i thought i seek more knowlegle people for a simple straight answer.

Mine friend belives that planes hover whilst waiting to land!!! heres a quote of what he said "Planes can actully hover, just you can't move it slightly like in a helicopter."

I however belive this is rubbish, from what i know of planes(limited) no civilian plane can hover whilst in the stack!

So which one of us is right?

Thanks to anyone who solves this

Airplanes need to move fast so the air passing over and under the wing causes lift.  If a plane is not moving forward, as in hovering, the wings cannot produce lift, which means it cannot fly.  The reason why the Harrier and the new Joint Strike Fighter can hover is they can vector the thrust from their powerful jet engines down so the thrust keeps the plane in the air.

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LOL

Show him this. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holding_(aviation)

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Interesting vid of a test hover here. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DPIExZDSJJo&mode=related&search=

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He probably experienced the plane being slowed down... to a non-pilot, that change can seem so abrupt that it feels like you've practically stopped.

Some planes can fly very very slowly, but any wing needs airspeed, however slight, to produce lift.

Even the rotor blades of a helicopter are just wings that go around and around, thus having airspeed while the whole aircraft stays still relative to the air around it.

As pointed out above, with a sufficient headwind, any plane could be flying along full-throttle, indicating the correct airspeed for flight, but it might stay still relative to the ground or even move backwards. That is not very unusual with slower aircraft: imagine being in an ultralight or old light plane that can barely do 60 knots full-throttle... put it aloft in a 60-knot headwind, and picture what will happen. The pilot sees 60kts on his airspeed indicator, he'll see cars passing him on the highway or even see everything start moving backwards, if the wind is strong enough.
I've landed Cessna 2-seaters in headwinds winds high enough to force me to have well over 50% power in all the way down, just to keep moving towards the runway... and I once watched a guy land one in a headwind so strong he had the engine redlined, nose pointed downward, and the plane still seemed to come down like a chopper.  The lack of forward motion can fool you, but believe me, if the air isn't meeting that wing without anough speed, the wing will not produce lift, and the plane will not fly.


Tell him that. would you? You can tell him that before or after you smack him on the head- your chioice.  

You can't challenge physics.

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If that was a half-hearted attempt to insult Doug's knowledge of aircraft, you're only insulting yourself.

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Intill the JSF can do everything the Harrier can do it doesn't really deserve to me mentioned.