Zathrus~SPARTA~ Posted February 14, 2016 Share Posted February 14, 2016 (edited) Hi guys, I do not know how I missed this back when it happened a few years ago, but I stumbled onto this video which is a short clip from a history channel documentary on the F-15. As amazing as this may sound, the video below does show the aircraft after he landed it. In short, a midair during a training exercise destroyed one aircraft, and completely sheared off the right wing of this F-15. He managed to regain control from the spin, fuel leaking from where that wing had been was obscuring his view of the right wing... so he did not know it was completely missing until after landing. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M359poNjvVA But it is documented, this F-15 recovered from a spin and flew almost 10 miles to the nearest airbase to land.... with no right wing. The fact remains... this pilot is a master pilot as few would ever have recovered from the initial spin... then actually fly it and land it.... Somehow he was able to feel what this aircraft needed... speed. Aerodynamically, this is actually possible because of the tail design of the F-15 and several other twin vertical stabilizer modern jets. These newer, flatter & stealthier designs have an enormous amount of surface area in the tail. The tail section on these jets is enormous compared to earlier fighters because of how they started blending the horizontal rear stabilizers into the wings. What they discovered, was as long as he maintained enough air speed, the jet became a stable rocket on the tail section... wings are optional... except that you need them to get off the ground... An unexpected benefit of large tails blended into the wings. This appears to have been duplicated in both the F-22 design and the F-35 design. Edited February 14, 2016 by Zathrus~SPARTA~ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts