is this video of an airplane landing fake?

Question

http://www.wimp.com/crazypilot/

pretty sure it's fake, but my girlfriend and her mom are trying to tell me it's not. her mom says it happened in Texas.

I believe this is fake because of several things, but mostly the landing of the plane itself. it seems to hit the ground almost level, which is practically impossible due to the missing surface area of the right wing, and the vertical stabilizer cannot counteract enough as to make the whole plane level. also, it seemed to hie the ground, then BOUNCE, like a rubber ball, the tail flies a bit into the air, and it's on the ground again, instantly, with no other harm other than the missing wing. then, the pilot makes a 90 degree turn, then parks, shuts the engine off. i know that is i was that pilot, I would have been sitting there for a minute just thinking about how i'm still alive after a landing like that- then realizing there's no wing on the plane, and fuel would be leaking out of the open pipelines of fuel where the fuel tank inside the wing once was.

so, what do you think?

Answer 1

Typically on this type of highly aerobatic small aircraft:



The fuel tank is in fuselage.

They don't use control cables for ailerons. They are controlled by torque tubes operating through a sliding universal joint at the wind join.

Ground shadow shows no right wing.

Wings on this type aircraft are removable, usually held on with one or two bolts and a couple of pins to take the wing pitching moment. The bolts are there to keep the wing from pulling out of the spar tube.

Center of gravity is usually set way aft on these aerobatic aircraft to give quick and high response, around 40% of wing chord. The cg would not move very much with the loss of a wing since it is already distributed fore and aft of the cg.

If a model was used, then it was an exact duplicate of the final full scale airplane.

They use large control surfaces with large throws, thus the ability to do sustained straight and turn knife edge flight (where the wing has no lift at all) using fuselage lift alone.



I cannot say one way or the other if it is fake. I see nothing in the video that would indicate that it is. As far as I know, it has only been filmed once occurring on an RC model.



That being said, if it really happened, I would imagine it would have been all over the news, and the news people would have set up several satellite dishes outside the pilot's house.



Finally, I reckon the pilot got out quickly because of the smell in the cockpit. LOL

Answer 2

There’s a bunch of debate in this thread. The general consensus is that it’s a cleverly cut shot combining an RC and a real aircraft. I see an argument that there is no aileron, but there clearly is. What I don’t know is if an Extra300 has a full wing aileron like in the video or not. Freeze-frame at 49 seconds just before he cuts the power and you can clearly see a full-wing aileron deflected as far left as it probably goes. Further, as a pilot, I think the other control surfaces support the possibility that it’s real. I've looked closely for a change in scale with the background and I can't find one. Also the engine noises are consistent with an Extra300, which can sound a lot like an RC due to quick response and a limited muffler.



The other argument is that the plane is level when it lands and there’s no way that could happen. It looks to me (again at 49 seconds) that cutting the power would in fact cause the nose to drop dramatically. The full left aileron and full left rudder would cause a roll in the correct direction. If it’s real, though, it’s a miracle all that combined to land the aircraft on its wheels. The odds of somebody doing that intentionally (or in a repeatable fashion) I’d say are next to nil.



On landing, the plane would definitely bounce forward and the pilot would have to work hard to keep from flipping it forward as it appears nearly happened. Also, the wing is still clearly missing after landing. You can make out the wing root with appropriate holes for control lines and the shadow is missing on the ground as well. As the plane comes back onto the pavement, you can also see the foot peg on the left side of the airplane that the pilot would use for egress. If it's an RC, it's a very detailed one. Unfortunately, the cameraman loses center as the aircraft turns away from the crowd, but that is an action a responsible pilot would take if he still retained his wits as would have to be the case in order to survive this in the first place.



If it's fake, kudos to the creator, for an amazing video including lighting, sound and a very accurate model airplane. But I’ve personally seen an Extra300 hang in the air on its propeller, and then push forward to resume normal flight, so despite the critics, I’m still leaning toward real as well as a both a good and extremely lucky pilot.

Answer 3

interesting video first of all

but I am of the opinion that it was an RC plane

first, the wing broke cleanly off. there wasn't any debris. A real plane would have control cables, fuel pipes and tanks, crossbars etc there. There is no way all that could have all broken off cleanly at the same time.

Secondly, the behavior of the plane is very indicative of an RC plane. I flew some before I got into real pilot and the attitudes and reactions were very similar. At one point, the plane was essentially in a stable hover for about 3 seconds as indicated by the lack of vertical and only horizontal shaking of the camera. The camera man need only to adjust side-to-side to keep the RC plane in the picture. A similar high performance aerobatics plane like an Extra 300 can in fact perform a power to weight demo standstill but it certainly would not be able to do that with one wing missing. The whole spinning and rolling and then a flattening out of a nose dive in less than 2 seconds is definitely unreal.

Thirdly, the bounce was real. but if you watch carefully, the plane lands, then bounces jerkily typical of RC planes, then the picture blurs, and then the plane lands fluidly. That is when the RC plane footage got replaced with footage of a real plane.There is also a very perceptible difference in the speed. The RC plane is smaller and seem to move faster. Right after the bounce and blur, the speed was greatly reduced as well.



*for people who say that the laws of physics and control surfaces moved accordingly to maneuvers, these don't indicate the clip was real. Everything on earth obey the laws of physics, and since RC planes use the same principles are as real one, it is only normal that control surface corresponds with its maneuvers.

Answer 4

It's real. Some background to help show I know what I'm talking about:

I'm an action sports photographer, and I've been covering air races and shows since the late 1960's. My father-in-law was a Navy aviator and stunt pilot. I've also been involved in photo and video retouching for that long; including film, video and digital imaging. The lettering on the wings is consistent throughout the video of the landing. (The word on the wing that detached was "Thrill", not "Killa"). The smoke trail coming from the engine is also consistent with a full-sized plane, and not an RC model.

The video itself has been sharpened a bit, hence the "halo effect", which is a side effect of imprecise sharpening.

The pilot used a very common stunt maneuver to control the plane until the landing. Here's how it works: planes such as these use extra-large propellers, and extra-powerful engines to turn those props. This allows the planes to "hang on the prop", much like a helicopter, in some stunts. Flying a stunt plane vertically, using the rudder and fuselage area as the lifting surface, is also common. In such a vertical maneuver, the actual wings become superfluous, ...the plane can fly at that attitude, "on its side", for as long as the fuel holds out.

But here's the kicker: Though the plane and the event itself is real, IMHO, it may also have been planned that way. The wing may have been rigged to fall off. As other posters have mentioned, stunt planes generally have central fuel tanks for positive-control flow to the engine, rather than tanks within the wings. Either way, it was some great flying. Maybe.

Answer 5

As stated multiple times: this is a fake. Well done, but a fake, nonetheless. Search for WWII footage of a plane, fighter or bomber, that loses a wing, at the wing root, in flight. It instantly starts to do a pinwheel/snap roll flight. In the video there in almost instant return of control. The "structural failure" is almost surgically clean. No wires, cables, broken spars or stringers visible. There is no fairing, at the wing root, between the fuselage and the wing. Prior to landing the plane almost hangs by it's prop. A full-size aircraft would not be able to "hang' like that without a serious torque spin. RC planes do this all the time when stunt flying. When the plane is broadside to the viewer only a silhouette of the pilot is visible. You should be able to easily see the pilot in plain sight through the canopy. When the plane touches down, and bounces, the bounce and settle are way too quick for a real plane. View footage of an RC plane landing to see what I mean. The prop on a real, high performance aircraft will stop spinning quickly. The prop has to be light so that the engine can respond quickly to throttle inputs, both increase and decrease. A heavy prop would be act like a flywheel and respond sluggishly.



It is possible for a plane to land with part of a wing missing. Review footage of a WWII B-17 in flight, and on the ground after losing part of the wing. Currently, there is a lot of footage of A-10's returning with large areas of the wing and horizontal stabilizer shot away.



As for the F-15: it has short wings(not a whole lot longer than the horizontal stabilizer), a wide almost lifting-body fuselage, and enough power(a positive thrust-to-weight ratio) to fly without a wing(s) for lift. I think at full power the wings are there more directional control than lift.

Answer 6

The pilot was better than you might think. He not only landed the plane on one wing, he got out without our noticing and painted "killa" over on the bottom of the left wing and added it to the top (it was on the top side of the right wing at the start of the clip) before making that remarkable landing. Also, the struts are decidedly thiner and the canopy doesn't look real while the plane is in the air. Listen to the sound of the engine as the wing tears off - sudden drastic change of lift without the right wing should have made a noticable change in the engine's pitch at that moment and sent the plane into a violent rolling right spiral. An RC wouldn't do that. In my humble opinion, the clip was part RC and part aerobatic aircraft.



Then again, it is well documented that an Israeli pilot landed an F-15 with a missing wing after a mid-air. The aircraft went into a violent spin and slowly recovered after he lit the AB. The plane was going 250 kts when it touched down, he dropped the tailhook, which tore off when it snagged the cable at 2/3 the length of the runway. The plane stopped a few yards short of the web.

Answer 7

From a pilot’s perspective this video looks extremely real. I am an airline pilot with about 20,000 hours of flying time, and to me this is spot on. To an untrained eye it made seem that it is defying the laws of physics. However it is not. Let’s take a look at this one at a time: the reason the landing looks unnatural is because of the amazing reflexes of the pilot and the enormous control services that he controls. If you look carefully just before the airplane rights itself for landing you can see the Aileron the left-wing being displaced dramatically. This forces the left-wing down at an incredibly fast rate. This is completely consistent with what you saw on the tape. Additionally, if you look at the tail and rudder displacement you’ll also notice that his controls are perfectly placed for a knife edge pass as well as that quick motion when he rights the aircraft just before touchdown. The knife edge pass uses the body of the aircraft as a lifting surface which, in addition to the large amounts of thrust/lift created by the propeller, was why he was able to maintain flight. This is done all the time when aerobatic aircraft. The reason that he appears to bounce like a ball is because of the way the landing gear is designed. The “V” shaped metal struts along with high performance tires take a tremendous amount of G force, and is able to provide some “give” when the aircraft touches down. That is why the aircraft bounced instead of collapsing the gear. If I were the pilot, I too would have tried to get out of the aircraft as soon as possible. The possibility of fire is always present after an incident like this, and the best place to be if that occurs is away from the aircraft. That's the way we're trained. The reason there was not fuel pouring from the right side of the aircraft was largely due to the fact that the fuel tank is not in the fuselage, but in the wings themselves. So, when he lost his right wing, he also lost his right fuel tank. He may have had his fuel cross feed valve set to the left wing which would have minimized/eliminated any fuel coming from the exposed fuel lines. (these lines are quite small, and leaking fuel wouldn't be that noticeable at this distance if ruptured) The swinging of the aircraft to the left 90° was an intentional, and very rational, course of action. He was trying to slow down the aircraft as soon as possible without ground looping it. With the “tail dragger” type of airplane this can be done at fairly high speeds. All in all, this video looks completely authentic and in keeping with known laws of aerodynamics to an aviator of 30 years. Hope that helps

Answer 8

Hello all, I fly both full size (real airplanes) and radio control aircraft. After watching this video many times I would have to say it is fake. The reasons it is fake has been mention more than once in other people's answer to the question. Now could a exceptional pilot fly a "acrobatic" aircraft with a wing or partial wing missing safely to a controled crash, absolutely! Could they make it look that good and "easy" as shown, unlikely. But if they did they need to buy a lottery ticket or go to Vegas. Now in the radio controlled aircraft world, there has been few acrobatic aircraft land after such a problem. Here is one such landing. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0RMqDP_HJyk

So if it can be done in an RC aircraft, odd's are it can be done in a full size bird, just not as easy! Of course there is the F-15 that landed on one wing, because of the "lifting body" characteristics of that aircraft. Here is the Youtube link for it's story. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-_EXtBEaBbs

Answer 9

This one is fake. I think it would be possible though because I have personally seen it happen with a giant scale RC plane. If you have enough power to "hang" on the prop and have a large rudder it could be done. You see aerobatic planes do knife edge passes, you only need one wing for that. the other wing is basically a keel at that point.

BUT...

there isn't enough stuff hanging out of the area by the break. There should be fuel lines or electrical wires for lights at least.

It looks like when he landed and bounced it was going to flip over but suddenly settles back down.

At the start of the video it appears he is in an airshow or air race but at the end with the old hangar in the background and little windsock it appears that it is a small rural runway.

there is no registration numbers on the aircraft at all.

Here is a video of an rc plane that lost a wing.

http://www.break.com/index/plane-loses-wing-in-mid-flight.html

Answer 10

The web site says, I add only the VERY best funny videos from around the Internet, so it would seem not to be real. Additionally an actual event like that would have made international news immediately. Even in the final days of elections. The wing separation was very clean but if it's a trailerable Ex type that would be possible



It is extremely well made video and even as an RC demonstrated remarkable flying skills. It's also an example of power over weight.



Smooth is correct it's a very well made promotional video for Killa Thrill, http://www.killathrill.de/start.action

Answer 11

Plane Loses Wing And Lands

Answer 12

Plane Lands With One Wing

Answer 13

I think it is real but done so with a Stunt Plane. I like one respondent said about being on the news. That hasn't happened. I only looked for a little bit but there isn't a website advertising for this pilot and his "Thrill Show". Seems like there would be. As for the location of the Fuel- relocated for the stunt. As for the clean break- by design. I can see where a pilot could build a wing smaller than design to practice with. If you also notice the wing comes off when the aircraft isn't pulling any G-Force. It is my opinion that the wing was detached at an optimum point in flight to not cause harm to the tail of the aircraft. I am sticking with TRUE- by virtue of Stunt Plane.

Answer 14

This is not a fake video. This is a real airplane, the wing really did come off in flight, and the pilot relied upon his exceptional skill to land the airplane using the unique ability of an aerobatic plane to apply aerodynamic forces counter-intuitively and in counter-opposition to each other to put the plane down safely.



However, any well trained aerobatic pilot will execute each and every maneuver that was accomplished by this pilot. But... this guy did it during a major emergency after experiencing catostrophic failure of an obviously critical airframe component when one tends to panic and see their life flash before their eyes. Only one opportunity to get it right.



All the strange maneuvers and non-standard flight attitudes that were expressed while negotiating this emergency landing are typical occurrences during a normal aerobatic demonstration for such a plane. Pitts biplanes routinely fly on their side during such knife edge passes, and if a plane can fly on its side, it can certainly do so with only one wing, thus achieving lift primarily with the prop by holding a dramatic nose-up attitude maintained by a hard rudder to keep the tail down. The plane essentially becomes part helicopter and part ski at this point. After the right wing was lost, the left wing had only one purpose: to put the aircraft back level an instant before touchdown. If he had to, the pilot could have just dropped the plane right on its side and may have walked away only slightly injured.



The other factor that was important to land this plane safely was the pilots use of P-Factor. If you examine the final approach, P-Factor is being overcome by applying the elevator as if it were the rudder since the rudder was being used as the elevator. P-Factor is likely what caused the nose-down attitude after his initial bounce. Easy to solve this with a cut in power a respectable pull on the stick as he is dropping back down after the bounce. At this point he is close enough to the ground that he will survive even if the plane cracks up.



You can tell that the plane is of full size because of the amount of background that is being traversed by the panning camera as it tracks the plane. Sorry to the debunkers, but if it were only a scale model, you would have proportionally less background being covered as the smaller model plane moves accross the field, and at a much slower speed than any real airplane.



Addressing the so-called "missing" Killa decal: It is obviously present to anyone who looks as the plane goes into vertical ascent. At distance, a combination of the speed of the aircraft, the grainy nature of the camera image, and atmospheric distortion obscures the outlined font. Simple.



and... as far as the missing cables: You could not expect to see them hanging out of either the severed wing or the fuselage at the distance at which the failure occured because the cables would be too thin... and, it is entirely likely that the cables were torn out of their fuselage internal attachments... and, if they were not torn from these attachments, then they would be sucked back inside the fuselage by the control input of the pilot on the stick, or yoke, while actuating the aileron in trying to correct his attitude in preparation for the emergency landing.



and... as for missing fuel: This pilot would obviously have the skill and presence of mind to immediately switch to his left wing tank to maintain necessary power while making his landing, and the very small amount of fuel remaining in the right fuel lines would have been quickly evacuated from the severed lines. Anything that might remain in those lines would not appear on the tape if it were to dribble out.



and... as for the landing bounce: This, if anything, is a testimony that the video is indeed real. An R/C model would not have the requisite weight and mass to cause enough spring compression/flexion on the landing gear to cause it to rebound with enough force to make the plane jump as is demonstrated in the video.



This is one of the coolest things ever captured on camera. Why this has not made national televised news is indeed a mystery. But, that said, this is the best pilot I've ever seen. Period. A truly masterful job, and he gets the girl.



VIDEO NOT A FAKE

Answer 15

I say fake. Why wouldn't the person taking the video go to the side where the wing fell off if so remarkable? It contains multiple pauses besides where digital insertion is obviously used. Why would that be necessary if absolutely real? I'm a pilot too. Count me in saying FAKE! You don't have to be a pilot here but anyone experienced with digital video editing experience can detect a fake on this one. Anything to get hits and go viral to add advertising before its viewed.

Answer 16

Fake but very well done! Your not the first to be fooled, many experianced pilots have watched this video over and over trying to detirmine if it was possible. It was done by dubbing in a RC aircraft at the end. Even at that the guy flying the RC plane was darn good at it.

Answer 17

OKAY! We are all agreed it is fake - well done too.



But an Israeli fighter pilot did get his plane safely to the ground after he lost the wing off his F-15 fighter in a mid air collision. He managed to fly his aircraft 10 miles to successful landing.



And the same plane later scored two kills in air to air combat after being repaired and returned to service.



http://www.videosift.com/video/One-winged-F-15-flying-and-landing-after-midair-collision

Answer 18

It's not a fake it's a real video alright and not the wing ,not the landing, but the halo arround the plane that gives it away this is a manipulated video

Answer 19

it's fake. looks like a model airplane. notice the right wing was gone in the air, but when the plane landed, it all of a sudden had both wings.

Answer 20

Note the vapor trail the airplane is leaving until 10 secs into video. Is that exhaust or fuel leaking before the wing is lost?

Answer 21

FAKE..



The wings produce lift. Lose one, and the weight and balance would be thrown way off around the longitudinal axis. And there is no way you'd have enough aileron control on the other wing to keep it from rotating around the longitudinal axis, either.



Check out this website for more info:



http://www.reggiepaulk.com/2008/10/killathrill-generates-huge-buzz-with.html

Answer 22

Absolutely fake. It's a mixture of Red Bull Air Race footage (they just edited the wing out, and the air stunts were real), and the rest was probably done by computer/RC.

Answer 23

Aerobatic A\C of that type (Extra, and the homebuilts) have the fuel tank aft of the engine and forward of the pilot. Also as was stated earlier, the break was too clean with no control cables or ripped aluminum. And it was very surreal on landing. However, I did like towards the end "RUNNNNN!"

Answer 24

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Answer 25

It's an RC plane, intercut with a real one.

The catastrophic loss of lift from the left wing, would've had a manned aircraft depart controlled flight. He would have zero control at that point.

That aside, having declared an emergency or two in the Rhino in my time, and seen a lot more,the airfield would be COVERED with emergency vehicles, coming after him.

Answer 26

the fuel tanks could be in the fuselage, explaining the lack of fuel leakage (though it's unlikely). more damning, to me anyway, is the lack of an aileron control system, the fact the pilot was not injured even slightly by a massive jolt when he hit the ground, and the fact that a plane cannot turn that quickly on the ground

Answer 27

totally fake... not possible to straighten out to level flight with one wing.



also the plane goes from like 100 mph to stopped in 3 seconds and not enough frames.

Answer 28

it looks fake to me i think its a fake because if he lost that wing then he would be going down faster and he couldn't have made it back up and landed safely with out a wing it would have changed it drastically i think the guy at the end is real but the other parts are def fake

Answer 29

It might be an RC but theres no way that was real you can tell just by the landing and how fast the prop stop spinning after it was turned off

Answer 30

Completely and totally fake. (you Morons who think this is real are probably voting for Obama too! LOL).

Answer 31

Isn't it obvious that it's either a fake and/or an RC plane?

Answer 32

Unfortunately it is fake. Not only fake, but it is a viral marketing gimmick.

Answer 33

i doubt it was real because i dont know a plane can fly at all

without a wing. i guess it could be possible though. try looking

it up on google.

Answer 34

Fake...in order to maintain a knife edge...it would have required a lot of rudder...very little or no left rudder at all.

Answer 35

It certainly looks suspicious to me. I can't imagine any combination of forces you could get from all the other controls at once that could stop an airplane from rolling and rolling and rolling and rolling and rolling and not stopping rolling and then rolling some more and drilling into the ground in a vertical spiral and just generally making a mess. It is hard to conceive of an airplane staying as level and controllable as the one does in that film. It looks a little surreal, especially toward the end of the film.

Answer 36

looked real to me a stunt plane is very maneuverable has over sized control surfaces and either a very lucky or very good pilot but either way the crew member that installed the right wing was fired!!!

Answer 37

One word: FAKE!!! (although it could be an r/c plane and a real one put together...

Answer 38

Look at the graphic on the top of the left wing when it lands (the word Villa)...this writing is NOT there on the first fly by and climb into the sky. Duh....

Answer 39

http://www.zoicstudios.com/NISSAN-Landing-Gear



It is an old "tuff-truck commercial :P

Answer 40

it's an advertisement.....http://www.adweek.com/news/advertising-branding/ad-day-nissan-135440

Answer 41

its possible that it is real but i think it is real and they have a very nice clear camera so that could also make it look fake

Answer 42

fake fake fake its a remote control plane