Originally Posted by
Crosswind Limits
You just couldn't make this stuff up could you!?
Using thrust reverse at altitude and in the flare!!!!!
Tupolev 154 pinched the idea (maybe the pinched the entire set of blueprints) and have used this for the last 40 years. Plenty of photographs around of doing it.
Why was the Trident called the "gripper"? Anything to do with pilots "gripping" the controls in case the autoland system failed or did something unexpected??
Allegedly it "Gripped" the ground on takeoff. However, having made more than one departure in those rearward-facing seats it had in the cabin, and felt on rotation that I was nearly falling vertically into the laps of those I was facing (usually the boss) were it not for the seatbelt, I never quite went along with this one.