Ed Rasimus wrote:
Chad Irby wrote:

I know there were a couple of cases in Vietnam where F-4s made hard
enough turns to rip the ECM pods off...

Gotta wonder about that, since ECM pods were routinely carried in the
Sparrow missile wells. Can't imagine a situation in which the pods
suspension gear would fail. Don't say it couldn't, simply that I doubt
it.

In 250 combat missions, 150 over NVN where high threat evasions were
most likely, I never, not even once, heard of a structural failure nor
of an inadvertent separation of any piece of equipment off an
aircraft. I'm not saying it couldn't have, simply that I doubt it.

I doubt it too!

I don't know how much an F-4 ECM pod weighs, but I do know that it
would require a hellacious amount of G's to cause the bolts that
fasten the pod to the airframe to fail. Much more force than the
surrounding airframe structure itself could withstand.

For example, a standard AN6 bolt (3/8-inch diameter shank) has
a shear strength of approx. 8700 lbs. IIRC. And there is probably
more than just one of these or similiar types of bolts securing the
ECM gear to the belly of an F-4.

-Mike (A&P mech) Marron