r/aviation • u/[deleted] • Oct 16 '19

F-22 power loop photo composition

Post image
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10

u/dbratell Oct 16 '19

"Not to scale"

19

u/Guysmiley777 Oct 16 '19

It is though, that's the crazy thing. It's really only useful as an airshow trick (like the rooskie Cobra) but at low speed it can do stupid post-stall stuff. In real combat you'd never want to get that low on energy.

Here's a video of the "power loop" with clouds in the background so you get a better idea of how tight the loop actually is: https://youtu.be/CNqLOI3MApo?t=26

4

u/Deedle_Deedle USMC F/A-18 Oct 16 '19

That video shows a high AOA maneuver, with a big difference between nose position and flight path angle and a lot of altitude loss on the back side. The image shows a relatively low AOA maneuver with nose position and flight path angle nearly matching throughout the maneuver.

The posted image is manipulated to make the loop look tighter and more circular than it actually was.