The Discovery Channel recently decided to crash a radio-controlled 727 to gather valuable scientific data. To fly the monster aircraft, the team they contracted with selected the Futaba 8FG.

Watch this epic event unfold this Sunday, October 7, on the Discovery Channel at 9:00 p.m. Eastern Time (8:00 Central). Check your local listings for details. Until then, you can read more about the team that pulled off this amazing flight at the link below — see pages 8 & 9.

http://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/mcmu...tid=Cover3#/10

http://dsc.discovery.com/show-news/o...n-history.html

If they only wanted to crash it they should have used a Spektrum radio .

Yet another Troll!

they wanted to crash the plane INACONTROLLEDMANNER....


Not stand around wondering if they would loose their link at take off, just after, or any time thereafter.


Just saying

I have seen this on either the History Channel or Discovery. The 2 hour show is suppose to air this Sunday I believe 9:00p.m. eastern time. I am not 100% on the time.

Joe

They would have been derelict to use an R/C system to control that aircraft. I suspect they just used the transmitter as a control device and used a fully redundant high power transmission system.

Why is it so hard to believe that our systems are capable of sending a signal to the appropriate actuators?

I have my DVR set already to record the show. I will hold my opininons 'till AFTER i see the entire show.

Rafael

You are foolish if you do believe it. They should be arrested for endangerment if they are. Our little 100 MW signal could easily get lost in that metal skinned aircraft. They are probably on 900MHZ with 10w at least and are using circular polarization.
I was the system engineer at Goldstone tracking site for the Lunar Orbiter space probe. We could get reliable transmission to the moon with 2W but we had a transmitter antenna gain of 54 db and our receiver had a cryogenically cooled MASER( like a LASER but used RF instead of light) preamplifer

I dont how they did it but suspect that after the pilot bailed out the plane was on auto pilot untill it came into range of the 8FG. I also suspect
they did not use a stock receiver either.

I would like to know how the pilot bailed out. After D B Cooper bailed out the rear door they made impossible to open that door in flight. We don't even know if cooper survived the jump. Its hard to walk down a stair in a 200mph wind.

You should go read the articles. The reason they chose this type of aircraft is BECAUSE of the exit.

Andy

The pic I saw he bailed out the rear of the plane in fact it looked as if the door had been removed. In any case i'm sure whatever they did to prevent in flight
door opening could easily be overcome by aircraft mechanics.

They wanted a controlled crash

The rear air stairs on a 727 go under the tail not out the side.

Spektrum are JUNK. my friend has lost $18,000.00 in planes this summer. The other day I lost a $500.00 plane.

A simple tab device that turned into the windstream was the lockout on the rear door-easily removed if needed.

Dang-you have stupid friend-why would your friend continue to use it and more importantly why would you still use one if this was true-are you stupid too?

I have never had an issue with Spektrum since it was first introduced. Most of our 110 member RC club is on Spektrum. It is a reliable radio system.

Who said anything about the side?
It would be impossible to go out the side. The stabilizer would make chopped meat out of you.
You would have to go out that under the tail door. Even so you wouldn't get far down those stairs in that wind. I really doubt you could get out without hitting something.
You would have to take those stairs and the door completely off and have an open space to jump into. Even so that 200 mile wind will be a sever shock when you hit it. I doubt many would survive.
Paratroupers jump out the back of their airplane but they are well conditioned individuals. You see them jumping out the side but the airplane has dropped down to a very slow speed. You can't slow that 727 to much below 200mph

Check the landing speeds, a loaded 727 has approach speed of about 130 knots.

Right. But you won't fly very long at that speed. And that is with the wheels down and flaps deployed. It wouldn't be very smart to jump out and leave the aircraft in that condition.

dirtybird, you are a long time modeler, some 66 years, however you have many misconceptions concerning the Boeing 727. I have not paid much attention to the 727 "Crash" but sometime ago, soon to be 17 years, I set the parking brake for the last time and left my old friend, the 727. During 28 years of airline time, the 727 was my main machine, in 4 versions, having some 12000+ hours there in all positions, 2nd Officer, First Officer, and Captain. Those times were interspaced with times in the 737, DC-8, and DC-10.
Yes you can slow a 727 considerably below 200 mph. You do not have to have the landing gear extended to have the flaps down for lower speeds at various flap extensions. Below flaps-25 you get a horn blowing if the gear is not down, but a circuit breaker can silence that. The rear stairs can be used as an escape door. The horizontal stabilizer is very high on the vertical stab and would not be a problem. OTOH, engines 1 & 3 just may well be such for a side jump!!![&o] Approach and landing speeds were a function of weight at any given time.
BTW, I had a couple years in the USAF C-123, a fun machine, and deployed paratroopers many times, all out the back.

It must be a modified Futaba 8FG to increase transmission power. To take off and crash the 727, you certainly need more than 1-2 mile of controlling distance that a normal RC air radio is capable of reaching.

This is more hollywood make believe.