“What a Pilot” – The Lost Wing Thing

There is currently a video making the rounds again that shows an aerobatic aircraft losing its right wing during a maneuver but still landing safely.

Is this real now? In short, no. This video is still believed to be real and distributed accordingly. But what lies behind it is interesting. There are several clues that cast doubt on its authenticity - and one irrefutable argument. Let's get started...

First of all, when and how did this video appear? The video has been circulating online since October 2008 and suddenly appeared on YouTube. No mention in the news, no other source. For a stunt like that, if it were real, you would have expected more coverage.

In keeping with this video, information about the alleged pilot also appeared: His name was James Andersson, born in 1976, a former RAF pilot and aerobatic pilot for Red Bull. A (now defunct) website contained a corresponding biography and - interestingly - just this one video clip of this spectacular landing. There was no further information or footage of him to be found either at Red Bull or anywhere else on the internet.

This video is about:

The video itself

The aircraft is a Giles G-300, a high-performance aircraft made of carbon fiber that is fully suitable for aerobatics, a common design to achieve the highest level of stability with the lowest possible weight.

However, upon closer inspection, a few things stand out:

At the moment when the wing breaks off, you don't see any struts that would normally be visible on this type, only a smooth break edge is visible.

It is also at least unlikely that the wing will be damaged in the flight situation shown, where, in contrast to other figures, comparatively little force acts on the surfaces.

Furthermore, with this model, such damage would be associated with loss of control of the aircraft, as the control works via cables, which would have become unusable here.

And when landing (around the time mark 0:48), the transition from knife-edge flight (flight in a 90° side position) to normal flight attitude and the subsequent touchdown seems a bit “bumpy”, too fast for an aircraft with a mass of a few hundred kilograms.

Further comparisons of the painting of the aircraft from a shot in the air with a shot on the ground also show minimal differences.

All in all, there are a lot of indications that something is wrong here. However, remote-controlled aerobatic model aircraft have a massively oversized engine power in relation to their weight, so that during demonstrations, for example, maneuvers can be flown in which the aircraft essentially just “hangs” on the propeller (video) . Based on the evidence, it is reasonable to assume that we are dealing with a model.

The irrefutable argument...

...but is the making-of of the video, which was made for the German clothing company “KillaThrill” by the agency JOTZ! Film Production produced and post-edited by NHB – vision and sound :

So it's just a viral marketing video, which is actually quite well done. An interesting analysis of the campaign can be found on viralmarketing.de .

Conclusion

It is a very well-made marketing video, similar to the one about the alleged emergency landing of a passenger plane on the beach , which made the rounds in 2014, for example, or the one about the landing with a defective nose gear .

However, there is at least one case in which an aircraft lost almost an entire wing and was able to land safely. However, this was an F-15, where the design, where the fuselage itself provides a lot of lift, was a big help. A video of this real flying masterpiece can be seen here .

Author: Rüdiger