KillaThrill Video is a Hoax

I think I figured out how they did it. First watch the original video again. A couple more things to note:

1. No fuel vapor at separation. Most aircraft wings are wet; that means they hold fuel. Even if the video aircraft was operating on an internal tank the residue in the tank and lines would have caused a puff of vapor.
2. The bounce on landing. To light not right for an aircraft that weighs thousands of pounds.
3. The control input rate vs acceleration of aircraft in beta and alpha axis. In English too jerky in pitch and yaw.
4. Thrust to weight ratio was very close to, or at 1 to 1. It appeared at times to be in a pure hover, again not realistic.
OK now watch this video I found.

Did it look familiar? You bet, the KillaThrill video was done with a radio controlled aircraft. It explains all four of the unusual flight characteristics above. A real nice job editing in the canopy scene. But; once compared to the second video there is no doubt it is an RC aircraft.

Sorry but I have to “KillaThrill”

There is a widely circulating youtube video showing an alleged Red Bull air racer shedding a wing and landing the aircraft perfectly sans’ said wing. Looks cool, great camera work and- sorry; totally bogus. I’ll leave aside the subtle stuff like out of place radio traffic and the fact there are no signs of a Red Bull circuit in the back ground or that the alleged pilot interviewed is not on the circuit.

Let’s stick to aerodynamics and of course physics. As I have written in the past “a good pilot must know the laws of aerodynamics; but a good fighter pilot must know how to use physics to defy those laws.” And indeed an Israeli F-15 years ago lost a wing in a mid-air collision, and returned to base for a safe landing. However; the F-15’s fuselage is a lifting body. That means the fuselage is part wing, producing its own lift.

ISSUE #1: The aircraft rolls for no apparent reason; in a red Bull race the object is to get through the maneuvers and course with the lowest elapsed time and no penalties. To do this the pilots keep the aircraft loaded with maximum g to keep the lift vector always down the race course. They would never do an un-loaded roll or ease the g in a vertical move.
ISSUE#2: While it has happened in past accidents it is very unusual for a wing to catastrophically fail while unloaded and at a slow speed; as happened in the video.
ISSUE #3: The aircraft rolls and subsequently spirals the wrong direction; i.e. into the remaining wing. With only one wing producing lift the aircraft would roll opposite the remaining wing not into it. Even if you take into account zero airspeed and torque produced from the engine for initial rotation direction; as it accelerated it would have reversed directions violently.
ISSUE#4: Actually I will buy flying at full throttle, 90 degrees angle of bank. Hanging on the engine and using the rudder as an elevator is believable. However the wings level move just prior to touch down with one wing? Not buying it; also taxi speed within 10 feet, doesn’t seem likely either.

They should have gotten a good Aviation Technical advisor. I’ve fixed stuff like that for movies in the past. Good attempt tho; and it is getting tons of hits. I’ve had it passed to me by three different sources already.

Tatoos Piercings and The Waffle House

On the last leg we let the horse run for the barn. Turning final at Austin airport; I dropped the gear and flaps, slowed to final approach speed, touched down and got on the brakes. We were on a mission: game two of the World Series was in the late innings and we had not eaten all day. Our Flight Attendants were going to a different hotel so Captain Bruce and I bailed. Heading to the pickup point we called the hotel to ensure the van was inbound. “Two minutes out,” was the reply. Twenty minutes later the Flight Attendants joined us at the curb.
The next indication of a problem was when the van finally showed up; the driver was…well… no doubt the senior driver at the hotel. A very nice man he offered to take our Flight Attendants as well, since their hotel was next door to ours. Swerving onto the hi-way, the distinctive sound of seat belts clicking into place filled the van.
Wheeling into the parking area we missed our turn point. We found ourselves after a lap of the three hotels back on the 4-lane hi-way. No worries right? Wrong; throwing the van into a tight u-turn our fearless driver swerved in front of oncoming traffic and re-entered the hotel parking lots.
After dropping the Ladies we finally made our destination. The baseball game was on in the lobby bar and we raced for our rooms and a quick change. Five minutes later we met at the elevator in jeans and t-shirts. We bellied up and asked for a menu and beverage.
“The kitchen is closed,” was the reply.
Finishing our beverage as the Phillies closed the deal in the ninth; we asked our server where we could get something to eat.
“The Waffle House, right down the hill.”
“The Waffle House, that’s it?”
He nodded and we set out to hike down the hill to the Waffle House as the bewitching hour approached. Lit up in all of its stainless steel glory, we squinted as we entered. Stevie Ray Vaughn was belting out a Jimi Hendrix tune in the background as we sat at the counter. A bubbly waitress was mashing buttons on the juke box; she invited us to join in on the selections. Politely passing we turned our attention to the Hispanic cook who was practicing Hindu Yoga at the grill.
I scanned around the Waffle house: to our right was a pierced couple. They each had approximately 2-3 pounds of various metals protruding from their heads. To the left, a weird looking guy in a hoodie; paranoid eyes darted from the hood looking left and right. Appropriately he was backed into a corner. A tall young man ambled in, ordered a pecan waffle and large diet coke, and then promptly went to sleep on his table.
Captain Bruce turned to me and asked. “Did you ever see the Twilight zone episode…”
I didn’t let him finish. “Yea; the one where everyone in the diner was an alien and had a third eye under their hats.”
He nodded and we ordered our meal. A petite waitress served us our burgers. As we munched on the liver flavored delights Captain Bruce couldn’t resist.
“You have a third eye under that hat don’t you? Take off your hat and show us.”
She laughed, no doubt thinking we were the weird ones. He explained the Twilight Zone episode and exchanged small talk. As we finished our meal the bubbly waitress and Yoga master got into an argument on the proper way to pull a pecan waffle off the iron. Petite waitress delivered the object of argument, waking the young man up.
I smiled at Captain Bruce, “and they said the glamour was gone.”
As we eased out the door I realized she never did take off her hat.

Post Stall Gyrations (PSG) and Stock Market Fluctuations

After an aircraft departs controlled fight it enters a stage known as post stall gyrations. The procedure is to neutralize the controls (no input) and hold on. If the aircraft moves from PSG to the incipient stage of a spin the pilot still has time to neutralize and the aircraft will fly itself out of extremis (altitude permitting). If the controls are not put into a neutral position in the incipient stage, the aircraft will enter a steady state spin. It will not spin without control input.

When in a steady state spin; positive control input opposite the direction of spin (normally rudder) must be applied. As rotation stops the pilot has to put the controls in the neutral position or the spin will go progressive. Simply put; it will then spin the other direction.

A swept wing aircraft (high performance) does not like to recover from a spin. The pilot must recognize and neutralize the controls and just hold on through the post stall gyrations and incipient stage. The reality is that normally by the time a fighter type aircraft goes steady state; there is not enough altitude to recover before a crash.

I think our economy is like a high performance wing. Stopping and starting a steady state trend is not easy and very unlikely to be successful. The USA is not like a third world (straight winged) economy that can be put easily into a spin and subsequently recovered from one.

It is time to neutralize the controls or at least let go of them and ride it out. Let the economy right itself. Every time Bernanke, President Bush or the Congress speak or do something, the market goes into PSG. Let go of the controls, guys like Warren Buffet will fly it out once the PSG has stopped.

Federal Reserve Chairman, Dr. Ben Bernanke must be reading my blog.

One month ago today I wrote a post on the AIG fiasco. In it I said:

…but why does the US Fed care enough to cough up 85 billion dollars for a “small” bridge loan?

Because the anti-trust laws of this country have been discarded. What does that have to do with the financial bail outs? The SEC/Justice Department have allowed companies through mergers and acquisitions to grow so large; so monolithic that their failure would bring down Wall Street.

Two days ago Dr. Ben Bernanke agreed in his speech to the Economic Club of New York. Am I a trained economist? Nope, it is just plain ol’ common sense. AND, as I said in my post last month, a taboo in Flight Test. In Flight Test it is called a single point of failure. In English that means if one item fails an entire system or the aircraft is lost. The biggest single point of failure is the engine. If you lose an engine in the F-16; you will ride the silk. Lose one in the FA-18; and you fly home with the other. In a sub-system a very small box can affect an entire system. In the EA-6B Prowler for example there was a small mixing box that all six of the radios went through. If it failed you lost all communication. Not too smart of a design.

The Federal Government has allowed, even encouraged massive mergers for years. As I sit here the next mega-merger is being Tee’d up; General Motors and Chrysler. How long before they come to us, the taxpayer, for a loan? A year, a month? Here is the mantra: “The new GM is too big to allow to fail!”

If there had been ten AIG type insurers instead of one, do you think we would be paying for another junket for their crack management team? I suspect they would have heard “too bad so sad, perhaps you should not have been so incompetent.” Now we the taxpayers virtually own the banking system for the exact same reason; too big to allow to fail.

I don’t know if I should be relieved or very scared, that a dumb-ass pilot from Missouri saw it a month prior to the “best and brightest” running our economy.

American Airlines buys 787 Dreamliner

American Airlines announced today that it would buy forty two Boeing 787 Dreamliner aircraft for eight billion dollars. The 787 represents a new technological milestone; the extensive use of light weight composite parts. As I have written previously by contrast the Airbus A-380 represents the end of a technological era, the aluminium period. Historically not a good place to be for marketability.

Boeing has three distinct models to serve the three distinct wide body airline markets. The 787-3 is perfectly suited for the lucrative transcontinental market in the USA (2,500 to 3050 nautical mile range). The 787-8 is designed for the USA to Europe market (7,650 to 8,200 nautical mile range) as well as for the South American routes AA flies. The final model the 787-9 is the long haul model capable of up to 8,500 mile range for long Indian and China routes. Boeing’s 787 can operate from current airports; using the same runways, taxi ways, gates and much of the same support gear as current models such as 757, 767, and the 777. Airbus Industries A-380 needs all of the above modified to operate.

Like the Lockheed Constellation (the last piston powered long range airliner) before it, the A-380 is the end of an era, a technological dinosaur. Very few markets will be able to operationally handle it; fewer will be able to operate it economically. I suspect also like the “Connie” its production will be a short run. I suspect it might not reach the breakeven point.

The Dreamliner on the other hand, capable of replacing current wide body aircraft with a twenty percent fuel savings, and customized to economically maximize the three most common market ranges will have a long run IMO.

Novel: Project Seven Alpha, American Airlines in Burma 1942. Now available for pre-order

My novel is now available for pre-order from Pen and Swords Books LTD. Also available is Trailblazers, a collection of stories from Test Pilots, put together by Christopher Hounsfield. I have authored a chapter in Trailblazers and I think any aviation enthusiast will love both books.

It is a tough time in aviation these days. However I think the industry will pull out of its nosedive in 2009. When you depart controlled flight, the first objective is to stabilize after flopping around. Nose low, nose high; it does not really matter. Just get it to stop flopping, then recover. The market stopped flopping today, I think we have returned to controlled flight. Now it is time to smoothly recover. Blue skies. chip