Paperwork
05-30-2014 | 05:12 AM
#7
here is the story(s) - (not from me)
This is an F-15E partway through a hushhouse door.
The HH is a special building where you can run engines in afterburner without making a lot of noise. Everything is insulated and baffled, the exhaust shoots down what is basically a large baffled tunnel and then directed upwards and away. Some bases have trimpads where you do this outside, but due to noise pollution and comfort it's better to use the HH.
The F-15Es twin P&W-F100-229 engines each put out ~30,000 lbf each. Before the F-22 / F-35 these were basically the most powerful fighter engines in the Air Force inventory.
Brakes aren't going to hold this thing, so there's a bigarse buckle you attach from an anchor point in the ground to the tailhook. The jet strains against it but it holds. Well, when you assemble it, it comes in about five pieces and it all needs to be strapped together in order and secured tightly.
In the case of the above, I've heard two stories - the first was that it was simply attached to the tailhook improperly. I'm not sure about that, because from what I've seen it's not really possible to do that, it only goes on one way. The second story is more plausible, that one of the linkages was not pinned and wired properly. The vibration from the afterburners shook the whole thing loose, and you get that.
Honestly I'm surprised that it only went that far through the door. The F-15E, as it was in the HH, would've had well over a 2:1 TWR. The guy in the cockpit would've had only a couple seconds to kill the engines and get the brakes in order to stop it from going further. The doors to the HH are pretty hefty, but they're basically mostly just aluminum and insulation.
Needless to say the jet was massively f-ed (collapsed nose strut and FOD damage to the engines being the biggest problems).
This is an F-15E partway through a hushhouse door.
The HH is a special building where you can run engines in afterburner without making a lot of noise. Everything is insulated and baffled, the exhaust shoots down what is basically a large baffled tunnel and then directed upwards and away. Some bases have trimpads where you do this outside, but due to noise pollution and comfort it's better to use the HH.
The F-15Es twin P&W-F100-229 engines each put out ~30,000 lbf each. Before the F-22 / F-35 these were basically the most powerful fighter engines in the Air Force inventory.
Brakes aren't going to hold this thing, so there's a bigarse buckle you attach from an anchor point in the ground to the tailhook. The jet strains against it but it holds. Well, when you assemble it, it comes in about five pieces and it all needs to be strapped together in order and secured tightly.
In the case of the above, I've heard two stories - the first was that it was simply attached to the tailhook improperly. I'm not sure about that, because from what I've seen it's not really possible to do that, it only goes on one way. The second story is more plausible, that one of the linkages was not pinned and wired properly. The vibration from the afterburners shook the whole thing loose, and you get that.
Honestly I'm surprised that it only went that far through the door. The F-15E, as it was in the HH, would've had well over a 2:1 TWR. The guy in the cockpit would've had only a couple seconds to kill the engines and get the brakes in order to stop it from going further. The doors to the HH are pretty hefty, but they're basically mostly just aluminum and insulation.
Needless to say the jet was massively f-ed (collapsed nose strut and FOD damage to the engines being the biggest problems).
