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A comment on Citing new evidence, families sue feds, Raytheon, Lockheed over 1996 TWA crash. Parent comment

Re:Citing new evidence, families sue feds, Raytheon, Lockhee... by WalterBright on Sunday September 25, 2022 @01:10PM (#32973464)
Yeah, it could. A 747 is designed to withstand all sorts of failures, but impact by a missile is not one of them.

Loss of structural integrity could easily cause violent breakup by aerodynamic forces. A 747 is not going to stay together if the pointy end isn't into the wind. Then there's all that fuel suddenly released and atomized, and fuel absolutely loves to burn. Remember that fireball when the airliners hit the twin towers?

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Re:Citing new evidence, families sue feds, Raytheon, Lockhee... by WalterBright on Sunday September 25, 2022 @01:23PM (#32973612)
My dad flew F-80s in the Korean War. The F-80 had a nasty characteristic. If you flew it too fast, it would pitch up, and the sudden aerodynamic forces would rip the wings off. Unfortunately, the engine was more than powerful enough to do this in level flight, so the pilot had to be keenly aware of this at all times.

(The solution was swept wings, exemplified by its successor, the F-86.)

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