Watch films of planes ditching, they all stop really hard. The same plane is a brick landing in water. Pilots would tell you that landing one on level ground with the wheels up could be considered easier than landing with the gear down (other than worrying about the props breaking off the spinner hubs and coming into the plane), it's quite controllable in a belly-landing. Ask any glider pilot.Įxperiences in ditching various aircraft in the military play this out. You're fighting wave action, and there's almost no chance you could ditch a craft like that between troughs in the waves due to the type of approach you'd need to make against a crosswind. There’s no way a belly-landing like that would play out in real life without the thing probably breaking up and drowning the crew. The idea that ditching an orbiter would be this smooth is downright comical, to me. Each crew member would hook onto the pole and, one at a time, slide down the pole and then parachute into the ocean to await recovery. ![]() Then they would release a pole that extends through the hatch opening. ![]() However I believe the plan was for the crew to blow off the hatch on the side of the crew cabin. If a crew was onboard when it ditched it looks like it might have been survivable provided the sea was mirror calm, the gear was up and the exterior of the orbiter was undamaged. At the very least.Ĭolumbia was 158,289 pounds at rollout and 178,000 pounds with main engines installed ( source).Įndeavour was 151,205 pounds at rollout and 172,000 pounds with main engines installed ( source).Įven with waves in the tank it still looks unrealistically calm to me. Isn't the 205K weight extremely light for a flight orbiter? I mean, Enterprise alone weighed 171K with its main engines installed, but those main engines had no plumbing and as well, the payload bay had no associated equipment - not to mention that there's no including in that 171K as well of a five-to-seven astronaut flight crew with its life support equipment. I wonder how long the orbiter would stay afloat after one of these landings? The question is what would happen to the crew - the braking forces must have been enormous and if I remember well the ditching the water was thought to be unsurvivable? ![]() Also, with the landing gear up the orbiter landed quite "smoothly" every time. I would like to know which of the shown scenarios would be closest to the ocean reality. The space shuttle orbiter model was 1/20 scale. Test conducted at NASA Langley Research Center's Tow Tank.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |