A entertaining explanation on what it took to land the shuttle

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jb4prVsXkZU

Physics is cool.

yes. way cool video. thanks

awesome.

Thanks!

Very good! Thanks for posting.....

Can you imagine being the first crew to make that landing and the trust you'd need to have for the physicists and mathematician's calculations. Major pucker factor right there. That first crew had brass balls the size of a house.

Jim

Very cool indeed.

They did landing tests in 1977 by dropping it from a plane. It's just a big glider

This popped up in my YouTube recommended videos a while back, entertaining & informational.

quote:

Originally posted by 220-9er:
It's just a big glider

Except it glides like a brick.

Very good video - very entertaining. Thanks for posting!

The use of angle of bank, speed brakes, etc. to control rate of descent and airspeed are very similar to a throttle stuck at high power approach in the A-4 Skyhawk.

They just need to add brakes to the shuttle. DUH!

If I had to choose between the space shuttle or Air Canada Flight 143, The shuttle. Easy peasy.

quote:

Originally posted by .38supersig:
If I had to choose between the space shuttle or Air Canada Flight 143, The shuttle. Easy peasy.

Had to look it up, knew it by it's nickname.
I imagine a 767 makes a better glider than the Shuttle.

That was great!

Cool video.

quote:

Originally posted by P250UA5:

quote:

Originally posted by .38supersig:
If I had to choose between the space shuttle or Air Canada Flight 143, The shuttle. Easy peasy.

Had to look it up, knew it by it's nickname.
I imagine a 767 makes a better glider than the Shuttle.

Yup, but the shuttle guys had extra luxuries such as instrumentation, controls that worked, a known place to set the bird down, etc...

I wouldn't be able to land one in the Hudson River either.

If you want to try for yourself, you need to try this sim: F-Sim Shuttle http://f-sim.com/ I have had it on my iphone and Kindle for years.

The flight model is great, and the audio actually was taken from the flight in that video.

The program is fun in that you can also perform numerous full HAC approaches at either Edwards or Kennedy, day or night, with fully adjustable weather variables (short of rain). You can also fly with failures of guidance, HUD, hydraulics, etc. The quick flight option starts you straight in at 10,000'.

I highly recommend it!

Todd

I remember watching the first shuttle landing from space. John Young was the command pilot. He put his wheels down on the runway at the exact spot marked in black. Guidance help or not, fly-by-wire or not, extremely impressive!