Chinese B-747-400 Tests Biofuel Blend

Similar tests have already taken place in North America and Europe.  Looks like the trend is catching on, but I'm thinking that it will be a while before the results begin to bear much environmental fruit.

http://www.foxbusiness.com/industries/2011/10/28/air-china-completes-first-test-flight-using-biofuel-xinhua/

F-35C Catapult Steam Ingestion

Bloggers at the site below captured intel that the tests went better than expected.  This brings the F-35 another step closer to IOC.

http://www.f-16.net/f-16_forum_viewtopic-t-16287.html

Airbus A400M Flight Test Status (With Corrected Link!)

The link below provides one of the best overall status reports I have seen on any ongoing flight test program.  As usual, Aviation Weeks sets a high bar.  You will find information on propulsion testing, with results as well as problem fixes.  There is information on status of icing and crosswind tests, even ground handling issues like loading and unloading.  This is a great read if you want to know where the airplane stands in its test program.
http://www.aviationweek.com/aw/generic/story_channel.jsp?channel=defense&id=news/awx/2011/10/24/awx_10_24_2011_p0-386021.xml&headline=A400M%20Looks%20Past%20Engine%20Issues%20To%202012%20Fielding

Piper Doesn't Like the VLJ Tea Leaves

Piper has been around since before sliced bread.  They usually know what they're doing.  If they don't like what they see for the future of the very light jet market, that's got to be a serious downer on others in the industry.  Guess we'll have to see what the other manufacturers do.

http://www.ainonline.com/?q=aviation-news/2011-10-24/piperjet-altaire-program-suspended-indefinitely

Boeing 747-8 Flutter Testing

"High AOA and Spin testing will win you the Kinchloe Award.  Flutter testing will get you killed."
(Rob Niewoehner and Mike Carriker, Associate Fellows - Society of Experimental Test Pilots)

The link below helps put a face on what it takes to prove that you've solved a flutter (or was it really limit cycle oscillation?) problem.  This is tense stuff.  Good on these guys!

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/businesstechnology/2016583947_inpersonfitzgerald24.html

F-35B Completes Initial Sea Trials

The customer seems pleased with the results of sea trials conducted on the Wasp.  If the airplane can get the job done on an amphibious assault ship, you would think a super-carrier would be a piece of cake.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-10-24/pentagon-says-marine-f-35-model-successful-in-first-sea-trials.html

F-35B Sea Trials Going Well

Looks like the F-35B is exceeding pilot expectations during trials on an amphibious assault ship.  Although I spent three years flying the Hornet, I've never been a carrier guy, but it is my understanding that ships like the Wasp, where these trials are happening, are less than half the size of an aircraft carrier, so this has to be an exciting set of tests.

http://www.dailytech.com/F35B+STOVL+Now+Conducting+Sea+Trials/article23053.htm

Rolls Royce XWB Engine Hung on A380

The engine is intended for the A350.  The 380 is just serving as a testbed to get it ready.  Testing is supposed to start soon.

http://www.airlinesanddestinations.com/aircraft/airbus-installs-first-a350-xwb-flight-test-engine-on-its-a380-flying-testbed/

Europter AS350 Hybrid Powertrain?

Wow!  If they can get the electric motor and battery pack small enough this could be huge.  It looks as though initial flight tests give it a big "thumbs up" for enabling a much safer recovery after an engine failure in single-engine rotary-wing aircraft.  Let's see where this goes.

http://www.flightglobal.com/news/articles/eurocopter-targets-2012-for-hybrid-launch-decision-363574/

Scaled Composite's SpaceShipTwo Has an Interesting Drop Test

Sounds as though the team had to fall back on basic shuttlecock stability to recover from a departure while in the glide configuration.  The article attributes the problem to tail stall, but it is not clear if the stall was at positive or negative AOA on the tail.  The rapid downward pitch that is described would almost imply a negative AOA on the tail due to pitch rate, but it's hard to tell for sure from the story.

http://www.space.com/13297-virgin-galactic-spaceshiptwo-test-flight-glitch.html

WW-II FW-190 Flies Again

Great work if you can get it!  How can an airplane that is almost 70 years ald and built by "the bad guys" still look so cool?

http://www.eaa.org/news/2011/2011-10-13_wulf.asp

Northrop-Grumman X-47B Expands Envelope

The aircraft recently cleaned up and accomplished some performance testing with the gear up out at Edwards.  The Navy hopes to move on to Carrier Suit at Pax early next year.

http://blogs.ottawacitizen.com/2011/10/11/unmanned-combat-air-system-test-aircraft-reaches-major-milestone/

Chengdu J-10 Fighter Lost?

It is always hard to seperate out the facts from fiction when a crash is "rumored".  Stay tuned, I guess.

http://english.peopledaily.com.cn/90786/7613236.html

ICON LSA Ramping Up Testing

This one is news to me.  Perhaps some of you were already aware, but it looks like a "fit in your garage" Light Sport Aircraft is well on the way towards certification.  Apparently early tests uncovered some post-stall issues, so those are being worked.

http://explorersweb.com/air/news.php?id=20388

(Photo Credit: ICON)



Gulfstream G-650 Ramp is Busy!

They recently had 5 planes in the air at once.  Four were on developmental flight tests, the fifth was doing a production flight test.  It's not clear what all the developmental test objectives were.  Certainly avionics and systems were being looked at, and it seems that flight controls have nearly wrapped up.  One would also assume that tweaks made recently to improve high AOA and/or single engine handling qualities are also being refined.  Hopefully the economy will cooperate and this kind of investment will pay off for the bizjet industry soon.

http://www.asiatraveltips.com/news11/1010-G650.shtml

GE H80 Engine Testing Under Way

Looks as though the work is being done in Georgia on a KingAir.  The engine is expected to improve top-end performance, but it's not clear if fuel savings are expected.

http://corpjetfin.live.subhub.com/articles/Smyrna_Air_Center_starts_flight_test_427

Adding Your Thoughts to the Mix

So far I have kept this blog focused on active flight test of specific aircraft and avoided direct advertising.  That policy still stands.  There are no ads in the blog.  That said, even links like SETP and SFTE have items on their sites for purchase, so the blog has already been referring you to items for purchase, even though that is not the focus of the blog and I have neither asked nor accepted compensation for any referrals. 

Anyway, I've gotten feedback that Flight Test on any given day is not just about what is being tested but also about the test methods being used.  There are many testers out there who have ideas regarding how we could make what we do better and safer, and a couple of acquaintances have recently asked if I could link you to some of the things that they are researching.  So, without passing judgement on the sites one way or the other I decided to post their URLs.  The links will remain active for a limited time just to find out if you think this kind of feature would be valuable. 

Take a look for yourself, then send me your comments.  (I won't publish your comments unless you ask me to.)  If this seems to be a helpful change I may begin to rotate private web sites into the list of flight test related sites for your use.  Some of them may elect to charge for what they provide.  That is up to them.  Please let me know what you think!  Are these helpful?

F-35B Comes Aboard Ship STOVL

Katy, bar the door.  The F-35 flight test effort has moved into high gear and the plane is now doing the stuff it was built to do.  The pace of testing (sortie rate) is going well, but it is not clear how much of the flying is unplanned remedial stuff associated with some of the recent systems issues that have cropped up.  We're getting the sorties, how are we doing on the originally planned test matrix?

http://www.aviationweek.com/aw/generic/story.jsp?id=news/awx/2011/10/03/awx_10_03_2011_p0-377572.xml&headline=F-35B%20Lands%20On%20USMC%20Amphibious%20Ship&channel=defense

Shu Mansheng Hovercraft Gets Airborne

Not bad for a farmer with a grade-school education.  Be careful out there!

http://www.itworld.com/hardware/207605/man-creates-amazing-dangerous-flying-machine

NMSU Touts UAS Test Center Status

It looks as though New Mexico State University has sealed a deal to do some UAS testing for DARPA.  This is great, but they claim to be the only entity in the country that can test UAS in the national airspace system.  Sorry, but on the face of this it is not entirely clear what sets them apart from places like CIRPAS, or NASA's DFRC, the General Atomics development center in Southern California, or any number of other entities that - as far as I can tell - are already testing UAS in the NAS.  Maybe we'll get some clarification.

http://www.publicbroadcasting.net/krwg/news/news.newsmain/article/1/0/1858907/Regional/NMSU.Las.Cruces.Announces.Major.Defense.Project