Animation of the SL F-15 breakup

[Redmeat]

Here's a good news video on it. Came out a couple days ago. Shows the pilot giving a description at a podium. Good to see him walking and talking. He's a lucky guy.

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2008/01/10/national/main3697827.shtml

 

[Hagar17]

Nice to see him up and about.

Maybe a dumb question, but in the computer animation, the landing gear lowers. Why?

 

[LearLove]

Nice to see him up and about.

Maybe a dumb question, but in the computer animation, the landing gear lowers. Why?

not sure why in the video but in real life if the gear is held in the up position with positive hyd press and then the aircraft falls apart and the pressure holding it up goes away then the gear would freefall assuming the uplocks do not hold it up.

 

[NewmanF16]

Then again, ripping the gear handle off of the airplane may have had something to do with it.

 

[El-Rushbo]

That article makes a point of the Tomcats being retired and F-15's pressing on as if to say it's cheap of the USAF, but fails to mention the abuse Tomcats took over 30 years of carrier aviation.

It's not "abuse" if they were being operated for what they were designed for...they then reached their useful and safe limits. The USN did the right thing in retiring them, the USAF should do the same with the F-15.

 

[AdlerDriver]

Nice to see him up and about.

Maybe a dumb question, but in the computer animation, the landing gear lowers. Why?

The emergency gear handle is operated via cable. Normally it removes hydraulic pressure from the gear and releases the uplocks so it will free fall into the down position.

As the cockpit area separated from the fuselage, the cable was pulled and severed resulting in the gear lowering.