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Re Bomb Rack and Pylon Cartridges


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Hi friends,

When depicting a tactical jet on the ground, loaded with ordnance, what is a typical configuration for the paired explosive cartridges (see annotated photograph)? Pictures show them protruding somewhat, other times not.

 

mY83OJT.jpg?1

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Those breeches are backward, meaning there are no CAD's installed. We did it all the time when loading ordnance. The breeches would be partially screwed in to the bomb rack in that fashion until it was time to load the CAD's. Obviously, once the CAD was installed, the breech would be inserted the correct way and tightened down.

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In particular, I'm curious about the Phantom II, and its wing mounted fuel tanks. Here are two photographs of the same aircraft. Note the different cartridge installations.  

 

(edit...two different aircraft depicted here. Note the pylon serial numbers)

 

WgYfjE2.jpg

 

wA0APmJ.jpg

Edited by RichB63
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16 minutes ago, RichB63 said:

In particular, I'm curious about the Phantom II, and its wing mounted fuel tanks. Here are two photographs of the same aircraft. Note the different cartridge installations.  

 

(edit...two different aircraft depicted here. Note the pylon serial numbers)

 

WgYfjE2.jpg

 

wA0APmJ.jpg

Top photo - cartridges are not installed - i.e. rack is dearmed

Bottom photo - cartridges are installed - i.e. rack is armed

 

As Dave stated, it is common practice to install the cartridges backwards when cartridges are not installed to show that the rack dearmed. All maintenance crews must verify that they aircraft is dearmed prior to working on the aircraft, having the beerches installed backwards helps the maintenance crews determine that the rack is dearmed.

Edited by GW8345
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Dave and Gerry,  thanks very much for your replies. It seems that either configuration would be appropriate on a model, depending on maintenance situation and mission ready status. Do I have that correct? 

Edited by RichB63
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18 minutes ago, RichB63 said:

Dave and Gerry,  thanks very much for your replies. It seems that either configuration would be appropriate on a model, depending on maintenance situation and mission ready status. Do I have that correct? 

If you are depicting the aircraft as ready for flight, then it would be correct to have the cartridges installed. If you are depicting the aircraft as having maintenance done (other than minor maintenance like servicing) to it, it would be correct to have the cartridges removed.

 

hth

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3 hours ago, RichB63 said:

Hi friends,

When depicting a tactical jet on the ground, loaded with ordnance, what is a typical configuration for the paired explosive cartridges (see annotated photograph)? Pictures show them protruding somewhat, other times not.

 

mY83OJT.jpg?1

This pic shows the top pylon de-carted, which is why the cart retainers are reversed. The jet would NEVER fly with the retainer reversed obviously.

The lower one, on the bomb rack, shows the cart retainers safety wired. These would be safety wired for two reasons, 1. If the jet was flying with nothing loaded on this station and 2. some items are not jettisonable, for example on our A-10's they would carry a DRA (Dual Rail Adapter ) on station 11 for the AIM-9's. Station 11 never got carted so, we would safety wire the cart retainers in the X configuration, like above and also safety wire the MAU-40/50 mechanical pin so it could not be pulled out at End Of Runway. The pin would not have a RBF streamer on it BTW.

 

Steve

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4 hours ago, A-10 LOADER said:

This pic shows the top pylon de-carted, which is why the cart retainers are reversed. The jet would NEVER fly with the retainer reversed obviously.

Not always the case as one time we had a brand new CF-18 come into Cold Lake direct from the factory with the cart retainers reversed, but lock wired on Stn 4 & 6.

 

Jari

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