"UA175 Aircraft" Speed Analysis
For the purpose of this speed analysis I have assumed that the
UA175 aircraft was travelling at a height of approximately 1000 feet
at the time of impact and that the air temperature was approximately
20 degrees Celsius at that altitude. Under these environmental conditions
the speed of sound (Mach 1.0) would occur approximately at 767 mph or 666 knots.
Here is a list of UA175 speeds issued from official bodies that were presumably
calculated using video footage of the WTC2 strike:
Massachusetts Institute of Technology - 503 mph / 436 knots / M0.653
British Royal Air Force - 575 mph / 500 knots / M0.750
Federal Aviation Administration - 586 mph / 510 knots / M0.765
National Institute of Standards and Technology - 546 mph / 475 knots / M0.714
Federal Emergency Management Agency - 590 mph / 514 knots / M0.771
As you can see there is a difference in speeds from one UA175 video to another,
which does not make sense because the UA175 aircraft could have only been
travelling at one speed prior to its collision with WTC2.
Not entirely happy with these official speed figures from MIT, RAF, FAA, NIST and
FEMA I decided to calculate the approximate speed of the UA175 aircraft myself
using 3 different video sources in an attempt to clear up the speed inconsistencies
demonstrated by the official calculations and hopefully to identify one universal speed.
To calculate the approximate speed of the UA175 aircraft from any given
video I simply cloned together two images of the UA175 aircraft at a
known time interval from the same video footage and then measured
the distance travelled between the two UA175 aircraft clones using
the WTC2 towers east wall as a horizontal reference for measuring distances.
With the time frame known and the distance travelled calculated
it is possible to obtain a reasonably accurate speed for the
UA175 aircraft for each different video.
For my analysis I used the Park Foreman video (below),
the Evan Fairbanks video and the "Unknown" video.
All media used for my calculations came directly from good
quality NTSC DVD sources. The results were as follows:
Park Foreman Video - 540 mph / 470 knots / M0.705
Evan Fairbanks Video - 565 mph / 490 knots / M0.735
"Unknown Video" - 492 mph / 428 knots / M0.642
As with the official calculations there is quite a variation in speeds
obtained from one video source to another according to my analysis,
but we can comfortably group together the RAF, FEMA, FAA,
Park Foreman Video and the Evan Fairbanks video figures to
produce a speed range between 560 mph and 590 mph.
The variation in speed from the differing video sources could
easily be due to small errors in the calculations by each respective
party and as the calculated speeds in this group are quite close,
this could be one possible explanation.
However, the calculation performed by Eduardo Kausel (below) at MIT and my
own calculation using the Unknown Video are well outside this 560
mph to 590 mph speed bracket, yet Kausel claims to have used
various publicly available video recordings and states that the
velocities for the two WTC planes were in excellent agreement
with the flight data based on RADAR information provided by the NTSC.
How can MIT's Eduardo Kausel be producing a UA175 speed that are at
such odds with FEMA, RAF, FAA, NIST and my own set of calculations?
Moreover Eduardo Kausel draws our attention to another important point...
"...the above data indicates that the terrorists flew towards the WTC close
to the ground at nearly the full cruising speed of the planes,
which is about 900 km/h (560 mph) at a normal altitude of 10km
(33,000 feet). It is surprising that the inexperienced pilots
that the terrorist were could still steer the planes at those
speeds and hit their target head on. Also, considering that
the air at low altitudes is much denser than that at normal cruising height,
the pilots greatly exceeded Vne ("Velocity Never Exceed")
and thereby risked disintegration of the aircraft by air friction."
I spoke to a former Boeing 767-200 Captain about the aerodynamic
limitations of the Boeing 767-200 aircraft and he stated that it
would be unwise to exceed an indicated airspeed of 400 knots
(460 mph at sea level) at any altitude.
As mentioned before, the airspeed of 400 knots at sea level is well outside the maximum
operating speed of the Boeing 767-200 and therefore the pilots
would run the risk of either total structural failure or localised
structural failures, namely wing fairings breaking off,
engine cowlings breaking off, control surfaces breaking off or
becoming inoperative and handling difficulties. None of these
structural failures and handling issues would be of any benefit
to the crew, so why did the alleged hijackers chose to operate
their usurped aircraft at such a dangerously high airspeed
such that it could have prematurely terminated their mission
through complete structural failure, or made it unnecessarily
difficult or even impossible to execute through partial structural
failure and aircraft handling difficulties?
The high speed approach to the WTC2 target as seen in the
visual records of the event would have created a vast flight
deck work load at a critical point in the mission,
while making navigation to the WTC complex unnecessarily
difficult for the hijackers who were not renowned for their
skills and experience operating large passenger aircraft
like the Boeing 767-200! When you consider the fact that
the Boeing 767-200's airframe would have smashed to pieces
on the towers façade during impact under any speed condition
you have to wonder what the alleged hijackers had to gain by
choosing this high speed approach and high speed collision.
I was also informed by the former Boeing 767-200 Captain that
there would NOT be any adverse effects on aircraft handling or
performance as a result of nearing or achieving transonic airspeeds.
The only conclusion that can be drawn from this UA175 airspeed
analysis is that the video recordings are all giving us different
speeds because the UA175 aircraft was actually travelling at a
different speed in each video!
The fact that all the videos apparently show a structurally
intact Boeing 767-200 in controlled flight prior to its
collision with WTC2 travelling at such a ridiculously high
airspeed is another indicator that whatever the UA175 aircraft was,
it was not a production model Boeing 767-200,
or it was simply something that has been added to the video
recording in post production either to conceal what the video
recording originally showed, or to add something to the
recording that should have been there, but was in fact
absent from the original recording.
We should consider the possibility that there is more than
one person or group responsible for the forgery and / or
manipulation of any given UA175 strike video and that there
is seemingly a lack of accordance between these groups or
individuals which could account for the speed inconsistencies
demonstrated by the videographic record.
Next - Available Tower Distance, Glide Slope, Pitch, Roll And Yaw Approximations