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Aviation History
1994
1994 - 0023.PDF
carve-up saw DASA with SDR for the DFCS; BAe taking the avionics; utilities control going to Alenia; and CASA taking on the equipment-cooling system. "At the end of the day, it's all about the collaborative-programme aspirations of each of the companies...and things tend to be slightly compromised along the way...I ) don't necessarily think it's wrong that the FCS went to DASA, but it's easy with 'ah, but that was wrong'. It is a clever man who can do that before he sets off, and can justify it," says Vincent. There were we're pretty well on track." He adds that the programme re-structuring has intro duced some additional costs, which have taken the project over budget by "a percentage increase in single figures". Costs may grow, however, if the first flight of the DAI does not take place on 15 April as scheduled. "It has to fly," says Roberts, emphati cally. He hopes to see the EJ200 airborne by the end of 1994 since, the longer this flight is delayed, the "higher the pressure will be to complete additional develop ment work arising from the flight trials before certification. Any stretching of the overall pro gramme, on the other hand, spreads out the workload and can lead to overcapacity and still more redundancies in an already- traumatised industry. Strong hopes exist, however, that the EJ200 may be saleable as a powerplant for other aircraft. Roberts confirms that Euro- jet has been in "real, concrete" talks "for some months" with Saab-Scania over the possibility of re-fitting the JAS39 Gripen with the EJ200, but declines to give details. "We also had a look at the possibilities with [McDonnell Douglas] F-18s," says Roberts. "That, again, could be done, but there are no active projects in place." EUROF/GHTER those in the UK, who, in the name of political and financial expediency, ac cepted the DFCS development approach, and could potentially have "justified" opposing such a structure. Not asking difficult questions at the start, however, merely deferred them. Not jeopardising the political equilibrium of the project at the start had led inadvertently to the emergence of a considerable technical threat to the project's future. Further complicating the DASA/GMAv development structure was that all four of the nations — Italy, Germany, Spain and the UK — were involved in writing the DFCS software. As Vincent explains: "The four nations write the software, it then comes back into the centre and is put together. Obviously, if there is something wrong it's got to go back to the initial nation to be corrected." Such a Byzantine approach proved time-consuming, and also courted the problems of trying to keep all the devel opment teams working on the same soft ware release. "What we have done," says Vincent "is we have dragged software writers from the four nations back into Rochester in the south-east of England in order to obviate the time gap." The size, and sophistication, of the Eurofighter DFCS should not be under estimated, although some would argue that, from the outset, the development structure revealed just such misjudge ments, as did the initial timescales for a first flight. "The software we are writing is very complex and very extensive. If you talk about the first flight of Eurofighter, it doesn't have any radar system on it, nor does it have any weapons systems on it. It has basically a flight-control system and a utilities system and, at this stage, it has eight to ten times the amount of software the Panavia Tornado will have after its mid-life update. It is an incredible amount of software, but that's not to say it can't be done," says Vincent. INFORMAL FORMAL TEST? Somewhat fortuitously for Eurofighter, the loss of two Saab JAS39 Gripens — one a prototype, the other the first production aircraft — and of a Lockheed/Boeing F-22, with both accidents implicating the DFCS, has provided both a foil to, and a shield from the worst critical excesses. A further bout of DFCS testing for Eurofighter was ascribed to concerns not to repeat the JAS39 and F-22 accidents. This was true, but the delays were due more to attempts to check that the test procedures verified that the DFCS was operating as function ally specified. "We've had problems associated with the method of testing and the content of the test procedures, in addition to pure software problems. To run through the formal testing of the DFCS takes six to seven weeks of continuous testing." Before the DFCS enters the formal test, it must clear a test-readiness review, to show the customer that in "...what you are presenting a few years down the road as the formal software. We can prove configuration control, and track through all the various changes. You have got to prove that the test procedures are 100% accurate and complete." The DFCS has undergone an "informal formal test", in which problems did ap pear. The latest test, although throwing up software bugs, appears to show that flight-certificated software is close. An industry meeting on 12 December in Munich concluded that there was no reason why an April flight date was not achievable. "Workarounds" to the soft ware bugs which have come to light, will be implemented after the test is com pleted. As one source notes, if you stop the test to implement a change, besides having to start again, other parties also decide to introduce their "little fixes". On the technical side, problems with the DFCS are not all that Vincent has had to contend with. Development delays with the Ferranti/Bendix constant-frequency generator (CFG) have led to an interim solution being found for the DAI and DA2. An existing Sundstrand CFG has been adapted for DAI and DA2. As it is bulkier than the Ferranti/Bendix unit, Vincent admits: "We've had to re-package the equipment bay that it went in to make room for it. It's not an ideal installation, but...it will do the job." Part of the problem with the Ferranti/ Bendix CFG was a reduction in the volume into which the system had to be FLIGHT INTERNATIONAL 5-11 January, 1994 21
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