I don’t think he was claiming it was less capable of a barrel roll than a 707, but he did suggest that a vertical loop in a 747 would be trickier than a barrel roll in a 747.
Based on empty-weight, it’s a little higher for the 747-8 - 0.57, versus 0.41 for the earliest verion of the 707. Other relevant factors include G limits, max roll rates, and safe max airspeeds, and I don’t know what those are for either aircraft.
I don’t claim that a 747 definitively can’t do a barrel roll - only that we should not assume that it can.
Surely we don’t have to test these things in a real 747 — has anyone ever attempted to perform a barrel roll or loop in an official Boeing flight simulator?
Wasn’t he that guy who did all sorts of amazing helicopter aerobatics?
[No relation to Bob Hoover, among the (and arguably THE) greatest aerobatic pilots of all time, famous for - among many other exploits - unmatched routines in a Shrike Commander and a P-51.]
There are designations for every branch, including the Coast Guard. They’ve never used Coast Guard One, but they have used Coast Guard Two. (Two for the VP)
One interesting case is the helicopter Nixon used. It was Army One or Marine One depending on the pilot even though it was the same helicopter.
Is flying a large passenger airplane upside-down, as Denzel Washington’s character does in Flight, a plausible response to some emergencies?
(I did Search and learn that that film was discussed here at length a year ago, but any comment on the inversion was buried among discussions of other implausibilities.)
I wouldn’t. I have no idea what the numbers are. Heck, I prolly could not even start a 747.
But …
A well executed barrel roll puts no strain on the C-150 or the 747.
Go read ‘Stick & Rudder’ for great explanations of how to do aircraft maneuvers.
Need to be defined for your statement. Doing an acrobatic maneuver in an airplane not certified for acrobatics will not say it is safe to do in the pilots handbook. The FAA frowns on that sort of thing. As to the actual 747 aircraft, it can do a barrel roll.
I really don’t need to prove anything to you or anyone who says it can’t be done or done safely. Not every pilot can do it in every aircraft. They are not allowed to fly just anything they want.
If you are a pilot with any experience with acrobatics or any reasonable flight time & or experience, you would not be asking these questions. You would know the answer.
You need to prove that it can’t be done to refute all the information & experience of the industry & the pilots that fly same.
Tex did it in a 707. It was not pretty or well executed. If he had tried it again, I would think it would been much better because he would have 100% more experience than anyone else. Plus he has learned much, much, many, many things about that particular airplane.
That is called test flying and doing something that the owners of that very expensive aircraft did not want to see attempted. It got him grounded for a while but he thought it was well worth it. That stunt sold many airplanes for Boeing. And they knew it.
You can go look at the rules on it in the FAR’s. They can be found on line.
Fine. I’ll stipulate that a barrel roll can be achieved in a 747. But I have my doubts about a safe recovery (i.e. no crash and no airframe damage) from the speed and attitude that the plane will be in immediately after the completion of said barrel roll.
If someone flies a simulated 747 in MSFS or X-Plane, achieves a barrel roll, and then returns to level/stable flight without exceeding the safe operating parameters (speed, g-load, etc.), then I’ll accept that a real 747 could probably do the same.
I spoke to my friend who used to fly 747s for a freight airline. He said that a barrel roll is no problem if correctly executed. A loop is possible, but it’s easy to exceed a safe speed in the pullout.
He has done both these maneuvers in a simulator (with sim motion disabled). A modest fuel + cargo load is highly recommended.