made out of and another focused
on the CAD. The company now employs
around 20 people and its BW 600 aircraft,
which comes with either fixed or retractable
landing gear made its maiden flight in 2015. The
two-seater aircraft has a top speed of 193mph, an
empty weight of just 300kg and can stay in the air
for up to 10 hours on a full fuel tank. The airframe is
made entirely of a Swedish-produced carbon fiber
prepreg called Textreme, which its manufacturers say is
up to 15% stiffer than other carbon fiber fabrics while
being around 20% lighter.
With strong design influences from the microlight
gliders Anderberg has piloted, the BW 600 has proved
420 °/sec
Roll rate of the Red Bull
popular with sports aircraft enthusiasts.
He says, “I specialized in structural
engineering as a consultant and spent 15
years doing simulations on this plane,
which is why it is so good and so strong.
“There are around 2000 parts on the
aircraft. I’ve made calculations on at least
a 1000 of them. I do a lot of handbook
calculations on hull pressure and bearing
and bush pressure.
“Our vision was to provide the world
with an exhilarating but humble aircraft
and that’s what we’ve done. It’s fast and
maneuverable and very sporty, with an
advanced flap system that won’t cause stalls.”
As well as the prepreg carbon fiber airframe, the
aircraft is made almost entirely inhouse, only the engine,
avionics, wheels and glass canopy are supplied.
FLYING AT THE EDGE
The structural integrity of an ultralight sports aircraft
such as the BW 600 has to be proved beyond doubt and
structural testing put every component through double
the 6g of forces they can experience within the
operating envelope.
“I’m proud that when we did the structural testing it
confirmed my simulations. During testing we recorded
Fatigue testing
48 JUNE \\ AEROSPACETESTINGINTERNATIONAL.COM
Air Race aircraft
up to 12g,” says Anderberg. “The aircraft
made lots of noises but it did not break.”
Flight testing and certification was
then not without its challenges, admits
Anderberg, who conducted all of the test
flights. Despite demonstrating the
aircraft successfully at shows and to
prospective customers beforehand,
certification flight testing identified
several issues that had to be rectified.
“It was much more challenging to
certify than we ever considered it would
be. When you start flying at the edges of
the flight envelope, outside of the normal
range, you start to hit problems.
“You discover things at the boundaries
of performance. We had to do lots of
changes, like putting springs in the
controls and adjusting the angle of attack
stabilizers by one degree.”
Blackwing has grown significantly
since 2015 and is now looking for
investment and partners to scale up
production. While the future of major
aerobatic sporting events seems
precarious, the demand for experiencing
first-hand high performance aircraft does
not seem to be diminishing. \\
“You discover things
at the boundaries of
performance that
mean you have to
make changes”
5 // Raceplanes for the Red
Bull Air Race are inspected
every time they are assembled
after transport
6 // Each team has a dedicated
team of technicians who
constantly monitor the aircraft’s
condition and performance
5
6
/AEROSPACETESTINGINTERNATIONAL.COM