(CNN) -- Two F-16 fighter jets briefly took to the sky over Washington on Monday after a small passenger aircraft violated the capital's airspace restrictions, according to military officials. A portion of the White House grounds was briefly evacuated during the incident.
The passenger plane -- a Cessna 182 -- was intercepted by the F-16s at 2:19 p.m. EST, a statement from the North American Aerospace Defense Command noted. The plane was escorted to an airport in nearby Manassas, Virginia, where it landed at 2:32 p.m. EST.
Now, I completely understand the need to maintain strict control over the airspace above Washington DC, don't get me wrong. It's entirely appropriate that the jets were scrambled and the small plane was brought down under guard. DC airspace is heavily regulated even prior to 9/11, and in this day and age anyone flying anywhere near our nation's capitol had better be very familiar with the areas to avoid.
That said, I'm trying to picture an F-16 trying to maintain airspeed with a Cessna - kinda like a Ferarri trying to intercept a riding lawn mower.
That is all.
8 comments:
Jay,
I'll aviation-geek this one for you . . . at low power and very high angle of attack, an F-16 can maintain about a 90-knot airspeed.
Easy: Air brakes.
Reminds me of the scene with the F-14s and Zeros in The Final Countdown.
Like Brad said, they can go slow(ish) when they want to, they'll point the nose up at a 45 degree angle or so and drive along slowly, "mushing" through the air.
A C182 stalls at about half that speed, though. I'm sure they are instructed to maintain speed, and it's probably unwise to say "nah, I'm just gonna f*ck with these guys" and putter along.
I read a story of a guy that checked the (variable sized) airspace around DC right before his flight, but it expanded while he was in the air. Got intercepted, had HUGE fines, and the flight services company he used said "not our problem." Oh well...
Love it when stupid newspeople report about guns and planes..
Cessna182, 4 place general avaiation (usually private) plane. It's not a passenger bird! It weighs in at about 2650pounds fully loaded.
As to speed that thing likely does about 148kts fire walled and cruse is nominally 130kts. Might be faster if it has speed mods ($$$).
The Cessna driver has more to worry about the F16s wake turbulence.
F16 air brakes slow the plane but do not decrease the minimum airspeed. Flying that slow is at the low speed corner of he envelope and one twitch and the plane becomes a non aerodynamic brick. It's not a recommended practice over populated areas as the F16 can be considerably more of a hazard.
One of the small aircraft problems is the problem of formerly clear airspace suddenly becoming off limits and the pilot does not always get real time warnings, nor do the air traffic control people. Also navigation is not always the latest GPS based stuff but looking out the window at roads, rivers and landmarks.
Since the news report has nothing of any substance (who what when where why) and no detail we can make no judgement as to what was the problem.
Eck!
Eck! My air brake joke was made as a reference to the old Bugs Bunny air brake joke. Perhaps I overuse that joke...
*waves hi to fellow EE*
Hmmm... I see a lotta problems with scrambling F-16s to "escort" the 182... Airspeed is a non-issue, as a single 20MM cannon round will ruin the 182s whole day, especially multiple rounds out of a Vulcan. But has anyone thought about where this bird, if hit, would come down? Not to mention any expended munitions launched by the F-16?
That 20mm is just about the only weapon an F-16 can bring to bear on a Cessna.
The AIM-120 is likely out of its envelope be cause of low altitude clutter or that plane's radar insisting that something that slow is terrain and being filtered out.
The AIM-9 might work, but it's possible that the engine isn't hot enough to be distinct from the background and it damn sure doesn't go fast enough to heat up the wings for a lock.
Because of the radar filtering out slow things, the gun will be used with Kentucky windage, to get that one hit to ruin Mr General Aviation's day he's going to squirt a lot that will hit, um, someplace else.
Assuming that the Cessna is packed with explosives and he's aiming for the Capitol building... Which does more harm, spraying a DC/Virginia/Maryland neighborhood with 20mm HE or letting the plane hit Congress? Especially considering there are procedures in place for replacing a dead Congress critter. What's the line of succession for a family of four (or multiple familes)?
It may have been forgotten, but here in Tampa we had a Cessna 172 ram a skyscraper shortly after 9/11. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2002_Tampa_plane_crash It broke some windows and totaled an office and started a small fire where the remains fell. It's just not capable of being that big of a bomb.
I know what I said is not a popular decision, but I think it's wrong to sacrifice innocent people in their homes to protect a landmark building and/or the members of Congress.
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