Polish F16 airshow crash
- Thread starter Wardogg
- Start date
Murdoughnut
Well sized member
Eerily similar to the Thunderbirds scenario, sans ejection. That pilot actually spoke at a corporate event I was at a couple of years ago.
Pilot Fighter
Well-Known Member
For me, the least interesting airshow maneuver is a loop in a jet. I don’t find the is-he-gonna-make-it moment very entertaining.
Turning radius required exceeded the turning radius available, exacerbated by being in AB and rapidly accelerating, especially when entering the vertical plane. The jet’s limiter is going to give you 25 units AOA or 9Gs, and that’s it.
Sad part is, he was likely dead the moment he committed his nose down on the back side, he was quickly outside the ejection seat’s envelope, with his rapidly ever-worsening flight parameters
The loop/split-S/Cuban-8 maneuvers in aerobatic performances in tactical jets is an area of accidents where new ways to crash planes aren’t really being found.
A-10 Paris 1977, T-38A x 4 T-Birds 1982 Indian Springs, F/A-18A El Toro 1988, Sabre Mk6 El Toro 1993, F-16C NAS kingsville 2000, F-16C T-Birds Mountain Home 2003, F-16C T-Birds 2018 Nevada, and this accident. All unfortunate.
FlyingAccountant
Well-Known Member
I grew up outside of St. Louis in Illinois, about 5 minutes from KALN. We had a Boeing factory pilot kill himself in a brand new F-18 as he was practicing for an air show at KALN for some family members of his that had gathered to watch. Pretty sure he died pulling the same maneuver and was just too low like this guy was. That was probably 1996ish.
