11. Landing Inverted

Gemini Sparkle

Key Takeaways:

  • While aerobatic planes can be flown upside down, and skilled pilots can perform inverted landings, standard aircraft are not equipped for this, as they lack landing gear on top.
  • An inverted landing in a typical plane would likely be destructive and the pilot's last.
  • Aerobatic performer Craig Hosking has successfully executed multiple inverted landings in a specially modified Pitts biplane with landing gear on both the top and bottom.
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Can a plane land inverted? Of course, it can. Aerobatic airplanes are regularly flown upside down. But landing? Piece of cake for a skilled aerobatic ace, though. But unless it’s got landing gear on top, it’ll probably be their last landing. Aerobatic performer and Hollywood actor Craig Hosking has done it, many times! For a while, Hosking, who has been busy making movies of late (most recently on 2017’s Dunkirk), made inverted landings in his Pitts biplane specially outfitted with landing gear on both top and bottom. Thanks all the same, but we’ll avoid that plane if it shows up on the line at our flying club! Some temptations one does not need! 

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