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Can airliners really fly upside down?
The pilot turned his airliner upside down. On purpose. And it saved nearly a hundred lives. That's the idea behind one of the most intense movie moments of the holiday season: the core scene of "Flight," starring Denzel Washington as pilot Whip Whitaker. Hollywood sure likes Washington's performance. The role earned him an Oscar nomination Thursday on the heels of a Golden Globe nod in December. The film also received a nod for best original screenplay. Spinning movie sets… (www.cnn.com) Más...Sort type: [Top] [Newest]
You best hope you can draw you a nice flight South today. I got about an inch of sleet on the ground here, and a wind chill of about 4. That's too cold for this old man.
Bundle up with the dog and stay warm.
I know a retired Boeing engineer that knew Tex. He said that Tex told him "Do you really think that was the first time I rolled it?" He had practiced out over the Pacific with no one the wiser.
That is a fact as I was in trade school at Edison Tech about 64 when his copilot came one day to visit his son there told about it. I also talked to a Boeing flight line mechanic while over helping fuel a plane that told about it. Said they came back from test flights sometimes with a panel missing or gyros tumbled claiming the fell out of a stall. Mine came from the right seat man himself.
That engineer also told me that Tex got suspended from flying for 6 months over that little stunt at the air show. I just laughed and said "Yeah, but it sure sold your company of bunch of airplanes" (707's). The response from my friend was a big grin.
Keep in mind, he rolled it... Not sustained inverted flight.. Big difference. It would have never maintained inverted flight.
I never meant to imply "sustained inverted flight." I believe that to be impossible with large commercial jets. I just threw the story in for entertainment.