Time to climb records
briand said:
I think they can easily do 30000 in about 30 seconds if they want, and of course receive clearance. There was a F-18 1-seater (not a Blue Angel) @ KGRR a few years back, me and a few of my coworkers got to go meet the pilot and crawl all over the aircraft. He told us he would request an "unrestricted" take-off and the tower must have granted his request. He went vertical less than 50' above the runway, it had to be less than 30 seconds and he was at 30,000. Pretty cool.
Well to put it into perspective I was wondering what what the record was. I found this, not sure if the latest, correct me if I am wrong, but just for fun:
On 10 March 1987 and 23 March 1988 (Air International, Sep89, pg 156) the P-42 (A stripped down
SU-27), flown by Sukhoi test pilots established 27 new world time-to-height/climb records which were formally held by the McAir "Streak Eagle" F-15 on 16 January 1975 flown by Majors Roger Smith and Willard MacFarlane. The new records included:
? 25.373 seconds to 3,000 meters (9,842 feet)
? 36.050 seconds to 6,000 meters (19,685 feet)
? 44.176 seconds to 9,000 meters (29,527 feet)
? 55.542 seconds to 12,000 meters (39,370 feet)
? 70.329 seconds to 15,000 meters (49,213 feet)
So you are correct 30 seconds is in the ball park to 30,000 feet. These '87 records (44.176 sec) may have been broken? The plane used in '87 was a specially modified for time-to-climb records.
To put some perspective on the Piston records, Bruce Bohannon has set some records in a RV-4! (Well RV-4/Custom/Rocket)
Bruce Bohannon Flyin' Tiger took the time to climb to
9,000 meters (29,527 feet) (16 minutes, 3 seconds),
12,000 meters (39,370 feet) (31 minutes 3 seconds).
So assuming similar performance from the "P-48", a light F-18 could get to 7,000 feet (ratio the 3,000 meter time above) in approx 18 seconds. I think I said 15 seconds, so I was close.
Looking at the record climbs above, for every 3,000 meters (9842 ft) got faster up to 40,000 feet. From 9k to 12k meters Avg climb was over 72,600 FPM. The average climb to 30,000 to 50,000 feet was over 41,500 FPM! The crazy thing, its accelerating to 30,000 feet! It kind of takes the PUFF out of shirt about my initial 3,000 feet per min climb, I thought was hot stuff.
Cool George