Recovery was at 10,000 feet, and it was flown safely back to Eglin Air Force Base in Florida. The plane was flying at 15,000 feet when the mishap occurred. “The aircraft exceeded the targeted angle of sideslip until it departed controlled flight and momentarily inverted before being recovered after losing approximately 5,000 feet of altitude,” according to a statement from Air Force Materiel Command at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Ohio. If you’ve seen those scary jetliner landing videos, the pilots are often executing a sideslip. The maneuver is often used when planes are landing in a crosswind or when there is a need to lose altitude quickly. A “sideslip” is a maneuver in which the pilot slightly lowers a wing and applies opposite rudder to enable the plane to lose altitude fairly quickly. On April 21, the four-engine gunship was on a test flight over the Gulf of Mexico performing a “steady heading sideslip,” according to an Air Force release. That’s exactly what happened to one of the Air Force’s newest gunships, the AC-130J Ghostrider, this year, according to a report from Air Force Materiel Command released this month. How can you destroy a $115 million airplane without crashing it?
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