This video clip was filmed by Australian air racer Matt Hall, flying his MSX-R aerobatic racing plane. He was departing the Warbirds Down Under air show at Temora Aviation Museum when a pair of Royal Australian Air Force F/A-18 Hornets joined him on either wingtip. After flying alongside him for a few moments, they hit their throttles and zoomed off (but note that they don’t appear to have used afterburner, so they still had plenty of power in reserve). Watch in full-screen mode for best results.
Zoomies indeed!
Peter
Just a couple of Wankers!.
You can really see the high AOA they need to keep while going slowly and how they reduce angle as they accelerate. A good illustration I think. It's rare to see that happening at all on film.
I saw a photo of one of the early 70's air force jets loafing along for refueling (iirc) the rear stabilizer was pitched at about 30 degrees. iow it was on the jagged edge of flight, those jets looked pretty comfortable.
Beautiful!
A well-earned salute to a fellow aviator.
He was probably cruising at around 180-200 mph… and it appears they were in "slow flight" configuration with the leading edge slats deployed. AWESOME 😀
JG and Travis beat me to it…looked to me like the Hornets were flying close to stall speed. One wonders why they were giving him the once over?
Remember the first time I saw a fighter kick in it's afterburners – it was at an airshow and the jets did a low level flyby. Second time they came around they were right in front of the stands when suddenly they weren't there anymore – not that they'd disappeared or anything, just that the acceleration was so incredible that if you weren't expecting it you simply couldn't follow them.