New Russian RJ Put Through Its Paces
The AN-148-100, a new regional jet, whose first flight took
place on December 17, 2004, successfully performs the tests. On
December 30, 2004 the weather allowed to perform six test
flights.
Strength properties, margin of aeroelastic stability,
performance of longitudinal and lateral stability and
controllability in all configurations of the aircraft were
estimated during those flights. Engine characteristics in steady
mode and transient conditions from idle gas to take-off one were
estimated as well. The systems of the aircraft life support, in
particular, air preparation and pneumatic ones, automatic
adjustment of pressure, anti-icing, emergency evacuation (with
mannequins ejection) were checked out. The results received during
these first tests coincide with the designed data.
Here's the company's account of the first flight:
The aircraft was operated by crew
consisted of: leading test-pilot Eugenii Galunenko, the crew
captain; test-pilot Sergei Troshin, co-pilot; leading engineer on
flight tests Aleksander Makiyan. The take-off was carried out from
the runway of "Sviatoshin" airdrome (Kiev). The take-off run was
1000 meters. The program of the first test flight included
investigation of stability and controllability of the aircraft
within the whole rate of speeds, at all positions of the elements
of the wing high-lift devices, with extended and retracted landing
gear and operational test of all the aircraft systems.
It was almost fully performed except of climb to the altitude of
7000 m because of adverse weather conditions in Kiev on the 17th of
December. That is why the flight with duration of 1 hour 25 minutes
was performed on altitude rate from 0 till 3000 m with the speeds
from 200 km/hrs to 470 km/hrs. The AN-148-100 landed at airdrome of
ANTONOV ASTC’s flight test and operational developing base in
Gostomel near Kiev. All systems worked in normal mode, no failure
had been revealed. The real flight characteristics of the aircraft
practically in full coincided with designed ones. At the
press-conference held after the first flight of the AN-148 the
captain said: "To fly on such an aircraft is the real pleasure both
for the crew and for passengers."
The AN-148-100 is equipped with the
system of flight data measuring which permits to register more than
5000 parameters simultaneously, to look them through and to fulfill
the express analysis onboard in the real time scale.
Meanwhile the building of the second and third aircraft
prototypes is in progress. In December 2004 the system of power
supply of the second AN-148-100 was connected to the source of
current and optimization of its airborne systems was started. On
December 29, the fuselage of the third prototype was taken out of
the assembly jig.