Stunning maneuver makes Airbus A330 seem like it’s hovering on brink of stalling

  • This Airbus A330 was filmed performing a unique maneuver
  • It’s called High Alpha Pass, and it’s usually performed by much smaller aircraft
  • The maneuver was filmed at the Farnborough Airshow

Published on Aug 22, 2024 at 6:55 PM (UTC+4)
by Alessandro Renesis

Last updated on Aug 23, 2024 at 3:16 PM (UTC+4)
Edited by Kate Bain

The pilot of this Cathay Pacific Airbus A330 performed a unique maneuver known as a High Alpha Pass.

It takes talent, and a good amount of courage, but the result is outstanding.

It almost looks like the plane is ‘hovering’ above the ground.

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Wide-body planes can do it too

This maneuver isn’t particularly easy, it is usually performed by fighter jets like the one in the image above.

But, as we can see from the clip filmed at the 1994 Farnborough Airshow and uploaded to YouTube by canalcaholic, wide-body airplanes such as the Airbus A330 can do it too.

A High Alpha Pass is maneuver where the aircraft flies at a high angle of attack and, on this occasion, it was even tougher due to the strong headwind the plane was facing.

This is the sort of maneuver pilots would get kudos for when they do it with an agile, lightweight plane, so just imagine how good you must be to do that with an Airbus A330.

Airbus A330 can do everything, apparently

The Airbus A330 comes in various models and sizes, but – generally speaking – they’re all quite large.

On average, the Airbus A330 is a 60-meter, 240-ton beast and yet it is surprisingly agile.

When the pilot knows what he’s doing, the Airbus A330 can land so smoothly it almost feels like it didn’t touch the ground at all.

We should also point out that this is a wide-body plane that’s capable of accommodating up to 300 or even 400 passengers in certain configurations.

But, at the same time, the A330 is one of those aircraft that Airbus will happily build as a private jet for its wealthy customers.

It looks like there’s nothing the plane cannot do.


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Alessandro Renesis

Experienced content creator with a strong focus on cars and watches. Alessandro penned the first-ever post on the Supercar Blondie website and covers cars, watches, yachts, real estate and crypto. Former DriveTribe writer, fixed gear bike owner, obsessed with ducks for some reason.