Thursday, January 30, 2020

Do you suppose those wings are producing any lift whatsoever at that angle?


25 comments:

  1. Ahhhhh....the Mach Loop. Usually a fighter event but everyone gets to play.

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  2. Accelerated stall is on the menu.

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  3. At that angle the wings are producing right turn.

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  4. I have seen a Chinook do the same thing at low altitude.

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  5. Yes, they are producing plenty of lift. The lift vector, however, is nearly parallel to the ground.

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    1. Aye, Bingo. Lift is a product of forward air speed. Direction of lift is perpendicular to the wing's upper surface. But Gravity remains unconvinced of lift's superiority.

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    2. Aggie, it does take forward motion to get the molecules flowing over and under the lifting surface (low and high pressure areas) but lift depends on angle of attack (relative wind/chord line). That is probably the reason you see many pilots of high performance aircraft refer to the AOA indicator so often instead of the airspeed indicator during maneuvering. Lift vector is perpendicular to chord line. All that aside, your last sentence is classic; wish I had thought of that. Pretty sure I'm correct but am always willing to learn more. respectfully, Alemaster

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  6. Producing Lift? Yes. Overcoming the gravitational pull of the earth? Maybe, depends on how many G’s he’s pulling. At that bank angle it’s going to take several. Maybe more than he’s got available which would result in STxAR’s accelerated stall. More likely, he’s doing a ridge crossing and using the bank angle to bring the nose down to remain at low level. Pushing the nose down is 1) uncomfortable, 2) not as quick, and 3) potentially dangerous in a cargo plane as it could shift and change the center of gravity of the plane. At low altitude having that happen is officially “not good”.

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  7. Osprey V-22 Mach-Loop Wales, no sweat. Sikorsky S-76, not so much.

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  8. Replies
    1. Until the wing exceeds the critical angle of attack, i.e. aerodynamic stall, the wing is producing lift. In this picture, the lift vector is horizontal. The aircraft would not be able to maintain altitude however the pilot can fly out of that attitude... unless pilot yanks too far back on the yoke and stalls the wing. In that case he's on his way to the scene of the accident as there is little altitude to recover.

      Rick

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    2. Obviously a photo-shop. That aircraft is going to roll over into the road that is not there.

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  9. Yes I know the photo is an EU M-400 knock-off of a C-130J.

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    1. "Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery."

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    2. It is about twice the size of a Herc, but can't do helo refueling, so the French are buying KC-130Js for that AND they and the Germans are buying slick C-130Js too.

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  10. Huh? WTF...and you may quote me. (not the photo, the Arabic... why do I get the non-fuzzy feeling that I've been cussed at)

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  11. It's Iraqi, most of it a chat line. All those are links. Found out using Google Translate.

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  12. I think it translates as, "Infidel s.o.b., your mother..." Then I kind of lose what it is saying.

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  13. does anyone recall what "olive branch routes"-several hundreds miles long low level military corridors-similar to the Mach loop in Wales-in the USA used to be called?? we called them oil burner routes because at low level, turbojets smoke like crazy at high thrust settings.
    to be fishing in a mountain valley stream in southern colorado on a sunlit morning is a nice thing. to have a B-52 hump over the ridge line at three hundred feet AGL with EIGHT spewing whilst practicing for end of times right over my head was an unreal experience. a few miles further away several more came thru practicing a wing attack on points west. they maintained wings level and just humped over the ridges. from my vantage point in the bottom of the valley, one could see the top of the aircraft.
    sorta packed up the fishing gear for the rest of the day. mid 1960s.

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    1. The SAC B-52's used to fly Lima-Lima runs in Kentucky back during the cold war. Having a B-52 or an RF-4C come screaming overhead low enough to shoot with a .38 S&W is a singular experience. The ones that gave me the creeps only came over at night. They had a blood red bar, under each wing that would strobe from front to rear of the wing. I have no Idea what they were. But they were creepy as hell. Even right down on the deck they would be on you before you heard a sound. Then gone like a ghost. I'd love to know what those were.----Ray

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  14. At that angle, the body and tail are providing sufficient lift to keep the thing airborne, and the thrust coupled with a nose-high attitude are overcoming gravity.

    If he kicks in the slightest right rudder, as noted, he's headed for the scene of the catastrophic impact, but odds are, he just rolls left in half a second and continues on, like every other pilot on that route.

    @capt fast
    Same-same, hiking in Joshua Tree and looking down at A-7s after they puckered us up through a mountain saddleback, and then again a couple of decades later, looking down at the top of a B-2 (and T-38 chaser, doubtless so the exercise control AWACS could "see" him) proceeding to approach a Red Flag exercise from a dry lake bed north of Baker, CA.

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    1. As you said, that big fuselage and vertcal (now horizontal) stabalizer provide some lift. A little top rudder (in this case left rudder) will improve the situation. I wish I could have flown the Mach Loop back when zi was a Herc pilot.

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  15. What ever all the aerodynamics and physics going on, it looks like the best damn "E" ride you will do. I bet the pilot and every crew member was yelling 'Ye high!" Let's do it again!

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  16. Having observed many B-52s in my time and seeing the heavy smoke trails they left behind during their passage, I've always wondered how the KC-135s got all that coal down those narrow refueling booms when performing the mid-air servicing........

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