What Is It Doing?

Robertine · February 13, 2019, 1:02am

I was taking a look at the Boeing 737 factory and I saw this happen on the runway:
A factory-new Turkish 737 MAX was on the runway, going back and forth with engines on 100% with flaps, spoilers and it’s brakes were SMOKING! I would like to know what it was doing. I can’t upload the video, but here are the important parts: Sorry about the blurriness, but this was with 260X zoom and over 2 miles away.

1: Max Spoilers with engines on ^

2: Super smoky wheels ^

3: Super smoky wheels part 2 ^

4: Back to normal ^

5: Turn around, let’s do that again! ^

And it just kept doing that over again for 30 minutes.
What is this?

Pardon the branches.

Does anyone know what this MAX is doing?
Thank you!

Joseph007 · February 13, 2019, 1:04am

Testing spoilers and gear more than likely

Robertine · February 13, 2019, 1:05am

But won’t it get damaged?

IF_Aviation1 · February 13, 2019, 1:05am

maybe a blown tire or it was raining and thats the water or maybe something failed

Joseph007 · February 13, 2019, 1:06am

Just to see if the brakes can handle it

Robertine · February 13, 2019, 1:06am

Well… it didn’t rain for a few days…

IF_Aviation1 · February 13, 2019, 1:06am

Like how Joseph said they might be testing it too

N1DG · February 13, 2019, 1:07am

Looks like high speed taxi and takeoff runs

Robertine · February 13, 2019, 1:07am

Ok, but why were the engines at 100% ?

IF_Aviation1 · February 13, 2019, 1:10am

I have no idea.My only thought is that they were testing something

MrMrMan · February 13, 2019, 1:26am

I bet they were testing the brakes. I remember when they tested the B748F, they loaded it up as full as it could go, full engines, and then braked. There were some very smoky brakes.

I could be wrong.

KPIT · February 13, 2019, 1:27am

When I was at the Everate plant I saw them do this with a 787 for JetStar, I believe this is a part of the normal brake eingen, etc. tests every aircraft undergoes before being shipped out…

Chatta290 · February 13, 2019, 1:32am

This is likely engine testing, there is a documentary which showed BA engineers doing exactly this and it was amazing from the inside, the whole plane shakes vigoursly.
Here is a video of it happening from the exterior though, on another aircraft:

This testing in theory could be done to test a whole host of a planes functions though so I think only those pilots could tell us what was really going on.

Few more below:

Erj145 · February 13, 2019, 1:43am

Based on what you said with this being at the Boeing factory my guess would be test the brakes with Max thrust and Max braking of a simulated rejected takeoff.

How long did they wait between each reject? Most ac have a set time they have to wait before they attempt another take off.

Robertine · February 13, 2019, 1:44am

They did one, turned around, did another one, turned around, etc.

Erj145 · February 13, 2019, 1:44am

Did they wait an extended period of of time between them?

Robertine · February 13, 2019, 1:46am

No, they did not, they just turned around and did it again.

Erj145 · February 13, 2019, 1:49am

My guess would be testing how many reps can these brake. They might be recording fade and distances as a result of it. And as you can see the smoke (which would definitely be noted).

Robertine · February 13, 2019, 1:49am

Ok, good to know !

HiFlyer · February 13, 2019, 1:50am

As @Erj145 said, my guess here would be simulated RTO runs. Not 100%, but that’s my best guess