Saw something interesting on Discovery Wings.

[Bill Silvey]

They were doing a piece on the A10, and they showed a camera shot from
underneath the A10's wing during a trial bombing run. Three 500lb bombs
were ejected off of the rack, and then the rack itself was ejected. When
the rack went, it yawed almost to the point of being parallel to the wing's
leading edge, and struck the inboard bomb rack (still loaded with
ordinance!) so hard that the entire rack shook pretty violently.

Is this a big problem with MERs on modern fighters? Was it endemic to the
A10? If so, how was it remedied? Or are the munitions and the MER they
hang on tough enough to stand such a love tap?

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[Mark]

Some of the testing done by USAF (at Eglin in particular) is meant to
capture/document exactly such store 'interaction'. The results are used to
prepare the Dash 1 (aircrew 'how to' manual) section on allowable store
configurations, and carriage/employment/jettison limits. A lot is done
today with computer simulation along with related flight test (as needed).

I've seen some of the tapes you mention (mostly from the early days) and
they can be VERY interesting (to say the least). They are a good example of
what could happen if limits are exceeded.

Mark


"Bill Silvey" > wrote in message
...
> They were doing a piece on the A10, and they showed a camera shot from
> underneath the A10's wing during a trial bombing run. Three 500lb bombs
> were ejected off of the rack, and then the rack itself was ejected. When
> the rack went, it yawed almost to the point of being parallel to the
wing's
> leading edge, and struck the inboard bomb rack (still loaded with
> ordinance!) so hard that the entire rack shook pretty violently.
>
> Is this a big problem with MERs on modern fighters? Was it endemic to the
> A10? If so, how was it remedied? Or are the munitions and the MER they
> hang on tough enough to stand such a love tap?
>
> --
> http://www.delversdungeon.dragonsfoot.org
> Remove the X's in my email address to respond.
> "Damn you Silvey, and your endless fortunes." - Stephen Weir
> I hate furries.
>
>

[Ragnar]

"Bill Silvey" > wrote in message
...
> Is this a big problem with MERs on modern fighters? Was it endemic to the
> A10? If so, how was it remedied?

Presumably it was remedied by not ejecting the MER with the bombs.

[Bill Silvey]

"Ragnar" > wrote in message
ink.net
> "Bill Silvey" > wrote in message
> ...
>> Is this a big problem with MERs on modern fighters? Was it endemic
>> to the A10? If so, how was it remedied?
>
> Presumably it was remedied by not ejecting the MER with the bombs.

No idea - the narration had absolutely nothing to do with the footage in
question (they were talking about how the A10 had been transitioned to using
"Precision stand off weapons" like LGBs and Maverick-Es).

Overall it was a ... meh ... presentation. They talked and talked and
talked about the GAU-7 Avenger, but never mentioned issues with gun-gas
ingestion, and all the while they were doing the voice over, they were
showing the YA10 under construction and the installation of the
interim-for-flight-testing-only M61A Vulcan cannon - a teeny tiny little
thing compared to the mighty Avenger. This after they'd shown interview
footage wherein A10 pilots repeatedly referred to the huge size of the
Avenger and it's seven barrels! :-/

The majority of the "point" discussion was done by a fellow who's been
flying A10's since they entered the USAF inventory (or at least he had been
up until '99, when the piece was produced.)

--
http://www.delversdungeon.dragonsfoot.org
Remove the X's in my email address to respond.
"Damn you Silvey, and your endless fortunes." - Stephen Weir
I hate furries.