Caption This Picture!

[giza]

Yes, this is a real picture and yes, that really is a vortex in front of the #3 engine:



Bonus points if you can tell me how that vortex was caused.

Comments

[alphaggek.livejournal.com]

"I told you you shouldn't have kept drinking last night...."

I'll recuse myself from the bonus point question

[alexander-mikh.livejournal.com]

engine on reverse to assist braking? I am not expert, I am guessing.

[tarangryph.livejournal.com]

If I remember correctly, the ground vortex phenomenon has to do with fluid mechanics. A vortex cannot end in a fluid, it must extend to the boundaries of the fluid. In some ways, air behaves like a fluid. So when the aircraft jet engine sucks in air, it forms a horizontal vortex in the air in front of it, but the vortex can’t just end blindly and instead deflects and attaches itself to the ground, the ground being the closest boundary of the air. It’s a rather big problem in aviation, because the vortex can vacuum up small objects from the runway and suck them into the engine, which is Not Good. For this reason, military runways get vacuumed frequently to avoid loose objects (since military aircraft have a lower ground clearance to maximise the engine propulsion efficiency, they suck in a lot more stuff.)

Before I wanted to be a doctor, I wanted to be a fighter pilot, so I know weird stuff. Do I get cookie now? :D

[giza.livejournal.com]

Close, but good guess.

Helps if you think more along the lines of, "using the aircraft in a way not intended". :-)

[giza.livejournal.com]

Holy dogshit, you got it!

I've been taking a break from IM lots lately. I only do AIM and Gtalk of late. You can find me in both of those on evenings.

[sirfox.livejournal.com]

So throw the thing in reverse, and you get the world's biggest leaf blower?

[taral.livejournal.com]

Who the hell BACKS UP an aircraft?!

Edit: Oh, someone got it before me. Question still stands.

[ketrava.livejournal.com]

the mega maid she gone from SUCK to BLOW !!!!!!

ketrava

[quasiskunk.livejournal.com]

Actually, that's one of the great features about the C-17. If it lands on a small runway, or one with little turning room, they can back the plane up with their thrust reversers all the way to the beginning of the runway, unload, and then immediately fly out.

They perform this at airshows all the time; it's a neat thing to watch ^.^

[xoagray.livejournal.com]

This new model of Kirby vacuum is the strongest yet!

[athauglas.livejournal.com]

*beep! beep! beep! beep! be--"

[espilonarge.livejournal.com]

"Pool on the wing must have sprung a leak." <- Explains why computers aren't allowed to be operated on the plane, they might just hack the planet on a around the world tour. :P

[espilonarge.livejournal.com]

Spaceballs! XD

[foxcutter.livejournal.com]

"There goes the planet"

[foxcutter.livejournal.com]

You know, that is pretty dang cool feature. I would love to fly something like the C-17 myself.

[taral.livejournal.com]

Impressive.

[kinkyturtle.livejournal.com]

"U.S. Air Force flight 5152 was grounded today when a baby tornado got caught in one of the engines. The plane was forced to land at Mallomar AFB, where the dead tornado was dumped out of the engine housing. And now with the weather, here's our own Dr. Frank Neil."

"Thanks, Roy. Well, I guess that's one less tornado weekend travelers are going to have to worry about, eh?"

[atara.livejournal.com]

Where do you put the rear-view mirror on that thing?

[roninotter.livejournal.com]

In theory, you could back up in more airplanes than just the C-17. However, it's a very very very bad idea.

One day in the simulator for the C-5A, my uncle and his co-pilot decided to see if a Galaxy could back up. According to weight ratios, physics and engine power, it can. That is, it could, until they ran over the control tower.

[rook543.livejournal.com]

It's Bush's fault!

[old-fortissimo.livejournal.com]

You're all wrong about the cause of the vortex.

In actuality, Deja just gave it the look....