Greeting,
Monday’s flight represented our first flight out of and back to San Carlos (KSQL). It was another squawk free flight, which is what the entire team really needed. We are gaining considerable confidence in the aircraft and aircraft systems. We have one last system test which is our proprietary oil system for sustained vertical flight, we’ll be testing that as soon as we start to explore the vertical characteristics of the plane.

Both the oxygen system and bleed air heat performed flawlessly yesterday. So, that is now behind us. We also did performance and cruise profiling at FL155 to FL175.

Our last flight also brought home some realities with it as well. One thing is for sure; we are starting to hit the wall aerodynamically speaking at 15,500ft. We are producing so much drag with the blunt wing tips that we are fairly certain we’re not going to see anything near 215kt indicated at FL320. We’re simply producing way too much drag. And since this was not the fundamental mission of the airplane, we’re not going to make much changes airframe wise to clean things up.

We are still confident we can brake the 323mph record with a little clean up work around the aircraft. Gap seals, I strut fairings and all will help.

Next week we’re finally going to do some much needed photo shoots. We will be doing this the next 4-6 flights before we dive into building our air show routine for next year.

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