High speed aircraft can generate enough lift to fly just with the fuselage. Wings are really only needed for take-off and landing at low speeds.
You will notice that the F-15 pilot said he landed at high speed, 250 knots or so.
The F-14 Tomcat, F-111, and B-1 bomber have swing wings, which extend on take-off but retract for high-speed flight. The F-14’s wing sweep has a computer control mode so that the wing sweep angle can change dynamically while the plane is maneuvering.
There are lots of stories about airplanes missing wings.
One of my instructors in flight training was flying an F-11 Tiger, and lost both wings during a high-G maneuver. He said that he noticed that the controls got “mushy”. In a lot of jets, the horizontal tail surfaces can angle up or down independently and replace the “ailerons” normally on the wing outer edges. He reported a problem to the tower and did a fly-by. They told him his wings were gone. I don’t know if he landed or ejected.
There have been numerous documented incidents where planes have launched from carriers with the wings folded. I know of cases where this has happened with A-1 and F-4 type aircraft.
When I was in the Mediterranean, I saw an F-4 land on the carrier with an outer wing panel (beyond the fold line) hanging straight down after a collision with a Russian Bear bomber.
I also saw an A-6 land at Naples air facility with a missing outer wing panel as a result of a collision somewhere over the Med.
The F-15 video was pretty impressive. It really shows how much lift is generated by the fuselage, and how at some point, the wings don’t provide any lift but are just pure drag.
If you have enough thrust, you don’t need any wings at all. But then it’s not an “airplane” but a rocket.
High speed aircraft can generate enough lift to fly just with the fuselage. Wings are really only needed for take-off and landing at low speeds.
You will notice that the F-15 pilot said he landed at high speed, 250 knots or so.
The F-14 Tomcat, F-111, and B-1 bomber have swing wings, which extend on take-off but retract for high-speed flight. The F-14’s wing sweep has a computer control mode so that the wing sweep angle can change dynamically while the plane is maneuvering.
There are lots of stories about airplanes missing wings.
One of my instructors in flight training was flying an F-11 Tiger, and lost both wings during a high-G maneuver. He said that he noticed that the controls got “mushy”. In a lot of jets, the horizontal tail surfaces can angle up or down independently and replace the “ailerons” normally on the wing outer edges. He reported a problem to the tower and did a fly-by. They told him his wings were gone. I don’t know if he landed or ejected.
There have been numerous documented incidents where planes have launched from carriers with the wings folded. I know of cases where this has happened with A-1 and F-4 type aircraft.
When I was in the Mediterranean, I saw an F-4 land on the carrier with an outer wing panel (beyond the fold line) hanging straight down after a collision with a Russian Bear bomber.
I also saw an A-6 land at Naples air facility with a missing outer wing panel as a result of a collision somewhere over the Med.
The F-15 video was pretty impressive. It really shows how much lift is generated by the fuselage, and how at some point, the wings don’t provide any lift but are just pure drag.
If you have enough thrust, you don’t need any wings at all. But then it’s not an “airplane” but a rocket.