My thoughts go out to the family & friends of the injured pilot Andy Hill and those others who died or were injured on the A27 in the incident. Difficult to tell what happened at this stage, but to my untrained eye it looked like the Hunter jet seemed slower than expected as it approached the top of the loop and hence was lower at the bottom of the loop than planned.
Looks like 11 now too.
Tragic story. I was at the Bournemouth Airshow when the news dropped. I've always enjoyed the airshow over the sea.
It's unfortunate that these things happen at airshows now and again. The pilot knew what game he was in. It's those on the A27 (and their families) that I feel sorry for.
Very sad.
The head on footage (on the BBC website) filmed by someone next to the A27 is very weird. Firstly at the start of the loop they seem relatively close to the ground; the vertical section of the loop seems extended; and most weirdly as the plane comes down there is a bit near the bottom of the loop where the plane seems to slide or be pushed downwards, i.e. the plane's trajectory doesn't follow what you brain says is normal aerodynamic physics - when you watch it it looks like the plan got pushed down at the foot of the loop and then into the ground.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-34036741
Watch the video on the above page (the third graphic down in the article) and near the end the plane seems get hit by massive wind shear or down draft. Does it seem like that to anyone else?
I noticed that too. I thought it would be a case of the plane being too low at the bottom of the loop but it looks like he's completed it (albeit much lower than would be planned) but then, with the plane horizontal, it just lost altitude. Weird.
Have to suspect a tech failure, Hill was very experienced I read and this was his bread and butter. Horrible end landing point though. Does nothing for airshows in general, before long it'll be a TV only experience.
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Before the impact the nose is pointing up past horizontal ... The loop is done but the plane is still dropping its like hes not got enough speed to pull out of the dive
it looks to me as the plane is in fact stalling, it doesn't matter what speed you are doing if you pull back to hard and the angle of attack too much and a lot of mathematical and physical factors come into play it stalls and he didnt have the power to push through it
this explains it better
QuoteFlow separation due to high angle of attack. The lift curve slope, which is positive and linear at low angles of attack, becomes negative, such that an increase of the angle of attack results in lower lift. This is caused by viscosity effects.
Perhaps he started his loop too low? It looked wrong from the beginning.
It looks to me that the plane simply didn't have enough power to pull out that quickly. The momentum was downward and perhaps the transition is where the plane dropped, again too low.
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