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Originally posted by Zaphod58
When you have air going up the tailpipe like that you are running the risk of a compressor stall. If that happens you can damage the engine. That's why when you're going to do an engine run, you always run with the nose pointed into the wind. With the exception of a VTOL you're talking a SEVERELY limited time going backwards. Probably somewhere in the order of a second or two max.
Originally posted by Darkpr0
I'm just thinking of the tactical advantages of being able to fly backwards for a short period of time, but longer than a couple seconds. I'm thinking somewhere in the 7-10 second range, so I believe that this is within the realm of momentum-maintained rearward flight (I only use the word "flight" because I can't immediately think of anything that works better ).
If an enemy plane were pursuing you at missile range and you were able to conduct the maneuver, you might be able to get a tone and launch the missile before having to revert. I imagine the reversion to normal flight would be otherwise identical to the maneuver used to put oneself in rearward flight, using momentum of course.
Originally posted by JIMC5499
You could always pull the maneuver that they show in "Top Gun". Dump the throttle, deploy speed brakes (if you have them) and even lower your landing gear. This should drop your forward airspeed and should cause your enemy to overshoot. Of course this leaves you hanging in the air with mimimal airspeed so you better make that missile shot count and pray he doesn't have a wingman. Otherwise you're toast.