salon.com— Can commercial jets fly upside down? Has terrorism forced a change in transoceanic flight paths? And other probing questions for our expert.
Dec 12, 2008View in Crawl 4
Not true. As a F4E Phantom II mechanic in the Air Force, I was taught that fuel pumps had to be able to move fuel during all flight modes. Just as negative G's can blackout a pilot, necessitating pressure suits that can squeeze the legs during negative G maneuvers in order to force blood out of the lower extremities and into the brain, a fuel tank must be designed so that regardless of the amount of fuel in the tank, or the G's applied to the aircraft, the fuel pump provides fuel to the engines to prevent a stall.
That would apply to a fuel system specifically designed for those kinds of fun and games, such as fighter jets and aerobatic competition aircraft. Airliners are not expected to be doing radical maneuvers and the fuel systems are not designed to deal with negative g loads for more than a few seconds. You have the g-effects backwards. G-suits inflate around the legs and abdomen during positive g loading to prevent blood from pooling in the legs and causing blackout from lack of oxygen to the brain. Under heavy negative g loads, the blood rushes to the head and can cause "red out" (burst blood vessels in the eyes making the whites very blood shot. I can tell you from experience (3 flights in F-16s) that they do not inflate under negative gees because that would squeeze blood out of the legs and make the blood run to head faster. BTW, I spent 15 years working on F-16s and F-117s before moving into network administration for the last 5 years of my career.
Sorry I gotta call you there. A Cessna has about an 8 or 9 to 1 glide ratio not the 52:1 you mentioned- that's better than most sailplanes. a Cessna can glide about a mile and a half on 1000ft. If it could glide 10 miles, I would climb to 5000ft, turn off the engine and save a lot of gas to get where I'm going.
zorplexDec 13, 2008
<a class="user" href="http://www.aviationexplorer.com/707_roll_video.htm">http://www.aviationexplorer.com/707_roll_video.htm</a>
ruyguyDec 13, 2008
Auto rotation is only possible above a certain altitude and with a certain amount of airspeed.
iancgiDec 14, 2008
when it involves the murder of 3000 of our fellow countrymen is most certainly does.
chloemsDec 21, 2008
Not true. As a F4E Phantom II mechanic in the Air Force, I was taught that fuel pumps had to be able to move fuel during all flight modes. Just as negative G's can blackout a pilot, necessitating pressure suits that can squeeze the legs during negative G maneuvers in order to force blood out of the lower extremities and into the brain, a fuel tank must be designed so that regardless of the amount of fuel in the tank, or the G's applied to the aircraft, the fuel pump provides fuel to the engines to prevent a stall.
beerhoundJan 6, 2009
That would apply to a fuel system specifically designed for those kinds of fun and games, such as fighter jets and aerobatic competition aircraft. Airliners are not expected to be doing radical maneuvers and the fuel systems are not designed to deal with negative g loads for more than a few seconds. You have the g-effects backwards. G-suits inflate around the legs and abdomen during positive g loading to prevent blood from pooling in the legs and causing blackout from lack of oxygen to the brain. Under heavy negative g loads, the blood rushes to the head and can cause "red out" (burst blood vessels in the eyes making the whites very blood shot. I can tell you from experience (3 flights in F-16s) that they do not inflate under negative gees because that would squeeze blood out of the legs and make the blood run to head faster. BTW, I spent 15 years working on F-16s and F-117s before moving into network administration for the last 5 years of my career.
rambo77Feb 25, 2009
Barrel Roll FTW!<a class="user" href="http://sportsbetworld.net/">http://sportsbetworld.net/</a>
thetenseSep 24, 2009
Sorry I gotta call you there. A Cessna has about an 8 or 9 to 1 glide ratio not the 52:1 you mentioned- that's better than most sailplanes. a Cessna can glide about a mile and a half on 1000ft. If it could glide 10 miles, I would climb to 5000ft, turn off the engine and save a lot of gas to get where I'm going.