Well, I consider Knoxville, TN. to be a fairly large metropolitan/city area. Yet at 12,000 ft., and about 5 miles north of it, I could barely distinguish it. Mind you, it was the spring of the year and the greenery was magnificent. But if the pilot hadn't of told me exactly where to look, I would have never noticed it.
The pilot got his ticket pulled.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn...051301570.html
You really have to be very stupid...if an F16 shows up it's a matter of common sense to make a 180 degrees turn!!...
The other thing is, can a sidewider lock a cessna?...I think I wouldn't waste a sidewinder, much less an AMRAAM to shoot down a cessna...wouldn't be much cheaper half a second of the M61A1?
Well, I can't tell you what a sidewinder can and can't lock on to... actually, yes I can, but it's still classified today.
There are two things that people seem to forget about when considering shooting down a plane in this situation...
1) You can blow the plane to bits and it will still have the same mass and last I heard, he was over a densely populated area.
2) The pilot who does this shooting... I doubt the guy imagined it as part of his job description when he signed up.
Later AIM-9's could in theory. These missiles are all aspect missiles. IE not just designed to be fired from a rear aspect position. Offcourse on jets the engine is a huge heat source so it does improve the chances of a hit but it could pick up the warmer airframe (due to friction etc.) against the colder background. Also the engine of a cessna still generates some heat so it would be reasonable target. I think best practice with small GA aircraft would indeed to try and use the M61A1 however above a city like DC I would be rather worried where my rounds that didnt impact went. I would be happier using an AIM-9 and limiting the damage footprint on the ground then spraying 20 mm AFPDS all over downtown DC.Originally posted by javierib:
You really have to be very stupid...if an F16 shows up it's a matter of common sense to make a 180 degrees turn!!...
The other thing is, can a sidewider lock a cessna?...I think I wouldn't waste a sidewinder, much less an AMRAAM to shoot down a cessna...wouldn't be much cheaper half a second of the M61A1?