Airplane can fall out of the sky!

[Everett M. Greene]

I was watching one of the bad accident programs on TV the other
day and they had an item about an airplane that did fall out of
the sky. The USAF was testing a special-purpose C-130 which was
fitted with a number of rocket motors to help it land and
takeoff in very short spaces. Coming in for a landing on one
of the test flights, someone mistakenly/accidently fired the
retro rockets too soon and the plane literally came to a stop
in midair and then came straight down. The plane wasn't all
that high when the incident started but it landed hard enough
to snap one wing off.

[Jerry]

"Everett M. Greene" <moj...@mojaveg.lsan.mdsg-pacwest.com> wrote in message
news:20080915.7...@mojaveg.lsan.mdsg-pacwest.com...

AND...........................it's what I said to START with.
The use of rockets for short-field operations has been done for YEARS (it's
called R.A.T.O.---rocket assisted take-off) as is J.A.T.O. (JET-assisted
take-off in the case of prop aircraft. This was caused by operator
error.When the rockets fired by mistake, it caused the aircraft to STALL
(has nothing to do with the engines). The aircraft QUIT flying because there
was no LIFT created by the flow of air OVER (not under) the wings! Gravity
took over. What's so HARD about that? We were talking about aircraft
falling out of the air as a routine result of the act of flying. They do NOT
and CAN-NOT just "fall" out of the sky for no reason. Aircraft come down as
a result of pilot error, structural failure (striking objects, the ground,
or another aircraft--even bird strikes), or engine failure which does not
result in the aircraft just tumbling out of the sky. ( I personally had 2
dead-engine landings, neither of which resulted in any injury or damage).
Aircraft are DESIGNED to fly and they are influenced by LIFT, THRUST, DRAG
and WEIGHT. Lift overcomes weight, thrust overcomes drag. When lift and
thrust overcome drag and weight, the aircraft will move forward thru the
air. So long as these forces are not interrupted, the aircraft does not
strike something, the pilot doesn't "drive" the aircraft into a mountain, he
doesn't exceed the weight and balance specs, and the airframe does not fail
(wings or tail don't fall off), the aircraft WILL fly without incident. It
is DESIGNED to fly and the natural physics will PERMIT it to fly. And it
will not "fall" out of the sky of its own accord. I stand by my original
statement.

J