Two Pilots Will Attempt To Swap Planes In Mid-Air This Weekend
- Thread starter Oxman
- Start date
knot4u
Repeat Offender
Should be shortly after 22:00 GMT. I don't have HULU but apparently there'll be a live broadcast.
knot4u
Repeat Offender
I imagine it'll be news either way, I have no idea why, but such is life.
fholbert
Mod's - Please don't edit my posts!
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fholbert
Mod's - Please don't edit my posts!
The Blue 182 (N3694U) took off at about the right time, flew for 5 minutes before landing. The Silver 182 (N3785Q) has tracking blocked.Video is in the link.
Two Pilots Will Attempt To Swap Planes In Mid-Air This Weekend
Two Pilots Will Attempt To Swap Planes In Mid-Air This Weekendwww.iflscience.com
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On Sunday, April 24, two pilots, skydivers and cousins Luke Aikins and Andy Farrington, will try something quite extraordinary: switching planes while in mid-air. The feat, sponsored by Redbull, has been 10 years in the making and will be the first time in aviation history a pilot will take off in one plane and land in another.
The stunt, which will be streamed live on Hulu, will see Aikins and Farrington pilot their respective Cessna 182s to an altitude of about 4.3 kilometers (14,000 feet). At this point, they will use a custom-manufactured airbrake to hold the planes in a controlled-descent speed of 225 km/h (140mph), leave their planes uncrewed, and jump out. If all goes well, they will be able to get to the other's plane, get behind the controllers, and safely land the aircraft back on the ground – all in under a minute.
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"I'm in one plane, he's in the other one, nobody else. We put the planes in a dive, straight at the ground, and then I'm going to get out of my plane, he's going to get out of his plane, and we're going to swap planes mid-flight,” Aikins, whose idea it was, told CNN.
"I'm going to skydive into his, he's going to skydive into mine, I'll bring his plane back to land and he's going to bring mine."
Explained like that, it seems simple – but there’s a lot of fascinating engineering that had to be solved before that could happen. The planes need to slow down before and during the dive otherwise the wings would be ripped off.
Other than that, I can't find anything about the attempt.
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5Right_5Left
Well-Known Member
They’re currently in the climb still and it seems like they’re dogging it at 500fpm or less in the climb. I don’t know all the intricacies of what they modified but I’ve never seen a gutted 182 climb so slow.
Wardogg
Meat Popsicle
They sure dont seem to want to show it.
knot4u
Repeat Offender
Christensen Eagle?
Wardogg
Meat Popsicle
So it wasn't really clear in the lead up but what it appeared to be was they put the airplanes into a hdg hold then threw down the big airbrake and killed the engine. Then yeeted themselves out the door. I think the plan was the airplane was supposed to stall and go into a "stable dive" with no input from the pilot. So either jumping out induced some yaw or one of them said it might have over rotated into the vertical.
Either way a spin was induced.
Either way a spin was induced.
knot4u
Repeat Offender
Nothing of value was lost.
