Jane Edwards
Embraer has completed an airdrop testing campaign for its KC-390 Millennium multimission medium airlifter.
The company said Thursday it worked with Brazil’s air force and army to carry out a series of tests at the U.S. Army’s Yuma Proving Ground facilities in Arizona.
During the campaign, the aircraft performed an airdrop of a single 42K-pound platform, sequential aerial delivery of two platforms weighing 24 metric tons combined, airdrop by extraction in autopilot mode using two extraction parachutes and delivery by gravity of up to 24 containers in a single pass.
The pilots also tested the capability of the aircraft’s Continuously Computed Drop Point system to perform extraction and gravity airdrop. CCDP helps pilots calculate the optimum airdrop release point. The aircraft also features a Cargo Handling and Aerial Delivery System.
Boeing and Embraer announced in November a new joint venture to develop new market opportunities for the aircraft.
