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The only thing I cared about with that jacket was the fact I had like seven quid in change in the inner pocket, if you look. That's why it weighs so much.
On the missile thing, I'm just throwing this out here. But I think some kind of heat sensing equipment would be quite useful, it would be able to detect it when it's launched because obviously they give off a lot of heat to launch. I don't know how it'd work, but it's an idea.
.....passive devices such as flares or decoys. .....
Sure do - we had an STC ready to go - no Fed in the world was going to balk at it, especially after 9-11.Then you would know about having to satisfy FAR Part 25 and the impact to engineering deliverables (ie installation drawings, lab/ground/flight test plans, type inspections, etc).
Actually the system was quite safe and already used in a number of military aircraft (it would of been similar to the AEL-47). You could hit it with a base ball bat and nothing was going to happen. That was all worked out, it was all a matter of money and how much the airlines were going to pay at the time.Can you imagine the safety assessment for pyrotechnics shot from the airplane? The lockouts to prevent ground personnel from blowing themselves up during a refuel? The development assurance necessary to satisfy regulatory requirements? What a nightmare.
Well if BAE is still in the countermeasures business, they must be waiting with baited breath. 15,000 airframes is quite a lucrative potential market.
Depends on how high you are and how far away you are from it.
I remember reading about some B52 crews being angry that the gunner was moved forward. They liked having a set of eyes looking backards for any SAM's launched at them from the tail position.
It's my understanding that modern flares are pretty cool. Modern IR seekers are pretty discriminating, and the all aspect ones try to home in on warm skin like leading edges, and ignore really obvious things like the sun and jet pipes. Hence, the modern flares are made to burn colder.
I was once told by an acquaintance who knows a thing or six about AAMs and SAMs that most pilot's first warning of a missile launch is seeing the rocket engine as the missile overshoots. So, yeah, I can understand wanting to have eyes in the back instead of a radar antenna. Still, these days just about all combat aircraft have launch detectors that are much more sensitive at the right wavelengths than the human eye. As long as there are not muzzle flashes, explosions and what not saturating the sensors, they should give a much better warning. And if you are in a situation with that much IR noise, you are probably already executing countermeasures anyway.