Atlantica is a

blended wing body A blended wing body (BWB), also known as blended body or hybrid wing body (HWB), is a fixed-wing aircraft having no clear dividing line between the wings and the main body of the craft. The aircraft has distinct wing and body structures, which a ...

aircraft being developed by Wingco, an aircraft manufacturer. Wingco's website states that the aircraft is based on technology developed before

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

. The aircraft features five seats and a top speed of . The aircraft is unique in that it is made from five different sections welded together.

Accident

During testing at

Orlando Melbourne International Airport Melbourne Orlando International Airport is a public airport northwest of downtown Melbourne, in Brevard County, Florida, United States, and 50 miles southeast of Orlando, located on central Florida's Space Coast. The airport is reached by N ...

Florida Florida is a state located in the Southeastern region of the United States. Florida is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the northwest by Alabama, to the north by Georgia, to the east by the Bahamas and Atlantic Ocean, and to ...

in January 2003, a prototype aircraft was involved in an accident. The pilot told authorities that he had been carrying out a high speed taxi to test the aircraft, and had not intended to become airborne, however the plane lifted off the tarmac and impacted with it again seconds later. The pilot suffered minor injuries in the accident. A report by the

NTSB The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) is an independent U.S. government investigative agency responsible for civil transportation accident investigation. In this role, the NTSB investigates and reports on aviation accidents and incid ...

(National Transportation Safety Board) found that:

During the high speed taxi, the pilot raised the nose of the airplane and it became airborne. The airplane climbed with a high angle of attack to approximately 100 feet []. The pilot then reduced the power to idle and lowered the airplane nose. The airplane collided with the ground as the pilot attempted to recover from the inadvertent flight. During the collision with the ground the ballistic recovery parachute was deployed, and the airplane was dragged 200 feet [] off the runway.Factual Report - Aviation
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The investigators concluded that pilot error was to blame, specifically "the National Transportation Safety Board determines the probable cause of this accident

o be O, or o, is the fifteenth letter and the fourth vowel letter in the Latin alphabet, used in the modern English alphabet, the alphabets of other western European languages and others worldwide. Its name in English is ''o'' (pronounced ), plu ...

the pilot's inadvertent liftoff and his failure to maintain airspeed which resulted in a stall."

References

External links

* Aircraft manufactured in the United States {{aero-2000s-stub