Originally Posted by
Machinbird
Gents, best pull in your horns. This aircraft impacted with significantly less velocity than did AF447.
Do you arrive at that provisional conclusion based on the condition of the bits so far found, on the track info available, or both?
This aircraft hit with very low forward velocity, from all appearances.
If true, then should not most of the major parts of the wreckage be near to each other?
EDIT: deleted. Ian W explained how it might come about that way.
A spinning aircraft should have lower kinetic energy than a deeply stalled one at terminal velocity.
Note: I will guess that Airbus did not do spin tests on the A320 family. Maybe computer modeling is sufficient to make an informed estimate of what it will do in such a condition. Absent that info (which some people may have seen, but I have not) how an A320 spins is a bit of a guess.
@thecrozier:
I can't remember but was 447 in a spin most of the way down or just stalled with a fairly constant heading?
The latter, except with slowly changing heading.
FWIW too close a comparisons to AF 447 seems to me premature.