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Planes clouds and vortices

flugsnug · 2.3M views · 2014-11-06 · 6:40

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Overview

A short compilation of aircraft flying through clouds and moist air, showing the spiraling vortices that wings leave behind. The footage shows wingtip vortices and the way planes disturb cloud layers.

On Hacker News

HN commenters link it as a visual illustration of wingtip vortices and wake turbulence when discussing lift and aircraft wakes.

Recommended by 2 HN people across 2 months · HN mentions 2017–2026

Topics

Aviation & aerospace engineeringEveryday physics & science demos
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aerodynamicswake turbulenceaircraftliftfluid dynamics

What people said

ertemplin · 2021-10 · Recommendation

Regarding your 2nd answer, taking off quickly after another aircraft has departed is difficult because of wake turbulence. The most hazardous part of wake turbulence is the spiraling wingtip vortices which can be observed in this neat video: [VIDEO] One notable wake turbulence incident was in 2006 at Boeing Field in Seattle where a Cessna 172 and Boeing 747 were both on final approach for parallel runways. The Cessna 172 got flipped almost upside down and recovered 150 feet over the terrain: [LINK]

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phumbe · 2017-03 · Recommendation

For anyone interested, there are several great youtube videos[1-4] that show the wakes (the wingtip vortices in particular) created by various aircraft. This incident brings the Reduced Vertical Separation Minima (RVSM)[5] into question. Strategic Lateral Offset Procedure (SLOP)[6] can be used used to avoid such incidents. [1] [LINK] [2] [VIDEO] [3] [LINK] [4] [LINK] [5] [LINK] [6] [LINK]

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mncharity · 2026-01 · Reference

Two quick errata: In Sound / Biology, a control inversion: low pitch (slider and sound) animates blue short hairs, and high pitch animates long red. In the windtunnel > Wing, lift is reported but the airstream remains undeflected.[1] [1] randomly, fwiw, I've used cloud deck slicing to illustrate downdraft, eg [LINK] [LINK] . Or perhaps moments of "yoink" like... err, [VIDEO] .

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Sources

Video by flugsnug, played through YouTube.

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