Ron Jensen wrote: > All contradicted by the official > report:http://www.airdisaster.com/reports/ntsb/AAR81-08.pdf
Thanks for the link, interessting read, especially Page -35- (page 39 in the pdf): ---- 8< ---- The aircraft descended in a spiral dive from 39,000 to about 5,000 feet in 63 seconds; during the descent, the aircraft's speed increased to a maximum speed of about 0.96 mach at 31,800 feet. ---- >8 ---- However, i could imagine that the aircraft could have in deed hit the sound barrier: on one hand, pressure and consequently the speed of sound increases with lower altitudes. On the other hand, speed of sound decreases with lower temperatures. It it is pretty well known that the atmosphere oftenly has layers of different temperatures. So when the planes dropes with mach 0.96 and then hits a layer which has 25 degree Celsius less, then the speed of sound is suddenly lower (about 5%) and then the plane breaks through the sound barrier ... BTW.: I'm by no means an expert on that topic :-) regards Bernhard ------------------------------------------------------------------------- This SF.net email is sponsored by DB2 Express Download DB2 Express C - the FREE version of DB2 express and take control of your XML. No limits. Just data. Click to get it now. http://sourceforge.net/powerbar/db2/ _______________________________________________ Flightgear-users mailing list Flightgear-users@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/flightgear-users
