An Investigation of Landing-Contact Conditions for Two Large Turbojet Transports and a Turboprop Transport During Routine Daylight Operations

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration has recently completed a statistical investigation of landing-contact conditions for two large turbojet transports and a turboprop transport landing on a dry runway during routine daylight operations at the Los Angeles International Airport. Measurements were made to obtain vertical velocity, airspeed, rolling velocity, bank angle, and distance from the runway threshold, just prior to ground contact. The vertical velocities at touchdown for one of the turbojet airplanes measured in this investigation were essentially the same as those measured on the same type of airplane during a similar investigation (see NASA Technical Note D-527) conducted approximately 8 months earlier. Thus, it appeared that 8 months of additional pilot experience has had no noticeable tendency toward lowering the vertical velocities of this transport. Distributions of vertical velocities for the turbojet transports covered in this investigation were similar and considerably higher than'those for the turboprop transport. The data for the turboprop transport were in good agreement with the data for the piston-engine transports (see NACA Report 1214 and NASA Technical Note D-147) for all the measured parameters. For the turbojet transports, 1 landing in 100 would be expected to equal or exceed a vertical velocity of approximately 4.2 ft/sec; whereas, for the turboprop transport, 1 landing in 100 would be expected to equal or exceed 3.2 ft/sec. The mean airspeeds at touchdown for the three transports ranged from 22.5 percent to 26.6 percent above the stalling speed. Rolling velocities for the turbojet transports were considerably higher than those for the turboprop transport. Distributions of bank angles at contact for the three transports were similar. For each type of airplane, 1 landing in 100 would be expected to equal or exceed a bank angle at touchdown of approximately 3.0 deg. Distributions of touchdown distances for the three transports were also quite similar. Touchdown distances from the threshold for 1 landing in 100 ranged from 2,500 feet for the turboprop transport to 2,800 feet for one of the turbojet transports.