Israel to test rocket-assisted take-off with F-16

Flightglobal.com ^ | 15 September 2014 | ARIE EGOZI

[E. Pluribus Unum]

What could go wrong?

[Tijeras_Slim]

Not as crazy as the trailer launched F-100.

[Red Badger]

I launched a trailer from My F-100 once..............

[taxcontrol]

I am of the opinion that Israel would be better off designing a smaller STOL capable A-10 Warthog equivalent. Something that can takeoff and land on a couple hundred feet of roadway; able to knock out tanks; able to provide ground fire support; and spend a long time in the air.

[taildragger]

Hmmm... Save fuel for long flights? :-) Imagine a converted cargo ship... oh nevermind.. :-)

[Antihero101607]

“What could go wrong?”

341 Bulkhead for one. It’s only a crack prone bulkhead that sits behind the main landing gear, and also has the accessory drive gearbox mounted to it.

Naw, rocket assisted take-offs shouldn’t put any extra strain on the main landing gear or the bulkhead.

[mad_as_he$$]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8YOtm9UCQEc

[McGruff]

Seems like drones are the air force of the future. So many possible uses. You can hover right outside HAMAS’s window.

[wita]

That would be an RPA, UAV, or drone.

[Da Coyote]

Funny I always thought the F-16 was originally built by General Dynamics.

[NorthMountain]

Why not?

[Jewbacca]

It’s not to be done outside emergencies, in which case the risk is OK.

One other alternative is to use some sort of cable-assisted launch to get that extra 100mph right away.

[Antihero101607]

Didn’t have my coffee yet, spoke a bit too soon. Makes a lot more sense.

[ken5050]

Just taking a guess here..but it sounds more like a clever cover-story for something else..Israel is so small that an F-16 has no trouble making a landing anywhere in the country, and any Israeli pilot knows better than to put down in a neighboring country.

However... much speculation about Israel's ability to strike at Iran's nuclear sites focuses on the distances involved..either mid-air refueling or a refueling stop ( which now seems impossible given how the Middle East is going to hell. So, could these be some type of extended range fuel tanks, which would make the mission possible..and meant to deceive Iranian spies..?

[wrench]

That makes more sense. Perhaps a large conformal fuel tank, and the need for additional TO performance for the huge increase in gross weight.

[Robert A Cook PE]

They’ve even launched B-47 and B-29’s (B-50’s) with rocket-assisted take-off.

[Vendome]

Will they have to jettison unused arms to safely land?

[RayChuang88]

The B-47 needed rocket-assisted takeoff because once loaded with a nuclear weapon (of its day in the early to middle 1950's) that weighed 9,000 to 12,000 pounds, it needed all the assistance it can to get off the ground in a reasonable distance. Today, our most powerful free-fall nuclear weapon--the B83 bomb with yield of 1.2 MT--weighs only 2,400 pounds, easily within the weight limits of the bomb racks on the F-15E Strike Eagle plane.

[RichInOC]

KATZ: TAKE OFF EVERY ‘ZIG’.
KATZ: MOVE ‘ZIG’. FOR GREAT JUSTICE.