Posted on 04/21/2010 10:36:37 PM PDT by ErnstStavroBlofeld
When an Icelandic volcano erupted last week, it didn't just wreak havoc with commercial flights. It grounded American jet fighters and some of the most advanced air forces in the world.
Like their commercial cousins, fighters, reconnaissance planes, helicopters and other military aircraft around the region sat idle for days. They are just now beginning to come back to life, although fighter jets — which have highly sensitive engines — remain grounded across much of Europe.
The U.S. Air Force's biggest fighter wing in Europe, at England's RAF Lakenheath air base, was under no-fly orders and many of its F-15s were being kept in protective shelters. U.S. military officials at their European headquarters in Germany said they were keeping all aircraft on routine missions on the ground regionwide as a precaution.
At Aviano Air Base in northern Italy, "when everyone else wasn't flying, we weren't flying either" during the airspace shutdown, said U.S. Air Force Lt. Kim Schaerdel.
But some F-16s started flying on Tuesday evening, and by Wednesday operations were "back up at full steam" at Aviano, with inspections showing the ash cloud had caused no damage, said base colleage Lt. Brian Wagner of the 31st Fighter Wing.
Fighters are more susceptible to the ash in part because their engines operate at higher temperatures due to more extreme performance requirements, making it more likely that the ash will melt inside the engine's hot parts.
(Excerpt) Read more at google.com ...
Perfect timing for a ground invasion by Warsaw Pact armies.
Some helicopters have particle seperators to keep FOD from being ingested into the engine. I don’t know how it would work with this ash. There would most likely be window/canopy and leading edge/rotor damage, depending on how much was present and how long they were exposed.
“Perfect timing for a ground invasion by Warsaw Pact armies.”
Especially when they perfect the volcano eruption trigger device.
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