In this brand new blog, Rob Edgcumbe takes a look at the ‘Son of Ares’, the latest in a long line of distinctive aircraft produced by Scaled Composites, now owned by Northrop Grumman.
The Sierra gets airborne from Boeing Field to head home © Rob Edgcumbe – Global Aviation Resource
Scaled Composites has a long-running reputation for creating unusual airframes. Whether for a specific customer or for testing-out concepts, Scaled has produced shapes that look either wild and whacky or futuristic. Northrop Grumman is now the owner of Scaled and is probably behind some of the more recent shapes to have taken flight.
One such aircraft is their Type 401. Its official name is Sierra but, unofficially, it has become known as ‘Son of Ares’. Ares was the name given to a previous design that Scaled produced and the two Type 401 airframes have been named Phobos and Deimos – these being sons of Ares, the god of war.
A Sierra carrying an underfuselage pod returns to Mojave © Rob Edgcumbe – Global Aviation Resource
The aircraft are based at the Scaled Composites facility at Mojave Airport in California. They seem to get regular use but are not limited to this location. My first encounter with one of them was at Mojave. I had swung by on the Sunday after heading to Edwards AFB for the airshow on the Saturday. A Model 401 got airborne while I was there, but it caught me off-guard and I didn’t get a shot of it climbing out. Needless to say, with some time available, there was no way I was going to leave since it was bound to return. It was flying with an L-39 Albatross so I figured I would just wait, and hope that I had guessed right about the runway they would use.
Fortunately, I did get the right runway, although my inexperience of shooting at Mojave meant that I had missed a location closer to the approach path than where I was waiting. Heat-haze could have been my enemy, but the desert is dry, and the results weren’t too bad, although not ideal. Still, a really interesting type to see by accident.
Taxiing out for departure at Boeing Field in Seattle © Rob Edgcumbe – Global Aviation Resource
Roll forward to this year and I was closer to home one Sunday morning, at Boeing Field. I was there originally for a NASA jet although it had the temerity to leave earlier than scheduled and I had missed it! I did have a call to make so, rather than leave, I sat in the car and took the call. Halfway through the call, I noticed something odd through the gaps in the fence. Strangely, despite having only seen the Type 401 once before, I immediately recognised it.
The jet had come from the ramp of the FBO where it had apparently been in the hangar for several days. I was unaware of this possibility so was quite taken aback. I jumped out of the car – apologising to those on the call – and got out just after the jet had crossed the runway. It would have been one of the best chances to get a clean shot, but I missed it. All I had was a rear view of it as it taxied to the departure end.
Climb out and the rear view really emphasizes the unusual shape of the Model 401 © Rob Edgcumbe – Global Aviation Resource
I then waited for a while before they finally had departure clearance. I was fearful that, being so far down the runway and the jet being quite nimble, it might be quite high by the time it came past. Fortunately, the pilot was more than happy to give the team that had handled it at the FBO a good view of the departure. That meant a good view for me too.
This isn’t the first time that Son of Ares has shown up at Boeing Field. There have been times when the webcam at the airport has shown it sitting on the ramp. No surprise, though, that its visits are not widely advertised so it is luck of the draw if you happen to catch it. I do hope I get another shot at some point.
