<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by mdtony:
So if they hit a plane on take off, even if they did puncture the tank, it wouldn't do all that much, correct?
From what you are saying, the time to hit a plane if you wanted a fireball would be on landing, when the tanks would be less full and there would be the potential for a fuel-air mix that's right for combustion.</font>
Exactly what I'm saying.
Case in example, the AF Concorde crash where 2 engines were literally on fire. There was a trail of jet fuel ignited by the engine fires.
No exploding fuel tank. Punctures and flames in direct contact with fuel. No explosion.
When did the Concorde explode and shatter the fuselage? After it crashed and the fuel tank is opened to the air by a mechanical crash. That's when you get the explosive air-fuel mix which broke the plane into a lot of small pieces.
A plane is more likely to come down in 1 piece being hit upon takeoff (vs. landing), but also more likely to have more casualties on the ground because a crash will crack the tanks and the fire/smoke/incipient explosion could kill people who survived the crash.
<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">ender83 wrote...
Why do you persist in this notion that the fireball would be behind the aircraft? It's complete nonsense when you realize that Stinger-type missiles have warheads that penetrate their targets before detonation. The fireball would occur inside the fuel tank.</font>
So the SAM works perfectly in tracking in on the aircraft engine but then swerves off to hit a fuel tank? Very self-contradictory.
In any case, the AF Concorde case should show than even with an engine on fire, there was no explosion.
Here's a mental experiment. Let's imagine you ignite a bomb inside an almost full fuel tank. Does the tank catch on fire or does the fire put itself out after a few seconds due to oxygen deprivation?
Even when the fuel tank is breached by shrapnel, only the small quantities of fuel in direct contact with the outside environment can possibly burn. The fuel still inside the tank simply can't burn, lacking the other ingredient - air.
It's a matter of chemistry (which is really physics on a slightly different scale).