RE: Science Porn
February 19, 2015 at 2:03 am
(This post was last modified: February 19, 2015 at 2:09 am by Anomalocaris.)
(February 18, 2015 at 12:46 pm)SteelCurtain Wrote: Somebody posted something in another thread that made me think of this.
Crosswind Landings or "crabbing" show some pretty dynamic physics really well. The plane's velocity vector differs (sometimes pretty dramatically) from its thrust vector because of wind perpendicular (or close to perpendicular) to the thrust vector. The pilot has to point the plane's nose in such a way that the velocity vector "points" down the runway.
Here's some awesome shots of planes crabbing and landing in Düsseldorf on an icy runway:
The Turkish airline B-777 pilot didn't do a very good job. Ideally he should yaw the plane at the last second to swing the nose back around to point down the runway just as he touch down.
Instead he brought the plane all the way down with the nose pointed upwind with undercarriage tires at an angle to the runway. As a result when undercarriage tires gained traction on the runway at the moment of touch down, it jerked the plane side ways, Adding unnecessary strain on the undercarriage, wear on the tires, and likely giving a fairly rough jerk to the passengers.
The following Lufthansa A-340 pilot did a much better job.