Russian Aeronautical Engineering

Do watch the video. It is quite unbelievable.



Link : https://youtu.be/uSySd3jpv-g

The plane is the Russian MIG 29 (NATO designation : Fulcrum). This particular version is a technology demonstrator with new engines and "thrust vectoring". Here is some background :

MiG-29OVT :   The aircraft is one of the six pre-built MiG-29Ms before 1991, later received thrust vectoring engine and fly-by-wire technology. It served as a thrust-vectoring engine testbed and technology demonstrator in various air shows to show future improvement in the MiG-29M. It has identical avionics to the MiG-29M. The only difference in the cockpit layout is an additional switch to turn on vector thrust function. The two RD-133 thrust-vectoring engines, each features unique 3D rotating nozzles which can provide thrust vector deflection in all directions. However, despite its thrust-vectoring, other specifications were not officially emphasized. The aircraft is being demonstrated along with the MiG-29M2 in various air shows around the world for potential export. The aircraft is usually used as an aerobatic demonstrator.

What you are seeing is the plane not only remaining airborne but performing ballistic movements under its stall speed.

Pilots like our commenter Flyer68 will appreciate this capability very well. 

The stall speed of a plane is not the speed below which its engines 'stall'.  

The engines do not stall at all. 

The engines are still running.

Stall speed is the minimum speed below which there is not enough airflow above and below the airplanes wings to keep it airborne.

In Physics the Bernouli Principle of Hydrodynamics describes how the higher velocity of a fluid flow creates lower pressure. Lower velocity of a fluid creates higher pressure.  

Air is also a fluid.   So if you make an airplane wing into a curved shape, the air flowing above the wing will have a higher velocity than the air flowing below the flat surfaced lower part of the wing.  Air pressure above the wing is therefore lower than the pressure below the wing, creating "lift" - which keeps the plane in the air.

One more item is essential - the airplane must keep moving forward in order to create a constant airflow above and below the wing.

If the speed of the airplane drops below a certain level, there is not enough airflow both above and below the plane's wings, to create that high and low pressure differentials and the consequent 'lift'.  So the plane will fall out of the sky.

The MIG 29 here is certainly doing those stunts below its stall speed. 

So how does it still stay in the air?

Firstly the MIG 29 has powerful engines which produce much more power (called thrust) than the weight of the airplane itself.  In an almost vertical position and despite insufficient horizontal speed to generate 'airflow',  the upward thrust of the twin engines are much more than the weight of the plane (which is pulling the plane down). Hence the thrust of the twin engines can keep the plane 'vertically' in the air.

But that is not all. This plane has 'thrust vectoring'. The two engine exhaust "nozzles" which you can see in the video are flexibel (like a short elephant's trunk). By expertly controlling  the movable engine nozzles the pilot is able to keep the plane in the air even below stall speed - but only in an almost vertical position.  

The plane's design ie its aerodynamics plus the pilot's extreme confidence and skills also play a large part.  Other jetplanes including American planes also have thrust vectoring and super powerful engines but they are not able to perform in the same way as this MIG 29.  This is Russian engineering genius. 

Actually this is far more interesting than politics or religion combined.