Antennas?

[Guest Sinbad]

Hello all,I have seen on TV, video of airliners,don't know which ones offhand,trailing in flight what appears to be an antenna with a drouge chute. This extends from the top of the vertical stabilizer. Any ideas?ThanksSinbad

[Guest TerryT]

Sounds like a HF (High Frequency antenna maining used for long distance voice communications over the ocean.Terry

[Guest daveg4otu]

They don't usually trail it with a drogue(HF antennae)It's usually fixed top of flight deck to top of fin or similar position.In the past some military aircraft have been used for LF experiments and have trailed very long wires but they would have been trailed from the underside of the aircraft.Perhaps you can give us a little more detail Sinbad - how long was the wire(approx)several feet? several yards/meters? How large did the Drogue seem to be?Dave

[Guest Sinbad]

Sinbad again,The antenna(?) appeared to be maybe 8-10 feet long and the "drouge" seemed like it may have been maybe 1 foot in diameter. This is hard to tell from TV. I'll see if I can find a pic of one. The object was trailing from the stab aft.Sinbad

[Guest mikehaska]

Is this what you are referring to?http://www.airliners.net/open.file/279242/L/These drogue chutes are used during certification or testing to monitor airflow disturbances off an aircraft's vertical stabilizer. They aren't attached for commercial flights, just test flights.

[Guest Sinbad]

That is exactly what I was refering too. Thanks so muchSinbad

[Guest Jeff S KDTW]

Sinbad -I photographed a similar arrangement on an Israel Westwind last year, which you can see in this photo:http://www.airliners.net/open.file/283842/L/this particular plane was doing high speed, low approaches during their testing phase._____________________________Jeff S. KDTWPilot - Land & SeaInstrument Rated

[Guest TerryT]

Thanks guys for the pictures of the trailing wires. The military did use long cables for HF before newer antennas and satelites came into play.Terry