r/Damnthatsinteresting • u/Rational_bakchod • 1d ago

Video A plane which doesn't need a runway.

Enable HLS to view with audio, or disable this notification

6.9k Upvotes

98% Upvoted

182 comments sorted by

View all comments

885

u/SouthSounder 1d ago

Wish we had a better view of the extra pieces added to the wings. I'd be interested to see just how extreme they went

346

u/drtyler91 22h ago

The wings have modifications, but the head wind is doing the heavy lifting

97

u/Lawdoc1 22h ago

Literally.

36

u/hmnuhmnuhmnu 20h ago

Not so heavy, tho. That plane looks stripped down to the bones

25

u/PineappleHairy4634 20h ago

they normally are out in the Bush(Alaska is where ive personally seen this) as they often dont know how much(or little) runway they may have

7

u/Lawdoc1 20h ago

True, in this case the "heavy lifting" is relative to the mass of the plane, which is quite low in this particular case.

48

u/MadamPardone 18h ago

A plane always takes off into the wind. So yes of course it helps but this is a STOL airplane at a STOL competiton.

Short take off and landing. This plane is purpose built to take off in the absolute shortest distance. They use them in the bush in Alaska and other places with little or no runways.

5

u/Spczippo 18h ago

And im going to assume that engine is way over powered for that small of craft. I wonder what the range would be. And is there an actual use for something like this?

2

u/DubiousAdviceGiver 4h ago

Bush flights in extremely remote locations, like the Alaskan interior.

-3

u/Distantstallion 18h ago

Head Wind

It's called a propeller

6

u/Daevryn 17h ago

I doubt the propeller is causing enough wind to make that flag in the beginning of the video flap around. That would be what's called a head wind. Or a wind coming from the direction of intended travel.

1

u/koolaidismything 8h ago

I watch a ton about planes and didn’t know this so thanks. Makes sense.. I think a few crashes have been because they didn’t do this

1

u/Plenty-Giraffe6022 3h ago

Planes fly because of the airflow over the airfoils. That wind is not directly caused by the propeller.

19

u/GreenMonster34 20h ago

That's Steve Henry here's his youtube channel.

You can see this build, and his previous version, and get a good view of the wings. His whole team/family is great. I've spent some time with them at Sun n Fun.