Russian Goes Vertical

I stood between the cats one day in the North Atlantic watching an A4 Tinkertoy snap from level to vertical about 200 yards off the cat. At 8,440 ft/min the plane was a dot that flashed when he leveled out over a thunderhead. I like planes.

Thanks for the link.

8440 ft/min is only about 96 mph. Did you mean 8440 ft/s?

Either that, or maybe a billion furlongs per fortnight.

Was finally able to watch the video (can't at work - they've got this incredibly inaccurate internet filter which categorized this one as entertainment - OK, maybe it was accurate in this instance!). Pretty cool! I would like to be sitting in the cockpit for that one, and my Post#2 should therefore receive a "Ya think?" score!

I like the classics. At late 80's airshow at MacDill AFB, the Navy sent a pair of F-14s to do a fly by. They came in low and very, very slow at a high angle of attack, jerked to perfect vertical, went almost motionless at <1,000', hit afterburners, folded wings and went out of sight straight up in a clear blue sky. The AF could not follow that act. In fact, after a lifetime in aerospace few things have.

Mig-29 aerobatics are good, but their fireballing ground impacts are great.

That is what I got from Wikipedia for rate of climb 8,440 ft./min (43 m/s).

Maybe some geek let the air out?

<sarcasm>Whoopee</sarcasm>

About 30 years ago I was working at NASA Langley when the first F-15 Eagle strike fighters arrived. One day the Air Force announced that the base was closed to air traffic for an impromptu F-15 demonstration.

One was positioned down near the NASA end of the runway. He kicked in the throttles, fired up the burners, and with the aircraft shaking like it had the dt's, he released the brakes.

The take off roll seemed to be about 100 yards when the pilot began to rotate. The plane leaped into the air, with vectored thrust pointed straight up, and less than a minute later, the tower announced he had reached 50,000 feet. Shortly after, he came back down and demonstrated some of the new thrust vectoring and stol capabilities of the aircraft.

We stood around watching with our jaws to the ground for a long while, even though NASA Langley had partnered to perform a lot of the research studies for the Advanced Technology Fighter (ATF) that led to the Eagle. I still have an assembly drawing for a wind tunnel model.

Soooooo, 30 years later, forgive me for not being particularly impressed with the Mig-29.

Hooker

Boeing does it better.

With a 300 seat passenger plane at that.

This is what happens when you put ex-fighter pilots in a real plane.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KYbM-3E11Qo

That 787 was far more impressive than an F15 copy. Any decent fighter jet should be able to do that.