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From: jumper@hobbes.ncsu.edu (Michael Lanham)
Newsgroups: sci.military
Subject: Re: How many planes in a sortie?
Message-ID: <1991Feb12.020250.11711@cbnews.att.com>
Date: 12 Feb 91 02:02:50 GMT
References: <1991Feb9.034021.5022@cbnews.att.com>
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From: jumper@hobbes.ncsu.edu (Michael Lanham)
gnb@bby.oz.au (Gregory N. Bond) 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?

>Corollary: How many takeoffs/landings have happend at the 50,000
>sortie-level?  (May need to guess!)

A sortie is one plane one mission.  If six planes go out on one mission
then there are six sories logged.

Assuming there are no aborted missions I would expect it is 2 X # sorties.
Two because the plane has to take off and then land.

--
He who will not reason, is a bigot; he who cannot is a fool;
and he who dares not is a slave.      --- Sir William Drummond

Michael Lanham       mjlanham@eos.ncsu.edu   &  jumper@.catt.ncsu.edu