Chapter 282 F100 Fails
Although the F-15's bubble cockpit had a good rear view, the tall ejection seat blocked the view backwards. Dick had no idea how serious the fire in the rear engine was. He could only see thick smoke billowing from the rear. Inside the cockpit, the engine fire alarm indications kept sounding.
Today's fighter planes are full of fuel and ammunition, especially aviation kerosene, and there is a risk of explosion at any time! At this moment, Major Dick was shrouded in the threat of death. He was afraid that the next moment, the entire plane would explode violently and turn him into a fireball!
So, Major Dick hesitated for only a second before pulling the ejection handle on his seat.
Amid the piercing sound of the breaching gun piercing a hole in the top cover, the ejection seat ignited, and Major Dick, with his legs together, was successfully ejected from the cockpit!
The initial production F-15 fighters were equipped with McDonnell Douglas' ACESII ejection seat, which still has zero-to-zero life-saving capabilities. At zero airspeed and zero altitude, the ejection mechanism is activated within 0.3 seconds, the rocket is activated within 0.45 seconds, the seat is separated after 1.3 seconds, and the parachute opens after 2.3 seconds.
Listening to the whistling sound of the wind beside his ears, Major Dick was unable to lift his body due to the huge overload caused by the ignition of the rocket seat. Then, his body stopped rising, the seat separated, his body tightened, and the parachute opened.
Only at this time did he open his eyes, and when he looked down, his face suddenly turned pale.
****!
The right engine was still emitting thick smoke, while the left engine was still working normally, pushing the fighter to continue taxiing on the runway. However, after only two seconds, it began to yaw. Under Dick's gaze, the unmanned taxiing fighter plunged into the apron on the side of the runway!
Four F-15 fighters were refueling and loading bombs there, preparing to take off. When they saw this plane coming, everyone ran to the side like crazy. Unfortunately, their two legs could not outrun the fighter plane! Just like that, Major Dick's fighter plane rushed in here, collided with other fighter planes, and collided with the ground crew's refueling truck nearby. Then, a larger and more violent flame appeared!
Even Dick's parachute seemed to be pushed by the airflow generated by the explosion and stopped for a moment. Major Dick seemed to be able to feel the heat of the air wave.
I've got myself into big trouble! Before ejecting, at least I should shut down the engine and stop the plane! Major Dick closed his eyes.
The fire truck at the base sounded the alarm and quickly rushed to the site of the explosion. However, the flames that shot up into the sky were not so easy to control!
His legs stepped on solid ground, and as he watched people around him rushing to the fire scene nervously, Major Dick felt himself in a trance.
Yokota, U.S. Army Command.
"There was an accident at Misawa Base." Lieutenant General Paul listened to the news he had just received: "An F-15 engine failed. After the pilot parachuted to escape, the fighter plane crashed into the tarmac, destroying four F-15 fighters. The refueling truck exploded as a result. Misawa Base has now put out the fire, and it will take two hours to restore its ability to deploy."
As a frontier base, Misawa Base is always ready to support air battles in Hokkaido. The most important F-15 fighter jets of the US military are deployed at Misawa Base! Now, an F-15 fighter jet at Misawa Base has encountered such an accident!
Lieutenant General Paul's face looked very serious. Someone must be held accountable for failing at the critical moment!
"Also, McDonnell Douglas' technical experts conducted an on-site fault analysis and concluded that the first engine failure and fire on the F-15 fighter was caused by a broken compressor blade. They hope that we will ground all F-15 fighters and resume flying after a comprehensive inspection is completed and confirmed to be safe."
"What?" Lieutenant General Paul stood up. "Our F-15 fighters can only fly again after all engines have been thoroughly inspected? McDonnell Douglas's request comes at the perfect time! Connect me to McDonnell Douglas immediately!"
Now, if you want to seize air superiority over Hokkaido, you must rely on a powerful third-generation aircraft like the F-15! Only the F-15 can have enough technical advantages! Lieutenant General Paul put all his hopes on the F-15. In the entire island region, the US military and the island country's air self-defense force are equipped with hundreds of F-15s! In the narrow Hokkaido airspace, it is enough to seize air superiority without the need for the F-4.
But now, the battle is about to start, and McDonnell Douglas says it wants to ground the F-15? Lieutenant General Paul really wants to take out his pistol, point it at the head of the head of McDonnell Douglas, and ask him if he is working for the KGB!
"Hello, this is Lieutenant General Paul. What's the matter with the grounding of our F-15 fighter jets?" After answering the phone, Lieutenant General Paul suppressed his anger and asked the person on the other end of the phone.
"General, I'm Smith, an engine engineer from HP." The voice on the other end of the phone was a little stiff. "The engine that just lost control was caused by the broken blades of the compressor. This is not an isolated case. We suspect that this batch of engines all have the same problem. We must test them one by one to confirm it. We are now dismantling the engine of another F-15 and have found cracks on the compressor blades. In fierce air confrontations, the cracks in the blades can easily expand and break, which is disadvantageous to our pilots."
(Pratt & Whitney, PW, not Hewlett-Packard, HP. Pratt & Whitney makes engines, while HP makes PCs. There is no connection between them.)
Another F-15 engine was disassembled and cracks were found on the compressor blades! This shows that this is definitely not an isolated case, but a sign of a serious accident!
F100, an engine with a thrust-to-weight ratio of 8 manufactured by Pratt & Whitney of the United States, is so advanced that it is staggering. In later generations, China has been developing turbofans for more than ten years, but its technical indicators are still not as good as F100. You know, F100 was put into use in the 1970s! Moreover, the total development time was less than four years!
The designers took into account the users’ high-performance requirements for the engine: high thrust and high thrust-to-weight ratio. They adopted a large number of advanced technologies at the time, such as selecting the typical “2 highs and 1 low” thermodynamic cycle parameters, i.e., high compression ratio, high turbine inlet temperature, and low bypass ratio. They also applied a large number of new materials, new processes, and new structures. For example, the use of titanium alloy materials has reached more than 25% of the total weight of the engine. They were the first to use IN100 powder high-temperature alloy to manufacture 11 parts such as large-diameter turbine disks and compressor disks, and PWA1422 directional solidification high-temperature alloy to manufacture turbine blades. In terms of processing technology, they adopted advanced processes such as precision casting, hot isostatic pressing (HIP), and electron beam welding (EBW).
However, this hastily launched engine also has a disadvantage, and that disadvantage is reliability!