Windjammer
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View attachment 812230Just some stuff for nerds to geek out on:
1. The aircraft is flying at a lowish speed in this picture. This is evident from the increased angle-of-attack (AoA) - nose pointing slightly upwards relative to the direction the jet is flying in. Furthermore, the downward deflected leading edge flap is also indicating this (this is done by the flight control system to allow flight at high angle-of-attacks).
2. The horizontal stabilizer is deflected down. Assuming that the aircraft is picture in trim this actually suggests that the aircraft is stable in pitch because the hor-stab is deflected to produce downward force (dynamic stability can be "imagined" by imagining a disturbance that increases angle of attack and then seeing if the aircraft naturally decreases its AoA or increases it).
View attachment 812231
At least that's what I think. I might be wrong - wrote this in a hurry.
Found this interesting piece on the AOA ISSUE.
People are bashing the F-35 over this picture of it flying with an F-16
USAF
The cool shot in this post was shared by the Thunderbirds on their Facebook page.
It shows a US Air Force F-35A forming up on right wing of the F-16 No. 1 leader of the USAF demo team. By looking at the configuration of the two aircraft and the angle of attack, or AOA — the angle between the relative wind and a reference line on the airplane or wing — it is pretty clear that the aircraft are flying at low speed in an attempt to match the airspeed of a slow camera ship.
Noticing that the F-35 is flying with a higher AOA than the F-16, many people have used the photograph to criticize Lockheed Martin's fifth-generation stealth jet as if the fact that the Joint Strike Fighter was flying "nose high" is the umpteenth sign that the aircraft is a fiasco: Criticizing the F-35 has become somehow "fashionable."
Actually, it's not the case. The photo just highlights that, given its wing type and aerodynamic characteristics, a clean F-16, with flaps down, is able to fly, under full control and leveled, in formation with the camera ship with a slightly lower AOA than an F-35.
That's it.