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Old November 11th 04, 05:38 PM
jharper aaatttt cisco dddooottt com
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One other thing... it's essentially impossible to
stop a fixed-wing airplane in midair. (You can have
zero ground speed due to headwinds, but not zero
airspeed). If you try, the nose drops and it glides
towards the ground. If you try to stop that, it will
eventually perform an aerodynamic stall, which WILL
make the nose drop, but it still won't come to a halt.
About the only way to reach zero airspeed is to
pull the plane into a near-vertical climb. And even
then it reacts by dropping the nose and building
up some speed again (or if you are truly vertical,
it can fall tail-first and then it will at some point
snap into a more normal posture and then start
to fly nose-first again). It's fun to do though, in
the right kind of airplane - a small aerobatic one -
and with enough altitude.

John