Quote:
Originally Posted by Seaver
Bingo. Generally when they take off like that it's a scramble maneuver. (short story)
Long Story: Aircraft generally only take off into the wind. This is why any decent size airport has about 7-12 runways, most pointing in different directions. So multiple aircraft have to take off of really 1 runway in as short a time as possible. Wingtip to Wingtip lowers the interference as opposed to infront-behind. So they double-up to avoid the jetwash of the aircraft infront of them. Military aircraft practice this ALL the time, much like firefighters they need to have 0 time wasted when the call is made.
It is also used when pretending to be a larger aircraft on radar. The Israelis used a similar maneuver to mask 5 F-16s to bomb the Iraqi Nuclear site in the '80s. By flying so close together it looks like one large plane instead of multiple smaller ones.
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7-12 runways? Is this a military thing? LAX has 4 runways, which you could call 8 if you include changes in flight patterns. i.e. 36 inbound north becomes 18 inbound south. No, I didn't look up LAX runway headings, just used a generic north south runway number.
And it's not just "jetwash" you get the same effect in small planes. The front plane creates air turbulence and can cause the rear plane to either loose lift and stall or spin suddenly. As you state side by side is much, much safer.