Technically no, they are still flying above stall speed, but the essence of your point is correct, their speed relative to the ground can be negative. They can also fly at 70,000mph if you measure it from standing on the surface of the sun.
Not really. A wing provides lift, and it only does it in one direction. Plane A flies at 300kts, the head wind is 350kts. The plane will move backwards, but it’s not flying backward.
I believe it. I tried out for the swim team my Jr year and somehow someway when we did kickboard warmups… I went backwards. I am not designed to flow through fluids. Either air or water.
True! When I was a student pilot, my instructor took me up on a fairly windy day in the 152. Winds aloft were higher than our slowest safe speed, so I got to watch the shadow track backwards across backyards below.
I’ve seen this with raptors, both eagles and owls. We get a few days a year here with sustained heavy winds. You can see them take off, go into the wind….and just slowly coast backward. It’s wild and messes with your mind, but I imagine for them it’s easy mode.
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I’ve done that in a Cessna 150. GPS said I was moving 2kts in the opposite direction.
Is this cuz you just saw the video posted of someone doing that
Technically no, they are still flying above stall speed, but the essence of your point is correct, their speed relative to the ground can be negative. They can also fly at 70,000mph if you measure it from standing on the surface of the sun.
It’s a bird! It’s a plane! No, it’s- wait what the fuck, it is a plane and it’s flying backwards
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Helicopters can fly in reverse no matter what the wind is because they aren’t restricted to forward flight the way airplanes are.
Technically most planes fly at about 67,000 mph relative to the sun
Not really. A wing provides lift, and it only does it in one direction. Plane A flies at 300kts, the head wind is 350kts. The plane will move backwards, but it’s not flying backward.
Space rockets can fly in reverse too if they launch towards the east and go above geostationary orbit
Planes can fly in reverse simply by picking a different inertial reference frame.
I believe it. I tried out for the swim team my Jr year and somehow someway when we did kickboard warmups… I went backwards. I am not designed to flow through fluids. Either air or water.
Check out those crazy high wind airplane landings.
True! When I was a student pilot, my instructor took me up on a fairly windy day in the 152. Winds aloft were higher than our slowest safe speed, so I got to watch the shadow track backwards across backyards below.
Kinda freaky.
You can see this effect in videos from Alaskan bush pilots.
Example of a near vertical landing with no rollout: https://youtu.be/HJJI3kPZ0-I
I’ve seen this with raptors, both eagles and owls. We get a few days a year here with sustained heavy winds. You can see them take off, go into the wind….and just slowly coast backward. It’s wild and messes with your mind, but I imagine for them it’s easy mode.