FlightGlobal.com
Home
Premium
Archive
Video
Images
Forum
Blogs
Jobs
Shop
RSS
Email Newsletters
You are in:
Home
Aviation History
2003
2003 - 1460.PDF
M m Technical description AGILE DESIGN Years of work will be rewarded in November when Aermacchi's M346 advanced trainer takes to the air STEWART PENNEY / VENEGONO CUTAWAY DRAWING BY TIM HALL The planned maiden flight of the Aermacchi M346 in November marks the culmination of years of development, mainly with Yakovlev, and kicks off a test pro gramme that will see the advanced trainer entering service in 2007. The M346 is the latest in a line of advanced trainers from the Italian special ist, based in Venegono, northern Italy, and can trace its heritage through the MB326 and through three generations of MB339. While developing glass cockpits and other upgrades for the MB339, the Venegono, northern Italy-based company conducted a series of studies, first with Germany's Daimler-Benz Aerospace (DASA, now part of EADS) in the late 1980s and early 1990s, and then with Russia's Yakovlev. Aermacchi and DASA worked on prelim inary designs that included intensive trade-offs between single- and twin- engined configurations and transonic and supersonic performance, says M346 pro gramme director Massimo Lucchesini. This led to Aermacchi's decision to opt for a twin-engined, highly agile aircraft able to operate at high angles of attack and with transonic aerodynamics. The 50:50 joint programme with Yako vlev started in 1993 and lasted six years, during which the Yak/AEM-130 (YA-130) demonstrator was built and flown. The YA-130 became the basis for Aermacchi's M346 as well as the Yakovlev Yak-130. The most significant differences between the demonstrator and the M346 are the adoption of Western avionics for the latter, including a quadruplex fly-by- wire (FBW) system, and Honeywell F124-200 engines replacing the Slovakian PSLM DV-2S. In addition, the fabricated, built-up structure of the demonstrator has been replaced with one incorporating the latest manufacturing techniques, such as multi-axis machining, and composite materials. The aircraft was built at the Sokol plant at Nizhny-Novgorod, Russia, but much of the flying was performed from Venegono because of Aermacchi's flight-test capabil ity. Of the 300 YA-130 flights, more than 200 were carried out in Italy. During test ing, the aircraft demonstrated a maximum angle-of-attack (AoA) of 41° and 35° with full control power. The highest speed achieved was Mach 0.9. At the end of 1999 the M346 and YA-130 became separate programmes, leav ing Aermacchi to begin detail design of the M346, a decision allowing it to prepare for two major contracts - the pan-European Eurotraining and the UK's Military Flying Training System (MFTS). The M346 is lighter than the YA-130, has a shorter wingspan and length and a narrower forward fuselage, reducing the cross-section area. The demonstrator pro gramme included extensive windtunnel studies as well as flights to prove aerody namic fixes. Wooden components were used to test solutions, albeit in a limited flight enve lope. From an aerodynamics standpoint, the YA-130 is important to M346 risk reduction, says Aermacchi. The YA-130 was cleared for carefree han dling in the tested envelope, although the FBW system used analogue technology. The aircraft is designed to be "representa tive of" a modern combat aircraft, Aermacchi believing that a high-perfor mance advanced trainer can cover more of the training programme. This allows the "downloading" of some operational instruction to the training school from the operational conversion unit. As well as being offered as an advanced trainer, the M346 will have secondary combat roles, including close air support, interdiction, point defence, homeland defence and low-level air defence. "These take advantage of the trainer's low opera tional costs," says Lucchesini, while stress ing that the roles are secondary to the M346's main purpose. "Aermacchi thinks the M346 is the right solution," says Lucchesni, as training plat forms need to mirror frontline aircraft with 94 10-16 JUNE 2003 FLIGHT INTERNATIONAL www.flightinternational.com
Sign up to
Flight Digital Magazine
Flight Print Magazine
Airline Business Magazine
E-newsletters
RSS
Events
