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Old June 16th 07, 04:40 PM posted to rec.aviation.piloting,rec.aviation.student
Mxsmanic
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Posts: 9,169
Default Myth: 1 G barrel rolls are impossible.

writes:

Up, then down, until it hits what someone so nicely described as 'the
hard edge of the sky". Is your assertion that is orbital?


Absolutely. The orbit doesn't seem like an orbit because it intersects the
planet's surface, but if the Earth were a dimensionless point with the same
mass, the track would be an ellipsoidal orbit around that point.

Ballistic tracks at the surface are the very tips of very eccentric orbits
that intersect the Earth.