This just released video shows the first free-flight test of the Sierra Nevada Corporation 'Dream Chaser' spaceplane on Saturday October 26, 2013. While the Dream Chaser will have the capability to carry up to seven crew members, this flight test was carried out with no one onboard using the automated flight control system. The video shows the lifting body space-shuttle-like vehicle being released from the Erikson Air-Crane helicopter and then flying extremely stable and right on glide path thru the short flight (less than one minute) and includes the approach to runway 22L at Edwards Air Force Base.
What isn't seen in this video is the aftermath of the touchdown when the left landing gear failed to extend. During the flare the right main and nose gear deployed properly but for reasons yet unknown, the left main did not deploy. Some reports indicate that the vehicle sustained significant damage due to loss of control after touchdown.
While the landing gear issue and subsequent damage to the test vehicle is certainly a setback, the team has much to celebrate with this test. A teleconference scheduled for later today will give insight into the damage to Dream Chaser and how the mishap will affect the program.
It's interesting to note that it appears that the landing gear on this particular Dream Chaser, known as the engineering test article (ETA) which is not intended for any space flights, is not the same design as will be on the flight test article (FTA). I'm sure we'll here more about these details before long.
(click pic to enlarge) The Jim Moss Gee Bee Q.E.D. in the air! (photo: James Polivka)
There's a good chance you already know that the Gee Bee Q.E.D. replica envisioned by Jim Moss made its first flight back on September 26, 2013. But if you're like me you didn't realize that Jim had been ill for some time during the latter stages of the project, and in fact he passed away on September 1st. It was the team of dedicated friends (wonderful aviation craftsmen) that carried Jim's Gee Bee dream into the sky.
It appears that the first flights were very successful, and it's encouraging to see that getting the airplane to Oshkosh 2014 to share it with the aviation world is definitely a goal. Congratulations to all involved for building an incredible aircraft, but even more for being such dedicated and hard-working friends.
(click pic to enlarge) The Q.E.D beauty is deeper than its skin (photo: James Polivka)
I was on the road driving back from Reno on Monday September 16, 2013 when the Bombardier CSeries narrow-body airliner made its first ever flight from Mirabel Airport near Montreal, Quebec. Between the road travel and the few days after recovering from white-line-fever, I didn't even know the flight had taken place until the end of the week. I'm a fan of this Canadian clean-sheet airliner so the first flight is a great thing to see... I hope you can watch these videos and respect the amazing amount of design, engineering, and construction effort that went into putting this great looking airplane into the sky.
If you're interested in some of the first flight ceremony and the opportunity to hear several people speak in both English and French, then the video above that recaps the first flight is a good one. If your more interested in seeing some great in-flight views and no talking, then the just released video below is the way to go.
Congratulations to everyone involved in getting the CSeries off the ground... Bravo Bombardier!
Screenshot from the first video showing the very first CSeries takeoff on 9-16-13
Screenshot from the second video... Bombardier CSeries first flight thumbs up!
Airbus has put the A350 XWB into the sky for the first time today... and in fact, if you're checking out this post before 8:00am EDT on Friday 6-14-13 then it's probably still on its first flight! This initial test flight is expected to last around 4 hours.
You can see the first liftoff by skipping ahead to the 1:01:20 mark in the video above which is also a live youtube broadcast if you're catching this during the time of the flight.
At approximately 10:00am local time in Toulouse France (4:00am EDT) the Airbus A350 XWB left the ground on its maiden flight, and as the picture below shows, it's looking confident and comfortable in the sky. Congratulations to all who have worked so hard to get this composite twin-aisle airliner into the air!
Airbus A350 XWB just after first flight liftoff in Toulouse France on June 14, 2013
Today is a big day for unmanned aircraft as Northrop Grumman's X-47B made the first ever carrier launch without an onboard pilot at 11:18 am EDT off the coast of Virginia from the deck of the USS George H.W. Bush. The catapult launch appears to have been a tremendous success! And while the X-47B can be operated autonomously (with no active human input) this launch was done with humans controlling the aircraft's actions.
The launch is a follow up to the arrested landing test done back on May 4, 2013 on a shore-based runway (video below) where the aircraft showed no trouble catching the wire. The biggest test of all will come in the next few weeks or months as the X-47B will eventually attempt to land on the carrier deck at sea. It would seem that this will be a significant challenge compared to the tests completed thus far, but it would also appear that the aircraft is up to the task as it has looked rock solid at every turn since its first flight in February 2011.
This aircraft certainly moves the military much closer to combat aircraft capable of operating in the tight and tense carrier environment, tho it's important to not that the X-47B is not itself intended for combat operations. It's also moving the military closer to the day when we will have aircraft of every capability being unmanned... and while many pilots see this as a huge negative, it does make sense to use the technology to protect human lives if it is able to function at a high level of safety.
Maybe the brave new world will have a lot fewer jet jockeys but more hardcore aerobatic competition and airshow pilots! (these guys gotta get their vitamin G somewhere : )
(click pic to enlarge) Cropped screenshot of the first ever unmanned carrier launch: X-47B
Dude, that's one big RC B-17! And since we played with a B-17 in the Caption Contest last week, I figured now was a perfect time to post the video of this amazing piece of work. It appears to be both built and flown by Peter Pfeffer in Austria. The first flight, as seen in the video, is from just over 2 weeks ago.
This view before completion gives a great perspective on the size of this RC B-17!
This beast has a 19 foot wingspan, is 14 feet long and is a whopping 187 pounds of retro WWII UAV! The four engines appear to be VT 42 single cylinder four-strokers like in this video. They come from Armin de Vries, a model engine builder in Germany, and are known for high power, low weight, and a great sound.
(click pic for hi-res) SpaceShipTwo first powered flight on 4.29.13 (photo: Virgin Galactic)
Great success was achieved yesterday (April 29, 2013) in Mojave California as Scaled Composites and Virgin Galactic flew SpaceShipTwo Enterprise on their first powered flight ever. After release from the mothership at 47,000 feet, the SS2 crew fired the rocket motor for 16 seconds propelling them up to 55,000 feet and Mach 1.2 - supersonic!
The test flight appears to have been completely successful. Congratulations to all involved in achieving this major milestone!
I stumbled across these two videos the other day and realized they were more than awesome enough for posting. You get about 15 minutes of the backstory leading up to the first flight of the prototype Boeing 747, which just happened to take place on my 8th birthday on February 9th 1969. This little piece of Martt trivia is part of the reason I have always felt very connected to the 747. (pretty amazing that the 727 also shares the same first-flight date, but that was on February 9th 1963, my 2nd birthday!)
The Boeing 747 represents one of the absolute most amazing feats of engineering and manufacture in the entire history of mankind... and when you couple that with it being one of the most beautiful airplanes ever built and its wonderful flying qualities (both from the cockpit and the cabin), it stands as one of the top 10 most important aircraft. Ever. You get a sense of that from these videos, which by the way are pretty old-school productions with some of the scariest background music ever. Sure reminds me of a lot of 16mm films I watched in science class back around 1969. Anyway, the content of these videos is awesome!
Photo of the 747 prototype during the official roll out event (photo: Museum of Flight)
And if the fact that the 747 first-flight occurred on my birthday isn't enough to show you why I've always had a special place in my heart for this 713,000 pound sweetie (UAL 747-100 max taxi weight) - then take a look at the two pix below. That's me in July 1970 (9 years old) checking out United's very first 747, N4703U, on the ramp at LAX with my dad. He was currently flying out of LAX as a 727 Captain, but he was putting in a bid to become a 747 co-pilot. We moved east to Illinois by winter and somewhere around February 1971 he was flying 747 right-seat out of ORD, shortly after the airplane had gone into service. In addition to getting to walk around (and thru) United's first 747 even before it went on line, as these pix show, I even got to go thru one week of ground school on the airplane with my dad in Denver a few months later! Maybe some day I'll tell you what I remember about making 3 takeoffs and landings in the full-motion 747 simulator as an 9 year old! Yeah, I was extremely aviation-privileged as a kid. Wow... I even have a hard time believing a lot of what I got to do by the time I was 18 : )
9 year old me (1970) soaking up the size of UAL's first 747 before it had entered service
Me in the First-class lounge (in the hump) on UAL's first 747 before pax had ridden there!
In the years that followed I had many opportunities to ride in the 747, with several of those rides with my dad up in the cockpit. He enjoyed the 747 more than any of the other airliners he had flown (DC-3, DC-4, DC-6, DC-7, Convair 340, DC-8, and 727) and he actually spent the entire remaining years of his career at United, a total of 16 years, in either the right seat or the left seat of the 747. He accumulated over 10,000 hours just in the 747! In ways I can't really explain, I feel like the 747 is a part of me... and wow, do I love that feeling!
And the next time you see a 747 fly overhead, or even better get to spend some time letting her take you somewhere, I hope you take the time to realize how much she means to world of aviation that we all love so much... she is truly the Queen of the Skies!
After trying but failing last week to launch the largest manned helium balloon ever from Roswell New Mexico, and then battling similar challenging winds this morning, Felix Baumgartner and the Red Bull Stratos crew succeeded in getting off the ground late this morning Mountain Time. And then after a successful ascent, Felix left the capsule step at 128,097 feet above the Earth setting records for the highest manned balloon flight, the highest jump ever, and the fastest freefall speed. The actual speed will be posted later once it's official, but it does indeed appear that Felix went faster than the speed of sound on his journey back to Earth!
The 4 minute 19 second freefall begins right here at 128,097 feet!
I was away from my office and my computer when the jump took place, but I did watch it live on my phone... a pretty unbelievable feat to say the least. How things have changed since the days when Joe Kittinger made his jump from 102,800 feet in 1960 - a record jump that stood until earlier today. Seeing Felix on the ascent and then leaving the capsule step live was amazing, awesome, and fantastic. What a thrill to be able to experience this project with a live broadcast!
I figured there were plenty of sources out there for info on the jump today, so rather than just repeat the same info I'm offering up 5 reasons why I think the Red Bull Stratos spacedive today by Felix Baumgartner was pure awesome.
Felix Baumgartner and Technical Project Director Art Thompson celebrate success!
Reason 1: Joe Kittinger involvement
The fact that the man who set the high altitude jump record as part of Project Excelsior back in 1960 was directly involved in the Red Bull Stratos project is simply spectacular. Had the 84-year-old Joe Kittinger only made a statement or posed for a pic or two with Felix, we would have missed out on the way that these two projects and these two very unique men have been brought together. Even more encouraging is that fact that this was never seen by either man as an issue of pride... Joe was thrilled to be part of the effort of another man to break his records. Unlike our modern culture of extreme sports and chest-beating self glory, this is how real men behave.
If you're interested in knowing more of Joe Kittinger's fabulous life, check out his autobiography Come Up and Get Me: An Autobiography of Colonel Joe Kittinger - and if you purchase it (or any other products) after using this link, AirPigz receives a small referral payment from Amazon. It doesn't cost you anything extra and AirPigz gets some much needed support!
Tuesday, October 29, 2013 at 05:31AM 
Video screenshot of the Dream Chaser about to land without left main gear extended
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