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Old 17th May 2006, 09:56
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Teadriver
 
Join Date: Jan 2001
Location: Adelaide Australia
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Spinning airliners

Sure - I reckon the usual laws of aerodynamics aren't that corrupted or negated by scale, so if you can get to a sufficiently high angle of attack, and you can overcome the natural directional stability, it'll spin. A Dash 8 was lost a few years ago in south west UK, spinning following loss of control during a Vmca check on an air test - like the 707 above. My guess is the only reason it doesn't happen very often is that airliners spend much less of their time at low speed/high AOA than military jets, and very little time indeed in being manoeuvred under those conditions. Also, depending on the CG position, control power may be limited, making it difficult to get to a stall AOA without applying forces and stick displacements that are markedly different from those seen in normal operation.
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