Can we say: "aircraft at altitude fly very fast. Why? They have to, or they won't fly"
Is that a different way of stating your opening above?
May I offer a way to look at high altitude performance and the Airbus logic of "Stall"?
The THS went full Nose Up, ostensibly to provide a (wing) loading the elevators could not?
The aircraft is neutral in longitudinal stability, it resists dropping its Nose, even at Stall?
The Stall Warnng is inhibited at air speeds (indicated) of sixty knots, or less?
A symptom of this aircraft's approach to Stall is "uncommanded Roll"?
Another symptom at Stall is "unresponsive controls"?
This looks like an excellent performance envelope for an aircraft at altitudes below four hundred feet AGL. An aircraft about to land.....
Do we know why the Thrust was maintained for the entire descent? Was it commanded, or Autothrottle?
Given your description of high altitude handling qualities, does the aircraft's design comport with high altitude Stall?
Did the aircraft know where it was? Did its designers consider that some excellent design features for a landing aircraft might not be optimal for a Stall at 37000 feet?
I would like to say that except for descent rate and the lack of extended landing gear, the aircraft was in excellent attitude to land?
Thanks to Machinbird, and also Phoenix...
Last edited by Concours77; 22nd Feb 2017 at 13:49.