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1500 questions
31
votes
5 answers
How do aircraft refueling in-air deal with wake turbulence?
Many fighter planes have the capability to refuel in air. When a plane moves in air, turbulence is generated at its back. To refuel, the fighter plane must come near to the parent plane (which has fuel in it).
When fighter plane reaches the back of…
Santhi Kabir
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31
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2 answers
Is it safe to carry bear spray on a GA plane?
I'm aware that bear sprays are normally banned from commercial flights, including in checked bags. As I'm not sure of the reason behind that, I'm in turn unsure of whether it's wise to have some with me in my Cessna as I take it to go backpack.
Are…
user4867444
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31
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12 answers
Is there an example of a classic aviation engineering moment when engineers had to discard all their work due to the wrong approach?
Is there any classic aviation/space engineering moment where the engineers had been working on a concept for months and then realised that their approach to the problem wasn't quite right and so had to discard all their hard work and re-start from…
RNG
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31
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1 answer
How do airports detect drones?
Recently, there's been a lot of coverage in the news of drones disturbing operations at airports.
Do airports have a method to detect drones? If yes, how does it work? If it's still an emerging technology, is it something being looked into?
user1584421
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31
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3 answers
Do stealth airplanes need to limit contrail generation?
Stealth aircraft have low visibility on radar.
I assume that they strive to achieve low visibility optically as well, e.g. spend some effort to not stand out too much visually from the surroundings.
A condensation trail (during daytime against a…
florisla
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31
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5 answers
Why was there no issue with the Tu-144 flying above land?
The Concorde didn't fly supersonically above land, it only could above the ocean. The Tu-144 however flew between Moscow and Almaty, so entirely above land; why did it fly like this? Didn't it have a that loud sonic boom? If no, why not? If it had,…
Giovanni
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31
votes
4 answers
Principle of aerodynamic lift: are misconceptions also taught in flight schools?
Describing lift as the result of "equal transit time" on both sides of an airfoil is a fallacious theory widely found in technical books and articles for general public (see below for details about this explanation).
But such explanation is also…
mins
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31
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1 answer
Which external instruments are visible on the A350's nose section?
Most pictures of airliner's nose sections show small dark tube- or fin-shaped instruments sticking out of the fuselage below the cockpit windows.
For example this Airbus A350 shows them well:
Source: Airliners.net
Other airliners (737, A380, 787)…
florisla
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31
votes
1 answer
What are these Lights on the Center Column between Cockpit Windows on the A320?
I have always noticed there is what appears to be three lights on the center column, which separates the pilot and copilot window of the Airbus A320 family. From the looks, the center light is red and two surrounding lights are white. They also seem…
BenjB
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31
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3 answers
Is this contrail from an airplane or a rocket?
A relative of mine showed me the following picture that she took on the 11th of April, around 8 to 8:30 pm in the Netherlands somewhere near "Leiden" pretty close to Schiphol airport (unfortunately I do not know the direction she was looking at, or…
Remy
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31
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2 answers
In WW2 aircraft, where were gun cameras mounted, and did they suffer performance penalties?
During WW2, some aircraft had gun cameras that activated whenever the guns fired, so that people on the ground could evaluate performance and help with kill ratios and other statistics. These were actual video movie cameras, using film.
I want to…
DrZ214
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31
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3 answers
What does ATC do during "slow" times?
I know at larger airports, it's NEVER a slow time. But what about at smaller airports that are large enough to rate manned ATC, but things aren't always fast-paced, high-traffic like at JFK or DFW, etc. (say an airport like JLN (Joplin Regional))?…
Jon
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31
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2 answers
What is the purpose of the Dash 8’s “TOUCHED RUNWAY” warning light?
The DHC-8-400 (and possibly other DHC-8 variants) has (or, at least, had in late 2007, according to Appendix G of this AAR) a warning light labelled “TOUCHED RUNWAY”.
The extract of the DHC-8-400’s QRH quoted in Appendix G of the aforementioned AAR…
Vikki
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31
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2 answers
Can I land my aircraft on the grass next to the runway at a public airport?
The pavement is hard on my tires, so I prefer to land in the grass.
Justine
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31
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2 answers
What exactly did this mechanic sabotage on the American Airlines 737, and how dangerous was it?
An American Airlines mechanic sabotaged a 737 in Miami
An American Airlines mechanic accused of sabotaging a navigation system on a flight with 150 people aboard at Miami International Airport was denied bond by a federal judge on Wednesday after…
Machavity
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