Can you scrape an Airbus?
 

Fairly straightforward.... you're barrelling down the runway, post V1 and another aircraft taxis in front of you. To avoid it you must rotate early and bank the wings, necessitating scraping both an engine pod, and the tail.

Will an Airbus let you do it?

*Lancer*

You bet it will. Only the 340-600 and I think the –500 have any protection against scraping the tail for obvious reasons. You can still scrape a pod though.

Has anybody ever been able to scrape a pod on T/O? Very much doubt it- you need about 11 degrees bank and undercarriage leg heavily compressed- not something you could achieve with that attitude/thrust.

Looks like there is nil clearance under the large pods of the -500 and -600.

Easy to scrap?

The geometry works. The pod may only be 18 inches or so off the ground- I can't remember exactly, but it is right next to the undercarriage leg so the aeroplane would have to lean over a long way to scrape it. On an unloaded gear not possible I'd say. If you slam it down on landing on one compressed leg, then 11 degrees is the magic number.

The A321 scrapes its arse at 9.8degrees.... think the A320 does it at 11.7 or so...... Definately doable - think a quick conversation with the office without tea and biscuits may result though!

The A340-500 and -600 don't have any protections to prevent a tailstrike, only an ECAM caution when a tailstrike has been detected.

Ask British Midland (sorry bmi).

personally speaking i cant. you see i fly the boeings[which i can].i will one day fly the 380, and i am sure it cant be scraped.
sorry mate couldnt resist it.
cheers and happy flying

Jolly,

THe A340-5/600 do have tailstrike protection according the FCOM I have in front of me, the B777-300er also has a similar sort of protection.

But then you may know better than Airbus.......??????:hmm: :hmm: :hmm: