wrote:


On Jun 25, 10:46 am, alexy wrote:
Stealth Pilot wrote:
On Wed, 25 Jun 2008 12:43:21 GMT, "Mike" wrote:

"Stealth Pilot" wrote in message
. ..

I know we beat on you guys a lot here but here is a serious question
for you to explore.

scenario: you are flying along on a bright sunny day with no cloud
cover. your wingspan is about 20 ft, fuselage length 14ft and
tailplane about 8ft span. your altitude is 4,500ft.

you look down below you in the exact opposite direction to the sun.

what do you see below you scooting along the ground below you?
is it a sharply defined shadow of your aircraft?
a fuzzy indistinct shadow of your aeroplane?
or what?

it is quite distinct and you can pick it from nearly a mile away.

....now pilots dont tell them. these guys are actually quite
intelligent but not in' hands on' aviation matters. they should be
able to work this out.

In the grand scheme of "hands on aviation matters", how many beans are in
this hill?

I notice that there are no attempts at an answer.

Well, you directed the question to flight simmers and trolls. If you
want to open it up to non-pilot lurkers, I'll take a guess. Assuming
you will reveal the correct answer and explain it.

glory be, what can the answer be?


My guess is that since the plane will subtend a much smaller angle
than the sun, there would be no noticeable shadow. My guess is a
"halo" around where the shadow would be, caused by diffraction, Since
most of the edges tend to be inline with the plane's axis or
perpendicular to it, it seems that this halo might be somewhat
brighter on those two axes, but I wonder if that would be noticeable.
The halo might have a slightly bluish cast, since the red end of the
spectrum would get diffracted more, and being over a larger area would
be not as bright.

So, what's the real answer?
--
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