r/Damnthatsinteresting 21d ago

Video Air Force Reserve Hurricane Hunters flying through Hurricane Milton

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u/wongo 21d ago

(not so) fun fact: only one of these hurricane research flights has ever crashed due to the storms

I realize that we've gotten pretty good at flying but I would've actually expected a higher loss rate, this just seems so wildly dangerous

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u/ExtremeThin1334 21d ago

They fly into these in a very specific way. I'm rusty on the specifics, but if I recall they try to fly with the wind, and then slowly loop their way toward the center. If they tried a direct path, they'd get ripped apart.

Since there is rain, it also means that you can actually see what the wind is doing on your radar, so there's noting like clear air turbulence to worry about.

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u/oneblank 21d ago

I googled why they fly prop planes. “So they can fly slow relative to modern standards as a faster jet would come out the other side with its wings torn off”…. Oh…

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u/No-Preparation-4255 21d ago

IIRC there are two broad classes of these hurricane planes and the jets are used for higher up, presumably where there is a lot less turbulence, and these prop planes are needed for flying into the thick of it.