[EggsAckley]

I'm not sure I understand what a "zoom climb" implies. Can you enlighten me? I think I was on a plane once in the USSR that did that. Not sure. Thanks.

[Fabozz]

"I'm not sure I understand what a 'zoom climb' implies."

According to the NTSB, once the center fuel tank exploded on TWA800 and blew off a wing, the remaining parts of the plane, shed of all that unnecessary weight, zoomed up into the sky. Presumably if both wings had blown off the fuselage would have actually reached orbit.

[Clive]

Capt. Lahr is questioning CIA and TSB simulations in which TWA Flight 800 is purported to have lost its whole nose section then climbed 3000 feet.

[kylaka]

The gubment claims TWA 800 climbed some 2800 feet AFTER the nose separated from the rest of the aircraft. That possibility is something akin to pigs flying, but they continue to make that assertion with a straight face.

[jlogajan]

The center of gravity (center of mass) of the entire airframe is vital in aircraft control. That's because there is also something know as the center of lift. The center of lift can be moved a bit back and forth by the position of the control surfaces. It has a limited range o movement -- sufficent for normal flight. Normally for level flight, the center of lift is positioned on top of the center of gravity.

When the center tank exploded, the front section of the airplane detached. That altered the center of gravity backward on the remaining winged section of the aircraft. Now the COG was behind the COL -- so it would naturally nose up and begin climbing. There would be some climb just from momentum as the aircraft traded altitude for speed. If the engines were still under power, then they'd help add altitude as well as their thrust vectored upward along with general climb angle of the rest of the craft.

Eventually this climb would stall out. The craft would then begin to fall -- the exact behavior at the point of stall is hard to predict -- depending upon which wing stalled first, etc. But it would probably lead to several violent twists and turns with the aircraft beginning to break up from the various flutters and motions, etc.