Aircraft Flutter

[aowen1609]

Such peaceful music for something so dangerous

[AKAdam12]

Wow, that's pretty spooky!

[bennergh]

My Mooney won't do that - Waaah!!

[lovemyrinker]

Thats why I always check counterweights on preflight. Unless Im flying a piper ; )

[snoeg]

I hope everybody survived that..

[matthiashaenni]

WOW that is impressive!!!

[mrlowflyby]

very brave test pilot. dont know how much longer you would let it flutter like that

[DouglasMiles1]

The reason aircraft have a Never Excede Speed.

[jamestexas244]

TIme to land!

[DG121480]

When my R/C airplane does this, I get really nervous... This vid just gave me advanced acid reflux.

[funkawitz]

If I were on that plane and you stuck a piece of coal up my butt you would have had a diamond.

[chrisjeffsmusic]

well fuck!

on the bright side, at least when I jump in a pa28 I have a rough idea what kind of stress the stabilator can handle

[CAPZEN1]

i would shit myself

[cannondale1950]

Biotech based experimental design allowed pilot to put plane in "flap wing" mode in order to increase speed and lift. Look carefully and you'll see "micro feathers" embedded in the control surfaces.

[b3gunkid90]

Resonance. A nightmare for aircafts! Once it starts, it hard to stop.

[Brad1711]

@b3gunkid90 Cut power and roll into a climbing turn. Idea is to slow down and and change the load as quickly as you can.

[Avionik]

RIP - on April 5, 1998, the owner/pilot ran out of fuel and crashed. He was killed and the airframe was a total loss.

[zskyhawk]

As a pilot I just can't believe what I am looking at!! I actually feel ill...

[wrh61]

damn...i use to have an arrow w/ basically the same the same tail. glad i didn't have a rear view mirror and could ever see something like that ....I also wonder how 'in balance' that flight control was to begin with ... They may have set it up out of balance just to see what it would do .

[ecktoeman]

Where did you find this video? Fantastic stuff, wish there was mention of the airspeeds this maneuver went through.

[iksteh]

I had aileron flutter once in a PA28 - it scared the absolute crap out of me and I flew an hour home at 80 kts with a stage of flap out. I believe it was a maintenance issue :)

[g11690102]

this is part of the reason i like sitting next to new flyers on the plane. now if you watch while we are in the air you'll see the end of the wing flapping. oh don't worry they don't break off they are made to flex like that.lol

[Brad1711]

@g11690102 This is a sustained aeroelastic underdamped flutter condition. You're talking about basic wing flex. Every object in the universe flexes when subjected to external forces, and the flexure is indeed how the object applies the opposing load to balance the forces. An aircraft wing is quite long and thin, so it flexes visibly. A rubber band snaps with only a couple inches of stretching. Make it 50 feet long and you can stretch it to 150 feet with no problem before it snaps.

[winterka100]

Any test pilot who says "let's go see if I can flutter the tail off this plane " Is my hero. Or crazy.

[nctrooper10722001]

This Bird was de-registered in 1999 By MArk Wilson out of WVA.. Lemmie guess why.. The ass fell off???

[VAVirginAtlantic]

If I was a passenger aboard that I would either sit and laugh, sit and shit or sit, shit and laugh!

[500art]

i bet that felt awfull throught the airframe and controll yoke !

[FlyingBoxHead]

Wow I just got my pilots licence too.I think I'll wait for my first solo a little later now.

[CRJflyer]

@FlyingBoxHead you only need to worry about that if you get close to or exceed VNE. Wings and other surfaces are incredibly strong.

[DAMDriver]

That's called a divergent harmonic, and it's the same reason why the Tacoma Narrows Bridge failed on Nov 7th, 1940....Google it. Not enough internal damping.

[NOYB20100525]

@DAMDriver

Not enough internal positive damping (energy dissipated out of wing struct by material damping)

OR

Too much external negative damping? (energy pumped into wing struct by airflow)

Ans: 2nd

Self-excited vibes or flutter; "divergent harmonic" isn't an accepted term.

@ dasadler123 Obviously not in the proper way... Tough on hydraulic sys too...

@ AirMan454 Very informative vid. Thanks for the up!

[1Gaumer]

@DAMDriver is it caused by engine vibration control inputs or turbulence?

[DAMDriver]

@1Gaumer excitation can be caused by a variety of inputs or their combination.

Even though NOYB20100525 doesn't think divergent harmonic is "an accepted term" (too much school and not enough real world:), it needs to be turned into a convergent harmonic, lest it self-destructs.

Troubleshooting involves isolating variables and testing...many hours.

Engineers must design for all foreseeable use, and this one slipped through the cracks...back to the drawing board!:)

[1Gaumer]

@DAMDriver thanks for the info

[NOYB20100525]

@DAMDriver Or you fit the plane with a tail wing from a previously rejected design (fluttery), you increase free play in connections/linkages to values above what would normally require immediate maintenance, you fly the plane at speeds above its (new) never-exceed value (Vne) in a very controlled manner (very slow transition for the phenomenon to occur gradually and be seen w/o self-destruction) and you make sure cameras are rolling to demo what flutter looks like... to school kids. ;-)

[DAMDriver]

@NOYB20100525 ...I'll let YOU fly it! ;-) touché

[dasadler123]

The tail was reinforced by NASA before the flutter test. Doesn't mean it isn't damn scary.

[Membrane556]

At first i thought no that's not so bad then the amplitude got worst and I was OMG the tail is going to fall off.

[TonkatrainHONKHONK]

That is fucking scary.

[oisiaa]

I didn't realize being a test pilot required you to have a death wish. That is crazy.

[macfan999]

I'm surprised that b**** didn't rip off

[soldoutrules]

can u imagine flying that plane and seeing that behind you?

[winterka100]

Not far from certain death.

[p3x197]

its like a little dolphin !!!

[cashpoboy]

Dat stuff id BAD NEWS

BAD TINGS happen when dat stuff look like dat

[icu123abc]

I'll tell you what causes it, it's them damn Grimlins.

[iShaverdian]

holllyyyyyy crapp

[N7618U]

I think I just peed a little.

[DancingSpiderman]

@N7618U I think a small amount of vomit just came up into my mouth.

[alpenglow123]

Read how to prevent flutter in Advisory Circular 43.13a

[spear913]

YIKES!!

[ciscokitty8]

engine flutter is a lot more frightening to me, 'cause modern turbofan engines will explode outright if something goes wrong, like flutter

[Jenksflyboy]

what causes tail flutter?

[turboromy]

It's a pheonomenon termed "resonance" where small amount of force exerted at certain natural frequency can cause a damage. Simple comparison is a kid pushing much heavier adult on a swing. The kid only can do so by pushing at the right moments. Unless it ends in vibration.

[hrach18]

7700 Emergency! Just experienced a major flutter of the canard on a Velocity and lived to tell about it.  Yikes.

[bughole69]

Holy crap that scary! Just like a Bonanza.

[GerbilEssences]

Mayday! Hehehe.

[keysersozeM1]

awesome!!! is a really big flutter.