At 09:22 AM 4/6/2001 -0400, Michael Lorrey wrote:
>I've got a dare from someone on a news group to come up with some
>reference that shows proof that a large aircraft (707 to 747 range) has
>successfully done a barrel roll at an airshow and not crashed. Now, I
>know about the 707 roll at the SeaFair airshow back in the 70's, and I
>even saw one (747) myself at an airshow in the 80's, but apparently my
>word isn't good enough.
My many friends in the aviation business always told me that some
commercial airlines require that their pilots be able to safely execute a
barrel roll in the jets they fly in order to qualify for senior positions
and ratings (e.g. captain).
If you search on the web, you will find many documented cases of Boeing and
Airbus jets doing barrel rolls, either during training or test flights; a
couple early cases are quite famous in aviation trivia (e.g. the 707
prototype roll during an exhibition, which is easy to find on google). If
you look in the FAA records, there are a few cases of large commercial jets
crashing while improperly executing a low-altitude barrel roll during
standard training, obviously suggesting that this is a fairly routine feat.
-James Rogers
jamesr@best.com
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