The fuel dump was curious to me. The fuel vaporizes almost immediately. The speed disparity would seem to make it a difficult task as well.
What might a fuel dump do to a turboprop if a cloud of fuel vapor were pulled into the intake???
Would it be more effective than shooting a sidewinder at hot air balloon which has little to no heat signature or radar cross section???
Depending on the a/c, when you initiate fuel dump it GUSHES out and it does vaporize but it’s pretty much like a fire hose at first.
Can’t speak to this case but a good friend of mine was flying an A-4 on a TRANSPAC and during one of his inflight refueling episodes, the drogue leaked some fuel and due to the placement of the aircraft’s refueling probe the fuel went down the intake, exploded and flamed out the engine and it wouldn’t relight. After multiple airstart attempts he ended up jumping out and he spent a couple of days in a raft and then a week or so on a freighter.
So… could it cause an engine failure? Possibly.
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Nav….Why’d he have to spend a few days in a raft and at sea? Wouldn’t SAR get to him immediately? Wouldn’t the tanker be close enough to see and mark it?
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one would think if they let their A/C engage the prop on the drone in some way.
Russians were notorious for using their a/c props to engage control surfaces on German A/C during WW2. Seems it would take a high level of skill. Russians think differently and more primatively than most other folks in the world. If they were out of ammo, where other pilots would break off an attack, it was not uncommon to ram the German A/C with their props.
It was considered no big deal to the Soviets to sacrifice one of their A/C to bring down a German one. They don't seem to be phased by their level of losses in the Ukraine nowadays. Besides, the Soviets were being given A/C by the USA and Britain, some used and obsolete and many brand new. The P 39 and the later P 63, most of all of their production went to the Soviets...The P 39 was considered obsolete by the USA. The Russian pilots loved American A/C. They had radios in them for communications where most Soviet A/C did not.. They were more robustly built, and in ramming attacks on Luftwaffe A/C, they held up and brought the plane home even if damaged. The way the Soviets treated them, due to lack of maintenance, they had a short service life.
When I first heard the report, with an explanation of damaging the prop on the drone is what brought it down, figured they are still making it doctrine left over from their WW 2 days. Its also been heavily reported the sad mechanical shape a lot of their ground equipment is, and they don't seem to care., and seemed unphased by the number of losses and even crew members that have been lost. They have mobile crematoriums with them to even cremate their dead right there in the Ukraine. They are taking people off the streets, impressing them into service in the Ukraine also with little training ahead of time, just like their winter war in 1939 & 40 against Finland. Read and/or look up Finnish losses in manpower alone, and what the Soviet losses were in 5 months of combat. Same with German losses on the Eastern Front in WW 2 vs Soviet losses in manpower alone, much less in equipment.
If the same pattern still exists today, they'd sacrifice an A/C for a drone of the other side. How high were their losses in the 70s in Afghanistan?
consider some of their historical patterns from the last 70 years in wars.... and the pilot got lucky the SU 27 didn't go down with the drone...probably a senior more experienced pilot by Russian/Soviet Standards... just a suggested thought to consider also.
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Granted this would be hard to verify that it's the one in question from this week. But then again - how many videos of a Su-27 clipping a Reaper after dumping fuel over what appears to be water could there be to show instead?
Kinda goes to my initial point all along - dude was hot dogging and hit it on accident.
Where was the Drone's base? It had to have had a military objective. What was it? Was it there to target Russian military for Ukraine attack? Why are we engaged in a war we have no reason to be in or do we? What is there that is so sensitive in Ukraine that we must risk World War to protect? Inquiring minds want to know.
Senator Lindsey was on the air 2 days ago. He said that if Russia took down one of our planes, we need to take down 2 of theirs. Hello, WW3. Good job, Miss Lindsey.
He could have just gotten too close and touched the prop. The Russkies will not allow anyone to find out.
There were some reports that the Migs were flying in front of the drone and dumping fuel. If it was ingested in the drone’s engine that might cause an explosion or compressor stall and/or flameout. I would think they have a way to restart the engine but ???
The Migs may have “thumped” the drone by passing it below it and abruptly pulling up in front of it creating turbulence and possibly making it depart from controlled flight. I know a guy that got to discuss this maneuver with the Admiral after he did it in front of a Soviet a/c. That’s how he got his call sign…. Remember name of the rabbit in Bambi? 😁
The Migs could have flown in front of a drone’s wingtip so that their wingtip vortices might create enough turbulence to cause the drone to lose control.
There’s no no way that we serfs will ever know.
One would think there would be a self destruct device. Unless we wanted Russia to have this intel.
We can keep Larry Root and all his idiotic blabber and user names on here, but we can't get Ralph back..... Whiskey Tango Foxtrot, over....
Nav….Why’d he have to spend a few days in a raft and at sea? Wouldn’t SAR get to him immediately? Wouldn’t the tanker be close enough to see and mark it?
There were no SAR assets anywhere nearby and there’s lots of water between Hawaii and the mainland. At that time, the tanker would have been a KC-135 and they would mark the spot, communicate the problem and get folks moving that way but it just takes time.
Another buddy and his RIO in a Tomcat, operating off the boat, got lost 😳! and ended up jumping out when they ran out of gas. They spent three days in their rafts before they were found BY ACCIDENT after the ship had called off the search….presumed dead. I think it was an S-3 on a surface search mission that just happened to fly over and see them.
NRA Life,Endowment,Patron or Benefactor since '72.
When you look at the video there’s no way the pilot could see the drone when he got within 500’ or so. I don’t know why they felt like that had to pull up from low to high to get fuel on the drone. Better to have just approached level from dead 6:00 and a few feet above it or “thump” it by pulling just in front of it which would make the drone fly through the dumped fuel.
NRA Life,Endowment,Patron or Benefactor since '72.
Nav….Why’d he have to spend a few days in a raft and at sea? Wouldn’t SAR get to him immediately? Wouldn’t the tanker be close enough to see and mark it?
There were no SAR assets anywhere nearby and there’s lots of water between Hawaii and the mainland. At that time, the tanker would have been a KC-135 and they would mark the spot, communicate the problem and get folks moving that way but it just takes time.
Another buddy and his RIO in a Tomcat, operating off the boat, got lost 😳! and ended up jumping out when they ran out of gas. They spent three days in their rafts before they were found BY ACCIDENT after the ship had called off the search….presumed dead. I think it was an S-3 on a surface search mission that just happened to fly over and see them.
Brings context to those obits "died in a training accident".
A good principle to guide me through life: “This is all I have come to expect, standard lackluster performance. Trust nothing, believe no one and realize it will only get worse…”
[ I think it was an S-3 on a surface search mission that just happened to fly over and see them.
Good to hear we were good for SOMETHING!
A good principle to guide me through life: “This is all I have come to expect, standard lackluster performance. Trust nothing, believe no one and realize it will only get worse…”
Kinda surprised he didn't hit the blowers, like the Australians did with their FB-111's. Quite a show.
That was a prohibited maneuver in the Tomcat. Huge ! flames.
In the Tomcat, the fuel dump switch was locked out with weight on the wheels and the dump mast was between the tailpipes. I was in the fuel pits at Oceana, refueling after a hop one day as one of our sister squadron jets was taking off. BUT the fuel dump switch was on and as soon as he lifted off there was a huge plume of flames 🔥😳
My first thought was, “We’re stuck here in the fuel pits hooked up to a refueling hose and he’s going to crash and we’re gonna die!”
After a few seconds I realized that they had left the dumps on and got on tower frequency and yelled. “your dumps are on!” Just a few seconds later the flames went out. Whew!!!
Last edited by navlav8r; 03/16/23.
NRA Life,Endowment,Patron or Benefactor since '72.
