Years ago, when I was in the back seat of an F-15D, the front-seater Lt Col Ted Hailes asked me if I had ever experienced a tail slide in an F-15. I had not. He said he would show me what it was like ... but then, better part of valor, he decided not to. He knew is would have scared the crap out of me. LOL. I hadn't thought about a tail slide in years.
Until now.
SpaceX tested another Starship prototype, SN10, to an altitude of 10 km in order to practice its daring belly flop to tail down landing maneuver. This time the flip was successful utilizing 3 raptor engines, then shutting two down for the final landing exactly as planned. Unfortunately 3 of the 6 landing legs didn't successfully deployed (as you can see in our footage), alongside a fairly high landing velocity, resulting in an explosion 8 minutes after touching down.
That's exactly what the F-15 tail slide encompasses:
- ascent
- cut the engines
- belly flop
- hands off all flight controls
- fast descent
- negate the stall
- recover -- without any pilot input.
Wow.
One can find videos of the F-15 tail slide.
What was the first thing I noticed about the Starship SN10?
Wow, it looks archaic. Russian rocket built in Afghanistan? Looks like something right out of Buck Rogers. And, yes, "Buck Rogers" airs on MeTV. But even if it looks archaic, the engineering was incredible. Absolutely incredible.
Everything went perfectly until it didn't. They say the rocket landed perfectly, but slow-motion shows the rocket was not perfectly vertical when it landed, even before the "legs" deployed.
The good news: there was an 8-minute gap between successful landing and blowing up.
I watched F-15s take off over my head, in high school. Was at NASA Langley for a summer program. You can get from the NASA part to the AF part easily. Then to walk through the grass and onto the runway is no big deal. There might have been a restricted sign, but it didn't say "this means you". And not even a fence you had to climb over.
ReplyDeleteSo, fine. Sitting on the end of the runway with a buddy and a cool chick. Watching the planes take off over us. Waving at them (got some wing waggles back).
Course 15 minutes later, couple enlisted zoomies with M-16s come running out. "What you doing?" "Watching the planes. Looks good, huh." "This is a restricted area, you need to leave." "OK."
The only thing cooler was watching Tomcats take off and land on a carrier at night. Looks just like a fricking movie with the flames coming out of the asses of the F-14s. Actually even cooler THAN a movie, when you are near it. And the sound (even with ear protection), the impact felt as the planes land, the smells, the sort of incomprehensible things people were doing with different color vests, random trucks driving around, etc. Closest I've seen is probably The Final Countdown. But being there and just feeling it was even cooler.
The F-15 is noteworthy for being able to "rocket" straight up. F-14 cannot. I believe the F-18 can just barely. Had a roomie who flew Tomcats and then got a shore tour testing F-18s (preferred them). PArt of his job was after maintenance to fly it and turn off an engine and make sure the plane was OK on one. (Seems fucked up, but that's what he said.) He also told me about his "night in the barrel" landing at night in a storm on the carrier (my uncle CAG and Navy Cross winner in VN, said night landings in weather were scarier than SAMs). And about blowing a tire on takeoff at Miramar and having to "catch a trap" on land. Seems screwy but I guess they do that. I wouldn't know.
Wow, great note. Thank you. Yes, one of my last assignments was at Langley AFB, VA -- home of 1st Fighter Wing. Great, great memories. Truly amazing. So many good memories, like yours. Thank you for taking time to write.
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