Aircraft Thread

[David Hingtgen]

Well, 2 tanks and 4 missiles (2 Sidewinders and 2 AMRAAMs, or 4 AMRAAMs)is pretty much the standard load for ANY F-16 nowadays, even night-strike bombing missions... I don't think I've ever seen an F-16 with 6 air-to-air missiles, though I know there's a twin-Sidewinder launcher available for European F-16's. A twin-AMRAAM launcher like the F-18 now has (and uses often) would be neat, but I don't know if one exists.

PS--while the VT ANG F-16's were first CAP after 9/11, the first planes launched and in NY that morning were MA ANG F-15A's. Only planes that day to go supersonic. Loadout was I think 1 tank, 2 Sidewinders, and 2 Sparrows---light-weight max-speed intercept loadout, as light and fast as an F-15 can be. (F-15's will rarely drop their center tank, it's rated to sustain 9G's, and induces no yaw or roll effects since it's on the centerline)

Edited May 31, 2004 by David Hingtgen

[Shin Densetsu Kai 7.0]

no thud was the kind of mean joke made when a thud was downed I believe...it stems either from the signal emitted when a thud pilot ejected or when the actual tyhunderchief was sending distress after being hit.

[Dobber]

F-102 Delta Dagger

Chris

[Nied]

PS--while the VT ANG F-16's were first CAP after 9/11, the first planes launched and in NY that morning were MA ANG F-15A's. Only planes that day to go supersonic. Loadout was I think 1 tank, 2 Sidewinders, and 2 Sparrows---light-weight max-speed intercept loadout, as light and fast as an F-15 can be. (F-15's will rarely drop their center tank, it's rated to sustain 9G's, and induces no yaw or roll effects since it's on the centerline)

I was (and still am) living in Boston on that day, and we too got a CAP flight from an F-15 out of Hanscom, if it's loadout was anything like the planes that went to NY it would have been 1 drop tank, 4 AMRAAMs on the fuselage, and possibly two more on the inboard launch rails (I couldn't quite make it out from the angle I saw it) and two sidewinders on the outboard rails. Now the boston CAP didn't start until around noon, so they may have beefed up the load a little.