Perfect landings?

[Richard]

Are there any make or models which by design need to be landed perfectly every time? That is, there is zero margin for a landing which is less than a perfect by-the-numbers landing. The space shuttle doesn't count.


Trap landings on a pitching deck, as example, should be made as perfect as possible but that is not what I mean. Does the design of the airplane leave so little margin for error that anything less will probably damage the a/c, that is what I'm talking about.

 

[Iceman]

Any make and model landing at gastons?

 

[poadeleted3]

I hear the Spitfire was kinda tricky.

 

[Ken Ibold]

Among GA aircraft, the SR-22 has the narrowest range of landing AOA that I'm aware of. Too shallow and you bang the prop, too steep and you scrape the tail -- true of most singles, sure, but a particular bugaboo among the big-engine Cirri.

 

[fgcason]

Are there any make or models which by design need to be landed perfectly every time? That is, there is zero margin for a landing which is less than a perfect by-the-numbers landing. The space shuttle doesn't count.

Lunar Module (no second chances at all) and Apollo Command Module (Vreentry=25,000+mph) come pretty close. Screw up beyond very tight limits and you're not coming home or coming home as burnt confetti.

This one may not win but it's way up on the don't screw up list:
http://www.innovatortech.ca/mosquito_about.html

 

[sierra]

The space shuttle doesn't count.

Actually, from what my son told me about his time in the Sim at NASA, once you've got that glider back into the atmosphere safely, one can have a truly crappy landing. He did. But then, knowing him, he was being a smartass and they threw multiple failures at him just to see what he'd do. They lived. The shuttle didn't break up on the rwy. but had it been real, it may not have flown again. He's going back this summer to try it again (-:

Incidentally, after his return from Space Academy, only once did he feel the need to tell me that my landing was less than perfect (and in that one instance, my buddies at the airport radioed over to offer to throw me a line, if only i'd had the hook attached).

 

[Henning]

U-2, Tr-2

That was my pick along with the Canberra, B-56 I think.

 

[Richard]

What made it so difficult to land the U2 or the -57?

 

[Henning]

What made it so difficult to land the U2 or the -57?

Not particularly difficult, just touchy, the wingspan, you smack em down hard and they sustain damage. IIRC, as well, the U2 has a 10kt window of operating speed.