I am researching a ww2 airplane crash and I'm wondering if the crew would have had time to bail out. They were hit by flak and fell immediately to the ground. How long would it take for the plane to fall to the ground if the airspeed was 180mph?
Answers (1)
You are talking about different subjects. Flak does not cause a plane to instantly fall. If the plane is still flying, it might take a while to fly to the ground. If a wing gets knocked off, the plane will fall at some speed determined by a lot of factors. In any case, the crew had plenty of time to do what they were trained to do.
If an anvil is dropped at 10,000 feet:
h = 16t^2
t = √(h/16) = 100/4 = 25 seconds
An airplane has considerable wind resistance, even with both wings missing, so it does not fall that fast. But the approximate speed is anybody's guess.
Thank you!
The reports we have show that the plane still had its wings but was on fire and possibly out of control. The plane took a direct hit and began falling immediately. we know it crashed soon after but I am looking for a rough idea of how long that might take. 30 seconds, 1 minute, more?