In this case, your plumb line is going to remain dead still with respect to the aircraft.

I suppose this is similar to filling a bucket with water and slinging it around? Do it fast enough and the water won’t fall out. But if you’re too slow the centrifugal forces aren’t enough and you’re gonna get wet.

I’d been thinking of your car keys idea as well. But figured that since it had not already been done ages ago, it would not work for reasons beyond the understanding of someone without flight experience (inertia or whatever).

Both high and low wings have their own advantages when crashlanding on water. A low wing will have better stability as its main advantage due to the wings, but decelerate a lot faster due to the engines acting as anchors.

A high wing will decelerate less fast, but “slide” through the water, leading to less impact damage. But the stability is a lot less so if the approach ain’t level it can easily tumble over and you end up rolling over. But the latter can also happen with low winged planes, for instance with the highjacked Ethiopian B767.

Of course the above comparisson assumes equal factors for both approaches with regard to approach speed, angle of attack etc.

The world’s only VTOL Fokker? 😀

Back in the 60s Fokker had a project with Republic in the USA to create the D.24 fighter for a competition that eventually led to the Harrier. A scale model can still be found at the Aviodrome museum in Lelystad.

Following that project Fokker joined VFW for a STOL fighter with a similar configuration as the Harrier. This project was also terminated, but did yield several protoypes. One of them survives in the Deutsches Museum at Schleißheim.

To this day the remains of Fokker are a mayor contractor on other STOL projects including the JSF and NH-90 helicopter.

Sorry to change the subject, how is the security to get to that area at Schiphol

No secutiry. You can enter freely without being searched, but there are cameras on the deck and from time to time security may walk over the deck. The same applies to the viewing decks at Eindhoven, Maastricht, Rotterdam and Niederrhein.

Düsseldorf has two viewing decks. The one at the train station you can enter without security after paying a modest fee. The one at the terminal requires a safety check, but taking your drinks with you is OK. Zurich also requires a safety check, but liquids won’t be confiscated. Frankfurt has a viewing deck as well, but I can’t remember if it requires a safety check or not. I prefer going to the perimeter as views are better there.

I can still remember the decks at Heathrow and Gatwick, neither had security checks.

Have you lost a log book in Peterborough ?
A small note book has been handed to me by a friend of my fathers who found it near Peterborough Railway Station sometime on Saturday 28th May.
It is full of civil regs seen from 23/04/11 to 25/05/11 unfortunately there is no name or locations but the last page dated 25/05 has KLM MD-11, 747 & 777, Delta 777, Lufthansa 340 and Air France 777 amongst other things, so I would guess somewhere like Schipol ? Anyhow if it is yours or you know of anybody who has been overseas this week. please contact me via PM and I will arrange to forward it on.

Mods feel free to move or post this on other forums.

Paul

Not mine, but if there are LH A340s and AF 777s then it won’t be AMS. Unless it was a tour with multiple stops: Peterborough-CDG-FRA-AMS-Peterborough or something like that.

Damn, I missed it. Will they do it again?

According to Mayan prophecies the next one is scheduled for December 21st, 2012 at 22:18:13 (they really got the prediction down to the second).

The fuel prices also rise for the legacy carriers, so the low cost carriers will still be around. The price difference might shrink, but I don’t think it will be enough to kill them of.