Kikapu wrote:Paphitis wrote:Kikapu wrote:Paphitis wrote:No not at all!
There is no reason or motive for them "pissing on people"!
Also if the Yanks did shoot it down, MH370 was still thousands of miles from its flight course so a very easy action to defend in front of international public opinion.
A lot of people are working hard to provide the physical evidence for some to have closure once and for all.
There is a USN Ship on the scene which specializes in finding the Black Box. As a result they are interested in the actual spot of the crash and not where the debris has drifted to or has been detected by Satellites.
I wouldn't listen to the media too much because day after day they just come up with total rubbish.
Paphitis, when you made the following statement in your previous post, it made a good point, but then again, the Russians shot down the South Korean 747 jetliner few years back in the same fashion, therefore, we cannot take it as given, that a jetliner at 35,000 at full speed will not be shot down.Paphitis wrote:Secondly, they would not shoot it down unless the aircraft posed a threat and being at 35000FT does not pose an immediate threat!
But now comes an interesting statement about the MH370 flying "too fast" which caused the plane to use too much fuel, therefore the plane crashed 685 miles short of where they have been looking for the last week or so. But the plane could not have been flying that much faster at 35,000 ft to have used up too much fuel than normal, but the plane could have used a hell of a lot more fuel flying very low altitude at 500 mph in trying to avoid detection, and who is to say the plane did not fly very low at very high speed close to the U.S. base of Diego Garcia? Could this cause the Americans to have shot the plane down when no one responded from the flight deck as to what their intentions were? Therefore, your assumption of MH370 flying at 35,00ft once contact was lost has become very questionable now, wouldn't you agree?
Kikapu,
If the Americans shot it down it would have been a deliberate action and they would just come out and say that they had to shoot it down because MH370 was hijacked and not responding to calls. Very difficult to argue against that although some non serious sections of society would be outraged.
However, that is not reason enough in reality because at 35000FT they would not be so trigger happy. It's not something any country will take lightly.
There is no evidence whatsoever that MH370 was shot down and it is not a possibility that is entertained by any country. Would have been convenient for the Americans to blame North Korea or Al Qaeda terrorists but they are not considering that either.
As to your next question, there are a number of factors that effect your Fuel Burn. One of these factors is speed. There are typically 5 normal configurations in the cruise. M0.76, 0.78, 0.80, 0.82, and 0.84. Best Endurance is at 0.74 and max operating is 0.90.
I don't know what speed he was flying but anything more than 0.80 would increase Fuel Burn and reduce range.
At 0.84 at 36000, the burn is 3500 kg/eng. At 0.78, the burn is about 10% less for a small speed penalty.
Another factor that increases Fuel Burn is Drag. When you increase your speed you also increase Lift and because of this you also increased Induced Drag which is a coefficient of Lift. You also increase Form and Parasite Drag, therefore increased Fuel Burn.
How about fuel burn rate at very high speed at very low elevation?
Even worse. MH370 had altitude in its favour if it was at 35000FT.
