…let’s put this one to bed, as far as possible.
1. Aircraft Type
This is a Mirage F.1, there’s no doubt about that. And probably FAF too, since the fit matches one that they would use for training.
Exhibit A - ImageShack - Best place for all of your image hosting and image sharing needs. This is a picture of a FAF Mirage F.1 with some distinguishing features marked. Note the centreline fuel tank, AAR probe, etc. This aircraft has stores installed on pylons 2 and a futher rail installed on pylons 3, probably for drop tanks or some larger weapon. Only pylon 3 is of interest to us.
Exhibit B - ImageShack - Best place for all of your image hosting and image sharing needs. A close-up of the AAR installation on F.1s. Note the height of the probe (almost above the canopy) and the slight cant to one side.
Exhibit C - ImageShack - Best place for all of your image hosting and image sharing needs. A nose-on schematic of the F.1. The top one is the original, the bottom one has been doctored by me to indicate the fit of the aircraft in the video (centerline tank, rails on pylon 3, AAR probe. The colour coding remains the same as in the first image. Notice also the TACAN/VOR aerials, in blue; distinctive at the top of the fin.
Exhibit D - ImageShack - Best place for all of your image hosting and image sharing needs. This is a still from the video. It’s a bit blurred and the aircraft is spread over two frames (this was explained well earlier). But note the same identifying features, including the colour coded items.
All this, in my view, makes it an F.1. The low horizontal stabiliser when compared with the high wing. The slight wing anhedral. The intakes. Centreline drop tank, no stores, rails on pylons 3 (for drop tanks in a different fit). The TACAN/VOR receiver is clearly visible, as is the canted AAR probe. The ventral strakes less so in this particular frame, but watch the whole video and they are there.
2. Is it a French Air Force guy on the ground?
Not easy to say for definite, but the French are the only Mirage F.1-operating Air Force I’ve ever come across that have their guys wear berets on the flightline. That’s not to say there aren’t others, but most wear ear defenders only.
3. Where is the wake? Why doesn’t he get blown over?
Two reasons.
Firstly, wake vortices are normally generated by the wingtips. Once they are made, they move away from and underneath the aircraft flight path. They also grow in size with time. Eventually they will grow so big that there might encompass the original flight path, but it is not immediate.
This video (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hDpyoghjZgE) shows wake vortices in action. Especially the bit a 0:42, where the aircraft has not yet touched down. The area immediately below/behind the aircraft are clear. Later in the video the blowing snow is as much due to propwash.
If the guy in the video was underneath the aircraft as it passed overhead, he’s unlikely to get hit by a wingtip vortex immediately.
Also, as was rightly pointed out earlier, wingtip vortices are a produced of induced lift. Induced lift is the lift created by flying slowly, when a high angle-of-attack is required to produce the necessary lift. At high speed, the same lift is created at a much lower angle-of-attack and the induced drag is much, much less. (At high speeds, profile drag is more significant).
Since the aircraft in the video is not in a particularly low-speed phase of flight (e.g. approach and landing) then the wingtip vortices would be much smaller.
But what about the jet efflux?
Well, again as noted before, whilst the aircraft is not in a low-speed regime, it’s not supersonic either. It is subsonic. There’s nothing to suggest that the pilot didn’t configure for the flypast by approaching at a high-power setting before reducing to low-power, or even idle, before passing overhead. The video sounds as if the jet is still generating some power but not necessarily a lot, therefore jet efflux could be quite minimal and no factor for the guy on the ground.
Lastly, the aircraft appears to be a lot lower than it actually is anyway; check out the span of the shadow on the ground. It’s higher than it looks.
4. So is it real?
Ok, I can’t say that. I don’t know what kind of video doctoring skills could have been used. But it could be true and I see no reason why anybody would have wanted to fake it… it’s not as if they’re famous as a result. The FAF are indeed low-flying specialists and have been known to do quite a lot of other crazy stuff like this; some of it on the internet, much of it not!
