I keep seeing people squeak about how losing the wingtips shouldn't let you fly. Thats not true. Most don't seem to know too much about aerodynamics and aeronautical engineering (I happen to work on aircraft, business jets in particular like Lear 35s, Lear 55s, Lear 60s, Citation 650s, Citation 10s, Israeli IAI 1125 Astra SPX, Grumman Gulfstream 3 and 4, and the full Dasault Falcon series).
Missing half your wings means you still have 50% of your lifting surface left.
Actually more, since MOST of the plane's lift is generated by the thicker and larger, inboard sections of wings than the smaller, outboard section.
Now, for arguments sake, lets (wrongly) pretend that the outboard sections of the wings are equal in their lifting force as the inboard sections.
Your stall speed is doubled, but you can still fly. Drag is reduced, so you can fly faster. Your accelerated stalls are also doubled.
Most of the game's planes stall out at around 100mph or less. I think 80mph or 90mph is normally when your plane stalls and goes into a spin. Thus you can still fly if you keep above 160 to 180mph or more.
Naturally your going to have a poor rate of climb (half of what you had before), and your turn circles will be twice as big, not to mention not having ailerons to control roll. You have to use a combination of rudder and elevator to control roll, plus engine torque.
But, you can fly like this.
Hans.
[This message has been edited by Hans (edited 04-05-2001).]
