JeppUpdater
Well-Known Member
Pretty cool video from Airbus:
Video: A350 formation flying
- Thread starter JeppUpdater
- Start date
Was probably an automated formation anyway.
What does it matter when you're subsidized?
:stir::stir:
WestIndian425
Well-Known Member
CFIscare
Well-Known Member
Man, sometimes I was I had lived through the Cold War
And we civilians worry about silly things like wake turbulence and separation.
Some of the follow-on planes bouncing through the wake, and the lack of visibility; even with the check-turn after liftoff. Pretty darn sporty. Heaven forbid you have two jets, one behind the other, have to abort takeoff. At least with a single jet aborting, the just rolls to the end, and the one behind takes off over him.
SquatThrust
Well-Known Member
Smoke em' if you got em'!
A Life Aloft
Well-Known Member
What a cool video! When they say scramble, they aren't a kidding. Can't see chit, just plow through. Love the Stratofortress!
Do you have any idea what year that was filmed?
Last edited:
Probably mid '80s at Griffis AFB, judging by the paintjob those G-models wore then. Flush the bombers and scramble is no joke, as the USSR missiles were incoming to your base and others.
Consider this Gerry: You were launching from your base to perform your mission of hitting the USSR, but you know their ICBMs are inbound to your base, and many others, and you won't ever be coming back to that base, nor will your family likely be alive 15-20 mins from now, as the base will be wiped out.
The tankers, their job is to get airborne and pass all their fuel to the bombers, save a few thousand pounds at the standpipe, and then they have planned places to try and go, but who knows if those places will still be in existance. Hence the tanker guys being called Tanker TOADs. Take Off And Die. Because that's what they did in a nuclear scenario.
Hacker15e
Blue Eyed Murder in a Size 46L Uniform
Personally, I'd like to see longer shots than just the clips they have in that video...especially of the 5-ship echelon.
It is easy to look good in multi-ship formation for a 10 or 20 seconds, but it is a much higher level of challenge to stay there for any period of time -- and that's even without any sort of maneuvering whatsoever. When you get echelons of more than 4 airplanes, the outer-edge wingmen have to time-share between flying off the jet they are immediately next to, and flying off the jets that are 2 or 3 up the line. If you just follow the guy you're next to, the formation gets into some wicked cracking-the-whip oscillations.
Even pilots with much more acute expertise in formation flying, and in machines much better suited for the rapid, small corrections required to fly close formation, have a tough time staying there for long periods:
a few minutes before....clown show.
It is easy to look good in multi-ship formation for a 10 or 20 seconds, but it is a much higher level of challenge to stay there for any period of time -- and that's even without any sort of maneuvering whatsoever. When you get echelons of more than 4 airplanes, the outer-edge wingmen have to time-share between flying off the jet they are immediately next to, and flying off the jets that are 2 or 3 up the line. If you just follow the guy you're next to, the formation gets into some wicked cracking-the-whip oscillations.
Even pilots with much more acute expertise in formation flying, and in machines much better suited for the rapid, small corrections required to fly close formation, have a tough time staying there for long periods:
a few minutes before....clown show.
T/O w/FSII
Well-Known Member
A Life Aloft
Well-Known Member
Thanks, Mike. That's really very heady when one ponders such a scenario and the consequences. I remember once upon a time reading about the several special underground bunkers built for certain individuals/groups from DC who would be scurried away to them, the different communication systems in place and their back-up systems, various ships and their roles, SAC, etc. It was very sobering. I can't imagine how the airmen, the sailors, the ground crews, etc. must have felt and their thoughts when they had their various drills. Damn.
Bob Ridpath
Pit Bull love
My last duty station was working support in the alert area at Minot AFB, 10/75-09/76. This brought back powerful, long-forgotten memories of an amazing time when I was young. Thank you!
Seggy
Well-Known Member
Ahhh, no it's not.
Bob Ridpath
Pit Bull love
Probably the Gin tonight, as I generally try not to repeat post in threads TOO much.
Still ... memories of a time long gone ... Looking for B-52s, KC-135s and FB1-11s on final to Pease AFB as we traveled I-95 to Harrison, Maine from Boxford in Massachusetts; no runway at Lackland, my first duty station, but watching the endless stream of C-130s and C-5s into Kelly overflying our first apartment in San Antonio; the two F-4s at Galena AFS that protected a nation (well, a state, anyway) against a Russian thrust across the Bering Sea; endless alerts at Minot and the amazing, visceral experience of those standby BUFFs as they clawed into the frigid air of a North Dakota winter, nuclear weapons aboard to defend a nation if needed, even unto death.
My God, the things that spring to life from long forgotten, dusty memory ... All because of a damned video on the Internet.
Thank you.
Still ... memories of a time long gone ... Looking for B-52s, KC-135s and FB1-11s on final to Pease AFB as we traveled I-95 to Harrison, Maine from Boxford in Massachusetts; no runway at Lackland, my first duty station, but watching the endless stream of C-130s and C-5s into Kelly overflying our first apartment in San Antonio; the two F-4s at Galena AFS that protected a nation (well, a state, anyway) against a Russian thrust across the Bering Sea; endless alerts at Minot and the amazing, visceral experience of those standby BUFFs as they clawed into the frigid air of a North Dakota winter, nuclear weapons aboard to defend a nation if needed, even unto death.
My God, the things that spring to life from long forgotten, dusty memory ... All because of a damned video on the Internet.
Thank you.
You're welcome Bob. Always happy to post interesting stuff.