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The Hornet's sting...

By The Armorer on February 15, 2009 | | Comments (18)
Silly me.  Here I thought it had something to do with the cannon, or the missiles.  Or bombs even.

Hornet with some stingers in its tail.

I'm guessing that wasn't too hard to clean up.  A few seconds at full military power...

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18 Comments

By Argent on February 15, 2009 2:07 PM
I instead get the feeling it took ages to cleanup if they left residue everywhere or had time to build anything.
 
By AFSister on February 15, 2009 2:20 PM
I'd like to know how long it sat idle to build up that kind of hive!
 
By Grumpy on February 15, 2009 4:24 PM
As I look at these pictures, I have different conflicting thoughts. The first one is the point of view of the person who has ever run into a hive like this and was stung. You know the saying, "Paybacks can be a real b---h!"  But that jet is not the only thing to get its tail cleaned out. My father was a machinist, the term he would use to describe the process and the name of the tool, is the word, "REAM." Let's just say, there are places on those birds which can not be fouled. A constipated jet is not a happy jet.
 
By Josh on February 15, 2009 4:49 PM
So would it be possible to start that engine or not?  Because if you could...well, why stop at military power, I can't imagine a single organic molecule surviving a minute or two on full afterburner.
 
By Grumpy on February 15, 2009 7:59 PM
@Josh, believe me, I wish it were as simple as John suggests, but I wouldn't suggest it. I would even suggest dismantling the engine for total cleaning.

Josh, Mama Nature takes great pride in blowing our minds. There are organic materials, which not only survive, but thrive in the worlds of glaciers, snow, boiling mud and even relatively fresh lava.
 
By allen on February 15, 2009 8:03 PM
if those are africanized, you wouldn't be able to get into the aircraft to run it.
 
By Josh on February 15, 2009 10:59 PM
Grumpy - Some organic materials can be very heat resistant, but I happen to know that wax melts and paper burns...and insects, well, they just roast nicely.  I suppose the engine might still need cleaning, mostly to remove some carbon deposits, but how much of a beehive or wasp nest is going to survive both the airflow AND flame of an afterburning turbine?

The thing I really want to know, still, is would it start?  Because no matter how hot the flames are and how powerful the airflow is, you're never going to be able to generate that if they're in the fuel system and hence you don't have any juice to make thing run in the first place, or if an infestation like this could keep the compressor blades from turning.  But could they do that?
 
By BillT on February 16, 2009 4:01 AM
That's not a hive, it's only a swarm, and a small one, at that. They haven't started building yet -- they're just waiting for the queen to figure out if it'll make a dandy new home or not.

Since they're all tanked up with honey, they're pretty docile. A couple of puffs of smoke will get 'em to scoot. I recommend using sycamore bark and some dried sumac berries on top of a chunk of smoldering burlap.
 
By Spanky on February 16, 2009 5:49 AM
If Big Tobacco is around a couple of puffs on a Montocristo's should do the trick.
 
By John of Argghhh! on February 16, 2009 8:39 AM
Heh. I was all about "the sting in the hornet's tail" but, well, you guys went elsehwere...
 
By BillT on February 16, 2009 9:49 AM
That's not a sting, it's a tailhook.

Although a lot of folks *did* get stung by one a buncha years back...
 
By lex on February 16, 2009 11:11 AM
Pilot: Um, yeah, Chief? 304's down.

Chief: What's she down for?

Pilot: She's down because I can't - won't - preflight her...

 
By SalsaShark on February 16, 2009 12:58 PM
@BillT - Smoke, you say?  Hmmm...too bad it's not an F-4.
 
By Leslie on February 16, 2009 9:03 PM
A hive of bees that is swarming is pretty docile. As long as you don't pinch them, you can just scoop them up and put them into a box, then take them elsewhere. They are just looking for a new home. I wouldn't recommend the one in this picture!!
 
By BillT on February 16, 2009 10:56 PM
Hmmm...too bad it's not an F-4.

An F-4 can't beat an An-12 as a smoke generator, but it's the winner in the noise category. Only thing noisier than an F-4 is *two* F-4s...
 
By Josh on February 17, 2009 3:39 AM
Nah, Tu-95 beats F-4 any day.  Nothing noisier than a Bear.

Unless of course you count the Thunderscreech.  But that never really went anywhere...
 
By BillT on February 17, 2009 5:07 AM
The F-105 was about .0000003 decibels quieter than an F-4.

Tell you what -- let's run up a Tu-95 and an F-4 side-by-side, then have 'em kick in the afterburners so we can compare noise levels... 
 
By Josh on February 17, 2009 8:03 AM
Not the Thunderchief, I'm talking about the Thunderscreech...experimental turboprop conversion of of an F-84, with supersonic prop.

And yes, I think that's a brilliant idea.  I'm not deaf enough as it is, and this could be the perfect way to solve my problem while simultaneously being unbelievably awesome (and yes, I do mean that in the proper sense of the word).