Aerospace Testing November 2010

NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2010

The head of manned space flight for the Russian Space Federation talks about future collaboration

Eurocopter Vostok delivers the first helicopters equipped with Russian-built systems

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THE OFFICIAL MAGAZINE OF AEROSPACE TESTING, DESIGN & MANUFACTURING EXPO EUROPE

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EXCLUSIVE: The chief designer of the flagship Sukhoi Superjet 100 reveals all about its development

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ContentsRUSSIAN REVOLUTION

4 Star man Alexei Borisovich Krasnov, head of the manned space flight program department at the Russian Federal Space Agency and program manager for the ISS, talks exclusively to ATI

20 Superjet 100 The Sukhoi Superjet has concluded certification tests with ‘on-ground’ systems. Alexander Pimenov, vice president, Design Department, SSJ program and chief designer discusses the latest developments

26 EC135 avionicsEurocopter Vostok has delivered the first EC135 helicopter equipped with Russia-built avionics to airline Gazpromavia

30 The question of NimrodTim Ripley visits Woodford, UK, to talk to the flight test team of the BAE Systems Nimrod MRA4 maritime patrol aircraft, a political hot potato

34 Politics and planesThe UK Ministry of Defence is protecting its science and technology budget

36 Synthetic jet fuelThe world’s first accepted, fully synthetic jet fuel flight on a commercial aircraft was a long time coming for the world’s leading developer in synthetic fuels

42 One-to-one Dytran Instruments

Dave Change has been responsible for the overall strategic direction of the company’s R&D and aerospace product line developments

44 Aircraft crash testItaly’s LISA is a very advanced full-scale crash-test facility that can simulate real-impact scenarios in the aerospace sector

48 Air-to-air refuelThe A330 Multi Role Tanker Transport (MRTT) has achieved certification in Spain. The air-to-air refuelling system hit the mark too

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The head of manned space flight

for the Russian Space Federation

talks about future collaboration

Eurocopter Vostok delivers the

first helicopters equipped with

Russian-built systems



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EXCLUSIVE: The chief designer of the flagship Sukhoi

Superjet 100 reveals all about its development

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THE OFFICIAL MAGAZINE OF


AEROSPACE TESTING, DESIGN & MANUFACTURING EXPO EUROPE

EXCLUSIVE:EXCLUSIVE: The chief designer of the flagship Sukhoi

The chief designer of the flagship Sukhoi











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I am always somewhat loath to tread on old ground, and for everyone in the industry the Qantas A380 ‘near’ engine disaster is already a well-walked path. But, although the A380 QF31 landed safely on November 4, 2010, the incident’s impact on the industry and the resulting ramifications cannot be ignored. (There is a resumé of the aftermath on page 12 of this issue’s news section.)

It all started with an uncontained engine failure on the Qantas A380 shortly after take-off on a Singapore-Sydney flight that forced the aircraft to make an emergency landing back in Singapore. Initial suggestions are that an oil leak in the engine was the likely cause of the failure, with debris penetrating various areas of the droop nose, but speculation and rumor is rife. Indeed, a great test pilot contact of mine forwarded me an email that is doing the rounds, apparently based on investigations made by a ‘technical manager’ at Airbus. It states: “Rolls-Royce, the maker of the Trent 900 engine that disintegrated, knew about the faults that the current airworthiness directive concerning these engines says are likely to have caused an intense oil fire in a structural cavity in the intermediate pressure turbine area of the engine.

“Rolls-Royce had designed and was introducing a fix for the oil leak issues into the engines at its own speed. Qantas was left in the dark. It is fair to suggest that Qantas needs to review relationships with engine manufacturers, which it pays for ‘power by-the-hour’ and leaves much of the maintenance and oversight of those engines to the designer and manufacturer,” the insider cites. It is ludicrous to contemplate endorsement of these statements until the conclusion of a thorough investigation, but nonetheless, share prices are crashing at a time when the flagship and revolutionary A380 was hitting a critical sales watershed. As ATTI went to press, Qantas planned to resume limited Airbus A380 services at the end of November, but it is obviously a very anxious customer.

Manufacturer Rolls-Royce has asked Airbus to return all Trent 900 engines from the A380 production line in Toulouse, France, so they can be used to replace faulty engines on aircraft already in airline service.

Analysts said this may delay A380 deliveries due by year end to Singapore Airlines, Qantas, and Lufthansa. Together they have a total of 22 of the US$350 million aircraft on order.

I do have my own experience of a civil aircraft engine near catastrophe, albeit an RAF flight. I don’t even remember the aircraft type (VC-10, 727, maybe not?). I was a junior Lieutenant based in Germany, and in a huge, huge hurry. I was incredibly late getting to my flight from RAF Bielefeld back to Luton to see my girlfriend for just a couple of joyous days. I arrived just 15 minutes before the flight was due to leave.

On arrival I sprinted through the system, just in time. Merely moments before boarding I was instructed that I was the most senior person on board and therefore had to account for all passengers (nearly all wives and kids), and that I was also to escort a prisoner from the Royal Welch Fusiliers (already handcuffed to the armrest). Private ‘X’ was going to military prison for turning a German civilian’s head into jelly.

We hit some major turbulence somewhere over the North Sea, and while my gin and tonic was fearfully close to spilling over, my Welsh prisoner was almost apoplectic with fear (he had never flown before, having got the boat to Germany). There was a loud bang on the starboard wing, and I suffered that ‘you-know-things-are-wrong’ rolling stomach churn.

Despite being handcuffed, Private ‘X’ was clutching my hand so hard that my fingers were about to fuse into a hand club. We descended very, very quickly; people on the other side of the aircraft were exclaiming they had seen fire coming from one of the engines.

My Welsh companion, at this point, was nearly insane with anxiety. His face was whiter than the North Pole. I, meanwhile, feared for gin and tonic spillage. We gently turned back and landed slowly and surely at Schipol Airport… low and gentle, with six fire engines escorting us down the runway just for good measure. It meant another six hours in the terminal with the (now gray) prisoner waiting for a replacement flight.

Back to the latest and more newsworthy engine failure. The end of the ‘insider statement’ read: “The interests of the engine maker and holder of the service agreements are not the same as those of the airline. The questions concerning the timeliness of the Rolls-Royce responses to a known problem and its capacity and willingness to share them with the airlines concerned will not go away. If the engine maker doesn’t address them, its customers will.”

Christopher Hounsfield, editor

EDITOR’S VIEW | Contents

TECHNOLOGY PROFILES

60 Intelligent control systemsThe use of high-level graphical programming and field programmable gate array (FPGA) hardware

TECHNOLOGY REGULARS52 Satellite software

Independent software technology trials are crucial to the launch of the EarthCARE space mission

54 Composite materials – CERAMThe characterization of composite systems by surface analysis

58 EMC technologyChoosing a laboratory to test to the EMC requirements of RTCA DO160: power input, RF… and, of course, lightning

NEWS FEATURES10 International UAS team

An Anglo-French effort to develop a new generation of UAS could lead to a new era in cooperation

12 Indian Typhoon partnerIndia would become the consortium’s third-largest customer and an unofficial ‘fifth partner’ in the project

14 TESTING TALKThe US Aviation Center for Rotorcraft Advancement flies a retired helicopter to test new technologies. Frank Colucci looks at the NACRA mission and future plans for T-Rex

65 CONTROL COLUMNThe Mi-24 Hind was the attack helicopter for Soviet forces. Nearly 40 years later, a South African company has a concept to totally revamp the model

68 INDUSTRY BULLETINSFeaturing company news, latest innovations, case studies, and the most up-to-date systems on the market

71 VINTAGE MODELSThe regular look at iconic craft and the people behind them: The Hindenburg

EDITOR Christopher Hounsfield([email protected])ASSISTANT EDITOR Bunny Richards([email protected])CHIEF SUB-EDITOR Alex BradleySUB-EDITOR William BakerPROOFREADERS Aubrey Jacobs-Tyson, Frank Millard

ART DIRECTOR James SutcliffeASSISTANT ART EDITOR Louise AdamsDESIGN CONTRIBUTORS Andy Bass, Anna Davie, Craig Marshall, Nicola Turner, Julie Welby, Ben WhitePRODUCTION MANAGER Ian Donovan PRODUCTION TEAM Carol Doran, Lewis Hopkins, Cassie Inns, Emma Uwins

SALES MARKETING DIRECTOR Colin Scott ([email protected])PUBLICATION MANAGER Cheryl Flanagan([email protected])AUSTRALASIA BUSINESS MANAGER Chris RichardsonTel: +61 4207 64110 ([email protected])MANAGING DIRECTOR Graham JohnsonCEO Tony Robinson










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Aerospace Testing International is published four times per year by UKIP Media & Events Ltd, Abinger House, Church Street, Dorking, Surrey, RH4 1DF, UK. Tel: +44 1306 743744; fax: +44 1306 742525; editorial fax: +44 1306 887546. The views expressed in the articles and technical papers are those of the authors and are not endorsed by the publishers. While every care has been taken during production, the publisher does not accept any liability for errors that may have occurred. Distributed by US Mail Agent, Clevett Worldwide Mailers LLC, 7 Sherwood Ct, Randolph, NJ 07869, USA. Periodicals postage paid at Dover NJ, 07801. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to: Aerospace Testing International, 19 Route 10 East, Bldg 2 Unit 24, Succasunna, NJ 07876, USA. Printed by Nuffield Press, 21 Nuffield Way, Ashville Trading Estate, Abingdon, Oxfordshire, OX14 1RL.This publication is protected by copyright © 2010. ISSN 1478-2774 Aerospace Testing International

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COVER IMAGE: Sukhoi Superjet 100

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REGULARS

| 3NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2010AEROSPACETESTINGINTERNATIONAL.COM

Alexei Borisovich Krasnov | RUSSIA

AlexeI BoRISovIch KRASnov, heAd of the MAnned SpAce flIght pRogRAM depARtMent At the fedeRAl SpAce Agency And pRogRAM MAnAgeR foR the InteRnAtIonAl SpAce StAtIon, tAlKS exclUSIvely to ATI

4 | NOVEMBER/dEcEMBER 2010AerospAceTesTinginTernATionAl.com

Star man

by anna potekhin

Russia | Alexei Borisovich Krasnov

Alexei Borisovich Krasnov is a remarkable man, a virtuoso in his field, and respected across international and space borders. For nearly two decades, he has worked at the Fed-eral Space Agency of the Russian Federation (Roscosmos), as head of the Manned Space Flight program department.

He is a member of the Federal Space Agency Collegium, as well as the Control Board of the Russian Space Corporation, Energia. Specifi-cally, Krasnov was initiator and head of the negotiations on Roscosmos’s participation in the International Space Station (ISS) program. He has also actively participated in numerous other international projects, involving NASA, the European Space Agency, the Japanese Aero-space Exploration Agency, and the Indian Space Research Organisation.

In a rare and exclusive interview, Krasnov discusses the future of the Russian manned space program and the ISS.

The new Soyuz TMA-01M was launched on October 8, 2010. What makes this model better? How is it progressing in flight and docking with the International Space Station?We have been waiting for the launch of this craft for a long time now. The key new feature is a digital onboard computer. Digital technol-ogy can change the automation unit docking, as well as control the steering of the ship’s engines. The data formatting unit and the device matching unit have changed in weight, dimensions, and quality. A number of other systems have undergone alterations to improve the operating parameters, save energy, and optimize the mass and the dimensions of the craft. The new systems are functioning without a problem. We were very nervous during the docking process with the International Space Station on October 10, but everything went without a hitch. It looks like everything is going according to plan, touch wood.

The process of redevelopment is focused on systemic changes, which will be implemented in the new craft. If development is successful, and funding sufficient, we should be able to release these new productive capacities in test flights in 2015, with full operation planned to commence in 2018. The goal is to begin using this fundamentally new system at the Vostochy (East) Cosmodrome site.

What technical solutions have been developed to prevent emergency situations such as that of the descent of the Soyuz TMA-18 spacecraft?This was the situation [Krasnov produces a photograph]. Here you can see the mold of the transfer compartment, which is not fully closed. [The scheduled undocking was delayed 24 hours, following a problem related to the latch and hooks between the Soyuz and the MRM-2 (Mini Research Module-2) module]. During

| 5 NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2010AerOSpAceTeSTIngInTernATIOnAl.cOM


power platform in 2014, which will enhance engineering and scientific possibilities.

Will there be an increase in the number of launches of the Soyuz? Are there any planned international projects involving the Russian craft?We have now launched the fourth annual manned voyage of the Soyuz, and are currently deliberating about plans for the fifth. The industrial capacity for this is being put in place. We think that this fifth voyage is an area of concern for our industry as it could be purely commercial. In today’s market, there are people willing to pay substantial amounts of money to take trips into orbit. The maiden voyage of a country’s citizen into space has always been considered a great achievement and so there are countries that wish to send their representa-tives into space. Therefore, although we do not see a crucial need for this fifth craft, it is cer-tainly commercially viable. To date, we feel that we have solved all the problems in the first four Soyuz vessels; however, we are aware that further problems may arise, which can be addressed in the fifth craft.

[With the end of the Shuttle program] will your US associates be placing orders for these Russian transport services?For now, we have agreed a deal by which American crews can pay to travel to the

repair work, a small screw flew into one of the compartments and was caught between two gears, which led to the emergency.

The deputy head of NASA told us that our US associates had once experienced a similar situation. The hatch compartment itself remained operational, but the drive, which sig-nifies the complete sealing of the joint, no lon-ger functioned. It turned out that this was due to the gear itself breaking. We managed to deal with the situation quickly enough, but this meant that we were unable to undock from the International Space Station when we had origi-nally planned. The craft undocked a day later and landed normally. This led to a technical solution for this situation being prepared, and our specialists are working on checking the variants to prevent such a situation occurring again in the future.

What do you see as the future for the International Space Station?We see a very real future for the ISS, since our partners have decided to extend its operation until at least 2020, though this has not been formally drawn up as yet. Based on the experience of the Mir Space Station, whose period was extended from five to 15 years, we can say with confidence that the space station will be granted an extension to 2020. Our plan is to produce two more modules: a multipur-pose laboratory module in 2012, and a science

6 | NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2010AeRoSpAceTeSTIngInTeRnATIonAl.com

I want to be an astronautThere currently two groups of astronauts: one at the Energia Russian Space Corporation, and the other at the J. A. Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center (CTC). There is one person at the Institute of Medical and Biomedical Problems. Next year, the plan is for everyone to operate from the CTC. The two groups comprise a total of 31 people, and there is a new group that has just formed. An interministerial commission was held on October 12, 2010. It contains five people: two servicemen, one member of the CTC, and two from Energia.

There was news that you plan to make the selection of astronauts an open competition. Does this mean that anyone can try out for selection?Not exactly. We do wish to change the process we use to select our astronauts. Thus far, we have only selected from our own aspirants, who are either aviators (such as one of the current members of our crew of astronauts – a parachutist) or engineers (most often graduates from Moscow’s technical universities, such as Bauman, the Moscow Aviation Institute, Voentekh, and so on). However, in the future we hope to widen our field for selection to candidates from companies within the rocket and space industry, because we want the people flying into space to be professionals, who know and understand the technology.

Do you plan to send up any female astronauts in any upcoming space programs?We do not exclude women from participating in space voyages, although no females have so far travelled. There are a great number of female astronauts in the USA, though it should be said there are many more women in the US Army, especially in the air forces. I would like to reiterate that we certainly do not exclude the possibility of Russian women taking flights into space. Our main criteria are that the candidates should be in excellent health and are motivated to work in aerospace. The pressure on astronauts during travel is very great, and the female body is more sensitive than that of the male. The effects of space travel on the female body may well be somewhat different from those experienced by the male body.

Alexei Borisovich Krasnov, head of manned space flight, Roscosmos, and ISS program manager

RUSSIA | Alexei Borisovich Krasnov

Budgets & investmentsHow much does it cost for the state to prepare astronauts for their travel, and to operate the Russian module of the International Space Station?It is certainly very expensive. Space is an expensive and resource-intensive business, which is why only nine countries can afford it at the moment. Manned voyages are more expensive. At the moment, Russia’s aerospace budget is approximately US$2 billion, which is about a tenth of that of our American associates. Nearly 43% of our budget is spent on manned voyages.

But although it is expensive, we must remember that space forms the basis for the entire domestic industry, as well as the aerospace industry. Because the number of spacecraft and rockets being produced by cooperatives allows for the fast modernization of production capacity and the introduction of innovative designs, and keeps the developers and production workers busy… there is no option to defer the launch date: people are already in orbit!

So the space program is not only a huge investment, but it is the driving force of national science, modern technology, and industrial potential. Yes, it is expensive, but it is fascinating, prestigious, and has a lot of potential. It is only because of the government’s appreciation for the importance of the space program that we have a budget now of US$2 billion – a figure we couldn’t have dreamed of half a decade ago.

I would like to stress the fact that America now relies upon Russia for the transport of its astronauts into orbit. Is this not a testament to our success? It is important not to let this slip, to keep up the pace, to create new vessels, and to keep moving.

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International Space Station using the Soyuz. This deal currently extends as far as 2013, but in principle, this will go on until they have their own means of transport. This will depend on the number of launches of our own Soyuz, which could be three to five a year.

Have there been any moves to develop and test a commercial station?Talks are ongoing. Our US colleagues first had the idea of building a small port on the Interna-tional Space Station, which would have no sci-entific purpose and would most likely be pri-marily used for space tourism. As to what businesses think of this, I do not know. All I can say is that I welcome the idea and believe that man has lived in the space age for more than 50 years now and should be provided with as many opportunities to voyage through space as pos-sible. This is not something that should be restricted to the professionals. The important thing is that any ventures are safe and under-taken by reliable and responsible people. At the moment, we are simply searching for investors.

What is the current state of play regarding the program for russian space tourists?There has been talk for some time now of flights to the International Space Station for non- professional passengers. However, this program has been suspended for now because all space-craft flying to the station have a regular crew. It is simple arithmetic: every ship transports three people. Six people work at the space station at

a time. We launch four ships a year, and so all the ships are currently occupied by profession-als. There are no vacancies. Solving this ‘tour-ism conundrum’ is the potential task of the fifth Soyuz vessel. However, we are some way off Russian and foreign space tourism.

Today’s astronauts fly into space aboard reliable, tested ships. How do you evaluate the risk of space travel?It’s very easy to debate the reliability or unreli-ability of spacecraft when you are looking up at it from Earth. After all, the Columbia space shuttle looked like a reliable ship, and that exploded on re-entry on February 1, 2003, killing the entire crew. People who go into space are well aware of the fact that, despite their experience of operating craft, it is still very risky. It is like travelling on a giant pow-der keg. The professional astronaut must be able to identify and resolve any emergency situation quickly.

While space travel itself is risky, the tech-nology is relatively reliable. In short, it has become more reliable, but no less dangerous. After all, every ship is different; they are not falling off a conveyor belt. They all undergo different tests during flight, and so each one will be different from their predecessor, and every astronaut can also be compared to a test pilot.

RUSSIA | Alexei Borisovich Krasnov

Clash of interestsHow do you intend to solve the problem of how to transfer your scientific and experimental base from Gagarin to the Russian Federal Space Agency (Roscosmos)?It is a very sensitive issue. Two military units that were previously in the Cosmonaut Training Center, which was operated by the Ministry of Defence in cooperation with Roscosmos, have now been disbanded. Russian law states that all military personnel should be dismissed with full social protection.

In addition, there is the issue of the transfer of land, property, and aircraft, all of which takes time. However, the issues are gradually being resolved. We see the transfer of the training center from Gagarin as a totally new experience in terms of knowledge, infrastructure, and technology, and therefore we are working to preserve its scientific and technical potential, where possible.

The last two or three crew members have been trained in the new center. Pre-departure examination was reported as being ‘excellent’, which is a testament to the skills of the trainers and teachers we have.

Prime Minister Vladimir Putin visited the training center and approved the development plans for both the Star City research training facility and the Gagarin training center, so as to redevelop them on a completely new technological and social level. The tasks have been set and the financing has begun.

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But there are indeed risks, not only with the take-off and landing, but also in the conducting of experiments during the flight. The results of experiments are recorded in a flight log, and a report is then prepared. Here it is [Krasnov pro-duces a large book]. These are their comments about the implementation of new systems, the recommendations to developers, the analysis of work modules, observations made during the training of the crew, and so on.

Astronauts are insured. They have a system of bonuses and penalties that come into force if certain errors during the flight are recog-nized. This has been known to happen. In gen-eral, all flight conditions are stipulated in the contract. This includes a payout upon returning to Earth.

I can tell you that today’s astronauts are ask-ing for a significantly higher remuneration than their predecessors, who wanted nothing more than a Volga car. We believe that the payment [now] is adequate for the work carried out in orbit, and is roughly comparable to a decent salary earned by a manager of a successful com-pany. There is no compensation package for astronauts in orbit. The highest prize that can be given is the title of Hero of Russia, which is, of course, priceless.

Are there plans to celebrate the 50th anniversary of Gagarin’s flight?We have organized an extensive plan for the celebration. 2011 will be the year of Russian space, and celebrations will take place, not only in Moscow, but across Russia, across the world, and in space.

We are also intending to conduct lessons from astronauts who are currently in orbit. This first began with A. A. Serebrov, and will help people to comprehend the space program’s role in Russia, and in the universe. z

Anna Potekhin, for Aerospace Testing International

In the aftermath of the UK’s Strategic Defence and Security Review (SDSR), industry executives and government procurement officials have launched a crash program to find a catapult-based launch system that can installed in the Royal Navy’s Queen Elizabeth class aircraft carriers.

UK Prime Minister David Cameron’s decision to drop the F-35B short take-off/vertical

landing (STOVL) variant of Lockheed Martin’s Joint Strike Fighter in favour of the F-35C Carrier Variant (CV), along with moves to adapt one or both of the Royal Navy’s Queen Elizabeth class aircraft carriers with catapults and arrestor gear, was the centerpiece of the SDSR.

However, it posed a series of challenges for the BAE Systems-led Aircraft Carrier

Alliance (ACA) that is building the carriers. While the Queen Elizabeth class design has been developed from the outset to enable adaptation for “cats and traps”, the planning assumption under the previous government had been that both vessels would enter service configured for STOVL and/or short rolling, vertical landing (SRVL) operations. Babcock, BAE Systems and Thales UK, as well

as the UK Ministry of Defence (MoD), have begun to mobilize engineering and program teams to study the cost and engineering implications of moving from STOVL/SRVL to CV operations. This work will run over several months, leading to the development of a number of costed options for consideration by the MoD.

Work on the first ship, HMS Queen Elizabeth, is already well underway, and a significant amount of re-engineering work would be required to install a catapult during construction. This suggests that the most likely option is that the program for second-of-class, HMS Prince of Wales, will be modified to receive catapults (to be installed in bow and waist positions) and arrestor gear during construction.

There are three options for the catapult. The first is the C13 steam catapult system that is currently used by the US and French navies on their

Land speed record News feature

An Anglo-French effort to develop a new generation of medium-altitude long endurance (MALE) surveillance unmanned aerial system (UAS) is emerging as a project that could act as a catalyst for international industrial cooperation.

The British and French governments announced the start of a competitive assessment project next year “with a view to new equipment delivery between 2015 and

2020”. Within hours of the announcement by French President Nicolas Sarkozy and UK Prime Minister David Cameron as part of a series of Anglo-French defence and security cooperation treaties, BAE Systems and Dassault Aviation signaled they wanted to cooperate on the project.

Sources close to EADS said the company wanted to participate in the project and was considering proposing an Airbus-style corporate

structure involving BAE Systems, EADS, Dassault, and Finmeccanica, to develop a next-generation European UAS. EADS is already in talks to offer its Talarion UAS to the French, Spanish, and German governments.

A UK Ministry of Defence spokesman said it was also keen to attract international participation in the competition, saying: “The UK will be looking to invite interest from around the world. UAS has been

identified as one of the 10 priority areas for research and technology cooperation. Cooperation will enable the potential sharing of development, support, and training costs, and ensure that our forces can work together. A single solution that fulfills the needs of both nations would therefore be advantageous.”

The spokesman added, “This project is still in the concept phase and as yet no investment decision has been taken. Once approved, the aim would be to launch a jointly funded, competitive assessment phase in 2011. Funding for the MALE UAS Assessment Phase is expected to be a 50:50 UK/French split; however, no formal decisions have as yet been taken.”

The announcement by Cameron and Sarkozy appeared to resolve much of

UK seeks global participation in UAS

Electric catapults for Queen Elizabeth carriers

november/december 2010AerospAceTesTinginTernATionAl.com10 |

Land speed record News feature

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the uncertainty over UAS procurement plans in both France and the UK, but the two leaders gave less firm commitments over further development and production of unmanned combat air systems (UCAS), which might involve developments from BAE Systems’ Taranis and Dassault’s Neuron technology demonstrators. The leaders said the two governments would “jointly assess requirements and options for the next generation of UCAS from 2030 onward.”

They announced that work has already started under the direction of the UK-France High Level Working Group and it would develop over the next two years a joint technological and industrial roadmap. “This could lead to

a decision in 2012 to launch a joint technology and operational demonstration program from 2013 to 2018,” said the two leaders.

The timing of the production phase of the new MALE project in the second half of the decade indicates that both the UK and France will continue to purchase US and Israeli UASs to support the immediate operational needs in Afghanistan. Only five days before the Anglo-French treaty was signed, the UK defence equipment and support minister Peter Luff announced that the UK planned to order and receive up to five additional MQ-9 Reaper UASs from the US manufacturer General Atomics by 2015.

For regular news updates: www.AerospaceTestingInternational.com

carriers, but this is seen as very much yesterday’s technology. It would require a steam generating plant or boiler to be installed in the Queen Elizabeth carriers, even though they have been designed as all-electric ships.

The second option, electromagnetic aircraft launch systems (EMALS), are clearly the UK’s preference because they are cleaner and would require the least amount of work to modify the ships. The US Navy is already at an advanced stage with its EMALS program. US company General Atomics is under contract to deliver the system for its next carrier, the CVN-78 Gerald R. Ford. Aircraft launch tests are expected to begin by the end of 2010 from a full-scale demonstrator system installed at Lakehurst, New Jersey.

The third option is the Electromagnetic Catapult (EMCAT) system proposed by UK-based Converteam, formerly part of Alstom, which is a scaled-up version of its Electromagnetic Kinetic Integrated Technology (EMKIT) technology demonstrator, which was developed to launch unmanned aerial vehicles. The company is continuing to advance EMCAT component development under a £650,000 (US$1 million) contract awarded in 2009 by the MoD and says a full-scale electromagnetic catapult demonstrator could be ready for test within two years with the appropriate MoD investment.

Clearly, the UK’s hunt for a catapult for its new aircraft carriers has just begun, but the fate of the Royal Navy’s carrier strike programme rests on a successful outcome.


When a Roll-Royce Trent 900 engine of a Qantas Airways Airbus A380 blew apart in the skies over Singapore on November 4, it set off a chain reaction of events that may affect future sales of the ‘Super Jumbo’ and Rolls-Royce engines.

Qantas, Rolls-Royce, Airbus and national authorities all launched safety probes in the aftermath of the incident, which caused shares in the engine maker to drop by 10%.

Four days later, Qantas said it had found “slight anomalies” on three A380 engines and was keeping its fleet of six A380s grounded for further checks. Tests have uncovered oil leaks in the engines of three of its grounded A380s.

Singapore Airlines subsequently announced that it would change the engines on three of its 11 Airbus A380

aircraft. The Rolls-Royce engines will be changed for new versions of the same model. The airline said the move was “precautionary, as advised by Rolls-Royce”, but said that oil stains found in its engines were “different to what Qantas had found”.

The Rolls-Royce Trent 900 engine has been installed in more than half of the A380s currently in service. The remainder use an engine manufactured by General Electric and Pratt & Whitney. Their engines have not been implicated in the current safety scare.

On November 12, Rolls-Royce issued a statement saying the incident was specific to the Trent 900 engine and that “investigations have led Rolls-Royce to draw two key conclusions. First, the issue is specific to the Trent 900.

When news emerged in early November that the Eurofighter Typhoon had come top of the Indian Air Force’s technical assessment for the country’s

next-generation multirole combat aircraft, it focused attention on the rapidly changing nature of defense and aerospace exporting.

If the Typhoon clinches the deal against tough opposition from Sweden, Russia and the USA, the aircraft manufacturers EADS, BAE Systems and

Finmeccanica are proposing that India would become the consortium’s third-largest customer and an unofficial “fifth partner” in the project. Thousands of new jobs would also be created in India, including the construction of a new EADS avionics plant. “The Indians would be one of the biggest users of Typhoon, which would give them a vote at the table,” according to one European executive.

It is now evident that emerging major export customers want more than just products. In key growth markets – Brazil, India, Poland, South Korea and Japan – customers are no longer looking just to buy specific products or services, they want to buy the ability to develop their own sovereign capabilities.

Several senior defense industry executives told Aerospace Testing International how the growth in defense and security exports over the coming two decades would be

News feature

A new type of defense procurement

The ramifications of an engine crisis

12 | november/december 2010AerospAceTesTinginTernATionAl.com

News feature

in new markets in Latin America, Eastern Europe and the Far East. Here, customers were demanding innovative approaches from foreign partners. They were not just looking to buy individual items of military hardware or allow licensed local manufacturing. “They want to talk about advanced features, price, politics and overall relationship,” said a senior executive. “They are not just talking about a relationship with industry but a government-to-government, nation-to-nation relationship. The purchase of foreign defense equipment is now seen by these countries as part of national policies to develop their economies, reduce poverty and enhance their position in the world. They are all on a path to a new type of defense procurement. We will be exporting jobs, not products.”

At the same time, they said armed forces in customer countries were demanding a greater understanding of how advanced weaponry worked and could be used in action. A European government official commented that, “In the past our countries sold platforms. This is a lot easier that selling weapon systems, as we do now. It takes time to share with a potential customer what it means for their operational needs to have complex weapon systems in their inventories.”

However, several industry executives warned against the rush to sell and transfer advanced industrial-scale capabilities around the world. “Governments are asking if capability and technology transfers are a risk to our own security,” commented an industry executive. “Also, are we creating new competitors?”

Second, the failure was confined to a specific component in the turbine area of the engine. This caused an oil fire, which led to the release of the intermediate pressure turbine disc.”

The company went on to say, “Our process of inspection will continue and will be supplemented by the replacement of the relevant module according to an agreed program. Rolls-Royce continues to work closely with the investigating authorities. These measures, undertaken in collaboration with Airbus, our Trent 900 customers and the regulators have regrettably led to some reduction in aircraft availability. This program will enable our customers progressively to bring the whole fleet back into

service. Safety continues to be Rolls-Royce’s highest priority.”

The final outcome of the various investigations will be eagerly awaited by the airline and aerospace industries. If a major design fault – rather than a maintenance or operations issue – is identified with the engine that cannot easily be resolved, then Rolls-Royce will have to modify the engines at great cost or in the worst case scenario, withdraw them from use. Also, Rolls-Royce would lose the income that could come from servicing these engines – typically over 40 years – which makes up a big chunk of the engine-maker’s revenue. A lot is at stake while the world waits to find out the full details of what went wrong with Trent 900 engine over Singapore.


| 11 december 2009AerospAceTesTinginTernATionAl.com

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The first test program flown by the US Naval Aviation Center

for Rotorcraft Advancement (NACRA) took a quick, qualitative look at an off-the-shelf device used on general aviation aircraft. NACRA at Naval Air Warfare Center Patuxent River, Maryland, never-theless seeks warfighting Science and Technology (S&T) to make Navy and Marine Corps helicopters and tiltrotors safer, more survivable, affordable, and effective. It looks to partner with indus-try, academia, and the other US armed services to test promising ideas.

NACRA director Doug Isleib notes, “There are a whole lot of labs and lab facilities here at Pax that we can use, depending on the test.” The newest lab-oratory is a Bell UH-1N Twin Huey saved from a desert boneyard and mod-ified with an open systems avionics architecture. NACRA’s T-Rex – Testbed for Rapid Experimentation and Warf-ighter Support – gives Navy and indus-try researchers a platform on which to integrate technologies quickly.

The first technology tested on T-Rex was a decidedly unintegrated Portable Collision Avoidance System (PCAS) from Zaon Flight Systems, evaluated for the Aviation Weapons Systems Require-ments Branch at Marine Corps head-quarters. The passive, standalone air traffic display flew for just 3.5 hours earlier in the year in a metal bracket on the Huey cockpit glare shield. NACRA flight test director and T-Rex pilot Chris Becker explains, “It was a qualitative event to keep response time quick and

The US Naval Aviation Center for Rotorcraft Advancement flies a

retired Marine Corps helicopter to test new technologies. Frank

Colucci looks at the NACRA mission and at future plans for T-Rex –

the testbed for rapid experimentation and warfighter support

> remain efficient. The litmus test was, would I buy this for my own aircraft? The answer is yes. The product is an excellent interim solution.”

NACRA looks for solutions to prob-lems shared by Navy and Marine Corps rotorcraft communities with different aircraft and different missions. Accord-ing to Isleib, “We have a bunch of sources; the near-term ones being the OAGs [Operational Advisory Groups], and the longer-term being S&T objec-tives. Our approach has been to keep eyes on all of them to distill out what we want our focus to be.”

Test focusUS naval aviation has rarely had a rotor-craft focus, and although operations Enduring Freedom and Iraqi Freedom remain largely helicopter wars, Depart-ment of Defense (DoD) investment in new rotorcraft technology remains dwarfed by fixed-wing spending. The cumulative rotorcraft Research, Devel-opment, Test, and Evaluation (RDT&E) budget in 2010 was less than RDT&E funding for the fixed-wing P-8 patrol aircraft alone. While tactical aviators followed a common threat-based flight plan to a fifth-generation fighter, rotor-craft communities competed for scarce resources. New helicopters and tiltrotors now filling fleet squadrons may be due for retirement by 2030 with no better technology to replace them.

NACRA emerged from US Congres-sional guidance in 2005 that called for Navy and Army rotary-wing Centers of

Testing talk

T-Rex discovered

Excellence at Patuxent River, Mary-land, and Redstone Arsenal, Alabama. The Navy Center opened in January 2008 and plays a role in the future ver-tical lift capabilities analysis and joint multirole strategic plan aimed at next-generation rotorcraft. Near-term, NACRA focuses its search for technol-ogy in four areas: digital interoperabil-ity, safety and survivability, total own-ership costs, and future concepts. “A lot of our formal emphasis in the past year is just to get the word out,” says Isleib. A successful industry day last Decem-ber opened the door. “Industry will come to us informally, by email, phone, whatever, with ideas, and we mature them from there.”

NACRA works with the industry in different ways. The PCAS test was a gov-ernment-funded quick look executed without vendor support. A Commercial Service Agreement (CSA) enables tech-nology vendors to lease test time on T-Rex or other assets. A Cooperative Research And Development Agreement (CRADA) teams vendor and government under a template from the Office of Naval Research. According to Brad Schieferdecker, NACRA associate direc-tor for technology development, “It’s designed to be a cost-sharing arrange-ment, but not necessarily a 50-50 cost-sharing. The one thing the CRADA does not do is pay the vendor.” NACRA entered a CRADA with Northrop Grum-man Electronic Systems to make T-Rex the only dedicated maritime S&T test-bed helicopter in the US DoD.

The last UH-1N was delivered to the US Marine Corps in 1979, and the hard-flown Twin Hueys are being replaced by new UH-1Ys. NACRA chose the UH-1N as the platform for its dedicated maritime helicopter technology testbed (US Navy)

14 | november/december 2010AeRoSpACeTeSTiNgiNTeRNATioNAl.CoM

Testing talk

“Operations Enduring Freedom and Iraqi Freedom remain largely helicopter wars”

| 15 november/december 2010AerospAceTesTinginTernATionAl.com

Missile Testing | Ballistic Missile defence

T-Rex systemThe T-Rex UH-1N was taken from Marine Light Attack Helicopter Squad-ron HMLA-169, rebuilt in the Integrated Maintenance Program at Camp Pendle-ton, California, and attached to rotary-wing Air Test and Evaluation Squadron Two One, HX-21 at Patuxent River (see Aerospace Testing, June 2009). HX-21 gives NACRA T-Rex maintainers and supplemental flight crews, and provides additional test aircraft if needed. “In order to stand this up quickly and effi-ciently, we wanted to roll in on existing infrastructure,” notes Isleib.

The UH-1Y, AH-1Z, MH-60R, and other helicopters in HX-21 are fleet- representative aircraft testing applied technology for their communities. With Marine UH-1Ns and Navy SH-60Fs retir-ing from the fleet, NACRA had a choice of S&T testbeds. Although the Huey required less manpower to maintain than the Seahawk, the UH-1N, and SH-60F offered comparable operating costs. “Ulti-mately, we chose the UH-1 because it has some better operating capabilities for the work we’re going to do,” explains Schief-

erdecker. The Huey came equipped with a MIL-STD-1553B databus, three Rock-well Collins ARC-210 multiband/multi-mode radios, a FLIR Systems Brite Star forward-looking infrared mission kit, and weapons stations.

In early October, T-Rex was being modified by the air vehicle modification and instrumentation specialists at HX-21. A formal Critical Design Review pre-ceded construction of avionics racks, quick-disconnect panels, and antennas.

“We made the choice to follow the sys-tems engineering process in designing what we want to put into this aircraft,” says Schieferdecker.

Under the CRADA, Northrop Grum-man will provide a free-standing Digital Avionics Suite (DAS) for the T-Rex cabin. The 112 lb DAS is one-half of the inte-grated system in the new AH-1Z attack helicopter and provides an open systems architecture with non-proprietary hard-ware and software interfaces for third-party experiments. “The racks and architecture are what take a fleet aircraft and turn it into a testbed,” observes Becker. DAS will take flight data from the T-Rex bus, but it remains separate from the unmodified Huey cockpit to maximize test flexibility. The test suite has its own 1553B, ARINC-429, Ether-net, and RS232 buses for test data. The DAS generates video outputs including DVI graphics, and it merges and over-lays video and graphics using an open graphics library.

T-Rex test imagery and data will appear on two 10.4in multifunctional displays identical to those in Marine

Testing talk

16 | november/december 2010AeRospAceTesTinginTeRnATionAl.com

Top: T-Rex will use key elements of the northrop grumman Digital Avionics suite in the cockpit of the AH-1Z attack helicopter (Ted carlson)

Bottom: pcAs from Zaon Flight systems was tested to evaluate a collision avoidance system

“The open system computer on T-Rex integrates Harris FliteScene moving map software rather than the TAMAC map in fleet aircraft”

Testing talk

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avionics rack, and shipped the rack and DAS to HX-21 for installation and flight checks. Although it will not have access to proprietary test data of third-party suppliers, Northrop Grumman will remain an active participant in most T-Rex projects to keep open systems hard-ware and software synchronized with changing user requirements.

Current T-Rex plans leave the Huey cockpit unchanged. “We don’t have anything designed in terms of upgrades to the cockpit,” says Becker. “That’s something we’re interested in and thinking about.”

Corps AH-1Z and UH-1Y cockpits. The T-Rex DAS centers on a second-genera-tion AH-1Z mission computer. Both the AH-1Z and the UH-1Y use the same com-puter hardware and operational flight program software, but the Z-model con-figuration gives T-Rex added flexibility with the attack helicopter weapons mod-ule and stores management functions. The open system computer on T-Rex integrates Harris FliteScene moving map software rather than the TAMAC map in fleet aircraft. Open systems architecture also enabled Northrop Grumman to inte-grate its own LN-251 embedded Global Positioning System/fiber-optic inertial navigator in place of the Honeywell H-764 Embedded GPS/inertial navigator on the fleet helicopters.

Under the T-Rex CRADA, Northrop Grumman provides DAS hardware and 1,000 hours of engineering and techni-cal support. The industry partner tested T-Rex equipment in its rotorcraft avion-ics innovation laboratory in Woodland Hills, California, which performed a functional fit-check in the T-Rex

A UH-1N Huey with Marine Light Attack Helicopter Squadron 169 lands at Camp Dwyer, Afghanistan, Sept 5, 2009. T-Rex was drawn from HMLA-169 after the last deployment

Missile Testing | Ballistic Missile defenceTesting talk

Fly and tryThe PCAS quick look required only the mounting bracket, cockpit power, and an audio connection to the T-Rex inter-com system. It was driven by high-level Marine Corps concerns about mid-air collisions and the conflicts created by tiltrotors mixing rotary- and fixed-wing flight in the same air traffic environ-ment. “I think now that we’re bringing the V-22 into our inventory, it casts a whole new light on air traffic operations around the airfield,” notes Becker.

The US$1,500 PCAS XRX reads the returns of aircraft transponders inter-rogated by airfield radars and other air-craft. The T-Rex test was a precursor to trials on the V-22. “I wanted it to remain quick and efficient and provide the users with a rapid response,” says Becker. “I wrote a test plan with emphasis on qual-itative assessment. Qualitative assess-ment steers me away from aircraft instrumentation and a more laborious data assessment.”

The NACRA test team sought no assistance from Zaon Flight Systems. “I merely went on their website and down-loaded their operator’s manual and took it from there,” says Becker. Hovering flight tests at St Mary’s County airport and other local airfields were preceded by ground testing, two hours beside the runway looking at the handheld display and listening to the tower radio. A slightly more quantitative follow-up had an H-60 from HX-21 with an air traffic transponder fly at different angles above and below the T-Rex.

Successful PCAS trials on T-Rex will put the interim collision avoidance aid in a V-22 cockpit, albeit on the ground. NACRA wants to see if the passive air traffic detector works through the RF-filtering windshield of the combat tiltrotor. “If it performs the way it did, then there’s merit for a flight test,” says Becker.

After its DAS modifications, T-Rex will resume flights in November with the Tactile Situational Awareness System from Chesapeake Technologies. The tac-tile system uses vest and seat cushion transducers to augment visual and aural displays and cue pilots to drift in brown-out hovers. T-Rex will not fly in brown-

on T-Rex to find an off-the-shelf tech-nology to prevent controlled flight into terrain accidents.

Plans for 2011 include tests of the joint multimission electro-optical sen-sor system, tactical mid-air collision avoidance system, tactical situational awareness system, a tactical information system from Bell, and an electronic war-fare system controller from Terma. The NACRA testbed will play early next year in a joint capability technology demon-stration of CORPORAL – the Collabora-tive On-line Reconnaissance Provider Operationally Responsive Attack Link.

The networked helicopter will send imagery from Directed Infrared Coun-termeasures sensors, the Brite Star FLIR, and other sensors to other plat-forms. A follow-on demonstration with Marine Air Weapons and Tactics Squadron One will put the system in an operational setting at Yuma in early 2011. Isleib observes, “If we can dem-onstrate a way fairly quickly and cost-effectively to get digital interoperability into today’s aircraft, that would be a real service.” z


out conditions, but it will exercise the system with night vision devices under the watch of a safety pilot. The same tactile cues could cue pilots to ground-fire. NACRA previously tested the sys-tem with 10 pilots in a roll-in, roll-out cockpit owned by the Manned Flight Simulator department at Patuxent River. Isleib says, “We’re just now figuring out if it enhances the pilots’ situational awareness or creates overload.” NACRA also plans to evaluate the Sandel ST3400H Ground Proximity Warning System and Helicopter Terrain Aware-ness Warning System (GPWS/HTAWS)

Top: The T-rex helicopter was drawn from a fleet squadron and rebuilt at camp pendleton, california

Bottom: The Zaon pcAs installed in T-rex cockpit

BN

086

8 –




brüel & kjær







VIBRATIONTESTINg






10-047_BN0868-11_Aerospace_Leaders in Acoustic and Vibration Testing_230x300.indd 1 11-10-2010 12:45:54

by Christopher hounsfield

The Sukhoi SuperjeT haS been deScribed aS The moST imporTanT civil aircrafT program of The ruSSian aeroSpace induSTry. aS iT hiTS anoTher major mileSTone, chief deSigner alexander pimenov TalkS abouT cerTificaTion

The Sukhoi Superjet 100 is having a remarkable and major impact on the mid-size civilian jet market, as it marches through all the various certification criteria. It has completed high-intensity radiation field exposure in Italy and flight-management system tests.

One of the f lying prototypes, number 95004, has been undergoing radiation field tests at Turin, to ensure that the twinjet is not susceptible to external electromagnetic inter-ference. In October, the airliner concluded crosswind handling evaluations in Keflavik, Iceland, during which one of the prototype jets confirmed design characteristics with crosswind speeds of up to 29kts. Again, just at the tail end of November, Canadian and Rus-sian certification authorities, flight tested the CMA-9000 flight management system (FMS) on the Superjet 100.

Orders are coming in from Asia and across Europe. In fact, this aircraft is proving to be quite an enigma. Alexander Pimenov is vice-president, design department, SSJ program and its chief designer. In the beginning of 2005 he joined Sukhoi Civil Aircraft, being appointed as a vice-president on aircraft development and the designer of SSJ100. He says the latest pri-orities have been to ensure full compliance of the product to the certification which means monitoring the test record of f light, bench, static, and fatigue programs to implement the necessary changes in the aircraft configuration, based on the test results.

There are actually four major testing sites: the Central Aerodynamic Institute (TsAGI) for structural testing; the Siberian Scientific Research Institute of Aviation for fatigue test-ing; the Sukhoi Civil Aircraft Flight test center for flight testing; and ‘Electronic Bird’ for a series of works on system testing and flight test support. The engineering team works coordi-nates with all major testing sites, providing the required engineering support in the overall campaign and preparing the documentation required for the certification authorities.

On-ground certificationThe biggest and latest breakthrough with the aircraft has been the conclusion of the ‘on-ground’ systems certification. The overall pro-gram, incorporated 58 test cases.

All the main aircraft parts, including fuse-lage, wing, vertical and horizontal stabilizers, lift devices, landing gear attachment points, pylon and power plant attachment points, as well as doors, flight deck and passenger cabin glazing and equipment fitting, have been sub-jected to extensive on-ground strength testing at TsAGI lab.

In compliance with the certification require-ments, the airframe components were exten-sively tested to study the behavior of the air-frame structure. The parts were exposed to different loads up to 150% more than those experienced in normal operating conditions. All aircraft components performed at the expected level.

“It was a big milestone for the SSJ100 pro-gram as structural the testing program, which had started in October 2008, was one of the

Steppe up

20 | november/december 2010AerOspAceTesTinginTernATiOnAl.cOm

Sukhoi Superjet | ruSSia

Russia | Sukhoi Superjet


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Russia | Sukhoi Superjet


nents under testing. It increased the accuracy of the landing gear bench testing, essential for the safe operation of the aircraft.

“We also had the unique testing of the windshields for bird resistance in extreme weather conditions, which let us evaluate the windshield strength. We cooled the outside windshield surface up to a temperature of –40°C and, in the opposite case, heated the outside windshield surface up to +50°C, using the thermostatic control of the bird-hit area. At the same time the temperature inside the aircraft was +20°C.”

Cold weatherPimenov (left) says: “The testing ran rather smoothly without any serious problems. The extreme weather testing in Yakutsk went with minor problems which were successfully resolved. For the whole cold weather testing session we kept the aircraft outdoors, out of the hangar and, with all the procedures fulfilled in accordance with the requirements, we proved the aircraft airworthiness at the expected level.”

achieved the maximum relative velocity (Vdf). “The implementation of this methodology

in practices of f lutter testing made it possible to evaluate the limits of elastic stability of the aircraft with unprecedented accuracy,” explains Pimenov.

“We gave special attention to landing-gear fatigue and static testing. The static testing was held in Toronto and fatigue testing was carried out in the Novosibirsk Scientific Research insti-tute of Aviation. For the first time in testing practices we used a torsion-box simulator, sim-ulating real loads on the landing gear compo-

most complicated and time consuming goals in the overall campaign,” says Pimenov. “Its suc-cessful finalization means that the aircraft con-firmed the required structural integrity.

“Along with on-ground structural testing , the SSJ100 successfully accomplished the flight program, confirming the aircraft’s strength characteristics. Now we’ve accomplished 90% of the certification campaign required to obtain AR IAC Type certificate.

“The prototype has accumulated 2,278 flight hours in 959 flights. In October 2010 the aircraft successfully performed side-wind testing in Iceland, a series of tests for CATII landing, which is enough to get the ‘Type Cer-tification’. Preparation to CAT IIIA testing is in progress. Now we are finalizing avionics safety failure testing, EMC, HIRF with emergency evacuation testing to follow at the earliest. We expect to obtain The AR IAC Type certificate in December and right after the deliveries will take place.”’

The overall program, developed by Sukhoi, incorporated 58 test cases. All the main aircraft parts, including fuselage, wing, vertical and horizontal stabilizers, lift devices, landing gear attachment points, pylon and power plant attachment points, as well as doors, flight-deck and passenger-cabin glazing and equipment fit-ting, were subjected to extensive on-ground strength testing at the Central Aerodynamic Institute (TsAGI) lab.

In compliance with the certification require-ments, the airframe components were exten-sively tested to study the behavior of the air-frame structure.

Aircraft ordersTo date, there are more than 155 SSJ100 aircraft on order, with the latest order from Thailand’s Orient Thai airline which announced the pur-chase of 12 Sukhoi Superjet-100/95Bs.

“Recently we’ve won the bidding for the supply of the aircraft to UTAir, which is the leading Russian regional carrier and now we’re starting contractual work to define the com-mercial details of the order,” reports Pimenov. “We’ve got 86 orders from non-Russian carri-ers but I wouldn’t say that it somehow affected the test program.

“From the very beginning our goal was to make the SSJ100 a fully marketable product. The certification process on the Russian and European certification standards is going con-currently. We’ve been working with EASA since 2006. EASA has elaborated a number of ‘Criti-cal Review Items’ basing on AR IAC certifica-tion basis document, so their experts are involved in familiarization programs concern-ing these items.

“For example, the EASA team took part in a series of flights dedicated to big angles of attack, handling qualities and artificial icing. Its experts also took part in hydraulic system-pressurization checks and emergency slide ejection testing. We expect to get EASA certi-fication in 2011.”

In fact, Sukhoi initiated several new test ini-tiatives unique to the aircraft program, primar-ily an innovative methodology of the aircraft flutter testing. The SSJ100 actually became the first aircraft in flutter research practices that

All the main aircraft parts, including fuselage, wing, vertical and horizontal stabilizers, lift devices, landing gear attachment points, pylon and power plant attachment points, as well as doors, flight deck and passenger cabin glazing and equipment fitting, have been subjected to extensive on-ground strength testing at TsAgi lab

Fly-by-wireSSJ100 has a fully digital f ly-by-wire system. It features a fully electronic f ly-by-wire con-trol system for piloting, landing-gear exten-sion and retraction, and a break system to prove its high maintainability and weight perfection. The architecture does away with mechanical redundancy. The horizontal sta-bilizer is also controlled by f ly-by-wire, lead-ing to stabilizer optimal size and reduction of aerodynamic and trim resistance. It is algo-rithmically protected against tail /runway collision induced by the pilot. The Thales-designed avionics open architecture is based on integrated modular technology.

“In the regional and narrow body segment it’s a significant evolution as no airplanes, apart from the wide-body A380, enjoy the fully digital f ly-by-wire system without mechanical back-up,” explains Pimenov. “The SSJ100’s fly-by-wire is a major aircraft control loop which is based on a triple computer, each part of which is built on a dissimilar pairing of software and hardware, operating on differ-ent processors and operational systems. The back-up control loop is based on two dissimi-lar pairs of computers. Our fly-by-wire is a jointly produced by the Central Aerodynamic Institute (TsAGI) with its valuable input into


Sukhoi Superjet | RUSSIA

“The horizontal stabilizer is also controlled by fly-by-wire, leading to stabilizer optimal size and reduction of aerodynamic and trim resistance”

International collaboration“All modern aerospace programs are global. And we are global as well. Our strategic partner is Alenia Aeronautica, a Finmeccanica company. Sukhoi and Alenia are the shareholders of Sukhoi Civil Aircraft Company (SCAC). We have 32 managers from Alenia Aeronautca integrated into SCAC team. Alenia is extensively involved into noise and HIRF testing programs. The testing is done at Cuneo-Levaldigi airport. The methodology of HIRF testing was elaborated by the SCAC engineering team in collaboration with Alenia Aeronautica and relevant certification authorities. The SaM146 engine certification campaign which was successfully finished in summer 2010 was the joint effort of Snecma and NPO Saturn. The engine has both AR IAC and EASA type certificates.

“Speaking of the systems, we team up with 30 first tier suppliers who are all leaders in their fields. The systems were initially tested at the test benches at our suppliers’ facilities and then in aircraft-system combination. If required, all our suppliers support the flight and on-ground system testing programs. For example, recently we’ve tested the flight management system not only with Thales and the Canadian Marconi Company but with the Canadian authorities on board too.

“Canadian and Russian pilots have made three joint flights as well as six sessions on the Electronic Bird test bench to evaluate the operational suitability of the system. To evaluate the system capability, to stick to the trajectory in the vertical plane, the experts conducted thorough checks of vertical navigation function, ensuring high safety performance of the aircraft in dense air traffic operation.

the theory, the SCAC engineering team, and Liebherr Aerospace.

“The f ly-by-wire is very comfortable for pilots,” emphasizes Pimenov. “The system understands and predicts the pilots’ intentions. It has got the most advanced system restricting incorrect pilot actions, thus minimizing human factor impact on the safe performance of the aircraft. It has an absolute limit on a big angle of attack parameter, so that a pilot can’t bring the aircraft into stall. Pitch and bank, g-load, and maximum and minimum velocities are automatically limited. Pitch angle is restricted even at take-off.”

Currently Sukhoi is finalizing avionics safety-failure testing, EMC, and HIRF, with emergency-evacuation testing to follow shortly. The company also plans to conduct a series of route proving tests. Ground handling at the airports will be performed in compliance with the operational documentation.

“I think everything is in place and we are moving towards the finalization of the certifica-tion program campaign required to get the AR IAC certification,” says Pimenov. “Route prov-ing tests are aimed at confirmation of reliability of onboard systems in an operational environ-ment and the feasibility of aircraft handling with standard airport ground devices.”

“After the major certification campaign is done, we are planning a series of tests to enhance the operational capabilities of the air-craft. It will be CAT IIIA and P-RNAV testing, scheduled for 2011.”

noise trialsNoise flight tests were completed with Alenia in real-time. “Thanks to telemetry equipment interfacing with onboard aircraft testing instrumentation, the noise relevant f light parameters, including the aircraft tra-jectory, were shown in real-time to f light test specialists sitting in the Alenia Aeronautica Control Room located in Turin’s Caselle airport,” says Pimenov.

“After the flight, the data was analyzed in the same Alenia laboratories to provide a quick-look assessment of the aircraft’s noise characteristics. Since meteo data are essential for noise tests, both on-ground and in-flight measurements were taken during the tests, the latter by using a helicopter, equipped with a special probe.

“We initiated the NDT Program. We began testing the program in 2010 on the fatigue air-craft in Novosibirsk Scientific Research Insti-tute of Aviation, as well as at technical inspec-tions on f light prototypes involved in the certification campaign. The program will be incorporated into the corresponding section of the maintenance manual for the SSJ100.

The Superjet 100 has been described as the Russian aerospace industry’s most important and successful civil aircraft program. What does the future hold?

“We are looking into the further develop-ment of the SSJ100 model line,” says Pimenov. “The possible evolution will be done within a 110-130 seats segment and we are evaluating all the possible variants now. One more perspec-tive development could be a business jet but it’s too early to make any definite statements.” z

The parts were exposed to different loads up to 150% more than those experienced in normal operating conditions

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by christopher hounsfield

EurocoptEr Vostok has dEliVErEd thE first Ec135 hElicoptEr EquippEd with russian-built aVionics to airlinE GazpromaVia

Eurocopter Vostok has delivered the first EC135 T2i helicopter, the first of a purchase contract of eight EC135 T2+, twin-engine Turbomeca helicopters in a six-passenger configuration, to Russian airline Gazpromavia at Eurocopter’s facility in Donauwörth, Germany.

For the first time, a Eurocopter helicopter has been equipped with Russian-built mission avionics, produced by Transas Aviation, an avi-onics manufacturer based in St Petersburg. In the scope of this industrial cooperation project, Eurocopter installed a Glonass receiver, a TDS-12 monitor with digital maps, and the terrain awareness system TTA-12 (TAWS). The applica-tion is approved by EASA and IAC AR certifica-tion authorities and from now on is available for

Made in RussiaRussian avionics – EC135 | russia

26 | NOVEMBER/DEcEMBER 2010AerospAceTesTinginTernATionAl.com

any Eurocopter customer. At the handover cer-emony in Germany, Eurocopter Vostok CEO Laurence Rigolini said, “We are happy to intro-duce for the first time such a well-proven prod-uct as EC135 in the regular commercial opera-tions in Russia. The mission is very challenging, but EC135 with Russian content will perfectly meet the needs of Gazpromavia.”

Dr Arnaud Coville is the EH135 senior man-ager and EC135 program manager, avionics for Eurocopter Deutschland GmbH, based in Donauwörth. He talks to ATI.

What new avionics upgrades have been installed?The avionics package that has been added is a GPS/Glonass navigation system coupled to a HTAWS [helicopter terrain awareness and

Dr Arnaud coville is the eH135 senior manager and ec135 program manager

Why was the upgrade outsourced to Russia?The Russian market is a key market for Euro-copter. The integration of Russian technology on board the EC135 was chosen to enhance Eurocopter’s compliance to Russian operators’ expectations and specificities for the perfor-mance and safety of their operations, but also to provide avionics synergies to Russian opera-tors’ fleets and ease their training and logistics. The experience we will accumulate with this Russian avionics could also open the door to further cooperation.

Why was Transas chosen?The choice of Transas was because it responded to a set of factors: the local Russian content, the existing relationship Transas had with the big-gest Russian helicopter operators, the similarity to Mil Mi-17 solutions. Furthermore, the overall available technology at Transas, its organization and the entrepreneurial style of the Transas management were key factors for engaging together in the cooperation.

Can you describe the test and development program?The integration of the Transas equipment was a larger project, including several steps to vali-date the compatibility with the helicopter (safety, electric, temperature, vibrations, human machine interface, electromagnetic compatibil-ity, and so on) and verify the proper function of the equipment. This started with computer design activities, continued with bench tests and ended with an extensive ground and flight test program. The equipment has been certified with EASA according to the same procedure as other mission equipment integrated on the EC135. In particular, all the HTAWS functions have been tested in flight and several changes had to be made to the systems to fit the capa-bilities and the functions of the EC135. A spe-cific instrument panel has been developed for the configuration.

Russia | Russian avionics – EC135

| 27 NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2010AeRospACeTesTinginTeRnATionAl.Com

TSS GPS/Glonass navigation systemThe device is an IFR-certified airborne GPS/Glonass navigation system.

The display is a color LCD with 640 x 480 pixels. The TSS includes a removable compact flash memory module with a navigation database and custom data.

GPS/Glonass signals are received by AT1675 antenna.

The TSS complies with all the TSO-C129 and KT-34-01 requirements for classes A1, B1, and C1, the RNP 1 and RNP 5 requirements, and includes a number of functions for more convenient handling.

warning system] and a multifunction display including a Dmap function. The references used were TDS-12 with integrated Dmap, TSS and TTA-12H of Transas. Beyond that, the key issue for Eurocopter is the safety of the helicop-ter. There is a lot of development currently on HTAWS and the FAA is going to make HTAWS equipment mandatory for some operations.

The technology is available at Transas and the evaluation has shown that the combination of GPS and Glonass increases the accuracy of the positioning mainly due to the number of satellites seen (GPS and Glonass), and the TAWS has been rated as high end in compari-son with other solutions. In addition to this package, the integration of the Transas Search-light TSL1600 is in progress and should be finalized soon.

Eurocopter VostokEurocopter Vostok, a 100% wholly owned subsidiary of Eurocopter SAS, was created in 2006 to provide sales and customer support and to implement fleet follow-up in Russia and the CIS. More than 70 Eurocopter helicopters are flying over Russia and more than 50 in CIS countries, bringing to Eurocopter Group a 70% share of the Russian gas turbine market among Western turbine engine helicopters.

Russian avionics – EC135 | RUSSIA

“There was good communication between Eurocopter and Transas to solve issues”

Above: Gazpromavia is one of the main helicopter operators in Russia, with the fleet of 108 rotary-wing aircraft mostly manufactured in Russia

Right: The Russian variation Glonass cockpit system

28 | NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2010AeRospAceTesTinGinTeRnATionAl.com

How will the program move forward regarding maintenance?Eurocopter will finalize the delivery of the heli-copters as per the contract with Gazpromavia and propose the Russian equipment to other operators from the Russian/CIS market. The main restriction to go to a wider market is the after-sales service network of Transas for that equipment, which is today only available in Russia. As Andrei S. Ovcharenko, CEO of Gaz-promavia, mentioned, Gazpromavia is inter-ested in further cooperation with Eurocopter in training and simulation and maintenance.

Have there been any major technical problems and how were they overcome?In every development program, the novelty bears some risks and problems to solve. They range from difficult customs, import, and export of Russian avionics equipment into the EU, language and cultural differences, differ-ences in the certification and operation rules, to defect equipment and changes in the software parameters or settings.

In the end, there has been a list of changes performed to adapt the Transas products to the EC135. In particular, as the TAWS was primar-ily tuned for the Mil Mi-17 and the EC135 is more agile than the Mi-17, the triggering of alarms had to be changed to suit the perfor-mance of the EC135 and avoid interference with the rest of the avionics.

There was no big issue and there was very good communication between Eurocopter and Transas to solve the issues. Some specialists from Transas came to Germany to finalize the integration. Finally, a good team spirit and the willingness to make it work were the keys to success. There was trust at the management level that we would find a win-win situation,

enough to overcome the difficulties and be resilient when facing problems.

How does this affect the future and what happens next?Eurocopter is working to have a satisfied cus-tomer in Gazpromavia. We hope this will affect the future positively.

After the delivery of the helicopters to Gaz-promavia, the company will first train its pilots on the EC135 in the Moscow area before dis-patching the EC135 to the operational bases. Of

course, we will do everything to convince Gaz-promavia of the quality of our helicopters and that they will enable Gazpromavia to be more efficient in its work. We hope that the coopera-tion with the airline on simulation, training, and maintenance will materialize soon and that it will be convinced of the added value brought by our helicopters and purchase some more.

With a broader view, it is to be expected that following the results of the IHST, the Russian authorities will at some point in time request the installation of HTAWS systems in helicop-ters to enhance safety, and for political reasons promote the use of the Glonass system. We are ready with the EC135 to support these require-ments that enhance the safety of the helicopter operations. From there we can take further steps, but that is too early to disclose. z

EC135 and the coldThe twin-engine EC135 is a highly sophisticated, multipurpose helicopter. To date, Eurocopter has delivered more than 850 EC135s to customers in 40 countries. For Russia, the Transas equipment was qualified down to -40°C/°F during the cold weather program.

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by Tim ripley

Tim Ripley visiTs WoodfoRd, UK, To TalK To The flighT TesT Team of The Bae sysTems NimRod mRa4 maRiTime paTRol aiRcRafT, a poliTical hoT poTaTo

When UK Prime Minister David Cameron announced as part of his Strategic Defense and Security Review (SDSR) the cancelation of the troubled Royal Air Force Nimrod MRA4 project on October 19, 2010, it was not a big surprise. The project to build a next-generation maritime patrol aircraft had long been associated with technical problems, cost overruns, and delays, so it appeared to be an easy target for a new Prime Minister wanting to make a break with what he sees as the failed defense procurement policies of the previous Labour government.

When the National Audit Office published its annual report on UK major procurement projects in October 2010 it reported that the Nimrod MRA4 was now £789 million (US$1.2 billion) over budget and would be nine years late entering service.

Only a few weeks before Cameron’s fateful announcement, Aerospace Testing International vis-ited the center of Nimrod MRA4 production at BAE Systems’ Woodford site in Cheshire, UK, to talk to the aircraft designers and flight test team. They looked back at the history of the aircraft and problems encountered building the successor to the RAF’s old Nimrod MR2 aircraft. Out on the factory floor, eight MRA4s were in varying state of assembly and with a number of aircraft only weeks away from beginning acceptance flight tri-als, the bad times for Nimrod appeared to be well and truly in the past. With the last aircraft due to be delivered to the RAF in the spring of 2012, Bill Ovel, BAE Systems chief test pilot for large air-craft, talked about a “fantastic atmosphere” among the 1,000-strong workforce as the manufacturing phase neared its conclusion. This spirit of opti-mism would soon be dashed.

MRA4 is bornThe seeds of the problems with the MRA4 were sewn in July 1996 when the then-Con-servative government selected the bid by Brit-ish Aerospace for its Nimrod 2000 proposal. This was based around the recycling of 21 Nimrod MR2 fuselages and several other major structures into newly designated MRA4 aircraft. A tight deadline to get the new aircraft into service meant development work on the new design was launched in parallel with pro-duction work to strip down the old fuselages and begin final assembly.

Paul Grady, BAE systems engineer director of large aircraft and chief engineer on MRA4, who has worked on the MRA4 since 1998, described during our site visit the commitment to build the aircraft in parallel as ‘a fundamen-tal flaw’ in the project.

“We were committed to build 21 aircraft before we had flown a prototype,” he said. “The assumption in the pre-contract period that we could derive maturity from MR2 was over opti-mistic too. The aircraft configuration had changed so much that we could not fully read across. There were no grandfather rights between the two aircraft, which bore only pass-ing resemblance to each other. People think this was just an upgrade but it is fundamentally a completely new aircraft, with certification and structural changes.”

He says the turning point in the program was the emergence of ‘check stress’ issues that delay first flight of aircraft PA1.

“The margin of error was not big enough” conceded Grady. “These had to be model loaded to check reserve factors and this then identified areas of the aircraft that need strengthening – mainly around the pressure

Up in the air?

Nimrod MRA4

30 | november/december 2010AeRospAceTesTinginTeRnATionAl.coM

Nimrod MRA4


Nimrod MRA4

“We have demonstrated really significant maturity of aircraft prior to MRTS compared with most military aircraft where there is a lot of overlap”

Above: Waiting for engines to be fitted, a Nimrod MRA4 inside the hanger where Britain’s iconic Lancaster and Vulcan bombers were built

32 | november/december 2010AeRospAceTesTiNgiNTeRNATioNAL.coM

The heart of the Nimrod MRA4 was an open architecture mission system

A Nimrod MR2 fuselage stripped down and waiting to move down the MRA4 assembly line at Woodford

f loors of the fuselage. Then they need certify-ing for flight.” These problems were emerging at the same time the stripping and recondi-tioning of the old MR2 fuselages was running over cost. Another MRA4 veteran, Alan Bezar, currently the f light test manager, said corro-sion was the main problem. “It was more than anticipated,” he said.

“Originally we did not have the chance to select the best airframes because we were going to put all the aircraft through the pro-cess and the RAF wanted to keep the best airframes, to keep their in-service MR2 fleet going as long as possible.”

From 1999-2003, these issues almost brought the MRA4 project to a halt. John Weston, who was then British Aerospace/BAE Systems chief executive, described MRA4 as the biggest problem he faced during his time running the UK’s biggest defense company. BAE Systems was hemorrhaging money on the original fixed-price MRA4 contract and it had to renegotiate the contract three times up to 2003. This culminated in a stop order being given to production until the problems with the design had been resolved.

“From 2003 we worked to establish matu-rity of the design before we committed to production in 2006,” said Grady. “Then we could see a way through so we were not rede-signing the whole aircraft while we manufac-turing them. After that the impact on the aircraft involved changes to software, not major structural changes.”

Test flightsWith the new program structure in place, work on the MRA4 design accelerated and first flight was finally achieved in August 2004. However,

the aircraft was not yet out of the woods, according to Ovel, who co-piloted PA1 on its first flight. He had more than 20 years’ experi-ence on the MR2 before joining the MRA4 project in 1998.

“The MR2 had interesting stall characteris-tics,” observed Ovel. “The shape of MRA4 and MR2’s wings were very similar. So we were aware that the stall issues could be the same on MRA4.”

Ovel explained that the MRA4’s wings were 12ft longer than the old MR2, and its ailerons were further from the center of aircraft.

“The certification base changed. The MR2 used the old Comet’s civil stall standard. Now we have the international Joint Airworthiness Requirement 25 for stall characteristics. The customer wanted [the MRA4] to meet both.”

He said the company raised the stall ‘chal-lenges’ before the first flight: “There was no evidence before we flew. We had to fly to see if it would happen. On flight five we looked at

stalling. First we were told we did not meet JAR25 in terms of stall identification. So we knew we needed to work to meet the stall (requirements),” he explained.

This involved the design and fitting of extra strakes to the rear of the MRA4 fuselage, fol-lowed by flight testing, to remedy the problem at still more cost.

Budget squeezeWhile these problems were being addressed by BAE Systems engineers at Woodford and elsewhere, the MRA4 was not coming under threat from Treasury (finance ministry) bud-get cutters. The 2003 new production agree-ment cut the number of aircraft to be con-verted to 18 after the Ministry of Defence was told it could not expect any more money to bail out the program. When the £1.1 billion (US$1.8 billion) production contract came to be signed in 2006, the money squeeze con-tinued and only enough could be found to

| 33november/december 2010AerospAceTesTinginTernATionAl.com

Above: Take off has now been terminated. one of the final test flights from Woodford before the mrA4 was cancelled in october 2010 (BAe systems)

left: The nimrod mrA4’s cockpit was full of 21st century technology linking its fight systems to the aircraft’s mission systems in the rear of the aircraft (Tim ripley)

Nimrod MRA4

BAE statement:“We can confirm that the company has received a letter from the UK Ministry of Defence terminating the contract for the provision of nine Nimrod MRA4 aircraft. We are now considering the implications of the letter for the company, our employees, and our suppliers”

build 12 aircraft. This would now involve the processing of nine more MR2 airframes and the conversion of the three development air-craft to production standard. The first pro-duction aircraft were now scheduled to be delivered between 2009 and 2012, when the last MR2 would be retired.

A further cash crisis in 2008 forced the Ministry of Defence to cancel the conversion of the three development aircraft to save £76 million (US$121 million). There were moves in 2008 by BAE Systems to offer the redun-dant development aircraft to be converted into signals intelligence gathering aircraft to replace the RAF Nimrod R1s, but the US-made Boeing RC-135 Rivet Joints were selected. In a more ominous development, to save money, the Ministry of Defence deferred

the signing of the MRA4 support contract to put off committing money to begin setting up the logistic and maintenance infrastructure at the proposed MRA4 main operating base at RAF Kinloss.

The loss of Nimrod MR2 XV230 over Afghanistan in September 2006 with the loss of all 14 of its crew added to the pressure on the MRA4 program, and the subsequent inquiries into the crash tarnished the name of Nimrod. It was clear that MR2 would not last in service to meet the 2012 retirement date. In December 2009, the Ministry of Defence announced the retirement of the MR2 by March 2010 and a dramatic slow-down of entry into service of the MRA4 so that an initial operating capability would now not be achieved until 2012. The RAF would

now have a two year gap in its maritime patrol capability.

This was just as BAE Systems was in the process of handing over the first production aircraft, PA4, to the RAF to allow initial f light training of the first cadre of instructors, and was awaiting the awarding of its military release to service (MRTS) certification in the summer of 2010.

During Aerospace Testing International’s visit to Woodford the BAE Systems team expressed confidence that the technical problems of the MRA4 were behind them. Final assembly was moving ahead and the last MR2 fuselage had entered the production process.

“We have demonstrated really significant maturity of aircraft prior to MRTS compared with most military aircraft where there is a lot of overlap,” confided Grady, who com-pared the MRA4 to Eurofighter Typhoon project, for which development activity is ongoing and continuing even though the air-craft has entered RAF service.

The Woodford site was due to shut in 2012. It is now expected to close earlier after the government scrapped plans to build new Nimrod planes.

Ovel was set to retire from BAE Systems later in the summer and made his last f light on a MRA4 in September 2010, taking the aircraft to the Guernsey airshow. In a highly prophetic comment, he exclaimed, “We should not have called it Nimrod – that was our biggest mistake”. z

Large spending cuts across the UK government were announced in October 2010, so it came as no surprise that the Ministry of Defence budget will be cut by 8% over the next four years. However, Peter Luff, Minister for Defence Equipment, Support and Technology, revealed in a speech at the Chatham House think-tank in London in November that defense science and technology (S&T) spending would avoid major spending reductions.

“Because of the priority we expect to see defense S&T rise slightly in cash terms over the Comprehensive Spending Review period,” he said. “This is not perfect – I would like to see the S&T budget rise in my department, not least to compensate for the big reductions made by the last government. But this is as good a result as anyone could reasonably expect.”

Luff confirmed that the ministry would publish a White Paper (government report) next spring that will formalize the coalition government’s defense and security industrial and technological policy for the five years until the next strategic review.

He said defense research enabled the British armed forces to improve their understanding of threats and opportunities, to generate or adapt technology to provide improved equipment, ways of operating, and countermeasures and to be an intelligent customer when the UK buys new military capability.

Defense capabilityLuff said the “absolute imperative” of UK defense science and technology policy was “protecting our mission in Afghanistan; and setting a path to a coherent and affordable defense capability in 2020 and beyond.

“Defense science and technology has escaped bigger cuts because advanced military research and development gives a critical advantage over potential adversaries, and is saving peoples’ lives, it also helped the Ministry of Defence deliver better value for money and the government believed it could lead the UK’s economic recovery,” he said.

Civilian scientists and analysts embedded with the UK Armed Forces on operations in

Afghanistan are also helping to develop and integrate improved protective measures and mission-critical capabilities. Luff highlighted the work of engineers from Ferranti Technolo-gies and AgustaWestland – assisted by scien-tists at the government’s Defence Science and Technology Laboratory – who have led the technical development of a pioneering approach to the problem of ‘helicopter brown-out’, which is when a pilot loses visual refer-ences due to dust or sand recirculating during take-off or landing.

“We decided that our investment in S&T should concentrate on developing capabilities and countering threats in priority areas such as autonomous systems, sensors, new materials (including nanotechnology), cyber, and space,” he said. “And innovative tech-niques such as horizon scanning will help us to anticipate technological shocks, and to spot opportunities.

“And we will continue to look for opportuni-ties where investment in defense S&T might benefit the wider economy through spin-out into commercial markets,” he said. “But, for all our successes, the frequency of defense S&T ‘Eureka!’ moments are reducing. Spin-in now exceeds spin-out. For example, engineers at Manchester and Cranfield Universities, together with BAE Systems, have developed the world’s first ‘flapless’ plane – the Demon unmanned aerial vehicle – that uses hundreds of tiny air jets to control airflow over the plane, manipu-lating lift and draft without using traditional mechanisms to steer.”

Government papersLuff said there would be a formal public consul-tation in the New Year on the Green Paper (government proposal) that would inform next year’s Defence and Security Industrial and Technological Strategy White Paper. “The results will be published,” he said. “It’s every-one’s chance to ensure we’re asking the right questions in the Green Paper and offering the right solutions in the White Paper. I really do urge you all to get involved in the process and make your contributions.”

In the longer term, Luff said the ministry had three main challenges in the science and

Onboard report

The UK MINISTRY OF DeFeNCe IS pROTeCTINg ITS SCIeNCe AND TeChNOLOgY BUDgeT SO ThAT MILITARY R&D CAN CONTINUe TO gIve A CRITICAL ADvANTAge AND MINIMIze AN 8% CUT IN DeFeNSe SpeNDINg

34 | NOVEMBER/DEcEMBER 2010AerospAceTesTinGinTernATionAl.com

Paper planes

by Tim ripley

AW101 merlin in Afghanistan, the core of current operations and revenue protection

peter luff mp, UK minister for Defence equipment, support and Technology

Onboard report

technology field. He said “blue skies and long-term research” balanced the ministry’s “focus on the here and now, and is the best guarantee that the here and now of 10 to 20 years’ time can be met with confidence”.

He highlighted the example of cyber research that had been done in British universi-ties in the past two decades. “It is only now that cyber has come to the fore as a top-tier security risk,” he said.

“We in defense and security need to find better ways of working with the people who know what potential opportunities and threats will emerge in the next two decades – people in our excellent universities,” he said. “One way might be defense-sponsored PhDs, which would be of real benefit to the Ministry of Defence and universities, bringing understand-ing of defense issues to universities, and alert-ing us in defense to long-range challenges.

“Defense science and technology is essen-tial to the fighting edge of our armed forces,” said Luff. “Our approach is practical, not least because we are engaged in a bloody fight in Afghanistan that remains our main effort in defense,” Luff concludes. z

| 35 NOVEMBER/DEcEMBER 2010AerospAceTesTinginTernATionAl.com

Little DemonAn unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) that showcases a wide range of new technologies successfully demonstrated ‘flapless flight’ in the UK in September 2010.

The Demon UAV was developed by Cranfield University, BAE Systems, and nine other UK universities. Demon is designed to be able to forgo the use of the conventional mechanical elevators and ailerons that usually control the movement of an aircraft in favour of novel aerodynamic control devices using blown jets of air. It means fewer moving parts, less maintenance, and a more stealthy profile for the aircraft. Demon’s trial flights were the first ‘flapless flights’ ever to be authorised by the UK Civil Aviation Authority.

For a planned portion of the test flight, the conventional flap control system was turned off and the aircraft flew and maneuvered using the new technology.

The Demon ‘flapless’ UAV development is an area that could see more UK investment

the world’s first accepted, fully synthetic jet fuel flight on a commercial aircraft was a long time coming for the world’s leading developer in synthetic fuels

The jet fuel journey has its beginnings back in 1939 with the development of the first success-ful aviation turbine engine. Early proponents of the jet engine claimed that these new engines could operate on any fuel from whiskey to peanut butter.

The jet fuel specifications, as we know them today, have been developed over many years, starting in 1944 in the USA with the publishing of the JP-1 specification. This process is still continuing today with alternative jet fuels now driving the specification development. Because of safety considerations, today jet fuel specifica-tions have developed to the level where they

represent the most stringent specification requirements for any commercial fuel in use.

For the South African fuel and chemicals company Sasol, the synthetic jet fuel saga started with the commissioning of their Secunda Sasol Synfuels plant in 1980, which was then followed by the use of synthetic kero-sene to fuel the Sasol corporate helicopter. This was done for a period of seven years after a suc-cessful engine test in 1981 on a Pratt & Whit-ney JT9-D engine.

In 1996, the company decided to investigate the possibility of using synthetically derived hydrocarbons from the Sasol Synfuels produc-tion facility as jet fuel for commercial use. At this time, synthetic road transport fuels had

A fine blend

Synthetic jet fuel

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by piet roets

“In 1996, the company decided to investigate the possibility of using synthetically derived hydrocarbons”

Synthetic jet fuel

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been successfully used in South Africa for more than 30 years – which is testament to Sasol’s ability to innovate through R&D to enable the production of quality synthetic fuels.

After 1994 there was a projected need for more jet fuel at the OR Tambo International Airport in Johannesburg as a result of a sig-nificant increase in air traffic to South Africa. Although there were no formal requirements, the responsible route was taken to gain approval for the Sasol synthetic jet fuel. The specification authorities, American Society for Testing and Materials and the UK Ministry of Defence, were approached with a request from Sasol to qualify its synthetically produced jet fuel for commercial use.

First flightIn September 2010, Sasol flew the world’s first passenger aircraft exclusively using the company’s own-developed and internationally approved fully synthetic jet fuel.

The fuel, produced by Sasol’s proprietary Coal to Liquids (CTL) process, is the world’s only fully synthetic jet fuel to have received international approval as a commercial aviation turbine fuel.

Sanctioned by the global aviation fuel specification authorities the jet fuel is the first fully synthetic fuel to be approved for use in commercial airliners. It marked a significant development in the adoption of clean-burning alternate fuels for the aviation industry. The engine-out emissions of Sasol’s synthetic jet fuel, are lower than those from jet fuel derived from crude oil, due to its limited sulfur content.







The Sasol plant at Secunda is the largest coal liquefaction plant in the world

| 39 November/december 2010AeroSpAceTeSTinginTernATionAl.com

Synthetic jet fuel

The processIt was necessary to first educate all the stake-holders in the aviation industry about the Sasol coal-to-liquids process, during which coal is first converted into a gas and the fuel molecules are synthesized into synthetic fuel components in the Fischer Tropsch unit. Early on in the approval process, questions were received regu-larly about the possibility that coal particulates could be part of the final fuel. This is impossi-ble because in the process to create synthetic fuel the coal is first converted into a gas.

The first step in the journey was the approval of a mixture of synthetic jet fuel from the Syn-fuels plant in Secunda and crude oil derived jet fuel from the Natref refinery in Sasolburg. This process resulted in the Defence Standard 91-91 specification being changed to include addi-tional requirements specifically for synthesized hydrocarbons. These requirements include extensive testing, ranging from physical and chemical fuel properties, to materials compat-ibility, combustion properties and behavior under test rig or engine conditions, all of which were carried out by Sasol.

The company wrote a new chapter in the history of jet fuel in 1998 when semi-synthetic jet fuel was approved for commercial use. Since February 1999, passengers flying on jet aircraft from Johannesburg’s OR Tambo International Airport most likely flew on a mixture of crude oil and coal-derived synthetic jet fuel.

This journey was a collaborative effort as it was of critical importance that all the stake-holders, including the specification authorities, airframe and engine manufacturers and airlines were satisfied that the Sasol synthetic jet fuel was fit for use.

However, the first prize would be to gain approval for fully synthetic jet fuel from coal. Research carried out by Sasol in 2001 indicated that it was possible to produce a fully synthetic jet fuel that met all the specification require-ments, including the additional requirements that were added to cater for synthetically derived hydrocarbons. Southwest Research Institute (SwRI) in San Antonio, USA was appointed as third party contractor to assist with the project and Dr Clifford Mosesas the project leader.

Fuel trialsA number of Sasol synthetic jet fuel blends were tested by SwRI in accordance with the requirements of Def San 91-91 Annex D. The results of the testing demonstrated that the blends met all the requirements of the speci-fication and no deviations or potential prob-lem areas were identified. Being a conserva-tive industry, the engine manufacturers, requested a further series of engine and com-bustor tests to demonstrate that there would be no adverse effects on engine performance and operation. These tests included engine performance and endurance testing, low tem-perature atomization testing, emissions test-ing, ignition and altitude relight and lean blow out testing.

To do these tests, Sasol needed to produce 1.2 million liters of fully synthetic jet fuel. The South African Airways Technical Department agreed to do the engine performance and endurance test on a JT9-D Pratt and Whitney engine. The engine ran for 250 hours and 500 landing and take-off cycles were completed during this time. A total of 800 000 liters of jet fuel was burned during the test, with the test simulating one year of flying between OR Tambo International Air-port and London. The Pratt & Whitney tests found that the synthetic fuel met all the stringent requirements and the emissions were lower due to the fuel’s higher hydrogen content and very low sulfur content.

United in the USAIn May 2010, United Airlines (UA) conducted the first flight by a US commercial airline using natural gas synthetic jet fuel. The fuel is claimed as the only alternative fuel type certified for commercial aviation.

The engineering validation flight was conducted using certified synthetic jet fuel, called RenJet, produced by Rentech. It is a drop-in fuel, which means that it can be used in existing engines with no modifications required, said UA.

RenJet is produced from renewable or fossil feedstock and is readily scalable for commercial production, according to Rentech. The fuel is approved by ASTM International, and is safe for use on passenger flights.

For the test flight, a 40/60 mix with conventional Jet A fuel was used in one of two engines on an Airbus 319 aircraft that departed from the Denver International Airport.

Sasol’s fuel was used to power a two-hour Hawker 4000 flight

Synthetic jet fuel

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The results of the engine and combustor tests and the earlier evaluation of the fuel prop-erties and characteristics showed that the Sasol fully synthetic jet fuel (FSJF) has the same properties and behaves just like petroleum-derived jet fuel. The engine manufacturers therefore supported the approval of FSJF for commercial use. Sasol FSJF was included into the Defence Standard 91-91 specification and the approval became official with the publica-tion of Issue 6 of the standard on April 8, 2008 as a specific approval for Sasol Synfuels in Secunda. The inclusion of FSJF into ASTM D1655 followed in 2009.

Sasol had the desire to conclude the ‘Sasol FSJF’ approval with a commercial f light and so complete the process to widespread use. The September 2010 Africa Aerospace and Defence exhibition provided an excellent opportunity to achieve the final milestone in the fully synthetic jet fuel journey.

To do the f light, it was necessary to pro-duce a batch of Sasol FSJF meeting the requirements of Def Stan 91-91 Issue 6. This was done successfully enabling the blending of the final Fully Synthetic Jet A-1. The certi-

Using all enginesThe US Air Force’s ongoing alternative fuels certification efforts reached a new milestone on August 27, 2010 when a C-17 Globemaster III flew on all engines using jet fuel blended with a combination of traditional petroleum-based fuel, or JP-8, biofuel derived in part from animal fat, and synthetic fuel derived from coal.

The flight was a first for any Department of Defense aircraft where a 50% mix of JP-8 was blended with 25% renewable biofuel and 25% fuel derived from the Fischer-Tropsch process, which is essentially liquefied coal or natural gas.

It was also the first time an aircraft from Edwards Air Force Base had used fuel derived from beef tallow, which is essentially waste animal fat.

“The C-17 fleet is the biggest Air Force consumer of jet fuel annually,” said Lt General Mark D. Shackelford the military deputy to the assistant secretary of the Air Force for acquisition. “This is a big step forward in achieving the Air Force’s energy goal of increasing the available supply of fuel by acquiring half of the Air Force’s domestic jet fuel requirement from domestically derived, environmentally friendly alternative sources by 2016.”

“For several years, the Air Force has been looking at alternate sources of fuel to support their operations,” said James Holther, a 418th FLTS project engineer for biofuel testing. “The first thing the Air Force did was look at Fischer-Tropsch fuels that use natural gas or coal as the feedstock, and this is just a continuation of that ongoing effort.”

The hydro-treated renewable jet fuel, or HRJ, used by the C-17 contains biomass that can be made from either animal fats or plant extracts such as camelina, a weed-like plant not used for food. The HRJ is blended with regular JP-8 jet fuel for the testing to gather data to support Air Force transport aircraft certification on alternative fuels from various feedstocks.

The Air Force Fuels Certification Office at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio, has certified over 85% of all Air Force aircraft to use Fischer-Tropsch derived fuels, and is now focusing efforts on certifying aircraft to fly on HRJ biofuel blends.

fied synthetic Jet A-1 was delivered to the Kruger Mpumalanga International Airport where it was received into a dedicated tank for this flight. The aircraft that were flown on Fully Synthetic Jet A-1 were a Boeing 727-200, Hawker 4000 corporate jet, a Beechcraft King Air 350i and a PAC 750. All aircraft were fitted with Pratt & Whitney engines and all the aircraft engines were defueled to ensure that they would f ly only on fully syn-

thetic Jet A-1. The successful f light has com-pleted the last leg of the process, f lying com-mercially with fully synthetic Jet A-1.

Sasol has pioneered the take-off for syn-thetic aviation fuels and will remain involved in this arena, reaching new frontiers as innovation takes flight. z

Piet Roets is international liaison and governance man-ager: fuels technology for the Sasol Group, South Africa

Above: on August 24, 2010, the c-17 test team expanded the evaluation by utilizing the HrJ blended fuel in all four engines, flying the aircraft on 50% biofuel

Below left: Boeing 737 being refuelled using synthetic fuel

Below right: The real product, bottled jet fuel

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One-to-one

Dytran is said to be having a record sales year in 2010. To what factors do you attribute this growth?Hard work! We have enhanced our in-house quality management systems by achieving both AS9100 certification and A2LA accredita-tion for our calibration lab, enabling Dytran to better serve the aerospace community. At the same time, we’ve launched new sensors for aerospace, including variable capacitance DC response and miniature piezoelectric sensing technologies (both single axis and triaxial), as well as high-temperature piezoelectric acceler-ometers for turbine vibration measurements and flight test sensors. In terms of market seg-ments, military and aerospace, flight test and our leadership position in Health & Usage Monitoring Systems (HUMS) remain very strong, with continued expansion anticipated.

Which applications within the aerospace testing realm have been most successful for you?Both rotorcraft and fixed-wing aircraft vibration monitoring, as components of an aerospace customer’s predictive maintenance strategy, are strong areas for Dytran in the HUMS marketplace. If we are referring specifically to ‘test’, customer demands have driven expanded offerings for both flight and ground vibration testing, to include new piezoelectric products offering great temperature stability. Our DC response product lines are also gaining traction within the marketplace and are beginning to actively contribute to our overall revenue stream. It takes time to develop products and assess their suitability for the marketplace, so it’s great to see this strong success.

Can you give an example?Dytran’s model 7500 single-axis DC acceler-ometer, in particular, is finding many applica-tions in flight test. After customers experienced the performance of the single-axis design, their feedback was, “We would love to have this in a triax!” As Dytran tends to listen to our custom-ers, we are looking forward to further expand-ing the line in 2011 to include a triaxial version, the model 7503 – a high-quality differential output device for which we already have a fair amount of pent-up demand. We have also embarked on a large project for a major com-mercial airframe manufacturer to develop highly stable piezoelectric flight test sensors that have equal market demand.

In which regions of the world is Dytran seeing the largest growth for aerospace sensing technologies?In general, if there’s any country in the world with aerospace testing, evaluation or monitor-ing requirements, we try to be there to sup-port the customer. However, within the aero-space realm, we are also strictly compliant with U.S. Export Control Regulations prohibit-ing the sale of our products to certain coun-tries, and within certain application areas as well. Dytran sensors are already sold in 40 countries around the world, though there is still much more work to be done. The USA, Canada, Germany, the UK and Brazil are all areas where we’ve grown the aerospace business in recent years.

Dave ChangeVice president and technical director, Dytran Instruments, USA

“Achieving high-level certification shouldn’t just be about pleasing customers, it should also be rooted in a desire to make the highest quality products in the world”

In his role at Dytran Instruments in Chatsworth, California, USA, Dave Change has been responsible for the overall strategic direction of the company’s R&D and aerospace product line developments, as well as global sales and marketing, for the past 10 years.

What emerging sensing technology trends do you see currently?Dytran has historically been a piezoelectric house, focused on dynamic acceleration, force and pres-sure sensing. Industry testing requirements have grown to incorporate use of variable capacitance DC response, piezoresistive and differential output accelerometers. The largest emerging trend in aerospace sensing has been that of customization upon demand, with requests for specialty cables, connectors, housings or packaging available within fairly short lead times. Because Dytran has verti-cally integrated manufacturing with our own design and machining operations, we have a lot of exper-tise in packaging almost any technology, be it piezoelectric, piezoresistive, variable capacitance, or others, as the opportunity presents itself.

How is Dytran prepared to meet these trends in terms of technologies, R&D and investments in personnel and resources?Achieving high-level certifications shouldn’t just be about pleasing customers, it should also be rooted in a burning desire to make the highest quality products in the world. We are 70% complete on a major facility expansion and upgrade. Our facility is now at 40,000ft2, with plans to strongly expand into lean manu-facturing. We are at an all-time high on our employee headcount and plan to continue expanding our engineering, quality and manu-facturing personnel. It’s a highly competitive marketplace, with many competitors going offshore to manufacture. Dytran’s goal remains to manufacture world-class sensors from our USA-based facility.


One-to-one


Above: Accelerometers may be used in concert with software modeling tools to analyze experimentally derived structural resonances or actual data collected from a full-scale aerospace structure

Left: Dytran’s flight qualified and space rated piezoelectric accelerometers are used to meet a variety of aerospace testing and evaluation requirements

Dytran piezoelectric accelerometers are widely used as part of an effective predictive maintenance strategy within Health & Usage Monitoring Systems (HUMS) on rotorcraft and fixed-wing aircraft

How do you see the future of the aerospace industry, in terms of its use of sensors and instrumentation?We have great confidence in its continued need for sensors. In particular, UAVs of all types are gaining popularity. For maintenance and per-formance purposes, they need to be able to accurately sense vibration levels on the vessel, be it air, land or sea, replacing the traditional role played by a pilot in offering feedback to ground personnel on overall vessel health. There are also ongoing and future require-ments for the active vibration control of rotor-craft. Rotorcraft airframe builders seek to make new ships ‘jet smooth’, and sensors are critical to the achievement of future strides in both R&D and manufacturing.

With more than 20 years in this marketplace, what shifts have you seen, if any, in testing types or requirements?Quality requirements to even get in the game are much more stringent. Customers require assurance that personnel are trained in the areas of expertise in which they operate. A company must be willing to commit to a system such as ISO 9001:2000, preferably with AS9100 certification. The same for calibration, with A2LA quality certifications such as ISO 17025. Great customer service and fast delivery requirements are assumed. It’s no secret that happy customers come back. Achieving high-level certifications shouldn’t just be about pleasing customers, it should also be rooted in a burning desire to make the highest quality products in the world.

A typical turbine engine, incorporating the use of Dytran high-temperature accelerometers for high-accuracy vibration monitoring

Crash scenarios


by Umberto mercUrio

The Italian aerospace-research center, CIRA, has a full-scale crash-test facility designed for aero-space research. The facility, named LISA, is very special and innovative in global terms, and is able to perform full-scale impact tests on three different surfaces: concrete, soft soil, and water. The test article can weigh up to 20 tons, and can be accelerated up to a velocity of 20m/sec, and then released to impact on the required surface.

LISA was conceived to support research for crashworthiness, as a tool for simulating com-plex and real-impact scenarios. This character-istic is indispensable in the understanding of dynamic phenomena, such as an aircraft or helicopter crash. A large, full-scale crash-test facility exists at the NASA Langley research center, but it is based on a pendulum system. LISA is based on a rigid structure, which assures the attitude and impact trajectory up to a few instants before the impact.

In the past, the attention of the aeronautical world has always been mainly focused on the prevention of accidents. This has led to aircraft design developing stronger structures, making engines more reliable, and navigation equip-ment more precise. As a result, air transporta-tion is the safest transport in the world.

However, analysis of air accidents, in particu-lar accidents involving small aircraft and heli-copters, has demonstrated that there have been a number of accidents where survivability could have been greatly increased if specific aircraft design regulations had been in place. In spite of this, changes in the certification rules for aircraft or helicopters have not taken place for many years. In contrast, the automotive industry can be considered more advanced in the certification rules related to passenger safety, post-accident. Nowadays, severe rules are in place for the cer-tification of a new car and it has to be tested under various crash conditions, which are required by automotive regulations.

Moving aheadSeveral studies have been conducted, using experience gathered from accidents that occurred in recent wartime scenarios, in par-ticular the Vietnam conflict during the 1960s and 1970s. It was demonstrated that a large margin of improvement could be achieved through the use of technologies already avail-able, and in use, in the automotive sector. The USA understood that if helicopters had been fitted with energy-absorbing systems, many

Crash scenarios

ITALY’s LIsA Is A verY AdvAnced fuLL-scALe crAsh-TesT fAcILITY ThAT cAn sImuLATe reAL-ImpAcT scenArIos In The AerospAce secTor

casualties would have been saved in a number of crash scenarios.

Recently in the civilian field, building on earlier research, an important project named HeliSafe TA was conducted and partly funded from the European Community. Research cen-ters, universities and manufacturers of helicop-ters and aeronautical systems participated to develop new safety devices to decrease injuries to occupants in specific crash scenarios.

The full-scale tests were conducted at LISA, with its full-scale test facility. Its capability proved to be invaluable in validating the new systems in a real crash-type scenario. The com-parison of results coming from a first crash test with standard safety devices and the final crash test with new safety devices installed on board, using the same simulated LISA conditions, showed an improvement of 20-40% in the inju-ries factor, as evaluated on the anthropomor-phic dummies.

The results were obtained by the onboard installation of an airbag, taken from the auto-motive sector, at the pilot’s seat, and with more new safety belts and cushions for the passenger seats. Through this project, tangible results, validated through full-scale crash tests at LISA, are now available for consideration by the air-worthiness authorities. It is clearly desirable that new criteria for the design of aircraft and helicopters should be introduced.

Water impactThe more intensive use of helicopters for off-shore oil platforms has increased accidents involving impact on water. Several research activities have focused on improving the meth-ods for the simulation of fluid/structure inter-action due to high-energy impact on water. A great deal of experimental data has been pro-duced in the past using scaled models impact-ing water. The data obtained was very often found not to be representative of real-impact conditions and therefore not good enough to be used to set up new numerical methods. The problem lies in the difficulty of re-scaling the exact stiffness of the structure, and the mass and inertia properties, at the same time.

At LISA it has been possible to realize full-scale ditching tests to produce reliable experi-mental data to use for the set up of more precise numerical methods. An AgustaWestland A109 helicopter was used in two ditching tests simu-lating a real forced landing on water. Previ-ously, only simple vertical drop tests had been performed. The LISA facility enabled a real

| 45 NOVEMBER/dEcEMBER 2010AerospAceTesTinginTernATionAl.coM

Sudden impact

landing on water, realizing vertical- and hori-zontal-velocity, and taking advantage of the LISA 90m-long, 22m-wide and 5m-deep pool that is one of the three surfaces available for the impact tests.

Accelerations and pressure measurements were obtained that were subsequently corre-lated with the numerical simulations, giving useful indications toward more reliable meth-ods of designing new systems, such as inflat-able devices to mitigate the effects of a forced landing on water. The realization of a helicopter full-scale ditching test is probably only cur-rently possible at the LISA facility.

Impact on other planetsThe development of technologies to alleviate the load derived from an impact on a structure is not just peculiar to the aeronautical sector but is one of the main challenges facing any space mission. The aim in designing new tech-nologies is to try to minimize the weight of systems, increase the payload weight, and pro-tect expensive space payloads.

Once again, LISA proved to be invaluable in evaluating new technologies for landing on the surface of other planets. In particular, several technologies based on airbags were tried out at LISA to simulate the landing on the Mars sur-face, as required by the European Space Agency in the EXOMARS program.

Twelve full-scale tests were performed, six with one technology and six with another. The soft-terrain surface was used for these tests,

Crash scenarios

“Tests for the EXOMARS program to simulate the Mars surface necessitated filling the basin with sand”

the many results deserve major priority, and that more importance should be given to the research into accident safety. The comparison with the widespread introduction of safety rules in the automotive sector make a convincing case that this should be so.

The transfer of some technologies from the automotive world to the aeronautical could be done inexpensively, because the technologies in question are already mature and would only have to have minor adapta-tions for an aircraft or helicopter. In the case of external airbags, experimented with for space missions, it would, of course, be a transfer of knowledge from the space to the aeronautical world.

The LISA facility has proved its capacity to support activities that will define future certifi-cation rules to improve the survivability of air-craft or helicopter passengers. z

Umberto Mercurio is head of Aerospace Structures Impact Laboratory at CIRA based in Italy

taking advantage of its flexibility. It is, in fact, a basin filled with ‘soft soil’ that can be removed and substituted with other types of terrain that fit the test being carried out.

Tests for the EXOMARS program to simulate the Mars surface necessitated filling the basin with sand and surface rocks of several different shapes, scattered, fixed and not fixed. The tests gradually increased in complexity in terms of velocity, attitude and rock density to determine the optimal technology for the mission.

Since it was commissioned in 2003, LISA has always been involved in the more important projects related to improving crashworthy design, and increasing knowledge about the impact phenomena of large aerospace struc-tures. It has proved to be an indispensable tool in understanding impact phenomena, and set-ting and validating new technologies. Tests at LISA have produced data that aeronautical bod-ies have to take into account.

The certification authorities, and also the aerospace industry need to be convinced that

Numerical simulationLISA is able to investigate crash behavior and bird-strike behavior of entire structures, or parts of them, using the expertise acquired in the use of finite element and multibody numerical simulation. These simulations, in addition to being performed for special studies, can also be used to optimize or complete experimental analyses.

The data-acquisition system is made up of three crash-resistant onboard units, with up to 96 channels for acquiring sensor data from, for example, accelerometers, strain gauges, and pressure transducers. High-speed filming can be done, using four video cameras – two with a capability of filming at up to 1,000fps, and two able to film at up to 2,000fps.

Top Left: Controlled splash down test on an Agusta Westland A109 Helicopter

Left: Preparation of a crash test with a helicopter equipped with antropomorphic dummies

Right: Exomars project: preparation of an impact test on a ‘vented’ airbag designed and created to protect the landing module at the moment of impact with the surface of Mars

46 | NOVEMBER/dEcEMBER 2010AERosPACETEsTIngInTERnATIonAL.CoM

Air-to-air refueling


Get yourself connectedThe A330 MulTiRole TAnkeR TRAnspoRT (MRTT) hAs Achieved ceRTificATion in spAin. The AiR-To-AiR Refueling sysTeM hiT The MARk, Too

by PhiliP Smart


When the Airbus A330 MultiRole Tanker Transport (MRTT) achieved military certifica-tion in Spain in October 2010, Cobham’s UK-based air-to-air refueling team had as much cause to celebrate as their Airbus Military colleagues in Getafe.

The company’s latest ‘fifth-generation’ 905E Air-to-Air Refueling (AAR) hose and drogue pod was certified with the aircraft, a significant milestone in a program that has already attracted more than 50 pod orders from the Australian, British, Saudi and United Arab Emirates air forces through their selection of the A330 and is destined for application to the Airbus A400M AAR option.

Outwardly identical to previous models, the 905E is the latest derivative of Cobham’s unique electric drive pods featuring the integration, maintenance, control, and diagnostic benefits of digital control. The 905E illustrates the migration of civil safety standards into military fields and for the first time, the pod’s all-impor-tant hose reel control, the heart of the system, is provided by dual-redundant electric motor and drives.

Capable of transferring up to 420 US gallons of fuel per minute, the pods are fitted with Cobham’s new patented high-speed variable-drag drogue (VDD), providing an extended aerial refueling speed range of 180-325kts (330-600km/h). This enables a single tanker to support a variety of aircraft, from the Boeing V-22 Osprey to the latest-generation fast jets such as the Lockheed Martin F-35 Lightning II Joint Strike Fighter.

Refueling challengesThe key challenge in hose and drogue aerial refueling is maintaining appropriate tension on the refueling hose throughout the various cycles of trail, receiver contact, fuel transfer, and separation. Correct control provides a sta-ble, predictable ‘basket’ for a receiver aircraft, but even more importantly ensures the system reels in to damp the energy of a contact and then stabilizes quickly.

Contact can sometimes be brutal, particu-larly with an inexperienced pilot or in turbu-lence. A 90ft hose charged with fuel can weigh more than 300 lb (136kg). The hose-whip (sometimes referred to as a ‘sine wave’) in an

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The 905e hose and drogue system is the first designed with civil safety standards and offers dual redundancy in its critical systems. it can transfer 420 Us gallons of fuel per minute

undamped hose can force the receiver to dis-connect – or in extreme circumstances even break the refueling probe, as happened to the primary Avro Vulcan bomber tasked for the first Black Buck mission over the Falkland Islands in 1982. At worst it can result in the receiver aircraft losing control if too slow to disconnect for another approach.

Once connected, it is the position of the hose itself that governs fuel transfer – when contacting the drogue, a receiving aircraft con-tinues to move forward, driving the hose into a preset extension range where the tanker fuel valve opens and the pumping system is pow-ered to deliver fuel. The receiver pilot ceases refueling by easing back so the hose extends past the point where fuel flow automatically shuts off.

The challenges for engineer and pilot alike vary from fixed-wing aircraft to helicopters – unlike the ‘straight in and hold’ approach of a jet fighter, a helicopter’s normal operation is to contact the drogue, then immediately climb to a position above and outboard the tanker for fueling to maximise separation between the fuel hose and rotor blades. While the 905E pod on the A330 will not be refueling helicopters, the Cobham 900E series of electric pods is capable of trailing up to 90ft of refueling hose to provide helicopter refueling capability.

Keeping controlThe latest answer is precise hose control, the product of Cobham’s more than 50 years of experience and test and integration of more than 1,000 systems on 20 different platforms


“The system includes dual-redundant drive and braking systems for the hose reel”

around the world. This is supported by exten-sive test rig equipment, including a hose control system rig at the Wimborne, UK, facility that simulates a ‘hard’ contact by accelerating an extended hose from rest to a speed of 13ft/sec in a distance of less than 40mm.

Earlier pods managed hose control first with hydraulic, then fueldraulic with a steel ‘tensa-tor’ spring and later electric drive for the hose reel. But when Cobham decided that its new-generation pod must meet civil safety standards to match the requirements of its major custom-ers, enhancing fault tolerance, automatic digital control, monitoring, and diagnostics were seen as a logical step.

Cobham’s design allowed for factors such as new Federal Aviation Administration fuel tank requirements, and a difference of two orders of magnitude between military and civil accept-able critical failure rates. The system includes


Moving on upA major step forward for the KC-45 aerial refueling tanker program was marked by EADS North America with the maiden flight of the second Airbus Military A330 MultiRole Tanker Transport (MRTT) for the UK’s Royal Air Force. The KC-45 is the US Air Force configuration of the A330 MRTT.

Converted from a basic A330-200 by Airbus Military, the aircraft flew for two hours from Getafe, Spain, at the end of October 2010.

It was the fifth A330 MRTT to fly, with several more in production for the four US allies that have chosen the A330 MRTT over Boeing 767 tankers in four straight competitions. Deliveries of A330 MRTTs will begin before the year-end, with Australia receiving the first aircraft.

dual-redundant drive and braking systems for the hose reel, with power normally applied to both lanes but switching to a single lane if one is unserviceable.

But the benefits of enhanced digital control and monitoring have also resulted in a more flexible and efficient system. The 905E’s sys-tem allows Cobham to tailor the pod’s torque and speed settings for improved hose response and to optimize its performance for different airspeeds. The electronic control sys-tem also provides the pods with significant built-in test capability, automatic calibration and adjustment, and greater tolerance to vibration, electromagnetic interference, and temperature variations.

Digital control also means the 905E’s con-trols can now be integrated in the existing EFIS displays of a two-crew aircraft such as the A330, reducing the crew’s normal operational workload to selecting ‘trail’ or ‘stow’ on the control panel.

“The collected data on existing systems obviously lowers the risk when designing new systems,” says Iain Gibson, Cobham’s vice pres-ident of mission equipment. “It allows us to conduct our dynamic simulation and modeling with very reliable data and to tailor the pod’s software design efficiently.

“But we still believe practical testing on our Wimborne rig and on-wing flight testing is vital – you just can’t be sure it will act as predicted until you have tested under operational conditions.” z

Philip Smart is a manager for UK-based Cobham

Above: A cobham drogue on test with a new-generation leD illumination system, compatible with night vision goggles for night refueling

right: spanish Air Force F-18s make contact with the first A330 mrTT in pre-certification trials

A contract to be the principal independent software tester for the EarthCARE (Earth Clouds, Aerosols and Radiation Explorer) mis-sion, a joint European-Japanese space project due to launch in 2013, has been secured by UK-based Critical Software Technologies.

Conceived in 2009, EarthCARE will be the sixth Earth Explorer mission to be launched by the European Space Agency (ESA) as part of its Living Planet program. Its mission is to improve scientists’ understanding of the cloud, radiative, and aerosol processes that affect Earth’s climate. It will observe the influence on atmospheric radiation of clouds and aerosols (natural or man-made) and in so doing will contribute to vital climate research and fore-casting models. Weighing a little less than 2 tons, the satellite will take three years to com-plete its mission as it orbits approximately 400km above Earth.

Satellite software | REGULAR

IndEpEndEnt SoftwARE tEchnoLoGy tRIALS ARE cRUcIAL to thE LAUnch of

thE EARthcARE SpAcE mISSIon


Going soloby brian luff

Other UK companies are notable contribu-tors to the mission, among them SSTL and its subcontractor SEA, which will together develop and produce the ICU for the multispectral imager instrument on board the satellite.

For its part, Critical Software will indepen-dently verify and validate the onboard software that goes into creating this hugely complex sys-tem. The company will be predominantly responsible for identifying areas that are par-ticularly complex and exhibit a high degree of criticality, and then ensuring the software developed meets the stated requirements and is implemented correctly.

Testing and more testingIndependent software verification and valida-tion (ISVV) is a term that may not be familiar to all software developers, but will become a crucial factor in the safety of the mission. In this context, it is a comprehensive process that is undeniably costly and so is reserved mainly for projects similar to the EarthCARE mission that exhibit either or both of the following attri-butes: software failures may cause injuries or deaths; and/or software failures may be difficult if not impossible to correct once the implemen-tation is live. ISVV typically involves the use of more formal methods and documentation than those used in more mundane developments.

The two ‘V’s are easily confused. The verifi-cation part of ISVV involves ensuring the soft-ware conforms to its specification. In other

“The verification part of ISVV involves ensuring that the software conforms to its specification”

REGULAR | Satellite software

As stated earlier, ISVV is expensive; not only because of the comprehensiveness of the pro-cess, but because the independence element involves the introduction of another party to the project, and that brings additional costs from the beginning of the procurement. Given this, it is no wonder that ISVV is used mainly on projects such as the EarthCARE program, where catastrophic failure is a possibility.

In a statement, Critical Software Technolo-gies said, “We’re really pleased to be involved in a mission that will give scientists such valuable information about our planet. We’re well aware of how vital it is to the success of the mission that the critical systems on board the spacecraft are as reliable as humanly pos-sible, which is why our thorough independent testing will be a vital part of its preparation before launch.

“In the space industry, we are one of very few companies that are familiar with software in all three segments: launchers, ground con-trol, and on board spacecraft themselves. Soft-ware on board spacecraft has the potential to be extremely complex, which is at odds with the necessity for it also to be extremely reliable. Failure of critical software can have catastrophic consequences, and it is clearly vital to have well-tested, reliable software on unmanned orbital vehicles of this magnitude.” z

Brian Luff is chairman of Critical Software Technologies based in the UK

| 53 NOVEMBER/dEcEMBER 2010AerospAceTesTinginTernATionAl.com

Critical Software Technologies was established in 1998. It specializes in design and development services relating to complex, software intensive, safety-critical systems. The UK subsidiary is based in Southampton and focuses on safety and mission-critical systems in the avionics, space, energy, and defense industries

words: “Are we building this thing right?” Vali-dation, on the other hand, asks a more funda-mental question: does the software do what the user or specifier originally intended, or are we building the right thing?

The crucial part of ISVV is independence. In applications that are not mission or safety- critical, it is often acceptable to have the same teams carrying out all forms of testing at vari-ous stages during the development lifecycle. It could be argued that a certain amount of inde-pendence may be obtained by the simple expe-dient of ensuring that test teams for a particular part of the system are drawn from among those that never worked on it directly. Ultimately, there are flaws with such an approach.

importance of independenceFirst, with any kind of integrated system, the developers of one part are likely to have some idea of the assumptions underlying the design and implementation of any other. Being aware of an assumption makes it more likely than not that it may be accepted without question. Unquestioned assumptions are anathema to the concept of ISVV.

Second, without true independence, testing teams may find themselves under the same management pressures on time and budget that were exerted on the original development team. In the context of a safety-critical system such as the EarthCARE mission, this would clearly not be considered good practice.

Above and above left: earthcAre (earth clouds, Aerosols and radiation explorer) is being implemented in cooperation with the Japanese Aerospace exploration Agency. The mission addresses the need for a better understanding of the interactions between cloud, radiative, and aerosol processes that play a role in climate regulation

Above right: Brian luff, chairman of critical software Technologies

The CharaCTerizaTion of ComposiTe sysTems by surfaCe analysis To assess The inTerfaCe

beTween one maTerial and anoTher is CriTiCal To The performanCe of produCTs in operaTion

sure of area surface roughness. In many cases it is possible to overlay the chemical informa-tion onto the physical profile.

X-ray Photoelectron Spectroscopy (XPS)XPS uses an x-ray incident beam targeted at the sample area of interest. The x-rays disturb the electron structure of atoms close to the surface and so-called photoelectrons are emitted. These can be focused using a magnetic field into an energy detector to generate an energy spectrum. The individual electron energies are character-istic of the element from which they arose and can therefore be used to analyze the surface sampled for its chemical composition.

XPS samples the top 10Nm of the surface under investigation and is quantitative to an accuracy of 0.1 atomic percent. It can also be applied in high-resolution mode to unravel the nature of elemental bonding (for example C-O, C-C) or the oxidation state of metallic ele-ments. The normal analysis area is 700 x 300µm with small spot options down to 35 x 35µm. The technique can also be used to con-struct 2D chemical maps for particular ele-ments of interest and for quantitative elemen-tal depth profiling of either the top 10Nm (by precise adjustment of the x-ray beam angle of

Character assessment

Composite materials | reGular

54 | November/december 2010AeroSPAceTeSTinginTernATionAl.com

With composite systems, the interface between one material and another is critical to the per-formance of the product in operation. Under-standing the nature and functionality of mate-rial interfacial interactions, in terms of chemical composition and topography, can be critical, both for the development of composite materi-als and in failure investigations.

Surface analysis techniques are proving crucial in the characterization of various com-posite materials. The application of these tech-niques has closely followed the development of the techniques themselves and, at the same time, the range of composite materials under development has expanded markedly. Here, four surface analysis techniques are described along with examples of their application with regards to commercially relevant industrial composite materials.

X-ray Photoelectron Spectroscopy (XPS), Time of Flight Secondary Ion Mass Spectrom-etry (ToFSIMS), Dynamic Secondary Ion Mass Spectrometry (DSIMS) and non-contact 3D profilometry using white light interferometry (3DP) can, in combination, provide highly sensitive – parts per million (ppm) – quantita-tive information on the elemental, molecular and oxidation state composition of surfaces and subsurfaces that may be presented as spectra, chemical maps and depth profiles. 3DP generates three-dimensional images of the surface with nanometer resolution on the vertical axis and a quantitative statistical mea-

by dr chris pickles

Below: XPS depth profiles showing angle resolved (right) and argon sputtered

incidence) or more deeply by using argon ion beam sputtering.

The surface specificity of the technique can be seen on a polyethylene oxide (PEO) coated polypropylene (PP) mesh where the quantitative spatial distribution of the coating is tagged using the C-O signal from the spec-trum and the substrate is tagged using the C-C signal.

Time-of-Flight Secondary Ion Mass Spectrometry (ToFSIMS)Static secondary ion mass spectrometry uses a primary ion beam to sputter material from the sample surface. The sputter cascade contains both neutral and ionic species and the second-ary ions are focused using ion optics toward a charge detector. Mass separation is achieved by the use of an extended flight path such that the lighter ions arrive at the detector in advance of the heavier ions, giving ‘time-of-flight’ spectral resolution. In contrast to the XPS output, this generates a mass spectrum and, in this form of the technique, can extend to molecular frag-ments as large as 10,000 mass units.

REGULAR | Composite materials

| 55 november/december 2010AeroSpAceTeSTIngInTernATIonAl.coM

ToFSIMS samples the top 3Nm of the sur-face and is sensitive to ppm levels. Although highly sensitive, ToFSIMS is a qualitative method that is routinely used to investigate organic material. Adhesion failure analysis is a common application to confirm the presence of a wide range of contaminants. Species-specific images are obtained by scanning the sample surface with the primary ion beam and generat-ing spectra for every pixel. This data can then be used to select a characteristic mass fragment and plot its distribution within the area sam-pled with micron scale resolution. When this is done on a cross-section, bulk distribution in complex systems can be informed.

Dynamic Secondary Ion Mass Spectrometry (DSIMS)For many applications, the region of interest is not only the surface or interfacial condition of a material but also the immediate subsurface. This is particularly the case with multilayer coatings or where embedded material distribu-tion with depth is of interest.

For these applications, DSIMS is often used. In this case, the primary ion beam is used to continuously sputter the area of interest with sufficient energy to generate a crater in the material under investigation. The secondary ions generated are continuously detected and plotted against the sputter rate, which is subse-quently calibrated against the crater depth. Because of the relatively high energy required to generate the sputter crater, high mass molec-ular information is not available from this tech-nique. However, fragment masses can be identi-fied that are characteristic of specific material types of interest and which can be used to track their relative abundance with depth.

Where deep profiles are of interest (several hundred microns), sputtering times can be extended with an adverse cost impact. In such cases it can be beneficial to work on a cross-sec-tion and use the imaging capability. DSIMS can operate in imaging mode and offers particularly good spatial resolution at micron scale and excel-lent sensitivity at parts per billion (ppb) levels.

3D profilometry using white light interferometry (3Dp)Whereas the three previous techniques all gen-erate chemical information, 3D profilometry is a technique for measuring surface topography that generates quantitative information on the physical nature of surfaces/subsurfaces by using white light interferometry.

Above: ToFSIMS equipment (Time-of-Flight Secondary Ion Mass Spectrometry). It allows access to molecular information in spectral or imaging mode with a detection limit of ppm and sampling depth of 1-3nm

Above: ToFSIMS images of polyester fabric plasma-treated with anti-microbial agent showing individual mass fragment maps with false color overlay

Composite materials | REGULAR

“Most importantly, the technique gives statistical averaging of the surface roughness”

The microscope illuminates the sample sur-face and also an optically flat reference plane within the instrument. The interference pattern generated by the recombination of the reflected light from both surfaces allows for the construc-tion of a 3D image of the sample surface. This image is half micron pixelated in the x-y plane but nanometer resolved in the vertical (z) axis. The technique can also generate line scans from any part of the area sampled, 2D color height maps and 3D video output. Most importantly, the technique gives statistical averaging of the sur-face roughness. These parameters can be used to specify surface condition where adhesion between different materials is critical, such as in surface treatments, coatings and composite materials.

The field-of-view for a single image is 3 x 5mm, although much larger areas can be mea-sured by ‘stitching’ together images. Moreover, it is not necessary to present the actual sample to the instrument – areas of interest can be repli-cated using a liquid silicone and the ‘negative’ so generated analyzed for surface topography. For transparent coatings, such as lacquers, coating thickness can be determined by profiling both the lacquer and substrate surfaces and subtract-ing for the difference.

In composite manufacture, surface roughness measurement is important from both the raw material and finished product standpoint. Fur-thermore, surface deterioration measurement (for example on a coated turbine blade leading edge) can be accurately quantified by the 3DP tech-nique as an in-service monitoring method by using the replication procedure.

A broad rangeSurface characterization of composite materials can be achieved using a comprehensive suite of analytical techniques including both chemical and physical interrogation. These can be applied to a wide range of materials and generate quanti-tative information with a high degree of sensitiv-ity and species resolution. The applications are particularly relevant to composite materials where the specificity of the material interfaces is critically important to the product performance in operation. The techniques are specifically use-ful in informing material development programs and can also be instrumental in resolving mate-rial failure incidences. z

Dr Chris Pickles is the head of surface science, CERAM, UK. CERAM is an independent global expert in materials testing, analysis and consultancy


Above: 3Dp profiles as 2D thermal images for a coated wire showing the coating surface topography (left) together with the substrate surface topography (right)

left: 3D topographic profile of a turbine blade replicate sample with line scan and statistical data

Below: coating thickness profile along length of wire by subtraction of the two data sets in the figure top right

left: Dsims depth profile of a functional glass coating

Below: Dsims chemical map images of an optical fiber bundle at three resolutions

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Choosing a Laboratory to test to the eMC requireMents of rtCa DO160: Power inPut, rf...and of Course, Lightning

is considerably cheaper than others, then the first question that should be asked is what is being compromised to achieve such a low estimate?

As many of the tests performed are similar to MIL-STD 461, preference should be given to laboratories which are accredited to this stan-dard. Most labs will not be accredited to DO160, as it not as commonly required by customers. Whereas, if the laboratory has invested in the equipment and expertise to perform the testing, the more common MIL-STD 461 is worth being accredited for.

Power input testing: Testing to this section requires a decent quality power supply, capable of switching to varying levels for AC and DC. If the equipment draws a considerable amount of current, the power supply resources of the lab must be checked. Opposite, top right is a table summary of the tests required to comply with section 16 of the D160:

The ABC of EMC

EMC Technologies | reguLar

58 | November/December 2010AerosPAceTesTinginTernATionAl.com

“Choosing a laboratory to perform testing to this standard can be perilous”

DO160, Environmental Conditions and Test Pro-cedures for Airborne Equipment is a standard for environmental testing of avionics hard-ware published by RTCA, Incorporated (Radio Technical Commission for Aeronau-tics). It was first published on January 25, 1980 to specify test conditions for the design of avionics electronic hardware in airborne systems. The current version DO160F was published in December 2007.

Choosing a laboratory to perform testing to this standard can be perilous. This article provides some guidance to enable a more informed choice, without going into depth, to ensure that customers get what you pay for. Here is a precis of some of the sections from 15-23 from DO160.

Testing to DO160 requires considerable resources and infrastructure to perform test-ing correctly. If one obtains a quotation that

by Mark Mifsud

REGULAR | EMC Technologies

| 59 November/December 2010AerospAceTesTinginTernATionAl.com

injection, and/or cable-bundle tests. The tran-sient generator required to achieve the neces-sary waveforms is not readily available. Some of these transient pulses, such as the damped sinusoidal EMP pulses, are analogous to those called up by MIL-STD 461F CS116. Those pulses that are unique to RTCA DO160 are usu-ally also available on the transient generator, as the EMP Pulse generator.

‘Lightning direct effects’ (Section 23), deter-mines the ability of externally mounted electri-cal and electronic equipment to withstand the direct effects of a severe lightning strike. It requires a similar transient to that required by IEC61000-4-5. However, the waveform of the discharge requires the ability to generate 200kA which most commercial lightning-transient generators aren’t capable of generating.

The above examples are not exhaustive but illustrate that EMC testing to RTCA DO160 is quite involved and requires considerable resources and infrastructure. The old axiom ‘Caveat emptor’, “Let the buyer beware” certainly applies and the more that the buyer can find out about the potential laboratory, the better. z

Mark Mifsud, based in Melbourne, is the manager of EMC Technologies Pty Ltd. He is also the current Chair-man of the IEAust EMC Society and IEEE EMC Society Australian Chapter

The ‘voltage-spike’ test is very similar to MIL-STD-461F, test method CS106. If a lab does not normally perform MIL-STD 461, test-ing, it is unlikely that they will be able to per-form this test correctly.

The audio frequency susceptibility-test setup and procedure are nearly identical to MIL-STD 461F, test method CS101 except for the level and frequency range. This test requires an audio amplifier and corresponding trans-former capable of delivering ripple current at up to 150kHz. The majority of audio amplifiers are only useful to 20kHz. Accreditation to MIL-STD461F will ensure that the laboratory is capable of testing this requirement.

The tests in the section that refers to induced signal susceptibility are performed to deter-mine that the EUT can operate as required when the equipment and interconnecting cables are subjected to audio frequency electric fields, magnetic fields, and transient voltage spikes. These tests are similar to the ‘Chattering Relay’ and power frequency magnetic-fields test in MIL-STD-462, test method RS02.

radio frequencyRadio frequency susceptibility (radiated and conducted) requires similar equipment to that used for MIL STD 461F RS103, radiated-immu-nity testing and the CS114, bulk current-injec-

tion test. Due to the high levels required for many of the equipment categories, considerable RF power is required to satisfy this require-ment, hence the extra cost in performing test-ing to this section.

With radio frequency emissions (radiated and conducted), conducted RF currents on interconnecting cables and power leads are measured with a clamp-on current probe. The probe is positioned 5cm from the EUT and measurements are made over the frequency range of 150kHz to 152MHz. This test is simi-lar to MIL-STD 462 CE03.

The radiated RF fields are measured with a linearly polarized antenna over the frequency range of 100MHz to 6GHz. This test is similar to MIL STD 461F RE102. A common trap that labs fall into with this test is to use receivers/spectrum analyzers that have 3dB-resolution bandwidth filters. The receiver used must have 6dB-resolu-tion bandwidth filters, such as those required for emissions testing in MIL-STD461F.

lightningSection 22 deals with lightning-induced tran-sient susceptibility, and determines whether the EUT can operate as specified during and/or after various lightning-induced transient wave-forms are injected into connector pins, inter-connecting cables, and power leads using pin

DC Input Testson Dc inputs, there are tests that cover:• Steady-stateover-andunder-voltageconditions• Ripplevoltage• Momentarypowerinterruption• Momentarysagsandsurges• Exposedvoltagedecaytime(270voltonly)• Inrushcurrent ACInputTests

Ac inputs are subjected to the following tests:• Steady-stateover-andunder-voltageconditions• Steady-stateover-andunder-frequencyconditions• Steady-statephaseunbalance(three-phasepower)• Voltageandfrequencymodulation• Voltageandfrequencytransients• Momentarypowerinterruption• Momentarysagsandsurges• DCoffsetandvoltagedistortion• Harmoniccurrentemissions• Phaseunbalance(three-phaseinputs)• DCcurrentcontent• Inrushcurrent• Currentmodulation• Powerfactor

radiated immunity testing is similar to above: rF susceptibility

radio frequency susceptibility (radiated and conducted)

Audio frequency susceptibility test

Case Study | civil rotorcraft

To facilitate the extensive performance, qualifi-cation, and mitigation testing carried out on components before they are applied or used on operational aircraft, Comar Fluid Power designs and engineers an extensive range of test rigs for the aerospace industry. These are managed through the use of control systems, which are generally bespoke and range from high-level machine sequencing to low-level time-critical closed-loop control and data acquisition. Comar works with its partner Computer Controlled Solutions (CCS) to provide these solutions.

Using design tools from National Instru-ments (Compact RIO range) and LabVIEW, along with high-level programming language, they create modular, maintainable systems with a user-friendly interface. Their design approach is highly flexible and can lead to cost savings.

Typical test requirementsStandard tests carried out on, for example, an electric motor and clutch assembly that is used to control the wing surfaces of an aircraft, include: running the motor; applying resistive torque profiles; emulating typical load patterns; back-driving the motor; and applying various torsional-impact stresses.

Typically, a programmable logic controller (PLC) or computer may be used to run the

Technology profile


servo loading cylinders, which are fitted to a test rig but are controlled by a central system and manual hand wind test rig (above)

by Stuart martin & Paul riley various tests, linked to a magnetic-particle brake or loaded by a hydraulic motor or electric servo motor. A servo PID controller or motor drive is then used to apply the speed and load-ing settings. It would be normal to see a control system leading to control electronics and on to actuators. Signals would then be returned for measurement and control from transducers – torque, pressure, and velocity, on to signal conditioning, then to the acquisition system where it is mirrored (buffered) to calibration-monitoring points.

Comar and CCS, together, use a systematic approach to keep it simple, using off-the-shelf (OTS) proven technology and minimizing the number of brains. The inherent complexity of any machine is usually enough to create a list of problems without adding to it a multifaceted system design. The use of technology plays a very good part in maintaining this aim.

As recently as five or six years ago, OTS became a nice idea but, unfortunately, there tends to be the occasional transducer, unique operation, or control that would best be solved with a unique PCB design or extraordinary wir-ing method. In addition, a mix of technology and a mix of suppliers can lead to future servic-ing issues. However, with the joint expertise of CCS and Comar, this is kept to a minimum.

The number of embedded processors find-ing a place in every market is becoming an

The power and the intellecthigh-level graphical programming and field-programmable gate array (fpga) hardware is a reliable way to implement intelligent control systems in aerospace product testing

Technology profile

| 61 NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2010AerospAceTesTinginTernATionAl.com

ongoing issue. Companies want to make their system easy to use so transducers may have their own intelligence, servo drives have com-plex axis-control algorithms, and power sup-plies can run automated routines. This is all fine as individual systems, but as a collective the result is ‘too many brains’ and, like cooks in the kitchen, it does not always work, adding complexity and often lacking a clear hierarchy. The result is usually a system that no single company fully understands. A fault may take longer to isolate and expensive engineers are required from multiple sources to diagnose and repair a single part of the system. In design, the aim is to minimise this quantity.

The design strategy is to put a good brain at the top and aim for it to handle all program-ming, closed loops, and profiles. The aim with any brains underneath, such as a servo drive, is to run in the basic mode, speed, or current con-trol, without use of built-in profiling or uniquely programmed conditions. The approach is ulti-mately for an engineer with knowledge of the top brain to visit the rig in any number of years without a manual, and to gain a good under-standing of a machine operation quickly, with-out there being any hidden surprises, which individual brains (microprocessors) are ‘good’ at providing.

The real-time system and FpgA The core of the partnership’s hardware selection is the use of a field-programmable gate-array (FPGA) device for time-critical control, condi-tioning, and acquisition. In essence, an FPGA device consists of a slab of silicon upon which are millions of logic gates, plus some memory and control circuitry. The beauty of these devices lies in the fact that one is not program-ming software to be executed down one or two processors in a non-deterministic timeframe, as with a PC or DSP. Instead, the software is, in effect, written to hardwire these gates to form a hardware circuit operation that is determinis-tic, fast, and anywhere on the slab of silicon.

Anywhere on the silicon indicates that mul-tiple circuits can run completely asynchro-nously and without the interruption of mice, virus protection software, and ever more com-plex underlying operating systems. The prob-lem with FPGA development is that it needs a software engineer, highly skilled in a low-level programming, and this is costly and promotes errors. The problem is solved using the Lab-VIEW programming language because the same engineer designing the rig and writing computer code, can now handle the FPGA code. In this way, the whole project is opened up to a broader range of engineers.

A real family businessFounder Graham Martin has two sons who both play an active part in Comar’s day-to-day activities. The elder son, Stuart, is operations director and manages business development, sales and commercial matters. The younger son, Richard, is also a company director, a design engineer and runs a team of project engineers. Graham says, “We put the customer first and nothing is too much trouble. Communication is absolutely key throughout a project, big or small, and we pride ourselves on customer satisfaction. We have a saying: ‘Small enough to be responsive, large enough to be respected’. We have worked on multimillion pound systems, which have been a success technically, delivered to the customers’ schedule, and we are also competitive.”

Typical electrical cabinet showing the inside of the control system

Technology profile

62 | November/december 2010AerospAceTesTinginTernATionAl.com

Advantages of the approachThere are clear advantages to this approach, the first being safety. An FPGA-based program can provide a safer control system in two main ways. As mentioned earlier, the code is, in effect, running on hardware and it can be programmed to be immune to any other pro-cesses. A typical processor has to queue up all the events, some important, others not. The word ‘queue’ invariably means ‘unknown delay’ and does not have to exist here. Furthermore, because of the speed of the hardware-circuit processing, any trip condi-tions can be detected very quickly and acted upon. Moreover, dynamic trip conditions can be imposed to trap previously impossible-to-catch conditions.

Second, this approach enables reduced wiring and circuitry. Using the Compact RIO hardware, which contains the FPGA system, modules for analog and digital input/output can be connected to the FPGA hardware. The advantage with this approach is that a whole bank of intermediate relay hardware can be removed, and where possible, all intermediate signal conditioning can be removed. In addi-tion, the signal conditioning for digital trans-ducers such as encoders, tachos, some torque cells, and some displacement devices can be read directly and decoded on the FPGA. This direct connection provides a huge advantage in reducing complexity, signal noise, and phase errors between signals.

The implementation of this design approach to the motor unit under test resulted in a cost-effective and responsive rig, with increased mean time between failures and easier servicing during the lifetime of the rig. z

Stuart Martin is operations director, Comar Engineering, and Paul Riley is managing director, Computer Controlled Solutions. Both companies are based in the UK

Seeing a bright futureGraham Martin is the managing director and chief design engineer of Comar Engineering, which specializes in the application of products for power and motion. The company has been operating for more than 30 years, and for 20 of them, it has been focused on producing turnkey aerospace solutions.

Graham, who lives with his wife and dog in Staffordshire, has two sons, Stuart and Richard, both of whom work for the company.

What was the motive behind expanding comar into the aerospace industry?After 10 years of business, general engineering was becoming more and more competitive. I have always been taught to try to find your niche in life, as well as in business. We had a few big players in the aerospace business on our doorstep and so I made it my mission to establish Comar as a name within the local industry. It was not an easy task and it was some years before we won our first order. From that first order we gained many more and today we continue to be a key supplier to not only the local industry, but internationally too.

is there a particular project that stands out as one of comar’s proudest achievements?That’s a difficult question. A lot of recent ones spring to mind, but I would say that the work we have just completed on the A350 thrust reverser test rig is probably our greatest and proudest achievement. We designed and manufactured two test rigs that were almost identical; one of them was installed at Airbus in France and it actually formed part of the A350 Iron Bird. It was one of the largest orders that Comar has won over the years and was a real team effort, with both of my sons playing a key part in the success of the project.

Where do you see comar in five years’ time?Having recently appointed both my sons as directors, I hope to see them take Comar to the next level. I believe I have given them a great foundation for success, and with their drive and hunger, I look forward to working with them on bigger and better projects as technology advances in the future.

What do you think is the key to succeeding in the aerospace industry?Teamwork. It really is the most important part of any business, At Comar we have great staff retention, which helps the family feel of the business. We have employees that have been working for the company for 30 years, whom I value greatly. We all pull together as a team and we get results because of that. Our customers respond to the way we work and integrate as part of our team, holding meetings at Comar rather than at their own facilities because of the atmosphere and team environment.

left: comar Technologies founder, graham martin, and stuart martin

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The mi-24 hind was The primary aTTack helicopTer for sovieT forces. nearly 40 years afTer iT was firsT operaTed, a souTh african company has a concepT To ToTally revamp The model

Known in the Soviet Union as the ‘Hunchback’ and in Afghanistan as the ‘Devil’s Chariot’, the Mil Mi-24 Hind battlefield helicopter epitomized the ‘Red Menace’ for many during the Cold War. More than 2,500 have been produced since 1972 and some 750 remain in service worldwide.

After the fall of the Soviet Union, many former Eastern Bloc countries aspired to join NATO, and western companies saw a potential market in upgrading the ubiquitous Mi-24 with new avion-ics and weapons systems. Among them were BAE Systems, SAGEM, and Elbit Systems. BAE Systems

by DaviD Oliverproposed a NATO-compatible modular avionics upgrade package with a choice of western weap-ons systems, while SAGEM offered to integrate its systems installed on the Tiger and NH90 using an Uzbekistan Air Force Mi-24V as a prototype.

Elbit’s upgrade configuration included a mul-timission optronic stabilized payload system with a TV, FLIR, and automatic target tracker, integrated with a helmet sight, a moving map display and integrated DASS, and a new mission planning system. All three companies competed for a contract to upgrade Bulgarian Air Force Hinds in 2005. Elbit won the €57 million (US$77.5 million) contract, which was canceled

conTrol column | SuperHind

Golden Hind


Right: The ATE SuperHind Mk III was used as a prototype for the Algerian Air Force Mi-24 upgrades (David Oliver)

Below: The SuperHind weapons systems include Russian S-8 unguided rockets and South African ZT-35 Ingwe anti-armor missiles (ATE)

two years later for ‘failing to meet the initially declared criteria’.

In the meantime, the Advanced Technologies and Engineering (ATE) company, founded in South Africa in 1984 by a handful of French aero-nautical engineers, was developing its SuperHind, which was the first Mi-24 upgrade to reach opera-tional status as early as 1999. Three upgrade pack-ages are offered by ATE as a cost-effective alterna-tive to purchasing new combat helicopters.

The core system of the SuperHind Mk II was designed to provide an integrated mission system and night mission capability, using either an FLIR from Denel Optronics Systems (DOS) or night-vision goggles. Other equipment fitted includes a programmable countermeasures dispenser, a rotor track and balance system, and improved front cockpit instrumentation plus a head-up dis-play (HUD) to reduce crew workload.

The SuperHind Mk III/IV has a Denel GA1 20mm turreted cannon that replaces the Mi-24’s fixed YaB four-barrel 12.7mm machine gun, inte-grated with the DOS helmet-mounted sight, and a Cumulus gyro-stabilized day/night FLIR/TV target acquisition sight. The original Russian mis-sile system is replaced by Denel Dynamics ZT-6 Mokopa and ZT-35 Ingwe anti-armor missiles. Other features include a digital flight/voice data recorder and a Doppler/GPS navigation system.

For all versions of the SuperHind, ATE offers a wide range of other options. These include a NATO-compatible IFF system, Avitronics laser warning and missile warning systems, an AMS health and usage monitoring system (HUMS), Pall engine filters, and composite main rotor blades – the last are designed, developed and produced at its own composite rotor blade facility.

ATE operates two Mi-24V Hind-E helicopters bearing South African civilian registrations for development and flight-test purposes from its fac-tory at Midrand, midway between Pretoria and Johannesburg. The first has been used for the production of the SuperHind Mk III/IV and is fit-ted with a comprehensive flight test installation. In the past four years, ATE has upgraded 35 Alge-rian Air Force Mi-25/Mi-35s to the SuperHind Mk III configuration, while an undisclosed number is being delivered to the Azerbaijan Air Force by Ukraine-based company Konotop, subcontracted to undertake the upgrades by ATE.

Radical upgradeThe company’s second Mi-24V is being used for the development of an even more radical upgrade, the Agile SuperHind Mk5. The focus is to retain the original helicopter’s reliable mechanical attri-butes, rugged capabilities and unrefined support structures while reducing airframe mass and

“ATE operates two Mi-24V Hind-E helicopters bearing South African civilian registrations”

SuperHind | control column

66 | november/december 2010AEROSpAcETESTIngInTERnATIOnAl.cOM

“The new cockpit and nose has a similar profile to the early-generation Bell Cobra attack helicopter”

installing a more complex mission system. A major constraint to operational application of the Hind is its inability to perform nap-of-the-earth (NOE) flight on the battlefield due primarily to poor out of ground effect (OGE) performance, engine erosion, and filter blockage. Additionally, when flying at low level, the pilot’s view of the terrain ahead is almost non-existent. To overcome these deficiencies, ATE has come up with several innovative solutions.

Firstly, the complete forward section of the helicopter will be redesigned. Featuring a new nose and cockpit canopy to improve situational awareness for the crew, the Mk5 configuration is optimized for NOE flight profiles, a role not nor-mally performed by the Mi-24, by moving the pilot to the front seat in the tandem cockpit, and the gunner to the rear.

The new cockpit and nose has a similar profile to the early-generation Bell Cobra attack helicop-ter, with the Mi-24’s distinctive double bubble cockpit canopies discarded. The nose includes provision for a conformal sensor turret and chin gun and the new configuration is designed to reduce the empty weight of a Mi-24 by 1,800-2,000kg. The bulk of the weight saving will be achieved by using composite materials, removing armor (the crew will be protected by armored seats), and by removing the 250kg Doppler

navigation radar and replacing it with a 4kg com-mercial unit. A new center of gravity will prevent the Mi-24’s nose-down attitude in flight.

Increased capabilityThe reduced weight will greatly increase the Agile SuperHind’s hot and high capability. The standard Mi-24 OGE hover performance at a mission weight of 10,700kg is 1,450m, compared with 2,650m with the SuperHind Mk5. The Mk5’s in ground effect (IGE) hover performance is equally impressive: 3,200m compared with the standard Mi-24’s 2,000m.

The new avionics package will include touch-screen menus, automated multisensor and multi-dimensional navigation, precision aiming for new weapons application and tactical mission com-munications. Integrated weapons will include beam-rider or semi-active laser anti-armor mis-siles, guided 70mm rockets and laser-guided bombs. While retaining the Hind’s main cabin, which can accommodate eight fully equipped troops, the Mk5 would be an ideal vehicle for special forces’ night insertions and combat search and rescue (CSAR) operations.

Although the Agile SuperHind Mk5 remains a concept, ATE maintains that it could be put into production within 15 to 24 months for a launch customer. z

control column | SuperHind

| 67november/december 2010AerospAceTesTIngInTernATIonAl.com

Below left: ATe’s superHind mk III/IV prototype on a test flight in south Africa (ATe)

Below right: The Agile superHind mk5 is ATe’s radical redesign of the russian mi-24 Hind

Bottom right: A mock- up of the ATe super- Hind mk5’s new tandem cockpit

Bulletin board


AIM has complemented the wide range of MIL-STD-1553 modules with the ExpressCard model AEC1553-x, which sets a new standard for mobile MIL-STD-1553 testing applications.

The AEC1553-x integrates one or two dual redundant MIL-STD-1553 A/B bus streams on one ExpressCard. Innovative hardware features include 128MB onboard RAM, a high-speed FPGA with integrated PCI-Express interface combined with an extremely low power processor to give the cus-tomer the most flexible and powerful solution for challenging MIL-STD-1553 applications.

Full function versions concurrently act as bus controller, multiple remote terminals (31) and chron-ological/mailbox bus monitor. Versions with a reduced set of functionality (single function or sim-ulator only) are available as well as extended tem-perature range variants. Key features include full MIL-STD-1553 protocol error injection/detection, multilevel triggering and filtering, real-time record-ing (100% bus loads) and physical bus replay. The AEC1553-x is software-compatible with AIM’s fam-ily of PC/104-Plus, USB, PC-Card, PMC, PCI, cPCI/PXI, VME and VXI MIL-STD-1553 cards. The AIM PBA.pro Databus Test & Analysis Tool also supports the new modules with its powerful ana-

lyzer and application capabilities. AEC1553-x mod-ules include eight General Purpose Discrete I/O (GPIO) signals that can be used to generate strobe outputs or to sample external digital inputs as well as hardware trigger inputs and outputs. The dis-crete I/O lines accept standard TTL levels as well as avionic levels from 0-35V DC. Both variants have onboard IRIG-B time encoder/decoder with sinusoi-dal output and ‘free wheeling’ mode for Time Tag Synchronisation of multiple AIM modules or any IRIG-B compatible input.

AIM has offices in the UK and the USA with the main design and manufacturing facilities based in Freiburg, Germany. Its full-service technical website offers a powerful download area providing online product updates and a full documentation service. AIM markets and supports its products through authorised representatives worldwide.

ExpressCard – mobile interfaces for MIL-STD-1553

Aircrew who risk their lives to rescue others, have the right to fly to the incident with equipment of the highest possible safety. ‘Safety in test, safety in flight’ – the maxim of Test-Fuchs – becomes of sig-nificant importance when it is about rescue winches for helicopters. The rescue winch has a very impor-tant role to play in saving lives.

To support OEM and MRO organizations, Test-Fuchs has developed a new winch test bench. The integrated control loop guarantees an exact weight and speed simulation. The test bench was designed with the customer in mind; the compact design results in lower infrastructure costs for the customer. It is able to test the standalone winch, or the com-plete winch including the beam.

The universal setup allows adaptation of differ-ent winch technologies (electrical, pneumatic and hydraulic) for different helicopter models. The Test-Fuchs design team has included the best quality components to ensure the highest reliability and easy maintainability.

The measuring and data acquisition systems are proven within many Test-Fuchs Aerospace applica-tions. For the PWP2, the customer interface was a very important issue. Tests can be performed man-ually and also in automated mode. All results are stored digitally and can be used for protocol to guar-antee full traceability of the test runs. The package is completed with a special calibration feature to fulfill the standards within the aviation industry. The compact setup of the PWP2 allows a perfect inte-gration into the repair and test process of the service organization. Preparation time and internal logistics are minimized, which results in an optimized work-flow while testing rescue winches.

Efficient winch testing with a universal setup

For further information contact Test-Fuchs GmbH, Michael SchillingTest-Fuchs Strasse 1-53812 Gross Siegharts, Austriaor go to online enquiry card 102

For further information contact Douglas Ullah, director sales and marketing AIM GmbH, Freiburg, Germany Tel +49 761 45229-0, Fax +49 761 452293-3 Email: [email protected] Website: www.aim-online.comor go to online enquiry card 101

Bulletin board

Meggitt Sensing Systems has introduced the Sensorex SX41100 series of high-perform-ance servo inclinometers, featuring analog and digital outputs and a maximum linearity error of <±0.02% FS, for high-precision angular measurements within extreme testing environments.

The SX41100 series is designed to provide an output signal proportional to the angle of measure over a range of ±1° to ±70°. Incorpo-rating Meggitt’s proprietary Sensorex digital hybrid compensation circuit design, the incli-nometers are also part of the company’s best-selling Rugged Enhanced Digital Sensor (REDS) family, ensuring high-reliability performance with ±5V analog, 4-20 mA or RS232 and RS485 ASCII digital outputs and built-in active digital temperature compensation over a range of -40°C to +85°C. Incorporation of an inertial mass

with servo feedback, optical position pick-up, IP65 environmental sealing and friction-free mounting allow for excellent long term durabil-ity. The oil immersed inertial mechanism allows for high shock and vibration resistance with a good damping factor. Units operate from a 9-30V unipolar power supply. Digital models are delivered with software and data transmitted in ASCII format for direct communication with a standard PC, along with user-selectable param-eters of data acquisition and display.

High-performance analog and digital servo inclinometers

For further information contact Meggitt Sensing Systems, 30700 Rancho Viejo Road, San Juan Capistrano CA 92675 USA Tel: +1 949 493 8181www.meggittsensingsystems.com or go to online enquiry card 104

| 69NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2010AerospAceTesTinginTernATionAl.com

Aerospace Testing Expo 2011 ................................................... 63, IBCAerospace Testing Technology Online Reader Enquiry Service ........ 38AIM GmbH (c/o AIM UK) ................................................................... 17Brüel & Kjær Sound and Vibration ................................................... IFCComar Fluid Power .............................................................................. 2Cotta Transmissions ............................................................................ 8Dewetron elektronische Messgerate GmbH ..................................... 47DIT-MCO International ....................................................................... 41Dytran Instruments ............................................................................ 57HBM United Kingdom Ltd ................................................................. 47Hottinger Baldwin Messtechnik GmbH ............................................. 64LMS International .......................................................................... OBC

National Research Council Canada .................................... 7, 9, 11, 13PCB Piezotronics Inc ......................................................................... 64PCO AG ............................................................................................. 29Precision Filten Inc ............................................................................ 29Tecnatom SA ..................................................................................... 51Test-Fuchs GmbH ............................................................................. 51Trailblazers .................................................................................. 57, 70Unholtz-Dickie Corp .......................................................................... 25Vector Informatik GmbH .................................................................... 22Virginia Panel Corporation (VPC) ....................................................... 25www. AerospaceTestingInternational.com .................................. 41, 70

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JANUARY 2009 AEROSPACE TESTING INTERNATIONAL | 74

CIVIL ROTORCRAFT | Case Study

The rise of the airship: the Hindenburg

MAGNIFICENT MENand their flying machines

VINTAGE MODELS | Airship

| 71 NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2010AEROSPACETESTINGINTERNATIONAL.COM

BY FRANK MILLARD

friendly Captain Ernst Lehmann. Although Eckener was retained as a figurehead, real authority slowly passed into other hands.

Problems emergeIn March 1936, the Hindenburg was damaged during a three-day propaganda flight for the Nazis. The lower fin was damaged when the ground crew lost control of the airship due to the windy conditions while it was being made ready for take-off. Eckener was furious that Lehmann had, for political reasons, allowed the flight to take place in unfavorable conditions

and had risked the airship and the whole Zep-pelin program for a “scheissfahrt” – shit flight. Scheduled endurance flight trials prior to the Hindenburg’s first transatlantic flight were cancelled by Lehmann. Consequently, prob-lems with the airship’s Daimler engines were not discovered and led to repeated engine fail-ures over the Atlantic, vindicating Eckener.

Once repaired, the noble airship was used for the ignominious task of dropping swastikas and leaflets urging people to vote ‘yes’ in Hit-ler’s plebiscite on the remilitarization of the Rhineland. When news of Eckener’s comments

It may seem curious that the Hindenburg – considered a failure lost in one of the worst air disasters in history – should be featured in a column that usually celebrates the tri-umphs of aviation innovation. However, this graceful giant was the apotheosis of airship design of its day and represented the cutting edge of modern air travel.

Two men were responsible for the great Zeppelin airships of the 1930’s, including the glorious but ill-fated Hindenburg: company boss Dr Hugo Eckener and chief designer Ludwig Dürr.

Dürr (1878-1956) designed all of Zeppe-lin’s airships except the very first – the LZ-1, which he helped to construct. He was an air-ship pilot who was able to test-f ly his cre-ations, and commanded several of them him-self. Dürr introduced a number of innovations such as triangular girders to replace weaker tubular versions that had featured in the LZ-1, so solving the problem of the hull twisting in flight. He employed an empirical approach in design, and was able to draw on a wealth of personal experience of designing, build-ing, and flying airships.

Eckener became Zeppelin’s leader following the death of owner and founder, Count Ferdi-nand von Zeppelin, in 1917. Eckener loathed Hitler and was an opponent of National Social-ism. In 1931, he publicly endorsed German Centre Party leader Heinrich Brüning in a radio broadcast that included not too subtle criticism of the Nazis. He also refused permission for a political rally at the Zeppelin hangar at Fried-richshafen in southern Germany where Hitler intended to make a speech.

After Hitler became Chancellor in 1933 Eckener was gradually marginalized by the Nazi regime, which regarded the Zeppelin boss as troublesome. When the Hindenburg was being built the company was forced to accept funding from Joseph Goebbels’ Propa-ganda Ministry and the Air Ministry, thus compromising its independence. As a conse-quence, the company was divided in two, comprising airship manufacturing (Luftschiff-bau Zeppelin) and airship operations (Deutsche Zeppelin-Reederei) led by the more Nazi-

The bulkheads were braced to each other by longitudinal girders placed around their circumferences

reached Goebbels, he placed a ban on the Zeppelin chief’s name and image appearing in print, and although Eckener’s world renown and the support of Herman Göring prevented his elimination by the Nazis, he lost his resid-ual authority. Eckener, however, commanded many landmark flights including the 1929 round-the-world flight and the 1931 polar flight of the LZ-127 Graf Zeppelin, and most of the major flights of the Hindenburg.

The National Socialist regime made full use of the two giant modern airships at rallies, and the swastikas on the Hindenburg’s tail fins wrongfully suggested that the airship was a direct result of Nazi endeavor and inventive-ness, whereas it might be more accurate to say that the better part of Hindenburg was the child of Weimar.

One of Hindenburg’s early passengers was Louis Lochner of the US Associated Press, who, although trusted by the Nazi regime, was in close touch with the German resis-tance movement against Hitler. When he was eventually allowed to return to the USA, he took with him a letter for President Franklin D. Roosevelt written by their mutual friend Prince Louis Ferdinand of Prussia, along with a message from the resistance movement call-ing for US support for its activities. Lochner reported on his Hindenburg voyage and was careful to include an interview with the anti-Nazi Eckener.

Craft specifications The Hindenburg was driven by four 16-cylin-der LOF-6 (DB-602) Daimler-Benz diesel

The Hindenburg made its maiden test flight from the Zeppelin dockyards at Friedrichshafen on March 4, 1936, with 87 souls on board

Airship | VINTAGE MODELS

MAGNIFICENT MENand their flying machines

engines that had originally been designed to power naval motor torpedo boats. The engines were capable of starting, stopping and revers-ing in flight. The airship carried approxi-mately twice the volume of gas (7,062,000ft3) as the Graf Zeppelin and was broader (135.1ft) and 30ft longer (803.8ft) than its sister ship. Its passenger decks were located within the ship’s hull. Of its two decks, A Deck included 25 double-berth cabins, a lounge, dining room, writing room and promenades on both sides of the ship. The lower B Deck contained the crew quarters, kitchen, passenger wash-room and shower facilities. A bar and smok-ing room were also included. More passenger cabins were added in 1936 and 1937.

Hindenburg was originally designed as a helium airship, which explains its enor-mous size and shape constructed to accom-modate the heavier gas. However, the helium was expected to be sourced from the USA but proved too difficult to obtain and too expensive to be vented as compensation for fuel burned in f light. As a solution, it was decided to install a set of inner hydro-gen cells within the ship’s 16 helium cells, shielding the f lammable hydrogen, which could be valved when necessary. Although an axial catwalk was built, the cells it was meant to serve were never constructed. The company was reluctantly forced to switch from helium to hydrogen.

Another innovation that was abandoned when the decision was taken to inflate the air-ship with hydrogen was a water recovery sys-tem, utilizing silica gel to capture water from the engine exhaust for use as water ballast in compensation for spent fuel. It was also intended that aircraft could be launched from the Hindenburg and captured in flight, but attempts to hook an aircraft onto the airship during tests were unsuccessful.

Arguably, a helium-filled Hindenburg with all of its actual and proposed technological innovations would have been safer than the version that eventually flew, and a scientific

marvel exemplifying the cutting edge of 1930’s technology. Impressive though it was, this Hindenburg was not the airship that had been planned and designed by Eckener and Dürr.

On May 6, 1937, the airship that was intended to set the world alight metaphori-cally literally crashed and burned at Lakehu-rst, New Jersey. The tragedy that took the lives of 36 people followed years of com-mercial Zeppelin flights without a recorded passenger injury.

End of gloryWreckage of the R101, which had crashed in flames in 1930, was taken for scrap by con-tractors from Sheffield, UK, who sold 5.5 tons of duraluminum from the airship to the Zep-pelin company in 1931. The eerie possibility that this metal was recycled for use in the Hindenburg has not been lost on aerospace historians and commentators.

United Press reporter Webb Miller recalled Hindenburg’s glory days in his book I Found No Peace, which chronicled his flight on the Hindenburg’s first transatlantic flight in 1936: “At a word from Commander Ernst Lehmann, the cables were thrown off. The huge ship, nearly one-sixth of a mile long and as high as a thirteen-story building, weighing 236 tons with its load of fuel, mail, freight, foodstuffs, water, passengers, and crew, lifted gently as thistledown. One hundred and six persons were aboard, the largest number ever to embark on a trans-oceanic flight.

“As the huge bulk drifted upward silently and slowly we looked down into the upturned faces of thousands of frantically cheering townsfolk, spotlighted by the downward beams of two searchlights in the belly of the ship. The waving forest of arms gradually receded. Signal bells jangled in the engine gondolas and the four motors roared. It was 8:27pm; we were off on the 4,300-mile flight to America, suspended in air by 6,710,000ft3 of inflammable hydrogen gas.” The rest, as they say, is history. ❚

72 | NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2010AEROSPACETESTINGINTERNATIONAL.COM

The Hindenburg made 17 round trips across the Atlantic Ocean in 1936, its first and only full year of service

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Aerospace Testing November 2010