High tech jet fighters over Lybia

[Conan The Librarian]

At least of couple of these high tech fighter planes have crashed in Libya. I know they fly these things for training often. Do they frequently crash like this and then have it reported as mechanical failure? I kind of doubt it.

[Will Bison]

One F-15 crashed due to a system failure. Not unusual for fighter type aircraft. Training flights account for the greatest number of losses. Keep in mind that most military high performance aircraft would never be able to get a standard airworthiness certificate from the FAA.

[Conan The Librarian]

Interesting! Guaranteed sales for the aircraft companies. That's one approach to "planned obsolesence", just design them to self destruct in mid-air and tell the customer that that's to be expected.

[Old Syko]

I think you'll find most losses are due to, as Will states, systems failure.  In other words electronics failure and not mechanical failure.  Very seldom due mechanical issues show up in flight.  The aircraft of today are so sophisticated as to be unflyable without computer driven controls.  We all know what computer glitches are like but most of us don't have our lives hanging in the balance because of them.  Below is a prime example of systems failure.  Mechanically the plane was operable but not the electronic systems.


 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cSdNCurcRVg

[Sourdough]

Just think about this next time you get on an airliner.