Heard over the din of combat are the voices of actors portraying flying aces and villains taunting their foes or screaming their last words as cockpits fill with smoke and their bullet-riddled aircraft spiral to earth.
In the first accident, a 76-year-old pilot and his 40-year-old passenger flying over Ticonderoga, N.Y., were killed when their Piper aircraft spiraled from the sky early Saturday, bursting into flames when it crashed in a wooded area near a golf course.
Tests performed by United Airlines showed that, if the propellers of just one engine were reversed and full power was applied to all four engines, then the aircraft would spiral into a dive.
During its intensification, United States Air Force reconnaissance tried to fly into the hurricane, but penetration was rendered impossible due to the cumulonimbus clouds in the spiral bands, causing the aircraft to rely on radar readings, which showed an eye 40 miles (65 km) in diameter.
The F-35 programme, meanwhile, has faced serious technical problems and the cost of the aircraft has spiralled to an estimated £70m each.
Described by one witness as a "death spiral," the nose of the aircraft continued to drop during the maneuver and the bank angle increased to 80°.
The commander took the aircraft into a spiral dive to the right because, with a probability bordering on certainty, he had lost spatial orientation.
"Now, a jet can sink into a deep spiral if a larger, heavier aircraft passes by too close and flips [the jet] over with its backwash.
BERLIN — The air filled with noise, and the aircraft's payload spiraled downward, sometimes black against a clear blue sky, sometimes catching a glint of sunlight.
A vortex is a dangerous spiral of air churned up by an aircraft as it cuts through the sky.
