Missile question
Discussion
Love that sequence in the film, Hollywood at it's best!!
Loving the tech talk regarding real world implications here too.
Of course, if I were the pilot, after my magnesium flares had failed, and the dumping of my auxilary tanks had draw only one hostile heatseeker into the side of a snowy mountain, rather than turning to face the last missile head on for a close pass I would, of course, have just "hit the brakes and let it fly right by".
Loving the tech talk regarding real world implications here too.
Of course, if I were the pilot, after my magnesium flares had failed, and the dumping of my auxilary tanks had draw only one hostile heatseeker into the side of a snowy mountain, rather than turning to face the last missile head on for a close pass I would, of course, have just "hit the brakes and let it fly right by".
Here's what Wikipedia has to say about the 1967 missile damage to an A-12:
"During a flight on 30 October 1967, pilot Dennis Sullivan detected radar tracking on his first pass over North Vietnam. Two sites prepared to launch missiles but neither did. During the second pass at least six missiles were fired, each confirmed by missile vapor trails on mission photography. Looking through his rear-view periscope, Sullivan saw six missile vapor trails climb to about 90,000 ft (27,000 m) before converging on his aircraft. He noted the approach of four missiles, and although they all detonated behind him, one came within 100 yards (91 metres) to 200 yards (180 metres) of his aircraft.[29] Post-flight inspection revealed that a piece of metal had penetrated the lower right wing fillet area and lodged against the support structure of the wing tank. The fragment was not a warhead pellet but may have been a part of the debris from one of the missile detonations observed by the pilot.[6]"
"During a flight on 30 October 1967, pilot Dennis Sullivan detected radar tracking on his first pass over North Vietnam. Two sites prepared to launch missiles but neither did. During the second pass at least six missiles were fired, each confirmed by missile vapor trails on mission photography. Looking through his rear-view periscope, Sullivan saw six missile vapor trails climb to about 90,000 ft (27,000 m) before converging on his aircraft. He noted the approach of four missiles, and although they all detonated behind him, one came within 100 yards (91 metres) to 200 yards (180 metres) of his aircraft.[29] Post-flight inspection revealed that a piece of metal had penetrated the lower right wing fillet area and lodged against the support structure of the wing tank. The fragment was not a warhead pellet but may have been a part of the debris from one of the missile detonations observed by the pilot.[6]"
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