Plane taking off from a trailer

[MartG]

And no conveyor belt .......

[Simpo Two]

That's fine. All it needs is enough airflow over the wings. Will need water for the landing though!

[williamp]

Could it land on the trailer??

[Eric Mc]

In the 1980s there was an airshow act involving a Piper Cub landing and taking off from a moving container lorry. I think the pilot was Brendan O'Brien.

[Simpo Two]

williamp said:

Could it land on the trailer??

In theory yes but in practice I'd say impossible due to accuracy required and turbulence from towing vehicle.

[Eric Mc]

Simpo Two said:

In theory yes but in practice I'd say impossible due to accuracy required and turbulence from towing vehicle.

Brendan O'Brien in action.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-13638991

[mph1977]

Simpo Two said:

That's fine. All it needs is enough airflow over the wings. Will need water for the landing though!

it's why out of choice a naval ship will be steaming into the wind at a decent speed for take offs and landings to give favourable wind to aircraft taking off (fixed or rotary)

[Fugazi]

mph1977 said:

it's why out of choice a naval ship will be steaming into the wind at a decent speed for take offs and landings to give favourable wind to aircraft taking off (fixed or rotary)

My PhD is on this very subject, investigating ship design and the subsequent impact of ship airwakes on helicopter operations. The earlier poster was correct in saying that the turbulent wake produced by the car in front would limit any attempt at landing but whether that would prohibit a landing I don't know. Potentially the plane could land but the dominating factor would probably be the pilot workload rather than control limits.

[Sciencey stuff: Turbulence effects the level of pilot workload, in rotorcraft this occurs in the 0.2Hz to 2Hz frequency range. Below this range a pilot can compensate by using a stick input to correct the aircraft's attitude, above this range and the turbulence manifests itself as a vibration on the airframe. Within the frequency range puts the pilot at risk of inducing a Pilot Induced Oscillation and a lot of hard work to maintain a controlled flight.]

A quick trawl of Youtube found that somebody has managed something similar in the past though, and landed on a car, interesting that he sideslipped in, presumably in an effort to avoid the wake from the van. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qoBsyFo9VEc

[anonymous-user]

Easier with a High wing aircraft, with the wing up out of the way, although you'd need to go a bit faster as there will be signficantly less ground effect?

[valiant]

Wasn't there a case of a (very) small aircraft taking off from the roof of a Mitsubishi Shogun? Think it could have been a microlight or similar.

Think it was used as a promotional tool for Mitsubishi.

Edit, found it

http://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=plane+taking+o...

Edited by valiant on Saturday 16th August 13:26

[Simpo Two]

Eric Mc said:

Simpo Two said:

In theory yes but in practice I'd say impossible due to accuracy required and turbulence from towing vehicle.

Brendan O'Brien in action.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-13638991

That was a larger target than the trailer in question.

[speedtwelve]

Eric Mc said:

In the 1980s there was an airshow act involving a Piper Cub landing and taking off from a moving container lorry. I think the pilot was Brendan O'Brien.

Brendan is still doing his Cub landing on a trailer act today. Met him a few years back; he is Lord Flasheart from Blackadder goes Forth.

[McWigglebum4th]

Looks like situation normal

http://www.aopa.org/News-and-Video/All-News/2014/A...

[Eric Mc]

Simpo Two said:

That was a larger target than the trailer in question.

I noticed.

The trick of landing and taking off from moving trailers, trucks etc is well established over decades. Obviously, the trucks, trailers and aircraft used have varied over the years.

[maffski]

A slightly different approach - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=voixUMWvkV4

[mybrainhurts]

Eric Mc said:

Simpo Two said:

In theory yes but in practice I'd say impossible due to accuracy required and turbulence from towing vehicle.

Brendan O'Brien in action.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-13638991

Ah, yes...I'm Brendan O'Brian, I'm a PILOT..and I'm all right, I work all day and I sleep all night, I go to the lavvatreeee....

Here's more ----> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UnIVvKnJIOs

[MartG]

maffski said:

A slightly different approach - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=voixUMWvkV4

I think he'd have just a teensy problem landing back on the truck

[Eric Mc]

Excellent.

[Dave^]

pft...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IPOtDPHjW-Y

Plane taking off by itself from standstill (just a really strong wind in the right direction).

[mybrainhurts]

There goes the no claims bonus...