great question! Yes, size and weight. Fighter aircraft need the kind of radar that allows them to detect and track targets. The majority of military fighter aircraft have attack and reconnaissance radars operating in the 8.5-11 GHz and 13-18 GHz bands with a large number operating in the upper portions of the 8.5-11 GHz band.
Weather radars are different ...
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