How a plane can dive vertically?
- Thread starter Saint
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RainbowSingularity
Valued Senior Member
why not flight controls to glide and try a proper landing ?
Seattle
Valued Senior Member
How is this a response to the question "How can an airplane dive vertically"?
Again, this is in response to some particular recent crash?
RainbowSingularity
Valued Senior Member
https://abcnews.go.com/Technology/wireStory/explainer-china-eastern-plane-crash-83593060
EXPLAINER: What is known about the China Eastern plane crash
The crash of a Boeing 737-800 passenger jet in China’s southwest started a fire big enough to be seen from space and forced rescuers to search a rugged, remote mountainside
The cause is unknown. Flight 5735 was at 29,000 feet (8,800 meters) on Monday afternoon when it went into a dive about an hour into its flight, according to flight-tracking website FlightRadar24.com.
The plane plunged to 7,400 feet (2,200 meters) before regaining about 1,200 feet (360 meters), then dived again. It crashed into the side of a mountain in a remote, forested area outside the city of Wuzhou.
State media and Chinese regulators gave no indication the pilot reported trouble or other information that might shed light on the cause of the disaster. The plane stopped transmitting data 96 seconds after it started to fall.
EXPLAINER: What is known about the China Eastern plane crash
The crash of a Boeing 737-800 passenger jet in China’s southwest started a fire big enough to be seen from space and forced rescuers to search a rugged, remote mountainside
The cause is unknown. Flight 5735 was at 29,000 feet (8,800 meters) on Monday afternoon when it went into a dive about an hour into its flight, according to flight-tracking website FlightRadar24.com.
The plane plunged to 7,400 feet (2,200 meters) before regaining about 1,200 feet (360 meters), then dived again. It crashed into the side of a mountain in a remote, forested area outside the city of Wuzhou.
State media and Chinese regulators gave no indication the pilot reported trouble or other information that might shed light on the cause of the disaster. The plane stopped transmitting data 96 seconds after it started to fall.
Yes the Airbus systems do this. However, it is extremely difficult to force most planes into a vertical dive due to something called longitudinal static stability. Aircraft are designed so that when speed increases, "backpressure" (force pulling back on the yoke) also increases. Thus when the nose points lower, speed increases, backpressure increases and the nose comes back up.
The two sets of data that aircraft transmit are ADS-B, an automatic broadcast of location and speed data, and transponder codes and altitude. which responds to a radar ping by sending back a stronger ping with transponder code and altitude encoded in the reflection.
Both can be shut off by the pilot. Both also can fail when power goes out, but there are so many redundant systems that provide power for these systems that it is unlikely that any one power generator failure would cause it. Thus the two most likely causes are a catastrophic failure that removes all the electrical power from the aircraft, or intentional pilot action.
Planes diving vertically can be a result of several issues, like a total loss of engine power or severe tailplane damage. I once read about a situation where both engines failed, and the plane had to glide in a steep descent. It was intense, but pilots are trained for these emergencies. A friend had a close call and ended up with a flight upgrade for handling the situation well. We ended up chatting about our flight experiences and discovered that finding the cheapest business class airlines can be a huge help for those extra comfy flights. We ended up booking through a site that made it easy to find great deals, which made our next trip much more enjoyable.
Gimli Glider - Wikipedia
Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302 - Wikipedia
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_accidents_and_incidents_involving_commercial_aircraft
Airplanes rarely crash by a vertical dive. Commercial Airliners rarely go into vertical dives. The NTSB reports are the best place to research why and how airplanes crash. Wikipedia derives it's articles from those reports, making it a good alternate starting point. Television shows tend to dramatize, movies are even worse. The movies are fun to watch, and entertaining, it is always good to check better sources afterwards. I find it interesting to see what flaws the movie has.
I will not guess as to what might make an airplane or airliner go into a vertical dive. It is a very rare mode of flight and serves no purpose, except for special certified aerobatic aircrafts and pilots. Airplanes are required to be stable and avoid pitch, yaw, and roll, that are more than comfortable amounts, the pilots too. FAA certification requires testing for those properties before a type is put into service.
That said, the few crashes that happen, out of millions of miles and trips, are at very high speeds. The news gets hold of the tragedy and broadcasts it like wild fire it to everyone. Often with too much detail and unnecessary photos.
The USA carriers of large commercial airlines have had zero fatal incidents for over ten years. Very excellent safety record. You probably are safer in the sky on one of those big planes than walking on the ground, especially if travelling the same distance.
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Gawdzilla Sama
Valued Senior Member
One of the hijacked planes on 9-11 went almost directly into the ground IIRC. Watched that on a TV in the Food Services Bldg. at Purdue. (I was helping them get their new computer system into action.) Everybody gathered round the only TV set in the building and when the second plane hit I said "where were you the day the war started?" They knew I was a veteran and a history major (working on my Masters at that time.)
I think the NTSB report calls that "impacting at a steep angle" and "steep dive angle" or such.
The 737 Max crash link above indicates that the speed on impact was about 700 mph, or about 40% higher than it's standard speed, 517 mph, and at a steep angle. Just about supersonic. Transonic. No angle is mentioned, but it mentions the descent or pitch being increased at least twice
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The 737 Max crash link above indicates that the speed on impact was about 700 mph, or about 40% higher than it's standard speed, 517 mph, and at a steep angle. Just about supersonic. Transonic. No angle is mentioned, but it mentions the descent or pitch being increased at least twice
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Gawdzilla Sama
Valued Senior Member
IIRC a talking head said that the angle wasn't exact and would include zero in the allowable range. If the pilots missed that perfect one point landing they should have gone around and tried again.
Yeah, I kid.
Yeah, I kid.