Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!asuvax!ncar!elroy.jpl.nasa.gov!usc!julius.cs.uiuc.edu!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!pacific.mps.ohio-state.edu!linac!att!cbnews!cbnews!military From: shafer@skipper.dfrf.nasa.gov (Mary Shafer) Newsgroups: sci.military Subject: Re: How many planes in a sortie? Message-ID: <1991Feb11.051914.3785@cbnews.att.com> Date: 11 Feb 91 05:19:14 GMT Sender: military@cbnews.att.com (William B. Thacker) Organization: AT&T Bell Laboratories Lines: 38 Approved: military@att.att.com From: Mary Shafer Gregory N. Bond (gnb@bby.oz.au) writes: The Gulf news has been full of phrases like "2,000 sorties flown per day". I guess "missions" are flown with multiple planes, at least three and maybe more (e.g. 3 for attack plus 3 for air cover), but do those six planes count as one sortie, two or six? Six. One airplane, one takeoff, one landing equals one sortie. By the way, sortie is also a verb--as in "We sortied 300 aircraft this morning." This then leads inescapable to the problem of how to write sortie-ing--as in "They're sortie-ing planes at a pretty good rate." I usually rewrite the sentence. Corollary: How many takeoffs/landings have happend at the 50,000 sortie-level? (May need to guess!) 50,000 takeoffs and 50,000 landings. Obviously, at least 20 of those landings were better characterized as ground impacts. Followup: What is the "expected" loss rate for military flights, takeoffs & landings in a non-shooting environment? Given the 20-odd planes lost in Desert Storm, and the sortie rate, how many of them would be expected to be lost due to mechanical failure? I'd say, based on my experience and reading normal loss statistics, that 20 losses/50,000 sorties is pretty respectable. Of course, the ground crews spent a lot of time getting their aircraft into good condition, so the rate should be low at first. -- Mary Shafer shafer@skipper.dfrf.nasa.gov ames!skipper.dfrf.nasa.gov!shafer NASA Ames Dryden Flight Research Facility, Edwards, CA Of course I don't speak for NASA "A MiG at your six is better than no MiG at all"--Unknown US fighter pilot