Way OT (was RE: OT somewhat. China, our aircraft, delays.)

From: Joe <rigdonj_at_intellistar.net>
Date: Tue Apr 10 09:54:12 2001

At 04:19 PM 4/9/01 -0400, you wrote:
>There is some disagreement about jettisoning the radome. Not sure what
>made it fall off, but it is only a fiberglass bubble over a radar
>transceiver. Not terribly sturdy because it has to be transparent to
>radar waves. It is only there to protect the antennae and for aerodynamic
>purposes.
>
>I bet that is one of the only senders on the plane.

   Of course it is. Did you happen to notice that big dish on the bottom of
the fuselage? Guess what's in it? Also take a look at the long dome on top
of the fuselage. I'd be willing to bet that it contains a fixed antenna for
a side looking RADAR. FWIW the RADAR antenna that was in the forward radome
probably contained an antenna for a STANDARD weather and naviagation RADAR.
The system certainly contains nothing that would have to be jettisisioned.

 The rest of it are
>antennae for receiving electronic intelligence such as radar frequencies,
>radio traffic, microwave traffic, and the like.
>
>In <Pine.GSO.4.21.0104082328560.11155-100000_at_lanshark.lanminds.com>, on
>04/09/01
> at 04:19 PM, "Fred Cisin (XenoSoft)" <cisin_at_xenosoft.com> said:
>
>>On Sun, 8 Apr 2001, Chris Kennedy wrote:
>>> - The radome is missing. I'm at a loss to explain how the radome
>>> got ripped off the aircraft by contact on the wing -- especially
>>> given that the fuselage forward of the wing root doesn't appear
>>> damaged.

    Most likely it collided with the vertical stablizer (ie "rudder") when
the fighter tried to "bump" the EP-3 by passing underneath it at high
speed. The debris probably did the damage to the propellors and other
external antenna.

     Joe
Received on Tue Apr 10 2001 - 09:54:12 BST