Message posted by Magoo on July 05, 2000 at 22:58:16 EST:

Ian

Sounds like a great trip!

The noise you describe certainly sounds like a power taxi run, rather than an engine test as such. Engine tests tend to go for longer than 5 seconds, and often for several minutes or more through varying power settings so a component can be thoroughly tested.

A taxi run in a high powered aircraft would probably last not more than 15 seconds, otherwise the aircraft will not pull up in time. Such tests are usually done following a brake overhaul, or to test a brake chute, or in the early stages of an aircraft's development to test its acceleration and/or rotation characteristics without actually taking off.

Incidentally, the prototype U-2 when being tested in 1956, actually accidentally took off during one of its first high speed taxi tests. The pilot hadn't actually learned how to land the thing on its tricky inline undercarriage yet, and had to learn the hard way after completing an unplanned circuit of the field. The conventional method of 'flairing' the aircraft and cutting power just before touchdown would not work with the U-2, so he had to actually fly the thing on to the ground nose down, and almost ran out of runway!
I think this is described in detail in the book 'Skunk Works' by Ben Rich.

Magoo

In Reply to: What the hell was that noise. posted by Ian Nightingale on July 03, 2000 at 17:50:04 EST:

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