Tomcats and..Ugggh...

[airnutz]

A Very Photogenic Tomcat
www.gentexcorp.com/HomePage/pages/Fly-by_4-24-03.htm

....I really don't need this before bedtime...
www.gentexcorp.com/HomePage/pages/April8.htm

That is beyond the call of duty!

[dj51d]

I love the F-14 photo, which looks suspiciously like(OK, identical to) Dale Snodgrass' 1989 pass by the USS America.

[wendovertom]

Humm. . . I have seen these photos before - the spiders are fake and the F-14 is on the USS Stinson.

Tom P

[airnutz]

Well, Tom..I hope Gentex continues to build better Flight Safety gear,
than they "vette" their gallery posts! Just the boys "over there", having
their fun! Can't blame 'em for that! Cheap thrills....

[wendovertom]

Wouldn't you love to have been there!! I've seen a few videos of Supersonic flybys during tiger/end of cruise events -

Awesome.

Tom P.
www.wendoverairbase.com

[TimAPNY]

I have a very hard time exepting the F-14 picture as real. Does anyone know the truth on this? I just can't buy it.

One of the best parts of the Tiger Cruise air show was that they Drop Mk-82 and Mk-83. Fire flares, M-61s and break the sound barrier. I'll have to scan some of my pictures soon and post them.

[John Ceglarek]

Yes, the F-14 picture is real. Dale Snodgrass was the pilot (see above post), and the maneuver was performed as part of an airshow for Navy brass. There was no butt-chewing involved...it's the camera angle that makes the stunt appear so dangerous.

John

[Wolverine]

Actually, Camel spiders are real. They bite you, anesthize you, and eat you (if you're a camel). Saw it on a documentary.

[wls3]

You can read an interview with Dale "Snort" Snodgrass, the F-14 pilot,
about the photo taken of him in 1989 over the USS America.

HERE

Its part way down the page but the whole article is interesting
if you have the time.

Bill

[airnutz]

wls3,
Thanx for the link to the article on "Snort"...good reading!

Wolverine,
Sorry, the Camel Spider exagerration turns out to be just that, an exagerration! They are slightly smaller than a human hand. The soldiers were having "their fun" with us! It turns out that this was a Spoof-Foto
which was unleashed on the world in time for April Fools Day 2003. As for
your seeing it on a documentary??..Maybe you were engrossed in the
latest issue of Classic Wings and "raised your ears" just in time to hear
the "myth" part? Just a possibility....

The lads must still get a "kick" when they see us "get got" all over again!

No venom...No scarfing-up camels...No Flesh eating etc. There is a slightly smaller version in Mexico, which the Mexicans call a Deer Eater...more Nada!

Congrats guys..now I know way more about these Crites
than I really needed to!

Last edited by airnutz on Sat Jan 15, 2005 6:12 am, edited 1 time in total.

[bdk]

Wouldn't you love to have been there!! I've seen a few videos of Supersonic flybys during tiger/end of cruise events

They had an F-16 do an inadvertant supersonic pass during the airshow at the Reno Air Races one year coming out of the bottom of a loop. It definately overmodulated the microphone on my video camera!

[Randy Haskin]

Just a little info here from a fast mover regarding supersonic flight....

There are numerous folks who claim to have seen or photographed an accidental supersonic pass by a military fighter at an airshow. While I know this has certainly really happened more than a couple times, I don't think it happens quite as much as people think.

Now, I'm not an aerodynamicist (and I invite anyone who is to correct the explanation that follows), but this is generally what is going on as an aircraft gets close to and passes through "The Number".

Anytime an aircraft is past the FDMN, or Force Divergence Mach Number, the shock waves start to compress on certain parts of the aircraft: tip of the pitot boom, leading edge of the wing and stab, and (interestingly) the top of the canopy where the air is really flowing fast over the curved surface. This occurs generally somewhere around M0.96 to M0.98. Observers on the ground will hear a sharp "crack" when a jet near FDMN passes.

(BTW, Aero Engineers, I realize the the real definition of FDMN is "the drastic increase in drag", but it's as a result of the shock wave buildup...)

When a jet is "at" Mach = 1.0, it really isn't. In reality, there are only localized areas of supersonic airflow over the airframe. Some parts of the airplane are super, and some parts are still travelling subsonic. This is the origin of the term "Transsonic." There is a sonic boom when a trans-sonic aircraft flies by, but it is certainly less powerful than that of a fully supersonic aircraft. This one generally will set off car alarms but not blow out windows.

When a jet has all of the areas of localized airflow over the airframe going fully supersonic, the airplane has actually busted the sound barrier. I can't speak for every airframe out there, but the F-15 and T-38 are both considered supersonic at approximately M=1.2. This is the full monty.

So, my belief is that the vast majority of "I saw a fighter go supersonic at an airshow" stories are a result of jets going .96 to .99 Mach in the trans-sonic region. There are definitely documented cases of the full-up sonic boom happening, don't get me wrong, but in my opinion it is not as frequent as people think.

USAF and USN fighter pilots are very aware of their limitations and know that the wings on their chest are very fragile items. Little things like going supersonic at an airshow tend to put those valuable little items at risk and hence they're not going to do that.

[TimAPNY]

I scanned several of my hundreds of shots from the Navy. Several touch base on what has been discussed here. Enjoy!

http://community.webshots.com/album/251539186wNsZsg


Edit
Looks like it will take several minutes to load all the picture to the site. is you don't se 22 pictures try a bit later.

[bdk]

This one generally will set off car alarms but not blow out windows.

Well, sounded far louder that the space shuttle descending into Edwards AFB if that tells you anything. Two distinct cracks. Everyone jumped. Didn't happen the next day during the show, never heard that at any other show.

Remember that in this day and age one's perception is far more important than actual fact!

[Randy Haskin]

Well, sounded far louder that the space shuttle descending into Edwards AFB if that tells you anything. Two distinct cracks.

That certainly seems to fit the bill, since there are always two booms in succession with a *real* sonic boom.

Given the circumstances you mentioned, though, I'm highly skeptical. I'd be really interested to know how the pilot in question managed to accelerate that much while exiting a loop. There are two things working against each other there...acceleration and turn performance.

Especially given how much a fighter's turn radius opens when approaching supersonic, I'd think that it would not be a good time to do that while your nose is pointed at the dirt.

Anyway, it's all armchair quarterbacking at this point.

Remember that in this day and age one's perception is far more important than actual fact!

Unfortunately all too true. It is very annoying when people don't want to be bothered by fact, though. Don't even get me started on every photo on the internet of a pressure wave on a jet, where the photographer is claiming to have caught the subject aircraft "just as it is breaking the sound barrier!"

Bzzzzt! We're sorry, incorrect answer.