Post your jokes and humor here.

Post your jokes and humor here.
 
marshg246 said:
The funny thing to me is that in typical overkill, we used a missile to shoot it down (and destroy most of it) when the same plane could have shot the balloon with a bullet or two causing a more controlled decent and likely without damaging the instruments.
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Relief to read the same thoughts came to others.
Are motorcyclists a bit more practical minded than the general public?
I kept asking anyone who would listen why shoot a half million dollar missle when a $20 bullet would work?
 
Variety of reasons.
At that height a fighter needs to be supersonic to maintain altitude. Depending on when a bullet is fired a jet could very well overtake it.
Difficulty of firing on a stationary object at that speed.

More importantly, pressure differential. You could put 1k holes in it. Helium won't escape quickly at that altitude. Balloon would just drift off...
 
marshg246 said:
The funny thing to me is that in typical overkill, we used a missile to shoot it down (and destroy most of it) when the same plane could have shot the balloon with a bullet or two causing a more controlled decent and likely without damaging the instruments.
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I doubt if the USAF has any aircraft that still fire bullets, except in museums.

Slick
 
texasSlick said:
I doubt if the USAF has any aircraft that still fire bullets, except in museums.

Slick
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F15, F16, F35, A10 and many more. My stepson is a retired F16 pilot. Close in, the cannon is your best friend - of course they prefer to reach out and touch someone far away from the other guy's cannon.
 
NPeteN said:
At that height a fighter needs to be supersonic to maintain altitude. Depending on when a bullet is fired a jet could very well overtake it.
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Not true. They often are because "supersonic" is relatively slow at that altitude. A bullet fired at 3450 ft/s with a plane at 600 ft/s will leave the plane at 4050 ft/s.

I checked with some involved and learned a couple of answers. The F22 cannon's bullet effective range is 2000 ft at sea level and they fired at about 7000 feet away. So, the bullet couldn't reach unless the plane got a lot closer.

My real issue was why destroy the instruments - they didn't, they hit the balloon. Most US military missiles have multiple targeting and triggering mechanisms. That's one reason they are so expensive. In this case an impact trigger would be iffy but proximity would not.
 
marshg246 said:
Not true. They often are because "supersonic" is relatively slow at that altitude. A bullet fired at 3450 ft/s with a plane at 600 ft/s will leave the plane at 4050 ft/s.

I checked with some involved and learned a couple of answers. The F22 cannon's bullet effective range is 2000 ft at sea level and they fired at about 7000 feet away. So, the bullet couldn't reach unless the plane got a lot closer.

My real issue was why destroy the instruments - they didn't, they hit the balloon. Most US military missiles have multiple targeting and triggering mechanisms. That's one reason they are so expensive. In this case an impact trigger would be iffy but proximity would not.
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Rare? yes. Unlikely? definitely. Impossible? No. Just a potential consideration.
That bullet loses speed and altitude as soon as its fired.
Regardless, this isn't the reason a missle was chosen.
Bullets wouldn't have brought it down at that altitude. That's all.
 
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marshg246 said:
F15, F16, F35, A10 and many more. My stepson is a retired F16 pilot. Close in, the cannon is your best friend - of course they prefer to reach out and touch someone far away from the other guy's cannon.
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Cannon projectiles are not bullets. But I agee they are more cost effective than missles and would bring a balloon down in a similar way as bullets.

Slick
 
texasSlick said:
Cannon projectiles are not bullets. But I agee they are more cost effective than missles and would bring a balloon down in a similar way as bullets.

Slick
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Shaped like a BIG bullet, forced down a barrel like a bullet, what do you call it?

"The M61 Vulcan is a hydraulically, electrically, or pneumatically driven, six-barrel, air-cooled, electrically fired Gatling-style rotary cannon which fires 20 mm × 102 mm (0.787 in × 4.016 in) rounds at an extremely high rate (typically 6,000 rounds per minute). The M61 and its derivatives have been the principal cannon armament of United States military fixed-wing aircraft for over sixty years."

The F22 has a M61A2 cannon and 480 rounds on board.
 
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