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Aviation History
2001
2001 - 2868.PDF
BUSINESS AND GENERAL AVIATION FLIGHT TESTS GRAHAM WARWICK / WASHINGTON DC Business jet battle takes to the skies Ambitious test programme puts Bombardier ahead of Raytheon in the race for super mid-size jet certification Bombardier and Raytheon began flight testing their rival super mid size business jets just days apart last week, but the Canadian firm expects to certificate its Continent al as much as nine months ahead of the US firm's Hawker Horizon thanks to an "aggressive" test programme. Raytheon flew the Horizon for the first time on 11 August from Beech Field, Wichita, Kansas, com pleting a 2.5h flight during which the aircraft reached 10,500ft (3,200m) and 225kt (415km/h). Across town, Bombardier flew the Continental for the first time on 14 August from Wichita's Inter continental Airport, the aircraft reaching 17,500ft and 210kt during a 2h flight. Bombardier plans a l,500h-plus flight test effort involving five air craft, which would lead to Canadian certification in the third quarter of next year, followed shortly after by US and European validation, says Continental pro ject test pilot Jim Dwyer. Raytheon plans a 2,500h test programme involving four aircraft and leading to US certification in mid-2003, says Horizon chief test pilot Tom Can. "We have a 15-month flight-test programme, which is pretty aggres sive for a clean sheet aircraft," says Dwyer. "It's going to challenge us, no doubt about it." Four Contin entals are expected to be flying by the year-end, assigned to perfor mance, systems, avionics and mis cellaneous testing. Bombardier intends to incorporate all modifica tions resulting from testing in the fifth aircraft to ensure it begins function and reliability testing in final production form. The first three Horizons are assigned to performance, systems and automation testing. The first aircraft flew with the full Honey well Primus Epic integrated avion ics suite, "including the full panel, full utilities and cursor control devices", says Can. The second aircraft will be assigned to testing the Pratt & Whitney Canada PW308 engines. Dwyer says the first Continental is in production configuration, with full Rockwell Collins Pro Line 21 integrated avionics. "The air craft as flown has all production systems, including anti-ice," he points out. "The autopilot is installed and functional. It's a deliverable aircraft." The aircraft is powered by Honeywell AS907 engines. Although the two aircraft are competing for the same super mid size sector of the business jet mar ket, they are different in character. Designed for US transcontinental flights, the $14.67 million Contin- Bombardier's Continental (top) could steal a march on the Hawker Horizon ental has a 5,700km (3,100nm) range. The $16.85 million, com posite-fuselage Horizon is being promoted as an "intercontinental" aircraft, with a 6,290km (3,400nm) maximum range providing transat lantic capability. Raytheon has orders and options for more than 150 Horizons, including 50 firm orders and 50 options from fractional ownership operator Executive Jet and others for its own Raytheon Travel Air fractional programme. Bombardier has firm orders for 115 Continentals, including 25 for the company's Flexjet fractional programme. The Canadian com pany plans to begin green deliver ies by the end of next year, and Raytheon is projecting first deliver ies later in 2003. DELIVERIES Tiger light comes back Taiwan-backed Tiger Aircraft has begun deliveries of the Tiger four-seat light aircraft, last produced by American General in 1993. The West Virginia-based company plans to deliver a further 20 aircraft this year. Tiger Aircraft owns the type certificates and tooling of the former American General line of piston singles, but plans to produce only the four-seat, fixed-gear AG-5B Tiger. MODIFICATION Coast Guard tests tailboom strakes to overcome HH-65 yaw problem The US Coast Guard is to flight- test tailboom strakes developed by Boundary Layer Research (BLR) to increase tail-rotor control margin on its Eurocopter HH-65 Dolphin helicopters. The strakes promise to overcome an uncommanded left yaw condition that has caused sev eral aircraft mishaps, as well as provide additional tail rotor con trol authority to cope with a planned uprating of the heli copter's twin Honeywell LTS101 turboshafts. Uncommanded left yaw can occur when low pressure on the right side of the tailboom, caused by main rotor downwash, over powers the helicopter's fenestron tail rotor. BLR's dual strakes, run ning along the top and bottom of the boom, destroy the low-pres sure region, increasing anti-torque control margin and reducing pilot workload. The NASA-developed technology has previously been applied to the Bell 205, 212, 412 and UH-1 family. The HH-65 programme is in three phases over 12 months, says Dave George, BLR's rotorcraft divi sion manager. The USCG has sup plied a tailboom for ground tests leading to flight trials this year. The company will then supply five shake kits for extended evaluation. 32 21-27 AUGUST 2001 FLIGHT INTERNATIONAL www.fliqhtinternational.com
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