Cliffs of Dover Video Thread V1.0 [Closed]

[Hoverbug]

Originally Posted by F16_Petter

The engine of a Hurricane has a dry weight of 1,640 lb (744 kg) and is ofcourse located forward of centre of gravity. (almost at the edge of forward momentum.)

A small plane losing that much weight so far out of cg would defenetly become unstable and probably uncontrollable in pitch axis especially when speed drops.
(Empty weight of Hurri is about 5,700 lb (2,600 kg) and the engine is almost a third of that value)

Speed proves that bricks can fly, but I think that Zoom2136 has a valid point here... There are several videos showing that the damage model may note be flawless... (hurricane flying without two wings etc.)

I guess the only way is to let Mytbusters do the test!

You don't need to involve Mythbusters to understand what should happen. If the engine comes off the CG will shift aft of the center of pressure. The CG can sit forward of the center of pressure in normal operation because you have a tail down force (the horizontal stab being a wing with a lift vector acting downwards) with a long arm balancing it out. This lever arm is providing the stability and pitch control. Move the CG aft of the center of pressure and you have an unbalanced system. If you were in a vacuum, it would result in a sustained backwards tumble. In the atmosphere, there are going to be some chaotic and extreme aerodynamic loads that would be applied to the airframe, which in reality would probably result in some significant structural failures.

So, it's safe to say it's not accurately modeled at present. It's also probably too much to ask for realistic CG and center of mass modeling under all flight conditions. What they should do consider is to have the loss of an engine result in a rapid pitch up and general structural failure. For a multi-engine, it would be more of a roll into the good engine side with structural failure at the root of the wing that lost the engine.