Ladakh Flash Point

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crash8pilot

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How about taking off from negative gradient runways?
A negative gradient will definitely help a plane accelerate to takeoff speed, but I'll throw this one back at ya - hopefully the mission was a success and you're probably gonna want to land the plane back.... on a downward sloped runway. That's another problem that'll need solving :D Not saying its impossible slamming on the brakes throwing out all sorts of spoilers/reversers/drag chutes and what have you to bring the plane to a stop on a downward sloped runway.... but surely it'd be much more cost effective and efficient launching a plane to meet up with a tanker to top up on fuel, and once the mission is complete not having to worry about whether the aircraft necessarily has the performance to return to base on a negative gradient runway?
 

broadsword

Brigadier
A negative gradient will definitely help a plane accelerate to takeoff speed, but I'll throw this one back at ya - hopefully the mission was a success and you're probably gonna want to land the plane back.... on a downward sloped runway. That's another problem that'll need solving :D Not saying its impossible slamming on the brakes throwing out all sorts of spoilers/reversers/drag chutes and what have you to bring the plane to a stop on a downward sloped runway.... but surely it'd be much more cost effective and efficient launching a plane to meet up with a tanker to top up on fuel, and once the mission is complete not having to worry about whether the aircraft necessarily has the performance to return to base on a negative gradient runway?

Land on a positive gradient runway. This kind of airbase has to be specially built.
 

crash8pilot

Junior Member
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Land on a positive gradient runway. This kind of airbase has to be specially built.
Surely the cost of launching a tanker (whether it be an H-6 or Il-78 aerial refueler) would be cheaper and more efficient than building a base solely for launching and recovering aircraft??
 

Bright Sword

Junior Member
Registered Member
A negative gradient will definitely help a plane accelerate to takeoff speed, but I'll throw this one back at ya - hopefully the mission was a success and you're probably gonna want to land the plane back.... on a downward sloped runway.
From my basic flying experience, I am not sure a negative gradient is desirable though we are trained to land and take off from one. If there is a headwind then effect of having the nose of the plane down creates a devil of a job getting the nose wheel ( in tricycle under carriage) to lift. If the plane is a tail dragger ( tail wheel type ) its not so bad.
 

plawolf

Lieutenant General
That is a very good idea, but if the airfield is attacked and the maglev launch system is damaged or destroyed, the airfield would be rendered out of commission for a long time.

Thanks.

Not necessarily, they could easily design and build it as plug and play segments with all cables and assorted support systems enclosed within the segments themselves, so in the event of combat damage, you just need to pull out the damaged sections, redo the foundation and plug in fresh segments. It not add significantly to the time needed to repair normal runways if done right. It will cost a bit more, but I think the military would be willing to take that.

A bigger concern might be power capacitors and power lines being targeted. But those would be fixed/replaced easily enough, and they could use emergency generators.
 

crash8pilot

Junior Member
Registered Member
From by basic flying experience, I am not sure a negative gradient is desirable though we are trained to land and take off from one. If there is a headwind then effect of having the nose of the plane down creates a devil of a job getting the nose wheel ( in tricycle under carriage) to lift. If the plane is a tail dragger ( tail wheel type ) its not so bad.
My point exactly. The plane I flew didn't have slats, so it pointed nose down on the glideslope, especially when we landed with full flaps on a short runway.... Took helluva flare to raise the nose on touchdown.

Not sure how military flying works, but quite frankly at a commercial level the gradient of a runway is often glimpsed at (dare I say disregarded) unless it's some massive steep upslope or downslope as was suggested - I know it's stressed at the flight training/general aviation level, but it really just doesn't make a massive difference. If I pulled out the Quick Reference Handbook into the performance page, you're probably just looking at a 2-3% takeoff/landing distance penalty for a positive/negative gradient.
 

Bright Sword

Junior Member
Registered Member
My point exactly. The plane I flew didn't have slats, so it pointed nose down on the glideslope, especially when we landed with full flaps on a short runway.... Took helluva flare to raise the nose on touchdown.

Not sure how military flying works, but quite frankly at a commercial level the gradient of a runway is often glimpsed at (dare I say disregarded) unless it's some massive steep upslope or downslope as was suggested - quite frankly it just doesn't make a massive difference. If I pulled out the Quick Reference Handbook into the performance page, you're probably just looking at a 2-3% takeoff/landing distance penalty for a positive/negative gradient.
Yeah, you have to yank that yoke back pretty hard unless you are flying one of those servo assist "fly by wire" babies.
 

siegecrossbow

General
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Oka folks, they have a "homegrown"(!!!!) mizzile now which can strike Tibet. Though i admit, i have no idea what would they be targeting at Tibet.

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And they are prepared.

We've been hearing how they are prepared since May...

That said, they disclosed the new patrol gear for the PLA on the Indian border. I'm too lazy to port all the photos over here so just visit the link.

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