"I only have one question -- When are you gonna paint a Red Bull on the side of that thing...."
Red Bull aerobatic helicopter pilot Chuck Aaron to Sikorsky X2 test pilot Kevin Bredenbeck during an X2 update at the Heli-Expo show in Anaheim, California this week.
Sikorsky chief test pilot Kevin Bredenbeck says the he'll have the X2 advanced technology demonstrator flying at speeds of 250kt or more by the third or fourth quarter this year.
That's a huge leap from where the aircraft has been so far - three test flights that saw forward speeds less than 40kt and a total accumulated flight time of 2.2 hours - but a jump Sikorsky believes is possible based on the data the gathered during those flights with Bredenbeck behind compound's side-stick controller.
Bredenbeck showed the video below, detailing some of the features and subsystems of the X2, at the Heli Expo show in Anaheim, California this week...
A video of actual flight tests Sikorsky played at show revealed that the helicopter was a bit squirrely in pitch. But Bredenbeck says the wobbling was an expected part of the development of the control system - Engineers needed to gather data on the raw fly-by-wire performance with pilot-in-the-loop in order to tune the aircraft's flight control laws before stability augmentation system (SAS) is incorporated, ensuring a flyable aircraft if SAS fails.
The picture below shows Bredenbeck watching himself flying the X2 on the big screen at Heli Expo.
Sikorsky plans to fly the helicopter again in the March timeframe from its Elmira, New York location after installing the main rotor fairings (which can be seen in the video as compared to the picture from the flight test), stability augmentation system, propulsor software and other elements.
By May, Bredenbeck hopes to be flying the X2 at Sikorsky's West Palm Beach, Florida facility where phases 2-4, the high speed portions of the test program, will take place.
The photo below, also snapped by me from a Sikorsky video at the show, reveals one possible civilian application for the X2.
Frank Carson, president of Pennsylvania-based Carson Helicopters (and self-proclaimed avid reader of Flight International) says he has sold 60 sets of his company's performance boosting composite main rotor blades for the Sikorsky S-61 helicopter since receiving an STC for the modification in 2004.
Carson spoke with me today at the Heli Expo 2009 show in Anaheim. Ignore the publication in his lap in the picture I took. Do notice however the new Sagem glass cockpit in the company S-61...
Carson says the $1.25 million upgrade, which includes five rotor blades produced by Ducommun, increases the medium-heavy twin's lift capacity by 2,000lb, its speed by 15kt and its service life to 20,000h from 10,000h for the heritage metal blades.
Buyers so far include the UK Royal Navy, which is using the blades on its Sea Kings in
Along with the main blade STC,
Taken together as a package,
Don't take my word for it, but Eurocopter has quite publicly thrown down the technology gauntlet in the helicopter world, an aerospace sector where it dominates with 51% market share, though one where it rarely trumpets the details of its advanced R&D.
Speaking to reporters at the Heli-Expo show in Anaheim, California, yesterday morning, Eurocopter president and CEO Lutz Bertling confirmed that the EADS subsidiary has again boosted its R&D budget by double digits this year, and results of that investment are slowly being unveiled (though in some cases, not slow enough, apparently....)
The video below is a segment of Lutz's talk, and in case you can't quite hear it, his main points are:
Bertling didn't mention anything about the company's new "X3" high speed demonstrator project, a program Rolls-Royce happened to mention it is press briefing later in the day. Eurocopter press aids denied the existence of the program when asked what Rolls was talking about.
With all the attention on pneumatic de-icing boots from the Colgan 3407 Q400 disaster in Buffalo last week, I was curious to see if any new technologies have been put to use to crack ice off the leading edge of lifting surfaces.
One very promising advance is a low-power "electro-mechanical expulsion deicing system" (EMEDS) built by Cox & Company and already in use on two Hawker Beechcraft models, the Premier 1A and the Hawker 4000, for the horizontal stabilizer. Boeing is also using the technology for the raked wing extensions of its P-8A Multi-Mission Maritime Aircraft, a variant of next generation 737.
Unlike a pneumatic system, which inflates rubber bladders on the leading edge of wings and tail surfaces....
...the EMEDS uses an aluminum or stainless steel leading edge with the guts of the deicing system behind the leading edge, protected from the elements. Actuators, driven by electro-magnetic forces, move at high frequencies, changing the shape of the leading edge such that ice thicker than 0.06in breaks off.
Benefits of having a metal leading edge include less drag and longer life compared to the rubber boots which wear away from abrasion.
Perhaps more beneficial is that EMEDS is immune to ice bridging, a phenomena where pneumatic boots, if activated too early in ice formation stage, can potentially form a "bridge" over the leading edge which cannot be removed by the boots on subsequent cycles.
The video below, provided by Cox, shows how EMEDS works on the horizontal tail of a typical business jet. Note how the de-icing action takes place in sections, with the entire process repeating every 20 seconds.
Though jet powered aircraft use bleed air from the jet engines through piccolo ducts to pump hot air out onto the leading edge to melt ice before it forms (so-called anti-ice), some locations on the airframe are too difficult to reach with the hot air, and sometimes there simply isn't enough hot air left after servicing the main wing and the cabin.
Cox says it is in talks with multiple manufacturers about using the technology on a variety of new aircraft, and not just for the tail.
We've seen what Japanese inventor Yusuke Takahashi can do with flapping wing birds the size of a hawk, but check out what he's done with a micro air vehicle in the hummingbird-class (60mm wingspan) micro air vehicle (MAV). Takahashi-san, we are humbled...
If any readers have information about Takahashi's ornithopter works in Osaka, please do tell.
A Cessna 550 (Citation II) arriving in
It actually was en-route to
Weather in Wilmington was about as minimal as minimal gets for instrument flying - light winds, ½ mi visibility (the minimum required visibility to try the approach) with a temperature of 11 deg C and dew point of 10 deg C (less than 2 deg spread usually = FOG), a broken cloud layer 100ft above the ground and an overcast layer at 500ft. And oh by the way, pretty dark at 0200h.
After cruising to the northwest from the Dominican Republic at 26,000ft and 330kt, the ATP-rated pilot and commercial-rated first officer set up for an instrument approach to runway 24 in N815MA at KILM, the desired end of the Part 91 IFR flight.
A picture from FlightAware shows N815MA in better days.
At the 200ft (226ft msl) decision height - the pilots saw no runway, performed a missed approach and tried again.
Second time around... same thing.
Third time around... same thing.
Fourth time around - the #1 (left) Pratt & Whitney JT15D-4 turbofan engine shuts down. The pilots request vectors from air traffic control for yet another approach, adding that they're now low on fuel.
As they're being vectored for the runway, engine #2 quits.
Even "Sully" Sullenberger (Hudson A320 ditching) probably couldn't have pulled off what these two wily pilots did next (though Sully arguably wouldn't have been trying an instrument approach for the fourth time in the middle of the night out in the marshes of eastern
I'll let the NTSB take it from here:
"...and the pilots requested an immediate turn to the airport; they were able to locate the centre of the airport on their global positioning system (GPS) and 'aimed the airplane at the intersection of the runways.'
"Approximately 50 feet above ground level (agl), the pilots saw a row of lights, paralleled the lights, landed gear up on the departure end of runway 6, overran the runway, and impacted several light stands for runway 24, coming to rest 2,242 feet past the point of the initial touchdown."
Now for the Vegas part - All five passengers and the two (former?) pilots walked away.
The aircraft was lucky too receiving "skin damage" to its underside and "several puncture holes" in the pressure vessel.
An aviation safety inspector on a routine check of an air carrier crew recently discovered that what applies to the back of the airplane doesn't necessarily apply to the business end.
According to a US Federal Aviation Administration Safety Alerts for Operators (SAFO) released today, an air safety inspector reviewing an airline recently was riding along in the cockpit on takeoff when he experienced "an event that was categorized as a potentially serious hazard," the report reads.
Apparently during the takeoff phase, just prior to reaching V1 (the speed after which pilots generally are committed to taking off rather than aborting on the runway), a rather loud "warbling" sound was "detected" by both crewmembers.
"It was later determined that the sound came from the first officer's cellular phone, which had been left in the ON position," the SAFO continues.
As a result the ring tone caused a distraction between the crewmembers during the takeoff phase and could have led to crew to initiate an unnecessary rejected takeoff."
It gets better.
During what was likely a surly debriefing with the pilots, the crew revealed that their airline's general operations manual (GOM) didn't address procedures prohibiting the crew -- unlike the passengers -- from having their cell phones on while at their "duty stations", contrary to federal regulations and advisory circulars. And common sense?
"Advisory Circular 91-21, paragraph 7B states in part, 'A cell phone will not be authorized for use while the aircraft is being taxied for departure after leaving the gate. The unit will be turned off and properly stowed to prepare the aircraft for takeoff as per the operator's procedures,'" the FAA states.
To solve the problem, the FAA is recommending that the director of operations for airlines and air taxi operators "perform a review of their respective GOM to determine if appropriate procedures are in place to remind crewmembers to turn off their cellular phones in preparation for departure."
What's more the agency wants the jumpseat checklists to cover those riders turning off their cell phones while on the flight deck.
Here are the final transmissions between Colgan 3407 and Buffalo Approach air traffic controllers the night of 12 February 2009, moments before the Bombardier Q400 plunged to the ground from 2,300ft as pilots prepared to make an instrument approach to the Buffalo Niagara International Airport in snow and icing conditions. Audio segments have been edited down for the sake of briefness. Conversations with other arriving and departing aircraft regarding icing conditions along the approach corridor take place near the end of the recording.
Air traffic contol tapes that have surfaced regarding last night's fatal crash of a Colgan Air Bombardier Q400 (flying as a Continental Express) on approach to New York's Buffalo Niagara International Airport after a flight from Newark indicate that pilots were in the final stages of the approach and would have begun configuring the aircraft for landing, most likely lowering the landing gear and adding flaps.
The instrument approach chart for the instrument landing system (ILS) approach to Runway 23 at Buffalo is below, with expanded views and a transcipt (done by me) shown as well. Note that the airport elevation is 728ft and the normal ILS decision height is 1,060ft, or 332ft above ground level. Colgan 3407 appears to have been level at 2,300ft when some event precipitated the crash.
Here's an expanded top-down view of the approach, showing the location of the plane where communications with Buffalo Approach Control begin. Below that is a sideview showing Klump (which is marked by a bolded X), also known as the outer marker or final approach fix, and its relationship to the airport, 4.4nm away. At typical approach speeds of about 120kt, the aircraft would take about 3 minutes to fly from KLUMP to the airport.
Communications from the air traffic control recordings start when the aircraft would have been approximately at the location labeled "Radio Call 1" and flying at 2,300ft, the intercept altitude for the glideslope. The "outer marker" referred to in the recording is KLUMP, the location of a radio aid located 4.4nm from the runway end, a position where an aircraft has both left-right and vertical (glideslope) information on an ILS. Sections in ( ..) are my notes.
Buffalo Approach - Colgan thirty-four zero seven. Three miles from Klump (the final approach fix intersection). Turn left heading two-six-zero (260 degrees). Maintain two-thousand three hundred (2,300ft) until established localizer (left-right guidance for an instrument approach - Localizer is shown as a triangle with the vertex on the airport). Cleared ILS approach runway 23
Colgan 3407 - Left two-sixty" (260 deg), two-thousand three hundred (2,300ft) until established (on the localizer) and cleared ILS 23 approach. Colgan thirty-four zero seven.
13 seconds later:
Buffalo Approach - Colgan 3407 contact tower one two zero point five. (Buffalo air traffuc control tower frequency of 120.3 MHz). Have a good night.
Colgan 3407 - Thirty-four zero seven (shows that she acknowledged the call)
Below is roughly where the aircraft would have been at this time:
53 seconds later (Colgan 3407 should have been over KLUMP and reported in to tower):
Buffalo Approach - Colgan thirty-four oh seven. Approach?
Colgan 3407 - No answer
The air traffic controller tapes are available on Flight's website. Note the unanswered calls from Colgan 3407, and later, a request from Northwest 920 on departure to climb direct to 10,000ft in order to expedite passage through the icing. Controllers then request to officials notify state police and others to look for Colgan 3407 about 5 miles from the airport. The "marker" the controller refers to is KLUMP.
Icing, always a concern for commuter aircraft in winter weather, was reported on the approach (a Delta Airlines flight approaching the airport after Colgan 3407 reported picking up ice from 6,500ft down to 3,500ft during the approach. A departing aircraft also asked Buffalo controllers for a continuous climb to 10,000ft in order to quickly pass through the icing layer.
Investigators will invariably explore whether a configuration change or change in autopilot status may have caused an abrupt upset to the aircraft, an event that would have been picked up by the cockpit voice recorder and flight data recorder, assuming the devices survived the crash. Officials at the crash site reported very little lateral damage in the area, indicating a steep vertical descent.
I'll start by saying I've done many stupid things as pilot-in-command during 30 years of general aviation flying, some I can chalk up to inexperience or youth, some I can't.
So it is with an open mind (and heavy heart) that I read the US National Transportation Safety Board's preliminary report on an accident that occurred on a Sunday afternoon on a private plantation near Tallahassee.
According to a preliminary report issued by the NTSB yesterday, the pilot of a PA-18-150 Super Cub, N2424A, took off from the private Ayavalla Airstrip on 1 February and flew low over a jeep and dirt bike motorcycle that were driving along with the plane at the strip, a ritual the pilot and others had apparently performed "many times" in the past.
"He would then depart in the same direction and fly low over them," the investigator said of an interview with the incident pilot, Paul "Mac" Langston, as he described the game. Langston, a fixture in the southern Florida aviation community, started the state's first emergency medical services company in the 1980s and later began a successful fixed base operator and services company called Flightline.
On 1 February, something went terribly awry with the trick.
The jeep and the motorcycle headed west down the strip first. No briefing between the drivers and pilot had taken place. N2424A - an aircraft Langston's employees gave him on the 20th anniversary of Flightline, its tail number the same as that on Langston's father's Super Cub years ago - then departed.
Langston told authorities that at the time of the collision he was airborne and flying at 75mph with one passenger on board. He estimated the speed of the jeep to be 35-40mph. He said there were no pre-impact problems with the airplane or its flight controls.
"After becoming airborne he remained close to the runway and passed the right side of the jeep," investigators write. "He felt a bump and knew he had impacted the jeep. He also noted that the left wing navigation light was hanging down. He performed a 180-degree turn and landed uneventfully to the east.
FAA officials would later find damage to the leading edge of the Piper's left wing and buckling of the wing near its root. Pieces of wing fabric were also found in the jeep.
Regardless of how the FAA and NTSB investigations play out, Langston has already paid what I'd consider the ultimate price.
The jeep, which carried his wife, Carmen, and friend Dennis Boyle, crashed into trees after the wing hit. Both were killed.
The National Test Pilot School in Mojave, California, is in need of a DC-3 to replace the C-47 Turbo Dakota that it lost due to a takeoff accident on 4 February.
N834TP was destroyed after the two pilots, one instructor pilot from NTPS and one Korean Air Force student pilot, inadvertently took off with full right rudder trim set. NTPS officials say the Pratt & Whitney PT6-65AR-powered conversion began to yaw to the right after rotation, becoming airborne as it left the side of the runway. The aircraft the settled back to the ground then hit a sand berm.
The crash tore the left main gear from the 62-year-old aircraft as well as the left engine. It also buckled the fuselage. Also destroyed were the nose-mounted forward-looking infra red system turret and belly mounted air-to-ground marine patrol radar, equipment which is normally used to train pilots as well as flight test engineers at four stations in the cabin.
At the time of the accident, the Korean pilot was flying left seat as part of a familiarization ride linked to his flight training, and no engineers were onboard. Both pilots received only minor injuries, says Ed Solski, a test pilot instructor at the school and head of the internal investigation of the accident. Solski says the aircraft appears to be damaged beyond repair.
Solski says he knows of two DC-3s nearby, but both will require significant work to regain N834TP's functionality. Other options are being pursued as well. Meanwhile, he says the NTPS may have to rent one or barter for a ride....
I don't normally combine the sensation of flight with classical music, but something about Yusuke Takahashi's elegant flapping bird made me think of the immortal waltz, the Blue Danube.
See for yourself. I've taken the liberty of combining Takahashi's test flight on 17 January, captured in low resolution from the flappingwing channel on YouTube and combined it with a version of Johann Straus' Blue Danube played by the Vienna Philharmonic under conductor Herbert von Karajan.
Takahashi apparently uses a fishing rod and string to keep the 620mm wingspan Li-po battery-powered 3.27g flapper in line on the selected clip, but other videos on the channel show the bird flying on its own.
Judging from the flappingwing channel, the ornithopter community in Osaka, Japan, is quite lively...
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