Simviation Forums

The other day, I was viewing the GA activity at Pontiac Oakland International Airport in Michigan, USA.  A very interesting Jet taxied up, it was a Falcon or Rockwell twin engine BizJet.  

The strange thing was that attached to the Verticle Fin was a cable or line, about 75 feet or 25 meters in length with a small pod or device at the end. The jet took off with this trailing behind.

About 30 minutes later, the jet landed with the line and pod trailing behind. As soon as the jet turned off the active runway, several men in a van came up and picked up the pod and line and placed the pod in the van, then followed the jet to where it parked.

What Was It?

Thanks for your thoughts.

what kind of weather was it? maybe it had something to do with that, they maybe wanted to measure some stuff at certain altitudes to ...just guessing  ::)

or maybe is was a kind of refueling boom, but i don't think they'd put something like that behind a bizjet.

it's also possible that they were testing this aircraft to get an airworthiness qualification. if it was a new type of aircraft, they used the pod perhaps to measure the airflow behind the plane or something like that...

maybe these are stupid thoughts, but it's better than nothing  ;)