Cool pic :)

Not reverse thrust. It's forward thrust and they have probably floored it from a standstill. You get a small tornado set up in front of the engine and it sucks up gravel or anything else off the runway.
It can even happen with a propellor.
Very destructive.
And expensive.
You need to get the thing moving a bit before throttling up fully.

But it does look neat.

{edit} Hmm, on more inspection, it could be reverse thrust which they have held on until standstill. It's the same result because the engine is still sucking in a truckload of air from a standstill.

I like the Herc tubo fan engines, awesome bit of kit but frickin loud!!

I took'em, what you reckon?

They may be (well really only the F18), but they're also examples of engineering prowess...

Correct Dins, I had been looking at model ducted fans when I wrote that, typo

I went to an airshow and the WWII Warbirds, a P52, a Hurricane and an old Mig stole the show. Left the jets for dead. The sound these things make is just unbelievable. Something like 16 cylinders and 15 litres of supercharged glory (or something like that). The ground shook.

The jets were surprisingly tame in comparison. That said nothing like being woken up at the indy by an F/A-18 buzzing your apartment.

Your 100% correct, there is something about the roar of a Rolls Royce Merlin ask this bloke what he reckons.

fly surfer, great pics.

Salatiela

I appreciate the technology involved with throwing several tonnes of metal and carbon fibre hurtling through the skies at Mach 2. But alas, as with everything man made they are not infallible. This Canadian F18 illustrates that.
All of this happened in about two seconds from canopy off to the fireball.


Check out all the smoke from the canopy rocket motors.


There he goes! So that's what the striped handle does!
The left engine has the nozzle fully open, showing that #1 engine was developing no power


The white thing is the seat-stabilizing drogue chute. Notice the pilot's head pinned to his chest from the severe “g” forces produced by the solid rocket motors in the ACES II seat. They burn for about 2/10ths of a second . . enough time to propel him at least 60 feet clear of the aircraft.


One millisecond from eternity for a beautiful FA-18.
Check out the now-unoccupied ejection seat following the aircraft to glory.


The moment-of-impact photo shows flame shooting out of the left engine . . its “last gasp”.


There goes the seat above the fireball..

While a lot of these things are 'instruments of death' you can't deny the engineering milestones that have been passed in the development of all of these aircraft, simply stunning.

And yeah I echo the sentiments that a RR Merlin at full noise is beautiful to behold....however when I was in Maui recently three F22 Raptors took off from the airport and I defy anyone to say that a Spitty or Mustang is more spectacular than that, the noise is incredible. Very few things I reckon can match the noise and intimidation factor of an air superiority fighter, low and at full noise.

A pretty famous B17 photo from the war, spreading the chemtrails over the axis of evil ^_^

Sweet vids Rupert.

Speaking of WW2 fighters, worked and at full noise, this place is on my bucket list.