Boeing 720 picture

[swiftus27]

Okay, I had nowhere else to post this.

I was looking at the picture of the Boeing 720 in my game.... 

Why does this look like the plane is on a crazy steep decent?

[Branmuffin]

Doesn't look all that out-of-the-ordinary to me; just seems like the pilot might have been a little high on the glideslope and decided it was better to land in the touch down zone rather than halfway down the runway, so he was correcting a bit.

Also, I'm partially guessing at this, but check out the flaps on the 720/707!  Might as well have a set of barn doors hanging off the back of the wing!  You can see it well in this photo:

http://www.airliners.net/photo/Braniff-International-Airways/Boeing-720-027/1185612/L/&sid=add0836227c5f0d0d5327b2962129442

First of all, flaps will move the center of lift further back on the wing, creating a large moment behind the aerodynamic center and resulting in a overall negative pitching moment (aircraft pitches down).  Plus, since it's a low-wing airplane the flaps (and that extra drag) are located under the lateral axis of the airplane (the axis running perpendicular to the fuselage).  This low 'drag line' will help increase the negative pitching moment.

Aside from all of that, it could be that the airplane was getting a little slow for what it was trimmed for on final approach, so it naturally wanted to pitch down to regain that lost speed.

[swiftus27]

those are some serious flaps.  My god, is the stall speed of this plane like 80kts or something?

[ekaneti]

If the original 720 didnt have slats it would have to come in fast and steep like the CRJ does. I dont know if it had slats or not. The Dc-9-10 didnt