Red Bull "Plane Swap" Fails Miserably

billt460

billt460

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I would think there will be some fines handed out by FAA.

Must be some kind of laws broken if you are performing stunts like this, & potentially putting others in danger.
 
cdlamb said:
I would think there will be some fines handed out by FAA.

Must be some kind of laws broken if you are performing stunts like this, & potentially putting others in danger.
Click to expand...

Hard to say. Red Bull is a multimillion dollar corporation. One would think they got whatever permission they needed, where needed. Much like they did with Felix Baumgartner's, "Space Jump".

I read when this was in the works, that Red Bull would make money on it, even if they lost both aircraft. That company was built on wild advertising. Their name is painted on everything from airplanes to aerobatic helicopters, to Formula 1 cars.

With all that said, the end responsibility is with the pilots / skydivers. They could possibly see some repercussions. Who knows.
 
cdlamb said:
I would think there will be some fines handed out by FAA.

Must be some kind of laws broken if you are performing stunts like this, & potentially putting others in danger.
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Normally, people and companies work with the FAA on these kinds of stunts, to arrange it for safety & compliance and get waivers. Yet in this case, from what I read, they asked the FAA, who told them doing this would violate regs. And then they did it anyway.
If true, that is like slapping the FAA in the face and then throwing down your glove at their feet. This ain't gonna end well for them.
 
billt460 said:
It looks like they fitted both aircraft with some type of speed brake that they deployed before leaving the aircraft.
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Even trimmed full down, an empty aircraft would not maintain a fast enough dive. As soon as it entered a dive and sped up, the airspeed would generate enough lift to reduce the descent angle and it would stabilize at a rapid yet controlled rate of descent, nowhere near freefall speeds. Skydivers in freefall would zip right past the unattended plane. They would have to modify the airplanes to maintain a steep dive when unattended. And perhaps other modifications too.
 
From what I read, they performed successful practice runs with a 2nd pilot in each airplane. The FAA reviewed that and did not give them an exemption to do this without that 2nd pilot.

My theory is based on watching the video. It's not uncommon for small airplanes to require the weight of a person in the front seat in order to be in the flyable range of weight & balance. In other words, the empty airplane will not fly, it is out of balance with the CG too far toward the rear. In the video, one airplane goes into what looks like an inverted spin as soon as the pilot departs. A rearward CG could cause that.

Of course I don't know for sure. For now it's just a guess...The NTSB will investigate and find out.
 
MRC01 said:
My theory is based on watching the video. It's not uncommon for small airplanes to require the weight of a person in the front seat in order to be in the flyable range of weight & balance. In other words, the empty airplane will not fly, it is out of balance with the CG too far toward the rear. In the video, one airplane goes into what looks like an inverted spin as soon as the pilot departs. A rearward CG could cause that.

Of course I don't know for sure. For now it's just a guess...The NTSB will investigate and find out.
Click to expand...

But once the planes were nosed over, and diving vertically, everything in the cabin would be at zero g. There wouldn't be any weight in any of the seats when the aircraft was in vertical free fall.

The one aircraft seemed to perform as it should. It nosed over and stayed in a stable vertical descent. The other went into a spin for some reason, and it slowed, and the skydiver fell past it, with no chance to get it.
 
billt460 said:
But once the planes were nosed over, and diving vertically, everything in the cabin would be at zero g. There wouldn't be any weight in any of the seats when the aircraft was in vertical free fall.

The one aircraft seemed to perform as it should. It nosed over and stayed in a stable vertical descent. The other went into a spin for some reason, and it slowed, and the skydiver fell past it, with no chance to get it.
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A diving airplane isn't in free fall. The wings are generating lift forward of the CG which will pull it out of the dive unless elevator authority opposes that and forces the nose down. A rearward CG requires even greater elevator authority to maintain the dive, and could pull it out of the dive into a stall/spin.
 
They got 1 out 2 safe back on the ground... the Ballistic Plane Parachute failed to fully open on one of them... so get back up there and try again...
RedBullPlaneSwap1.JPG
 
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BusyLittleShop said:
They got 1 out 2 safe back on the ground... the Ballistic Plane Parachute failed to fully open on one of them... so get back up there and try again...
...
Click to expand...
It's gonna be a while before those 2 pilots fly again, if they ever do. One of the consequences of slapping the FAA in the face.
 
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