On Tue, 16 Mar 2004 22:04:01 -0500, Matthew G. Saroff
wrote:

"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 typicle of modern fighters?
IIRC, on landing Naval fighters get to a higher pitch
angle.

I don't think so. The F-8 and A-7 had short, squatty gear and tail
strikes were a real concern on both takeoff and landing. We had more
than one tail strike with our F-8 DFBW, and each time it would
downmode the flight computers into backup mode.

Mary

--
Mary Shafer Retired aerospace research engineer