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1500 questions
29
votes
2 answers
What is this beauty, seen here after a heavy landing?
A high-wing monoplane with a curved leading edge.
John L
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29
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6 answers
Can a fighter jet land on a modified airliner?
Imagine this scenario:
A modified military 747 is flying at a constant speed and altitude. On the top of the fuselage there is a device like a helipad but with three holes to accommodate the fighter jet landing gear, when pressure is applied the…
user60684
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29
votes
7 answers
How to join a traffic pattern when passing overhead?
I can't seem to find a definite answer to the question on how to enter a traffic pattern when joining from the opposite end of the pattern. No matter who I ask, I'm getting a different answer every time, and they all seem convinced it's the only way…
Philippe Leybaert
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29
votes
2 answers
Can instruments be fixed via a swift punch?
I remember reading a book about private piloting techniques, (I can't remember the title; it has been so long; perhaps I can check my library history or something to see later), and I saw something bizarre.
The author was discussing instruments, and…
Bassinator
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29
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5 answers
How is radar used to help aiming a gun on fighter jets?
I know gatling gun is fixed mounted to the airframe of the plane, thus cannot be rotated left/ right or up/down. However watching DCS pilots dogfighting with opponents they sometimes mention their radar is broken thus have no precision aim on the…
svizko
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29
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8 answers
Why/How is the B-52 still in service?
The B-52 was introduced in 1955, and is still used by the US Airforce, and is expected to remain in use till the 2040s.
On the other hand, the A-4 Skyhawk was introduced in 1956 and retired in 1998/2003.
Now granted these are completely different…
dwjohnston
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29
votes
2 answers
How can a helicopter be designed without a tail rotor?
How will the main rotor torque be balanced if a helicopter doesn't have a tail rotor?
seetharaman
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29
votes
10 answers
Can a plane fly without the vertical stabilizer?
What would happen if a plane (for the sake of the question let's say that the plane is an Airbus A380) lost its vertical stabilizer?
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Tail_of_a_conventional_aircraft.svg
Gabriel Brito
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29
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2 answers
Are large jet turbofans so easy to spin?
In this question, in the accepted answer, there is a comment by alephzero that says one can actually rotate a large turbofan's blades with one finger! Is that true, can someone elaborate? As an example, does this apply to my google search for…
George Menoutis
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29
votes
3 answers
Can helicopters create contrails?
Can some or all helicopters have contrails? If only some, why only those? If not, why can they not? Pictures would be really helpful. I do know that turboprops and piston props can leave contrails, but I haven't been able to find anything about…
George
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29
votes
3 answers
Why is the most common hydraulic fluid so poisonous?
The usual hydraulic fluid, Skydrol, is poisonous. If it makes it to the air conditioning system, it causes fume events that may have adverse health effects up to and including at least one fatality. And it is not easy to completely prevent the…
Jan Hudec
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29
votes
4 answers
What materials are plane windows made of?
I've always wondered, what are those dual-layered (bonus: sometimes they have a little <2mm hole, why is it there?) windows commercial jets put next to their seats made of?
ppp
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29
votes
3 answers
Are grass strips more dangerous than tarmac?
There are a couple of flight schools near me. One is at a large airport, they use Piper Tomahawks primarily to teach. Naturally, they use well maintained, tarmac runways to takeoff and land. This school has had no accidents in the last few years and…
Cloud
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29
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4 answers
Can a helicopter mask itself from radar?
I have read somewhere that if a helicopter is traveling under 100 km/h and below 5 meters AGL then most radars will ignore it. From what I understand of this process, the radars can pick up things like cars and vehicles driving on the ground and…
Igneous01
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29
votes
2 answers
Why is the FDR and CVR put into water again after a water crash?
When a plane crashes in the water and the investigator team looks for the FDR and CVR, why do they put it in a container of water when they find it ?
Anderson
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