Sean Tucker Oracle Airshow

I went out to the Wings Over Pittsburgh airshow yesterday, and I have
to say that the most impressive performance was the Sean Tucker Oracle
biplane act.

(The Thunderbirds were impressive too, but super-annoying
tackily-patriotic musical soundtrack really detracts from their act.
The Thunderbird show seems to emphasize "look at how cool our planes
are", and not "look at how skilled our pilots are".)

One stunt Sean Tucker did was intriguing --- he did a slow pass where
the plane was almost vertical and maintaining altitude. The announcer
said his groundspeed was 20mph.

Does the Oracle plane have enough power to hover in place? I got the
impression that a number of the more unusual stunts were only possible
because the plane is practically a helicopter with its power... (This
does not make the stunts any less impressive, I'm just wondering if
one reason this show has so many original stunts is because the plane
has very unusual capabilities...)

Chris
--
Chris Colohan Email: PGP: finger
Web: www.colohan.com Phone: (412)268-4751