Is it possible to invert a plane

It'd be better to pull back the throttle to power idle while losing altitude, he says. So now—theoretically—you're piloting an upside-down airliner. Normally, you'd just keep rolling over until you completed a full degrees, Williams says. Inversion risks engine failure, because fuel pickup tubes draw from the tank's bottom. But if your airplane had a broken jackscrew and dysfunctional horizontal stabilizer, like Whitaker's, inversion could help it regain altitude and slow down; its nose would remain stuck pitched down—but now "down" means up, toward the sky.

You'd want to increase power if needed, flip, and land quickly; once righted, the airplane would jolt earthward again. The reaction speed required to execute all that makes this a true Hollywood feat.

But airline pilots have a long history of remaining cool under pressure. Consider Sully Sullenberger—or Al Haynes, the captain of United Airlines flight , a DC that crash-landed on July 19, , after the catastrophic failure of its tail-mounted engine led to the loss of all hydraulic flight controls. Haynes and his flight crew used the power of the wing-mounted engines to guide the airplane's descent. On approach, Haynes stayed calm and collected—he even kept his sense of humor.

After air traffic control cleared Flight for an emergency landing at Sioux City, he quipped: "Roger. Visit our Ratings Now! United Airlines. VietJet Air. Privacy Policy We have placed cookies on your device to enhance your browsing experience. We are collecting cookies for marketing purposes. To allow all cookies click OK. Otherwise you can use this tool to manage. Your cookie settings Cookies are very small text files that are stored on your computer when you visit some websites.

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This is because the forces exerted on the aircraft is the same throughout the manoeuvre. As the plane is continuously turning, none of the components are affected in the short inversion. It is the same idea behind a rollercoaster; the cars have the momentum to go through loops and inversions so quickly that it does not affect the passengers in any serious way.

You can watch it below. Flying upside down for an extensive amount of time introduces some additional factors that make things a little more complicated. Many components of an aircraft that maintain fuel lines and hydraulics require gravity to allow the liquids to move throughout the airframe. If upside-down, air may enter the system and render these components unresponsive. The issue that mainly comes to mind with the Boeing is that it would not be able to maintain a level flight if it went upside down.

Now you have to restart the engines, all four of them, without the engines receiving fuel. At the same time, the aircraft is losing altitude rapidly and will soon crash. At this stage, your best bet is to rotate the plane the correct way back up and try to fix it from there.