![]() ![]() The first zero gravity flight for paying passengers in France took place in March 2015 on an Airbus A330 and cost €6000 ($A9705). In Europe, the European Space Agency and France's Centre National d'Etudes Spatiales have operated reduced-gravity flight missions on different aircraft since 1984 (including on a NASA aircraft, an Airbus 300 and Airbus 310) from Bordeaux-Mérignac airport in France and Dübendorf Air Base in Switzerland. Since then, NASA has operated zero gravity flights on different aircraft, including one of its last zero gravity aircraft - KC-135A - for many years from around 1959, when it began its Reduced Gravity Research Programme to train astronauts. They proposed that the flights could be used in experiments to simulate weightlessness. The first zero gravity flights were proposed in 1949 by German physicist Heinz Haber and his brother Fritz Haber, a German aerospace engineer - both of whom had been brought to work for the US government as part of the Cold War-driven Operation Paperclip after the Second World War. See also: USA space camp: Beam me up, Scotty How long have zero gravity flights been around? After these few seconds, the nose of the plane is tilted back downward 45 degrees to complete the third and final stage, before it levels off to a normal altitude. See also: Boeing reveal: What plane cabins will look like in the future Zero gravity flight trajectoryĪt this point, the nose of the plane is lowered to a level position during which passengers experience a sense of weightlessness for the next 20-30 seconds. ![]() The first part of the trajectory sees the plane - which is specially customised, and boasts a padded interior to avoid injury - reach an altitude of 24,000 feet (7315 metres), at which point the nose of the plane is lifted upward to an angle of about 45 degrees until the plane reaches around 32,000 feet (9754 metres). Photo: Facebook: OK GoĪ zero gravity flight follows a parabolic flight path, which involves three stages. OK Go's Upside Down Inside Out was filmed in zero gravity. Passengers on a zero gravity flight (and astronauts on a spacecraft) appear to be floating around inside the plane but they are in fact falling at the same rate as the aircraft. ![]() A body in a "zero gravity" (or "microgravity" - a state of near weightlessness) environment is acted upon only by gravity, with no reactionary forces exerted by its surrounding matter, the person therefore enters a state of freefall where all objects in that given space are falling at the same rate. Zero gravity is a condition of weightlessness referring to the absence of a gravitational force (g-force or Gs) - a measurement of the acceleration due to gravity that causes weight. But what does it mean to experience complete weightlessness and how is it possible? Here we unpack the history and mysteries of zero gravity flights. Photo: Ī spell of remarkably likeable characters involved in space travel - notably Major Tim Peake (Britain's first official astronaut) and Commander Chris Hadfield (the first Canadian astronaut to walk in space), has fed a growing appetite for all things space, including zero gravity aircraft. In the US, that took place in 2004, courtesy of the Zero Gravity Corporation. The first zero gravity flight for paying passengers in France took place in March 2015. ![]()
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