Comments about impossible jet maneuvers?

November 20, 2013 5:57 AM

Does anyone remember a post that spawned various comments with links to videos of jet airplanes doing various seemingly impossible maneuvers?

Can't remember what the post was about, but I believe it had to do with passenger jets that managed to survive collisions or engine failures by skilled piloting. In particular, one comment linked to a video of jet flying with its nose about 15-20 degrees pitched down, but going forward as it rocked back and forth from side to side looking like it was about to stall at any second, yet it landed safely.

posted by Brandon Blatcher (staff) to Etiquette/Policy at 5:57 AM (26 comments total)

Any idea how long ago, broadly speaking?
posted by goodnewsfortheinsane (staff) at 6:06 AM on November 20, 2013

Was it in one of the 707 barrel roll threads? Maybe this one?
posted by jessamyn (staff) at 6:16 AM on November 20, 2013

Maybe within the last three-four years? Can't swear it to though.

Don't know if it was a barrel roll thread, but it definitely wasn't that barrel roll thread.
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 6:29 AM on November 20, 2013

was it a negative 4 g dive ?
posted by k5.user at 6:49 AM on November 20, 2013

Were they (cough) inverted?
posted by Ghidorah at 6:56 AM on November 20, 2013 [3 favorites]

This one about the Air France 447 disaster?
posted by goodnewsfortheinsane (staff) at 6:59 AM on November 20, 2013

Was a treadmill involved?
sorry
posted by Skorgu at 7:06 AM on November 20, 2013 [4 favorites]

I remember one from a few years ago with a lot of videos of planes landing at crazy angles in side-winds.
posted by Sys Rq at 7:07 AM on November 20, 2013

The plane wasn't inverted, the post about the Air France disaster isn't it and no idea on the treadmill, but I suspect not.

I remember one from a few years ago with a lot of videos of planes landing at crazy angles in side-winds.

That sounds close to what I'm thinking of.
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 7:08 AM on November 20, 2013

Tupolev TU-154 with control problems.

Resulting thread.
posted by kiltedtaco at 7:12 AM on November 20, 2013 [2 favorites]

(This one, or one like it?)
posted by Sys Rq at 7:12 AM on November 20, 2013

Kiltedtaco for the win! Thanks man, you're clearly a supreme taco!
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 7:16 AM on November 20, 2013

Here's an a380 meeting a crosswind.
posted by Skorgu at 7:25 AM on November 20, 2013 [1 favorite]

Also, thanks to all who went looking, you get deluxe hugs.
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 7:27 AM on November 20, 2013

I've developed a pretty good catalog of various aviation incidents in my head. Might be a little weird.

Say, who wants to watch some crosswind landings? View from straight down the runway. A stormy day. Another one. Winds are too much, let's watch go-arounds.
posted by kiltedtaco at 7:28 AM on November 20, 2013 [1 favorite]

Because no good thread can go un-nitpicked, wings cannot stall at a negative angle of attack. Not to say that the incident in that video was not incredibly dangerous, but a stall was likely the least of their concerns.
posted by backseatpilot at 7:32 AM on November 20, 2013

wings cannot stall at a negative angle of attack

What if the plane is flying backwards?
posted by bondcliff at 7:42 AM on November 20, 2013

kiltedtaco's latest links give me a new appreciation for the skills that pilots have (and a desire never to fly into Düsseldorf). I then disappeared into related videos. Does anyone know where the airport is that is #3 (by number at the start of the clip) in this video?
posted by valleys at 7:44 AM on November 20, 2013

Criminy, what cojones on that pilot.
posted by jquinby at 7:56 AM on November 20, 2013

What if the plane is flying backwards?

Well, then you just have a whole other set of problems.

Thrust-vectored fighters that can do those momentary reverse-flying tricks aren't really producing lift at that point, they're just letting momentum carry them through the maneuver.
posted by backseatpilot at 8:30 AM on November 20, 2013

Those pilots ain't got shit on the guy flying this helicopter.
posted by mullacc at 10:04 AM on November 20, 2013 [1 favorite]

Holy GODDAMN. Missed that the first time around. I want to show it to my SO when he gets home, but I can't because he's got a 9-hr flight next week. It just wouldn't be right.
posted by greenish at 3:03 PM on November 20, 2013

A young guy in an F-14 fighter was flying escort for a B-52 and
generally being a nuisance, acting like a hotdog, flying rolls
around the lumbering old bomber. The hotdog said over the air,
"Anything you can do, I can do better."

The veteran bomber pilot answered, "Try this hot-shot." The B-52
continued its flight, straight and level.

Perplexed, the hotdog asked, "So? What did you do?"

"I just shut down two engines, kid."

posted by griphus at 6:26 PM on November 20, 2013 [3 favorites]

My favourite is this DC-9 hard landing. Which also answers the question about how to get an almost fuselage sized thing out of an aircraft.
posted by ambrosen at 2:41 PM on November 21, 2013 [1 favorite]

"I just shut down two engines, kid."

The other punchline I head was along the lines of "I just got up, stretched my legs, used the lavatory, and poured myself a fresh cup of hot coffee."
posted by exogenous at 11:47 AM on November 22, 2013

That punchline sounds a little harder to...

(•_•)
( •_•)>⌐■-■
(⌐■_■)

...land.
posted by griphus at 12:23 PM on November 22, 2013 [1 favorite]