Forgive my ignorance, is the trajectory impossible as aldo asserts there?
I quickly calculated the descent to be about 75' s^-1 at about 530 mph??
The answer is "no." But... what a remarkable thread they have over there.
The graphic in question is originally one that I made last month, showing the geometry of the problem to scale. They've drawn a crude line over the figure and shown that the top of the VHP radio tower, the light pole, and the impact site cannot be fit to a straight line. In other words,
if you assume the aircraft maintains 1.0 g, the flight path is impossible. It would have either clipped the radio tower, missed the light pole, or fallen short of the Pentagon.
Of course, there is no reason at all to assume the aircraft maintains 1.0
g, i.e. neither pulls up nor down. And that's what makes this so remarkable.
In order to produce that graphic, Mr. Marquis had to
erase the lower half of it. That part of the graphic overlaid a plausible flight path, one where the aircraft pulls up at a steady 4.0
g, which is harsh but within the capability of the aircraft. That flight path clears the radio tower by several hundred feet, hits the light pole smack in the middle, and strikes the Pentagon with feet to spare. In other words, it proves not only is the flight path possible, but that it's so easy that not even any reasonable variation of the flight path is impossible.
In short, Mr. Marquis
had in his hands and
deliberately erased a figure that proves he doesn't know what the heck he's talking about.
I have no idea why they've suddenly begun insisting the flight path was a straight line in the last few seconds. I originally made that figure in response to their earlier claims which included pull-up maneuvers in the last few seconds, so surely they've thought of it before. In the previous claim, they accepted pull-ups but could not do the math properly, and incorrectly stated that in excess of 11
g would be needed. In reality, a downright comfortable 1.62
g is enough to meet the requirements, and 4.0
g is the worst conceivable case.
Original graphic and derivation is
here. I created that for them about a month ago, did all the math, and even produced graphics for them. And yet they
still find a way to screw it up.
After so many and such severe mistakes, I can no longer even guess whether they're doing it on purpose, or they are actually that stupid. I doubt anyone can.