I think that if you did a 'poll' most tail scrapes are during landing while
'aero braking' -- raising the nose above the initial landing attitude in
order to assist in slowing down -- (you don't want to do this too soon i.e.
with alot of airspeed you'll end up airborne again all-be-it briefly).

Mark


"John Bailey" wrote in message
...
On Mon, 15 Mar 2004 23:23:47 -0600, "Boomer"
wrote:

I see that F-15 is limited to about 12º rotation on takeoff to avoid
scraping the tail or weapons. Is this fairly typical of modern fighters?

Here's a war story I can't resist telling.

In 1956, Frank Everest, who was claimed *the fastest man alive*, was
the commander of a squadron on F100s at Hahn Air Base in Germany. A
flight school fellow alum reported to the base and on one of his first
missions scraped the tail pipe of his super sabre. That night he
encountered Col. Everest in the officer's club. He said: Colonel, I
hope you have lots of tailpipes. Answer: No, but I have lots of
pilots.

BTW, that was on landing, not take off. Does the restriction apply
equally?
John Bailey
http://home.rochester.rr.com/jbxroads/mailto.html