Grob G-520 Egrett / Strato 1

Rather bizaarely this plane flew into Stansted in the summer of 2012, I am afraid I do not have the information to hand to say exactly when. However, as good as it is, cometh the UAV and this plane's "raison d'etre" reduces very quickly!

reply

I work at a military base in southern Maryland and saw one of these beasts for the first time on the flight line in the wee hours of the morning. I was driving to work and my first view was a rear quartering view and it was a very confusing sight. At first I thought it was a U-2 but the tail and fuselage lines did not look right. Once I finally noticed the prop up front I just wasn't sure what I was looking at anymore. Once I got to my office it took about 30 minutes of research before I could identify what it was. I would love to have seen it take off and climb out but sadly I missed that event.

reply

Beginning with Flight No. 7, I traveled to Germany 8 times in 1989 & 90 to perform certification flight tests on this airplane, for a total of about 50 flight hours. Grob Aircraft deserves a lot of credit for its superior construction technology (all composite) and for its excellent flight test instrumentation system (at that time I had been an emgineering test pilot for FAA and NASA for about 30 years and could recognize quality in these disciplines). The airplane performed very well to over 50,000 ft altitude, garnering several records for payloads vs altitude, but it was a PIG to fly, with very low roll rates and mammoth pitch change with power change. For a test pilot it was interesting to fly because of these bad qualities, but not fun. The Garrett turboprop engine performed very well at all altitudes.

reply