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Navy Officials Remain Quiet On Bomb Details (dropped in VA by F-18)
The Norfolk Virginan-Pilot ^ | Nov 1, 2007 | Kate Wiltrout, Deirdre Fernandes and John-Henry Doucette

Posted on 11/01/2007 6:22:26 AM PDT by RDTF

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1 posted on 11/01/2007 6:22:27 AM PDT by RDTF
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To: RDTF

Whoopee. A nuke was dropped in Lake Michigan years ago.


2 posted on 11/01/2007 6:26:58 AM PDT by Westlander (Unleash the Neutron Bomb)
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To: paddles; Allegra; doorgunner69; b4its2late; RightWhale; neodad; magslinger; MacDorcha; Drew68; ...

ping


3 posted on 11/01/2007 6:28:45 AM PDT by RDTF ("Courage is resistance to fear, mastery of fear - not absence of fear". Mark Twain)
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To: RDTF

It’s only been a day or two!

Jesus, talk about a press that can’t get the answers fast enough.

I suggest the media just invent whatever story they want and run with it. Hell, it’s what they do half the time anyway. Why wait for any fact finding, appointment of officials for investigation, review an questioning of individuals, analysis of aircraft and impact site...... The Navy can’t crap you an answer that fast! What kind of BS is this?


4 posted on 11/01/2007 6:31:32 AM PDT by Red6 (Come and take it.)
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To: RDTF
I give credit to the pilots just trying to learn about all this.
5 posted on 11/01/2007 6:33:51 AM PDT by Eye of Unk
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To: Vroomfondel; SC Swamp Fox; Fred Hayek; NY Attitude; P3_Acoustic; Bean Counter; investigateworld; ...
SONOBUOY PING!

Update to Tuesdays ping.

Click on pic for past Navair pings.

Post or FReepmail me if you wish to be enlisted in or discharged from the Navair Pinglist.
This is a medium to low volume pinglist.

6 posted on 11/01/2007 6:37:32 AM PDT by magslinger (I will not submit.)
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To: Red6

yep


7 posted on 11/01/2007 6:52:57 AM PDT by RDTF ("Courage is resistance to fear, mastery of fear - not absence of fear". Mark Twain)
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To: Red6

Many times the Navy never gives an answer!


8 posted on 11/01/2007 6:57:41 AM PDT by Coldwater Creek
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To: RDTF
Where are the throttle jockies on FR?

One of you guys chime in here. Hung up ordinance or an oopsie in the cockpit?

As a kid, my family was friends with the National Guard 2- Star General in IN. For my birthday, I got to go out to the Camp Atturberry fighter range and stand in the scoring tower as F-16 and A-10s were practicing with these “puffers” (that’s what the scoring guys called the dummy bombs). They were also scoring the gun range.

It was really cool (and loud). But the bombs were disappointing as they only let out a vertical poof of white smoke when they hit. We expected explosions and were standing on the outside deck watching the planes. They cam pretty close to the tower too.

They let us go out on the range and collect spent brass from the A-10s. I still have some of them.

9 posted on 11/01/2007 7:05:19 AM PDT by Tenacious 1 (No to nitwit jesters with a predisposition of self importance and unqualified political opinions!)
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To: Tenacious 1

Spent brass from a Warthog? I thought all the cases were retained in the aircrafts feed magazine. Could they have been .50BMG cases instead?


10 posted on 11/01/2007 7:10:30 AM PDT by Eye of Unk
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To: Tenacious 1

Hung ordinance is not out of the question, and even though they said it was a straight-in, I question the wisdom of going over the city.


11 posted on 11/01/2007 7:13:27 AM PDT by af_vet_rr
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To: RDTF

Lawn Dart *ping*


12 posted on 11/01/2007 7:16:10 AM PDT by Bean Counter (Stout Hearts...)
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To: Eye of Unk
Spent brass from a Warthog? I thought all the cases were retained in the aircrafts feed magazine. Could they have been .50BMG cases instead?

No sir. They were the biguns. They were strafing from our left and passing in front of us at less than 1,000 feet away. You could see the pilots inside the cockpits as they came in. Here is the scenario:

You would see the A-10 drop below the line of site (tree line) way out in the distance. It was hilly terrain. No sound yet (besides other planes circling high in the area). Then you would see the A-10 pop up over the hill, pull up on the approach, put the nose down, the front of the plane would spew smoke down the sides of the plane from the front and you would see shells (kind of a metallic cloud) dumping from the nose of the plane. Then LOUD DEEP SCREAM of the gun would follow, immediately followed by the sound of the jet. THe target would all but dissapear in a cloud of dust (Huge bullseye). The pilot would pull up and roll upside down as it went past us. Then you would hear the echo off the valey of the gun. It sounded like the loudest bull fart you ever heard (the echo that is). Plane would roll back over as it passed the huge bullseye down range and pull up and out of the pattern. The guys in the tower would rattle off some numbers and such and the pilot would acknowledge. When the first A-10 came in, we about jumped out of our skin when the sound of the gun got to us.

But the shell casings were not .50s. They were the big ones. There were some small casings on the range too. They said those were from the F-16s. (20MM Vs. 40MM I think).

13 posted on 11/01/2007 7:28:33 AM PDT by Tenacious 1 (No to nitwit jesters with a predisposition of self importance and unqualified political opinions!)
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To: Tenacious 1

Correction. The A-10s were 30MM casings.


14 posted on 11/01/2007 7:34:14 AM PDT by Tenacious 1 (No to nitwit jesters with a predisposition of self importance and unqualified political opinions!)
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To: RDTF
We used to receive message traffic while underway titled “Things that fell from aircraft”.

Dummy bombs are the least of our worries.

15 posted on 11/01/2007 7:54:19 AM PDT by Delta 21 ( MKC USCG - ret)
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To: Tenacious 1
Please forgive if it seems like I am trying to prove a point but unless there was another reason for that size of a shell to be found I do believe the Wathog retains the aluminum cases in its feed belt. Excerpt from article: The GAU-8/A ammunition is link less, reducing weight and avoiding a great deal of potential for jamming. The feed system is double-ended: the spent casings are not ejected from the aircraft (which takes a great deal of force if the possibility of severe airframe damage is to be eliminated) but are cycled back into the ammunition drum. The feed system is based on that developed for later M61 installations, but uses more advanced design techniques and materials throughout, to save weight.[2] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GAU-8_Avenger
16 posted on 11/01/2007 8:06:54 AM PDT by Eye of Unk
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To: Eye of Unk

Maybe the GAU-8/A is a modern version of the gun he saw in action. I spent two weeks at Atterbury and witnessed the cloud of junk falling from the A-10 as they fired the gun. I didn’t get a chance to go collect spent brass, but I saw a ton of stuff falling from the nose when they fired.

One other possibility if I am incorrect is that the 30mm cases could have come from an AH-64 main gun.


17 posted on 11/01/2007 8:16:44 AM PDT by American_Centurion (No, I don't trust the government to automatically do the right thing.)
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To: RDTF
The dummy bomb crashed next to a building on busy London Bridge Road on Tuesday after falling from a single-seat F/A-18 Hornet.

Ooops, wrong button... (somebody's fitness report just went all to hell!)

18 posted on 11/01/2007 8:19:40 AM PDT by ExSES (the "bottom-line")
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To: Eye of Unk

You are forgiven. I don’t know if the design changed since the 80’s or what. I’ll do some research and post back here.

Any way you cut it, the casings I saw and picked up from the field as a kid (I think in 1983 or so) fell from the plane and they were brass. Maybe the system has been updated since then. I’m not crazy. :o)

I’ll go find out.


19 posted on 11/01/2007 8:47:57 AM PDT by Tenacious 1 (No to nitwit jesters with a predisposition of self importance and unqualified political opinions!)
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To: Eye of Unk

http://www.military.cz/usa/air/in_service/weapons/cannons/gau8/gau8_en.htm

http://www.indopedia.org/GAU-8_Avenger.html

It’s been through some upgrades but I can’t find specifics right now. I’ll check when I have more time.


20 posted on 11/01/2007 9:26:24 AM PDT by Tenacious 1 (No to nitwit jesters with a predisposition of self importance and unqualified political opinions!)
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