Thursday, December 17, 2009
Old Airshow Video
Not to take anything away from this, but loops and barrel rolls, when properly done, are not high-G maneuvers. It is impressive to see a transport class aircraft barrel-rolled and looped, but they all can do it (other than the new generation computer controlled airplanes, that is). There has been film of Bob Hoover doing loops and barrel rolls while pouring water into a glass on the glareshield of his Twin Commander. Probably every airplane back in the `30s was also spin-tested and capable.
But from what I've been told, the control forces of a Tri-Motor about required a weight-lifting physique, which makes this old film more impressive.
Happy Wright Brothers Day!
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4 comments:
There's something exciting in thinking about aerobatics in an airplane that you'd need real muscle to fly. In 99% of my flying experience, I would have been fine holding the yolk between one fingertip and thumb.
It always makes me smile when I see some TV show or movie where the pilot is incapacitated and the hero must pull the airplane out of the dive by dint of sheer strength, while the plane howls like a Stuka dive bomber. Even if it's a jet. Even if the controls are fly-by-wire.
Even more funny are the scenes where the runway is blocked and the hero must lift the aircraft off the runway with pure muscle... as if take-offs require a strong man, and urgent take-offs require a superhuman one.
Hydraulic assistance wasn't available until the 1930s, I believe. Prior to that, it used to take a lot of strength to move some of those control surfaces. Most WWII fighters and tactical aircraft didn't have it, either, and pulling out of extreme maneuvers often took all of a pilot's strength.
Wish I could remember an old pilot's autobiography that talked about that, but I stopped reading those decades ago. Maybe Fate Is The Hunter?
Riding the Dragon by Caidin was pretty good, too, though not of the same literary quality.
Holy crap! That's impressive, especially the rolls. Well, and the loop. And spinning it?!? Holy crap!
A few years ago, after Oshkosh, I ponied up my $100 and rode their Trimotor. Better yet, I got right seat, and he let me fly it for 5 minutes, bumping along under a low overcast. I can attest to the huge aileron and rudder forces. It's not bad in pitch though.
And happy Wright day to you too. Not the first flight, but 5 years later... including some cool inflight film. ( I'd turn down the sound; spooky piano music. )
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