Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
In November 1991 I was brand new to the F-16, and as a wingman flew from Offutt AFB in Omaha to Davis-Monthan in Tucson. A look back at the logbook says it took 2.4 hours (subtract .1 for taxi back) so it took about 2:15. Bear in mind it was November and there was a jet stream in our face. No centerline fuel tank, just a clean jet with a travel pod. That's about 7200 pounds internal fuel. Landed with about 1500. Fuel consumption at altitude was around 2500 pounds per hour. Initially the computer said I'd land in a deficit during climbout but as we climbed to 47,000 feet the fuel use dropped a bunch. If we had external tanks we could've gone faster but it would not have knocked off much time.
I can't say much about the F/A-18 as far as actual fuel use is concerned but it doesn't have quite the endurance of an F-16, though it is similar, with approximately 11,000 pounds of internal fuel. The ability to fly from Pensacola to San Diego would not be possible without refueling at the speeds suggested in the original post. When I flew cross-country in the F-16 I usually filed for the high 30s or low 40s at best range mach number, 0.83, which was about 480 KTAS, or 550 mph. Having two external wing tanks would drop the best range speed by .02 mach or so.
From Pensacola to San Diego it's ~1500 nautical miles. To fly it in 1.5 hrs would require a groundspeed of 1000 knots, or a sustained mach of ~1.7. Not impossible strictly in terms of speed, but that would require, as mentioned in a previous post, an enormous amount of fuel at an unsustainable fuel burn. (I used to do maintenance test flights in the F-16 and at supersonic speeds the fuel flow can exceed 10,000 pounds per hour.) No way it could be sustained for the whole distance. I suspect the mission in question probably would've run out of gas well-short of San Diego. As an aside, above 40,000 feet the sonic boom would've been minimally intrusive, if even noticed. No broken windows.
Last edited by SluggoF16; 02-19-2014 at 06:34 AM..
So I was just watching a Blue Angels special, where they flew from Pensacola to San Diego in an hr and a half. Is that even possible? So that brought up a question, which is what is the fastest a plane has gone from the East coast to West coast or vice versa?
A blue Angel or FA 18 super hornett travels at a top speed of mach 1.8 or 1,190 MPH
if the jet was traveling at top speed it would be a simple math equation.
coast to coast distance roughly 2,815 miles / 1,190 mph = 2.36 hours would be the absolute quickest
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
