https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pvHp...ature=youtu.be
well, for sure the aircraft stopped flying and impacted the ground in a stalled condition. This tragedy and all those involved will have ramifications, if only because of the involvement of innocent bystanders. Even my wife, a non aviator, cocked an eyebrow to a vertical manoeuvre with a minimal margin of error over a main highway.
We can but collectively think of those affected by the lives cut short.
In time the media storm will pass and measured sense will one hopes begin to prevail.
If you examine this video and do a fag packet calculation from second 7 to second 11, concluding he travelled about 400 yards, it appears entry speed was the order of 180kt - that to me appears slow, and confirmed the sucking in of air by pilot-spectators with me & off the cuff comments on entry that "this might be tight"
An earlier poster states
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sovereign680
The only military jet ( not a Hunter) I ever performed loops in required 240knots entry speed pull it into 4 g and it would do a perfect loop with a diameter of 6000 feet.
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The height of entry looks about 500' which would tie with a display minimum. But of course, that was off display area and that might be open to consideration
Having approached on the A axis [as I saw it] he rolls 90 degrees off axis to port - as a manoeuvre that makes no sense to me - and I wonder if the intention was to roll 135 degrees and return to 45 degrees to the A axis - his approach height and entry speed made no sense for a full looping manoeuvre
However, by way of how these things can go wrong very rapidly he had a mere 12 seconds from top of climb to sort it out
Lack of height due to lack on entry speed would be a factor
Loss of aileron authority due an incipient stall at the top could be a factor which may have curtailed the roll manoeuvre and turned the exit vertical - the Hunter had a pretty vicious stall at about 130kt, unsurprisingly given its wing.
Having started his recovery he spent about 7 seconds give or take in the vertical - which given only 12 seconds to impact from inverted, and a possible lack of height to play with was a critical element. It suggests lack of energy to play with with suggests a slow speed over the top which suggests a gate height issue - or the manoeuvre turned into something which was not planned due to the stall over the stop. He reached gate height but in the wrong attitude.
Finally despite best efforts, it clearly stalls again [as in, rapid vertical descent] in the closing seconds. The impact is uncontrolled and positive.
That the pilot AH survived is, one hopes, a miracle.
It must also have been hard for a friend and fellow ex RAF colleague of the pilot, XH558's Captain Phil O'Dell to run the Vulcan down in tribute at 1000'.
He will have briefed before he flew and AH always debriefed the display afterwards. [see comments by Kevin Bacon of Brit Air display Assoc] To all accounts he remained a consummate professional.
To my mind we now enter a period of reflection. There will be changes, but they should be for good reason, and targeted at specific risk management.