Hacker15e
Who am I? Where are my pants?
Good discussion and great points all around.
Yes, you're right that an ejection seat and a tail hook give a military fighter a completely different set of options...and that was my point that "absolutes" like "you ALWAYS continue the takeoff after V1" aren't necessarily absolutes. That in other aircraft and other circumstances that may not necessarily be true.
Although today's fighters have zero-zero ejection seats, there is always inherent risk when you pull the handles, too. Like with a high speed abort, you have to assess and compare risks. Also as with other emergencies you have to decide beforehand what you will and won't eject for. We have an adage that goes "the decision to eject is made on the ground."
Again, this is a decision that you make given the set of circumstances...not a binary one based only on a number in the TOLD.
Yes, you're right that an ejection seat and a tail hook give a military fighter a completely different set of options...and that was my point that "absolutes" like "you ALWAYS continue the takeoff after V1" aren't necessarily absolutes. That in other aircraft and other circumstances that may not necessarily be true.
Although today's fighters have zero-zero ejection seats, there is always inherent risk when you pull the handles, too. Like with a high speed abort, you have to assess and compare risks. Also as with other emergencies you have to decide beforehand what you will and won't eject for. We have an adage that goes "the decision to eject is made on the ground."
But the fact of the matter remains, you need to accept that you've got a good chance of going off the runway after V1. Now as you said, that might be preferable to taking the plane airborne, but what if you're on a 7,000' runway with a 100' drop off at the end of the runway? I'd take almost any problem into the air as opposed to taking that drop off at the end of the runway, as that's going to be certain to cause a hell of a lot of damage to the aircraft and I'm willing to bet get everybody on the airplane killed.
Again, this is a decision that you make given the set of circumstances...not a binary one based only on a number in the TOLD.