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

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EXCLUSIVE: The chief designer of the flagship Sukhoi
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The head of manned space flight
for the Russian Space Federation
talks about future collaboration
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 Contents
RUSSIAN 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

4
program and chief designer discusses the latest
developments

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

30 The question of Nimrod

26 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

34 Politics and planes

The UK Ministry of Defence is protecting its
science and technology budget

36 Synthetic jet fuel

36 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

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 test

Italy’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 refuel
44 The A330 Multi Role Tanker Transport (MRTT)

FREE
has achieved certification in Spain. The air-to-air
refuelling system hit the mark too

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 EDITOR’S VIEW | Contents

I am always somewhat loath to tread on old I do have my own experience of a civil aircraft TECHNOLOGY PROFILES
ground, and for everyone in the industry the engine near catastrophe, albeit an RAF flight. I
Qantas A380 ‘near’ engine disaster is already a don’t even remember the aircraft type (VC-10, 60 Intelligent control systems
well-walked path. But, although the A380 QF31 727, maybe not?). I was a junior Lieutenant The use of high-level graphical
landed safely on November 4, 2010, the based in Germany, and in a huge, huge hurry. I programming and field programmable gate
array (FPGA) hardware
incident’s impact on the industry and the was incredibly late getting to my flight from RAF
resulting ramifications cannot be ignored. (There Bielefeld back to Luton to see my girlfriend for
is a resumé of the aftermath on page 12 of this just a couple of joyous days. I arrived just 15
issue’s news section.) minutes before the flight was due to leave. TECHNOLOGY REGULARS
It all started with an uncontained engine failure On arrival I sprinted through the system, just in 52 Satellite software
on the Qantas A380 shortly after take-off on a time. Merely moments before boarding I was Independent software technology trials
Singapore-Sydney flight that forced the aircraft instructed that I was the most senior person on are crucial to the launch of the EarthCARE
to make an emergency landing back in board and therefore had to account for all space mission
Singapore. Initial suggestions are that an oil leak passengers (nearly all wives and kids), and that I 54 Composite materials –
in the engine was the likely cause of the failure, was also to escort a prisoner from the Royal
with debris penetrating various areas of the Welch Fusiliers (already handcuffed to the
CERAM
The characterization of composite systems
droop nose, but speculation and rumor is rife. armrest). Private ‘X’ was going to military prison by surface analysis
Indeed, a great test pilot contact of mine for turning a German civilian’s head into jelly.
forwarded me an email that is doing the rounds, We hit some major turbulence somewhere 58 EMC technology
Choosing a laboratory to test to the EMC
apparently based on investigations made by a over the North Sea, and while my gin and tonic
requirements of RTCA DO160: power input,
‘technical manager’ at Airbus. It states: “Rolls- was fearfully close to spilling over, my Welsh RF… and, of course, lightning
Royce, the maker of the Trent 900 engine that prisoner was almost apoplectic with fear (he had
disintegrated, knew about the faults that the never flown before, having got the boat to
current airworthiness directive concerning these Germany). There was a loud bang on the NEWS FEATURES
engines says are likely to have caused an starboard wing, and I suffered that ‘you-know- 10 International UAS team
intense oil fire in a structural cavity in the things-are-wrong’ rolling stomach churn. An Anglo-French effort to develop a new
intermediate pressure turbine area of the engine. Despite being handcuffed, Private ‘X’ was generation of UAS could lead to a new era
“Rolls-Royce had designed and was clutching my hand so hard that my fingers were in cooperation
introducing a fix for the oil leak issues into the about to fuse into a hand club. We descended 12 Indian Typhoon partner
engines at its own speed. Qantas was left in the very, very quickly; people on the other side of India would become the consortium’s third-
dark. It is fair to suggest that Qantas needs to the aircraft were exclaiming they had seen fire largest customer and an unofficial ‘fifth
review relationships with engine manufacturers, coming from one of the engines. partner’ in the project
which it pays for ‘power by-the-hour’ and leaves My Welsh companion, at this point, was nearly
much of the maintenance and oversight of those
engines to the designer and manufacturer,” the
insane with anxiety. His face was whiter than the
North Pole. I, meanwhile, feared for gin and tonic
REGULARS
insider cites. It is ludicrous to contemplate spillage. We gently turned back and landed 14 TESTING TALK
The US Aviation Center for Rotorcraft
endorsement of these statements until the slowly and surely at Schipol Airport… low and Advancement flies a retired helicopter to test
conclusion of a thorough investigation, but gentle, with six fire engines escorting us down new technologies. Frank Colucci looks at the
nonetheless, share prices are crashing at a time the runway just for good measure. It meant NACRA mission and future plans for T-Rex
when the flagship and revolutionary A380 was another six hours in the terminal with the (now 65 CONTROL COLUMN
hitting a critical sales watershed. As ATTI went gray) prisoner waiting for a replacement flight. The Mi-24 Hind was the attack helicopter
to press, Qantas planned to resume limited Back to the latest and more newsworthy for Soviet forces. Nearly 40 years later, a
South African company has a concept to
Airbus A380 services at the end of November, engine failure. The end of the ‘insider statement’
totally revamp the model
but it is obviously a very anxious customer. read: “The interests of the engine maker and
Manufacturer Rolls-Royce has asked Airbus to holder of the service agreements are not the 68 INDUSTRY BULLETINS
Featuring company news, latest
return all Trent 900 engines from the A380 same as those of the airline. The questions innovations, case studies, and the most
production line in Toulouse, France, so they can concerning the timeliness of the Rolls-Royce up-to-date systems on the market
be used to replace faulty engines on aircraft responses to a known problem and its capacity 71 VINTAGE MODELS
already in airline service. and willingness to share them with the airlines The regular look at iconic craft and the
Analysts said this may delay A380 deliveries concerned will not go away. If the engine maker people behind them: The Hindenburg
due by year end to Singapore Airlines, Qantas, doesn’t address them, its customers will.”
and Lufthansa. Together they have a total of 22 CTU RIN
G EXP O
EUR OPE
& MAN UFA

of the US$350 million aircraft on order. Christopher Hounsfield, editor THE OFF
ICIA L MAG AZIN
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NOVEMBER/D
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NOVEM

(b.richards@ukintpress.com) Craig Marshall, Nicola Turner, Julie Welby, Ben White (c.flanagan@ukintpress.com)
FWPMV
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Sukhoi
flagship
CHIEF SUB-EDITOR Alex Bradley PRODUCTION MANAGER Ian Donovan AUSTRALASIA BUSINESS MANAGER Chris Richardson gner of the
chief desi t its development
2010

IVE: The
EXCLUS als all abou
100 reve
Superjet

SUB-EDITOR William Baker PRODUCTION TEAM Carol Doran, Lewis Hopkins, Tel: +61 4207 64110 (c.richardson@ukintpress.com)
PROOFREADERS Aubrey Jacobs-Tyson, Frank Millard Cassie Inns, Emma Uwins MANAGING DIRECTOR Graham Johnson
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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 the period 1TUFJanuary
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NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2010
AEROSPACETESTINGINTERNATIONAL.COM | 3
Alexei Borisovich Krasnov | RUSSIA

Star man
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 2010
AerospaceTestingInternational.com
Russia | Alexei Borisovich Krasnov

by anna potekhin

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

NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2010
AerospaceTestingInternational.com | 5
Alexei Borisovich Krasnov | RUSSIA

I want to be an astronaut
There 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
Alexei Borisovich
during travel is very great, and the female body is more sensitive
Krasnov, head of
manned space flight, than that of the male. The effects of space travel on the female
Roscosmos, and ISS body may well be somewhat different from those experienced by
program manager the male body.

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
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

6| NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2010
AerospaceTestingInternational.com
 RUSSIA | Alexei Borisovich Krasnov

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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.
Alexei Borisovich Krasnov | RUSSIA

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.

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 What is the current state of play regarding While space travel itself is risky, the tech-
man has lived in the space age for more than 50 the program for Russian space tourists? nology is relatively reliable. In short, it has
years now and should be provided with as many There has been talk for some time now of flights become more reliable, but no less dangerous.
opportunities to voyage through space as pos- to the International Space Station for non- After all, every ship is different; they are not
sible. This is not something that should be professional passengers. However, this program falling off a conveyor belt. They all undergo
restricted to the professionals. The important has been suspended for now because all space- different tests during flight, and so each one
thing is that any ventures are safe and under- craft flying to the station have a regular crew. It will be different from their predecessor, and
taken by reliable and responsible people. At the is simple arithmetic: every ship transports three every astronaut can also be compared to a
moment, we are simply searching for investors. people. Six people work at the space station at test pilot.

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 RUSSIA | Alexei Borisovich Krasnov

Aerospace

Clash of interests
How 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

Testing for
social protection.
In addition, there is the issue of the transfer of land,
property, and aircraft, all of which takes time. However, the

Engine Performance
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

& Icing Certification

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. The National Research Council of Canada (NRC)
Prime Minister Vladimir Putin visited the training center excels in certification and performance testing of
and approved the development plans for both the Star City
gas turbines and their components. Tests include
research training facility and the Gagarin training center,
so as to redevelop them on a completely new technological operation in adverse environments (icing, fog, ice
and social level. The tasks have been set and the financing sheet, hail storm), bird ingestion and endurance, as
has begun.
well as complex development work. These capabili-
But there are indeed risks, not only with the ties are complemented by mechanical equipment
take-off and landing, but also in the conducting design and rotating machinery tribology expertise.
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- We put Canada’s abundant cold air to work in icing
duces a large book]. These are their comments
about the implementation of new systems, the certification trials on turboshaft and turbofan/jet
recommendations to developers, the analysis of engines for clients from all over the world.
work modules, observations made during the
training of the crew, and so on.
Astronauts are insured. They have a system Check out our four engine test cells and our test rigs
of bonuses and penalties that come into force for radial bearings, oil-free bearings and seals.
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 NRC. The peak performance people.
contract. This includes a payout upon returning
to Earth.
I can tell you that today’s astronauts are ask- Tel: +1 613 990 0765
ing for a significantly higher remuneration than www.NRCAerospace.gc.ca/ati-engines
their predecessors, who wanted nothing more
than a Volga car. We believe that the payment Vous trouverez ces mêmes renseignements
[now] is adequate for the work carried out in en français sur le site Web indiqué.
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

Land speed
News feature
record
UK seeks global participation in UAS
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
Electric catapults for Queen Elizabeth carriers
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
10 | november/december 2010
AerospaceTestingInternational.com
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
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
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
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
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
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

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
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.
For regular news updates:
www.AerospaceTestingInternational.com
Land News
speedfeature
record
Aerospace
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
Flight Test and
and Israeli UASs to support
the immediate operational
needs in Afghanistan.
Evaluation Services
Only five days before the
Anglo-French treaty was The National Research Council of Canada (NRC)
signed, the UK defence
performs flight test activities for a wide range of
equipment and support
minister Peter Luff commercial and business aircraft clients. Whether
announced that the it’s assessing rotorcraft handling qualities and
UK planned to order and
receive up to five additional
cockpit systems, or developing novel flight test
MQ-9 Reaper UASs from the procedures and equipment, our people and facilities
US manufacturer General are second to none.
Atomics by 2015.
To reduce costs and improve data accuracy, we
constantly develop new flight test techniques and
technologies.
Test pilot schools trust us for specialized pilot
and engineer training. What’s more, flight simulator
companies have come to rely on our fast, accurate,
and cost-effective flight test data gathering services.
The third option is the
Electromagnetic Catapult NRC. Ready for your evaluation.
(EMCAT) system proposed by
UK-based Converteam,
formerly part of Alstom, which
is a scaled-up version of its
Electromagnetic Kinetic Tel: +1 613 990 0765
Integrated Technology (EMKIT)
technology demonstrator,
www.NRCAerospace.gc.ca/ati-flight
which was developed to
launch unmanned aerial
Vous trouverez ces mêmes renseignements
vehicles. The company is en français sur le site Web indiqué.
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.
News feature
A new type of defense procurement
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
The ramifications of an engine crisis
12 | november/december 2010
AerospaceTestingInternational.com
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
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
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
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.

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.”
For regular news updates:
www.AerospaceTestingInternational.com
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
For regular news updates:
www.AerospaceTestingInternational.com
News feature
Aerospace
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
Large-scale
our countries sold platforms.
This is a lot easier that selling
weapon systems, as we do
Structural Testing
now. It takes time to share
with a potential customer
what it means for their
in Less Time
operational needs to have
complex weapon systems in
their inventories.”
However, several industry
executives warned against
the rush to sell and transfer The National Research Council of Canada (NRC) has
advanced industrial-scale exceptional testing expertise and the latest analysis
capabilities around the and manufacturing technologies to perform struc-
world. “Governments are
asking if capability and tural testing on everything from simple coupons to
technology transfers are a full-scale aircraft. And now, faster results from our
risk to our own security,”
newly developed software.
commented an industry
executive. “Also, are we
creating new competitors?”
Our facilities include a full-scale aircraft test bay for
cyclic and static structural testing, environmental
chambers, two high-velocity burner rigs, a spin rig,
and the largest cruciform biaxial test facility in
Canada.
Check out our wide range of services. Life predic-
tions for airframe and engine structural components.
Materials design and analysis. Corrosion research.
service. Safety continues to be Active noise and vibration control. Modal analysis
Rolls-Royce’s highest priority.”
The final outcome of the
and non-destructive evaluation.
various investigations will be
eagerly awaited by the airline NRC. Put us to the test.
and aerospace industries. If a
major design fault – rather Tel: +1 613 990 0765
than a maintenance or
operations issue – is identified www.NRCAerospace.gc.ca/ati-structures
with the engine that cannot
easily be resolved, then Rolls- Vous trouverez ces mêmes renseignements
Royce will have to modify the en français sur le site Web indiqué.
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.
Testing talk
> 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
T-Rex discovered
14 | november/december 2010
AerospaceTestingInternational.com
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 focus
US 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
The last UH-1N was
delivered to the US
Marine Corps in
1979, and the hard-
flown Twin Hueys
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-
are being replaced tical lift capabilities analysis and joint
by new UH-1Ys. multirole strategic plan aimed at next-
NACRA chose the generation rotorcraft. Near-term,
UH-1N as the NACRA focuses its search for technol-
platform for its
dedicated maritime
ogy in four areas: digital interoperabil-
helicopter ity, safety and survivability, total own-
technology testbed ership costs, and future concepts. “A lot
(US Navy) 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.
 Testing talk

“Operations Enduring Freedom and Iraqi

Freedom remain largely helicopter wars”

november/december 2010
AerospaceTestingInternational.com | 15
Missile Testing
Testing talk | Ballistic Missile defence
T-Rex system
The 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-
16 | november/december 2010
AerospaceTestingInternational.com
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
Top: T-Rex will use the T-Rex bus, but it remains separate
key elements of the from the unmodified Huey cockpit to
Northrop Grumman maximize test flexibility. The test suite
Digital Avionics
Suite in the cockpit
has its own 1553B, ARINC-429, Ether-
of the AH-1Z attack net, and RS232 buses for test data. The
helicopter DAS generates video outputs including
(Ted Carlson) DVI graphics, and it merges and over-
lays video and graphics using an open
Bottom: PCAS from
graphics library.
Zaon Flight Systems
was tested to T-Rex test imagery and data will
evaluate a collision appear on two 10.4in multifunctional
avoidance system displays identical to those in Marine
 Testing talk

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
“The open system computer on T-Rex
integrates Harris FliteScene moving
map software rather than the TAMAC
map in fleet aircraft”
avionics rack, and shipped the rack and A UH-1N Huey with
DAS to HX-21 for installation and flight Marine Light Attack
checks. Although it will not have access Helicopter
to proprietary test data of third-party Squadron 169 lands
at Camp Dwyer,
suppliers, Northrop Grumman will Afghanistan, Sept 5,
remain an active participant in most T- 2009. T-Rex was
Rex projects to keep open systems hard- drawn from HMLA-
ware and software synchronized with 169 after the
changing user requirements. last deployment
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.”

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7159 Aerospace Test Amend.indd 1 22/10/10 10:25:18

Missile Testing
Testing talk | Ballistic Missile defence

Fly and try

The 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 on T-Rex to find an off-the-shelf tech-
it from there,” says Becker. Hovering nology to prevent controlled flight into
flight tests at St Mary’s County airport terrain accidents.
and other local airfields were preceded Plans for 2011 include tests of the
by ground testing, two hours beside the joint multimission electro-optical sen-
runway looking at the handheld display sor system, tactical mid-air collision
and listening to the tower radio. A avoidance system, tactical situational
slightly more quantitative follow-up had awareness system, a tactical information
an H-60 from HX-21 with an air traffic system from Bell, and an electronic war-
transponder fly at different angles above fare system controller from Terma. The
and below the T-Rex. NACRA testbed will play early next year
Successful PCAS trials on T-Rex in a joint capability technology demon-
will put the interim collision avoidance stration of CORPORAL – the Collabora-
aid in a V-22 cockpit, albeit on the Top: The T-Rex out conditions, but it will exercise the tive On-line Reconnaissance Provider
ground. NACR A wants to see if the helicopter was system with night vision devices under Operationally Responsive Attack Link.
drawn from a fleet
passive air traffic detector works the watch of a safety pilot. The same The networked helicopter will send
squadron and
through the RF-filtering windshield of rebuilt at Camp tactile cues could cue pilots to ground- imagery from Directed Infrared Coun-
the combat tiltrotor. “If it performs the Pendleton, fire. NACRA previously tested the sys- termeasures sensors, the Brite Star
way it did, then there’s merit for a flight California tem with 10 pilots in a roll-in, roll-out FLIR, and other sensors to other plat-
test,” says Becker. cockpit owned by the Manned Flight forms. A follow-on demonstration with
After its DAS modifications, T-Rex Bottom: The Zaon Simulator department at Patuxent River. Marine Air Weapons and Tactics
PCAS installed in T-
will resume flights in November with Rex cockpit
Isleib says, “We’re just now figuring out Squadron One will put the system in an
the Tactile Situational Awareness System if it enhances the pilots’ situational operational setting at Yuma in early
from Chesapeake Technologies. The tac- awareness or creates overload.” NACRA 2011. Isleib observes, “If we can dem-
tile system uses vest and seat cushion also plans to evaluate the Sandel onstrate a way fairly quickly and cost-
transducers to augment visual and aural ST3400H Ground Proximity Warning effectively to get digital interoperability
displays and cue pilots to drift in brown- System and Helicopter Terrain Aware- into today’s aircraft, that would be a
out hovers. T-Rex will not fly in brown- ness Warning System (GPWS/HTAWS) real service.” z

18 | november/december 2010
AerospaceTestingInternational.com
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Sukhoi Superjet | RUSSIA

by Christopher Hounsfield

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

Steppe up
monitoring the test record of flight, 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 The Sukhoi Superjet has been described as the
for flight testing; and ‘Electronic Bird’ for a
series of works on system testing and flight test most important civil aircraft program of the
support. The engineering team works coordi- Russian aerospace industry. As it hits another
nates with all major testing sites, providing the
required engineering support in the overall major milestone, chief designer Alexander
campaign and preparing the documentation pimenov talks about certification
required for the certification authorities.

On-ground certification
The 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

20 | november/december 2010
AerospaceTestingInternational.com
 Russia | Sukhoi Superjet

november/december 2010
AerospaceTestingInternational.com | 21
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 Russia | Sukhoi Superjet

most complicated and time consuming goals in

the overall campaign,” says Pimenov. “Its suc-
cessful finalization means that the aircraft con-
Cold weather
Pimenov (left) says:
firmed the required structural integrity. “The testing ran rather smoothly without any
“Along with on-ground structural testing , serious problems. The extreme weather
the SSJ100 successfully accomplished the flight testing in Yakutsk went with minor problems
program, confirming the aircraft’s strength which were successfully resolved. For the
characteristics. Now we’ve accomplished 90% whole cold weather testing session we kept
of the certification campaign required to obtain the aircraft outdoors, out of the hangar and,
AR IAC Type certificate. with all the procedures fulfilled in
“The prototype has accumulated 2,278 accordance with the requirements, we
flight hours in 959 flights. In October 2010 proved the aircraft airworthiness at the
the aircraft successfully performed side-wind expected level.”
testing in Iceland, a series of tests for CATII
landing, which is enough to get the ‘Type Cer- achieved the maximum relative velocity (Vdf). nents under testing. It increased the accuracy
tification’. Preparation to CAT IIIA testing is in “The implementation of this methodology of the landing gear bench testing, essential for
progress. Now we are finalizing avionics safety in practices of flutter testing made it possible the safe operation of the aircraft.
failure testing, EMC, HIRF with emergency to evaluate the limits of elastic stability of the “We also had the unique testing of the
evacuation testing to follow at the earliest. We aircraft w ith unprecedented accuracy,” windshields for bird resistance in extreme
expect to obtain The AR IAC Type certificate explains Pimenov. weather conditions, which let us evaluate the
in December and right after the deliveries will “We gave special attention to landing-gear windshield strength. We cooled the outside
take place.”’ fatigue and static testing. The static testing was windshield surface up to a temperature of
The overall program, developed by Sukhoi, held in Toronto and fatigue testing was carried –40 °C and, in the opposite case, heated the
incorporated 58 test cases. All the main aircraft out in the Novosibirsk Scientific Research insti- outside windshield surface up to +50 °C, using
parts, including fuselage, wing, vertical and tute of Aviation. For the first time in testing the thermostatic control of the bird-hit area.
horizontal stabilizers, lift devices, landing gear practices we used a torsion-box simulator, sim- At the same time the temperature inside the
attachment points, pylon and power plant ulating real loads on the landing gear compo- aircraft was +20 °C.”
attachment points, as well as doors, flight-deck
and passenger-cabin glazing and equipment fit- All the main aircraft
ting, were subjected to extensive on-ground parts, including
strength testing at the Central Aerodynamic fuselage, wing, vertical
and horizontal
Institute (TsAGI) lab.
stabilizers, lift devices,
In compliance with the certification require- landing gear
ments, the airframe components were exten- attachment points,
sively tested to study the behavior of the air- pylon and power plant
frame structure. attachment points, as
well as doors, flight
Aircraft orders deck and passenger
cabin glazing and
To date, there are more than 155 SSJ100 aircraft equipment fitting, have
on order, with the latest order from Thailand’s been subjected to
Orient Thai airline which announced the pur- extensive on-ground
chase of 12 Sukhoi Superjet-100/95Bs. strength testing at
“Recently we’ve won the bidding for the TsAGI lab
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

november/december 2010
AerospaceTestingInternational.com | 23
Sukhoi Superjet | RUSSIA

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 parts were “After the major certification campaign is

exposed to different
loads up to 150%
more than those
“The horizontal stabilizer is also
experienced in normal
operating conditions controlled by fly-by-wire, leading
to stabilizer optimal size and
reduction of aerodynamic and
trim resistance”
Fly-by-wire
SSJ100 has a fully digital fly-by-wire system.
It features a fully electronic fly-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 fly-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
the theory, the SCAC engineering team, and
Liebherr Aerospace.
“The fly-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.”
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 trials
Noise flight tests were completed with Alenia
in real-time. “Thanks to telemetry equipment
interfacing with onboard aircraft testing
instrumentation, the noise relevant
flight parameters, including the aircraft tra-
jectory, were shown in real-time to flight 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 flight 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

24 | november/december 2010
AerospaceTestingInternational.com
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Russian avionics – EC135 | RUSSIA
Made in Russia
Eurocopter Vostok has delivered the first EC135
helicopter equipped with Russian-built avionics
to airline Gazpromavia
Dr Arnaud Coville is
the EH135 senior
manager and EC135
program manager
26 | NOVEMBER/December 2010
AerospaceTestingInternational.com
by christopher hounsfield
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
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

TSS GPS/Glonass
navigation system
The 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.
Russia
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.
| Russian avionics – EC135
Eurocopter Vostok
Eurocopter 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.
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.
NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2010
AerospaceTestingInternational.com | 27
Russian avionics – EC135 | RUSSIA

How will the program move Above: Gazpromavia

is one of the main
forward regarding maintenance? helicopter operators in
Eurocopter will finalize the delivery of the heli- Russia, with the fleet of
copters as per the contract with Gazpromavia 108 rotary-wing aircraft
and propose the Russian equipment to other mostly manufactured
operators from the Russian/CIS market. The in Russia
main restriction to go to a wider market is the Right: The Russian
after-sales service network of Transas for that variation Glonass
equipment, which is today only available in cockpit system
Russia. As Andrei S. Ovcharenko, CEO of Gaz-
promavia, mentioned, Gazpromavia is inter-
ested in further cooperation with Eurocopter in

EC135 and the cold

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

28 | NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2010
AerospaceTestingInternational.com



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Nimrod MRA4
Up in the air?
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
by Tim ripley
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.
30 | november/december 2010
AerospaceTestingInternational.com
MRA4 is born
The 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
 Nimrod MRA4

november/december 2010
AerospaceTestingInternational.com | 31
Nimrod MRA4
floors 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 flight 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 MR A4 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 flights
With the new program structure in place, work
on the MRA4 design accelerated and first flight
was finally achieved in August 2004. However,
32 | november/december 2010
AerospaceTestingInternational.com
Above: Waiting for engines to be fitted, a Nimrod
MRA4 inside the hanger where Britain’s iconic
Lancaster and Vulcan bombers were built
“We have demonstrated really significant
maturity of aircraft prior to MRTS
compared with most military aircraft where
there is a lot of overlap”
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
A Nimrod MR2 fuselage stripped down
and waiting to move down the MRA4
assembly line at Woodford
The heart of the Nimrod MRA4 was an
open architecture mission system
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 squeeze
While 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

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 R AF 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
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)
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 MR A4 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
Nimrod MRA4
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 flight
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 MR A4 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 flight
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
november/december 2010
AerospaceTestingInternational.com | 33
Onboard report
Paper planes
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
Peter Luff MP, UK
by Tim ripley
Minister for Defence
Equipment, Support
and Technology
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 capability
Luff 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
34 | NOVEMBER/December 2010
AerospaceTestingInternational.com
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 papers
Luff 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 AW101 Merlin in
urge you all to get involved in the process and Afghanistan, the core of
make your contributions.” current operations and
In the longer term, Luff said the ministry revenue protection
had three main challenges in the science and
 Onboard report

The Demon ‘flapless’

UAV development is an
area that could see
more UK investment

Little Demon
An 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.

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

NOVEMBER/December 2010
AerospaceTestingInternational.com | 35
Synthetic jet fuel

A fine blend
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

by piet roets represent the most stringent specification

“In 1996, the The jet fuel journey has its beginnings back in
1939 with the development of the first success-
company decided ful aviation turbine engine. Early proponents of
the jet engine claimed that these new engines
to investigate the could operate on any fuel from whiskey to
peanut butter.
possibility of The jet fuel specifications, as we know them
using synthetically today, have been developed over many years,
starting in 1944 in the USA with the publishing
derived of the JP-1 specification. This process is still
continuing today with alternative jet fuels now
hydrocarbons” driving the specification development. Because
of safety considerations, today jet fuel specifica-
tions have developed to the level where they
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

36 | November/December 2010
AerospaceTestingInternational.com

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.
Synthetic jet fuel
First flight
In 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.
November/December 2010
AerospaceTestingInternational.com | 37
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 Synthetic jet fuel

United in the USA

In 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.

The process
It 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.
The Sasol plant at
Secunda is the largest
coal liquefaction plant
in the world
Fuel trials
A 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.

Sasol’s fuel was used

to power a two-hour
Hawker 4000 flight

November/december 2010
AerospaceTestingInternational.com | 39
Synthetic jet fuel
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 flight 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 flight, 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-
40 | November/december 2010
AerospaceTestingInternational.com
Using all engines
The 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
Above: On August 24, sources of fuel to support their operations,” said James Holther, a
2010, the C-17 test 418th FLTS project engineer for biofuel testing. “The first thing the
team expanded the Air Force did was look at Fischer-Tropsch fuels that use natural gas
evaluation by utilizing
or coal as the feedstock, and this is just a continuation of that
the HRJ blended
fuel in all four engines, ongoing effort.”
flying the aircraft on The hydro-treated renewable jet fuel, or HRJ, used by the C-17
50% biofuel 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
Below left: Boeing 737 fuels from various feedstocks.
being refuelled using
synthetic fuel
The Air Force Fuels Certification Office at Wright-Patterson Air
Force Base, Ohio, has certified over 85% of all Air Force aircraft to
Below Right: The real use Fischer-Tropsch derived fuels, and is now focusing efforts on
product, bottled jet fuel certifying aircraft to fly on HRJ biofuel blends.
fied synthetic Jet A-1 was delivered to the thetic Jet A-1. The successful flight has com-
Kruger Mpumalanga International Airport pleted the last leg of the process, flying com-
where it was received into a dedicated tank mercially with fully synthetic Jet A-1.
for this flight. The aircraft that were flown on Sasol has pioneered the take-off for syn-
Fully Synthetic Jet A-1 were a Boeing 727- thetic aviation fuels and will remain involved in
200, Hawker 4000 corporate jet, a Beechcraft this arena, reaching new frontiers as innovation
King Air 350i and a PAC 750. All aircraft takes flight. z
were fitted with Pratt & Whitney engines and
all the aircraft engines were defueled to Piet Roets is international liaison and governance man-
ensure that they would fly only on fully syn- ager: fuels technology for the Sasol Group, South Africa
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One-to-one

“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”

Dave Change
Vice president and technical director, Dytran Instruments, USA
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.

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.
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 40,000ft 2,
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.

42 | november/december 2010
AerospaceTestingInternational.com
 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
Dytran piezoelectric full-scale aerospace
accelerometers are widely structure
used as part of an effective
predictive maintenance Left: Dytran’s flight
strategy within Health & qualified and space rated
Usage Monitoring Systems piezoelectric accelerometers
(HUMS) on rotorcraft and are used to meet a variety
fixed-wing aircraft of aerospace testing and
evaluation requirements

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- A typical turbine engine,
level certifications shouldn’t just be about incorporating the use
pleasing customers, it should also be rooted in of Dytran high-temperature
accelerometers for
a burning desire to make the highest quality high-accuracy
products in the world. vibration monitoring

november/december 2010
AerospaceTestingInternational.com | 43
Crash scenarios

44 | NOVEMBER/december 2010
AerospaceTestingInternational.com

Sudden impact
ITALY’s LISA is a very advanced full-scale
crash-test facility that can simulate real-
impact scenarios in the aerospace sector
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 ahead
Several 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
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 impact
The 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
NOVEMBER/december 2010
AerospaceTestingInternational.com | 45
Crash scenarios

Numerical simulation
LISA 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:

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

46 | NOVEMBER/december 2010
AerospaceTestingInternational.com

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Air-to-air refueling

Get yourself connected

The A330 MultiRole Tanker Transport (MRTT) has
achieved certification in spain. The air-to-air
refueling system hit the mark, too

48 | NOVEMBER/december 2010
AerospaceTestingInternational.com
 Air-to-air refueling

by Philip Smart The 905E hose and

drogue system is the
first designed with
When the Airbus A330 MultiRole Tanker civil safety standards
Transport (MRTT) achieved military certifica- and offers dual
tion in Spain in October 2010, Cobham’s UK- redundancy in its
based air-to-air refueling team had as much critical systems. It can
transfer 420 US gallons
cause to celebrate as their Airbus Military
of fuel per minute
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 challenges
The 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

NOVEMBER/december 2010
AerospaceTestingInternational.com | 49
Air-to-air refueling
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
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 control
The 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
50 | NOVEMBER/december 2010
AerospaceTestingInternational.com
“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 up
A 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
Satellite software | REGULAR
Going solo
Independent Software Technology
trials are crucial to the launch of
the EarthCARE space mission
by brian luff
A contract to be the principal independent
“The verification software tester for the EarthCARE (Earth
Clouds, Aerosols and Radiation Explorer) mis-
part of ISVV sion, a joint European-Japanese space project
due to launch in 2013, has been secured by UK-
involves ensuring based Critical Software Technologies.
Conceived in 2009, EarthCARE will be the
that the software sixth Earth Explorer mission to be launched by
conforms to the European Space Agency (ESA) as part of
its Living Planet program. Its mission is to
its specification” 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.
52 | NOVEMBER/december 2010
AerospaceTestingInternational.com
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 testing
Independent 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

Above and above left: words: “Are we building this thing right?” Vali-
EarthCARE (Earth dation, on the other hand, asks a more funda-
Clouds, Aerosols and mental question: does the software do what the
Radiation Explorer) is user or specifier originally intended, or are we
being implemented in
cooperation with the
building the right thing?
Japanese Aerospace The crucial part of ISVV is independence. In
Exploration Agency. applications that are not mission or safety-
The mission addresses critical, it is often acceptable to have the same
the need for a better teams carrying out all forms of testing at vari-
understanding of the ous stages during the development lifecycle. It
interactions between
cloud, radiative, and
could be argued that a certain amount of inde-
aerosol processes pendence may be obtained by the simple expe-
that play a role in dient of ensuring that test teams for a particular
climate regulation part of the system are drawn from among those
that never worked on it directly. Ultimately,
Above right: Brian Luff,
there are flaws with such an approach.
chairman of Critical
Software Technologies
Importance of independence
First, 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.
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 Critical Software
the spacecraft are as reliable as humanly pos- Technologies was
sible, which is why our thorough independent established in 1998.
testing will be a vital part of its preparation It specializes in
before launch. design and
“In the space industry, we are one of very development
few companies that are familiar with software services relating to
in all three segments: launchers, ground con- complex, software
trol, and on board spacecraft themselves. Soft- intensive, safety-
ware on board spacecraft has the potential to be critical systems.
extremely complex, which is at odds with the The UK subsidiary
necessity for it also to be extremely reliable. is based in
Failure of critical software can have catastrophic Southampton and
consequences, and it is clearly vital to have focuses on safety
well-tested, reliable software on unmanned and mission-critical
orbital vehicles of this magnitude.” z systems in the
avionics, space,
Brian Luff is chairman of Critical Software Technologies energy, and
based in the UK defense industries
NOVEMBER/december 2010
AerospaceTestingInternational.com | 53
Composite materials | REGULAR
Character
assessment
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
by dr chris pickles
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
Below: XPS depth spectra, chemical maps and depth profiles.
profiles showing angle 3DP generates three-dimensional images of
resolved (right) and the surface with nanometer resolution on the
argon sputtered vertical axis and a quantitative statistical mea-
54 | November/december 2010
AerospaceTestingInternational.com
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

Above: ToFSIMS incidence) or more deeply by using argon ion
equipment (Time-of- beam sputtering.
Flight Secondary Ion The surface specificity of the technique
Mass Spectrometry). can be seen on a polyethylene oxide (PEO)
It allows access to
molecular information
coated polypropylene (PP) mesh where the
in spectral or imaging quantitative spatial distribution of the coating
mode with a detection is tagged using the C-O signal from the spec-
limit of ppm and trum and the substrate is tagged using the
sampling depth C-C signal.
of 1-3Nm
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
ToFSIMS samples the top 3Nm of the sur- Above: ToFSIMS
face and is sensitive to ppm levels. Although images of polyester
fabric plasma-treated
highly sensitive, ToFSIMS is a qualitative with anti-microbial
method that is routinely used to investigate agent showing
organic material. Adhesion failure analysis is a individual mass
common application to confirm the presence of fragment maps with
a wide range of contaminants. Species-specific false color overlay
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.
november/december 2010
AerospaceTestingInternational.com | 55
Composite materials | REGULAR

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

The microscope illuminates the sample sur-

Left: DSIMS depth
profile of a functional face and also an optically flat reference plane
glass coating
“Most importantly, the technique within the instrument. The interference pattern
generated by the recombination of the reflected

Below: DSIMS chemical

gives statistical averaging of the light from both surfaces allows for the construc-
tion of a 3D image of the sample surface. This
map images of an
optical fiber bundle at
surface roughness” image is half micron pixelated in the x-y plane
but nanometer resolved in the vertical (z) axis.
three resolutions 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
Left: 3D topographic the instrument – areas of interest can be repli-
profile of a turbine cated using a liquid silicone and the ‘negative’ so
blade replicate sample
generated analyzed for surface topography. For
with line scan and
statistical data transparent coatings, such as lacquers, coating
thickness can be determined by profiling both
the lacquer and substrate surfaces and subtract-
ing for the difference.
Below: Coating In composite manufacture, surface roughness
thickness profile along
length of wire by
measurement is important from both the raw
subtraction of the two material and finished product standpoint. Fur-
data sets in the figure thermore, surface deterioration measurement (for
top right 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 range
Surface 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

56 | november/december 2010
AerospaceTestingInternational.com

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EMC Technologies | REGULAR
The ABC of EMC
Choosing a Laboratory to Test to the EMC
Requirements of RTCA DO160: Power input,
RF...and of course, lightning
by Mark mifsud
DO160, Environmental Conditions and Test Pro-
cedures for Airborne Equipment is a standard
“Choosing a for environmental testing of avionics hard-
ware published by RTCA, Incorporated
laboratory to (Radio Technical Commission for Aeronau-
perform testing tics). It was first published on January 25,
1980 to specify test conditions for the design
to this standard of avionics electronic hardware in airborne
systems. The current version DO160F was
can be perilous” 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
58 | November/December 2010
AerospaceTestingInternational.com
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:
 REGULAR | EMC Technologies

Radio frequency
susceptibility (radiated
DC Input Tests
and conducted)
On DC inputs, there are tests that cover:
• Steady-state over- and under-voltage conditions
• Ripple voltage
• Momentary power interruption
• Momentary sags and surges
• Exposed voltage decay time (270 volt only)
• Inrush current AC Input Tests

AC inputs are subjected to the following tests:

• Steady-state over- and under-voltage conditions
• Steady-state over- and under-frequency conditions
• Steady-state phase unbalance (three-phase power)
• Voltage and frequency modulation
• Voltage and frequency transients
• Momentary power interruption
• Momentary sags and surges
• DC offset and voltage distortion
• Harmonic current emissions
Radiated immunity • Phase unbalance (three-phase inputs)
testing is similar to • DC current content
above: RF susceptibility
• Inrush current
• Current modulation
• Power factor

Audio frequency
susceptibility test

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 frequency
Radio 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.
Lightning
Section 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
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

November/December 2010
AerospaceTestingInternational.com | 59
Case Study profile
Technology | civil rotorcraft
The power
and the
intellect
high-level graphical
programming and field-
programmable gate array
(FPGA) hardware is a
reliable way to implement
intelligent control
systems in aerospace
product testing
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
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 requirements
Standard 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
60 | NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2010
AerospaceTestingInternational.com
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

A real family business
Founder 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.”
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.
Technology profile
Typical electrical cabinet
showing the inside of the
control system
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.
NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2010
AerospaceTestingInternational.com | 61
Technology profile

Left: Comar
Technologies
founder, Graham Martin,
and Stuart Martin

Seeing a bright future Advantages of the approach

There are clear advantages to this approach,
Graham Martin is the managing director and chief design engineer of Comar the first being safety. An FPGA-based program
Engineering, which specializes in the application of products for power and motion. can provide a safer control system in two
The company has been operating for more than 30 years, and for 20 of them, it has main ways. As mentioned earlier, the code is,
been focused on producing turnkey aerospace solutions. in effect, running on hardware and it can be
Graham, who lives with his wife and dog in Staffordshire, has two sons, Stuart programmed to be immune to any other pro-
and Richard, both of whom work for the company. cesses. A typical processor has to queue up
all the events, some important, others not.
What was the motive behind expanding Comar into the aerospace industry? The word ‘queue’ invariably means ‘unknown
After 10 years of business, general engineering was becoming more and more delay’ and does not have to exist here.
competitive. I have always been taught to try to find your niche in life, as well as in Furthermore, because of the speed of the
business. We had a few big players in the aerospace business on our doorstep and hardware-circuit processing, any trip condi-
so I made it my mission to establish Comar as a name within the local industry. It tions can be detected very quickly and acted
was not an easy task and it was some years before we won our first order. From that upon. Moreover, dynamic trip conditions can
first order we gained many more and today we continue to be a key supplier to not be imposed to trap previously impossible-to-
only the local industry, but internationally too. catch conditions.
Second, this approach enables reduced
Is there a particular project that stands out as one of Comar’s proudest wiring and circuitry. Using the Compact RIO
achievements? hardware, which contains the FPGA system,
That’s a difficult question. A lot of recent ones spring to mind, but I would say that modules for analog and digital input/output can
the work we have just completed on the A350 thrust reverser test rig is probably our be connected to the FPGA hardware. The
greatest and proudest achievement. We designed and manufactured two test rigs advantage with this approach is that a whole
that were almost identical; one of them was installed at Airbus in France and it bank of intermediate relay hardware can be
actually formed part of the A350 Iron Bird. It was one of the largest orders that removed, and where possible, all intermediate
Comar has won over the years and was a real team effort, with both of my sons signal conditioning can be removed. In addi-
playing a key part in the success of the project. tion, the signal conditioning for digital trans-
ducers such as encoders, tachos, some torque
Where do you see Comar in five years’ time? cells, and some displacement devices can be
Having recently appointed both my sons as directors, I hope to see them take read directly and decoded on the FPGA. This
Comar to the next level. I believe I have given them a great foundation for success, direct connection provides a huge advantage in
and with their drive and hunger, I look forward to working with them on bigger and reducing complexity, signal noise, and phase
better projects as technology advances in the future. errors between signals.
The implementation of this design approach
What do you think is the key to succeeding in the aerospace industry? to the motor unit under test resulted in a cost-
Teamwork. It really is the most important part of any business, At Comar we have effective and responsive rig, with increased
great staff retention, which helps the family feel of the business. We have mean time between failures and easier servicing
employees that have been working for the company for 30 years, whom I value during the lifetime of the rig. z
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 Stuart Martin is operations director, Comar Engineering,
meetings at Comar rather than at their own facilities because of the atmosphere and and Paul Riley is managing director, Computer
team environment. Controlled Solutions. Both companies are based in the UK

62 | November/december 2010
AerospaceTestingInternational.com
 

 
 



 

 

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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
by David Oliver
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
Golden
upgrading the ubiquitous Mi-24 with new avion-
ics and weapons systems. Among them were BAE
Systems, SAGEM, and Elbit Systems. BAE Systems
Hind
control column | SuperHind
proposed 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
november/december 2010
AerospaceTestingInternational.com | 65
SuperHind | control column

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
“ATE operates two warning and missile warning systems, an AMS
health and usage monitoring system (HUMS), Pall
Mi-24V Hind-E engine filters, and composite main rotor blades –
the last are designed, developed and produced at
helicopters its own composite rotor blade facility.
bearing South ATE operates two Mi-24V Hind-E helicopters
bearing South African civilian registrations for
African civilian development and flight-test purposes from its fac-
tory at Midrand, midway between Pretoria and
registrations” 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 upgrade
The 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

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)

66 | november/december 2010
AerospaceTestingInternational.com

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
control column | SuperHind
navigation radar and replacing it with a 4kg com-
mercial unit. A new center of gravity will prevent
“The new cockpit the Mi-24’s nose-down attitude in flight.
and nose has a Increased capability
The reduced weight will greatly increase the Agile
similar profile to SuperHind’s hot and high capability. The standard
the early- Mi-24 OGE hover performance at a mission
weight of 10,700kg is 1,450m, compared with
generation Bell 2,650m with the SuperHind Mk5. The Mk5’s in
ground effect (IGE) hover performance is equally
Cobra attack impressive: 3,200m compared with the standard
Mi-24’s 2,000m.
helicopter” 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-
Below left: ATE’s munications. Integrated weapons will include
SuperHind Mk III/IV beam-rider or semi-active laser anti-armor mis-
prototype on a test flight
siles, guided 70mm rockets and laser-guided
in South Africa (ATE)
bombs. While retaining the Hind’s main cabin,
Below right: The Agile which can accommodate eight fully equipped
SuperHind Mk5 is ATE’s troops, the Mk5 would be an ideal vehicle for
radical redesign of the special forces’ night insertions and combat search
Russian Mi-24 Hind and rescue (CSAR) operations.
Bottom right: A mock-
Although the Agile SuperHind Mk5 remains
up of the ATE Super- a concept, ATE maintains that it could be put
Hind Mk5’s new into production within 15 to 24 months for a
tandem cockpit launch customer. z
november/december 2010
AerospaceTestingInternational.com | 67
Bulletin board

ExpressCard – mobile interfaces for MIL-STD-1553

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.
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: ullah@aim-online.com
Website: www.aim-online.com
or go to online enquiry card 101

Efficient winch testing with a universal setup

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- For further information contact
gration into the repair and test process of the service Test-Fuchs GmbH, Michael Schilling
organization. Preparation time and internal logistics Test-Fuchs Strasse 1-5
are minimized, which results in an optimized work- 3812 Gross Siegharts, Austria
flow while testing rescue winches. or go to online enquiry card 102

68 | NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2010
AerospaceTestingInternational.com
 Bulletin board

Improved explosion and blast pressure sensors

The Series 137B quartz, free-field, ICP blast pres-
sure pencil probes from PCB Piezotronics have
been improved for durability and alignment by low-
ering the parts count by 40% and the internal con-
nections by 50%. The pencil probes continue to
feature an extremely fast microsecond response
time, with resonant frequencies to 500kHz. The
blast pressure pencil probes are designed for a
broad range of explosion, blast, and shockwave
testing. Applications include measuring blast pres-
sure in free-field or closed bunker arenas to obtain
peak pressure, total impulse, shockwave and time-
of-arrival measurements often used to study blast
effects on structures, vehicles, and humans. defense, homeland security, and test and measure- engine ground testing, flutter and flight testing; blast
ICP technology features integral microelectron- ment markets. Products include space-rated high- pressure and hydraulic system pressure measure-
ics that provides a high signal-to-noise ratio com- temperature and high-g shock accelerometers; ments; structural dynamics; engine vibration moni-
pared to silicon semiconductor sensing technolo- space-qualified hardware; sensors and instrumen- toring; launch and separation shock studies; pres-
gies, which require external amplification. The tation for Health and Usage Monitoring Systems sure, wind tunnel and aerodynamic studies; aircraft
high-level 5V output signal is capable of driving (HUMS) for UAVs, helicopters, fixed-wing aircraft and ground vehicle prognostics; and noise cancel-
long cable runs hundreds of feet in length, to a safe and ground vehicles; system electronics; combus- lation applications.
zone for data acquisition. Sensors are frequency tion monitoring pressure sensors; high-temperature
tailored to capture both peak pressure and total engine vibration monitoring sensors; launch and For further information contact
impulse calculations. separation shock sensors; Active Noise Cancella- Bob Metz, product manager
PCB Aerospace & Defense specializes in prod- tion products; and aircraft hydraulic pressure sen- Tel: +1 866 816 8892
ucts and programs developed exclusively for the sors. Typical applications include vibration and Email: bmetz@pcb.com
global aerospace, civil and military aviation, fatigue testing; qualification testing; aircraft and or go to online enquiry card 103

High-performance analog and digital servo inclinometers

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

Index to advertisers
Aerospace Testing Expo 2011.................................................... 63, IBC
Aerospace Testing Technology Online Reader Enquiry Service......... 38
AIM GmbH (c/o AIM UK).................................................................... 17
Brüel & Kjær Sound and Vibration.................................................... IFC
Comar Fluid Power............................................................................... 2
Cotta Transmissions............................................................................. 8
Dewetron elektronische Messgerate GmbH...................................... 47
DIT-MCO International........................................................................ 41
Dytran Instruments............................................................................. 57
HBM United Kingdom Ltd.................................................................. 47
Hottinger Baldwin Messtechnik GmbH.............................................. 64
LMS International........................................................................... OBC
National Research Council Canada..................................... 7, 9, 11, 13
PCB Piezotronics Inc.......................................................................... 64
PCO AG.............................................................................................. 29
Precision Filten Inc............................................................................. 29
Tecnatom SA...................................................................................... 51
Test-Fuchs GmbH.............................................................................. 51
Trailblazers .................................................................................. 57, 70
Unholtz-Dickie Corp........................................................................... 25
Vector Informatik GmbH..................................................................... 22
Virginia Panel Corporation (VPC)........................................................ 25
www. AerospaceTestingInternational.com................................... 41, 70

NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2010
AerospaceTestingInternational.com | 69
Switch Matrix Systems
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Computer controlled analog signal switching
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sizes up to 256 x 256
• Store setups in the system or
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• Signal levels up to ±10 Vpk
• Frequency range: DC to 1 MHz
• System health monitoring and
built-in self-test with reports
• Ethernet remote control or
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Switch GUI
• Setup and save unlimited switch
configurations offline, download
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• Run go/no-go tests to check
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Tests for complete system check
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The standard for the world’s most discriminating test labs
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Precision Filters’ computer-controlled
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tedious error-prone manual patch panels.
The Precision Switch Systems are reliable
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any input and any output. Program switch
setups, store them, download them and
verify them using a host computer.
The Precision 4164 is
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The Precision 464kB
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Flight testing experimental and new aircraft is one of
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This book contains a series of anecdotes written by
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The 28000 System makes it easy to
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of fully programmable transducer condi-
tioning. Choose a mix of bridge, charge, TRAILBLAZERS
IEPE w/TEDS, voltage (filter/amplifier), TEST PILOTS IN ACTION
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www.pfinc.com  



 CIVIL ROTORCRAFT | Case
VINTAGE MODELS | Airship
Study

The rise of the airship:

the Hindenburg
BY FRANK MILLARD

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-fly 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-
The bulkheads were
ism. In 1931, he publicly endorsed German braced to each other
Centre Party leader Heinrich Brüning in a radio by longitudinal
broadcast that included not too subtle criticism girders placed around
of the Nazis. He also refused permission for a their circumferences
political rally at the Zeppelin hangar at Fried-
richshafen in southern Germany where Hitler
intended to make a speech. friendly Captain Ernst Lehmann. Although and had risked the airship and the whole Zep-
After Hitler became Chancellor in 1933 Eckener was retained as a figurehead, real pelin program for a “scheissfahrt” – shit flight.
Eckener was gradually marginalized by the authority slowly passed into other hands. Scheduled endurance flight trials prior to the
Nazi regime, which regarded the Zeppelin Hindenburg’s first transatlantic flight were
boss as troublesome. When the Hindenburg Problems emerge cancelled by Lehmann. Consequently, prob-
was being built the company was forced to In March 1936, the Hindenburg was damaged lems with the airship’s Daimler engines were
accept funding from Joseph Goebbels’ Propa- during a three-day propaganda flight for the not discovered and led to repeated engine fail-
ganda Ministry and the Air Ministry, thus Nazis. The lower fin was damaged when the ures over the Atlantic, vindicating Eckener.
compromising its independence. As a conse- ground crew lost control of the airship due to Once repaired, the noble airship was used
quence, the company was divided in two, the windy conditions while it was being made for the ignominious task of dropping swastikas
comprising airship manufacturing (Luftschiff- ready for take-off. Eckener was furious that and leaflets urging people to vote ‘yes’ in Hit-
bau Zeppelin) and airship operations (Deutsche Lehmann had, for political reasons, allowed the ler’s plebiscite on the remilitarization of the
Zeppelin-Reederei) led by the more Nazi- flight to take place in unfavorable conditions Rhineland. When news of Eckener’s comments

MAGNIFICENT MEN
and their flying machines
JANUARY 2009
NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2010
AEROSPACE TESTING INTERNATIONAL |
AEROSPACETESTINGINTERNATIONAL.COM | 71
74
Airship | VINTAGE MODELS
The Hindenburg made its maiden test flight from
the Zeppelin dockyards at Friedrichshafen on
March 4, 1936, with 87 souls on board
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
MAGNIFICENT MEN
and their flying machines
72 | NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2010
AEROSPACETESTINGINTERNATIONAL.COM
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 (7,062,000ft 3)
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 flight. As a solution, it
was decided to install a set of inner hydro-
gen cells within the ship’s 16 helium cells,
shielding the flammable 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
The Hindenburg made
17 round trips across
the Atlantic Ocean in
1936, its first and only
full year of service
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 glory
Wreckage 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 6,710,000ft 3
of inflammable hydrogen gas.” The rest, as
they say, is history. ❚



 
 









5 – 7 April 2011
  

 

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