FlyerJosh

Large (transport) aircraft aren't required to be certified to the same standards as smaller (normal) aircraft. For some things, they have more stringent requirements (such as redundant systems), others they don't (such as spin testing). Part of it comes with the fact that these larger aircraft have much higher training requirements for flight crews.

If you're really interested, take a look at the various requirements by looking at FAR parts 23 and 25.

Part 23 covers the airworthiness and certification standards for Normal, Utility, Acrobatic, and Commuter category airplanes. Part 25 covers the requirements for Transport Category airplanes.

tomgoodman

The B-47 used to practice an immelman "toss-bomb" maneuver to escape the nuclear blast. This was discontinued due to excessive stress on the wings.

A modified AF Systems Command NKC-135 (with upper and lower longitudinal radomes mounted forward of the wing) unintentionally did a lateral departure followed by one full turn of a spin during an inflight minimum control speed test. The crew recovered from the ensuing dive, but one outboard engine had been slung off.

III Corps

Can't loop or roll a 'bus. Flight control laws will not allow it... the video must be CGI...

flynavyj

might have been thinking of some of the other videos (boeing products) in college i remember watching the one of the 707 doing the barrel roll...believe the president of the company told the guy something along the lines of "that was amazing...and if i ever see you do that again i'm going to kill you"

B757200ER

What if you disconnect the FACs?

kerns bbo

The largest aircraft that I know of that was spun intentionally was the Cheyenne IV.

You can roll a bus. You have to shut down most systems putting it into a very basic model. It has been years since I sat through the 320 ground school so I dont remember the control mode that it is technically called but we used to play around with it in the sims.

lil8znguy

I believe there is a video somewhere of a 707 doing a roll over the seattle area. I think it was a test flight, again i dont remember the details, but it was very cool to see.

ToiletDuck

That is assuming the rotation of the spin would be very fast. I don't think the issue is with the rate of spin as much as it is with the excessive force on the vertical stabalizer and the angle of attach the air would strike the sweep of the wing at on the horizontal level. The length of the body blocking the air along with the wind hitting the wing at an angle might make some sort of issue. But this is all pointless chatter anyway they don't do it.

III Corps

You would have to fail things to get into Alternate Law. No way you can get beyond 67deg roll, 30 deg pitch up, 20 nose low in Normal Law.

One of the things we did with all the 'buses in Toulouse was to do a full aft stick hard pull to find the G limits. We would hold full aft stick until the nose parked at 30 degs nose up. With the speed rolled back, hold it until the speed decayed and hit angle of attack limits which would lower the nose. As speed continued to fall off, you would wind up at (as I remember) at ALPHA Prot at which the auto-thrust would not allow you to go any slower.

In Direct Law, no envelope protection.. no bank angle or pitch limits so I guess you could roll it.

Tex Johnson is the famous 707 pilot who rolled the 707 over the Seattle Regatta in July 1955. You can see a video of the roll at
http://www.avpics.de/mov/civ/civ.htm

WAY back when.. I had a KC-135 in about 100deg of bank in Thailand during the Linebacker sorties but that was a LONG time ago when I was still bullet-proof. When the nose started falling through, I knew the roll was going to become a VERY high speed dive recovery.. if it was recoverable at all. I rolled out...

OldFellah

The largest aircraft I know of to be spun and sucessfully recovered was a RAAF C130A (A97-207) which was unintentionally spun during a stall demonstration during a training flight. The aircraft was, fortunately, high enough for a recovery to be achieved. The aircraft was damaged structurally but was returned to service after repairs. The incident resulted in a modification to the stall practice procedure in that a minimum of 1000 "/lbs of torque was to be set on all engines prior to the stall, so as to preculde any NTS (Negative Torque System) action during the procedure.