Airdropping a large bulldozer

[onetrack]

I wonder what it does for your aircraft handling to have a large bulldozer fall out the back of it? Even the movement of the bulldozer to the rear of the aircraft must make for some staggering changes to the C of G.

 

https://www.constructionjunkie.com/blog/2018/12/11/video-dropping-a-dozer-out-of-a-moving-airplane-is-the-coolest-way-to-site-mobilize

[Thruster88]

They might be pitching over with almost zero g as the load comes out. 

[turboplanner]

I've seen plenty of videos of the military deploying vehicles and tanks from aircraft.

The aircraft flies just above the ground; a hook snags a cable anchored on the ground; the aircraft keeps flying; the tank drops about a metre onto the ground and is stationary, no forward reaction.

 

It's the equivalent of the party trick of pulling the table cloth out from under all the cutlery (first time I tried it all the wine glasses came with the cloth and I was in the doghouse).

 

Someone will know the maths behind the process.

[old man emu]

In 1958 a hydrogen bomb fell from a USAF B-36 bomber that was on final approach to a New Mexico air base. it was the Mars Bluff Nuclear Bomb Incident. Those H-bombs are heavy buggers, and with the sudden loss of their great weight Lift well and truly exceeded gravity's pull and the bomber suddenly shot up 1000 feet. Makes you wonder what happened to all those WWII bombers as they jettisoned their bombs. Imagine a Lancaster's flight path after dropping a 24,000 lb Tallboy.

 

 

 

[facthunter]

It's pretty simple. They fly like they would without the bomb weight like they do when you are training on them They are not spectacular performers at even that weight and pretty marginal at MTOW. It would need a pitch attitude adjustment and retrimming and could be safely flown slower.

   Dropping something that has to go a fair way rearwards  entails risks  that are significant as it acts as a load SHIFT so would be a problem unless a transient situation. Being low and in ground effect will always help some thing on the limit of performance/controllability. Doing a zero  gravity manoeuvre  would negate any balance problems while it persisted and prevent any stalling. Can't be done at low level.  Nev