Totally normal: planes floating in mid-air
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Nahhh most were heavy's on approach, with low airspeed on. Matched with the vehicles moving it will appear extremely slow. I stopped at the small Cessna towing a banner, he was probably only just above stall speed with what sounded like a strong headwind before he powered up.
In all honesty, it seems to be an optical illusion. Watch a A380 taking off, it appears it's only doing 30mph or so!
im thinking an optical illusion too
I see this all the time where I live (close to airport and Air Force base), but ONLY when driving. It really is bizarre to see it in person tho
Please get some video. And the more you clips you can compile on different days the better. The perspective just doesn't make sense. They should be moving faster and yet it seems they hover over the same spot.
If you can make the time to do a synchronized video with one person standing while the other is driving, that would go a long way to help others like me see it and understand it as well as provide consideration. I have never seen this anywhere in my area so I don't have any way to do it myself.
That sounds great and all to do a scientific study on it, but honestly, it’s hit and miss. I normally see it on the bridge over the river heading north (or south) on my way home from work, but I don’t follow flight traffic or have any intention to do so. I will say that I’ve seen large military aircraft (C-17’s) as well as passenger 737’s both appear to “halt” mid-air. I’ve lived here for almost 10 years, and I’ve seen about 20 circumstances like this. I over exaggerated with the frequencies in my previous post, but I guess it’s not the rare occurrence it once was, and I was all wild about it when I first saw it too. Honestly, I think it has to do with trajectory and velocity of both vehicles in motion. I can’t prove it, but I believe this to be true
Have a look at this video, it's a great explanation of the effect you are seeing.
That is a good explanation... But why doesn't it effect the perspective of the other moving vehicles, especially the ones on the opposite side of the road?
At this point, I'm just fleshing out all explanations and possibilities. I appreciate everyone's patience and insight with me. Hopefully it benefits others who are just as confused.
That's a good follow up question, and it tells me the explanation made sense to you, so I'm glad the video helped. The reason it doesn't affect the cars going the opposite direction is because you can see the road those cars are traveling on and it gives you context for how fast they are traveling. With a plane they are surrounded by air, so the closest thing you can draw context from is scenery on the horizon, which is likely closer to you than the plane.
Here's the clip that has me in a tizzy.
https://youtu.be/3qCfTBgalFE?t=600
This is a great example of why the effect only works when the car is moving. You can see the plane begins to move and the illusion is broken once the car comes to a stop. Also compare the size of the apartment building to the size of the plane. A passenger jet should be much bigger if it were the same distance from the camera as the building, in fact it probably wouldn't even fit on the roof.
It just feels off still. Like it should be moving as the car starts slowing down, yet it doesn't seem to do it. It's almost like it doesn't start moving until the car is almost completely stopped.
I guess we need stationary cameras to determine like with some of those bird videos. I remain skeptical for the simple fact that I could see this being accepted and then when planes do start stopping in mid air, people won't question it.
Of course, I will reserve freak outs for until someone has stationary footage.
2:42 is a dead give-away. If it was moving forward, it wouldn't appear to move away from the trees...
This is a great response. Except that the planes sit over the same area. Watch the trees beneath them.
A plane against a solid color background is about the easiest thing in the world to photoshop in. I don't believe this is worth getting excited about.
Not Photoshop. Optical illusion. I live near LAX and see this all the time. It happens when you have a car moving in the opposite direction as the plane, the passing scenery makes the plane seem motionless. I only watched about half the video but they all look like the same illusion to me.
If you could provide some clips, that would be greatly appreciated.
See the explanation video in my other comment
Photoshop doesn't work great on videos... and those composites are not easy to generate. Did you watch the entire thing?
Photoshop is used as a verb meaning digitally produced/altered. It would be trivial to put an airplane against the sky in a video with the right software.
I watched about 2/3 of it.
Okay. So what are the tells in these instances? A lot of the videos in the beginning are quite clear with no sings of composite overlays or any digital fuckary... at least what I can tell. Anything I should look at closely?
Nah. 2:42 for the doubters.
Optical illusion. I see this all the time near LAX. Show me a version where the car is not moving then we can talk.
This is the best I can do:
https://youtu.be/3qCfTBgalFE?t=600
I replied to the wrong comment but this is exactly what I was hoping for. If you watch the street light you can see the car comes to a stop mid shot, and the illusion is broken in real time.
The Truman Show is begging to glitch....so is the Matrix. The illusions are falling apart.
We used to go to the Kemah boardwalk on Galveston Bay when baby hurricanes were coming in, watch the boards ripple up like piano keys as the waves pounded them. You could drink margaritas and enjoy the show.
Several times while we were doing that we noticed what I believe is the same plane, a small private plane, just floating there, weaving back and forth some but just appearing to hover up there above us as we drank.
He was 'flying' but not moving, the headwinds were such that he could 'fly' while not moving forward at all. All he had to do was keep his nose pointed into the wind and he had lift.
Optical illusion, or actually not an illusion but simply headwinds causing the plane to have lift - to fly- but with little perceived forward motion.
People don't always understand how planes fly, it is the pressure under the wings which cause lift. You can achieve that pressure a number of ways, by curving the top surface of the wing so air travels further there and so causes a pressure differential measured against the bottom of the wing and by gaining speed to increase that differential..... or simply by heading into the wind.
Yeah that IS totally normal, visually it presents a Thing to ponder unless you understand how flying works.
https://www.highskyflying.com/can-an-airplane-hover-and-stand-still-in-mid-air/
Nope. It is not pressure under the wings causing lift. It is negative pressure on top of the wing (caused by the longer distance the air must flow) creating a low pressure area into which the wing is sucked.
Similar but different.
For small planes that makes perfect sense. Large jets though? And barely off the ground?
Yes and compounded by the size. The bigger the size the less it appears to be moving, especially near to the ground.
Talking of headwinds/tailwinds over aircraft, I was flying back to camp in Germany with a storm chasing us, my normal cruise would be around 125kts, my doppler showed us having 220kts groundspeed! Fastest I'd ever been in a helicopter! We beat the storm.
The principles don't change for size... yeah, for jumbo jets as well as piper cubs.
The wings on a B-52 bomber rise 22 feet from standing still to take-off, measured at the wing tip. That is 'lift' causing that, the larger and heavier plane requires more wing area to create the lift but the principle is the same. Science demands it be that way, the wing is designed to create 'X' amount of lift and does so, the only way a plane can fly is to meet the science parameters. Big, small, light or heavy, low altitude or higher, doesn't matter, Flight is Flight. The science has to work the same for us all IF it is science.
Air pressure is always higher at lower altitudes, so you get more lift technically.
https://files.catbox.moe/rz37vb.jpg
Correct.
2:42 and 3:07. If they are moving forward, why aren't they going towards the objects that the camera is moving towards. Instead they move away...
Think larger, ask yourself how many variables and perspectives are involved in the image, what known parameters are constant and what are not?
But have it your way, or ponder the science your self.
https://files.catbox.moe/gwtg41.png
Here is why I am being so damn stubborn.
https://youtu.be/3qCfTBgalFE?t=600
And here is something else to consider
https://youtu.be/w3T5nNdHMmU?t=41
Because the aircraft isn't going as fast as your brain thinks it should be. With full flaps, and a slow approach speed it does look like it's almost static until it's very close to the ground.
The clip at 2:01 supports this. I can see it barely moving. The other two time stamps I keep watching closely and it just doesn't appear to be so, especially the clip starting at 3:02.
I'm fine with being proven wrong, but some of them appear very stationary.
Here is the original clip that got me on this kick and why my perspective might be altered from everyone else's...
https://youtu.be/3qCfTBgalFE?t=600
3:31 why does it stay above the same group of trees?
FFS....
WWG1WGA
Before I clicked, I thought it was something like a VTOL. They've been doing this since the Harrier Jump Jet in the 60's. That's a frickin' Jumbo floating there. We're not watching a movie, we're playing a video game, and boy does it need some patching.
Fuckin right?
I wonder if these could be very realistic blimp / balloon type reproductions. They are all low in the sky. But the question would be, why? What would be the purpose - or what are they up to now ..
Or it's wind currents or it is a visual illusion. But anyway:
https://youtu.be/3qCfTBgalFE?t=600
I have seen this hundreds of times on my way to work passing Frankfurt airport.
It's an illusion.
Your focus on the plane, the movement of the plane and the movement of your car cancel out the movement of the background.
Just stop and you will realize the illusion.
Exactly right. The heavy's are only doing around 135kts with a head wind, the offset speed of the vehicle moving plus the size of the aircraft equals an illusion imo.
2:42. That thing is dead ass still. It wouldn't move away from the trees if it was in motion.
Okay. So why does it stay over the same set of trees?
Because thats the point where both objects "rotate" around. It will be closer to the plane because the plane is faster, but not directly below the plane.
edit: actually it should be closer to the slower object.
Here's something a little different. Doesn't prove anything in this vid just fuckin weird.
https://youtu.be/w3T5nNdHMmU?t=41
Still does not explain why it's moving away from the objects its going towards.
The smaller ones parking in a draft I can buy. But huge jets? Come on, maaaaan.
A very likely possibility. Along with drones. But that still begs the question: why?
A valid and logical point.