Jason Foster
Personally, I'd like to sail through a hurricane in the open ocean before I'd fly near a tornado. But that's just me, and likely a whole other thread to start (maybe I will when I have the time).
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Flying near a tornado
- Thread starter Scott Nelson
- Start date
Skip Talbot
EF5
Turbulence, and small scale wind shear affect small objects more than larger ones. A good example of this is the wake turbulence left by large aircraft. Small aircraft have to be mindful of a larger aircraft that takes off or lands before them or they can lose control and crash when they hit the wake left by the larger aircraft. The same is true near a thunderstorm. A larger aircraft is going to be knocked around less. Also, fighters are engineered to handle more G's and are constructed with stronger materials like titanium so they can take considerably stronger stresses.
Of course its also true that large and small aircraft are both going to be influenced by the overall wind fields the same way. A headwind will slow down a larger aircraft just as much as it will a smaller aircraft. The difference being a larger aircraft usually has more thrust to overcome this, and larger control surfaces to better handle crosswinds
