• PaupersSerenade
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    9 months ago

    What you’re seeing is the flap, used sometimes during lift-off, but most commonly to apply drag for a slower landing. It’s not ideal, but flap-less landings are done and trained for. This plane was delivered in 1994, and they’ve been slowly phasing them out.

    • FirstCircle@lemmy.ml
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      9 months ago

      It’s not a flap (back of the wing), it’s a slat (front of the wing), says so right in TFA.

      • PaupersSerenade
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        9 months ago

        Ah my bad, the linked article didn’t specify and I wrongly assumed the angle the pic was taken at.