Can large aircraft hover?

Tommy Durrenberger: You likely saw helicopter training going on. The Coast Guard Academy is about 45 flight miles from Enfield, CT.

Jannie Ariola: No fixed-wing airplane is capable of hovering. The most likely explanation is that you received a mistaken impression of the airplanes' movement as a result of the darkness, visibility conditions, and angle of view. It can often appear to people on the ground that airplanes are moving very slowly or holding still when they are actually moving quite fast. It depends on the direction of motion relative to your position, and the angle above the horizon at which the aircraft appear.These must have been military aircraft, as civil aircraft would be very unlikely to be flying in formation, particularly at night.The other possibility is that they actually were helicopters, and actually did hover. As you did not describe the sound they made in detail, it is difficult to guess....Show more

Lilli Kochel: I in simple term! s observed it besides. in simple terms 30 minutes in the past. This appeared something like a C-one hundred thirty transport. It became no longer an phantasm. My husband became driving and that i became tripping out because of the fact this airplane became coming down fairly low and turning lower back in the direction of previous Perrin Airfield (now Texoma Airport). After it grew to become and leveled out it stopped mid air and hovered in simple terms over the residences to my precise, in simple terms fairly above the tree tops. My husband pronounced it became handing over and lining up with the airstrip. yet as low because it became a typical airplane could on no account have made it that a techniques. My husband became guffawing at me because of the fact i became trippin', pronounced that a C-one hundred thirty can fly surprisingly slowly, yet this airplane became no longer moving. It became actually in simple terms putting there and there became NO rumbling of engines. ! It became fully SILENT. NO this became no longer an phantasm..! ..Show more

Noah Deni: If the headwind were strong enough it could produce the necessary lift with a ground speed of 0, but we're talking beyond hurricane force winds.

Arnulfo Seegars: Actually, it is possible...I personally have seen a 777 hover about 10 feet off the ground...it then made an almost normal landing. I've also found videos of other large jets at a near standstill (and not stall, either!). I pasted a link that should clear up any confusion about this topic.

Gregory Dilg: Possibly the Bell Osprey, a helicopter that flies like a plane.The last I heard no fixed wing aircraft can hover.