Aviation Question
12-31-2008, 08:34 AM
#1
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Aviation Question
My seven year old son asked me an aviation related question this morning that I could not answer. He would like to know if during inverted flight does a reindeer "go up" or "go down"?
To put it another way; does a reindeer generate mono directional lift in relation to the orientation of his body or is it some sort of intention directed form of levitation that is independent of reindeer angle of attack?
Hopefully a current flight instructor can shed some light on the subject.
SkyHigh
To put it another way; does a reindeer generate mono directional lift in relation to the orientation of his body or is it some sort of intention directed form of levitation that is independent of reindeer angle of attack?
Hopefully a current flight instructor can shed some light on the subject.
SkyHigh
12-31-2008, 08:43 AM
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Since the sleigh is always perfectly horizontal with the reindeer and not being just supported by the ropes, I think the reindeer create a kind of anti-gravity field, with the number of reindeer being the only source of forward speed. So inverted flight would be possible as the gifts in the sleigh are not affected by gravity. You just hope the reindeer had enough spatial disorientation training
12-31-2008, 09:21 AM
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Levitation
Since the sleigh is always perfectly horizontal with the reindeer and not being just supported by the ropes, I think the reindeer create a kind of anti-gravity field, with the number of reindeer being the only source of forward speed. So inverted flight would be possible as the gifts in the sleigh are not affected by gravity. You just hope the reindeer had enough spatial disorientation training
Skyhigh
12-31-2008, 09:52 AM
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USMCFLYR
12-31-2008, 10:03 AM
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12-31-2008, 11:42 AM
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Spaceflight dynamicists use frames of reference tied to the body usually, so up and down are based on the body itself.
Aerospace engineering courses cover frame of reference topics like this in courses on flight dynamics and space flight dynamics. In case you want to really get into it, some textbooks they use in college relevant to it are
Spaceflight Dynamics, William Wiesel, McGraw Hill
Flight Stability and Automatic Control, by Robert Nelson, McGraw Hill
Fundamentals Of Astrodynamics, Bate/ Mueller/White, Dover.
The third one is cheap enough at $10 used, the others are rather expensive.
Aerospace engineering courses cover frame of reference topics like this in courses on flight dynamics and space flight dynamics. In case you want to really get into it, some textbooks they use in college relevant to it are
Spaceflight Dynamics, William Wiesel, McGraw Hill
Flight Stability and Automatic Control, by Robert Nelson, McGraw Hill
Fundamentals Of Astrodynamics, Bate/ Mueller/White, Dover.
The third one is cheap enough at $10 used, the others are rather expensive.
12-31-2008, 12:20 PM
#9
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Are Santa's sleigh and reindeer restricted to the atmosphere? Are they are breathing propulsion systems like a jet or do they generate their own propulsion by magic or some unknown power source? If they are restricted to the atmosphere, what is their maximum altitude for flight?
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