On Sun, 18 Jul 2004 15:14:37 +1200, Bruce Hoult
wrote:

Presumably you've seen aircraft such as the F/A-18 demonstrate a slow
pass at very high and stalled angle of attack? They are getting some of
their support from the downward component of the engine thrust, of
course, but with an AoA of, say, around 30 degrees it would need a
thrust:weight ratio of around 2 in order for thrust to be enough to
support the entire aircraft weight.

Great example! But don't forget that the F-18 (as well as any other
fighter) uses a couple of tricks, notably the strakes - the vortices
produced by the strakes produce a large percentage of the lift while
the outer wings are completely stalled and produce only very little
lift.

These fighters and delta winged aircraft don't play fair concerning
lift creation.

Bye
Andreas