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26 votes
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How can a passenger have opened an emergency exit on an Airbus A321 in flight?

According to the FlightGlobal article you linked, the L3 door was opened (the emergency door behind the wing on the left side). All 8 doors on the A321ceo are plug type doors that cannot be opened ...
Bianfable's user avatar
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24 votes
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What does Line imply in Line Replaceable Unit?

"Line" refers to "Air Line" or "Flight Line". It's the same "line" as when you refer to "line operations" or, for pilots, "line indoctrination&...
John K's user avatar
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12 votes

How can a passenger have opened an emergency exit on an Airbus A321 in flight?

CNN reported that the passenger "opened the door when the aircraft was about 700 feet (213 meters) above the ground and about two to three minutes from landing in the city 150 miles (240 ...
abelenky's user avatar
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11 votes

What are the effects of having the aileron hinge line on the pressure side vs the suction side of a wing?

Here's one thing large endurance aircraft can do: they use spoilerons instead of ailerons and rudders. You simply leave off the downward pointing off-side aileron, which creates adverse yaw. The ...
Robert DiGiovanni's user avatar
9 votes

Is there a reason for the difference in turbo prop exhaust placement?

This depends on whether the engine has its exhaust outlet in the front of the engine or the back, and whether the fuselage is pressurized or has cabin air inlet vents. You'll put the exhaust beneath ...
niels nielsen's user avatar
9 votes

Why is there water coming from underneath the plane?

It' probably not grey water from the lavatory. You're unlikely to have somebody using the head while taxing out for takeoff. It's condensate from the air conditioning system, not unlike the water ...
John K's user avatar
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9 votes
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Why is there water coming from underneath the plane?

From the Bombardier Challenger 300 Cabin Handbook: Waste water from the galley and lavatory is drained overboard through valvesand hoses to the forward or aft drain masts. Waste water from the galley ...
Wasserwaage's user avatar
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7 votes

What does Line imply in Line Replaceable Unit?

It refers to the flight line, in other words the ramp where aircraft are parked. The component is relatively easy to remove and replace. Other parts require special tooling, jigs, cranes, and so. So a ...
Jim's user avatar
  • 517
4 votes

What are the effects of having the aileron hinge line on the pressure side vs the suction side of a wing?

The upper part of the wing is the one "doing the job" of keeping the airplane airborne and the airflow there should be left as much as possible undisturbed, especially toward the trailing ...
sophit's user avatar
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4 votes

How can a passenger have opened an emergency exit on an Airbus A321 in flight?

According to this video, , the aircraft was on final approach & was at about 600ft.The door was armed & therefore its opening was assisted by a compressed ...
Mackk's user avatar
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4 votes

Why (and how) do aircraft rudders center themselves without input?

The reason rudder surfaces are self-centering is to provide hands-off stability, where the natural tendency for the control surface is to adopt a zero-deflection state in the absence of inputs from ...
niels nielsen's user avatar
4 votes

Does cruise speed depends on rate of climb?

Rate of climb and cruise speed are unrelated. Once a climb is completed, and an aircraft levelled out, speed will be increased until the desired cruise speed is reached and then thrust adjusted to ...
Jamiec's user avatar
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3 votes

Why (and how) do aircraft rudders center themselves without input?

The flight controls are connected directly to the flight surfaces. The flight surface will naturally settle to a point of least resistance- i.e. whatever they are trimmed to. The pilot has to actively ...
Chris - Regenerate Response's user avatar
3 votes

What are the effects of having the aileron hinge line on the pressure side vs the suction side of a wing?

The top picture shows an aileron with a center-line hinge line. You can tell because the circular leading edge of the control surface will sweep out an arc maintaining the upper surface seal -- the ...
Rob McDonald's user avatar
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3 votes
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To what extent were/are area rule considered when designing the flap-track fairing of transport aircraft?

To which extent were/are area rule considered when designing the flap-track fairing of transport aircraft? Fully, at least from the late Fifties on. While first-generation jets like the Caravelle, Tu-...
Peter Kämpf's user avatar
2 votes

4 Basic Forces of flight

A picture is worth a thousand words: In all seriousness though, these are each plain, (and plane) language terms that have commonly understood definitions. And if uncertain, they can be readily ...
Michael Hall's user avatar
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2 votes
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4 Basic Forces of flight

Weight is the force due to gravity in the direction of the center of the earth (down). Thrust is the force produced by the propulsion system. Usually generally pointing 'forward' (and fixed to the ...
Rob McDonald's user avatar
  • 3,547
2 votes

Why (and how) do aircraft rudders center themselves without input?

A backward swept hinge line on the vertical tail means that the center of gravity of the rudder will be lowest in the center position, so the rudder will self-center on the ground by gravity alone. ...
Peter Kämpf's user avatar
2 votes
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Is the property of having a neutral point (aerodynamic centre) specific to an airfoil shape or will every arbitrary shape will have one?

That is an interesting question. I'll say right away -- I don't know, but I think we can think our way through this. The fact that an airfoil has an aerodynamic center (a point around which the ...
Rob McDonald's user avatar
  • 3,547
2 votes

In this flying wing concept, how would the aerodynamics be effected by the presence of the intake?

The critical section for lift is the root of the outer wing with its narrow chord. Here a very high lift coefficient is needed which will be limiting for the service ceiling (unless the engines pose ...
Peter Kämpf's user avatar
1 vote

How is the geometry of slotted flaps and slats designed?

High lift flow and high lift design is really complex. If you choose to become an expert aerodynamicist, you could spend your entire career working on high lift flow. The most important paper is &...
Rob McDonald's user avatar
  • 3,547
1 vote

Tail Number of a particular plane

You can try to look the flight up on a flight tracking website such as flightradar24 or flightaware. They have information about the registration of the aircraft. For access to historic information or ...
DeltaLima's user avatar
  • 78.1k
1 vote

In this flying wing concept, how would the aerodynamics be effected by the presence of the intake?

A simplified, maybe overly so, explanation is, that during cruise the intakes will have very little effect on the aerodynamics. The intakes are usually designed such, that during cruise conditions ...
Jpe61's user avatar
  • 25.9k
1 vote

What are the effects of having the aileron hinge line on the pressure side vs the suction side of a wing?

One property of ailerons' hinges pivot point located at or close to the upper surface is differential increase or reduction of local wing chord. Deflecting aileron up roughly won't change the local ...
jkztd's user avatar
  • 4,196

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