Update: Embraer KC-390 concludes airdrop testing

The Embraer KC-390 Millennium transport aircraft recently concluded its airdrop testing, the company announced on 26 December.

An undated photo from Embraer’s KC-390 airdrop campaign. The company announced on 26 December 2019 that it ended its KC-390 airdrop testing. (Embraer)

The company used its container delivery system for gravity airdrop and low velocity airdrop for extraction drop of heavy loads, according to a company statement. The tests, conducted by Embraer with co-operation with the Brazilian Air Force (Força Aérea Brasileira: FAB) and the Brazilian Army (Exército Brasileiro: EB), were performed during May and November 2019 at the US Army’s Yuma Proving Ground in Arizona, an Embraer spokesman said on 27 December.

Embraer has used the Yuma facilities for testing airdrops of heavy loads and precision demonstration. The Yuma Test Center, Embraer said, has the facilities, payloads for heavy airdrop, experienced manpower, instrumentation, and great weather year-round to enable these development and certification tests. Two additional airdrop campaigns were also performed in Brazil at the Campo Grande Air Force Base in Mato Grosso do Sul.

Major achievements of the testing campaign include airdrop of a single maximum platform with 19 metric tonnes as well as the sequential aerial delivery of two platforms weighing 24 metric tonnes in total. The KC-390, during the airdrop campaign, also performed sequential aerial delivery by extraction with up to four platforms in one pass and airdrop by extraction using two 8.5 m extraction parachutes with the autopilot engaged.

Airdrop by extraction is when the parachute for an airdrop deploys first to pull the cargo out of the aircraft. Airdrop via gravity is when the aircraft’s incline allows the cargo to roll out of the back of the aircraft.