Talk:Thrust reversal

Vortex on C-17

The picture with this caption puzzles me "A vortex made visible as powerback is used on a Boeing C-17 Globemaster III"

To me, this is just water being sucked from the ground - no matter which way the trust is being pointing. I've seen it on non-reverse planes too. 87.116.3.42 (talk) 08:04, 21 April 2022 (UTC)

Proportional to speed

It would be helpful to have a short explanation why "The amount of thrust and power generated are proportional to the speed of the aircraft, making reverse thrust more effective at high speeds" as it doesn't seem obvious. Intuitively I would have expected the relative speed between redirected airflow and airframe mass to be unaffected by airspeed. Searching the given reference (2) I can find no mention of this, only that reverse thrust is more effective at speed for a number of other reasons. 109.144.220.227 (talk) 15:33, 28 May 2023 (UTC)

"selected manually"

"Reverse thrust is always selected manually, either using levers attached to the thrust levers or moving the thrust levers into a reverse thrust 'gate'."

It may always be selected manually but at least some aircraft will not actually deploy the reversers until it detects the aircraft is landed fully. I think it was the MD-11 I was reading about yesterday, maybe it was the A300, where Darnell several accidents happened because the aircraft was not able to put the minimum weight on both gear and spin the tires up to the minimum speed for reverse thrust to deploy until well after the runway was half gone, resulting in an overrun. It stressed that there is no manual override and the reversers can only actually be deployed by the computer. The pilot only selects that he wants reversers when landing occurs. Idumea47b (talk) 18:19, 10 December 2024 (UTC)

The conditions described are common interlocks, they vary between types and could not be covered in a general encyclopedia article. Nimbus (Cumulus nimbus floats by) 19:43, 10 December 2024 (UTC)

At least one aircraft type, the Hawker Siddeley Trident, allowed for thrust reversal in-flight, either to rapidly descend, or to mitigate short &/or wet runways.

The Trident normal descent rate was up to 4500 ft/min (23 m/s). In emergency descents of up to 10,000 ft/min, it was permissible to use reverse thrust. The Trident's first version, Trident 1C, had the unusual capability of using reverse thrust prior to touchdown. The throttles could be closed in the flare and reverse idle set to open the reverser buckets. At pilot discretion, up to full reverse thrust could then be used prior to touchdown.

Somewhere, PPrune perhaps, I read an account from a passenger who met this phenomenon on an approach to Newcastle back-in-the-day. It sounded quite hairy!

WendlingCrusader (talk) 12:34, 4 March 2026 (UTC)

Doh! I missed the fact there is already a whole sub-section about in-flight operation, and it even mentions the Trident. Oh well! WendlingCrusader (talk) 13:16, 4 March 2026 (UTC)