Is it true that ,an aircraft can stand still on air...

Question

many people who had travelled in aeroplane, tell that an aeroplane stands still without any motion in air (sky), when there is heavy traffic in international airports. when many aircrafts reach the airport at similiar timings ..it is possible to stand still on air

Answer 1

Short answer is no.

Answer 2

Aircraft cannot be still in the air in relation to air. It is impossible because lift is generated by air moving acrorss the wings

Aircraft *can* stand still in the air in relation to the ground

When a large aircraft is flying into a strong enough headwind(200knots) its flying because sufficient air is moving across the wings to generate lift but the aircraft isn't moving forward because the wind and thrust cancels each other out. These conditions are seldom encountered and never flown in.

Airplanes require minimally forward movement to stay aloft. air needs to move across the wings for lift to be generated, otherwise, the aircraft falls.

at busy airports, when there is heavy traffic or adverse weather conditions, airplanes are placed into a holding pattern and one by one, allowed to land. A holding pattern is a pattern/circuit/racetrack-like course either at or near the airport, at an altitude the ATC gives you, and all you do is fly in that circuit until you are told that the airport is ready to recover you (let you land). Each aircraft in the holding pattern will have a different altitude assigned to lessen the changes of a collision.

Generally, the higher you are in the holding pattern, the further you are from landing. So, technically, the aircraft isn't going anywhere, but it is still moving through the air. Holding patterns could be interpreted as the "traffic jams" of the air. Only 1 airplane can land per runway at one time, but if you have a influx of 30 aircraft, they're going to have to wait.

PS: Thom just makes me wanna laugh. Yes, there are quite a few airplanes that can stand still in the air in the true sense. These are military aircraft or helicopter/airplane designs. The average person would never get to ride these helicopter/airplanes.

There has not been a commercial aircraft that can stand still in the air yet that isn't a true helicopter.

Answer 3

Helicopter, yes, airplane, no.  Whenever there is a traffic jam, up in the sky, Air Traffic Control will put airplanes in holding patterns.  That just means they will fly in circles until ATC is ready for them.  This happens all the time when flying into the north-east portion of the US, like New York or Newark.

So, in essence, they're standing still, but not literally.

Answer 4

No, not in the manner you have written. However, if the strength of the  head wind is the same as the ground speed of the aircraft, it will stay in one place.

Answer 5

An aircraft requires air to move across the wings in order to keep flying in the air.

If the air is moving at the same speed as the airplane, such as flying into a 300 mph headwind, and the airplane travels at 300 mph, then it can appear to be motionless relative to the ground.

Usually, when there's heavy traffic, the airplane will fly in circles until they're cleared to land.

Answer 6

fixed wing aircraft cannot stand still in the air.  Lift is generated when air flows over the wing, and lifts the wing using the Bernoulli effect.  

In the situation you describe, the airplane slows down to reschedule its arrival at the air port

Answer 7

theoretically if the wind is high enough an airplane can stand still in the air in relation to the ground.

However, it Can't stand still in relation to the air.

For an airplane to actually fly it has to be generating lift, and to be generating lift air has to flow over the wings.

So, if you had a small airplane, like a single engine Cessna, standing on a runway, with a headwind of like 70 knots or something then it could probably hover right above the runway.

However, for big airliners, it has to be moving. Generally how this is done at larger airports is having the airliners fly holding patterns. Basically means that the airplane is flying a "racetrack" type pattern up in the sky above a certain fix at a specific altitude, and the air traffic controllers can then stack them at different altitudes over the same fix and call them in to land when it's they're turn

Answer 8

Actually, folks, there are airplanes that will 'stand still' in the air.  Not airliners though.  Some examples are (1) The Harrier (2) The Osprey (3) Sukhoi SU-31, and I am sure there are more...

I saw the Sukhoi at an airshow two years ago do the 'Elevator', where it transitioned from horizontal to vertical, and then lowered it's tail to within a foot of the ground.  Awesome!

What you are referring to, is airliners who slow down and extend their patterns to allow extra time to land.

Answer 9

No, it is not possible to stand still in the air in a commercial airliner.  Fixed-wing aircraft such as airliners must move forward in order to fly and remain in the air.

Helicopters, however, can hover in one place indefinitely.

Answer 10

Somebody is playing with your credulity, there, my man.  You have to be fairly well drunk to get the impression that an airliner is "holding still in the air" when you are riding inside it--especially at 15,000 feet or so on down.

Air Traffic Control sequences flights arriving at airports by routing the flights along diverted routes to delay their arrival in varying amounts, so that they will not all arrive at once.  If there is no way around it, they will subject the crew to the process of flying a holding pattern--the "racetrack" mentioned in other answers--but crews will accept almost any option before flying a holding pattern.  It's like being flogged.

Sometimes when traffic or weather is causing really serious problems, ATC will even hold flights at the previous departure airport.  You won't fly much before you experience that.

Answer 11

Probably the best analog to what you describe is when commercial traffic is heavy at an airport, most often due to weather problems, when some aircraft may be directed into what is called a "holding pattern" or more commonly referred to as simply a "hold".

A hold is, in general terms, nothing more than an oval racetrack orbit flown at a constant altitude around a specified point.  It allows an aircraft to effectively "park" temporarily in a volume of airspace protected by air traffic control specifically for them.  Aircraft can be "stacked" by having multiple aircraft circling the same point at different altitudes.

As the landing airspace comes available at the destination, the lowest aircraft can be directed to land and the higher aircraft can be "stepped down" in altitude as next in line for the approach to landing.

The aircraft effectively never stops moving, but doesn't make progress to the destination.

Hovering a conventional aircraft, or making a fixed wing, non-vertical take-off and landing aircraft fly with no speed over the ground requires a skilled pilot and an aircraft capable of flying at a speed forward into and through the wind as slow as the wind is blowing to make the net forward speed over the ground zero.

This is fairly dangerous as you get into turbulence and slow-speed issues.  Not anything you would do with passengers aboard.  I have seen some freight dog cessna caravans make fairly vertical looking climbs into strong winds in the winter time at take off.