A flight investigation of the trailing vortices generated by a jumbo jet transport
A flight investigation has been conducted to study the velocity and persistence characteristics of the trailing vortices generated by a jumbo jet transport. The investigation showed that the tangential velocities were initially higher for vortices generated with the flaps up and that they persisted for longer distances behind the aircraft than those generated with the flaps down. The core radii with flaps down appeared to be generally larger than those with flaps up. The vertical locations of the vortices behind the generating aircraft varied from several hundred meters below the generating aircraft flight path at long ranges up to, and occasionally above, the flight path at short and moderate ranges.