F111 Final Dump & Burn - Williamtown Airshow 2010
Why Aviation Stack Exchange recommends it
Aviation Stack Exchange users link it as a concrete example of the F-111's fuel dump and burn trick when explaining the fire plume and fuel dumping questions.
Recommended by 0 people across 0 different months, 2014 to 2024.
What it is
A 53-second clip of the RAAF F-111 performing its final dump and burn display at the Williamtown Airshow in 2010, shortly before the type was retired in favor of the F/A-18F Super Hornet. The video was filmed from the crowd and shows fuel being dumped and ignited by the afterburners.
What people said
Cites Bassinator · 2014-10 · Aviation Stack Exchange · on “Why does the F-111 sometimes squirt a giant fire plume behind it? (NOT afterburners!)”
As seen in multiple pictures: First, this one, it appears the aircraft is spraying copious amounts of fuel into the exhaust! Surely this provides no thrust, not in the way an afterburner (which the F-111 has!) does. Is it perhaps as an alternative to flares for anti IR missiles? It seems logical, but I don't think so, because I've seen it on takeoff too! At any rate, it is QUITE badass! EDIT: [this video] EDIT: Can any other aircraft perform this?
Cites CatchAsCatchCan · 2023-03 · Aviation Stack Exchange · on “Military aircraft deliberate fuel dump capability?”
The F1-11 could certainly dump fuel, and did so as an airshow trick when the pilot would ignite the dumped fuel with the afterburners. See [this video] Fuel dumping can have uses for controlling landing weight. I can't think why else one would use it.
Cites Therac · 2024-01 · Aviation Stack Exchange · on “Is it realistic for a WW2 aircraft to dive to extinguish an engine fire?”
The way it's been shown, as the first and only response to a fire, it's fictionalized, but it's realistic that the pilot might dive. The procedure for extinguishing an engine fire begins with shutting it down, cutting off fuel supply. Fuel flowing into a hot engine will maintain a fire. "Blowing out" a fire on a running engine by flying faster is not likely to happen. I was perplexed as to why they kept that engine running in the movie, given it was a 4-engine aircraft, easily able to lose one. Fuel or engine fires cannot even be extinguished by supersonic flight [LINK] - this report considers fuel fire for supersonic planes a worse, not easier problem. To extinguish a fire with air, it has