This is a different A380 for illustration purposes only.
Posted on 02/16/2020 9:42:30 AM PST by rdl6989
The skill of two pilots was captured on video as they landed the world's largest passenger plane sideways while battling heavy crosswinds at Heathrow Airport.
The Etihad Airbus A380, which is flown by two pilots, can be seen hovering metres above the tarmac as it attempted to touchdown on Saturday during Storm Dennis.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.sky.com ...
“Kinda wonder why they didn’t choose an alternate airport. Big downside risk.”
I suspect that most pilots wouldn’t take the crosswind runway, but maybe they wanted the challenge!
Freaky. It looked like the plane was hovering over a fixed point.
The wing shape on that plane is beautiful and birdlike.
Yes, indeed. Final approach using rudder to keep the nose lined up straight down the runway; using aileron to angle the wings to generate side lift into the wind. Into the wind main wheels to touchdown first. As the craft slows, wings offering less lift, gradually let the other side main wheels down. With this technique, the fuselage stays pointed down the runway centerline.
I suspect a lot of that “hovering” had to do with the long telephoto lens used. It sure does look that way, though — just like the plane is softly dropping down to earth.
This is a different A380 for illustration purposes only.
Airplane tires are not pre spinning before touching down; so they are going to burn up some rubber on a good straight landing, until the tires spin to reach the speed of the plane.
Recapping, or discarding blown, or worn out tires, should be an ongoing process, for airlines. I would expect they should be ready to replace those tires after that tough landing.- Tom
What make you think they went off the runway? Pretty sure they’re on a taxi way or it would have sank into the grass/mud.
Those naturalistic curves do give it a birdlike appearance. Quite a machine.
Eerie, all right. And that bugger weighs 1.26 million pounds.
B-52s have landing gear that can be adjusted +/- 15 degs, iirc, to help deal with crosswinds.
Maybe that was the original spec, and the arc’s been increased since then.
I remember watching them when I was a teenager. It was the weirdest thing I had ever seen up to that time.
I know tires are not spinning at landing, and they wear but they blew out literally every tire on that plane because they were not remotely close to straight on landing.
They didn’t blow out every tire because of the friction of 0 to 200 mph at landing they blew because the landed far from straight.
I think this is it.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LF-4Env61CI
The pilot made three unsuccessful attempts, but on the fourth try manged to SLAM the plane onto that pathetic excuse for a runway... Each attempt, the pilot would have us literally laying on our sides, relative to the runway, as he tried to get us down...
In boarding the plane in Tuscon, had a bad feeling when they lined us up and rejected any overweight passengers, and, as it turned out, also left some of our baggage behind...
The 16 of us on that plane exited in about 10-seconds when that door opened...
Are you kidding? This wasn’t a skilled pilot, this was an undisciplined third world idiot that just got lucky. Despite pulling this off this idiot violated strict engineering limits on the cross wind component that is specified for his aircraft. Landing gear are not designed to take side loads like this and it was only because of the 150% margins that are built into the actual published specs that he didn’t rip the gear off and belly land a 300,000 lb. aircraft on bare concrete.
Smaller planes with shorter wingspans can be landed in crosswinds by kicking out before touching down and banking into the wind to allow a straight touchdown but large wingspan aircraft like the A380 would hit the runway with their wingtip if they tried this and would likely kill everyone on board.
If this guy keeps his job the airline that hired him is a serious safety risk to the public.
If I can, I'll take the bus - or drive.
“Landing gear are not designed to take side loads like this and it was only because of the 150% margins that are built into the actual published specs that he didn’t rip the gear off and belly land a 300,000 lb. aircraft on bare concrete.”
Yea, I was going to say that...but wanted to simplify for the general public. Yea, that’s it.
What are you talking about? They exited onto a taxiway.
I am not disagreeing with you.
My post was to suggest the Airlines should be ready to replace deflective tires quickly before the plane takes off again.
Tire failures should be an anticipated problem. -Tom
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