The F-16 does not go Mach 2 (cruise) !


Message posted by Fuel Fraction on May 02, 2002 at 17:46:37 PST:

Dear Magoo,

Yes, an YF-12, or any Mach 3 cruise interceptor WOULD have been able to shot down 'at least' one of the two B-767 last September.

The YF-12 was able to CRUISE at Mach 3.2 !! The Hughes GAR-9 missiles it carried were designed to fly at MACH 4... (!). Put these capabilites combined together, and this gives you a MACH 7 total speed....!!

No civilian aircraft could run away from that.

(this missile system later became the Phoenix,for the F-14 fighter)(The GAR-9 did not use a nuclear warhead, you must confuse it with the Genie and the missiles of the F-106, F-102 and Voodoo, which were much less precise. The GAR-9 was very precise, and took down or touched the target such as the B-47 and Ryan drones it was sent after).


The F-16 and F-15 are NOT designed to cruise at
Mach 2 (!). They can reach that speed only for a very short duration...!

A dash at Mach 2 for a duration of more than 5 to 10 minutes would MELT the compressor's blades...! The engine would spit it's blades, and they'd pile up in the postcombustion chamber and all over the landscape.
Furthermore, the metals in the postcombustion chamber would reach temperature design limits in no time, would start to deform... and melt....
The aircraft would explode or catch on fire.

Also, when a figther uses military power, the rate of fuel comsumption is so enormous, as to exhaust the whole supply of JP in mere few minutes...

The F-16 that followed and tried to intercept the second Boeing (very much in vain) arrived a full
1 HOUR late behind its target...!
This is documented in multiple newspaper article and eyewitnesses. The F-16 arrived roaring over New York one full hour later, the eyewitnesses thought this was a third attack coming.... until they saw the airplane, a military fighter, sadly,too late.

The F-16 cruises, at most, between 900 km per hour and Mach 1.
The Boeing it was trying to intercept cruises at over 900 km per hour.
It was impossible for the interceptor to have closed that gap.
Even the F-22 would have been much too slow, at Mach 1.4 or so.

Now, if they would have had YF-12s, they 'could' have stopped it. But... like i said earlier, there are several logistical considerations that might have made that impossible.
Best scenario, would have seen several YF-12s on permanent CAP missions at ALL times over North America.
Only that way could they have been ready to intercept an aircraft such as the B-767 within US soil, when the situation occured. But this would have taken a lot of aircrafts, a lot of money and resources..

Surely, in this case, with the cost of a new Mach 3 interceptor today, they could never have fielded enought figthers to cover for such a contingency..
(But if they had put the money into buying lots of them, they could have done it).

Fuel Fraction.



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