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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 wbl on Sunday September 25, 2022 @02:22PM (#32974318)
No it could not unless it impacted at exactly the wrong place. Downing planes with missiles is hard: much of a plane can survive having a hole in it, while there are a few critical sections.

A AIM-9 crashed into a MIG, didn't go off, got stuck, and reverse engineered after landing.

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Re:Citing new evidence, families sue feds, Raytheon, Lockhee... by sudosysgen on Sunday September 25, 2022 @05:07PM (#32976246)
An SM-2 and an AIM-9 have a two order of magnitude difference in kinetic energy. It's not even close. The SM-2 is 10x heavier and would impact such a target at relative velocity of Mach 2+, whereas a Sidewinder will often impact at only a few hundred kilometers an hour.

At the same time, a 747 and a MiG are two completely different vehicles.

An SM-2 has a solid chance of sinking a ship - and was seriously investigated for that application. A direct hit on a 747 is game over. It's going to go clean through, and if it's into the fuselage, cut it in two.

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Re:Citing new evidence, families sue feds, Raytheon, Lockhee... by WalterBright on Sunday September 25, 2022 @05:40PM (#32976585)
A 747 has plenty of wrong places that if hit would be curtains. It is not designed to resist battle damage. It is designed to resist failure of individual components.
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