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Hannibal X 8 years, 3 months ago.
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Google Drone crashed in early 2015; new report reveals
On May 1, 2015 at 11:07 Mountain Daylight Time (MDT), a Titan Solara 50 solar-powered unmanned experimental aircraft registration N950TA crashed shortly after takeoff, near Otto, New Mexico. The aircraft was operated as a scaled, proof of concept test flight. The aircraft was destroyed, there were no injuries.
According to the operator, at 11:02:43 the aircraft began a controlled winch tow and rolled on the ground until liftoff. After the tow release at approximately 30 ft above ground level (AGL), the pilot transitioned to flying the aircraft via instruments and the aircraft was powered up to full throttle for a straight ahead climb. The pilot immediately recognized that the instruments were exhibiting complicating latency and focused on flying the aircraft to a safe altitude and position where the external pilot (copilot) could take control and visually land the aircraft.
The pilot initiated a left hand turn when the aircraft reached approximately 160 feet AGL, which continued until the aircraft reached approximately 385 feet AGL. During this time the pilot made two power reductions, attempting to stabilize the aircraft at an altitude and heading acceptable for handover to the copilot to conduct an external visual landing. Handover of controls to the copilot was not attempted during the flight.
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