SJ30-2 rollout
Sino
Swearingen's production-conforming prototype SJ30-2 business jet recently made
its public debut. The rollout marks the transition of the program into the flight-test
phase. The aircraft was transferred to the company's engineering group to complete
final preparations for first flight. The company is conducting extensive functional
testing of the aircraft's electrical, hydraulic, fuel, and flight-control systems,
followed by engine runs, ground vibration tests, high-speed taxi tests, and
finally first flight.
The first production-conforming SJ30-2 prototype is being prepared for its certification flight test program.
The next prototype, which is scheduled for completion shortly after the first takes flight, will be used as a structural static test article. Three additional airframes are under construction and will be used in the SJ30-2 certification program. Two of these airframes will become flight test aircraft to support the 1400-h test program leading to certification. The final unit will serve as another structural test article for fatigue testing.
Sino Swearingen has planned for a one-year flight-test program to obtain Part 23 Commuter Category certification. The company believes that 350 h of flight testing in 1998 and 1999 with a preproduction prototype will enable it to reduce development time and speed the overall certification process.
During these flight tests, the aircraft flew at speeds in excess of Mach 0.8 and at altitudes up to 43,000 ft. The aircraft originally flew with two William Rolls FJ44-1 engines for approximately 100 h. The production engine, the FJ44-2A, was then installed and the aircraft flown for approximately 270 h. A series of low-speed handling and stall tests was accomplished while the aircraft was equipped with a recovery chute to ensure that the edge of the envelope maneuvers could be conducted safely. These low-speed tests examined stall characteristics and Vmc speeds in various configurations.
The preproduction aircraft was flown to reduce risk going into certification. The aircraft, which is now in storage at the company's Martinsburg, WV, facility, is a structurally nonconforming prototype. However, it is aerodynamically very similar to that of the prototypes being flown in certification.
Frank Bokulich
Improving safety and awareness
One area in which both NASA and the FAA are addressing aviation safety is runway incursions. NASA's runway incursion prevention system (RIPS) technology was developed to provide pilots with an alerting mechanism to warn them of possible aircraft on the runway. To demonstrate the technology, NASA has equipped its Boeing 757 ARIES (airborne research integrated experimental system) flying laboratory with a Rockwell Collins GNLU-930 multimode receiver, GPS equipment, and Automatic Surveillance Broadcast (ADS-B) equipment. The demonstration was performed at the Dallas/Ft. Worth airport in October.
In addition to this aircraft, Rockwell Collins has provided the FAA with
ADS-B and GPS prototype equipment, which were installed in a van to be used
for further RIPS testing. A number of scenarios between the aircraft and the
van were set up to help validate several concepts that could improve aircraft
surveillance, separation assurance, situational awareness, and runway incursion
alerting. During this demonstration, the GPS system was augmented by differential
GPS corrections to provide highly accurate positional data. ADS-B served to
support RIPS runway incursion alerting function and cockpit display of traffic
information, providing situational awareness by broadcasting accurate GPS-derived
latitude, longitude, altitude, velocity, and status to other aircraft and ground
surveillance systems.
To improve situational awareness and address human factors in the cockpit, Rockwell Collins has developed several new technologies using its Advanced Flight Deck. The system was used to develop new avionics capabilities and provide a realistic environment and accurate testbed for evaluating pilot responses in the cockpit, with a focus on human factors.
The company enhanced situational awareness with its terrain profile display, which obtains information from real terrain databases and system position data to provide pilots with an intuitive way to evaluate flight path and flight plan against stored terrain information. An electronic charting feature that uses Jeppesen databases and allows for automated chart selection was also developed. Graphical weather datalinked to the aircraft improves flight planning and decision-making en route.
The Advanced Flight Deck not only offers an environment for developing aircraft-specific flight decks, but also allows pilots to fly and validate flight deck configurations. Engineers can use the tool throughout the design and certification process to improve flight deck coordination and operations, reduce flight test time, and lower product development costs.
Frank Bokulich
