This question already has an answer here:
I've never seen a plane do such a maneuver, have you?
Is this photo just a hoax?
1
$\begingroup$
$\endgroup$
-
7$\begingroup$ Probably not real - that would need a pretty steep bank angle, so the contrails in the turn would appear closer together, or merge even. $\endgroup$ – CrossRoads Jun 5 '18 at 17:41
-
1$\begingroup$ @CrossRoads Agreed, the only way that can be done is if the plane is not leveled at all before and after the turn and keeping the exactly bank. in addition it must be slow and at high altitude meaning it's already loosing altitude $\endgroup$ – jean Jun 5 '18 at 20:24
4
$\begingroup$
$\endgroup$
hoax, totally. that plane is travelling at about 550MPH and the forces required to turn it 180 degrees with a radius of ~two wingspans would destroy the plane and kill everybody in it.
answered Jun 5 '18 at 20:06
-
$\begingroup$ We cannot know how much fast it's going, from that perspective we cannot tell it's going "slow" and even stalling due to it. But i agreed it looks like fake because the contrails in the turn looks too much parallel $\endgroup$ – jean Jun 5 '18 at 20:18
-
$\begingroup$ @jean From the contrails we know a minimum flight altitude. From the wing loading we know the minimum airspeed at that altitude. It's a bit less than 550 mph, but the possible turn radius is still kilometers wide. $\endgroup$ – Peter Kämpf Jun 5 '18 at 20:30
-
$\begingroup$ @PeterKämpf Yeah, unless it's falling like a brick and from that perspective we cannot tell =) $\endgroup$ – jean Jun 5 '18 at 20:34
-
$\begingroup$ @jean even then the contrails would look very different - not a semicircle but a very long half ellipse. $\endgroup$ – Peter Kämpf Jun 5 '18 at 21:33
