B21

[Trevatanus]

Picture of the first B21 flight from Palmdale this afternoon

[Simpo Two]

Appears to be trailing fluid or suchlike.

[bobthemonkey]

Simpo Two said:

Appears to be trailing fluid or suchlike.

It’s a towed drogue for measuring static pressure behind the aircraft.

[Petrus1983]

Those wings look remarkably skinny for lifting the plane and its payload. Impressive.

[Nuclearsquash2]

Footage from spotters here:

https://www.airandspaceforces.com/b21-first-flight...

[Simpo Two]

bobthemonkey said:

It’s a towed drogue for measuring static pressure behind the aircraft.

Thanks. Seem funny that an a/c so stuffed full of tech has to pull something along on a string behind it.

Petrus1983 said:

Those wings look remarkably skinny for lifting the plane and its payload. Impressive.

I think the fuselage also gives lift - 'lifting body'.

[GliderRider]

bobthemonkey said:

Simpo Two said:

Appears to be trailing fluid or suchlike.

It’s a towed drogue for measuring static pressure behind the aircraft.

Right at the start of this video of the A340-600's first flight you can see the drogue being retracted.

A340-600 static pressure towed drogue

This image from Wikipedia is the staic pressure hose winch inside a Boeing 747-8I:



According to the caption it is towed two wingspans behind the aircraft.

Towed drogues are only used for early flights to calibrate the usual static ports.

A bit more here too: What is the 'shuttlecock' for?

Edited by GliderRider on Sunday 12th November 11:46