Posted on 06/15/2005 3:37:11 PM PDT by AFPhys
Just breaking: Harrier, probably Marine Corps, crashed in Yuma, AZ - possibly within the city.
"Punching out can hurt all on it's own."
Had a Marine buddy that had to quit flying after punching out of a Harrier!
Yuma has grown tremendously in recent years. Where that Wal-Mart is now was probably nothing but cotton fields a few years ago.
The USMC has the overwhelming majority of Harriers, although, if I'm not mistaken NASA maintains(-ed?) a limited # for testbed purposes.
jettester, do you have any more info on Harriers procured by agencies other than the USMC?
These injection systems now have the pilot sitting on top of a large pile of high explosives - I think more than the equivalent of a stick of dynamite. It is surprising that any of them can survive the acceleration.
Harrier Marine Corps... One house on fire ... Pilot safe. No injuries reported.
The bird crashed at the intersection of Windsor Ave and Koons Court. It hit a house, pilot ejected safely. cause unknown as of yet. I need to find an alternate route home tonight.
I was CPNC from Feb 78 to Nov 79, we lost 3 Harriers then I think in that time period
I've heard that aircrew that have survived a successful ejection are forever shorter due to compression of the spinal column.
Make that Winsor Avenue & Kuns Court, just in case someone wants to put a map up of the area.
Glad that no one was hurt.
Thus I would like to ask, is the rumor true that you used to go out at night eating cars?
That you ate Cadillacs,
Lincolns too,
Mercurys and Subaru.
And you didn't stop,
You kept on eating cars,
Then when there’s no more cars you'd go out at night,
And eat up bars,
Where the people meet,
Face to face,
Dance cheek to cheek.
But now you've stopped eating cars,
And eating bars,
And now you only eat guitars?
That big fix wing that does the lifting part of aircraft flight is just dead weight in the VTOL part
it just engine vs gravity with you playing a brick
I was a crew chief on F-4's and the seats are something to be respected. The way they work is really cool. The cannon get's things going in a 3 section telescoping tube. But to make the acceleration a little less killer, it has propellant packages on the outside of the tube so that as it extends more propellant lights off. At the end of the tube, about 6-8 feet up, a cord reaches its length and trips a sear and lights off the rocket motor, which accelerates up and forward to keep the pilot from hitting the tail in the wind.
Oh, and the canopy went first under air pressure.
That was just the back seat.
After the rear guy goes out, the same sequence starts for the front guy.
The Guy In Back can punch out and leave the pilot. Or twist a knob and force the front guy out if he's incapacitated. But if the front guy pulls the d-ring, the back guys going first, no matter what, least the rocket blast from the front guy toast him. Hope the GIB was paying attention. Surprise, surprise, surprise.
Cool description. Thanks.
do you recall the weight of the propellant, and type?
Is that fuel injection or a medical injection? If the former, that would make for a nice little explostion, if the later, I think I'd rather get sick.
It was a USMC Harrier; They're evacuating everyone within 1500 meters of the crash site (about 1/4 mile west of the Super Walmart on Pacific Ave)and advising people to avoid an area 1 mile around the crash site. EOD personnel from MCAS Yuma are on site. This was on the City TV channel about 10 minutes ago.
I think I'll take being shorter over being dead.
The B II+ models were also purchased by the Spanish and Italian fleets because it allowed for a better integration into the NATO spec weaponry and electronics. Those two and our beloved jarheads were the only other publicly announced sales of these birds.
Damn......another Black Sheep might be lost....I hope the pilot punched out....
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