Watch This Massive An-124 Tackle An Extreme Crosswind Landing Like A Boss

We may earn a commission from links on this page.

Ukrainian An-124 Condors are gigantic flying machines. Roughly analogous to America’s C-5 Galaxy, the Condor can weigh nearly 900,000 pounds when fully loaded, but that doesn’t mean they are immune to mother nature. This example, operated by Antonov Airlines, can be seen fighting a strong crosswind during landing with an extreme crab.

Big jets with large side-sail areas can really get pushed around by the wind. The Boeing designers that gave birth to the B-52 came up with unique and at the time highly secretive solution to this problem. They made the B-52's gear swivel so that they could be aligned with the runway’s heading. This way, pilots would not have “kick out” the crab during crosswind landings via executing heavy rudder and cross-control inputs.

Advertisement

The rest of the world’s big jets, like the An-124 above, have to straighten up on landing the old fashion way or they risk putting huge lateral stress loads on their landing gear. It’s a totally common but extreme-looking maneuver that is more of an art form than a science.

Contact the author at [email protected].