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Author Topic: Piper Cub: Faster than a speeding cop car  (Read 639 times)

Offline Toad

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Piper Cub: Faster than a speeding cop car
« on: July 29, 2005, 12:29:05 AM »
.... or not.

They escorted the Cub at least 30 miles to land at an airport North of the Space Center.

But somehow... probably due to a Cub's BLAZING speed... the cops couldn't get to the field in time to catch the pilot who parked the plane and beat feet.

Whew... at least it wasn't a terrorist... or was it?

I feel safer now.

Small plane enters shuttle no-fly zone
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Offline Fishu

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Piper Cub: Faster than a speeding cop car
« Reply #1 on: July 29, 2005, 12:34:05 AM »
Thats awesome.
Most cars are able to cruise faster :D
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Offline Hangtime

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Piper Cub: Faster than a speeding cop car
« Reply #2 on: July 29, 2005, 12:59:54 AM »
Wish we knew more about the flight profile.. was he low, was he cruisin at 1500, was it James Bond or Abdul Salami Sammichochitz?
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Offline Wolfala

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Piper Cub: Faster than a speeding cop car
« Reply #3 on: July 29, 2005, 03:10:02 AM »
Thats amusing - considering old people **** faster then that thing goes in a full power dive.
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Offline Maverick

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Piper Cub: Faster than a speeding cop car
« Reply #4 on: July 29, 2005, 11:35:15 AM »
As the crow flies. Straight line trumps roads again.
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Offline Toad

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Piper Cub: Faster than a speeding cop car
« Reply #5 on: July 29, 2005, 11:45:06 AM »
Has to be more to the story.

Did they direct him to land at an unattended airfield or one with a tower? Did they coordinate with the field? Did they even call the cops to meet him?

In any event, it shows yet another hole in the wall.
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Offline Chairboy

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Piper Cub: Faster than a speeding cop car
« Reply #6 on: July 29, 2005, 11:56:04 AM »
A J-3 has to be almost invulnerable to modern air to air missiles.

The tiny engine is miniscule with minimal heat output for a Sidewinder to lock onto, and the wood/fabric structure sure has to play havoc w/ the radar guided missiles.  

Seems like all your hopes against the Cub menace would lie with the engine block making a big enough radar return or the missile using the CCD to home in on the contrast difference of the plane against the sky (as some later revisions of the AIM-9 do).

-

My guess is that he was routed to a field, and they had federales come for him instead of local police, so the federals needed extra time to get there through traffic.  The guy probably landed, hung out for a while, then shrugged and went off to grab lunch when nobody showed up.  They've got the tail number, it's not like he's hiding who he is, right?
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Offline Toad

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Piper Cub: Faster than a speeding cop car
« Reply #7 on: July 29, 2005, 12:00:00 PM »
The J-3 is not invulnerable to 20mm, however. Nor is it invulnerable to "wake turbulence". I think if they wanted to put him down, a high speed pass in blower right over and down in front of him might well do it.

Yes, they have the N-number. Now, assuming the worst, what if this is/was an A-Q operative that stole the Cub? (I doubt it is, but what if?)

The point is, after the intercept the guy got clean away... in a Cub.
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Offline Chairboy

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Piper Cub: Faster than a speeding cop car
« Reply #8 on: July 29, 2005, 12:15:47 PM »
Perhaps my avatar pic isn't doctored after all....

Maybe it was a Cub with the JATO STC, he just fired it off in flight.  You know how they overengineered all those old planes, it can probably top out at 3 mach no problem with a little rocket assist.  It's all in which doping you use for the fabric.
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Offline Maverick

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Piper Cub: Faster than a speeding cop car
« Reply #9 on: July 29, 2005, 04:32:10 PM »
J-3 cub may not have even had a radio at all. If so it wiull be rather hard to "direct" the pilot anywhere. Couple that with the fact that there are at least 2 or 3 levels to get the communication through. The F16's cannot talk to Police. They likely can't talk to any civilian contollers either. That means they have to call Tracon who calls 911 who routes it to the police dispatcher who then dispatches the Patrol cars. All this with no commo with the cub so they have to wait for it to commit to a field before they know where it's going.

FWIW a Cub will have a darn hard time being much of a threat to anything on the ground harder than a gopher.
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Offline Toad

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Piper Cub: Faster than a speeding cop car
« Reply #10 on: July 29, 2005, 05:50:20 PM »
Later reports say there was no radio contact; they punched off 3 flares in front of him to get his attention and escorted him to the airfiled 50 miles North.

As far as the damage a cub can do...... wonder what would happen if you flew a cub into the shuttles fuel tank/boosters while it sat on the pad before launch.
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Offline Chairboy

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Piper Cub: Faster than a speeding cop car
« Reply #11 on: July 29, 2005, 05:58:30 PM »
Boostes: Nothing.  Those are hard steel, it'd crumple and fall to the ground.  These things have to hold up to amazing internal pressure during boost, then survive being dropped into the ocean.

The ET...   aircraft grade aluminum, frozen to near brittle and fully of cryogenic fuel, that might be different.

Of course, it might not be able to handle the negative thermals nearby because of the cryo, not to mention that the plane is small enough that the ubiquitous Florida bug-zappers arrayed around the facility would probably take it out.

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Offline Maverick

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Piper Cub: Faster than a speeding cop car
« Reply #12 on: July 29, 2005, 08:45:24 PM »
Yep yer right Toad. I guess it's time to ban private airplanes. The government knows best.
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Offline Toad

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Piper Cub: Faster than a speeding cop car
« Reply #13 on: July 29, 2005, 09:20:00 PM »
Not the point and you know it Mav. The f-16's could have taken out the Cub easily and they were already up patrolling the no-fly.

The point is the incredible lack of co-ordination and follow-up.
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Offline midnight Target

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Piper Cub: Faster than a speeding cop car
« Reply #14 on: July 29, 2005, 09:45:17 PM »
They could have used a .50 cal rifle of course.
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