Jocko, my dear, I could do the momentum math for you but trust me that there is one hell of a lot of energy in a Boeing 757 weighing, 200,000 lbs going 475 mph (causing speed is 610 MPH) at impact. . . but the wings only account for about 10% of that weight. The amount of kinetic energy to be expended in just a few seconds would be massive.
The formula is Kinetic Energy (KE)= ½MV2
Let's calculate it. . . and assume that that energy will be expended in one second. Let's use metric measures, so the results will be in Joules of energy (Watts per Second). 200,000 Lbs is approximate 90,000 Kilos, so for simplicity since I estimated the 200,000 lb weight anyway, let's round up to 100,000 Kilo to make our calculations simple. Similarly we are going to round our speed down from 212 meters/second to 200 meters per second.
So, let's plug in our figure into the formula:
J = ½ X 100,000 X 2002First step is square the velocity and plug that result into our formula:
J = 1 /2 X 100,000 X 40,000
Multiply 100,000 by 40,000 and plug that result in the formula.
J = ½ X 4,000,000,000
Multiply ½ X 4 billion and plug in the result.
Joules = two billion. . .
TWO BILLION WATT SECONDS OF POWER all released in the time of ONE SECOND, 55,556 Watt Hours released in one second. Jocko! Most of it applied by the nose of the 757 against a very small area of concrete. It turns into heat. . . and that's not calculating the Joules in the fuel load.
Based upon where the hole in the Pentagon was a moment or two after impact of something, how high would the tail section have been above ground?