Nosedive

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A Grumman F-14A Tomcat throws in a nosedive a laser-guided bomb from
White-tailed eagle swooping down on prey

The dive is a flight maneuver to quickly reduce the flight altitude . It can be carried out by birds , bats , flying insects or aircraft that fly heavier-than-air ( airplane and helicopter ). A dive is characterized by high speed and usually by an airspeed that increases sharply in the course of the dive. It is therefore an extreme case of descent .

A decrease in altitude at the same or approximately the same speed is called a descent. In the case of very high air resistance , which can also be deliberately created by diving brakes ( air brakes ), a diving maneuver leads to a descent when the top speed is reached. A nosedive with a shallow camber angle of up to −15 °, i.e. with a relatively low downward component, is also known as an orbit flight .

In birds, the dive is often an element of normal locomotion, but it can also be part of courtship , fighting and hunting (e.g. in birds of prey ). In order to escape an oncoming aircraft, birds dodge down by swooping down as they can change altitude much faster than when climbing. This type of flight is often seen in peregrine falcons in particular . In order to avoid bird strikes, the pilot of an airplane (if the reaction time is still sufficient) should avoid birds upwards or to the side - and not downwards.

In aircraft, the dive is a maneuver of aerobatics , but also of aerial combat and ground attack . In the Second World War, specially equipped for the dive planes (were using dive brakes dive bombers ) used to carry out attacks against point targets. In the case of helicopters , the dive is also part of the autorotation maneuver used for emergency landings due to engine failure .

With a sudden decompression of the pressurized cabin z. As in commercial aircraft one needs emergency descent ( English : emergency descent) in a dive to 10,000 ft take place (3048 m). The maximum permissible airspeed must not be exceeded. To reduce the rate of descent, the air brakes and, up to a certain speed, the landing gear can be extended. The air traffic control is about the sudden change of altitude and emergency informing. If there is no contact with air traffic control, the course must be changed 90 ° to the right while descending in order to leave the airway and not endanger any other aircraft.

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