To all SSC Station occupants
Thank you for the donations over the past year (2024), it is much appreciated. I am still trying to figure out how to migrate the forums to another community software (probably phpbb) but in the meantime I have updated the forum software to the latest version. SSC has been around a while so their is some very long time members here still using the site, thanks for making SSC home and sorry I haven't been as vocal as I should be in the forums I will try to improve my posting frequency.
Thank you again to all of the members that do take the time to donate a little, it helps keep this station functioning on the outer reaches of space.
-D1-
just a quick video to show it.
I need to pay more attention at the airport, this is the first time I have seen a plane do that 🙂
I only learned about it right before posting that. But i have to say it is interesting. , I mean, by the time you think about all the ways something like that can work,, an x-wing might just look exactly right.
I mean, if the engines are mounted on the rear end, but are able to point slightly forward like that,, then it is actually imaginable that an x-wing can land just like it does in the movies, flat, using engines back where they are. The top engines would pull back on the bottom engines,,, just like if you hold a block of wood on the end and keep it flat. It would be a matter of just the right angle of up and down,
Okay completely unrelated,
but you know x-wings are blocky (in the original movie), they are not rounded wings with the proper wing shape.
well, but then again, there might be a good reason for that. If a pilot is always flying like a space game, and travelling one way while firing another, they might really want to keep that potential even in an atmosphere. Sure, they would want to use the wings to change direction, but if they DON'T want to change direction, they don't want their wings to force it. If the wings were sharp edges and square, THEN it would be possible to point the nose and the sharp edges would break the air so that there is a relatively even turbulence that forms, allowing the trajectory to remain constant (for formation flying). Using those wings to change direction would require certain positions (achieved by pitch-roll) , but then work fine, while most FIRING positions (achieved by yaw) would would allow the fighters to use their normal tactics of formation firing lines.
so at random, it might be better to leave the x-wing EXACTLY as originally designed. (and throw out that new movie altogether_
I have to admit you brought something up that I haven't really thought about and may need to go back and watch some video from the star wars movie to see how they are landing because I honestly cannot remember 😉 I always thought our civilian aircraft had a small engine to power the wheels in reverse or they were towed into position. Watching that video definitely taught me something I didn't know. Like several navy planes I think landing more vertically is getting a lot easier. Do I think the big jets will have that tech before I die, doubt it. But with watching many re-entry rockets that Space-X is creating and using I have great hope for our space ship and aircraft technology.
Those are called "reverse buckets" for the record. Must not have gotten that pushback they wanted...
one would be well advised to familiarize one's self with the current mapping of said reverse buckets before attempting to land a learjet in juneau (terrestrial flight simulation, in my case)
Typically you feel the reverse buckets get deployed on landing about simultaneously with the braking phase, so unless you're watching the engines you would most likely assume the sudden decelleration was from wheel braking alone.