Thread: Flight Patterns
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  #68  
Old 04-13-2005, 11:24 PM
tangofox007 tangofox007 is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Brian Carlton
If the gear on the B-52 can be swiveled to 22 degrees, can you simply land the airplane in a 22 degree crab? The wheels are pointed directly down the runway and the airplane is pointed directly into the relative wind.
The airplane touches down in a crab, equal to the wind correction angle. However, the term "relative wind" does not really apply here. (If the airplane were heading directly into the relative wind, there would be no drift.) In order to have a relative wind that differs from the natural wind, the runway would have to be moving. Which is exactly the case with an aircraft carrier. Because the landing deck is offset 10 degrees from the centerline of the ship, the ships heading and speed are adjusted so that the relative wind (resulting from the natural wind and the ship's movement) is ten degrees off the port bow at 25 knots. That way landing aircraft have no crosswind component.

Last edited by tangofox007; 04-14-2005 at 07:19 PM.
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