A fighter pilot reveals how long it takes to cross Spain from end to end: “If you are at maximum speed…”

They addressed this question in the podcast ‘Búscate la vida’, where they interviewed Antonio Mancebomember of the Air Force who pilot an F18.

Among other curiosities about his work, he was asked how many missiles the device can carry, to which he responded that “there are many configurations, but you can carry six, seven, eight.” He also explained that “There are basically two types of missilesthe infrared that seeks heat and the radar that you shoot at a great distance and these you guide with the plane’s radar. Whether to carry one, the other or both depends on the threat of the moment.

How long does it take an F18 to cross Spain?

But beyond this, what happens if there is an emergency and an F18 must leave to a certain point? How long would it take to arrive?

Mancebo operates from Torrejón and would travel from there in case of a problem, for example, in the Strait. «If you use maximum speed, in about 15 minutes you will be there»he pointed out.

In the case of a Barcelona-Galicia “it can be half an hour”. «To give you an idea, the F18, if we are talking about maximum speeds, goes a little more than twice that of a commercial airplane and can go higher. “If in the end you do the numbers with a commercial airplane, taking into account that it does not follow a straight route but rather has to follow the instructions of the controllers, divide it in half and a little less and that is how long it will take,” explains Mancebo.

With these calculations, the military officer has indicated that a Madrid-Barcelona flight by commercial plane can take about 50 minutes; on a military combat aircraft like the F18 it can be reduced to 20.