What does activating afterburners/reheat feel like?

[Seb d]

Forgive me if this is a silly question, but watching movies and playing games, activating afterburners always results in a sudden and massive burst of acceleration and subsequent increase in speed. But does it feel anything like that in real life? Is it a case of travelling so quickly already that you can't really feel the acceleration, or is it such a sudden increase in thrust that you would genuinely feel it? Just curious, thanks

[HoHoHo]

I can only comment on flying on Concorde which accelerates and takes off and then up to 500mph (or whatever it is) until it can then accelerate through the speed of sound.

That sensation from 500mph to Mach 2 was akin to taking off again and pushed you back in the seat much as you feel when a plane starts to roll.

I'm sure in a Tornado or suchlike the feeling must be far more aggressive.

[MartG]

Like VTEC kicking in, yo ?

( apologies for the 'yo' bit )

[simoid]

MartG said:

Like VTEC kicking in, yo ?

( apologies for the 'yo' bit )

Nothing close to that.

But it does feel like a monumental change in power

[tuffer]

You know when you are going down the A303 and you get to the first piece of Dual Carriageway after the Stone Henge snarl up..............

[Simpo Two]

Or possibly like re-engaging cruise on a twin turbo Jaguar. No kick, it just goes 'bosh' and the acceleration is constant; doesn't seem to reduce as speed increases.







I am typing this from near the Andromeda Galaxy

[Seb d]

Thanks guys, sounds pretty awesome

[norfolkscooby]

Simpo Two said:

Or possibly like re-engaging cruise on a twin turbo Jaguar. No kick, it just goes 'bosh' and the acceleration is constant; doesn't seem to reduce as speed increases.







I am typing this from near the Andromeda Galaxy

Are you currently flying the ship that did the kessel run in 12 parsecs

[Simpo Two]

norfolkscooby said:

Are you currently flying the ship that did the kessel run in 12 parsecs

That's seconds of arc, not seconds of time.

I have however achived 14.6 parsecs per hour, which is not too shabby for a works original.

[anonymous-user]

Blade slap is cooler

[GGibbo]

Its pretty much as described- without sounding corny a constant swelling surge of acceleration. If you start relatively slow the rate of change of speed is almost constant as the engines make more thrust as you go faster. Apparently older aircraft gave you a masiive kick in the back as the afterburner lit all at once at maximum nozzle area, however modern aircraft are a little more progressive.

One of the first trips on the Tornado GR4 conversion course has a serial which involves going into max reheat at 250 feet and 250 knots and leaving it in until 600kts as a 'performance demo'...

[RichB]

The experience as described in Concorde was exactly as when I flew in her too....

[HoHoHo]

RichB said:

The experience as described in Concorde was exactly as when I flew in her too....

Yep, bloody brilliant

And a shame I'll not experience it again

[Zippee]

HoHoHo said:

RichB said:

The experience as described in Concorde was exactly as when I flew in her too....

Yep, bloody brilliant

And a shame I'll not experience it again

At least you did

[HoHoHo]

Zippee said:

HoHoHo said:

RichB said:

The experience as described in Concorde was exactly as when I flew in her too....

Yep, bloody brilliant

And a shame I'll not experience it again

At least you did

It's a real shame we've gone backwards and probably in our lifetime there will be nothing like it.

Built in the 60's, way ahead of its time, still ahead of its time and with nothing to replace it and it's gone

[eccles]

HoHoHo said:

I'm sure in a Tornado or suchlike the feeling must be far more aggressive.

I have to admit it was about the biggest disappointment of my jolly in a Tornado, Sitting at the end of the runway, brakes on, reheat on, brakes off.....oh, is that it? The acceleration is constant though, no gear changes, just constant push back. Engaging reheat whilst we were up gave a good push back into the seat, but I have to say it certainly wasn't neck snapping acceleration! All this was dwarfed by going low level through Wales and buzzing my parent house at a very illegal height!

[GGibbo]

eccles said:

I have to admit it was about the biggest disappointment of my jolly in a Tornado, Sitting at the end of the runway, brakes on, reheat on, brakes off.....oh, is that it? The acceleration is constant though, no gear changes, just constant push back. Engaging reheat whilst we were up gave a good push back into the seat, but I have to say it certainly wasn't neck snapping acceleration! All this was dwarfed by going low level through Wales and buzzing my parent house at a very illegal height!

I thought this my first go. Its really deceptive on take off as you do 0-175 kts in something like 20 seconds, but its so linear(and theres a few other distractions) so you dont really notice the acceleration that much on the runway.

[JuniorD]

On Concorde the reheat to pass through the sound barrier feels just like a couple of nudges. It may be more pronounced depending on where you're seated but reheat doesn't really pin you to your seat or give you a huge shove.

[HoHoHo]

JuniorD said:

On Concorde the reheat to pass through the sound barrier feels just like a couple of nudges. It may be more pronounced depending on where you're seated but reheat doesn't really pin you to your seat or give you a huge shove.

I found it more constant acceleration rather than nudges.

I was standing in the isle talking to a friend and I moved towards the back of the aircraft when we started to go supersonic - nothing dramatic but 'acceleration' is the best way to describe it.

[ecsrobin]

Crossflow Kid said:

Blade slap is cooler

Having flown in a Tornado GR4 on takeoff with reheat I've been kicked back more in the seat more from my mums Getz.

The biggest thing was when the air brakes were used at 10,000ft wow that thing slowed down quick!