[Antonahill]

Copy paste from the video description:

This is what happens when a 230-ton Airbus A330 has the right angle of attack, the right low speed and the right amount of head wind: it gets suspended in the middle of the sky for a few seconds.

It feels like it's flying in slow motion, then it freezes for a couple of seconds and keeps moving in slow motion. The phenomenon has an easy explanation: the Airbus is making a very slow low pass, taking advantage of the very strong head wind combined with the minimun air speed and a high angle of attack to achieve lift for its flaps configuration (which is hard to see from the ground).

This produces extremely low ground speed, which results from the A330's air speed minus the speed of the head wind. The combination of this ground speed and the A330's size give the viewer the sensation of a plane almost frozen in midair.

[ZombieDawgs]

I wonder what that looked like from the plane

[Pretiacruento]

Amazing. Simply amazing.

[Supacasey]

This happened on my flight out of Vegas about a year ago.

First time flying. Almost shit my pants.

[TheTalon]

Antonahill posted:

Copy paste from the video description:

This is what happens when a 230-ton Airbus A330 has the right angle of attack, the right low speed and the right amount of head wind: it gets suspended in the middle of the sky for a few seconds.

It feels like it's flying in slow motion, then it freezes for a couple of seconds and keeps moving in slow motion. The phenomenon has an easy explanation: the Airbus is making a very slow low pass, taking advantage of the very strong head wind combined with the minimun air speed and a high angle of attack to achieve lift for its flaps configuration (which is hard to see from the ground).

This produces extremely low ground speed, which results from the A330's air speed minus the speed of the head wind. The combination of this ground speed and the A330's size give the viewer the sensation of a plane almost frozen in midair.

Very cool looking, but if the wind changes direction suddenly for just a few seconds. Crash.

[Kondor58]

TheTalon posted:

Very cool looking, but if the wind changes direction suddenly for just a few seconds. Crash.

No if the wind changed direction the plane would speed up at the same rate that the wind was changing in speed, have you ever seen a leaf blowing in a wind which keeps changing speed?

[bull3tmagn3t]

Wow. I love long international flights that start epically like this :D (i've flown a lot :D)

[TheTalon]

Kondor58 posted:

No if the wind changed direction the plane would speed up at the same rate that the wind was changing in speed, have you ever seen a leaf blowing in a wind which keeps changing speed?

The plane wouldn't suddenly speed up. What's keeping it in the air is the air passing over its wings, which is just enough to keep it in the air. If you look at its angle of attack, it's pitched quite high but not gaining altitude, meaning he's right at the thresh hold for a stall if he loses any more speed (The head wind slows down, or changes direction) It will fall. He has no altitude to gain any forward momentum in the case of the wind changing direction

Ever heard of Wind shear? It's basically that, that I'm referring to. Horizontal Wind Shear

[NanoSquid]

Clearly this was done by aliens

[SabreGrub]

So simple high alpha

[SilentOpp]

I've seen birds do this! Late!

[Applecrap]

Airbus? You mean a plane, right?

[Rastadogg5]

Applecrap posted:

Airbus? You mean a plane, right?

Airbus is a company.

[GetBent]

Rastadogg5 posted:

Airbus is a company.

Airbus is obviously what europeans call airplanes.

[Chernzobog]

GetBent posted:

Airbus is obviously what europeans call airplanes.

In England we call it a velocipede.

[antair]

I saw this happen once on the way to the airport. No one believed me.

[Trumple]

TheTalon posted:

Very cool looking, but if the wind changes direction suddenly for just a few seconds. Crash.

As the head wind goes down, the plane speeds up and so the speed of the plane relative to the surrounding air stays the same, and so it will stay flying, in basic terms

[DrLuke]

I do that when flying in gliders. As the minimum airspeed is even lower, I once actually flew backwards.

[umx48]

Kondor58 posted:

No if the wind changed direction the plane would speed up at the same rate that the wind was changing in speed, have you ever seen a leaf blowing in a wind which keeps changing speed?

a leaf doesn't weigh 230 tons.

[The freeman]

umx48 posted:

a leaf doesn't weigh 230 tons.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antonov_An-225
Over 314 US Tons and still flies.

[Bubz]

I always see a C-17 Aircraft doing this.

[Dirf]

Must have been horrifying for the people in the plane.

[matty928]

shit im goin on a plane tomorrow!!

[GreenLeaf]

I remember looking out the window one windy day and was greeted by a crow trapped in midair in a similar fashion.
It was like "sup!" and flew away!

[JgcxCub]

It looks like the server lagged for a bit and the model just kept moving. I was expecting it to jump back to its original position and carry on flying as normal from there.

[Egon Spengler]

-snip-

[Maloof?]

Looks almost like a VTOL Airbus

[Corey_Faure]

Physics is fucking cool.

[Ridge]

Kondor58 posted:

No if the wind changed direction the plane would speed up at the same rate that the wind was changing in speed, have you ever seen a leaf blowing in a wind which keeps changing speed?

It flips end over end before smashing into the sidewalk?

[Asmaedus]

The sound of the turbines cranking up near the end makes me rock hard.

[Kommodore]

This maneuver is due to the magnetic properties of the sun.

You see, the lift created by the gryos (you can see them on top of the plane if you squint) initiates a forward pitch, whereby the wind blow is flushed out onto the AK-47s (fins). This creates a magnetic attraction between the sun and Airbus molecules.

If the pilot had pressed the go left button, the plane would have exploded.

Edited:

Much like a leaf blowing in the wind.

[reedbo]

I started reading the comments in this thread and had a sort of Déjà vu. Turns out it was posted last year

[No Party Hats]

Wow so when people die in planes in Battlefield 3, it's actually realistic how the plane slows to a gentle slide?

the more you know

[BigSmokeDawg]

Fucking lag


Joking aside, that's really fucking cool. Although I would've shat myself if I was inside. I was in a plane once that almost crashed during landing (Stuck gear on a really short runway, it was really scary) and that really didn't help my phobia of flying heh