How Small Airplanes Can Actually Fly Backwards

It sounds impossible, but it's true: under the right conditions, a small airplane can fly backwards. This counterintuitive phenomenon occurs when an aircraft faces headwinds stronger than its own airspeed, causing it to move backward relative to the ground while still flying forward through the air.

The classic example is the legendary Piper J-3 Cub, a light aircraft with a cruise speed of only 65-75 mph and a stall speed around 38 mph. When flying into headwinds exceeding these speeds—say, 50-60 mph gusts—the Cub maintains normal flight through the surrounding air mass, but the ground observer sees it creeping backward across the landscape.

Airspeed vs. Ground Speed

Understanding this requires distinguishing between two critical measurements:

• Airspeed: The aircraft's speed relative to the air surrounding it (what generates lift and keeps the plane aloft)
• Ground speed: The aircraft's speed relative to the ground below

A Piper Cub flying at 48 mph airspeed into a 50 mph headwind has a ground speed of negative 2 mph. The wings don't care—they're experiencing 48 mph of airflow, providing plenty of lift. But from the ground, the plane appears to slowly drift backward.

When This Actually Happens

Pilots have reported this surreal experience in various scenarios. Banner tow pilots flying along windy coastlines sometimes find themselves hovering in place or creeping backward. Bush pilots in Alaska encountering mountain winds have documented the same effect. RC aircraft enthusiasts regularly see their lightweight gliders flying backward on blustery days.

One pilot recounted wrestling a Cub in 40-knot winds, maintaining 40 knots of airspeed just to hover stationary over a single point on the ground. Any reduction in power, and the aircraft would begin its backward journey.

Why Light Aircraft?

This phenomenon requires an aircraft with a very low stall speed—the minimum speed needed to maintain lift. Modern commercial jets stall around 120-180 mph, so they'd never encounter natural winds strong enough to push them backward (thankfully). But ultralights, Cubs, and other slow-flying aircraft regularly operate in the 35-60 mph range where this becomes possible.

The backward-flying plane isn't broken or malfunctioning—it's simply encountering an edge case of physics where wind speed exceeds aircraft performance. The pilot maintains full control, the wings generate normal lift, and from inside the cockpit, everything feels completely ordinary. It's only the ground-based observer who witnesses the bizarre spectacle of an airplane defying common sense.