Originally Posted by
beavf16
I'm ready for a replacement.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G920A using Tapatalk
That has happened many times, and it lands OK.
I have been told that was an intentional design feature:
The sister F-5 does NOT have a wingtip that is only held on by the skin (as in the T-38). This is because they have AIM-9s out there; they needed spar all the way out for those loads.
In any airplane, you only build strong enough "to do the job;" otherwise, it's dead-weight. For the T-38, the skin (without spar) was supposed to do the trick (and usually does).
But I was also told it was designed that way so as to afford "break-away" protection if a student dragged a wingtip (seen it done; we had one mounted in the squadron bar), or, to prevent whole wings from ripping off at the root in a massive over-g...the wingtip was supposed to go first.
Don't know if those are true, but this Mythbuster would rule it plausible.
You're assuming a new jet would not have an Achille's Heel. Early Hornets had vertical fins that were in danger of breaking off at the attach bulkhead; early Block 50 Vipers (the first 100 jets or so) had to be re-winged, because it turned out the wing wasn't torsionally strong enough to carry two HARMs at speeds higher than 375 knots. Guys who did it said the wings were twisting so bad, they thought they were going to break off. (They were right...if they had continued, they would have).