Recently spoke with one of the pilots of the Spectrum Ducted Fan aircraft. Mr. Bill Davies and Ian Hollingsworth piloted the aircraft in a one day test at Edwards AFB. They conducted a few flights in the aircraft that day, but the flight test was cut short due to a broken ducted fan blade. The aircraft was owned by Linden Blue, one of the owners of General Atomics. The ducted fan concept was being tested to explore the possibility of using the design in the planned Spectrum 33. However, the designers moved away from the ducted concept and used the Williams FJ-33 engine (hence where the Spectrum "33" came from). The Spectrum 33 was flown on a number of test flights, however on its last flight it crashed shortly after takeoff after the ailerons had been miss rigged, killing Spectrum's test pilot Glenn Maben. A picture of Spectrum 33 is provided below.
