Controversy still surrounds this video, shot several years ago. The location appears to be Tijuana in Mexico; [url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OkhtK7WntIo]Boeing 747 Does Amazing Loop! EPIC Barrel Roll[/url]   Here also; [url=https://www.bing.com/videos/riverview/relatedvideo?&q=747+barrel+roll&&mid=CD60E8DE235251343525CD60E8DE235251343525&&FORM=VRDGAR]Bing Videos[/url]  [url=https://www.fiero.nl/forum/Archives/Archive-000003/HTML/20160323-6-105026.html]Boeing 747 aileron roll landing approach video - Pennock's Fiero Forum[/url]  At least, some of it may have been shot for real in Mexico. Or real video footage may have been processed and combined with CGI. Having watched this several times I've come to the conclusion that it's probably a clever fake, intended to advertise the Burn energy drink.  Some people seem to think that a barrel roll in a Boeing 747 is impossible, but the experts say otherwise and having flown the Boeing 747 under the Golden Gate Bridge in Microsoft Flight Simulator I can tell you that it's actually quite manoeuvrable. Like millions of others, I've also flown as a passenger in the real thing. Sceptics have pointed out that the trailing edge flaps do not appear to be deployed in the video, as they normally would be for landing. So the aircraft would have to be flying faster than the normal landing approach speed. How much faster? 223 knots as opposed to the normal 150 knots or thereabouts according to the available information. 223 knots equals 256 mph. These figures apply at the maximum landing weight for the 747, which is up to 630,000 lbs depending on version. At lower weights the minimum flying speed without flap would also be slightly lower. The approach lights in the standardised SALS (Simple Approach Lighting System) used at Tijuana airport are supposed to be 60m apart. Looking at the height of the approach lights in relation to the height of the vehicle, we can guess a figure of about 7 meters for the lights and this can be related to the wingspan of the aircraft, 58 meters to estimate the distance covered in a given time. So can we estimate the speed of the aircraft from the video? 256 mph = 114.44 meters per second. The Boeing 747 appears to be 400 to 500 meters away when it enters the roll and it passes over the camera position about four seconds later. Would the aircraft inevitably lose altitude and crash? Not necessarily, in theory it will lose altitude in a 90 degree bank but it can actually climb while inverted, provided the trailing edge flaps are NOT deployed and also assuming that it has sufficient airspeed going into the barrel roll to accommodate the loss of speed that results from this drag-inducing manoeuvre, so that it still has flying speed when it completes the roll.  To begin the roll manoeuvre, the pilot would apply full aileron to port. In the video the ailerons (on the wings outside of the outboard engines) are clearly in the right position. According to some sources the elevators and rudder would also be used, but no deflection of the tail control surfaces is visible. The aircraft appears to come very close to crashing. Look how near the port wingtip gets to the ground; no more than 7-8 feet. Is it possible to land the Boeing 747 without using the flaps? It can be done as an emergency procedure although few airlines train their crews for this eventuality because it is rarely necessary in practice, the flaps are generally reliable. And also because a new set of tyres would be needed afterwards. However, this video shows a Boeing 747 landing without the inner trailing edge flaps deployed; [url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RHr_m7krrcw]Delta 747 EMERGENCY LANDING (Hydraulic issue), DTW.[/url]   At the end of the barrel roll clip the aircraft seems to be taking an unusually nose high attitude immediately before touchdown, this would be consistent with a no-flap landing. The speed of the aircraft in the two clips appears similar. Is the Boeing 747 strong enough structurally to survive a barrel roll manoeuvre? Apparently it is; [url=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/China_Airlines_Flight_006#Aftermath]China Airlines Flight 006 - Wikipedia[/url]  The "Russian Dashcams" title visible in the video is one thing that tends to make you suspicious but if the video was fake and intended as propaganda, why would the makers have included it? Or are they just cleverer than we are? In any case it doesn't feature in the Bing video. On their vehicle the dancing girls have the logo of Burn, an energy drink popular in Mexico and elsewhere. [url=https://super.walmart.com.mx/ip/bebida-energetica-burn-blue-450-ml/00750105534730]Bebida energética Burn blue 450 ml | Walmart[/url] Tijuana is apparently one place where they take these aircraft to be scrapped (see for example the Wikipedia article linked above). And if this was the Boeing's final flight the crew wouldn't have needed to worry too much about the tyres, assuming there was a flight crew rather than just a solo pilot aboard. Or the flight recorder (the black box). If challenged by the aviation authorities, the pilot/crew might have used the excuse that the roll was necessary to reduce speed.   Maps of the airport and surrounding area show a main road crossing the end of the runway, with some empty ground on the other side; [url=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tijuana_International_Airport]Tijuana International Airport - Wikipedia[/url]   The aircraft in the video is probably a Boeing 747-200, a type which was operated by Virgin Atlantic from the 1980s onwards; [url=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virgin_Atlantic]Virgin Atlantic - Wikipedia[/url] [url=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virgin_Atlantic#/media/File:Virgin_Atlantic_G-VIRG_by_Steve_Fitzgerald.jpg]Virgin Atlantic G-VIRG by Steve Fitzgerald - Virgin Atlantic - Wikipedia[/url]  The 747-200s were built between 1971 and 1991, all have now been withdrawn from service except for five freight versions. Iran Air was the last operator to use them in passenger service. If we were to assume that the video is NOT a fake, how might we understand this apparent piece of craziness on the part of the pilot of a Boeing 747? In the end, there is no good explanation. The original intention could have been to land the aircraft without using the flaps, there might have been an issue with the hydraulics, and the roll manoeuvre might have been practiced at higher altitude on previous flights. In the end the aerobatics may be of less interest to us from a model photography perspective than the dance routine. These girls, whether real or AI-generated have some great moves that could be replicated in a photo shoot. In 2022 Tijuana ranked second in Statista's list of the world's most dangerous cities in terms of murder rate, but has since fallen to number six; [url=https://www.statista.com/statistics/243797/ranking-of-the-most-dangerous-cities-in-the-world-by-murder-rate-per-capita/]Most dangerous cities in the world 2024| Statista[/url]   The UK Foreign Office has some advice regarding Tijuana; don't go there, unless you really have to. Video here of Tijuana's Zona Norte; [url]https://youtu.be/0YBZG6UYg2E[/url]   While it might be dangerous territory in some ways, Model Mayhem does have profiles of numerous attractive female models in Mexico. Back to the video; The sound balance in the video is perhaps suspicious, you would think that the noise from the aircraft would totally drown out the sound from the girls and the music. So this must have been edited. Also suspicious is the existence of another video which is known to be a fake; [url=https://www.youtube.com/shorts/7IrkqAkANyM]Fake Flugzeug video. Fassrolle Passagierflugzeug.[/url]   Is it technically possible that the whole video was done using CGI? Or is it more likely to be a composite of real and CGI video? The dance routine looks really well timed, the moves are very fast and precise. Real dancers, probably professional strippers or pole dancers you would think, given that they are quite numerous in Tijuana. But why would they choose to rehearse it on a patch of waste ground directly under the landing approach to Tijuana international airport? The video definition doesn't approach modern standards, it looks more like VHS-C. But when you see the camera in the wing mirror, it looks like a digital bridge camera. It might be a cheap Chinese camera, or an old one, you wouldn't necessarily expect a Mexican photographer to have the latest professional stuff. So how exactly was this video put together? I'm thinking that they probably shot the dance routine at Tijuana airport with aircraft passing overhead, they may have captured an emergency landing by a Virgin Atlantic Boeing 747, and then the barrel roll was added using CGI. If there's a giveaway it may be that the Boeing's tail control surfaces, the rudder and elevators do not appear to move during the roll.