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Most commercial planes have a large enough wingspan that they can still make a semi-controlled descent without engines... However once the wings go, so does the plane.

Fighter planes on the other hand... engine goes out, so do you.

what fighter planes are you talking about? cause I know some with multiple engines

Myself002 wrote:what fighter planes are you talking about? cause I know some with multiple engines

F-16 Falcon and F-18/A Hornet off the top of my head. Not sure what our neighbors to the north have. I'd say the single most safest plane to be in is the A-10. Damn things can have half a wing blown off and still make it home. Not to mention a 20mm machine gun can't penetrate a lot of the armor.

Sevulturus wrote:Most commercial planes have a large enough wingspan that they can still make a semi-controlled descent without engines... However once the wings go, so does the plane.

Fighter planes on the other hand... engine goes out, so do you.

Who needs engines? A commercial plane can glide quite well without engines. I know of a few cases where a commercial jet lost power in all engines and glided to a safe landing.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gimli_Glider - Boeing 767

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Air_Transat_Flight_236 - Airbus A330

Both ran out of fuel for various reasons.

In single engine fighters, like the F-16, it's safer to eject that to risk gliding to an airport and making a deadstick landing. Unlike airliners, fighter planes tend to spend much of their time close to the ground, out of gliding range of a suitable runway.

GeoffXR200R wrote: I'd say the single most safest plane to be in is the A-10. Damn things can have half a wing blown off and still make it home. Not to mention a 20mm machine gun can't penetrate a lot of the armor.

Funny you should mention flying with half a wing blown off. This Israeli F-15 had its entire right wing torn off in a mid-air collision. It still managed to fly home to a safe landing. I wouldn't have believed it if I hadn't seen the pictures.

"Oxygen gets you high. In a catastrophic emergency, you're taking giant panicked breaths. Suddenly you become euphoric, docile. You accept your fate. It's all right here. Emergency water landing - 600 miles an hour. Blank faces, calm as Hindu cows. "

such a great movie

flynrider wrote:

GeoffXR200R wrote: I'd say the single most safest plane to be in is the A-10. Damn things can have half a wing blown off and still make it home. Not to mention a 20mm machine gun can't penetrate a lot of the armor.

Funny you should mention flying with half a wing blown off. This Israeli F-15 had its entire right wing torn off in a mid-air collision. It still managed to fly home to a safe landing. I wouldn't have believed it if I hadn't seen the pictures.

[img]http//www.uss-bennington.org/pics/phz-nowing-f15.jpg[/img]

Proof that not EVERYTHING made in america is prone to issues. We sure can make us some fighters (i know, it's israeli, but our plane. They also got some Apache's from us if I remember correctly). There was one case in the first gulf war when a A-10 had a SAM-2 missile blow out most of a wing and it made it home. I've also seen footage of a 20mm gun shooting the side of an A-10 (cockpit) at maybe 20 yards away. It hardly dented. But alas, (in the US at least) the A-10 and F-15 are retired/getting retired from use as the gov't is gearing up for the new JSF, the F-22 (nick named Raptor it think?). My favorite airplane of all time is the old P-38 Lightning though. AKA the plane that killed Yamamoto in WWII.

Flying is wonderful, it's crashing that always bothered me. Many thousands of air miles over my working career, and my knuckles still get white just thinking about it. I'll need a drink, please.

Some of those planes can even suck up a service man and keep going.....


and he lived...go figure...someone will have the video link Im sure...

DirtyD86 wrote:"Oxygen gets you high. In a catastrophic emergency, you're taking giant panicked breaths. Suddenly you become euphoric, docile. You accept your fate. It's all right here. Emergency water landing - 600 miles an hour. Blank faces, calm as Hindu cows. "

such a great movie

As I read this thread for the first time today I started to think - I have go find the quote from that scene in Fight Club from the airplane. Great scene.

Tyler: How's that working out for you?
Narrator: What?
Tyler: Being clever?
Narrator: Great.
Tyler: Keep it up then.