Oh look, some nice J-20 pics. Haven't seen any on this forum since I quit visiting that thread after that horrible display of abusive and rude psychotic moderation that occurred there.
The irony of that and this pic! Pacific Theater and US engineering.
Red Arrows BAE Hawk cockpit taking a bird strike, immediately ending the show and I believe the pilot needed help to land safely.
I hope they rebuild the An 225 someday, but I doubt it'll happen.
Seeing the Immelmann maneuver by an F-22 Raptor at a recent show inspired a bit of lookback at the history of its origin. Must admit it's not as impressive as say the Split-S performed at low altitude or even any of the many cobra & super cobra maneuvers, but it has a very rich history for sure.
Max Immelmann (21 September 1890 – 18 June 1916)
PLM was the first German
World War I
flying ace. He was a pioneer in fighter aviation and is often mistakenly credited with the
first aerial victory using a
synchronized gun, which was in fact achieved on 1 July 1915 by the German ace
Kurt Wintgens. He was the first aviator to receive the
Pour le Mérite (colloquially known as the "Blue Max" in his honour), being awarded it at the same time as
Oswald Boelcke.
His name has become attached to a common flying tactic, the Immelmann turn, and remains a byword in aviation. He is credited with 15 aerial victories.
The term
Immelmann turn, named after German World War One
Eindecker fighter ace Lieutenant
Max Immelmann, refers to two different
aircraft maneuvers. In World War I
aerial combat, an Immelmann turn was a maneuver used after an attack on another aircraft to reposition the attacking aircraft for another attack. In modern
aerobatics, an Immelmann turn (also known as a
roll-off-the-top, or simply an
Immelmann) is an
aerobatic maneuver that results in level flight in the opposite direction at a higher altitude.
At first it seems really basic-looking, but seeing it performed by today's advanced 4th and 5th generation jets, the #2 portion which is the vertical move is much longer and reaches much higher altitude than these illustrations. At least that is what I noticed in the live performances. They almost reach stall stage before leveling off inverted.
In modern aerobatics, this maneuver, if executed pre-stall with a non-zero turning radius at the top of the climb, is known as a
wingover. If the rudder turn is executed right at the initiation of the stall, the resulting yaw occurs around a point within the aircraft's wingspan and the maneuver is known as a
stall turn or
hammerhead.