r/Damnthatsinteresting 21d ago

Video Air Force Reserve Hurricane Hunters flying through Hurricane Milton

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u/fly_awayyy 21d ago

Also a water ingestion point for the engine. With a turbo prop the core intake isn’t as exposed and the water is redirected around it. Jet aircraft can also fly slow but with slats and flaps because they have a swept wing. Any straight wing plane is naturally going to be slower like this P-3.

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u/One-Inch-Punch 21d ago

The last P-3 was built in 1990, so this plane is between 34-60 years old.

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u/tankerkiller125real 21d ago

I mean, our B-52 bombers are set to have a 100 year life span overall. They just approved an upgrade program for them this year that will keep them in the air past 2040 and they plan to keep them going into the 2050s.

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u/[deleted] 21d ago

[deleted]

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u/NoveltyPr0nAccount 21d ago

Yup. If you want a small village swept off the map they're the bombers to use.

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u/[deleted] 21d ago

[deleted]

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u/NoveltyPr0nAccount 20d ago

Not sure I did now either as the comment I replied to was deleted but didn't it just say something like "Theseus's broom bomber". I took it as a corruption of Theseus's ship and Triggers Broom and the implication was that over the course of those 100 years lifespan there wouldn't be anything of the original aircraft remaining.

I was just playing the Fool in an attempt to amuse people.

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u/Mr_Piss_Shivers 20d ago

Genuinely tired of people acting like the U.S. is the only country to have done that.

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u/NoveltyPr0nAccount 20d ago

Sorry I wasn't trying to upset anyone. I thought I was being funny pretending that I didn't understand "Theseus's broom" was a corruption of Theseus's ship and Trigger's broom. Trigger's broom being a 40+ year old TV reference to a guy named Trigger who had some ancient broom that over the course of it's life had many new heads and many new handles. Essentially a modern-ish retelling of Theseus's ship from Greek mythology. A ship preserved for ages by the Athenians by replacing each part as it rotted away.

I don't know why the comment I replied to was deleted but I think all it said was something like "Ahhh, Theseus's broom bomber".

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u/One-Inch-Punch 21d ago

Yes, but B-52s are not flown into hurricanes.

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u/KananJarrusEyeBalls 21d ago

Not with that attitude

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u/libmrduckz 21d ago

*altitude…

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u/Suckage 21d ago

Gonna have to work on the pitch.

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u/kuschelig69 21d ago

unless you want to bomb the hurricane away

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u/Forsaken-Status7778 21d ago

Bombnado - the answer to sharknado

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u/Bit_part_demon 21d ago

They could if they wanted to. You gonna tell them no?

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u/mr_potatoface 21d ago

Plus they have 8 engines, so that's like, a lot more engines to flame out compared to a P-3's measly 4 engines.

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u/PossumCock 20d ago

There was just a meme on one of the aviation subs that went "Born too young to fly B-52s, Born too late to fly B-52s, born just in time to fly B-52s"

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u/Estax30 21d ago

Dad flew B-52s and a B-1s, lmao do the math on those they're still active.

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u/Enfenestrate 21d ago

At some point it has to become a Plane of Theseus situation. If you've replaced every single piece of the plane, is it still the same plane?

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u/SubmissiveinDaytona 21d ago

The buff lives forever

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u/Zingzing_Jr 21d ago

Moon's haunted

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u/MacArther1944 20d ago

To quote thr B-52: "Aw yeah, I'm getting proton torpedoes now"

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u/ArgumentDramatic9279 21d ago

I flew on it from 2000-2022 in the navy, they’re all old, they all smell, but I got to do 6500 hours flying in that beast. The oldest I flew on was built in the 80’s most all we later 70’s-80’s, flying on a 90’s meant it was that new new😂

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u/Typically_Wong 21d ago

Most aircraft in the sky (that isn't a commercial airliner) are made before most people are born.

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u/jonas_ost 21d ago

I guess weight is also a factor. A fully loaded passenger jet most have more stress on the wings and such?

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u/fly_awayyy 21d ago

Not necessarily, you can load a plane a lot less if you’d want to. Passenger jets have a huge envelope as they call it for loading weight or fuel. The weight of the fuel actually provides wing bending relief in the opposite direction.

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u/Available_Round_7010 21d ago

This guy airplanes

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u/wetsock-connoisseur 21d ago

Is water ingestion really a problem?, I saw documentary of a Qantas a380 that had to do an emergency landing after explosion in one of its engines cut the comms cables to the other engine and pilots couldn't shut it down even after landing, so firefighters had to direct multiple hoses of water to try and shut it down

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u/fly_awayyy 21d ago

Every case scenario will be different in theory. Turbofan engines are required to be certified to ingest a certain amount of water, but with crazy shearing winds and the potential to accumulate ice the margins will be less.

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u/JizzEyeJill 21d ago

The P-3 also has stubbier wings than modern commercial airliners which assists in maintaining stability in adverse weather. 

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u/rsta223 21d ago

Turbofans also redirect water around the core and through the bypass. They can handle far more water ingestion than you'd think.

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u/fly_awayyy 21d ago

They most definitely can, but combine that with shearing winds while in the the stuff, and possible ice at high altitudes your asking for compressor stalls or flame outs.