Amazing F-15 landing

[Dondi]

Watch this!

http://www.sonnyradio.com/F15.wmv

[Troberg]

Well, that's why you have trim rudders...

Good flying, thank god for big engines (I suspect the aircraft was more or less ballistic at that point), and he had quite a bit of luck. I wonder why he didn't drop the drop tank, that would have evened out the weight distribution a bit?

I wonder why he didn't bail out?

(All the above with the reservation that I watched it on a machine without sound)

[Majorsam]

Wow.

With the sound on you get a little more detail. After the mid-air collision the pilot found himself in a rolling spin with downward attitude which he couldn't recover from (fancy that). His real luck was putting on his afterburners, which he said was counter-intuitive, but as my flight instructor once said, if A doesn't work, try B...if B doesn't work try C...continue until on ground.

He did prepare to eject, but due to the situation he was unaware that his wing was missing until he was on the ground.

Yeah, good flying, but a metric ton of luck.

[Mycroft]

Originally Posted by Troberg

I wonder why he didn't drop the drop tank, that would have evened out the weight distribution a bit?

At the end, when they show pics of the actual plane involved rather than the reconstruction, there is no drop tank present.

Note that YouTube has a slightly longer clip of the same documentary which shows this clearer

[BoKu]

Originally Posted by Troberg

Well, that's why you have trim rudders...

Good flying, thank god for big engines (I suspect the aircraft was more or less ballistic at that point...

The F-15 horizontal tailplane surfaces are elevons that deflect in response to both pitch and roll inputs. If the airspeed is kept high enough, an elevon can provide enough lift to compensate for a missing wing. Not that they actually planned it that way, but fortunately that's the way it turned out.

Bob "ρ/2*v^2*s*Cl" K.

[jimmy101_again]

The video is a bit misleading. As near as I can tell only the still images at the end are real. All of the video was created with special FX.

[DrRocket]

The least they could have done is use stock footage of an A-4 for an A-4, not a North American F-100, an aircraft that was retired over twenty five years ago.

Sheesh.

[Troberg]

His real luck was putting on his afterburners, which he said was counter-intuitive, but as my flight instructor once said, if A doesn't work, try B...if B doesn't work try C...continue until on ground.

Power means speed, speed means control. Unless the ground is close, then it means a spectacular lawn dart.

The least they could have done is use stock footage of an A-4 for an A-4, not a North American F-100, an aircraft that was retired over twenty five years ago.

Nah, the A-4 is ugly, the Super Sabre is beautiful. I think that justifies it.