View Full Version : SAM Batteries for really tall buildings?


fbfwestie
30th May 2002, 09:14 AM
It might sound silly, but given the vulnerabilities of these buildings, would this work?

IF towers over 100 stories tall are going to be built, would it be possible to put a 'no go zone' for aircraft around these buildings?

Could the AirForce/Army therfore operate a SAM batter on the roof of one of these buildings?

Would a SAM battery have saved the WTC?

Just wondering...as they are talking about rebuilding the WTC with even taller buildings (Good idea in my book).

-Westie

kefu
30th May 2002, 05:41 PM
No fly zones do not realistically work, if terrorists have malicious enough aims.
JFK is less than 20 miles from Manhattan, yet a normal passenger jet travels comfortably at 500 and odd miles an hour while cruising. Raise the speed even by a half, which is feasible, and the plane is then travelling at a rate of around 12 1/2 miles per minute. Imagine if that were the case in Dublin. By the time, the plane had been hijacked, they would be over Dublin's city centre in less than a minute. Once the WTC jets were hi-jacked, they could never have been stopped. It is only by the fact that the event actually took place could any government even contemplate shooting down a passenger jet and only then within a matter of days or weeks of the accident. Imagine even now, just eight months later, the difficulty any Air Force would have both physically and morally in shooting down a passenger jet, let alone a missile silo on top of a skyscraper.