Phenom 300: First Flight

Too bad the Dreamliners came out to play (well, okay, not really). It would have been cool if the Phenom 300's first flight was also the 300th post!

I just hope that 787 first flight comes well before my 787th post...

It looked like it was towing a small drogue during the flight. There also seems to be a reinforcement lattice on the tail for the drogue and its release mechanism. Any idea of its purpose?

The thing being towed is the trailing cone. You can see it in its stowed postion (reeled in) during takeoff and landing and extended for flight. It is for measuring static air pressure free of any influence of the airframe. This aids in making very accurate airspeed measurements. The production pitot static system will be calibrated using this flight test system.

I presume the big ugly truss on the back of the plane is for a spin chute. That is a safety device to get the nose puted in the right direction if the plane gets into a situation where they cannot do it with the flight controls. T-tail airplanes can be prone to unrecoverable deep stalls (they lost a BAC111 years ago to this). If it rears its head in flight test they have the spin chute available to help. Ultimately they would have to find a solution of course to the issue.

Here's a pic of a spin chute on an F-16 http://www.af.mil/shared/media/photodb/photos/060315-F-2383G-013.JPG

Here's a trailing con extended on an L1011.

http://www.spaceagecontrol.com/pm/uploads/Main.News100100/s057i.jpg

The tube is hollow and the end inside the airplane is connected to a precision pressure transducer. Outside the plane near the end by the cone there is a section with small holes drilled in it. Ultimately one ends up measuring the air pressure at the altitude of the pressure transducer in the plane.

Enough science for today?

Ah! My curiosity is now satisfied. Many thanks!