Canadian pilot - what was he thinking?

[SupremeSpod]

I wonder who dreamed up the downwards ejector seat

Though it wasn't unique to that piece of flying tulipe.

The U2 is a Widowmaker with longer wings.

True, at altitude it is flying right on the edge of a stall.

That said, without some nifty balancing, flying Concorde would be "a bit tricky".

[SupremeSpod]

I find it rather interesting that the Shuttle (landing unpowered) and the Widowmaker (landing with engine thrust) had roughly the same landing speed. (216mph vs 207mph).

The main difference between the Shuttle and the Widowmaker is that the Shuttle is also a "lifting body" and the Widowmaker is a stubby-winged deathtrap.

[TimberWolf]

What do they know?

Well they did manage to land something with a glide ratio of 2, unpowered. Although it does help somewhat when you're entering the atmosphere at a high rate of knots to start with. Try landing that without any initial (cheating) forward speed.

[Gibbon]

Previous post was a quote from Nasa site.

[Gibbon]

It's true Alex - in a stall (especially with flaps fully down) you are more likely to experience a sudden wing drop. And the initial instinct is to try and correct the roll by using the ailerons against the stalling wing which unfortunately stalls the wing more rapidly as you are further reducing the laminar flow of air over the wing and increasing the aoa which reduces the useful lift from the wing.
Using the rudder is your friend here and you normally get a bit of training while undergoing your PPL where, depending on the a/c, they show you how incorrectly using the ailerons to correct the roll in a stall can quickly invoke an incipient and then full blown spin.

Which is quite fun if you've not had a large breakfast beforehand and have a penchant for sitting in tumble driers.

Not true as stated, but I know what you mean.

As a wing moves through the air, the wing is inclined to the flight direction at some angle. The angle between the chord line and the flight direction is called the angle of attack and has a large effect on the lift generated by a wing. When an airplane takes off, the pilot applies as much thrust as possible to make the airplane roll along the runway. But just before lifting off, the pilot "rotates" the aircraft. The nose of the airplane rises, increasing the angle of attack and producing the increased lift needed for takeoff.

The magnitude of the lift generated by an object depends on the shape of the object and how it moves through the air. For thin airfoils, the lift is directly proportional to the angle of attack for small angles (within +/- 10 degrees). For higher angles, however, the dependence is quite complex. As an object moves through the air, air molecules stick to the surface. This creates a layer of air near the surface called a boundary layer that, in effect, changes the shape of the object. The flow turning reacts to the edge of the boundary layer just as it would to the physical surface of the object. To make things more confusing, the boundary layer may lift off or "separate" from the body and create an effective shape much different from the physical shape. The separation of the boundary layer explains why aircraft wings will abruptly lose lift at high angles to the flow. This condition is called a wing stall.

[hyperD]

Now be a good boy - stick to assembly language

It's true Alex - in a stall (especially with flaps fully down) you are more likely to experience a sudden wing drop. And the initial instinct is to try and correct the roll by using the ailerons against the stalling wing which unfortunately stalls the wing more rapidly as you are further reducing the laminar flow of air over the wing and increasing the aoa which reduces the useful lift from the wing.

Using the rudder is your friend here and you normally get a bit of training while undergoing your PPL where, depending on the a/c, they show you how incorrectly using the ailerons to correct the roll in a stall can quickly invoke an incipient and then full blown spin.

Which is quite fun if you've not had a large breakfast beforehand and have a penchant for sitting in tumble driers.

[AtW]

In a stall one wing does have a tendency to drop.

It was what appeared to be a high alpha(angle of attack), low velocity run that seems to be de-rigeur in airshows to display the performance of the aircraft. He got it wrong.

Now be a good boy - stick to assembly language

[centurian]

Not quite as fatal as this though:

YouTube - b-52 crash (longer version)

And that's not a Tornado either.

Love some of the comments...

"Did he die"

"No. He walked away with bruised neckmeat."


Check out the picture on the Wikipedia page for the crash (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1994_Fa...ase_B-52_crash). The wings are practically vertical from tip to tip....

[Advocate]

Few people can fly with a bowl of spaghetti in their laps and that guy is not one of them.

It's not even a Tornado...

[TimberWolf]

Few people can fly with a bowl of spaghetti in their laps and that guy is not one of them.

[hyperD]

Could have been a surge/compressor stall in the starboard engine causing a wing drop?

[Advocate]

I thought one of his engines gave out?

[SupremeSpod]

BBC News - Pilot escapes from fighter jet moments before crash

He started to bank to the right with no airspeed whatsoever, little wonder the plane fell out of the sky...

In a stall one wing does have a tendency to drop.

It was what appeared to be a high alpha(angle of attack), low velocity run that seems to be de-rigeur in airshows to display the performance of the aircraft. He got it wrong.

[scooterscot]

BBC News - Pilot escapes from fighter jet moments before crash

He started to bank to the right with no airspeed whatsoever, little wonder the plane fell out of the sky...