If there were some helicopters in the air around the area of the WTC when it got hit the first time and the 2nd plane was on the way in, could a helicopter on a suicide mission effectively stopped the plane by ramming it? Are they maneuverable enough to pull something like this off?
Helicopters are very maneuverable, and this is recognised in the FARs by their ‘right of way’ status. The problem isn’t maneuverability, but speed. Helicopters are limited in their forward speed by retreating blade stall. Basically, when the forward speed is great enough, lift is lost on the retreating blade. This is not a situation in which the pilot would want to find himself.
If a helicopter could get into position soon enough so as to be able to intercept the jet without having to catch up with it, and if the pilot did not see the helicopter and take evasive action, then yeah; a mid-air collision could bring down the aircraft. If the helicopter missed, then I think that the pilot of the jet could make another pass from a different direction before the helicopter could get into place. There’s also the matter of distance from the targe because the jet will still have a lot of forward momentum. Plus, it would come down somewhere. The tower might have been saved, but many other buildings would be destroyed by the falling jet and helicopter.
Much as I hate to think about it , the second plane may have been better off hitting the tower. The plane is coming in doing about 350 mph min, while helos have a top speed depending on altitude of about 140 mph to 170 depending on the make of the copter.
The pilot of the helo has to use the blades to either clip a wing or the engine pod ( which may or may not do dick for the final terminal run) and disrupt the airflow to deflect the course of the airplane , which an untried pilot might over compensate and then veer off and crash into a suburb like that jamaica air did, shortly afterwards.
But he is coming in on an intersecting angle , and has only one shot.
Declan
What about sending up a small missile?
You would have had to have a missile to start with, and there are no fixed defenses in the USA any more, then you have to know that there are more than one attacks , something no one knew at the time , it was thought originally to have been a horiffic accident, then aquire the next airplane , be in the right spot and fire the missile , which may or may not do anything to the terminal flight phase of the attack plane.
Declan