Re: Galileo Day

Ian Goddard (Ian@Goddard.net)
Mon, 15 Feb 1999 21:59:51 -0500

At 06:05 PM 2/15/99 -0800, Hal wrote:

>> The distance any object near the Earth will fall from
>> rest in a vacuum in 29 seconds is 13,500 feet. However,
>> the CIA proclaims that FLT800 fell from the apex of a
>> dramatic climb (and thus from rest) 17,000 feet in only
>> 29 seconds, and that's NOT in a vacuum! The CIA scenario
>> violates Galileoian physical law by a very wide margin.
>
>However, the plane was not a ballistic object and was not operating
>in a vacuum. Air can accelerate a plane downward as well as upward.
>Anyone who has flow in rough weather has felt the flutter in the stomach
>as the plane is occasionally blown downward, and it is not unusual
>to hear of meals and flight attendants being thrown to the ceiling.
>A plane which noses over will also accelerate downward. So there is no
>inherent contradiction in saying that a crashing plane descended faster
>than would an object released from rest in a vacuum.

IAN: But your talking about (1) an aerodynamically- stable airframe and (2) an aircraft slipping through the atmosphere at high speed. The scenario to which I refer is the opposite, for the plane at its apex is demolished, wing(s) off, forward section gone... a junk yard at 17,000 ft that is not subject to the favorable aerodynamics you describe, and at the peak of its apex where it stalled, it is at rest, and thus has no velocity to trade. Those facts exactly counter the counter, which was very logical to have raised.

The fastest-falling part of PAN AM 103, the wing, fell at great velocity, since it was, as you note, subject to favorable aerodynamics, even as the rest of the aircraft was not, and yet it still fell slower than the fall rate from rest in a vacuum.

>I don't know to what extent this 400 MPH speed is an accurate description
>of the CIA's scenario for the Flight 800 crash.

IAN: I've provided the URL. The figures I've given are exact. I've been over the video a dozen times. Please look it up if you doubt me:

CIA's anti-Galileo video:
http://www.newsday.com/jet/year/video.htm Calculating fall distance, elementary physics 101: http://www.glenbrook.k12.il.us/gbssci/phys/Class/1Dkin/U1L5d.html


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