T-38's vs. Hail

[Typhoon1244]

Does anybody know of a link where I might find pictures of two T-38's that were severely damaged by hail? I don't know how recently it happened, but there were apparently pictures of it on Eagle's web board.

Thanks.

 

[flx757]

I've seen those. One of the guys at the NTSB emailed them to my wife (she's a former investigator), but she deleted them from her inbox. Looking at the damage they suffered, I'm amazed they made it back.

If no one posts a link soon, I will try and get them via email again.

 

[SteveR]

I don't remember where I got them, so I uploaded them to my site:

 

[Iceman21]

So what was the test, to see how long they could fly through hail?

 

[AV8OR]

I'm guessing that wasn't part of their profile.

 

[Swass]

At what point do they decide to turn the he11 around and get outta there?

 

[SteveR]

At what point do they decide to turn the he11 around and get outta there?

Probably immediately...at the speed they are traveling, it wouldn't take long to do that much damage. I doubt they were in the hail for even 30 seconds...maybe a lot less than that.

 

[Swass]

What I mean is why are they flying around in convective weather that probably is echoing red and at least orange.

 

[SteveR]

Gotcha...I don't have any experience with radar really so that didn't even occur to me.

 

[MDPilot]

T-38s don't have radar, all weather avoidance is done with the Mark II color eyeballs.

 

[starchkr]

By the looks of the planes, and the photo showing they were from the test pilot school, it only means one thing....

They were trying to see how long it takes to cost the taxpayers millions of dollars... it is all an insurance fraud scheme. They claim millions and the military says hey we can get joe schmoe down the street to fix it for thousands, HEY we just made some drinking money... after all it is a pilot school (test pilot school), and don't you remember school? Nothing but fly by day and drink by night... or was that just my school??????????