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I'm not so sure I'd like the idea of cart wheeling either, but I can see how a series of small impacts could be a lot healthier than one big one.
25 to 30 years ago, I read an article that stated the safest way to conduct an off field landing was to intentionally dip a wing into the ground at the last moment. Destruction of the wing was found to absorb substantial energy without transmitting severe loads back to the cabin. In a standard cornfield landing, it is common for the nose to dig in at some point. This causes a negative bending moment on the fuselage, which buckles around the wing. The roof is then drawn downward, crushing the occupants with negative health effects.
I mentioned this to my aerodynamics professor many years ago and he thought it was ridiculous. The idea of spinning the aircraft runs counter to everything we are taught and intentionally destroying the wing is hard to swallow as well, especially when you built it yourself.
I've never investigated this idea, but I can see how it could work.
Rob
In a message dated 09/29/10 07:38:06 Eastern Daylight Time, mjrav@comcast.net writes:
This is a very interesting theory.
Before taking it seriously, I'd ask just how I could be sure to end up right side up.
Mark Ravinski
There was an seminar at Sun and Fun years ago where they talked about how to best crash an airplane without a suitable place to land...and this guy did it...a cartwheel. The energy is dissipated more slowly and the G Forces are minimized. They looked at a number of crashes and found that in those that cartwheeled, the pilot walked away. Your comments?
Steve Colwell Legacy http://www.q13fox.com/news/kcpq-092110-pilot-survives,0,646191.story?track=rss
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