jedi
Well-Known Member
Note: I think this is a triger event that requires those with orders to pony up some cash in the near future or they will loose their delivery position.
What follows is from the Samson news letter:
Taking Hops!!!
The Samson Switchblade got air under the tires!! 'Hops' are where you get off the ground a small distance, wiggle the wings and settle down on the runway again. This helps you ensure the vehicle is controllable before you get airborne in any big way. We achieved multiple hops and learned a lot from each one. One hop was longer than the others and showed us that we had a controllable aircraft in all axis of flight well above ground effect (ground effect is being within a wingspan of the ground, in which aircraft will see extra lift).
The image above shows the Switchblade during a hop. This is a really big deal for the Team, as we had worked for a long time to get air under those tires, and we enjoyed a celebration dinner that night! We aren't calling this First Flight, as for that we will want to show take-off, flight around the airport, and a landing at the original runway. Look for that soon, however! Our investors and Pre-flight Owners were really excited, as we hope you are, at the prospect of our getting airborne and entering the realm of flight.
We did find an area to improve upon before we do further flight testing, and had run out of test pilot availability for this trip. After an extensive debrief, we got packed up and ready for the drive back to Prineville to make some specific performance improvements.
In other Samson news, I am not sure why you would need to truck a roadable airplane to the airport but I am sure there were good reasons: A video gives more details but I will not attach that here. From More from the Samson news letter:
"To do further flight testing we shipped the Switchblade about 300 miles to a bigger airport
with multiple long runways, which meant trailering the vehicle that distance on busy roads and highways. Not the most relaxing thing to do!"
For now it is back to the shop to do some tweaking. Sounds like the CG is a bit aft of ideal and also perhaps a bit difficult to rotate. That is just a WAG (Wild Aeronautical Guess).
What follows is from the Samson news letter:
Taking Hops!!!
The Samson Switchblade got air under the tires!! 'Hops' are where you get off the ground a small distance, wiggle the wings and settle down on the runway again. This helps you ensure the vehicle is controllable before you get airborne in any big way. We achieved multiple hops and learned a lot from each one. One hop was longer than the others and showed us that we had a controllable aircraft in all axis of flight well above ground effect (ground effect is being within a wingspan of the ground, in which aircraft will see extra lift).
The image above shows the Switchblade during a hop. This is a really big deal for the Team, as we had worked for a long time to get air under those tires, and we enjoyed a celebration dinner that night! We aren't calling this First Flight, as for that we will want to show take-off, flight around the airport, and a landing at the original runway. Look for that soon, however! Our investors and Pre-flight Owners were really excited, as we hope you are, at the prospect of our getting airborne and entering the realm of flight.
We did find an area to improve upon before we do further flight testing, and had run out of test pilot availability for this trip. After an extensive debrief, we got packed up and ready for the drive back to Prineville to make some specific performance improvements.
In other Samson news, I am not sure why you would need to truck a roadable airplane to the airport but I am sure there were good reasons: A video gives more details but I will not attach that here. From More from the Samson news letter:
"To do further flight testing we shipped the Switchblade about 300 miles to a bigger airport
with multiple long runways, which meant trailering the vehicle that distance on busy roads and highways. Not the most relaxing thing to do!"
For now it is back to the shop to do some tweaking. Sounds like the CG is a bit aft of ideal and also perhaps a bit difficult to rotate. That is just a WAG (Wild Aeronautical Guess).
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