Yes, some can. In 1983, an F-15 accidentally demonstrated the ability to fly, and even land, after the right wing was torn off in a mid-air collision.
Yes an aircraft can fly with one wing shorter. The winglets on a commercial airliner like the 747 or A330 can be missing on either side as per the minimum equipment list.
If one of the wings fell off a plane during flight, it would experience an extreme loss of lift and would likely crash.
The plane was flying at an altitude of 36,000 feet when the portion of the wing, known as a winglet, was lost.
Can turbulence be severe enough to cause a jet engine to break off a wing? From a practical point, no, a modern airliner will not lose a wing due to turbulence. Modern airlines are very tough and designed to withstand extreme turbulence.
Typically, when birds will collide with an aircraft's airframe, it is unlikely to cause significant problems for the pilots flying. But there are cases — like the ones that happened on Sunday — where the aircraft engine ingested the birds causing damage to the power plants.
In a particularly turbulent storm, some may imagine that the wings bend so much, they could snap off. However that scenario is almost impossible. The entire aircraft is basically designed to allow the wings to bend in turbulence without compromising any structural integrity.
Yes, they can, these are called lifting body aircraft. They maintain directional stability using the control surfaces near the tail.
While turbulence can feel scary, airplanes are designed to withstand massive amounts of it. "A plane cannot be flipped upside-down, thrown into a tailspin, or otherwise flung from the sky by even the mightiest gust or air pocket," wrote pilot Patrick Smith on his site, AskThePilot.com.
The F-15 can go from ground level to 65,000 feet in just 122 seconds, and was the first US fighter jet that could fly straight up directly after takeoff… and still accelerate vertically. Is this thing an airplane or a rocketship?!? The answer is yes.
Notably, the F-15, (with a crew of two), managed to land safely at a nearby airbase, despite having its right wing almost completely sheared off in the collision. The lifting body properties of the F-15, together with its overabundant engine thrust, allowed the pilot to achieve this unique feat.
The Harrier can also hover like a helicopter, fly sideways, go backward, and even stop and turn in midair. It can do all this because its exhaust nozzles, where exhaust gases come out, can swivel to change the direction of thrust from the Harrier's jet engine.
The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) requires two pilots at all times for most aircraft that exceed 12,500 pounds. Other factors, such as flight length may also demand more than one pilot. One of the biggest reasons two pilots are required for commercial flights and private jets is safety.
The quick answer to this interesting question is pretty straightforward: no, pilots do not typically shut down passenger jet engines during a flight.
Pilots with useful vision in only one eye may obtain medical certification upon demonstrating the ability to compensate for the loss of binocular vision and to perform airman duties without compromising aviation safety.
All large commercial jets can land automatically, but still with plenty of pilot involvement. So-called autoland systems are a part of aircraft autopilots. All large modern jets are equipped with such systems, which can automatically land the aircraft, albeit under careful supervision from the pilots themselves.
The aircraft fuel tanks are located in the wings, so you're not allowed to walk under them in case of fuel leakage. You don't want to get anywhere near flammable stuff unprotected. All in all, it is a safety thing. Saving three seconds by not walking around the wing is just not worth the risk.
Even though technology can make the aircraft a little easier for inexperienced people to handle, landing a plane is a complicated task. There are many steps and commands to be executed. Ordinary people may have trouble finding the right devices on the dashboard to use.
Sitting next to an exit row will always provide you with the fastest exit in the case of an emergency, granted there's no fire on that side. But the wings of a plane store fuel, so this disqualifies the middle exit rows as the safest row option.
Plane crashes are extremely rare. The odds of dying in a plane are about 1 in 205,552. If you want to feel safer, some seats that have a better track record during crashes than others.
What are the effects? When an aircraft experiences turbulence, the plane can drop or change altitude suddenly. This is why pilots always caution passengers to buckle up and stay seated when they are experiencing flight turbulence. The sudden movements put passengers at risk.
The incidents are serious particularly when the birds, usually gulls, raptors and geese, are sucked into a jet engine and strike an engine fan blade. That impact displaces the blade such that it strikes another blade and a cascade can occur, resulting in engine failure.
Birds can disable planes, Ostrom said, by flying into the engines and shutting them down. They can also penetrate the windshield or other parts of the fuselage, causing pilots to lose control. And apparently when it comes to collisions with birds, size doesn't always matter.
In some rare cases, some large birds have even penetrated the cockpit as the windscreen failed. At low altitudes, certain aircraft are actually limited to a lower max speed with the windscreen being the limiting factor due to a bird strike.