Editing 2353: Hurricane Hunters

The comic strip opens with [[Black Hat]] explaining to [[Cueball]] (who is presumed to be some government official) that flying into hurricanes, while risky, provides valuable scientific data. Although the {{w|Eye (cyclone)|eye}} itself is relatively calm, it is surrounded by the '''eyewall''', a region of extremely intense thunderstorms.  Thus, the danger of flying through such storms must be carefully weighed against the scientific knowledge being gained.  In the real world, such missions are conducted by highly-trained pilots with specialized aircraft, such as the {{w|NOAA Hurricane Hunters}} and the US Air Force's {{w|53rd Weather Reconnaissance Squadron}} (also nicknamed "Hurricane Hunters").

However, Cueball's comment in the third panel shows that Black Hat is not discussing the activity of hurricane hunting in general, but rather is attempting to justify his decision to fly a passenger jet through the eye of a hurricane.  Passenger airliners are not meant to fly into hurricanes, and can easily crash there, although it [https://simpleflying.com/how-airlines-deal-with-hurricanes/ ''is'' possible] to go through one without significant damage.  It's not clear if Black Hat is (somehow) a jet pilot himself, has come into ownership of an airline and was merely directing a flight, or, probably [[72|most likely]], simply hijacked the flight he happened to be on, but the commercial jet passengers were not expecting to "participate" in a hurricane hunting mission.  Black Hat replies that, instead of being upset, the passengers should be proud of their contributions to meteorology, but their contribution is probably negligible, as they were not actively collecting useful scientific data.

This comic is likely referencing both {{w|Hurricane Laura}}, which was active during the week prior to this comic strip's publication, and {{w|Microsoft_Flight_Simulator_(2020_video_game)|Microsoft Flight Simulator 2020}}, which players have been utilising the software's ability to simulate real-time weather to fly into and explore the (virtual) aforementioned hurricane. At the time the comic was released, the simulator only had passenger aircraft available to pilot, echoing Black Hat's flying of a commercial jet into a hurricane. A similar situation where historical/well-documented experimental techniques are used in inappropriate situations occurs in [[1594: Human Subjects]], albeit by test subjects rather than “researchers”, if Black Hat can be called that.

In the title text, Black Hat says that their flight gathered data on "whether a commercial airliner... can do a loop. This could imply that he did not, as he "gathered data" not "Demonstrated" (E.g. "I gathered data on ''whether'' a rocket could hit the sun"). Alternatively, this could imply that he did do it, and that his gathering data was attempting it (E.g. "I gathered data on whether I could jump 50cm").

 

 

Loops are a lot more problematic because of the speeds reached when ending the maneuver, and the speed needed to begin it. But like the barrel roll, a loop ''can'' be flown while only experiencing mild and positive g loads. In fact, {{w|Harold E. Thompson}} flew several loopings in a {{w|Sikorsky S-52}}, a helicopter first flown in 1947. Prolonged inverted flights, though, cause negative g forces, an altered air flow, and cause havoc with the fuel systems, parts of which are gravity-driven. Aircraft that can fly inverted for longer than a few seconds are specifically designed, for example aerobatic aircraft and fighter jets.

 

It is possible that this is his justification of why the flight contributed to meteorology. However, passenger airliners' abilities to do loops has nothing to do with that field of science. Moreover, the same data could be gathered by flying the same airliner without passengers, or with willing ones.