I think I Saw One, Once

U¿ytkownik "Keith Willshaw" napisa³ w
wiadomo¶ci ...

"James Dandy" wrote in message
m...

[snip...]

Its possible for an aircraft to have zero ground speed if its stall speed
is lower than wind speed

Not only. THEORETICALLY every modern fighter could do this trick. With
thrust-to-weight ratio more than 1, which is normal for modern fighters,
they could (repeat: THEORETICALLY!) stand vertically on the fire. This would
be flying circus trick rather than any usable manoeuver. And YES, there were
experimental VTOL aircraft (the 'Tail Sitters': Convair XFY-1 Pogo, Locheed
XFV-1, Ryan X-13 Vertijet) but the designs were abandoned as 'dangerous and
unpractical'. Starting from the page
http://www.airandspacemagazine.com/a...e/QT/menu.html you can see
some QuickTime clips with these aircraft during start/landing/hovering.

I recall seeing a Fiesler Storch apparently hovering at an air show but
what was happening was there was a stiff breeze blowing so its
airspeed was above the region where a stall would occur but it was
basically standing still with regard to the ground.

Not only. I recall a photo made in multiple-exposure mode in which Helio
550A Stallion (AU-24 for military pilots) took-off with head wind. After few
minutes aircraft was some 500-600 feet ABOVE starting point nad had NEGATIVE
ground speed. I saw this picture in Polish air-enthusiast's weekly
'Skrzydlata Polska' in late 60s or early 70s.

I heared also a story about An-2 from roughly the same time. This could be
urban legend, but is interesting.
It happened at Warsaw Okecie airfield. The place is important, so I tell you
that this airfield has 2 active runways (15/33 and 11/29 intersecting in the
middle). The NW edge of the airfield (between runways 29 and 33) is shared
by aircraft factory (PZL Okecie) and Aviation Institute (ILot). Third runway
(and oldest one) runs east-west just off the PZL/ILot fence; it is not used
for years and was degraded to taxi-way role. Test pilots of both firms
rarely used regular runways; they used to take off from the oldest runway
or from the grass across the airfield.
One time an PZL test pilot was flying An-2 home from south. He contacted the
tower, received approval and intended to land usual way i.e. on the grass.
He was on final approach when tower ordered him to wait in the air until
scheduled airliner made his landing. An-2 was first there and should have
priority (one engine versus 2- or 4-engined airliner). There was strong
headwind so the guy in An-2 flew to the runways' crossing, raised aircraft's
nose, slats and flaps on - practically hovering 50 ft above ground, and
reported to the tower 'OK, I'm waiting'. The tower was flabbergasted.
Fortunatelly the captain of the other aircraft acted quickly and went
around. The story don't tell the fate of An-2 pilot.


Keith

BTW the name of the airplane you saw is FIESELER Fi-156 Storch. Art Kramr
usually spells that name Feisler. ;-(

Regards
JasiekS
Warsaw, Poland