Hawker Hunter down at Shoreham

[deefer dog]

No comment on the probable cause here, but relating to the manoeurvre:

The manoeuvre was indeed a quarter cloverleafe. Similar to a loop but the exit is offset 90 degrees from the entry axis. In this case the aircraft rolled left after the initial pull up and passed the top with wings almost level and the aircraft inverted (now pointing 90 degrees to the left of the direction of running in), and thereafter aiming to pull out as one would do in the last half of a normal loop, and flying in a direction to the right of the run in axis.

It's called a quarter clover or cloverleafe because completing four of these manoeuvres one after another would result in the aircraft facing back in the direction of the original run in axis.

In competition aerobatics flying a perfectly round loop is what the judges are looking for, but in display flying, when the run in and exit are intended to be a low level, attempting to carry out a perfectly round loop involves a greater degree of risk, and is thus avoided in preference to a slightly "pear shaped" loop. The pear shaped loop peaks at an altitude greater then a round loop and permits more space and time within which to judge the pull out, and it also allows for the G requirements to be spread more evenly, rather than most of it being pulled at the bottom. This permits the performer to safely "bottom out" at very low level which the crowd likes to see.

Having said that, even the pear shaped loop needs to be flown with caution to avoid the speed decaying too much at the top because this presents a different set of problems entirely.