Structural failure appears to have caused the fatal crash of the second Grob SPn prototype near the company airfield in Tussenhausen-Mattsies, Germany, on November 29. Grob Aerospace CEO Niall Olver confirmed to AIN last month that the elevators and left-hand stabilizer separated from the aircraft before impact and were found “several hundred feet” behind the main wreckage. “We know they separated,” said Olver, “but we don’t know why.”
In a December 15 statement, the company said it now anticipates European certification of the SPn not in the third quarter of this year but rather in the first quarter of next year, with U.S. approval to follow in the second quarter.
Grob changed the design of key control surfaces on aircraft number two from those on aircraft number one to accommodate anti-icing requirements and to provide more roll authority. The front end of the belly fairing was also re-profiled, according to Olver. Aircraft No. 2 was equipped with larger ailerons and a longer horizontal stabilizer than aircraft No. 1. The “hinge fit” on the elevators had also been redesigned.
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