Something I pilfered off of the Delta ALPA forums:
Truly is a miracle; two heavily damaged aircraft the pilots would have been
justified in "punching out" of, but instead they chose to bring the jets in.
This endangered their lives but saved the taxpayers about 80 million dollars.
What is especially intriguing is in picture 03, notice the radome, radar and
all of the avionics equipment, everything, is gone. This created several
problems for the pilot: aerodynamics, eventual loss of hydraulics due to loss
of fluid, navigation, and probably the most amazing, as the pieces fell away,
some debris had to be ingested by the engines (F.O.D.) and he still was able to
bring it home. !
The story behind them is : Two F/A-18 Hornets from Top Gun were dog fighting
and made a head on pass, just a bit too close. One got home with part of the
left wing and left vertical fin and rudder missing, while the other jet is
missing everything forward of the cockpit pressure bulkhead - and is a flying
convertible because the canopy is shattered too.
Truly is a miracle; two heavily damaged aircraft the pilots would have been
justified in "punching out" of, but instead they chose to bring the jets in.
This endangered their lives but saved the taxpayers about 80 million dollars.
What is especially intriguing is in picture 03, notice the radome, radar and
all of the avionics equipment, everything, is gone. This created several
problems for the pilot: aerodynamics, eventual loss of hydraulics due to loss
of fluid, navigation, and probably the most amazing, as the pieces fell away,
some debris had to be ingested by the engines (F.O.D.) and he still was able to
bring it home. !
The story behind them is : Two F/A-18 Hornets from Top Gun were dog fighting
and made a head on pass, just a bit too close. One got home with part of the
left wing and left vertical fin and rudder missing, while the other jet is
missing everything forward of the cockpit pressure bulkhead - and is a flying
convertible because the canopy is shattered too.
