Nothing more gorgeous than flight controls reflecting in the sun

If you know me, you know how much I love aerospace. I am an aerospace geek. I sometimes get excited about the most mundane things.

The attached image is from live video from the tail camera in the JAL A350-1000 that flew me from Tokyo to Dallas today. Look at the sun reflecting off the fuselage. The clouds below. It’s gorgeous.

I am an aircraft control systems engineer. I was part the Moog design team that developed the primary and secondary control system for this A350. Yes, I am so confident about our work, and the work of the Airbus team that created this incredible aircraft, that I would bet my life on it. Everyday, and twice on Sunday.

Back to the video…. I watch control surfaces (the front and back parts of the wings that move to steer the aircraft through the sky) out the window all the time, when I fly. I’ve been to countless iron birds (the labs where we test the actuators that move the bendy parts of the wings), but this is the first time in my life that I have ever watched two full wings worth of flight controls do their thing live while I’m at 37k feet. I guess this video was available on other aircraft, but I’ve never found it.

The pilot just extended the flaps to start the landing process-I feel the buffet. This is SO COOL! I could be watching any one of a hundred moves right now. This is so much more interesting.

I told you… I’m different. I’m an aerospace geek. Now if only we’ll have a low altitude landing abort and go around so I can see all the wing’s bendy parts work together.