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Aviation History
2001
2001 - 3167.PDF
agrees: "Price and time to market were very sensitive, so we did not experiment with technology." He believes Raytheon runs the risk of further delays to the Horizon. The all-metal wing has a supercritical section and winglets, the latest iteration of technology pioneered on the original Chal lenger. The wing area, at 48.5m2 (522ft2), is larger than that of the Challenger, to give the required short-field performance with out the complexity of leading-edge flaps and with a single trailing-edge Fowler flap per side. All fuel is contained in the wing, for simplicity and safety. Simplicity also drove the systems philos ophy. "We tried to keep it simple and think cost," says Holding. "We looked at what the end customer saw as value and did not add the cost and complexity of systems that were nice to have, but did not add to the mission. This aircraft is designed to do a specific mission very economically." The electrical system is DC, with 400A brushless generators on the engines and a tail-mounted auxiliary power unit allow ing for dispatch with any one generator failed. The fuel system uses motive flow pumps with backup brushless DC motor pumps for increased reliability. The two 207 bar (3,0001b/in2) hydraulic systems each have an engine-driven pump and a DC motor pump for improved redundancy. Primary flight controls are a mix of man ual and powered. Ailerons are manually activated via cable, while the elevators and single rudder panel are hydraulically pow ered by both systems with manual rever sion. A single yaw damper is installed and there are two ground and two multifunc- 'Price and time to market were so we did not experiment with technology JOHN HOLDING tion spoiler panels per side on the wing. The cockpit uses the latest in avionics technology, but tailored to the continental mission. The Rockwell Collins Pro Line 21 integrated avionics suite features four large, 250 x 300mm (10 x 12in), liquid- crystal displays: a primary flight display and multifunction display for each pilot. Bombardier has elected not to incorporate cursor control devices and pull-down menus. "This is state of the art, rather than breaking new ground," says Chidiac. The standard equipment list is tailored to the continental mission, and includes: enhanced ground proximity warning; traf fic alert and collision avoidance; dual atti tude heading reference systems and single global positioning sensor; and a single flight management system. The aircraft will be compliant with reduced vertical separation minima (RVSM) regulations at certification. "We have already mapped the skin waviness on the first aircraft, and it complies with the requirements for RVSM," says Holding. While the Continental is optimised for the US coast-to-coast mission, the optional equipment list allows the operator to equip www.flightinternational.com FLIGHT INTERNATIONAL 11-17 SEPTEMBER 2001 67
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