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Old 15th Apr 2011, 11:20
  #3519 (permalink)  
BOAC
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Heading/track no matter. Neither apply. 'Track' becomes meaningless with no overall forward speed. Break off part of a wing and see what happens to 'heading' as the wreckage sinks. You can, in my opinion, deduce nothing.

My post is actually COMPLETELY in agreement with my previous. Hydrodynamics work pretty much as aerodynamics at low speeds. A wing will produce a force of some sort. An attached tailplane will produce a pitching motion as the wreckage sinks.

Next time you fill a deep bath, generate a gentle 'current' by moving your hand around in the water. Then throw in a small strip of metal and see if you can deduce from where and how it sits on the bottom which way it was travelling when it hit the water - or how fast, for that matter. Now imagine that bath thousands of times deeper.
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