On www.military.cz I read that the F18 Hornet and/or the F/A18 Super Hornet could survive direct hits from SAMS. I think that's a little off. How can any airplane survive a direct SAM hit? Maybe surviving AAA is reasonable, but SAMS? Can someone give me some background on this? Plus, a chart on average aircraft survivability would help a ton, if such a thing exists, that is.
There are many kind of SAM's around. Some shoulder fired short-ranged IR-seeking missiles dont have that large warhead. With some luck, two (or more) engined plane can survive hit from that kind of SAM.
The P-38 Lightning and P-47 Thunderbolt both enjoyed reputations as being "robust and rugged" designs during WW2. A P-38 is known to have survived a nasty mid-air, head-on collision with a German fighter and limped home on one-engine, with the horizontal stabilizer severed and hanging-down. The ol' Jug--Republic P-47--was also a legend, coming home with pistons shot-off it's radial engine, peppered with holes, thank God for the armor-plate behind a pilots-back. In the jet-era, the Republic F-105 Thunderchief was a robust airframe that was able to absorb a lot of battle-damage and still bring it's pilot home. The A-10 Thunderbolt is another design--two engines, redundant systems, and the pilot sits in a tub of titanium-armor. It was designed to survive in a low-level, target-rich combat enviornment... Tim
What-a-ya know? My promotion finally came through. Care to pin-on my "bars" Ricky?! I'm headed to the "Officers-Club." Big Smile! Tim
I once heard of an f-16 that crashed with his wingmate, ripped the wing off and still landed back to base (dunno what happend to the wingmate) although I think most fighters are highly vulnerable to a direct hit (or in the case of EMP weapons and modern fighters....*bomb noise* huge explosion on ground)
Isreali F-15 i think it collided with a A-4 Skyhawk... Combat aircarft are very sturdy aircraft (heavy weapon loadouts, very High G tollerances etc. etc.) this means they can survive some dammage!
