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Old February 10th 08, 01:07 PM posted to rec.aviation.military,rec.aviation.military.naval,sci.military.naval
Dean A. Markley
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Posts: 39
Default Powering JSF: One Engine Is Enough.

Gordon wrote:
On Feb 9, 8:32 am, Typhoon502 wrote:
On Feb 8, 7:49 pm, "Dean A. Markley" wrote:





Mike Williamson wrote:
Dean A. Markley wrote:
Mike wrote:
Powering JSF: One Engine Is Enough.
Lexington Institute.
http://lexingtoninstitute.org/docs/797.pdf
That'll be little consolation to the pilot who experiences an total
engine failure 300 miles from the carrier!
Seriously though, It is nothing short of incredible how reliability
has increased in engines and aircraft. I'd still worry just a little
bit though....
Dean
It wouldn't give him any consolation if there were two, since in
this case the other engine would be sitting in a shop someplace-
the article is about having two separate engine designs and
suppliers rather than two engines on the airframe.
Mike
Yes Mike, I do know what the article was about. I was making a (bad)
pun over the next carrier borne aircraft only possessing one engine.
Wasn't it a naval aviator who said "It's better to lose AN engine rather
than THE engine"?


That was my sig for years - most of our business in the fleet was the
recovery of A-7 drivers that had sallied forth and ended up in the
drink due to engine failure. On the cruise with the Midway
battlegroup in 1985, the two Corsair squadrons combined to lose five
A-7s in six months. I thoroughly believe that motto as gospel. As a
rotorhead, I believe single-engine status is pretty much already an
emergency situation - I can't understand why a single-engined Naval
jet aircraft would be accepted for fleet duty.

IIRC, it seemed to work out OK for A-4s, A-7s, and F-8s. What were the
loss rates on those due to engine failures?- Hide quoted text -


My first rescue was Cdr J.M. "Twister" Twiss, who had just parted
company with Champ 404, the third A-7E that had defaulted on him.
After three ejections, he had to switch to a non-ejection seat
aircraft. From my experience during the 1980s, the Corsair II seemed
to have inordinately high loss rates on deployment. Not that our
Tomcats fared much better - their twin engines were no guaratee of a
safe return from the higher performance realm, and around the boat
there were far too many lost. These problems were articular to the
early A-models and thankfully the later variants had much greater
reliability. Few things worse than seeing shipmates perish when they
are within a few feet of a safe landing.

v/r Gordon

Thanks Gordon! I rest my case!

Dean