A Pilot’s Blog
A blog about aviation, aviation news, and space.

The massive B-52 requires a little extra help to slow down upon touchdown.

Picture courtesy of Airliners.net.

I hate snow. I despise snow. But irregardless of that, this is a nice picture. Note the small tree in the right background with Christmas lights on it.

Picture courtesy of Airliners.net.

The clever angle of this shot produces a real visual trick for your brain. What the heck are those giant things in the cargo bay? Oh, wait…

Picture courtesy of Airliners.net.

Certainly a unique photograph of a 737 fuselage which was assembled at Spirit Aerosystems in Wichita, Kansas on it’s way by train to Boeing’s facility in Seattle.

Picture courtesy of Airliners.net.

Last night I was skimming through the latest postings on BoingBoing, and came upon this one. I had heard of this “question” before, but never gave it much thought. Here’s the gist of it:

Imagine a plane is sitting on a massive conveyor belt, as wide and as long as a runway. The conveyer belt is designed to exactly match the speed of the wheels, moving in the opposite direction. Can the plane take off?

At first, I thought this was the stupidest question I’d ever heard of. I had initially imagined the problem as the plane was sitting on a treadmill just big enough for the wheels to sit on, and these people thought that by spinning up the wheels the plane would takeoff. However, the problem actually states that the treadmill is the exact dimensions of a standard runway.

So, I think of it like this: Planes fly because of “lift”. In order to get lift, according to Bernoulli’s Principle, you must have sufficient airflow over the wings so that an area of low pressure is created above the wing (due to the air having to travel a longer distance than below the wing, so it moves faster) and an area of high pressure is created below the wing. When this pressure differential is great enough to overcome the weight of the plane, the wings produce lift and take the plane aloft.

Understanding that, if the plane is sitting on a treadmill that is able to adjust it’s speed (apparently instantly) to match the rotational speed of the wheels, can the engines still move the plane forwards, and at great enough speed to get the required airflow over the wings to generate lift? My answer: Not being a physics expert, I’m not sure. Here are my two theories for both sides of the argument.

(more…)

A China Southern 737-800 sits under a beautiful rainbow at Hawaii’s Honolulu International Airport. Perfect alignment of subjects in this photo.

Picture courtesy of Airliners.net.

A C-17A Globemaster lifts off for parts unknown.

Picture courtesy of Airliners.net.

In this absolutely spectacular shot you can see the Space Shuttle Discovery performing the first nighttime launch in nearly four years on December 9th, 2006. Good luck and God Speed to the crew of STS-116.

Picture from the Associated Press via CNN

You’ve always got to watch for those markers while taxiing.

Picture courtesy of Airliners.net.

The silhouette of a 737 crosses a stunning sunset in the Czech Republic. Even the heat distortion from the engines is visible.

Picture courtesy of Airliners.net.