Originally posted by: DukeN
I think the "vaporization" of the engine, etc was the most laughable point put forward by the "authorities". That one hits home for me, the fact that they had literally no wreckage of the plane at all that crashed into the Pentagon.
Except that there's wreckage all over the damn place if you look at the immediate aftermath pictures. Or look at quotes from people who were there, and handled pieces of wreckage. One reporter held in his hand human body parts, and aircraft parts with identifiable markings, and there was even a nice section of nail with the COMPLETE N-NUMBER on it.
What you, and many others fail to realize is that the aircarft penetrated VERY deep into the structure - and that the structure is made out of bomb-shelter grade concrete with some pretty lookin' exterior cladding.
A plane has a very big mass, and a very high velocity. Thereby, it has a LOT of penetrating power, but due to it's low density and material strength, will break apart into lots of little tiny pieces as it does so, creating a fragmentation pattern. A missile has a very small mass, and a very high velocity. Missiles come in 3 varieties - airburst, impact burst, and depth penetration.
The pentagon was built with to prevent explosions on the outside from breeching the walls. A side effect of this construction is that any explosion INSIDE is going to be contained. Under no circumstances would you have seen a wall breech from any explosive weapon, with the exception of a penetration weapon. A penetration weapon could have punched through multiple rings, and exploded within one of them, but then there would only be small holes in the outer rings, and a gutted inner-ring. Nevermind that none of our penetration weapons can break through that much bunker concrete.
A basic "I watch the Discovery channel!" knowledge of military weapons will tell you all of this, and a basic understanding of high school physics will tell you the same.
This argument is of course explained away because "It's a top secret weapon!"
- You dont keep your weapons top secret these days, because they act as a deterrant. You keep your DELIVERY systems top secret so they can't be damaged, and the inner-workings secret. You sure as hell want your potential enemies to know what you can do to them if they cross you.
"That makes sense, but that's not the way it happened with this weapon!"