"Mycroft" david wrote in message
...
If you look at the picture the damage is to the wing mid-way to the
wingtip
not the engine maybr do due to a proximity detonation?

Myc

I would suspect that if the missile did indeed hit the engine at all that
fragments of either the weapon or the motor could have hit the wing. More
likely the weapon missed the engine proper and impacted someplace near on
the wing, or came in at an angle, clipped the engine, and impacted the wing.
I believe that this is quite common from the pictures of missile hits during
Desert Storm.

Example he
http://www.pats-world.com/gulfwar/ab...181/181-11.jpg

The news reports on this incident I have seen so far all are saying it was
an SA-7. But if it was anything later than that (SA-14 or newer) it would
be a plume tracker anyway. A plume tracker must "push ahead" before impact
or it will pass harmlessly behind the engine and through the plume. I would
think the push ahead would result in many hits on parts of the aircraft
other than the engine itself.

As far as the possibility of proximity fuzing, according to most web sources
the SA-7 is contact fused only. Here is an example link:
http://www.fas.org/man/dod-101/sys/missile/row/sa-7.htm

That site also claims that the Stinger, the SA-14 and the SA-16 have the
same type of contact fusing, it does not specify for the SA-18.

T!